Random other updates

Since I never update this thing, and clearly people are very interested.

Currently listening to Pandora online:
- Here Comes the Sun (Live), George Harrison
- This Modern Love, Bloc Party
- Send me on My Way, Rusted Root
- The Weight, The Band

Currently reading:
- just finished Sarah (it was actually fairly interesting, but mostly it was free)
- working on book 7 of the Dresden Files
- rereading the Judge Child Quest cycle of Judge Dredd comics
- as soon as I get it back from Justin's mom, I'll be reading In the Time of the Butterflies

Plans for the evening:
- stop working at 9:30
- go to the fitness center
- have a glass of amaretto water
- read

Plans for the week:
- haircut tomorrow
- J/C's wedding Friday evening
- Work most of the day Saturday, maybe tutoring Al (?)

Two posts in one day? Surely she hath gone mad.

I just realized I never updated with Scarby Round Two: Son of Scarby photos.

Because I love you all so very much, here they be. As always, click for the slightly larger versions.


I went dressed as someone who couldn't be arsed to buy a "real" costume:


Al went as a Time Traveler (of course):


"We're bringin' sexy back. Waaaaaay back."


The traditional four-armed mating dance of the nerds:


She's looking at me this way in most of the photos. I wonder why . . .


Really, if you don't understand this next picture, you're just not cool enough to be on my blog. Or, perhaps, you're just not a nerd fighter (either way, how sad for you):


Three of the people refused to call me "the Merchant of Death" all day.


Craftsman at work, carving limestone:


First act of the day, a pyro-juggler. Whose first trick involved neither pyro nor juggling:


And then, he added juggling:

This is possibly one of my favorite visual gags:

And, finally, fire:


He eventually set his own nipple on fire. Yes, on purpose:


We made a stop at Zilch, of course, to hear all about Jomeo and Ruliet's pamily falace. And man, you haven't enjoyed Zilch until you've been called out for laughing too much. Good times:


All together, now: "awwwwwww."

Towards the end of the day, my brother and I signed an historic accord:

I believe I traded him the hat for Carly:

Being Nice: Does it Work?

A month ago, the Financial Aid department royally messed up my aid award. Basically, because my "permanent" and "school" addresses are the same (you know, because I live in an apartment in town?), the school decided that I live at home with my parents and get lots of money from them.

The exact. same. mistake. they made this time last year. Except, last year it took less than a week to completely resolve the issue.

Today marked the one-month anniversary of my first call to the finaid office. All I needed to do, they said, was email a copy of my lease. So I did.

And waited. And waited. And waited.

In the last month, I've sent three very polite emails and made two or three very polite phone calls. All I wanted to know was if the fax had been received by my finaid counselor. That was it -- a yes or no answer. I got nothing all month but "we're very busy" and "it could take a month! [or more! who knows! not me, I just work here!]."

This afternoon I called, and was slightly less than polite. More of a: "Look, in a whole month, I think someone can give me a yes or no answer."

The moment I stopped being completely nice? Oh, wait, it's "I'll see if she's in" and "she's not working on fall awards yet, but your fax is on her desk."

*facepalm*

On a lighter note. . .

UNIVERSITY HONORS
This status is a result of the grades earned in the SPRING SEMESTER 2008.

COURSE	TITLE	UNIQUE NUMBER	GRADE	CREDIT HOURS	GRADE POINTS
SPN 364L	APPLIED LINGUISTICS	48315	A	3	12.00
RHE 330C	MULTIMEDIA WRITING-W	45160	A	3	12.00
RHE 328	WRITING FOR NONPROFITS-W	45150	B	3	9.00
SPN 325K	INTRO TO SPN AM LIT THRU MOD	48090	A	3	12.00
SPN 352	LIT OF SPAIN OF THREE CULTURES	48295	B	3	9.00

---

TOTALS	HOURS UNDERTAKEN	GPA HOURS	HOURS PASSED	GRADE POINTS	GRADE POINT AVERAGE
SPRING SEMESTER 2008	15	15	15	54.00	3.6000

Bad Move

So, as you may or may not have heard already, NARAL came out yesterday in support of Obama.

And, um, bad job, folks. The fact that I'm not supporting Obama aside, this was a really, terribly, horribly bad move for several reasons:

1. The Democrats are going to have a candidate in three weeks. Why couldn't NARAL have waited three weeks? If they had done so, no one (or at least, far fewer people) would be accusing them of dividing the party and playing favorites. Instead, NARAL would appear to be doing exactly the right thing: throwing their support behind the winner.

2. The Obama/Clinton topic is highly controversial. By not waiting the extra three weeks, all NARAL has done is sow dissent. If you check out the comments over there, you'll see a lot of very angry, very disillusioned, and very hurt people. There's a lot of frustration and name-calling going on, on both sides. Way to unify the party, NARAL.

3. NARAL runs on donations. At least, I assume so, because they always seem to be begging me for money. As a group that runs on donations, this endorsement causes two problems. First, you have people saying, "wait... I give you my hard-earned money, and you can't even check with your base before making an announcement like this?" Then, you have these people thinking, "So, since we live in a capitalist country, and I don't like what you're doing with my money, I guess I'm going to not give you any more money."



In one fell swoop, NARAL has managed to divide the party better than any Republican ever could, anger thousands of people, and lose a lot of funding. And they should have seen it coming.

So if I, with my two semesters as a Government major (before I saw the light) under my belt, could have anticipated these issues, why didn't the people at NARAL do so? There are, realistically, only two explanations. Either NARAL saw this coming and didn't care, or they were too shortsighted to extrapolate the consequences of not waiting three weeks.

Either they're vicious or they're stupid, and either way they're not getting any more of my money.

Mulching Mendicants, Batman!

Mother's Day/Grandpa's Birthday was lots of fun. I'll be posting photos as soon as there are batteries in my digital camera (we, um, needed the batteries to power the emergency flashlight last night).

So, I'll be doing a fuller post about that ... later.

I'm also going to avoid doing a post about NARAL's betrayal endorsement of Obama at the moment. The doctor says I need to watch my blood pressure.

And, with one grade yet to be reported, it's a bit premature to be talking about my grades for the semester.

Um. . .

Oh! I can post about the present dad gave me on the way out of the house Sunday. Every teenaged boys' college students' favorite thing: a box of comic books!

So, yeah, I've been having a lot of fun with that. My Judge Dredd collection has swelled to 70(!), spanning four publishing companies, and I now have 22 Groo comics spanning the years 1982 - 1985 (including, you know, the first ones ever).

I'm also hoping to get through the Spirit comics before the movie comes out :-D

End of the Semester!

Friday was the last day of classes!

The last few days are always pretty emotional. I think the only reason I wasn't really broken up about the end of my Grant Writing class is that I know I'll have the same prof. again this fall (and I'm really looking forward to it).

So, in the last week, I've turned in a handful of final projects, taken two final exams in class, and written a few last papers. *whew* All I have left for the semester are two finals: applied linguistics and spanish literature, joy.

I went and became a "member-owner" at the Wheatsville Co-op today. I'm going to start buying all of my produce, rice, pasta, and beans there. On the other hand, that's all I'm willing to buy at the Co-op; their fancy-schmancy organic gluten-free breads and hand-fed-bees honey is not quite within a college student's budget.

Peter and Carly had a Beltane party the other night, so that was fun. And, speaking of which, here are Scarborough Fair photos:

The entrance. A castle, you say? Yes, I would like to enter.

I don't know how to caption this one. My only options seem to be the silly "An hat shop!!" and the sophomoric "I got crab at Scarby!" I'll let you guess which one I chose.

Zilch the Torysteller, happily spoonerizing your favorite fairy tales beyond all recognition!

Seriously, though, he's great.

Lunch! It comes in a bowl. Made of bread. (A bread bowl, if you will)

Also, if you sit still long enough, cute guys with German accents will come sing you rap songs. Yes!

What's that? A mask made from awesome? Actually, it's made from leather, and I think it looks amazing. There are some seriously talented people selling their wares at Scarby.

Oh, to be young enough to ride the jousting game.

Sitting in the audience. I love that I captured the random stranger checking Carly out here.

Me an' Amanda.

Oh, right. This is me getting my hair braided by the Twisted Sisters. They did a great job, and I got a green flower in my hair. Fun fun.

This is a kids' ride, which is why I convinced everyone to hop on with me. That guy with the dreds had to run back and forth to make it move. Also, he was interesting to talk to -- he hopped on while the ride was going so we could chat.

I'm really too short to be pulling off that pose. *alas*