brokenrecord

( How I Met Your Mother )

( Chuck )

( The Big Bang Theory )

I've been slowly making my way through this Life of Birds BBC documentary thing on the BBC and yesterday I got to the episode that deals with baby birds and parenthood and I was like "omg yay adorable baby birdies! This will be so much fun to watch!" And then like half of it was other birds stealing baby birds for food or crocodiles attacking or even the parents killing some of their babies because they do not have enough resources to care for them all. It was like March of the Penguins all over again.

I forgot that a new Sookie Stackhouse book comes out today! I kind of have the urge to reread them all (well, not the first one, since the show followed it so closely, and there's not enough Eric. But like, I mix up what happens in the second book and second season a lot, so it would be valuable to reread the book, right?), but... I don't know. Last year it took me like an entire week to get through them all, and that was with me staying at home and reading the books all day long and really not doing anything else. I don't know if I want to waste a week or two like that again, at least not right now. And I don't know that I'm patient enough to get through all the books before getting to the new one. So it's more likely that I'll just read the new one.

I got an A- on my group presentation I did several weeks ago in Mood and Anxiety, and from what I can tell (it's hard to figure out my grade in a class when I'm only given letter grades), this makes it really hard for me to get an A in the class. I think if I get an A on the final paper and get an A in participation (both of which I think are possible, but definitely not guaranteed), then I can get an A in the class, but I'm not sure. I'm going to try to expect an A-, and if I get an A, then I'll be pleasantly surprised.

ugh ok, I need help deciding something. Neil Patrick Harris is directing a production of Rent that's being put on at the Hollywood Bowl in August, and tickets are on sale, and I could totally go, but I'm cheap and don't know if I should spend the money. I mean, I have seen Rent live before, but... it's NPH! And Aaron Tveit is playing Roger, and I love him so much! But I probably won't be able to get good seats anyways, and I would probably end up going alone which would be kind of lame. But but NPH and Aaron Tveit and Rent! ugh I don't know. I need to be more decisive.

Forgot to do this yesterday, but in April I read 0 books (there goes my plan of reading at least 1 book a month! But last month I read like 5, so I think that somewhat makes up for that. And as soon as finals are done with, I should hopefully start reading more), watched 5 movies (this is such a ridiculously huge contrast to the previous months this year, but there were months last year where I watched only 1 or 0, so this is still pretty good), and watched 196 episodes of TV (actually that number is probably slightly off, because I'm pretty sure I accidentally left a few things out, but it's close enough).

I totally did not get enough work done yesterday. Like, I felt like I was working continually all day, but... I guess the problem was I wasn't working efficiently. I was making flashcards from my social psych textbook while watching various stuff. I totally did not do my social psych assignment that I've been putting off. It's not even like... incredibly in-depth or difficult, and it only has to be 2-4 pages which is totally nothing, I can get that done in like 2 hours pretty easily, but I just don't want to, so... I haven't. I set my alarm for 8:30 AM to help make up for that, but then I ended up sleeping in until 9:30 anyways. Well, getting up that early is still pretty good for a Sunday morning. Once tomorrow is over, I'll be done with 3 out of the 5 remaining major things left in the semester, so I just need to get through the next 28 hours basically, and then I'll be more relaxed.

( Legend of the Seeker )

( Doctor Who )

I finished my paper (finally!) and sent a draft to my professor! I was super nervous about what she'd have to say, because even though I felt like it was one of the best papers I've written, I'm still very self-critical and unsure and who knows what she'd think. But she said "Wow! This is in excellent shape!" She has a few minor comments, but I have an entire week to make those changes and there aren't many and alksfj yay! I'm so happy now. This is a huge relief.

My parents are kind of ridiculous. I e-mail them to stay in touch with them while I'm at school, and we've been discussing when they should arrive, and they hadn't responded directly to anything I said in my last 2 e-mails, even though I included questions in there and there was stuff I thought they'd respond to. So I e-mailed them again 2 days ago and had some specific questions, and that night, my dad texted me a picture of one of my pet birds and it was like "Here's Jason saying hi!" Then the next day, my mom sent me an e-mail that was entitled "Here's something to brighten your day!" and it was a picture of that bird and me when I was like 9 and he was 6 months old. So I was kind of like "?????? How are these exactly responses to my questions?" But I was e-mailing them from a Hotmail account which is old and I hate hotmail and one time it got hacked, so I was like "Maybe they're not getting my e-mails!" So to test this theory, I e-mailed myself from that account to my school gmail account which I know works perfectly well, and after 3 hours, I still hadn't gotten the message, so I was like "Aha! That e-mail is not sending out messages!" and I sent my parents an e-mail saying that I didn't know if they were getting my e-mails but I hadn't received an e-mail from myself, so I thought that account wasn't working. Anyways, today I wake up to find that I received the e-mail I sent myself (although, to be fair, it took 8 hours to receive it, which is pretty ridiculous. Bad Hotmail!) and an e-mail from my mom saying "We've gotten every e-mail from you in the past few days, we just still don't know what to do yet!" So why exactly was your reaction to me asking specific questions about your opinions to send me a picture of my bird and me from 12 years ago and not actually telling me that you weren't sure about the answers to my questions? Oh, parents.

Today was my last day of German lab! I kind can't believe the semester is ending already. I suppose part of it is the fact that I'm not actually leaving here until the end of May, so I don't have the additional excitement of seeing my parents in just a week and all. Instead, in a week I'll be (hopefully) starting to put together a resume and calling places in CA about volunteer opportunities for when I'm hope and (much more likely) watching a bunch of TV and movies and reading and basically relaxing.

Anyways, I'm feeling pretty good and relaxed and on top of things overall, which is kind of awesome, considering I do have just a week left in the semester with a bunch of things to do. But getting that paper already done with (other than some minor editing) a week before it's due definitely helps, and my grades are awesome in my other classes so I'm not really worried about the other tests and assignments I have for next week.

( Chuck 3.14 )

10 Things I Hate About You was also adorable as always, but I have nothing really specific to say about it, other than you really should watch it, even if you think it couldn't possibly live up to the movie (which is totally what I thought before I checked the show out, but the show is really different from the movie and totally fun and wonderful in its own right). I think I might actually do a picspam of reasons why you should watch it for this month's picspammy challenge once the semester is over, since I should have time.

I made significant progress on my paper yesterday! Finally. I'm 4 1/2 pages in (it's supposed to be 8-10), although including references, it's just about 6 pages. And she's not super strict on page length, so if it's good but 7 1/2 pages, she's not going to mark off for that extra 1/2 a page. I've even worked on it a little today (and plan to try to continue working on it until I have to go to class in 1 1/2 hours), which is ridiculous since I pretty much never get work done on Tuesdays before Mood and Anxiety (even though I have so much time in the morning to get stuff done). I also discovered that the paper is due next Wednesday, 05/05, rather than 05/04 like I originally thought, so I feel a little less stressed out about finishing it today. I mean, I think I still can, but I do have some stuff to do for German as well today, and I wanted to send my professor a draft no less than a week before it was due, so this way I feel less pressured to actually get it done today. I actually probably could have finished it yesterday if I had just worked with no breaks, but I procrastinated a lot, and it's kind of amazing I got as much done as I did.

I mentioned that I talked to my honorary psych adviser (that is what I am calling her from now on because I have no idea how else to refer to her) last week about many things, including starting to apply to grad school (specifically MSW programs) and how I was having trouble figuring out how to select programs and all, and she mentioned things I should look for and that I could give her a list of like 15 programs or so and she could help me narrow it down or point out programs I might have missed. So anyways, I've started doing that as a means to procrastinate from writing this paper as well, and at first it's a lot of fun looking into all this stuff that seems really interesting and exciting, and then it just makes me feel like crap because I feel myself falling in love with these different programs and then I get afraid that I'm going to get too invested and have my heart set on something and not get in. I mean, I suppose I did have my favorites for undergrad as well and I got waitlisted/rejected from several of those and it sucked for a little while and then I got over it, so I know it won't be a huge deal in the long run, but still.

I am sick. It sucks. It's like... just a very slight sore throat and some sneezing and my nose is a little stuffy, so it's all so like... idk, not severe that I feel like it shouldn't be a big deal, but it's still making me feel tired and worn out and like crap. I was in denial about it up until now (like, despite having a sore throat since Sunday, I kept telling myself that I was just dehydrated and thirsty and if I drank some more water, I'd feel fine), but then last night I fell asleep within 20 minutes while my roommate was still up and had her desk light on and was working until like 3 AM and that never happens for me. Seriously, no matter how tired I am, I've never fallen asleep while she's been up and had her desk light on. I'm almost considering not going to Mood and Anxiety this afternoon, especially since it's one of the few classes I can miss and I feel like it won't matter (since in other classes I'm always worried about missing important stuff for the test, but all we have for this class is this paper left, and the stuff we talk about in class isn't as relevant to my grade. I mean, it's super interesting, but the idea of leaving my apartment and bed right now is not so appealing).

Glee tonight! I am super excited. Hopefully I will be productive and get enough schoolwork done that I don't feel guilty for watching it (I would say hopefully I get enough done so I have time to watch it, but I know that I'm watching it no matter how much I get done because I tend to prioritize TV over schoolwork. Still, I'd feel better about watching it if I'm productive!).

Ok, so I was way more worried and nervous about MUPC than I had to be (but then, I tend to worry unreasonable amounts about absolutely everything, so that's not surprising). It was totally fine. I actually didn't end up being very nervous when I was there in front of my poster answering questions. The people who came by were all very nice and interested in my topic, and they said it was an interesting question and all that, so it made me feel more... validated, I guess, because sometimes when I think about that project I just think it was kind of pointless or not as developed or interesting as a lot of other people's.

Also, one girl stopped by who was on my floor freshman year and became like best friends with my roommate and she was friendly to me for a few weeks and then she just kind of ignored me for the rest of the year and I kind of thought she hated me or at least didn't like me. But she was super friendly and asking questions and stuff, not just about my project but about what I was doing and stuff, and it was really weird. Like, good, but... I'm so self-conscious and critical that I couldn't help thinking "Why are you talking to me? What do you want? Is this some elaborate scheme to make fun of me? Are you pitying me? What is going on?" even though the worst thing she ever did to me was ignore me, and that's probably more to blame on my lack of social skills than on her. And I found out she's taking Understand/Confront Racism next semester like me, which should be interesting. I had another class with her sophomore year and she continued to ignore my existence, so I'm curious to see if that happens again or if she talks to me this time.

This morning, on the other hand, was kind of awful. Ok, it wasn't that bad. But, well, normally I volunteer with a couple of people at a homeless shelter with children on Saturday mornings, but we didn't do it Saturday this week because I had MUPC going on. And this is our last chance to volunteer this semester all together so we went today instead and then went out to lunch afterwards. Except I'm not used to waking up this early on a Sunday, and I stupidly stayed up really late Saturday night, so even though my alarm woke me up at 8 AM, I decided to lie in bed for just a few more minutes, and then of course I fell asleep again and didn't wake up until 8:40. Which meant I had to rush to get dressed and ready and all, and I basically had like 5 minutes to each breakfast, but everything I had would have taken too much time to make and eat. However, one of my roommates made cupcakes yesterday, so I remembered that and was like "ugh I need something to eat" so for breakfast I had a cupcake. Which might sound awesome, except it's really not enough to get you energized or moving or coherent or anything. So I pretty much just felt awful the entire time I was volunteering. I have coffee now, though, and it's awesome.

There have been some recent reports about a 4th season of Chuck not being totally hopeless and the writers/producers/creators/whoever feeling good about coming back, and I kind of wish there weren't this news only because I feel like it's making me too optimistic about it coming back. I had started accepting that this would be end and coming to terms with that and all, but now my hopes are starting to go up again, and I'm afraid there'll be this build-up and then NBC will cancel it (because NBC fails at life. They're probably freaking renew Heroes over Chuck even though Chuck does better critically and in the ratings and Heroes sucks) and it'll suck so much worse than if I had just accepted it being canceled now. blah. (Although maybe NBC will surprise me? No no, still trying not to get my hopes up.) Anyways, on a more positive Chuck-related note, Chuck comes back for the final 6 episodes on Monday! I'm so excited. We finally get to see Chuck and Sarah try to be spies while being in a relationship! Chuck's dad is coming back! Anna is coming back!!! It's going to be awesome.

( Doctor Who 5.04 )

Anyways, yesterday I had plans for doing a bunch or research for my final Mood and Anxiety paper and having it outlined and a thesis and everything so I'd be ready to write as much of it as possible today. And then I did nothing. Well done, self. So instead I'm going to do a bunch of research today and hopefully get... idk, 4 pages done? That might be feasible. If I actually start working and don't just procrastinate all day, which is much more likely.

Right now I pretty much just want to listen to Jonathan Groff singing "Burning Up," Jon and Lea singing "Hello," and the few lines of solo he has in "Like a Prayer" over and over again. I have also been listening to Spring Awakening repeatedly. I might have a problem.

(The rest of this is just a school/real life update, which is probably not very exciting, but there was no new TV for me to watch last night! Fail, Wednesday night TV. Plus, I had schoolwork crap to prioritize over my Doctor Who rewatch.)

I talked to my favorite psych professor (I have no idea how to refer to her, as she's not my adviser, but I basically always go to her when I have questions about fulfilling major requirements and post-undergrad stuff. Maybe I can call her my honorary adviser?) today about a bunch of stuff, but most importantly about applying to grad schools, and she made me feel so much better. I've been kind of freaking out, but she was like "You're so ahead and organized!" And she was talking about when to line up recommendations, and in the middle she like... kind of raised her hand and was like "Me! I would love to have the chance to rave about you," and I was just like ";klajs;lkfj thank you." So now I have two professor in the psych department who have actually told me (without me mentioning anything) that they'd love to write recommendations for me. Which is pretty awesome, considering when I was applying to undergrad, getting recommenders was so nerve-wracking and I wasn't sure anyone would really write me a great rec because I never spoke up in class or anything. So anyways, that's comforting. idk, she just always makes me feel better about everything when I talk to her.

Also, another thing I talked to her about was my idea for my final research paper for Mood and Anxiety (as I am currently taking that class from her), and she said my idea sounded great and she'd be happy to look over a draft next week, which is excellent. And I'm actually kind of really excited about my topic (it's basically about hoarding and the controversy over whether it should primarily be considered a symptom of OCD or if it's its own separate disorder and doesn't need OCD to occur. Which is something I find incredibly interesting, although I recognize that it maybe doesn't sound quite as exciting to people who are not into clinical psychology).

I finished my social psych research proposal last night! I didn't really expect that I would, mostly because I thought I might do a little and then be like "Whatever, I'll have so much time Thursday to finish it, I don't need to do it now!" and I always tend to procrastinate. And for a little while on Wednesday I was considering just not doing anything, even the Method section, and finishing it Thursday. But then I decided I might as well just try to finish it, so I did, and it's done! Just barely over the minimum page count, and parts of it are probably incoherent (...I didn't actually read it completely over. Which I probably should have. But I just wanted to be done with it and honestly I hate reading over work I've written, which I know is kind of a problem because anything I write can definitely be improved by editing. Oh well. It's only 10 points, and I haven't missed a single point in the class so far, so whatever). But it's done, and it's one more thing I can cross off my list of everything I have left to do the rest of the semester, which is down to like... 8 things now! (MUPC this weekend, revised German essay and German oral presentation next week, and then my final Origins and social psych exams, German final, final Mood and Anxiety 8-10 page paper, and short social psych 2-4 page paper.) I hopefully will make it out of these next 2 weeks all right. I will be officially done with this semester 2 weeks from today, which is bizarre but also mostly very good. (Although then I will be a senior and graduating in just a year and that's too weird to think about.)

So yesterday was the first day in over a week where I didn't actually watch any episodes of Doctor Who or Torchwood! But not because I was actually being productive or focusing on schoolwork (like I should have been); instead, I used the time to catch up on the stuff I got behind on in the past week from watching all this Doctor Who and Torchwood. I only have thoughts on one thing I watched last night, though:

( How I Met Your Mother )

Outside of TV-watching, here are some random things going on in my life right now:

I've mentioned a couple times this 5-10 page social psych research proposal due Friday, and I keep putting it off because I'm like "Whatever, it's 5 pages, no big deal, I can do this easily." Except now I'm actually trying to start it, and I just can't. ugh. It's only 10 points! I have a 100% in this class! As long as I turn in something that remotely fits the guidelines, I should get at least a 6-8 on it, right? So I really should just bite the bullet and get it done.

Have I mentioned that the Minnesota Undergraduate Psychology Conference is on Saturday and I'm getting super nervous about it? I don't have to present or anything, but I do have to stand by my poster about my research project from last semester for like an hour and talk about it and answer questions. And besides the fact that I haven't really thought about the project at all since early December, one thing I do remember is that I found nothing in my results. My poster looks super, super boring, though, and the subject isn't like... incredibly fascinating or attention-grabbing, so I'm hoping no one really comes by and I don't have to talk too much. ugh it's going to be awful. And I have too much stuff I should do this weekend to also have this to think about.

I have this bus pass thing with stored money on it, which I got last semester, and it has $44 on it and I only paid $22 and I use it whenever I go grocery shopping, which is every Tuesday. But today I was waiting for the bus and was looking for it in my wallet, and I couldn't find it anywhere. I'm pretty sure I left it in the pocket of my jeans last week when I went, and then when I did laundry on Friday, it got destroyed. ugh. I'm totally kicking myself for that. At least I only had like $9 left on it. But still, I was hoping to be able to get through the rest of the semester on what I had left, and now I have to get a new one. blah.

I can't believe how little time there is left in the semester. I have this week, next week, 2 days of classes, 1 day off, and then 1 final. And then I'm done with the semester. And then I'm a senior. Weird. Also, how is it April 20th? Like, I swear 5 seconds ago I was surprised because it was April 15th and it felt more like April 4th, but now it's not even April 15th anymore! What is happening here?! April is just flying by.

So I couldn't find my adviser yesterday, so I ended up e-mailing him about getting my pin to register, and it turns out he was on a field trip which was why I wasn't able to ever find him. But he told me I can just e-mail him what I'm taking and he'll send me the pin. ...so now I just need to figure out what I'm taking! I'm sure about 2-3 classes, but the last one or two I'm a little unsure about. Choosing classes is too much pressure! At least now that I only have one year left and I won't have another chance to take most of the classes being offered next semester (some will be offered in the spring, but I'll only have 4 slots open then, anyways).

I got a 100 on my social psych test (so I still have 100 in the class; this is honestly one of the easiest classes I've taken here), which is great, and an 88 on my Origins podcast group project, which is a little lame. I don't care very much after how I did on the last test, but still, I thought our podcast was better than that. Oh well.

( Gossip Girl )

Also, I finished my rewatch of Torchwood season 1! ( Torchwood Season 1 )

Anyways, now onto Doctor Who Season 3! Also, new Doctor Who today! I'm very excited. Unfortunately before I can get to both of those things, though, I have a bunch of schoolwork I don't want to do. The only major thing I have next week is this 5-10 research proposal for social psych. It's only worth 10 points and, as I said, I have 100 in the class, so it's really hard to put any effort in at all. Also, I put zero effort into the previous assignment we had that was pretty similar in terms of workload and really expected no better than a 7 or 8 out of 10, but I got a 10 on that, too, so... I don't know that it matters that I do a lot of work on it. I could probably not do it at all and still get an A in the class, but I don't think I could bring myself to not turn an assignment in. But since I have until Wednesday and I don't need to put a lot of effort in and I have nothing else this week, I'll probably just do a little work today (like, figure out what sort of research I'm going to propose) and be done. I also should start researching my topic for my final paper for Mood and Anxiety (which I meant to start doing last weekend, but then I got caught up on rewatching Doctor Who. This is why I try to avoid marathoning TV shows during the school year; even if I've already seen them before, I get caught up in them and start prioritizing them over school, which isn't a great idea, especially when there are only 2 1/2 weeks left of the semester.)

I'm through season 1 of my Doctor Who/Torchwood rewatch, so here are my random thoughts: ( Doctor Who Season 1 )

I managed to watch some other TV as well last night:
( How I Met Your Mother - 5.19 )

( The Big Bang Theory - 3.19 )

How is it that in 2 days we'll be halfway through April? The end of the semester is starting to go by really quickly. It's good because at this point in the semester I'm always so tired and ready for a break, but it's bad because oh crap I have a million things to do besides schoolwork even, like figuring out what I'm doing this summer and what I should be doing to prepare for applying to grad school in the fall and figuring out where I want to apply and if I'm sure about what I'm planning on doing and ugh. Too much for me to handle.

I got a 99 on my Origins exam (well, 97 plus 2 extra credit points she gave to the entire class because apparently a lot of people did really badly and only 3 people got As. But I actually did better on this test than the last one, which is weird). I was feeling a little nervous about this class, especially because of the podcast project thing, but now I think I should really be fine. So I'm nearly guaranteed an A in 3 of my classes, but who the hell knows about Mood and Anxiety. As of now, I have an A-, but that's only one assignment; I could easily bring it down or up with my group presentation (Thursday), the class facilitation I already did but don't know how well I did yet, and the final paper (I should really start that sometime. I was going to start researching this weekend, but then I watched Doctor Who instead. oops).

I have an exam on Wednesday, a group project on Thursday, and a short German essay on Friday, so I sadly won't be able to watch Doctor Who as non-stop for the next few days. I kind of want to get the full series rewatch done by like Sunday because after that, there are really other things I should focus on, but I doubt I'll get done by then. We'll see, though.

( Legend of the Seeker - 2.16 )

( Doctor Who - 5.02 )

I've been in such a Doctor Who mood recently, and yesterday I was getting strong urges to rewatch older episodes. And, I mean, seasons 1-4 were all put up on Netflix Instant Watch, so they were all there waiting to be watched! At first I was thinking about rewatching an entire season, but then I decided I was only in the mood for certain episodes. And then I was going to do my favorites from each season, but I thought that might take too long, and I felt like if I watched anything of season 1, I would get too hooked on the season arc and want to watch everything. So instead I decided to watch some episodes from season 2 and season 4. Last night I watched The Christmas Invasion, The Rise of the Cyberman/Age of Steel 2-parter, and the Army of Ghosts/Doomsday 2-parter. This afternoon I'll probably watch Partners in Crime, maybe Midnight, and then Turn Left and The Stolen Earth/Journey's End finale (clearly I'm in the mood for Ten/Rose stuff). But first I have some random thoughts about the season 2 episodes I watched:

( Doctor Who Season 2 )

So as I mentioned, I was planning on watching some season 4 episodes today, but now I kind of want to just rewatch the whole series. And then rewatch seasons 1-2 of Torchwood. I so don't have time for this. I mean, I have more time this week than last, but still. It's not the best idea I've ever had. We'll see.

I kind of took yesterday off. I don't know if that was a good idea or not. idk, I just felt like I was working non-stop for the past week. I was doing schoolwork and studying and doing research and everything from the Thursday night before the 3-day weekend until this past Thursday night. So I felt like I needed a break, and I don't have a lot to do this week (although I have plenty of things a little further on that I could be preparing for, like the Minnesota Undergraduate Psychology Conference and my final Mood and Anxiety paper, and my social psych research proposal, and so many other things). Hopefully I won't become too rushed/busy the next few weeks. (Rewatching Doctor Who and Torchwood this week probably would not help anything, but I still have the desire to do it. ugh.)