late? no, early.

Merry Christmas!

Merry Christmas by =dimant on deviantART

cool like a real rock band

Rock Band is a truly addicting game - and oh so fun.

transition

Hmm, finals have come and gone - "studying", late night journeys to the Reflection Pond, and attempting to pull staying awake for 24 hours but falling asleep 23.5 hours in are a few of the highlights. Week one of four of winter break has come and gone, spent de-stressing and having an amazing time in Tallahassee with some aweso- i mean, above average [hehe] people. Went from Tally to Orlando yesterday, Orlando to Coral Springs today, and now, after a day spent re-acquainting myself to the hometown with some friends, I'm chilling out -wide awake I might add - at 11:30 pm.

I'm trying to figure out what I'm going to do with all this free time...no worries: i've been finding ways to keep myself occupied for almost 18 years; i'll figure something out. :)

respite

I like the word respite. It sounds so official and like it should stand for something more important than a temporary break.

But yeah. This past week has been ridiculously busy [refer to two entries ago], but oh so worthwhile. My first IM soccer game on Thursday was excellent; we won 5-3 and I played goalie -something I haven't done since early high school- and it was great fun. Next game is after winter break, and I'm looking forward to it. The Honors Formal on Friday was fun. I enjoyed spending time with my friends dressed nicely and going "crazy on the dance floor"; I hope they have it again, as it can only get better with time.

The C-USA Championship Game against Tulsa on Saturday was by far one of the highlights of this first semester at college. The game was intense throughout, though we dominated in the end with a final score of 44-25. Despite being unable to rush the field at the end of the game [there was literally about 25 cops lining the wall of the student section], I had an awesome time and am reallllly happy I went. Next stop for the Knights: Memphis, Tennessee for the Liberty Bowl against Mississippi State on December 29. After the game, a bunch of us went to Lazy Moon Pizza to hang out, then watched Zoolander [me for the 1st time], nicely capping off an awesome week.

Now, it is finals week. Chem is Wednesday at 7 am [o.O], Speech is Wednesday at 7 pm, and Calc I is Friday at 1 pm. Another busy week awaits us all, but I'm not sure if it will be able to live up to the enjoyability factor of last week's.

Either way, I think this respite is over.

drifting away in the fog

There was a crazy fog out this morning - it was literally like a blanket at some points. Not one to cast fictional situations on real life - and even less of a scary movie fan, I thought it was interesting that this came about a week after the new Stephen King thriller The Mist debuted.

The fog lowered the temperature considerably and it felt amazing walking around before work this morning. After the meeting, the sun had been up for a while and the fog had vanished, leaving the tolerable heat and milder humidity that defines a Florida fall.

Now, let's say that the fog represents ignorance, and the enjoyment of the fog is the bliss that is said to come with ignorance. If that is true, than the tolerable heat and milder humidity would represent the truth; while its not as comfortable as the fog was, it is something that one can learn to deal and live with. Right?

If only it were so easy...

all is calm, all is bright

I am having an excellent week, which is weird, seeing as next week is exam week. I feel as though I should be freaking out, but I'm not, so, in essence, I am freaking out that I'm not freaking out >.>

Anywho. This week has been going well. Monday was the Provost Symposium [our last Honors Symposium session] and it was good; they played slideshows of memories from throughout the semester and had some guest speakers, it was good. I also recieved an Honorable Mention for the Provost Essay Scholarship, so that was cool.

Yesterday was a good day: classes were good, chilling out for the first time in a while was good; the Honors Congress elections were great - I was elected the 2008 Director of Academic Affairs :D I am really excited. Also the LINK Auction was last night, and though neither myself or my friends won anything, it was enjoyable.

So yeah. The holiday fever is starting to catch. Christmas carols are being played on the radio and in stores, gifts are being purchased, plans are being made - and it's not even December yet; its awesome.

The rest of this week is going to be busy, busy, busy: Today is speech class/Winter Wonderland in our Tower 3 courtyard/the Superbad Showing/the UCF Orchestra performance I want to see [i'm not doing all of them, obviously]. Tomorrow is the Candy Cane Coffee House at the Tower 3 Barnes and Noble, which I will be leaving early to go to my first IM soccer game [w00t! excited!]. Friday is my calculus test/making amazing Rigatoni D with Michelle/the BHC Formal that night. Saturday is the Championship football game [!!!] and Sunday is the beginning of the end of forever [i don't know, i don't think i have any real plans for Sunday yet, but i'm sure they'll come up...]

Oh yeah. I discovered that I can update my blog by email, which is awesome and means more randomness from me! [Its the simple pleasures in life that make life grand ^.^]

So yeah. I'm having a good week to date  =)

Standing outside with my mouth open wide

Its always funny to me what songs you find stuck in your head at the most random times. This Thanksgiving weekend, I had that old childhood song about lemon drop and gumdrop rain on repeat in my head [i can't remember the name of it].

If all the raindrops were lemon drops and gumdrops,
Oh what a rain that would be.
Standing outside with my mouth open wide,
Ah ah ah ah ah ah ah ah ah ah.
If all the raindrops were lemon drops and gumdrops,
Oh what a rain that would be.

Yeah, i know. I'm pretty sure I learned that song from Barney too, a show I abhorred as a child, so its even more interesting I had it stuck in my head.

But when I did listen to this song when I was younger, I always got upset, because if raindrops were chewy orbs of candy goodness and we all went outside waiting with our mouths open, we would most likely choke and die. [sweet and twisted, even as a child :P]

Well, I guess that's one way how too much of a good thing can be bad.

Tempus fugit

Ok, let's see. Since last entry, I:

> spent Veteran's Day weekend in Tallahassee with Michelle and Kristy [definitely already planning to go back during Winter break :D]

> built/launched/banished all memory of - bar this one - a marshmallow launcher [good riddance >.>]

> created a picture wall in our apartment with pictures taken over the course of the semester [turned out wayyyyy better than I thought it would, and it's only going to get better :D]

> went and saw Beowulf in IMAX 3D with a bunch of guys - at 1 am Sunday morning [I think the car ride there was the best part; i mean who doesn't like getting lost in the middle of residential Orlando, being in the middle of a police manhunt, and witnessing random people urinating from a front row seat? :P]

> went to Melting Pot [for the 1st time] for the BHC Distinguished Member dinner [and proceeded to sit in traffic for almost 2 hours on the way home, having some very interesting car ride conversation about urinals, gender switches, and "black" music]

> cooked lots of amazing food [and ate way too much, but it was worth it ^.^]

All in all, it was an interesting week and a half. I've been looking back over my more recent entries and, for the most part, their all pretty depressing. So I've decided that while I may continue to have entries like that, I'm going to make an effort to balance them out with happier - or at least more lighthearted - ones.

My goal for this week: get back to my glass half-full state of being =)

SL Survey Enlightenment

While completing the required Post Service Learning Survey for Honors Symposium, there was a section where you were given a statement and you had to choose agree strongly, agree, neither agree nor disagree, disagree, or disagree strongly. One of them was:

I give up easily.

and my answer was:

disagree strongly

Then it hit me: That is the source of a lot of my happiness and a lot my misery...

What a horrible double-edged sword.

It's happening again.

Do you remember those old TRUTH commercials where some teenager would state something and declare it their anti-drug? [Bored? Google "my anti-drug" and look at the images - people have some interesting anti-drugs, to say the least :P] Well, if you were to ask me mine, I guess I would answer:

Getting involved: my anti-drug.

Well, it's true. I've never been enticed by any kind of drug or whatever, but I do like getting involved. Almost too much. In high school, I joined lots of organizations, had lots of outside-of-school interests and activities and I did my part in and for every one of them. But it got to be too much around junior year [with harder classes, SATs, competitions] and senior year [college apps, even more competitions, plus the ever-blamed senioritis]. I don't regret doing all the things I did and I would do the exact same thing again if I were to go back. But I promised myself I would not do the nosedive into everything again - or at least not right off the bat.

Yet here I am, tempted to run for officer positions as a freshman, constantly having to sit on my hands to keep from committing myself to too many things. I currently have the perfect mix of activities [class, work, Honors Congress Publications Committee, IM Soccer, ASME, and SWE - a neat few] and I'm enjoying myself in all of them without stressing about overlapping meetings and worrying about letting someone down. But there is always some other activity that sounds interesting or would be fun...

Sometimes an anti-drug can become a drug itself.

Ode to V and Guy

Remember, remember the fifth of November,
Gunpowder treason and plot;
I know of no reason
The gunpowder treason
Should ever be forgot.
--V for Vendetta

Well its not Homegoing

In high school, Homecoming is a week of excuses to dress strangely, an over-hyped dance and a football game that must be won if the aforementioned week and dance are to be fully enjoyed. Well, here in college, Homecoming this year did have an excuse to dress strangely - after all, Wednesday was Halloween, - the game still needs to be won, and instead of a dance, we have daily events that are experiences in and of themselves.

Picking up from where I left off last entry, Thursday night was the Homecoming concert featuring Fall Out Boy, Gym Class Heroes, Plain White T's, and Cute is What We Aim For. Besides being the homecoming concert featuring bands I really like, it was my first real concert - i know, i know, I'm behind on everything interesting, apparently - so I was doubly excited. From learning how to avoid being drawn into a circle pit to finding out exactly how close you can get to literal strangers over the span of a 3-minute song, it was a great experience and awesome memory. [Pics/video are on my Facebook]

Friday was a UCF tradition known as Spirit Splash, where the ever-sacred Reflection Pond found on campus is for one 2-hour span during Homecoming week open to be entered - and entered it is, by hundreds of students all at once. Its basically a huge pep rally, complete with the cheerleaders, the band, the Homecoming Court, and a roaming mascot. It was great fun.

Saturday was the our first on-campus Homecoming Parade and our first Homecoming football game held in our new stadium. The parade was fun, and the game was awesome [final score 47 - 13, us], both traditions bound to be ingrained at UCF forever. All in all, it was a very busy, tiring, hectic week - but oh so worth it.

trick or treating for fourthmeal

I remember experiencing Halloween as a child: my mother thought it was an evil event, giving people an excuse to do stupid things and get away with it - which it is, i won't deny - so I was usually the kid who didn't get to dress up or go out and get candy on Halloween night. [I first went trick-or-treating in 7th grade, and even then, it was because I happened to be at my friend's house for a "study session" the night of Halloween].

But alas, I think I turned out normal, for the most part, and am now here contemplating how Halloween in college is an experience in and of itself. From getting weird looks from people for dressing up in costume on Halloween Day [I was a sailor-turned-navy nurse] to sharing awkward-but-knowing smiles with other people in costume, to getting attacked by a few zombies [no joke, those guys were quite impressive in retrospect], to attending Homecoming Skit Knight [awesome, awesome, awesome], to ending the night traveling to Taco Bell with some friends to pick up a late night snack.

I think I would have felt cheated if I had gotten a taco in my trick or treat basket when I was in middle school, but in college, I think tacos on Halloween night with great company is as good as it gets.

Happy Halloween

- holiday: Halloween return - by *kanoe-kun on deviantART

raindrops keep falling on my head

^^^ that song is stuck in my head at the moment, partly due to the fact that its been raining on and off all day, partly because its an awesome song, and i guess partly because it fits my mood - though, much like my mood, i don't know how i'd classify the weather at the moment. It's stormy, yet calm and soothing at the same time; damp and chill, yet not.

It's all good.

one big blur

So. It's funny how much time passes by without one really realizing it. The weekdays seem to kind of blend together and the weekends seem to take on the characteristics of the weekdays. of course, a weekday technically does not have characteristics that can be taken on, so this is all, once again, me going off on some tangent in my head.

But yeah. College is great. Loads different from high school, but then everyone knows that. Classes are going well, the extracurriculars handling themselves, and my new job in the Course Development and Web Services [CDWS] department of UCF is awesome. I'm happy I got it - and call me a geek, but I happen to like playing on computers and actually be doing something useful.

This week is Homecoming Week - my first as a college student - and I am excited for it, because I'm going to most of the events. Partly because I'm on the BHC Homecoming Roster, but mainly because I want to. It's going to be great.

Ok, so I definitely want to attempt to keep up with my blogging. I am making that my goal for the week - baby steps, you know?

just for the record...

facebook statuses that would fit my mood at the moment:

Melissa is...

- >:O.
-pissed.
-not a happy camper.
-upset that her intentions of going to the Mission Mayhem robotics competition have not been met.
-hating her car with a passion.
-going to get over it in less than 10 minutes - or else.
-realizing there is a silver lining to every cloud.

labor day blues

The "Things to Ponder" widget on my iGoogle homepage said this the other day: "how would we know if a word was miss-spelled in the dictionary?" It succeeded in its purpose, as I sat there thinking about everything from how dictionaries would lose their credibility to how maybe there's some government conspiracy against certain words... o.O

Yes, that [^^^] is what happens when I have too much free time. I've now figured out why I did so many things in high school - because the effects of NOT doing anything would have been far worse.

But yeah. College is amazing. UCF is a great school, my classes are going well, and the people I've met here are awesome. I know it will only gets better from here :)

My music of choice at the moment is by this band called The Cinematics. They came and performed live on campus last week, and I've been listening to them on repeat since then. Their songs "Break" and "Rise & Fall" are my faves. So go check them out sometime.

Ok, enough rambling - for now [insert Umbridge giggle] :)

Harry Potter Theme Park (!!!)

The Wizarding World of Harry Potter

On May 31, 2007, Universal Orlando announced that it had secured the rights from Warner Bros. and from British author J. K. Rowling to bring "The Wizarding World of Harry Potter" to Islands of Adventure.[1] The twenty-acre island will feature attractions, shops and restaurants set inside such locations as the Forbidden Forest, Hogsmeade Village and the iconic Hogwarts castle. Some existing attractions within the Lost Continent are to be updated to the new theme, and will be joined by a state-of-the-art attraction that remains unannounced. Groundbreaking is scheduled for this year, with completion of the expansion planned for late 2009. The new island will replace a portion of the Lost Continent, while expanding the park into what is currently a backstage support area and employee parking.[2]

[source]

WOW, talk about something I can't wait for :)