exciting times last night.

i suddenly got sick of the standard windows xp icons (for my computer, etc.). went looking for new ones, and found a whole suite. so then i went looking for a free system hack that customizes un-customizable windows icons (like the folder icon). my first stop was xteq x-setup, which i'd used many times in the past for system tweaking. they didn't have what i was looking for, but i figured as long as i was running it, i should take care of some tweaks i like that i hadn't applied yet. (understand, i'd done all of this several times before.) well, after closing the program and doing a few more non-xteq things, "dos prompt here" became my default action for directories. so when i double-clicked/hit enter on a folder in the explorer file manager, it opened a dos prompt instead of browsing to that directory. even now, i have no idea how this happened, folks. it wasn't xteq and it certainly wasn't me.

needless to say, i panicked. just a bit. i did manage to restore the "explore" action, mostly, but it took quite a bit of googling and registry-digging.

so THEN, i tried to change the icons by editing shell32.dll directly. my first attempt was really just a test--i knew that if i messed something up, as i most likely would, i could fire up my trusty ntfs boot disk and restore the backup. so i went in with a sledgehammer and, inevitably, broke some china.

my system wouldn't boot off my external floppy drive.

so i've got this laptop in front of me with a corrupted shell32.dll (meaning windows was broken), knowing that there is a perfectly good shell32.dll.bak just waiting to be restored, and having absolutely no way to get to it. i tried my winxp setup cd-rom, that would have worked, but for some reason it wasn't accepting my administrator password. (no, i wasn't mistyping it, it just wasn't working.)

i panicked again. by now it was about 11:30pm. i put in an emergency call to my friend brett, who knows about such things. he didn't have any ideas, but he did remind me about the *cough* OTHER ntfs bootable cdrom i have. loaded that one up, and it worked like a charm. straight to dos. i was so happy, man, it was exciting. i was able to delete the corrupted file and restore the good one, no prob, and i write to you now on a slightly boring but stable computer.

i mention that college life is monotonous and uneventful, and something eventful happens. *tsk* i should keep that in mind, for future reference, you know...

i am still sick (feeling worse, in fact), but i cleaned the townhouse bathrooms this morning. not a particularly pleasant job, needless to say, with hair in the drains and suffocating shower spray. i was doing that for a few hours in the afternoon, and by the time i was done, i was all set to spend the rest of the day feeling sorry for myself. (it's one of my spiritual gifts.) BUT katrina had all this stuff planned for the evening and she needed another driver. so i went to a barbeque of magnificent proportions (beef, pork, venison, chicken, meatballs, hot dogs, etc.--and that was just the meat, baby). twas out in the boonies, as everything here is, near a log cabin at the far end of an old cornfield.

becca and katrina and i stayed for about an hour, then rushed back to meet people for katrina's other event: the drive-in movie double-feature. *grin grin* i'd never been to drive-in. we saw the latter half of dick roberts: former child star, then all of pirates of the caribbean. the first was about what you'd expect, from a movie with that title, and the second, which i'd seen before, was most enjoyable. such a great movie. well, no, i wouldn't call it "great," per se...fun. highly entertaining. it's a tongue-in-cheek pirate movie starring johnny depp and legolas, for pete's sake. depp is incredible, he should get an award for that role. did such a good job. anyway, so we went to this drive-in with about 17 pe--ok not 17, more like 7--ople that i don't know, everyone sitting on the grass in front of the cars, thoroughly swaddled. in blankets. was so much fun, it really was. good crowd.

the nyquil is starting to kick in, so i will say adieu. good night, internet.

so i've caught the obligatory september cold. you know, the one that starts around the second week of school and slowly winds its way through every dorm and townhouse on campus, finishing off by the first or second week of october. i can't be bitter though, since i haven't been sick since january (or thereabouts). (i went to the campus store to buy nyquil and dayquil--the stuff is wonderful, it's the only medicine i ever take--and found that buying six packets of two geltabs each was cheaper than buying the box of twelve.)

isabelle was something of an anticlimax. (yes, i know 25 people died and hundreds of homes were destroyed. it was a tragedy. where i live, the weather was anticlimactic.) schools were closed, people were battening down their hatches for thunderstorms and gusts up to 50mph, and then nothing happened. it was a bit breezy. there was some very light rain--more like mist, really. ah well. i do have extended family in the chesapeake bay area of virginia and the outer banks of north carolina, so i've been a bit antzy the past few days. as far as i know, they're all fine. my grandmother and great-grandmother did retreat inland from hatteras island, but my grandfather, true to form, stayed with the house. the man never leaves. anyway, woke up this morning to sun and blue sky, looks to be lovely weekend.

i haven't blogged much--well, at all, the past week. that's the thing about college life (at least when you've been at it for a few years). it's fairly monotonous. i have a weekly schedule, which is completely jam-packed from 7am to 9pm, Monday-Friday. None of it is particularly interesting, it's just...college. classes, practicing, working, meals. if something extraordinary happens, it'll be on weekends, but even then there are no guarantees. not that i'm complaining, mind.

ah, here's something that did happen. thursday morning, i made it up sand hill. had to pause about 50 feet from the top (it's a freakin big hill, come on now), but i kept going. *grin grin grin*

i have a great job.

i'd heard scattered whisperings at the helpdesk about the colossal meals nate's (my boss) wife, mariah, cooks for campus tech services people. tonight i got the experience firsthand. mmmmmmm

think full turkey dinner, minus gravy and mashed potatoes. huge turkey, sweet potatoes with butter and brown sugar, steamed broccoli with shredded mozarella, steamed string beans (which i didn't eat--not a string bean fan, you see), and stuffing cooked inside the turkey. top it off with brownies, made from scratch, for dessert. ahh, what a meal. everything was cooked perfectly--turkey is hard to do, you know. very easy to cook it too long and end up with the eau de sahara (yes, i know that's a contradiction in terms), or not cook it long enough and end up with live meat. this turkey found the very happy medium. delicious even without gravy. yum. and keep in mind, all this prepared by a pregnant woman (who, quite honestly, looks my age [but isn't, don't worry]--it's a bit frightening, actually) with two very small (adorable) children. much kudos to you, fair lady.

after dinner, we sat around and played group games (the kind you play in youth group or at family get-togethers) that seth (the campus network admin) bought before he came. it was the first time i'd done anything of that nature with twentysomethings. the age range was probably six or seven years. it was almost odd--certainly out of context. here were a group of people older than i but not by much--the age at which i assume they're turning into "real adults": responsible, dependable, settling down, no longer identifying with college students or "young adults", etc.--sitting in a circle and having fun like kids. nate and jesse got in a pillow fight, for pete's sake. it was great, i felt so at home. rather heartening, as well, to know that fun doesn't stop when you grow up. you can still flirt shamelessly with your spouse and eat brownies without first cutting them into squares. ah, here's a better way to say it: it seems becoming an adult doesn't mean you suddenly start coloring inside the lines.

what an odd time of life i've hit. growing up, adulthood always seems so far away, so much higher, so boring. it is the world of friends' parents and sunday school teachers and bills to pay, completely removed from my world of fun and mistakes and happy-go-lucky-ness. finally, here i am, on the cusp, and i can't tell the difference. (excepting the bills, of course...)

a: that i am not my own,
but belong--
    body and soul,
    in life and in death--
to my faithful savior jesus christ.

he has fully paid for all my sins with his precious blood,
and has set me free from the tyranny of the devil.
he also watches over me in such a way
that not a hair can fall from my head
without the will of my father in heaven:
in fact, all things must work together for my salvation.

because i belong to him
christ, by his holy spirit,
assures me of eternal life
and makes me wholeheartedly willing and ready
from now on to live for him.

latinum amo! (actually, i have no idea what is the correct declension for "latin" in accusative case singular. but you get the idea.) i am getting such a kick out of learning a new method of verbal communication. or more appropriately for latin, written communication. that's the most fun, i think--reading paragraphs in a totally foreign language and understanding them. i can't wait until i know enough to read real roman literature. look out, epicureus! (no, i don't know off the top of my head how to spell his name, shut up.)

so a good day, today. despite the radio station business, into which i won't delve at the moment. i'm loving work at the helpdesk, even if i am driving the senior technicians bananas with all my questions. (better to ask and do it right than to do it wrong, oui?) (actually, i just thought of something: i don't know the latin for "yes." odd?) it's quite a rush, to be behind the scenes of student body's access to the outside world (we're a little secluded *cough*).

my violin is finally losing that stiff sound it gets when i don't use it for a while. torturous to play on, particularly for slow music (like two of my current projects). it was getting its old warmth back this afternoon, very nice to hear.

the moon was orange tonight. thought of anible.

there's a computer lab in the basement of the campus center here. the door is always open (propped with a trash can, for some reason), and from the computer station nearest it, the main door to the stairs is visible. earlier today, i was sitting at that computer station, checking my email. i saw a few people out of the corner of my eye and glanced up. tell me if you find anything disturbing about what i saw:

two girls (freshman) were walking along the hall on their way to the stairway door. two boys (also freshman) were behind them. one boy crept up behind one girl and made a great show out of smacking her behind. the girl just took it in stride ("oh ha ha, i thought there was someone behind me," etc.).

so tell me, am i really that old-fashioned? when the H did this become acceptable behavior?

*sigh...*

took a closer look at my schedule today, to discover that it allows for almost no practice time. at all. i'm taking private lessons for credit on three instruments. needless to say, i got a little anxious. talked to my advisor, and he suggested (or rather, i suggested and he emphatically agreed) i put off my applied minor in viola until next semester/next year. in its place, add two more credits of violin (six total, as opposed to four in violin and two in viola). makes perfect sense, considering my recital is THIS semester. might even make more sense to put it off until next year; there's a possibility that the viola professor will actually be on campus then, meaning i wouldn't have to travel 300 miles once a week. so at any rate, i have my fridays again, plus any time i would have spent practicing viola. god is good.

there's a low-flying helicopter outside my window. too dark to see. mars and moon make a pretty couple.

gor, what an awful movie.

first of all, the plot follows the formula without deviation. you meet leopold, the financially unstable but devastatingly handsome duke of albany, who moans about the futility of love and life as a man born into privilege. the occasion is his engagement party in 1876, at which he will choose his fiance based on the amount of cash she carries. (so to speak.) he sees a suspicious-looking character while dancing and follows him into a time warp.

then you meet the suspicious-looking character (stuart) and his recently ex-ed girlfriend (kate) back in the present-day. he's trying to deal with this 19th-century duke that has magically appeared in his living room, and she wants her palm pilot back. he manages to insult her royally, after she moans about giving her best years to him. the time warp will reappear, conveniently, next week.

this is the first twenty minutes. any idea what's going to happen?

for the less swift among you, some enlightenment: leopold and kate fall in love, they have an argument, he goes back to the 19th century. shortly thereafter, she realizes the error of her ways and follows him. they both end up at the same engagement party, where he names her his fiance.

so that's the first problem. the second is the whole premise of the movie. leopold is every woman's dream. man of integrity, courteous, kind, gentlemanly, handsome, british, great wardrobe, etc., etc. can you imagine (you females on the other side of the screen) being a guy and watching this movie? who can compete with this illusion hollywood is dishing out? can't you just see some woman watching this movie with her girlfriends, then going home to her husband and getting annoyed and irritated at him for little, absurd things--not because he's done anything wrong, but because she just saw meg ryan snag the ideal that her husband isn't?

ah well, that's what movies are for, right? *cough* must needs to latin homework.

• If you emigrated to, let's say, Spain, with the intent of staying there, how long do you think it would be before you started speaking Spanish in the home?
  depends. am i in spain to escape here, or am i in spain because i like spain? if i'm trying to escape, i'd start speaking spanish in the home as soon as i could. probably well before i was fluent. but if i harbor no ill feelings toward my native country, and am just in spain because i like spain, i'd probably try to preserve ties to my language--just because i know i'd miss my country occasionally.
• If you were magically named President of the country, under what circumstances would you consider it acceptible to lie to the public?
  heh, i wouldn't talk to the public. ever. see, since i wasn't elected, i'd be under no special obligation to keep them informed. so i'd just go about my business of running the country, and let my staff talk to the public.
  
  and now you know why i will never be president of the country.
• If you were completely deaf, except for one hour a week, what would you want to hear during that hour?
  anible's voice reading to me.

after lazarus was raised from the dead, there's an interesting little episode john records, that i somehow never noticed. it takes place during an emergency meeting of the jewish high council, convened to discuss the problem of jesus. the council members observe that if they do nothing, "the whole populace will believe him. then the romans will come and sweep away [their] temple and [their] nation." (that statement is interesting in itself, but to continue...) caiaphas responds, "it is more to your interest that one man should die for the people, than that the whole nation should be destroyed." see the double entendre? according to john, caiaphas was unwittingly acting in his office as high priest, prophesying that jesus would die for the nation of israel. fascinating. caiaphas attempts to justify his forthcoming efforts to kill jesus by painting his death as the means to israel's survival. which, of course, is exactly what jesus' death was.

so close to the truth, caiaphas. you were the high priest; you were the mediator between mortal and immortal. you were the one man on earth permitted to survive the glory of god's presence. yours was the position fulfilled in christ. yet you missed him.

it can only be by grace, and no quality or action of mine, that i see what you did not.

i'm feeling overwhelmed and stressed, the same way i've felt at this time of the semester every semester for the past two years. so i should just sit tight and wait until i settle in, yes?

i finally got my lesson schedule solidified. piano will be wednesday afternoon. viola, which will end up taking five and a half hours from my day, will be on friday afternoon/evening/night. (the professor teaches an hour and half away from campus, so the two other viola students and i will go as a group once a week.) violin will be monday afternoon, the only time left available. should be fun, coming off the weekend. *cough*

in other news, i signed up for the campus bike club this evening. or more accurately, i signed a petition for the creation of a campus bike club. and i tried an odd-looking bike (the owner happened to be standing near me, it wasn't a gimmick for the bike club), with front shocks right below the handlebars. weighed nothing. weighed absolutely nothing, i could have lifted it with my fourth finger (pinky, for you non-string-players). weighed as much as one of my RIMS, for crying out loud. the ride felt like sailing on a lake--very comfortable, very smooth. lots of cash in that bike.

i've started calling all my friends "babe." i don't know why, i don't know anyone else who does.

systems of analysis and contemporary art music (aka theory): wow, what a class. i discovered today how much i've missed the good doctor--he was off campus last semester. he brings a lot to the classroom, above and beyond the call of education. anyway, it'll be great class. there's a slightly terrifying written/oral presentation worth 30% of the final grade, but that's balanced by the take-home exams. it's going to be so fascinating--i was intrigued enough with set theory and 12-tone last semester, and that was with panos, for crying out loud. i can't wait to get into it.

latin: heh, this'll be interesting. 9am, monday-tuesday-thursday-friday. ordinarily wouldn't be a problem, right? particularly considering on monday and friday i'll just be coming from theory. but the professor! the man is a dead ringer for santa clause, voice like ben stein. class meets in a basement. it'll be interesting to see, next monday, how many people are awake by 9:50. that aside, i think i'll really like the course. see, i do like foreign languages. i do NOT like speaking them, which is why french was such a disaster in high school. latin is perfect, AND i get to see where english came from. (yes, i know english is germanic, not romantic, but it still gets a good chunk of its vocabulary and sentence structure from latin. nevermind the alphabet.)

music history: what can be said, it's music history. same as last two semesters.

that's my class list. *cackle* the rest of my 18 credits are made up in applied music (violin, viola, piano). and then add helpdesk, and the dying remnants of the college radio station, and you have my semester.