It’s turtles all the way down!

I suspect this is only exciting to me, but you get to hear it anyway. I made money off of my writing for the first time! I won third place for one of Campbell’s honor society’s essay contests and received the exorbitant sum of $25 in recompense. Also, I am officially published! One of my poems got in the Lyricist, Campbell’s annual literary magazine thingy. So that was cool, except they published the poem I submitted purely as filler and left out the awesome short story that was miles better. Ah well.

I found this very cool cryptozology community, and I have run across all sorts of bizarre and interesting things as a result, such as the vampire birds of the Galapagos Islands!
Also, a white giraffe.
There’s something weird in Russia.
I always suspected there were giant birds among us.
Selkies. I have always found them utterly fascinating.

There is a reason dressage creeps me out.
My friends have a band, and they made a music video! Shock full of inside jokes, but still funny.
My friends don’t have a band, but they made a music video anyway.
No doubt he has very important business downtown.
Apparently everyone’s already seen this, but it bears repeating.
The Great Siberian Explosion.
Shaun the Sheep!
Now you know.

Finals are upon me…I’ll see you on the other side.

Genius child

Genius Child, by Langston Hughes:

This is a song for the genius child.
Sing it softly, for the song is wild.
Sing it softly as ever you can –
Lest the song get out of hand.

Nobody loves a genius child.

Can you love an eagle,
Tame or wild?
Can you love an eagle,
Wild or tame?
Can you love a monster
Of frightening name?

Nobody loves a genius child.

Kill him – and let his soul run wild.

There, now you’d had your dose of creepifying creative poetry for the day. Don’t you feel better?
Anyone who hasn’t read Faith’s story of the Twilight Babushka should do so now!
Otters. YES, I was at Cuteoverload.com again. Tell a soul and I’ll steal your stuffed bear named Oswald that you’ve had since you were 4. You know I will!
Jedi Chefs: so weird you may not survive the experience.

And now! My brother is the coolest kid in the world. Do not try to deny it. There is talk of an Episode II…if I’m home, I get to be in it! I think. I hope. I’ll crash the filming if I must.

Hmm, books…I’ve been reading Vietnam, Vietnam, and more Vietnam. My sanity may have been compromised; this class is consuming my existence. On the lighter, fluffier, much happier note, I’ve been borrowing wonderful fantasy books from Ann Elisabeth, the awesome English major who lives across the hall. I highly, highly, HIGHLY recommend The Queen of Attolia and The King of Attolia by Megan Whalen Turner that I mentioned earlier. I read The Thief, the first of the trilogy, and it was good but nothing special. But HOLY FRIJOLES, The Queen and the King are absolutely mind-shatteringly amazing. These books should be classics. I can’t possibly say why without completely ruining it for you, but trust me, you have to read them, and the sooner the better.

I also read The Goosegirl by Shannon Hale (very good) and The Hero and the Crown (awesome) and The Blue Sword (also awesome), both by Robin McKinley. I especially recommend the last two; they’re very well-written fantasy stories, and the two are so entwined I really don’t know which you should read first. They’re both pretty amazing. Other than these, pretty much all of my reading has been the War, and I won’t inflict that upon you.

Papers are going well, I may have finally gotten that behemoth on Warren written. I have 13 pages of it, anyway. Tomorrow I get to start the Spanish paper on Cortez, whoo! I have no idea how I write in Spanish, hopefully it’s decent.

We had to go to the planetarium on a field trip for our Astronomy class a couple weeks ago. Now, Astronomy class is amazingly fun because not only is the professor awesome, I’m good friends with half the class, and we’re a wonderful group of kindred spirits. A bunch of us went up to the planetarium together, and took some great pictures!
It’s so irritating when only half the people pose dramatically.
Faith, Hannah, David, me, Kim
Luke, Faith, Hannah, me, David, Kim
Boots!
Everybody!
Everybody, less serious. We have so much fun it really is disgusting.

A week ago was the spring formal, so again we all went en masse (so much more fun that way!) and had an absolutely exquisite time. We went to Neomonde, which has the best food in the world. Hummus, baba ganouj, tabouli, couscous, baklava, all with pita bread. We all sit at a big table and just get one big order, it’s truly beautiful. We got there a littl early, so we went to an arboretum nearby to take pictures and frolic. Most are candid shots because, well, Luke had the camera.
Twirling
Me, Kim, Sarah, and Kiki
Playing in the water
Kim, Ann Elisabeth, me, Kiki, and Luke, who is CIA
The roomies
Pensivity
Circle
Check out our expressions, they’re fantastic.
Getting a little silly
Matrix!
Scattering dandelion seeds all over the nice garden.
Ok, guys, we really need a serious picture
Then again, we could just accept the inevitable and give up.
All of us after we met the rest of our party.
We got horrifically (and I do mean horrifically) lost on the way to the dance itself, but that was ok, we had fun, and we all danced and danced until we were exhausted, and then we went and played games at someone’s apartment, and then we got home, and I went to bed at 4:30 and slept in till a truly atrocious hour! Good times.

Surely that’s enough of an update…