Blue Potatoes

Friday 13th

2009-02-13T14:33:00.000-08:00

I remember in elementary school, in fourth grade the student teacher in my class heard that a fair number of us were worried about Friday the 13th being unlucky. She told us that it was only as unlucky as we thought it was. She said that it could be a lucky day if we thought it was. Thanks for the advice.

Oy vey

2009-02-11T15:44:00.000-08:00

I think if I get my head straight on my head again I may be able to get my body working in proper shape again. I think that might take a while so I guess I just take the pills for my body and just try to relax to get my head working well again. I'd like where I am a lot better if my body would cooperate, but I think it decided to quit on me a few days ago and only will agree to help me if I give it the kind of food and drinks it likes.

Just as a notice...

2009-01-22T20:27:00.001-08:00

I have every intention of just keeping this blog as a place to put random thoughts and ideas, so they don't spill over into my other, more serious blog on Wordpress.

To the new year

2009-01-22T20:22:00.000-08:00

It is a new year after all, since the last time I wrote was in April of 2008 and man have things changed since then.

In November we elected our first African-American president, Barack Hussein Obama, but lost the same-sex marriage rights battle in California.

As of January (now), Obama was just sworn into the office of the presidency of the United States, Hillary Clinton as the Secretary of State (yay for the second female one this decade), and the marriages of those couples who wedded in California in the months that it was legal there are in limbo.

What a crazy world we live in.

Too cute to pass up

2008-04-02T00:04:00.001-07:00

R.I.P.

2008-01-23T00:04:00.000-08:00

Heath Ledger

Gone too young.

Truth

2007-10-28T11:48:00.000-07:00

Back on the market (the job market that is)

2007-07-30T10:42:00.000-07:00

So I ended up quitting my job at the summer camp I was working at. It and I were just not getting along too splendidly, so here I am, at home, thinking about what I could do for my next job.

For me, employment isn't completely mandatory/necessary. I could live without the money. The real question is whether I want to live with my parents' nagging about me getting a job, the boredom that would creep into my days if I didn't have one, and the lack of spending money for when I go back to school. I like having money and I like having a reason to get up before noon. It gives purpose to my life. Purpose is a good thing. At this point in time I would pretty much be willing to take any decent job that pays minimum wage or higher and isn't a commute longer than twenty-five or thirty minutes, forty at the most.

There are a couple potential places I could apply at, but all of them will require me to put on nicer clothing than a t-shirt and jeans (my normal apparel) and drive around the area in which I live, about twenty or thirty minutes in either direction. The outlet mall has potential and I know that there are a few places there that are hiring (and from who I saw working there, are probably not more than reasonably picky about the people they hire). I'm also going to check into a job at the office supply stores in town/nearby simply because it is almost back-to-school season and I've heard that most of them will hire a few additional workers to cover the extra business. Worth trying at the very least. One of my friends suggested the place where he works; they pay more than minimum wage just starting out, but they might want a little but more than the seasonal commitment I can give them. Those are my options for now.

Now I need to take my cold medicine so I don't sound like a completely sick individual/goober and get up the guts to get out of the house and apply for jobs. Oh boy. What a complete thrill.

Tata for now.

Sickness

2007-07-24T19:02:00.000-07:00

Blarg.

I hate having a sore throat and sneezing all the time.

I hope I don't have strep. One of the other staff members had strep within a period reasonable period of time ago for me to start showing symptoms right now if I got it from her. There is a reasonable chance that I did. I think I'm going to go into the camp nurse and get my temperature taken, because a fever is one of the symptoms.

Blarg.

Tata for now.

Movies I've seen lately

2007-07-22T17:51:00.000-07:00

The latest Harry Potter is dark and wonderful.

Hairspray is utterly fantastic. If you haven't seen it you need to, badly. I think it is even better than the original.

That's all for now because I need to go to dinner.

Tata for now.

I'm still at camp...

2007-07-19T09:19:00.000-07:00

But camp is officially more than half over for me. It was officially half over yesterday. Thirty two days in, thirty two more to go. On the bright side I get to go home for a little more than a day after week six and I get to bring the minivan back with me. On the negative side I will probably be having some massively busy weeks ahead of me. Blarg.

For the last four weeks I have had to deal with the many faults of Internet Explorer to explore the internets here at camp. No more. I installed Firefox and now I can cruise the World Wide Web in one window, with the help of tabs.

Summer Camp #1

2007-06-23T10:42:00.000-07:00

This is my seventh day at the summer camp I'm working at, and so far the week hasn't been too fantastic, but it has had its high points. I am almost fully trained for my job in the commissary for the next eight weeks and I am very happy about it. When next week rolls around I'll know exactly what I have to do and nobody will bother me. I'll have space and time to think while I measure and dole out various food for pack-out meals. When I'm on my two-hour break each day I'll have access to the internet, so I can write emails, read the news and my favorite blogs, and write, on occasion, on my own blog, just telling y'all how I'm doing. When I don't have anything to do in the commissary I get/have to spend time with my unit, possibly entertaining the campers if the counselor needs me to, or working as a dock sitter if they're going swimming. It'll all be up to my unit coordinator (UC), as to what they will need me for each time.

I'd like to get back to my magazine now (some British trash), so I'll talk to you later.

Tata for now.

Another day

2007-06-06T13:03:00.000-07:00

Another day, another dollar. Except that it isn't another dollar when you aren't earning any money. Fortunately I will this summer. Yay for money.

Only a few more days left of school. Five for me, which is a week total. No more labs. One to two more classes. It's hard to believe that I have completed almost one year of college. It's kind of sad actually because I'll be pretty much out of touch with my friends over the summer. Three months with only the people I knew from before college. Not bad, but definitely more limited.

I have a job at a summer camp about thirty minutes south of where I go to school, which is about two hours away from my house. One day off a week and I don't know if I'll have transportation back and forth. They said they'd send me another packet of information after I got all my references in and I haven't heard from them for more than a week, which makes me a little nervous. The first day of work is going to be the seventeenth of this month, which only gives me a couple days at home.

Finals are going to be more complicated that they were last quarter, especially because I'm taking more classes. Two multiple choice ones: psychology, biology and two in-class essay tests, one of which I can use my laptop for, thank the stars above. The only really unfortunate thing is that I have two of my finals at 8:00 in the morning, before I normally have classes. The annoyingness.

Well, tata for now.

Finally...

2007-05-16T16:17:00.000-07:00

Everything is finally under control. I know exactly where I stand in the world and it is working for me.

What I've done so far:

Sent in an online application to one Camp Fire Camp
Set up a phone interview for 1:00 pm on Thursday with the director of said camp.
Signed up for the CPR class that pretty much all day camps want.
Printed out the day camp applications that I needed to print out.
Spoke to one of my old managers, got her contact information and possibly a summer job if none of my applications are successful.

What I have yet to do:

Phone interview on Thursday. Wish me luck!
Take the CPR class on 6/3. Shouldn't be too hard because I've qualified before. Three hours of learning something I already know, but it is well worth it to be certified. I am so glad I saw that poster when I did because I was freaking out about it Sunday when I was filling out applications and also because they only had one spot left. (I hope this is the one they want, but it isn't specific.)
Finalize the two day camp staff applications (both for city day camps), print them out, and mail them in. I need to do this in the next few days.
Go to my community movie committee. My particular group, documentaries and foreign films, like the other four groups, gets a hundred dollars to spend on movies from our category for our residence hall community.
Get through the week and enjoy the weekend.

See? All under control for once.

I don't know if I'll ever get used to this sunny weather. It actually feels like what I suppose May should feel like and not like March or April like it usually feels like. I hope it portends a pleasant summer, not too scorching hot and not too cold, with just the right amount of rain to keep the grass green.

Well, I should get working on those applications, so tata for now.

Gas prices...

2007-05-06T22:07:00.000-07:00

Get this: People are freaking out because gas hit a nationwide average of $3.07 a gallon. $3.07 per gallon! Where I live it hasn't been that low for about six months or more.

Take a peek: http://money.cnn.com/2007/05/06/news/economy/gasoline/index.htm?eref=rss_topstories

They say the highest average is $3.49 in San Francisco. I don't think their survey or however they got this data is quite far-reaching enough. It is ten cents more expensive here. I will not take pity on someone who complains when they are paying a few cents more than $3.00 for a gallon of gas. Give me a break!

I thank my lucky stars that I do not drive here because to fill the car I usually drive (a 1989 Toyota Camry) it would cost $43.08. Over forty dollars to fill a tank! Back home, it would cost me $41.28 if I filled up in my home town (mailing address city, because I'm technically unincorporated) and in one of the other places I'd fill up it's $40.68.

Time to go, finished with my rant. Tata for now.

Deer

2007-05-03T08:55:00.000-07:00

This morning as I was walking to my lovely nine o'clock class from my dorm, I turned the corner at one of the neighboring dorms I saw a couple of black-tailed deer. Immediately I stopped, my jaw dropped slightly, and I stared at them. They stared back and, obviously not scared of me, they moved across the path slowly. My first reaction was to reach for my camera phone; even though it doesn't take great photos it could back up my story. I wanted to post the pictures on my blog here, but apparently they don't want to send in the building I'm in. I may try later. I may not.

Anyway, tata for now.

Take Back the Night pictures

2007-04-19T23:51:00.000-07:00

Courtesy of one of my guy friends who was at the event with the camera, but couldn't march (women-only, trans-inclusive). They're awesome. The pictures are in order from the bottom up. Thanks a bunch to you.

No pictures with me visible (I prefer to remain at least partially anonymous), but I am behind the group of standing girls in the top. I think you might be able to see some of my leg, but not much more. Tata for now.

Take Back the Night

2007-04-19T22:57:00.000-07:00

As promised, here is a lovely post about my school's Take Back the Night program. You're lucky all I have to do here is type, because I have little to no voice.

At 7:30 was a rally to get everybody pumped up for the night ahead. First on the program was a vocal artist/poet/singer Crista Bell. She was very woman-oriented and had a fire within her that spread, eventually to the crowd of mostly women, with a few men intermixed. She was vagina-friendly. Then came a group of students each saying why they fought against sexual violence. After that a trio performed a poem-thingy called "My short skirt" about the fact that wearing a short skirt is not an invitation to rape. A female musician, Misty Flowers was next, and she sung (and played the guitar to) a version of the song/poem "I rise" (Still I rise?) originally written by Maya Angelou but sung by Ben Harper. Last, but not least, were the Radical Cheerleaders, women with lots of enthusiasm for the rights of women to feel safe everywhere.

After we went outside it took a couple minutes for everyone to get out, some people lit up (gross!) and I got to meet someone new who I pretty much stuck around for most of the march. We marched all around the campus, getting a few new women along the way, escorted by the city police (Whoot! We had a police escort! Whoot!). Then we went to the downtown, yelling inspiration slogans along the way. There were many people just standing or sitting outside their homes watching and listening to us. Then we went back up a whole bunch of hills to the place outside our performing arts center where we started. Misty Flowers sang again, first Stand by Me, which the crowd joined in to, appropriately, then four more songs about getting out of her abusive relationship, which were so wonderful. There is almost nothing so beautiful as a lone voice accompanied by an acoustic guitar, it is just so, how can I say it, awe-inspiring and classically beautiful, primal and essential.

After that there was tea and cookies for everyone, including the men, who held a candlelight vigil while we women were out marching. At this point I realized that I had lost my voice, despite my extensive use of my diaphragm (I knew learning how to sound off in NJROTC would help me sometime) and not as much of my vocal cords to power my chants. I got to see some people I've only heard about, but somehow just recognized from an oft-heard description. Weird how that works sometimes. The mint tea I had allowed me a little of my voice back for half a minute or so between sips (gulps really), which was nice, and I'm hoping sleep will help with it too. I think I may have to have another day of silence, or almost silence, tomorrow.

I guess I should turn in. Tata for now.

National Day of Silence

2007-04-18T16:10:00.000-07:00

Just for anyone who doesn't know what I'm talking about:

"The Day of Silence is an annual event held to bring attention to anti-LGBT bullying, harassment and discrimination in schools. Students and teachers nationwide will observe the day in silence to echo the silence that LGBT and ally students face everyday."

(According to http://www.dayofsilence.org)

In practicality it is simply observed. Anyone who is LGBT or an ally is silent for the length of the school day to draw attention to the LGBT people who, for many reasons, including "bullying, harassment, and discrimination", remain silent. My university observed it yesterday, but I figured I'd observe it on the official day, heck the more attention brought to the issue the better.

My school day has ended, so now I may speak. I officially said that it ended at 4:00 this afternoon, ten minutes after the ending of my last class. It is weird that the first words to come out of my mouth today were to my roommate, telling her the door was unlocked.

Being silent for a day has taught me a lot. Normally I am a very talkative person around the people I know well, including talking to myself. Today I had to remember to keep my mouth shut.

Let me start with the most practical of things:

I don't think we quite realize how much we depend on verbal communication to get by in our world, especially in school. I hear the people talking all around me and all I can do is think to myself. Some simple communications could be answered with a yes or no, a nod or head-shaking. Others, such as group assignments were a little bit more difficult. In Biology today we had to do an extra-credit thing in groups and the girl who was in the group with me asked "Did you take a vow of silence?" and because, effectively, I had, I nodded. Anything I had to say during that time was either typed out on my calculator (thanks to the power of my TI-83 Plus graphing calculator) or on my laptop if it was longer than was practical to use the calculator for. She would read it off my computer screen to the guy in our group who was writing the extra credit out. It was actually awesome and quite inspiring.

What really amazed me is when I was eating lunch it felt like every time I bit or chewed that I was talking in a way, moving my jaw in the same way as one does when talking. I know that sounds odd, but it did.

I don't know if my actions/lack of words today has affected anyone in any other than a basic way, but if it has affected one person I know that my school day without verbal communication was
worth every second.

Take Back the Night is tomorrow, so you can expect to hear from me about that soon after, as I promised.

Tata for now.

Does nobody realize it's Tuesday, April 10th?

2007-04-10T08:55:00.000-07:00

The only people who actually seem to realize what day it is are those who charged me money.

The stupid job that I want to apply for is missing the job application online that was supposed to be up yesterday April 9th, it says so itself on the website. One of the blogs I like to read that updates on Tuesdays and Thursdays has not updated today already, but he has, in the past, updated later in the day or the next day if he hasn't by this time in the morning.

I just wish that they would get their act together.

I guess I must say tata for now.

Sunny day...

2007-04-06T12:54:00.000-07:00

You don't get weather much better than this in early April. Almost seventy degrees out with barely a cloud in the sky. There was no way that I was going to eat lunch outside this afternoon, so I got some small snack-like things from a cafe and sat outside on the grass in front of the building in which I have class now. One of my friends joined me just after I finished and we just laid in the sun until I figured I should probably leave to get a decent seat in this huge class.

According to the newspaper we could reach record highs, possibly about eighty degrees outside today and seventy tomorrow. The average temperature for this time of the year is fifty-six degrees, which is what I believe it will be next week. Man I wish I was smart enough this morning to wear capris and a tank top, but there's no way I could have known it would get this warm until I got out of class.

Class now, so tata for now.

A deal...

2007-04-04T16:29:00.000-07:00

Okay everybody whose blog I read regularly please update more frequently. Even if it is just to tell your audience that you are alive. Anything for me to read please. In exchange I will blog more frequently and try to write more blogs with actual substance to them, something people will actually care about. Please just do this for me.

In other news:

I have had at least one of each of my classes for Spring Quarter. Whoot.
I have exhausted my blog supply for the day. I keep checking each of my favorite blogs to see if they'll update, but no, they don't that often.
I will do a blog about my school's Take Back the Night event either that night or sometime the Friday and weekend after. I promise. Even if it is just a few sentences describing it, I will write.
My sinuses hated me yesterday. Stupid tree pollen. Yes, flowers are pretty, but my mild case of allergies is not. Such a conflict.
It was such a beautiful day yesterday. What went wrong?

I can't think of anything more that has any substance, so tata for now.

The first day of class

2007-04-03T13:09:00.000-07:00

Ah, the first day of class spring quarter. Nothing like it. I get to start off pretty slow, but tomorrow I have all my classes, but I planned it well enough so that I have plenty of time between classes, unlike last quarter.

I got to meet some new people today. Two of them were one of my friend's friends from high school and they were just as cool as she had described them to be. I can see why she likes them. The other two were sisters touring the campus from California, one who's looking into the Honors program here. I showed them around my room and the rest of the dorm (which is technically the Honors dorm), gave them some random facts, and they went on their way.

Not a bad day, really.

Tata for now.

Something new

2007-03-29T00:13:00.000-07:00

My sister got her driver's license today (technically yesterday) so I will not have to drive her everywhere anymore. On the downside, now we get to battle over the car, because, face it, nobody really wants to drive a mini-van. Fortunately for her I'm only home about a quarter of the year.

Not much else to say.

Tata for now.

Ah, the weekend....

2007-03-15T16:10:00.000-07:00

At 6:00 today I will be finished with two out of my three classes for this quarter, minus finals. The third one will be over at 4:00 tomorrow. The weekend will be a bitch though. I will have two finals to write, one due Monday (the long one, 4-5 pages), and one due Tuesday (the short one, two papers, each 1 page). After Wednesday I will be completely finished as of mid-day (I don't remember what time), but I will stay on until Friday. On Thursday my new roommate, who I finally met today, will be moving in. I wonder when she's going home? It would be kind of weird to be there for one night then have to go home. She seems pretty nice.

It will be weird having only about half the building still living there come Spring Quarter because of construction on the dorm. I hope they don't start their work too early in the morning because then I would get to start my morning poorly every day. That would not be good.

I hope I can get my stupid long essay done so I can enjoy some of my weekend. If not I will definitely spend my week as though it was the weekend. The short essays are not really a big concern for me, considering they're only half a page single spaced, pretty much nothing. I do feel pity for those who have much longer essays to write.

Wow, that was a whole complete bunch of nonsense.

I hope next time to write something a little bit more substantial.

Tata for now.

An update...

2007-03-12T21:28:00.000-07:00

I don't really have too much to say about these last couple weeks except that I had my birthday and it was very fun. Another year older, if not smarter. So much happened in that year, yet still there is so much of me that has remained the same, mostly the stuff that really matters in the end.

Winter Break trip

2007-02-26T16:15:00.000-08:00

Here are some pictures from my winter break cruise along the Danube River:

From top to bottom, left to right (my memory isn't perfect): A perspective shot in Prague (Czech Republic), a 12th century stone bridge in Regensburg (Germany) called, I believe, Steinerne Brcke, in historical Nurnberg (Nuremberg) an ancient Roman wall, a small castle on the Danube River in Germany, Fisherman's Wharf (I think.... I have no idea where), and lit candles in a Gothic church.

The trip was in late December, early January, so I can't remember locations exactly, especially out of context of the other pictures in my collection.

Enjoy!

Why didn't we listen to Alexander Hamilton?

2007-02-26T15:52:00.000-08:00

Interesting idea....

Many governments, like England, have what is called a dual executive branch, where there is a head of government (h.o.g) and a head of state (h.o.s). In England's case the h.o.g is the Prime Minister. He/she is the person who actually runs the government, day to day policies and procedures. The h.o.s, in England's case, is the queen. She is the moral anchor of the nation, the one who gets to be the celebrity, the one the people look up to in times of trouble.

In the United States we have what is called a fused executive branch. The president of the United States must serve both the functions of the h.o.g and h.o.s.

Of the people who wrote the Constitution, only one suggested that we have a dual executive branch: Alexander Hamilton. He suggested that we have a monarch to fulfill the obligation of the h.o.s, and leave the president to fulfill his (potentially her) job as h.o.g. Why didn't anybody listen to him? It might have worked out very well for the United States. But, hey, can't go back in time and it's a little late now.

Just my thought for the day.

Tata for now.

Gosh I really love this...

2007-02-17T15:56:00.000-08:00

I did my taxes today. I get $9.00 back from the IRS. I got more than 20 times that back last year.

The Friday of a three-day weekend

2007-02-16T16:43:00.000-08:00

Three day weekends seem to come with more frequency when one is in college. Not that I'm complaining. The Saturday of a three day weekend is the most wonderful day, a day like a Friday, not quite of the week, no classes and complete freedom. Sure, in my own way I will celebrate those presidents who we are supposed to be celebrating on our day off from the school week, but let's face it: Most people will not truly celebrate the holiday, just the three days away from school.

We talked about nothing productive today in Political Science, spending forty-five minutes on current events instead of finishing up the chapter. Yet again she did not have our scores for our last exam, but she says she'll have them by Tuesday. I see two sides to this whole thing. It is annoying not to get our scores back until less than a week before the next exam, but I do see how hard it is to grade about two hundred or more completely essay exams without a TA.

I love the fact that my birthday is in less than a month. Yay for me! I need to remember to wish my friends with birthdays in between now and then happy birthday. I use Facebook to remember most of them because of its handy dandy birthday charter thingy and then I can simply post "Happy Birthday" on their wall without any fuss or bother. MySpace is great for the same function for the people I know who don't have Facebook.

I love the fact that on Fridays people don't start showing up for dinner until about 5-7 minutes before they open. It gives me more free time to do whatever I please, especially typing on my laptop. There are two things I am very thankful for right now: having a laptop that can hold a charge and the campus' free and extensive wireless internet.

I can't really think of anything more to say for right now, except for the fact that I am very much looking forward to the weekend ahead.

Tata for now.

To my parents

2007-02-12T16:45:00.000-08:00

I figured since this is the week of Valentine's Day, a celebration of love, I decided that I should celebrate my parents' love for me and how they have shown it.

To my parents:

Thank you for:

Deciding to keep me and not leave me at the hospital.
Putting up with me when I yelled and screamed as a baby.
Teaching me how to walk and talk, even though you might, once or twice regretted teaching me how to talk due to the volume of my talking.
Putting me in the care of a competent baby-sitter and, by doing that, exposing me to people from outside our family and immediate social circle, and giving me an early mentor.
Telling me to get along with my sister, she's the only one I'll have.
Teaching me how to read. This is one of the things I am most grateful to you for in my life.
Buying me lots of books.
Trusting me to the public school system when I came of the age for kindergarten.
Going to all of the little school events through the years even when you had things you'd rather be doing instead.
Buying my cactus when my fifth grade class grew them for a fundraiser.
Encouraging me to play an instrument and practice, even though I may not have appreciated it at the time (it took me a long time). You two instilled a love of music in me, especially in the classical music you used to play to get us to go to sleep.
Hosting my sleepovers.
Helping me transition smoothly from elementary school to middle school to high school.
Telling me to get an alarm clock if I wanted to be woken up at a time other than the time you were waking me up.
Promoting higher level classes to me, telling me that I was intelligent and could do anything if I put my mind to it.
Instilling a love of travel in me, even if it just was to the ocean over winter break.
Providing a stable home life.
Talking to me intelligently and letting me form my own opinions about conversation topics.
Helping me decide what classes to take in middle and high school, especially the latter.
Teaching me how to drive. I'm sorry if it was hard on you.
Letting me go on a date before my 16th birthday.
Teaching me little, commonsense things about life, knowing that I have a tendency to forget commonsense.
Coming to my rescue when I parked the car on the curb, but telling me that I had a lesson to learn from the incident.
Volunteering for my school events and classes, especially fundraising events and field trips. Other kids might have been embarrassed to have their parents chaperone field trips, but I wasn't.
Paying for the gas and insurance on the car. You might think it is a common thing to do, but a great deal of my friends had to pay one or both.
Letting me go to school dances and stay up late every once in a while.
Encouraging me to apply for as many scholarships and colleges as I could and supporting my final college attendance decision.
Planning my 18th birthday party and attending my graduation, both involving lots of family members.
Paying for so many of my college expenses. I appreciate this so much.
Realizing that I am growing to become independent but every once in a while I need the help of one or both of my parents.

I love you both very much.

Hugs and kisses,

Your daughter

Peace and Quiet

2007-02-09T16:52:00.000-08:00

Fridays are a miracle. The last day of the school/work week and everybody gets to go home and enjoy their weekends. Nothing better.

In my political science class today my sister decided to IM me, which was fine, but just a little odd because that is the only time she has ever IMed me since I set up AIM on our home computer. I was attending to that when the professor started to use me as an example in class because we were talking about how/if one can predict how a person will vote using statistics. She called me "Mac lady". The lights were off and my laptop has an Apple symbol on the back that lights up when the computer is on. I'm hoping she didn't see my face because I had the look of a kid caught with its hand in the cookie jar when I looked up.

In other news I have signed up to table for V-Week on Tuesdays and Thursdays from noon to one, doing my part for the Women's Center. I've been putting this off for a couple days, but I finally went down and did it when I was in the Union building earlier today.

The first exam of the quarter

2007-02-05T16:14:00.000-08:00

Man, there is nothing like writing straight for one hour to make you appreciate your lovely laptop. This is especially true because I am a slow writer. Any other kind of test, short-answer, multiple choice, fill in the blank, I'm great at and I'm usually one of the first finished, which was great last quarter. This exam and the other two for my political science class are entirely writing. Four 100 word paragraph, "short answer questions", and one large essay, consisting of three 100 word paragraphs. In addition to writing slow I think my other problem is that I have a tendency to want to say too much. Probably one of the seven paragraphs I wrote in the last hour was a hundred words exactly or less, and that was the last one when I was strapped for time.

The fortunate thing, however, is that I knew what I was talking about. Each question I could do a simple outline in my head and start the paragraph within about a minute of finishing the previous one. I can think much faster than I can write, but about the same speed as I can type, which lends itself very well to the notes I take in that class.

Let's hope I did as well as I think I did.

Tata for now.

On (Not-so) Super Bowl Sunday

2007-02-04T17:03:00.000-08:00

It is 5:00 and I am not watching "the game". You ask me why I'm not watching "the game". I could give you a myriad of answers, but I will stick to the most basic and completely honest answer I have: I don't want to. As I said to one of my friends online: "I. Don't. Like. Football." How could any red-blooded American not like football you ask? Well, let me clarify: I don't like professional sports. The only reason I don't say that I don't like sports, period, is threefold. The first reason is that I don't mind college sports, being in college myself. This does not, however, mean that I'm going to follow my school's team anything. I just don't mind them because they don't get paid monstrous salaries for running around on a field bumping into each other and yelling primal screams. No, they don't get paid for this as far as I know. The second reason is that I have played sports, way back when. Finally, there are a few sports I don't mind watching including soccer (sometimes), volleyball, and curling. Figure skating can be okay, but as long as I'm not forced to watch too much of it.

I have ever intention of doing something more productive than gluing my eyeballs to the closest television. It may just be writing this blog, but even this is better.

Tata for now.

Amusement

2007-02-02T16:08:00.000-08:00

In my review session for Political Science today, my professor, who is from Brazil and has an accent, was trying to imitate a Texan accent and it was very amusing since she was kicking up her heels trying to show western-style, cowboy boots.

Overall this class makes me think really hard, gives me something to be passionate about, to share with my friends and family. I have learned so much that I never knew before. It builds on my Journalism class I had last quarter, one that was a media criticism class, and it was my favorite class last quarter. Another similarity is the fact that I have both of them all days of the week.

Just a short update for the day.

Have a fun weekend, I know I will.

Tata for now.

Groundhog's Day

2007-02-02T12:23:00.000-08:00

Yes, that's right it's the second of February already, which means it's time for the groundhog. What did Punxsutawney Phil see this year? Not his shadow, that's for sure. Bucking a trend, this year this famous mammal did not see his shadow, which means, according to German tradition means we will have an early spring. Looks like it already outside today, so I'm not complaining.

Here's the link on CNN if you want to read the whole story: http://www.cnn.com/2007/US/02/02/phil.shadow.ap/index.html

Here we go a blogging...

2007-01-23T17:50:00.000-08:00

We're reading Romeo and Juliet in English 214 now. I was just reminded of the romantic fool in me's favorite part of the whole play in Act 1, Scene 5:

Romeo (to Juliet):

If I profane with my unworthiest hand
This holy shrine, the gentle sin is this:
My lips, two blushing pilgrims, ready stand
To smooth that rough touch with a tender kiss.

Juliet:

Good pilgrim, you do wrong your hand too much,
Which mannerly devotion shows in this;
For saints have hands that pilgrims' hands do touch,
And palm to palm is holy palmers' kiss.

Romeo:

Have not saints lips, and holy palmers too?

Juliet:

Ay, pilgrim, lips that they must use in prayer.

Romeo:

Oh, then, dear saint, let lips do what hands do.
They pray; grant thou, lest faith turn to despair.

Juliet:

Saints do not move, though grant for prayers' sake.

Romeo:

Then move not, while my prayer's effect I take. (They kiss.)

Little known fact: This is, in fact, a sonnet. Count the lines: 14. Look at the rhyming scheme: ABAB CDCD EFEF GG. It is indeed a Shakespearean (or English) sonnet. The first quatrain is spoken by Romeo, the second by Juliet (in response), and the third quatrain and couplet together.

This is why I love the English language.

I know I've already posted today...

2007-01-22T19:47:00.000-08:00

Anyone who hasn't should definitely check out Bitch Ph.D at http://bitchphd.blogspot.com. Her Blog For Choice blog is very impressive. I have a link on the side bar.

Blog for Choice...

2007-01-22T11:38:00.000-08:00

Today, if you didn't know it, is national Blog for Choice day, and I have every intention of participating.

What do they mean exactly by "choice"? We all make decisions every day, some spur of the moment, some thought about long and hard, but they are all choices. The fact of the matter is that abortions belong in the second category, decisions that women do not like to make, but they do for their own good. They should have every right to make this decision if they believe it is right for them at that time. The Declaration of Independence says everyone has the right to "life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness". Anyone who denies a woman the right to make this precious decision is denying her the right to pursue her own happiness. You cannot promise these rights to a thing that might or might not die before it even has the right to exercise these basic human rights, over the rights of someone who can and has exercised these rights. Everyone, or at least most people would argue that an adult has more legal rights than a child does, so even if you do consider a fetus a child, you have to concede that the adult has more right to make a legal decision for themselves. If that includes carrying a child to full term, whether to keep it or put it up for adoption, so be it. If it includes abortion, so be it.

On a different subject, and one I've been pondering about, why do some pharmacists refuse to dispense emergency contraception and sometimes birth control to women, while no self-respecting pharmacist would think about refusing to fill a prescription for Viagra to a man? Is it sexism? The most blatant kind. No, we're not going to deny a man the right to have an erection and possibly impregnate a woman, but we are going to deny a woman the right not to get pregnant in the first place. Pharmacists, it is your job to dispense medicine to men and women equally, and not to judge them. The only time you have a right to judge people is when you are serving your country as a member of a jury in a court of law. Period.

As for the rest of the day, I don't have class until three this afternoon, so I'm just going to chill.

Tata for now.

Ringing in the new year...

2007-01-12T19:25:00.000-08:00

Okay, I know I'm 12 days late, but give me a break. I wasn't going to pay the Czech equivalent of ten dollars for five minutes of internet to write about the new year. And I had Christmas to celebrate at home and unpacking and homework to do here at school (which I haven't finished).

To live without power

2006-12-18T21:21:00.000-08:00

For all those who look forward to my opinionated blogs, you'll have to wait. This blog is just me blathering on about my life. Nothing too interesting.

Since Friday my house has been without power. Which means more to my household than it does to many. In addition to the obvious, it means that we don't have heat, running water, or flushing toilets. Primitive almost. We have to build and maintain a fire in our woodburning stove and use a propane lantern to read at night. But, you're asking, how do I have internet?

This is the wonder of the modern era. My mom called around to hotels within about twenty miles of our house, booked us a room, and now I get to stay in a hotel until Thursday or when we get power, whichever happpens first. So I am very happy about having heat, light, and internet.

I do have to buy a decent swimsuit though because I left my old one-piece at school and I am not wearing any of my two-pieces for love nor money. Plus I don't have any of them with me.

That's the fun of my life, so I guess I will blog again later. Tata for now.

I am seriously disturbed, yet morbidly fascinated

2006-12-06T10:22:00.000-08:00

I am currently exploring the similarities between Aldous Huxley's Brave New World and the experiments performed by D. Ewen Cameron in Montreal as a part of MK-ULTRA. I will tell more later, but all I can say for now is that I am seriously disturbed by all the similarities.

It is days like this that are meant to blog

2006-11-30T09:42:00.000-08:00

Wow. What a day and it is only a quarter to ten. I woke up this morning to find out that the university is completely open (quite a bummer), got dressed and did some major cramming for an exam just to keep the facts in my head, suited up for the cold weather and headed out about fifteen minutes earlier than normal. I arrived at the hall about seven minutes earlier than normal (ice made for a slower walk), sat down with my notes on paper and did the last bit of my cramming.

Once the class before us left (Chemistry of some kind I think) I headed in, set my stuff down, grabbed an exam, and started working. All of the questions on the front (short answer and one short essay) were very easy. The matching and multiple choice on the back were a little bit more difficult, but there were only maybe ten that I wasn't completely sure that my answer was the right answer and that was out of forty or fifty.

Since I finished about thirty minutes before the class was over (I finished it in about twenty five minutes) I left to go get breakfast from the dining hall. Other than the vegetarian gravy on the biscuits and gravy its been pretty good. It is very quiet.

I figured out yesterday that I am not technically supposed to get wireless signal in the dining hall because there technically isn't any, but somehow I pick it up. Go figure. I'm not complaining at all.

Well I've got things to do, so tata for now.

Cold and snow

2006-11-28T18:39:00.000-08:00

It is too cold for the common good today. It is currently 10 degrees (Fahrenheit) and with windchill that feels like -2 degrees, which is colder than I can ever remember being in before. A foot and a half of snow. A Thanksgiving weekend two days longer than it was meant to be. I'm wondering if we have school tomorrow, which I think we will because there will be nothing really new happening tomorrow except possibly a little more snow. I guess I should check the school website.

The website doesn't say anything about tomorrow. I guess they're being cautious because yesterday they said that school would be open unless something happened in the night and they would have a final decision this morning. At 6:40 this morning my suitemate came in and told my roommate and I that there was no school today. I kind of want to have a class tomorrow because it would give me some intellectual stimulation and I haven't worked out for about a week because I only work out when I have class. If we don't have school tomorrow, as of noon it will be a week since we had classes.

My opinion is that the cold is too much. I am chilly in 50 degree weather so this weather is really getting to me. The snow is nice I guess since snow like this happens rather rarely, but the cold front is not appreciated. Not going to class has lost some of the charm it had in elementary, middle, and high school mostly because I (well, really my parents) are paying for these classes out of their own pockets instead of through taxes.

At this point I am upset at the people who renovated this side of the building because they forgot (conveniently for them I guess) weather stripping on the doors which means all the cold air gets in through the crack in the door.

Well I think I'm going to go finish "The Corporation" now.

The Die-In

2006-11-16T12:25:00.000-08:00

There is nothing more powerful in the world than a group of hundreds saying "no". No to war, to the killing, the violence, the hatred. No to corrupt politicians who promote war to make a dollar. No to those who make a mockery out of democracy.

Today, in Red Square, more than a hundred people said no to these very things. They wore red to symbolize the blood shed and died, for seven minutes, to send a message to the politicians in Washington D.C.: Get us out of war in Iraq. Among those in the crowd were people who carried posters, scraps of cardboard, with a unified purpose, a unified statement: We don't want any more of this. We are tired of war, tired of people dying, tired of our family, friends, neighbors being sent overseas to fight in a war that never should have been started in the first place.

I don't really have any more to say. It was powerfully moving and politically significant. We said to the world "You can't ignore us."

Expressing an opinion...

2006-11-09T10:02:00.000-08:00

If you are offended by opinions in general, do not hesitate to leave this blog right now. Run, don't walk. Out. Now.

Now that I've gotten out everyone that might possibly be a problem, I'm actually going to be serious because I've been thinking. Seriously. I had to write a couple paragraphs for an online discussion for one of my classes and this got me thinking, in general.

Thing number one: Democrats have control of Congress. After many long years, it's just about time. Now I make it my general policy not to vote straight party lines, picking the best person for the job, actually reading my voter's pamphlet to help me decide about non-partisan issues. I am a literate American. I would like to make it clear, however, that the two-party system is corrupt, and I would rather just have the choice to vote for people that have the same or similar beliefs as me, without the party label, but because there is this party system in the United States, I've learned to deal with it. So I vote Democrat. As moderate as the Democratic party has become in the last decade or so, to me it is still better than the Republicans.

Still on thing number one, just a new paragraph. I was watching TV while I was working out, like I usually do, but instead of watching The View or Tyra, or something like that (mindless dribble that keeps my brain away from the fact that exercising isn't exactly pleasant) I watched our dear beloved president give a lovely speech about the fact that, scary thought (to him at least), the Democrats had the House and that (even scarier thought to him), there was a woman in charge. Oh, and the fact that Rumsfeld "resigned" to make way for (drumroll) somebody from Texas. Am I surprised? No. The only word I have for this is cronyism. Is that a real word? I don't know. But it sure fits the circumstances. Let me tell you, I kept my hands firmly planted on the handles on the elliptical machine, resisting the urge to flip the people on the screen off, simply because I was in a public place, and I, unlike some people, respect that some people have different opinions than I do.

Thing number two: I promise you this has almost nothing to do with politics. Pinkie swear. It has to do with gender roles. I know, big exciting subject isn't it? But it is something I've been thinking about.

Where to start? Well this seems about right. Who am I to judge what you identify as? I am starting to recognize, very much overdue, that so much of this isn't black and white. Why do we look at people and automatically say man or woman and then base all of our interactions with that person on how they look, whether they look like the traditional/stereotypical man or woman? Why? There is so much more than that. I know that I personally have been mistaken for a guy more than once, simply because, I believe, that I had a haircut that was more masculine than feminine. These little experiences have shaped me.

I used to carry my wallet in my back pocket. My left back pocket. Everywhere I went, there it was. Most people would consider that a male/masculine thing. A purse was a burden I didn't need, but now I don't carry my wallet in my back pocket anymore for numerous reasons. I drive now and sitting on a wallet is not the most comfortable thing in the world, as I have been told by some of my male friends. I have a cell phone now and women's jeans are not designed for women to actually be able to carry things in their front pockets. It isn't fair. It forces women to either buy guys pants or carry a purse. Back when all I carried in my pockets was loose change and chapstick, this wasn't such a big problem. My purse is a burden on me. A very large burden. I would not carry one if I didn't need to. I don't when I don't have to. Does this make me less feminine? No. If you think it does you have more than a few loose screws.

I don't wear makeup that often and when I do wear it, I usually go for a very minimal effect. I don't like eyeshadow and the only reason I like eye pencil, totally defying the above statement, is that I can put it on thick and draw attention to my eyes. I save makeup, like swearing, for special occasions.

Why do we judge people like this? Is a female that has a short haircut, a wallet in her back pocket, and who rarely wears makeup except for dramatic effect, less of a woman than a female who curls her hair every morning, carries a big purse full of stuff, and puts on a whole face every morning? Is a male that isn't athletic, has emotions and isn't ashamed to express them to people close to him, and who is comfortable with having women as just friends any less of a man than a male who is jock, who bottles up his rage, fear, and sadness, and who believes that men and women can't be just friends? Why does society assume such a dichotomy? It isn't black and white! It can never be.

I don't want to conform to society's standards of beauty, but the sad fact is that whether I want to or not, the pressure is incredible to do just this. I will not justify any of my above statements or preface them with comments that totally negate their effect. All I will say is that I love myself, I love who I am, and if you try to change me, I will not be happy with you at all. I will be mad.

Thing number 3: A lighter subject than the above ones, and, admittedly, less likely to offend, not that it really matters to me. I love it that the food vendors at college don't try to restrict extremely, what you eat, especially with respects to nutritional value. If I want pizza I get pizza. If I get fat form eating pizza everyday (which I don't) then it is my own fault, not the fault of my parents or the school. I am in charge of my eating. Every time I want salad, I get salad. When I don't want it, I don't get it. "Nutritional" food is not forced on me by the school. They offer nutritious options, but they are just options. I don't have to pick them and when I want to choose them I can. Choices are a wonderful thing.

Thanks for listening to my ranting and raving if anybody is at all. I appreciate it immensely.

Tata for now.

Tapping my fingers on the table of infinity

2006-11-03T09:52:00.000-08:00

Catchy title, huh?

The only reason I can actually get online is because of the wireless network in the Union building. The Ethernet is not working in my dorm. So I walked down to the Union building in my slippers (don't worry I had actual clothing on) in the rain to write the online responses I needed to have done by ten o'clock this morning. At least seven sentences each. The first one I was counting the sentences, but the second one I really got going on and ended up with nine sentences, most of them fairly long.

I wish I could get something at the cafe here, but there is a huge line right now and I have no particular interest in waiting. I think it will clear up sometime and I have no particular interest in leaving right now, so I think I'll just stay put and watch it from my strategic post near the market. Watch the pattern of people. Watch them come in and out, in and out, waiting for their morning coffee. Ha ha. I predict that in about eight or so minutes at ten o'clock a great deal of them will be gone and I can get my Italian soda or smoothie. I haven't tried their smoothies yet and I have heard nothing but good things about them.

I haven't had breakfast yet and I'm thinking that the market serves breakfast still, so I might give up my post watching the lines at the cafe and get something to eat, if they take something other than actual money. Maybe. No hurry.

I think I'm going to go for now, but I do have about five hours left on my battery, so I'm not too particularly worried about getting my power cable from the room.

Welcome to my life...

2006-11-02T13:24:00.000-08:00

When I thought things couldn't get any weirder, they did. No elaboration will be given. This was just a comment on the status of the world.

Totally awesome day

2006-10-16T19:22:00.000-07:00

Today has been so totally awesome. My second (and last) class of the day was canceled. I had a fan-smegging-tastic workout at the gym on the ellipticals. I burned about 175 calories in twenty minutes. I usually burn about half that amount or less in the same amount of time. Yoga was fast-paced and went by very quickly, a good and bad thing at the same time. I did two things today in that class that I've been trying to do for a couple classes now: crow and a position that I don't remember the name to, but requires a whole lot of flexibility, not my strong point. Crow requires that you pretty much put all your weight on your lower arms. I could hold it for about two seconds, but that's a very good starting point. Let me see if I can find a picture.

That's the best picture of it I could find. It requires a balance of strength, balance and flexibility very typical of vinyasa yoga, at least. I haven't ever practiced anything else, so I don't know if that is true of all schools. All I know is that all this working out and yoga make me feel really great about myself. I feel stronger and healthier. I love having pretty much unlimited access to a gym that I don't have to pay extra for.

The only part about this day that wasn't utterly awesome was the food. I had leftover pizza for breakfast and the lunch and dinner in the dining hall wasn't that great. Well I don't know what else to say, so I think it's tata for now.

Cheez-its

2006-10-05T17:53:00.000-07:00

I love cheez-its. They're so good. Right now they're serving as a preliminary to dinner because I want to have a late dinner at 9:00 because I really feel like having a sandwich and they only have sandwiches at late night dinner.

I got our microfridge into place today, but the fridge and freezer smell, so my roomie is getting baking soda to absorb the smell from her work. We're going on a small grocery store trip on the weekend to fill it up. The room is a lot cleaner because I had to move stuff to get it into place (the desks are heavy). Most of the stuff was mine so I just pushed it under the bed. I also emptied the trash bins and got more TP from the front desk. I was productive today. Hopefully tomorrow will be at least a little bit as productive.

Hopefully tomorrow I will have my first breakfast in the dining hall. I don't even have one class tomorrow, so I'm going to run an errand for someone, which might take three hours or more.

It's been a good day

2006-10-02T00:28:00.000-07:00

When I say that I'm really talking about this little bit of today and the time I was awake yesterday. For the first time in my life I have IMed two people at once. Both are my friends, both are guys, and both are currently living more than a hundred miles away from me. I miss both of them, but I have made some new buddies (I don't know if I can call them friends) at school, so I'm doing alright. The power of technology!

I'm comparing school life with one of them right now, since the other has gone to bed. I never would have guessed that I'd ever be discussing financial aid with him at 12:29 am on a Sunday evening (well, technically Monday morning). Stranger things have happened though, and will continue to happen. Gosh, there are some times I really enjoy life's little surprises and this is one of them. Wow, I really mangled the last part of that last sentence badly.

I think I'm finished with this blog session for now. Good night (okay, good morning).

Laundry day

2006-09-30T13:52:00.000-07:00

There is very little in the world more enjoyable than clothing fresh out of the dryer. It is the ultimate happiness attainable by everyone in the developed world, unlike other things. It makes me really hesitant to fold my clothes, hoping to catch the warmth and freshness and hold it for as long as I possibly can.

This is my first laundry day at college.

This is short

2006-09-23T13:48:00.000-07:00

I moved into my dorm yesterday and met my roomie last night.

An update...

2006-09-17T23:02:00.000-07:00

I went to the doctor the other day. A new doctor. She was very nice and talked to me about anything I wanted to know about. Unfortunately, she thought my thyroid was enlarged so I had to have a blood test before I left. I won't know the results until at least tomorrow, probably Tuesday. If anything's wrong I have to go get an ultrasound done. I don't know if I'd have time for that before next year, unless winter break starts before I go on vacation. Fat chance of that, but it might happen. Fortunately she said that it wasn't anything that serious, so if it had to be delayed it could be.

Other than that, nothing new.

Tata for now.

My new format...

2006-09-12T21:50:00.000-07:00

This is my new format. I got it from the original blog I had on here, but I forgot existed until tonight. Pretty cool, huh? Much easier on the eyes, not that font size really matters to me.

Just in case you're wondering I'm going to see if I can add that blog to my list of blogs, just to keep it managed somehow.

New news

2006-09-12T20:58:00.000-07:00

For those who have been listening (or watching or reading whatever), an update on my life:

I am going to college in about 9 days. Yes, that late. It doesn't even start until the 27th.

I am not currently working but the reason I get to move in early at school is because I got a job helping people set up their internet connections for the first week of school. It'll be fun.

I posted a blog applying for a position to write on my school's freshman year blog. It was a good blog, so I hope it wins. If it doesn't, oh well, life goes on.

At this point in time I think my summer has been just long enough as opposed to other summers which always seemed to go on too long.

I have become a MySpace freak. I check it every day, sometimes twice a day (or three times, but I swear that's the most). The only thing that ever changes is the bulletins people post. Even then about half of those I completely ignore. The only thing I don't do is blog because I am loyal to blogger.com and MySpace's blog format sucks on my browser. No, I'm not changing my browser.

I am going to a fair tomorrow with one of my friends. She going to try to drive to my house for the first time, which, since she's been driving about half the time I have, might be a challenge for her. Luckily I am just a phone call away for directional guidance.

My mom got me a gift. It's a map of the area in which I will be going to school. The one class I will have every weekday is all the way across the campus from my dorm which means I'll be getting a lot of exercise first thing in the morning, but if I work it just right I can use the fantabulous gym the school has, which is on that end of the campus, almost within sight. I don't know what I'll do second quarter, but I'll find some way to work it.

This exercise thing is part of my attempt not to gain the freshman fifteen (or ten). It'll be a challenge since I have problems sticking to a schedule, but I'll figure out some system of rewards and punishments so I'll stay on track. Another part will be eating healthier than I do at home, which might also be a challenge, but not as big as the exercise thing.

I can't wait to meet my roommate. She seems like a cool person from her emails.

This has very possibly been my very longest blog I have ever written, so I think it is time for me to sign off for now.

P.S. I will also try to keep up on this blog better than I have in the past.

Correction to last post

2006-07-15T02:37:00.000-07:00

Maybe I should check before I open my mouth, digitally. I have a correction to my last post. My friend is not dating anyone.

I just gotta love this...

2006-07-15T02:30:00.000-07:00

It is...(checks clock)...very early in the morning. I can't sleep because I screwed up my internal alarm clock sometime in the last month and I'm online writing on my blog and emailing back and forth with a girl from Alaska who is going to the same university I am in the fall. This is really awesome. Plus I just found someone on MySpace who I haven't talked to for about two years or so...that might not sound like a long time, but when you take into account that I'm only 18, that's more than ten percent of my life. That's a long time! I hope he emails me back soon.

Oh don't freak out just because I said he. He's one of my friends from high school and I think he has a girlfriend. At least he did the last time I heard which was about a year ago. We're just friends, as cliched a line as that is. I would like to have coffee or lunch with him, just to see how he's doing, since he's one of those people from high school I'd like to stay in touch with.

I think I'm keeping this blog up very nicely, considering that I have a couple blogs that I know I've created, but I can't remember for the life of me. Plus about four or five email accounts that are the same way. Now I've pretty much mainstreamed my email accounts, limiting it to four. I just recently switched my main accounts so I could access my email more directly. Now I need to tell everyone in my address book that actually cares that I've switched accounts. It's not like its a big thing, just the ending changes from @yahoo.com to @gmail.com. I don't want to have to pay to have access to my email from an email program. No thanks, Yahoo and Hotmail. I'm not going to abandon any of my accounts, just view them a lot less often.

I really love having a laptop. It may be a refurbished iBook and fairly heavy as modern laptops come, but I love it dearly and would not trade it for any other laptop in the world.

I think I'm going to go now, but I might post again tonight (this morning, whatever).

A little bit of news from me land

2006-07-03T11:46:00.000-07:00

I feel pretty awful, not having posted in more than a month. Well, here's the current issues in my life:

1. I got a laptop. Pretty awesome. Not the newest model, but definitely pretty cool none the less.

2. I went to England for a week. I only had one meal that wasn't completely to my satisfaction.

3. I figured out how to get more than one email address into one inbox. Unfortunately the accounts I reall wanted this to work for didn't work. Oh well. Life goes on. I can still check them online. I need to add my school email address to the line-up, even though I don't get anything there yet. I'll put that on my to-do list.

Toodles for now.

The latest (and greatest)

2006-05-31T10:58:00.000-07:00

I think I'm going to be very tired of Shakespeare by the end of today since we're watching "Much Ado About Nothing" in English and my next class is Shakespeare, so that's three hours (with a break for lunch) of the Bard. I have seen the movie so many times, including once earlier this year, but it is still a good movie.

After school I have to write graduation announcements for my whole family, so that may take awhile. I don't have work until Saturday so pretty much the rest of my week is very free, which I am very thankful for. Working four days in a row at work is not fun, even though I do make a considerable sum in tips. Memorial Day weekend was especially busy.

Do Not Go Gentle Into That Good Night

2006-04-21T09:51:00.000-07:00

This is wonderfully strong poem. I think it would make a great rock song.

Do not go gentle into that good night,
Old age should burn and rave at close of day;
Rage, rage against the dying of the light.

Though wise men at their end know dark is right,
Because their words had forked no lightning they
Do not go gentle into that good night.

Good men, the last wave by, crying how bright
Their frail deeds might have danced in a green bay,
Rage, rage against the dying of the light.

Wild men who caught and sang the sun in flight,
And learn, too late, they grieved it on its way,
Do not go gentle into that good night.

Grave men, near death, who see with blinding sight
Blind eyes could blaze like meteors and be gay,
Rage, rage against the dying of the light.

And you, my father, there on that sad height,
Curse, bless, me now with your fierce tears, I pray.
Do not go gentle into that good night.
Rage, rage against the dying of the light.

I wonder...

2006-04-21T09:13:00.000-07:00

I wonder if it's worth keeping this blog up at all. Since I haven't been doing a very good job at updating it as often as I have done in the past, I don't know whether it is worth keeping it up. I already contribute to another blog that I know at least some people read. If I find anything interesting to post I will, but other than that you, my devoted audience, will not hear anything else from me unless I know that someone is even looking at my blog.

Just because

2006-03-29T09:08:00.000-08:00

I just thought I'd write so all my devoted fans (as if; sometimes I think I'm just talking to myself) aren't too disappointed.

I found the coolest thing today...

2006-03-23T14:13:00.000-08:00

I found the most interesting website today. Well not as much as found, but looked over one of my friends' shoulders and noted the site name and URL. The site is http://www.nationstates.net. It is a simulation site where you are in charge of a country and you get to decide the politics and location of your country as well as its flag. It's really cool.

You should see this...

2006-03-23T13:53:00.000-08:00

I have recently joined the contributors of a blog about a beautiful French actor. If you want to look it up the title is: Gaspard Ulliel, which is the actor's name just in case you're wondering. Comment on the blog if you care at all.

Gaspard Ulliel

2006-03-20T08:41:00.000-08:00

My latest and only actor obsession: Gaspard Ulliel. Gotta love those young French actors. Plus he's only three and a half years older than I am. I hope he becomes one of the defining actors of my generation. Anyway here is a list of websites with his picture on them:

http://editorial.gettyimages.com/source/search/product.aspx?p=3&e=0&pg=1&am=-1
Type in his name where it says "search" or something... on the left side of the page.

http://gaspardlove.blogspot.com/
Made by georgia.miller@hotmail.co.uk

http://www.vnn.vn/dataimages/original/images491461_Cesar_GaspardUlliel.jpg

http://www.epochtimes.com/i6/5012509471470.jpg

teemix.aufeminin.com
In French (He smokes :( so sad, but no one can be perfect)

http://www.europeanfilms.net/news/0503/02c.html
About one of his movies in post-production (Jacquou Le Croquant)

http://film.onet.pl/_i/news/duze/g/gaspard_ulliel_1.jpg

http://zakara.joueb.com/news/45.shtml
In French (About the movie Young Hannibal)

http://perso.wanadoo.fr/lejournaldemalkie/images/75/GaspardUlliel.jpg
In French

http://japan.unifrance.org/perso/perso.asp?CommonUser=&langue=21010&perso=320237
In Japanese

http://ysild7.free.fr/gaspard/v2/Tokyo11-03-20.jpg
In Greek

http://www.obuolys.lt/kinozona/filmas-ilgos-suzadetuves/naujienos/
I have no idea what language this is

polki.wp.pl/ kat,1686,wid,6932071,wiadomosc.html
Cute pic, but only one

http://www.wretch.cc/blog/hou26&article_id=1775302
In Chinese (I think, could be Japanese)

http://www.imdb.com/name/nm0880484/
You gotta love IMDB

For all the sites in French you can use an online translator to get a rough translation. The one I used and which I thought was quite good (I can only speak a little of another language and that's Japanese, so I could be totally off):

http://www.appliedlanguage.com/free_translation.shtml

In my next post, which will be posted only a short time after this one I will post my favorite pictures of him.

This guy has it right...

2006-03-01T14:31:00.000-08:00

To social liberals in the Seattle-area: If you haven't read this article you should. This man hit the gay marriage nail squarely on the head. His name is Ryan Blethern and this is the link to his editorial on the issue in the Seattle Times: http://archives.seattletimes.nwsource.com/cgi-bin/texis.cgi/web/vortex/display?slug=ryan03&date=20060203&query=The+generational+disconnect+on+homosexual+rights. There is much more good stuff than what is in the following excerpt.

Here is an excerpt:

"Leaders of the fight against civil rights need to give up their crusade. Their notions of sin and sexuality belong in another era, to decades past when women could not vote, black people drank from designated fountains and gays and lesbians were beaten into false lives.... One of the reasons used to try to tank any civil rights aimed at gays and lesbians is the claim that those rights will lead to same-sex marriage. On this point, the opposition is correct. Thank goodness. (Before moving on, let's drop the labels. The weddings I attend this summer will not be called "heterosexual" weddings and the people involved will not be in "hetero-marriages." So let's not label marriage as gay. Call it what it is: marriage)."

Time...

2006-02-17T07:41:00.000-08:00

I wish that some days had twice the time in them that they do. That every minute was twice as long. But that will not happen anytime in the forseeable future so I guess I'm stuck with the sixty second minute. Oh well. Fortunately after today we get a week plus of vacation and I only have to work two of those days. Yay!

I enjoy the peace and quiet that I get when all I can hear is the sound of the keys I am typing on the keyboard and words when I talk to my friend at the computer next to me. I know soon enough that it will get loud again in here, but I will savor this quietness for as long as I possibly can, but I think I will go and play a game now while I can still think.

Tata for now.

Extra time

2006-02-10T08:06:00.000-08:00

I wish. The only extra time I have is when I can't use it. Go figure. Anyway I found the coolest blog yesterday. The people who write it are halfway across the country from me, but they still do have some interesting opinions. The blog is http://theflossingofamerica.blogspot.com. I can't say that it is complete genius, but the people who write it know what they're talking about. They don't just prvide opinion, they provide facts, sometimes to back up the opinion.

I wish I had something interesting to write about, but nothing really fascinating is happening here. People are playing on computers next to me, mostly on game websites.

I guess I'm going to go now.

Some computers are stupid

2006-02-09T07:57:00.000-08:00

As I said, so computers are really stupid. They crash about half the times they are started up and the other half of the time are so slow that it's almost like they are crashing. Well, that's what you get with PCs. I have no grudge against them myself, but I think that Macs are so much better that there is no comparison. It is true that more games are designed for PCs than for Macs, but guess what, so are more viruses. Plus the graphics are better on a Mac. Now I have to decide which laptop I like better. The iBook is better for games, I think, but the other one, the new one, I forgot the name, is faster and has duo processors. I liked the iBook before I ever knew about the other one. It's time to go I think, but I will eventually decide. The other computer is still doing its stupid thing, but in time it too will decide what to do.

The First of Hopefully Many Posts

2006-02-07T08:45:00.000-08:00

I am not notoriously good at keeping up on things like this, so I don't know how long I'll remember this blog, but it's worth a try.

I'll talk about Sims, movies, and other oddities in my life, including my friends and things they do in their daily lives. Don't expect real names, however. I cannot stand stalkers especially around my friends.

I guess all I have to say now is "Tata for now".