no kitten ever climbed so high

I just became the Treasurer of HSU's Taiko Club...
I'm not exactly sure how that just happened.

Feel very accomplished that I've been cleaning everything since I got back from work this evening. I even went to the grocery store!
I did alot of stuff today...except all that studying I was going to do >_<

So the landlords of the house Bianca and I have been living in are the nicest people in the world.
They said they realized that it's very difficult to find a place to live if you have a cat in Arcata, plus a place that's close to campus (where I also work), so they offered me to continue living in the house at a reduced rental price.
Bianca and I talked about it and we agreed that that was pretty ideal.

I can't even say how much of a relief that was.

Oh, and woot! for Iceland for being the first country on record to have an openly gay, female head of government:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/J%C3%B3hanna_Sigur%C3%B0ard%C3%B3ttir

Well, it's about 12:30 and I just got back from closing at the Humboldt State Library. I should be dead tired, but I feel pretty perky (especially for somebody who routinely goes to bed at around 22:00).
While walking home this evening I was struck with a sudden urge to write a journal entry as soon as I got home, and so here I am.

I figure that there are going to be quite a few changes in my life soon, which I suppose is a redundant statement since what is life except perpetual change, but I figure to accompany these specific alterations in my life there should be an increased amount of reaching out to people.
I originally started this Livejournal in order to keep in touch with my dear friends from high school, but I fell pretty quickly out of the practice of visiting this site regularly and subsequently I feel a bit out of touch with all the cool people who I know/knew on here.
So I'm going to try again, try to get back on this wagon of online emotional outreach.

I suppose a good place to start would be to say what I've been doing since my last post (some nine months ago... wow, I could have had a baby in that time).

I'm still in school. That's not so bad, I suppose, but ¡I'm still working on my friggin' bachelor's!
It's been going on for, like, six years. Common, wtf?
But anyway, it's going pretty well. Three more semesters(including the one going on now) and I'll have my BS degree...and that's not Bull Shit degree, it's a very valid and important degree.

Am currently taking my second semester of Organic Chemistry, which is my last Chemistry class for my undergraduate. I've already finished all the math, so come the last two semesters I'll have nothing but upper division Biology classes left that pertain very directly to everything I'm interested in. Pretty exciting.

Okay, 1am now. Really should get going to bed. Have lab at 11.

I'll sign off with this quote:
"Felt dark planet turn under my feet and knew what cats know that makes them scream like babies in night. Looked at sky through smoke heavy with human fat and God was not there. The cold, suffocating dark goes on forever and we are alone. Live our lives, lacking anything better to do. Devise reason later. Born from oblivion; bear children, hell-bound as ourselves, go into oblivion. There is nothing else. Existence is random. Has no pattern save what we imagine after staring at it for too long. No meaning save what we choose to impose. This rudderless world is not shaped by vague metaphysical forces. It is not God who kills the children. Not fate that butchers them or destiny that feeds them to the dogs. It’s us. Only us."
-Rorschach, Watchmen

Happy birthday Siggy Freud!!
And of course Orson Wells.

Two people who played with people's minds like had never been done before.
Except perhaps for H. P. Lovecraft.

On another note; it's the last week of school.
I have fallen into the much dreaded lethargy that accompanies the end of my semesters.
I think also being dead broke is contributing some.

My little sister Sólveig just got confirmed this last Sunday and I didn't have the money to call her after I promised I would. Hopefully I can get my credit in order and call before the week is out.

Hope you all have a lovely week.

Happy birthday Max Planck!!

Let's all celebrate by doing some quantum physics.

"I am a supporter of Obama because I believe he is the right person to lead the country at this time. He offers a rare opportunity for the country and the world to start over, and to do better. It is a deep sadness to me that many of my feminist white women friends cannot see him. Cannot see what he carries in his being. Cannot hear the fresh choices toward Movement he offers. That they can believe that millions of Americans –black, white, yellow, red and brown - choose Obama over Clinton only because he is a man, and black, feels tragic to me.
When I have supported white people, men and women, it was because I thought them the best possible people to do whatever the job required. Nothing else would have occurred to me. If Obama were in any sense mediocre, he would be forgotten by now. He is, in fact, a remarkable human being, not perfect but humanly stunning, like King was and like Mandela is. We look at him, as we looked at them, and are glad to be of our species. He is the change America has been trying desperately and for centuries to hide, ignore, kill. The change America must have if we are to convince the rest of the world that we care about people other than our (white) selves."

I'm feeling a bit *eh* today, and I'd really appreciate a comment about anything from anyone. It would really brighten my day.


Meanwhile

I finally think I've chosen the additional 15 units worth of upper division science classes I'll take for my bachelors.
Out of all my options this particular line up seemed to me to be the most coherent:
Bio 445 - Evolution
Zool 314 - Invertebrate Zoology (seems random but it is a requirement for the one below)
Biol 430 - Intertidal Ecology
and finally Bot 355 - Lichens and Bryophytes.

It was difficult not to pick Mammalogy and Mycology, I guess my introductory animal development and botany classes will have to do.
My theme seems to be towards classes that would come in handy in terms of Icelandic ecology (lots and lots of lichens and bryophytes and the island is pretty much one big intertidal zone).

Hopefully I can get a hold of my adviser (much more difficult than it should be) tomorrow to sign the contract.



...I feel so alone.

Our car (2LOX) has a new battery and a new lease on life. I can feel the borderline megalomanic sense of being able to go everywhere returning.

I went to a lunar festival at school last weekend, a celebration of the year of the rat, put on by the Asian Pacific American Student Alliance and the Multicultural Center.
I'm not sure why but it made me so happy.

There were lion dances, dumpling making, and I made a little origami rat :D

It was one of the few times were I actually went and did something that wasn't scholastic in nature. I seem to not have too much of an aversion to be a semi-bitter academic recluse. This worries me.

In other news, I was finally able to get get down to the post office and mail a much belated birthday package to the lovely Karen. Sorry for the delay >_<

Oh, and Jinny!!!!!!
Coming today she is.

Woohoo!

I like to think (and
the sooner the better!)
of a cybernetic meadow
where mammals and computers
live together in mutually
programming harmony
like pure water touching clear sky.

I like to think
(right now, please!)
of a cybernetic forest
filled with pines and electronics
where deer stroll peacefully
past computers
as if they were flowers
with spinning blossoms.

I like to think
(it has to be!)
of a cybernetic ecology
where we are free of our labors
and joined back to nature,
returned to our mammal brothers and sisters,
and all watched over
by machines of loving grace.

-Richard Brautigan

Today, after much deliberation, I finally came to a steadfast conclusion that I'm going to vote for Obama in the primaries.

I've essentially been for Clinton since she first announced that she was running; but as the campaign has progressed I've been more and more disappointed with Clinton's platform. They both profess to be middle of the road (which every democrat worth their millions is obligated to do), but Hillary Clinton's idea of middle of the road seems to be "whatever will get me elected." Claiming to be centrist just seems like an excuse to appease all potential voters.
Whereas I feel that Barrack Obama actually defends his ideas, be they from the left, right or center, and presents them openly to people who could hardly disagree more (case in point: Obama's speech to the Economic Club of Detroit, where he essentially scolded Detroit automakers for not getting with the program on fuel efficiency).

I do feel that Clinton has had a much rougher time, and has much more reason to play it safe, then Obama. I don't know of anyone who fervently hates Obama but know of several people who openly call Clinton the anti-christ, both right leaning and left.
And I do feel that privilege is a big factor. Are people more inclined to so fervently despise Clinton because she's a woman? I'd say so. In the end, when all is said and done, will most americans just be too uncomfortable voting for a black man (even if he is Dick Cheney's cousin)? Possibly.

For me personally though, I'm just sick and tired of Clintons ambiguity.
I'm sorry, Hillary, you had me at the start - but you lost me.
If you were up against most anybody else I'd still be rooting for ya, but you just can't compare with Obama's apparent lack of bullshit - but I guess only time will tell on that one.

After five months, four classes each with a lab, and six and a half hours of straight testing in one day (not including my Chem final which was on another day) my first semester at Humboldt has come to a close.
Now I'm not sure what to do with myself.
I'm very happy that I'm finally pushing myself to my full potential but I miss being social. Since my last year of High School I've gotten used to having friends and having fun, it's difficult to sacrifice that to the well of wisdom. Not that alot of the studying isn't incredibly fun - I just find that, despite myself, I am going through withdrawal for the other type of fun.

To all my friends and family out there - I miss you!!!!


My mom and my grandma are coming to LA on the 28th of this month, it'll be so great to see them both. I'm only afraid that I won't have alot of time to see all the other wonderful people that'll be in LA then.
But hey, love springs internal.
Wait, what?

This last Wednesday, the 21st of November, my dad's wife Fanný gave birth to a healthy baby boy.
This is Fanný's brother's flickr account
I like this one, it looks like he's dancing :)

Oh, and Happy Thanksgiving!! Hope y'all are safe and warm with your families.

I am so happy with my life right now.
It actually seems scary how perfectly everything has seemed to work out.
I'm so happy at school, everything is fascinating and I love having to work this hard.
I'm living with my beautiful Bianca and lovely kitty Lazarus in a little dream town sandwhiched between ocean and forest.
What did I do to deserve such wonderful things?

I'm slowly growing a beard, drinking alot of beer, and spend quite a bit of time studying Runes. I should be a full fledged Viking soon enough.

P.S. Kitty's very happy :D (I think I just blew my Viking cred with that, but oh well)

I feel very excited but also slightly melancholy.
I've only truly ever moved once before in my life and that was when I came to Los Angeles. Now that it's almost time to leave LA I find myself relatively indifferent to the place itself, but mourning the leaving behind of the many wonderful people I've had the privilege of meeting.
The fear of "what if I never see this person again?" has never been an issue for me before. When I transferred schools or moved between continents before I was relatively un-phased. I kind of accepted that I probably wouldn't see or talk to anyone I knew ever again, and it didn't bother me. Even with my best friend (who I cherished dearly) I felt sure that he would make new friends and forget me. The idea of not seeing him again didn't make me depressed.
This time though I feel a distinct twinge of loss. Maybe it has something to do with the more tangible sense of truly coming of age here in the concrete desert.
I know that Los Angeles will not be the place I'll return to soon (if at all) to live. In fact I'm not sure how much longer I'll be living in the US once I graduate, not necessarily that I'll go back to Iceland but...somewhere.
I feel almost resentful at being this emotional. That I should never be so attached to anyone that it causes pain like this.
It's very interesting to see these things in myself.

A chapter of my life is very definitively coming to an end.
Yesterday was my last day at PCC and at the Shatford Library. I'll miss the people but I'm so happy to be finally leaving this place.
The last two weeks have been especially disorienting, what with finals and the move hanging over head. The landlord being just a plain jerk didn't help much either.
After having tried to reach him for about two weeks seeing if I could get someone to stay in the apartment untill my mom comes back to the country, he leaves a note on the door saying No and that the table in the back is a fire hazard. 0_o Bloddy coward.
I finally managed to get him on the phone and now he's trying to say that he's done so many repairs on the house that he shouldn't have to give the security deposit back. He's going to come "assess" the place once we've cleared our things and we can negotiate then. Fun.
I calculated that he owes us $91 in interest as well.
Anyway, not that bad but just a bit off-pissing.


Currently reading:

* Johnathan Strange and Mr. Norrell by Sussane Clarke
* Still Life with Woodpecker by Tom Robbins (finally reading this)
* The Theory of Almost Everything by Robert Oerter (Physics, yay!)

Books I started and need to get around to finishing:

* Thus Spoke Zarathustra by You-Know-Who
* History of Mathematics Vol. II by D.E. Smith

I really hope enough people sign up for this Summer's Baja Science program. If enough people sign up for the three week Biology/Geology trip to Baja I might be able to come along as a Teachers Assisstant :)

I'll be very relieved when this semester comes to a close in June. Not that the classes are that bad I'm just getting more and more preoccupied with moving up North.
I got into both UC Davis and Humboldt State and after deciding, having second thoughts and deciding again I'll be going to Humboldt. I feel that I will do much better in the small town environment, in between the ocean and a forest (the world's tallest tree will be close by).
I'm very exited.
The semester begins on the 20th of August so we'll probably not move completely till the beginning of that month. We're still looking for a place to live up there but so far we've got a couple of leads.
It doesn't look like we'll be able to keep the Laveta house though. Mom and Hannah won't be able to move back for some time and we don't have a traditional lease (in fact, I'm not sure exactly what we do have), so subletting is looking less and less likely.
Aside from that, everything else is looking pretty good. I'll be starting Tai Chi classes soon with the wonderful taproots. Oh, and if anyone in the LA area hasn't already done so, go visit the LA Renaissance Fair. Fun for most of the family, I heartily encourage everyone to go.
So yes, that's pretty much everything that's going on.
Much love to y'all

Happy Birthday Dian Fossey

My winter intersession semester is under way and going pretty well so far. I'm in a lab group were I pretty much do all the work, and I love it. The two guys in my group are nice but rather unshure of what to do most of the time so I end up doing it.

I'm starting my volunteer work at SEA Lab this friday. I'll be working in animal care since they have all these marine animals rescued from the water intake system of several nuclear power plants. The animals are rehabilitated there (if possible) then released.

All in all, everythings going rather well. Need to find a well paying job though, but oh well ;)

Well, I'm 21 years old now.

For my 21st birthday I bought a bottle of very nice wine and a bong.
The bong wasn't so much a "Twentyone" thing as I could have bought that at 18 anyway but it was fun to shop for none the less.
I've been going through some very apathetic times but I think I'm finally coming out of it. In fact I feel more hyper and active than I have in a while.
I sent in my applications to the UCs, I still have an admission agreement with Davis. Then for shits and giggles I applied to UCLA and Berkeley. I'm going to apply to Humbolt state as well, they sound pretty groovy.

I'm going to Iceland this month!! I will have an 11 hour lay over in New York though, which I will have the pleasure of spending with Chigger. Who, by an odd coincidence, is there at the exact same time.
If anyone would like anything from Iceland, even just a post card, hit me up.

So how is everyone? And when will I get to see you all next?