There is a new picture posted at Ain't It Cool News of pre-production art from ROTK depicting Minas Morgul, for anyone interested. Probably in the finished movie it'll look different, 'cause the picture's pretty sketchy, but... *shrugs*

In unrelated news - what I heard on the radio, re: Sean Connery at the Oscars - "It's gotten to the point that even Sean Connery is mimicking his own accent..." Heh. It was amusing at the time. :) [added 3/31/03, 10:29 PM] By the way, did you guys know that Sean Connery was up for (or was considered for) the part of Gandalf? Heeeheeee...."Shauron'sh forchesh have begun their attack...thish ish but a tashte of the terror that Sharuman will unleash...you musht fight!" Heehe. Oh, I make fun, but he's a pretty cool guy. ;)

[1:33 PM]
And also, the latest in Prisoner of Azkaban (Azkaban...how cool is that word?) news is that the actor who plays the Slytherin quidditch captain has not been approached to reprise his role in the third movie (the Gryffindor quidditch captain won't be in it, either), which really doesn't bode well for likeliness of there being quidditch in the movie. I don't know; at this point, nothing's been really confirmed yet, and I don't think they'd really cut quidditch out entirely...would they? Let's hope not. It's not so much the quidditch itself that I'm worried about, but there are a few things that are quidditch-related that happen in the 3rd book that would be a shame to cut from the film...well, we'll see. *shrugs* Not like it really matters, I'll go see it anyway...

OKAY! 3 tests, 2 quizzes. Check! All done. :) Just have one more class 3 hours from now, and then it's weekend time...

Not that the weekend's gonna be a bonafide picnic anyway, though, 'cause I have a bit of catch-up to do on work since I've been spending all week studying...but any kind of weekend will be fine with me; I could use a break.

I can't even decide whether I really want to go see LOTR in the theater one last time (besides, word is that the DVD is out on August 26...), but I've got to admit that the idea does sound appealing. If I can find a good theater/time that it's on, I'm pretty much willing to go by myself at this point, if possible...*shrugs*

Guess everyone else has been as busy as I have, recently, 'cause no one's come around to this page much lately, I don't think. Ah well. I'm trying to get over my incessant need for feedback/comments anyway. It'd probably do me some good. :)

[4:38 PM]
I think I've gotten over my wish to see the movie in the theater again. Me mum's probably right... :)... twice is enough...though, still... oh, forget it. I'm over it. I can wait a couple of months (or about 5 months, if that's what it takes :)) before I see it again. Probably be better that way anyway.

Goin' home for the weekend to hopefully de-stress a little after my long week...*sigh*.
Will hopefully get online on MSN at some point over the weekend, unless someone else is using the computer...ah, the joys of sharing...I forget about sharing when I'm at res because I'm the only one around using my stuff... :)

Just found an amusing article (http://content.health.msn.com/content/article/61/67505.htm) over at (apparently) the Mental Health section at MSN.com. It's kinda funny considering there's a link on the left of my blog to a page of mine called "Songs Stuck In My Head"...

---

Songs Stick in Everyone's Head

'Earworms' Bother Women, Musicians Most
By Daniel DeNoon
Reviewed By Michael Smith, MD
on Thursday, February 27, 2003
WebMD Medical News

Feb. 27, 2003 -- They bore into your head. They won't let go. There's no known cure. Earworms can attack almost anyone at almost any time.

No, it's not an invasion of jungle insects. It's worse. Earworms are those songs, jingles, and tunes that get stuck inside your head. You're almost certain to know the feeling, according to marketing professor James J. Kellaris, PhD, of the University of Cincinnati.

Nearly 98% of people have had songs stuck in their head, Kellaris reported at the recent meeting of the Society for Consumer Psychology. The 559 students -- at an average age of 23 -- had lots of trouble with the Chili's "Baby Back Ribs" Jingle and with the Baha Men song "Who Let the Dogs Out." But Kellaris found that most often, each person tends to be haunted by their own demon tunes.

"Songs with lyrics are reported as most frequently stuck (74%), followed by commercial jingles (15%) and instrumental tunes without words (11%)," Kellaris writes in his study abstract. "On average, the episodes last over a few hours and occur 'frequently' or 'very frequently' among 61.5% of the sample."

Here's the students' top-10 earworm list:

1. Other. Everyone has his or her own worst earworm.
   
2. Chili's "Baby Back Ribs" jingle.
   
3. "Who Let the Dogs Out"
   
4. "We Will Rock You"
   
5. Kit-Kat candy-bar jingle ("Gimme a Break ...")
   
6. "Mission Impossible" theme
   
7. "YMCA"
   
8. "Whoomp, There It Is"
   
9. "The Lion Sleeps Tonight"
   
10. "It's a Small World After All"

Stuck song syndrome annoyed, frustrated, and irritated women significantly more than men. And earworm attacks were more frequent -- and lasted longer -- for musicians and music lovers. Slightly neurotic people also seemed to suffer more.

Kellaris hasn't yet found a cure. Women are more likely to try to get rid of the offending ditties. Men are just as likely to do nothing as to fight their earworms.

What helps? Kellaris doesn't know. But he found that when people battle their earworms, nearly two-thirds of the time they try to use another tune to dislodge the one that's stuck. About half the time people simply try to distract themselves from hearing the stuck song. More than a third of the time people with songs stuck in their heads try talking with someone about it. And 14% of the time, people try to complete the song in their heads in an effort to get it to end.

---

SOURCE: "Dissecting Earworms: Further Evidence on the 'Song-Stuck-in-Your Head' Phenomenon, James J. Kellaris, PhD, presentation to Society for Consumer Psychology, Feb. 22, 2003.

I've been good today! I've only just turned on the computer and it's already 7:40 pm! Woohoo! That means I've gone at least 16 hours (that does include last night's sleep time, mind you) without using the damned computer...

Did 2 practice Accounting tests and did all the Accounting reading, too. I'm only online now because I'm eating my dinner and so taking a short break before I study some more for my English quiz tomorrow. Hey, I even used my breaks productively today -- instead of turning on the computer and checking email or something, I washed dishes, did some exercise even, made my bed...heee. I feel like I've actually gotten some things done today. Go figure.

Anyway, I've got to stick this plate back in the micro for a little longer so I'm gonna go. :) Hope everyone had a good weekend!

The smartest thing I've done all day (and that's probably saying something) is making my computer defragment itself, which meant that while it was defragmenting, I couldn't use it and what better to do when I can't use my computer than actually study? :)

The bad news is that the defragmenting's done now (clearly). But don't worry, I'll try to be good...

(p.s. I think I was wrong about The Two Towers not playing anymore, because in the newspaper it's still listed as "Now playing"...so I think maybe movietickets.com just wasn't updated yet for the week after. Heh. My bad. *considers the next time she might have any chance at 'free time'*)

Next week is officially HELL WEEK.

I just found out/was reminded that, in addition to my Accounting, Stats and Economics tests on Wednesday, Thursday and Friday (respectively), I have an English quiz on Monday. Jooooooooy. Oh gosh almighty. *looks worried*

Technically, I have an evaluation for each of my 5 courses next week, since I also have a Calculus quiz on Thursday. I think, though, that I won't worry too much about that one because only 14 out of 17 quizzes count and I've already passed enough of them...

Okay, so no more goofing off (or less so, at any rate). *siiiiiiiiiiiiiigh*. $#^&**##@^*$%&#!!

FINNNNALLLY. I was thinking of moving my blog somewhere that didn't have an ad at the top of the screen, but that didn't work out so well for me, so then I finally remembered how to just put an image on top of the ad. Which works for me. *shrugs* I don't care if the ad is still there, as long as I can't see it... *grins*

See, this is the time when Chloe will probably have some sort of comment about how the graphic that's up isn't exactly wow-professional, but (not much time)+(only moderate patience)+(laziness) = wysiwyg (what you see is what you get). *grins* Anyway, I was just really, really bored with the way my blog looked before...

(Note: it'll really only look right if your screen resolution is 800x600...and you're using Internet Explorer...'cause Netscape kinda sucks... :P :) )

Comments?

Okay. I think English is officially my favorite course of the year. ;)

The T.A. teaching class today mentioned Buffy (specifically, "The Body"), Angel ("Sense And Sensitivity"), and Harry Potter (apparently she did a lecture last year sometime on HP and had to convince people that it was relevant to their lives in some way, as apparently the people she was lecturing to viewed HP as an entirely separate, fantastical, in-no-way-representative-of-reality type thing. hmm.). All she had left to do was throw in LOTR or like, Savage Garden or something, and it would have been perfect... ;)

Oh yeah, and it's +1 degrees celsius today! Compared to the kind of weather we've been having lately...it's almost balmy. ;) Well no, not really. Heh. It is supposed to be Spring in about a week, though, so hopefully it doesn't get really cold again...

Woo...I just converted this page into a 3-column thing so now I have a lot more room on the sides to put whatever I want...not too sure if there's anything else that's interesting that I can add...but...well...I'm just glad I got it to work. :)

If you hate it this way (and I don't think anyone really cares so much that they'll hate it, but...) let me know.

...have I mentioned that I had a lot of issues with Harry Potter and the Chamber of Secrets (the movie)?

Have I mentioned that things are a little iffy for HP: PoA, too? Like the fact that Oliver Wood (and, one would think, some of the Quidditch stuff and some other related things) isn't going to be in it...at all? One of the good things so far, though, is the director, Alfonso Cuaron. He's pretty cool. Hopefully the movie will be okay, but...iffy-ness still abounds. Okay, remind me to stop reading books before they turn them into movies...it just always seems to turn out better for me when I do it the other way around. :)

I'm considering possibly doing some work now to distract myself from the fact that LOTR is playing for the 2nd last time ever at the theater closest to my current location...it's playing right now......

Oooookay....so....maybe I'll read To The Lighthouse, or read some chapters in my Stats textbook, or...download some music and stuff...

Hmm. Don't know how well this distraction thing's gonna work out, but we'll see how it goes. Maybe I can actually make good use of my time...for once. :)

I so like classes that are like the one I just had.

In English class just now, we summarized what we'd talked about (re: Emma) last class, and then for the next 30 minutes we watched part of Clueless. *grins*. That is such a great movie, and I appreciate it even more now since I've seen it so many times already and since it's been a while since the last time I watched. It's so good. *chuckles a little*

Hmm, anyway there are some dishes I've gotta clean and some crap I've gotta do, so that's all; just wanted to share my Clueless-ness with everyone. ;)

*frowns a bit* This is the last week that The Two Towers is going to be playing in theatres...

Guess it's time for me to switch to I-hope-they-hurry-making-and-releasing-a-really-good-DVD mode rather than the maybe-I'll-get-to-go-see-it-again mode, hmm? Ahhh, well...

Friday's the last day. *consults movietickets.com* Although...if I was really desparate, it is playing at Varsity Cinema on Friday...at 5:05 pm...and my last class ends at 4:00 pm.... but I'd probably be going by myself and I've never actually gone to see a movie on my own before. Wow, I'm starting to sound really pathetic, aren't I? Oh hell, it's not that big of a deal. I'll just wait for the video. *rolls eyes at self* Honestly. Why do I worry about such things?

*heads quietly back to her corner*

Was just about to go to sleep when it really hit me...that Buffy's ending soon and what that means.

OH MY GOD!!
I've known this was coming since like, forever, but it's still weird to think that this is really it.
I mean, my rational side does know that it's the right time for the show to end, but then there's that nagging voice of my inner fangirl that's a little teensy bit dismayed about all of this.

WHAT ABOUT MY WEBSITE?! Am I...not going to have a website after May 20, 2003? And if I do, can it/will it be about the same thing? Could I possibly make or want to make a website about something else? I don't think there's anything else I've invested as much total time in or know the most about, in terms of website topics. But I can't imagine NOT having a website, either. What do I do?! *adopts a melodramatic, corny tone of voice* What does one do when one's primary field of expertise gets plowed? (hehe)
(though I have been a little out-of-the-loopy about what's happening/going to happen on the show recently because I've been entirely trying my best to avoid spoilers)

*somewhat despairingly* What do I doooooo? I guess...assuming Angel stays on, my site can still be about that... *sigh* Which is a shame b/c between the 2 shows, I've always been fonder of Buffy and right now the Angel characters are being kind of annoying anyway (though I am happy about getting the Season 1 DVDs, because THAT was an excellent season).

Anyway. I still can't help feeling like I'm boring all of you with my babbling, so I'm gonna go to bed now. Again, have a great weekend, everyone.