Casino Royale

Oh, I watched this yesterday too. Because this blog needs some pretty and Daniel Craig + Eva Green are pretty personified. Okay fine, Craig is not pretty per se but he is manly, rugged, and totally bringing the Bond sexyback. Eva Green is just too gorgeous.
I really hope I get to writing a full review where it's not just my hormones doing the talking. Still, Casino Royale is all about the visceral, no?

I have to go to school tomorrow? Gosh, darn it, yay!

It's almost the end of November and that handy scroll bar on the side tells me I only have one post so far. I haven't had much to write lately, and everything I do write wants to stay in a locked MS word document. Like normal people, I look forward to vacations but when it's actually vacation time, I really hate it. I haven't written so much lately because I've been busy in the last few weeks and busy is happy for the most part. When I'm bored, I just lapse into these strange existential crises and mope about my indeterminably sized ego. So yes, vacations suck. I guess I write a lot when my mood sours and that hasn't happened much until this weekend.

Last night, I went to Didaph's house and I really enjoyed it. "Fun" isn't the operative word here, but it was very pleasant. I mean, there was no uproarious talk or lightning wit, but it was enjoyable. We gossiped for a long time, but it never felt vulgar or mean-spirited. It was just pleasant. Everything was comfortable and easy and honest. I didn't feel this pressure to prove myself. It's interesting because I haven't felt that way hanging out with people for a long time. I think it was a lot like how I am writing right now: plain and simple without forced wit. I never bust a gut laughing but it was a lot more enjoyable than some get-togethers when I spent too much time laughing.

Interestingly, the talk turned to guys and the whole issue of dating. I was kind of surprised to hear Didaph lament their (lack of) boyfriend situation. (One thing I did learn was how normal they are. It's almost scary.) Wen just advised us to wait until college, which is exactly how I've always felt. God, it would away from the overeager preying eyes of my parents too. My id can't wait for college. The ego is a little more wary.

The funny thing is that I haven't spent that much time with Didaph at all, in class or outside of it. Interesting how Asians just collude and bond.

Je suis une grande personne.

That's a depressing thought. My brother said I was 27 today. So that's not quite true, but relatively, it doesn't even matter that much. When I was 7, 17 and 27 seemed like pretty much the same age. 17 is the age when princesses meet their Prince Charmings and love can conquer the world. I feel shitty and bloated. The world does not want to be conquered.

I reason a feel like "une grande personne" is the numbers coursing through my head: SAT scores, GPAs, test grades, and hell, even tuition. I was annoyed enough with my stubborn math SAT to drudge through another another 5 hour test. Saturday was so gray and sluggish I think my scores really have nowhere to go but down. Speaking of going down, that's also the disturbing trend of my Euro grade. As the class average increases with each test, my grade plummets. WTF. True enough, I haven't taken Euro seriously at all this year--zombieing through class probably doesn't help my grade, but that's remarkably strange. If the history fairy's generous, I might pull a B+. Big IF. I haven't adequately studied for this next test either. The thing is, I don't think I do bad, but I somehow consistently get whole slews of multiple choice wrong. Sluggish brain does not wake up at 8 in the morning. Or maybe it's too dumb.

Quarter grade predictions: calc is salvageable, physics is surprisingly good, French is a deserved A (hopefully I won't sink it with the oral), English depends entirely on the whim of Crick, and Euro...um...just sucks. Not terribly bad but not great either. This term, I managed to pull my lowest grade EVER in history and math.

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But, seriously enough about grades and numbers. Saturday was Lynn/Steff's birthday party. Lynn's house is so nice and classy...my house is just a sloppy mess. I ate like an armadillo (hence the bloatedness). Turned brain off and watched MarySue humiliate themselves. Socially starved as I am, I wanted to stay later but Alice's mom has some penchant for 9 PM trips to the postal office, which is conviently on the way to Lynn's.

New terrible obsession with Bookworm. I keep dreaming of it in my sleep, and it sucks my euro studying time away.

Read, Blink, Call

College apps are seriously about to take over my life. It's this small benign tumor that has existed forever but suddenly turned malignant senior year. So...nothing much has been happening, except lots of exams and papers.

Barged the library book sale today with Alice. This is probably one of the few things I will miss when I leave Acton. I think I saw Julie's mom there, but mother and daughter look so different I wasn't sure and didn't say anything. We ended up browsing cookbooks, and I got a cute book on cookies with lots of pretty pictures but probably crap recipes. Still, the pictures are pretty. Alice got a book of cool gourmet appetizers (or hors d'oeuvres, since I just learned the h in hors d'oeuvre is aspirate while researching for my French homework.) Anyways, we are TOTALLY having a cocktail party. Yes. Even if it's freakishly expensive and we end the night hungry. We have to try those recipes. So here is the list of books I bought. $2 each.

A Light in the Attic
Where the Sidewalk Ends (this Shel Silverstein books are from 1987! but they look brand new)
Maus, Part I (I searched to no avail for Part II)
The Corrections, Jonathon Frazer
An Anthropologist on Mars (It had an octopus on the cover--irresistible!)

Afterwards, we hung out in the "old" part of the library. We always say that Acton is this boring old town, but it does have a rich history. (First person to die in Revolutionary War: Actonian!) But looking at the pastoral paintings and colonial artifacts--this Acton seemed so foreign. Not my AB anyways. I read a passage from The English Patient, which almost made me cry. Then I tried to memorize Chinese instruments, which almost made me cry too, but for a entirely different reason.

Later, I was randomly browsing the Internet and found an article about dressing as celebrities for Halloween. Lo and behold, who do I see? Malcom Gladwell, author of Blink. He deserves a picture of his own.

Blink, by the way, is an awful book that I've only had enough patience to read half of. It's also 3 days overdue from the library. Crap.

Got a new cell phone today. It even takes photos! How exciting, I've finally caught up with the rest of the world. Same number as before.

All About My College Apps

Hear that? The soft sigh of satisfaction. The silence of the keyboard. I'm done, done, done with the U Chicago app.

I think finishing my first college app should be some cause for celebration, even if it's just running around my house 5 times. Now is the hard part: the time for laborious finger-crossing and half-drawn breaths. I got the U Chicago course catalog in the mail yesterday and wow! I can study ancient American civilization in Oaxaca, Mexico. And rub shoulders admist a sea of lovely British accents at the London School of Economics. And take classes in dinosaur science, and transsexualism (Claudius, here we come), and the economics of crime, taught by none other than S. Leavitt of Freaknomics! And spend Friday night coffee discussing Marx and Smith. Okay, that last part is slightly less exciting.

If I don't get in, I think I'll start a massive hunt for razor blades. My dad keeps expounding that "Chicago is a safety! Duh." (He got this bit of wisdom from a random lady on the train.) People me that I'll get in without a problem, which is comforting to some degree, even if I know they just say that to be nice. Actually, what really shook my confidence was when my counselor said I had an equal chance of getting into Harvard and U Chicago. Either he grossly overestimated by chances at Harvard or he thinks my chances are so small at both schools to have little difference. Neither explanation bodes well.

Back to more positive thinking, I managed to write an essay that works on both the Uncommon and Common Apps. This is a rather remarkable feat I say. Despite the notoriety of UC's app, it's really not that bad. Hell, talking to Olga made me realize it's actually much shorter than Brown's. Through some economizing and strategezing, I only need 3 essays between 10 colleges. What I have left to write: a dozen short responses, UMich essay/Common App short, Harvard/Yale supp, scholarship essay for WashU...hey that's it. Not too bad if I leave it all to winter vaca, right? Especially because the two other essays are mostly written and the scholarship essay is on film, which should be rather easy. What is hard is answering questions like, "Why do you want to attend BU?" when the honest answer is, "I don't want to attend BU!" If all goes well, I won't even have to apply there. Hopefully.