Development[s]

i am changing so much...

i don't know if you did this when you were younger, but i used to "invent" alphabets. they were just simple characters that replaced the english letters, and i usually abandoned them after not very long.

today, i learned a new "language" - the quotes because it's really more an alphabet than a language, but it's much more than an alphabet. it's regular english, but written in a special kind of shorthand, that has ties to english.

it's actually fairly intuitive and quick and pretty. i learned it this morning, and can write decently in it by this afternoon. its creator and i have taught a few other people to read it, and they agree that it's neat and easy.

don't know why i felt compelled to share, but it really is cool.

examples:

Have you ever been close to tragedy
Or been close to folks who have
Have you ever felt a pain so powerful
So heavy you collapse
Ive never had to knock on wood
But I know someone who has
Which makes me wonder if I could
It makes me wonder if
Ive never had to knock on wood
And Im glad I havent yet
Because Im sure it isnt good
Thats the impression that I get
Have you ever had the odds stacked up so high
You need a strength most dont possess
Or has it ever come down to do or die
Youve got to rise above the rest
Ive never had to knock on wood
But I know someone who has
Which makes me wonder if I could
It makes me wonder if
Ive never had to knock on wood
And Im glad I havent yet
Because Im sure it isnt good
Thats the impression that I get
Im not a coward,
Ive just never been tested
Id like to think that if I was,
I would pass
Look at the tested and think there but for the grace go
I might be a cowards,
Im afraid of what I might find out
Ive never had to knock on wood
But I know someone who has
Which makes me wonder if I could
It makes me wonder if
Ive never had to knock on wood
And Im glad I havent yet
Because Im sure it isnt good
Thats the impression that I get

-mighty mighty bosstones.

i love this song and it seems appropriate. truly, what tragedies have i faced? i couldn't even imagine being a va tech student.

Back from Utah! Already miss it!

( It was beautiful... )

man snowboarding makes me happy.

Kim: OMGOMGOMGOMGOMGOMGOMGOMG
Kim: OGMGOMGOMGOMGOMGOMGOMGOMG
jon: !!!
Kim: OGMOGMGOMGOMGOMGOMGOMGOMGOMGOGMGOMG
jon: this better be good
Kim: GUESSSSSSSSSS WHAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAT
jon: hannah montana!?!
Kim: KEN JENNINGS (LIKE MY SECOND FAVORITE MORMON EVER) MENTIONED ORSON SCOTT CARD (LIKE MY FAVORITE MORMON EVER) IN HIS LAST POST
Kim: AND TALKED ABOUT HIS BOOKS
Kim: AND IT WAS SO PERFECT
jon: OMG!
Kim: well briefly anyway
Kim: BUT IT WAS LIKE MY WORLDS COLLIDED
jon: worlds colliding is usually bad
Kim: BUT IN A GOOD WAY
Kim: THAT MAKE STE UNIVERSRE HAPPY
jon: yea
Kim: BASICALLY IM EXCITED
Kim: cuz theyr eboth MORMONS
Kim: and AWESOME
jon: because kim = universe
Kim: PRETTY MUCH

yes, excitement causes typos. and if you don't know who either of those two people are... i'm sorry. so basically, ahhhh! a perfect circle. they should become best friends now or something.

i am still alive.

this weekend was engineering open house, which means i didn't sleep thursday night, because we had to start/finish our project. and then friday morning i had a doctor's appointment to deal with my dizzy/fainting spells in which they decided to draw blood. that made for a fun rest of the day that also involved passing out and throwing up.

as for positive things, our project on cellular automata and modeling evolution in biological systems won second place and i'm actually moderately proud of it. so that was pretty awesome. and i got to talk to a bunch of seniors and convince some guy to come to uiuc. and i met an incoming bioe freshman. (weird to say that, because i'm always going to think of the juniors as the juniors, and we're the sophomores, and the freshmen as the freshmen... if that made any sense.) and the robot competition dan was running went well, so yay. it was pretty cool.

um... in other "my body hates me but probably has good reason to" news, i was helping take apart the robot course and effectively smacked a drill into my face, which resulting in a cut which made it look like i was crying blood tears. also i have a black eye now. i am ridiculously talented and shouldn't be allowed near power tools.

um... long enough update since i haven't in awhile?

less than a week until we leave for utah and 5 days of snowboarding. i'm pretty excited.

snow day number two! and because of it, dan decided to brave the storm yesterday evening to spend the night with me, and we spent a lazy morning together.

happy valentine's day.

u of i has officially cancelled all classes today. first time in 25 years, or so i hear.

we have something like 5+ inches of snow and are expected to get up to 12 more by tonight. roads are a mess. it is cold and windy. so no school.

unfortunately, i'm sick and thus am spending this day off playing... in my room. aka sleeping or something. boring. ah well, at least i'm not missing important material in class.

the bioengineering team (+dan) won our engineering olympics yesterday. it was pretty sweet. i love doing random engineering stuff that isn't sitting down with paper and pencils and bashing my head into a wall for a few hours. yaaay building stuff.

anyway, we walk away with bragging rights for our dept and 40$ each, which isn't half bad.

(also, i love my computer theory class excessively. and dan. and fae.)

time to go snowboarding again!

(by which i mean, dan's picking me up in less than an hour to go bike stuff shopping and then to his house for the night so we can get an earlier start tomorrow.)

yaaaaay snowboarding!

--

OH! totally forgot to mention the fact that i just got back from seattle, which is beautiful. and from visiting jon, who i miss dearly.

My current facebook status: "Kim is in love with Fae and will be riding her all tomorrow."

Sounds dirty. She is dirty. I already rode her through mud on my first ride out.

That's right, I bought my new bike today. I think she's now the most valuable thing I own.

Love love love. She's a Gary Fisher Cake... and I guess I just love their geometries. That probably meant nothing to most of you.

Dan came down to see me / my new bike and to help me learn my way around her. All pictures are on his camera... which I don't have.

Oh well. Time to sleep so that I can get up and riiiide.

spent the day looking at mountain bikes. gaaaah so much love and also impatience. i want to be riding right now. will update when i've actually decided on and bought a bike.

the boy is amazing. he drove down yesterday afternoon, we went shopping, and then we made fondue for my family. granted my mom wasn't being the most cooperative, but he puts up with it and tries anyway. and it was so nice, even if not perfect.

i love fondue. we did meat and cheese (which i love excessively), and then a chocolate one later. and we got raspberries, which was awesome.

it's... really nice. he's wonderful.

yesterday i learned* to snowboard.

*by learned, i mean that i fell a lot and and by the end of the day i could kind of do heelside and toeside turns and stop - but about 50% of the time i still fall on my butt / knees. (going straight is easy.) and i did a couple really nice cuts.

basically i spent the whole day fighting with a snowy/icy hill. it was GREAT fun. and today it is hella painful.

i'm all, "let's go upstairs!" and my muscles are, "hahahahahaha. no!"

but all in all, MAJOR PLUSSES. fun car rides, quality time with the bf, lunch cookout, awesome new gear, riding down a freaking mountain... i spent most of today just itching to get back on a board.

yay!

All I have to say is, "ARGGH!"

Presentations ruined by cocky professors are no fun.

*sighs*

So I can't actually participate in Nationel Novel Writing Month, because my novel was definitely started before November 1st, but I'm going to try to at least make myself write a little bit every day. Even if it's only 100 words, that's still another two sections that I'd get down by the end of the month, and I'm hoping that I can get out about 500 words, which would be roughly 10 segments in the month. And hey, anything is better than nothing. And taking short writing breaks is probably actually good for getting through all the work I'm going to have.

So yea... maybe I won't get 50,000 words of an original novel written in November, but hopefully I can add on at least 10,000. Or more.

that was pretty much the most absurd meeting i've ever been to.

besides the inane comments, "we shouldn't be breastfeeding the students." (aka, spoonfeeding), it went on for 2 hours. meetings until 11pm on monday nights are ridiculous, especially if they go so late because one TA can't agree with anyone and has to argue everything, and then feels it his right to complain when anyone else talks that they're extending the meeting.

wtf. and then i had to walk the 1.5? 2? miles home in the rain.

yay. today = suck.

Updates on my life and such, here we go...

1. I'm employed again. For the university's CS department. Technically a "grader" - but basically TA-ing. I'm excited. And scared.

2. I dropped my dance class. With it, my Mondays were booked from 10 - 10, Tuesdays 10 - 9, Wednesdays 10 - 7, and homework calls. I want this semester to be busy, but fun-busy, not dying-busy.

3. Delta Sig Fest was pretty much awesome. Live music is just awesome to begin with. It was just a really cool night.

it's been an exhausting few days. they've also been some of the most rewarding days.

i moved in wednesday, and pretty much immediately started taking on more responsibilities than i'd planned on. i was kind of key in getting our freshman women in engineering camp to run smoothly, if i do say so myself.

camp was great, met some cool girls, flexed my responsibility and leadership muscles. bonded with the other counselers... became the "go to girl" for stuff - who has a saw with them when branches need to be cut down for smores sticks? oh yea, me. leatherman's rock.

got back, got the girl's dinner basically on my own. helped dan for a couple hours build furniture and move in, let him sleep at my place with the a/c for the night.

and then today has been more building, and also some demolishing - i'm currently covered in sawdust and in need of a shower, more moving, helped a friend out of a jam, did some delta sig recruiting, got my rso ready to go and be approved and all.

this year is shaping up really, really nicely. i'm extraordinarily happy with the way things are turning out, and i don't just mean my room, which i really do like quite a bit.

it's nice to be known, recognized, appreciated, valued... for your efforts. i've done a lot of good, helped out a lot, and i'm feeling quite solid.

nothing at all like last year. nothing at all.

Officially moved in. Room is nice. Also completely mine. I approve. Hate some of the new furniture "features" but I'll deal.