I like phone charms

I am sick again!  I think it's still the cold from a few weeks ago, since I never fully recovered (I've had no appetite--seriously, I've lost five pounds--and have been waking up completely congested with my nose bleeding since I had that cold).  I'm blaming the stress from exams and Christmas for weakening my immune system.  I'm pretty tired today, but that's probably because I've forgotten to take my iron for the past two days. Lolanemia.

I was looking at Boxing Day sales yesterday and today, but none of the deals were really that great.  Actually, no, the deals on Slim 360s and DSis were good, but I already have a normal 360 and slim DS.  No point in buying a DSi since the 3DS is about to be released. Which is obviously why they're all on sale, etc.  My mom gave me a $150 gift certificate to a nearby mall for Christmas, and I'm going to use it for a 3DS since that mall's gift certificates are weird and must be redeemed at once. I might use it at the Coach store if they come out with nice spring purses.  Most of their fall/winter stuff was pretty ugly.  I wish that mall was like every other place where you can carry over unused credit, but no, that's just too practical or something.

I ended up going to the anime store since their sale on manga and accessories was pretty good.  I got a set of five EVA phone charms (Rei, Rei, Rei, Asuka, and Unit 01) for $10.  I also got five volumes of Maria Holic and a Macross F keychain with five character charms (Sheryl, Sheryl, Ranka, Klan, and Alto).  I plan on pulling the charms off the keychain and adding them to the EVA phone charms.  Some will go on my phone, some will go on my mp3 player.

It took me two hours to read one volume of Maria Holic.  Fuck you cold, I'm taking a nap.

Christmas

We had family Christmas drama.  We were doing so well, and then the fight happened at 8:30pm on the 23rd.  At least it was mostly resolved by dinner on the 24th, though.  My uncle's still not talking to my dad, but they've been fighting on-again-off-again for months so that's not too bad.

The fight was over my grandfather's Christmas present.  His kids (my father, uncle N, aunt P, and uncle T) all decided to chip in to get him a new TV.  They chose  a 47", 1080p, 120Hz TV that came with a free BluRay player.  Then on Thursday, we were going to buy it and set it up while my grandfather was asleep.  Thursday, we (me, my dad, N, and P's son S) went to buy it. N decided to bring his wife along, and she's prone to causing drama.  Basically, she kept saying the TV was too expensive (but they put in a fixed amount of money, so that shouldn't have been an issue for them) and they should get a small, crappy one for half the price.  N took her side, and he and my dad fought and no TV was bought.  N took the money envelope and left it in my grandparent's kitchen.

The rest of us were upset that Nonno would be out a present because of the fight, and both sides kept doing that passive-agressive "oh, THEY have the problem, so I'll let THEM decide" thing. So me and my uncle T decided to take the money and by the goddamn TV.  We also got him two of his favourite movies on BluRay.  The envelope only had $910, so I pitched in $140.  I said it wasn't a problem since I lived with my grandparents in high school, and Nonno still pays my cell phone bill, but my dad and aunt said it wasn't right for me to pay for what should have been from them.  I've been reimbursed $100.

My mom spent yesterday with some family friends.  She told me that three of their kids are dating now, and my response was "What? Aren't they twelve?" No, they're 14-16 now.  I remember their mothers' pregnancies and helping their grandmother take care of them when they were tiny. I feel old now.  Old and ronery.  Those kids' relationships are more serious than any of mine. A relationship would be nice, but I honestly don't like spending a lot of time with one person and it's rare that I find exceptions to that rule.

I need to cut my hair soon.  In the past week or so, it hit that length where it spontaneously forms giant, matted, tangled clumps. I have been brushing it constantly, but they keep re-forming.  Besides, it's really looking thin now.  I need a cut to get rid of some of the weight.

I hate waiting.

Today's exam is from 7-9 pm.  It is in a gym building, which means we will be waiting outside until we're allowed in to write.  Waiting outside, at night, in a windy area (campus is near the lake), in winter.  Oh so much fun.  This is like a repeat of last year's Anthro midterm*.

To be honest, I'm more bothered by the 7pm thing.  I want to get this over with.  I don't want it hanging above me all day.  I don't even need all day to study.  This is Genetics, the easiest class.  Hell, the second half of the course (which is all we're being tested on as the exam's not cumulative) was a repeat of high school philosophy for the most part.  Half the exam is tutorial material, which was all pretty straightforward. Then again, the Human Bio office is a group of slackers and we haven't had our tutorial quizzes returned.  Those would be nice to study from.

My feelings about the Physio exam:  Prof 1 is an asshole. We've got lecture recordings to prove that you told us we didn't need to know the topic and it would not be on the exam.  Then you had multiple questions about it on the exam.  (This happened for a few topics, actually...)  At least they mark them quickly, and we have a different prof for the next half of the course.  This is my GPA-killing course.  Again, not because it's difficult, but because Prof 1 likes using cheap tricks on tests.

*Last year's Anthro midterms were screwed up in general. Midterm 2 was held after the final class, but before the final exam. I don't get it. Midterm 1 was held in the lecture hall for the class.  This lecture hall was originally meant for graduation ceremonies only, but as classes got larger they started holding lectures there.  This means there are no writing surfaces.  We bring clipboards to write on.  I pay thousands of dollars in tuition to write on a goddamn clipboard.

They had an army of TAs to ensure everyone was spaced apart properly and no one had any papers or markings on their clipboards.  Half of the class was to write from 6-7pm, the other half from 7-8pm.  I was in the second half, so I got to the location at about a quarter to seven.  We had to wait outside the building.  It was snowing a bit more heavily than usual.

Because this exam was a logistic clusterfuck, the second half didn't even ENTER THE BUILDING until 8:30pm.  They didn't tell us they were running behind. We just waited in the cold, all huddled together.  Someone did come out at around 7:30, but just to tell us we were waiting at the wrong door.

By the time we did get in, we all had numb hands and had to waste 15 mins of exam time defrosting enough to manipulate a pencil.

EDIT:  My Puffy 3tone blue lenses are in!  I'm organizing a time for a facetrade with the seller now.  I can't wait to see how they look!  I'll post pictures as a review once I have them.

More exam ranting

So to practice for my Biochem exam, I did last year's exam.  All the structures in the questions? Lewis diagrams.  Lewis diagrams of large organic molecules.  I'm crying right now.  Lewis structures all look the same. ;_; Also, we have a few questions where we have to discuss the nutritive values of certain foods.  When did this become a nutrition exam?  I didn't do horribly on the past exam, but I could stand to study more.  At least I know what to focus more on, now that I know the types of questions this prof asks. We have four profs in this course, so the midterms weren't written by the same profs (midterm one was written by Prof One, midterm two by Profs One and Two), and the final will be written by Three and Four, but mostly Four (I think Three only has like eight questions out of the sixty).

Someone in my Physio class posted their study notes to one of the course forums.   They're wonderful.  Diagrams are integrated nicely, there are tons of extra bits of information. I think I'm going to use them instead of my notes. --;

I actually went to the mailbox to get the mail today, since I found out that no one's been in a week.  My Persona 3 FeMC headphones came in.  They're a pair of $5 Sony knockoffs from eBay, nothing special.  I was surprised by the colour.  I was expecting a bright apple-red, but they're a deeper ruby red.  Really pretty.  The sound quality's good for a $5 pair of headphones, but I wasn't expecting much from a pair of $5 headphones.  I'm probably not going to use them, though, since I prefer earbuds.  And the 'arm' piece on these would catch my cartilage piercing if I take them off too quickly.  I can't wait 'til the break so that I can actually get to sewing progress on my cosplays.

I found out that Starry Sky~in spring~ had been translated, so I played that for a bit during study breaks.  I've cleared Suzuya's route so far.  Working on Yoh now.  Yoh's boring. I should have gone for Kanata this time.  The uniforms are gorgeous, but Suzuya's belt buckle confuses me.

Finals

My first final was today.  It was Molecular Biology, three hours, 65 MC questions.   I finished an hour into the exam and waited half an hour for someone else to hand it in first.  The first few questions were difficult, but the rest was really easy.

When I left the exam room, a girl from one of the other rooms stopped me to ask if I had been writing the same exam.  She was panicking because she'd finished so quickly.  I find that as long as you can read quickly, you can easily finish MC questions in less than half the time that the instructor allots.

Now I get to spend the weekend studying like mad for Biochem.  And by studying like mad, I mean memorizing structures.  All our other profs tell us not to bother memorizing them, since we'll always have a reference in the lab.  That's what makes it so troublesome when one prof does want them memorized.  I'm doing well in that course, but that's because I know the concepts and how to apply them.  Not because I know how to draw all the structures involved in every reaction as well as the structures of the enzymes that catalyze said reactions.

And then I have my Physio exam the day after.  Let's just not talk about Physio, okay? Well, at least Physio's multiple choice.  But I need to do really well on it to make up for the last exam. I've never been to the building that the Physio exam is in, though.  I need to go early so I can look for it.  They gave us a weird code for it, too.  Normally campus building codes are a two letter alpha code, but this wasn't.  I'm not 100% sure what the alpha code would be, so until I figure that out, I don't know where I'm writing. :/  I think I know what building it is, but I'd like to be 100% sure so I don't end up at the wrong place come exam time...

If you can't give us a proper code, you can at least give us an address. :(

My two exams next week are in one of the Kinesiology buildings.  So I'm writing the exams in a gym.  Feels like high school.  I hate writing in that building because there are no clocks. And we have to wait outside before the exam.  In the cold, Canadian winter.  At night, too, for one exam...

I can't wait for the 21st.  That will be my last final, and then I'll have about two and a half weeks off.

Weeabooing starts here:

Oh, JFC...

My glasses broke today.  I took them off to clean them, and the screw holding the frame shut on the right side just fell out. :/  These glasses are only about six weeks old.  My dad got glasses at the same place and at the same time, and his also broke (about two or three weeks ago--he's already had them replaced).

My mom's going to get a glasses repair kit on her way home from work, but I'm not sure how well that will work.  The screw just plain fell out, so I think the thread's been stripped (I didn't get a good look because lol bad eyesight and by the time I fixed my glasses, I'd put the screw away so I don't lose it).  My dad said that's what happened to his glasses. :/  

Since I'm sick, I can't wear my contacts.  So I decided to look for my old pair.  Then I realized that they're at my grandmother's house.

I improvised. I stuck some wire through the hole and wound it to keep the frame shut.  I couldn't clamp the frame down fully, though, so a bit of the lens is still loose. It took me forever to find the pliers, though.  And then once I found them, I lost the lens that had fallen out.  I'm too blind to be looking for clear things without assistance.

My dad said he's going to bring me to get them repaired tomorrow, and since it's near my grandmother's, we'll also pick up my old glasses.  I've still got the screw, so hopefully the repair kit will work.  It would be very annoying if I had to use my old glasses for a week.

I disappeared again...

I was studying for finals, but then I got sick.  So since then I've only been awake about eight hours a day, and haven't been doing much.  I watched a lot of anime, but mainly because that doesn't take effort at all.  I tried doing some summary notes to study from, but I could not spell at all.  Stupid cough syrup.

Speaking of cough syrup, I decided against buying the fever reducing kind since I rarely get fevers no matter how sick I am.  I may have had a fever seven years ago, but I never took my temperature at the time.  My last confirmed fever was about 13 years ago.  And of course, I started running a temperature about six hours after buying the normal cough syrup. :/

I've been moisturizing the shit out of my nose since I've rubbed it raw with tissues.  The skin's so dry that the cream stings. ;_;

 Today, I watched Tales of Vesperia - The First Strike.  Impressions: [some spoilers]