home

I thought it would feel good to be home, to be able to be in my town again. I have been looking forward to being able to know people everywhere I go. I thought it would be so nice.

I was completely wrong. I didn't wake up until three in the afternoon today. Which was nice. Then I went with my family to go grocery shopping and just some regular errands. The second store we go to I manage to set off the alarm thing as I walk in. Then, for the rest of the time I am in the store, I, along with my family was followed by an employee. Want to know the worst part? We had a friend with us. He is black, and because of this, he is automatically distrusted in every store he goes into in my home town. He was with us, so they decided he might try some crap there. My sister works at that store, and I told them I was wearing shorts from Old Navy (which sets off alarms), plus the shift supervisor goes to my church, and should know all of us. I felt worse for my sister, her boss sucks, and is way rude.

I have never in all my life been treated with such distrust in my home town. I live in a small town, and I have never had issues there. To be followed around like I was a criminal or someone trying to destroy the store sucks, and to know my friend is discriminated against wherever he goes makes me so mad.

Not such a great way to be welcomed home.

what it is like to be home for the first time in 3 months

my flight home was this afternoon so i have been home for a few hours already. and i still feel just as weird as i did when i first got home. i have not been home since august 28, the day before we all moved in to college. what i came home to is nothing like i remembered it though. for one thing, i forgot how to turn the key in my own door... then i come inside and see that the kitchen floor is finally done and we now have a new fridge which opens... backwords? i was pulling at it for a while before i realized there wasn't actually a handle there and it was on the other side.. who makes refridgerators like that... not only was the kitchen a weird experience but the bathroom was too. the toilet is much lower now. i swear it must have shrunk down to the ground or something. because home is the one place where it is not disgusting to actually sit on the toilet seat. but then i just kept getting lower. seriously, what? and the sink is really low too. like, i had to crouch down to wash my hands. i guess the sinks at school are higher or something....

so THEN i picked up my bags that i had dumped in the front hall the second i came in to bring into my room and my room is, unfortunately, exactly the way i remember leaving it. A MESS. exactly what it looked like when i tore it apart packing in august, and didn't have time (or just didnt want to) clean it up the day before leaving, because we had to drive up early. oh man, the one thing that didnt change is the one thing i wish did. i have been looking forward to sleeping in my own bed for the past 3 months, but my bed is covered with the clothes i pulled out my closet and wanted to pack but had no more rooom for. as is the floor. and the desk. and the top of my dresser. i wonder why i have so many clothes at home, because i have way too many at school i thought i wouldnt have that much at home. but apparently i do.

then mommy dearest came home from work and i told her that she should have cleaned my room. (Seriously, she always used to try and clean my room and i would yell at her not to but now when i actually would have liked her to she didn't even do it)

and now i smell dinner. AHHHHH, DINNER ! as in, not gross nasty ugh ew not my mothers cooking, college dining hall food. must go eat.
i hope this weirdness i feel at home doesnt last long, because i would like to get used to it before i have to head back up to school and get used to school again only to come back home 2 weeks later. that wouldnt be fun. and i hope everyone else is enjoying being at home or wherever you are, because it is not school. hope u all have a happy thanksgiving too.

torture

As i said in class, the videos we watched, Dakota and Nukorea were torture. Nukorea more so than Dakota. For one thing, i think they should be reversed. the story line of dakota goes better with the video of of nukorea and the story line of nukorea goes better with the video of dakota. dakota was hard to read because it went by so quickly, to the beat of the drums. it wasn't quite torture because it wasn't that bad to keep up and the story wasn't nearly as disturbing as nukorea. nukorea on the other hand was 100% torture. the music was way too slow for the video. the only thing that kept my eyes on the screen was the changes in the sizing of the words. but even that didn't help because i zoned out a few times from the horrible music and how slow the words were going. but then when we thought we were safe, the words would zoom by before i had the chance to focus on the screen again. it sucked that this story had to go on for like, 10 whole minutes. i did not enjoy everything getting blown up and i certainly do not enjoy maggots. so i think the point is that i didn't like the story in general, even if it weren't set to slow music and the speeds didnt play tricks on us. because if it were on paper, it still wouldn't have been good. but i think people like reading digital stories better than reading books anyway. i am sort of glad i was one of the select few to be in class and watch the videos though, because i didn't even think of how technology affects literature in such a simple way as the MUSIC it is set to and the SPEED at which the words go by. if i ever want to do a digital story that will torture people, i now know EXACTLY what i need to do.

i am one of those people

Yesterday was a very important day. A momentous day. I have been looking forward to yesterday's events since the beginning of the school year, and maybe even a little before. Last night, I went to THE movie premiere. That's right. I am a Twilight fan. One of those slobbering, screaming, shrieking people. (Maybe more self contained than openly slobbering.)

We showed up last night at nine for the midnight premiere. We hung out in line, talked and basically sat there hitting each other because we were so excited. When we went into the theater we ran so that we could get good seats. (We were really close to the front of the line to begin with.)

When the actual movie started, there was clapping, cheering and general excitement. Then, when the Cullens were first spotted in the movie loud and audible gasps were made throughout the whole theater. Only about half of the people actually were loud when Edward entered, the rest gasped louder, or catcalled.

Now, I don't want to say too much. Yet, I am going to say this. POTENTIAL SPOILER alert. He glittered not sparkled, and he was supposed to sparkle, not glitter. If that is my only complaint, I can't really complain.

movie cliches

i thought this was pretty dumb at first when i found the site, i think the whole idea of a cliche is dumb, but when i was reading through these i thought they were either just really funny, or they were actually true. think about some old favorites or just next time you watch a movie you will realize how cliche stupid script writers actually are most of the time...

KIDS/TEENAGERS

• A kid always knows more than an adult.
• A kid can fend for himself even if his parents have gone to Paris, leaving him with no food, electricity, heat, money, etc.
• No child can ever be killed...even if they're electrocuted on a high-voltage electric fence that could kill a dinosaur (Jurassic Park)
• Eight to ten-year-old kids are the best computer hackers on earth and can break into any system.
• Girls who can't find a date to the prom in high school films are usually the girls that, in most high schools, would have almost every teenage boy asking them.

PHONES

• All phone numbers begin with 555.
• People speaking on the phone never introduce themselves, and never ever say "good-bye" at the end of a conversation.
• A ringing phone is usually picked up within 3 seconds.
• Don't give the person on the other end of the phone time to say what they have to.
• You also never have to look up a phone number, for anyone.
• When a phone line is broken or someone hangs up unexpectedly, communication channels can be restored by frantically beating the cradle and saying "Hello? Hello?".
• Always knock over the phone if it wakes you up. If you are expecting a call, make sure that you pull the covers up completely over your head so that knocking it over becomes easier. All houses have phones next to the bed.
• There's a dial tone to be heard on A's phone immediately after B has hung up on his/her end.
• The Movie Telephone Time Vortex.
  How often have you seen something like this:
  Phone rings. Hero/Heroine picks it up. "Hello. Yes. O.k. Right. Thanks, Goodbye." (Total elapsed time on phone: 5 seconds.)
  Hero/Heroine turns to other character: "That was John. He says that the Marilyn left for the lawyer's office about an hour ago, and she should have been there by now. He's called the lawyer's office but Marilyn apparently never got there. He also called Bill's, thinking she'd stop by there, but Bill hasn't seen her. John says he's going to call Anne, as Marilyn said she and Ann were going to go shopping sometime today. If she's not at Anne's, he's going to call the police. He suggests that we drive over to Mario's and check with him as to whether or not Marilyn told Wally about the statue. However, he thinks this is unlikely as Marilyn doesn't trust Wally, she only trusts us and Fransisco. John also suggests we try to get in touch with Fransisco . . . ."
• On the subject of phones, how about variations of the Bob Newhart-style conversation where we only get to hear one side of the conversation, as in: Marilyn hasn't shown up at the lawyer's office yet? (PAUSE) And you already called Bill's? (PAUSE) What did he say? (PAUSE) He hasn't seen her either. (PAUSE) So, John's getting nervous? (PAUSE) He's going to call the police...
  If I'm not mistaken, the conversation must have gone like this:
  "Marilyn hasn't shown up at the lawyer's office yet."
  "Marilyn hasn't shown up at the lawyer's office yet?"
  "No, and I've already called Bill's."
  "And you already called Bill's?"
  "Yes."
  "What did he say?"
  "He hasn't seen her either."
  "He hasn't seen her either."
  "John's getting pretty nervous about this."
  "So, John's getting nervous?"
  "Yes, he's going to call the police."
  "He's going to call the police..."
  
• When phone-calls are traced you can see a map on the screen with a beam closing in on the caller, and the caller always knows how long he can talk before he has to hang up to not be traced down. He always manages to say everything perfectly timed for 2 minutes.
• Video-phones display pictures of the callers looking straight into the camera. The camera must be in the middle of their screen, in other words.
• If the hero tries to call someone he needs urgently he won't need more than three rings to know that he/she is not there.
• If someone wants to call the hero, he/she will let the phone ring forever before hanging up, expecially if the caller does not know that the hero has to fight his way to the phone through a bunch of bad guys.
• A person is placing a phone call to a company, such as "Sports Illustrated." The phone at the other end is picked up, and the person PLACING the call says, "Hello, Sports Illustrated?", as if they are checking to make sure they called the right place.
  What this means is that at a major company, someone is answering the phone with "hello" and that's it! Not, "hello, Sports Illustrated, can I help you?" or anything like that, just "Hello!"

HOUSES

• People never answer the door until the doorbell or knocking has sounded at least three times.
• The hero lives in New York City working at some okay, but not particularly high-paying job, and yet he or she has a roomy apartment filled with nice stuff, generally with a good view, and sometimes a nice, romantic rooftop to go to.
• People never get out of the house when there is obvious danger there (ghosts, murderers).
• People who hear something weird outside will go OUT to look, even if they know there's a homicidal maniac on the loose.
• When someone's in bed and hears a sound outside, he'll get up and turn the lights on before looking out of a window, even if this usually guarantees that he'll never be able to see anything going on.
• When an intruder is in the house, the occupant will snuck along a wall with his back pressed to it tightly and his arms out a bit from his body, palms flat agaisnt the wall.
• When there's an intruder somewhere in the house, the thing that jumps at the heroine in the dark turns out to be her cat, even if it comes from places cats wouldn't be, like inside a cupboard! As soon as she relaxes, the killer will show up and strangle her.
• Any apartment in Paris will have a view of the Eiffel Tower

MINORITES

• Minorities such as Native Americans or Asians will always have some sort of mystical knowledge or inate fighting skill. For example, the Native American always knows the course of events to come from some sign in nature, and Asians are all born with Martial Arts skills they can use to battle the bad guys.

RESTROOMS

• In film, no one uses the restroom, except as a venue for escape. If there are multiple people in the restroom, expect a minor character revealation while they stand at the mirror

craziest

apparently, from reading other blogs, i'm not the only one who didn't quite catch on for a bit that craziest is fictional. i thought this girl was just a freak who worshipped scrabble.  also her whole life story of her dad sending her to boarding school and then her not moving back after because he would be sad about her mom... wasn't that like in a movie or something, that storyline sounds so familiar. but i think i liked it   because 

1) it was not nearly as long as 21 steps

2)did not involve as much viewer interaction as 21 steps

3) it made scrabble into such a big deal.

i LOVE scrabble. when i was little, i used to see those family game nights on tv and beg my family to all play scrabble together, but they thought a family game night was corny. it is, but i just wanted to play scrabble. nobody else did...my mom loves it though.  

so this video definitely kept me interested.

once i realized it wasn't true, i was able to laugh at it, because it is hilarious how serious she makes scrabble out to be... and i cracked up when the old man died at the last second putting the last s down. "this man was 53, his heart was so bad he shouldn't have played" all that tension in that scene i find amazing. the game was called, i never laid down my tiles. poor thing.and  then at the end the brain is just deteriorating. 

but this made me really want to play scrabble, so i signed out the game from the front desk on wednesday and made some people play with me. i may or may not have been embarrassed to admit that it was scrabble that i rented when i told them i had a game. i think the whole digital story thing is starting to grow on me now that i see how ridiculous something can be but how amusing it can be at the same time (and how it can reconnect you with an old favorite game, scrabble. but thats a lie, no other digital story has ever done that)

Its that time of year

After hearing so many people be upset about the snow, I decided to make a list of my favorite things that happen around this time of year.

1. SNOW

2. Snow ball fights

3. Drinking lots and lots of hot chocolate

4. Playing in the snow with my dog

5. Holiday decorations

6. I love the silence at two in the morning when you are outside and it is snowing

7. Snow balls

8. The sparkly lights everywhere

9. The energy when you are in the mall

10. A long break

11. Spending time with my family

12. SNOW

13. Eggnog

14. Shopping for gifts for others

15. The surprise of slipping on ice (especially on the top of a hill)

Some of these may seem weird, and I know I repeated snow, but it is exciting enough to deserve the repetition. This might be my favorite time of the year.

40 first lines

So, this phenomenon has been creeping around facebook for the past couple weeks. What happens is, somone makes a note that contains the first lines to 40 different songs, and people leave comments with the names and artists. So here's what I'm gonna do. Put my iPod on shuffle and let the fun begin. If you know that, COMMENT. This is like a freebie comment.

If the title is in the first line I'll skip to the next line, or to the first verse.

1. I wanna love ya, and treat you right

2. Your choice, so choose. 

3. Well, they'll stone ya when you're trynta be so good.

4. I heard you on the wireless, back in fifty-two. (oh, this one is CLASSIC!)

5. Lately, newspaper man says cheap airfare (1st verse)

6. The train pulled out, and I swung on behind (1st verse, 2nd line)

7. One last kiss, one only. 

8. hey, hey, hey, hey, oooooooooooowwwww... won't you, come see about me? (so good)

9. Stashed his trash in Ecuador, bought a good suit of clothes.

10. Day after day I'm more confused.

11. Well I'm going down to Rosedale, take my rider by my side (2nd verse)

12. Parsley, sage, rosemary and thyme. (2nd line)

13. When I find myself in times of trouble...

14. Etty in the room a cry, mama said she must wipe her eye.

15. She's got everything she needs, she's an artist, she don't look back.

16. Think of London. Small city.

17. Sittin' in his nowhere land (2nd line)

18. Oooow....  hey kid, rock and roll 

19. I believed I was wrong but baby now I know.

20. Found myself a matchbook, beside some hotel bed.

21. We've done four already but now we're steady and then they went: one, two, three, four.... Singin' in the sunshine...

22. The ocean liner's gone so far away (2nd line)

23. One, two, three, four. Cindy smiles in overcoats.

24. Legalize it.... don't criticize it... legalize it... and I'll advertise it.

25. It was a slow day, the sun was beating on the soldiers by the side of the road.

26. Pistol shots ring out in a barroom night

27. One-two... on the field I remember you were incredible.

28. Once upon a time you dressed so fine.

29. A devastating backstroke, all the way from France.

30. If I could have chosen where God would hide his Heaven...

31. Mama told me, when I was young

32. He bought a shotgun, cuz he was in the mood for a little con-fron-ta-tion. (2nd line)

33. I climb the walls of my mind just like climbin' on a jungle gym.

34. Every time that I see your face, something moves within my heart.

35. Oh father high in heaven, smile down upon your son. 

36. I knew a girl, her name was Truth.

37.  Oh, oh-oh-oh-oh oohh, you don't have to go-oh-oh-oh-oh-oooh

38. Beep, beep, beep, beep, beep, beep, beep (rrriiiinnggg) yo? Yo Biggie wake up.

39. The pressure builds, you buy a gift. 

40. I wanna live in the city, with no friends and family

Some real good ones on this list. Let's see who wins.

stumble upon

im sure most of you out there are using firefox, and this is great because then what i am about to suggest was built for your browser. i don't know how many of you out there have heard of stumble upon, i had but i never actually downloaded it, and now that i have i realize it is great, and you all should check it out.
http://www.stumbleupon.com/
it is a great way to procrastinate...
and it is a great way to find funny stuff to post on blogs about.

in fact, thats the reason why i actually downloaded it, me and a friend were sitting around complaining about all the work we have this week and i mentioned that i have to post horrible blogs for english class (she is jealous that she is stuck in written expression while we are not even allowed to take that class) and find something less horrible to post about this time, and she told me to go stumble upon stuff, apparently it is a verb now like those other ones (ex. google it)

so the button gets added to the toolbar on firefox, you can't miss it, it has a little logo and then says, Stumble! and all you have to do is click it and it brings you to a random website based on the boxes you check off telling them your interests when you first download it. there are a lot of weird things out there, but some pretty cool things too. its kind of addictive, just keep pressing the button and you are brought to more and more randomess...

here is one of my favorite things ive stumbled upon today...
http://www.swcp.com/~jamii/OtherCats/
my favorite is the poptart kitten.
Now everyone say, AWWW.
not only did i get to see cute little cats, but i found out that ratemykitten.com exists ?! what? that reminds me of 8th grade when my friends and i posted a bunch of trash all over ratemyteacher.com about our teachers. gosh thats embarassing. i forgot about all those sites, maybe i will head over to ratemyprofessor.com to pick classes, hopefully i can find more classes with teachers as entertaining as ours.

lyrics

The other day lyrics from a song I was listening to caught my attention. I don't know if any of you have ever experienced it, but when I hear something that really hits me, I get cold chills. I totally got cold chills with this song. I don't actually know the name of the song or anything. So, here it is:

"If we are waiting for the circumstance to change so that we can be happy, 

you know we are missing out on every thing

cause its our hearts that need to be changed."

On another note, I googled Ben Peek the other day and found this website, interesting marketing strategy.... http://www.talkingsquid.net/archives/129

21 steps

After going through 21 steps in class, two things stuck out for me. One, if I wasn't careful the screen made me feel sick when it was zooming around, and two the story line was a little obvious. Don't get me wrong, I thought it was cute. But that is just it, it was cute, nothing more, nothing less. I was not overly inspired by this to go out and make my own, or even to watch it again and again, to find things I may or may not have missed previously. It was just cute.

I prefer a story line that keeps you guessing up until the very last bit. I once read a story that was written in such a way that the reader kept switching who they thought the murderer was between two sisters. Until the very last chapter when it was all revealed, until then you could guess but could not know. I like books like that, where you have to read every single word and pay attention to every single scene trying to find some hidden clue. When you can skip a page, a paragraph, a chapter, it just does not have the same magical hold over a person, and you can be content with just being the reader in the story.

When a book, or piece of literature forces you to do more then just sit there and contentedly read a little section at a time, that is when you start to find the true master pieces in literature. Until then, it is just cute.

Warren Buffet

Truly a remarkable man, Warren Buffet, who at the beginning of this year was estimated to be worth as much as 62 billion dollars, by Forbes, started out (and I'm not joking) with a paper route.

The man, a boy at the time, filed his first tax return at age 13, writing off his watch and bicycle as business expenses!

One of his first material investments, before he started snatching up farmland in and around Omaha, was a pinball machine. He and a buddy spent 25 bucks on a used pinball machine and put it in a barber shop. The coin started rolling in.

A fun fact about this man, one the most successful and brilliant business men in history, is that he was turned down by Harvard Business school. He did get into Columbia's program though.

You may think that I am crazy, but if you are ever bored and want something interesting to read, go to the wikipedia page on this man. You will be astounded. A true American, he built himself from the ground up, started raking in money hand-over-fist, and still lives in the same house he has lived in since he got married. He purchased it for under 40,000 and it now is estimated to be worth only 700,000. Compare that to people like the CEOs of Enron, Tyco, or other such companies... and I'd say that's pretty good. When he finally bought his own private jet, he even named it "The Indefensible" because he knew he shouldn't have, but hey, he did announce a plan to give away  83%  of his fortune to charity. No, that is not a typo, and no, that does not say 8.3%. 

"I got an uncle who owns a bank, he's a self-made millionaire." - Who do you think?

Jimmy Buffet

This may take the form of a rant. I've got some energy right now, and this is a subject that really gets me riled up.

I am a Jimmy Buffet fan.

The man is a legend. And NOT because he wrote any of the following songs: Margaritaville, Cheeseburger in Paradise, Volcano, or Fins. Despite the fact that these are all good songs, they are in no way my favorite Buffet songs. If someone tells you that they are a Buffet fan, DO NOT under any circumstances, start mentioning these songs.

Conversely, if someone claims to be a Jimmy Buffet fan and starts to name these songs as their favorite... send them to me. I'll deal with them.

Jimmy Buffet is a genius... but also, in my opinion, he sold himself short.

He is a genius on two fronts. And that is where the trouble is.

Jimmy Buffet is one of the most talented song-writers living in America today. The sheer volume of his catalogue is staggering. He consistently produces albums with good songs on them, and has for 30 years. He has at least 5 albums that I would call "great." 

But, being that he is the nephew of one of the greatest financial minds on the planet, Warren Buffet, he also is very marketing savvy. Jimmy Buffet has marketed himself better than any one else I can imagine. You may argue that Elvis did better at this... but that is not the case. Elvis drove himself into bankruptcy before he died, and his heirs now make bank off his image. Buffet primarily created his fortune himself. In doing so made himself "enough money to buy Miami," as he states in "A Pirate Looks at 40." But, he also undersold his own talent. It's hard to market all of your stuff, so he had to concentrate on those songs that had the most wide public appeal, and play to those. And by god it worked. 

But, a true Buffet fan will be able to sing you songs like "Pencil Thin Mustache," "Railroad Lady," "He Went To Paris," "Death of an Unpopular Poet," and scores and scores of others. I once named over a hundred in under 20 minutes. And the ones stated in this paragraph are no where near the most obscure.

I am confident that I could pass of the lyrics to any number of Jimmy Buffet songs as legitimate poetry, in my Intro to Poetry class. But no one will believe me when I say this because all they can think about is "I LIKE MINE WITH LETTUCE AND TOMATOES!" 

Look forward to a post about how Warren Buffet made his first million. It's amazing.

Tea

If you can't tell yet, I'm sitting at my computer and composing posts about the things that are near me.

"I love.... lamp?"

Right now I'm drinking tea. I love... tea? Hot tea.

And I do love it.  What is better than a hot cup of tea after walking back from class without a damn hat, because I'm an idiot? I can only think of a few. I won't get into them now... this is not the forum for that discussion.

I tell people that I like tea, but I don't REALLY like tea. I've met people who REALLY like tea, and they operate on a whole other level of tea consciousness. One of my friends wrote his common application college essay on tea. Loose leaf, french press, hot and cold, white, green, black, oolong, there is more tea terminology than any person would care to know.

I'm content with Salada. Hot. Black. Sugary. Delicious. 

Caffeine has very little effect on me.

Halo

I would like someone to please explain to me what the big draw is to the Halo video games.

Don't get me wrong, I game as much as the next guy, though maybe not as much as many, but if I'm gonna be shooting at people on my TV I'd rather have it look somewhat realistic. I'd rather know the approximations of what my character can do physically, because they are similar to what I can do physically. 

Personally, of the new generation of first person shooters, I choose Call of Duty over Halo any day. When you play Duty, as I abbreviate it, you can make vague estimates as to what your character can do. You see a wall thats a few feet tall and say, I could jump that in real life.... so.... and generally you are right. You can do that type stuff, just as you can shoot actual bullets, and you can be shot by them as well.

Whereas, when you play Halo you see a glowing orb of purple-ness and a hundred foot high stainless steel piece of imagination and you say, well duh, I can propel myself over that as long as I jump from this moving warthog and land directly in the center of that ball of purple and do some other bullshit along the way. Like seriously... what the hell is an energy sword or whatever?

Halo is stupid.

"I found religion the day I discovered gangster rap."

I once saw a commercial on television... I don't remember what it was for... but I remember at one point an innocent looking, young, clean cut, caucasian woman says, directly into the camera, "I found religion the day I discovered gangster rap."

I feel this way some times too.

I wouldn't say that gangster rap is my favorite kind of music, indeed it may well be far from it. But, it does serve a valuable purpose. Similar to a vindicated middle-aged woman putting on the Carly Simon Greatest Hits album, or an underpaid highschool Latin teacher rocking out to Social Distortion's "Somewhere Between Heaven and Hell," listening to Dr. Dre or ODB lamenting about their own problems and how they deal with them tends to make me feel good.

Some people claim that rap is senseless, desensitized, crude, and talentless. I disagree. When I listen to Snoop lay down a rhyme, that often he comes up with on the spot, I see art. Rappers are quite talented. My favorite rapper/producer would have to be Dr. Dre. And I'll tell you why, via a quote from his own mouth. 

It goes as follows: "You've never been on a ride like this before. With a producer who can rap and control the maestro, at the same time with the dope rhyme that I kick, you know, and I know, I flow some old funky sh..."

Basically what Dre is saying is that he can rap, and he can lay down hot beats. And that my friends... that is talent. Way more talent than the Jonas Brothers. Combined.

"Fallin' back on that ass with a hellified gangsta lean. Gettin funky on the mic like a old batch a collard greens. It's the capital S, oh yes I'm fresh, N, double-O, P, D, O, double- G, Y, D, O, double-G you see." -Snoop. 

Both of those glorious quotes were taken from the song Nuthin But A G Thang.

The 21 step program.

When does he have to apologize to everyone he wronged in the past?

Just kidding.

Seriously though, that was a pretty enjoyable little story. Tied up all the loose ends almost too well. My favorite part of the story was the fact that the main character's old college buddy is probably going to have to be "taken care of" at some point in the near future. 

I think the main reason I enjoyed this work was because it took me back to some of my favorite movie scenes from my childhood. I am referring to, of course, the "map scenes" in the Indiana Jones trilogy. If you don't know what I'm talking about... first of all, shame. Second of all, let this refresh your memory.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1tp-N8j6oSE&feature=related

The iSpirits wouldn't allow me to embed the video. Sorry.

pointless post you will see from me #1

warning you all that this is gonna be one of those posts about my day, but it is kind of a rant post, or when you are feeling down about yourself you can just think of how much of a fool i am and instantly feel better. and im predicting right now that this is going to be really long, and have a lot of words.

so being that i just woke up, i decided it to be the perfect time to catch up on missed blogs from our little class break. yeah, i woke up 2 minutes after my anthro class started, looked at my alarm clock, yelled at it for magically forgetting to go off, and then threw it at my roommate's closet. come on, 2 minutes? maybe if it was 5 minutes i would feel better, but when you see that it was only 2 minutes ago it sucks.

NO im not just waking up for the day, i woke up at 7:30 and had two classes, but when i was falling asleep while conjugating verbs in french class, i  decided i wanted to take a nap before my last class at 1:25. for some reason, while it is one of my busiest weeks of the semester, i still decide i want to sleep at any random time. yesterday, i didn't even have my first class until 2 so i was pretty much in bed until about noon. decided to go back to my room and take a nap at 6 pm, instead of going to the library to work on 3 chapters of math homework with my friend from that class. i didn't even set an alarm then, i could have slept straight through until the morning, but then i woke up at 9 thankfully in time for dinner, sure the dining halls are closed then but the marche is right downstairs =) so around 10 pm is when i decided to start my homework, if i had done it earlier i could have been going to bed for the night dont you think? or not, because i still have a research paper to work on and a calc test im going to fail. well now i am wide awake, and should be until 6 pm again. and since my whole suite is empty and quiet, it is the perfect setting for me to teach myself derivatives (because i sure didnt learn it in class). and maybe i might not get another 60 on a test. 

instead, im probably just going to sit here looking for funny stuff to post about. i will probably feel the need to go to sleep before i work on implicit differentiation derivatives again tonight. because i have no other choice now, the test is tomorrow i cant keep putting it off...

 okay, i think this post is long enough now because i am just pissed off and rambling and nobody else is going to read this. im gonna press publish now, and head back over to stumble upon where maybe i might find something cooler for you guys.

WAIT one more rant i just realized

i missed this class today, and i will definitely be missing it again friday because my flight home is at 1. but thats fine because i planned to miss that class in advance. see when you plan to miss a class, its okay, but when you miss a class because you woke up too late for it even though you were sleeping at a time you really didnt even need to be asleep, its pretty sucky.  and i bet she did something cool in class today, like show us chimp fossils or something. (not that this is actually cool, its just a horribly boring class called biological anthropology that teaches us we came from chimps. or maybe we didnt. i dont actually remember the specific species name we came from. but every once in a while she decides to do something cool, like let us out early, or show us chimp fossils) 

ughhhhh. i never felt bad after missing a class in high school. and in high school attendance actually mattered. college is stupid. ok i am done now. kthxbye.

Sock sale

Saturday morning I got up at six so that I would be ready when my sister came to pick me up at six thirty (she was only a few minutes late). My sister, her roommate, my friend and I all went in a car together.

We got there around seven thirty, an hour early. A few minutes earlier and we could have been out of the rain, instead we stood next to the people under the roof as it rained. For the next hour we talked about books, Twilight the movie, and numerous other things. We got some smiles at how animated our conversations were getting about books, we were shouting a few times, trying to prove our points about a series. (Outlander if you are wondering, I say skip the first chapter and then go back and read it, every one else says force your way through it.)

We got in there and immediately went running to the back table. I must say, it was far more civil this year, no one was shoving, too much. There were mounds of socks everywhere we went.

After we found the socks we wanted, we went and stood in line, I couldn't get any good pictures of the line, but it took us forty five minutes in line to be able to pay, and we got in line early, and took turns shopping and standing in line.

I also got to meet up with my twin, and three of her friends. There was a guy dressed up as Uncle Sam walking around, I must admit, I wanted to yank off his beard, but I managed to resist that temptation.

I bought some socks. Then we went to the tshirt sale, which was really a tshirt, long sleeved shirt, sweat shirt, sweat pants and shorts sale. I bought three new sweatshirts there.

I love what people will do for crazy sales, this sale is something I look forward to every year.

Castles and glue guns

Today I was hanging out with one of my older sisters and we were shopping. Some how we decided that we wanted to buy popsicle sticks and make a castle out of them. We went back to her place and got started.

Now, I don't know about others, but I find that the glue from a hot glue gun is, at times, hot. Strange right? Yet, the glue also cools off, and stops working quite quickly. It took me a few minutes, but I got the hang of it eventually. I even built two or three walls, and the two of us figured out how to put the various pieces together.

Now, we have plans on making towers, and walls, multiple floors, and many other parts to it.

It is going to be the coolest popsicle castle ever. Guaranteed.

a real vulnerability

I must first start this with, please no matter your personal feelings, understand I am putting myself out here now. I am exposing myself and letting some of my vulnerability show through. I hope you all will be willing to respect that.

I am a Christian. I may not be the best at it, I don't know the bible that well, I don't always follow Jesus' word, I certainly still sin. Yet I try to become a better Christian, and the kind of person that God wishes me to be every single day. This weekend, I went to a fall conference for Inter Varsity, a Christian group on campus. Our mission statement is "Encounter Jesus and revolutionize the world with love, service and justice". While I was there I thought a lot about my life and what I am doing with it. We were told that if we haven't experienced butterflies in our stomach because of something we did for Jesus, then we are not really living our lives for Jesus. This is my butterflies. I realized that for me to do what I truly wish to do, and that is give my life to God, then I must be willing to expose my beliefs to others.

A part of me is ashamed to tell someone "I believe in God, I believe in His word, His mission, everything." Especially if I am not certain that the person I am talking to is a Christian. I can't be living the life that Jesus wishes me to live, if I won't confess my love for Him.

Even now, while exposing myself to a very real vulnerability, I am staying safe. I am typing this on a computer and posting it online. Yet I am not going up to someone I know, or even to someone I don't know and saying to them, I believe in God, and I wish to share his word with you. There is  no actual human interaction required for me to do this.

If anyone feels a need or wishes to learn more about God, Jesus and Inter Varsity I am here to talk to if you want. I can try and point you in the beginning of the right direction, I can give you a sense of community with other Christians, and I can help you start a journey that will last you all this life, and follow you into the next.

I am finally willing to stand up, and say I believe in the Lord.

The coolest

So my sister has this wicked cool pet, a Russian desert tortoise. He is the coolest little dude ever. He is really small and has a lot of personality.

When he gets mad or annoyed with us he will throw temper tantrums. He stomps around his cage. If he is hungry and we don't feed him right away he climbs up his hut, then slides down on the other side.

I am telling you all this to give you background on what an obviously awesome tortoise he is.

The other day when I was home I decided to have a "dance party" in the living room with my sisters. We turned up the music and were dancing near his cage when all of a sudden I looked in and he was dancing with the music.

Now obviously he did not get up on his back two legs and do a jig, but he was moving his head and front two legs to the music. The entire time.

For some strange and unexplainable reason, everyone I have told does not believe me. I have witnesses. I guess no one can believe me because their tortoises are just not as cool as Elliott.

i forgot to understand

i forgot to post about "understanding" before I jumped over to meet the lucky ones. jumping back a week, forward a week, then back, I should get with it, shouldnt I?

Its kind of hard to understand understanding, considering its just a picture. of eyes. not much to understand. the eyes are clearly sad eyes, you would think. however, it is a play on words because the eyes are not actually "understanding".  i think it is about the point where WE are "understanding" what is going on for him, so when we see the sadness in his eyes, we sympathize.

 He is not the one "understanding", we are. get it? well, this is just my take on the matter. at first i thought of it as his eyes being understanding eyes, as he is understanding and accepting the accident, and trying not to take fault, but when i thought about him being full of regret and remorse, we are the ones who are supposed to see this all in him and "understand".

feeeelin lucky (or not considering im posting this)

 When I had watched Meet the Lucky Ones a second time, I didn't feel any difference really from the first time I watched it. Both times, I got pretty bored at clicking around the random things.Oh and a stupid moment of mine that I should be embarrassed to share is that when I first watched it, I didn't realize there was an actual video for the characters until I was on the site for about 15 minutes. I was kind of just clicking around on the backrounds and the desks and etc.

 After being notified by another student in class that it was actually a car commercial, i was like HUH?! and was definitely looking for that when i watched it. but still, I didn't see much of a commercial. I guess just product placement, sharons car? i guess that is why sharon is important, if she wasn't given that car the whole ad would be a flop (nothing to advertise). I tried to look at the characters relationships with each other more than i did at first, because at first I didn't really see a point to it at all. I still find Estelle quite annoying. Come on, its a bath. Hey Jesper, you did it on purpose. Ashley, you are a brat. None of you three need to exist.  As for the rest of the characters, I find the easiest way to follow the story was to follow one character through, until there was a mention of another character and head over to that episode. This was much more successful than my first viewing, where i was a scatter brain and was unsure of what to do with the site, and by the time i knew i was bored. nope, i'm not gonna go buy sharon's car. 

New Orleans

As I am sure at least some of you are aware (from me handing out those little pieces of paper) I am planning on going down to volunteer in New Orleans for my spring break. I am going down with InterVarsity, and really looking forward to it.

Tonight I had the opportunity to go see a documentary at the Palace 9 about Hurricane Katrina. It was filmed by people who went through the experience. The documentary is called Trouble the Water.

As most do, I know at the least the basic facts about what happened. I know the levees broke, houses got flooded out and there was a mass movement of people leaving the area. Before I started to talk to people about going down for spring break in my mind it was all over and taken care of. The houses all built up neatly and everyone had, for the most part, moved on from what happened.

I now know that people are still dealing with the aftermath of what happened that day in 2005. People still have not been able to come back to New Orleans. It is either too hard emotionally or their houses are condemned.

This documentary brought a very personal touch to it all. There were moments I felt like crying, from the despair I felt just watching this documentary. Yet these amazing people were able to maintain faith in God, and survive. They were courteous to all they met. They were nice to the people who were sent down to help, even when they were ignored.

A few things really stuck out to me in this documentary:

     1. The people were turned away with force and threat of imminent death if they did not leave from an abandoned and closed naval base.

     2. The news focused on how the gas prices would affect everyone. (At the time that had seemed pertinent to me, now having seen this film, it seems rude, selfish and horrible to even think about focusing on that.)

     3. The prisoners were abandoned in a prison with no food or drink for days, while all the people in charge, the guards and everyone else left.

     5. The hospital which claimed they had evacuated, did not evacuate resulting in the deaths of a lot of people, mostly older.

     6. The tourism department in New Orleans made a point of making the tourist areas nice quickly, so that tourists would not have to face the fact that the disaster had happened. (Then ignored the rest of the city.)

If you get a chance, you should definitely go see this. It is only playing for this week at the Palace 9.

diary entry

So, a long time ago when we actually read the book, we were asked to then  reread it just looking at the personal diary entries in order. being that i imagined myself posting this blog when i actually reread the diary entries, its hard for me to look back and remember what i actually thought of it instead of rereading them all a third time.The first time, i didn't pay any mind to these entries, and didn't see any correlation between them.... But in fact, they all actually were posted on the same day, october 12. his birthday (for some reason i feel the need to also write that this is my sister's birthday... so here you go, thats also my sisters birthday!) well except for the first one, which was from march. that diary entry isn't important. it only talks about the whole reason he is doing the blog, the publishing deal.  this is sarcasm,  because i don't know how to relate that entry to the rest. oh wait, now that i think about it i do. that same day was the day of the car accident and his beloved geraldine died. 

then, all the rest of the entries are pretty much him ranting about that night, and all his emotions built up.  they are all snippets of one long diary entry. validation- "i have done nothing wrong, i keep telling myself that". yearn- "nothing you do or say takes back a moment". its obvious through that ben peek was feeling pretty shitty and down in the dumps when he wrote those diary entries. as i quoted in 'yearn', he pretty much has realized that nothing he does or says he will never be able to go back to that moment of the accident that night. he can't forgive himself for it. poor ben. i did enjoy reading his diary entries more than the actual other entries. they've got emotion. well, the dialogues did too.

Crap.

So being the procrastinator that I am, i had a long weekend and waited till today to do make sure I have my blog comments done. So i'm commenting blogs and I get off the computer and yadayadaya you know the rest. Then about an hour ago I realize I have to actually email our lovely professor my blogs, and I go onto this blog and go back and back and back until I come to the conclusion that....

 I HAVEN'T ACTUALLY POSTED ANY. AT ALL. IN THE PAST 2 WEEKS. i definitely must have imagined myself doing so.  i posted on the eyes, the diary entries,  the difference when I rewatched meet the lucky ones, and then i posted on how excited i was for halloween to be here. 

thats 4 posts that i apparently imagined myself writing. to think, i thought i actually did something the day it was actually assigned? i guess it was a dream, have you guys ever had those dreams where they felt so real that when you woke up you had to actually stop and realize none it actually happened? 'cuz I have, and I guess this is like that. this really sucks, because I really want to go to sleep. 

I hope you guys feel my pain if you decide to read any of my blogs, because I would much rather be watching tv with my suitemates or shower and get ready for bed, then to try to remember what in hell  i wrote about in those posts from 2 weeks ago that i "imagined myself writing".  I bet he won't even read the blogs I post, because he is probably enjoying whatever he usually enjoys on sunday nights, and then he is gonna get in a nice warm bed while I'm busy hitting myself over the head for having such a vivid imagination.

this may or may not need to count as one of my 4 posts, depending on how silly I feel posting about "how excited I am for halloween to be here!" when halloween has already passed.

either way this post is me ranting.. me ranting like MAD... (i would say no pun here is intended but pun here actually is intended)