Sunny day...

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...

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:

1. I have had at least one of each of my classes for Spring Quarter. Whoot.
2. 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.
3. 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.
4. My sinuses hated me yesterday. Stupid tree pollen. Yes, flowers are pretty, but my mild case of allergies is not. Such a conflict.
5. 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

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

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....

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...

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

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?

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...

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

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

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:

1. Deciding to keep me and not leave me at the hospital.
2. Putting up with me when I yelled and screamed as a baby.
3. 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.
4. 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.
5. Telling me to get along with my sister, she's the only one I'll have.
   
6. Teaching me how to read. This is one of the things I am most grateful to you for in my life.
7. Buying me lots of books.
   
8. Trusting me to the public school system when I came of the age for kindergarten.
9. Going to all of the little school events through the years even when you had things you'd rather be doing instead.
10. Buying my cactus when my fifth grade class grew them for a fundraiser.
11. 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.
12. Hosting my sleepovers.
13. Helping me transition smoothly from elementary school to middle school to high school.
14. 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.
    
15. Promoting higher level classes to me, telling me that I was intelligent and could do anything if I put my mind to it.
16. Instilling a love of travel in me, even if it just was to the ocean over winter break.
17. Providing a stable home life.
18. Talking to me intelligently and letting me form my own opinions about conversation topics.
19. Helping me decide what classes to take in middle and high school, especially the latter.
20. Teaching me how to drive. I'm sorry if it was hard on you.
21. Letting me go on a date before my 16th birthday.
22. Teaching me little, commonsense things about life, knowing that I have a tendency to forget commonsense.
23. 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.
24. 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.
25. 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.
26. Letting me go to school dances and stay up late every once in a while.
27. Encouraging me to apply for as many scholarships and colleges as I could and supporting my final college attendance decision.
28. Planning my 18th birthday party and attending my graduation, both involving lots of family members.
29. Paying for so many of my college expenses. I appreciate this so much.
    
30. 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

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

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

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

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

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...

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...

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...

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...

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).