I don't know how Kaiba does it.

Leather pants on a hot day =/= a good idea.

Believe me, I know. I had a feeling it would be like this-- yesterday at 7pm it was still 93 degrees. We're supposed to hit the low 100s today. Yeesh. And it looks like the whole idea of feeling empowered (and making Scott drool) didn't work as I planned, anyway.

I got a "you look nice" and that was about it. Maybe I'm trying too hard? Or maybe HE'S trying to hard to stop himself from saying what he really thinks, because that would be "crossing the line." Heh, that's what I'd like to think, anyway. Scott didn't even have time to eat lunch with me or anything; on Mondays and Wednesdays, he's got Aikido (something tells me he'll drop it, just like he did his other kineseology class last semester) at 11am, 10 minutes after we get out of Japanese.

Speaking of Japanese, it's great to be in a class environment again. I know the material, it looks easy enough-- but like anyone else, I'm prone to getting confused a bit. Besides, there's a few native speakers in the class (I don't know why they were allowed to register, but the teacher's letting them stay, so long as they take different tests).

I bought my Japanese class notes (separate binder; looks like I won't need that section of my blue binder after all. I might still need my folder, but probably not the cute notebook I bought in SF's J-Town. Alas!) and my Greek Myth book; that class starts at noon and gets out 10 till one. I then have a half hour to make a lunch out of $6, and then I work from 1:30-4pm at Jamba CSUN. I made sure to bring my white tee and no-slip sneakerrs, but I wonder if these leather pants will make working any easier. Will they put me on reg, or somewhere else?

My laptop (the new Dell Inspiron 6000) should be coming around Sept. 6th. YAY! Then I'll buy the Office Student Edition (2003) from the bookstore, and the Windows XP Professional upgrade. It should only be $180ish if I plan it right. I was thinking about buying the official Adobe CS2, but... it's over $200. I really only use Photoshop. If anything, I'd want the Macromedia Suite 2004, because I use Dreamweaver, I KNOW how to use Flash, and Fireworks is pretty good in its own right. I don't know, what do you think? I get a student discount on most everything, but I aleady spent $1200 on the laptop and a couple hundred on my textbooks, and I still want to have money to travel later this semester ($555 Tokyo round-trip. I wonder if that's a tour or just airfare?).

Today's Sundial-- first thing on the first page in the top right corner was a mention of Ben's death. Not what I wanted to read first thing when I opened the paper. To make matters worse, I've seen 2 Ben look-alikes-- one at a sushi restaurant yesterday with Erin and Joyce (Erin took off for South America today for her 2 weeks left before UCLA kicks back into session), and then earlier today as I walked into (where I am now) the Collaboratory. ;_; I don't know why this is haunting me so much. And his full obituary's going to be in the paper tomorrow. *sigh*

Oh yeah, well, in other DISTRACTING news, I read PC Magazine's new review of the Windows Vista (formerly known as code name: Longhorn) OS, Beta 1. It looks... interesting. Truthfully, it looks like they ganked the Mac "shiny" aethestic, and Microsoft is using a rendering system known as Aero Glass. Security is the big beef with this OS, and not super-hot features. The WinFS search tool isn't included with the Fall 06 release of the OS as of the current news releases, but the search tool that they have in the Start Menu should work just as well, thanks to the implementation of metadata and additional search features (rating, etc). I wonder whether it'll even be possible to upgrade to Vista though. I know they're making a 32 and a 64 bit version, but the Aero system will require a nice graphics card, support for ActiveX9, and heck knows what else. Will my Inspiron fit the bill next Fall?

Oh yeah, Internet Explorer 7. They just might convert me back if it's as good as they say. Tabbed browsing (FINALLY!), super security features, and everything rendering as it should...! Firefox only rarely gives me problems, like when a page has embedded Quicktime. I went to the Firefox extension website and downloaded the Quicktime plug-in from Apple, but Firefox just isn't reading it. I manually installed it and everything, but if I go to a page with a Quicktime plug-in (e.x. music playing in the background as with the "What is Yu-Gi-Oh?" page, or Joe's Gradius music video on his MySpace page) nothing happens. I have to save the file or open it in IE/Avant. How annoying.

Anyway, I might as well catch up on some Friends' entries while I'm here. I'll leave in 15, and I hope my Mythology teacher is as good as the reviews said. :P I'd also like to start meeting some people and making friends, so that a) Scott and Ben aren't the only things on my mind, and b) Friday does not become the sole highlight of my week.

Should I be worried?

After work today, I got my last 2 textbooks-- my Creative Writing book and my Syllabus (which isn't really a syllabus at all, it's a workbook of weird pages and random stories). I'm kind of worried that the teacher seems so obsessed with himself, using his own works as examples, but then again, maybe he's proud in a good way. If any of you guys who write fanfiction taught a Creative Writing class, would you ever use your own writing as an example? Why or why not?

My Mythology teacher scared me at first-- kind of chubby with a double-chin, very pale with light eyes and pink lips-- he looked like a corpse with crooked teeth. But once he got talking, he was very funny and the class looks like it'll be interesting. Many class activities will be conducted online, which I'm grateful for.

Back to Japanese... Scott was called on today, and he either wasn't paying attention or he seriously needed the textbook (which I picked up at the bookstore before class; QuickCopies took forever to assemble the binder of notes, but I got it in less than 10 minutes). He didn't know what to say... I tried to help him out, but I think I might have made things worse. He didn't seem upset at me or anything, now that I think about it, but like I said earlier, he rushed off to Aikido, and he never saw or said anything to me after we parted ways. :P He owes me lunch tomorrow.

Wednesday is what I'm really looking forward to, though, because aside from Japanese and Mythology, I'll also have my 2 Journalism classes, my WRPII course (with Salido again!) at night. I wonder how I'll get home? I do have to learn to drive though, and I'd like to have learned by December. Time to research some driving schools... (I don't even know what course to take)

I'm glad people are submitting alternative lists at 30kisses. I really have to finish my SxA pairing for that, so I can either pick a new pairing (a few of the other pairings I write for were taken, but the authors have PROBABLY given up... *sigh*) or focus on my 100 icons. I've gotten a few more done lately, but I want to do all "batch posts" where I have at least 5 icons at a time, so it might be a while before I post at iconfiend100 again.

*yawn* I'm so tired! It's so hot! I need to learn sign language, and I have to stop blushing when a Japanese person orders at Jamba Juice!