The Topic of Great Randomness

[SilveredBlue]

Hiya 96! *has been lurking* Happy Winter Solstice to you too!

About the lunar eclipse- I KNOW. And it is pouring rain, so I can't see it! *shakes fist at the heavens* Have some respect for lunar events! You'll have to describe how it looks and I'll just imagine it. *sniff*

So how is your holiday season? Going well?

[96bookworms]

Winter Solstice

Happy Winter Solstice everybody! I know it's a day early, but I just can't wait. The Winter Solstice is always exciting to me, because it means the days are getting longer!

Even MORE exciting though, is that there is a total lunar eclipse tonight! People all over the US and Europe can see it. I can't wait! I'm getting up at midnight tonight, and am hopefully staying up till around 5:30...Man I'm gonna be a wreak tomorrow!!!

[dorotheia]

The Importance of Play and Squee

I just finished Omnitopia Dawn! Yes! I finally checked it out of the library. Then I read it.
At first I wasn't sure I was going to like it, because it was all about gaming, and RPG, and virtual reality, but then... DD can do anything, right! Warning, white areas denote strange allusions and associations ahead. Gah, how can I rant and rave to my heart's desire without giving spoilers? Or mentioning all the references to her other works? (Exploding Pop-Tart! Okay, that's enough. First person to get the YW reference gets a gold virtual star.) Or telling everyone who these people, what the situations, remind me of? (Joy of Worktheoretically type the complete works of Shakespeare by randomness. That's not exactly how it goes, by the way.somehow DD dragged me into her world. And it was AMAZING!Worms 3D) Please forgive my sesquipedalian loquaciousness*, among other foibles, like hyperactive sugar-spinning.

*I can't remember where I lifted this phrase from, but I don't think it's original to me. Kudos to whoever thought it up!

[Lazy Leopard]

There's still old snow on the ground here, but we've not (or at least not yet) had any more this week. It's just stayed cold enough for the snow on the ground to stay there; a little unusual for this part of the world, but then so was last week's snowfall.

I did get away for the weekend last weekend, but not under my own power. Friends who live not all that far away, but who were rather less badly affected by the snow, and who have a 4x4, gave me a lift, so we all made it to the party, and a fine party it was, too.

Now I could really use a few weeks of tropical warmth...

[seabiscuit1009]

Still alive, still in Scotland, still...yeah. Life is still pretty good, except for the coating of ice covering the ground that makes me feel like I'm going to wipe out whenever I leave the flat.

Last weekend, however, I was in Dublin, so guess who made a visit to the National Museum of Archaeology and History to see the Ardagh Chalice? This girl! It made me feel like such a dork, but then again, I've been reading these books for the past 12 years; I practically had to go see it while in Dublin. I also recently managed to get hold of Door into Fire, Shadow, and Sunset. Oh, and I'm writing a paper on the second battle of Moytura for my Celtic History class. Just read a line about swords telling the deeds they had done, and laughed a little on the inside. Nobody ever said that these books didn't have a ridiculously embarrassing influence on my life. Thanks DD!

Hope everyone's doing well; I keep just popping in and out and not really engaging in discussion here, but I miss all the oldbies and wish I had time to meet the newbies!

[96bookworms]

Disney!

I HAVE been on recently, but just to lurk, unfortunately...

NEWS

Well, my theater group performed at Disney World this weekend. (This was my first time!) On Thursday we flew down, and then on Friday we had two workshops, one where we sang and danced to Supercalifragilisticexpialidocious. We learned the dance from the actual Broadway show Mary Poppins, and it was neat, but VERY difficult! In the afternoon we recorded two songs from Hunchback of Notre Dame, and they put it over the actual movie, and we got a copy of us singing, but it looks (and sounds) like the real thing! That evening I went on my first roller coaster ever! ( I've always been terrified of them) I actually liked it too...
Then on Saturday we performed! The show went great, and there were tons of people too! It was amazing! Everyone did an amzing job, and there were even some small children dancing along
The other two days were spent at the parks, where I went on rides, we sang impromptu songs, and had fun. I went to Germany at Epcot, and got to practice my German with the staff members and the foreign-exchange student from the high school near ours who's host-family was at Disney the same week we were. (I am aware that that is a run on sentence...) Several of our group members went to school with her.
I got back yesterday evening, but I already miss everyone that went on the trip, because there are several that I don't know when I'll see again... There are 20 people graduating in the next two years, and really, that is a large portion of the cast! But, auditions for Oliver are next week, so...

One of my friends is reading the Young Wizards Series, and I hadn't even recommended them! She found them at the library, and when I saw, I told her just how amazing they really are

I apologize for not writing for the longest time, but I have been really busy...I got a space pen for my birthday, as well as various gift cards for book stores...

It snowed here too, which is a shock from the warm weather of Florida...

I think that's about it for now, but I may have other things that have slipped my mind....

[illiriam]

Wow, I can't believe how long it has been since I have been on here.

Is it a cop out to just say yay to everyone? Scotland, plays, finally getting a diagnosis... I hope good things will come. Trialia, my friend is going through something similar, so I hope that everything works out and that they can stop you from getting worse. It is a shame that doctors ignore the patient's own view of things, because not everyone is a total idiot. Some of us actually know when something is going on that shouldn't be.

I haven't been on lately because of a) NaNoWriMo (which I won several hours ago ), b) normal homework load c) my extra class d) the sudden and impulsive decision to apply for a Human Research Proposal for the previously mentioned extra class (its just not fun unless you keep adding work to your load!) and e) the sudden decision to try to start looking at Graduate schools and possibly study for the GRE.
I am going insane.
Currently, I am writing two papers for tomorrow, and this was my treat for finishing the first one.

My Random piece for the day: has anyone ever heard of a site called Paperback Swap? My friend just started on it, and she is trying to get me to join. The basic idea is that you post books you would be willing to send to others, and once you send a book, you get a credit and someone else sends you one. You do get to choose.
It sounds nice, I suppose, especially for those books that I either hated or have leftover from like, 6th grade. And I do have two editions of several books, so it could be nice to trade one. But I just hate to give away a book! It's like giving away a finger, you know? The pinkie. I may not use it very often, but I like to know that it is there.
On that fun note, happy December everyone. Enjoy your Christmas (or personal holiday of choice) specials, and the excuse that since it is the Holiday Season, you get to eat all the Holiday Cookies.

[Lazy Leopard]

We're getting a whole lot of snow here at the moment. Most unusual for the end of November. I shovelled about 8" off my drive this afternoon, and there's another 3" or so there already. This is likely to give my travelling plans a bit of a knock. I'm supposed to be going to Cambridge tomorrow to take an exam, and I'm supposed to be going to Sheffield on Friday. Tomorrow I'll probably take the train and hope it works out. Sheffield is trickier because I've got three other folks riding with me, and it's a lot further to go, and some of the most heavily snow-affected regions are between me and there....

Well, maybe the cold weather'll have broken by Friday...

What do you mean, you're out of flying pigs?

[Garrett Fitzgerald]

Travelling

A little late now, but I went down to Middletown, CT for Thanksgiving with my family. Did I miss a chance for a meetup with anyone?

(And we won't discuss the drive home. Next time, I'm checking the forecast for where we're actually going, not where we're starting and finishing. Did you know it snows in the mountains in Vermont in November? Whoda thunkit....)

[Lazy Leopard]

LazyLeopard: Lol. I agree on changing clocks, and I officially apologize on behalf of Ben Franklin. ^o^ Or no, it wasn't Franklin who began DST, it was some New Zealand scientist, right?

Over here a certain William Willett gets the credit (or blame) for promoting the idea, though the relevant laws were finally enacted as a war-time measure in 1916 after he'd died. He's something of a local hero round here; there's a pub just down the road called "The Daylight Inn" which is named in his honour, a road named "Willett Way", and a sundial in the woods too.

[96bookworms]

The Hills Are Alive!

Well, our performance of the Sound of Music was amazing last night! The girl who plays Maria is AMAZING!!!!! She did sooooo great, and she is also student-directing the play, she is the drum major for marching band, the head of student council, and she is in all accelerated classes (she is a senior in high school) Our performance was pretty good overall, and it was TONS of fun! The little girl who plays Gretl is the cutest thing EVER, and she told us she is going to be a pony when she grows up. She is four years old and tiny. Every time she says anything, everyone collectively goes awwww.....The guy who plays the captain gave the girl who plays Maria a goat today, and it sings The Lonely Goatherd Song and dances too! It is really fun! We had a party today after the show, and I didn't get home till after midnight! But it is all worth it!

Oh, I have mild scoliosis too! a curvy spine is it's own kind of awesomeness!

School is school, though I am pretty sure I did pretty bad on my science test, because our teacher gives really hard tests and I couldn't study much because I had SoM performance last night too! but, well, it's over now!

I was going to be Elphaba for Halloween, but ended up not doing it because I had play practice when we were supposed to go trick or treating and I didn't feel like doing all that makeup for nothing...

And, well, it is almost one in the morning, and I am rambling, and super-tired, so I will say good night!

Edit: wow, I was rambling. Sorry 'bout that....It was really late and I just got back from the after-party...*sigh*

[crazy_bookworm]

Good morning! I was waiting for more people to reply before I came back. For Halloween I was a witch where I used the witch costume in my closet, not very exciting, I'm afraid.

bookworms: I hope you receive everything you wish for for your birthday.

SilveredBlue: Welcome back! Of course I remember you! Wolf hasn't been around for a while either. I miss her...

Trialia: I'm glad you're finally getting the medical treatment you need.

seabiscuit: How is Scotland? Is it grand? I want to travel to Europe again someday.

I am currently taking a break from the chem analyses I have to do. I have to do stats for them, and the last time I did stats was two, almost three, years ago, so needless to say, it's frying my brain. I have five weeks left of term before finals. It feels like this semester has gone by so quickly. I was talking with my lab partner yesterday about how we have a week break, then two more labs before we check out and are done labs for the semester. I'm done my other lab in three weeks, which is crazy, 'cuz it's a four hour lab period with seven labs ranging anywhere from 30 minutes to six hours in length. I am very much enjoying this semester.

In other news, I am a definite squint. *does happy dance* Squint is in relation to Bones, which is on tonight! I was sort of following the World Series only to know when Bones would be back on. I should probably get back to those analyses... See you!

[SilveredBlue]

Hi Tria! I'm very glad that they finally figured out a way to help you. It's ridiculous how the other doctors just blew you off. You could probably sue them if you felt so inclined, no?

I have mild scoliosis too! We shall be curvy-spined together.

Seabiscuit: I remember you. Wow, Scotland? Tell me how it went, I've always wanted to visit Scotland. *envy*

LazyLeopard: Lol. I agree on changing clocks, and I officially apologize on behalf of Ben Franklin. ^o^ Or no, it wasn't Franklin who began DST, it was some New Zealand scientist, right?

Running: Hi! *waves* Yes, do investigate Florence and the Machine. Then I shall add you to my list of people I have converted. XD
Lol, you and your boyfriend as Nita and Kit? Sounds like lots of fun!

[running_alone]

I feel like it's been forever since I've posted something here... I need to start doing this more often. I miss you people. And this universe. Which is why I'm re-reading the whole series. Also, I've been dabbling in some art based of the books, so maybe that'll get posted here somewhere. Also also, my boyfriend and I dressed up as Nita and Kit for Halloween. Wish I would've gotten pictures. I've got him hooked on the series, now.

Blue: I've never heard of Florence and the Machine, but I'll definitely check it out. I'm always up for new music.

[Lazy Leopard]

*waves to all* I've been lurking. Medically, I have a step forward at last

Glad they've figured something out, and really sorry they've taken so long to get there.

So...I disappeared for awhile...5 or 6 months or so?

Welcome back

Clocks went back over here last weekend. Yeah, I know you lot over there don't change yours 'til this weekend. I still think the whole clock-changing exercise is a right royal pain in the fundament, and that they'd pick a reasonable compromise timezone and stick with it all year. Anyway, last Saturday evening, after a good day out at the quarterly filk gathering, i decided it'd be a good idea to get the clocks changed before I went to bed, so I'd get the dubious benefit of that extra hour, and could use it to catch up on lost sleep. Unfortunately I managed to mis-set the clock on my wake-me-up radio. I thinnk it got changed from 22 to 01 instead of to 21. The effect was that it turned the radio on some time shortly after 3am. There was an intresting science programme on the radio, and it took me a while to wake up enough to realise that it wasn't quite what I expected.It took me a little longer to work out what the time actually was. Having cursed and sworn a bit, I re-set the clock and went back to bed. I missed the bit about setting the day as well as the time, tough, so it woke me up at a sensible Saturday morning time, which is about an hour earlier than my idea of a sensible Sunday morning time. So my trying to sort things to get an extra hour's sleep actually ended up with me getting a somewhat disturbed and shorter night's sleep than I'd have got if I'd just left the whole lot alone...