Whoa whoa whoa whoa whoa whoa whoa

Junebug has a hard bassline; I should really be practicing if we're going to get it together for Saturday.

MORE IMPORTANTLY:

According to the internet (Billboard and Rolling Stone - so these are like real sources):

James Iha (guitarist from the Smashing Pumpkins)

and

Bun E. Carlos (drummer from Cheap Trick)

and

Taylor Hanson (keyboardist from Hanson)

and

Adam Schlesinger (bassist from Fountains of Wayne)

ARE FORMING A BAND called Tinted Windows.

Now, I'm going to admit that I'm not as conversant in Smashing Pumpkins and Cheap Trick as I probably should be. But Hanson was what sucked me into the music world in the first place, and FoW, well, let's just say that everything monsieur Schlesinger touches is powerpop gold.

The one thing I don't understand is how that happened. I mean, of all of the four of them, who's the one that said 'hey we should start a band'? I mean, can you just walk up to other accomplished artists and say 'hey, guy from Cheap Trick, come be in my band'? Is that, like, normal? HOW DID THIS HAPPEN?

Anywho, I AM SO PSYCHED FOR APRIL. (When their record comes out.)

Go go go go go go go listen to the single.

Google Doesn't Know Everything

Google says I (or, I suppose, a fellow Bethany) need the following things:

1. Bethany needs a middle name.
2. Bethany needs a new liver - or else she could be dead by Christmas.
3. Bethany needs you!
4. Bethany needs to go home.
5. Bethany needs help with this new venture...

Well, I guess number 3 probably true.

Things Bethany needs, according to herself:

1. Bethany needs a job.
2. Bethany needs to apply for some jobs.
3. Bethany needs to think about grad school.
4. Bethany needs to do some reading.
5. Bethany needs to do some laundry.

Also, figure out what I'm playing at the Ash Wednesday service tomorrow. Ash Wednesday! My favorite holiday! Tomorrow is going to be intense. Whee!

It's fall semester all over again...

I have this problem with my Russian classes. It's partly due to the fact that I consider my Russian language classes to be most strongly linked to my future since they build concrete knowledge that I plan to use, and partly to them being by far the most challenging classes I've ever taken.

I dedicate too much time to them. Not too much time in the sense that I'm spending more time than is necessary for me to adequately get my work done, but too much time in proportion to the other classes I'm taking. Somehow, everything that has to do with the Russian language gets elevated above my other classes, and I find myself falling behind on reading, or skipping class, so I can better keep up with the pace of a Russian course.

It's a difficult situation to maneuver, because Russian is the hardest class for me to be behind in. Not only does an unhealthy amount of my self-esteem depend on it, but it's much smaller than any other class I'm taking. My Russian course in translation has about 25 students, my New Testament class, about 40. The Russian seminar? 5. If I don't speak in class, it's painfully noticeable to everyone.

My goal for the next semester is to manage my time, such that I don't sacrifice too much else to this seminar. It might be worth it in some sense, but it's strikes me as having too much power over the rest of my schedule. It's only going to control my life it I let it. Therefore, I need to start translations early, and structure my weekends better than this past one.

Then again, I spent part of the weekend being sick. I'm totally convinced that if I had felt better Saturday afternoon, I wouldn't be in this boat right now. Bah.

What do you expect, really?

It's 9:30 a.m., half the campus isn't even awake yet, and all I can think about is how I'd really like a burrito right about now.

New Adventures

So I have this friend. Her name is Danielle. Twice now, she has given me gifts that sort of spiral out of control. Well, once. And I'm predicting the second one.

The first gift was an Oxford Russian-English dictionary, in August 2006, for my birthday. The August before I took Winter term, which was the August before I fell in love with the Russian language, and so on and so forth. But I had the dictionary. I had to continue. It leads back to Danielle.

And now, we have the DROP SPINDLE AND ROVING. We kind of all knew that me learning to spin was an inevitable thing. Well, folks. Now it's here.

Hooray!

I watched a couple of YouTube videos and read through the instructions, and have managed to make several questionably usable inches. It's really twisty. I'm going to do some more research and try again later this week.

Hypotheses:
1. Danielle is awesome.
2. Danielle has either incredible influence or foresight. I suppose either of those are cool.

D: Thanks!

New semester, new obsessions.

Classes got off to a good start this morning. Cardio kickboxing is going to be full of amusingly sped up mixes of American pop music.

Of course, we're covering all the bases. Despite the fact that Altered States (sex, drugs and rock 'n roll in modern Russian culture) mostly musically focuses on Russia's poetic rock, my professor revealed that she has a weakness for cheesy Russian pop music.

Who doesn't, really?

Hey, it's my new favorite song.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UAf1PnnxDdU

Saturday 31-01-09

The last list should have gone up about yesterday! But I don't remember what I did, because so much has happened since then! I did watch a CNN documentary about autism, and ate some pineapple upside-down cake. Except I ate half of my piece of cake inverted (then I flipped it over), so I'll refer to it as the 'reversible pineapple cake'.

Most of what has happened today has been the creation of new facebook albums, which cover both the Inaugural Ball, and some more OB-52s history. If you're on the Facebook, you should go look at those. Maybe I'll get bored and post some photos one day, if you're lucky.

So ECO was at our apartment tonight, since Steve and Mary are getting ready to leave tomorrow morning for a Baptist Peace conference in ITALY. Exciting times! We ate fondue and did some planning. As people were leaving, Anna mentioned that she was headed to the 'Sco for a while, where they had the Superbowl on a big screen. I looked at the clock, did a few calculations in my head, and went with her. We had to sit through a good 20 minutes of football before Bruce came on, but it was worth it. Then I came home and tried to play Born to Run and Tenth Avenue Freeze Out on my Telecaster. Have I mentioned that Bruce is pretty much the reason that I picked a Tele? I mean, it should be pretty obvious...

Today also marked me getting impatient and giving housemates Christmas presents. Liz is going to knit a couple of nice skirts, which will help amp up her post-graduation wardrobe.

Also awesome on the clothing front: today at the Fava gallery, there was a runway show featuring all of the garments made in the weaving winter term. Ondrea took it this year, and made a snazzy red and gray winter coat, which I'm really excited to see her wear. Pictures might be coming soon (I'm guessing) at her blog.

Aaaaaaand classes start tomorrow! It looks like I'll have almost everything on Mondays and Wednesdays, which is pretty sweet.

No new progress on knitting. Took a lot of photos of knitting today, but haven't processed them yet.