The Danger of Boredom

Well, I got bored a little while ago, and for some unknown reason I grabbed up a scrap piece of paper and went at it with a hand held whole punch. Now I have a huge mess and a piece of paper full of holes. I did find that it works your arm muscles very well and that it relieves a lot of stress. I recommend it. I also received a purchase from eBay. Yea! It's a mini Luke Skywalker figure and skiff guard figure. They're so cute. I can't wait for my lamp to come. I better cut this short so I'll be off now.

A Lesson We Need to Learn

Well Abend didn't make it. He didn't look too well this morning and when I got back from the prayer service he'd kicked the bucket sad to say. Any way, this morning I turned on the news to see how the elections in Iraq went. They had over 60% of eligible voters turn out. That's more than what turned out in the last election we had here for president and this one had a record high attendance! There's something wrong with that. Over there people are being threatened with torture and death for voting and risk everything walking, in some cases great distances, to get to the polling booths. Here we can ride in our cushy cars, and say whatever the heck we want to say, and not have anyone blow our heads off for voting in any particular way or for voting at all. I think it's sad that we in America blow off our privileges when there are so many in this world who either are threatened and harassed or not allowed to vote at all. It is a great testament to the nationalism and courage of the people of Iraq for literally taking their lives in their hands in order to better their country. We need to take a lesson from them and not take our liberty and freedom so lightly.

A Fishy Tale

Well, yesterday I decided that it was time to change the water in my double betta tank. Abend and Morgen were looking pretty unhappy. Their names come from German for morning and evening. I didn't use the word for night because its nuahct (my German spelling isn't the greatest, so pardon me if it's wrong) and I didn't really think that was a special enough name. But they got the names because a. everything I name after a Star Wars character dies so I didn't want to curse them. and b. one is pure white and the other is a deep purple. Back to cleaning the tank. I've begun just pouring old water out, keeping enough in for them to live and pouring new in. I repeat the process until the water is crystal clean. It seems to cause less stress on the fish than chasing them around with a scoop and praying they don't flop out on the sink. Also, Morgen is suicidal and the last fish that leaped out onto the dorm bathroom floor was poisoned by whatever they put on the floors to keep out pests. With a fish like Morgen it's just the smart way to clean a tank. It usually works without any problem, but yesterday just had to be different. Everything was going swimmingly, pun intended, and I was about to start adding more clean water to fill the tank when Morgen went nuts. He started swimming upside down and then leaping into the air hurling himself against the lid. Now I have seen this behavior before when I had an insanely large collection of bettas two years ago. One got some weird form of fin rot that went to its brain and made it do all kinds of weird things. The disease took half of my fish before I finally controlled it. But it took time for the disease to do that and Morgen hadn't exhibited any signs before(he had his fins). About five seconds later Abend started doing the same thing, hurling himself against the walls, the lid, swimming upside down. Then I saw condensation on the lid and realized it was way too hot. I started pouring in the cold water to even it out. I took about ten months off their lives, poor things. They're behaving more like themselves now, so I guess that's a good thing. They survived the night and all day today, so hopefully there wasn't too much damage done. And on a different note, doesn't the eharmony guy creep you out? He creeps me out. I don't know why. But would you really trust a guy that looks like that? It's like a guy who would lead a weird cult or something. I don't know, that's just my take on him.

A Movie Outing

Yesterday I had a day out with my mother and sister. We went and saw The Phantom of the Opera. Before we went in my mom and I stopped in the restroom to avoid having to leave in the middle of the movie, I hate that. Inside we ran into a parent of one of my mom's kids. She said she and her two children were going to see Are We There Yet. I said I'd seen it the day before and then she asked me if it was ok for kids to see. Now I had to quickly rack my brain for an appropriate answer, taking into account that this is a woman who has her children in a private school, a Baptist one at that. I also had to remember that she could possibly affect my mother's employment, and since my mother is Lutheran she has a strike against her. I hesitated and then said in a high pitched voice, "Yes, it's ok." Hoping that the fact the kids start telling IceCube or whatever his name is that he has to pay the 'Swear Jar' whenever he utters a four letter word. When we left my mother nervously asked me if the show was really ok for kids. I said since it had a PG rating and the room was full of kids the day before it should be. I have yet to hear about the parent's take on the movie. As for Phantom, it was refreshingly wonderful. I actually had to be intelligent to understand the occasional humor, and well Andrew L. Webber is just brilliant, not so much as John Williams but he's up there, in my book at least. I highly recommend it. As for Are We There Yet, if you want cheap laughs and gooey gum in your hair with a typical, predictable feel-good ending go see it.

Just a Few Things

Today I saw a message on a girl's backpack that I sort of liked so I thought I'd put it here so I wouldn't forget it. It said "Borrowed Love and Faded Dreams" I don't know why I liked it but I did. Maybe it was the way I was feeling today. I went home to see my family and celebrate my sister's birthday today. It's a long drive, four hours or so depending on traffic. While I was driving it got dark and this big suv pulled up on my tail with headlights in my mirrors blinding me and could not wait for me to get in the other lane. I mean I was already in the right lane since I have this strong aversion to getting traffic tickets and having my insurance go up and go the speed limit exactly. When the car passed me I saw that it was a girl with a cell phone growing out of her ear and a boyfriend in the passenger seat speeding past. She had a longhorn emblem on her bumper so definitely a college student rushing home. I was tempted to do something rude like giving her the finger but decided she was too wrapped up in her conversation to notice she'd nearly run down a smaller car. About five minutes later, she was far in front, going way over 70 miles when the good old blue and red lights suddenly came on. I was rewarded with seeing her pulled over, still on her phone as the trooper, yes a Texas State Trooper got her, stepped out. Boy did she really get it. It was sweet justice to see that. It was one of those rare moments when you have been annoyed and just want a cop to be there to stop the obnoxious driver offending you.

The Family Curse

There are many types of curses that people all over the world suffer from. I am one of them. Just now I was reminded of it. It's a rather humiliating one that I inherited from my mother. For the life of me I cannot open things correctly. The easier it is to open it the more likely it is that I will open it the wrong way. Not two minutes ago I was opening a thing of cheddar cheese to make my super. Simple, right? You'd think so. I cut it open with a knife and then realized it was a ziplock type bag. Why couldn't I realize that before I cut a huge hole in it? At our Christmas party my sister and I are telling her boyfriend about how my mom and I have difficulties opening things, and as I'm talking about it...I'm opening a box of wheat thins...I'm consciously trying to not do what I'm talking about...what do I do? I open the box upside down!! What the heck's wrong with me?! Then my sister makes the comment that if her boyfriend wants to be like the rest of the insane family he should open the box he's holding upside down. He takes her literally and opens it upside down. The curse has now spread in a most devious way!!! I just had to say this to yell and laugh at myself. I still can't believe I did what I just did. How nuts can I be, huh?

Internet: Friend or Foe?

Today was only the second day of classes and already I'm stressing out. I'm thinking this has to be a bad thing. I have to attribute some of my stressful day to my computer and most especially to the internet. For my botany class I have to be able to access the special internet website the school provides us so I can get the daily assignments for class. Now it must be noted that I am not a great science person and am taking this class because it's required and a friend of mine who is also scientifically challenged told me it was survivable. So naturally after an hour of trying to log onto the website with the id and password that I'd been told to use, I was in a panicked tear session and ready to throw the computer out of the window.
To solve my problem, I called the support center and had to leave a message since no one was there and then went onto eBay to check out how some things I bid on were going. (I'm addicted to it. Curse the internet again. First it pushes me to the verge of a nervous break down and then it takes all my money.) The other site had me so worked up I couldn't for the life of me figure out what my password for eBay was. I finally figured it out and was happy to see that I now will have a lovely new lamp. EBay's other evil, besides being like an illegal drug and taking every penny you own because you can't stop buying, is that very mean evil people swoop in and bid enormously ridiculously high on something you really wanted and then you have to watch as it slips away. It's torture, I assure you. Who knew everyone would be clambering to get their hands on all three box sets of Ruroni Kenshin at insane prices until idiots keep out-bidding each other. Oh well. I'll just have to keep watching and hope no other yoyo sees it.
I think it's about time for my laundry to be finished so I'll leave this for now.

To Start With

I was told I had to create this blog for a class, which was really great for me, because I'd been meaning to do this for a while. Many of my friends started one of their own and I think it's a cool idea.
I'm a Senior History Major about to be finished and in the real world, on my own completely. You cannot believe how scary and yet wonderful that is! It's such an odd mix of emotions. I enjoy writing and this will give me a chance to do that quite often. I'm a native Texan and I love it here. I like reading, I also write or make things when I get in the creative mood. I'm a Star Wars and fairy nut with a more than healthy sprinkling of Lord of the Rings and recently I've gotten interested in the Kenshin anime series.
I don't know what else to write and my stomach is telling me it is time to eat diner so I guess I'll end this.