Once upon a time, I had a completely public journal. That lasted nearly two years. And in those two years I realized something. A girl needs three things in life: chocolate, her knight in shining armor, and privacy. Most of these entries will be public, but the good stuff will be locked.


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Super Effective is this pretty funny spoof comic of the Pokemon game series. Yes, I'm a nerd, and I wholly accept the fact and embrace it. Whatever, it's something to do while I debate the pros and cons of going to class (don't worry friends, I'm going; I have to. I just like to pretend that I have some sort of control over my life).

Anyway. I have an interview for a research position in like an hour (this shit better be a paid position because I'm sick of busting my ass for the sake of resume building), so I better head on to campus now before I'm late and never get hired for anything ever again. Sorry for the short post, but this comic strip cracked me up, and I knew I had to share since I know a couple of you are Pokenerds like me (kevinkagy, ghostlegs, zerodetorres. Yeah, I'm calling you out!). I'll update later with a longer post, I promise!

First post of the new year (it only took me like three weeks to do it. Better late than never, right?).

Sorry I've been so MIA, but I can explain. I started the new school semester n the 5th and it's been hectic trying to get back into the swing of things. Then this past weekend I had some friends from home come up to visit for the weekend and to celebrate my BFF Kevin's 21st birthday, which was way too much fun. We had a long 3 day weekend this weekend thanks to Martin Luther King Jr., so for the last three or so days my roommates and I have had about ten people staying in our four bedroom apartment. It was like a giant sleepover straight out of the "ideal" childhood, complete with staying up until sunrise and playing lots of games (we must have played at least 30 hours of Mario Kart for the Wii this weekend, no lie). Well, except there was a lot of beer and liquor and Taco Bell involved (ohhh college life).

Also, I've had a lot on my plate to deal with this month. As I'm sure you've heard by now, Haiti was hit with a last week we got terrible news of 7.0 magnitude earthquake, which devastated Port-au-Prince - where my dad's sister and her children live, which is why I haven't been all that emotionally available these days. My mom has family who live in the northern part of Haiti (Cap Haitien), and they weren't as effected by the quake (although there has been a lot of looting and robbery and theft going around in all the chaos). We hadn't heard from my dad's family - that is, until Sunday. Everyone (thank God) is more or less okay. My parents are doing everything they can to fly my family here to the states, but there's a lot of red tape to go through, since the majority of Port-au-Prince - Haiti's capital - has been destroyed and it is virtually impossible to even begin the visa process. My aunt and cousins currently have no house, so they've been staying a shelter that's been looted at gunpoint five times in the last three days. But they're ok, and the rescue workers have been doing all they can to help, and that's all we can really ask for at this point.

And just for pop culture's sake...

( Golden Globes rant, and a bit of political talk! )

Anyway. It's 4:35AM, so I should probably head to bed since I have class in about nine hours. Goodnight, LJ world! And I promise to update a bit more frequently and not let a whole millennium pass by before I post again.

FIRST: If you've been tagged, you must write your answers in your own LJ and replace any question that you dislike with a new, original question.
SECOND: Tag eight four (I half ass a lot of things in my life - memes included, lol) sexy people. Don't refuse to do it like a pansy.

I tag: zerodetorres , kevinkagy , ghostlegs , silver_shadow49

( Jess - aka crowsfly - tagged me! )
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Ok, now that I got the meme out of the way...yo! I feel like it's been forever since my last update. Finals are over and done with (woooo!) and I've been home for about a week now, and it's been very enjoyable. Grades came out, and once again it's almost straight A's across the board, with the exception of 1 B :/ booo. My research professor Jay will continue his research in the spring, but if he chooses me again to be his assistant (which I'm praying he will), it will be a paid position, woooo! And our book (and by "our" book, I mean it's really his and some other old bag's book, but damnit! My name is in there!) comes out during the first week of January. Merry Christmas to me, I am PUBLISHED!

Speaking of Christmas...MERRY CHRISTMAS EVERYONE! It's not exaclty a very white or cool Christmas; it's 80-degrees outside and a gorgeous beach day. But while I'm sweating bullets, my norhtern U.S. counterparts are still shoveling away the excess of snow from the blizzard that dumped like 80 feet of snow on everyone. And once again, I find myself appreciating Florida (and Florida weather) more and more. Let's face it, who doesn't like having a tan year round? Exactly.

I haven't exchanged gifts with my friends yet, but the gifts I've received from my family have been pretty kickass. My sister got me TWO CAMERAS. One's your standard digital camera, a Sony CyberShot  DSC-930. It works just as fine as my old Olympus (R.I.P. little guy...) but has some killer megapixel work. The second camera is a Canon Powershot SX110 IS, which is also a digital camera, but it has madd optical zoom like whoa. I've always wanted to take up photography as a hobby, and, according to my sister, it's not a bad camera to start out with.

Then I got the usual from the parents: money ($100, wooo!), clothes (two shirts and a sweater), and perfume (Dolce & Gabbana "The One." Heaven bottled in a scent? Me think so). Even though I'm lacking DJ Hero *mourn* I am extremely grateful and more than content with what I have, and isn't that what the holidays are supposed to be about? /gushiness

Holy fuck, it's November.

You know what I hate (I know, nice transition, right?!)? What really irks me?

When you see people on campus that you've known for years - YEARS, DAMNIT - yet they look at you like you're the most recently escaped inmate from your local insane asylum instead of someone that was a good friend (not to mention a KICKASS TUTOR) in high school.

I ran into my (now) ex-friend, new acquaintance, Andrew, in between classes today. He was coming out of the lecture hall I was going to walk into for my class. We usually sat near each other in class in high school (I hated sitting in alphabetical order) and we both took the same classes (overachieving AP students, ftw!), so we hung out quite a bit. Outside of class, sometimes we'd sit at the same lunch table, and we were both in the same limo for prom. I tutored the kid in AP Psych, and I even went to one of his birthday parties (got him a giftcard to Best Buy), and the MOTHERFUCKER had the AUDACITY to give me the, "Uhhh, do I know you?" look. It's not like we stopped talking to each other after high school! I went to a house party he threw with his roommates once, and we even sat in the same block for a couple of football games this year AND last year.

Here's how the convo went down.

ME: Hey Andrew!
DOUCHE BAG: ...Hey?
ME: How's it going? I don't know about you, but midterms are killing me.
DB: ...uh, yeah...
ME: *decides to fill in awkward pause* ...SoOoOoOo, are you going to the game this Saturday? Some of my friends got a block and there are still some spots open, if you guys need people to sit with.
DB: ...yeah, maybe. If I could get your number, I'll text you.
ME: ...my number hasn't changed since our freshman year of high school.
DB: High school? Oh, high school, right! It's Nathalie, right?
ME: Yeah, THAT hasn't changed since high school either. Plus I texted you last week about our Halloween party, and you answered.
DB: Oh. Ok. Cool. I'll text you.
ME: Ok, sure.

And the motherfucker never texted me. Jerkkk.

So anyway. Time is a-flyinggg. I'm 24 credits (aka two semesters or eight classes, give or take) away from graduation. I...can't believe it. I'm not ready in the slightest. This is some scary shit, man. This time next year I'll have (hopefully) gotten into a law school and graduated. Like I was telling my BFFL Kevin earlier, I don't feel ready. Like, at all. I feel like I'm walking into an exam on quantum physics, something that I: a.)know nothing about and b.) could never possibly hope to learn successfully in one year. For the last eighteen years, my life has literally been wake up, go to school, get good grades, come home and shoot the breeze until it all started up again. Graduation = the transformation of my life as I know it. Graduation will definitely be THE most drastic change of my life to date, since potty training obviously (I mean, you go from shitting your pants to holding your shit until you can find a porcelain bowl to relieve yourself. Tragic, much?).

Anyway, that's about it for me. Classes are still annoying, but research is going very well! If all goes well, I'll actually have some of my work (and by work, I mean graphs and numbers and shit I had to make on SPSS; aka MEGA-PAIN IN MY ASS) published! Excitinggg. I also have some theorizing that might make it into my professor's writings, but I won't be directly recognized for that stuff (bah humbug). I really wish I could discuss the book with you guys, but alas, copy right :/ Plus I'd hate to jeopardize my research position just because I couldn't keep my mouth shut.

...it's almost two in the morning and I haven't slept since 6AM yesterday. I think I need to call it a night. I'll catch up on entries and stuff tomorrow. Until next time, my lovelies!

I am so fucking pissed.

Registration for spring semester starts next week. So, in preparation, I logged on to start my registration prep (picking out class times, choosing which classes I'd like to take, etc.) only to find that I can't even register because I have a hold on my record because I'm "off-track."

Allow me to explain.

My university implements an academic tracking system, which means that you basically have to maintain a certain GPA in classes directly related to your major. For my Political Science major, I have to maintain a 3.0 GPA in all PoliSci-related courses, which is easy as pie. But for Public Relations, I have to maintain a 3.5, which I apparently don't have. I have a 3.43 in my PR related classes, therefore making me ineligible to register despite being awesome and having a hella high overall GPA.

Only at the fucking University of Florida would a student be punished for taking on 18 credits a semester and a time consuming research position while pulling an overall GPA of 3.78 which would have been higher if she hadn't gotten that one miserable B-fucking-plus in a class where the professor was partially deaf with a weird gimpy arm that honestly freaked her the fuck out.

Fuck you, UF. Right now, it really isn't all that great to be a Florida Gator.

*sigh*
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Anyway, to give this post some substance, I'll answer this really interesting LJ Writer's Block question that I saw a couple of weeks ago but never got around to answering.



( Oh dear, this question makes me want to quit school and become a groupie... )
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The only real bright spot in my life at the moment is my TV schedule. I'm so in love with all the plot lines of my TV shows that I feel as though I could spontaneously combust at any moment. The Office is starting to suck less again, which I'm ecstatic over, Bones is OMGSOGOOD, Private Practice is ten times a better show than Grey's Anatomy could ever be, Glee is still making me squee, Dexter is just too awesome for words, It's Always Sunny in Philadelphia still has me in stitches, and Community is my new favorite comedy f'sho.

Anyway, that's about it. I'm going home tomorrow for the weekend (sooo yeah, class on Friday? Fuck that, I'm taking a sabbatical from this hell hole) for some home cooked food, TLC, and free groceries. Being an adult sucks so bad, especially when you have to drive five hours for some love and a decent meal.

Can I just say that I absolutely HAAAATE Wal-Mart for making me buy things that I don't even need just because they fit into my miniscule my broke ass budget? *sigh* I went to Wal-Mart to buy a few toiletries and I'm passing the candy aisle when, for some reason, I just happen to look over and I notice that there's a jumbo sized bag of Lindt Lindor Truffles (aka the quickest way to my heart) on sale. And I passed the dishware aisle and, somehow, this hella cute coffee cup magically found its way into my shopping cart. I DON'T EVEN LIKE COFFEE, WHAT THE FUCK IS THIS SHIT?! But I bought both items, simply because they were on sale. Now I'm thirty pounds heavier (I ate the whole bag of truffles. THE WHOLE BAG. SHOOT MEEEEE) and using the coffee mug as a paperweight because by the time I got back to the apartment, I realized that I have no use for a coffee mug -_-

WAL-MART!CAPITALISM 1-0 NAT LOLZ I SUCK.

[An aside: When ISN'T anything on sale at Wal-Mart? Damn them and their Smiley-faced roll back commercials! It's like they're saying, "HERE'S ALL THIS SHIT THAT YOU WANT BUT DON'T NEED/CAN'T AFFORD SINCE YOU'RE A BROKE ASS COLLEGE STUDENT! BUY IT AND HAVE FUN WANTING TO KILL YOURSELF LATER FOR HAVING TERRIBLE SPENDING HABITS, YOU DIRTY CAPITALIST!" I mean, this is srs biznis, guys.]

...aaanyway, long time, no talk my friends! I'm so sorry for disappearing without a word. This semester has been hella crazy. Between doing research and keeping up with classes, I've barely had time to breathe these days. I haven't even had time to consider procrastinating, which amuses me, because in the last entry I posted, I wrote about procrastinating and stuff. Literally, the second after I hit submit on that entry, I checked the syllabi for all my classes and realized that I basically had some sort of reading or written assignment or exam once every three days or so and was all, "Sheeeee-it, I have WAY TOO MUCH SHIT TO DO WHERE THE FUCK DID ALL THESE ASSIGNMENTS COME FROM?!" Thus, I fell off the face of the earth.

Today's topic: A GIANT TRAMPOLINE WAREHOUSE, OMFGWTFBBQ&@^LEDDH#NJFDK!

( You guysss, is this NOT the COOLEST THING you've ever seen or what?! )

Topic #2: TELEVISION, OMFADKFH##%@^!DSGHDBBQLOLZWUT^#%^

Now that fall is in full swing, so are my TV shows :) Which is a good and bad thing. I can hardly keep up with my school work, but daaamn, it's essentially impossible for me to keep up with my TV schedule, it's ridiculous. Thursday's are TERRIBLE. I have literally three hours of straight TV to watch, and half of my shows overlap anyway :/ Bones, It's Always Sunny in Philadelphia, The Office, 30 Rock (when it comes back), FlashForward (which I missed due to Bones), Grey's Anatomy (I gave in, I needed closure after the saddest finale of life), Parks and Recreation (which I know I'm going to forget about because I don't have timeee).

If you add all that time up, that's FIVE HOURS of staring at the TV. I don't know how I'm going to do this. And this isn't counting all the other shows I watch on other days. Blahhh. House, Glee, Modern Family, Curb Your Enthusiasm, Dexter, Psych...it's so draining :/

Speaking of TV, I have an old classmate from middle school who's on Modern Family! He doesn't have a major role or anything, but he plays a boyfriend to one of the girls on the show (he's like 20, and the girl looks like she's 5, LOL). Here's his IMDB page. It's sooo crazy. Even though it's a small role, I never thought he'd actually get onto TV. It's actually hella cool, saying that I know someone who's been on prime time television. Baller. If he gets a big break and ends up being the next Brad Pitt, I hope I get to be on his E! True Hollywood Story. Just sayin'. Maybe I can be his family lawyer and defend him in court if he ever gets charged with possession of cocaine or a DUI (because you're not a superstar if you don't have legal or drug issues, duhhh).

I have so much more to update you all on, but alas, class awaits. I'll do my best to catch up on everyone's entries throughout the day.

( I almost forgot, one more thing... )

I have a seven page paper (that I haven't started, let alone looked at) that's due tomorrow, as well as some reading for a quiz on Thursday and about four hours' worth of research that I have to do by Friday.

Knowing how fucked I'll be if I don't get started, I found myself watching E.T. and Jurassic Park for the past five or so hours like I don't have a care in the world.

Ohhh, college...how I loved your way of depriving me of sleep and relaxation and happiness. I almost missed it over the summer - NOT. A lot of people think that procrastination involves doing nothing productive. Au contrarie, mes amis! Procrastination involves getting a lot of things done - they're usually things that you shouldn't be doing, but details, details. I just color coded all the clothes in my closet. While it's not exactly a paper, it's definitely productive. It's nice to know what shirt is hung where and stuff. And this entry is productive! I'm keeping in touch with all you guys so you know I'm alive and well. Also, I just gave you all a lesson in properly defining procrastination. Sure, it's not helping me get my homework done, but it has made you all educated and aware citizens of your respective countries, and I'm thrilled to have been a part of this.

...I just want to sit on a floatie in the pool and laze the day away. Is that really so much to ask? *sigh* You'd never guess that I was a slave driver when it came to homework in my youth. I wouldn't do anything that even resembled fun until all my homework was done. Now I'd rather scrub toilets if it means putting off homework for one more hour. Life is rather funny like that, I suppose.

Ok, I'm running out of shit to say, so I guess I'll end it here. I'm off to read TextsFromLastNight.com to waste away another couple of hours (I already Facebook'ed - boooo) before I start to panic under the pressure.

P.S. - And yes, I am indeed listening to the Rent soundtrack while I procrastinate. Seasons of Love is a great song to listen to during procrastination! I mean think about it: there are SO many ways to measure a year! How about text messages? Or status updates on your social networking site of choice? Or alcoholic beverages? Or number of classes missed?

...damn, now I'm just desperate. How you're even friends with me, I don't know. I even weird myself out with these rants/trains of thought. Kudos to you all for sticking it out this long :)

This whole second-to-last/possibly last year of undergrad thing kind of sucks huge donkey cock. Sorry for such crude language, but man. It's only the beginning of the second week and I'm not sure if the workload or the stress OR the lack of money will kill me first. Cool, right? WRONG. SUFFERING AND TORMENT IS NOT COOL.

But I digress.

I am really enjoying my research class! For my first "assignment" (it's technically a class so he has to grade me on random things) he sent me out "on the field" to get 50 or so people to fill out a questionnaire. My friends, it was nearly IMPOSSIBLE. College kids are anything BUT generous - and don't I know it. I usually ignore people who try to hand me papers/get to sign things/try to get my attention for something that doesn't involve free food. It was a simple questionnaire; it had stuff about age, gender, ethnicity, political party, religion, and one short answer section about the candidates for governor. But since I lacked proper incentive (free booze/food/sex - and I'm serious about that last one, college guys = pigs, college girls = skanks), no one aside from my friends wanted to help. Yes, I promised baked goods/movie night at my apartment to twelve friends just so I wouldn't come back empty handed. I was supposed to be "collecting data" for an hour, then using my last hour to compile my findings and presenting them to my professor. I managed to get thirty-seven surveys filled out (friends of my friends filled out stuff too, thank God) and put together a poorly put together PowerPoint. When I got back to my professor's office, I notice there are four other important-looking people in there with him.

Jay (my professor): Nathalie, these are four of my colleagues. Meet Mr. Cross, Dr. Smith, Dr. Bernstein, and Mrs. Garrison.
Me: *wtf?* ...Hi.
Jay: As members of the Political Science board committee, they're here to watch you present your findings today.
Me: *...PANICKED!flail* Uhhh, sure?

- An aside: I don't mind public speaking, but I absolutely hate doing improv shizz and talking out of my butt. I didn't realize I was going to verbally report to him my findings! Nor did I know it would be in front of a group of people -_- I didn't have any discussion and talking points singled out, no handouts, NOTHING. Cue *EPIC FLAILING* -

Me: *presents data as quickly and efficiently as possible all while sweating bullets and hoping that these people don't notice that I'm I'm basically reading off the PowerPoint then reiterating what each slide says in different words*
Jay: That was terrible.
Me: *D; is ashamed/devastated*
Jay: But that's ok, these are a few of my grad students, and they're not really all that important. There's no such thing as a PoliSci board committee. I just wanted to see how thorough you were in your research and see how you'd do under the pressure.
Me: ...Oh. I totally knew that. Like...oh my God, WHY would you do that to me?!
Jay: Partly out of boredom, and partly to see what your public speaking skills are like. A- for this assignment. See you Wednesday!
Me: *thinking* All I get is a fucking A- for scavenging for participants and almost having a heart attack?! WHAT THE FUCK KIND OF TEACHING IS THIS?!

I wanted to kill him. Still kind of peeved. But I feel like I'm actually learning from him. I can't really discuss in depth what we're researching (it has to do with political unrest/crazy ass mofo political leaders, particularly in the Caribbean and in Africa), but it's by far my favorite class I've ever taken in my life. It's basically the heart of my major, and it's hella cool.

Anyway. It's almost 2am, and I'm super tired. I've been up since 6am yesterday. I love how college fucks up almost every aspect of my life - sleep included. Goodnight all!

I hope these last two days aren't a foreshadowing of the WORST ACADEMIC YEAR OF MY LIFEEE.

So yeah. Fall term started yesterday, and I don't think I'm emotionally nor academically strong enough to survive it without dying a few times. I'm currently taking seven classes (yes, seven. Don't worry, I'm dropping one, even I'm not stupid enough to do this to myself on purpose) and already I'm dying. Usually when I stress, I just bitch and moan about it for a few hours on the phone to a friend and then eventually suck it up and deal. This time, however...blah. I've never experienced severe physical symptoms of stress before. There's so much tension everywhere - in my shoulders, each individual vertebrae of my backbone, my knees, my head, my stomach - and I feel like if one more thing goes wrong, I may just deteriorate and the leftover pieces of me will float away in the breeze.

By far, my most difficult class will be Politics Post Conflict. During our first lecture on Monday, after he'd read us the syllabus (he couldn't print out copies of the syllabus for us because of budget cuts :/ Haaate how inefficient the government is when it comes to education!), my professor assigned us TWO HUNDRED PAGES of reading that was to be done by WEDNESDAY (as in tomorrow Wednesday, blahhh) and then informed us that he has a 62% pass rate for his class -_- Did I mention he's also assistant dean of the law school here? The law school that I hope to someday make it into? And here's the kicker: I can't drop the class because it's necessary for my graduation.

This more or less sums up my life at the moment:

AHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHH.

The only redeeming thing about this school year is my apartment. I'm gonna try and get some pics up for your viewing pleasure, because this place is hella nice (and super cheap! I love it).

Eight months and a week left until summer comes around and I can breathe again.

Although I do rather like my research assistant position (despite the lack of pay). The stuff we're discussing is pretty interesting. Well, at least it's interesting to a nerd like me, lol. My professor/research partner is pretty cool. He's a lawyer, so he's been providing me with heaps of useful advice and information about the whole law school thing. It just sucks I have to meet with him everyday for two hours :/

And on that note, I bid you all adieu. I'll catch up on commenting and stuff asap. Until then, I'm going back to reading and listening to my emo depressing music. I was listening to angry!Avril Lavigne on my iPod on the bus ride back to my apartment after class today (yes, Avril Lavigne, along with Disturbed and Linkin Park, make up the majority of my "angry" music. Get over it), and now I've switched to emo/depressing music (aka Sarah McLachlan, old school!Dashboard Confessional, Neverending White Lights, Staind). Don't juuudge me.