Claudia and Duffy

Village People, Skeletor, & Ray Harryhausen

Quite possibly the weirdest thing I've seen on the 'net in ages...make sure your speakers are turned on. It made me laugh. Quote -

"What do Ray Harryhausen, The Village People and The Masters of the Universe have in common? Not much....unless you are a Cantonese speaker with WAY too much time on your hands!"

Requiem for an Auto

My little Ford Festiva, affectionately known as "The Superbagel," "The Pregnant Rollerskate," or "That Piece of Junk" if my boss is talking to me about it, has bitten the dust.

At least, it's so near to biting the dust that I had to decide whether to prolong its painful life or put it down mercifully. Ah, my Bagel. How many times I have adventured across the United States in thee; how I have beaten thy steering wheel in the dark watches of the night, cursing the standstill on I-81; how thy inner parts are marked with the scars of spilled Pepsi, dehumidifier leakage, and lipstick wars with my sister; how I have gone into the uttermost parts of Alton Park, yea, even onto Hooker Road to a sketch junkyard, to find replacement front and rear light housings for thee; how I have strained mine ears to hear my music of choice on thy inferior stereo system, but yea, I have still loved thee; how I have lovingly changed and rotated thy tires, cosseted thy brakes by judicious usage of thy willing gears, poured money into thy inmost being, and filled thee with oil until thou runnest over.

I'm going to miss that stupid car.*sniff*

Well, Rod took me to a Honda dealership and we got a pretty sweet deal on this thing -

It's a 2003 Ford Focus. Not the sexiest car in the world; no bells nor even whistles, unless you count A/C (which, after 10 years of having none, I am inclined to); but it had under 20,000 miles on it when I bought it, and it should last me quite a bit longer than it'll take to pay off.

I still resent it, because I do not know it, and it looks just like everything else. Every morning I wake up and want to take it back to the lot and beg the guys to call the deal off. I think I'm having commitment issues...over a car. Oh dear. But I'm taking it on its first road trip this Friday night, to go see Emily in Charlotte, and quite possibly to Florida if the weather looks good. So maybe we'll be getting along better by that point.

I'm going to go find out who the Half-Blood Prince is now. I'm over halfway through the book and so far, so good!

Candide, and Anvils

I saw two kittens fall out from underneath a trailer going 70 mph a couple of days ago. The first was already dead; it was strange, and shocking, to see this stiff little kitten go spinning across the road as people swerved to avoid it. A moment later, as I was passing behind the vehicle to get off on the exit I wanted, the second kitten came out of nowhere, bouncing on the road. I don't think it was previously dead. I didn't hit it, but was so disturbed I missed my exit and the next one. It was like a scene out of Brazil or something - these little kittens falling out of thin air, drivers honking their horns, everything horrible and ludicrous.

Truth is Stranger Than It Used To Be

I just wrote a long entry on my Xanga blog about all my doings during the month of June. It was fully six paragraphs long. Then, I went to copy it to paste it over here. I hit V instead of C. The end.

But - I am excited because I saw the trailer for The Lion, The Witch, and The Wardrobe. When it gets to be the end of November or so, I'm probably going to be stomping regally around the dorm with a whip and some Turkish Delight, calling all the students "Sons of Adam" and "Daughters of Eve."

Things learned during the past thirty days -
1. I would like to live in Oregon at some point.
2. Crickets - the little brown kind anyway - taste bad, and it's hard to get a good distance technique launching them orally.
3. I actually like history. One of my grad school classes was on the history of colleges, and I was enthralled. I have decided to adopt a former name of female resident directors - the sign in my office will now read "Preceptress" instead of "RD." And I will not mind doing discipline any more now that I know the kinds of pranks that Harvard boys pulled in the early 1800s.
4. My own Oldacousins are great people to hang out with, and their kids are a blast. See #1.
5. There are people in the world that actually respond with eagerness to knowing more about God and the Bible. Email me and I'll give you specifics to pray for. The cool part about it is, I'm seeing things as if they're new again ever since a couple of weeks ago after this specific interaction. And that's an excellent feeling.