So busy.

I don't really know what else to say. I'm kind of overwhelmed with school and dance and honors and things right now but I am still writing my creative projects as I can find the time to so hopefully I'll post more soon. Book reviews will have to wait until things are more settled I think; I've hardly had time to read any this year so far anyway. Let's see, I know I can recommend "No Country For Old Men" by Cormac McCarthy and "In the Night Garden" by Catherynne M Valente (the former for February and the latter for January). I can also tell you to avoid the novel "Shiver" like the plague.

Oh, wait! I know what more I can say! Happy Ash Wednesday!

. . . sort of inappropriate to say 'happy' Ash Wednesday I suppose but how else do you wish someone well at the beginning of Lent? Oh well, whatever. Have a blessed Lenten season; I'm looking forward to Easter already.

Pondering between classes

My last class of the day is due to start in about, oh, half an hour, and I'm currently sitting at a circular stone table just waiting. Not THE Round Table, of course--for one thing, there aren't any chairs, just benches--but still it's a bit more fun to sit at than one of those boring rectangular ones I can see just a little distance away.

All my classes so far are promising. I'm not much of an Anthropology enthusiast but we do get to go to the Honolulu zoo to look at monkeys apparently, so that's nice. All of my other classes are English classes, which means I have an insane amount of reading and writing to do this semester. I'm happy about it now, but just wait until a few weeks have passed; I'll probably be rueing the day I decided to sign up for a full schedule! Oh, and I have an Honors seminar but I honestly don't know much about what that entails other than it's supposed to begin my Final Senior Project process, so I'm withholding judgement until I learn more. I have my first one this Thursday.

The weather's been shockingly pleasant, especially since I just came back from home where it's cold and somewhat rainy right now. Today in fact has been very hot, so much so that I've had to put my hair up and am continually thirsty. This is really odd, as I'm used to bundling up after my three weeks home. I'm breathing a lot easier now that I'm back in the tropical warmth, though; the cough that plagued me all Christmas break has mysteriously vanished. I'm like Robert Louis Stevenson, retreating to Hawaii for my health!

Nothing much else to report right now. Life is moving along placidly and without untoward disturbance, and I'm just going with the flow. I do have to refocus and get back to exercising rigorously and eating healthily, though--during Christmas break it's not much of an exaggeration to say that I was living entirely off of butter, sugar, caffeine, and chocolate.

Oh, wait, one more thing! Last Sunday's episode of "Sherlock" was brilliant, and I am extremely excited about "The Reichenbach Fall", hopefully it doesn't let me down. Last week I went to the movies with some friends and watched "War Horse" (which was extremely good, by the way, if you haven't seen it you should, despite the slow beginning, it's honestly all worth it by the end) and seeing Benedict Cumberbatch and Tom Hiddleston dressed up as British WWI cavalry officers galloping side by side on some splendid horses with John Williams music playing was one of the greatest things I have ever seen ever. Huzzah the Brits!

This is me right now.

It really is. No joke. I've had very little sleep for five nights now because of midterm exams, a film presentation, sundry other homework, and now I get to start stressing about those 3 separate 10 page final papers I need to start writing (or actually should have started writing weeks ago). I am utterly worn out. Sigh. Also, Mr. Thornton is adorable when he falls asleep at his desk while working.

And I've finally altered what songs play on my blog playlist now. That was a change way overdue. Not that I love the other songs any less. But even the best things get monotonous after a while. Except "The Lord of the Rings". And chai tea. And naps.

I need to post more often

This is getting ridiculous, really. Anyway, quick bringing-up-to-date stuff: I am currently back at school, classes are going pretty well with either my Argumentative Writing or my Fairy Tale courses probably being the best and Astronomy being the worst but all still in A-range, where I hope to keep them all semester! I've kept busy exercising a LOT in my spare time, and will be competing at Oireachtas this year, which is both frightening and exciting. Also I get to go home for Thanksgiving this year which feels really strange because I never have before. It'll be odd spending a week at home then coming back to Hawaii for a few weeks and then going home again so soon! I can't wait to see all my siblings again, they've all grown, especially the baby. I see her on Skype sometimes and she likes waving at me and things, so she probably thinks I'm just on the computer screen now, I hope she isn't frightened when I show up physically and real at the airport, that'd be awkward.

I have at least been keeping up with my book reviews, and as you may have noticed I have been doing a LOT of reading. September was a high point, I read like ten books or so, October has been a bit more full of school and midterms and things so I am not sure how many books I'll be able to finish this month. We'll see. I'm currently partway through about five. I tend to read many books at the same time.

Also, film. I went to the theatre to watch "Real Steel" a couple weeks ago and to my own surprise I enjoyed it; it's somewhat predictable (the fatal flaw of any sports movie really) but despite that I really cared about the characters, the robots were fantastic, and the humor and energy of the film was really fun. So as a light, silly piece of entertainment it was pretty good. Also, Hugh Jackman was in it, as well as the kid who played little Thor in "Thor", and Evangeline Lily from "Lost", as well as Kevin Durand, so the casting alone made it a pleasure to watch :)

I'm still rabidly following any and all "Hobbit" film news. Speaking of which, I am a Hobbit for Halloween this year. I put my entire costume together in a day (thank you Salvation Army thrift store!) thanks to being incredibly fortunate in finding the perfect pair of pants and even a long green woolen coat at the thrift store. Also, I am now very fond of the suspenders I bought for the costume too, I want to wear them all the time but I'm afraid that most people find suspenders to be stupid, not cool. Oh well. I even found a costume store that sells pointed ear tips and the gum to attach them with, so I am wearing pointy ears too! I'm going to save this costume so I can wear it to "The Hobbit" premiere next December, I think.

As far as films I'm interested in that are a bit closer, I am mostly keen on watching "The Artist" and "War Horse", but I'm also planning to probably watch "The Muppets" (I'm a huge Muppets/Jim Henson fan but have been really displeased with most recent Muppet things and so want to be sure this film is a return to form before I commit) and "The Adventures of Tintin" (I think I'm finally sold on the mocap visuals).

Hm, what else? Hawaii's nice, it's been a bit rainy lately but the humidity's mostly manageable, thank goodness. I like all my classes. It's great seeing old friends again. And yet I am eager to go back home for Christmas already--cookie baking and present wrapping and hot cocoa making and getting to goof around with seven younger siblings and two extremely awesome parents, what could there possibly be more delightful than that?

I'll pop back in in a few days with my book reviews for October, and then hopefully I'll keep to a more frequent posting schedule after. Cheers!

I took a walk to the library today

. . . and these are the books I borrowed:

Civil War: Frontlines
Civil War: War Crimes
Civil War: Fantastic Four
Civil War: Iron Man
Civil War: Captain America
The Sable Queen, by Brian Jacques
Assassin's Apprentice, by Robin Hobb
Shadow and Claw, by Gene Wolfe
The Road, by Cormac McCarthy
The King of Attolia, by Megan Whalen Turner
Jonathan Strange and Mr. Norrell, by Suzanna Clarke

I managed to carry them the entire walk back to the apartment, too. Ha!

I also discovered a little ice cream parlor close to my university and tried some cantaloupe ice cream there, yum. And forced myself to sleep in for once. Tomorrow I head back to school again, and then that's my first week back completed! I'll write more later to bring you all up to date, as I know I haven't written in a while, but for now just know that I'm up to my eyeballs in good books to read and school books to read, have been exercising a lot, and am pretty well pleased with how my first week back in HI has gone.

(And I'll try to post my book reviews for July this weekend.)

The Mirror: A Poem

This poem was inspired by my first semester in Hawaii. That first night, when I slept in the bedroom I had not slept in since I was four years old, was very strange and solemn to me, and I couldn't help but feel like I had disturbed a kind of sanctuary, a place where only ghosts of my past self had dwelt all these years and now had to give way to my real, living, but much older self. A mirror that has hung on the back of my bedroom door all these years made the greatest impression on me, as I have a special fondness for mirrors. I was almost afraid to look into it for the first time. I wondered if it was saddened to now reflect an adult woman's face, when it had over a decade of lonely years to obsess over my child-self's reflection. Yeah, I know, weird, but I felt sorry for it. And so I wrote a little poem. Not in my usual style, and certainly in need of polish, but it captures rather well the feeling I had at the time.

The Mirror.

There is a pale old mirror hung
Upon Grandmother's door,

It catches all the window-light
And hurls it to the floor.

The carpet pale is grey with dust,
The air is thick with haze:

Each mote reflected in the glass
Is minutes, hours, days . . .

This room belonged to Granddaughter
When she was barely four,

So long ago that the old room
Does not remember her.

But ah! That pale old mirror
In that lonely room apart

Still holds the image of the child
Within its glassy heart.

The shy little girl-image
Waits in her looking-glass world,

And dreams of brighter, sweeter times,
When she and Grandma's girl

Would draw out dreams with crayons
To hang proudly on the wall,

Or stand up in their mirrored cribs
And pretend they were tall.

The image in the mirror smoothes
Its polka-dotted dress

And passes years with memories
Of times ere loneliness.

Passes years with hoping,
Though the hoping is like pain,

That the child will come back to smile
Into the glass again.

*

And then, one darkened evening
When magenta stained the sky

And clouds all hemmed with vivid flame
Burned through the shuttered blinds;

When the glass was filled with shadows
And hardly dared now to hope more,

A young voice sounded in the hall,
And pushed open the door.

A figure stumbles in the darkness,
Groping for the light--

The mirror-child is trembling:
Something is not right--

A slender hand now finds the lamp,
A finger flicks it on--

Harsh and vivid shines the light
And the face it spills upon.

*

The mirror's frame is red with rust,
And dimmed now is its glass,

And standing now before it is
The child returned at last . . .

But years have come and lived and died;
A flowing tide of water.

The glass endured, impervious--
Not so the young Granddaughter.

A moment more she lingers there,
Entranced, but not sure why,

She stands and her reflection stands,
And they stand eye to eye.

The one looks in and the one looks out:
A woman, strange and clever.

O Mirror! Did you weep when the child
Within you vanished forever?

Yay, I was right

Today's episode of "Doctor Who" was definitely one of the best of the new series, and perhaps even my favorite--it felt so like classic Who! But again, what a PITY that they're sticking with individual 45-minute stories! The story ideas are so good, I want them to be four-parters, then they'd be brilliant. Still, this just might be my favorite of the series so far. I love Rory.

And the promo for next week? TERRIFIC. And I'll be watching it in California, because when it's made available, I'll be somewhere flying above the Pacific. Just how surreal is that, huh? Still unbelievable.

I've been doing a lot of boring painting today, and now I'm doing Russian. I need to get started on planning my exam essays too, though. Augh, it's so frustrating to have so much to do and so little time. I need a time machine of my own.

It's also frustrating to think this is my last Saturday in Hawaii for over a year, and I can't go out and simply enjoy the island. That makes me very sad. For I will miss this place, even though I'll be glad to be back with my family and my dancing again. Hawaii's part of my home now, too.

Wow :)

Tonight's "Supernatural" episode was just as perfect as "Lost"'s this week. What a great week for my television shows in general then--I hope "Doctor Who" on Saturday is up to par! The episode looks good from the trailer though, so I'm looking forward to it and trusting it to not break this perfect 3-for-3 record. And Rory will be back!

Seriously, though, "Supernatural" continues to amaze me. While I don't agree with much of the theology, I don't mind it because it's fiction and I enjoy thinking about what I do believe in connection with what's presented in the show--where it lines up, and how, when it deviates, I can compare the two and pick out the truths in the fiction. It doesn't attack beliefs so much as choose to do its own thing for the sake of its fictional universe and the story, and since I can therefore easily separate it from the 'real world', it's okay in my book. So it's like I get good fodder for meditative reflection, which is always nice; I get a fantastic apocalyptic storyline that is impressive in the consistency of its quality; I get absolutely awesome characters to both root for and root against (the acting as well as how the characters are written is almost universally perfect); I get top-notch dialogue that can be both hilarious and heartbreaking with effortless ease--this show has jumped into my small and select group of favorites so quickly, it's ridiculous. But that's okay. I'm super excited (and worried and in suspense!) about the finale next week. And I'm super excited for the next "Lost" episode too. This kind of convergence of excellence does not happen often, so I'm just kinda basking in it right now. I mean, that whole submarine thing on "Lost" and the Horseman of Death making eating pizza in Chicago look chilling on "Supernatural" all happening in one week? Awesome.

I got a letter from one of my besties today, which was wonderful. I'm in the middle of writing one back already, but I'm almost out of calligraphy ink, so I have to tip the bottle whenever I dip my pen in. Hopefully it'll last for the whole missive. Also, it's my brother's sixteenth birthday today. That's bizarre. I shouldn't be old enough to have a sixteen year old brother.

Of course, I'm kind of using this entire post to ignore the elephant in the room, so I'll stop ignoring right now and get straight to it: Yes, my final exams are all next week. Keeping me in your prayers would be appreciated. Yes. It's hard to believe that this time next week it will all be almost over, but there we are. Time is such a fickle beast. It slows down, it speeds up, it casts illusion over me.

I'd best be getting back to studying then. And then a quick shower before bed. Tomorrow I have no classes, but my Russian professor agreed to have a final exam study session/review and I fully intend on being there.

(PS: Yes, I included a photo, because it's been way too long since I put any photos on this blog and I'm getting tired of just words, haha.)

Busy, busy, busy (Sort of)

So, in three weeks, I have watched the entire aired five season run of "Supernatural", worked on my final art project, kept up with all my homework, nabbed an A+ on my latest English 321 exam, exercised thrice weekly at the school gym, practiced my dance weekly, kept up with my regular work schedule, eaten my first popsicle in years, volunteered at my church's huli huli chicken sale, finally bashed out a few more pages of my novel, and finished reading three library books as well as As I Lay Dying, which was assigned reading, but which I finished early because I liked it so much.

Basically, yes, I am magic! Or slightly deranged. Take your pick. I'm also very tired right now and think I am coming down with a nasty cold, which is just perfect considering final exams are a mere two weeks away now, and I have my final art project and portfolio due in precisely one week. Cough, cough. I drank three cups of tea tonight, which did ease my throat, although the caffeine didn't really wake me up. Instead I feel like my head just got packed with wet cement. Yaaaaaawn.

Two more weeks, two more weeks, two more weeks.

Tomorrow, PBS is gonna air David Tennant's performance as "Hamlet". I strongly recommend y'all watch it, okay?

And that's all for now! Eyes hurt. I'm going to go wash my hair with cold water or something to try to wake myself up a little, and then I'm going to write an essay or two before turning in. Russian studying can wait until tomorrow. Yeah.

Going Home

Well, it's officially done. I filled out my 'leave of absence' paperwork today and will be taking one year's leave from school. This will be utterly bizarre, because I haven't had a year off of school since, um, I was four. That doesn't mean I won't be busy, however. I'll be using my time to write my novel, take care of my siblings, help run the house, and get in the best dancing shape of my life.

Today was extremely hot and humid. I'll need to grab some water soon, because I'm feeling seriously dehydrated . . . I found out I got a 90 on my Russian midterm, which I'm pleased with because my professor isn't the greatest (to put it mildly) and I'm just pleased to be within striking distance of an A. Of course, if I don't manage to strike that A, I won't be pleased any more. I'm a perfectionist. Sometimes it's a curse.

I started "At the Mountains of Madness" today, but so far it's reading like a very underwhelming version of "The Lost World". Hopefully it'll get scary and interesting soon. I'd hate April to be full of books I was unimpressed with.

Tomorrow I'm going to volunteer at my church's chicken sale. I don't know exactly what this will entail, but I'll manage. I must remember to put sunscreen on my face and shoulders, though. The sun's been blazing lately.

:)

Okay, yeah, I'm feeling better now. See, I told you I'd cheer up eventually. I've discovered the television show "Supernatural" and have been seriously creeping myself out and laughing as well. I've also been reading "Robots of Dawn", which is awesome so far. Add some strawberry guava juice and homework getting completed to the mix, and I'm definitely one happy camper again.

I'm also pretty tired. So tonight I'm going to just sleep and make sure to empty my mind of all stress and schoolwork related subjects. Who knows, maybe I'll actually have some interesting dreams for once--I used to have awesome dreams but they've just been weird or boring lately. I think it has something to do with my stress levels and sleep deprivation. Anyhow. Type to you all again later!

Ugh

I'm having a bit of a bad day. I'm getting all sorts of conflicting information on how to take a year's leave of absence from school, but need to make my decision soon, and the stress and magnitude of the decision and all the unexpected problems with what should be a simple process that keep cropping up is leaving me a bit rattled and emotional and run-down. It's just compounding a lot of issues at once, and I'm finding it all a bit too much to handle. I just checked my phone's clock to find out I've been sitting on a bench at school crying for two hours straight. It makes me feel daft, which just makes me a bit more miserable. Oh well. I was happy this morning, so I know I'll pull myself together and cheer up. The wind rustling and roaring in the dead palm fronds above my head is noisy in a comfortable susurrus sort of way, and I like the feel of the cool air and the warm stone bench I'm perched on. I also finished "Snow-Walker" today at last, and am eager to begin reading "The Robots of Dawn", although that will have to wait until I'm back at the apartment because I left it in my room. Also, I walked out of my Nutrition exam this morning feeling a lot better than I had when I walked in, which is a good thing.

So I'll gather my scattered nerves and thoughts and emotions together and carefully put them all back into their labeled compartments and drawers and then lock up and go out to get something to eat and something to read. That should help immensely.

Monday, Monday

Just another Monday. One of many Mondays. But no matter how practiced I get in dealing with Mondays, it never becomes any easier. I met with a medley of advisers today, and will continue to do so over the course of this week and the next. I also accidentally walked through a particularly populous ant trail in my stocking feet this morning before realizing that I was walking through an ant trail in my stocking feet. Yuck. Ants really disturb me for some reason. I don't like spiders, but ants make me feel sick. There's something both really human about them and really alien about them that bothers me. Anyhow.

I've begun reading "Snow-Walker", and can't believe how thick it is. It's about 625 pages long, but so far it's pretty good. Not remarkable, but pretty good. So far, it's still worth reading. The style's good, the characters are likable, I just wish they were developed a bit deeper.

That's all for now. I need to get some sleep to rest up for tomorrow's English 321 exam. And, as you can probably tell by the rambling nature of this post, I'm pretty tired. So I'll catch up with you folks later!

A Rambling Ramble

A lot happened over the past few days. After finding my library card literally as I went out the door to go to school, I left school early so I could hop on the bus and make it to the library to pick up my books which were on hold. After arriving at my stop, however, I was extremely not delighted to discover that, thanks to new furlough days, the libraries here are ALL CLOSED ON WEDNESDAYS. Oh, and it was a Wednesday.

So. Not. Right.

Anyway, I was stranded at a downtown bus-stop for forty minutes or so as a result. And didn't get my books, because I had no time from my crazy schedule for the rest of the week to pick them up, and anyway that was the last day I could have kept them on hold. Sometimes the world has an ironic sense of humor. Yesterday (Saturday), however, I walked to a library that's closer to where I live but much smaller, and borrowed four different books. And used my school's online library catalog to put about five more books on hold at school--I don't even remember the exact number, haha. I don't know how I'm going to read all of these before school ends and I'm flying home, but that's okay. It's better to have too many books than too few.

On Friday I finally got to watch "The Secret of Kells", a fantastic and beautiful Irish animated film about the Book of Kells. The animation is riveting, and the story is compelling too . . . the big conflict in the story, the big question, is whether to spend manpower building walls to keep out the Viking invaders, or to spend it illuminating beautiful manuscripts like the Book. If we devote all our energies to producing works of art, and to writing and knowledge and beauty, are we being foolhardy? Or is it really better to spend our time being practical and building those walls at the expense of building art and knowledge, because then we don't really have anything worth protecting? The power of the abstract vs. the practical; light vs. dark; imagination vs. reality; myth vs. mundane . . . That's some heady stuff. And of course the film is completely saturated in Irish-ness and Celtic-ness, which means I'd have loved it even if it hadn't been as good as it was, ha. The music was great too, and I did get sniffly towards the end. When this film (which, sadly, is being released only in very limited numbers of theatres in the US) is available on dvd, I strongly recommend you at least rent it. The animation alone, hand-drawn and inspired by the illustrations in the Book of Kells, is mesmerizing and unique. Here's a trailer, to give you an idea of what this film is like :)



After going to the library yesterday I had dinner with a whole side of the family I had never met before--the side I get the Hawaiian from. I enjoyed meeting everyone, and got to try all sorts of foods I've never had before--poi, lomi salmon, laulau . . . there was also some really tasty tako. All in all, it was a very good day.

And now I have to get ready for yet another crazy, busy week. Only a few more to go until I get on the plane to go home, though. Whee!

Best Moments of the Week So Far (In No Particular Order):

1) Finding my library card again.
2) Having my Russian midterm unexpectedly pushed back yet AGAIN.
3) Watching Buster Keaton and Laurel and Hardy with my English 337 professor.
4) Desmond. Faraday. 'Nuff said.
5) Writing some more novel.
6) SEEING A GUY IN THE COLLEGE OF ARTS AND SCIENCE ADVISING CENTER WITH HIS FEET TATTOOED TO LOOK LIKE HE'S WEARING THE WINGED SANDALS OF MERCURY. That, my friends, is just awesome.

I've Lost My Library Card!

I don't know how it happened! I really don't! But I went to the public library to return books today, and picked up three more, and then was suddenly struck with the awful revelation:

My library card is not in my wallet. Nor is it in my jeans pocket. Nor is it in my school backpack. It is GONE.

The library will hold my books for me for three days. I have to find my library card in three days. This is extremely annoying. My library card is like an extension of myself; it's as though I was just about to get a manicure when suddenly I realize my hand has disappeared. Except I never get manicures, ever. But whatever.

I'm going to poke around my sock drawer and bookshelves and empty all my coat pockets. Hopefully that card turns up. If not . . . ugh, that doesn't bear thinking about! :(

Spring Break Day 9: Getting Reacquainted With the Grindstone

Yeah, I'm going to be spending all waking hours today studying. Unfortunately my break is over, meaning that it's once again back to test-taking, essay-writing, and portfolio-building. I'm not looking forward to it, but I'm determined to do my best, even though I'm still a bit knocked out due to that cold. Which, by the way, is definitely finally on the mend--I feel tired but not quite so groggy, which is a big relief. Now I can finally get some decent studying done. Coughing is irritating, but at least it doesn't interfere with my thinking.

I watched that entire production of "Hamlet" last night, and it was overall very, very good. I think I'll buy it when it's available on bn.com in May. The entire cast, on the whole, was marvelous. It was amusing how shades of the Doctor came through in Tennant's portrayal of Hamlet every now and then, especially in the Hamlet-acting-mad scenes! But at the same time he was definitely a different character, which was interesting. I've never gotten really emotional at the end of "Hamlet" before, although I've seen it multiple times, but Tennant really sold the final scene and monologue to me. For the first time it didn't feel melodramatic, it felt simple and sad, which was brilliant. I did feel like shouting 'REGENERATE! REGENERATE!' when--and I'm assuming this is absolutely no spoiler to all you book-learned people--Hamlet died, but other than that I was able to keep the Doctor mostly from my mind while watching. Okay, apart from the 'in a nutshell' line, which suddenly seemed extremely TARDIS to me :D

To sum up: I strongly recommend this production of "Hamlet". It made the so-famous-as-to-be-sometimes-trite dialogue resonate with new immediacy and power to me, as though I was hearing it all for the first time, understanding the thoughts and meanings behind the words for the first time. And that, of course, is always a wonderful thing.

Right now I'm writing two essays for English. I started them yesterday, but now I have to polish them up and print them and stow them in my bag so I don't forget them on Tuesday! And then I need to study my Russian so I can retake some quizzes tomorrow, and I also want to clean my room now that I'm feeling a bit more alive. Unfortunately my beautiful library books must wait to be read until after Wednesday's midterm exams are over.

It's been pretty hot here in Hawaii for the past week, but today it's just warm, not humid and stuffy, which is a welcome change! Oh, and last night a baby gecko was running around my room. It was hilarious and quite cute. Baby geckos are only about an inch long, perhaps a little longer, but their heads make about a third of that length and are at least twice as wide as their bodies, perhaps three times as wide. Their bodies and tails are extremely skinny and when they run they wiggle from side to side. SO CUTE! Since I was just finishing Hamlet, I dubbed it Polonius before it scurried behind a large wooden fish I have propped against the wall. I don't know where it is now, but I hope it stays. I used to have a gecko friend down in the apartment garage, but he was a gentleman of a gecko, of a quite majestic size, and handsome rather than adorable. I named him Korwin because he loved to sit in the blazing sunlight on the rock wall right by where the car's parked; that's where I'd find him every morning before leaving to school and in the afternoon when I came back. The name's a rather geeky reference to a certain "Doctor Who" episode, if you've seen it you'll probably know which one I'm referring to . . .

Anyway, I was buddies with this lizard for over a year, and only for the past few weeks he hasn't shown up. I'm assuming at this point that he's joined the choir invisible, as John Cleese would say, and have been a bit down about it. So it's nice to see a baby lizard scurrying around my room now. Hopefully he'll stick around.

That's all the news I have time for, I'm afraid. It's time for me to get back to writing my essays. Oh, and Happy Palm Sunday, everyone!

Spring Break Days 5 & 6: I'm I'll

I did go to I'olani Palace on Wednesday. It was a very interesting place, and very beautiful, although something about it felt a bit too cold for me--There wasn't any life left in the place, not like I felt at, say, The Hermitage in Tennessee. The Palace was just kind of sad. Most of the furniture and decorations are gone, because they were sold by the conspirators who overthrew the Hawaiian monarchy and have not yet been recovered. It felt rather empty. Then too, so much has changed around it since its glory days. When it was first built, one could stand on the second floor and look out in one direction to see the ocean right there in the bay, and look in the opposite direction to see nothing but sweeps of jungle and green and then the mountains. Now, there's skyscrapers all around blocking the ocean and government buildings and more skyscrapers and development taking the place of the jungle, not to mention all the houses that now dot the mountainsides. I suppose that was part of the problem. The Palace was built to be grand, impressive, and beautiful, and although it is still beautiful, it now feels somewhat dwarfed, no longer living quarters for anybody, no longer the tallest building on the island. It's like it fell out of time into the wrong century and place.

That's not to say it wasn't interesting to tour the rooms, but nothing felt natural. All the rooms felt a bit too sparse and staged for my liking. Though the King's library was (of course!) delightful.

Since I walked to the Palace and back, I stopped off at St. Andrew's Cathedral and got my picture taken. Usually I don't like posting photographs of myself online, but I can't resist this time, because it's just too cool. Remember this scene from "The Constant"? (Or, well, not this exact scene perhaps, but the whole Desmond-meeting-Faraday-in-1996 deal. The student is unimportant. This just happens to be the best pic of the background I could find):


Well check this out:

Same hallway, peoples! I made it to Oxford University at last! ^_^

Except the little Physics Dept. placard is mysteriously missing and the lighting is a lot poorer, but, you know. I've been suspecting the episode filmed at this cathedral for a while now, so I decided to check it out, and I managed to find the spot. Which, since "The Constant" is absolutely my favorite episode of the show ever (although "Ab Aeterno" is awful close now), is a big deal, haha.

I double-checked online later, and apparently this church is used for basically every single 'old building/church in England' scene in the show. So Charlie came here to confess, Eko came here, and Desmond meeting Penny for the first time? Happened right here, peeps. The cathedral was built by a Hawaiian queen, using stone imported from England and built after the design of a British cathedral, so it really is a nice place.

It was a pretty fair day. But then I woke up yesterday with a full-fledged head-congesting, hacking-cough, sneezing cold attacking me, and Spring Break has kind of gone downhill from there. I'd been having a little bit of throat trouble all week, but at least the cold waited to hit me until after I had done my sightseeing.

Of course, that means that I now have to study for two midterms and write four papers while battling a horrific head-cold, but whatever. I'll manage somehow.

The Ides of March!

I only realized that today is the Ides of March just now, with a bare few hours of the day left, and so feel like I missed out on something big and important. On the more positive side of things, however, I returned five library books to the public library today--and then of course borrowed seven more. I'm like a kid in a candy store when I'm around free books. I can't help but grab and gollop more than I can chew.

Anyway, I now have "The Key to Rondo", by Emily Rodda; "Fall of a Kingdom", by Hilari Bell; "High Wizardry", by Diane Duane; "Foundation", by Isaac Asimov; "Never After", by Rebecca Lickiss (what an unfortunate last name); "The Caves of Steel", by Isaac Asimov; and "The Elf Queen of Shannara", by Terry Brooks, all stacked in a neat column by the head of my sleeping bag. And I don't even particularly like the Shannara books. That's how far gone I am. Like a book zombie, my brain just goes dead and ravenous.

I've started "The Caves of Steel" and it's excellent thus far. I've been keeping a book database this year--one of my Resolutions for 2010--and after less than three months into the year I've read twenty-five new books! That's quite a good start to the year, I think!

Tomorrow I have a quiz and a midterm and art homework to do. Then Friday is a Russian quiz, but thankfully my midterm has been pushed back two weeks, and I also have an English midterm. And then it'll be spring break, and I'll be able to breathe again.

Today I also had great fun spending time with Nikolai again, which was great. We watched "The Pink Panther", the original, for the first time. It was . . . convoluted, to say the least, pretty much the thickest farce you can imagine, but was pretty funny all the same.

All-in-all, Caesar might have had cause to fear the Ides of March, but they were pretty good to me.

9 Weeks

Yes, Nine weeks of this semester have been successfully survived, so now I'm over halfway to Summer Break! What a pleasant thought. It helps keep me cheerful in the face of next week, which promises to contain two important homework assignments, three essays, three midterm exams, and a Russian quiz. Ai.

I'm currently sitting in my room, which is swamped in library books. And when I say 'swamped', I mean that in the quite literal sense that a person could be in danger of sinking beneath them and remaining trapped forever. I have six books from the state library, and over a dozen from my school library, along with nearly twenty books that my father bought me for my birthday. I do love having stacks of unread books around the place; life seems so much brighter for them.

Nothing much of import happened last week, aside from the SyFy channel decided to air "The Prestige" and "Sunshine" back to back, late at night when I was supposed to be doing homework. I managed to finish the homework after all, but ended up staying awake ridiculously late, and what with having to wake up at 6 AM every school day . . . well, I finally managed to catch up on my sleep today by sleeping until half-past noon. And I'm still tired. But I got to watch "The Prestige" and "Sunshine" back to back, so I don't mind.

I also purchased my first "Doctor Who" dvd, thanks to "Tombs of the Cybermen" being on sale at Barnes and Noble! And the complete "Firefly" series, because a fundraiser at my school was selling it for only twelve dollars. That's some birthday money spent well, I think.

Now I am going to spend my weekend studying Russian in preparation for the aforementioned quiz and for the Russian midterm that's waiting for me like a ravening dragon on Friday. Oh dear. I should also clean my room and organize that swamp of books, and also turn my energy back to thrashing this horrific writers' block I've been laboring under for the past few months. I've tried writing so many things, and nothing is working. Unbelievably frustrating. I've been reading a lot, but it isn't helping. Oh well--This too shall pass, right?