Knee still works, paper is printed and ready to hand in (ooh, hope I didn’t need a cover page), nerves are all a-tingle, break is tomorrow, and I have two reasonably big projects and some Calculus homework to do over break… I honestly don’t think I’ll have another minute to relax until after finals.

Reminder to self: seriously, get that stuff faxed over.

P.S. About two weeks ago I smacked up my arm in archery and couldn’t figure out why. Well, the last of the bruise is still fading, and I figured out why. I was pulling with my arm, not my shoulderblades, and that threw me off enough to hit my bow-arm. I wan’t changing my stance at all, just the muscles I was using, and it made that big of a difference. I love archery.

So I’ve just been chilling out today, sitting around, and because it’s winter my knee has been stiff. Fine, fine, I stretch it out every now and then when I’m sitting so that it doesn’t lock up. Well. I just stretched out my leg and as I was lifting it something snapped. It hurts like you would not believe. I am trying really hard not to freak out, but basically whether I can afford the copayment or not I am going to see a doctor soon. About everything. Winter break is nice and long, plenty of time for followups and tests. I just have to deal with this knee for another two weeks.

There’s a feeling in the air - a chill seeping from the window, warmth purring from the heater. It’s crisp and dry except for the steam on the windows, pale shadows blurred but unmistakable. The world feels right, familiar for the first time in months. Yes.

It snowed.

Note to self: when tempted by well-crafted basketry, do not possess means of buying said basketry. Sigh. At least I’m done my Christmas shopping! Well, almost - need to buy one more present and two cards. Wait! I can make cards! I learned how to fold an awesome origami card! WIN IS ME. (Also the basket wasn’t that expensive, particularly for such an incredibly lovely design that I hope to someday imitate.) …Now I want to fold origami.

Today was not my most graceful day. I started out the morning by slipping on my rug and landing on my bad knee, proceeded to be late to Bio lab (it’s okay, the teacher was later), accidentally cut into the agawhatever gel when smearing HIGHLY CONTAGIOUS AND ANTIBIOTIC-RESISTANT STUFF THAT LIKES TO INFECT EYES AND MAKE YOU WEEP BLOOD but managed to not contaminate anything, then went to Archery where I shot awesomely but ah. Hit my arm about ten times. Through the armguard. I kinda shrugged it off - I mean, it hurt like heck, but I figured I’d just have a nice bruise like usual. Then I took the armguard off. I have a welt about 1″x2″ that is already purple and red and is also swollen and hurts anytime I move my arm or brush it against my sleeve. So I went to the health center just in case there’s anything one can do for such a thing other than ice it, and the wonderful ladies there gently suggested that I report it to Campus Safety. I laughed. I couldn’t help it, really - I’d just finished telling them that I got it in Archery just now despite my armguard and other safety equipment. I guess they’ve never done archery? But they gave me one of those neat chempacks, and I got to break it myself, which was AWESOME. It was like WHOOSH INSTANT COLD and that was exciting. XD So anyway, once it starts really bruising up, expect pictures.
I’m gonna see if I can donate blood today… And tomorrow is the Ten Thousand Villages sale! Oh and there’s that whole paper due on Monday thing. Whatever, booooring XD

Side note about how exactly archery went, cut because I figure most people don’t care:  (more…)

I am mildly obsessed with hair removal. This is because about 80% of my body is covered in hair, when the only part of my body that I WANT to have hair is my head. Part of my head. Not the part that is my face. Except for my eyebrows and eyelashes. Those can stay.

ANYWAY hair. (more…)

The Epic Saga of Crazy Awesome Math Teacher continues! You may recall that Crazy Math Teacher changed our class time for no apparent reason. We originally met M-W-F 10-11:10. Then he changed it to M-W 10-12. Now it’s going to be M-W 10-11:10, apparently because my class only has two days’ worth of material left, but three weeks of classes to fill. I am actually intensely thrilled by this - we’re obscenely ahead of the other classes, and it totally explains why I’m having a hard time, and do you realize the implications of this? Despite having only done Algebra for the last nine years, despite whipping along at a crazy pace, I am keeping up. It’s hard, yes, and there are still a few things I have issues with, but I am keeping up and getting most of it and successfully faking the rest. My notes on relative and absolute maximum and minimum can be condensed into two lines because I understand what I’m doing that well. For reference, I copy down absolutely everything, so my original notes on this subject take up six pages. I still kinda wish I’d taken Trig first, but man, I have done so well. I honestly don’t care if my final grade reflects this - I am doing awesome, and I’m proud of myself. ♥

Yesterday I was upset. In my quest to calm down and relax, I started with lolcats. Lolcats are nice, but they alone were not enough - I moved on to lolcelebs and gawked at Amy Winehouse. The lolWinehouse comments had a link to a video of Tina Turner doing a buddhist chant, which was quite nice so I started looking for more chants. But alas, New Age has stolen the simple joy of chants and stuck crappy synthesized music to it, so somehow I ended up listening to a “soothing waterfall” with “meditative music,” also known as “I played a New Age CD in my bathroom with the shower running and recorded it.” This made me want to listen to actual rainfall, which led me to a video of rain falling on a river, which - my god - was an actual good recording of rain on a river! So I went to the related website and found it to be good. End result: completely unrelated to lolcats, but somehow serving the original purpose.

With tracks like Rain on the Patio, Dreamstorm, Early Winter Wilderness, Gas Furnace, Sleepy Car Ride, and Birth of a Supercell, whitenoisemp3s.com is surprisingly soothing. The creator is a foley artist who developed tinnitus and found that background noise helped to cancel out the ringing in her ears. The full hour-long tracks cost money, but there’s sample bits that make a nice quarter-hour of soothing, distraction-free noise. I’m honestly considering splurging on Rain on the Patio. It’s the most wonderful sounds in the world - quiet crickets, rain on the roof, rain on the grass, the occassional distant murmur of thunder… There’s plenty to listen to in the track, but it can also be (as the site suggests) just white noise in the background. The other tracks I’ve listed here are also totally awesome, but I don’t know if I’d shell out money for them. Maybe Dreamstorm.

I liked reading about the method she uses for capturing sound - her rig has two mics, about ear-distance apart, so that it creates something very closely resembling three-dimensional sound. Or so she claims - it’s not quite like that for me, but still very nice.

In other news, I made a macrame watch band because my old one broke. I’ve never actually done macrame before, but I’ve got spirals, opposing spirals, flat sections, and weaving two different cords together. I feel pretty darn accomplished, and it also seems really sturdy. Looks kinda silly, because I am neither a hippy nor a surfer, but it entertains me. I kinda want to redo it so I can use the buckle from the old strap, but I ran out of hemp. Sometime I will hit up a craft store and spend a few bucks on hemp. (Hey, easy Christmas presents idea…)

Today is the day to feel hurt and angry, I guess. (more…)

The excitement and sleeplessness of the last week has finally caught up with me. I’m sure it doesn’t help that I look and feel like a punching bag - archery is awesome, but it hurts. Let’s have a list of hurts:

Pulled a muscle in my neck
Palm-sized bruise on left shoulder
Bruising (and blood blisters) on inside of left elbow
Bruising on left forearm
Blister on right hand
Strained muscles in right shoulder
And the usual assortment of bad toe, bad knee, gimpy hip, and headaches. I am pretty much a big human-shaped ow right now. But I’m shooting well! I got three out of six arrows in a one-inch clump today, with a fourth another inch away. The first and last shots were way off, though. I’ve managed to avoid getting a partner, so I’m shooting about 42 arrows per class - that’s 14 rounds of three arrows. By the 6th round I’m pretty much done, and I consider anything after that just strength training. By the 10th round I can’t really draw the bow. That’s when I slap my arm. I think I bruised myself through the armguard, don’t even ask me how that’s possible.

Trying not to think about my survey. Despite my attempts to not care, I really had high hopes for it, and while I’ve reached my minimum number of respondents… Is anyone ever really satisfied with the minimum? Especially in a project where I’ve already gone above and beyond. Ah well, my sudden lack of enthusiasm will actually make writing the paper easier. I won’t have that overwhelming need to make it perfect, just adequate.

I shouldn’t be so pessimistic, I still have a week. I can figure out other ways to get people to take it. And hey, life is awesome right now. Only a few more months! I can’t even imagine it. It still doesn’t feel real. I wish I could go to the inauguration, but the tickets are CRAZY expensive. I cannot afford $600-2k just so I can cheer like a lunatic.