some shameless advertising, and an awesome new book

Hello everyone! Your friendly neighborhood sleep-deprived college student here, reporting from the depths of midterm week. And because it is midterm week, I’m going to talk about something completely unrelated to school right now. Sound good? Instead we will talk about a few things that mattered to me this week.

First of all, Girl Scouts cookies and why you should buy them. They are delicious, overpriced, and quite possibly cocaine-laced. Yes, don’t think that we are unaware of their addictive qualities. You think you have it bad? Try living with cases of the things in your living room, just calling your name. But the point here is not the cookies. The point is that you should really consider buying some. Yes, I know they’re overpriced. I even mentioned it above. But here’s the thing: most of the activities we do as a troop, and that a lot of troops do, are not free. And even when they are, there are still expenses to be paid. And the reason that the cookies cost more than you’d expect is that part of the price goes to the troop. That money allows girls in our troop who can’t afford the trips go. It pays for food on our camping trips and art supplies for our girls to use. It pays for baking supplies that we use to make cookies to take to our local women’s shelter. It goes to buying a robot building kit so our troop can participate in the local robotics competition for kids, getting girls involved in engineering and technology where women are underrepresented. So think about buying a box. Believe me, it’s for a good cause.

Now that my shameless advertising has been taken care of, a slightly (very) more interesting topic: The Wise Man’s Fear by Patrick Rothfuss was released yesterday. It is a sequel to one of my absolute favorite books, The Name of the Wind. If you have not heard of it, a) you are dead to me and b) get thee to a library immediately. I’m just kidding about the dead to me thing of course, but part b is totally serious guys. The story itself is not what I love about this book, though it is fast paced and interesting. But the main thing that makes me heart this book so hard is the narrator’s voice. As you read, you know exactly who he is. He has genuine personality. Now, I haven’t read the sequel yet, so I can’t say whether or not it’s worth reading, but the release date was supposed to be like two years ago, so this had better be good.

And lastly, some pro nerd advice: if you like video games (and if you are a nerd, chances are you do) play league of legends. It’s free, it’s fun, and it’s a marvelous way to procrastinate during midterms. And with that I bid you all a fond farewell and return to the misery embodied that is midterms. DFTBA!