Randomness

Here are some random news articles I came across while reading the news.

Guardians of Pizza and Pasta Attack

Camel Pageant

"Guardians of culinary standards in Italy have accused restaurateurs abroad of being responsible for the "barbaric" interpretation of the nation's dishes."

I was laughing out loud at that last bit about the barbaric interpretation. Lol if they could see my Fettuccini or homemade pizza they'd probably go borrow a katana and commit seppuku!

Now that my first book is done (3/4s edited too) I’m feeling anxious to write another. The desire is there but the time and actual 'will to' aren’t. Actually I’ll have plenty of time after the finals. I finish the end of May inshalla. I guess whats really stopping me is the will. Maybe that’s not the correct word for it. I somehow got it in my head that I wanna write something amazing. Amazing without having to resort to obscenity or anything objectable – is that even possible these days?? I had that intention in mind when I wrote POA. My sister made a biting comment about it in less than half a breath and now I feel a bit squirm-ish about writing anything else.

Aside from that there are about a million and one ideas for new stories that I could write, I’d probably give them a try but don’t wanna use any of the usual modes of writing. I want something new, something unique of my own creation. In Language Practice we are exploring modes of writing and it’s various styles. Ironically we’re only looking at the modes and styles of articles not novels or creative writings.

(I did title this post “randomness”. That should have been warning enough to u guys that I’d be subject jumping…)

I so wanna go back to the art institute this summer. I wanna complete all of the calligraphy styles and learn some border new designs. I had intended to go last summer but unforeseen happenings came along and snatched the chance away from me.

I wanna play video games.. lots and lots of them. And then write about them. I was looking at a new PS2/3 game called “God of War II”. Looks interesting. I want to start a visual entertainment club at school. We’d play video games, watch anime (or movies and shows in other’s cases), create new games (I wanna take online game developing and engineering courses) keep a monthly entertainment newsletter in which all the members would be required to write reviews and things about anime, video games etc...

All the uni would need is a decent tennis court and team and khalas I’d officially move in =D

This semester is really nearly done. I wonder if it’s too late to try and propose such a thing?

Something to smile about

Came across this news article... U all can conclude I am smiling like an idiot in anticipation of next week =)

Yi, maybe I'll save my smiling for "after" tomorrow. My midterm speech is due and Language Practice Exam...

Ha, before even tomorrow I have to make it thru the rest of today. Tennis Lesson tonight, means I have to see Marilena the Wicked. If I was a "guy" (ever noticed that all the school shootings have always been carried out by guys?) I'd probably have already beaten her to death with a racket. Monday she went way overboard when I told her I wasn't coming. Thing was I knew I didn't have anymore time on my lesson card and needed to renew it (which is the dumbest thing cuz if one is on the team one really shouldn't have to pay for lessons/team practice..) -I'm obviously broke. That and I was in the middle of doing my speech for my speech exam which at that time was due the next day. My mom wasn't home which would have meant I would have had to catch a taxi to the club. At 7pm infront of my house it takes at least 30-40 mins to find an empty taxi willing to take u to the club - plus the fact I didn't feel like getting off of 8 dhs for it. All of that and it was just more favorable for me to keep my tail home and finish my speech like a good student. My downfall was when I decided to be "decent" and call the club and say I wasn't going.

I really am quite stupid, the last time I decided to pull an act of decency and call in, the coach went whole witch on me and I should have learned my lesson then. Anywayz after some thought I figured the most logical excuse the coach would understand would be that I had an exam the next day and needed to finish my assignment for it. I was telling the gym receptionist that when she decided it was better if I told the coach myself (ha, I feel sorry for all the receptionists over there that have to put up with the TWO wicked Marilenas - the ice skating coach over there is also a Marilena and every bit the devil the tennis Marilena is... maybe it's the name?) Anywayz I barely finish saying I couldn't come because I hadn't finished my assignment and she blows up on me. (I made the mistake about going for tennis the night before that with my doubles partner) She just kept going on and on and on about how come I didn't know I had that assignment to finish the night before when I was there playing tennis (I actually thought I was going to finish it the next day before tennis anywayz) and why was I only calling ten minutes before the lesson (technically I could do that cuz I hadn't renewed my card and they don't like to let u go for ur lesson anywayz if u don't pay so I could have even called 50 mins into the hour lesson and said I wasn't coming and it wouldn't have made a damn difference) I told her anywayz I hadn't paid and I was just calling to let her know (as if the animal cared) then she tells me (I called one day an hour before the lesson and cancelled and she told the receptionist to write me in as absent meaning I'd miss that lesson and wouldn't be given a make up) she erased that absence they had written in so I had a lesson (Wallah! since when did the coach start doing things like that?? I don't even think that's allowed) but she sees I didn't deserve her generosity (that's exactly what she said) and if that's how I'm going to be then she isn't going to be generous anymore (WTF???!! Her and the word generous are exact OPPOSITES). Then she goes into how I'm not taking my responsibilty as a team member seriously and how I come one day and then miss the next 5 days (i SWEAR she's lying.. this month I've only missed two lessons and even those were way apart) and that she also sees that she probably made a big mistake promoting me to the team and she's done me a FAVOR (her exact words ppl) and I'm being ungrateful for that favor cuz with her favor team members are paying like 3 times less than the regular tennis students blah blah blah.

Maybe it's totally wrong but when ppl tell me they are doing me a "favor" like that - wallah I'm paying and coming and we practice while she sits her ________ in the chair and yells at us for 90% of the lesson (she rarely gets out of that chair anymore)- but yet she's doing me a favor??? Does favor not mean u are actually doing something for the person? I never asked to be on the tennis team.. I stopped going for nearly a month while I was getting everything together for Uni and quitting MPS, one day she happened to see my sister after skating practice and she asks about me. My sister told her I was planning to go to Uni and join the tennis team there and BAM all of a sudden the coach tells her she has this offer for me and I need to contact her right away.. But in her opinion I went and begged her to please please put me on the team.

My blood was boiling. Of course that meant the end of rehearsing my speech. At the last minute I decided I was going to turn my persuasive speech into a speech to persuade my mates that the tennis coach was truly wicked just for the sake of being wicked. I am so sure that topic will get me a straight A for my presentation and argument alone. Seriously what the hell does she gain from being the way she is and saying the things she says?

My doubles partner/friend signed on msn that night. She hadn't gone to tennis either cuz she was out someplace on a school assigned trip or something and got caught in traffic and couldn't make it back in time. Even though she knows the coach can really get down and witchy she was still amazed that the coach could actually say the things she said. By then I was seriously going to quit tennis for real. Who in their bloody right mind pays to be spoken to like that? When I'm that angry I usually don't listen to what others say but some how my friend managed a direct hit to my biggest weakness and I reluctantly agreed to stay on. I so wasn't feelin it though.

The next morning in Grace's class, which is supposed to be about analyzing articles and determining the modes and purpose of writing, "suppposed to" I said but lately she's been going pretty psychology class on us. It was good though. I really felt her class that morning. It seemed as if it were tailor made for me to hear that day. She was saying that sure teachers and ppl in general say spiteful things which make us turn around and wonder and think deeply as to why or how could they say such things. In the end they don't care and we should learn to adapt/tolerate and not let such things get to us (of course she said it in a way cooler so psychology class way) I felt loads better when I walked out of her class. But in the end I still wasn't prepared for my speech. When the speech comm doc called me up I decided to try my luck and ask for a postponement. I nearly died from shock when he said "ok".

Both the speech comm doc and Grace seemed totally weird when I first met them but they've definitely earned my respect..

(Gosh! I so hadn't meant to write about all of this in this post... maybe I should change the title it only suits the first paragraph...... no I'll leave it as it is.)

Thank God it's Thursday =)

And I thought last week was crazy! Ha ha.. HA. I have seen some sights this week and I seriously believe my eyes will never be the same again.. EVer!

One morning as I was sitting in the bus, waiting for it to pull off, I saw something quite big run into the street. It half flew, half ran. I saw wings so I knew it wasn't cat or dog but it was too big to be a normal pigeon or the other small birds one normally sees. It did it's cross run/fly thingie to the median in a very ackward way. It was now closer and I could see it was in fact a duck (cute black and white one). It was then that I noticed there were two guys chasing it. That duck worked them as it zig-zagged on and off the streets and both duck and guys were dangerously close to being hit by one of the passing by cars (there was no traffic so the cars were driving normally). Finally they chased the duck to the other side of the road out of sight. A few minutes later I saw them passby with the now captured duck. I really felt bad for the duck cuz the guy who caught it was obviously angry after having such a workout so early in the morning and was carrying the duck by its wings (ouch!).

That was the morning.. after my last class that afternoon I was walking to the school cafeteria to see if the day's menu looked appealing and I happened to pass by the lounge room. The lounge room is part of the cafeteria but instead of the normal lunch tables and chairs there are sofas and coffee tables (we're allowed to carry food in there if we want). Anywayz, for no explainable reason I decided to have a look inside as a passed.... I seriously thought my eyes had definitely seen everything when I first saw two girls "necking" (I mean that in a literal sense..they were in fact kissing each other "passionately" on the necks) on campus. But the day I peaked in the lounge room was even worse. I saw a girl actually LAYING on top of another girl! (They were with a group of other girls also sitting around on the sofas. The two guilty girls were fully clothed but it was still pretty sick to see).

The final for that day which was less than the first two but still not something I expected to see - especially not on campus - a SUV with two girls hanging on to the sides as the SUV sped down the road..

I have absolutely no doubt that the world is coming to an end....

The next morning as I walked to the bus my eyes were graced by a cat's tail - which was about 5 or 6 inches long- just laying on the floor. I considered taking a pic of it for you guys but I wouldn't wanna be flagged for such graphic depictions of "violence" on my blog.. I do wonder how that tail got detached from its owner though. It's been there in the same place for 3 days now. I see it every morning on my way to the bus.

That was the sights of this week (rather the major ones that burned themselves in my memory).. Study wise it was also pretty crazy. Some how the professors for Islamic Culture and Language Developement (hardcore British English grammar) both decided that today was the day that they definitely had to have their exams. Speech Comm exam was supposed to be on Tuesday but the Doc canceled cuz he had to invigilate another class' exam. In the end that meant Speech Comm exams fell on the next Speech Comm day - THURSDAY. So Tuesday evening was when it finally set into my thick head that I would have 3 exams come Thursday.

Couldn't make up my mind which exam I was dreading the most but Speech Comm and Language Dev were definitely in close competition. It was crazy.. one day - Wednesday- to study / prepare for 3 exams plus the weekly quiz we have in Lang. Prac.. (Even though my presentation for Speech Comm was ok and ready on Tuesday I wasn't happy with it and there was alot of room for improvement..) I had classes on Wednesday and got home at 2. Relaxed a bit and studied before I had to go to the club for tennis. Team practice and the coach was already moody with me for missing 2 days in a row (The first time I didn't feel like going and roasting in the sun cuz it was in the afternoon instead of early morning or evening. The second time I was legitimately sick and there was no way I could have gone). I carried my books got there 2 hours early (had to take my sis for skating practice) studied. practiced. studied some more till 10 pm and then finally left the club came home and studied some more till I fell asleep on my sofa with my laptop on my lap.

Before I left this morning I downloaded a few anime and J-Drama pics to add to my presentation. I studied some more in the bus. Opted to skip breakfast and cram in a couple of minutes more studying and do some last minute touchups on my slideshow. My classmate came and forced me to have something so I had one of my fave drinks (Chocolate Caramel latte thingie.. excellent source of caffeine) and a part of cheese manakish. By the time I looked at the clock again it was 5 mins to 9. No more time, islamic cul. is all the way on the other side of the campus in relation to the cafeteria I was sitting in.

Islamic wasn't that bad.. I think I might have studied enough - "might have". Next it was off to the quiz. Praise the Lord it was easy. The teacher pissed me off though. She asked a question and the answer was a word that meant to give us the wrong info when we are looking for a correct answer. She said it begins with a "M". I thought and thought and thought and the girls gave her all kinds of wrong answers. Finally I called out "misleads us to the answer" She frowned and said that none of us understood what she was trying to point out and that the answer was "Misguides".. took me a few minutes to realize that she had misunderstood what I had called out and thought I said "Ms. - leads us to the answer." (we call her Ms.). I swallowed it and decided better not to start problems over a simple misunderstanding. Lang. Prac. ended and it was off to Speech Comm exam (between each of these is only 10 mins which get used in transit to the next classroom) I was so dreading Speech Comm exam the most. I decided before I got there that I was so not going to be first. I needed time to collect myself. Thankfully when I got to the classroom one of my mates A.A.T was setting up her laptop and then she proceeded on and went first.

A.A.T is really shy and had said so in her intro presentation when we first started the course. She said lots of things in her intro speech about herself and how she feels about things. I so could relate with 95% of what she was saying I immediately took a liking to her though I was too shy myself to go and make friends with her. Anywayz, so she went first today and her speech was really good. Her presentation was of course informative (we were supposed to give informative speeches) her topic was Ice Swimming. The topic was ok and all and her presentation also looked ok but what really got me was how she presented. I could tell she was a bit nervous at the beginning (we have both done the same amount of speeches - 2 before today which made 3) but as she got into her presentation she got more and more confident and I guess that was the result of her ambition to do well. Some of my own nervousness started to melt away. If she can drum up that amount of confidence and present like that then so can I!

After A.A.T another girl went. I reviewed my flashcards (advice from the great one =P) and mentally went through my slides. The girl finished and I parted with my seat moving to the front to become the next victim..

Breath...breath. Cleared my throat (cuz last time I just started talking and ended up doing more squeaking than talking) and started with "Ohayo" (we have to start with something that would catch our audiences attention and we also have to greet them so I decided to kill two birds with one stone) I went through the mandatory brief overview of the presentation and then on to the introduction (I had placed pics of cartoons that aired here that they might have seen as kids) there were immediate gasps and suddenly the classroom was filled with nostalgic air - I had their full attention. At the beginning I kept thinking that A.A. did it and that if she could then so could I. Before I knew it, like Kath had said happens, I got really into my presentation so much so that I didn't have to look at my flashcards except for once - I actually enjoyed it. My mates also really enjoyed it. At the end of my last presentation I handed out brochure things that I had made. So one of the girls said she thought since the presentation was about anime that I'd hand out anime CDs, Lol. If I had thought about it I probably would have made some to hand out at the end.

Later one of my mates complimented me on my presentation. She said it was very good and she felt it was 'different' than the previous two presentations I gave. In the end I just needed confidence and a suitable topic I felt most comfortable with. My thanx to Kath for the topic idea, to BW for lending the manga books (visual aids get us extra points during presentations) and the biggest thanx to A.A.T.. I wish you guys all the best in ur studies - heck in everything =D

The last exam for today was Lang. Dev. I finished in about 30 mins and spent the remaining 30 revising my answers. Inshalla those answers were correct!

Gosh, it's only 11:40 PM but I'm already ready to crash.. Thank God it's THURSDAY!

Getting a Handle on College

This will most likely be my final post -

In my Language Practice class we are working in a book called: Reading and All That Jazz, 3rd Edition. Very interesting book with plenty of great reading articles. When I get a chance I'll copy out some of the articles for you guys ^_^.

Anywayz, the first chapter is titled: Getting a Handle on College: How We Learn. It is filled with all kinds of interesting mini-tests. I copied out two of them for BW and decided as a final post I should share it with u guys =)

Day Versus Night People

[Determines whether you're a Lark or an Owl]

Left or Right Brain Orientation

[Determines which part of you're brain is more dominant]

I was too tired to proofread when I was done so excuse any spelling mistakes. XD

(- Lol, my final post for this weekend =P I most likely won't be posting anything during the week unless I find some serious spare time or get smacked with a sudden urge to blog..)

Hope u guys have a wonderful week...

Ja =)

What a week....

It's been a month now since I joined the university. Everyday is more interesting than the previous and I look forward to the next day (even though I still love the weekends =P ). For this whole month we haven't had much to do though. Class work wasn't that much and homework assignments were almost non-existent. So last week when 2 of the teachers decided to dump involved assignments on us (of course both choosing the same due date and that meant we only had 2 days to finish) it was like the biggest shock. Can I add here that they were both graded assignments... which meant no make-ups and no late hand-ins. When I got home that afternoon I was tempted to just get online, watch some anime and play monopoly (computer version - very addicting). I was in the process of logging on when I remembered the last graded quiz that I had the week before. I didn't bother studying before it and then ended up with a shameful mark. I didn't even have the face to tell the one person that really cares how I do at uni what I got. I had promised myself then that I wasn't going to get anything less than perfect - and why should I? It's not like this is math where I have absolutely no control.

The first day I managed to stay off the net. Just checked my mail and read some news. Did loads of work and finished one of the assignments (took 4 straight hours). The second day there was a pop quiz in Language Development class. I had been inadvertently studying for it. I was calling myself reviewing but in the end it turned out to be beneficial cuz I got 100 and 96 on the two pop quizzes. I had started the presentation assignment when I got home from school that day but felt really sick and decided I'd sleep a bit and then finish off the assignment. I ended up sleeping for 4 hours. I had no time left. The assignment was due in the morning and I knew I didn't have enough free time in the morning to do the assignment then so I stayed up all night and finished it. I really went all out with it and made brochures to hand out at the end of the presentation summarizing the main points and giving a few further tips.

After all of that, Tuesday the Doc decided I, along with 3 other girls would do our presentations on Thursday (yesterday). The Language practice instructor had a quiz prepared for us on Thursday as well. I like the instructor but she has a tendency for making mistakes. There were several in the quiz and even though I made sure to study for it I got an 8 from 10. Normally I'd just shrug it off cuz in the end I was sure I got 10 but she was going to write that in the grade book for sure and that would of course affect my grade at the end of the semester so I bugged her to see the quiz and what it was that I got wrong. She was nice about it and let me see only to find out that I did get a 10. The other girls started complaining and she told us she would fix the marks soon and not to worry cuz those were her mistakes. The speech comm presentation was next. By that time I had kinda been looking forward to it. I had decided I was going to force my nervousness away and give a good presentation. Ha ha HA.. that resolution was the first to go when it came my turn to stand and present. I immediately started reading from my papers cuz I totally forgot what the hell I was supposed to be talking about. The Doc was amused, he liked my topic and where my idea was going but he seriously wasn't going to allow a presentation to be read off of papers. So he took them and told me to start over. I stuttered, umm-ed, coughed and somehow managed to reach the end of the presentation. In the end I'm not sure what I got. Doc told me it was excellent but teachers say one thing and write something totally different when it comes time for actual marks. Is it even possible for someone to get a good mark when the presentation itself is good but the way u present it sucks? Presenting I think would count for at least 3/4s of it, IMO... I'll just have to wait and see what I get on that presentation.

There was a trip to Awafi today. Uni was taking the female students out there. I kinda wanted to go but that would have been a) too early to get up and get out on a weekend (they were leaving the school at 8) and b) that would have been too much time away from net connection for me =P

Anywayz, after I watch a bit of anime and play a round of monopoly, I shall crawl right back into bed inshalla. Sleep batteries need a serious recharge! Lol. After last week I haven't seen any one fall asleep on the bus.. It was on the bus coming home one afternoon that a girl sitting near the front fell asleep. Maybe she was snoring, I'm not sure but for whatever reason the bus driver noticed that she was sleeping and started SINGING to her - or rather about her. His voice wasn't too clear but it was obvious that he was singing and that he was singing about her sleeping. The other girls tried to stifle their laughs - of course moi was the only one that was successful ;) The girl who was sleeping woke up and was sooo embarrassed. The bus driver said she must be really tired and what do we do in the uni that makes us so tired. The girl explained that she has a part-time job in the afternoon. The bus driver said something to the effect of sleep and he'd wake her up at her stop. LOL needless to say the girl stayed awake the rest of the ride.

So, that was last week... next week promises to be interesting as well - Midterms begin on Tuesday....