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!

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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.