"It was night, and the rain fell; and falling, it was rain,"

"But, having fallen, it was blood." - Edgar Allan Poe, "Silence - A Fable"

Happy Thanksgiving, my fellow USians. I hope you're all absolutely stuffed on turkey and other various goodies, and perhaps even pleasantly sleepy. I woke up with a touch of some nasty virus this morning, so I spent the day in my room rather than at my Grandmother's with the rest of my family. I'd say I'm terribly disappointed, but I tend to prefer my own company even on the best of days. I did, however, miss out on seeing my adorable cousins - little girls, aged 3 and 1 - and I am a bit sad about that.

In other news, this little corner of Slenderblogs seems to be in an upheaval. I rather like "Redlight", as he's been dubbed - he seems like a no nonsense sort of fellow. I hope everyone is safe from said fellow, however, and that no more blog hijacks occur. Stay safe, loves.

I will, of course, continue blogging. I mean, why wouldn't I, right? I talk about wholly inconsequential things: spiders, music, Spanish class. I trust this will be a satisfactory decision.

It's still raining, btw. It's been gloomy and overcast since Monday, and I am still not amused. The library will be full of dubious characters tomorrow if the sun doesn't shine. Ugh.

Home remedies for headaches, anyone? The rain wrecks havoc with my mood. =/

Stay safe!

Amidst the chaos

It's gearing up to be an eventful night, with the ongoing attacks and abductions rolling in. I send my best to all of you on the run, and I wish you all well - stay as safe as possible.

Since reports of masked people surrounding people's homes are filtering in, I decided to do some research googling about masks. I'm assuming that the masks were similar in design to the one on the right, otherwise the stuff below is fairly useless.

Because I think that the mask somewhat resembles a Chinese Opera Mask, I wanted to look up some information about them. I discovered that the masks were used to set the role of a character in the opera - the colors and shapes of the mask define those characteristics. They were typically ceramic and blank: the actors were generally expected to interpret their characters and design their mask. The color white symbolize(d) sinisterness, deception, crafty/cleverness and duplicity, among other things. The color black symbolize(d) roughness, fierceness, or impartiality, among other things.

Taking the (admittedly little) information presented above, the mask pictured might characterize someone who is clever, fierce and sinister OR someone who is "playing both sides" - a duplicitous person, maybe confused about their role or decision, but nonetheless rough and clever. Neither interpretation is particularly comforting, however maybe someone else can find a more positive spin.

Sorry for the dodgy "research" - I feel so bad that I can't actually help you guys. =/ Please, please be careful and try to stay safe.

*Edit: This is a horrifyingly late edit to state that the mask picture is not mine. It belongs to someone on the interwebs, I found it via google. Let me know if it's yours, and how you'd like to be credited, and I'd be happy to link you. Sorry about the late info! (11/28/10)

¡Estoy cansada!

Today was ridiculous. Not only was it long (by my standards, yeah? I know it doesn't compare to ... oh, IDK, running for your life), but I overheard an argument that - while there's a 99.9% probability that it means nothing - I'm sharing with you guys anyway.

On to my day: I have no class on Wednesday because of Thanksgiving break, so all of my classes doubled up on work to make up for losing a day. My last two classes are Spanish and math, in that order. I had a 70 minute composition in Spanish then blearily listened to my math professor attempt to describe the process of scheduling (why yes, I am numerically challenged) for 75 minutes before shuffling down several floors toward my salvation the exit. I normally leave through doors that open up facing the street, but the corridor leading to that exit was blocked off due to some renovations - I had to go out a side door that opened up onto an alley.

At this point, it's 6:30 PM. I'm in northern Indiana, which means that it's also dark as hell outside - and because I attend a community branch of a larger uni, the faculty's a bit lax with the maintenance. I walk outside, down the stairs and into the dark before really stopping to think about the fact that my cell phone is still in my bag and I now I have to walk through the unlit alley and around the building to get to my car. I'm in the process of turning around and walking back up the stairs when I hear a female voice shrieking into the night. I managed to smother my yelp, and overheard this gem of an argument (please note that the male was speaking much more quietly than the female, so I didn't catch the end):

Female: I don't care! Don't fucking say that shit to me - don't ever say that shit to me!
Male: You're childish right now - seriously? You're really mad about that? That is what has you upset right now?
F: You don't understand! Saying 'fuck you' is worse than saying nothing at all - it's like saying you don't even give a fuck anymore! If you don't care, why am I even here?
M: Really? Really? 'Why am I here?'
F: I'm so sick of this shit! I'm sick of always moving. I miss my family, and I fucking hate schools. Why do we always end up in a school?
M: There are more people in schools than in other places ... it's easier here. I know you [and here his voice gets softer and too low to hear].

That's it. Hah, I can feel my one subscriber dropping as I type (sorry love!). It was just interesting to me - I've clearly been reading too many blogs, yeah? They were probably pickpockets or something. I didn't go back up the stairs, btw - once I heard the argument, I just tried to make my way quietly down to the street. I never actually saw the people fighting - it sounded like they were sitting outside the door (excellent observational skills on my part, I'm clearly CIA material).

Oh, hey! Fellow bloggers/lurkers, hey! So I'm addicted to the album "Vespers of 1610 (Martin Pearlman / Boston Baroque)" - the composer is Claudio Monteverdi. It's ... IDK, chamber/choir music? I fail so hard at genres. If anyone listens to this kind of music, though, please leave recommendations for further listening!

Okay. That's pretty much it, and I'll stop spamming my blog now.

Hello, loves!

Yes, this is the clichéd "getting to know me!" first post. I'm not all that new, to be honest: I've been anonymously following many of your blogs for quite awhile. I've only recently felt the desire to comment on any of them, however, and I figured that I should have at least one post here before I do so ... something to make me seem like a little bit less of a creeper, yeah? I don't know if it's working, though - my inner crazy might just bleed through and warn everyone away ;-)

I'm not being stalked by "the rather thin fellow", by the way, nor has anyone I know been Marked/Hallowed/etc: I'm just a girl who finds all of this intriguing. I hope that's not offensive! I just think it's easier to keep up with everyone this way, rather than having 10,234 blogs bookmarked ... it gets a bit confusing.

I'm also offering up my ample free time and research skills - my semester is nearing an end, and I'll have even more time to waste online than usual. I'd be more than happy to help you guys look up ... stuff? Yeah, I suppose I haven't really thought this one through. The offer, however, stands. :)

Also, Vocaloid? Yeah, I'm now addicted. I'll be singing along to some of these songs during my Spanish composition tomorrow - awesome.

Anyway.

I'm Mali! It's nice to meet you all!