Showing posts with label presentations. Show all posts
Showing posts with label presentations. Show all posts

Sunday, May 6, 2007

In Which I Apologize For The Lack Of Posts

My my, do I have some catching up to do. I'm sorry, late nights and much homework have distracted me from the blog...

Thursday was primarily devoted to homework; I didn't get as much Chem studying in as I might have liked but I finished my project, and then needed to practice it. Alas, I was at a loss as to who would want to sit through a 10 minute presentation on the gods that were unique to the Roman pantheon (as opposed to those borrowed wholy from other regions). I complained along these lines to Ryter via AIM and he immediately invited me over to practice it in front of himself and Loquelo, who was visiting. After much reassurance that it was okay (I am a nervous sort and hate being a burden) I consented in exchange for buying them a pizza. I thought it a fair trade.

One half-sausage-half-mushrooms-and-black-olive pizza and a lot of procrastination later, I gave my lovely speech, and was informed that while it was engaging, it was 25 minutes long. Factoring in the amount of time we got distracted it was probably about 23 minutes. So I knew I had to cut it down to a more manageable size, anyway. But I got back late because of this and still had studying for the Chem test the next day, so I was unable to write.

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The Chem test went surprisingly well, considering that I spent maybe a half hour preparing for it. I didn't remember everything but I think I got a decent amount correct, at least. We'll see.

As for that Latin presentation, I think it went well. Forgot nothing, paused seldom, only took fifteen minutes all told and I think I did well.

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After Latin I walked over to Ryter's apartment (it's a short walk from Murkland Hall) and helped him get ready for the party. This was basically washing dishes and sweeping the floor. I was a little worried that I would seem pushy or something, or like I was calling him a slob (Which would go somewhat like this: "Hi, kettle. My, you're looking black today"). But we got the place ready, then bought party supplies (the alcohol, though, he bought earlier) and then hung out until the first gues arrived, a very close friend of Ryter's named Inconcinnus, or at least, named that here because it would kinda suck if you had a parent who named you after the Latin for "awkward, inelegant, and absurd." The reason for this naming will become patently obvious.

Ryter showed Inconcinnus his sword upstairs (REAL sword. It's a katana. Though when you're downstairs and they're up there saying "Oh, cool, can I hold it?" and "That's so cool, I need to show you mine someday" giggles are induced. Ryter apologized for abandoning me at one point, so I pointed out that I was getting a good laugh out of it. Living up to his name, Inconcinnus [and Ryter] promptly started making the lewdest sword-related innuendos they could conceive), and then Inconcinnus discovered the foam sword Ryter bought when he visited me in Londonderry, and it was decided that the party would be unable to progress unless I fetched my sword from my dorm. I took Ryter's SUV, fetched the sword and also some bubbles, and returned, and I only drove the damn over sized thing over a curb once.

Oops.

When I got there, the company had increased by two, both guys (or maybe not, I'm a little fuzzy on who arrived when), and there was a sword fight on the deck, then Inconcinnus discovered the bubbles and started to blow them, and continued through the arrival of two more (one girl, one guy), even blowing them down from the opening between the loft and the kitchen so they would fall down into the kitchen without an obvious source...

They played a video game, Soul Caliber for a few rounds, then put on a bad kung-fu movie to comment on. The girl left after only 45 minutes, pleading homework, and a while after Loquelo showed up with a female friend, and then the awkwardness began... Put Loquelo and Ryter in a room and the sketch factor raises precipitously. Inconcinnus could stand in a room all by himself and the sketch factor would be raised. Three of them together... yeah.

But it was fun. There wasn't that much drinking, really-- only about three people seriously drank and no one was really impaired. The majority of us steered clear of the alcohol. The biggest the party ever was was ten people, enough to please Ryter (who had been worried that no one would show besides like, me, and maybe one other person), but not so much that I started to get nervous, which happens at around fifteen. And yes, I go through my classes in a constantly nervous state. Plus everyone had fun and it was in general a rousing success, and I survived Never Have I Ever without making it uncomfortable (I've gotten much, much better at that, but in my heyday I could have topped Ryter, Loquelo, and Inconcinnus combined), and I carefully seem to have forgotten everything awkward Ryter may have admitted that I didn't already know, which is convenient.

Alas, it was 2:30 when I got back last night, I started to write this blog entry then gave up and went to bed.

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Today I woke up late, went to see Spiderman 3 with Ryter (and went to a Fresh City for dinner, there's one here! This is exciting), and then we went back to his place and had a quiet, low-stress evening, which was nice. We watched the Count of Monte Cristo and then I mentioned that it was a kind of sandwich and I think I have instilled in Ryter a serious desire to eat one. I have no problem with this... Sans the ham, Monte Cristos sound pretty good.

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2:03. Shit. Well, I'll sleep in late tomorrow.

Wednesday, April 4, 2007

"I want a giant terrestrial land squid. Best. Pet. Ever."

Today is the Megalesia of Cybele in Phrygia and Rome, commemorating the arrival of the goddess to her Roman temple. I don't know how it was celebrated, particularly.

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If anyone asks, it's not snowing.

No, it isn't. I refuse to believe it could be snowing in April, after 70-degree weather last week. That's just ludicrous.

...Let me wallow in my delusions!!!

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So I think that the professors here have psychic powers that let them know when a person's social life starts to pick up, so that they know when to start assigning extra homework. I've been swamped.

In other news, I made an appointment to talk to my advisor on Friday after Latin, so I can figure out my schedule for next year. I know I need to take Organic Chemistry (blech) and probably Precalculus (double blech), but beyond that I'm uncertain. With those two monsters, I think I need a real break, something like Art. I think I have some creative-ish core credit I need to fulfill. Then... something else. One other class. I bet they make me take a Bio class or something, but I really don't want two mathy classes AND two sciency ones. Because I would die.

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So Ryter met Loquatia today. This was in part because Ryter wanted to meet her and in part because she's doing this RA thing where they want her to strike up a conversation with someone new. Dinner was about ten times more talkative than it usually is with just me and Loquatia-- I think we ran out of stuff to discuss a couple months ago.

Anyway, yeah, we trekked through the snow-- WHICH ISN'T THERE-- over to JP's, ate, talked, etc, then Loquatia went off to Swing and Ryter and I walked back to his place. I realized a little too late that we were totally walking right past Stoke, and I really should have just gone and picked up those sour pickles Mistake was randomly craving and dropped them off at her door, but oh well, I didn't. Anyway, yes, we went back to his place, hung out and talked about religion and other such Big Important Subjects and then I returned here in plenty of time to finish that stupid English essay which is totally like 13 pages.

Ryter liked Loquatia well enough, though he,like so many before him, fell into the "misreading of the facial signals" trap. Loquatia doesn't tend to express on her face what she feels, and she usually looks upset. Mistake did the same thing when she first met her. Heck, I thought she didn't like me for the first three months or so.

Loquatia said that Ryter was "nice" but mostly what she pointed out was that we seem to have a lot in common (we do), and he seems to like me (I hope so, at this point). The word "cute" was used a lot about the two of us, which I should probably resent more than I do. She also asked me if he was a goth at some point (he sort of was), which goes to show you that either it's waaaay more obvious than I thought and I'm just dense or she's very perceptive. And she thought he seemed nervous. He probably was. I dunno.

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Phylum presentations continued in Bio lab, before we got to play with bugs, and the first presenters brought candy, per tradition. Theirs was really cool, though.
Remember those Creepy Crawly sets where you pour the gooey plastic into a bug mold and get a squishy fake bug? Well, they had taken one of those molds, of a scorpion, and made chocolate scorpions-- except because their project was on an intestinal worm, there was totally a gummy worm inside.

I was mildly disturbed, but it was pretty creative.

Though I have to say, the best lab was presented by Incredibly Hot Guy (I'm still going to call him that, mostly because I've called him that before and he hasn't become Got Plastic Surgery And Is No Longer Incredibly Hot Guy, sorry if it's weird) and Flirts With TAs. Theirs was only mildly related to their subject but it was filled with random funny pictures, like Incredibly Hot Guy asleep with a dream bubble with a picture of the professor in it. For the "Reproduction" slide it was the two of them in the shower in their boxers. We were cracking up. Of course, that was an excellent time for Incredibly Hot Guy to remind everyone of his interest in the ladies by making the word "vagina" spin on the screen a couple times.

Ah, college.