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It's been a while again since I've written, so I figured I'd check in and let those of you who don't follow me in other places know that yes, I'm still alive. See? Alive. :D So what's been happening? A lot of work, a lot of procrastination. I spent the morning sorting out the (admittedly, all over the place) fantasy section of my e-book folder instead of trying to write a story that's due Tuesday. You know, the normal. Oops. XD I also don't have internet at home right now, which complicates matters. This got really ridiculously long, mostly because of the school sections, so I'm just going to section the school stuff off for you guys by cuts. Which I don't normally bother with, but, well... you'll see. XD
☁ In case you're in Hikago fandom and didn't see my spamming, there's a new blind_go mini round out- GO SIGN UP. NOW.
☁ The new Phoenix Wright came out a couple of weeks ago. I feel so behind- I only just barely started case 4. I have Thoughts on it, which are partially good and partially ragey, but I'll hold off on getting too into those until I actually finish the game. So far... it's not that different from the others, concept wise. I can basically boil everything down to a short list of "things I've learned from the Ace Attorney games"
1. Prosecutors get away with EVERYTHING.
2. Don't become friends with a lawyer ever- you'll eventually end up dead or falsely accused of a crime, probably murder.
3. LGBTQ people are ridiculous/offensive/disgusting/only good for comedic relief/figments of your imagination/terrible people/any combination of the above, depending on the particular plot device service they're providing at the time.
☁ Midterms grades were fine- 4.0 for the semester so far. As usual, I just need to keep it there. ajdklsajd.
☁ I had a visit with one of the two colleges on my short list for transfer. On the upside, the campus is pretty and class sizes are small- which is a big draw, considering that I've always been in schools that were fairly small. I've never once been in a classroom where the teacher didn't know my name after a few weeks. One of the big downsides, though, is that... well, let me preface this by saying that I get lost ridiculously easy. A perfect example is that on the day of the visit, I'd planned an extra 45 minutes to get to the campus just in case. I know myself and my sense of direction. XD It turned out that I needed it, because I got terrifically lost in the downtown area of a city I don't know well, and it ended up that I squeaked in there right as registration was starting. Anyway. The problem here is that the campus is blended right into the city, and it's impossible to tell at a glance where the campus borders are. That... is a problem. I can see this now, where I'd end up way out in fucking god knows where because I was trying to figure out where building X was. You know? And like I said, I've been down to that part of the city all of twice, so I have no idea where anything is anyway. Aside from that, there's the part where it's a women's college, which makes me nervous on a few different levels- I have a much harder time getting along with girls, always have. They tend to be really wary of me for some reason. Plus there's the lesbian thing, and the part where I'm significantly older than most of the people there, which makes me feel weird. Seriously, the girl that was doing the campus tour- a junior- looked about 12. XD The dorms are actually a decent size for dorms- I probably wouldn't be constantly tripping over the other girl in there, at least.
This contrasts deeply with school #2 on the list (I know where it is, I know what buses I need to take to get to places A, B, and C, all of that). School #2 is not only a state school where school #1 is private, but it's also HUGE. Like, I'm pretty sure it's the biggest school in the entire state system. That works against it, for me, particularly in terms of class size. BUT. There's a lot more available, from classes to minors to internships. Also, one of the major pluses to school #2 is that if you're over 21, there are campus apartments available. Not dorms, actual apartments. My friend Paul lived in one of these when he was there, and they're actually really nice. The bedrooms are teeny, but you get your own and don't have to share with anybody, which is HUGE. You can also sign a full year lease with the school, so you don't get kicked out during breaks, which again, is huge. I also know that their English department is incredible- not that school #1's isn't, but I've heard really good things about school #2 in particular in terms of that.
...you know, I'm just realizing that it kind of sounds like I've already made my decision. The only downside to school #2, literally, is the size, where I have all kinds of reservations about school #1. Hmm. I guess this is a reminder that it helps to write things out when making a decision. ^_^
☁ Some of you may have seen this already- I had my advising appointment, which went well. He was basically through the roof about everything, from my GPA to the fact that I've gradually pecked away at the icky things I didn't want to take so that I didn't have to stress myself out for my last semester. In other words? Assuming nothing goes terribly wrong between now and then, I need 10 credits next semester to graduate- and I can literally take ANYTHING I WANT, because all my bases are covered. As he put it, "you can take History of the Ping Pong Ball if you feel like it." :D Which means I can take things for FUN and because they interest me, not just to check off a little box. Which is nice. It's also terrible, because that means I have to make DECISIONS, especially since financial aid won't pay for anything extra. Which means 12 credits, four classes, TOPS, when I'm like "TAKE ALL THE THINGS!" Oh, and many of the things I really want to take aren't being offered this semester (Contemporary Novel), at stupid times I can't make (Japanese I is 6-9pm once a week- I'd have no way to get home), or at the same time as other things I really want to take (see: Medieval History and Intro to Philosophy). Yet I -still- have one extra class I have to get rid of in my schedule. Ugh ugh ugh. Right now I have English Lit II, American Lit II, Human Sexuality, Poetry, and Intro to Philosophy. (The English courses were ones my advisor strongly suggested, and I figure he knows what he's doing. I've been following his advice all along, after all. The other two are mine. I'm seriously thinking that I'll get rid of Poetry, though, that's never been my favorite thing.) It'll be weird only having 12 credits. I've had 15-17 my entire stint here. What will I even do with all that extra time? XD Also, I don't have any classes until 10am ever, which is awesome and I didn't even have to TRY to do that, it just worked out that way. :D Though many of my classes are all scrunched together in a way that I strongly dislike, but ehhhhh, not much I can do about it without completely changing the classes I'm taking. Bleh.
☁ At my advising appointment, my advisor asked me what I was planning on doing for a minor. While I'd thought about it a little bit, it's a difficult decision- I'm interested in a lot of different things. He suggested Women's Studies as a kind of niche thing (probably because I took Gender and Lit last semester), which honestly had been on my list of possibilities. I talked to two people about this after the fact, both women- one said "ew no" and the other said "don't do that, you'll be labelled a troublemaker." XDDD Anyway, so I was thinking about it, and looking at the list of available minors at school #2- where there's not only women's studies, but also LGBTQ studies. Which means some overlap and everything's kind of intertwined. So right this split second I'm kind of thinking that I might try to do the English major with a double minor in women's and LGBTQ studies. Which... is a lot, with the minors, in the two years I'll have there, plus taking what I need in order to actually get my English BA. BUT. The lovely thing about the LGBTQ studies is that most of the classes for that minor are in the women's studies department, so if I -can't- manage to pull off both minors, I'll still have what I need for women's studies. Of course, that's just at the one school. School #1 doesn't have the LGBTQ minor.
☁ My advisor also asked about after school and what I'd ultimately like to do. Which, of course, I don't have a clue. If I can trick someone into giving me decent money to write, that would be ideal. Or video game journalism. He asked about publishing, which yeah, editing/publishing is a valid option. I don't think I'd mind doing that. He then asked me whether I'd be willing to move out of the area for work. I said yes, because I am- I'm staying here for school because it's easier that way, but after graduation, I'm open to it. He said that it's good, because I'll probably have a harder time here than if I go to a BIG city- New York, LA, Chicago kind of thing. Erm. O_o Only a little intimidating, yeah? At the same time I also find it incredibly amusing because New York has this huge problem where so many people are LEAVING, and here's this college advisor going, yeah, you should get out of here. XD It's also amusing because even before the meeting, Stef had said that she's looking forward to me moving after school is done. Not that she WANTS me to move super far away, not really. It's that it gives her a handy excuse to go away on vacation someplace cool to come see me. XD Still terrifying, though, not gonna lie.
☁ It's probably easier to just copy a section of my history to talk about the Salem trip, than to just re-write the entire thing, so here you go:
My experiences in “the witch city” can generally be boiled down to good, not so good, and downright weird.
One of my favorite things in Salem was what's known today as “The Witch House.” Even though it's called that, it was never the home of a witch, but Jonathan Corwin, who was one of the judges on the Court of Oyer and Terminer that was specially created to handle the witch trials. It was really cool to see a place from that time period first-hand, especially the details that I hadn't really given much thought to before, but are obvious when in the house. The floor is very uneven, for example, and the spiral staircase that goes up to the bedrooms is narrow in addition to being uneven. I can't imagine having to go down those stairs quickly in the event of an emergency. Furnishings were sparse even though Corwin was a judge and therefore fairly wealthy. It makes sense, considering the Puritan lifestyle, but like the flooring it wasn't something I'd really thought about previously. Seeing the Corwin home was a fascinating look into how people lived in Salem around the time of the trials. My other favorite part of the trip was the ocean. With most of the focus in Salem being on the witch trials, it's easy to forget that it's a harbor town. I certainly had until we stumbled on the docks more or less by accident. While it wasn't strictly part of the attractions, it was nice to take a break from the more crowded areas and sit by the water for a while. There was also the man on Essex Street in period clothing that was warning us about the evils of witchcraft, and even responded in-character to audience comments, which was pretty entertaining. As a Harry Potter fan, I also got a kick out of a store called New England Magic that declared itself a "School of Witchcraft and Wizardry."
There were, however, some things about Salem that I didn't like so much. It was really crowded, to the point where there were certain attractions we didn't even get to see because there were just too many people and the line was too long. There were many times we couldn't even move, the crowd was so thick. My sister and I have decided that we need to visit again sometime when it's not so packed. It also didn't help that for being a relatively small town, it was ridiculously easy to get lost, and in fact we did many times. At least it wasn't for long, though. We always seemed to find our way back at the visitor's center. We actually started making the joke that “all roads lead to the visitor's center” every time we found it yet again. More than the sheer number of people, though, the thing that I disliked the most was the over-commercialization. I knew it would be something of a tourist trap going in, but I was unprepared for just how much. A lot of what we did get to see in Salem seemed less about history and more about profiting off of a tragedy, albeit one that happened centuries ago. It made me feel like instead of learning from our mistakes, we're just profiting off of them, which left a bad taste in my mouth, to say the least.
There were a couple of things that happened in Salem that were just a little strange. At one point, we were over by the House of the Seven Gables, and a black cat appeared. I'm not a superstitious person by any means, but even I have to admit that it was a bit odd when the cat proceeded to disappear without a trace. I'm still not really sure where it possibly could've gone off to. There was a guy wearing just the head part of a horse costume that sniffed my sister and neighed, and a kid that looked about thirteen that sang the beginning of “Magic” at us in the park. It's probably worth saying here that my sister and I are 27 and 30, respectively, so the gesture seemed more creepy than anything else. Later, when we were in Jonathan Corwin's house, we ran into the father of a guy I had gone to school with as a kid. I haven't lived in my hometown in over a decade, and it's been at least that long since I saw this man. I don't get back to *hometown* very often. I'm not sure what the chances are of randomly running into someone from your past when you're both so far from home, but I'm betting it's slim to none. Go figure. A girl that worked there was amused by the meeting and said, "strange things happen in Salem!" I can't exactly argue the point.
☁ In case you're in Hikago fandom and didn't see my spamming, there's a new blind_go mini round out- GO SIGN UP. NOW.
☁ The new Phoenix Wright came out a couple of weeks ago. I feel so behind- I only just barely started case 4. I have Thoughts on it, which are partially good and partially ragey, but I'll hold off on getting too into those until I actually finish the game. So far... it's not that different from the others, concept wise. I can basically boil everything down to a short list of "things I've learned from the Ace Attorney games"
1. Prosecutors get away with EVERYTHING.
2. Don't become friends with a lawyer ever- you'll eventually end up dead or falsely accused of a crime, probably murder.
3. LGBTQ people are ridiculous/offensive/disgusting/only good for comedic relief/figments of your imagination/terrible people/any combination of the above, depending on the particular plot device service they're providing at the time.
☁ Midterms grades were fine- 4.0 for the semester so far. As usual, I just need to keep it there. ajdklsajd.
☁ I had a visit with one of the two colleges on my short list for transfer. On the upside, the campus is pretty and class sizes are small- which is a big draw, considering that I've always been in schools that were fairly small. I've never once been in a classroom where the teacher didn't know my name after a few weeks. One of the big downsides, though, is that... well, let me preface this by saying that I get lost ridiculously easy. A perfect example is that on the day of the visit, I'd planned an extra 45 minutes to get to the campus just in case. I know myself and my sense of direction. XD It turned out that I needed it, because I got terrifically lost in the downtown area of a city I don't know well, and it ended up that I squeaked in there right as registration was starting. Anyway. The problem here is that the campus is blended right into the city, and it's impossible to tell at a glance where the campus borders are. That... is a problem. I can see this now, where I'd end up way out in fucking god knows where because I was trying to figure out where building X was. You know? And like I said, I've been down to that part of the city all of twice, so I have no idea where anything is anyway. Aside from that, there's the part where it's a women's college, which makes me nervous on a few different levels- I have a much harder time getting along with girls, always have. They tend to be really wary of me for some reason. Plus there's the lesbian thing, and the part where I'm significantly older than most of the people there, which makes me feel weird. Seriously, the girl that was doing the campus tour- a junior- looked about 12. XD The dorms are actually a decent size for dorms- I probably wouldn't be constantly tripping over the other girl in there, at least.
This contrasts deeply with school #2 on the list (I know where it is, I know what buses I need to take to get to places A, B, and C, all of that). School #2 is not only a state school where school #1 is private, but it's also HUGE. Like, I'm pretty sure it's the biggest school in the entire state system. That works against it, for me, particularly in terms of class size. BUT. There's a lot more available, from classes to minors to internships. Also, one of the major pluses to school #2 is that if you're over 21, there are campus apartments available. Not dorms, actual apartments. My friend Paul lived in one of these when he was there, and they're actually really nice. The bedrooms are teeny, but you get your own and don't have to share with anybody, which is HUGE. You can also sign a full year lease with the school, so you don't get kicked out during breaks, which again, is huge. I also know that their English department is incredible- not that school #1's isn't, but I've heard really good things about school #2 in particular in terms of that.
...you know, I'm just realizing that it kind of sounds like I've already made my decision. The only downside to school #2, literally, is the size, where I have all kinds of reservations about school #1. Hmm. I guess this is a reminder that it helps to write things out when making a decision. ^_^
☁ Some of you may have seen this already- I had my advising appointment, which went well. He was basically through the roof about everything, from my GPA to the fact that I've gradually pecked away at the icky things I didn't want to take so that I didn't have to stress myself out for my last semester. In other words? Assuming nothing goes terribly wrong between now and then, I need 10 credits next semester to graduate- and I can literally take ANYTHING I WANT, because all my bases are covered. As he put it, "you can take History of the Ping Pong Ball if you feel like it." :D Which means I can take things for FUN and because they interest me, not just to check off a little box. Which is nice. It's also terrible, because that means I have to make DECISIONS, especially since financial aid won't pay for anything extra. Which means 12 credits, four classes, TOPS, when I'm like "TAKE ALL THE THINGS!" Oh, and many of the things I really want to take aren't being offered this semester (Contemporary Novel), at stupid times I can't make (Japanese I is 6-9pm once a week- I'd have no way to get home), or at the same time as other things I really want to take (see: Medieval History and Intro to Philosophy). Yet I -still- have one extra class I have to get rid of in my schedule. Ugh ugh ugh. Right now I have English Lit II, American Lit II, Human Sexuality, Poetry, and Intro to Philosophy. (The English courses were ones my advisor strongly suggested, and I figure he knows what he's doing. I've been following his advice all along, after all. The other two are mine. I'm seriously thinking that I'll get rid of Poetry, though, that's never been my favorite thing.) It'll be weird only having 12 credits. I've had 15-17 my entire stint here. What will I even do with all that extra time? XD Also, I don't have any classes until 10am ever, which is awesome and I didn't even have to TRY to do that, it just worked out that way. :D Though many of my classes are all scrunched together in a way that I strongly dislike, but ehhhhh, not much I can do about it without completely changing the classes I'm taking. Bleh.
☁ At my advising appointment, my advisor asked me what I was planning on doing for a minor. While I'd thought about it a little bit, it's a difficult decision- I'm interested in a lot of different things. He suggested Women's Studies as a kind of niche thing (probably because I took Gender and Lit last semester), which honestly had been on my list of possibilities. I talked to two people about this after the fact, both women- one said "ew no" and the other said "don't do that, you'll be labelled a troublemaker." XDDD Anyway, so I was thinking about it, and looking at the list of available minors at school #2- where there's not only women's studies, but also LGBTQ studies. Which means some overlap and everything's kind of intertwined. So right this split second I'm kind of thinking that I might try to do the English major with a double minor in women's and LGBTQ studies. Which... is a lot, with the minors, in the two years I'll have there, plus taking what I need in order to actually get my English BA. BUT. The lovely thing about the LGBTQ studies is that most of the classes for that minor are in the women's studies department, so if I -can't- manage to pull off both minors, I'll still have what I need for women's studies. Of course, that's just at the one school. School #1 doesn't have the LGBTQ minor.
☁ My advisor also asked about after school and what I'd ultimately like to do. Which, of course, I don't have a clue. If I can trick someone into giving me decent money to write, that would be ideal. Or video game journalism. He asked about publishing, which yeah, editing/publishing is a valid option. I don't think I'd mind doing that. He then asked me whether I'd be willing to move out of the area for work. I said yes, because I am- I'm staying here for school because it's easier that way, but after graduation, I'm open to it. He said that it's good, because I'll probably have a harder time here than if I go to a BIG city- New York, LA, Chicago kind of thing. Erm. O_o Only a little intimidating, yeah? At the same time I also find it incredibly amusing because New York has this huge problem where so many people are LEAVING, and here's this college advisor going, yeah, you should get out of here. XD It's also amusing because even before the meeting, Stef had said that she's looking forward to me moving after school is done. Not that she WANTS me to move super far away, not really. It's that it gives her a handy excuse to go away on vacation someplace cool to come see me. XD Still terrifying, though, not gonna lie.
☁ It's probably easier to just copy a section of my history to talk about the Salem trip, than to just re-write the entire thing, so here you go:
My experiences in “the witch city” can generally be boiled down to good, not so good, and downright weird.
One of my favorite things in Salem was what's known today as “The Witch House.” Even though it's called that, it was never the home of a witch, but Jonathan Corwin, who was one of the judges on the Court of Oyer and Terminer that was specially created to handle the witch trials. It was really cool to see a place from that time period first-hand, especially the details that I hadn't really given much thought to before, but are obvious when in the house. The floor is very uneven, for example, and the spiral staircase that goes up to the bedrooms is narrow in addition to being uneven. I can't imagine having to go down those stairs quickly in the event of an emergency. Furnishings were sparse even though Corwin was a judge and therefore fairly wealthy. It makes sense, considering the Puritan lifestyle, but like the flooring it wasn't something I'd really thought about previously. Seeing the Corwin home was a fascinating look into how people lived in Salem around the time of the trials. My other favorite part of the trip was the ocean. With most of the focus in Salem being on the witch trials, it's easy to forget that it's a harbor town. I certainly had until we stumbled on the docks more or less by accident. While it wasn't strictly part of the attractions, it was nice to take a break from the more crowded areas and sit by the water for a while. There was also the man on Essex Street in period clothing that was warning us about the evils of witchcraft, and even responded in-character to audience comments, which was pretty entertaining. As a Harry Potter fan, I also got a kick out of a store called New England Magic that declared itself a "School of Witchcraft and Wizardry."
There were, however, some things about Salem that I didn't like so much. It was really crowded, to the point where there were certain attractions we didn't even get to see because there were just too many people and the line was too long. There were many times we couldn't even move, the crowd was so thick. My sister and I have decided that we need to visit again sometime when it's not so packed. It also didn't help that for being a relatively small town, it was ridiculously easy to get lost, and in fact we did many times. At least it wasn't for long, though. We always seemed to find our way back at the visitor's center. We actually started making the joke that “all roads lead to the visitor's center” every time we found it yet again. More than the sheer number of people, though, the thing that I disliked the most was the over-commercialization. I knew it would be something of a tourist trap going in, but I was unprepared for just how much. A lot of what we did get to see in Salem seemed less about history and more about profiting off of a tragedy, albeit one that happened centuries ago. It made me feel like instead of learning from our mistakes, we're just profiting off of them, which left a bad taste in my mouth, to say the least.
There were a couple of things that happened in Salem that were just a little strange. At one point, we were over by the House of the Seven Gables, and a black cat appeared. I'm not a superstitious person by any means, but even I have to admit that it was a bit odd when the cat proceeded to disappear without a trace. I'm still not really sure where it possibly could've gone off to. There was a guy wearing just the head part of a horse costume that sniffed my sister and neighed, and a kid that looked about thirteen that sang the beginning of “Magic” at us in the park. It's probably worth saying here that my sister and I are 27 and 30, respectively, so the gesture seemed more creepy than anything else. Later, when we were in Jonathan Corwin's house, we ran into the father of a guy I had gone to school with as a kid. I haven't lived in my hometown in over a decade, and it's been at least that long since I saw this man. I don't get back to *hometown* very often. I'm not sure what the chances are of randomly running into someone from your past when you're both so far from home, but I'm betting it's slim to none. Go figure. A girl that worked there was amused by the meeting and said, "strange things happen in Salem!" I can't exactly argue the point.
