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    <title>Alice&#39;s Life</title>
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    <updated>2008-07-22T20:36:09Z</updated> 
    <author>
        <name>Alice</name>
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    </author> 
    <id>tag:vox.com,2006:6p00d4141a0b60685e/</id> 
    <subtitle>&quot;Kind of sucks, but that&#39;s just how it is.&quot;</subtitle>  
    
    <entry>
        <title>My week as a carnie</title>   
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        <published>2008-07-22T20:36:09Z</published>
        <updated>2008-07-22T20:36:09Z</updated>
    
        <author>
            <name>Alice</name>
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        <p>Was an interesting experience.<br />They were hiring basically anyone on the spot, so needless to say, I got a job.&#160; Fortunately, I got one as a ticket seller, rather than someone running the games, rides, or concessions.&#160; Training took 45 minutes, because it was incredibly mindless.&#160; A 5th-grader could do it.&#160; My job consisted of sitting in an air-conditioned booth, selling tickets at 50 cents each with no tax (so the math was incredibly easy), taking people&#39;s money, giving them tickets using a self-explanatory touch-screen computer, and giving them correct change if they needed it.&#160; Literally anything else, like problems (&quot;I want a refund!&quot; &quot;The dude at the ride took too many tickets from me!&quot;), I was supposed to refer the customer to Customer Service.&#160; It was monotonous and simple.&#160; But I liked the people I was working with and made $8.10 an hour.&#160; I didn&#39;t go insane.</p><p>Of course, there were a lot of things I tired of that probably would have driven me insane had it lasted longer than 5 days.&#160; The thing I hated most was when there was a line at my booth, and my computer would crash or something (or my boss was madly insisting I go on break), so I&#39;d close off the slots in the glass and say, very loudly, so that most of the people in the line should have been able to hear, &quot;I&#39;m having computer problems, so you&#39;ll have to go to the ticket booth over there, 10 feet to my right.&quot;&#160; But of course, the person next in line would apparently completely ignore my comment and step up, thrusting money in my face, declaring how many tickets they wanted, and I had to explain to them again, so that they stormed off exasperated by having to move 10 feet.&#160; Or they&#39;d say &quot;Well, I just want four tickets,&quot; as if them wanting four instead of 20 would magically make my computer work.&#160; Even if they couldn&#39;t hear me, you&#39;d think they&#39;d notice me telling something to everyone in front of them, and see everyone walking to the next booth, money still in hand, and pause to see what was up before thrusting cash at me.&#160; No one did.&#160; NO ONE.&#160; As I would take the time explaining and redirecting people, the line would still accumulate, requiring more explanations, and no time to fix my computer.&#160; I would even attempt to just ignore them and try to be even more obvious about my incredibly obvious business, but they&#39;d still thrust money at me and yell what they wanted.&#160; Another ticket seller would have to come into my booth and one of us would stand there redirecting the customers while the other fixed the computer.</p><p>Another thing I tired of was being hit on.&#160; One notable instance was I was exiting a porta-potty, and the guy waiting outside of it (who was gross, of course) went &quot;<em>Hel</em>-lo,&quot; in that skeezy way, and &quot;How are you doing tonight?&quot;&#160; I just walked away,&#160; but part of me wanted to stop and ask &quot;First of all, I&#39;m exiting a porta-potty.&#160; Second, I&#39;m dressed as a carnie.&#160; Third, I&#39;m wearing huge sunglasses covering half my face, so you can&#39;t even really tell if I&#39;m attractive or not.&#160; Yet you still try to put the moves on me, <em>and</em> expect it to actually work?&#160; And what if we actually did work out?&#160; Would you be up for explaining to friends and family &#39;Yeah, we met when she was a carnie.&#160; I asked her out as she was leaving a porta-potty and I was going in to shit.&#39;?&quot;</p><p>But it was mostly a mostly painless job.&#160; On the last day I was working, Nik had the day off and came to visit, so that was a nice way to finish the whole event.</p><p>I continue seeking a &quot;real&quot; job, but still doubt anyone will hire me for just 2 months, and as more time passes, my chances lessen.&#160; So I&#39;ll probably just be poor and unemployed until I leave for Africa.&#160; I have a lot of books to read in preparation, anyway.<br /></p>   <p style="clear:both;"> 
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    <category term="work" scheme="http://enigmata.vox.com/tags/work/" label="work" /> 
    </entry> 
    
    <entry>
        <title>Job searching sucks (assuming you didn&#39;t know)</title>   
        <link rel="alternate" type="text/html" title="Job searching sucks (assuming you didn&#39;t know)" href="http://enigmata.vox.com/library/post/job-searching-sucks-assuming-you-didnt-know.html?_c=feed-atom-full" />  
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        <published>2008-07-13T20:11:28Z</published>
        <updated>2008-07-15T03:40:01Z</updated>
    
        <author>
            <name>Alice</name>
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        <p>I haven&#39;t yet found a job for the summer.&#160; Although, I haven&#39;t been trying super-hard until recently because I&#39;ve been back and forth from Vancouver, unsure of when I&#39;d actually be in town for an interview or to start work.&#160; The Lakefair is this week, and they are accepting applications tomorrow.&#160; I may have a depressing week as a carnie.&#160; But at least it&#39;s money.&#160; I&#39;m hoping to just cashier some place, at the least, but there are surprisingly few places hiring just for the summer, or at least for the next two months (until I leave for South Africa).&#160; I&#39;m thinking I&#39;ll probably just be poor and unemployed for the summer.</p><p>In the meantime, since I have no school and nothing to do, I&#39;ve been going into the <a href="http://www.wildfelids.org">WFAC</a> more frequently.&#160; This past week I got a new (working) camera, and finally got some pictures of Pu-lynx at the WFAC, as well as a couple other cats.<br />
    
    
    

    
    
    

    
    
    
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                <div class="enclosure-asset-name"><a href="http://enigmata.vox.com/library/photo/6a00d4141a0b60685e00fa9687c2320003.html" title="Pu-lynx chews on me">Pu-lynx chews on me</a></div>
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<br /> <div>Left: Kind of a crappy picture, but this is how he plays: by chewing and clawing.&#160; The other day, another volunteer said &quot;I&#39;m going to have to start wearing long sleeves so people won&#39;t think I&#39;m a cutter.&quot;&#160; He leaves a nice collection of mild wounds on the forearms and hands after a playing session, getting slightly worse as he grows.&#160; He&#39;s about 9 weeks in these pictures.<br /><br />
    
    
    

    
    
    

    
    
    
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<br />Right:&#160; Lounging on the porch with one of his toys.&#160; One of the few times, aside from when he&#39;s asleep, that he was actually still.<br /><br /></div><div><br /><br /><br /><br />
    
    
    

    
    
    

    
    
    
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<br /></div><div><br /><br /><br />Left: A close-up of Pu-lynx, as he starts to get sleepy from playing and laying in the sun.<br /><br />
    
    
    

    
    
    
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                <div class="enclosure-asset-name"><a href="http://enigmata.vox.com/library/photo/6a00d4141a0b60685e00fad69957020005.html" title="Fierce serval">Fierce serval</a></div>
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 Right: One of the servals saying hello.&#160; Most of them aren&#39;t quite used
to me, or at least don&#39;t like me very much (yet). <br />
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<br /></div><div><br />Left: One of the bobcats.&#160; They make wonderfully amusing sounds that I wouldn&#39;t expect to come from a cat.&#160; Pu-lynx makes incredibly strange/adorable sounds too, but I don&#39;t know how much of that is kitten sounds or lynx sounds.<br /><br /><br /><br /><br /><br /><br /><br /><br /><br /><br /><br /><br />I have resurrected my bike.&#160; My dad visited yesterday, and bought me a rack, basket, and pump for it.&#160; I&#39;m out-of-touch with it, though, and it needs a tune-up, but it works, and now that I live out in this beautiful area with so many trails nearby, I hope to ride it a lot more this summer than I have in previous years.&#160; Especially with the weather so beautiful.&#160; For the past week or so, there&#39;s been hardly a cloud in the sky, and hopefully it will continue to be this way for most of the remainder of summer.&#160; I look forward to many adventures.<br /></div></p>   <p style="clear:both;"> 
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        </content> 
    <category term="work" scheme="http://enigmata.vox.com/tags/work/" label="work" /> 
    <category term="cats" scheme="http://enigmata.vox.com/tags/cats/" label="cats" /> 
    <category term="felids" scheme="http://enigmata.vox.com/tags/felids/" label="felids" /> 
    </entry> 
    
    <entry>
        <title>This week in cats</title>   
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        <published>2008-06-26T00:46:56Z</published>
        <updated>2008-07-13T20:01:16Z</updated>
    
        <author>
            <name>Alice</name>
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        <div>When I went into the <a href="http://wildfelids.org/">Wild Felids Advocacy Center</a> on Monday, I met their new baby lynx. &#160;DAMN IS IT CUTE. &#160;His name is Pu-lynx (Well, officially I guess it&#39;s P&#39;uch&#39;ub) and he&#39;s quite a character. &#160;My camera just broke, so I haven&#39;t got any good pictures of him, but there&#39;s a recent one from the WFAC web site if you&#39;d click <a href="http://wildfelids.org/yahoo_site_admin/assets/images/Erika_June_08_113.172164650_std.jpg">here</a>.</div><div>I don&#39;t know how hold he is now... at least six weeks. &#160;He&#39;s about half the size of one of my house cats, but his large, webbed paws are already bigger than theirs are. &#160;Unfortunately, he likes to slap faces when he plays, and now I have a scratch next to my eye. &#160;Not to mention all the teeth marks on my forearms. &#160;It&#39;s so worth it though, and terribly amusing. &#160;At first my laugh seemed to freak the shit out of him, sometimes prompting a hiss. &#160;After seeing him again today, though, it seems like he&#39;s gotten over it.</div><div>I think the big cats out back are starting to get used to me, too. &#160;I was topping off their water buckets with the hose, and one of the bobcats began playing in the stream and splashing water out of the bucket so I&#39;d keep spraying. &#160;I left him alone for a bit to water the servals, hoping he&#39;d abandon the bucket so that I could successfully fill it, but when I came back he was in the same spot by the bucket, rubbing against the fence and purring. &#160;This time, right when I finally managed to get the bucket full enough despite his splashing, he dunked a paw in and deliberately dumped the whole bucket upside-down, then gave me an expectant look. &#160;I got a bit of water in and told the owner she&#39;d probably have to give him more later. Apparently this is a frequent occurrence. &#160;If it promotes bonding, I&#39;m all for it, I&#39;m just worried about their water bill.</div><div><br /></div><div>In domestic cat news, two new roommates from Chicago (they were friends and moved out here together) moved in recently. &#160;One of them just got two kittens, which are freaking ADORABLE. &#160;Right now they&#39;re basically confined to the bedroom, with limited exposure to the rest of the house until they&#39;re bigger. &#160;They&#39;ve had brief encounters with Maverick and Priya, who, needless to say, weren&#39;t excited about the company, but cats never are when they first meet. I know they&#39;ll adapt.</div><div><div>The other roommate brought her adult cat with her, which has also been confined to her bedroom. &#160;At first, my only encounter with it was when I peered through the crack in the bedroom door to see why Maverick was hanging around it, and the cat was there, hissing at me. &#160;Then, two nights ago while we all slept, my roommate (who is apparently also crazy) took off back to Chicago, leaving a bunch of her stuff, a large debt to us, and her crazy cat.</div><div>The cat had been described to me as &quot;needing kitty Prozac&quot;, but at first I didn&#39;t take the statement seriously. &#160;I have since found it to be quite accurate. &#160;I was hoping we could find a home for it through craigslist, but no one is going to want to adopt this thing. &#160;I&#39;m reluctant to take it to the animal shelter because, well, no one&#39;s going to adopt it there either, especially this time of year with all the kittens available. &#160;It&#39;s just going to get put down. &#160;But aside from letting it outside to be eaten by the coyotes, the shelter seems to be the only option, because we sure as hell can&#39;t keep it.</div><div>I don&#39;t like giving up on a cat, though. &#160;So with patience aided by a couple beers, I attempted to socialize with the cat periodically throughout yesterday, only to get frantic hissing, swatting, and fleeing. &#160;Right when it seemed like I might be making progress, I said something reassuring to it, which it hissed at, then took off across the room and started getting in a vicious battle with its own feet. &#160;At this point I made the &quot;oh, fuck it&quot; decision. &#160;The remaining roommate from Chicago said &quot;Yeah, she does that sometimes.&quot; &#160;To cope with the sad thought of a cat being euthanized because no one will love it, I will tell myself that the cat will be happier that way, free from the endless torture of having feet.</div><div><br /></div><div>I&#39;ll end on a happy note by describing an incident this morning with Maverick. &#160;He was on the window sill by the dining table, where I have hung a hummingbird feeder a few feet away, and stuck a suction-cup bird feeder to the outside of the window. &#160;Right as I was commenting to someone about how Maverick would love to be an outdoor cat so he could eat all the splendid wildlife, a Willow Goldfinch (factoid: the Washington State Bird) flew up to and perched on the feeder (directly in front of Maverick&#39;s face), turned to him and gave him a deliberate &quot;fuck you&quot; look through the window, and began eating, totally not bothered by Maverick&#39;s presence. &#160;To top it off, another Goldfinch joined the first, and moments later a Hummingbird began to feed on the other feeder as well. &#160;I could almost feel Maverick&#39;s agony. &#160;Finally, after the others had left, the goldfinch looked at Maverick again, quite carefully, with one eye and then the other, before casually fluttering off.</div><div>Okay, so it&#39;s one of those stories no one gives a shit about unless they&#39;re a fellow cat owner with a similar trivial experience to retell next. &#160;Whatever, I loled.</div></div>   <p style="clear:both;"> 
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    <category term="cats" scheme="http://enigmata.vox.com/tags/cats/" label="cats" /> 
    <category term="pets" scheme="http://enigmata.vox.com/tags/pets/" label="pets" /> 
    <category term="felids" scheme="http://enigmata.vox.com/tags/felids/" label="felids" /> 
    </entry> 
    
    <entry>
        <title>To South Africa and Brazil!</title>   
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        <published>2008-06-21T00:03:01Z</published>
        <updated>2008-06-26T00:52:59Z</updated>
    
        <author>
            <name>Alice</name>
            <uri>http://enigmata.vox.com/?_c=feed-atom-full</uri>
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        <p>So the other day I sent off my Wildlands application and short essay. &#160;I wish I&#39;d had the drive to sit down and write the essay as soon as I got the application in the mail and send it off that very day, but instead I took a few days, since I was visiting Vancouver/Portland. &#160;&quot;I bet it just filled up after they sent out this application,&quot; I kept thinking in my pessimistic manner, in regards to the South Africa program in fall. &#160;&quot;I bet it&#39;s too much to hope to try to do this at the last moment.&quot; &#160;Well, I just got a voicemail and it turns out I was right -- the South Africa program <span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-style: italic;">had</span>&#160;just filled up. &#160;But as the woman was opening my application, she received an e-mail from one of its students, canceling her participation. &#160;I got in, and into the Brazil project too. &#160;So I can officially let myself get excited now.<div><br /></div><div>I actually thought I would be more excited than I am right now. &#160;I think it&#39;s because I was just asleep. &#160;The only noticeable difference is that I don&#39;t want to continue napping anymore. &#160;Once I get the shit in the mail about flights and things, I&#39;m sure I&#39;ll be pissing myself on a daily basis. &#160;(Like I don&#39;t already. &#160;Hah-hah! &#160;Just kidding! &#160;Or am I?)</div><div><br /></div><div>The bad news that I just realized is that I&#39;ll be missing Halloween this year. &#160;My friend and I had been hoping to be the bendy-arm dude and the transvestite from the &quot;find the fish&quot; scene in Monty Python&#39;s The Meaning of Life:</div><div><div style="text-align: center"><img src="http://www.freewebs.com/montypythonworld/MOL%20-%20find%20the%20fish.jpg" /></div></div><div>I would be the bendy arm dude, and he would be the transvestite. &#160;Ah well, it&#39;s not like I ever have money for a costume around Halloween time anyway.</div><div><br /></div><div>Now, I must:</div><div>--Amputate hair (This is the reward I&#39;m giving myself for getting accepted)</div><div>--Get back in freaking shape and do a lot of backpacking in preparation</div><div>--Get visas</div><div>--Get 928374912974219837 injections so I won&#39;t die</div><div>--Read up on wildlife conservation and biodiversity issues in the areas, and the fauna native to the areas I&#39;ll be in</div><div>--Find people to take care of my pets (probably my parents) and sell my fish</div><div>--Figure out what I&#39;m going to do Winter quarter</div></p>   <p style="clear:both;"> 
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        </content> 
    <category term="college" scheme="http://enigmata.vox.com/tags/college/" label="college" /> 
    <category term="south africa" scheme="http://enigmata.vox.com/tags/south+africa/" label="south africa" /> 
    <category term="brazil" scheme="http://enigmata.vox.com/tags/brazil/" label="brazil" /> 
    <category term="monty python" scheme="http://enigmata.vox.com/tags/monty+python/" label="monty python" /> 
    </entry> 
    
    <entry>
        <title>Summer!</title>   
        <link rel="alternate" type="text/html" title="Summer!" href="http://enigmata.vox.com/library/post/summer.html?_c=feed-atom-full" />  
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        <published>2008-06-16T21:45:38Z</published>
        <updated>2008-07-13T20:02:11Z</updated>
    
        <author>
            <name>Alice</name>
            <uri>http://enigmata.vox.com/?_c=feed-atom-full</uri>
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        <p>Spring quarter ended well. &#160;Holy shit am I glad to be done with another year. &#160;And the next year looks like it&#39;ll be pretty fun, if everything works out and Wildlands Studies accepts my application. &#160;Ideally, I will be participating in the South Africa Project for most of fall quarter, and the Brazil Project for most of spring quarter. &#160;Both projects involve field work with animals, discussing and encouraging conservation with the locals, an insane amount of backpacking, etc. &#160;During winter quarter, I&#39;ve assumed I&#39;ll do an independent contract of some sort, though not exactly sure what. &#160;But at dinner last night with my family they were discussing a family vacation during that time and I suggested going to Indonesia, or maybe back to India (since basically I was only in one little corner of it when I went before), and they were quite excited about both. &#160;So hopefully I&#39;ll tie an independent contract into that. &#160;This is all little more than hopes and dreams at this point, but I&#39;m still pretty stoked. &#160;Mostly abroad would be a great final year to spend college.<div><br /></div><div>I turned 21 last Monday. &#160;Nik came to visit, as did my sister, and I had a party. &#160;It ended up being rather large (~80 people) and was a lot of fun. &#160;I got juuust drunk enough. &#160;This past weekend, I went bar-hopping in Portland and had more than I should have, but it was still great fun and no one died. &#160;I think. &#160;I blacked out a little. &#160;But I&#39;m pretty sure no one died.</div><div><br /></div><div>I can&#39;t believe it&#39;s been only a little more than a week since classes ended. &#160;Technically, the quarter ended last Friday, since last week was eval week, but I had my meeting ASAP so I could get everything done with and fully embrace my 21st birthday with no responsibilities restricting my fun. &#160;It&#39;s been a long, but great week.</div><div>My illustrated narrative class starts next week, which should be fun, and I hope to get a job soon. &#160;I&#39;ve decided to forgo an additional contract this summer. &#160;I&#39;m hopefully going to spend most of my summer working, catching up on art, and getting back in shape so I won&#39;t want to die (or actually die) during backpacking if the Wildlands thing works out.</div><div><br /></div><div>I&#39;ve also decided I&#39;m going to get a couple axolotls.</div><div><div style="text-align: center"><img src="http://mexfiles.files.wordpress.com/2007/06/axolotl.jpg" /></div></div><div>WANT SO BAD.</div><div><div style="text-align: center"><img src="http://www.rincon-natural.com.ar/Acuario/axolotl_albino.jpg" /></div></div><div>I probably won&#39;t get them until I get back from my travels, though (<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-style: italic;">if</span>&#160;I end up traveling) since I already have cats / rats / frogs / fish that will need to be cared for in my absence. &#160;We&#39;ll see how impatient I get, though...</div></p>   <p style="clear:both;"> 
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        </content> 
    <category term="birthday" scheme="http://enigmata.vox.com/tags/birthday/" label="birthday" /> 
    <category term="college" scheme="http://enigmata.vox.com/tags/college/" label="college" /> 
    <category term="axolotls" scheme="http://enigmata.vox.com/tags/axolotls/" label="axolotls" /> 
    </entry> 
    
    <entry>
        <title>The end is nigh</title>   
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        <published>2008-06-01T19:46:15Z</published>
        <updated>2008-06-26T00:55:38Z</updated>
    
        <author>
            <name>Alice</name>
            <uri>http://enigmata.vox.com/?_c=feed-atom-full</uri>
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        <p>...Of Spring quarter, that is. &#160;YES. &#160;I still haven&#39;t quite figured out my contract for Summer, but I&#39;ve decided not to worry about it until Tuesday evening, when all of my stuff for the current quarter is finished. &#160;I will be taking a class about illustrated narratives, which isn&#39;t related to zoology at all, but I really must get my art on. &#160;Since early high school I&#39;ve had all these fragmented ideas for graphic novels tumbling about in my brainmeats, and I&#39;m hoping this class will facilitate their transfer to paper. &#160;It&#39;ll be cool at any rate. &#160;Tomorrow I&#39;m meeting with someone about studying abroad next fall. &#160;Or spring. &#160;Or the whole year. &#160;I got the impression that my dad was much more opposed to the idea than he actually is, so hopefully this will work out. &#160;Blah blah school.<div><br /></div><div>Last weekend I went to visit Nik for several days. &#160;Nik treated me to Sasquatch on Monday, so we went with some friends who were eager to see The Hives. &#160;That was the day I was familiar with basically none of the bands/comedians, except: Flight of the Conchords, and Michael Showalter, who were performing at the same time. &#160;Needless to say, Flight of the Conchords was a much higher priority, and even if all the other bands that day had sucked, the whole trip would have been worth it just to see Bret and Jemaine live. &#160;Twas a good day.</div><div><br /></div><div>I intended to spend the rest of my week doing all the necessary intense scienceness required for my class. &#160;This partially happened. &#160;However, Nik had been trying to sell his Wii. &#160;I&#39;d told him I&#39;d be interested in buying it, but didn&#39;t know when I&#39;d come up with the money, so he shouldn&#39;t hold off on selling it just for me. &#160;He didn&#39;t really care about the money, and gave it to me to &quot;borrow&quot; until I actually paid him. &#160;That was pretty awesome, but I must admit, THE WORST TIMING FOR GETTING A WII EVER. &#160;I&#39;m not complaining though. &#160;Schoolwork is getting done, just ... a little more slowly.</div><div><br /></div><div>Speaking of schoolwork, I should really do some right now. &#160;For the next couple days I&#39;m going to isolate myself on campus so that the Wii won&#39;t tempt me. &#160;Before I go, though, maybe I should play a bit of Zelda...</div></p>   <p style="clear:both;"> 
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        </content> 
    <category term="college" scheme="http://enigmata.vox.com/tags/college/" label="college" /> 
    <category term="wii" scheme="http://enigmata.vox.com/tags/wii/" label="wii" /> 
    </entry> 
    
    <entry>
        <title>Hating school registration</title>   
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        <published>2008-05-20T06:01:07Z</published>
        <updated>2008-05-21T07:36:18Z</updated>
    
        <author>
            <name>Alice</name>
            <uri>http://enigmata.vox.com/?_c=feed-atom-full</uri>
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        <p>I have not been getting into the programs I want and NEED in order to graduate. &#160;Even with registration priority. &#160;Last quarter, registration fucked me over. &#160;For next year, my senior year, my last chance, I was not selected to be in the class that fulfills all my requirements for graduation and my future, the class I&#39;d been looking forward to since 12th grade (before it even involved studying abroad), because the teacher said she decided to choose a different student, one she hadn&#39;t taught before (unlike me), &quot;in order to avoid undue favoritism&quot;. &#160;Of course she ended the e-mail on a high note, with compliments about how much I kicked ass in her class earlier this year, and apparently I&#39;m #3 on the waitlist, but who is going to spend hours of effort on an application and then change their mind? &#160;I&#39;m not resting my hopes on that happening. &#160;I don&#39;t rest hopes on anything.<div><br /><div>And because of this pessimistic approach to life, I&#39;m not <span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-style: italic;">too </span>bummed (mostly just pissed at the &#39;undue favoritism&#39; bullshit), because I have been exploring many other exciting options:</div><div>--The place I have begun volunteering at, the&#160;<a href="http://www.wildfelids.org/">Wild Felid Advocacy Center of Washington,</a>&#160;is very receptive to the idea of me interning there for credit. &#160;I am planning to do that this summer, and perhaps part of next year as well.</div><div>--My original fantasy in high school, when I first went to Australia, was to study abroad there my senior year of college (and then move there, but we&#39;ll see). &#160;It&#39;s looking kind of expensive, but it&#39;s still an option.</div><div>--There is an organization doing environmental field projects, taking up to 15 students to various areas. &#160;The ones I&#39;m looking at are in South Africa and Spain. &#160;South Africa deals more specifically with animals, but Spain is interesting too. &#160;These options are much cheaper. &#160;However, I don&#39;t think I&#39;ll earn upper-division credit.</div><div><br /></div><div>My dad&#39;s reluctant to let me go abroad again, since I am borrowing the money from my parents, and he just generally wants me closer. &#160;I&#39;ll try to warm him to the idea.</div></div></p>   <p style="clear:both;"> 
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        </content> 
    <category term="college" scheme="http://enigmata.vox.com/tags/college/" label="college" /> 
    </entry> 
    
    <entry>
        <title>The glamor continues.</title>   
        <link rel="alternate" type="text/html" title="The glamor continues." href="http://enigmata.vox.com/library/post/the-glamor-continues.html?_c=feed-atom-full" />  
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        <published>2008-05-12T06:18:25Z</published>
        <updated>2008-07-13T20:03:40Z</updated>
    
        <author>
            <name>Alice</name>
            <uri>http://enigmata.vox.com/?_c=feed-atom-full</uri>
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        <p>I will begin my entry by first apologizing to the probably hundreds of barnacles, snails, and other invertebrates that I likely killed by stepping on last week. &#160;Invertebrate life in the tide pools is so abundant that there is hardly any area as large as my foot that is free of life.&#160;    
    
    

    
    
    
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<div>Our class (er, &quot;program&quot;) headed off to Rialto Beach last Sunday and set up our camp. &#160;We camped there for a few nights, waking up at 5am to trek a mile or so down the gravelly beach to the tide pools. &#160;You know how walking on dry sand sucks really hard, and it feels like you&#39;re on a stair stepper? &#160;Well, walking on gravelly beaches for some reason sucks 10 times as much. &#160;But the tide pools were pretty awesome, full of many things for me to poke, mostly delightfully squishy things. &#160;I am a master of poke science. &#160;I could get a Ph.D. in it.</div><div><br /></div><div>On Wednesday afternoon we packed up and drove to Clallam bay, where we set up camp again. &#160;The weather was relatively gorgeous and we sat in the sun and played Invertebrate Charades. &#160;My stunningly spot-on imitation of the Aggregating Nipple Sponge turned awkward relatively quickly as it turns out most of my classmates didn&#39;t actually know what it was.</div><div><br /></div>
    
    
    

    
    
    

    
    
    

    
    
    

    
    
    
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<div>Thursday morning we did some tide pool-ing, but mostly focused our energies on a fossil-rich area. &#160;We threw rocks around and bashed them together, caveman-esque, to get at the fossils inside. &#160;Our teacher tried to get us to migrate to the tide pool area, but we were too excited about breaking shit.</div><div><br /></div>
    
    
    

    
    
    

    
    
    

    
    
    

    
    
    
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<div>In the afternoon we tried to find a good place to snorkel, a place with the least amount of turbidity so that we could actually see things in the water. &#160;The best place we found still sucked pretty bad, and most of us just saw a few tiny (~1-2 cm) hydrozoans. &#160;I also saw a massive school of silver fish chilling out beneath me, which was pretty awesome.</div><div><br /></div><div>Friday, we finally headed home, stopping once at an oyster beach to check out the invertebrates there. &#160;Despite napping on the way home, I ended up falling asleep at 8pm and woke up at 10am the next morning. &#160;Disoriented and for some reason sure it was Sunday, I called my mom and left a &quot;Happy Mother&#39;s Day&quot; message and made some god damn PANCAKES&lt;3.</div><div>I am excited that I no longer smell like campfire smoke, tide pools, and musty body odor. &#160;Also, eating real food is pretty badass. &#160;I have decided that I only like camping when it&#39;s warm and dry, which are pretty much the opposite conditions of last week. &#160;Hopefully there will be plenty of opportunities this summer. &#160;Only 4 more weeks of class...</div><div><br /></div></div></p>   <p style="clear:both;"> 
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        </content> 
    <category term="beach" scheme="http://enigmata.vox.com/tags/beach/" label="beach" /> 
    <category term="college" scheme="http://enigmata.vox.com/tags/college/" label="college" /> 
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    <category term="invertebrates" scheme="http://enigmata.vox.com/tags/invertebrates/" label="invertebrates" /> 
    <category term="tide pools" scheme="http://enigmata.vox.com/tags/tide+pools/" label="tide pools" /> 
    <category term="washington coast" scheme="http://enigmata.vox.com/tags/washington+coast/" label="washington coast" /> 
    </entry> 
    
    <entry>
        <title>No spine = MORE SEXY!</title>   
        <link rel="alternate" type="text/html" title="No spine = MORE SEXY!" href="http://enigmata.vox.com/library/post/no-spine-more-sexy.html?_c=feed-atom-full" />  
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        <published>2008-04-25T22:39:07Z</published>
        <updated>2008-06-26T00:58:06Z</updated>
    
        <author>
            <name>Alice</name>
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        </author>
    
        
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        <p>The program I&#39;m taking in school is focusing on invertebrates. &#160;It&#39;s pretty cool, actually. &#160;I expected to be disappointed -- but then again, I always do, which makes it all the more wonderful when I am pleasantly surprised instead. &#160;(And if I do end up being disappointed, hey, I was expecting it anyway, right?) &#160;Last friday we went out on a boat in Boston harbor to gather specimens. &#160;If it wasn&#39;t so exciting, I would have been pretty miserable, since it was rainy (and at times snowing) and I couldn&#39;t feel my arms, due to rooting around in the freezing water, grabbing mysterious squishy things. &#160;This past week we&#39;ve been learning about worms, so on Tuesday we went out to the campus beach and dug some up. &#160;Yesterday we were focusing specifically on parasitic worms. &#160;My teacher had requested someone to bring in a dead raccoon, if they came across one, so we could cut up its intestines and see if there were parasites inside. &#160;I found one on the way to class. &#160;I had some strange looks from people, walking from my car to the building, and an awkward moment in an elevator with someone inquiring about my bloody trash bag. &#160;&quot;It&#39;s for my teacher,&quot; I explained, although I&#39;m sure that must have just raised more questions. &#160;There didn&#39;t end up being any worms in it anyway. &#160;What a waste.<div><br /></div><div>I&#39;m gradually realizing that I moved to a semi-hick neighborhood. &#160;In my excitement and stress of finding a place to move and moving into it, I initially didn&#39;t notice. &#160;But the other day one of my friends started giving me shit about &quot;living under the power lines&quot;, as we were walking under them to exit my neighborhood. &quot;I live a foresty area <em>next to</em> the power lines,&quot; I insisted, until he relented. &#160;But when my teacher asked &quot;where did you find the raccoon&quot; and I almost answered &quot;right by my house, in front of Chips-a-flyin&#39; Chainsaw Sculptures&quot;, I began to connect things together. &#160;It&#39;s not like I really mind. &#160;I just think it&#39;s funny. &#160;From now on, I&#39;m going to emphasize certain landmarks when giving people directions to my house. &#160;&quot;So driving up the hills you&#39;ll pass Chips-a-flyin&#39; Chainsaw Sculptures on your left, then take a left at the llama/goat farm and drive under the power lines. &#160;You&#39;ll drive by a few houses that are constantly burning trash and debris in their yard. &#160;Just after the small trailer with the huge five-door garage on your left, you&#39;ll turn into a gravel driveway with about a dozen foot-deep potholes. &#160;I&#39;m in the house that has obviously isolated itself from the rest of the neighborhood with a dense surrounding of trees.&quot;<br /><div><br /></div><div>Last week, on our anniversary, Nik ended up bussing out here to see me, which made me endlessly happy. &#160;I feel guilty that he had to spend $83 and a total of 8 hours on a bus (4 hours each way), but it&#39;s not like he&#39;s going to bus out here a lot (at least, I certainly don&#39;t expect him to). &#160;We didn&#39;t really do anything &quot;special&quot; for our anniversary, but I think being together was enough. &#160;It was a good weekend with him, although we rarely ever even left my bedroom.</div><div><br /></div><div>Except for my roommate&#39;s birthday party! &#160;Since we live in a place the bus routes don&#39;t touch, we didn&#39;t really know how many people to expect. &#160;A couple hours into the party, there was only like a dozen people, although it was still pretty fun because of the DJ and the night&#39;s goal to smoke 22 blunts (my roommate was turning 22). &#160;After I finished a mixed drink (with everclear) and a pot brownie, which got me good and fucked out of my mind for the remainder of the night, it seemed about 50 more people showed up rather quickly, none of whom we actually knew (well, I invited 7 of them). &#160;It probably had to do with it being the eve of 4/20 and all. &#160;The night was rather intense, and filled with pot smoke, keg stands, and beer pong. &#160;I found out the next morning that only (&quot;only&quot;) 14 blunts had been smoked.</div><div><br /></div><div>At last, today is another day with nice weather! &#160;I had a bout of the sniffles this past week, but I think it has subsided enough for me to have a hookah session on the porch without setting it back. I can&#39;t wait for summer.</div></div></p>   <p style="clear:both;"> 
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        </content> 
    <category term="college" scheme="http://enigmata.vox.com/tags/college/" label="college" /> 
    <category term="invertebrates" scheme="http://enigmata.vox.com/tags/invertebrates/" label="invertebrates" /> 
    </entry> 
    
    <entry>
        <title>Shift</title>   
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        <published>2008-04-11T04:11:32Z</published>
        <updated>2008-04-11T04:11:32Z</updated>
    
        <author>
            <name>Alice</name>
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        </author>
    
        
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        <p>Phew. &#160;Time for an update on my life, I suppose.<div><br /></div><div>A couple weeks ago I moved into a new house. &#160;It was a huge pain in the ass, but well worth it to get out of that shitty apartment and into a big house with a YARD. &#160;I have four other roommates, one of whom has a cat. &#160;The cat is still not very fond of Priya and Maverick, but in time I think she will be.</div><div>A new quarter started last week. &#160;I couldn&#39;t get into the program I wanted due to Registration being seemingly eager to fuck things up for me, but I ended up in another pretty good program which I&#39;m enjoying.</div><div>The stress of settling and starting the quarter had diminished by last Wednesday, and I&#39;m relieved to have basically everything done with. &#160;There was some drama, but it&#39;s not worth getting worked up about it again now. &#160;Unless my shitty ex-roommate decides not to pay what she owes. &#160;Then shit&#39;s goin&#39; DOOOOWN.</div><div><br /></div><div>Now, I have ended classes for the week. &#160;Tomorrow I&#39;m driving down to Vancouver to see my aunt and attend an event for my sister, and driving back to Olympia that night so that I can go to volunteer training at the Wild Felid Advocacy Center of Washington at 10am on Saturday. &#160;Hopefully I can get an internship there, since it&#39;s exactly up my alley.</div><div><br /></div><div>Next week should be fairly fun and fast-paced. &#160;This whole quarter will be fast-paced. &#160;I&#39;m trying to earn all upper-division science credit, so there are a lot of time-consuming requirements to meet. &#160;I guess it&#39;s good I didn&#39;t try to get a job this quarter. &#160;I was worried about having no time for school, and no time to see Nik. &#160;Although if school were more relaxed this quarter, and I found a great job that would severely limit how often I could see Nik, I would do it anyway.</div><div>I used to have a hard time dealing with the distance and how infrequently we saw each other. &#160;But now that time has passed -- about a year, actually -- it bothers me less and less. &#160;Mostly because, since he has no car, it&#39;s 90% of the time me who makes the effort to go the long distance to see him, which is tiring. &#160;And when I&#39;m there, I&#39;m bored out of my skull. &#160;We have a rather dull relationship. &#160;Unfortunately, he seems 100% okay with that. &#160;I don&#39;t need or necessarily want an exciting relationship, but more and more often it&#39;s almost kind of depressing.</div><div>In recent months, when I&#39;ve been with him, I have had instances where I&#39;ve truly felt fulfilled, which is good progress compared to previously. &#160;I am falling hard for that boy. &#160;Yet still, when I actually put real thought into our relationship and its future, I never come to any optimistic conclusions. &#160;What about when we&#39;re done with college and can finally live in the same town and see each other on a regular basis? &#160;If I&#39;m already bored with our relationship despite how infrequently I see him, how bored am I going to be when we can be together all the time? &#160;Sometimes I wonder if the long-distance aspect of the relationship is just dragging out the inevitable. &#160;I wonder if all the time, money, and effort I&#39;ve put into this relationship is a waste, when perhaps I could be with someone who lives in the same town, who gives as much of a shit about the relationship as I do, who shares more things with me than the most basic of emotions and sexual desire, and who actually fucking loves me.</div><div>Next week is our one-year anniversary. &#160;I was going to visit him that weekend, but now I&#39;m reconsidering, due to conflicts and the fact that I&#39;m really tired of driving all the way out there to see him, only to be mostly bored. &#160;Even if he remembers it&#39;s our one-year, we&#39;ll end up not doing a damn thing. &#160;(Guess what we did on Valentine&#39;s Day? &#160;We took a nap.) &#160;It will be wonderful to see him anyway, of course, but I might as well just postpone my visit a week when nothing is conflicting, and when I&#39;m feeling more up for a drive, and when it won&#39;t be so disappointing when nothing special happens for our anniversary.</div><div>I don&#39;t know. We&#39;ll see.</div></p>   <p style="clear:both;"> 
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