The drive wasn't so bad, but I missed at least three questions on the test (all essay -- 25 questions at 4 pts. each). Actually, I'm pretty sure those were the only three I missed. Two of them I tried to answer, the third I drew a complete blank on. If she gives me partial credit for the other two then there's a chance I could squeeze by with an A-, but I'm not gonna hold my breath. I'm kinda peeved, because I studied my ass off and I know I'd have been able to finishing answering those other two if I'd had more time. And I haven't gotten a B on a test since the last time I had this professor. Now I'm starting to sound like those over achiever people who flip out over Bs like they're a bad grade. I've never been one of those. Last semester I started stressing over that stuff because I needed to pull my GPA up high enough to qualify for Psi Chi, but now I've accomplished that, so I can relax and be happy with my B.

I've got a breather before I have to crack down for my next test on Monday, so tonight I'm gonna get my writing samples all prepped to submit to Outline (I found my old magazine article, by the by), then I'm gonna work on DL. Hopefully tonight I can finish my part of 3.10, then this weekend I can get going on 3.11. Also need to beta several scenes for 3.9, but seeing as how the temperature's supposed to drop significantly over night and I probably won't be going anywhere tomorrow, I think I can leave that 'til then.

In case I have any readers left who are not on the forums and who care about this sort of thing, here's what I had to say about this week's Buffy, "The Killer In Me." Highlight to read:

[Spoilers]This ep wasn't overtly 'shippy, but I didn't need it to be. I wanted them to build a good, solid friendship before moving on to anything romantic, and this ep showed that they have that. And that Mulder/Scully homage was no accident. Even if it did tie in nicely to the whole government conspiracy thing (hee!), M&S's relationship (pre-smoochies) was the type of friendship I always wanted Spike & Buffy to have. And now they do. That made me happy. But they can go ahead and move ahead to the smoochies now. That'll make me happier.

"Assface" made me smile. And the looks on Spike's & Buffy's faces right after made me giggle. Too bad they had to do it without Blucas, but this ep made me like Riley again. Made it clear that he still doesn't like Spike, but he acknowledged that Buffy does, and he has enough respect for her to trust her judgment and stay out of her way. Unlike certain other ex-boyfriends of hers. But that's a rant for another topic.

My only problem with this storyline was the retconning they did to make it work, which I can only fanwank so far. Was Spike even in the Initiative long enough for them to give him pain meds? And why would they? The point of the chip was to cause him pain, and it's not like the Initiative doctors were full of compassion for the suffering of demonkind. Not to mention the fact that Spike's chip didn't fire when he made his great escape, despite grabbing one doctor by the throat and shoving other people around on his way out. So, yeah. I could overlook and accept it if it had been necessary, but it wasn't. Buffy's suggestion that they look for info on the chip while they were in there would have been grounds enough for the excursion in the first place. So that bugs. I tell you, if I ever produce a hit TV show? I'm gonna hire a panel of fans to beta scripts for continuity.

As for Giles? It felt to me like these past several eps have been elaborate set up for a joke, and I was pretty pleased with the punchline. The group tackle made me giggle. And squeal. And throw my hands up in the air "Touchdown!" style and exclaim, "He's not dead!" Although I figured that was the case when they started discussing the phone call. Much like my reaction to Dawn and the Potential Detector Spell, I thought that they'd just made that conclusion too obvious and there was no way now that could really be the case.

The A plot was good. I was impressed with Adam Busch's acting, just like everybody else. And Willow's crying made me tear up. I thought Kennedy's breaking the spell with a kiss was a little hokey, but I can live with it. I'm glad that they acknowledged how hard it is for Willow to move on. Also, I liked Amy. Though I have to wonder if it's not that she's jealous of Willow's power so much as resentful that such a powerful witch took so long to de-rat her. Which is understandable. I like that Amy's not really evil, she's just a bitch. I do see her becoming more and more like her psycho mom, though, and that's scary.

I pretty much loved everything else. Lots of great lines and things I didn't really catch on the first viewing. The whole exchange about Molly getting locked in the trunk and Anya's "I didn't realize Molly was so compact," Buffy's description of the vision quest, "Who you gonna call," Anya's "All we have is a teenager, a powerless former demon and two big geeks" and Xander's inability to argue that last point, Buffy's "I probably shouldn't have said that" and then her triumphant, "I knew it! Government conspiracy." All of it was to laugh. And as sick as I am of seeing Spike in pain, I gotta admit that it was kinda funny how he writhed around on the floor with noone noticing. Albeit irritating that Xander and the others seemed to notice first and didn't say or do anything about it. But gratifying when Buffy finally saw and, as soon as she was sure that the Willow problem wasn't her problem, ran to Spike. And their "Buffy?" "I'm here," exchange melted me a little. So over all, I thought this was a pretty good ep.[/spoilers]