Social networking, room rearranging, "YouTube for Dummies," and so on

For some sudden reason, I have begun to consider joining a social networking site. For those who don't know what a social networking site is, basically it's a site that helps connect people with similar interests. Or as Wikipedia puts it (calling such sites "social network services"): "A social network service focuses on the building and verifying of online social networks for communities of people who share interests and activities, or who are interested in exploring the interests and activities of others, and which necessitates the use of software."

Basically, social network sites are sites like MySpace, Facebook, Gaia Online, etc.

I know I do not want to join MySpace, even though I have real-life friends who are on MySpace. For some reason, I dislike MySpace. I think it is that people abuse it, but then people abuse everything. You should see the flaming comments I've gotten on YouTube on some of my videos.

I think I may join Facebook. Facebook is different than MySpace in some ways. First of all, it started out being targeted solely at college students, whereas MySpace has always been open to anyone 14 or over. While Facebook is now open to everyone, it still seems different than MySpace. For one, it is smaller -- boasting a mere about 59 million users to MySpace's 217 million. Sometimes a smaller user base is nicer. That has attracted me to Veoh, essentially a site like YouTube but smaller. Even the founder of Veoh sent me a friend request! Also Veoh is less strict than YouTube on what you can post. I haven't used it much -- it was meant to be an account to fall back on if YouTube deleted my account again, which I did for awhile, but now I am back on YouTube. I am going to use it soon for the Best of Fujiwara Zakuro Fandub Series, though, since YouTube has a right to ban videos containing content from the Tokyo Mew Mew episodes owned by 4Kids (eps 1-26). The episodes before episode 26 will be on Veoh, and the ones after episode 26 will be on YouTube.

But anyway back to Facebook. It is more about joining actual networks of people, based on region, workplace, college, or high school. There's even one for my high school (just checked); although you have to actually be in high school to join a high school network. My current college doesn't appear under "Colleges" but the one I'm trying to transfer to does.

It would be nice though if they had networks for people with similar interests. Kind of like how people create groups on YouTube.

I looked at Wikipedia's list of notable social networking sites and saw there were some which were subject-specific, including a few on books. I checked out the book ones. aNobii seems dull, but LibraryThing and Shelfari look cool, especially since you can show off books you own, have read, are reading, are planning to read, or want on a virtual shelf on Shelfari, and the shelf looks like a real shelf, and features pictures of the covers of the books on the shelf. Pretty neato. Both LibraryThing and Shelfari are basically for book lovers and allow you to catalog books you like and connect with other bibliophiles.

There were a couple unusual entries on the social network list -- MyChurch for instance (meant to be a Christian alternative to MySpace; and apparently, the conservative Christians out there didn't stop there -- there's also Conservapedia, an alternative to Wikipedia, and GodTube, an alternative to YouTube). I think that is a little extreme doing that, if you ask me.

Speaking of Christians and MySpace...Christian apparel company Kerusso is well-known for making shirts with a Christian message that spoof pop culture things. Anyway they made one about MySpace. It says "Jesus died for My Space in heaven." They also did a YouTube one that says "God wants You To be Saved" (with the "You To Be" styled like the YouTube logo). Here is a picture of the YouTube one:



Here's the MySpace one:



Anyway, besides that there was an unusual entry called "OUTeverywhere," targeted for homosexuals. Not going there for sure.

I was off of work today but I stayed home and spent most of the afternoon cleaning up my room so I could re-arrange things a little for when we bring the new bed in tomorrow. We're finally doing it -- it's about time. Technically, the bed's not new -- it was in Gran and Grandad's house -- but it's new for me. Plus it's bigger (a queen compared to the twin I have now), has drawers (yay, storage!), and has a SLEEP NUMBER MATTRESS (yay! a solution to my chronic lower back pain at last). The old bed was a pain in the butt to move from one wall to the other by myself, but I finally managed it. Now where my bed used to be (in the nook by the window) my small dresser sits, with my TV and VCR. I also put my lamp, my CD tower and CD boxes in the window area. I may re-arrange this stuff again once I know how much space the new bed takes up. In the drawers I am going to put the clothes that once filled my tall dresser. I emptied that today so we can take it away. I went through the clothes and then put them in a garbage bag to get them out of the way, along with some clothes that were cluttering up the top of my file cabinet, since I very often don't bother to actually put my clean laundry away and just dump it on some available flat, open space, like my bed.

I'm gonna go soon cause I'm tired and I think I may pack what I need for work tomorrow tonight when I have time to look for the stuff I took out of my work bag. I was scheduled to be off tomorrow, but Tori realized after the schedule was printed that she didn't have a closer tomorrow night, so she asked me in her usual way if I could do her a favor and come in for 5 hours tomorrow night. Since she's my boss and I have no legitimate plans to prevent me from working, I naturally was compelled to accept. An offer I could not refuse, to paraphrase Marlon Brando.

When at Barnes & Noble yesterday, I saw a really funny book in the computer books section. It was called YouTube for Dummies. I kid you not! Someone in the world of the Dummies books decided one should be written about YouTube, apparently, and judging from what I could see when I leafed through it, it is full of instructions for stuff that is really easy to just figure out on your own by browsing the site itself. Like how to rate a video. BASIC!

(edit) Here's a picture of the book to prove I'm really not joking:



I also saw some small pocket guide to iPods and iTunes on an endcap and looked at it. Judging from what I read about the different models in that book, I will probably get an iPod Nano or an iPod Classic if I get an iPod.

I e-mailed Cal State regarding my application. Now I'll just sit back and wait for a response.

Well I'm tired so I'll end here I think. Dang I started this around 8:30 but got distracted checking out Facebook, and then my computer froze up and I had to restart it, and then while waiting for Firefox to open again, I took a break and played the entire classic mode of Super Smash Bros. Melee on my GameCube (yeah, that's right, the entire classic mode. Let's face it, I'm fast).

Anyway, so good night, bonne nuit, buona notte, laila tov, o-yasumi, ar labu nakti, buenas noches.

(That's "good night" in English, French, Italian, Hebrew, Japanese, Latvian, and Spanish. Thanks to http://www.elite.net/~runner/jennifers/gnight.htm for some of those.)

A post-Christmas update

Wow I haven't posted in a while. I was going to, but since New Year's Eve I haven't felt so well, and before then I was busy.

Let's see, lots to say. But I am off today so I have time, and I feel well and awake enough.

On Christmas Day we went and saw National Treasure: Book of Secrets which was cool but I didn't love it necessarily. It's more my dad than anyone else in my family who likes the National Treasure movies.

A few days later, I went out to the movies by myself and saw The Golden Compass. I almost blogged here that night, but I ended up being too tired or was working on something else or something. I don't remember.

Just checked to see what day that was. I remember I made a purchase that day that I got an overdraft notice for from my bank. It was December 27th.

Anyway, so I saw The Golden Compass. It so did not live up to its potential in so many ways. Given all the footage I've seen in trailers, I think that a lot was cut between the closing of production and when the film was released. Like the ending from the book, which was probably the biggest cut of all. It's not like they went through the source material, didn't like the ending, and changed it. That has been done with other book-based movies, a good example being the recently-done Count of Monte Cristo movie with Jim Caviezel (perhaps better known as Jesus in The Passion of the Christ). The ending of that is different from the book, but it was okay, because having a sad ending (as in the original novel) for a love story would not have flown in the film world. (Or at least in the American film world -- in Bollywood movies it appears to be ok to end a love story sadly, like in Kal Ho Naa Ho when you have the happiness of Naina [Preity Zinta] and Rohit [Saif Ali Khan] getting married, but it's against the backdrop of Aman [Shahrukh Khan]'s death).

But anyway, there was quite a lot of changes from the book, mostly little things that I can't remember. The change in the ending was the main big change. Oh and the filmmaker's persistent thing about not consistently using the correct term for the alethiometer. The first trailer called it an "alethiometer", another trailer called it "the golden compass" (supposedly to match the movie's title), and one trailer used both, either interchangeably or together. In the final film, they switch between "alethiometer," "golden compass," and "symbol reader." The thing about the alethiometer is that it is not a compass at all, despite the fact that it resembles one. Actually "symbol reader" is more correct, since this is a term used in the books to describe the alethiometer and what it does. The "compass" thing comes from the American book publishers, who confused the alethiometer with a compass and thus published the first His Dark Materials book under the title The Golden Compass (the original British title was Northern Lights, and they credit it under this title in the credits for the Golden Compass movie -- it's written as "Based on the book Northern Lights by Philip Pullman").

One other change I didn't quite get was the way the "alethiometer-reading scenes" were done. It seemed like they just wanted to show off their cool special effects by using as much CGI "Dust" as possible in this movie. Granted, the "Dust" looked like it was described, like golden powdery stuff, and in the books, Dust is what makes the alethiometer work (although this is not revealed in book 1 as I recall, yet they seemed to state it in this movie by introducing Dust in the prologue and showing it, and then having it reappear and look the same). Anyway the scenes would be the same every time, with Lyra setting the symbols, and then you would see lots of pretty golden CGI Dust and faint images would appear in the Dust that would depict the question's answer. Not terribly exciting. For goodness's sake, the movie is rated PG-13 (which somehow does not totally surprise me), you can show a girl going into a trance to find an answer to a question using a stupid symbol reader. It's not that scary for the age group that will go see this movie!!

Ok enough ranting. The movie stank. Nuff said.

Let's see. What else have I been doing?

~ Work: Not much to say here. We lost Corey on New Year's, and Matt just basically disappeared, so I'm back to closing more often. Oh and Katie, who was our bakery manager but who went on maternity leave early in the summer, is back now. I am kinda glad cause I have issues with Tori. Not like we fight or anything but she does things that annoy me, like assign me to one task, suddenly think of another one while I'm doing the task she assigned me to do, and pull me from task #1 to do task #2 instead. Meanwhile, we have a new cake decorator, Jon, who likes to make cakes with flowers (or his new passion, clowns), might be homosexual, and is not totally lovely to be around alone. He creeps me out a little, and annoys the heck out of Heather (and me too, but her more). He does things like leave spatulas stuck in icing buckets (which aside from annoying Heather to no end is also a Health Department violation), among other things. When you tell him to do something, half the time he doesn't do it, and when you call him out on what he didn't do, he gets defensive. Okay, granted, I get defensive too sometimes when people call me out on stuff, but generally, sooner or later, I can accept that I did wrong, and I move on and try not to do the offending thing again. It kind of depends on how the person approaches me about it too. I prefer if someone pulls me aside and talks to me privately, because that usually helps. I usually try to confront a person privately too if they bug me in some way.

On the work front, also, I got a letter saying my insurance had started, but I haven't gotten cards yet, which is worrying Papa. I'm a bit worried too, being sick right now and also in need of a vision checkup (my eyes are really sensitive to light recently, and I'd like to know why, plus I probably need new glasses by now) and probably a teeth cleaning too. Not to mention I'm long overdue to get my wisdom teeth pulled.

~ School: I'm all enrolled for my class, and it would appear that a book isn't required for it (I double-checked at the school bookstore when I went to school today) so I don't have to deal with that drama. It's late-start, so it doesn't start till February 5 (which is also the day we have our presidential primaries -- that reminds me, I gotta study up on my Republican candidates!). I don't know if I'll need art supplies or if they're provided; for most of the art classes, you have a materials fee tacked on to the enrollment, but there wasn't one for this class. Hmm. Well, we'll see. I may e-mail the instructor about it, though probably not tonight.

On the future school horizon, I need to do my FAFSA soon now that it's January. I haven't gotten my W-2 yet saying what I earned in 2007, which would help for the FAFSA. I don't know who to talk to about that. Maybe the bookkeeper.

Also, Cal State hasn't let me know if I've been accepted yet, which is very odd. They said 4-6 weeks, and it's been 8 weeks and 2 days. I don't know what's up. Even if offices were closed over the holidays, they would've looked at their databases when their offices reopened (supposedly right after New Year's) and started operations again, I would think. I know there's not a problem with my application, as when I've checked their system my application comes up as "complete," meaning they don't need any more paperwork or anything like that right now.

I just checked it and it wants me to send 2 "final" transcripts by March. But according to the flyer they sent me with the steps after applying, it says to send the final transcript by July 15. So these must be different transcripts. I'll have to call A & R tomorrow and see if they sent the transcript I requested to Cal State.

&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&

In other news, I have been buying manga like mad. I'm not sure why but I must obviously be having some passion for light reading. I bought a bunch of it today when I went out, as well as a couple DVD's (Throw Momma From the Train, which I'd been looking for, and one called The Passion of Joan of Arc, which is an old French silent film that they thought was lost in a fire but then found intact in a mental institution in Norway in 1981) and a CD (the soundtrack for the Broadway version of The Secret Garden).

Today I went out to buy my January bus pass, since I'd forgotten to do so before December ended, and illness prevented me from going January 2 when the school offices reopened (I've literally worked every day since then, till today). I also made a trip to the Barnes & Noble close to me and then to the mall, before coming home about three hours ago. When I told Mum I'd been out, she was surprised (since I'm still getting over being sick) and told me to stay home and rest tomorrow (since I have tomorrow off too).

I actually bought some Tylenol Chest Congestion medicine (cause, according to the box, it "helps loosen phlegm (mucus) and thin bronchial secretions to make coughs more productive," plus it's non-drowsy, so I figured it was worth the high price of $6.50) and I took it when I began eating dinner around 8:30 tonight, and I haven't been coughing as often as I was. I feel better too. Having an inhaler (which was actually one of Grandad's, but Mum and Papa checked it out and found out it was okay for me to use) helps too.

Having lots of books around (particularly on my new desk, which is awesome) has brought on, as usual, my strange daydreams of various forms of book destruction. I don't know why I have these daydreams. They may be nothing, or maybe just a subconscious thing. They started when I began reading more often while in the bathroom. Believe it or not, I would actually have daydreams about *cough* doing my "bathroom business" on the book I was reading, even though I would never do that, even if I hated books, cause it's just gross! That's the main one, although I think I have had daydreams about taking part in bibliocaust (book-burning; I didn't know till recently there was an actual word for that) but I can't remember.

I don't think these subconscious things mean I deep down hate books and don't know it. I know that's not true, just from the way I devour books. And even if I really subconsciously dislike books, this may be an indication of the total opposite. It's like in the Read or Dream manga, where Yomiko says to Anita (who hates books but lives with two extreme bibliophiles, or book-lovers):

I...I think I've read more books than most people, so there's something I've discovered. Books come to those who need them. No matter the obstacles, no matter the distance. It's the same with people. You're surrounded by book lovers...because the books have led them to you. People are the same, but there are many ways to interact with books. Reading them, writing them, loving them, even hating them. If you truly had no interest in them, you wouldn't even feel hatred.

I suppose it's true with anything, you can't hate something you have no interest in. You may not express the interest; it may be deep down, where you may not be aware of it yourself. I disliked Harry Potter until around the time Half-Blood Prince came out. But once I read the books, I got really into it. On the flip side, I got all interested in the Golden Compass movie, and then saw the movie and came away disappointed. Or, perhaps a better example: my best friend Amy really likes an anime called Serial Experiment Lain. Now the general pattern has been that when Amy introduced me to an anime show, I usually ended up liking it. She introduced me to Pokemon for instance (of which I am still an ardent fan, even though she's not). But not so with Lain. I had expressed some interest in it when she told me about it, but when I finally saw it, I didn't like it. It's depressing and confusing. I should mention that the guy who wrote it wrote it while he was on acid, or so they say anyways.

Gah. My internet keeps going in and out.

I need to watch my finances. When I got that overdraft notice recently, I was surprised. I soon learned I hadn't been keeping good track of the funds in my checking account. I use my debit card a lot, without really realizing just how much. It's nice to use for groceries and buying lunch at work. The main issue is all these darn manga purchases. I've mainly been buying manga at the local Borders Express, which is still having a "buy 4, get one free" sale, but only on manga and graphic novels. So due to the sale I feel compelled to buy 5 mangas every time I go there, so I drop $40 a pop (give or take) every time. Also, I have been spending a pretty big amount of money at Barnes & Noble, usually buying music or DVD's but also books (I think I seriously spent like $70 one time, and I don't even remember what I bought).

This is avoidable, I think, since I can try to not make trips so often to Borders Express to buy manga (having a class later in the day will probably help; I won't be as likely to go out after class to do it because I'll be wanting to make sure to catch the last bus home). B & N is tougher cause it's by my work and is pretty much the only place open in our shopping center when I work till 9 (besides my work, which is open till 11, Starbucks, and maybe Target), so I go there a lot after work, and occasionally before work too.

I don't know how I'll work it out, but I will. I get paid tomorrow so my checking account will get somewhat replenished, but not by much.

Ok nothing else really to write, except I've been tired as heck, and sick, and when I was sick over New Year's I was cooped in the house recuperating and it was boring (which is why I relished the opportunity to go out today; other than work, and church once, I haven't been out of the house since New Year's Eve).

Oh and on New Year's Eve I rented two videos. One was a Bollywood movie called Bride and Prejudice (a play on Pride and Prejudice, which this movie is an adaption of), with a popular Indian actress named Aishwariya Rai. It was pretty good, funny, and like the plot of Pride and Prejudice. The film also had some guy who was the spitting image of Ryan Seacrest, except he had a British accent. I watched this movie on New Year's Eve (on which I also saw the real Seacrest, co-hosting Dick Clark's program once again).

The other was the Hayao Miyazaki film Howl's Moving Castle, which I had been meaning to see for a while. I only had time to watch it in Japanese, since I watched it toward the end of the 7 days I had the videos, which is a shame cause the English Miyazaki dubs are really well done. It turns out the movie is based on a novel published in 1986 by British author Diana Wynne Jones. I do not know when the movie's story is supposed to be set, especially since it's set in an imaginary setting and not even on Earth, but the feel was very much like Anne of Green Gables in my mind, so I'm guessing the time period is supposed to be similar to the late 1800's or early 1900's.

Oy it's 11:09 already and I'm tired. Good night.

Merry Christmas!

Merry Christmas, once again.

You know what I realized? I have been keeping this blog since late 2004, before I even had a laptop and stuff. Crazy.

Well the gift-giving is over, although according to Mum I do have two gifts still to open that she ordered online that didn't make it here before Christmas. And I don't know if I'll get anything from Aunt Jane and Uncle Bobbo, who aren't coming here for Christmas after all cause Uncle Bobbo had to have a surgery of some sort done.

Anyway giving gifts went well and my parents and brother liked what I got them. My brother really liked the Medal of Honor PC game I got him (in lieu of an Xbox game; I couldn't find any games for the normal Xbox at Target). My dad really liked the Amazing Grace book (which is about William Wilberforce, like the recent movie of that name) I got him, and my mom really loved her angel drop Li Bien ornament that I got her from the Pier 1 Imports by my work (which is painted from the inside using an ancient Chinese technique), which I am glad made it to Christmas since it was glass and I was terrified that it would fall and break before Christmas while it sat in my closet since the day I bought it (Black Friday).

Now for what I got (minus the two presents I don't have yet):

~ Fantastic 4 DVD (first one, not Silver Surfer, the one I asked for, but that's ok, I like the first one too, and I didn't already have it)
~ 45 Master Characters: Mythic Models for Creating Original Characters (a book I actually asked for for Christmas but didn't expect to actually get; I am happy I got it. It'll help with my writing).
~ 20 Master Plots and How to Build Them (another book I asked for)
~ The Daring Book for Girls (a book which is actually pretty cool; it's kind of a trivia book and a how-to book in one, done in an old-fashioned style).
~ The Secret Things of God (my brother got this too; it's a book by Henry Cloud, one of my mom's favorite authors, written in response to The Secret)
~ A pack of high-cut underwear
~ A pack of black socks (good for work)
~ Black semi-casual pants (for work)
~ A blue T-shirt with palm trees that says "San Diego"
~ A tan shirt that says "You are what you read" (it's kinda tight though...*sigh*)
~ "Much Ado About Nothings" Shakespearean Sticky Notes (quirky but fun)
~ Audio Daydream by Blake Lewis (a CD I really wanted, cause I liked Blake on American Idol and he finally came out with a CD).
~Shakespeare's Insults: Educating Your Wit (quite funny...my brother was reading some of them after I opened it...hilarious)
~ Final Fantasy XII: Relevant Wings for DS (ooh!)
~ AN IKEA DESK!!!! (yay...I knew I was getting this present but it's still cool)
~ Two CD storage boxes from Ikea, Motorp series (to go with my desk)
~ A three-box with Velcro desk set from Ikea, Motorp series (which matches the CD boxes and is to go with the desk)
~ A nice blue hoodie

All this, plus the stuff in my stocking: some little Twizzlers licorice, a box of Mentos, a Wonka bar, lotion (good for the dry hands I've been having lately cause of washing my hands so much at work), Blistex lip balm, a small purple gel pen, and a Life Savers Sweet Storybook (a stocking stuffer tradition in our family - every year at least one person gets one).

My brother got an iPod Classic and my dad an iPod Nano. I have a funny feeling that by next Christmas or birthday I'm gonna end up capitulating and asking for an iPod, because I have been resisting so far and buying cheaper music players, with the excuse that either iPods are too expensive or that I don't even have enough songs on my computer to make buying a music player that holds 1,100 songs (or whatever) worth it. But with all the CD's I've been buying recently (mainly for entertainment's sake or to try to find good songs for my fandub project) it might be worth it now, and with me making steady money now, I might be able to afford it. I could always buy it at like Wal-Mart or something where it might be cheaper. (The union I'm part of says you shouldn't patronize Wal-Mart, among other stores, cause they're not union, but I say that's stupid - I shopped at Wal-Mart before joining the UFCW, you think I'm gonna stop now?).

While wrapping presents last night, I decided to listen to a podcast. The main PotterCast page wouldn't come up, so I tried going to the main Leaky Cauldron page to get there and still couldn't. So I listened via iTunes, and the next one for me to listen to was...*drumroll* the first part of their exclusive interview with none other than J.K. ROWLING. Yep, you heard me. The one, the ONLY J.K. Rowling. As in the creator of Harry Potter. I had seen stuff about the interview on their site but hadn't heard the podcast yet, and I still felt chills when they called and, after talking to someone else (probably her husband), they got her, and she came on. The first thing she said was "This better not be about house-elves" (referring to the debate between John and Sue of PotterCast about whether Helga Hufflepuff, who Sue adores, who was in charge of the Hogwarts kitchens in the founding days of the school, enslaved the house-elves who work there now - which they had brought to JKR's attention when they got to talk to her before her Carnegie Hall reading).

The interview was very cool. I was particularly happy when JKR said that Hermione went back to school and finished out the year and took her N.E.W.T.'s (Nastily Exhausting Wizard Tests), the test you take at the end of your 7th year at Hogwarts (apparently J.K. Rowling has an interesting sense of humor to call the tests "Nastily Exhausting Wizard Tests"). I know Hermione is the character JKR has said is most like her, and JKR is very into education (having herself majored in French and Classics at the prestigous University of Exeter, located in and around the town of that name, located in southwest England). Anyway, Go Hermione!!

Ironically, Harry and Ron did not go back to school to finish out the year and take their exams, JKR said, but went straight into the Auror Department, having proven themselves to be good at that stuff during the Battle of Hogwarts.

She also said she never saw Hermione as a fighter, which I'm guessing is why Hermione didn't become an Auror in the end. While Hermione can do spells, she doesn't really use them in active fighting the way Harry and Ron do. To use a video game analogy, she would be the support person in the team, casting defensive magic and what have you (much like she did in Deathly Hallows by casting protective charms around their campsites).

Oh crud I guess I gotta go. We're going to the movies. Later.

EDIT AT 12:05 PM

Just checked with Papa. We're not leaving just yet.

I looked up what the iPod models are. The iPod Touch is kinda cool, but only comes in 8 GB and 16 GB versions, which is more than I really need truly. At least for music. 8 GB is good for video though. The Touch also has a web browser (Safari, of course) and a YouTube client, similar to the iPhone.

Oh gotta go for real now. Bye.

EDIT AT 5:36 PM

Since it's still the same day I'm just gonna add edits to this post.

I am at home by myself, cause I decided I didn't want to go watch my brother surf. I'm just in my room, using my laptop. I may work on a video after this, for the heck of it.

I gotta close at work tomorrow (12-9) but then I get two days off, before working 7-4 Saturday and Sunday. Not bad. I haven't gotten more than 2 days off in a row for a week or so, but with this week, the store being closed today for Christmas meant everyone got the day off by default.

I told Mum how seeing Andrew (my brother)'s iPod Classic kinda made me want an iPod, and she said she was afraid I would lose it if I had one. I have lost music players in the past, usually by accidentally leaving them somewhere, so her fear makes sense. And I do lose things sometimes.

I do have a good music player now, a ZVUE ($65 at Wal-Mart), which also plays video though I don't use it that much for that due to the hassle of getting the files on there via ZAPP (the iTunes-like program that came with my player), but I am getting a little tired of it, primarily cause of the aforesaid ZAPP software, which takes a while to load and is kind of tough to use. Plus most of the video files I want to put on there I end up not being able to cause of the really narrow format restrictions (WMV and some form of DivX video). Also when you have WMA files on there, the artist name is displayed with the song but not the title of the CD.

iTunes, on the other hand, is easy to figure out how to use (I've bought music there) and the iTunes store has lots of stuff. Most of the podcasts I've seen cost nothing, and you can listen to them right in iTunes or (supposedly) download them. And while the iPod doesn't

Hold on moving the computer downstairs.

EDIT AT 8:11 PM

My parents got the movie Little Miss Sunshine for Christmas and so we were just watching it. It's very random.

Anyway, where was I?

Ah yes. Even though the iPod doesn't support WMA files, you can still get WMA files on your iPod using iTunes.

I like the iPod Mini size, but the Mini appears to have been discontinued. The new Shuffle is a size I'm not likely to lose (cause I can clip it to my clothes) but I want an iPod with a screen so I can see what song is playing. Maybe a Nano -- a 1GB probably.

Eh well can't think of anything else to say. Good night.

Thoughts about the future, Order of the Phoenix video game, and other stuff

I was thinking about my future again today, cause my mom told me some people my brother knows invited him to move in with them. This would make him the first of us to move out, which I must admit makes me a little jealous. But then he's the one with all the friends. Anyway he is still deciding.

But in the process of this Mum and I ended up talking about me, and how I feel behind of my friends (yes, I do have some, though not many, and very few close friends) because I don't have a car and I live at home, whereas most of my friends have cars and live by themselves (well, ok, mainly with roommates, since it's pretty much impossible in SoCal for someone my age to afford to live alone in an average apartment, housing prices being what they are). She said eventually, let's just get through Christmas, get the bed from Grandad's in my room and all that, and then we'll see how things go.

Speaking of the future, I still have to send the stuff for my insurance. I am still a bit apprehensive about the insurance, because there are some days I really dislike my job and want to quit. But the insurance holds me back -- I have to have medical insurance, and what if I can't get it again? And even if I do get it, what if 3 months after I get it, I find a better job and quit my current job? Then I'll lose that insurance, and the work of getting it would've been worthless. I'll be back where I started, with no health insurance (I'm too old to be under my dad's plan). I suppose I am just "catastrophizing," as Mum said the other day -- just thinking of the worst-case scenario.

Adulthood is bloody scary. I mean, here I am 23, setting up my own health insurance for the first time and terrified of doing it wrong. Meanwhile, I am only semi-independent as an adult; I live at home still (though I pay for rent every month and pay my monthly cell phone bill, and I buy most of my own food, including my own soda) and last I checked, Mum is still doing my taxes for me, using TurboTax or whatever. I suppose that is ok, but I am starting to wonder if I shouldn't try to do my own taxes this upcoming year, especially since I've got to do my FAFSA too and I might need tax information for that.

Now, granted, I said semi-independent. Like I said, I pay rent each month ($50) and my cell phone bill ($40) and buy most of my own food. I am currently paying for school now by myself and buying my textbooks myself. I do my own laundry and know how to wash dishes. I can more or less prepare a meal for myself, although I tend to eat things that can either be microwaved or easy things like toast or cereal since I'm not much good with the stove still. I can make pasta on the stovetop (boil water in a pot, put the pasta in, and so on) but that's about it (I'm still not good at scrambled eggs, and most of the time I don't have the time in the morning to make that kind of thing for breakfast). And I pretty much never use the oven since I don't usually ever eat anything that requires using the oven.

Also, the future of my schooling...I still haven't heard from Cal State. They're supposed to send me a Campus ID and password so I can check my application status. I wonder if their semester ended too and so things got messed up in the office? Eh well I'll call tomorrow to see.

As for paying for school, like I said I have to do my FAFSA. I am going to do it online because when you do that you get your Student Aid Report within 72 hours, as opposed to a couple weeks if the form's sent by snail mail. Mum said that if it turns out all I can get is loans, that we'll do so and they'll co-sign, and then we'll pay them off with the money we get from selling Gran and Grandad's house, since my parents are intending to use that money for both of our educations (mine and my brother's). I was pleasantly surprised to learn this, since I just did research on loans too (for my scholarship project). The reason it even came up was that my mom said they would use that money to provide for a junior and senior year's education for us both at college, and I said my junior year could be coming up pretty soon (if I get into Cal State for next fall and the right credits transfer over, I should be able to transfer as a junior -- that's how it usually works when you transfer from a junior college to a state university).

Eh well...change of subject. Last Friday, after I missed the FAST bus at 5:30 when I was coming home from work, I went over to EB Games and ended up buying Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix for DS. I didn't get around to playing it till today, and not that seriously until I got home because I had left my styluses at home, and a stylus is essential for that game (it's your wand, among other things). And it is really fun. The visuals are way better than my other Harry Potter handheld game, the rather lame Chamber of Secrets GBA game (though not perhaps as nice as the only console Harry Potter game I own, Goblet of Fire for GameCube), and you get to run around the entire castle. That's cool.

You use your stylus in a wide variety of ways. Besides its main function as your wand, which you use on the main map to do everything from repairing Grimmauld Place vases and furniture to a Hogwarts suit of armor and some fixtures in Moaning Myrtle's bathroom (and then some) with Reparo to moving chairs out of the way with Wingardium Leviosa, it has other uses as well, such as stirring your potion in Potions or flicking your Gobstone from the bottom screen to the top screen while playing Gobstones.

They utilize other features of the DS as well, besides the stylus. Its two-screen format is used creatively in Gobstones, where the circles you want to aim for are on the top screen, but your Gobstones are on the bottom screen, and you have to use your stylus to get them from one screen to the other. Also, you duel in this game, using a number of different spells (including the staple Harry Potter video game starting spell, Filipendo), and when you duel, you not only use both screens but you turn your DS sideways so it's horizontal like a book. And the really cool thing -- during Potions lessons you can blow into the microphone to make the flames hotter. Cool, huh?

One ironic thing about the beginning of the game is that, despite the fact that the beginning of Order of the Phoenix is about Harry being on trial for use of underage magic outside of school, the game still has you going around Grimmauld Place Reparo-ing vases and furniture and using Wingardium Leviosa to move a table blocking the door to Ginny's room. Um, I thought Harry wasn't supposed to using any spells outside of school...

The storyline more or less follows the book and the movie (I suppose EA has rights to the book too) but with some original content too. Also the plot is mainly task-oriented (much like shooters such as the Bond games, Halo, or the Star Wars shooters, where you focus on completing objectives), but open to change at any moment. For instance, while trying to find the library for a task, I ended up stopping to help Moaning Myrtle fix stuff in her bathroom. And on the way to find Neville to ask about the Room of Requirement, the trio is stopped by Snape, who accuses them of vandalizing a suit of armor. They need a couple missing pieces, and the nearby portrait will give you a clue as to their possible location if you pass an Astronomy activity. After the pieces are collected, you simply Reparo and Snape comes back and lets you pass.

Anyway it looks great so far.

Well it's late and I'm tired. I fortunately have tomorrow off so I can sleep in. What I'm gonna do tomorrow I'm not sure.

Good night.

FINALS ARE OVER!!! (yay), new manga, next semester plans, room plans

YES!!!! FINALS ARE OVER!!! WHOO-HOO!!!

I just came from my last final of the semester. Yay!!! It was for U.S. History. Since the teacher usually does his tests with multiple choice and then essay terms, a few of us were discussing what terms we thought he'd use. None of the ones I guessed he'd use were on the test. The terms were Levittowns, Cash and Carry and Lend Lease, and Postwar Economy. We had to do 2 of those 3. Unfortunately, I didn't remember much about the third of these, but I did about the other two, so I simply did those. The multiple choice was only 20 questions, and I knew the definite answer to most of them. Just in case, I went back over my answers before turning in that part, changing a few of them.

A couple days ago, after my Literature final, I went to the mall to try to get more of the manga series I need more volumes of. They had none of them at Borders Express (the only bookstore at the nearby mall, and where I usually get most of my manga -- I also get some at the Barnes & Noble by my work sometimes -- and if I had the time I'd go to the regular Borders down the street from my work in a shopping center called The Forum, but it's kinda far to walk, plus most of the time I don't have the chance to get over there cause of my work schedule, which is a shame cause they have a good manga selection -- they even had Angelic Layer, which I had been looking for for ages!). But they were having a "buy 4, get one free" sale on all the books in the store, so I decided to take advantage of this and buy more manga than usual. Since there weren't the volumes I needed for the series I had been looking for (namely volume 4 of Cardcaptor Sakura, volume 2 of Wedding Peach, and volume 3 of Tokyo Mew Mew), I decided to go for new series.So I bought five volumes of manga series I hadn't read before (all volume 1, of course; I read manga chronologically). The series were: Pichi Pichi Pitch: Mermaid Melody, Peach Girl: Sae's Story, Neon Genesis Evangelion: Angelic Days, Tsubasa: Reservoir Chronicle, and The Good Witch of the West. The first four I knew something about, but the last one I had never heard of. It looked good though, so I bought it.

Pichi Pichi Pitch: Mermaid Melody is the manga that the popular anime Mermaid Melody Pichi Pichi Pitch is based on. I know the anime is popular because, like with Fullmetal Alchemist, AMV's with footage from it are all over YouTube. That is usually a good indicator. Basically it is Hans Christian Andersen's "The Little Mermaid" with mahou shoujo and fantasy mixed in. Or at least the story is very similar to "The Little Mermaid." Having recently read the Tokyo Mew Mew manga, which came out around the same time as Pichi Pichi Pitch, I noticed a number of similarities, even though PPP is not by Mia Ikumi (TMM's creator). The manga features little notes from the creators throughout -- primarily from artist Pink Hanamori -- much the way Ikumi does, and Lucia and Rina look suspiciously like Ichigo and Zakuro respectively. Also Rina is really mature, as is Zakuro. Anyway, this manga is published by Del Rey, the famous sci-fi/fantasy publisher (well known for the Star Wars novels). The manga is more the size of a trade paperback (a normal-sized paperback book) as opposed to the smaller size Tokyopop employs. I'm not sure if this even matters; I just noticed it (my time working at a bookstore has taught me what a "trade paperback" is as well). Also, the "translation notes" at the end of the text are really well done and help explain a lot of things that need explanation, and each notation is given with the page number of the thing being referred to, so you can go back and look at the thing in question. And...yay!...they keep in the honorifics (which Tokyopop does to an extent as well), including a list of common ones and what they mean. But they go farther in emphasizing what it means to not use honorifics with someone, which means you have a special level of intimacy with a person.

Peach Girl: Sae's Story is interesting simply because of the perspective. Whereas the regular Peach Girl series (Peach Girl and Peach Girl: Change of Heart) are from Momo Adachi's perspective, Peach Girl: Sae's Story is from the perspective of her friend/rival Sae. I knew a little bit about the original Peach Girl storyline going into it, having read a sample of Peach Girl in a manga magazine (Smile), so even though I haven't read all of the other Peach Girl manga volumes, I had enough background for me to more or less understand Sae's Story. Basically, it's set after the other two series, and Momo and Kiley are off at college. Sae, on the other hand, got held back because of her bad attendance record, and thus has to repeat her senior year. But she keeps up her bad attendance by constantly ditching class to hang out at the college Momo and Kiley are attending. In the process, this guy who knew Sae when she was a kid shows up, and she tries to avoid him so people won't learn about who she used to be. But he keeps pursuing her anyway. Pretty interesting story. There's three volumes, and I will probably get them all.

Neon Genesis Evangelion: Angelic Days is basically a much happier version of the infamously dark Evangelion anime series. The back cover advertises it as "Imagine a Neon Genesis Evangelion where dating the right girl is more important than saving the world." Basically, there's still NERV, the Evas, and all that (which they begin to introduce in volume 1) but on top of that Shinji, Asuka, Rei, etc. actually have normal lives, whereas their normal lives were more or less scrapped in the anime. The result is something more along the lines of a lighter sci-fi comedy series, like Tenchi Muyo. The casting is slightly different as well; Shinji's mom is still alive in Angelic Days whereas she's dead in the anime. Also Misato, while she does work for NERV, is also Shinji and co.'s teacher, and Ritsuko is the school nurse while also working for NERV. A couple of Shinji's friends appear who I don't recall from the anime; Rei is a transfer student, and Asuka and Shinji are childhood friends. Basically, the whole series is supposed to be a manga continuation of a dream sequence Shinji has in episode 26 of the anime. As I have only seen half of the NGE anime, I have not yet seen this episode. Anyway...oh and Kaworu appears too, even though he doesn't appear in the anime series till almost the end. Pretty good; Rei is a little goofy but oh well. She was a bit too serious in the anime anyway.

Tsubasa: Reservoir Chronicle is basically a crossover fanfic brought to life by the genius that is CLAMP. While it primarily crosses over xxxHolic and Cardcaptor Sakura, it also contains crossovers from most of CLAMP's other series. Volume 1 alone features characters from Cardcaptor Sakura (Sakura, Syaoran, Touya, Yukito, and Tomoyo), X/1999 (the two Hanshin Republic characters -- the girl resembles Hideki's landlady from Chobits too), Chobits (Chi), and Magic Knight Rayearth (Mokona and Rayearth). According to Wikipedia, only Wish and Shirahime-Syo: Snow Goddess Tales out of all of CLAMP's works do not crossover (at least not yet -- the series is still ongoing) with Tsubasa: Reservoir Chronicle (or with xxxHolic). Kurogane and Fai are original characters in Tsubasa, not crossing over from any other series, and the "dimension witch" Yuuko is from xxxHolic. This manga is also by Del Rey and provides the usual translation notes as well as a character guide to help you keep the characters and what series they cross over from (if they do) straight.

The Good Witch of the West supposedly inspired an anime as well (which I really want to see now). The manga is actually based on a series of novels, much like certain parts of Tenchi Muyo. The novel basis I found rather influential, since the manga has a very literary feel, much like a fantasy novel or fantasy video game. The title sounds somewhat like a title for an early mahou shoujo anime (many of the earliest mahou shoujo series were about witches coming to the human world) and is somewhat misleading since the main character, Firiel, is not a witch at all. But there is a legend about a "Good Witch of the West" in the manga's world, and a piece of this legend is quoted at the beginning of the manga. So this is probably where the title comes from. Anyway, very good though.

****

I already enrolled for spring; I am just taking one class for fun. It is a class in Printmaking (doing woodcuts and the like), which should be interesting and fun (and hopefully not too hard). I will have to prepare for graduation and transferring during the spring as well. I am still waiting to hear from Cal State about whether I got accepted. (I'm checking online now...they have a thing where you can check your application status).

Uh ok can't get on. I need to call them.

***

While I wait for that, I'll talk about my room. My dad measured the bed I am getting from my grandparents' house, and so now I need to measure the area where my bed is now (in a little three-sided jutting piece of wall with a window - a nook, I guess) to see if it will fit there. At any rate, I am going to rearrange some stuff and get storage boxes. I am also getting rid of my large dresser once I have a chance to go through it (ok, granted, I had chances the last two weeks, but I never got to it) since I don't use it much. Normally, I would not be so motivated to organize my room, except that I have been watching a lot of decorating shows lately. Plus the storage box idea I got from my parents' organization of the garage. I bought one organizational thing already: a shelf, technically made for kitchens, that sits on little legs and has non-slip stuff on the top, for putting my TV on when I move it to my small, low dresser (where my boombox is now - I'm getting rid of that too cause the CD player doesn't work) so that it is a little higher. It is high enough (I think) for me to slide my VCR underneath.

Also I am getting a new desk for Christmas, and so I need to figure out that too. I told Mom I want one tall enough for me to put my file cabinet underneath (since I think that would be much more convenient. And I need a real nightstand (not the TV tray I'm using now). I will be able to figure out this stuff much better when we get the bed in the room.

That's all, I guess. Bye.

Strange work schedule, boring union meeting, Golden Compass criticism, school ending, and so on

I got off work at 7 today, the last of the three days this week I worked in a row. Lately I have been given a very strange work schedule -- this last week I got Tuesday and Thursday off as usual and then also Monday and Wednesday, giving me four days off in a row. And for this coming week they gave me the same thing, except next weekend I work 7-4 for three days. It works out cause last week I had a big essay due for Lit that I was able to devote nearly an entire day to doing the rough draft for last Monday, and this week I have finals (in fact, I should be working on my scholarship project right now, cause it's due Tuesday and I don't really want to do it the day before, but my body is saying no -- my back aches and I am dead tired, neither of which would improve my concentration).

On Tuesday of this week I had to go down to the San Diego area to go to a union meeting about the new insurance plan. It was rather boring and one part of it was all about Platinum Plus members, which I'm not, so I should've left when they started that, but it seemed rude to do so. So for a while, I just sat there and followed along with the PowerPoint slide printout, under the premise that I might need this information down the road, but since you need to have been working for 5+ years to get to that level, I don't think I'll need it since it is highly unlikely I'll still be at Stater's 5 years from now. After following along got boring, I started taking notes from this book I bought for my scholarship assignment research called Free $ For College for Dummies, which I had brought with me to take notes from in case I had downtime before or after the meeting. Fortunately, I was sitting near the back so I was fairly inconspicuous, not that they check to see if you're paying attention anyways. The good thing is I finished the notes while waiting for Papa to pick me up after the meeting, so those are done.

Tikkie from work informed me in a somewhat roundabout fashion last night that some churches are telling people not to go see the movie The Golden Compass, something my mom mentioned too. So I was thinking about that today. I have been wanting to see Golden Compass since they first starting showing trailers for it, mainly cause it was a fantasy movie and I usually like fantasy in any format. I started reading the book trilogy Golden Compass comes from (it's a trilogy called His Dark Materials, of which The Golden Compass--Northern Lights in the UK--is the first. The other two are The Subtle Knife and The Amber Spyglass) because Melissa Anelli was pushing it on PotterCast as being an awesome series (apparently some people think it's similar to Harry Potter -- I disagree; it's so much more complex than HP and in my opinion is more of the "high fantasy" genre, like Lord of the Rings). I really liked it, strange portrayal of Christianity aside.

Actually I was just reading that secular groups have been criticizing the movie too because the moviemakers were planning to cut as much of the religious material as was possible to do and not mess up the main story. So churches boycotting it is slightly ironic.

Anyway, it is difficult for me to explain the very complex religious viewpoint portrayal in the trilogy. I just checked a site and it does say Pullman (the author of the book) is an atheist; but then, I knew it was not a Christian book going into it. He does however quote Paradise Lost at the beginning, and it is from Book 3 of said poem that the title of the series comes:

Into this wilde Abyss, [ 910 ]
The Womb of nature and perhaps her Grave,
Of neither Sea, nor Shore, nor Air, nor Fire,
But all these in thir pregnant causes mixt
Confus'dly, and which thus must ever fight,
Unless th' Almighty Maker them ordain [ 915 ]
His dark materials to create more Worlds... (emphasis mine)

The title is somewhat appropriate since much of the His Dark Materials trilogy revolves around parallel worlds.

The view of God did strike me very much as a nihilist "God is dead" sort of philosophy, since God seems very distant if he is in fact present at all, in heaven or anywhere, for that matter; also the angels were far from perfect, much like the angels of Cruxis in Tales of Symphonia (who were in fact evolved half-elves, not created angels). The angel Metatron, hailed as the "Regent of Heaven," is equated with the Biblical Enoch, but much of what is said about this Enoch (that he had lots of wives for example) does not fit any description of Enoch, canonical or apocryphal, in Judaism, Christianity, or Islam (all of which have some Enoch story). There is an angel named Metatron in Jewish tradition though (according to what I just looked up), and apparently he is considered to be the same as Enoch by some early Kabbalah followers. But then Kabbalah, though taken very seriously by some Jews, is above all a mystic tradition and thus is liable to present somewhat far-out beliefs.

So when Pullman was trying to portray the religion of Lyra's world (and presumably others too), he obviously based it on mystical traditions, perhaps apocryphal too, and maybe some nihilism and some of his own atheism.

In the book in which he finally appears (The Amber Spyglass), Metatron is seeking to take God's place through battle, much like Milton's Satan in Paradise Lost. Mainly he seeks to supplant "The Authority," who is really the first angel created and not God, though he claims to be God.

So where is the real God exactly? Who created everything -- the angels, the worlds, etc. -- if not The Authority?

Good question. I don't know. The answer is probably that there isn't a God in that universe. That's what the atheistic Pullman would probably say. As for who the creator is, well anyone who knows about atheistic views knows the answer: there is none. Evolution is what created everything.

Now that I research stuff and get it into writing, one thought is coming up in my mind quite clearly: THE THEOLOGY IN THESE BOOKS IS WHACKED! It's not theology from any one religion, combining traditions from Judaism, Christianity probably too, maybe nihilism, and certainly secular humanism (and maybe deism too, which suggests a God who set the world in motion but now stays out of human affairs).

Now does that mean I won't go see the movie? No. That would be like not going to see Harry Potter cause it has witchcraft in it. If anything, I will get to see Daniel Craig in something other than a Bond movie, and two other actors I like -- Nicole Kidman (as Marisa Coulter) and Ian McKellen (as the voice of Iorek Byrnison). Come to think of it, this movie is a bit of a reunion for Craig too, as his Casino Royale co-star Eva Green (who played Vesper Lynd in Casino Royale) is also in Golden Compass (playing witch queen Serafina Pekkala, although I think she looks too young; Serafina is young-looking, as are most witches in His Dark Materials, but I always pictured her as older-looking than Eva Green looks in the part in the trailers). They also have Freddie Highmore doing the voice of Pantalaimon, Lyra's daemon (the physical manifestation of her soul; everyone has one in His Dark Materials; they are only externally seen in Lyra's world), who I enjoyed in Finding Neverland (where he played one of Kate Winslet's kids; Johnny Depp starred as Peter Pan author James Barrie) and Charlie and the Chocolate Factory (in which he starred as the title character Charlie Bucket, co-starring--again--alongside Johnny Depp, who played Willy Wonka). All of those are reasons to see it, I guess.

Oh and the Alethiometer (the "compass" of the title) reminded me somewhat of a Ouija board, in that you ask the alethiometer a question and a needle swings of its own accord to the answer, much the same way that a Ouija board does. Only the alethiometer seems to be able to answer more than just "yes" and "no" questions.

Anyway moving on, since it's getting late (fortunately, I'm off tomorrow so I can sleep in)...

School is ending; we have finals this week. I think I can enroll for spring semester starting on the 12th of December; I have to check. At any rate, I won't start spring semester till January 22.

All right I am going to start getting ready for bed after I post this. Good night.

Continuing (finally) Tuesday's post

I promised to finish discussing what I had planned to discuss in my last post, but I didn't get to it until now, with a full day of work yesterday and today school and spending the afternoon trying to add music and credits to the last part of Act 21 for my fandub project, which I finally did finish and which I am uploading to YouTube right now.

My computer is working okay now speed-wise but this is only after at least one forced restart (orchestrated by turning the computer off and then turning it back on again).

Transfer progress first, I guess. I have made some. A couple weeks ago, I stayed up late after a long day at work to fill out the application online for Cal State San Marcos, the school I'm planning to go to (it's the closest university to my house). I know it was a couple weeks ago because I printed stuff out from it on my new printer. Anyway, after being busy last week with the book review, I got back to business this week and filled out a Request for Transcript form so that my transcript will be sent to Cal State San Marcos ASAP. I also went to Financial Aid today and asked them when I need to do the FAFSA. They said January (which is what I had figured was true anyway, but I figured it couldn't hurt to ask).

I am going to graduate next spring, and since graduating after a semester where you don't take any classes seems sort of silly, I made plans to take classes next spring. Initially, I probably would've gone with more transfer articulation stuff (classes at my school that correspond to classes at CSUSM -- where if you take the classes that correspond you don't have to take the corresponding university courses, supposedly anyway), but seeing how hard it's been to keep up with schoolwork and such with a full-time job, my mom's idea of only taking one fun class sounds better. Not to mention that I already have at least 20 units over what Cal State requires for a transfer student and don't need a ton more -- I'll be approaching 90 units just by the end of this semester (Cal State only takes 60 -- I'm just hoping they take my IGETC stuff or I'm screwed).

Fortunately, the spring print schedule came to campus today (ahead of schedule -- they weren't supposed to be available on campus till the 19th) so I snagged a copy. There were quite a few classes that interested me. ART 210 (Printmaking) is interesting me the most at present, as is Basic Office Skills (which I've taken some sections of already). I was bummed that the class in "research in the online world" (a Library Science class) wasn't being offered next spring, cause since I'd be graduating from our little 2-level junior college library to the 5-story CSUSM library and so I may have to learn research all over again. I'm also bummed that the next "preview day" (this Saturday) for CSUSM I can't go to cause of work.

I found out about the "preview day" cause some CSUSM reps were at school today and there were fliers for the "preview day." The lady at the table told me they do campus tours every weekday so even if I can't make it to that event I can still arrange to tour the campus and stuff. Although, if it doesn't work out, I like exploring. I just don't want to get lost is all.

While I was at it, I picked up a folder at another rep's table with Financial Aid info. I'm gonna need that for sure.


*********************************************************************************

AND NOW THE CONTROVERSIAL TOPIC: DUMBLEDORE. He is now "officially possible as a slash fiction character" as I mentioned in the title of the last post. For those not familiar with fanfiction-speak, "slash fiction" is fiction focused on homosexual relationships, which are usually denoted by a / between the names, hence the name.

That's right. DUMBLEDORE IS HOMOSEXUAL. Now I know everybody probably knows this already. It's been news for a while, and very heavily promoted. I am only writing about it because I have not had a chance to work out in writing my reaction to this revelation.

Now, some background. This revelation came about at a live reading/book signing J.K. Rowling was doing at Carnegie Hall in New York City. At some point, she began taking questions from the audience. One fan asked about Dumbledore's love life. She said:

My truthful answer to you... I always thought of Dumbledore as gay. [ovation.] ... Dumbledore fell in love with Grindelwald, and that that added to his horror when Grindelwald showed himself to be what he was.

(Thanks to the-leaky-cauldron.org for the quote, from their transcript of JKR's Q & A section)

Now that she saved this information for after the publishing of Deathly Hallows is certainly shrewd, given the controversy it generated (it might have hurt book sales if revealed pre-DH, I think). Also Deathly Hallows is where we learn of Dumbledore's unusually high admiration of and friendship with Gellert Grindelwald, the wizard Dumbledore would later go on to defeat in a famous duel in 1945 (the duel mentioned on Dumbledore's Chocolate Frog card in Sorcerer's Stone), so the timing sort of fits in that respect as well.

Now I should mention right now that I am a Christian and, while I am not anti-homosexuals in an extremist fundamentalist sense, I do believe the Bible is true, and it says that homosexuality is wrong. Now I suppose there may be lines to draw here. Did Dumbledore ever have sex with another man? I think that is the main Biblical issue with homosexuality -- the idea of having sex with someone of the same gender. It's not so much that being sexually attracted to those of the same sex is a sin (although it's not the norm, for sure) as is the actual act of having sex with someone of the same gender, which is deemed by the Bible as not natural. (One verse I know of on this is in Romans: "For this reason [because they rejected God] God gave them up to dishonorable passions. For their women exchanged natural relations with those that are contrary to nature; and the men likewise gave up natural relations with women and were consumed with passion for one another, men committing shameless acts with men and receiving in themselves the due penalty for their error" [Romans 1:26-27, English Standard Version]. The Old Testament has various laws forbidding sex with non-human animals too, as if anyone would be that desperate for sex or even sexually interested in an animal in the first place -- this was long before the Minotaur story, mind you, where a woman fell in love with a bull and even had a "child" with it [the Minotaur], and even in that story her love is considered unnatural, the result of divine punishment on her husband).

I worked with a guy in the deli at the Stater Bros. by me named Matthew. He was a homosexual, the first one I'd ever worked with (and he's a Harry Potter fan too, strangely enough...I wonder what he thinks about this revelation). He didn't like to be called "homosexual" cause it implied he was having sex with other men, which he was not. I think he wanted to be called "queer." Not that I ever called him queer; that's a little weird for me.

Anyway, I am a little nervous about this news, since Dumbledore is my second favorite character (after Hermione). I'm not sure how to view him. I was able to accept his faults as portrayed in Deathly Hallows mainly cause JKR set it up from the end of Order of the Phoenix onward to show that Dumbledore was not perfect.

There does not seem to be any evidence that Grindelwald was homosexual; JKR went on to say Dumbledore's love for Grindelwald was unrequited, which means that even if Grindelwald was homosexual, he and Dumbledore weren't "partners" in the sense that they felt any mutual erotic affection. Age was not a factor here as Grindelwald was actually younger than Dumbledore by 2 years and thus there was not much of an age gap.

This does not upset any relationship preference I have as far as the fandom goes, not like how the Epilogue finally forced me to capitulate my preference for the Harry/Hermione ship (the Epilogue of DH clearly states that the end pairups are Harry/Ginny and Ron/Hermione). I was not a fan of any Dumbledore pairup, normal or slash. I somewhat supported the Dumbledore/McGonagall ship, but only cause it was the only Dumbledore ship I knew of.

Oy. I better go to bed soon cause I have to get up at 5:30. I'll discuss this more later. But one last thing: in hearing discussion on this topic through the podcasts, I heard that there are people who support the "slash" pairup of Lupin and Sirius. I do not get that pairing at all. Some people claim that pairing is why Lupin was hesitant to marry Tonks (who had feelings for Sirius, her cousin, before his death). THAT IS NOT IT AT ALL. Lupin was hesitant to marry Tonks because he didn't want her to have to share in the discrimination he experiences as a werewolf. Case closed. As for Sirius, I don't think he ever had any romantic relationships, normal or slash, at any point in time. Hope that settles that.

More later. Good night.

School work piles up, new YouTube account, transfer progress, Dumbledore now officially possible as a slash fiction character, etc.

As you can see, I am as usual not writing here much. I am busy, as usual, with school and work. With the semester being almost over, not to mention the school schedule getting disrupted from its normal pace by the wildfires, the work is piling up at school as teachers try to rearrange their semester schedules to accomodate the fact that we missed a week. I had a journal (small essay) due for Lit last Thursday (on White Teeth, the novel we've been reading, which we finished recently -- I did mine on "Irie Jones as the sane one" cause for some reason she is my favorite character), plus a test in U.S. History, and my book review for World History was due the following day.

Having some half shifts at work last week really helped; we have some new people in our department so I got a break from my seemingly endless string of all-full-shift weeks. And I do this week too except that tomorrow and Sunday I have full shifts (10-7) but that's not too bad. The new people are a girl named Rebecca, a girl named Liz, and these two baggers named Matt and Corey who got promoted to GMC (General Merchandise Clerk, which is what I am, except since they just started as GMC's and I've been a GMC since I started at Stater Bros nearly 10 months ago and have gotten a few raises, I probably make a bit more than they do -- in fact, I'm sure I do, cause when I started as a GMC I started at $7.65/hour, which was 15 cents over minimum wage, and now I make $8.55/hour) and ended up in the bakery.

Anyway I worked almost non-stop on the book review the last couple weeks, even ordering a book I felt would be useful through Barnes and Noble and getting it like 5 days before the paper was due (a week after I ordered it). And then when I finished typing it up the night before it was due, it was wayyy too long. Like 12 pages (endnotes included), when the page requirement was 3 pages. I sent it to my teacher asking for advice and how to condense it, and she replied back on Friday night (the night the paper was due) that she'd proof it and if it needed a rewrite, she'd give me an extra day. So I waited and waited for her response and finally got it on Sunday. She said my paper was so well-researched and "fabulous" that she'd take it despite the length. Which was awesome.

Now that I can take a breather after that very time-consuming project, I can focus on other things, like my two Lit papers (an essay project on White Teeth and a homework assignment where we do scholarship research) and the Dark Mercury Arc Fandub Project, part of which has finally been posted on YouTube.

One drag to using YouTube is that they once again deleted my account, after giving me quite a bit of hope that they would not when they didn't do so even after blocking like 4 of my videos in one fell swoop. I guess trying to upload this pic as an avatar is what did it, cause that was the last thing I uploaded there.

Anyway, I managed to create a new account, and as a precaution, put some of my old videos on my Veoh account and created a backup account on YouTube. Here's links:

Primary YouTube account

Backup YouTube account

Veoh account (where even the creator of Veoh sent me a friend invite!)

Oops gotta go 4 minutes till class. More about transferring and Dumbledore later. Bye.

Birthday, fires, and other stuff

Well what a week last week was. First of all, the county was in a huge panic cause some nasty wildfires started last Sunday (21st). Actually there were 3 major fires: one was in our area, one was up near Malibu, and one was near the U.S.-Mexico border. Then there were little fires that sprung up from those. Thousands of people were evacuated, including some people at my work. I didn't go to school all week cause school was closed, and even went into work on Thursday (I would've normally been off) so I could get that Sunday (28th) off, as it was my birthday that day.

Yes, I have had my birthday, so I am now TWENTY-THREE. Scary.

(sorry left for a bit and went to YouTube. I'm back though)

Anyway, on my birthday I went to church with my parents (at their church) and then we went to this place called the Elephant Bar for lunch. Then we came home and opened presents. My parents got me a PRINTER, which I do very much need for use with my laptop. To go with it, I got a black/white printer cartridge and a ream of printer paper. I also got a new pair of PJ's, a set of scrunchies (useful for work), and a $15 Itunes gift card (which I can make some use of even though I don't have an iPod).

After this we went to a place called Clay n' Latte (which did not quite live up to its name since its latte machine was broken that day), where you pick out ceramics and paint them. I picked out a little castle thing where the castle is the top for a little trinket box, my mom picked out a similar sort of box but where the top was a crown, and my dad picked out a huge bowl. We had fun doing this.

Afterwards, we went to the movie theater in the same shopping center and saw Dan in Real Life, that new movie with Steve Carell. I have not seen much of his work, but he was really funny. Plus the movie had that guy who plays the dad on Frasier, and he's always excellent and fun to watch.

After this, we went home, and unfortunately got into a heavy discussion about my health insurance and stuff which kinda dampened things. My mom said later that I need to take care of myself -- small things like getting my room clean so it can stay clean -- before worrying about huge stuff like saving for a car. I told Heather the next day this sounded like therapy talk, but it was true and I knew it. Anyway, I felt better later cause we had my cake, and if there's one things sweets can do, it's making you feel better. I ordered the cake from work and Heather decorated it, even suggesting some elements that weren't part of the original design in the book but which she thought would look nice, asking my permission first of course (I was actually at work when she was making it).

I'll probably try to post a picture if I can get my mom to send me one of the pictures she took of the cake with her digital camera, but here's basically what it looked like: it was a double-layered round cake with an edible image on it of the Lord of the Rings movie cast inside the Ring. Heather airbrushed the sides a golden orange to make it match and did a twig-like border with leaves (some icing, some sugar) in place of the not-so-impressive dark blue border the original picture in the book had. Then she did the writing in brown to match the new border (I'd put light blue for the writing color on the original order, assuming I was going to have a dark blue border). It actually looked way better than the book's picture this way, and the twigs and leaves were very season-appropriate, plus the twigs gave that kind of fantasy-forest feel.

I also got a cupcake (which I meant to bring for lunch today but I forgot) from Tori (my department manager). It's one of our new "shavings" cupcakes that is filled with donut filling. They put white shavings on it and then decorated it with a cool candle (all twisty) and three of these Harry Potter rings we got in during the summer (cause of the Order of the Phoenix movie) -- one each of Ron, Harry, and Hermione. It was unexpected and yet cool that she thought of me, and even cooler that they (Heather was in on this too, obviously) remembered that I like Harry Potter. Of course, Heather knows this anyway so she probably came up with the idea, plus rings work really well for decorating cupcakes.

We had a bit of a tense atmosphere yesterday at work because the Health Department was supposed to show up for an inspection. We were more or less prepared, since we've been cleaning the department for this on and off since last Thursday, including a mondo cleaning day on Sunday when I was off. But then they NEVER CAME. Kind of a waste, all our efforts then. Heather said it would be worth it, the cleaning that is, even if they didn't come, cause she was able to clean at least some of the shelves above her decorating table, which did need to be done anyway. Actually, I think a lot of cleaning jobs around the department that never (or at least rarely) get done cause of our skeleton crew got done this weekend, like we cleaned these drains last Thursday that pretty much never get cleaned as far as I know.

I did do some work on my room on Sunday night, which basically consisted of picking up on the floor some and cleaning off my desktop. I also disconnected the old desktop computer that's been taking up space on my desk (after checking it to make sure there weren't things on there that shouldn't be on there when we get rid of it...using only the keyboard, I might add, since someone apparently took my mouse...using a desktop computer without a mouse is very tricky, let me tell ya...good thing I remembered some keyboard shortcuts) and got it out of the way. Once this was gone, there was enough space on my desk for my laptop, my little letter tray where I keep important papers, and my new printer (which is pretty small, but then I don't need anything that big). I haven't had a chance to hook the printer up yet, but I may do so tonight.

While working on my room, I listened to the first MuggleCast after their 12-hour live show (I'm gonna catch up on that later), and it was kinda funny since they were pretending Andrew Sims (the main host) was there, but you could totally tell it was just co-host Jamie Lawrence pretending to be Andrew. The slight accent in "Andrew's" voice was a dead giveaway (Jamie is a Brit). They also sorta made fun of newsman Micah Tannenbaum for having not seen the Order of the Phoenix movie yet.

I also worked on my thesis for World History Sunday night, since it's an online class and so work for it was not disturbed by the fires last week. I tried to post it yesterday morning, but the forum for it in the discussion board wasn't up yet, and then when I tried to post it after work, my computer was so slow I ended up posting it after the due time. Fortunately, I learned today that my teacher has extended the due date for the thesis to November 1st, so I am ok.

In fact, speaking of that class, the CD-ROM that came with my book got cracked recently, and so my computer won't read it, which is probably why I'm not getting full credit on my theses (I can't use sources from the CD-ROM like I'm supposed to). I finally got around to sending an e-mail out to all my fellow classmates (using the handy "Send E-Mail: All Student Users" feature on BlackBoard, where our class is hosted) the other night asking if I could make a copy of someone else's CD. This one gal responded within minutes, and I have been trying to stay in contact with her via e-mail. I e-mailed her this morning about possibly getting together today (short notice, I know, but I didn't read my e-mail today till right before Lit class), but she hasn't e-mailed back yet. So I am at campus still in case she decides to meet me here today. I still haven't gotten an e-mail from her yet. It's about 3:30 now, I'm gonna wait till 4 (the gal is supposed to have class here at 5) and if I don't hear from her, I'm gonna go home.

In my other classes, class work has had to be shifted due to school being closed last week cause of the fires. My midterm for Lit was shifted to today (was supposed to be last Tuesday) and fortunately I found this out enough in advance to prepare for the essay we had to write in-class for that. It took me almost all of the period, even with an outline, to write the essay, but I think I did well. The assignment that was supposed to be due in my U.S. history class last week (after a couple previous due date changes) had another due date change; it is now due this Thursday, BUT we now have the choice of either doing that one or skipping it and doing the next one, rather than having to do both. Not bad. I think I will probably go ahead and do this one since I printed out the information for it anyway. Also, our next test, which was scheduled for this Thursday, was postponed till the 8th (next Thursday).

I got a pleasant surprise for my birthday: the CD I ordered from Philosopherock, one of my favorite wizard rock bands, arrived a few days before my birthday, which was a nice treat. The CD is full of the band's usual "filk" songs (including some songs I've already heard via downloads from their site or their Myspace) and is called Hex Me Draco, One More Time (after one of the songs on it, a song by the same title spoofing the famous Britney song "Hit Me Baby, One More Time"). What songs the songs spoof vary; I can tell with some of them but not with others. Here's my guesses:

-Die, Die, Die : "Bye Bye Bye" by N*Sync
-Charms : No idea
-Eulogy, Book IV : "Skater Boy" by Avril Lavigne
-In My Cape : no idea
-Trapped in the Suburbs : no idea
-Eulogy, Book V : "Fallin'" by Alicia Keys
-Losing My Rememberall : no idea
-This Kiss : "This Kiss" by Faith Hill
-The Real Mad-Eye Moody : "The Real Slim Shady" by Eminem (according to someone on YouTube; I may need to confirm this)
-Hex Me Draco, One More Time : "...Baby One More Time" (sometimes called "Hit Me Baby One More Time") by Britney Spears
-Rita Skeeter : "She Will Be Loved" by Maroon 5
-Eulogy, Book VI : no idea
-Random Fandom : no idea

"Random Fandom" is just a ramble about the fandom in general but is very good; I also like "Trapped in the Suburbs" a lot out of the songs I hadn't heard prior to getting the CD.

Don't get me wrong, I am not becoming a wizard rock-obsessed maniac. I will most likely only order CD's for bands I really like. Right now there are only three I like that much: The Hermione Crookshanks Experience, Philosopherock, and DJ Luna Lovegood. I also like Harry and the Potters and Hollow Godric, but not as much (HaTP's song "Phoenix Tears" is very catchy, as is my favorite song of theirs right now, "Save Ginny Weasley," and Hollow Godric's Celtic, which is always a plus). The Hermione Crookshanks Experience posted some new songs recently on Myspace from her (it's one girl) new CD, How to Write With a Feather. I may order that CD, since her first one was sold out last I checked. And DJ Luna Lovegood has a new CD out called Yellowish, plus you can still order her (this band's one girl too) first CD.

Aside from Hex Me Draco, One More Time, I pre-ordered this CD Melissa from PotterCast has been pushing on said podcast called Jingle Spells. It's a Christmas CD featuring a lot of wizard rock bands, including (naturally) the grandfathers of wizard rock, the DeGeorge brothers (a.k.a. Harry and the Potters) and their friendly rivals Draco and the Malfoys, but also (yay) The Hermione Crookshanks Experience (singing a song about, I figure anyway, Hermione wanting one of Mrs. Weasley's sweaters, based on the preview I heard). I mainly pre-ordered it cause Melissa kept mentioning it (same reason I bought that Mugglenet "Book 7" book -- they kept promoting it on MuggleCast) but also cause the proceeds go to charity (Book Aid), and you can't beat that!

Okay it is now 4:10 as I write this.

Okay, no e-mail from that girl. And I'm tired and thirsty, so I'm gonna go home. I've gotta work on formulating my book review for World History into an actual paper, which involves sifting through all my notes. Oh I better go check out the book again before I forget. Oh good, it's not checked out. That's good (I figured someone else might be doing the same book and have it checked out). There's a part of my essay I can't really do cause I was having trouble finding stuff on it but may find stuff in this book I ordered on Saturday from the Barnes and Noble at my work. I assume, since it was supposed to take 3-4 days to come in, it will likely be in by today or tomorrow. I hate to have to buy a book, but I'm desperate.

All right, bye for now.

Big decisions, big problems...c'est la vie?

I haven't written in a while, cause usually I only write in my blog when there's something to write about, and there hasn't been anything to write about lately. Plus, I have been really busy with work lately.

The problem with Stater Bros. is that they make your hours so that, no matter whether you work part time (like some of the courtesy clerks who are still in high school) or full time (pretty much everyone else), you have pretty much no life outside of work. Somehow this seems very tyrannical to me. They have no right to not let you have a life! Example: On work days where I work a full shift (which is typical), I am home for an hour and a half or so in the morning, then I hop on a bus (except on Sundays, when I can't), head to the closest bus station, and get on another bus -- an express -- to go to the nearby shopping mall, where I catch one more bus to get to work. This whole bus trip takes an hour and a half, actually more like 2 hours if you count waiting time between buses. Then I usually have an hour to grab something to eat so I'm not starving by the time my lunch comes later in the afternoon and sit and read while I eat, and then I start. I have lunch, as I said, later in the afternoon (around 4 hours into my 8-hour shift) and other than that no breaks usually -- not that I am not entitled to breaks, it's just that we are so understaffed I am usually so busy with the work I am given I do not have time to take any breaks. Then after lunch I go back to work, get off usually around 9--usually not later than 9:30 cause that's all the overtime they'll usually begrudge me--get picked up around 9:30 (if I get off on time) and get home about 10:00, after which I usually end up spending an hour or so doing stuff on my computer that I didn't have time for in the morning or doing homework. Usually I eat dinner too. Then I get to bed usually between 11pm and 1am, depending on what I'm doing.

Therefore, as you can see, I have very little time for anything else. The only days I get off lately are Tuesdays and Thursdays, because I have school those days. On those days, I wake up early to catch the bus at around 7:30am, get to school (after transferring to another bus) around 8:25, go to my Lit class at 9:00 (where we're reading a rather disturbing novel called White Teeth), and then have some free time before my next class at 1pm, during which I usually have lunch and do homework or other stuff. Then at 1pm I go to U.S. History, where I usually hide in the back behind my laptop, taking notes while also doing other stuff, like checking e-mail or something. Then I usually go home, or sometimes I run errands or something, or stay late at school to do stuff.

Things have been somewhat eventful. I lost my wallet a few weeks back. It was very frightening. I've had to replace everything, and have done so except for my California ID, since I haven't had a chance to go to the DMV yet. I was without a debit card for about a week and had to be careful with money. Fortunately, my paychecks are direct depositing right now so I ended up with quite a surprising amount of money in my checking account since I wasn't spending much.

I have some big decisions facing me. One is about health insurance. I am eligible for it through my work, and I sort of have to go with that for now even though I am trying to find another job through the eCareer Fair our Career Center is doing through MonsterTrak (a job search site), because I will become too old to be eligible for my parents' health insurance later this month when I turn 23. I finally looked over the stuff one morning (I forget which day -- the last week has been a blur) and talked to my dad about it, saying I wanted his and Mum's help when I fill out the forms, since health insurance is completely baffling and alien to me (heck, so is taxes -- I have yet to do my own tax return...my brother got to learn how in Consumer Math his senior year of high school...lucky!). I am planning to do that tonight, sometime before 8pm when their favorite lineup of TV shows comes on (Beauty and the Geek, House, and Boston Legal, which air in that order, at 8pm, 9pm, and 10pm, on 3 different channels -- The CW, Fox, and ABC, to be exact).

Also...work. Work this last week was just awful. I was scheduled all 5pm-9pm the entire week (except for my off days, obviously) cause we were supposed to be getting some new people (finally). But only one of the new people bothered to show up, and she was working nights anyway, so that schedule essentially got thrown out the window, and I had to come in early every day of the week except Wednesday, the only day I actually worked 5-9. And the new person who showed up was this lady named Michelle who used to work in the service deli at the Stater Bros. I work at but got transferred to another store. The only problem is she tends to socialize too much on the clock (mostly with old deli cronies), which makes me irritated especially if I need racks and she's packaging, and she knows nothing about bakery, and plus she gripes and complains about anything and everything. Now, I admit I do complain sometimes, but not nearly as much as her. I guess it's true what they say, that often we see how big our faults are when we see them in another person. It's like, I never realize how I can be so talkative until I talk to Tammy and barely get a word in. Likewise, I never really notice how much I complain until I see Michelle complain more.

This week, I'm back to normal schedule (12-9 all the time), which is (strangely) somewhat of a relief, I guess because it's something I can predict, whereas the scheduling last week was a complete disaster. Imagine sitting in your PJ's, minding your own business, at 10:30am, thinking you don't have to leave for a few hours, and getting a call from work asking if you can come in early that day. Talk about last-minute notice!

So anyway, that was my work problem.

Also...school. I want to start at a Cal State next fall, so, for some odd reason, I have to apply now. I guess this is so I have something started before I fill out the FAFSA in January (which is when I think you're supposed to do it -- I suppose if I get accepted they'll tell me). I am trying to narrow it down. I think I have basically ruled out SDSU, mainly cause of distance (it's near downtown San Diego) but also because out of the majors I had been interested in and made a list of, I found I was only really into 2 majors: English (which was, oddly, my choice of major my 1st semester of 12th grade, before whatever ruined my sense of major -- I always blame senioritis -- hit) and French. Unfortunately, English is impacted, which is not good. What "impacted" means is that the program is so dang popular that, in order to prevent overcrowding, they only accept a limited number of students into the aforesaid program. And you can try to get in, but it is really difficult because there are a lot of other people competing for those limited spots. It's not always worth the trouble. And as for French, looking at the required classes, it seemed more appealing as a minor than a major. (It's hard to major in a foreign language anyway, cause what could you do with that sort of major? It's like my classmate Steven Sharif who wanted to be a lawyer and said for the survey that was done of the seniors for the book the juniors made for us to give to us at Junior/Senior Banquet that he wanted to major in International Business and French...first of all, a double major is REALLY hard to pull off, or so I hear anyway, and like I said, what do you do with a foreign language major?).

So I turned to the closer (and more appealing) of the two Cal States in my area, Cal State San Marcos. I had narrowed majors down there before to Literature and Writing Studies (formerly English) and History. Now the first of these was of more interest to me, especially since they have a writing "emphasis" for it, which focuses on creative writing (as I found upon further investigation). Since I want to be an author ultimately, this is right up my alley. So I am thinking of going for that. Unlike English at SDSU, it's not impacted, and while there's not lots of prerequisites listed on ASSIST (the official transfer site for California colleges) that can be fulfilled at my school, I already took one of the classes -- Critical Thinking, Composition, and Literature, a.k.a. English 201 -- as part of the requirements for the IGETC (Inter-Segmental General Education Transfer Curriculum) track, which lines up classes you can take to fulfill GE requirements that will definitely transfer to any UC or Cal State. And out of the list of Lit classes to take (where you pick one), I am taking one of them right now (Intro to Literature). So I may be able to bypass a lot of GE stuff, which will be helpful cause it saves money.

I thought also about doing a minor. CSUSM has a minor in French (and no major, strangely enough) and the coursework looks pretty basic (but then coursework for minors is always less complicated than coursework for majors). Either that or Film Studies, since I have an interest in film. I will have to look into it, and I also feel compelled to pray about it too, even though I haven't prayed seriously in a while, haven't been able to go to church in a while either thanks to my work schedule, and have even fallen off my pattern for daily Bible reading and devotions (I had to catch up on 10 days' reading one day last week).

On my way out of the cafeteria this morning I saw a sign for a website called missingmajor.com. It was supposedly a site to help you find a major. So this afternoon, I decided to check it out. I made a profile, the setup of which involved several self-examining profiles, including one where you picked from characteristics labeled by words like Creative and Enterprising, which I recognized from taking the Holland Code Test during my Intro to Career Planning class. Like the Myers-Briggs, the Holland Code Test is a professionally-created personality "inventory" designed to connect personality traits to a career.

Anyway, one of the pages on that site linked to this video on YouTube of this guy who was the founder of Apple and Pixar Animation giving a speech at the 2005 Commencement of Stanford University. It's pretty inspiring. You can watch it here:



Well I better go. I'd like to get home with some time to go over that insurance stuff. Bye!

Bad day, trip to see the Scrolls

Today has been a bad day. I couldn't find my tie for work this morning (and just having to work on a school day is bad enough) and so I don't know what I'm going to do about that when I get to work (I'm in history class right now). I totally forgot to do my first draft for my Lit assignment, and was the only one who didn't have a draft, and couldn't work on my draft in class cause my computer was being too slow in loading Firefox so I could bring up the homework guidelines. I almost lost my mp3 player (but then it ended up being in the library lost and found...yay). I forgot to buy a scantron for my history quiz before class and had to run down to the bookstore after class started to buy a scantron and a pencil. And that's all before work!

I'm going to have to do something about the amount of hours I'm working, cause it's affecting my schoolwork. I'm not sure what though.

Yesterday I had off so I went to downtown San Diego (near where I live) to see the Dead Sea Scrolls exhibit at the Natural History Museum near where I live. It was pretty amazing, and I got there and back all by myself on public transit. But I bought a T-shirt there and left it on the bus I rode from that area back to downtown.

That's all I planned to write. Bye.