It is assumed that equality means all men being
equally uncivil, whereas it obviously ought to mean all men being equally civil.
To be uncivil is to be uncivic.
– G. K. Chesterton
Wednesday, June 6, 2012
A Not-So-Small Succession of Various Events In My Summer So Far
Haha. I laugh at the thought of writing a 100-word essay on, "What I Did This Summer". Put it this way... Mrs. Howell asked for 6-8 pages for our research paper this semester. I did 16!
In my defense, it was an excellent subject, one I knew well, and I had very much to say about it.
Okay. Time for a brief recap of my summer so far. A cliche subject, but, hey, why not?
I have won Zoo Tycoon 2. Yay, me. I have both ZT1 and ZT2, and have never won either, so this is a big accomplishment to me. Elaine helped, of course. We have to play it on my laptop as ZT2 makes the computer upstairs (not-so-affectionately referred to as 'that molasses-filled contraption') freeze up. We are now working on Zoo Tycoon 2 Marine Mania, which is ZT2 with an aquatic expansion pack. It's really nice because you can personally train dolphins for shows and stuff. You can even train walruses for shows. Seriously, walruses. They can only learn three really simple tricks, so they are insanely easy to train.
One day, I might win ZT1. Who knows?
Last week, my family went reunion-happy. Grandpa slipped on the backporch of their house two Saturdays ago, and, to make a long story short, was air-evaced to Huntsville. He was fine, though (and ordering around the hospital staff, from what I've heard... totally in character for him. This is the same man who was wriggling out of restraints AFTER an eight-hour surgery to remove his bladder AND coding blue [which means cardiac arrest, I think... at any rate, he was technically dead for a while]) and home Sunday. So that night we had a small get-together at their house to celebrate. The next day was Memorial Day, and my dad, also completely in character, celebrated by working on the farm and also putting us all kids to work. We expected no less. That evening, one of my uncles grilled out and we had another small get-together at Grandma and Grandpa's house to celebrate. That Saturday, we had a 'great reunion', with only about 50 people- pretty much dad's entire family. *snickers* Try not to let your head spin.
Anyway, so, yeah, we had a follow-up party Sunday at our house before every left for their respective homes. One good thing about being a college student is that now I can swap college stories with my older cousins. A cousin told horror stories of what happens to kids who fall asleep in class. One girl got duct-taped to a vent. Another professor liked to reprogram the cell phones of kids who fell asleep in his class- set the language to Swahili, delete all the games, rearrange the options... you name it.
In comparison, I love my professors! I really lucked out with getting amazing professors my first year. I actually miss them. At least I'll keep Dr. Christy...
I have done research on the recent slew of Marvel superhero movies. I am not ashamed to say that, yes, Thor is pretty. (You may check the ground to see if Hell has frozen over; I don't care.) I was a little disappointed with Loki, though. LOKI IS A RED-HAIRED FIREBENDER! There, I got that off my chest. Sorry, after reading Runemarks, I can't see Loki as anything else. And he wasn't really so much of a villain, originally... Also, a nitpicking detail, but he was Odin's blood brother in the myths.
As an aside, Rick Riordan is doing a Norse mythology series. Can you say, HAPPY DANCE OF JOY?
My reaction to the recent release of "Snow White and the Huntsman": BWAHAHAHAHAHAHA. Hysterical laughter is an appropriate response to any given situation involving the moderm media! Sorry, but the thought of Bella Swan and Thor in one movie is STILL enough to make my sides ache with laughter. (And I did research on the movie. There is surprisingly little romance in it, apparently. The Huntsman is apparently supposed to be like a father figure to her, so when he kisses her- was I supposed to tag that Spoiler Alert?- it's not true love and all that garbage, but more like a father's love. Which I thought was a, for once, interesting and original twist. Because I am all for more family and less stupid romance!)
I got two new books the other day. One was The Lightning Thief in graphic novel form (for the sake of completeness! I got it for the sake of completeness!) and the other was A Hero's Guide to Saving Your Kingdom. First, the former. The art was so-so. Annabeth looked terrible. She explicitly has curly hair. At least they got Percy's green eyes right... half of the time, I think. Luke looked ugly, but then I don't like him, so whatever. SHEESH, HADES! Why does everyone hate Hades? He was the first god in the Percy Jackson series to strike me as 'cool'. (Then again, Rick Riordan makes all his death gods cool, and I am, due to the Summoner/Angel of Death from my own books, predisposed to liking the death guys.) In the movie, they gave him weird hair, a beard (which, although it says he has one in The Demigod Files, I've never pictured him with), and just in general a weird attitude. Grover said he looked like Mick Jagger. *cringes* The graphic novel edition of him was a slight upgrade. Now he just looks like a zombie Elrond in a black toga.
You are welcome for that lovely mental image.
A Hero's Guide to Saving Your Kingdom just looked so funny, I had to get it. It basically takes the Princes Charming from four fairy tales and sticks them together. The result is truly, epically hilarious. Plus, it lampshades a ton of stuff. Thank you, TVTropes! (An awesome website, which I now use to research everything.) From Everything's Better with Princesses to Frothy Mugs of Lemonade, A Hero's Guide to Saving Your Kingdom was a troper's dream-come-true. Yay!
I can't think of anything else terribly noteworthy about my summer so far, but I have probably forgotten some. If so, I might very well mosey back to Blogger and mention them. For now, I'll probably leave another quote.
In Pace Christ,
Elyse
In my defense, it was an excellent subject, one I knew well, and I had very much to say about it.
Okay. Time for a brief recap of my summer so far. A cliche subject, but, hey, why not?
I have won Zoo Tycoon 2. Yay, me. I have both ZT1 and ZT2, and have never won either, so this is a big accomplishment to me. Elaine helped, of course. We have to play it on my laptop as ZT2 makes the computer upstairs (not-so-affectionately referred to as 'that molasses-filled contraption') freeze up. We are now working on Zoo Tycoon 2 Marine Mania, which is ZT2 with an aquatic expansion pack. It's really nice because you can personally train dolphins for shows and stuff. You can even train walruses for shows. Seriously, walruses. They can only learn three really simple tricks, so they are insanely easy to train.
One day, I might win ZT1. Who knows?
Last week, my family went reunion-happy. Grandpa slipped on the backporch of their house two Saturdays ago, and, to make a long story short, was air-evaced to Huntsville. He was fine, though (and ordering around the hospital staff, from what I've heard... totally in character for him. This is the same man who was wriggling out of restraints AFTER an eight-hour surgery to remove his bladder AND coding blue [which means cardiac arrest, I think... at any rate, he was technically dead for a while]) and home Sunday. So that night we had a small get-together at their house to celebrate. The next day was Memorial Day, and my dad, also completely in character, celebrated by working on the farm and also putting us all kids to work. We expected no less. That evening, one of my uncles grilled out and we had another small get-together at Grandma and Grandpa's house to celebrate. That Saturday, we had a 'great reunion', with only about 50 people- pretty much dad's entire family. *snickers* Try not to let your head spin.
Anyway, so, yeah, we had a follow-up party Sunday at our house before every left for their respective homes. One good thing about being a college student is that now I can swap college stories with my older cousins. A cousin told horror stories of what happens to kids who fall asleep in class. One girl got duct-taped to a vent. Another professor liked to reprogram the cell phones of kids who fell asleep in his class- set the language to Swahili, delete all the games, rearrange the options... you name it.
In comparison, I love my professors! I really lucked out with getting amazing professors my first year. I actually miss them. At least I'll keep Dr. Christy...
I have done research on the recent slew of Marvel superhero movies. I am not ashamed to say that, yes, Thor is pretty. (You may check the ground to see if Hell has frozen over; I don't care.) I was a little disappointed with Loki, though. LOKI IS A RED-HAIRED FIREBENDER! There, I got that off my chest. Sorry, after reading Runemarks, I can't see Loki as anything else. And he wasn't really so much of a villain, originally... Also, a nitpicking detail, but he was Odin's blood brother in the myths.
As an aside, Rick Riordan is doing a Norse mythology series. Can you say, HAPPY DANCE OF JOY?
My reaction to the recent release of "Snow White and the Huntsman": BWAHAHAHAHAHAHA. Hysterical laughter is an appropriate response to any given situation involving the moderm media! Sorry, but the thought of Bella Swan and Thor in one movie is STILL enough to make my sides ache with laughter. (And I did research on the movie. There is surprisingly little romance in it, apparently. The Huntsman is apparently supposed to be like a father figure to her, so when he kisses her- was I supposed to tag that Spoiler Alert?- it's not true love and all that garbage, but more like a father's love. Which I thought was a, for once, interesting and original twist. Because I am all for more family and less stupid romance!)
I got two new books the other day. One was The Lightning Thief in graphic novel form (for the sake of completeness! I got it for the sake of completeness!) and the other was A Hero's Guide to Saving Your Kingdom. First, the former. The art was so-so. Annabeth looked terrible. She explicitly has curly hair. At least they got Percy's green eyes right... half of the time, I think. Luke looked ugly, but then I don't like him, so whatever. SHEESH, HADES! Why does everyone hate Hades? He was the first god in the Percy Jackson series to strike me as 'cool'. (Then again, Rick Riordan makes all his death gods cool, and I am, due to the Summoner/Angel of Death from my own books, predisposed to liking the death guys.) In the movie, they gave him weird hair, a beard (which, although it says he has one in The Demigod Files, I've never pictured him with), and just in general a weird attitude. Grover said he looked like Mick Jagger. *cringes* The graphic novel edition of him was a slight upgrade. Now he just looks like a zombie Elrond in a black toga.
You are welcome for that lovely mental image.
A Hero's Guide to Saving Your Kingdom just looked so funny, I had to get it. It basically takes the Princes Charming from four fairy tales and sticks them together. The result is truly, epically hilarious. Plus, it lampshades a ton of stuff. Thank you, TVTropes! (An awesome website, which I now use to research everything.) From Everything's Better with Princesses to Frothy Mugs of Lemonade, A Hero's Guide to Saving Your Kingdom was a troper's dream-come-true. Yay!
I can't think of anything else terribly noteworthy about my summer so far, but I have probably forgotten some. If so, I might very well mosey back to Blogger and mention them. For now, I'll probably leave another quote.
In Pace Christ,
Elyse
Oh, Yes, I Remember My Blog Now...
No, I haven't vanished off the face of the earth this time, either. It might have seemed like it, though. I'm not really sure how many people actually read my blog other than the wonderful Amy *waves*, but I do like blogging, for some reason.
I also took a look at Amy's blog, and her latest post was entitled ECLECTIC BLOGGER AWARD. Now that is a word that I really like. Eclectic. I think that sums me up pretty well. Along with 'eccentric' and 'unfathomable'.
Anyway, when you receive the award, you are apparently supposed to nominate five other people for the award and then tell five things about yourself. Judging by this, I was apparently nominated for the ECLECTIC BLOGGER AWARD. (Why am I still putting it in all caps? Because I like caps. So there.) So now I must follow the process myself.
First things first. THANK YOU, AMY! You are probably the most dedicated reader of my blog. At least, you are the only one I know who really reads it. I'm not sure my parents do (not that I would really mind... yeah, I'm weird that way. But I've never been embarrassed to been seen in public with my parents or anything like that. I mean... they're my parents. It'd be pretty bad if I were embarrassed of them), and I only have five followers. I know, I know, we cannot measure the worth of a blog by the number of followers or the number of reviews (cue the music, 'Through Heaven's Eyes' from Prince of Egypt). Even so. When someone praises me, my usual reaction is bewilderment and nonchalance. My attitude is basically, "What was so special about what I did?"
Still, kind words leave an impression on me. I don't forget them and I try to live up to them. (Some of the best praise I think I ever received was from a lady after a church function who said about me, "You don't have to tell her to work." Man, that humbled me.) So, thank you, Amy, for all the nice things you said about me. I am terribly at talking about feelings stuff, but I can write better about it.
All right. Now I have to mention blogs that I like/follow/whatever. Hoo boy. I don't really follow all that many blogs. I especially don't know how to make links to them (although I could made educated guesses and possibly get it on the eleventh try). But I will list blogs!
Amy's blogs - A Small Step in the Shoes of Amy Jane and Just the Little Things to Change the World. - I like reading Amy's blogs because it is really neat to have found someone who thinks like me on various stuff. Seeing as how I am probably eclectic incarnate, this is understandably rare.
American Papist - This used to be a blog by Thomas Peters. He had great articles about Vatican affairs and stuff in the American church, and also plenty of Papist Pictures of the Day with hilarious caption contests. (The best involved a picture of a Middle Eastern prelate, apparently holding two kite strings. The caption? "Some people claim they have a direct line to God. Mwahaha. I have TWO!") Unfortuantely, his blog has been assimilated by CatholicVote, and it's all politics now. Plus, other people write stuff. I don't look at it as much as I once did, but occasionally I do. And rejoice when there's a Papist Picture of the Day.
Bad Vestments. Just Bad Vestments. www.badvestments.blogspot.com Check it out. You really should. It is hilarious. It showcases horrible examples of liturgical vestments and the corresponding horrible ecclesiastical taste of the prelates who actually WEAR this stuff. The captions and the comments are hilarious. On the bonus side, though the guy who runs the blog is a sort-of Anglican, he respects Catholics. I like people who can be reasonable! Only once has the Pope ever been on Bad Vestments (title and caption: OOPS: The Holy Father has a rare lapse in judgment.), and his example wasn't near so bad as some other egregious offenders (BV OVERLOAD and TARGET PRACTICE spring to mind). Someone in the comments noted that it was from his infamous Austria trip and the dude in charge of his wardrobe was fired after that. They also noted he's looked a lot classier since then.
As a bonus, Bad Vestments is now also including "unacceptable church designs". The comments on these are always great. One ("GIANT DEAD SPIDER") was mocked in the comments as the Church of St. Grima the Wormtongued in Mordor. XD.
XD. I do like that symbol. I also like how my brain insists on putting a period after it, as if "XD" were a complete sentence.
Death Star PR. www.deathstarpr.blogspot.com Sith-oriented takes on everything Star Wars. Sorry, Amy, they hate on Doctor Who, too. (Woohoo, and that rhymed, too.) There hasn't been any new post in forever, though.
Does FAILblog count?
All righty... five things about myself. Do they have to be generic things like, "I like chocolate," (I am a chocoholic, for you information), or more specific? Oh, well. I'm listing five things. And I suppose I had better avoid things that Amy mentioned or it will look like I am plagiarizing (the SHAME and BANE of all writers). However, I do also like piano, reading, and writing, and I also love my family.
(1) I am a huge Tolkien fan, and if I could find a way to put a counter on my blog I would be running a countdown to December 13th when The Hobbit: An Unexpected Journey comes out. I firmly believe LOTR is the best book of the millenium (last millenium, numskull) and wish it were required reading in high schools. As oppposed to Lord of the Flies, or something else equally heinous.
(2) I read philosophy and apologetics books. For fun. I love quoting Peter Kreeft, J. R. R. Tolkien, C. S. Lewis, and G. K. Chesterton. I collect their quotes, in fact. Because of this, I know exactly what terms like 'the ontological argument for the existence of God', 'hypostatic union' and 'pschyosomatic unity' mean. Go have fun looking them up.
I am currently reading two hagiographies (saint biographies) by G. K. Chesterton, one about St. Francis of Assissi and one about St. Thomas Aquinas. Needless to say, they are both awesome.
(3) I have very traditional taste in many things, including art, sculpture, architecture, and manners. If you follow my blog at all, you are probably aware of my visceral reactions to modern art. I shall say no more on the matter.
(4) I also read encyclopedias and dictionaries for fun. My vocabulary should probably indicate this. I am told I tend to use big words. Most of the time this is not intentional; I usually just like the way big words sound. I also aim to deliver them in as straight-faced a manner as possibly (the judge of which, however, I am not). Hence, my delight over Dr. Bibbee's ability to do the same thing. It was hilarious. The first day of class he was using long words completely seriously and I was cracking up on the inside.
Sometimes, I use big words intentionally. This is usually done to confuse annoying cousins, because I just love the confused, "Huh?" on their faces when I do it.
(5) I have created an entire world in my head. I have invented a legendarium, like Tolkien. I am working on pretty much my eighth story about my world. I have invented five major languages for my world. I also illustrate the characters from my world (the good guys, that is, not the bad guys, siince I don't really like my bad guys. They exist for me to torment). If you ask me about my world and my stories, I shall gladly tell you about them, but let me first warn you: it's like unleashing Noah's Flood. Somebody once wrote Tolkien a letter asking him somethign about his legendarium. He responsed with like an 18-page letter giving a brief synopsis of The Silmarillion, and apologized for it. Yeah... it's pretty much the same for me.
Oh, and (6) I am a grammar fanatic. This should be obvious. My family is used to me reading the paper and commenting out of nowhere, "Spelling error," or, "Grammar error."
Does that suffice?
Yup, Amy, you were totally right when you said that I write very, very long blog posts.
In Pace Christi,
Elyse
I also took a look at Amy's blog, and her latest post was entitled ECLECTIC BLOGGER AWARD. Now that is a word that I really like. Eclectic. I think that sums me up pretty well. Along with 'eccentric' and 'unfathomable'.
Anyway, when you receive the award, you are apparently supposed to nominate five other people for the award and then tell five things about yourself. Judging by this, I was apparently nominated for the ECLECTIC BLOGGER AWARD. (Why am I still putting it in all caps? Because I like caps. So there.) So now I must follow the process myself.
First things first. THANK YOU, AMY! You are probably the most dedicated reader of my blog. At least, you are the only one I know who really reads it. I'm not sure my parents do (not that I would really mind... yeah, I'm weird that way. But I've never been embarrassed to been seen in public with my parents or anything like that. I mean... they're my parents. It'd be pretty bad if I were embarrassed of them), and I only have five followers. I know, I know, we cannot measure the worth of a blog by the number of followers or the number of reviews (cue the music, 'Through Heaven's Eyes' from Prince of Egypt). Even so. When someone praises me, my usual reaction is bewilderment and nonchalance. My attitude is basically, "What was so special about what I did?"
Still, kind words leave an impression on me. I don't forget them and I try to live up to them. (Some of the best praise I think I ever received was from a lady after a church function who said about me, "You don't have to tell her to work." Man, that humbled me.) So, thank you, Amy, for all the nice things you said about me. I am terribly at talking about feelings stuff, but I can write better about it.
All right. Now I have to mention blogs that I like/follow/whatever. Hoo boy. I don't really follow all that many blogs. I especially don't know how to make links to them (although I could made educated guesses and possibly get it on the eleventh try). But I will list blogs!
Amy's blogs - A Small Step in the Shoes of Amy Jane and Just the Little Things to Change the World. - I like reading Amy's blogs because it is really neat to have found someone who thinks like me on various stuff. Seeing as how I am probably eclectic incarnate, this is understandably rare.
American Papist - This used to be a blog by Thomas Peters. He had great articles about Vatican affairs and stuff in the American church, and also plenty of Papist Pictures of the Day with hilarious caption contests. (The best involved a picture of a Middle Eastern prelate, apparently holding two kite strings. The caption? "Some people claim they have a direct line to God. Mwahaha. I have TWO!") Unfortuantely, his blog has been assimilated by CatholicVote, and it's all politics now. Plus, other people write stuff. I don't look at it as much as I once did, but occasionally I do. And rejoice when there's a Papist Picture of the Day.
Bad Vestments. Just Bad Vestments. www.badvestments.blogspot.com Check it out. You really should. It is hilarious. It showcases horrible examples of liturgical vestments and the corresponding horrible ecclesiastical taste of the prelates who actually WEAR this stuff. The captions and the comments are hilarious. On the bonus side, though the guy who runs the blog is a sort-of Anglican, he respects Catholics. I like people who can be reasonable! Only once has the Pope ever been on Bad Vestments (title and caption: OOPS: The Holy Father has a rare lapse in judgment.), and his example wasn't near so bad as some other egregious offenders (BV OVERLOAD and TARGET PRACTICE spring to mind). Someone in the comments noted that it was from his infamous Austria trip and the dude in charge of his wardrobe was fired after that. They also noted he's looked a lot classier since then.
As a bonus, Bad Vestments is now also including "unacceptable church designs". The comments on these are always great. One ("GIANT DEAD SPIDER") was mocked in the comments as the Church of St. Grima the Wormtongued in Mordor. XD.
XD. I do like that symbol. I also like how my brain insists on putting a period after it, as if "XD" were a complete sentence.
Death Star PR. www.deathstarpr.blogspot.com Sith-oriented takes on everything Star Wars. Sorry, Amy, they hate on Doctor Who, too. (Woohoo, and that rhymed, too.) There hasn't been any new post in forever, though.
Does FAILblog count?
All righty... five things about myself. Do they have to be generic things like, "I like chocolate," (I am a chocoholic, for you information), or more specific? Oh, well. I'm listing five things. And I suppose I had better avoid things that Amy mentioned or it will look like I am plagiarizing (the SHAME and BANE of all writers). However, I do also like piano, reading, and writing, and I also love my family.
(1) I am a huge Tolkien fan, and if I could find a way to put a counter on my blog I would be running a countdown to December 13th when The Hobbit: An Unexpected Journey comes out. I firmly believe LOTR is the best book of the millenium (last millenium, numskull) and wish it were required reading in high schools. As oppposed to Lord of the Flies, or something else equally heinous.
(2) I read philosophy and apologetics books. For fun. I love quoting Peter Kreeft, J. R. R. Tolkien, C. S. Lewis, and G. K. Chesterton. I collect their quotes, in fact. Because of this, I know exactly what terms like 'the ontological argument for the existence of God', 'hypostatic union' and 'pschyosomatic unity' mean. Go have fun looking them up.
I am currently reading two hagiographies (saint biographies) by G. K. Chesterton, one about St. Francis of Assissi and one about St. Thomas Aquinas. Needless to say, they are both awesome.
(3) I have very traditional taste in many things, including art, sculpture, architecture, and manners. If you follow my blog at all, you are probably aware of my visceral reactions to modern art. I shall say no more on the matter.
(4) I also read encyclopedias and dictionaries for fun. My vocabulary should probably indicate this. I am told I tend to use big words. Most of the time this is not intentional; I usually just like the way big words sound. I also aim to deliver them in as straight-faced a manner as possibly (the judge of which, however, I am not). Hence, my delight over Dr. Bibbee's ability to do the same thing. It was hilarious. The first day of class he was using long words completely seriously and I was cracking up on the inside.
Sometimes, I use big words intentionally. This is usually done to confuse annoying cousins, because I just love the confused, "Huh?" on their faces when I do it.
(5) I have created an entire world in my head. I have invented a legendarium, like Tolkien. I am working on pretty much my eighth story about my world. I have invented five major languages for my world. I also illustrate the characters from my world (the good guys, that is, not the bad guys, siince I don't really like my bad guys. They exist for me to torment). If you ask me about my world and my stories, I shall gladly tell you about them, but let me first warn you: it's like unleashing Noah's Flood. Somebody once wrote Tolkien a letter asking him somethign about his legendarium. He responsed with like an 18-page letter giving a brief synopsis of The Silmarillion, and apologized for it. Yeah... it's pretty much the same for me.
Oh, and (6) I am a grammar fanatic. This should be obvious. My family is used to me reading the paper and commenting out of nowhere, "Spelling error," or, "Grammar error."
Does that suffice?
Yup, Amy, you were totally right when you said that I write very, very long blog posts.
In Pace Christi,
Elyse
Tuesday, May 8, 2012
Dobby Is Free!
Yes, yesterday I was totally skipping out of Bibb Graves again, chanting under my breath, "Master gave Dobby a sock! Dobby is free!"
I have the sinking feeling that is going to be my end-of-semester routine.
Anyway, so yesterday I decided to not even try to park next to the fountain, so I went and parked by Appleby. Sarcastic thanks to the UNA police department for stopping the shuttles from running during the finals. I had never parked on campus before, so, yeah, I was sort of frazzled. My frazzlement (and no, I don't think that's a word either, but I'm going with it) was compounded when I got to Appleby and realized I wasn't exactly sure how to get to campus. There wasn't even anyone else around for me to follow around creepily until they got to campus. I didn't realize you have to walk between two houses. So, paranoid about getting a parking ticket (I'm PARANOID, I tell you! I hear horror stories of everything!) and hoping I wasn't being some sort of creepy trespasser, I took the shortcut and made it across the street without being run over. Someone actually stopped for me. This always amazes me when they do that because people on Church Road DO NOT STOP at all even though there is a clear walkway painted on the asphalt. Seriously, the Riverhill people will run you over like they get 10 points for it or something.
Amy had said once that she knew Willingham Hall only as 'that building I come out by' so I figured I had to be in the right place when I saw it.
Scarily enough, the chemistry test, the standardized one published by the ACS (American Chemical Society... I checked) that has like a 40% average, was hard, but not petrifyingly so. Most of the questions if you know how to think can be reasoned through and you can make educated guesses about. I finished up feeling pretty good about it, so we'll find out soon enough whether rightly so or not.
Dr. Gren didn't give the test. Instead, Dr. Olive was filling in for him. I wonder where Dr. Gren was. Dr. Olive didn't seem to know, but I considered that Dr. Gren's wife looked very pregnant at the awards banquet... Awwww. The thought of another little Gren is just so cute. Mrs. Howell talked about her family all the time (she has two daughters; Timia is 7 and Tamara is 5, and Timia reads on a third-grade level though she is in first grade at Kilby), but Dr. Gren mentioned his kids occasionally, too. Apparently, he has a five-year-old and a two-year-old. The two-year-old likes Despicable Me and goes around the house saying, "Oh, yeah!" Which of course prompted Seth to say that randomly during lectures for the rest of the semester. The five-year-old likes Adele and is apparently responsible for Dr. Gren randomly humming/whistling/whatever 'Rolling in the Deep' before his PowerPoint pulled up one morning. He said he had that song in his head and couldn't get it out.
It's so nice to see that other people have that trouble with songs, too. I mean, it happens literally ALL THE TIME with me. 90% of my time I have some song or another stuck in my head. It's usually the same ones, too. Do you know how annoying that is??? I was trying to take that chemistry final with Alabama's 'The Cheap Seats' in my head. That song only pops up when it will be most annoying. Try thinking about neutrons, redox reactions, and acid-base titrations while THIS is going through your head: "We like our beer as flat as can be/ We like our dawgs with mustard and relish/ We got a great pitcher, what's his name/ Well, we can't even spell it/ We don't worry 'bout the pennant much/ We just like to see the boys hit it deep/ There's nothing like the view from the cheap seats!"
Add a little Celtic Woman or a random song I heard on the radio in the midst and it gets strange, fast.
I don't know how much I'll blog over the summer. I might pop in occasionally, even if only to post a quote. I love quotes. Instead of desperately trying to be original, I take shelter in the originality of others. *smirks evilly* I love not conforming to nonconformity!
In Pace Christi,
Elyse
I have the sinking feeling that is going to be my end-of-semester routine.
Anyway, so yesterday I decided to not even try to park next to the fountain, so I went and parked by Appleby. Sarcastic thanks to the UNA police department for stopping the shuttles from running during the finals. I had never parked on campus before, so, yeah, I was sort of frazzled. My frazzlement (and no, I don't think that's a word either, but I'm going with it) was compounded when I got to Appleby and realized I wasn't exactly sure how to get to campus. There wasn't even anyone else around for me to follow around creepily until they got to campus. I didn't realize you have to walk between two houses. So, paranoid about getting a parking ticket (I'm PARANOID, I tell you! I hear horror stories of everything!) and hoping I wasn't being some sort of creepy trespasser, I took the shortcut and made it across the street without being run over. Someone actually stopped for me. This always amazes me when they do that because people on Church Road DO NOT STOP at all even though there is a clear walkway painted on the asphalt. Seriously, the Riverhill people will run you over like they get 10 points for it or something.
Amy had said once that she knew Willingham Hall only as 'that building I come out by' so I figured I had to be in the right place when I saw it.
Scarily enough, the chemistry test, the standardized one published by the ACS (American Chemical Society... I checked) that has like a 40% average, was hard, but not petrifyingly so. Most of the questions if you know how to think can be reasoned through and you can make educated guesses about. I finished up feeling pretty good about it, so we'll find out soon enough whether rightly so or not.
Dr. Gren didn't give the test. Instead, Dr. Olive was filling in for him. I wonder where Dr. Gren was. Dr. Olive didn't seem to know, but I considered that Dr. Gren's wife looked very pregnant at the awards banquet... Awwww. The thought of another little Gren is just so cute. Mrs. Howell talked about her family all the time (she has two daughters; Timia is 7 and Tamara is 5, and Timia reads on a third-grade level though she is in first grade at Kilby), but Dr. Gren mentioned his kids occasionally, too. Apparently, he has a five-year-old and a two-year-old. The two-year-old likes Despicable Me and goes around the house saying, "Oh, yeah!" Which of course prompted Seth to say that randomly during lectures for the rest of the semester. The five-year-old likes Adele and is apparently responsible for Dr. Gren randomly humming/whistling/whatever 'Rolling in the Deep' before his PowerPoint pulled up one morning. He said he had that song in his head and couldn't get it out.
It's so nice to see that other people have that trouble with songs, too. I mean, it happens literally ALL THE TIME with me. 90% of my time I have some song or another stuck in my head. It's usually the same ones, too. Do you know how annoying that is??? I was trying to take that chemistry final with Alabama's 'The Cheap Seats' in my head. That song only pops up when it will be most annoying. Try thinking about neutrons, redox reactions, and acid-base titrations while THIS is going through your head: "We like our beer as flat as can be/ We like our dawgs with mustard and relish/ We got a great pitcher, what's his name/ Well, we can't even spell it/ We don't worry 'bout the pennant much/ We just like to see the boys hit it deep/ There's nothing like the view from the cheap seats!"
Add a little Celtic Woman or a random song I heard on the radio in the midst and it gets strange, fast.
I don't know how much I'll blog over the summer. I might pop in occasionally, even if only to post a quote. I love quotes. Instead of desperately trying to be original, I take shelter in the originality of others. *smirks evilly* I love not conforming to nonconformity!
In Pace Christi,
Elyse
Thursday, May 3, 2012
A Small Succession of Amusing Things
Tomorrow, for instance, is apparently Star Wars Day. Has anybody else heard of this? At least on the last email Sodexo sent, they're selling Star Wars cupcakes in the Guillot tomorrow. I will HAVE to check this out. I still have almost eleven Dining Dollars left, enough for lunch Monday and something else tomorrow, so maybe I can contrive to use them up.
I don't particularly care about the iPad 3 drawing, because I don't know what I would do with an iPad if I got one (now, if it can run Microsoft Word, I might consider...). Mom, however, says SHE'LL take it.
I also need to use up my bookstore scholarship. Hmm, sounds like a project for tomorrow. I have a book and whatever a Guide to Public Speaking Package is to buy. That sounds intimidating, honestly. I'm not looking forward to Speech (does anyone?) and this is not helping matters. The good news is I know where the communications building is.
Okay, okay, okay. I've heard about this Rate My Professors website for two semesters, and the other day I decided to finally go have a look at it. So I did. And promptly collapsed into a fit of hysterical laughter. I don't know what the numbers of the easiness rating mean, but, thanks to a conversation from the first day of last semester, I know what the chili pepper means.
A shocking percentage of my professors had chili peppers, which was what caused the hysterical laughter, if you were wondering.
Let's see... I have had how many teachers so far? Dr. Stovall, Dr. Christy, Dr. Diaz, Dr. Roberts, Dr. Bibbee, Mrs. Howell, Dr. Gren, and Dr. Moeller. Eight teachers.
Now, the amount of them that had chili peppers... Dr. Stovall, Dr. Bibbee (surprise, surprise... he reminded me of Professor Lupin from Harry Potter, honestly, even though he looked nothing like the movie Lupin... the picture of him on the UNA website shows him without a beard, so that's probably what prompted the chili pepper), Mrs. Howell, and Dr. Gren. There's four there. I can't remember about Dr. Diaz, but I wouldn't be surprised if some lovestruck girl had prompted a fifth.
That's 50%, at any rate. Yikes.
Maybe I'm immune to overt fangirlism, but rating the relative attractiveness of your teacher seems a little... unacademic. It seems to indicate that you pay more attention to the teacher than to the course material! Not a good thing for anyone's grade, I don't think. However, I suppose it might cause the stupid little swooning students to actually show up for class...
Yes, I'm being sarcastic. It's helping to keep down the hysterical laughter.
Frankly, however, most of the ratings didn't surprise me. I had already heard that Mrs. Howell had one (the first day of last semester), and I was expecting the rest. I KNEW Dr. Gren would have one, as he is completely adorkable in his own way, and also as, well, let's put it this way: the first thing I knew about him last semester was that I was going to have him this semester. The second thing I knew about him was when I was standing at a bus stop with a few other girls and one of them, twirling her umbrella, started talking about finals and mentioned how the only one she could remember the time was her chemistry final, because Dr. Gren was teaching it. Without any prompting whatsoever, she launched into a lengthy ode about how much she loved Dr. Gren. I tried to snicker quietly, but as soon as I got home I laughed and laughed... I still smirk thinking about it.
So, yeah, on the first day of THIS semester, I was prepared to be amused. And, yep, I'll admit Dr. Gren is adorkable. I already did! But I'M not the one talking about wearing an 'I Heart Nerds' shirt to class, as that girl was talking about... *shudders* Poor Dr. Gren.
Now that I come to think of it, I should have looked up my teachers for the fall so I could get an inkling of what to expect. Then again, when I walk into the classroom on the first day of the semester, I come prepared to like the professor, and will only dislike him/her if given a reason to do so. I've liked all my professors so far, except for maybe Dr. Roberts, my chemistry lab teacher last semester, and even then it wasn't that I didn't like her personally- I did-, but she didn't do much teaching. She basically told us where the chemicals were and let us go. I swear, I was terrorized of the kids pouring stuff down the drain with careless abandon. I expected a fiery fireball of doom any moment some times (yes, that was deliberately redundant). Dr. Moeller at least did demonstrations and made us clean out our glassware. Plus, he was funny! "Do not place paper towels in the sink as they will clog the drain and we don't want to flood the biology department... again."
In Pace Christi,
Elyse
I don't particularly care about the iPad 3 drawing, because I don't know what I would do with an iPad if I got one (now, if it can run Microsoft Word, I might consider...). Mom, however, says SHE'LL take it.
I also need to use up my bookstore scholarship. Hmm, sounds like a project for tomorrow. I have a book and whatever a Guide to Public Speaking Package is to buy. That sounds intimidating, honestly. I'm not looking forward to Speech (does anyone?) and this is not helping matters. The good news is I know where the communications building is.
Okay, okay, okay. I've heard about this Rate My Professors website for two semesters, and the other day I decided to finally go have a look at it. So I did. And promptly collapsed into a fit of hysterical laughter. I don't know what the numbers of the easiness rating mean, but, thanks to a conversation from the first day of last semester, I know what the chili pepper means.
A shocking percentage of my professors had chili peppers, which was what caused the hysterical laughter, if you were wondering.
Let's see... I have had how many teachers so far? Dr. Stovall, Dr. Christy, Dr. Diaz, Dr. Roberts, Dr. Bibbee, Mrs. Howell, Dr. Gren, and Dr. Moeller. Eight teachers.
Now, the amount of them that had chili peppers... Dr. Stovall, Dr. Bibbee (surprise, surprise... he reminded me of Professor Lupin from Harry Potter, honestly, even though he looked nothing like the movie Lupin... the picture of him on the UNA website shows him without a beard, so that's probably what prompted the chili pepper), Mrs. Howell, and Dr. Gren. There's four there. I can't remember about Dr. Diaz, but I wouldn't be surprised if some lovestruck girl had prompted a fifth.
That's 50%, at any rate. Yikes.
Maybe I'm immune to overt fangirlism, but rating the relative attractiveness of your teacher seems a little... unacademic. It seems to indicate that you pay more attention to the teacher than to the course material! Not a good thing for anyone's grade, I don't think. However, I suppose it might cause the stupid little swooning students to actually show up for class...
Yes, I'm being sarcastic. It's helping to keep down the hysterical laughter.
Frankly, however, most of the ratings didn't surprise me. I had already heard that Mrs. Howell had one (the first day of last semester), and I was expecting the rest. I KNEW Dr. Gren would have one, as he is completely adorkable in his own way, and also as, well, let's put it this way: the first thing I knew about him last semester was that I was going to have him this semester. The second thing I knew about him was when I was standing at a bus stop with a few other girls and one of them, twirling her umbrella, started talking about finals and mentioned how the only one she could remember the time was her chemistry final, because Dr. Gren was teaching it. Without any prompting whatsoever, she launched into a lengthy ode about how much she loved Dr. Gren. I tried to snicker quietly, but as soon as I got home I laughed and laughed... I still smirk thinking about it.
So, yeah, on the first day of THIS semester, I was prepared to be amused. And, yep, I'll admit Dr. Gren is adorkable. I already did! But I'M not the one talking about wearing an 'I Heart Nerds' shirt to class, as that girl was talking about... *shudders* Poor Dr. Gren.
Now that I come to think of it, I should have looked up my teachers for the fall so I could get an inkling of what to expect. Then again, when I walk into the classroom on the first day of the semester, I come prepared to like the professor, and will only dislike him/her if given a reason to do so. I've liked all my professors so far, except for maybe Dr. Roberts, my chemistry lab teacher last semester, and even then it wasn't that I didn't like her personally- I did-, but she didn't do much teaching. She basically told us where the chemicals were and let us go. I swear, I was terrorized of the kids pouring stuff down the drain with careless abandon. I expected a fiery fireball of doom any moment some times (yes, that was deliberately redundant). Dr. Moeller at least did demonstrations and made us clean out our glassware. Plus, he was funny! "Do not place paper towels in the sink as they will clog the drain and we don't want to flood the biology department... again."
In Pace Christi,
Elyse
Wednesday, May 2, 2012
P.S. I Have More to Say
Obviously, I've gotten the exemption on my calculus final, so I am not in a puddle of my own tears screaming, "No, precioooouuusss!" Instead, yes, I am doing a happy dance of joy.
Mom says I should email Dr. Gren now and ask if I have to take the chemistry final. I feel that would be impudent (I'm very wary of being impudent towards teachers) and so refuse to do so. She thinks it would be funny. Remember, these are my parents who also wanted me to wear one of dad's old ATO shirts in order to see if Christian would react (he's in cal 2 and he's in ATO).
Oh, and Dr. Olive seemed like he would be a pretty cool teacher. He brought his two girls with him to the awards banquet. Just... awwwww. He also did a really good blessing before the meal. I didn't know you could be faculty and get away with that, but he did. Maybe because it wasn't a proper school function? Who cares?!
And, yes, I got The Serpent's Shadow and The Invaders yesterday. I have already finished the first and handed it off to Peter to read. It was skinnier than the other two Kane Chronicles books (sad face) but it was seriously funny. I almost died laughing when in one chapter Sadie dragged her brother, Carter, to a school dance. Then followed one of the most epic in-universe cross-overs ever! It already hinted in the first two books that the Kane Chronicles take place in the same world as Percy Jackson (Carter seeing a flying horse over Manhatten, anyone?), but that chapter went nuts with the idea. It turns out that Lacy and Drew (her last name's Tanaka!) from The Lost Hero (the girl with braces and the Aphrodite dictator, respectively... apparently, Lacy somehow managed to make her braces match her dress...) go to Sadie's school! LOL! Lacy apparently tried explaining to Sadie that she goes to the same, cough cough, 'summer camp' as Drew and Drew had tried to be a dictator there... haha, until she met Piper, that is! Anyway, Sadie talks Lacy into trying to teach Carter to dance (epic lulz), and Drew makes Sadie want to turn her into an earthworm by acting interested in Walt. Any potential fight was broken up by... DUN DUN DUN.... Anubis crashing the dance!!!!
Yep. The Egyptian god of toilet paper, excuse me, of death and funerals crashed the dance. Even MORE epic lulz.
As you might have expected, the girls stare like morons at Anubis and start muttering, "Oh my god, oh my god," which in this instance is pretty funny as he IS an Egyptian god. Thank heavens for Rick Riordan and his puns, which are so terrible they are hilarious! (The dam store, anyone?)
I won't spoil the endings, but the whole Walt/Anubis thing which, although solved in a manner that was, I admit, sheer and total literary brilliance and calculated to frazzle the circuits of almost all the fangirls' feeble little minds, annoyed me. I hated the whole hosting-the-gods concept (I'm not big on possession, demonic, godly, or pharaonic [by the way, that ISN'T a word; the makers of Yu-Gi-Oh made it up, though, and I'm quoting them], if you haven't noticed, which is why I really don't care about Atem in YGO, even if he does have a Puzzle to sit around in, and why I prefer Dark Magician, who is also infinitely cuter. Yes, I just typed that. You may go faint now) to begin with, so the ending, while dazzlingly brilliant in its novelty (it's like, DUH, why did we not think of that obvious solution; we were all thinking either/or, and instead Riordan took the third option of both), is still annoying. It's not fair. If you think about it too long, it warps your mind. Yu-Gi-Oh at least acknowledged that Tea liking both Yugi and the Pharaoh, who is living inside Yugi, is weird. Riordan embraces that, however, in all its weirdness.
I prefer Thoth. (I also liked Anubis a bit better before he... I promised myself I would do any spoilers.) I still want to know how Thoth can appear without a mortal host. Or does he have one and it just isn't mentioned??? Gah, see, that whole concept is confusing. I wish I could slide down bannisters like that, though.
BEST. LINE. IN. THE. BOOK. --
Set: "That's my boy!"
Anubis: "Shut up, father."
You see, I had PREDICTED that Anubis, who basically shows up in the first two books for Sadie to drool over, tells her he can't help her with the monsters chasing her (they're always chasing her), gives her something or tells her some information, and departs, would enter in some EPIC way in this last book and prove that the overlooked jackal boy is, by the way, the SON OF THE GOD OF EVIL, DESERTS, AND CHAOS (Set, that is) and procede to kick some heinie. The moment would have been even more epic without a certain annoying sau (cough, cough), but, whatever.
I can now go console myself with The Invaders. Man, John Flanagan's writing gets better and better. The ways his characters interact is simply priceless (Svengal's many aunts, anyone?). I've found that myself. The longer and more I write, the more my characters' interactions becomes easier to write, more personality-filled, and simply more realistic. I find myself inserting pointless scenes (like Lanner opening a closet in Book 1 and a bunch of brooms and mops falling on him) in the middle of dialogue. Because I can. And because I love my characters. I've learned to let Eltieralyu tease his brother for a variety of reasons (1. Because he can. 2. Stress relief. 3. Revenge for Menadun being an annoying sibling. 4. Honestly, a lot of things Menadun does deserve it.), and Menadun to complain, "How come you never take my side?"
I can also console myself with Yu-Gi-Oh. Seto Kaiba, anyone? He's named after SET! Rockin' Red Reaper, anyone? The only thing annoying is that they made Anubis some weird villain, but that was in a movie so it's not really canon anyways. Bwahaha.
I'm not really sure what this post is about, other than to rant. Probably a good time to sign off.
In Pace Christi,
Elyse
Mom says I should email Dr. Gren now and ask if I have to take the chemistry final. I feel that would be impudent (I'm very wary of being impudent towards teachers) and so refuse to do so. She thinks it would be funny. Remember, these are my parents who also wanted me to wear one of dad's old ATO shirts in order to see if Christian would react (he's in cal 2 and he's in ATO).
Oh, and Dr. Olive seemed like he would be a pretty cool teacher. He brought his two girls with him to the awards banquet. Just... awwwww. He also did a really good blessing before the meal. I didn't know you could be faculty and get away with that, but he did. Maybe because it wasn't a proper school function? Who cares?!
And, yes, I got The Serpent's Shadow and The Invaders yesterday. I have already finished the first and handed it off to Peter to read. It was skinnier than the other two Kane Chronicles books (sad face) but it was seriously funny. I almost died laughing when in one chapter Sadie dragged her brother, Carter, to a school dance. Then followed one of the most epic in-universe cross-overs ever! It already hinted in the first two books that the Kane Chronicles take place in the same world as Percy Jackson (Carter seeing a flying horse over Manhatten, anyone?), but that chapter went nuts with the idea. It turns out that Lacy and Drew (her last name's Tanaka!) from The Lost Hero (the girl with braces and the Aphrodite dictator, respectively... apparently, Lacy somehow managed to make her braces match her dress...) go to Sadie's school! LOL! Lacy apparently tried explaining to Sadie that she goes to the same, cough cough, 'summer camp' as Drew and Drew had tried to be a dictator there... haha, until she met Piper, that is! Anyway, Sadie talks Lacy into trying to teach Carter to dance (epic lulz), and Drew makes Sadie want to turn her into an earthworm by acting interested in Walt. Any potential fight was broken up by... DUN DUN DUN.... Anubis crashing the dance!!!!
Yep. The Egyptian god of toilet paper, excuse me, of death and funerals crashed the dance. Even MORE epic lulz.
As you might have expected, the girls stare like morons at Anubis and start muttering, "Oh my god, oh my god," which in this instance is pretty funny as he IS an Egyptian god. Thank heavens for Rick Riordan and his puns, which are so terrible they are hilarious! (The dam store, anyone?)
I won't spoil the endings, but the whole Walt/Anubis thing which, although solved in a manner that was, I admit, sheer and total literary brilliance and calculated to frazzle the circuits of almost all the fangirls' feeble little minds, annoyed me. I hated the whole hosting-the-gods concept (I'm not big on possession, demonic, godly, or pharaonic [by the way, that ISN'T a word; the makers of Yu-Gi-Oh made it up, though, and I'm quoting them], if you haven't noticed, which is why I really don't care about Atem in YGO, even if he does have a Puzzle to sit around in, and why I prefer Dark Magician, who is also infinitely cuter. Yes, I just typed that. You may go faint now) to begin with, so the ending, while dazzlingly brilliant in its novelty (it's like, DUH, why did we not think of that obvious solution; we were all thinking either/or, and instead Riordan took the third option of both), is still annoying. It's not fair. If you think about it too long, it warps your mind. Yu-Gi-Oh at least acknowledged that Tea liking both Yugi and the Pharaoh, who is living inside Yugi, is weird. Riordan embraces that, however, in all its weirdness.
I prefer Thoth. (I also liked Anubis a bit better before he... I promised myself I would do any spoilers.) I still want to know how Thoth can appear without a mortal host. Or does he have one and it just isn't mentioned??? Gah, see, that whole concept is confusing. I wish I could slide down bannisters like that, though.
BEST. LINE. IN. THE. BOOK. --
Set: "That's my boy!"
Anubis: "Shut up, father."
You see, I had PREDICTED that Anubis, who basically shows up in the first two books for Sadie to drool over, tells her he can't help her with the monsters chasing her (they're always chasing her), gives her something or tells her some information, and departs, would enter in some EPIC way in this last book and prove that the overlooked jackal boy is, by the way, the SON OF THE GOD OF EVIL, DESERTS, AND CHAOS (Set, that is) and procede to kick some heinie. The moment would have been even more epic without a certain annoying sau (cough, cough), but, whatever.
I can now go console myself with The Invaders. Man, John Flanagan's writing gets better and better. The ways his characters interact is simply priceless (Svengal's many aunts, anyone?). I've found that myself. The longer and more I write, the more my characters' interactions becomes easier to write, more personality-filled, and simply more realistic. I find myself inserting pointless scenes (like Lanner opening a closet in Book 1 and a bunch of brooms and mops falling on him) in the middle of dialogue. Because I can. And because I love my characters. I've learned to let Eltieralyu tease his brother for a variety of reasons (1. Because he can. 2. Stress relief. 3. Revenge for Menadun being an annoying sibling. 4. Honestly, a lot of things Menadun does deserve it.), and Menadun to complain, "How come you never take my side?"
I can also console myself with Yu-Gi-Oh. Seto Kaiba, anyone? He's named after SET! Rockin' Red Reaper, anyone? The only thing annoying is that they made Anubis some weird villain, but that was in a movie so it's not really canon anyways. Bwahaha.
I'm not really sure what this post is about, other than to rant. Probably a good time to sign off.
In Pace Christi,
Elyse
I Apparently Win At Chemistry
Okay, so yesterday around lunchtime my classes were over for the day and I was at home fixing something to eat for lunch when the phone rang. The caller ID read out something that sounded like 'University of Alabama' and since 'Bama does indeed call all the time wanting money because dad is an alumnus, I ignored it. Mom must have noticed the 'North' part on the readout because she picked it up and answered the phone. After a moment, she handed it to me and said, "It's Dr. Gren."
My thoughts: "Oooookaaaay... as far as I know, we don't have class on Tuesday. Have I done something wrong?"
But I answered it. According to Dr. Gren, there was some sort of American Chemists' Society (or American Society of Chemists, I'm not very sure...) awards banquet that night and I had been inadvertently left off the list of invitees, so he was calling to tell me about it. After I got off the phone, mom, apparently convinced I had won something, insisted we go. I was desperately hoping I hadn't won something; Elaine was teasing me about having to make an acceptance speech. Additionally, I couldn't figure out HOW I could have won anything. After all, I hadn't done stellar on the last test, at least by my standards. (Anything below 90 is not stellar by my standards, by the way, which is why I was really surprised and EXTREMELY happy- Gott sei dank- that with His help I have managed to pull off an A in calculus and exempt the final.)
Dad was even willing to forego doing hay last night, so that told me he was also convinced I had won something. It wasn't looking good.
I was pretty much certain I was doomed when we got to the Guillot and the name tag they gave me listed me as 'Honored Student'.
Anyway, they gave out awards to a bunch of high school students who had apparently taken some test and won a chemistry book as their award. Yay. However, as the books are like nearly $200 and these were hardback editions, that wasn't as bad of an award as it sounds. Hey, they got nice blue certificates, too. One of my cousins won one of those awards a couple of years ago, my mom informs me.
Then they progressed to UNA awards. Cue me on tenterhooks. Dr. Olive, who was giving out the awards at that point (Dr. Gren did the high school awards, and if you know anything about him from reading my blog, you can imagine how that went) was talking about the award, how it is given to the best freshman chemistry student, etc. I was thinking reassuringly to myself, "That's not me, that's not me, that's not me..."
Well, it was.
HOW ON EARTH DID I WIN A BEST FRESHMAN CHEMISTRY STUDENT AWARD, AND I'M AN ENGLISH MAJOR??????
I got a certificate and a very nice book about all the different elements with very nice pictures, and another book about chemistry and physics (apparently).
I'm pretty sure they don't tell the invitees what they've won in order to surrepetitiously take pictures of their stunned faces. At any rate, I know I was stunned. I'm still in shock, actually. I know I was doing a fish-out-of-water impersonation as I walked up there. Dr. Olive explained about me to the audience, that I was homeschooled, that I was there with my parents, and added that, "She is an English major with a focus on professional writing. And we all hope she changes her major."
That got a laugh. Mom had said something earlier about them trying to convert me, so she may be right. I thought it was funny, too, but I was still pretty much in shock. I remained in shock for the rest of the evening. (Oh, and as for the professional writing bit? Something's messed up with that. I'm down as going for a bachelor of science degree for some reason and I haven't had it changed yet, figuring I'll just wait until I decide on if/what I want (for) a minor.)
After that, they had awards for best non-freshman Chemistry 112 students, one of which went to Carly (or Carline, I'm not sure), an honors student I met on the Chattanooga trip, and a guy whom I think is named Brian (or Bryan) Johnsson. I call him 'the big guy' when talking about class to mom, as he is literally huge. I know I'm a hobbit, but I come to like his elbow. He sits two seats right from me in chemistry (or he did, as today's the last day of class) and asks really in depth questions. One day here recently he brought a blender (no kidding) with his protein shake or whatever it was in it and drank it straight out of the blender, sitting it on the desk in front of us in the meanwhile.
After that were awards for the Organic Chemistry students and various awards for seniors in chemistry and industrial hygiene.
Anyway, mom and dad are enjoying their newfound bragging rights and have been telling everyone about it, apparently. Mom has called her brother (the dad of the cousin who won one of those awards two years ago). One of my uncles stopped by our house a little while ago and one of the first things he said was, "Congratulations." Me: "Mom and dad are enjoying their bragging rights. As for me, I'm still not sure how I won..."
Apparently, I have some sort of secret aptitude for chemistry!
My parents seem to think I should change my major. But to what? They also think it should be something practical. I mean, what can you do with a history major? Meh, not much, unless you want to teach. After all, they say, I can write stories without an English major. True, very true. But what do I pick???? A German minor would be fine, I think. But I think a math major is beyond me and as for chemistry... well, I never considered THAT before. (When I decide on a biology major, folks, check the floor because sure as anything hell has frozen over. Biology lab scarred me for life.) I've never really considered anything else. Me and modern art do not agree, so that would probably not be a wise option. Music...? I've played piano for just about 13 years now, but, again, what do you do with a music major? I'm not the home ec person like Elaine, who is currently thinking fashion design or whatever it's called, and cooking... no, just no.
Does anyone have any input on this? What does everyone think a certain clueless, confused little freshman should major in?
Man, life got a whole lot more confusing!
Though I am (apparently) good at math and science, I think I still like words more, so I'm really not sure what all to think... I thought I had an end destination. Now, not so sure. I just want to write my books and draw my characters. I can't see myself as a chemist, not really. Blow up some stuff in lab and create biohazards? Suuuuuure. Do some calculations? All right, those I can handle. But I've heard horror stories about Organic, I tell you...
*begins banging head on table*
Does this count as blogging about my feelings?
*horrified, resumes head-banging*
In Pace Christi,
Elyse
My thoughts: "Oooookaaaay... as far as I know, we don't have class on Tuesday. Have I done something wrong?"
But I answered it. According to Dr. Gren, there was some sort of American Chemists' Society (or American Society of Chemists, I'm not very sure...) awards banquet that night and I had been inadvertently left off the list of invitees, so he was calling to tell me about it. After I got off the phone, mom, apparently convinced I had won something, insisted we go. I was desperately hoping I hadn't won something; Elaine was teasing me about having to make an acceptance speech. Additionally, I couldn't figure out HOW I could have won anything. After all, I hadn't done stellar on the last test, at least by my standards. (Anything below 90 is not stellar by my standards, by the way, which is why I was really surprised and EXTREMELY happy- Gott sei dank- that with His help I have managed to pull off an A in calculus and exempt the final.)
Dad was even willing to forego doing hay last night, so that told me he was also convinced I had won something. It wasn't looking good.
I was pretty much certain I was doomed when we got to the Guillot and the name tag they gave me listed me as 'Honored Student'.
Anyway, they gave out awards to a bunch of high school students who had apparently taken some test and won a chemistry book as their award. Yay. However, as the books are like nearly $200 and these were hardback editions, that wasn't as bad of an award as it sounds. Hey, they got nice blue certificates, too. One of my cousins won one of those awards a couple of years ago, my mom informs me.
Then they progressed to UNA awards. Cue me on tenterhooks. Dr. Olive, who was giving out the awards at that point (Dr. Gren did the high school awards, and if you know anything about him from reading my blog, you can imagine how that went) was talking about the award, how it is given to the best freshman chemistry student, etc. I was thinking reassuringly to myself, "That's not me, that's not me, that's not me..."
Well, it was.
HOW ON EARTH DID I WIN A BEST FRESHMAN CHEMISTRY STUDENT AWARD, AND I'M AN ENGLISH MAJOR??????
I got a certificate and a very nice book about all the different elements with very nice pictures, and another book about chemistry and physics (apparently).
I'm pretty sure they don't tell the invitees what they've won in order to surrepetitiously take pictures of their stunned faces. At any rate, I know I was stunned. I'm still in shock, actually. I know I was doing a fish-out-of-water impersonation as I walked up there. Dr. Olive explained about me to the audience, that I was homeschooled, that I was there with my parents, and added that, "She is an English major with a focus on professional writing. And we all hope she changes her major."
That got a laugh. Mom had said something earlier about them trying to convert me, so she may be right. I thought it was funny, too, but I was still pretty much in shock. I remained in shock for the rest of the evening. (Oh, and as for the professional writing bit? Something's messed up with that. I'm down as going for a bachelor of science degree for some reason and I haven't had it changed yet, figuring I'll just wait until I decide on if/what I want (for) a minor.)
After that, they had awards for best non-freshman Chemistry 112 students, one of which went to Carly (or Carline, I'm not sure), an honors student I met on the Chattanooga trip, and a guy whom I think is named Brian (or Bryan) Johnsson. I call him 'the big guy' when talking about class to mom, as he is literally huge. I know I'm a hobbit, but I come to like his elbow. He sits two seats right from me in chemistry (or he did, as today's the last day of class) and asks really in depth questions. One day here recently he brought a blender (no kidding) with his protein shake or whatever it was in it and drank it straight out of the blender, sitting it on the desk in front of us in the meanwhile.
After that were awards for the Organic Chemistry students and various awards for seniors in chemistry and industrial hygiene.
Anyway, mom and dad are enjoying their newfound bragging rights and have been telling everyone about it, apparently. Mom has called her brother (the dad of the cousin who won one of those awards two years ago). One of my uncles stopped by our house a little while ago and one of the first things he said was, "Congratulations." Me: "Mom and dad are enjoying their bragging rights. As for me, I'm still not sure how I won..."
Apparently, I have some sort of secret aptitude for chemistry!
My parents seem to think I should change my major. But to what? They also think it should be something practical. I mean, what can you do with a history major? Meh, not much, unless you want to teach. After all, they say, I can write stories without an English major. True, very true. But what do I pick???? A German minor would be fine, I think. But I think a math major is beyond me and as for chemistry... well, I never considered THAT before. (When I decide on a biology major, folks, check the floor because sure as anything hell has frozen over. Biology lab scarred me for life.) I've never really considered anything else. Me and modern art do not agree, so that would probably not be a wise option. Music...? I've played piano for just about 13 years now, but, again, what do you do with a music major? I'm not the home ec person like Elaine, who is currently thinking fashion design or whatever it's called, and cooking... no, just no.
Does anyone have any input on this? What does everyone think a certain clueless, confused little freshman should major in?
Man, life got a whole lot more confusing!
Though I am (apparently) good at math and science, I think I still like words more, so I'm really not sure what all to think... I thought I had an end destination. Now, not so sure. I just want to write my books and draw my characters. I can't see myself as a chemist, not really. Blow up some stuff in lab and create biohazards? Suuuuuure. Do some calculations? All right, those I can handle. But I've heard horror stories about Organic, I tell you...
*begins banging head on table*
Does this count as blogging about my feelings?
*horrified, resumes head-banging*
In Pace Christi,
Elyse
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