Lost in:

I’m going to napier in the morning. It’s (I think) this really cool deco town.  Read the rest of this entry »

Woo hoo, as it were. My plans for summer are coming together. Slowly. Very very slowly. But now I have a bicycle. It’s blue. It has two wheels, en’a seat, an’ lights, anna rack-y thing. 

But mostly it’s a bicycle. An expensive freaking bicycle. And it’s mine, all mine, bwah ha ha ha ha! Read the rest of this entry »

So I *was* going to Wellington this morning. But I’m a dumb ass, and rather than writing my paper early this morning, so I could turn it in, I read smutty books. I think I need a nice solid boot to the ass. note I said to, not in. 

So I’ll write it tonight, try to drop it off tomorrow morning, or else con one of my flatmates into dropping it off for me. If I can get it in by three tomorrow, I can still get a 90+% in the class. After that, well, it gets ugly.

Why did I really not go this morning? there’s something about crawling out of a nice warm bed, pulling on clothes, and then leaving the warm-ish comforts of my room for a 4 mile walk in the cold windy rain. At 5am. I think it’s the 5am thing that gets me. Really!

In other news, it’s about half as expensive to buy an ok digi-cam and memory from someplace in the states, have them ship it to my mother, and my mother ship it to me, and then me pay some nasty import tax on it as it is to just buy the dratted thing here. they want over 200$ for a 512mb flash card. CraaaZy, dude. So adding that (or having my mother hunt down the one I left behind) to my must buy list. I mean, the photo-free blogging is cool, and all (or not) but honestly, I’d really rather have photos. That way, at least, when I tell you people that the courtyard is flooded 3 feet deep, I can send you pictures of people sitting on top of the picnic table, with the water swirling at their ankles.

So yeah, tomorrow for wellington, and I’ll probably have to put down a huge nasty deposit on a new screen. Let this be a lesson to all you other clutzy people out there- don’t put your computer anywhere you could ever possibly drop anything on it. It’s expensive and nasty to fix.

j.

Not because there’s just so much of it- it’s really only 2 5 page papers, but my procrastination skills have reached a new high. Yesterday I went into town a 3 for a movie that didn’t start untill quarter to six. Which was fine, since I needed some form of contact lens-typ eye drops and everything closes at 4- see below. 

Not good, however, was giving into little me hobgoblins and buying a ticket for a movie after my last festival film (How much do you love me- different name, obviously, in the original french, and very good, and french). I was bad, and went to see snakes on a plane.

Which is vaguely related to being over here, since I’m sure there’s some airline that flys through here and lets you rest in hawaii, and then takes you to LA. And of course, snakes aren’t really found here either- really never should be, actually, since they’re pretty much all illegal. Ok, fine, so it’s a total stretch, but I wanted to see the freaking movie, and I’ve got just about no impulse control. You people should know that by now!

Anyway, not the worst film I’ve ever seen. They doled out the hot guys in very small doses (big bad guy, his three or so underlings with the nice hair, and this hot kick-boxer-paying guy). Yummy. The witness guy was… well, I don’t think my father would flip if I brought him home, but I might puke the whole time. A little too… um… yeah, for me.

Main gripe? no mother fsking snake line untill almost the end of the movie.

Second biggest problem with it? same one I always have with evil snake movies/ shows- poisonous snakes are pretty much no risk to anyone.

Repeat after me, people, If I bite it and I die, it’s poisonous. If it bites *me* and I die, it’s venemous.

Now really, how tough is that?

oh, yeah, and the snake-o-vision was really neat.

j.

So there’s this film festival thing here- in the town I mean (and I do mean town- except this (skype free) net cafe, the whole town rolls up the sidewalks at 4 or 5 on sundays. and nothing opens until 1. must be nice). So I’ve been seeing them. One on chinese international students at high school in wellington, one with this al gore guy in it, one about a dog in mongolia (don’t know if it was inner or outer- they didn’t say) which had gorgeous scenery, moving mongolia up my list of places to go. Then this “white planet” movie, which was in french, with english subs, in white, on the white background. and about half a dozen others, including the host.

Now, for those of you who don’t know, The Host is this big time korean monster film. Kinda like godzilla, only in a different country. And with a different monster. Ok, I’m lying. It’s more like Azumanga Daioh, the monster movie (compaired to Azumanga Daioh the manga or Azumanga Daioh the anime). It’s serious for all of 10 seconds. It’s freaking hilarious. Everyone needs to go see it!

And now for something completely different:

So I saw the eye dr. last week. And she dialated my eyes. I looked like the biggest pot head. It was great. Anyway, the point here is that my retinas are… well, scary thin at the edges.

Which means there’s now a huge long list of stuff I’m not allowed to do (or rather shouldn’t do). Included on this list is a bunch of stuff I wanted to do this summer. Like Bungee jumping. And throwing myself out of a prefectly good airplane. And zorbing, for bob’s sake. Which rather totally sucks, but it *will* make my summer rather cheaper.

On a more longterm, me-off-pissing sort of a thingy, I’m also not supposed to do any contact sports, or anything that could cause a sudden painful jold of my head. Including riding rollercoasters. But I *need* rollercoasters! they make life happy! really really fast driving is probably out too… so no race-car-drivering for me.

But drat it! I wanted to jump off a bridge and out of a plane, and roll down a hill in a giant hampster ball!

Right then. Film festival again tonight, then it’s all over for another year. And tuesday I get to day-trip to wellington. On the off chance anyone’s actually reading this, I’ll even be nice and post a trip-type report.

j.

I’d just like to say oops.

Not only am I now temporarily laptop free, but I did it in a really stupid way. Wait, maybe I should back up a bit. Or a lot.

So there I was, last tuesday, the second day of the semester, getting ready for class and all, when I grabbed this bottle of hair oil stuff I had next to my bed (to make my hair shiny and nice smelling) and lifted it over the floor which happened to be, in a sort of roundabout way, under the screen of my laptop. When it slipped.

Ouch? yes, ouch. Untill my stupid loan gets here, I have only the comforting words of a chick in my hall who’s been waiting for her laptop to come back from the shop for 4 months now. I’m not sending mine there, I promise. As soon as my money gets here, I am sooooo calling the fujitsu authorized service center, which should be able to get me a new monitor in less than a year (oh please, oh please) and get it back to me, all without mishap. I hope.

Oh, do I ever hope.

note to self- heavy object over breakable expensive thing = bad. Always.

off to whimper to myself about it again for a while. A long long while.

j.

So… It’s july. It’s winter. The spring semester starts, Oh, tomorrow. What am I doing? I be plotting what to do this summer.

Welcome to bad ideas for dummies part 10.

So, with very careful manouvering of my funds, and budget, and whatnot, and buying a bike second hand, my most fun, least expensive option this summer is (oddly enough) to put most of my stuff in storage, pack up some panniers, and take off on a bicycle for the summer. Saves me rent, I get out and about, I can go crazy and see all sorts of stuff, lose this damned weight I’m putting on from drinking so much soda/ eating so much salty food, and I can get out of this dratted town! But only if I can make a budget for the school year and (this is the tricky part) actually stick to it.

Through a bit of.. well, I’ll be positive about it and say serendipity, I didn’t get into the et program this year, which means that instead of taking about 85gazillion hours of classes every week, I’ve only got about 18. Not all that bad. And i should get permission to work this semester, which with my less than 400 hours a week of classes should fit nicely. So I can (theoretically) earn some money for buying stupid stuff (like very high heeled shoes) or extra splurgy stuff over summer.

I should be able to do this on less than NZ$700 a month, right? I mean, sure, I’ll have to buy food. And I might want to sleep inside sometimes. And I’ll probably need to fix some stuff at least twice. But I should still stay under 700 a month, right? Since I won’t be paying for busses, or trains, or goats, or planes, or car rental, or hotels, or heck, hostels most nights.

Sure, I could stay in palmy and work. I could even go work down in Wellington. But why the heck would I do that (yeah yeah yeah, other than money). If I wanted to come out behind, I could go home, but I’d have to find a place to live, and a job, and… yeah, not my idea of fun. Heck, my budgeted money would *all* go toward the flight home. There would be, like, *none* left over for living, or first last and deposit, or.. well, any of that fun stuff.

So yeah, bicycling it looks like it will be. Wonder if I still know how.

It occurs to me that many, many of my most fun/ most expensive/ worst ideas start out  just like this.  Scaaaaa-aaaarrrryyyyyyyyyy.

So, people? What do you think? Bike around NZ for my summer break (in… oh, 4 months or so…)? Or be all silly and work the whole time. Note please that I refuse, Yes Refuse to spend who knows how many years here and never see anything. Plus it’d give me a great new challenge- Staying Pale while spending all day outside, in the sun. See!

Now All I have to do is all the planning, plus get A’s in all my classes, and I’m set! Oh, yeah, and buy all the stuff I don’t have. Like a bike.
j.

Erm, yeah….

So it’s now break time, and I don’t know how much longer I’ll be here (I have a sneeking suspicion that the gov here might “forget” to renew my visa…) so I guess I’ll just have to take advantage of my break. I’m not quite sure how yet, though.

Ok, so that’s a total lie. I’m going to wander a bit, obviously. As cheap-like as possible. And sneaky me, busses in NZ give a 20% discount to students. I happen to be a student (well, this week, anyway…), so I’ll take nasty advantage of that. It’s really freaking cold lately, and there’s been some huge snowfall on the south island, from what I understand, so maybe that’s out, or maybe not, I haven’t decided yet.

Actually, I’m leaning a bit more toward the whole show up at the bus ticket place, and just get on the first bus going anywhere dealy. That way I go somewhere, I don’t have to wait tooooo long, and I am totally lost. Not that I wouldn’t be anyway. i think I’ll hit up the library tomorrow. They have lame-o guide books, I can snag one for a week or three.

Maybe I’ll blow my budget for July and jump out of a plane, or something. That would be cool. Or stupid. Or something. Wonder if they even do that in the depths of winter. Or maybe I’ll just end up in auckland for extra pages in my passport. Or maybe that can wait. Yeah, I think that can wait.

j.

So, unless some major act of weird happens, and I pull a’s and b’s out of my ass on finals in the next week or two, it looks like I’m not getting into the professional part of the program this year.

Not to discount my ability to pull obscenly high grades out of my ass, mind you, but… well, really… who cares which isn’t a molusc. It’s not like I eat any of them anyway… I mean, really.

“I’m sorry, I can’t eat that octopus, it’s a molusc”

Dude, I’m not eating octopus again anyway. Which brings me totally off topic- I hate it when I run into people who are “allergic to shell fish” but sitting in the italian restaurant munching away on squid. Where the hell is the difference? squid is shell fish without the shell. Ugh.

Back on topic- sorta.

So, If I don’t get in, I have to make choices. I hate making choices. Really really hate it. But I’ll have to do it, because without classes, they kick me out of the country. Of course, with abject failure they kick me out too (but since I can fail all my finals and still pass all my classes, I’m not too worried).

So my choices are (without out-of-ass-pulling of grades)-

a) stay here and take some other sciencey degree for a year or so (running up piles of icky debt)

b) Go back to wyoming for a semester or so, and take classes there (running up less debt, but… well, it’ wyoming.) before coming back here to try again next “fall” (that’s spring for those of you in places with doritos).

c) Go back to charleston, to C of C for a semester or so, trying not to fall too deeply back into my old bar hopping ways (more expensive than wyoming, possibly cheaper than staying here) and work for a vet to earn some extra cash and keep myself motivated- I can do that in wyoming too, but, well, it’s *wyoming*. then come back next fall (spring, oh havers of mexican food) to try again.
d) run away to mexico, default on my loans, sit on a beach somewhere and drink beer, sell tours to people who haven’t learned to order their own damned beer, never go home again.

Might I just say that, other than the whole totally non-ethical part, d is looking pretty damned good about now. Really.

But I’m super lazy, so It’ll probably be a- in which case, I’m looking rather seriously at a semester or two of genetics. It’s relatively interesting, useful for vet stuff somewhere, I’m sure, looks interesting, and has fewer required classes than just about anything else (lazy, remember?). I can toss in other stuff that interests me, or would be useful (can you say business classes?) And would have time to do something at least moderately fun for a year or so in my spare time.

But I’m taking votes. And for anyone interested in that sort of thing, I have a half a free trip between sfo and charleston to use up before the middle of feb. next year, and I’m seeing flights from auckland to sfo in the 850USD range.

I know someone’s reading this, so vote, little minions, vote!

Did I mention that if I go home for a semester or so, I can spend part of it on martha’s vineyard, making just enough to feed myself? Not that that should be important. You know, just putting it out there.

j.