Tomato Soup

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Tuesday, April 29, 2003

"The most important issue facing the world is..."
...fluffy pink mutant bunnies from space!!!!! AHHHH! THEY ARE REAL, I TELL YOU!

*ahem* Somehow, I don't think that's the answer they are looking for. But it says "Please complete the following with your first thoughts." And then it says "Use only the space provided." But that particular one is so freaking long that there are only about three inches left for your answer.

I mean, seriously. If I could fill in that blank in six words or less, I would be busy solving all the world's problems and not applying to camp.

Not that I am really applying, mind you. It's just that Diane wants the forms. I do not understand why I have to keep doing this. She already has two identical applications on file from the past two summers. Grrrrr...

In other news, I went to the store to buy English muffins and creamer, and afterwards I stopped by the video place, which still didn't have Spirited Away, but they did have Fellowship in French (on VHS), so I went ahead and bought it because I've meant to, and seriously, what am I waiting for now? Then I stopped by the post office in the back of the drug store. None of their boxes are even close to big enough to hold just one of my crates. And they aren't very big crates. I shall have to go somewhere else...I just don't know where!

Oh, and there might have been a Smarties McFlurry involved somewhere along the way. No comment.
Sarah - 3:55 PM - 0 comment(s)

Monday, April 28, 2003

Mission Accomplished
I felt like I had to get something done today off my list of Stuff To Do Before I Leave Montreal, so I decided that it would be pretty painless to go to the Christian bookstore I've been to before and pick up French Bibles for Salli and for our mother. So I did. :) I'm pretty sure the guy at the store thought I was a tourist. Ah, well...

I also got a couple of packs of stickers (they're Christian symbols with cute little smiley faces on them...smiley grapes, I kid you not...) and the VeggieTales movie DVD. Now I have something to play on the computer while I am cleaning. And packing. (There are special features, such as...audio commentary with Larry and Mr. Lunt! I can't wait!)

I was going to hike to the pizza place on Monkland, but there turned out to be one right beside the exit to the metro stop I was using. How cool! So I went inside, and it turned out to be a slightly nicer affair than I had expected. It's a local chain called "Pizzédélic" and they specialize in sort of funky décor and interesting combinations of toppings. I ordered one with chicken, green peppers, and cilantro. Yum...speaking of which, I have leftovers in the fridge, and I doubt they will survive the evening!
Sarah - 5:06 PM - 0 comment(s)

Sunday, April 27, 2003

I have a question.
If you are reading this, please answer it! Take a look at the braids on these dolls:

Would you be interested in learning how to make braids like that? I've noticed a lack of tutorials explaining how to make braids for small dolls. Should I make one explaining this technique? (It's very easy...)
Sarah - 4:20 PM - 0 comment(s)

Christ is risen! (He is risen indeed!)
Except that at my church here, everyone said "Christ is risen indeed", even though the guy reading the prayer said to say "He is risen indeed". Go figure.

I wore my one dress (okay, I have others, but they are in Ohio) to church today. It felt really good to be specially dressed up and looking pretty. It was the long, sleeveless one with wide straps (yes, girls, that means strapless bra time—I apologize to any guys who may be reading this, but this is my blog, and I will talk about my underwear if it is relevant or if I feel like it) and big, gorgeous red roses all over it. I got a few compliments. :) And I wore my hair "down" with clips in it (the first time I've done that here, in fact the first time I have ever successfully put clips in my hair), and I found my sandals in my closet. I'd forgotten I even had them up here.

Afterwards, during the obligatory cake-and-coffee session (did I mention that German church ladies make the best cake?), it came out that a bunch of us are leaving fairly soon, so it was decided that the next student night should be moved up to next week. I suddenly found myself volunteering to make cookie dough. I'm going to make snickerdoodles (again), except I think that what I'll do is make the dough before hand and cook them at church. Snickerdoodles are great when they are cooled off, but they are to die for fresh out of the oven! This is good. This will ensure that I actually go to student night and enable me to use up most of the ingredients I bought last weekend.

I need to call home as soon as I'm done with this so I can talk to my parents about travel plans. The original idea was for my dad to fly up and rent a van to take me back, but packing up my stuff and shipping it and then just flying back myself is looking better and better. It would take some serious organizing, but it could get me a home a lot cheaper. At this point, I'm mostly just concerned about my (expensive) guitar, but Lora says that I could just check it at the gate and they would take good care of it for me.

My other goal (tentatively) for today is to get "caught up" with the various Briarsville adventures that Salli and I had to let slide. I think it's stressing Salli. Of course, Rona is here to remind you that if you think you have been waiting a long time...Rona has probably been waiting longer. ;)
Sarah - 2:20 PM - 0 comment(s)

I am suddenly and inexplicably energized.
This is a problem. I should not be energized now. I SHOULD BE GETTING READY TO GO TO BED! But I'm sure it won't last, so no big deal.

Today I have accomplished....(drumroll, please!)...absolutely NOTHING! WOOHOO! YEAH!

Okay, so actually, I did make sure the Foreign Language/International Community Showcase thing was set up properly, which is technically at least something. Drat.

Last night I made this cute little doll (off a new base that I have not properly GIFed yet) of me (in my ezboard shirt, no less) with my neopets. The one little-doll-me is holding is Breged (my main little guy, a red Quiggle he shall forever be, unless they release a paintbrush that is mostly red!), the bouncy one is my desert princess Poogle, Eruanna, and the shadow Aisha (hiding) is Misucio (who I adopted). PIXELIZED NEOPETS ARE ADORABLE!

I was bored out of my mind today. I also had no energy, no plans, and no initiative. I think it's the medication, which I intend to get myself mostly off of starting tomorrow.

I also think it was due to the fact that while I always have plenty to do when I have no time to do it, there is something different about taking the weekend off before a week of doing nothing in particular as opposed to taking the weekend off before another busy week of classes. BOOOOOORING. I slept, I read, I took a nap, I read some more. There was some eating involved, but not much cooking.

I'm about halfway through reading Solo Command. How I came to be reading it is an interesting (if typical) story. For some reason, don't ask me what, I felt like reading Wraith Squadron. I think this was when I was looking for something else that was not there, and I was miffed because it was not there, so I splurged. I told myself "oh, I'll just read this one".

Yeah, right.

So I ended up having to buy all three Wraith books, despite the fact that they are all sitting on Salli's bookshelf at home from way back when she bought them when they first came out. The only good thing to come out of all this is that I managed to completely randomly pick up Starfighters of Adumar on tape for only $10 at the McGill bookstore. ($10 Canadian is the going rate for a single paperback, so...good deal.)

Tentative sightseeing goals:

• Visit Vieux-Montréal (the old part of town).
• Visit Mont Royal (it's mostly a park, and it gives Montreal its name, so...).
• Try some poutine (I'm wary) and get some authentic smoked meat.
• Go to that Indian restaurant again sometime.

Sarah - 12:04 AM - 0 comment(s)

Friday, April 25, 2003

I'm free!
So, I have officially survived the semester. I returned in the one book I checked out of the Music Library this afternoon, so I am officially DONE.

Not that I expect to ever get my grades, since the TAs are on strike. I feel for them—they are apparently among the worst-paid TAs in Canada. Of course, what this means is that probably none of the exams will be graded on schedule (not that I would mind if my ODE exam were never graded...).

Then I caught the 4 o'clock showing of the movie Holes, which is based on the book by Louis Sachar. I must've looked at that name a dozen times before it actually penetrated my possibly drug-fogged brain and made a connection with the author of such excellent children's literature as the Wayside School books.

The movie is good. If you like a good story, go see it! The story is indeed quite good, and pleasingly intricate and developed, ending with everything neatly tied up instead of left dangling. And it's a movie for kids that doesn't contain content inappropriate for anyone under eighteen. No sex jokes, no disgusting bodily function humor, and minimal look-he-got-hurt humor. About what you would expect from Louis Sachar. (And I just tried to spell that "humour", which just goes to show that I have been in Canada too long.) Oh, did I mention it's adapted for film by the original author? Also, it supports my little theory that all good children's stories are actually in the Science Fiction/Fantasy genre. :) And also, Dulé Hill is in it. (If you don't know who I am talking about...you need to go watch The West Wing. Now.)

But the funniest part, by far, was that the girl who did the announcements (turn off your cell phones and keep your feet off the seat in front of you) repeatedly pronounced the title "'Oles". She must've been francophone...I'm sure she had no idea.
Sarah - 8:13 PM - 0 comment(s)

It's laundry day.
Actually, it was laundry day Wednesday, because that was when I was scheduled to run out of clothing...which explains why I was sleeping in my long underwear. :P

The absurdity of it was rather striking. There I was, with my freshly-washed hair hanging in big, gorgeous curls (it does that)...wearing my long underwear. :P So the doll (which took all of...uhm...thirty minutes?) was inevitable. At least I'm getting some of my creativity back. I think it's the medication. It does say it can cause drowsiness...

I had weird dreams last night, including one that somehow involved getting really bad grades in a class I should have done well in. Gee. It's not like my subconcious was telling me anything...was it? :P

I found the site at McGill with lots of photos. I shall be pointing some of the out to you—the ones with which I have had personal experience. ;) First off, the top photo on this page is a hallway in the Brown Building. If you walk down that hallway, through the door behind the person, and through another door and up a small flight of stairs, you will come to the health center, where I will probably be, if you are trying to stalk me. :P Because I practically live there. I think I should rent out a room.

There are some good winter photos in there, for those of you who do not believe in snow. ;) (Also, I've got some photos that Salli kindly scanned for me...catch me on YIM if you want to see. ;)

Edit: I found a photo of the keychain sculpture!!! And we make fun of our random statuary...
Sarah - 1:40 PM - 0 comment(s)

Thursday, April 24, 2003

Unnghhh...
I apologize about my strange lack of activity over the past couple of days. But I don't feel guilty. Not my fault.

So I wake up yesterday (around noon) and stumble about, making some coffee and sitting down in front of my computer. Before I can so much as finish my daily activities on neopets, I start to get stomach cramps, and from there it got really, really, bad.

Suffice to say that it involved taking a taxi to the health center, waiting around FOREVER (apparently the girl in the examining room trying really hard to vomit out her entire intestinal track is not a high priority), getting really annoyed with the doctor, and taking a taxi home. The taxi driver was nice. He passed me back a plastic bag (:P) and tissues, tried to advise me to go to the hospital, and made sure I could stand up and walk when we arrived.

So I finally started feeling somewhat better, perhaps because of the medication, or perhaps just because. :P I don't know. The doctor called back and said that the blood tests showed an elevated white blood cell count, which is a sign of infection, which the doctor I found today could not substantiate. Still, it shows that I Was Right and He Was Wrong (go, me!). And it was all I could do to concentrate on writing down equations last night, even before the Tension Headache of DOOM came in and knocked me out before I could finish.

I did make it to the exam this morning. I was there. Really. I lasted about an hour. I was completely exhausted and utterly unable to concentrate on problem-solving. (Gee, could it have anything to do with lack of sleep, stress, and severe lack of FOOD?) It was an incredible feat of willpower just to trudge through (most of) the problems I immediately knew how to solve, but there were a couple not particularly hard problems that I just could not wrap my mind around. The creativity and ingenuity Was Not There. And I didn't care. I figure if I got 50 out of 80, that'll be a miracle.

So much for my grade in that class.

And then I came home and sent in a pretty random bunch of course selections (a day late, and I have to email my advisor and warn him), and then I made some of the instant soup I picked up at the drug store (it had vegetables and pasta, i.e. solid food, albeit in small portions) and ate that and half a piece of toast. And then I took a nap and did not wake up until a little while ago. I mean I was completely out for at least four hours.

Yay.

I should be feeling euphoric, or productive, or relieved, or at least something concerning being completely done with all of my classes here (okay, except for the book I have to return to the library). But instead I feel...tired.
Sarah - 6:46 PM - 0 comment(s)

Tuesday, April 22, 2003

I'm still being entertained by the "ritual arson".
I'm not kidding. You can't make up stuff this good.

The Easter Vigil was fairly cool, if slightly mind-bogglingly long. Hint: any time the entire creation story from 1st Genesis is the first reading out of seven, that means you have too many readings. But it was overall a good service and really a much bigger production than I had expected ("ritual arson" and all).

Then I got dragged downstairs after communion to help serve. I swear I caught some guys refering to me as "pizza girl". (I was the one one the tray of Bagel Bites. I don't care what they called them. They were Bagel Bites.) Then I managed to eat lots of candy and cheese and drink a few swallows of white wine before pouring the rest down the drain. (For those of you keeping count at home, that's...three.) Then there was dish-washing. You know you're a Lutheran, when...

And then Monday (watch my cleverly skip Sunday) I started feeling dizzy and nauseous again. YARGH It got so bad last night that I broke down and went to the health center this morning. I told the doctor that I took one of the pills he gave me last time. He told me, "take two". :P Apparently it's not altogether unheard of for these things to recur for months. Oh, joy.

I've been doing plenty of doll-making lately, but none of it has been posted here, probably because of the site. Go check out the bases if you haven't already. :)

If you, my hypothetical reader, have been paying attention, you might recall Maranta, who appeared a while back. Since then I have used some of my bases to produce doll versions of some of the other characters from that storyline. But this time, I have managed some of the Tralloren ladies. (This is important. The Trallor team is pretty much the focus of the whole story.)

Aisling ("AHSH-leen") is a new, highly experimental sort of precognitive (had you figured out that they are genetically engineered?). The regular scale has no meaning for her, so she hasn't been formally classed. (And the Trallor scientists didn't tell anybody, either.) The trouble is that her visions are so overwhelming that she lacks any sort of reference time-frame, so she is essentially unable to communicate anything useful...the powerful mind-blocks and internal shields designed to keep the Trallorens controllable and (mostly) harmless actually do wonders for Aisling because she is able to get herself thoroughly grounded in the present.

Eve is an experiment of a different nature: an entirely new class, and a fantastic success. They call her an "illusionist" because illusion is her specialty. (Which means...yes, she did choose to look like that. ;) Most of it is natural.) She escapes the destruction of Trallor because she is on a scouting assignment at the time. Eve is a survivor. (I just hope everyone else can survive her fashion sense. Actually, the scary thing is that I think that is extremely fashionable...)

I love Eve's hair.

Sarah - 11:19 PM - 0 comment(s)

Friday, April 18, 2003

Snickeroodles!
Well, I've done it. Now it's a real site. It has a contact email and an FAQ and everything.

Oh, and I put the "new" dolls, the ones I hadn't posted here yet, on the index page (yes, it has a real index page now) so you can easily find them all. :)

And...I MADE SNICKERDOODLES! Well, technically, the very last batch is still in the oven, so the past tense is not entirely appropriate. ;) I went to the store and bought flour and milk and butter and cinnamon and stuff, and then I baked. A lot. I have lots and lots and lots and lots of snickerdoodles. :)

I plan to bring some of them to the Easter Vigil party tomorrow night (I'm still not entirely clear on what that entails), but only about a dozen and a half will fit in my little tupperware container. So that leaves me with...lots and lots and lots.

And...psst...I bought a cheap, tacky Easter basket and a bunch of candy. I'm going to sneak it...somewhere...for my roommate for Easter. :)
Sarah - 9:50 PM - 0 comment(s)

Thursday, April 17, 2003

Drumroll, please!
I seem to find myself in possession of a new site, which I have creatively entitled "Eleni Aranelwa". It isn't complete. The index page is unexciting, and I don't even have really basic stuff like a contact email and a coherent navigation system.

There are some "new" dolls there that I haven't gotten around to posting here just yet. :)



In other news, I seem to be quite addicted to Word Poker. I think in anagrams. It's scary.
Sarah - 11:40 PM - 0 comment(s)

My computer is not sitting on my bed.
And I am most certainly not sitting cross-legged in front of it. I would not do that. That would be irresponsible. It might fall off, or I might relax, and we can't have either of those things happening here.

I would feel enormously relieved and accomplished, except that I have had stomach cramps all afternoon and I am generally feeling rather blah (but no fever or respiratory symptoms :P). This is actually what prompted me to pull my computer over to my bed. It felt somewhat better when I was lying down, so I just did my computing project that way. I don't know if it is tension or something I ate. (If it's the former, I need to see my doctor when I get home so he can prescribe me that stuff to help me sleep so I can get some freaking rest and hopefully feel better.)

The exam this morning was...heh, another dumb exam. Whether I got a good grade or not is irrelevant because it wasn't a very good exam in that I fail to see how it tested actually learning as opposed to sheer memorization of formulas. I can't figure out what took the rest of the class so long. I was done in a little over an hour; the monitor seemed surprised. I think part of it may be that I have more experience with really hard-core physics (quantum, classical mechanics) than my classmates, who are mostly just out of CÉGEP (they get out of high school a year early and go to CÉGEP for two years, specializing in one subject, before going to university, which is why I can't refer to myself as a college student around here). If I have some idea how to get an answer, I think that's just peachy and don't freak out. That, and I don't really care.

I submitted my computing project. I hope it got there okay. Before that, I submitted my musical acoustics project, which had many cool diagrams, including this one, which I don't believe I shall explain:

Sarah - 7:22 PM - 0 comment(s)

Wednesday, April 16, 2003

I feel like I'll never be relaxed again.
Tense, tense, tense, tense, TENSE!!!!!

I got a good, solid, 11 page draft done for my acoustics paper (about nine pages written today), which doesn't sound like much, but it is very dense and difficult to process.

Then I spent the evening studying physics until my head hurt. (Actually, I had a headache from the beginning.) I AM TENSE!!! Exam at 9:00 a.m. and I just know I'm not going to sleep.

Tomorrow: Survive exam. Edit paper with aim to submit it by mid-aftertoon. Write up computng project with aim to submit by not-too-late evening. Scream. Sleep.
Sarah - 11:54 PM - 0 comment(s)

I think I'm going back to camp.
That is all. I have too much work to do.
Sarah - 1:47 PM - 0 comment(s)

Tuesday, April 15, 2003

And now for something very special.
Well, it's special to me, at least.

Recall Li. When I referred to the storyline as my most important, I meant it. It's also the largest (in scope, span of years, and number of a characters) and by far the oldest.

The seed for this particular epic adventure developed when I was sitting at the sand box in our backyard. I remember it clearly. It was the summer after either seventh or eighth grade. Yes, this one's been around for a while! It scares me to count up the years. There are now dozens of characters, at least three distinct eras with major activity, and, well, it's very complicated! There are several snatches of stories that I have actually written—this is the one that is closest to my heart, the one that I would be most likely to actually write if only I could figure out where to begin!

Lianira, Lassa, Dainos, Neikyn, Rhetta, Laranos, Lisara...Alisa. The first eight characters (in more or less that order). After a while it gets blurry, but the beginnings I remember. And that looks like a lot of characters, but trust me, it's nothing. The tip of the iceberg. These were very, very early characters.

Alisa is key because she is a "bridge" character, one that not only survives from the "past" portion to the "present" portion (a span of at least several hundred years), but who is actually an active watcher for the duration of that period. I knew from the very beginning that this was her fate. At first, she was a "temporary" replacement for one of the eight Torenanyea (a crappy word, but I can't get rid of it, it's been so long! think "gods", but not in a religious sense), and rather despondent about getting stuck in the position for much longer than was intended. She was mopey and really not very useful.

That never really worked; it didn't quite resonate with me the way it should have.

Literally years later, I was developing the "present" part of the storyline, working on liberating Rhyallis, the great fortress-city, and there I stumbled across poor Kartanar Danaeka (blame his parents), who is another survivor. (Okay, so it turns out that most of the major characters survive, partly because I am unable to kill off any of my characters and partly because it really does make sense. At the time it was a surprise.) He led me back to the "past" segment and started to fill it out a bit. Okay, a lot. That's where I met his sister, Karena, and Táeren Var'kyr...and, perhaps not surprisingly, there was Alisa. (I mean, I already knew that she had to be there.) And there she came into her own. She stopped being a passive observer—in fact, it turned out that she had never been passive at all! I discovered that she wasn't a replacement, but a deliberate challenge.

And that's where I got my favorite quartet of characters. They haven't left me alone since.

Anyway...the point of that lengthy explanation was to get to the dolls.

Alisa is a foreign princess from Rian, but related to the Rhyallean royal family through her mother. Her she is as I believe we first meet her. Her father, the Riani king, sends her to Rhyallis, presumably hoping that she will find a husband (which he does, but that's only part of it). Poor Kartanar, who is quite literally a genius but rather lacking in tact, makes an unfortunate remark about "silly, empty-headed barbarian princesses", and Laranos Caltoran (his "boss", I suppose you might say) decides he needs to work on his social skills and assigns him to look after the visiting princess.

In this illustration, she is dressed rather simply for travel, which is only the first surprise. Alisa ye'ni Rian, as it turns out, is really quite brilliant in her own right and, well, once she and Kartanar come to an understanding...it's almost enough to make you feel sorry for the palace folks.

Aside: the surname "ye'ni Rian" is a very recent discovery, dating back to just last summer.

Fast forward a few....er...centuries. Continuing the theme of characters in uncharacteristic clothing, here is Alisa in one of her many, many alternate personas (she develops quite remarkable acting ability). With the wind-sword, which is really not hers, but it was sort of entrusted to her. I shan't reveal the whole story just yet.

This last one was actually my first Alisa doll, and "Ylréari" is her original "surname". Even when she's out and about or in disguise as a peasant, she keeps a few nice gowns stashed away in case she needs to remind someone that she is a Person of Significance. :) And...it's red. I do like red! Alisa is the only one in this segment of the story who gets to flaunt it, since red is the bad guy's color, and she was deliberately set up as a challenge to him (not that she herself has the kind of power to challenge him directly, but it's defintiely some statement).

So ends this particular character study. You may blame the length of this post on Mir, who said that she enjoys getting the background information.

And no, I do not suddenly have a whole lot of free time. I've made these over a period of several days.
Sarah - 12:56 PM - 0 comment(s)

Monday, April 14, 2003

So I'm sorting arrays...
...and I've got the algorithms pretty much working (yay!). I've already got deterministic and random quick-sort working on a randomly-generated array of integers (yay!). But I need to demonstrate the case where deterministic quick-sort is really miserable, i.e. an array that is almost sorted already. Of course, to get worst-case, I might as well go ahead and take one that is already completely sorted...and sort it again.

Problem: how to get a randomly generated sorted array?

And then I recalled that I had just written the code for regular quick-sort, which, gee, results in a sorted array.

Sometimes I'm just brilliant.
Sarah - 5:46 PM - 0 comment(s)

Sunday, April 13, 2003

CHURCH BAKE SALE!!!
It's Palm Sunday, and can you guess which part I found the most exciting?

The only people who make better cake than church ladies...are GERMAN church ladies. :)

There was just one service today, which means that it was absolutely packed and in two languages (alternating English and German). I arrived late (of course), so I didn't get to check to see if I was still supposed to be helping with the passion reading. I was. I had to sort of wing it. (This is what I get for being late to church all the time, but I swear it wasn't my fault! I had the hardest time dragging myself out of bed to turn off the alarm. It was physically difficult. Usually I stay in bed due to laziness but today it was necessity.)

I've been putting off doing my work by sending emails. First, I emailed Diane and explained the situation and told her that if I really wanted to work for her and would let her know as soon as I possibly could. Then, I emailed the people at the once place I applied to and told them to get their acts together soon, or else. :P (Okay, not really.) Now I am drafting an email to my advisor in which I shall point out that I've been asked to be a TEAM COORDINATOR (which is much more prestigious-looking than being a counselor) and asking if there is anyone who might need a research assistant next term. That would be perfect—I could get some experience and go to camp.

The more I think about it, sleep on it, pray about it, the more I find myself wanting to go to camp, darn it! I'm beginning to hope that the folks in Washington tell me "nope, sorry", so that I can go to camp without a guilty conscience. Is that bad?

Sarah - 5:22 PM - 0 comment(s)

Saturday, April 12, 2003

I was going to be so good.
And I would have been, too. But I got onto WebCT to double-check the assignment and found out that despite the professor's assurances, the assignment was completely unavailable. :(

So I have to wait until a classmate lets me know what the assignment actually is. :P

Poor Ellery turned out so much better this time. Here she is, dressed for a night on the town, complete with bodyguard and military escort. People tend to assume that she is the daughter of a high-ranking officer or a rich executive, which is just what her protectors intend. (They think they are being clever, and she just goes right ahead and lets them think that.) I suppose if I keep making dolls of her, I'll eventually have to actually reveal what she actually does...
Sarah - 11:56 PM - 0 comment(s)

I hereby declare...
...that next Thursday, Maundy Thursday, shall be referred to henceforth as "the Thursday of DOOM and DESPAIR". Because I checked my exam schedule, and on top of the programming assignment and term paper due on that day, I also have an exam at 9:00 a.m. And it's for Heat & Waves. Yes, that class.

But enough of that depressing stuff.

This is Li. She's my first doll from the most important of my myriad storylines, which means I feel obliged to talk about her (because Li is an awesome character).

For the benefit of those who may at some time have been amazed at the sheer number of characters I seem to have (and trust me, I have scarcely scratched the surface), I shall tell you how I first met Li. But first, some background.

Eliane is Naerean, a follower of the Sun-lord (they are not gods, but they are the closest this world has; it's a political affliation, though, not religious). The Naereans are a rather odd bunch for their world in that they are pacifists. They avoid being insufferable mostly by merit of having enough grace not to go poking their noses in other people's business. They pretty much stick to themselves and quietly look down their noses at fighters and other less civilized cultures.

When Li runs away from home at around 12 or 14, no one can imagine what she could possibly have been thinking. She always seemed perfectly happy and normal to them—this lack of perception and understanding on the part of her family (a fairly important family, I might add) and community hints at the nature of the problem. She eventually ends up joining the Army, which is where she becomes "Li" instead of "Liane" (perhaps influenced by the extremely militaristic Fire Clans, who make up a substantial portion of the standing Army, there is a tendency to shorten names to one syllable). Women are just as likely to be professional soldiers as men, but Li hides her place of origin because it would be very hard to be taken seriously otherwise. (If the Naereans look down their noses at everybody else, the rest of the world thinks that they are rather silly, so it all comes out even.)

She does very well, of course, and is assigned as Captain to one of the experimental dragon-scout teams. (The dragons—Ankeltéans is the proper word—are generally not considered civilized enough to work with anyone other than their fire-elven partners/controllers.) This is how she comes into the greater story. When Lord Draeva is forced to order the dragon-teams disbanded because of an...er...incident...Li is Not Pleased.

The story, at that point in its development, was about Draeva. Poor Drae (his name became shortened, somewhat to my dismay, as soon as he came into contact with Li) was being forced to make a decision that he did not like, and suddenly there was Li, bursting into his office unannounced and demanding in no uncertain terms that he not take away her team's dragon. Before I realized what was happening, Li was in the storyline for good and in fact became one of the major players. And Drae started to really grow a personality, which was a marked improvement. Now they are two of my favorite characters (okay, so I have a lot of favorite characters).

This pose is very uncharacteristic. Well, okay, the pose is actually pretty typical, but not the clothing (Li in a dress! gasp!) I just deleted the explanation because it is quite long, but let us just say that Naereans in general (and the rest of their world) think of the sun in terms of nice, comforting things like warmth and light. They don't realize that it is actually a giant ball of burning gas. :)
Sarah - 1:03 PM - 0 comment(s)

Friday, April 11, 2003

I understand modern art.
Well, okay, not completely, but in principle, at least.

It was such a beautiful day that I had to do something. But I'm getting ahead of myself.

I was late to class (again), due to the metro being slow (again), which seems somehow fitting for the last day. Afterwards, I grabbed a bagel and a Coke and went to eat outside, because it was just that lovely. The number of people outside was staggering. (Just like I am sure any univesity is on one of the first really genuinely warm days of the year, except that McGill has rather a lot of students.)

Then I went to catch the 1:10 showing of Phone Booth, because Salli said she enjoyed it. I enjoyed it, too. Probably because, as Salli noted, it is Colin Farrell and Kiefer Sutherland in it, both of whom are interesting actors even aside from being fun to watch (okay, in the second case, to listen to; Kiefer Sutherland has the best speaking voice).

Cote-St-Catherine, which Salli and Heather will recall as being cold and confusing, was absolutely humming. Literally. I saw at least five street performers in a stretch of just a couple of blocks. People say that Montreal really comes alive in the summer, and I am beginning to see what they mean. Maybe it is just similar to how any food tastes good when you are starving, but it is definitely something.

And then I got really adventurous (partly looking for an excuse to walk somewhere) and went to the Musée des Beax-Arts. To be honest, I do not really appreciate great paintings properly. (The only time I ever really "got it" was at the Musée D'Orsay in Paris. Impressionist paintings in exquisite natural lighting—yum!) When I do like them, I tend to prefer paintings with human subject matter. (I freely admit that I was eying the clothing...) I felt kind of funny on the nearly-deserted upper floors, anyway.

I did rather enjoy the lower level, though, where I saw several things that were interesting. First, the abstract art. No, I was not impressed by the big green square with the smaller green square on top of it. I mean, seriously. But there were some pieces that I really liked, including one that to be honest wasn't that exciting except that it was...red. I approved. ;) And there was one that I really liked quite a lot, which I won't try to describe to you because it wasn't that sort of painting.

There was a room with a collection of sculptures by Henry Moore, mostly small pieces and studies and one larger one in the center of the room. If the name "Henry Moore" makes you think of Elvis, let me make an observation: we got lucky.

Also there was one that was a digitial sort of display involving projecting images of galaxies and supernovae and such against a backdrop of butterfly wings. It was supposed to be deeply meaningful, but I just enjoyed the sheer absurdity and pretty colors. :)

And then I went back to campus, bought a Klondike bar on a stick, and sat outside and read while I ate my ice cream (oh, I skipped the part where I went to the bookstore). Then I came home, finished the base I was working on this morning before class (it looks good, I think), and took a nap. I awoke when my mother called me, which was really okay because that's a fairly pleasant way to wake up.

Altogether a thoroughly enjoyable day.

I'm in denial about the amount of work I have left to do for next week.

Now I am sipping coffee and writing in my blog, of course. ;) It looks to be a good night for TV-watching: Buffy is the episode Hush which is one of the few good episodes in season 4, Farscape is "new" (though Salli tells me she has seen these all before so clearly it is not as new as the Space channel says), and Voyager is the show's very first episode. :) I am especially looking forward to that last one. (And can you guess the genre of Sarah's favorite TV channel here?)
Sarah - 8:01 PM - 0 comment(s)

The Caffeine List
Or, "Why Sarah is Up and Posting at 2 o'clock in the Morning".

Normally, I will have, at the most, instant coffee in the morning and a Vanilla Coke. For a week I had even less, due to inner ear problems.

Here is what I have had today:

1. Coffee with breakfast (double-sized instant).
   
2. A can of Coke around 11:00 (I was thirsty).
   
3. A cup of coffee on the way back home around 3:30.
   
4. Vanilla Coke around 6 or 7 or something (hey, it was there, I was thirsty).

That doesn't sound like much, I guess, or rather it makes for a short list...but it is well over my daily caffeine allowance! (This is also ignoring the decaf coffee, highly sugared and of course it is never 100% caffeine free!)

Buzz, buzz, buzzzzzzz...okay, so I'm about to crash.
Sarah - 1:57 AM - 0 comment(s)

Thursday, April 10, 2003

It's a beautiful day!
And I feel really silly.

It turns out that today was not the last Musical Acoustics class. That was Tuesday. There was no class today. Oh, well...

It's so lovely outside! The sky is blue, the sun is shining, and the temperature is about 10 C (that's 50 F). People are wearing short sleeves or carrying their coats slung over an arm. You can just feel a difference in the air, somehow, in the way people are moving.

On the way back from the metro, I ran into a woman walking with two of those little half-crutches who was trying to figure out how she was going to get home since apparently the disability services cancelled on her at the last minute. Well, that is what she said, anyway. After some discussion, I ended up giving her the extra $4 I had in my pocket to use for a taxi. Sure, she could have been just pulling a scam, but I figure, what is the risk? If I ignore her and walk away, I risk hurting another human being. If I help her out a little, all I risk is making myself look foolish (and I know that I'm no fool in God's eyes, so there's no harm there). It occurs to me in restrospect that I could have helped her to hail a cab and paid the driver myself, but I keep forgetting that you can do that.

And then I stopped by the little book/coffee shop that I've been eyeing ever since I got here. I was clearly clueless, but the man at the counter was very nice. He gave me one of those punch-cards and marked off two coffees from the start and explained to me that there is basically a used bookstore in the back (to be honest, they all seemed to be ex-library books, or at least in library covers, so it was hard to tell). I panicked and just ordered coffee since there seemed not to be a menu.

I think I shall go back sometime. :) It's on the way back from the metro...
Sarah - 4:14 PM - 0 comment(s)

On today's edition of "Sarah Kills Time in the Computer Lab"...
Computer science grading drama! Musical acoustics assignments! Silly protest signs! With a special guest appearance by this morning's metro paper.

So I grabbed on the of the little metro paper son the way in this morning because the headline was in all caps so it looked important: CHUTE DE BAGDAD. The whole thing just made me smile. Even the francophone Canadian writers couldn't avoid the fact that the Iraqis in the photos were all grinning hugely. I was suddenly very proud of my country: we just took Bagdad! YEAH!

Aside from my latent militaristic tendencies, I think what evoked my response was sheer relief that the worst is presumably over. Bagdad was the scary part. Urban warfare against a guerilla force on their home turf could have gotten nasty—if it were in the countryside, we could pull out and bomb them, but not in a crowded city! It could have been a bloodbath. But it wasn't.

There's a rather wonderful thing about being in Canada at McGill: Canada's colors are red and white. McGill's colors are red and white. For starters, this means that I can wear red all the time (as I do anyway) and nobody thinks anything of it. Second, if I wear all red with blue jeans, it looks like I have school spirit or something. (But secretly, I get to feel partriotic. Even though I would dress like this anyway.)

Yesterday afternoon, I made a special trip to campus (should've been there for class anyway, but I...er...didn't sleep at all the night before, that time of the month, ok?) to speak with the TA from intro to computing. (She was horribly difficult to locate. I knew it was room 202. I didn't know that there are two room 202s, one north and south. And no, the prof did not specify which!) She was kind of confused, and I was kind of confused, but the result was that I got 31 points added to my score for Assignment 1, which brings it up to 81, which is a pretty solid B.

And I got my grade for assignment 3, which is listed on WebCT as 100.5 out of 150. But actually there were only 125 possible points (he entered it wrong or something) and 25 of those were bonus. So it's like I got a 100.5 out of 100. Which, the last time I checked, is better than an A+. :) I figure if I toss some of those onto that 81, then I have a solid A average for assignments 1, 2, and 3.

Yay!

And the next assignment (the one I haven't looked at yet which is supposedly due today but not really) also has 25 bonus points, so I figure I have a pretty good chance of at least getting an 85 or something (which is a low A).

Musical acoustics news: Today is the last class! :( I finished my last assignment a little while ago. (Actually, I started it a little while ago, too...didn't exactly work ahead on this one.) Then my paper is due next week. :P It'll be a lot of work, but it's not like it's particularly big. I'll have to work pretty seriously next week.

I'm collecting headlines from signs around campus. I might submit them as a report on Canadian reaction to the war. Maybe. (What do you think?)

The doll posted above is based on a girl I saw riding on the metro. I get many good ideas watching people on the metro (and some strange looks). The clothing is pretty accurate, and she is listening to music (which is common). :) The hair is 100% authentic—a style that seems to be popular hair. Red hair in general is popular hair. It's a dyed red, ranging from bright orange to pure red, solid dyed or streaks, and no attempt is ever made to make it look natural. That is pretty much what the seats actually look like (not quite the right color but I had to darken it so it would show up), except that there is no way the bar could actually be on that side. (If it was, her legs would be either in the wall or running into the seat on the other side.)

I'll have to look up where I got the base. It wasn't one of my usual sources.
Sarah - 1:50 PM - 0 comment(s)

Wednesday, April 09, 2003

"We know what you fear, but what are you for?"
If Mir can reference RUF every three posts, I can certainly quote Lost and Found every now and then. I think of this particular line sometimes when I see protestors or protest posters. (And I feel about the same way about Christians who purport to be "praying for peace" when it is clear that they are really praying against the U.S. government. Not all are like that. It's a minority, surely. But they're vocal.)

They haven't been too bad lately, though. Perhaps they have gotten bored, or perhaps their end of the semester workloads are more important to them than World Peace and Great Causes of the Moment.

Anyway, I think the inherent problem with any protest is that it is automatically against something. I don't seem to recall being against something having succeeded very many times historically. It is much more effective (morally, spiritually, and otherwise) to be for something. If they are so concerned about funding for education, why don't they volunteer en masse in the city schools to help tutor kids in math and reading? A couple hundred college kids could make a real difference that way, since grade school kids inevitably think that college students are the coolest! Or perhaps they could have an anti-war food drive and say that they are more concerned about the very real issues here at home. That way, even if you disagreed with them, you would have to admit that they were accomplishing something and had their hearts in the right place.

*sigh*

In happier, less meaningful, and decidedly more fun news, I finally got a Jaranai doll that I am halfway happy with. (You...uhm...don't get to see the first attempt.) I tried to use a larger base so that I could do the mask properly, but I think I picked the wrong larger base, and anyway it is easier to design clothing on a base that is mostly proportional. That is a mask, not goggles, and her eyes are closed (not easy to represent on such a scale). The mask is not the diguise; it only represents the magical device which prevents people from recognizing her.
Sarah - 12:27 AM - 0 comment(s)

Tuesday, April 08, 2003

YAAAAHHHHHHHHHHHHHH!
I wish I could really scream right now. That would help, I am sure.

Oh, and recall that programming assignment that is due on Thursday but not really? It turns out that he is officially required to have it due no later than the last day of classes, but he is unofficially giving us an extra week. *enormous sigh of relief* This is good, because there was just no way it was going to happen! I have enough stuff due on Thursday.

But that is not why I want to scream.

I got an email from my old boss at camp. AHHH! She wants to know about my summer plans. She said complimentary things and mentioned the possiblity of me being a Team Coordinator. She even mentioned that there is a church looking to do a camp with a focus on peace (gee, it's not like I have any experience with anything called "Peace Camp", oh, no, not at all!). And it was all I could do to keep from replying then and there and say "oh, to heck with the physics stuff!"

I am getting extremely frustrated with the not knowing part. I've only found the one thing that has really captured my interest. The more that I think about it, the less interest I have in sitting around doing research all summer! I can't see myself doing that seriously for any extended portion of my life! The physics education deal still sounds cool, but I haven't heard back from them, and I don't know when or even if I will. (They could've sent me information weeks ago and I might not have gotten it yet. :P) Intellectually, I know that I need to do something like this.

But emotionally, and spiritually...I don't know. After the excitement of sending in the application wore off, it began to hit me how much I would miss a summer at camp. How much I need that kind of fellowship and support. I'm not getting it here in Montreal and I wouldn't be getting it in Seattle. (I don't make friends that easily, except at camp, which is a special environment for that sort of thing.)

And again, I don't know what to do. :\

I wish I knew the people in the physics department here better. I would dearly love to talk to a science person (preferably a physicist) who is a Christian right about now.
Sarah - 12:08 PM - 0 comment(s)

Monday, April 07, 2003

I hate scheduling.
Next year, I shall be a senior. Yay. Woohoo. I am so excited. No, really!

You see, there's this little course I have to take next fall known affectionately as "Senior Lab". This is basically physics major hazing, where they chain you down in the basement and let you out occasionally for food and water. I'm not kidding! Seniors have been known to come to lab in their pajamas and are often accused of spending their lives down there. In the basement. There are no windows.

But the worst thing at the moment is that senior lab takes up a scheduled block of time every Tuesday and Thursday for the entire afternoon. Which is a nice way of saying that it takes your schedule, chews it up into digestable chunks, and spits out the remains into a pitiful pile at your feet, from which you are expected to piece together something resembling a set of courses that will not result in a nervous breakdown before the semester is halfway over. (Because, after all, you have to survive at least long enough to finish enough labs to at least pass.)

After getting all of this dubious benefit from being surrounded by French all the time, I can't take any French classes because, well, there are only three, two of them are on Tuesday/Thursday, and I am not taking the Intro Literature course. I have been reading and having discussions entirely en français since my first semester at college, and I do not need to be coddled and made to do busy-work.

My guitar instructor's name no longer appears on the course of study, which makes me sad. :( I don't know what's up with that, and what is more relevent, I do not know what section to sign up for! (Not to mention the fact that I don't know who to get approval from...)

So I need a third academic course (I can't take four with the Lab of DOOM and guitar and choir), and it can't be in French. And it can't be one of the two courses I would need to get a Scientific Computing concentration, either, because all of them are only offered in the spring. *sigh*

I suppose I could do an independent study...but that would require some serious initiative!

And I still do not know what I am doing this summer.
Sarah - 4:09 PM - 0 comment(s)

I found a grey hair this morning.
Surely I am too young for grey hair! But there it was. Right in the front!

It was pretty long, and sort of translucent/clear all the way down. (Not actually grey.) I only noticed it because it reflected the light better than my other hairs. When my hair is clean (which it is right now), it's very shiny, so I suppose I just missed it. Very peculiar.

Doing an entire doll in a particular shade of one color is really an interesting exercise. Alas, for all that it is fun to make dolls of tough gals with cool weapons, almost all of the Évali are monochromatic. That, and I can't seem to help them looking nice. These are not nice people. Oralia is really a good person, but she is not nice.

Oralia Queen-of-Queens, as they call her, is the heroine of a rather dark storyline I've got that is essentially the story of the Évali, and it's really about redemption and grace, except that of course in order for those things to have any meaning, there has to be a Fall (capital "F" obligatory).

("...with ghosts in the gas tank!" hehe...)
Sarah - 12:22 AM - 0 comment(s)

Sunday, April 06, 2003

I swear this is my only character with green hair.
I mean, I understand that in anime and manga, wild hair colors make sense because really the faces are all the same (that's the style) and the hair is all that distinguishes different character. But a lot of people give their characters funky hair colors for no particular reason other than because they think it looks "cool". If you are not doing anime or manga-style art and your characters live in the "real" world or are supposed to be normal humans, then they had jolly well better have normal hair colors unless you explain why it is otherwise.

But Chloris has green hair because her color is green, and while not all of her "sisters" have hair matching their primary color, Chloris is just enough of a little punk that she would dye her hair if it didn't come out that color naturally! And yes, those are tatoos, and yes, those are sharpy pointy claw-things attached to her hands (they are weapons, they don't grow there automatically!), and the fact that she likes to get her own hands bloody tells you a lot about her personality. This chick is a bad, bad person (and proud of it). :P (But redeemable, of course...expect to see some of her sisters, because they are really rather fun...)

I like the short, spiky hair. And the tatoos. And the weaponry.

I went to the grocery store on the way back from church (I made it to church! I got roped into helping with the passion reading next week! How Lutheran!), mostly to buy butter (okay, margarine) so that I could cook and eat my sweet potatoes. (You just don't eat sweet potatoes without butter.) I also bought a bag of "baby" carrots which I can munch on and slice into soups and—get this—an onion. I bought an onion. On my own, without being required to put it into anything. I am so impressed.
Sarah - 4:52 PM - 0 comment(s)

I hate Daylight Saving Time.
I just thought I'd share that.

This is Karita. Isn't she pretty? I was working on clothing design, among other things. Yes, she is supposed to have mis-matched sleeves; apparently that is the fashion!

Kari is the sister of the king, which is really all that most people know about their princess, since she does not live at the court. The young king (whose kingdom, which is really quite enormous, still lacks a name) is seriously ill, a fact which is carefully hidden because, well...court intrigue, you know. The obvious contenders for a successor all are quite nasty people, so the king and his closest advisors concoct a daring plan to put his intelligent, perceptive, compassionate little sister on the throne.

By the time Karita is announced as heir to the throne, she must be ready to win the crown in her own right. Because aside from the fact that there has never been a ruling queen, Karita was also born deaf. In this culture, where spoken language is considered the primary accomplishment separating humans from animals, Kari is going to have to stun the doubters into aquiesance.

Aside from her not inconsiderable wits and charm, her greatest weapon is surprise. Kari is an unknown factor, since she has grown up in the country, living in a small manor near a nice little village. The villagers know that she is a noble, of course, but they have no idea that she is also a princess. She grows up playing with the peasant children, and they treat her as one of their own, except that of course she has nicer clothing!

Anyway, Kari is not precisely the heroine, but rather the central figure about which the story revolves.
Sarah - 12:05 AM - 0 comment(s)

Saturday, April 05, 2003

Finally!
The Forest anniversary is here! Yay! Now I can post all of my cool Forest dolls! :) (Oh, and...Adopt-A-Loyhale! *snicker*)

I found some cute sprite bases by lashtal and...well...got a little carried away! (But are you going to argue with miniature Reyl? I'm sure she's in a bad mood already!)

I really feel the need to sit in front of the TV and make dolls. Unfortunately, the only movie on the lower twenty channels is Battlefield Earth in French. :P I cannot tell about the higher channels because the website I use is not working! *sigh*
Sarah - 8:51 PM - 0 comment(s)

Friday, April 04, 2003

I would be more excited about it being Friday...
...if I didn't have to wait around until my two o'clock appointment. :P

This calls for...a list!

10 random things in Sarah's big black bag:

1. Flourescent yellow United States Postal Service pen.
2. Bottle of assorted pain-killers.
3. Fundamentals of Differential Equations and Boundary Value Problems.
4. TI-82 calculator.
5. Black uni-ball pen (out of ink).
6. Copy card from home school library.
7. Book of Common Prayer.
8. Peach Smints.
9. CD player and headphones.
10. One of the little foam pads that covers the ear piece on said headphones (or is supposed to).

Sarah - 12:50 PM - 0 comment(s)

Thursday, April 03, 2003

'Discover United State's (sic) TERRORISM'
Uh...yeah. Reinforcing my cynical impression that Canadians don't know what terrorism is and confessing a total ignorance of so much as the name of the country, all in the same poster! (I don't know of anyone or any country called "United State".)

It's really hard to be offended when they are so funny!

I progressed the Council storyline last night. Aren't you impressed? You should be impressed.

All of my blog links come up as "visited" on this computer before I even visit them. What does that say about how often I come to this lab? I just get on whichever computer is available, so the fact that they all have all of my favorite links in their history logs tells you something. ;)
Sarah - 1:37 PM - 0 comment(s)

Tuesday, April 01, 2003

City life is so exciting.
So I get out of class early, so early that I actually get to the metro station a few minutes before 4 o'clock. And they are saying that there is an "interruption de service" and not giving a target time, so I get adventurous and go buy ice cream (yum!). Half an hour later, I come back and they are still not giving a target time (from Angrignon to Atwater, about three-fourths of the green line, is closed at this point), so I give up and hike to a station on the orange line, which runs parallel to green through downtown. It is something of a hike, and it turns out that unlike the downtown green stations, the downtown orange stations do not have really obvious metro signs every ten meters as you walk down the street. So it is confusing.

And then I finally arrive at Bonaventure station just in time for them to close down the majority of the orange line, running from, you guessed it, Bonaventure to Snowdon (my other other stop). So we end up with I would guess a good third of Montreal's metro system closed down, including the busiest sections of track (downtown), the single busiest station (McGill, my usual downtown stop), and the end-of-the-work-day crowd.

Yay.

The net result is that it took me nearly two hours to get home. Sheesh.

In other news, we are about to start round three of Snick...er, Forest Mafia—as soon as the Mage and Mafia turn in their choices and Salli gets her act together, that is. ;)

And I really need to go do laundry now, before I run out of clothing or the laundry room closes for the night.

Yay.
Sarah - 6:20 PM - 0 comment(s)

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Archive (leftovers)

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