technical difficulties

A week ago I put my laptop in a coma... It woke up for about 30 hours on Friday (just enough time to back everything up on my shiny new external hard drive), but it has now passed on to the computer afterlife. I'm taking it to the store tomorrow to see if they can resurrect it, but we'll see if it's a Jesus computer or not... So for now, enjoy this gnome, courtesy of this lovely blog, while I do homework on library computers and check email and Facebook on my phone...

Guinevere

She's kind of taking over my life right now because of a project I have in Arthurian Lit...

Images found here and here.

an education

Almost all of my books for this semester. How busy am I?

single, no mingle

Happy Valentine's Day! I spent the evening with friends watching very un-romantic movies and eating sweet treats!

in the world of dreams

I've known about Brett Manning for a while now. I haven't visited her site in a while, but every time I do, I'm always awed at her illustrations. They're absolutely breathtaking and I automatically think of music by Bon Iver. I'm pretty sure she draws my dreams (both sleeping and day varieties). Sometimes I even wish that I could live inside the world of her art.

looking out

I've been so busy the past few days and today is the busiest out of all of them so far! I have so much to do and I'm barely in my room/on my computer...

One of my goals this semester (aside from being more sociable and blogging more frequently) is to stay on top of all of my classes and assignments. I want to do really well in school, especially considering how well I do these four years will determine graduate school programs for me in the future. And I don't want to be lazy with my future!

keep yourself warm

This winter has seen more snow that last winter and has generally been colder too. But my "outerwear" isn't much to shake a stick at. Being originally from California, I never really had a need to acquire more than one coat, so I only have two at the moment. I've gained a new one every Christmas since living in Washington for most of the year, so I guess that's a good start. But to spice up my anemic coat selection, I have scarves - and lots of them!

(Most of these were presents from relatives and friends this past Christmas. The only one I actually bought myself was the olive green circle scarf that I got at Forever 21. My mum actually knitted the first two!)

coats from Forever 21

ring around

rings - Forever 21

How I'm feeling right at this moment.

darling it's better down where it's wetter

These are the last of the pictures from Christmas Break (the last good ones at least).

We (finally) went to the aquarium the last week that I was home. But there's a bit of a story behind the whole excursion...

We went on a Tuesday night, but the night before at dinner with my grandparents, my Mum told me not to make plans for Tuesday night because we all had plans. Secret plans that I wasn't allowed to know about except that we had them. This doesn't happen very often, but knowing about a surprise a whole day beforehand (or even an hour beforehand) messes me up completely. A surprise is not supposed to be revealed before it happens, not even in part. The "surprisee" is not supposed to know what's going on until the surprise actually happens. That's how it is supposed to go! But my family likes to torture me.

So Tuesday night comes around and I'm freaking out and my family is thoroughly enjoying this whole experience. My brother's girlfriend comes over after her swim practice and we all pile in the car and get on the freeway. My family refused to even give me a hint the whole day and they were definitely not going to tell me in the car on the way. It was horrible, but I distracted myself by goofing off with my brother and his girlfriend and my sister.

Long story short, the aquarium was my big surprise. They were having a special deal up until new years that it'd be open from 6-9 for half price so my Mum decided it'd be a nice treat since I've been begging for a family trip down there for almost two years. After I got over being mad at them for freaking me out with a surprise I was very happy that we went and had a lot of fun. Silly families...

a resolution of sorts

Yesterday marked the beginning of Spring Term for me and although I will be extremely busy over the next four months with my nearly full course load, I came to a decision recently. Over the past months, especially since school started up again, I haven't been posting on a regular basis at all. I don't really know why. I could say that it's because school took up a major part of my time and focus this year (my grades have improved ten-fold from last year - not that I was a bad student last year...), but I'm not sure if that is necessarily true.

I'm generally not one for New Years Resolutions. Those sorts of things usually never cross my mind, to be honest. But I'm making a resolution to update on a daily (or semi-daily) basis for this whole term. This is kind of in conjunction with my want to take more pictures. I have a camera (and now a new tripod), I should use them! I want to be more intentional in my passions and hobbies this year. My major for school is solidified and I know where my schooling is headed for the next few years and now I feel like it's time for me to have more of a focus in the other aspects of my life, such as my faith and the things that shape me as a person. I want to use the resources that I have and learn more about the world and things that I don't know very much about. I want to dance more and write more. I want to take more pictures - good pictures. I want to more actively pursue travel. I want to be more social. These are the years that will define who I am and I want to make the most of them!

quick

A quick glimpse at what I wore today.

leggings - Target

cardigan - Alloy

boots, skirt, belt & shirt - Forever 21

frightful weather

via The Sartorialist

Can it please get warmer soon so I can channel this??