Weather

Guess who has some news for you.  Richard Dean Anderson.  No, just kidding.  It's me.  He doesn't write in this blog.  It's just mine.  But I have some super random news.  Well, it's more random because there are two unrelated things...  This paragraph is getting way too weird, so I'm going to move on now.

The weather here in Provo is insane.  (Provo is in Utah, in case you didn't know.  There are Provos in Kentucky, Arkansas, Serbia, South Dakota, Spain, and Bosnia and Herzegovina, but I am not in any of those places.)  On Tuesday it was quite warm.  I don't know how warm exactly, but the general consensus (and by that I mean what I overheard from strangers) is in the 80s.  The next day, it snowed.  Not very much - it was a rain-snow mix, heavy on the rain - but there were definite flakes.  In September.  How crazy is that?

But it meant I got to wear my Teal'c hat!!!!  (If you don't know who Teal'c is, I am ashamed of you.  Google it, or you won't understand where this goes.)  I got it for free, so it's even better.  And just so you know, it's not really a Teal'c hat, or even a Stargate hat, but it makes me feel like Teal'c when I wear it.  It has a big oval with a Y on the front.  That's why.  I was very excited to wear it yesterday and today.

In other news, I have drawn the first strip of my webcomic.  That is currently all I have drawn.  And it's more like a rough sketch.  I will have to make it much better before I put it online.  Right now my drawing is stick figures.  And since I have quite a few characters, I will need to make them distinct.  There's only so much you can do with hair...

I'm starting to think a webcomic may not be the best medium for me.  It's not that I lack ideas - that is something I have plenty of.  But I tend to procrastinate...  So I don't know how good I'll be about getting the drawing done.  Although I might be better about it once I get a good start.  We'll see.

Webcomic

There was something I actually wanted to write about in my last post, rather than just a random rant about classes.  I plan to start a webcomic.

I'm a really big fan of webcomics, so I always thought it would be neat to write one.  But I had no idea if I would be any good at it or what I would write about.  Then I moved in with my roommate.

I knew her last year (we were in the same dorm), so we're good friends.  But this semester, she just has a lot more drama in her life.  Some of it is tragicomic.  It's horrible for her (and I do feel bad for her), but it would be funny if it were happening to fictional characters.  So I've decided to use that.  (She has given me permission, so long as I agree to change the names.)

I still wasn't sure if I would be able to keep coming up with plotlines and ideas for new comics.  So I've decided to not publish it until I have prepared a good quantity of strips, so that I won't disappoint readers if I don't have new ideas for a while, since I'll be updating prewritten ones.

I've been brainstorming, and I'm really excited.  The fact that it's reality-based, though not necessarily reality-exact, is really promising.  I tend to have lots of ideas about my life, like "Wouldn't it be cool (or weird or sometimes horrible) if this happened?"  And they're often rather involved situations.  This webcomic will give me a perfect outlet for them so they don't just roam around inside my head.  Hopefully people won't see them and think I'm absolutely insane and try to commit me to an insane asylum.  I mean, webcomic artists are supposed to be a little crazy, right?  Right??

It's Been a While...

It's been quite some time since my last post.  Sorry if that bugs some of you, but I have homework.  And a life.  So I can't spend all my time writing in this thing.   And it would be boring if I did, because I wouldn't have anything to write about.

So I realized that I haven't actually talked about my classes yet.  Which are kinda important, since the whole reason I am where I am is so that I can go to school.  But that's also the reason I haven't written lately, because of homework.

This semester, my classes look like they'll be interesting and fun (or at least not horrendous...), for the most part. I'm taking an honors biology class (lots of reading and writing), organic chemistry (hope it's not too tough), Math for Engineers (multivariable calculus and linear algebra...should be fun, since I do like math), a class on problem-solving tools for engineering (which so far I'm really enjoying), and a class on the second half of the New Testament (I'm looking forward to it).

But homework is kinda making me have no life (not that I had much of one, anyway...).  Yesterday (Friday), I spent 8 hours in the library working on a paper.  I stayed until they started playing the "get out" music.  And then when I came home, I worked on my Mathcad homework (that's the problem-solving class).  Although that was by choice, not necessity.  Then today I finished the Mathcad homework, did laundry, and watched tv on the internet.  That was it.  Hopefully I'll do something fun tomorrow.  Well, something with people.

Marriage

People I know need to stop getting married and engaged.

I just found out that a friend of mine is engaged.  I knew she was dating someone seriously, but I had no idea it was that serious.  She's about three months younger than me.  And she doesn't even go to my school.

Ok, that sounds like a bit of a non sequitur (oh, who am I kidding, a huge one), but my school has an extreme culture of marriage.  Case in point:  I lived in the dorms last year (my freshman year).  On the first floor (about 80 girls), one girl got engaged.  We were behind all the other floors.  And these are 18 to 19 year olds.

It's a bit sickening.  Because I know a lot of married people.

In retrospect, not that many of my friends are engaged/married, and I know plenty of people older than me that are not married yet.  But it's times like these that I realize the high percentage that I do know.  And it kinda makes me feel a little inferior or self-conscious (neither of which is the right word, but I can't think of it now), since I've only been on dates with 4 guys.

Granted, one of those is very serious, and quite possibly the man I'm going to marry.  I guess you only really need to have one boyfriend in your life, as long as he's the perfect one.  It's just kinda hard not to feel a fleeting "I'm going to die alone with 27 cats" type of feeling when someone you know takes that step.  There's one less man out there.

Although that's like feeling that if someone eats an apple, you're not going to get one.  Totally illogical.  But that's how feelings often are.  And even when you know that things are totally different from the way you feel, it's hard to stop feeling that way.  At least for me.  But I suppose that's part of life.  We can't all be Vulcans.  I have to figure out this whole emotion vs. logic thing.  Even when it drives me crazy.  I'll let you know if I make any breakthroughs on that front.

Apartment Drama

I bet you're expecting catfight type drama, since I now live in a pretty small three bedroom apartment with five other girls.  But none of that.  At least not yet - we've only lived together for two days.  Not that I expect much of it, since we're pretty drama-free girls.

But there has been a lot of issues.  When I got in yesterday, both of the toilets were broken.  (Although they were fixed within the day.)  There was no shower curtain in one of the bathrooms.  The oven made a frozen pizza nearly burnt on the edges before the cheese was melted.  There's barely enough room in the fridge and pantry for all our food.  But this is not the worst that's happened.

Only one of the new arrivals has gotten their key.  (I'll admit, it wasn't me.)  We were coming home from shopping, only to find out her key didn't work.  The one girl who was already here and has a working key doesn't get home til midnight - and this was about 6.  So we were locked out.

Fortunately another girl came by as we were trying to come in the window.  Since the door wasn't deadbolted, she got the door open in about one minute with a credit card.  It's very nice to be back inside, but it's a little disturbing to know it's that easy to get into the apartment.  We'll have to leave it deadbolted.

Moving!

Yesterday I moved into my new apartment. Well, I still haven't fully moved in.  Or even at all.  Basically I've put my suitcases and boxes in my room.  But it's gone pretty well.

I drove 3 hours to get a cheaper ticket.  I got to the hotel at 12:30 am and didn't get to sleep till close to 2.  Then I had to get up at 5 for my 7 am flight.  (But it meant that I arrived in the early afternoon, so that's good.)  So not much sleep.

Security went really well.  There weren't too many people, since it was 6 am at a pretty small airport.

My first flight was a little less than an hour long.  We got in 10 minutes early, and the landing was so smooth that I didn't even notice when the wheels touched the ground, just when we started braking.  I had thought about sleeping on the plane, but I didn't.

I had about an hour layover before my next flight.  That one was longer, about 3 hours.  I did sleep then.  It was really nice because I was the only one on my row.  And we were half an hour early, so I only had to wait 10 minutes for my shuttle rather than 40.

Then I went to get all the stuff I had put in storage.  I had some huge boxes, and it filled up the car.  One of the huge boxes was full of books, and my friend and I could barely get it into the car.  So I got a random guy from the apartment complex to take it in for me.

After that, I mostly chillaxed, instead of unpacking like I probably should have.  I ate some of my friend's pizza (I have not bought any food yet) that was cooked in a partially functional oven, so the crust was crispy, but the topping was not totally cooked.  She finished it in the microwave.  But it was food, so it was good.

Then I got together with some of my friends from last year.  We had an amazing time.  It was possibly the best night of my life.  It also didn't hurt that we were nearly all punch-drunk from insanely little sleep.

So today I'm getting some more of my stuff from a friend who drove - all of my dvds, my printer, and my Star Trek glasses.  That's probably the thing I'm most excited for.  Although it will be nice to be able to watch movies again.

And I get to shop for food and unpack.  I'm more excited about one than the other.  Because shopping for food means I'll get to eat.  Which is an awesome idea.

My Very First Blog Post

I have to admit, the title of this post is a little bit of a lie. The previous posts were on my Myspace blog. But I haven't been on Myspace in years, and I finally got around to canceling the account completely rather than just letting it sit ignored. So this is a fresh start.

I'm a very different person than I was when I used Myspace, anyway. I started it pretty early in high school, probably freshman or sophomore year. Now I'm starting my sophomore year in college. I've noticed the most changes since I started college. I'd lived in the same house for my entire life, and so I had gotten used to my environment. When I left it, I couldn't be the same person I had always been. So I changed. But I am definitely a much better person. Even though I had to deal with some difficult personal issues, I learned from them. And one of them led me to what is quite possibly the best thing in my life so far.

I know that is very cryptic, but not all of the people involved know the whole story. Even if I did want them to find out their role, through a blog post is not the medium of choice.

Earlier, I told you that the title of this post is a lie. However, the title of the blog is not. I have a strong tendency to ramble (especially when I can't see my audience). So fair warning. And I'm a Chemical Engineering major. Although I don't see any reason someone would want to lie about their major. Unless it was to impress people. But my major is impressive enough, so why bother?

Part of the reason I wanted to start a blog was because I was bored. But that was because all I did was sit at home. Classes start on Monday. And since I'm taking Organic Chemistry and Multivariable Calculus, I doubt I'll have as much downtime. In retrospect, this was probably not the best time to start my blog. But what's done is done. And I'll never have to regret not starting one.