Case of the Mondays? Not here.

Woof!  Today I did things!  It was great!

1)   Cleaned my room a bit.  Not completely finished, but major headway has been made, let me tell you.  I hadn't finished cleaning after moving back in for the summer, so...well it's better now.  Let's not dwell on the past.

2)   Went to the library and picked up a couple new books about Homosexuality and Christianity, and also one by Jim Wallis about "an alternative to the Christian Right."  I still have to finish Do Not Ask What Good We Do, so I don't know how quickly I'll get to these.  Also, I have a midterm this week.  We'll just see.

3)   Made Annabelle a time-out glitter timer.  I'm going to post pictures and instructions on my other blog, but I've got to get them off my camera, which means getting up to cross the room and...meh.  Not right now.

4)   Made a thing to hold and display my necklaces and bracelets!  Woo!  I've been needing one for a while, since I used command hooks back in Grand Rapids.  I like this one and may keep it for a while, even when I go back to Michigan.  Again, gonna post pictures and how-tos on my other blog eventually.

5)   Went to class.  Ugh.

6)   Watched four episodes of How I Met Your Mother.  I have never seen a full episode before; I like it more than I thought I would.

Okay, I've got stuff to do tomorrow.  Let's see if it happens.

<3 spadeALLcross

Lazy Sunday, woke up in the...morning...

So, today I did some very interesting things!  Hooray for doing something with my life!

1. I finished reading Game of Thrones!  And later I went out to buy Clash of Kings.  I'm going to be writing a review of GoT soon over on my other blog, but I was too busy to do it today.
2. I wrote a movie review for my other blog, but I'm not posting it until later; I find that I need some time to sit on my opinions before posting them on the internet.
3. I helped make lunch for my family.  It was a feast of appetizers: my mom had wrapped some pineapple in slices of prosciutto, and I grilled some shrimp and some steak and some tomatoes.  That took up most of the afternoon, between the prep and the actual grilling, but I like to think it was worth it; it was really good food.  I am pleasantly surprised that even I can make tasty food when I follow a recipe correctly.  I am slowly (and by slowly I mean with the epic charging speed of a glacier) learning how to cook.  
4. I went to Khol's and bought a dress to wear to the wedding I'm going to this week as well as some jewelry to go with it.  It's so nice to have a disposable income again.
5. I watched Legend of Korra with Ben via skype.
6. I was betrayed by my ally in Diplomacy.  He was playing England, so I sent him a message on facebook:

"When you play the Game of Thrones, either you win or you die."

I can only hope he got the joke.

Anyway, very full day.  And tomorrow has a lot in store for it, as well.  

<3 spadeALLcross

New Stages...

Friends, Family, Blogosphere-comrades, lend me your ears!  Or eyes...?  I never know how to write that.

Anyway, while I love this blog and fully intend to continue it (as much as I ever continue it...) I have taken up a "projects" blog, where I plan to impart the world with eloquent wisdoms on various topics such as books, movies, DIY projects, and cooking.  It's basically an expanded pinterest, only I've done everything I've posted.

the url is

2everythingaseason.blogspot.com

I've already posted a couple of things there.  I'll try to keep up with this one too, like I did last summer, making note of what I do each day so that I don't start going to bed at 1 pm and waking up at 10 pm, drinking at 7 in the morning, and wearing an astronaut diaper.  I tend to lose track of time during the summer.

Speaking to that, today I...

• blogged (a lot...not a great way to spend a day...)
• went to see Snow White and the Huntsman (more on that later)
• played Pokéshots with a friend.

So, it was more a recreational day, all-told.

Check out the new blog, tell your friends, and stay tuned here.

<3 spadeALLcross

I am not a doctor...and I don't play one on TV

(This post is not written by an expert in anything.  These are opinions and theories based on experience, not facts based on evidence.  If you have a problem with anything said here, please begin a discussion, as I would rather be convinced that my theories are wrong than have someone think they're wrong and not tell me.)

So, it's 6:21 am CDT, and I am awake.  This is an anomaly: do not be fooled into thinking I am a morning person.  No, I'm waiting for the registration to open pottermore.com.  There's been a window of about a half hour every day since Sunday, and the windows will officially close for a few months after Saturday, so I've dedicated the early mornings of the past couple days to waiting around for my opportunity to register for the site.

Yesterday was the first day I purposefully woke up early.  I got to the site, found the clue, realized I didn't have my copy of The Prisoner of Azkaban, where the answer to the clue could be found, so defaulted and used the audiobook, since iTunes just happened to be open.  (If I had had to open iTunes, it would have taken about five full minutes, if not more, and I think I would have imploded due to the building pressure.) I solved the clue, got to the website where the quill was supposed to be, and couldn't find it.  Registration had closed.  So I shrugged wistfully, yawned, and went back to sleep.

On Sunday, registration opened at 3 am in my time zone, on Monday, it opened at 4 am, and on Tuesday it opened at 5 am.  So, I set my alarm this morning for a little before six and hopped online to wait around.  Well...obviously, since it's 6:27 now, the trend has changed.  It irks me a little and I find it unsettling that whoever is in charge of this website is making the fans jump through so many hoops to get to it.  If it's just because they want the most dedicated fans to get on the site for this early registration dry run, I can maybe understand that, although I must point out that "Harry Potter Fan" does not directly translate to "Internet-Savvy, Scavenger-Hunt Extraordinaire" and that there are probably people getting on to Pottermore who were more intrigued by the process of getting there than they will be by the website.  But if the reason for the manipulations comes from the fact that, Harry Potter being what it is to so many people, this is one fan base who would put up with almost anything, and this sort of registration process is more fun for the people in charge...that's just sick and they should stop.  People are staying up egregiously late in some time zones, or waking up entirely too early, skiving off summer school or work...seems wrong to me.  Dumbledore wouldn't let this happen.


Anyway, that's not what I wanted to talk about really.

In the excess time that I've been awake when pottermore hasn't been open (it's 6:35 now) I've been browsing the internet.  It started on twitter where, since I'm following Pottermorefans, I was already sitting waiting for some news, perhaps on why regsitration wasn't open yet.  I perused the past tweets, the @replies, etc, and I noticed a fervent energy present in every bit of the online conversations that revolved around this twitter account.  People excited for pottermore opening, people preparing for each clue by quizzing themselves with similar clues they've made up themselves, people speculating about how access to the site is actually going to work, people sharing stories about the ridiculous things they've done for Harry Potter in the past, comparing Houses, etc.  To some degree, it reminded me of the sort of energy I always felt at Harry Potter midnight showings, the energy that kept me coming back to the cinema every year, even though I didn't like the movies anymore.

But I started following links, and looking at other Harry Potter fandom things, and I remembered a book I saw for sale called Dear Mr. Potter which is filled with letters from people to Harry Potter and J.K. Rowling, telling them their stories about how Harry Potter made their life better in some way.  A lot of them were touching, some were similar to mine, but a few of them sort of scared me in a way, and I stopped wanting to read them.

I've been called a nerd on several occasions, it feels like my mom calls me an "addict" every time I do anything for more than an hour for two days in a row (right now, this includes my obsession with ST:VOY), and I've gotten numerous questioning looks and scoffs, and even the odd demoralizing attack on my sanity from people who think I get "too" into things.  Most of the time, these things are fandoms like Harry Potter, The Lord of the Rings, Star Trek, Twilight, and others.  A few people have made fun of my T-shirt collection, but that's rare (because my t-shirt collection is universally awesome).  Some people say I'm too Christian, too, but that's a different matter from my perspective, if not from theirs.

Harry Potter is different, because it is the one series I constantly return to.  With others, I go through phases: I don't feel the same awe when I watch the Lord of the Rings movies as I did when I was in Junior High, I don't wish Lt. Commander Data were a non-fictional artificial lifeform anymore, and I certainly hate Bella Swan and her entire creepy family.  But I've always loved Harry Potter, from the time I read the first book to the moment the credits rolled on the eighth movie, a timeline of almost fifteen years, my love for the series has developed from a phase-based infatuation into a sort of foundational love.  Harry Potter is definitely a part of my life, and I'm sure I wouldn't be the same person if I hadn't read it.  This is not true of all the other fandoms I've been a part of, including Twilight, Star Trek, Eragon, or The Matrix: take those experiences away, and the change in my character and person would be minimal.

The other fandom that captured my heart so thoroughly was The Lord of the Rings.  I was in fifth or sixth grade when the first movie came out, and it took me a year to read the first book, but after that and until I got into high school, I was beyond obsessed.  But it was not the same kind of obsession I had with Harry Potter.  2001, the year the movie came out, was a pretty hard year for me.  It was a pretty hard year for the country, which certainly contributed to my year sucking.  2002 and 2003 were not much better.  For this period of three years, I didn't have very many friends, my family life was more complicated and painful than I was used to, and I was doing terribly in school.  The only thing that was going right, I thought, was The Lord of the Rings.  Between reading the books, watching the movies, and obsessing over the details of both, I could easily occupy my mind with things other than my own life, and for the most part, that's exactly what I did for three years.  I checked out of reality for the better part of Junior High, forgoing relationships with people around me, a better understanding of myself, and a first-hand knowledge of the world because there were things in my life that upset me and The Lord of the Rings allowed me to get away from them.

Sure, I turned out all right in the end, and yes, being a "fan" doesn't necessarily mean you're an escapist, and no, escapism is not always the same as hard drugs: sometimes it's just a coping mechanism, an outlet to plug in and recharge, and none of that scares me or bothers me.  But reading some of those letters to Rowling and hearing the way those people were talking about the series as if it "saved" them from their terrible lives because they were able to read it long enough to wait out their problems and not have to deal with them every day...it feels dangerous to me.

Dumbledore himself said, "It does not do to dwell on dreams and forget to live."  Wishing Hogwarts is real, that you had friends like Hermione or Luna, that you could be a part of something special and important like Dumbledore's Army, that makes sense and I imagine is a natural response to a series that garnered so much love and attention for so long by so many.  But I think that believing the books changed your life when all that happened was that you lived them instead of it is just incorrect.  If thirteen years of your life you dwelled on Harry Potter, hoping it was real, living as if it was, and skipping out on what was actually happening around you, even if it was too terrible for you to live with, the series did not save you: it allowed you to lose thirteen years of your life that you will never get back.

I'm pretty sure I'm reading more into those letters than is there, since even my bout of living outside reality wasn't that deep or detrimental.  But I wanted to voice my opinions about escapism, I guess, because I do think it's dangerous, and I do believe it's similar to, if not the same as an addiction.  Some addictions are obviously unhealthy, and the family and friends of the user notice the signs and urge the user to seek help.  Some addictions are less noticable, either because they are easily hidden (pornography and x-rated romance novels, anorexia and bulimia, etc) or because they are socially acceptable (caffeine, nicotine, etc).  Some are more physically damaging than others (heroine, alcohol, etc) while some are more emotionally or psychologically damaging than others (eating disorders).

But all addictions are the same in that they give the addict a crutch to get through life, and the longer a person uses the crutch, the more the rest of their faculties atrophy due to lack of use or dependence.  A person can become addicted to anything if they let that thing control their desires, dictate how they spend their time, or keep them from doing other things they used to enjoy or taking care of their responsibilities.  The phrase "The more _____ you own, the more your _____ owns you" is not just a pithy attack on materialism.  When someone goes camping and goes through television withdrawal, it's not just a useful metaphor.  I'm not a psychologist, but in my personal experience, if there's anything in your life that you do regularly often without thinking, or because you "can't help yourself," or because you think it makes your life easier/simpler/better, you're forming a habit, and habits can easily become addictions.

The Lord of the Rings was my addiction.  It didn't kill me, and I don't even necessarily regret it, but I do sometimes wonder what would have been different about my Junior High and high school experience if I had had a more healthy relationship with the books and movies.  The difference, from what I can tell, is in the control.  If you honestly determine when, where, and how you do something, if you really can stop any time, then you're in control.  The moment you start feeling like you have to, like you can't afford not to, like it would be too hard to not do something, things start getting scary.

Aaaand I just went to the pottermore blog and realized that I didn't have to wake up until 22 minutes ago (it's 8:22 now) because they announced that registration would open sometime between 2 pm and 6 pm BST.  Ugh.  Obviously, I'm an example of an Internet-Idiot Harry Potter fan.  But evidently, those in charge of pottermore don't really want me anyway.

I'm going back to bed.  I hope I didn't offend anybody, but if I did, please tell me why.  I'm just postulating throughout all of this: as I said, I'm not a psychologist and most of my experience with addiction diseases is second-hand, so I am not an expert.

If, though, you think there are things that control you more than you'd like them to, my amateur suggestion would be to tell someone you believe can help you: not necessarily a friend or family member, but someone you think will have the wisdom and guts to help you work through it.  A counsellor, a mentor, a religious leader, a teacher...someone who either knows you or would know how to help you with your situation.

<3 spadeALLcross

EDIT: Wow...this post takes quite the journey. Probably reads a little strangely. I should edit it at some point, and I probably will later.

The time is coming [the walrus anticipates]...

What?  Yes!  Please!

So much excitement, I can't even.

<3 spadeALLcross

Today is Slytherin Day!

I must confess, I have a huge soft spot for Slytherin, and I can't really explain why.  Severus Snape is one of the most complex and exciting characters I've encountered, especially in young-adult-style literature, and I really like what J.K. Rowling did with him throughout the series.  Perhaps this explains my love for Slytherin.  Because I am certainly no Death-Eater.

So today I was Snape.  Obviously.

Status:

"You applied first for the Defense Against the Dark Arts post, I believe?" Professor Umbridge asked Snape.
"Yes," said Snape quietly.
"But you were unsuccessful?"
Snape's lip curled.
"Obviously."

Caption:

"After all this time?"
"Always."

And now, my outfit.

I choose to portray Slytherins, the ambitious little buggers, as business-extremely-casual.  I have a forest green men's button-down from Salvation Army as well as a green tie, and I'm wearing a grey ribbed tank under it.  I would wear slacks or something, but it's way too hot outside.  I used to have a silver snake ring that I would wear, but I think I gave it to a friend.

Tonight's the big night.  I'm not wearing this outfit for that (I'm representing all four houses instead) and I guess I might update you on what I do wear, but probably not because it's nothing special.

Wish me luck!

<3 spadeALLcross

Today is Gryffindor Day!

I thought I wasn't going to like this day.  I don't really like Gryffindor.  They're dumb a lot.  Honor and glory and stuff, you know?  Those kinds of people get on my nerves.  I am that kind of person a lot, and I get annoyed at my idiocy.

But then I remembered that Hermione was almost a Ravenclaw, and I remembered what the Sorting Hat said about how sorting isn't always a good thing, because severing ties so thoroughly is dangerous, and I remembered that there's probably a little bit of every house in every person, and I grew to love Gryffindor more...

...but mostly I just remembered that I like Hermione a lot.  She's one of my heros.  Also, I have a fair bit of Maroon and Gold to use today.

So, facebook = Hermione today.  Caption = "You said to us once before that there was time to turn back if we wanted to. We've had time, haven't we?" (Oh man, Hermione's so hard core...) Status = "Imagine losing fingernails, Harry! That really puts our sufferings into perspective, doesn't it?" (Oh man, Hermione flips a shit so well...)

And my outfit.

I think of Gryffindors as world-traveller types, thrill seekers, and people who fancy themselves bad-asses, whether they actually are or not.  But maybe that's just me...

This Gryffindor is also, as it happens, rather thrifty.  The t-shirt is just a maroon shirt I picked up from the dollar store for the fabric, originally, and then never got around to using it.  The yellow vest is a second-hand store find.  The lightning necklace was 79p at a flea market in Leeds, the headband was £1 at a going-out-of-business sale in Edinburgh, the shorts are from Primark (the ones I mentioned yesterday, actually) and the glasses I stole from my cousin.  The Anchor necklace, though, I bought a couple years ago from Modcloth.  I thought it would add to the Magellan Chic look I was going for.

Envy me and my fashion sense.  You know you do.

Until tomorrow!

<3 spadeALLcross

P.S. I am really enjoying myself here.  Please tell me what you think of my choices...and if you want, tell me how you're celebrating!

Today is Ravenclaw Day!

So, I changed my profile picture to Luna Lovegood today.  I captioned it with "Don't worry; you're just as sane as I am."  And my status is "The Aurors are part of the Rotfang Conspiracy, I thought everyone knew that. They're working from within to bring down the Ministry of Magic using a combination of Dark magic and gum disease."

And my outfit is...

I think Ravenclaws are destined to be Hipsters.  I mean, I lived on the Honors floor at school for two years, and look at what happened to me.

Ravenclaw's colors are Blue and Bronze, so I substituted brown for bronze were I had to.  I regret not getting the owl-y stuff back when I was buying jewelry in England, because I think it would have been perfect.  Instead, I went for a bronze Horse pendant I got a few years back from somewhere in Rhode Island and a brown and gold bangle set from...BHS?  Dorothy Perkins?  I don't remember now.  The blue tank is from Walmart and the brown vest is from Kohl's, in case you were wondering.  The brown and bronze belt came with a pair of shorts I bought at Primark in Leeds.  Glasses are from a costume store on Amazon.

I feel like such a fashionista, telling people where I bought my clothes.  But then I read it back again, and see that Walmart was included in there, and am less excited.

I like these colors, together, though.  I think I might wear them more often.

The last week of our lives...

Okay, so maybe that's a bit dramatic.  But this does feel like a momentous week for me.  Why?

Harry Potter 7.2 comes out on Friday.  And then, besides the enigmatic pottermore, there will be nothing new that is Harry for the rest of my forseeable life.  Some people reading this are rolling their eyes: Mary, it's just a book series.  There are hundreds of thousands of millions.  Just pick up a new one.  And to those people, I say, I have.  No, my life is not ending, and books are not ruined for me forever (thank God...as they are my livelihood at this point).  But this is like...a symbol.  My childhood is over.

I'm 21.  I guess I should have seen this coming.

But when I went to the 4th of July carnival in my town this year and rode all the rides I wanted to in under an hour...or when I went with my best friend to Great America last year and took a nap in the parking lot...or when I bought a friggin' mutual fund...it became more real than it was when I blew out those 18 candles or recovered from my first hangover or had to start going to the grocery store by myself.  Adulthood requires new forms of fun, it has its own new challenges, new temptations, new disappointments.  Just when I was getting the hang of the old ones.

And Harry Potter's vanishing into the void of literary and cinematic used-to-be is the most painful and final reminder of all these changes.

Because Harry was my childhood.  I went to see the first movie for my 11th birthday party.  I was seventeen when I read the final book.  I was Harry Potter for Halloween in fourth grade.  I've gone to the midnight showings of every movie since The Prisoner of Azkaban, even though I didn't like the movies until 7.1 came out last November.

So naturally, I'm a little vexed by default.

But I've decided that, instead of mourning a loss, (which is dumb, because I'm not actually losing anything: I mean, I wasn't in the movies, they weren't paying my salary or anything.  In fact, I'm probably gaining a lot of money, since I will be spending less on Harry Potter miscellany) I'm going to celebrate hard and happy and not miss a minute of it.

So, starting tomorrow, I'm doing my four-day countdown of my favorite characters on Facebook, using their Leaky widgets (by Makani) as my profile pictures, their best quotes as my status, and their house colors as my wardrobe.  I'm also listening to my meager supply of Harry-Potter-esque music, which is comprised of Draco and the Malfoys, Harry and the Potters, Hank Green, and Jim Dale from the audiobooks, as well as two versions of one gem.

Tune in tomorrow for pictures and smiles!

<3 spadeALLcross

P.S. Oh, were you wondering if I was just going to ignore the past two months or whatever that I didn't post, and the fact that I didn't even finish my Easter Holiday blogs?  Why yes, yes I was.  Thanks for your concern.

Hey ho, the wind and the rain...

Fun fact: 


Did you know that "trivia" is a latin word that literally means "three roads"? It encapsulates the idea that in a place where three roads meet, people often get together and talk...mostly about meaningless or pointless things, like gossip and...TRIVIA. Yes, yes, it's all very exciting.


So, I have some housekeeping items to get out of the way before I deliver a proper post.  


One is that I'm currently in a 100-year war with iPhoto and it's fancy-pants internet photo publisher doohickey that allows me to easily and quickly publish my photos to facebook and flikr.  Rather, it's supposed to allow me to do so easily and quickly, but my current struggle with it is that it's doing this rather clumsily and slowly and jumbling everything up like a big jigsaw puzzle, evidently just for kicks.  Please bear with me as I attempt to fix this.


Another thing is that I'm going to try to make a schedule for my snidgets so that I stop doing them just because I'm bored or procrastinating.  I'm thinking once a week, generally on Fridays.  Does anyone have any better ideas?  Are Fridays too weekendy for anyone?  My other thought was Wednesdays...  


I also think I'm going to try to update this blog once a week now, definitely on Fridays, because I have this huge awkward break between my two courses on Fridays around this time, and I'd like to fill it with something less scholarly than Boudica.  But there might be weeks when I don't post at all due to the need to do actual work (because Dreaming the Serpent Spear isn't going to read itself).  


No one ever really comments on what I say here, except to say, "Good job," or "Sweet photos," or "I liek ur stuphh, plzz chexzors out mi hott pixx at www.nakeyLOLcatzz.com!" so I don't know if asking for you to comment will ever really work...


Not that I don't appreciate the comments I do get!  I love knowing that people actually read this.  It's always a surprise and a joy, and you're all so supportive.  So thanks.  


...or should I say...Cheers!


No.  I don't think I should say that.


< / housekeeping >


< real post >


This week went much more quickly than the last, and it was both more satisfying and less.  It was more satisfying because I feel far less cripplingly homesick now, and I'm actually beginning to really enjoy the prospect of being here for four months, and I'm even getting the (sadistically excellent) sinking feeling that four months is actually too short a time to spend in this amazing country and on this amazing continent.  I'm definitely going to have to plan an extended stay in Europe after I graduate college, or between my senior and super senior years.  There's just so much to see and do here, and so little time right now in which to see and do it.


It was less satisfying because the stabilization of a routine has allowed me to settle into my good old self; content to be alone, happy to stay in my room all night, and shoving homework and exciting prospects of England off to the side.  In my heart of hearts, I really want to go out into the city and explore what life is really like here, but I'm really comfortable and really enjoying not doing so.  


In order to counterbalance my natural tendencies (which I'm not spurning, just pushing aside for now), my goals for the coming week are as follows:

1. Do at least 80% of the homework assigned to me.
2. Get to know some of the other people from Calvin and go out with them for an evening
3. Leave open the door to my room to better facilitate conversations with my flatmates
4. Buy fricking A4 folders in order to get my life organized

So, with you, Internet, as my witness, I swear to do these.  After all, there is no try.


I and a few of my Calvin-based friends went together to Manchester on Monday, since none of us have class then.  Manchester was an exciting city, much bigger than York.  It felt to be just a bit smaller than Chicago, but not quite so squished together with the buildings.  It was incredibly windy; Ae Hee, the smallest among us, almost got blown away.


We went to the Manchester Museum, got lost a bunch of times, attempted to use the free shuttle-bus system and failed miserably, and brunch and dinner, went on the Wheel of Manchester, and visited the John Rylands Library, which was a fantastic and nerdy experience, at least for me.


The rest of the week was pretty mellow.  My flatmates had a bit of a raucus party on Tuesday evening that went until Wednesday morning at around 8:30...which wasn't my favorite.  But they did apologize about it later, and I didn't feel terribly tired Wednesday, so it was generally not a terrible experience.


Wednesday we went as a class to the Yorkshire museum which had a ton of exhibits that told about the Roman history we're actually studying, so that's cool.  It's nice to be able to put faces (albeit without noses in most cases) to the names and eras we're learning about.


It's been very hard this week being away from my friends and family in America, though not because of homesickness so much as just feeling useless over here.  I want to be doing life with them--celebrating the good times and consoling in the bad--which is actually kind of ironic, considering I was never very good about doing that when I was with them, and I'm not really trying to do that with the people I'm with now.  But this distance has made me realize how little I involve myself in others' lives, and how much I owe to those people who have involved themselves in mine.


For those of you struggling this week/month/year with various world-suck, and for those of you enjoying this week/month/year of excitements and treasures, I hope you know I wish I could be there with you.  It probably doesn't mean very much, considering I'm going to post this and then go off to do my own thing, but we cannot always be torn in two.  We must be one and whole.


But know that I am praying for you.  That is one thing I've actually accomplished over here, as far as life-goals go.  I've finally started really praying, especially for the people I can't see daily.


I must be off now.  Ta!


<3 spadeALLcross

Don't wanna be an American Idiot

First week is up!  And now it's about time for a proper update, what do you say?

England is shaping up to be brilliant, and York is absolutely corking.  I don't mind saying that there have been some pretty rocky moments (usually hours...when I'm sitting alone in my room) when I have fleeting wishes to return home where everything is comfortable and familiar--if you'll remember my description of "my element," you'll understand why.  But I think those moments are mostly fleeting now.

Some highlights from this week:

- We went to Whitby last weekend (that first batch of uploaded pictures were from there).  I loved the coastal city so much.  It, not surprisingly, reminded me a lot of New England coastal cities like Boston, which have always been my favorite places in the world.  We had fish and chips, and I bought a set of "Royal Heritage" playing cards, where each card has a rendering of one of the kings or queens of England.  They're brilliant.

- I obviously started classes this week.  Aside from the courses "Studies British Culture" and "Rome and its Legacy in Britain" that are taught by a Calvin professor, I'm taking two courses through York St. John: "19th Century Writers" which is specifically British writers, and "Gender, Sexuality, & Popular Culture and Media" which is about a lot of things, primarily the way society and the media reflect back on each other regarding the way we look at genders and sexualities.  Both courses have so far proven to be both really interesting, with students and tutors who are talkative and interesting, and rather easy in terms of workload.  That's good, because the two Calvin classes are rather intense.

- I walked around the entirety of the open sections of wall around York.  Very exciting.

- I went grocery shopping.

- I had my first crumpet.  And my second.  And my third.  And that was before I started buying my own.  I've already gone through seven of those, as well.  Crumpets are amazing.  Especially with blackcurrant jam.

- I went to tea.  Twice.  Like, there was an event on Sunday called a tea, and I went to it.  Then there was another event on Wednesday called a tea, and I went to that as well.  I went to tea.

- I saw the movies The King's Speech and The Queen.  I have decided to make it my life's quest to study the British royalty, because they are fascinating to me.

- I got a 16-25 railcard.  Very good stuff.

- I got ranted at by an older woman on the street.  She had a very thick accent and was mumbling a bit as we walked down the street, so I don't really know what she said, but I think she was "damning [me] to the level of the Chinese theif" at one point, so I'm not sure I really want to know the rest.

- I made stir fry.

- I saw a street performer juggle footballs in the city centre.


I'm fully enjoying myself, and I hope all of you are enjoying yourselves as well.  I've posted a third snidget to YouTube.  Feel free to indulge if you feel so inclined.

<3 spadeALLcross

I've put this off for far too long...

I posted a snidget to YouTube.  Check it out on the right.

I also posted more pictures to Facebook and Flikr.  The links in the last post are still applicable, I believe.

I would love to say more, but I have no time.  This weekend, perhaps.

<3 spadeALLcross

In Transit

This post shares its title with my first York-based snidget on the right sidebar of this page and on my YouTube channel.  Check it out if you haven't already.

I got to York and survived the trip with grace, I like to think.  The first day was grueling, getting through to the end with the lack of sleep, but I did pull through, and the next two days proved to be pretty successful as well.

I put up some pictures on facebook, and those of you with an account there (who are friends with me, or friends of my friends) should be able to see them easily.  For those of you without facebook, I've created a flikr account too, and you should be able to see that without an account for anything.  That can be found here. 

We went to Whitby harbor and abbey today.  Quite enjoyable.  Great fish and chips.  And Black current tea!  Yum.

Today is over for now, tomorrow is an adventure.

<3 spadeALLcross

NaNo Bucks

Herein sits a list of the donation/wager standings to date:

Straight-up donations:

• $35 -- Thanks to my mom and my best buddy, Cari!

Wagers:

1. Ben - He'll donate $30 if I get the 1,667 daily word goal every day, but I'll owe him $5 for every day I miss (not to exceed $30)
   
2. Katri - $0.50 on every 1K words
   
3. Kathy - $1 for every 1K words, plus a free bonus $25 if I write 1K words specifically about the movie Staying Alive.  (I'm going to have to get a copy and watch it, probably...)

Also, more of my friends than I thought are doing NaNoWriMo this year.  Two of my housemates, and at least one of our mutual friends (though I haven't found his username on the website yet, so I can't check in on his progress.)  Plus, as the scoreboard currently shows, I'm 8% over Chris Baty, the Executive Director of The Office of Letters and Light.  So, booyah.

For those of you who try to avoid giving money to strangers, you can go here to find how OLL uses donations (an exercise in patience, since their servers have been struggling to keep up with the demand for bandwidth).  Most of the money is needed for operating costs, like salaries, server upkeep, etc.

Thanks for all your support!  Current wordcount = 5,988
And my main character spent most of the last chapter dancing around her apartment in her underwear to Ke$ha.  I wish I could say that I planned that.  This book is chock full of surprises...

<3 spadeALLcross

Does that make me cRaZy?

In short, yes.

It's that time of the year, yet again, friends and family.  November is just around the corner...as in...it starts tomorrow.  And with november comes National Novel Writing Month and my participation in a little thing called NaNoWriMo, affectionately called around here "Insanity Epitomized."  I will be attempting (and hopefully succeeding) in writing a 50,000 word novel in one month, between midnight on November 1 and 11:59 on November 30.

I did this last year, as some might recall, and I "won" (meaning I reached the 50K goal within the time limit...there's not like a limited number of winners or anything).  It was an exhilarating month, and I am really excited to do it again...even though I don't really have a rock solid idea for what I'm going to write about.

In preparation, I've been reading this book.

It gives a lot of tips on what to do to make sure that the novel actually gets written, and that I don't chicken out and back away from my goal.  One of those tips is straight up gambling.  I'm not usually the betting woman; I think it's a good way to waste money fast.

But NaNoWriMo stands for a lot of things that are important to me, including global literacy (through their book drives for BetterWorldBooks.com) and exciting writing programs for both children and adults through schools and libraries around the world.  Because of this, I'm ready and willing to waste good money fast, as long as it's on their behalf.  And they've given me a great way to do that!

This links to my personal donation page for NaNoWriMo.  Here's how this is going to go.

Certainly anyone is allowed to donate free of nefarious connotations: just go to the page and donate and I'll be happy, and you'll be happy, and writers around the country and world will be happy, too.  Everyone wins.

But if you're of a more competitive spirit, or you don't think I can do what I say I'm going to do, or if you want to keep me honest, then let's set up a little wager, shall we?

There are many benchmarks for NaNoWriMo that we could put some money on.  There's the obvious one, 50K by the end of the month.  There're also the challenges of getting 1,667 words/day, or 11,669 words/week, or staying above someone else's daily word count, i.e. Chris Baty (the head of NaNoWriMo.org).  The wagers set thereon would work as follows:

You bet, say $50, that I don't make the 50K by the end of the month.  If I do, then you donate that $50 to NaNoWriMo.  If I don't, then I donate it to an organization of your choosing.  Any organization: NaNoWriMo, the NRA, Scientology, or even your own checking account.

The same goes for any benchmark.  I'm going to ask that there be a $1 maximum wager made for every 1,000 words expected for the benchmark, because I'm not made of money, and I'm sure you're not either.

If you accept any of these wagers, or if you want to donate just for the good of the cause, let me know in a comment below, or an email, or a text, or via facebook, or any other of the numerous ways people can reach me these days...

Happy Halloween!  And Happy National Novel Writing Month!

<3 spadeALLcross

Wikipedia keeps me from feeling awkward...and facilitates much laughter.

This morning, I woke up from a weird dream that combined my high school teachers, my youth-group retreats, my college friends, and my family camping trips, and decided to look up that paper that Mr. Schaefer had been talking about. I also reread a letter I had written to myself in his class, that I have a feeling he's not going to send me like he promised to.

I also found out what lavaliering is, and that my roommate from Freshman year just experienced it...and I laughed pretty hard, which, in retrospect, was a mean thing to do. I just cannot take greek life seriously. I'm sorry. Everything I read about related to the traditions and practices of sororities and fraternities sounds cult-ish and really silly, and the idea that people live their lives for such traditions and practices seems...pathetic. I understand, and even to some degree envy the greek concepts of community living and lifelong friendship, but only when they're at the ideal, which I'm guessing is not often. My parents both belong(ed?) to greek societies, and a ton of my friends do, and I can't say I've ever heard a horror story, but lavaliering? Seriously? You have turned a piece of jewelry--created to commemorate the relationship between a king and his mistress--into a verb, and that makes you happy?

"The Sigma Phi Epsilon fraternity's inaugural lavaliering was held by Charles Stewart Jr., during which he presented his letters to Erika Rae Antisdale, member of the Chi Omega female fraternity. Historians of the American collegiate Greek system have noted this particular lavaliering as a "landmark achievement in modern Greek Life, the reverberations of which shall be evident on college campuses nationwide for generations to come."^[1]"

Yes. Oh my...I feel the reverberations in my very bones. My soul is rocked by your letters, Charles Stewart. I'm glad you and Miss Antisdale had a serious relationship that might have even led to engagement or marriage. I wonder...did they even end up getting married? How many lavalier-ers actually get passed that stage in their relationship? It would be an interesting thing to research...if I cared enough.

Now, my old roommate and her boyfriend, as I recall, are pretty serious, and I would actually be surprised if they didn't get married, so this isn't all that ridiculous to me. However...why go through all those dumb motions? I mean, engagement and even marriage to a certain degree, are social constructs that people structure their emotional lives around, which can be dangerous: Why hasn't my boyfriend proposed to me yet? Maybe he doesn't really love me, maybe he doesn't think we're serious enough, maybe he doesn't feel the gravity of our love for each other the way I do. My wife and I are married; shouldn't we be happy all the time? Shouldn't we always want to be together?

Why create yet another reason to freak out? Why hasn't my boyfriend given me his pin? Why doesn't my girlfriend want to get pearled?

Anyway...that was kind of a high-horse thing, wasn't it? Sorry...

Also, while being nostalgic this morning and going through old Fremd papers, I found a "story" I wrote for my Creative Comp class first semester of senior year. I don't know why, but I enjoyed it, and when I read it, I made a mental note to post it here. So I will.

Yellow Dandielion from Ohio

“But airplanes are beautiful, too,” he called up to me from the ground. “The sun shines off their wings and the pictures on their tails can sometimes be really pretty.”

I hung limply from the bar, concentrating on the next one, just a foot beyond my hands, barely out of reach. “Yeah, I guess,” I said, though I wasn’t really paying attention. I was much more focused on the challenge that stretched out before me.

“So then you like airplanes as much as birds?” he asked, bobbing up and down on his toes. I rolled my eyes: he did this whenever he was excited, and that annoyed me.

“No. I still like birds more,” I said, probably just to disappoint him.

“But Mary,—”

Before he could finish his sentence, the whistle blew, signaling that we had to go back to class. Defeated, I dropped from the monkey bars and shuffled off next to Eugene, who continued a well-worn rant about the superiority of machines and science over art and nature. I rarely paid attention to those anymore. In fact, I had begun to not pay attention to Eugene at all much anymore.

When we got back to the small room, Miss Deligio had us sit in a clump by the whiteboard, where she had written a sentence:

“All stories have characters, actions, and settings."

She asked Ashley to read it aloud, and while she did, I turned to Eugene, who was sitting next to me, like he always did, and said, “That looks like ‘Ch-aracter.’”

Of course, Eugene, being the outspoken nerd that he was, put his hand to his mouth and said loudly, over Ashley’s timid, first-grader voice, “That word looks like ‘Ch-aracter.’”

“Eugene,” Miss Deligio said with a dark look, “please raise your hand when you want to talk, and wait until I call on you.”

He shrugged. “I still agree with you,” he whispered to me. Then, narrowing his eyes, he asked, “Why are you blushing, Mary?”

“Nothing,” I said, hiding my face. I couldn’t help but be embarrassed for him, and for myself.

Most of that year was spent with me feeling embarrassed for Eugene, actually. He was socially awkward (though, at the time, I didn’t know what either of those words meant) and I was one of his only friends.

“It isn’t a flood,” he said. “If it were a flood, the basement would be all wet.”

In retrospect, I suppose it wasn’t a good idea to invite Eugene over to my house: he and my brothers didn’t get along very well.

“It is a flood,” Dennis said with all of his eleven-year-old empathy. “Do you hear those sirens? That means we’re all going to die.”

“We are not going to die!” Eugene said in a frenzy, jumping up and down and flailing his arms everywhere, almost smacking Patrick in the nose. I buried my face in my hands.

“Don’t worry about it, Eugene,” I said quietly. “They’re just trying to scare—”

“You’re not going to die, Mary,” he said, still looking at the prepubescent bullies towering over him. “I promise.”

“Well, whatever, but I’m going to go to higher ground,” Dennis said, walking towards the stairs. “Come on Patrick.” Patrick, sniggering, followed.

Eugene was absent from school a lot. When I’d ask him why, he said it was because he was always tired and him mom didn’t want him to get sick. I kind of resented him for it, because if I told my mom that I was tired and that I didn’t want to get sick, she would have sent me off to school anyway with only a reminder to drink lots of water. When he was gone, though, I was free to spend time with my other friends.

Like Mark, the boy I was going to marry.

Mark and I were meant to be. He collected beanie babies, just like me, and I had a dog, just like him. He liked to play kickball at recess, just like me, and my favorite color was green, just like him. We’d play with K’nex in his basement and share stories about Star Wars on the bus rides to and from school. In the long history of this world, there have never been two people more destined for each other.

Sadly for me, Mark was a rather dense boy, and had his eyes on my best friend, the aforementioned Ashley. I tried not to let it show that I was jealous, but I think I blew my cover when I cried for ten minutes after intercepting a letter Ashley wrote professing her love to Mark. To this day, our friendship is tainted.

With Mark “out of the way” so to speak, Eugene had a new spring in his step. That Eugene had hated Mark had never been much of a secret. Now that I was spending less and less time with my ex-fiancé, Eugene took it upon himself to fill the void with exciting adventures pretending to break the sound barrier on the playground. He came to school more often so that he could draw me pictures of underwater turbines in the sandbox and try to teach me how to make dye out of dandelion petals.

“You need two stones,” he said, diving under the Yellow and Green Thing where thousands of pebbles waited. “You use one big one to collect the dye that you make by rubbing a smaller one against the flower.” He demonstrated for me and showed me the piddly color that resulted from his efforts. It didn’t look to me like it could dye anything, but I didn’t tell him. We sat under that plastic play set during recess for an entire week just making yellow juice that would dry up every day.

But I didn’t complain, because, as much as I try to play off Eugene as the lone nerd in our dynamic-duo, I’ve come to realize that I can’t escape the fact that I had fun. Every ridiculous day he and I spent making purposeless, pus-like nonsense. Every stupid knock-knock joke he told. Every weird game we ever made up and played together. I had fun.

Which is probably why Eugene was taken aback when I stopped paying any attention to him at all. That was when James came.

James was from Texas. He was tall and had a funny accent, and I only have two distinct memories of him.

“What’re you makin’?” he asked me one day when it was too cold for us to go outside for recess. “Looks like fun.”

“It’s a town for Dragons.” Heaven help me, I had just seen Dragonheart and had cried my poor, innocent eyes out. “Do you want to help?”

And in one sentence, James replaced both Mark and Eugene. “Yeah, I do!”

After that, no matter the weather, and even if we were the only ones in the room besides the teacher, James and I stayed inside for recess and played with our paper dragons in their paper school and paper houses. There was a small contingent of students, The Dragon club, that stayed with us sometimes, but he and I were always there.

Eugene stayed most of the time, but after a while, he stopped playing with us and would just sit at a table and watch us from afar. I remember looking over at him and seeing the most malicious look on his face.

Then, just before school let out, James invited most of the class to his birthday party. It was the first (and last) time I went to Chuckie Cheese’s. I remember I had gotten him a figurine of a dragon that lit up and could be attached to a key chain. Eugene was there and had gotten him a book about leaves, but didn’t look to happy about it.

The rest of my first-grade year is fuzzy after that: I can only remember three things that happened.

“Will you marry me, Mary?” was one of them. It was shortly followed by, “I’m moving to Ohio and if you don’t marry me, we’ll probably never see each other ever again.”

Which was followed by our entire class going to our teacher’s wedding over the summer. Eugene wasn’t there. I hadn’t married him. I haven’t seen or heard from him in ten years.

But I hardly think that matters anymore. Ideally, I think we all wish that we could keep all of our friends forever, but reality dictates that we make concessions, choose one thing over the other, even if one or both of those “things” is a person that means a lot to us. Eugene and I were pretty amazing friends, even though, looking back at him, I can’t help but think of him as an outlandish, troubled child. Ten years ago, when asked to list the people I thought had made a huge impact on my life, he wouldn’t have been on it. But I’ve come a long way in that ten years and have forgotten a lot of things, but I haven’t forgotten Eugene. That has to mean something.

asdf

I don't know why that struck a chord with me this morning. But it did.

What else did I do today? I cleaned my dog, dyed my hair (schwoops! the wrong color, but whatever) watched A Knight's Tale which is much funnier now that I have a cursory knowledge of all things Chaucer, watched TNG, watched The Princess and the Frog, which was much more delightful than I had thought it would be, watched The West Wing, and did nothing really productive besides that. The only things that were really on my list were dying my hair and washing Fudge. Got those done at least.

Tomorrow =

Church

Family hang-out time

Minimal packing, but some nonetheless

At this point, I really wish I weren't going back to school on Wednesday. This, too, shall pass. I'm not just not in a good, stable emotional place right now, I guess. Meh, it happens. I'm pretty apathetic about everything else in my life.

And I really can't wait to see some people. I'm just not too excited about leaving the ones I've got.

<3 spadeALLcross

Better Late than Never

Schwoops. Didn't update last night. It was a combination of forgetting and being out until 4:00 in the morning, so not really wanting to delay my rendezvous with my bed. I'm going to write this post as if it's still Friday...

I watched Dylan for the last time, although I'm going to be watching him tonight, too. But he'll be asleep, so we won't have our routine from the week. But we'll always have ... well, not Paris, certainly. But something, I'm sure.

Then I deposited that check ($$kaching!$$ now I actually have money to spend this coming semester!) and came home to do some stuff with paying my parents back for stuff, making more lists, and eating dinner.

After that, I went over to Carney's house to steal from his magical mystery hard drive of many cinematic wonders. And we went to Cuba Marsh...still don't know why. That was his idea, and it resulted in about seventy mosquito bites all over my foot...so restitution may be in order.

Finally, there was The Ripper. Oh gosh. Not going to lie, I was kind of dozing off during most of it, but still, it was the most ridiculous thing I've seen in a while. 1996 ideas of the future + attempts to make a video game fun and challenging + the often-poignant commentary by spoony of spoonyexperiment + Christopher Walken = hours of laughter.

Oh dear. Hilarious. Just sayin'.

And now a word from our sponsors.

<3 spadeALLcross

Race you to the top of the morning...

Nathan Fillion, I love you man, but just shut up, already. Seriously. No one should twitter that much about nothing, especially no one as adorable as you.

Moving on...

Watched Dylan, forgot my lunch at home (so I stole a banana and some carrot shavings from my old English teacher...and his baby...I may go to Hell, after all) then came home, did some stuff, including reading the entirety of Anders Loves Maria. Come to think of it, I don't know for sure if you're supposed to italicize webcomic titles. I'm fairly certain, judging from the pattern of italicizing complete works--music album titles, book titles, and ship names--while using quotes on parts of a whole--song titles that are parts of albums, chapter titles that are parts of books, short story titles that are part of a collection, and...not ship names--that you should italicize webcomic titles and italicize the individual strip titles. Anyway...that was a digression. Anders Loves Maria is incredibly...saddening. I feel really...down right now just from reading it, and not just because I get easily depressed by depressing fiction. It's a sad commentary on a life, and a sad ending to that sad commentary...so...all around...I feel sad.

I'll move on quickly, though. That's the glory of sleeping and forgetting things when you wake up.

Also threw together some lists of things I need to do and pack and buy before I go back to school. Which is happening on the 25th. I don't know if I mentioned before when I was going back. But here I am, mentioning it now. The 25th. If anyone is stalking me, planning to hunt me down and get my autograph or something, I will be on the road on the 25th. You can't stop me. Well, I mean, you could. But that would be rather silly.

Our sponsors have been forced into silence for a while, so here's a quick overload on your browser. (If you were wondering why this page was taking so long to load, look no further.)

<3 spadeALLcross

Where my thought's escaping, Where my music's playin', where my...love lies waiting...silently...for...me...?

Not so much that last one. But yes, I'm home. We left at 6 am on the 31st, and got home between 1 and 2 am on the eighth. I didn't blog on the 30th because I forgot, and I didn't blog on the 8th because I was exhausted. I cried and was mopey for no good reason yesterday. I was able to control myself most of the day, but then my brother's girlfriend put coffee in my CUPPS mug and was going to take it with her down to Bloomington, and I flipped out and told my mom and ran upstairs and bawled my eyes out. It was really pathetic. Luckily my mom had her thinking cap on and simply told Claire that it was mine and not open for the taking, and everything worked out fine. And I got a fair amount of sleep last night, so all is well today.

As for last week, I will give as brief a synopsis as possible.

The [16-hour] drive to Idalia, CO was uneventful, but more brutal than usual. It was Annabelle's first long trip, and she didn't much enjoy being cooped up in the car that whole time. But by 9:00, we were at my aunt and uncle's house in Idalia, eating pizza with Jimmy, Kathy, and Jordan. RC, Annabelle, my mom, and I all left in our van around noon, following Jordan in his car to Denver to pick up his sister from her apartment, get Starbuck's and pick up some things from Target. Then we caravanned the rest of the way into the mountains, to a place near Twin Lakes, CO called Lakeview Campground. My cousin Heather, her husband, Eben, and my aunt and uncle Jon and Diane were already stationed there, and Dennis, Patrick, and Remy showed up pretty quickly.

It was raining pretty heavily. Wasn't a great time to set up tents...but what can you do?

Monday, my aunt Margie arrived, as well as Jimmy and Kathy. We played Gin, Tenlum, Rummy, Bananagrams, etc all day. Some of the menfolk went fishing. We had an amazing Chicken Braai (South African barbecue) as well as some Bathsheba (it has a real South African name...but I don't remember it now, since we called it Bathsheba all week, and I couldn't spell it anyhow) all courtesy of Eben and Heather. Katri and I roasted marshmallows periodically throughout the day. Needless to say, I took myself off my sugar-free restrictions for the week.

Tuesday, my cousins Kaleb, Joby, and Erin, as well as Erin's children, Charlie and Robert, and Kaleb's girlfriend Kathleen arrived. More fishing, more gaming, we added Monopoly to the mix this day. Katri got whooped by Dennis and Jordan (well, it was one of those things where Jordan was really sucking, but Dennis was pulling him along, making deals with him to get his monopolies) and then we all got whooped by Jordan in a later game. Baggo and Horseshoes were also played by all. For dinner, we had Jimmy's world famous Chili and Kathy's squash casserole.

Wednesday it rained a lot. We played more Monopoly, (Katri won this time, and so was in a much better mood) and more Gin and more Tenlum and more stuff etc etc. We had brats and chili for dinner.

Thursday, Margie and Joby went home. We had steaks for lunch, cooked by Patrick and Eben. Fantastico. Roast corn as well. Mmm...so good. We all took turns chopped wood. I owned. It was great.

Friday, we left around noon. Jimmy, Kathy, Jordan, Dennis, Patrick, RC, Annabelle, my mom, and I all caravanned back to Idalia and arrived around 5, ate leftovers for dinner, and showered. Ahh, sweet showers. We reminisced for a little while, then hit the hay.

Patrick and Dennis left at 12:30 in the morning. Heaven only knows why.

RC, Annabelle, my mom and I didn't leave until 9:30 or 10:00. I drove about half-way, RC drove the rest, and my mom and RC took turns keeping Annabelle occupied. She didn't really like me. We listened to HP 2, which I happened to have on my iPod. So good. We had listened to some of Playing the Enemy on the ride up. I want to hear the rest; it was really interesting. We unpacked yesterday, vegged out, celebrated Denny's birthday, had a good time.

And now it's over.

Today, I babysat for my old English teacher, Mr. Schaefer. His son, Dylan, is adorable, if a bit drooly.

Also, today, I set up a tumblr for NaNoWriMo 2010! A little early, I know, but I want to get a lot of pre-season work done this year, since my schedule's bound to be packed, and I want to make the writing as smooth as possible, so I can both win and sleep. Check out the blog. It's kind of cool; you can add stuff if you want. I really want your input, whoever you are. I've got some ideas, but they're very rough, and I'm not sure if they go together.

Well, I'm off to...find something else to do. I'll probably elaborate on some of the past week's festivities at some later date.

<3 spadeALLcross

Where are we? What the hell is going on?

Good day. Packed for camping, hung out with Molly, watched TV with my mom, babysat, and had a hard-but-necessary conversation with a person I care for very deeply. Now to bed, perchance to dream. But really, with my track record, not-dreaming would be okay too.

<3 spadeALLcross

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