Popcorn and Jr Mints

Halloween—San Francisco Style 2009

2011-08-05T13:27:00.000-07:00

Everything is relitive. That being said, I came home Wednesday night from the musical Wicked. 11:15pm when I get off the muni. Powell St is quite. Relitivly speaking. It was an enjoyable walk home.

Three days later. Halloween night. We head to the Castro - 9:30pm. A pink pussy, two sailors, Spock, Sherlock Holmes, and… well I’m not really sure what that one was. Get to our fist club. Note to my friends back in Nebraska, “Suckers!” They might have closed down the party in the street but the Castro was still the place to be. First bar/club we go to is the Q. Fun, dancing, having a great time. Drop my phone, broke it, out of commission. Next club, dancing, sweating, hot, hot, hot, sweat sweet, wet, wet, wet, red heat.

Leave the Castro and head to a friend’s flat. All the dancing, long lines to the bar, does not make for a drunk Kat. Quick fix, liquor store on the way back. “I can’t figure out how to get the cover on the futon.” Cut to girl in pink cat outfit showing the futon what up. Good thing someone thought to take photos.

Move to the roof. Party next door. Loose a member of our party to that party. Bed time finally comes – 2am. I’m not one to wait, even on a hike home, middle of the night, in a big city. I start walking. Alone.

Yeah, I got the lectures already. It was San Francisco on Halloween. I never once felt unsafe. There were still plenty of people on the street at 2am and we all looked like freaks. All things relative, there were loads of people out.

Broken phone,

Next club,

Getting home,

Jeets appt

Me taking my closes off (not like that you perves)

Roof

Party next door,

Walking home alone at 2am

Photos

2011-04-11T08:33:00.001-07:00

Writing for my next project in class. A Nikon DSLR.

Voyeurism

Looking at a photograph is like looking through a window. We are always on the outside. Never knowing what else is going on behind the scenes. It’s like walking down the street at night and seeing into someone’s home. Framed in like a photo. We aren’t suppose to look. That is a private space and we are to give privacy to that private space. To look in from the outside is wrong, yet we all do it. Invasion of privacy happens everyday that we leave the lights on and the curtains open. We as people invite it in, then scream in horror when some one is looking, but we play the hypocrite so well when we look in on others. We have done nothing bad if we haven’t been caught.

A picture like a window doesn’t give us the whole scene. We are not allowed to know what is going on in the margins. We don’t get to see the big picture. The image wasn’t even taken for us to see. It was taken by the artist for the artist. We should be humbled that we are even allowed to view the image that was selected for us. The artist knows what was going on, the feelings, the smells, the everything else. The things we don’t get to see.

To look at a photo in to partake in voyeurism, to look into someone else’s life, to look at something that was never truly meant for us. We are outsiders looking and engaging with something that doesn’t belong to us.

The story

Who ever said a picture is worth a thousand words was an idiot. A picture is worth a thousand questions. We get a glimpse into a story. It’s like reading the first and last sentences of a book but never reading anything in the middle. So often the world around us is framed with little questions. When you see the car that is so far away from home. What are those Hawaii plates doing sitting at the drive in theater in the middle of America? How did it even get there? Why are they here? What is their story? A photo doesn’t tell a story. It leaves you hungry for more. The image of a pregnant woman shooting up meth in Tulsa. You don’t get to experience the high that she gets. A high so good that she would put her baby in danger. It don’t get to find out if the baby lives, dies, or is forever messed up from the drugs. The picture can never explain the story of drugs hitting the brain. This is why there are more books then pictures about some topics.

But we don’t want the story. That’s why we look at the photos. We want to make up our own story. We want to see only beauty. When the background, or back story is taken away, even the ugly becomes beautiful. Photos give us a way to look at the bad. In a form we can digest. “What about the beautiful models?” one may ask. We see a cultural standard for beauty that is nice to look at. What we don’t see is the starvation, the sticking a fingerer down the throat to get rid of that cookie that was eaten, nor do we see the lines of coke or meth that suppress the appetite. We know those things are there and choose to look the other way because we want to, because we can.

Even war becomes beautiful in photos. Removing us from the blood, the stench of death. How many of use would puke in revolt if we were faced with the destruction of war? How many of us would piss our pants in battle? But the picture lets us face the ugly. It lets us see the beauty. There cannot be beauty with the pain. The photo give us humans the ability to function on the lite version of life. We don’t need, nor do we really want the whole story.

Frozen in time

A photo is a moment frozen in time. So many things from life that can’t be remembered anymore but the time from the photograph is remembered. It can be years between viewing but when I see it I remember. I can remember the sun in my face, the smell of the wind coming off the ocean. The smoke from the fire, the laughing and loving of friends. A photo isn’t just an image, there are feelings and sensations attached to it, like the time I made a waterslide in Deloris Park. The feeling of the mud and dirt coving my clothes and body.

The time I held a baby koala, his name was Leno, son of Oprah. I can still smell the eucalyptus leaves, how soft his fur was, and I see the happy grin on my face. A moment in time that will always be magical.

Time marches on but the moment that is captured in a photo will last a lifetime. We can stop time, if only in that one frame. In less then a second we can capture an entire night. Embody everything that was good, every memory we want to keep.

Jewelry, and Leather, but Not Lace

2010-12-30T20:05:00.000-08:00

Jewelry. First thoughts are the ring on a finger, necklace, or earrings. My definition of jewelry is a little loose. Nose studs, nipple rings, implants, is it a bend barbell or straight? Looking through a drawer I found a couple of studded leather neck-bands (one with spikes), leather wrist-cuffs, and some other heavy metaled jewelry. I have plenty of body jewelry that I dig through on a regular basis; but today was different.

I use to have eight or nine piercing in my face, all at the same time for a few months there. That didn’t count my ears. That would have put me over 20. It’s been over a year sense I took them out. I don’t miss them. I don’t think about it that often. I don’t even think about it when I dig through my old body jewelry. So why was today different?

Today I tried on those different leather and studded jewelry. It wasn’t me or was it not me anymore? I looked at my picture from when I joined my sorority. I was blonde, all those piercings, tan, I looked bad. Why did I ever think it looked good? Because of a guy. I think he would have taken me even without the purple hair, piercings, and with a little more meat on me. I looked like Lindsay Lohan. Skin and bones.

How often do we change who we are to fit into a group, or just fit with one person? A lot. I’ve seen it and I’ve done it. I was so unhappy as that person, leather and studs, chains and piercings. I did it to fit in. I didn’t use to be that kind of person. And I’m not that kind of person now. I know I lost myself for a few years there. I don’t know how it happened and I’m not sure how I got it back. That is a topic for later.

When I looked at that picture of the blonde, pierced, tanned person I thought, “man I was ugly.” I mean, I was beautiful but I had made myself ugly. That studded person wasn’t me. Never was. It was the first time I ever understood what people meant when they said, “you’re so pretty; why do you do that to yourself?” I did it for all the wrong reasons.

A small part of me wishes I had never done it; but most of me is glad I did. I wouldn’t be having this revelation if I hadn’t. How different of a person I would be now if I didn’t. I don’t what to change where or who I am now. I’m happy. With my life, where I live, what I do with my days. I wouldn’t be here now if I hadn’t lost myself when I was younger. The brightest side of having been lost is when I get to feeling board with myself, I can look back on my youth and remember why I’ve chose to settle down, but only a little.

McD's Assignment

2010-11-10T07:56:00.001-08:00

Katharine Hubbard

You know that lone person sitting in the corner of the bar drinking by themselves? That’s me; I’m back home for Christmas and not enjoying myself. I hate Christmas and I’m pretty sure this place is the 9th circle of hell. I’m watching the crowd in the bar. I’d call it a dive bar but every bar in this town is a dive. I’m drinking a Martini, flavor – redneck zombie, how fitting. Oh, and chill the goddamn glass! Were these bartenders trained by monkeys? Note to self – start taking shots, the human stupidity will hurt less.

Ah, shit. Someone is walking this way. A guy. Don’t make me throw down fistacuffs, bitch.
“Hay, you’re Alysia, right?” he ask.
Alysia is dead asshole. I’m her doppelganger. “Yeah, and your are?” was my actually response.
“I’m blah blah blah,” he says, “remember that time in high school that we skipped lunch, smoked pot, and hit up McyD’s?”
Yeah, I remember that day. It was called every f’ing day of high school, jackass. You were involved on one occasion and you expect me to remember you? My actual response “Yeah, excuse me please, I need to go to the bathroom” and I walked off. I just saw my friend walk in the door, thank god, I make a beeline towards her.

The guy did bring up a good point. I’m getting kind of drunk. McyD’s is going to sound really good in about 2 hours. We’ll have to find a sober person to make a burger run. Maybe the baby sitter will do it if we tip her extra.
I’ve never been sober while eating at McDonalds. Come to think of it, I’ve never seen a sober person there either.
Damn it. The babysitter is drunk. I guess I’ll just have to wait till the hangover kicks in and I can drive myself. McDonalds is also the perfect cure to a hangover.

The Runaway Human

2010-09-22T21:10:00.001-07:00

I never ran as a kid or in high school. I walk fast. I’m in a hurry to get somewhere but I don’t know where. I took up running because I’m a runner. As in, I run away from things. I’m not trying to get anywhere, hence why I don’t know where I’m going; I’m just trying to get away. From places, people, memories. I’m not the only one. I’m just one of the few who admit it. Who even knows they are doing it.

I was running from places that held bad memories. My friend died on that street. Ran over by a cement truck. I use to do drugs there, there. There and there. Oh, and over there. Lets not forget the boyfriend who won’t let me live down the fact that I dumped him on his birthday. I was 19, high out of my mind, and we had only been dating for 3 months. How many times do I have to say I’m sorry? One, five, is ten not enough? Don’t say you’ve forgiven my past then continue to throw it in my face. I’ve admitted that I fucked up, that I feel bad, that if I could change it I would, that I have remorse that I was such a shit piece of a human being. Once you finally change your life it gets old being reminded of the person you use to be.

I feel bad about what I’ve done in the past and that’s why I changed my life. I cleaned up, cold turkey, no rehab here. I went back to college. I got involved with things, people, places. I was an RA, a sorority girl, I have friends I say “I love you” to. I graduated. I started thinking about how my actions would affect other people before I did them. I’ve grown as a person. I’ve also learned that those who truly love me have forgiven me for what I’ve done. Even though I’ve never properly apologized to them.

Yet I still felt like I needed to run. The more my life changed, the better it got, the more I felt the need to run. I tried to start my life over when I went back to college. All of the people I meet there let me leave the past where it belonged. But I was still to close to where I had caused my shit storm. People who knew me then, places I had to drive by from then. I just wanted to start over. I wanted the chance to be the person I can be and not the person I was.

When you hit that point only one thing to do. Change your name and move to California.

I moved to Cali and I stopped running. Literally. I didn’t have the motivation anymore. I had finally stopped figuratively running from my life. But when a situation arises that I want to run from. I run. And while I’m running the hills of Berkeley I let my mind race. I sort through what it is I’m running from. Once it all makes sense I don’t fell like running away any more. I’m finally being the person that I want to be. I can’t forget my past but I’m free of the ties that bind me to a person I no longer am.

2010-02-16T20:16:00.001-08:00

Was told this was a bad ad because it "tells the person what to do" It still needs body copy.

What is culture

2010-02-15T20:17:00.000-08:00

Vegas Redeye

2009-12-20T01:48:00.001-08:00

I’m 28. I’ve never had the desire to go to Vegas. Most are questioning my sanity right now. I have yet to loose my mind though. I was given the opportunity to fly into Vegas on a night flight. Heck Yeah! Give me the window seat. Now.

I have my moments when I slower and denser then frozen molasses. This was not one of them. I knew this would be an amazing flight. Upgraded to first class and that was the least spectacular part of my flight. Flying out of San Francisco at night was beautiful. It really is this small little island attached to Cali. Of all the things wrong with California there is nothing more spectacular than San Francisco on a regular day, San Francisco coved in fog, San Francisco at night coved in fog, or just a good old fashion California sunset. Or so I thought.

Short flight, window seat, good book, 1am, first class, no sleep, windows open. I knew I would be able to see it a ways off but 20 minutes till I land, never. It was the biggest dot I have seen from the sky. It just kept getting bigger, bigger, bigger. Nice lay out of a city. Oh all that flat space to sprawl; must be great for city planers. Also, beautiful from the sky.

Our plane flew in perpendicular to the strip. I venture a guess that it is overwhelming from street level. But from the sky it is spectacular, miniature, detailed. It takes a lot to awe me anymore, but awed I was. There needs to be a word invented to describe how spectacular, grandiose, dazzling, extravagant, fabulous, and mind blowing that this sight was. I could read the names of the hotels, I saw Paris, Stratosphere, Luxor, I don’t even know most of the names but I’ve seen them on TV. It blew me away. Never thought the airport would be so close to the strip… Nice, easy, convenient.

And for those in the know… PLAM TREES!

Positive Attitude

2009-09-22T13:38:00.001-07:00

Sometimes in life I need an attitude check. My attitude is the soul determinate of my happiness. Like the story of the Fox and the Sour Grapes. The fox can’t get the grapes but it is up to the fox to decide his attitude. The grapes can be sour and not worth his time or the grapes can be sweet but he has to find another way. I don’t want my life to be sour grapes, so I comprise a list of quotes that help remind me why it is my attitude that makes my life happy, sad, successful, or etc. So anyone who needs a little pick me up read on.

"Nothing can stop the man with the right mental attitude from achieving his goal; nothing on earth can help the man with the wrong mental attitude. "
~ Thomas Jefferson

Dr. Viktor E. Frankl
The longer I live, the more I realize the impact of attitude on life. Attitude to me is more important than facts.... We cannot change our past...we cannot change the fact that people will act in a certain way. We cannot change the inevitable. The only thing we can do is play on the string we have, and that is our attitude. I am convinced that life is 10 percent what happens to me and 90 percent how I react to it. And so it is with you... we are in charge of our attitudes.

W. C. Fields
Attitude is more important than the past, than education, than money, than circumstances, than what people do or say. It is more important than appearance, giftedness, or skill.

"Believe you can and you're half way there."
~ Theodore Roosevelt

"The greatest discovery of my generation is that a human being can alter his life by altering his attitudes of mind."
~ William James

"If you think you can, you can. And if you think you can't, you're right. "
~ Mary Kay Ash

W. Clement Stone
There is little difference in people, but that little difference makes a big difference. The little difference is attitude. The big difference is whether it is positive or negative.

William James
Whenever you're in conflict with someone, there is one factor that can make the difference between damaging your relationship and deepening it. That factor is attitude.

William James
The greatest revolution of our generation is the discovery that human beings, by changing the inner attitudes of their minds, can change the outer aspects of their lives.

And my favorite of all!

Herm Albright
A positive attitude may not solve all your problems, but it will annoy enough people to make it worth the effort.

Urban Run

2009-09-14T20:29:00.001-07:00

I love San Francisco. The city, the parks, the museums, the ocean, the bay, and urban runs. There is something strange about running in the city, all the people walking, then you pass, get passed, or spot another runner. That’s when it stops feeling strange. I like to run by the bay. Ocean on one side and city on the other. Seeing the water puts me into the running trance, the void, the place where “right here, right now” is all you are. Yesterday’s mistakes and tomorrows worries leave you and you are free to just be.

I never had this feeling when I ran in Nebraska. Running there was as taxing on my mind as it was my body, more so really. My mind running as fast as my body, how to budget my limited income, what do I need to pack, what will I have for dinner, will I get to see him tonight, what is due for class.

I made a comment to my mum about how friendly the people in San Francisco are. She said she didn’t think I liked friendly people. When I’m shopping in a store they ask if I need help, that is friendly, and they always say thank you when you leave or check out. People say please, too. This is not common in Nebraska. But when I run in Nebraska people always want to say “Hi” or wave.

When I run I have my headphones, sunglasses, and hat on; I look like I’m on a mission. I’m running, I’m in my zone and I don’t look ready to socialize. When I run it becomes my job whether it is for 30 minutes or two hours; I’m working. My run is solitary and doesn’t involve interaction, people skills, and IS NOT a customer service orientated.

In San Francisco there are people, people everywhere. I can run without being bothered, I can stay in my zone, start my job and finish, I can meditate without being interrupted, I can biff it and no one bothers me. I love it here in my city by the bay.

Home on the Range

2009-09-14T16:52:00.001-07:00

Project for MFA class. Done with illustrator. First time using the program.

Small Town Girl, Big City World

2009-09-06T18:59:00.001-07:00

Never was a fan of Journey until today. I am the “Just a small town girl, living in a lonely world.” I moved to San Francisco last week, didn’t know anyone, didn’t know anything about my roommate except her name, didn’t know how I would get from the airport to my apartment, and didn’t know what I needed to do first. I did know that I was going to art school.

Now I’ve got Journey playing in my ear, I’ve found a grocery store, listen to books on my iPod when I walk around town, know how to get to my classes, to Walgreens (5 of them now), and where to buy household items. It’s only been a week but I’m starting to feel like this is home; I’m not just on vacation.

I still have to use Google maps to get around town some but now I don’t have to look too long to know where I’m headed. I’ve also found my beloved gym. I’m a manic-depressive; I’m a manic when I get to run everyday and become depressive when I go more then 3 day with out it. I have also found more then 10 sushi restaurants in a 5 square block radius from here. Off I go for sushi!

Mapping Project

2009-07-21T15:23:00.001-07:00

When I was an IT major we would make the flow charts to help us see how our databases should be connected. In my advertising department in my undergrad we would use flow charts to brainstorm. Flow charts have become something that I use regularly when trying to create something new, trying to remember the past, or trying to decide my future.

I used colored markers and wrote it by hand because I still feel like a little kid. I can’t seem to believe that I’m 27. In an age where “40 is the new 30” it is easy for me to stay childlike.

Green is education stuff. The one spot of red represents two very important bosses who have changed my life, both named Dick, and I worked for them at the same time. Blue is important events of my life.

The pink and purple are my “past” and “present/future” respectively. Pink is things that I associate with my undergrad and purple I have tied to my legal name change, my middle name changed to Katharine. My friends have always called me Kat and I decided to make it more official. I waited until after graduation with my BS because like a graduation ceremony changing my middle name was a ceremonial right of passage for me.

Mid term project

2009-07-08T10:37:00.002-07:00

Mid Point of Project

2009-07-02T10:54:00.002-07:00

Passport

2009-06-18T11:35:00.003-07:00

Memories in a Box

2009-04-29T08:35:00.007-07:00

My Video Blog posting.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2GcR1qS40YA

Memories in a Box

2009-04-27T09:12:00.001-07:00

Open the shoebox in the closet and let the time travel begin. The past has just come to you. All those things you kept over the years, can’t bear to part with, even when you have no reason to keep it. A brown fuzzy button, a drawing in the local newspaper, a green card, a letter, my life. One little seemingly unimportant thing holds so much.

The brown fuzzy button is from an old school, full size van. My high school boyfriend’s ride. Believe me or not, his name was Duck. We used the same box hair color, we’re anti social, and liked to fight authority. He got rid of that van, got a sports care, rolled it, killed a girl, went to jail, then “we” ended. Broke my heart, why was she in the car, why did the newspaper call her his girlfriend, why do I keep the button. The button is neutral, but the memories are not. Take the good with the bad.

The drawing in the paper is of a girl watching Bevis and Butthead on TV, while passing out, while falling backwards, being caught by hooded death. Kick ass drawing for a 5th grader. I drew it. I read Animal Farm that summer, meet this boy Marker, which lead to a strange friendship that I still have today. Marker was a great guy who had so much going for him. He is a genius. A genius that plays acid driven jam music, his band is underground famous, and was busted for growing pot. Yet in our summer class for smart kids we were reading heavy, dreaming big, and had our whole lives in front of us. I ended up dropping out of high school, going to college a year early and taking 10 years to graduate. He went to college, found drugs, went to Mardi Gras, didn’t come home for 2 weeks, parents called him in as a missing person. I said he probably got high on drugs and ended up in Mexico with no cell service. Yep. He came back from Mexico never to be the person he was before. I still love him.

I am an American citizen, born and raised. I have a green card. From Ireland. I lived there for 6 months while I went to school. It rains, sideways, while the sun is shining, and it’s 50 degrees, always. When it rains there are will be at least one umbrellas in any trashcan you see. I learned after my first umbrella that not having one is cheaper.

A letter I received in elementary school from Erin Grimes. Not a clue what happened to her in life but she was my friend back then. The address on the front was upside down. Inside was a drawing of two horses. She could name any bread of horse and I could name any bread of cat. I can still remember the basement where we would have sleep over parties.

Here is a shoebox filled with my life. Moments and memories that I can only remember when I see the little pieces that were left behind. How much more have I forgotten because there is nothing to remind me of it? I don’t keep journals, I throw away photos of times and people that I don’t care about anymore; I even clean out those boxes every once in a while. Sometime it is to forget them memories and sometimes things get tossed because on that day I just didn’t care anymore.

Coolest RA ever!

2009-04-22T09:33:00.003-07:00

I often question how I got to be an RA. Oh yeah, I didn't have my piercing or hair colored crazy. Oops. But I am really good at what I do and I take pride in the fact that I can be off the wall but still do good things for the people around me.

A resident showed up at my door because she lost her nose stud and she didn't know who else could help her. I did!

Movie Review

2009-04-22T09:33:00.001-07:00

Burn After Reading

With an all stare cast that includes John Malkovich, Brad Pitt, and George Clooney a moviegoer would expect an award-winning plot and script. Burn After Reading wasn't nominated for any Oscars awards.

I'm a huge fan of total messed up movies, American Beauty, Eternal Sunshine, and Closer all fall into that category. All are movies that involve either heart break, death, and/or sleeping around with other peoples spouses. Burn after reading has all of my favorite aspects for a movie but fell short on any true meaning.

There is meaning in American Beauty. Everyone is looking for something beautiful in there lives where decay has replaced beauty. One boy in the movie manages to find beauty in everything, including garbage. The line at the end, when Lester is talking about how it feels to have died, he says “but it's hard to stay mad, when there's so much beauty in the world. Sometimes I feel like I'm seeing it all at once, and it's too much, my heart fills up like a balloon that's about to burst... And then I remember to relax, and stop trying to hold on to it, and then it flows through me like rain and I can't feel anything but gratitude for every single moment of my stupid little life...” That is meaningful, some times you just need to breath.

Eternal Sunshine is another movie that had deep meaning. The big question brought on by this movie is “Would you erase your past memories?” This movie shows us what would happen if we did and the life lesson is – we need our past. Our past makes us who we are today and if erase it we are doomed to repeat it.

I don't believe in movies with happy endings because real life is in high demand yet short supply of happy endings. I want movies that give me the real life pain that is floating around other people’s lives. I can either sympathize with movies like that or fell good that my own life isn't like that. Burn After Reading has no happy ending but falls short on being a movie one can relate to.

People are sleeping around with each other and everyone is within 6 degrees of one another and this can be related to. Innocent people getting killed because they were in the wrong place at the wrong time and this can be related to. There was a group of men that belonged to some government group who held no reliance to the plot of the movie and that could not be related to.

The opening scene that had the men in suits added to the movie but the rest of the scenes with them in it didn't. The movie would have made more sense and been easier for me to follow if they had cut the men in suits out of it completely.

This could have been a great movie. It held all the elements that I enjoy. It also held those men in suits that didn’t add to the plot of the movie at all. Burn After Reading had the ability to have some great and profound meaning but it choose not to. A movie that is as serious as this should have some poetic meaning or it should have been a comedy.

The movie trailer for this movie made it seem like it would be funny. But all of the funny scenes were in the trailer. This is something of a problem in the movie industry.

This is how we do it

2009-04-15T04:52:00.004-07:00

One thing I love and will miss about Nebraska is that we are people who get to the point. I ask a question, I get a direct answer that should be under 3 sentences long, any longer then that and a person is putting way to much detail into the answer and the point is lost.

Remember it was the blue number 8 that was important. Details about the cage were not, hence there were no details about the cage. Two weeks later and I still want to know why there was a blue number 8 on a white rabbit. I don't even know if I was told the rabbit was white or if the detail about the color of the rabbit was left out. It doesn't matter because it was all about a blue number 8 on the back of a rabbit. All other details can be omitted because they don't matter.

We know a lot about wind here in Nebraska and have had it with the wind. Windbags beware! We have had enough.

We are a culture that, even us big city boys and girls, work hard and get to the point. The mentality of people here in the breadbasket is of a hard working life. We are a culture based on getting up before dawn to grab some breakfast so we can be out working the fields by dawn because you never know when the weather will change and a whole day of work will be lost.

We need to get to the point because there isn't time to waste. There might be a freak snow storm in the middle of June in the next hour and a Nebraskan can get much done in an hour. Ok, so we are not all like that but that is our culture. West coast culture is laid back, and Seattle is the most laid back city in all of America, Miami is the heart of the party, New York never sleeps, LA is full of phonies, Texas is the home of the cowboy, and in the midwest we get to the point.

When I start dealing with people who are not from the midwest I become very confused and disorientated because they just keep talking and talking and talking and I can't remember what they are talking about or even the question I asked because I asked a question then they started talking and it had nothing to do with the question I asked, Oh I remember the question, but yeah they haven't said anything that has to do with the information I was looking for. Don't get me wrong, I have issues articulating myself sometimes, but if that was the case then most people ask me to clarify. They don't just start talking.

Not sure how I'm going to survive when I move out west. It will be rough.

VH1 to mush my mind

2009-04-14T07:13:00.004-07:00

Thank god I have VH1 to warp my mind in the hours before sunrise. The one's where I'm not yet awake, runny on a treadmill, and primed for mind control.

First though, I saw a PC commercial this morning, yes on VH1, where the guy's opinion, "Mac's are about the aesthetics, I don't think of them for computing power." WTF!? this guy has obviously never tried to run InDesign and PhotoShop at the same time on PC. News Flash - runs as fast as a dead dog.

"Love me, hate me, say what you want about me
But all of the boys and all of the girls are begging to
if you seek Amy"

I hate Britney Spears. She is a white trash ho bag. But god damn it if her songs aren't catchy. That song has now been in my mind for 3 hours. I'll be singing it when I go to bed.

Fade in - "I don't care just what you think as long as it's about me."

At 6am it all flows into without falling out again. VH1 also brings about most of the men on my top 10 list of hotties. Thank you VH1; Eminem just made the list. Ha! Love him or hate him, he is a genius. Scary, right? But true. Go, go rockstar!

VH1 pop culture, TV induced ADD, everybody dance now!

I would also like to point out in my ADD ramblings that in the movie Seven Pounds, Will Smith is not an IRS agent. Without giving it away anything important, he steals his brothers identity as an IRS agent. Had to get that out there.

At the Drive-in

2009-04-12T04:56:00.002-07:00

I love working at movie theaters but my favorite was the drive in. When I started there were only two rows of poles with speakers left. But the mike I used to make the pizza announcement was strait out of the 50's. The theater opened in the 50's and I bet it was the original mike. It also opened 10 days late because of bad weather, go figure.

I hate going to bed after 10pm and this job would keep me out until 2am some days, but I loved it. I would set my alarm and go to sleep after the other employees had gone. If anything happened to the film the alarm was loud enough to wake me up. I had the fun job of being the projectionist, everyone else gets to leave after the first movie and I'm there by myself the rest of the night. My boss's back yard was adjacent to the lot and he would stay up until I had left.

If I didn't feel like putting up with customers I would wonder around the lot, if it was hot I would go inside. Along with being the projectionist I was also called a "lot manager". I would get to kick people off the lot if they were doing things they were pissing me off.

The joys of any job, where to start. How about with the stupid phone calls.
Person: What time does the movie start?
Me: As soon as it starts getting dark.
Person: What time is that?

First I'll point out that the screens for a drive-in are always on the West side of the lot. Durf, lets think about this. Sun sets in the west, if sun is setting while screen is on west side of lot then - shadow is cast on side that is being watched and movie can start at dusk instead of after full sun set. No way! I have had to spell this out for many a people. This really should be common sense.

Now lets factor in time of sun set, is it cloudy, how cloudy is it (sometimes clouds would cause the movie to start later, no I won't explain it), how dark is the movie being shown (dark movies have to start later, no I won't explain this either), and this leads to there being a 20-30 minute range of when I could start a movie. All of this is common sense for me before I started!

So when people call and ask what time the movie starts, I'm sorry but it's really hard to tell. Ok that was a complete lie because by the end of my first summer I had the art of knowing when a movie would start perfected. I would know at least 30 minutes in advance when it would start. But if someone wants to ask what time does it get dark, I'm not releasing any more information.

Yes we play movies in the rain, we only stop if the power goes out. I get to pull the giant metal poll off the roof even when the sky is full of lighting. Yeah!

Creapy stuff happens too.

There was the night that I had to ask a man to leave because we were closed. He was high on something and I was alone. He just said, "oh, ok" and left, but really, I'm not that big of a person. What if he had been crazy?

Then one night, just last year, I was working at the other theater, the 8 plex, and got a call, "the drive in was blow away by a tornado, you don't need to come to work." Hellz yeah! I get the night off! I wouldn't have been excited if I would have known that they weren't going to fix it. I thought I was getting one or two nights off at the most, turned out to be the whole summer. Sad days. About 6 weeks later I drove by and it was nothing but an empty lot, except the box office which is steel polled and cemented into the ground, I still don't think they figured out how to get it out. I drove by and one lone tear rolled down my face.

My boss's wife whom I get along with great, most people don't, her back yard is attached and I know it affected her greatly when it was taken away. It affected all of us here in Kearney that actually attended it. The stories I heard from people who use to tell us about how their first date was at the drive-in, and I won't get to hear those stories anymore.

It's like losing a friend that I actually liked.

Losing the Magick

2009-04-10T04:38:00.001-07:00

I remember the last time Satan handed me a glass of ice water. It all started when I went out to get the mail and found my mailbox on fire. Although it happens from time to time, it is shocking none the less. After getting my mailbox put out, I find the singed red envelope. On the front it only says: To Jenny. I already know what's inside; however, I open it anyway, it's an invitation to one of Lucifer's dinner parties. Since he knows I always show up, there is no need to RSVP.

The moment I step on his front porch he swings open the door. He never says a word to me; he doesn't have to, because we can read each other like a book. I know he is looking over my attire, inspecting it. He seems to approve of my choice for the evening, for it is a red halter dress, knee length, with a scooping neck. He kisses my cheek as I walk through the door. He even holds my hand all the way to the table where he seats me between Gandhi and John F. Kennedy. Though they are interesting men, it is the Man in Black, brother of Jeordie White, who has captured my attention. He is right across the table from me; consequently, when we hold up our goblets of dragon blood wine, our eyes meet and hold a second to long.

Dinner seems to drag on, for on one side of me JFK tries to hold my attention with politics and on the other Gandhi tries with religion. Although I have been invited as Lucifer's concubine, all I want to do is talk to the Man in Black. Not only does he carry a sheaf of arrows but he also has a long samurai sword at his side. On his left arm he wears a gauntlet made of black leather with silver pyramid studs on it. Although his skin is pale, you can see the fatigued look in his eyes from travel. As I watch his long black hair shining in the light, Satan walks up and hands me a glass of ice water. Lucifer pays no attention to my wandering eyes.

After dinner I find myself sitting on a red velvet couch talking to the Man in Black. He is talking about the magic held in his gauntlet and how he uses it as his shield. He has been fighting demons in the outer-boundaries and he has come here tonight to find his replacement. At this point in the conversation he looks at me. Somehow I know what is coming as he hands me his sword and gauntlet, I am to replace him. I slip on the gauntlet; it fits perfectly as if made for me. My other hand finds the sword and starts swinging it as if I have been doing it my whole life. I can feel the magic that runs through the items I am holding and it starts to penetrate my veins.

My phone starts to ring. I wake up and look around my shoe box of an apartment with its 1970's ghetto fabulous wood paneled walls. At that moment I realize that magic no longer exist in this world. The fairytales of Merlin, pixies, and Rapunzel are lies. I can feel a part of myself die as this thought takes hold of my mind. I feel silly as a tear rolls down my cheek but I know deep down inside that this is a realization that would cripple the strongest of minds.

Throw away age

2009-04-09T15:55:00.000-07:00

The age of the throw away culture. My lease on my car was up so what did I do, I leased a new car. Damn it is a nice car. Push button start, sunroof, Bluetooth for my phone, Bose speakers, plays MP3’s, quite inside and out. Graduating, new guy, new car, new city, new hair cut, does this give way to a new life?

This is not the first time I have up and relocated, leaving everything behind. I believe in reinventing myself everyday, break up the monotony. When you spend 16+ hours a day with yourself it can get relatively boring if you don’t mix it up. Those who don’t get board with themselves are too simple or drama addicts.

It has now been five years in the same town, with the same people, the same job, the same old shit day in and day out. I don’t understand how people do this for 20 years at a time. Going to the same job, living in the same house, raising kids, dropping them off at school everyday for 12 years.

Betzy. She is my best friend but completely opposite of me. No matter what, I’ll keep her in my life. How we ever ended up as friends is beyond me. Her number one goal in life was to be mom. I was floored. I would never. I only found this out when the kid was three. She got her associates degree in something or another, worked at a dead end job at an insurance claims place, only left because she got laid off, now works at a hospital in the insurance department. She will never leave this job.

She bought a house, which means she will never leave Grand Island. Betzy is rooted down, happy as a clam. This leads to some crazy conversations. I’ll call her and ask for advice. She is good with advice, will tell me how she sees it, and she is right even when I don’t want to hear it. But she put down roots and my bohemian/gypsy blood cause me to spread my wings and fly away. Betzy keeps me grounded, that’s why I love her, even if we don’t see eye to eye. We never do.

Others have stated that they wish they could have my gypsy nature but they don’t know the sacrifice that it takes. Being able to move to a new town and start a new life is amazing but finding another whose wings fly the same path is virtually impossible. The probability of finding that person who I can fall asleep with every night and still get to kiss them good morning is boarding on nonexistent. Betzy promises me it will happen when I settle down. But I can’t settle down and the crushing weight that truth is loneliness.

This ability to throw it all away and live the gypsy life comes from the deep seeded need to not end up like my parents. They were from the age of collecting, from a time where you didn’t waste anything. I refuse to collect junk that I don’t use. This includes people, places, and things. Remember that if you don’t use it, throw it away. Embrace the throw away age!

So off to San Francisco to my new school, new apartment, new roommate, with my new car, new hair, to start a whole new life. And I get to do it all by myself. The choices I make will determine where my path leads but when I jump into my car and start driving westward that path will be as foggy as a San Francisco morning.

Burn After Reading

2009-04-07T07:29:00.002-07:00

With an all stare cast that includes John Malkovich, Brad Pitt, and George Clooney a moviegoer would expect an award-winning plot. "Burn After Reading" wasn't nominated for any Oscars awards.

I'm a huge fan of total messed up movies, American Beauty, Eternal Sunshine, and Closer all fall into that category. All are movies that involve either heart break, death, and/or sleeping around with other peoples spouses. Burn after reading has all of my favorite aspects for a movie but fell short on any true meaning.

I don't believe in movies with happy endings because real life is in high demand yet short supply of happy endings. I want movies that give me the real life pain that is floating around other people’s lives. I can either sympathize with movies like that or fell good that my own life isn't like that. Burn After Reading has no happy ending but falls short on being a movie one can relate to.

People are sleeping around with each other and everyone is within 6 degrees of one another and this can be related to. Innocent people getting killed because they were in the wrong place at the wrong time and this can be related to. There was a group of men that belonged to some government group who held no reliance to the plot of the movie and that could not be related to.

The opening scene that had the men in suits added to the movie but the rest of the scenes with them in it didn't. The movie would have made more sense and been easier for me to follow if they had cut the men in suits out of it completely.

This could have been a great movie. It held all the elements that I enjoy. It also held those men in suits that didn’t add to the plot of the movie at all.

Trailer?

The Girl With Nine Lives

2009-04-02T18:03:00.001-07:00

As she stared down the barrel of a sawed off shotgun she had the euphony that her life needed to change or she was going to end up dead in a gutter or spending 25 years to life a federal prison.

That was 7 years ago but it seems like a completely different life. It was a completely different life, a completely different person. It is also one of my clearest memories. I am well adapted to blocking out most of those years, most of the time.

There was the shotgun in my face, the man whose name I can’t remember standing next to me, and the fact that I had to climb over a roof to get to the door. I remember his face, him sitting in my art room - tweaking out on some project, but his name escapes me. If I saw him today I wouldn’t recognize him. One of two things happens to the people I know from that time – they end up looking like the walking dead, eyes hollowed out, pick marks all over there face, ratty and unkempt; or they clean up and pack on some weight. The only ones I recognize these days are the ones I knew before we all ended up as addicts.

I remember the moment that I died, figuratively speeking, and was given a new life to start over with, but that is another story for another day. Although it was an entirely different life, I remember far more clearly then I would like to. I need to remember the day I had a gun pointed at my face with crystal clarity because that was the day I made the choice to save myself. No one will ever save you from yourself that is a choice that can only be made by an individual. After you make that choice there will always be help available if you ask for it. I’ve never been one to ask for help though.

Everyday I am in contact with wonderful people who never screwed up their lives like I did. I shouldn’t have either. I come from a middle class family where I was loved, I didn’t get everything that I wanted but who really does, my parents cared where I was and who my friends were but they were never over barring about it. I got my first car at 14 and got to drive all by myself to school. I lived in a good neighbourhood, was allowed pets, and have no complaints about my childhood. It’s the exact same story of so many of the students in college but for some reason my path took a detour through a darkened part of the woods.

There will always be closed-minded people who will judge me because of my past and I have judged myself with those same thoughts. I have spent years wondering how I was so lucky to get a chance to start over. Part of it was my ability to fallow the “fake it till you make it” theory and I was really good at it. Somewhere between then and now I really did make it and it had nothing to do with luck.

Your thoughts about what’s going on in the here-and-now and what will happen are formed while looking through the lenses of your past. It has taken years for me to break the haze of those old lenses and accept that what I have accomplished had nothing to do with luck. Your past experiences make you what you are today. That past has made me a strong person who works hard and fights for my goals and what I believe in. I may not be ready to embrace my past but I have finally accepted that I shouldn’t be ashamed of it. It shows how strong of a person I am and how hard I work to make my life better and more amazing everyday.

I was on a path that would have lead to 25 years in prison and I turned my life around. I have had the opportunity to be an RA, join a sorority, be the ad staff manager, get involved in campus, I volunteer on a regular basis, I have swam at the Great Barrier Reef, cuddled a koala, hand fed a kangaroo then ate one for dinner, I have been to the Van Gough museum and visited an old soviet block country, Paris, the Vatican, Pompeii, Athens, and have seen so many marvelous things. I got to do all of that because I made the choice to change my life. To bad it had to be a bad situation during a part of my life I wish I could erase. Without knowing the bad I wouldn’t work so hard to make my life extraordinary. It happens to be true that you can’t have the beauty without all the bad stuff, too. Ying and Yang.

This also proves that people can change. I won’t even listen to an argument against this because I did it. I changed.

review

2009-04-02T10:55:00.002-07:00

http://www.popmatters.com/tv/reviews/c/charmed.shtml

I enjoyed this review because it opened with something that was really going on behind the scene. It covers what the philosophy behind WB shows. Hot skimpy dressed girls and beefcakes with their shirts off. It compares it to other show in the genera and doesn't make it out to be the best but it does say that it is enjoyable for the good v evil genera.

Then it gets not so good as the review drags on about the characters and plot.

Ramifications of a Blog

2009-04-02T05:31:00.002-07:00

What is the reach of ramifications of a blog. If I'm writing about something that happened 7 years ago will that have an effect on a future job? I'm writing about how people change and making a better person out of the mistakes of the past.

My problem being that I want to post it and if I was an established writer, or an established anything, I would print it. But I'm not and I'm not sure what type of content could hurt my future job prospects.

It is a really tough call when you want to print something but are afraid of your past coming back to bite you in the ass. Again.

Throw away age

2009-03-31T11:05:00.002-07:00

The age of the throw away culture. My lease on my car was up so what did I do, I leased a new car. Damn it is a nice car. Push button start, sunroof, Bluetooth for my phone, Bose speakers, plays MP3’s, quite inside and out. Graduating, new guy, new car, new city, new hair cut, does this give way to a new life?

This is not the first time I have up and relocated, leaving everything behind. I believe in reinventing myself everyday, break up the monotony. When you spend 16+ hours a day with yourself it can get relatively boring if you don’t mix it up. Those who don’t get board with themselves are too simple or drama addicts.

It has now been five years in the same town, with the same people, the same job, the same old shit day in and day out. I don’t understand how people do this for 20 years at a time. Going to the same job, living in the same house, raising kids, dropping them off at school everyday for 12 years.

My best friend Betzy is completely opposite of me when it comes to starting over. I will keep her in my life no matter where I go or who I become but how I ended up friends with that woman is beyond me. Betzy’s number one goal in life was to become a mother. I learned about this when her daughter was 3 years old and was floored by this revelation. I would never. She got her associates degree in something or another and would have worked at the same dead end job at an insurance claims place if they hadn’t laid her off. Now she is over worked and underpaid in the insurance department of the local hospital. She will never leave this job.

She bought a house, which means she will never leave the town, and is slowly fixing it up. Betzy is rooted down and happy as a clam. This leads to some crazy conversations when I call her and ask for advice. She is good with advice, will tell me how she sees it, and I know she is right even when I don’t want to hear it. But she put down roots and my bohemian/gypsy blood cause me to spread my wings and fly away. Betzy keeps me grounded and that’s why I love her, even if we don’t see eye to eye on issues of life.

Others have stated that they wish they could have my gypsy nature but they don’t know the sacrifice that it takes. Being able to move to a new town and start a new life is amazing but finding another whose wings fly the same path is virtually impossible. The probability of finding that person who I can fall asleep with every night and still get to kiss them good morning is boarding on nonexistent. Betzy promises me it will happen when I settle down. But I can’t settle down and the crushing weight that truth is loneliness.

This ability to throw it all away and live the gypsy life comes from the deep seeded need to not end up like my parents. They were from the age of collecting, from a time where you didn’t waste anything. I refuse to collect junk that I don’t use. This includes people, places, and things. Remember that if you don’t use it, throw it away. Embrace the throw away age!

So off to San Francisco to my new school, new apartment, new roommate, with my new car, new hair, to start a whole new life. And I get to do it all by myself.The choices I make will determine where my path leads but when I jump into my car and start driving westward that path will be as foggy as a San Francisco morning.

Conspiracy Theories

2009-03-27T04:48:00.002-07:00

I love conspiracy theories, especially the ones that are so outrageous no way could it be true. The government has let it's people get attacked or has attacked it's own people to go to war. Proved and possible so no fun. A space ship landed at Roswell and they study aliens at area 51. No flipping way is this possible.

Trust me when I say if aliens exist that are advanced enough to make it to planet earth one of two things would happen. They would either run for dear life because they would think that we were completely FUBAR or everyone in the world would know they existed because our government can not hide something this big.

Another thing about the alien stuff that doesn't fit either is the fact that they crashed. Don't you think that a race that was smart enough to bridge the huge gaps in space could do it with out crashing when they got here. If your argue here is that it has only happened a few time or only happened once, I still have to repeat - They traveled hundreds of light years in an instance and you think they ended that with a crash? Lets think about this, crashing is really a human thing. We crash into thing, not normally the other way around.

For those who think that aliens are running around abducting people, I would like to ask, "Have you seen the state of our world?" Sure abducting people from the developed countries seems like the logical choice but when it comes to scientific sampling they would take from everywhere, including those places where things are not going well for the population. Can say I have ever heard of people in the slums of the world getting abducted. Maybe it happens and it's just not reported but maybe they have better things to worry about and that's why they don't make up stories about it.

Then there are the repeat abductions, the people who they keep coming for, over and over and over. Most of these people are not living exciting lives so explain to me why highly intelligent beings are looking at them more then once. Once again, look at the state of our world, why would anyone want to continue coming back here. If I was that smart I would come once take a random sample and after doing so I would be smart enough not to come back.

If they were coming back time and again then that would mean they are here to help us because quite frankly humans are not as interesting as most seem to think we are. They are not coming back to "learn more about us." There is not a whole hell of a lot to learn because we are boring. So if they are here to help then that means that aliens are out to do great and big things. This can not be covered up. The whole world would know if that was really going on.

Aliens are not visiting our planet but it sure is fun to poke holes into peoples beliefs about it.

spring break Final

2009-03-26T17:54:00.001-07:00

A few years ago I made a trip to Chicago with a couple of friends of mine, Dylan and Mary Jane which lead to an adventure of hair plugs, my hatred of Starbucks and gay clubs. The 8 hour drive was split up between us, Dylan drove the first leg then Mary was in the middle, she's always in the middle. I of course was the only one who willing to drive into Chicago itself. We were staying in down town and managed to get in during rush hour. Once again, I always end up in large cities during rush hour, Albuquerque, Phoenix, Chicago, St. Louis, etc.

Funny thing is I suffer from anxiety. I hold it together and try and pretend that it doesn’t bother me. None of my friends have ever figured out that I am scared as hell to be driving in mass amounts of traffic. The fear comes from the fact that the larger the group of people the more stupid they act. Now put all that idiocracy into large metal death boxes. Add into the equation that people are competitive which leads to offensive driving. If everyone would just take a deep breath and respect the mightiness of the car then my fear of the road would not be so great.

We make it the hotel just fine, go out to eat, and then crash out for the night. Although our first day is not that exciting, it get better.

Day two starts out with us getting up early and going to a medical office. Dylan needed to get his hair plugs checked. It was the one-year mark and I guess they needed to be checked. The view from the doctor’s office was amazing. The high rise next to us had a pool and garden on the roof.

The food in big cities is amazing. There are more flavors to be tasted. Compared to the food I had in Chicago, every restaurant in Kearney taste like I’m chewing on cardboard. This makes no sense because the meals in Chicago were not more expensive then eating out in Kearney. I love food but I have been spoiled by my travels.

This trip to Chicago also leads to my hatred of Starbucks. I am ad major and therefore a brand whore. I do love brand name stuff but it has to be quality. First off Starbucks is not quality. Second, there is no need for two Starbucks to be on the exact same block. They were even on the same side of the street. I consider this overdoing it. That was the day I swore I would never drink Starbucks coffee.

Later that night we go out on the town. We hope on the L train and head out. We get off in an area of town known as “boys town.” I have never seen so many Leather, porn, and bondage shops in such a short walk.

We get to a club, have some drinks, and are having a good time. Next thing you know Mary Jane and I get kicked out for being strait girls. There was no way they could prove we were strait but we were asked to leave because they didn’t want “strait girls” in their club. WTF?!?

Well a man couple there over heard this and invited us to an afterhours club, that was friendly to all, down the street. We ended up loosing the guys who we came with, seven sheets to the wind and I was the only one sober enough to get us back to the hotel. This included getting on the right L train and navigating the 8 blocks after we get off the train. Not to mention the trying to talk the drunks into believing I knew where we were. So how did I end up being the only one who was hung over? I don’t know but I now know what gay clubs, hair plugs, and my hatred of Starbucks have in common. It was my spring break trip to Chicago.

Mornings

2009-03-25T04:33:00.002-07:00

Being an early riser in college has it's advantages. There are only 3 other people awake and moving in the dorms (resident halls) at 6am. This means you don't have to worry about not getting a show or even combing your hair for at least another hour.

Another perk is that it is quite and you can get homework done. In the evenings it is loud from 3pm on. While quite hours should start at 10pm, this doesn't normally happen. Being the one who has to enforce this I am well aware of the fact that the young adults around here are not ready to be quite at 10pm.

This leads to problem of getting to sleep at night so you can wake up to a early peace and quite. Problem solution - iPod and headphones, fans also work along with ear plugs. I do own a giant box of ear plugs, which are over half gone from this school year.

Remember - early to bed and early to rise makes a man heath and wise.

New Begainings

2009-03-21T16:37:00.002-07:00

The age of the throw away culture. My lease on my car was up so what did I do, I leased a new car. Damn it is a nice car. Graduating, new guy, new car, new city, new hair cut, does this give way to a new life? Maybe. That question will be answered in a few months.

In the mean time, why wouldn't someone want a whole new start? It is such a refreshing thing to leave your past behind and start with a whole new slate. While I believe in reinventing yourself everyday, moving away and starting over is a whole different ball park.

This has happened for me before. It is refreshing. Which leads me to ask - Why don't more people do this? What do people have that is so great that they don't just walk away into a new city, a new scene, a new home, a new life?

Spring break

2009-03-19T20:31:00.000-07:00

What does gay clubs, hair plugs, my hatred of Starbucks have in common?

A few years ago I made a trip to Chicago with a couple of friends of mine, Dylan and Mary Jane. The 8 hour drive was split up between us, Dylan drove the first leg then Mary was in the middle, she's always in the middle. I of course was the only one who willing to drive into Chicago itself. We were staying in down town and managed to get in during rush hour. Once again, I always end up in large cities during rush hour, Albuquerque, Phoenix, Chicago, St. Louis, etc.

Funny thing is I suffer from anxiety. I hold it together and try and pretend that it doesn’t bother me. None of my friends have ever figured out that I am scared as hell to be driving in mass amounts of traffic. The fear comes from the fact that the larger the group of people the more stupid they act. Now put all that idiocracy into large metal death boxes. Add into the equation that people are competitive which leads to offensive driving. If everyone would just take a deep breath and respect the mightiness of the car then my fear of the road would not be so great.

We make it the hotel just fine, go out to eat, and then crash out for the night. Although our first day is not that exciting, it get better.

Day two starts out with us getting up early and going to a medical office. Dylan needed to get his hair plugs checked. It was the one-year mark and I guess they needed to be checked. The view from the doctor’s office was amazing. The high rise next to us had a pool and garden on the roof.

The food in big cities is amazing. Compared to the food I had in Chicago, every restaurant in Kearney taste like I’m eating out of a trash can. This makes no sense because the meals in Chicago were not more expensive then eating out in Kearney. I love food but I have been spoiled by my travels.

This trip to Chicago also leads to my hatred of Starbucks. I am ad major and therefore a brand whore. I do love brand name stuff but it has to be quality. First off Starbucks is not quality. Second, there is no need for two Starbucks to be on the exact same block. They were even on the same side of the street. I consider this overdoing it. That was the day I swore I would never drink Starbucks coffee.

Later that night we go out on the town. We hope on the L train and head out. We get off in an area of town known as “boys town.” I have never seen so many Leather, porn, and bondage shops in such a short walk.

We get to a club, have some drinks, and are having a good time. Next thing you know Mary Jane and I get kicked out for being strait girls. There was no way they could prove we were strait but we were asked to leave because they didn’t want “strait girls” in their club. WTF?!?

Well a couple of men there over heard this and invited us to an afterhours club down the street. We ended up seven sheets to the wind and I was the only one sober enough to get us back to the hotel. This included getting on the right L train and navigating the 8 blocks after we get off the train. Not to mention the trying to talk the drunks into believing I knew where we were. So how did I end up being the only one who was hung over? I don’t know but I now know what gay clubs, hair plugs, and my hatred of Starbucks have in common. It was my spring break trip to Chicago.

Quote of the Day

2009-03-18T05:59:00.001-07:00

Weather and Safety

2009-03-10T09:40:00.002-07:00

I have seen class canceled on days that were nice, there just happen to be lots of snow. On these days people could have gotten to class and the streets were clear to drive on, you just had to be motivated enough to dig yourself out of the drive way.

But on days like today it is dangerous to get from class to class. That's the point to snow days right? To keep us safe. It was 11:30am before I saw public safety deicing the sidewalks between the buildings. At 10:45am it was to dangerous to get from main campus out to west center because of the ice. I decided to skip class to save myself.

My fear of the ice comes from last year, right before valentines day, I feel on the ice and hurt myself quite badly. It took weeks for me to heal. While it is funny to watch people fall on the ice, the safety of students needs to be considered. It is even unsafe driving in the parking lots on campus.

Most people that do fall won't report it either. This is a problem because when falls on campus go unreported then the university doesn't know how dangerous it really is. This leads them to continue to let students walk to class in unsafe conditions.

Today is worse then any of the snow days I've seen the school give. Why is no one concerned for our safety?

X-Files

2009-03-08T09:23:00.003-07:00

So I have watched every episode of the x-file at least twice. I own the box set but not the movies. Yes I have seen them a couple of times, too.

The first few seasons are my favorite, I was never a huge fan of the whole "I lost my sister to aliens" boo hoo. But they all fallow the outline.

So to my point - there is an outline for the show and every episode fallows this outline.

1. The show opens with someone who goes missing or a death.
2. Next Mulder and Scully go check it out.
3. Most of the time it is Mulder who comes up with some crazy off the wall idea of what really happened
4. Scully (most of the time) comes up with a scientific answer to what has happened
5. Of of the two of them gets into trouble
6. The other one saves them
7. Turns out that Mulder was mostly right and Scully wasn't completely wrong. (in later episodes Scully comes up with the crazy ideas and Doggett is the sane one but the plot outline is still the same)
8. Then there is the "moment" that will always take place between Mulder and Scully at some point in the show. But they can never hook up because that always ruins the show.

And that is the outline for x-file episodes.

Stephen King

2009-03-06T17:45:00.008-08:00

Stephen King is celebrating 35 years of being published. I'm not sure how anyone else feels about King and I don't know how I feel about him. So Lets make a list.

Good things about Stephen King

1. The book IT was amazing!
2. He likes driving I-80 through Nebraska and this led to Children of the Corn.
3. Some of his books are entertaining and can hold my interest.
4. The Green Mile. Both book and movie.
5. The Ending of the movie The Myst

Not so good

1. His voice puts me to sleep when I am trying to listen to his books on tape.
2. The movie IT (Not really his fault)
3. Not all of his books are entertaining
4. The rest of the movie The Myst.

Well, I'm going to call this one a draw. I like some of his books and there is no doubt he is a writer. But I can't say I think he is the best writer I have ever read.

Editorial #3 UNK Issue

2009-03-04T18:02:00.001-08:00

A paycheck is important to everyone. Bills and rent need to be paid, food to eat, and some entertainment is always a nice perk. At the University of Nebraska, across all campus, the budget is once again come into question. The economy is down and money needs to be cut from the budget. This is bound to have an effect on someone. It should be university staff paychecks that are affected.

Tuition is always on the rise at universities. This has a direct impact on students and their ability to afford a higher education. The University of Nebraska President James B. Milliken posted on his blog information regarding the Collegebound Nebraska program. This program helps with fees, books, and room and board. Tuition rates should not be a concern because they just added more money to this program and there are many other programs like it. The rise in tuition does not have enough of an impact on the budget to cover the problem.

The universities could let go of staff that isn’t tenured and put a freeze on hiring new employees. This solution only hurts the students. Not having enough professors to teach the classes means that class size increases. This is not good for the University of Nebraska at Kearney where the small class size is a drawing power. Putting a freeze on hiring other staff is not a plausible option either. When a custodian leaves then it is better to replace them. Having the remaining staff pick up the extra work leads to lowered productivity. An unhappy custodian means dirty buildings. These options for cutting the budget don’t make sense in a community like Kearney, Nebraska.

So what option does make sense for our community? Helping out a neighbor by taking a little less for ourselves is what makes Kearney a great community. If all the employees at the university go two weeks without pay then this will help to cut the budget without a neighbor or a friend completely losing their job. This solution would tighten up everyone’s purse strings but it would keep people from losing their job. If they don’t lose their job then they are not at risk of losing their house. In a small friendly community like Kearney we can afford to go without that little extra if it helps others. Lets all help a neighbor by giving up a paycheck for two weeks.

a paycheck is important to everyone

2009-03-04T09:54:00.001-08:00

Tuition is always on the rise at universities. This has a direct impact on students and their ability to afford a higher education. The rise in tuition should not be a concern though. The University of Nebraska President James B. Milliken posted on his blog information regarding the Collegebound Nebraska program. This program helps with fees, books, and room and board. Tuition rates should not be a concern because they just added more money to this program and there are many other programs like it.

The universities could let go of staff that isn’t tenured and put a freeze on hiring new employees. This solution only hurts the students. Not having enough professors to teach the classes means that class size increases. This is not good for the University of Nebraska at Kearney where the small class size is a drawing power. Putting a freeze on hiring other staff is not a plausible option either. When a custodian leaves then it is better to replace them. Having the remaining staff pick up the extra work leads to lowered productivity. An unhappy custodian means dirty buildings. These options for cutting the budget don’t make sense in a community like Kearney, Nebraska.

So what option does make sense for our community? Helping out our neighbors by taking a little less for us is what makes living in Kearney great. If all the employees at the university go two weeks without pay then this will help to cut the budget without you neighbor or your friend completely losing their job.

parking

2009-02-24T19:31:00.000-08:00

Parking on UNK is great for a University. For example at UNL they sell 200% of the available parking spaces and at UNK they only sell 110% of available parking spaces. The price at UNK is a lot cheaper, too. Not to mention that the parking spots are a lot closer.

When I lived off campus it was much easier to find parking that was close to the buildings that I needed. Living on campus I may have to walk a long distance to my dorm but I now I'm right on campus to walk everywhere else.

Parking at UNK is great compared to the other colleges I have gone to.

Local issues

2009-02-23T20:42:00.000-08:00

Being able to expunge one F off of your record if it doesn't count for anything for you to graduate. I don't need to elaborate on why that should be a given. It doesn't count for anything why is it hurting my GPA.

There is only one major street running north and south in Kearney and this leads to most of the accidents in town.

The dating scene in college. This might not sound like an important editorial but it is. When there are three to four columns in the school newspaper regarding dating or the lack there then it is a problem. At college you meet someone, at the bar, then go home with them and you don't feel to bad about the bad mistake, even when they don't call you back, because they were kinda cute. This is how STD run rapid in small college towns. Is this really the future we want to leave to the next generation, and our children?

high fructose corn syrup and the health risks

2009-02-21T06:15:00.000-08:00

By now we have all seen the commercials about HFCS (high fructose corn syrup) and how it is not that bad for you in moderation. The problem is HFCS is in almost everything that we eat and in some of those products, soda for example, it is not used in moderation. Most Americans are eating way more then they should.

HFCS's chemical compound is very similar to sugar and just like sugar does nothing but ad empty calories to your diet. Both sugar and HFCS makes your blood sugar spike and then drop rapidly. We all know the myth that an hour after eating Chinese food you will be hungry again. Turns out this isn't a myth, the refined carbs of the white rice act on the blood sugar the same way HFCS and sugar do. Makes your blood sugar spike and drop rapidly making you hungry again sooner then you should be.

There are studies that show a coalition between HFCS and obesity and diabetes. It is no secret that obesity causes all kinds of problems for the body and is a major player in the increase of type II diabetes. Journal of the American Medical Association did a study that lasted from 1991 to 1999 and showed that women who drank more then 1 sugar sweetened beverage per week had greater magnitude of weight gain and were at a significantly greater risk of developing type II diabetes. How many people drink 1 or less sugar sweetened beverages per week? Most people are drinking at least one per day.

The majority of the sugar-sweetened beverages are sweetened with HFCS. Although they haven’t proved that HFCS directly leads to obesity and diabetes doesn’t mean that we can eat as much HFCS as we want.

Here is what has been shown in studies. Americans are obese and this obesity is leading to higher rates of type II diabetes. They also know that over consumption of sugar, including HFCS, refined grain products like white bread, white rice, white anything, are leading to this obesity epidemic.

My challenge to you is to look at the foods you eat the most and check out the ingredients. The higher on the list the more of that ingredient it has. So if HFCS is second on the list that means HFCS is by volume the second greatest ingredient in the product.

Another problem is that many products say “made with whole grains” on the front but if on the ingredient list it says anything other then “whole grain wheat” or rice or oats, then it is considered refined. If in doubt about the whole grain factor look at the amount of fiber in the product. It should have at least 1 gram of fiber per 90 calories and whole grain products will have at least that if not more.

HFCS may not be the only thing leading to health problems but it is one of the leading offenders.

Editorial #2 Final Draft

2009-02-19T04:18:00.000-08:00

Nebraska Death Penalty

The Nebraska death penalty has recently come into question in the state unicameral. Electrocution was the sole method until the Nebraska Supreme Court ruled the method unconstitutional in February 2008. Nebraska tried to pass a life sentence without parole to replace the death penalty but it fell one vote short of passing. The death penalty is wrong and should be replaced with a life sentence without out parole.
The death penalty is cruel punishment. There are reports of botched deaths when it comes to any form of execution. The last reported case of an electrocution gone badly was July 8, 1999 in Florida. Blood had poured from the mouth of the man being executed and oozed through the buckle holes on the straps across his chest. There are a number of cases more resent then that where lethal injection has gone wrong. The problems reported with lethal injection is not being able to find a vein, going through the vain and the poison being pumped into the surrounding tissue, and unusual violent reactions to the lethal drugs. Even if you could guarantee that you could use lethal injection without harm to a person, killing someone is still wrong.
The death penalty is wrong because you may execute an innocent person. The death penalty is also a long and complicated process. It clogs up the courts and cost millions of dollars. This long process also causes prolonged pain for the victim’s family, who must relive the trauma through multiple court hearings and appeals. If there were a way to guarantee that no one innocent would be killed, if the cost of the death penalty were cheaper then life without parole, and if the death penalty helped the victims families, taking the life of another is still wrong.
The most compelling reason for revoking the death penalty, and replacing it with life without parole, is that to kill another human being is wrong. Most death penalty cases involve the defendant being charged with murder. We cannot claim that murder is wrong when we turn around and kill someone who is convicted of murder. We are all human and none of us have the right to say that because it is a jury, judge, or law (which were written by man) that means it is acceptable to kill the killer. No one has the right to judge who should live and who should die, that is why there are laws against murder. We should not look the other way when someone is being killed, even if it is the authorities that are making that choice.
Fourteen states do not have the death penalty. Nebraska needs to adopt this practice, too. We were the last state to have electrocution as our sole method of capital punishment. Let us become one of the early adaptors of life with out parole. We all have a responsibility to do what is morally just. Choosing to let the state murder someone is no more just then letting anyone else get away with it. We need to let our state know that we do not support the death penalty; that it is wrong and we will not stand to let any more blood be spilled, even when the blood is not that of an innocent person.

Editorial #2

2009-02-14T07:39:00.001-08:00

Nebraska Death Penalty

The Nebraska death penalty has recently come into question in the state unicameral. Electrocution was the sole method until the Nebraska Supreme Court ruled the method unconstitutional in February 2008. Nebraska tried to pass a life sentence without parole to replace the death penalty but it fell one vote short of passing. The death penalty is wrong and should be replaced with a life sentence without out parole.
The death penalty is cruel punishment. There are reports of botched deaths when it comes to any form of execution. The last reported case of an electrocution gone badly was July 8, 1999 in Florida. Blood had poured from the mouth of the man being executed and oozed through the buckle holes on the straps across his chest. There are a number of cases more resent then that where lethal injection has gone wrong. The problems reported with lethal injection is not being able to find a vein, going through the vain and the poison being pumped into the surrounding tissue, and unusual violent reactions to the lethal drugs.
Fourteen states do not have the death penalty. Nebraska needs to adopt this practice, too. We were the last state to have electrocution as our sole method of capital punishment. Let us become one of the early adaptors of life with out parole.
The death penalty is wrong because you may execute an innocent person. The death penalty is also a long and complicated process. It clogs up the courts and cost millions of dollars. This long process also causes prolonged pain for the victim’s family, who must relive the trauma through multiple court hearings and appeals.
The most compelling reason for revoking the death penalty, and replacing it with life without parole, is that to kill another human being is wrong. Most death penalty cases involve the defendant being charged with murder. We cannot claim that murder is wrong when we turn around and kill someone who is convicted of murder. We are all human and none of us have the right to say that because it is a jury, judge, or law (which were written by man) that means it is acceptable to kill the killer. No one has the right to judge who should live and who should die, that is why there are laws against murder. We should not look the other way when someone is being killed, even if it is the authorities that are making that choice.
We all have a responsibility to do what is morally just. Choosing to let the state murder someone is no more just then letting anyone else get away with it. We need to let our state know that we do not support the death penalty; that it is wrong and we will not stand to let any more blood be spilled, even when the blood is not that of an innocent person.

Cell Phone Etiquette

2009-02-12T18:41:00.000-08:00

I grew up in an age where not everyone had a cell phone. Only the really rich people in Hollywood had them and they were the size of your head. I must have been around 16 when I got my first cell phone and I was one of the first kids in class to have one.

My father worked for the railroad as an engineer and was gone more often then he was home. As a result a family dinner was not an every night thing and even when he was gone we only ate out maybe once a week.

Even when dad wasn't home we would set the table and eat in the kitchen. We didn't get to eat with the TV on much either. If we were in front of the TV and the big old yellow rotary phone would ring we could answer it but if we were at the table you let it ring and the answering machine could pick it up. Yes, there were answering machines and those where also really big, too. Our first answering machine took full size cassette tapes.

Here we are in 2009 and when I go out to eat I see other families eating and here are the teenage kids texting away. Every time my ex would take me out he would start texting with people. DRIVES ME NUTS! When you get a chance to sit down with your family you should enjoy it. People don't realize that it might be the last time they see the. And what are they doing - Playing with their phones. How romatic is it when you go out to eat with a significat other and the both of you spend the meal talking and texting other people.

Is everyones' lives that important that they can't take a few minutes out of the day to be here right now with a real live human being. I can't believe the lack of respect in the yonger gerneration. OH YEAH I SAID IT. I don't really mean that though. The young have never known respect and I didn't know what the word ment either a few years back. Then I learned that I will for the rest of my life be learning how to be respectful. It is a never ending process.

I guess the big bugger for me is that I love technology and love to use technology and think it is really cool all the things and posiblities that technology holds. I love that technology is changing so fast that we don't know what the future holds. 10 years ago Wired Magazine made some prodections about the futre of the Internet and technology. Some were compleatly off and some were on the right track. We just don't know and sometimes our wildest imaginations can't do what really happens justist. Oh, how I love technology.

But there seems to be something missing. The human connections, the human network. I miss sitting down to dinner with my family and knowing that our time together will be just for us. Why can't my sister give me 30 minutes of her time when I only get to see them once every couple of months. She talks and texts on her cell when we go out to dinner. I try to remember to turn my ringer off when we eat but if I forget I would never answer it.

I miss people. I miss all people.

Editorial #2 Draft

2009-02-12T17:08:00.000-08:00

Nebraska Death Penalty

Nebraska has recently come into question in the state unicameral. Electrocution was the sole method until the Nebraska Supreme Court ruled the method unconstitutional in February 2008. Nebraska tried to pass a life sentence without parole to replace the death penalty but it fell one vote short of passing. The death penalty is wrong and should be replaced with a life sentence without out parole.
The death penalty is cruel punishment. There are reports of botched deaths when it comes to any form of execution. The last reported case of an electrocution gone badly was July 8, 1999 in Florida. Blood had poured from his mouth and oozed through the buckle holes on the straps across his chest. There are a number of cases more resent then that where lethal injection has gone wrong. The problems reported with lethal injection is not being able to find a vein, going through the vain and the poison being pumped into the surrounding tissue, and unusual violent reactions to the lethal drugs.
Most states have gotten rid of electrocution and replaced it with lethal injection. Only seven states have electrocution and the inmate can choose the method; some restrictions may apply. Two other states only have electrocution if the other methods are deemed unconstitutional.
The death penalty is wrong because you may execute an innocent person. The death penalty is a long and complicated process. It clogs up the courts and cost millions of dollars. This long process also causes prolonged pain for the victim’s family, who must relive the trauma through multiple court hearings and appeals.
The most compelling reason for revoking the death penalty, and replacing it with life without parole, is that to kill another human being is wrong. Most death penalty cases involve the defendant being charged with murder. We cannot claim that murder is wrong when we turn around and kill someone who is convicted of murder. We are all human and none of us have the right to say that because it is a jury, judge, or law (which were written by man) that means it is acceptable to kill the killer. No one has the right to judge who should live and who should die, that is why there are laws against murder. We should not look the other way when someone is being killed, even if it is the authorities are making that choice.
We all have a responsibility to do what is morally just. Choosing to let the state murder someone is no more just then letting anyone else get away with it. We need to let our state know that we do not support the death penalty; that it is wrong and we will not stand to let any more blood be spilled, innocent or not.

I don't care

2009-02-12T15:23:00.000-08:00

I like to argue with people. So when given a topic, say the death penalty in Nebraska, I can argue either side. I would have fun. Deep down inside, I really don't care about Nebraska issues. There are a few reasons.

Nebraska is not a bad place to live.
There are not good controversial topics in the state.
I have never viewed Nebraska as my home, despite being born and raised here.

Due to those reason, I can argue a point but I don't care enough to truly pick a side. Other reason I don't really care what Nebraska does about the death penalty is because it's not going to effect me. I'm never going to do anything that could cause the death penalty to effect me.

Someone asked, "What if your best friend, boyfriend, or a loved one does something that would cause them to be effected by the death penalty?"

I would quit talking to them because they are a POS if they did something to deserve that question being asked.

I-80

2009-02-07T14:38:00.001-08:00

Stephen King loves to drive I-80 across Nebraska. I can understand why, it is kinda creepy. Everyone complains that the drive through Nebraska is boring. It’s only boring west of Kearney. Yes, I know it is brown 9 months out of the year, it is flat, and it sucks to drive at night. I don’t personally find it beautiful but I have to admit there is some beauty in the emptiness.

It’s not that empty there are plenty of things to look at, but you won’t see it if you are zoning out on the road. You have to look into the great expanse to see what is there.
I have spent 10 years driving between Kearney and Lincoln. I know the road, the signs, the fields and the trees. Yes, there are trees that I have watched grow over the past 10 years. It is mind blowing to notice how much a tree can grow.

I don’t like Nebraska and I’m so glad that I have been accepted into an art school in San Francisco. I will be working on my MFA in Advertising. I was born and raised here in Nebraska but it has never been my home. I am a fish out of water, literally, I need the ocean. But today I realized that while I don’t like Nebraska, I have spent so many years getting to know the Interstate that I will miss it, just a little bit, when I’m gone. I’ll miss the familiarity.

Volunteering

2009-02-02T16:01:00.000-08:00

I believe that anyone who has the opportunity to volunteer should. If you have something to give other do it. Something as simple as time could mean the world to someone you may never meet. There is always someplace you can help out no matter where you live.

I would love to say more on this topic but then I would have to talk about what I am doing in the aspect of volunteering and I think it is inappropriate to do a good deed then brag about it. Negates the point in doing something good for others.

Tattoos

2009-02-01T08:02:00.000-08:00

Whenever I go to the massage school in Omaha the girls spend the whole time talking to me because of my tattoos and I don't receive a proper massage because they are talking to me the whole time. I thought a massage was suppose to be a relaxing thing. They always have to ask "What does it mean?" There are symbols running down my back and they all mean something different. To explain the whole I have to explain the individual and that is an hour conversation. My other problem with the question is that the tattoos are on my back, I can not see they so I don't remember what I even have tattooed on my.

So for anyone thinking, "What's the point if you don't know what you have?" Every symbol means something, one is for protection from evil, there is the infinity sign, the turtle who holds the world on his shell, and others. Every tattoo has a meaning that I personal believe in, they therefore belong to me alone because only I know what it means to me.

Not only is they symbolic meaning important to me but I view tattoos as art. I don't mind when someone says it is a nice looking tattoo. My back is my design but the good work of the tattoo artist helps. The phoenix on my leg is completely a work of art. I wanted the phoenix but it turned out nothing like I had envisioned it. It is far more impressive and it is a beautiful work of art done by an artist named Chad.

The problem that I find with tattoos comes when some one tells me they like my tattoo and then follow it up with "look at mine." Playing "show and tell" with your tattoos does not earn my respect. It irritates me and causes me to loose respect for the person doing it. This is because my tattoos belong to me, I had them done for me. They are beautiful works of art that I get to take with me everywhere I go.

I did not have them done so that others would think they are "cool." I honestly do not care what people think about my tattoos, good, bad, or otherwise. In turn I do not care about other people's tattoos. I don't give two hoots about someone else's tattoo. Tattoos are art and I do like to look at art but I do not like to talk about art. Art is food for the eyes not the mouth.

If someone asks about your tattoos then I find no shame in answering a question. But it shows a complete lack of discretion, sophistication and class to start talking about your own tattoos with someone when they didn't ask. Especially if the tattoo is someplace where you have to remove some article of clothing so that other people can even see it. If you didn't put it someplace where people could easily see it then maybe you should not go showing it off to people who are not close friends.

Obama's First Full Day

2009-01-29T15:42:00.000-08:00

In the first full day in office Obama said that he would make the white house more transparent and that if he thought something should be keep from the american people for what ever reason that it would be reviewed by a someone other then himself.
I think that is really amazing.

He also made some tough statements against lobbyist and the new rules that would have to be followed by them. Like not holding a position in Washington for at least 2 years.
I feel like he is doing some great things already. But don't worry I won't let my love for him stop me from calling it like I see it. I plan on keeping an eye on him.

Editorial #1 Final Draft

2009-01-29T15:40:00.000-08:00

Political speech deciphered:
Obama’s inaugural speech
We can all agree that when it comes to political speeches we have to learn to read between the lines. Although the day after the inauguration President Obama made the promise to make the White House and what goes on within our government more transparent, his inaugural speech still needs to be deciphered.
Lets start from the beginning and work our way through a speech that we found to be quite compelling. President Obama begins by talking about taking the oath “amidst gathering clouds and raging storms,” and then goes into the plights that face our great nation: war, economics, health care and our failing school system. What was really being said was, “I just want to say thank you for handing me such a long laundry list of things to do, and I only have four years to clean it up or I lose my job, too.” He followed this with a CYB (cover your butt) statement that these indicators of crisis are “subject to data and statistics.” Real meaning – “If you turn the paper upside down it doesn’t look so bad.”
Of course there has to be the lines about God given rights of equality, freedom and the pursuit of happiness. Does this mean that we finally have a government that supports gay rights? We don’t know. The translation for that is far too advanced for a mere college journalist. But fear not American people and UNK students alike, because those of us who are non-believers have already come to terms with the fact that we don’t get God given rights. At least we are counted among the strengths of the patchwork heritage that is America.
Moving on, President Obama also spent some time talking about how America is great because we worked hard and earned it, that we as a nation do not take shortcuts or settle for less and that our path is not one “…for those who prefer leisure over work.” Oh yeah, he did it all right; he took a stab at President Bush. For the record, Bush spent on average 63 days per year on vacation. We don’t know anyone who gets that much time off of work.
That was not the only dagger of words that hits home to the old administration either. Obama-speak, “power alone cannot protect us, nor does it entitle us to do as we please.” What it really means, “Just because we can go to war without the sanction of the UN does not mean that we should.”
We have come to a time in the history of our nation when an inaugural address has to include the dreaded T word, terror. Unfortunately there was nothing new said on the topic, but the words that are repeated need to be remembered, that the American spirit cannot be broken by terror.
We enjoy picking apart speeches and reading between the lines, but that does not change the fact that many great things were said in Obama’s inaugural speech and grand pledges were made. We believe that everything he said can be done, not because we believe in him, but because we do believe in the American people and what we can accomplish when we work together.

To help or hinder

2009-01-29T04:56:00.000-08:00

My mother spent years telling me that the people you choose to hang out with can either elevate you to be the best person you are capable of being or it can drag you down and hinder your growth. It took me years of learning the hard way that this is true and I have burned many bridges with people that I did truly love because they dragged me down.

This is why after what happened last week I was very distraught over whether I had made the right decision in joining this group. In the first week I have been disillusioned.

I believe whole-heartedly in what this organization stands for but my heart was broken and I was left dumb founded to find out that there is a crisis going on here that I will not even pretend to understand.

I joined this group to help me better myself and to become the best person that I can be. I find time to volunteer once a week because I believe in the sprit of volunteerism. I have worked hard for my classes and the wonderful opportunities I have had, being an RA, my position on the school newspaper, the opportunity to study abroad just to name a few.

I have done everything right yet I am being punished. And when I hear that my fellow friends lie I have to question whether this is a group that will help me or is this a group that will hinder me.

Although it kills me to say this, after what I heard last week I am temped to say that if I chose to walk away, as of right now, I would not be the one in this situation that will be loosing out. I wish with all my heart that my last comment is untrue.

But wishes cannot come true if you sit around and wait for them to happen. We have to work as a group to make this situation better, not for me, but for the betterment of the whole group. For all of us - past, present, and future.

And last, once I have made a commitment come hell or high water I will see it through.

College Dating

2009-01-27T04:41:00.000-08:00

My campus topic is going to be dating in college.
Pros-

You get to see them
Please post comments if you know of any more pros for this topic. HELP!

Cons-

They just stop talking to you. Would it be that hard to just say, "I'm not interested in you" then at least you would know.
They bug you all the time while you're trying to get homework done.
It is only about the "hook up"
There are the "Someone broke my heart and now I'm afraid to love again" emotional cripples.
Simple lack of time.
Once again if you have any suggestions for pros or cons please post a comment.

Read between the lines

2009-01-27T04:39:00.000-08:00

We can all agree that when it comes to political speeches we have to learn to read between the lines. Although the day after the inauguration President Obama made the promise to make the White House and what goes on within our government more transparent, his inaugural speech still needs to be deciphered.
Lets start from the beginning and work our way through a speech that I found to be quite compelling. President Obama begins by talking about taking the oath “amidst gathering clouds and raging storms,” and then goes into the plights that face our great nation, war, economics, health care, and our failing school system. What was really being said was, “I just want to say thank you for handing me such a long laundry list of things to do and I only have four years to clean it up or I loose my job, too.” He followed this with a CYB (cover your butt) statement that these indicators of crisis are “subject to data and statistics.” Real meaning – “If you turn the paper upside down it doesn’t look so bad.”
Of course there has to be the lines about God given rights of equality, freedom, and the pursuit of happiness. Does this mean that we finally have a government that supports Gay Rights? I don’t know. The translation for that is far to advance for a mere college journalist. But fear not American people and UNK students alike, because those of us that are non-believers have already come to terms with the fact that we don’t get God given rights. At least we are counted among the strengths of the patchwork heritage that is America.
Moving on, President Obama also spent some time talking about how America is great because we worked hard and earned it, that we as a nation do not take shortcuts or settle for less, and that our path is not one “…for those who prefer leisure over work.” Oh yeah, he did it all right; he took a stab at President Bush. For the record Bush spent on average 63 days per year on vacation. I don’t know anyone who gets that much time off of work.
That was not the only spear of words that hits home to the old administration either. Obama-speak, “power alone cannot protect us, nor does it entitle us to do as we please.” What it really means, “Just because we can go to war with out the sanction of the UN does not mean that we should.”
We have come to a time in the history of our nation when an inaugural address has to include the dreaded T word, terror. Unfortunately there was nothing new said on the topic but the words that are repeated need to be remembered, that the American sprite cannot be broken by terror.
I enjoy picking apart speeches and reading between the lines but that does not change the fact that many great things where said in Obama’s inaugural speech and grand pledges were made. I believe that everything he said can be done, not because I believe in him, but because I do believe in the American people and what we can accomplish when we work together.

Obama's words and down with the old regime

2009-01-20T19:21:00.000-08:00

When listening to political speeches one must remember to read between the lines. What is not being said but is being implied is sometime more telling and more important then the word vomit coming out of the mouths of politicians. Don’t get me wrong I voted for Barak Obama, he is my president, I support him, and listening to his inauguration speech brought tears to my eyes. I would have cried if I had not been sitting in class watching it. For the first time sense I have started voting for the present of the United States, I have hope. I have hope for the future of our country and for the future of the world as a whole. It brings to my mind the quote by Lester Burnham from the movie American Beauty, “My heart fills up like a balloon that's about to burst. And then I remember to relax, and stop trying to hold on to it, and then it flows through me like rain. And I can't feel anything but gratitude.”
I have spent the last eight years not standing for the national anthem or the pledge of allegiance because not only did I not vote for Bush, but in my mind he stole the presidential office. Eight years of avoiding the news because I couldn’t handle the BS and eight years of being afraid to speak my mind because I might get locked up. If you think I’m being paranoid then look at this information on the ACLU’s website. This deals with the “Free Speech Zones” that spiked under the Bush administration. They are also known as “Free Speech Cages,” now that sounds scary. And here is a link about people being arrested for speaking out against Bush.
And another. I could keep finding and posting links to sites telling of the terrors that some have faced for speaking their minds but I think you get the point. I have learned to keep my mouth shut and my head down, at least on the Internet, when it comes to this topic, and speaking my opinions now about Bush is a little frightening to me.
That being said, I'm really glad we have a democrat in office. They try to help the people, not oppress them. This was meant to be a post on reading between the lines of what Obama said in his speech but it turned into my heart felt love of our new DC. Democrats everywhere. This just might lead me to believe in god just so I can say "Thank god for a new era."

Lets be more Swiss

2009-01-17T19:32:00.000-08:00

The first thought I have when I hear the name Osama bin Laden is why can’t we find a guy who has to use a dialysis machine? That being said, the article A bin Laden subtext makes note of the enemy of bin Laden, a group known as Hamas. I agree that just because Hamas is an enemy of bin Laden it does not make them a friend of the United States, but they don’t have to be a friend to be used by our government. History has shown time and again that the US is good and using angry groups to aid our own agenda. Then again, history has shown that those same groups end up turning their anger against the US because they got used and then dropped like a bad one-night stand after the mission was accomplished. Oh I remember now, that’s why Al Qaeda hates us. Lets try a new tactic called “keep your nose out of other’s business.” The Swiss do that and people love them.

Article -
A bin Laden subtext

First blog for class

2009-01-15T11:05:00.000-08:00

This is my first blog for class.