29.10.07

Time

My time this weekend was mostly spent on a bike or in a halloween costume, and sometimes both simultaneously. I'm kind of sore now, but I feel great.

My time today was spent in class, all day long. I was going strong at first, but now it's 4 pm and I'm tired. Considering calling in sick to my volunteer commitment. Not sure if this is a good idea.

Time I spent trying to figure out my schedule for next quarter, which is also my last quarter of school: 2 hours.

The time I have to be up tomorrow to get to work on time: 3 am. I believe I'll call in sick to my volunteer thing so I can sleep a full 8 hours tonight, and not be so tired at lab tomorrow.

That is all I have to say about time... except that there is never enough of it.

23.10.07

Almost through my horrible Monday-Tuesday routine. Just 4 hours of lab to go. That's the icing on the cake of 2 days' worth of work, with the cake being layered as follows:

6 hours of class, one 1-hour break, starting at 7:30 am
4 hours homework time, dinner break
volunteer work, 6:30-8 pm
home, 6 hours of sleep (max)
7.5 hours of working at TJ's, starting at 4 am
1 hour break

Yikes. Why do I do this to myself?

17.10.07

Isn't retail the best? This is what I feel like every day.

For example, take yesterday at work. I was kneeling, putting mints up on the displays next to the registers. A coworker of mine opened his register and had a customer in tow, meaning I had to get out of the way. He looks at me and says something to the effect of "Uh oh! Better move!" in a joking manner. I smile back as I'm standing up and say, "I'd better make like a tree and get outta here!"

The customer, a young, short woman in her late 20's, looks back at me as if I'm the dumbest person she's ever seen and says, "I'm pretty sure it's 'make like a tree and LEAF.' "

I still don't know whether she had no sense of humor, or she just thought I was an idiot. Either way, it made me laugh for about 10 minutes straight. I really did have to leaf the area...

(Comic from www.katebeaton.com)

10.10.07

Did you miss me?

New things are happening, new life developments and all that jazz. Life's a whirlwind and I have a hard time catching up on occasion. I should be happy about living in the here and now, and I am, really. It's just that once in a while, I'd like to have a chance to glimpse into the future, and figure out what I want to do with it.

I must go now... and nap.

20.6.07

Back from the Bay Area

And it was wonderful.

I'll add some more stories on here soon when I get a chance. Yesterday coming back was one of the weirdest days I've had, ever. A lot of funny things happened that make for great tales, and I'm hoping to share them all with you in the near future. But of course, life goes on in the interim, and I have lots to do in the next days. Tomorrow will be spend having a grand old time, since I have, oh, let's see, FIVE different events scheduled. FIVE. All with different people or groups of people. Should be a good time. Busy, but good.

Thursday will be spent mostly at work, which I did not expect. But that will allow me to have Friday off, and that shall be most excellent, as it will allow me to *hopefully* get my butt down to Oly and hang out with my family.

and THEN I will work every day from Saturday until Wednesday, 4:30 to midnight. Oh, the joys of a menial summer job. Sigh.

Next weekend I will hopefully pop up to Vancouver to see my German host father, who is going there on a business trip and will be staying for two weeks. The Bob Saget show is also that weekend, on a Friday, and I am REALLY excited for that.

Wow, so much to do. I love SUMMER!

15.6.07

Kyla is in San Francisco

And it is fantastic!

I got in yesterday afternoon, although it seems like I've been here longer. I took the BART to the city center, and then a bus to the neighborhood where I'm staying. My dear friend Tina is letting me stay the weekend at her lovely apartment near Russian Hill. Yesterday, we strolled through Fisherman's Wharf, shopped at Union Square, and admired the city from the top of a hill. We went to the flagship H&M, which I was excited about since I hadn't been to one since living in Germany. Dinner was really good, cheap Indian food near Union Square. Tina is also letting me use her digital camera while I am here, since I forgot to bring mine. When we got home, I was exhasted from all the activity and the travel from Seattle, so I napped for half an hour and then we watched Stranger than Fiction, which was a wonderful movie.

Then today, Tina left for work earlier than normal so she could be out early as well. I took my time getting ready, making a few calls and taking a shower. I left the apartment at noon and made my way down to Chinatown. I snapped pictures of the sloping streets virtually covered in signs and slogans, all in Chinese, and was tempted by numerous trinket shops. I ended up buying a BBQ pork roll and a sesame bun, both of which were delicious, and then I walked to City Lights, an independent bookstore that is both historical and rad. I could have spent all day in there, but in the interest of seeing more of the city, I moved on after an hour or so. From there I walked down Columbus until I hit Lombard Street, and walked up the hill to the section that is supposedly the curviest piece of road in the US. Or something like that. It was pretty curvy - basically a set of switchbacks for cars. Then it was time to meet Tina, so I hopped a bus to the Mission. We killed time until 5:30, which is when the Country Station Sushi restaurant opened. This was by far the raddest part of the day for me (City Lights took a close second). This place looked like a run-down hole-in-the-wall type of place from the outside. Inside, decorations covered every wall and most of the ceiling and chair backs. There were only 8 or so tables, and the sushi chefs were young, cute and already working on making sushi behind the counter that overlooked the rest of the small restaurant. They yelled out a friendly greeting as Tina and I walked in, following the waitress who had just flipped the homemade sign to "open". Japanese punk music played from the speakers above. The place had an open-air, urban feel to it, and I found it wonderful. The food itself was equally amazing, featuring handmade gyoza stuffed with a fantastic non-meat filling, and a "dizzaster" roll wih salmon and mango. Sadly, this place will be closing at the end of June, which I can't imagine because it is really a fantastic restaurant. But I'm glad I got to experience it.

Now, Tina and I are taking a break and resting before it's time to go out tonight. We will be going to a thing called Blow Up, which looks insane. Hopefully we'll take some pictures and post them on the internets... probably Facebook. I'd better go and get my resting on so I'll be ready for tonight's craziness. More updates later, but until then, you can just assume that I'm having a super fun time down here in the City.

6.6.07

If I Kiss You Where It's Sore



..will you feel better?
Will you feel anything at all?
AHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHH
Sitting in the library at 11 pm can only be improved by a group of about 30 people coming in and running a lap around the ground floor...

...in their UNDERWEAR.

Awesome!

There were even two of these to be seen...

5.6.07

Can't sleep. Clowns will eat me.

Can't sleep. Clowns will eat me.

Can't sleep. Clowns will eat me.

...

Studying for finals. I think I'm allergic to it.

3.6.07

Here I stand, sad and free
I can't cry and I can't see
What I've done
Oh God, what have I done

I poured my heart out
I poured my heart out
It evaporated. . . see?

- Ben Folds Five - Evaporated

23.5.07

I couldn't resist



My favorite part is between 2:42 and 2:46 of the video. So good.

I can't believe his music videos. Unreal. Gotta love the Hoff!


create your own visited country map
or check our Venice travel guide

I thought I'd been to a lot of places. The countries that are not in red are the ones I have yet to visit. I have a lot of travel ahead of me...

Last midterm was today. Whoo hoo. Now it's time to knuckle down and study for finals... after I check all my blogs and networking sites, of course... man. I have a hard time concentrating sometimes. The internet doesn't help, either. I would like to go to Uwajymaya right now. Anyone wanna come?

ACK ok I'm going to go do my homework now. This blog is becoming less and less coherent.

18.5.07

Yesterday was a really weird day. Actually, this week has been a little bit strange, all in all...

Wednesday I went to College Inn for international night, but hardly anybody shows up anymore. I guess it's kind of hard when there's so much homework to do, and so much to take care of before everybody goes back to their respective countries... But I did get to catch up with an old friend, and that in itself made the night worth it. (And worth the fact that I had to get up early the next day to finish my homework.)

Yesterday was a day full of randomness. After finishing my assignment, I went to class and was unusually attentive and engaged in the material. After class, I spent some time with Jeff, which hasn't happened much lately because I've been busy and he's been sick. (Actually, I think I'll go visit him at his house after this...) Then I studied for a bit with Andrea at Cafe on the Ave. We had Mochi and enjoyed the sunshine while trying to work on our stuff. After this, I went to Lucas' house and watched Waking Life, a really awesome movie. We talked through parts of it, but it was nice to watch a movie on something so ethereal as dreams, and to talk about them. According to Lucas, if you sleep through half the night, and then wake up and stay up until you are fully awake, and then go back to sleep, you are much more likely to have a lucid dream. A lucid dream is where you're in your dream, and you're aware that you're dreaming, so you're able to control everything that happens in the dream. Imagine the possibilities... I think I might try to have one of these lucid dreams sometime soon.

After the movie, I bopped out to the Freemont fire pit to sit around a campfire and play violin with some of my cousin's friends from SPU. It was rad! Apparently they do this on a fairly regular basis. I shall have to come with them again sometime. Then my cousin came with her .83 friends straight from their bike ride. I've never been on a .83 ride, or even Critical Mass, so I got to talk with them about it and find out a bit more about the different programs and offerings. Some of us rode back to the U-District together, which was cool because it was kind of an introduction to .83 for me. I think I'm ready to ride with them...

Then I hung out with a few friends from work, because Erica turned 21 last night and it was time to buy her drinks. Actually, buying her a drink was my main goal of going to the bar they were at, but she declined, saying she'd had enough for the day, and asked me to wait until tomorrow to buy her a drink. Besides that, it was pretty fun. It was already late, though, by the time I got back to the U-District, and by the time we settled in at Finn's, it was 1 AM already. Makes me mad that Seattle bars close by 2! But, whatever. Gotta uphold the peace, or something. I can go to New York or Vegas (or Europe, for that matter) if I want to stay out all night.

Just got a call from Jeff - his cousin's finally here. Which means I gotta run so I can (finally) meet him. Have a good weekend and if you get down, just watch the video I posted in my last post. Man. Make me laugh every time.
Probably the Best 17 Seconds of your Life


13.5.07

There was an event last week that came as a surprise, and not in a good way. I don't want to discuss the details, but suffice it to say that I'm an adult, and deserve to be treated like one. That includes asking before taking. The person doing the taking understands that I have a right to be mad, and is trying to pacify me with promises of "being fair" and "evening everything out". He's right about me being angry, but he hasn't quite understood why. It's not that I want equality; that's not the point. I want honesty. That's the only way to perpetrate good relations among everybody involved.

Something of a similar nature happened once upon a time last September, and remnants of this still linger in my mind, and have negatively impacted relations. This damaging poison was released because he refused to be honest. This time, he was partially honest, but only because this time, it affected me directly. It's not because he learned from his mistakes.

And the worst part of it all is, I don't think he ever will.

8.5.07

Today and yesterday were absolutely GORGEOUS. The rest of the week is supposed to be all right, too. For once a good-weather week! Yoo hoo!

Of course, the onset of good weather brings with it a number of bad things. Jeff is sick, and I've caught something too, although I'm not entirely sure it's the same thing he's got. (I didn't see him hardly at all since Thursday, the day he started showing symptoms.) My roommate and her boyfriend are also infected. Then, as a I learned today from a frat friend of mine, it turns out that Greek Week is upon us. This means that not only do I have to spend most of my time sleeping and studying, but I also have to ignore the drunken din of partygoers in the alleyway while doing it. Nice. I got a taste of this walking home tonight from Jeff's house. Small groups of Greeks were scurrying away from a party on 19th. Looking at the first group of girls, who were wearing booty shorts and mid-driff halter tops, I thought they were dressed extraordinarily skanky. But as I got closer to 19th and 45th, I realized that everyone was wearing bathing suit tops and/or bottoms, and most people had bits of foam on their bodies and in their hair. Turns out the cops had just busted a foam party. I thought this was all a bit extreme for a Tuesday, given the number of people who were there, but then I remembered it was Greek Week. Sigh.

Okay, time to study. But here's a few more things:
- RENT tomorrow! EXCITED!
- Jeff's mom, aunt and cousin are visiting on Friday!
- We are going to do something fun this weekend, before the Germans all leave us to go home! Breakfast, maybe, or a trip to the Science Center or SAM. Something...
- I get to finally meet Jeff's cousin! I feel like I practically know him already from all of Jeff's stories about him.. He'll be here for a whole weekend!
- I like exclaimation points!

3.5.07

I love biology.

"The combination of a lack of distinct behavioral estrus and absense of distinct cues as to when ovulation occurs and continual sexual receptivity are attributes that anthropologists suggest contributed to the evolution of societies among early hominids. As males were unsure as to the exact timing of female fertility, they tended to remain close to their partners to ensure their chances of fertilizing their mates. This promoted maintenance of pair bonds and reduced the chances of cuckholdry. As a result, permanent groupings became established and eventually societies formed and were sustained."

Really? You'd think there'd be a few other factors in there, too. A need for love? Feelings? Monogamy for the sake of monogamy?

It does crack me up, though, thinking about the mental imagery I associate with this passage. I see confused, young cavemen, wondering when the heck their mates were going to ovulate, and deciding to just... hang out with her a lot until she got pregnant. Tee hee.

Alright, back to studying. Gosh, it's a beautiful day out there today.

2.5.07

Last post was the 600th one on this blog. Happy belated blog day... to me.

Today was a good day. None too efficient, but I managed to entertain myself quite well. Went to play class for two hours and had fun playing the improv game where you re-dub old movies. In German, this managed to be hilarious, as we were dubbing German over an old kung fu movie. I guess you kinda had to be there. (lots of my stories have ended that way lately. Is that a bad sign?)

I also played frisbee, went on a small bike ride and had a chat with an old friend on a balcony overlooking Lake Union. It was pleasant, to be sure, but now I know I should probably be at the library. And I really don't want to go... it would mean I'd have to put more clothes on. And I am usually opposed to putting clothes on.

This weekend looks promising. My sister is coming up to hear the Senate play on Friday with me, and then Saturday we will hopefully go hiking. If that doesn't sound awesome, I don't think your definition of awesome is correct.

Speaking of awesome, I am on the verge of buying plane tickets for a weekend in San Francisco in June. I've never been there, and Tina says she'll put up with me for 3-4 days, so I'm 99% sure I'm going to go ahead and do it.

Alright, time to blowdry my hair and get going to the library.

21.4.07

drowning in skooooooooooool

got the day off today. it's been nice. went to coffee with Andrea nice and early, got some schoolwork done, bought 2 shirts for 2 dollars, went to the farmer's market, saw a coworker I hadn't seen for a while and heard some good news. am now cooking pork roast and cleaning my room (the second part is debatable). waiting for dad to call me back. tonight is kevin's 21st birthday party, and it's at my house. don't gotta go anywhere, the party's coming to me. sweet.

all in all, a rather nice day. am not looking forward to going to work tomorrow. or to school on monday. but that's how it goes.

sorry the video below is gone due to copyright. it was pretty funny... you can probably find it on the original website somewhere if you didn't get the chance to see it.

17.4.07

I need to get my drink on

This video is super-awesome. Give it a watch:


11.4.07

Thanks, Developmental Bio Textbook!


"The amoeba and the paramecium are potentially immortal... But for Volvox, death seems to be as inevitable as it is in mouse or in a man. Volvox must die as Leeuwenhock saw it die because it had children and is no longer needed. When its time comes it drops quietly to the bottom and joins its ancestors. As Hegner, the John Hopkins zoologist, once wrote, 'This is the first advent of inevitable natural death in the animal kingdom and all for the sake of sex.' And he asked, 'Is it worth it?' "

-Joseph Wood Krutsch

10.4.07

If you know me, you might know that I have weird impulses sometimes. I don't know what causes them, but usually I feel I should follow through on them because there's a reason that I have them.

Which brings me to my question tonight: Does anyone want to go to the Justin Timberlake concert with me?

4.4.07

Hi.

I'm still here. Just haven't posted much.

Things are going okay. The new quarter is in its second week, and I have two midterms next week (!!!). Work is fine, too; our reviews are next week and I'll probably get a raise again. Which means more motivation to stay on, even though I am growing tired of the work. I was pulled aside by a manager yesterday for some "training", which is a little late, considering I'm in my 7th month of working for TJ's. We basically went through a checklist of stuff that I knew by the 3rd week. And he gave me a few pointers on how to improve my overall score at my review, like buffing up on product knowledge and finishing work quickly so I can help the managers more by asking for another task. This all sounds like brown-nosing to me, and I won't do it. Besides, I already got the maximum raise last time. I must be doing something right.

In other news, my skin is driving me crazy. I need to go to a doctor. Self-medication isn't doing the trick. I wonder if I'm allergic to something? Dairy? Wheat?

Niko is back from California, and I think he's actually at my house right now. He leaves for Germany tomorrow. :( So I'm going to go welcome him back, and hang out with him, and make an omelette, and probably do some schoolwork.

26.3.07

So. Spring break. Oh man.

My break ended up being a lot of things I didn't expect. Actually, I made a list of all the things I wanted to do while on break, and today I took a pen and checked off the ones I actually got to, just to create a small sense of accomplishment. The result? Out of 13, I only got to 3 of them. I also had a list of the people I never get to spend quality time with, and from that list, I only hung out with 1/2 the people.

But there were a few surprises during the break, too. Here's a run-down of the main events, in chronological order:

1. Redecorating the living room. Ashley and I were home together on Thursday (the day after my last final) when we came up with a brillant plan: it was time to make the living room a more friendly place to live. So we got up the next morning and biked to Ballard on the search for materials (and fresh, gooey bread). We were successful on both counts and we managed to bring back paint, skull-and-crossbones curtains, pink ribbon, and other little tidbits. The rest of the day was spent painting and drinking beer in celebration of the end of finals.

2. Vancouver trip. Ronda and I have an awesome friend from Germany staying with us. Sadly, he leaves tomorrow, but he had all spring break to chill with us and see some of Seattle. We did the usual Pike Place and Space Needle thing, and then Ronda and Niko revealed that they were hoping to take a road trip to Vancouver, BC. So I got someone to cover a shift for me, and we called up my good friend Rick from high school, who goes to school in BC and was nice enough to let us stay with him. Unfortunately, it rained pretty much the whole time we were up there, but what can you do. I mean, c'mon. It's Vancouver. It's gonna rain. We went to the aquarium, which was totally rad, and saw belugas and sea lions and otters and jelly fish. They even had a small zoo section to go with the tropical fish section, and Ronda got birdcrapped on in the bird sanctuary. The aquarium was definitely a highlight.

3. Party at my place. We don't throw parties at our place often enough, I think. I mean, we have a pretty big house and it's centrally located smack-dab in the U-District. I don't know if I'll ever live in another place so well-suited to parties. Anyway, this party came about because one coworker of mine decided 2 months ago to have a party, but didn't know where to have it, since his apartment was too small. I agreed to have it at my place, and so it was on. Usually parties that are planned so far in advance get hyped too much and they end up not living up to expectations. But this one was awesome, if I do say so myself. Lots of dancing, and lots of coworkers who I always want to hang out with but hardly ever get the chance because we have work and school all the time. Everyone gave compliments on how much fun the party was, and it's pretty much all we talked about at work today. And damage was minimal: sure, the house was covered in bottles and cans this morning, but I cleaned it up today in a matter of a few hours. There was no vomit, no broken furniture (save possibly for the disco ball), and nothing stolen outside of a few beers that were not designated for the party, and a little ice cream that belonged to my roommates. Anyway, I socialized for a good 3 hours, and then started taking dance breaks, and then switched almost entirely to dancing until nearly the break of dawn. Basically, it was awesome and I had a great time.

So that's my spring break in a nutshell. Tomorrow is the first day of school again, and it's going to be... well, school. Sigh. But I'm taking 3 bio classes and a German play class, so at least now I'm taking a schedule where I'm interested in all the things I'm learning (as opposed to last quarter, when I had physics). Wish me luck for my first day back!

9.3.07

I'm taking the German play class next quarter!!!!!!

And I'm still going to graduate in winter, when I thought I would!!!!!

It's going to be awesome!!!!!

WOOOOO!!! Go me!

7.3.07

AAAAAGHGSKRORHHHHHHGHHHSEAWHGC.

Just one more week! But I want the quarter to be done NOW!

6.3.07

Hi guys!

It's been a while since I've said anything on here. And since I have Internet access and only an hour until I have to have my PowerPoint slides ready so I can meet with my presentation group, I thought, "what better time than this to blog again?"

Actually, I should probably work on that PowerPoint stuff. But I'll do a little update, because I am a procrastinator and you guys should know how things are going for me:

-The end of the quarter is upon us. I have 2 finals, and one is a take-home, so not a lot of stress. I'm excited for next quarter, so I'll be glad when this one is done.

-No closure on the Birds vs. German Play class debate yet. I have to go see an advisor about that one.

-No big spring break plans, except that NIKO IS COMING and I'm really really really excited to see him! So I will pick up an extra shift in the next two weeks so that I am working 28 hours each week instead of my usual 21 a week.

-Jeff makes me happy :)

-There is a lot to do on Friday night: Sara's birthday party, and a coworker's party as well. Problem is, I work early the next morning (at 4 am). So I'll go to dinner with Sara, but I probably will have to skip out early on Dante's.

Okay, I guess I'll get back to assembling my PowerPoint stuff. Bleh. Have a good day!

2.3.07

So, Yeah, Here's the Thing

I registered for my classes two weeks ago, and wasn't very happy with the outcome. People with all sorts of senority took the places in the classes I wanted, and I was stuck with two classes I was okay with, and one that made me angry because it was early in the morning 4 days a week, 9 hours a week total, and it was about the natural history of birds, which I'm not all that interested in. But it fits my requirements well, and would probably help me get out of school all that much faster if I took it.

BUT.

I now found a class about Comparative Animal Reproduction that I can take for upper division elective credit. Sweet. I'm in. So now my schedule looks like this:

Comp Animal Repro
Physiology
Developmental Bio

And I still need one more class. The Birds class does fit, and I could take it. OR... I could do a totally fun, totally sweet German play class. And I'm really leaning towards that, because I haven't performed ANYTHING in FOREVER and I really would like to. And my German could use that sort of practice.

So.... I think I'm going to do the German play. Just because I can. I might even proctor again for the film class, because that was fun and it helped my German as well. That would be 17 credits, but that extra 2 hours a week for proctoring is barely anything.

There's just one nagging thought: there's the horrible idea of making it to the middle of fall quarter, and finding out that I can't graduate because I didn't take that Birds class, and WHAT? I'll have to stick around for another quarter? AHHH I can't take the pressure. So I should do the Birds class and get my lab credit out of the way, even though I don't want to take the class, and I REALLY want to do that German play. Guess I'll go see a Bio advisor about the whole thing tomorrow, or next week sometime.

Today was a fantastic day. I went to a very inspiring lecture this morning, and it just put me in a mood to beat the band. Didn't get all the work done that I should have, but I was happy and I felt that's all that mattered today. I might feel differently about that tomorrow.

Hokay, it's time to go to bed so I can do all the work tomorrow that I should have done today.

PS: If you read the comments from the post about the Iris videos, you'll see that the director of yet another video is upset that I didn't post his. Sorry, William! Here it is in all its glory (and I will edit the old post to include it - just not tonight).

28.2.07

I'm sick. I need to go home and sleep.

There's stuff I need to get done today. Group paper due at 4:30. Field ecology at 1:00. German at 11:30. At least I finished reading the book.

Work was dumb last night. A bunch of things happened that pissed me off. I fell into bed exhasted and didn't get stuff done like I should have.

This is easily the worst day of the week, right here. Gah. At least I have friends who let me vent to them. Thanks, friends! I love you all.

Okay, back to writing my paragraph for that stupid paper.

22.2.07

Just to Prepare You for the Best Thing Ever


All of these videos were spawned from one single, awesome 30-second movie. Last weekend, we filmed one as well. Stay tuned, because it will be the best thing ever. In the meantime, watch the others and get a feel for the "genre".

The Original:


The Copies:






The Spinoff:

20.2.07

My life is rolling downhill at astounding speeds, and I haven't figured out how to catch up with it yet.

18.2.07

This show is an obvious rip-off of The Daily Show. I don't think it will enjoy any of the widespread success that The Daily Show enjoyed (and, to some extent, still does), and it will probably prove to be nothing more than a feeble attempt on FOX's part to create a popular, intelligent, engaging show, even at the risk of being unoriginal. (Note to FOX: You had an original, witty show with Arrested Development! Why did you drop that wonderful gem?)

I've been feeling very contemplative lately, but too busy to think through my thoughts. Tomorrow I'll be cross-country skiing my way through the mountains, and hopefully the cold air and the natural beauty will bring me some moments of clarity. So I'd better go get some sleep!

14.2.07

I skipped my 2 morning classes today to work on a really hard ecology assignment. Horray!

I got a package in the mail today from my lovely German host family! Complete with pictures, CDs and Haribo! Hooray!

I'm going to eat a quiche, go to class and get my stuff done, and then come home and nap! HOORAY!

13.2.07

As I've mentioned before, I usually don't remember anything from work unless it really stands out. Tonight, there was one such occurence worth remembering because it was simply hilarious:

Two girls came through my line. They were sharing a cart. One girl unloaded her groceries, which was a small portion of what was in the cart (perhaps 1/5 of the load). Max at the time was bagging for me, and we were talking employee-talk to each other. I said "hi" to the girls, and asked if they had two separate orders. They said "yes", and the girl with the larger order commented that her friend was leaving her to buy most of the groceries. I said that meant that she got to eat more of the food. The girl laughed, but then said she had also given her friend dinner the night before. And that's where things got really awesome:
Me: "Well, I guess we all know who wears the pants in this relationship."
Max: "Kyla, we're all wearing pants here."
Me: "Um" (looking down at his legs) "you're not wearing any pants."
(The girls are laughing)
Max: "You just took that to a weird place."
(The girls are turning red from laughing at this point)

So that made my night. That, and quoting this video:

9.2.07

I'm beginning to become spoiled by my bike. I'm used getting to class from home in 5 minutes, and my feet aren't used to walking a lot anymore. Oh well, biking is sweet and I love it. Plus, I get a little bit of exercise every day from riding up hills. My thighs are solid and super-buff. Which is good, I think.

Speaking of my bike, I rode it yesterday to pick up pizza at Pizza Hut on 65th and 15th. I usually don't consider myself that awesome, but last night I felt totally rad as I pedaled back down 15th with two pizza boxes strapped to the back of my bike. I felt European, but instead of flowers or baguettes in my bike basket, I had pizza taped to the rack. ROCK.

The last few days have been a whirlwind, and I'm just now getting my act back together. Once I'm done with class at 12:30, I think I'm going to go do something fun and/or relaxing. Preferably both.

7.2.07

A Haiku for You:

Today was a world
of pain. And tomorrow will
likely be the same.

5.2.07

I'm at the library. I hate Mondays, Tuesdays, and Wednesdays. They are so intense with class (and consequently homework) that it's ridiculous...

My travel mug is definitely ready to be retired. Somewhere in the inner lining, a leak has occured, and icky coffee remnants are now living in the space between the lining and the outer plastic cover. You can see the gross liquid moving about when I drink from the mug. This wouldn't really bother me except for the fact that some of this liquid gets back into the inner part every time I fill it up with something. So when I drink anything from that mug (and I drink lots of stuff out of there - tea, water, juice), it all has this slight tinge of disgusting coffee to it. It's kind of moldy, and really gross.

So basically, I'm in the market for a rad new coffee travel mug. Anybody have any suggestions as to where to find one? I want to buy it ASAP because I really do use my mug all the frickin' time. It's great because I get cheaper drip coffee and free hot water at the shops on campus if I bring my own mug, but what's more, I'm not constantly using and throwing away paper coffee cups, plastic cups and bottles, etc. That's actually my main motivation for having a travel mug. And I need one soon. So - any suggestions as to where to find one?
My old work supervisor, Steven, is hilarious and a great boss. I miss working for him all the time. At least I'll be working on Thursday for him, so I can get a free ticket for the basketball game.

My favorite email exchange between him and me from the last few days:

From: skurle@
To: spunk_grrl45@
Subject: W-2
Date: Mon, 29 Jan 2007 14:18:28 -0800

Where can I send it YO!
Steven Kurle



From: spunk_grrl45@
To: skurle@
Sent: Monday, January 29, 2007 2:26 PM
Subject: RE: W-2

yo! whereva!

I mean:
(address withheld)

thanks mang. hey, I might want to work some bball games. specifically the one on the 9th. so let me know if you need me
-kyla


From: skurle@
To: spunk_grrl45@
Subject: Re: W-2
Date: Tue, 30 Jan 2007 08:30:10 -0800

We can always use you let me know the dates. KURLE

From: spunk_grrl45@
To: skurle@
Sent: Friday, February 02, 2007 4:23 PM
Subject: RE: W-2


Alright can I work Thursday the 8th? That would be fantastic.

-Kyla


From: skurle@
To: spunk_grrl45@

Okay your in Mang, my new favorite word by the by. Used all the time like "Hey Mang, how is it going Mang?" Yo Mang put down the gun, OWWW MANG why did you shoot me? UGGHH Mang I am DYIN.


4.2.07

Peyton Manning! Congratulations Peyton Manning. You win!

Best Quarterback, ever!
Awesome!

This post dictated by Jeff.

Now on to Kyla's part (not written by Jeff):
Work was ok. I got my review from one of the managers. It went well, and I got a 50 cent raise, so I'm happy. I'm a good worker! Yay.

I want a pot pie for dinner.

Going out tonight with friends from work. Half price night at Finn's! Also, I've stopped using hypens. They're dumb. (see if you can find the two points in the post where I should have used them)

That's about it. School's fine, work's fine. Anything besides that is stuff I'm not going to post on the Internet. so ha.

31.1.07

Following in Ronda's footsteps:

Dear cute little Asian girl who always has many different colored pens and sits on the end of the row for every single Physics lecture:

DO YOU ABSOLUTELY HAVE TO SIT AT THE END OF THE ROW? DON'T YOU REALIZE THAT THERE IS A WHOLE ROW OF EMPTY SEATS AFTER YOU, AND THAT EVERY MORNING I HAVE TO STEP OVER YOU TO GET TO ONE OF THEM? IT'S NOT LIKE YOU'RE SITTING AT A LEFTY DESK OR ANYTHING, SO I KNOW YOU'RE CAPABLE OF SCOOTING IN TO THE MIDDLE OF THE ROW. WHAT'S SO ENTICING ABOUT THE END, ANYWAY?

Sincerely,
Kyla
Today was at once terribly busy and awesomely fantastic. I got about 5 hours' worth of sleep, and had to drag myself to class. But once I got there, I actually found some of the stuff I did interesting, if not downright fun. After Eco lecture, I spent a bit of time in the Quad, soaking up the sun and calling a few friends to get the daily update... and then I had to go to work, which was okay, but I realized today that I don't remember anything from work, ever. Like, I don't mind being there (usually), and time flies because there's always something to do and coworkers to joke around with, but I really just don't remember anything. It's like seven hours of my time were taken away from me and replaced with an hourly wage. Seriously, if you asked me about work today, I could tell you only a few things: 1. I was on register for 3 hours; 2. I had to work in the bread section a lot, and 3. we had to stay 15 minutes late to finish everything.

The highlight of work today came after work, when I finally escaped and got to join Max's 21 run. The ironic part was that I organized the whole thing, and then couldn't make it there until I got off at 12. They were at College Inn by the time I got off, having already visited Flowers. Max was given many drinks and seemed to be enjoying himself. I wish I could have been there from the beginning, because I had a splendid time for only being there for an hour. My coworkers rock.

So tomorrow's gonna be lame, because I'll have school again. But I'll probably make it out for College Inn again, this time with the international group. And of course, I won't have school on Thursday, but I will have a dentist appointment. In Olympia. Yeah. LAME.

There's more exciting stuff going on this weekend, but I'll stop now because 1. it's time for bed, 2. I'm kind of rambling, and 3. who wants to hear about the mundane goings-on of my life, anyway?

29.1.07

Last night was a lot of fun, even though I stayed up too late and missed my physics lecture as a result. I got off work at 10 and went to watch some live bluegrass at Pies and Pints up on 65th and 12th.

(Side note: Pies and Pints does not, as Ashley thought, serve pizza pie, nor do they serve fruit pie, which was my misconception. They actually are all about the pot pies, which sounds like a great idea to me, because they are hearty, tasty and would probably go great with a pint. I'll have to get one next time I go there.)

I got to the pub in time to watch the band pack up their instruments. Great. Missed the show. But 3 of my coworkers were there, so we hung out for a bit more and chatted about work and life and such. Brad determined he owed me a beer for the few times I've given him food and drink at my house, and so he bought me a pint of the most ping-pong tiddly in the nuclear sub. It was called Jolly Roger Christmas Ale, and had what has to be a record at 11% alcohol by volume. Needless to say, I was pretty good to go after that, and I ended up hanging out with Brad at his house and having a great conversation. It was nice, because we're similar in a lot of ways, and although we work together all the time, it's not like we ever really get a chance to hang out and talk, since we're both always busy with work and school. I finally left his house at 1:30 am, and went home to go to bed.

Tomorrow is Max's 21st birthday, so a bunch of TJ's people are going to take him out on the Ave somewhere. This is just the first of a bunch of 21 runs in the coming months. Ronda's is exactly 3 weeks from tomorrow!

27.1.07

snowshoeing at steven's pass today = awesome.

me = really ridiculously tired.

group meetings for school at the library on a Saturday night = dumb.

my motivation to do our work = low.

party tonight at brittany's = good, if I'm not completely useless in a few hours.

25.1.07

"You're good at stating things that are true."

(title provided by Jeff on 1/22)

Facts:
- Today was beautiful.
- I didn't smell good today. All I could think about during work was how nice a shower was going to be.
- My sister and Andrea are awesome people.
- Physics sucks.
- Gotta get back to Germany soon.
- Cold Franziskaner Hefeweizen is outstanding.
- I've been going going going for days now. Tomorrow I get the whole day to myself.
- I should have been in bed two hours ago.
- I'm going snowshoeing for the first time ever on Saturday.
- There is never enough time to reflect.

Check out the following video from MTV Belgium. Look for Sara and Andrea around minute 1.40:

22.1.07

Ridiculous, I know...

...but I think I might drop physics, and take it again next quarter.

Why? Well, with the way things are going, I don't think I'll get a good grade. At all. Because I don't understand the material.

I'll stick it out until the end of the week, or until I get my midterm grade back. That will probably be the deciding factor.

Besides, if I drop physics, I'll have more time to concentrate on my other classes. And time is just what I need, because I understand those classes, and putting just a little more time into each of them will help me boost my GPA this quarter.

Alright, time to go read some German, and do other homework.

21.1.07

Found on top of a computer at the library:

"tomorrow morning
tape David's
eyelids shut &
mouth open
(jaw down).

n - 1/8 roll tape
e
e - strength } 8/10
d
e -cruelty
d "

19.1.07

In Which One of her Fundamental Beliefs is Severely Shaken

I only believe in 3 things for sure:
1. Jake Gyllenhaal is God's gift to (wo)men,
2. Death and taxes, and
3. That nobody of note would ever read my blog (besides my friends, of course).

Well, I can now cross #3 off my list. Exactly a month ago, Stolie over at FunkyBrownChick wrote a post about me. More specifically, it was about the title of my blogroll. Of course, in an effort to be witty (and also to downplay the fact that I read the blogs of people I don't personally know), I titled the blogroll "don't know if I'd necessarily recommend them, but I read these sometimes". (You can see it over there to the right.)

Needless to say, Stolie wasn't too pleased to find that her blog fit under this category. And so she made one of her Reader Appreciation posts into an open letter, addressed to ME. How embarrassing... And of course, I didn't even read it until today, when I read the comments on one of her recent posts.

So now I need a new, clever title for my blogroll. Help?
Just when I thought I couldn't get any weirder with my lunch habits, I went a step further. This is by far the most, um, interesting lunch I've ever prepared for myself. It consists of the following (in the order that it occured to me that I should make and eat/drink them):

-hummus and sharp cheddar sandwich on whole wheat bread;
-spinach salad with goat cheese, walnuts, cranberries, and lemon ginger sesame dressing;
-orange juice;
-the last chunk of filet mignon from a few days ago;
-chile spiced mango, and
-a cup of chicken broth.

Once any of the aforementioned items was on the list, it didn't occur to me that I should take it off. Why should I? It's all good stuff, and if I don't eat it soon, it'll probably go bad. But I'm pretty sure I didn't have to eat it all right now. (Except that meat. Its days were definitely numbered.)
As it stands, I might not have any appetite whatsoever for the salad. But it's the healthiest part of this excuse for a meal, so I'd better save some room.

Last night, I read one of the best blog posts I've ever read. Actually, this girl's whole blog is good. An excerpt which I found particularly funny, if only because it relates to my life rather well:

Christmas treated me well this year, bringing me an irresistably adorable little digicam, Trivial Pursuit (Genus VI!), a wad of sweet green, and some atomic alarm clock that my mother ordered from her Big Catalog of Needlessly Complicated Gadgets and Oddities. Considering that my morning routine consists of an hour long conversation with my snooze button, in which I trade off increasingly necessary hygienic-upkeep activities in exchange for nine minute naps, I'm not really sure I need a (radioactive) timepiece that utilizes the same technology used by the world's preeminent nuclear physicists, but gift horse/mouth, etc.

You can read more of this girl's stuff here.

On Wednesday night, we watched a movie that Jeff has been hawking for a while. It's called The Room, and it is the single most hilariously horrible piece of cinematic disaster that I have ever soon. Watch it. Now.

Alright, physics homework time. Then bubble tea later... and a night of fun for Andrea's birthday. It's going to be niiiiice.

18.1.07

Today, Ashley and I combined our resources and did some trading: I gave her a latte, and she gave me pasta and pinto bean soup. I think it was definitely a fair trade.

I hate the UW bookstore, and I'm getting angry with the amount of stuff I have to buy there. You better believe I'm keeping those receipts. Even if the rebate comes back as store credit instead of a check like it used to, I'm still happy to get all the money back from them that I can. Oh well, it's all for my education, right?

What a better name for this than Hot Cock Sauce? I had it on my lunch today, and it was glorious. Some people call it Rooster Sauce, but I think I'll stick with Hot Cock. Sauce.

Time to go to work! YAY.

16.1.07

I would really like to bake a pie sometime this week. Anybody want to help?

I used the snow today as a reason to not go to any of my classes. I am the worst student ever. But I got emails from all my classes saying that they were either cancelled, or we could make up the points tomorrow and Thursday. I know I shouldn't have used the snow as an excuse, but I was tired and I felt I needed today to play catch-up. And I've been doing just that - I finally bought the ecology book so I could do my homework. I hate being raped by the UW bookstore every quarter. So I'm allowed to turn in my assignments for Eco tomorrow instead of today, and I can go to physics tutorial on Thursday. The only bummer is that I'll have to make physics lab up later, and I probably should have gone to it today, so I could have a better understanding of this week's subject matter. But I'll catch up, I swear. This is my week.

Back to that pie. Who wants to play? I'm thinking cherry or apple.
Also:

-I found my stupid physics tutorial book, so I can do my homework now. Yay.

-Physics really sucks. I'm going to have to do some major learning about electromagnetics in the next week.

-My sister visited me in Seattle this weekend (yay!), but got a major ticket for parking in a rented space (boo!). I can't believe that it happened, and I've got to call her about it tomorrow.

-It was awesome seeing my sister and her friend. We didn't have much to do, but we had fun doing it (at least I did).

-Max was really sick yesterday, so I brought him some tea and EmergenC today before work. I think he appreciated it. It's hard to dicern emotions from someone whose default expression is "angry."

-People's birthdays are coming up fast. I gotta get working on presents.

-Damien Rice has some good stuff on his new album, "9".

-A customer asked me at work today if I had children. It occured to me that from here on out, such a question will become less and less uncommon for me. Huh. I tried to take it in stride, but it did shock me a little. To be fair, she was quite young and her first child was due last week - I asked her if she had any big plans for the evening, and she replied that she would be sitting at home, waiting to go into labor. Only then did I notice she was pregnant. It was nice talking to her about it - by far the most memorable interaction with any of my customers today.

-I need to stop making bullet points and start doing physics. Bye.
Work today wasn't too bad, considering that I covered a shift that I didn't really have to. As a result, I got two benefits:
1. Some really nice filet mignon that was going to tossed out since it was almost at the expiration date, and
2. The knowledge that I'll have Friday and Saturday off next weekend, and I only have 2 more shifts to work this week! (Thursday and Sunday, to be exact.)

But of course, there's homework to be done now, and so little time to do it (I have class tomorrow at 8:30 am!!!). Also, I need a shower, because I's smelly. Better get going on all that...

13.1.07

If you don't believe in global warming, then answer me this: Why is it -1 degrees celcius in Seattle right now, and 8 degrees in Stuttgart? Huh? That is just wack, yo.

Looking forward to the Senate show tonight - it's going to be rockin'. Gonna dance the night away and have a good time. In those two respects, the party at Erica's last night was outstanding as well. Lots of dancing to awesome music. Two of my favorites were a Flogging Molly song and Bombs over Baghdad - my dreads flew. Can't wait to see the pictures from that.

Right, well I have to get going if I'm going to be ready for the show in time. Later.

12.1.07

There's something about today that makes me feel worthless, but in an existentialist kind of way. Like, even if I could change and make myself worth something, it would be useless because there's no point anyway. I'm not saying this is true, but it's how I feel.

Feelings have been ruling my life a lot lately. I'm not sure I can deal with the consequences very well.

Last night was an exercise in randomness. A boy with a tendency to neglect his body in pursuit of his inner self showed up at my door, nearly frozen to the core after 6 hours of wandering Seattle on foot in the cold with minimal outerwear. He provided me with deep conversation and intense ramblings about life, love, and God in exchange for the use of a sweatshirt and a blanket, a place to sit indoors, a PBJ sandwich, and a cup of chicken broth. Two quick hours later, our mutual friend called to collect him, and we met up for bubble tea on the Ave. Later, some Arrested Development with a friend and a roommate, making arts and crafts with one and cuddling with the other. As a result of all this, none of my schoolwork got done. Looks like I'll have a lot to do this weekend.

Speaking of this weekend, there are good times ahead. Naturally work will be in the mix, but outside of that there are some highlights: a party with my Trader Joe's peeps, a Senate show that will be rockin', and a day off on Monday for MLK Jr. Day. I'm thinking about signing up for something on that day, but then, refer back to paragraph #1 of this post. And then of course, there's today, which I might devote entirely to schoolwork. But that remains to be seen.

Alright, time for German class, and then I get 3 days off from school.
None of the stuff I wanted to get done for school today got done.

I am the best student that ever lived.

10.1.07

Just for quick reference:

Unfolded Protein Response and how it may prevent cells from dying:
http://www.physorg.com/news86362482.html

Memory formation
http://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2006/12/061222092644.htm

Resveratrol in red wine helps reverse obesity-related gene pathways:
http://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2006/11/061101151156.htm



The rest of my day is going well. I'm tired because Ronda and I had way too much fun chatting last night - until we realized it was 3:30 AM. But we did our homework first, so the only problem was getting up this morning... and not sleeping through my lectures. Only 3 more classes to go, and then I have tomorrow COMPLETELY OFF!
I hate:

-the coffee that spilled on my brand-new bag that Andrea gave me
-classes/homework
-work, sometimes (but not today)
-the feelings that are making me do things I don't want to do, and hurt the person I'd rather die for than hurt

I love:

-tea and spicy cider
-the Senate
-postcards from faraway places
-music
-my friends, even when I give them every reason to hate me

Random: So Ronda and I just discovered a bag of new knives and wooden blocks in my room. Someone is doing some carving, and it's not me. How in the sam hell did it get here?!?

9.1.07

I don't think it's the lack of sleep and food that's making me feel like crap today. Nope. Probably not that.

8.1.07

Bevor ich dir Weh tue, bringe ich mich lieber um.
Dear Kyla,

Why do you have a tendency to be so self-destructive?

love,
yourself.

6.1.07

Wow. Last night was ridiculous. I feel like I'm on break again, which would be nice if it were true. But as it stands, I have homework to do. And I have work today and tomorrow. Grr.

So, yesterday. I got out of class at 12:30, and Jeff and I went downtown to see the Dead Sea Scrolls, which were really cool. We also got to look around at other parts of the Pacific Science Center, and we had fun competing against each other on things like grip strength testing and reaction time, and just basically playing on the exhibits and trying not to say bad words in front of the numerous children present.

After viewing the exhibit, I was due to eat dinner with Javod, Andrea, Bijan, Daniel, and one of Javod's med school friends. After much deliberation, we settled on Cedars, which would have been a ridiculous wait had a table for 6 not opened up 5 minutes after our arrival. The food was, of course, delicious, and we brought home leftovers. We decided to come to my house and hang out for a while after dinner, and we were pleasantly surprised to see that there were already 4 people in the living room when we got there: Ash, Ben, Fletch, and Joel. Max called and ended up coming over too, and drew us a wonderful new crest for our house (since apparently the old one needs to be burned). Various people kept coming and going, including our delightful neighbors and Andrea's brother's friends, and it turned into a party of sorts, minus the music (which, in hindsight, might have been nice).

And now it's 2 pm, I have work at 4:30, and I have a shower to take and some reading to do before that hour arrives. Better get going!

3.1.07

Wow, the new quarter is here. Guess that means it's time to get back down to business. Sigh...

At least there's International Night at College Inn to be excited about. That, and FIUTS lunch today from 11:30 to 1:30.

I miss Germany again. When can I go back?

Happy New Year's to you all. Hope you had a grand ol' time on the big night. I did!