roboppy.net

Sometimes I skip a day of writing thinking, "I'll remember this stuff tomorrow. No problem." And then the next day I realize that my brain is full of holes and I can't even remember my own name (right now, my name is...Poomie!).

But I'll try my best to recount what happened yesterday (by this time, the day before yesterday). I met Diana in NYC to get together and walk around. This is what people call "hanging out", yes? (Is it obvious that I don't hang out much?) We went to Soho to look at some interesting stores, Helmut Lang in particular. For whatever reason, a lot of the stores looked deserted besides an employee or two. It was a bit creepy so we ended up not going into a lot of the stores. It would have been fun just to look around since we obviously couldn't afford anything, but with just one other person in the store...eh, no. A few stores looked more like galleries (one was actually a Diesel gallery) and some other ones were dark and uninviting. Eh well, they're not really inviting people into them. I really liked the clothing in Barneys Co-op, but jeeez that stuff is pricey! I'd rather buy food. I don't think I should buy anymore clothing because I definitely have enough, and I'm not a fashionista. I have to admit that I like looking at clothes though. I pretty much go through all the clothing and mess up the nice displays, MWAHAHA! Okay, not really. I heard that in Europe people don't browse shops that way at all and it can be very hard to buy clothes because of the intimidating nature...don't suppose anyone could shed some light on this?

Soho feels like a weird place because a lot of the stores are the same ones in my local mall, but they just look nicer out on the street instead of a ridiculously huge mall. The main streets were crowded, but where we were walking around (Greene St?) wasn't. I like the cobblestone roads...they have a nice feeling.

After that we went to the East Village for some GOOD EATIN'! First I wanted to go to Treasure Trends, a thrift shop, to pick up some cheap shirts that I could possibly do stuff with. I got two shirts with some interesting designs, although I'm not sure what I'm doing with them yet. I'll make some kinds of skirts, I guess. We went down to High Vibe, a recently opened raw food store, and I went nuts. It's a good-sized store compared to other raw food places I've seen, and they carry just about everything (the only thing I wanted that wasn't there was kim-chee). I mainly bought snacks that I had never seen before, like stuff by Gopal's Health Food and Larabar. One of the yummiest things I got was a pack of chai raweos. They're a bit chewy and they have a pleasant taste...chai, I guess. :) The Larabars are really yummy too, and they have very few ingredients. If you ever look at the ingredient list for regular snack bars, they seem endless. I can't imagine eating those things, even if I ate cooked food. I've never heard of the Larabars before, but it'd be nice if they could sell those in Whole Foods and other regular grocery stores. I also bought a pack of raw nori because it had a good price (50 sheets for $30). And...eh, got some other stuff. My total ended up being quite a lot (eh, I won't say). I don't know if it's a waste to spend so much money on food...it's like eating my money. MM WASHINGTON IS YUMMY! Or not. But when I go back to school I'm sure I won't be eating all this stuff. Gotta get back to basics. But for now, I can indulge a bit, eh? The guy who owns the store was pretty cool, although I felt silly when he asked me for my e-mail address. "Neatoperson?" YES! I'm doomed with that e-mail address (I've had it for about six years).

Anyhoo, this store rules. Beside all the snacks they have (there are a few refrigerated sections that have nuts and oils and perishable snacks), there's a great selection of health related books. I'd think that any book you'd want about raw food would be there. They also have supplements, but you can probably get those cheaper somewhere else.

I decided that going to High Vibe was enough raw food stuff for the day, so then we went to Caravan of Dreams for dinner. it was a bit crowded when we got there, which was around 3 PM. I had a yummy salad with hummus and flax seed crackers and Diana had noodles with veggies and mushrooms. Of course, we had to get DESSERT too. I had a carrot cake and Diana had spelt pancakes with soymilk ice cream. The carrot cake was okay, but it's not something I'd get again. I couldn't tell what it tasted like, actually. Okay, CARROT perhaps, but it didn't have a strong carrot-y flavor in my opinion. As for the pancakes, Diana couldn't finish them, but I'll assume they weren't that bad. Pancakes are cute. :) I'd recommend Caravan of Dreams to people who...uh, like food. But skip the live carrot cake.

We went back up to Midtown and I wanted to check out the Times Square Toys R Us but it was crowded as hell! Scary place, man. Just tons of people walking in and out and no room to really move anywhere. So that visit lasted about two seconds. We also went to a magazine store near the Port Authority Terminal and I got the latest issue (November? Erm...) of The Ecologist. It is SUCH a good magazine and I'd recommend you read this issue if you can find it (like if you are living in a dimension that's two months behind). There's a big article about sugar and how it sucks. I could say more, but...I'm lazy. Maybe later.
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Today I woke up late. Mm...sleep. My great aunt and uncle from Staten Island came over to eat lunch with my parents. My aunt gave my brother and me some gifts in the form of...erm, books that her son wrote! There's nothing wrong with that of course (she and my great uncle are pretty cool), but I don't know if I'll find a history of Asian cinema very interesting. Or really just Chinese-derived cinema? My brother got a Jackie Chan book, which I read before when it first came out and I really enjoyed it. I only read it because I got it for free though. :P But if you think he's interesting at all, I'd recommend reading the book.

I went out for dinner to see some old friends from high school, which was nice. I guess I wouldn't have seen them at all if one of my friends didn't plan it. Honestly though, I didn't really want to go. First off, I don't like doing things in large groups (because I'm usually that person who's singled out...or...something) and I just wasn't that excited about going to a restaurant. I don't like eating out at regular restaurants, obviously, but it wasn't that bad because I got a broccoli salad, which was as mono-food as you could possibly get in a restaurant besides perhaps just drinking water. I looked really awkward there though because everyone else was getting big, meat or carbohydrate centered entrees (we ate at Baumgart's, which is an interesting place because they have lots of nice Chinese food and American food plus loads of ice cream and all I ordered was a $4.50 salad. And THEN everyone ordered dessert, of course. I don't know what the waiter thought of me, but while everyone else was eating their desserts he brought out a big scoop of half chocolate/half vanilla ice cream for me that was free! I knew I couldn't turn it down because it's not like they could do anything with it, but I was really dumbstruck. I didn't want the guy to think I wasn't eating it, so some of my friends tried a bit...although there was still half of the scoop left. I just shoved my spoon in it a few times as it sadly melted and drowned in a puddle of its own creamy soup.

I wonder if my friends are still amazed that I'm doing raw food. One of them asked if I was still eating nothing, or something to that extent...haha. Yeah. Right. If only these people saw me eat and knew how easily I gain weight. It's a problem. It just seems unfair that I gain weight so easily, but that's how my body works. And then the only way to lose it is to not eat, or something to that extent. And she asked me if I still had my teeth. It's just a joke because her mum has a friend who did raw food and lost some teeth I guess, but I've already heard of people losing their teeth and it coul dbe due to the body trying to release acid too quickly due to detoxification and the body then having to balance the pH by taking calcium out of the teeth. I could have made that up. Anyway, it's not like all raw foodists lose their teeth and cooked food eaters have loads of problems too. It's just that people seem to accept these things as normal and so they don't criticise them. That bothers me just a bit. "Yeah, I know some cooked food eaters and they all died horribly." Okay, that's not realyl true, but anyone close to me that has died didn't go naturally. It tended to be in hospitals...

After dinner everyone wanted to do something else, so we went to a nearby movie theater, which wasn't playing anything good besides ROTK. No one wanted to see the movies, so the idea of going to a bowling alley popped up. I didn't want to go and neither did Aliza, so she came to my house and my mum brought us to Borders. Aliza had to buy some late Hanukkah gifts, so it was a useful trip for her. :)

I really have to go to sleep now because I'm going to NYC again today to see Tori! WEOO excitement! Hopefully the rain won't make the day suck too much.

Yesterday was definitely strange. But not in a bad way. I'd say it was a mixture of good and bad. SO, let's start from the beginning...*dramatic music plays*...

I went to NYC to meet up with Tori. I met her back in April at the Vassar prospectives weekend (for colored people...erp?) and although she decided not to go to Vassar (sniff) we still kept in contact with each other. Luckily, NYC is in semi-close proximity to both of us, and what better place is there to meet?

We met at Grand Central and walked through the market. So much food in one little place! It rocks. We pretty much said "AHH I love that!" to everything and planned to return later. I had my eyes on the cheese.

NYC is a great place, but when it rains, it just sucks. I foolishly did not wear enough clothing, thinking that the weather would be warmer than when I went on Friday. However, it wasn't RAINING on Friday, and it was probably less windy. I think I poked a lot of people with my umbrella. Doh. Anyhoo, I wanted to bring Tori to Bonobo's Restaurant but when we finally arrived there we were met with a "WE'RE CLOSED" sign. Great. :( While I figured a lot of stores would be closed on Sunday, I was hoping restaurants would at least be open. Of course, I should have checked before whether or not it would open (and what a great, information website it has, without listing its opening hours!).

We walked around a JAS Market that was right by it (sells a bunch of Japanese things) and laughed at the awful Engrish (although not awful enough to be on that website) while being amazed overall at what lovely Japanese foods there are. I wouldn't choose to eat any of it, but it all looks nice. All those cute snacks and cakes and mochi...I used to eat it all! Yikes. Tori is super-slim and looks very healthy to me, so I don't think she has to worry about what she eats. :)

Tori suggested that we go to the Pearl River Mart so we took the subway down and walked around that area for a while. We went into random stores on the way (because for a long time we just couldn't find the place!). We went to Urban Outfitters, which I reluctantly say I still like. I don't like everything they have, but a lot of their clothes just looks very comfy without being plain. The problem is that it's a bit homogenizing...I saw a skirt that I liked that was on sale, but decided not to get it; after leaving the store, I saw someone wearing the same skirt on the street! Yikes. Anyhoo, none of their stuff was really cheap enough for me. They had a great selection of miniskirts from reconstructed tees, but if you have a sewing machine you can probably do the same thing. And you don't really need a sewing machine, although it would make things much easier. The skirts were pretty pricey considering that they're made of t-shirts and aren't that big, but if you can't make them, I guess you have to buy them. I'm going to try and make some more stuff before vacation ends.

The Pearl River Mart had the cutest lamps I had ever seen that looked like square shaped animals. If they had a penguin, I would have flipped (speaking of penguin products, look at this). They also had sushi-shaped candles and lots of random snacks, one of which had the ingredient "honeypee" (we couldn't figure out what that was). Fun store, and much nicer than when I went to the one in Chinatown.

We went to the East Village to make our way towards Quintessence to eat lunch. There are so many markets and organic food places there. IT'S WHERE I BELONG, yes? Oh well, someday, maybe. I've pretty much had everything at Quintessence by now, except for everything on their brunch menu, which they were all out of! :( But anyhoo, still yummy food. We shared a mini pizzette with pesto sauce and avocados, and it was delicious. I could taste the pine nuts...mmmm. I had a sunburger for the entree (I love those things) and Tori had the squash pasta. The waiter was very nice and told us that he worked with Bamboo Industries (he was working at the restaurant on the weekends to learn how to prepare raw food...man, I'd like to do that) a clothing label that Tori really likes! :)

And around this time was when something happened. (Well, technically something is always happening...mm, anyhoo.) Two people had came into the restaurant, and you pretty much notice everyone who comes in because the place is really tiny (similar to my dorm room, now that I think about it). One guy looked eerily like Rufus Wainwright...oh duh, because it IS him! Only once in my life had I actually seen a famous person in NYC (Ton Green counts, right?) and this time it happened to be someone I really admired. I had to go to the bathroom, which gave me some time to think about what I would possibly do. In case you don't already know, I'm very introverted and anti-social. I cringe when I have to speak because I'm incredibly inept at forming the right words or gathering my thoughts (so I end up saying the same thing over and over again or taking forever to figure out what I want to say and ultimately sound like a moron...you know, that kind of thing). Even around my best friends I'm like that, so it's just worse around people who aren't my friends. (I can speak better around my own family members.) I've never gone up to musicians I like after concerts because the idea of me having contact with them horrifies me, even the time that I was mere feet away from Even Johansen and debated about whether to approach him, decided that it would be better to flee.

But...I did it (this being one of the most un-Robynish things to do, EVER). This is my proof and will probably haunt me. I knew I'd regret it if I didn't approach him, but I'm still horrified that I went up to him during a time that he just wanted to eat, AND he was with a friend! I guess it wouldn't have been as bad if he was alone...although if he was with more than one person, that would have been worse, possibly. His friend took the photo of us, which was very nice. And Rufus was very nice; I wouldn't have been able to tell if he was annoyed with me or not. I hope he likes the attention. AHH whatever, I'm sure it's nothing. I'm glad I actually did something non-wussy for once, but I don't want to have to do it again. I'm almost afraid to go back to Quintessence! WHAT HAVE I DONE?!

Tori and I wanted to go to Live Live, which was supposed to open at 2, but they changed the sign on their door so it said it would open at 3. Oooh! Evil. :) (I noticed that "live" backwards is "evil", haha.) We roamed around a bit and went to Jubb's Longevity for a really tasty slice of marzipan cake (I think they have better desserts than Quintessence). Live Live was opened when we returned, and we both both a few things. I didn't go all out crazy like I did at HigH Vibe, don't worry! :) High Vibe has better prices, but although Live Live is smaller, they have some products that aren't at High Vibe.

We went back to Grand Central to roam around their shopping area and go to the market, where I got some raw cheese (which means its made from unpasteurized milk, although some of those cheeses are heated while being made, so you have to know which is which...although I don't actually know). Yup, I do like cheese and I haven't decided that it does anything really bad to me. There is a very big difference between good cheese and most of the stuff you find in regular supermarkets, just as there's a huge difference between good and regular chocolate. (I hope I don't sound too food-snobby.) I got two raw cheese: Brin D'Amour and Isle of Mull Cheddar. I tried the Brin D'Amour, but not the cheddar...I want to try it! Eek.

Around this time Tori and I departed. She took the train home and I went to the Port Authority Bus Terminal...I caught my bus JUST in time after taking the shuttle from Grand Central to Times Square. For whatever reason the underground path from the Times Square station to the PABT was closed. Doh.

When I had to drive home from the Ridgewood bus stop, I did an extremely dangerous thing that I had never done before; I nearly drove all the way home without my lights on. And it was raining! And I almost ran over a guy! I'm stupid, yes. The lights on the dashboard were on, but I didn't realize that my headlights were off despite not being able to see the road and thinking, "Gee, this is weird, maybe I'm going blind." Thankfully someone flashed his lights at me and then I realized my lights weren't on. I hope to never do that again, it was freakin' scary.

Today I did nothing because I got sick. I don't know what my sickness is though. I'm glad I got sick because then I had to rest all day and eat less, but the really weird thing is that my brother got the SAME exact thing even though out lifestyles are pretty different. Of course, we live in the same house but we eat completely different things and he spends most of his time in the basement while I...don't. And I went to NYC a few times. The sickness we both got was just having a hard time to breath, kind of like having asthma all day long. I used to have asthma but I've forgotten how awful it is to have such a hard time breathing.

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I just took a very long hiatus. I got hungry so I ate some various citrus fruits (easy to digest, I hope) and I started making more Poofies while watching LOTR: FOTR (lotter fotter?). Good times. If I can't sell my 15 Poofies (actually 17 because I still have two from the summer I never sold) then...I'm gonna have a LOT of Poofies.

Wanna see a really bad site? And I mean really bad? Just head on over to Pork4Kids where young'ins can learn all about pork and the basic food groups and how to make salads with bacon. The cartoon is priceless. It's just so awful, you wonder if anyone got paid to make it. Hopefully not. Peggy the Pork Chop needs to get a grip on things. And she creeps the hell out of me.

It's too bad that the Tig Fanlisting isn't accepting any new members. There are just too many tig lovers, dammit! I just watched the commentary for LOTR: FOTR and that was definitely one of the funniest bits.

I've been searching for fanlistings just because I haven't really been in any. Now I'm starting to rack up loads of little icons to further make roboppy.net look like a dump. Hoo-yeah! Or maybe it gives the page personality. Actually, I just wanted to have the icon of the bunny butt. I'm not sure where I'm going with the site yet, but with the plan I have in my head at the moment, I'm going to have to redo pretty much all my pages and add some other junk. This doesn't sound like a very pleasant task, so perhaps I'll just...um...play some tig!

So this is what I'm doing in the last moments of my vacation. I have a week left, during which I'll either do nothing, or I'll prepare my NYU application. Yeah, I really ought to start that thing. I remember what a relief it was at the end of 2002 to be finished with all my applications (and subsequently be rejected from half of the places I applied to, woo!). Applications are even more annoying for transfers. I'll have to go to my high school and have that transcript sent out, and then I'll need my standardized test scores too. Oh yeah, I'll need recommendations too, lovely! I was looking at a book about colleges and it said that four history classes from high school are required. Well, I didn't do this, but I don't imagine that they'd outright reject me based on that. One annoying thing about NYU (or most unis/colleges) is that there are a number of core curriculum classes. Luckily, I'll have fulfilled most of these by the end of my freshman year, but one US history class and a non-US history class are required, neither of which I have much interest in taking. Non-US history, perhaps, but US history bored me out of my skull. *sigh* I hope I'm doing the right thing by applying to NYU (to become a nutritionist), but then again there's no guarantee that I'll get in. They rejected me before, which was pretty disheartening. They say they don't take into account what school you're coming from as a transfer, and not that Vassar is an extremely difficult school, but is it on par with a community college? Then again, if I went to a community college, I'd like to have the same chance of getting in as a transfer based on my effort as anyone else.

While I definitely could have tried harder this past semester, I'm pretty happy with my grades. I got an A in Japanese (my teacher must have curved the final), a B+ in Astronomy (my teacher must have curved the final by 50 points) and Bs in Cultural Anthropology and English (no surprise there). I was worried that my grades wouldn't even be good enough for me to apply to NYU, who recomments a B+ to A- average. I'm toward the lower rung of the ladder, but it's not too bad. ...god, I do NOT want to fill out any more applications. It's on the floor right next to me at the moment, and it's saying, "Even thought I'm just some mashed up, flattened tree-pulp, I will make your life miserable."

Would you like to make my life less miserable? PRE-ORDER A POOFY T-SHIRT! So far I have five orders, so I only need 20 more, ie 400%. ...which is kind of a lot when I look at it that way. Help make Poofy t-shirts become a reality! Make the world a better place! (Those two last statements aren't necessarily related.)

This week I went to NYC a few times and probably gained a few pounds (which is a reason why I shouldn't live in NYC, but my default I'd have to walk a lot more than I am now). I went on Wednesday with my mum to go to a transfers meeting at NYU and it was pretty nice, although a bit discouraging because it made me feel like I wasn't qualified. Heck, I don't feel qualified for ANYTHING. I've thought about this, and it's not just a factor of modesty or low self-esteem; I really don't believe I'm good at much. I know people tell me that I am, and I'm very grateful for such praise, but at the end of the day my head fills with thoughts such as, "Well you're really screwed when you get out of school because you won't be qualified to do anything," or "You're dehydrated," which is a totally different thought, but my brain is stupid and doesn't tell me when I need to drink water. Actually, my body is telling me something right now; I must take a leak.

*doodeedoodeedoo...random-bathroom-humming...lalala*

Anyway. I bought some new underwear (because I suppose you should do that every once in a while, although my mum had to remind me) and they feel a bit odd. Maybe they're supposed to make your crotch feel weird. THANKS JC PENNEY. I think that's the first or second time I've ever bought anything from that store before. I also bought new socks from Nordstrom; I never knew they sold so many socks before. I bought some knee-highs, which I've just discovered can keep your legs really warm, although I must be really short because they go past my knees. I also looked at some Super Lucky Cat stuff because it's generally stuff that, in theory, you could make on your own. I figured I wouldn't have been allowed to take photos of the clothes, although I could have taken it into the dressing room and snapped away. Having to rely on my own memory definitely does NOT work. All I can really recall is that I saw skirts and...they were made of stuff. About as helpful as watering toast (which just doesn't make sense).

Back to NYU. It was bitterly cold, so my mum and I didn't stick around NYC as long as we would have liked to. We got to see the library and a dorm room, which looked loads nicer than what I'm in now. How could dorms in Poughkeepsie be smaller than dorms in NYC? It doesn't seem to be fair, but then again, my dorm costs are thousands less than at NYU. Dorms at NYU have the added bonus of getting their own bathroom and not having to bunk their beds. Of course, what I'd REALLY like to know is what they're classes are like and whether I can actually do well in them. Ehhhhhh.

Mum and I went to Life Thyme, which will be the death of me if I live in NYC because they have the best raw food entrees and desserts I've ever had in my entire life. They're also the least expensive ones I've ever seen. Definitely try places like Quintessence at least once, but then just go to Life Thyme (Sixth Ave between 8th and 9th Street). They put soy lecithin in some of their stuff, which I'm not sure is good or not. It probably isn't that harmful, at least. They're desserts are unlike anything I've ever tasted before, and my favorite is the spirulina earth pie. MM, algae is tasty, I tell you. :) They also hav ea good variety of raw food snacks, some of which are cheaper than High Vibe, which is already less expensive than Live Live. High Vibe still has the widest selection, though.

I wish there was a website where people rated all the raw food places. There are enough of them to actually have choices on where to go, but not too many that you wouldn't be able to visit all of them. Maybe I should start a site! Ooh...*scratches head*...I certainly have an array of photos to share.

I also went to NYC on Friday with Cristen and her friend Mary, who goes to NYU. We went to Life Thyme where I picked up some raw pizza and slices of pie to bring home, along with some really good dried mango. We went to a nice pet shop (the nicest I've ever seen, at least, but I've only seen the ones in malls) with really adorable, although semi-psychotic dogs. One was a dalmation that kept whining when the other animals were out of their cages. He/She hawked a loogie too. Hm. Pleasant! There was another white dog who's quest was to eat the layers of paper lining his cage. Really, this little guy kept ripping away at the paper and trying to eat the cage itself. And there was another dog who was sleeping and kept twitching and fidgeting...must have been dreaming. There were some cute cats as well, which I'd love to take home. Actually, what I'd really like is a small bunny, but other than that, kittens would be nice too.

We visted Mary's dorm, which was even nicer than the one I saw on the tour. The view from her window was of the backside of a brick building, but she said other rooms had nice views. :D

Last night I made a new scarf. It looks pretty scraggly, but it only took a few hours...HOURS THAT I WILL NEVER GET BACK! MY LIFE IS A FAILURE! *sob* Erm. Anyway! I messed up because each of my rows was one stitch shorter than the one before, but I couldn't really tell because I was doing it lengthwise (so it's made of five really long rows, two alternating colors, done in double crochet). Eh well, still good. I haven't gotten to use it yet though because I stayed inside ALL DAY today. Oo.

OH CRAP, my laundry is sitting in the dryer! I need to go get that!

And...lastly, Rufus is playing at Vassar on Valentine's Day! Man, if I had known that when I met him, I would have said something. Or not. I already decided I wasn't going to the Beacon Theater show the night before. OH MAN, I need to give him a Poofy! OH MAN! AHH RUFUS! AHH! Okay, I'm done freaking out.

I like Movable Type, I really do. But when it makes stuff not work, I go into "keyboard smashie" mode, which doesn't really mean anything because I wouldn't dare do anything to physically damage this precious laptop. So I just sit here and get frustrated.

I very easily transferred all my entries from my other site, which was great. For some reason it messed up and gave me this extra blank entry with just an old comment. However, the comment is relevant: this is my free webhosting and so far it's working fine! The only "catch" (which isn't really a catch) is that you can't change the nameservers on any domain names registered on 1&1. It's the cheapest registration I've ever seen, so I wanted to check that out. I currently use Hostway to manage 5 domain names.

Can anyone tell me if the scrollbar in this frame is green? It's SUPPOSED to be! I can't figure out for the life of me why it wouldn't be green, but for me it's the sucky Windows XP scroll bar. Go away, you don't fit in with my color scheme! :(

I've been downloading loads of random LOTR cast video clips from here. Hobbity goodness, mmyes! I am really going to start reading The Fellowship of the Ring. Really. Or I'll just crack it open and read a few words. Like the table of contents... ...nono, I REALLY must read this book. It's just that the last time I read a book of similar length, it was in 9th grade for an English project. I procrastinated and had to read half of the book in one weekend. Bad idea. Do not do this. Ever.

I'm starting to get a little frightened by the people who are REALLY obsessed with LOTR cast members. One of the funniest LJ communities is LOTR Boys Daily, in which people are supposed to post hot photos of the guys about a bagillion times a day. Some of these photos are just really funny. I could spend a bit of time looking through them...MWAHAHAHA!

Oo, TTT won for Best Dramatic Movie at the People's Choice Awards. I didn't know there even was a People's Choice Awards. Billy was the only one there to accept...SO HAPPY! :)

Crap, I'm tired. Time to sleep!

I took a nap today. Naps are BAD! I woke up at 12:30 PM-ish, ate, filled out a bit of my NYU application, tootled around doing nothing, read some of The Fellowship of the Ring (which I must say I'm enjoying so far), took a nap, woke up...basically I wasted my day away. I HAVE to write my essays for my application. Altogether the two of them will probably be shorter than one of my average blog entries, but I don't know if I can whip them up as quickly. Probably not. It should be easy for me to talk about why I want to transfer and why I'm into health and junk, but I'm not sure what to do about my other essay, the "creative" one. Or pseudo-creative.

You know, I can't write well at all. I was looking at some old journal I had to write for 9th grade and one of the entires was about what I wanted to have as a career. At that time I said I had thought about being a writer, but decided I wanted to do something with music. Of course, now I'm quite sure I'll never work in a music-related field. Can I really work in nutrition? Sometimes I think it'd be easier to kill myself and be done with it, but that's just a really bad idea (hey, I know that much!).

I was rifling through my folder of college-related junk and came upon my SAT and ACT scores. I think my ACT score is messed up. ...yeah, that's all I'm going to say.

I obviously haven't been doing much in the past five days, or else I would have wrote earlier. Now that I think about it, what have I been doing? Just dreading going back to school I guess. It's not that I don't like my school, but I wouldn't want to go back to any school. I like being at home and not having to care about anything. I find it strange that some people really want school to start again, but I guess I'm one of those weirdos that would much rather stay home. I mean, today I stayed home all day and I've been fine with that, besides the lack of fresh oxygen. Are people really that bored staying at home? Isn't there always something to do? I really didn't get as much done as I could have (I was planning to redesign bits of evenmagnet and add some content but I never did, and I was planning to write more Poofy comics but...I didn't) and my vacation was pretty long. Crap, I'm really lazy.

I DID finally put up my new batch of Poofies though! And I've already sold four of them, although that's pretty much to people I know in real life. My mum bought one for her friend's granddaughter, my brother bought one for his friend's birthday, and my brother's friend bought two for himself and his mum. Isn't that nice? :) I have 12 Poofy t-shirt preorders so far, so if you can please tell people to order! I'd like another 13 orders before actually placing my order. So far pretty much all the orders are for different colors, which should make things interesting when I actually place my order...

Last night my mum and I saw The Return of the King again. It was my third time and her fourth. No, we're not obsessed at all. :) I was getting pretty tired about halfway through the movie, but by the end I was awake again. It would have been awful if I had fallen asleep, eh? I'm not sure what my favorite movie of the triology is. Even though the third one is the movie that really got me into LOTR, I'm not sure if it's my favorite or if it's the best of the three. There are a bunch of little things in ROTK that bother me, like some of the characters don't seem very well developed, some of the cg stuff doesn't look that great (while some other cg characters, mainly Shelob, look really good; I'd think arachnaphobes would nearly die watching that scene), and I swear Aragorn has a weird accent. However, I'm sure that the extended version (clocking in at 7 hours) will fill in some of the gaps and all will merry (and Pippin...bwahaha).

I didn't realize how many extras were on the regular version of the Two Towers DVD, so I watch some of that the other day. The Long and Short of It was a cute little movie, although I think the "making of" segment may have been longer than the movie itself. Andy Serkis was pretty funny, as he talked about climbing up the production ladder, from being a part of traffic control to something more substantial, but then deciding he'd rather just put cones on the road after all. Speaking of Andy Serkis, I had no idea he was in 24 Hour Party People as that scary producer guy. Then again, my head was all over the place when I watched that movie as it made me deathly nauseous (Diana can back me up here). And...still going on about Andy, I just read Gollum and it was a very interesting read. First off, my mum had trouble even finding it in a store because we saw a whole bunch of them at Barnes and Noble one day, and then...they were all gone! At a different B&N, there was only one dog-eared copy left. Other places didn't have it at all. We finally found it at a less-frequented Waldenbooks. If you're interested in Gollum or Andy at all, you definitely need this book. I didn't think I was that interested, but I became more interested after reading it. It sounded a bit isolating at times to have to play Gollum, and overall he only worked with four other main actors.

Oh, another special LOTR find happened this week. My mum and I have been looking for LOTR calendars for 2004, and nearly all of them are sold out. I don't even recall ever seeing them in stores, although during the summer I wasn't that interested in LOTR or buying a calendar. However, my mum eventually found some...at Staples! I figured that there must be calendars SOMEWHERE, and I guess people don't think of Staples as the place to buy calendars. Lucky us! So now I have a Two Towers calendar. My mum only bought one, but if she had gotten more (they were $10 each) she could definitely resell them!

Man, this entry is really LOTR-centric. What else have I been doing? AHH! I haven't been getting together with any of my friends or going anywhere very special. That might sound sad, but...well, maybe it is. How can 24 hours go by so quickly?

I ought to start my NYU essay(s) now. If you'd like to see an interesting video about food and agribusiness, click here. I find these issues very interesting...I hope you do too.

As soon as the phrase "back to school" popped into my head, Billy Madison's voice also wormed its way in there. How warped is my mind? I've seen the movie a fair amount of times, although it doesn't compare to Happy Gilmore, which I must have seen...*counts on fingers*...too many times.

Well, I'm back at school. How is it so far? It's okay, but the dislike is growing. My biggest peeve is that in my little end of the hallway there is a large amount of noise going on in the middle of the night. Then again, maybe I was trying to go to bed too early. It probably took me two hours to fall asleep last night/this morning and while I was trying to focus on sleeping I was also thinking, "Well now here's something I don't like about Vassar." Of course, by putting things in perspective I can see that not being able to fall asleep is a very minor problem considering what other things could be happening to me, like being sued by Microsoft or getting stuck in a chimney. Last night I did think about jumping out the window though because three stories up, it wasn't likely to be fatal (actually, maybe it would), but it would probably knock me out so I could GO TO SLEEP.

If you ever want to lighten your mood, just listen to the song Half Fling. You can download it at the bottom of that page, or you can buy this CD. I think I'll just listen to this song though. By itself, it would seen pretty odd, scary maybe, but knowing it's Elijah and Dom just makes it funny. Kind of.

Today I got to put up my 2004 The Two Towers Calendar. I'll have to wait until August to see Merry and Pippin sitting on Treebeard though. Right now I'm looking at Frodo in his "staring-into-space" mode that he has in pretty much all the movies. He doesn't seem that spacey in the book in my opinion. I've gotten to the part in the book where all the hobbits got captured by the...um...you know, I just can't remember these names. They were all put in white robe-things and had swords and jewelry or something? And then Frodo summoned Tom Bombadil and he saved everyone. I could be totally wrong here. I didn't really bother to remember the names of all the characters in the movies until after seeing ROTK.

If my brain can't handle the first 200 pages of FOTR (less than that, actually), then I have no idea how I'm going to function when classes start. That's TOMORROW, by the way. I've got all my books and I've cleared out my old binders to make room for more funtastic note taking and suffering! YES! I know classes aren't that bad (high school was worse), but...but...no one really likes going to class, right? Yup. If you do, then I'm sorry to say...you're just a freak of nature. Ask your parents; they'd know.

Okay, that's harsh. If there's one thing I'm sure I like about this school it's that my teachers are good and classes are not unbearably mindnumbing, at least not in the sense that I feel like I'm getting stupider. I usually feel like everyone else is smarter and that I was admitted into Vassar by mistake (I still kind of think this). I decided not to switch my biology class to chemistry as I had originally planned because chemistry just takes up too much time. Not counting the lab, it's 150 a week and it's only worth one credit. Biology is 75 minutes a week and is also worth one credit. I don't know why...the math seems a bit iffy, eh? If chemistry were worth more, I'd be more inclined to take it. I am switching from anthropology to psychology though. Hopefully already having taken a psychology class will help me just a bit, even though that class was really easy and this probably won't be. I read that psychology is something you should take if you want to go into nutrition. I remember learning last year about associated certain feelings with food...well, of course people do that, right? Or certain activities just go with food, like seeing a movie and getting popcorn even if you're not hungry. Those are obvious things though.

My roommate got back today before noon, which was good because I actually got up before noon. Yesterday I rolled out of bed (not literally or else I'd crash to the floor and probably break something) at around 12:30 PM after going to bed at 10 PM the night before (and waking up a lot during the night because of all the noise outside my room). Now I'm not all alone! Then again, I'm pretty good at being alone. It's nice and quiet when no one else is around (besides the heaters making ungodly noises during the night and day). I don't mind when other people are in the room, but it can get distracting. If I lived alone I'd probably never have people in my room, which is a reason for me to either always have a roommate or to transfer. If I transfer to NYU I'll have a roommate anyway....

I haven't told anyone here about my plan to transfer to NYU yet. I figure if I get in I'll just send out a mass e-mail ("mass" being less than 10 people...har har). I'll have to tell ONE of my teachers though so that she can write a recommendation for me. No biggie.

I think a bunch of people are going out to eat dinner now. That's my cue to eat my dinner...oranges! Mm. I thought I'd try to fast, but neh, I'd rather not. It's easy for me to gain and lose weight, but losing is harder just because in my opinion (and others, I'm sure), it's hard to decrease the amount of food you eat. Yesterday I had some clementines, an orange, and a grapefruit. That sounds safe, eh?

Today I got some exciting mail! (REAL mail, not e-mail...e-mail tends to score lower on the excitment scale, but it's still good.) I got a great package from Linda with some cute stickers, a Bjork single for Hunter, and a little plush penguin! Linda gets a BIG HUG! *squishm* Emily sent me an adorable postcard with lots of cute bunnies on it. ANOTHER SQUISHM! I also got some clothes I bought from someone on livejournal that I requested more than a month ago, but hey, better late than never. :) I got a skirt and a zip-up hoodie. I definitely have to stop buying clothes. I KNOW I don't need any more, so what's wrong with me? Two days ago I went to Delias with my mum and I got a really nice pair of pants and a cute shirt because they're having a massive sale at the moment. Those damn sales! I got some other things too because my mum brought them to me today. She had to drive up here to drop off my passport, which I needed to fill out some work papers. I'm very lucky to have such a nice mum, especially since she just started the Ejuva cleanse. Thanks, mum!

Now I'm all alone in my room. What will I do now? READ! Yes. I'm a nerd.

I'm still reading FOTR...well, it's kind of long. The first time I saw the movie I remember thinking it was very long and a bit slow, but now I feel like it's the book on fast-forward with big chunks cut out. I don't mean the book is a poor interpretation of the book, but it's interesting to see what had to be changed and cut out. The book doesn't feel slow to me, or else I probably would have stopped reading it by now.

So I'm bad at home after my first week of classes (really just three days) and I am very happy in the sense that I'm here and not at school. In the other sense, I feel like crap, but I ought to count my blessings. First I'll try to remember what's happened since classes started...

Wednesday. I had Japanese and music theory. Japanese is okay since it's just a continuation of last year's class. Music theory looks like it'll be incredibly boring, but I can't really tell yet. One thing that I do know is that if I didn't already know how to read music semi-decently, I'd be totally screwed. My teacher seems nice, but incredibly boring. Aren't music teachers supposed to be strange and eccentric? Nearly all of mine have been, except for my piano teachers... ...oh wait, this guy is a pianist. Is that it? Obviously my regular band teachers and non-piano teachers knew how to play the piano also, but maybe people who primarily play piano just aren't that interesting. I'm talking to myself now, sorry.

Thursday. I had a 9 AM class for psychology, which I added to my schedule to replace anthropology (human origins) because it didn't fit into my schedule as well as I thought it did. I like my teacher, so that class seems all good except that the room is in the basement of an impossible-to-navigate building. I swear it was built as a joke. If there weren't signs everywhere saying where the classes were, I would have been completely lost. I also had Japanese, which was okay as usual. I went to the Media Cloisters to see what I had to do as my job, and I'm still totally clueless even after talking to some people who worked there (well, they were saying stuff to me and I just...listened). Now I'm thinking that I'm way over my head and I should have never applied for a job there. I should have never made a website on the school server because then none of this would have happened. Now I think that I really have no skills and I'm not qualified to be there. Someone asked me if I knew CSS and...well, I use it, but other than that I'd say I know very little. I usually let Dreamweaver do all the work for me. And I still don't understand what I'm doing there. Later I had a meeting with my Japanese teacher, who just wanted to catch up on things with all the students by asking us what we did over vacation and how we're doing so far. I basically screwed that up big time since I suck at Japanese. I got my final back and I didn't even do very well on it, so I have no idea how I got a good grade overall. Luck, I suppose. I just learned how to say luck in Japanese, but I forgot...

Friday. Another 9 AM class for biology. Boy, am I screwed. Now I have to rethink whether I can actually be a nutritionist or not, because if I can't even get through bio, there really isn't any point. My teacher seems nice, at least, and I do know someone in the class. Hopefully we can be lab partners. At the end of the class the teacher asked us to write down what we knew about meiosis and mitosis and I remembered absolutely nothing besides a few weird diagrams I drew in 9th grade (which was the last time I took bio). After that I had Japanese. And then....and then...I GOT TO COME HOME!

Since then I haven't done much besides decide that living is not my thing. It's not like I'm a suicidal depressive maniac, but maybe I'm just a composed suicidal something-or-other? I've been thinking about what I could possibly do with my life and nothing is coming to mind. Even my mum said that I'm strange (not really saying the word "strange", but...anyway) and that I remind her of someone she used to know from college who ended up killing her children. Okay, thanks! I love my mum, of course, but she can say pretty funny things. HAHA! She asked me why I don't think I can do anything...well, I honestly don't see much evidence that I can do much. I'm not really that good at anything.

My plan was to transfer (well, APPLY to transfer) to NYU so I can be in a nutritional program, but after spending a few hours reading my bio book for homework (and spending way too much time on the homework, which was just about allelle stuff...the stuff that everyone's done. I don't understand what "epistasis" is, and that's some kind of question I have to answer) because I read incredibly slowly, and it just made me sad. None of it makes sense to me. My mum, the bio major (and she did bio in grad school) doesn't understand how biology can be hard. "You just have to memorize lots of stuff." She says that she could never do very mathematical stuff though, which I find...well, not EASY, but not impossible. Except for physics. Anyway, I was a poor bio student in 9th grade and I guess not much has changed in four years except that it'll be even harder to understand now.

So...I might not transfer to NYU after all. But then where does that leave me here? I don't think I would be very happy at ANY college. What makes college life enjoyable? Is it the freedom thing? Because I don't really care. I had freedom at home. The difference now is that I'm stuck inside a school campus all day because there isn't anyplace around school that I really want to go to, and there aren't any people I desperately want to hang out with. It's surprising at all that I have friends, but I think I could count them on one hand. But that's not the issue...the thing is, now that it's the second semester, I truly think that there aren't any people here I can relate to. There are few people in the world I can relate to, actually.

What is good about college life? I'm really asking, so give me some answers. I can tell you the things I don't like to do: go to parties, watch movies (I like some movies, but overall I'm not a big movie fan), "hang out" and talk (I don't know the last time I did this...middle school?), drink alcohol, watch TV, and I'm sure the list would go on if people gave me suggestions. I DO like discovering new places in NYC or visiting places that I like and going to concerts. If I didn't like music, I'd probably never go anywhere, so thank god for that. I probably sound really boring right now.

In the end, I'm sure it's all my fault. It's my personality to be boring; however, I'm not actually bored. There are loads of things I like to do, but they don't require the presence of another person. I was hoping to do something this weekend, but I stayed inside all day today (still in my pjs) as my mum is sick and I had lots of homework anyway. Actually, it just takes me a really long time to do homework that a normal person could probably do more quickly. Being lonely is kind of annoying, but not a big deal. If I really had problems with it, it would show.

I guess a strange thing (or not) is that my ...uh... strangeness doesn't show. I can stay in my dorm room all day, but I don't appear very strange (at least that's what I hope). People probably don't know how little I think of myself. I guess I don't have any drive to do anything. I don't have any real goals. The nutritionist thing would have been cool, except I don't have a science-mind, I guess. I don't have a literary mind either. I'm sure this entry has been written very poorly. ENGLISH IS MY FIRST LANGUAGE, if you can't tell. Actually, it's my only language. No, I don't know Chinese and I never will!

I'm glad I'm at home because I got my period yesterday, which is 3 - 4 days early. I haven't gotten my period early in a long time; it tends to come late. What does this mean? I have no idea. I've eaten way too much this weekend since I spent the four days before I came home just eating citrus. It was okay, but by the time I was able to buy some nuts and dried fruit, I was eating pretty much everything. I have no idea what's up with my body and hunger. I can easily NOT eat a lot, but only if there happens to be no food around, just because I'd be too lazy to buy more. And even though I know I'm much better off now eating mainly raw food (I cheat when I eat Govinda bars, which are partially raw and partially not...yeah, screw me) instead of cooked, but mentally, I don't feel that great. I know my period would entail more suffering if I ate cooked food and that I'd probably have worse allergies and get sick more, but I guess my personality just sucks.

Doodeedoo...I think I'd be better off just going to a business or vocational school than a four-year college. I know that may not be the most ... ... crap, I can't even think of the word. Something in the vein of "not that highly regarded." But I'd rather know something practical that stuff that will make me well-rounded, or whatever it is that college is supposed to do to me. On Friday I got a survey from Dover Business College and I really don't think I'd mind going into computer programming/web design and then just getting a job. The thing is, in a way only smart and not smart (I don't want to say "dumb" because...that's just not true) people can not go to a regular four-year college. Or something. Ish. Okay, that's not conclusive, but you know what I mean, hopefully. And I'm not really either. At least I don't think my parents would be happy with that, especially my mum who comes from a scholarly family. I keep forgetting that her dad was a language professor. She must be really used to...intellectual things. She wouldn't be happy living a carefree life in a little tropical place with a farm or something like that, but I wouldn't mind.

The main question in my head that no one can answer is what could I possibly do with my life. I've been led to believe that it'd be easier if I just died, because then I wouldn't have to think about it. Honestly, what better thing is there to do? For the most part, I've been feeling tired all the time since school has started. And now I'm hungry...stupid digestive system. And I still have to take notes for psychology on a chapter that will never end at the rate that I'm going. I'm not necessaril sad or depressed or happy, but I can't think of the right word... ... ...oh well, nevermind that. My Weatherbug says that it's 6 degrees outside.

I didn't get any fresh air today.

Actually, I change my mind from that other paragraph; I am sad.

Actually, I can control that by reading TheOneRing.net, which sets me back in neutral mode.

...oo, the Elijah Wood episode of SNL is on tonight? Maybe that'll make me feel a bit better, even though I don't like SNL. Or television. ... ...or maybe it won't. Hm.

... ... alright, I'm done now.

Everything smells like oranges because I keep eating oranges and getting orange pee on everything. It's all over my hands...OH GOD WHY?

So I've been eating! Always a good thing. I over-ate at home this past weekend so I've been cutting down at school, although not really. I was too lazy and miserable to buy food on Monday, so yesterday I pretty much ate everything (everything being oranges, apples, and pears). Sandy can attest to the fact that I kept eating despite saying, "Okay, I'll stop eating." 12 pieces of fruit later (5 oranges, 5 apples, 2 pears), I ended up losing weight anyway. So there's one way to lose weight and stuff yourself silly. I'm sure that I eat too fast because my stomach region felt a bit odd while I was eating today (actually, "eating" isn't the right word...maybe "inhaling" would work), so I'm probably gain weight tomorrow. But hey! It's fruit! And despite it all being just fruit!, I still get gas. DIGESTIVE SYSTEM = SUCKWAD.

I feel a bit better since my last entry (heck, i feel better since yesterday), but I really think I have the opposite of the Midas touch. Like the anti-Midas touch. Yes. Everything I touch turns into crap. Or if I try to make something, it turns into crap. I really don't like any of the websites I've made. I know they're not the worst pieces of crap on earth (websites that sucks is a great place to visit; this is truly god-awful), but they're not very good, by my standards. In a way I have really low standards so I don't disappoint myself too much, but in other ways my standards are unattainable. There is NO way I will ever make a website that I really, really like. They'll either be so bad that I have to change the layout every once in a while or stay there and make me feel like my website is a terrible burden to the world, including those people without the ability of sight, which is pretty bad. Their other senses are probably heightened...they can SMELL my website. Smells like sweaty socks.

I am strange. I'm sorry. By the way, a whale exploded. That's what I get for leaving Taiwan; they start exploding whales left and right!

For some other random news, ROTK got 11 Oscar nominations (I don't know why I'm linking to the BBC about Oscar noms...but I am)! And you know it's going to win best picture and director, because if it doesn't people will probably riot in the streets and set buildings on fire and eat babies and, you know, typical angry-people things.

[random digression: I'm going to change into my pjs, because they're more comfortable, which makes me wonder why I don't just wear pjs all day long.]

So yeah, I still suck, but I can face that. I CAN! And I think I'll try to go into "food studies" rather than be a nutritionist/dietician. I guess food studies is for people who are interested in food but not very science-oriented. The thing is, all throughout high school the only classes I took advanced levels in were math and science. But I still suck at them. It's just one of those funny Robyn things. So laugh! Ha ha! Oh, all that laughing is making my tummy ache. Or maybe it was that pear I ate. Probably a mixture of the two.

Graphic designers, I need your help. I spent a few hours fiddling around while "working" (occupation: professional fiddling around..er..person) in the media cloisters to make a poster for an upcoming lecture. And this is all I got (here is another possiblity; I do love photoshop and how easy it makes it to change hues). Sorry it looks like crap, but I had to stare at it for about 3 hours in various stages (it looked so much better in my head, but I guess this is why real designers probably draw stuff out first instead of relying on random firing between neurons). Anyway, this is a lot worse that posters I've seen around campus and I don't wanna eff-up my first project (I don't swear...well, kind of), so any suggestions would be great. Like "hit ctrl+a and then del" would be okay. Maybe. My main problem is with the title of the lecture; I didn't know how to make it stand out. But the shadowing doesn't fit in very well with the other type, which isn't shadowed. And there are only so many colors I can use. And and and. ...Damn, I still have gas.

[Don't you wish I went back to being all depressed and stupid? How do you deal with me talking about my digestion?]

I need to get the new Air album soon. Maybe this weekend? You can see their new music video on their site, and since it's got some porn, it's probably the only place you'll be able to see it. Good song.

My music class is getting a bit more interesting. My teacher still seems a bit odd, but that's okay. At least he knows what he's talking about. I'm surprised I was even able to grasp music theory when I was little. I still can't immediately recognize all the notes (mainly when they're really high or low), but I'm getting there.

I had my first bio lab yesterday and it went okay. It wasn't actually four hours long, for one thing. GOOD. The lab was to test six strains of white clover plants and test them to see if they are cyanogenic or not. Which reminds me, I have to actually figure out which plants were cyanogenic. Mm, cyanide. I used to like the faint taste of cyanide in almonds, but then I had some bad experiences with almonds that had too much cyanide. Those tasted beyond disgusting. *shudders*

Oh, I can't believe I didn't say this yet: thank you ALL for your great comments and what-not. Even if you didn't leave a comment, you are cool anyway. Because you're reading this. Actually, that probably makes you less cool, but...I still luv yous. Yup. Even if I don't have any good friends here that I can be totally comfortable around, that's okay. ...I might change my mind about that later.

Actually, I've realized that I'm really, really strange. Why can't I be more personable? I swear that I'm not THAT sucktastic, but when I speak to people that I don't know well (and some that I do), I sound...well, I think I may sound uninterested or spacey or "meh". I don't like how to change this, so I suppose it's just the way I am. It's not like I can go, "HEY AHH HOOHA!" because then people would think I'm psychotic, and I guess that's worse than seeming flat and tired.

Wow, I haven't been doing homework. I really should be doing that. Hohum.

And now...I must pee. I'll be home in two days, so that's something to look forward to.

UPDATE: Here's a newer version of the poster. Better?