Congratulations Mr. Simpson. By your calculations we are presently sailing through Sub-Saharan Africa.

Yes, the Scriptures paper did make it in time. And yes, it should never have seen the light of day. And yes, my grade probably dropped 30%, or whatever percentage of my grade that it was worth, but it's done, right? OVER!!!!

And now we move on to other work...

I could at this point list all the work I need to do, but I've done that before, I seem to remember. Moreover, if you're interested, you're probably in the same classes with me, and know what needs to me done. If you're not in the classes, you probably don't want an exhaustive point by point explanation of what school work I should be doing at this moment. Just let it be know, that there is a lot. *grins* *breaks down and weeps*

OH, there is one thing. For literature class, we had to go out and find 5 - 10 items outside, bring them home, and write a presentation in the style of Annie Dillard about them. In the last class, we will read these essays/presentations. The reaction of the Med students to this assigment was rather amusing, as was that of the budding engineers.
"He wants us to do what?"
"What's the theme?" "You are the theme!"
Rather a fun assigment, all in all. Particularly since Prof. Tucker gave us free rein to use colloquialisms. *rubs hands in glee* I really really want to frame my intro as a mock css stylesheet.

eh? eh? Unfortunately, everyone I've talked to so far doesn't think that you can call code a colloquialism. What do you think? No?

In other news, Moon Unit is staying here on the weekends until graduation, which is very jolly. Our minds have degenerated to the point that now all we do is schoolwork, watch movies, or laugh. We watched three Horatio Hornblower movies in the past 2 days: One on Friday and two on Saturday. Moon Unit's Friend came over for a sleepover last night and thereupon we also watched the movie Serenity. Stupid use of my time and I'll regret it later, no doubt, but they were GOOD movies.

It was also earth hour last night, so from 8 - 9 we turned off all the electric appliances and didn't run water. Amusing, since of those in the house, only Rach was at all excited about it. The rest of us kinda just wanted to have candles. Or, maybe that was just me. *sheepish* I declare, the other girls are ridiculously paranoid about me and knives or flame or hot wax. Moon Unit kept taking tea lights away from me. *sulks* Then Third World came over and sat on my lap to pin my hands down. Meanwhile, Moon Unit's Friend is calmly emptying candles to make a ball of wax, and playing with a large knife that had been brought out to cut a giant easter egg, and no one noticed!!! Basically we spent the entire hour laughing. Good times.

And, here are some pictures from the last week or two:


Moon Unit, Third World and I went out to the park to find our 5 - 10 objects. There is a crust on the snow, but it is melting enough that we would occasionally break through. Here, I turned to take a picture of my friends, went through over my knees, and fell over. "Oooh, pretty perspective!"



The park, also from up to my knees in the snow.


Changed to black and white, and got a surprisingly emo picture of Third World and Moon Unit. *is surprised*


Then, happy Third World!


Happy Moon Unit, visiting the trees.


Walked down the friendly alley behind Amnesty International...


People waiting for the bus.




Parliament seen from over the river, at sun down. Third World and I decided that we didn't want to cook, and celebrated our lack of classes on that day by going to the food court. Taken from a bridge.

The earth is the Lord's, and everything in it.

Sometimes it is very hard to try to live by faith.

But I am not alone.

I am not the first to go through this, and there are those even now who have far worse to deal with. Everyone has their own sorrow or frustration they come up against. And even if this were not so I would not be alone.

"I will never leave you nor forsake you"

There really is no fathoming the depths of my hatred for this paper.

I hadn't fully realized how deeply I dislike my scriptures paper, but let me tell you, we are not friends. On Saturday, I worked all day on the paper, and do you know what I did? I spend the ENTIRE day, 8 hours, to be precise, typing out quotes. I ended up with 8 pages, single spaced, 11 pt- 4,456 words. The entire paper has a word limit of 2,500 words. *beats head against wall*

Do you know why I spent so ridiculously much time on quotes? (I have just realized the answer to this important query.) As long as I was working on quotes, I didn't have to actually write. I realized this when I sat down at the computer, looked at my empty page, and felt physically ill. It's true! I have reached the stage where school work makes me fell sick to my stomach.

I think this is partly fueled by the looming feeling that I am going to FAIL!!!!! Jolly, no? Due to the long-draw-out paper due dates, I get to enter exam stress 6 weeks early. *laughs hysterically* I only felt this way the actual week of exams last term, and the day of standardized exams in the past. This time, I charmingly get to experience the full joy of soul-sucking stress for another five weeks, in addition to the expanse of it I have already moved through mainly intact.

Five weeks? *blinks* That's all it is till I go home? Insane. Truly insane. I'm really looking forward to seeing all my family again, but I'm also really going to miss the people here. *cries* Funnily, I'm having moving dreams again. I haven't had those since I was about 13. They're dreams in which for some reason, usually Daddy's work, the family gets to move to a new place, which just so happens to be near my friends. I've been moving west a lot at night. *grins* Vancouver, Victoria, Ottawa, an unexplained Canadian Military Base in Oregon.

In case I haven't mentioned it before, I'm the only one from the east coast at the college; everyone else is EST and further west.

*sigh* And my little brother Gid, who is newly four, is undergoing an eval and chemo today. Pray without ceasing...

Go with God.

He is risen!

He is risen indeed.

But he was wounded for our transgressions, he was bruised for our iniquities: the chastisement of our peace was upon him; and with his stripes we are healed.
-Isa 53:5

We are healed.

My Lord and my God, look what we've done to you.

That was running through my head for about two hours straight this evening. Sue brought over The Passion of the Christ, and she, Star, Third World and I all watched it.

It was very good, but I'm not sure I"m going to sleep very well tonight. I haven't cried in a movie since I was 6, I think, but there was certainly a little bit of involuntary sobbing going on in points.

A good thing to watch on Good Friday; Greater love hath no man...

Why won't you align?!

I've had this "craving to build a website" for a couple weeks now. I had an idea for a particular function for this site, and I wanted to put it into reality. However, it's a REALLY complicated site, and I have no idea how to do, anything, really. I've been harassing Third World with coding questions for a couple of days. I'd be reading Calvin, and then pop my head around the door frame;
"What if you have two login pages. Can you do that?"
"Why are you asking me? I don't know!"
*slinks away*
*five minutes later* "Can you put a tag cloud in your template? Or does that go somewhere else?"
"Seriously, I don't know. Ask Mindkicker."

So, I eventually did, last night, ask Mr. Mindkicker a bunch of questions. He suggested that I start small (clever man,) and build a simple page first. And, he sent me a tutorial. So I followed the tutorial, which was ENORMOUS fun. I was grinning like a loon the whole time.

Then I tried to start modifying it past the end of the tutorial, and it abruptly became slightly frustrating. Still fun, but mildly to moderately frustrating. I mean, at one point I changed the link "hover" colour, and the entire page inverted. When I botch, I BOTCH! *grins*

After 2 hours, I went to bed. I was telling myself; "see, self, this is why you don't want to do computer things. They're hard, and you don't have any idea what you're doing. Leave them to the people who know what they're doing."

I then woke up this morning, my mind buzzing with ways I could change the code to make it work. *sigh* As I'm writing this, I really want to open it up again, but I'm not coding today! Not till exams are over! I have too much work to do! *weeps*

My, May is looking like lots of fun. Writing, and I can work on figuring out what in the world I'm doing on computers... *glee*

Lord Momo of the Momo Dynasty, your momo-ness.

Well, the art paper is done. *collapses on the floor in a huddle of exhaustion* I am actually not too displeased with it. Turned out that I had more information than I needed, not less, (which was what I was expecting.) So I was able to pick and choose what I was including, which was nice. *glee*

EDIT: I stole this description of the mental state of the house from Third World's blog, because I think it's hilarious.

Slow Descent Into Madness: Day Two.

It’s been very entertaining watching the slowly degrading mental states of the students in my House, myself included. One of us will launch into this completely nonsensical train of thought, or jump from talking about a paper to singing something random, or stroking their laptop and wondering what they should name it. It’s even more amusing when I ignore it at first, and then realize what I or someone else just did. Example: Snazel just took her scarf off, wrapped it around her like a belt, took that off, and made it into some kind of tunic-thing, all while giving a lengthy treatise on why there are no actual examples of early Christian art. It might not have been exactly like that, but you get the picture.

Now it's on to the scriptures paper. I actually know what I am doing for all of my projects now. I mean, I know the themes. *scoffs* I have no idea what I'm actually doing! No, that's too pessimistic. I will make it through!

*sigh*

Latin quiz tomorrow, and then we'll most likely get our music papers back. That should be ~interesting.~ However, we have a four-day weekend because of Easter. It all balances out, no?

We worked it out today, and exam week will be over in just a month. The mind boggles, I tell you. BOGGLES! The time is moving so fast. I already bought my ticket home. (I'm flying Westjet, NOT air Canada, and I got the flight at half price. Take THAT, air Canada! *sticks out tongue*)

Oh... *grins evilly* Over Christmas, I took a screen shot of my desktop, including all the widgets. I found it yesterday, and placed it as my wallpaper. Now I have an Apple desktop as the background on a Windows computer. This pleases my sense of the ironic, which as we all know is very deficient. *dances off*

The slow decent into madness, week one.

Wow, as papers and exams loom, the house just gets more and more insane.
Less sleep + more sugar + stress = funny times.

Case in point, Third World and I discussing her art paper. (By the way, she's writing her art paper on the use of the classical gods in Christian Renaissance art, and she wrote a novel of 50 thousand words in November. It was a rewrite of the classical Greek tale of Theseus and the Minotaur. Anyways...)

Third World: "How should I transition into the paper? Should I just dive right in with "Did they approach this from a Christian standpoint?" Or should I write about the classical gods first?"
Me: "Fiction."
Third World: *in a "literary" voice* "A excerpt from my recent novel.."

Wow, we laughed so hard.Third World had to sit down on the stairs, and I was leaning on the wall to stay upright.

We're all going to the other girls' house for art paper editing and green drinks tomorrow, in honour of St. Paddy's day. Should be fun.

Here comes the next contestant...

*puts art paper aside*

Yes, I am in fact still alive, all appearances to the contrary. Just working away on my papers, and their inexorable deadlines. Moon Unit stayed here again this weekend to work on her papers, so the house is full of quietly studious people. *hysterical laughter ensues* Right now, that is.

Nothing much has been going on, except for studying. It's funny. I got four sources books from the University library, for my paper, and I got less out of them than I got out of one lecture by Professor Tingley. Shows how much information he packs into those three hour lectures.

Oh, and Third World and I went to the coffee shop on Thursday to study. So, and hour passes of us reading quietly, and then she realized that maybe she should go into classical studies. (NOT out of the blue! There was lead up and a logical train of thought, I just can't remember it.) Then we started talking about the classics, and travel, and history, and politics, and everything... and then realized that we had spent 3 hours chatting, not studying. *sigh* It was an excellent conversation though. I remembered that I actually do like English and history, and am now looking forward to studying them. I had forgotten that school is sometimes fun. "Yeah, that's why I came here!"*grins*

We almost decided to go to Europe next summer, when she has the time off from school. Travelling makes me happy! So we just have to lure more people along to come with us, and get the money. *blinks* Then I come back home and work for three months and head out again with Frauline. *evil grin*

The future looks fun.

I just- have a strange relationship with gravity...

(After Third World flicked water on me, and I chased her around the house with a sponge.)
Moon Unit: "Darlings, do try to keep the violence to a minimum, we want to keep this at a PG rating." *pause* "Jokes, jokes..."

I'm not sure if I can actually act "normal," but I know I can get closer to it that I am acting now, if only by sitting still and not talking. *sideways grin* I know this, because I know I have in the past acted differently. I just wonder if it's worth the effort?

On the other hand, "acting normal" may not be so much of an issue once I go home. For one thing, I'll have to be mature again. *sigh* It's been a lot of fun not being the oldest, but I'll be closing in on age 20 when I get back. That tends to lend its self to being restrained and normal. *big sigh* Also, I'll finally be able to get out and walk. I really can't go for any kind of walk here; I hit a sketchy neighbourhood anyway I turn. So here, the idea of walking out is not very attractive, and I end up wound rather tight from excess energy. *quivers*

I suppose I am worrying about going home again. I can't wait to see all my family again, but I'm also really going to miss my friends here. *cries* Bah, moving away from friends is not fun. However, I am determined to keep in contact with my friends from here! And I've been told that it'll be my responsibility to visit other people, since everyone is getting jobs and entering college/university, and they won't have time to travel. We'll just see about that, *smiles* But I am determined to go visit Moon Unit and Third World in their natural habitats, even if they don't reciprocate the visit. *is heroically determined*

ANYWAYS, that was a completely odd post, and I now need to go read some of my art sources. God go with you.

*falls off chair and bangs head on wall, completely by accident*

[Highly random thought snippets]
My philosophy paper is in.

My philosophy assignment is in.

I have oodles of Latin (11 ugly sentences) to translate for tomorrow.

Student for a Day was today. It went well. The food was good, the classes were interesting, and I didn't make too much of a fool of myself.

I have my art question and sources. Now all I have to do is read the sources and write the paper. *grins*

I think I have my Literature question; the importance of landscape in specific literature.

And, I knocked over a lamp with a chair. I was trying to move the chair around the lamp so I could put it in front of the computer, but I failed. The lamp and the chair are both unharmed.
[/highly random thought snippets]

What's going on? Well...

I'm back from the Weston Lecture, which was good, but not inspiring. As I am ideologically opposed to starting school work at 10:15 at night, it looks like I have the rest of the evening off! *cheers*

I haven't been posting much lately, sorry. *shy* What's been going on? I'm done with my ~interesting~ philosophy paper. How good is it? Well, it's up to 10 pages... Let's not probe deeper, shall we?

What else do I have to do...

1. a 20 page philosophy reading
   
1. Due Monday
   
2. with a 12 question assignment
   
3. (we received this on Thursday evening.)
2. Art paper:
   
1. 10 pages
   
2. 11 pt
   
3. double-spaced
   
4. 1 in. margins
   
5. I have the question, and now after philosophy I know better what I'm doing.
6. Due next week
   
3. Dr. Patrick's "evolution pros and cons dialogue."
   
1. As many pages as you need, so at least 6, probably way more.
2. Due in three weeks
   
4. Read Martin Buber's I and Thou for philosophy.
   
1. It's a whole book.
2. Next week's Philosophy
   
5. Scriptures paper.
   
1. Comparing 3 writers
2. 10 pages
   
3. on an appropriate subject
   
4. I have NO IDEA!
5. Due end of the month
   
6. Literature paper.
   
1. No comment, really
2. Due first week in April
   
7. Somewhere in here we have a Literature Presentation.
8. Ongoing Latin Translations
9. Ongoing Philosophy readings.
10. Start revising for exams, which are in only four weeks.

And our professors ask us with straight faces what we're doing in our social lives. *grins*

Sigh.

This makes me tired.

You're a very smart girl, you're just surrounded by people who are much smarter than you!

Bah.

I always, (I have just realized this,) come out of Literature class feeling stupid, guilty about my selfishness, and generally worthless. A sneaking suspicion exists at the back of my head that this is not the point of the class, but I don't really know. I tend to be really non-articulate, and give exactly the oppisate impression from what I'm trying to say. Sigh.

Also, to complete my mood of wonder and light, I've found out that my philosophy paper had font size specified. *beats head against wall* I just got it up to 10 pages, and now that I had to take it from 12pt. to 11pt. it's only a hair over 7. *gloom*

I'm not even broaching the subject of the Art paper. (or the Scriptures paper (or the literature paper (or the paper for Dr. Patrick.)))

There was a funny moment in Literature class though. Professor Tucker was asking us if we did anything other than study, and we were answering in the negative. Then:

Prof. Tucker: Nothing?
Sue: We [her house] made hot chocolate that requires brandy, rum and vodka. Does that count?

Ah, Augustine...

If it wasn't painful, it wouldn't be interesting.

Guess what!
I just discovered something remarkable!
I forgot to take down quotes when reading Machiavelli!

What this means is; even though I stayed up till 2am on Friday reading 101 pages of political advice, I now have to read it again. *bounces head off desk* You know, if I had only used a little bit of foresight, this whole paper would be so much easier. *makes more resolutions about being sensible next time*

Okay, it's 3 hours and 15 minutes till midnight. How much work can I do in that time? Let us see. Let us just see. *evil smile*

---

Update 1: I just had to share this quote.

Chapter 10 of the Prince

“And if any one were to argue that, if the people who have possessions outside of the city were to see them ravaged and destroyed by the enemy, they would lose their patience, and that their selfish desire to protect their property would cause them to forget their attachment to the prince, I would meet this objection by saying that a powerful and valiant prince will easily overcome this difficulty by encouraging his subjects with the hope that the evil will not endure long, or by alarming them with fears of the enemy’s cruelty, or by assuring himself adroitly of those who have been too forward in expressing their discontent."

---

Update 2: I have just realized that Moon Unit, Third World, RM and I are all doing something related to Machiavelli. Amusing

Travel plans and other blessings

I found something exciting! There's a bus pass offered through greyhound, 750 Canadian for 60 days anywhere in North America! I'm determinedly not making itineraries yet, but that still looks really excellent, especially since the only equivalent on the train was 709 American, off-peak, for only 30 days. Bus travel, here I come!

*train of thought is shunted onto another track*

I know I've been griping lately, and if you were the recipient of one of my rants, I'm sorry. I get stuck in a mind rant, blah blah blah... The truth is, I am blessed. What follows is incoherent, I just wanted to get it out.

I have a marvellous large family which loves me. I get to have 11 family members! Not everyone can boast that they have full fledged fan-girls waiting for them at home, and I have 4. *grin* I have two adorable little brothers who are too cute for words, and want me to read to them. I have a little brother who makes me so mad, and laugh so hard. I can't wait to see him grow up, it's gonna be a wild ride. I have sister near my age who makes me laugh so hard; a ray of sunshine in human form. I have a little brother who I am proud to see pass me- he's an inspiration at age 17. I have parents who are not only still together, which is a rarity nowadays, they are an example everyday of what Love really is. My parents are the strongest people I know. They face adversity on a remarkable number of levels- with a laugh. Their faith is incredible.

And then there's my extended family. Four direct family members who have signed up to put their lives on the line for their country! How can you not be in awe of that? I have Grandparents who walked into the jungles of Africa as missionaries. I have a cousin who wakes up every day and goes into battle with herself. For goodness sake, my entire extended family is an inspiration on one level or another!

I have been given an marvellous education which has left me interested in the whole world. That doesn't sound like much, but to even be given an education is something many girls don't get. And I've been given SUCH an education. How many times did I read that encyclopedia set? Talking about world politics at the dinner table. Explaining weather patterns while washing dishes. "It looks like you're going to be doing the accounting." "You're smart, figure it out." Graphic design. Sitting through a full year of my jumping-down-holes stories. Theology in the living room. No doubt that I could run my own business at age 11, and then subtly subsidizing it. Letting me listen in to the adults' conversations, which are always more interesting. Applied math- we renovated a house! Just teaching me to see the spectacular beauty of the world around me. The world is so beautiful, on so many levels. Not hiding the darkness of the world, but showing me that there is light too. (even if "you're so far down they have to pump in daylight." : )
Showing me the humour in every situation. Making me fix the window. I could go on for a very long time, but I'll stop now.

I've been given the opportunity of this year of study. I haven't even made it through the whole year and this has taught me so much.

I have friends who have seen me at my truly bizarre, and they still willingly sit next to me. No one even blinks when I come downstairs wearing a dress and pants, or a necklace in my hair. The pencils and chopsticks did give them some pause... "That wasn't a full-on drape, this is a full-on drape." Heh heheh. I'm not going into any more memories, you know them, and they'd be totally incomprehensible to anyone else.

People notice me, in a friendly way. I didn't know that happened before this year.

*deep breath* I have high-speed internet access, on an actually nice computer. *grins* I have been spoiled in terms of computer access at home. Despite living out on the edge of nowhere, I'm used to high-high speed access, and really nice powerful computers. This computer, while not what I'm used to, is actually- decent. It's better than a LOT of people have. Okay.

I've seen the world. I've lived on two continents, three countries, seven states or provinces, and 14 houses, I think. I saw castles before the age of four, and I travelled internationally before I was three. I was given the travel bug before I could read. That's something not to be taken lightly! *BIG grin* I think I could live in most places in the world. Suburbia might be hard, but I think I could get through it.

I lived without a hot water heater for over a year. How many people in this country do you know who can say that? 'Nuff said.

I get to write stories. I get to play with the language. I get to make people in my head and put them on paper. It's my drug...

I get to argue with people on interesting subjects. Free will, anyone? Define your terms!

I live in a marvellous, paradoxical, logical, fascinating, frustrating, beautiful, messy, full world. I live in a place where I am allowed and encouraged to follow what I am good at. I am surrounded by funny, intelligent, interesting people.

I get to live.

Oh look, it's March. The second day of March, none the less.

Wow, look how the time flies. *total lack of enthusiasm*

I have papers due next week. Why am I incapable of taking the good advice I was repeatedly given? *cries*

It's gonna be a long day.

*pokes Aquinas, who is giving Machiavelli a funny look*
You two, get along. I have to fit both of you into a paper.
*Aquinas and Machiavelli go stand in different corners of the room and don't look at each other*
Sigh.