Study Hall Happenings

Finally Friday. I got my homework done for the day, which means that this study hall is completely free for whatever random whims I might happen to have. And so, I just got back from fighting with paper lightsabers with my genius friend Annie, who came up with this brilliantly nerdy idea.

They were red, which made me feel all wonderfully evil and sith-like, and we put up our hoods to demonstrate that. We even made lightsaber noises as we stabbed each other. Of course we fought secretly in an empty room, as I am a Star Trek fan, so I have to keep up my image. That, and I'd like to maintain what little social status I have.

But now I'm here writing this blog, because we got in trouble for making too much noise when Annie cut off my hand and I let out a quiet-ish scream in pain while denying her claim to be my father.

I love Fridays.

Shepherding the Shepherd

Ugh I am so tired. I got 5 hours of sleep, which is pretty good for most people (or maybe I’m the only one who sleeps around here), but I usually operate the best on like 10, so I’ve been acting like I’m high the whole day, according to my friends.

Anyway! The reason I’m so tired is that cute German shepherd you see above. I found her in my backyard yesterday as I was about to let my own dog out, and as soon as she saw me, she ran toward me as if totally deprived of human interaction. I couldn’t help but feel sorry for her and walk her around the neighborhood asking people if the knew whose dog she is, but no one knew.

She walked with such grace it was weird. But that’s probably because I’m used to my fat dog clunking around with about as much agility as a Vogon from Hitchhiker’s Guide. It’s just sad. The dog looks like Jabba the Hut compared to the shepherd.

So anyway after it was getting dark and I was tired from walking I stood outside my house thinking something like “what do I do what do I do what do I do” (I was home alone) before conjuring up this brilliant plan to sit outside with the dog and see if anyone comes looking for her.

They didn’t, and I ended up sitting in the cold for an hour, thinking about how idiotic of a plan it was. I hate being cold. I’d rather be hot than cold. But at least I got some homework done.

Well I finally went inside with the dog to wait for my parents to come home. I had a water dish in one hand and the laptop in the other, and somehow the two combined a little, and the bottom of my laptop got a little wet. This happened while my dog and the stray greeted each other, making me nervous about any hostility between them. I had so much on my mind I almost didn’t care about the laptop.

After the stray sniffed every corner of the house, I was finally able to get some homework done, so I fired up my laptop, which gave me an error message, beeped a little, and then started running tests on itself. I was kinda like “Wha.. what? What the crap?!” before remembering the water. Ahhhhhhh frick. I at least need the computer to last until the end of the school year, and then it can take a bath and beep and run tests and do whatever the crap it wants, because I’m getting a new one for graduation.

Well about this time my parents came home, and although they like dogs (or at least my dad does), they did not want her staying with us. So she stayed the first night. But that was after we took her to the vet to see if she had a microchip, which she does, but it wasn’t registered, which kinda defeats the purpose of the chip.

But the dog was taken in to the vet 3 weeks ago as a stray, so we were given the number of the person who found her, who then gave us the number of the owner. Yay! She’s saved! But it was getting late and we didn’t actually call the people until the morning.

So we had an extra dog for the night, which my mother wasn’t too happy about, and I named the dog because I didn’t want to call her That Dog. I know Bailey is a really common dog name, but my friend’s dog is named Bailey, and I really like that dog so I was like why not? Although now that I think about it, I wish I had named her after a dog anime character. Or maybe just a Japanese female name.

So today after school my mom and I drove Bailey to her owner’s house, who was this Mexican looking man with a little kid. Bailey put her head on my lap most of the way there. …All of 5 minutes. But it was still sad!

When dog and master were reunited, I found it slightly weird that Bailey seemed a little cautious of the man at first, especially since she was so friendly with me. And then he led her to a small, fenced in part of his yard with another smaller dog. I assume Bailey is left in there for most of the day and overnight, which is really sad because Bailey hates being alone. I secretly hope she gets out again and finds her way back to me. I’d return her of course, but not before loving her up a bit.

And apparently, Bailey doesn’t have an official name, but the man’s two-year-old calls her Christen.

Oh yeah, so yesterday when we got back from the vet, I checked on my laptop, and low and behold it had whined and screamed itself to sleep. There wasn’t an ounce of juice left in its battery. …or gram of juice, or whatever the crap the appropriate measurement is for laptop battery juice. So after plugging it in, I turned it on and it… okay well my laptop has a name: Daisuke, after the main character in DNAngel. Anyway, Daisuke was completely fine and I was able to do my homework. But it took a while to do and I ended up staying up until 1.

So that’s my big adventure, and that’s why I’m so tired today!

…I’m going to bed now.

Weigh Day

It's Sunday, which means one thing for me. Weigh day. Well, that, and Cram-All-My-Homework-for-the-Weekend-into-One-Day Day. But that's not very exciting. ...at all.

So anyway, I'm on a diet because I might have had a bit too many Reese's Peanut Butter Cups growing up, and I slowly progressed to 162 pounds before I finally said enough is enough. So now I'm paying for my blissful gluttony.

I've done pretty well so far, nearly putting a stop to snacks and chocolate (which is really hard for a woman, because I'm shunning the female's sacred food). But every once and a while I'll splurge a little, and satisfy my addiction in guilty pleasure. These sinful indulgences usually happen on the weekends, when I'm feeling pretty secure about how little I've eaten over the week.

Well this weekend I might have gotten a little too confident, so when I went to weigh myself today (as it is Weigh Day), I found I gained 1.1 pounds. Now I know it's not that bad when you're trying to maintain your weight, but I only lose about a pound a week, so it's as if I took a step backward one whole week. Crapmonkeys.

I'm trying to lose as much as I can before ACen so I won't look like a fat white lard as I'm cosplaying Near, so this is a little aggravating. But it's not the first time I've gained weight on this diet, so it only means that I need to work harder this coming week - and absolutely no splurging.

I've been on a diet for 12 weeks now, and I've lost 18 pounds. So I guess its a little more than 1 pound a week but no more than 2. I still have 24 more pounds to go before my goal of 120, and I'm hoping to lose it all before the beginning of my college years. I'm currently at 144.8. Can I do it? O the suspense! I haven't been skinny since before middle school.

Well anyway, I need to fulfill the other role Sunday plays and "celebrate" Cram-All-My-Homework-for-the-Weekend-into-One-Day Day.

Rest in peace, weekend fun, I mourn for thee.

Just Life

So today I asked my mom if I could sleep over at Alyssa's friend's (Sarah) house on the day before ACen, which would then make transportation easier for everyone. It's not like I don't know Sarah, we're just not all that close (though I'd like to know her better). I've been to her house a couple times, also. Well my mom said no right away. Wouldn't even give me an answer until I repeatedly asked "Why?" like a whiny little kid. Her reason: she didn't like me hanging out with college kids. That makes me want to go shoot baby seals. 1) I'm only about 3 or 4 weeks away from graduating, making me a college kid also. 2) Alyssa's friends have done nothing to make my mom worried about hanging in their company. Excuse me while I go bang my head against a wall.

...
I feel a little better now.

So by this time I was getting just a wee bit stressed (to those of you slower people, I'm under exaggerating), but then she says she'll talk about it with my dad and get back to me. Whatever, fine, I'll move on. I mention to her that we still need to see last week's Doctor Who episode as well as this week's (yes, even my parents are nerds), but she reminds me that she said we can't watch them until I finish the math homework I was behind on from being sick. That does it. I am both offended and angry.

To put this in context for you, I have straight A's. I'm not in the least bit (well okay, maybe a little) worried about getting in my math homework before it's too late to get credit. I've had good grades ever since like.. well forever. But I've done especially well this past year. And now she thinks I need to have some kind of incentive/threat to get my homework done?! Does she not notice how hard I work every day to get to where I'm at now?! I'm one of two people graduating with distinction for crying out loud! Wow I hate mentioning my grades because it looks like I'm bragging, but I'm angry, which means I don't much care about anything else right now.

So I storm off after telling my mom how I feel and throw my own little teenage temper tantrum. Sitting on the couch curled up in a ball, my mom comes next to me to play the understanding parent. I tell her there's only room for one on this couch. She leaves immediately. I freaking hate myself. Okay well not all the time, but right now I feel like a great big jerk. Here I want to get the adult privileges that come with my age, and yet I don't act like I deserve it.

Well my mom visited me just now and after complaining about myself I feel more tolerant of other people, so I accepted her this time. It was good, because she decided that since I am an adult (but barely in my opinion), she and my dad couldn't really forbid me to go to Sarah's house. Oh, and she said we can watch Doctor Who. My math homework continues to sit idling by, waiting to be done.

And I don't give a crap about it right now. xD

I can't stand people who complain about their lives all the time, so these kinds of posts will be kept to a strict minimum. And so I leave on a reflective note after a happy ending: Life isn't all that bad - just when it is.

Fullmetal Alchemist: Brotherhood ep 53

AAAAHHHHHHRRRRRGGGGGAH! It's at times like these when I wish I had read the manga rather than just watching it. I just watched the latest episode of FMA, which was wonderful, but now I think I'm going to explode from sheer desire to know what happens next. My hypothesis: Roy Mustang is Envy - not Hawkeye (I'm so proud of myself for knowing most people's names in this anime). Because.. they kinda make it look like Hawkeye is Envy, but I have one of those feelings I get when the show is falsely implying stuff. So I must be right. xD

Speaking of FMA, once ACen is past, I wanna try to get some earrings like Winry's, and then I'll get my ears pierced for the first time (I know, I just never really cared before), and then I'll have awesome ears like Winry's! I'm waiting until after ACen because I know when you first get your ears pierced you have to wear the earrings for a while and I don't want that to interfere with my costumes. I also don't want to have to deal with them at ACen, since I'll be brand new at this weird earlobe poking ritual our culture does.

Or maybe I'm just putting off the pain... heheh...

Thursdays...

I’ve always thought Thursdays are special. Not only is it the last day before Friday, the last night of homework (and the most intense), and the first day when we roll over the peak of the week—the half way point, but it’s also the day when Arthur Dent witnessed the destruction of Earth, as well as his little town house he had refused to let collapse. Ah Hitchhiker’s Guide, there is no word strong enough to describe your brilliance.

And now because of the series, every Thursday I think about Arthur Dent, and in every math class I have to correct my thinking before I write “42” for every answer. And every once in a while, I contemplate the very existence of the Restaurant at the End of the Universe, and how the problems with time travel work out so that the restaurant doesn’t have to be the size of a small galaxy in order to house every person from every planet from every point in time, when I realize that it’s just a fictional story, and the restaurant can’t exist anyway.

I reality. It kills the imagination, and yet inspires it at the same time. What a depressing contradiction. ...now I feel like Marvin.

Pizza + Firefly = Happiness

The other day, my parents left to go… wow I don’t think I ever even asked or cared where they were going. Well anyway they were gone for a couple hours, and that’s all that mattered. So my brother (he’s 19) and I were left home alone to fend for ourselves for dinner.

We had kinda done this tag team system in the car on the way home, taking turns going back and forth convincing my mom (she was driving) on why she should pay for us to get pizza delivered. We won, and so we ate pizza and watched Firefly, conveniently starting it after she left (I was supposed to be doing homework). Speaking of that pizza, she didn’t have cash so she borrowed from me, and I just remembered that she hasn’t paid me back yet…


So anyway Matt (my brother) has already seen every episode of Firefly like twice or something, but he wants to watch it again with me, which is really nice of him. Matt and I usually keep to ourselves, and it’s only been recently when we started interacting with each other. It used to be mainly me annoying him, so our relationship hasn’t been what it could be.

So that night was kinda important to me, even though I ended up staying up late trying to finish the homework I neglected for our little brother sister time. But I’d say it was well worth it. And I got to see a really awesome show that I think every nerd, or any person in general, should see.

It also makes me want to go shank the moron who cancelled the show. You know who you are, Mr. Firefly Squisher, and your days are numbered. You obviously never saw how Firefly escaped the glass jar of TV mediocrity and illuminated everything that is good and wonderful in this dark world …with its glowing butt juice.

So the moral of this story? Nerdy shows bring people together. Stuff like this is happening all the time, which just goes to show that us nerds aren’t always wasting our time watching nerdy things—just most of time we are—but every now and then a nerd session turns into a social occasion, and we build and deepen our relationships that might otherwise not exist without the aid of mutual interests. These kinds of relationships can never be fully understood by a non-nerd, as they are woven on the very fabric of geeky obsession and maintained by an ability to identify with not only the characters in the story, but through that relation, with fellow nerds as well.

That, and don’t ever cancel a really awesome show, or the nerds’ll kill ya.

ACen Update

Wow just when I thought everything was going to be okay, Diandra’s mom calls my mom and talks about ACen and now everything’s not okay. My mom told her that she didn’t like how I was into anime, and apparently her mom took it as anime is completely evil and Diandra shouldn’t go to ACen or even read anime in general. Uber crap. So now I really don’t know what’s going to happen.

I know Diandra’s mom thinks that we have some kind of obsession, and she could be right, but it’s not taking away from our schoolwork or anything. So at this age, I think she should let us decide for ourselves how we’re going to spend our free time.

Diandra and I both think it might be good if I talk to her mom, seeing as how I might be a little more aggressive and persuasive since she’s not my mom, so I don’t have to worry about getting grounded. Don’t get the wrong idea; I’ll still be respectful, but she might listen to me more since I’m not her child… yeah… So now I’m going to come up with bullet points on why she shouldn’t fear anime and hopefully our discussion will be productive. Or better yet, she won’t need my persuading because she said yes anyway.

…crap I better start on those bullet points.

Asperger Syndrome

No, I don't have Asperger Syndrome. But I heard somewhere that it may be common among geeks, so if you're enjoying listening to me ramble on about anime, then maybe you've got it. Common symptoms include poor social skills, attention switching, communication and imagination, and an exaggerated attention to detail. A notable character from anime who has this syndrome is L from Death Note.

So if you want to know if you have it, there's this online test I stumbled upon that you can take.
http://www.piepalace.ca/blog/asperger-test-aq-test/
I scored an 18, meaning I'm as asperger-ish as an average man. Crap, does this mean I act like a man? I guess I shouldn't be too surprised... Although I feel like I fail as a geek a little, because I didn't score higher. But hey, at least this means I've still got hopes for my social skills! xD

Then again, the test doesn't guarantee accuracy.. :/

Anime... Thing at the Mall

So I bet you’re dying to know how my day went on Sunday. Regretfully, Diandra could not make it, but she continues to have high hopes for ACen. I really really really hope she's right. I realized on Sunday that not only will Diandra suffer if she isn't allowed to go, but many other people will as well. I'll obviously suffer (and probably die) for reasons previously mentioned, but also because my mom wont let me stay in the hotel room Alyssa bought for everyone if Diandra isn't there with me. My mom would have to drive me back and forth, an hour there, and hour back, every day. There are so many practical reasons why I would not be okay with that, including the fact that on Saturday night there's a rave that lasts well into the deep hours of the night. If my mom's driving, she's not going to let me stay there for very long.

But the biggest slam in the face for everyone else (meaning Alyssa's friends who go to ACen also) is that the cost of the hotel room shoots up. We're all splitting the cost, but if Diandra and I are cut out of the picture, everyone else has to make up for our share. I'm a little amused by the fact that not only do I really really want to go to ACen, but also I'm obligated to go as well. At least the financial problems will help with Diandra's battle for ACen privileges. Ah, and in case you were wondering, Alyssa's guy friends have a separate hotel room. We be good children.


But anyway, back to what happened on Sunday. So just Alyssa and I drove to the mall in our Akatsuki Sakura (me) and female Naruto (her) outfits thinking about how ridiculous we're going to look if no one's there for the anime... thing. Alyssa had a normal looking orange skirt with a hand-made Naruto jacket that looked like a vest with a bad fashion sense to a normal eye. My costume involved an Akatsuki snuggy (Yes I have one! xD Yes it's awesome!) wrapped around my waist and an Akatsuki beanie hat with regretfully no pink wig underneath (or maybe that's a good thing considering the circumstances). And then I wore my Sakura cosplay with it. One guess as to who was more worried about looking like a freak walking through the mall? Yep, it's me. Hey, it takes some guts and confidence to walk through the mall with a dog hair covered black and red blanket strapped to your waist!

So of course, as soon as we step out of the car, Alyssa unzips her jacket to reveal a very awesome looking Charlie the Unicorn t-shirt, rendering herself even more normal looking. Wonderful, not only do I look like a weirdo who doesn't get enough attention, but I don't have someone to look just as retarded as I do next to me (you're not a freak when you've got freaky friends!). I ignored her comments about how she'd rather not be seen with me right now and we walked rather quickly (wonder why) through the mall to find F.Y.E. Oh Alyssa, why couldn't you have found a parking spot closer to the store?!

Successfully avoiding eye contact with everyone in the mall, we made it to F.Y.E. and stood outside the store contemplating whether to go in or book it back to the car and keep our little moment of nerdiness to ourselves and never speak of it again. We walked in and headed straight to the anime section. That is, of course, after getting stopped by an employee who encouraged us to sign up for the cosplay contest. We figured, why not? and signed our names. THEN it was off to the anime section, where we saw two Akatsuki members checking out the Naruto accessories. A much needed relief came over me, but it was short-lived, because as we approached, I noticed that they were significantly shorter than myself. Middle schoolers. Crap. Ah oh well, might as well say hi.

Alyssa, by this time, had become very shy and very unwilling to go anywhere near the two little Akatsuki midgets. I finally gave up on pushing her toward them and turned to a presumed comrade of theirs and commented on how I liked her shirt. It had L from Death Note on it. It was awesome. Our two groups eventually warmed up and began to converse about favorite anime and how we were all going to ACen. I wonder if I'll see them there..

Oh, and one of the Akatsuki people was dressed up as Tobi, so I got his (actually it was a her) picture, because Tobi is awesome. Then there was an anime trivia, and there wasn't a single question about Naruto, which is ironic kinda because we were all dressed up as characters from Naruto. So I tied for second with the Death Note shirt girl, and Alyssa won (yay go Alyssa!). I didn't even expect to do as good as I did, because I have a really hard time remembering names. For example, when I'm discussing Bleach with Diandra, I'll say "I really like Chibi White Hair-san and Mr. Straw Hat Guy!" She's finally given up trying to educate me in the art of knowing the captains’ names.

So anyway, Alyssa got a 10 dollar gift card, but I got a 20 dollar gift card for winning the cosplay contest! Although, that's probably due to the fact that the only employee who knew anything about anime hadn't seen Naruto, so he probably voted for the person with the most stuff on. Plus, I was wearing at least three things that were bought from F.Y.E., so maybe that factored in, I don't know. But nevertheless, I was very excited, and decided to use it to buy an L pillow (looks like L's symbol). I also bought a box of really yummy almond pocky, and it's probably now my favorite kind of pocky.

Oh, and they were handing out Mello (from Death Note) action figures, which I was also very excited about. I felt really sorry for Diandra though, because Mello's her favorite character.


So that was my day! Very worth it, even if there was hardly anyone cosplaying, and Alyssa and I agreed we'd be there for the next one in 3 months.

The Ramblings of a Weird, Slightly Socially Awkward, Math Geek, Gamer, Anime Freak, All-Around Nerd

Wow okay this is weird. Never really blogged before... Ah I think I can get used to it..

So anyway um... hi. I'm Rachel, I'm 18, and I've always wanted to see what it would be like to have a blog. So here I am.


I have a lot on my mind.. but the biggest thing is ACen. It's short for Anime Central, and it is in about a month. It's an anime convention with a crapload of people just like me who love anime and its hard to explain so if you've never been to an anime convention you wouldn't understand. Well okay, maybe you would, but go google it or something, because I don't feel like explaining.

Anyway, I went last year with some friends, and it was awesome, and that was only for a day and we didn't even do anything, so this year it's going to be ten times more awesome because we're going to stay there for the whole weekend and we're going to go to panels and shows and whatever else the crap you do at anime conventions and wow this is a really long sentence. I think one of the big reasons why it's so appealing (besides the fact that you get to dress up as awesome anime characters for a whole day) is that I really feel like I belong there more that anywhere else. I've never really been very confident in making friends, but when I'm at ACen I feel like I already know everybody. I don't need to worry about people thinking I'm a freak for liking what I like, because they all like it too! I just feel... accepted. That's something I've always longed for and only found with very few people in very few places.


In case you're interested, the first day of ACen my friend is going to be Matt from Death Note and I'm being Near. The second day the same friend (her name's Diandra) and I will be Luki (her) and Noki (me) from Dogs: Bullets and Carnage. The last day another friend is joining us and we're being the purple, red (Diandra), and blue (me) links from Legend of Zelda: Four Swords.


Ah, speaking of our costumes, I have to buy some yellow contacts for our Luki Noki costumes pretty soon. We still need to sew everything for that costume too... my other ones are done. And it's the Luki Noki ones that we are most looking forward to. You have no idea how excited I am right now just thinking of it. And I just went to Diandra's house yesterday to cut our teal wigs for the costume. They turned out pretty well. We've never cut hair before, but I think we did a pretty good job.


Oh, and tomorrow I'm going to an anime... thing at F.Y.E in the mall with Diandra and Alyssa (she introduced me to ACen) and we'll be cosplaying and I'm hoping it'll be pretty awesome. I'm a little worried about walking around the mall looking like anime characters, who don't exactly dress normally, but if I'm with other abnormal people, I'll be more comfortable with it. Except that now Diandra won't know until tomorrow if she can even go because her mom suddenly decided that she doesn't like this whole anime thing Diandra seems to be into. Diandra's been watching anime since she was in 8th grade. She's a junior in high school now. And so close to ACen! If she can't go to ACen... wow I don't even know what I'll do. She's like my best friend and all our costumes are coordinated with each other's.

But anyway, maybe I'll blog about it tomorrow and let you know if she came to F.Y.E. and what happened at the mall and all that jazz.