must sleep soon

waiting up for sis and Alan to get back from store. Damn, how can they stay up so late and survive?

They are making evil plans for a proper 21st birthday party for me. I cringe and inwardly giggle with glee and stipulate that they must invite Best Friend. They promise. That should be interesting. I await it with fiendish amusement and no little dread. They remember their 21st birthdays and taunt me.

I am amused and apprehensive all at once.

subtle forms of torture

My best friend has an inside line to one of my personal favorite webcomics, the Fanboy Otaku Gamer's Club and he's not *telling* me anything!!

First I tried invading his personal space and pestering him. Though I can be quite loud and persistent, I failed to crack through his serenity.

I contemplated letting Shrimpy (the most irritating guy I know) pester him, but decided that this would be counterproductive and only serve to get both Shrimpy and my best friend mad at me, though the effects of my best friend getting mad at Shrimpy might be worth watching (off school grounds of course).

I think I'll try bribery next. Hmm. He doesn't like chocolate or coffee, so those are out. Cookies? Mountain Dew? Mountain Dew cookies? Hmm.

sleepy

Every time Alan comes over, I stay awake so so late. I've figured out that the four worst things about keeping me up are, in this order:

Alan visiting
Online chats (especially with Godai)
Beer
Caffeine

Last night, I noticed the clock stood at 1:30, yowled, "[Best friend]'s going to kill me!" and dove under the blankets on the couch.

"Ack! And he's going to kill me for letting you stay up so late!" Sis yelped.

Somehow, my best friend has become responsible for enforcing that I sleep. This is odd. I answer to him, now. I'm not sure if ...

... well, phrasing it "I'm not sure if I entirely like this" is misleading.

I'm not sure if this is such a brilliant idea. But what's done is done, and I answer to him for my missing sleep. If I don't pay attention to my body falling asleep on me, then I have to pay attention to my best friend grumping at me about my sleeping through our precious time together.

something stupid

Did something stupid a while ago, which was get sick and not do my homework for Access class.

Did something more stupid, which was to continue to do the first stupid thing.

Result: I am going to fail. I'm going to bomb out the in-class presentation I have to do.

This sucks.

talked with teacher

he's amazed that I still have a whisper chance of passing the class, basically. I have consistently high scores on tests, though I don't always do my labs.

If I do this presentation, even fairly poorly, and ace the test, I can pass the class. If I do not do this presentation, unless I ace the test I will not pass this class.

I would like to pass this class and then re-take it so I'll learn it: that way, re-taking it will be an option, and not a necessity.

I have two hours to learn visual basic to do this presentation.

Can I do it?

all my database are ARGH!!

This Dialog Box Must Never Be Opened Except In Design View Because There Is No Way To Get Out Of It Except By Closing The Damn Program.

...designed exactly to teacher's specifications. He would be proud.

claustrophobia

need to find wall to bang head into. Need to gather hug from best friend and the stern comment, "Well, you knew you were an idiot, so why did you wait until the last minute?" which rather than making me break out in floods of tears will make me grin, nod, ask for another hug, turn beet red, and pick up the book again.

Copyright Violation Is the Sincerest Form of Flattery

OK, this is a post from the Sith Academy Talk yahoogroups discussion list, by Aspen, shamelessly ripped off because she's got some DAMN good points.

There's some kind of fatal flaw in "The Media"'s thinking that fan tributes are some kind of substitute for the Real Thing. I don't know if it's the copyright lawyers, or the way copyright law is written, or what, but they seem to think that by tolerating fan-created continuations of their work they lose the whole ball of wax.

We, of course, know that's bullshit.

Meanwhile, they spend gazillions of marketing bucks creating "buzz", when they could get it for free by being generous to the fans. Go figure.

[sigh]

WHY DOES DARTH LUCAS HAVE TO BE SUCH A BUTT?

Muuuuch calmer.

Teacher said on second thought, since the one chick kinda bailed on me, and it's only me doing the presentation, that if I just get the dialog box working wrong (exactly to design specs) which I can do no prob, then I'm all kewl.

Awesome. I can do that in a few quick clicks, and since I now know how to do it, no stage fright.

Presentation

Studied up on the material. Talked with teacher. Only did the first 1/3 of it all: teacher did the rest, as the job is a 3-person job in the first place, and I did do a stellar job on the stuff I did do. He asked me if I was considering going into teaching, because he thinks I have an aptitude for it: taking stuff I know forwards and backwards (or even just after reading once and doing twice) and demonstrating it for the class, making even my screwups part of the lesson.

It's a thought.

You know, that was my first career plan, when I was younger, to be a teacher, to share the things I knew with others. Sis said when I told her what Mr. Wright had said, that I was already: she wouldn't be getting through school so well without me to teach her in her own language what the teachers were teaching me.

I need to learn more languages. From where I am, Japanese and Spanish would be obvious places to begin.

I'm surprised, actually, that DeVry doesn't have language classes. Extracurricular, but still available.

head-banging

Eventually did find best friend before doing the presentation, and relieved some of my stress and frustration by using him instead of the brick wall and banging my head on his shoulder. He helped, while I was doing that, by knocking on the top of my head as I banged my forehead.

I swear, that man can read my mind.