Nothing is at last sacred but the integrity of your mind. - Ralph Waldo Emerson

SHAINA

22yo
college student, writer, reporter, artist, daughter, sister, aunt, friend, vampire, pirate, horror movie fan, fantasy movie fan, indie music fan, johnny depp fan, criss angel loyal, strawberry crush addict
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How quickly the time goes…

category: Uncategorized,life,school | 08/07/2010 | c5mments

Well, once again I’m getting everything ready for yet another semester of college. It looks like I’m finally set with my classes, I’ve ordered my ridiculously priced books, I’ve spoken with my roommate, and I’ve planned out my schedule. All that’s really left to do is move in and get myself settled.

I don’t think I’ve ever been this nervous.

I am definitely excited about the change, but this is the first time I’ve ever lived anywhere besides home. I’ll be going back and forth all the time, I’ll be balancing my time between my family and school, and I’ll admit to being scared that everything I have planned won’t work in harmony with the rest of my plans. I just hope I can be in as many places as I want to be this year.

Then again, I’ve always been pretty good at multitasking. Plus that was always what I pictured the perfect life as: organized chaos.

As far as the site goes, I’ve managed to clean up a few pages here and there. I still have yet to rewrite the biography. That and I also have a small mini-site in the works, but I want to perfect it before I talk any more about it here. I have a few more writings that I want to post up in the next few weeks. And, finally, I want to upload a photo album maybe to a coppermine gallery or something. I’m sick of facebook photos… they’re okay, but arranging them is a huge pain in the butt.

I know I’m not consistently updating this page like usual, but Dare to Live still means a lot to me. So I appreciate your patience and I’m thrilled that most of my affiliates still have my back. Thanks you guys.

Wish me luck with all the moving!
- Shaina

And the schoolbells ring once more!

category: life,school | 01/10/2010 | c3mments

Hey everyone! I’ve just realized that it’s been a terribly long time since I’ve touched base here, and since this may be my last chance to blog for a few days, I thought I’d write a little something to catch everyone up on the glorious happenings of Vampirateloyal! *arr*

First up, I do apologize for being such a quiet riot this week. I would blame it on last-second flight-of-the-bumblebee prep for the upcoming semester, but I’ll be perfectly honest and admit to spending countless hours sitting on my ass playing this:

Not to say that this glorious piece of adventure gaming is completely to blame! I, in fact, HAVE been running myself ragged making sure I have everything in order for my last chunk of generals before my much-awaited transfer. Though I have to say, it was MUCH less of a headache than usual. Mostly because I had such a TINY book load this year… I was able to put the $31 worth of COLLEGE BOOKS (yes, I know it’s hard to believe) on my debit card the day BEFORE Financial Aid book charges could turn my small college bookstore into a pocket pandemonium.

It was such a relief for me. I hate buying books for school. I’m sure those of you in college can all relate to this one.

Anyway, time for my class lineup of Spring ’10! Here’s the list for right now… a few complications may change a class or two yet:

• PED 173 – Rock climbing and repelling… Yes. I know! It’s possibly the coolest class in scholarly existence isn’t it? Rock climbing for PE credit… next I’ll be eating yummy Olive Garden salads for a health course credit! (wouldn’t THAT be lovely?) Best part is, we only meet a few times throughout the semester… meaning I don’t have to run my poor new car (yes a NEW car… but more on that later) to my campus every single week. VERY good news indeed.
• ENG 242 – Survey of American Literature Pt. II… with the greatest professor I think I’ve ever had. I’m SOOO glad she wasn’t full when I enrolled. Looks like a fun lineup this time too! We’re reading The Haunting of Hill House… the first American horror novel. And you all know how I need my horror fix to stay sane.
• PSY 232 – Developmental Psychology. The best thing about this class? I can play on youtube the entire time and still get an A. VERY easy class.
• GEO 220 – World Regional Geography. Another online class, which works out great for me since I do better with this stuff at my own pace. Hopefully I’ll grasp this subject better than last semester…
• CST 110 – Speech. *gulp*….

And after all of that is finished, I will finally step up on that podium in my PTK regalia and accept my first college degree! *giggle* I just hope I don’t trip. And I hope even more that they pronounce my NAME correctly. I’m debating on whether or not to write down how to pronounce it on my name card before getting in line. Or would that just piss them off?

Anyway, on with my more recent news: I HAVE A CAR!!! And trust me, I did NOT see it coming. Basically I walked into my mother’s computer room a few days ago and she and Dad are looking at a picture of this old Chevy Corsica… and lo and behold, it’s for me.

So naturally I tired myself out from running around the house squealing “I’ve got a car! I’ve got a car!” for the rest of the afternoon. I didn’t get to see the car until the next day, and I had to hike up our still-frozen hill to “meet” my new ride. It’s an ’85, but in VERY good shape. Front wheel drive. Impressed the hell out of our mechanic how well it runs. Nice gold color. I think I’m gonna call it the Golden Snitch.

As for pictures, I don’t have any on me at the moment. Plus I want to personalize the car a bit before snapping any pics. But when I do I’ll post them here. God… still can’t believe I own a damn CAR!!! *sighs happily*

Anyway, I’m here typing away and I should be working on my other school project: an online newspaper which I’ve been asked by the other officers to design! Problem is… no one will contact me to tell me what they want it to look like. So it looks like I’m flying by the seat of my pants again. Good thing for them, some of my best designs have happened that way.

Wish me luck! *drives off into the sunset in my “new” car*

Empty Nest and other Finales

category: life,school | 12/13/2009 | c4mments

So a lot of stuff has come to a close since my last blog entry. I’m now completely finished with classes and I eagerly await my final tallies. I’m aware of three A’s so far: In Math, Geography and Sociology. Psychology and Literature look promising, but I don’t want to get ahead of myself just yet…

The new classes are all set up! Final semester’s schedule is as follows:

• Geography 220 – Basically a continuation of this semester’s geography. I get to use the same text as last semester so that’s a BIG money saver. It’s also online so I can be just as flexible.
• Literature 242 – Another continuation with one of my favorite professors. This is probably the class I’m looking forward to the most. We’re reading the first American horror novel!
• Psychology 232 – Yet ANOTHER continuation, same class, same teacher, same cycle. Same textbook for even more glorious saving!
• Speech – Ugh. Every Tuesday night. I am not happy. At least there’s no text requirement.
• Rock Climbing and Rappelling – My degree requires one semester of PE and this AWESOME class was one of the choices. We meet like, six times the entire semester and we spend the entire class ROCK CLIMBING. This is gonna be sooo awesome!

My search for a scholarship and/or employment near my selected university is underway. It helps that the textbooks won’t dent my finances much this semester. I swear to God, who came up with the earthbound hell that is the college bookstore? Don’t they know that college kids are, more often than not, broke?!?! I guess now we all know why!

 

In other personal news, we found a home for Bowie.

It sucks, because I really really wanted to keep him. But he was just so unhappy here all by himself without any other cats to play with and limited to just one room (with Mum being allergic and all). Also, it’s not like the university or the apartments in (city name here) would let me keep him. So we found an awesome lady who loves cats and has a bunch of them to take him home with her. I’ll miss the little guy… but it’s definitely the best choice for him.  *sigh* Bye, little bugger. :))

The end of the year also has me thinking about something that may be a bit premature, but still worth listing: my new years resolutions! My main one is recycled from *sigh* last year’s resolutions… to get in shape. It’s something I want sooo badly, and after watching people like Tara Costa and the power team Shay & Daniel, I feel like it might actually be possible for me to lose my measley 20 pounds… wow did I really just admit my goal weight loss? Yes I did! I also want to make full use of the tanning bed and get brown again. I know I know, it’s bad for you, blah blah blah, but it’s cool and all of you know it. >:)

So anyway, I’ll end this with some questions for you guys: Has anyone else made a list for new year’s yet? What are some of your wishes for 2010? Did you manage to get your resolutions from this year accomplished?

Procrastination may sometimes be a good thing…

category: holidays,school,shopping | 12/06/2009 | c5mments

… because I’ve run out of stuff to do!!!

School is almost over for the semester. I turned in my last Geography assignment two days ago (a PowerPoint presentation on Monsoon Asia). I finished Sociology, scoring an A on my last test and am now awaiting the grade for my interview project. Took a test in Literature and got a 90. William David Thoreau is so awesome. Did some more work for the paper. LOTTA new stuff fixing to happen there. Christmas break should be interesting in that respect. Anyway, my overall status now is: Three classes down, two to go!

Christmas is starting to show up here at my place. The decorations are all up, including the tree <3, and we’ve already done an INSANE amount of shopping. Seriously, my debit card is screaming in pain. XD It’s totally worth it though. Some people are going to be very surprised this year. Shopping for my boyfriend was particularly eventful. While in a certain store looking at certain items, I actually picked up a something that I was planning to buy, and then forgot I was carrying it. I know, it sounds lame and a bit boring… that is until I WALKED OUT OF THE FREAKING STORE WITH IT STILL IN MY HAND! O_o  Needless to say, I handed it back to the flustered shopping attendant and apologized profusely until I turned a bizarre shade of red and left the store… merchandiseless. Come to think of it though, it couldn’t have been that much of an event for the sales lady, because apparently shoplifting was all the rage at the mall that day! Coming out of Spencers this kid goes flying past my mom, and we think nothing of it because we were basically surrounded by sugar-high rugrats… but the store manager that almost knocked my mother over in hot pursuit clued us in to what was really going on. *shakes head* Anyway, they got the thing back… it was a pack of candy or something. The kid dropped it so he could get away. Good grief though… CANDY?!?! What the hell has Christmas shopping turned into?

Luckily, I managed to BUY (Yes, I promise I paid for everything. LOL!) everything I needed for this year’s shopping. I may add a little something extra to Brian’s loot, but other than that, I consider it very successful to be done with all the crazy this early in the month. I was ready to kill someone by the hundredth rude-shove-to-get-past-me-so-they-could-grab-the-last-whatever-it-was-on-the-shelf. Next time I’m packing a bazooka.

Little site update: I’ve opened up my affiliate list to applications! Invitation-only could only last for so long. Potential slayers er… affies, please do me a solid and read the rules first. I took an entire ten minutes out of my day to type those up.

Anyway, I’m off to go play with my early Christmas present. Ness (my laptop, for those who have forgotten) now has an external optical drive… which means I can now play the he// outta Sims 3! I’ve decided to name the drive Mr. Saturn (EB fans, look it up). And don’t laugh at me! I like naming my hardware… speaking of which, my external hard drive needs a name too… maybe Starman? :))

Productivity FTW

category: life,school | 11/13/2009 | c6mments

Have you ever got so much on your to-do list done, you do a double-take and wonder about the quality of what you managed to get done? Or have you ever gotten an assignment that was so simple, you wonder if there was something in the instructions that you missed? Maybe it’s just my inner pessimist. But the bright side? This semester is seriously going to dwindle down soon, because I’m thisclose to finishing one class and getting so ahead in the other classes that I won’t feel one more iota of stress this semester.

Yesterday’s meeting with the Collegian was awesome. We basically all got together and talked over cafe food all afternoon. This Sunday we are all going to see “This is It” at the good cinema over in town (my local theatre sucks). I’m really looking forward to it… even more so that I’ll actually get to hang out with a group without school being the backdrop. I hope I can remember how to act in that sort of situation. LOL!

Happy halloween!

category: holidays,school | 10/31/2009 | c5mments

Hey everybody! I just wanted to pop by real quick to wish everyone  a happy holiday!

The party was awesome. I decorated for PTK, then got to hand candy out to a group of the most adorable little kids I think I’ve ever seen. ^_^ The Jill Sparrow outfit was well-received (save for the handful of people who thought I was Pocahontas… O_o) and I got a TON of pictures. I don’t have the patience or the time to upload everything yet but I will have my Flickr account all ready to link up here in a few days, so I’ll update this blog with a link when that time comes.

As for today, I’m gonna sit back, chillax, watch a few scary movies, get my scary Geography test outta the way, and carve some pumpkins with my honey. :D Hope everyone else has fun!

Remember… strangers have the best candy. XD

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