Full load

So this semester, I was gonna take it easy. 15 units, 4 classes of which were graphic design classes, which ought to be fairly simple.

Not so. I’m not saying the classes won’t be simple. Well, there’ll be a lot of work, but mostly, fun work. No, I mean I’m not taking 15 units. I’m taking 18. Yep, full load girl, right here. Do you want to know when the last time I tried to take on a full load? My first year at community college. I failed most of my classes. It wasn’t just a lot of work – it was too much work.

So why in the seven hells am I putting myself through this again? Well, here’s the courseload: Advanced Image (Photoshop), Advanced Typography (inDesign), Intermediate Design (Illustrator), Web Design and CSS, Fundamental Video Editing, and Basic Reasoning.

*hums ‘One of these things is not like the others’*

Okay, so I needed a Philosophy class for my degree. Word to the wise, folks. Take core curiculum classes at the community college level. That way, at university level, you don’t have to worry about annoying classes that you hate and you can concentrate on the fun classes – however that fun may be spelled for you.

Of the other classes, the only one I didn’t need and, therefore, was not signed up for already was the video class. The department head had sent out an email about it, but seeing as I was attempting to make my load as light as I possibly could, I just dismissed it out of hand.

Until my friend talked about possibly signing up for it. I still didn’t really consider, but then I started thinking… It’s not on my to do list, but wouldn’t it be fun to take a class with a friend? Have someone who actually talked to me about things in the class and could help me out, or me help them out, rather than be Miss Invisible in the back of the class that no one even remembers is there?

So up until about 4:50pm today, I was debating. Then I got a text from said friend, after I harassed her mirthlessly about whether she was actually taking the class. She said yes and so I went. Bam. Full load.

Could be worse, I suppose. Oh wait. In addition to the knowledge that I may be taking on too much, I caught a cold. Went a whole friggin’ year without a cold, woke up the day I came back to school and had a sore throat. Which, naturally, quickly blossomed into a cold.

My one highlight is my game night. It moved to Tuesdays, but, while we will still be running around Eberron, (I have a changeling warlock now. My gnome warrior was thrown in prison because she showed up in a place she was never supposed to go to again.) we will also be exploring the world of Werewolf: the Forsaken.

I have yet to play a World of Darkness rpg. I’ve wanted to, for a very long time. Bought books and everything. Alas, I never had anyone to play with me. Until now, that is. I have most of the basis of my character planned. I’m playing a Elodath Ghost Wolf. Don’t know much about him myself at the moment, but I’m thinking I’ll have a bit more knowledge about him before the next game night and the rest I can make up as I go. I at least have to figure out his motives. Why he’s clanless, is he choosing to remain that way or what? Maybe I’ll write some stories about him and post them here.

And maybe pigs will fly.

I didn’t even do Nanowrimo this past November. I thought about it. Even went back on to the chat room for a bit. (Sorry, guys. I keep abandoning you. I don’t do it on purpose.) I could blame it on all the papers I had to write, but frankly, that’s just an excuse. Didn’t even start my term paper till two days before it was due. The truth is I just haven’t felt the writing bug in a while.

You know how you get an idea that just nags and nags until you can’t even sleep because you gotta write it down? I used to have that. Now, I don’t even get ideas. Part of that is all the role-playing I do, part of it is that my mind is on school, part of it is that I just don’t think I ever had all that much creativity to begin with. That’s not a plea for sympathy, it’s just the bare-naked trith as I see it.

Some people were born to greatness, but too many others are born common. It’s not a bad thing, just a fact of life.

I do miss the ideas popping into my head, but things change. People change. I know I’ve changed.

Well, there’s an update. See you in a few months. If you want to stay in touch more, there’s always my twitter account: http://www.twitter.com/taladraco

A new year

And so I return to school. My classes have started out well enough. I think I will enjoy them. Already I can see I may end up with a busy schedule. With the possibility of there being no gaming club this semester (due to the lack of a prez), I have decided to join the CBUDesign club. This club will actually help me with my career as well, so even if gaming club isn’t a bust, I will go to this. This coming Tuesday is the first Design club meeting and we have a guest speaker: Brain… err, something or other. I’ll correct when I look later.

In any case, he’s done design work for companies like Disney and Nickolodeon. So it’ll be interesting to hear him speak. The week after that, there’s gonna be another speaker. He did the logo for Maroon 5. I’ll be honest. I’ve never heard of them. Sorry, man. I can’t know everything.

Monday nights are busy, but less of a necessity. Me and a few friends thought it’d be fun to have a private DnD session on Monday nights. So long as it doesn’t interfere with school, it’ll be a nice way to get out of the apartment and socialize. Yea, I don’t really know what that means either. I’m guessing it has something to do with a bunch of people getting together and not tearing each others throats out, but I cannot even fathom such an occurance.

Of course, there’s always WoW. That may not seem like a necessity to you folks, but trust me. It is. When you go to school full-time and are forced to study all day until you feel like your head is going to explode, you need something to relax. I’ve heard some unwind by reading (seriously? You read books for school all day and then you read more for fun?), some by watching TV (I never considered letting your brain rot very relaxing, but meh. To each their own.). Me? I unwind by beating the crap out of fictional monsters and making lots of gold simply by destroying environments because someone asked me to. Where else can I legally employ by violent tendencies without fear of incarceration?

Also, it’s fun seeing the looks on people’s faces when a gnome the size of your fist brings down a 3-ton dragon.

As for my classes, I have five. Three design classes (oh, that I could afford that mac. It beckons me so), History of Britain from the celts to some period before I was born, and Marriage and Family in a Christian Community, also known as the ‘You suck because you are an old maid’ class. Yes, my teacher is promoting marriage for all. (He actually said that you should get married while still in college. Great, I guess, providing you have, you know, a boyfriend. Or girlfriend, if you’re a guy. I’m not. So there. )

In addition to that, there’s the ever present torture known as Chapel. Being a Christian, I’m all for Bible Study. Fine. Good. But not everyone who comes to CBU is a Christian. And let’s see a show of hands of anyone who ever started believing something because it was forced on them. Wait. No hands? There’s a shocker. The sad part is you get nothing for going to chapel, but heaven forfend if you miss. Then your GPA drops.*sigh*

And I won’t get started on the fiasco they call food services.

So anyways, busy schedule this year. Hopefully I’ll find time to squeeze in NaNoWriMo this year. I have an idea and I hope to have the time to write it.

Until next time!

Returning

Okay, really, I returned a few weeks ago. Let me tell you, East Asia is amazing. We got stuck in Beijing for a week due to the infamous swine flu. It was completely unintended, but it turned out to be awesome. We saw a great many historic places including Tiananmen Square and the Great Wall. My favorite had to have been the Summer Palace, though. The buildings are situated around a beautiful lake and you can rent boats to go out on it.

It also proved to be a very emotional time for me. When we reach our final destination at long last, I made a great many friends there and I was sad to leave. The whole last week and a half was spent on the cusp of a breakdown. First, because I am used to having time to myself and being able to do my own thing. I never had that there. As a safety precaution, we weren’t allowed to wander off by ourselves. Purely understandable, but it drained my energy. At the end, it was hearing stories from friends I made over there, and then knowing that I was going to have to leave and I might never see those friends again. I was happy to be coming back and sad to be leaving.

In the world…

In three days, I will be making my first ever trip out of the beautiful land of America (r.e. USA) and going off to see other beautiful places.

Okay, I lie. I’ve been overseas before. But I figure living in Germany between the ages of 0-4 doesn’t count because I don’t remember any of it.

So where am I going to? East Asia. I’m going with a group from my college and I swear we are going to have so much fun. I’ll be gone for three weeks and when I come back, I will have many many pictures.

It’s going to be an interesting experience for me too. When I say I’ve never been out of the country (aside from the aforementioned time) I mean never. Not even to Mexico which, really, is only a few hours south of where I live.

Even living in California, there’s only so much other culture you can experience. (Usually said culture is movie stars or gangs. There’s not much middle ground.)

So here I am, boldly jumping into the unknown. Into a culture I have oly scratched the surface on. I know I’ll be changed and I hope that change is for the better.

School’s Closing

We’re down to the wire here. Less than two weeks left of school. I still have one report I have to finish and finals start this Thursday. Wow.

My first real year at a university has been full of learning experiences. I’ve gained new friends and learned more about who God is and what He wants from me. I’ve learnned a fun new language (Chinese, for the curious), studied the old and new testaments in detail, got started on my graphic design portfolio (six different pieces already!), and signed up for a wonderful opportunity that will take me to East Asia on an International Service Project. I’ll be going for 3 weeks in the summer.

I haven’t been doing a lot of writing, and I’ve been doing less reading. If I said I was reading my school textbooks, I’d be lying. One of the best things to come my way (other than ISP) is the RPG club. It’s one night out of the week where I can just enjoy things.

Unfortunately, it feels like it may be coming to an end. See, the RPG Club was originally found by a group of people who have since gone on to more important things. They were their last semester, playing in their advanced campaign while the noobs sat at another table and played a beginner campaign. That makes it sound bad. No, the originals were all very nice and helpful. Really. They ran another campaign on their own another night of the week, and still came on Thursdays. It was nice the first semester.

This spring semester, however, people got busy. Not wholly surprising, considering one of them is getting married and others are graduating.

Still, it feels as though the RPG club is dying and may not survive to next semester. Some of us are discussing doing our own campaign outside the RPG night and I’m really hoping that works out because if not, and if RPG club goes away, then I’m not going to have a relaxation time away from schoolwork and homework. I might as well go back to the shy, timid girl who wastes her time away on the internet and has no social life. (I may be exaggerating a little, but I was pretty close to that before I came here to school so it’s a valid fear.)

So as school closes and we all go our separate ways, I can only hope that I won’t backslide this fall when I come back and see all my friends again.

29 years

I turned 29 yesterday and it was definitely one of my better birthdays. There was a moment where it seemed iffy, but everything turned out great in the end. Just wish my other friend could have been there. Get well soon, dear.

So what have I been doing this past year? Well, I’d say the biggest change in my life was quitting my job (which took a lot of courage, considering the economy) and starting school. It’s not that far from home, but I took the step and moved in with twenty-nothings. Bunch of young whippersnappers, if you ask me. But that may be the age speaking.

I made new friends whom I’m able to be a little crazy with.

I haven’t been writing as much, but my roleplaying has increased.

So my goals for the next year are:

1: Write at least one story.
2: Have at least 1k in savings
3: Be more outgoing.

I’m still single, unfortunately, which doesn’t make me happy, but I’ve learned to deal with it.

Anyways, not much happens in my life, but there it is.

Apple Pie

When I asked what I should write on, a good friend told me to write about the conspicuous lack of apple pie in Lord of the Rings. Ah, good ol’ apple pie.

If you’ve ever eaten at Coco’s (or maybe if you haven’t), you probably know that they are famous for their pies. Their apple pie happens to be my favorite. This is for one reason.

They use pippin apples.

Okay, so not to go too deep into the weirdness of this, but come on. Just listen to this menu description: Tart and sweet Pippin apples are dusted with sugar and cinnamon and baked until bubbly. How delicious does that sound? And Pippin being my favorite Lord of the Rings character has nothing to do with it. (Okay, maybe a little. Try not to picture the hot little hobbit dusted with cinnamon and sugar.)

So. Lord of the Rings and apple pie. It has been a while since I watched the movies or read the book. (I know, I know. Don’t shun me. I’m a college student. I don’t have 12 hours to devote to watching the movies. I’m lucky if I have 10 minutes to sleep.) Either way, I really do not recall any apple pie in Lord of the Rings. So here’s a question for you. If there had been apple pie, could it have destroyed the one ring?

I know what you’re thinking. Apple Pie. One Ring. No contest, right? But if an apple a day keeps the doctor away, how much more could a bunch of apples, infused with special, attribute-enhancing spices, and forged in the fires of Mom’s Kitchen, do?

New Photos

For those of you who enjoy photos, I uploaded some new ones to my flickr account: http://www.flickr.com/photos/agerfen/

Here’s a preview:

Man’s Best Friend

A soldier, returning after 14 months in Iraq, gets greeted by his dogs.

Not So Happy Thanksgiving

Happy Thanksgiving to everyone who celebrates!

I woke up this morning to discover that my laptop had died. Needless to say, my day did not start out well. I went over to my aunt’s house and had fun with them. But I’m really not cut out for kids. Although, yesterday I found myself in Babies ‘R Us with my friend and now I want a little girl. They get such adorable clothes. Grown women really can’t wear those sorts of clothes… unless they live in Japan.

The good news is that my laptop is working again. Had to reinstall the operating system, but I already had most of my files off of the computer before that, so I didn’t lose much, thank goodness.

I love Mental Floss. They have awesome stuff on there.