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Exams, interview, flu, dying computer... normal service will be resumed as soon as possible :)
-- scrawled by Katy on Monday, January 20, 2003, 07:39 p.m.

Walked to Wivenhoe and back, that was joyous although slightly chilly. And we ate at the Black Buoy (chicken fajitas... mmm) which was groovy.
Yesterday I played FFX for six hours, and had a haircut, and that was all.
-- scrawled by Katy on Sunday, January 12, 2003, 04:39 p.m.

Neil Gaiman is the groove.
That is all.
-- scrawled by Katy on Friday, January 10, 2003, 08:51 p.m.

The first day of school, the first day of work, both not good. But still, I got to see my lovely friends, which is always good.
Very few people got Oxbridge offers, which is weird - maybe to do with a backlog of reapplicants due to the whole exam results thing last year? I don't know.
Also, took the joyous maths test again and got 100% again. Boredom.
-- scrawled by Katy on Monday, January 6, 2003, 06:36 p.m.

Naomi was here! I love Naomi :) She had to buy English sweets for her American friends.
I bought:
- earrings
- Eddie Izzard: Circle (there are at least six shops which sell DVDs in Colchester, and only the one the furthest away from the town centre had this!)
- Scooby Doo (the movie)
- The Young Ones: Series One
- Kermit's Swamp Years (I was meant to get a free Kermit with this, but they'd run out and only had Noddy or Stuart Little, neither of which particularly grab me.)
And, from a conversation with Mish, how to be Legolas:
::run across open land very fast::
::pause for no reason::
::look grimly determined::
::say something 'significant' and 'meaningful' while at the same time completely obscure and pointless::
::continue running::
Very useful when playing charades, maybe?
Have to go back to school on Monday, and back to work as well. How hideous - and then my first exam (Statistics 2) is the Friday after next. Meh.
-- scrawled by Katy on Saturday, January 4, 2003, 04:36 p.m.

Star Trek!

Star Trek: The Adventure, in fact. It was most fun, especially the concept art for Nemesis. I love it all. And, I want a Malcolm doll, with removable hands. And a tribble.
-- scrawled by Katy on Friday, January 3, 2003, 07:06 p.m.

New Year's resolutions:
Don't fail all my exams, especially physics. Actually understand further maths. Dye my hair. Don't screw up my interview. Have fun. Don't freak out too much about university.
And tomorrow: London baby!
-- scrawled by Katy on Thursday, January 2, 2003, 05:45 p.m.

Happy New Year! I had a mini New Year/Lauren's birthday party with Lauren and Kathryn and Emily, it was all good. Although now I'm really asleep.

-- scrawled by Katy on Wednesday, January 1, 2003, 01:59 p.m.

The Two Towers is fabulous - although I still hate Eowyn.
-- scrawled by Katy on Sunday, December 29, 2002, 08:02 p.m.

Here is a list of what I got for Christmas.
And a very merry Christmas it has been too, with the only crises being my sudden development of an allergy to vitamin C and nearly suffering death by cranberry sauce. But still, everything is very fun, and tomorrow we might be going to see LOTR: TTT.
Our mouse is still dead (have I mentioned this? It won't move left.) and that is very annoying.
Today being Boxing Day, we went to Grandad's, drank Coke at the club (mysteriously typed that as 'blus' the first time, hm) and went for a walk with the soundtrack of Mum and Caroline nostalgia-ing. Our Boxing Day presents are Star Wars Episode 2 (for Matthew), the Vicar of Dibley (for Lisa) and Muppet Christmas Carol (for me!).
Happy :) but soon I must start revising.
-- scrawled by Katy on Friday, December 27, 2002, 12:10 a.m.

Merry Christmas!
-- scrawled by Katy on Wednesday, December 25, 2002, 10:15 p.m.

groooovy

Ahh, the penultimate day of school. I feel kind of ill... but I refuse to be ill until Friday afternoon, because I'm just too busy. Anyway, today was most fun. Apart from Kathryn and Antoinette arguing, that was just scary. Anyway.
First of all, I found my bobble hat ^_^ so I had a bobble hat and school scarf day. My bobble hat is elongated and groovy... the tassle is like halfway down my back. So I find it most amusing. And it keeps my ears warm, although now I have hat hair. Ah well.
Registration... me and Zara told everyone off for not going to school tomorrow, although Lauren is university-visiting in Bath so she has an excuse ^_^ but Kathryn and Emily are just skiving... Oh well, I'll see them all at the groovy party on Thursday anyway.
Meh. Noone is online except Sam and Arbela.
First lesson would have been... physics. Yes. Mr Bowles attempted to teach an entire chapter (Ideal Gas laws) in one lesson, which may have worked if it hadn't been the end of term and people had actually been listening. Personally, I was talking to Sam about the beauty of the thingy I gave her, doodling, writing the word "aluminium", talking to Emily and talking to Lauren. Oh, and staring into space, of course.
Joy. Oh well, seeing as it's in the exam I have next term I guess some of the notes might come in handy... ^_~
Then I had maths. Me and Gemma sat with Lauren because she was all alone... and we had joyous stats. We went through a test that I got an A on and that Lauren had missed, so we talked about the scary MacDonalds muppets that I have and Lauren made speechbubbles for them, um... I pretended to do some questions, I gave Gemma her present, that sort of thing. You know, the form that live in that maths room have a snowman with a beak. Weird.
It was fun, anyway.
Me and Joyce vaguely attempted to skip Further Maths, but the Griff (ha!) is too scary so we did go anyway. And I did another 600 words or so of coursework, so that's all good.
At lunch... I talked to Lauren and Zara and Nina about random stuff, and ate in the canteen with Kathryn and Emily.
So. Oh, and Kathryn had a halo, and she was lying on the floor reading a book and heating her boots on top of the radiator. Most amusing. And... I finished War and Peace!
The afternoon was boooooring because I'm the only person with a free who stays in school then. So I typed up my coursework and checked email in the resource centre.
And then I had to work, which was boring also, and plus I felt ill so I did sloooow working. But still everything was at least approximately clean. And after Thursday and Friday I don't have to work again until the 30th.
Then Dad picked me up... and I had curry for dinner... and I had two bits of post, a card from Suse and a thingy from one of my Nervousness people about the Arabic alphabet, which is most cool.
Lisa keeps saying things to me and I think I'm replying to her, but I have no idea what I'm saying. Odd.
I'm so braindead today. Because I'm asleep... had a panic attack in the middle of the night and couldn't sleep, although it's the first in ages so not so bad *_* <- zombified Katy
Anyway... must go sleep and drown self in lots of water.
-- scrawled by Katy on Tuesday, December 17, 2002, 06:58 p.m.

My thoughts on the school play (Oh What A Lovely War) are here, in the form of an Alchera buzz.
-- scrawled by Katy on Saturday, December 14, 2002, 01:39 p.m.

I love my form. They rule.
-- scrawled by Katy on Friday, December 13, 2002, 11:20 p.m.

I have Kingdom Hearts!
-- scrawled by Katy on Thursday, December 12, 2002, 12:32 pm

I went to visit the University of Manchester yesterday (as opposed to UMIST or Manchester Metropolitan) - it was okay, but... not fabulous. I don't know.
But I got all the trains and everything, and I didn't get lost ^_^ even a bit!
Kathryn's having a party next Thursday, so that's cool also.
When I got home I had Christmas stuff from Jenni (aka Luvsie)! A Ghostbusters patch, confetti, a card, temporary tatoos of Red Dwarf characters (ahahaha!) aaaaand Kermit the frog shoelaces!
So way cool... I wore the shoelaces allll day at school, but very few people seemed to appreciate the wonder.
-- scrawled by Katy on Wednesday, December 11, 2002, 03:30 p.m.

Rhi S: You've met Terry Pratchett? *hate/envy*
Katy: Twice, and seen him from afar a lot at the convention :) I was too in awe to say anything interesting to him though... but he gave me a potato!
Rhi S: He gave you a potato? O_O -_- That is SO not fair. I want Terry Pratchett's potato.

....that sounded *wrong*.

-- scrawled by Katy on Saturday, December 7, 2002, 05:04 p.m.

Noora: Oh, but satsumas are good!
Katy: yup they are.. and they stop me getting curvy :)
Katy: scurvy, even
Katy: but curvy too I guess!
Noora: Hee :)
Katy: a very good typo if I say so myself :)
-- scrawled by Katy on Friday, December 6, 2002, 07:58 p.m.

Only 622 days until DWCON 2004 ^_^
Now at cleaning we have to wear name badges so that people don't think we're burglars. But they give me a headache: "Hi ! My name is KATY. Your cleaner for Today." Oh the grammar.
We're moving formrooms back into the drama hut again - we decided black walls, the insanity of Mrs Davidson and a lack of tables was better than not ever being allowed in our form room at all, ever.
You know my whole rant about how the school try to make me stay in when I don't have free periods, especially on Thursdays when I'm done by 10 but they say I have to wait until 12:50? Well, Mum says if phone up to talk to her about my oh so rebellious act of not going to school when I don't have lessons, she'll tell them to get a life. Mum's so odd.
The government are deciding to give gay couples the same rights as straight ones. Good thing. Why didn't they already have the same rights, that's what I want to know... even just from an inheritance tax point of view it makes sense.
Ahh the weekendness of it all :)
Have to go and buy a student railcard tomorrow, Mum is snarking about it.
I spent ages and ages doing maths coursework last night (well, once Matthew let me on after playing the Sims for hours...) and it crashed on me when I tried to save it! Fortunately I'd printed it... it's 1,600 ish words now, 4 pages, but I'm supposed to have done 10 pages by now apparently. Ah well.
Kathryn has an interview at Cambridge tomorrow. ::crosses fingers:: luck luck luck for Kathryn :)
The mini-books from my Nervousness LMAO are starting to come in. I have a wishlist from Lob, stamps from Junanne, a book of bunnies from Laura and a guide to the common street goblin from Atrophy. They're well groovy... I must make some for them also, but I have no money for postage because of all the Christmas present buying.
Two cards already (I won, I got one before anyone else in my family ^_^) from Chriss and Noora (Finland!) - happy.
-- scrawled by Katy on Friday, December 6, 2002, 06:32 p.m.

Hahaha! Rock Lobster is a silly song.
I fear that my life is turning into a bad film. This is what happened when I went to the post office, and I swear none of it is made up or even exaggerated. Really.
Me: ::goes into post office to post things::
Post Office Lady: Actually, all of these things will be five times more expensive than normal because there are cards in the packages as well as stuff.
Me: ::thinks:: (is she wearing x-ray specs?)
Post Office Lady: That will be £9.64.
Me: I only have £7.
Mad Lady behind me in queue: Hurry up, I need to buy four thousand second class stamps.*
POL: Well, there's only one thing to do. Go back home and get some money then com back. Run! You have to run, or I won't post them. RUN!
Me: Eep! ::goes home at high speed, although not running because... ick::
Later, when I'd given her the money, I had to barge through a big crowd of bhangra dancers to get home (they were taking up the whole path, or I'd have gone round them). This is not something that happens a lot in Alresford.
Anyway. * Yes, she actually wanted four thousand stamps. She clearly has too many friends.
-- scrawled by Katy on Thursday, December 5, 2002, 01:30 p.m.

Adam is flying to Australia in... two minutes. Not good. I'll miss him.
Ryan was teaching him to say 'strewth'. ::hugs for Lisa::

Dad's friend Russell was really drunk the other night, and he stole a broom from a roadsweeper and 'flew' up and down the High Street with it. The police asked him what he was doing and he said he was 'test driving his new Nimbus 3000'. And he told his taxi driver he wanted to go to Hogwarts.
Russell's about 30. And clearly very sad.
Got the lovely source material for our Politics module for General Studies. I hate it. It's about global politics - oil consumption, business ethics, extremist ecological protests, the EU, the global economy and trade. Bleh.
-- scrawled by Katy on Monday, December 2, 2002, 09:57 p.m.

After complaining about our hideous formroom for ages, we've finally been allocated another. We're in the careers hut and Mrs Hawkins' lot are in the art room. So now we're protesting because we still want to share a room. There were chants and everything, and Dr Cox suggested a sit-in and chaining ourselves to the lockers. Hee!
Lisa is off on some orchestra weekend thing. Odd.
-- scrawled by Katy on Friday, November 29, 2002, 08:32 p.m.

A quizlet about books.

Which books are you reading now?
Schindler's Ark (in which he doesn't even have a list until around page 300, so the retitling of the film annoys me), War and Peace (about three years ago, my mum bought it for me for Christmas and bet me that I wouldn't read it, so I read in between other books. I'm nearly halfway through - around 1500 pages so far.), Good Omens, and a book about Fuzzy Logic which I forget the title of.
When is your favourite time to read?
Okay: while I'm getting dressed, while I'm eating breakfast, in the bathroom, standing at the busstop, on the bus, walking from the bus to school, in our formroom until registration, walking to and from lessons, at lunch, during frees, on the way home from school, when I get home before and after homework and internet, at dinner, while I'm watching tv, in bed. And whenever else that I'm not doing other things.
Where is your favourite place to read?
Wherever.
What is the first book you remember reading?
Ahm... it was about Easter. A bit from one of the Gospels, but with spangly illuminated pictures as well.
What is your favourite quotation?
It changes frequently, here are some at random:
"...wisdom was worth nothing if it could not be used to invent a new way of preparing chickpeas..." ~One Hundred Years of Solitude, by Gabriel Garcia Marquez~
"I am so amazingly cool you could keep a side of meat in me for a month. I am so hip I have difficulty seeing over my pelvis."~The Restaurant at the End of the Universe, by Douglas Adams~
"To tell the truth, sleepless nights are as unusual for me as sumo wrestlers who look good in berets." ~The Wind-up Bird Chronicle, by Haruki Murakami~
Who is your favourite novelist?
Terry Pratchett.
Which school text did you most enjoy?
Catcher in the Rye. I love it. Although To Kill A Mockingbird comes a close second.
What is the most difficult book you have ever read?
I don't know if War and Peace counts as I haven't finished it... probably Foucault's Pendulum (spelling?) by Umberto Eco. But it was worth the effort.
What is the most erotic book you have read?
Eh... pass.
What is your funniest book?
Interesting Times (Terry Pratchett) or maybe Good Omens (ditto, and Neil Gaiman).
And saddest?
Um... maybe Wild Swans. I'm not sure.
What is your favourite children's book?
The Hungry Caterpillar! Or, The Amazing Maurice and his Educated Rodents, or the Swallows and Amazons books, or Earthsea or Philip Pullman's ones.
What is your most overrated book?
Hm. Don't know. Maybe the Sandman comic books - I don't like them. Or Jurassic Park.
Name your most underrated book.
Catcher in the Rye. I don't know if you'd call it underrated but my sister's English class apparently all hate it.
Who is your favourite character?
Don't ask me that! Um.... er.... Verence the Fool, or Ponder Stibbons (both from Discworld) or Newton Pulsifer from Good Omens, or Zaphod Beeblebrox.
Which characters do you hate most?
Ack. I don't know.
With which character do you most identify?
Ditto Poet's answer: Arthur Dent. And also Newton Pulsifer.
With which character would you most like to have an affair?
Er... Verence, maybe, but only during Wyrd Sisters.
Who would be your ideal literary dining companions?
Ehm... Poet and Lisa and Sam B and Ruth. A weird combination of people.
What is the worst screen adaptation?
The cartoon version of Soul Music, or the film of A Little Princess (which must die for its incorrectness).
What is your most embarrassing passage?
...?
Name three desert island choices?
Complete Terry Pratchett (preferably including Good Omens), War and Peace (it's long) and um... something by Umberto Eco.
What is your favourite poem?
That... um... it starts 'the world is a beautiful place to be born into' and ends up talking about nuclear holocausts and wars and things. By Lawrence Ferlinghetti.
Which book changed your life?
Equal Rites. My first Discworld book, when I was eight.
Which book would you make compulsory reading?
Good Omens (for RE).
-- scrawled by Katy on Friday, November 29, 2002, 07:54 p.m.

I'm doing the National Geographic geographical literacy survey. Questions I got wrong:
Which two nations have populations of over one billion? (I got one of them right...)
And that's all. Yay me! Also, here is a new Alchera: Nearly Sixty-Seven Things I Want For Christmas.
I got paid today! Now I'm rich enough to actually afford to buy people Christmas presents. I still have to get Claline's, Grandad's, Kathryn's, Emily's, Nina's, Zara's, Lauren's, Margarethe's, Antoinette's, Aditi's, Alice's, Megan's, Mel's and Gemma's, and post all the ones for far-away people.
-- scrawled by Katy on Friday, November 29, 2002, 07:35 p.m.

the Christmas wishlist

1. Books:
- Across the Nightingale Floor: Tales of the Otori Book 1 (Lian Hearn
- Baudolino (Umberto Eco)
- The Rice Mother (Rani Manicka)
- Things My Girlfriend and I Have Argued About (Mil Millington)
- The Ringmaster's Daughter (Jostein Gaarder)
- Abarat (Clive Barker)
- A Thousand Pieces of Gold (Adeline Yen Mah)
- The Essential Spike Milligan
- Barry Trotter and the Shameless Parody (Michael Gerber)
- Things Snowball (Rich Hall)
- The Kitchen God's Wife (Amy Tan)
- Worlds of Exile and Illusion (Ursula LeGuin)
- Tales from Earthsea (Ursula LeGuin)
- Interesting Times (Terry Pratchett)
- Science of Discworld 2 (Terry Pratchett, Ian Stewart, Jack Cohen)
- Coraline (Neil Gaiman)
- American Gods (Neil Gaiman)
- Gödel, Escher, Bach: An Eternal Golden Braid (Douglas Hofstadter)
- Ranma ½ volume 3 (Rumiko Takahashi)

2. Not Books
- Muppet Christmas Carol [DVD]
- earrings
- socks
- phone credit
- amazon.co.uk vouchers
- stickers for my folder
- MOON: Gackt [CD]
- Kermit's Swamp Years [DVD]

-- scrawled by Katy on Thursday, November 21, 2002, 01:59 p.m.

34

Only... 34 days until Christmas, and only... um... 149 days until my birthday ^_^
Today my only lesson was cancelled because of Lisa's physics trip, so I stayed at home to do maths coursework. I've done quite a lot, actually, so there.
Celebrity Big Brother started yesterday. I understand why people would watch celebrities... the whole 'what do they get up to when not in the public eye' thing, even though it's not completely accurate here because they know they're being watched. But still. I want Sue to win (because I love her) but I expect she won't.
Makes more sense than watching a load of people I've never heard of in a house. And it was good last time. That's my excuse and I'm sticking to it.
Okay: I have my Bristol interview next Wednesday. Imperial want to interview me on Thursday, but there is no possible way I'm going there so I'm withdrawing my application. Offers from Durham and Edinburgh, and York are interviewing me in January. But Manchester are still ignoring me. Meh.
I went Christmas shopping on Tuesday, because it was a non-pupil day. Most festive and organised of me, I thought. But still I've got over half of them to buy - I think I'll wait until I get money from the job first, though.
In a few minutes: the list of what I want. Okay?
-- scrawled by Katy on Thursday, November 21, 2002, 01:49 p.m.