Thursday, August 28, 2008

Project 1- Nature

I am taking digital photography, so I thought I would post the pictures that I turn in each class. Our first assignment was to take nature photos. Let me know what you think.




digital doom

My TV is eight years old. It has a VCR built into it. I get four channels with an antenna that only has one ear (anteni?). I'm okay with this. But now everywhere you turn its February this, digital converter box that. I decided not to get one and just be TVless, whatever. Then I got a coupon and it was only $10.00, so I went and got one. The big selling point was that the box comes with a remote. I do not have a TV remote, just one for the DVD player. This will be important later.

So, my dad ordered the coupon and I went and picked it up yesterday before work. After work I decided to install it. Problem one: I need a power strip. Four things can't be plugged in to two jacks people! No big deal, easily fixable. I breeze through instillation lalala, this is SO easy, I'm a technological wizard! Now just turn the sucker on. Problem two: To set it up the TV must be turned to channel 3. My channel 3 is not programmed. I have no remote. OK, I start pushing buttons on the front of the TV. Menu, yes! Add/Delete channels, yes please! Problem three: Delete is the default, and I cannot get it to go to add. Why won't it go to add?

Conclusion: I cannot get my converter box to work. And I accidentally deleted channel 8 in all the confusion. In my quest to get more channels I now get less.

Wednesday, August 27, 2008

Dream on

School started last night. I'm sure I'll get into details about my classes soon, but for now I wanted to talk about a side effect of classes that I had forgotten about until last night. I have class from 5:45-10:30 on Tuesday and Thursday evenings. I usually try to go to bed soon after getting home. As a result of my brain being "on" for so many hours before bed, I tend to have very strange vivid dreams. I totally forgot about it until I woke up this morning. So, I'm going to talk about my dream. Disclaimer: it was a dream!

I was in a car with my parents and brother and we were driving through a cemetery. We went up a hill and came upon this strange excavation site. There were lots of people working, and tons on bodies in body bags. Somehow I came to the conclusion that the people were Mormons and were digging up bodies in order to baptise them. (They do (did?) do this). I started taking pictures, thinking it was crazy that this was going on with such little security, and how did they get the permission to do this? They saw what I was doing and stopped our car. They searched and searched for the camera and kept questioning us. We finally got to leave. They continued to look for my camera, coming to my house to do a search there, and following me around. I decided not to say anything to anyone about it because, even though it enraged me, who was I to be responsible for the persecution of a religion based on one crazy sect? Very noble. But then they did something that really pissed me off (no idea what), and the gloves came off. Now, I could have sent the pictures to the local paper, or called the news, but that would be rational and this was a dream. So what did I do? I somehow contacted the Taliban (phonebook?) and told them that Mormons were baptising Muslims. They were not happy. Next thing I know the cemetery was bombed and it was all over. Very strange.

I have no idea what to make of this, but I've been thinking about it all morning so I thought I would share.

Wednesday, August 20, 2008

And so it begins.

School mockery time. So I had to stop by the old GVC this morning to talk to a professor about a class I'm going to be a peer leader for. It went well, but afterwards I was hoping to meet up with my advisor to ask a few questions. Ha.

He, I'll call him Jude, is a little kooky. Hilariously awesome, but kooky none the less. Good quality in friends and maybe an uncle, not so much in someone whose job it is to advise you on important academic decisions. Now, to his credit my inability to locate him isn't his fault. See, GVC decided to build this new building, they made the professors from two other buildings box up all of their belongings with the promise this new building would be ready by August. It isn't. So, these professors have no office, no phones, no computers, basically nothing. Not the best situation five days before classes begin.

Anyway, I'm in the library and I ask another homeless professor if she has seen Jude around, she hasn't. She asks why and I tell her I want to add/drop a class. She tells me to run and get a form and she'll sign it (I don't think she's supposed to do that). So I head out the door. Seconds later she's running after me, she scribbles her signature and tells me to sign it for her (we are really not supposed to do that).

So, before classes even begin I learned my first lesson: forgery.

Tuesday, August 19, 2008

There's nothing happening here...

I would like to post, but not much is going on right now.

I'm getting ready for school to start, so that means: expensive book purchases, frantic calls to professors and advisers, yelling at the business and financial aid office employees, new parking sticker, and meetings meetings meetings! Blog land will be very happy when school does start, because the losers I go to school with are ridiculously easy to mock. And I lost all of my best classmates to the real world, so I will have a plethora of material and no one to share it with.

Friday, August 15, 2008

The Fair

I stopped by the fair yesterday morning- my first time this year. I love it. Here are some things you only see/do at the fair:

A group of people eating breakfast around 10:30. Pretty normal right? The guy standing there talking to them was having a beer.

Having cheese curds at 9:30 in the morning.

A food stand advertising "lamb" outside the sheep barn. I don't understand people's desire to eat the live animal they have just seen. I am never like, "look at that sheep, wish I could eat me some of that." This also is the norm outside that pig barn and the cattle barn.

A guy I was buying candied apples from asking me if I was planning on getting into a fight later. Apparently on the midway candied apples are considered a weapon.

I was about to "vote" with a kernel of corn. An old guy said, "gimme some corn I wanna vote for McCain. Which ones for McCain?" (They are clearly labeled) "I wouldn't want to vote for that damn Obama!"
So I said: "Don't worry, I'll vote for Obama for you."
I don't know if he heard me, but the guy giving out corn thought it was pretty funny.

That's all I can think of right now, I'm probably going back tomorrow so I'm sure I'll have another fair post soon.

Wednesday, August 13, 2008

Patriot Act-ing

Merriam-Webster Online Dictionary defines patriotism as:
Pa·tri·ot·ism: love for or devotion to one's country.

I prefer Oscar Wilde's definition:
"Patriotism is the virtue of the vicious."

Last night I had a surreal experience. Before I get to that let me explain the back story.

When 9/11 happened I lived in Cedar Rapids and worked at Buffalo Wild Wings. Every Thursday was Karaoke night. It was a fun time with big rowdy groups, and always got a little crazy. One night a few months after 9/11 things seemed well on there way to the usual chaos. Then a strange thing happened. A little boy, six years old, got up to sing. He perched on a bar stool and soulfully belted out Lee Greenwood's "Proud To Be An American". I dutifully walked around trying to get drink orders, but no one spoke. When I asked people if they needed anything they would just lift a finger, a silent shh on their lips. Some were openly crying. I finally just stopped and watched, wondering why I wasn't as moved as everyone else clearly was. When he finished the crowd erupted, then things got back to normal.

Seven years later I'm back at Buffalo Wild Wings, this time just a customer. I of course want to watch baseball. Everyone else, it seems, is there for the Olympics. Groups of men in their twenties, another in their late thirties are suddenly experts on gymnastics, and can tell a breaststroke from a freestyle. The whole place erupts when America does well, and more disturbingly, when another country does poorly. These are guys that probably never went to their daughters ballet recitals, yet something brings them out on a Tuesday night to cheer for people they had never met, the only connection being that they happen to exist in the same country.

Am I the only one that doesn't get this? And wouldn't it have been more patriotic to be cheering for what I was watching, good old American baseball?

Tuesday, August 12, 2008

random weekend doings

I don't have the Internets at home, so posting on the weekend is a bit difficult. I'm also quite lazy. Here are some things that happened to me this weekend:

I realized I was reading Vegetarian Times while eating a double cheeseburger. Awkward.

I went to a wedding reception that was wildly awesome, oh and guess who the brides step father was. The CEO of Wendy's (actually a company that owns Wendy's and I think Arby's among other things). He makes about fifteen million dollars a year.
He and his wife sat and looked on as rowdy east siders made good use of the open bar. Thanks Bob!

Saturday I hung out with my sister and four year old nephew. He does entertaining things like wildly waiving his light saber while chanting, "lets cut open the cats belly!"

I took Monday off to do stuff for school and went to lunch with my mom. Julie and I had a potluck dinner and it was great! I can't wait for lunch to eat leftovers.

That about sums it up. What did you do this weekend?

Wednesday, August 6, 2008

belonephobia

According to dictionary.com belonephobia is defined as:

bel·o·ne·pho·bi·a An abnormal fear of sharply pointed objects, especially needles.

I have this. It's a problem, it's getting worse, but I don't really know what to do about it.

All kids hate shots, but I was always terrified. Around elementary school I was getting a vaccine in my leg, my dad was holding my arms but I kicked the nurse anyway. She let go of the syringe, so it was still stuck in me. Then the doctor yelled at me. Things haven't gotten better. I'm at a point where I don't go to the doctor if I think a needle will be involved. I have, on more then one occasion, refused to have blood drawn. I have to sign waivers. Last year I needed an IV. It took four nurses to hold me down.

I couldn't sleep last night b/c I have a doctors appointment in 23 days. An appointment that I'm pretty sure won't involve needles. But what if it does? This is what happens to me:

If I go in unaware of needle like procedures, and then they want to perform needle like procedures on me, I just can't do it. I need time to wrap my mind around it, weeks of anxiety to prepare myself. An unplanned needle situation is a recipe for a full blown panic attack. Seriously.
A planned needle situation isn't much better. There's shaking, crying, hyperventilating. The most seasoned nurses usually bolt out of the room as soon as it's over.

I once knew I was going to get blood drawn at the doctor. 100% it was going to happen. For weeks before I would tell myself as I went to bed, "16 more days until you go to the doctor and get blood drawn, and it will be okay." I brought juice, I made a snack. I was prepared. I went into the office and the doctor said he needed a blood sample. I burst into tears. Literal sobbing. I staggered out without a needle touching me, and I never went to that office again.

I could go on and on with needle stories, a new one just happened today. But the more important question is how much is to much? How much can something alter your life before it becomes a "problem". And if it is one, what should I do about it?

i hate snakes

I may have accidentally dressed like Indiana Jones today. I didn't realize it until after I picked out my outfit, and I was to lazy to change.

Darker then average khakis? Check
Off white button up that is slightly wrinkled with sleeves rolled to elbows? Check

If anyone feels like bringing me a leather jacket or a whip that would be awesome.


Indiana Jones: The hell you will. He's got a two day head start on you, which is more than he needs. Brody's got friends in every town and village from here to the Sudan, he speaks a dozen languages, knows every local custom, he'll blend in, disappear, you'll never see him again. With any luck, he's got the grail already.

Later:

Indiana Jones: Come on, dad. Help me get us out of here. We have to get to Marcus before the Nazis do.

Professor Henry Jones: But you said he had a two day head start. That he would blend in, disappear.

Indiana Jones: Are you kidding? I made all that up. You know Marcus. He once got lost in his own museum.

Tuesday, August 5, 2008

who does that? oh right, me.

Since I'm telling dumb stories about myself I thought this one should be added as well. It's from a few years ago, but I was just reminded of it tonight. I'm at my friend Julies and she was telling me about how her three year old spilled laundry detergent all over the carpet.

At my old apartment I was doing laundry one day and was taking the basket out of the laundry room. I noticed a red liquid stain on the side. Thinking nothing of it I wiped it up with my finger and licked it!
Who does that? My only excuse is that for some reason I thought it was jelly. Never mind that I do not own jelly, or that even if it was jelly who licks jelly of a laundry basket?

Needless to say it was not jelly, and I got slightly ill. What was it? I have no idea. It didn't really have a taste, and kinda made my tongue numb. When I called my parents for some sympathy, and adult advise on whether or not I needed to call poison control, they could not have been more appalled. Let's keep in mind I was 24 at the time. Perhaps if I had been 2 they would have understood better...

I learned my lesson that day, and now I'm passing it on to you. Do not lick strange things you find in your apartments laundry room, it's just a bad idea.

oh, really?

I've started a few posts this week, but none have turned out well, so I decided to just tell a story about me being a dumb ass. Most of you may have heard this one, but I like it and felt it was blog worthy.

It's been established that technology and I don't mix, so when I bought an I Pod a few months ago no one was more surprised then me. I've used it exactly three times. My most recent was a few weekends ago at the local pool. I keep it hidden, sure someone will spot me for the technology posed that I am. As I was adjusting the volume someone noticed it and asked me about it, that led to the following conversation:

Dude: "Is that the I Pod touch?"

Me, internally: "Hmm, it's an I Pod, I touch it to make it go..."

Me to dude: "Yes"

Dude: "Really? Do you like it?"

Me: "Well, I'm not that good at this stuff, but yeah."

Dude: "What are you listening too?'

Me: "This American Life"

Dude: "Who are they?"

Me: "It's a show on NPR"

Dude: "Oh"

Conversation effectively killed.

Me later to my brother: "I have an I Pod touch, right?"

Bro: "Um...No. It's a classic."

Me: "Oh, I thought because I touched it to make it go..."

Bro: "........." Accompanied with look of pity and horror.

Monday, August 4, 2008

Book Review- Breaking Dawn

Don't read if you want to read the book!

The final book in the Twilight series came out on Friday at midnight. Lot's of you might not be familiar with this series. It's possible that you are how I once was; mocking and judgemental of the fools who could get caught up in a book about teenage vampire love. You are so so wrong. While I agree this series may not be for everyone, most people I've talked to that read it absolutely love it. Including me. That's what led me to pre-order the fourth and final book, and pick it up at 12:30 Friday night/Saturday morning. That's why ever time I looked at it in the next 24 hours I kind of giggled insanely, not believing it was finally here.

I finished it Sunday afternoon. It is 768 pages. I did do other things besides read last weekend. I went to breakfast with my dad, Festa Italiana Saturday night. The grocery store Sunday morning, and watched some of the Yankees game that afternoon at my grandma's house. I probably wouldn't be so desperate to get it done, but I work around people who are reading it, and I didn't want to find out anything about it before I was finished.

I liked it. It's not getting the best reviews online, and I think it lacked some of the feeling of the first three books. It had some more adult themes and sometimes I felt like the author was pushing her views a little. She's a Mormon. It was long but I obviously never lost interest. I will say that of the four books in the series, this was probably my least favorite, but I love them all so that isn't really saying much.

If you ever want to feel a little like a teen again, read this series. If you are reading/or have read it let me know what you think.