10. Talk about your

pets or the pets you would like to have.

I have no pets. These topics all make me feel like a really boring person. And I'm not going to talk about the pets I would like to have, because I honestly just don't feel like it right now. Too lazy.

9. Favorite meme at

the moment.

I don't like this topic, because I don't have a favorite meme, and it's making me look boring. Same with that favorite color topic. I have a personality, I promise!

I just remembered that I have a chem lab report due tomorrow. I knew there was something I was dreading.

8. Are you a

fitness guru or a couch potato? Talk about your exercise habits.

Once again, if you don't know the answer to this question, you don't know me. Fitness guru! Just kidding. Good one, right?

I am a couch potato, through and through. No doubt about it. The only thing I like more than sitting down is laying down. My diet consists largely of ramen and coke (the perfect late-night combination).You think I'm kidding, but I'm not.

There was actually a fairly short time in my life when I was not a couch potato, though, and I did five hundred sit-ups a day. That was also when I was 91 lbs, so you can make your own judgements about that.

It's not that I don't care how I look anymore. My laziness just trumps everything else. And my fear of working out publicly and having people see and ridicule how pathetically weak I am. That, too.

7. How you came

across tumblr, and how your life has changed since joining it.

Well since this is a blogspot blog, I'll write about that.

I've known about blogspot for forever, obviously, since it's been around for forever. Before Xanga, even. I am a person of really weird loyalties, though, so I never joined, because I didn't want to betray Xanga (I do, in fact, still own and operate my Xanga from seventh grade, but it's on friends' lock, so unless you can already see it, no you cannot see it). But then my sister got a blogspot for her photography, and I decided that I liked it a lot and that I wanted a place where I could post things publicly without also giving people dangerous insight into what I was like as a thirteen-year-old (weird, so weird). And, of course, everyone was getting a blog, and I am a bandwagon jumper.

How has my life changed? Well, it hasn't really. Except I feel guilty if I don't do this 30-day challenge everyday. It's also encouraged (at least I like to think that it's had some effect) some of my other friends to get blogs, which I love! They all have much more interesting things than me to say.

I'm good about blogging on Monday, Wednesday, and Fridays, 'cause that's when I have this awkward two-hour gap in-between classes. And since I have a backpack now, I can actually take my laptop places with me without killing my shoulder! Huzzah!

Einstein Bro's was out of the salad I wanted, so I opted for the turkey chili. Also delicious.

This post title sounds dirty.

6. Your favorite season,

and why.

My favorite season is summer. I'm obviously not very unique. I like summer, because I'm not in school and it's warm everywhere all the time and I can wear shorts and skirts. It does get a little too hot sometimes, but I'd take hot over cold any day.

I like clear skies and flip flops and nice things like that. And not being in school. Did I mention that? In the summer I get to sleep on my natural sleep cycle (nocturnal).

On a completely unrelated note, I seriously do not understand how anyone can not like classical music.

5. Tell us your

three favorite colors.

I'm doing two today, since I skipped a day. And also because I am waiting for biology lab time.

I can't tell you all my three favorite colors, because I don't believe in favorite colors. I don't want to hurt the other colors' feelings, you see. Every color has beauty and ugliness in all of its shades and nuances. The end.

4. Write about your

closest friend(s).

Well, I had a post all written, and then I accidentally deleted it.

I skipped a day. My bad.

My closest friend: Carolyn and I have spent so much time together that we've developed our own kind of subculture that no one else really gets and/or thinks is funny, even though we think (know) we're hilarious. It also makes it so that we're a little socially awkward with everyone else, because we only fully know how to interact with each other. It's pretty sad. We've been friends since Kindergarten when she invited me to her birthday party because Kerry told her to and I showed up on her doorstep with a present and pneumonia. We have way more inside jokes than I could possibly list. Here's a joke, though: Catholicism.

Just kidding, Catholic friends.

Anyway, I keep her around, because she laughs at all my jokes and makes me feel funny. And, don't tell her this, but I'm actually quite fond of her. I wouldn't go as far as love though, and certainly never a hug... :)

3. Your favorite television

program.

I think the answer to this one is pretty obvious. If you've ever stumbled upon my facebook, even for just a little bit, you should know my favorite television program. It's so obvious, I'm not even going to state it here

There are a few pretty close runner-ups. Modern Family is great. Scrubs is hilarious. The Jersey Shore provides mindless entertainment like no other.

But nothing beats good, 'ole Liz Lemon and her TGS shenanigans.

Liz: Wanna see me shotgun this?
Jack: Oh God, she means the pizza!

Quality stuff, right there.

2. Talk about your

piercings or tattoos, if you have any.

I don't have any piercings or tattoos. Lame, I know. I've thought about getting my ears pierced, but I figured that would just turn into an added expense, and I definitely don't need more things to shop for.

I kind of want a tattoo, though, even though I never like them on other people. It would just be something small on the side of my finger or on my wrist or something. Apparently it would be "unprofessional," though, so it'll probably never happen. Plus, I feel like I would regret it afterwards. For now, I'll just stick to fake stuff.

And now, a vintage video of my dear Katie Rush that I just cannot get enough of:

New favorite quote? I think so.

1. You middle name,

and how you feel about it.

My middle name is Ann, and I am mostly apathetic towards it, though I do wish it had an "e" at the end of it. But mostly I just don't care.

Upon discovering my middle name, a teacher once said, "Melissa Ann--that's a sweet name," which I thought was odd. 

I was going to explain my Chinese name and its relation to "sweet" here, but then I decided that was too complicated.

Anyway, Ann. And I think it's okay.

I stole this

from Elizabeth's tumblr.



This will be my current blog niche.

There are a

number of things that I could be doing right now. For example, I could be reading the chapter in chemistry and working on the challenge problems. Or I could be going over those two papers the professor in my new lab gave me to read. Or I could be trying to write poetry. Or I could be reading that chapter in psych.

But let's be realistic. We all know this blog was created and will be used mainly as a procrastination tool. So procrastinate I shall.

I thought today I'd blog about neuroscience.


The dentate gyrus of the brain as seen via fluorescent microscopy and the "Brainbow" technique.


A lot of people seem to think that I am only going into neuroscience, because it is the more proper thing to do. They also think that I am more apathetic towards it than anything else, but neither of those are actually true. It's true that  the main reason I have chosen neuroscience as my "main major" is that I think it is more practical, and it's true that I never originally sought out neuroscience (I just kind of ended up there through convenience), but I am actively engaging in the pursuit of neuroscience now, because I really, truly want to.

Why? Because the brain is the beginning. Because I get excited (no pun intended) at the idea of tiny electrical impulses traveling through dendrites and axons and terminal buttons and building and building into who we are. Because, assuming monism for the purposes of now, the source of the answers to all of life's questions of why and how and who are locked up in an organ that is, more than anything else, fat, and that is incredible. Because neuroscience is, at its core, a philosophical pursuit. Because that, all of that, is art, and it is beautiful.

I want to know. I want to understand. And that's why I'm in neuroscience.

Alice told me

to update my blog, but I don't really have anything to say. I'm already behind on all my reading.

I'm really worried about my poetry class, and I'm really tempted just to drop it. If I dropped, my Tuesdays and Thursdays would end at 12:25 as opposed to 4:55, and that would be so, so nice. And I really just don't know if I can write all this poetry!

I just love words so, so much. Language is so, so beautiful. I want to be a poet.

So, so.

I should be

reading Keat's letters and writing a response. Or reading all that Haslam stuff. Or reading chem. Or bio. Or psych. I'm doing this instead, though.

I've been trying to think of a niche for this blog, and I haven't really come up with one. I mean, I have my actual, physical journal for deeper, personal thoughts, my xanga for surface-level musings, and this blogspot for...? Other than additional procrastination, I'm not really sure. Maybe I should get rid of my xanga once and for all, but I would feel like I would be committing some sort of gross betrayal. After all, I have had it since seventh grade. It would be sad to say goodbye, even though everyone else in the world has. I'm just weirdly nostalgic like that. I don't think I used that word correctly.

I'm being told

that Jon Stewart said the exact same thing as my previous post. I didn't know, I promise. Why don't I ever have any original ideas??

"And what there is to conquer
By strength and submission, has already been discovered
Once or twice, or several times, by men whom one cannot hope
To emulate--but there is not competition--
There is only the fight to recover what has been lost
And found and lost again and again and now, under conditions
That seem unpropitious. But perhaps neither gain nor loss.
For us, there is only the trying. The rest is not our business."

-T. S. Eliot, "East Coker"

I love, love, love that last time.

I just watched Jon Stewart's segment. It's only half the same...his is better.

I understand that

the shootings in Arizona were probably not a direct result the violent political rhetoric that has been going on. I get that. I really do. They were the result of a mentally-ill individual that had shown many warning signs before and simply fell through the cracks because of a mental health system that could use a lot of reform. And they were the result of extremely lax gun control laws that allow citizens to obtain guns (and semi-automatics at that) incredibly easily and carry them around without a permit. Political rhetoric, though? There's no evidence to that. I understand that.

But that's not the point.

The point is, it could have very easily been the cause. It is altogether far too plausible that slogans like, "Don't retreat, reload!" and political hit-lists in red-white-and-blue image-form could have pushed a mentally-ill individual to violence. That may not have been the case here, but it could easily be the case in the future. 

The left says, "You did it!" The right says, "Don't blame us!" and, of course, "blood libel!"

But that's not the point.

The point is, six people died, and thirteen people were injured. A Congresswoman was shot. A nine-year-old girl that was only there because she wanted to learn about the government died and died pointlessly. This isn't a time to point fingers. This is a time for people, left and right alike, to come together and find a way to make it so that something like this never happens again. And that includes toning down the hateful rhetoric.

That is all. 

Fancy seeing you here.

I decided it was finally time for a new blog. Photo credit goes to Alice, of course. Sorry for the unreadable banner. I'll find something better soon.