[March 30 2007]

Reprieve

I'm giving this journal a bit of a reprieve. This is mostly because I have yet to save all of these entries as I promised myself that I would. Also I'm really not writing anything productive over at livejournal. That's not to say that most of these entries are in any way productive either, but nonetheless I feel the quality is greatly diminishing plus most people over there really don't want friends list clogged up with entries about my personal life or political issues. I really don't know how much this will get used in the next two months, but it'll be an experiment and if I'm really not using this service then it'll go back to it's former abandoned status.

Posted by Sarah at 1:43 am
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[October 16 2006]

Notice

Notice to those still reading this (pathetic) journal.

This is a heads up that I'm abandoning this journal and will probably delete it or at the very least edit it thoroughly. While I've had a great time using upsaid for 3 years now, and still love this service, it is no longer possible for me to keep it up.

Not only is it too expensive for me to keep two paid journals (and my time at upsaid is up), but apparently those journal entries from Spain will continue to do me in. Some girl Hunter is (possibly) dating said that my "review" of the trip found its way onto a flier her Spanish teacher handed out about why individuals from my school should rethink going on the same trip that I went on. Although I appreciate the fact that my IB teachers are letting students know this information, especially considering I sure didn't know that the trip might not be worth the money, obviously teachers of mine have the address to this journal and considering some questionable content... it's best to shut this down. All of my entries will either be deleted or transferred to my livejournal where they have the possibility of being locked. This is a second warning sign of how important it is for me to watch what's posted on the internet and I don't exactly want to wait for the entire thing to blow up in my face even further.

I appreciate your understanding and hope that you'll continue to read my entries over at my livejournal. Thank you!


ETA: I just got done cleaning out my comments and deleting all of the spam that's accumulated. I have 52 pages of legitimate comments! (40 of which are probably Jesse's lol) I guess that's what you get for 3 years worth of entries. Having gone back through I have to say there are a few more people who read this journal than I apparently thought. If you comment, please e-mail me, especially if you commented on one of my QAF entries. I don't get my message on upsaid sent to my inbox due to the amount of spam, so often if you leave a comment, especially after the fact, I won't get to read it until months or possibly even years later. Unfortunately, this means I can never thank you properly for commenting and I never have the chance to continue/start the conversation with you. I love commentors ( the more the merrier) so I'd really love it if you notified me if you found my page, even to just give me a heads up with a hey I commented! or something like that. Now, if you're going to send me an e-mail saying that I'm a self-absorbed whore…. no need to e-mail. I'll read your comment eventually, but I don't want that clogging up my inbox. If you wish to disagree with me however, in a calm rationalized manner that's a whole other deal.

Also, I know LJ sucks. I know it. Trust me this situation isn't exactly ideal for me either! However, it's just easier for me considering I already have an account over there for QAF stuff. Also please note that unless you're friended on LJ there is a VERY good chance you won't be able to view most of my personal entries. Any and all QAF fandom related material will remain unlocked, as well as personal entries I don't mind having public, but anything work related, anything extremely specific related to school etc. will all be locked. Thanks for your understanding. I hope you'll continue reading!

Posted by Sarah at 10:26 pm
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[October 10 2006]

BJU

Someone on the forum sent out an e-mail about this scary place known as BJU or Bob Jones University. It's a strict Christian college that has 5,000 students. (Compared to our 750) They have very particular codes on what is and what isn't allowed. No movies unless that are of a G rating, hair must be cut in a certain way including "feminine" styles for girls, there is a dress code, the power grid is shut down at 11 pm, no new age jazz, rock, or country is allowed. Hell they don't even allow modern Christian music. Any time there are mixed groups of boys and girls a chaperon must be present. The list goes on and on and on. It's complete madness. To read more go here or here or here.

My roommates are suggesting doing an exchange program where we trade a NCF kid for one of these BJU kids for a semester. Maybe make an ISP out of it. Even if that were possible, I don't think they would accept one! Dear lord, a New College would look like the anti-christ to these people!

It's frightening to know that "schools" like this even exist. (I use the term school loosely here because except for learning about Christ and how to be a bigot, I don't know what kind of an education these kids recieve) I'm also horrified to realize how many students they have! 5,000 kids is like 7 times our population and we aren't a fundementalist school! *shudders* Anyway, I can't think about this anymore because I have WAY to much work to do before midterms to even be screwing around. For now!
Listening to: "The Wind"-Amos Lee

Posted by Sarah at 7:44 pm
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[October 08 2006]

One Dead Agent, Two Music Recs, and Some Pissed Off Grandparents

Went to Shanna (my roommate)'s mother's house this weekend. It was kind of a spur of the moment thing. Her mom invited me and Shanna promised the opportunity to pretend I was her girlfriend to piss off her Conservative grandparents. What can I say? The girl knows how to talk someone into things. I mean come on, THAT'S a fun opportunity. So yeah of course I jumped at it. Having gone, I have to say that surprise surprise Conservative America's a scary thing boys and girls!

It's blatantly clear that her grandparents don't know anything about her and are extremely insensitive. I was so agitated with her grandfather throughout most of the dinner. Certain things he said really rubbed me the wrong way. Shanna and I didn't really take the whole "play off the fact that roommate is a euphemism” thing too far so nothing about that in particular was said. Thankfully. Although I definitely got a chance to glare at more than a few people staring at us with disapproving looks. It's depressing to think that no matter how much better it gets, you probably won't ever be able to completely stop homophobia.

Anyway, enough with that rant, fall break is this weekend! I have a week off from school, which is really nice. Midterms before that in two of my classes. I'm definitely concerned about those, especially American Politics. (I can't stand that class.)

I was going to write a big long angry rant about how stupid the writers and producers of Vanished are in the other journal, but I think I exhausted myself in going on and on about that to my poor subjected roommates. Plus everyone's pretty much said what I wanted to say in the first place so there really isn't that much of a point. To sum up, the writers and producers of Vanished are idiots. Absolute idiots. Not only for killing off the main character in the first 7 episodes who brings in THE LARGEST/ONLY FAN BASE FOR THE SHOW, but also for trying to spin this story in a way the COMPLETELY insults the intelligence of their fans. Josh Burman is an absolute idiot. Does he really think anyone's going to buy the Gale was gung-ho about finding out when he shows up to start filming that he's getting killed off by episode 7 even though he signed a contract for 13 episodes? Or that Kelton was getting "too close to the truth" so they had to kill him off, even though they developed a whole back story for his character and his partner in crime knew the exact same information that he did and in addition to that that Kelton didn't really know much of anything? I mean come on. GAHH. Fucking Fox. See if I watch their programming after this shit. What bullshit. But like I said, not writing a big long angry rant. Nope not gunna.

Moving on because the above is just too aggravating for words and if I don't stop thinking about it, this whole entry will turn into a 3 page rant of how BADLY Fox screwed this up by firing Gale off their show. If you haven't already, you should seriously look into purchasing John Mayer's new album. I legally bought the whole thing a while ago, because this album is that good. It's quality work and I support that. Especially considering his previous crappy pop music, for him to produce an album that turned out this well means that I feel obligated to help the record do well. In addition to Continuum, Amos Lee, an amazing indie folk artist that everyone should know about, has a new album out called Supply and Demand. Give this and his first album entitled Amos Lee a try.
Listening to: "Vultures"-John Mayer (it's funk, soul, blues, folk, pop goodness.)

Posted by Sarah at 10:01 pm
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[October 05 2006]

Feedback

Feedback from my first paper. (It's for my favorite course, Tradition and Creativity: Literary Conversations)


"Sarah- In this paper you argue that Tar Baby is not simply a novel that pits black against white, but in fact, reveals the internal contradictions along both class and race identity lines of many characters. You trace in particular, Margaret Street’s complex class and maternal identifications and conflicts, Ondine’s and Sydney’s conflicted distinction between themselves and the local black people they call “Mary” and “Yardman,” and finally Jadine’s deeply conflicted identity as both black and fair, both elite and the niece of house-servants. You really set this argument up well and muster good evidence. As it stands this is a solidly satisfactory paper.

It could be even better with a more exciting conclusion: here you really restate the introduction fairly simply “identity is internally conflicted.” Did you learn or discover anything that you hadn’t already figured out along the way? Did the paper lead you to a new idea? You suggest, for instance, that Son serves in some ways to reveal and illuminate this conflict for Sydney, Ondine, and Jadine. THAT’s an interesting point. You point out in particular, that Jadine’s tempestuous and passionate relationship with Son is in a large sense the symbolic acting out of her “internal struggle” with her own sense of “racial identity” (p. 4). THIS is a really good point. One way to revise the paper would be to really focus on Jadine as the site of conflicting ideas about identity, value, heritage, and Son as the catalyst figure who unsettles the false order she’s created that allows her to eat at the table but still be Ondine’s spoilt baby neice.

The writing is generally clear, though you do tend to use less direct verbs sometimes (is and –ing verbs where a simple present-tense would do). Sometimes there is a small issue of tone or colloquial language. You could discuss your quotations more thoroughly.

Overall, this is well-structured, clear, and suggestive. This is a solidly satisfactory paper, really quite good for a beginning Literature class."


My Commentary: Yay! She said I did well for a beginning Lit. class! I knew that I had problems with certain phrasing and verbs because I didn't go back and edit my writing at all. Next time, that hopefully won't be as much of a problem. Yeah I knew my ending was a copout essentially and could have been wayy better, but by that point I'd spent so much time on it I almost didn't care anymore. (Reasons why I shouldn't have done the bulk of this paper the night before) Anyway, hopefully the next paper will be better. I love this class, I love this professor, I did well. Life is good.

Posted by Sarah at 3:51 pm
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[October 02 2006]

Update on the state of life

Sorry I've been MIA for a while now. I've been swamped with school work. Still am swamped actually, but I'm taking a break from reading Kierkegaard to search for fanta limon online. I've been craving it like crazy ever since I got back from Spain and I'm seriously considering ordering it offline. Think there's any difference between British lemon fanta and Spain's version? I hope not because all I've been able to find is the British version. Anyway, moving on from my boring quest to find the best drink ever...

Jesse is now safe and sound in Orlando. Things seem to be going well so far (yay!) and he's coming back tomorrow for some symphony rehearsal which really means I should be reading and working on my paper if I have any hope of seeing him tomorrow... but oh well. I'll stay up later tonight if need be. Nothing too exciting has been going on here lately except for the fact that Jesse is on free talk live! (the awesome local libertarian radioshow/podcast.) If you'd like to hear my boy and check out the awesomeness of this podcast you can download it via iTunes (his is the one from September 30th) or you can download it from the free talk live website. I haven't yet had the opportunity to listen to it, but I'm definitely excited to do that very soon.

Not too much else to report... let's see, Hunter's grown up in like a month and it's freaking my friends out. lol. His acne is completely gone, his vocal patterns, and movements have completely changed, he's getting taller and he's starting to wear clothing that shows off how damn skinny he is. Even I'm freaked out by the fact that Hunter actually looks attractive. Where is the irritating pimply 15 year-old I knew just a handful of months ago? We're back to being civil towards one another again and he's even calling me with girl problems. (It's so damn cute, but don't tell him I told you that)

I've been tragically out of touch with reality lately. New College kids really do live in a bubble, not helped by the fact that there is one TV on campus. I did watch the clip of Bill Clinton chewing his interviewer out on Fox News and greatly enjoyed it. :) Other than that, yeah I'm sadly lacking in any sort of news knowledge.

Classes and all that are going well, I'm probably going to unsat my American Politics class, but I'll just have to deal with that when it comes. Everything else is going well, Hannah's back to being old Hannah and has been for quiet some time now. It's refreshing. Mark should move away more often. hehe. So yeah, I think that's about it for now. Thanks for even bothering to read this thing at this point!
Listening to: "Why"-Tracy Chapman

Posted by Sarah at 8:21 pm
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