There are still a few kinks to work out. For some reason, it's refusing to read certain parts of my CSS, such as the part for links.

I also added four new photos to the webmiss section and updated such trivial things as my age and college major.

There is still precious little content. If you have ideas for something you'd like to see here at m-d.org, comment on this entry and let me know, because I'm kind of at a loss.

But, so now I am the proud new owner (officially) of two books fanlistings:
Young Adult Literature (genres)
and
The Boyfriend List by E. Lockhart

Go join! ...If you're a fan, anyway. Please don't join my fanlistings unless you actually like the subject. :P

Okay, so I actually created the whole fanlisting over a month ago. But I had to wait for it to be approved. :P

Apart from links to my icons and book reviews, I also put up three friends only banners I made for LJ. Check them out.

Eventually I'll get around to making my first wallpaper. I'm also thinking of posting some of my writing there, but before I do that I want to figure out how copyrighting works so that no one can steal it. At least, not legally.

But yay! Stuff in the visitor section!

Oh, and I also joined a crapload of fanlistings today, but who really cares about that?

So now, in site news:

I just finished a fanlisting for Gaelic Storm. Gaelic Storm is the most awesome Celtic band in existence, and if you haven't heard of them, you need to go download one of their albums from iTunes right now. How Are We Getting Home? is the most recent, but Tree is my personal favorite.

Okay, so this isn't site news, but a deserving plug: Tobias Buckell, who taught at an awesome writing workshop I went to last summer, just came out with his first novel. It's excellent, and, what's more, the first third of it is being offered on the book's website, so you can read a whole 22 chapters before you decide if you want to buy it (you will). Read! Read while you're listening to Gaelic Storm! :P

This is my last night at home; tomorrow I'll take a twelve hour train ride back to school. Bah, I am not looking forward to that.

But in the meantime, here's a end-of-year meme for your (or, rather, my) enjoyment:

1. What did you do in 2005 that you'd never done before?
Graduated high school, went to college. Alpha.

2. Did you keep your new years' resolutions, and will you make more for next year?
If I made any resolutions last year, they've all been forgotten. I rarely make resolutions for just this reason. I know how I'd like to be better; I don't just decide at New Year's.

3. Did anyone close to you give birth?
No, but one of my best friends is due in February, and a friend of the family's daughter-in-law is due in, er, March? April? May?

4. Did anyone close to you die?
Fortunately, no.

5. What countries did you visit?
Same old same old.

6. What would you like to have in 2006 that you lacked in 2005?
A boyfriend. *cough*

7. What date from 2005 will remain etched upon your memory, and why?
Psh, dates don't stick with me. I'll remember orientation week of college forever, and Alpha, but no single day.

8. What was your biggest achievement of the year?
Probably my senior project - a whole freaking business plan that someone who'd owned a bookstore said was awesome and completely accurate. Also, finishing my first term of college with grades I'm not ashamed of.

9. What was your biggest failure?
I don't know about failure, but I was pretty disappointed that I didn't get into Macalester.

10. Did you suffer illness or injury?
Well, headaches as usual, though they seem to have finally toned down a bit (*crosses fingers*). I had a really bad cold thing after I got back from D.C. - my ears were plugged for two weeks.

11. What was the best thing you bought?
All the best paid-for things I got this year are ones that were bought for me - Alpha, my laptop, college.

12. Whose behavior merited celebration?
My mom's, Alex's (after years of friendship, we finally started doing things outside of school!)

13. Whose behavior made you appalled and depressed?
George Bush and everyone who likes him and/or goes along with his agenda.

14. Where did most of your money go?
All my books for school ($400+ for the two terms)

15. What did you get really, really, really excited about?
Alpha, college, ALA conference in Chicago

16. What song(s) will always remind you of 2004?
The Alpha Teen Hunger Farce...Band CD, the Garden State soundtrack (particularly "Winding Road" by Bonnie Somerville), Britney Spears, "Toxic"

17. Compared to this time last year, are you
i. happier or sadder?: Happier, I think
ii. thinner or fatter?: I think about the same - I was thinner after the first month of college, but I think I gained all that back again
iii. richer or poorer?: About the same - I got a whole lot of money, then spent it all until I was about back at my starting point.

18. What do you wish you'd done more of?
Writing.

19. What do you wish you'd done less of?
Schoolwork (well, I wish I could have done less of it).

20. How did you spend Christmas?
At the annual extended family dinner for Christmas Eve, lounging around at home with my mom on Christmas Day.

22. Did you fall in love in 2004?
Nope.

23. How many one-night stands?
Zero.

24. What was your favorite TV program?
Veronica Mars. It's the only show on TV right now that I feel the need to watch every week.

25. Do you hate anyone now that you didn't hate this time last year?
Hate, no.

26. What was the best book you read?
Uglies by Scott Westefeld, Twilight by Stephenie Meyer, The Boyfriend List by E. Lockhart

27. What was your greatest musical discovery?
Uhm, maybe Sister Hazel? I didn't buy very many CDs this year.

28. What did you want and get?
My own computer, college, to go to Alpha

29. What did you want and not get?
To get into Macalester, an iPod, a car

30. What was your favorite film of this year?
Uhm, I didn't particularly love any of the new movies that I saw this year.

31. What did you do on your birthday?
Absolutely nothing. Homework, heh.

32. What one thing would have made your year immeasurably more satisfying?
Graduating on time, getting into Macalester, being more accepted by my college friends.

33. How would you describe your personal fashion concept in 2005?
I don't really have a fashion concept. I'm a T-shirts and jeans girl. Though this winter break I've bought more "fashionable" clothes than I ever have before.

34. What kept you sane?
Reading, the computer, my mom.

35. Which celebrity/public figure did you fancy the most?
Bah, none of them in a fancying way. I went a little obsessed with Alison Lohman though.

36. What political issue stirred you the most?
Katrina

37. Who did you miss?
My mom, while I was away at college. Alphans.

38. Who was the best new person you met?
Alphans! ASfrjfl; the person I have a crush on. All my college friends.

39. Tell us a valuable life lesson you learned in 2005:
You don't have to be the best so long as you do your own personal best.

40. Quote a song lyric that sums up your year: (Mine is a whole song, sorry :P)
Well, the rain keeps on coming down
It feels like a flood in my head
And that road keeps on calling me
Screaming to everything lying ahead

It's a long way home
It's a long way home

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.

Thank you.

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.

I wish I wasn't (weren't?) so lazy.

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

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.