The Strange Nature of Campus

So, the other day I saw a turtle sitting next to a duck in a tree.

I'm dead serious. If anyone is familiar with the Ohio State Campus, they'll know about Mirror Lake, the once-a-big-lake-now-a-large-duck-pond at the west end of the South Oval. If anyone is familiar with that area in much detail, they'll know about that one tree whose branches dip right into the water on one shore. Well, for the past week at least, two turtles have been taking advantage of the dipping branches to use as a spot to hang out on. I don't know if they're sunning themselves or what, it's a little shady there from the rest of the branches. Due to the brickwork surrounding the lake, the only other spot where they can actually climb out of the water is at the other end, where there's that little stream coming from God knows where (seriously, where does that stream come from?), so maybe they got tired of always swimming all the way over there for a breather. Whatever the reason, I've seen them there at least three times now, and they seem to enjoy pushing each other off the branches for no apparent reason. The ducks have also been taking advantage of it, although I think they'd been doing it for a while already when the turtles got the same idea.

Speaking of odd nature around Mirror Lake, I'm seriously starting to wonder what species those cow-ducks are. Two online birdwatching databases and a book on North American wildlife later and I still have no clue. I'm beginning to suspect that we have mutant ducks of some sort on campus.

Film Rant: The Valley of Gwangi

WARNING: Potential Spoilers for a four-decade old film you've probably never heard of anyways.

FURTHER WARNING: This isn't a "review" of the film so much as it is me ranting about my impressions of it.

Okay, granted, it's a B-grade "horror" film one usually lumps together with the likes of THEM! and The Giant Claw. And, granted, the general populace usually tries it's best to ignore films like this. But this film really stands out for me among other B-movies. For one thing, the special effects were done by Ray Harryhausen. That right there would get it a ringing endorsement from me, I'll admit. But even beyond that, it has so many varied and tantilizing elements to it:

*Cowboys. Not many B-movies have any sort of Western element to them (those that do are generally better off for it, in my opinion). Even fewer take place in the old west, making this one stand out even more.

*Mexico. Here we even have a different flavor than the traditional Western element, as the film takes place south of the border.

*Gypsies. You'd think with the film taking place in Mexico at the turn of the (previous) century, and a group of people denouncing a nearby valley as "evil," you'd think that group would take the form of a local Native American tribe or something. And you'd be wrong, as in Gwangi it's gypsies. This manages to add a further "Old World" element into the mix.

*Dinosaurs. Any of the above three combined with dinosaurs would, by themselves, make for an interesting twist on the traditional "when dinosaurs attack" B-movie. Instead we get all four, which is even better.

*Obscure Paeleontological Refferences. How many films are there where they've mentioned the word "Eohippus," period?

*A Midget. Enough said.

*Ray Harryhausen. I know he's already been mentioned, but then that's how much of an element he adds to a film.

Perhaps more suprisingly, they managed to throw in a decent enough plot to fill the spaces between dinosaur attacks. You never really get the sense that the sole existence of these people is to be killed messily by "the creature" later on (as is characteristic with many other B-movies I could mention). They even had a woman in a role other than that of "complete incompetence" (a trait of horror films from this era in general), and there was only one point in the entire film where I cringed on behalf of the imaginary feminist watching it with me. Honestly, I'm sorry I've never rented the film before now.

So I finally have Internet again

...after having waited about a week for the wireless card to get here. The quarter I have the most classes with online content right out the door is the one where I don't have immediate web access. Figures.

So it would seem I have some catching up to do.

Eeesh, where to start? Lot has happened this past week. It's the first week in the apartment, for instance, which has just been one continual learning experience. Sorry, frustration, that's what I meant to say. It's all fun and games until you find yourself with fifteen minutes to get to campus and absolutely no clue how to get there. It's a big help that the University Village busses don't seem to run on the weekend, when I do the most running around. It's an even bigger help that none of the busses that go out there run past 10:30 on the weekends, after which is when I'm most in need of transport. -_- I managed to convince my parents to send down the Corsica, but they've assured me that it's "only temporary." Arg.

Food, particularly it's aquisition, has also taken on some interesting characteristics. It's really amazing how creative you can get when you're simultaneously shopping with an eye for both cheap food and selective diets. There are now no less than eleven Hamburger Helpers of various sorts in our cupboards, and the closest thing we have to actual hamburger are the three packets of ground turkey in the fridge. Contrast this, and the frozen dinners in the freezer, with the construction last night of one of the best smelling examples of sweet potato pie I've ever encountered. Dear God in Heaven. Apparently cooking is a hobby of one of my roommates, which is good because my cooking skills are limited to frying up meat for tacos. Tacos which are also on the menu for this month. Turkey tacos. I can actually feel my taste buds going insane just from contemplating the disparity of all this.

I went to OSU-Con on Monday (known to most other people as the Ohio State University Student Involvement Fair), got my usual bag full o' swag from it. I will state here and now that despite accusations to the contrary the free candy that made up the entire bottom layer of junk in the bag was mostly aquired from booths that I displayed a genuine interest in. In fact, let's just make that a blanket statement that everything in that bag was aquired through legitimate means. I don't care what you saw going on at that one booth. I even managed to get a few free books on Buddhism whilst I was there. Not little pamphlets, either, I'm talking full-sized books with real covers and everything. In retrospect they may have been expecting people to only take one and leave (I took one of each out of three), but then hindsight is 20/20, and these are books I have a legitimate interest in.

On a somewhat related note, though, I signed on to way to many mailing lists this year. My school mail account is going to be a mess by the end of the quarter. It's also a real shame that so many of these organizations that hold my interest made the mistake of holding their meetings on Wednesday evenings. Don't these heathens know that's when Lost comes on?

Speaking of Lost and the circumstances in which I watch it, I've finally been seeing my boyfriend again after being separated by over half a state for the better(?) part of two months. Stupid 132 miles. I could kick those miles in the teeth right now. Of course, it doesn't help that he lives just off the campus I'm having such an easy time getting to at the moment. -_-

Can't really think of any other trials and ordeals at the moment, although they're bound to occur to me later. One issue that immediately comes to mind at this point in time: how the heck is one supposed to end a long introductory blog post like this?

...hmmm. I guess that works, actually

Meh

A most inauspicious start.