Sometimes, if I don't have a lot of homework, I like go walk around school grounds by myself. I try to go different places each time, but I usually end up by the trails into the woods. The flow of energies is just so natural there. It's like you can almost feel the artificial globular abstracts eroding off of you -- unless you're one of those abstract kind of people, in which case I guess you CAN feel it eroding off of you. That'd be cool. I knew a girl back in like 7th grade who was basically 75% Abstract Being. She could dissociate to the point where several laws of physics no longer applied to her. It was super cool. Kids used to trade her their chips at lunch to see her do it. She didn't like to do it a lot though; she said it was kind of a Icarus scenario, and if she pushed the limits too much she could completely lose her concrete existence and become some form of figurative entity. That, and the ensuing surge of her particles into energy would badly burn whatever was nearby. But honestly I think she made that story up because she was scared to break a law of the universe when the lunch monitors were watching. What a chicken.

Oh, wait, I'm getting off track. Okay, so I went for a walk toward the woods, and I was passing by that bridge that leads to the southeast path -- you know, the rickety one downstream of where the geese like to nest? Yeah, that one. Well, I didn't even need to Look that hard to See something was wrong in that area. The bridge is, like, completely ensnared by this opaque, dripping, sinister energy. I couldn't see the source, but I could tell it was still active. At first I thought it was just another dispute between some of the Jengu and Gwragedd Annwn (those tribes are so catty, you'd think they were half catfish) but it didn't really look right. That, and the administration's really cracked down on student fights ever since the big one between @Rather Large Rabbit and @JJCricket in, like, the first week of school. So much as fire a spitball at someone and you get a detention. No way a water tribe turf-war would go unnoticed.

I'm not sure what's splattering its negative goop all over the bridge, but I do know some underclassmen I sit by in third hour said that they saw animals around that area dead, with eyeballs and teeth missing. Water, death, and eyeball theft? I'll bet my favorite pair of earrings that some jerk abandoned their pet Ahuizotl on the school grounds.

It's so dumb! These people steal a puppy from its mother, thinking that it'll be sooooo cool to have a dog with a hand on its tail, and then it gets bigger and they realize that having a Ahuizotl in their home is a TERRIBLE IDEA, so they just abandon it in some local wilderness. Then either the poor baby dies because it doesn't know how to survive in the wild, or it gets right to business murdering everything that wanders near its water. The whole situation is a mess. Ugh! People are so idiotic sometimes!

...

Sorry... I get really wound up over this stuff. Jeez, I gotta learn to chill out. Well, I better stop my whining and go report this stuff to the school administration or something. Before people start losing their fingernails and stuff.

Happy first day of October!

i. Complete a 500 word essay arguing either pro or con to the statement, "Adding more molecules to your own physical form is a moral and effective way to open yourself to new investment opportunities."

Some may argue that artificially adding molecules is immoral and leads to unsustainable loops of self-consumption and/or doubt. This statement is true. However, these opponents of the strategy too often fail to acknowledge the benefit of NATURALLY added molecules. As with food products, artificial may be quicker and tastier, but in the long run natural is the way to go.

One example of this is the Budding Strategy -- first employed by self-aware multi-cellular organisms in the 129th year of the Crab Nebula New Order -- which utilizes the concept of "asexual reproduction". Using this method, one can construct a nearly if not completely identical clone offspring. Opponents of the Budding Strategy argue that it is immoral to force such a being into sudden existence without allowing it to proceed naturally through infancy and other life stages you yourself have experienced, but if constructed properly the clone will possess no consciousness of its own and exist only as an empty, unclaimed vessal. These correct clones -- or "Blank Slates" -- are then activated and linked to your own mind patterns through the Zarcadian Rythm (see supplementary video link). This will result in the clone offspring acting as an extension of your own mind into a secondary form. The benefits to this are extensive in the world of business and investment. For instance, while your primary form pursues higher activities required to keep businesses afloat, the secondary form can perform grunt-work calculations and investment research that can be later utilized by both forms.

This is just one example of a successful and humane use of natural molecule additions. Adding molecules to your own form is no casual activity, and is something that needs to be seriously discussed with all involved parties. However, when done responsibly, it is a risk that reaps high rewards for the investor. As discussed in previous lectures, risk/reward ratios are a key to upward mobility for the modern worker(s). Those who condemn all forms of the practice as immoral or inefficient are mistakenly painting the entire field with a broad brush.

Klarya [LastnameConcealedForTeacherViewOnly], Upward Mobility and the Modern Worker, Third Hour Lecture
@GROTTO G.S.M. INC.
#DEARBRANIGAN

Supplementary video [PartialViewAvailable,LogInAsTeacherForFullView]:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=O0lIlROWro8

Good news: the Time Saver works exactly as advertised.

Bad news: that includes the adverse side effects.

Everything we use now of days has that long list of side effect warnings... I guess I'd been desensitized to them. Just assumed it was part of the package, to protect the manufacturer from lawsuits. So I was able to get a good amount of homework done before I noticed I was immensely fatigued, dizzy, and experiencing several heart palpitations. Turns out, using the Time Saver pulls certain elements from your environment to keep the machine running. Specifically, it needs iron. Yeah, I got the fun first-hand experience of what it's like to be direly anemic. Spoilers: it sucks.

The school nurse took away the Time Saver and put me on iron supplements. I'm still in the school infirmary right now actually, under observation. She seems angrier than usual. Gave me a whole lecture on how I "can't just hide away from problems -- escaping reality isn't escaping the issues" or whatever. She must give that speech fifty times a week, knowing our school. I tried to tell her that I was well aware and was using the device responsibly to get homework finished on time, but she dug in her heels. She even pulled out the dusty old student handbook (you know, that big ol' tome they give us the beginning of each school year, filled with school rules that no one reads or adheres to? Yeah, that hunk of junk) and showed me the section that prohibits the use of space/time extenders to provide oneself with artificial due date extensions. So yeah, there's no way I'm getting the Time Saver back from her. Which stinks, seeing as I have that UPWARD MOBILITY AND THE MODERN WORKER project coming up. I could do an awesome job, if only I had the time....

Uh oh, here comes Nurse Grumpy-Gut again. I can hear her coming in those heels from a mile away. I hope she's calmed down a bit. At least enough to let me go back to my dorm room. I'm bored sitting here under observation, and the sophomore in cot next to me keeps shivering and mumbling some sort of ominous chant.

I bet they're possessed. Probably from one of the Ancient Powers courses. Somebody always ends up possessed in those classes.

There's just never enough time. Everything is a rush. So many obligations! And my Other Eyes tell me my Upward Mobility project bas begun fermentation, so now I've got to keep readjusting the solution concentration like, every hour. It's just too much this semester.

I need a second to think... which is why I bought THIS! Oh, yeah, you can't see things through this medium, can you? Um, well it's a little device called the Time Saver. You press a series of buttons and it makes a temporary time loop for you to inhabit. The loop is only about ten feet in diameter, so you need to make sure you have everything you need within reach before activation, but hey everything has a catch. And now I can take as long as I need for homework (or homework breaks)! Or I can use it to listen to part of a lecture again, if I'm in class. No one else is supposed to be able to detect the looping unless it's pointed out to them. The best part is, when I exit the loop I start at the exact moment after the loop ended-- absolutely no missed time! Which is good, because my aunt had one that she used to give herself a longer weekend once, and when she came out of it, well, she'd been missing for years and was now an aunt. She's cool though. I think she's a junior this year. We have lunch sometimes.

I haven't actually tried the Time Saver yet... I was going to read the manual first but it's so full of time traveling jargon it's not even worth it. I'll just try it out tonight when my roommate sneaks out again to go convene with the lunar manifestations. With any luck, I'll be able to watch the entirety of the movie Avatar without missing out on sleep! I've always wanted to watch it. Did you know it's based off of a true story? Or, at least, that's what some of the senior psychic citizens told me when I volunteered at their Shrine/Nursing Home. They may've been confused though.

I had a peculiar dream last night. My dorm room smelt horrendously of sulfur, and nothing I did could rectify the situation. Even Extra-Strength Scented Candles only masked the sulfurous taint for a few seconds. It was awful.

After a while in my sulfur dream dorm I wandered into the hall, but instead of the dorms hall it was my parents' bedroom. I noticed a board game on the bookshelf so I went over to investigate it and Dream Me recognized it but Awake Me has no idea what Dream Me was talking about. The game centered around these little "insects", which looked like fat, squat, uncooked shrimp aliens but Dream Me called them "cockroaches". There were also teeny tiny ants. The ants were still moving around within the box, but the creepy alien shrimp were dead as a door nail. Dream Me was pretty bummed about that, because it meant that the game could no longer be played. What kind of game does one play with sentient alien shrimp? That's what Awake Me wants to know.

Then, one of them moved. It was so unnerving.

My alarm went off before Dream Me could react. Thank goodness, because it was really uncomfortable holding a box full of insects and tiny undead grotesque shrimp. Wonder why Dream Mom would even have one of those in her room.

Of course, being a senior, I understand the proper procedure for these types of vivid dreams. After logging the details at the Dream Delvers public dream book in Murphy Hall (they're always asking for donations of dream scenarios to explore/dissect) I went straight to the Self-Aware Library (S-AL), who immediately piled a stack of books on Dream-Interpretation at my feet.

Two authors said that sulfur was representative of higher reasoning, and said it meant I needed to trust my intellect or intuition. Another however insisted that smelling something bad meant that I have distaste or distrust of my current situation. One lady claimed that it meant I had a hunger for life force. But she said that for a lot of dream symbols, so I think there might've been some outside issues there.

The weird shrimp creatures supposedly could mean I feel small in the world right now and want to be left alone -- assuming they were shrimp. If they really were "cockroaches", then that's a need for rejuvenating or cleansing my psychological/spiritual being, which would fit in nicely with ants symbolizing a shadow aspect of myself I'm repressing.

This is why I decided I wouldn't try to study any of the dream-based majors in college. It's too much. Everyone dives too deep into it all. Someone dreams about a dead insect board game and suddenly they have to over-haul their entire soul. I'm turning the settings on my @grOTTO GSM INC. bed lower when I get back to the dorm room; I don't want this to become a recurring event in my night life.

I like watching these drizzly autumn days, with either set of eyes. It feels like nature is taking a moment to be calm and drowsy. The paths of the painted leaves starting to glide down from the trees trace a faint glow of life force in the misty air that glimmer beautifully before my Other Eyes.

There are other things to See as well, but on days like this I just focus on the subtle rhythms of nature's ebb. Trickling down into the mantle to be reborn in fiery glory somewhere else. Or simply chilling in the dirt to be decomposed by the @Bimpliboo villages. With fall on our doorstep the mushroom buildings are being erected at an exponential rate. On the plus side, with how efficient those little guys are I doubt that the custodians will have to bother with raking leaves this year. On the negative side, the Bimpliboos have stolen all the ink pens from my dorm building for no discernible reason, so we all have to use writing alternatives like pencils or charcoal or distilled ant saliva. I'm kinda mad they took my glitter pens, but I guess colored pencils will work just as well for decorating posters.

Oh, good, they're finally opening up the computer lab. Now I can stop wasting time and get started on the homework I procrastinated all weekend. At least I got to spend a couple minutes enjoying the weather. Happy Labor Day everyone.

I had a nightmare that my SACT scores came back, and they were so low that no higher school of psychic learning would accept my application. In fact, all of my application was so abysmal that [redacted] were chasing me around trying to saw open my skull so they could study my brain and preserve it for future generations to marvel at my ineptness.

I know, I know, it's totally ridiculous. [redacted] would never be so crude. Saws? They're a [redacted], not a gang of confused lumber jacks.

I should probably stop talking about [redacted]. They like to pretend they're secretive, even though they advertise themselves in all the one-way mirrors in the school like the drama queens they are [rude].

I've been really worked up about my college applications though. The stress is starting to effect me physically. My top school's app opened last night. I really really don't want to mess up my chances to go there -- they have a Forbidden Library hidden beneath one of the fountains, an Anti-Matter Observatory, AND a cute little coffee shop by the freshmen dorms!

So yeah, I'm going to talk to my counselor(s) soon to ask if I can switch into that neat new class, UPWARD MOBILITY AND THE MODERN WORKER. Myuri told me that it has a whole unit on applications, resumes, interviews, and personal statements. I just wish I didn't have to drop a class to take it. I suppose that I don't actually NEED to take Clairvoyance and Interpretations III... that's what I get for deciding to sign up for a senior blow off class.

I hope that this class isn't scheduled for super early in the morning. I know some courses, like the Fae, Pixie, Brownie Studies (FPBS), have to start at dawn. But I saw some of my friends earlier who are already taking the class, and they seemed completely dazed. It looked like their life energy was being leeched out and analyzed -- which is probably how I look too when I have to wake up before 5am, ha ha.

Back hurts... neck hurts... shoulders hurt... bah. Abstract Dissection worked with looking into Academic Stress (a very common beast in an institution such as our own). The girls at the lab table behind me got nervous when we were working with the anxiety sack -- located just above the disgusting sucking apparatus -- and the thing collected a large store of their anxious emotions without them noticing. By the time their shaky hands sliced open the sack, it was already fit to burst from their fears about failing the first dissection of the semester. They, myself, and my lab partners got splattered with the contents; a gross mix of nervousness, puss, unrealistic projections of the future, and some slimy worry. Some of it had already been partially digested into stress, as was obvious from the smell of old textbooks and math-homework-tears.

Thankfully my head and hair was protected by the special safety helmet, but my entire back got covered with the stuff. I already sent my jacket to the Association of Stain Mediums, you know, that student group who volunteers to help get all the awful stains and spills out of any and all fabrics. They're real life savers. Rumor has it they can get grape juice out of caterpillar silk! I end up going to their drop-off bin outside the clock tower like at least once a month. I don't know if they have much experience with Abstract stains, but for my jean jacket's sake I hope so.

I was hoping the denim would've been enough to keep me protected from exposure to the raw emotions, but the tense aching of my shoulders and etc. indicate otherwise. I can't even sit at my desk chair. The pain becomes unbearable. I hate to put off homework, but I just can't do it tonight. I'll simply rush through it all during my study hall tomorrow. I can do it... I-I hope....

Gah, no, I know I can. That's the Stress talking. I'm just going to lie on my bed and watch the energy flows outside the window with my Other Eyes. Try to relax. Maybe I'll borrow my roommate's Shabti. The purple one is specially designed to give massages, and my back is just killing me right now. If I wait til she goes into deep meditative ascension, she won't even notice me recruiting the little guy.

So much homework... so many early morning club meetings... so hungry... but this new bed is so comfortable....

I signed up to go to the Pro Cake Rally tomorrow on the... um... no, in the rose gardens. Yeah, over there... and I promised Hurggor I'd meet him... but I'm kind of worried I'll... *yawn* sleep right through it! It's just so hard to... to get up. I had to set... like, twelve alarms to get myself... up to do this... this... this post entry thing. Even now my body is leaning... back towards... the bed....

What's really... really interesting abut the Trans-D... Dem... uh, Trans-Dimensional Shape Foam Beds is what happens when you... you finally start to... ah, you know, mmm... dream. When the forms start rising from... from your subconscious and then the voice... it starts... hold on let me just get more comfortable.... *soft thud* *snoring*

I was //this// close to cornering the level 7 bounce house! Ugh, I'm so mad. It's all Eddgarion's fault. Apparently he'd fitted a locust swarm with little cameras and was using them to try to track the bounce house through the woods, but as usual he lost control and the locust went mad. Luckily, there were a few telekinetics who were hanging around the cakes' prep room and hastily put up a block to keep the hungry little buggers out. So the number of cakes we've lost to tragedy -- locust-related or otherwise -- is stabilizing at like 5 for right now. Pretty good if you ask me.

After the bounce house disappointment, I took a break to burn some assignments with everyone else. Let me tell you, that's some intense heat there. I can't tell if it's from the sheer massive amount of homework thrown onto the flickering flames or the bonfire picking up on the months of hatred and frustration preserved in the ink, but it's almost painful to stand within ten feet of it all. I took a peek at it with my Other Eyes -- energy releases always look prettier that way -- and someone must've thrown a heat-activated portal-ing assignment in there. Because there was a LOT of space time being bent toward the middle of the fire. It looks fantastic.

Myuri wants to go back out and try one last time to get the bounce house. She keeps hinting that she's in on some big student conspiracy to catch it, but she won't say anything about it aloud. I'd like to watch some of the cake walk first, but afterward I guess I'll join her team. It couldn't hurt. Besides, Myuri said there was a cute guy she wanted me to meet.