yeah...shiny vinyl alucard outfir from hellsing...this is only gonna last like a day though, oh well.

http://cgi.ebay.com/Absolute-Anime-Hellsing-Alucard-cosplay-costume-g-091_W0QQitemZ8367033253QQcategoryZ57988QQrdZ1QQcmdZViewItem

Back to the land of ambition and freedom

So you know, I'm back in Madison as of now.

Plans for tomorrow consist of eating soba and trying not to choke and die on Mochi while drinking sake and watching anime and trying to avoid droves of shitty douchey drunk people.

There may also be me dressed as an anime.

If anyone has any interest in joining me, just let me know. I didn't get a new phone so it still doesn't ring, but internet message me or leave a voicemail and hope i get better at remembering to check.

OH MY GOD

check out my sweet new anime-girl hair!!!

I AM

A GODDESS!!!!!!! I'M SO HOTT!!!!

Working on New Year's Eve again!!!!

I am 90% confident that John and I will be working this New Year's eve again. Man, once again, no hugs and kisses, preferable from girls, at 12:00am on New Year's day for John and me. That really, really sucks. I was hoping to see some of you guys this weekend but it may have to be next time.

Steph, sorry for not seeing you walk. John and I were working that weekend and the past weekend before that. Gosh, I really don't want to make working as an excuse but it's really is a legitimate excuse. So...what are you up to?

Hope everyone else is well and have fun during New Years. I know John and I will have a blast at work and watching New Year's parties at home. BTW, I was joking. At least the BEARS are doing well!!!

WEDNESDAY IS FOR JESS!

sorry bout the late notice again, but yes I'll be in Madison tomorrow/later today.

I'm badger bussing to Mem U on the 11:45am and plan on meeting up w/ Steph and whoever else is available, and will eventually make our way to A Woman's Touch.

AND . . . it looks like I MAY be (cross your fingers) MAY JUST BE IN MADISON FOR NEW YEARS!!!! WOOOHOOOOOOO!!!!!! So you Meksavans, plan accordingly. I've got birthday and christmas presents for the both of you. Even if I don't make it, you guys should come up bcz I bet no one's seen you in a long time.

Anyways the wireless in my room is really shitty so i'm gonna end the post before it kicks me off again.

I'll see you guys tomorrow! :)

Merry Christmas to me!!

I got Pit for Christmas, people, PIT!! Mwahahaha!

Dennis vs. Michael Stipe

Dennis Milutinovic--long lost love child of Michael Stipe? Hmm . . .

Mark's new playthang

Flasher gramma

anyone can watch KBS WORLD NEWS TODAY!!!

I guess, they are putting us on their website... so u don't have to have KBS WORLD to watch us...

go to english.kbs.co.kr

and there should be a link that says "News Today"... click on it and u shoukld be able to hear my voice reading the headlines and a couple stories... mind u, our anchor on mondays and tuesdays is not a native english speaker... but we had to use her because of in-house issues... i would rather you watch either of the wed, thurs and fri shows... our anchor, edward, is awesome...

well, there you go!!

I'M COMING TO MADISON TONIGHT!

Yep you heard me.

I'm coming to madison tonight on the Badger Bus, which will drop me at the Union at 4:45pm. It'd be really really cool if someone could meet me when I get off the bus :D but if you guys are all still busy, I think I'll head to Espresso Royale for the free wireless until someone calls me. Then the plan will be to eat something, then DRINK DRINK DRINK at the Essen Haus!!! WOOOHOOOO!!!! GOOD BEER!!!! FINALLY!!! Dennis is leaving for Montana tomorrow, so he's going to meet up with us at like 10pm (has some stuff to before then).

Dennis says I can probably stay at his place overnight, then we have an elaborate plot where I drop him off at the airport then leave his car at the Dutch Mill Park and Ride, and then my sister can pick me up from there.

and that's the plan!

KBS WORLD NEWS TODAY

Well, today was out first broadcast! The first of many... Jess, it goes out in L.A. but i'm not sure of the time exactly... it goes out worldwide at 3:45 pm Korean time... so it should be in L.A. at whatever time that makes it in L.A. but i heard that KBS AMERICA (the bastards) are gonna re-schedule it for some other time... since that would make it like 11 at night... anyway, so when i find out, i'll letcha know...

there's a saying in korean that i roughly translate as.... the first drink does not make you full (yay for korea's alcoholic history) anyway... it basically means, not to feel bad if the first day/try/effort/attempt isn't perfect... so that saying is perfect for today...

but i'm just glad we are up and running and i am actually doing what i came here to do...

i LOVE IT!!!!!!

and thank you guys all for bearing with me!!

i hope some of you at least will get to watch it....

mm-wah!!!

I'M HOME!!!!!!

Yay! I'm finally home! It was a pretty uneventful plane trip, except for that the baggage lady at check in said my carry-on was too big (which it wasn't), and charged me an extra $80 for a third bag. It's such a load of crap. I mean, since when are you only allowed 2 checked bags, and since when can they only be 50 lbs each?! Grrrrrr. And to top it off, THEY DON'T EVEN GIVE YOU PEANUTS ANYMORE!!! WHAT THE FUCK?!!! All i got was a lousy can of soda!!! CHEAP BASTARDS!!!!

Anyways, I got back late and went to sleep, then yesterday I went to the library w/ my brother and helped him study for his exams--tho it was more I was just making him read me his notes and re-teach me all the crap I've forgotten.

Speaking of crap i forgot, I FORGOT ALL MY IRON-ON TRANSFERS AND FABRIC GLITTER!!!!! NOOOOOOOOOOOO!!!!!!!!!!! Man, I'm so pissed . . . you ALWAYS forget the important stuff. But that's ok. We can still make t-shirts.

Well, my plans are still to come up tomorrow and see everybody (YAY!!!) and then figure out what I'm doing from there. I still need to see my sister Julie's new house (i have to see Jenny's new house too but I'm gonna do that over New Years), so I think what I'll do is hang out w/ y'all on Monday and then go there Monday night or Tuesday afternoon.

You guys have to let me know when you'll be available to party w/ me! Go ahead and post your schedules as you wish, but feel free to give me a call! I have my cell phone--you should all have my phone number, but if not email me bcz i don't really want to post it.

yay! I can't wait to see you all!

For those of you interested......

.....thanks to "Divine intervention" from my random internet friend who I jokingly make stalker comments about cause he googled me even though I TOTALLY do that to people, I now bring you the man, the myth, the legend..........the guy on the bus:

http://www.friendster.com/user.php?statpos=bc&uid=2046945

Thank you Dan.....you shall now be my accomplice and partner in stalking crime. Oh yes, you're gonna run intelligence and covert ops for me while I trail him. Oh yes, oh yes.

Also.....he's intellectual. Too intellectual. He published a BOOK. And he got a literary award. WHOA.

Gravitation anyone?? A little bit??? The age difference is even the same....he's 27. Ahhhhhh.....now I have a scheme to play out in my mind and keep this all interesting (don't worry....I know it won't really work out and that I'm not REALLY an anime despite my hearts desires). And so.........I will pen crappy song lyrics and let them blow to him in the wind. And he shall fall madly in love with me even though he's a literary genius and I'm a no talent ass clown. And he shall be my Yuki Eiri and I shall be Shuichi Shindou (hell I practically am already). And Steph shall be Hiroshi. Roles up for grabs are Tohma, K, Fujisake, Sakano, Ryuichi, and Tatsuha. Apply for the one you will. Oh, and Hagen should be Rage cause she tries to steal Shu from Eiri. And together we will BE Gravitation. And then one day I will be on a game show running on a treadmill not knowing any of the answers. And they will ask me who won an obscure Toronto literary award..........and I will know the answer....I will know. But first we need a Tohma. There are character profiles linked on my blog if you want to pick your roles. Click the one that says "Best Gravitation site Ever" or the Kumagoro one.

Ok....I'm done. Sorry I got WAY overboard on that. It's just exciting that I finally get to BE an anime. And a GOOD ONE at that.

Prospective Visions Slogans

So, many of you have heard these before, but I thought I'd list them on the internet for posterity. These are the possible slogans that Sari and I came up with for Visions, to be preceded by, "Stop on in for...":

1) a drink and some pink! (the one that started it all...)
2) a Bass and some ass!
3) a Leinie and some heinie!
4) a Heinie and...some...heinie...
5) some fuzz with your buzz! (okay, that's Ken's)
6) an ale and some tail!
7) a Schlitz and some tits!
8) a beer and some rear!
9) a Zima and some...(and then your friend coughs out "cock!")
10) a scotch and some crotch!
11) a shot and some twat!
12) a bock and some cock! (male revue night)
13) a Beck's and some pecs! (also male revue night)
14) a Busch and some tush!
15) a Hamm's and some gams! (senior citizen special)


That's all I can remember for now - feel free to add your own!

UUUGGGGGHHHH!!!

SOOOO HARD TO DO WORK!!! I'm leaving in 26 hours . . . just 26 hours and I can't fucking wait any longer!!!! GAH!!! I JUST WANNA GO HOME!!!

Well, here's an interesting website that I've been wasting my time on. Is this for real? Is it a hoax? Let me know what you think. I recommend looking at the children's section--some ppl sent in some AMAZING drawings, one of which, placed here:

deserves to be honored with a T-shirt. I mean, holy crap! Jesus is actually shooting nukes out of his fingers while the raptured Christians dance around giving each other high-5s!!!

This picture on how adults can reclaim Halloween for Jesus by dressing up like beloved bible characters also deserves a shirt:

"BOO! I'm John the Baptist, and these are my many exciting exploits..." (acutal caption from website)

I love it. I really love it. I almost shat my pants laughing so hard.

Sorry.....I'll stop posting for a while

I need more help!!! This time with a completely non-school-related issue. This time with a boy related issue. A very good looking boy related issue.

Ack. Sorry I'm so insecure (a la online personality typing). Anyway.....if you get a second, click either the title link or the link below or the sidebar link to my blog and read away then comment away and help me out. Preferably before 9AM on Thursday cause I may get to have one more shot at it and if you don't help me out I'll most likely blow it again.

I'm so awkward.

Sari

http://www.livejournal.com/users/britrock37/40248.html

Updated Map.....ALMOST DONE!!!!

And I got to stand on my desk chair and yell "I'm a golden god" cause I got the filters right in illustrator so everything isn't glowy white and looks like I intended it to look. Just have to add some text now talking about the urban vs rural problem and bay stuff. And make line breaks for the isolines. Gonna print it tomorrow and show it to TA to see what he thinks (though last time I did that I pretty much had to redo the whole thing.........but I don't think he could make me do that now, could he??)

Alright, what do you think now that you maybe know what this is showing? Do you think the whitespace needs to be a color other than white?? There will be another text box in that big blank space in the middle. Is white ok or should I make it another color?



Thanks SOOOOOOO MUCH for helping, everyone!! I'll get you nice things!!!!!!!!!!! I have the best friends EVER.....seriously.

Concerning Tookie Williams and the death penalty; a rant

Stanley Tookie Williams, the notorious Crips gang co-founder turned anti-gang activist was executed just a 1/2 hour after midnight December the 13th. Schwartzenegger valued politics over decency, and denied the man clemency saying it was because he wasn't completely convinced that Williams was reformed. Williams maintained his innocence to the end.

I gotta say, it makes me ashamed. What kind of civilized society can, with such an imperfect judicial system, cast an ultimate and irreversible punishment such as death on any of its own citizens? Sure, there are bad people out there who deserve to be punished--Williams founded a street gang that has, since its conception to long after he was put in prison, been responsible for perhaps thousands of deaths--but when it's been demonstrated time and again that innocent people do go to jail and do end up on death row, it seems totally immoral to me that our society still allows such a permanent judgement as death to be cast.

"Well," you may say, "aren't some acts so heinous that they deserve death?" My answer is yes--and I gotta say, if Williams IS truly guilty of slaughtering an entire family, then I say fine--redeemed or not, justice was served. But what if, WHAT IF he was truly innocent? Then surely we're just as guilty of murder as the next inmate on death row. People make mistakes--it's a fact of life. People on occasion allow their predjudices to override the evidence in front of them. So how can we ever reverse bad judgements if the accused is killed?

What is the value of an innocent man's life? 50 guilty murderers? 100? I don't know about you, but I don't feel comfortable with the possibility of killing just 1 innocent person. If that means sparing the lives of the truly guilty, then so be it.

And in the case of Tookie Williams, a man who, even if he was innocent of the murders he was charged with, could not have been without sin. He helped found a violent street gang, for chrissake! However, when incarcerated, Williams was able to reform and become an anti-gang activist, negotiating truces between gangs and writing books for children on the dangers of gangs. Williams showed that even monsters are capable of doing great good. As fellow humans, also capable of great good and great evil, shouldn't we have mercy and give them the chance to atone for their crimes in a meaningful way?

Please comment. Your thoughts are very welcome.

Sari's final project map....thus far

Ok, I have until Thursday at 5 to finish this, but that's really Wednesday cause on Thursday I have a stats presentation in the morning and a GIS exam in the evening that needs to be studied for. Now.....technically speaking as far as what needs to be completed, this is almost done. But I don't know if I like it. I think maybe it looks too cartoony. My TA suggested that I put the percentage farm AND the urban areas AND the Chesapeake Bay nitrogen levels all on one map. I personally think this made it look crappy. The colors in the nitrogen levels look AWESOME next to the flat grey counties, but when you add the green for the farm I HATE it. The farm map by itself looked AWESOME with the color scheme. With the blues I HATE it. Anyway, I'm gonna post it here (it's big and there's no text on it yet and the legend is wrong, ignore that) but PLEASE tell me what you like and don't like. Brutal honesty here people. I need to know. (Personally I still think it needs to be 3 maps, but I'm letting that alone. I stuck with my yellow urban areas instead of red cause GOOD GOD did it clash.) Any and ALL suggestions appreciated and taken.

Thanks,
Sari

New holiday theme

Well, the unicorns had a run of only abt 5 days, but I thought I'd change the background to reflect the holiday season--and nothing says "Happy Holidays" like a guy on a bicycle playing the violin.

4 more days till i come home!

I BOUGHT MY PLANE TICKET HOME!!!

Yayayay!!!! I'm so excited! I'm flying in at 11:45pm on Friday the 16th (that's in 1 week aready!!! woohoo!!!) and i'm leaving at 7am on the 3rd.

Tho once again, my supervisor ruined the moment with a nasty email:


"Sounds okay to me. In any case I would not be able to use you for the holidays since you will be away so I will have to be work Christmas, Christmas Eve, New Year's Eve, and New Year's Day rather than visiting with family.

One thing you should make sure of and that is you make up the days that you take off. I know that I am lax when it comes to making sure you do and I expect you take responsibility for that. I hope to see you before you take off, but if not have a happy holiday."


wtf? First of all, why's he trying to guilt trip me?? He didn't sound upset about it before when I ran my tentative plans by him the first time around . . . why now?

Second, I HAVE OVER 100 HOURS OF VACATION TIME THAT I HAVEN'T AND PROBABLY WILL NEVER BE ABLE TO USE! WHY THE FUCK DO I HAVE TO MAKE UP FOR THE TIME I'M TAKING OFF ?!!!

happy holidays to you too . . .

jerk.

There's a story behind this picture....

...and it involves the hot guy who's now in my stats class and at the time of this story was in my intro IES class as a supersenior just like me and got stuck working on a powerpoint presentation with a group of stupid freshmen who apparently don't know how to submit the text for their slides at a reasonable hour the night before the presentation is due. And, as such, we decided that we would just put slide titles on the slides (it was like 1AM btw and the class is at 8:50...AND I'd been out working at the Black Earth deer testing station all day long in the cold) and then google search for some pictures. And so, one of our slides was titled "Nutrient Cycling" and we google image searched it and THIS came up as one of the options. So we put it in. There was also something that we decided the picture we needed was from this study where they put spiders on acid and then looked at their webs. And other crazy stuff. And then we sent it to our TA telling him we had things ready for the next morning. We eventually changed it at like 2:30 when everyone's slides came in on e-mail, but Mark (our TA) was hella freaked out the next day when we had to present it in lecture and he thought it was gonna be that presentation.

And so......sometime I want Jess to use this as the blog layout. Cause it's freaking hilarious and it reminds me of such good times. There.....that was storytime with Sari for the night. Back to maps that need to be a lot more done by tomorrow than they are.

Well Shit.

So, I went to CALS computer lab today to talk to the people about a job, but apparently Lelah got the last one. Which is fine cause it’s my fault I’m slow or something like that, only now I have to find a job. Damn. And that one was perfect too. See, my dilemma is this. Since I have to do this giganto graduate project next semester which will likely require most of the daytime hours aside from the 9 that I’m working for TNC and the 13ish that I will be in class, I’ll probably have to get a job at night. This, obviously, seriously cuts into my homework time. If I had a night job right now I think I would die. Unless, of course, it were a night job where I got to sit in a computer lab. See, if I were in a computer lab (particularly one as little used as the CALS lab where I’d be in a separate room even and no one really comes in anyway so I could just sit there with Illustrator and make my maps to my heart’s content, it would be ideal. Cause there are jobs where you could work and do your homework, but when your homework requires the use of Adobe Illustrator you’re a bit more constricted.

Option 2 is that I DON’T get a job and try to subsist on my 80 bucks a week. Now, considering I’m making more than that (only slightly cause the hospital pays like shit, but more nonetheless) now and just paying rent and bills puts me $22 overbudget each month, I don’t really see this one working unless I want to give up my trip to Korea to see Hagen because simply existing in society is going to require more money than I have. So. Job for me. But where. I mean, I could work retail somewhere and I wouldn’t hate it (Sedona is hiring and I want to go see about the place where Puzzlebox used to be with all the Japanese stuff but I’m scared to ask them for a job because there are ALL Asians working there and I don’t really fit in so they will probably laugh at me), but then……no homework will get done and I will almost NEVER see any of you because I will always either be working or busting my ass to get my homework done. And I still won’t make more money than I did at the hospital, the only difference is that I can work on weekends. Which gives me even less time to do my homework or hang out with you guys.

Option 3 is trying to find another computer lab that needs a student, but I fear that working at one of the busier ones I would be expected to a. have more knowledge about the workings of computers and software and things (ie be more techy or have a compsci major) than I can prove I know and b. not just sit and do my maps on the computer cause I’ll be way out in the open and probably even working with someone else. Plus I don’t know where they would be hiring. I guess I’ll look and see about it, maybe there’s another cozy small one like CALS that no one goes to or knows about. I don’t know of one, but maybe that’s proving my point.

So, yeah. No idea what I’m gonna do. Any suggestions beyond "stop freaking out" are appreciated.

lolol!

hooray for trial and error!

If anyone else has any great pictures or themes they want to see as background on LOTW, LET ME KNOW! I'm thinking of featuring a new amazing picture every few weeks or so.

experiment in science

First of all, this picture kicks ass.

Second of all, i'm going to try to make it the background on the blog using the wealth of knowledge about html that i've never ever learned . . . (i.e., 3 cheers for trial and error--and for wasting valuable work time).

tales of horror

So the other night Andy and I were driving around (my laptop hard drive pooped out so we went shopping for a new one . . . anyways that's not important to the story) and of course right at the freeway entrance I get stopped at the longest stoplight of all time.

We're sitting there for a minute or so when a large black SUV pulls up behind us . . . and this car is just BLARING the worst most annoying kind of R&B . . . my poor little car is shaking--the bass is turned up so high that i have to slap my hands over my ears to keep them from bleeding.

I'm getting progressively more pissed off bcz the light still isn't changing, and start casting dirty looks through my rearview mirror towards the unidentifiable person in the SUV behind me.

Then suddenly, as if on cue, the SUV inches forward--just enough for me to see the unidentifiable person in the red glow of my brake lights---and to my utter horror i see THIS:

me: "HOLY FUCK! IT'S A CLOWN!!!!"

Andy: "wha. . .?" *looks behind* "OH MY GOD!!!! HE'S WAVING AT ME!!!"

me: "oh shit oh shit oh shit oh shit oh shit oh shit oh shit oh shit . . ."

Andy: "GREEN LIGHT!!! GO GO GOOOO!!!!"

me: *slams gas pedal to the floor*

Together: "AAAAAAAAAAHHHHHHH!!!!!!"


Amazingly we survived, due to a lack of governance over speeding laws in California (unless you're black or hispanic--in which case it doesn't matter if you're speeding or not) and frequent changing of lanes.

It's life and death situations like these that really make you realize the value of life. In that instant when I peeled away from the intersection, all the times in my life where I'd thought "what's the point of living?" flashed before my eyes,

and I knew that I wanted to live.

WHERE IS SARAH JOHNSON???

haven't heard from you in a while, m'dear.


I miss you!!!

Quiz! WEEEE!!!!

Advanced Global Personality Test Results Extraversion 46% Stability 50% Orderliness 26% Accommodation 50% Interdependence 70% Intellectual 63% Mystical 50% Artistic 63% Religious 70% Hedonism 70% Materialism 56% Narcissism 50% Adventurousness 56% Work ethic 16% Self absorbed 70% Conflict seeking 63% Need to dominate 43% Romantic 50% Avoidant 30% Anti-authority 50% Wealth 43% Dependency 56% Change averse 30% Cautiousness 56% Individuality 36% Sexuality 50% Peter pan complex 63% Physical security 76% Physical Fitness 37% Histrionic 56% Paranoia 50% Vanity 70% Hypersensitivity 56% Female cliche 63%

Take Free Advanced Global Personality Test
personality tests by similarminds.com

cool stuff I bought episode 3

Brown 60's go-go dress: $15 Pasadena flea market

early 70's vintage go-go boots: $25ish with shipping Ebay

cool stuff I bought episode 2

Green Dress: $3 Valentinos Costumes sale

for boots and bag, see episode 1

cool stuff I bought

Gold Dress: $2 Valentinos Costumes sale

Purse: $40 Pasadena flea market

early 70's vintage go-go boots: $15ish w/ shipping from Ebay

another reason why KBS is bad for you health~

So... some of u may or may not know this... but KBS is bad for your health... more specifically, WORKING for KBS is bad for your health...

Last year, they had me working 15 hour days EVERY day, including Christmas and New Years Day and did not even blink an eye... this resulted in me getting an ulcer in my large intestine from stress...yup, u heard me, i'm 23 and i have an U.L.C.E.R.

well things got better, ultimatums were made (along the lines of, if u dont hire ppl to share the work with, i'm quitting)

but now... that we are starting English News (finally!!) they separated the news team from the rest of the office, so they had us move to the basement! the 2nd floor of the basement, with NO air... what air is down there is absolutely rancid~ i don't know how the BLEEP i'm going to survive down there.... and it's not like the company (the people around me) is going to help matters any...

so this might just be the last post i make as a somewhat healthy person...

help. me. breathe.

Another way that ASM and the University of Wisconsin have managed to irritate me....

Really glad I won't be here next year, sorry for those of you who will. Way to eliminate one of the best uses of ASM money we actually HAVE.

I reference an article from the Cardinal today....

http://www.dailycardinal.com/article.php?storyid=1027910

That really irritates me. A lot.