How Our Office Buddies Spent Their Summer Vacation

March beat me to it by about 2 hours, but I'm still going to post it because it's awesome.

Stuff

Hi, everybody! (make sure you read that in a Dr. Nick voice.) I had my first online class tonight. It was pretty interesting; I like that format. For the next class I have to do an outline of my research paper that has to be at least 30 pages (gulp) and write a 3-5 paper on "Given the demographic changes in the United States, what will rural American look like in three years; what issues will it confront; and how will community libraries be affected?" I'm going to do my paper on public/school library combinations. I also have to finish my reading for my in-person class. We had to read 4 chapters, I've done 3; and 4 articles; I've done two. I'm a little overwhelmed, but I'm a Taurus. We put our heads down and plow through, which is the only way I was able to get through 3 chapters of that dry textbook. It's a dry as the Sahara (I was going to compare it to a part of an elderly woman's anatomy; be glad I spared you.)

I just realized that my work does match our contributions for our 401(k). Well, they match 50 cents on the dollar up to 6% and I contribute 8.5% because I want to retire by 50 (it could happen!). That was a pleasant surprise. And all this time I've been ranting about how my work doesn't match. Sorry, work.

That's it, I just had to get out of school mode for a little bit. I hope everyone is doing well.

Wow

Holy shit. I finished Six Feet Under last night. What an incredible ending, especially the montage. I cried like a little girl and I still tear up. I'm sort of ashamed to admit how many times I've watched it. It even had a funny moment with Brenda dying while Billy is blathering on. I feel like I was watching my family die and if that's not a mark of a good show, I don't know what is. Here's the ending montage:



Now I have to go do some school reading. Yuck.

TV Stuff...and Snape

I watched Harry Potter and the Sorcerer's Stone last night, and I would totally let Snape do naughty things to me.



Curb Your Enthusiasm's fifth season begins on September 9. Unfortunately I don't have HBO, so I'll have to wait till the DVD comes out.

*small voice* I sort of want to watch Kid Nation. And I got a little misty eyed at the video on the site. What?! I had PMS!

YES!! American Gladiators is coming back! I used to watch that on Sunday afternoons. Ohh, maybe I should try out! It says a good candidate is "big, bad, and athletic with a personality that sizzles." That's definitely me. You MUST watch this video. I don't remember Malibu, but he is a tool.



Anchorwoman was canceled after 1 episode. HAHAHAHA Oh wait; it's being replaced by 'Til Death. Gotta love FOX.

Book Geek and Other Things

Yay for free and/or cheap books! I just got the Chronicles of Narnia box set ($27.65 retail price) from Ebay for about $13 and I got another free book ($24.95) from the LibraryThing early reviewers program. It's The Guardians by Ana Castillo. LibraryThing kicks ass! I paid about $25 for a lifetime membership and have received $50 worth of books so far! And the greatest part is that the membership fee would be worth it even without the free books.

I have been sick for a little over a week. I woke up with a cold last Sunday and I felt pretty decent by Tuesday, but I can't shake this hacky, phlegmy cough. I suppose it would go away faster if I didn't smoke so much. Monday was the worst day, but luckily I had taken the day off because I was having some maintenance done on my car, so all I had planned to do was sit on my ass and watch bad daytime TV. I used Zicam swabs on Sunday and Monday morning. I don't know if it helped or not, but it was a pretty short cold.

My online grad school starts two weeks from today and the in-person one starts in about a month. I'm a little nervous, mostly because I prefer not doing stuff over doing stuff. Everyone is telling me to kiss my free time good-bye, but I can't imagine it will be that time-consuming. I've never really had a hard time in school. I hardly did any work in high school. In college I did more, but I was rarely stressed about the amount I had to do. I think sometimes people like to exaggerate their war stories, but my parents are the only people I've talked to who didn't give me horror stories. They like to nag and criticize though, so I know they would constantly be telling me how difficult it was going to be if that were the case. I guess I'll find out for myself.

Chris downloaded Counter-Strike: Condition Zero for me. First-person shooters are a great way to get your aggression out. Unfortunately I get a little addicted.

I repayed Chris's kindness for doing that by running his cell phone through the washer. It's so strange because I never check his pockets, but this time I actually did and apparently I missed his phone. We have equipment insurance, but it's a $50 deductible. I'm trying not to think of all the other things I could spend $50 on instead.

The other day on the way to work I saw a guy with a bumper sticker that said, "My other toy has tits." Eww. That bothered me and I'm most definitely not a feminist. Of course this guy was driving a massive SUV that barely fit in one lane of the highway. I wanted to walk up to him, knock on his window and say, "I'm sorry you have a small penis, sir."

I Hate Being Force-Fed

I'm really pissed off by the fact that the media is force-feeding us Obama and Clinton and ignoring everyone else. I hate that the purpose of the media is to entertain, not to inform. I recently received an e-mail from Rusty asking me who Mike Gravel is. When I sent her a link to his campaign website she responded with "I watch the news! How the hell have I never even heard of this guy?!" This is truly not a bust on her because most people probably don't know either, and I didn't know until a few weeks ago. Plus, Rusty is a Republican and I can only name four of the Republican candidates off the top of my head. But it's a really sad comment on the state of the 2008 primary election. Have you watched any of the Democratic party debates? Which two candidates are standing in the middle? Which two candidates get at least twice as much time to talk? Here's a link to the YouTube debates; see for yourself.

I wanted to take a little bit of time to talk about the candidates who don't receive as much press. Mike Gravel doesn't stand a snowball's chance in hell, but he is my personal favorite and is going to get my vote. I'm hoping to get the word out that there are choices besides Obama and Clinton. I'm actually probably more of a Libertarian than a Democrat, but I'm registered with the Democratic Party so those are the candidates I researched. Please keep in mind that I'm giving my opinions and this is in no way an unbiased discussion and the pros and cons of each candidate.

Joe Biden is a US senator from Delaware.

The good: He's against No Child Left Behind, wants to increase minimum wage, and is against the Defense of Marriage Act. He does have some good plans and ideas, but I think most of them require too much government involvement and are way too idealistic. I also have no idea where he thinks he's going to get the money for all this.

The bad: He has flip-flopped on the war; first supporting it, then saying we should go to war only after trying to end the conflict by diplomatic means, then supporting the war again, then saying he only supports it if Bush is honest with America, then calling for troop withdraw. He does not support legalizing marijuana and he thinks smoking in movies should affect the MPAA rating. He also supports affirmative action in college admissions.

Notable quote: "I've had a great relationship [with Indian-Americans]. In Delaware, the largest growth in population is Indian Americans — moving from India. You cannot go to a 7-11 or a Dunkin' Donuts unless you have a slight Indian accent. I'm not joking."

Joe Biden on Where I Stand.com.

Christopher Dodd is a senator from Connecticut and the Chairman of the Senate Banking Committee.

The good: Dodd is against the war (although he voted in favor of the Iraq War Resolution in 2002) and he was not in agreement with the recent troop surge. He has some good ideas about health care and the environment, thinks the Partial-Birth Abortion Ban Act is unconstitutional and is in agreement with stem cell research.

The bad: He supports free trade, which sends our jobs to other countries, he wants to relax immigration laws, and he is proposing mandatory community service. He also has received some questionable campaign contributions and frequently supports the ACLU.

Christopher Dodd on Where I Stand.com.

You've all heard of John Edwards. That's probably because he is third in campaign fundraising behind Obama and Clinton.

The good: He supports stem cell research and universal healthcare. He is against making it unconstitutional to burn the flag.

The bad: He's religious, which is fine with me, but I think it will interfere with his decision making; for example, he thinks prayer should be admitted to public schools. He also thinks religion should play a part in policy-making. He promotes mandatory community service, which I'm against because I don't think it's oxymoronic for the government to force us to volunteer.

John Edwards at Where I Stand.com

Mike Gravel is a former senator from Alaska. He is essentially broke and is probably running with less money than anyone else. In the two-hour CNN debate on June 2, Gravel was allowed to speak for 5 minutes and 37 seconds. He doesn't bullshit or beat around the bush and during the YouTube debates asked of the airtime given to most of the candidates, "Has this been fair so far?" to much applause.

The good: He helped to end the draft in Vietnam. He believes Bush should be impeached, believes the Partial-Birth Abortion Ban Act is unconstitutional, is against No Child Left Behind, supports gay marriage, supports universal healthcare, and thinks we should treat drug addiction as a mental health problem, not a crime.

The bad: He came under fire for saying that everyone who died in Vietnam died in vain, but I don't necessarily see that as a negative. He won't win.

Notable quote: "The war was lost the day that George Bush invaded Iraq on a fraudulent basis."

Mike Gravel at Where I Stand.com.

Dennis Kucinich is a representative from Ohio.

The good: He supports the legalization of marijuana. He's against No Child Left Behind. He supports same sex marriage, stem cell research, and raising the minimum wage.

The bad: He flip flopped on abortion. A few years ago he described himself as pro-life, but then changed his mind. He's trying to ban the sale of handguns to civilians. He thinks religion should play a role in policy-making.

Dennis Kucinich on Where I Stand.com.

Bill Richardson is the governor of New Mexico.

The good: He has gone overseas several times to negotiate the release of American prisoners. He supports the legalization of marijuana and stem cell research. He's against the Partial-Birth Abortion Ban Act.

The bad: He advocates affirmative action and the Defense of Marriage Act, thinks the HPV vaccine should be mandatory, and opposes term limits.

Bill Richardson at Where I Stand.com.

My Trip to Rusty's

I haven't been good at blogging lately, but I have to talk about my trip to Rusty's. I left at the asscrack of dawn on Saturday morning. The airport was 10 times as busy as it was the last time I went. I accidentally forgot to take my lighter out of my bag which caused the security guy to hold it up and yell, "Whose is this?!" Oops. Incidentally, they started allowing lighters on planes THE DAY AFTER I CAME BACK!!


I arrived in Charlotte at around 10 AM and Rusty and I went to lunch at a Mexican restaurant. It was seriously the best Mexican food I've ever had. After stopping at Rusty's place to drop my stuff off, we went on a brewery tour. The tour guide was really bad, but it was cool to see the brewery. I tried some strawberry beer and some beer with no carbonation. They were decent, but as I said a few days ago, not a big fan of beer. After that we went to a drive-through safari. We bought a bucket of food to feed the animals and it was a total clusterfuck. The animals all acted like they hadn't eaten in years. An ibex shoved his head in my bucket and I couldn't get it away from him, so he proceeded to eat all my food. Rust was pretty pissed because she had just washed and vacuumed her car, which was now covered in dust and animal pellet particles. Later that night we went to see Ratatoille, which was adorable.


On Sunday we went took a boat tour of Lake Norman and saw some more of the expensive houses, including a house Burt Reynolds once owned. It was nice and relaxing. After lunch we went down to discovery place in Charlotte and saw the Body Worlds exhibit and an IMAX about the human body. We looked around the science center a little more, but Body Worlds and the IMAX were definitely the most interesting parts. After that was dinner and then some HGTV.


On Monday we went to Grandfather Mountain. The trip included a trip over the mile-high swinging bridge, which made me feel like I was in an Indiana Jones movie. The view was gorgeous. We went on a little hike and then headed home. We went out to dinner and then watched Hell's Kitchen.

I had to leave in the early afternoon on Tuesday, so we just went to breakfast at Denny's and went to Sterling Marlin's race shop. I decided Sterling was going to be my driver because he does and says dumb things. He was fired about 2 days after I chose him as my driver. Sorry, Sterling!

Sorry for the 2nd grade level writing in this post, I just really need to get it posted and am not in a writing kind of mood. Maybe I'll have some things to write about later!