David Bowie look-alike Spotted at Northgate Mall

I love it! You can always find the strangest people shopping at the mall. It's not quite Walmart level here in Seattle, but it's definately more unique. Case and point: it is possible to find someone with David Bowie hair working a makeup counter. I wonder how much glitter she sells before heading home to the Labyrinth. :)


- Posted using BlogPress from my iPhone

A Bad Start to an Amusing Day

So, the tail end of last night and this morning were probably moments of karmic backlash from past lives. I mean, how else do you explain all the crap that seemed to just keep happening? I dunno, but for now I'm filing it under the same category as why celebrity deaths seem to happen in groups of four. In other words: mysteries that I'm too lazy to look into.

Anyways, the reasons I counted it as a really crappy day are:

1) My friend (almost 22) just told me she's dating a 40 year old. She said she was using me as a "sounding board" for when she tells her parents. Here's my biggest thing: how do you respond to the fact that your friend who is essentially your age is dating someone less than ten years younger than your own parents! Seriously! And I'm not a good person to act as a sounding board, especially for shit like this (i.e. relationship stuff), nor will I react anything like your parents will (who will probably snarl and yell and lecture) because I know, from experience I might add, that I have no control over your actions and have no room to lecture on dating when I, myself, am not/have not. I know there are a million versions of the dating "age rule" for acceptable age-spans for you to date (the one I'm thinking of is your age plus or minus 7 or something like that). Whatever rule you use. Dating someone nearly twice your age is pretty much always out. I really don't want to get drawn into the exploding drama that will happen when she tells her parents (because it will be awkward and tense and, well, drama) so, hopefully she'll take my "I honestly don't know what to say" as the "I don't want to be involved" I intended it to be.

2) When someone says they want to "drop a subject" please leave it be and don't keep bringing it up or those people involved in the subject (see above in 1). I don't want to hear about your 40-year-old's costume ideas that involve leather pants because they inevitably lead to envisioning my not-so-much-older father in leather pants and scars me for life. I don't need any help adding to my mental trauma, I do fine on my own thank you very much.

3) My shower knob-control-thingy fell off when I was trying to take a shower last night. I mean it just fell off. I was trying to pull it out to turn on the water and it just came away in my hand. I had to take a "ye olde shower" with a bowl of water and trips to the sink. Maintenance said they'd be by today to fix it, its still broken.

4) Because maintenance said they'd be by to fix the shower, I spent an hour last night cleaning my apartment so that I don't look like a complete slob to them. I could have been sleeping at 10:30 last night, but no. Not until 11:30. Because I needed to do dishes and shit.

5) I spilled scalding hot cocoa all over myself and my desk this morning which was horrible in 5ways: I nearly killed my laptop, I destroyed all my notes/drawings that were on my desk, I burned my lap, I was late to work because I needed to clean up the spill, and I didn't get my morning caffeine fix. That last bit was the worst. I need caffeine to function at work and without it i'm just a little bit testy and more prone to snarling and lashing out at people when they irritate me. I was able to counteract the snarling, raging beast that is uncaffinated Allison by playing nothing but classical music at work. This also nearly put me to sleep a few times, but I decided inattention was better than biting the head off my boss or the graduate students if they decided to treat me like an idiot child. I think I made the right choice though.

Despite all that horribleness, today ended up being somewhat amusing. Of the three of my friends I sit with in Parasitology, only one showed up today so we spent class working on Sudoku and crosswords instead of listening to lectures of Trypanosoma bruci gambience (parasite which causes African Sleeping Sickness). Art Theory was full of quotes and discussions of country music during which I admitted to developing a southern drawl or twang whenever I listen to extensive country music. Plus I finally was able to label what I am in terms of the music I listen to: music schizophrenic. I seriously am too. I really wanna swap iPods with someone to see their expression when they put on My Top Rated playlist and hear it go from HipHop/Rap to Country to Emo to Indie to Metal to Classical to Classic Rock to J Pop and so on.

One more mini-rant before I go onto quotes: people, I have no problem with you wearing your pajamas to class if its before 10 AM, but at 3 PM you should have real pants on. Seriously. Its not that hard to do, nor are jeans uncomfortable. Also refrain from wearing short-short pajama bottoms to class. Especially if you have cellulose legs. Its really unattractive. And insane when we were only in the 50's at highest today.

Quotes (all from Art Theory):

"Ah, the British Museum. Its one of those huge ones...full of things they stole." - Prof. Andersen

"Every time you use 'incredible' in your paper you lose credibility." - Prof. Andersen after 20 minute lecture on our first writing assignment

"...and then someone poured beer over a Van Gogh or something." - Prof. Andersen on Parties in Museums

Student: "Most people who listen to it and love it smoke weed everyday."

Prof. Andersen: "And we have so much of it around "

"Stoners typically aren't rich."

Also, hearing your Prof going off on a tangent about Dancing with the Stars is both amusing and somewhat disturbing especially when it begins to sound like gossip.

Bus Conversations: Cougar Gladiators

I've come to the conclusion that buses are the best places to overhear amusing conversations. Today one such conversation happened as we passed Beasley Coliseum and the rather exhuberant driver announced it two boys (despite the fact that they could have only been 2 years younger than me at most) had a very, very entertaining idea:

"We should use the coliseum as a coleseum and have gladiator battles."

"Not like American Gladiator battles either. We'll use swords and lions and shit."

"Split classes into two teams and have them fight for their grades."

"Only the survivors pass the class."

"You'd battle your TA's and shit."

"Haha! [mimics sword in stomach] 'Noooo! I was a graduate student!"

Oh, college. Only here can your prove without a doubt that boys will remain boys until they're at least 25...

Busses, Doctors, and Warhol...Oh my! (with bonus material!)

A whole bunch to write on, because a whole lot has amused me in the past few days so...prepare yourself for some random thought dump-age! Here we go! List away!

1) Pullman Transit

I rode with the friendliest bus driver I've ever seen the other day and he amused all of our class-weary minds on our way to "apartment-land" even as we were all crammed in rather like sardines. He even suggested crowd-surfing someone up to the front of the bus to get him off. It was fun. I also heard a suggestion that may actually be a good one: Pullman should get double-decker busses! It would help with the whole 'too many people' thing at rush times (essentially before every hour). What made this suggestion even better was the comment that followed: "Because its so much fun stumbling up the stairs of a double-decker when you're completely

shit-faced." Oh Pullman, how classy your inhabitants are...

I should also include one of today's "Overheard in Pullman" as its very fittign and amusing.

"Have you ever been with me before? I drive fast as shit!" - Said the wild-eyed transit driver to

the group of freaked-out freshmen

2) Parasitology

Parasitology on Weds was a movie day, which you know is ALWAYS great. Until you remember you're in Parasitology and what that will mean in a special entitled "Parasites: eating us alive." Yup, lots of graphic moments and gory descriptions. The worst thing was not the worms moving around on MRIs or X-rays or whatever, it was seeing people walking around with Elephantiasis and legs 3x the size of their other one. Gah. The whole special was overly melodramatic and the audio didn't always match the video, but the best part which made me start giggling at a horribly inappropriate moment was this one quote:

"...Until one of the doctors remembered his med school training..."

Because it took how many days and people dying of a parasitic infections for a doctor to remember the training he got for, oh, I don't know...his job?! What was he going off of before? Magic 8 Ball predictions..."Is this a virus? Hmmm...'Reply hazy, try again'." Gawd...

3) Art Theory

We covered Andy Warhol on Weds in my Art Theory class and I was reminded why I love him so much. He's so quirky. He was also one of those people you just have to smile at when he descrbes his philosophy for art as: "Art is everything, and everything is art." He's also such an interesting person because he accepted everyone for who/what they are and at the same time shook up the art world by making art out of things/of things that, before then, weren't art. I found out he did commercial advertisments and was proud of them. Hell, I would be too! Take a look!

Yeah, We're doing Roy Lichtenstein on Friday. Will probably have more then. :)

4) Animal Development

I've apparently taken too many uper-devision science classes for this lab. I had a quiz today and was overthinking absolutely EVERYTHING! Its a good thing I caught myself and dumbed my answers down to a 300 level class (although I think it should be 200 level...), so I think I did good.

A mini side rant here: If you're listening to music on your iPod and you have the volume up high enough that I can hear the song clear enough to sing along with your music perfectly from 20 feet away...you might want to turn it down a smidgen before you...I dunno...blow out your ear-drum. Oh. Wait. Too late. Try getting better ear-buds, kid. On a related note, AC/DC isn't really good pre-test music. It just made me wanna watch Supernatural (New episode tonight!)

5) My zany friends

A few random moments here:

Road trips to Lewiston/Clarkston to buy a shit ton of beer for party this weekend draws some pretty interesting looks. Especially when you've got an entire cart full of beer. :) I've also sold my soul...I went grocery shopping in Wal-Mart [sigh] I'm such a supporter for human rights... Another fitting "Overheard" here:

"I'm not gonna drink Busch Light! What do you think I am, a freshman?" - How cosmopolitan. Where's your monocle Mr. Sophistication?

Tiffany is going to color-code her children so she has no problem telling them apart (at least until someone cough*me*cough teaches them to swap clothes just the screw with their mother's head). She and I are also very likely to have twins.

Little Lou the cat is crazy and has a bag fixation: If you offer him a bag he'll crawl inside and lay down so you can tote him around in a grocery sack. Hillarity ensues when he manages to get a leg out of a hole and tries to escape/defend himself from tickling-tormentors. It also leads to the ultimate perfect moment quote: "Well, the cat's out of the bag now..."

6) Maitenance

They're still working on the hot water tank right now (banging and clanging around), so I still don't have water. It will be done tonight though, John (my landlord) said so when he poked his head out of the laundry room to answer my question.

Bird Parasites

Just had a moment (Okay, several) while talking with my friend Leah on AIM

Leah: Dude, there's an OWL!

Me: Outside?!

Leah: Yeah!

Me: Picture?

Leah: Can't see him. I can only hear him.

Me: Oh, it is dark...

Leah: Yes. Yes it is. Where have you been?

Me: I've been cramming bird parasites into my brain.

Leah: Lol.

Me: That came out wrong...

A few quotes and randomness for a Monday

Should be studying Parasitology right now, but I can't focus. Nor can I watch the movie I have stuck in my head (Gladiator) because I don't own it. So instead I'm posting a few quotes I collected over the past few days and a few amusing moments.

Quotes:

"It's been a while since I've stalked a famous person." - Prof. Andersen

"Like cutting butter with a chainsaw." - Classmate quoting Theater Prof.

“As much as I’d like to, I cannot sustain myself on Ben and Jerry’s, so my reasoning takes over and I eat broccoli.” – Prof. Andersen

“It’s like…an out of body experience…with art.” – Me on Immanuel Kant’s ‘rant’ on beauty

Texting with friend sitting two seats over:

Courtney: I am freakin’ tired

Me: You’re not alone.

Courtney: I know. Lol. Everyone’s dozing off.

Me: Yeah. Apparently brain eating amoebae aren’t enough on a Monday.

Class Rants:

Yeah, so we were covering two of the most disturbing amoeba species I’ve ever heard of. Screw Entamoeba histolytica, these two have no reason to keep us alive.

Naegleria fowleri – this is my newest reason in a LONG line of reasons I will not go swimming in fresh water. Besides just hating the feeling of the lake/river bed, I’m now aware of a free-living amoeba that can be present that will eat your brain. Yeah. As if that weren’t enough, it only takes 5-6 days to kill you and is very difficult to diagnose. I know it’s rare and all that rot (approx. 200 cases worldwide, 81 in USA, 6 in 2007)but the thought of an parasite getting to my brain because I got water up my nose and an amoeba decided to shimmy up the olfactory nerve to munch at my grey matter is more than enough to keep me away from lakes/ponds/rivers for…pretty much my entire life. The fact that it has a 95% fatality rate simply reiterates that.

Acanthamoeba – because just having shitty eyesight and having to deal with contact lenses isn’t enough stress already, now there’s an amoeba that will gnaw its way into your eye if it gets caught under your contact lens. Perfect. Good news: this is primarily from people washing their contacts with tap water or handling your lenses after playing in dirt. Bad news: supposedly it’s also a risk when you shower with your contacts in (do this all the time). Perfect. Thank you so very much Parasitology, I’m going to become a paranoid hermit because of you. Especially because graphic photographs seem to be a must for every parasite we look at. Ugh. What’s more, this doesn’t only go after your eyes, and given the other possibility, you’re going to hope you only get this in your eyes. Aside from Acanthamoeba keratitis (the infection of your cornea/eye by Acanthamoeba trophs/cysts) Acanthamoeba may also cause a granulomatous amebic encephalitis, which has no known treatments and is thus 100% fatal. You don’t even need to translate this whole thing to know what it does. All you need to know is what the last word means: encephalitis. That means it attacks the brain. Enough said.

On that cheerful, disturbing, note, I’m going to study their less-dangerous cousins, the Entamoeba species and other lovely disease causing parasites like the Leishmania species and Plasmodium species (cause malaria). Oh how I love my chosen major right now...

Studying After A Long Day Doesn't Work Well

Especially when you're studying with a friend. And studying biology. When you're both Bio majors. Why you ask? Because you're tired and your twisted mind starts making everything horribly hillarious even if they're deadly parasites. I did learn several interesting things today however!

Studying paraitology and reading out facts for each species leads to some very realizations:

"'Undulating' is a dirty word. In the same sense that 'moist' is a dirty word."

Shortening parasite names to species names allows you to humanize them and remember them just like you remember the douche-bag in class who always argues with the professor:

"donovani is a sandfly licking, leishmania spreading, fiend!"

Dramatic pauses and emphasis are always welcome when reading dry descriptions of parasitic diseases:

"...and may lead to...DEATH...in 2-3 years...if untreated."

"Has 100% mortality...if untreated."

Parasitology makes me never want to leave the Pacific Northwest ever because of all the parasitic diseases in the tropics and in Africa and in Central and South America:

"If I ever see a Kissing Bug, I'm going to flip out..."

"Where are they native?"

"Well, they found this one in Texas."

"Never going to Texas."

Two of our classmates probably think we're insane now given how loud we were laughing (I actually had tears forming) but that's ok. We already knew we were.

You know you're in a boring class when:

1) You see more than 10 laptops in front of you on facebook

2) You're counting on 2 hands the number of people in your vacinity who are doing the crossword/sudoku in the Daily Evergreen

3) You have to nudge your friends to keep them awake

4) Only about 1/3 of the class remembers to do the online homework assignment

5) Nobody takes notes

6) Neither you nor the TA sitting beside you is paying any attention

7) You spend the entire class period working on plotlines for novels with said TA sitting next to you

8) You doodle very elaborate flowers in the margin of your notes. Complete with shading and individual seed details.

Needless to say, today was boring.

The highlight, however was getting home to discover my order from Threadless came in and my digital cameras from my dad for my thesis project came too (they're so cute!)

Browncoat day and amusing art class quotes

Yeah, I was definately reading Plato this morning at 9. That doesn't work to well, let me tell you. Before 10:30, thinking about philosophy causes small portions of your brain to die as they try to comprehend abstract concepts. I had a rater amusing look on my face when my boss came to give me more work though.

My new short hair is lovely, although I had Shepherd Book hair this morning which prompted the start to much Firefly/Serenity awesomeness on my facebook:

Status: "Did a rather impressive imitation of Shepherd Book's hair this morning. :) it tried to eat my head."

Kess: "Haha! Did River come running in, then ran away screaming? Cuz that would be hilarious"

Me: "Sadly, no. It would have been awesome though. :)"

Leah: "well, even if river didn't come running in, was Zoe at least a LITTLE taken aback?"

Elizabeth: "Well, obviously river was hiding from the hair, hence her failure to make an appearance."

Andrew: "Haha, excellent! I won't scream/laugh if'n ya got fresh strawberries to share!"

Me: "Glad there are so many browncoats out there catching my references! :-D"

Kess: "Shh! Don't let the alliance hear you"

Me: "But we can't be killed by them because we're so very pretty. We're too petty to die. :-D"

Kess: "Besides, they'd never make it past Vera"

Me: "Or our public relations specialist. Even if he's lacking Vera."

Other amusing moments came in my Art/Art Theory class as we're talking about Plato's background before we got into his philosophy on art:

"You leave the tribe, you're on your own!" -Prof. Andersen on Denmark

"Trust me, or my goons will break yours legs!" -Prof. Andersen on Democracy

Glad the day's finally over though, time to load some Parasitology pictures on the Facebook page, read some e-mails, and chill.

P.S. Gym Class Heroes concert in October will KICK ASS! I'm so EXCITED!

Labor Day Weekend!

Everyone loves three-day-weekends! I think I've gotten more sleep in the last two days than most the week! It feels soooo good!

I've also been very impressed with Syfy this weekend, they've had some fun marathons to watch! Because I have a weakness for supernatural shows about cryptozoology and hunting ghosts. So the day long marathons of Destination Truth (always amusing) and Ghost Hunters (good backgrounds while I write papers). Its a good lead up to the SUPERNATURAL PREMEIRE!

Went to the first Cougar Football game of the year, had fun with friends and getting back into the traditions of the year. Sadly it wasn't enough, although we did play better than we did last year. Hopefully we won't suck as much as we did last year!

"E. coli! You Bastard! Where are you?"

Parasitology lab was amusing thanks to me and Tiffany's banter. According to this, I'm a special type of genius. E. coli is an evil hiding bastard. I'm a fountain of all knowledge. E. nana is rediculously small and hard to find. I did manage to take a few cool pictures through the microscope though.

Entamoeba histolytica trophozoite

Entamoeba coli cyst

Also, Amazon may have redeemed itself by shipping Supernatural season 4 today. I will get it before the season 5 premere, so I'm content. I'll be able to have my pre-premiere potluck afterall! :D

Dear Amazon...

Dear Amazon.com,

I would greatly appreciate it if you honored pre-ordered DVD's release dates and shipped them to arive on the days they're let out. I have now found out that I won't recieve Supernatural season 4 until several days after season 5 begins. This is not appreciated as I was planning on having a 2 episode recap party before the premeire on the 10th.

I am now looking for an alternative way to procure the last disk of season 4 for that day.

See if I order season 5 from you when it comes out...

Supernatural Season 5 Promo

Well, the CW just made me go all rabid-fangirl with a minute-and-fifteen-second promo for Supernatural season 5! HOLY CRAP! EXCITED! SEPTEMBER MUST COME QUICKER!

In other news Supernatural season 4 comes out on September 1st, so any other fans out there be ready to head out and grab it, or pre-order on amazon.com and get like 40% off and have it delivered to you (take a guess what I did) :D

New Semester!

New classes! Yay! I'm only taking 3 real classes this semester:

Parisitology - looks like it'll be a really interesting and fun class. It'll be a pain in the ass, I'm sure, seeing as spelling counts and the exams contain at least some practical questions.

Domain of the Arts - This looks to be an...interesting class...I've never been a big fan of looking deeper into art because I'm always worried its going to ruin my appreciation of it...just like my biology major has ruined my appreciation for the simple things in life. I can no longer eat anything without considering what's in it and what possible parasites it could have...[sigh] I enjoy art too much to start only seeing techniques and such, but then again I survived AP Studio Art decently...

Animal Development - I've already taken at least the first half of this class, which was mostly review before, so I know all this already. I'm hopeful the proff is better than the previous one.

In other news, SEB is kicking ass already. Tomorrow is Cougfest with White Tie Affair and other bands out on the mall! I'm EXCITED! Although I have to watch myself buying merch because the Bookie already forced me to spend lots of money on books i've been waiting for....books are one of the biggest things i splurge on...

Well, I'll try to update this more often than I have been, which means I need to start writing down fun quotes and taking pictures...TIME TO CHARGE MY CAMERA!

I Live! [Photos from Vacation]

So, its been a while...so, to catch up... Working my ass off at both jobs, excited for classes to start (strange, huh?), went to Cannon Beach on the Oregon coast for a week and relaxed, trained my puppy up a bit, and flew back to Pullman in time for a lovely heat wave.

So, now a small photo dump from vacation!

1. Cannon Beach at dusk

2. Romeo and I in front of the North Head Lighthouse

3. Oh, Long Beach... Where such a store actually exists and makes me just a little sad

4. Romeo chilling in front of Haystack Rock

I'm a Chef! A MASTER Chef!

I've been cooking some AWESOME meals!

California Rolls--rice wasn't sticky enough to be on the outside, still awesome:

And homemade--as in from scratch--pizza:

New Shirts!

I just got two shirts from Threadless! They're both adorable!

<--This one's "How to Identify Flying Objects" and it has a key:

|

 ---->

The other one is the rabbits from Monty Python and the blood splatter shows up in UV light.

|

\/

Crack Doodle Bunny...

LolCelebs spawned a crack doodle bunny in the Naruto-verse. [sigh] I really need to do something about their reproduction. It leaves lots of random doodles everywhere...

"Scooters are not for escape..."

^_^;

Hello Summer!

Well, I'm officially done with class for this semester! Its SUMMER! And to kick things off, I went and saw Star Trek. It was AWESOME, and I never really watched the show before!

In other news, my thesis proposal was ACCEPTED! :D

Now time to relax a bit, enjoy frozen cookies, and watch some Planet Earth.

New Apartment!

Well, I'm all moved into my new apartment and absolutely exhausted. x_x

Here are a few pics:

Here's the living room, its a bit messy still.

Here's the dining area off the kitchen.

The kitchen

My desk area in my bedroom

The rest of my bedroom (besides the closet)

Right, well, I need to study now!

New Favorite Hobby

I find that the majority of college students are very amusing. I've taken to putting in my iPod ear buds and sitting outside major buildings on campus (like Todd Hall, the CUE, the CUB, or any of the main libraries) and pretending to read or study while listening to the ridiculous conversations people have.

One thing that irritates me is how much the word "like" is used today. I know I say it from time to time too, so I can't gripe too much, but seriously? Multiple times a sentence? [sigh]

I'm just taking a break from studying CVA to write this and let my brain absorb information.

I'm also picking up my keys to my new apartment tonight and am moving in this weekend! I'm excited and will post pictures once I'm all unpacked AKA sometime next week.

TAKE THAT UPPER DIVISION BIOLOGY!

HaHA! Just finished and sent off my last lab write-up! I am so done with 2/3 of my labs! Now I get to focus all my energies on my Comparative Vertebrate Anatomy practical exam tomorrow night.

Sadly, my brain has kinda shorted out and I'm taking a break to check my e-mail and let everything sink in. I was in my anatomy lab until 10PM last night studying, and will probably have a late night tonight too, since they close the lab tomorrow morning to set up for the exam. 

Just to prove how much I've been studying CVA, I've been doodling the cat cardiovascular system in the margins of my notes and writing down the 12 cranial nerves in their order (olfactory, optic, oculomotor, trochlear, trigeminal, abducens, facial, auditory, glossopharyngeal, vagus, spinal accessory, and hypoglossal). Blarg. On the upside, my TA taught us an easy way to remember the order: "On old Olympus' towering tops, a Frenchman and German viewed some hops." I realize it doens't make much sense gramatically etc, but it stuck.

Now, to distract my mind from sheep brains and shark guts, time to people watch in the B&N cafe in the Bookie. :) 

and Dead Week begins...

Yup, that's right. It's Dead Week already. I'm ready to curl up and die already. I've got an exam on Thursday...my most frightening one... my practical for Comparative Vertebrate Anatomy... Please cue the dramatic music.

But, since I've been lazy, here's a quick review of things I've done and stuff that's been happening:

1) I've fed a Lion at Cat Tales in Spokane
2) I've walked in the Pullman Relay For Life (1-3AM and then caught a ride home to warm up),
3) I've helped set up and work at Springfest
4) Spring has appeared and Mother Nature has decided to remind me that pollen can be used as a weapon
5) SWINE FLU! (zomg...40 cases in...all of America...I'm shocked) Yeah, my anatomy lab was laughing over the people freaking out, because we're bio-geeks and all already wash our hands enough and have minimal concerns over diseases that don't, say...make you bleed out your eyes or cause horribly painful deaths.

Pictures will come soon.

And Spring appears!

The sun is out and its a bit warmer than normal! Yay! And its the weekend! Lots of chillaxing to be done and I am starting right now with awesome Paranormal show marathon and some good food. Its time to cook up some angel food and have a good dessert!

A quick review of the week before I get to work baking: I was surgeon for my Bunny Surgery for lab this week and did AWESOME! I was even complemented by the people from the Office of the Campus Vet which was very nice and a bit of an ego boost. I did accidentially knick the right cephalic jugular branch but clamped it and tied it off quick. I had to invert the bladder out of the body and it popped out and was AWESOME! Our urine samples were the only one in our section that was pure urine with no blood!

Ok bio nerding over! 

I've got all my advising done but was told by the Honors college to submit my thesis proposal by this coming Friday. I really must thank them for giving me a week to get it done... blargh.

Ok off to bake!

Dear Winter

Dear Winter,

As much as everybody loves a little snow every once in a while, this is rediculous. It's spring now, so please stop pretending it's January. 3-4 inches overnight is not a good treat for anyone at this point in time, especially on the weekend when we all have to get out and do things.  Mom's weekend is next week, so if you would be so kind as to not appear that weekend, I'd much appreciate it.

Thank you,

A Smith

P.S. You'd better not show up in June again this year too.

[Fangirl Squeal]

My god, I didn't realize how much I still loved Naruto until this morning. Plot line has been kinda over the top dramatic, and I'm definately looking forward to seeing the main character kick major ass, but as soon as Yondaime Hokage appears at any time--be it flashback whatever--I let out a fangirl squeal. 

If anyone read's Naruto, be sure to check out this week's chapter. SERIOUSLY! :D

OneManga.com is a good place to read any sort of manga you could wish for for free without downloading. :)

I'm a Heartless Freak

It's been forever since I posted, but I've just been stressing out and dealing with shit (Roommate moving out and exams). I'm still dealing with shit (2 exams and a paper due tomorrow) but I'm at the point beyond caring. 

Anyways, I'm definately a freak with no remorse. I was in the CVA lab today for 6 hours straight studying cat musculature and, I kid you not, I started humming Sweeney Todd songs to myself while chanting "Digestic, Mylohyoid, Geniohyoid, Hyoid, Sternohyoid, Thyrohyoid..." (P.S. All throat muscles in a 1 inch radius of each other). I'm a freak. I've got no remorse. PETA would burn me alive if they saw me playing around with my cat during class (I make it wave at people when they walk over). I've no respect for my dead cat. 

At least I haven't fallen asleep in the lab like my friend Courtney did (yes, Kess, I do know another Courtney). She woke up at 5 at her table next to her dead cat when her boyfriend called her to find out where she was. 

Oh, and one of the cats has been named Zombie. It's eyes are open a bit, it's tonge is out a bit, there's enough fascia still on it that it looks grey-ish, and one more thing...oh yeah, all the skin/fur up to it's forehead has been removed! This includes the ears. I didn't know this until I was running through its anatomy and my lab partner flipped it up to look at the shoulder's and it's face stoped 5 inches from mine. Yes, I let out a "HOMIGOD!"and jerked back a bit. It looked like it was going to eat me.

Yeah, time to finish a lab report and study for Ecology exam tomorrow morning. After that, review anatomy and then bed! Yaaay!

Bunny Surgery: the 6.5 hour lab

My feet hate me. I was standing for almost 6.5 hours STRAIGHT while I was Assistant Surgan for lab today and our first bunny surgery.

Things I learned:

-Prayers for campus-wide blackout extentions are never answered.

-My lab coat's sleeves are stiff from juices and liquids from my anatomy dissections I really don't want to think about

-'Monty' is a very fitting name for a red-eyed, white rabbit (kuddos if you get the reference)

-Ketamine knocks out a rabbit very quickly

-The College of Biological Science isn't too worried about people stealing said ketamine and don't lock it up between labs aside from locking the lab.

-My lab group works very well together

-It is very easy to get a rabbit into a literal comatose state withing 2 hours using carcinogenetic anensthesia 

-Weezing bunnies (because of mucus in lungs/airways) sound like quietly screaming children

-the best rubber gloves are kept in upper division Biology labs (I should have stolen a bunch and shoved them in my pockets for anatomy!)

-Blunt dissection in living animals is terrifying

-Tracheas look like a vaccum hose (flexiblue tube with rings)

-Jugular veins are HUGE 

-Carotid arteries are pretty small but pump a massive amount of blood

-Carotid arteries are easy to knick with clamps 

-I am quick to react to "Oh shit!" situations in surguries and am quick at clamping off knicked arteries.

-Our group's 'problem' with the carotid paled in comparison to another's in our section which involved a literal fountain of blood, a TA getting a new blood splatter pattern on her coat (yes, I said new), and a student getting blood on their face

-the vagus nerve is pretty big and easy to identify

-the depressor nerve is thinner than the thread we use to tie tubes and lines in place with (regular sewing string)

-cutting nerves and stimulating ends and injecting epinepherine and acetylcholine caused interesting reactions in heart rate and pulse.

-clots in arteries can be broken up by massaging them

-My lab manual insists that we don't 'humanely euthenize' our rabbits after lab, but instead 'sacrifice the animal' -- I feel like I've made an offering to some cult or something now...are bio majors a cult?

-Flatlining on DOS computers looks so much lamer than it does on the machines in House

-everyone in my lab has a pretty sick sense of humour and we saved the screen that showed the death of Monty

-Lab started at noon and went until 6:30.

Time for bed.

P.S: I've got one more day being 20.

P.P.S: WSU Acoustic Concert with Dustin Kensrue tomorrow night, tickets still available, $5

Bio Geeking and Salamander skinning

Had my lecture exam for CVA today and I was able to answer everything (a step up from quite a few people). This was followed by me finishing up skinning my shark and cutting out a chunk to see deep hidden muscles. I also skinned my Necturus (AKA Salamander Larvae). BTW, preserved Salamander smells HORRIBLE (especially when preserved in Ethanol) and feels worse. 

OK, Bio geeking over. 

Still hate Mam Phys and The Douchebag. His explanation of how muscles contract made NO sense. I'll read the book to figure it out. 

I've got a 6-8 hour lab tomorrow I really don't want to go to. Blargh. Everyone wish me luck on my first real rabbit surgury.

PS - 3 days until my 21st b-day. :D 

81st Academy Awards: And the winner is...

Here are the results of the Oscar's tonight (plus) :

Best Supporting Actress: Penelope Cruz - Seriously love the dress. Love her speach too--even if I only caught 70% of the spanish part.

Steve Martin and Tina Fey--Love you both, your banter is glorious

Best Original Screenplay: Dustan Lance Black for "Milk" - a great speech. Very nicely done.

"Don't fall in love with me"

Best Adapted Screenplay: Simon Beaufoy for "Slumdog Millionare" - 

Jenifer Aniston and Jack Black - Love the banter "Oh yeah, every year I do one Dreamworks picture and then take all that money to the Oscars and bet it on pixar."

Best Animated Feature: WALL-E

Best Animated Short Story:  La Maison en petits cubes

Best Art Direction: Curious Case of Benjamin Button

Best Costume Design: The Duchess -YES! I always pull for old European vintage. 

Best Makeup: The Curious Case of Benjamin Button

Best Cinematography: Slumdog Millionare 

Best Live Action Short: Spielzeugland (Toyland) 

LOVED THE MUSICAL NUMBER!

Best Supporting Actor: Heath Ledger in "Dark Knight" - I seriously wish he was still alive. He had such a career ahead of him. I'm very glad he got this, although it was kind of an unfair pitting for the other nominees.

Best Documentary Feature: Man on Wire

Best Documentary Short: Smile Pinki 

Love the action clips they used for the short. :D

Best Visual Effects: The Curious Case of Benjamin Button 

Best Sound Editing: The Dark Knight

Best Sound Mixing: Slumdog Millionaire

Best Film Editing: Slumdog Millionaire 

Jean Hersholt Award: Jerry Lewis 

Best Original Score: Slumdog Millionaire

Best Original Song: "Jai Ho" Slumdog Millionaire

Best Foreign Language Film: "Departures" 

Best Directing: Danny Boyle for Slumdog Millionaire - Extra kudos for imitating Tigger upon recieving your Oscar, Danny. :D

Best Actress: Kate Winslet

Best Actor: Sean Penn

Best Film: Slumdog Millionaire

Aaand that's all folks! :D I've got work in the morning and class after! Time to go get some rest!

81st Academy Awards Red Carpet

Watching the Academy Awards as I type and critiquing the fashion with my roommate. I'm apparently very amusing mid-fashion-rant. Here's what I think:

Mylie Rae Cyrus - I like the dress! It's nice and classy! The only thing is, it looks a little too old for her. I can't tell if it's beading or sequins or something else. I hope its the former. I hate sequins.

Freida Pinto - color works well, the only thing I can see that I don't like, is the single sleeve. Its a bit too form fitting 

Taraji Henson - Oh My Goodness! It's GEORGEOUS! Not so impressed with the necklace, but the dress! It's WONDERFUL! 

Melissa Leo - Like the color, don't like the change between bodice and skirt. Her hair...why?

Viola Davis - PREETY! Color! Love the skirt! Love the broach! Love the lines! 

Heidi Klum - Her hair is plastered to the top of her head, I don't care if it's 'modern' and 'origami' like...its strange. 

Michael Shannon - He looks... kinda drunk and exhausted and... his head is very square. His hair is very...scruffy... I don't think he looks like he should be on the Oscar red carpet.

Sarah Jessica Parker - "barely mint" ? What kind of a color is that? she's almost popping out of the bodice. Honey, the girls aren't happy with you. Don't like the belt either. Eye makeup=extreeme. 

Amy Adams - interesting lines... large necklace too....is that glass? Something's up with her eye makeup...love the hair in the back though.

Amanda Seymour - I like it, but the bold color washes her out a bit.

Robert Patterson - Twilight boy,  do a proper styling for a formal event. And shave the 'stubble'. 

Natalie Portman - Very simple, the spots of flitter/sequins are odd. I LOVE her hair though!

Beyonce - When is she not georgeous! the bottom is a bit big for me, but it all comes together great!

Queen Latifa - Hmmm... I wish I could get a better picture of her dress. 

Anne Hathaway - I do like this! the waist is off in my mind, but the rest is great!

Angelina Jole - She's lovely (as always) in a simple black dress! Even with the wierd psudo-cape in the back, I won't diss it at all because she's Angelina Jole and she'll very easily kick my ass if she want to. Love her. Love the dress. Love the hair. Love the green earrings! 

Penelope Cruz -  very simple jewlery, very simple dress. Almost wedding dress-ish. Lots of rouging and lots of texture. AND ITS VINTAGE! 

Kate Winslet - Oh hun, the waist on it makes her midline look puffy. I'm so sorry. I love the bodice shape though. the black decal on it though...not so crazy about it. Nice simple, light makeup and I love the earrings! Her hair is very elegent too!

Bunny Sugury and Exhaustion

So I just got back from my first rabbit surgury lab, which luckily didn't take too long. The rabbit went under rather quickly and after 1.5 hours and lots of work by the anesthesiologist we were able to get to work. I won't get into details as there was some blood and muscles being torn. The wierdest thing was when I got the stethescope and listened  to the heart beat while we eunesthetized the bunny. I was actually surprised at how calm I was there. Next week we're doing our own surguries and I'm the assistant surgan, so we'll see then. 

I am so freakin tired right now its not funny. Too many lab reports to write this week. X_x

B-day countdown: 9 days until I'm 21. :D

Not Dead

I may be close to it, but I'm not dead yet. I'm just swamped with classes and labs and lab reports and really want to sleep. I'll try to compile a dump of fun quotes and moments for the past week soon, but for now, Happy Darwin Week! 

Man Vs. Food: Seattle!

I just saw a preview for this Monday's Man vs. Food in Seattle! They're going to Beth's Cafe (LOVE) for him to eat a dozen egg omelette. :D I love Beth's, its so much fun to go eat there, I may watch to see if I spot any drawings on the wall I recognize. 

Random bits to end the week

Well, here are a bunch of things I collected and was too distracted/exhausted to post at the time they happened. 

1. The Snuggie Quote

I was listening to a radio  station Thursday morning and got one of the most hilarious quotes ever!

In refference to the Suggie: "In the comfort of my

 home, where no one can see me, who cares if I look like the Lord Voldemort from Bed, Bath and Beyond." 

Its so True too! Who the hell buys a blanket with sleeves?! Its called a sweatshirt! Please, put one on and stop making my eyes burn. 

Speaking of burning--if you've seen the commercial, when the "family" is sitting around a campfire roasting marshmallows and looking oh-so-irritating, all I can think is "Why are you wearing a blanket on the side of you facing the nice warm fire?" quickly followed by "Please let one of them catch on fire. Please!" 

2. Pet Peeve of the Week: People taking their shoes off in the class.

Seriously, why? Do your feet hurt? Probably not because those are some pretty comfy looking shoes, buster. The only time I can understand this is if someone wears ultra-feminine shoes (i.e. 4" stilletto heels) and then we know their feet don't smell bad because they're barely wearing shoes anyways. If you're wearing slip on loafers, you have no excuse. Keep them on. Especaially when you sit next to people and make it very obvious what you're doing.

3. Ecologogical Concept of the Week:

Did you know that there is an Ecological Dark Side? It's called the International Lumbar Industry. And, yes, they do have cookies. Made out of the spleens of boy-and-girl scouts and unfortunate forest critters that fell under the blades of their chainsaws. (I honestly just wanted to say spleen here. I'm pretty sure they used the heart. Possibly brain and liver as well. Yummy.)

4. High Tech in the Lab!

Yup, my Mammalian Physiology had the most high tech equiptment on the campus! I mean, we have our state-of-the-art DOS computers which like to crash if you breathe on them wrong. This week we whipped out some spiffy EKG equiptment and found that it had been asembled by the Hess family from "Signs." 

How, you ask? Well, since electrical signal insulation isn't really that important --CoughCough--, the manufacturers decided to wrab the wires in the poorest excuse for wire insulation me--electrician's daughter--has ever seen. How does the Biology department decide to deal with this? Perhaps purchase working equiptment? Working equiptment that requires an operating system above DOS so that new computers are needed as well? Of course not! Instead its "Here's a few rolls of tin foil! Go forth TAs and Biology students and use it for White-Trash Insulation!"

Cheap bastarts.

5. Bone Crossed

Awesomely glorious new book out by Patricia Briggs called Bone Crossed, 4th in the series of Mercedes Thompson books -- possibly my new favorite series. Any author who can use the line "And much awkwardness ensued" in a book to actually further plot is my hero. Not to meantion the fact that Ben rocks. And Mercy. And Adam. And Zee. And Stephan. Warren. Kyle. Sam. Jesse. Darryl.  Ok, they all rock and the fact that its set in Washington state (in the Tri-cities, only ~2 hours from my present location).  I love my urban fantasy novels.

Go forth and read it! Start with Moon Called! I demand it!

Now I'm off to wallow in misery and study for my four exams next week (Mon-Thurs). [sobs quietly in corner]

Today in Texting & an Break for Dancing.

Well, technically this happened yesterday, but I was too dead to post it last night. My lovely older sister texted me in my Ecology lecture at around 10 AM, after an hour of talk about climates.

Sister: Have a great day today!!

Me: I'll do that. :) Proff is lulling me to sleep.

Sister: Lol imagine him in a tutu

Me: Oh god. My mind will never feel clean again. I hate you. Gah.

Sister: Hehe. You are awake now at least!

Yeah. I'll never be able to look at my proff again without shuddering. 

Speaking of shuddering, my crazy proffessor, The Douchebag, decided to prance in front of the class to entertain us while he stalled for time. I think he was going for tap dancing, but it came off as seizuring. Too bad it was better than his "jokes".

Transformers 2: Revenge of the Fallen

Time needs to pass quicker...June must come.

Is that english...or some secret code?

Professors should try their best to have legible handwriting, especially in any sort of of physics/math-ish class. I ran into a friend of mine, Liz, this afternoon and she was bemoaning the handwriting of one of her engineering professors. We had an amusing conversation.

Liz: "When he write 1/2 sigma pi* It looks like 1 over a drawing of something."

Me: "Like 1 over puppy-dog?"

Liz: "I wonder what the value of 'puppy' is?"

Me: "That would depend on whether it is a pure-bread or a mutt."

I Am Not Your Maid

Dearly loved roommate,

Please for the love of all that is holy scrape extra food off your plate into the trash and rinse off your plate when you're done. Guess what this does? Keeps me from getting in a foul mood spending 20 minutes trying to scrub grease/sugar/unknown food particles off of everything you've thrown in the sink. Also, if you're going to cook and dump greese down the sink, follow it up with plenty of hot water. It keeps the sink from clogging. 

I am not your maid, nor your mother and I don't appreciate the LOOKS when you randomly had friends over and the kitchen is gross because I "Haven't cleaned in a long time." Try again. It was last night, and it was perfectly clean. If anything, your sloppy habbits of leaving sticky knives and splattered sauces/juices/random liquids on the counters and not taking out the recycling for WEEKS (coughwinknudge). 

If you're embarassed about the state of the apartment, you can clean it up. Unlike you, I am not home all day with nothing to do. In fact, I'm up at campus attending classes, labs, and working two jobs. 

I love you to death my dear, but some things are just not cool.

CLEAN UP AFTER YOURSELF!

Love, A Smith

PS: Beware, another cleaning rampage this weekend. This time you'd better not just sit back and watch.

Is it...is that...DOS?

Why is it that at a university known for its biology departments, especially ones that filter into the Veterinary School, the physics department gets the new computers and those of us in Biol get the old DOS computers?! I mean, seriously, trying to take a heart rate on a computer you need to type obscure commands to get it to work. At the very least most Physics majors are computer savvy enough to honestly know what to do. Of my group, I think I was the one who understood the program the best--which is sad seeing as my DOS experience in the past was playing Oregon trail and a math game involving math (Turbo Math?) and stealing computer paper to draw on.

This lab is going to be...interesting... 

TA's kick ass

Especially when they're quirky Bio TA's who know their stuff and can explain it very well.

And when you get quotes like: 

"Botonists are creepy. They just stare at plants all day. Plants don't do anything."

Also, I am once again reminded why I loath one of my professors, henceforth referred to as the Douchbag. Apparently those of us signing up for a 300 level biology course don't know what "pre" and "post" mean, thus why the Douchbag slowly and horribly explained it in the context of neural synapses (which anyone who's taken a HS level bio course understands better than him). He is also apparently forgetting that one of the pre-reqs for this class is a passing grade in Cell Phys, in which we spent weeks on the little details involved in all these reactions he's bumbling over. The Douchbag is also apparently psychic and hates me because he meantioned one of my least favorite topics in Physiology: Second Messanger Systems. I spent weeks on them last semester and, oh, here they are again. Just to rub some salt in that wound.

Only good thing I can think of involving the Douchbag: he's totally getting his ass fired at the end of this semester. :D Happy days.

and while I'm on the subject of Mammalian Physiology: I need to remember not to scrawl notes to my friend in it because she apparently can't keep from laughing aloud in the middle of a silent lecture hall. I think the only reason we didn't get yelled at was because of my "I'm-paying-close-attention-to-your-lecture-and-am-very-interested" face was plastered on. 

And a final note for my dear friends in Seattle: I'll be home President's Day/ Valentine's Day weekend! (Huzzah Zoology Club trips to Point Defiance!)

Don't snap at friends

Just a quick mini-rant. Its common curtosy to not get snappy at friends trying to be helpful when you're in a bad mood, and if you react before you think: appologize please.

I have a weekly quota of self-pity that I tolerate and today filled that up. 

So, don't just whine about shit happening, do something about it. 

If it's financial and you have a job: pick up more hours. If you're short money now and need more, you're always talking about how much your parents want to help you.

If you don't want to stick your horse in a stall but want to see him: you have the time to go out and exercize him/turn him out everyday.

My lesson for the day: F-ing get over yourself and get shit done. 

[sigh] Sorry if I sound rather bitchy right now, but I'm firmly in the school of "Don't whine, fix it" and several people have whined to me today and I've tried to help and got snapped at.  But, unlike them, I showed restraint and didn't snap back. Hell, I even appologized for "not understanding."

This is an example of why I have so few real friends and "hate" people. 

...Who sent these?

We (my roommate and I) had flowers delivered to us the other day, which confused both of us. There was no reason for us to get flowers and it sat on the counter for a while and then I found the card.

It turns out it it was for someone else. Woops. Too bad it has our address on it. Therefore, its ours.

Its very pretty and is sitting down on our coffee table in our clean living room (I attacked the mess like a rabid maid and scoured it all away). I'll be sad when they die, but we'll have a nice glass vase. :D

'Free time'? What is this 'free time' you speak of?

Yeah, I've just confirmed something I was afraid about. I will have no time to do anything this semester. Classes are just the beginning.

I tell people I'm taking 12 credits and then moan that I won't have time to do anything and they look at me wierd. So I tell them all 12 credits are for lab classes. The most straightforward of which is my Ecology class with two lectures a week and a single lab. No biggie there, its simple and interesting, although the proff is a bit awkward, I've dealt with worse. I get to listen to what creates climates and how species survive, etc. and then play with expensive technology in lab. Yay.

Next is Comparative Vertebrate Anatomy, with two lectures a week and two labs. This is going to be a hell of a lot of memorization but it will definately be the best class of the three. I may be a bio nerd for saying so, but playing with animal skulls and vertebrae is fun and the three disections we'll be doing (shark, cat, and sheep brain) are going to be awesome! We're talking about DINOSAURS now! :D

What will not be awesome will be Mammalian Physiology, where the teacher can't teach and is stumbling through slides in a painful way. I'll get around that and read the book. Lab, however interesting it will be, is going to cause me a lot of stress. I have confirmed today that experiment-labs can take 5 hours to complete and that for 3 experiments we will be using live rabbits. We'll be measuring out and adminstering anesthetics and at the end, euthenizing the rabbit. There are four possible positions you can take in your group for each experiment: surgan, assistant surgan, anasthesiologist, and note taker. I'm pretty sure I'll be able to do all of it, once I'm shown what to do. I'll probably just be a little quiet after lab. 

On top of this, I've got two part-time jobs (which I need to replace or I will go insane), I donate plasma twice a week, and I am an active member of zoology club. 

I'm doomed.

What are we going to do tonight, Brain?

Enough said, really. :D

What was I thinking?

Three Biol classes at once? Really? I didn't think that one out all the way, I can tell you that right now. The semester's only been in session for two days and I'm already thinking, "Crap, how am I going to survive?" 

Quick run down so far:

1) Mammalian Physiology--Ok, this class would rock if the teacher could actually teach. As it is we have to scramble to interpret his scrawled overheads as he whips through them at warp speed and trys to be entertaining while he stumbles his way through the lesson. The topic is really interesting, lab will suck ass and be emotionally draining and will probably keep me from keeping a rabbit as a pet for the rest of my life as they are the subjects for our experiments. 

2) Comparative Vertebrate Anatomy (CVA) Lab--Oh. My. God. THIS IS SO COOL! Right off the bat I know I'm hooked. I come into lab, not sure if we'll actually have class seeing as its the first day and we haven't had lecture yet, and there are full skeletons on the desks. The TAs are cool and relaxed and cracking jokes at us and we're playing with cat spines on strings so we can learn all the bones and their rediculous names. Despite all the memorization that will be involved and the near requirement to come into lab on our own time, this is going to be awesome. I hope lecture tomorrow is just as good.

3) Ecology--Ok, this is going to be a kinda BS class in my mind. That doens't mean I won't try or anything, but seriously, we spent the day defining Ecology, population, community, ecosystem, and biosphere. The proff knows his shit and it looks like we'll be having a good class here. Yays!

4) Ecology Lab--A serious BS class. We had to learn how to critique scholarly journals and started an experiment which involved counting out duckweed sprouts. Seriously? In a 300 level biology class you don't think we know how to read and comprehend and rate scholarly journals? Gawd. We will, however, take "field trips" out onto campus to do...stuff. [shrug] whatever.

Overall, I've got a lot of shit to do all semester and, adding working at my two jobs to the mix, makes me a very busy girl. I've also got to work on my thesis proposal to get that finished up. Gah...

I'm off to drown my sorrows in ice cream and TV... 

Aaand back to school I go

Well, technically, I start class tomorrow. 

Minor detail, I know, but I just got all unpacked and everything and am battling a headache and decided "I haven't updated my blog in a while."

So, yeah. I'm back in Pullman. After a no-delay bus ride across state, where I read the entire time (Huzzah Pride and Prejudice) and noticed that the stick figures that adorned the ceiling escape hatch look like ninjas. 

Of couse as soon as I'm back in the apartment, I discover that the toilet is clogged and it took us --I kid you not-- an hour to fix it. (best part: Leah exclaiming "Its making favorable noises!" followed by a flush and a "WOO! VICTORY!") 

My bookcase is VERY full, thanks to x-mas gifts.

[sigh] its good to be back, but I'll miss everyone in Seattle. Expect a rant on my class tomorrow. I already know the teacher is an idiot, but we'll see about the class.

Happy 2009!

Happy New Years Everyone! 

Hope nobody's hurting this morning and that they got to watch the fireworks and had an awesome time! 

I was in a hotel room with a direct view of the spaceneedle, it was awesome! The one drawback was the crazy drunk man who ran around screaming racist comments and yelling "They've  got a sniper rifle *$#%!"

I'm not feeling 100% right now myself, but much better than I thoughtI would.

BTW, new favorite drink: Porn Stars (Blue Curacao and Sour Puss raspberry). Oh so much yum... tastes like candy... :)