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Ingrid

ingridblythe
@
shaw.ca

Startredder(AIM)

startredder@hotmail.com (MSN)

Fanlistings, Cliques, and Other Stuff

Reading Lirael, As You Like It, The English Patient, Heart of Darkness, Suikoden III, Candidate for Goddess

Watching House, Rick Mercer's Monday Report, Gilmore Girls, Scrubs, Corner Gas, Aishiteruze Baby, Prince of Tennis, Hikaru no Go

Playing The Bard's Tale, Katamari Damacy, Curse of Monkey Island, Final Fantasy VI, Disgaea: Hour of Darkness, Pretty Barbie Dressup Party Final Fantasy X-2(group gaming)

Back-burner Star Ocean: Till the End of Time, Star Ocean: The Second Story, Final Fantasy Tactics: Advance, Baldur's Gate: Tales of the Sword Coast, Planescape: Torment, Final Fantasy VII

Obsessing Firefly, Erik and Ray, Impulse/Bart Allen, Ford Prefect, Monkey Island, Nostalgia.

Upcoming Things of Importance
January 5 First day of classes
January 14 Birthday party
January 16 Jaryn and Matt Are Old Day

Ninja and Roommate
Crack for Crack
Story and Art Journal
Mythical Detective Loki Screencap Recaps
Prince of Tennis Screencap Recaps

Previous Games

American Gods
Carnival of Bargain Madness
Grumpy Gamer
The International House of Mojo
Logic and Chaos
Pensieve
Websnark
Worm Blog

scented // midnight rain

layout
Is by Meimi, that wonderful Goddess who brings joy and happiness to the hearts of Ingrids.
This time, Meimi brought joy by doing a layout of Isumi Shinichirou and Waya Yoshitaka, of Hikaru no Go. It is full of wub.


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5/18/2002 09:37:41 PM
Correction - I'll review Shards of Honour as soon as I can figure out where I put my book . . .


5/18/2002 09:34:35 PM
~scans~ Oh. Wow. Ko linked my blog. Um. Wow.

~blushy happies~

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General updateyness on stuff: New reviews up on Logic and Chaos. More Potter, and I'm going to type up one for Shards of Honour in just a minute. Plus, multiple threats of multilation to Bell made her review Hikaru no Go.

This is why everyone needs a copy of the Complete Works of Shakespeare. ~nikoniko~


5/18/2002 09:25:13 PM
Worshipworshipworship. Keiichi-wallpaper! Unlike the numerous ones I tried to make, it doesn't such. It's loverly. Bweeeeeeeeeee.


5/16/2002 08:25:28 PM
I love my mother so very very much.

I love Lois McMaster Bujold so very very much.

I love Bel Thorne so very very much.

And now I absolutely must study and not give into the temptation to read . . . Must . . . be . . . strong . . .

Although I will admit to quickly flipping the pages. Just, you know, to make sure Miles didn't have anything that could possibly be called a "hermaphroditic old flame" besides Bel.

The happy tingly buzz hasn't quite set in properly let. Hm. Lessee . . .

I OWN DIPLOMATIC IMMUNITY!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

AND IT'S LONG WEEKEND!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

I think that worked. Hehehehehehe!!!! Poign!!


5/16/2002 12:10:50 PM
Um, well Meimi it's sort of more Jinxer than me. You should ask her why she keeps typing the damn chapters up, 'cause that's the only reason I'm reading them.

Besides, it is so much fun to slash them to pieces.

~bounces~ Neville in book five! Neville in book five! Neville in book five!

Ahem.

No, wait.

Mum's in Regina as I type.

Diplomatic Immunity will be mine!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

And, you know, there are so many ways you could interpret the previous sentence if you don't have a bloody clue what I'm actually talking about. Hehe.


5/15/2002 05:00:16 PM
Good god, I can't believe that rant was so bloody -long-. I think I may delete it after Jinxer reads it (which is really why it's there. ~coughlazyIngridcough~).

In other news, um, have the Surviving US thing tonight, and I'm definitely going, so maybe my mom will be super nice and will get me Diplomatic Immunity tomorrow. And I can read it ~drools in anticipation~ and and and . . . EEEEEEEE!

Of course, Regina book store's won't have it in, so I'll have to wait until Mum goes to Saskatoon at the end of the month, but still . . . They might have it. Maybe. You never know . . .

And if not, well, I may end up rereading the entire Vorkosigan series to build myself up for it anyways. Besides, I've never reread A Civil Campaign, which I definitely should, I mean, Ivan's just bloody hilarious, and I could -marry- By and Dono. And Miles is great as always, but Miles is always great. And Gregor and eeeee . . .

No, this is not an excuse to reread Mirror Dance. Shuttupshuttupshuttup.



5/15/2002 04:48:10 PM
Kate-chan, you can't have my chocolate. No touchy.

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So, today, in French, we discuss the play we saw yesterday, L'hypocrite, which is about two best friends, Chuck and Eric, and a girl, Helen. Chuck encourages Eric to go out with Helen, then makes the move on her himself, and they break up Eric finds Helen frenching Chuck, and Eric plasters posters all over the school saying she's a ". . ." and she has a nervous breakdown and moves to Oxsburry.

Anyway. The discussion eventutually turned to bullying and backstabbing and other healthy teenager hobbies. After eventually lapsing into a series of noncommital grunts every time the discussion made its way back to me, I got the point. You can stop beating me over the head now God, thanks.

Last night, after I typed up my review of Potter for Logic and Chaos, Jinxer tried to find out -why- I dislike Harry as a character so much. And I refused, 'cause it's bloody personal and I've already tried to approach it from the side of what I -do- like in the books - Neville. And Jinxer laughed. So, yeah, reluctant Ingrid.

So now, for Jinxer and any other curious people who read Logic and Chaos and wonder what my problem is, or just want to know why I'm a fscked up mental case, here's the Personal History of Ingrid.

As most who know me are aware, I'm in a program called French Immersion, intended to make anglophone children functionally bilingual. It's a pretty good program, with one exception - you're going to be going to school with the same group of people until you graduate. This has been rather bad, particularly for me. I never went to preschool and I only just required a younger sibling when I started school. The most children my age I'd dealt with at one time was maybe four. So school started off badly and never really got better. I was small, sheltered from pop culture so I never knew what my classmates were talking about, chubby, and I had an accent (Ontario, but you'd be amazed by how kids noticed these things). I also live in an area of the city with next-to-know children my age, and so when I was little, had no one to play with on weekends, and all my classmates lived out of town or in the rich area of the city. The only time I ever saw them was at school and occaisionally birthday parties.

When the French Immersion program at the school I went to dissolved, we were sent to another public school, loosing a lot of classmates in the transfer. So then I was an outcast for another reason. The class was bigger and the social hierarchy of the class was pre-established. It went from being physical fights with the same person every day to being physical fights with boys, and verbal fights with girls. Mostly, I was just picked on, teased for my accent, hair, name, whatever suited.

Occaisionally, when it suited people, I'd be promoted to the position of Friend. For a couple weeks, I'd be allowed to hang around with the other kids in my class at recess in a way that didn't involve them beating the crap out of me or making me cry. And then they'd dump me, without warning, and thigns would go back to normal, with the exception of another very weird and sweet girl who always seemed to feel sorry for me.

I was crappy in pretty much all subjects that counted. I couldn't spell and I had a bad memory, so I always did poorly on tests. I never did homework, so I spent a lot of time in the principal and vice-principal's office, during class, during recess, during lunch, after school, and I eventually ended up going to the resource room because I would fail spelling tests constantly.

The last few years of elementary school were living hell, as I was an early developer as far as puberty goes. I was pretty much at my full bust size by grade six, which involved massive teasing by not only my classmates, but by older kids from the juniour high that were on the bus. I also got into more physical fights with my arch-nemesis, who I shall refer to as Imbar. Imbar is your typical muscle bully who everyone's terrifed of. Not very bright, but huge and muscular and capable of a great deal of ass kicking and torment. By the end of the year, I was afraid to take the bus, because it was a hideously organized place where Imbar could beat on me to her heart's content. And, thanks to stupid dojo kan in karate, there was little I could do to make her stop. Use of karate generally ended up with me in more pain than I started, and in the principal's office.

I went onto juniour high more or less intact, doing piss poor in my classes because I spent all of my time reading in and outside of class, and with a tendency to explode verbally and physically at anyone who'd touch me or talk to me in a negative manner. My grades didn't improve until grade nine, after my former home room teacher ranted at my parents about how angry she was that a student capable of getting ninety percent in a class always pulled low seventies.

A teacher actually thinking I could get good marks managed to make me do actual work in classes after that and radically improve my marks. It didn't matter how hard I tried, I was never the best, never the teacher's pet kind of student, just kind of ignored, pushed to the back of people's minds. Students who cheated or could sugar coat things with glossy presentations did better than I ever could. Plus - their reputations preceded them in the tighly knit French Immersion school system, and -everyone- loved them. Of course it would be natural for them to get the best marks in the class.

High school, finally. Getting nineties in practically every class I take, and you know what? Still not getting any recognition for what I do. No awards, no scholarships, nothing. I may as well not exist, for all the impact I have on a teacher. I pull ninety-eights in two classes one semester, and still can't manage to snag an award. Violent outbursts gone in favour of emotional supression, because if you don't react, no one cares, and if you don't react you aren't interesting enough to garner the attention of a busy high school student.

I'm in grade twelve now. I have an IQ of 153. I have an average somewhere in the nineties. I can think of two teachers out of the dozen or so I've had since grade ten who don't teach me anymore but can still remember my name and say hi to me in the hallways. The hierarchy of the classes remains. I'm virtually ignored unless someone needs help with English, the subject I got ninety-nine in last semester, or another subject. I leave so little imprint in people's minds that the first semester of the year about ten people never realized I wasn't in their Canadian Studies class, even after they'd asked me for homework half a dozen times and I'd told them in a very loud voice and no uncertain terms that I wasn't in their bloody class. If it's not for school, people don't talk to me. People are either nice, when it suits them, or ignore me completely. I'm not worthy of the attentions of the cool and popular, and even the nice ones are nice out of pity, and don't make themselves friendly or sociable if there are people they actually like around. Associating with Ingrid is like death to one's social status in the school.

Harry Potter ignites anger in me because he has all his wonderful talents (he's not perfect, but he has numerous talents, some no one else has) and he has his tight knit group of friends and he has the respect and admiration of most people he knows. There's some that he doesn't, because it's a book and they're Evil, but if it were the real world, Harry could pretty well match up with those in the upper tier of my classroom hierarchy.

If anyone's read the books, it should be obvious why I identify with poor bullied Neville, who's mostly ignored by his fellow students, and who's treated nicely by Potter, but it's made quite clear in the first book that Harry and his friends (and pretty much everyone else) would rather the clumsy boy stay out of their way.

So to sum it up in this excessively long blog entry? I'm just a very very bitter person who's jealous of those who seem to get what they need in life so easily. Yeah. Go bitter me.


5/14/2002 09:14:22 PM
-And- I just got a bag of chocolate covered caramels! Screw calculus!


5/14/2002 09:11:26 PM
My mum's going to Regina on Thursday. This induced an impromtu happy dance.

Diplomatic Immunity you -will- be mine.


5/14/2002 02:58:24 PM
I really wish I had something interesting to blog. But, I don't. And I never will, because I have no life.

So just delete this if you have it bookmarked or something, which you probably don't, and bookmark Logic and Chaos instead, 'cause that's where anything interesting is going to be.


5/13/2002 10:29:57 PM
You know what the best thing about having Jinxer type up the Potter books? Sitting there, doing something else, reading Sluggy Freelance, and occaisionally saying stuff like "Salazar Slytherin could talk to snakes" before Jinxer starts the paragraph that basically says "Salazar Slytherin could talk to snakes."

This speculating thing is -really- fun. ^_^


5/12/2002 10:21:10 PM
I didn't even think of Passage being dated because of all the movie references. Stupid me. But I read it very soon after I read Remake. Now -that's- a couple hundred trillion movie references that are dated already.

Still, lots of books make reference to whatever goes for popular culture at the time of the writing, or in the setting. Atmosphere, or something. Sometimes it dates it hardcore, as Jae said, and sometimes I think it's intentional. Sadly, I fear Passage will be one to suffer from the hardcore datingness. Unless, you know, by some truly sick twist of fate, there's some major following of said popular films in the future.

Dude, that's a scary thought.

I want more Connie Willis now. Time travel, please.

Going to probably start on a massive re-read of all things Bujold once I'm done with the Huff book. In preparation for the fact that my mother -will- buy me Diplomatic Immunity when she's in Saskatoon.

She will. Shut up. It will be mine. Hardcover. Bel. Soon as possible.

Too tired to fangirl.


5/12/2002 01:50:58 PM
DIPLOMATIC IMMUNITY IS OUT AND IT HAS BEL THORNE IN IT!

This message has been brought to you by Ingrid's never-seen raving fangirl side.

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