More numbers.

1. MAXIMO PARK. Dude, this is why Christmas rocks. I ended up getting $75 worth of iTunes gift cards, and I've been trying to use it to buy albums from bands that I like for two or three of their songs. Other bands I'm considering: The Organ, Veda/Vedera, The Pipettes, Nada Surf, Cobra Starship, The World/Inferno Friendship Society. Thoughts? Other bands to try?

2. OOFURI. TOSEI GAME = HOLY SHIT WITH THE SUSPENSE AND THE GETTING MY BLOOD UP AND THE BRINGING OF THE AWESOME. GOD. I went into this manga/anime for the characterization and the battery dynamic, but I have a feeling I'll be really getting into the games, too.

3. RADIO SHOW. As in, I'M DOING ONE. With loweryourwand! Tune in from wbar.org every Friday/Saturday night from 2-4 AM to hear us spout nonsense and play weird music!

4. My 21st birthday. Will fall on Easter Sunday. There's a conflict of interest if ever I saw one.

5. THIS MUSIC VIDEO. It's weird, but catchy and kind of addictive.

6. I want bustedtees. Specifically, this and this.

7. Lesson. Never take two extra-strength pain-killers first thing in the morning and then not eat anything. That poor girl in the hallway who saw me standing over a trashcan probably thought I had a hangover, which is so karmically unbalanced I have to laugh. Please go die, uterus.

It's days like today when it really hits home that I am going to an all girls school.

My roommate and I started talking about how sad and shocking and terrible Heath Ledger's death is, and as our conversation went on, my roomate pulled down her copy of 10 Things I Hate About You. She brought in a couple of friends from the hall, and we all started watching it.

This movie defined the beginning of our teens. I wasn't lying when I said he was my first idol crush. All of us love this movie and love Heath in it. The first time he came on screen we gasped a little and groaned and were so aware of his every movement, but then the movie took hold. Before long, we were laughing and groaning at everything, simply and plainly enjoying ourselves. It became less of a thing of mourning and more of a celebration of his life and his work.

As this went on, other girls stopped by, realized what we were doing and stayed to see the movie. At our largest, there were about sixteen of us in the room. About twenty filtered through for different portions. Twelve finished the movie with us. And throughout, we shared trivia and stories and thoughts about the movie and Heath Ledger. We all came to terms together.

I'm sure we weren't the only group of girls who did this, but I'm glad I was a part of it. Heath Ledger was one of our generation's greatest heartthrobs, and he was a wonderful actor besides. He will live on as Patrick and Cassanova, as Ennis del Mar and Gabriel Martin, as Sir William Thatcher, and the speculation surrounding his death can never taint those characters, or his stellar career. He figured prominently in my adolescence. For being that person in my life, I'm grateful to him.

A number of things:

1) I really want my paid account status back. It really pains me not to have it. I don't care that we've been dumped and given to the Russians, I just want more icons and comment editing. I WANTS IT.

2)I have had a busy "weekend." Friday I couldn't sleep so I ended up watching Enchanted and August Rush from the pirate sites I'd come across earlier in the day. I finally fell asleep around seven.

I woke up at 1, threw on some clothes, and joined loweryourwand at Strawberry Fields for the John Lennon Memorial gathering. There was lots of singing and togetherness, and I genuinely had a lot of fun. The only dark spot was that Diana was reluctant to leave for anything, let it be sustenance, shelter, or lavatories, and I had skipped breakfast thinking she would want to have lunch at some point. By the end of the four hours I was there, I was about ready to bite her face off if it would have appeased my growling stomach.

( Cinematic Evidence of Our Excursion, or, alternatively, OMG I'M ON YOUTUBE! )

After that we crashed in my dorm, watched Love Actually and A Hard Day's Night, and then had a mini dance party to Beatles music until we were both too tired and Diana wandered off to bed.

I woke up on Sunday around 3, and basically proceeded to work for eighteen hours on a first draft of a paper that I was required to hand in today (er, yesterday). Slept two hours, but paper safely submitted!

3) Today, I finally made it down to Kinokuniya for the closing sale. There wasn't really much left, but I did buy a Pinky:St doll (someone stop me before this becomes an obsession!), a Monokuro Boo lanyard (Nobuta has definitely made me notice the inherent cuteness of cartoon pigs), and a bunch of manga that I'm looking forward to reading when I need to escape finals hell.

4) I have a paper due this Thursday and finals on Friday, Monday and next Thursday. Wish me luck!

Columbia is setting up for its Homecoming Carnival tonight.

My section for Japan Civ (the one run by the British TA that I'm in heart with) starts at 11, and as I walked by, I noticed they were beginning to set up. When I came out at 12, all of the blow-up attractions were nearly finished, and it seemed that either they were testing the loudspeakers for the event or the people working on the set-up had a really loud radio, because as I was walking down College Walk I heard the distinct BAM-BAM-BANUM opening riff of, I shit you not, "Larger Than Life."

You know, the song by the Backstreet Boys?

I had the Backstreet Boys blaring at me from all directions all the way back to my dorm.

It was amazing. AMAZING.