Sounds like there are crickets in the room.

Today I was sitting in my two-hour senior research symposium (which sounds all big and official but is really one of the most laid-back classes I have ever taken) and during a lull, one girl said, "It sounds like there are crickets in the room."

We'd all noticed it, because it DID sound like there were crickets in the room.

This guy who was sitting next to the first girl, who actually goes by "T-Bone" and openly talks about his sex-life and recreational drug use in class (it's a class on love; anything goes) said, "I don't think it's the crickets I have in my backpack, let me check" and lifts the bag up to his ear. "Nope!" he said, setting it back on the floor.

We all chuckle, because 1. why would he have crickets in his backpack and 2. why would there be crickets in our academic classroom at all, but then he got a confused look on his face. "What?" he asked, looking back at all of us. "I think my crickets are too hot to be making that much noise."

THEN HE PULLS A CLEAR PLASTIC BAG FULL OF CRICKETS OUT OF HIS BACKPACK.

He actually had crickets. Literally every single person in the class thought he was just being sarcastic and making fun of the girl for asserting something silly during class, but no. He was being dead serious. We were rolling with laughter for at least five minutes.

Also, the cricket noises WERE coming from his bag, obviously. He was getting defensive about his "well-behaved" crickets, but WHERE ELSE WOULD IT BE COMING FROM? Oh, maybe it was the crickets in MY bag. Or the professor's bag. That makes sense. xD

So for the rest of class, any time it got quiet enough to hear them chirping away in his bag, we all burst into laughter. Needless to say, we didn't get quite as much done as our professor may have hoped today. Also, we made him put his backpack in the hall.

Sometimes I feel like I have to really pull to find things to write about in this blog, and other times they just fall right into my lap. Today, my life was a sitcom.


Now I have a midterm to study for that I am absolutely unprepared for, and food to eat. Because one poptart is just not a sufficient amount of food to have eaten by five o'clock in the evening.

Also my talented and attractive boyfriend's new album "Erase This" is available for presale today, so if you're into music that is easy on the ears made by people who are easy on the eyes, you should go check it out.

I know it's quite early on in the series, but what's your opinion- David Tennant or Matt Smith?
I think the way that Doctor Who is set up, with regeneration being a driving force in keeping the show going, lends itself to not having to choose between different Doctors. Matt Smith is still the Doctor, and I like the choices he's making with the character. Especially in the scene with young Amelia Pond when he's trying all the different foods and spitting them out. I loved David Tennant, but I am not going to let that love stop me from growing to love this new Doctor.

Did you hear anything from ANTM?
Not yet! They said it would be possible that they don't even contact the winners until a week before the move-in day, so I've got my fingers crossed still.

Book Banning?/Censorship?
I remember in 6th grade we did this unit on fantasy books. I was in the group that read "Dealing With Dragons" by Patricia Wrede, but another group in our class read some book that apparently had a pretty steamy little love scene in it. The kids giggled, made jokes, and the rest of us were jealous that we didn't choose that book, but nothing bad happened to any of the kids who read that book. There were no lasting negative implications on their lives, it didn't encourage them to go have sex at age 12, and we even sat down in class and had a discussion about the function of romance in literature. I feel like if every book that might cause a child to giggle a little bit was removed from libraries, we'd be missing out on not only some great literature, but an opportunity to talk to young children about maturity and the topics themselves that we'd be censoring from them.
Obviously as a writer and fairly liberal human being, I don't think we should be taking any books out of circulation. I do understand that some books can promote things that aren't appropriate for schools, which is fine, but that's not the case often with the books that are banned from schools. Often books are banned because adults/parents/staff do not understand the themes the writer was trying to explore, and that's what makes me sad.

What is your favorite (non-alcoholic) drink?
I really like apple juice. And those tall/skinny Cascade something-or-other drinks; I can never remember what they're called.

Last google search: "dealing with dragons"
Chipotle burritos: 9