Robin says it's a tradition to wear new yellow underwear on New Year's Eve for good luck. So she bought me some while she was out shopping today. How sweet! Are you all set with your yellow underwear?

Have a safe and happy New Year celebration if you haven't yet.

Okay, so it's the last-blog-of-the-session so I have to come up with something fun for all of you Thundering Hordes of Readers who have been sent here by Blogger (why hasn't that been fixed yet? I'm not complaining, but I'm surprised...).

So... um. Alfie and I just spent hours deciding who we would kill. Have a crack at it.

I am listening to Texas' "Guitar Song". Mmmmmm. Texas sampling from Gainsbourg - does it get any better than that? If you don't know Serge Gainsbourg, you ought to.

Leave us a blah blah, will you, duckies, and tell us something interesting. What are you doing for the New Year? Are you making resolutions? What's your favorite flavour of ice cream? Do you like John Hannah? Where are you from? Do you just want to say hi and leave your website URL in the blah blahs?

<-- I made that ad in MS Paint. Yeah, I have mad technical skills. Don't laugh.

It's a little late for this announcement, but for my money, this is the best Christmas movie of them all. Especially the singing vegetables.

Definition of a blog.

I've spent the last two days trying to convince my dad and Alex that it's better to be a girl than a boy because girls have a much more interesting selection of socks available to them. I don't think they're convinced.

Not that I am planning anything like that. Don't be frightened, Roommate. Or Alex, for that matter.

If Boyfriend and I ever got married, I would be Sarah Rivera. Ack.

What song was playing when I woke up this morning? Brazil. How odd... am I really awake yet?

Off I go to bed (it's about time!) When you're finished here, why not check out one of my Blogs of Note?

Boa noite. <-- I am becoming a regular Portuguese expert! Or not!

1. What was your biggest accomplishment this year?
Becoming mentally stable enough (quiet in the peanut gallery) and comfortable enough with myself to handle having a boyfriend, the creation of the International Student Union, second semester in France, 4.0 GPA for this past semester... boy, am I accomplished.

2. What was your biggest disappointment?
Erm... boy, seems like I'm pretty positive for once. Gradually losing my French?

3. Will you be making any New Year's resolutions?
I'm going to try to be a better person. I think I was a good person when I was a freshman in college - that was probably the epitome of my goodness. I'd like to go back to that and think of others, be nicer to people, be understanding, and go out of my way for people. I'm sure it won't last. :(

4. Where do you wish you were celebrating?
Erm, here is good. If I could somehow manage to be with everyone I love, all over the world, then that would be sweeeeeet.

5. What do you plan to do for New Year's Eve?
I'll be celebrating with El Patito and family, rather than vegging on the couch with my family as in past years. Whatever - either is good.

Robert Bullen blows.

(I just made the announcement for the sake of saying that... but you might as well go to Roommate's concert while you're at it.)

Blogger's really having issues these days. Once again, I'm typing my posts up in Notepad so I can post them all later, when the system's back up again.

(note: Obviously it's back up now that I'm posting...)

It makes me happy to be reading someone's blog and discover my own BlogSnob ad there.

I heard a commercial on the radio where a choir of men are singing about how they like Arbor Mist brand wine better than monster trucks. Maybe I'm being a snob, but I don't think I want to drink the kind of wine that appeals to monster truck fans. Eek.

I've added a Blog of Note: my old friend Annica. I haven't kept in touch with her in a while, but I visited her site and noticed she had a blog, so there it goes. I've put the title down as Skittles?, but in the page source, the title is:

But the only thing that scares me is Keyser Soze.

Hee hee, An and her Usual Suspects. Here is a handy phrase from the phrasebook just for you, An: Jag talar inte svenska.

Went to see FOTR again, this time with my family. I cried when Sam came along with Frodo again. It seemed a lot scarier this time, because instead of having Mr Lord Of The Rings Expert with me, who knew the story and was just wondering how they'd express it, I had a four-year-old (who should not have been there) in front of me and my mother next to me, screaming and clutching my arm in terror when hobbits popped out of the corn fields.

I was very impressed with the four-year-old. He held out for a long time. Before the movie started, I thought 'I'm not sure this is a good movie for such a young child'. And as the movie went on and there were scary demons and Orcs and whatever those Orc-goblin hybrids were called, I was sure of it. And I was scared enough for him. He did end up asking his dad to leave, but he held out through at least half of the movie. Brave little boy.

It's not so much the cookie I'm interested in, so much as the wonderful array of awful celebrity photos.

Darned Blogger is down, so I'm typing all of this into Word while waiting. La la la.

I got many lovely presents, including The Sims Hot Date, which will ensure that I never have to venture into the real world again, and a European phrase book, which will enable me to say děkuji, tak, dank u wel, kiitos, merci, danke, ευχαριστώ, köszönöm, grazie, takk, dziękuję, obrigada, gracias and tack instead of "thank you".

I have psychic powers. Or half a psychic power. As I demanded, I got snow just in time for xmas, but the part about it all disappearing by the 26th fell through.

I'm very upset because I went to Big Ten party store yesterday to buy some alcohol for someone for xmas and I didn't get carded. Me! This is upsetting to me because:

(a) A young-looking person was able to buy alcohol and not get carded and

(b) Said young-looking person was me.

I was quite looking forward to being carded for the first time. I think it's scary that someone as young-looking as me was able to buy alcohol. Just to prove that I wasn't having an old-looking day, I asked the waitress (Ginger) at Applebee's how old she thought I was and she said 16.

Four things you'd eat on the last day of your life:
death by chocolate
creme brulee
chicken soup
Andy Smerczak's pierogis (sounds dirty)

Four names for an adorable new puppy:
Daisy
Fuzzhead
Kitty
Goldfish (I like to give animals identity crises. I am cruel)

Your four least favorite CDs from your collection:
The Brady Bunch Movie soundtrack
Ophelie Winter "Je marche à l'envers" single
CD player lens cleaning disc
No Lies <-- free Christian music CD

Four movies that made you think:
Le fabuleux destin d'Amélie Poulain
Pandaemonium
The Sixth Sense
Sliding Doors

Four celebrities you would have sex with:
John Hannah
Kevin Kline
Edward Windsor
Sir Ian McKellen if he didn't run away too fast <-- Boyfriend's suggestion

Four shades of blue:
navy blue
midnight blue
sky blue
aqua

Four causes to which you'd donate money if you won the lottery:
Oxfam
me
PBS
UMGASS

Four vacations you have taken:
South Carolina
Louisiana
Toronto
Limoges/Carcassonne/Nimes

Four songs that frequently get stuck in your head:
Butterfly - Crazy Town
If I Only Had a Brain - The Wizard of Oz
Smooth Criminal - Alien Ant Farm
Theme from The Smurfs

Four things you'd like to learn:
Spanish
Bulgarian
Arabic
How To Win Friends and Influence People <-- not really, but I really should have a goal other than learning languages...

Four beverages you drink frequently:
tea
chocolate milk
water
lemonade

Four TV shows that were on when you were a kid:
Alf
Alf
Alf
Polka Dot Door

Four places to go in your city:
The Arb(oretum)
Art Fair
Hash Bash
Michigan Theatre

Four things to do with a rubber band:
tie your hair back
shoot it at Brian
put it in the box of rubber bands in the ultra-clean supply closet
keep a poster from unrolling

(via Formica)

OH MY GOD, that dessert was lovely. Hhhhhhhhhhhhh... <-- shudders of joy

It had quite a layer of Kahlua in it, though. I think little Srah-can't-hold-her-liquor has gotten a little goofy from the stuff that the brownies were soaked in. Shall I ansher the phone like thish?

Maybe I'm just naturally goofy. It's so hard to tell with me. It would be really sad and pathetic if that was enough to get me tipsy.

The Detroit Free Press gave Jimmy Neutron: Boy Genius three stars.

Pardon me, that gagging noise would be me, choking on my index finger. I've had to put up with those stupid previews for months now. The LEAST awaited movie of the year.

"I may not be smart... but I've got a BIG HEAD!"

Friday Five:

1. What is the weirdest thing you've ever eaten?
Goat cheese is weird-tasting but not that exotic. I've had snails, rabbit, and ostrich. Not too exciting. And I like it that way.

2. Name one (material) thing you can't live without.
Computer!

3. Name something you've always wanted to do but didn't have time for.
Learn five or six languages.

4. What outrageous thing do you wish you had the nerve to do?
Go to a country where I don't speak the language and try to learn it there. And somehow find a job that doesn't require language skills. :)

5. How do you plan to spend your weekend?
Shopping, but I'd rather be doing something fun.

A caller to the library just told me I was wonderful for helping him. Warm glowy feeling.

Much better than the guy who talked to me like I had the intellect of a seven year old just because I was answering the phone...

Mick McCabe has a solution to the high school sports inequity problem: disadvantage everybody. Hee hee hee.

Oh dear, they're making Shrek 2. Shrek was amusing enough, but once was enough and I saw it twice so I'd rather not see it again for several years ifyoudon'tmind. But I have a feeling it's one of those movies that I didn't like but that were popular enough that people will want to watch it all the time and I will get trapped seeing it seventeen thousand times until I get to the point where someone pulls out the video and I leap at their throats, teeth bared, and maul them like a wolverine. Other movies like this: Grease, Dirty Dancing, Ferris Bueller's Day Off.

(Hint: srah does not want Shrek for Christmas.)

Do you think the people in Shrek looked realistic? I don't. They looked fake and they didn't move like real people do. We don't have the technology yet. Will someone please tell Hollywood? There was only one point in The Fellowship of the Ring (and now I don't remember where it was) where I had that creepy Shrek-feeling, but I noticed it a lot more in Harry Potter - like when Neville flies into the air and falls off his broom, most of the Quidditch sequence, and when they're fighting the troll. We do not have the technology to replace stunt-people with CGI-animated people. It looks stupid and cartoonish. So stop it! Even if you're fighting a CGI troll, there are ways around it. You can cover up a stand-in troll with the CGI and put a real stuntperson on top. It can be done! That's how they had to do it back in the old days!

This made me think of this.

I prefer the pronunciation "AR-ka-vul" (I wish I had a schwa! Oh phonemic transcription, tu me manques!) to "ar-KY-vul". And "AR-ka-vist" to "ar-KY-vist".

Where's my cookie?

Boyfriend was offended by previous complaining Golden Globes post. It was not to say that there have been no good movies, but that there isn't much competition for his beloved Fellowship of the Ring. The year in movies has been top-light and very very bottom-heavy.

What a sad sad slow year this has been for movies. Echhhhhhhhhhhhhhhh. I hope Amélie gets nominated for the Best Picture Oscar.

SEVEN researchers and an ever-ringing phone! (La sonnerie du téléphone est sempiternel, to use my French word-of-the-day...) Why do they torment me so?

I cried and cried during Fellowship of the Ring last night. This may have had something to do with my post office experiences and my lack of sleep, but anyway... It was very good and very epic. I was going to say "I especially liked..." but I especially liked everyone.

A post about my study-abroad experiences will come during today's staff meeting, Krista. It seems like all they do around here anymore is have staff meetings.

I'm somnambulating through the work day. I need some sleep, but it shan't be tonight, as I'm baking cookies with Robin after work, then Boyfriend and I are going to see Frodo & Pals in the evening.

People say that the French are rude, but in the French post office, they were nothing but helpful and nice. In the United States, on the other hand...

I went to the post office to mail Denis and Sophie's presents to France. In order to save time, I used one of the Bentley's Priority Mail boxes, which Bill very nicely let me have for free. I was going to send it Priority Mail anyway, so that was handy. Then when Amy, my mom and I went out to lunch, I popped over to the post office while they were waiting for the table to be ready.

The post office was surprisingly empty. I figure now that everyone must have known about Ugly Suspenders Man and gone to another branch, but I didn't. I got in line, then I was called and I walked up to the counter.

I put my box down on the counter and said "I'd like to send this to France." The clerk, who will now be known as Ugly Suspenders Man (because he was ugly and had suspenders, not because his suspenders were ugly) looked at the box and looked at me. He said nothing, but stared at me as if to say "Why do you exist?" After a while I got sick of being stared at and said, "Can I send this like this?"

"No," he replied quite simply.

"Is it the box?" I asked.

"It says here [once, very small where the postage is supposed to go - I hadn't seen it but that's no excuse for him to be rude] that this is for the United States and U.S. possessions. Last time I checked, France didn't fit that."

Isn't that a rude and nasty way of putting it? Maybe it's just me. He suggested that I come back and try again later, as in "Leave my post office and come back when I'm not working." I asked if it would be possible to send it if I changed the box, and did they have any boxes I could use? Could he possibly suggest one, or be in some way helpful?" USM replied that there was "one of those left over there, but you'll have to pay for it and you'll have to repack it and go to the end of the line." I loved how he added the end of the line bit, as though I were going to push up to the front of the line just to see him again sooner.

The worst part of it is that I felt like he was abusing me just because I look young... and that made me want to go crying to my mommy.

On a happier note, someone brought pistachios to the library today. They were big and very yummy. If they're small, it's hardly worth all the trouble to get them out of the shell.

Are pistachios nuts? Or are they legumes, like peanuts are?

Yesterday I had nothing to do most of the morning. No one had any projects for me, so I just sat around checking my email and feeling marginally guilty because I was getting paid to do nothing. Then they came up with something for me to do: clean out the supply closet. Ack! There is letterhead in there from at least 25 years ago and there are thousands of typewriter ribbons. What a disaster area.

But it sure looked a lot better this afternoon, when I had to do 377 photocopies - most of which were from books or fragile papers. AAAAAAAAAAAAAAH!

These dratted things...

1. LIVING ARRANGEMENT? Me parents' house at the moment, doanchaknow. When not in me parents' house, the luverly International House (this answer typed with an Irish accent for no reason whatsoever).

2. WHAT BOOK ARE YOU READING NOW? The Fellowship of the Ring. Supposedly. Still haven't gotten past Tom Bombadil, whatever he is.

3. WHAT'S ON YOUR MOUSE PAD? I bought it at the gift shop at Edinburgh's Dynamic Earth, which is wonderful. Everyone should go. And the mousepad ain't bad either.

4. FAVORITE BOARD GAME? Trivial Pursuit

5. FAVORITE MAGAZINE? Premiere, Empire

6. FAVORITE SMELLS? Peach-scented stuff, nice-smelling boys, baked goods

7. LEAST FAVORITE SMELLS? I'm going to have to go along with Roommate and say B.O.

8. FAVORITE SOUND? The gentle hum/scary grinding of my CPU. No, I don't know. Music. Birds tweeting. Nope, gonna have to go back to the computer. AHA! French men talking.

9. WORST FEELING(S) IN THE WORLD? Guilt or remorse

10. WHAT IS THE FIRST THING YOU THINK ABOUT WHEN YOU WAKE UP? Mmmmrrrghphhhhhlllllrrggggmmmm (direct quote from my brain)

11. FAVORITE COLORS? I always say green, but that may just be out of habit rather than actually really liking green that much. For a change, I'll say red.

12. HOW MANY RINGS BEFORE YOU ANSWER THE PHONE? *Answer* the phone?

13. FUTURE CHILD'S NAME? Murgatroyd and Guppy. I don't feel like wasting brainpower to come up with a serious answer for this right now. I like French names.

14. WHAT IS MOST IMPORTANT IN LIFE? Experiences

15. FAVORITE FOODS? Anything with lots of flavors and variety. Especially if you can eat it with your hands. Srah no believe in silverware.

16. CHOCOLATE OR VANILLA? Ice cream? Vanilla.

17. DO YOU LIKE TO DRIVE FAST? Sometimes. Sometimes I get lost in thought and slow down to 25 in a 45mph zone until I get honked at.

18. DO YOU SLEEP WITH A STUFFED ANIMAL? Nein. Not nine, nein. Piggy and Pan-pan reside on my bed, but they aren't usually invited inside.

19. STORMS-- COOL OR SCARY? Coooooooooooo.

20. WHAT TYPE WAS YOUR FIRST CAR? 1987 Honda Civic

21. IF YOU COULD MEET ONE PERSON DEAD OR ALIVE WHO WOULD IT BE? Christopher Brookmyre

22. FAVORITE ALCOHOLIC DRINK? If I have a great honking hunk of cheese, I want some red wine to wash it down. Otherwise, anything that will cover up the taste of alcohol. Or hey, why don't we just not put any alcohol in it in the first place?

23. WHAT IS YOUR ZODIAC SIGN? Virgo

24. DO YOU EAT THE STEMS OF BROCCOLI? Yes - not because I like them but because it's rude to eat the nice leafy-part and leave the trunk on your plate.

25. IF YOU COULD HAVE ANY JOB YOU WANTED WHAT WOULD IT BE? I would be paid to promote movies and represent actors internationally by creating websites, posters, etc. I would meet famous people and be required and paid to fly around the world to do so. I think I just made this job up. Someone please give me a sack of money to do this.

26. IF YOU COULD DYE YOUR HAIR ANY COLOR? Glorious red highlights! I don't friggin' know.

27. IS THE GLASS HALF EMPTY OR HALF FULL? Depends on the situation and whether I want it to be full or empty.

28. FAVORITE MOVIES? Sliding Doors, Le fabuleux destin d'Amélie Poulain, Pandaemonium

29. DO YOU TYPE WITH YOUR FINGERS ON THE RIGHT KEYS? Youbetcha.

30. WHAT'S UNDER YOUR BED? At home: piles and piles of junk. At school: my roommate. The difference? You tell me. Hee hee hee.

31. WHAT IS YOUR FAVORITE NUMBER? 84. Why the hell not?

33. SAY ONE NICE THING ABOUT THE PERSON WHO SENT THIS? Roommate is a swell chum.

34. PERSON YOU SENT THIS TO WHO IS MOST LIKELY TO RESPOND? Uhhhhhhh....

35. PERSON WHO YOU SENT THIS TO WHO IS LEAST LIKELY TO RESPOND? n/a

36. WHAT CD (OR TAPE) DO YOU HAVE IN YOUR STEREO RIGHT NOW? The CD I burned for Denis for xmas

37. FAVORITE TV SHOW? Whose Line is it Anyway, The Simpsons, Saturday Night Live

38. WHAT IS YOUR EARLIEST MEMORY? The morning I woke up and my mommy had gone to the hospital to have a baby. Unfortunately, they brought it home with them afterwards. Hee hee.

39. FAVORITE LYRIC RIGHT NOW: "J'aime, j'aime tes yeux, j'aime ton odeur, toutes tes gestes en douceur, lentement dirigés, sensualité"
- "Sensualité", Axelle Red

I went out to Starbucks (evil evil tasty Starbucks) with Roommate and we kept talking about terrorism, snorting cocaine and U-M football players masturbating - and hoping that the people around us weren't listening too closely to what we were saying. We went out for a quick drink and ended up coming home something like 2.5 hours later. Wow! It's weird how we can sit across the room from each other and say nothing other than "Hey monkey ass" but then when we go out for coffee, we lose track of time talking. Roommate is a swell chum.

I keep hearing this song on WNIC (Nice Soft Hits for Old People) that's rather blatantly about a passenger on one of the hijacked planes from September 11th and how he's a hero and an angel and blah blah blah. I'm glad it hasn't spread to the other stations because it's not a very good song and it isn't very subtle at all AND it starts out with him picking out socks which seems to be just so they can rhyme it with whatever the next line is. I wonder if the lyrics are online.

Here's the link to A Prairie Home Companion's Ann Arbor episode this Saturday. My favorite part is when he talks about Ann Arbor.

Why do I get so many hits on Monday and not the rest of the week? Do you think you've missed something important over the weekend? You probably haven't. Last night I saw The Piano and Rush Hour 2. What a combination.

I hate Ann Arbor. Pretty soon, everyone in the town will be required to have a Blue parking permit because there will be no pay parking in town. The structure I wanted to park in has become Permit Only so I had to park waaay across town in the oddest structure ever.

Rather than the take-a-ticket system most Ann Arbor structures have, this structure had a pay-in-advance thing. It was a $2 flat rate for the whole day (which *was* a better bargain than $1.05 an hour for the three hours or so I was at Cheryl's graduation party - but still) and you had to pay in a machine. Unfortunately, the smallest I had was a $10 bill. So I put it in the machine and what did it give me in change? SEVEN SACAGAEWEA DOLLARS AND A SUSAN B. ANTHONY. I probably spelled Sacagaewea wrong. So anyway, I've been trying to get rid of them all day.

I bought Becky and myself some candy and got rid of two of them. I used five of them to pay for parking at the hockey game tonight (and boy was the attendant happy to see them! Especially since they probably looked like quarters in the dark). Then we went to Cosi with Bob'n'Robin and their friends and I payed Robin back for my s'mores with the last one.

I don't like having dollar coins - they're a pain to carry around and they make me want to spend spend spend to get rid of them. That's what they should do to get us out of this recession - mint more golden dollars.

By the way, I don't really hate Ann Arbor. Garrison Keillor was there tonight and he had a lot of fun and very true things to say about the town... something about people wearing expensive hippie-looking clothing and talking like socialists while eating in a nice restaurant? I'll have to write down the exact quote when it comes online. Boyfriend went to high school with one of the musical guests.

Reasons I don't like being at home (so far):

1) The Internet connection is really slow.
2) I mean reeeeeeeeally slow.
3) It took me, like, half an hour to get through to the Blogger website.

I like chocolate-covered cherries. Not the echhy kind with white creme in the middle, but the kind with some thick red cherry-flavored liquid. Mmmmmm. Cella's makes good ones, as do (I think) Whitman's. But mostly you see the white-creme ones around.

I'm just sayin'... if some good chocolate-covered cherries found their way under my Christmas tree, I wouldnae be complaining...

One of the tea-time topics of conversation: Does a tattoo of Snoopy constitute copyright infringement? Of course, we also talked about body piercings, fighting on airplanes, the library hockey team and researcher horror stories.

When I actually get up the nerve to wear a skirt, it makes me feel girly and rather happy. I don't know why. It takes a lot of effort to get me into a skirt, though, because I feel so self-conscious about being dressed up when I do.

My hair needs help, though. I wish I could find a haircut that I could wash and air-dry and it would look normal. It tends to shape itself around my ears and stick out funny.

Dark Horizons is pretty. I just finished the Tom Bombadil chapter of Fellowship of the Ring. Will I get it done by next Wednesday? Only time will tell.

I'm boring today. Sorry. (Readers are thinking to themselves: 'Today?...')

It snowed! It snowed! It snew!

Blaaaaaaaargh.

I am excited because I am a cheap excuse for a temp this vacation.

I want my grades. We're supposed to get them a week from today. Arrrrrrrrr.

"I don't want to be a dead whore."
- Ligia

Ligia and Marian came to Ann Arbor to visit us last night. We went to see Shallow Hal, which was much better than expected, then went out to Steak & Shake. We stayed out way too late considering I had to work today, but all in all, it was a good experience.

We decided the boys were lost foreigners we picked up at the airport and we were going to pimp them off into a life of male prostitution in exchange for feeding them hamburgers.

I helped a Newbery Award winning author with a locker today. Everyone together: "Oooooh, ahhhhhh." My life is so exciting.

I also had some thoughts during the course of the day, but I've forgotten them all now. Greaaaaaaat.

This is what I'm going to turn into...

Bob and Roommate say I'm Bette Davis in All About Eve. Reading the summary, I have to say that's a little scary. Now I have to rent it.

I had a dream last night that Alex's parents were coming so I was hanging out at this gas station/café across the street from the airport and looking at the clouds passing by, which had penguins dressed in suits floating on them. I made the observation that penguins are the only animal besides humans that wear clothes.

Then I did some kind of switch à la Parent Trap with this complete stranger and had to go live in her host family's house. Her parents had a lot of good travel books but they were insanely strict and my roommate kept having to sneak in and out of the house to see me. Just before I woke up, the mother caught me with four people in my room (Roommate, Roommate's new best friend Bob Simmering, and Alex) and just looked at me wide-eyed. I said defiantly, "Is there a problem? Were we talking too loudly and woke you up?" She just pursed her lips and asked if I was coming to Mass in the morning, at which point I turned around and looked panicked at the others in the room because I don't know how to fake being Catholic and I didn't want to have to for the rest of my life (which is apparently how long the switch was going to last).

I am so annoying with these stupid quizzes.

But they give me such pretty HTML code when I take them and I want to put it on my webpage and they changed the staplers from the Swingline to the Boston but I kept my stapler and they moved my desk and I'm going to burn this place down...

(via Hat)

The Editing Room makes me giggle. (via Bob via Krista via Hat)

What would you think of someone who had a former friend/acquaintance who she now not only avoided but talked about behind their back, trying to convince others to dislike them as well? What if that person offered her a gift and she accepted it, not because she really wanted it or anything, but just for the sake of mooching free stuff off that friend? Then what if the person threw a party and she purposely avoided it?

Yerm. Srah is not a nice person. "She" would be me and the former friend would be the Honors Institute.

That's pretty crummy. I'm going to make a New Year's/earlier resolution to try to be nicer (to people in general, not just the HI) and to follow Thumper's advice: If you can't say nothin' nice, don't say nothin' at all.

Eric, Albion's God of MP3s, has offered me a lovely afternoon of playing with penguins. Someday, I shall take a shower.

<-- This is a pudú. They live in Chile and are tiny little deer-like creatures. I haven't had a picture in a while, so I thought I would share it for your viewing enjoyment and so that you might learn about foreign fauna.

I got an email from Wil Wheaton. Don't be jealous now.

I'm just going to keep posting and when Blogger feels like cooperating, the posts will appear. Argh.

Why would someone search on "insolite greeting card"? Well, I'm number one!

I had a 'ripping lentil soup' in Women in Art class today (virtual high-five if you can beat Alfie in identifying the quote) and Dr Yewah ended our last French class of the semester by telling us we should listen to "Car Talk" on NPR.

It feels like September today. Or maybe spring. Whatever it is, it is wholly inappropriate for December. It's wrong it's wrong it's wrong. But please, Gods of Weather, do not pay attention to me. Even though I can't deal with this warm weather in my little walnut-brain, I don't want the cold weather to come. Here is my weather request:

Exactly like this all through the winter except for December 24th and 25, when it will be nice and snowy. The snow will melt and the icky sludge and mud will disappear by the 26th.

Thank you for your attention.

I think Blogger and Albion are having some kind of FTP argument that's screwing up my weblog. Waaaaaahhh.

I finally got through and saw Wil Wheaton's site for the first time. Nothing spectacular in the blog world, but it's nice to know that he's quite down to earth and not all Hollywoodized.

"We will not consume things that have been up my nasal cavity."
- Roommate

I suppose you were not aware of the Seamy Drug Culture of the Room of Sarahs. I'm afraid I must admit that under the current stress of the Finals Week situation, the inhabitants of our room are presently partaking of a variety of substances, including Vitamin C, multivitamins, calcium, Extra Strength Tylenol [tm], tea, chicken soup, and a purple Taz vitamin.

I bought real grown-up vitamins, but it turns out my delicate gag reflex won't let me swallow them. Poor baby.

Take the Affliction Test Today!
Dinnae say you didnae see that one coming...
[Why am I typing in a Scottish accent? Happens sometimes. Must be the rabies.]

Meg from not.so.soft went to one of the United World Colleges,
which I had never heard of, but it sounds like an amazing idea.

JDay and Becky, I have added you to the characters list just because you complained enough. Congratulations.

I gave my presentation on Chile this morning. Not so bad, but nothing spectacular. Then I came back to the room and zoned out until 11, when I went to see Noises Off... in Bob's room.

Oh dearie me, what a funny movie. It's about a theatre company putting on a British sex farce and trying to get to Broadway, but the goings-on behind the scenes are even crazier than what's going on on stage. It has Michael Caine as the director, Carol Burnett as the star, John Ritter (no really, it's good, I swear) as the annoying jealous actor who's having an affair with Carol Burnett and can't finish a single sentence, Christopher Reeve as the sensitive dumb guy who gets nosebleeds at the thought of violence, Indiana Jones' friend Marcus Brody as the drunken, deaf, senile actor playing the burglar, and Larry from Perfect Strangers (Mark Linn-Baker) as the bewildered stagehand.

Lloyd Fellowes (Michael Caine): And God said, "Where the Hell is Tim?" And there the Hell was Tim. And God said, "Let there be doors that open when they open, and close when they close."
Tim Allgood (Mark Linn-Baker): Do something?
Lloyd Fellowes: DOORS!
Tim Allgood: I was getting the bananas for the sardines.

Mwah ha. You'd get it if you saw it. Oh yeah, and Patti LuPone is playing Carol Burnett's part on Broadway right now. :D

For some reason the members of SAI are all standing in a line in the I-House lobby in their white dresses. I haven't decided if they look like a cult or a bunch of virgins preparing to be sacrificed to the gods. Sororities are creeeeeeeepy.

Follow-up on previous post - Alex reports that his passport is in Spanish with the English translations written underneath. Sigh...

Just went to Kmart with Alex to pick up his Western Union transfer. Four things about it were quite interesting.

1) "Do you have any kind of identification besides this passport?" - I get that you can't read Spanish. Maybe you don't even know that that is Spanish you're reading (see speaking Chilean). But passports are accepted at borders the world over and I should think they would be enough for Kmart. Anyone who's ever seen a passport knows that they generally have the same information on them, so just ask the bearer to point out which is the expiration date and passport number if you can't figure them out. I don't think it is going to do Alex much good to try to pass off his birthday as his passport number.

2) Alex's first name - This one is, for once, not a reflection on American ignorance but rather some kind of problem on the Chilean end: Alex's first name was in the transfer file as "Alen"

3) Alex's middle name - "Alen" is not that funny on its own, but it's a lot funnier when you put it together with his middle name, which was displayed as "Patricia". Hee hee hee.

4) Where are you from, anyway? - Alex signed the check several times and the guy down the counter said "You signed that twice. Was it once in English and once in Arabic?" Even though Alex doesn't look particularly Arab, I could sort of get it. He swooped all over the place - it didn't particularly look like Roman lettering, we've been dealing with this kid for several minutes while he processes his money transfer and he's using a passport as ID. He's 'furren' and might as well be Arab. HOWEVER...

4a) this comes on top of Speaking Chilean Computer Lab Guy, who originally thought Alex was Nepalese AND

4b) after Alex explained that people just sort of wrote all big and loopy and all over the place in LATIN AMERICAN countries ("hint hint that I am neither Arab nor Nepalese" unsaid Alex) the guy went on to talk about how signatures were hard enough to read in English and he couldn't imagine writing them both ways. Strangely enough, Spanish and English use the same alphabet.

Alex is a nice guy and doesn't take things personally. That's my job. Actually, this time I found it surprisingly amusing rather than offensive.

Which reminds me that according to Incessantly Talking Girl, "In Hispanic countries, women are considered as second-class citizens, isn't that right Bille?"

Krista's question of the week has to do with roommate horror stories. I don't really have anything to share. My roommate-experiences at Albion have been quite positive.

Freshman year I was matched up with Stephanie. We don't see much of each other anymore but I think we worked quite well when we were living together. At the beginning, it was quite strange, because we kept finding new things that we had in common - from the language major (Spanish for her, French for me) to the fact that we had the same towels. But anyway, we lived in peace and happiness and were friends rather than people forced to sleep in the same room by the Evil Whims of Residential Life.

When it came time to pick a roommate for sophomore year, Stephanie was no longer available (for one reason then another, but we won't go into that) so I ended up in a situation that never in my wildest imagination would I have thought of a year earlier: living with Roommate. Well, maybe a year, but not two. I started warming up to her once I found out she was going to Albion. Point is, Roommate and I went to high school together and had friends in common, but were not exactly happy friendy-friends. Hmm. But once we were at Albion and needed familiar faces to eat dinner with, things worked out. Worked out enough that our friendship and discovered appliance-compatibility (I had the fridge and TV, she had the VCR, microwave, etc.) brought us together as camarades de chambre. That and the fact that she has a kick-ass Hot Pot. That is the whole reason we live together, but don't tell her.

So sophomore year we lived together in Spanish House first semester, then 'moved on up' to the Bowling Alley of German House. Mmmm: closet space and a/c. Not so mmmm: diagonal ceiling and ladybug-leaking a/c. We are friends enough to get along and have a good time in our room, but not too friends (since when is friends an adjective?) to fight. I know her well enough to know how hedgehog-like she is - prickly on the outside, but warm and cuddly and poetic on the inside. I bet you didn't know hedgehogs wrote poetry!

Junior year I was gone all year and Roommate missed me terribly, or so she says. I got an enormous room all to myself with my host family. Nanny nanny boo boo.

Now we're finally in the French House, where we belong. We both agree that the room is a mess, and every few months we do something about that. We cleaned up the floor Friday or Saturday, and the mess is already creeping back. Hmmmm.

Anyway, I don't know why I wrote all of this, except to say that "Roommate, I appreciate you. You are great. I hope that when I am living in a two-person cardboard box, or perhaps une boîte en carton, my boxmate or camarade de boîte will be as cool as you."

Emmenez-moi au bout de la terre [Take me to the ends of the Earth]
Emmenez-moi au pays des merveilles [Take me to the land of marvels]
Il me semble que la misère [It seems to me that misery]
Serait moins pénible au soleil [Would be less painful in the sun]
- Charles Aznavour, "Emmenez-moi"

This has nothing to do with my current mood, but it's in my head and I feel like singing it at the top of my lungs.

Wouldn't you all like to share your results from the LOTR or James Bond character quizzes? Do you even take them?

I got an A on my English Language paper. I think I put significantly more work into it than did the rest of the class... which is interesting, considering I started at, what, 10pm the night before it was due?

The librarian in me has to link to this:
The Forbidden Library: Banned and Challenged Books
Some of my favorite entries: The Bible, Call of the Wild, Don Quixote, Earth Science, Fahrenheit 451, A Light in the Attic...

I really need to update my quotes page. For the time being, these will reside here:

"Books and ideas are the most effective weapons against intolerance and ignorance."
- Lyndon Baines Johnson, February 11, 1964

"Censorship, like charity, should begin at home; but unlike charity, it should end there."
- Clare Booth Luce

"Books won't stay banned. They won't burn. Ideas won't go to jail. In the long run of history, the censor and the inquisitor have always lost. The only sure weapon against bad ideas is better ideas. The source of better ideas is wisdom. The surest path to wisdom is a liberal education."
- Alfred Whitney Griswold, Essays on Education

(Liberal Arts at Work, anyone?)

Don't get jealous now, Becky...

Merry Brandybuck If I were a character in The Lord of the Rings, I would be Merry, Hobbit, heir of the Brandybucks and a friend of Frodo's. In the movie, I am played by Dominic Monaghan. Who would you be? Zovakware Lord of the Rings Test with Perseus Web Survey Software

I am Merry. Whereas the squirrels were married. I am obsessed with Milton!

Stupid people shouldn't breed, they shouldn't breathe, and if had my way, they wouldn't even exist.

In Spanish class today, this fat bearded lump of an excuse for a college student (you know who you are - I only wish you were reading this) with no volume control on his booming voice described Columbus Day as "a day when all the Dagos go out and get drunk". When confronted with this answer, he said something to the effect of "Well, Columbus was Italian, so..." Earlier he had described St. Patrick's Day in pretty much the same way except with those Irish who "drink all day long" but "can't hold their liquor." If you're going to be ignorant enough to use ethnic slurs, I suppose it follows that you will be ignorant enough not to know what Columbus Day celebrates, but please...

I used the period very productively and maturely: drawing pictures of various ways he could die.

Late night chez srah!

Alex and I are doing all of the work we (read: I) put off all weekend. "Chile es un país de variedades. Es largo, angosto y se tiende de encima del Tropico de Capricornio a la región antártica."

My hedgehog-of-a-roommate is evidently not sleepy either, and is burning the Amélie soundtrack and trying to stump the new version of WinAmp.

I got an email from a French John Hannah fan (yes, they exist!) today so I replied in French. She just wrote me back, saying that if I hadn't said I was American, she would have thought I was just a mis-typing French person. Things like that make me feel warm and sunny.

Why is American both an adjective and a noun, but you can't say "a French" or "a Chinese" or "an English"? In French, the adjective and noun are always the same. It's easier. I don't like having to add "person". Weird - you can say "the French" but not "a French". A German is German, a Canadian is Canadian, a Bulgarian is Bulgarian, a Chilean is Chilean. And a person from Sweden is not a Swedish or a Swedish person (usually) but a Swede! I think a person from Iceland is an Icelander.

There is really no rule or way to remember these things. English, you are cracked out like a villain. I'm glad I don't have to learn you as a foreign language.

If I was a James Bond villain, I would be Auric Goldfinger.

I enjoy golf, gold, and bisecting people with industrial lasers.

I am played by Gert Fröbe in Goldfinger.

Who would you be? James Bond Villain Personality Test

Yahoo! search: "ripping friends stinky butt": srah blah blah is hit #41.

Somehow appropriate? *giggle*

Hello. I saw Amelie for the fourth time and it was EVEN BETTER (if that's possible) the fourth time. Then we came home and hung out in the I-House lounge and had alcohol in a common area (very naughty). I had ONE Mike's Hard Lemonade and now I'm a widdle tipsy. I spoke franglais with Antoine and now I'm going to bed. Worry not, Boyfriend. I am just fine and made it back from Ann Arbor alive, I was just off getting tipsy with the native speakers and Duane. Ha ha! I think these socks make my feet a little numb or something. They're very soft. Happy December!