"Special treat: SEA URCHIN SEX!"*

Today is a day sacred to Fortuna Primigenia, the goddess of luck. "Primigenia" is a title meaning "First-bearer."

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Mistake has given up her blog, I'm sad to say, so it's out of the blogroll. Now I'm trying to decide if I want to change her name here. I never liked the name "Mistake" for her because it always makes me feel like I'm saying she is a mistake. I only had it because she picked it out, because of some country song she likes or something, I can't remember her whole explanation.

So, possible names for her include:

-Translating her chosen name into Latin so I don't feel as bad about it: Mendosa. Con: It can also mean "bumbling."

-Amicula: means "dear friend."

-Nessecituda or Propriora: The first is a bit long, but both mean "friend so close she's practically related."

-Vivacia or Vivaxia, meaning "enduring," like our friendship, or "lively" like the friend herself.

Which do you prefer?

(Closer is also off the blogroll because he NEVER POSTS. But his name doesn't really bother me as much. Maybe I'll change his name to Suavidicus or Suavis because it's really funny to imagine Closer as being suave, but it actually means "sweet" or "sweet-talker.")

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My life has been rather crazy lately, and as evidence, I offer you last night, when I got to bed at 2:30 AM after running around doing a Chem quiz online (Blackboard, of course, was not functioning on my computer), and completing my Bio lab notebook for turning in today. I was so tired this morning that I barely stayed conscious in Chemistry and then took a nap afterwards, and missed yoga because of it.

Oh well. It's over now, the rest of the week shouldn't be so bad.

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My Biology professor offered us a choice of final grades for lab. Option A, a standard lab practical; B, a group project going over everything we've learned in lab. Facing the prospect of yet ANOTHER test we went with the group project. After a long discussion in which the loudest or most obnoxious types (Incredibly Hot Guy-- I've found being in a relationship to be an excellent way for me to notice when guys are actually very bossy and domineering) dominated, tempered slightly by the "Take-Charge Young Female Leaders" and Flirts With TAs, who was at least trying to make sure the quieter girls in the back got a word in edgewise on the matter.

Flirts with TAs has a mohawk. This makes me want so much to giggle at him but he was the only one of the leaders who actually let me talk so I felt bad about it.

Anyway, long story short, I am going to be a VH1 host on a segment entitled "Top Five Worst Reality TV Shows." The entries include such gems as "America's Next Top Algae" and "Survivor: Chordata." I believe one entry will involve Flirts With TAs and Incredibly Hot Guy hitting on the professor while discussing angiosperm versus gymnosperm reproduction.**

It will be awesome.

*Professor: I'm sorry, the sea urchin sex demonstration has to be postponed. Dr. Walker hopes that next week he can coax them into giving you little demonstration but it seems that while the males are ready and rarin' to go, the females are a bit reluctant.

[long pause]

Incredibly Hot (Bossy) Guy: Wait, how is that abnormal?

**Angiosperms are flowering plants. Gymnosperms are things like pines without flowers.

"My Science Project" was an astonishingly good movie.

Today is a festival honoring Salus, goddess of public safety and welfare, and also one of Janus, god of beginnings and Concordia, goddess of peace.

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I'm finally going to give Writer Guy a real name. But I don't actually like the Latin word for "Writer," "Scriptor," so I needed something else. Luckily for me, I remembered a book I read called The Last Book In The Universe, which includes the last human capable of writing in a post-apocalyptic world. He goes by the name/title of Ryter.

Yes, it's just a misspelling of "Writer." But it looks cool, and vaguely sounds like a name, plus it references both his writing and the genre of sci-fi that he prefers. What more is needed?

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It's springtime, so young men's minds... are exactly where they always are (in their pants?), but I have noticed a lot more kissy-face going around campus than in recent months. While this has confirmed to me that yes, PDA is still every bit as annoying if you have an Other (my mom says the "significant" indicates that it's someone you're sleeping with), it has also led me to make the following list of Places Where It Is Uncool to Canoodle:

1. At a gas station, waiting for your car to be fixed, kissing and even getting to second, while there are little old ladies sitting nearby and the younger customers are snickering and exchanging looks with the attendants because they can see that you suck at it. Honestly... who makes out when they have critics around? This one's courtesy of Ryter, who was the one who had to witness it. He was also the one snickering with the gas station attendants.

2. In the hallway right outside your room. Your room is right there. GO INSIDE.

3. Personal favorite: In front of the waffle cookers at Philbrook. Because nothing says "I love you" like preventing people from accessing sweet waffly goodness while you tongue your Significant Other (just a guess, but if you do that in public it's probably Significant). I guess waffles turn them on or something. Oh, sexy waffles... wow...

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I also noticed this morning that this girl was very enthusiastic about her toasting. She put the English Muffins in and was like, "Whoa... okay... wow! That's great! Is it gonna-- is it gonna come out? Which one's first? OH! Boo-ya! The right one! And-- and-- AWESOME! Here's the left! Woohoo!"

Legit.

Must be nice to be so easily excited.

There should be more Star Trek drinking games. "Hot alien chick hit on Trip- take a drink!"

I woke up really, really late today; like, two in the afternoon, and then I started to read and the next thing I knew it was four in the afternoon and I hadn't done a single thing all day. Oops.

Today I got my laundry done and I sort of picked up, a little bit, but most of my limited day was devoted to talking to Writer Guy online (yes, again) and then watching Enterprise reruns on SciFi. Because I'm so productive...

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So... funny little story... I was talking to Writer Guy on the phone for two hours on Saturday night (because my internet connection was down, I don't normally subject my parents to crazy phone bills), and besides the fact that The Brother was very irritated that my long conversation meant he couldn't talk to his girlfriend, something interesting came up in conversation.

Namely, my "online persona." Basiorana, that is. The name that I use in online forums and on my blog-- basically, anytime you see "Basiorana" anywhere on the internet it's me, and the same is true for my alternate identity (an older one), Zennybee. Writer Guy, like so many before him, was curious as to what "Basiorana" meant.

Well, you may know that it is from the Latin words "basio," meaning "I kiss," and "rana," meaning "frog," coming from my blog title and the old fairy tale, which is one of my favorites. But how, exactly, do you tell someone that your internet persona means "I kiss the frog" when they are someone that you may very well be kissing in the future? It was weird enough telling Mack.

My explanation was rather convoluted and sounded a bit like a lesson in Latin grammar with a few mumbled references to fairy tales...

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Since I don't have anything interesting to say on my own I've decided I should probably update my Readings and add some other blogs you should check out. Plus delete the ones that haven't had anything posted in a long enough time that I think they've been abandoned.

But yes, some new people to check out: First, there's EDog's Everything Page, which is the life blog of the dude who does the very funny webcomic Adventures of the S-Team, which has superheroes and robots and aliens, recently, so it's very funny. Anyway, I feel kind of bad that it took me so ridiculously long to figure out that he had a life blog too, in addition to the blog about the comic... but yeah. Oh well.

Another addition: Sam Girl, who hails from South Africa, which honestly feels a lot farther away to me than it actually is... But then again I tend to think of Russia as farther away than Australia, so clearly my sense of distance is a little wonky.

I Am 50% Left Brained, 50% Right Brained

The left side of the brain controls verbal ability, attention to detail, and reasoning. Left brained people are good at communication and persuading others. My left brain's influence makes me fairly logical and prefers dogs, reading, and quiet. The right side of the brain is all about creativity and flexibility. Daring and intuitive, right brained people see the world in their unique way. Since I'm half right brained, I likely have a talent for creative writing and art. My right brain prefers day dreaming and philosophy.

Are You Right or Left Brained?

"Be on the Alert For New Oppourtunities"

Today is the second day of the Paganalia. Don't forget to pray to Ceres/Demeter, goddess of harvest, and Tellus/Gaia, goddess of the earth, that the birds don't eat your seeds. Or something.

It's also a Feast of Bacchus, which means you have justification for getting drunk. Have fun.

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So there are 2,191 people with my first and last name together. My first name is the 36th most popular name, and my last name ranks #25.

There's 1,048 people named James Bond and 113 Harry Potters; 503 George Bushes and 31 Emily Dickinsons. Absolutely no one in the US today is named Hermione.

Mistake's name is really uncommon. She's one of the only people with it, though both her first and last name is common. My sister shares her name with 769 people, and Closer's one of 305. Only 49 KTMacks, though. I totally win for the most boring name.

There are seven Clark Kents and nineteen Charles Xaviers. Yes, I looked it up...

How many people share your name?

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It seems that my plans to become an RA are already helping me socially. At least, they're offering me a bit of practice. First my RA and the 2nd floor female RA (it took me WAY too long to figure out that they've set it up so there's one girl and one guy per floor) talked to me and Loquatia about it, and then tonight the 2nd floor male RA stopped by on his rounds. I was sort of impressed that he not only remembered that I was at the RA meeting, but that I seemed apprehensive about it and that I used to read poetry at the coffeehouses (he mentioned this because he thought I was an English major).

It's nice that they're so interested (though none of them are continuing as RAs so I guess it's entirely possible that I would wind up as one of their RAs, therefore making it in their best interest to get people who aren't crazy or power-hungry... little do they know), but at the same time, you can only say "I'm going to apply and hopefully things work out" so many times.

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I was translating from English to Latin as a part of a grammar exercise, and may I say, grammar exercises always have the weirdest sentences to translate. Honestly, "Incenderunt pontem in quo pugnamus"? "Agricola cui dedi pecuniam factus est socium meum?" "Sagittae delectaverunt Marcum?"* I don't know who Marcus is, but he needs to stop playing with his arrows, and I have never paid a farmer to be my friend. I have nothing against farmers. I have lots of stuff against paying people to be my friends. They charge too much.

And this Marcus, through the course of the assignment, was established to be a foot soldier, got paid, saw a girl, got a gift from the king, and was delighted by his arrows. An excellent day for him. I wish these people would remember that Caius and Cassius and Brutus are also excellent names and Marcus doesn't have to do everything, and they should stop before they have to pay him overtime.

You can tell I'm sick of translating when the grammar exercises get personalities.

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I finally got the rug vacuumed today. It looked very nice until about five seconds afterwards when I walked on it. Oh well. Nice while it lasted.

Today was better.


*"They have set fire to the bridge on which we are fighting," "The farmer to whom I gave the money became my friend," and "The arrows delighted Marcus," respectively.