I've used this summer as a way to just mellow out and find my own stasis again. I find the more relaxed I am, the more I take part willfully in intellectual and otherwise interesting things. I feel like I did when I was in high school and before, back when I was more mentally active like this because I had less pressing issues in my life.

So I bought a bunch of books I intend to read, and I've been busy playing 'Animal Crossing' on the Game Cube, a Japanese game about living and participating in a little town with an array of animal characters. The game progresses in real-time, so when it's night here, it's night there, and when winter is here, it's all snowy there, etc.
They also have events a couple times a month, like this month they had a fireworks show on the 4th. Our town founding day is coming up too, where the mayor gives out presents. I'm busy expanding my collection of furniture for my little house that I keep paying to expend. Soon I'll have an attic I can decorate as well. The game even incorporates Feng Shui as a way to increase your luck regarding items you get from interacting with other characters and stuff.

Oh well, anyway, it's fun. My friend Amanda visits in two days - she will teach me how to knit/crochet in a variety of styles. It's something I've wanted to learn for a while. In turn I will take her to the local parks and shops, and we will otherwise live it up until she leaves Friday. Somehow I need to fit working into all of this. She's very interested in seeing the insect collection at the Natural History Survey where I work, so hopefully she can come help me out.

Stuff going on in my life, from the mundane to the slightly less mundane:

- messy place
- kinda poor (nothing new)
- using great new video rental store that rocks
- three exams to go this coming week
- hopefully got an A on the one I took Friday
- the worst voice acting I've ever heard is on the English dubbed version of Bible Black
- last week of school before spring break
- have to travel 3 hours to Elgin two weekends in a row
- get money the second time!
- birthday on April 7th
- one of my car headlights is out
- Erin is giving me her microwave
- new cell phone that rocks, mostly because old one sucked
- GoldenBoy is a really funny anime
- Bounce Ko-gals is next up for movies (about Japanese call-girls)
- I want new clothes, many of mine are old and lame
- I have a lot of research I'm supposed to do but I'm putting it off
- This has been a good weekend so far

That's all for now. No protist at the moment, I'm too lazy to make an image. You'll just have to look one up for yourself or something.

Hope everyone is well.

Even more frequent updating...

Ok, so got back recently from another long school day, and I'm just... ugh. Tired. Sore, too. Not sure why that is.

I had the hardest physics exam in the world yesterday. The class average was a 54%, which is a failing grade. They had to curve the exam just to even it out. Even after the curve I'm only at a 70%. A 'C' is better than an 'F' but still... damnit. Everyone agreed the test was horrible and a total morale-killer. It's hard to study for physics knowing that the exam will be so hard you'll fail the crap out of it.

Ian (~zorachshells) sent me some soap and PEZ from Canada, unexpectedly. Thank you Ian! That was very cool. I love getting stuff in the mail, it's a real day-maker if you know what I mean. Ian's the coolest Canadian ever. If you're Canadian and you think you're cooler, you have to meet him so he can glare down at you with his insane 6'7'' height.

Randall's blog is new layout wonderment. However I think this is just temporary, because he's able to make a moblog again (mobile blog) where he sends pictures to his blog from his cell phone and it updates automatically, so that will require a different layout (again). It will be cool, trust me. [link]
Oh, and here's my sexy new mp3 player: [link]

Um, now it's time to go make Randall some sweet peas in milk. "What the hell," you ask? I don't know either, it's some creepy Southern thing that I don't understand.


Protist of the day!
Today's protist is: Ciliophora stentor.




C. stentor is a free-living, single-celled creature. Stentor can move freely by waving its little hair-like cilia that coat its surface, however most prefer to stay anchored to something, like the ones you see above. Stay tuned for a new "Protist of the Day," coming soon.

On with the more frequent updating...

I spent all day at school, and most of the night cleaning the apartment. We have some sort of bullshit "inspection" tomorrow morning where they come in everyone's apartment and do preventative roach spraying, and also look around to note cleanliness. Meaning we have to keep our apartment, that we pay for, clean to level of their standards. I find it quite annoying. I'm not the neatest person. I would love to be, and I probably would be if I had more free time, but with school and work and research I don't really keep my place in stellar condition. So, yeah. The inspection Nazis are probably showing up at some ungodly hour tomorrow morning to wake us up and intrude on our domain.
You know, it really ruins the illusion of "home" when you have to put up with mandatory inspections.

Randall is writing a blog entry in is awesome new blog about our apartment situation and stuff (I think). His new layout won't be up until Thursday evening or Friday, so... look at it then for new layout wonderment. Here's the link: [link]
Oh, and here's my sexy new mp3 player: [link]


Protist of the day!
Today's protist is: Chlorophyta volvox.




C. volvox is a free-living, photosynthetic, single-celled creature. What is extra-unique about it is that several individuals get together and live in the membrane of a hollow, gel-like ball of goo that they secrete. So, what you're seeing above, are little globes of several individuals that grouped up together. Stay tuned for a new "Protist of the Day," coming soon.