So Far, So Good...

Ugh, I spent nearly all of this morning talking to people online, so when I finally "worked up the nerve" to get my arse to sleep, it was after 1:30 in the morning. Thankfully Mom didn't wake up and holler at me-- that is, until I woke up again at 2:30 with a rotten coughing fit. I was feeling awfully hot, too... but don't get me wrong, I'm at school. It's lunch now, and I'm happily sitting in the journalism room (well okay, I'm all alone and it's kinda depressing) typing away, my bagel and cheese and iced tea at my side. So sue me, I had salad last night for dinner! Yeesh... *cough*

Anyway, so miracle of miracles, as I was walking to the 31 bus stop this morning (I took a shower and actually polished off my breakfast, knowing that going to choir would be futile with my throat. Whenever someone says hi to me and I respond, I sound like someone totally different-- usually someone male. ^^;;) Rochelle spotted me (her mom was driving her to school) and offerred me a ride too. Then we saw Wendy over on at 17th avenue and we ended up giving her a ride too-- it was like one big carpool! ^^

So I made it on time to Gilmore's class-- yuck. It isn't so fun without Rochelle in it anymore. We started Economics, and there's a new textbook... but at least it's all plainspeak. I think I might help myself study by making webpages (for the "Mer's Guides" part of my site that isn't up yet) about the things I'm learning-- maybe then if someone else (i.e. someone younger, or someone from another country) understands it (or heck, if someone from an advanced course, like in college understands or remembers it) then I know I've done a good job! =D There's already a bunch of work that she assigned yesterday that, thankfully, she allowed everyone a class period to work on. I was trying to catch up on all the reading I have to do, so I'll probably end up doing that 6th period today or something...

I thought 3rd period would be rotten for me, since that difficult Problem of the Week is due, but I guess yesterday's class got her to get an extension-- till tomorrow. I haven't worked on it much (I suck at math). There's these two formulas we have to get, and I only have a vague idea about one of them. >_< Damn it. Why does Jonathan Potter have to be so damn good at math but so vague when trying to explain it to others?! Meeeeh...

So now it's lunch, and I'm sitting here with my bagel and my iced tea, Shawn TF is right behind me, Colleen's to my left, Molly's next to her, Max next to her. It's a nice, kinda pleasant lunch. I'm planning on going to RTA afterschool anyway, what with the EX being installed. Hmm...

Oh yes, and this will be my journal for the time being... until I uninstall Greymatter and reinstall it with the mod that allows me to take all my old entries and put them in. I'd rather not add THESE entries to Greymatter just yet, since that'll skew things up even more. So... yeah.

I'm recently been inspired to continue work on "Goodbye, Hello, Who Are You?" "Perfect World" and "Dream a Dream," so I guess that puts me in a ficcing mood. I have to work on layouts for AMC over at Souten, since many of the pages there are down or disorganized. *guilt guilt* I have to figure out something to do for WAFF day-- a layout I might be able to throw together with some transparent GIFs, ImageReady, and some Dreamweaver Templates. Also looming in my future are the other sites I wanted to do-- "Archive Obscura" and some others that I can't remember now.

Well, thanks to Eva I have two more delish pics for Snapshot, which is good, since Shawn wanted me to update ^.^ Tee hee. I actually tried to show Taisuke (this 23 year old Japanese guy that Rochelle aka Roro knows through a friend of hers) some pictures of me so we'd be even... after all, he did show me some (somewhat hazy) pictures of him (dressed to for Squaw, no less... there wasn't much to see)... but I don't know if he looked at them. Oh well, I look HOT HOT HOT in red anyway. ^_^v I can't wait till I get Winterball images...

Well, I gotta work on some articles for Journalism-- something on Pro-Ana and Pro-Mia sites (check out The Wave for juicy details) that I think is interesting, plus something on the ridiculous SFUSD restrictions on websites. Hmm... I wonder if I could get Will and/or Jeremy to give me quotes or opinions on the school's comnputers and the network.

Ugh, okay, just done looking at a Pro-Ana website. YUCK YUCK YUCK! These girls are so stupid, honestly, what are they thinking? Saying stuff like Anorexia is a lifestyle, a choice-- what is going on in their vapid, self-obsessed minds? Do they ever even bother to research stuff?! Geezus, I know I'm no model or anything (*sweat* Well, I was Miss West Petaluma for a while...) but I have a high metabolism and I'm *underweight* for my height. There are girls like Amber who are taller than me and exercise frequently and have good meals, and she's probably one of the fittest chicks I know! Yeesh. Take a page out of a normal person's book ladies: Anorexia is bad. It's not a lifestyle, and if it *is* a choice, it's a bad one. You have nothing to gain from looking like a damned toothpick.

Oh, and my "thinspiration" for my Pro-Ana/Mia article? Our wonderfully emaciated friend, Gollum. I hope all the Pro-Ana/Mia friends who see/read my article (I may even make a parody website of it, tee hee hee) will realize that they won't look like Giselle-whoever-the-hell-her-skinny-dead-ass-is but a twiggy, disgusting sap. ^^ I'm done with my rant of the day, continue about your business.

...It Got Weirder

I think I skimmed over some interesting details about today. In 3rd period, right as I sat down next to Jonathan Pang, he asked me, "So Mer, want to buy a Porsche?" I'm like O_o; He's always talking about cars or something, and I had an inkling that he was trying to sell one, but obviously, since I've never had the intention -nor the opportunity- to drive, I never saw it necessary to learn. I passed Driver's Ed, but I never got my Pink Slip (I forgot ^^;) so if I wanted to get a Driver's License, chances are I'd need to go through all that again. Blech. I was like... "er, sorry... the only car I know how to drive is my Lancer Evo II." Now it's his turn to go o_O. I flashed my initialD card, and he was pointing at the picture, "Ooh, that's the car *I* have... that's not a Lancer." So I'm trying to explain that yes, it's just a picture, but the car I have in the game -which I had to explain as well- is a Lancer Evo II. I've played this game all of once, seen it all of three times, and haven't beaten a single person yet. >_< Here I am talking like an expert. Well, it was kinda cool to know a little something more about cars than the guys did... for once.

During lunch, as you all know, I was in the journalism room... Shawn was nice and brushed my hair and everything was all nice and peaceful... turns out Corinna, Max, Colleen, and Molly are all involved in getting together people for an assembly "informing" people about the "Iraqi situation." From as far as I can see, this is an anti-war assembly they're trying to get together, but it's really in its alpha stages right now.

During 4th period, I was working on that article about the SFUSD's restrictions, along with commenting on some of the bull I saw on pro-ana (anorexia) sites. In case you didn't know, there's quite a thriving pro-ana community here at LiveJournal, which I find ridiculous. That's like saying "Oh yeah, everyone can think how they want and everything, but even if it's dangerous to their's or other's health, we won't do piddly about it." How foolish. It's just like the SFUSD, having access to the KKK's website, but not to Wiccan.com. Hmph.

5th period-- oh god, I'm so glad Ms. Brewer is trading teachers in a few weeks. She's NUTS! I missed one day yesterday because of my sore throat and general miserableness, and she'd had them correct paragraphs in essays, work on active voice... and today, we had to write stuff about "Time Management and Essays" (apparently a "decent" essay takes 14 hours and 20 minutes to write) and write stuff in our journal about what we're currently reading in Siddartha. I'll have to start doing all my 3rd and 5th period work in 6th, when I TA for Koski, or I'll never get everything done. I'm still smarting over the fact that I got a C on my final, while nearly all of my class essays got As. The best essays in the class? David Ly and Tina! ARGH! What happened to my perfect English skills? Shit, this class isn't even honors or AP!

During 6th, Cassie came and we were talking... she was another person surprised by the fact that I didn't plan on attending college this coming fall semester. Why is it such a surprise? People have this weird idea in their heads that I'm some sort of brain -I've been hearing it from Dez, Jeremy, Johnny, my mom- it's bull. YES, maybe I have good diction and can argue your ear off, but if someone's intelligence is based on SAT scores or grades, then I don't have it. Colleges look at those things so critically because they want to see how a student will perform in their class. Someone with Cs and Ds obviously doesn't do the work, probably because, like me, they don't understand it, and aren't motivated to try. I see all these people with UCLA, UC Irvine, STANFORD shirts and everything-- they're proud and showing it. They got accepted to the best of the best, and they know -whether with total certainty or only partial- what they're doing with their life for at least the next four years. I don't want to go to City. I don't want to go to State anymore either, since their journalism department is so news-based. I don't want to be an anchorwoman or a gopher.

Mom was bitching at me again, asking me why I wanted to leave. She couldn't imagine me as a courier, when I brought that up -- she said Michelle yeah, Michelle she could imagine doing that, but ME!? Noooo. God, I hate it when she does that. I want to yell at her, "MICHELLE'S DEAD, GET IT THROUGH YOUR THICK HEAD!" but somehow the words won't come. My conscience is a real pest. The whole idea behind being a courier was that I could meet new people, go to new places, and not have to pay for a bunch of it. Instead, I'd get paid to take trips around the world and drop off packages. Whee. Okay, so maybe I'm over glorifying it a bit... but don't knock it till you've tried it, right? The old me would never have even considered working for In-N-Out. Now...

Well, afterschool, Crystal and I headed to Walgreen's to drop off my film-- the film from when Mehg and them were there, along with some pics of when the mini-RTA crew (Will's right, we do need a name for ourselves. Hmm... who's "officially" part of the group? Maybe we can make an acronym with our names?) went to MGL this past weekend. I didn't want to waste my money on one-hour prints if neither me nor my mom could pick it up, nor doubles when I'd just put them in my photo album or scan them for my online scrapbook. So they'll be $8.99 tomorrow afternoon. >_< One tiny problem-- I saw some delish lipstick (supposedly kiss proof) for about $5, so I splurged, claiming I was sick and deserved a treat... but then when I went to RTA (after dropping off my books and getting some medicine for my throat/hacking cough) I had only $2. No one was there, by the way-- EX hadn't come yet, and either no one told me, or no one cared whether or not it came on a weekday; they'd all see it on Friday anyway. But Benji was there doing doubles... and he attracted quite a crowd. I'm not surprised, the guy's got moves. He's already practicing for B3, which Jeremy has just released a PR for-- it's on May 4th, I think. Isn't that Amber's birthday? We should do a HUGE thing. ^_^ I love planning parties. Executing them, though... ^^;; ehehe...

So Benji was wiped from that, and since it was so wet and rainy outside (thankfully I remembered my umbrella... though my boots didn't make walking up and down the pier easy, I kept slipping) the crowd thinned pretty quickly. Whee, no lines for machines! I went up next, and since Versus is free, Benji did it with me. Of course, he was pretty limited to space with me *trying* to DDR next to him, and his moves weren't as showy as they'd been. But it was all good-- he still did better than me. I picked (of course) "Break Down," "Candy Heart" (I wanted to pick Candy Star!) and finally, "Can't Stop Fallin' In Love (Speed Mix)!" And here I'd been wanting a slow song! Poor Benji must've been so tired after all that... Gah, he averaged a C, I averaged a D. Bleeeeh. There was some weird AzN dude over at DMX with what I presume was his little brother... he was certainly getting the notes, but in an amusing fashion, using his legs in a really... uhm... well, strange way. @_@;

Oh yeah, some manager dude (Jeff, I think) was being a real prick-- with my throat, I had a bottle of water, and it was closed, and I was just carrying it, since it didn't fit in my purse. Depsite this, he was all "Sorry to be mean, but you know we don't allow drinks here, right?" I was like "Yeah, but it's water..." and he just gave me this LOOK and told me to put it away. Yeesh. Even after DDR, when it was closed AND in my purse, he was giving me and poor Benji the evil eye. I guess since Benji's a regular or whatever, and I didn't start coming to RTA until late last summer, he didn't know me. Believe me, I'm well aware of RTA rules! But I'm not an idiot-- I wasn't drinking like some schmo, I was drinking because my throat hurt like sandpaper, and I was worn out after all that hyper-dancing. Sheesh, he didn't have to have Benji tell me that even water wasn't around, and I had to "hide" it.

Well, since EX wasn't there, and I was now out of cash (hello PBJ for lunch all the rest of this week!) I had to leave... I kinda wanted to stick around with Benji, but it's not like we live anywhere near each other... plus Mom had called right before I'd DDR'd and wanted to know wtf I was. >_< So I headed home-- I thought it was later than it really was, so since it was still before 6:00pm, I headed to In-N-Out to pick up that application. I was so nervous about having to ask for one... if I had to talk to a manager, or if they'd already hired, or if they thought I was too young, or not the right type... augh! But the girl gave me the form without anything less than a smile... and aside from some "Previous Employment" questions, it all looks pretty easy to fill out. Mom was giving me attitude about this too, saying that In-N-Out's burgers are greasy and bad-- but hell, they're much better than Burger King or McDonalds-- and I used to go to those religiously! She keeps saying she could talk to someone to talk to someone else to see if there were entry level positions working at a newspaper, but let's be real here. Who would pay a high school student to do anything more than fetch coffee?? Sorry, not my dig. I like In-N-Out, they pay well ($9.75 starting wage!!) and I know where they are and how to get there. If I get hired, yay. If not, oh well, their loss.

On the way home, too, I saw some weird stuff. Did you know that the Men's Wearhouse over on Market St. has these weird mouldings (puffy carvings on the side of the building) that look like they say "Mom" ? It was weird. Hmm...

Well, I'm feeling guilty right now about not going to anime club again this week... but would anyone really have been there? Would they have remembered that it wasn't a Monday? I'll get to organizing the Library this weekend... but I need Vince to give me the rest of Chobits! ;_; Damn episodes all screwy. Even my burns are disorganized! Blech. I have to do that, and figure out if I can make sweatshirts-- I better, I keep on letting that slide... and it'd be major cool to have Mayfest with official Anime Club sweatshirts. So I may look into spotlightsf.com. If the club no longer wants to mass order it, I'll use my own logos and just have someplace screen print or embroider it for me. I'll have to save up before Fanime.

Well, on the bright, creative side of things, Dez has gotten me into making DWIs. Speaking of, he text-messaged me while I was on the F-line on my way home-- scared the bejesus outta me, since I wasn't expecting a call, let alone a TM. Well, it turns out it's pricey to repsond to those, since they're online, so I just saved it... I haven't scanned the picture yet, Dez, sorry-- but that's because it's not finished! Wait till I have something to scan, okay? I might try my hand at drawing some of us as comic-style characters in photoshop, but I probably won't be satisfied, given that I'm using a mouse and not a tablet *envies Jeremy and his cool techno gadgets* .

Anyway, back to the DWIs-- so I'm working on "Hearts" from the SOEX series, but I need to get the BPM and a beat down right... I was listening to my "Mer's Mix" cd today, and the songs "My Will" (Dream), "Traveling" (Utada Hikaru), and "Mamboleo" (Elissa) got me coming up with DDR steps in my head, tapping along-- it became to easy to find the underlying beat and count every fourth beat! Yay me! Now, how will I get screenshots that don't screw themselves up when I watch SOEX... I have such a perfect idea for the bg of the DWI, too! AUGH!

Ooh, oooh, guess what?! Okay, you know how there's a DDR 3rd Mix Nonstop Megamix AMV, right? No? Well go watch it, it's damn good! 72 minutes of DDR and anime? How COOL is that? I hear they're working on 2nd mix now, and will probably go from there to either 4th or 5th mix. But what I'd want to see -or maybe even attempt, with help from others- would be a Para Para Paradise or GuitarFreaks/KeyboardMania/DrumMania Nonstop Megamix AMV (augh, not an MP3, those already exist! BAKA!). It'd be easier with PPP, since there's only 2 mixes of it, and the songs are all pretty similar to one another. I can so see that song after "Night of Fire" (I don't know its name) being used for initialD! Whee!

I'm going to start a new wishlist soon, since my birthday's in less than 4 months. ^_^ Yay! Right now, off the top of my head, I want that braider-styling tool (and/or a Thermacell), a pair of 6.5 Converse All Stars in either purple, black, or red... or black/flames. I should add more to my bio, so people don't go around wondering "What kind of person *is* Mer, really?" (haha, whoever's reading this should know, right?) Hmm...

Lastly, I came up with this goofy-but-cute idea for something for NBOR's Ooh, Pictures? category-- a "Benji Seal of Approval" You know how Benji always does that thumbs-up thing in front of sleeping people? It'd make a killer transparent GIF for use on a banner. =D Now I'll just have to see if Benji would like it... ^^;;; (It's posted, by the way... go check it out at http://www.calibemani.com/nbor3/viewtopic.php?t=23&start=45)

I'm slightly more awake now, after Enterprise and Angel are over. Enterprise was good-- featured the crew helping a typical barren-wasteland-like planet from greedy Klingons. Oh well, we got to see Trip sweat, T'Pol in yet another too-tight jumpsuit, and Travis in a tank-top. =D~~

Angel was weird. Too many references I missed since it switched to Wednesdays. I wish it hadn't stayed on the WB at all, because then all this idiocy with Cordy and Angel (or Cordy and Gwen, who looks a hell of a lot like Glory) wouldn't exist. Yeesh. I wish there were crossovers... *sniff*

My fingers all hurt now because I raked them across a cheese grater while doing the dishes (oh well, at least mom'll be happy). >_< Well Richard is a very uhm... what's the word for it? RIGHT person. >_< I hate admitting it, so now I'm sitting here with my typing speed a fraction of what it normally is, my fingers throbbing and covered in too-big bandages, tingling still from the peroxide. Wonderful. I'm allergic to triple antibiotic, so now I'll never have nice hands-- just wrinkly, dry ones with calluses and cuts everywhere. Metal just does NOT like me.

Well now I'm finally checking out the NBoR3 page. I'll get into Photoshop soon enough, if I can still manuever a mouse with my now-bad hand. Oh well, better than my second degree burns from before... *innocent laugh* Haha... Okay, seriously, going now.