Friday 13th

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

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...

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

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

R.I.P.

Heath Ledger

Gone too young.

Truth

Back on the market (the job market that is)

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

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

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...

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

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

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...

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:

1. Sent in an online application to one Camp Fire Camp
2. Set up a phone interview for 1:00 pm on Thursday with the director of said camp.
3. Signed up for the CPR class that pretty much all day camps want.
4. Printed out the day camp applications that I needed to print out.
5. 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:

1. Phone interview on Thursday. Wish me luck!
2. 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.)
   
3. 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.
4. 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.
5. 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...

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

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

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

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

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?

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.