Which Star Trek Character Are You?

Your results:
You are Uhura

Uhura 85% An Expendable Character (Redshirt) 85% Deanna Troi 80% Geordi LaForge 75% James T. Kirk (Captain) 55% Chekov 55% Jean-Luc Picard 55% Data 55% Spock 52% Beverly Crusher 45% Worf 45% Mr. Scott 40% Leonard McCoy (Bones) 35% Will Riker 35% Mr. Sulu 25%

You are a good communicator with a pleasant soft-spoken voice. Also a talented singer.

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Ready, Set, Please Don't Make Me Watch This Again!

When I was younger, I was absolutely mortified by a movie called The Halloween Tree. I can't even remember why, but I couldn't watch it without crying, and I've never seen the end. The reason I'm telling you this is because I happened across The Halloween Tree while doing a library search for media involving Leonard Nimoy but not Star Trek. [Taking Trek out cuts the list down by about 90%, in case you're wondering.] I had no idea Leonard Nimoy was in The Halloween Tree, because the last time I tried to watch it was at least a decade ago. So, I put the movie on order, mostly because I wanted to figure out why it's so damn terrifying, and of course, because Leonard Nimoy is, in my world, the human equivalent of God. The movie came in, I popped it into a VCR, and...
90 Minutes Later
I am almost twenty goddamn years old, and that movie is still scary as shit. But, now that I am an articulate adult, with a pen and paper sitting right beside me, I can tell you precisely why I was afraid to walk up my stairs in the pitch-blackness of my house after watching The Halloween Tree.
First off, it's a cartoon based on a book by Ray Bradbury. I've read a lot of Bradbury's work, and while I enjoy it, most of it is not suitable for children. He's a spooky guy, even if he's not exactly trying to be. Oh, he's also the narrator of the movie. The Halloween Tree also features one of the spookiest soundtracks I've ever heard for a cartoon; those vocalists haunted my nightmares. Then, after the intro, the children show up. These kids, apart from the token fatty, are skeleton-thin, and not just the one actually dressed as a skeleton. Then, when the kids gather into their little clique and realize their buddy Pip, the "greatest kid on earth," is missing, they take a trip through the forest from Snow White to get to his house. I am dead serious; this forest wanted to eat those kids alive. But all that weirdness seems minor when compared to Leonard Nimoy's character, Mr. Moundshroud. He is, among other things, a "scary yellow pointy magic bastard"--at least, that's what I have in my notes. When the bony kids make it to his house, which also wants to eat them, they see Pip, who is clear, climbing a tree growing pumpkins, which are apparently souls, and then flies away clutching a pumpkin that looks like his face. Oh, and a sidenote: in order to get Pip back, Moundshroud and the band of anorexic children must go to the "Undiscovered Country". Yes, like in Star Trek. Oh, and in order to get to the Undiscovered Country, they have to fly a time-traveling kite, made out of pieces circus posters that are alive and trying to eat them. Fun. Thankfully that gets torn to shreds when they land in Egypt. Okay, at this point in my notes, I wondered if I was just a sissy when I was little, and I decided to stop writing things down until I was truly spooked. But then, Moundshroud's cape turned into bat wings and he started to fly. Maybe every single thing that happens in this movie really is disturbing as hell. Later in the movie, in France, it is revealed that Moundshroud can't walk on holy ground. Is he the Devil, or the Grim Reaper or something? Nothing extraordinarily bad happens until they get to Mexico, during Dia de los Muertes. There we find Pip in a crypt, stuck in a giant spider web, surrounded by animated corpses. When the first of the skinny children tries to touch him, he turns to dust. I have pinpointed this as the exact point in the movie where I ran screaming from the room. Right about there. Well, not this time. This time I just watched in awe, wondering why the film was ever made. That, and why it features, among all those other frightening things, soul-sucking sugar skulls. Try saying that ten times fast.
Here, I made this for you:

~Sushi

E-I-E-I-U

College visits are supposed to be productive, aren't they? When you drive 150 miles to go to a school that you are giving thousands of dollars to, they should give a little back. I think the reason that I'm upset is because I assumed--rightfully, as this was indicated on the numerous propaganda that I received from EIU--that I would be assigned an adviser today. That was the whole point of Debut Day: to meet with an adviser from your department in order to discuss the best course of action for the coming semester. Instead, I met up with the other six psych majors that showed up, and was told that we would be assigned official advisers next week. We were then ushered to a room with some laptops set up, and faculty advisers [who seemed to be either secretaries, students, or both] guided us through the magical process of logging onto the system [OOH!], changing our default password [AAH!], and registering for courses [AS IF I HAVEN'T BEEN DOING THAT FOR THE PAST THREE YEARS!]. I'm sorry, but I could have registered for my classes in the comfort of my own home. I could have done it at 2AM, in my underwear, eating Cheetos. I didn't get to see my future roomie, Freak, either. My phone died, so I couldn't call her. the only thing I took out of this visit was my Panther Card, which is my student ID/library card/debit card/magic wand, as far as the school is concerned. It has everything except GPS; I'm sure Mama Bear wishes it had that feature, too. Apart from that, though, the day was, as my law enforcement teacher says, a "warsh." After leaving campus, we went to Little Caesar's to get a pizza for lunch. There was a girl in the parking lot wrangling cups and lids and pizza, so I got out to help her. Turns out, she's an EIU student, and she has the same name as me. Funny how that works.
After that, we went to a bunch of thrift stores on the way home; it is our nature to be cheapskates. I found the proverbial motherload of anime VHS tapes at a Salvation Army near Champaign [my state has some of the oddest town names, but that's a subject for a different day]. Pretty much nothing I found was mainstream. The best part was that all of the tapes were $1.00, making me curious as to how much they're actually worth. I don't think I have any real gems, but you just never know with these sorts of things. I was surprised to see that many of them still have registration cards in them, indicating to me that they have never been watched. The only thing that disheartens me is that they're all dubs; there are no original-language versions that I could find. Nevertheless, my anime collection has increased exponentially.
Let's see how much my pile of anime [and Star Trek movies!] is worth:
1. Area 88: Act II-The Requirement of Wolves: $6.99 on eBay
2. Blue Seed: Volume 2: $8.21 on Amazon
3. Blue Seed: Volume 6: $4.99 on Amazon
4. Blue Seed: Betrayal: $23.70 on Amazon [whoa...]
5. Blue Seed: Fate & Destiny: $6.98 on Amazon
6. Blue Seed: Rebirth: $3.99 on Amazon
7. Blue Seed: When Gods Walk the Earth: $3.48 on Amazon
8. Cardcaptors: Tests of Courage: $32.66 on GoSale.com [squee!]
9. Elf Princess Rane: $14.95 on Amazon
10. Ellcia: Part 2 - Ghost Ship: $6.99 on Amazon
11. Ellcia: Part 4 - Ship of God: $29.95 on ex.org
12. My Youth in Arcadia [aka Arcadia of My Youth]: $18.50 on Amazon
13. Princess Mononoke [in horrible, horrible condition]: $2.90 [used-acceptable] on Amazon
14. Star Trek: The Motion Picture - Special Longer Version: $8.79 on eBay
15. Star Trek: Insurrection $2.48 on Amazon
TOTAL SPENT: $15.00
TOTAL WORTH: $175.56
Mind you, these are the lowest potential prices for the videos; therefore, this is the least I could expect to get if I tried to sell them.
PROFIT: $160.56
I'd have to say I won out on this. Time to get cracking on my new anime...
~Sushi

Hamlet Goes to Hollywood

Spock and I are taking an Introduction to Shakespeare class, and one of the requirements is that we read one play a week. Last week, we read Hamlet, which I thoroughly enjoyed, because one of my favorite movies is The Lion King, which is based upon that particular play. I was reading Hamlet's soliloquy, and I noticed that there are an awful lot of movie titles within the text. So, I've decided to do a bit of research, and find every single movie title within his famous monologue. And, as usual, I will be using the Internet Movie Database extensively.


To be, or not to be--that is the question:
Whether 'tis nobler in the mind to suffer
The slings and arrows of outrageous fortune
Or to take arms against a sea of troubles
And by opposing end them. To die, to sleep--
No more--and by a sleep to say we end
The heartache, and the thousand natural shocks
That flesh is heir to. 'Tis a consummation
Devoutly to be wished. To die, to sleep--
To sleep--perchance to dream: ay, there's the rub,
For in that sleep of death what dreams may come
When we have shuffled off this mortal coil,
Must give us pause. There's the respect
That makes calamity of so long life.
For who would bear the whips and scorns of time,
Th' oppressor's wrong, the proud man's contumely
The pangs of despised love, the law's delay,
The insolence of office, and the spurns
That patient merit of th' unworthy takes,
When he himself might his quietus make
With a bare bodkin? Who would fardels bear,
To grunt and sweat under a weary life,
But that the dread of something after death,
The undiscovered country, from whose bourn
No traveller returns, puzzles the will,
And makes us rather bear those ills we have
Than fly/ to others that we know not of?
Thus conscience cowards of us all,
And thus the native hue of resolution
Is sicklied o'er with the pale cast of thought,
And enterprise of great pitch and moment
With this regard their currents turn awry
And lose the name of action. -- Soft you now,
The fair Ophelia! -- Nymph, in thy orisons
Be all my sins remembered.

Wow... Just... wow.
~Sushi

Self-Concept: Who Am I?

For as much as people don't care for him, I think that my psychology professor, who is filling in for our usual teacher, is awesome. Yes, he's an old-school university type who still wears tweed sports coats with leather elbow patches, and yes, he assigns far too much homework. But, it's better than having to listen to our teacher, who is out on an injury, whimper and complain about her aches and pains, and drop names of the people she supposedly knows in the psychology community. So, now that I'm done ranting, I'll talk about what we did today.
The prof gave us one of those giant notecards, and had us write fifteen "I am" statements; i.e. we wrote about what we are. I decided to share mine with you, and, just because I can, to have a little fun with it. So, along with my "I am" statements, I'll be posting a picture, following the rules of the Google images meme [the picture has to come from the first page of results].
Who am I?
I am a woman.

I am a Lutheran.

I am a sister.

I am a daughter.

I am bisexual.

I am short.

_{I also hate quite a lot.}
I am suicidal.

_{But I'll be okay.}
I am a blonde.

_{At least, I was born a blonde.}
I am a friend.

I am responsible.

I am intelligent.

I am dependable.

I am a psych major.

I am sleepy.

I am a Trekkie.


I like these sorts of things.
~Sushi

2112

Today is the twenty-first day of December, thereby making it 21/12. This is a significant number to any Rush fan, as it is the fourth, and one of the most popular, of their albums.
I haven't been posting a lot lately, because I've been depressed for most of the week. I'm used to having Spock around, and used to taking him for granted, so for him not to be here, even for a week or so, is killer. So, this is going to be a short entry, despite the fact that I had started the blog to combat my depression. Normally, writing makes me feel better, but I've been so fatigued that it seems like a chore.
So, the bulk of this entry is going to be a list. The average of 21 and 12 is 16.5, and so that is the number of the day. As in...
Sixteen-Point-Five Pictorial Examples of the Number 2112
_{Let's see how I pull off the 0.5}
1.
2.
3.
4.
5.
6.
7.
8.
9.
10.
11. Yes, I can always find a Star Trek reference. This is NCC-2112, the U.S.S. Star Union

12.
13.
14.
15. Look closely... It's there.

16.
16-1/2. 2112: The Sing-Along
Too bad I didn't post this at 9:21PM, aka 2112 military time. Too bad...
~Sushi

ILL Routes Make Me Sick

Yesterday, I drove Spock to the airport. His family left for Florida about a week ago, but he had to stay here to finish finals. It was a fun drive there and back, but certainly lonely on the way home. I really don't like driving alone. So, on the return trip, I kept my eyes peeled for some interesting sights. It helped to quell the loneliness, and it made things more fun. So, for your entertainment, as well as mine...
There and Back Again: A Nervous Driver's Tale
Pikachu VW New Beetle

Inflatable Mario

Dancing Mario

Giant Inflatable Chicken Head

Jedi's Restaurant and Grill
_{I'm fairly sure this place has nothing to do with Star Wars}

The Giant Pipecleaner-like Decorations of my youth

Billboard Obituary

Dodge Charger Police Car [Alsip, IL]

Big Green Bridge!

Bumper Obituary

Nebraska plates

Inflatable Hot Air Balloons [2]


Inflatable Hunter Snowman

Half of a stop sign

Road Typo

Hedge Words

Stor-Trek II

In short, an absolutely distorted view of my childhood. Sickening, yet funny.
~Sushi