The Life and Times of El

Talked to two professors about honours projects.*

Had lunch with a friend whom I haven't seen for some time.

Acquired the right ingredients for cooking dinner on saturday (trying this recipe, wish me luck!).

Acquired, at a different store, the most awesometastic eighties prom dress the world has ever seen. (Maybe the eighties-ness of it is in question, because it so magnificently outdated that I'm having trouble placing it, and possibly no-one ever wore it to their prom which is their loss, but its awesometasticness cannot be denied.)

Made dinner.

Almost completed an application form for a muffin-themed franchise summer job.

I have certainly had busier days, more stressful days, and days where essays were begun and finished in the span of a few hours, but I haven't had a day that felt as productive and generally full of good things as today for a little while, and I've forgotten how lovely those days are.

The sun helps. Basking on the lawns is practically the uni's official sport.











*WTF? Serious, what the fuck? I'm meant to be a first year who still wanted to major in archaeology and scoffed at the idea of doing one essay for the whole semester, end of story, I can't believe anyone calls this uni thing hard no I have definitely not just failed a class in my first semester because I couldn't be fucked going to the lectures, what are you talking about?

I'm feeling a little whiplashed at the moment.

My friends, I am feeling a little bit brain-dead, partly because I did not sleep well last night (who turned the weather up suddenly, seriously) but mostly because I spent the best part of three days stuffing astronomy-related knowledge into my brain and then spent the best part of three hours vomiting it up into an exam this morning. And on the day of the Race That Stops A Nation Except For Students Of Universities On Federal Land, too. (But then again, state police can't arrest us on campus so there are perks.)

And so my brain is saturated (saturated? Out, damn geology! Come back in March!) with knowledge that I won't need in the immediate future, there's no room left for knowledge about the exam on friday, and I'm not exactly sure how a salad can solve this but it did stop me being hungry. And if you too are suffering from a full brain and an empty stomach, maybe salad will work for you too.





The Exams Pasta Salad, El-style, step-by-step

1. Read food blogs; become hungry.
2. Determine to make pasta salad.
3. Find that key ingredient for pasta salad is lacking.
4. Trip to shops.
5. Return from shops, triumphant.
6. Begin cooking pasta.
7. Find various things in fridge that might go in a salad, which include but are not limited to: half a zucchini, small piece of broccoli, tomato paste, olives, half a tomato, sundried tomatos, parsley, few stalks of coriander, half a capsicum, remains of dip, etc.
8. Chop desired vegetables into small pieces.
9. Discover that tomato paste has Fallen In With A Bad Crowd.
10. Remove parts of tomato paste that have Fallen In With A Bad Crowd.
11. Stop pasta boiling, drain.
12. Put pasta in bowl.
13. Add tomato, tomato paste. Mix.
14. Add other things bit by bit; mix.
15. Taste test; good but lacking in salt, and slightly too acidic.
16. Enter olives and parmesan cheese, stage left.
17. Taste test again.
18. Satisfaction.
19. Eat.
20. Blog about it.

Also, good luck to all of you doing NaNo! - I've missed the boat for NaBloPoMo, but at least I am free after the 6th, and it is my birthday next week! So it will be an entertaining November, as Novembers should be. And now I should go and start revision for my friday exam, fuelled by pasta and other things.

I'm not going to make another post about finishing assignments at ungodly hours of the morning because we all know how that turns out. This is what happens the morning after:

Cats: Mew*

El: I MOST CERTAINLY DID NOT GO TO BED AT 2AM AND I AM APPALLED THAT YOU WOULD SUGGEST IT.

Cats: Mew?

El: Er, by which I mean 'good morning'.

And some time later, the pattern repeats:

Fellow geologist-in-training: Hello-

El: I MOST CERTAINLY DID NOT BEGIN TO STUDY FOR THIS EXAM THAT WE HAVE NOW ON THE TRAIN TO UNI AND I AM APPALLED THAT YOU WOULD SUGGEST IT.

Other students: ...

El: Good luck with the exam. Right. Lining up now.

*Which could be any number of things from 'we can haz breakfast nao?' to 'I believe that I have left my umbrella at the bus station'.

---

There is no way to eat Singapore Noodles with any sort of dignity. Especially not on a train.

---

I think I need a nap. I think I also need Desolation Island. Which one? Should I try to sleepwalk to the library?

I had my atmospheric science exam today, eep. I think that I passed, but I'm not sure by how much (and if I didn't pass then that's it, I'm taking another subject). As far as my subjects go it rates at number 3 out of for, and that's because geography somehow managed to be even worse. It probably would have helped my understanding if I'd started to read the textbook at the start of semester and not three days before the exam. In any case, our lecturer was brash and generally unsuited to teaching (although the tutors were very nice, and actually competent) and there was too much maths and obscure physics for me to really enjoy it. Whatever my score, I won't be doing the sequel unit next semester.

I say I think I passed because last week I got struck down by the mother of all colds - not flu, thankfully, but a more concentrated dose than the last sickness. It reduced me to sleeping for about seventeen hours each day and feeling muddle-headed for the rest, and I was getting seriously worried when friday rolled around and I still wasn't over it. I felt better on saturday, though (and then fell victim to my finely-honed procrastination skills - seriously, I need something that will block my computer from the TV Tropes website) so I guess it's good timing, in a way - at least it didn't happen this week, because I would have been completely screwed then. Exam was still exhausting, though, even if some kind god answered my prayers and there were no questions about the specific and saturation specific humidity. But three hours is a long exam. For a while there I thought I was going to lose all feeling in my arm.

In any case, it's done now, and I'm going to have a much easier time with Geology 2: Electric Boogaloo on friday. And I can redo all my case studies from IB Geography for that exam on monday.

Vaguely interesting fact one: I saw a new bird in the garden today, and it turns out to be an Eastern Spinebill. I've never seen one before, and they're pretty cute.

Vaguely interesting fact two: the moon is rising, and since my bedroom window faces east I can see it as I write this. With the lights turned off it's amazingly luminescent - must be almost full - and there's a faint star near it. Sometimes you forget how awesome nature is, and then it leaves you going 'dude, wow' again. We have an awesome natural satellite.

Here's a tiny little post informing you that I am still alive and safe from rabid Geography teachers, although today was exhausting as well. Thank god for chai, is all I can say.

That, and it was Terry Pratchett's birthday yesterday! HAPPY BIRTHDAY, DISCWORLD MAN! *sends scumble, pork pies and a thoufand elephantf*

It's cold, the train was late, the bus was crowded, I had a geography essay due today and it's not in (and yes I've known the due date since the semester started and yes I left it until last night shutupshutupshutup), I panicked for an hour during Latin when I thought I'd left my USB containing said essay at home, I had it all along but I still didn't finish the essay on time, it's cold, I missed my Latin tute because I thought I had a test in atmospheric science and I didn't, one of the buttons on my jacket came off, it's really bloody cold, I'm tired, and I have 'Beyond the Sea' stuck in my head.

I never knew mondays could be such... mondays.

I finished my atmospheric science lab report* with an hour to spare! I'm getting over my cold! *dances*


*As to whether I actually pass it or not is yet to be seen.

Hear me, ladies and gentlemen! On Wednesday the Second Day of the Month of April, my uni physics club is holding its infamous Liquid Nitrogen Day, and I need your advice! Tell me what to bring to this most excellent event so that we may see it frozen and shattered upon the ground! There are but two limits upon your suggestions:

- that the items be readily available. No sending me to Darkest Peru in search of some amazing berry that only grows on one tree, please.
- that the items are relatively sturdy. The email itself suggested eggs, but I'm not going to try that in a backpack.

Apart from that, any and every suggestion is welcome! Photographic evidence will assuredly be forthcoming! You have until this time tomorrow to comment!

And with that, dear readers, I bid you adieu for the night. *sweeping bow with top hat*


PS. Now I know how to say 'shut up', 'thief' and 'your mother' in Latin, so I can quit the subject. :P

In other news, it's back to Middle-earth month, ABC2 is showing the Ninth Doctor Who series again, and the FOME barbeque brought me to unheard-of levels of geekery yesterday, but they like Yugioh: TAB and xkcd so it's all good. And we're going to the guide dog open day to see puppies!

The next post will come to you from the futuuuuuuure! ...so until then, farewell.

Dear university timetable adjuster,

No, I don't care what you say, a tute and a lecture isn't a clash. I obviously go to the tute. Lectures do not matter on the grand scale, they can be read online. A tute and a tute is a clash, and I've got one already. This would not be happening if you'd accept that a tute and a lecture clash do not matter because the tute takes precedence.

In short: DIAF PLZ KTHNXBAI.

~El