So I'm taking a course on Utopias and Dystopias this semester, and for our final paper we're supposed to write 6-8 pages on a topic of our choice and relate it back to the Utopian/Dystopian canon.

I'm thinking of using Dollhouse and examining it as an attempt to return to Eden... can any of you guys think of particular episodes/clips that call back to this? I've been doing a close analysis of 1x05, True Believer, which has the most obvious Biblical allusions, but is there anything else I may have missed?

Thanks so much,

Lynn

+ So this summer, I interned in the international sales department at W.W. Norton, a publishing company in New York. I always kind of attached this romantic notion to interning, that it was a bunch of bright, driven, intelligent young people working towards some higher end. The reality was rather... depressing. I was cooped up in my office from nine to five, putting things in boxes and filing away book jackets and catalogues into mailboxes for offices abroad. In any case, this summer has convinced me I couldn't ever have a career in sales. I just can't get excited about the new numbers an acquired account brings us, or the differences between trade and college sales. And I don't know if publishing would really ever do it for me, either. I think I just have too many romantic notions of things for my own good. At any rate, today is my last day. I'm supposed to clear out my office - (lucky me, I had an office!) - except aside from a USB cord, there's really nothing that belongs to me here. Hmm.

+ My best friend from high school spent her summer doing research back at her university. Which is fine and all, as I managed to meet up with her during the weekends, but still. It's been rather lonely here. Also, between lunch with the boyfriend during the weekdays (he works about a block from me, which was lovely and convenient) and sleepovers with Ginger during the weekends, there hasn't been much time for anyone else. They're wonderful, but I'm starting to crave some variety in company. I'll be glad when school starts again.

+ We're headed to New Hampshire for a week, as my father goes off to another chemist convention... fun fun fun. I do enjoy traveling, though. For whatever reason, I find the novelty of eating in different states enjoyable.

+ Back to campus in less than three weeks. I can barely contain my joy.

Love from,

Lynn

... holy shit, there's a tornado warning on my county.

I thought we were done with this once we moved out of Kansas.

So when I was growing up, the show to watch was Boy Meets World. It was that one show that captivated me and all my classmates, with the adventures of Cory and Shawn and Topanga. I was a little too young to remember a similar coming-of-age series, The Wonder Years. It went off air before I had a television, and it went off Nick at Nite before I had cable. But I recently finished making my way through the series, and I have to say, it was just... quite possibly one of the most heart-achingly, beautifully done television series I've ever seen. A sampling of one particularly lovely moment in the series:



Anyway, the conclusion was just so... perfect that I felt the need to share it with everyone. I suppose it's because I live in one of those suburban towns where every house looks the same, but at the conclusion of the series finale, I just wanted to run down the street of my suburban neighborhood and hug the sprinklers and street lights and kiss the sidewalks and mailboxes. Or something. The Wonder Years is nostalgia at its finest. So I've shared here.

Cheers, eh?

Love from,

Lynn

So I had to call in sick on the second day of my internship.

Eurgh.

Please tell me a happy or funny story to take my mind off things?

Love from,

Lynn

... it somehow popped into my head this morning that perhaps the coolest thing I ever did in high school was this lab in Environmental Science where we had to dissect owl pellets and try to identify the small woodland creatures found inside. I remember my owl, identified to be from the northwestern region of the United States, had eight vole skulls in his one pellet.

... Incidentally, I have no idea why I felt the need to share that. But as I'm rather rusty with this whole LJ business, I figured it worth coming here for.

And happy birthday, Livejournal, I take it. =D

Love from,

Lynn

After neglecting my poor dusty livejournal for nearly a year, I feel it may be time to dust off the cobwebs and give this a try again. Let's start with some basic pleasantries.

How are you?

Love from,

Lynn

AP US History test today... it was horrible. I walked a little funny after I finally finished, four hours later. Eurgh.

On the bright side! I found this US History rap while procrastinating from my last minute cramming last night. More amusing than it should have been.



Cheers!

Love from,

Lynn

APs are killing me.

Argh.

Oh, this movie looks positively delightful.

The future English major in me absolutely died over this.

"Shakespearean Pie"

A Shakespearean-inspired parody of "American Pie," revolving mainly around Hamlet. One of my least favorite Shakespearean plays, but this song made me want to go and reread it.

( Lyrics, for anyone who's interested. )


Cheers, eh?

Parting is such sweet sorrow, etc.

Love from,

Lynn

Merry Christmas. =D



Love from,

Lynn

... Seven hours of shopping on Black Friday. *dies*

I have finished my University of Michigan app! *dances*

And I've reviewed the common app; all that's left is the pesky little 150 word mini-essay on extracurriculars, and I'm done. Well, with that, anyway.

I completed the app forms for Georgetown, but I still have two essays to write for them... hopefully I'll be done by Wednesday, completely. So I can mail it out, and then be done with all my early actions. =D

Oh, this weekend was a 7.5 on my productivity meter. Which is relatively high, considering how I've been scoring myself lately.

Somehow I think this application anxiety thing has made me lose sight of the prize. I should be more excited about getting into college than finishing applying, right?

Eh. I'm not done applying. I still have all my regular decision applications. But it's fine. I have two months for those.

Cheers,

Love from,

Lynn

PS

Everyone should watch Pushing Daisies, because it's made of awesome. Not just because I was playing the score on an endless loop while typing my uMich essays. Here is a mini sampling of the awesome:

I'm a bit out of practice. I had meant to write a slightly more light hearted piece about Ron at Christmas, but came up with a ficlet of the trio's (well, more Ron and Hermione's) New Year's Eve, instead.

I'm rusty with the whole fanfic thing, and this is certainly not the last draft (actually, it's the first... haven't edited it yet.) So I'll be revising it quite a bit (possibly de-angsting it, it really wasn't supposed to turn out like this) before I post it anywhere else. But since it was my first try in... glory, almost two years, it seems, I figured I'd post it here, for the sake of keeping record.

Takes place during Chapter Twenty-Two of Deathly Hallows, so beware of spoilers.

( ... He’s close enough that she feels a bit warmer, and so she shivers, because she never knew how to make much sense of these things. )

Please let me know what you think. =T

Cheers!

I have too many things to do.

On the list:

- Drabble fic
- hallowedmoments ficlet
- Editorial on college financial aid for Voices of Tomorrow
- Green Brook Historical Society meeting
- JDW reunion on Friday
- Finish summer reading
- Finish AP US work
- Finish AP Environmental science work
- Finish SAT II US History review
- Work on college admissions essay

Must try and achieve all this before my head goes 'splodey. Meh. Next week I'll be in Boston, as my father has a smart people convention, so I'll probably be rechecking out some colleges (Tufts) and deciding whether or not I really want to bother with applying.

Cheers, eh?

Love from,

Lynn

I am in a Christmas mood. My sister (she's three) decided to fall in love with Barney and the Christmas Star, so it's been playing on loop in our house for the last two weeks. As such, I'm in a rather holly jolly mood, and today's rather rainy weather is just delightfully dreary enough for me to delude myself into thinking it's December.

As such, I've a hankering to write something Christmas related. HP, perhaps? Why not. Something about the holiday season. It always makes me want to write. I used to play Love Actually in the background as I typed up HP fanfic, regardless of the season. I suppose I'd forgotten that, until just now. Hmm. Time to try the old methods again.

Keep an eye out.

So today, as I was considering how devastatingly delightfully convoluted the college application process is, and how very screwed I will be when the final tuition costs come in, it occurred to me that I should figure out exactly how much I'll be paying in application fees alone.

$840. I find it difficult to refrain from profanity while typing that. Now, granted, it's below a thousand, so, technically, a drop in the bucket of mounting costs I will pay in terms of tuition fees, but even so... it's really quite disheartening.

As such, I am reconsidering applying to Tufts. Seventy dollars is a bit much to apply to a college where my acceptance will be more or less a crapshoot, and I have little to moderate interest in actually attending. Ah, well. I'll be in the Boston area next week, so I'll take another look at the campus and re-evaluate my interest in the school.

Eurgh. (Just for the record, this is not the first time I have considered cost issues in the application process, just the first time I've had a minor meltdown in the face of the numbers.)

Cheers.

Back from my journalism workshop in Monmouth.

A rather interesting way to spend my two weeks, but terribly dizzingly busy. Somewhere between the lectures on the nearly-extinct creature that is print journalism and typing up my articles, I managed to snag a copy of HP7 and finish it... wow. Have not fully had time to digest, so I will hold back on the giant reaction post until I've reread.

Anyway, just popping by to say hello to everyone.

Love from,

Lynn

So, today, I received an application to Boston College in the mail. As a result, I had a minor freakout when I realized I need to pin down a definitive number of schools I'm applying to, soonish. My parents' colleagues have always asked me, "So, where are you thinking of applying to?" in the past, which gave me leeway with the answers, but lately the questions have been slowly taking the more interrogative form of, "So, where are you applying to this fall?" Eurgh.

To be productive, I have constructed a list of the colleges I am fairly certain I'll be applying to (most of them pre-vetted with my guidance counselor before school closed), with my grades, extracurriculars, standardized testing scores, personal preference, location, and decided major in mind.

1. Georgetown
2. Boston College
3. Northwestern
4. Cornell
5. Wellesley
6. Notre Dame
7. Wesleyan
8. The College of William and Mary
9. Vassar
10. George Washington University
11. Johns Hopkins University
12. Carnegie Mellon
13. Tufts
14. NYU
15. University of Michigan: Ann Arbor
16. Rutgers

My trouble is that sixteen is an insane number of colleges to be applying to. My parents won't let me apply to less than fourteen, and my guidance counselor won't let me apply to more than fifteen. So at least one of those schools needs to go. Actually, I don't feel like applying to more than fourteen, so... probably two. Any suggestions? I'm leaning towards cutting Vassar. After that, I can't decide. Possibly Cornell or Wesleyan or Notre Dame? Eurgh.

The definite major is journalism, but a fair number of schools don't offer it, so in those cases, I'll apply majoring in either Political Science or English Literature. Given the major, the ideal location is Washington DC, and, just because I'm odd and actually like winter, I refuse to apply anywhere in California. Aside from that, there's not much standing in my way of happiness at college. I'm fairly certain that most students can be happy anywhere, and most college students I know are generally happy with where they wound up, but even so... from this side of the application process, it's all a bit daunting. My safety safety is Rutgers, and my ultimate reach is Georgetown. After that, the schools fall into a range of targets and reaches. Probably more reaches than targets.

Eurgh. I am not looking forward to application season.

Any graduating/graduated seniors who'd like to pass on some wisdom regarding the crazy process that is college applications are very welcome and greatly appreciated.

Cheers, eh?

Love from,

Lynn