Molly - More Quotes From Classes (100% more awesome and/or ridiculous!)

Hey guys! So we've all been neglecting the blog due to busy lives (what?? lives are more important than blogging?!) but I'd like to get it rolling again.

Hope everything is going great for you guys - Halloween preparations, birthday celebrations (Happy 25th Gus!), animal responsibilities and whatnot. My life is homework-laden but pretty darn awesome right now.

Now that we've gotten that out of the way!

Another round of Quotes from Classes, as I am doing homework right now and really only have time to do this kind of a post. But I've been meaning to do it again for a while, as the awesome quotes have been piling up recently...


"I got to page 10 and I threw up...I couldn't do it, not even for money."  (professor, on attempting to write trashy romance novels.)

"Rhett Butler...oh I was in love with him! Oh well, you're only 15 once."

"Do you know anybody who kisses doorknobs? When I was younger there was a rumor kissing doorknobs was the best way to practice."

"Comma abuse - ahhh, poor little things. Think about writing an essay from the point of view of a comma - oh the misuse! This is what happens when you teach grammar for too long."

"That's wrong, but it's wonderful. Leave it be."

"Are you some kind of nut, or are you a brit?"

"Just astonishing vulgarity!"

"The trouble with sentences like this is that you haven't said anything. But that's OK in this class."

"You never know who you're going to have sex with in space!"

"This kind of crazy person that peddles things from the inside of a winnebago."
"Don't we all have one of those inside us?"

(my professor, disdainfully)"Quentin Tarantino is a movie director. He isn't writing fiction."

"Each ass cheek is now clinging to the ass."

"I remember I had a halloween costume that said "inflammable" on the tag. My parents thought it was fireproof, so I set it on fire. It burned."

(dreamily) "Maybe I'm just the boy who laughs."

"We all have basic needs, like food and sex....and water..."

"In some cultures, a poet will go to war and say a poem and the other side will stop fighting and be all 'whoa, that's a good poem."

"And aren't we all in danger of making choices that result in us eating our children?"

"If I could talk about whales..."

Adam: "I wanted to talk about it beforehand, cause I was afraid William would think it was frivolous and we wouldn't get to talk about it."
William (just walking in): "Adam, everything you say is frivolous and I don't want to talk about it."

"But people laugh at hiccups...do they laugh at lovers?"

"This is why your dad needs a young man."

"You one-eyed many-armed ugly thing, I'm going to put you deep down in the earth cause I hate you!"

"Maybe it's like, they're filling holes in each other...oh wait..."

"In your academic opinion, there's a butt on it."

"If I was lying in a field with Socrates and I pointed to a cloud and said 'that cloud looks like a snail' I feel like Socrates would say 'No, that cloud totally sucks.'"

"If you add a 't' to 'manic' it's like RO-mantic."

"Socrates could have any boy he wants."

"He's possessed by extra-terrestrial beings! Oh wait...they're not aliens."

"It reminds me of people who get swept up in the 'save the whales' campaigns..."

"I have all this wisdom, you should give me favors!"
"What a great pick-up line!"

"So, that was a bunch of things I think about."

"Revolution...happens...very...quietly."

"Grouping off makes me feel like we're in pre-school."
professor: "You ARE in preschool."

professor (on courage): "Try that harder rock climb, or try that fancier dance move."



Stay tuned for November's quotes!

Tory - There vs. Their

I attempted to teach Jenny the difference between there and their over skype.

I laughed quite hard at the last bit, and since I am really tired, figured this would be a funny substitute for something thought provoking. Booyah.

Jenny = Nellie B.

Sourkiwis = Guess Who

sourkiwis: Their, not There

sourkiwis: There is like, look over there a dog!

sourkiwis: Their is like, their baby puppy is so cute.

Nellie B.: what?

sourkiwis: When you say THERE you mean a place

Nellie B.: Oh.

sourkiwis: When you say THEIR, it means something someone owns

sourkiwis: So THEIR blog

sourkiwis: THEIR house

sourkiwis: THEIR kid

sourkiwis: THERE is a frog

sourkiwis: THERE is the world

Nellie B.: By the way a sad thing happened to there friend.

Nellie B.: OOPS

Nellie B.: Their.

Nellie - In Which I Have Strong Feelings About Gay Cartoon Characters

So! There's been this sorta scandal/craze all over the interwebs lately, and it has to do with the Cartoon Network show Adventure Time.

What is this crack?

It's an incredibly random, slightly troll-esque show that is supposedly aimed at kids- this is Cartoon Network we're talking about, after all- but ended up having a much larger teen-and-adult fanbase than anticipated. It's deliciously off and funny in an incredibly awkward way.

Moving onward, one of the characters and my personal favorite is Marceline the Vampire Queen.

She is just your typical angsty slightly antisocial teenage vampire. And she's pretty good at writing emotional ballads.



Aaaaand moving on, there's also this other character, Princess Bubblegum. She's not my favorite but she's hilarious in her own right.

Now, if you're paying any attention at all you'll have noticed that both of these supporting characters are girls. The main characters are actually Finn and Jake, but they're not really important to this blog post, aside from the point out that the human character Finn is implied to have a rather large crush on Princess Bubblegum (Who, in case you're wondering, is actually part human, part gum. For real).

To actually show you the point to all of this, I'm going to have to add more videos. But it's worth it, I promise.

Recently, a new episode of Adventure Time aired, entitled "What Was Missing" and featuring another one of Marceline's ballads. Only... this one is kinda, well... you'll see.



If you don't want to watch the entire 11-minute video, you're a lazy ass and too bad for you. No, not really. The important bits are Marceline's song to Bubblegum at 3:00 and a bit at the end between the two of them in which Bubblegum confesses that she wears a shirt of Marcelline's as pajamas. Amid blushing.

Look, if you watched those two clips and come to the same conclusion I did, which was that the two girls' relationship is both Filled With Tension and also Certainly Not Platonic, you would not be alone. The fanbase pretty much flipped over this episode; "Bubbline" shippers are all over everywhere these days. Heck, even one of the creators and artists on Adventure Time draws "fan art" of the two in various romantic poses.

What fueled this fan outburst? Well, other than the blatant lesbian crushing going on in Fig. #1... there's this.



It's an official recap of the episode, and folks, it ain't exactly subtle about the romantic interest between the two very female characters. In fact, it suggests that such a pairing would be "adorbz"- a first, I'm sure, for any reference to lesbian relationships in a kid's show.

So, naturally, the guy in charge of said video was fired, all counts of possible "gayness" in the show have been written off as fans reading too much into it, and the video itself has been taken down- only to be put up again by all the frenzied youtubers who don't want it to disappear because it's inconveniant for Cartoon Network.

In summary, when are gay characters going to be allowed in kid's shows? In this same episode, Jake refers to Finn's "special time with a wad of Princess Bubblegum's hair". Uhm, excuse me? This essentially ruins the "oh-our-show-is-for-kids-no-mature-themes-or-subtext" in one fell swoop.

And also? Gay people doesn't equal mature themes. Bottom line. There are plenty of references to heterosexuality in both Adventure Time and in almost every little kid's show on the planet- would be nice to see a network for once not being a bunch of total wusses and actually sticking with the decisions they obviously made but hoped, what, that nobody would notice? *sigh* I guess that's too much to ask, so have some fan art.


Bubblegum and Marceline by ~vernavulpes on deviantART

Maybe next time.

Molly - Homeward Bound?

Hey guys!

Time is flying by. Every time I turn around I'm ripping off another day of my 30 Rock quote calendar, and sometimes I have to rip off two or three days of quotes at a time.

I've been looking forward to my Hendricks Days break, so the time passing quickly was, for a while, a delightful thing. HOWEVER!

Lately when I've been texting mom about the logistics of my visit, I keep accidentally referring to Marlboro as "home." As in "Great! When do you think you can bring me home, Tuesday night or Wednesday morning?"

When I realized I was doing this, I was all:

O_______o

How can I have two places I identify as "home"? Which is home and which is the imitation? Why does Plato now seamlessly work it's way into how I think about things? *shakes head vigorously in an attempt to rid of RLP references*

But then I stopped freaking out about it. I think it's OK that Marlboro is home now too - just like this summer when Nellie pointed out that Tower Co. is a legitimate second family. The idea that there's room for more than one family or home is a wonderful thing to me. I know that going to Marblehead is going to be great, but I also know I'll actually miss Marlboro and my Marlboro family while I'm away. I guess 2 months is a long time.

Anyway, regardless of my home identity shift, I'll be so happy to see Booths and Boothdom! I've been listening to The Edge of Glory in preparation for singing it with Jenny.

Gus, I enjoy your book-y posts.

Tory, I hope bunny farm is safe from the monster kitty.

Nellie, call me back gosh darn it. Stupidface.

Gus - Once upon a time...zzzzzzzz

Did you ever have a book that you were really looking forward to reading, that you just can't get into for whatever reason? Maybe it's the author's writing style, maybe it's the setting, maybe it's the fact that you keep forgetting to read the book because you got another at the same time. Maybe it's that you tend to start reading too late and keep drooling on the pages. Etc. etc. and so on.

Having the experience with one of David Drake's books. Pretty sure it's a combination of the "reading too late" and coming down off Craig DiLouie's "The Infection," which is one of my favorite zombie apocalypse stories that I've read. I also have no idea what the hell is going on in the scene I just read. That's a bit of an issue too; the changes between scenery feel a bit jarring sometimes, and other times I don't notice that we have a different cast in the room now. And the room is now in space.

But I'm going to keep reading because the book has a very interesting moral ambiguity to it - you want to root for the main characters because they seem likable and, after all, they're the ones you're viewing this world through. At the same time, it's quite apparent that the employers of the mercenary company you're following--this is military science fiction--are less than moral guys. It paints the whole story line, at least in the beginning, in very nice shades of gray. Characters and stories are much more interesting when they're three dimensional, and it always really appeals to me when I read a book that is a good story where there isn't a black-and-white approach to the plot.

*

Watch Land of the Dead. It was great, and I'm normally a very skeptical fan of Romero's later works. Hopper is excellent in it, and it's got a great "this is really screwed up" post-apoc vibe.

A Skype encrypted blog post - Tory

Jenny had a fascinating conversation with me via Skype that will stand in as a blog post since i'm too tired to write real words. Or post on the right day. Sorry.

Key:

Nellie B. = Jenny

sourkiwis = Me

Poppy = Rabbit

Ivy = Rabbit

Steve = Rabbit

Monster Kitty = WTH

Nellie B.: =( (o)0 (o))= kitty waits for the right time to spring and eat your bunnies. be aware of this monster kitty..

sourkiwis: D:

Nellie B.: Time is running out!

Nellie B.: YOU MUST PROTECT THEM EVEN MORE!

Nellie B.: EVIL MONSTER KITTY IS WAITING!

sourkiwis: Poppy is rattling her cage like a prisoner.

Nellie B.: That means monster kitty is near.

Nellie B.: She is trying to tell you to run.

sourkiwis: D:

Nellie B.: Under stand?

Nellie B.: (wait) Do you under stand that monster kitty is near?

sourkiwis: D:

Nellie B.: (whew) you must run then wipethe sweat from your forhead as you run.

Nellie B.: ....please wait... predicting future.

Nellie B.: You will run and then suddenly you will realize your bunnies are not with you! you will run back to your room and find only one there if you sey the ones name now and put it on skype that will be the one that survives and you will find and svae.

Nellie B.: That is your future of the monster kittys!

Nellie B.: :) No pressure.

You heard it here. No pressure.

And as a bonus feature:

Nellie B.: Ivy will be found and you will take her with you. a word of caution: your bunny might starve if you don't give it food. you'r gonig to have to walk 100 miles to go to the stone of crystal where you will get the other two bunnies back from the monster kittys. this is your future and you will decide to do this. and even if you plan ahead you will do it.

Nellie B.: Risk at life for pets club.

Nellie B.: You'r now joining it.

Nellie B.: okay? okay.

a day at the office of wesley. all the dogs come and play all day steve joined it even thow he should have joined "the office bunnies". he tried it out and all you did was hop ovre and ovre again and meet new bunnies and have loyars and go to court and stuff it was real boring so he joined wesley's office witch is puppies and dogs playing all day and steve just chills and sips water and has pelets by the pool and sometimes gos for swim.

Anyone else terrified? My future sounds kind of hectic.

-Tory

Molly - Quotes from Classes

I can't write anything too long this week, as I'm catching up on abundance of homework I couldn't do while I was sick. But I'd like to share with you guys some quotes from my various classes that might give you some insight into my education here at Marlboro ^_^

"Nobody in the world is interested in you but you."

"Look! I'm a fanatic! Come with me!"

"My best advice for life is this: don't do dumb things."

"Don't offend people who pay the bills. That's another item on my list of dumb things you shouldn't do."

"For God's sake use the right adjectives. If it's green grass I don't care, but if it's purple grass I want to know!"

"Did any of you go through an ironic phase around 14 or 15? Christmas is SOOO boring."

"Don't get white socks with different colored bands that go around the top. You'll never get those bands together."

"Achilles the Angriest Shepherd: A children's book."

On The Odyssey: "Home is where the heart is."

"I'm not saying Odysseus isn't awesome, I'm just saying I wouldn't want to hang out with him."
"What makes you think he'd want to hang out with you?!"

"This kind of had an 'informed virgin' feel to it."

"And then I kept looking for references to his cock (rooster) and I kept thinking 'it's coming...it's coming..."

Hope you enjoyed.

:P

Gus - Cyber Warrior

So I got Deus Ex: Human Revolution last this summer while I was still at Blueberry Cove, the only game I've bought at full price since I became a college graduate. And it can be summed up in one word: reallyreallyreallygood! (screw you, spellcheck)

The premise of the game is 15-20 years in the future when it's become fairly common for people to "augment" themselves by having mechanical body parts or add-ons to replace old non-functioning ones, or, somewhat more darkly, to make them more powerful.

It's definitely heavy on Blade Runner in the inspiration category, which is a good thing; the game is very atmospheric, and the combination of the mortality of the lead character--you can't just run and gun unless you turn the difficulty way down--and the superb voice acting make it one of the most immersive games I've ever played. I like a good story, so it's a blast.

*

The Red Sox lost 4-3 to Baltimore in penultimate game of the regular season, completing a historic collapse that led to the Tampa Bay Rays sneaking into the play-offs via the wild card, one game ahead of the Sox. In the following week, the Red Sox manager of eight years, Terry Francona, decided he did not want to return for next year. Francona, who oversaw the first two championships since 1918 while managing the 2004 and 2007 teams, will be missed. As with many baseball managers, he did make some silly calls, but he was a good guy and protected his players. It says something about some of the Sox players, rather than Francona, I think, that they allegedly "stopped responding to him."

*

I need to get new running shoes this week, because I've really been meaning to resume my running. I was up to three miles on a fairly regular basis before breakfast when I was up at school. Now I need to get back in shape as one of my goals for this fall. Along with bombarding the world with job applications and such.

*

Jenny played an awesome soccer game for Team Spain yesterday, and they won narrowly over Canada 1-0. Very proud of Jenny for being so game, as this is her first year playing soccer!

*

Henry apparently needs to be fed again. Hungriest. Guinea Pig. Ever.

Molly - RABBIT RABBIT! A Summary of Life ATM

RABBIT RABBIT! It's October 1st! And I'm sick again!

-_-

Anyway, I should be going to the library right now but I'm gonna wait a little a while until my Advil kicks in. Thanks to a fine, dapper young fellow I have plenty of it so I'm not worried about running out. Yet.

So life! Life is good. If it wasn't for my health, everything would be pretty much perfect. I didn't feel like that at all at the beginning of the week (hence the randomly writing a post on a Saturday instead of Tuesday) but now I'm quite satisfied. My papers are all in order to get off meal plan, I'm running more than I ever have before, I love my workstudy job, and...

CLASSES!

Schoolwork is eating up my life in such an extreme way right now, so I thought I would share with you Booths what my classes are and why I like them. Hopefully this is interesting to you, if not I apologize. I am however, putting a big surprise at the end of this post to encourage you to read the whole thing. I'm aware there's a scroller. RESIST TEMPTATION!

Religion, Literature and Philosophy Seminar (RLP for short):
This is a six credit course, and by far the most demanding reading I've done for a class. In the last month (It's been a whole month! Ahhh!) I've read The Iliad, The Odyssey, Sappho, Agamemnon and The Eumindes, Philoctetes and The Oedipus trilogy. We just began Plato's Republic and we'll be spending lots of time with Plato in the coming weeks. I love this class because it made me realize LIT517 wasn't a one-off - I really do love literature this much and it's so great to be in a class that requires such crazy text immersion. It's an exciting course, and I'm glad I took it.

Elements of Style:
English grammar! I study good. Honestly, this class makes me a little uneasy. Sometimes I get everything the professor and the texts explains and I feel smart and happy. Other times I feel like I'm taking a math course...and we all know how I feel about math. But I'm learning a lot and that's what matters. God, I have so much EoS homework to do this weekend. *collapses*

Fiction Workshop:
I took this course to force myself to write fiction on a regular basis. It fulfills this desire quite well, and I like that. Every week about half the class submits a piece, and we all read "the packet" of work over the weekend, and come ready to comment on the writing. It's like a more organized version of Writer's Block. So far I've written one new piece that I kind of like, and I have to write something this weekend too. We'll see how that goes...I'm finding it's tricky to write something compelling that doesn't naturally emerge. But that's what writers have to do!

Beginning Modern Dance:
LOL! I know, right? And perhaps those who know me and aren't familiar with my dance background (or all the details of it) would probably think I'm crazy for taking this course. I'm a complete and total spaz/klutz...HOWEVER! This class is awesome and gives me a chance to feel graceful again, which I haven't felt in a long time. I trip over stuff, I spill all my drinks, I knock everything over. But in the dance studio, something's different and I get to feel confident in movement. I had forgotten just how nice that feels.

So those are my classes! Other activities include:

Working as the Social Media Assistant at the Career Development Office (sounds official right?), which means I look for internships/jobs to add to our database, make posters/hang up posters, and encourage people to go to the career office. I love the people I work with and I get to be somewhat creative. It's a pretty dreamy workstudy.

Being on the Film Committee. It still has yet to meet, but I'm excited for when we do! I get to help pick which movies play on campus on the weekends!

Participating in our QSA. I'm making posters for our adorable activities, and we sponsor the homecoming dance. There's a rumor it's going to be fairytale-themed!

And running as many days a week as possible. And watching "Project Runway" every Friday after RLP with Elisabeth as a get-through-the-week reward. Best reward ever!

To paint you a full picture, I'm usually pretty busy with homework during the week, but there's a lot of cool stuff happening on campus in the evenings. I've been rockclimbing, to movies, and open discussions called "People Talks." And I usually get into Brattleboro at least once a week. We also had an awesome  event this past Wednesday called "Apple Days" where someone got thrown into the Fire Pond.

So, I don't really have a surprise except that I'll be home October 14-18th for our mini-break Hendricks Days. HUZZAH!!

In the meantime, I will trudge up to the library and spend some time with euphemisms, wolves, and Plato. A delightful combination.