tiger and dragon and charles and canoeing

God, I'm watching Tiger and Dragon and it's so good. I may have said this before but seriously, whoever thought of putting Nagase and Okada together in a drama is just a freaking genius. For reals. Also, whoever thought of putting them in a drama together and then making height jokes is a super-crazy-awesome genius. I'm halfway through episode three. They keep doing this thing where two members of a family fight and then someone says "Stop it! Stop it! You made mom cry!" And the mom is crying. But in episode three Nagase stepped in and said "Look! You made mom cry!" And then they show the mom and she's eating a cracker and she looks up all confused. ". .. Nevermind, she's not. Sorry, I'm new at this, I got the timing wrong. . ." Ahh, I laughed out loud, it was awesome.

In other news, Charles is coming this Saturday! He's coming to go to the Ansel Adams exhibit, and I figure I'll also show him around the campus and the town and all that, and Monkey wanted to go canoeing with me sometime, and it's supposed to be really nice so I thought maybe we'd take him canoeing. XD And then in the evening, Chesney is having a Pleasantville/fifties-themed party. I still don't know what I'm goign to wear to it. Strangely enough, I have no floral house dresses.

I should go to sleep soon, I have work tomorrow at nine.

Oh, anyway, canoeing class is going well. It's really nice and the teacher is incredibly laid back. He lets us leave early and stuff. And it's so nice to be outside, and actually, to do something physical. And I've learned really useful stuff. I can canoe without getting too tired, and I can steer a lot better. It's exciting!

I worked a little bit on the fanfic sequel that I started over the summer. ::sigh:: I really want to get it finished, cos if I don't do it soon, midterms and essays are going to start to kick in and I'll never finish it. Agh. I ended up splitting it into 4 short stories, three of which are quite unfinished. . . I don't see it getting done. XD I have them mostly plotted, but actually writing it in language that will turn people on is too exhausting, and my sexual arousal cycle is inconsistent and weird lately, and I'm not as turned on by it as I used to be. Plus, there's one fairly extreme thing that I'm like. . . not sure how I can make it work.

Good news, though: I think I figured out how to prove an algorithm works! I thought I had it and then it didn't work but I think I almost had it and just made one little mistake and it works now! I'm really excited! But I still have two set-related proofs and I get really confused with sets. Agh, they suck. Anyway, that's why my fanfic isn't getting written. Actually, I've been really invested in my classes this year. Except for one, maybe, cos it's my only large class (except for math, but math you have to sink or swim on your own - i mean, people can help you, but they can't cover for you). And I've been talking in class and all that. Hopefully not sounding like a moron.

friday night hijinks featuring beavers but not really

Should be cleaning my room for Carlito's arrival. Blaaagh. I spent the evening at the Friedman with Steph and Katie, but not my Katie. Katie that befriended everyone after I left last year. It was weird - like, I was gone, and then all of a sudden there was a new friend that was hanging out with all of my friends. Not that I was upset or anything, but I did jokingly call her my replacement. Anyway, we haven't gotten to hang out much cos she's student teaching and it eats your life (Becca is student teaching and on the cross country team, both of which eat your life) so it was nice to get to chill with her. It was pretty impressively not-awkward. Like, we didn't act like we were good friends, but it didn't feel like we should be doing so. Anyway, she was like "Laura, do you like crafts?" And I was like "I love crafts!" So she was like "Great, we can make cards." Haha, it turned out to be fun, lots of cutting and pasting and matching up different nicely colored and patterned papers together, but I don't send cards. XD She also showed me her scrapbook. Actually, it had a lot of really lovely pictures of Germany. Made me miss Vienna! Haha, not that I should miss Vienna, I was there for just a weekend. A really great weekend, though.

Anyway, then we watched Starter for 10, and at the beginning we were all like "What does that mean?" and Corey was like "I guess we'll find out as we watch. . ." And we totally didn't. Or maybe we did, I was doing some word puzzles as we watched. I just missed a couple things, though. Anyway, wikipedia just told me it's a catchphrase from University Challenge, which was a major part of the movie. It was fun to see stuff about university life in England - even if it takes place 20 years ago, there were still. . . well, I guess English education today is just more similar to english education of the past than American education of the present, so I was able to see a lot of familiar stuff. And explain some stuff. Like Essex, and how it famously produces "chavs". But I didn't say chav, cos I was explaining quickly during a quiet moment and I still don't quite get chav. I translate it usually as white trash, but chav has such specific cultural references - the clothing, speech, etc. So you can't really translate those. Also, sometimes I still can't recognize them. Like, my english friends would be like "Did you see that guy? Totally dodgy!" And I'll be thinking "He looked ok to me. . " I think because even dodgy english people are more preppy than sketchy americans. Or something.

It was a good movie, in any case. I just discovered how I know the main character, it's because he was Mr. Tumnus in the Narnia movie. Although, why are the characters of Rebecca and Alice played by actresses (both extremely good for the roles) named Rebecca and Alice? That's just. . . creepy.

Anyway, Steph and I headed out after the movie and left Corey and Katie with their boyfriends. We stopped at the campus center and got hot chocolate and I added cinnamon and it's delicious. I had a little moment where I was super-excited that the cinnamon was free cos in NY you'd pay a dollar extra for hot chocolate with cinnamon. XD

Then Steph and I went down to the lake to look for beavers, cos she saw a couple there around this time last Sunday. No luck. And she got totally freaked out, because apparently beavers are quite large. I think that's a fact that is grasped intellectually but not emotionally. Like, some part of me is aware of the size of beavers, I think they're one of the largest in their genus or something - ah, in their order. Second largest rodents (after capybaras, of course). But then in my mind they always seem so cute and more woodchuck-sized. So I was wondering if there were any beavers in Disney movies, but a Disney fan in the house said there's just one in Lady and the Tramp that helps gnaw off her muzzle. I think I'm actually thinking of Gopher from Winnie the Pooh. No wonder they seem so small!

And Steph also charmingly listened to me complain a little. Truly a good friend. I also want her to know, should she read this, that I'm not passive aggressive - I may make ambiguous LJ entries (sort of not really thinking that anyone I knew actually read them. . . oops) but I won't actually complain to you and try to complain about things you do without actually confronting you about it. So don't worry that I'm like "Agh, I hate such and such thing" and it's because you're doing that thing.

Also, got through 5.5 hours of work today. Wooo! I'm almost done sort of with my current project. It took longer than I thought it would! I'm used to being faster than expected. Anyway, it was ok.

OK, totally need to get cleaning. XP I wanna watch Tiger and Dragon and Yoiko no Mikata!

Oh, also. OK, I'm really excited for Innochi (member of Japanese boy band - except the youngest is 27 - V6). He's getting married! It's awesome! He's the first post-SMAP JE boy to get married. And only the second of the current generation, period. Haha, KimuTaku. XD Innochi is the first of the current generation who isn't the most popular man in Japan to be getting married. OK, he's just engaged and there's no date, but it's still a super-big step, for him to be allowed to have a public relationship, and I hope it means that others among the older guys will be allowed to pursue more normal relationships as well. Yaaaay Innochi! So cute, so smiley!