tonight we're going to set this record right

today's title comes from george stanford's big drop. it's one of the many things i've been listening to this month. you may (or may not) have noticed, but i've been on a self-imposed exile from the internet since finals ended. i could try to explain why, but...well, it'd take too long and i'm beyond tired right now. the important thing is, a rachel without the internet is a very productive rachel indeed. i've been reading everything i ever wanted to. my To Read list is actually shrinking! that hasn't happened in...actually, it's never happened. normally it just grows (and grows and grows). i've been writing a little, too. it's...strange. strange even for me. if you're interested, shoot me a comment or a facebook message or an email or something. and then be prepared for strangeness. i really can't emphasize this enough. i've been watching a little too much british tv lately (it's like the one thing anyone in my house can agree to watch - thank you, doctor who) and reading too much postmodern poetry, because everything i write lately is either foreign or dystopian or both.

it's been a relaxing month, though. we went to see ice! at the national harbor (it's dr. suess themed and wonderful), saw just about every different light show in the greater d.c. area, visited the christmas village at busch gardens, went to the wizarding world of harry potter (crowded, so very crowded - and wonderful. i totally want to retire there) and, best of all, found my One True Ornament of the year. this is it, along with all the others (the momster and husband number three):

i'm the gold piano. isn't it pretty? oh, and that peacock you see? it's supposed to replace my dearly departed One True Ornament from last year, but the momster got the wrong one. it's still pretty, though, so i guess it counts.

ophelia the ipod has finally been replaced. her successor is now named beatrice, a departure from the six (!!!!) ophelias which preceded her. i've finally given into the fact that naming my ipod after a suicidal fictional character is probably not the best omen with which to begin her electronic life. i'd include a picture, but i'm tired and therefore lazy.

that's basically all that's happened to me in the last...however many days it's been since i last turned on my computer. there's nothing like the internet to put your life in perspective, right?

never meant to start a war

today's title comes from jordin sparks' battlefield, as seen in this:

joanna the hall-e posted it on my wall on facebook. i think it's hilarious. ophelia the ipod is still dead. i'm still working on papers. life seems quite dismal at the moment. also, i have jane austen postcards. they're very limited in number, though, so i'm still trying to figure out who to send them to. currently, i'm leaning toward sarah-with-an-umlaut, since she was able to respond to the hall-es and i texting her harry potter pickup lines with a few of her own, and that kind of dedication deserves a reward. we'll see, though.

also, the real madrid copa del rey game was hilarious. see for yourself why:

!!!

why, yes, i do already have a post with this title. i don't care. why? because ophelia lives!

that's right - after spending three days constantly attempting to restore it, badgering my friends, roommates, and hall-es to help me, calling the parental units no less than three times in the middle of the night out of despair, and frantically googling every possible cause and solution for her affliction (i even tried doing this hideously complicated series of computer commands, only to be stopped by michelle the hall-e, who informed me that i had been using the wrong disk number and nearly wiped my computer of everything on it) ophelia seems to be working properly. she's syncing on itunes right now, which means i won't have any real confirmation until morning since it'll take all night for my music to copy onto it. i don't care. i'm just so excited. i was really starting to hate seeing that stupid little gray apple logo pop up on its home screen every time i tried to do anything with it.

and on that happy note, i really will go to bed. i'm actually resisting the urge to stay up all night until ophelia is done syncing. be proud of me. and wish me luck - hopefully this will be my last night of curling up to my phone so i can still hear music while i sleep.

with the lights on

today's title comes from shelter by the xx. i don't know why, but i've been listening to them a lot lately. their music is just so wonderful for winter. anyway, have a listen:

it's story time today. highly embarrassing story time, no less. normally i wouldn't post this here, but it's not the kind of story i want the hall-es to hear and i just had to tell someone, so...

before i begin, let's give you a little background information. ophelia the ipod? still dead. since i'm physically incapable of falling asleep without music, i've started using the phone as a substitute. the alchy roomie spent the weekend boy-hunting (i approve, since she found one that looks like benny feilhaber and he lives right downstairs). we heard all about it last night - leading everyone in my room to stay up until around two or three in the morning. not fun, since i had a nine a.m. lab this morning. when it came time to go to said lab, i basically rolled out of bed, pulled on a normal t-shirt, left my pajama pants on, and left, since i had Napping Plans for after class.

this all sounds - well, if not normal, fairly typical for me, right?

well, here's where the story begins:

my naptime got put off until around three today because the hall-es dragged me to lunch and then the mail room with them. by the time i got back to my room, i was dead tired. so i dragged out my headphones, plugged them into my phone, and basically collapsed into bed. however, i only got about half an hour of sleep before s-la's text woke me back up. my reaction was like this, at first, but then i replied:

note: when i post naptime statuses, don't text me. ever. 

after that, still being tired, i tried to go back to sleep. but i was in that half-awake/half-asleep state where my mind focuses on weird things. today's weird thought was: oh my god, i can't sleep with a bra on, what if it pulls an ophelia and tries to strangle me in my sleep? don't say it. whatever it is you are thinking just...don't.

now, we all know that i'm not that coordinated at the best of times, but my inability to control my own hands/feet/flailing limbs becomes downright pathetic when i'm half-asleep. so it should come as no surprise to anyone that i managed to get myself tangled in a mess of my own bra straps and head phones and shirt sleeves and the plug from the reading lamp that's clipped onto my headboard.

confusion. confusion everywhere. 

and, my life being what it is, this would be the time that the benny feilhaber lookalike the alchy roomie was stalking knocks and comes into the room to look for her.

my reaction?

well, first it was this:

and then it turned into this:

again, don't say anything. really.

however, i totally went back to sleep after because traumatic incidents aside, no one is depriving me of my required ten to twelve hours, thank you very much.


also, i entered the bad roommates awards by not telling the alchy about her visitor. and i think i threatened benny feilhaber jr. enough that he won't go blabbing to anyone, either.

in conclusion, my life sucks and conan premieres tonight.

his armband said he was a red (torres, torres)

liverpool beat chelsea the oh-so-former head of the premier league table today. the final score? 2-0. oh, and let's not forget who scored those goals:

i started watching with a room full of manchester united and chelsea fans (but the casual, plastic fan kind, not real ones) and have been slowly converting them into reds. we'll see how it goes. i've been bombarding them with propaganda since we met. besides, fernando torres's freckles can be very persuasive. i might make a real post later. we'll see how that goes. until then:

now, if you don't mind, i'm going to go cry in a corner over poor, deceased ophelia the ipod. she died peacefully in my sleep, with her headphone cord wrapped around my neck. itunes is attempting cpr now. wish us luck.

edit: more! there's more!

images stole from this via tumblr. no, really, watch the interview. it's adorable.

blurry because it just happened, but ozil scored, too! 

"I mean a girl just can't go to Sing Sing with a green face."

today's title comes from breakfast at tiffany's, both the movie and the novella. it's been my obsession of the day. i promised myself i wouldn't read any of the books i got on friday until after AP exams were over, but...

yeah, i couldn't hold out. and breakfast at tiffany's technically isn't a book - it's a novella. so i've read it three times now. it's that good.

like, i've always loved the movie but i always thought that most of holly's charm was due to her being played by audrey hepburn. she could make anything seem glamorous. so i figured that i was watching the movie and enjoying holly's character more because i'd already seen (and enjoyed) audrey in other movies.

the other movie. with bonus atticus finch gregory peck.

since i've read the novel(la), though, i've kind of had to revise my thinking a little. i always knew that truman capote's story would be darker than the film since...he's truman capote. i've read in cold blood and the flower house and a few of his other short stories and i know that he's a lot grittier than the happy ending/hot male lead hollywood adaptation. so i was prepared for that aspect of the story, at least.

i didn't expect it to be so interesting, though. like, the story is darker and holly golightly is disturbed and flighty and complex and fascinating. so, so fascinating. i don't want to spoil anything for you (because you're all going to read it, okay? every last one of you. it's short, so no complaining). and then you'll watch the movie, because who could resist this?

i know, i know. anyway, i'm sure you'll all be pleased to hear that ophelia the ipod is healthy and has all her songs back. it took three hours, but it was worth it.

glee is on now, so i'm going to leave off here. sue sylvester is so awesome.

emergency

this just gets its own post. ophelia the ipod did something weird so itunes prompted me to restore. i, being retanded (hey, i'll use the word if i want to), clicked okay.

and now my ipod has been wiped and has to be resynced. it's actually syncing right now. as in, it's got to upload over thirteen thousand songs back onto it.

...i'm dying. also, clearly i'm going to be up all night. i hate life.

the place where your soul had died

today's title? bixby canyon bridge by death cab for cutie. yes, that death cab for cutie. wait? that's just a picture of ben gibbard and zooey deschanel? oh well. they're both ah-dorable and ah-mazing and incredibly talented. oh, and we love their music. mona would like you all to know that she is amazingly cool. in case the mona-mention hadn't tipped you off, i'm writing this post from the library.

i know, i know. marvel at my dedication. or don't, since i didn't blog at all over the weekend. here, i'll make it up to you:

Stars wheel in purple, yours is not so rare
as Hesperus, nor yet so great a star
as bright Aldeboran or Sirius,
nor yet the stained and brilliant one of War;

stars turn in purple, glorious to the sight;
yours is not gracious as the Pleiads are
nor as Orion's sapphires, luminous;

yet disenchanted, cold, imperious face,
when all the others blighted, reel and fall,
your star, steel-set, keeps lone and frigid tryst
to freighted ships, baffled in wind and blast.

isn't that a pretty poem? it's by h. d., aka hilda doolittle. she was pretty awesome. i'd go on a bit more about poetry, but mona's currently describing the homemade sponge cake she's bringing to school tomorrow, so i'm mostly just salivating over that. i'm serious - hearing her descriptions of dessert has reduced me to a drooling, gibbering wreck of a person who has no other purpose in life beyond the googling of chocolate-filled images. see? proof:

...hypothetically speaking, the prospect of future desserts might intensify my natural tendency to hyperbolize. might.

true story: i just tried to type "might" as "mgmt". freudian slip much? in other words, i've had mgmt's new album on my brain. it's so different from oracular spectacular that when i first heard it i was kind of like:

but then it started to grow on me. it's strange - i initially hated every song in my 100! playlist (in case it wasn't obvious, that's the smart playlist that houses my 100 top-played songs), while the songs i find most earwormy and hummable are among my least favorites. like this weekend - during our lovely friday off, i went to dsw to hang with jenibean and was exposed to her strange collection of car music for the second time. among them was a song whose lyrics seemed to be nothing but the phrase "she's a sexy chick" and three or four songs which sounded exactly like and whose subject matter dealed with "rumpy pumpy" as my lit teacher calls it. the only saving grace to any of them was that they had pretty awesome beats and bad mixing so you could never really tell what the singer was saying. in other words, they were all the perfect earworms. do you think i'm going to be sullying ophelia the ipod with any of those songs?

if you answered anything other than "no" to that question, i will refer you to the following gif. in this scenario, pretend that ophelia the ipod is jim and Crappy Music is dwight. now watch:

there, does that clear things up for you? i thought it'd help. the office can explain anything. so can family guy, actually.

wow, early release is almost over. i've got to go to buzzer club in, like, ten minutes, so i'm going to wrap this up. oh, and in case you didn't notice, i copied gina's idea and added a currently reading tab over on the right side of the page.

one definition of senioritis

"In endowing us with memory, nature has revealed to us a truth utterly unimaginable to the unreflective creation, the truth of immortality. The most ideal human passion is love, which is also the most absolute and animal and one of the most ephemeral."

- george santayana

if you ever wonder about the things i love, the things i look at, the things that catch my eye and imagination in the spare half-hours i spend between homework and nighttime, when the sky is still dark and has yet to shade into sunrise and morning - check the tumblr.

someone in buzzer club brought up a really strange point today. he said something along the lines of "while i was playing with legos, you people were all reading old books and watching TCM".

i don't even really know the person who said that, except in that hazy, wavy, "friend-of-a-friend-of-a-friend" way. what he said stuck with me anyway.

who dictates what's normal? who has the right to wake up one morning and dictate what we should and should not like or be interested in or think is pretty flipping cool?

we all probably know the answer to those questions - mtv. and, wow, they've done a wonderful job of educating america's youth, haven't they? most people my age can't tell the difference between trotsky and tolstoy, use the words good and well interchangeably, and think that hallelujah is that one song they played on the o.c. and american idol a few times.

in other words: this post? it's basically a summation of all the reasons i hate people.

you know, whenever i say that out loud i never fail to receive at least one startled look from someone. and i understand that, i do, because when i say 'i hate people' i'm hyperbolizing. obviously.

but there are days, like today, where i can't help but wonder what's wrong with the rest of the world. what's wrong with the people spending an entire hour and a half in yearbook looking up prom dresses or the people who never read the (legitimately wonderful) books in english class or...everyone, really. where are the readers? the thinkers? the dreamers?

like the lady of shalott i'm half sick of shadows today. luckily, i have a stack of books waiting for me to return once i've finished this (grammatically incorrect, i'm sure, but this is the internet) post.

i think i'll just curl up with my brownies and my books and my brand new ipod and count down the days until graduation, because i'm tired of waiting for people to develop functioning brains.

before i go, though, i'll leave you with this poem. it's one of my favorites, so i might have blogged about it before. i know steffi, at least, has already seen this since one of the prerequisites of friendship with me is that you both read and like edna st. vincent millay. in other words, if you're reading this and you consider us friends, you better love this poem. or else.

Dirge Without Music

I am not resigned to the shutting away of loving hearts in the hard ground.
So it is, and so it will be, for so it has been, time out of mind:
Into the darkness they go, the wise and the lovely. Crowned
With lilies and with laurel they go; but I am not resigned. 

Lovers and thinkers, into the earth with you.
Be one with the dull, the indiscriminate dust.
A fragment of what you felt, of what you knew,
A formula, a phrase remains, --- but the best is lost. 

The answers quick & keen, the honest look, the laughter, the love,
They are gone. They have gone to feed the roses. Elegant and curled
Is the blossom. Fragrant is the blossom. I know. But I do not approve.
More precious was the light in your eyes than all the roses in the world. 

Down, down, down into the darkness of the grave
Gently they go, the beautiful, the tender, the kind;
Quietly they go, the intelligent, the witty, the brave.
I know. But I do not approve. And I am not resigned.

it's called "dirge without music" and so this post will also be musicless. and yes, i am perfectly aware that musicless wasn't actually a word, but if shakespeare could conjure up words out of thin air and have them approved by the oxford english dictionary, i can create one measly portmanteau. bon soir mes amis.

ophelia lives!

or, alternatively, ophelia died and was replaced, but that isn't so cheery, is it?

for those of you who are wondering, ophelia is my ipod. you know, the one that broke last friday and whose demise i've been lamenting ever since. well, today the momster dropped by the apple store and figured out that poor ophelia's mysterious illness was fatal...so she surprised me with a new one, which conveniently looks just like the old one only without all the scratches and that one tiny dent on the back of the case.

it's syncing right now (and will be for like the next three hours, geez) but i just thought i'd take a break from jumping up and down in excitement to share the good news.

in slightly related news, while she was out (and i was busily finishing my homework like a good little worker bee), i texted the momster and asked her to pick up tights since most of mine are either faded, holey, or have runs in them. what did she get?

these:

oh, parents. i swear, they're worse than children. although, strangely enough, i actually really want to wear them...with something very long and plain and conservative and otherwise non-hookerish or else it'll just be Too Much. 

i guess that's all for tonight. i'm going to go play with my shiny new toy now, okay?

ETA: OH MY GOD NO.

 

"you have flapper hair"

today's title is courtesy of s-la, in reference to the New Hair which you might remember me mentioning on friday. lately my judge of a good haircut has been based on one factor: what it looks like first thing in the morning. sadly, i was too blegh this morning to snap a picture, but i did take a nap when i got home from school today (why, yes, i am that boring) and had the presence of mind to snap a picture. in other words, here are your before and after shots. form your own opinions on The Hair.

(after school: don't i look cheery? yeah, i didn't think so either)

 (post-nap bedhead)

in other news, my ipod is on its way to the apple store, after days of waiting. i neglected to accompany it since the last time i went in there they greeted me by name. in other words, i've broken one too many gizmos and thingamees to feel comfortable setting foot in an apple store for the next two years.

today was a mixture of boring and horrible. in other words, i went to lit, calc, and physics. lit sans a teacher and calc with a quiz (thankfully it was a partner quiz, though, so thank god for stephanie) were both horrifically boring and physics was an exercise in endurance. you know those classes where you have to pinch yourself to keep from drifting off? that's physics for me.

thankfully things have started looking up. this is mostly because i'm on frappucino number two of the day, but also due to naptime, series four of skins, and fleet foxes. oh, and i finished my homework early for once.

i think i'm going to cut today's post short - i've got some reading to catch up on. top of the list? nightlight, that twilight parody i blogged about way back when.

a series of unfortunate events

and i don't even have the benefit of having my misfortunes narrated by lemony snicket. if i could just go through life with a snarky, possibly british author detailing my every move i have a feeling that i'd be a much better person. or at least a more self-aware one.

even if the one and only, most perfect ruler of the universe neil gaiman were narrating my life, today would still be enough to make me depressed. you see, a catastrophe has befallen me - a disaster, a calamity, un contretemps, and other-synonyms-for-Something-Really-Bad-which-i'm-too-lazy-to-look-up-on-thesaurus.com.

in other words, my ipod broke.

for those of you unfamiliar with her, this is ophelia the ipod, looking annoyed. i can only assume she's annoyed with me since there is no other reason why she refuses to turn on after a whole day of being charged while i was at school.

i am, as you can imagine, distraught. my suffering was only compounded by the momster refusing to drive to the apple store to get it fixed until this weekend. i will admit that i reacted poorly to this news (there was shouting...and stomping, slamming of doors, and pointed blasting of music through my subpar computer speakers to prove a point, mother. i'm beginning to suspect that i have a tendency to melodrama when i'm annoyed)

you may now be wondering how i can reflect on this calamity-catastrophe-contretemps so calmly. shouldn't i still be screaming and threatening to throw my life away and become a crack addict if my ipod doesn't magically resuscitate itself right now?

of course not. the momster's not even in the house anymore and it would be an utter waste to do all that yelling without an audience. also, she went grocery shopping and i'm very, very fond of whole fruit ice pops and pound cake, so she's temporarily forgiven.

in all seriousness, i calmed down once i realized that i still had my phone, which, once i removed all the apps, bookmarks, and about 90% of my contacts, can now hold around 3,000 songs.

so then came the tedious song-selection process - it's something i had to in a relatively calm state of mind. so, armed with my pound cake, coffee, and 100-calorie sandwich (i made it myself, though, so who knows if it really is or not), i got to work. the smart playlist that resulted is...interesting, to say the least.

and, in case you were wondering, i decided to exclude my favorite/most played artists and songs. if i'm going to be without an ipod for the next two weeks or so, i might as well spend it listening to relatively new songs, right?

oh, and just for kicks, this is the 100-calorie wondersandwich. i came up with it (and by 'came up with' i mean that i figured out how much of each ingredient to use so everything would total up to a hundred calories) over the weekend while i was trying to think of the perfect bite-sized snack food for when you're sick of junk food. enjoy yet another grainy iphone photo:

oh, and in case you were wondering, i'm listening to hometown glory by adele. i love this song, but the end of cassie's episode on skins made me start playing it on loop all day. 

blogolating

hmm, so nothing much happened today. worked on my college essays (they're really awful, i'm giving it a week and then i'll go back and revise them into something less terrible). found some music. read a little more potter and am working my way through oryx and crake by margaret atwood. it's such a good book; her writing's so lovely and atmospheric and creepy (well, it is about the apocalypse).

oh, and my preorder on itunes for the glee soundtrack downloaded today, so my ipod is basically the happiest thing on earth (see what i did there? with the glee and the happy and the punning? yea? yea? ok, i'll admit it, i really am this lame)

and aladdin's playing on tv right now, so i'm just going to go watch that.

victory!

update on project contact: i can now put them in and take them out in one try (and, when taking them out at least, without a mirror). why, yes, i am excited. 

i'm reading the screwtape letters by c. s. lewis now. what's ophelia the ipod playing? beau fixe by coralie clement qui j'adore. 

i have a french speaking quiz tomorrow. as a consequence i've been frantically practicing the lovely french r sound. my mother recently informed me that i sound like a dying cat while i do so, so i figured that was an indicator that more practice was necessary. 

in other news, the story idea i've been playing with is starting to come together plot-wise. thank my muse, viola. she's been working overtime - and quite randomly. one idea is for the first pure fantasy i've ever considered writing and the other is for a post-apocalyptic society with vaguely religious undertones. 

flickr picture of the day: comme des enfants.