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

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.

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!

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.

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.

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.

I need to get my drink on

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

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

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?

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.

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!

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!

AAAAAGHGSKRORHHHHHHGHHHSEAWHGC.

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