Organized Chaos

windjinn @ 2004-06-03T23:18:00

2004-06-04T03:18:19Z

So, I just had a play performed, and it went really well! ladyjaida was there (you rock, ladyjaida).

apehead got me flowers. I was in severe shock, as I was expecting nothing of the kind. Thank you so much, apehead.

I'm very relieved that it's over...as is school this coming Tuesday!

My wonderful Monday...

2004-05-15T17:16:31Z

I feel like this merits an update.

On Monday (May tenth), I came to school feeling slightly sick. Then, early in the morning, I actually got full-blown sick, complete with nasty details, and had to leave.

On my way home, my bus got hit by a cement-mixer. It was nothing serious, we were side-by-side, and a piece of metal under the cement mixer's side-view mirror punched through one of the bus's windows. Anyway, everyone was fine, even a woman who had been thrown from her motor scooter, she and at least one other person left in an ambulance, but they didn't have any injuries.

So I had a huge, gigantic, horrible, uphill walk home, and slept for basically the entire day. Another bus, however, hit my Dad on his bike. So the MTA probably has a hit out on us, or something.

windjinn @ 2004-04-09T14:16:00

2004-04-09T18:11:41Z

I will not stand for this


Everyone Feels This Pain
Show your support

Yes, samenashi obviously considers the hate post a good thing, and is very proud of it. And now...has decided to friends-lock it, so nobody else can see it. Hmm...

Good Ol' Post Office...

2004-04-06T16:36:57Z

We got some mail addressed to our street. However, it's addressed to a person who doesn't live here, and never has. This has happened before. Usually, it's because the senders have made the mistake of writing "street" when they mean "avenue", so it's not the post office's fault. Sometimes, though, they write "avenue", but the post office thinks it says "street" and brings it to us.

So my Dad went to bring it over to our address on the avenue, instead of our street, and found...some mail addressed to my brother saying "avenue" instead of "street".

It was originally postmarked February 11th.

It was repostmarked March 12th.

The letter was a notice about something that happened on February 28th.

Whoops.

SATs

2004-03-28T05:12:48Z

Well, there went that.

SATs this morning (Saturday morning, I should say, now that it's after midnight early Sunday morning), with snarky proctor lady (they're even less happy to be there than we are, if that's possible, because this has no effect on them whatsoever).

She would snort at us and say things like "Come on! You guys are going to college next year, you gotta figure this stuff out!"

She asked if everyone was a senior, and I said I was a junior, and she asked me if the test was hard. As though I were a seventh grader (you laugh, but a seventh grader from my school was there taking them too).

Also, besides that seventh grader, three eleventh graders from my school were there besides me. It was kinda strange, all looking at each other, laughing nervously. Oh well.

Now they are over, and I can relax for the moment.

candidacy

2004-03-12T18:59:41Z

The other headmaster candidate came to talk to the high school. He was interesting...a little bit like the one who's leaving, kinda bizarre looking (a little toad-like).

I asked my question again (see previous post) and he gave an answer similar to the other guy's. He seemed more the right person for the job, though.

Three day weekend!

::slouches::

Current Events

2004-03-05T02:34:25Z

(a moment of silence for Johnny Depp not winning the Best Actor Oscar for Jack Sparrow)

and okay!

how 'bout that Lord of the Rings, 11 nominations, 11 wins, tied for most wins with Ben-Hur and Titanic. I like. (now Christopher Lee won't have to resign from the academy)

so...

they're interviewing people to replace the headmaster who's leaving after this year (and I know the title "headmaster" sounds really pompous, but hey--it suited the old guy fine) and one of the two candidates left came to talk to us.

Some people joked about how there are no grades at our school, and when you get in trouble you don't really get in trouble (although it's basically zero to sixty in ten seconds--either you're not in trouble, or you're expelled) and also about the highschool dances, and they got some laughs.

I raised my hand, and asked "What makes you better than the other candidate?"

People laughed.

People actually applauded.

It made me feel very special.

The guy said something like "I don't know...I might not be...(I shrug)...that's not a cop-out answer...(I shrug again)...maybe he's better than I am...(I shrug yet again)"

working on term paper, must slog through to get to essay, must kill both.

did some kick-ass work on my Writing Marathon Portfolio (yes, I know, everything at my school sounds really pompous--Writing Marathon is a week where the highschoolers do nothing in English class but write, and get no English homework but writing assignments) in a very, very short time.

Saturday I get to go to the open house thing that the summercamp where I work is having. this makes me very excited.

So, all in all, life am good.

stuff

2004-02-28T19:24:19Z

Monday, went ice-skating with ladyjaida and cerulean_sky at school skate. See Jaida's post about it for snarky details.

have been eating lots of sushi, playing lots of piano, bemoaning the evil term paper of doom.

as I was coming home Friday about 6 o'clockish, there was a cluster of policemen around a man lying face down on the ground. I didn't stop to gawk (as many other people had) but as I passed some people at the end of the block, I heard "A guy got shot over there." So that's unpleasant. Not sure how he is, but he looked alive as I passed, so maybe he's OK.

I feel like I have to watch a movie. Just to enjoy something before evil work eats me alive.

Vacation to the Caribbean

2004-02-21T20:31:37Z

My vacation to the British Virgin Islands, as described in monstrous detail below, mercifully in the form of lj cuts, so as not to give your friends page a loading time of three hours:

--On Friday, we woke up around 6:00, and went to the airport. Of course, you always have to be at the airport an hour and a half early, for the very important reason that...well, if we hadn't been there so early, we'd never have run into Mr. Everdell and his wife Barbara (administrators at my school, for those who don't/haven't gone there). After a lifetime of terminal boredom (see, that's why they call it a terminal) we got on the plane.

So far, so good.

It seemed like we were about to take off, but then we had to stop. Why? Because we'd forgotten to have a man lifted up in a cherry picker to spray us with mist. So he sprayed us with mist. After that, we still couldn't leave. Why? Because we hadn't been hosed down with green slime. So the guy hosed us down with green slime. Then, the pilot or flight attendant announced that they hoped this flight would be a quick one, and they would "be taking all possible short cuts". Short cuts? Was he planning to cut across other runways in order to get to ours quicker? Because I don't see any way to take short cuts in the air, unless you plan to enter different dimensions.

Finally, we took off.

The large central movie screen wasn't working, but that was okay, because the in-flight movie was (I shit you not) The Legend of Johhny Lingo, which I had never heard of, but apparently is a 2003 remake of a short film distributed by the Mormon church in 1969. Damn, too bad I missed that one.

The food was a choice between cereal, and an omelet, which I chose,and dug through, and was amused to see it labeled "food" by the funny, funny airline industry.

So we flew to San Juan, Puerto Rico, and connected for a small propeller plane, which took us on a half-hour flight across the Caribbean to the British Virgin Islands. We landed on Tortola, the largest island, and location of Road Town, capital of the BVI. Well, actually, the airport itself isn't on Tortola, but on a small nearby island called Beef Island, connected by a bridge. During the drive to our rooms, we realized that they had American cars, but they drove on the British side of the road (the left). This was a minor annoyance throughout the entire trip.

So we passed through some really broken-down looking places, with tons of goats, chickens, and cows running loose. We stopped just short of Road Town at the Prospect Reef Resort, where everything was named after flowers. I realized that (being a product of U.S. society) I had expected Miami. It was much more rural, but our rooms were a thirty-second walk from the ocean. There was no beach, but there were rocks cutting off a saltwater pool with no waves. We explored, lay in the hammocks, went grocery shopping, and decided that I would sleep upstairs on the couch with no air-conditioning.

--On Saturday, after breakfast, we went to the saltwater pool and learned to snorkel. Since it was just a section of the ocean cut off by rocks to prevent waves, we saw some really cool fish. I'm not sure if the fish were able to get back to the ocean through the rocks (maybe they'd had them trucked in). We went to examine a "High Tea" at the Scuttlebutt Pub (that's only the beginning of the weird names). What it turned out to be was serve-yourself tea and a plate of pumpkin bread.

For dinner, we found an Italian restaurant called Spaghetti Junction, where the hostess gave my brother this puzzle--how to get a ring off a rod complicated by numerous disks and balls, and in her words "Like any good engineer" get the ring back on again. Needless to say, before I could try, my brother got the ring off, but couldn't get it back on, and my Dad kept trying to get it back on, but he got it so tangled he couldn't undo his mistakes, and I had to fix it for them, but I still couldn't get it back on. Oh well.

--Ah, what fond memories I have of Sunday. Since we were now "expert snorkelers", we drove to a beach on the island called Smuggler's Cove. We snorkeled in the actual ocean, and saw some amazing fish. Then we were done. It was over. I could have stayed out.

"Come back in," said my Dad.

"No, that's okay," I said, "I'm done."

"No, come back in," said my Dad.

"Okay," I said.

We made two interesting discoveries. One discovery was that we were over the coral, where we weren't supposed to be. The other discovery was the reason we weren't supposed to be there. It was the very interesting discovery that there is a kind of coral that can sting you, very painfully.

Unfortunately, we discovered it by being stung.

We were in searing, burning pain for hours, the area was red, blotchy, and welted.

Well, so much for doing anything else that day. Eventually, we got some ointment, and found some medication, and drugged ourselves into sleep.

--On Monday, I was feeling better, but my Dad, whose stings were worse than mine, was not. So, we decided to go hiking. We drove to a hiking place, tramped through the woods for a really long time, and got to the highest spot in all the islands, where we were level with the clouds.

Then, we got back, and went snorkeling in the safe saltwater pool, where there was no angry coral to make our lives miserable.

For dinner, we went to a fried chicken place called Scato's Chicken and Chips (chips meaning french fries, since this was the British Virgin Islands) which had nice fried chicken. We also went to a gelato place, which had delicious ice cream $1.00 for kids, $2.00 or $3.00 (depending on the kind of cone) for adults.

--On Tuesday, we got up a little earlier than usual, and took a ferry to Virgin Gorda, another island (whose name, given by Christopher Columbus, means "fat virgin") and went to the Baths, some giant boulders on a beach. There was a really cool trail leading around, under, and through rock, into water grottos and up into narrow tunnels, finally letting out on...another beach. So we snorkeled.

After we got back, we had dinner at the Village Cay Marina, which was a restaurant right on the waterfront that was conveniently out of the one thing I thought I could eat. So I got an appetizer. Also had more ice cream.

Got back, watched American Idol, and later "Chased by Sea Monsters", a weird thing with computer-generated extinct horrible sea monsters.

--On Wednesday, we drove to a beach called Brewer's Bay, which the guidebook said had good snorkeling. So naturally when we got there, we saw a giant sign that said "If caught in undertow, swim/walk parallel to shore.", among numerous other warnings about riptides, and the like.

So no snorkeling for us among the gigantic five-foot waves, but they were really fun to swim around in. Body surfing, wave-swimming...the like.

On the way back, we bought seashell souvenirs from the Sea Urchin Shop.

So when we got back, of course, we SNORKELED! But this time, we'd bought an underwater camera, so we took some of the pictures in the previous post. Had some good pizza at a place called Pusser's (I ate four slices), had ice cream (thought I would explode) watched American Idol results.

--On Thursday, we gave back our rental car and stayed in, except for snorkeling, of course, and taking more underwater pictures. We also ate in, which was (to put it politely) not the best eating I've had.

--Ah, Friday. We took the same crappy road, waited at the airport for an hour and a half, and noticed that one of the items you could check off if you were bringing them into the United States was "Cell cultures, snails, disease agents". That made sense, of course, because the terrorists are obviously going to declare that they have snails, instead of just whipping out the snails unannounced and spraying terrorist slime everywhere.

We flew in the prop plane (snapping the last few shots in the camera) to San Juan, where the flight attendent said "Happy Valens...Weekend of Valentines, and on Monday...BACK TO LIIIIIIIIIIIIIIFE!" Got to San Juan, saw numerous disgusting signs saying "prevent Foot and Mouth Disease from entering the United States" and showing us numerous examples of what we should watch out for. Other signs warned us agains the aforementioned Giant African Snails, and the Mango Seed Weevil. I'm sure people are always having to throw these away upon seeing these signs.

The man at immigration told us the coral was called fire coral. It didn't surprise me.

After going through security, we went out what we thought was the right door, but was, of course, the door back into the general dirty populace, so we had to go through security again. Naturally, we chose the same lane, with the same guards, who I am sure were very amused to see us.

Finally, we were all ready to wait another half hour and then board the jet plane. This flight was altogether better than the jet flight on the way to Tortola. They fiddled with the big screen until it worked, and the movie was Out of Time, with Denzel Washington, and it was relatively entertaing.

The food was a choice between chicken and beef, and having been implanted with the fear of Mad Cow Disease by all the news reports, we chose chicken with rice and beans, which wasn't all that horrible.

Got off in the cold and dark, took a cab home, walked in the door, and breathed a humongous sigh of relief.

And there you have it.

Pictures of the Caribbean

2004-02-16T22:01:23Z

Pictures of the Caribbean: The Curse of the Blurry Pics

What can you see, on the horizoooon?

Something about the Mile High Club would be appropriate, but.

Look, it might be a slug. Or it might be some weird Vagina of the Sea.

Fish eggs. Mmmmmmcaviar.

No one looks good wearing snorkeling gear. Especially not me and... half of... my brother's... head. Yeah, good job, Dad.

No one looks good wearing snorkling gear. Dad & brother = in full, at least. (Cause I took it. Plus, I'm modest)

Ploppy crab. Looks kinda like it's smiling, dunnit?

Mmmmmmmmmverylongfish.

Little striped fish!

...and really bad eggs...drink up, me hearties, YO HO!

bye-bye...

2004-02-06T03:16:56Z

We're off to the Caribbean! EEK!

Which Historical Lunatic Are You?

2004-02-04T20:00:59Z

Born with the name of Otto, you became Ludwig at the request of your grandfather, King Ludwig I, because you were born on his birthday. You became Crown Prince at the tender age of 3, and soon after stole a purse from a shop on the basis that everything in Bavaria belonged to you. Tragedy struck when your pet tortoise was taken away; relatives thought the six-year-old prince was too attached to it. Your childhood was lonely and formal. Once, you were prevented from beheading your younger brother by the timeous arrival of a court official. From the age of 14 you suffered from hallucinations.

Despite striking an imposing figure with your great height and good looks, your speeches were pompous to the point of incomprehensibility. You became even more of a recluse, often spending hours reading poetry in a seashell-shaped boat in your electrically-illuminated underground grotto.

You are most famous for building three fairytale castles - Linderhof, Neuschwanstein and Herrenchiemsee - at tremendous public expense. Declared insane and confined to your bedroom by concerned (and embarrassed) subjects, you escaped on 13 June 1886, but were later found drowned with your physician in Lake Stamberg in mysterious circumstances.

Which Historical Lunatic Are You?
From the fecund loins of Rum and Monkey.

stuff

2004-02-01T23:47:31Z

Wednesday, snow day! helped make fudge-cream cheese-pecan brownies...so good!

Yesterday after breakfast, I went back to bed for two hours. I never do that, not ever. I must have been really tired.

so...went to a party last night, and took care of an actual baby for a little while...she's my third cousin, about a year old, and she really looks like a Maurice Sendak illustration...

am attempting to assemble enough pictures for a mood set, but it's slow going, because of a whole lotta printer/ink/paper problems...none of them my fault, all of them a humongous pain in the pants.

leaving on Friday for vacation in the Caribbean...and before anyone says "Say hi to Johnny Depp", or something like that, let me just say: I am going to an island called Tortola.

Tortuga...Tortola...kinda creepy.

We're doing rants in an acting class I'm in, and I did OK the first time around. Then, after another person did a rant, I just responded with this outburst of pure rage, and everyone was like "Whoa." I wasn't even thinking about it, too, it was like...about applause. Not something I'm really that worked up over.

Writing on and off...watching TV...the usual. Other than that...just relaxing.

Phone Post: Piano Playing

2004-01-28T20:53:27Z

Johnny Depp

2004-01-25T02:07:12Z

so I watched Once Upon a Time in Mexico, and WOOHOO!

it was so awesome! people need to see this movie. I understand it's part of a sort-of-trilogy, not really, but, like, three movies about the same person, and it isn't necessary to see them in any order. The other two are El Mariachi (which cost $7,000 to make) and Desperado.

But Johnny Depp is a brilliant actor. I've said it before, I'll say it again, but the man is a genius. Just watch Edward Scissorhands, Pirates of the Caribbean, and Once Upon a Time in Mexico within a few days of each other, and you will see. It'll be sort of a Johnny Depp triptych.

A Depptych!

SATs, bleargh

2004-01-24T16:25:17Z

well, I just got back from taking the Literature SAT II, and boy oh boy. This is like...the Magna Carta of pretention. My god. "The sagacious fallacies of discombobulated parthenogenesis renders full the imagery of unfulfilled theocracy in the asystole of diastole..." yikes.

Also, the worst is being stressed. I worry internally, like...my stomach knots itself, and there's nothing I can do about that. But I don't go batshit studying. One girl actually arrived at the test center with a Princeton Review book. Erk. Whee! Watching Once Upon a Time in Mexico on DVD with ladyjaida!

GO JOHNNY DEPP!

quotes!

2004-01-24T02:34:11Z

ask ladyjaida, and she will probably groan, but I am a big quotes person. OK, that was a lie. I am a gigantic, humongous, crankinoferous quotes person. That said, here are a few of my favorite quotes from the American version of "Whose Line is it, Anyway?", and to all those purists out there: I'm sorry, I'm sorry I don't watch the British one, I have no excuse not to since I have cable, but I just don't. I have Amerinertia.

Ryan: It's the cavalry! Well, they're in the wrong era, aren't they?

(Colin and Ryan are parachuting)
Women from Audience: WOOOOOOOOOO!
Ryan: I hope we don't land in that pack of wolves!

(Wayne is lying face down as Colin's surfboard)
Colin: Mine has a big bump in the back.

Greg: This message will self-destruct...nowBOOM!

Drew: I like how that one guy at the end made Ryan's getting-out-of-bed noise. (grunts)
Ryan: How do you know?
Brad: I told him!

Ryan: Hey, Colin, what bird makes the sound of our next band?
Colin: Why, the...tern.
Ryan: ...And what sound would that be?
Colin: ...Backstreetboys.

Drew: Africa's a big country in the middle of the world, right around near Madagascar--
Greg: It's also a continent, if you're a geographer.

Colin: I'm gonna go in there and make the sound of a duck, to confuse 'em!
Ryan: Let me hear it.
Women from Audience: Quack quack quack!
Colin: OK, now you're gonna make the sound of an elephant. Let me hear you do that.
Women from Audience: Quack quack quack!

Colin: Listen to this! (mimes firing weapon)
Girl from Audience: Kaaaaaa-BOOM!

Drew: Ryan had two shows...before he called me a fat horse on national TV.

Drew: Somebody give me an unlikely roommate couple.
Audience Member: Bill Cosby and Hitler!
Drew: OK, well, the name of the song you're gonna sing...(producer comes out to stop the song) oh, you've gotta be kidding me. Come on!
Ryan: Not that Hitler.
Brad: Rudolf Hitler!
Wayne(as Bill Cosby): Would ya like some Jello...Hitler?
Drew: Alright, somebody over there give me an occupation.
Audience Member: Insurance salesman!
Drew: Alright, the name of the song you're gonna sing is "Bill Cosby and the Insurance Salesman". (bleep)in' hilarious, i'nnit?

(unlikey things to hear when you put your ear to a seashell)
Wayne: PUTMEDOWN!

(during "Songs of the motorcycle")
Ryan: One of my favorite singers was Liberace. He played the piano mostly, but he sang a little, too.
Colin: ...You knew him better than I did. (shrugs)
Ryan: And I also really love his sister Mary. Mariachi music is one of my favorites--(audience groans) that was a long way to go for that one, wasn't it?
Colin: You could have gone there by motorcycle, and still had time to...see the Alps.

Ryan: We don't have any weapons!
Colin: My pants are filled of 'em!

(World's Worst TV show)
Drew: Ah, shut up, Mimi, ya fatso!

Colin(not guessing that he himself was being shown on a screen behind him): Well, it all began with a badly-timed bald joke.

newsflash

2004-01-19T18:05:58Z

we must all once again worship the fabulous ladyjaida, because it is through her paypal account that I now have...(cue dramatic music) a paid account!

WOOHOO!

I will pay you in several days, Jaida! No need to fret! In the meantime, I will placate you by reading copious numbers of Sharpe pictures to you for your mood themes.

She has also overcome my monstrous ineptitude, and helped me begin to amass some cool new icons. Here is one of them, his name is Chernabog, a Slavic death god. You may know him from elsewhere, however.

Jaida, you rock so much ass!

--Djinn

windjinn @ 2004-01-14T15:29:00

2004-01-14T20:51:15Z

OK, people, this is how bored I am: name that character and source!

"Sometimes nothing can be a pretty cool hand."

"Sweetheart, you can't buy the necessities of life with cookies."

"I'm only an elected official here, I can't make decisions by myself!"

"I am the king. If it pleases me, you will marry Griswold."
"If it pleases you so much, you marry Griswold."

"Okay, I'd like to ask you one question. After months of pleading for just this kind of action, what makes you think that anybody--anybody could make me reveal the identity of my confederate?"
"Because they'd put you on the rack, crack your every bone, scald you with hot oil, and remove the nails off your fingers with flaming hot pincers."
"I'd... Like to withdraw the question."

"For murder or abduction, I'm your man. You've paid the price;
name your plan."

"He seems more the fool than the assassin."
"Or perchance a brilliant combination of both."

Happy hunting!

--the Djinn

updation...maybe that's not a word

2004-01-14T17:21:09Z

Why does the Djinn update?

Well, I'll tell ya. I feel really pathetic reading all of these titanic journals, occasionally venturing a post, not having a proper home to call my own.

What's going on? Well, I'm pawing my way through school, constantly seeking ladyjaida, gravitating towards her humongously funny atmosphere.

Hope to see Peter Pan soon, as I hear there is a rather important scene involving the color pink.

Pirates of the Caribbean rocks. I'm sorry, and I certainly hope everyone knows this already, but I just have to be sure. It is actually the best movie. Other fantastic movies: the Lord of the Rings, the Nightmare Before Christmas, Edward Scissorhands. Older good movies: Cool-Hand Luke, Rear Window (the original with James Stewart), the Court Jester, Bedazzled (again, the original, with Dudley Moore and Peter Cook)

"Might I trouble you for something to wear? Or will it be bare-breasted, and ankles all the way?"
"...!!! Ankles all the way?!"

journality

2003-10-27T18:07:34Z

I post a post...arise, arise, arouse, arose.

A rosy nose?

...the pince, the pince, the pounce, the pants.

Pantyhose.