I have had pretty poor internet connection since I moved to Milwaukee. It would let me browse for a little while, then inform me that my network cable was unplugged. It would take several minutes before I could get reconnected. And sites like Facebook never worked properly.

I finally talked Time Warner into sending someone out to check to see what was wrong. And wouldn't you know it? There was a problem with their equipment. Which, you know, I had been telling them since, like, June.

In laymen's terms, it turns out the problem was they had the connection to my room was limited to 64 units of information per session. Which isn't very much at all. So when those 64 items had been used up, I would get booted off. The tech changed it to "unlimited", which is what it should've been in the first place. He also found out that the building's bandwidth allotment had yet to be upgraded, so he fixed that as well.

So now I can browse the internet without getting kicked off every five minutes and everyone in the building can enjoy download speeds that are twice as fast.

GO ME.

I am running on empty, man. Been up since 8am after a night where I got four hours of sleep. You do the math cause I can't, but I figure any which way that equals TIRED AS HELL, especially since I spent all day working on an annotated bibliography which meant I had to read and summarize 20 journal articles and WOW this is a run on sentence. But I got it done and turned it in since it was due Thursday at 11:59pm. Next up is some search engine evaluation paper that is due 11:59pm Friday/today.

At some point I had planned on writing some long rant and I think I am doing pretty well, but not in the way I planned.

OH!

While I was working on my homework, I suddenly smell this absolutely dreadful smell. Turns out my cat was a little backed up and solved the problem by rubbing her butt on my carpet and staining it, as well as depositing a smelly nugget right behind my futon. Which I got to clean up, trying not to gag. She watched me clean it up, and when I was done she helpfully scraped non-existent "litter" (read, she clawed the carpet) in the area where she had left me her thoughtful gift.

Thanks, cat. You complete me.

I am catching up on the latest episode of Supernatural. I about had an aneurysm when the title card informed me that the episode was taking place in Wellington, OH. My parents' best friends live there, and as a kid I spent a few weeks every summer visiting that tiny village.

I am already thrown by the mention of the "high country" and "woods" that are supposedly there. It's all flat and farmland. Honestly, show, I know Wellington is a small village, but would it hurt you to purchase a topography map?

I will update this further as the show goes on.

EDIT: There are no hotels in Wellington. Seriously. You'd have to go to the next little town over. Elyria or Oberlin. That's one of the things I remember about being there as a kid, is that we always had to drive like half an hour to go shopping or to the movies. Also, no "old paper mill". Used to be a lot of cheese factories, however. ;-)

EDIT # 2

Also, Gabriel is full of shit. One of the big differences between angels and people, and one of the reasons Lucifer got so pissed at God, is that people have this little thing called "free will". They can choose their own paths. Dean and Sam are not destined to do anything. I don't care whose vessels they are.

I have said it before and I will say it again. If Sucky John ends up being some sort of vessel for God, I will be UBER pissed. YOU HEAR THAT KRIPKE?!?!

My family visited this weekend. My dad thought he smelled pot being smoked right outside the front of the building not once, but twice. My window is right above the front of the building and I have had to leave it open because there is something wrong with my heater.

So maybe this lethargy I have been feeling isn't quite related to the change of seasons in the way I thought...

One of my favorite things about True Blood is that every week they have a different crazy song that plays during the end credits. Watching a man get eviscerated, followed by a happy, plucky country tune. Awesome.

My other favorite thing is Alexander Skarsgård.




Mrroww.

So I have had spotty internet connection since I moved into my apartment. The internet is provided with the apartment, which I THOUGHT would make things more convenient, since all i had to do was plug the computer into the wall and then open a web browser. That's the theory anyway.

Back when I just had one computer connected directly to the wall with a really long cord, every once in awhile a message would pop up telling me that my cable was unplugged. Which, it wasn't, but my computer would not connect to the internet. I called Time Warner a couple of times, but they told me that the problem was with my computer, not their equipment. I know a fair amount about computers and cable modems, having had to deal with faulty ones quite frequently, so I was pretty sure in my own personal assessment that their was something up with THEIR equipment (for a bunch of reasons I won't go into here, since I'm sure no one cares), but I have learned from experience that it is pointless to argue with the tech people on the phone.

Flash forward a couple of months. Since I now have a laptop and a desktop, I got myself a wireless router. Woke up this morning, and neither computer connects to the internet, even though they show up as connected and both have IP addresses and whatnot. I make another call to Time Warner (probably my fifth or sixth since moving here in May), and what do you know, there is a problem with their equipment!

Well, no shit. I could've told you that three months ago. But since my computer would always reconnect after a couple of minutes, I guess they figured everything was fine. WHEN IT IS APPARENT THAT IT WAS NOT.

I have no idea when someone is coming over to fix the equipment. I have homework to catch up on this weekend. Carrie and Jade have been kind enough to offer me the use of their apartment and their internet, which is a relief. Right now I am tentatively connected to an unsecured network located somewhere nearby, but the signal is strong and I don't know how long it will work.

THIS IS REALLY INCONVENIENT.

And now I am done whining.

I hear you, wind.

Trying to act all tough. Gusty. Acting like you're gonna blow one of the numerous trees outside my window over. I even feel you squeezing yourself through my air conditioning unit.

I am not impressed.

I had a dream I was on some generic university campus. A friend ran up to me. She was naked, because she had slipped in some vomit and gotten it all over her clothes. I gave her my jacket, and she stuck pieces of paper over her other private parts, and we began to walk back to the dorms. Along the way, she got a lot of weird looks (and some compliments).

When we got back to the dorm, the hall was filled with little children from Africa holding instruments. My friend and I got into the elevator. There was a crevice running along the edge of the elevator, and some man was laying in it. My friend suddenly had a backpack and started to pull her now-clean clothes out of it, and get dressed. She almost dropped her bra and underwear down the crevice of the elevator. I looked at the door to the elevator, and saw the front end of a pair of boots (presumably attached to a person) climbing up.

When the door to the elevator opened, a partition came down from the ceiling and almost crushed the man laying in the crevice. My friend dropped her shopping bag, and food came tumbling out. I helped her to gather it up while some nice man held the door. She was very proud that she had found some special kind of grapes (big and purple ones) to honor our guests from Africa. I grabbed a huge, squishy onion that was as big as my stomach and her and I stepped off the elevator.

Again, the hall was filled with children from Africa holding various instruments, preparing to give us a concert. A representative from the university held out a flute to me, expecting me to take it as apparently we were supposed to join in at some point to show our solidarity and brotherhood. I declined, since I cannot play the flute, and anyway my hands were full so I had to get back to my room to drop off my stuff. He told me to hurry back before the harmonica was taken.

I opened the door to my room, which resembled a classroom more than a dorm. A bunch of people from my high school were there. One African American mentioned something about how we had to make the kids from Africa feel at ease, since they didn't entirely believe that slavery was over (we had done it once, what was to prevent us from doing it again?). This devolved into a discussion about "illegal aliens", with a different boy praising the merits of having an office American I.D. card that had to be carried around at all times. Another girl and I were quick to defend "undocumented immigrants", pointing out that since they worked for less it allowed prices to stay low, which was useful to the economy. I added that some people, mostly women, would buy things they didn't need just because the price was so good. The matter settled, we began to fire guns filled with cheese at one another and practice a song we had prepared for our guests.

We filed out onto the clearing in the middle of a forest to take our seats for the concert. Little monsters was circling the group, and they kept trying to take a bite out of me. I prevented this by stabbing them whenever they got close to me.

The children from Africa marched out and formed a group. It soon became apparent that they were not there to give us a concert, as all of them had one hand completely wrapped up with a white bandage. In reality, they were there to punish us for how we had treated the Jews in the past. Our punishment was that we had to jump off this tall tower onto a trampoline, where we would presumably be turned into whatever we wanted to be, or whatever we feared being. It varied from person to person.

I went back to my dorm room to get some things. There was a huge bag of condoms sitting in the public bathroom, and I took a couple so I could be prepared for whatever happened. A guy, in a blind panic, wrenched a toilet bowl from the ground and used it to break open a window. As he was trying to escape by crawling out of it, I heard the voices of the children say,

"We are aware of everything. For instance, at this moment someone is trying to escape. He is dead now."

And the guy fell back from the window onto the floor, stone cold dead.

I went back to the dorm room. All of my classmates were sitting around panicking, trying to figure out what to do. I was calm, and told them that it was worse sitting around dreading the unknown. Since we couldn't escape, I was going to go face the punishment that the little kids from Africa had sentenced us to. They told me it was easier for me, since I had friends. I laughed at them and told them that I was more aware than most people that I was always alone, that in fact I suspected that a great deal of people never felt close to anyone.

I got in line to take my punishment. A guy before be stepped of the ledge, bounced on the trampoline, and became a clown in full makeup. It was my turn. I briefly considered calling my dad to tell him what was going on and to say goodbye, but I didn't want to worry him when there was nothing he could do. I whispered,

"I love you, daddy."

Then I jumped. I bounced off the trampoline a couple of times.

And then I transformed into a vampire.

There were a couple of other people who had turned into vampires because they were masquerading as them beforehand, and they were all freaked out. I was in seventh heaven. I convinced them that we needed to stick together, and that we could be an awesome coven. I told them that we could go around the world, killing evil people.

"I know it is SO Ann Rice," I said, "but it is something I have always wanted to do."

I told them I wanted to go home and see my family, and gave all my fellow vampires a couple of days to do the same. We were to meet in front of the Grace A. Dow Memorial Library in a couple of days, after sundown but before 10:30pm,. which is when we would be departing.

We went to the Middle East and convinced some terrorist group that we wanted to join up. Instead, when they took us to their camp, we turned on them, sniping them as we jumped from tree branch to tree branch to keep them confused. We saved the leader for last, and captured him and tied him up instead of just outright shooting him. We were torturing him when an American soldier arrived. He complimented us on our good work, and told us to wait there while he went to get his commanding officer. He wanted us to work for the U.S. Army. Since vampires work for NO ONE, we waited until he left then took off.

And then I woke up.

Y'all need to go out and see Quentin Tarantino's latest, Inglourious Basterds. It's really, really good. 2/3 of the movie was in either French or German (with subtitles) and the violence (while extreme) did not happen as often as you would expect. One scene did leave me feeling a little sorry for the Nazis, which should tell you how cool of a movie this was.

Question: How long does it take for a young woman to assemble a futon without instructions, the optimal tools, or all the pieces of the frame she needs?

Answer: About five hours.

My previous futon frame suffered an unfortunate accident because Madeline was adorable. Consequently, I obtained a new one off of craigslist. The girl I bought it from at first told me that she would be able to deliver it Thursday night. So Thursday afternoon I took apart the old frame and with Carrie's help, dragged it down to the dumpsters. Then the lady called and said that she wouldn't be able to make it that evening because she was having car trouble. She wasn't able to get a car until Saturday afternoon.

So she drops it off today, after Carrie and Jade left for Madison. I ended up putting it together myself, since I had gone long enough without a futon. I had to run down to the garage dumpster area and steal the bracer-bars off of my old frame (luckily they were still there), and some of the screws are a little wonky so they will have to be replaced, but as of now it works well enough until I have my car back and can go to the hardware store.

My cat is finally starting to settle down. She does not deal well with change, so she was not to pleased when I had to rearrange the furniture after the futon got taken down. She's a little crazy again tonight, and is attacking the the white buttons on my futon mattress with vigor, but she DID sit in my lap and purr for about 20 minutes. And she really seems to like the new futon frame.

I had a dream that Grandma S. was dead. We were out at the cottage for some holiday celebration, I think maybe Thanksgiving. I was on the front lawn, and happened to glance through the window. All of my siblings were sitting in the living room with Grandma S. She looked up and saw me, and told me to come inside. I declined, and informed her that the reason was because she was dead.

"That's okay," she replied. "I'll come out there, then. Be there in just a minute!"

I can't honestly decide if the scary part was that she was dead, or just the fact that I would have to talk to her.

Pay no attention to the little hearts over his head, dear readers. For there is no doubt that the big man upstairs cannot stand me.

For the earlier part of today, my internet was down. Then my computer decided it didn't want to boot back up after I had gone and installed a new ethernet card. So after re-installing windows, I discover that the TRUE problem is that for some reason my hard drives had decided to randomly switch Master-Slave positions. So then I had to figure out how to switch that back so I could access all the programs I had installed on my primary drive that was now reading as my secondary drive.

I figured out how to do that and it is now six thirty. I was supposed to be working on my paper all this time, but now I am too frazzled and exhausted to be much good.

I don't know if this is a good thing or a bad thing, but I am definitley starting to get back into my school routine. Specifically the one where I put off papers and assignments until the last minute, then write the paper in one glorious burst of 4-5 hours of hardcore activity. I, like all of my sisters, perform best under pressure and I have generally gotten full marks on all of these papers/assignments. I'm just not sure what it says about me as a person that I would rather cuddle up on my futon and watch "Cold Case" for hours at a time rather than spread out my school work over several days.

The thing is, I am really interested about the paper I am writing, even though I can't seem to force myself to focus. The paper will be on censorship of LGBTQ materials in libraries. I've read a bunch of articles and have been keeping up with a case that is currently happening in my state, and I KNOW approximately what I am going to say and how the paper is going to go down. But instead of writing at least half the paper today like I had originally planned, I took a nap, watched "Cold Case", read some entertainment type blogs online. I *did* finish all the articles I had to read, and perhaps I will put together a bibliography for the paper later tonight.

I think my major problem is that I have gotten used to really low levels of stress. Now that I am in school again, the pressure is back on, especially since I am starting to go way deep into debt. When I think about writing the paper I automatically get this burning in my stomach and this urge to panic. I have to keep reminding myself that this paper is EASY and it is SHORT (6-8 pages double-spaced) and that it is on something I care about, all things that should make completing the assignment a cinch. I don't know if it's me being undisciplined after such a long absence from school, or if I need to start thinking about re-evaluating my meds that I take for OCD/anxiety. I seriously hope it's the former, as the latter would be a real pain in my ass. So the question becomes should I just put up with the little tummy-fireball, since I recognize it for what it is and can talk myself out of it, albeit at the last second? Or do I say to hell with that and try to figure out a way to get me on a schedule that normal people have?

Decisions, decisions.

I totally didn't realize it was Sunday until about an hour ago.

I watched the Red Wings in hi-def tonight and it was AWESOME. I don't know how I ever watched hockey in normal resolution.

I believe that Chris Osgood has made a deal with the Crossroads Demon, 'cause he has incredible luck. No way a normal person is THAT talented and THAT lucky without a little demonic nudge.

First off, for those of you who are unaware, I consider myself a liberal. A moderate liberal, but a liberal nonetheless.

So I imagine that the reasons I am reading this website are not the reasons that the website was created for.

Favorite entries include:

Liberal; "A liberal is someone who rejects logical and biblical standards, often for self-centered reasons. There are no coherent liberal standards; often a liberal is merely someone who craves attention, and who uses many words to say nothing." (First two sentences).

AND

Barack Hussein Obama; who was "allegedly" born in Honolulu and "is likely the first Muslim president.

I'll let you find the others on your own, if you are interested.

My cat and I have settled into a routine. I'm not sure whether it truly starts in the morning, or sometime at night. It's kind of this cycle.

I usually get out of bed sometime between 9:30am and 11. My cat comes running as soon as she hears the door open. She generally wants me to do one of two things: either give her food (even if she already has some) or let her outside, which I cannot do. If it's the latter, I carry her over to where her litter box is and drop her in front of it. If she continues to bug me, I'll stick her on the window sill where she likes to sit and watch the people and cars.

I'll run errands after lunch and into the early afternoon. When I get home, the cat ignores me until I am either playing video games or crocheting. That's when she decides to make a nuisance of herself. I have to chase her away a couple of times before she finally leaves me alone and lets me do what I have to do.

She really wakes up around 10pm. She'll chase a little ball I bought her all around the apartment, and all I hear for the next 20 minutes to one hour is bells.

I go to bed between midnight and one am. She'll sleep with me for part of the night, but she usually sneaks away. Around six in the morning she will suddenly leap up right by my face and meow at me until I go feed her. That's when I shut her out of my bedroom and go back to sleep until 9:30 to 11 am when it starts all over again.

Okay, so that show Glee is kind of stupid. But I like it, for some reason...? Weird.

The male leads are both really cute. The lead chick in the show is the lead chick from Spring Awakening. There are four actors in the show who have previously been on Heroes.

So apparently there has been a serial killer active in district five of Milwaukee for the past 20 years. The police are just now choosing to make this public knowledge.

GUESS WHICH DISTRICT OF MILWAUKEE I JUST MOVED TO.

My one consolation is that I am not a black prostitute, which seems to be his victim of choice. Also, apparently, there IS a suspect. So hopefully he will be caught soon?

To top off the wonderfulness that has been my evening, my sister Carrie refuses to talk to me and I missed the sneak peak of the new TV show, Glee since the advertisements said it would be on at 9pm but failed to specify that it was 9pm EASTERN time. Since I now live in the central time zone, I tuned in a little late.

I thought that you should know.

Well, Midland, I think it's time you and I had a talk. We've had some good times, but that was many years ago when we were both young and foolish. I want you to know I am grateful for the memories, I really am, but you and I both know it is time to move on.

I've changed, Midland. I am no longer satisfied with your small town, family friendly atmosphere. I want to be in a city that is big and exciting, one that stays up past 10 p.m. I want to live in a place that is diverse and full of new ideas.

I suppose you've heard the rumors, Midland. I feel like I should tell you that they're all true. Yes, Midland, I am leaving you for Milwaukee. I know this is shocking news, so I am not going to stay long and draw out your suffering. I'll be hitting the road at eight a.m.

Wish me well, Midland. I shall do the same for you.

I feel like I want to cry or throw up or both, because I just found out that Andy Hallet, the actor who played Lorne on Angel died in March from heart failure. He was 33.

The thing that really kills me is that he developed problems with his heart because of a tooth infection that got into his blood stream. This seems like something that could have and should have been prevented.

The kicker is that Joe and I just watched the last episode of Angel. His very last line before he leaves the screen is "Good night, folks".

And now I need to go to sleep, because I am packing to move to Milwaukee tomorrow. Which is just another reason to be all emotional.