Late-Night Cravings

I'm up late again tonight (blogging instead of writing my paper?), and being thoughtless, I had eaten sugar, meat, and fat the whole day (which covers the three biomolecules but somehow is unhealthy anyways?) and now my day's nutrition is all out of whack. So now I'm hungry and only have chocolate, popcorn, and yogurt to eat, but the former two are unhealthy and the latter two I'm rather sick of. Also I have tea eggs, but I already ate an egg today (might break one out later though). And my cheek is swelling up from chewing too much gum, which rules that oral activity out. And late night is closed.

I was pretty desperate when I remembered that I have oatmeal. That wonderful, unassuming, non-unhealthy food. So I started mixing:

1 packet plain instant oatmeal
1 packet apple cinnamon instant oatmeal
1 dash cinnamon
1/2 tsp coconut oil
1 dash ascorbic acid powder
1 dash brown sugar (to neutralize the sour vitamin C powder)
1 splash vanilla extract

It's only vaguely strange, and overall pretty nonthreatening. I love having a pantry stocked with raw ingredients.

Black Friday Haul

I'd say it was a relatively successful Black Friday. My first one, too! I didn't go hardcore, at midnight, but it was still fun and there were still huge lines. No matter...I went with Ann and Amy at 10am, and we talked during the lines and it was all very pleasant. We did plan on getting there a little earlier, but we stopped at Best Buy and got some TV shows. I still remember when they all got Friends DVDs last year for $10 a season...this time I got the second season of Mad Men for $10, plus two seasons of Smallville for Sierra (obsessed... :P). I actually haven't watched many episodes of Mad Men yet, but I like it so far. And I usually only buy books or DVDs that I know and like...

At the mall, we hit Vans, PacSun, Forever 21, American Eagle, Converse, Gap Outlet, and H&M. I can't post pictures because I can't find the stuff I got online, but I got a black thermal henley and a turquoise cami from PacSun, and a maroon sweater from Gap Outlet. There were actually more sales than I expected - PacSun and AE had 20% off everything in the store, and Gap had tons of sales too. The strange thing was that Forever 21 was pretty much Black Friday personified - huge (disorganized) store, bright lights, loud music, clothes strewn absolutely everywhere, four never-ending lines, frenzied shoppers - but it was not cheaper than usual. I don't understand it. Maybe it's because F21 is always cheap.

Today (today, today, today)

+
Woke up at home, had eggs and oatmeal+cranberries for breakfast
Driven to school
Let out 15 minutes early from bio
Broccoli alfredo for lunch, plus coconut pie
BioE pset back, got 46/50 (wooo A!)
Talked with study abroad program about a term in Barcelona. Sounds freaking awesome.
Got Britney CD from library, among other things
Found a great style book from the library that I actually haven't read yet
Update on papers from this summer
Watched Glee, enjoyed Gwyneth Paltrow's version of F*** You

-
Gnarly elbow rashes.
Couldn't figure out to use the self-scanner in the CT Library. Apparently they don't beep when you scan items.
Got overheated biking across campus twice. Yay sweaty feet in fuggs (fake uggs). Don't worry, I was wearing socks.
Watched Glee, did not enjoy the Umbrella/Singin' In The Rain mashup.

Nightworking

I love working late at night. If I'm not tired out of my mind, it's my favorite time to work. Everyone is asleep, including my roommate, and the world is dark outside my window. In my room, there's just a lamp illuminating my desk, and it's much easier to concentrate on working. I used to think it was because it's the threat of an impending deadline the next morning, but it's so much more relaxing when the deadline is a day away. Look at Monday's late night! So full of angst. That's probably because I needed to stay up to finish an essay due the next morning. Just an extra day before the deadline changes everything. Plus it was a lot less efficient; I stayed up until 5 and still didn't finish the darn thing.

As long as I stay on iTunes (or go music-less) and avoid YouTube, I can focus so much better on my work than during the day. During the daytime, I always feel self-conscious because other people are up and about, and daytime just doesn't have the sense of urgency as nighttime (calm urgency in this case. a good feeling.). It's so much easier to get distracted by other things when you feel you still have time for homework later. And I thought it was better to be in the computer cluster than in my room, but it's really not. It's bright enough in the cluster to resemble daytime, and the presence of other people makes me anxious. I spend more energy than I should trying not to disturb them or not do weird things in their presence.

I love just sitting in my darkened room, Mika's Kick Ass blasting on repeat in my headphones, a half-empty cup of tea in my Friends mug, focusing on one project. It's definitely helped by my cracking open a gold mine of a book for my research paper. I don't know why, I just feel incredibly happy right now, happy to be alive in general and especially at this hour. (I don't know why right now, because it's 3 in the morning and I've had 8 hours of sleep in the last 65 hours, but I'll analyze it in the morning. I don't like not knowing why I'm happy. If I know why, I can make it happen more often!) Besides the book, I think another reason I'm happy is because my brain is only on half-power, so I don't think quite so deeply about stressful issues. (Down-side: short memory span and tendency to spell desk deask.) I've also had a pretty solidly good day, including but not limited to finishing my BioE problem set early, finishing a Tuesday NYT crossword by myself for the first (or second?) time, and was surprising alert for someone running on little sleep. (Actually, now that I think of it, I think I'm only remembering the highlights due to my good mood.) Or this whole thing may just be hormonal. Who knows. Life is good.

The only thing I dread is the morning, when I wake up with a mild headache and a loathing for everything bright, cheery, and loudly social. And early-morning lectures, of course.


Recipe for staving off a cold that's about to rear its head: 1 cup ginger tea with 1/2 tsp ascorbic acid, plus lots of water. But drinking lots of water will make you have to go to the bathroom thrice as often, ruining the Working At Night allure. But only a little. Remember, sick = low concentration = no more working at night! Also, quit going to the bathroom so often. You underestimate the capacity of your bladder. (TMI...?)

Recipe for waking up early in the morning: sleep sitting down at your desk. It's not as soft and warm as your bed, so it's easier to get up in the morning, but it's comfortable enough to sleep through. Remember to wear an insulated jacket and warm pants, or else you may get sick (see above). Also, if you rest your head in your arms, you may have pins and needles for a few minutes. Best avoid this position unless cramped for space.

4 AM Equals...

On full blast and on repeat: Basshunter, O-Zone, Daft Punk.
Actively gross personal hygiene, namely compulsive picking of various regions of the head.
Coffee. When late night closes, chocolate. When chocolate runs out, gum. Gum will never fail me.
Bottle after bottle of water. Trip after trip to the bathroom. Creep out the RA across the bathroom (who's also up this late. solidarity, man!).
Irrational fear of toilets, whose loud and violent flushing sounds should be outlawed.
Twitching.
Self-loathing.
Making lists unrelated to the topic at hand. Like a schedule of the next week to persuade self not to fall asleep. Or this one.

Note to self: I REFUSE TO GIVE UP. I WILL NOT BE BEATEN DOWN.
(repeat to self when about to give up)

Music Mixes: November Mix

Britney Spears - Stronger
Eminem feat. Rihanna - Love The Way You Lie
Group 1 Crew - Live It Up
Ingrid Michaelson - Once Was Love
Ingrid Michaelson - You And I
Kurt Schneider - I Will Follow You Into The Dark
Mika - Kick Ass
R.E.M. - Nightswimming
Sam Tsui - Don't Want An Ending
Sara Bareilles - Hold My Heart
Sara Bareilles - Machine Gun
Sara Bareilles and Ingrid Michaelson - Winter Song

Languages

Correct me if I'm wrong, but I believe I know the three most widely-used languages in the world - English, Mandarin, and Spanish. The trouble is, I'm not terribly good at any of them. My first language was Mandarin, but I was never required to speak it at home so my speaking ability has been diminishing quickly, especially after I left Chinese school. Spanish, well, I never knew well, so my speaking ability is also quite pitiable. The sad thing (or hopeful thing?) is that I know I can get a lot better in both languages if I just screw up the courage to actually use them regularly. But whenever I speak in Mandarin or Spanish, I know that objectively I sound like an idiot, and then I stop. Same with singing. I really want to learn how to sing well, but I'm too self-conscious to try. Sometimes I want to just go to the far reaches of campus and talk to myself in Spanish and Mandarin and English like a crazy person. Or sing whatever. That would be fun.

Inspiration

"The advice I like to give young artists, or really anybody who’ll listen to me, is not to wait around for inspiration. Inspiration is for amateurs; the rest of us just show up and get to work. If you wait around for the clouds to part and a bolt of lightning to strike you in the brain, you are not going to make an awful lot of work. All the best ideas come out of the process; they come out of the work itself. Things occur to you. If you’re sitting around trying to dream up a great art idea, you can sit there a long time before anything happens. But if you just get to work, something will occur to you and something else will occur to you and somthing else that you reject will push you in another direction. Inspiration is absolutely unnecessary and somehow deceptive. You feel like you need this great idea before you can get down to work, and I find that’s almost never the case."

-Chuck Close

(from YY's blog)

Goals

1. Stop bitching.
2. Be more considerate.
3. Be proactive.

Ingrid Michaelson and related

So today was a pretty awesome day. (Or rather, yesterday was an awesome day. Today is officially Tuesday, when yesterday's evening of idle frivolity will come back to bite me.) First I managed to clear one standard deviation above the mean on my BioE midterm. And then I drove up to San Francisco with ML for an Ingrid Michaelson concert. Before the concert, we ate in a little Italian restaurant called Pescara, which has a pleasantly large ratio of food quality/quantity to price. As we finished consuming a meatball sandwich, the Giants won the world series. And then we experienced the concert (see below). And then we went to Quickly's (who had all the drinks normal PMT places have, but - get this - NO PEARLS. what kind of madness is this!? but milk tea is still delicious.)

And the concert. It was fabulous. I feel like I should write this all down this very minute, even though this week will be pretty terrible, workload-wise. It's important to remember these experiences and special moments, because that's what I will remember years from now. Or maybe I just don't want to do homework. I'm going to regret this so much later this week. Or even later tonight. (tick tock tick tock 1am...)

The opener was The Guggenheim Grotto, a great singer-songwriter duo in their own right. They're also Irish, so their accents gave them bonus points. I must make a note to look up their songs on Youtube.

Here's the set list for Ingrid Michaelson:
Immigrant Song (Led Zeppelin cover)
Soldier
Breakable
Once Was Love
Die Alone
Parachute
Mountain And The Sea
Everyone
You And I - sung with band mates and The Guggenheim Grotto
Nightswimming (R.E.M. cover)
Annihilate (new song)
Always You (new song)
The Chain
Locked Up
The Way I Am
Maybe
San Francisco - this was unplanned, see below
Toxic (Britney Spears cover)

Encores:
Be OK
The Way I Am, punk rock version

Basically, this is probably my favorite concert to date. The Fillmore is a great venue (a sort of vampire-mansion glamour) with great energy. The only thing I regret is not wearing heeled shoes. I don't think I ever felt my short stature as acutely as I did tonight. But I don't mind only catching short glimpses of Ingrid and craning to peer over people's heads. Because Ingrid Michaelson is a fantastic performer, from the moment she came out with her band mates (I <3 Allie Moss!) in black hooded cloaks. Plus, she could sing and play the song San Francisco, which she wrote and recorded four years ago but never put on an album. A girl in the crowd asked her to play it, and she actually managed to cobble it together from memory despite not having played it in ages. That is a mark of a great musician, in my book. In addition to having a unique voice and singing in tune, two criteria which Ingrid also fulfills.

She also used a looping pedal quite adeptly in Nightswimming. It's this device that can record sound and repeat it back, and then you can sing on top of it and add another layer to the looping track. I actually really wish I recorded that song. She sang it by herself, with only the looping pedal and no instruments. It had several layers, and at the end it sounded like an a capella group singing together. Also she couldn't mess up because any off-tune notes would keep repeating for the song. But she didn't mess up, and it was phenomenal. For real.

Basically, it went something like this: (not my video)

Amazing, no?

Also, I love the snark-tastic stories she tells between songs, like freaking out before singing at Carnegie Hall for a R.E.M. tribute concert, and then giving a kick-ass performance, and then getting drunk from champagne at the afterparty and embarrassing herself in front of the lead singer of R.E.M. Quote from this incident: Sometimes you feel proud of yourself, but then something happens to remind you that you are a troll.

And her punk rock version of "The Way I Am" was ridiculous. In a good way.

I don't regret going to this concert at all. Even though it's hella late and my homework remains unfinished.