I am over life right now. I have to sit through six hours of class tonight. The end of finals makes me realize that it was not such a good idea to go off my anti-depressants, which always kept me so relaxed. I am also over certain people in my life that just zap a lot out of me. I have to distance myself from this because it is not good for me to be around. Luckily, being out of the country will do that. I have also picked the perfect time to have anxiety about what my plans are after graduation. Staying in LA does not seem to be the bestest of ideas, especially after being so drained. Sometimes, I wish I would have gone to grad school in a suburb or less happening place like I did for undergrad. Despite my love for urban cities they are such a distraction sometimes, especially when you have a lot going on in your life. God, I should just move back to Oslo, which sometimes was the perfect combination of urban but rural with all the nature and the not-so-dense population.



Yes, I am procrastinating because I feel numb and depressed from all the stress in my life.

I finished my powerpoint presentation. Both my arms and shoulders really hurt right now from the immunizations I had this morning. Totally not in the mood to sit in class for three hours give and listen to presentations. I have been drinking too much coffee and I constantly have to pee. I am still playing online scrabble.



If this pain keeps up, when I go home tonight it will be very difficult to refrain from utilizing my emergency vicodin stash. Does my pain really warrant an emergency? I won't lie a vicodin for relaxation, I mean pain sounds really tempting right now.

I have a presentation at 7pm and I still have not done my powerpoint part. I have really struggled with motivation issues this semester. I think I am just really over my life of work and school and not enough play. At my grad school pot lock on Friday, I was talking to one of my classmates who chose to write a thesis. She said it was so hellish that she had to quit her job. This is why I chose not to write a thesis and opt for a comprehensive exam next semester. I do not even want to think about the hell that is going to put me through.



I did accomplish a few things for my trip today. I got my Hep A and Hep B and Meningitus (sp) immunizations. I still need to call Dr. Know-it-all and see if he can give me a prescription for oral typhoid. Other things I need to do this week are send away for my Cambodian visa, make some hostel reservation for NYE for Hong Kong, and call human resources at work for a mini meeting regarding my month long leave. Oh, and it would also help if I actually told my mother about this trip. God there is just too much to do. I feel like I have aged a lot the past year and a half and especially the last week. I have certainly suffered from the grad school 20 thanks to my lack of time. After I am done with school, working 40 hour weeks will feel like I have all the time in the world.



Here is a fun article on top travel destinations for 2008.

http://www.nytimes.com/2007/12/09/travel/09where.html?_r=1&oref=slogin

I am ignoring the fact that Cambodia and Vietnam are referred to as "so 2007." But they did list Oslo, which I would have to agree despite the fact that it is so ridiculously expensive. God, a snow filled walk with Panile through Frogner Park with Morrissey on the ipod sounds so nice right now. Some days I really miss Oslo.

websites for assisting in earning a Masters degree in procrastination. I do not want to know how much time I have spent on the following because it would probably be a rather depressing number. But since I am really good at procrastination and as a matter of fact I am doing it right now, I thought I would share some of my favorite procrastination sites on the web:



The obvious procrastinator's sites of choice:



AIM, MSN, Yahoo

http://www.myspace.com/

http://www.facebook.com/

http://www.craigslist.org/ (This is old-school and I rarely go on this one anymore)

http://www.youtube.com/ (I am obsessed with watching old 80s music videos especially by The Moz and Siouxsie)

http://www.wikipedia.org/ (Alright, maybe not the most accurate place to obtain sources of information, but it is darn entertaining to read about pretty much anything)



Now on to some of the less obvious sites that happen to be my personal favorites:



Online Gossip Sites:



Yes, there is a more shallow side to me and I am guilty of following celebrity tabloids. I am fully aware that there are more important things going on in this world like a genocide in Darfur and a war in Iraq, but I still feel the need to see what train wreck Britney and coke loving Amy Wino are up to.



http://www.perezhilton.com/



You know I do not even really like Perez as a person. He really is a horrible person that loves to out celebs and draw cum dripping off their faces. And yes he is laughing all the way to the bank with his childish antics. He also has an ever expanding waist line that tends to go with his expanding bank account. Nonetheless, I do take pleasure from reading her celebrity gossip blog. He is definitely what I was call an online bully, but he is smart enough not to pick on such celebs as Dita or Madonna. Well, no one is allowed to pick on Madonna because she is Madonna after all.



http://community.livejournal.com/ohnotheydidnt/



This is probably my favorite celeb gossip site. It is a livejournal community where users post a variety of gossip that is consolidated from a variety of sources. No one will ever forget that the day Anna Nicole Smith died was the day that the onknowtheydidnt community caused the livejournal server to shut down. An historic day in internet history.



http://www.tmz.com/



This site shows actual video footage of celebrities behaving like a bunch of schmucks. You can bet train wreck Britney is purty popular on here.









Murder/Death/Crime related sites:



Call me morbid, call me pale, but yes I do have a penchant for the darker things in life.



http://www.crimelibrary.com/



This site is part of court tv. When I had cable and insomnia I used to spend late nights alone in bed watching Forensic Files. Now that I don't I spend hours at a time reading profiles about true crimes on this site. I did not realize that in the early 80s Los Angeles was a breeding ground for serial killers, which now makes me understand why my parents were so protective. A few of these serial killers struck not to far from where I grew up.



http://www.mydeathspace.com/



This is one of the most depressing sites that I have come across in a long time. It is rather eerie to look at the myspace profiles of those that have left this world.



http://latimesblogs.latimes.com/homicidereport/



Los Angeles is a city where an average of three people are murdered each day. The vast majority of these murders receive no media attention because the victims are not the type that society or the media define as the most desirable individuals who may be gang members, drug dealers, prostitutes, poor, or people of color. As a result of this many of these homicides never get solved. Jill Leovy chronicles all the homicides of Los Angeles in her LA Times blog in hopes that they receive some attention that may assist in justice.



Miscellaneous sites I procrastinate on:



http://www.livejournal.com/



I have been blogging on here for five years now. It has been a great release and yes a great source of procrastination. I love the interface, which makes it easy to read my friends blogs. I love the privacy options of filtering specific entries so only specific individuals and friends only options. I love being able to get information from the various communities. I also love reading the blogs of people on my friends list with whom many I have never met. Probably my number one online addiction, and one that I have absolutely no intention of ever giving up.



http://www.couchsurfing.com/



A site where people put up their couch and offer it to random travelers around the world. I know it sounds crazy, but it has actually been one of the coolest projects and experiences I have had in recent years. I have met a plethora of amazing people off this site who have opened up their homes to be with open arms and I myself have hosted a variety. Quite a few that I still keep in touch with. I have not been hosting or hosted as of late, but I still diddle daddle in the online forums, which have been really helpful in planning my upcoming trip to Asia.



http://www.morrissey-solo.com/



This may be only of interest to Morrissey fans. It has the most up to date information on Morrissey's tour and of course gossip on the Moz himself. The forums can be a bit obnoxious with some incredibly nasty and immature postings. What can I say, Morrissey fans are not exactly known for their sanity.



http://wikitravel.org/en/Main_Page



This site is great. It is a little more detailed regarding country and travel tips than wikipedia. It is almost like a condensed Lonely Planet book. However, going on here just further aggravates my wanderlust.



http://games.yahoo.com/lt



This is for the game Literati, which is very similar to Scrabble except there is no option for word challenge. Those of you who know me know that I am a big fan of the game Scrabble, but unfortunately I do not have a consistent partner to play with, which is why I love literati. Since there is no challenge option, this makes for a great way of improving your Scrabble vocabulary by attempting to play words that you never knew were words in the English language. I just really hate when I lose at this game, especially multiple times in a row.





Enjoy! and always remember, "Procrastination is like masturbation. At first it feels good, but in the end you're only screwing yourself." ~Author Unknown

I went to the doctor on campus to talk about my trip and get a malaria meds prescription. The doctor was kinda a self righteous jerk, although to be fair he was nicer toward the end. He was lecturing me on my trip about if I had been doing my research on the safety of Cambodia and using Israel's West Bank as an example. He even asked if I was going with anyone, which I said that I was, because at that point I knew better than to admit that "Yes I am a crazy broad who is traveling abroad by myself!" Then he lectured me on my high blood pressure, which for the record is rarely ever high and I get it tested quite frequently on my trips to Cedars-Sinai for my PCOS. My speculation is that it's high is because I have been exceptionally stressed and I have been consuming large quantities of caffeine which in turn is causing insomnia which in turn is making me pop a trazzie to fall asleep. Oh, and I have also been guilty of smoking some cigarettes as of late, which I usually do during finals because I always have. So yes, I have been a bad girl who has been abusing my body the last few weeks, although Patsy and Edina would be proud, and frankly I do not really give a damn because I have a paper to write. Needless to say, I was not going to tell the doctor the whole truth of what I have been doing, but he continued to lecture me on my stress levels and how I need to stop making excuses. Even if he is right, all I can say is everything is easier said than done. Oh and then it gets better, he kept on inquiring on where I was traveling exactly in Cambodia and Vietnam. It's like how do I articulate that I do not have an exact itinerary and I really do not want one. He was on the computer doing research on the regions and seemed more interested in my trip than I was. In the end he was a little bit nicer, once he seemed to sense that I was tad bit of a smarter broad than he originally guessed and not just some broad naively going to a third world country. Well, I kinda am, but whatever.



The semester is almost over. Thank god. I think I need to do a master cleanse detox three day diet after this. I am sure I have built up my share of toxins. I need to release them, just so I can build them up again when I go to Asia. Oh and I asked the Dr. if there are any interactions with my malaria meds and alcohol and of course he lectured on being cautious about drinking alcohol. I am on vacation dammit! and I will be using alcohol if I want to. Plus, it is probably safer then drinking the water. So there.