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.

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