It's all about the love, baby

It's the last week of classes. I have a final at 8 am Monday morning, a take-home final due by Thursday of next week, and a project due by next Friday. Then I'll be going back home for winter break.

I thought that I loved my Mac. I thought my sister loved her Mac. I even thought my boyfriend's whole family loved their Macs. But our love pales in comparison to the love Daphna Kelfon has for her Mac. I mean, she wrote a song about how much she loves her Mac. It's fun, actually. Especially the international versions that have been made. Go to www.ilovemymacthesong.com. If you don't love your Mac now, you will after hearing this song. And if you don't have a Mac, the subliminal messages will convert you.

Just kidding about the subliminal messages. I think.

I found a great new site: adsoftheworld.com. It hosts international advertisements from various types of media. The Carlton Draught ad linked below is cool and makes me laugh (especially when the men are climbing over the barbed wire fence).

Sometimes I become a scary and perverted fangirl

I think this Fullmetal Alchemist doujinshi is a *lee-tle* too hentai for me.

But I'm giggling anyway.

---

Yay! It's random quiz result time!


Hyde - The sexy sweetheart singer of the band, the
one everyone wants whether they admit it or
not. Such a lucky one you are! Now if you can
only get your friends to believe it...

Which member of L'arc~en~ciel would YOU boink?
brought to you by Quizilla

I know, I really didn't need to take the quiz. I already knew the answer.

---

You're KenxHyde! Sex, sex, and more sex.

Which L'Arc~en~Ciel Pairing are You?
brought to you by Quizilla

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Alas... if only you'd seen the video to
"Pieces", this might have been
prevented. Poor thing. You think music videos
are all fake, don't you?

Which member of L'arc~en~ciel would kill you in your sleep?
brought to you by Quizilla

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These sites scare me:

Trixie and Peanut designer dog clothes. They have a whole section devoted to pink.

iPod accessories RSS feed. You... iPod freaks with your ACCESSORIES! Gah! I hold such superfluous consumerism in contempt. I mean, iPods don't need bean bag "chairs"! And you don't need to buy furniture that showcases your portable music device! That's an indication of a very skewed value system.

Special Flash Update!

I've encountered a few notable flash vids in the past couple months that have either ended up on my bookmarks list or in my iSwiff folder. I figured (since I don't have much to write about) I might as well pass 'em on to you.

The Cloud Song. This is the cutest thing I've seen in a while! I found it today and have already played it half a dozen times.

There She Is!. Cute. I like the song.

The Decline of Video Gaming. The first episode and the best one, in my opinion.

Waterman Toons. My favorites are the first and fifth episodes. "It's Speedy Gonzales. He knows my sister." "I know everybody's sister."

FF Tribute (Robo Chocobo Voice). A classic. The artist, Legendary Frog, also has a couple funny parodies of the Resident Evil series.

Goober Productions. Very pretty movies.

I have a void in my soul that can only be filled by stereotypes

I was walking back to my apartment after class when I realized that something is missing in my life.

I really, really want a trophy homie. Some tall black guy who wears those funny pantyhose things on his shaved head, walks around like he owns the place, kicks ass at basketball, and has a talent of looming ominously over (and scaring the crap outta) any guy who who seems on the verge of insulting me.

I know, you're thinking "Geez, just hire a frickin' bodyguard." Two reasons: a) I just wanna friend who's a tall black guy to hang out with and b) I don't have enough money to hire a bodyguard.

After I come to this realization, I also start sulking over the lack of a gay male buddy. Practically every woman on TV has a gay male buddy, and my housemate has at least two, and here's Marie all alone with no gay male buddy. I used to have one at boarding school, but no more. (That was also where I learned that not all gay men can apply nail polish. I had to scrape it all off and redo it myself.)

And don't think I'm being sexist; I also want a hard-core, butch lesbian friend who wears massive black boots, snorts derisively whenever a guy alludes to his penis, and goes into rants about the lack of gender-neutral pronouns in the English language and how that perpetuates the patriarchal system.

Oh, and this guy is my new hero.

One left!

One more one-page essay left to do. By 2 pm tomorrow. But I have an appointment in the morning, so I'm gonna try to do at least half tonight.

"My Brain Hurts!"

I feel like a Gumby. My brain hurts and I feel stupid.

That's a Monty Python reference, by the way; not '80s-Saturday-morning-television Gumby with the red horse/donkey/thing.

I'm such a geek. I remember my first day at boarding school the first conversation I remember having was with a guy named Paul and we quoted lines from The Holy Grail for a really long time.

I'm making progress (slow and excruciating progress) on my midterm. The first essay (Bretton Woods institutions/debt crisis/book comparisons) is almost done. The second essay (transition from Keynesian to neo-liberalism system/principles of Keynesian economics/Keynes vs. Smith) is almost halfway done, as is essay #3 (IMF's structural adjustment programs). Haven't started four (Smith vs. Marx re: division of labor/specialization) or five (info revolution/industrial to information econs/neo-lib gloablization).

It's still due Thursday.

I was wondering earlier today: if I bribed people with a special "Webpage of Shame" (a secret link to a secret webpage) would people comment? I'm just wondering whether anyone reads this thing. Besides Curtis, occassionally. And Mike.

I don't really have much info to put on a Webpage of Shame, but I could make up some funny filler text. I just thought of the word "shame" because people are really interested in scandals, controversies, and embarrassing secrets. Look at the stupid celebrity magazines; no one cares whether Anna Nicole Smith got herpes unless it involved a famous married man, drugs, public nudity/drunkeness, chocolate pudding, the Pentagon, Anne Heche, and at least one farm animal.

That may be an understatement. I don't read magazines and haven't been to a grocery store in over a month.

Ow. My brain's still throbbing. I think I should take a break from staring at the computer screen.

Web-places for you to visit while I do more work on my midterm. Lucky people.

Found more interesting sites.

Inside the Gamers Studio: A collection of short comics featuring interviews with numerous VG characters. Quite a few old-school chars, too, including Frogger, Pac-Man, and a Tetris block. I really like the Ratchet one.

Defuntion.net: Check out the wallpapers by Bart Van de Vel; his animal characters are cute, and some of the things they say are funny.

jpreview.com: Reviews of Japanese films. Mainly live action but also a few animated feature-length movies. Not too long of a list, and fewer reviews, but some good recs. (After Life looks intriguing.)

Origami Boulder Company: I saw this site a few years ago, and ran across it the other day (via Engrish.com). The new "Performance Art" option is great.

PostSecret: Very interesting concept: "PostSecret is an ongoing community art project where people mail-in their secrets anonymously on one side of a homemade postcard." Some are sad, some are gross, some are kinda funny. Warning: adult themes.

While clearing my sent emails folder, I came across the link to an old quiz I made about myself. I got 100% on it. I wish my midterm was that easy.

Watched Battle Royale II this evening. Like I had heard, it wasn't nearly as good as the first. But I got it for five bucks plus s/h, so it's all good.

The Bearded Man, the Midterm of Doom, and the relief of three sleep-in days ahead of me

The other day there was an older guy on the bus. He had a bushy beard, bright orange rain pants and a yellow rain jacket. As usual for 9:15 on a Wednesday morning, people had to pack onto the buses. I manage to get on and am working my way down the aisle when the guy tells people to move back to allow more people to board the bus. I appreciate it 'cause it causes a bit of shifting, and I manage to press myself on one side of the aisle. Of course, a small handful of people are left at the bus stop to wait for the next bus that'll be along in, maybe, five minutes. Before the bus even pulls away, the bearded guy says, "Because you people in the back refused to squeeze together, people have been left behind."

He says it like there's a disaster headed our way, that this is the last bus out of town, and the people left at the bus stop are about to die horrible and agonizing deaths due to our selfishness. I'm amazed I only heard one muffled snicker. He sounded so serious and indignant. I hadn't heard anything so frivolous stated so arrogantly since Ari's pizza stick speech back at BCA. ("In Alaska scarcity was a joke. Eight- I daresay eight- pizza sticks?! Uncalled for, unnecessary, and totally out of agreement.")

Anyway. I'm so happy that there are no classes tomorrow. I just got my second Soc 15 midterm assignment today, and let me tell you: it ain't pretty. I'm daunted. Five essay questions and a total of six pages.

Question #2: "The assigned readings and lectures describe the transition from a nationally bounded, state-centered development strategy, institutionalized after World War II, guided by Keynesian economic and social policy, to a period of neo-liberal regulation originating in the seventies. First, drawing upon your close reading of the assigned books and the articles in the reader, briefly summarize first the basic principles of Keynesian theory and how they differed from those of Adam Smith and the Classical Liberals. Second, explain the most important reason why the Keynesian-managed welfare state experienced a crisis which eventually brought about a return to Liberalism or neo-liberalism."

That one question alone takes up about a fifth of the assignment sheet; how am I supposed to limit my response to only one page??? Nevermind the strenuous act of wading through the wordiness and commas....

I can only say "Thank God I have until Thursday."

At least my cold is better. I finally got a good amount of rest yesterday and last night (until this morning when I was woken up on my one weekday sleep-in day at 9:30 by a phone call).

My housemate is gone for the weekend. I can leave my text- and notebooks on the table and my dirty dishes in the sink overnight guilt-free. It was too inconvenient for me to clean up after my solo midnight-frozen-pizza-and-study-party.

Advent Children

I've just finished watching FFVII: Advent Children. Here are some of the most memorable moments, in my opinion (spoiler warning, though I'll try to keep it at a minimum):

Cool: Cloud has a Swiss Army Motorcycle. It will open up and the hilts of about half a dozen swords will pop out for his selection.

Annoying: The voice of Nanaki (Red XIII) was friggin' annoying and his few lines were random and superfluous.

Huh?: What's with the second series of credits? Sure, they're pretty, but why? And why is "ShinRa Electric Power Company" credited?

Funny: Reno and Rude were the obligatory comic-relief duo. Reno seemed much more incompetent and Rude much more chatty. This dialogue snippet is one of the several that made me go "Huh?" and laugh for no apparant reason:

Reno asks Rude whether the explosives they have are powerful.
Rude: "I don't know about powerful, but it sure is flashy."
Reno: "Oh, really?"
Rude: "You like that, don't you, pal?"

The best game flashback: Loz's ringtone. :D

*Overall*
The film's main focus seemed to be on the graphics. No complaints in that area; very smooth and very pretty. (With much greater detail than in the PSX game, it's obvious that Cloud and Zack/Zax don't have the same hairstyle. And that someone had played a prank on Reno by putting red paint on his goggles.) Character and plot development took backseat, with cool (if ridiculously gravity-defying) battle scenes riding shotgun.

Basically, I'm slightly disappointed. FF7:AC was basically action eye-candy. The fight scenes were laughable (Bending the laws of physics is cool, a la The Matrix or wire-fu flicks, but pretty much ignoring them all together is dumb.)

Import DVD weekend!

Yesterday I got the DVDs I ordered: Battle Royale 2, Final Fantasy VII: Advent Children, Kagen no Tsuki (Last Quarter), and a set of the first seven films by Studio Ghibli (incl. Princess Mononoke, Spirited Away, and Grave of the Fireflies) from SunDevilDVD.

Last night I watched Last Quarter for the first time. I didn't know much about it, just that it was based off a manga and starred Chiaki Kuriyama (Gogo from Kill Bill and Chigusa from BR) and HYDE. I sobbed. It was sad.

Curtis and I watched "My Neighbor Totoro" for the first time today. I wanna totoro! They're so cute and funny. Or maybe I want a catbus. I can't decide.

He didn't want pennies, he wanted sex.

Yesterday morning I was walking across the Porter Quad on my way back from the College Eight/Oakes dining hall when I encountered a guy walked up to me and said, "I'm fly like soup!"

"That's cool," I replied, walking a bit slower but still moving. He kept up.

"Want to help me get from three to four?" He asked. I looked down at his hand which was holding four shiny pennies. I was confused. (That does not mean that I'm distracted by shiny things.)

"What?" I asked, wondering whether he wanted four pennies and simply couldn't count. Or that his lack of basic math skills was because he was seriously tripping on something. Though 11:30 am seemed a bit early to be doing drugs.

"Wanna help me get from three to four?" He repeated. Apparantly, he really wanted another penny and his counting hadn't just been a one-time mistake.

Thank God I didn't say what I was thinking: Sorry, but I don't have any money. Instead, I said, "I don't understand. Four what?"

He looked at me skeptically. "You're a virgin, aren't you?"

Well, that seemed like an abrupt change in topic. "No," I answered honestly, but I don't think he believed me.

"...You know what comes after four?"

"Five?" I asked, totally bewildered.

"You ever have lesbian sex?"

"Unfortunately no," I replied, humoring him.

He turned to a girl that was walking towards us across the quad. "She's never had lesbian sex!" He called to her.

I wondered what the hell he was talking about. Did he want me to participate in a lesbian orgy? Did he know this girl and was he trying to hook her up? Or was he simply fucked up on drugs?

The girl didn't answer and kept walking.

He seemed to change the subject again. "I like to pet the koi."

I brightened. "I pet the koi!"

"Really? I love to pet the koi!" He replied. I thought we were finally on the same page, but he was still looking at me funny.

"Yeah, well I'm used to having dogs so I kinda go into cuddly-animal withdrawl-" I started babbling.

"I understand that," he said. "My name's Anthony."

"Marie." We shook hands.

"Anyway, I gotta go." He started backing away slowly.

"Bye."

"Later. Remember, I'm fly like soup!"

I laughed and continued walking to my apartment building.

About five minutes after this conversation, when I was back in my room, I realized that he had been propositioning me for sex. Naturally I was embarrassed about my reaction, but mainly I was amused. He must have thought I was such a naive dork! I'm still laughing about it, though not quite as wildly.

I quickly Googled "I like to pet koi" and, thankfully, it doesn't seem to be a widespread euphemism.

First Rain

First Rain happened last night a bit after 11. It's a Porter/Kresge tradition, though the other colleges get involved.

Basically, the first time of the quarter that it rains (really rains, not just sprinkles) at night, people will run naked around campus. It starts in the Porter quad, and they'll run around campus, gathering more people as they go.

I was surprised at how many people were running. Maybe around 20-30 students (mostly guys, but there were a few girls) ran up the street in front of my building. And my building is roughly equivalent to a couple city blocks from the quad.

So I stood out there with a number of other people, holding my mug of tea, and cheered as runners wearing only socks and shoes passed before going back inside, feeling thankful that it was dark.

I'm too tired to study, so I'm advocating the UCSC bus drivers

Got another Classical Soc Theory midterm on Friday. I didn't go to that class today because I was falling asleep in the class before that one. Luckily, my 8 am class is at Cowell and a couple buildings away from Curtis' dorm, so I stumbled over to his place and crashed for a good hour and a half. It's been one of those weeks when I can't get to sleep before 2 am, which sucks because four days out of the week I have to get up at seven.

After remembering the date today, I realized that seven years ago I was sent to BCA (11/2/98). I feel old.

Tomorrow the SC city buses should begin running again. One of the shuttle drivers last night was talking to a couple of us about the the city/campus bus system. The city buses don't charge UCSC students for rides if we show our ID cards (which is great, of course, if you want to go downtown; the regular fare is $1.50). They tally up the number of students who use their cards on the city buses, as do the campus shuttle drivers. The tallies determine each campus drivers' paycheck: more rides given=more $ earned. And these people need it; their salary is low. Their last strike only got them a 3% raise (which only became effective in October) along with a few benefits. The city bus system gets reimbursed for the "free" rides- but that money comes directly out of TAPS' funds (which have been in the red for a while), preventing the buying of new buses, building of parking lots, etc. (Another note: bus drivers, like all staff, have to buy university parking permits, which are pretty damn expensive.)

A buncha random links...

...Things I've found while gathering media for my project:

The two best condom commercials I've seen: Italian commercial and Bratty Kid.

Yay! Time is ticking!


Which File Extension are You?


Which Nigerian spammer are You?