Yeah, so my fingers are numb.

by Alicja Rodzik
I came out of the bedroom this morning adorned in a hat, scarf, and sweater since it was so windy the day before and my mom thinks I won't need any of it. Well guess what. I'm still freezing my arse off. So there.

I'd like to do something for Halloween, but parties are not my thing and I'm too old to trick or treat, unfortunately. And I don't really know what else there is to be done on Halloween, so I get to stay home and buy candy for the little kiddies because my mom refuses to participate on this particular holiday. She's such a party pooper.

I know that a bunch of you, like myself, are Harry Potter fans, but I don't know if any of you read fanfiction? I have a weird preference myself, a Hermione/Severus ship. Yeah, I hear those sniggers, but seriously, it usually works out because they just fit if you've never thought about it before.

I've got a couple of favorite stories if you want to read them. They do have a couple of romantically raunchy chapters each, though. Not that that's a bad thing. Hurhur. But you'll need to have an account to read the R rated fictions, so you can borrow mine! Yay! Just don't abuse it, I tell you, like sending weird messages to the authors.

username: pherenike
password: xVmXUNYRum

The Phantom of Hogwarts
This story sort of mashes together some Phantom of the Opera with Harry Potter via the students of Hogwarts putting on the play for a triwizard competition between themselves, Durmstrang, and Beauxbatons. However, Severus is unexpectedly (not!) cast as the phantom while Hermione is cast as Christine Daae. Since they play opposite each other, they have to spend quite a bit of time together, ahem ahem. WARNING: This story is ridiculously long. I mean, if you were to copy and paste this story into a word document, it would probably be more than two thousand pages. And it's still going. So good luck!

The Problem With Purity
This is one of my favorites because the characters' personalities are so true to canon and the storyline is clever and original, and I love how the relationships between characters is so believable. Hermione and Harry both find out that they are both considered Pure Adults, a term given to those witches and wizards who are still virgins by the time they turn 17. According to the author, that's a very rare condition amongst the wizarding population, as the last Pure Adult was alive several hundred years prior, and so the two of them try to keep this a secret from the rest of wizarding society.

Stomping on egg shells.

by Mariah Helena Kordzadze
I was reading up on an old friend's profile on facebook and he wrote in his "about me" section, the following: "I get really upset when complete strangers don't go out of their way to make my life easier." Cracked the heck up. It was a good laugh.

On a more serious note, I'm opening up a lot more to the people around me about my personal life.

Charissa: Hey, what's wrong?
Me: Oh, I feel like crap. I need a nap, advil, and a snuggle. So, I'm probably PMSing.
Charissa: Dude, I know what you mean. Don't you have a snuggle buddy, eh?
Me: Not anymore.
Charissa: Well, what happened!

This is where the blow by blow of the whole of my relationship between myself and Granma took place. Every last detail, pretty much everything I've said on this blog during the months of July and August, and then some. But instead of saying things like "what a deuche bag" in response, she says, "If you ask me, he was just scared."

(I gave her a look.)
Charissa: No, I'm serious. I have tons of guy friends and they dump their girlfriends because they're not ready for a serious relationship yet. I mean, they're too scared to have a relationship that they'd let the perfect girl for them go just like that? That's ridiculous. And you two have so much in common; no wonder you like him so much!
Me: You know what's really exhausting? There hasn't been a single day since I've met him that I haven't thought about him. Not one day.
(Granma walks past the window and winks at me.)
Me: Oh, God. He just winked at me.
Charissa: Did you smile back at him?
Me: Myep.
Charissa: You two are so cute.
Me: Yeah, shut up.
Charissa: Girl, I'll tell you this. I'm convinced that over time the two of you will bloom.
(I laughed out loud, for sure.)
Charissa: No! Seriously, you both get along so well even after you've been through a break up, sitting together during your lunches... And he must have really liked you enough to have gone on at least six dates with you and make out with you and everything. It's going to happen.

So with all this talk about Granma, I was inspired to get us to hang out again. After work when he was driving out of the parking lot, he waited for me to approach the car where I asked if he'd have time for dinner.

But he had a pained look on his face before he said no, that he's going to a costume party. I don't know if the pained look was for the reason that he would actually have wanted to have dinner with me and couldn't, or for the reason that he's pained that I'm still trying to be with him even though we're clearly not together anymore. I don't know what to think.

But after I asked him, I realized that I'm now in the mindset of, "Who cares if we broke up before? I want to go out with him now." Which is dumb. Cute, but dumb.

Anyway, I'm glad I had this talk with Charissa so that someone knows what's going on and can give me advice, show sympathy, and help motivate me. I never would have thought I needed to tell all of this to someone in person (no offense you all), but I feel so much better after having done so.

Purely for show.

Well, I'm supposed to be studying for my organic chemistry exam that's on Monday, but instead I am writing this entry mainly because I found another amazing artist on DeviantART whose work I just wanted to share that badly.







by Christine Amat
She has other works besides landscapes, but I think they're her best. I love the first one especially, it's perfect. Perfect! AHH!

No one really wins.

by Bee
My mom is so strange. I was studying anxiously for this exam that was on Monday and we had a conversation about wanting to change the layout in my room while I was breaking for lunch. She surprised me when I got home from work by cleaning my whole room because I didn't have time to do it. She's such a sweetie sometimes.

Anyway, she's strange because she can go from really sweet, like this, to someone completely illogical. She walked in with a basket of my freshly laundered sheets and so I got up to make the bed. Then she called in my step dad and declared that they were moving my furniture around, when she had already explicitly said that we would plan a day to do such a thing after school is out in December. Yet here she was, getting ready to work on my bedroom when I need to study. So... I was pretty much half grateful and half angry.

But anyway, the room makes more sense, now. I like it. And I think I might have actually not failed miserably on that exam. And I'm not exaggerating or anything, I'm aiming to just pass this class; I have no expectations. It's way too difficult to teach yourself such difficult material because the teacher is too lazy to help properly.

Where The Wild Things Are was interesting. Max is so adorable, a typical little kid who is starving for attention from his family and runs away to a world where he can be king. There really isn't much to the story plot-wise, to be honest; the movie is simply a presentation of the relationships between the characters. It was a picture book after all. But! It was still supercuteawesome.

Ever heard "Photosynthesis Rocks" by The Whomping Willows? It rules all schools.

The word "epic" has gotten old, hasn't it?

by Monika Skalak
I propose bringing back the word "tight". I used to say "that's tight" all the time in elementary school and it has fallen into some sort of abyss and we must rescue it! Why? I don't know, I'm just being nostalgic again.

I parked my car on campus and there's a pathway that's lined with trees that I take on my way to class. As I walk along I realize that each of these trees are staring at me with googly eyes. You know, the ones your elementary school teachers supplied you during your arts and crafts session? Literally, each tree had a pair of googly eyes and of course I couldn't help but giggle. I just really appreciate the sort of people who go about and do silly things like this to make others smile.

The sky looks like it's about to rain, but I'm sitting outside anyways, however wrapped up in a scarf and drinking peppermint hot chocolate. I heard it's supposed to start raining tomorrow, so I'm hoping I don't get rained on now, but I'm next to a building in case the weather people made a mistake and I need to make a quick gettaway.

Granma and I raced each other yesterday after work. I felt like sprinting and he agreed to race me. I was pretty sure he'd be fast because he's got that sort of a build and his legs get a work out every day at work, so I wasn't expecting to win. And I didn't, but sprinting makes me feel so good, even if I am panting like crazy afterwards. Granma didn't share this belief so much, but I'm hoping he'll keep racing me until I beat him. Heh, who knows, it could happen. I didn't lose by that much after all.

I'm looking forward to seeing Where The Wild Things Are. Although, I hardly remember the book as I haven't read it since I was so small.

Slap him in the face, already.

by Deniz Akseki
Some people are described as having a 'dry' sense of humor. As opposed to a 'wet' sense of humor? What on earth does that mean?

I went on to ratemyprofessors.com in order to strongly discourage anyone from taking this certain professor of mine and ended up laughing so hard that my face was almost stuck that way. Why? Because everyone has the same opinions as I do concerning the man. Here are some examples:

"[Mr. X], a nice person, is the worst teacher I have ever had, and probably the worst teacher alive. His inability to answer questions will leave you wanting to throw chalk at him, again horrible professor. Any time I asked a question, he would laugh literally in my face, it sounds like a joke but its the truth and nothing but the truth."

"Guy's boring. He sounds like a cross between Elmer Fudd and Adam Sandler's character in The Waterboy. He knows his stuff, for the most part, but he's one of those few that probably shouldn't be teaching. He's kind of condecending as well, although he will help if you ask him to."

"He laughs at students when they don't understand something and tells other students how poorly you do (privacy violation). Very rude and condescending. Won't listen to your question and interrupts you before you can ask it. Talks too much about his research and connections."

Seriously. Worst. Teacher. Ever. EVER.

Here, have a chill pill.

by Metin Demiralay
It's a listy kind of day.

1. 98% on Real Analysis Midterm #1 :D
2. 87% on Organic Chemistry Midterm #1 :D
3. Avg. 56% on Linear Algebra homeworks D:
4. Kiwi iced tea from Java City :)
5. No more Naruto to watch :(
6. Fall is here :)
7. Dent in the back of my brand new car D:
8. Using poladroid.net up the heezy, thanks Lizzie :)

Wait--what?! DENT IN THE NEW CAR?!

I know. I was showing my car to one of my coworkers who didn't know I bought it and he was checking it out and noticed a hand-sized dent in the back. Luckily, it looks like it can pop back fairly simply, but seriously?! I've only had it for two months and someone has already had the inclination to damage the thing? Pure ridiculosity.

Only a little bit hopeful.

by Judith Sombilon
I'm feeling a little better about things. I'm not stressing over linear algebra anymore because I've come to terms with the fact that I'm probably not going to pass and so I don't have much in the realm of high expectations. Meanwhile, I'm doing great in my other classes, and that makes me feel good.

Granma is being a tiny bit more of a better friend, too. He actually accepted one of my requests to hang out the other day. We didn't do much of anything, because it was late and after work, so we just watched a couple of episodes of The Simpsons and were laying still in bed and in silence for quite some time. I suppose he probably fell asleep for a bit, but I couldn't shut my eyes if I wanted to.

I think that's all I really needed from him: some sort of confirmation that we are at least sort of friends, still, after our break up. I got a good hug from him at the end of the night. I'm not expecting anything along the lines of his liking me again, although I wonder what ever happened with that. Anyway, I'm pretty sure that I'm doing just fine.