Funny thing happened on the way to Elftown...

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This morning, my father had to temporarily shut off power to part of the house so he could fix a ceiling fan without being electrocuted. This part of the house included the room containing our DSL modem, which facilitates our connection to the internet (for ALL the computers in our house--we have a wireless router hooked up to it, so our two laptops (including mine, which I'm using to type this) can have internet access from anywhere in the house). Unfortunately, when he turned the power back on, the DSL modem didn't work. After making a feeble attempt at fixing it and failing miserably, he called our DSL provider, and came to the conclusion that our little box was busted and we needed a new one. (This is wholly unlike him--ordinarily, he'd try to fix it himself, and end up calling a professional only after he'd REALLY broken it.) The man on the other end said he'd try to get a technician to see us this afternoon, but he was having trouble reaching the one who was on duty (bad cell reception, maybe?), so the guy may or may not be coming sometime today. Dad thought that since the man who was going to fix our internet connection might be here within an hour or two, this was a fine time to go out for a very long game of golf. Then Mom left the house to go pick up my grandmother and bring her here (a trip of at least one hour in either direction). So basically my sister and I were left to fend for ourselves if the DSL guy showed up.

About half an hour after our parents left, Sara (my sister, also known as [chosenwarrior7]) came up to my room to inform me that our supposedly dead DSL box had magically resurrected itself. I hopped over to my laptop and did a quick test to confirm, finding that I did indeed have internet access. (I was too engrossed in something else I was doing to actually sit down and check my email, visit here, etc., though.) We were now wondering what would happen as regards the DSL dude, seeing as contacting him to tell him he wasn't needed would require a long chain of phone calls (we call one of our parents, they call the provider's office, the guy at the desk calls the technician), at least one of which had a history of being problematic. We decided to blow it off and rely on the possibility that the technician wouldn't make it here today.

Another 45 minutes later, the doorbell rang (I was barricaded in my room at the time, so I didn't hear it). Sara is afraid of strangers, so she didn't answer it. She waited near the door, spying but out of sight of the windows, until the scary person's shadow disappeared. Moments later, she heard a truck drive away, so she opened the door to see if it had been UPS delivering a package. Sure enough, there was a small box on the doorstep, but it wasn't taped shut or labeled for mailing. Guess what was inside? A brand-spanking-new DSL modem. The DSL guy must have figured that nobody was home and left it there for us to install on our own. Oops.

Well, at least now we have a spare.

So THAT'S why I love roller coasters...

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I'm back from my weekend at Cedar Point, and lemme tell ya, it just keeps getting better. The new ride this year (there is ALWAYS a new ride) was MaxAir, the aforementioned giant spinning swing thing, which was the first ride we (me and my family) rode after we arrived on Friday. It was FUUUUUUUN!! We also rode just about every roller coaster in the park (except the wimpy ones) at least once, and many more than once (Top Thrill Dragster twice, Millenium Force twice, Wicked Twister twice, Mean Streak twice, Mantis three times, Gemini four times because there was no line, and Power Tower three times even though it's not a roller coaster). Friday was awesome because the park was almost deserted--most of the rides had such short lines (queues, for those of you who prefer that term) that we could pretty much walk right on them. The only one that had a significant line was Millenium Force, but even that was only a half-hour wait. The reason for the lack of crowds, I'm assuming, was that it was absurdly hot outside--the sign at the exit said that the temperature that day had peaked at a broiling 97 degrees Farenheit (36 degrees Celsius), and I believed it. We were soaked with sweat the whole time, but we got to ride just about everything in the park without waiting in line, so we were quite satisified.

Saturday we spent visiting my aunt Nancy (my mom's sister) and uncle Wayne, and their two (grown-up) sons Sean and Scott. They are a bunch of very goofy people, and their house has no air conditioning.

On Sunday we went back to the park one last time, but the lines were longer (presumably because it was a weekend, and the weather forecast predicted a slightly lower temperature than Friday's), and we were tired from all the running around on Friday, so we didn't ride as many rides and ended up leaving at about 4:30 after the heat and the crowds became unbearable. (On Friday we'd stayed until 10:00 at night, when the park closed.) We did get to ride the Magnum XL-200, which we'd missed on Friday (it really is a good ride, despite being shaky as heck).

Speaking of which, on Friday I discovered the ultimate strategy for riding shaky roller coasters without getting beat up:
1. Pick seats near the front or middle of the train if possible (the further back you are, the more the ride shakes).
2. If the ride has shoulder restraints, make sure you are not wearing your sunglasses (this is to keep your ears from getting hurt as your head gets bounced around between the restraints).
3. Lower the lap bar or shoulder restraint as far as possible, so it is holding you firmly in place (without actually hurting you, of course). This keeps your thighs from being bruised by the lap bar during airtime (when you feel like you're going to fly up out of your seat, usually at the tops of hills).
4a. If the ride does not have a shoulder restraint, LEAN FORWARD IN YOUR SEAT SO THAT NO PART OF YOUR BODY IS TOUCHING THE SEAT BACK. Your back is what takes the majority of the beating on most rides, as your body flops and bounces against the seat. You can lean forward like this and still be completely safe (though you might feel better holding on to something instead of raising your arms), and as long as your lap bar is tight, you won't get bruised at all. You should absolutely NOT do this on rides that have a sudden start, such as a pneumatic or magnetic launch (examples at Cedar Point: Top Thrill Dragster, Wicked Twister), because if you do, your body will fly back against the seat when the ride starts, and it WILL be painful. (And Top Thrill Dragster doesn't shake anyway.)
4b. If the ride does have a shoulder restraint, KEEP YOUR HEAD HELD FORWARD SO IT DOES NOT TOUCH THE HEAD REST. This keep your brain from being rattled by the shaking of the seat. Again, do NOT do this if the ride has a sudden start.

Once I figured all that out, I told the rest of my family, and after they tried it, they all stopped complaining about shaky rides. It works like a charm--I have almost no bruises on me after riding aging roller coasters all weekend, and I actually enjoyed the ones that I used to dread because they shook so much.

Oh, and I had my camera with me both days, so I got tons of nifty pictures. I'll be putting them in a wiki, along with descriptions of the individual rides.

The long-awaited Cedar Point trip!

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Tomorrow morning, my family and I are driving to a town called Sandusky in northern Ohio, where we will spend the weekend riding roller coasters at what many people consider the best amusement park in the world, Cedar Point! I haven't been there in two years, and the other three (my mom, dad and sister [chosenwarrior7]) haven't been since our last family trip there all the way back in 2001. And now that I have my very own digital camera, I can take awesome pictures of the rides while I wait in line! OH JOY!!

Yes, I, my parents, and my sister are all roller coaster nuts. We'll ride pretty much anything that doesn't look like it's going to fall apart. Cedar Point is our all-time favorite park, mostly because it has more roller coasters than any other amusement park in the entire world. The total's up to 14 or 15 now, I think, and a good number of those are new or well-designed steel ones that are worth riding 5 times in one day. (I've been to a park near Toronto called Paramount Canada's Wonderland which boasted that it had 11 roller coasters, but none of them appeared to have been built after I was born, and they all had small hills and skinny, shaky-looking tracks. We rode most of them anyway, but not a single one was any good. The only decent ride there, in fact, was this awesomely gigantic brand-spanking-new Swedish-designed humongous spinning swing thing called the Psyclone, which we ended up riding three times in a row even though the line was an hour long (but we waited in it anyway, mostly because there was nothing else worth doing). Word is that Cedar Point got one of those same big swing things built new for this year, so I am doubly excited. That thing was awesome.

One of my favorite things about Cedar Point is that it doesn't try to be a theme park. There's no fancy decorations, just really good rides--which is how it should be, in my opinion. Unless, of course, you're Busch Gardens Williamsburg or Universal Studios' Islands of Adventure, which are the only two amusement parks I've been to that could really pull off the theme thing without looking stupid and pathetic. Of course, neither had very many roller coasters, but that's because they probably couldn't afford to build them after using up so much money and land on neat-looking scenery. Cedar Point is all about the rides, though--the only thing flashy about their presentation is the brightly colored paint jobs on all the roller coasters. (That's one of the things that makes me want to photograph Cedar Point's roller coasters so badly--they're beautiful to look at. I'd like them even if they were painted in dull and boring colors, though, because they have that blend of mechanical and organic qualities--they're obviously manmade, but the way the tracks curve and twist is almost like a writhing snake. I love roller coasters, even when I'm not riding them.)

Well, I think you've heard me go on enough. I'll do more gushing when I get back on Monday.

Random observation!

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I was just (actually, at the time I'm writing this, I think I still am) having a little messagey-chat with a British Elftowner, and accidentally used the word "cookie" (in the food sense) without thinking. This got my mind wandering a bit on the subject of language and culture, and I got to writing some cool stuff (and so did my partner in conversation). Here, I'll just copy and paste the message text down there:

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She wrote:

Don't have any cookies, but you can have a chocolate hobnob if you like! (which might be the same thing by American standards anyway I think, do you call all biscuits cookies?)

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I wrote:

Oh right, I forgot, they're biscuits in England...(I've been over there a few times). Well, the sweet things that have chocolate chips or nuts or lots of sugar are cookies, and the things that you have with cheese or meats or spreadable things are crackers. Are both of those biscuits?

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She wrote:

Well, I'm fairly used to American-speak. Find it a lot of places online, and got some cousins over there, so yeah :) Don't worry.

I'd put cookies in the category of biscuits yeah. Crackers, I guess so... since people talk about having 'cheese and biscuits' after dinner and the like. Not a huge fan of them though, whats wrong with a perfectly good chocolate cake for dessert eh?

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I wrote (and this is where it gets crazy):

Cheese and crackers (er, biscuits) AFTER dinner?! That's a sin against the holy name of dessert! Here (or at least at my grandparents' house, but they're a little quirky), we have cheese and cracker-biscuit-things as a midafternoon snack, often with wine or something else alcoholic that I don't ever drink (alcohol, blegh! Can't stand the stuff). Actually, I think they might have derived that from the ol' British teatime tradition, being of British descent themselves.

On a related note, it's interesting to know that two countries with the same official language would speak it so differently. Especially food. There are so many odd food words in the British dialect (or in the American dialect, if you're British). Your "crisps" are our "chips," your "chips" are our "fries," your "biscuits" are our "cookies" AND "crackers" (how do you differentiate the two, anyway? And on a random sidenote, what exactly is a "digestive"?). Add that to the fact that a whole bunch of food companies use different brand names on different sides of the Atlantic--the "Walkers" brand of chips (er, crisps) is called Lay's in America, Kellogg's makes Frosted Flakes over here and Frosties over there (both still have Tony the Tiger as their mascot, too)--and you've got a very confusing mess for anyone visiting overseas. I figured that the Information Age would close the gap between the two cultures, but it turns out that physical distance still has a stronger influence than technologies like TV or the internet. What a crazy world.

Holy cow, I just wrote a small book. Sorry about that.

---

I think I ought to expand that little rant thing of mine, maybe put it in a wiki. Actually, I should start writing down all the little blurbs like this that I think up (which I am almost constantly doing). I should probably also start a wiki page for all my religious, moral, and political beliefs, so people can decide whether they really want to talk to me or should just stay away for their own good (warning to bigots, Bush supporters and devoutly religious (particulary Christian) people: You'll probably end up hating me.)

Wow, THAT paragraph was off topic...

Anyway, back to the first topic--the language/culture thing. So many of my fellow Americans never get to see (or care to know, sadly) what life is like outside their borders that it's no suprise that the majority of us are so bigoted and ignorant. (Unfortunately, overseas travel can be expensive, and that's money that a lot of Americans can't afford to waste, but there's always travel guides at the library or the plethora of info to be found on the internet, if we could just get ourselves interested enough to look.) It's really eye-opening to find out just how different we are from the rest of the world, especially if we try to imagine ourselves living in the places we visit or read about. (Definitely do NOT go into it with the attitiude that we are superior to everyone else on the planet, because it's just not true. Try to have a more open mind, really pay attention.) If we all did a little world-exploring, maybe it would make us better as a nation. Just a thought.

I think I'm going to start writing little review-type blurbs on all the movies I watch. You know, just for fun, and to get people interested in movies that they otherwise wouldn't see (since it seems to me that the vast majority of the folks in my generation only see movies that are in theaters, and then only the sucky teen comedies and chick flicks. Since I just watched a decent obscure movie, I'll start with it.

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Movie: The Day After Tomorrow

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Cool. No, literally. Wanna see what New York looks like under 30 feet of frozen ocean?

As to the genre of this movie, it definitely belongs in the category of those natural disaster movies that you watch only for the special effects (and out of morbid curiosity as to what spectacular feats the main charaters must accomplish to survive). Sure, the premise (that global warming caused by pollution will trigger an ice age by changing ocean currents) is not exactly plausible, but hey, movies are for entertainment, and if they want to show us what it looks like when the northern hemisphere freezes over, let's just sit back and enjoy. Sure, the filmmakers might be upset that we're not taking heed of their urgent pro-environmental message (Come on! An ice age? In a week?! I can hardly believe they were serious!), but screw them. Their real goal was to make money, anyway. (And besides, it's not like we can effect global change immediately, and when we finally have the technological capacity to do so, it'll probably be too late anyway. I say we should invest more in space exploration, so we can get off this rock before we finish turning it into a toxic wasteland.)

Okay, back to the topic at hand. The Day After Tomorrow. This movie has some truly awesome special effects. The neat thing about it is that unlike many disaster flicks, this one has a lot of DIFFERENT types of bad stuff happening. There's record-breaking hurricanes plowing down seaside towns, golf-ball-sized hail pulverizing people in the streets of Hong Kong, multiple tornadoes tearing up Los Angeles, helicopters freezing solid in midair over Scotland, the Statue of Liberty becoming a giant popsicle...the list goes on. And it's all absolutely incredible (and eerily beautiful) to see. You will spend most of this movie with your mouth agape, going "Wow" or "Oh my god..."

All in all, it isn't necessarily a must-see--the plot could use a little more substance, and the characters were a bit flat (insert Monty Python quote here)--but this movie is worth seeing just for the awesome visuals. I saw it on a big widescreen TV with surround sound, which definitely helped, but it'll still be amazing on whatever's in your living room.

KENNY WAAAAAAAYNE!!!

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Hmm, I didn't write about this right after it happened...That's odd.

Anyway, I saw Kenny Wayne Shepherd in concert on Sunday, and I still can't get over it. So awesome! *fangirlish squeal* EeeeeeEEEE!!!

It wasn't a regular old concert, but some sort of festival thing (barbecue ribs...heh), so there weren't a lot of people there and the tickets were freakishly cheap (a mere $15 for our FOURTH ROW SEATS!!!). I went with my family (we all listen to the same music). Our seats were right in front of the speakers to the right of the stage, so we went kinda deaf for a few minutes until we noticed that there was almost nobody sitting in the rest of the row, whereupon we promptly scooted over to a spot right in front of the stage (yay!).

When the band came out on stage, the first thing we (my sis and our mom and I, at least) noticed was that out of five guys up there, there was not a single unattractive face. I mean, we had a fairly good idea that Kenny himself was hot, but the others, no clue. (Noah Hunt (vocalist and backup guitarist) was particularly gorgeous, in my opinion.) And speaking of Noah, he looks NOTHING like his voice sounds. I mean, he's got this big, strong, deep voice, and then you look at him and he's all...pretty. We (the audience) all did double takes when he started to sing. ("Whose voice is that? It can't be THAT guy!...?! Ohmigod, it is that guy! WTF?!")

Kenny stole the stage. He was absolutely magnetic--for one thing, he's a truly masterful guitarist, but he also exudes this aura of incredible coolness that draws all attention to him and him only. He was wearing a bandana and sunglasses, which we women found a bit disappointing (he's got gorgeous blue eyes and pretty blonde hair under there...), but he did take off the sunglasses eventually (yay!). He plays his guitar (or guitars--he kept switching between about five different ones) like nobody else on Earth--I'm thinking that seeing him play must be like what it would have been like to see Jimi Hendrix in his prime. They even played a Hendrix song--the ever-famous "Voodoo Child". It was amazing. At one point, Kenny held his guitar up behind his head and still played perfectly. Wow.

And it was his birthday! He turned 28 that very day! Between songs in the middle of the performance, a woman (who I assume to be either Kenny's girlfriend or a friend of the band) came onto the stage with a birthday cake for him. Kenny turned bright red as Noah led the audience in singing "Happy Birthday" while he blew out the candles. (Awwww!)

And the best part: the whole event was so laid back that we were allowed to take pictures! There were people with digital cameras and cell phones snapping photos like mad, some of them rushing right up to the stage (in full view of the security guards, even!) to get a few close-up shots. I had my digital, of course (I ALWAYS have it), and our seats were so perfect that I was fine with sitting back and taking pictures at my leisure. I just might post them up here, if that doesn't involve breaking any laws...Well, it's not like I'm selling bootleg tapes or anything, just a few photos with no monetary exchange involved. Yeah, sure, I'll stick a few up here.

(click on each image to see the full-size version)


The whole stage. From the left, there's the keyboard guy (don't remember his name...), Kenny Wayne Shepherd himself, Noah Hunt, the drummer in the back (I don't know his name either--sad, isn't it?), and on the far right is the bassist (whose name I knew at one point but have since forgotten...whoops. He was really good, though. They were ALL really good, in fact. Every one of these guys oozed talent.)


Kenny (on the left) sings in addition to playing lead guitar, and Noah (in the middle) plays backup guitar.


Kenny is having entirely too much fun.


Kenny on the left, Noah on the right, and somebody's head in the middle. Arrgh.


Happy birthday, Kenny!


SQUEEEEEEEEE!!! (And see what I mean about the cell phones?)


Did you notice that Kenny had a different guitar in almost every picture?

Ah, screw it. On with life.

---

Nobody wanted to name that song. I guess I should have provided some incentive or something. (I'd have offered to give the painting to the first person who guessed right, but I can't bear to part with my originals...I'll need to get over that if I want to be an artist...) Oh well. Who'd have known there were so few B52's fans out there? (And if you know which song it is now, tell me. I'll...I dunno. Do something. Maybe an art request. Not that anybody would want crappy old me to draw them something, anyway, but...meh. If it has wings, maybe I'll do a good job. I have this wing obsession...)

Wow, I rambled. Normally I don't ramble this much in my diary entries. And I sounded all bummed and mopey, too. What's up with that? Maybe it's the fact that I'll probably never finish that painting due to lack of motivation, and then end up doing a spectacular digital version years later. Or never. Yeah, that sounds more likely. I did the concept sketches, and now my brain says I'm finished. Stupid brain, being lazy again.

Okay, time to stop rambling, get off my butt, and DRAW, dang it. I had a cool idea earlier that would look great as a digital drawing and wouldn't be too hard, either. Okay, doing that now. No more rambling.

I swear I'm done now. That's it. End of ramble. Go away.

Name that song!

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Okay, as I said in my previous diary entry, I'm planning to do a painting based on a song. I want to see if anyone here can name the song. (The band who did it is one of the ones listed in one of my older diary entries, titled "Survey says...".) I'll be posting my planning sketches as I do them, and that should be enough for someone to guess the song (I am taking the lyrics very literally, so it shouldn't be too hard). If no one guesses it before I finish the painting, I'll post the finished piece up here and give you until it's up at my Elfwood gallery to guess the song. If anyone thinks they know the answer, mesage me or post in the relevant forum thread ( http://elftown.lysator.liu.se/view_forum.html?n=1124150233&mnr=277518 ) that I started in My Day. If you get it right, I'll try to think up some sort of award for you. (You're welcome to suggest one, too.)

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Okay, here's the first sketch (click for full-sized version):

It's a futuristic ocean liner. If this sketch were in color, the ship would be white.

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Sketchy number 2 (click for full-sized version):

Some futuristic skyscrapers. They're going to be part of a larger city. If this were in color, they'd be blue.

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The big ol' composition-planning sketch (click for full-sized version):

I still need to draw the city (it'll go in that big white space) and a few other little things. What you should be noticing:
-The sea
-The forest by the sea
-The moon (that's that big partially obscured round white thing on the right) is rising
-A spinning starfish
-A singing dolphin (it will be blue when I do the final painting)
-Some white ships sailing the seas (you can hear the tune now, I know you can!)

Gunnin' for a Mod's Choice!

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Okay, I've decided to get crackin' on my art, starting with a picture that has been in my head for at least six months, wondering when it will be drawn (well, actually, I plan to paint it). If I do it well, and I'm sure I can, it might just catch the attention of the Elfwood moderators and earn me my first Mod's Choice, which would be awesome because then people would actually start coming to my gallery.

The painting I'm planning is going to be based on a song by--no, wait! I'll let y'all guess! I'll post some of my planning sketches as I do them, and let whoever reads this try and figure it out based on those. Hint: The band who did the song is one of the ones listed in an older diary entry called "Survey says...". Not that THAT narrows it down much, but hey, it's a start.

Goodbye, Doc...

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I just got an email saying that yesterday afternoon, Ignacio Ocasio, a chemistry professor at Case Western Reserve University who was known to everyone as "Doc Oc", passed away.

He taught several freshman chemistry courses, and in the fall of 2003 and spring of 2004, I was lucky enough to be one of his students. He was a wonderful teacher. His energy and enthusiasm were contagious, his ability to explain difficult concepts was such that even a fool could understand, and his kindness toward struggling students--and everyone else, for that matter--was seemingly without limits. To those who knew him, he was not only a teacher, but a friend; most of us will never forget him.

So goodbye, Doc Oc. Rest in peace.

Survey says...

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I've been poking around and looking at other people's houses, and I notice that an awful lot of them have these personality survey-type things that they've filled out. I've begun collecting some of the better ones, and plan to fill them out at my leisure. Here's one I filled out already (I find the questions on it to be especially descriptive and all-encompassing):

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LAYER ONE:
-- Name: Allison Kathleen Whitby (yes, I LIKE my middle name)
-- Nickname: None really. Very few people get away with calling me Al. Online I go by Dragonette, or a variation thereof.
-- Birth date: August 31, 1985
-- Birthplace: Huntington, West Virginia (and before you ask, no, I am not a hillbilly and my parents are not related!)
-- Current location: Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania (da Burgh!! I love this city. I don't wanna move to Philly...)
-- Eye color: Blue-green-ish (closer to blue), with funny little orangey-brown rings around my pupils (my sis and I got this strange trait from our dad)
-- Hair color: Dark brown
-- Height: Somewhere between 5'10 1/2" and 5'11 1/2" (179 and 181.5 cm) (every person who ever measures me gets something different...)
-- IQ: I've never taken an official test, but I think it's somewhere in the 140's or above
-- Righty or lefty: Lefty and proud of it!
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LAYER TWO
-- Your heritage: Half British/Welsh, 1/4 Italian, 1/4 Serbian
-- The shoes you wore today: Slippers right now, but I put on a pair of Nike sneakers when I went out earlier
-- Your weakness: Little wads of paper or tin foil. They are my OCD Kryptonite.
-- Your fears: that I'll be stuck in therapy and living with my parents until doomsday
-- Your perfect pizza: No sauce, lotsa cheese, and some garlicky sauce stuff
-- Goal you'd like to achieve: Right now, I'd like to know the routes to all the places I could conceivably want to drive to during the month of July.
-- Your favorite bands: (oh boy, here goes nothin'...) First, the extinct or really old ones: Emerson, Lake and Palmer; the Who; the Beatles; Crosby, Stills & Nash; Heart; Simon & Garfunkel; Steely Dan; Steve Miller; Tom Petty and the Heartbreakers; Traffic; Billy Joel; Genesis; Peter Gabriel; Frank Zappa; Joe Jackson; the B52's; Stevie Ray Vaughan; Queen; John Hartford; Harry Nilsson; and probably some others I forgot. Oh, and those were just the ones that aren't current/recent (and by "recent", I mean the ones that came out with new CDs within the last decade or so). My favorite current/recent bands are (hold your breath, folks!): Barenaked Ladies; the Cranberries; Seal; Dave Matthews; Evanescence; Matchbox 20; John Mayer; the Smashing Pumpkins; Sting; Kenny Wayne Shepherd; Alanis Morissette; Bananafish; the Kings of Convenience; Enya (just a little); and I'm sure there are more. I'm a big music lover, and I like pretty much everything that isn't hip-hop-rap-crap, country (I mean die-hard, REAL country--I like a lot of bands that are a little bit country...Oh dear, but NOT the Osmonds!), or just plain awful. Oh, and I like classical music as well (especially Tchaikovsky and Mussorgsky). Sheesh, I could've spent a whole diary entry jus on this question!
-- Your favorite songs: Are you KIDDING?! I'd have to write a freakin' book!
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LAYER THREE
-- Your most overused phrase: "like" (only in real life, though--I never type it without good reason)
-- Your thoughts first waking up: "What time is it? I wanna go back to sleep..."
-- Your best physical feature: I think I have a pretty nice figure. (I sound like someone from the 50's when I say that...)
-- Your bedtime: Midnight or later
-- Your most missed memory: What does this question mean, anyway???
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LAYER FOUR
-- Soda: Grape!

-- Fast food joint: Burger King if I want a burger, McDonald's if I want chicken
-- Single or group dates: Either works for me
-- Adidas or Nike: Whichever fits and doesn't look ugly
-- Lipton Ice Tea or Nestea: Lipton all the way, baby! Nestea tastes like someone poured chalk in it.
-- Chocolate or vanilla: Both! At once!
-- Cappuccino or coffee: Neither. Caffeine does very bad things to me.
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LAYER FIVE
Do I...
-- Smoke: No. Yuck!
-- Cuss: Yes, but not terribly much.
-- Sing: Only in the shower.
-- Take a shower every day: I plead the fifth, Your Honor.
-- Have a crush(es): Not currently
-- Do you think you've been in love: not really, but there was one guy I knew that I might have fallen in love with if I'd known him longer...
-- Want to go to college: I'm in college! I'm currently majoring in graphic design, and I think that's where I'll stay.
-- Want to get married: If I find the right man, maybe. Marriage is really just a formality, though, in my opinion.
-- Believe in yourself: In certain cases. For example, I believe I exist. Or maybe we're all just some ethereal being's dream...
-- Get motion sickness: If I spin around in circles, yes (SEVERELY). If I ride in a car/bus/boat/plane or ride a roller coaster, no (except for the Steel Phantom, which beat my brain to a pulp. Good riddance to the shaky thing. Phantom's Revenge is better anyway). I've never actually thrown up from motion sickness, though--I just get very very falling-down dizzy, sometimes for days at a time. A doctor I saw for this diagnosed it as "migraine equivalent". I get real migraines, too, but from stress rather than spinning around.
-- Think you're attractive: Meh. If I didn't have trichotillomania hair or all these marks on my face, maybe.
-- Think you're a health freak: *snrrk*WAHAHAHAHAHAHA!!!
-- Get along with your parents: Yes, quite well.
-- Like thunderstorms: If I can watch them from indoors, and I'm not trying to sleep, I think they are awesome.
-- Play an instrument: I used to play the violin.
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LAYER SIX
In the past month...
-- Drank alcohol: Nope!
-- Smoked: Eww, no.
-- Done a drug: No, no, no. I never would, either.
-- Had sex: No, but that doesn't mean I didn't think about it...
-- Made out: No
-- Gone on a date: Unfortunately, no
-- Gone to the mall: Yes, but with my friend Kelly, who spends approximately 0.5 seconds in each store. I am not a mall rat.
-- Eaten an entire box of Oreos: Several! Just not at once. :)
-- Eaten sushi: Yup! Me likes teh sushi!
-- Been on stage: Nooooooooo no no no!
-- Gone skating: I wanted to, but...
-- Made homemade cookies: Um, no.
-- Gone skinny-dipping: No
-- Dyed your hair: Nope, I don't see a reason to.
-- Stolen anything: I might have filched some of my sister's Easter candy...
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LAYER SEVEN
Ever...
-- Played a game that required removal of clothing: Eeep, no.
-- Been trashed or extremely intoxicated: No, and I probably never will.
-- Been caught doing something: Uh...like what? Nothing illegal, if that's what you mean.
-- Been called a tease: Nope
-- Gotten beaten up: No, unless you count that time in high school gym class when two boys conspired to hit me in the face with a dodgeball and nearly broke my nose...
-- Shoplifted: Nope! I'm generally an honest, well-behaved citizen. (Why risk going to jail over a few dollars here and there? But then again, I'm not exactly poor, so if I were I'd probably be saying something different...)
-- Changed who you were to fit in: Not really, except for not wearing certain things in my wardrobe outside the house.
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LAYER EIGHT
-- Age you hope to be married: Whenever it happens.
-- Numbers and names of children: No, no, no children! I'd be a TERRIBLE mother.
-- Describe your dream wedding: Small, brief, and cheap. It's just a stupid formality--why does it have to be all fancy? I'd rather spend my money on something more useful.
-- How do you want to die: Quickly, painlessly, and not now.
-- Where do you want to go to college: Where I am going to college! I like it at La Roche.
-- What do you want to be when you grow up: Ooh, I could be a creator or designer in the video game industry! That'd be nifty!
-- What country would you most like to visit: Of the ones I haven't already visited, probably Australia. For the scenery and wildlife, of course.
-- Who is your most loved people: Eh? I'll just say my sister and parents, and hope I didn't misinterpret the question.
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LAYER NINE
In a boy...
-- Best eye colour: Blue or green, or some weird color like hazel
-- Best hair color: Blonde
-- Short or long hair: Depends. If he looks good with long hair, then long hair it is! I like long-haired guys...
-- Height: Within an inch or two of mine
-- Best weight: On the thin side, but not really skinny
-- Best articles of clothing: Whatever he looks good in. Tip: ALL men look good in fishnet. (That's just wishful thinking, though...)
-- Best first date location: A casual sort of restaurant
-- Best first kiss location: Wherever it happens is fine with me, as long as nobody's watching.
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LAYER TEN
-- Number of drugs taken illegally: None, and I never will.
-- Number of people I could trust with my life: Maybe one. Maybe.
-- Number of CDs that I own: My family shares CDs, so you could say that I either own none or have well in excees of 200.
-- Number of piercings: None (It's not that I don't like how they look, it's just that I'm not fond of the idea of mutilating myself for fashion, especially since I might regret it later.)
-- Number of tattoos: None, for the same reason.
-- Number of times my name has appeared in the newspaper: Once that I remember, but it was a silly fluff story in the local paper of some small town in North Carolina. I didn't do anything bad to warrant it, if that's what you're asking.
-- Number of scars on my body: Two that are noticeable, one on my chin (I slipped and fell chin-first in a pile of tiny rocks...OUCH) and one on my stomach (a funny bump from when I had the chicken pox and scratched one).
-- Number of stitches I've had: 9. Two in my eyebrow when I was two years old, and 7 from the aforementioned chin accident, which happened when I was 13.
-- Number of big injuries: Just the chin thing, if you can even count that. And I broke my toe once.
-- Number of bones broken: One (second toe on my right foot--I ran too fast up the stairs...)
-- Number of things in my past that I regret: If I had to count, I'd be here all day. Mostly little things I said or did, or didn't say or do.
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

I hope I didn't bore you to death. (Well, it was fun for ME, anyway.) I'll go find some more surveys and bore you with those! HA!

That dragon quiz thing.

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So, I took the Inner Dragon quiz at http://dragonhame.com , and apparently I am a mithril dragon. Here's the description from the results page:

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Mithril Dragon

In the war between good and evil, Mithril Dragons take the side of the noble and good.
When it comes to the powers of Chaos vs. those of Law and Order, your inner dragon walks a fine line between Law and Chaos.
As far as magical tendancies, magical spells come as naturally to the Mithril Dragon as breath from its body.
During combat situations, a true Mithril Dragon prefers to defeat opponents by the use of spells and other tactics.

Dragon Description:

Mithril Dragons build and dwell in castles of crystal, high in the mountainous regions. A Mithril Dragon is honest and gentle.

Mithril Dragons are armored with highly reflective scales. To see one in bright sunshine has the effect of looking at a multi-ton, 150 ft. long disco ball.

They tend to smile frequently but rarely laugh aloud. Mithrils dislike violence. A Mithril Dragon is very selective when choosing close friends, but is generally admired by all. A Mithril Dragon leads a very quiet and unobtrusive life. Never judgmental, the great Mithril Dragon's feelings run deep and true. Mithril Dragons mate for life.

This Dragon's favorite elements are: Mithril, Earth, and Courage

---

Personally, I think it's pretty much a spot-on match for what I'm like in real life. Online, I tend to be less inhibited, though I'm still very honest. Basically, who I am online is who I would be in real life if I wasn't afraid of being judged or ridiculed. Hmm, maybe I should take the quiz again and answer like my online self...

Okay, done. I'm a copper dragon. Here's the description:

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Copper Dragon

In the war between good and evil, Copper Dragons take the side of the noble and good.
When it comes to the powers of Chaos vs. those of Law and Order, your inner dragon walks a fine line between Law and Chaos.
As far as magical tendancies, Magical spells come as natural to the Copper Dragon as breath from its body.
During combat situations, whether by spells or by claw, your inner dragon will do whatever it takes to get the job done.

Dragon Description:

Copper Dragons make their homes on wooded hillsides, preferably close to a spring or river. They are fond of the Irish and typically speak with a soft Irish accent.

At birth, the Copper Dragon's body is covered in semi-reflective copper scales. As the dragon matures into its young adult stages these scales become more polished and highly reflective.

As the dragon grows older and moves to the elder stages of life, its scales begin to tarnish and mature into a bright greenish brown color. Copper dragons spend little time among humans, but can be often found among the elves and other magical folk.

This Dragon's favorite elements are: Copper, Emeralds, and Laughter

---

Once again, a perfect match. This is more like the "real" me, when I'm on the internet or around people I trust. (Out among the general public, I tend to try to blend in and not look conspicuous or be seen as weird. Around my family and good friends, I act naturally because they already know I'm weird, and online there are plenty of fellow weirdoes and everyone else can go to heck if they don't like it.) That quiz thingy works pretty darn well.

I return!

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I'm back, after a long period of not being here. I do this every once in a while--get so involved in real-life things that I forget about all my online hangouts. I've even been neglecting all my favorite webcomics for several months...I feel guilty.

Anyway, the reason I'm back doing the internet thing is that IT'S SUMMER VACATION, BABY!! As of today, I am officially done with all things school-related until sometime around the end of August. WOOHOOOO!! FREEDOM!!


Hmm, looking down at my last diary entry, I realize that it has been a month and a half since I saw the Carnegie International, and I still have not gotten that call from the museum gift shop. I really wanted that book, dangit! I still do! Maybe I better come up with a good excuse to go to the museum again. Hey, the natural history museum is in the same building, and they're working on remodeling the dinosaur hall...Maybe I could convince the family to go with me and see it under construction? Ooh, that'd be cool. I haven't been there (the Museum of Natural History) in years...

Artist spaz!

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I am one of those artists who is really an artist, in more ways than just doing a lot of drawing. I like to just look at things for what they are, lines and shapes and colors and textures, without expecting any sort of information or message. I especially like to look at other people's art, which is why I went to the Carngie Museum of Art today even though I am still suffering from a sinus infection.

Why I dragged myself (or rather, why my family dragged me, though I was still quite willing) out of my house is because today was the last day of the Carnegie International, a humongous art exhibit featuring the works of contemporary artists from all around the world. Much of it was installation art--that is, things that the artists actually had to come and assemble inside the museum. (Some works were arranged on the walls or floor in specific ways integral to the work. Some involved the construction of entirely new walls to support or enclose them. One guy built several small rooms, including a flimsy wooden loft area, and filled them with weird stuff, including an old leather sofa that had been sawn in half, an ancient rusty motorcycle (in between the halves of the sofa), some old bits of electronics, what I can only describe as a giant sock spider, and, in a little glass case near the entrance, what he claimed to be the fingernail clippings of Bertolt Brecht.) I should have gone to see it earlier, I know, but I and my family members took turns being busy, sick, or just plain lazy until this weekend.

Well, I saw good art and bad art and really weird art, but I didn't really fall in love with any of it until I got to the room containing stuff by Lee Bonticou. She makes these amazing, intricate, beautiful abstract hanging sculptures out of wire and mesh and ceramic, big hovering things that look like insects or futuristic space stations or scale models of galaxies, organic and mechanical features seamlessly blended together. And her drawings (graphite and colored pencil, mostly) are similar in nature, a bit like what you'd get if you crossed Juan Miro and H. R. Giger, abstract but spatial and textural and intricately detailed. I am now officially a huge fan of this artist. I wanted to spend hours in that room just staring and internalizing everything, but the rest of my family (my sis, my mom and my dad were all with me) wanted to keep moving, and my sinus infection wanted a big boxful of Kleenex. I tried to find something relevant to Lee Bonticou's art in the museum gift shop--a book, some postcards, anything to stare at that might evoke the same feeling of awe and wonder I had looking at the exhibit--but there was nothing there. Currently, anyway. Apparently they had a book on Lee Bonticou for sale there at one point, but the book went out of print. Then the lady behind the counter piqued my interest by mentioning that there would be a second printing of this book in about a month, and that the gift shop was already taking names of customers interested in obtaining a copy. And just when she had me sold, she added that this book would cost around 50 dollars (U.S., of course). This was enough to turn my mother and father off of the idea, but me? No. There is no stopping an artist once she's been inspired. I put my name on that list, gosh darn it. I will, however, look at the book carefully before I actually buy it. For 50 bucks, though, I'm betting it's exactly what I'm looking for--a full-color, hardcover, coffee-table type book, all high-quality pictures and very few words.

I will be drooling and quivering in anticipation until then, especially since it is next to impossible to find anything online about Lee Bonticou. Apparently, after she caught the art community's attention way back in the 70's, she decided to withdraw from the public art scene completely and has only recently reemerged into the limelight--she does not have an online gallery, and there are very few pictures of her work to be found on the interent. Arrgh! I need my Bonticou fix!!

I are photographer!

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I entered two photos in the ET Photograph Competition! They are on page 4. That is all!

Update (March 27): Okay, they got moved to page 5. But they're still there! Ha!

Diagnosis: Too Much TV

---

So I went to the doctor today, and after waiting about half an hour to see her (the waiting room was PACKED--flu and allergy season, don'tcha know), I told her what was wrong (sinus infection and mysteriously swollen fingers). Then we got into a conversation that sounded a lot like an episode of House:

Doctor: "Hmm, have you been sick any other times in the past couple weeks?"

Me: "Actually, yeah, a week or so ago I thought I had the flu, but it went away in a few days."

Doctor: "Did you have any sort of a rash when you thought you had the flu?"

Me (confused by strange question): "...Uh...Oh, yeah, actually I did. There weren't any bumps or anything, just some red splotches on my chest and stomach that didn't itch or anything. They went away a few hours after I noticed them. What does that mean?"

Doctor: "I think you might be suffering from some complications caused by strep."

Yes, apparently the flu-thing I had last week was strep throat without the sore throat part. I did not know this was possible (my mom now theorizes that it was because I have no tonsils), so naturally I though I had some little 48-hour bug and didn't tell my doctor. Apparently, an untreated strep-throat infection can cause weird side effects, including my swollen fingers. So my doctor put me on antibiotics for the sinus infection, though they will help the strep thing too if that's what it really is. She also did one of those nasty gaggy throat-swab tests, which in a few days will tell if I actually have strep or not. And just in case she was wrong, she made me get a blood test to make sure the finger thing wasn't something more serious.

So now I have a head full of snot, my fingers are all fat and sore, AND my arm hurts. Oh well. At least I'm probably on the road to recovery.

On the "I have no tonsils" thing: I had them removed when I was six, after they stopped working right and caused me to become chronically infected with--guess what?--strep throat. (It's a nasty (but not fatal) bacterial disease whose most famous symptom is a really wicked sore throat. "Strep" is short for the type of bacteria that cause it, which I'm guessing is either streptococcus or streptobacillus. I'll have to look it up.)

Diagnosis: Hypochondriasis

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Okay, not really. I actually have something that could be serious. For one, I feel like crap because I have a cold that skipped the "cold" stage altogether and instantly became a sinus infection--which for me is not unusual, just annoying and icky. My real worry is that some of my fingertips hurt and have started to swell up (unrelated to the sinus infection, obviously). I know I didn't injure them--how could I have, when it's a few random fingers on each hand? I have no idea what could possibly be causing it--well, okay, it might be poor circulation or some sort of vitamin deficiency (lord knows I have terrible nutritional habits). What really sucks about it is that my left pinky is all swollen and hurts like heck to touch, so since I'm left-handed, I can't write, draw, or paint. What really really sucks is that my spring break just started today. I have a doctor's appointment tomorrow morning, so hopefully they'll figure out what's wrong with my hands and give me some means to fix it. (The sinus infection doesn't matter. I get them all the time, and they usually go away on their own.) Luckily I can still type okay.

This sucks.


...Wait a minute, did I just say "lord knows" somewhere in there? Huh. Religious expressions are so ingrained into this culture that even I use them, and I don't believe in God/gods. (Well, I don't deny the possibility that he/she/they could exist, but until someone shows me convincing scientific proof, I'm inclined to believe otherwise.)