MOOP!

Okay, I'm at that point where I have sixty tabs open across seven browser windows, and that really means that I need to make a link post and get on with my life. So here, have some sundries!

*Boston folk, in last Saturday's flooding, Taza Chocolatier got hit hard. They are trying to convince people to buy their stock so they have money for repairs. Buy some chocolate for a worthy cause!!

*Also Boston Folk, today at seven PM there is going to be a recess in Davis Square. Bring your jump ropes and four square balls, and believe me, I would be there in a heartbeat if I was a few hundred miles north and east of here.

*Improv Everywhere's newest stunt: Recreating the beginning of "Star Wars: A New Hope" on the Subways!

*I'll be honest here: I really quite want this foldable bicycle. It's a neat design, and I emphatically want to have a bike to tool around with up in Boston, to the point where I'm gonna need to find a way to get mine up there *some*how. So yeah.

*"But then there are some shows that go completely beyond the pale of enjoyability, until they become nothing more than overwritten collections of tropes impossible to watch without groaning." (A hilarious review of that terribly unrealistic show on the History Channel --"World War II" (I mean, could you *get* more melodramatic?). Read the comments. Sporfle warning.)

*I will unfortunately not be able to post this Girls With Slingshots guest strip by Erika Moen in my future classrooms, but I want to so badly!

*Locked posts, so no links, but I'd like to extend appreciation to chickenhat for "LESS COWBELL!" and to ncarraway for giving an earworm trigger warning when he mentioned GaGa's Bad Romance.

*ms_hecubus continues to keep a fairly funny blog (seriously, I should make the list of people who's journals are fun to read even if you don't know them¹), this time ranting about how "Every time I use a plastic bag, the terrorists win". (And hopefully she will not mind me linking her, as I was impolite and didn't ask permission this time)

*Oh, and her followup letter to Sears.

*Speaking of Racheline (You do read the footnotes when they come up, and not at the end, right?), she went to a conference recently, and made this post about secrets and exile that talks about coming out about various things. ( And then I babble about this a lot more, because I find it important )

*Oh look, another ms_hecubus post, this time Sensibly pointing out that boobies are both sexual and practical items, and to try and define them as one hundred percent one or the other is useless

*yagathai came up with a fantastic new portmanteau: Voluntarting. Please go use in a sentence.

*Look! It is A map of the creative process!!

*So, I follow the davis_square community because I like knowing what's going on in my world --signal to noise is high enough to keep me coming back. Most of the posts seem to get between zero and fifty comments or so. So when I see one that gets _253_, I pay some small attention.

It is, of course, a post on how to have good bicycle/car relations.

I love my hippie city and miss it dearly.

*Mel Gibson Rant Quotes Presented by Kittens. I don't even know how to react to this. Trigger warning: severely abusive misogynistic language.

*Animation showing all the nuclear bombs that have gone off from 1945 to 1998, including test sites and the like. Long, but neat.

*Want respect for bicycles as transport? Use them that way!

*ratatosk talks about a recent court decision saying that the FCC's current indecency policy is unconstitutionally vague. Go censorship fighting!

And that seems to be everything. Now I can go clear the two hundred or so items out of my RSS reader. WOO!

~Sor
MOOP!

1: Also on that list is:

rm, who writes about dancing and fandom and gender and the whole racism-misogony-homophobia-god-society-sucks-thing and doesn't really take shit, and writes just *fantastic* stories about a life that seems very much to be a part of a different world and time sometimes.

kittikattie, who writes about video games and American Girl dolls and ponies and art and the whole society sucks thing and takes even less shit than Rach and has a constantly amusing slice of life journal thing going on with lots of pictures of interesting stuff and is the one who coined the phrase "black day"² which I use sometimes.

And ShadowCaptain would be if he hadn't left elljay for the evil that is Facebook, and Ms_Hecubus like I said, and there are almost certainly other people who have interesting and entertaining journals, in case you need more to read, which I doubt. Dan4th and Heptadecagram, when they post. Others. Whatever, maybe I'll make this into a post of sorts sometime.

2: Black Day: A day in which you put on your gothy best, because sometimes it is nice to be all black-clad and take-no-shit. She always has one on the fourteenth of February, as well as two or three others across the year, mine show up sporadically, but seem to be reoccurring on the fourth of July.

3: In watching Clueless the other day, I remarked that "only to a sixteen year old would "and you're a virgin who can't drive" be seen as such a slur".

Arisia!!

So, around noon thirty, mom and I tossed my things into the Prius, and I drove us to the airport. I said my tearful goodbyes, checked in, bla bla, made it safely to Boston and subsequently, the hotel where Arisia is held.

And have been doing a very mellow sort of "well, who needs help?" thing. Er, was, before the tech meeting anyways (and in between the staff den having cake!) After the tech meeting...well...Spence wanted to know how to be a good TD so he squirreled a handful of people away to go drink beer and tell stories, and I somehow got invited along. So that was cool.

Oh, and I already have my volunteer shirt --I just have to get them my time sheet eventually or they'll hunt me down. I'm thinking at six tomorrow when the con starts just getting Spence to sign off on the last of my hours and dropping it by the volunteer den. *I* wound up with an omgbright orange one, because I am awesome. Er, by which I mean, the omgbright orange ones came in two sizes --5XL and kids. I fit into a kids large, because I am cute and tiny like a hamster, *and* I figured out the right people to suck up to.

Also, notetoself, the really *really* fucking cute pigtail boy who you keep seeing places is called David. Alsoalso notetoself, the adorable smotf¹ with the half-blue hair is called Z-bang (spelling?). Pay attention to him, he is both pretty and knows what he's talking about. And he has an industrial, *jealous*.

Annnnnd that's all. I'd say I have to be up early tomorrow, but call is at noon. (I love my TD). Oh, and in a fit of "Wow this con is clever", breakfast is being served from eight AM to two PM. Someone knows how fen work. <3

Andyeah. Don't really much know what to do with myself, other than kick back, relax, and enjoy the calm before the chaos. See you all later!

~Sor
MOOP!

Well, if a smof is a secret master of fandom, and tf is techno_fandom...

So, the sox won the world series. Woo!!

***

In other news, I just watched Saw with Lauren and Emily. s;oighsrughgsorh. Yeah.

It does have Westley in it. Westley is good.

Proper review to show up at roughly the same time as my Haunted review. Hell, I could do 'em as a pair.

***

...Tonight is going to be a night of dr0nken idiots. God bless eight o'clock classes. Shit.

There's a haiku in there somewhere... Red Sox win series / Lesley dumbasses go wild / Fuck man, let me sleep!

~Sor
MOOP!

Before any actual posting gets done, here in the first line that people actually read, I just need to say that Skullx is SUPER AWESOME! for making me a new avatar, without even being asked. The extremely astute may note that it looks exactly like the other avatar he made me, only about four years older, in Boston, and with a duck. Oh, and wearing glasses, since apparently my original pirate skullx doesn't have glasses on it (Which I totally didn't realize until just now.)

So yeah. Skullx is incredibly awesome. *gives him cookies*

Onto other stuff.

Eventually I may get the "what I've been doing" post up, but in the meantime, this is just a bookpost, mostly to keep track for myself.

Yesterday I read:

The Pirates Mixed Up Voyage by Margaret Mahy (Who is apparently an EnZed native and I would TOTALLY GO STALK HER if I ever got out there.) I actually started this one a few days over, but I read most of it yesterday. It is, of course, my favourite childrens book ever, and my "Today has blown donkeys, I need a good book" book. This was the first time I'd read it in about five months due to assorted circumstances.

and

Rats Saw God by Rob Thomas. I've read this once before, and I enjoyed it just as much this time. Rats Saw God is a sort of counterculture coming of age story, with a narrator who is actually intelligent, and a lot of dadist art and culture floating around. It's a pretty good story, and what kick started my (albeit small) interest in dada.

More later. I actually hope to chronicle every book I read while up here. For now though, I need to do some homework.

I will say this about todays adventures: I walked over to the xkcd park, mostly to find out how long it would take (about half an hour if I go the Mass Av route --I'm sure there's a quicker way, it just requires more directions) and it is a Good Playground. The giant pyramidal thing in the satellite view on GoogleMaps? It's a giant thing to climb on, made entierly by rope fastened together in various shapes. It's beautiful.

September 23rd can't come soon enough!

~Sor
MOOP!

So, I managed to be online at the same time as Kyu, for the first time in roughy several trillion years.

Amoung other stuff, he tossed me a list of college advice. Namely:

1. Get along with the roommate.
2. Don't get involved monetarily with anybody. ((Meaning, don't pool money to buy stuff))
3. Drunken make-outs are fun but don't overdo it.
4. Food is very important.
5. Go to class.
6. Make note-buddies if you don't know anybody.
7. Take notes! Also, study for tests. And don't procrastinate on papers.
8. Go to class!
numbah 9 (or something): Board games are very important. Bring some. College freshman are the most nostalgic people you've ever seen--they're on their own (homesick) and confronted with adulthood (so they want their childhood back). They want to play board games and old video games and watch kids cartoons and stuff.
10: Take most (if not all) of that Target money you're going to make, save it, and make sure you have some of it available during the year. But stick to a budget of some sorts. Take it from me, it sucks spending the last month or so of school totally broke.
11: The best way to be popular is to buy somebody lunch/dinner/breakfast-at-3-am. Especially during that last month, when everybody else is broke.
12: Decorate your room. You're going to be living there and you want it to be nice. Extra lamps help, since most dorm rooms will have just a ceiling lamp.
13: Beware the "freshman 15".
14: Be prepared to get used to sharing a bathroom with 20 people. 15 of whom are slobs.
15: I'd advise against a job on campus, unless you really need it; at least for the first semester, so you can get used to stuff.
16: As a college student, there are now tons of special offers available to you, from discounts at local stores and restaurants, to major freebies (or cheapies) from all sorts of different companies. Not to mention the school itself. Take advantage of these.
17: Make friends with somebody who has a car.
18: Bring some kind of video game if you like to play them. It makes a good communal thing, too.
18: And I know you're a reader. Bring books--the campus libraries will have a piss-poor fiction selection, and you might not be able to get to a Boston branch. But not too many, because they will take up quite a bit of room in your tiny tiny room.
18: Other things you might want to bring: food-stuff like silverware, cups, plates, measuring cups, etc, in case you want to cook something in your room (although you'll probably only have a microwave to work with).
20 (?): I don't know Boston, but it is a city, and cities are not places you should be wandering around alone after dark. Take note.
21: Try not to think too hard about how many, many, many people have had sex over every inch of your dorm building.
22: Not to get parental or anything, but if you end up being one of those people, your friendly neighborhood RA will probably have protection if you need some.
23: Your RAs are there to help you out. Go to them if you have a problem or a question. Don't be afraid to ask for help or information; just like everybody else there, you're brand-new.
24: Get used to people doing drugs around you. If you don't know yet, you'll find out exactly what pot smells like, and you might even be approached by drug dealers a few times.
25: Keep your door open. Dorms are a fantastically great place to make friends, and the best way to get involved in stuff is to keep your door open. Random people will walk in, critique your music, comment on your posters, start up discussions of Russian literature, eventually introduce themselves, and finish up by telling you there's a poker tournament down the hall.
26: Call your parents at least once a week.
27: Oh, and that reminds me, since you're getting a laptop, it would be a good idea to invest in a wireless system.
2...9: Buy your textbooks used, and check online if possible. I've gotten 30-dollar books for 3 before. And if the school bookstore does it, sell them back after the semester is over. Otherwise you end up spending 4, 5 hundred dollars on books.
[EDIT: He's still adding things to my list, which means this will be changing for a bit.]

Adding to this, is of course mum's quintessential peice of advice for teens (and other people): AVOID STUPIDITY.

Oh, and the other one she gave me --always have your room key with you.

From Tho:
The best ever way to study is, after each class, to type up your notes.

What else do I need to know before I go 400 miles away where I don't know anyone*

~Sor
MOOP!

*blatent lie. Boston D&D, Persis and DHS, Lisa and Mona, Princess Stacey, and Magus will all be up there to be looking out for me, as well as a whole bunch of people I am no doubt forgetting. And Jarne has promised me that he'll train me into becoming a masshole.