The problem with school vacations is they're never the right length.

At the end of the semester, you feel like you're running the last mile and a half of a marathon (or, as the British say in my new favorite movie Run Fatboy Run, a mare-ah-thin).  You just want the semester to end.  When it does end, you feel accomplished but exhausted.  A few days later after grades are posted, you gloat gloriously over your grand finish--or sometimes kick yourself and reflect on moments in the race where you could have pushed a bit harder. It all depends.

But the important thing is that at the end of the semester is vacation.  But then the vacation is never the right length.

For example, right now it's Christma... excuse me, Winter Solstice vacation.  I still have a week of vacation left and I'm starting to feel like my brain is rotting and oozing out of my ears for lack of extreme constant intellectual stimili.  If classes had started a week ago, things would have been great.  I would have had time to relax, read a few little books, see family and friends, and do other important vacation stuff.  Then the spring semester could have started and I would have been refreshed and prepared.

Spring break, on the other hand, is far too short.  So, in effect, it's like you're driving along a speedy interstate, only to have to come to a complete halt because a dog tries to run across the road.  Then as soon as the dog gets across, you have to get up to speed quickly before you're rearended by the person behind you, who of course is the person you passed earlier and is now laying on the horn and waiting until the very last minute to change lanes and you're left there with the task of catching back up to them (which, by the way, is all the more frustrating since how on earth did they catch up to you in the first place?! They were going so slow a few miles back!). That is how spring break usually feels to me.

Three-day weekends are arguably the only perfect vacations in my personal opinion because they trick you into thinking you're on vacation when really you aren't.  You have a whole extra wonderful day to do all the things that you normally would have had to do over the weekend, and have time for a long day excursion.  Now that's what I call luxurious.

And summer break?  Well, I don't really get one, since my stupid university makes us go to summer school, even though technically you're supposed to fill your summer credit requirement in your freshman/sophomore years.  Yes, my school is pretty dumb about stuff like that. 

My suggestion?  Let's have two weeks at Christm... ugh, I did it again.  Let's have two weeks off around the Winter Solstice and another two off in the Spring.  But nobody ever asks me, now do they.

And for the record:  CHRISTMAS CHRISTMAS CHRISTMAS CHRISTMAS CHRISTMAS.  And if you're offended, well, CHRISTMAS!!!

Sigma

I was tagged for 16 random facts by bluemarsupial and ihsankhairir.  But that does not mean that I'll give you 32 facts.  16 is plenty.

1. The reason I haven't been on xanga is because school is crazy and engineering is crazier.  I still like it though.
2. I recently realized that I really don't have any hobbies anymore.  My hobbies now are homework and doing stuff for engineering societies.  I am so lame. 
   
3. The one hobby I do have is cooking, which I enjoy very much.
4. I think my roommates and I would make a great FOX animated sitcom, like Family Guy.  I would be the nerdy guy's girl in a long-term relationship, my roommate in the room next to mine would be the girly sorority girl who likes dating and parties and dresses, and my newest roommate would be the black albino almost-blind Muslim girl.  Because she is black, albino, almost blind, and Muslim.  I'm completely serious.
5. I vacuumed my room today.  I don't know why that should be interesting.
6. I bought a Pulp Fiction poster to hang in the living room at the yearly campus poster sale.  I hung it up without telling either of my roommates, because when my girly roommate and I were decorating (before my other roommate moved in) she didn't like any of the posters that I liked and we ended up buying a generic ye olde world map.  Recently, I've been helping my girly roommate with her Chemistry homework.  She always says things like "Thank you SO MUCH, I'm totally going to buy milk for the next 3 weeks" and "You're SO AMAZING; I'm going to do dishes for you forever."  But I always still buy my own milk and do my own dishes.  So if she complained about my awesome Pulp Fiction poster, I was going to tell her that it was my payment for helping her with Chemistry.  As it turned out though, she liked it a lot, so I couldn't use my great plan.  Now I have to think of something else...
   
7. When I look out my window, I have the incredible view of a road with lots of construction.  Woohoo.
8. I'm incredibly excited to watch The Office season premiere tonight! 
   
9. Because I had some business-like events to go to a few weeks ago, I bought a pair of dress pants, a dress shirt, and a pack of trouser socks.  I was extremely proud of myself for looking professional, but after I had worn the same outfit several times over 2 weeks, I almost went insane.  I am currently happily sporting my jeans and t-shirts around campus until the next time looking fancy is absolutely necessary.
   
10. I want to be a ninja for Halloween.  D said I should be a zombie ninja, but I said that doesn't make sense because Japan does not have zombies.  So I am going to be a NORMAL ninja.  However, I don't even know yet if I will have anything to dress up for.  But if I do, I will be a ninja.
    
11. I'm on the aerie "a-list," which basically means that every month, they give me a free gift.  So far though, all the gifts have been ridiculously lame, so I hope they get better soon.
12. I own two staplers.  One sits on my desk; the other goes in my backpack.
13. I can do a backwards somersault.  This is the only acrobatic stunt of any kind that I have ever been able to do.  My pathetic, non-athletic, inflexible body could never even do a cartwheel.
14. In high school, a few of my friends and I used to pretend to act out Lord of the Rings at the playground, kind of like how little kids pretend to be the Power Rangers or whatever they pretend to be nowadays.  We would go after dinner time after all the little kids had gone home.  My favorite thing to be was the Ghost Army because it meant I got to run around the playground with my arms spread out and swoosh down upon the armies of Sauron.... or was it Saruman?  My memory is fuzzy now.  I used to be an expert.
15. The road outside my window is currently very congested in the northbound direction.
16. I'm hungry.

I'm not going to tag anyone since I don't know who's done it since I haven't been around.  I miss being here though so I hope I'll have a little more free time soon!

Sigma

So for those of you who do not know the joy that is watching South Park, please let me introduce you to a very integral character of this Emmy-Award winning series.

Meet Mr. Mackey, South Park Elementary's very own guidance counselor.  His most famous quote is, of course, "Don't do drugs, m'kay, cuz, drugs are bad, mmmkay?"

So now that you know all about Mr. Mackey, you can appreciate my story.

My Statistics professor sounds EXACTLY like Mr. Mackey.

Yes, it's true.  It's very true indeed.  Everyone I've met who knows my Statistics professor and who watches South Park agrees.  Dr. W sounds EXACTLY like Mr. Mackey.

And not only does he sound like Mr. Mackey, his mannerisms are exactly the same.  He'll be talking about probability for example.  "So, there are 15 widgets, mmmkay, we put that number in the denominator, mkay.  And then we put the number of defective ones, alright, into the numerator, mmkay.  So the probability that a widget will be, mm, defective, is five fifteenths, mkay, or one third, alright." 

It is scary and hilarious every class and sometimes I really have trouble not laughing, but overall I do like Dr. W so I contain myself.  I am a little nervous though about having so many more weeks of classes with this guy.

Sigma