sugardeath

I ordered all of my books (and a few extra things) off Amazon.com.

Here’s the breakdown:

• HUM104
  • Dialogues Concerning Natural Religions
    David Hume
    ($9.95; $5.10 at IIT used)
  • Frankenstein
    Mary Shelly
    ($4.95; $5.95 at IIT used; never did read this in 12th grade, yay for AP English)
  • Darwin (Norton Critical Editon)
    Charles Darwin, Phillip Appleman
    ($12.35; $13.50 at IIT used)
  • Therese Raquin
    Ãmile Zola
    ($9.13; $8.25 at IIT used)
• BIOL115
  • Human Biology
    Sylvia S. Mader
    ($80.32; $90.50 at IIT used)
• LIT328
  • Favorite Works of William Blake
    William Blake
    ($9; $11.25 at IIT used)
  • Short History of the Printed Word
    Warren Chappell
    ($14.68; $18.70 at IIT used)
  • Another E.E. Cummings
    E.E. Cummings
    ($5.49; $11.20 at IIT used)
  • Norton Anthology of Poetry
    Margaret Ferguson
    ($48.50; $50 at IIT used)
  • Ariel: The Restored Editon
    Sylvia Plath
    ($11.16; $10.45 at IIT used)

Total: $205

I listed the IIT Bookstore’s used prices for reference. A few of the books were a tad higher than the used prices on-campus. I neglected, however, to list the prices for new books. The store was asking $120.65 for the bio book. I think it’s a win no matter what, really.

I also already had the Java book I need for CS116 and the Psych book I need for PSYCH221.

I also ordered:

• Brave New World
  Aldous Huxley
  ($9.64)
• Fahrenheit 451
  Ray Bradbury
  ($6.99)
• Lord of the Flies
  William Golding
  ($9.99)
• 1984
  George Orwell
  ($7.95)
• Crime and Punishment
  Fyodor Dostoyevsky
  ($6.99)
• V for Vendetta (the graphic novel)
  Alan Moore
  ($13.59)
• East of Eden
  John Steinbeck
  ($15.90)
• The Dollmaker
  Harriette Arnow
  ($2.25)
• Stargate (Ultimate Edition) (the original 1994 movie on DVD)
  ($4.91)

With these items, and shipping/handling, the total came to $309.20.

Ouch!

There goes all that money from work I was talking about.

Half of the order was to be shipped on Feb. 20th due to Brave New World being out of stock. I ended up cancelling that book so that the order would ship on the twenty-fifth of January instead and just reordered a cheaper version of the book that also has some extras (and is in-stock!).

The only book in that list that I have not yet read is 1984. All the others I read in Honors English 10, 11, or AP English. It’s been a while though, so I figured it’d be good to read them again, seeing as how I enjoyed them quite a bit. V for Vendetta was just a little something I’ve been meaning to get. I love the movie and I wanna read the original story.

I also found out that my amazon.com login/password is valid on amazon.de, the german site.

• Der fernste Ort
  Daniell Kehlmann
  (€6,07/$7.87 ; €20,07/$26.04 with shipping/handling)

I saw a review of the book on everything2, and it looks pretty neat. Plus it’s in german. It’ll be a challenge to read, but it’ll be a fun challenge. I need to keep up with my german anyway. And what’s better than reading? The reason I love the english language so much and am pretty good with it is because I used to constantly read books that were rated for highschoolers and the like in elementary school. It’s the same principle with german.

Speaking of everything2, today marks two years since I signed up as a noder. I have only written three things in those two years, so I decided I’d post the sonnet I made for AP English. I’m wondering what kind of reception it will garner. We’ll see.

I should write more. I have an idea in the back of my head. It’s been there since the summer, I think. I forget when I started it.

All of the books should be coming right around my birthday. It’ll be like a gigantic birthday present followed by a bunch of smaller ones (that’s the way the orders are broken up; there’s like ten items in one order, and then one in each of the rest) and then finally one from Germany. I can’t wait. There will be much literary goodness to come.

So I finally started my project for German that we got two Mondays ago, and it’s due this upcoming Monday. Here’s what I’ve got so far:


Basically, what we have to do is make a CD of the past 4 years of our life and explain why we chose the songs. I’ve got the cover made, and the songs chosen. I just need to write my paragraphs and figure out how the hell I’m gonna do the inside of the booklet. Paragraphs have been written and the inside has been designed. All that’s needed now to figure out how to put the outside and inside together.. The songs go as follows:

9th Grade:

• So It Begins… (Intro Theme) - Vigilante
• Braving the Flames (Norfair 2) - Adhesive Boy

10th Grade:

• Millionär - Die Prinzen
• Seizure Robots - Unknown

11th Grade:

• Dragostea Din Tei - O-Zone
• Fluß der Liebe - DarkPrinceLuca, Freemind, GrayLightning, Israfel
• Pachelbel’s Ganon - djpretzel

12th Grade:

• Like A Monkey - Goteki

The line in the middle is just a guide for me until I print it out and fold it. It helps me position each element relative to the fold line. It won’t be there in the final product.

Ach so… Ich habe für eine lange Zeit nicht geschrieben.. fast eine Monat… Eine Monat von meine letzte Journalbuchung, am 3. Dezember, kommt das Animal Crossing (DS)! Ich habe das Animal Crossing am Gamecube gespielt, und es war wunderbar. Es werde ein gutes Spiel sind! Man kannst onlinespielen, ob man ein drahtloses lokales Netzwerk hat!

Sprechen über drahtloses onlinespielen.. Ich habe das Mario Kart (DS) gespielt, und es ist sehr prima! Ich hoffe, daß meine Kopie heute kommt. Dann kann ich mit Jason onlinespielen, und mit David und Brian über der DS drahtloser lokales Anschluss. Es macht so viel spaß!

Hmm.. Ich habe das Final Fantasy XI für fast eine Monat nicht gespielen. Ich soll es speilen..

Schrieben nur auf Deutsch ist so schwer.. Aber.. es ist spaß, und es ist gute Praxis für Deutscheklasse.

Heute ins Deutscheklasse haben uns (Paul, Phil, Steve, Dave, und ich) unseres Rollenspiel gegeben. Haben wir eine Werbung für AOL gegeben. Wir war fertig nicht, aber es war nicht so schlecht. Frau sagte, daß es gut war.

Ich will kein mehr schrieben. Ich bin müde und ich will das Mario Kart spielen… Ich habe nicht so viel Hausaufgaben!

So… Yea. Stuff. I was actually thinking of stuff to write, let’s see if it all comes out, shall we?

I just checked my work schedule… I work 6-11 tomorrow and 4-11 the day after. Fun times ahead. Maybe.

Um.. School’s been pretty cool. Swimming in the morning is really nice. But, damn is it tiring! We’ve been kicking around with the kickboards these past few days my legs get tired after a while. Walking back to the shower, I feel like my legs are gonna fail me! Sociology looks to be fun. If not for the fact that Megan sits in front of me and she’s usually pretty talkative. As I said, Mary sits behind me, but we don’t seem to talk as often

Um. I’ve actually been thinking about this homecoming thing. I was planning on asking… a certain someone… but I don’t have any classes with her… I think her third hour is close to mine, but I don’t know for sure.

I’ve been getting a nice amount of homework as of late. Physics homework every night. Trig with good ‘ol Verlinde every night (but then again, I can finish most of the assignment, if not all, in class). Honors homework isn’t much worse than last year. It’s just that I already seem to be on my normal… thingy… of procrastination.

Yesterday in German, Frau handed out these sheets for us to fill out and give to our parents. The two blanks were “Blackboard username” and “Blackboard password.” This was so that the parents would know our login and pass and be able to see what we’re doing in our classes. Phil said he didn’t want to give his mom his password. I said “change the password” and Frau gave me a dirty look. “Seriously, change it to something he’s not afraid to give out.” Every freaking head in the room turned to me. It was creepy. I attribute it to the fact that I don’t speak much in that class (nor any other, for that matter) except when called upon to read something. And even then, it’s in German.

The spent loads of money on new carpet for the entire forum over the summer. Personally, I think that money could have gone towards things that were actualy needed. But anyway. There are these big “NO FOOD OR DRINK IN THE FORUM” signs right outside the forum doors. That hasn’t stopped Jason, Andrew, and Greg from drinking cranberry juice and cokes in there, respectively. Well, until today, that is. Jason, somehow, spilled his cranberry juice when he went to get up or something. He got it all over his shoe and on his leg, but more importantly, he got it on the new carpet. Teachers came from all over and got all riled up over a spill. It was hilarious. It took the principal, an associate principal, and the hall monitor to tell Jason that no drinks were allowed in the forum. The hall monitor picked up the bottle and asked “Is this the bottle? Is this the bottle?? Is THIS the bottle????” As if she couldn’t figure it out for herself. She picked it up with a paper towel though. I couldn’t stop laughing. Jason says they incarcerated his drink. Tim was making fun of the hall monitor by saying “We’ve got the evidence! WE’VE GOT THE EVIDENCE!” in his crazy, exaggerated voice that he so often does. Hilarity all around. Jason says nothing happened to him, though, so it’s all good. Mr. Monroe was asking us if he went to MST (for Jason was getting paper towels to dry the carpet), we suspect it’s because they wanted to take him down to the office and punish him. Luckily for Jason, though, he has MST in the morning.

And that’s the funny story for the week.

Um… What else is there?

I recently got Kirby Canvas Curse for the DS. It’s freaking awesome. The main game levels were pretty easy, but it seemed like that got loads harder for the last few sets. I’ve got two more levels left in main game, but I’ve only completed 24.7% of the game. There’s a ton of stuff to do otherwise. You can go through the levels to collect medals, of which there are 250. I only have 65. You can also choose “Rainbow Run” mode and play through the game levels and several extra levels. Depending on what option you choose from there, you either have to make it through the level as fast as possible, or you have to go through the level while using as little ink as possible. For those of you unfamiliar with the concept of this game, your goal is to guide Kirby and protect him by drawing lines with your stylus. This is because he was turned into a ball by an evil witch which (hehe) also happened to turn the entire world into a painting. The entire game is controlled with the stylus. At first it seems easy, but it does take a bit to get used to. I’ve sent Kirby into the lava several times.

I guess that’s everything… I can’t think of anything more… so… here it is!

I woke up at one today. I set the alarm for 9AM. It went off at 9. It sounded like a plane crashing into our house. I knew exactly what it was. I hurriedly made my way across the room and pounded the snooze button until it shut up. I turned the volume down, and, not thinking, switched the alarm to off mode. Then back to on mode. Why did I do that? I wasn’t thinking, that’s why. When I finally woke up again, I looked over at the alarm clock. Squinting my eyes, I saw “1:09,” but the 1 and the colon kinda formed an eleven. “Shit! No! Please be eleven and not one!” I grab my glasses: “1:09.” Damnit! Five hours after I got up, it will be time for work. Damn, that’s not long at all.

I have two semi-big assignments due on Monday. The first is for German. I have to describe, in detail, three different outfits of mine (i’m just making up random outfits), cut-out pictures from magazines or whatnot that show these outfits, and put it all together in a nice booklet type thing. Meine Garderobe.

The second is for English. For the past week or so, we’ve been writing a paragraph. A whole week for a paragraph? Yes. I thought you were in Honors English? I am, now bugger off. For the past two weeks or so, Mrs. Szmigiel has been lecturing us on style. This paragraph, then, is an exercise in style. She’s grading us not on what we say, but on how we say it. Oh, and if there’s any passive voice (use of the verb “is” and an “-ed” verb), we fail.

I’ve technically got more done on the paragraph than I do on Meine Garderobe, but I’m more stressed out about the paragraph than I am about Meine Garderobe. All I have to do is revise the paragraph a couple more times, change some sentence lengths, etc., and I’m good. For Meine Garderobe, I still need to finish the second description, do a third one, finish my third outfit (finding articles of clothing), and finally put it all together on construction paper and make a nice booklet out of it.

Meine Garderobe involves much more work that the paragraph does. The descriptions of the outfits must be nearly perfect (then again, the paragraph for English must be perfect). My adjective endings all have to be correct. Word order must be correct. I must be using the correct cases (nominativ, akkusativ, dativ). Only recently, however, have I started to understand all of this stuff better. Throughout this whole year, pretty much, we’ve been focusing on adjective endings over and over and over again. We’re reading a novel now (we’ve finished what we were supposed to do in class this year), and Frau said that it’s really to help us with our adjective endings. They’re just that important. I was always a little lost when it came to the cases and such, but I think I’m getting a better grasp on the whole concept. Sure, I need help and therefore look at my notecard quite a bit, but as I do so, I burn it into my brain. I start to remember that mit is dativ and therefore a sentence should look like this: Ich trage diese gruenes T-Shirt mit diesen blauen Jeans. OK, that was a bad example. Die Jeans is plural, therefore it has the same adjective endings for all cases.

Anyway, I have to go to leave for work in fifteen minutes. Or.. auf Deutsch: In funfzehn Minuten muss ich zu Arbeit gehen. Ja. Ich liebe das Deutsch, es ist einfach.