I am graduated!!!!

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Journal CSS made by ~caybeach
Brushes by ~gvalkyrie

Whoa free membership today! Which means I have to write a journal so I can have a pretty journal entry on my profile.

See, you totally feel like you're chilling in some treetops right now don't you? Treetops amid fucking mountains!

Anyway, I'm going to ramble on for a length about my life, my universe, and my everything...which really isn't much, but I can often be a chatty writer.

So, I've begun my last semester of my senior year of college (May term does not count) and I'm generally trying to make myself chill the fuck out. Last semester was kind of torturous as I had three writing intensive classes, two in my major and had to begin all kinds of new campaigns for work. Needless to say, I got the worst GPA I've ever received in college, but I'm dealing with it and moving on since most people don't consider B's a bad grade. This semester I only have two writing intensive courses, so hopefully I'll have a bit of breathing space in that regard...though I suspect whatever time I gained will be engulfed by my Detective Fiction class---which sounds awesome, but I don't like detective fiction. I only took the class because at my university you have to take two sets of two classes outside your major and I had taken Culture of Nature hoping to pair it with American Writing of Nature, but of course, American Writing of Nature was not offered and I must now read a book a week.

On that note: I've finished THREE books since classes started just over a week ago! Non of them required reading however. No, I was supposed to read some Poe, and it made me fall asleep, and I was supposed to read some Doyle, and it made me fall asleep (the movie and graphic novel of the book, however...made me less sleepy). But I finished Suzanne Collins' Catching Fire (after being on a waiting list for like 3 months), which was AMAZING! And having found the boxed set of Percy Jackson & the Olympians online for $14, I purchased that and have just finished the second book. I recommend them as well. Not as good as The Hunger Games or Harry Potter or what have you, but still a nice enjoyable read (particularly if you're as big of a mythology fan as I am). Chances are I could finish this series by next weekend, but I have to read Murder Must Advertise, and several sundry chapters from books in my other classes, which include: Environmental Science, Race Ethnicity & Social Class, Detective Fiction, & Beginning Karate. With the exception of Detective Fiction, during which I sit in the back of the class thinking over and over again "thick description, it's symbols it's just, arrrrgh, no STOP OVER-COMPLICATING LITERATURE, I don't think those things mean what you think they mean, nope they mean that because that is how your culture has conditioned you to interpret them" The professor seems like a really great guy, but I'm just annoyed I couldn't take American Writing of Nature and got stuck with JJ Gites. Anyway, with the exception of Detective Fiction I LOVE my classes so far. I'm kind of having issues with being one of the few people talking in class again, but I'm getting over it (that the best hing about karate, it's all instruction so there are no awkward silences as the freshmen draw circles in their notebooks while waiting for someone else to continue the conversation. Race, Ethnicity, & Social Class on the other hand is full of awkward silence. I love it because it's like DALT, but the key to making the class great is for people to actually converse...and people aren't conversing, they are waiting for the 5-6 people who talk in class to continue the conversation while they text people about trivialities. Aaaanyway, to wrap this up, Environmental Science is proving to be amazing. I mentioned wanting to attend I Mountains Day [link] to my boss, and she mentioned this to my professor who said I could attend this event in lieu of visiting the Toyota plant as long as I write about it.

Oh, last thing: I'm making interpretation signs for the rain garden and butterfly garden for work this semester, and I get to go up to Special Collections and research old botany medical journals and illustrations for the designs! I have my first appointment up there tomorrow and I'm super psyched because Special Collections is full of all kinds of awesome old things, like original Audubon illustrations, illuminated manuscripts, and a library of 1st edition books by Darwin. I just think it's so cool that my university has these resources and students can actually use them!

p.s.
I don't remember if I mentioned it, but I made about $90 on my jewelry last semester! $70 was from an art sale, but still, I'm super stoked about this!

...instead of doing this collegiate crap. I guess it's my fault for not understanding what "Liberal Arts" means in the context of a private university (it means all theory, no practice---unless you are rich and can afford a travel course). I just don't feel like I've learned anything in my field except how to critique other people's work---but because I'm not learning about the work itself I can't truly critique the work now can I?

I've also been really homesick. I want to go back to Michigan where I can be with the family I grew up with instead of being down here with these people that have become complete strangers to me. These people that don't understand the potential of silence and must fill every second with screaming and shouting about the most trivial shit imaginable. I hate this house. It's a fucking pigsty. My crazy mother says I think this because my dad and step mom don't have anything in their house. No, this is not true, it's because she's a fucking pack rat and doesn't understand the meaning of "buy what you need". She should take your chronic unemployment and get off facebook and do something about it instead of arguing with granddad about whose fault the mess is---because it wasn't messy before she moved in.

I just really need to start some place new. I've about reached my 2 year threshold---because for some reason I have to drastically change something in my life every couple years. I love Lexington, but it's too close to my mom. I would go back to Michigan, but there are no jobs. I don't know what I need to change, but something needs to change.

...since I've done anything of significance on dA. It's sad really. SO now I'll experiment in a little free association venting----because I REALLY need it about now. I place much of the blame on college---of course I was at my most productive artistically only a couple years ago while in college, but those colleges demanded much less of my time. My current college is very small with very large ass---pirations, so I must devote more of myself to achieve these lofty goals. Competing with the children of CEOs and senators for connections in this world...and honestly I had no idea there were so many snobbish rich children until I began attending a college comprised of about 50% of them. It's now my vow to never attend private school again, and this reason may or may not hinge solely on the fact that my wardrobe feels vastly inferior to people who wear their Sunday best to class everyday. This is not to say I haven't met some amazing people and made my own amazing connections, but I would like to explore these in a setting that doesn't make me look like I'm trying to be a hipster because I've bought most of my clothing secondhand---that was out of necessity, not fashion. Impractical pocketbooks aside, I would also like to attend a college with a greater range of people. There are too many opinionated intellectuals at this college. I mean, everyone is entitled to their opinion, but please, keep your sense of entitlement to yourself. You are no better than me because you have a unique view on this topic---and while I'm on this topic: don't unwillingly attend something I spent weeks promoting and organizing then critique an uncontrollable factor in front of people I might be working with in the future. I don't care if you think they're idiots, you're an asshole and should just stay in your bubble if osmosis means bursting the glistening soapy orbs of the optimistically naive! I hope I used osmosis correctly, because that is one badass bubble metaphor I have going on there. See, this is what I do when I'm given the chance to speak my mind! But all I'm allowed within the restrictions of academia is to verify my words with the words of others. Should I verify their words as well? Though I'm sure that's the work of the established academic journal. No, you wouldn't have me quoting a canoe instructor. Who cares if he's an author on the subject of education!? He's neither a institutional employee or a published journalist. He only penned a work with a education professor of some public university that wasn't classy enough for the righteous academic journals! But I'll have the likes of youniversity tenure know that I learned more about survival, more about prehistoric geography, more about how to educate a child with a so-called attention deficit disorder from four hours on a river with that canoeing instructor than I have from months of studying prehistoric Latin America behind a desk. So now I find it's my decision, my mission, to make my own education. I'm sick of desks and hours-long lectures. Count me among the attention deficient if my unacceptance of these immobile learning conditions is not all society had hoped it would be. To me, desks and talks are not the full spectrum of learning. Education is too often segregated to the classroom because someone named Adler fucked Dewey's progressive model after his long life had ended. The real world must merge with that of the classroom because learning is lifelong. It's time we stopped saying "I hate school" and made school worth attending again. So this rant, it's long. I'm sorry if you read the entire thing and have only been left with a poor taste in your mouth, but I feel quite refreshed. In light of learning about learning. In light of a fucked society. In light of saving the world. I have found my inspiration again, I'm only left searching for the time to create.

I have FINALLY been awake during the Pottermore clue drop and I have successfully registered and activated my account *happy dance*
I feel so fucking magical right now.
Has anyone else registered? Do I speak with you on a regular basis? If 'yes' and 'yes', please comment your username below so we can geek appropriately.
My username is LeviosaEye101 (automatically assigned, but it will do )

Thursday night/Friday morning I attended the Lexington premiere of Harry Potter & the Deathly Hallows with fellow students and quidditch players. Throughout the film there was laughter, sniffling, and applause. It was truly the perfect ending to the series that has dominated my age group for roughly half our lives.
In short, it was worthy.
Read the perfect review here:
The End of an Era or the Beginning of a Legacy? [link]

My opinion? It is a legacy, and here is why:
1. The Harry Potter Allicance-[link]
2. The International Quidditch Association-[link]
3. And every other bit of the fandom (Leaky Con, Wrock, fanfictions, fan art, MuggleNet, The Leaky Cauldron, A Very Potter Musical, Wizard People Dear Reader, and I'm sure I've forgotten the many others)

I have no doubt this is our Star Wars or Star Trek.....and that being said, I'm curious to see what lasting contributions this fandom brings to the world. Obviously that sounds cheesy and obsessive, but science fiction and fantasy are a well-known inspiration for creative invention and social change.

If the nurse technician tells you to take a deep breath and gives you less than one second to breathe in and breathe out, don't actually take a deep breath. She doesn't know that you do yoga and thus take really deep breaths. Just breathe when she tells you to---no matter how shallow---or you might figure out why you're supposed to stay still during an x-ray....no harm done, just a bit of a sting. But bonus: no appendicitis! If I weren't terrified enough at the prospect of having my wisdom teeth ripped out and the accompanying dental fees, I don't know what I would do if I had to have the more potentially fatal and expensive surgery to remove my appendix. Damn vestigial organs. Why can't humanity evolve already?

p.s.
X-ray because I've been crazy nauseous the past few days and incapable of accomplishing anything.