did you ever have one of those days

today was one of those days. Why could nothing go right today? Why? Come on zeus... buddha... anyone? Please explain to me why nothing could go right. Be forwarned, a venting list will follow. Do not read further if you do not wish to read me whining.

I was scolded for using a really fun picture of gorgo cheese and took it off my blog. (I just really liked it, and I guess i just don't understand this whole broadband "stealing" images thing because it's not like I was going to do anything with it other than enjoy it and proclaim my joy of it)
I was up most of last night trying to direct my paper in a new direction to get past the wall. I think I did, but still, I'm tired.
Still sick, coughing a dreaded cough.
I managed to stress myself into a head ache
I worked until I realised I was late for German. Haven't done any German homework this week (this is no to say I haven't done any german as I have been trying to get through all that german text that I need to do, it just hasn't left me with much of an appetite for doing more, less pertinent excersises) But regardless, since I didn't do my german prep, I was frustrated and ashamed at my stupidity in class.
Ditto for Greek.
I missed the fireworks. Not that I had time for fireworks, but I would have made time had I known they were on. I could only see the reflection of them in some windows outside my room since I was facing the wrong direction.
Made some good progress on my presentation, wrote up a great conclusion, fixed things up, got my power point... and then, just as I was about to go to bed... yup. I got confused about what I'd saved on my jump drive vs my hard drive and saved over it with an earlier version. Craptasticly brilliant.
I tried to plug in at least reminders of what I could remember, but I can't think. It was good, now it's not. But I'm going to bed and hoping that this all hallows eve stupidness will stay with the ghosts and goblins.

it seems to be the night for random animal noises. Not just any animal noises, but human made animal noises. Its really bizarre. I have heard imitations of a screeching cat, a barking dog, and a parrot. And not all at once, at random points this evening. It's really, really, odd.

I just had to blog becasue it was so weird. I'll blog again later, but actually am in the middle of thinking. so I must continue to think.

I feel like I swallowed the jagged-metal krusty-O in my cereal this morning. Or rather, that I didn't swallow it and it managed to get lodged in my throat. guh.
Other than the throat thing I feel fine, I just dread my every swallow.

On the bright side, there's a formal hall tonight for dinner. Which means dressing up relatively nice (since it's king's we never wear robes, the other colleges would be wearing robes to such an event) and having a nicer dinner. I'm excited, though not many of my grad friends got off their asses soon enough to get tickets i'm sure it will still be fun.

well, that's pretty much all that's new in my world right now. Not much to live vicariously through i know. I promise to try harder.

The things I heard outside my window were...

I have decided that a regular feature for my posts will contain random things heard outside my window since the last time I posted.
Last night, for example...
1 group of men singing at the top of their lungs (song unknown)
1 group of women singing at the top of their lungs (song also unknown)
1 moving van to (I think) take away the theater set at midnight and consequent crashing around
1 game of trolley racing into the moving van
1 blood curdling scream
2 probable fights (not really fights, more like turkeys puffing out their chests)

all in all, relatively quiet for a saturday night

during the day yestrday...
1 person playing bagpipes
1 person playing saxaphone
1 group of tam tam/drum players

all in all, a very musical day!

These people below me are driving me nuts! The store right underneath my window is renovating to become a tea shop. I like that it'll be a tea shop, but right now it's constant construction noise and drilling and throwing of things into dumpsters and just a lot of general noise.
none the less, I actually did some real work done last night. I just sat down and started writing. I meant to get an outline down and some of the questions that I wanted to ask down in writing before meeting with my supervisor tomorrow and I just kind of kept writing. I probably could have written more, but it became 3:00 in the morning and I thought I should just finish it up and go to bed. It was meant to be extremely rough after all. The problem is that it turned out to be around 2,600 words and most (more than half) of what I wanted to say was only outlined and not argued or delved into. The maximum is 4,000. Gah. You'd think I culd control myself and/or pick a topic that wouldn't get ubsurdly too long. It's alright. I think I'll manage. I just have to control some of my more dramatic, long winded tendancies to look into every little detail. Like the lion up top, I wrote a page about it's spots. That's right, don't you wish you were in classics? The sad thing is that I actually find it really interesting. I mean come on... how can you not find a concentric circle patterning that doesn't interact with the base form of the animal (be it lion or leopard) interesting? It raises so many issues about perception of ornament and it's use towards beautification and conceptual design, not just in pediment sculpture but in Greek art in general... right. Don't worry, I know I'm a dork.
Although, I am still feeling proud of myself. I don't have a main argument yet, but it's happening. and I feel like I'm making good connections between things and that I can make a good paper out of this. I think that I need to do that not just for my first paper topic, but start doing some writing for my thesis as well. Just not right now. I'll do some Greek today, but otherwise I'm giving the reading a rest for this evening. I'll talk with my supervisor tomorrow and go from there.
I managed to score some family guy dvd's from Kates (and now my) friend T so that makes me happy, there's only so much reading I can do in one day and it's much better than watching the paint dry while eating lunch. I just have to be careful not to watch them all immediately, Space them out a little.

katekatekatekate

Yay, i get to see kate tomorrow. I promise to do much work today and clean my room so as to be able to suitably entertain.

And my soccer/football team totally kicked ass! The other team didn't even get a shot on goal. They were barely even in our end of the field. I love it. I mean, honestly, I enjoy playing just to play and my team this summer obviously lost a lot. But it was kinda nice to totally kick ass unexpectedly. I'd been led to believe that the King's team was pretty bad (apparently they only won one game last year) and I wasn't planning on winning, let alone winning in such a unequivocal manner. so that was fun.

Then I went to a pub with the team and had a beer. Then I went to another pub with friends and had food (and a beer), the I went to the bar and had a beer, then we watched "Dude where's my car". all very... ahem... British. quite.

Now that wasn't too hard at all. It's amazing what you can do when you borrow a digital camera and actually try. But can you see it? Can you see the charm? I think it's better in person. So, i bought the bike on monday, right. I bike to my faculty and back on tuesday. Yesterday I came out and... true to form, it had a flat tire. That's what you get for buying the cheapest bike on the market. I have to admit, i may have been mad at the bike a little. Just a little.
Anyways, I brought it in today and the guy fixed it for free, so i wasn't mad at the bike for long. Besides it's not it's fault, part of it's falling apart sort of charm i suppose.

Okay, enough about the bike already.

BIKE!

I got a bike! This is the last of my settling in larger scale purchases, so it's no more spending money for me, but I got a bike! I feel so Cambridgey. Everyone here has a bike, you often see moms with three or four small kids randomly piled on in some anti-gravitational manner, and it is definitely the way to get around. This is not to say that I've disowned my skateboard. I love my skateboard very very much and I've managed to find some very skateboard friendly routes that cut out quite a bit of time, so I plan on still using it. But the bike is definitely quicker, and in the rainy weather is better (especially since rain would eventually ruin my skateboard bearings).
No more justifying the bike...
it is literally the cheapest one I could find but is sturdy and in perfectly good condition, just not all that fancy. I hope to figure out how to put a photo up on this thing so you guys can share in the glory that is the bike. But for now you'll just have to imagine a three speed, womens city bike, that is greyish silver, has no brand name or anything, and is slightly rusty. It's perfect and I love it.

oh yah, and studying's going good.

My room feels like a room. I have now purchased: a couple of posters to brighten up the walls, (they may be a bit "student", it's a Dali and a Picasso, both which I love, but still it's a little typical. Probably not what I would have chosen given more time and effort to look, but they are colourful), a douvet and cover (again, the cheapest ones I could find, which turned out well because it's actually quite nice), a kettle for tea and a mug. I'm still eating my cereal out of a re-used take-ou container, but it works. I plan on "borrowing" a bowl from the food hall soon.
It also has many books and only a slight lived in feel since I cleaned it and got a bit more organised this morning.
Yay.

I have some good friends in the making, and had my first football/soccer practise today. So that's all well and good as well. I think this will work.
I am still tending to be a bit antisocial in the evenings though. It's just that I almost can't be bothered by going out. I did a couple of time, which was good, or else I would be this person who no one knows who shows up every once in a while looking lost. But on the whole.
Freshers week stuff is finally finished, meaning that it is really, seriously down to work now.
seriously.

right now.

yup.

You know what's weird about King's?

The cows.

Why on earth does King's college have cows? None of the other colleges have cows... but we do. I guess it falls in line with King's not really falling in line with the rest of the colleges, but I mean really now. How are we asserting our independant, liberally minded nature with cows? Don't get me wrong. I like cows and I actually love that we have them at college. It makes me think of the Rutherfords having a random cow in their back yard, just on a bigger scale.
The cows have a great view too. The photo on the post below, that's basically the Cow's eye view. The person taking that photo was probably standing right in a huge pile of cow patty. I figure that when ever I get stressed, I;ll just wander over and look at the cows serenly munching away, oblivious to the stresses of academic life. I mean it's hard writing papers on the ornamental design elements of the archaic mediterranean world. It is... i swear.