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.

Can't think of a title right now, honestly . . .

Tonight's "Lost" episode wasn't bad at all, but I'll only really like it if it turns out Desmond is on the sub (behind the mysterious locked door? Yes? Please?). And I like Charlotte and her cute-awkward romance with Faraday too much for her to get dumped off on Sawyer, grr. Other than that, it was entertaining, but ultimately not my fave. Why? Because it's just an obstacle between me and next week's episode! Yeah, the episode I've been waiting for since forever! Whee! And it'll be Spring Break! Double-amazingness!

I completed the first of my two midterms this week, and I think it went very well. I also am almost finished with "The Caves of Steel" already, which shows you how good it is. Or how bored I am. I don't know. No, wait, I do know--it's very good. I spent two hours or so this evening squinting in the fading sunlight and frantically trying to draw a perspective drawing of the hallway outside the apartment for tomorrow's art class before the sun gave up on me and left me in the dark. I managed it, barely. My eyes still hurt.

I'm seriously worried about my 'Book of the Month' deal this month. I've read so many good books, I don't know which one should merit the top spot. And that's unusual for me, usually the really good ones are few and far between. I guess March is my lucky month, which is only fair, since it's my birth month.

I'm finally starting to break through my writer's block, too. And it feels absolutely wonderful. Like relearning how to breathe. Slowly but surely, I'm getting there.

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.

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.

"Lost" Premiere! (Full Album)

Here's the public web-link to my facebook album of photographs I got at the premiere. Unfortunately facebook is acting bizarrely recently and uploaded all my photographs pretty small, which is annoying, but I'll try to fix that ASAP.

In other news, I have my first real exam of the semester coming up on Friday. Nutrition class. I keep thanking my lucky stars that I watched "The Magic School Bus" as a kid, because that one strange episode where the class has a fieldtrip inside Arnold(?)'s digestive system is really helping me remember all my terminologies and things for this class!

In the Pit of Despair

You know how in "The Princess Bride" Count Rugen tells Westley (in that silky, charmingly evil voice of his) "I've just sucked one year of your life away"? That's what my midterms are telling me right now. 

Ooh, the pain.

Seriously, though, I am so swamped this week. Whose brilliant idea was it to have my History midterm, my Russian midterm, my Economics midterm, an English essay, a mandatory Mythology lecture, AND Russian homework all due within seven days of each other? The stress is getting to me. It feels like dying slowly. 

Furthermore, the more stressed I am, the more I want to shy away from the overwhelmingness of it all and take refuge in a good book (The Once and Future King), film (Beauty and the Beast), or other sundry activity (cleaning my room, exercising, writing, drawing, sleeping, and . . . erm, blogging), which in turn leads to not enough studying being done, which in turn leads to more stress, which in turn shunts me further down the path of denial.

It is a cruel, vicious cycle, and it is obvious what I need to do to stop it, but it is quite hard. It is much, much easier, I find, to shrink from a fear than it is to face it. A sentiment which I have recognized as long as I can remember from the books I read, of course, but one which has quite a personal meaning now.

You know, imagination might be my saving grace here, unlikely though that may sound. When I was little and I would catch fever or the flu, I would lie curled up miserably in my bed and imagine that my antibodies were an army of white-clad knights, and the germs were horrific creatures and black-helmed warriors who were invading, and the two armies were fighting this cataclysmic battle over my health. 

Bizarre? Well, yes, but it did help take my mind off of how wretched I was feeling.

A similar scenario might be necessary to get me through this week. This loooong list of problems isn't my economics study sheet at all, no sir! It is a set of riddles set to me by the Sphinx which guards the ancient gateway that I must pass, and therefore I must solve them all by the time four nights have passed, or else I am worsted! And nighttime mythology lecture? No, not at all! It is a secret meeting of the rebel group where we must listen carefully to our leader's presentation in order to follow his instructions properly and thereby win the war! Who cares losing two hours of sleep for that, right?

. . . I'll work on it. And to conclude with my beautiful "Princess Bride" analogy, it is comforting to know that though the week will be hard, I will at least come out of it only "mostly dead".