Organized Chaos

Practicum, Day 1

2007-09-20T01:07:00.000-05:00

It should have been my second day at the middle school, but I wasn't informed of that. I took the class this summer and was told that I would need to do a 20-hour practicum during fall semester. I checked in with the education department a couple of times towards the end of the summer to make sure that I was on the list of students to do the practicum. They told me I was and that I'd get an email telling me when and where the informational meeting was to take place and where and when my practicum would be.

Fast forward to Monday. A professor with the department came into one of my classes and told me that I missed the meeting, needed to fill out some insurance paperwork, and that I missed my first day at the middle school. This came as a surprise to me because I never got an email telling me about the meeting or the insurance or my assignment. So I took care of all that after class that day.

So Wednesday I showed up for the practicum, got everything taken care of in the offices, then went to my designated room (resource room, most likely to help kids with reading, because of my English background), only to find out that the teacher wasn't even there -- she was on lunch break or something at the time.
So they put me in the resource room for helping kids with math. And that teacher wasn't there, either, but at least there was a substitute.

So I helped kids with math, working on measurement. I don't even know what grade they were in, but I'm assuming they were 6th or 7th graders. One kept looking at the clock, asking me what time it was and if she could go to lunch. The sub informed me that they were to leave at 12:47 for lunch, but his lunch break started earlier. So he left me there to help them.

Then the multiplication and division problems came and they didn't know how to multiply or divide and I didn't know how to teach them because it's been about thirteen years since I learned how to do that and I don't remember how it was taught. Luckily they didn't get to those problems until a few minutes before their lunch time, so I only had to try to explain to blank stares for a little bit before I let them go.

Then another group came. I taught a girl the difference between odd and even numbers. Then there was more measurement. Then I got to leave.

Maybe it's because I'm sick, or maybe it's because I was expecting to help with English and got thrown into a situation where I was helping with a subject that I don't particularly care for, but helping those kids out today wasn't very fun, and I don't feel a sense of accomplishment.

I don't want to be in the math section all semester. I am not, and never will be, a math teacher.

On summer school

2007-08-09T04:35:00.000-05:00

Summer classes are over and I've finished all remaining work for them, except for a practicum at the middle school, which I have to complete during the fall semester.

I was surprised by how much I actually liked the routines that are involved with summer courses. I wasn't sure how I would react to them, but I found that they kept me on task and interested in the subjects more than regular sessions. I didn't have much time to procrastinate with the amount of material that was covered in the short amount of time, so that was good (though I will admit that I did procrastinate quite a bit more than I should have). The short terms made me go to class every day, which is something that I can't say I have done during previous terms. Also, meeting with my classmates and professors everyday made it pretty easy to get to know them.

Though one class that I was looking forward to taking ended up getting canceled, I will say that overall, my experience with courses this summer was very good. However I am a little concerned about how much information I was able to learn well enough to remember for my Praxis II test, which I will have to pass in order to become licensed to teach.

"A learning experience"

2007-05-16T23:16:00.000-05:00

I don't even know what to say about this:

Teachers Stage Fake Gun Attacks on Kids

the price of posting photos on social networking sites

2007-05-12T21:28:00.000-05:00

Talks of getting one's teaching license taken away because of pictures posted on social networking sites like myspace and facebook have been pretty frequent around my house, lately. This is a pretty exciting topic, I know, but that's what happens when you have four ed. majors living together.

I was told that a school had taken someone's teaching license away because of pictures that she had posted on her facebook account. At first I passed that off as a rumor because that just didn't seem right to me that a school could take away a teacher's license. But then I figured that there probably was some truth to the story, so I did some looking around the internet and found this story. This story must be the origins of our talks over the past couple of weeks. It actually happened last year, but it's in the news now because the student is filing a lawsuit against the school.

Apparently Millersville University denied a 27-year-old student her teaching certificate because of a picture that she had posted on her myspace account. Actually, according to the articles I've read about it, it seems as though it was the photo's caption that really got her in trouble.

According to Lancaster Online:

The picture shows Stacy Snyder of Strasburg wearing a pirate hat while drinking from a plastic "Mr. Goodbar" cup. The photograph taken during a 2005 Halloween party was posted on Snyder's MySpace Web page with the caption "Drunken Pirate."

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You can view the photo here.

So I'm going to go ahead and assume that if she hadn't written "Drunken Pirate" under the photo, there is no way the school could have used it against her, because they couldn't have proven what was in the cup from which she was drinking.

From what the school is saying about the situation, it seems like they were just looking for a reason to deny her from certification.

Buffington [Snyder's advising teacher] also accused Snyder of "incompetence" and "claimed she should have been removed from her student-teaching position months ago."

She [Bray, the dean of the School of Education] accused Snyder of "promoting underage drinking through her 'drunken pirate' photo.

Millersville University provided a statement about the lawsuit on their website.

Since hearing about this situation, one of my roommates has untagged or deleted several pictures from her facebook account because she's doing her student teaching next year.

Right now, I'm not too worried about anything like this happening to me. My MySpace account is set to private and none of my pictures on that site nor on Facebook can prove that I've taken part in or promote underage drinking. I've also changed my settings on facebook so that only people from Bemidji State can see my profile and only my friends can see my photos and photos that others have tagged me in.

Besides, it doesn't seem like it's the actual photo that can get one into trouble -- it's the caption that goes along with it.

OD on the ND

2007-04-30T00:09:00.000-05:00

So the lack of sleep caught up to me Friday night, about thirteen hours after I took my last caffeine pill. Between writing essays, reading books, and taking an exam, those things saved me last week.

Anyway, Friday night I decided that I finally wanted some sleep. So I slept. I slept almost all day Saturday, waking up for just a few hours to watch the Twins game. Then I went back to bed. Basically the same thing happened Sunday. Now here I am, a little after midnight on Monday morning, and I don't think I'm going to be able to sleep again.

I have a feeling that this is the beginning of another week of alertness aids to keep me awake enough to make it through classes and studying and writing.

As the semester winds down

2007-04-26T04:38:00.000-05:00

sleep is being replaced by pills, loud music, and cold showers.

No . . .

2007-04-12T09:39:00.000-05:00

So I just checked my email and my dad had sent me a link to an article and I just learned that probably my favourite author of all time, Kurt Vonnegut, died yesterday.

More on this later; I've got to go to class now.

Multitasking

2007-04-11T23:08:00.000-05:00

With spring comes the beginning of baseball season, the beginning of hockey playoffs, the end of basketball season, and the time for me to catch up on some school work.

In case anyone cares, the Twins beat the Yankees 5-1, the Wolves lost 105-88 to Dallas, but that doesn't even matter anymore, and it's 1-1 between the Wild and Ducks right now, at the end of the second.

Damnit

2007-04-06T02:14:00.000-05:00

I would forget to hit the store button after making changes on the class wiki before I closed my browser. It's my fault for trying to hold a few different texting conversations while reading over my work before I publish it. I was just trying to figure out who was texting me and I got caught up in it.

This could have been done last weekend . . . if it didn't storm in Red Wing and if the internet didn't go out. And if I had stayed in Red Wing where I would have at least had access to the internet on Sunday. It could have been done earlier this week . . . if I didn't have so many classes, appointments, and meetings to attend. But it should have been done last Wednesday, when I only had one class. Now I'm going to have to try to recreate what I had on the page. Lessons learned. I hope.

Time to step it up

2007-03-25T06:05:00.000-05:00

I've not been a very good student lately. I think my goal was to have at least twelve posts done by Monday. I've only written a few so far. Yeah, so multiply that progress by about seven and you'll get an idea of how all of my classes are going right now. Pretty sweet, isn't it.

So that means that I've really got to get some work done. And not just in weblogs and wikis but in all of my classes. And I need to get this work done quickly. I've got a midterm on Tuesday for a lit. class and I think I've gone to about five class meetings. And it's what, the eighth or ninth week of classes already. So yeah, I've got to get some stuff done now. Well, not exactly now, because it's really early in the morning and I've got to get some sleep. But when I wake up, I really need to start taking all of my classes seriously.

Priorities

2007-03-19T02:49:00.000-05:00

I decided to come back to Bemidji on Thursday instead of spending the weekend in Red Wing so that I could get some work done and I knew that it wasn't getting done there. I had every intention of actually reading and writing and getting caught up. I really did.

But like the procrastinator that I am, I haven't even opened my backpack yet. That means I've got to start and finish reading two books by Tuesday. It's a good thing this blogs and wikis class is my only Monday class, and it isn't even meeting right now. I would also like to write at least one essay by Tuesday, but I don't want to set the standards too high for myself. I'm already pretty sure that I'll waste most of the day doing little things that aren't priorities, like reorganizing my book shelf or cd collection.

I usually don't feel this way, but I'm glad the Twins don't have a game today, because that would certainly take three hours of valuable work time out of my day.

Stopping school violence

2007-03-07T20:33:00.000-06:00

It's pretty sad that in today's world, when we like to talk about how civilized we are, students still can't feel safe to and from school.

The South Korean governmant is introducing a plan to stop bullying and violence in schools. It seems that bullying is a very severe problem in South Korea, where suicide is too often seen as a way out for victims in bullying.

The plan is to protect students from violence by providing them with bodyguards who would escort them to and from school. Teachers will also receive more training and students will be able to consult counselors about problems that they're dealing with.

This is getting ridiculous

2007-02-24T07:02:00.000-06:00

So, I just logged into Facebook because I'm in college and that's what most college students do, and I clicked on someone's profile and I started hearing a voice. It's 7 a.m. and I'm the only one in the house who's still awake, so I know it isn't one of my roommates' televisions. So I check to see if I left windows media player or something else open. No, I didn't. Then I realize that one of those damn sidebar advertisements on Facebook is telling me that I should tune into MTV so that I can watch a show about spoiled, whiny, rich kids on their birthdays. No thanks.

When did Facebook start adding audio to their advertisements? Maybe they've been doing it for a while and I just realized it. I may be out of the loop because I don't check the thing very often. I don't know how some of my rooommates spend hours each day on that site and am tempted to join Mallory in her boycott of Facebook.

British troop withdrawal

2007-02-21T04:51:00.000-06:00

Prime Minister Blair is supposed to announce today that by this Christmas, 3,000 British troops will be removed from Iraq, with about 1,500 being pulled within the next few weeks. Good for the Brits! Denmark officials may also make a similar announcement soon.

Another missed class, another excuse

2007-02-20T23:57:00.000-06:00

I missed four out of my five classes today. I really tried to go to all of them. I even did all of the assignments, but my alarm clock never went off this morning and I didn't wake up until about 2:45 this afternoon, when one of my roommates came down and asked me if I was supposed to be in class then. I even missed German. Not cool at all. I'm setting four alarms tomorrow.

If I were to give up anything for Lent, it would probably be my habit of missing classes.

Maybe I should give it up anyway.

Damn you, Law & Order

2007-02-19T23:48:00.000-06:00

Why must you be so addicting?

I'm pretty sure its 24-hour marathon that started last night and had me watching until 8:00 this morning has screwed up my sleep schedule for the rest of the week.

Holy hamstrings, Batman!

2007-02-18T23:55:00.000-06:00

Friday was the first day on the ice in curling class, and my legs are still sore. It takes a lot more balance than I expected and requires the use of muscles that I haven't exercised in years.

Cap Cleaning

2007-02-16T02:01:00.000-06:00

I stayed home from school on Thursday because I was sick. After sleeping most of the day away, I decided to do something somewhat productive.

Anyone who knows me pretty well, or is even somewhat observant, knows that I wear a Twins hat at almost all times. I have one hat in particular that I bought nearly six years ago and have worn just about every day since. Looking at it the other day, I realized how dirty it had gotten since the last time that I cleaned it.

Over the years I've tried dry-cleaning, the washing machine, commercial cleaning agents, and the dishwasher. but I didn't feel like going those routes this time; I wasn't going to take my cap to the dry-cleaners, it probably would have fallen apart in the washing machine, I wasn't going to go out and buy a cleaner, and I don't like the idea of washing my hat in the same place as my dishes. Plus it would have been a big waste of water to put in in the washing machine or dishwasher. There are people all over the world who don't have the luxury of running water.

First I tried dish soap, but I wasn't happy with how it was working. So I tried vinegar, because that's supposed to clean things well, but that didn't do a very good job and it made my hat smell bad. Then I tried rubbing alcohol. I'm not exactly sure why I did that, because that didn't really work at all.

So there I was with a dirty, stinky hat. I probably shouldn't have tried new ways to clean a hat with my favourite one ever. I at least wanted to get the smell of vinegar mixed with rubbing alcohol out of it, so I got some baking soda and was going to sprinkle a little on it to get the odor out.

Then I remembered that baking soda works well for cleaning ovens when mixed into a paste with water, so I thought I'd try it with my hat. Here's what it looked like before the cleaning:

I just mixed the baking soda and water together and gently scrubbed the headband with a toothbrush. It worked surprisingly well. The toothbrush did rip up parts of the headband that were already pretty well worn, but, other than that, the results were good.

When I was rinsing it off, I realized that it had removed more than I knew was on it. It was pretty gross. The hat is still stained, but those are probably permanent -- it'll never look like it did when I bought it.

So that's what I do when I stay home sick . . . just in case anyone was wondering.

BSU athletics safe for now

2007-02-15T19:54:00.000-06:00

Today, President Quistgaard spoke about the proposed cuts at Bemidji State University. You can read about the proposal here and Quistgaard's speech here.

Future changes at the University may include: switching up to three programs from majors to minors, the elimination of one minor, the addition of a new Advising Success Center, switching from a 12-credit tuition cap to an 18-credit tuition cap, raising student athletic fees, and increasing prices for men's hockey games.

Changes in faculty and staff will include the elimination of approximately 30 positions by 2010.

All athletics have been saved, for now. However, in order to guarantee their spot at the University for the coming years, men's hockey must raise $2.5 million in pledges by May of 2008.

Valentine's Day at mi casa

2007-02-15T01:37:00.000-06:00

I haven't celebrated, nor even enjoyed Valentine's Day since 1998, when I was in fifth grade, and I've hated being around people who love the holiday since. This doesn't have anything to do with the holiday itself, but I haven't been in a very good mood on the day since. I was a little worried how it would be around my house this year, but when I got back from classes Wednesday afternoon, I was relieved to receive this from one of my roommates.

In case you can't read what it says, it says: "To:Jess, Happy Fuckin' V-day!"

Apparently, she doesn't like the holiday, either. I don't think she's going to be able to give stuff like this to her students when she becomes an elementary school teacher.

The same attitude was displayed throughout most of the house. The only one of us who was actually looking forward to the day was the one with a boyfriend. I guess she felt bad for the rest of us or something, so she gave us this note, along with a heart-shaped pizza for lunch and some cookie dough.

That was nice of her, but the day still sucks.

Bemidji's Budget Cuts

2007-02-14T20:55:00.000-06:00

Over the next few years, Bemidji State is going to have to cut $5 million from its budget, despite a $123 increase in fundings to the MNSCU system. $3 million are to be cut in 2008, and $1 million each in 2009 and 2010.

There is supposed to be an announcement tomorrow as to where the cuts in the athletic budget are going to be made.

Another thing about BSU

2007-02-13T22:17:00.000-06:00

I've heard rumours that BSU might be/is switching from the pay for only 12 credits no matter how many more you're taking to a pay-per-credit billing system. Has anyone else heard this? If it's true, why hasn't the University made an official statement to its students?

Budget cuts at Bemidji State

2007-02-12T23:32:00.000-06:00

My roommates and I have been talking about this issue quite a bit during the past few weeks. Apparently, BSU has to cut quite a bit of money from, among other places, the athletics department, which will most likely result in the elimination of at least one team. I haven't heard any news about this other than from athletes themselves, and I've wondered why the university isn't making this known to all of their students.

I guess they've been discussing which team(s) to eliminate for a while now, and they were scheduled to announce the results a couple of weeks ago. They still haven't done so. I'm wondering if this is partially because they don't want student-athletes to transfer to other schools, or if they're really having that difficult of a time deciding which sports to cut. With having to keep Title IX in the back of their heads, I'm sure this is no easy decision to make.

Still, I wonder why school officials haven't announced it to the entire student body. I'm pretty sure that if I didn't live with a couple of softball players and be friends with members of the baseball team, I wouldn't know anything about it. At what point is it the responsibility of the University to inform its students of its intentions to eliminate such programs?

Four more years

2007-02-11T22:16:00.000-06:00

The Minnesota Twins and Joe Mauer agreed today on a four-year, $33 million deal.

Blogging Blogs Exercise #3: The Blue Book of Grammar and Punctuation

2007-02-10T02:42:00.000-06:00

The Blue Book of Grammar and Punctuation is an online guide to the English language. It took me a while to figure out who the author of this blog is, but after following a couple of links, I learned that it is Jane Straus. The name of the blog coincidentally has the same name as a book that she wrote, which can be purchased by following the links posted within most of her later entries. These links lead to the same site that I had to go to in order to find her name, which I find to be some pretty effective marketing.

Anyway, she has had the blog up since March of 2006, but it looks as though she only made one post each month up until January of 2007, and there hasn't yet been a post in February. Her first post doesn't look like it has anything to do with grammar or punctuation, aside from the fact that it contains both in it. There is no lesson; it's merely an advertisement for another book that Straus has written.

The posts themselves are little lessons in English grammar and punctuation, like the title implies. Entries cover topics such as: apostrophes, hyphens, capitalization, and commas. The only category listed other than "uncategorized" is "hot tips." There is no definition of what makes an entry fall into that category, but every post was labeled "hot tips" up until January 17. Listing nearly every post under one category seems to draw importance away from using categories at all.

The titles of the posts are usually just a basic statement of what is covered in the entry itself, but there was one that I noticed that was stated as a question: "how do I write addresses?" This makes it seem like someone asked her the question and she was answering it for her whole audience. I think this is supposed to give readers the feeling that she listens to their concerns and will answer questions for them when they need help. However, I didn't see any links that would allow someone to submit a question that they may have, nor did could I find an email address that one could send a question to.

At first I didn't think that her site was very user-friendly (aside from the lessons that she provided), but then I had a look at the comment sections of her posts. She seems to care about her audience's concerns about what she's publishing because she responds to their comments. For this post, for example, if you scroll down a little bit, you cans see that she replied numerous times to her readers' comments, which makes her seem like a more caring person because she is replying directly to what their concerns are.

I really don't know what to call this blog. I wouldn't classify it a journal, notebook, or filter. It's almost like what comes before exercises in a workbook.

As far as the layout goes, the blog is very orderly. The text is easy to read, the colors don't hurt the readers' eyes, and the sidebar is neat. I have been noticing that a lot with wordpress blogs. Perhaps this one is that way because it's a blog about English grammar. Maybe the design is meant to reflect the author's idea of what the language should be. It seems proper and almost systematic.

I would say that the purpose of this blog is to teach people when to use lie and when to use lay, the difference between affect and effect, how to use proper punctuation between sentences, and how to become a better writer. But the main purpose of the blog is probably to promote the author/build her reputation.

Blogging Blogs Exercise #2: Literally, a Weblog

2007-02-10T01:01:00.000-06:00

Literally, a Weblog is what its description says it is: "an English language grammar blog tracking the abuse of the word "literally."

This blog is maintained by Patrick Fitzgerald, who works with internet technology and has a history in technical communication, and Amber Rhea, who has a degree in linguistics.

According to the webmaster, the goals in creating this blog were to:

Get a chuckle — sometimes these examples are mildly funny (at least to me, your mileage may vary)
Educate — if I can stop one person from using literally inappropriately I have done my job
Provide a Resource — this could be a good reference for English as a second language
Make a little scratch from Amazon.com referrals.
Become famous and appear on the Tonight show.

They categorize each posting/example under one of three labels: correct, incorrect, or unnecessary.

"Correct" items are defined as "particular good example[s] of using “literally”. For example, “I literally bought the farm” to mean an exchange of money (not a loss of life)."

"Incorrect" items are defined as "Incorrect usage of “literally.”For example, “I literally dropped dead when I heard the news.”

"Unnecessary" items are defined as "Using “literally” when it is not needed. For example, “I literally lost hundreds of dollars in Vegas.”

Some of these are also categorized as "best of" or "video." As you can probably guess, the "best of" items have been considered by the webmasters as the best or funniest entries and the "video" items are ones which contain video clips.

Nearly every entry has an image or illustration of an enactment of what the misuse of the word "literally" is describing in the post. They almost all have a link to the story from which the quote was pulled. The others were presumably quoted from conversations in which they've heard people abuse the word. Along with the quote sometimes is a little bit of commentary from the person who posted it. Sometimes it includes an explanation of what the quote implies to be saying if the situation were in fact literal, and sometimes the publisher makes a comment about not knowing exactly which category the quote falls into.

Audience participation is a big part of this blog. While some of the quotes seem to be found by the webmasters, a lot of them seem to be from readers who have submitted their found abuses of the word. It looks like they're giving credit to everyone who found the quotes, as they put a little thank you to the submitters. On the top of the sidebar, there is a link entitled "submit an entry" which, one would assume, anyone can click on and submit their findings in hopes of them being published on the blog.

I'm not exactly sure how to classify this blog -- probably a filter, but that classification doesn't seem to be a good fit, as they they don't seem to be linking to articles for people to read them.

As far as the layout goes, I would say this blog is very neat and simple. The image in the title bar is fitting and clever. Everything on the sidebar seems to be sectioned off well. The only thing I didn't really like about it was the lack of an archives page, which makes it harder to navigate through older entries.

My favourite entries on the site would probably have to be a passage from a book about Abe Lincoln, and a clip from a Weekend Update scene of Saturday Night Live.

Blogging Blogs Exercise #1: Jenny D.

2007-02-10T00:34:00.000-06:00

“Jenny D.” publishes a blog of the same name. She is a doctoral candidate in education and public policy, and her blog reflects that. She is working on a study, which will test whether or not, or to what degree, writing instruction affects reading achievement amongst elementary school students. She’s using her results to write her dissertation. This blog follows her fears of what her study will show, her rough draft of her dissertation, its revisions, her transition from being a student to a scholar, and the troubles that she’s facing by trying to write her dissertation and be a mother of two at the same time.

Shortly after she began she mentioned that she started her blog because she wanted to write about what she was interested in. When she reflected back on it about nine months after she started it, she stated that maintaining the blog has made the process of writing her dissertation much less isolating. Her audience has helped her by giving her advice, and she has helped other doctoral candidates and candidate-hopefuls by giving them a look at what they may have to go through in the future.

Her audience seems to be mostly educators and students who are in or looking to go into the education field. She encourages her audience to participate by asking questions and opening the comment field to their opinions. She asks fantastical questions, like how they would fix education, improving student achievement in reading, math, and other basic subjects, if money weren’t an object.

She also asks questions about society: “do we as a society have an interest in educating all children?” And she wonders about how much our society actually values education. She asks her audience’s opinion about whether teaching should be considered as a craft or profession. She doesn’t seem afraid to talk about and criticize our education system or our society, which many people in her situation would be afraid to do, as she mentions here. She doesn’t seem to be very afraid of her opinions conflicting with those of potential employers. On the other hand, she doesn’t use her complete name on the blog, state which university she’s attending, or even what state she lives in. This could be a move to protect herself from losing a future job because of what she has written (which this article suggests educators often do), or it could very easily be a matter of online anonymity.

I would say that this is a professional/scholarly blog that is more of a journal/blog than a notebook or filter. She does include links to scholarly articles when they're relavent to her posts, previous posts, and to other bloggers when she adds them to her blogroll. Mostly what she seems to be doing is making a written record of the process that she is going through in order to get her doctorate. When the blog first started, in March of 2005, it seemed to be mainly focused on the Carnival of Education. It was focused on the topics that were brought up during the Carnival and her intake on those. Most posts were fairly long, consisting of several paragraphs each. Since then, posts have been more varied in length, some being several paragraphs, some only being a few sentences, and some in the middle. She is also focusing almost completely on topics related to her study.

If you don’t understand what she’s doing with her dissertation, or if you don’t want to take the time to read the complete introduction, she has also posted an abstract of it here.

p.s. There should probably be bonus points involved for this one because she links to the Chronicle of Higher Education.

Solving global warming the American way -- by putting more shit into the atmosphere

2007-02-09T17:06:00.000-06:00

This may be old news, but I just read about it:

In order to take care of the global warming issue, the U.S. government is asking scientists to develop a technology that would block sunlight. How did they come up with this idea . . . by watching the Simpsons?

Possible solutions: "putting a giant screen into orbit, thousands of tiny, shiny balloons, or microscopic sulphate droplets pumped into the high atmosphere to mimic the cooling effects of a volcanic eruption."

Good idea, guys. Real effin' mature.

Settting the bar at a realistic level

2007-02-09T01:49:00.000-06:00

I decided to skip my first two classes yesterday. I guess it wasn't so much skipping as it was consciously missing. I couldn't really help it -- I was up until 5 am writing for other classes. I suppose I could have done something to prevent that. Anyway, I made it to every class for the first 17 days of the semester. That number was getting pretty high and I didn't want to have an unattainable goal for the next few semesters. I'm really just looking out for my future self -- I don't want to burn out later or anything.

In other news, one of my eyes is turning red and it kind of hurts. I hope it's just from lack of sleep. I really can't afford to be sick. I guess I'll find out when I try to open my eyes in the morning.

To skip or not to skip?

2007-02-08T02:19:00.000-06:00

I had nearly all day Wednesday to do whatever I needed to get done. I had one obligation: one fifty-minute class at 10. Then the rest of the day was mine. I could have finished my homework for today and even gotten ahead in my classes. I should have done that. It would have been the smart thing to do. Did I? Absolutely not. It's just not like me to not procrastinate, I guess. While I could have been preparing for classes, I:

made lunch for one of my roommates and myself
took a nap
mailed the gas and water bills
filled my car with gas
picked two of my roommates up from classes
deposited money into my checking account
walked around Wal-Mart, looking for probably non-existent shims while my roommates were shopping
gave up on Wal-Mart and convinced my roommates to make a stop at the Home Depot
stopped at said Depot, and found needed items within two minutes
re-installed the door and frame to my roommate's bedroom
watched the Timberwolves game for a bit
started writing
strayed too far off topic while writing and took a break to regain thoughts
went to Applebee's with a few of my roommates

I did all of this knowing that I would be in this position right now. So what do I do? It's three weeks into the semester and I haven't skipped a class yet. This must be a new personal record. I could stay up for a while and finish assignments that are due tomorrow afternoon, go to class in less than six hours, and be tired all day tomorrow and not be able to focus; or I could go to bed soon and skip my one or two of my first classes, which would give me time to do work for my other two classes, go to afternoon classes with work complete and be alert.

Why do I consciously do this to myself on a regular basis?

Real self vs. online self

2007-02-07T11:15:00.000-06:00

Part of our discussion in Weblogs and Wikis class today reminded me of Red vs. Blue's intro to the internet that I found while perusing the Teaching Writing with Technology wiki a while back.

A Proposition

2007-02-06T10:10:00.000-06:00

Perhaps Bemidji State should think about adopting some sort of mass emailing system to let students know that their classes are cancelled before they get to the door.

I know that they already have my email address; indeed, they provided one for me. They should put it to good use. They know which classes I'm registered for. They usually know when an instructor will be cancelling classes. All that they need to do now is put all that information together.

Like when the Professor calls and tells the people in whatever office it is that they call that their ten o'clock American Lit. II class is cancelled, they should be able to click on a button that brings up a list of students registered for that class and send an email to each one that lets them know that class is cancelled for the day.

I only have a roughly seven-minute walk from my house to just about any room in Hagg-Sauer. But walking there and back just took 14 minutes of time that would have been better spent studying for other classes. I imagine that this is much more frustrating for those who live a greater distance away.

Our Sweet Home

2007-02-06T00:50:00.000-06:00

In response to my last post, Jonathan mentioned that it's unfair that there is a dishwasher in the house that I'm renting. I am quite pleased that we do have one, but I'd gladly give that up if our home were as nice as our landlord said it would be by the time we moved in this past summer.

Here's the dishwasher:

This is the mold on the window in the upstairs bathroom:

This is the smoke detector that always goes off when I cook:
. . . it must be broken.

This is the open insulation in the basement bathroom:

This is the water heater that has broken three times since August, next to the water softener that was supposed to be installed this summer.

This is the open insulation in my bedroom:

This is the light in the middle of the common area of the basement:
. . . we have to twist the bulb to turn it on and off.

These are the coin-operated washer and dryer:
. . . the washer bounces when it runs and the dryer refuses to actually dry the clothes.

This is one of my roommates attempting to do her homework in the living room:
. . . she has to wear a sweatshirt and cover up with a blanket just to stay at a comfortable temperature because the windows behind her don't stop the wind from coming into the house, despite the fact that we covered them with plastic.

This is the door and doorframe that go to our loft, sitting in the living room:

This is the little kitchen set that was sitting on our front doorstep for a couple of months:
I kicked it off about a week ago.

This is the closet next to our front door:
Notice how the exterior wall is made of cardboard boxes taped together. That's classy.

Aside from the smoke detector (that only goes off when I cook), the door to the loft (we may have taken that down to try to get a bed upstairs), and the kitchen set (an unexpected gift from some softball players), these are all problems that our landlord has either promised and failed to fix, or has completely denied their existence.

Don't get me wrong, I'm very grateful to actually have relatively warm place to call home and to have everything that I really need to live; however, with the money that I pay each month and the broken agreements that our landlord has made with us, I can't help but feel as though we're getting screwed.

OCD got the best of me

2007-02-05T04:08:00.000-06:00

My roomies and I decided to have a little Superbowl party thing tonight . . . well, last night I guess. I decided to make a cheese dip and brownies, despite my last run-in with the oven. We’re all a little apprehensive to let me do any cooking that involves more than the microwave, now. Surprisingly, it all turned out well (no fires this time), and I even managed to brown hamburger and sausage without touching the meat (extra points for the avoidance of an OCD freakout).

A while after the Superbowl ended, we decided to watch a movie. Then, my roommates all went to bed. Because I drank two cans of sugar-filled soda (probably more than I’ve drank in the past month or two combined) I didn’t feel like I was tired enough to fall asleep. So I was faced with two options: begin to clean up the massive mess that is our home, or get some of my homework out of the way so that I don’t have to spend Monday doing it. After a look around the kitchen and living room, I decided that I couldn’t wake up to that bad of a mess in the morning and was going to clean it up a bit and then do some homework.

So I picked up my mp3 player, put some Warren Zevon on, and got started cleaning. First it was just throwing trash away and putting dishes in the sink. Then there were too many dishes to fit into the sink, so I unloaded the clean dishes from the dishwasher and started a new load. While that load was being washed, I took the garbage out, only to realize that our garbage can outside was full.

I didn’t want to be like most of the other college kids on my block and just leave bags of garbage sitting in the alley, so I started my car and put a couple of bags in the trunk. I didn’t want to leave my car running without supervision, so I decided to shovel some of the snow off our side porch and walkway. When the car was warm, I drove the couple of blocks to campus and took the garbage to the dumpster outside of Maple Hall. I don’t think I’m technically supposed to do that, but I don’t really care.

By the time I got back the dishwasher was about halfway done with its cycle, so I decided that I’d just wait ‘til it was done and then unload it before going to bed. While waiting, I cleaned the stove, swept the kitchen floor, washed some dishes by hand, and tried to organize the plethora of shoes that sits next to our door.

The dishwasher just got done washing the dishes; I’ve unloaded them, put the rest of the dishes in, and washed the counters. I’m still not terribly tired, but I’m sure I’ll regret staying up to clean when it comes time to leave for class in less than six hours.

Was this really due this evening?

2007-02-04T23:46:00.000-06:00

I thought I read that we were supposed to blog about what others in the class were blogging about, but I haven't noticed anyone else doing it. Oh well. I guess I'll be a non-conformist by conforming to what Morgan requested on the course website.

So far, Julie's blog seems to be going in the direction of part blog, part filter. Though the information she gives us on the about me section of her profile isn't very extensive, I can find out quite a bit from just perusing her posts: she's a junior, a writing major, doesn't like coffee, and works as a cook in a nursing home.

Sir Andrew, I can assume from reading his blog, is probably majoring in writing and/or theatre. He seems to be focusing on what's he's going through right now, with references to pop culture.

I'd say that what Mallory is doing would be considered a blog. She doesn't include a lot of links and seems to be focusing mostly on what's going on in her life.

ummm . . . I don't really know what else to say. It's kind of hard to say what others are doing so early into the semester. It seems like most of the people in the class are just getting used to posting on a somewhat regular basis.

Before the night ends

2007-02-03T23:30:00.000-06:00

Let's take a moment and three seconds to remember the day the music died.

On blogging other bloggers' blogs

2007-02-03T18:24:00.000-06:00

I decided to get a start on the Blogging Blogs Exercise because tomorrow is the Superbowl and Tuesday and Thursday are going to be filled with classes. Monday, Wednesday, and Friday are for procrastinating.

Anyway, I've found at least one blog that I'm planning on blogging about, and I just got done going through nearly two years of its archives.

Visiting the course homepage, I just realized that we're supposed to blog three other bloggers from the class before tomorrow evening.

On Metallica

2007-02-02T22:37:00.000-06:00

Tonight, I was reminded just how much I love these guys. Well, maybe not so much those guys exactly -- more like the guys at the top of this page. They were still very good after Cliff Burton died and Jason Newsted took over for him on bass. I haven't really been interested in their music since Newsted left, and haven't listened to them much since then.

But tonight I heard the song "Am I evil" and it reminded me of my middle school days, when I played this album so much that my brother (whose favorite band at the time was Metallica also) told me that I had ruined Metallica for him.

Minnesota Winters

2007-02-01T20:45:00.000-06:00

Here's what the weather channel's website
had to say about tonight's weather:

BITTER COLD ARCTIC AIR WILL CONTINUE TO SURGE OVER THE REGION

OVERNIGHT. THE COLD AIR COMBINED WITH NORTHERLY WINDS OF 10 TO 20 MPH WILL PRODUCE DANGEROUS WIND CHILLS OF 25 TO 40 DEGREES BELOW ZERO THROUGH FRIDAY MORNING.

A WIND CHILL ADVISORY MEANS THAT VERY COLD AIR AND STRONG WINDS WILL COMBINE TO GENERATE LOW WIND CHILLS. THIS WILL RESULT IN FROST BITE AND LEAD TO HYPOTHERMIA IF PRECAUTIONS ARE NOT TAKEN. IF YOU MUST VENTURE OUTDOORS... MAKE SURE YOU WEAR A HAT AND GLOVES.

Nice. I especially like how I can feel a breeze coming through my living room windows, which are covered with plastic. And my landlord said that he was going to replace our windows this summer, but ours are in as good of condition as brand new windows. Real effin' sweet. I'm not bad at all that it's wasting a bunch of energy to keep this place warm.

Because I'm supposed to be observing what other bloggers are doing

2007-01-31T02:35:00.001-06:00

The Minnesota Twins Ballpark Blog is run by Dave St. Peter, President of the Minnesota Twins. It's basically about what the title says, the new Twins ballpark. St. Peter reviews recent happenings in the journey for the Twins to get a new place to play. He uses lists, question-and-answer segments, and statistics to inform readers of things they may want to know about, and to promote the future stadium.

This is one of the blogs of my former College Writing instructor. At How To Get Rid of Things: The Blog, Jonathan and his girlfriend, Natasha, make regular postings which direct their audience to articles that help in guiding people to do away with a wide variety of things that they may already have, or hope to prevent, such as: pests, stains, and mental illnesses. They also feature information about how to clean things, such as computers, dvds, and other things that may need a good cleaning every so often.

These blurbs contain visual aids, and regular dosings of humor to get people to read the articles, which give readers natural, organic, and eco-friendly suggestions when possible on how to get rid of or clean things. White, Judeo-Christian, Republican males may not find it very appealing. Not to stereotype or anything. I'm just saying. Studies have shown.

Those aren't even sentences. I'm out.

On Blood (Chapters 1-3)

2007-01-31T01:21:00.000-06:00

As I read the first few chapters of Blood's The Weblog Handbook, I didn't really sense profound insight. Maybe there isn't much profound to say when generalizing blogs as a whole.

Chapter 1, "What is a Weblog?" is basically a history of and introduction to blogs. Blah blah blah . . . . Kinda dull. It's not that it's written poorly -- I am just not extremely interested in the topic.

Chapter 2, "Why a Weblog?" starts to gain my interest a bit. She makes some good points. She's not the first to make those points, but she does make them. I started my first blog about a year and a half ago, and I know from experience that, "it's easy to write poorly, but it's hard to write poorly every day." (p.28, for those who care) When one writes everyday, they're bound to come up with something good sometime. The more you write, the more you learn about yourself and your writing. I agree.

Chapter 3, "Creating and Maintaining Your Weblog" gives some advice about getting started, templates, elements of conventional blogs, what to do, how to make it audience friendly etc.

This book hasn't really captured my interest. I haven't learned from it, yet. It's probably more useful to people who aren't at all familiar with blogs and don't want to take the time to jump in and try it without a guide. I'm assuming that was the intended audience.

In too deep . . .

2007-01-30T22:38:00.000-06:00

Last week I dropped my Monday/Wednesday/Friday Physics class and added a Tuesday night lit. class. Now I have only one class on MWF until Feb. 14, when my Wednesday/Friday Curling class starts. Easy Mondays, Wednesdays, and Fridays mean much more packed Tuesdays and Thursdays. Today I had five classes, starting at 8:oo a.m. and ending at 8:40 p.m. The shortest classes are 1 hour and 15 minutes, while the longest class is 2 hours and 40 minutes.

So far, I enjoy all of the classes, but at the beginning of the day I'm too tired to focus as much as I'd like to and by the end of the day I'm too worn out to focus as much as I'd like. Thursdays are easier because I've got one less class and I get done at 5:15. But it's still a lot of material to be packed into my mind in one day. I'm going to have to learn how to use my free time wisely on the days that I've only got one class, because today I spent the majority of the little time that I have between classes reviewing/studying/reading for the approaching class.

Of course I already know that I'm going to waste my Mondays, Wednesdays, and Fridays because procrastinating is what I do best.

One thing that Red Wing is better at than Bemidji:

2007-01-29T19:48:00.000-06:00

snow removal and winter road maintenance. Red Wing plows actually plow the snow off of the street and go through the process of anti-icing its roads. I don't know if Bemidji does this as well, but it seems like all that they do is mash the snow onto the street and cover it with dirt, which is perfect for slipping on while walking.

Template Changes

2007-01-28T22:29:00.000-06:00

So, I've been messing around with my blog template for a few hours now, and I don't have much to show for it -- it looks just about the same as it did before.

After a while of trying to tweak stuff with html codes, I decided to switch over to the new features that Blogger has, like template customizations. It was going very well at first, it was extremely easy to change the colors and fonts of just about everything on my template. But then I tried to add a blogroll that included the blogs of everyone in the Weblogs and Wikis course through Bloglines, because that should show a little message on the sidebar everytime someone makes a new post. It didn't show each person's blog individually, but gave me a link to a page with everyone's blogs on it, and I couldn't figure out how to make them each be on my sidebar.

At the bottom of my sidebar I have a list of authors that my ninth grade English teacher recommended, and I cross them off after I've read a book by that person. The list transferred over fine during the switch, but none of the lines that I had already inserted went with them. This didn't seem like a big problem -- I thought that I could just go in and edit the template throught the customization thing, but Blogger wouldn't let me insert html into the list that it had made. So I tried to edit my template using the old fashioned edit template tab, but all of my links and lists were in the collective categories that Blogger automatically forms, and I couldn't figure out how to make them all visible to edit them.

That's when I decided to switch back to the "classic" template that I had and make changes the old way. It's more work to make little changes to my sidebar and stuff, but at least I know where I can find (almost) everything in my html code that I want to edit. I'm trying to figure out how to change the font of my blog title, but I can't seem to do it right now.

With risks come rewards

2007-01-27T18:44:00.000-06:00

I went to a friends' house near Menahga last night and did something that I haven't done since I was a child -- I went into a hot tub. I don't know when it happened, but sometime during my youth/early teen years, I became extremely aware of germs everywhere. One thing that I've hated since is swimming. I haven't been in a public swimming pool since it was required in middle school.

But last night I went into his hot tub. Not only did I go into a hot tub, but I went into a hot tub, which seated four, with eight other people for about two hours. Crazy.

Anyway, it wasn't as bad as I thought it would be, and, by the time we all went back inside, I was extremely relaxed. Then I played some pool. It took me a couple of games to get warmed up, but I started playing very well. I was leaving shots for myself, leaving the cue ball on the rail when I didn't have a shot, and making good cuts. Four hours later, I had only lost a game or two against a couple of league players.

Maybe I should jump into a hot tub with a bunch of other people before every night of pool.

ENGL 3177

2007-01-26T10:25:00.000-06:00

This is my first post as a part of the weblogs and wikis course.

Hussein Hanged

2006-12-30T09:38:00.000-06:00

Saddam Hussein was hanged this morning, which was something that I knew was going to happen, I just didn't know when. I'm not sure how to react to the news, as he did do some horrible things, but the way this was carried out just doesn't seem right.

The hanging took place on an American military base, and I don't think that that makes sense. Apparently it was a former military intelligence building in Baghdad, but now it's technically on American soil. I don't understand why it would be held there, since this is supposed to be a big step for Iraq to gain independence.

Today also began the Muslim holiday of Id al-Adha for Sunnis and it begins tomorrow for the Shiites. Under Iraqi law, executions aren't supposed to be carried out during holidays. The Judge said that the official holiday begins on Sunday, making the execution legal. He only says it begins on Sunday because the Shiites control the government. So apparently the Sunnis' beliefs don't matter anymore. As if that won't lead to any controversy, especially since a lot of Sunnis liked Hussein.

I wonder what they're going to do with his body. The least controversial option that I can think of would be cremation and then spreading the ashes into the sea or something. If they bury him somewhere, I'm sure there will be a lot of vandalism to the grave, which probably wouldn't be taken well by his supporters.

I don't know what's going to happen, but I'm sure the controversy about Hussein will not be over anytime soon, even though he is dead. Some Iraqi officials are suggesting that the daily curfews be extended through the weekend to stop violence before it happens. I doubt that it will solve the problem.

I don't think Saddam Hussein's execution was given enough thought or handled properly, but it's already been done and we're going to see how it effects Iraqis in the future.

Christmas Eve

2006-12-24T16:49:00.000-06:00

My plans for celebrating the day: I think I'm going to do some laundry.

Done for the year

2006-12-19T20:54:00.000-06:00

Finals are done. They went well, for the most part. I'm leaving for my parents' house sometime tomorrow. For the next month, I have no obligations -- no school, no work, nothing. It'll be a nice break. I'm looking forward to getting a little reading done.

Body Socks in schools

2006-12-15T02:08:00.000-06:00

As a probable future educator, the use of these body socks for discipline, creativity . . . whatever these people are claiming they're for is something that I don't agree with. I learned about them while watching the news a couple of hours ago, because apparently a teacher was using one as a restraining device for a child.

Some schools claim that they're used for letting children explore their world in 3-d or something like that. I don't doubt that they say that, then use them for disciplining rowdy children. This is a sign of our changing society, I think. It's pretty sad when teachers have to stick kids in these fully-enclosed, restraining socks in order to get them to settle down. It also seems a bit lazy on teachers' parts. I know education is a challenging field to be a part of, but I don't think that this is the answer to our problems. I know I'd be pissed if I had been stuck in one of these when I was a child, and I will be extremely pissed if my child is ever enclosed in one of these against their will in the future.

Winding Down

2006-12-10T00:35:00.000-06:00

The semester is almost over. Finals start on Wednesday and go through the week after that. I've got some assignments to finish and a lot of studying to do because I've missed quite a bit of class lately due to some recent events. I have two finals on Wednesday, one on Thursday, and two on Friday. I'll get done with them early, but that's quite a bit of testing in a relatively short amount of time.

New Ink

2006-11-30T15:46:00.000-06:00

Here's the new tattoo I got on the inside of my right leg over Thanksgiving break. One on the inside of my left leg and I should be done.

No more slacking

2006-11-19T23:44:00.000-06:00

I've got way too much homework and studying to get done before I leave Tuesday afternoon for Thanksgiving in Red Wing. I think I have more work to do during this week and the next than I have had in any two-week period throughout both this year and last, and this week only lasts two days.

Headache-induced insomnia

2006-11-16T03:29:00.000-06:00

I can't sleep. I've been trying to for a couple of hours now, but this pounding on my brain won't stop. It's probably because of stress. I've got a lot of work to do before December, and I haven't yet started as much of it as I should have. I just learned that I've got an essay due for an english lit. class on Nov. 29. It wouldn't be bad if I didn't also have an essay due for my world lit. class on the 1st of December. I was planning on using that week to polish the world lit. one, but now it looks like I'm going to have to reschedule my plans. I haven't started on either, and Thanksgiving is next week, so I'll be wasting about 10 hours of work time just driving to Red Wing and back. Two papers isn't a big deal, but when it's mixed in with tests, writing two more essays, polishing eight essays, completing three Geography assignments, and reading for said lit. classes, it gets to be a little overwhelming. And somewhere in all that I have to make time for life; sometimes I forget about that.

I need to fall asleep soon. I'm just making myself more stressed out by listing all of this stuff. I've got a class in four and a half hours. I need to wake up in three. Damn.

Today . . .

2006-11-14T19:08:00.000-06:00

My nose was leaky faucet. My head was a conga drum and the world was a pair of beating hands. I stayed in bed almost all day and missed German class for the first time this year. I hate missing German class. I hate feeling like the world is kicking my ass. Tomorrow should be better. Neither my school work nor I can afford for it not to be better.

Long days ahead

2006-11-12T15:33:00.000-06:00

Last week I got to register for spring '07 classes. I was a bit upset because the education classes that I need to take conflict with the German classes that I also need to take. Of course, I decided to take German instead of the Ed. classes. This means that I will probably have to take those classes during the summer. I'll worry about that in a bit, though. Here's what my schedule will be like next semester:

General Physics II MWF 9:00-9:50
Weblogs and Wikis MWF 10:00-10:50
Curling WF 1:00-3:00 (February 14-March 30)
General Physics II, Lab W 4:00-5:50

Writing Creative Non-fiction II TH 8:00-9:15
American Lit., 1900 to Present TH 10:00-11:15
German Film TH 2:00-3:15
Green Movements of Germany & Austria TH 4:00-5:15

It's pretty full - 20 credits, and I'm not really looking forward to starting classes at 9 or earlier every day. But I've got some good classes, and I'll be finishing up my lib. ed. requirements with my Physics and Green Movements classes. These days, with the exception of Mondays, are going to be long and tiring.

Motivation

2006-11-10T00:04:00.000-06:00

I need to start taking my schoolwork more seriously and make it a higher priority. I thought that I've been doing a great job for the past couple of weeks with going to classes and getting my homework done. Until Wednesday and Thursday of this week. Tuesday night I got a really big headache, so I went to two of my four classes Wednesday and took a nap during the other two. Thursday one of my classes was cancelled, so I only had one. And I overslept, which really sucks because it's a class that I actually enjoy very much. The class starts at 8 and I woke up at 8:30, so I went back to bed. But I did at least get up, go to campus, and work on an assignment for my geography class. Of course, that assignment was due at 3:30 today and I waited until the beginning of the week to get started on the majority of it, when we had over two weeks to get it done.

That's the way I've been working, lately. I'll have plenty of time to do an assignment, but I underestimate how long it'll take me to do it, so I keep putting it off. Then, the day before it's due (or in some cases the day that it is due) I'll finally get started, then have to stay up all night to get it done on time. That's probably why I had such a big headache the other day. I don't get enough sleep and overwork myself at night. I need to start going to bed at decent hours, getting plenty of sleep, and doing my work punctually. That'll have to wait until next week at the earliest, though. Because tonight I've got to study for a quiz and do some readings for tomorrow.

Getting Screwed

2006-11-06T21:48:00.000-06:00

I'm not okay with paying way more money than a lot of other renters in the city of Bemidji and not having hot water. Yesterday our hot water went out again, which makes it twice in the past week and three times in the past month. This time it got fixed relatively quickly (within 24 hours), but last time it took longer and the time before that, we didn't have hot water for a whole weekend. Every time it's happened, I've been able to go somewhere else to shower, but I shouldn't have to travel to take a hot shower at night because I won't have time to go anywhere and do it before my classes in the morning. We're getting screwed over and I'm not happy about it. Apparently, our landlord believes that we're doing something to break the hot water heater. Yeah, that would be a smart move on our part. I'm pretty pissed off and stressed out with a ton of other things that are going on in my life right now, and I don't need to be out of hot water for days at a time to make things even worse. I'm going to go crazy if this happens again.

Almost there . . .

2006-10-27T07:59:00.000-05:00

After I'm done with classes today (around 2 p.m.) I'll be on my way to Red Wing because I'm going to see Bob Dylan in St. Paul on Sunday. I'm so excited for it. I just hope I don't get too excited for it that I decide to skip out on some of my classes to leave early today, which I've been contemplating all week. Three classes. Six hours. I can make it.

The effects of midterms on me

2006-10-24T12:35:00.000-05:00

Yesterday I had my last midterm of the semester. I had been studying for it, along with my other exams, for about a week, so it's pretty nice to be done with them now. But because of all of the studying, my sleep patterns have been thrown completely off.

I wanted to take a nap right after the test yesterday, but I couldn't because someone was coming to fix our hot water heater. So I stayed awake until about seven or so -- then I crashed. My nap nearly turned into a coma. One of my roommates came into my room to wake me up at about 9:30, but she couldn't do it. She jumped on my bed, ripped the blankets off of me, and repeatedly turned the light switch on and off. It did nothing. She then decided to throw things at me to wake me up. She hit me with pens, pencils, my pillows. Nothing. She even threw a jar of lotion at me. That woke me up, as it was pretty heavy and hit me square in the jaw. But all that I did was roll over and go back to sleep.

So, I ended up waking up at 3:30 this morning, which was good because it gave me time to do today's homework that I should've done before. I'm going to try to stay awake late tonight to try to get back on track. I don't believe I will be able to because I'm already wanting a nap. Hopefully I'll only take a short one after my last class today, though.

house problems

2006-10-22T04:21:00.000-05:00

We have no hot water in our house. Apparently it went out just after I took a shower on Friday morning, during the middle of one of my roommates' showers. That must've sucked. I'm glad I got up early on Friday. Saturday night, three of us went to the apartment of one of my roommates' boyfriends to take hot showers. It was nice to get a hot shower, but it sucks that I had to go to a friend's apartment to do it. To make it even worse, our kitchen sink leaks. To give my landlord a little bit of credit, he did send his maintenance guy over Friday and Saturday to try to fix it. We did have hot water for a while on Friday night, but it didn't last too long. Now a plumber is going to have to come to our house to fix it. It's most likely that neither of our water problems will be fixed by the time I have to go to class on Monday morning. Water is just one of the many problems that we have with our house.

Midterms

2006-10-18T02:17:00.000-05:00

It's mid October and to most college students that means it's time for midterms. Having seven classes, I thought that I'd have an extremely stressful time preparing for these exams, but so far I haven't found it too bad. Each Professor of mine has scheduled the exams on different days, and in some classes I don't have one at all.

I had my midterm for English Lit. last Monday and got my results this Monday. I got a B, which isn't too bad, since I skimmed most of the assigned readings. I had read many of the texts before, but it had been a few years. I didn't do as well as I wanted on the multiple choice and true/false sections of the test as I would have liked, but I did very well on the essay portion.

I've got a midterm today in my World Lit. class and one on Monday for my geography class, Intro to Map Use. Today's shouldn't be too bad because I've kept up with the reading, gone to each class meeting, and paid attention to the lectures. I'm a little worried, though, because the exam is strictly essays. We have to write three in a fifty-minute time period. I have a tendency to think a lot about subjects before I write essays on them and that won't be very beneficial to me here. I hope it goes well. I'm very worried about my Map Use exam because it's not a subject that I'm extremely interested in(lib. ed. requirement), and I haven't even opened the book, yet. However, I am already getting over 100% in the class, so even if I don't get a really good grade, I shouldn't suffer too much. I'm still going to study for it quite a bit this weekend, though.

I don't have midterms in my mass communications class, German class, rhetoric class, or writing class, so that takes a bit of stress away.

What?!

2006-10-16T05:54:00.000-05:00

It's already almost 6?! I've got a class in three hours and I haven't gone to sleep, yet. Being sick for the past 1 1/2 weeks really threw my sleep schedule off.

At least it isn't 5 . . .

2006-10-15T15:38:00.000-05:00

I woke up roughly forty minutes ago. The sleep felt nice, and I'm only feeling a little sick now, but I don't know how I'm going to fall asleep tonight. And then there's the problem of waking up for classes at 7 tomorrow morning. Damn.

Note to self:

2006-10-13T05:08:00.000-05:00

Don't take Dayquil at night. No wonder I'm still up at 5 a.m. At least I don't have classes today, though . . . faculty workshop or something.

I missed both of my classes again Thursday. I haven't been to any of the last three sessions of my 8 a.m. writing class because I've been sick. It sucks because I really like the class. I can't believe how many classes I've missed already this year. I told myself I wasn't going to miss as much school as I did last year. But at least it's because I'm sick this year -- last year I just slacked off a lot and didn't go.

I've got three days off this weekend. Hopefully by classtime on Monday, I'll be feeling well again and ready to jump back into all of my classes.

Seriously

2006-10-06T01:08:00.000-05:00

I wasn't joking in my last post. Thursday I didn't go to either of my classes. Though I did feel very sick all morning, I probably could have made it to my classes. I'm going to try to make it to all three of my classes tomorrow. I can't let myself get behind this year.

Note to self . . .

2006-10-04T00:46:00.000-05:00

Quit leaving house at or after the time which class is scheduled to begin!

It is unacceptable to show up for an 8 a.m. writing class at 8:20.

I will, however, forgive myself for arriving a few minutes late for my German class today -- the Twins were playing and the A's had the bases loaded -- I probably couldn't have forced myself to leave in that situation if I really wanted to. But I really do need to start going to all of my classes and getting to them on time.

Too much going on . . .

2006-10-03T01:22:00.000-05:00

I feel like I don't have enough time in the day to finish all that I need/want to get done. Right now, I'm taking a break from reading a German book. It's not a textbook or anything like that -- it's a young-adult literature book written in German by a German author and it's pretty interesting. It just takes so much time for me to get through the pages. I've got to read a book written in German for 3 hours/week, which isn't that much, but I've got a ton of other stuff to read for my other classes too. In addition to reading for German, I have to read everyday for English Lit., World Lit., my Mass Media class, and writing, and almost everyday for my rhetoric class. So, it just adds up to be very time-consuming.

I suppose there would be plenty of time to accomplish everything if I didn't waste time playing Mario 3 with my roommates. But a kid needs some time for fun, right? And I don't want to spend all my time locked in my room, reading, instead of spending time with the roomies.

Oh yeah, and there's baseball. The Twins just clinched the central division championship on Sunday, and I've been spending a ton of time watching the Twins and games that are important to the Twins. I don't regret that at all.

Okay, I've wasted too much time writing about this. I've got to get back to reading this book and watching the tape of Sunday's Twins' game. And then I suppose I should get to sleep -- I've got an 8 a.m. class today.

Tied for 1st!

2006-09-29T02:31:00.000-05:00

with the Tigers. That's all I'm going to say about it for now.

The root of Evil?

2006-09-28T00:03:00.000-05:00

"Money! Nothing worse in our lives, so current, rampant, so corrupting. Money -- you demolish cities, rot men from their homes, you train and twist good minds and set them on to the most atrocious schemes. No limit, you make them adept at every kind of outrage, every godless crime -- money!"
- Creon, King of Thebes

This comes from Sophocles' Antigone. It was written during the 400 b.c. time period. I find it interesting that this obsession with money has lasted for so long. What Sophocles wrote is very much relative to today's world. I don't really have much else to say about it; I just found it pretty interesting as I was reading this play the other day.

Playoff Bound!

2006-09-26T02:36:00.000-05:00

The Twins clinched a spot in the playoffs last night with an 8-1 win over the Kansas City Royals. I believe this was the first time that they have ever clinched a spot with a win. Every other time they've had to wait until another team had lost to find out if they'd made it. I remember waiting in the Metrodome for a couple of hours after a Twins game and watching a Yankees vs. White Sox game on the screens there to see if the Twins would clinch. The Yankees won and the Twins received a spot in the playoffs. It was great -- probably the most exciting game that I've ever been to and it didn't even get really exciting until the Twins game was over. This was in 2003, I believe.

But the season isn't over this year; the Twins still have a chance to win the division. They are only one game behind the Tigers with almost a week left. It would be great if they could come back and take the central division. I'm getting pretty excited about this.

Alas, I must stop writing about this as I have an assignment due in a few hours, despite the fact that there are no classes today.

The Bat Cave

2006-09-16T23:59:00.000-05:00

One of my roommates has been calling my room a bat cave for a while now. I'm not sure why; probably because it's in the basement and I like batman. Last night, the image sort of matched the name. While I was trying to sleep, I started to hear some fluttering above my head and then something hitting my shades. I knew it was a bat, but I couldn't really do anything about it. I wanted to get out of my bed and leave my room, but it was extremely dark in my room, my glasses were on the other side of the room and I didn't want to roam around in there with a bat. So I completely covered my body with my sheets and blanket and slept like that all night. It sucked.

Three of my roommates are out of town for the weekend. When she was out tonight and I was playing video games in the living room, the bat flew into the room and then flew back out. Her boyfriend and I went looking for it to try to get it out of the house, but we couldn't find it. My roommate and her boyfriend aren't too concerned because we made sure that it wasn't in her room, but there are more places for it to hide in my room. I'm not going to sleep in my room again tonight. I probably won't until I know for sure that it's out of the house. I'm making my bed on the couch tonight and leaving the lights on so it stays away. I hate bats when they're in the house. I wonder if I can use that for an excuse to not finish my homework.

Apparently I'm a lesbian . . .

2006-09-13T23:22:00.000-05:00

according to the opinion of one of my Professors. So, for 75 minutes, twice a week, I'm going to be in a room with a guy who thinks that I'm a lesbian -- with one of my roommates who also happens to be in the class.

Okay, here's the story:

I am in a class called Intro to Map Use with one of my roommates and we pretty much hate it because, after one assignment, we are already doing horrible. Well, I am anyway. Somehow, even though we had the exact same answers on our assignment, she scored almost 20% higher than I did. Apparently our Professor can't add and gave her 44 points that she didn't deserve.

Anyway, today, we were outside trying to find the locations of different spots around our campus with some compasses. The rest of the groups had finished that part of the assignment and my roommate and I were still trying to figure out why we kept getting different angles on our compasses. The Professor came outside and my roommate asked him if one of our numbers was right -- I guess it was way off. So I took another reading and asked him if that one was right. He said that it was better and that he'd go with that one.

Well, my roommate couldn't get anything near that number, and here's where the confusion started.

"I think I need to find a different partner," I said.
"You can't get a different partner, we live together!" she replied.
"Well I'm kicking you out of the house!" I said.
And then our Professor said, "Oh, that kind of partner," and then he walked into the building.

We both looked at each other for a little bit, confused. Then we asked each other, "did he just call us lesbians?" We concluded that yes, he had. It was so odd that we weren't really sure how to react. So we walked into the building, laughing hysterically the whole way up the stairs and back to the classroom with our laughter echoing through the halls. We've been joking about it all day and I'm sure that we'll continue to do it for the rest of the semester.

So, apparently, if you rent a house with someone the same gender as you, you are automatically homosexual. Of course, the Professor doesn't know that she's practically married to her boyfriend. I told her that she should bring him into our class one day and start to make out with him in front of the class. That would confuse the Professor -- one of the lesbians making out with a guy in front of her girlfriend and the girlfriend just sits there laughing. The whole way home we were talking about how confused he'd be if we told him that we have five girls living in one house together. He'd probably think that it's just a lesbian house with wild homosexual orgies every night. haha . . . I have a feeling this is going to be a weird semester.

What a Show!

2006-09-10T16:16:00.000-05:00

I saw Bob Dylan in Fargo, ND last night and it was amazing. I went with a few other people from BSU. We left Bemidji a little after 10:30 in the morning and got to Fargo at about 1:15. Because I ordered the tickets right after they went on sale, we, with a couple hundred other people, were able to get in 30 minutes before the rest of the fans. There were probably only about twenty-five people ahead of us in line. That meant that we were able to stand in the front row.

The front-fuckin' row at a Dylan concert! Oh, it was wonderful. Three acts opened for him: Elana James and the Continental Two (with Whit Smith), Junior Brown, and Jimmie Vaughan and the Tilt-a-Whirl Band (with Lou Ann Barton). They were all very good. I'm pretty sure that Elana James stole her violin part from the song "Pretty Red Wing" in their first song -- unless it was a rendition of that song (without lyrics, though).

And then Bob Dylan came on. He was great and so was his backing band. I was so close to the stage that I could see the seams on his pants and jacket. I could even see his spit. It was great. They played some of his best songs. They played twelve songs (Cat's in the Well, You Ain't Goin Nowhere, Tweedle Dee & Tweedle Dum, Lay Lady Lay, I'll Be Your Baby Tonight, Don't Think Twice It's Alright, Masters of War, Tangled Up in Blue, Boots of Spanish Leather, Highway 61 Revisited, Simple Twist of Fate, and Summer Days). Then he came back on and played Like a Rolling Stone and All Along the Watchtower for his encore.

While we were waiting for the show to start, we met a very nice man from Hibbing who was friends with Bob Dylan's brother. He's been to thirty or forty of his shows already and has tickets in the third row to his upcoming show in St. Paul. As of today, I have tickets to that show, too.

Progress Report

2006-09-08T10:25:00.000-05:00

I didn't do the assigned reading for my classes again today. It's the second time I've done that this week. Maybe I'll skim the text a bit before my noon class. On the other hand, I had a paper due last week and I actually wrote it. Not only did I write that one, but I've got rough drafts of two more. The next one isn't due until the 14th. They do need quite a bit of revising, but it's odd for me to write a paper until the day before it is assigned.

Most of my classes are going well. Map Use is a bit more complicated than I expected, but one of my roommates is in the class with me so it isn't too bad. It is extremely boring taking notes for 1 1/4 hours, though. It should get better as the semester goes on. Other than that, classes have been going well, despite having two 8 a.m. classes and three 9 a.m. classes.

Oh, and the Bob Dylan concert is tomorrow! I'm so excited for it. He's also coming to St. Paul in October. Alas, I won't be able to go to that one due to school obligations and the fact that I haven't ordered the tickets already.

My new tattoo

2006-09-04T01:11:00.000-05:00

I'm very pleased with how this one turned out. It didn't hurt very much while I was getting it done. It hurts a bit more now, and I have a feeling that it won't feel very comfortable during the drive back to Bemidji in the morning. But it was worth it. I'm already planning my next (and probably last) two.

A not-so-great start to the weekend

2006-09-03T02:22:00.000-05:00

I had an appointment for my next tattoo set for Saturday at 3. I drove the 5+ hours to get here on Friday after classes. The trip sucked a bit because it was raining pretty hard until I got to the Cities. It wasn't too boring, though, as I had a friend from Red Wing who also wanted to go home this weekend.

Anyway. I was supposed to get this tattoo. So I showed up at about 3, like I was scheduled, but when I got there, the artist's roommate, I guess, told me that the artist was stressed out and decided to take the day off and go to the Cities. Okay, this wouldn't have been that big of a deal if I hadn't already had an appointment and driven here from Bemidji for this tattoo. Apparently, this guy is going to make sure that the tattoo artist is in the shop and ready to give me my tattoo by 1:30 today. Hopefully he'll knock the price down a bit since he wasn't there at the scheduled time or even on the scheduled day, and I think I already mentioned this but I drove here from Bemidji for this.

To make the day a bit worse, I went to my former place of employment to get a foam protector thingy for the wall around my dartboard. They didn't have it, but that's not a big deal. Anyway, my former boss was there and she took me aside and talked to me about some stuff and I may end up being involved with at a later date. I don't really want to go in depth with it here, but it may end up with me going to court. Which would most likely mean another trip to Red Wing, this time missing classes. Not that I particularly enjoy going to classes, but I don't want to fall behind.

Time's running out

2006-08-27T23:04:00.000-05:00

Classes start tomorrow. My first is at 9 a.m., earlier than I've woken up all summer, I think. I'm used to staying out 'til 9 a.m. Summer went by too fast. I want to hit the snooze alarm on my life right now.

2006-08-24T03:03:00.000-05:00

I brought some stuff to Bemidji. The trip went well, I guess. Except for the part about my room still not being done. Now I've got some stuff waiting on our deck for my room to be done so that stuff can be moved into the previously mentioned road. It should be done no later than Saturday morning, which is good because I'm leaving Red Wing Saturday night whether it's done or not.

A six hour drive seems extremely long when one has no cruise control.

2006-08-21T01:02:00.000-05:00

This is my room in Red Wing. It's holding way too much stuff right now. Later today, I'm moving a little bit of it to Bemidji. Eventually, about half of this stuff will be in Bemidji, which will be very good. Right now, I get about half of my twin-sized bed because clothes are taking up the other half. The rest of my clothes are strewn about my room, covering other unorganized piles of stuff that I can't get rid of because of some dumb reason or another. I'm sick of it.

Six days, four games

2006-08-20T03:24:00.000-05:00

I will be attending the Twins game on Sunday with my brother, which will be my fourth game since Tuesday. I'm pretty excited about it, though it would have been more exciting had the Twins beat the White Sox on Saturday. Regardless, I'm happy about seeing them play again.

On another note, I should be moving some of my possessions to Bemidji on Monday, despite the fact that I still do not have a room. I'm hoping that it'll be finished before my classes start, but I am beginning to doubt that it will be.

I should go to bed. I have to drive to Minneapolis in less than eight hours. Typing that makes me happy.

Better Days

2006-08-19T03:07:00.000-05:00

The past couple of days have been great. I've managed to avoid being in my house for more than a few waking hours each day. I went to the Twins game on Thursday afternoon with a great friend and then again on Friday with my cool brother and a couple of friends. I may only have a couple of dollars in my pocket, now, but the money spent was worth it.

Unfortunately, the Twins lost on Thursday, so they went into Friday's game two games behind the White Sox in the wild card race. But the Twins beat the Sox Friday and now they have the chance to tie them Saturday. Sunday, they have the opportunity to take the lead. I'm hoping to go to that game as well. I may be able to talk my brother into making the trip with me, but I'm not sure, yet. If I do get to go, it'll be the fourth in the span of one week. It seems like a lot, but I need to take advantage of the fact that I don't live incredibly far away from Minneapolis, yet.

I'm tired. We left Red Wing 3 1/2 before gametime to get good seats. We had to get upper GA because everything in the lower deck was sold out. We ended up getting to the dome well over 2 hours before the game started. The game probably went 'til about 10, then we went to dinner at a Chinese place in Dinkytown. I don't really like Chinese food, but I went anyway and tried about 12 bites of my food. It wasn't bad, but there were onions and other stuff that I don't like in it that I didn't know would be in it because, apparently, I didn't ask the right questions to find out what was in it. Oh well, it was cheap, and I brought it home, so someone will eat it. That's a given around my house. After we ate, we came back to Red Wing. All of my companions fell asleep on the way home, which is a bit sad since it's less than an hour away. It was only a bit boring of a drive for me.

I've got other stuff to write about, and I didn't really plan on writing all this. I'll write about my original topic later, but right now, I'm tired and my laptop's battery is running low. I'm going home and going to bed.

Looking back

2006-08-14T02:47:00.000-05:00

I recently went to a good friend's house to watch the tape from her wedding which I missed. Also there were other people from our class that I had classes with. I went through most of elementary school and church with one of the girls, but I never really kept in touch with her. I had classes with the others, but I never really even got to know them.

As we were talking throughout the evening, I began to ask myself why we never got to know each other very well. We all get along and have many similarities. I had a few groups of friends that I hung out with regularly, and I assume that they had the same. But now that I rarely see anyone from my class that I don't get together with regularly when we're all in town, I wish that I would have branched out a bit more and become good friends with more people instead of just those few groups.

But now I need to focus on staying in touch with those whose close friendship I have had for years because I tend to not make contact with others, even if I want to talk to them. I need to change my ways and keep up with what's going on in their lives. That way, we can hopefully continue to make fools of ourselves and make bad decisions for years to come.

A brilliant idea from my mom

2006-08-11T03:00:00.000-05:00

My mom came up to me the other day and said that she knew that I was a little stressed about my finances for the upcoming school year. Then she told me that she does not want me to get a job at all while I'm in school. So I asked her how I was supposed to pay for expenses that I shouldn't be using my loan for. Here was her (nonchalant) response: "Mooch off your parents." That plan sounds pretty good to me. I'm not sure if I'm going to work or not, yet. But I will definitely keep that in mind while deciding.

Behind schedule

2006-08-09T02:03:00.000-05:00

As summer is winding down, I'm faced with the fact that I haven't gotten as much accomplished as I would have liked and there's no way that I can catch up now. I meant to read a lot of books, but I've only read 3 1/2 so far. I haven't picked up the one I'm working on in over two weeks. I planned on getting my room clean, but there's so much stuff in there, I don't even know where to start. I really wanted to study German and learn a little more of the language before I went back to school, but I have hardly read or spoken any in the past two months. I told my parents that I would stain and paint the deck this summer. I started it a while ago, but I haven't had the motivation to finish it, yet. I've been talking about getting my second tattoo since I don't know when, but I have yet to do that.

But this will change. I am optimistic about the rest of my summer. I am going to pick up that book and finish it. I am going to re-organize and clean my entire room. I am going to practice at least a little bit of German. When the weather is right, I am going to finish painting and staining the deck. And I am going to print off the design for my next tattoo and make an appointment to get it done. Hell, if it doesn't cost too much, I may just get the piercing that I've been thinking about off and on for years.

Now is the perfect time for change. I know it's too late to get everything done that I wanted to, but I should still make up what I can while there's still time. I don't want to start off my sophomore year catching up on things that I should've done but didn't during my summer.

Slight Problem

2006-08-08T02:40:00.000-05:00

My tickets to the Dylan concert came today, which I was very excited for. But no where on them do they say that we get early admission, which I expected. I mean, I did order them less than one minute after they went on sale. But mayber there is nothing on them that says "early admission." It could be a number or word on the tickets that let us in early. I don't know. I'm going to have my dad call ticketmaster tomorrow (since it was his credit card that I used to purchase the tickets) to see if I did get early admission. I hope I did, but if I didn't, it isn't that big of a deal. I'll just have to leave a bit earlier. Either way, it's going to be a great time.

Damn computer

2006-08-04T23:56:00.000-05:00

So our desktop computer at home decided that it doesn't want to start anymore. Our internet connection doesn't want to let my laptop to be able to connect. So now I'm in the parking lot of the Super 8 with my laptop using their wireless service. I'm sitting at the back of the lot because it's packed and because of that, I have low connectivity. It pretty much sucks, but I need to have access to the internet to check my e-mails and such so people don't think that I'm a jerk. And I have my windows open to keep it a little cooler in here and I don't want to leave my car running, so now there are mosquitoes in here trying to bite me. They're pretty annoying. Yeah, so I'll probably be doing this every night until our home computer decides to stop being a douche.

Tickets are ordered

2006-08-02T11:05:00.000-05:00

I ordered my tickets to the Bob Dylan Show about an hour ago. I sat and waited at my computer for 10:00 to come. I was in the process of ordering them by 10:01. Why the rush? The first 1,500 fans get early admission. I was lucky enough to be on of those 1,500. We even get to go through a special entrance . . . pretty sweet.

I've been getting closer and closer to the stage with each concert. I should be able to get pretty close this time. The only bad part is that there are three bands opening for Dylan. Well, that's not bad because I'll have the opportunity to see other musicians perform, but it's going to be a long wait. But it'll definitely be worth it. Opening for Dylan are Jimmie Vaughan (Stevie Ray Vaughan's older brother) with Lou Ann Barton, Junior Brown, and Elana James and the Continental Two.

He really is coming!

2006-07-28T09:40:00.000-05:00

So, Bob Dylan's website finally released a Minnesota tour date. It's on September 7 in Rochester, which is less than an hour away from Red Wing. Alas, it's on a Thursday and therefore I will have classes in Bemidji the following morning. Getting up for class the next morning wouldn't be a problem -- the mornings following the first two Dylan concerts I've had to either go to school or work -- but Bemidji is a little over 6 hours away from Rochester, thus making it nearly impossible for me to attend that concert.

Luckily for me, he'll also be performing a concert in Fargo, North Dakota just two days later, which will cut the drive time in half. Plus, it's on a Saturday night! This is perfect -- I absolutely must attend this concert. I don't expect it to be better than the other two of his that I've seen since this is at the tail end of the tour, but a worn-out, 65 year-old Dylan is better than a younger, zippy ______ (insert nearly any artist here). And I didn't expect the last one to be that great, but it was positively wonderful and even better than the first. There is a pre-sale that begins on Wednesday and I plan on ordering my ticket then.

Wait a second . . .

2006-07-23T03:57:00.000-05:00

I could've sworn that she doesn't live here anymore. If that's true, why is she right now sleeping in the room next to me?

Two weeks ago, I wouldn't have really cared. But last week, I asked my brother about some food that I was missing; he denied it and said that there was no possible way that she could have taken it. However, they were the only other people at the house -- there is no possible way one of them didn't do it. Anyway, she confronted me when I was conversing with my cool brother and started bitching at me for accusing her (which I didn't do anyway) of stealing my stuff. So, yeah. Now I really don't like her.

He told my mom that she wouldn't even be at the house anymore. Then he went to Nebraska for a few days. He got home late Friday night/early Saturday morning. Now it's Sunday morning and he's already gone back on his statement that she wouldn't be here anymore and definitely wouldn't be spending the night here anymore. But she is. And I'm not happy about it.

On Def Leppard

2006-07-23T03:06:00.000-05:00

Def Leppard should not have done a re-make of David Essex's "Rock On." Their version (scroll down a bit) just plain sucks.

Vetoing lives

2006-07-21T04:31:00.000-05:00

So, the President vetoed a bill that would expand federal support for embryonic stem cell research. This seems ridiculous to me. If the majority of these embryos are being disposed of anyway, I don't understand why it's unethical to try to use them to help save people in need. Of course they have the potential to become human lives, but so do the ones that are destroyed. Why not use them for a good cause?

On the other hand, maybe some of the people who will die earlier because the government isn't funding the research are idiots. Or perhaps they are potential terrorists. Yes, that's it . . . they're terrorists -- therefore, this veto will only benefit the country in the long run. Thank goodness Bush is in office; if he weren't, who else would protect us from these sick people?

Hope?

2006-07-15T04:00:00.000-05:00

How am I supposed to stay hopeful with everything that's been going on around me lately?

I've been to way too many funerals this year. I'm witnessing the near-end of my parents' marriage after 25 years. One of my brothers has come close to dying twice in the past year and I was helpless both times. I'm being pushed in different career directions and I can't decide which one is right. I will most likely be in debt for the rest of my life. None of my closest friends or family from home are the same way that I once knew them. I've found out some horrible things about one of the biggest influences in my life and our relationship will never be the same, no matter how much either one of us would like it to be.

And on a bigger scale, how does one hope for a better future when things seem to be getting worse every day?

The U.S. government is supplying a war in the Middle East. People are too worried about locking others out and not worried enough about the well-being of others. Major news networks are feeding lies to the public that have been fed to them from the Government. Those who don't adhere to the Government's wishes are shunned by the Government and their pawns. Our fuel prices are way too high, but no one is doing anything about it because everyone's worried about which professional baseball player is using or has used steroids. It seems as though we're living in the midst of another Red Scare. Fox News has a constant Terror Alert on their ticker to feed the public's fear of Arab people. There is turmoil, poverty, starvation, and poor sanitation all over the world and we complain when we have to wait too long for our fast food to be delivered to us and our obese children.

I feel helpless. Now I know the cause of at least part of my anxiety that keeps me up this late feeling guilty and makes me feel almost constantly sick.

What's the deal with purchase-by dates?

2006-07-07T07:44:00.000-05:00

I've long wondered why there are purchase-by date on some foods as opposed to use-by dates on others. Why can't everything that's perishable be stamped with a use-by date? It would be much more convenient for customers.

What is the proper amount of time after the purchase-by date has passed on an item that it can sit in a pantry or stay in a fridge before expiring? I sure don't know, and it bothers me much.

How do the people who put these dates on know at what rate their consumers will use the food? How long do they expect the customers will take to eat the product after purchasing it? Two days? One week? Do they take a survey of their customers? What about single people as opposed to families? Don't they take longer to eat a loaf of bread? Is this taken into consideration at all when the dates are put onto the products?

Of course, the purchase-by date does help stores, as it allows them to take items off the shelves before they begin to get stale. But if there is a use-by date on the products, it is the consumers' job to look at them before purchase.

If all products were to have use-by dates on their packaging rather than purchase-by dates, it would save people like me a lot of pondering, anger, and even money when it comes to eating. As of now, I rarely eat foods after the purchase-by date has been passed because I just don't know how long it will last.

People-watching

2006-07-06T03:00:00.000-05:00

As I was in my yard watering flowers this afternoon, I heard my neighbors across the street yelling at each other. I have no idea what the argument was about; it was loud enough for me to hear it, but I couldn't hear the words that they were saying.

So, I knew where the police cars were going an hour ago when I heard their sirens. Four cop cars showed up at the house. There weren't any ambulences or fire trucks, so I don't expect that there were any major injuries. I'm curious as to what happened.

When the cops got there, there was a lady (the wife, I'm assuming) standing in the driveway waiting for them. About three officers went into the house and one stayed outside with the lady. I couldn't get anything out of the situation except that the husband must have harmed her or something, because she said that she wasn't going to press any charges. Then the cops came out of the house and they took the lady away in a cop car, but she wasn't in handcuffs, so now I don't know what's going on. I guess I'll have to wait until it's in the paper or maybe my hear the story from my dad.

The party is almost over

2006-07-04T04:27:00.000-05:00

The folks will be home sometime this afternoon or evening. Therefore, my brothers and I have quite a bit of cleaning up to do. Actually, I'll probably end up cleaning up most of it, even though I hardly made a mess.

There is a beer bottle in the bathroom (yes, the bathroom), food wrappers and soda bottles all over the kitchen and dining room, dishes scattered throughout the house, and newspapers and mail strewn about the dining room table. It's not a very good sight.

The dishes haven't been washed since before the folks left. The floors haven't been swept. The counters haven't been cleaned. Recycling hasn't been taken care of. This is ridiculous. I don't want to do the cleaning up because I pick up my messes. Justin leaves little things lying around, like in the bathroom, for instance.

Tony, on the other hand, doesn't do a thing to help out without his mother telling him what to do -- he's 24 years old. And I'm getting sick of it. I had some friends over and we went downstairs to find an empty can of mushrooms sitting on a pillow on the couch. What the hell? Then I asked him about it and he told me that "I saw it, too and I was wondering what it was there for. I was going to pick it up, but I forgot." Fucking liar. I know it wasn't Justin and it wasn't me. It could only be Tony and/or his girlfriend. The mushroom can isn't the only thing. Apparently, he doesn't know who erased the high scores that my friends and I got on one of my computer games. It's just a coincidence that his name replaced ours for the high score. I hate it when he lies. Which is about 75% of the time that he opens his mouth -- and that's a scientifically proven fact.

Like, OMFG! HE'S COMING!!!

2006-07-01T03:27:00.000-05:00

I just checked my e-mail, and I got a message from Bob Dylan's website saying that he's starting a tour of minor league baseball parks next month. This is an annual tour for him. I was lucky enough to go last year with some of my awesome friends. As of now, no Minnesota tour dates have been released, but I'm hoping he'll play at Midway Stadium. If he doesn't come to MN, I may have to go on a road trip to Indiana or Ohio. I'm pretty excited right now; I'd love to see him again!

Jealous

2006-06-29T01:46:00.000-05:00

I'm a bit jealous of graduate students at BSU this fall semester. Why? Because, according to the homepage of the Department of English, they have the opportunity to take part in seminars like this one:

ENGL 6270 American Literature Seminar: American Voice - Poetry, Politics, and Song. CarolAnn Russell Schlemper. The development of voice in 20th century American poetry: Walt Whitman, Robert Frost, Dian Wakoski, Carolyn Kizer, Allen Ginsberg, Jack Kerouac, Bob Dylan, Sharon Olds, June Jordan.

La, la, la, la, ooohhh, Jealousy.

I love my Twins

2006-06-28T03:57:00.000-05:00

Even if they are still 9 games behind the White Sox and 11 games behind the Tigers.

Party At My House (Red Wing)

2006-06-27T02:01:00.000-05:00

From June 30-July 3. The folks'll be in California for a wedding. A friend of mine will be home on leave from the Army. It's gonna be sweet. Yeah.