BEDA concludes: Wicked

For the past week or so I have been suffering from an earworm. Thankfully, despite the name, this isn't one of the less savoury parasites but rather the inability to get a song out of your head (Wikipedia informs me that I could also refer to this as involuntary musical imagery, but come on: earworm is a much better name). I suffer from earworms a lot and they vary widely. Sometimes I have a song that I don't know very well and the lyrics fade very quickly into dum de doo nonsense words. Sometimes the tune loops around I find myself repeating the same lyrics over and over. These are the worst types- it's much better when I know a song intricately and can play it completely in my head, but this type of earworm is rare.

This current earworm is even rarer- it's not a single song but an entire musical. A week ago I didn't know Wicked particularly well. I'd seen it, I'd listened to the soundtrack a couple of times; but I only had a passing knowledge of the music off the top of my head. Thanks to this earworm I have now listened to the soundtrack played through several times in quick succession, and so I felt the need to blog about it because I've noticed many little trinkets hidden in the lyrics.

For those of you who don't know, Wicked is set in Oz- the same magical land in which The Wizard of Oz is set. If you don't know The Wizard of Oz then I have no qualms spoiling it for you, because its target audience is so young that the story line is more predictable than the outcome of Taylor Swift's next relationship. Wicked is aimed at older children who have outgrown The Wizard of Oz and tells the back story of the characters. In Wicked the protagonist does not wake up and find that it was all a dream but instead has to deal with a vindictive world and learn valuable life lessons a bit more complex than "There's no place like home" (actually the story is about imagining people complexly). Dorothy is a character, but is so insignificant that they don't even have an actor to play her. Basically, Wicked is a much better story, and I will aim not to spoil it, even if that means not including my favourite line.

The Wizard and I, a version that looked ok to share.

I'm going to be concentrating on foreshadowing, because that's what I noticed most. Specifically I'll look at the song The Wizard and I in which Elphaba dreams about her bright future once she has been raised to glory by the Wizard. Although none of her dreams come true (obviously- she becomes the Wicked Witch of the West, first clue was that she was born green), the song is rife with foreshadowing. Here are some lines from The Wizard and I:

Once I'm with the Wizard, my whole life will change!

 Which is such an ambiguous line. Not particularly surprising that the change wasn't in the direction she expected.

When people see me they will scream!

Meant in the way people scream for Bieber, not in the way that people scream when confronted with a Wicked Witch. It happens nonetheless.

I swear someday there'll be a celebration throughout Oz that's all to do with me!

Which also happens. Is everyone familiar with the song Ding Dong the Witch is Dead? Ok, that song is about a different witch (the Wicked Witch of the East is also a secondary character in Wicked, whose story is possibly more heartbreaking than Elphaba's [pun intentional if you spotted it]) but you see what I mean.

I'll be so happy I could melt.

Which is so obvious that I think I noticed it when I first saw the show, so I'll follow it up with a line from the song Thank Goodness:

 I hear her soul is so unclean clear water could melt her.

Which I definitely noticed when I first saw the show, but this one was even easier to spot since it was highlighted by another character commenting:

Water will melt her? People are so empty headed they'll believe anything. 

Which is itself foreshadowing something else, so I'll leave that there.

Aside from having spotted all the foreshadowing, I have been appreciating some of the songs because they really are very good. Kind of want to go see it again, but Les Mis is higher on my to re-see list of shows. Anyway, BEDA's been great, next up is the cold dark silence of May, or CDSM. Doesn't roll off the tongue does it?

Beda #29: Evil Dead

I don't really know why, but lately I've found myself enjoying horror movies much more than I ever imagined.  In my younger days, even throughout most of high school, I never felt the need to watch them, even after I'd overcome my fears that while walking home a clown would drag me into a sewer (It) or my car would be possessed (Christine) or I'd make like human lava and spew out of Mt. Cama like Johnny Depp (Nightmare on Elm Street).  However, I suddenly have the urge to watch as many classics as possible, so when my school had an Evil Dead Fest Marathon, complete with guest actors/crew/directors and a display of props, I couldn't resist.  I shall impart to you some information about each and their impression on me below (no worries about spoilers).

The original Evil Dead (1981) is a cabin in the woods during spring break type deal.  A group of college kids accidentally release an evil spirit by playing a tape with a translation of the ancient Book of the Dead.  Craziness and death ensue.  Evil Dead was obviously filmed on a low budget and didn't have much support, but is still very good, despite sometimes losing focus and having crazy looking make-up and special effects.

Evil Dead 2 (1987) is basically a remake of Evil Dead, again starring Bruce Campbell, and is a work of genius.  It's my favorite in the series because it's the perfect balance of scary, gory, and humorous.  The story is much more cohesive, and with a bigger budget, they were able to pull off some cooler effects, and improve the cinematography.  Campbell really shines in this, as it's a one man show for the first half of the movie.  He is extremely entertaining, perfectly executing Three Stooges-esque slapstick humor, and you can tell that the entire cast had an amazing time filming this.

Army of Darkness (1992) continues where Evil Dead 2 left, taking Bruce back to medieval times to face an army of the undead.  This is probably the craziest of the franchise, being composed of 95% percent Bruce Campbell shenanigans almost to the point of hamming it up at a Jim Carrey level, and 5% mega-battle at the end.  It is filled with great one liners and has one of the best posters I've ever seen, so as long as you can get over the major cheeseball factor it is a good movie.

The whole reason for this fest was the premier of the new Evil Dead (2013), so at midnight we finally got to experience the main event, and it was completely terrorizing.  The plot was surprisingly well constructed for a horror movie, and was great to see with a huge, enthusiastic audience (there were many moments filled with large cries of horror/cheers), but it was more gross than anything else.  In the original series, the gore was either incredibly fake or just suggested with silhouettes, making it funny and easier to handle.  The new Evil Dead had access to modern special effects and the budget to pull them off, so everything looked way too life like for comfort.  Although it was very very gruesome, it was still pretty enjoyable, and filled with many throwbacks to the other films, which was nice.

So there, now you know a little bit about the Evil Dead series and will hopefully take the time to watch all or one of the above, it will definitely not be wasted.  If anything, you will learn a valuable life lesson: if you come across a creepy book in a cabin in the woods that is bound in human flesh and written in blood, DO NOT TOUCH IT, DO NOT OPEN IT, AND FOR BRUCE'S SAKE DO NOT READ IT ALOUD.  SERIOUSLY.  C'MON.  WHY WOULD YOU DO THAT???

BEDA Bonus Fact: My favorite little tree smells are jasmin, cinnamon, and applewoods.

BEDA 28: LOVELY LAVATORIES AND TERRIBLE TOILETS: A RANT ABOUT PUBLIC RESTROOMS

Today’s blogpost is all about toilets! Public toilets, to be specific. I originally thought I’d write about the Netherlands getting a new king in two days (because that’s all anybody talks about here), but I realized in time that that would be terribly uninteresting. Then I asked Mia for topic ideas and she suggested that I should write ‘a rant about public toilets’. So, I decided I’d rather gross you out than bore you. Let’s get started!

There are tons of different kinds of public toilets, depending on their shape, size and location. For instance, I was in France once on a school trip, and when we stopped the bus to pee, the toilet turned out to be just a hole in the ground. It’s quite hygienic and doesn’t require a lot of maintenance, I suppose, but it’s also highly uncomfortable and not suitable for stiff, old people and awkward teenagers alike. Needless to say, almost everybody preferred to pee elsewhere and retreated into some bushes nearby. 

However, most toilets you come across in day-to-day life will have a bowl, a seat* and maybe a lid. They can be pretty or ugly, they can be sparkly clean or covered in mysterious stains, and you can find them anywhere. I’ll discuss just a few of the possibilities.

TOILETS AT SCHOOL
Restrooms at schools, especially at high schools, seem to double as a venue for important meetings. At least at my school, the bathroom was the place where everyone (but mostly the girls) would go first when they got to school. They’d renovate what the weather had left of their make-up and just talk to friends and classmates. I’ve seen girls unpack entire beauty cases and bring curling irons, all the while chatting and sometimes arguing with others.  It may seem like a vain or shallow activity, but even though I was never a big make-up person, I liked that pre-class ritual and we really did discuss some worthwhile things in that restroom.
Applying make-up wasn’t one of the activities I used the restroom for, but it was oftentimes the place where I executed my joke ideas. I wasn’t a big trouble maker or anything (because everyone always immediately knew I’d done it), I just did little things I thought were really funny. Throughout the years, I put up all sorts of notes in the toilets that ranged from warnings such as ‘Watch out for Moaning Mertle’ to official-looking pamphlets that read ‘Flush twice for the Ministry Of Magic’, which included the rules of the Ministry and a fake autograph from Cornelius Fudge.

By the way, I usually didn’t operate alone. I have a good friend who was almost always prepared to be my partner in crime. She, for instance, was the one who came up with the idea of throwing red food coloring in the boys’ toilet bowls to freak them out. I choose my friends wisely.

TOILETS AT WORK
In my experience, toilets in workplaces are usually very acceptable, but at my current job at a restaurant in my town, I hit the toilet jackpot. Not to brag or anything, but we have beautifully decorated restrooms, with soft towels and amazing soap, the smell of which makes you imagine yourself standing in the middle of a field of gorgeous flowers. The only downside is, that I am the one who has to clean them at the end of the day. You wouldn’t believe the things I’ve found. Seriously. Even thinking about it makes me vomit in the back of my mouth a little bit.  

TOILETS IN BARS
I don’t set foot in bars or pubs frequently, so I don’t have a lot of experience to share, but I imagine that alcohol, darkness and aiming urine into a bowl make for a bad combination.

TOILETS IN SPACE
As I was researching the topic for today, my mind went from one pee-related thought to another, and I ended up wondering how much the most expensive toilet would cost. I expected to find fabulous photos of golden thrones, or bowls covered in rhinestones, and I did come across some of those, but I also found this article and discovered something ten times worth the search: A SPACE TOILET. I was very excited about this, especially when I read that it can RECYCLE PEE INTO WATER. NASA had it built in 2008 and it cost them an astonishing 19 million dollars.
It’s worth the money though, because if you use a normal toilet in space, well, I don’t think I have to describe the scene for you to develop a graphic image in your head. Let’s say you’d be glad you’re wearing a space suit and helmet.

PUBLIC TOILETS THAT AREN’T TOILETS AT ALL
Sometimes people do their business in places where they’re not really supposed to do so. Occasionally, they just pull up one leg and gush some pee right up against a fire hydrant close to their home, just to let everybody know that it’s in their territory. It’s a way of claiming ownership. Just last week I a guy urinating over his bicycle, and, even weirder, I once witnessed a woman taking off her pants and squatting down to take a leak in the middle of Piazza Navona in Rome, her pee slowly filling the ridges between the cobblestones of the ancient square. What, did she think she owned the place?
But who am I to talk? I distinctly remember using my parents’ backyard as a kitty litter box when I was very little. I made a habit of digging a hole in the ground, peeing in it, and then covering my tracks with some soil. I’m no expert on the subject, but I think that’s an effective method for fertilization.

Anyway, that’s all for today. I  know there’s much more to say on this topic. I haven’t even touched on bathroom in hotels, on camping sites or in the Room of Requirement, I failed to mention the (questionable) wonderfulness of toilets at gas stations and I entirely left out the kind of toilet where the walls don’t reach from floor to ceiling, which allows for you to get live updates from the stall next to yours, in the form of waterfall sounds and paper fumbling. I’m sorry for neglecting those and other topics and offer you my sincerest apologies. Maybe another day! In the meantime, please share your most memorable toilet experience in the comments.

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* Fun fact for the linguistic people: In Dutch the word we use for toilet seat is the same word we use for glasses (The ones for your eyes, not the ones you drink from).

BEDA 27: End of Undergrad

It's going to be a short post today

Today is going to be a long day.

I've kind of been dreading today for a multitude of reasons the main one being I'm moving out of my first apartment and headed back to live with my parents for a while.

I've graduated and am now OFFICIALLY an alumni.. err well... I will be in June when they hand me a piece of paper that claims that I did a thing.

I knew that I wanted to go to university when I was 13 years old. You see my Girl Guide Unit were kind of lazy. Instead of going on and end of the year camping trip the leaders (and the leader's daughters) decided we would partake on a new kind of adventure urban camping. Where we staying in a hotel and did classy things. Like go shopping. As you can guess I was not all that thrilled. It wasn't until we took a tour of University of Toronto did I realize that this trip had some form of merit. That weekend I realized that I would never be happy until I went away to school.

Which as we all know, I did. I went, I saw and I conquered.

I learned a lot of interesting things, watched a lot of weird and scarring films (for example I cannot look at the moon without thinking about Luis Brūnuel's short film Un Chien Andalou which you can watch here, but be warned it's a little weird and disturbing) and I've read a wide range of books. I probably never would have developed my love of Ibsen if it weren't for the copious drama courses I have taken over the years.

But I digress....

This is the first time in my life where I haven't really known what the next step is. I know where I want to get, I'm just not exactly sure how to get there.

So while I pack a truck with all my worldly possessions I leave you guys with a question. What are your plans for the future? More school? World adventures? World domination?

I give you my life in boxes (and bags)

BEDA #26 - The best questions are the stolen ones

I almost forgot to do this, so I'm just going to pick questions from everyone's past question posts and answer them!

THE tree scent question: 
I've never actually registered the smell of many types of trees in my memory. It's kind of just all trees. I'd probably go with Pine cause it feels so fresh. Or the general smell of a rainforest. It's kind of heavy scented, a little bit musky, but smells like what Oxygen should smell like.

What constitutes a good night in?

Cup of tea, some fruits, maybe chocolate and the internet.

Describe each of your toes. 

The big toe kind of leans in to the second toe. I think they like each other. The fourth toe is quite a bit shorter than the third toe, so I think it's insecure. The tiny toe is happy to just be a toe, but wishes there was more toe nail (but seriously, my tiny toenail is tiny.When I went for a pedicure, the lady laughed at me and asked what the heck was she suppose to be painting)

If you could have any skill uploaded to your brain via plug in your neck (matrix style), what would you like to learn?

Physics/Engineering knowledge. It baffles me.

What would your patronus be? 

Probably a raccoon. Beady little eyes, tiny hands meant for evil scheming gestures. Sounds like a good match.

BEDA 25: Question Time!

*insert obligatory tree scent question here*

We always make fun about this, but it's actually quite a good question. I think my favorite tree smells are pine, Christmas tree (Caucasian fir, in my family's case) and the other tree that is also called pine but grows in the south (Italy and Greece; it reminds me of summer and vacation). I also went to our garden today to do some research, so I smelled all our trees and I have to add cherry blossoms to the list. It's on a tree, so it should count, right? Also, one of our neighbors was watching me and probably thinks I'm crazy now. Well.

Favorite TV show character (cartoons count)?

Oh, that's a tough one. Hmm... hmm... 

What's the grossest/most interesting medical condition you've come across since studying?

We learn about a lot of gross things. Some of the 'eww' moments were definitely STDs (I think we all have seen enough pictures of those), diabetic foot syndrome (I hate feet) and worms. There are pinworms which crawl through the colon about 15 cm per hour, then crawl out of the anus and lay eggs there. And then they die. There are also worms which preferably migrate into the eyeball.

I really have problems saying what's the most interesting medical condition. I asked my boyfriend if he remembers me telling something, but he confirmed my suspicious: I mostly only talk about dead people.  I'll come back to you about that if I remember something/come across something!

Do you like fishing? Why/Why not?

Funny you should ask. Funny that I got an email today from the Bookdepository, trying to sell me books about fishing *glances at Mia suspiciously*

I never really went fishing, so I can't tell you if I like it or not, but I'd rather say I would not like it. I don't like killing animals for fun and besides I'm way too impatient to fish.

What constitutes a good night in?

A really good night in includes: my boyfriend, pizza, a movie, a bottle of wine and a new episode of a TV show that aired that day.

Favorite genre of books? Some favorite books in that genre?

I don't really have a favorite genre per se. If I think about it, I read a lot of YA, but I would definitely not say that it's a genre I like in general. I do like crime and thrillers, for example the books by Henning Mankell and the Hannibal Lecter series. I also like books with character development. I don't even care so much about suspense and the plot, but I like when you really get to know the characters. Casual Vacancy and a book my Haruki Murakami were the last ones in that 'genre' that I read.

What constitutes a good night out?

Friends, good music and that amount of being drunk where everything is funny and great, but you are not too drunk or feel bad. And optional going for a kebab at 3 am.

If you were to write a story about medieval England, what would your main character's favorite flavor of gruel be?

I like that you phrased it 'write a story about' and not 'if you would be'. In my story, my character would probably be poor, so most days they could only afford gruel made with water. On special occasion, they would have milk and that would be my character's favorite flavor. With a dash of cinnamon.

(I don't know if they had cinnamon in medieval England and I also had to look up gruel. I'd do better research for my story.)

Favourite way to consume the potato!

Mashed or french fries!

What can't you live without?

Uhm, internet? My computer? Well, that's maybe not entirely true, I could go for a couple of days without those. On a longer term I would have to say water. Not in the 'people need to drink' kind of way, but that I hate drinking flavored stuff all the time. My boyfriend only drinks Cola and you can't drink the tap water there and they never have bottled water in the house. After a while there I go so crazy that I don't want to drink anything at all anymore. We usually have to make an emergency trip to the shop then and buy water for me.

BEDA 24: The Labyrinth of Suffering

First, a quick introduction. What will follow is an essay I wrote two years ago, after reading John Green's Looking for Alaska for the first time. I wrote this as an English class assignment when I was seventeen, and I didn't edit it for this blog. So, just for the record, I know "impossible" is spelled with too s's. Another thing that is present in this essay is that I thought my teacher was a materialistic and stupid. It turned out he was a pretty nice guy. Oh well, to the essay:

Life Is Kind Of Just All About Nothing (And Setting Your Own Goals)

OR: ALASKA’S QUESTION ― HOW DO WE GET OUT OF THIS LABYRINTH OF SUFFERING?

For me, the labyrinth of suffering embodies our doubts and confusion in life, the fact that we really don’t know anything at all. We don’t know why we are here or where we will go. We don’t have perfect, universal definitions for Good and Evil. There is no all-knowing guide to tell you what is the right thing to do, what is the right path to take. And as we wander through the labyrinth’s mysterious passageways, the only tool we have to decide which direction we go, which life decisions we make, is our gut feeling. We never have security, and that is our torture. So, if you follow that theory, the way out of the labyrinth must be finding the True Meaning of Life. I used to think that if you accomplished that, you could make it out of the labyrinth alive.  I thought that once you found The Meaning, you would be Free and Wise and live a happy, meaningful and fulfilling life. But I have quite recently changed my mind, and I guess you could say that my perception of finding our way in the labyrinth has gotten somewhat more pessimistic.

                On my quest to find Meaning, I spent some time trying to figure out what the most important things in life were. I wanted to make a hierarchic list of what was the most important thing, and then the most important thing after that and so forth. Things I nominated to be on the list were love, other people, relationships, improving yourself, adding something good to the world, faith,  and improving the world. Those seemed very noble goals to me, but 1) most are imposible to achieve ―for instance, how do you know that you improved yourself or the world and made a change for the better, if there are no clear lists and definitions of good and evil?― and 2) it is impossible to list them hierarchically, because we simply don’t know what most important in life is. How can you be sure whether relationships are more important than family? Who tells you if faith has more value than helping others? Not knowing the answer to all of those questions adds up to the fact that we don’t know The True Meaning of life in general. And I believe that that is because there is nothing to know. With all these uncertainties and all this room for subjectivity, there cannot be a universal True Meaning or Goal.

                That being said, it is impossible to get out of the labyrinth of suffering. True Meaning is a made up concept and so, if that is the key to escaping suffering, we will never find it. Realizing that, I was kind of overcome with nihilism, because then, the questions all human beings long to answer ―Why are we here? What are we supposed to do with our lives?― are unanswered and unanswerable. But people have been asking themselves these questions for centuries for a reason. It’s because we need some sort of drive and motivation, I mean, if there’s no goal in life, what’s the point of living it? It’s like Miles Halter said about the Afterlife: ‘People can not bear the thought of death being a big black nothing’, but neither can we bear the thought of life being the exact same thing. So we set our own goals: we imagine that our true calling is spreading a faith, or raising a child, or doing our jobs. We think the Absolute Meaning of life is the girl we love, our children, our families, our knowledge or ―in stupid people’s minds― our money.

I’m not going to say that those things aren’t a good drive (except maybe making money) and I don’t mean to be condescending and say that they are insignificant life goals just made up by people who can’t accept that there is no goal. I will say none of those things, because the goals in life should be the goals we set for ourselves, as long as we don’t pretend that there is some sort of universal Meaning of life every human being should strive to Understand.

Ultimately, what we all have to do, I think, is realize that there is nothing special to reach, that there is no Meaning, no ultimate wisdom or Golden Truth, no way out of the labyrinth. But instead of feeling crushed by nihilism, I think we have to acknowledge it, be okay with it and just set goals for ourselves. We simply need to pay attention to the things that are important to us. That way, we will be in the labyrinth, but we won’t feel stuck. I guess that’s the closest we can get to understanding and happiness. So, love your girlfriend, raise your children, spread your faith, acquire knowledge, and, if you insist, make money. 

BEDA #20: Zombie Matt Answers Questions

Hey guys!

It's been a really tiring but awesome and fun weekend! I went to the Pacific University conference to present my paper, listen to a whole bunch of papers and think... a lot. So now that it's 2 am according to my body clock and I'm totally exhausted, it's the perfect time to answer some of your questions! :) Some of the bigger ones I'll leave out until a later day, because I can barely see the screen straight I'm so tired (or I might just give really stupid sarcastic answers).

How big a role does religion play in your life?
Right now I'm much more spiritual than religious, but religion has played a huge role in my life, both in negative and positive lights. I definitely would not be who I am today without religion.

How is your Nerdfighter club going?
Well, not as well as I would have liked, but I got super busy with senior year and we never got people organized beyond the Facebook group.

What's your favorite tree smell?
Pine and oak.

Describe each of your toes.
My toes are shy. They don't like the spotlight.

If you could be any kind of beer, which one would you be?
The Russian in me says vodka. The Scottish/Irish in me says Guinness.

"Answer The Question!"

Han Solo, Rick Deckard or Indiana Jones?
Gonna go with Solo here. I mean, he has a space ship. He does things. In space.

If you were a llama, where would you get your hair cut?
Nowhere, I would be a llama. I just would not care. I would just eat that grass and be a llama. With my llama ways and llama feelings.

What is love? (and no… ‘baby don’t hurt me, don’t hurt me, no more’ isn’t a valid answer)
Love is….JUST A FOUR LETTER WORD! AAAHA!

(you can thank Bob Dylan for this)

What is air?
It appears to be a three letter word. This is interesting! Air is a valuable resource and should be mined for gold.

Guilty pleasures?
Of course when someone asks me, nothing comes to mind. Except for the really inappropri-- I mean, I remember nothing! Food! Tasty unhealthy foods! Soda!

If you could have any skill uploaded to your brain via plug in your neck (matrix style), what would you like to learn?
A skill? Hmm. Math. All of the math. Or the skill of being really, really good at social situations. I’d manipulate my way to the top or just half-accidentally end up there because I‘d be a likable networking master!

Jedi or Sith?
I would like to say Jedi. I mean, I like to follow the rules and all that. But then a friend and I had this conversation last night…

Me: Honestly, I would do it [referring to a time-consuming solution to the lack of course books problem] if I didn't feel like everyone else should suffer because I've suffered too. 

Me: Maybe some day I'll just drag a chair over to the course books section of the library, with popcorn in my hand, and sit there and watch the miserable people who won't be able to get a course book in time and so have to come to terms with the fact that they will either have to bump the exam or get a book for an over-night loan, meaning they'll have one night to read it.

Me: I'll just sit there and watch, watch their misery. "That's right. Now you know how it feels too. Feel that rage building inside? Give in to it. That's right. Just giiive iiiin."  

Me: ...I might be a Sith of some sort.

What color would your lightsaber be?
Blue.

If you could only listen to one record for the rest of your life, which one would you choose?
Any of the Battlestar Galactica soundtracks composed by Bear McCreary.

What alien species known from books, TV shows, games or movies would you be if you could pick one?
Right now, without thinking too much about it, I would say Turian (Mass Effect).

BEDA #18 - My Birthday!

Yesterday I turned twenty!

It was overall a very unexciting day. I had class all morning, work all afternoon, and a fair amount of homework to do after I got home. But I will share a few highlights.

Highlight #1: Right before I woke up in the morning, I had a dream that my boyfriend had abruptly turned into a psychopathic serial killer and was out to murder me. It was incredibly vivid and pretty horrifying. But I was incredibly relieved when I woke up.

Highlight #2: I got a midterm back that I did very well on. This was a relief since almost the entire class did horribly on the first one (myself included). I was particularly glad because the data problem, which is worth a lot of the test, seemed to me to be able to be reduced further to fewer underlying representations, but I made the judgment call that it would be strange and wouldn't work too smoothly so I stuck with three. And that judgment call was the correct one!

Highlight #3: My boss at work made me brownies! They were delicious. Additionally, I spent the last hour of "work" chatting with my boss and my coworker. I actually lost track of time and clocked out late.

Highlight #4: I am not sure if I've mentioned this before but I'm currently the co-Editor in Chief of a campus publication called Vagabond. We publish student and staff works written in languages other than English, as well as visual art. We are all new to the group (long story) and really haven't known exactly what we were doing all year. However, WE ARE FINALLY GOING TO PUBLISH. We actually have a layout to be printed and distributed. It's going to be pretty fantastic.

Highlight #5: I went to a new pizza place with some of my friends last night. It was rather Italian in that you purchase a personal pizza that's made in front of your eyes. It was both delicious and relatively inexpensive and I will definitely be returning in the future.

Highlight #6: After we got back from pizza my roommates and I ate some mochi and some mochi ice cream (of which I definitely prefer the non-ice cream sort) and these waffly things called "butter cookies". I also got a Toblerone and a laptop case.

Highlight #7: My boyfriend gave me sunscreen for my birthday, which was exactly what I wanted and asked for. It's getting fairly bright outside and I am fairly pale (and moley).

Overall it was a pretty good birthday. My top birthday activity of choice is just hanging out with people I like. And I got to do that quite a bit! Now it's time to feel slightly old but not THAT old.

Also...does anyone else have a problem with writing the date on their birthday? I kept wanting to write 1993 on things. It was a bit frustrating.