in one week i will be on a plane to ireland.  it has gotten to the point that i am so excited i can barely sleep.  my student loan is pretty fucked- so i dont really have any money, but my dad let me borrow money to buy plane tickets (i keep telling you- my dad loves me more than your dad loves you) so i will at least arrive in time for school.  otherwise, i have just been making tons of lists and imagining endlessly differing versions of my upcoming adventure.  i also have been reading james joyce and oscar wilde; ill save the dostoevsky for the train ride to prague.  at this point, i think i have too much information and cannot begin to decide what to do.  i mean, i guess there is that whole pesky school thing that might take up some of my time...

yup. number one on my list of lovable douche bags.

watch wrong turn 2.

tyler.

i just found this on some random cd from freshman year (college):



tom and i met chris in santa cruz & saw striking distance and bane...  then we drove back down to see champion at the ojai womens club (im pretty sure this was also terror's first show, but i try to block that out) and i got the mic during the alone in a crowd cover.  fun things like that havent happened in a while.

we tried to drive to see the suicide file reunion in chicago (during finals week- wtf?), but got stuck in a blizzard. 

i guess the last successful show road trip was to see bane in albuquerque.  ben, mark and i drove down after mark got off work- we drove straight through and got in early in the morning.  we crashed for a few hours at some kids house and then went to the mall where we actually saw an out of order escalator, but unfortunately the sign did not say, "this escalator is temporarily stairs.  sorry for the convenience."  then we saw bane and with honor (maybe comeback kid, too... or maybe with honor didnt play and they played in denver.  i dont know how to keep track of these things) at this tiny venue with like 30 kids.  there were plenty of sing alongs to go around.  we interviewed aaron bedard  for "finish what you started"  and my faith in hardcore was renewed (it didnt last that long).  after the show (and food of course), he got in the car and drove straight back.  our only time constraints came from mark, who had to work, but he was lame and didnt help drive through the night (again).  he just slept in the back while ben and i took turns driving and having the best in car sing alongs ever.  im not really sure how we didnt die.

so.  today was pretty random.  i guess all days are random, but thats a different discussion and last time (last night) i tried to talk about the existence of god at 4am, it didnt end very well.

anyway.  basically the internet is weird.  and hilarious.

aim was particularly exciting today- mostly for reasons i would never divulge in a public entry.  cryptic i know.

matt: so what happened to xcleavEDGEx?  what it too hilarious to keep?
me: no, i lost my password
matt: oh.  what are you doing tonight?
me:  probably watching a movie.  what about you?
matt:  im going to see black market fetus
me:  there is no way thats a real band

also much hilarity from the lieutenant. 

i havent been on aim for months and months- so maybe these things are not funny to normal people, who get regular amounts of sleep and often chat online.

i am so so stoked to go to europe, but why do i have to miss this: http://www.myspace.com/soundandfuryfestival

this is also amazing: http://www.forbes.com/2007/12/11/richest-fictional-characters-oped-books-fict1507-cx_mn_de_1211fictional15_land.html id like to spend my time compiling bizarre data.  it seems neat.

i spent way too long clearing out my itunes and making mixes tonight and now i just want to get in the car and listen to all the music i totally forgot existed.

im going out to breakfast with my mom and mara and then we are prom dress shopping.  i am not stoked.  well breakfast yes; prom dress shopping no.

i somehow thought i had way more to say, but i guess not. 

im a nerd. i just realized i have multiple gaming guides/walk throughs bookmarked in firefox and on my phone. wtf?

how did i end up like this anyway? where did my xbox come from? i blame tyler and then tre for not letting me return it. (if you want me to play call of duty 4 with you i'd better see that birthday present sometime soon!)

i watched the WoW episode of south park again and i started to worry about that tingling in my wrist when i play ds for a while... oh man.

there is a dude at my school who thinks i am really lame and he always gets super confused whenever i can participate in a conversation & say something funny or if i make a comment that indicates i know something about something he thinks is too cool for me. its pretty hilarious.

this has happened to me before actually. i must just look kinda unassuming and boring. in student government (yeah i know. as if i needed further proof that i was a nerd) there was this kid who wore eye liner and weird dad jeans (he was also a libertarian attending a state university- when i asked him about this seemingly apparent contradiction he said he might as well take advantage of the system as it was. way to work for change!). he liked really horrible hot topic hardcore and often wore shirts to this effect. because he only ever saw me at senate meetings- usually in a suit or skirt and heels, he assumed that there was no way i could like good music (because youre supposed to indicate this in some sort of outward fashion or it simply doesnt count. why do you think i had to get a lip ring?). so, he got really upset when i commented on one particularly awful band shirt (i guess maybe saying, "hey evergreen terrace sucks. why dont you listen to good music?" is not really a way to make friends...) and told me i didnt know anything about real music, because i probably listened to top 40 radio.

haha. then i ripped him apart. and it was amazing. he wouldnt look me in the eye for the rest of the year. i win!

i guess im torn between advertising what kinds of things i like, on the off chance i will run into some random person at school who will be like, "oh my god is that a this is hell shirt?" (so painfully unlikely) and being able to surprise people with my knowledge of neat things (this chance does not arise very often either). so maybe it doesnt matter and i should just stay home and play call of duty 4 with tre.


ps- brandon, if your lurking my livejournal again...im satisfied from the ice cream sheesh!

i got accepted to the sweden program, too!! wow. life is rough when your biggest dillema is chosing between sweden and ireland/the czech republic. :)

also. hardcore is fun. i wish hardcore in denver was fun. i havent been to a good show in a long long time and its kinda sad.

today is SO amazing!!!

not only did my huge order of mini's come in from hong kong (early- when does that happen?), but i got a call from one of the study abroad programs saying i was accepted!!!

the program is split- 3 weeks in Dublin and 3 in Prague...  i am  so so so so excited.

my oral argument is tomorrow and i cant even think about it.  im too preoccupied thinking about europe and toys (ha mostly europe!)...

this week has felt SO long... 

i had my practice oral argument this week.  i bombed.  completely.  it was awful, but kind of funny i guess.  my partner signed up for our slot (to practice in front of our professor and two other students) before spring break and i never found out when it was (oops).  wednesday morning i woke up thinking in might not go to class and wondered when our practice slot was.  i grabbed my phone to email my partner- almost too late to leave for school and saw that she had already emailed me.  she was asking for a copy of our final paper and concluded by saying, "ill see you today for our practice."  no time.  oh shit.  so i emailed her back, frantically trying to figure out what time it was and jumped out of bed- desperately trying to get to class on time.  my entire drive i was trying to come up with excuses for missing the practice (it didnt go very well) and hoping that somehow i wasnt supposed to be there at 9am. 

finally finally she emailed me back (i was already sitting in class- trying to avoid making eye contact with her or my professor in case i had totally fucked up)- it wasnt until 1:45.  that left me almost 2 hours after property to try to come up with something.  i didnt think it would be too hard; i had been working on the same argument nearly all semester.  everything we had to read and all our professor had told us had to do with having all the supporting cases and the record clear.  so i  made note cards with the essential facts and taped them into a file folder as they suggested.  somehow i did nothing to prepare for what i was actually going to say once i stepped in front of the podium.  oops.

my partner's half of the argument was first, so i watched her approach the podium with three typed sheets of paper.  her entire argument was scripted.  she had a canned introduction, which i tried to scribble down as she spoke awkwardly.  her 8 minutes (half of what we get at the circuit court) went by much too quickly.  i have had lots of experience speaking on the fly (basically everyday teaching) and usually do pretty well, but it just was not happening for me.  my partners argument was so formal that i couldnt just go with my usual style and i kept comparing what i thought to say with what she had already said- basically nothing but a bunch of "ums" came out.  it was painful.

two other students arguing against us spoke and then our professor went around critiquing our arguments.  when he came around to me, he paused a little too long before he started speaking.  im not sure if was just looking at his notes, trying to decide what he wanted to say or if he was just holding in a "what the fuck?"  who knows.  oddly, his biggest criticism was that i relied too much on my notes and appeared as if i was reading from my obviously scripted argument.  lol wut?  amazing.  still horrible, but amazing.

so.  yup.  that was exciting.  good thing my actual argument isnt until this coming wednesday and i can actually prepare.

i was actually kinda social this week.  amazing.  usually i promise to call or hang out and i just cant.  but this week i not only texted and made plans, but didnt bail out at the last minute.  yup.  on wednesday i picked up matt (from CFHS- i copied answers from him in math and we were banned from taking classes together because we were too disruptive [which is saying something in a school full of kids who had gotten kicked out of normal high school]) and we went to play some pinball.  i was worried it might be awkward; you just never know what to expect when you hang out with people you havent seen in a while, but it was good.  we went to 3 kings and played for a while- i was doing horribly and matt totally schooled me.  after an hour and $5 or so there, we left to find another place, but werent exactly sure where it was.  we drove down to englewood and stumbled upon it.  another $7 later and we were ready to go home (i had class at 9 the next day.  i always have class the next day.  dumb). 

on thursday i met holly for a movie (a horrible, girl movie i wouldnt subject boys to).  i didnt make it to her birthday dinner on sunday, but i wanted to give her her present.  the movie was pretty bad, but it was fun to not hang out with boys.  afterward we went to noodles and closed it down- talking about boys of course.

hopefully ill continue to not suck and stop ditching out on plans.  once i get out the door- its totally worth it.  so, if you wanna hang out- now is the time...

somehow i still had lots of time for video games, the tudors (its been a big week for the reformation actually: the tudors, the other boleyn girl and elizabeth.  weird.) and reading.  this weekend has been super relaxed.  ive been working on paying off my mortage (ha), sitting on the nerd, obsessively checking the mail for my toys and reading.  tomorrow im going up to my parents to get my suit for my argument and have my dad do my taxes. 

I bought a ds...again (about a year ago I got one just to play
nintendogs- the shiba inu of course, but I got sick of it & took it
back). tyler got a ds in december I think...and we were playing mini
games (I borrowed tom's) which was lots of fun. so I got one with my
Christmas money.

mostly I just wanted to play girly games & my first purchase was
animal crossing. its pretty tedious but in an adorable and comforting
sort of way. I had given up on nintendogs (though I trained two
shibas- one black and one red...named nanook & cj of course) and
decided to just give it away (letting someone I actually know enjoy it
was better than the 3 cents I would have gotten for it at game stop).

I also got cooking mama- mostly because it was cute & tyler said his
friend who played animal crossing really liked it. its fun & totally
mindless, but its my least favorite so far.

last week I got new super mario bros. & have been playing it tons.
its insanely stressful- giant eels chasing you? WTF? but im into it.

I also got an xbox 360 about a month ago- also for playing cute
games. because the games are so expensive ive been renting them or
buying used games from game stop & returning them. I was really
excited to play eternal sonata & played it for hours at first, but the
fighting was so boring that I gave up. Lego star wars, however, is
amazing. you can play two player & mostly the whole point is to blow
things up. you cant really die and you get to slap people. best game
ever.

finally something good came from blockbuster. they've been super slow
sending things out lately & we used all our trade ins in like the
first week. so the past couple weeks have sucked for watching movies
at home. but if...a criterion collection movie that ive been waiting
for months to watch came aswell as disc one of the Tudors and die
mommy die. yay.

movies out haven't been that much better. last week I saw 10,000 bc
(awful) & horton hears a who (not awesome- at least not as good as I
expected). oh, but I also saw funny games (a remake of 1997 Austrian
movie- remade to look exactly the same...nearly frame by frame) which
was really good. I don't like torture movies (saw, hostel, etc), but
this was totally stylized and most of the violence was just off screen
in a hitchcock sort of way.

ive also started try to read (not cases) before bed. ive finally been
able to start god is not great which I bought before school started. :/

so that's mostly it for wasting my time. ive been doing a lot of it
and somehow I'm ahead in my (school) reading.
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on my first trip to the kidrobot store in santa monica, i was pretty overwhelmed by all the amazing things packed into the tiny store.  i wasnt sure what to buy; i didnt know much about anything at the store except that i wanted nearly everything.  so i just picked.  i got a labbit lanyard for my camera and a box of re-ment miniature donuts. 

the next summer, i visited the store in san francisco on my way to canada.  i didnt have a lot of room in the car- toting the doggie, camping equipment and some other amazing finds from up the coast...so i had to get something small.  luckily, blind box toys fit the bill.  of the toys i could squeeze into the car was another re-ment mini- a birthday party in a box! 

i was officially in the love with the minis.  i had been picking up odds and ends minis as i came across them, but i had no idea all of these things existed.  over the next few months i began buying more toys, but no more minis simply because i had no way to display them.  there were so many tiny pieces- i didnt know what to do with them.  i tried little plexi cubes, but i couldnt get excited about buying more without a better way to show them off.

then a few weeks ago, the re-ment minis showed up closer to home.  twist and shout (a local record store) got in three of the newest minis and a bakery case to display all of the yummy baked goods!  i was excited; so bought a couple and hoped id get the display case for my birthday.  i didnt get the case, but i was looking online to find a link to add it to my post-birthday list and discovered an entire universe (almost) of minis.  i also found out that a store in south denver carries tons of re-ment as well as additional displays.

the store wasnt open, but i was too excited to wait.  so i went to twist and shout the next day and bought the bakery case and two more blind boxes.  i spent hours setting up my toys and taking pictures.

two days later (the next day it was open), i drove down and dropped $100 on a bag of minis (the store opens the boxes and marks which set is inside- no surprises but no doubles either), a kitchen table and a cabinet.  they also had a red kitchen (sink, cabinets...), the bakery case and a giant, plastic room.

then i got on ebay.  yikes.  there was so much and i wanted (still want)  it all!  i found a refrigerator, tons of smaller furniture pieces and more tiny foods and accessories than i ever thought existed.  most of the stuff came from hong kong and the shipping was outrageous, but i couldnt help myself.

so.  now on the way to my house from china is:

a pink refrigerator
one red (nook) and one black (cj) shina inu
a bakery truck
an amazing set of furniture!

but of course i am insanely impatient.  so today i went down to the denver doll emporium and got one of the rooms.  at first, i thought they were sort of silly, but i wanted something to keep everything together.   once i got it home and started putting things inside, my imagination wouldnt stop.  now i feel like i need a few more rooms- you know, one for the bakery, a kitchen, a bedroom, a livingroom...who knows what else. 

sigh.  minis are taking over my toy collection.  maybe my life.  its probably not good if id rather buy a fake house than pay rent on my own.  :\

(from cheapest to not)

capsule letters: http://poketo.com/shop/archives/225

rement minis: http://www.denverdoll.com/rement.php (especially the display case and the fairytale sweets)

clear 'diamond' ring sz. 6: http://poketo.com/shop/archives/556

rolitoboy (black): http://www.myplasticheart.com/pc/ROLITO05CLEARMINDB/ROLITOBOY/Rolitoboy+Mini+%3A+Clear+Mind+Black

good subscription: https://w1.buysub.com/pubs/GD/GDM/subscribe4.jsp?cds_page_id=40928&cds_mag_code=GDM&id=1206260827595&lsid=80830327075026607&vid=1&cds_mag_code=GDM

primalux ice scraper: http://www.raredevice.net/item.php?item_id=195&category_id=33

white cotton leggings sz. s of course: http://store.americanapparel.net/rsa8329.html#i

super mario bros. for ds: http://www.amazon.com/Nintendo-NTR-P-A2DE-Super/dp/B000ERVMI8/ref=pd_bbs_sr_3?ie=UTF8&s=videogames&qid=1206261598&sr=8-3

rolitoland secret place: http://www.raredevice.net/item.php?item_id=330&category_id=27

leica mini camera: http://www.amazon.com/MINOX-DCC-Leica-Digital-Camera/dp/B000LRIU54/ref=pd_bxgy_p_img_a?ie=UTF8&qid=1206261227&sr=1-1

diamond lego necklace: http://beehiveco-op.com/store/index.php?act=viewProd&productId=3http://beehiveco-op.com/store/index.php?act=viewProd&productId=3

saves the day- im sorry, im leaving on pink: psh. (tre's house?)

labbit stool: http://www.kidrobot.com/products2.cfm?ID=6052