What the title says. This is gonna be disorganized I bet, but I figured I'd give an update.

So, I am ridiculously busy writing papers, student teaching, reading textbooks, and doing projects. I barely have time to hang out with friends, I'm on a hiatus from WoW, and I've been reading actual books fun sooo infrequently because I have had a lot of required reading. My little free time is spent reading webcomics, watching the occasional TV show (keeping up with House!), and going on Facebook. I have to go through all the galleries/journals of people I watch here, but I don't have the energy... I don't know why it takes so much energy to do stuff on here (including writing this).


Here's what's up, in more detail -

I'm taking my last Biology class, and my last three Education classes. I've been at my student-teaching internship twice a week. My mentor teacher, who teaches two Biology classes and an Anatomy and Physiology class, is a great teacher and has helped me out with a lot of things. The kids are... interesting. I like helping out in the class and teaching. It's amazing how different this high school is from mine. So many of the kids are disrespectful, talking over the teacher or not doing their work or talking back... Plus, many of them take a very long time to learn concepts... such as a third of the kids in a general Science class that I'm helping another teacher with, who, after making at least 20 graphs, still have trouble figuring out how to graph any new set of data... or the students who still have trouble grasping the concepts of dependent and independent variables after repeated explanations and activities. Despite this, some of the kids really want to learn, and even the reluctant ones have their good moments. It's rewarding, fun, and I can definitely see myself doing this for the rest of my career. I'm lookingforward to next semester, when I'll be the main teacher in at least the 2 Biology classes.

I'm living on campus in a great apartment with 2 friends and one person I just met in October, who is here from Saudi Arabia for the English Language Learning program, then the Mechanical Engineering program. My roommate who I've known for 4 and a half years is a Computer Science major, and my roommate who I've known for 2 and a half years is a Theater/Education major. We all get along well. The apartment is a nice place to do work, and I tend to have the TV on while working, which makes boring assignments slightly less boring.

I get to see my boyfriend most weekends, and he will hopefully have a job soon (a real, career job, since he graduated with his Computer Engineering/Biology degree).

As for family news... My mom just came back from a trip to Turkey that she went on with art/architecture buffs who are alumni from her old university. She said it was amazing, and I'll get to see the photos over Thanksgiving break. My dad is ok, just super busy with work. My cats... well, here's the bad news. Both of them had kidney problems for months, Raisin longer than Peanut... October 5th my mom had to take Raisin to get put down, and today, she had to take Peanut to the vet to get put down. In both cases they were at the point where doing anything more to keep them alive would just be suffering for them. So my two "little brothers" lived over sixteen years happily with us, and died painlessly in my mom's arms. I'm kind of glad I wasn't there to see them deteriorate and die... I'm gonna miss them, but hey, we had good times.

Soon, I'll be applying to graduate schools soon for programs in Educational Curriculum and Instruction (top choices are American University and University of Maryland College Park). I will need a Master's degree to teach in public schools (one is required within a certain number of years), and I decided to get that over with before starting to teach.

Hmm, I guess that's all for now... Check out my gallery for 2 photos of the adorable baby terrapin in my biology classroom at the high school, and my scraps for some old cute photos of my cats when they were kittens! I might eventually post some of my best pictures of geckos from this summer, too. For now though, it's back to writing a paper and developing an exam.

Until next time... take care, folks.

~Sara

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MEME

I still have to pimp out, I'm sorry it's taken me so long and that I -still- haven't done it. I will though. Sorry for the lonnng delay, but I will. Hopefully you understand. I like to be able to go through your whole gallery and comment on almost everything so it takes a while.

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Now, for the fun. Meme slightly edited for my purposes. See first three people's journals if you want the more official versions. Not that it matters.

*The first 10 people who post in this journal will be featured. I will go though your gallery and choose three of your deviations I like most and post them in my journal for everyone to see! I'll also post a little about you and each piece. It's pretty much to show you off. Who doesn't want that? The catch? You gotta put this in your journal as well if you posted. I'll update this so it bumps to the front page. And remember, if you don't post this in your journal, I'm not going to put your art up.*


1.
One of my awesome friends i know from college. I love his B&W style but he's good at color pieces too. A bonus is that much of his art is very sexy. He also writes but i have not yet read any of his writing...
[link] (sexy purple-skinned elf trapped in a web. Note: Tasteful back/side view nudity)
[link] (dom/sub not-porn. yum. Note: sexual imagery)
[link] (showersex in a nice simple style. Note: sexual situation)


2.
Another wonderful friend at college! Particularly talented in a nice style of poetry (probably fits in free-verse), also draws and will probably have more stuff up soon.
[link] (portrait, with wings! Note: tasteful frontal nudity)
[link] (a lovely poem "inspired by my total and complete misinterpretation of Lennon")
[link] (a fun poem "bemoaning my lack of ability to write things like sonnets and vilanelles")


3.
One of my first 'net friends, a totally wacky and awesome person. Bixie has a lovely, unique style that I've had the pleasure of watching develop and improve over the years. She draws me lots of gift art too!
[link] (me with wings and Bixie's original characters. They love me, which is nice)
[link] (lovely realistic picture of a very pretty emo person, nicely done in pencil)
[link] (another pic of the boys, very sweet. Note: shonen-ai)


4.
Another old net friend... i believe we met on my very first forum at least 5 years ago. She's really cool, multitalented. Her gallery consists of some drawings, great writings, and a ton of awesome icons (which are "gankable" as long as you credit her, of course n.n).
[link] (fun and sexy icon based on the corset-produced cleavage in Pirates of the Carribean)
[link] (interesting slightly disturbing digital painting of a woman impaled by spikes. Simple and powerful. Note:; nudity, violent imagery)
[link] (raw lust-song, very different from your typical love song. titled "Fast food boy", a must-read!)


5.
Yet another net friend, we met on a forum and then I started reading her awesome romantic vampire webcomic [link] She's a lovely person, and has an ever-developing artistic style.
[link] (A bishi in a skirt. Hooray for crossdressing! This piece has cool textures)
[link] (great B&W photo of a cat, Clodia, in a hard-to capture pose - a nice yawn!)
[link] (Gwen from her comic Before Dawn. I love the way she uses colored pencils, simple but nice!)


6.
Relatively new friend, we met on a Naruto group. She's a fellow shonen-ai/yaoi fangirl, and works in multiple mediums (writing, anime-screencap manips, setting up funny scenarios with figurines, drawing...). Much love for all the pretty boys in her gallery.
[link] (Self portrait of her, a woman after my own heart - one who doesn't feel like waking up early XP )
[link] (Sexy, sad looking winged sexy boy)
[link] (I couldn't resist this one... Kakashi the cat killer. You just have to see it.)


7.
Another one of my long-time friends from the wonderful world of the internet. He's a wonderful person... also quite good at drawing and excellent at writing! He's drawn pics for me, which makes me happy.
[link] (original character, Damask, Warrior priest. This is the lineart/slightly colored version of him, in a great realistic style. The colored version here, [link] has a description of the character)
[link] (to be honest, i haven't read this yet... but i know it'll be good. Fantasy story with battles and great characters.)
[link] (probably the sweetest gift I've ever been given. Me with wings, complete with a song from Lord of the rings (text here [link]))


8.
She's a really cool and interesting person, one of the earliest people I befriended on DA. She's an art student who definitely has skillz. Her drawings are of multiple themes, and she has some really cool fantasy stuff. She also has done 3d modeling, flash animations, and has some great OCs for story purposes.
[link] (very well-drawn piece of OCs for one of her stories - the wind spirit and her eventual lover, a priestess. Note: revealing clothes and girl/girl love)
[link] (cute animation with a wind-up penguin! you have to click "download" to make it work.)
[link] (She drew me a pirate wench for the "free sketch" meme that turned into "free nicely done piece" for both me and her n.n I love this pic)

9.
I've been friends over the net with the sweet, lovely Farah for a while, she's the author of several webcomics [link] Her style is very cute and she does a good job with CG.
[link] (this was a gift for me, she drew me as a catgirl! I love this piece, it's so pretty!)
[link] (not sure who the caracter is, but this sexy red-clad lady is very well done)
[link] (An old piece, the cover for the third chapter of Farah's sweet shojo webmanga (link is on her page). )


10.
Forthcoming, I have to go through the gallery


~Sara