you knew I couldn't keep away

My rishathra icon made Warren Ellis throw up. I'm so proud.

So hey, I'm back! Did you miss me?
I'm posting a couple days early. I don't care. I break my own oaths easily, because the only person I'm swearing them to is myself, and in this case I don't particularly care whether I break it or not. Also I want to say hi to everyone.
Actually, even if I'd wanted to post anything significant on LJ in the past week, I couldn't have for much of it. My laptop's screen went dark on Thursday morning and didn't recover until Sunday morning...today. I used the computer lab in Larzelere for e-mail and a quick friendslist scan, but it's not pleasant to stay in there for very long; it's hot and noisy and the computers are slow and difficult to type on.

I rather enjoyed my time offline. I got a bit of a life, which I've been sorely lacking.

Tuesday was interesting; I went to my first Sociology 100 class. The prof, Larry Tifft, likes to ramble. He talked for three hours about whether it was morally acceptable to send your kids to daycare, the commodification of water vs. the commodification of air (despite what he thinks, they are two very different things, and I can explain why if anyone wants me to), and why it was so hard to find a good auto mechanic (he says it's deregulation--wha?). He never once backed up any of his opinions or ideas. The funny thing is that my absolute favorite prof last year, Matt Sheptoski, recommended this guy to me. Thinks he's a genius. Maybe Tifft has just gotten a little senile.

Wednesday, more classes, since I don't know what is going on with Poetry Collective yet. I think my Introduction to Literary Analysis may be boring. The prof is a nice guy, but he seems intent on dumbing everything down for the class and asking very elementary questions, things that should have been covered in high school. "What is irony?" "Does anyone know who Edgar Allen Poe was?" I hate this kind of thing; I can answer these questions easily, but giving a quick answer seems so...teacher's pet-ish. Bleh.
Sample discussion (about "The Cask of Amontillado"):
Prof: "Why did Montressor lock Fortunado in the dungeon? Is this the sign of a sane man?"
Me: (thinking, "Ah! A good question!") (raises hand) "Well, I think..."
Idiot in back of class: "Maybe he's schizophrenic! Hurr!"
I had a really good answer for that, too. Fuckers. Thing is that the idea of Montressor being paranoid schizophrenic could have been a good explanation, if you took the time to think it through, but the idiot at the back of class didn't, and spent the rest of the period trying to steal his friend's hat.

Thursday was D&D! As I told everyone last year, I am the treasurer of the MPGA, the Mount Pleasant Gaming Association. This is a largely useless role, put in only to pacify the requirements for an RSO (Registered Student Organization). Exactly one guy gave me the $5 required to be a member for both semesters. I doubt anyone else will, but who cares?
The game itself was fun.
Me: "I gonna play wizard!"
Everyone else: "You always play wizards. Play something else."
Me: "Ah man, do I have to?"
Everyone else: "YES. We already have a sorceror."
Me: "Damn. Who?"
Everyone else: (points to new guy)
New guy: "Hi!"
Me: "Damn you. I'll be a...(flips through character classes) monk. Okay."
So I'm an idealistic monk who thinks the king is corrupt. I have no spells, but I can flip out and kill people! Like a ninja! HIYAH.
I decided to make my character a guy, for once. The new guy didn't notice this and tried to make his character hit on me. (I'm the only girl in the campaign.)
New guy: "Are there any fine ladies on this ship?"
The DM: "No."
New guy: "What about her? (turns to me) Hey, baby!"
Me: (shows him character sheet) "Guy. I'm a guy. Male. See, under "sex"?"
New guy: "Oh. Well, you're cute anyway."
Actually, something happened last year that puzzled me a bit. I was a girl person playing a girl character; this was never commented upon. Matt (the DM for this game) played a girl character, and this was commented upon all the time. Bad sexist jokes, having other characters hit on her, the works. Neither of us played particularly girl-like characters; I was a fairly asexual mage, and Matt was an idealistic, powerful paladin. Would "Gender Dynamics in Role-Playing Games" be a good thesis?

Friday, I went to the Kaya and got chai tea and wrote. I write best in the Kaya, I think. Words flow from my Bic Z4 pen (I am very particular about my pens; I hate normal ballpoint pens, and most roller-ball pens are very scratchy...and forget gel pens, those are for doodling on notebooks with, not writing poems) like...oh, let's say like snot from the nose of a small child. The "flows like water" metaphor is so overdone. I got two pages done. I'm proud of what I've got so far. It's a new fandom, and I might be able to sneak it in as an original. Also am forming ideas for new original stories. Yay me.
I obsess over my writing a little. Everything I see or do is filed away for future use as a story idea or a detail. Does anybody else do this? And when I'm not writing or at least working out a story idea in my head, I get cranky and depressed. I have yet to convince myself that I don't have to be productive every second of the day.
Anyway, after I got back to the dorm, my roomie Sara bounded in, a little drunk. Freshies. She settled down on the couch, where I'd been watching "The Faculty" (it was on AMC all night, and I kept only catching the last half of it--I've seen the last half three times so far, and the first half none), and talked to me. We discussed movies, drinking (she promised to take me to the Wayside and get me drunk at least once this semester, an offer which I do not plan to take her up on, no matter how well-intentioned it was), and "Invasion of the Body Snatchers."

Saturday...ah, Saturday. I slept most of the day. Woke up at 3 and puttered around doing nothing for a while. (This is better than last year, when I could sleep until 6 PM on the weekends and be quite happy with it.) Then I wandered down to the Gay Punk Commie Church, where some of the MPGA people were doing a new role-playing game.
It turned out to be Vampire: The Masquerade. What's more, a Live Action Role Play. Yes, I am now a Vampire LARPer. My God. How geeky. I don't even like vampires that much.
But it was a fun game. Apparently, they've been playing this game for a few years, and there are a ton of new people this year.
I made my character as a 25-year-old novelist who was writing a kitschy Anne Rice-like novel about vampires and got a little too involved in her research. I suppose you could say it's unusually Mary Sue-ish for me, but the self-likeness came in handy during the game.
LARPing, I was surprised to discover, is basically acting. What's more, it's acting without a script or storyline; you have to sink very deeply into your character in order to be believable at all. Challenging. Granted, you have to do the same thing during a tabletop game, but the action and costumes and such lend the pretense much more depth.
I'm not a good actor, and never have been. I'm rather self-conscious in several terms of the sense; there seems to be a little switch inside my head that gets flipped whenever I've gotten too deeply into a character that makes me think, "What are you doing? This isn't you! You're not a vampire, or an idealistic monk, or a frustrated corpse, or an English maid! You're lying! Bad, bad you." Then I get self-conscious and giggle. Not a good thing to do in a LARP unless you are playing a character that giggles a lot anyway.
Other people can do this. Logan, who plays Garret (the Hound of the Vampire Prince), is very good at it. He can be dark and smooth and dangerous, and revert to an incredibly nice, personable, fun guy in real life. Same with Josh, who plays Christoff--Christoff is seductive and quiet, Josh is fairly loud and very enthusiastic about geeky things.
So I chose the novelist because it'd be easiest for me to play. Young, not used to vampires or being around vampires, curious (my Investigation skill score is high--maybe I should have picked a journalist?), and bookish. I can't play dark, so I'll just play dork.
The game involves a lot of soap-opera style politics. I'm going to have a hard time keeping up with things, but one of the other new players has informed me that he's going to take me along on dangerous missions so that I can get some good game-playing in without having to remember who's currently in favor with the Prince and whatnot.
The game is on alternating Saturdays, the first and third Saturdays of each month. The second and fourth Saturdays are White Wolf gaming, which is a game about werewolves and is apparently totally different. I'm going to check that out as well.

Which brings us to Sunday afternoon, where Rachel is preparing to get some munchies. I'm debating whether to go to the Kaya again and get some more writing done, or whether to sit in the dorm and watch "The Simpsons" and other cartoons all night. My horoscope says I should chillax today, but my horoscope also things I am under a great deal of stress from a recent illness, which I'm not. My horoscope don't know shit.
I suppose this will be determined by whether the UC is open. The Kaya has chai. Chai costs money. I have no money. I have an ATM card. The UC has an ATM. We shall see.