i've never felt like this before, i say that every hour

okay ! i'm going to start with my to-do list ! and i'm going to add a thing to it so it looks like i did more !

- straighten up bedroom
- read my history chapters and take notes
- view the online portal for my history class and do the set-up for my german class
- tune up/grease/clean bike
- straighten up the kitchen and livingroom
- go back to trader joe's for some frozen crap
- catsit hoolie !
- brush my own cat and clip her toenails

after work i had my online meeting with my german professor where he showed me how to work adobeconnect and stuff. we actually use that for (i apologize for using this word) webinars at work so i was kind of familiar with it. he seems like a very nice dude and the class should be fun ! i also signed into the online portal for my history class. the professor introduces herself there and i'm less intimidated and nervous now because she seems like a nice history nerd !



we had to write introductions for ourselves on the site and we are instructed in the syllabus not to use humor or sarcasm in our online postings, so i was kind of at a loss. i figured i'd focus on my excitement about history and how grateful i am for the opportunity to go back to school for free, and i basically ended up writing this wooden dorky thing? the jumpoff questions were about where we were this summer, what made us sign up, etc.

Hello! My name is Roxann **** (I prefer Roxy, but Roxann is okay too). I will be in Philadelphia this summer, working at ***** and attending this class and a German language class through Penn LPS. While that may not sound exciting to many, I am really looking forward to returning to school after a hiatus of nearly 10 years, and am thankful that Penn's generous tuition reimbursement for employees is affording me an opportunity I would not have otherwise.

I too have been interested in history since childhood, and am particularly interested in war and warfare. I've spent most of my life reading history books and more recently listening to history podcasts (Hardcore History podcast by Dan Carlin is one of my favorites), and it finally clicked for me that studying history in an academic setting was an option for me, and an exciting opportunity for me. I'm eager to learn and to turn my favorite hobby into a real area of study, as well as to learn from our texts, the instructor, and my classmates.

think that doesn't sound too bad? well, i edited it and took out some of the dorkier words ! cause i was too embarrassed to even show you guys.

after that, i straightened up my room and ate dinner (a hoagie !) and then settled in to not do my history homework or anything. i played left 4 dead 2 with my friend ken for awhile- we were on the last campaign and it was pretty exciting. i regret our choice to switch to easy at the end because i think it was TOO easy, but the end of the campaign is navigating a fucked up bridge full of zombies to get to a helicopter.



the bridge part was a lot of fun ! ken was a good leader and didn't do my least favorite video game thing (freaking out and repeating a word or command over and over again- RUN RUN RUN RUN RUNR UNR UURN RUNR UNR RUN) so i didn't get stressed out or anything. unfortunately this means we're done with the game, unless we want to go back and do stuff on different difficulty levels. there is an achivement where i can get a gnome though? and a depeche mode shirt?



after that, we watched the lost world (not the jurassic park sequel, the silent movie based on the doyle novel). i was taken in by the dvd cover and put it on my queue right away, and wasn't disappointed.



first of all, silent movies are great for watching on xbox live because you can talk all you want and you don't really miss anything ! second, there's a part where they see an allosaurus and are like, "ahhh, the allosaurus, pest of the dinosaurs" which cracked us up, but then the allosaurus is such a factual pest throughout the movie ! he literally just runs around taking bites out of every dinosaur. not even eating them, just killing them and maybe taking a bite. at one point he jumps up and bites a pterodactyl out of the sky !!! and then he just spits it on the ground and steps on it.



the basic plot of the movie is that a crazy old scientist (dr. challenger !) thinks dinosaurs are alive in brazil based on a diary he found, and then he goes with an expedition team (including a young journalist whose girlfriend won't marry him because he isn't adventurous). some other shit happens and they see dinosaurs and are terrorized by an ape man- the ape man looks vaguely like an olde timey racist stereotype, which made me uncomfortable until i saw the member of the expedition team who is straight up a white dude in blackface. ugh ! ken said he was going to tell people i watched a movie with blackface characters, but i think it would be even more controversial if i was rumored to watch a movie that featured womanface.

blehh. i'm gonna go do some work. jeanne and mike b. are coming over tonight and i'm really excited (by the way, if i ever talk about 'mike' it's usually my friend mike g. if i talk about a mike in conjunction with JEANNE, it's mike b.. also if i mention drawing, weird al, or madballs, it's mike b.) because mike has never been to my house or met my cat.



i only have a few more days to complete my to-do list so wish me luck.