48 Pins

It snowed all day today. Lightly, but it snowed. I went to statistics this morning, ate a cheese and turkey sandwich for lunch, went to abnormal psych this afternoon- the usual. My grade for abnormal psych is a 96.67%, without extra credit included. Ha! Take that, Mr. "You will probably get a B in this class even if you study"!

There isn't much that happened today that was exciting, except that I rode the red bus back to the TSC from statistics, and almost all the other buses were waiting there already. I tried to decide if I was daring enough to cross the street (the buses come up and go around a loop), but I knew cars couldn't see me past the red bus, and I didn't want to run in front of them. Plus, the first bus ready to leave might not see me either. And there was lots of snow I'd have to walk through.

So, I ran around the circle instead. The purple bus left just as I made it there. The teal bus closed its doors, but I waved and the driver opened them again. Now, the teal and purple bus both have the same first stop near the greenhouses. After that, the purple bus circles around and comes back to Riverside and Blue Square. The teal bus goes to the innovation campus and adds at least five more minutes to the route.

I jumped off the teal bus at the greenhouse stop and ran up to get on the purple bus. It was very, very crowded and I was the last person who could fit. I'm glad the driver didn't kick me off, because after I started climbing on the purple bus, the teal bus left and I would have had to wait for ten or so minutes while it was snowing.

Technically, I was on the bus stairs, which is ~ kind of ~ illegal, except the part that's illegal is if I block the driver's view through the doors. Luckily, I'm small and was able to hug a pole and squish to the side. So even if I was on the stairs, we made it to Riverside without getting in an accident. I jumped off, waited for the bus to unload, and then got on again and rode to Blue Square from there.

After a short writing break and some texts to Alison, I spent my evening doing a lot of homework. I read a chapter in my English textbook, read a section in my other English book, took a quiz about "appropriate language" on the second book (20/20), and did my Pinterest board for interior design. Normally we only have to collect 20 pins, but luckily this time I noticed in the instructions that we needed 40- 20 related to pattern, and 20 related to texture. I'd picked several that could overlap, so I thought I should add a few more and ended up with 48 pins. Hopefully that's enough.

Shop in the Morn

Today was a pretty simple day. My English class got cancelled, so I spent my morning browsing for the academic articles I need to gather for my homework assignment. I have a few so far, but I'll need several more. Fortunately I have until after spring break.

I talked to Mom for a bit and then headed out to get some groceries. I guess this is a time of day that it's not very crowded. I'm not sure I've ever seen so many shopping carts flanking both sides of the door:

I picked up some things I needed, such as bananas, milk, and dishwashing soap pellets, and grabbed a bit of candy since a lot of it in the check-out lane was on sale, and I want to start stocking up study candy as the end of the semester creeps ever closer. I made it back, unloaded some dishes, had a quick lunch, and cleaned the frog tank. That task always takes awhile, but it had to be done!

I was concerned I might be late to my career class as a result, but I was only about thirty seconds late so it wasn't so bad. We talked about graduate school, and some recommendations that you give yourself a year or even two or three after college before going to graduate school, in order to engage in research opportunities and make connections for recommendation letters. 

It was also suggested that, for example, if to get the job you love you only need a Masters degree, then stop at a Masters degree and get to work doing the job you love and start earning money as opposed to going on to a Ph.D., which, while it might open more career opportunities for you (and offer higher pay, once you take care of the associated debt), may not be the best choice if you're already doing something you love.

For me, at this point, I'm not planning to go to graduate school. After graduation, I want to write. I'm fairly certain I'll be able to make it in the world skill-wise, since I have over ten years of practice at this point. I just need to get a publishable project finished, edit and revise of course, go through the steps of getting an agent (which should be easier now that I'm older than I was a few years ago), do more revising and things, and have some luck on my side. 

That's what I want to do. I don't want to go onto graduate school. However, I'm still keeping the option open in case I change my mind, as I don't know what the future holds for me. In a few years, I could potentially be married, or almost married. A few years after that, I might even have a baby. I just need to keep multiple options over and try not to burn my bridges... even though I really, really just want to spend my life writing, not going to more school for a job I likely won't enjoy as much as life as an author.

I stayed on campus until interior design, and after that went home to look over my articles again and do some more writing. Demetria and I watched what I assume was the Season 2 finale of "Star". Things are really heating up. I do love me some cartoons with heavy character-driven plot and psychology. Geez, that scene where Queen Moon said, "Ludo, you aren't well..." and he just sort of squinted downwards in defeat... That was a good scene. "I know Dennis misses you." "... How is he?" "He's worried about his big brother. As am I..."

Make Me a Hot Dog

I have a weird problem, and I've had it for years. When I sleep less, I feel wide awake in the morning. When I sleep more, I'm groggy for the first little while, if I can even get myself out of bed. Alarms on, alarms off- it doesn't matter; I feel more awake when I have less sleep, and trying to get through on more sleep is just very miserable.

I've gone to bed early (around 9:30 when I normally stay up a bit later) most days this week, and have woken up later than I typically like to in the mornings. So that hasn't been fun. Anyway, I was so tired last night that I forgot to set an alarm, which I like to do on Sundays to be absolutely sure that I don't miss church (especially on days when I want to shower in the morning, and of course eat too). Luckily, I woke without the alarm, and I did have plenty of time to get ready. I was still a little tired, though.

Anyway. I'd wanted to go to church early, so I got ready early. While I was killing time waiting for Demetria, I actually pulled my hair back into a ponytail. What? I know! Crazy. It took a long time to get it both comfortable and centered, and I remembered why I hate doing anything with my hair. I grabbed my stack of undelivered and unclaimed visiting teaching slips, because the reason I wanted to go early was to ask Brother Wade if he could announce in sacrament that women who still hadn't received assignments should come and talk to the supervisors and such.

On our way outside, we ran into Katerina and some roommates or friends of hers who had parked in the stadium lot. They offered to drive us over. Of course, the windshield had frozen over (the driver is from out of state, and commented that she "didn't even know it was a thing in Utah" that windshields can freeze like this). Luckily she had a scraper, and was able to get the driver's side cleared off. Her side windows were good and so was her back one, although most of the area in front of the passenger's seat was still coated in ice. She was nervous, but we encouraged her and made the one-minute drive to the church safely.

Of course, due to the fact that she'd needed to scrape off her windshield, we didn't get to church early. In fact, we were about a minute late. That was fine- I'd realized pretty quickly that it wouldn't be a good idea to ask Brother Wade to announce the visiting teaching thin in sacrament meeting because I was probably the only district supervisor who had brought my slips. I was able to announce it in relief society instead, clarifying that I had only names for District 1.

I haven't liked having this calling. I texted a lot of people and visited a lot of rooms, and after a certain point it just gets pretty embarrassing to be told, "Oh, I moved out of the ward a year ago" and so on. So, since no one took any of my slips (only one girl even looked at them), I sought out Brother Wade after church was over. I explained to him that I struggled with this calling, and wanted to know if he had any information at all as to who had moved out before I ended up calling them. He took my slips and said he'd look into that. 

I feel like he won't find much - I'm probably the one whose job it is to figure out who isn't in the ward anymore - but if I would have known this supposedly-easy calling would involve contacting this many people and constantly getting shot down, I never would have accepted it. I'd rather teach every week than have to put up with this frustration. I like to be productive and have something to show for my efforts in anything. Having a calling where I feel like no matter how hard I try nothing is happening is very difficult for me mentally. I'll probably regret saying so when I end up teaching a class someday, but it was a thought sticking out in my mind today.

I put my laundry in to run and then took a break from things when I got home. Linzie was streaming a commission and Jen was there, so I checked in with them and did some drawing myself. My little penguin's second birthday is on March 1st, and I've been wanting to draw her looking nice for awhile. I already had the sketch, so today was a good day to color it:

It's a penguin suit

After that, I worked on my homework. I didn't finish my "Monk" report tonight, but I did finish my career assignment that's due tomorrow, so that's great! It took longer than I expected it to. I don't like procrastinating and it would have been nice to do it yesterday (since I'd told myself all week, "Okay, on Saturday you're going to do that assignment and the 'Monk' report", so I was all ready for it), but it's done now and I don't have to worry!

Also, sometimes I don't know why Jen says things she does. It was really late where she lives (like two in the morning) and for some reason she started speculating about a "Danny Phantom" alternate universe where almost everything is the same, but Danny is a hot dog and Dani is a banana. I have no idea why. It was obvious that she wasn't expecting a response, but Linz and I kind of "sideways glanced" at each other, and it was a race to reply to her comment first. I have this to show for my efforts:

I'm unfortunately proud of how good it looks for 

something I whipped up in like ten seconds

 Dani Banani came out less well

And I don't normally share Linzie's stuff since it is her stuff, but I feel like the world should know about this beautiful contribution:

Jen laughed and laughed, it seemed like, and finally agreed to go to bed. I stayed with Linzie a bit longer, because I knew she was going to stay up anyway and I didn't want her to feel too abandoned. Plus, I wasn't feeling very tired. I had things I wanted to sketch and some blog posts to write, as well as laundry to be folded and dishes to be washed. Plenty I needed to do.

Also, the Oscars were on tonight. Demetria watched them, though I only came out when I heard Moana's voice actor singing "How Far I'll Go". I know that she didn't even audition to play Moana's singing voice because she didn't think she was good enough, but some sort of Disney talent scout overheard her singing and asked her anyway. And there she was on stage at the Oscars, I assume, dressed up nice with some dancers behind her! She probably never expected to be there in her lifetime! That must be pretty cool.

Demetria told me too that they called the wrong name out for the winners of "Best Picture" (I think that was it). She said something like, the boys were in the middle of their acceptance speech when they were told they hadn't actually won. Yikes! That must have been so embarrassing, both for them and for the announcer who messed up there on national (if not international) TV. I'm glad that wasn't me~

Rara Is Born

I met up with Jeff at the library so we could compare answers for our math exam today. Several of the questions were worded strangely, and we had left them blank. Between that and the SPSS assignment, it took us four hours to finish. The fact that we spent an hour and a half on Question 2, then realized we had used a t test instead of a z test and basically done the entire thing incorrectly did not help. We had basically done everything by hand that SPSS does automatically, used the wrong numbers and formulas, and gotten the wrong answer. So, we redid the whole thing. It was not fun.

Jeff offered to let me play D&D with he and Jason as we were getting close to finishing. I was hesitant, because I knew such a thing would be a huge time commitment, and I'd planned to do my career class homework and abnormal psych extra credit essay today (the one where I answer the questions about "Monk"). On the other hand, I've always wanted to give D&D a try, but have never had friends to do so with me. Here was Jeff with a car and a time. I might not get another chance (especially if Jason will be disappointed if things don't go anywhere between us, which I'm fairly certain they won't).

So, I accepted, on the condition that we stop by Blue Square first. Jeff waited in the car while I hurried up to my room. I gave Demetria the address of their place, told her what time I expected to be back, and asked her to call me around 9:00 to check up on me. I put two chocolate chip waffles in the toaster while I grabbed a few items, like a bag of Little Bites mini muffins and an instant macaroni and cheese cup, just in case I wanted them for dinner later. I left my test in my room, stuffed the waffles in my mouth, and went back down to see Jeff.

I met his wife and one-year-old daughter after we arrived (Jenny and Violet) They live near the hospital in a little place that looks like a motel from the outside, like one building with lots of doors right along the parking lot, though inside their apartment they had stairs leading up to a second floor. Jason came down still dressed in his pajamas, which I found kind of amusing since it was almost five and he knew I was coming.

We got things set up with the character sheets and all. I ended up with a chaotic neutral human folk hero, ranger class. After he'd helped me out, Jeff needed to whip up his own character, so I started sketching mine:

He's kind of grown on me. I might have to remove the D&D 

elements and use him in a story someday since I love his design

We played a pre-made Version 5 campaign since it was supposed to be shorter, and presumably easier to set up (though I have nothing to compare it to). Rangers get "favored enemies" that in some versions (not 5 for some reason) give them the ability to deal extra damage to those races, among other effects. Rara's favored enemy was "undead", since Jeff hinted that would be a good one for this campaign. I interpreted that to mean he had a fear of creepy dead things, and every enemy we fought turned out to be either a ghost or an enchanted broom or something. This was funny, because I consistently rolled high enough that Rara went first in every battle. He flailed his rapier around a lot. Near the end of the campaign, he opened a trunk and found a dead woman inside it, and he let the lid drop and "Nope"d out of there so fast.

Another part of the game I found amusing was, Jason was playing a paladin dwarf, and I think paladins are supposed to believe in deities. Jeff was a huge dragonborn barbarian with a giant battle axe (and a top hat he stole from one of our first rooms- I took a cloak while Lawful Good Jason inner turmoiled constantly). When we finally made it to the basement floor, we found several treasure chests around. Jeff opened the first two, despite our warnings about there being traps. Basically, what happened was, he ended up taunting Jason's character that his deity should give him strength to open chests without dying from possible traps such as poison darts (which we'd seen embedded in a skeleton earlier). 

Jason was playing a very devoted character, so he found he had little choice but to go along with the taunt. He strode up to the first chest and rolled a D20 (twenty-sided) die. Of course, he landed on the twenty. Critical hit. The chest exploded under his fists and he took three damage from the broken shards. Then he moved to the next chest and landed a critical again. So basically, this tiny dwarf was standing there with his damaged hands among the wreckage of these treasure chests, and he slowly swiveled around to face the massive dragonborn barbarian with the axe and top hat, and said in a quavering voice, "Never question my faith". Fun times.

Anyway, I enjoyed the game, though I bowed out right around 9:00. I had hoped to get some work done tonight, and I had warned them that I didn't want to make a huge time commitment. Jeff said he had homework too, and Jason said he had work tomorrow, so we cleaned up. As you can see I took my character sheet home so I could scan in Rara.

I felt comfortable being around Jeff and Jason, safety-wise. I felt like they cared about me and didn't want to see me hurt or force me to do anything I didn't want to. I wasn't fully comfortable with some of their choices, however- too much swearing and dirty jokes for my liking. It was more or less the environment I'd expect around a D&D table, I suppose. 

Despite that, I'm tempted to go back next week so we can finish off our campaign, and request that they try to keep such things to a minimum. We ended on a cliffhanger- a mini-fight shortly before the boss, with both Jason and I down to one hitpoint (Things went bad for Rara after he missed his jump over a pit of spikes, took damage, rolled a one and critically failed his first attack in the next battle, stabbed himself, caused bleed damage that resulted in me losing 1 HP every time it was my turn for the rest of the fight, became dazed for three turns in a row, and ended with just 1 HP left. It would have been helpful if someone had told me earlier I could roll some sort of medicine check, because I thought I had to use items to heal myself or stop bleed damage. Oh well.)

I'd asked Mom to call me around 9:00 to check up with me too, and she caught me just as I was heading out the door. I asked her to wait until I was home, and reassured her I was fine. Jeff drove me back to Blue Square, and I made it to my room suddenly feeling very tired. I guess between all that math and the game, my brain had done all the thinking it could handle for one night. 

D&D definitely does take up a lot of time, so I could never incorporate it into my regular routine. I prefer having the flexibility to start and stop activities when I want too much for that sort of life.

I Wanted to Know if Chalk People Bleed Powder

Fridays are great! Just one class in the morning and you're done! We talked about logical fallacies. Most of my day after that was spent working on all that homework I pushed to the end of the week in order to study for my abnormal psych test. I emailed my teacher, put together my interior design assignments, and finished a math quiz with a score of 9/10.

After lunch, I called Mom while I did some chores like wash dishes, sweep the floor, and chop up more frog food. We talked about school and things, and I checked my email and found out I scored 27/30 on my abnormal psych test. Not too bad. I had the chance to say hi to Preston too.

After a break, it was back to more homework. I read a section of my English textbook and took a quiz on "precise language and being eloquent". I scored 9/10, and of course the question I got wrong was the only one I went back and changed:

I thought "in those days" was fine. "Long before the present era" seemed very pompous and unnecessary. The only reason I changed it was because this was supposed to be a lesson on speaking eloquently, and I thought maybe "long before the present era" fit those qualifications. I have no proof that it wasn't the first option, which would be less annoying because then if I'd stuck to my first answer I still would have been wrong, but I was bitter for awhile afterwards anyway.

Then I ate, did some catching up on my blog, and Demetria and I watched more "Star" tonight (They've been doing a big February dump after their long hiatus, can you tell? It's very strange that they're not pacing the episodes, but this seems to be a common thing with cartoon channels). 

And, I may as well show this. Linzie's getting excited about watching "ChalkZone", but she's been having computer/Internet troubles or something recently and it hasn't been high on her priority list. But she's seen the first several episodes, and she lets me talk to her about non-spoilery things. 

As I said before, I've watched some of the "ChalkZone" episodes again myself over the last month to refresh my memory, and remembered how much I love this show. It's very cute, and I love the way it's set in a small town (I'm writing a small town for the first time in Protagonist For Hire). "Danny Phantom" is set in the middle of a big city and "Fairly OddParents" is more suburbs-based, so it's funny that I've got these three different settings to watch characters interact in. It's very useful to study.

Anyway, there are five people who sit on Plainville's town council. One of them is Reggie's dad, so I thought it would be amusing if ten or fifteen years in the future, Reggie gained a seat on the council himself. He's always very well-dressed and proper for a cartoon bully, so I think he'd like that. Then Penny is a bit of an activist, so I added her to the future council too, and Michelle because I wanted to draw her. Given her personality and actions in the show, there is no doubt in my mind that she marries Reggie (since not only does she invite him to all her parties despite the fact that he's a jerk to everyone except her, but the girl canonically thinks large crooked teeth are attractive, for crying out loud), and I thought she'd have a field day teasing him here. So, here are some town council pals walking back from a long meeting in the rain:

Penny's coat is based off her outfit in 

"Chalk Queen", Reggie's from "Reggie the Red"

Now I really wanna make a town council for Protagonist- by which I 

mean I really just wanna research small town politics for days because yes

I've been picking at this piece on and off for awhile (It's a nice way to take my mind off homework and studying without getting too carried away in my writing projects, or I'd get sucked in for hours). It's obviously still a work in progress since it needs shading and a background, among other details, but it's coming along. Reggie here is very upset that these lovely gals outvoted him on something or other. Mostly because one is his fiancée and he doesn't need this kind of negativity in his life right now with the wedding just around the corner. They're very cute and I like them all.

(P.S.: Stockton, I looked it up and it turns out that chalk is comprised of calcium carbonate. Who knew?)

Abnormal Psych Test 2 of 5

This morning I woke up, showered, ate breakfast, and went about getting ready for my day. Only after I was already in stats class did I remember I'd wanted to go early for tutoring today! Drat! Oh well. Jeff and I made plans to meet on Saturday around noon at the library. I told him I was free all day Friday (which is also the only day between the two that the shuttles will be running), but he said he was busy. Well, I guess I'm walking up a snowy hill, then! At least I have someone smart whom I can rely on to help me out on this exam. It would be a pain if I had no one to double-check my answers against.

On my way to stats class, I had texted the red bus to see when it was going to be here. As I was coming down the stairs from the fourth floor, it was four minutes away. One minute later I was almost to the stop when I thought I saw it coming down the hill. Quickly, I texted it again (I've set the texting keywords for four different stops to auto fill-ins on my phone, so when I type "qq" it gives me the stop right outside Blue Square, and "ww" for the one at the TSC, et cetera). 

Despite it being only a minute and a half to two minutes later, that was indeed the bus. I was on the opposite side of the street, separated from it by two crosswalks. Although it stayed quite awhile to load everyone up, I did not make it. Oh well. At least the stadium stop is right across the street from it. So I rode up to the TSC and walked from there to the fine arts building. I was about a minute late, but no harm done.

Someone left their phone in class today (it ended up right under my seat, suggesting it belonged to the girl who'd been sitting right behind me), so I brought it up to my teacher. As I was waiting for the chance to speak with her, I looked through the phone's contacts in search of a parent I could text, though I wasn't sure how that parent would help. I was just going back to the screen of the last person who had been texted, hoping that person might be at USU, when the girl came back. I returned her phone and realized then how grateful I am to be the kind of person who sees a lost phone and thinks "I should do everything I can to return this" instead of taking it for myself.

After class, I had some time to be at home. After checking up with my online friends, I made one of those instant cups of macaroni and cheese and studied, of course, up until it was about time to go. I feel like the test went well! It was definitely harder than the first one. Many questions were easy and I breezed through them in seconds, but there were several that I hovered over (trying to remember, for example, if people with generalized anxiety disorder universally suffer from increased heart rate, or increased muscle tension, or decreased electroencephalograph readings, and so on).

I tried to take my time with this test, especially since I was planning to stay until the answers were revealed. But when I was done half an hour later, there were still forty minutes left in class. I didn't have anywhere to be, but I just wasn't in the mood for sitting. My math assignment was due tonight, so I went home.

I did some reading, and then got to work on that math. It took me quite awhile, but eventually I scored 100% and I'm feeling a lot more confident about t-statistics and things, which is good since it's the stuff I need to know for this take-home exam. Hoorah! I spent the rest of the night doing some sketches while I watched "ChalkZone" instead of while listening to my abnormal psych terms. It's nice to be done studying for that class for a bit! Tomorrow will be the day of doing all the homework I've put off this week. Yep, it'll be fun.

More Like Exterior Design

Yesterday it was very windy, and rained at the end of the day. Today, we had some snow. Luckily it was just the white stuff, and not heavy and wet or involving any hail, since I didn't have my umbrella on hand with me.

I went to English again this morning, of course. My teacher reminded us that our annotated bibliographies our due March 18th. I'm pretty sure that's after Spring Break, which will be nice since I've hardly looked at that assignment. I hate procrastinating, but of course I have to get the assignments that are due sooner done first. I've been studying for my abnormal psych test and preparing for my statistics exam. 

Once those are out of my way, I'll be able to focus more on this English assignment. I need to pick my eight articles and write a page about each one of them. An eight-page assignment isn't one you want to put off until the end. I was also holding off in the hopes that I might be struck with some inspiration for my argumentative essay, but no luck yet. Ah, well.

Then it was time for my SPSS lab. Jeff never showed up. As class was starting and he still wasn't here, I sent him a text that said "Bro". He replied back that he'd lost track of time at the career fair. I said, "I'm so glad I'm not you right now. This lab sounds like it will be a pain to make up". A lot of the students whose labs are on Monday and Tuesday had their schedules messed up- especially the Tuesday kids who had Monday classes yesterday, because sometimes those classes overlapped their labs. It is nice to have a lab on Wednesday, because out of all the days in the week, that seems to be the one least susceptible to events like having school off. I do enjoy not having to make it up when there's a holiday.

We took an I>clicker quiz in my career class, and after that I ate a late lunch at the Marketplace. It's been about two weeks since I've been, so that was nice. I had a grilled cheese, fries, a roll, some yummy nachos, and some mint ice cream. So yes, I spoiled myself a bit, but sometimes I like to do that on these long Wednesdays. I try to eat healthier at home, and many other times I visit the marketplace too.

Interior design was a bit better than yesterday, though not by much. He wanted to try a new teaching set-up today, so he broke the class in three groups, had us download his PowerPoint slides, and we discussed the three types of architectural styles he had selected- Renaissance, Baroque, and 17th century medieval. I was in the first group. 

The thing is, I'm here in college to learn. When we break into groups to discuss, I feel like everything moves very slowly, and no one learns much. This took up the entire class period, except when each group shared their conclusions about the pictures from the PowerPoint we'd looked at with the rest of the class. At the end, he asked who enjoyed this teaching style. I didn't raise my hand, and though I didn't turn around, it seemed like a lot of people around me kept their hands down. Our teacher hesitated, then said he might try it again anyway. I think he liked this style because he got to relax for about half an hour.

Plus, I mean, you would think in a class called interior design we'd look INSIDE the buildings instead of looking at the outside so much, but apparently nobody asked me.

There was snow out when we left. I hung out in the international lounge of the TSC. The couches there are very comfortable- probably the kind I'd really like to have in my home when I grow up. I stayed there and did some Quizlet studying until it was time for Institute. My friend Molly from high school was there in my class today! She must have a different Institute class, but came today with a roommate or friend. Maybe she has Institute on Monday and it was cancelled for Presidents' Day. We talked about Jesus and the lady at the well. My teacher has the picture of that scene on a rolled-up canvas that he passed around. It was pretty cool.

The evening bus left the TSC stop right before I reached it. I was pretty irritated, because I thought he may have seen me. I considered walking home, but there was lots of snow coming down, and I didn't feel like walking for ten minutes in the dark and cold. When I texted the bus, it said it would be back in six minutes. Now, I knew this was a filthy lie. But for some reason I believed it anyway. It was fifteen minutes before it returned, and then another fifteen-minute ride around the evening route. Maybe I should have walked, but at least I wasn't cold.

Anyway. Demetria found out today she was accepted into the music program, so she was pretty excited about that. She and I watched two new episodes of "Star" tonight, so that kind of made up for the slowness in getting home. Then I did some more drawing while listening to my abnormal psych words. Test day is tomorrow! Hopefully I do great!

Hedge Statues

In order to compensate for missing school on Presidents' Day, our schedules were flipped around. That meant I went to my Monday classes on Tuesday, and I'll go to them again tomorrow (along with my lab and Institute). We finished up our discussion from last time in English, and drew the audience our essay is supposed to be geared at with crayons.

Linzie was doing a stream when I got home, so I left that running in the background while I added and removed some definitions from my abnormal psych Quizlet and tried to look up some information about my math homework. At one point, Jen showed us a quick floorplan of a mansion for a game she's working on, and Linzie and I were just roasting her. Affectionately. My favorite part was that she wrote "hedge statue" because she didn't know the word "topiary". Then Linzie would say something like "StoRAGE" or send "Kit" followed a moment later by "chen" because the word was on two different lines, and the outhouses (I think that's what they were) were way in the corner of the map and labeled "batrooms". Jen rolled her eyes at us, I'm sure. It was enjoyable.

I bowed out early so I could get some more work done, though. Specifically, I wanted to review all my professor's PowerPoint slides for this unit of abnormal psych. I made it through them before career class, but just barely. I ended up leaving later than I had intended to. Luckily I only had to wait two minutes for the shuttle.

So I was a minute or two late for class, but when I walked in, I was surprised to find that the room was empty. I'd been on Canvas shortly before I'd left Blue Square, and there hadn't been a message that it was cancelled. Earlier today I'd also checked my syllabus to be sure that I was on track. This was a Monday class, so I hadn't gone to the wrong place. There were a few other kids standing around, but the room was mostly empty, and I had been late.

One of the kids had their updated syllabus on hand (the one that's supposed to be for Week 6 onward, and which I hadn't thought we'd started yet), but still there was no indication that class had been cancelled or relocated to another room for the day. Finally, someone checked their email. Yep. A week and a half ago, our teacher had sent out a message saying that "Due to the difficulty of working with staff around their usual hours", we wouldn't have class today. I remember getting it, but apparently I hadn't written down anywhere "Don't go to class this day!"

I feel like she should have sent another reminder the day of, but I guess it's my fault too. No harm done, really. At least if I was going to be late, this would've been the day to do it. Still, it would have been nice not to run across campus to get to class. I'll have to be more on top of keeping these kinds of notes.

I ended up going home to take another look at those psych notes and work on my math. Specifically, I looked at my take-home exam. It's a bit daunting. Not the kind of stuff I was expecting to be tested on given this unit. I did my best with the notes I have, but it will be good to compare with someone else. For instance, the test gives us a raw score and asks us to calculate it's z-score and standard score. A z-score is a type of standard score, I think, and if you try Googling "standard score", the Internet seems to treat the two as synonyms, despite the fact that the second question in the test gives you the standard score and wants you to calculate the z and the raw, so they're obviously different.

I'm planning to talk with Jeff in lab tomorrow. Maybe I'll also make plans to visit the tutors. They have hours on Wednesday at 5:30 to 7:00... Exactly when I'm in seminary. But they're supposed to be available early Thursday morning too, so hopefully I can catch them. I just need to make sure I know where they are, and hope it's not too crowded.

Interior design was all right. We talked about lines. It wasn't very exciting... Actually, I almost fell asleep in class, I think. I don't think I slept very well last night, and I'm a morning person. The lack of sleep must have finally been getting to me. The annoying thing was, I knew it was because my teacher wasn't very engaging today. I knew that if I were home working on something I wanted to work on, I would instantly be wide awake. So I tried to be excited about "line". It was a relief when I got out of class without falling asleep, though, especially because I sit in the front row.

Sure enough, I perked up once I was home again. I'd planned to take another look at my math, but since I still felt a little drowsy, I set that aside until after I'd done a quick drawing to wake myself up more. I did a sketch of Paulina Sanchez from "Danny Phantom" and Penny Sanchez from "ChalkZone" the other day, and I thought it would be fun to color it:

I think Sanchez was Paulina's fan-made last name, but Butch

just confirmed it in his latest video, so that was pretty exciting!

Jen said I made Paulina look a little scary, though, so I think I'll redo her eyebrows. But anyway.

Then I started looking at my test again, and did a chunk of my week's online math assignment. Some concepts we didn't cover very well in class, and I'd really like to compare notes with Jeff on. Hopefully we're able to meet up soon.

Really, I just did my "first attempts" at the math today. You get three attempts on each problem. I figured I'd get as much as I could out of the way now, and look at it again with fresh eyes either tomorrow or Thursday, when it's due, without leaving all the work to be done on Thursday. I ate more of that Little Caeser's pizza tonight, figuring that I should try to finish it off sooner rather than later.

I like to do homework after I get home until around 8:30 or 9:00, and then after that had the chance to take some time for myself again and do a bit of writing. It was kind of an exhausting day, mentally, and one of those that makes you wish it could be summer already. Strange that there are only about two months and a week left before the school year ends for me...

But It's Okay He's Fine He Becomes Nightwing Somehow

So the main reason I came home this three-day weekend was because I had a dentist appointment scheduled. The dentist is a childhood friend of my dad's, and he likes to be kept updated about my life a lot of the time. They have little TV screens on the ceiling there so you can watch something while they work on your teeth, so after I had some x-rays taken, I got to see the latter half of "Zootopia".

Not too long after we came home, those of us who could come went out to see "Lego Batman". It was good, but not super amazing, I thought- I preferred the two movies I had last come to see: "Moana" and "Sing". There were some interesting concepts in it though, and lots of good quotes. Demetria has been excited for it, and I wasn't sure if she'd see it before I got another chance to, so I wanted to go. I'd heard it was good. Plus, it gave me something nice to do with my family.

After the movie was over, we went to OHOP for crepes. They're my favorite place to get crepes, and I had one of their nutella ones- so chocolate and bananas again. We were all hungry, and got in and out of there pretty quickly.

Shortly after our return, I finished packing up my things and said good-bye for another few weeks. Mom took me back to USU in the Jeep. Luckily, we didn't have any problems this time. She bought me another Little Caeser's pizza, and we went to Lee's to do a bit more grocery shopping- specifically, Mom wanted to get more of the peanut butter stuff she likes and some bananas, and we also grabbed a few things for me, like Peeps (since we couldn't find any more bags of just red and purple Mini Cewy SweeTarts) and small pizzas I can cook in my apartment if I want to.

I said good-bye to her again, unpacked, did dishes, and relaxed for the evening by turning on my automatic abnormal psych vocabulary flashcards and doing some drawing. Our test is on Thursday, and I hope I'm ready! I'm feeling pretty confident.

Since we'd seen "Lego Batman" today and I'm not very DC-savvy, I looked up some information about Robin, trying to gauge how close the movie had matched his origin story and personality. Apparently, Robin's story is a very difficult one to understand (one of those "you had to be there" things), and there have been like four Robins in DC history. In-universe, it seems, the name of Robin is donned on occasion, even by a girl once or twice.

The Robin from the movie today - Dick Grayson - is the first, and if I understand this tangled web of stories, retcons, and continuity reboots correctly, he eventually gets murdered by the Joker while he's still just a kid. Oh.

Dominating Settlers

I'm used to 9:30 church, but my family have 1:00 church this year. That made for a long, relaxing morning. I tried to work on homework, and did some drawing too. Mom and Dad were asked to speak next week... in ward conference. It's too bad I have to miss that!

People were very excited to see me in relief society, and were typically disappointed that I was only staying for the weekend. It's funny how no one was ever excited about my existence in young women's. I do enjoy being with the adults.

Tonight, the Hodsons came over to play games. The only one I played was Settlers of Catan, and I totally dominated it. It helped that I had access to every resource to start with, and also that 8 was rolled many times throughout the game, and so was 3 (of all things). Melissa was disappointed her 6 didn't pay off.

The last two points are from me being two cities on the same turn,

as you can tell from my cards there. It all came down to whether I

rolled a 7 or not. I'd have to lose lots of cards if I rolled a 7.

Anyway, I was able to get a city by the second turn, and then I just kept gaining resources. The robber got me a few times (because when an 8 was rolled, I was getting six cards a turn). Eventually I built a few cities and had the Longest Road. Victory was mine! It didn't seem like a very long game, and I was victorious, so that was nice!

60 to 0 in 3.5

I did more laundry and tried to clean up a bit before Mom came to pick me up today. After she arrived, we went grocery shopping, then went out to eat. We stopped by IHOP, which turned out to be right next to PetSmart, so after we finished eating (I had a yummy chocolate and banana crepe), we went in there so I could buy new bacteria substitute liquid stuff for the frog tank, since I had run out last week. We also came home with two more frogs, so now there are a total of three living at my place!

I floated the frog bag in the fishtank water while I finished packing up and did dishes, and we said hello to Demetria's friend who had come over to watch a movie ("Hairspray"), since they're both in a scene for it in their opera song compilation presentation thing, and he had never seen it before. Then Mom and I said good-bye and headed for home!

Our trip was fine at first. We drove normally, as you would expect. But after we'd been on the freeway for awhile, Mom started panicking a bit.  The car had jolted and shaken for a moment. Then the battery light had come on in the van. She asked me to call Dad, so I did, and he said his only advice was to hurry home as quickly as we could, and not to turn off the car in case we weren't able to get it running again.

Then things got weirder. More and more lights began to flicker on, including the airbag light and teh brake light. The car's clock stopped working, and both the gas tank dial and the speedometer dropped down to zero, even though  we were still moving on the freeway at seventy miles an hour.

Anyway, we drove like that for a time, and made it all the way off the freeway and started heading for home. Unfortunately, we got caught at this light here, and had to come to a stop. When the light turned green, Mom floored the gas pedal, and the van barely inched across the intersection. We made it this far before it gave out.

Several people stopped to see if they could help us (especially since we were blocking part of a lane) to no avail. The electricity seemed to be dead. The sliding side doors wouldn't open, and we couldn't even put hazards on. Nor could we shift the car out of park and into neutral so people could push it into the gas station just on the right. Fun.

We called Dad, who called the nearby Honda dealers who had looked at the van two weeks ago, and were just down the street. They said they couldn't provide us with a tow truck. Dad couldn't come and see us himself, because Stockton had the car for diving today (though in the end, Stockton was told to come home, and Dad took the car and came). Mom's childhood friend Brian Leatherwood stopped by and stayed for awhile, but his wife and babies were waiting in the car, so eventually he had to get going again.

As you can see. eventually a nice policeman came by to check out the scene. He said someone had called us in because we were blocking traffic. At least we didn't stop in the intersection! It was a long time before the tow truck arrived, but eventually it did, and Dad showed up immediately after. We were able to follow our car to the tow truck place, and Mom and Dad signed some papers or looked at something while I waited in the car for a bit.

Finally, we were able to make it home- after stopping for pizza, of course. It's difficult for me to get Little Caeser's on campus given that I don't have a car, so I enjoy eating pizza when I can.

The rest of the day was spent relaxing, as well as watching the first episode of "Monk" so that I could answer questions about it for an extra credit report in abnormal psychology. The car is in the shop now, which might prove to be a problem, but at least it makes for a good story to tell!

Let's Play With Jen

English class was all right today. We talked about viewing the world through different lenses, such as being prejudiced against people because of education, race, and age (There are more we'll talk about in the future, but those are the only ones we got through today). No one looked eager to speak on race, so I talked about how I grew up in Georgia, and at my school a few of the black kids used to pick on the white kids, trying to trick them into saying something that they could twist as being racist to get them in trouble. 

So I told the story of when, in fifth grade, my friend Katherine was pressured into making a comment like "black people are like black dragons: being black doesn't make them evil", or something along those lines. Of course, the black girl in question told the teacher that my friend had said "black people are like black dragons", and I was called into the office to act as a witness. The counselors and other authority figures were legitimately baffled by the fact that I didn't understand the concept of racism and that it was unfortunately still applicable to our day.

Point being: I never took this event and broadened it to "all black people are mean" (even though the vast majority of my bullies have been black). I've always understood that there are people who will be nice to me, and people who will be less nice. Race shouldn't have anything to do with it. I don't understand why this isn't clear to the rest of the world.

I followed this with the story of the writing conference I attended when I was sixteen. As someone who was writing leads of color, I was thrilled to attend a workshop about "Writing beyond the boundaries", supposedly about how to write other races. Except, it wasn't a "how" workshop. It was a "why we need it" workshop. We viewed a slideshow about how many white protagonists there are compared to other races (Did they look at every single book? Just the ones in America? I would think there would be more Asian leads if all books produced in Asian countries were taken in to account). At one point, someone in the audience asked if she had advice on how to write a side character who makes a judgmental comment, presumably to push the story into action. The teacher turned to her husband (who was Japanese, because of course she'd never marry a Caucasian man), and said, "How do we protect evil racists?"

For the next half hour or so, it was beaten into my head that all whites are inherently racist, and that the only way to not be racist is to not be born white. I learned nothing useful about how to write my characters (except that I, a white person, was likely to do it wrong and offend minority groups), and it was very irritating. That was years ago, but it still haunts me on a regular basis.

Fun fact: In all my years writing my own characters, I've only had one white male protagonist in my life. I don't know how this happened, but it did. It was never intentional. It just... happened. My white leads have always been girls. I went through a phase where I had dragons for protagonists. Ben Hollow from The Shadow Guild was half-Navajo. Timothy from Silverfish was Japanese-American. Ethel is "Stars and Finches"' equivalent of black, while Gavin is half the equivalent of Latino, and half elf (my elves being a sort of evolved feathered monkey creature). Even 124, the cat from Courtesy of Number 124, wouldn't be Caucasian if he were human, because he's half Ragdoll and half Siamese. He'd be Latino-Asian. Et cetera, et cetera.

The only story I have where the main character is a white male is Protagonist For Hire (which is the story that actually has a chance at being published... that figures). I think it's interesting.

Anyway, my cool friend who lives in Hungary - and I talk about "my squad" of online friends enough that I should probably just give their names, and she's Jen - was digging through some old files yesterday and found a game she made in RPG Maker years and years ago when she twelve, about "Fairly OddParents". English isn't her first language - though she speaks it fluently now - and she sent screenshots yesterday to mock her past self for her language abilities, questionable plot and writing skills, and the way the characters quickly ended up nothing like their canon counterparts and the whole thing became a mess.

She's trying to remake the game now that she's older - for practice if for nothing else, since she wants to be a game designer, and she's not in school anymore, and wants to redeem herself of this monstrosity - and today she was hoping our other "squad member" (Linzie, our awesome artist friend) and I would watch her stream it. So that went on for what seemed like most of the day. It was very long, but we got quite a few laughs out of it. I took a couple of screenshots near the end:

Anti-Wanda's lullaby written on the steamed-up mirror. There were 

several pieces scattered about and it was supposed to be a riddle.

Jen said, "Oh, come on! I won't be able to solve it because I

don't understand my past self's Engrish!"

I almost didn't breathe for several hours because 

I was laughing so hard the entire time.

We weren't far into the game when Jen started screaming at Wanda

and threatening to delete the file if this sort of OOC dialogue kept up.

Anti-Cosmo doesn't want to "let's look the stars"

The game just goes on with this kind of stuff. For hours.
Many jokes were made about how many times the characters went to sleep
(and shortly woke up after) because Jen loved night scenes so much.

I should explain the "I got the egg scene" comment. Earlier in the game, Cosmo, Anti-Cosmo, Timmy, and Wanda were staying at the house of a girl named Jenny (Present-day Jen regrets so many of her past choices). Jenny left to get eggs. But when the player walks Jen into town, she finds the shopkeeper standing outside his shop, which was "locked because the many rats inside". She asked the guy if she could "buy egg". He said, "Is fifteen enough?" Then he just HANDS THEM OVER, so apparently he just stands around carrying fifteen eggs on his person.

Fast forward. There's supposed to be this really romantic dream sequence not too long after that (it's a very ship-heavy game written by a twelve-year-old). There was a piano of all things in the middle of a deserted island. Jen said, "I wish you could hear the music through the stream, because this scene doesn't make much [of its limited] sense without it. Basically, Anti-Cosmo plays, and when he says, 'This is how I feel when you're not around', it's slow, and when he says 'This is how I feel with you', it gets faster, signalling his heartbeat".

A creative idea, but straight after she said it, she said, "THIS IS THE WRONG SONG"! Apparently, her game loaded the town/shop music instead!

So of course in the middle of this romantic scene that was playing, while Jen was listening to the town music, I typed, "You make me feel like a shopkeeper with fifteen eggs".

She couldn't stop laughing for a long time, and I promised I'd draw a comic for her sometime in the next few weeks. Linzie wants to draw another of the early scenes, but I can't remember which one.

Anyway, that was an experience. I was able to get some work done while the stream was going in the background, though. And after Jen finished with her stream, I asked if she wanted to see some of my old game attempts. So I streamed myself playing several of my Multimedia Fusion games that were made between four to seven years ago- all of which are so much worse than I remember.

I asked Jen, "Do you feel better about your game now?" since hers had cool backgrounds, text boxes with character icons, and everything (although some of her edits for those face icons were... amusing, to say the least). Jen said that she actually didn't feel better, because she had used pre-programmed items whereas my MMF games were more... homemade. Linzie pointed out that Jen had had to create an entire plot, and that her game went through to the end and lasted for HOURS, compared to mine which were each like five minutes tops, so we decided to call it even.

Tonight, I had dinner while watching another "Star" episode with Demetria. I loved the show-not-tell in it (One example being Ludo asking Glossaryck to say he's proud of him, Glossaryck saying he did a good job, and Ludo hesitating, then stubbornly repeating, "Can you say 'proud'?")

After it was over, I took my stats quiz for the week. 10/10 first try! Huzzah! Then I did my English quiz, about "avoiding stereotypes and sexist language". For your enjoyment, here are some questions:

Candidate vs. men and women?

Perhaps this should be answered to avoid alienating 

people who identify as agender? I got this one correct.

Okay, but what about this one? Grammatically, the first option is correct.

I got this one right... despite the "they/them" pronoun question, so...?

I don't see why people should have a problem with "mankind", but since I

figured someone out there views it as sexist, I said "no change" and got it correct.

This one made me hesitate. The instructions were to pick based on

my audience. My audience is readers of news articles. In the world we 

live in today, people blame cops all the time, so you would think they'd 

be more likely to read the first article (either to defend or argue) However,

realizing that police might read the article too, I picked the second option.

This one was a tad tricky too, but I figured the second choice was better 

because it didn't imply inner-city kids are disadvantaged or "at risk"

Surprisingly, I only missed two of the ten questions. One was this one, and I truly think it's unfair I got it wrong:

The instructions for this quiz: "Play to your audience"

Audience: An ad to encourage teens not to drop out

And yet I don't score because I tried to convince kids not to drop out? 'kay.

So, that was my day! I spent the time before bed looking over my abnormal psych terms, doing laundry, revising, and drawing. It's always fun days like this that remind me I lead a very nice life.

All You Need Is a Light Jacket

I like to think that one of my greatest strengths is that, typically, I'm good about managing my time, finishing all the things I need/want to, and not procrastinating on assignments. I like having my first class of the day not start until 10:30. I woke up with plenty of time to clean the frog tank, shower, and eat before class. I put some finishing touches in my room and took the after picture for my interior design staging project:

Before

... In retrospect, I'm not totally happy with the second picture. The lighting glares more than I thought it would, and I forgot to move some things like the suitcase under my bed and the stuff near the fish tank. By the time I really sat down to look at the pictures full view, I had already uploaded them, put the cardboard trashcan and fish tank back in the living area, and the natural lighting wasn't so great anymore. Oops. I'll probably lose at least a point or two on this assignment, but at least I did it.

Then it was time for class. As usual, I skipped the red bus and instead rode the purple bus up to the TSC and walked to the opposite end of campus from there. After class, I caught my teacher's attention and asked about her research, trying to nudge her in the direction of "Do you work with undergrads?" She said that she doesn't really do the romantic relationship stuff anymore, but if I came by her office hours she could talk to me about what she does, or even help me explore other research opportunities on campus with other teachers. Unfortunately, her office hours are Monday at 9:30, when I have my English class. She told me I could set up an appointment at a different time instead.

Mom had texted me asking her to call her. I was hoping it wasn't about someone dying, because that's usually where my thoughts go when I get texts like that with no explanation about what the conversation will be. Luckily, no one was dead- she was just calling so we could talk about weekend plans, since I'm going home. She'll pick me up Saturday instead of Friday since Stockton has diving to attend.

I knew I would have my date this evening, so I finished up my math homework during the break between my two Thursday classes. I was trying to decide whether to upload my interior design homework or do dishes first when I realized I had my times flipped around- on Monday, Wednesday, and Friday I have a 3:30 class, but Tuesday and Thursday I have a 3:00 one. I had twenty minutes to get to abnormal psych. Fortunately I made it with about five minutes to spare, even though I walked out of Blue Square right as the shuttle left, and the next one wasn't going to come for eight minutes, so I crossed the street to the stadium stop instead.

We talked about sleep disorders in class. It's our last class before our next test. There's a lot to study, but I've been combing through my words for the last few weeks, so I'm grasping the concepts. Then I went home to rest. I scratched my face yesterday and broke skin, so all day I had a red blot on my face. It was weird because it looked like it was just a smear of blood, but no matter how many times I washed it, I couldn't wash it off. During the last break, I'd broken out the limited supply of make-up I did have, and tried to figure out what to do with it. All I wanted was something to dab on the red spot so it didn't look so bright red. The goop I did add was dumb, because it smeared around and was almost transparent. 

I took out some sparkly-looking powder next. It was red, but I thought maybe I could work with it. I took the brush and tried dusting some of the powder on my cheeks. I did this for awhile, trying hopelessly to detect any sign of difference, and finally got glitter in my eye and called it quits.

That was earlier, so when I got home from abnormal psych, I asked Demetria if she had anything. She had a small tube of goop that you could dab on your skin to cover up red spots like mine. Perfect, this was exactly what I'd wanted! It worked pretty well.

Next I tried braiding my hair, only to realize after a few attempts that it's been years since I've braided it myself, and I didn't do a very good job. After debating the pros and cons, I reluctantly tore each braid out, and finally elected to pull my hair up in a ponytail. I don't know if I gave off too casual of a look, but for me, doing anything with my hair is considered dressing up.

I pulled brown boots out of my closet, set my coat and keys on the end of my bed, and sat down to wait for 6:30 to arrive. I uploaded my pictures for interior design, did my 400 word description on the project, and posted reviews on the projects of two other people.

About 6:30, I went down to the parking lot. I was only there for about two minutes before Jason pulled up in his car to greet me. We talked about our psychology classes on our way to Texas Roadhouse. It was surprisingly crowded there for a Thursday night. Loud too. We talked some more as we waited, took a break from talking when we got our menus, and talked a bit more after that. I told the waiter, "This will sound weird, but can I have the macaroni and cheese from the kids' menu?" He said it wasn't really their policy to do that, and I said, "But I'm as adorable as a kid". He said he'd make an exception this one time. I guess I've finally reached that age where I can't just eat off the kids' menu anymore. I'm glad he allowed me to tonight. Texas Roadhouse... Not a meat fan... Yeah.

I thought the date went pretty well. We didn't really have awkward silences, just pauses. And I got my macaroni, warm rolls with cinnamon butter, and cheese fries, and Jason was nice and I didn't have to pay for any of it. We talked a lot about school and interests and things. I don't think he's LDS though, so I can't see it becoming a long-term relationship. He did say that he and Jeff play a lot of D&D (my guess is that Jeff's wife probably doesn't join them), and I said I'd always kind of wanted to give it a try, so maybe I'd have to let them teach me a bit sometime when I could afford that time commitment. He said Jeff would be thrilled. And since he took stats last semester, he could potentially help me in math too. So that was my first date! Not too painful.

I had Demetria take a picture of me after I came home

I got to take the second batch of rolls home with me. Demetria was cooking food when I returned, so we chatted a bit about the date and weekend plans, and watched the latest "Star" episode. My homework was all done and I was able to just unwind. All in all, it wasn't too bad a day!

What a Busy Wednesday Looks Like

This was my first Wednesday where I had all my classes and my lab, since last time I had the lab, my teacher cancelled because she was sick, I think. It was pretty long and busy, but I made it work.

We talked in English about explicit and implicit arguments, and looked at political cartoons. Also, we're now required to learn about "fake news" and "alternative facts", which my teacher was a bit miffed about, but this is the world we live in now.

After it was over, I headed to the Emma Eccles Jones building. It was an hour before my lab, but I didn't think it would be worth the time to go home and clean my room and then come back. Instead, I worked on math homework. The lab helped, since there were concepts in the homework I didn't remember going over in class, or at least not in as much detail as was needed for the assignment. I told Jeff I'd be out of town this weekend, so we made plans to work on our next take-home tests on our own, then compare answers next Wednesday again.

I again elected to wait on campus instead of going home, even though it was, again, an hour before the next class. Career is in the same building, so I just made myself comfortable to wait. We talked about research, and about contacting professors on campus and asking if they worked with undergraduates (which the majority of them apparently do). Maybe I'll talk to my stats teacher tomorrow, or make an appointment with her. She studies romantic relationships.

This time, I actually did go home to get some cleaning done. I cleared off my dresser drawers, cleared off my computer desk, and ate some instant macaroni before hurrying off to interior design. Class today was all right. We talked about scale and proportions, and looked at weird old paintings. Apparently my teacher was in an art history class once and really enjoyed it. That figures.

I stayed on campus until Institute. We talked about the miracle of turning the water into the wine, and about traditions with water and cleansing rituals in that time period.

Tonight, I talked to one of my friends who was still awake. I told her I picked the screenshot I was going to use as a pose reference for our "draw the squad" picture:

He's smaller than both the door handle and his dog I'm dying

And probably none of you care that much, but I wasn't satisfied with my ZoneSwap Danny (since he was wearing his canon clothes), so I recolored him with inverse colors. Yes, he is good now: