List of Things that Would Make My Life Complete

1.) Being able to listen to audiobooks in the shower....

Stay tuned for my completely inconsistenet additions.



And this doesn't have to do with this post but I found this great pig picture while looking for better pics of piglet so I'm posting it.

Happy Chinese New Year: Year of the Pig!



Piglet's clearly very Chinese and this is his year.

Tim is Friend of the Week. Not because I'm going to be a bridesmaid at his wedding but because he commented on my blog. In honor of this, here is a picture that I feel defines Tim:

Pictures of the Week: A Bit of Summer in the Dead of Winter

I've been neglecting my blog horribly. I meant to post earlier but that fine entry was eaten by the Mac in the computer lab and I didn't have the gumption to rewrite it. But to make up for that, here are some fun pics Tim and Mag took when they visited me over the summer. I never really take pictures of my school which is a shame since it's quite lovely, so these are good to have. In other news, I've also been honored to be chosen as a bridesmaid for their wedding. :)

Hee, hee...

Normally pictures of me do not show my utter coolness. Cameras are clearly jealous of me. But this pic is pretty good. For the few who don't know, it was taken in Olin, my schools's science building (a place I usually avoid...)

Yes, there is beautiful Indonesian girl marrying this man. Her picture is not enclosed in order to protect her from being recognized and constantly asked the inevitable question: "Why?"

Tim ready to get thomped by me at fencing. He may say he wasn't thomped at all, but clearly this is a delusion to protect his ego.

The Teddy bear watches the riveting match. A great picture by Mag. And yes, we are fencing in the lounge of my dorm. Hey, it was big enough and air conditioned.

Remember, all pictures can be enlarged if you click on them.

Goal in Life...

...to write a French character that's not stupid, evil, or destined to die. This idea has always been somewhere in the back of my mind. Most people who know me, know that one of the easiest ways to tick me off is to insult the French. I actually don't like it when any nationality is insulted, not just because of the obvious reasons but because there's rarely ever any intellect in such jokes. They're just used when a person wants to say something funny but lacks the imagination to come up with any new material so it's just "The French/Mexicans/Canadians blah, blah, blah..." followed by Neanderthal laughter as if they've just said the cleverest thing in the world. If any of these people could actually trace back the real origins of these animosities throughout history, I may be vaguely impressed. But perpetuating them while not having any clue why they exist in the first place won't get any respect from me.

Anyway, I admit I've always had a soft spot for the French since the language is my major. My thoughts on their portrayal in literature resurfaced while listening to Artemis Fowl: The Artic Incident, an excellent book but sadly containing yet another stock French character like in movies The Matrix and The Core, both examples of the evil/stupid/destined to die. I'm sure there's more, but I just can't think of them off the top of my head. One good thing about Dan Brown's book The Da Vinci Code is that Sophie Neveu was none of these things. But such examples are sadly limited in popular English fiction. I was happy when Fleur Delacour showed her mettle in Harry Potter 6, but there's still the fact that most people didn't like her before, and she's relatively stereotypical.

Friend of Last Week and Harry Potter Release Date

Ishani was my friend of the week last week but my overwhelming laziness prevented me from acknowledging it. Mom was also Mom of the week.

And as Ishani said Harry Potter 7, dubbed Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows, is coming out this July. July 21st to be specific.