Red Liquid of Life

picture courtesy of http://www.247donation.com/2007/August/Blood-Donations.htm

I gave blood on Monday for the first time in a while. I love to give blood because it is one of the few things I do that I feel actually makes a difference. I have been very frustrated because the last 4 times I have tried to give blood I have been thwarted. Mostly because I have too low of a hemocrit count. But this past time it was because stupid Purdue made me get a shot, so I had to wait an extra month before I could give. I was seriously irked.
But anyway, I gave blood so all is good again. :) I was amused because the lady stuck the needle in me and everything and then turned to do the next person and by the time she was done with him and turned back around my bag was about 1/3 full. She said, "Wow, you're really fast!" It made me giggle. I gave with my right arm, something I'm never going to do again because it is really inconvenient to avoid doing stuff with my right arm when I'm right handed. But anyway, I was a bit dissapointed that they didn't wrap my arm in the ultra-bright colored gauze like stuff. It makes me feel a bit more secure that I won't randomly start bleeding again. I have a bit of a fear of that because once I did start bleeding again. It was while I was still at the station so we applied pressure and put another band-aid on and I was fine, but it was a bit scary. Anyway, I encourage anyone who can to give. It helps a lot.

Rockin' Out

My Thanksgiving break was absolutely awesome! On Wednesday when I got home, I baked an apple and pecan pie with my mom, and my friend Amanda came over to help and hang out. Then, we watched Heros for the rest of the night because my dad got the season 1 DVD. Thursday, I helped make dinner, ate dinner, then hung out around the house hanging out with my family. Friday, I went shopping with my mom, at the decent hour of 9:30, and it was funny because we mostly did grocery shopping as opposed to normal Black Friday shopping. (Why do they call it Black Friday anyway?) But anyway, we got back around 4 and I went to my brother's house around 5. At my brother's, his friend Dan showed us Metroid for the Nintendo Wii, then Andy, my brothers roommate, came back and we all rocked out to Guitar Hero 3 for about 4 hours. When we got tired of that, we played Metroid some more and then I went home around midnight. On Saturday, my sister and her boyfriend came up to visit, and in the evening my brother came over and also the Jacksons came to visit. I got to play Scrabble with my brother and Justin, my friend Gen's boyfriend. My brother slaughtered us both because he spelled the word "munchies" and got the 50 extra points for using all your letters. Then Sunday, I went to church and then came back to Purdue.
I love going home for visits! ^_^

Home Cooking

Here's the prompt:
In Bich Nguyen's memoir, food is used to "make visible" the "invisible" cultural practices that define us as "American." Reflecting back on your own childhood, think of an example when a particular food (or foods) served to include or exclude you from a group of which you wanted to be a part. Describe the food, the situation, and how it made you feel.

I honestly can't remember any time in my childhood when I was excluded or included from some group because of food. It is possible it happened and I didn't realize it, I was a rather dense child, always with my nose in a book. However, I do remember how a certain food set me apart from other kids.
Before Christmas break, during elementary school, most of the kids would give the teacher a small gift, I guess to show our appreciation for being taught. Well, since my mother and I make chocolate candies around the holidays, I would always take the teacher a small "sampler" of the things we had made.
It always made me very proud that I could give my teacher something that I had made myself. Also, I loved that the teachers liked my present, they knew what it was because I have 3 older siblings who went through the school before me and my mom did the same thing for all of them. My sense of pride and accomplishment was increased because I knew that the teacher liked my present.

Documenting Morals

Here is my writing prompt:
In Zana Briski's documentary film, Born Into Brothels, she documents the lives of children growing up in Calcutta’s red light district. Her film reveals the most intimate details of their lives. Briski uses those details as evidence in an argument about the effects that living in the red light district has on these children. Write a blog in which you explore this. Is it fair that the children’s lives are “on display” for all the world to see? What about their privacy? Can a child “give consent” to be portrayed in this way? Do the “ends” justify the “means”? Is her documentary ultimately “successful”? How do you measure its success?

I shall first address the question of, "can a child give consent to be portrayed in this way?" I would say, of course they can give consent! These are not children as we would think of them in America. They are wonderful kids with hopes and dreams despite their circumstances and they still have a child's happiness, but they are much more mature than the typical child of equivalent age in America. This is due to their poverty, forcing them to work as well as go to school, as well as their surroundings in general. They have developed their own thoughts and ideas about themselves by now, because they have been forced by circumstance to consider these ideas. Therefore, they know what they are getting into when they give consent to be documented.

By answering that question, we can therefore concur that by giving consent to be documented they have put their faith in the documenter to portray their circumstances without undue invasion of their privacy. Yes the film shows their family lives, but the children, and their families, are certainly aware that the cameras are there, so if they objected they could just tell the visitors to shut of the cameras. So, yes, in this case the ends does justify the means because the means were not unreasonable.

Her documentary is successful in that she does portray the effect of growing up in brothels on these children. She shows their worry about their situation and their struggle to rise out of their circumstances by gaining an education. She also displays the difficulties for children like them to rise out of the red light district because good schools don't want their reputations tainted by the stigma associated with the illegal activities.

Quality vs. Quantity? Maybe not.

So, in English class we have been reading a whole slew of material about the scary truth behind the food we eat. US food has unlabeled GMOs (genetically modified foods), the US foods are being boycotted in some areas because they are unlabeled, Monsanto and other companies are patenting genes in plants that spread and then they sue farmers who have been contaminated. Then there is the fact that much of what we eat contains some derivative of corn. All this is pertinent and useful information, but it isn't going to change what I eat.
I do believe that GMOs should be labeled. It would not be that hard to do, and it would make people happier. It may even make people less suspicious of GMOs if they were being "hidden" by the government/food companies. But, I am a college student. I don't have the time, resources, or inclination at this point in my life to track down foods that are GMO free, or corn free. Now, I do go through some effort to exclude certain things like high fructose corn syrup in a lot of my food, but that is about it. I will continue to buy the stuff that is relatively cheep because it allows me to possibly escape college without a lifetime's worth of debt.

The College Dilemma

So, most people in college have come up against this all important question by now, "Who am I going to room with next year?!" As of a couple days ago, I have finished my quest for the answer! *and there was much rejoicing* (two points to whoever gets the reference)

So, in practice for our Memoir assignment, sort of, I shall relate the saga of the roommate debate. Originally, my friend Carmen asked me if I would want to rent a house with her and 4 other people. We would have at least 1 dog (a big one) and around 4 cats. Now I wouldn't mind this arrangement, but after thinking about it, I just don't know whether I would be able to handle the responsibility of pitching in to care for the cats (the dog is the responsibility of the owner, I don't do dogs) while also doing school and working. Then, I was supposed to room with my friend Lizz from my hometown. We would be really good roommates, the only problem is that she really wants to room in an apartment, and I really don't. Hilltop has captured my heart and I really wanted to room in a 4 person 1 bedroom apartment next year. The other factor going for Hilltop is that with a 4-person room and no meal plan, it will be between $2,000 and $3,000 dollars for the whole year. So, I started sounding people out for this plan. The first person I recruited was actually Lizz's roommate, Brittany. She is driving Lizz up the wall (though she doesn't really know it) but I think we would work out ok. The second person I recruited is my friend Katie. That is gonna work out really well because not only is she awesome, she loves to cook as much as I do and makes really killer pizza, so we can split meal planning and cooking. Then, Katie asked her friend Corinne (pronounced Kor-ene) and she agreed. So we have our 4 people ^_^. I hope that at the very least Katie and I, but hopefully everyone can work out a system of communal food. We could all pitch in a certain amount and have a group grocery list so that we don't have to do the awkward lable-who's-food-is-who's thing. If we have to it would be ok, but I would really prefer not to.

Creativity

When I first got to Purdue I met this absolutely wonderful person named Katie. Since then I like to think we have become pretty good friends. But anyway, on the first or second day we hung out, she asked me what my creative outlet is. She claimed that everyone has one, but the question just sort of dumbfounded me. What do I like to do creatively, I asked myself. Well, I draw every once in a while, but it is mostly doodles and I wouldn't really call it an outlet. I make jewelry every once in a while too, but it is still sort of an idle hobby. At the time I had no answer for her. Then came the advent of cold weather and I pulled out my coat. All of the sudden it dawned on me, my creative outlet is sewing! I love to sew, though it isn't something I indulge in often. Mostly I make pillows. Of the 9 pillows on my bed, I have made 4 and my mommy made 1. I have 1 maybe 2 more at home and I've made a couple for friends' birthdays and such. Other than that, I have a pair of boxers, a purse, a pair of bright ORANGE cargo pants, an obnoxious plumed hat, and my coat. My coat is by far the most awesome thing I've ever made. Originally, I made it so I could cosplay as Vash the Stampede for Halloween, but it is actually a really good winter coat. The high collar acts like a built in scarf and it is lined. I love the reactions I get for it. Most people are like, "You made that?" O.O and it makes me proud. Once, while I was at the academy I had a BSU student comment to me, "That is bad a$$." The other day, when the wind was really bitter, I was walking to class and as I passed two people on the sidewalk I heard one say to the other, "Oh my god, it's Vash's coat!" It made the sew-er in my feel all warm and fuzzy inside. I love when people actually know what the coat represents, both because they have actually seen TRIGUN and because the coat is recognizable despite obvious, or perhaps not so obvious discrepancies.


This is my friend wearing my coat and also the hat I made. Yes, I am aware the combination brings to mind Carmen Sandiego. This is a screenshot from the opening of TRIGUN (created by Yasuhiro Nightow) and is one of the very few pictures where you can sort of see all of his coat. There are better ones, but I don't know how to capture screenshots for myself, so I have to work with what I have.

Not an Assignment Post

Don't let it eat you!

I'm really excited that my friend is coming to visit this Saturday, and I will probably do my third blog for this week about his visit. Unless of course, we have an assigned blog, but I didn't see one when I checked yesterday....

I still haven't started writing my paper because I had to scrap my research and start over because I looked it over and found that I had gotten entirely off topic, a problem that continually plagues me when I research. I find an interesting bit of info and get distracted and follow it.

My back hurts, for no apparent reason. >:(

I think I may pull an all nighter tonight reading the books I got as research for my paper and write it tomorrow.

TTYL

Side Panels of DOOM!!!

Yeah, so I work at Earhart Dining Hall. I am a student associate. I usually work cleanup shift due to my abundance of 4:30-5:20 classes *cough cough* Anyway... I have worked there since the beginning of the year and I usually end up shutting down the salad bar. Now, when you shut down salad bar, you have to take out panels on the bottom and the sides. On salad bar there are two rectangular wells and the long sides have panels that have to go in a certain way. In each well, one of the long side panels has six rows of slits for ventilation and the other side has two rows of slits. When I first trained during BGR week I was told that each well had to have a six and a two, but it didn't matter which side they went on. Today, I got told, after I had finished putting everything back together and had started wiping down tables, that the six slit side panel has to go on the left side of the bar. So I had to take the entire bar back apart, because of course the side panels go on first, and switch the panels. I was rather annoyed because this was the first time I had heard of this and I hate looking dumb in front of my employers. To top it off, the supervisor who talked to me about it is not one of the ones who I generally interact with, so I feel like I have given a sub-par impression to him. Oh well, the other supervisors like me. ^_^

Don't drink too much coffee kids

I have discovered the secret to making expresso at home.

Step 1: Make coffee regularly

Step 2: Go to class and forget to turn off coffee pot

Step 3: Return from class 3 hours later and think, “Awesome! Coffee!”

Step 4: Make coffee as you do regularly.

Step 5: O.O

Step 6: Add more sugar so you can drink it. LOTS more sugar.

Note, this method requires a coffee pot that does not have an automatic 20 minute turn off built in to it.

Seriously though, I'm just sort of glad that my coffee pot didn't break or catch fire while I was out or something. That would have been bad. I don't make coffee that often, so about half the time I forget to turn it off. Last time it happened I had made hot water for tea and then left the pot on all night. I have to tell you, getting the water scale of that pot was real fun. NOT. Hopefully, I will learn to check the pot before I go out of the room before my negligence burns down the building.

In acquiescence to Ms. Hickner's request, I shall include a visual.
The person in the foreground (Ed from Cowboy Bebop, an anime produced by Sunrise), pretty much has the expression I wore when I tasted that coffee. That was some kind of wake up call, lemmie tell you. Moral of the story, think before you drink. (no pun intended)

Communion

I went to church this past Saturday for the first time in a couple weeks. I usually try to go every week, but circumstances have been conspiring against me. So anyway, as usual, the service was absolutely amazing. This church is much closer to what I think a church should be than the one I go to back home. Church is a place for people to worship together and to encourage each other in the faith. My church back home has become closer to a bible study of sorts rather than exhortation and encouragement. I think that I have grown more in my faith from going to this church for a few weeks more than I have going to my old church for the past several years.

Anyway, this Sunday was communion Sunday. The way that this church practices communion really opened my eyes to what it may have been like to be present at the last supper and makes me feel much closer to the spirit of communion. At my old church, communion was accomplished by the decons passing around the plate of little bread-like wafers and little cups of juice. The pastor would say some words about the significance of communion and then we would eat them. The only reason that communion had any meaning to me was because once, when I passed the plate to a family member, they just passed it on. I asked them why later and they told me that since they couldn't let go of their anger at someone, they weren't able to partake in communion because they had sin in their heart. But communion at this church that I attend now is much different. The pastor said his words about the communion and then he and his assistant held a platter with bread and a cup of grape juice at the front of the church. Everyone lined up and took turns breaking off a piece of bread and dipping it in the grape juice, then eating it. This ritual had so much more meaning for me. Not only did the actual bread give me more of a connection to the first communion at the last supper, but I experience a much greater connection to the church community. It felt like the communion of a community, rather than an individual thing.

My church is on Grant St. It has a steeple, it is pretty hard to miss. Sunday service begins at 11 and they usually have donut holes, fruit and juice in the anteroom for you to snack on a bit before and after service. I invite you all to come.

*Headdesk of Frustration

The prompt:

1. Choose one of the Adbusters spoof ads in the "food" category and write an analysis of the ad. First, describe the ad visually. Next, explain what the ad is referencing and how it is spoofing the referenced work. Finally, provide your own response: how successful is the spoof? Why does/doesn't it work? Write a minimum of 200 words. [If possible, include an image showing an example of the kind of original ad that is being spoofed.]

The response:

A woman who looks to be in her 20s maybe early 30s stands smiling and with good posture, one hand on her hip and the other holding what looks like a glass of milk. A milk mustache coats her upper lip. Her light blue sweater both offsets her from the medium gray background and coordinates with it. A caption next to her head reads, “WHY MILK? Try soy instead.” This caption leads us to believe that it is a glass of soy milk and a soy milk mustache that she accessorizes with. A paragraph at the bottom of the page says, “I was raised to believe that milk was part of a healthy diet. Then I discovered that to increase production, many dairy companies inject cows with hormones and antibiotics that we end up drinking. And that cows are kept “artificially” pregnant so they'll produce milk all year long. So I scraped my milk mustache for a soy one. It's healthier for me AND the cows.”

Unlike many adds that are text heavy, this one is rather effective. The reference to the famous, “GOT MILK?” campaign leads a reader to investigate what the add is about. The cool colors are restful to the eye and so it attracts the eye from the bright white or colors of many magazine pages. This add is endorsing soy milk instead of real milk as a healthier product.

When I read this add, I got really mad. (no rhyme intended) I like milk. Natural milk is one of nature's most perfect foods because it contains many of the things your body needs, such as amino acids and lipids, to name a couple. That the capitalist thirst for money is adding crap like hormones to our milk, even unintentionally makes me angry. I'm not going to stop drinking milk because, as I said earlier, I like it, but I may have to research the different companies that produce milk. It may become a little extra on my budget each month to get better milk instead of the cheaper milk. It's not like all milk isn't already about 4 bucks a gallon anyway, not that I'm bitter... I already buy butter instead of margarine anyway.

Music of all kinds... except musicals

Give me Tchaikovsky, Beethoven, My Chemical Romance, the Gorillas, Rob Zombie, Nine Inch Nails, Avril Lavigne, Eminem, or even the popular music channel. But for the love of all that is my ears, DO NOT play the “musicals no one has ever heard of” station while I'm cleaning up at work. Why would someone even INVENT that channel?! It was terrible! Everyone at work was like, “what is playing on the radio? Put something else on... anything!” I remember one of the lyrics from a song that played was “Praise God and pass the ammunition!” I was like O.o it was really creepy. Even musicals that people have heard of are weird to hear on the radio. The songs just don't sound the same when taken out of the visual context. Some time I wish that they would put on the classical radio station. I can just imagine cleaning the salad bar or dish to Bach's Toccata and Fugue in D Minor. That is the first classical song I ever heard, by the way. It is the very first song in Disney's Fantasia. Arguably the best movie to ever be produced by them. Fantasia 2 was ok, but Fantasia was just made of awesome. I watched that movie quite a lot as a child, and I would watch it here too, but I don't have a VHS player.

Mmm... Yummy

FOOD LOG for Oct. 29

1 med piece of cornbread from Jiffy Mix

Garlic and Onion bagel with muenster cheese slices melted on top

1 8oz glass of instant raspberry green tea from crystal lite

1 med size bowl of homemade chicken fried rice (ingredients: white rice, frozen peas and carrots, egg, chicken, soy sauce, teriyaki sauce)

1 16oz blue Monster energy drink

5 oreos (just for interest, edited 3 times)

1 large piece cornbread

multiple oreos

1 mug tea w/ sugar

1 small bowl of homemade chicken fried rice

1 8 oz glass apple juice

Yeah, so my friend and I cooked chicken fried rice twice in the past week and my freezer is full of it. :) The corn bread probably had GMOs, the Oreos most likely did too. Usually I do better with eating my vegetables but today was not a veggie day. As for distance traveled, I'd have to say that the apples in the apple juice probably traveled the farthest from origin to my gullet, but the soy sauce may give the apples a run for their money. I can't say with actual distance because the apple juice doesn't say what kind of apples it is made from. The chicken fried rice is definitely slow food considering that Katie and I made it in my kitchen. I cook a lot because I don't have a meal plan because I consider it a waste of money. How many people do you know who end up losing meals at the end of the week? And I can feed myself just as well on less money. As a general rule, I do not eat fast food, partly because it is rather unappetizing and partly because I am a poor college kid who can't afford it. I mean, the stuff isn't that expensive on the surface, but I can get a lot more nutrition for my money by cooking for myself.

I'll take a shack on a rock over a castle in the sand

“American Dream”

All work no play may have made Jack a dull boy
But all work no God has left Jack with a lost soul
But he's moving on full steam
He's chasing the American dream
And he's gonna give his family finer things

“Not this time son I've no time to waste
Maybe tomorrow we'll have time to play”
And then he slips into his new BMW
And drives farther and farther and farther away

Cause he works all day and tries to sleep at night
He says things will get better;
Better in time

[Chorus]
So he works and he builds with his own two hands
And he pours all he has in a castle made with sand
But the wind and the rain are comin' crashing in
Time will tell just how long his kingdom stands
His kingdom stands

Well his American Dream is beginning to seem
More and more like a nightmare
With every passing day
"Daddy, can you come to my game?"
"Oh Baby, please don't work late."
Another wasted weekend
And they are slipping away

'Cause he works all day and lies awake at night
He tells them things are getting better
Just take a little more time

[Chorus]

He used to say, "Whoever dies with the most toys wins"
But if he loses his soul, what has he gained in the end
I'll take a shack on the rock
Over a castle in the sand

Now he works all day and cries alone at night
It's not getting any better
Looks like he's running out of time

[Chorus]

All they really wanted was you
All they really wanted was you
All they really wanted was you
[Fading]was you

by Casting Crowns

I was listening to this song today and I thought I would share it with you all. The song is a reminder not to let your pursuit of material success get in the way of your relationship with God. Though the song is meant as a reminder for Christians, it contains a message for non-Christians as well. Don’t let life pass you by. Sure it would be nice to be a millionaire or whatever, but there really isn’t any point in making money if you don’t do something worthwhile with it. Now the classification of worthwhile is different for every person, it doesn’t necessarily mean feed all the people in Ethiopia for a year or something. The point I am trying to make is that, while you are working toward whatever goals you have, examine your motives. What are you working for? When you look back on your life, would you do it over again?

These are questions I have already asked myself. I swear I’m not just trying to be preachy, they have helped me a lot in deciding what to do with my life.

On another note, since I have been philosophical with my posts lately, I promise the next one will be quite silly.

Weekend plans

My best friend from back home is coming to visit me this weekend!!!! I’m so excited. She will be spending the night at my place on Saturday and I will be showing her around for the rest of the weekend. On Sunday we are going to see Mythbusters!! I <3 style=""> If you haven’t seen mythbusters, you should try an episode or two, cause it is hi-friggin-larious. Anyway, back to the weekend, I am a bit worried about Sunday because I forgot to submit my sub in time and so if no one picks up my sub for Sunday Lunch 2 I may get another demerit at work. :’( Well, we’ll just have to see what happens. I can’t wait to show Amanda my room though, she will be so jealous. She is in college but she is a commuter. We’re gonna stop by the Hilltop tailgate, go shopping, play on the internet, tour campus, and all sorts of fun stuff. And I’ll be able to introduce her to some of my crazy friends here. (because everyone is crazy to one extent or another, don’t try and deny it.) Consequently, this week is gonna be crazy. I have a test today and tomorrow, I have a paper to write before next Wed. I have a couple other assignments to take care of as well. I’ll be busy, but it’s totally worth it. It is good training for later when I actually have a ton of work to do. Yay for working on time management!! W00T! I had way too much coffee and sugar this morning!!! *runs off, bouncing off walls* :D :D :D : D

So many anime, so little time

There is a dilemma that I have being here at school with the wonderful fast internet and also all the homework. I love to watch anime, but I don't have access to it except at school, so I want to watch it, but I generally don't really have the extra time to spend on it. There are several anime that I want to see, and several that I want to rewatch because so much more could be discovered in them for me. Some of these include:

To watch: Naruto, Bleach, Code Geass, Blood Plus, Claymore, Nodame Cantabile, and Hayate no Gotoku (or Hayate the combat butler)
To rewatch: Rurouni Kenshin, Darker than Black, Tokyo Mew Mew, and Cowboy Bebop

I guess this post is just a sort of public complaint, because it makes me feel better about it to complain. The anime will always be there, but (enter whiny voice) I want to watch it now! (/whiny voice). Oh well, I'll survive. After all, I'm here to work.

Wasteful, Polluting Humans....

	CATEGORY ACRES FOOD 4.4 MOBILITY 0.5 SHELTER 3.2 GOODS/SERVICES 3.5 TOTAL FOOTPRINT 12
	IN COMPARISON, THE AVERAGE ECOLOGICAL FOOTPRINT IN YOUR COUNTRY IS 24 ACRES PER PERSON. WORLDWIDE, THERE EXIST 4.5 BIOLOGICALLY PRODUCTIVE ACRES PER PERSON.
	IF EVERYONE LIVED LIKE YOU, WE WOULD NEED 2.6 PLANETS.

(begin prompt)
On average, people in the United States require more than five times their "share" of world resources in order to maintain the "American Way of Life." In addition, this lifestyle is taking a heavy toll on our environment (e.g., global warming, oil spills, garbage dumps, pesticide/herbicide contamination of waterways, air pollution, destruction of natural environments and ecosystems, etc.). Is it "fair" that Americans (and citizens of other "developed nations") consume more than their "share" of the earth's resources? Does this consumption bring a greater responsibility to redress the environmental consequences of this lifestyle?
(end prompt)

Whether or not it is “fair” or not that Americans, etc. consume more of their “share” of resources is a more academic question than I am prepared to answer. But….

Of course we (the more developed nations) have a greater responsibility for healing the environment after we muck it up! Think back to when you were a little kid, do you ever remember your mother saying, “don’t worry about that mess, it will clean itself up,” I don’t think so. She would say, “you made that mess, now you clean it up.” This applied to your messy room and to the spilled kool-aid on the floor.

This principal (clean up what you mess up) should extend to whatever we do in life. People really have never wrapped their heads around the fact that if we don’t take care of our planet, it will die and take us with it. But, other “more immediate” problems tend to throw conservation to the back burner. Some people would rather research how to move to other planets rather than take care of this one.

Another reason the more developed countries need to take responsibility for fixing the damage our lives have done to the environment is that we can afford it. People throw fits about how much more sustainable ways of life cost, but it doesn’t really cost that much more now, and it would cost less if we researched ways to make things like solar energy more efficient. Plus, if the richest countries in the world aren’t going to do something, then who exactly is supposed to? The lesser developed countries have a lot more they need to spend their money on than we do and they have a lot less money overall.

Putting off planet conservation is stupidly shortsighted. I would be doing things like composting organic wastes and growing a garden like the Earth Day site said, but I live in an apartment at Hilltop and I don’t think they would take kindly to me farming on their well taken care of grass. It would be even harder in a regular dorm. We could probably work to put programs for conservation in place on campus, but it would take a lot of time and effort that is difficult to find in these homework filled days. But we can still try and do what we can, like recycling.

Wonder

Despite having only gotten about 5 and a half hours of sleep last night, I find I can’t harbor resentment toward my 7:30 am class. I got up this morning as usual, grumbling about having to get out of bed, eating breakfast, and then I got outside. The stars were so bright is was breathtaking. The air was clear and cool and I could even pick out constellations. Orion jumped out at me immediately and I think I may have seen Cygnus. Most remarkable though, was that I could barely make out the Milky Way. Usually there is far too much light pollution to see most of the stars let alone the Milky Way. I saw Venus and couldn’t believe my eyes, it was as bright as the moon.

When I finally got to campus, I was surprised by how beautiful it was in dark. The bell tower especially took my breath away with its soft, upper story lighting. The dark changes how everything looks and gives everything soft lines that contrast the clear lines of the day.

The onset of fall and winter has turned a previously arduous trudge to class into a beautiful and invigorating walk. The cold really helps wake me up too.

Rearranging

I had an epiphany in class today, while waiting for lecture to start. I am acting far too childish for my age.

I have let the excitement of being in college, making new friends, and having wireless ethernet distract me from my purpose for being in college in the first place. I am here to work. I am here to learn so that I can get a career that I actually like after I graduate. All of this procrastination that I have been doing is childish behavior that I should have grown out of a long while ago. So, I will rearrange my room, and use that as a physical representation of rearranging my priorities. Making a physical change is the best way for me to get out of a mental rut.

Having rearranged my room, I feel much more productive, even just sitting in my chair. I have changed the feel of the room completely, even thought I basically switched two pieces of furniture, the bed and my desk. The space I work in is more concentrated now, so I will be able to concentrate better.

There is some tweaking I have to do. I need get another power cord so that I can move my lamp, and I need to move my little bookshelf because I don’t like where it is now. And I need to maybe reposition my clock. Other than that I like the room much better this way. ^_^

Fuddy Duddy

So yeah, I was one of the few, the proud, the boring during October Break. I stayed at school. It was a nice, relaxing weekend. I made friends with a sophomore in the building next to me and we went to Walmart together. She taught me how to make Rice a Roni on the stovetop. As for the rest of the weekend, I watched an anime called Darker than Black, I read some short stories, and I worked on the Profile paper for class.

Darker than Black is an AMAZING anime. It is a spy themed show about people with superpowers. Sounds a bit dorky but they pulled it off well. It has 25 episodes and the Japanese voice actors were really good. The ending really blew my mind and it is one of the few shows that I loved the ending of. They could make a sequel series, but they wrapped things up such that they don’t really have to. It was wonderful. So here are some characters:

Li Shengshun

Hei (aka BK201)

Yin (aka, the Mysterious and cute sidekick person)

Talking Cat

But anyway, I would really recommend this anime to just about anyone. It has a bit of violence to it, but the plot is pretty complex with many twists and turns. You can rewatch this a few times and catch new things each time. I like stuff like that. ^_^

Random

I vomited today. For no apparent reason. How annoying.

Eros, Philia, Agape, Storge, Thelema

If you ask 50 people what they think about love, you will get 50, possibly more, highly different answers. The ancient Greeks had 5 different words for love. In my opinion, that is too few.

Today, most people use only two definitions of love. They love a food/movie/activity, or they are “in love” with someone. I have a friend who has been “in love” numerous times, but I haven’t really believed her yet. Not because she fought with her boyfriend, because everybody has disagreements sometimes, but because either she or her boyfriend changed their behavior when they were around each other. I mean to say, that they acted differently when their significant other wasn’t around. If you want to change a person, then you are not in love with them. You are in love with something that you think they could be. If someone loves you, then you shouldn’t feel like you have to change for them.

Obviously, there is going to be some compromise if you are working together with anyone. But if you love someone you have to accept their core being. It is an incredibly difficult thing to do, but if you settle for something less, there will be a strain in your relationship.

On one last note, do not stop hanging out with your friends just because you have a boyfriend/girlfriend. You need to keep up the other relationships in your life because they can help you to work through things if you have a fight, and everyone needs to hang out with more than one person. Being with only one person all of the time or most of the time will push you away from them, at least in my experience.

Why can't I be an Electron?

Electrons can theoretically be in two places at once, it just takes a lot of energy. The amount of energy it would take to have a human be in two places at once would be unthinkable. Too bad.

I have so many things going on in the next two weekends I really wish I could be two places at once. On Fridays I play D&D, only next Friday I might be going to an Ultimate Frisbee tournament instead. This Sunday is the Feast of the Hunter's Moon, which I may be going to after I go to an honors banquet with my parents. Which means I have to get all my homework done on Saturday. (which is part of the reason I'm writing my blogs earlier than the day/hour before they are due) Then there are random events for my dorm or plans with my friends that I want to work in too. I wonder how much sleep I can get away with and still be cognizant?

All in all, I suppose it is better to be busy than bored, right? I suppose this is what you really learn in college, how to prioritize the activities in your life to get the most fun and work done.

Ultimate Frisbee, Ultimate Fun

I finally went to Ultimate Frisbee at Purdue last night. I have known when they meet for a few weeks but I kept telling myself that I was too busy to go. I was really sort of apprehensive. I am not really one to memorize and execute plays, I'd much rather just run where I think I'm needed. But, my friend Carmen told me that they play pick-up after their regular game, so I wanted to go.

I had forgotten how much I love to play Disc.

I had a ball! The people were really nice and I even got thrown to a few times. I made some catches and throws and it was a good game. I was surprised that I was able to run as well as I did, it is probably the hill I have to climb every day that has kept me in shape. We played for 2 hours and it was just really fun. People were throwing forehand, backhand, "chickenwing" (that's only Ted), hammers, and probably some thumbers as well. I need to work on my throws because I'm rather out of practice but it was still amazingly fun. By the time I got home I was pleasantly exhausted and I slept really well.

Today my legs hurt, but I'm gonna be back on the field on Monday!

Peace

I love the rain. The sound, the feel, the smell, the taste, the look of it is the most relaxing thing in this world to me. The water falls, connecting earth with sky, nourishing all it falls upon. The wind brings it, and chases the punishing heat. Cleansing the earth of impurities in the air, and cleansing one's soul and mind of worry, fear, regret, anger, leaving peace behind in it's wake. When we were children, some would say that rain was God or the angels crying in Heaven, but now I think it is a gift to the weary. Soul weary, heat weary, just weary. Giving an excuse to just sit out of the rain and listen to it clean the world.

Called away in the middle of writing this to bring an umbrella to a friend, I find that as soon as I get there, the rain vanishes as suddenly as it came. It somehow gives me the impression that in my own little, egotistical world, it had come specifically to lend me peace of mind from my worries about the semester, assignments, and friends with troubles. Or perhaps to remind me once again of the perfect wonder of God’s creation and the natural cycling systems that it is made of.

Firefly

I know what you're thinking, the entomologist is going off on one of her bug tangents again.... WRONG! Muah ha haaa!!! I am here to introduce you to one of the best and most ill-fated shows on DVD, Firefly. It is a Sci-Fi, Action, Western that takes place sometime in the future. Humans have used up Earth so they went out and terraformed themselves a bunch of new ones to live on. Some are technologically advanced, and some are agrarian. The show follows the exploits of the crew of the Firefly class ship named Serenity.
Now for a brief history of the show. Joss Wheton, the director, came up with the concept after reading Killer Angels. He wanted to write something that followed the losers in a civil war. He wanted to show the tactile nature of life and make a more gritty, less sterile Sci-Fi show. (Wikipedia) Fox, the network that aired the show, was constantly getting in the way of Joss's creative genius. (no, I'm not biased at all, why would you think that?) For instance, they made him rewrite his pilot episode, which became the second episode on the DVD, and they refused to show it in widescreen format. When Fox actually aired the episodes, it did so in a way almost guaranteeing failure. A rather stupid move on their part. Fox aired the episodes out of the originally intended order, and didn't even air all of them. The show was canceled after half a season. Despite it's bad luck with Fox, Firefly enjoys an immense popularity. In 2005 New Scientist magazine did an online Poll for "The World's Best Space Sci-Fi Ever," Firefly came in first with it's feature film, Serenity, coming in second.
Some of the interesting aspects of the show are revelations to the Sci-Fi field. For instance, there are no sound effects in the space shots, lending a realistic feel to the show. The ship's set is in 2 parts, with the upper and lower decks continuous. You can walk out of one room and into another. The scenes on the ship were shot with a documentary style, using hand held cameras to add to the rustic feel of the show. The scenes in Alliance cities were shot with regular movie cameras to add to the sterile feel of those places.
I know that my narrative does not come close to giving this show justice, but I hope that I have peaked some interest. Some of you may even look it up on the internet. I have never met anyone who disliked this show, so it is a fair bet that if you try it, you'll love it too.

Something to strive for

By idolizing those whom we honor, we do a disservice both to them and to ourselves....We fail to recognize that we could go and do likewise.
--Charles V. Willie

I both agree and disagree with this statement. Yes, the sterilization of our “heros” turns them into superhumans. It can seem like there is no way to live up to their ‘example’ and so people look for more realistic people to look up to. However, if we have an ideal example to look up to, we can keep striving toward it, and it is the striving that matters. To quote my favorite webcomic,

“You’re trying to be Lawful Good. People forget how crucial it is to keep trying, even if they screw it up now and then. They figure that if they can’t manage it perfectly every waking second, then they should just pick some other alignment [or hero] because it’ll be easier. But it’s the struggle that matters. It’s easy for a being of pure Law and Good to live up to these ideals, but you’re a mortal. What matters is that when you blow it, you get back up on the horse and try again.” (Order of the Stick, episode 490)

I know there is a bunch of D&D lingo in there, but you get the idea.

It is important to remember that everyone makes mistakes and that even the people who have made done the greatest things in history had their faults. Human nature is like a yin-yang. Good people have a little blackness in them, and the blackest heart can do some good. It is all a matter of mitigating the impulses you don’t want to follow.

So, people create heros for themselves, not to show the actual person. I don’t believe that our historical heros should be taught as such though. Maybe to little kids, because you like to keep things simple with them, but as a child progresses through the k-12 history classes, they should constantly be taught a little more of the whole picture, not the same stuff over and over again.

A few more quotes regarding heros/legends…

After all, He-Who-Must-Not-Be-Named did great things. Terrible! Yes. But great.

-Mr. Ollivander in Harry Potter and the Sorcerer’s Stone

It's my estimation that… every man ever got a statue made of him was one kind of sumbitch or another. Ain't about you, Jayne. It's about what they need.

-Mal (Firefly episode 7, Jaynestown)

Best 2D game ever

In my opinion, Castlevania Symphony of the Night is the best 2D game you could ever play.
The storyline is pretty interesting for a game. You play Alucard, the half-vampire son of Dracula (don't ask me how a vampire could procreate, it is plot magic) who has entered the ancestral home of Dracula, Castlevania, in order to find out why Dracula's castle has reappeared. In the course of the game you meet Maria Renard who is trying to figure out what has happened to Richter Belmont, a vampire hunter. Depending on how fully you explore your environment and what kind of actions you take, you can unlock more areas of the castle to explore or get alternate endings to the game.
Castlevania Symphony of the Night is divergent from its predecessors because the main character can use many different weapons, and they are mostly edged weapons instead of whips. Also, the game advances non-linearly and you often have to go back over an area multiple times as you gain new abilities to explore with. Abilities you can gain include double-jump, transformations, and the use of familiars to help you explore. The sheer amount of items you can collect can keep you playing the game long after you have beaten it multiple times.
The main attractant of Castlevania SOTN for me, however, is the sheer beauty of the game. The artwork and soundtrack are neverending pleasures to experience. The backgrounds for the game are dynamic. Though they do not affect your character, there is action in the background of the rooms you explore. For example, in one room the weather outside changes, in another room there is a large eye that looks in on you from a window and follows your movements. The soundtrack is a diverse mix of jazz, techno, many genres of metal, and classical music, all gothic themed.
Though this game is sort of hard to find and relatively expensive (I bought my copy used at around $40), it is worth every penny. The replay value is immense as some features are only unlocked after you have beaten the game once, and you can always find a new item or easter egg in the game.

Procrastination

Seeing as I've had such a problem with it lately, I thought I would look up the insightful or funny quotes that people have said about it.

Dedicated to my friend Marissa.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Often, greater risk is involved in postponement than in making a wrong decision.
-Harry A. Hopf

"One of these days" is none of these days.

Never put off till tomorrow what can be done today.

Procrastination is the thief of time.
-Edward Young

Putting off an easy thing makes it hard, and putting off a hard one makes it impossible.
-George H. Lorimer

Nothing is so fatiguing as the eternal hanging on of an uncompleted task.

-William James

Procrastination is the art of keeping up with yesterday.

-Don Marquis

Every duty which is bidden to wait returns with seven fresh duties at its back.

-Charles Kingsley

If it weren’t for the last minute, I wouldn’t get anything done.

-Unknown

Anyone can do any amount of work, provided it isn’t the work he is supposed to be doing at that moment.

-Robert Benchley

There are a million ways to lose a workday, but not even a single way to get one back.

-Tom DeMarco and Timothy Lister

One of the greatest labor saving inventions of today is tomorrow.

-Vincent T. Foss

You may delay, but time will not.

-Benjamin Franklin

It is an undoubted truth, that the less one has to do, the less time one finds to do it in.

-Earl of Chesterfield

To think too long about doing a thing often becomes its undoing.

-Eva Young

Don’t fool yourself that important things can be put off till tomorrow; they can be put off forever, or not at all.

-Mignon McLaughlin

Work expands so as to fill the time available for its completion.

-C. Northcote Parkinson, 1958

Procrastination is opportunity’s assassin.

-Victor Kiam

If you want to make an easy job seem mighty hard, just keep putting off doing it.

-Olin Miller

More quotes available at http://www.quotegarden.com/procrastination.html

I’d write them, but I have a couple other things that I should have done yesterday. ^_^

Shaping Perceptions

The intentions of both Curtis and Neidich are surprisingly similar when you pare them down to the basic idea. Both photographers wanted to change what they thought of as a negative public opinion about Native Americans.

Curtis was being paid to document the vanishing culture of the Indians. This allowed him to try to change the public view of Indians from violent and lawless people to a noble people with their own distinct culture. Unfortunately, in order to change public opinion, he went to the other extreme of the opinion spectrum and created the ideal Indian culture. He removed all traces of western culture from his photos and paid the Indians to pose in costumes. Even though it is now known that a lot of what he ‘documented’ was false, Curtis transformed the Indians’ image from the violent savage to the ‘noble’ savage.

Ironically, Neidich had pretty much set out to partially undo that change. He views the ideal Native American culture as something that detracted from the actual culture of the Native Americans, and as a contributor to the sanitation of history. He wanted to educate people about what actually happened in interactions between the Native Americans and the English settlers. He mostly did this from the Indians point of view. He used staged pictures depicting Native Americans being shot or similarly injured by the settlers. Neidich doesn’t want to deny that the Native Americans had a proud heritage, but he wants to acknowledge that they were as flawed as we were, just less powerful in the end.

I prefer the works of Neidich because they are trying to bring a more historical prespective to the fore. He doesn’t claim that his photos were actually taken back then, but he does try to make them more true to the facts.

Excuses

Answering prompt 2) McNamara asks, in the film, “How much evil must we do in order to do good? We have certain ideals, certain responsibilities. Recognize that at times you will have to engage in evil, but minimize it….I think the issue is, in order to win a war should you kill 100,000 people in one night, by firebombing or any other way? [U.S. Air Force General Curtis] LeMay’s answer would be clearly ‘Yes.’” What do you think? Were the firebombings of dozens of Japanese cities “justified” in the context of WWII? Was the dropping of nuclear weapons on Hiroshima (August 6, 1945) and Nagasaki (August 9, 1945) “justified”? Were these strategies, as McNamara advises in war, “proportional”? Did the ends justify the means?

Saying that in order to do good you may have to engage in evil is an excuse. The ends cannot be said to justify the means because then there are no boundaries on human behavior. You cannot reasonably say that the ends justify the means, but only up to a certain point because that point is not measurable and basically lets a person who is savvy enough do anything they want. As McNamara said, if we had lost we would have been persecuted as war criminals. Then how was it justified?

So long as people believe that up until a certain point the ends can justify the means they will also believe that humans war by nature and that human nature cannot change. That we will always have war. And so we shall. People can always say, invading this country will have this good result for me so I can justify the loss of life and resources to the war, or similar situation. People will not go through as much effort to exhaust all diplomatic options because sometimes war is just easier. I don’t believe we can change human nature, but I don’t believe war is in human nature. I believe humans are just too lazy to engage in political pussyfooting for long periods of time. The stress is too much. The idea of war, to relieve the stress and to end the pussyfooting becomes more and more attractive as time wears on.

Disclaimer: Of course, I have never taken a psychology class and I have not really studied human behavior. I may be totally wrong about human nature, but I may not be.

On Test Taking

My AP physics teacher would occasionally give us advice about how to do better in the class, and one thing he told us was a method he used in college for studying for and taking tests. The first thing to do is study to your heart’s content up until 48 hours before the test. Then you stop. For the next 48 hours you do not study, you do not think about the material. Do something else. Then, in the hour or so before the test, you go over the material and see what you do and do not know. Then, when you take the test, you go in, prop your feet up, stick a lollipop in your mouth and take the test.

The method behind the madness is this. According to the information he had, the human brain takes about 48 hours to assimilate things. So if you stop studying 48 hours before the test, your brain will be able to assimilate all the information. When you go through the information to see what you don’t know, you are setting yourself up to be able to skip the questions you know you don’t know so that you can get to the ones you do know. Then if you have time afterwards you can go back to the trickier questions. The final piece of advice you don’t have to follow exactly, the principal is to be relaxed. When you are freaking out you are going to forget things. If you are relaxed you will be able to remember all the things that you know. Freak out while you are studying if you want, worry after if you want, but be calm during the test and you will do better on it.

Open mouth, insert foot, chew slowly

Foot in Mouth Disease: A disorder of the brain in which the connection between the higher thinking centers of the brain and the mouth is severed. This can lead to a condition known as diarrhea of the mouth and to sometimes amusing, but often unfortunate social discomfort. This disease is present in most humans and flare-ups can be triggered by lack of sleep. The use of caffeine in combination with lack of sleep is almost certain to trigger this condition.

Ah, college life. So many things to do, so little time. Consequently, sleep often gets neglected (at least in my case). Trying to stay alert in classes, the masses of the sleep deprived turn to caffeine. Unfortunately, this can lead me to feel lucid when in actuality I am not. I tend to run off at the mouth at the best of times and this combination does not help. I don’t mean to say that I talk trash or anything, but I tend to just jabber on about anything that comes to mind without thinking about if what I say is appropriate, necessary, or even logical. It is lamentable. I try to take into consideration who I am talking to when I am talking to them so that I don’t offend them. I think it is a bit rude to do something in front of someone that you know they find offensive. So basically, I need to learn to think before I speak.

On another note, when I googled foot in mouth disease I kept coming up with Foot and Mouth Disease, which is a cattle and other hoofed animal virus. Finally I found a reference to my kind of definition, ironically in another blog. Here it is.

The fifth symptom in Hallowell and Ratey's Diagnostic Criteria for Attention Deficit Disorder in Adults is foot-in-mouth disease.

5. Tendency to say what comes to mind without necessarily considering the timing or appropriateness of the remark.
Like the child with ADD in the classroom, the adult with ADD gets carried away in enthusiasm. An idea comes and it must be spoken—tact or guile yielding to childlike exuberance.

Thank you and Goodnight.

Addition of Alkenes: The Formation of Vicinal Dihalides

I am so happy that I am finally learning new stuff in my Organic chem class. We have been going over the basic stuff and I have been bored out of my mind. Today though we started going through the mechanisms of different types of Alkene addition reactions and it is really interesting. I love learning about chemistry and I'm glad that the class is more learning based and less memorization based than I had thought it would be. I mean, sure, you could just memorize the 100 plus reactions that we are going to learn during the course of the semester, or you can do as he suggests and actually think about the material, make connections, and be able to come up with those reactions from information that you know. If you know the characteristics of a set of reactions and you have learned the concepts behind the mechanisms of the reaction then you should be able to infer the mechanisms and predict the products of almost any given reaction. For instance, I had known about Markovnikov's Rule, but I just learned about the anti-Markovnikov reactions that occur in the presence of peroxides. It is very useful information because if you know the mechanisms you can set up reactions to get a specific structural- or stereoisomer of the product.

Also, I am so entertained by the fact that I can sit in the balcony for that class. I guess that says a bit about me, but being easily amused makes my days much more fun than they otherwise would be.

On Blogging

This blogging assignment becomes more difficult the longer it goes on. I am quickly running out of topics to write about. So I will try to list some topics that may be appearing in the future and you all can tell me if you think that they might be worth writing about. This really reminds me of The Cat Who… books where the main character, Quilleran, who writes a column for the local newspaper catches some flack from his editor, Arch Ricker, for doing reader submission columns. He calls it a copout, and it sort of is but if Ms. Hickner wants me to write another blog instead of this one all she needs to do is comment or e-mail me and I will write another blog. So, on to the list!

Why to wear Pigtails

Puns

My favorite book(s)

Several of my favorite movies (we’ll call it summary practice)

Movie quotes

Inspirational quotes

Anime

Mercedes Lackey

Gardening

Purdue University

How to ride the bus

Insects (name one I’ll write 200+ words on it)

Anyway, seriously, I have a hard time coming up with topics and I love Scifi books and bugs, so if you want a description of one, just drop me a comment and I’ll try and blog it later that week. Plus you have to write a few comments every week anyway, right? So it is like a bonus for both of us. Lol Have a great night folks and I’ll see what kind of responses I get.

Feeding yourself without the meal plan

When I was deciding where to live this year money was a real factor. Finally I found Hilltop. Initially, the idea of having my own kitchen attracted me, but when I learned that I didn’t have to have a meal plan I knew it was the perfect for me.

Cooking for myself is a lot harder than I initially thought it would be. I do know the basics of cooking, but I am much more experienced with baking. The first time I made spaghetti, for instance, it turned out really weird tasting. It was edible, but barely. I have a few cookbooks, but I need to learn how to judge what kind of spices to use and how much to use when I make things. Another problem I have been having is finding time to cook. It takes me a long time to do things and I have only an hour between classes to eat lunch. I have been falling back on the old peanut butter and jelly. I don’t mind because I love peanut butter and I have home made jam, but it does get tedious after a while. I don’t even have time to cook Ramen! For dinner oftentimes I am too tired to cook real food or I am eating at Earhart for work. Not that I’m complaining, I guess, but I have all this yummy food in my room that I want to cook, and I can never find the time to.

Powderkeg

The most disturbing problem that has been raised by Ishmael Beah is one of the aftereffects of being a child soldier. Even though the war in Sierra Leone is over the country is primed and ready to re-explode into violence at any time. Many of those who were child soldiers have been missed by the rehabilitators and even those who took part in the programs are not truly part of society. Those former soldiers have nowhere to call home and no future to look forward to. They are wandering around just trying to eke out an existence with a populace who either ignores them because of their past or resents them because they received the help when the villagers received little or none. Ishmael pointed out in his talk that they are likely to join any kind of organized effort that develops regardless of that organization’s goals because they need to be part of something larger. They are especially susceptible to joining another armed effort because it is all they know and the army unit becomes a sort of family to them. As they are now, most of them have no one to rely upon and no one to take care of them even though some are still young boys.

So basically, almost any charismatic person with a bone to pick can gather an army rather readily. In a country with a fragile government anyway the situation is frightening.

Renchan (Calfelsha) Zara Tyfel

This is the character history for the D&D character I played with this summer. It is the best character I've had to date in terms of development, role-playing, and overall coolness, and this includes my 15th level gestalt Fighter-Cleric who sorta sucked because generating a high level character is soooo inferior to playing from 1st to 15th level. So, to begin......

Born as a Raptoran, Calfelsha Zara Tyfel left on the Walk of Four Winds as demanded by her culture at the age of 18. Offering her magical prowess (as a sorcerer for those who actually play) she joined up with a group of morally questionable adventurers who had earned a peaceful charter with the Nar Horsemen. Thus, most of her adventuring has been done in Narfel.

After hunting demons with a cleric of Mask and a disguised devil, among others, she finally grew strong enough to use her wings to fly. Having accomplished the goal demanded by the Walk of Four Winds, she returned home briefly to become a full adult in Raptoran Society and to take her adult name, Renchan, which replaced her child name, Calfelsha. Her parents gave her a wand of Arcane Eye as a naming gift.

Returning to Narfel, she found the cleric of Mask had received instruction from his god to construct a shrine, so she set out with several new partners to continue her demon hunt. After discovering a secret door in a dungeon, however, she was slain by four rutterkin along with most of her companions. One companion, a warlock, was able to escape. He returned to the cleric of Mask and they were able to pay the Druid Hensoi of Nighthawk Tower in the Rawlingswood to reincarnate Renchan from one of her previously molted feathers. Unfortunately, they didn’t have anything to reincarnate the unfortunate cleric of Waukeen who had also been killed.

Reborn as a human, she returned to the spot of her death to revenge herself upon the rutterkin (and to retrieve her equipment). Confronted with the sight of her own dead body, she plucked a single blue-dyed primary from her wing to remind her of her past.

Renchan bid temporary farewell to the cleric of Mask and the warlock in order to travel alone and come to terms with her new existence. She now travels back toward her homeland, unsure of whether she will still be welcomed. Having only one goal in mind, to regain her lost power of flight, she will practice her magic until she can find a way to accomplish this task.

*Note, all of this history was actually roleplayed in game
** To learn more about Raptorans, and D&D in general with a little surfing, visit this site http://www.wizards.com/default.asp?x=dnd/ex/20050204a or just google it.

A Diamond? Why?

Growing up I was never really attracted to gems in general or diamonds especially. For one, I don’t wear jewelry that much, and when I do I like intricate wire creations more than jewel studded stuff. I never really understood why diamonds are so attractive to people. I like color and so a clear diamond, while it sparkles, is nowhere near as attractive to me as a rich emerald, sapphire, ruby, garnet, topaz, opal; the list goes on of cheaper and more colorful stones that I would rather have. (admittedly not much cheaper)

However, saying this only dodges the question of whether the information on blood diamonds changes my opinion of them because if the issue was blood sapphires, for example, it would be the same. So, instead of answering about blood diamonds, I am going to say blood gems, because the concept is the same and I’m sure that there are countries that use proceeds from other gem sales for less than worthy endeavors.

So, has information about conflict gems changed my opinions of whether or not to buy gems? Not really. It has merely strengthened my opinion that natural gems aren’t worth the expense. There are many synthetic alternatives to almost every gem if you want to have a pretty rock on your earrings/necklace/bracelet. Depending on the quality of the lab grown gem, it may have the exact same properties as natural gems or it may have different properties. Irregardless, they are cheaper and just as pretty so why not use them? In regards to diamonds, since we know how to synthesize tool-quality gems I have no real problem with people wearing them in general, though I believe they are put to better use in precision tools. Until countries in Africa and other places stop fighting, I think we should just boycott natural diamonds/gems and use the synthetic ones.

Butterfly

Friday, as I was making my way toward our English 108 class, a splash of red in the carpet of green grass caught my eye. I had some time so I made my way over to it. It turned out to be a monarch butterfly. I was quite puzzled because the butterfly didn't fly away when I approached. It even let me put my finger under it to make it crawl up onto my hand. I believe that it was just far too windy for it to fly that day. It desperately clung to my finger as I walked along and I tried to shield it from the gusts. I reached a ginkgo tree and decided to leave the butterfly on it so that no one would step on it. I wanted to take it with me but I was afraid that it would try to fly away once we were inside and out of the wind. Before I put it on the tree I took a close look at it. The sheer complexity of this small life form was awe inspiring. This is the reason I started with entomology in the first place. Something that is so seemingly delicate can fly so far. The Monarch butterfly is known to fly over 2000 miles in its migration between Canada and Mexico. Some have been know to fly even to Hawaii and Eastern Australia. As I looked at the tiny creature, perfectly designed for what it had to do, I could see the hand of God in its creation.

Soda, it doesn't do a body good

A little over a year ago I gave up drinking soda. At the time I didn’t really have a reason to give it up, I was just copying my older brother because I admire him and want to be like him. When the summer ended, however, I had to decide what it was that I didn’t like about soda, because if I gave up all soda and soda-like products I would be able to drink milk, water, kool-aid, and coffee. Now only one of those choices contains caffeine so I sat down and thought about what it was in soda that made it unhealthy. I came to the conclusion that the main ingredients in soda that I object to are caramel coloring and high fructose corn syrup. Caramel coloring has been known to cause kidney stones because it builds up in your kidneys and it takes a lot of water to wash it away. High fructose corn syrup has more serious side effects.
I researched it on the internet (not terribly reliable, I know) and found a study done with rats. In the study, the rats were fed a diet high in sucrose and low in copper. This caused the rats to have internal organ failure. Now as all chemistry students know (or will learn) sucrose is made of glucose and fructose. So the scientists did a second study where 1 group of rats had a diet high in fructose and low in copper, 1 group had a diet high in glucose and low in copper, 1 group had a diet with average sugars and low copper, and 1 group was fed a balanced diet, for control. Only the group high in fructose suffered the same internal organ problems as the first test. Now you may have noticed that all of these tests were conducted with diets low in copper. This is still comparable to human diets because most Americans have diets low in copper.
Now, high fructose corn syrup would not be so much of a problem if it wasn’t in just about every commercial drink and a lot of commercial foods. It is cheap to make and so it is used as a sweetener in many processes. Take a look sometime and see how much of your food has this ingredient. It may surprise you.
In case you are wondering, I did find an acceptable caffeinated drink for myself. Monster energy drink. It tastes good because citric acid is like the 3^rd ingredient on the list and it is sweetened with glucose. I keep my consumption to 1 a day (or less) though, because it is an energy drink and you never really know what too much of that stuff will do to you.

A post-New Year's Resolution

This blogging assignment has made me realize that writing down my thoughts and feelings really helps me to organize them and understand them. However, many of those thoughts and feelings aren’t meant for any eyes but my own, which is my original objection to keeping a journal/diary. No matter how well you protect it there is always the chance that someone will find it and read it. If you try warning people away, it will make them curious. If you try making it look innocuous then someone might read it by mistake. The thought of someone reading my innermost thoughts scares the hell out of me, especially if I have written about them. But I have decided that the benefit outweighs the potential consequences, so I am going to keep an electronic journal on my computer. I will try to make it a goal to write something every day, because if I don’t make it a habit I won’t do it at all. Hopefully, some of the posts I will be able to post on here so that I don’t have as much to do. I hope that it will help to keep me sane as I embark on the crazy and stressful journey known as freshman year.

How big is your wingspan: a commentary

How big is your wingspan? Originally I took this picture because I liked the effect of giving wings to myself, but lately I have thought about the question above. Originally it is intended to measure your arms, but philosophically it could be used to measure your ambition. For the most part, the bigger the wingspan on a bird, the farther and higher it can fly. So the question asks, how far are you going to fly? What are your dreams and how far are you willing to go to achieve them? Every time I see this picture, I am reminded that I cannot just drift through life, I have to put forth the effort to make my dreams happen. One has to strike a balance though, between working toward your goals and doing things that you enjoy now. One of the hardest things for me to do is not to let life pass me by. Take action. Join a club. Hang out with friends. Share the things you enjoy. Laugh out loud. Smell the flowers. Enjoy the good weather while it is here. After all, all work and no play makes Jack a dull boy. Now I'm going to go take a walk.

२० Problems

So these are 20 problems that I believe are touched on in the book A Long Way Gone by Ishmael Beah.

1. The use of child soldiers in conflicts causing semi-permanent and permanent psychological damage to the children.
2. The use of child soldiers in conflicts causing semi-permanent and permanent psychological damage to the parents of the children.
3. The use of child soldiers in conflicts causing permanent physical disability and sometimes death to the children.
4. The negative effect on food production in a conflict area due to destruction of arable lands.
5. The negative effect on food production in a conflict area due to lack of farmers.
6. The lack of trust between people due to fear of rebels/army in disguise.
7. The high mortality rate of civilians causing a loss of skilled workers and knowledge in general.
8. The lack of gun control increases the mortality rate because more people can get ahold of AK 47's.
9. The slow rate of food production causes food shortages that cause starvation and malnutrition in the population.
10. The media fails to cover the civil wars that we (Americans) are directly and indirectly funding so that people cannot make informed decisions about whether or not to buy conflict items.
11. The lack of media coverage causes Americans to view war in a casual manner, and consequently to not care about war.
12. The difficulty for interested parties in distinguishing which side to aid in a civil war. Hard to determine who is in the right because both sides use the same brutal methods.
13. Rape
14. Released livestock gone feral, such as pigs, are dangers to the civilians, especially those hiding in the wilderness from armies.
15. The ignorance of people trying to rehabilitate the child soldiers. They treat them like normal children instead of brainwashed soldiers.
16. The political struggles involved in war are often not understood by the people fighting them.
17. The existence of corrupt government
18. The fact that replacements for corrupt government are usually equally corrupt.
19. Poverty
20. The loss of habitat for animals in wild areas that become war zones causing the populations of some animals to drop.

The problem of deciding who to help in a conflict is an interesting one. I can see 3 possible solutions to it. First, you can decide to help neither side and just distance yourself from until it burns out. Not only does this cause criticism for being uncaring, this is a harder prospect than it first seems because, in the instance of Sierra Leone, if you buy something that the country exports than you are helping either one side or the other through funding. So you decide to help one side so that you at least have some control over who you were helping. Do you choose the side of the established government because they are the "rightful" authority? Do you choose the side of the rebels because they are fighting to bring down the corrupt government? Either way, your problem now becomes getting your populace to support your decision.