commotiocordis

Went to a Women's Professional Soccer game today. This is a sport I could get into. I would have gotten more into it than I did, as I was sitting right next to (and brought by one of the principal members of) the pep-squad corner, but I had dragged my parents as well as I mentioned it a few weeks ago and they were interested, and was right behind my dad, who wouldn't have appreciated such loudness. But I love the sport, the girls were rather hot, and the tickets were only like $11. Hope Solo, US gold medalist goalie from the 2008 Bejing Olympics being the main one (the only one I got to see really close up)--I was goalie in my last few years of playing, so respect there. Plus, she came over and thanked our pep squad corner and then signed autographs, which nobody else did.

Also, re Comic Con and how desperately I would have loved to go.

"First of all, Tennant and Gardner insist that there's no news about a possible Doctor Who movie, and they want to damp down speculation that tomorrow's Who panel will include some kind of announcement. There's no announcement, just them talking up Tennant's last few "special" one-off episodes as the Doctor. On the other hand, Tennant promises that if every single audience member comes to the panel dressed as the Tenth Doctor, Tennant will do the panel in the nude. So there is that."
Source.

FANDOM, YOU HAVE FAILED ME. I am disappointed.
Though it's not like I don't already have a picture of him in his nuddypants. (And a fireman's helmet. So, not totally nude, just. . . swinging free.)

I would have been out there passing out brown coats and tape-on shoe cover Chucks made of paper and barring everyone not in costume from entry. Bodily, if necessary. David is my mancrush of the summer. (I know, right? When's the last time I had one of those?)

Wow.

Pages from an Israeli astronaut's diary that survived the explosion of the space shuttle Columbia and a 37-mile fall to earth are going on display this weekend for the first time in Jerusalem.

Watching SNL. Can Amy Poehler get any more pregnant? LOL.

Re: Palin's "Palling around with terrorists" comments. They weren't kidding when they were talking about the gloves coming off.

Gasoline is $2.86 here. I'm thinking about buying a car. I'd want to do it back up at home so I could make Dad help me kick the tires and all, naturally, but I've been playing around on used car websites. I assumed it'd be too expensive, especially if I didn't have a job right away, but I'm so crippled down here without one (there's no public transportation to speak of) in terms of everything from actually getting a job (as my scholarship bars me from all work study stuff, so I can't get anything on campus) to going out on the weekends to simply going grocery shopping. I'm still too cheap to shell out enough money to get a decent one (read: one that does anything but sometimes run in a forward direction), though, so I don't know how/if it'll ever work out.

Bowling yesterday. We weren't in the aisle against the wall, so I had a lot of problems with how I spin too much on the followthrough and end up either shooting it way to one side or way to the other when I overcompensate. So the first round of two (we put our names down twice, sometimes thrice on each game, so we end up spreading our two free games into more) pretty much sucked, but I got better after warmup.

Updated score chart (each date line is one game, multiple names in one game -> comma'd values):

Week	crashcart9	bleakone
09/26/08	71, 124	57, 52
09/26/08	99	74
08/03/08	56, 64	81, 67
08/03/08	101, 116	72, 50

Went bowling again last night. Fun. I know I used to be better than this, though, LOL. I can't get a good balance between a ball that's light enough that it doesn't hurt me to throw (as I tend to pull things and twist things while bowling a lot) but one that's heavy enough that when I hit the pins right down the center, they actually all fall down.

I feel vaguely foolish right now, as there's nothing else on TV so I'm watching the volleyball game that's happening in another building less than 500 feet away. But also quite superior, as I'm able to watch the game (or really, listen, as I'm computering) while having the internets and air conditioning and the cocoa rice krispies that I nicked at brunch. It's a tournament, so I might go down at some point and watch one if I have nothing else to do, as I think it's all weekend. Prolly not, though, as the allure of sitting on my bed rather than on uncomfortable bleachers is too great.

It appears that I've misplaced my glasses, which is worrysome. If I knew that they were in my room somewhere, it'd be different, but as I also take them off when I work out (in a different building) and then possibly leave them in my pocket or something while I ride my bike back (meaning falling out is possible), they could really be anywhere.

Still no debit card, thanks credit union people, which means I can't yet join the pre-law frat for mock trial like I need to.

I'm 3/5 of the way to the freshman 15, which is very disturbing. And I'm feeling it, arthritis pain-wise, so we're working on curbing that. Problem is that I can't really account for it--I'd much prefer it if I had been all "LOL, caloriez!" lately, because then not only would I know why it happened, I'd know how to fix it. And as a result, I've gotten rather paranoid, all "Did they mix up the lines and maybe it's not really diet soda in the fountain?" and "Maybe that raspberry salad dressing isn't really only 15 calories!" and such.

Genetics test yesterday was not fun. There was a big long list of dates and events to memorize--some of these events had names associated with them. The instructions said to be able to match dates and events, I was able to do so. Problem was, about half of that matching section was events and names. When it gave me the event, I could tell you the year, but when that wasn't what they were asking, it did me no good. I'm not excited about the score for that exam.

Got up at 8 to take a practice L.S.A.T. (which I had to punctuate to stop spellcheck from changing to "last", grr) this morning, just for fun. I love the logic games section. In that I've always found those things fun. But man, do I spend a long time thinking about them! I'll really have to work on that. I had barely more than half the answers down before time was up on that section (though I'd worked on more problems than that, I only totally finished up/selected a final answer for 13/24). But I finished all the other sections quite early, so I marked where I was on the logic games section and went back and finished it with my extra time; I didn't know that there was no guessing penalty, so I had left the remaining 11 blank, which was quite conducive to going back.

Therefore, I've got three scores that I pulled out to look at, LOL: the score I got leaving the back 11 of the logic section blank, the score I got with the logic section completed (which required extending the time by about 12 minutes), and the score I would get assuming I guessed on the back 11 and got 3 (1/4 ish) correct. The third one is probably the most accurate, but it's the one for which I'm guessing on the actual L.S.A.T. index for (as I didn't know that guessing had no penalty until after I looked up the index for my other two raw scores--I just figured it out based on a little bit of math to find its place in the middle of the other two. Since it's bell curved, that isn't actually right, but should be close--I checked it on the raw score/index chart for another test that the two scores I had data for matched up with, so it probably varies no more than +/- 1.)

I'm satisfied. Never having seen the test before (not even knowing the structure of it, actually--I walked in completely blind) and with no prep, I got a 164 (with time, no guessing)/ 173 (without time)/ 170 (with time and guessing), 170 being my more accurate number as to what I'd actually get. Which, according to the 1998-2001 numbers (idk how much they apply now, but it's the best I can find), is the 98.21 percentile.

So, erm, damn. Might be having to go to law school. I don't anticipate scoring nearly as well on the MCATs, as they're so much more technical with the science and so. This was very verbal and logic based, which are skills of mine.

At this moment, if the United States annexed Britain, we'd have more gold medals than the Chinese.

Yes, I'm still not packing. Nor sleeping, which would be the other acceptable option. It's safe to say that I'm subconsciously scared as hell.

But wouldn't that be a kick in irony's arse? Except we need to wait until July 2, 2026, and take them over then. For aesthetic purposes.

Another thing. This US News and World Report college rankings thing is out. And there's a section on rating schools by economic diversity. Which they define as the highest percentage of students receiving Pell Grants. Umm, no. If 75% of your students are grantees, that's not economically diverse, that's economic monotony, just in the other direction. (But LOL at how Dad's teacher college is #2 on that list. So true. Somebody died and left them a bazillion dollars or something, though, because they've tripled in size and become a university and such all in the last few years. And ditched the concertina wire on the fences. For serious, used to be there.)

Giving people presents for their anniversaries. Odd, no? I mean, when we're talking a friend of a couple giving them this gift. And for only a 6-month dating anniversary, which doesn't even count as that much of a real thing, IMO (though I don't deny that that's probably a while in the world of datage, I don't have much to base that on/compare it to, so idk).

This is the conversation topic that I overheard on the way to lunch. Someone had done such a thing, presumably, because another friend in the group who were congregated more or less in my way as I attempted to gather my things stated that now she felt bad that she hadn't and was now going to have to go get them something belatedly.

Umm, what? I mean, I understand people within the couple giving each other gifts. And perhaps relatives; my parents are hitting the big 25 years in May, and that means I prolly have to get them something (though more often in our family, the other parent chooses/buys/finances the gift with "help" from the chitlins), and I know that we got my maternal grandparents something (bought into a big screen TV, methinks, with several other of Mum's siblings) when they hit 50 years a bit ago (actually, 5 years ago--a group of overzealous aunts and uncles have begun to plan the 55th party for this summer, last I heard, which the remaining aunts and uncles aren't so much looking forward to as not as that means having to buy a more expensive present for the anniversary on top of traveling somewhere for the party, since nobody's in the same geographical region anymore).

But friends buying other friends anniversary gifts? This seems stupid. Is this the custom now? Have I just been missing out because most of my friends don't date? A 6-month dating anniversary, while probably a big thing to the couple, seems to deserve a pat on the back and a "Congratulations" more than a gift from everyone else.

In other news. I was up late last night because I was in a Spring-y mood. I was looking for bright and fun and Springish clothing--prolly inspired by the fact that I hit up Goodwill yesterday afternoon and tried on a couple of Spring/Summer-y dresses just because they were there and in my size and pretty (one that was striped pastel blue and green, and floor-length with a good amount of slink but still not overly formal; the other was green paisley/ivy/floral patterns on a white, spaghetti-strap halter that hit just above the knees). I really wanted an excuse to buy the first one--I was seriously considering getting it to wear to church on Easter like you do when you're little, but I didn't have enough money neither on me nor to justify buying a dress (though it was only like $5) that I would only wear once.

But yes. Lunch just ended, so postus interruptus yet again. Fail.

I had spent most of the evening re-reading La Dama del Alba for the Spanish test over it today, so I got to the gym really late, so I got back really late (pushing midnight, actually, after I stopped at the grocery store because I’ve got coupons that are pushing the expiration date but then turned it into a worthless trip when I decided not to buy anything yesterday since it’s $10 off of $50 day today and I can make the parentals use the coupons for veggies and such and lump it in with enough other things to get the extra discount) , and then I messed around trying on clothes, and then I made dinner, and then I messed around with more clothes. And watched Canterbury’s Law. While painting my nails to matchish the shirt I decided on (the “hippy on acid” shirt). Which was hard, because I fail at nail painting simply because I don’t think I’d need my toes to count the number of times I’ve done it since. . . elementary school. Plus, the nail-biting makes it harder still, because you’re all like “Oh, but this is not nail but rather finger.” But they’re this shiny pastel blue color that has purple glimmery bits that you see when it hits the light. With a purple failstripe (I spent so long trying to make them even sized, but the purple nail polish was that gooey kind of old that makes it impossible to do anything but gunk it on) down each thumb for fun. Makes me smile, anyway.

But then I look at the clock and realize that I’ve managed to just totally lose track of time because it’s 3:30 or so in the morning and I’ve still got to clean up stuff from dinner and the popcorn I made after eating dinner (hard to reach into a bag of popcorn with wet nails, btw). So I didn’t hit bed until a good 4am. Which hurt me in English today, because we were just reading an pseudo-epic poem aloud, thus not very engaging, thus sleep provoking. And now I’m just bored, because my econ quiz took all of 3 minutes (literally—and then the next person didn’t finish for another 7 minutes or so, which freaked me out a bit in that “did I skip a page?” kind of way) and now we’re doing nothing (they’ve turned on one of the college basketball games, and as basketball is one of those sports that I care absolutely nothing for, as with collegiate sports in general, the all-but-three in the class male population’s enthusiasm is extremely annoying), and as I have nothing after this, there’s no purpose in my being here and not being home eating my last grapefruit and getting ready for nappage goodness.

I really want that grapefruit now. The econ teacher’s got popcorn out that she said we could have, but it’s that kind that comes in a bag like a bag of chips and is fake!greasycheesybuttery and not worth the calories, so I’m not hitting that.

They’re shouting about the basketball game again. *le sigh*

I really want to write West Wing Donna/Helen Santos fic. They're all coy and hesitant and flirty and cute in the 7th season.

That's my story.

Didn't go to the roller derby, as it turned out that only like 2 of us could go that day. We're looking at one of the later bouts (there are two more this season) instead.

Thought I had a dentist appointment on Sunday (yeah, I know. What kind of appointment is on Sunday? I know that the 9th is what she told me, and I know that she said I had to go twice in 3 days, so unless we switched to talking about October without her telling me, idk what happened). This was not the case, I found, after driving all the way down there.

Volleyball started up again, so at least I've got a bit of money coming in. The coordinator guy is bringing his daughter into it, though, so I'm back up on the ref stand, unfortunately. I liked doing the ref+score thing, because I could hide behind the score board controls at the table and SIT DOWN (which is a big thing as it's still 90 degrees and about ten million percent humidity at 6pm). Now I have to actually make all the hand signals and such look good, lol, instead of just waving quickly before updating the score. (And the pain! I'm already anticipating the pain!)

He's still going to pay me the same, though, which is good. Because before, my big paycheck doubling was because I had doubled up my duties by taking on the scoreboard and record stuff as well as the reffing. Now that his daughter's taking over the score, I was afraid that I'd get bumped back down (and def. have to get another job).

So. Grr at the Broncos for fouling twice and screwing our (at that point) tiny chances during the extra point kick a minute ago.

Yay for the referees calling bazillions of things on San Diego and giving us yardage and clock stops so that we've got a bit more of a chance now. (32 yards and 23 seconds.)

Oh, but nevermind. Plummer got sacked. 14 seconds left at the 50. And the clock kept running. So the game's over. But the San Diego guys were pushing our guys. That's not nice. This was a dirty game. Tons of penalties.

Sadness. Also sadness for this laptop being a whore and neither battery working. The batteries drain in like 20 minutes. One goes in 10 or 15, the other in 30. Which means there's probably something wrong with the computer, not the batteries. Though it could be that just both batteries are broken. But that would be sad.

Saw Lysistrata at the community college. That was the worst travesty of a literary work that I have ever seen in my life. My dad went with me, and he says that that was the worst travesty he's ever seen in his life, and he's seen a lot of theatre. It was crude and people couldn't act and didn't know their lines and the chorus wasn't in sync and it was just horrible. And there was an extremely lewd pre-show video thing that was just an excuse to flash lots of lights and play stupid crunk music and show clips of naked dancing girls and use bad grammar in the captions that flashed in the middle of the screen and make dumb references to incest and erections and other general stupid teenage boy humor. That's what the whole thing was, the play and the video, dumb teenage humor that can only be appreciated if you're drunk, high, or a stupid teenage boy. I was thinking about how I should have auditioned for that play, as I'm better than most of the people that were in it. And then I thought about how I would be so embarrassed to have been in that production. I don't think that I could ever face anybody after doing that because it was so bad. I know the guy who graduated from our school last year or the year before who was in it (and one of the very few who had some kind of skill) was asking some of his friends that mentioned going not to go because it was so bad. I feel bad for him; our theatre teacher made us go or we wouldn't have after we heard from people that went opening night how bad it was.

Finally finished watching all the Ally McBeal episodes with Lisa Edelstein in them. Most of the time I just want to jump into the screen and hug her. She needs hugs. People are mean.

Decided that I'm probably going to go for the data recovery thing. These guys at this store close to my house said that the highest they go for recovery is $140. Mine hopefully won't be that bad and will be closer to the $60. I went price comparing on Friday; the little store had that price. Best Buy? They wanted $99 per 9 gigabytes of material recovered. I have 40GB on there. *Maths* Nope. And my dad said he'd pay half of the recovery, so it might not be horrible.

But I got a new (3.5 in) hard drive with 200GB on it. Which makes me sort of happy. In that it's 200GB which is 160 more than I used to have and was about half the price of the old one (because it's not mini or external). But not as in that it's an internal one and 3.5 as opposed to my old one's 2.5 (laptop size), so it's in the little internal-to-external box thing, which is big and heavy and not bounce-proof at all (the old one had rubber bits inside to absorb shock) and requires external power instead of just taking it through the USB port like the old one, so I've got a cord stretched across the kitchen to the plug on the other side of the room. And to top it all off, I haven't gotten it to work yet. My dad didn't look at the master/slave settings when he put it in, so it might be on the wrong thing, which would explain the non-workage.

Baseball makes me angry. As in, if I had wanted to, I wouldn't have been able to drive in the city at all for all this weekend because of the stupid baseball games and victory parties and all. Get this. The Saturday newspaper. There were 2 bits. Like two whole newspapers. 44 pages of normal newspaper with only sparse mentions of the Cardinals. And then a 50 page second section of which more than half was stupid baseball (and the rest just other sports). A 50 page sports section. Crazy. I think everybody that cares knows that the Cardinals won. We really don't need 30 pages about it.

Hugh Laurie on SNL: Can I marry you? I even promise I won't cheat on you with Lisa Edelstein much without letting you watch. He was like the funniest one most of the time. Except for that whole stupid sketch where they were in the ER with the guy's broken leg. That one just fell on its face. But we've learned something from that sketch. Hugh has amazing legs. And the singing! Wow. He = amazing.

Watched X-Men 3. Ian McKellen and Patrick Stewart are probably the best looking, sexiest voiced, most talented older male actors out there. Them together is just wow. Especially when they're like "Charles!" "Eric!" and I'm like "Hee, you guys were so together".