Bit of Ivory

I took everything off Ginny I today, and put it all on a CD-R. So now she’s all ready for David to take her to Cambridge. I envy her the trip.

Am overdosing on Salt Lake Donut chocolate-covered chocoalte cake donuts. I don’t mind a bit.

My roommate Jen (known as Gwendolyn on SQ) has her blog working. So go visit.

I’m going campus early today to buy a new copy of WordPerfect. They’ve just come out with 11, which means I’m now 2 versions behind. I can get it for $99 through the bookstore, so I think I will. I’m also going to buy the Adobe Design Collection–Illustrator, Indesign, Acrobat and Photoshop all in one package. I can get it for $399 through the Bookstore as well, and it retails for over $1000, so it’s a great deal.

Am bored. One thing I won’t miss about this job is working nights, espcially since this semester I’ve worked from 2-10 on Wednesdays. It’s even worse today, since the most we’ve done is give out dry-erase markers for the study rooms.

So I’ve been wrting I Found Love chapter 3 instead. It’s much more fun than staring at the library homepage. This is the first chance I’ve had to work on it in quite a while, so I’m very happy. Am finding out that what everyone else says is true: Dumbledore is difficult to write. I wish I’d had the heart to kill him off. But I just couldn’t do it. Hagrid’s still alive in this fic, too, and so are all the Weasleys. It’s wishful thinking, I know. But it’s *my* fic, and therefore it’s *my* ideal world. And that means OBHWF, and Dumbledore and Hagrid still around. So there.

I want to finish IFL 3, actually, because I need to write 4 & 5 before I can get to 6, which is going to have some really fun stuff in it. 4 & 5 will, too– 4 is going to be at least slightly angsty and very mushy, and 5 is going to be delightful to write– but 6 is where I introduce my OFC, which I’m really looking forward to. I also get to write some more of clueless!Harry, which I always enjoy. Poor boy.

I’m selling Ginny I to David tomorrow, which means I need to go home tonight and take all my files and stuff off her. It will be sad to see her go. No more “Emily, your computer is whirring” jokes from my dad, as Ginny II is very quiet. It’ll be nice to get the $400, though.

Back to writing. . .

that today was the last day of classes. Which means that, unless I go to graduate school, I have been to my last class of college. Ever.

I’m going to be getting about $800 back from my taxes. This makes me very happy, since I was planning on using my tax refund money to pay for Nimbus. I’ll definitely be able to afford it on that.

Now to actually buy the tickets, and finalize roommate plans, and. . .

*sigh*

I’m typing this entry from Ginny II. She’s lovely. I’ve been getting all my settings the way I want them. First thing I did was download Mozilla. Second thing I did was download Trillian. Before I switched her off last night I got a nice Ginny image for my wallpaper. I just switched XP away from the Fisher-Price default theme and back to classic Windows. All those colors are annoying.

Today instead of a usual devotional or forum we had what’s called the Unforum, which is basically like a high school assembly. The theme this year was the Not-So Late Show, since it took place at 11:00 AM. The best part about it was the commercial breaks they showed on the jumbotron.

The first one was a play on those compilation CD infomercials we’ve all seen so much of. We’ve got a carillon tower that plays at the hours and half-hours, as well as random concerts with a person actually at the keyboard. Well, the commercial was for a “Bell Tower Mega Jam” compilation, with everything on there from YMCA to Aaron Carter. They actually got someone to play a few sample songs. It was hilarious.

The second commercial was a guy standing in front of a mirror rubbing his jawline. Overdubbing that was the voices of girls saying “scruffy men are so HOT!” It would probably help those of you unfamiliar with BYU’s honor code to know that guys have to be cleanshaven. Well, the guy took a big swig of BYU Creamery milk and got himself a nice milk mustache. Then we got the “Got Milk?” thing and an addendum– “Milk– the only BYU-approved facial hair.”

The best one, though, was the last one. This one requires your knowing that our student ID’s double as a debit account called Signature Card. You can use it to make copies, print from computer labs, buy food in the Cougareat, and basically anything else that takes money on campus. It showed a guy walking around campus buying things, like “Vending machine breath mints, $.65″ and “Dinner in the Skyroom restaurant, $20.” Finally it showed the guy and his date up by the bell tower, and it said “The Bell Tower Experience. . .priceless. There are some things money can’t buy. For everything else– there’s Signature Card.”

LOL. Seriously.

One paper down. It’s awful. I can claim nothing but a combination of A. Sheer exhaustion B.My status as Co-Queen of Procrastination and C. Pure, unadulterated laziness.

Well, the paper’s not actually awful, but it’s not my greatest. It’ll probably get a B. In addition to the factors listed above, I wasn’t really into my paper topic (I wrote on the connections between Mansfield Park and an essay Austen read called “The Military Policy and Institutions of the British Empire”). It’s hard to be persuasive over something that means nothing to you. Oh, well. It’s done, it’s turned in, and now I can start concentrating on my Austen paper, which I’m actually excited about– my topic is on familial difficulties in the courtship process in Pride and Prejudice and how those difficulties are a comment on the change from social/mercenary marriages toward romantic/companionate marriage that was taking place at the time she wrote it. The best part about this essay is that I’m going to enter it in the Jane Austen Society of North America essay contest.

So while I wasn’t actually writing my paper, I was procrastinating writing it by doing any number of things. On Friday we went and bought the CoS DVD and watched the deleted scenes, commentaries and interviews– and the Chamber scene, so I could drool over Christian Coulson. My opinion on the deleted scenes is that I can see why some of them were taken out, but there should have been 4 that were left in: The scene in Borgin and Burkes, the scene where Colin is so much more fanboyish and says that he’s a Muggleborn, the scene where Justin Finch-Fletchley introduces himself to Harry, and the scene where the Trio talk about the diary. All of those would be so helpful to the plot. The interviews were all very fun, although I wanted to see one of Christian Coulson, which we didn’t get. The only other thing I have to say is that the deleted scenes should have been integrated into the movie, a la the Fellowship of the Ring Extended edition.

So after we watched that much of the movie, my roommate Jen and I went to the BYU Folk Dance Ensemble concert. It was very fun. I love folk dance. I’m not very good at it, but I like it.

When we got home from the concert, my best friend Nicole came over with her two-year-old daughter Rosalind (called Rosie) to spend the night. She’d had a wedding reception in Payson, which is just south of here, and her husband Steve was away doing Army training. After a trip to Ben and Jerry’s we settled down to watch CoS.

Rosie is the biggest two-year-old Potterhead I’ve ever seen. As soon as she walked in our apartment she saw our poster of Harry on the wall and said “Potter!” All Rosie needed to do was see the side of the DVD before she was saying “Want Potter! Watch Potter!” We had to take a trip to the grocery store because Nicole had forgotten extra Pull-Ups for Rosie, and I gave Rosie my wand to play with to keep her occupied. I said “Can you say ‘Windgardium Leviosa’?” and the whole time we were at the store she was waving the wand around saying something that was vaguely recognizable as “Wingardium Leviosa” but that I won’t try to spell. It was hilarious. When we finally got home and started watching the movie, Rosie loved Dobby, but called him Doddy. When he hadn’t been around for a while, she looked up at me and said “Where did Doddy do?” And as soon as he reappeared, she shouted “Doddy!” I, of course, found this all hilarious. Rosie’s adorable anyway (she looks a lot like Boo from Monsters Inc., but she’s even cuter when she loves Potter.

Rosie went to bed late and woke up early, of course, so I didn’t get as much sleep as I was hoping. After Nicole and Rosie left I went to work for 4 hours, then came home and acted like I was going to work on my paper. At 7:00 Jen and I went to the Ballroom Dance Company concert. Very different dancing from the concert we went to the night before, but equally enjoyable. The funnest part was the finale, which was done in blacklight with neon costumes. Everyone was an alien, and some of the costumes were wild.

After church yesterday I made an apple pie and prepared for some of the guys of our ward to come over for dinner. Ulises was making barbequed chicken, and Jen was making rolls. We sat around and chatted for a while after dinner, but after they left I actually worked on my paper. *gasp* I took another break for Ward Prayer and for dessert (we were all so full from dinner that we didn’t eat the pie until 10). Ulises and Jorge decided to nickname all the girls in our apartment. Jen is Barbie, Lisa is Cutest, Laura is Sweetest, Amber is California Beauty and I am Sweetheart. It’s the first time I’ve ever had such a nickname (no one has ever really thought our aparment important enough to give us nicknames), so I’m rather flattered. After Ulises and Jorge finally left, I was too tired to even think about writing my paper. So I went to bed and got up early this morning.

So that was my weekend. Tomorrow’s the last day of class, then it’s just finals and my other paper. Then I’m done. For good.

Yikes.

On a good note, our new laptops should have been delivered today. Welcome to Ginny II!

A girl in my floral design lab cut her finger yesterday. I don’t feel so stupid anymore.

Our designs are spring baskets. Mine has daffodils, tulips, iris, bells of Ireland, stock, ranunculus, pixie carnations, Australian heather, waxflower, larkspur, and sprengeri fern. It’s quite gorgeous.

We went to a bridal shower for my cousin last night. She’s getting married on the 25th–which is the day I graduate. I think I’ll be able to go to the ceremony and the reception, but we’ll miss the wedding luncheon, ’cause I’ll be walking at that exact moment in Provo. The shower was very fun. It was a “first” shower– first laundry day, first cleaning day, first picnic, first night (of course), etc. We came up with a good one that wasn’t used though– first fight. The gift would consist of a pillow and a blanket for the couch.

Just after Lauren finished opening her presents, my mom’s cell phone rang. It was my dad, who was up at Mark Miller Toyota with my brother. Ben has wanted to get a car for a long time, and they were having a great deal on financing for Corollas (2.9%), so Dad and Ben went up to take a look. Ben found a 2001 Corolla that was awfully tempting, as well as a 2000 Echo. Since our Tercel needs a lot of work–probably more than it’s worth–Dad has been looking around for replacements, and an Echo is the front runner. It would be ideal for my sisters to share, since it’s very easy to see out of even if you’re only 5’1″ like Lisa is. Anyway, Dad asked us to come down to Mark Miller so Lisa and Laura could test drive it. If Ben didn’t want it, Dad was interested.

Well, Ben wanted it. He bought it last night and drove it home. It was all rather spur-of-the-moment, but like I said, he has been thinking about it for a long time. Plus the car itself was just too good to pass up. It still has 3 years left on a 6-year warranty, plus roadside assistance and lots of other good stuff.

This is very good news for me, as it clears the way for me to buy Lizzy once I have a real job. It also means that Lizzy is essentially my car anyway, since Ben and I shared her and Ben won’t need her anymore. Which is as it should be. Lizzy was always *my* car anyway.

I’m totally spamming my own blog, but unless you don’t want to know ANYTHING about what’s coming up in Order of the Phoenix, you’ve GOT TO GO TO THE LEAKY CAULDRON and READ THE SUMMARY OF OotP. MAJOR spoilers, but if you’re like me, you want to know every little thing you can about the book. So GO READ IT.

And after you have, you can click below.
[Read more →]

Since my dad just ordered them, I feel the need to gloat.

My new notebook computer.

Sweet, eh?

My co-worker definitely wants to buy Ginny. He doesn’t really need it until September, so even though the purchase of the laptops has been delayed (the model Dad wanted to get is currently unavailable), it isn’t that big of a deal. I haven’t given him a set price– since her battery isn’t working, I have to figure out how much it would take to fix it and then subtract that from the usual going-price. I’d guess it’s going to be around $400-500 dollars. Which, considering that Ginny is a Dell Latitude CPx with a Pentium III, 256M of RAM, an 11 GB hardrive, a CD-RW with a swappable floppy, and a combo 56k modem/Ethernet card, that’s a pretty good deal. They’re still selling the exact same system at the Bookstore for what I paid for it a year ago–$899, and Ginny’s only had one year of light use since then. I told him that he can rename her, if he wants. I’m going to call my new laptop Ginny as well (because she has to match with Harry, my desktop), so it’s not like the name will be dying.

I keep forgetting to blog about a couple of new acquisitions. Some of you may remember that I collect stuffed animals, and recently almost all of my new animals have been named after Harry Potter characters. This trend has also, obviously, extended to my electronic equipment. Anyway, I bought this adorable stuffed monkey a couple of weeks ago, and named him Gilderoy. Then a couple of days ago, I bought this little cow on a keychain, and named her Rita Skeeter.

I kill myself.

I did absolutely no homework today (I know, Mom, I know. I’ll be fine). Instead, I wrote posts on parallels between R/H and Darcy/Lizzy with BOTH of my opponents and Nimbus. Am wondering if either of them know that I’m debating against them. Also read new chapter of AtE, and while I am very happy about Bill and Fleur, I’m also wondering what would have happened if Harry had given Ginny that hat– I think she would have loved it, and it certainly would have shown her that Harry remembers stupid but important little things like that. But I’m not too worried about H/G– it’ll work out. I *am* worried that Ginny’s going to make herself sick, though. And I think we got the answer to why the “M” scar on Ron’s forehead didn’t go away– because the ring is cursed!

Anyway, I also chatted with Angua about our Nimbus strategy and Will/Lyra parallels with Harry/Hermione (which makes Angua not want to read His Dark Materials) and Garion/Ce’Nedra parallels with Ron/Hermione (which will hopefully make Angua want to read the Belgariad), and the ridiculousness of some of the goings-on at the DT recently.

Tonight was the last night of reruns on Gilmore Girls, which is very good as I’m in sirius withdrawl. Smallville should be new next week as well.

I need a good Luke/Lorelai moment next week, or I’m going to throw things at the TV.

I also need it to be June 21st.

*sigh*