Lots and Lots of Wind

We had a wind advisory all day today.  Of course it's nowhere near as bad here in Indy as it is in New York and other places on the east coast, but it wasn't fun to walk around campus today either.  Since I had a test in theology today I got out early and had to make an extra trip back to the dorm through the wind, but luckily, it wasn't too bad at that time.  I'm hoping things will be better tomorrow, but I think we're supposed to get more rain.  I think the wind advisory just ended a little bit ago, but I can still hear the wind going outside.

I had to give my final presentation in first year experience today.  It wasn't meant to be that hard, so it was all over in a minute or two.  I almost tripped over cords in front of the whole class though.  Also, I remembered why I hated making presentations on OpenOffice and then presenting on PowerPoint.  My presentation ended up being just text on a plain white background, but at least the text was there and the teachers didn't care at all.

Right now I'm sitting in the dark while my roommate watches a scary movie with a friend.  I hate scary movies, but I'm doing a pretty good job about ignoring this one.  I shouldn't get any nightmares tonight.  I've been using fanfiction to distract myself, and it's been working pretty well.  I'm almost done reading one, so I'm going to try and finish reading it right now.

Movie Review: Hotel Transylvania

Sony Pictures
Released in theaters: September 28th, 2012
Rated PG
Directed by Genndy Tartakovsky
Synopsis from Rotten Tomatoes:

Welcome to the Hotel Transylvania, Dracula's (Adam Sandler) lavish five-stake resort, where monsters and their families can live it up, free to be the monsters they are without humans to bother them. On one special weekend, Dracula has invited some of the world's most famous monsters--Frankenstein and his bride, the Mummy, the Invisible Man, a family of werewolves, and more--to celebrate his daughter Mavis's 118th birthday. For Drac, catering to all of these legendary monsters is no problem--but his world could come crashing down when one ordinary guy stumbles on the hotel and takes a shine to Mavis. -- (C) Sony

Review:

I went to see Hotel Transylvania with my friend Haley and her mom when I was home for fall break, and I loved the movie.  It doesn't seem to be getting that good of reviews, and I don't really understand why.  I thought it was a really cute and enjoyable movie.  It's definitely not an incredibly deep, moving movie or anything, but it's definitely fun and entertaining.

It may be a bit on the childish side at times, but I don't think that's necessarily a bad thing.  I recommend seeing it if you're okay with that sort of thing.  I enjoyed it enough that I'll probably buy it on DVD at some point but not enough that I'll want to get it immediately or anything.

Movie Review: Welcome to the Rileys

Samuel Goldwyn Films/Destination Films
Released in theaters: October 29th, 2010 (Exactly two years ago today!  I didn't plan that.)
Released on DVD: February 1st, 2011
Rated R
Directed by Jake Scott
Synopsis from Rotten Tomatoes:

WELCOME TO THE RILEYS is a powerful drama about finding hope in the most unusual of places. Once a happily married and loving couple, Doug and Lois Riley (James Gandolfini and Melissa Leo) have grown apart since losing their teenage daughter eight years prior. Leaving his agoraphobic wife behind to go on a business trip to New Orleans, Doug meets a 17-year-old runaway (Kristen Stewart) and the two form a platonic bond. For Lois and Doug, what initially appears to be the final straw that will derail their relationship, turns out to be the inspiration they need to renew their marriage. -- (C) Samuel Goldwyn

Review:

I'm way behind on this.  I watched Welcome to the Rileys almost a month ago, which makes it really hard to write about it.  I enjoyed the movie, but I can't think of many specific things to talk about.  I really like Kristen Stewart's performance, and all of the other actors as well.  I liked that the movie partly took place in Indianapolis, since that's where I'm going to school.  (And I've always thought it was cool when something takes place in Indiana, since nothing seems to happen here.)

It is rated R, and it's definitely not a movie for everyone.  I enjoyed it though.  It was very interesting.  I just wish it was fresh enough in my mind that I could say more.

Sleep, Plays, and the Communist Manifesto

I probably shouldn't be writing this when I've gotten so little homework done today.  I'm not even entirely sure why that is.  One Direction's new single, "Little Things," came out today, and sure, I've listened to it plenty of times, but I think that's only a small part of my procrastination.  I'm just distracted today.  I think it's lack of sleep mostly.  My roommate's sick, and I woke up in the middle of the night last night to her having a coughing fit.  I was awake for at least half an hour (probably longer but I didn't look at a clock) because of that.  It's not her fault, of course, but I'm tired and having trouble focusing today.  I zoned out in history today, which is my favorite class, and I've never done that before.

It's a wonder that I even made it to precalculus on time this morning.  I can barely remember getting ready this morning because I was just kind of doing everything on auto-pilot, not really awake.  Luckily, I was able to pay enough attention in class that I know what's going on in the lesson and stuff.

We started on drama in English today and read our first play.  I'm looking forward to reading plays.  The only plays we ever studied in my high school English classes were Shakespeare (Romeo and Juliet, Julius Caesar, and Macbeth) and The Crucible, but we ran out of time and didn't even read The Crucible.  We just watched the movie.  So I'm excited to read plays that aren't Shakespeare.  (In school at least.  I read plays on my own on a fairly frequent basis.)  Actually, now that I think about it, we were assigned The Raisin in the Sun as summer reading one year too...

We discussed the Communist Manifesto in history class today, which led to some interesting discussions.  (Although, as I already said, I zoned out a lot.)  There was one really awkward part where this guy challenged something the teacher said about the middle class.  Then, he basically said that only liberals skew the facts, not conservatives, and he refused to back down about it when the teacher said that both sides definitely skewed the facts in their favor.  The whole thing was really awkward to listen to, and the guy is seriously deluded if he thinks conservatives never manipulate things to be in their favor.

I have managed to get about half of the work done that I need to do today.  I need to work on precalculus a bit and study for the test we're having tomorrow.  I also want to write the drama journal we were assigned for English tonight if I can find the time.  We're having a hall event tonight, but I may skip it if I need to get work done.  It's funny, but I seem to be getting more awake as it gets later.  All we're doing at the event is making collages for our doors anyway, but I'll probably get guilted into it if hardly anyone else goes.  At least homework is a valid excuse to not go.

Family Weekend

This weekend was family weekend at my college, so my mom, brother, and grandma drove up to Indianapolis to see me.  We ate breakfast in this old mansion on campus that was the original building in the school and now has offices.  (It used to be owned by one of the founders of the Indy Motor Speedway too, and is on the national register for historic places.  It's an awesome building.)

After we ate and listened to the university president talk, we went hiking in the Ecolab that's here on campus.    I was pretty impressed at my ability to find things that I had only seen once before.  I ended up finding the creek because I could hear running water, and I just followed the sound.  I was pretty impressed with myself.  Maybe I'd do better in the Hunger Games then I originally thought.

After the hike and going out for lunch, we went to the Indianapolis Museum of Art.  I'm honestly not incredibly into art, but I enjoyed to museum.  There were a lot of awesome things in their.  By the time we reached the modern art, my mom and grandma sat down to rest and just let my brother and me go through the gallery.  We kind of ended up laughing at everything.  I feel kind of bad that I can't appreciate that kind of art, but one thing was seriously yarn.  I don't understand.  (Here it is on the website.)  Overall, it was fun though.

As for today, I've done almost nothing other than go to church this morning.  I've worked on some homework, but I'm getting pretty far ahead on my homework and only have stuff that isn't due for a while.  I plan on going over my theology paper for any mistakes.  I'm basically done with it, and it's not due until Thursday.  At the moment I'm listening to a Hunger Games podcast while writing this, and I'm going to spend some time on Tumblr once I'm done with this.  I really love Sundays like this.

Homework and Sad Fanfic

It's a bit odd.  This entire week seemed to be dragging on, but now that it's Friday, it actually feels as if it went rather quickly.

Last night we had little kids trick-or-treating in our residence halls because of some event they had for alumni.  I didn't really do much.  My roommate Katie got pretty into it.  She had on a fancy princess-like dress and sat outside our door giving out candy.  (Our hall was princess themed.)  On the other hand, I was inside our room trying to get homework done.  It wasn't easy with all the noise, but I managed.

I have two papers due next week, and I just finished one of them before writing this.  I only have a little, tiny bit to write of the other one, and it isn't due until Thursday.  It shouldn't take too long.  In addition to that, I have to study for a Africa geography quiz, read the Communist Manifesto, study for a theology quiz, and work on my final project for first-year experience.  It should really be all that hard, but this weekend is also family weekend.  My family's not staying for Sunday though, so I should at least have that day to work.  I've been working on/studying this stuff for most of last week as well, so it's not like I have to do all of it this weekend.  Most of it is half done at the very least.  I should be fine.

I'm going to go finish up this sad One Direction fanfic that I'm reading.  I only have a couple of short chapters left, and I want to get through it quickly.  The cleaning lady in our residence hall was vacuuming right outside our door while I sat in my room with the door open trying not to cry over this fanfic.  (I would have closed the door except she was right there, and I didn't want her to think I was doing it because she was annoying me or something.)  Living in a dorm is great...

Homework and Trick-or-Treating

I feel as if I've been sitting in my dorm forever this afternoon, but in reality it hasn't been more than a few hours.  I have quite a bit of homework still to do.  Tonight is also the night that alumni brings their kids to come trick-or-treating in the residence halls, but I'm not really sure how that works.  I was just talking to my roommate Katie about it, and she said she really has no idea either.  We never really got told specifics other than that we didn't have to get candy because the college took care of that.  I guess we'll just go with whatever happens.  I just hope I'm able to get my homework done with whatever happens.  I may end up eating in the room though because I've heard different times when it starts, and I'm not sure if we're supposed to be here the whole time or if it really matters.

That's pretty much the rest of my day though: homework and the trick-or-treating thing.  In fact, I'm off to write my theology paper now.  Hopefully I can get quite a bit of homework done in the next hour or so.

Book Review: The Voyage of the Dawn Treader by C.S. Lewis

ISBN: 0064471071
Published: 1994 (first published 1952)
Publisher: HarperTrophy
Read from October 4th to 8th, 2012
Synopsis from Goodreads:

Narnia...the world of wicked dragons and magic spells, where the very best is brought out of even the worst people, where anything can happen (and most often does)...and where the adventure begins.
The Dawn Treader is the first ship Narnia has seen in centuries. King Caspian has built it for his voyage to find the seven lords, good men whom his evil uncle Miraz banished when he usurped the throne. The journey takes Edmund, Lucy, and their cousin Eustace to the Eastern Islands, beyond the Silver Sea, toward Aslan's country at the End of the World.

Review:

It's been a while since I read this one, so I don't really have a whole lot to say.  I should have gotten around to writing the review earlier.

I did enjoy it, just as I have all of the other Chronicles of Narnia books.  Eustace was a very annoying character, but that was the point.  He grew on me a bit at the end.  Speaking of the end, I actually found the ending a little sad.  I found Aslan's little speech a bit cheesy, but not unberably so.  I think that's the most overtly Christian aspect of any of the books so far, and I saw a review or two speak negatively about it.  What do they expect though?  The entire series is a Christian allegory.  I will put that warning there though for anyone who isn't Christian.  There's really no way to explain away what Aslan says other than him being God, so it's the most obvious allusion in the entire series up to this point.

The book seemed to go by quickly, which I wasn't expecting since the entire book is about a voyage.  Boat trips seem to drag on, but they stop at enough different islands that the book really felt like a bunch of interconnected short stories.  Different things happened at each island, and every island tended to be interesting.  I really enjoyed that aspect of the story.

I only have two more Chronicle of Narnia books left to read!  Hopefully I get to them soon!

Advisors and Language Placement Tests

Today has been a long day.  I felt way more tired in my precalculus class than I normally do, and I have no idea why.  Staying awake was difficult, but I managed.  The lesson actually seemed a bit easier than normal, so I'm incredibly happy about that.  I may end up getting a tutor for that class.  My advisor told me that if I'm even considering it then I should, but if it's getting easier...  Still, the final is cumulative, so I probably should.

We spent English class revising our fiction mini-portfolios and making comments on each other's.  I need to go down to the writing center sometime in the next couple of days to get help on the paper from them, since it's required sometime this semester.  The paper is turning out to be much easier than I expected though.

I didn't get nearly enough done as I had hope during my long break between classes today.  I did manage to write more of my English paper and do precalculus though.  I also began watching a documentary on William and Kate.  I haven't even finished that though.  I only have five minutes left, but I keep doing other things.

We talked about imperialism in Africa in history today.  We also got out early, which was actually a bit inconvenient for me because then I had to sit around and wait until my advisor appointment.  The appointment went well though.  My advisor was really impressed because I was the first freshman to come in and already have a schedule for next semester worked out.  All she had to do was look it over and make sure I was taking the classes I need to take.  I was, so she just signed off on them.  I still have to see my other advisor and get her to sign off on them.  I just made an appointment with her for next week.

Right after my advisor appointment I had to go down to the language lab to take the language placement test.  I got all of the questions wrong, so I have to take a 101 class.  I took the test in Spanish, since that's the language I took in high school, but since I tested into the entry level class, I can take any language I want.  I'm seriously considering taking German.  That's the language I wanted to take in high school, but they stopped offering it my freshmen year.

Now I'm finally back to the dorm, and I have nothing else to do today.  I'm really glad because my head's been killing me for most of the day.  I think I'm going to finish up watching that documentary and then get some more homework done.  Hopefully the headache will go away soon if I'm not doing much.

I'm Procrastinating

I have quite a bit of homework.  Not enough that I'm overwhelmed or anything, but it's enough to keep me pretty busy.  History club is having a movie night right now, and I'm missing it in order to work on homework, but instead I just keep procrastinating.  I've been on Tumblr, watching Little House on the Prairie, watching Starkid, and, or course, writing this post.  I really need to focus and get my work done.  I don't even know why I'm bothering to write a blog post that's basically just convincing me to do something else...

Classes went well today, although nothing noteworthy happened.  Since classes ended I've just been either working on homework or procrastinating on doing homework.  I really need to at least work on my first draft of my English paper since we're going over it in class tomorrow.  That's the only thing that I absolutely need to do tonight, but there are several other things I need to at least work on a bit.  I think I've sufficiently talked myself into doing work now, so maybe I'll actually get stuff done!

Football Games and Homework

I plan on having a very lazy Saturday.  I guess it can't be too incredibly lazy since I spent the whole morning doing laundry, but for the rest of the day I plan to just sit around the dorm room.  I do have a decent amount of homework I need to work on though, so I guess I'm using the word lazy figuratively.

There's a football game happening right now, and since my dorm is right next to the football field, I'm hearing everything even though I'm not actually there.  I've yet to go to a football game.  I really should, but it seems like the weekends with home games are the ones where I have the most homework.  For example, this weekend I have a theology paper to work on and a precalculus exam that I have to turn in on Monday.  In fact, I'm going to get some writing done, and then I'm going to go work on my precalculus.  I have a feeling it'll take forever...

Rain and a Movie

This week pretty much flew by thanks to fall break being earlier this week.  It doesn't feel like it should be Friday at all, but I'm happy for the weekend anyway.  Both of my classes today went well, and even though it's been raining today, I managed to only get caught outside when it was sprinkling.

We have a test for precalculus that we have to take over the weekend, so I spent quite a long time working on it earlier.  I'm only about a third done, but I'm going to do the rest on Saturday and Sunday.

Pretty much the only thing I've done other than class and homework today is watch Little House on the Prairie and a movie.  I'm in the middle of watching No Strings Attached right now.  I'm going to get back to watching that now too because it'll take me hours to finish it otherwise!

Ecolab Hike and Other Things

Why is it that my allergies have consistently gotten worse the past few days, and not even taking allergy medicine is helping?  I have a horrible headache yet again today because of all the congestion even though I took medicine earlier.  I'm trying to ignore it though, and luckily the rest of my day has been good.

In my public speaking class earlier today we had individual meetings with the teacher.  During mine he said that he was really impressed with my last speech (which surprises me), and I found out that my mid-term grade is an A-.  I'm kind of shocked that I'm doing that well in public speaking of all things.  He did say that my only problem was my voice level, but he said he knew I was soft-spoken, so he wasn't holding that against me when he graded me.  I'm thankful for that because I think most people probably would have.

Theology was the same as always.  It was just a long lecture that I had to struggle not to fall asleep during.  I can't even think about what he was talking about.  He goes over several different things each class, and they're all hard to explain.

My first year experience class was fun.  We went and explored the Ecolab.  I'd been in there before but only a small part of it.  It's much bigger than I thought it was before.  It's a really cool place to hike and stuff.  We explored these old building that used to be bath houses.  (There's a mansion near the Ecolab that the family who owned the land and had the bath houses used to live in.)  It's a really nice place, and it was really pretty since it's fall.  I almost tripped over branches more times than I'm willing to admit, but I had a fun time.  It's really cool that we have something like that on campus.

I've done nothing but read a play since the Ecolab hike.  I have homework but not too much of it, so I'm not too worried about waiting so long to do it.  In fact, I'm going to go put it off even longer and go work on one of the fanfictions I'm writing.

(Comic) Book Review: A:TLA The Promise Part 3

ISBN: 1595829415
Published: October 9th, 2012
Publisher: Dark Horse Comics
Read on October 14th, 2012
Synopsis from Goodreads:

Avatar: The Last Airbender creators Michael Dante DiMartino and Bryan Konietzko bring The Promise to its explosive conclusion The Harmony Restoration Movement has failed, and the four nations are plunged back into war In the midst of the battle, can Aang and Fire Lord Zuko mend the rift between them, or will Aang be forced to take actions that cant be undone? Written by Eisner winner and National Book Award nominee Gene Luen Yang (American Born Chinese) and drawn by Gurihiru (Thor and the Warriors Four), this is the adventure Avatar fans have been craving.

Review:

I have no idea where to even start.  I will say that it's good I'm not doing a video review for this because I would start rambling and never stop.

I know a lot of people haven't been too thrilled with The Promise from the beginning, and this (the last one of this storyline/arc/whatever) just made everyone hate it more I think.  I wasn't very happy with it either.  I appreciate what their trying to do with this story, but I don't think they pulled it off very well.  The idea of exploring the "new" world after the war (and the founding of Republic City) and how the different cultures are now coming together is very intriguing, and it's a storyline that I'm really interested it.  I just don't really like how they're going about it in here.  There's not even specific things I can pinpoint in this one (I think I did that in my review of part two though), but it's just not that great.

Now, onto spoilery things.

Let's start off with the thing that upset me more than anything else.  They have this huge scene with Mai breaking up with Zuko at the end of part two, and now she's not even in part three!?  You can't do that to me.  If you watch my review of part two, you see me freak out over that, and then there's no resolution in part three.  Mai's not even mentioned.  I know there are other things going on, but seriously?  Then, there's another hint of something between Suki and Zuko (which I mentioned before too)  which causes even Sokka to get this weird look when Suki starts talking about Zuko being "lonely."  If they go any farther than that in The Search (the next storyline they're doing) then I may just give up on these comics.  I can't read that.  First they break up Maiko, and then they make stuff happen between Suki and Zuko?  No.  (And I'm saying that as a Tokka shipper.)

I did appreciate them reuniting Suki with Sokka and Toph though because, as awesome as Sokka and Toph together was, it did make me think about the finale.  It was cute.  At one point Suki says, "It's dark down here," or something like that, just like Sokka did during Day of Black Sun to which Sokka shushes her because "Toph's sensitive to those kinds of things" (paraphrased), and I'm not sure whether I thought that was funny or just random.  Actually, that basically sums up a lot of my feelings about the comic.

I just don't even know how I feel about this comic.  It's definitely not incredibly positive, but I still manage to find a few things that make me like it a bit.  I'm going to read The Search, but I'm not incredibly excited for it, and that's saying something considering I've been waiting who know's how long to find out about Zuko's search for Ursa.

Advisors and Schedules

The first day of classes after fall break is going well so far, although it's only about half over at the moment.  My precalculus professor is away at a conference, so there's a junior mathematics major (and secondary education minor) teaching us.  You'd think that would make things more difficult, but she's actually really good at teaching.  In fact, I'm willing to say she's better than our actual professor.  We've only had her one day though, so who knows if she would be all the time.  She's teaching us again on Friday though.

We went over questions about the fiction mini-portfolio we have to write in English, so it wasn't a very eventful class.  We discussed some things about a few of the stories we've read, and that was basically it.

I spent about an hour today going over my major and minors' requirements and the class schedule for next semester to try and decide what classes I want to take in the spring.  I think I have a pretty good idea, and I even wrote down a possible schedule (if it works out) that I can take when I meet with my advisors.  I already have a meeting set up with my secondary education advisor, but I need to make one with my English (I guess she's technically my main one since the other advisor is for all secondary ed minors and this advisor was the one I was assigned by the school) advisor.  I'm not sure how my other advisor wants us to set up meetings about schedules.  I don't know if we're supposed to just contact her or what.  The other advisor told us how to schedule appointments.  I need to get that figured out.

I still have one more class today, and there's an International Club meeting later today.  Speaking of clubs, I haven't heard anything about History Club in a while.  I don't know if they haven't been having meetings, or if they have and I've just been missing them or what.  I talked to Claire about it a while back, and she said she hadn't heard anything either.  I think I'm going to try again because it's kind of weird that I haven't heard anything.  It's been quite a while....

I'm off to watch some Youtube videos before finishing up my precalculus homework.  I'll probably see Claire at International Club tonight, but if I don't, then I'll probably send her a text about History Club to see if she knows what's going on.

Lots of Church

Today has been a long day.  I spent the majority of the first half of my day in church.  I had to walk up early this morning to go to mass at our church here at home.  It was nice to go back after two months, but also a little odd.  Our priest was by the door when we came in and he told me it was nice to see me, and then, we were talking to some of our family after mass and they were asking me how things were going and stuff.  It was nice to see people I hadn't seen in a while.

Then we had to go to my aunt and uncle's church.  I have to attend a church service of a Christian denomination other than my own, interview a pastor about it, and then write a paper on it for my theology class.  My aunt and uncle attend the Wesleyan church, so I went there and interviewed my uncle's dad.  Their service is really long, and I ended up getting a headache about halfway through, which I've had the entire rest of the day.  The interview was luckily a lot less awkward than I'd expected, and we got it done relatively quickly.  Now I just have to write the paper...

We were going to visit my grandma afterwards, but that didn't end up happening.  She's coming over to our house tomorrow instead.  I'd also been planning on seeing Ji today, but those plans fell through.  It doesn't look like I'm going to get to see her while I'm here since she's in school Monday and Tuesday.  Hopefully I can see her when I come home for Thanksgiving.

The only other thing we did today was go out to eat Mexican food.  Mexican is my favorite, and we went to the Mexican restaurant here in our town.  (We live in a small town, so it's one of the very few restaurants here.)

It doesn't really sound like I did much, but going to church twice made it seem like a really long time.  Tomorrow though I'm just sitting around the house doing nothing most of the day, since everyone else is either at school or working.  My grandma coming by is the only thing happening.  It'll be kind of nice since I haven't really had time to just hang out at home while I've been here, and I miss this house.  It's kind of weird how it's the same, but some of my stuff is gone since it's at school and I'm kind of living out of clothes in a suitcase (although I've been wearing some old shirts out of my closet).  Plus, I think the dogs and I are going to get a lot of quality time tomorrow, and I miss them.

Book Review: Become by Ali Cross

ISBN:  1466384964
Published: November 11th, 2011
Publisher: self-published
Read from September 27th to October 3rd, 2012
Synopsis from Goodreads:

Sixteen-year old Desolation Black wants nothing more than to stay in Hell where it’s cold and lonely and totally predictable. Instead, she’s sent back to Earth where she must face the evil she despises and the good she always feared.
When Desi is forced to embrace her inner demon, she assumes her choice has been made—that she has no hope of being anything other than what her father, Lucifer, has created her to be. What she doesn’t count on, is finding a reason to change—something she’s never had before—a friend.

Review:

Movie Review: The Romantics

Distributed by Falcon Films and Paramount Famous Productions
Written and directed by Galt Niederhoffer
Rated PG-13
Synopsis from Rotten Tomatoes:

Over the course of one raucous night at a seaside wedding seven close friends, all members of a tight, eclectic college clique, reconvene to watch two of their own tie the knot. Laura (Katie Holmes) is maid of honor to Lila (Anna Paquin), her golden girl best friend. The two have long rivaled over the groom, Tom (Josh Duhamel). Friendships and alliances are tested and the love triangle comes to a head the night before the wedding, when the drunken friends frolic in the nearby surf and return to shore... without the groom. Based on the heralded novel by producer, novelist, director Galt Niederhoffer, THE ROMANTICS is a Zeitgeist love story and generational comedy that breathes new life into the genre and recaptures the camaraderie of youth. -- (C)Paramount Famous Productions

Review:

I didn't really enjoy this movie all that much.  It kept me interested enough that I wanted to watch the whole thing and see the ending, but I wasn't all that into it.  I didn't like Lila's character at all.  She didn't seem to have much of a personality at all, and she seemed very immature.  It honestly almost seemed like she was kind of childlike in some aspects.  I think that was kind of the point, but I didn't like it at all.  Her character weirded me out.

I think my biggest problem was just the whole storyline though.  I didn't like that these two apparent best friends were fighting over a guy.  They never really talked about it at all.  I just didn't like how the movie portrayed friendships and marriage I guess.  It didn't set well with me.  I know it's probably realistic in some ways, but I don't like Laura and Lila's friendship.  It would have been fine really if it hadn't had the ending it had.  It was so abrupt, and I'm not really sure how I felt about it.  I'm not sure if any of this makes sense.  I'm not really completely sure how I feel about the movie, so I don't really know how to describe it.  Something just didn't sit well with me.  It was an okay movie but not all that great.

Long Day

Today has been a long day, and it's only the afternoon.  I had to give my speech in speech class this morning.  It went way better than I thought it would!  I was less prepared than I had been for my last speech, and because of that, I was even more nervous.  The teacher said I seemed more confident though, so that must not have shown.  Either way I did well on the speech and managed to stay in the time limit by only five seconds.  I'm just glad it's over!

Theology class was the same as usual, but with our mid-term on Thursday I'm kind of freaking out about that class.  I'm really worried about the test.  I think I understand the material to a point, but I'm not sure if I can remember everything that we're supposed to remember.  I'm not a huge fan of the way the professor teaches, and I don't like the way he does his tests either.  I'm just not looking forward to that on Thursday.

In my first year experience class we had to go on a scavenger hunt in groups of four.  We spent about an hour walking around campus and taking pictures of stuff.  Thankfully the weather was a lot warmer than it has been recently.  It's actually the perfect temperature outside right now.  I was the only one in my group who knew how to get pictures from my phone to the computer, so taking pictures and uploading them became my job.  That meant I didn't have to be in any of the pictures though, and the members of my group were constantly trying to get out of being in pictures.  It was a lot funner than sitting in a classroom though, and it was kind of nice to walk around campus in this weather.

Now I have a lot of homework to get done, so I'll probably be working on that for most of the rest of the day.  I have a history mid-term tomorrow, so I really need to study for that.  I also need to make an advisor appointment to talk about my schedule for next semester and contact one of my professors about a paper I have to write.  I just feel like I have so many things to do!  In reality though, most of the stuff will probably only take a few minutes when I get around to doing it.

Procrastination and Distractions

After procrastinating on my speech for days, I finally finished the outline and started practicing today.  It's not too incredibly bad, but I feel as if it goes all over the place.  I don't really have a clear point in it.  I just end up rambling for five minutes.  I'll probably have to give it tomorrow though, and I don't really know what else to do.  I just hope it'll be good enough.

I have two mid-terms this week, and I'm getting slightly more stressed out about both of those as they get closer.  I think I know the material fairly well, but I'm still worried I won't do that good on them.

I haven't done much other than school work all day.  I'm in the middle of a movie I've been trying to watch all day (and last night), and I've been spending too much time on Tumblr today.  Other than that nothing's really happened.  I want to get this movie finished before I get started on even more homework though. I've got about 25 minutes left.  I feel as if I've been watching it forever, but in reality I've just been pausing it every five minutes to do various things.  I just need to watch it all now and get it out of the way so I can completely focus on homework.

Watching Little House

I've begun watching the second season of Little House on the Prairie over the past month or so.  It makes me realize how before I bought the DVDs I hadn't seen nearly as many of the early seasons' episodes as I had thought.  Whenever I'd watched the show on TV, it was almost always episodes from later seasons, but all the same, I still thought I'd seen the majority of the earlier episodes.  In reality I think I saw maybe half of them but likely a little less.

I really like watching the earlier seasons.  Right now I'm still kind of near the beginning of season two.  It took me a while to finish season one, so I'm not sure how long season two will take.  I have most of the seasons on DVD at this point, and I really want to watch all of them.  It takes so much time though!  I'll get through the whole series eventually...

Lazy Saturdays Aren't Completely Lazy in College

Lazy Saturdays are the best.  I love them so much.  Although since starting college I've also made my Saturdays the day of the week I do chores, so I suppose I never have entirely lazy Saturdays anymore.  These days, I wake up relatively early and immediately take the trash out after getting ready.  That may be changing soon though because it is way too cold to be going outside so early.  Then it's laundry time and whatever else needs to be done.  I'm usually done by lunch time, so when I come back from lunch, I just have homework and whatever else I want to do for the day.

So far today I've spent most of the day reading fanfiction and scrolling through Tumblr.  I have some homework to get done, but I'm in an, "I have all day to do it.  I'm just going to take my time," mood.  I need to be careful though because mid-terms are next week, so I need to make sure I study a decent amount today.  I'm a bit worried about my precalculus and theology mid-terms.  I feel like those will be difficult, especially precalculus.  That class drives me crazy.  I feel better but still just a tiny bit worried about my history final too.  English and public speaking I'm not worried about at all.  (We don't even have a test in English.  We do mini-portfolios.)

I'm off to finish reading a chapter of a Harry Potter fanfic so that I can get some precalculus homework done.

Stuck Indoors

It's been storming all day today, but for some reason I've been in a really good mood for the second day in a row.  Even though I've had a headache (thank you allergies) for the past hour or so.  I got out of my last class early, and I haven't left the dorm again.  Walking back after class I got soaked.  I may go back up to the dining hall for dinner later though.  We'll see how the weather is.  I think this is supposed to be the last day of rain for at least the next week, and I think it's mostly just cloudy now.

I managed to get quite a bit of homework and studying done early today.  I was really proud of myself for how quickly I got stuff done.  Now I'm just scrolling through Twitter and Tumblr and reading fanfiction.  Isn't college life exciting?  I actually really need to go edit a video that I filmed four days ago and keep forgetting about.  I think I'll do that right now before I get back to the fanfiction I'm reading.

Allergies and Productivity

I got an email last night that my second class of the day was canceled for today.  That meant I had to get up for a 50 minute long 8:00 class, and then have an even longer than usual break until my other class that afternoon.  I guess I shouldn't really complain about extra time.  I probably wouldn't have been able to watch Little House on the Prairie earlier if it weren't for that extra hour.

I really need to be more productive.  I've done some precalculus problems, but that's it as far as homework's concerned.  My allergies are pretty bad today though.  I have a massive headache, and I could hardly force myself to write this post.  I'm definitely forcing myself to work on my speech outline later though.  Even if I don't get that much done, I need to do something, especially since mid-terms are next week.

I just hope my allergies get better soon.  They've been driving me crazy for the past week or so.  Some days I'm fine but others I'm miserable.  It would be nice if they'd go away for mid-terms next week, but I doubt it. I'm just going to have to force myself to study no matter how bad I feel.

New Writing Project and Mid-Terms

I feel as if I've gotten into enough of a routine here at college that nothing exciting really happens anymore.  I just go through each day and it's nearly the same as all the other days.  That's not to say that nothing exciting happens, but there's nothing really noteworthy.

I think I shared this on Twitter, but about a week ago I started a new writing project.  That brings the current total up to three.  I'd been tempted to start writing this over a month ago, but I resisted because I figured two was enough.  Then I was on the computer one day, and I just couldn't resist.  The next thing I knew I was in the middle of creating an outline.  I'm not going to say much about it, since I don't like to talk about what I'm writing while I'm writing it.  I've been writing the other two for quite a while now, and I have yet to even say what either of them are anywhere online.  It's not because I want to hide anything.  I just don't know if anything will change or not, so I don't like saying stuff online.

Mid-terms are next week.  I'm not looking forward to that.  I really need to buckle down on the studying.  There's really only two classes where I'm worried about the mid-terms, but I'm quite a bit worried about them.  Hopefully things will go well.  I've been studying a bit, but I definitely need to start studying even more.