Life as I know it

Well, it’s interesting to read all of the new entries, given that a
bunch of people have a bunch more time on their hands now. I myself had
resolved to do many things over break with my time. Unfortunately, I
have just exoperienced a setback to one or a few of those things.

I was snowboarding last night and feeling really good about my
abilities. About an hour before we were supposed to go, I was heading
down a run alone. I had been feeling pretty confident about my carving
abilities, so I was trying to just go straight down a hill on one edge.
It’s tricky because you have to stay on the edge that faces the most
uphill, otherwise, you catch your “front” edge, and you can fall.

Well, I’d been falling all night just because that’s the way
snowboarding goes. This time I was going straight down a pretty sharp
incline, and I was leaning on my heels. I had to lean to my toes to
turn left and get back to the lift, so I shifted. Unfortunately, I
hadn’t kicked my board back enough to make the shift right, and when I
shifted, I caught my edge. Also unfortunate was the fact that I was
going faster than I had all night (and likely had ever gone on a
board.) When I caught my edge, I flipped and slammed down on my hip. I
heard a pop and could hardly move anything below my waist without a TON
of pain.

After a few people  had gone by me, a boarder stopped and asked if
I was alright. I said “no: so they had the lift guy call the ski
patrol, and a whole ordeal ensued. Four hours, two car rides and two
Vikoden later, I was sitting in the hospital being told that I didn’t
break anything, but I bruised a bone or two and a lot of muscle. Now,
I’m at home and can hardly walk without crutches. I guess I can if I
pop a couple pills and let that set in, but it’s still hardly limping.

So, yay! Now I can’t play pickup hockey, I can’t play anyone in
raquetball and I can’t wokr out to get in shape for Tae Kwon Do. Among
the things I can do: complain, read one of my MANY books, eat, bitch,
not drive, watch TV, sulk and limp. Wow, so cool, huh? I think I may
just do one of those things now.

Bueno navisto nachado senores!

Procrastination

Um… I should be using this precious time to study calculus… but I’m not. How sad.

Anyways… here’s a quote that I hope will make up for the lack of ANY…

From the movie Adaptation:

Robert McKee to Charlie Kaufmann:
I’ll tell you a secret. The last act makes the film. Wow them in the end, and you’ve got a hit. You can have flaws, problems, but wow them in the end, and you’ve got a hit. Find an ending, but don’t cheat, and don’t you dare bring in a deus ex machina. Your characters must change, and the change must come from them. Do that, and you’ll be fine.

This is a spoiler of the movie, so if you plan on watching it fresh, don’t read on.

So to set this up, the movie is about a real life person, Charlie Kaufmann, adapting a book to a movie. Ultimately, the movie you’re watching is his adaptation. Robert McKee is a movie writer who teaches thousands to write movies based on a formula, something Charlie Kaufmann sees as ridiculous and contrived. When Charlie gets writers block, he turns to McKee to help him, and McKee tells him this.

The irony is that Charlie uses the deus ex machina in his script. Off the bat, he invents a brother that doesn’t exist, Donald Kaufmann. Donald really acts as the “hack writer” part of Charlie’s psyche. His first attempt at scripting has led to a movie that shows signs of success while Charlie’s movie (one of many) can’t even get past the script phase.

The true deus ex machina comes later. Donald steps in to help Charlie “spice up” his script, and when they spy on the book’s author, they discover she’s having an affair (likely the most untrue part of the whole movie.) From there, the plot thickens into something out of one of McKee’s movies. In real life, Charlie breaks McKee’s rule, if for nothing else than to finally finish his adaptation in a way that the public would love. At least, it SEEMS he broke McKee’s rule.

Donald dies at the end of the movie, thus ending the nagging voice which tells him to write horribly predictable movies. The conflict is over, and, though Charlie mourned the loss of Donald, it is as if Donald never existed. Charlie is able to move on past his adaptation to further projects. On the grander scheme, while writing the movie you’re watching, Charlie HAS change on his own, with nothing but a script in hand.

Deep, eh?

Hm

My “friends” page is messed up, and I think it’s cuz MEGAN’S page is using HTML that messes up my own. I’ll probably try to fix it over break.

I’m studying for chemistry right now, and I keep wanting to nod off. I may just head to Starbuck’s or Fair Trade for a strong cup of real coffee. It seems that that’s all that works these days… sooooo…. old… back bent…. can’t see…

Ugh. Me=tweaker. More chem today, then some beetle IDing, then sleep, then more chem, then more beetle IDing, then test, then more beetle IDing and lots of math studying then math test then home!

…

Wow. This semester never seems to stop bringing me down. I have a final news story due tomorrow, and my teacher doesn’t like where it was going, so I had to “focus” it, thus making two of my sources obsolete. Chances are, he’ll extend my deadline, which is good and bad. Good: I have more time. Bad: I have a chem test on Friday that I should have started studying for by now, and I’m sick of this shit.

Every time I think I have a chance of finishing this story on time, some new kink jumps in my plans. When I tried getting an authoritative source on my original story, he denied to talk to me and refered me to a guy who knows nothing about what I’m writing about.

Now, when I focused my story to this specific compound this doctorate student has made, his head researcher declined to comment. I feel like I’m walled in. I have an insect colleciton due Monday, and every time I hit another problem, it just makes me want to break down.

All I keep thinking about is going home or studying for my other classes which might matter more. I’m sick of people telling me what I should do or how to do things, and I just want this fucking semester to end.

…

Wow. This semester never seems to stop bringing me down. I have a final news story due tomorrow, and my teacher doesn’t like where it was going, so I had to “focus” it, thus making two of my sources obsolete. Chances are, he’ll extend my deadline, which is good and bad. Good: I have more time. Bad: I have a chem test on Friday that I should have started studying for by now, and I’m sick of this shit.

Every time I think I have a chance of finishing this story on time, some new kink jumps in my plans. When I tried getting an authoritative source on my original story, he denied to talk to me and refered me to a guy who knows nothing about what I’m writing about.

Now, when I focused my story to this specific compound this doctorate student has made, his head researcher declined to comment. I feel like I’m walled in. I have an insect colleciton due Monday, and every time I hit another problem, it just makes me want to break down.

All I keep thinking about is going home or studying for my other classes which might matter more. I’m sick of people telling me what I should do or how to do things, and I just want this fucking semester to end.

27141

Wow. This semester never seems to stop bringing me down. I have a final news story due tomorrow, and my teacher doesn’t like where it was going, so I had to “focus” it, thus making two of my sources obsolete. Chances are, he’ll extend my deadline, which is good and bad. Good: I have more time. Bad: I have a chem test on Friday that I should have started studying for by now, and I’m sick of this shit.

Every time I think I have a chance of finishing this story on time, some new kink jumps in my plans. When I tried getting an authoritative source on my original story, he denied to talk to me and refered me to a guy who knows nothing about what I’m writing about.

Now, when I focused my story to this specific compound this doctorate student has made, his head researcher declined to comment. I feel like I’m walled in. I have an insect colleciton due Monday, and every time I hit another problem, it just makes me want to break down.

All I keep thinking about is going home or studying for my other classes which might matter more. I’m sick of people telling me what I should do or how to do things, and I just want this fucking semester to end.

This weekend

For once I feel like I’ve accomplished something over a weekend. Since Friday morning, I have conducted three interviews and written the rough draft of my final newswriting story (a big accomplishment.)

In the last three hours, I’ve also goteen over half way done with ym presentaitons due tomorrow, and it’s only 10:08. I should be able to finish my research and have a powerpoint done tonight if I work hard. I’m FINALLY at my last set of presentations. It’s seven families of beetles thus seven presentations (three of which I didn’t do last week.) After this, it’s strictly studying for my chem final on Friday and working on my beetle collection, which is due on Monday. After that, it’s the home stretch, studying for my very important cumulative math final a week from Wednesday. That would be at least three days of math. Yikes!

Well, I gotta go back to work on the presentations. Wish me luck!

PS Since I skipped out on quotes the last day or two, I’ll make it up when I get home tonight.

Committment to LJ – Quote #1, baby!

If I do nothing else every day, I shall put a quote from my new Bartlett’s book of quotes up.

Here’s today’s (in my favorite dead language):

Ubi bene ibi patria. (Where one is happy, there is one’s fatherland.) – Anonoymous

I think it reflects “Home is where the heart is.”

Laynx

Derrrr….

Oh… my… god…

Fark.com

Strindberg and Helium

Make a shorter link: it’s not long now!

Stephen King

The Facebook

Sex, Lies, Calculus and Sonic

Wow. here’s an update for those not in immediate contact with me (since
I’m antisocial via AIM right now.) I studied hard for my calculus exam
on Wednesday, and I rocked it… hard. I got a 91/100, and the cutoff
for an A was an 85. MAN! SO cool!

The rest of my semester (until tests) consists of getting entomology
presentations ready and identifying about 150 insects… HOORAY FOR
BEETLES! Such meticulous work. I’m not sure I’m going to be able to do
this. Oh well, best shot I guess.

So I’ve been listening to a lot of new music lately. Let me plug SomaFM
once more. They have a bunch of internet stations, including a seasonal
Christmas one that’s funny as hell. Their Indie Pop Rocks station has
introduced me to a bunch of new groups. I can confidently recommend The
Unicorns, and I also like The Delgados, Pinback, The Decemberists and
TV on the Radio. Check the station out!

My buddy also recommended Motion City Soundtrack, who he said were from
Minneapolis. I may have to see them some time. I STILL need to see
Atmosphere and Brother Ali live, too.

If you’re from the Twin Cities, be sure to check out Wookiefoot live at the Cabooze on December 30! I’ll be there, so let me know if you want to go.

Right, last random thought: has anyone ever heard the Polyphonic Spree?
The lead singer has this crazy voice! If you’re not familiar with the
group, the name does a good job of describing the group:

polyphonic
\Pol`y*phon”ic\, a. 1. Having a multiplicity of sounds.

spree
(spr) n.

1. A carefree, lively outing.
2. A drinking bout.
3. A sudden indulgence in or outburst of an activity.

The band consists of a drummer, a trap set, a french horn, a trombone,
a bassist, a harpists, a strings player, a trumpeter, a pianist, an
organist/synth dude, a theremin player, a guitarist, a floutist, a lead
singer/pianist/guitarist and nine voices! That’s 23 people! to top it
off, they all wear robes!

Think of a song where a chorus comes in for the last refrain, and it
builds. That’s about every one of their songs. I can’t say I LIKE every
song, but they really are amazing. Listen to Soldier Girl, Two Thousand
Places and One Man Show. Their website has their mp3s on it.