Happy Holidays!

One of my favorite holiday traditions: listening to "O Holy Night" sung by Eric Cartman.

Sky Kitten...

Sky kitten watches over all. Too bad it didn't show up while I was in London. It would have been interesting to have been on the eye at that moment.

So, being freshly done with school gives me tons of free time. Time to catch up on unplayed video games, unwatched and ranted about movies and recreational reading. I also have much more time to put toward blogging as well. So expect to see more posts than usual.

What? I'm bored.

Movies I am excited about (whether on DVD or theatre):
Cloverfield
Shoot 'em Up
Golden Compass
Sweeney Todd
the Machine Girl

for those curious about the Machine Girl, here's a link to the trailer : http://youtube.com/watch?v=MBt1SihHDt0

Check out my minicity and help my population grow : http://rosebranch.myminicity.com/

Currently obsessed with this song: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=K2h_AuyNArM&feature=related
The band wrote a song to the tune of the MegaMan 2 Wily stage theme. Super catchy and really cute.

Graduation, Cthulhu-style....

...would I want it any other way?

So, I am officially a graduate. Go me! :D

The ceremony was neat and not as long as I thought it was going to be. While everything leading up to it was nerve-wracking and I was sent into several mental meltdowns, the day finally came... and then went by insanely fast. At the end of the day I was left with a "is that it?" feeling.

I am currently transplanted at my parents' house. And while living rent-free is awesome, it's not really what I had planned on. But, I like to think of it as a bit of a sabbatical.

Although, honestly, I'm not sure what I'm going to do with myself when January comes around. I won't be going back to school... and that's a really, really weird feeling.

"No more school, no more books, no more teachers' dirty looks."

I've been in school since I was 4... for 22 years, school has been a constant routine. I never took a semester off, I never took a break: I got my diploma and then hopped on my way to getting an Associate's and when I got that, I hopped on my way to getting a Bachelor's and after changing my major a couple of times, I got it... much to the enjoyment of my parents, friends, myself and, of course, Cthulhu.

But what do I do now?

Well, I've decided that when I ever get married, me, my groom and the rest of the wedding procession will be performing a rendition of "Thriller." Classy, yes?

I better start practicing now.

Looking Peculiar in Piccadilly Circus

I have no idea what I was doing in this photo... listening for the train maybe?

This picture was taken by a fellow British Studies student of Maddie, Catherine and I on our way to get our official Harry Potter 7 books. We left the dormitories at around 8.30p and didn't get back until 3.30a. But it was all in good Potter Madness fun. Yeah, I realize it's blurry but it still brings back great memories.

So, I'm working on getting my own website that hosts my photography; kinda like a huge, online photo album. But since my web hosting, web page making, computer skills and such are lacking I have to resort to begging people who have such skills to help me out. Until I can get this site up, I'll just have to be happy with having a few photos up at DeviantArt (follow the link found in my 'linkies' section) Nothing new has been posted in a while due to lack of editing software and the extreme backlog that ensued because of it. I'll be working on that during my sabbatical in Jackson and other points outward. But it's going to take a while: I've got photos dating back to June of this year and 1500+ photos from England/France alone to work through.

I'm adding some give free food links to the 'linkies' section and posting them here as well:

http://www.theanimalrescuesite.com/clickToGive/home.faces?siteId=3

http://www.freerice.com/index.php

Do your good deed of the day/week/month/year and give some people and pets some free food and care. :)

God Save the Interwebs

The Internet is a series of tubes, or so says a popular internet meme. But it really seems to have become more than that. I don't know anyone that doesn't come in contact with the Internet on a daily, or at least semi-daily, basis. Even my grandmum, who's fond of funny forwarded emails, is a frequent flyer on the Internet Airways. When people are asked what they cannot live without, Internet is pretty high on the list. Even during Hurricane Katrina, there were wistful conversations of cooked food, showers, favorite sitcoms and Internet.

Speaking of Katrina, I probably would have dealt with the whole situation better if I would have been able to see satellite images of the hurricane with huge macroed text personifying it by having it say something similar to: "I'm in your Gulf, rearranging your cities."

Granted, I did see these later on, but it wasn't the same.

Do we depend on Internet that much? Or is it just me?

Whether it's checking movie reviews and weather or researching cures for diseases, from mundane to serious, the Internet has become an integral of everyday functioning. If everything was to go belly up and the Internet was to be shut down for good, how many people would just atrophy away? How many riots would be going on in the streets? What in the world would we do? Are we that reliant?

I can see the headline now: "The Internet is Down; the End is Nigh."

There was an Internet outage campus wide awhile back and everyone suffered. Students weren't able to retrieve assignments left in their inboxes. Faculty weren't able to send out the aforementioned assignments. Getting the Student Printz (campus newspaper) together was a hassle. No serious (or otherwise) blogging could be done

Who else thinks that some sort of Internet generator should be made?

Much like generators of electricity, Internet generators would have an extra supply of Internet just waiting to get you through an Internet drought.

I should really market these. For she who controls the Internet, controls the world!

Besides, I have student loans to pay off and an Internet addiction to feed.

(This was an article I had written to turn in for Reporting class, I thought I would share some of my more interesting ones.)

November 7th...

... did you know where Rose was?

I was in your aquariums, petting your stingrays.

The proclamations for my birthday were:
To got to the Aquarium of the Americas
To eat Indian food at Nirvana (both located in New Orleans)

I demanded and I received.

The day started off with some traipsing around the aquarium, heading over to the Riverwalk, trekking to the now-extinct Virgin MegaStore, knoshing on beignets, freaking out over prices in Saks Fifth Avenue (40% off $675 is still a lot), chowing down at Nirvana, watching the Asylum Street Spankers and ending the night nearly running off the road due to exhaustion.

Seeing the jellyfish and petting the stingrays were certainly the high point of the day. As well as eating some yummy ginger chicken. I had been craving some Indian food since coming back from London.

I was a bit disappointed with the lack of shops in the Riverwalk; it was kinda depressing. And (at least to me) New Orleans seemed a bit empty without the Virgin MegaStore/Tower Records combo. Especially with the buildings just sitting there like silent, empty sentinels. Thankfully, Cafe du Monde survived and I satiated some of my depression with beignets.

Does anyone else clean off their hands with the little cups of water they give you? I do. :)

Pepper Spray Will Make the Eyes Burn

In a slight attempt to be remotely professional (when the fancy strikes me), I'll be placing some of my editorials and feature stories and even short stories up for your viewing pleasure. First up is my editorial about parking on campus. I tried to keep most of my opinion out and just give information, but not surprisingly, it smacks with my annoyed wit.

It’s the fall semester, which means many things: back to school, leaves changing colors (except in the southern part of the United States), temperatures dropping and football. While to some, football is synonymous with a good time, others find it an indirect source of trouble.
On the campus of the University of Southern Mississippi, students have to give up their parking for football attendees. Entire parking lots are cleared out under threat of booting and towing. Even though most games are hosted during the weekend, it still inconveniences students that reside on-campus.
Black and Gold Boulevard serves as a parking lot mainly for three residence halls: Scott, Bond and Vann. Bond and Vann are male and Scott is female. This street and the Vann parking lot are cleared of students’ cars for the game, leaving only the parking lot behind Bond, North Bond lot, open for students. Unfortunately, this parking lot isn’t open only to students. It’s also open to attendees as well. This parking lot is not large enough to house the cars of three residence halls and football attendees.
Many women from Scott Hall have to find parking elsewhere on campus, far away from the safety of their residence hall. With the sexual assaults that were reported last semester, now is a crucial time to have women’s security as a priority.


Aka -- I'm tired of having to park on the other side of campus and trek to my dorm at night. I do have mace, but I'm pretty sure I'd just end up macing myself.