Photo Competitions are Awesome.

My photograph of the Grand Prismatic made it into the final round of a photo contest and is now up for voting. (I'm the blue one, 1st row, vertical format.)

Which is super cool. Some of the other entries are also quite fantastic. I'm not sure if voting is restricted to people with university IDs, but you should take a gander at them anyhow.

They also put up mounted prints in high-traffic public spaces. Also very cool. Mine printed significantly darker and redder than I've been used to, which leads me to suspect that I've been adjusting to my monitor- which is probably inaccurate.

I also think I've used "also" far too many times in such a short post. Sorry about that.

Good day, all.

Facebook's Graffiti. I Win.

A [long] while ago, around the time of the Iranian elections, there was a speed painting contest/submission opportunity/thing on Facebook. Twelve were featured, and to my surprise, twelve are still there, and I am still at the top of the list.

And am now featured on a blog, www.f3nd1.com. Cool.

Vaccines 1, Andunie 0.

Today, I went out to get immunized for a couple of things I'd like not to kill me. So I drop by the local health department. What transpires is as follows:

NURSE: Have you ever passed out while getting your shots?

ME: Nope!

NURSE: Do you feel dizzy?

ME: ...no.

NURSE: Because this frequently happens to adolecents.

ME: I feel fine.

NURSE: They say they feel fine and then they pass out.

ME: (apprehensively) Really, I feel fine.

NURSE: Well, all right. (jabs a couple of needles in Andunie's arm)

ME: (winces)

NURSE: How do you feel?

ME: (okay) I'm okay.

NURSE: Either way, you should stay in the waiting room fifteen minutes afterwards...

ME: (beginning to feel increasingly lightheaded) Um...

NURSE: ...in case you start feeling a little faint.

ME: (vision starts disappearing; concedes defeat) Actually, I think I'm going to pass out now. (loses conciousness)

And so I spend the next ten minutes lying on the floor of the clinic, and end up stumbling out with a pounding headache. I mean, wtf. It's okay though, because the health dept. girl was really very nice about the whole thing. Not even a single "I told you so" look, to boot.

Look, I Iz All Gradumicated.

I'll try not to make this too long. I promise.

Here's the deal. A couple days ago, I was suffering from the so-called seasonal allergy like none other. (They're year-round though, so I guess there's one for every season. Liars.) I mean, they were so bad I don't know if I went one continuous minute without my nose in a tissue. All day. It was not pretty. Especially irritating, because we'd a commencement ceremony to sit through the next day.

The problem with doing well in school is that when you graduate, they make you talk, and sit on the stage when you're not talking. Which would be perfectly fine, if I wanted to show off my snivelling and snot-dripping skills and keep my composure at the same time. After some negotiation I was told I could leave my bag under my chair, so I'd have tissues up there.

It ended up being that the chairs were all squashed together, so when I tried to reach under my chair, it probably looked like I was groping my neighbour or vomiting or a combination of both. Sometimes life is special like that.

Making my valedictory speech. I suppose there's a reason I write instead of talk:

Confessions

Dear Neighbour,

I haven't any idea who you are, except that you live somewhere in my neighbourhood and you deem it necessary to cut through our property all the time. This is not only slightly rude, but kind of unnerving. If you don't want to ask, fine. But you should at least say hi.

Dear Friend,

Sometimes I wonder how friends can be so embarassing. Don't get me wrong, we've been good friends and it's going to stay that way. But if you weren't so oblivious, defensive, selfish, self-righteous, and self-centered, people might like you better. Also, a little tact goes a long way. Kindly take that to mind. I'd like to tell you to not take it too personally, but maybe you should.

Dear Strange Spiky Plants on My Lawn,

You are highly disturbing. You're all "hey, look at me, I'm fuzzy," and then surprise! Barbed thorny leaves everywhere. I understand that grass is a minority in our lawn anyways, but you should not be here. That is all.