The previous comic (not that it's THAT related): pars una

Sorry that they don't appear full size and you have to click on them. I WILL WORK ON IT!

( and finally a poll )

On the Next Episode of This Blog: Pinkertons? Candidates for Senate? Whining about school work? STAY TUNED

There is no title image for this, but it's called "Follow, Follow!"



This basically came from a conversation I had with Letta. We were talking about the red string of fate, and I was like, "But what if it led you to a grave? Would that mean your soul mate or whatever was dead? For priests, would it lead you to a church?" Also, priests and nuns get to say they are married to the church, which is totes polygamy/polyandry, since there are SO MANY PEOPLE in the church, but I guess that's okay?

Anyway this comic will have nothing to do with religion but I felt like making this strip anyhow. Hopefully it was vaguely amusing! I don't know how many more I'll do but I'll see!

So, I went up to the local university to see a famous person put on a lecture... only to find that the lecture had been canceled because they famous person got sick. I had somewhere in the vicinity of an hour before the Japanese discussion group I was going to. I needed to come up with ways to spend time. Thus, I present to you

How To Enjoy Yourself At The Local University When You Know No One, Have No Money, And Are Not A Student

1. Make sure you really have no money. If you have any, go to the café. If you have only a little, go to the pastry place. Get food. Enjoy food. If you have any leftover food—
2. Feed a squirrel. Bonus points if said squirrel sticks around and waits for more food, and approaches you. Even more points if he gets his friends.
3. Go to the library and research the first thing you see for no more than three minutes. Take notes. Book: Wagner and Nietzche. Page: 34. "This essay, written in July 1864, was supposed to outline
Wagner's political stance after his participation in the Dresden Uprising." FASCINATING.
4. Use the public access computers in the library.
5. Inwardly fume about the students using all the public access computers in the library.
6. Look in vain for an empty table.
8. Ride the elevators.
9. Pretend to make a phone call for the sake of sitting in the soundproof booth.
10. Ride the elevators.
11. Look for a place to charge your phone.
12. Turn riding the elevators into a game. How To Play: Board an elevator on ground floor and ride to the top. Switch elevators whenever someone enters. Pick floors at random, or at age-significant points (like 21 for drinking, 18 for voting, 16 for driving.)
12a. Hide in bookshelves after switching off of an elevator with some people, and then switching onto
a new elevator with the same people.
13. Never let on that you are playing a game. Always look completely business-like.
14. Pretend to take notes on work.
15. Pretend to take notes on the people around you.
16. Take notes on the people around you. Three blue shirts, all different shades. Two water bottles at one table, with two water fountains about ten feet away. No ironic "be green" shirts, though.
17. Count the bikes outside the library: nineteen.
18. Assess the birds and squirrels outside the library: twittery and adorable.

How many of these did I do?



...


ALL OF THE ABOVE. Except the second one, I ate all my food, sorry squirrels.

I've had an astounding amount of work lately, hence my not posting much.

So, Mr. H told us last year about how colleges are really impressed when applicants have taken Greek. I thought to myself, "Hmm. I wonder if that's true... I guess if people told him that the colleges said so, it must be true. Still, I'm sure Greek isn't that hard." Foolish, foolish me. Greek is not an easy course. It is nothing like Latin. Okay, actually, it's a lot like Latin, except for all the words are different and it has a different alphabet and some different grammar rules.

But let me pick out the main important part of that sentence: "it has a different alphabet" I knew this going into the class, yet I hadn't suspected it'd give me such trouble. However, learning words that don't even look like words unless you think about them is rather difficult. I think that I can learn the shape of Latin words, like with English. As for Japanese, I'm very used to hearing it, and seeing it, and have gradually adjusted to it. Greek was a big academic slap in the face. It was like, "Hey Nina! You think you're good at language learning? THINK AGAIN." Alright, ancient Greek! I concede, you have one this round! That being said, please let me pass my test on Friday! I don't know how I'm going to learn the first declension seeing as it all looks rather similar!



So, learning three languages is exciting, because you get to say things like, "prope oikei est chiisai box desu." That's FOUR LANGUAGES in ONE SENTENCE! :D It means "Near the field is a small box." ... at least I think oikei is field. I'll go study my Greek now.

( ETA for the lulz )

I miss talking in English, which I don't do much on Lang-8. Learning Latin, ancient Greek, and Japanese all at once, all at different levels, is an interesting experience, though, let me tell you that.

So, I have some news. I am a published author! Maybe I should bold that. I am a published author! Now I feel like a braggart. xP As it happens, it's only six words published... and I only wrote five.

( the thrilling explanation of this enigmatic circumstance )

School has been going interestingly. I'm taking six academic classes in a schedule which only holds seven classes, one of which must always be kept free for gym. And since I didn't take gym freshman year, I'm taking it all year long (well, sorta — for the sake of avoiding taking gym all year long, I'm taking RAD half the year). And now, on the study which alternates with gym, I'm taking band. I have a very, very full schedule. It's rather exciting, in a way. It's also very busy, though. But, like a crazy person, I signed up for it, right?

I kind of miss my friends who graduated (not just the ones who graduated this year, but the ones who graduated in '08 too...). I dunno why, but all of a sudden, I miss them. So, maybe I'll write them all letters on adorable stationary. Who knows!

What.
Is up.
My friends.

That's meant to be, "What's up, friends?" but typed like that, it doesn't sound right. I'm not gonna fix it though. So! I finished all my summer work. HALLELUJAH. As for school this year, let's do a quick run down, shall we?

So, I've been studying Japanese a lot more lately, and a lot of why I haven't posted is that I've been posting on Lang-8. Which, by the way, is so fun. And is addictive as all hell. Ahem.

We're reading The Metamorphosis in English. It's... well, really funny. I know it's this story of how things get worse and worse, but the way it's written, some of it stands out as funny. Some of it is certainly very depressing, but a lot of it is a bit funny. I just imagine this giant person-bug and am all like, "Heeheeheee." This is really not a good reaction, is it? Let's see, what else. Oh! I reverted to a geek this summer. I watched the new Evangelion movie and saw two short TV series. But guys! It's fun! This is probably no excuse. ... that aside, I'm still going to watch Tengen Toppa Gurren Lagann.

And, in closing, I drew Cathy and Heathcliff from Wuthering Heights, and went COMPLETELY overboard with brushes and things. In the end, I got this over the top picture:



OH! One more thing! I biked to school today and it was fun! Who knew!

It's a race against the clock to finish this year's summer work. But can one girl truly win using sheer determination?

The answer can only be yes.

... I hope.

Today was Build-A-Cake Day! My sister and I made a chocolate cake, from scratch! The only thing that wasn't so awesome about it was that it was a bit dry. Still! Chocolate cake! From scratch! I bought the icing, though, and then I dyed some of it and used it to make a picture. See?



In this photo: my little brother's totally awesome place mat which is more than happy to tell you some facts about the USA. How many can you make out? That decapitated bunny head is actually Totoro, from My Neighbor Totoro. This dude:



So, muscling through East of Eden is difficult, mostly because my brain seems convinced I have plenty of time to do it. I'd definitely finish it if I only had two days left, but I need to finish *other* things too. That's what's so staggeringly frustrating about the way my brain works. It seems convinced to avoid looking at (relatively) dire situations as dire.

Still, I'll press on. And finish that book, most definitely! And the work! Raaah!

The title of this entry is not a line from an action movie*, but damn, it should be.

* as far as I know...

So, the first week of August, my family went on a Fantastique Bike Trip up Lake Champlain and into Canada. It was amazing. Biking through the Adirondacks was a tiny bit less amazing, if only because biking up and down mountains is tough. While we were biking, one family member would always be driving the van. ... and would be constantly on the lookout for bread.



I finished The Sun Also Rises and The Awakening, and I must now muscle my way through East of Eden.



I have many more tales to tell, so I'll post again sometime when I'm ready to talk with my words and not with my AppleWorks Paint skills.

The title of this entry should look like an upside-down face.

It's a really gray day today. Grey day. I can't decide whether I like that word better with an a or an e. Recently I went to Warped Tour and saw the midnight release of HP. Buuut I'll probably make a whole little entry about that. I finished Their Eyes Were Watching God. I have a lot of summer work left to go. Summer is stressful, but in a different way than school.

There was a good A Softer World today.

So, last Thursday, I had... *drumroll please* *cymbal crash* *more pomp and circumstance* A JOB INTERVIEWWWW (In case it is not clear, that's a big deal for me.) Of course, I don't know if I have the job or not, but I'm really hoping that I get it.

Right now, I'm at my friend's dad's house, and we are ready to go and see Warped Tour tomorrow. I've never been to a concert before, so I'm pretty excited about it, but I'm not sure if I'm going to get to see the bands I know. The two friends I'm going with want to see Escape the Fate and A Day to Remember and other bands I don't know. ._. I want to see Flogging Molly (don't judge meeee) and Meg & Dia (don't judge meeeee), but in the end, that's okay. I think we are going to be seeing Breathe Carolina, so that's awesome.

I haven't been able to be keeping up with my Japanese, but I'm maybe halfway through Their Eyes Were Watching God. I'm liking it a lot more than I thought I would.

That's pretty much all that's going on. I'd write more in depth, or better, but I'm watching a movie and I'm distracted. So.

- Clark Gable is the BEST MAN (whois,sadly,nolonger) ALIVE. Okay, so maybe not the best, but definitely one of, and I need to see more movies he stars in.

- I saw Gone With The Wind today and it was really good but really sad but really long but really good. :D: It gets a happy/sad face.

- I need to see more classic movies, because they're just really excellent. And you know? Classic books are too. I should read more of those (especially the ones I've been assigned).

- I am going to get my ears double or even triple pierced. Probably, I will have one of my friends help me with it, but then I wonder, does it hurt a whole lot? I think it'd be worth it, though.

- I'm not going to dye my hair for a good long while. Over a year, at any rate. Everybody! Hold me to it!

- In the same fashion that NY <3's NY, the Old South <3's the Old South. That is to say, every movie or book which talks about the Old South, or any character in any movie or book who talks about it, absolutely *loves* it because everything was so very quaint and idyllic! Even if it wasn't really.

Today was job hunting day, but saying job poaching day gives it a whole new level of pizazz and edginess, right? (Sadly, no.)

I applied to two places that were definitely hiring, and one place that was unclear as to whether it was hiring or not, was told at three places that they were not hiring (and two said to try again around August), and then three places weren't hiring but put the application on file. I feel so jittery, just going through the whole process. It's all quite uncomfortable — but if I get a job, it will be ABUNDANTLY worthwhile!

In other news, I worked on an animation for the first time in many many months. I'm going to try to finish it, or at least make significant progress, before summer is over. Of course, I should probably be thinking more about summer work (for school, not for cash).

Uh. I really wish I had more to say. But I don't. It's been really rainy lately. I know the Japanese word for rain: 雨／あめ／ame. I have no idea if that kanji is right, though. And that's really all I have to say.

RIP Michael Jackson.
._.

I should learn the thriller dance.

The place where I had an interview did not hire me, because it plans on selling alcohol, so it's back to square one for me. When I told my friend this, she misheard and thought I said "back to swear one." She was then like, "So... which would that be?" Which WOULD it be, el jay? What's the first swear...?

So that I don't forget it, I'm going to use some quick Japanese. Uh... わたしはなんさいですか？ろくじゅさいです。ローズちゃんもろくじゅさいです。ローズちゃんのうちわここです。コンビニはとてもちかいです。わたしのうちわとういでそ。 I suppose that's all I'm going to get for now. I've very tired. u.u

Uh. I've drawn two new pictures recently! They're at Amanen, my dA account. I want to do a LOT of art this summer, as well as learning Japanese. But right now, I need to focus on getting a job. I'm not sure if I'll have time to get applications tomorrow, so it may have to wait until Friday.

That's all so far. It's summer, so not much has been happening other than spending lots of time with my friends. Nn.

School's out hooraaay!

While I am definitely super happy, it was a kind of strange ending for school, I guess in part because of yesterday, when I left early since I had finished all my finals, and there was nothing else to do that day. When I came back for the half day of school today, it was just... odd. No class did anything, and barely anyone was in school. It had this strange surreal feeling to it, and it went by in the blink of an eye. This whole year has been so difficult, so frustrating, and for a long time it was like I was fighting back at it, or something. But then it just ended like a puff of smoke -- sort of like a puff of smoke dissipating in a room. It isn't immediately gone, or noticeably gone right I way. You notice when it's gone, and you noticed when it was there, but it just faded out in between.

I guess I can't really describe it well. Still, now that it's done, I can focus on summer work and Japanese. Also, the other day, I picked up Lolita to see if I could actually read it. The very first time I picked it up, I put it right back down again at the first sentence. The next time, I put it down about twenty pages in. This time, I got further, but I still just had to put it down. I'll give it to Nabakov, he is good at writing someone who is downright creepy.

In other news, I saw Donnie Darko and She's One of Us (a French film), and neither made any sense, really. I guess D.D. made some sense, but the French one had absolutely no coherency; it was bizarre. They are apparently making a sequel to Donnie Darko? About his sister? (Will this one make more sense?)

In conclusion, school is over, and I got A's on all my finals! except algebra which I didn't find out my score on Yay!

I remember thinking in seventh grade, "This is so tough and not fun, I am never going to be nostalgic about any of *this* crap!" Now, a sophomore and safely away from seventh grade, I can think of a lot of things I loved about seventh grade. I guess there must've been a lot of bad stuff, but there was so much good stuff, and so many fun things. So I do feel nostalgic about it. Sorry, 12/13-year-old me. I wonder if I'll ever find myself feeling nostalgic about this year? ... I suppose I probably will.

What prompts this sudden bout of oh-those-were-the-days-only-not-really-but-still is the fact that I was at my friend's house the other night, who I befriended in 7th grade, and we were watching old shows and listening to old music, and it just made me remember all the stuff I really loved in middle school.

On an unrelated note, when I was babysitting on Thursday, the kids wanted to play soccer. So, the five-year-old is a big fan of Bejeweled (that game which is on the internet and ubiquitous on cell phones), so at one point while we were playing soccer he said, "Let's do different mode of soccer! Let's play... BEJEWELED SOCCER!" Which apparently meant whenever he scored a goal he went on to the next level, and sometimes he'd say, "No more moves!" which is what the video game says whenever you can't match any jewels together. Also, he'd sometimes say "A new high score!" or something like that. It was pretty funny.

Today, I took my last algebra II quiz of the year. YES. Now, I just have to survive the final! YESSSSSSSSSS.

With only seven days left of school (AWESOME), I'm trying to figure out what I should do with my summer. I think my top priority is to get a job/finish applying to OGSHS, followed up closely by intensive study of Japanese and Japan itself. But I also have to do my English summer work and my history summer work.

So, I'm probably going to be rather busy this summer. But you know? That's good, because if I don't keep busy, I languish. Or... become languid? There's a word/phrase I'm looking for, but I cannot find it. Ah, well.

Anyway, I'm going to go and remember things. Yes, remembering things can be an active activity at times, if you've got a lot to remember.

Or maybe I'll just read Native Son.

So, today! I went to graduation.

• Graduation, or as our principal insists on calling it, "commencement practices." Or, "commencement exercises." I think it's the latter. Anyway, she should either just call it graduation or commencement, because the seniors have to do so much practicing and exercising prior to the real deal that calling the real deal "practices" or "exercises" is a bit confusing.
• So many of my friends graduated this year, even more than last year, and I will miss them profoundly, I'm sure.
• My friend in my grade was there too, so I got to hang out with her, and two kids who had graduated last year. It is always good to hang out with people.
• I got to wear my summer dress! I was so excited and happy. I must get more dresses (some day, when I magically have that strange, intangible idea, "disposable income") because they are comfy and easy to wear, like shorts.
• The graduation song was "World's Greatest" by R. Kelly. One little corner of the students graduating was doing the whole swaying-back-and-forth thing. I wish everyone had done it, because if they were REALLY the world's greatest, they'd know that such songs demand silly, hippie-style swaying.
• A couple of people threw their caps at the end. At college graduations, that's when people throw their caps en masse, right?

After that, I went to a friend's graduation party, which was pretty nice, although I sadly was leaving before many people showed up. We did get to play some murderous badminton though. MURDEROUS, I tell you.

Also, everyone's favorite (read as, my and my friends' favorite) history teacher will finish her 10th year of teaching this year, so a friend and I got her a card and a Che Guevara doll, because if there's anything history doesn't have enough of, it's Che Guevara icons.