Cynical Sophomores

Well, this is it! My finals finished today, no more classes and work until fall. Sure feels good. Feels great even. Today was a good day (after the final finished, of course), even though it was gray and drizzly. Amy and I walked around Boston, looking for this place that was going to rehair her violin bow. We found it no trouble - the place was so cool - violins everywhere! I was in awe. We stopped off at the Boston Public Library afterward, just to look around a bit. That place is so cool! So big, so many books. I couldn't find and sci-fi sort of section though, which was sad, but it was amusing to browse through the foreign language books. There were books in Estonian, Creole (that's a language?!), and Russian. The Russian section was huge, and there seemed to be three copies of every book. Half of them were romance novels... <_<; We found the music section and looked through the sheet music. I found a big book full of Gilbert & Sullivan oprettas, and read some of the Mikado. I love that play - reading the transcript made me laugh. G&S plays are hilarious. Wow, that library is great though. Must be a pain to find anything though. And imagine working there, having to reshelve books!

So that was a very nice walk right there... I also got my anime project back, thank goodness! I'm scanning that in as soon as I get home. Then Mike can be very scared by the weird things that I drew (project was based on me and him because I had some cartoons of us already). ^^; I spent the evening watching Gokudo-kun Manyuuki with Amy - a hilarious/bizarre fantasy anime with the worst anti-hero in history, and then we went to Next House with Sarah and Jim to visit Vikki, and to look around, because since Vikki's moving to McCormick (my dorm!), we'll probably never go down there at all. It was so nice, just to be able to hang out with friends, something I haven't been able to do for a long long time. So nice to not be studying! I feel bad for the people that still have finals tomorrow..... Or, rather, today. o_o;

Aieee! I'm moving out tomorrow! I'm going home!!! I've no idea when my dad's coming to help me though, so it could be weird. He'd better not come early in the morning or something, because then I will be very upset. Especially since I could be sleeping right now instead of typing this. But where would the fun in that be? ^^ So yeah, I'm sad that we're not going to Waterville Valley this weekend. It's something we usually do on Memorial Day weekend, but things didn't work out this year. Just as well, I guess, since this weekend's supposed to be lousy, but I'm still sad. Northern New Hampshire is so nice.... *sigh* I'm excited to be going home though. I'll be back on a normal sleep schedule! And I can go back to karate too, which is great. I've been so inactive/unathletic this year - it's terrible. Yeah, this past weekend, when studying for finals, I didn't go outside for four days. And in that time, I only left my floor once. Pathetic, ne?

Okay okay. I need to go to sleep. Wah! I'm going to miss all my friends (all 3 of them, antisocial me :P). But this summer's going to be good. No plans for work, too bad.... I should get a job. *guilt guilt* But I'm planning on coming to Boston for the 4th of July (I promised Sarah ^^). And Sarah and Vikki promised to come visit me, which will be totally awesome. Also, my family's planning on going to New York City some time this summer, which will be a lot of fun. I hope everything works out! See? I'm not a cynical sophomore yet. I've got a few more months of freedom. ^_^

- Flykyr Skysong

Current song: DDR - Era (DJ unF Mix)
Current mood: Need sleep... badly.

Status Report

Well, I'm two-thirds of the way through my finals, and I'm still hanging in there. Man, having three finals in three days is no fun at all! I haven't even started studying for 6.001 (Intro to Computation) yet, which is not so good. I think that's probably going to be the hardest final, though today's Differential Equations final was no piece of cake either. Strangely enough, my best final so far has been Physics. I'm pleasantly surprised because I performed horribly on the last two tests and I was afraid that I'd do poorly on the final as well (that happened first semester - my test grades kept going down, and then the score on my final was not very impressive either), but fortunately the test was not too evil. Actually, it was doable because most of the problems had been on previous tests and problem sets, so I was already familiar with what I had to do. I think pretty much everyone did well on the test though, so I hope I'm at least up above average.... I think I could have probably pulled off at least an 80% on that test, though I know I can't get over a 90 because I didn't answer one of the questions... <_<;

Math was not so yay... There was a lot of information to cover, and I couldn't remember everything. o~o Took me the whole three hours too - I was working right up until the end (physics only took me a bit more than two hours). So, hm, I think 6.001 is going to take the whole three hours as well. Kyah. I'm so ready for this all to be over! But then I'm going to have to look for something to do over the summer... Ugh. Vivian forwarded an email to me from a guy in Environmental Engineering with a UROP opportunity. Could be interesting I guess, especially since nothing else has turned up. It wouldn't have anything to do with bioinformatics *sigh* but I guess it's better than nothing. I'm just wondering if it's worth it - I'd have to be commuting... And that costs money! Huh, maybe I should have gone for summer housing here... But then, I might not even get this UROP anyway, and it would be useless to be living down here. Aaargh... I am such a lazy bum. I'm just looking forward to making clay dragons... That's not a huge source of income though, and I don't know how that'd look on a resume... Especially compared to a research job. ^_^; I wish I were braver/more proactive/I don't know.

Well, soon I'll be home, and it'll be good. I hope. Moving's going to be a pain. I'm leaving Friday! It's coming up so soon. I kinda wish I were staying here a bit longer - I won't have much time to hang out with anyone, and that's something that would be nice to do, seeing as it happens so infrequently. Sarah said that she and I are going to visit Next House (and Vikki's room!) before we leave, so I guess that'll have to be Thursday night. And Amy and I need to watch some Gokudo-kun too... Hm. Maybe I just won't go to sleep Thursday night. It would be nice if someone from my family would tell me what time they're coming on Friday. It better not be early (where early = before noon). <_< MIT - I'll miss it! Good thing I'm coming back in the fall. ^^

- Flykyr Skysong

Current song: Gravitation - The Rage Beat
Current mood: Tired

Carrot Cake Girl

Wow. Today was it. Or yesterday rather. Can you believe it - no more freshman classes... ever! I'm still in shock.

Oh my, it looks like I'm famous or something now. Today, our RAA (residential associate advisor) took Sarah and I out for a meal at Fanueil Hall and then on to the Improv Asylum up in the North End (well, the whole advising group was invited, but Sarah and I were the only ones who wanted to go - I'll bet everyone wanted to see The Matrix: Reloaded instead). It was fun - we got food (a lot!) and then wandered around, trying to find the improv place. Fortunately, it wasn't too hard to find. The show was good - a mixture of improv and sketch comedy. But the highlight *blush* was that I had to go up and tell everyone about an exciting day that I'd had recently. When the woman asked for volunteers, Sarah and I were both yelling, "Aaaah! Carrot cake! Seven carrot cakes!" and so I got invited up front. I went up because Sarah was too wimpy (ha!). :P So I told them about Sunday and how I woke up, ate lunch, messed around on the computer, then helped Sarah make carrot cake for her TA. When I was done, people went and acted out my day. It was hilarious because it wasn't even the way that it really happened! The actors shamelessly made fun of us because they knew we were from MIT. Ha, math party? Measuring the pH of acid rain? XD It was funny because during intermission, some guy asked for my autograph. He was joking... I hope. And after the show was over and we were at Mike's Pastries getting dessert, these two women who had been at the show recognized me as the "girl with the carrot cake." So now, Sarah apparently thinks I'm famous... Maybe you should too. ^_~ I'm afraid I'm going to go down in history as the Carrot Cake Girl. What should I do - shoot for something even more illustrious or whip out my baking pans again? :D

Mmm... So it's down to final crunch time. I'm gonna have to study hard this weekend! I sure am nervous about my finals though... I hope I do all right. I so need to pass 8.02 - I don't ever want to take it again! Ugh, I don't even want to know what my grade in that class is... Heh, so I've been going on a music downloading spree - just a little bit insane am I? Yeah, I've found all these great new age groups and stuff and they are soooo good. Even though my sister doesn't appreciate them at all. :P And my new favorite song is this DDR song called Era - I've got both the short and long versions (different remixes) and they are sooooooooo great! I've seriously listened to them twenty times over each, and I only just got ahold of them this afternoon. <_<; I really do like them though. ^^ Speaking of my sister, she IMed me today and said "Happy Matrix Day." That girl is too obsessed. Once the third Matrix movie comes out, she will have nothing to live for. It's funny how so many people here are obsessed with seeing Matrix: Reloaded. Aiyoh, jealous sister Alissa read this! So many people went and saw it last night! Mwahahaha.... You missed out, you had to wait until the actual opening day to watch the movie! Ahahaha.... Erm. Uh, right. Anyway, I'm more than happy to let the crowds die down first. I like seeing movies with other people, sure, but I want to be certain to get a good seat at least. And hey, when I went to see Pearl Harbor with my dad, we had the theater all to ourselves and it was kinda fun because we could be as loud as we wanted!

So anyway, it's time for an update on the anime front. What has the Flykyr been doing about anime all this time, besides obsessing over being club librarian? Well, never fear, I have been keeping myself well supplied with anime, though I'm still as horrible about committing to series as ever. I've gotten totally hooked on Hikaru no Go - it's an awesome manga, and a great anime too! Yah, even though I've only seen the first two episodes of the anime. Blah, whatever, I've plowed through 50 chapters in the manga, and I absolutely love it. Between this and Prince of Tennis, there's a lot to be said for sports anime. They're interesting, fun, and there are always cute guys! ^_^;; Yeah, I'm a big fan of "bishounen eyes" - so prettyful. *drools* *blinks* *grins nervously with a big sweatdrop sliding down the side of her head* Weeell... Anyway, moving on. I think it's time for the... Year end anime review! Why? Because I feel like it. Let's see what I've seen this year...

Anime watched since the start of the school year:

.hack//Legend of the Twilight Bracelet - 12 episodes *completed*
.hack//SIGN - 26 episodes *completed*
Ah! My Goddess - 5 episodes *completed*
Chobits - 6 episodes *discontinued*
Cowboy Bebop - 5 episodes *discontinued - hopefully will continue*
Di Gi Charat - 16 episodes, Summer specials, Spring specials, movie *completed*
D.N.Angel - 3 episodes
Dragon Half - 2 episodes *completed*
Excel Saga - 17 episodes *discontinued*
Final Fantasy Unlimited - 8 episodes *discontinued*
Galaxy Angel - first 11 episodes, random episodes after that
Hellsing - 9 episodes
Hikaru no Go - 2 episodes
Inu-Yasha - 15 episodes *discontinued - hopefully will watch more*
Naruto - 13 episodes
Neon Genesis Evangelion - 12 episodes (and the last two eps as well! ^^;)
Panyo Panyo Di Gi Charat - 7 misc. episodes
Pita Ten - 5 episodes *Kawaii!!*
Read or Die - 3 episodes *completed*
Rurouni Kenshin - 33 episodes
Serial Experiments Lain - completed, but I missed a few eps in the middle
Shaman King - 15 episodes
Slayers TRY - ~13 episodes (half the series) *already seen the first two seasons*
Those Who Hunt Elves - 12 episodes *completed*
Those Who Hunt Elves II - 5 episodes
Trigun - 7 episodes *rewatch - already seen in entirety*

Hahaha, pretty scary, eh? I think this is more for my personal reference than for anyone else's enjoyment. Sorry. :P BTW, this is just the stuff I've watched on my own - I didn't include any of the stuff I watched in my anime class and I also didn't include any series of which I've only seen 1 or 2 episodes (except for Hikaru no Go because I'll definitely be watching more of that!). That would make the list so much longer! ^_~

- Flykyr Skysong

Current song: TaQ - Era (well, what did you expect?! ^^;)
Current mood: Yayness still! ^_^

Yayness

I have so much to write about and it only gets worse as I put it off. So, here goes... The past few days have been absolutely fabulous! This weekend was really great because I didn't have too much homework - it's been a while since that's happened. ^^ Friday night, I went to the anime club to help out the librarian and to learn a bit about what I'd be doing next year, so that was fun. Looks like I don't know what I'm getting myself into. :P On Saturday, I went to an Anime Club meeting, yay. It ran an hour longer than it was supposed to. Whew! That night, I found out that Sarah and Vikki were planning to make carrot cake for their 6.001 TA, and Janet and I ended up helping out. We spent a few hours peeling and grating carrots before heading off to the MIT Wind Ensemble concert - it was a great concert. The Rhapsody in Blue was excellent! We baked carrot cake Sunday night - we produced seven cakes in four hours! Though I guess a few didn't count since they were made in bread pans and weren't really cake-like in appearance. Well, in any case, they all came out great - pretty and tasty, to boot!

So the weekend was over, but happy things didn't stop there. We found out our rooming assignments for next year last night, and I got a West Tower single! I'm so excited! I'm on the same floor, and West Tower singles are big! People on my floor are happy that I'm staying on the floor too, so that's good. Unfortunately, Amy got moved to 2E - in the other tower, and she doesn't know anyone on the floor. I'm sad for her. o~o But that just means that she can come and visit me all the time, right? Hm, Vivian's keeping her old room, Janet got an L (biggest sized room in the East Tower, yay), Vikki got Janet's old room (the room assignment chairs trust those two on the same floor?!) and Sarah's moved over to 6W. So since I'm sorta in the middle, everyone will just have to congregate in my room. :D It's gonna be good. I'll even decorate my room this time around, which I was just too plain lazy to do this year. I need posters or something.

Yesterday, also, Mr. Hiroaki Inoue came to visit our anime class and talk about his job and the anime industry. It was really cool - he's a producer at AIC, an anime company, and we had a good talk with him. It was really really neat - he's helped to produce many things such as Wings of Honneamise and Tenchi Muyo. He seems to have worked with all the great anime directors at some point or another. The coolest thing was that he gave us stuff at the end. I ended up with a storyboard to the first episode of the anime Puchipuri Yuushii (something a bit too girly for me, but there's a cute baby dragon!). It's sooooo cool to have something like that - it's from Japan, for crying out loud! I just wish I knew what all the writing was saying (dialogue, what?), but I'm glad it's got cool pictures to look at - I feel bad for the people who ended up with Tenchi Muyo scripts - hard to read if you don't know any Japanese, y'know? Ha, I'm going to take my storyboard home to make my Mom translate it. ^_^

And today was a good day too. I got 2 free movie checkouts at Blockbuster in the mail for a survey that I filled out a while ago - hooray! And I finally got my anime club ID in the mail too. The ID picture is Lindy-goth, which is infinitely amusing to me. Too bad we can't submit drawings for our normal school IDs. :D The rest of this week's going to be good too. On Thursday night, Pon-Pon, my residential associate advisor, is taking my advising group out to dinner at Fanuiel Hall and then on to see a show at the Improv Asylum. It sounds like fun, and also, I haven't even been to Fanuiel Hall this year. Friday night, the cooking group will meet for the last time this year to make calzones. Sounds like fun too! I guess it's all good until finals roll 'round. Gotta enjoy it while I can!

- Flykyr Skysong

Current song: Resonance (an MIT a capella group) - Breaking Up
Current mood: ^____^

It's Gotta Happen At Least Once

Well, I think this is the closest I've ever come to pulling an all-nighter. I've still got about half of my final anime paper to write. Urrrrgh..... It's not going well at all. On a (somewhat) happier note, we finally finished math. Yay! Although we didn't finish 'til 5:30 - geez, we're getting worse each week or something. Thank goodness this is the last 18.03 p-set! But, y'know, next year is going to be even worse. That's the way it is... *sigh* Oy, so it looks like I'm going to be the new librarian of MIT's anime club! Whee! There goes the rest of my non-existant free time. Ah well, I think it will be fun. I'm excited to be meeting new people who like anime too. Yeah, I finally joined the club after a year of laziness. <_<; And now I get to be an officer! Not bad, eh? Well, it's probably because no one else wanted to be club librarian. Ha.

I'm jealous of all my non-MIT friends. They're all getting out of school now. I, on the other hand, have to stay and suffer for another two weeks. Aaargh.... I want to go home. I want a normal sleep schedule. Heck, I just want sleep. But alas, the paper remains unfinished, and so I must go and slave some more. No rest for the wicked - so sad yet so true.

- Flykyr Skysong

Current song: Enya - Boadicea
Current mood: I am the walking dead

To all you Dragon-Hunters out There

Um, I really should be studying for my math test instead of writing in this, but, well, you know how it is, right? Hm, so I've noticed that a lot of people are dropping by this weblog because they are looking for information on clay dragons. I think you folks might want to go look at my real webpage - this blog is not going to help you any. I don't have much on clay dragons on my webpage - I took that whole section down a while ago, and only just recently tried putting it back up again. I don't have any tutorials on the subject - wasn't planning on it. But I do have a few pictures, if you're fishing around for ideas. I was always thinking of offering my dragons for sale over the internet, but then I'd have to figure out payment/shipping, plus the dragons are not the most durable little critters in the whole world. -_- So, yeah, go ahead and look if you want.

Also, I have a few pictures that I've drawn of dragons on my website, if you were looking for pictures of dragons. I really like dragons - I've been drawing them since 8th grade so I've had a bit of practice. I have to warn you though - I'm a cartoonist at heart, and thus my dragons have a rather simple, cartoonish quality. Not necessarily bad, but it's not exactly awe-inspiring either. :P So yeah, enough chatter for now. Back to work! Ugh, it's going to be another long night. x_X

- Flykyr Skysong

Current song: Ayumi Hamasaki - Trust
Current mood: Disgruntled