Books, swords, other stuff

Yesterday was one of those days that you just can't wait to be finished with. My normally long-ass day was even longer because I signed up for an extra mandatory class that went until 9 PM. I get up at 6 to get there on time, with like ten minutes left over to study for a test at 8:30 AM. I got there, studied, and then found out that the test was canceled. I hate pop non-quizzes more than I hate pop-quizzes.

Then to make it worse, I got an 83 on last week's test. 83. WTH? She gives us ten questions; you get three wrong you fail. (70 is failing in this school.) I got a few extra credit points. The thing is that I feel like I really know this material – it's med massage 2 and I never got less than 100 in med massage 1. It's the same kind of stuff. But her questions confuse me. I feel like I understand the question and I know the answer, only to find out that the answer I'm thinking of isn't even an option. I'm still getting the highest grade and other people are complaining about getting 30 and 40 on the tests. I'm not happy with these tests in general; it's little comfort to know I'm not the only one.

Between classes, my water bottle leaked all over my books and papers. I had to throw away a bunch of my tutor evaluation papers (I'll get new ones once someone decides to hire me again,) and air-dry my damn notebooks. :/

The test in my next class went much better and I got 100.

Then I went for a free massage, which was really nice.

Clinic was pretty good for the most part; those four hours do go fast, now that I feel like I know what I'm doing a little more. I have some nice clients, and a regular who ranks really high in the school. She's the authority in the field, and she likes my treatments. So that's pretty cool.

Then I just waited around outside for that last class. Actually now that I'm thinking of it, the class was really neat. I could hardly think because I was so effing tired and wanted to go home, but the class itself was pretty cool.

While I was waiting between classes I read some more of The Girl With The Dragon Tattoo. This is mostly a great book, hard to put down after the first hundred pages or so. I like the guy's straightforward writing style – he is not afraid to say "was" and "is." Once in a while his voice does get a little repetitive, but that's okay because his characters and plot are intriguing enough that I don't mind so much. I really do love the feminism of the book too. I feel like the entire thing is really, at the core, about misogyny, but maybe I'm just looking at it through vagina colored glasses. But maybe not. It has the absolute best revenge scene ever.

I have only one major beef with this book: The commercials. No, really. At one point he talks about the software the character is using to write his book, and he's like, "It really was the best shareware software for writers, and he got it on the internet, (www.webpage.etc)"... He seriously included the web page for this shareware. I think it's for real but I'm not going to check because goddamnit, just on principal. I wrote a note in my Kindle: "Product placement in a novel? Seriously? With an actual website?" And the 4th wall comes crumbling down. And then later on he describes in detail the computer that another character needs, all the hardware, software that goes into it, and why it's the best one on the market. I really resent that intrusion.

Anyway. Aside from that annoyance and the fact that I'd cut the beginning back about a billion words, and sometimes the backstory is also a bit intrusive, I'm enjoying it and will probably read the last two books in the series. I understand the writer has recently died, which, yeah, that blows.

Back to yesterday, mostly it sucked because I couldn't go a single second without thinking about Dad. I told my Mom about that later and she said she had a similar kind of day, and in fact so had my cousin. My cousin was really having a hard time yesterday too. No one could really figure out why.

That was yesterday.

Oh, how could I forget Wednesday? Hot as hell (it has been all week,) and we did Kung Fu outside like always. After a long absence, and at the end of class, the Gold Dragon showed up. Apparently he's moved to Guam and that's why he hasn't been around and no one's heard from him. His whole family just up and moved. So it looks like he won't be training at this one local school anymore. He'll still stay with the school (the same lineage, same Sifu etc.) but will be training at the bigger school closer to where he now lives.

And that really, really sucks. I hate change. Like, a lot. And I really hate when people go away.

The other thing that happened Wednesday night was that one of my training brothers—let's call him Tsuka—fixed my sword. It's been busted and steadily getting worse for a few years, and last summer I told my Dad about it and he said he would fix it for me. So we were outside practicing and my sword kept rattling like crazy, so that I thought the blade was going to go flying off, and I was getting upset. Tsuka asked what was going on and I told him, and I had mentioned that Dad was supposed to fix it and all. He said, "Well, I have a pair of pliers in my car. Let's see if it just needs to be tightened." Then he unscrewed the handle and noticed that the screw inside that holds the blade on was way loose. So he fixed it all up and reattached the handle. Now, it swings as good as new. It's a little rusty but no longer in danger of flying apart.

Today I slept semi-late (9:30) and then I managed to clean the sunroom, make baby bird food, go grocery shopping, clean the fish tanks, (the small tank is a little foggy again, EFF,) take both dogs for a jog with me, practice Hula for about a half an hour, get another chapter posted to the workshop, and start dinner. Yeah, I think that's about it. Now, I'm going to play a little FF7 and eat some cherries I bought today.

Books, swords, other stuff

Yesterday was one of those days that you just can't wait to be finished with. My normally long-ass day was even longer because I signed up for an extra mandatory class that went until 9 PM. I get up at 6 to get there on time, with like ten minutes left over to study for a test at 8:30 AM. I got there, studied, and then found out that the test was canceled. I hate pop non-quizzes more than I hate pop-quizzes.

Then to make it worse, I got an 83 on last week's test. 83. WTH? She gives us ten questions; you get three wrong you fail. (70 is failing in this school.) I got a few extra credit points. The thing is that I feel like I really know this material – it's med massage 2 and I never got less than 100 in med massage 1. It's the same kind of stuff. But her questions confuse me. I feel like I understand the question and I know the answer, only to find out that the answer I'm thinking of isn't even an option. I'm still getting the highest grade and other people are complaining about getting 30 and 40 on the tests. I'm not happy with these tests in general; it's little comfort to know I'm not the only one.

Between classes, my water bottle leaked all over my books and papers. I had to throw away a bunch of my tutor evaluation papers (I'll get new ones once someone decides to hire me again,) and air-dry my damn notebooks. :/

The test in my next class went much better and I got 100.

Then I went for a free massage, which was really nice.

Clinic was pretty good for the most part; those four hours do go fast, now that I feel like I know what I'm doing a little more. I have some nice clients, and a regular who ranks really high in the school. She's the authority in the field, and she likes my treatments. So that's pretty cool.

Then I just waited around outside for that last class. Actually now that I'm thinking of it, the class was really neat. I could hardly think because I was so effing tired and wanted to go home, but the class itself was pretty cool.

While I was waiting between classes I read some more of The Girl With The Dragon Tattoo. This is mostly a great book, hard to put down after the first hundred pages or so. I like the guy's straightforward writing style – he is not afraid to say "was" and "is." Once in a while his voice does get a little repetitive, but that's okay because his characters and plot are intriguing enough that I don't mind so much. I really do love the feminism of the book too. I feel like the entire thing is really, at the core, about misogyny, but maybe I'm just looking at it through vagina colored glasses. But maybe not. It has the absolute best revenge scene ever.

I have only one major beef with this book: The commercials. No, really. At one point he talks about the software the character is using to write his book, and he's like, "It really was the best shareware software for writers, and he got it on the internet, (www.webpage.etc)"... He seriously included the web page for this shareware. I think it's for real but I'm not going to check because goddamnit, just on principal. I wrote a note in my Kindle: "Product placement in a novel? Seriously? With an actual website?" And the 4th wall comes crumbling down. And then later on he describes in detail the computer that another character needs, all the hardware, software that goes into it, and why it's the best one on the market. I really resent that intrusion.

Anyway. Aside from that annoyance and the fact that I'd cut the beginning back about a billion words, and sometimes the backstory is also a bit intrusive, I'm enjoying it and will probably read the last two books in the series. I understand the writer has recently died, which, yeah, that blows.

Back to yesterday, mostly it sucked because I couldn't go a single second without thinking about Dad. I told my Mom about that later and she said she had a similar kind of day, and in fact so had my cousin. My cousin was really having a hard time yesterday too. No one could really figure out why.

That was yesterday.

Oh, how could I forget Wednesday? Hot as hell (it has been all week,) and we did Kung Fu outside like always. After a long absence, and at the end of class, the Gold Dragon showed up. Apparently he's moved to Guam and that's why he hasn't been around and no one's heard from him. His whole family just up and moved. So it looks like he won't be training at this one local school anymore. He'll still stay with the school (the same lineage, same Sifu etc.) but will be training at the bigger school closer to where he now lives.

And that really, really sucks. I hate change. Like, a lot. And I really hate when people go away.

The other thing that happened Wednesday night was that one of my training brothers—let's call him Tsuka—fixed my sword. It's been busted and steadily getting worse for a few years, and last summer I told my Dad about it and he said he would fix it for me. So we were outside practicing and my sword kept rattling like crazy, so that I thought the blade was going to go flying off, and I was getting upset. Tsuka asked what was going on and I told him, and I had mentioned that Dad was supposed to fix it and all. He said, "Well, I have a pair of pliers in my car. Let's see if it just needs to be tightened." Then he unscrewed the handle and noticed that the screw inside that holds the blade on was way loose. So he fixed it all up and reattached the handle. Now, it swings as good as new. It's a little rusty but no longer in danger of flying apart.

Today I slept semi-late (9:30) and then I managed to clean the sunroom, make baby bird food, go grocery shopping, clean the fish tanks, (the small tank is a little foggy again, EFF,) take both dogs for a jog with me, practice Hula for about a half an hour, get another chapter posted to the workshop, and start dinner. Yeah, I think that's about it. Now, I'm going to play a little FF7 and eat some cherries I bought today.