Nicked from zen_fountain. ( And here we go again. )

Nicked another meme from cycatryx. Yes, it took me a few days to finish it. There is a picture... ( because I'm sure there is not enough of my self-portraits-taken-with-aid-of-mirror on the internet. )

Or whatever you celebrate. Or don't.

HAVE A NICE DAY, that's what I'm trying to say.

( And an end of the year meme. )

Okay, so now that I'm in California I honestly can't tell if I have more things to run around doing here or at school. I already want to go back to my room in my apartment at my school and... actually have a break. Gahd.

Sur La Table really came through for me in terms of hours. I'm scheduled to work from eleven am to six pm on Sunday, Monday, Tuesday, Wednesday, and Saturday. According to that, I should make somewhere around three hundred dollars this week.

The only problem is that Sunday is the family cookie decorating day and a winery dinner in the evening... Dave will probably want me there at six. He pays me less, but I have a lot more interest in doing that than retail, and there's no way I can get from Palo Alto to downtown San Jose in... no time. I'm hoping I can get out of doing recovery stuff and just duck out of the store when it closes at five. So that's today's task -- playing phone tag with the store and Dave to get things sorted out.

My grandma will be sad that I am missing cookie decorating day, but she won't say anything...

My mom will be dissapoined in me for using this as an excuse to skip out of singing in the church choir concert. But it's something I've been forced into in the first place, because they don't have enough sopranos. I haven't sung in a month, the concert is tomorrow, and the first time I ever see or sing this music is in less than an hour.

Also, also... working the day after Christmas. I hope that doesn't end up being as nightmarish as it sounds, but it probably will. I do not know how to do returns, ahahahahaha.

And all the other crap I have to do. Philosophy reading, brainstorming for philosophy conference, comics, fic, talk to Dave about work after college. Plus glancing at what housing costs are like around here.

... Damn, I wish I didn't have to go to choir practice. It'll be like singing Christmas carols with the geriatrics ward. Do not want.



One last thing: the San Jose airport is gradually becoming more and more retarded. Terminal A is the stupidest thing I have ever seen. It feels crowded if you put as many as five people in it; the whole thing is build like one long narrow chute of STUPID.

They've stopped messing with the roads -- it used to change on a weekly basis, and I wish I were joking -- but the traffic loop through that whole place is still absolutely terrible.

Soon they will tear down Terminal C, which is the only part of the airport that ever actually worked. Failtastic!

Basically, we're a big town with a hick airport. It doesn't look like an international airport, even though it is, and it just doesn't work very well. Some people somewhere needs to stop kidding themselves.

All my stuff (by which I mean my dirty laundry, books, knitting, and some extra socks) is packed and I'm ready to head out the door to the train station in about half an hour. From the train station to Grand central to JFK via bus service, and then to the San Jose Mineta International Airport. "International", pft. They keep trying to beef up the airport so people will take the city seriously, but it was originally built to be a dinky little place.

I have what I've written of two different fics printed out and ready to be worked on in the train/bus/airport/plane, and if I get stuck on those I have one of the philosophy books I need to finish over break.

The fridge is cleaned out except for the string cheese and frosting. I'm just going to leave those there and see what happens.

And now to hurry and type up something I scribbled down sometime in the AM several weeks ago, so I don't have to take a million paper scraps with me. :D

Officially done with this semester as of 2:30 pm today. :)

I can't remember ever having this much down time between the end of schoolwork and having to get on a plane, but I have to say, I'm loving it. Finally, some time to sit back and relax a bit... and eat all the perishable food still in my fridge, lol.

A few hours ago I emailed my Vulcan paper to a group of friends to read it over and critique it for me. And, you know, my teachers as well. EXITED ABOUT THAT. Even though I won't get anything back until at least January or February, and it might be a while after that before I actually get back to do any serious revising work done on it. But still.

( Then I had a headache, blah blah blah. )

Once the headache went away I had a nice evening of Chinese food and 30 Rock (which I'd never seen any of before) and good-bye saying and hugs. Things are a little crazy, but... yeah.

I wish it hadn't taken me basically all of college to get to know more than, like, three people. Leaving at the end of the year -- having half of my friends scattered to the metaphorical winds and the other half still at school but on the wrong coast from me -- is really going to suck.

I should have spent yesterday finishing my essay, but instead I drew this... The title makes me laugh because it makes me think of Ros & Guil, which has nothing to do with the comic at all. Just Toki being all srs bzns.

Warnings for gratuitous humping sound effects. Because it totally makes a sound, uh-huh. ;D

( Skwisgaar's hair is entirely to blame for this. Entirely. )

Most alcohol I've ever had in one sitting. Uh... a berry martini, a glass of red wine, and an amaretto freeze.

Pretty sure I was still tipsy for the episode, and pretty sure my head kind full of pillow stuffing at the moment, but not in a terribly bad way. I do need to rewatch Fatherklok, though, and pay more attention this time.

Also, I woke up to find this scribbled on a piece of paper by my bed. I don't remember writing it...

Toki just doesn't want to seem gay sad, ( you know? )

I love having a character that I can introduce as, "Well... Chuck has a habit of being inadvertently responsible for babies." So many babies! FOUR HUNDRED BABIES! That is my contribution to the world. Lol.



One more thing to write, and then I'm done with academia for the rest of the calendar year! Five pages about the Romans and the Sassanians, and whether or not their cultures were all that different. It does not help that I know jack shit about the Sassanian Empire, but it does help that I know a tiny bit about the Persians and that Whitney has offered to let me look at her essay for reference. It's not cheating because hers focuses mostly on the Sassanians and mine... will not. So there you go.

This afternoon Audrey will finish moving in, and then I'm off to James' birthday party in the city. Woooo Ruth's Steakhouse, or whatever the name of the place is. Something like that. It was a lot of fun last year, and this time I'm twenty-one! *mumbles something about how I can now drink legally*

So I may be a little tipsy for watching the NEW DETHKLOK EPISODE ABOUT SKWISGAAR LEAVING TO LOOK FOR HIS DAD AND DRESSING UP LIKE A REGULAR JACKOFF WITH HIS HAIR IN A PONYTAIL.



Heh, speaking of drinking, I cannot consume mead in large quantities. Or, well, in quantities. It stopped tasting amazing after about ten sips, and though it was still good it is not my favorite thing ever.

But still. Mead. Got a bottle of it in my fridge.

I might bring some for when I watch the episode. We'll see if that sounds like a good idea at the time...



Oh man, I am so excited to be done for the semester. Seriously. There are four comics I want to draw; one of them won't work in stick figures so I've been putting it off basically since September, but it will happen. And I've got at least three fics that I need to get back to working on, one of which has to be done and posted to the brutalbusiness comm before January.

Hopefully I can fit all that in between working for Dave, working for Sur La Table, being drafted to sing in the church choir again (shoot me; most of those people are so tone deaf it makes me want to cry), family stuff in general, starting to look into summer jobs and where I might live, finishing two books for my philosophy class before I go back, and general family holiday stuff...

The good news is: if I print out my scripts I can draw the stick figures anywhere; the non-stick figure comic isn't inappropriate to work on around my cousins; and I can totally get away with working on fic in church as long as I write in runes.

Silver lining. Yes.



Also, randomly, here's a fun explanation for the chain reaction puke-a-thon that happened on fan day. It contains a biblical reference for additional ridiculous.

For anyone who's curious about this Vulcan research paper I keep going on about...

The class I wrote it for focuses on emotions, which is why I decided Vulcans, with their apparent lack thereof, would make such a great topic. It's a seminar jointly taught by a biology professor and a psychology professor. (They're awesome. I geek out about Star Trek with the latter in our bi-weekly meetings, it's great.) Sadly, though, it's only a semester long.

The final assignment is the same as the very first assignment -- to write two pages on what emotions are. At the beginning of the year this can be mostly opinion, with any potentially relevant knowledge you already have thrown in for color. This time around the idea is to rewrite your first statement in light of what you've learned in the course, usually based heavily on the focus of your research topic.

Naturally, I wrote about Vulcans. Properly formatted, it is only just shy of going on to a third page. *restrains nerdgasms* It has to be short because we're all expected to read them to the class on Wednesday, and then that's the end of the course. Ffffff but I hate reading things to people.

Anyway.

This isn't very in depth and is by no means a complete summary of the actual paper, but it contains a simplified version of a lot of the ideas I got to in the paper and one that I kind of didn't (and will probably go back and add later on, after the semester is over).



( What is Emotion )



PS, Charles Foster Of(f)densen is totally a Vulcan-human hybrid. I'm just saying. Again.

I have finished my research paper!!!

Title, "Vulcanalia: A contextual and theoretical investigation of Star Trek’s famous species".

Pages, twenty-nine without references and thirty-four with.

Pictures, five (but they're small).

Footnotes, one hundred and seventeen.

Last seven words, "I wish I could have written more." Bahahahaha, my two professors for this class are going to get to that last line and be all, "REALLY? WE COULDN'T TELL."



Whether or not I can get into the mead depends on whether or not I can get my hands on a corkscrew.

I HAVE FAITH IN ME.

To do for Vulcan paper:

-- stress and the hippocampus (started)
-- working memory
-- bottom-up versus top-down control
-- the importance of ritual in Vulcan life (kind of started)
-- Eastern influences, i.e. Zen (written but needs to be integrated)
-- logic as a philosophy (90% written)
-- conclusion <--- I suck at these

I AM AT EIGHTEEN CONTINUOUS PAGES. TWENTY-TWO IF YOU COUNT THE STUFF THAT'S WRITTEN BUT STILL FREE-FLOATING. TWENTY-SIX IF YOU COUNT MY HUGE-ASS BIBLIOGRAPHY.

IN THE END, THIS WILL PROBABLY CONTAIN MORE ACTUAL WRITING IN IT THAN LAST YEAR'S SIXTY PAGE ART HISTORY PAPER THAT WAS MOSTLY PICTURES. THAT IS WHY I CAN'T STOP YELLING CAPSLOCKING EVERY TIME I POST STUFF.


To do for history essay #3

-- finish typing notes in complete sentences
-- remove bullet points
-- print


To do for history essay #2

-- everything
-- die


To do for "what I think emotions are NOW" paper

-- remember not to forget about this
-- BS for two pages
-- mention facial displays
-- mention Vulcans without going on about them for another billion pages

Tonight I spent about two hours sitting in a closet. The school had a half hour lockdown drill, and by the time it was over I had just gotten comfortable and was too lazy to come out. :P


SEVENTEEN PAGES OF CONTINUOUS WRITING ABOUT VULCANS, CHECK. And about another page worth bits that are technically already done. But I've passed the bare minimum of fifteen, so I'm pretty happy with that.

I am still nowhere near finished though. Honestly, I ended up with more to say about early development, mirror neurons, and mind-melds than I would have guessed possible. I still have a real life example similar to Pon farr, stress and the hippocampus, working memory, bottom-up versus top-down control, the importance of ritual in Vulcan life, Eastern influences (i.e. Zen), and logic as a philosophy to get through.

Probably my biggest accomplishment today was making a list of all fifty writers for all eighty episodes. The list isn't actually relevant to my paper, but now I can browse the rest of the episodes by writers I know I like... which will come in handy for funky groovy season three.


I will be glad when this paper is done and I can... well, not have a life, really, but have more free time to write fics again.

Plus I'm really going to work on getting this paper polished and published. For serious, dood, for serious.

I SHOULD BE WATCHING DETHMAS RIGHT NOW.

BUT I'M NOT.

BECAUSE THERE ARE THREE PEOPLE IN THE LOUNGE WATCHING THE OC.

THE OC.

WHAT THE HELL.

THE ONLY GOOD THING ABOUT THIS IS THAT I AM FREE TO FINISH MY HOMEWORK. AND THAT SHOULD TELL YOU HOW FEW GOOD THINGS THERE ARE ABOUT THIS SITUATION.

FFFFFFFFFFFFFFF.

THE OC. WHY WOULD YOU DO THAT.

I'M GOING TO STAY UP UNTIL THREE TO WATCH THE EPISODE.

GOD DAMN YOU SOAP OPERAS.

THIS IS A TERRIBLE, TERRIBLE IDEA. I'M PUTTING THE KETTLE ON FOR A HUNDRED CUPS OF IRISH BREAKFAST ANYWAY. IF I DIE THIS HAD BETTER GODDAMN BE WORTH IT.

BLOOD AND THUNDER! VICTORY AT SEA!


( ...ADDITIONAL YELLING. )

I went to bed before eleven because of a headache. I've been awake since eight am and still feel rested! It's crazy.


Here's an idea I've been toying with for a few days.

Is Charles a Vulcan-human hybrid?

The eyebrows in this picture say yes. And the ears aren't... totally non-pointy. He tends not to show emotion. He could get work done in the middle of a fucking hurricane (and probably did, during Floridaklok). He's always the smartest person there, spewing out facts and numbers even on occasions when no one cares which in Dethklok's case is all the time.

And as for the Vulcan mating ritual... Once every seven years? That seems like it might not be too far off for this guy.

It would explain coming back from the dead, too. Clearly it just took Charles nine months to get to Mount Seleya on Vulcan, get through the re-education process, and return to Earth. Who would have been carrying his katra, though? It would have to be someone who also hasn't been around for the past nine months, because they'd have to have gone to Vulcan with him for the refusion. ... JEAN-PIERRE.

... THIS IS RELEVANT TO MY CONFERENCE WORK, DAMMIT. IT STILL COUNTS AS BEING ON TASK.



Fun fact: I collect icons, and my current count for Metalocalypse is 653.

Yesterday was one of those deceptively unproductive days where I started a bunch of different things, made decent progress on all of them, but actually finished nothing. I have two out of ten pages of the "what is god" paper written (due Tuesday, urg), about half of one of the five page essays done (due... sometime next week, I don't remember), and probably about two more pages of my fifteen to twenty page Vulcan paper (which makes about twelve so far; due sometime next week, I guess, I don't even know).

Not having any tests whatsoever is a lot harder to gloat about when all my attention is being taken up by trying to figure out how the hell to write these damn things.

The god paper is at least mildly fun, even though I kind of have no idea what the hell I'm doing. OH PHILOSOPHY, I SUCK AT YOU SO HARD.

The five page essays are making me want to kill something. I am so glad I'm dropping that class... even though we're starting to get into a time period I actually know some things about. But Castriota lost SO MANY POINTS with me for saying that early Christian funerary art is completely unimportant. Fuck you, man, that stuff is why I took a year and a half of classes with Bernstein and why I thought your class might actually be interesting. Fuck you with a brick. >:B

The Vulcan paper continues to be fun. I am seriously considering trying to find somewhere to get it legitimately published. Partly because then I can finally let myself read fic and back up my critique with something that's been legitimately published... because the portrayal of Vulcans is something that I think a lot of people have difficulty getting right, without necessarily realizing. Vulcans do experience emotions; they just have more conscious access to emotional-eliciting stimuli, which means they misdiagnose the cause of their emotions a lot less than humans do, which means they understand what they're reacting to and why and therefore can better control their response. They don't repress their emotions, entirely; they dissipate them, which is kind of a semantic argument but WORDS ARE IMPORTANT.

So... yes. If anyone wants to admit to being kind of a nerd and can suggest any... trustworthy ST fansites or fanzines (this fandom STARTED fanzines, okay, as well as slash), that would be helpful.



Switching tracks, now. HI OTHER FANDOM.

Every time I listen to Facefisted I have marching band flashbacks. Not that I was a drummer or anything, but that would make such a good drumline warm-up. With the vets yelling "I'm so fuckin' tough" and the noobs responding "That's right!" Fffff that would be great to see.

I should finish that marching band fic. I wrote one chapter of it, posted it on cldk, and then was kind of intimidated out of continuing it because I accidentally called band "metal" instead of "brutal". Different things. >_< I went back and changed it, but that doesn't make me any less of a spaz every time I think about it.

I still have to write the next installment of that S/T too much sex story.



Now I've got to go to brunch and camp out in the dining hall until I finish my reading for five page essay number two. Fffffff.

Last night I had my first bar experience. (At twenty-one and a half... I'm a late bloomer. :P) Went with Emma and her friend from... uh... somewhere... Vienna, I think... to AK 47 in the city.

( It was an adventure. )

I saw the new theme for the month over at brutalbusiness last night and I was all, "Noooooooo, I've already drawn something for that!" Technically it could still count, I guess, but I want to do something new. T_T But I may have started writing something that will fit during class this morning... all I have to do is figure out how to set a snowball fight in Florida.

Anyway.

( Crochety )

And there's this. I love how every time I make a journal entry over on dA saying that I don't have time to work on anything I inevitably end up posting a new comic or something the next day.

( In which Nathan cares, if a little belatedly. )


Yesterday I finally managed to talk to my advisory. I love Ann. She's very sensible and made me feel better about looking for a job after college.

I have a game plan for next semester.

The philosophy class is a year-long, so I'm keeping that. I, uh, kind of have to anyway, since I don't have a conference project for this semester. Still not sure what to do about that for next semester, but I'm slowly forming an idea for a play or something that I should probably work up the nerve to pitch to Nancy before winter break.

I'm dropping that boring history lecture I'm in and replacing it with a writing class -- maybe the same class that kumquat_chan is in, but that's a year-long class and I kind of doubt that William Kelly will let in stragglers. Maybe, though. I'll try. If not, there's a class on character profiles that looks interesting.

The science class I'm in will end soon, which makes me sad because I really do like having an academic excuse to write about Vulcans. I'm hoping to replace it with a screenwriting class. Never taken screenwriting before, and from what I've heard of the teacher he's fairly popular... but/and (respectively) it's an open class. If not that, there are other possibilities.

Basically, what I don't want is three twenty-page papers due at the end of the semester. At the senior deadline, which is a week or two early. Writing classes I can handle because I know that, at the very least, if I keep steadily producing work it doesn't matter so much if I don't have a big project for the end of the year.

My blue streak is back!

The bleaching didn't seem to do much, but at least my hair is fairly light to begin with. At least I can say I tried.

BLUE. \o/

I had a weird dream last night that I was trying, for some ill-advised reason, to date Skwisgaar. Before Dethklok, I'm pretty sure -- possibly shortly after he first arrived in America. I think he might have been testing out whether American girls were any different than the girls in Sweden...

It is entirely possible he dumped me for a series of one night stands with various old ladies, but I don't remember the dream very well.

Then I woke up with ( this song stuck in my head. )

I've also been having semi-recurring dreams that a younger Toki Wartooth has married me for a green card. That one always ends with me taking him to a party, he sees Skwisgaar (who always just happens to be there) and ogles, and I'm like, "Aw, you have a type. Okay then, run along and flirt with him."

(Blond hair and blue eyes. Except... my hair has been getting darker over the past few years, so it's not the pure blond it used to be. And I have a sneaking suspicion that my eyes are confused about what color they are. Either blue or green or gray or hazel, and one of them has a big brown spot. But in my dreams I am apparently Barbie-colored.)



You know what livejournal should have? The option for mouse-over footnotes in entries. I think I've seen it done, but I don't know how that works.

I've been going footnote mad in my Vulcan paper. (Which I sent the rough draft of to my teacher today. It's about ten pages long and hopefully doesn't suck.) But since I can't do footnotes here, y'all just get a lot of random parentheticals. Have fun with that.


Hm. Does anyone have a twitter I'm not following yet?