Last day of my last week before finals is over. Wow. It went by... really quickly.

Got registered for classes last night, which was a really good idea, because I checked the course listings this morning, and about half of the classes I signed up for were filled. Though, I think their server almost crashed from so many people that stayed up until midnight.

Thursday is my last final, so I'll be getting to go home on Friday.

Registration for next semester starts at midnight, so I'm staying up to do it as soon as possible. Mainly because I've already had to completely revamp the schedule I set up because of classes filling up. I had to revamp it twice.

Also, what logical sense does it make to only offer one History 161 (US from 1607-1877) class at a huge university like this and cap it at 96 people? Seriously, this course is a core requirement for every major. What. The. Hell.

AHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAAHAHAHA

CLASSES WERE CANCELLED UNTIL 11AM.

BECAUSE OF SNOW.

TWO INCHES.

OF SNOW.

AHAHAHAHAHAHAHA

THIS STATE IS CRAZY

People in this state are crazy. The highways in town were shut down due to multiple accidents yesterday... because of one inch of snow. That melted half an hour after it stopped snowing.

And I keep seeing people wearing parkas/gloves/scarves/etc in 55 degree F weather. Just. Just what.

I think I've finally given up on Heroes. (Segway? I need no segway!) There's a lot of reasons, and I'll do a full write-up on why later, because I feel my concerns with the show are valid. I know that hating on Heroes has become sort of a bandwagon right now, and I want to make it clear that my love for the show during the first season still stands. But that doesn't mean that I can't criticize what's happening to it now. This will have been the first time I've given up on a show for a reason other then 'I was bored with it' (which has happened with Lost, Desperate Housewives, Smallville, etc), and because of that, it's important that I say why. But I'll discuss this later.

In slightly more optimistic news, I got 195/200 on my Bladerunner and film noir paper. Nice.

I finally finished my term paper in my film and literature class. I've been doing research for it since the third week of school. I've compiled three annotated bibliographies on it. I've written four drafts of it. And it's finished, printed, and turned in to the prof. And because I'm feeling especially nerdy, I'm going to share with all you my (sort of) abstract.

This essay is an exploration of the film noir genre and its evolution, using Howard Hawks’s The Big Sleep and Ridley Scott’s Bladerunner as focus points of a forty-year span of film. It argues that film noir as a genre did not end in the 1950s, as is the popular belief, but has lasted through the 1980s and into the present. Part of this argument lies with the emergence of the neo-noir genre, introduced in the 1970s, which, despite aesthetic differences, is still true to the classic genre. It also discusses the way in which noir has lived on through the use of noir elements and themes in seemingly unrelated genres, especially science fiction. Through out the essay, I will elaborate on how the two focus films both fit into and influence noir.

If anyone's interested in reading an essay on the film noir genre and it's last effects on film, let me know and I can email you a copy of the paper. God, why am I saying this? I'm such a geek :B

Now I need to get back to writing a paper on the influence of Rome on the modern day. And then rewrite an essay on why the film adaptation of Ethan Frome fails at framed narrative.

Since the first time since the second week of school, I finally feel like I'm not drowning in homework. It's... a really, really nice feeling.

So, like I said, I went back to CO over the weekend. It was... a lot of driving. And I mean a lot. But, it was also fun. I got to hang out with a friend of mine, and give my kitties hugs. I found out a friend of mine is going to be the Queen of Hearts for Halloween, which is an awesome coincidence, since I'm going to be the Mad Hatter. Too bad we'll be 450 miles apart :/ Maybe we can talk our friend in Chicago to be the White Rabbit and we can all be Alice in Wonderland characters together... while apart. I missed getting to hang out with another friend, who turned 21 today, whose birthday I was going to help celebrate early, but I couldn't get a hold of them at all. Which sucks.

I have kind of missed CO. The seasons actually flow right there! I've been so confused about what month it really is down here, because it feels like it's still August. Back home, it was chilly, the first snow of the year had already happened, and most of the trees had lost all their leaves. That, to me, is a normal October. Only last week did the trees down here start to change color, and it's still getting into the 80s some days. THIS IS NOT RIGHT. Though, it did rain today. That's... fall-like, I guess.

I also got my hands on a few comics these past weeks, which I'll probably talk about soon. I've also been working on my SEEKRIT PROJECT. Design phase is almost done, and I'll probably start the actual thing sometime this week. I'm working really hard on it, and it should be really interesting, so keep an eye out for updates.

Scored 95.5 out of 100 on my first geology exam.


Fuuuuuuck yeah.

So I survived my first week o' college! It wasn't that bad, really. My classes are pretty spread out, so it gives me a lot of time to just get homework done as soon as I'm out of class, which is nice. One of my biggest problems with homework during high school was that if I got homework for my first class at 8:30 am, the first real time I would have to do it was at 4 pm, and by that time I had pushed it to the bad of my mind because of everything else that was going on that day. Getting homework at 11:45 am and getting to start on it at noon is so much nicer. It cuts back on my procrastination by a LOT.

So, the classes I'm taking are:
Geology 101
Western Civ 101
Spanish 101
Lit 102 and 150 (two classes from two professors, but it's an 'integrated course', meaning that they're one right after the other and they build on the lectures from each other. One is a writing course and the other is a film and lit course)

They're all pretty nice, and the profs are pretty cool.

I still don't really know anyone here yet, but that should get better as I get to know the people in my classes more. I finally got all my books (pushing $600, Christ). And the window in my room was fixed this morning.

Also, I finally got to meet Maelstrom in person! Mael is one of the few cool people on the old WoA forums I admined, and when I first mentioned thinking of going to UNM, he offered to answer any questions I had about the school, since he's been here for 3 years now. So it's nice having one person here that I've gotten to know before (albeit on the internet) who's willing to help me navigate the town and understands what it's like being an out of state student. (Mael's from Texas)

I need to find the laundry room in the dorm, and a gas station. And I need to go back to the grocery store. And supposedly there's a job fair going on on campus until 2, so I may go check that out.

I managed to find a grocery store that's only about 3 minutes drive from school! :D It's a bit too far to walk, but that's okay, as I'll probably be getting cold things to keep in the fridge here. It's also really cheap! I managed to get a set of paper bowls, a quart of milk, a box of cereal, a box of plastic eating utensils, and some yogurt cups for just 10 bucks. That'll pretty much cover breakfast for a week. And since the bowls/spoons and stuff will last longer then that, when I need more food it shouldn't cost me more then about 5 bucks.

All I gotta say is: I'm so glad I watched the Rachael Ray show and learned how to make meals for under $10 and eat for a week on $5. Even if I can eat at the dinning hall without having to pay (meal plan's already paid for) and I'll not cooking. Though my dorm does have a full kitchen. I may have to make cookies some time. :3

I'm a bit frustrated about books (bookstore STILL doesn't have two that I need) and worried about money, but finding such a cheap grocery store and getting food for breakfast made me feel a lot better.

Tonight there's a meet-the-student-groups party thingy going on, so I'll go by there and take a look at some of the groups. I'm sort of thinking of doing a comic strip for the daily school paper, so I'm going to try to talk to some people from the paper. Should be fun.

This is my second post in one day, and both of them are about breakfast. Huh.

Whyyyy doesn't the dinning hall open until 10 am this week whyyyy I'm hungrrrrryy whine whine whine bitch bitch bitch

Anyways, I've moved into my dorm and met my roommate! The dorm is fairly nice, though it has a few problems (we can't run the AC effectively, because the window sash is broken, and now that we've opened it, it won't close, and we need to get a maintenance person to fix it), but it's okay. My roommate is rather nice, too. Biggest problem right now is that all the buildings are still on their summer schedule, so places like the dinning hall aren't open at normal hours. That'll change on Monday, but I still think I should find a grocery store and get some food to keep in the dorm in case I wake up too early/too late (former is more likely) to get food.

Classes start on monday, and I've got most of my books, except for a few that weren't in stock yesterday, but are supposed to come in today. Already my books have cost about $400, and my scholarship that pays for them is more like a refund that I get in a few months. :/

Need to change my meal plan, but they won't allow anyone to do that until the 24th.

Now I need to find out where the grocery stores are, then go get breakfast, then go to the grocery store and get back-up food, and then get the rest of my books. And finish my summer reading.

So, tomorrow I drive down to NM, and on Wednesday, I move into my dorm. I'm pretty excited. :3

'Course, this means I'm gonna be gone for a few days while I unpack and get used to everything. I probably won't be doing anything artsy for a while, or at least posting it. Though I am bringing my scanner and tablet. So, before I go, here's one more pokemon comic.



I finally bought some new technical pens, because both my cheap Microns and my super expensive really great Staedlers were dying on me. So I got replacements for those, and a few more pens, because I always get carried away at the art supply store. So I used this little comic to experiment a bit. It was inked with a Micron brush pen (which turned out really nice), a small felt-tipped Micron marker, and a chisel-tip Staedler pen. I think the results are actually pretty good.

...cause I sure am.

Finally got everything right with the school. Got back on their database as on-campus housing, bought my parking permit, and got the FinAid/Bursar's office to waive my out-of-state fees which should have been done in MAY. Now I just need to start paying for the school, but the website to do that on is down for maintenance.

But now that everything's cleared up, I am feeling a lot better.

Getting reeeally frustrated with the college. A long while back, I mentioned that I won a scholarship that would give me instate tuition - but I got a bill from the school in the mail today and they're still charging me out of state. I was awarded this scholarship back in May, it should have gone into effect by now >:|

Trying to stay calm about housing/parking permit stuff going on. Now, instead of being able to get on the parking permit store and then being told I'm not an on-campus student, I can't even reach the site, so I'm thinking it's a problem with the website itself, rather then the housing dept.

Anyways, trying to stay calm and positive. I bought some dorm stuff today, which actually is a really good way to calm down. Normally I hate shopping (especially for clothes, because, to quote my sister, '[I] shop just like a guy, go in, get a pair of pants, try them on, and pay for them in all of 15 minutes'), but for some reason I really enjoy shopping for house stuff. I remember going with my sister when she was trying to buy a cast iron skillet, and just be enchanted by all the neat kitchen gadgets at the store we were at. I also just love buying interior design stuff, probably because the room I live in now, and the one I lived in before that, were original my sister's, and I was just given all her old stuff while she got new stuff. So actually getting some space of my own to decorate is really fun.

I've even bought a lot of stuff based on color, to match my quilt (bright blue, with light blue and lime green), which has been really great. Going around to different stores and trying to find things that match is so much fun for me. Like, I found a $5 lamp that's in the exact same lime green as the green on my quilt, and blue portable drawers that match the blue, and on and on. I also found the most adorable toothbrush holder (my room has a sink in it, so I though having my toothbrush in my room was convenient) that is in the shape of a little green dinosaur popping out of an egg. The egg opens up and you put the top of your brush in it, then you close it, and the back has suction cups to stick to the mirror. It's just so sweet and cute.

Ah, anyways. I'm a loser, I know. But I just find decorating a lot of fun - I love decorating the house for christmas each year, and I wish they we had decorations around for halloween.

I got a mouse for my laptop today. It's an adorable little thing called an Arc mouse. It folds up, which turns off the power and saves the wireless battery, and also creates a little pocket to hold the USB transceiver. It works really well, and since it folds up, it's pretty compact. Sorry to sound like a commercial, but I really like it :3

Frustration at the school continues. Earlier today I got online to order a parking permit. Everything worked, but I didn't have time to place the order, so I logged out of the site and decided to do it later. I tried a few minutes ago, and the site is telling me that I'm not an on-campus student and that I need to apply for housing. FFFFFFFFFFFFFAUGH What's even more annoying is that it's a friday, so I won't be able to call housing and fix this until monday. I'm going to try again tomorrow evening, though, and hope it's just a one-time glitch. :/ Hopefully it is. I hate playing phone tag with the college offices.

My dad's been watching the HBO vampire series 'True Blood' lately. It's got a sort of interesting premise, it that everyone knows that their are vampires around and they more or less accept them. That's not something I've seen in vampire fiction before. However, there are some issues with it. As my dad said, the vampires talk like a bad dub of a Chinese movie. All their dialogue is just stilted, formal, and unnatural. I can understand trying to make the vamps seem older and more refined, but... if a hundreds year old norse vampire can learn to talk in a Texan accent, he can learn to talk not talk like a robot. Also, there's the issue I have with all HBO and Shotime series, in which every episode just sort of has a graphic sex scene shoehorned in. Most of the time it has no bearing on the plot, and reeks of the director saying 'Well, we're allowed to do sex here, so let's make a porno!' Interestingly enough, the only show that doesn't have gratuitous sex all the time is Dexter, which does have a few sex scenes, but most are short and fade to black quickly, and most are done for the sake of character development. OF COURSE, THE SHOW ABOUT THE SERIAL KILLER IS THE MOST TASTEFUL SEX-WISE.

Also: fuck you, Watchmen. I get the director's cut, open up the box, aaand... there's a flyer for the 4 hour FINAL CUT. akfjdkakfldjs BAIT AND SWITCH And of course, I'm going to have to buy it when it comes out in december.

Hm. This post has kind of just been all over the place. Ah well.

Hell is having to hold for two hours on the phone trying to get some info on student loans, only to have the rep finally pick up and say 'Dhuuuur everything's on our site so we won't tell you anything over the phone or clear up questions' and then hang up on you.

khlajkfhdjkghfdg fuck fuck fuckity fucking fucksocks FUCK

So, I'm back! College orientation was decent - I met some nice people and learned what kind of classes I would have to take to get my degree in Secondary English Education. Evidently, it's got some of the most required courses of other teaching subjects the college offers. For instance, if I were to go into it, I would have to take three social behavior (psychology and the like) classes, and two history of fine art classes. Not to mention over 50 hours worth of English elective classes.

But that's okay, because this really is a subject I love. I love learning about it, I love sharing it with people. Though, I will go in undeclared in case I change my mind on what I want to do with my life half way through the year.

And supposedly I sound old? I dunno, other teens in my orientation group were noticing that I watch what I eat, I always wake up before 8 am, I won't drink soda before noon, etc. According to them, that makes me seem like an adult. :/ I don't really look at it like that myself, and I think most of it was just good habits that rubbed off on me from dating a health nut for almost three years. I just want to make healthy choices with my life and avoid the freshman 15 or hangovers.

Got a laptop, too! Yaaaay! :D

College orientation is next week. I'll be leaving on the 20th and be back by the 25th.

Remember this post?

Evidently, the college gave me bad information on my scholarship. They implied throughout the application and acceptance process that I was getting a scholarship. Now they tell me that the entire scholarship was just the $500 for books, and that the rest is a loan. So no, I don't get instate tuition, I just get a loan. And because this is a loan, not a scholarship, I can't get any more aid from the school, and now my only option is to get a private loan.

I really wish that they had given me this information when they sent me the acceptance letter, but they DIDN'T, so now I'll be taking two loans out for school.

I'm so frustrated with the school right now. They didn't give me a scholarship like I thought they did, and I can't get any work study.

Just. Auuuuugh.

Scratch that, first person I talked to had no idea how the scholarship worked. I AM getting part of my tuition waved, but they also just randomly gave me a loan.

Thank god that I refused to accept that that was the way things were going down and called the aid office again demanding to know what was up with that scholarship.

*biiiig sigh of relief*

So I opened up my first checking account, and I'm going to be getting my first debit card soon. College orientation is on June 23rd, and school starts August 14th.

I keep getting hit with these moments of 'Holy shit. I'm an adult now.'



...and then I find myself standing in line at Target looking at Pokemon cards and seriously considering rebuilding a deck, just because the pack has a buneary on it. Pfft, adulthood.