The Tsunami-That-Wasn't-A-Tsunami

On my list of things to do while in Hawaii:

1. Climb Diamondhead Crater [Check]
2. Spend a day at Waikiki beach [Check]
3. See a waterfall [Check]
4. Experience a tsunami [Check . . . sort of.]

Of course I'm being a bit silly--I don't really want to be in a tsunami. Today was an interesting experience nonetheless. I woke up to the sound of sirens, but was too tired to really understand that they were sirens. After learning from my early-bird grandmother that we were scheduled to have a tsunami today, I was a bit surprised, but not too worried, as I don't live that close to the water, and people had plenty of warning. Grandma and I did walk to the local supermarket, though, to stock up on some food we had needed anyway. There were hardly any cars on the road, but an amazing number of cars crammed into the tiny parking lot of the grocery store.

I've read things about how you really learn a lot about a person when that person is in trouble. I'd like to add a postscript and say you can learn a lot about a person by what they put in their shopping cart when they're bracing for trouble. It was incredible, the kind of things people in that store were shoving and piling in their carts; It looked like every cart had half the store in it. When I was standing in the checkout line it took forever to buy the stuff because the poor cashier had to ring up all the stuff the guy in front of me bought: an enormous bag of charcoal, two cakes, an enormous bag of potato chips, two full trays of green tea, SPAM (of course; we're in Hawaii!), a bag of onions, six giant containers of drinking water, frozen pizzas, I couldn't even count how many cans of soup and vegetables and things . . . It just went on and on. And there were people I saw wandering around with even fuller carts. One man passed me in the cereal aisle carrying three slices of cake. That's all. Tsunami celebration?

All in all, when comparing the contents of my basket (a box of Smart Start cereal, a carton of milk, two packages of club crackers, and ten carrots) to what everyone else was buying, I felt remarkably Spartan, and said as much aloud to no one in particular. My grandmother, hearing me, responded with "Yes, you are pretty." So maybe she didn't really hear me as well as she thought she did. Or maybe she just doesn't know what Spartan means. Anyway, right after saying this, I turn around and see an old Japanese woman shuffle politely into line behind me, pushing her cart slowly into line. And what's in her cart?

One block of tofu, and one small bottle of dishwashing soap.

Now that is Spartan. I am still imagining her living off of that tofu, making some magical dish out of it in her one cooking dish and using the soap to clean her solitary bowl and single pair of chopsticks. Wowza.

Anyway, I carried all the groceries home, ate my breakfast of cereal and milk, and then retreated to my room to study for my Nutrition exam on Wednesday. And then promptly fell dead asleep, despite the warning sirens still sounding at regular intervals outside. And guess what? I slept through the whole "tsunami", which turned out to be, what, little tiny wavelets shyly scurrying on the edge of the beaches and not daring to encroach any further inland?

I'm delighted that this means nobody was hurt and no property was damaged. But I can't help but feel a little let down, too. Today was an anti-climatic day. And now I can say that not only did I experience a "tsunami", I slept through one, too.

And I'm wondering what all those people stocking up on all that food are going to do now that there's no emergency. Maybe they can have big Post-Tsunami parties. That cake looked good.

Prayer Request

If any of you who read this blog would be kind enough to offer up little prayers for my mother over the course of the next few months, I (and she, I'm sure) would appreciate it so much. I don't like to blab about private affairs on the internet, so I don't really want to say much more, but she's really wanting prayers and spiritual support right now. And I wouldn't say no to a prayer or two for myself as well, as I have some sudden and big decisions to make now. Love you all, and I'll try to seriously post some long over-due book reviews soon, okay?

Benry Knows Best

(Click for larger view)

You really have to go here. Not only are they adorable, tiny, and amazingly expressive cartoons, but they are all about Ben Linus. And they are chuckle-out-loud funny, in either sweet or ironic ways. How brilliant is that, right?

MUCH Bettah!

Oh yeah, that's more like it. This week's episode ("The Substitute") is waaay better than last week's! It fulfilled almost all of my previously stated requirements as far as what characters to include, after all :) I'm going to add Smoke Monster to my list though, because he's turning out to be brilliant.

My only gripe is that Desmond is still mysteriously absent from, uh, just about everywhere, and there's only about thirteen hours left now, right? His absence is distracting me! And for some reason these flash-sideways things aren't that interesting to me. I'm not sure why. I really want to like them, and I liked the first one because of the mystery and weirdness and nostalgia, but these past two episodes they've been only mildly entertaining, not particularly compelling. Though that might be just me, because I know most folks I've talked to seem to like them a lot *shrugs*

Anyhow . . . I got my Art portfolio back today, and apparently got the best marks in my class, which makes me happy, as I'm not even an Art major. I'm tempted to double-major, but honestly? A double-major in Art and English? That's just like a double-whammy of the most useless majors you can get, alas. Why are all my interests so artsy?

In other news, my birthday's less than two weeks away now, as I suddenly realized yesterday. It's a bit rattling. I'm not used to the idea of being 18 yet, let alone 19! And then I'll be leaving my teens behind forever. It's a bit amusing and a bit sad, this whole growing up and getting older business. I'll probably go out to tea for my birthday, but other than that I have not the foggiest notion. Library trip, perhaps?

I hope you are all having a good week so far. Week six of the semester already, wow. Soon I'll be halfway done!

I remembered!

The most important bit of news today is that, after an entire year, I finally remembered my laptop password. The fact that I couldn't crack my own password has been hanging over my head like the Sword of Damocles all that year, so I'm so delighted to finally be free of it! AND this meant I was finally able to update my flash player, so I can now view video on Hulu again. Yes!

Yesterday I intended to:

1) Walk to the library
2) Walk to an antique shop and look around
3) Clean my room
4) Watch "Dilwale Dulhania Le Jayenge"
5) Knit more TARDIS

What I ended up doing was:

1) Walking to the library only to find that it was unexpectedly closed for a 'Meeting', according to the handwritten sign on the doors. What? Anyway, at least I got to return all my library books from my previous visit through the return slot . . . Although that also means I have no new reading material now :(
2) From the library I went to the antique shop--Which, drumroll please, was also inexplicably closed. It was open last week at the same time, honestly. Sigh.
3) Okay, so I did clean my room.
4) Nope, but I plan to do that tomorrow. I am sad that "My Name is Khan" doesn't look like it will be showing in Hawaii.
5) I'll knit while I do No. 4 tomorrow.

So, all in all, a rather disappointing Saturday. But at least I did get out and walk around, and the weather was nice. I've also been sleeping a lot this weekend, trying to recover my drained energy and store up more for the weeks to come between now and Easter Break.

Now I have an essay to write. And yet more sleep to get before my dance practice tomorrow--at 6:45 in the morning, if you'll believe it!

Anyone else watching the Olympics? I'm looking forward to the ice dancing, and the speed skating is always fun. It was a pleasant surprise hearing "Surface of the Sun" being played during a montage about Apolo Anton Ohno.

"What Kate Does"

No Desmond? No Richard? No Ben? No resurrected Faraday?

I'm so disappointed.

. . . Well, it wasn't bad really, just I'm not a Kate fan. Miles is starting to grow on me this season, though. And I'm really liking Japanese man. Not just because he was in "Sunshine", either. Nice to see some old long-gone characters again. I just was not as interested in them as I could have been, because I was busy hoping one of my favorite characters would show up. Sigh.

And I've finished my art homework/portfolio! Yay! And I finished "Strongbow" while on the exercise bike at the school gym earlier; it was ultimately nothing special, because although it had a good opening and some nice stylistic bits, it didn't really bring life to the story it was telling. I felt like I was just getting the bare bones of what could have been a very engrossing story. It's a very short book, and I think it would have been much better if the author had been patient and allowed it to be longer. Oh, well. I'm moving on to a new Bradbury book now.

FUN!

I just had to post this, because it made me laugh so hard. And I don't even like Spongebob.

I Should Be Reading My Literary Theory Textbook . . .

. . . But instead I've decided to blog. Class begins in about forty minutes, and then I'll be busy literally all day, so now's my chance, right?

The Medieval Combat Club was sooo much fun, I'm going back this Friday too. I mean, it's a group of people sparring with homemade weapons!! That's something I've loved to do all my life, but as a kid I tended to get into trouble for fighting other kids with sticks and stones and things. Isn't that funny? As a kid I was told that such behavior is immature and dangerous (and I'm not arguing either point), but now as an adult I have an official school club to do it at. It's good exercise, too.

The retreat was amazing. I got to ride a yellow school bus for the first time, make s'mores for the first time, swim around in the ocean and chase tropical fishes around, build an absolutely epic sand-castle, and walk over an hour to Mass on Sunday morning. Oh, and I got to meet a lot of Catholic students, which was great fun, and got to teach my fellow retreat-goers some Irish ceili dancing as well! Top all that off with a bonfire, hymn-singing, prayer, dazzlingly clear stars, the sound of the ocean lulling me to sleep every night, and a cockroach nearly running up my pant leg, and you have a fairly good picture of the retreat. And then when I returned to the apartment where I live, I went out to the shave ice place nearby and bought some. Mmmmm!

I finished "The Copper Crown" and enjoyed it 'til the end, although I'm not sure if I am interested in continuing the series or not. I don't think I'll go out of my way to find the next book. Right now I've finally moved on to another library book, this one called simply "Strongbow". It caught my attention at the library because of course it made me instantly think "BELEG!!!" Oh the joys of being a Silmarillion lover. Anyway, the book is not about Cuthalion, but it's very good so far anyway. It's (loosely) historical fiction. The first line:

When I was a little girl I didn't know my father was a monster.

I thought it a particularly excellent opening line. I always struggle with beginning my own stories, so good beginnings are always special to me. Like, for instance, Lewis' beginning to "Voyage of the Dawn Treader", which in my opinion is one of the greatest opening lines to any book ever written.

Tonight I'll be extremely busy drawing, as my first art portfolio of the semester is due tomorrow and I still have a few drawings I need to get done. I'm a bit worried about this whole portfolio thing, as I've never done one in my life before, but hopefully all goes well! I also have my second midterm of the semester on Thursday, but as that one's all about "The Iliad", "The Odyssey", and the books of Genesis and Exodus and Job, I'm not really worried about it. ENG 321 is absolutely a class in my comfort zone! Oh, and I did manage an A in my Nutrition exam, so that went well.

Before I go--Anybody else gleeful at the confirmation that Daniel Radcliffe will have absolutely nothing to do with "The Hobbit"? How about that rumor that David Tennant might be cast as Bilbo? I find it a bit hard to picture, because he's so tall and thin, but I'm sure it'd be great anyway . . . Of course it's only a rumor, but I don't mind that one. I'm still rooting for James McAvoy, though. He could do a fantastic Bilbo. Just look at how he acts as Tumnus in "The Lion, the Witch, and the Wardrobe"!

My Week Thus Far

Nothing particularly out-of-the-ordinary happened to me today, beyond an unusually chilly wind (for Hawaii, that is) whipping me in the face all the way to Russian class. And me nearly falling asleep during art class. I've been exhausted all week, I think because of the very busy weekend I had (Honolulu zoo, Lost premiere, heatstroke, homework, and more homework). I make a point of going to the school gym every Tuesday and Thursday for an hour, and this Tuesday I actually fell asleep while pedaling the exercise bike. Yeah, I've never done that before. I only woke up because I started to fall over to the side, and the thing was beeping at me to "Pedal faster".

Watched "LA X" again, only this time I got to see Part 2 as well as Part 1. Won't say much about it, in case you haven't watched it, because I don't like to be spoiler-y, but I will say right now that Richard and Desmond are absolutely my favorite (living) characters, and so nothing bad had better happen to them. Everyone else is fair game in my opinion, but leave those two alone!

I have my first Midterm of the semester this Friday. Yes, you read that correctly: MIDTERM. Who's bright idea was it to start giving multiple Midterm Exams? Isn't that sort of defeating the purpose of the meaning of 'mid'???

Sigh. Anyway, I'm currently cramming my brain with the workings of the digestive system, what percentage of my DV is composed of lipids, where bile comes from and what it's function is, and how many kcals are in a gram of protein. This nutrition stuff isn't really that hard to understand, it's just hard to remember everything.

This Friday I am going on retreat with about 20 other Catholic students to the North Shore, which should be awesome. I'm really looking forward to it. Also on Friday, I've arranged to meet with a Medieval Combat club on campus, which I'm also looking forward to (to my mother's dismay). Anything else of import looming on the horizon? Erm . . . not particularly. Only my birthday, but that's still about a month away, so let's not dwell on it yet.

I'm currently reading a science fiction novel called "The Copper Crown". It's actually quite entertaining: Basically, the story is that the ancient Celtic people of Ireland, on their famous sea-voyages, discovered the last remnants of Atlantis, who gave them the secrets of space travel. And so they built space ships and left Earth, setting up their own world many billion miles away. Flash forward to a few thousand years from our present day, and an Earth space ship stumbles across this Celtic planet and its people. Except they now call themselves Kelts, and their planet is Keltia. A meeting of two cultures ensues, swiftly followed by intergalactic wars, plots, magic, and mayhem, with a bit of traditional Irish culture thrown in for kicks.

Surprisingly, the book is pretty good. Perhaps I'm biased, being an Irish dancer and Irish mythology lover and all, but it's curiously entertaining to read about Keltic warriors driving their war chariots, living in castles, singing bardic lays and holding ceili dances, as well as wielding laser glaives in battle and using telepathy and enormous space-ships carved into bestial shapes like old Viking seaships. Somehow it works. So far (I have about 100 pages to go) I'd recommend it.

Anyway, back to the homework before I go to sleep. Tomorrow is going to be a busy, busy day.