December 29, 2005
New work schedule
I just got my work schedule for winter term, and I'm quite disappointed. The most disappointing thing is that I'm only working one shift in my favorite library, and all the others are in the library that I bore myself to death working in. Five days a week of sitting behind a desk checking out darkroom keys and refreshing my LJ friends page with the agonizingly slow internet connection. And then, I was really looking forward to being able to eat lunch at a reasonable time (after noon), as my schedule last term meant that three days a week I had to eat before noon, all by myself because none of my friends were insane enough to eat so early. Now, thanks to the way my supervisor helpfully scheduled all my work hours around my class times, I have to eat lunch early five days a week. *headdesk*
Must think on the bright side! At least I still get to sleep in. There is that. No more waking up at 7am to trudge over and open the library. Though after I managed to peel open my eyes, I actually enjoyed working that hour. I got to work with someone else, who was good company, and in my favorite library too. Bah.
More bright side seems to be necessary. I am working in a library. I am working in a library. Sure, it's not my favorite one, but it still beats the hell out of food service or janitorial. LIBRARY. The boring-ass science library is still better than almost any other job on campus. Really. It is.
Okay, I think I've come to terms with my work schedule. Sort of. I'll still bitch about it, but only because I like bitching. I realize that I am one of the privileged few who get to work at the libraries and will continue to be jealous of myself.
Posted by Elena at 12:09 PM | Comments (0)
December 24, 2005
E-Snowflakes!
Make a snowflake! Best. Thing. Ever. Way better than the virtual stapler.
Posted by Elena at 01:07 PM | Comments (1)
December 23, 2005
Oh, the wonders of modern science
I would just like to take a moment to share this utterly profound scientific discovery with you all.
Thank you.
Posted by Elena at 01:06 PM | Comments (0)
December 19, 2005
Life is boring.
So...life. It goes on. I realize I haven't been updating much on the day-to-day. It's like even when something vaguely noteworthy happens, I just can't be bothered. Meh.
So, I essentially finished all my Christmas shopping the first week of December, a feat I was very proud of myself for accomplishing. My mom and I are both usually rushing about the week before Christmas buying gifts. My mom still is, but I am done. I always feel like I should have more people to buy gifts for. But once I've bought for my mom, my younger cousin, and whoever I have for my family's gift exchange (this year it's my older cousin, Michele), I'm out of family members to buy for, unless I wanted to buy gifts for at least four more people (all my aunts), and I am unfortunately unable to afford that sort of extravagance.
My clothes-buying spree (I never knew I was capable of one of those) ended with the purchase of my first pair of designer shoes. They are from Kenneth Cole's Unlisted collection. I have no idea what that means, but I've heard of Kenneth Cole, so I know they're designer shoes. I quite like them, and my mom says that because they're, you know, designer shoes, they'll last longer than the shoes I usually wear. And because every store is having huge sales, I got them for exactly the same price I would have paid for similar shoes at, say, Payless. Designer shoes for $20, yay.
I'm finding it hard to believe that my break is already almost over. I don't want to go back to school. I mean, I'm kind of bored and am eager to start next term's classes, but at the same time, I'm not ready to leave home again. But in exactly two weeks, I'll be on the train heading for Chicago (and from there to Galesburg).
I'm having a hard time living so far away from home. I can deal with not seeing my mom for a few weeks, but after a month or two, I really miss her. Damn us and our great relationship. Most of my friends are so happy to get away from their parents.
I've been thinking about applying to Macalester again as a transfer. In fact, last night I sent in part I of the applicaction (which isn't due until April). But it costs $40 to apply, and with my very average grades thus far in college (B+, B+, B-), I don't think I'll get in. Unless I pull all A's winter term or something. I'm thinking that would be pretty impossible, but you never know. But...meh. I really wanted to go to Mac - despite the friends I've made at Knox and how well I fit in there, it's still my first choice school. I am just dying to take a linguistics class, to see if I like it. Mac has an English program that inclues literature and creative writing. And, of course, Mac is like 15 minutes away from home. Knox is "selective." All the other schools I applied to are "highly selective." I didn't get into any of the highly selective ones. I guess I make the "selective" cut, but not the "highly selective" one. Though I was on Mac's waitlist, so I guess they liked me.
Whatever. I have until April to decide. Maybe between now and then my homesickness will go away, I'll fall in love with the history professor (in a platonic way!), and I'll decide I love Knox too much to leave it.
Posted by Elena at 01:05 PM | Comments (0)
December 14, 2005
Snow!
It's been snowing like crazy all night, and it's still going now. And it's warm outside (relatively...31 degrees). This would be the perfect snow day, if I had any friends around to play in the snow with. ...But I don't. So instead I'll sit around on my computer all day, just like I have for the past few weeks.
I wish I wasn't (weren't?) so lazy.
Posted by Elena at 12:15 PM | Comments (0)
December 13, 2005
Progress!
Okay, so I lied about getting things into the visitor section. It will happen eventually.
However, today I made myself a nifty customized 404 error page! Whoo! This is the first time I've bothered with one - I've always been so scanty on the layouts that when I feel motivated to do some design, I always just go for a new layout. But graphic design is fun now that I have discovered the joy of textures.
Yesterday I fiddled with the layout of my Iconicized livejournal and made myself a new icon for it. I feel like I cheated on it because it's just one texture as a base, one brush, and the word "iconicized", but the texture was so pretty that it didn't really need any embellishment.
I think I may be obsessed with Alison Lohman. Pictures of her are all I've been using lately. This layout, the error page, my last twelve icons (not counting the Iconicized one). I love that girl. And her pictures are the first ones I see in my celebrity picture folder, since her name comes so early in the alphabet. :P
So anyway. I don't know what I'll be doing next with the site. Maybe I'll get around to the visitor section, maybe not. I applied for another fanlisting, for the band Gaelic Storm (who are awesome), so I'll have to work on that too (I already have the banner, now I just need to code).
And that is the complete record of what I have been doing, site-wise, for the past few days. :P
Posted by Elena at 05:07 PM | Comments (0)
December 11, 2005
Posted by Elena at 11:24 PM | Comments (0)
December 08, 2005
My First College Grades (*tear*)
I just got my Fall Term grades in an e-mail:
FP: B+
Intro to Lit: B+
Spanish: B-
If you switch around the Lit B+ and the Spanish B-, it's what I expected. I thought there was a chance of an A in FP, but I'm not upset that I didn't get one.
Well, I guess that's not entirely true. It's weird for me to look at a report card and see only B's. Throughout my life, I've been a pretty solid A student, with a few B's thrown in. In high school, that grade report would have shown two A's and a B. So while it's a little bit of a let-down to see zero A's, when I think about the work that I did, I feel okay with it. I was struggling so much that after a few weeks I told myself that so long as I pulled B's, I'd be happy. And I did. So I'm content enough.
My goal for next term, however, will be to get at least one A, and nothing lower than a B-. We'll see how that goes.
Posted by Elena at 04:26 PM | Comments (0)
December 07, 2005
Bibliophile Updates
I just put posted my first new book review in almost half a year. It's on my newest favorite book, Twilight by Stephenie Meyer. Best YA vampire book ever. Maybe even best vampire book ever, period.
So yeah. I'm hoping to get Bibliophile back in regularly updated order, but we'll see how that pans out once I go back to school in January. I'll probably end up only reviewing the books I enjoyed and want other people to read, because I am just not motivated to be doing a review every other day, which is what I'd have to be doing to keep up with the number of books I've been reading.
Within a day or so I'd like to get a review of Peeps by Scott Westerfeld posted. Another YA vampire book, but drastically different from Twilight. And every other vampire book, pretty much. <3 Scott Westerfeld. I broke down and bought Pretties (sequel to Uglies) yesterday; that's next on my reading list. Yay books!
I love having time to read again.
Posted by Elena at 03:49 PM | Comments (0)
December 04, 2005
the weirdly generous uncle strikes again
So this afternoon I got a message on my answering machine (I always screen my calls because nine out of ten are sales people) from my creepy but weirdly generous uncle. He decided that now was a good time to be creepy but weirdly generous again.
The message: Elena, this is Joe. Hey, I dropped over and left a Christmas present for you. I didn't want to wait, figured it was kind of stupid to wait until Christmas. So I left it on the front porch on the card table.
I went out to the front porch, and lo and behold, there was a Christmas gift bag sitting on the card table. He must've left it while my mom and I were out at lunch. Either that or he's even creepier than I thought and didn't knock on the door.
The gift bag was heavy. This, I discovered, was because it was half-filled with change. He's fond of giving me his change that I then take to the bank and turn into bill-type money. And buried in the coinage was (were?) the following items:
1 hundred dollar bill
1 ten dollar bill
5 one dollar bills
a $75 gift card for Marshall Field's
a crystal flower thing that I would've adored at age eight
a skunk bean-bag toy (hee!)
a toffee candy bar
I was laughing so loud that my mom heard me upstairs. I don't really know why I was laughing, except that my uncle had decided to be all creepy and generous again. Why did he think it was stupid to wait for Christmas? I do not know. Knowing him and his weird generosity, I'll get even more presents at the big family Christmas Eve get-together. And then maybe more on Christmas day, because he usually comes over to my house then.
I like presents, and money makes me happy, but the sheer amount of cash he gives me makes me uncomfortable. He should spend his own money! It's not like he's rich, and he's probably given me more money than all the rest of my relatives put together. He doesn't shower my cousins in cash like he does me, either. :/
But anyway. I am now ~$200 richer. I guess my mom gets more Christmas presents this year. :P
So far as site news goes, I finally got my Flinx working properly, yay! So hopefully within the next few days I'll get something up in the visitor section.
Posted by Elena at 07:01 PM | Comments (0)
m-d.org back in business!
So this is the new and improved midnight-dreams.org. Exciting, no? No. Not really. But at least it's here, which is more than can be said for my poor, neglected site these past few months.
This handy thing right here is part of the "new and improved" aspect - a blog. The site has been sorely lacking in content ever since it came to be almost three years ago, and I figured a blog would spice things up a bit. Basically I'll be posting the same things here as I do on my livejournal, only without the friends-locked stuff and the stuff only my lj friends would know/care about, and with a lot more about the site and what I've been doing with it.
Hopefully within the next few days I'll be solving the little problem I've been having with Flinx and then adding some actual content to the visitor section, and maybe a few pictures of yours truly in the section about me.
Oh, and I'm really looking for affiliates. It's no use having a site if no one visits it! Check out the links page for more info.
Yay, midnight-dreams.org exists again!
Posted by Elena at 12:01 AM | Comments (0)