I've suspected this since that thing with the fly, but this is all the evidence I need. Our president is a Jedi.

So, about this... I am, of course, in favor of anything that grants homosexual couples the same legal rights as heterosexual couples. However, I don't like the idea of granting equal legal rights under a different name - i.e. domestic partnerships instead of marriage. I thought it had already been established that "separate but equal" isn't equal at all. Socially speaking, domestic partnerships and marriage aren't equal, because marriage is such a respected tradition

Basically, it's a step in the right direction, but not the end of the road, IMO.

So. Um. I entered this contest thingy, and I need you kids to vote for me. Link. My username over there is Saki; my entries are called Whimzicle, The Blank Knight, and Blankbot. Voting ends November 15.

Also, I really suck at coming up with names.

As of late, I've started doing a bit of freelance writing with a two websites, Demand Studios and Associated Content (profiles here and here). It's a nice, quick way to make a bit of money, especially seeing as how my attempts to find a job have proven less than successful. If you're interested or just want to help raise my page views, the articles I've written are here:

Demand Studios
The History of Totalitarianism
Types of Recyclable Plastic
How to Make Your Own Doll Shoes
How to Sketch Anime Figures
Sim Dating Games for Girls

Associated Content
3 Knitting Stitch Patterns to Spice Up Your Scarves
How to Switch Between Knitting and Purling
Video Game Review: Tales of Vesperia

If anyone wants any information on writing for either of these companies, feel free to ask.

For the past couple weeks, I've been slowly but surely working on turning my little brother into a Doctor Who fan. I've made sure to play the show whenever he's in the room, and while he makes fun of it every chance he gets, I got him to watch all of Midnight yesterday. This morning, he was watching some show on TV when he turned to me and said, "I guess you probably want to watch Doctor Who, huh?" And so I got him to voluntarily watch Rose.

MISSION ACCOMPLISHED.

Someone, I think, had entirely too much fun writing that headline.

This is something that actually happened quite a while ago, but I was thinking about it earlier, so...here it is.

Every once in a while, my school's cafeteria place will inexplicably play music over the speakers. Sometimes it's way too damn loud, and sometimes it's barely audible. This was an example of the latter category. I happened to be near one of the speakers in the corner when I heard something rather familiar:

"You remind me of the babe."

I froze, thought, Isn't that...? Why would they be playing...? I focused my attention on listening to the song.

"What babe?
"The babe with the power.
"What power?
"The power of voodoo.
"Who do?
"You do.
"Do what?
"Remind me of the babe."

Some of you, I'm sure, will think I'm making this up, but it is true. "Dance Magic Dance" was, for no discernible reason, playing very, very quietly. Stranger still, it was not David Bowie singing, but was a cover version that I hadn't known existed. I've tried looking up who it was online, but have found nothing. I'm half-convinced I was hallucinating.

Good points of attending an anime convention: More than I care to list.
Bad points of attending an anime convention: Having to resist the urge to commit homicide every time I hear/read the words "And so the lion fell in love with the lamb."

Sakura Con was awesome, as usual. Details to follow.

In other news, I had a hell of a time getting back to school. ( Complaining here )

We've been having spectacularly sunny weather this weekend, a rather sudden change from the pouring rain I've gotten used to. I was walking back from lunch, and the sun was shining, the cherry blossoms were in full bloom, and there was a nice breeze blowing, and it was just gorgeous.

And then a bug flew up my nose.

I met a kitty today. His name was Ned.

I've taken to wandering aimlessly around the nearby residential areas, usually with my camera*, and of course the one day I didn't bother with it was the day I met a kitty.

He was very friendly and let me pet him, and he chased a weed I squiggled around on the ground for him. Then, as cats are wont to do, he got bored with me and wandered off. And it was a Good Thing.

* Cheap digital one, not enormous neck-breaking 35mm one.

If you're reading this, you may have noticed that I tend to bitch a lot, mostly about school-related crap. Today I'm going to do something quite different, but equally obnoxious: I'm going to tell you how awesome I am.

I just got back from my French oral exam, in which I missed exactly one point. Out of a possible three hundred points.

I know, I'm amazing.

Allow me to provide a brief synopsis of an episode of Doctor Who, courtesy of Scifi.com:

The Doctor and Rose must protect Queen Victoria from a brotherhood of mad monks and the werewolf entity they worship.

I should point out that the monks in question here are closer to the Dungeons and Dragons definition of a monk, rather than, you know, reality. In other words, they're pretty much ninjas. So, the Doctor and Rose are protecting Queen Victoria from a bunch of ninjas and their pet werewolf which is also an alien, because everything is. Meanwhile, Rose spends the entire episode trying to get Queen Victoria to say, "We are not amused."

I frigging love this show.

My Biblical traditions class is being forced to write an essay for our midterm. It was assigned this week (on the same day that our previous 8-10 page paper was due) and it's due the first class after spring break. My professor expects us to select two out of three questions to write 5-6 page essays on, one of which isn't even really an option because it requires research that I won't be able to do without access to the school's library. So, I have one week that I was planning to use for, I don't know, sleeping or something during which I have to write ten to twelve pages of bullshit.

Fuck you, Bib trad. Fuck. You.

Seriously, what the hell was I going to write? I have no idea.

I thought I was done with essays for now, god damn it. But noo, it turns out this paper is due before spring break, not after. This, of course, means more bullshitting and pretending to give a rat's ass about the assignment.

I think I've spent about half an hour trying to formulate a sentence and a half. At this speed, four pages is going to take a while.

*Sigh* Next week is my spring break. I can hold out until then. Hopefully.

Titus Andronicus - Shakespeare's first tragedy - is absolute shit. It's just murder, murder, murder, rape, mutilation, murder, and Sweeney Todd. I don't think it has an actual point besides throwing in as much shock value as possible, which might be interesting if I could see some of the blood, but I'm just reading it for a class, so it's just eyeroll-inducing.

This class may be the death of me, if Bib Trad doesn't do it first.

Why is it that, every time I have an essay to write, I remember that there are millions of videos on YouTube of kittens that I have never seen before?

I cannot for the life of me focus on astronomy.

I've been trying to read the chapter of my astronomy book that I was supposed to read yesterday, and let's just say I'm not making a lot of progress. I can't pay attention in class, either, but that's because the teacher drones on and on and on and on and is so painfully boring I want to die. The reading is moderately interesting, when I can figure out what the hell it's talking about, but I keep getting distracted. For example, while reading about the solstices, of course the phrase "midnight sun" crops up, and my brain goes "HEY I HAVEN'T READ THE CREMATION OF SAM MCGEE FOR A WHILE, HAVE I? I'D BETTER DO THAT RIGHT NOW. I WONDER IF I STILL HAVE THE FIRST STANZA MEMORIZED." * On top of that I can't open my astronomy book without Jonathan Coulton's "I'm Your Moon" popping into my head, even though we haven't so much as mentioned Pluto in class (as far as I know).

And somewhere in the middle of all this it seemed like a good idea to make a Livejournal post instead of doing my homework.

* I do, if you were wondering. Don't ask me why.

ETA: Hey, Smile.dk will be at Sakura Con! They're crazy weird-ass fun.

Yes, I'm still doing my astronomy homework. Why do you ask?

So, many of you are aware that I recently acquired a ~FREE XBOX~ with my powers of awesome (ahem). It was shipped over winter break, and a TV was shipped shortly afterwards.* Now, finally, both are here and set up and beautiful, and so I come to you to share the experience.
( Pictures )

* I also did not pay for this; my parents offered to, which I must say surprised me a bit. I suspect they may have been taken over by extraordinarily nice body snatchers.