"Y'ARGH!"

... says the pirate. The cow goes "moo". The pig says "oink".

I miss those things... See & Says. You know, those delightfully round, colorful plastic things with the knob on the side that you could pull to the picture of the animal, and it would tell you what it was and what sound it made. Classic. Can't get enough of those.

So I filmed my first video project last night. Now I have to start editing. Getting the action on tape is only half the battle, sadly. But it was great fun. I really feel like I'm majoring in "Playing" instead of RTF. But I suppose that's good. I should probably enjoy my major. What I like about it is that yeah, I have to learn all the crazy technical stuff... and being about as tech-savvy as a bowl of soup, this is quite a challenge for me... but it's FUN technical stuff. Like, "Hey. Here's a light kit. Set 'em up." And then you get to open this big, exciting box and take out all the lights and put them up on these tall metal poles with lots of knobs, and they glow so hot you have to use gloves to adjust them or your skin bursts into flames and just the danger factor there is kick-ass and... I digress. (And exaggerate slightly.) But anyway, what I was getting to was that such a huge part of this major is just taking in the world around you and thinking and wondering and questioning and saying "What can I show to tell this character's story?" Which is exactly what I did in Creative Writing for three years. Which is what I love to do.

It's good to be in college. I'm never leaving. I'll be like that kid in Rushmore and just flunk everything so I can stay in school forever. That's a great idea. What a smart kid. He's my new Jesus.

Yeah, so that's all from me. I need to read things. Wondrous things. Full of... wonder.

-Bell
"WHORE!"

A Molecular Free-For-All in the Prebiotic Soup of Organic Molecules

That was how my Biology professor explained the origins of life. I loves me some Biology. It's about the only science I can stand. Geometry is about the only math I can stand. You can just stuff me full of English and History, though, and I'll be like, "Oh yeah! YES! YYYYEEEESSS! Mmmm! Oh YEAH, baby! Give it to me! Harder! HARDER!!!"

...Or maybe that's something else. You really can't be too sure anymore.

We just got back from Ikea. I finally bought a Woman blanket to go with the Man blanket I've had for about a year now. Jeff says I should keep them separated. Or else they'll mate. And I'll wake up in the morning with swatches all over my bed. Personally, I'm rather partial to that idea.

I've been acquiring a lot of blankets lately. Even though it's getting back up into the 60's outside. That makes me happy. No more of this Winter thing. The groundhog DID predict that we're supposed to have an early Spring, after all. (Wonderful how now, in the 21st Century, our most exciting means of predicting the upcoming weather is still a tunnel-digging rodent. God bless America.)

Michele and I rented The Virgin Suicides yesterday. I actually really enjoyed it. It's Sofia Coppola, so it was of course visually gorgeous. But besides that, the story was just haunting. And I have a real appreciation for things that have the ability to haunt me... seeing as how I normally don't pay attention to anything. I have a feeling the book is probably better. It's by Jeffrey Eugenides, who also wrote Middlesex, which I'm currently reading and which is also just amaz-uh-zing. I'm bothered by the fact that I have very little time for pleasure reading anymore. Or writing. I feel so... stagnant. *angsty face*

Well, I'm gonna go continue to eat chocolate and grow fat. G'bye, lovelies.

-Bell
"But now we just treat leprosy with antibiotics, so we don't have to have leper colonies where people go in and their fingers fall off."

Buh-Buh-Buh-Bloggage!

So we just got back from Pluckers. For those of you who don't know the glory that is Pluckers, it's an awesome little hot wing bar pretty close to campus. Jon and Michele and Ben and Becky and I all met there for dinner. (It was the first time I'd seen Becky without a bunny in tow in a few months. And we've been to the movies a couple times in there.) Jon finally made it onto the Wall of Flame. You have to eat 25 of Pluckers hottest wings to get your picture up for that. So while I'm quite proud of my lover and his iron stomach, unfortunately I will not be able to kiss him for a few weeks, lest my lips should burst into flames. Exciting!

In other news, classes have started. I'm taking four, but the breakdown of my effort is something like this:

Biology: 11%
Philosophy: 12%
Narrative Strategies: 26%
Image and Sound: 51%

And thus RTF is responsible for 77% of my labors. Which is as it should be, I suppose. I'm not complaining - it's pretty damn fun - things just seem all unbalanced.

Wait. I'm an art major. Why the figgedy-f*ck am I doing math? Never mind. I turn in my first project for Image and Sound on Friday. We had to take a series of 12-15 black and white photographs on an old SLR. And those photographs have to tell a simple story. I did three shoots before I finally got usable images; all the others kept coming back horribly underexposed. Which made little sense considering the conditions. So I've spent like $100 on film and processing for this project. I blame the camera. And Jesus.

I wish I had known that Spring Semester would be exponentially more expensive than the Fall. It's just now February and I'm almost out of money. I'm gonna have to start whoring myself out on the weekends. But I guess that's what I get for picking a major I enjoy. *le sigh*

Yeah, so I've still got buckets of reading to do (yes, readings are now being measured in buckets), but I just wanted to check in. And tell you kids how much I love you. *lick* What?

-Bell
"Hey! Look! It's that girl whose face I hate!"