Reactions

As you all may or may not know, I am a girl in mechanical engineering. I'm not making myself to be special or superior to any other person in any other program but it's just a fact of life that you don't see that every day.

When you meet people, you obviously have to go through the small talk of school and what program you're studying. It's inevitable. I think asking people what book they're currently reading is a much more interesting form of small talk. I am going to make that a thing. But of course, when I tell people what I'm studying, I get THE BEST reactions. They're usually extreme and there's always the typical ones but I've gotten some pretty atypical ones. Since I get a kick out of them, I figured you dudes might too and this is what the rest of this post entails.

1. Wide eyes. This is usually when they're trying to mask the fact that they had a reaction altogether and go on to regular answer like "Oh, are you liking it?" and "Are you living in residence?"

2. "I'm so glad there are people like you..." This comes from people who can't believe anyone would want to continue doing math voluntarily. They kind of make a joke where they're thankful that "people like me" exist because if it were up to them to do what I will be doing once
I graduate the world would start crumbling in on itself.

3. Genuine questions. There are people who know a few things about the classes I'm taking and ask how I'm finding them and all that. I like giving them feedback.

4. The future-thinkers. These are the same people that always asked what you were going to major in back when you were in high school. Now that you've got that pretty much cemented in, they move on to the next big milestone: your career. You are asked what you plan to do with your degree and where you'd like to live and basically all the questions that make you want to go back to kindergarten where everything was safe and certain.

It's always the creepy old people too

5. BOYS. WINK. This reaction is by far the creepiest and kind of the most insulting. This is where they point out that engineering is mostly filled with people with XY chromosomes. They ask for ratios of girls to guys in your classes, and, inevitably, talk about how easy it will be for me to find a boyfriend. Like whoa, who has time for a love life when you're taking these kinds of classes. That is definitely not my number one priority.

6. Doom predictors. These people know of other people who also decided that they could handle becoming an engineer but ended up doing really badly or dropping out or switching to a different program and on the outside I'm all like cool story bro but on the inside I freak out because it's not like I was a child prodigy or anything I've had to work hard and what if it's not enough and my entire life falls to pieces before my eyes.

Your turn! Tell me about the funniest or most insulting or best reactions to whatever you're doing with your life!

Books I'm Annoyed At Myself For Not Reading The Second They Came Out

This list is bigger than it should be. What usually happens is I'm super pumped for the book but the release date is in like 6 months and since I don't want to go through the emotional trauma of actually thinking about the book and its non-releasedness, I just shove it to the back of my mind and forget about it.

Of course, me being me, I go ahead and forget about the very existence of the book (unless it is constantly shoved in my face and reminders pop up everywhere AHEM John Green books) and it enters the world without me noticing. Suddenly reviews and people raving about it pop up and I'm late to the party. I have to order it at the library and then wait for it to come and then add it to my To Be Read pile and then I can finally join the club of "I have read this book and can now form an opinion about it".

Currently on this list:
Fangirl by Rainbow Rowell
Like why did I not just sit inside a bookstore with this book until I finished it on its release day not caring about the looks the workers give me?? Tumblr is obsessed with it and I am obsessed with Rainbow's books so it would make sense but not I'm just sitting here in confusion while the internet goes on about a Cath and a Simon Snow?

Clockwork Princess by Cassandra Clare
This I'll admit I have just been lazy. I'm not too obsessed with The Infernal Devices books but still, it's the last book in the trilogy. Is it that hard to pick it up, power through the 500 pages and finally get an ending? And then I can make a judgement on whether the ending was too vague and non-conclusionary or completely perfect and two thumbs up. (I'm a major critic of endings. They must be just right or I will be grouchy. Maybe I should delve into that in a later post.)


Inheritance by Christopher Paolini
Again with the endings thing. This is the last book in an intense series so why don't I just read it? It's literally been out for years so the library line can't be that long but I still cannot manage to make myself do it. This one has a common sense reason: it's too long. Yes, I am funny capable of reading something of that length but do I want to expend the effort it will take to read it? Do I want to get stuck in the rut where I've read more than 300 pages yet I'm still not halfway done the book? Or worse, do I want to get sucked into the book and disregard the rest of my life just so I can devour it? The answer is no. My brain is rationalizing all these thoughts and it really doesn't want to go through all the effort and I don't blame. What I'm thinking is that when I have zero responsibilities aka once this semester is over, I will jump into this book. For sure.

I Hunt Killers by Barry Lyga
I literally know nothing about this book except that it's semi popular and it sounds like it would be Dexterish which is a thing that I like. But even though it really intrigues me, I haven't picked it up mainly because I don't know what do expect. Most books I read have been read by many other people that I know and there is usually a general consensus of what to expect from the book. Maybe I haven't done enough research but this book really isn't popping up on my radar enough for me to get the gist of what is going to go down in it. I will read it some day because I would be so upset with myself if I didn't discover a major good book in my own without just sheeping it out and reading the latest bestsellers only. (Example of this happening was Graceling by Kristin Cashore which was one of the best decisions I ever made so doing it again with this book would not make me sad at all.)

If you want to know more about me and my relationship with books, check me out on Goodreads and Booklikes!

Brainstorm

I just made a brainstorm on future topics for this blog.

Here's the list:
Socks: matching or unmatching?
Reasons it's good to be *blank* (insert short, blond, quiet, etc.)
Useless skills I have
Embarrassing story
Where I'll be at seventy-three
Useless skills I want to learn

I know, real deep and thought-provoking.

While we're on the topic actually, what do you want me to ramble about? Book reviews? My life? My thoughts and opinions?

Top 10 Favourite Smells

Warning: some may be a little weird.

1. Rain.
2. Clean sheets.
3. Lightly toasted marshmallows.
4. Sharpie.
5. Campfire.
6. Vanilla.
7. Citrus.
8. Unpolluted air.
9. Grass.
10. Purell.

I wonder what would happen if I came across a campfire in unpolluted air where there was grass and it had just rained and there were people lightly toasting marshmallows to eat with some vanilla and citrus after having done their laundry, colour with Sharpie and sanitized their hands.

Those are them. What are yours?