MILES to GO || before I sleep

Truthfully, I don't use my laptop much. As it turns out, I don't really need it. So I wasted over $1000 on something I don't need and pretty much can't use. Yes, it's nice having my own computer when relatives visit, or when I go to school and the Collaboratory comps are all being used, but it doesn't help me when I need to print, or other things. It was nice saying I had this cool piece of technology that was all my own, but... it doesn't work.

I've done a clean install about 3 times now. I've bought and downloaded the best of the best software, only to have it not work. I have tried calling three different customer support numbers, only to be told as I follow the menu options that the number I have reached is out-of-service. I have emailed the return form, only to have my order number (as it is listed on my account page) to be rejected. Remember when I kept calling Dell, and one week after the other, they said they'd send this CD to fix all my computer's ills? And then it turned out... they forgot to send it, they weren't authorized to send it, I had to call this department, and then I had to pay $250 for it!? WHAT. THE. FUCK!?

All that time I spent ended up "expiring" my 21-day return policy. What the hell is the point of having a 90-day warranty (expires in 12 days, shit shit shit) if the return policy doesn't last for the length of the warranty? Besides, in those 3 months, I've hardly used the damn thing, because I've spent so much time trying to FIX it! And now if I can't get ahold of Dell within the next two weeks, I don't know what I'll do. I hate calling tech support, but I hate thinking that I've spent $1300+ (that includes the leather case, the Windows XP Pro, the snap-on cover, and Office 2003 Pro) on a piece of shit. This happened with Dad and the Vaio-clone several years back, and that's still a piece of shit sitting in my closet back in SF.

I wonder if I can go to Fry's and assemble an all-new computer from the craptacular parts that Dell has... I mean, the CD+/-RW drive can't be bad, or the 40GB hard drive, right? And what about my 1GB Kingston Memory Card, and the rather nice monitor? I don't know, god_101, you've put comps together from scratch, is it possible to do that?

...Needless to say, this whole idea of being pressured for time and not having any options is stressing me out a bit. A review of Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire will come later. Right now, I'm exhausted... and by 7pm I have to be ready to go to King Tut. I still have to find time this weekend to do a smidgen of Japanese homework, BS at least part of my byline clip project, polish my study abroad essays and application(s), work on my VComm presentation for the 30th, AND work on Scott's birthday "present/card" for the 21st (MONDAY!!).

I feel like crying, but even my eyes are too tired.

Okay... I'm kind of stuck. Remember those Asian-American Studies courses I mentioned-- AAS 210 (History of Asian Americans) and AAS 430 (Asian-American Pop Culture)? Well, I just came back from the Study Abroad informational session, and Hirota-sensei herself (aka department chair of the Japanese language program, one of my future professors, and a former department chair for the Study Abroad in Japan program) said that Asian-AMERICAN doesn't count for Study Abroad.

I remember there being two other courses-- HIST 400-something, but it was really late at night, and Hirota-sensei's class, which sounded cool, but maybe it was at a bad time, too. Well anyway, I might have to tweak my schedule to find out just what would work for Study Abroad, and HOPEFULLY get something to count for SOME GE/Minor/80-65 while I'm at it. Ah, alas! That AAS 430 class sounded cool!

It also turns out Hirota-sensei is willing to proofread my essays for Waseda and Tokiwa, so I think I'll touch those up and send them her way. Anyone else who's got a spare 20 minutes, I'd totally appreciate it if you could look them over! They're posted here in my LJ (tag: essays) and also in the writer_girls comm.

Last night I helped Scott out on ANOTHER photo shoot, because his teacher wanted him to be more specific about his focus and lighting. It took us about an hour before he found "the right lighting" and by the time we actually finished, it was after 12:30am! Even In-N-Out was closed, but since we were both hungry (is this starting to sound familiar yet?) we ended up going to Denny's. ^^ Scott then stayed over (!) because he was too tired to go home. :) Ah, good times... er, sort of. I'll have to elaborate on that later, though.

Oh, and I checked the poll results from that Only 16 poll I posted-- you people answered strangely! An uneven amount of people said they didn't read it vs. what they thought of it... o_O What's up with that? And I suppose I can't be disappointed by anyone's answers, because I intentionally set it up with extremes for choices. I didn't want to make it too confusing. In any case, I'm sorta-kinda inspired to work on it again, so we'll see. Betas are awfully hard to come by these days, but as long as the SMRFF exists, so does ANDI!!!! :O BWEAHAHAH! *cough*

Well, since I didn't get to bed until super-late last night (er, this morning), I had to BS my way through my Japanese test (I think I did well, except I forgot the word for change -as in money- which is "otsuri"). I finished up a short essay on reality TV for VComm, and now I'm going to start Story #6 for JOUR 210, which is due today. ^^; Before I go to VComm class in an hour, I also have to finish reading Ch. 14 on Television and Video... it's pretty cool so far! Did you know that reality TV has been around as long as TV has? And that there are *14* different types of reality shows? Wow.

Anyway, time to try and make sense of all these numbers... how do you calculate a percentage increase, again?

Happy 2nd Birthday, WDKY!!!!

;_; I can't believe I forgot. It was on October 9th (9 days ago) and I forgot! Maybe I can cut myself some slack because of all the insanity going on lately, but really, it's died down since I sliced my fingers. And inspiration has been coming in a slow, but steady trickle. I should thank my lucky stars.

Well, since I didn't post in time for WDKY's 2nd anniversary (I'm still in a state of shock. I've been committed to this fic longer than I've been in a committed relationship. WTF!?), I'll post WDKY19 no later than Seto's birthday, on October 25th. Bwahahah!

I got my stitches out... it didn't hurt, as everyone insisted. I have a hand therapy appointment on Friday at 10am, and then my Mythology midterm at 12pm. An essay for the same midterm will be due on Monday, so it looks like I'll have a full weekend.

I don't even know when I'm going to tutor Leo (and his little sister, Caren) again, but yesterday's session was fun and good. Leo drew a picture of me in rainbow colors, and Caren took quite a shining to me (she called me "Onee-chan") and even gave me a Sailormoon fan! :D Whee, one more fan for my collection!

I've started cleaning my room, too, but alas! It seems as though I never have enough closet space. And to think, I left dresses and coats in San Francisco. -_-;

Speaking of SF, remember my DDR fic "Goodbye, Hello, Who Are You?" That's the one I submitted for Creative Writing (even though technically it was against the "rules" to submit something that wasn't written for class)... and even more surprising, despite the length (25 pages for a short story) and the font size (9 pt), people LIKED it. The concrit I got was great, and for revision, I plan on condensing it, fleshing out the characters, and figuring out where the heck I want to go with everything (Akio possessing Alexa's body, Alexa's hesitant relationship with Matt -gag!- and everything else inbetween). I have to admit, it's always a bad idea to write fanfic or stories adapted from real life stories that are too personal/close to you, because when you re-read them in the future, you'll remember things, good or bad.

I read about Whitney and the other "NPCs" in the story, and I think about how I don't talk to Will anymore; I hardly see Amber, and any friendship I had with Benji has dissolved. The story is nice only in that it captures what was once, but what can never be again. It also captures that horribly embarrassing, ridiculously stupid crush I had on Mike. -_-; Worse, anyone that's read it can tell, because even if you didn't know me back in high school or the things I babbled on about (my first LJ post was after the Mike drama; I have older entries from FreeOpenDiary and Greymatter on my comp, but I've never got around to backdating them. Anyone care?), some things are just obvious. People in my critique workshop could tell "I" was Alexa. :P

Tomorrow I have my bulk of classes, including the usual Japanese (need to do Listening Comp. Blah), Mythology (prep for test!), Visual Communications (I might have to leave early for a leadership institute meeting. One of the groups is doing a presentation tomorrow though, and that might be the basis for what my group -the Cultural perspective/World Wide Web- does at the end of November, for our presentation. Argh! It's not like I paid for the workshop or anything, but it WOULD be taking up an hour of time after VComm class ends (it goes from 3-5; I'm supposed to be in VComm from 2-4) and it MIGHT just help out the Anime Club meetings... even if few people seem to care.), and Journalism. For the latter, I should be getting my Study Abroad rec. back from Professor Salido. I hope she said good things... >_>! Plus Story #3 is due, so I have to get to work on that tonight.

And then there's FFX-2. I'm at 96% and holding, and that remaining 4% might come from the random Episode Completes I didn't remember the last time around. I have several more zones to go to, plus Chocobos to send out, credits to trade in... ^_^v It's all about getting the Perfect Ending! :P

I've also got to make more icons, because the bulk of my icons are Yu-Gi-Oh (see my userpics page), when I have interests in so many other areas.

I need to catch up on journals, memes, contests (something tells me I neglected to post something for ygo_offtopicon, 30kisses and ygo_lyricwheel... Catch ya on the flip side!

HAPPY 2ND ANNIVERSARY 'WHAT DOESN'T KILL YOU'! WHOO-HOO!