Hello Culver Creek!

I have had an absolutely nerdfightastic day that included me screaming “NERDFIGHTERS!” whilst throwing out the hand sign, and then I won two books. So, yeah. Really, really good day.

But today I wanted to reflect. Cause that seems to be the thing to do.

I don’t think I’ve grown at all this month. But I just blogged. I didn’t have conversations. I just ranted. And that was amazingly fun. And I definitely opened up and talked about myself and my interests and I really enjoyed it. Basically, I got to keep a journal, except not really one where I talk about my day. One where I talk about my thoughts and opinions and my passions. It was great!

However, the best part of this month is all the vloggers I’ve found. There was a huge community doing VEDA and they were occasionally promoted by other youtubers (especially in the past week). Also, some of them I found through their video responses. So that was really fun. And I’ve brought myself far closer to actually vlogging. So that’s exciting.

I’m really tired. I’ve been up since 8 and need sleep so am not feeling as reflective as I hoped. Mostly, this month has been amazing. BEDA was not nearly as difficult as I expected. I didn’t learn nearly as many Israeli dances as I’d hoped but oh well. Nothing can go exactly to plan. That’s part of the joy of life.

I’m not going to keep up the blogging every day. But I’ll definitely talk to you later.

TTFN,

-Merr

Sorority Events: 9

Israeli Dances: 5

Hello Middle Earth!

My programming midterm today was surprisingly Lord of the Rings free. Okay, I know that sentence made no sense. Let me explain. Nearly every single example we’ve done in class that involves some form of text input or output has been LotR based. It’s AWESOME! And all of the practice tests I took while studying (I didn’t actually take a lot but I did at least look over the problems on four) had at least one programming prompt that involved a LotR reference. So you can imagine how disappointed I was this morning when I had to take a test and there was no mention of Frodo.

However, I do believe the test went well so that’s all on the up and up.

So now I know I can get away with dressing up as a superhero and hanging out with friends until 1 in the morning and then taking a programming test at 10. At least I think I can get away with it. I should probably wait until I get my grade before passing final judgement.

Yes, I spent last night dressed up as a superhero. Not any known superhero (though apparently I looked like Nightwing), just a compilation of my friends’ awesome clothes. And then we watched the first two X-Men movies and decided that all of the extras (especially the police) were Nicholas Cage. I honestly don’t even know... My friends are weird and made of awesome.

Which is one little bone I have to pick with some of my friends. Apparently, a few of my friends from high school are nerdfighters but just neglected to tell me that they’re part of this brilliant community that just might be something I would adore. Come on guys! Be proud of Nerdfightaria and spread the love with the people you are stuck sitting next to in class every day. Well, at least the college friends know what’s up. Thanks for introducing me to this amazing community!

Okay, one more day. That day being tomorrow. And I will be summing up this experience.

TTFN,

-Merr

Sorority Events: 9

Israeli Dances: 5

Hello Sunnyside!

Yesterday I got a flower plant to keep in my room and it’s making me happy (which is part of the reason why I got said plant). It was an event that I did with my sorority, we decorated old containers and put plants in them. Mine has this gorgeous red and yellow-orange flower so I named him Godric. I mean, seriously. What else could I possibly name him?

Now maybe you think that naming plants is a bit excessive but I’m a bit excessive and one of the sisters suggested I do so, so I did. Whenever I’m given an excuse to name things, I do so. All of my electronics have names (except for some reason my laptop doesn’t have an official name) along with nicknames that describe how they relate to me if I was the ruler of a kingdom. Like, my laptop is my Minion and my iPod is my Jester.

As a child, and still now, all of my stuffed animals had names. This was simplified by having a TON of beanie babies that come with names. However, I still used to know all of their names. Unfortunately I don’t remember basically any of my stuffed animal’s names from when I was little, however the crocheted octopus currently sitting on my bed is named Pearl (after the octopus in “Finding Nemo”).

I know that naming children is a topic to be taken seriously (at least when you really, truly have to name a child) but therein lies the fun of naming inanimate objects. You can call them whatever you want and it won’t affect them (I apologize if I misused affect there). It’s just a way of claiming ownership over things, personalizing them, and making them slightly more special to you.

So I name a lot of my stuff.

TTFN,

-Merr

Sorority Events: 9

Israeli Dances: 5

Hello Nerdfightaria!

These are my current thoughts on the issue of community building brought up by Andrew Bravener along with the responses I’ve watched and read.

There seems to be a disconnect between the older and newer youtubers. The newer ones seem to feel that there’s more of a community than the older youtubers are perceiving. And I have an idea of why that is.

The older youtubers started with a very small community in which they all interacted with each other and grew together. And that was wonderful and they have become fairly idealized in the eyes of the newer youtubers. And with that came this feeling of awe and power that was just bestowed upon the previous generation and I think that’s where the problem begins.

For the best of the new generation, going to a youtuber of the older generation and vying for their attention is extremely taboo and frowned upon. So they don’t. They create their own small communities (which there are far more of than the single one that used to be the community) and interact with each other and hope that the older generation will stumble upon them. And, from what I’ve observed, the youtubers in these small communities seem very content and satisfied with where they are and the friendships they’ve made.

However there are now two issues: 1) there are a lot of little communities that, while they have overlap, are still separate from each other. This isn’t really a major issue because they are continuously making incursions into each other and similar communities will eventually start to merge. The more important issue is that 2) what the older generation mainly sees is a huge quantity of content, some amazing, some horrible. And they’re being left to themselves to sift through it.

Here’s the thing, major youtubers will get comments and video responses. However, a lot of the comments don’t contribute anything and are just praise or a brief answer to a question or a completely random comment that’s disassociated from the topic of the video. And the video responses will often be the youtubers who don’t yet know what they’re doing and are not part of a small community and are reaching blindly towards their idols in hope of help and inspiration.

I’m not saying that they don’t get some amazing responses to their videos, I’m just saying that this is the majority of what they will see. And this will give them a very disheartening view of their subscribers.

So, there are these communities that are growing and evolving. But they’re mostly starting where the older generation started because the creators of the best content are those most hesitant to outreach to the older generation. So the older generation, while they know of some of these new youtubers, are unaware of the vast majority of them (also very much due to the changed nature of youtube with all of its different content that is really not of interest to this community but still is there and still requires the sifting). And this is what creates the disconnect.

What to do?

Well, while I’m not really a fan of the frustrated rant format of Andrew’s video, I think what he did and what he sparked is what we needed. One of the responses I think did the best job at responding (though not really as a direct response) was Kayley’s. She challenged her viewers to come to her. So maybe they will. Hopefully they will. Even I, not a vlogger, have considered attempting a video response.

That kind of outreach will help. Because youtube isn’t going to go into the channels of the small vloggers and try to help them based on their preferences. The best help that these small community builders can get is from the older generation and those with a fan base.

And I know this is putting a lot on their shoulders. But if they want the community they used to have, they’re going to have to put themselves back in it. It’s there and it wants them. It’s just scared of disapproval.

But I assure you. We want you in our community.

TTFN,

-Merr

Sorority Events: 10

Israeli Dances: 5

Hello Narnia!

A lot seems to have happened in the youtube community in the past two days. Is there always this much drama? I haven’t been around for too long but so far this is at least the second big “thing” (cause I’m bad with the words) that’s happened. There was also that “what is nerdfightaria and what makes a nerdfighter” discussion a bit ago.

So, I’m going to talk about that tomorrow cause I will hopefully set aside more time. Though that’s unlikely unless I decide to blog during class (which isn’t going to happen cause I really need to pay attention).

A short summary of my thoughts is that I don’t really know where all of the more well known youtubers are coming from. And I think that’s cause I haven’t been around for so long so I haven’t watched the progression of youtube content. They were around when it was just a few vloggers discovering their voices and their styles. They watched each other grow. But they also watched the massive quantity of worthless content amass online and I can see that being depressing.

I think they’ve gotten disenchanted with youtube. It’s so different than what it used to be and they’re looking back and seeing what it used to be an no longer is. And they seem to think that what it was is so much more spectacular than what they’re exposed to now that they’re losing hope.

And this is what makes me kinda sad. Cause there’s a community out there. However a lot of it seems to be detached from the bigger names. But more importantly than that there’s so much crap that’s also out there that they just don’t want to try to wade through it all and just give up.

At least that’s how I see it. Well, how I see what I think they see.

But mostly I’m confused and concerned. Does anyone want to explain?

Thanks.

TTFN,

-Merr

Sorority Events: 9

Israeli Dances: 5 (this is just sad)

PS. I used Narnia cause it’s a land of childhood fantasy and wonder, especially for those disenchanted with the world. It’s kinda a metaphor, but I’m not an overly talented with the literary devices so I’m not sure if it worked too well :/

Hello Hogwarts!

I’m a Hufflepuff. I’ve been a Hufflepuff since my family got the Sorcerer’s Stone Trivial Pursuit based on the book, a game at which I dominated my family and friends (and I mean my elementary school friends; my high school friends and my current nerdy friends can and have crushed me). Anyway, for the game you are sorted into a house and these are used for some of the curses and charms and as your final destination when you have enough items. The way you’re sorted is that you’re supposed to randomly select from the 4 upside-down house cards. Seven of the first ten times I played, I got Hufflepuff.

This was back in fourth grade (meaning 2001 and 2002) so before the fandom started getting together and far before I became aware of them so I had yet to start identifying with Harry Potter as a cultural springboard. It was before I’d given any serious thought to my house. I’d kinda thought that I’d be a Ravenclaw but this was even before I was eleven so I really didn’t have to decide cause I could still leave it up to the sorting hat. However, after the first fourish times of this happening I started jokingly identifying with Hufflepuff.

Then I started more seriously identifying as a Hufflepuff, and I started to see some Hufflepuffy traits reflected in me. My mom has always called me a trooper, mostly in reference to helping set up with her events and being volunteered to help with the childcare. “Those patient Hufflepuffs are true and unafraid of toil.” [I’m sorry I don’t have the book and page number of the poem to quote but I’m fairly certain this is correct.] The other bit that’s very much me is that I’m extremely loyal to my friends and will fight for the ones I want in my life.

So yeah. I’m a Hufflepuff. I’m a badger (though no, I do not go to the University of Wisconsin, Madison). What are you?

TTFN,

-Merr

Sorority Events: 9

Israeli Dances: 5

Hello Mathmagic Land!

There are 24 hours in a day. On an absolutely spectacular night (or the average weekend) I get 8 hours of sleep.

16

There’s the 1 hour I spend brushing my teeth, showering, and getting dressed because I am a zombie when I wake up and my movements are unnecessarily slow.

15

At some point a permissible hour of youtube spent watching the new uploads and their recommendations.

14

An hour and a half of meals.

12.5

Most weekend days I have an event or a meeting or some sort of activity so I’ll give that 4 hours because I’m generous.

8.5

An hour of reading twitter.

7.5

An hour of miscellaneous online stuff like reading blogs and checking facebook and emails.

6.5

That’s three decently long movies. Eight and a half episodes of Glee or Doctor Who or Buffy or Firefly. An entire John Green book read slowly. A flight from the east coast to the west coast plus at least half an hour. A flight from the west coast to the east coast plus an hour and a half.

How do you spend it?

I think I’m going to make the above into a video at some point cause I really like the idea. I just stuck to a weekend because, well, it’s a Sunday and I’ve done so little it’s embarrassing. I’m sick so I can’t do anything fun and it’s Passover so I can’t even go anywhere to eat so I have literally not left my floor all day. And the most productive thing I’ve done is watch the movie for one of my classes.

I have work to do. It’s not like I’m sitting around watching Cate’s old youtube videos (she’s an amazing vlogger so you should definitely watch some of her videos) because I have nothing to do with my life. I have math homework that I should have started. I have so much reading that I know it will never all get done. I have dances to learn. I have books to read. I have research to get done. And none of this actually requires leaving my room.

But I chose, and I mean actively chose, to spend my day reading The Graveyard Book, watching youtube videos, and starting a list of all my Pokemon on my Heart Gold game.

And I was thinking: it’s really, really silly sometimes what we chose to do with our lives. I have had on my to-do list for ages the task of naming all of my Pokemon using biology vocabulary terms. That’s really, really not important. That is FAR less important than watching Battlestar Galactica or Star Trek, which are both arguably not nearly as important as doing my homework or even sending my emails. However that’s something I did today.

I had more things to talk about but I’m getting really tired now and I still probably should do the 6 problems of my math homework from the section we already learned before I go to sleep so I’m going to go do that.

By the way, Mathmagic Land is from this movie “Donald in Mathmagic Land” that I loved when I was a child. I probably should have used this title for a blog explaining the glories of math and why I love it and thus why I’m majoring in it but that’s something about which I am even less coherent than usual so that will be saved for a blog not during BEDA that I spend time preparing and editing.

For now, goodnight.

TTFN,

-Merr

Sorority Events: 8

Israeli Dances: 5

Hello Neverland!

So, this will likely be a short blog because I’m really tired and still ill because I fail at life.

I wish I could live in Neverland. Don’t get me wrong, I absolutely adore college and when I look back at my childhood there are a lot of regrets and misgivings about it. But I still would love to be eternally a child. In my mind that would be so spectacular.

All I’d have to do all day is run around in my fantasy world. I just just laze about and play. Nap-time would still exist and not be filled with guilt. Responsibilities would be at an absolute minimum. It would be just so amazingly carefree.

This deals a lot with my fear of the unknown and of change. Growing up requires huge helpings of both of these and I don’t cope with either of them well. The unknown I try to ignore and change I deny. This leads me living in this perpetual present and only the extremely far and kinda existential future. Like, I have no problem trying to imagine a hypothetical end of the world several thousand or million or even billion (though I doubt we’ll last quite that long) years from now. However, I can’t give any sort of serious thought to five years from now without becoming incredibly worried and stressed.

I also don’t do well with planning ahead in my school work as that is something else that causes me stress. Though it would logically lead to less stress if I thought about it ahead of time and kept it under control, I still can’t emotionally handle that kind of planning cause then I start thinking about every day after that and that starts building leads to my actual future which is the above problem. Actually, it’s mostly that I don’t want to do my work.

I think I’m off topic. I’m really, really tired. I had an absolutely wonderful day filled with good food and amazing friends and one seriously frustrating episode of Doctor Who. WHY MOFFAT???? WHY??!???!

I’ll talk to you tomorrow when I’m hopefully more coherent.

TTFN,

-Merr

Sorority Events: 8

Israeli Dances: 5

Hello District 12!

I really liked this trilogy. My favorite was definitely Hunger Games by far but I’m very glad that the other two were written. The world isn’t one, especially in a young adult series, that can just be allowed to continue you. If Katniss just walked away from the Games and the world didn’t change, if there was no uprising, we would have all be left distraught and probably furious. So even though Katniss’s unwillingness to be overly helpful (though it makes sense) irritated me and how I definitely don’t believe Katniss would have voted yes for the Capitol games, I still really do like the other books and how they were treated.

That being said, this wasn’t the direction I was thinking I’d go with this blog. I was going to talk about amazing skills that I wish I could have. I am in no way saying that I wish to live in Katniss’s world. I just wish I had the archery skills she had and the familiarity with forests. I think this is definitely partially due to me not living near any forests that I have this desire so much. And the root of this is my desire to be more outdoorsy.

I was a girl scout for... I don’t remember how long. Nine years? Eight years? I should count but I’m not going to. Okay, I did. Eight. And I absolutely LOVED all of the campouts we went on. Being surrounded by the gorgeousness that is nature is really lovely and I wish I was around it more often. I wish I lived in a world where exploring was encouraged. I think there are places that still encourage it but I just don’t live in them. One day I hope to.

TTFN,

-Merr

Sorority Events: 8

Israeli Dances: 5

Hello New Pretty Town!

I was totally set to go out and get myself a fruit cup from one of the residential cafes and then I decided I’d stay here and eat my strawberries. Cause I’m lazy like that and there will still be fruit cups if I go tomorrow morning.

I would say that this shows how I embody laziness and procrastination, but I just spent the past 3 hours working on linear algebra and understanding dimensions and kernels and images so I’m going to say I’m not as lazy as usual.

And in general I’m not that lazy. I have four classes (which is reasonable to excessive in the quarter system), I’m in a sorority, I try to hang out with friends, and I also try to go to fun activities. But not everything works out timing wise, especially because I dedicate an excessive and unnecessary amount of time to youtube and twitter. So I then run out of time to do anything and have to choose between activities and getting homework done. Normally, my choice is a lack of sleep. Which then forces me not to go to activities because I’m sick (as is the current situation).

For example, I stayed up till 3 two nights ago because I decided to watch Glee. I woke up sick because I’m an idiot. However, I still had a presentation to do today for which I needed to finish research and make a powerpoint last night and was up until, I kid you not, 6 am. Yeah. So I got about 2 and a half hours of sleep, not something that’s in any way, shape, or form healthy. So I’m still sick and the huge downside is that instead of staying on campus to do my linear homework during my TA’s office hours and then programming in the lab and then going to a chocolate seder (essentially a meal consisting entirely of chocolate), I had to go back to my room and sleep for three hours before doing homework.

Yeah, not how I wanted today to go.

I should tie this in to the title now. New Pretty Town is a city where all the teenagers get to party and just have fun with no responsibilities. That’s how we’d want to live. That’s how we sometimes try to live but we can’t and the responsibilities catch up with us. And we have to deal with them or suffer consequences (e.g. sickness). So, this is a reminder to us all (mainly me) to keep on top of the schedule and not fall this far behind. Cause, honestly, it’s not worth having see Glee in the middle of the night or Hank’s new portal video within the first 20 minutes of being posted.

TTFN,

-Merr

Sorority Events: 8

Israeli Dances: 5

Hello Hundred Acre Woods!

Today Melina made a video where she was just singing the Winnie the Pooh theme song which reminded me of the movie they’re making (since that’s what inspired her to sing the theme) which reminded me of how excited I am for this movie even though I am too sick to express that excitement because I decided to stay up until 3 watching Glee and youtube instead of going to bed at 1 like a slightly more normal college student. And that, my friends, is called a run-on sentence and shouldn’t be used in academic writings.

I was a HUGE Winnie the Pooh fan growing up. My entire family was. My sister and I both had Winnie the Pooh themed parties. We had the toys (especially the bath toys, which I still remember fondly). And, most of all, one of our dogs is named Pooh Bear and the other is Winnie. Yeah, so that show is kinda a big deal to my family.

I say show because I never actually read the books. STOP! Don’t hunt me down and throw things at me in rage. I know, I should have. I really, really want to. I was going to at one point and then I couldn’t find my family’s copy so I read something else (probably Looking for Alaska). However we had some of the old TV series on VHS (I say some because I don’t know how many there were and I think we had 3), and we would watch them over and over and over. We also had the movie that came out in the late 90s which at first scared me so I didn’t watch too often. Mostly, my experience was the TV show.

And now there’s a new movie. What? You say they’ve done other movies recently that all looked terrible? Yes, I know. Them with their horrid 3D and all around weirdness and that new TV show. I know, I’m not happy about those either. But this new movie that’s coming in July really does look amazing. They’re doing it in the same style and with the same way of talking. It really truly reminds me of my childhood and I tear up every single time I watch the trailer. I plan on going to see the movie with my mom and just sitting there and crying.

I know that doesn’t sound fun but they will be happy tears. And it will be fun so no worries.

Also, I have a presentation on trees in Celtic mythology for tomorrow to prepare because I am a horrible student so I’m going to get back to that.

TTFN!

-Merr

Sorority Events: 8

Israeli Dances: 5

Hello Chalkzone!

So, kiddos. My internet is currently down because sometimes the housing construction will cut wires and completely disconnect all of the college students from everything!!!!! I’m frustrated about this and I wasn’t frustrated earlier, just stressed and haggard (I think it’s haggard... okay, maybe not quite haggard. Harried? No. I’m not sure. I’m just stressed, and now frustrated).

In all honesty, I don’t know why the internet is down and this is just me guessing based on what they’ve done previously. So I’m still going to count this as my April 19th blog even if it gets to you tomorrow because this is entirely out of my control and I don’t want to be penalized for it.

I’m in my lounge now cause my roommate was on the phone and after... 7 hours of continuously doing stuff and running around I want some quiet. I think my typing scared off my floor-mate who was here cause he just left. I feel kinda bad but it’s not like I’m really doing anything wrong so I’m going to not to now. That and I lack all energy for feeling bad.

I have decided that I’m not going to complain about food anymore. I will just deal and it will be fine. However, I will tell you right now that the current way in which I’m eating is NOT healthy. Basically, I spend the first 10-12 hours of my day consuming somewhere between 300 and 500 calories (so far today has been about 230) and then I consume at least 2000 in one to two hours. That’s can’t possibly be good for me.

I don’t really have anything to say about Chalkzone. It’s a TV show from my childhood and I vaguely remember it. My brother remembers it quite well cause his memory is better. The only reason I chose it is cause my other idea was either the Wasteland or the Lost Land cause King Arthur is still at the center of my world and I still don’t have time for one of my blogs that requires intelligent thought and profound analysis and cohesiveness.

I’m going to go get ready for another fun (hopefully) dinner that’s going to take up 6 hours during which I should be working. I hope you are less stressed than I and more awake.

TTFN,

-Merr

Sorority Events: 7

Israeli Dances: 5

PS. The downstairs has internet. I’m less stressed now and just irritated. I really need a nap :(

Hello Gotham!

Friking Tam Tams!!! I hate it when foods that used to be Kosher for Passover are not longer kosher for passover but are still stuck int he kosher for passover isle to trick unwitting, unhappy, stressed-out teenagers who have never had to feed themselves previously into buying something that’s supposed to be familiar and comforting to assure themselves that they will survive the next week. GAAAAAAAHHHHHHH!!!!

I’m a tad unhappy. You may be able to tell this from me equating my stupid purchase because I didn’t read the packaging to a city overflowing with murderous crime. Maybe I’m being melodramatic. Maybe I’m overreacting. But I’m definitely hungry and, while I will finally be able to eat a full meal around 10 or 11 tonight, I will be like this for the rest of the week. You might want to tune out cause I will literally be subsisting on matzah, yogurt, and fruit cups for the next 8 days and that makes me less than a fun person to be around.

I’m sorry in advance. I hope you return when I’m less moody.

TTFN,

-Merr

Sorority Events: 7

Israeli Dances: 5

Hello Annwfyn!

Food allergies would suck. Seriously. You’d have to check EVERYTHING! I mean, I keep kosher so I have to check some foods but there generally isn’t meat in products that wouldn’t logically have meat. There are nuts and diary and wheat and soy in everything and even if they aren’t directly in the food then it’s still possible that the product was manufactured using the same machinery as those that include the prohibited ingredients. And checking for all that is just plain intense! So, yeah. I’m not sure how that’s going to fit into this blog...

Basically, that was an idea I had earlier today when I was thinking I’d have to write an early blog cause I was going to go out and do stuff tonight. Not so. I stayed in and read another... 50-ish pages of my book and should soon start studying for my linear algebra test tomorrow. Yeah. I’m not happy with how this evening turned out :(

Since this is another one of my obscure places, Annwfyn is one of the Welsh names given to the Otherworld. It’s seen in a poem called Preideu Annwfyn, or The Spoils of Annwfyn, which is a Welsh poem likely from the 9th century CE accredited to the bard Taliesin and it’s about King Arthur leading a raiding party there that doesn’t go over too well as only 7 men of 3 boats worth return. And it really isn’t even about King Arthur is just references him as the leader and the Arthur of then is far different that the Arthur we think of now cause the Arthurian tradition is just plain INSANE! Honestly, we spent my myth class last week (2 hours and 30 minutes) trying to wrap our heads around the vast quantity of work there is on it and how it all developed and what that means for the other myths we study.

Also, the novel I’m reading is Silver on the Tree by Susan Cooper which deals a lot with the Wasteland and the Fisher King (well, a multiform of them [multiform being a retelling or just a different telling of the same or similar story]) and I spent a lot of time earlier this year working with Preideu Annwfyn so that’s the place that sprung to mind I was trying to come up with a topic. Cause honestly, that’s what I’ve been thinking about. Lots and lots of Welsh myths.

Odd topic for the brain of a math major. That brain is currently mad at me. But I’m going to give it some math soon which unfortunately will make it even madder.

See you after the test!

TTFN,

-Merr

Sorority Events: 7

Israeli Dances: 5

PS. I ate a chocolate chip cookie today cause it was given to me in my lunch after volunteering and I have no self control. If you read Haley G. Hoover’s blog you know she is a much stronger woman than I.

Hello Sunnydale!

This is Buffy’s town and also Buffy’s college. So I’m going to spend this one talking about college cause I really, really, REALLY don’t want to be studying for my midterm on Monday. Which is also really making me sad cause I’m going to be extremely busy tomorrow and thus won’t be able to go dancing tomorrow night cause I’ll have to study. So, on to the college rant!

I’m just going to say now that those “Pick two” joke-ish charts that you see about college aren’t lying. You can have two of: a) a social life, b) good grades, or c) sleep. Sometimes, I think you can only fully have one and everything else has to fall behind it. And the thing about college is that it tricks you into thinking you can have everything. For the first two, even three weeks, you don’t have a lot to do and all of the homework is manageable and if you really want to you can even get 7 hours of sleep a night. And that is lovely and glorious and wonderful. And then stuff gets bad. You’re past all the introductory stuff and now you’re into the difficult topics. And then there’s midterms and then nothing stops. You have this huge ball of work to do and you have friends who expect you to be places and you’re losing sleep. And now what?

So that’s the point where I’m at. I’m going to volunteer for I don’t even know how long tomorrow but the thing says that it will be for NINE hours!!!! Which is a tad ridiculous for any standards. And then I have a meeting and then I wanted to go dancing but I’ve got a novel to read and a test to study for and SLEEP TO GET. So I’m kind in that between-a-rock-and-a-hard-place type situation that’s making me anxious and unhappy.

On a better note, I finished my friend’s puppy-sized elephant and she seemed to like it (though that took 4 hours of perfectly good homework time :/). Here's a picture:

Hopefully that makes up for my rant of stress and unhappiness. I'm gonna go try to read a bunch of a book right now and do homework for my foreign language class cause I was supposed to do that on Thursday (though not in the way that it was due on Thursday but I didn't do it an am handing it in late; just in the I wanted to do it on Thursday and didn't so it's sitting on my Thursday's to-do list glaring evilly at me and making me feel guilty).

Yeah. My tasks glare at me. Cause they are just that personified.

TTFN!

-Merr

Sorority Event: 6

Israeli Danes: 5

PS. I ate chocolate cake today... It was my friend's birthday. So I'm saying that doesn't count.

Hello Island of Misfit Toys!

So, I’ve spent the past 2 hours working on a crocheted puppy-sized elephant for my friend’s birthday gift cause her birthday is tomorrow and I only just started having time to work on it tonight. So I haven’t done any of the work I was supposed to do tonight. And yeah. That’s going to cause a bunch of stress for tomorrow. Yay...

In good news, I got my application in that I was working on frantically last night, I fixed my homework for a different class, and I survived my test in yet a different class. I think I’m taking too many classes. No, I’m not. Well, maybe but I’ll survive and I only have a bit longer and then I get summer!!! Which I don’t yet have plans for... I really need to look into an internship or something so my parents don’t get sick of me.

Well, I’m going to go back to working on the elephant now. Had my roommates not gotten back to the room I would have tried to learn another dance tonight cause I’ve got 2 in my queue that I want to learn before I next go to the group thing. I don’t know what it’s supposed to be called. I guess they’re dance groups but they just dance and it’s not like a group that performs. I don’t know. I’m figuring it out. If you have any input, I would love it :)

TTFN,

-Merr

Sorority Events: 6

Israeli Dances: 5

Hello Aperture Science!

I was watching Hank play portal cause I don’t have any of the console on which to play it. I know, it makes me sad too :(

Right now I’m currently applying for an internship that I keep on mistyping as ‘intership’ because for some stupid reason I don’t like the ‘n’ in that word. So that is my excuse for what will be an extremely short and not at all well formed blog.

I feel this is okay cause you got an extremely long one yesterday about how I was going to write an essay about Doctor Who. About that... I’m not. I was about to got to sleep yesterday night (and I mean literally in bed trying to fall asleep) when I realized I just plain couldn’t live with passing up the opportunity to write about our glorious Harry Potter community and all the good we do (and how that makes Harry Potter our myth). So I got up, scribbled some notes for my proposal, and went to sleep.

And now I’m stressed and anxious but my GSI (graduate student instructor) really liked my Harry Potter idea so that makes life better. And I got to see an awesome bike today with--I believe--four handle bars.

TTFN,

-Merr

Sorority Events: 6

Israeli Dances: 5

Hello Galifrey!

I’m not actually going to be talking about my likes and dislikes of Doctor Who in this blog (though that was the original intention when I added Galifrey to my list of fictional places). I’m going to be troubleshooting paper topics. Because, yes, I intend on writing a ten page paper linking Doctor Who to modern mythology. I just haven’t figured out how yet. [Note: this is a big problem because I need my general paper topic by tomorrow.]

What I really enjoy doing is talking about how mythology is reflected in newer things as a way of establishing its relevance. There’s something about myth that seems to be inherently lasting. Well, it’s not inherent, it’s that lasting aspect that allows something to become a myth. So modern works like to hook themselves to myth in order to stick in the minds of its audience.

My current problem is that I can’t pinpoint how Doctor Who links itself to myth. However, I can very easily see the way it does mythic linking to a whole bunch of sources (generally not considered to by myth). Doctor Who will often set an episode in a time period [--Heroic Biography--] or even in a specific event in time and retell the story coming from this fantastical world of monsters and space and science. The issue is that while this is a tool for building mythologies, it isn’t really making this myth. It doesn’t take from mythology. It doesn’t reflect mythology. However, it does reflect cultural views on how to handle situations and how to be.

But GAHHHHH!!!!

[editing note: SPOILERS!] Also, the Heroic Biography note was for me to remember to write this part. I could feasibly spend a paper talking about all of the heroic biographies in Doctor Who. What is a heroic biography? Essentially it is this motif-path laid out for a hero that nearly all heros conform to. The gist of it is (1) unusual birth, (2) exile from home, (3) making a name for oneself and subsequent return to home and acceptance at home, (4) and then they can go away again and then come back again but that part isn’t necessary. 

This makes me think of traveling with the Doctor as the ultimate step of leaving home to go explore and grow and make a name for oneself and then return home, generally to have a new purpose. Unfortunately I only know the New Who companions, but they all fit. Rose has her father die when she’s young so is raised by her mom, goes off and falls in love with the Doctor and ends up in an entirely parallel universe (so a bit of a deviation). Martha has a lot of family problems, goes off with Doctor, comes back and becomes a ridiculously elite spy/alien fighter/doctor/marries Mickey. Rose is really interesting cause her main thing is that while she is with the Doctor she becomes half timelord and completely saves the universe. Amy has a very Heroic Biography. Her parents are completely out of the picture and we don’t know why. She goes off with the Doctor and really does a lot of saving and then we find out that she was pivotal to this crack in the world and the TARDIS exploding and everything. And she does end up saving the world by remembering at which point she gets her family back. So that’s the ultimate heroic biography.

Also, I could talk about heroism in Doctor Who and how it’s a very modern take on heroism.

This just means that I don’t really have a good definition for why Doctor Who is myth. But I’m not really arguing that it is myth, I’m arguing its mythic elements and how it relates to myth. I really, really hope this is okay.

Idea! So, one of our main definitions of myth is: “a privileged story that people within a group need to know; relevant stories; central to culture; vehicle for collective identity.”

I know this definition works spectacularly for Harry Potter and its importance to a culture but I wouldn’t know where to begin. However, I (for some stupid reason) find Doctor Who to be more manageable so I want to work with that. Also, I don’t feel as thought I could do Harry Potter justice. However, it still works for Doctor Who at least a bit and I can tie the Doctor’s ideals of justice and peace in to the ideals of this community.

Okay, I’m going to make this idea into a more formal proposal. Thank’s for being my rant area!

TTFN!

-Merr

Sorority Events: 6

Israeli Dances: 5

PS. I’m sorry I forgot this in the last post. Nothing changed though so it doesn't really matter :/

Hello Camelot!

I’m supposed to be reading about King Arthur for a class on Thursday... I’m not. I’m blogging and before that I was dealing with emails because people expect me to be a responsible adult when all I want to do is sleep.

I don’t really have anything to talk about. All of my blog ideas aren’t fully formed enough and I don’t have the time to form them right now so I need to save those for later (which there still is over another half of a month of so no worries there :D). And all I can think of is how tired I am.

Starting after spring break I was trying to get my work done early and get into bed by midnight. And it was working for the first two weeks (with the exception of a few days). But lately I have been completely irresponsible with getting my actual work done and I’ve just been staring at a computer screen doing absolutely nothing for hours on end. Weekends are especially bad. And this coming one is really concerning cause I have a midterm in math to study for and a room to clean and shopping for food to do and a lot of things that will make me very stressed and unhappy. And then I’m dedicating the vast majority of my Sunday to community service. So, yeah. I’m tired and anxious and need to come up with a paper topic. I want to talk about the mythology tied into either Doctor Who or Buffy but I don’t think of how to make that happen. Suggestions?

TTFN!

-Merr

Hello Wonka Factory!

So I kinda really fail. I ate chocolate before finishing yesterday’s to-do list. A lot of chocolate. My excuse: it was at a sorority event and they would have given me the weirdest looks if I’d refused to eat chocolate. So I ate chocolate. My punishment: no chocolate until Passover (which starts Monday night). So that’s going to be miserable but I fully deserve it.

I feel the need to explain why I have this limit on chocolate. I’m not nearly overweight though I do have the whole insecure about my body thing going on that I know is supposed to be unnecessary and stupid and there’s a word here that I just can’t think of so I’m going to move on. But I can’t shake that idea. However, that’s not the point of this. The point is that I’m kinda dependent on chocolate the way normal people are sometimes dependent on caffeine. And it’s something that I love too much. I blame my teachers. I had a ton of teachers growing up that absolutely adored chocolate along with a bunch of family friends. So there was always a lot of chocolate floating around. And I became hooked. So this challenge is a way of regulating my intake. Well, it’s supposed to be :(

In other news of the day, I spent 2 hours talking on the phone to a friend that I don’t talk to nearly often enough and we really needed to talk so that was good. That was also the main reason why I am so behind on work and why I didn’t finish my to-do list before the event. That and I didn’t do nearly enough work over the weekend. Because, again, I am made of fail.

So now that I feel really horrible about myself, I’m going to just stop blogging and finish my homework. Wish me luck! I promise I’ll be better.

TTFN,

-Merr

Sorority Events: 6

Israeli Dances: 5

Hello Serenity!

Ship in Firefly. TV show by Joss Whedon. My favorite show ever.

The entire point of Serenity is that she is her name for Mal (the captain) and ideally for all of the crew. Everyone deserves a place that brings them the most happiness and calm and that sense of well-being. Well, I was at one of my places like that today.

Okay, so I don’t really have any specific places that are my “Serenity.” Basically, they are the places that are ideal for hiking, which is what I did today. My sorority went on a hike led by our (I think) Heath and Wellness Chair. And it was absolutely gorgeous where we were hiking. The trail was lined with so much lush foliage and there was a stream that we followed for the majority of the upwards part of the hike that we crossed right above the main waterfall part, though it was only a very small waterfall. And it was just wonderful. Purely wonderful.

The way down was especially fun. I know that makes a lot of sense because that was the easy part, but it wasn’t so much it being easy that made it so fun. I was leading the group and I was a bit ahead so I would stop every so often in the shade of the parts where the greenery was tall so it hung over the path and gave us a tunnel of nature to walk though (these were more common on the hike up). And I was happy. I like walking by myself cause I’m really good at being solitary and I really like it but I feel safer in groups and I would definitely never go hiking on my own. But I had a group and I kept them in hearing range. So I got to walk through this absolutely gorgeous area with my friends just behind me where I could hear them jabber and a wonderfully fun downhill, bumpy slope for me to trot down and it was just gorgeous in every way of the word.

And that would be my version of Serenity.

TTFN,

-Merr

Sorority Events: 5

Israeli Dances: 2

Hello Johto!

Yes, I mean the region of the second generation of Pokémon. So yes, I did prefer the second generation of games to the first ones. I mean COME ON! You got to explore in both regions! If with every generation, Nintendo just kept adding another region for conquest to the already existing regions, the Pokémon games would be even more spectacular than they already are!!

I case my beginning rant wasn’t a tip off, I’m a big fan of Pokémon. Like really a huge fan. I still am, as evidenced by the pokéwalker constantly clipped to my pocket. Currently my Umbreon, Thymine, is on a stroll [Yes I do plan on having a complete set of Eevee-lutions named after the nucleic acids. Yes, I make nerdy things even nerdier in my spare time.]. It is rarely noticed cause I wear it facing inwards but it always makes me feel a tiny bit more awesome than I feel without it.

I have loved Pokémon since my family first got gameboy colors with the games Blue and Yellow. I actually wasn’t the first in my family to play the games. I was completely content with watching my brother and father play them. Eventually I got a turn and I was the one who really dedicated myself to memorizing all the Pokémon’s names and the different cities and there was even a point when I knew all of the gym leaders’ and elite four’s names. I got my own gameboy color in... third grade? And I got my own Pokémon Crystal game and I absolutely adored it (and lost it sometime in middle school :( ).

I was also very into the TV show all the way through the Hoenn region. My obsession ended mainly because my TV stopped receiving the new episodes (oh the unfairness of growing up with only an antenna for television reception). When the TV show first started my siblings and I made my parents search for a channel that would air episodes for us. I’m fairly this the when my siblings and I started watching TV channels that weren’t KPBS. We didn’t immediately find Pokémon, though with did receive Digimon for a while (which I would occasionally watch).

I really loved the part of my childhood that revolved around Pokémon. My brother and I would run around out backyard pretending to be in the world of Pokémon. He was often a Pikachu (nicknamed Sparky) and I was his trainer. He would alternate being a Pokémon and my opponent. And we would battle and I would catch imaginary Pokémon that lived in our backyard in the bushes. Along with the ones that lived in the trees on our weekend dog walk. Play-pretending was the best in the bouncy-house-thing at the local Carl’s Jr. that my family would occasionally walk to. I think this lasted from the span of time of when I was 7 until I was at least 10 (possibly older).

Around 7th grade I decided that being obsessed with Pokémon was something embarrassing so I hid it. I basically stopped playing my old games. When I got Mystery Dungeon: Blue Rescue Team, I hid it from by siblings (and my friends though they wouldn’t have known anyway) because I didn’t want them to make fun of me. Same with when I got Leaf Green. I completely forgo-ed getting Pearl for over three years after it was release even though pearls are one of my two favorite gemstone-type-things and when Sapphire and Ruby were released I said that if they ever release a Pokémon Pearl, I would definitely buy it.

But at the middle to the end of my senior year of high school, I admitted to my brother that I still loved Pokémon. At which point he laughed at me because apparently it was absurd to think that he’d make fun of me (... it wasn’t absurd when he was in middle school...). So I got a used version of Pearl that I played until Heart Gold came out and I got that. I even pre-ordered it because I love the Johto region that much. That was the reason I told my brother that I loved Pokémon; I was planning on getting Heart Gold and didn’t want to be too tormented.

[Note: This is a younger brother that I used to beat up on whilst growing up. We have always had a weird relationship.]

So, now I am an open Pokémon fanatic. And my friends laugh at me. But they laugh at me for other things also. And I laugh at them. And it works. And I’m happy. And I get to carry around a pedometer that looks like a pokéball. All in all, college is made of awesome.

TTFN!

-Merr


Sorority Events: 4
Israeli Dances: 2