I made a to-do list for my homework because I wanted to make sure I didnt forget anything.... and now I feel completely overwhelmed. My "fight or flee" thing has kicked in and I want to flee. -- I know I need to just take it one thing at a time and prioritize... but I would much rather just go and watch TV.

So, Instead I decided this was a great time to not procrastinate on something else entirely... and I went and planned my schedule for next semester since registration starts next week.... totally on the bottom of the priority list, but its done. Now I just need to go see a councelor and make sure the classes I have selected fit the requirements and get it approved.

*sigh*

*stares at homework to-do list*

homework...homework... and more homework... I dont have time for anything else these days.

there are so many books that I want to read right now, and I just don't have the time... I have never been as busy with school work before as I am this semester... i guess that is just how it is going to be until I finish my degree because I am going to have multiple literature classes every semester until I graduate -- I have 10 more literature classes that I have to take to get my degree.

I just did the math... when this semester is over I will have 76 out of the 145 credit hours that I will need to graduate with the degree and certification so that I can teach... so if I continue taking classes 5 at a time (15 credit hours) like I am doing right now... it will take me 4.6 semesters ~ so therefore 5 more semesters to finish... which means finish up this school year, and then 2 full more years... so i will be done in Summer 2012.

Of course, if I can somehow squeeze enough money out of my student loans to afford a summer class or two, I could cut off one semester and be done in December of 2011, but I don't know if that will be financially possible... and of course, this is also working under the assumption that they will have the right classes offered at the right times so that I am able to take 5 classes at a time.... especially with the 3 semsters that will include my teaching blocks that require a significant amount of time spent in the class room observing/student teaching.

*sigh* -- I just keep telling myself, at least you are more than half way done... you are walking down the mountain now.

wish I had something else to talk about other than school, but not much else is going on these days.

school is still going well... currently have three papers I need to write, in a format I have never written in before, something called a "Close Reading"... is this some new thing? I had never even heard of a close reading before this semester, and now I have 3 of them for 3 different classes, and they are all due within the same 24 hour period... am kind of struggling with them because I keep wanting to focus on content and interpretation of the material, whereas apparently the point of a close reading paper is to write about the format and presentation of the material... I may have to take advantage of the writing lab that the university offers and go get help from a tutor... I've never had to seek out help on a paper before.

Out of curiosity, I just did a google search for "close reading" and something that I was reading sparked an idea (hehehe, I got hit by the paper-writing-equivelant of a plot bunny) and I got some work done on 1 of the three... the other two I still need to work on. I hope that my professors talk more about the papers in class, I can't be the only one that is having a hard time with these.

I think my most interesting class this semester is my Human Sexuality class... I find it more enjoyable than any of my other classes... although it, like the others, requires a lot of reading... speaking oh which, I should really get back to it now.

So school is going really well... I have completely abandoned trying to take my car and park at the campus, even though I paid $50 for a parking pass for the campus parking lot, it is still impossible to find a spot anywhere... I circled the other day for 20 minutes in the campus parking lot, along with about 15 other cars, and in the end I ended up going to a pay lot and spending another $5... and as i was walking towards the campus, I couldn't help but notice how many other people in the pay lot had the same parking passes for the campus lot hanging from their mirrors.... apparently many of us wasted all that money and can never find a parking spot, and are now wasting more money everyday to pay again to park somewhere else.

So, I am now taking public transportation, the Metro Lightrail drops me off literally at the front door of the campus, and it picks up not far from my house at all. I get a student discount, so my fare is only half price. -- and with the money I will be saving on gas not driving to downtown and back 4 days a week, it will more than pay for the parking at the Lightrail lot. ($40 a month)

anywho, I have much homework that I need to be working on... a paper to write and a ton that I need to read... 4 lit classes at one time is tough.

today is my first day at University of Houston Downtown. I am excited and kinda nervous. Wish me luck =)

my degree finally arrived in the mail - it feels more official now. I am having it framed. My next semester starts in just two more weeks, I am very excited. I went ahead and bought my books. only spent $325 on books for 5 classes, was pleasently surprised... I have come to the conclusion after many semesters that if you spend less that $100 per class on books, you are doing very well and I only had one book this semester that hit the 100 mark.

It occured to me today that I haven't posted on here in awhile, so I checked and it's been almost a month.

So, the weight loss thing is going well... we missed going to the gym for a week because Ducky's sister has thyroid cancer and she had surgery last Monday, and then when she got out of the hospital Ducky went to stay with her for 5 days while she was recuperating. -- but we are going back to the gym tonight.

We haven't actually weighed in or anything, but I can tell that I have lost weight, I can feel it.

Just 3 more weeks until my next semester starts. I am uber-excited. New school, new degree progress, what's not to love.

My friend Alicia wanted to start playing world of warcraft again, and she begged me to come play with her, so I have re-activated my account and now Ducky is playing also. We are having fun with it. It's nice to be able to play casually, unlike the first two years where I was totally addicted... Although I do worry that Ducky is rapidly becoming addicted.... we are going to have to schedule nights where we dont play so that we can do other things.

I still haven't gone to see the new Harry Potter yet, and I really want to go see it - maybe this weekend.

well, I finsihed the first Sookie Stackhouse book and started reading the second book... I got about 2 chapters in when I got introduced to the character that I was hoping was not in the second book... so, I have realized that I can not continue to read the book unless I want to spoil myself for Season 2 of True Blood... which I do not want to do.

So, I am taking a detour and I have decided that I am going to read Phillip Pullman's His Dark Materials Trilogy, which has been on my to-do list for a while... and then I will either divert back to the Sookie Stackhouse series... or I will go in an entirely different direction and start reading The Dresden Files series.

so many books, so many choices... and for the next month and a half... so much time.

I know when next semester starts I will have a ton to read, but for classes, not for personal enjoyment.

I often forget about my LJ these days... I am on facebook so much it never even occurs to me to come over here and post.

So what's new? not much... just reading a lot and enjoying my summer off before I start full time school back up in the fall... actually more than full time.. that would be 12 hours... I am taking 15.

I got new sheets yesterday... yay new sheets... they are a white with a green and blue plaid design and they are a real soft Flannel. We got them at Sam's for like $35.... overall we spent over $200 for everything we got, so we are totally broke now for the next two weeks, but it was worth it.

anywho... I finished the twilight series and I am now reading the Sookie Stackhouse books.... so far so good.

it was 104 degrees today.... I am sooo scared of what August is going to bring. I am already afraid to step outside in fear that I may burst into flames.

another day at 99 degrees (plus ridiculous humidity)... it's too hot to even try to function... am glad I don't HAVE to leave the house for any reason today (Ducky works early shifts on Tuesday so my mom provides transportation as it is on her way to and from work) ... I will just stay happy in my room with my window unit A/C blasting and watch TV and read stuff on my kindle. =)

My kindle arrived today... opened the box about half an hour ago and so far I LOVE it... it is charging now... I have already gone and bought my friend wl551's book "Half of Me", which if you are inclined to check out, you can purchase here --> Buy "Half of Me" at Freya's Bower and support my friend

I plugged it into my laptop, only to discover that when you plug it in via usb, it goes into USB mode, and you can't play with it... it says that when you eject it from the usb it will still charge and you can continue playing with it... but it didn't so much work... which probably has more to do with my laptop running Vista than it does with the kindle itself - I have noticed that Vista acts strangely with usb things that you eject but still have plugged in... I shall have to test this hypothesis with my regular comp running XP later.

I have already managed to take one of the ebooks I already had on my computer in .mobi format and transfer it over to the kindle via USB... came out prefectly fine... so while kindle is charging, I am going to work on converting the rest of my ebooks into .mobi format.

YAY!

So, I love the new laptop... I am using it right now... I have been trying to use it as much as possible so that I can get use to the keyboard... it has pretty much become my primary computer... I haven't even turned my old computer on it days.

My kindle still hasn't arrived yet, despite amazon saying that the delivery estimate was on Friday, the 19th. I am watching for it every day.

I went to my transfer student orientation for University of Houston Downtown on Tuesday... I really think I am going to love my new campus... it is so much more impressive than my old school... it's kinda like going from a bicycle to a limosine. -- There is a Starbucks, a Smoothie King, a Chick Fil-A, and a Taco Bell all IN the building... the library is two entire floors of the main building (which is 10 floors high) -- there are 3 big student lounge areas with comfortable seating and tables everywhere -- the whole building has WiFi so I can use my laptop anywhere.

I went ahead and got signed up for next semester which starts on Aug. 25th. -- I will be taking 15 hours (5 classes) -- On the afternoons on Mon/Wed I will be taking Brit Lit I and Brit Lit II (yup, I am taking both at the same time) -- then on Tues/Thur evenings, I am taking Intro to Poetry, Intro to Fiction, and Human Sexuality (to fulfill social sciences requirement)... I am slightly concerned about the amount of material I am going to have to read for all these English classes, but I there really is no way around it... my schoolwork is going to be reading intensive.

On a postive note, my financial aid came through ina big way -- the amount of money I am getting for my pell grant will almost completely cover my tuition, so all I really have to pay for is my books -- so I can take the minimal amount of student loans possible and not bury myself in debt. YAY.

I am still hoping to get at least one of my textbooks in kindle format this semester.... who knows, maybe I will get lucky and find more that that.

anywho... today I am going to lunch with my mom and a bunch of her work friends and then we are all going to go see Cabaret... originally another work friend was going, but she got sick at the last minute so I inherited her spot.

I know I haven't been posting much here lately... I do check my friendslist daily, but I guess I just haven't had anything worth posting about (other that the dog attack) as I have kinda come to the conclusion in my head that my LJ has become a place for more lengthy posts... while random every day crap or meaningless stuff (although often funny and enjoyable) that is shorter is getting put on facebook. I post every day there if not more often and I really enjoy the social interraction on that site. It reminds me how much I used to love LJ way back when people actually used to post regularly... lately I have seen my friendslist here sometimes go 2 or 3 days without any new posts... it makes me sad.

Anyway... I had a reason to post...

I came to the conclustion about a month ago that I need a laptop... for practical reasons as well as personal entertainment reasons. My new university is not nearly as close to my house as my community college was, so it is not practical for me to return home if I have a break between classes, even if it is a lengthy break (It will probably take me almost an hour to get there as I will be parking my car in a public lot and taking the lightrail.) So I decided that it would be necessary for me to get a laptop so that I could do schoolwork when I was away from home, and I will probably be using my laptop in class as well.. it seems that using laptops in class is becoming a norm. -- So, I knew I didn't have the money to pay for one outright, so I talked to my mom and she agreed to finance it for me so that I could make payments on it... So, using my new student discount at my new university, I went to the dell website and customized a nice laptop and bought it a couple of weeks ago. It is supposed to arrive at my house within the next 2 days. I am very excited.

I am also very happy now that I did do the customizing and made the laptop nicer than it really needed to be because it seems more and more to me lately that my desktop computer is becoming horribly outdated. After much anticipation, I finally got my copy of Sims3 (which I preordered back around Christmas time for its original release date) only to install it and learn that my computer can't run the game... My processer is too slow, I don't have enough memory, and my graphics card is to old. *suckage* -- So I was very happy the next day to get the email notification that my laptop has been shipped... in the meantime the Sims3 game is sitting on my desk taunting me.

So, as if this wasn't great enough... My father, my step-mother, and my grandparents all decided to give me some money as a graduation present... and lo and behold, I got enough to afford a Kindle DX. I was so excited I almost wet myself when I figurd out I had enough to buy it. AND of course, it has it's practical applications as well.. they are starting to release more and more textbooks in Kindle format these days, so hopefully I will be able to find some of my textbooks while at the university in Kindle format and save some money. -- My kindle should arrive on Monday the 15th.

I am SO excited about my new toys... So So excited. *explodes*

Yet another installment in the ongoing drama.... Today the neighbor's pitbull decided to randomly attack and pull off one of the fence pickett's. All three of our dogs happened to be in the backyard at the time, and our boxer Chico ran over to defend his territory... The pitbull got a hold of Chico by the neck and woudn't let him go. My mom was on our side of the fence and the neighbor was on his side of the fence both trying to put the dogs apart. -- The neighbor finally got his dog to let go and we rushed Chico to the vet.

He had a very deep gash in the front of his neck about 2 inches long. Several stitches and a $300 vet bill later, and here we are again.

The is the 5th time that fucking dog has attacked one of our dogs... it has killed one of our dogs, bitten the tail off another... this is the second throat gashing, and another dog lost a toe.

I just don't understand wanting to keep a dog that is that fucking vicious... I am not anti-pitbull. We had a pitbull for a brief time... in fact the pitbull we had was one of the victims of our neighbor's dog.

For fucks sake, the neighbor's pitbull killed one of their other dogs before it ever attacked any of our dogs... what more has to happen before they do something about it. Our neigbor has a 2 year old daughter...what if that fucking dog attacks her? will that be enough for him to do something.

When my mom tried to talk to him, all he said was "it takes two dogs to fight." -- what complete and utter bullshit. His dog is the one doing all the fucking attacking, that has ALWAYS been the case. Chico wouldn't hurt a fly.

If I didn't fear retaliation, I would throw some poison meat over the fence in a heartbeat... but I know our neighbor all to well... we have known him all our lives... if we did anything, we would have slashed tires and broken windows, not to mention our dogs would end up dead as well.

We have called animal control before... but since their dog didn't actually enter our backyard, they won't do a fucking thing about it.

It is just a fucking shame to be afraid to let our dogs out in our own backyard.

So, I went through and watched all the previews for the new fall shows on ABC... and I snagged a few that I like the most and posted them here along with my own comments and critiques... there are a lot more on the site if you want to go look at all of them yourself. I am LJ-cutting because I am a nice person.

( Previews, Comments and Critiques )

More about new shows on other networks over the next few days.

So all of the major television networks have now put up their fall schedules... except CBS, but honestly I don't watch anything on CBS anyway.

There are a few new shows that look really interesting... I think it's funny that they are bringing back Melrose Place... the thing I find most interesting is that the landlady for the new show is going to be Sydney Andrews (Laura Leighton) from the old show... and I could have sworn they killed her... I very distinctly remember her in a wedding dress in front of the church getting run over by a limo... I remember this distinctly because this is when I stopped watching the show (I liked the character and was pissed that they killed her off)... I might check out an episode and give it a chance... then again, I tried to give 90210 a chance and that only lasted about 7 minutes before I gave up.

I was going to post a whole bunch of different stuff about different shows... but I am rather tired. I think I will take a nap instead. Maybe I will come back and post more stuff about shows later.

( spoilers... all though I doubt anyone that cares doesnt already know by now )

oh well, now that this is all over with... So You Think You Can Dance premiers tomorrow night... YAY!!!

so I kept up with what I said and I am not watching American Idol anymore. Ducky watched it while I was at school taking my last test. -- I have continued to watch Entertainment Weekly's "Idolatry" which is a video podcast type thing that I found on TiVo but it is also available on the ew.com website. -- Watching it makes me feel so much better because the people that host that show make the EXACT kind of comments that I make.. it makes me feel vendicated. -- They did this whole tribute this to Allison... I loved it.

I know Adam is probably going to win... I have come to terms with it. It's not that I think he is not talented, I know he is... I just don't like his style and it irritated me to no end that the judges never gave him any criticism at all, even when it was deserved... yet they could not give credit when credit was due to almost ANY of the other contestants. The whole panel is just SO biased ths season that is drives me nuts.

I have been debating watching the finale. just because in past years the final has always been a great show with all the guest stars and duets.. Allison will of course be on the finale.

Ducky hasn't watched last nights results show yet, so I don't know who went home... but I really hope it was Danny... Kris deserves to be there so much more than he does.

I am so tired... I don't know why... I got enough sleep and I haven't really done anything today aside from fighting with the computer (I won). Maybe it's just dread about having to go take my last Spanish test tonight?

For the past, I don't even know how many years, I have been utterly miserable for the majority of the year because my room is the front bedroom of the house, with direct sunlight on 3 sides -- and we pretty much have zero insulation... so when the temperature gets above 80 degrees (which is 90% of the year in Houston), my room turns into an oven... add to the problem the fact that my room is the room in the house that is farthest away from the A/C unit and gets TERRIBLE air pressure... I can crank the air down so that the rest of the house if freezing and it is still warm in my room, not to mention the lovely inpact that has on our bills.

So, today - after ANOTHER long discussion with my mother, we went to Lowe's and bought a small, very energy efficient window unit A/C for my room -- all in all spent about $125. My friend eskimosatan helped me install it, and now my room is nice and cool. I am SO happy! I am going to sleep so well tonight.

that was some bullshit...I am so done with this fucking show. I aready told Ducky that i am not watching the rest of the season.

( cut for spoilers -- and wl551 you REALLY should just skip this one. )

I still want to beat the shit out of something... I wish I had a fucking punching bag.

it seems like facebook has taken over the world... it seems like only 5 people ever post on here anymore. -- I am not going to leave or anything, I love my livejournal... even though it has become a ghost town in an old western movie. I am just waiting for the tumbleweed to roll by.

Ducky and I are about to head off to the movie theatre so see the new Wolverine movie... and then we are going to go out to lunch at the Grand Lux to celebrate my graduation from HCC and the completion of my Associates Degree. YAY!

I gotta say, the one downside to the modern conveniences of mp3s, and honestly it started with CDs but now is even worse, is that we don't listen to full collections of music anymore... we don't listen to the full CD, we skip to the tracks we want to hear and make playlists, and often we lose out on really good music because we just don't listen to what we have.

A few weeks ago I posted about the massive playlist I was making by going through my entire music collection and just weeding out the stuff that I would skip if it came on in the car while I was dirivng around... in that process I have now gotten up to Gloria Estefan... and when I was going through all her music, I was very surprised with the fact that I knew and could sing along with almost every single song from every one of her CDs, except for the most recent 2... and I realized that it was because i orignally had these on cassette when it wasn't as convenient to skip around so I would just listen to the whole thing unless there was a song I really didn't like and was worth the effort of manually fastforwarding the tape... and I realized that is the way it is with most of the stuff in my collection that I originally had on cassette.

When I get new music nowadays, I download the CD, browse through it to see what jumps out at me, and I usually add those songs to my current playlist in my iPod, and the rest of the tracks are pretty much forgotten forever. It's kinda sad... so I have now created another side project aside from my massive playlist. -- I have began putting entire CDs into a second playlist that I am creating for stuff that I have bought and haven't really given the full CDs a good chance... So far there are like 60 full CDs in this playlist. I plan to start going through it when I finish my current playlist project, which I imagine I will have the time to finish once this semester ends (just two more weeks) as I will be off for the entire summer and will have noting to do and no money.

in the meantime, back to Gloria.

Idol is very frustrating to me this season... mostly because I very strongly dislike Adam Lambert... I have discussed this at length with wl551, as she is a big fan of Adam's, as are lots of other people out there.

It's gotten to the point that I don't even really want to watch the rest of the season anymore because I dislike this guy so much and I have a very strong feeling that he is going to win. Why do I dislike him so much??

( Cut for wl551 because she has already heard me bitch about him enough )

Okay, enough bitching about Adam.

Of the other four contestants, I would actually be okay with any of them winning. I have been rooting for Allison from the very beginning... ever since she did Heart's "Alone" I was sold.... I was a Danny fan in the beginning, but my liking him faded as the season went on. Kris on the other hand I wasn't that impressed with in the beginning, but he has grown on me a lot and I could totally see myself buying his CD (despite his odd Elvis side-mouth singing thing *wink*)... and that leaves Matt. I run hot and cold on Matt... there are nights when he does really great, and night when he tries to do too much with the songs and he fails... for me, tonight was a failure - but Ducky (and Simon) praised him tonight.

but as I was saying in the beginning... I don't even want to watch anymore... I used to be all excited on Tuesday nights because it was Idol night, but now I just cringe because I am going to have to deal with more Adam and Adam-praise. If it weren't for the fact that Ducky and I watch Idol together, I would just fast forward thru Adam and be happier... maybe I will just start leaving the room when he performs.

I am just glad that Allison has made it far enough into the competition that she will probably have a CD... I can look forward to that. There are plenty of Idol castoffs that went on to put out great CDs.

So, after the terrible weather we had yesterday, it started up again last night... although it was apparently much worse that I thought... this is what I woke up to this morning... (and YAY for my first ever video on youtube)

to any of my houston area friends who were going to attend my graduation this coming Saturday... don't. I have decided that I will not be attending either.

When I get my Bachelor's degree in a few years, then yes I will attend... but I have decided I really don't care about this one that much and I don't want to sit through the hours of ceremony... especially since it is going to be ALL of the HCC campuses across Houston - and the high school students who get their G.E.D.'s thru HCC... there are going to be about a million and a half people... I know I don't want to fucking sit there for 6 hours and I don't want anyone else to do it either.