Cranky. Old. Man?

Exam: DEMOLISHED. I finished in HALF THE TIME and that's even after I DOUBLE CHECKED EVERYTHING AND LOOKED UP SOMETHING IN THE BOOK TO MAKE SURE I DREW THE DIAGRAMS RIGHT.

Seriously. I am shocked and EXHILARATED. If I don't get at least a B on that exam I will be SHOCKED. TAKE THAT THERMODYNAMICS.

Man, I studied TOO MUCH, too.

Laaaa, life is good. Now to ah, make the flow chart for that one class and I'm golden!

SERIOUSLY SO EXCITED.

~Cendri

But a fun Monday, for the most part. Prolly because I haven't gotten all my test scores back yet. XD

So things!

- Yuletide signups! I participated for the first time last year, and ah, all my prompts got filled (because I'm awesome) and I got write something I was totally unprepared for, but it still turned out a little awesome. So I offered more this year (mostly movies... I watch too many movies) and requested some really random stuff. So we'll see!

- Failed my math test. Well. I'm still not entirely fucked, considering that I might have a few more points I can talk the prof into for a D. Which is better. I hate math. All I need to do is pass and I can be done with it. Oy.

- It's warm! WONDERFULLY WARM. I am all dapper to match the wonderfulness of the warm.

- I'm attempting to keep up with some level of readingness, so when I found an mp3 of the audiobook for The Perks of Being a Wallflower I decided to download it. I'll link anyone else who's interested.

- I am debating whether or not to review several albums that have come into my possession recently. I mean, my opinion is just one thing. Hrm. Oh, well, if you want to skip over them, you can, I suppose.

- I have gathered stuff for several of the tiny packages I'm sending out to people! Which is excellent. I should have everything together soon, depending on how school treats me.

- Home of my Nano project. Which as I mentioned before isn't a story in any traditional sense, but an epic poem. Because I'm weird like that.

- I have awesome instrumental music to go with my poem. I don't know why this is so exciting, but it is.

Word Count: N/A!
Outline Quality: Uh, sorta have an outline. I suppose it's somewhat useful.

Scene Worked On Most Recently: I: Thelonius II, Pawn of Black
Scene to be Worked On Next: The end of this "scene" and then II: Sela, Bishop of White
"Research" of the Day: I had to recall a specific chess move or two, so ended up reading too much. XD
Quote of the Day:
Pike in hand, he marches with the sons and daughters
Peasant-folk of sturdy character
Laid down their plows and their trowels
To sharpen axes instead.
Novel Poem I Think I'm Unconsciously Channeling In Terms Of Style And Exposition: "The Waste Land" by T.S. Eliot, or probably some Blake. I'm really into them. XD

Character I'm Eager to Write: The White Queen.
Character I'm Finding Difficult: No one thus far. Then again.
City Much More Lifelike Than I Expected: N/A. I haven't gotten into that yet.
Best Thing I've Been Able To Meta With Today: The nature of pawns. I think I may have to come back to them again and again, because I quite adore the pawn structure I have going.

Today's Goal: Finish Part I. I think it's doable. Particularly considering where I've left poor Thelonius II.

~Cendri

Oy... fuck math class. I'm so utterly frustrated with that BS. Someday, tests won't mean what they do and we'll find a way to honestly track understanding--because I'm not dumb, it wasn't like I didn't put the work in, I'm just really bad at tests. Thermo was around the average. Aerodynamics was just below the average. I'm alright in those classes, then. Just need to keep it up.

Haven't gotten my Dynamics test back yet, not sure if I want to. XD No, I'll find out eventually. I know the average was crappy, so chances are I'm alright.

It just pisses me off some days how much of my skills are judged by arbitrary numbers based on tests of skill that actually have nothing to do with the profession at all.

So how about some good things, to balance this out, because hell if I'm going to let this gnaw at me:

- I got behind on my Gunnerkrigg Court, due to school and just flipping very quickly through my RSS feeds, but I caught up today. GAMMA AND ZIMMY ARE BACK. They're some of my favorite minor characters from that comic, so. Also, Kat. Kat is fab. I actually can't think of anyone I don't like in that comic and the plot's continuing to be twisty without being frustratingly so. I needed that today.

- Old Man's War killed off my favorite, but I knew he was going, because of probility. Still, ;_;. I hope you get to see your constellations. I should know better than to read in the dining hall, I have a tendency of yelling at stories while I'm reading them. Way to go Scalzi, for avoiding most of what was starting to frustrate me about science fiction. Also, it's nice to mostly have characters that are mentally over sixty; the hangups of people my age and younger in narrative wear on me a little. I am not youth obsessed. I'll take an Auschenbach (sp?) over a Luke Skywalker any day.

- Got an email this morning, appears that Caricature is going in indianconundrum (well, it's getting handed to an editor at least, I think this means I'm in). And I get an illustrator (well, they all do, but my inability to draw ALWAYS makes me excited, since how I write is much like plotting out movie scenes). I've got four chapters, and judging by the release times, it'll be a while before they need any from me, so I have plenty of time to work out the issues with my Paladin chapter, etc. Considering that this was my first serious attempt at an original universe of any sort, I'm a little excited. XD I'm also freaking nervous, as generally two people read my own stuff, so.

- I need to make more time in the day so I can read more. Almost done with Mrs. Dalloway and 3/4 through Old Man's War actually finished that one, and have "Wine in the Wilderness" (that's not even a book, it's a PLAY) to finish. Plus the last half of The Time Traveler's Wife. Can't I just suspend everything so I can fucking read for a while? Honestly. Or can I just skip the next ten years and get to the good part? *sigh*

I need some more sunlight. Going outside. I'll be less bummed then.

Done.

With.

Finals.

Thank god.

Also? Having a final at the airport, in the late afternoon, on a windy day when the busses don't run is the suck. A WIND GUST ALMOST KNOCKED ME OVER. I think this means I need to gain weight. Operation: Gain Weight is this summer now.

~Cendri

Saturday: Complete unproductivity, text message from The German, finding of a martini bar and making me feel better.

Sunday: More unproductivity, paper's introduction and basis written.

Monday way early in the morning: a breakthrough

Dynamics class: Jersey Highwind did a Dutch Roll dance and had too much fun with Simulink. Title is a quote from him. There was much laughter, and wiggling of plane models. And getting rid of wiggles in graphs. Engineering is serious business, clearly.

Am disconnecting myself from the internet and getting out of my room tonight, like I should have over the weekend, but didn't. Because I suck. News to follow.

( this is what the week looks like now )

Mentalbreak:

So I accidentally pirated the movie Hard Candy which was surprising good (in a OMG WTF THRILLER) way and reminded me one of the things I love about certain modern narrative/characterization devices: what you are sympathizing with at the moment can be unsettling and cause you to evaluate things. Especially when good and bad aren't obvious. Lust, Caution managed some similar things, so it's kind of interesting that movie trend. Ah, movie theatre work, you have finally corrupted me fully, not only do I look for certain directors/producers now, but I actually analyze camera techniques and script flow. Damn you.

Productivity:

Got all shit done. Yay! Took some Red Bull and a break to watch said movie, because the brain can only take so much. My room, though, is a complete mess now. Entropy increases with stress (which works with thermodynamics as stress tends to mean more heat which means more disorder hence entropy).

Exam:

Still kind of powering down from that. I think it was hit or miss with the multiple choice and the true-false, and I think I might have rocked the picture section more this time. The essay can go a couple ways, depending on if I sounded too hippie or not. I somehow managed to write an essay which was supposed to be about comparing the advancements in the cotton industry to the precision tooling of metals and their impact on industrialization. I ended up with some crazy tie between cotton, fashion, and consumerism to the nerdy interchangeability of machine parts. And how technically they both had an equal impact as you cannot have one without the other and so forth. Experience has taught me that when given two choices, always pick the third. And sound smart.

Oh god I think this means I'm overeducated now.

I think now I will pass out and hopefully not wake up to having failed that exam and thus have to wait a fucking year to finish school. Happy thoughts! I will now use my sheer will to make that not happen. But sleep first.

~Cendri

P.S. In other news, I am increasingly being pissed off by eco-yuppies. $90 is a STEAL?! Surely you jest. Creating an eco class totally reverses any good your little self-wank ecologism does, you (editorial you) realize. I get far more awesome-vibes seeing "made from recycled materials" on average, cheap, mass-produced things than your special snowflake nonprofit blech.

Sorry, pet peeve. Eco-yuppies and enviroweenies just really get my goat, especially considering that I've been trying harder to ease my consumption habits.

More than halfway done with my exam. REALLY. I AM SHOCKED TOO.

And the Project Rungay boys just put up the most hilarious clip evar. Seriously, MY DAY HAS BEEN MADE SO MUCH BETTER FOR THAT.

Omg, Tim Gunn is just so proper. <3!

Ahem, back to work.

~Cendri

Have not broken the chain on exercising yet! (and have determined to take weekends off, so I don't die completely) Running and walking is hella better when you're the one determining your workout. Sure, I'm not doing anything SUPER HARD (and yet, I am still a little sore... maybe I'm harder on myself than I thought) as compared to say, when I ran Track, but doing things at MY pace is way better than having a coach yelling at me. Since I'm not a long distance person, I do intervals. Really, fancy machines (except I use a treadmill when I can, so I can get readings on my heartrate and keep my speed fixed) are not needed.

Two tests this week, one's a lab practical (and Visual Basic is probably the easiest programming language KNOWN TO MAN, thank you again for the recommendation, Justin), and the other is a fifty question multiple choice. In say, a math class multiple choice would be doom. But it's my pilot lecture course, and half of it is stuff I've spent the last four years studying. Still, I've been going over the areas he said to review. Because that's awesome and responsible and stuff.

Eating breakfast, even if I don't want to get up, no matter what, has probably been THE best decision ever. Seriously, if you feel like the suck, eat breakfast in the morning. Or you know, regularly. Chances are your insomnia is partly because you're hungry after dinner. TRUE FACT.

imaginarybeasts's new theme is basically genderswap. Considering the people I know that read this, want an excuse to write awesome original fiction? Yeah. I missed "Science and Magic" last month because of well, EVERYTHING HAPPENING, so hopefully I won't miss it this round. You won't see the signup post, since you have to be a member (which is open, I think) to read it, so. But you will see the wonderful back issues.

I should probably do a little writing, but I've laundry and study and a homework assignment that kind of snuck up on me. XD I have ideas on the things I'm working on writing-wise, just having a slightly hard time finding that zone that I hit. I may need to do a little sewing to get my braincells flowing. XD Almost done with the second sleeve on the jacket! Once that's done I mess with the closure and possibly make it a little asymmetrical. Who knows!

Well, I know of ONE thing I could probably write without too much trouble. But to start the laundry first. Yeah.

~Cendri

P.S. Since I noticed several of you have been putting up your WIP/To Do/Projects, I actually have been keeping up recording mine. And I just updated it yesterday.