1. Put your music player on shuffle.
2. Press forward for each question.
3. Use the song title as the answer to the question even if it doesn’t make sense. NO CHEATING!
4. Tag 5 people.
5. Bold the questions and with the answers, give your own comments on how it relates to the questions.

( Queue it up, DJ Winamp )

I won't tag people, or they might poison me with hemlock after all. O_O

Level 49. If I never see another Rage Scar Yeti in my life, it will be too soon.

The Euro version of Burning Crusade is only out on the 15th or 16th. By that time, Dave will already have his Blood Elf to level 50, so I won't be able to level with him and be shamed by his ability to level his alts at ten times the speed of my main. :P

It's been a quietly productive day. I wrote two out of the three lectures for my first week of courses, and prepared an accompanying Powerpoint presentation for one of them. I won't have to stand in front of my class and amuse them with my bad impersonations of cartoon characters, which is always good.

Then, I went to pilates class for the first time in months. Pilates is still pain. They seem to have discovered some new, even more painful exercises in the interim.

I got an e-mail from Phil's parents to thank me for the Christmas card and letter I sent them. They were very nice about me. I'm starting to think that I am the sort of girl that guys take home to their parents, because they inevitably like me. I'm not sure how I feel about that, though. Being likeable to parents is not exactly the most sexy or exciting trait.

Speaking of Ohio, I'm thinking of applying for an MA in Education at OSU as a back-up plan. It's one of those degrees that I've planned on getting, and it would only take about a year or so. I just really want to go to OSU. They have the English programme that I want. I've looked at tons and tons of institutions, and no other English programme suits me quite as well. I'd feel like I was getting second best elsewhere.

Plus, I'm not going to lie. Phil is still a factor in my decisions. I still care very deeply for him, and I want to see what we can have in the future, because I believe it will be amazing. Some of you might think that I'm being stupid, but, well, you'll have to think that. It's not like I'm choosing the hope of a relationship with him and abandoning my own ambitions and plans. I ultimately have to do what is right for me, and this feels right. So . . .

Anyway, I'm operating on the belief that I will be accepted into the Ph.D programme. (touch wood, etc.) This application would simply be a back-up, a safety net if you will. Acrobats using them don't believe that they will fall, but they're glad to have them anyway.

Besides, I think it's perfectly clear to all who know me that I've already fallen. Hard. :P

A reminder: I'm going to make the move to the new journal soon, so add kae to your friends' list. I'm still setting up the icons there and deciding on a look for it, but I'm almost done now. I just need to put up the more personal, photographic icons.

Hah. I fixed my problem with World of Warcraft. I did have to log into the Euro version of the game to get the patch applied, so I could play on the American servers again. Thank the Dark Lady for free trial accounts.

I need to patch my game to 2.0.3, and I can't use the automatic download on my connection without serious pain. I've downloaded both parts of the manual patch (yes, I do have the correct language version) and have unzipped them to the folder suggested by WoWWiki. When I try to run BNUpdate.exe, however, it simply says that "there is no patch file to apply." How can I fix this problem and get the updater to recognise the patches that are bloody well there? :P

I went to the beach today with my family. It was just a daytrip, but a very pleasant one. The sea was absolutely perfect for swimming: calm and smooth, but with lovely swells to ride. I must have spent about three hours in the water all told, just drifting and riding the waves.

The beach to which we went was particularly cool, because it has a huge sandbar a couple of dozen metres from the shore across a fairly deep channel in the sea. You can swim across to it, and then stand in ankle-deep water in the middle of the ocean. That was fun.

In between, I lay on the beach in the sun and read the novel that I got for Christmas from my parents, "Half of a Yellow Sun." I've now got a slight tan again, which is excellent. My face got slightly burnt around my cheeks, but not enough to hurt. It just looks like I'm a healthy, rosy-cheeked girl from a Swiss Chocolate commercial. :P

The beach was really busy, because it's the last week of the school holidays here, although I've been back at work since the 3rd. It was mainly families with small children and elderly couples, BUT I did see the most perfect specimen of a man that I have ever seen. It was crazy. He had an absolutely perfect body: it didn't have an ounce of fat on it, but it wasn't too muscular and steroid-enhanced either. I couldn't stop staring at him, and it wasn't because I personally found him very attractive; it was just because I didn't think it was possible to achieve those sort of perfect proportions short of airbrushing or sculpture. Sadly, I suspect he knew just how perfect his body was, because he was wearing a . . . ew . . . banana-hammock. Nonetheless, in his defense, let me say that he's the only man I've ever seen who should be wearing one of them. Boardshorts would be a complete crime on him.

Okay, I've thought of some names with which I could live and which seem to be available. So, tell me which one you like best:

- Fuimus.
Pro: I'm a Bruce, and it's my family's motto that alludes to the fact that we once ruled Scotland.
Con: It really means "we were", which is a little arbitrary unless you know I'm a Bruce. :P

- Saint_Illusio.
Pro: Dee is perhaps my favorite fictional character in any series, and I've used her title for a long time in my AIM name.
Con: No-one seems to have read Julian May's Galactic Milieu trilogy, so no-one will get it.

- Textualchemist.
Pro: It's another name I use a lot, and it's the name of my domain. It also reflects the fact that I'm planning to write much more from this year.
Con: I came up with it when I was younger, and I think it's a little pretentious now.

- Kae
Pro: Another name that I've used for a long time. It's probably the name by which most of the WoT people on my friends' list know me. I also think it's pretty.
Con: People might think I adore Araki Kae, which I . . . kinda don't.
[This is probably the one I'm leaning towards most, btw.]

Does anyone want to suggest a new name for my new journal? I've been thinking for hours and coming up blank. I hate thinking of names.

Moreover, why have all the clever names I imagine already been taken by illiterate people who writ lyk thiss? What does that say about me?

I'm going to sleep now.

I'm so very tired. My family has not been letting me sleep lately. It comes of having a brother who stays awake until after midnight and a mother who wakes up at 5 AM. They're equally noisy in their own ways, and I'm a pretty light sleeper. I'd estimate I've had about four hours of sleep each night for the last week.

Anyway . . .

I'm probably going to be moving journals in the near future, so add kae to your friends' list. (The name is provisional, and will probably be changed. A lack of sleep and an overdose of cyberpunk lately made me think it was cool at the time, but I don't like it now.) There's not a particularly sinister or profound reason for it. I'm trying to move everything onto my Gmail account before I go to OSU (touch wood) and have to cancel my SAI one. I thought it would be a good opportunity to start from the beginning with tags, titles, etc. I'm going to make the move fairly slowly and will build it over the next few weeks, so you don't need to do anything immediately. It's just more of a heads-up for the future.

Quick quiz: What is the best way of determining whether you are pregnant?

1) Taking a pregnancy test.
2) Seeking the advice of a medical professional.
3) Waiting and watching.
4) Hoping complete strangers on LiveJournal will be able to tell you based on patchy information.

Apparently, many women choose option 4.

Incidentally, if people don't want to get pregnant, why don't they use condoms or take the pill? I cannot understand it. I'd never play Russian Roulette with my uterus in that way. :P

Maybe it's a South African mindset on my part. Because of the AIDS rate in the country, safe sex is a national priority. We have advertising campaigns in the media and billboards on the streets about how no condom = no sex. So, condomising (made-up word that's in all the campaigns) is part of the national consciousness.

It's absurdly hot today. I spent most of my time in the pool or in front of a fan. My family is too cheap to buy aircon, and my mom thinks that it is unhealthy. I'd think it would be more unhealthy to boil slowly to death, but whatever. I just need to survive two more months of it, and summer will be over.

My aunt and uncle from Joburg came to visit us early this morning. They're visiting her brother who recently had a heart-attack. He's going to be fine, but they just wanted to come and see him. So, they spent the morning with us, and went to him in the afternoon.

I dinged 46 in World of Warcraft today. It went quickly thanks to the magic of rest xp. Only one week before BC is released in South Africa~

Finally, I had fun poking the crazy, or at least the stupidly horny. I can't say that it is something I do often, but I enjoy it immensely when I'm hot and bored and annoyed by guys who think solely with their penises.

Besides, I have low tolerance for people who ask stupid questions that could be answered by Googling or going to GameFAQS. We used to have a whole thicket of them on guildwars. Fortunately, Phil did some slash-burning there. ^_^

Speaking of penises, Anshe Chung got attacked by badly-rendered, bright pink ones in Second Life, and is now giving Barbara Streisand a run for her money by trying to censor it. It shows that millions of virtual dollars can't buy you common sense.

P.S. The collective noun for idiots is a thicket, though Wikipedia says it is spurious. I love collective nouns. I must post my favorites one of these days.

It's rather sad how much this NPC amused me. I laughed for about ten minutes over it. I'm such a geek.

Today did not get off to the nicest of starts. Our dog was mauled by the neighbour's St Bernard, and had to be put to sleep. She was an old dog and had taken to having epileptic fits. We think that she had a fit by the fence and collapsed against it. The neighbor's dog then pulled her through it and wanted to play with her. She was pretty severely injured, and we decided that it was best to have her put to sleep.

It's been a really, really good day. I chatted to Phil, found some excellent stories for my first years, and signed my very first publishing contract for the encyclopedia articles, which was exciting!

I also did some WoW PvP again. I do not have a clue where to turn in my honor and tokens for rewards and XP anymore, and my Guild has been curiously absent of late.

It's been a pleasant morning. I spent most of it reading through a collection of de Maupassant's short stories, and selecting two of them for the course I'm teaching. After much deliberation, I chose "Ball of Fat" and "The Necklace".

I also acquainted myself with some of the recent criticism on Frankenstein, because I last studied the book in my Honours' year, and then photocopied a lot of Anne K Mellor's study of Mary Shelley. I'm so glad I chose it; I'm going to enjoy teaching it, because it's such a fascinating, rich and multilayered piece of work. :)

Then, I went over to the cafeteria to buy a sandwich, and ran into a friend of a friend whom I knew casually from some parties and who invited me to join him for lunch. He had been on campus to do some work on his thesis, and obviously was glad to see a familiar face. I got the feeling that he may have been interested in me and was glad for an opportunity to spend some time with me in particular, but then I'm so often wrong about whether or not people are attracted to me. It's like an anti-gift. :P

Anyway, it's irrelevant, as I'm not really looking for a romantic relationship at this moment in time. He's a perfectly nice guy and I may have given him a chance if my circumstances were completely different, but it just wouldn't be fair on him for all sorts of reasons that you can deduce for yourselves.

I'm going back to work today. I'm teaching a new course this year, and have done exactly nothing for it. Besides, with everything that's happened lately, it'll be a relief to lose myself in work for a while. I'm largely okay with my current situation, but I have moments when it just really and truly sucks. I guess that's life, though. It has uphills and downhills, and they tend to follow each other. :P

I got all four hats in Guild Wars. It required distinct organisational and tactical skills this year, but I did it. I've saved some of my presents for you, Phil and Chelsea, in case you weren't able to reinstall the game and make the celebrations this time. I've also got you a peppermint spear, Phil, and you a candy cane bow, Chelsea. I got a peppermint scythe and daggers for myself, and then had some leftover candy cane shards.

Otherwise, yet another party, more people around at our house, braai, champagne, good wishes, blahblah. I'm slightly sick and tired of the festive season, but then I've been celebrating it since November. I counted that today's party was my seventh in five weeks.

I'm mildly tipsy. I had a couple of shandies and some champagne today, and I haven't had anything stronger than plain lemonade for a good few months. Beer is better than I remember it; I seem to recall it tasting like ass, and it actually didn't taste that bad today. Maybe it was the brand. I honestly have never drunk enough beer to know how much of a difference it makes, but I remember Phil being rude about certain kinds of beer while we were in Toronto.

*yawn*

HAPPY NEW YEAR!

Grenth and Dwayna have come and gone, leaving only stylish hats by which to remember them. I was in Kamadan for their first appearance, which was a magical and deeply spiritual occasion that involved betting candy shards in a sordid game of chance (thank Abaddon I'd done a few snowball fights while I waited) and noobs asking "how do i get hat?!?" over and over again until I wanted to tell them they had to go to Kaineng Center.

So, screenies of the new Kamadan hats! Click on the thumbnails to make them larger!





Saint Illusio modelling Dwayna's cute Freezie Crown. It's a must for all the well-dressed mesmers in Kamadan this season.





Random Warrior modelling Grenth's jester's cap. I think it's cute, but most people think it's fug. Controversy.

I'd say that you should all admire my stamina and dedication in staying on the game until they arrived, but they appeared at 10 AM by my time and I was eating breakfast in front of the keyboard.

I'm home early, and I thought I'd tell you what I've done so far tonight.

I went to a service at the church, and then stayed for their mystery dinner. The mystery dinner consisted of a set of 15 clues, each of which corresponded with a food item or a piece of cutlery. You had to work out the clues and then arrange them into a starter, a main course and a dessert. Of course, if you got them wrong, you would be enjoying ice-cream with tomato slices with your knife. It was fairly entertaining, but went on for far too long. Three hours for cheese and crackers, a hamburger and ice-cream? I don't know how preparing that food can take so long.

Now, the church is watching the Gaithers in their Christmas Homecoming performance. We cannot stand the Gaithers, and so ran for our lives. Which is why I'm home early.

After this, I'm going to have a cup of tea and watch the Royal Variety Performance. My life is thrilling, isn't it?

In my defense, though, I couldn't have done much else this New Year:

1) All of my closest friends have moved away or gone home for the holidays, so I have no-one with whom to go out on the town.
2) I wouldn't have gone out on the town anyway, because I'm not sure if I would have made it home in the morning between the drunks, the murderers and the rapists who prowl the streets of my fair city.
3) My family wanted me to spend it with them. Which means church. :P

Next year, though, if I'm in the US at this time of year, I intend to spend it in pleasant almost-drunkenness, dancing and minor debauchery. Haha.

ANYWAY, happy Old Year's Eve to all of you! I have a date with the Queen now! ^_^

I love my subscription to Blue Mountain. It has the best selection of e-cards, and it makes it incredibly easy to send huge amounts of them months in advance. Sure, I have to pay a few dollars for it, but it's worth it!

I've just sent everyone New Years' cards, though I have the sick feeling that I forgot some people and they'll be pissed with me. :P

As to what I'm doing tonight . . . I'm going to dinner at our church. Pity me. I'll tell you all the whys and wherefores tomorrow. (Yes, I know that's tautological.)