::jumps on bandwagon::

I promise the system in this personality-kind'a-test is better than Myers-Briggs and that it's more serious than just "what kind of breakfast cereal would you be?". As stolen from Ananda's newest blog entry:

Benevolent Visionary

The link only leads to my own result; the actual test is called PersonalDNA, at personaldna.com. ("Benevolent Visionary," by the way, would be a good name for a music album.) ...As 'Nanda said about hers, I could have told you much of what it told me, but it seemed fairly accurate (I'd like the "visionary" one to be that real, but it's a little shaky in places; the "benevolent" one is probably closer, but it sounds a bit conceited to say so). Though they're pretty much saying, since it showed up twice, dude, you really kind of do think everything is your own success/fault. I do think that God does way more in people's lives than that would indicate, but it was hard to answer the questions in a way that acknowledged that aspect of not-having-control. (Not that that excuses me. Certainly I should have learned by now that making self-improvement lists tends to get me pretty much nowhere.)

I don't think it's the horoscope effect, either (where things're so vague that of course they sound right), 'cause there're some pretty marked differences between, say, mine and 'Nanda's, and I think it captures what we're both like fairly well (though it'd be interesting to see someone with a similar label to mine, and see what they said about us and whether I think it's true).

I'm impressed by their masculinity-femininity marking landing pretty much where Dr. Meissner's did in my social-psych class, if I remember correctly (this one is clearer, though). I'm kind of impressed, too, that I'm still considered a "visionary" even though my answers have changed some from what they would've been, say, last year.

Anyway, I'm not taking it way seriously, so do what you want with the link, including ignore it completely. I'll write about the trip to Alfred soon.

-Laurel

Postscript to My Library Rant

I have just realized that, unlike Rochester, interlibrary loan appears to be free of charge here. Or else the OCPL website never listed any charges, in which case I'm in for a surprise when I go and pick things up.

But I still think it shouldn't take doing that to have good books on the west side. Oh, well.

-Laurel

::in best Tony-Slattery-realizes-they're-imitating-him-in-Party-Quirks voice:: Oh, ha, ha, ha! I'm not playing anymore!

::snorts:: So I checked Banner today to see whether the signup for Theories of Personality had changed at all from where there were sixty-two people in the class and I was the only kid on the waitlist.

Well, it has. There are now sixty-five people in the class, and I am still the only kid on the waitlist.

Which means that, without adding me, Dr. Atlas added three other kids to the class.

This bodes well for the possibility of my being added, should I show up on the first day, but the question is, with sixty-five kids all cram-jammed into that same room in which I've taken every last one of my psych classes, which are invariably crowded (I'm really getting sick of that room in a way I never quite got sick of the little room in Allen where I had four language classes), and sitting at those stupid right-handers-only desks, do I really want to be in Theories of Personality?

Latin has gone from six to sixteen kids, so clearly some freshmen have joined (I have discovered that Emily has as well), but the opposing question is, is Latin going to be boring?

Hmmmm.

-Laurel

Monroe County Library System, how I miss you.

Granted that this is clearly the more worthy book drive right now (yay for Colombe!), but they only take money. I'm so serious, if anyone wants to send me their old books, or give them to me when I see you, I will totally donate them to the Onondaga County Public Library System, because the libraries on the west side of the county, once you get out of the half-decent children's sections, are flat-out bad. I mean it, it is pretty much all pulp fiction around here. Any given book that did not spend ten-plus weeks on the best-seller's list, books that any self-respecting Rochester library bigger than, like, Wheatland would have, will be pretty much limited to east-side or Central here. Except, as mentioned, the children's lit, which is passable, though falling far short of the goodness of the Rochester suburban libraries (or, oh my gosh, the unmitigated awesomeness of Rundell, in the City of Rochester proper).

Seriously, I should go to Late Night every weekend this semester and collect all the cans, turn in said cans, and use the money to buy them some books from this or the previous decade, or any good semi-obscure book from some other decade. Except that that would buy me, like, one book. But still.

Okay, end rant. See previous entry instead; it's more fun.

-Laurel

Just in case this's keeping anybody up at night...

Glenn (not Jewell, from two posts ago, but the Glenn on my side-column) and I have had several conversations about ramen recently, usually because I keep asking, "What're you up to?", and he keeps answering some variation of "eating ramen." There on internship, it is pretty much his staple food.

We got talking about ramen flavors one day, and I decided to do a little research today into what flavors the major brands ("major" as defined by the Wikipedia article on ramen) are offering these days. I was shocked by the wide and often-a-little-gross range of results, and go so far as to provide here, for your enjoyment, or slight repulsion, or perhaps both, as many of them as I could find and cite.

In alphabetical order, thus:

Beef
Birria ["a spicy Mexican meat stew usually made with goat, lamb, or mutton" -Wikipedia]
Cajun Chicken
California Vegetable
Cheddar
Chicken
Chicken Mushroom
Chicken Vegetable
Creamy Alfredo
Creamy Chicken
Creamy Pesto
Curry Chicken
Hearty Chicken
Lime Chili
Lime Shrimp
Miso
Oriental
Picante Beef
Picante Chicken
Picante Shrimp
Pork
Roast Beef
Roast Chicken
Salsa Picante Beef
Salsa Picante Chicken
Salsa Picante Shrimp
Shrimp
Shrimp Picante
Smoked Ham
Spicy Cheese
Spicy Chile Chicken
Spicy Vegetable
Teriyaki Chicken
Tlalpeño [a Mexican soup involving "chicken, chipotle peppers, and more chipotle peppers" - Faultline.org]
Tomato
Vegetable


Citations:
http://webpages.csus.edu/~sac52576/ramen.htm
http://www.antiquecoffee.com/products.htm
http://www.nissinfoods.com/
http://www.scienceblog.com/store/8-3601051-sr-2-Cream_Soups.html
http://www.theimpulsivebuy.com/?p=107
http://www.wikipedia.org/Maruchan


That's thirty-six flavors, dude. And I've probably missed a few. ...Though the creamy-pesto kind actually sounds good.

Also, this is perhaps the funniest ramen-related article I've ever seen: http://www.findarticles.com/p/articles/mi_qn4188/is_20050802/ai_n14826950

You may now go back to your lives.

-Laurel

Newbery Project Update

The Newbery list on my school webspace is flawed 'cause I can't get into it over school vacations. So anyone who wants the Blog*Spot location for it (guaranteed to stay more up-to-date) and isn't on Facebook where they can get it, lemme know.

32 left to read. Could be better, could be worse. But I have like 75 left to take notes on, which is uncool.

-Laurel

...!

So I had this dream last night, wherein I'm in college, but it's pretty much set in high school, and Tim's followed me to my locker and is trying to tell me something...I don't remember whether we were going out, in this dream, or not. Well, Tom comes over and starts hovering, trying to listen, and bugging me a bit, and finally I tell him something along the lines of, "You have a math class to go to, now go!" (I remember almost yelling this last word, in the same tone I've used on many occasions to try to get my brother out of my room.) Tom, a bit put out, goes into a mostly-filled classroom nearby and sits toward the back. I'm walking down the hall shortly thereafter--toward my own class, presumably--when I pass...Tom. In a different shirt, flanked by two administration members (not down on him, but apparently trying to help him), looking flustered. I have this moment of intense confusion, followed by surprised understanding, and just as he starts talking, I tell him, "Somebody's trying to be you!" He knows; my understanding is that that's what the vice-principal-type figures are for.

I go into what appears to be a science room much like the one Mr. B used to teach in, and the next thing I know, along with the other kids there (nobody's seated here...we're milling around in the lab area), there're are all three twins, so to speak. Tim and Tom are by each other, the fake is near me. I look at him, suddenly half-recognize him, and watch him rub off some face makeup...and, under what's left, is Glenn Jewell. And I'm so glad it's someone I recognize, who's just obviously trying to play a prank, that I start laughing.

(Only he didn't look entirely like Glenn. He also looked kinda like...another IV kid whose name I can't remember.)

The dream ended almost right after that, when I woke up, but after I got back to sleep, I had one about being in a big Wegmans and not being able to find any white bread. A couple of Alfred people figured in that one, too.

My brain is really deranged these days.

Oh--I talked to Joe today. Now that I live in the same county as him, his cell is suddenly a local call. So I actually called him, and we talked for like five minutes. He's been busy at camp, alternating between working with youth and disabled adults, and is doing well. Not moved yet; house just recently on the market, actually.

So there you go.

-Laurel

Big Brother is watching you. ...Yeah, that's right, you, there in the fourth row, in the Blue Jays shirt. Just you.

So, 1984-style, I deleted the previous post because it was lame. Apologies to anyone who might have left me a comment last-minute.

So my family went to the Renaissance Festival today (yay for seeing Erik'n'Tanya and Bethie'n'Derek), which, perhaps because of the early deluge (cooled the mood off a bit), was somewhat cleaner in humor than usual. No complaints here. ...I am wondering what Tolhurst would have thought of the Mud Show's rendition of "Beowulf." Is there some gesture halfway between shaking one's head and laughing? Well, laughing while shaking one's head, though that's kind of a copout answer...

Chris and I have decided that we're going to make a display board of all the local things we want to make sure we do senior year, whether or not we've ever done them before, and title it "Alfred Adventures." We're hoping our housemates will play, too. The problem so far is that the vast majority of them center on food (Kinfolk, Pollywogg Holler, maple stuff, etc.). I mean, not that this is a big problem. But it's going to be kind of funny if we don't fix it. ...I can see why Laurie's doing an honors seminar on all the area's eats.

Erica's coming back to school, instead of transferring to Grove City, and will be my roommate after all. I, for one, am excited.

I wonder where on earth Joe's been, besides camp. Hopefully he hasn't moved already. No sign of Andrea, either, and usually on weekends they're online. Oh, well, maybe they have better things to do!

Anyway, off now.

-Laurel

::best Napoleon Dynamite voice:: Yessssss!

Erik came all the way here this late-afternoon to visit me, 'cause he's awesome like that. He wanted to see the mall, and I had no protest, so off we went. Got some pizza for dinner, walked around and looked at everything.

We actually both bought stuff at Steve & Barry's, which--ready?--was running a sale, every clothing item $6.98. (All the other times I've been there, as I mentioned some entries ago, everything was $7.98. It is quite something.)

After all my whining in past entries about how hard jean-shopping is for me (um, mostly because I'm about as fashionable as a monkey in polka-dot shorts), I am thrilled to report that Steve & Barry's sells jeans I want to wear. This is excellent, especially because they are so amazingly cheap. We will find out if they are also well-made, haha. If not, oh well, they were only $7-ish (bwahahaha!).

So anyone who wants to come school-shopping and get cheap awesome stuff, c'mon down. (Or, well, over.)

New strange advertisement alert: there's a car dealership not far from here whose TV ads actually use the term "brand spankin' used." I have to admit, I love that.

-Laurel

Posting from the Library

We get internet at home tomorrow, wahoo! In the meantime, here I am, gratefully receiving e-mails and keeping cool in a place with air conditioning, since my house doesn't have any, and probably shall not anytime soon.

I've had some of the most vivid dreams ever in the past week; perhaps it's from the heat?

I've also finished The Walk West, sequel to A Walk Across America. I should probably, you know, go back to Newberys soon.

Not much else to report, except that there're more libraries within a five-mile radius of my house than you can shake a stick at, and I find that excellent, especially since two of them do not seem to ban AIM from their computers.

-Laurel

::waves like mad::

Hiiiii!

Am here in the new town. No internet at home for pretty much two weeks, so I'm reporting from the library, where AIM is not allowed (though I notice that someone's been to AIM.com recently, presumably to use AIM Express, and it is quite tempting to follow their lead).

If you didn't get the Long E-mail of Doom about the house, and would like to, lemme know; ditto for my address/phone number.

Mary, from where I worked last summer, the nice lady who I said had cancer, was incredibly upbeat during the whole thing and tried all these experimental treatments and stuff. But she's with God now, died the other day.

Everything else is going pretty well. Visitors always and ever welcome.

-Laurel

Hangin' out with the family at my aunt's house 'til early this coming week...

...there, that takes care of my whereabouts.

To Kristin: I am truly sorry that AIM Express, at least on this computer, is pretty darn decroded. I really did want to talk to you, but I don't want to download AIM because this's my aunt and uncle's work computer (they own a small business).

So today I actually saw the new house for the first time, though, as aforementioned, we haven't yet moved in (the movers still have all our stuff). The new place isn't bad. It needs a lot of painting done, and is definitely not as new as the previous house was (even though it's only a couple of years older than I am), but it's good, especially for a place I won't be living in for very long anyway.

It's in a fairly good location, too, right near a lo-o-ong, main-type street that has, like, everything you could possibly want (homestars, think of something like West Henrietta Road and you've got the right idea). A lot more trees on this new street than on the old, and the houses aren't all cookie-cuttery, either, though they're actually significantly closer to each other than the ones on the old street, which is saying something.

My brother got to choose his room, since I got the far-superior room in the previous house, and did so--leaving me, as it happens, with the one I wanted anyway. The walls are blue, which's kinda cool. It is (of course!) east-facing, but there's a big hill in the way of the sun, or so Dad claims; anyway, I'll probably be facing toward the door, rather than the window, when I'm in bed anyway.

I should be in the new house early this coming week, though I don't know when we'll have internet or anything; if Joe and Andrea aren't in Binghamton to help Joe's family with the flood-stuff (they took this week off of camp), I would simply love to go and see them. I may also, as it happens, get to see Chris and/or Evan, which would be excellent.

Which's as well anyway, since there'll be painting going on and all manner of such household busyness, and the parents will welcome one less person underfoot as much (well, not quite as much) as I will welcome a chance to see some friendly Alfred faces.

I'll probably attempt to check my e-mail tomorrow, so feel free to write.

Also, I read Girl With a Pearl Earring last night, since I need to know it for the FYE job in the fall. It's quite well-written.

-Laurel