I was hoping that the people doing evaluations for fall academic standing wouldn't look at my stuff too closely - if they only counted the credits I earned here, I should have first year standing, and if they looked at both here and transfer, by number, I should have third-year standing. Both of which have way less shitty registration dates than second-year standing (bottom of the barrel, pretty much). But no. Second year standing, which means I'm only above the other second years who did worse than me. Which means if I want to take Japanese, I'm going to have to either go and cry on someone's desk, or turn on the hardcore BSing and convince them that I'm 1) going to double major in Arts, and 2) really need Japanese for this. For this second option, I'm going to enlist Chris's help, as he has mastered the Arts talent of total BS. At least I won't be diving for the few seats in orgo lab.

In good news, I think I may actually do alright on this Friday's chem midterm. Andrea and I got some impromptu tutoring from one of the older gamers who's an orgo grad student (I think? Maybe 4th year) for about four hours last night - I think he was ashamed to be associated with people doing so badly in orgo. And then one of the other older gamers gave us a ride home because it was after midnight at this point >.> So I'm working on problem sets right now while Andrea naps - I had a can of Rockstar earlier, and bought another one for three hours from now when Shadowrun starts, so I'm pretty awake.

Freakiest mold we've found growing on anything at work: neon pink-orange mold on a big jicama root.

Work and classes are pretty much same old, same old. I've been talked into joining yet another tabletop game when classes end - D&D 3.5, run by one of the Shadowrun/Earthdawn guys. Apparently the guy breathes D&D, so should be good stuff. There's also a really interesting looking game running Monday night in the club - Fireborn - but I really don't need to be in four different tabletop games, I think, as much as I've discovered I like the tabletop dynamic a lot more than online dynamic when there's a good GM running the show (ie, Shadowrun/Earthdawn GM, who is awesome).

Dodgy internet at home has turned into non-existant internet, so I've been spending a lot of time on-campus - good thirteen hours yesterday. But people were here, and Chris and I got a whole bunch of Chem stuff done. While I'm not a club exec, I also seem to be getting involved in a lot of the exec brainstorming/decision processes because the people I've been hanging out with are the new crop of execs. There's some fun stuff being planned, if it all gets pulled off, as well as some handy stuff like finally bleaching and mopping the floor of our office.

So, I saw PotC 3 last night with one of the Shadowrun/Earthdawn guys, as most of my other friends out here already had massive groups of people to go with. And it was pretty sweet, aside from the fact the movie theatre seats were incredibly uncomfortable (which probably explains why the 8pm showing still had lots of seats left). But yes, definately better than the second one (closure yay!). Now, spoilers!

Read More?

Mostly posted for my own reference, although I dunno, someone out there may be interested XD; Backstory and whatnot for my character, Lucia.

Read More?

While getting drunk and watching Alien may sound like a good idea, it isn't. Mostly because nothing seems quite as suspenseful when you're tipsy, and if you're like me, you end up nearly falling asleep in the last ten minutes.

I wanted to go out to Malfunction tonight but by the time I got off work, I was about to crash, so I decided that as much as I wanted to dance, I'd have been unhappy and wanting to leave after being there all of an hour. Sanctuary long weekend party is tomorrow night, but I'm working closing, so that's not going to happen. Boss as also put me on for 12-8 next Wednesday, which is going to be something of an issue because I have class until 12, and then Shadowrun at 6:30. And I'm finally settling into the game mechanics and the party we've got going. Gah. Going to talk to him tomorrow, I think.

Killed off LA!Asher today. A little bit sad, because there was lots I wanted to do with him that didn't end up happening (he _still_ hasn't managed to get into a fist-fight with another PC), but at the same time, I'm glad I pulled out of that game.

55 on the first orgo midterm. Which is passing, but most definately not my brightest moment. This means working my ass off for the midterm and final, because I need a 70 in this class.

Tonight, Alien with Yana, if she doesn't get lost/forget.

I'm working on a playlist of background music for our Shadowrun games - I was insipired by our GM, who spent about three hours yesterday afternoon making one for last night's game (he's unemployed at the moment, and has a looot of free time on his hands). I've actually got a pretty decent selection put together from my own files, but I'd love suggestions and new music. My biggest problem is that I listen to a lot of industrial, most of which a little too heavy to run Shadowrun to. 'Verse is pretty Sprawl-inspired (much as they try to deny it) although with some magic thrown in. Uploads would be loved, as care of shitty internet it's hard for me to track things down, although I'm happy with just names.

Character stuff and real life what-not to come later - I've only got twenty minutes before I need to leave if I want to actually eat lunch before work.

Some discussion this evening on gender/sexual identity and fandom has given me a terribly wonderful idea for my elf Illusionist - he's a cross-dresser. It fit incredibly well with both his (ocassionally very flamboyant) personality, and the fact that he's an Illusionist - they live to seek truth, and to play with people's perceptions of it. Perceptions of gender identity would be a particularly fun place to do that. GM will probably look at me like I'm crazy when I start asking him about gender politics in Barsaive at game tomorrow night.

I do still have to figure out the best way to work him into the party that's already running, though - it's 'if brute force doesn't work, you're not using enough of it' at it's best: a troll weaponsmith, an a t'skrang (lizardman) sky-raider (like a pirate, but with flying ships). I think I can gear him towards being a little more useful in combat-situations, but I still need a reason for him to join up with the party - there's some truth he's seeking, and I really don't know what. May have to quiz other players on what the party's goals have been so far.

(And now I've got Blur's 'Girls and Boys' stuck in my head)

The subject is not actually a lie - I did spend $40 today to make some chocolate chip cookies. This is because my roommate basically doesn't cook, at all. So the sum total of our cookware was a saucepan, two frying pans which had seen some better days, a small casserole dish, and a minor assortment of spatulas and wooden mixing spoons. So I spent $20 buying a cookie sheet, mixing bowl, and measuring cups and spoons, and then another $20 buying basic cooking ingredients like flour, vanilla extract, baking soda, that sort of thing. Most of these should last me through the summer, and the cookware should last a lot longer than that, so they're investments, really. I still need to buy a muffin tin, 9" cake pan (which I use for both cakes and brownies), and a springform pan to make my cheesecake of awesome. Most of these will have to wait until June when I've got some extra money, though - will see how the bank balance works out once I pay off my current debts.

I've spent the afternoon trying to study orgo, but it's hard, as this textbook is really boring, and two-thirds of it is stuff I already learned in first-year chem. Unfortunately, there's just enough new stuff that I have to at least skim it to pick it up, because I need to do well in this class, and we have a midterm Friday. I also need to look over the sections about magic in the Earthdawn book, because I've decided to go with the elf Illusionist (more on him, and my Shadowrun gal, later, I think - I've been sorting backstory for them out), and I have to give the book back to the GM tomorrow night so he can plan next week's session. All I really want to do is sit around and play DDS, though.

On and off okay day - mostly I'm just tired. Five days of school and two of work, plus extra shifts on top of the school is hard, particularly as produce is fairly physically demanding - moving around all the time, hauling heavy boxes and bags. Thankfully we have no classes next Monday, care of the Victoria Day long weekend, which means I finally get a day to my self. On the upside, one week down, only five more to go, and I knew it was going to be harsh when I opted to go for classes and work at the same time. The dodgy wireless upstairs of course was out all weekend when I didn't have a chance to get on-campus, and came back up today - I'm getting a cellphone with my first paycheck next month, I think.

Other than that, not much to report. Meant to study for my chem midterm today, but this has turned into doing lab prep work for tomorrow, reading up on hacking in the Shadowrun player's guide, and goofing around on the internet a lot. I'm going to try and take off a weekend in early June, because I am missing people lots, and am going to wind up making myself really depressed if I don't get out some. Also, I've started having dreams about restacking the strawberry display and rotating apple bins - it's a bit like playing too much DDR and seeing the arrows scroll in your vision when you close your eyes.

I just finished the somewhat epic task of installing new firmware on my mp3 player, retagging a bunch of my music files, redoing playlists (I resorted my files back in December, which means all the file paths changed, which means the playlists weren't any good), and importing all of this to my mp3 player via my new version of Winamp. It was, thankfully, successfu, which means I can listen to my favorite FST ever (That Turks one I always talk about - it's good though!), and the Revolting Cocks song I've been loving on recently (although possibly not in public, as it makes me want to dance, a lot). I've got a few more playlists to redo at some point, but I did up most of my favorites.

Went for a nice little walk today, and stopped in to a discount kitchen supply store and fantasized about all the pans I'm going to buy when I have some spare cash - yeah, I know I'm insane - and then wandered up and down 10th some. Contemplating renting a movie, but it's more fun with friend and/or microwave popcorn, of which I had neither at the moment. Another day, perhaps.

In RP news, I'm quitting RR - figure it's best to leave before I end up disliking people associated with it permanently - and considering an elven illusionist for Earthdawn. Possibly a very flamboyant elven illusionist. It's actually a pretty interesting setting - I knew nothing about it going in but that it was fantasy (joined the game more because the other players are awesome and the GM is super-awesome), but I was pleasantly surprised when I read the backgound info in the massive player's guide. It's a little grittier and wilder than most Generic Fantasy settings - just enough darkness to keep it interesting without veering off into V:tM territory (apologies to the White Wolf/Vampire fans, but...it is pretty stereotypically Goth). I'd love to play a blood elf, but strongly suspect they aren't meant to be part of the elf race given for players, and have not quite managed to cur GM's favor to the extent where I could talk him into it.

I totally work in the best department in the store. Why? We had a mini-BBQ randomly, so I got a free dinner of two hamburgers and some grilled onions and squash. This job is definately better than my last one.

I think I'm finally starting to settle in again, which is good - being depressed just makes me miserable, and makes nobody else want to be around me. The roommate wasn't kidding when she said she's not around much - I haven't seen her for the past two or three days. I like having the place to myself, though.

Oh, and a link to share, because I know there's a few other Divine Comedy fans who'll enjoy this - Homer/Virgil/Dante pr0n, which makes me ridiculously happy XD; Someone is selling a copy of the DMC doujin 'Bless' on ebay, which I totally want, because it's super-cute (and has Eva!), but at the same time, extra money should really be put towards seeing friends/concerts/a cellphone rather than a doujinshi which will mostly just sit on my shelf a lot.

One of the few things that can help salvage a day after only getting five hours of slee? Doing really well in orgo lab. It was recrystallizations, which I think are fun, personally. The first one took me three tries to get really good crystals out of, but the second, harder one? First try. The TA seemed impressed - he said most people can't get the purity and crystal quality I had right off. This will make work this afternoon a little more tolerable, I hope.

The five hours of sleep thing is my own fault, too....through a somewhat convoluted and not very interesting chain of events, Aaron (one of the other Shadowrun players) and I ended up heading over to our GM's house (he lives with the third Shadowrun player), around 8:30, and at that point, it was too late, and our GM was feeling too sick to run an RP that night, so we ended up playing the A Game of Thrones boardgame until around 12:15, as we lost track of time. Unfortunately, at that point, all the easy buses back to my place had stopped running, just leaving one of the night buses that ran every half an hour. Get on, ask the bus driver the best way to get back home and he says 'Get off at Granville and pick up the next bus coming down there, I have to cut through downtown first', so I do so. And then wait, and wait, and wait for the next bus, and when it finally comes - it's the same bus driver! Which made me rather unhappy after having waited in the cold outside for twenty minutes. But I got home, and got talked into joining another campaign, so it's all okay in the end.

I really enjoy doing lab work. Even when things are not going quite as planned, and I'm dripping the diethyl ether with the solute I'm trying to recover in it all over my bench, it's still relaxing. I lucked out and have a bench all to myself for the organic chem lab, which means no more idiots who can't undrestand how the vaccum filtration system works. Also, organic chem labs are very...aromatic (in more ways than one, although only the chem/life science geeks reading will get that terrible pun). Ether in particular has a strange sticky-sweet smell to it. Acetone...well, acetone smells like acetone. It's nail polish remover, basically, although I think usually it's diluted there. Smells bad, but not as bad as ammonia.

I really, really need to find a lab to volunteer in in the fall. I've been trying really hard not to get too down about finding something for the summer, although it's difficult when every third sentence out of Yana's mouth starts with 'In my lab...' (another third is complaining about how badly she did this year, and the last third is everything else. Great person, but sometimes I want to tell her to either shut up, or get some hobbies or something). I'll probably start compiling a list now, although I don't have time to actually write up a ton of e-mails at the moment.

Has my tuition refund that was mailed last Monday showed up yet? No. Has my invoice for the fifteen dollars I owe the library mailed last Thursday showed up yet? Yes.

At least my tax return finally showed - used some of it to by food, one delicious bagel of which I'm eating right now. Think I'll take a walk afterwards - it's a nice night out.

Another item from yesterday's list that I forgot, and must post just for Julie:

6) Rotating and rebinning the apples is an epic task. The Spartan apples, doubly so. (They're on special, so we have five bins of them. And some idiot stashed three crates underneath the bins I had to sort and rotate)

And I got the awesome prof instead of the shitty prof, which is excellent. Said prof is apparently also obsessed with 24 which makes me laugh so much inside.

I really need food, though. I'm getting a bit panicky, and I know a good point of it is the lack of food.

1) No matter what you went into the cooler to get, it's at the bottom of the ten-box stack. Always.

2) Customers assume we know where everything is in the store. We don't. We know where everything is in the produce department, and will likely just take you to someone (ie, Grocery) who does know the rest of the store.

3) I have no idea how background music selection is done, but it's...strange. Things I can recall being played:

Queen - Breakthrough
Nickelback - How You Remind Me
Pat Benatar - Invincible
The Monkees - Now I'm A Believer (and I'm pretty sure it was this and not the Smash Mouth cover)
Linkin Park - In the End
Evanesence - something off of Fallen

Totally random, but not altogether that bad. Although I think I may have actually cracked up a little when the Linkin Park song came on, because God, I haven't heard that in years. I, uh, actually kind of like that song, even though I pretend I am above Linkin Park (I also like that Pat Benatar song, but will admit my fondness for really bad 80s pop).

4) I so called it about Yana talking to me about her lab every spare minute she could. Thank god we're at opposite ends of the store, so she can only babble at me on breaks, and not for eight hours straight, which will hopefully preserve my sanity.

5) The cardboard dumpster is about six inches too high to be with decent arm-reach, which means to chuck stuff in, you kind of have to jump up and down and look like an idiot.

I like this job so much better than lifeguarding. And unrelated, but Winter is the most awesome person ever, and I finally find out who my chem prof is tomorrow. Hooray!

I have a hard time really, truly hating people, and a hard time holding grudges. I think this is because of a number of things - first, I can never really work up the emotion to actually hate anyone not close to me. Dislike, yes, but for the most part, there can't be any real deep personal-level dislike because, well, they're not close enough to be able to hurt me or my relationships with others, and there's no real point in caring. Which means all the people I want to really, truly hate are former friends. Only my friends have the power to get me that worked up and angry, at least for more than five minutes (short-tempered, me? Yes). The problem there then because they were friends, I can still remember all those good moments back when I still liked and cared about the person, and part of me wants to forgive and be forgiven, because when it comes down to it, I want to like people, and I really, really want to be liked. And this leaves me feeling conflicted - how do you forgive someone who has done the unforgiveable, and reconcile what they did with who they used to be? Which is all topped off by my own stubborness - I want to be right, and for them to be wrong. I want to be able to just hate them. My dad would probably have some deep, sagely advice on the answer to this problem, but I don't.

(I know there've been lots of posts and a fair amount of navel-gazing lately - it's what happens when I have no work or school for a week, and half my friends have gone home and most of the rest are getting various summer thing set in action. I sit around and think waaaay too much. This will probably end next week when the insanity begins. Though I will inform you all if we have any geriatric tuna thieves.)

So, I was sitting here working myself into a bit of hysteria and misery, and Justin messages me randomly with 'Thanks for the candy', which caused me to crack up, and was just what I needed. I ♥ my friends.

Things aren't so much bad as just stressful - I really, really do not handle change well, because routine gives me a sense of security, and moving + new job + new classes = not so great for me. Hopefully once things settle in I'll be better - in the meantime, the stress is giving me some really wierd dreams. Thankfully not nightmares, which is what stress usually brings, although one or two of them have been...depressing, I guess? Just a little bit. The rest have been really weird shit, like dreaming I was grocery shopping, or one where we were training baby seals to think they were puppies, and then they couldn't swim. Yeah, my subconcious is a strange place - I can figure out the source of the depressing one, and even the grocery store one, but the seals? Noooo clue.

I've also got some stuff I think I need to talk through with someone, but there's way too much backstory to it all, so there's only like...two people I can actually talk to about it. Both of whom have been offline most of the week. Oh well - trying not to stress about it when I can't do much about it.

And for a moment of random amusement from yesterday, which I forgot to post - apparently there has been repeat problems at my store with old ladies stealing canned tuna.

EDIT: Also, the Wargamers are slowly learning that the way to my heart is through my stomach. Mmmm, delicious chicken and rice. Makes me fully of happy~

Much as I am a packrat in real life (I have BC Ferry reciepts from 2003, and the last five years of movie ticket stubs, I kid you not), I'm also a total packrat with computer files. Earlier, when the internet was being extra dodgy, instead of doing useful things like sleeping or finishing unpacking, I was sifting through said old files for the sheer hilarity of some of the stuff I've got saved. My old AIM download folder in particular is full of hilarious, because it accidently became a dumping ground for saved files that didn't go anywhere else for a while, plus all the random stuff people sent me - it's got good photoshop, bad photoshop, evil small children, photos certain highly narcissistic friends sent me of themselves, CLAMPesque AIM chat logs, and a diagram showing how Claudia is not like Riff.

My untagged music folder is also full of lots of strange random stuff - VNV Nation parodies, the entire audio track to the Buffy musical episode, and a coffee jingle. Some of this stuff I may upload when I'm on non-shitty internet, because it's the sort of stuff people other than me find funny, and it's way less incriminating. Although most ironic thing I found? A warning that I think we had up on the first version of Yuuzai with the generic 'blah blah blah, some of this fiction is pornographic, don't look at if you're not legal, blah blah blah', and I, the webmisstress, was underaged at the time.

And to keep the topic random by switching to something completely non-related - I was sifting through some stuff I had saved in one of my Google Notebooks, and came across this entry from last fall, and realized I've actually accomplished two of the things on the list - clubbing, and tabletop RP. Eventually, I think I may make a gigantic list of all the things I'd like to do, from big to small, and keep a record of what I actually do.

(Also, advice on getting into likely-full Japanese classes this fall? Second-years register last for classes, and first-years register first, so I am effectively fucked for getting into Japanese 100 and 101. There's always the 'throwing myself on the department head's desk and crying' tactic, a similar application of which apparently once got the Wargamers their own office, but I think that may be a bit much)

Orientation at work went pretty well today - I'm one of two girls working in produce, and the other one seemed pretty nice, as did everyone else working there. Mostly students, either grade 12 or uni, like me - one of the other guys in produce is actually in the same orgo section as me this summer. I managed to knock over several crates of strawberries on my first day there, although we only had to toss two of the smaller packages, and apparently I am far from the first to knock something over in their first few days, so it's okay. Not sure what my hours are yet, have to call tomorrow to find out.

Last two grades came in - 76 in Bio, which is not as good as I was hoping for (wanted more like 80+), but the class average is about ten points lower than all of my other classes, so comparatively, it's actually a pretty decent mark. I also did better in Physics than I was expecting - 78 instead of somewhere more around 70, so it all kind of evens out in the end. I managed to pull off a final sessional average of 75, which is a B, and considering my 60 first term, pretty good. It's a good first-year average for applying for co-op with, and it means I may be eligible for the honours program, which might be a good thing to try for. Chem starts Monday - I'm both excited and nervous. I enjoyed organic chem when we did some of it second term, but I also know it has a reputation for being totally brutal, so I guess I'll see.

Debating if I want to do more sidequests in DDS or just plow on through to the final boss...the latter option is looking increasingly appealing. Still need to finish unpacking as well (I've got my 'random stuff' bag left to go)

I meant to post this last week, but never got around to it - someone on the internet hates me! I'm actually strangely touched - this is the closest to an actual flame I've ever recieved. I'm somewhat tempted to try and shatter this girl's world view that 1) bisexual = gay (and that one same-sex crush makes you so, which I think is all I mentioned in the story - although my Leon is actually a really repressed straight-leaning bisexual) and 2) bisexual and gay men obviously cannot be jocks/boy scouts/nightclub bouncers/quintissential Nice Guys, but it's not really worth the effort.

I've also finally had time this week to pick up DDS1 again - currently doing the good old 'string of sidequests and power-leveling before the end of the game' deal, although it's actually rather enjoyable - for some reason I tend to have a lot of fun dungeon crawling in these games. The really interesting thing I've been noticing is the difference between my battle strategy here and in Nocturne. In Nocturne, I tended towards mostly physical attacks and healing magic, with just a touch of support stuff thrown in here and there - my end-game party was the demifiend with mostly physical skills and some healing magic, and fairly balanced stats, along with Red Rider, Black Rider, and Dante.

In DDS, I've been going a lot more magically offensive - Serph has had his magic stats upped, and is usually running high level fire spells with some ice spells as back-up, Argilla is my support, with healing magic and a ton of stats-boosting skills (although I'm going to get her some high-level offensive spells, I think, her magic stat is really high), and Heat, who has mostly physical-boost skills and does the brute-force thing. This seems to be working out pretty well for me, as far as party balance goes. Not really any plot bits to comment on, as it's all sidequests at the moment - that stuff'll probably come later.

Move was successful, if chaotic. Jordan's pick-up truck and childhood playing Tetris came in handy, and everything has successfully been moved over. I now have $5.50 in my bank account after taking out money to pay rent, but I think the tuition refund may be going through tomorrow, which will leave me in a better state. Finally got contacted by work about orientation - Friday afternoon, which is later than I would like to be starting (my prefered start-time was _last_ week), but...I'll make it work. Internet at the moment is some exceptionally dodgy wireless from upstairs, so I'll probably be using the campus wireless a lot in the next week or two (what I'm on right now).

I was feeling kind of down earlier - moving stress, money stress, all that, but I came and hung out at the clubroom, and one of the guys in my two games showed up, and we hung out for a while, and went over to Drexoll Games to oogle all the pretty things we couldn't buy (they had a d6 block in the same pattern as my original set which I really really want for Shadowrun, but it was $27 D:). Shadowrun is also happening tomorrow night, which'll be good. I try not to be too high-strung, but I'm unfortunately inclined to worry about everything - some relaxed game stuff will be good for me.

Ended up going with place 2 - moving all my stuff tomorrow morning. Not sure what the initial internet situation is going to be like, although I'll still be checking e-mail, LJ, all that, via on-campus wireless if nothing else - I may not be around much on AIM/MSN in the next week or so, though.

Job still hasn't told me when I'm working, which is leaving me annoyed and panicky, and classes start next Monday - I'm taking organic chem for May and the first half of June, to somewhat increase my chances of actually passing it.

Transportation for my tons of stuff was apparently arranged via WoW, proving that my friends are incredibly nerdy, but also very cool for coming out in the morning to help me move said tons of stuff. Seriously, this has to be three times as much stuff as I left MA with last year. Although at least some of it is my massive bag of food for the next two weeks until I actually get paid again.

Will post new address when I've got it (damnit have to remember a new postal code) - goodbye, residence, I will not miss you!