So, for the past few weeks, I had been perusing the Tumblr syndication of My Life Is Average, a (somewhat) counter-”attack” on the negativity of the popular site F* My Life, where readers share mishaps and mayhem of their own (miserable, little) lives. MLIA operates in pretty much the same way — readers submit, others vote, et cetera — but unlike FML, it centers on the average things that happen in life.

The quality of these “average” posts aren’t the boring, Bella-Swan-narration type of entries, though. The people that frequent this part of the Internet are those who have not been disenchanted by the screwed-upness of the world, but are, instead, still fascinated by the little things. An example: “Today, I took a test in science class. One of the questions was “What is arguably the most dangerous element?” I said the element of surprise. I got extra credit. MLIA.” (link) Another example: “Today my husband and I pulled over at McDonalds after visiting a viking market. We were fully dressed up as vikings. The girl at the drive-through stared at us. I told her it is rude to stare at time-travellers. MLIA.” (link)

I guess another quality of MLIA that drew me in is the seeming domination of people who liked Harry Potter, cats, zombies, ninjas, Narnia, Pokémon, finding Waldo and so on. The appeal of MLIA lies not in second-hand embarrassment or pity commiseration, but in the joy of finding “kindred spirits” — for the lack of a better term — in the course of daily life.

Inspired by this thought (and the rousing feeling in my bones!), I read this MLIA post, and this one, both of which concern putting up sign-up sheets for Dumbledore’s Army on bulletin boards in school. (Dumbledore’s Army is the insurrection group Harry Potter put up in Hogwarts when the toad-faced Dolores Umbridge threatened to take over the school, putting up systems and rules that remind one of the Dark Ages.)

I put two sheets up on bulletin boards in school yesterday, and this is what I saw at about 9 a.m. today:

(free board on the way to the library)

(Sec-A)

Ateneans, I’ve got to say, I’m a little bit disappointed. I don’t know, maybe I was expecting actual names instead of fictional ones that were in the books. (I’m not going to even touch on the desecration of the Sec-A sign-up sheet. Edward Cullen, GTFO.) Anyway, I’m a little sad about this little failed experiment. I was looking forward to see who would actually take the time to put their names on it, not see a bunch of names of fictional characters written by who knows who.

A big hello to Irene Lukban, Matt S. and Myta Santigo, though. Whoever you are, you guys rule!

So, today I cut my thesis class to work on my actual thesis. I actually haven’t done much tangible work (I’ve been more of researching and speculating), so I really needed to step up my game, so to speak. I’ve borrowed books from the library, returned the ones I didn’t need and now we are left with this stack right here:

I actually probably have to go back to the library and return some of these or check out some of the other books. I was going to reference “Chuck Klosterman IV” also, but when I looked for it, it wasn’t on my bookshelf. Therefore, I must have lent it out again, and forgot to whom again. This is why I shouldn’t lend out books to people ever again, ever. Ever. But that is another story.

My friend, Raymond, was nice enough to lend me this book of his, which I am excited to flip through because a) it looks like it would be useful, and b) it’s so pretty:

He also lent me his copy of Jean-Luc Godard’s Breathless, I guess, for my education. (I have not seen a single Godard film, and yes, I am ashamed of myself.)

On another note, my friend Patty/Petra gave me, out of nowhere, this little owl:

It’s a beanbaggy type of kreacher, and it inspired (?) me to show you, random reader, the rest of my OWLERY. You see, owls are one of the things that I do collect. My other friend, Barby, actually collects owls also, and is more overt in her collecting ways. But anyway, here is the rest of the owl-related paraphernalia I have acquired over the years:

FIGUREENZ. Three of them were inherited from my lola (my mommy’s mommy) and
the girliest one — the one with eyelashes, looking over her shoulder — was given to me
by my mom when she went to Australia.

A purse-thing I got from China! Is it not the cutest thing ever? It is!

Some clothes: pajama bottoms, a shirt and some underwear.

Pendant! I actually gave one of these to my friend (Barby! Who likes owls!), so we have matching necklaces. :)

I do not have a stuffed Hedwig (wibble, wibble) because when the toys came out, I wasn’t allowed to read Harry Potter. I do not have anything of Owl from Winnie the Pooh, because he kind of pissed me off. I do appreciate his knowledge, though, now that I am older. Also, I find that I have turned out more like him than any of the other characters in the Hundred Acre Wood. I don’t know if I like this realization, or if I just decided to live with it.

1. Today is the first day of Hogwarts, aka my real school.
2. Today is the birthday of someone who will not be named because I am ashamed that I know this birthday. Ahem.
3. Today is the beginning of my birthmonth!

As such, I got this pretty stupid, ambitious idea to blog here everyday for the whole month of September. They’re not going to be big-ass, profound posts, just random what’s-its from day-to-day. Obviously, it’s not going to just be stupid things everyday either. Just. I’ll just be around more is all. Yay.

So, yesterday, I bought a Flickr Pro account. I had been thinking about getting one for a while, but kept on putting it off so I finally asked my dad if I could borrow his credit card and he obliged. After entering the information, and confirming my order, I realized that I probably couldn’t afford it right now (given that my current laptop is still being paid for. By me. HEH.) but then I justified this (seemingly) impulsive purchase by telling myself that it’s a birthday gift. To myself. So, I spent a few hours yesterday updating it with old photos that I had lost the will to put up on my Multiply account, which used to house all my photos.

Because I am a needy loser, here are a few of them:

After tinkering with the interface a bit more, I realized that it actually was a good purchase, since there was so many things you could do for a relatively small amount of money. And I don’t know, it seemed really useful to me, since I plan on hosting my photos over there from now on.

I actually missed taking nicer pictures when I was looking through my old things.

In case anybody wants to look at it, here is my Flickr account: PRESIDENTS. Add me if you have one, too. I only have 28 contacts, so far. It’s getting a little lonely.