Note to the Photographer

In a gross oversight I forgot to aknowledge the awesomeness of my queen picture taken by the marvelous Becky who wandered around with me at RenFest. There are very few people capable of capturing my full regal beauty, but Becky has done it. So to Becky: a tip of my crown to thee.

Pictures of the Week: I Am the Queen



As monkey socks descend down the page I am reviving my ever exciting pictures of the week feature. Now I've been having pictures which I've sort of been counting as pictures of the week but I like being able to officially post for this purpose. Anyway, it was more than a week ago that I was at the Renaissance Festival but I still thought everyone should see what a striking resemblance I am to Queen Elizabeth I.



These other two pictures are even older but it seems to be a pictures of the week tradition to have old pictures. Anyway I took these at an aqaurium in San Diego. Here you see "wuv troo wuv..." or "true love" for anyone who can't read my Princess Bride quote (which is probably everyone even if they've seen it because that does not translate well into text.) The point is that this couple of eels is the cutest couple I've ever seen.



This is just an awesome pic I took which would probably make you believe that I'm a better photographer than I really am. What's my secret? Luck.

Anybody Ever Wanted To...?

Put on a pair of bunny ears and run around? No? Just me then I guess.

OH MY GOD!!!!

Okay, although I'm not religious, I don't normally take the Lord's name in vain. Probably because I'm not religious so what would be the point anyway? But as my favorite author Terry Pratchett once put it (though slightly differently) "Oh my god I don't believe in" just has less zing.

EENYWAY, I think my departure from normal speech patterns can be justified by the WEIRDNESS that just happened to me. Good weirdness. Awesome weirdness. But weirdness all the same.

Okay, so this guy from my fencing club invited me to watch a movie with him and some friends. I go to see said movie (Robin Hood Men in Tights) and in the middle a girl walks in and starts talking to my fencing buddy. He says, "Oh, this is my girlfriend, Lucy." I greet her and then she looks at me and says. "Cherie?"

***

Now, at this moment you would have to be me or a family member to guess who this Lucy might be, so I have to add back story which makes this universe has-socked-you-in-the-face moment so much less shocking than it deserves to be, but oh well.

When I was a kid I had a friend named Kyle. He was my best friend being one of the few kids my age within walking distance. (My mom would not let me cross the street unassisted until I was 8.) Kyle had a little sister. Now, at the time, I admit I was closer with Kyle because his younger sister was younger than me and five to eight year olds can be quite elitist. However, towards the end of our friendship I hung out with Kyle's little sister a lot more and when they moved away she was the only one who wrote to me. Which is how Kyle incited my eternal wrath, but his sister was much elevated in my opinion as being thus the best friend of the two.

Sadly, after a year or so of letters, we lost touch.

***

Fast forward like 13 years and picture me sitting in the Morrow House lounge staring at the girl across from me with my jaw unhinged, desperately trying to make the synapses in my brain connect with what I'm hearing.

Now anyone with any understanding of narrative has probably already guessed what's about to happen. So I shall only confirm that, yes, the Lucy that I met today was my long lost sandbox buddy and next door neighbor who is now attending my university.

I still have so much homework to do but I can now neither concentrate nor sleep because I can barely believe I'm awake.

...I don't suppose my old elementry school sweetheart will be next? Kenneth, you out there? Call me. No? Well, can't have it all.

Thar Procrastinatin' Pirate!

Yar, yesterday was that finest of days where there be the speakin' of the pirate speak. Sadly what with one thing and the other I didn't get around to celebrating it... Nor did I hear any fine pirate speak. I only saw one guy dressed in proper uniform and failed to extend an "ahoy!" to him. But Becky was kind enough to wish me a fine day and such was a bonny gesture. The barnacles of guilt do gnaw at my soul. On a random note to Becky, I will get those Renaissance maze pictures to you soon. I should have already since I downloaded them quite a while ago, but I think I must have gotten distracted by a shiny object or something. As any true pirate would...

I fear I'm not really all that good at Pirate talk to be honest, though. And yesterday I went to bed around 9:30 because I've been sick for quite a few days now and my normal four hours of sleep just haven't been cuttin' it as far as recuperation goes. Luckily I'm feeling much better now for all that sleep, but it isn 't something I can do all the time unfortunately. I shouldn't have done it last night as I will now have to work a lot harder today but oh well...

Cherie's Wisdom of the Day

Exposition Tastes Funny: Don't feed it to your fictional characters too much. It will give them stomach aches.

Cherie's Firsts: Last night at my university's perfomance of the 5 Browns was the first time I ever saw a guy play rock on a piano with his elbow and knee while screaming "Oh baby!"

It was pretty hot.

I Don't Know About Dancing, but he Sings AND Does Martial Arts!

All right, enough of this boring talking about my blog on my blog. Here's a fun fact for today. Jackie Chan can sing! Don't believe me? Check it out for yourself: Jackie Chan Music Video

The song is "I'll Make a Man out of You" from the Disney movie Mulan. He sang for the Chinese version of the film.

You Can Post Comments Now!

It has come to my attention that the comments field was not functioning since I had accidently chosen to moderate it by email and then neglected to put an email in the email field. So if you posted a comment and thought that I snubbed you because it was never approved, I just want you to know that that's not the case at all. Any previous comments simply would have fallen into the sad white abyss of cyberspace. Anyway, the good news is that the comments are working now as Tim has so kindly proved. So please comment if the fancy strikes you!

Like I'm Being Watched...

Seriously, though, it's a good thing.

I just saw that my blog profile has had 32 views. Normally I scoff at such internet related numbers and I've already told you all how I feel about Facebook. But as this particular statistic appeals directly to my ego, I'm quite proud of it. I am vain enough to look at my profile a lot, but I don't think I've looked at it that much. I'm also not sure it even counts me, because I just looked at it again and it didn't go up. If that's the case, the number's even more awesome. I'm flattered people are interested enough in me to look at my profile. Not that I'm not just that super, but I was under the impression that five people tops read my blog, so that's a pretty impressive number all things considered. It could be just other bloggers skimming profiles with similar interests, but that's still good. I don't expect my blog to become wildly popular, I just like to know that someone looks at it.

And I admit that this entry cannot beat monkey socks, which is also another reason I haven't posted in a couple days (that and the mounds of homework). But it's just so awesome to have a picture of monkey socks at the top of my blog that it'll be sad to bump them down. Still, we must all move on in life. My Buddhism class has taught me that all things are impermanent. I also learned that Harrison Ford and Richard Gere are Buddhists. I'll let you decide which of those facts is more enlightening.

Monkey and Banana Socks!

They rock my feet.

Hey There Hot Stuff

Today I had to exercise in Taylor House because I didn't get to Mitchell early enough and Taylor house has a treadmill angled in such a way to the mirrored wall that if you turn your head, you can see most of your backside while you're exercising. It was because of this that I realized what a fine backside that I have. If you know me (which you probably do if you're reading this) then you know that I'm quite vain, and you've likely already accepted this. Sadly, I already love me, so hitting on myself does me no good. Alas, why can't there be a man as sexy as me?

Now I bet you're asking, "Cherie, why do you need to exercise if you're so hot?" Well, it seems I was born with perfectly toned muscles and therefore became accoustomed to them. Unfortunately, laziness and college food has taken those muscles away. A problem with motivating myself to do something about this loss is that is I'm still incredibly hot. Yet, parts of me just don't feel like they used to. So I exercise in an effort to feel as sexy as I look.

Louvie the Loris in his Natural Habitat


For any who doubted that Louvie was a small, tree-dwelling, rain-forest mammal, I present here the photographic evidence. You'll definitely want to click on the image to see the enlarged version. Note the eyes! I apologize for the lighting. My camera is not the best. As a matter of fact, the poor little hamster that lives inside my camera (if you could see my camera you would not doubt that it's operated by a hamster on a wheel) recently got over-heated and repeatedly informed me that he would shut down the camera due to high temperature. As I do not feel that I had been overworking the hamster in any way this annoyed me greatly. I have wanted a better camera for quite some time merely for better image quality. But I've had this one for barely over a year, so I will be quite upset if it breaks. I am also hesitant to buy a new one simply because of this inexplicable error. I bought a new CD player recently because the other one appeared to be breaking, but after the purchase, my old CD player began working perfectly again. I would like another camera, but I do not yet know enough to confidently select a superior model, so I would rather that my current camera remain functional.

So it Was Written, So it Was Done

Horray, I actually edited my fantasy novel yesterday! I was also in a relatively positive mood about it. I decided to look at it like a film. (I watch a lot of film commentaries for those of you who don't already know). I am trying to mercilessly cut out everything that does not in some way lead to the climax of my story or relate to my primary plotline. I still have subplots, of course, but they must all trace back to the primary plotline. I have plenty of material; the main problem is sifting through it all. Sometimes I get discouraged at how much I'll have to rewrite or I'll get sidetracked by ideas. Right now I'm just focusing on what needs to be cut and rewritten. I haven't encountered any scene that won't undergo some rewriting, which is what usually makes me gloomy. But once I sift out all the scenes I want to keep, even if I have to rewrite them, that should be a good framework. I hope so anyway.

Should be Sleeping...

More things that annoy Cherie: People who do well on tests and then are like "What? It was, like, so easy." They're the bane of test anxiety sufferers everywhere.

AND loud and inconsiderate drunken peers.

Nostalgia: We found one of Ishani's knitting needles in the couch in Gilpatrick. It's a little piece of Ishani who we all miss so much. Though I like to think I miss her the most. What's that? She's got a boyfriend? Bah. We all know she loved me best.

Things I NEED to do: Write in my novel. Or edit a novel. Man! This happens everyday! I put it off until it's too late for me to do anything (despite the fact I'm doing this.) Writing's all I have though. Without it I'm just like everybody else. Slightly worse actually (see above test anxiety) so I need to get with it. Tomorrow. I'm trusting my huge blog audience *hears crickets* to descend upon me if I keep slacking on the one thing that makes me me.

Pictures of the Week: Ghosts

Once again these are old pictures because I was talking with my friend Becky and I told her about this blood-chilling picture my very special Kodak camera took of a ghostly tourist, doomed to roam the old prison quarters of Mont St. Michel until she finds the perfect souvenir. The giant wheel you see was used to bring food up to prisoners they once kept there. Unfortunately, the prison ghosts were camera shy.

(Click picture to enlarge)

Speaking of ghosts, below is a non-humorous cultural photo of a Ghost Month celebration in Taiwan. This is paper money being burned to be sent up to the ancestors in heaven. The litter on the ground is all paper money because some bits would get caught in the current of hot air and rise out of the bin to fall to the ground. I remember how the ash danced in the air like black snowflakes.


(Click picture to enlarge)

* * *

Cranky Cherie's Aches and Pains: As an old lady of 21 I feel compelled to complain of my old bones. In this case, actually, it's my old muscles as I seem to have thrown out my right shoulder. Again. This probably means I should not do any fencing until it heals, but I don't know how well I'll stick to that plan. More likely I'll convince myself that I'll be fine if I fence left-handed and thus make myself worse.

I also have a toothache that hurts searingly when I drink hot or cold liquids and sometimes if I eat hot or cold foods (though the food in the dining hall tends to be a uniform lukewarm so I have an easier time with the latter.) Last time I had this problem I went to the dentist only to be told that I had a sinus infection and I paid $80 for nothing. So this time I refuse to go to any quack calling himself a doctor or otherwise.

Things that Annoy Cherie: People who lock their computers *coughcough*Nathan and Louvie*coughcough* so I can't sneak into their rooms when they're out and change their desktops to something totally incongruous to their personalities.

Walking at Night...

...from the library to my dorm while listening to the Elizabeth soundtrack (very broody classical music with horror movie undertones) makes me paranoid that some scary Catholic priest dude's gonna pop out of the shadows and assasinate me...

Cherie's Wise Thought of the Day: Classical music is sexy.