Mtv

I've been disenchanted with Mtv for a while.  I don't really even listen to the radio anymore.

Today, I had the C-SPAN stream going on my computer.  I then heard about this little contest Mtv had hosted.  It got a college student on the program at the Democratic National Convention.  Mtv played a montage of clips from people in my age group talking about what they wanted in a president and how they were going to vote this year.

I started crying.  I was so moved.  Getting the youth vote out has always been something close to my heart.  I've even played around with starting groups and all.  (I even had a name: READY - Reducing, Educating, and Activating the Disenfranchised Youth.  It even worked with the slogan: Are you READY?)  It was really strange to be crying, but it just meant so much to me.  I really respected Mtv.  What did they get out of it?  There has to be some ulterior motive for them.

Even if there is, at least they are doing something that tries to put the youth where they belong in the election world.

Top 10 Signs the Heat Wave Is Over

 10. You need only one shower a day to feel clean.

9. You can drive around with the windows down.

8. You feel the need to cover yourself at night with the down comforter.

7. You can lay on your side without the thought that your legs are melting together.

6. You can do your pilates in your room at 2 in the afternoon.

5. You can cook in the kitchen with the oven and two burners.

4. Your shirts don't have sweat circles under your arms.

3. Your shirts don't have sweat circles on your back.

2. Your shirts don't have sweat circles on your chest...

1. You only need ONE! shower a day to feel clean.

HOT

I would like to tell you how freakin' hot it is right now.  Last night, I had to sleep at the foot of my bed to catch the flow of air from my fan, but I still sweat into the night.  I kept waking up because I was so hot.  This frickin' heat wave better move on.

It's supposed to cool off at night.  It never did.  The f-in' heat woke me up this morning.  If I wasn't sleeping in the uncomfortable position of all my limbs sprawled out on the bed, I would sweat on myself and wake up.

The heat wave is supposed to end by tomorrow.  Still, I'm upgrading my fan today.  I'm going swimming today to hopefully quell this sweating.

It's so hot.

 

Kerry Explanation

I think I need to explain my sudden volunteerism in the Kerry campaign.

I do not like the man.  He is not the person I would choose for my president, but the sad fact of the matter is, I'd rather him than Bush.

I hate advocating the lesser of two evils.  I'd rather vote for Nader because I feel he's closer to my beliefs than either of the two major party candidates.

But... the republicans.  *Sigh*  They are actually part of an organized party.  I am a Democrat.  I am not part.  Why can republicans stand behind one candidate while Dems constantly have internal bickering for all the world to see? 

I've always thought that Dems need to take a few pages from the republican book.  That means I have to practice what I preach.  Even though I do not want Kerry as the Democratic Party Nominee, I must accept it and support him.

What's very hard about this position though, is I don't feel that people are "wasting" a vote when they vote for a third party candidate.  I think the beauty of the American process is that you can cast a vote for someone who represents your ideals.  I'm the ultimate in pro-choice.  Your life, your choices.  Even in an election year.

I don't know how to reconcile these two ideas, but for now, I hate Bush enough to support Kerry.  And while I respect your ultimate decision, please consider the same (if you live in a swing state, otherwise just vote for your man).

My Moral Coil

This evening, on my way to the Kerry meet-up, I saw another homeless person standing on the bridge, begging for money.  His sign was very sad and asked for "a little help."  I was raised to help people. 

Since moving to Portland, I have seen more beggars than I had ever seen in my life before.  What's funny about Portland, though, is most of these people don't really need to beg.  They just do it because they can.

Still, it always sits with me.  I always wonder if this person might actually be telling the truth.  I want to roll down the window and hand him my spare change.  Instead, I avert my eyes as I drive past him.  Guiltily, I pretend he doesn't exist.

Later at the meet-up, I gave my last three dollars in cash to the League of Conservation Voters to help pay for food for their student interns.  I felt a little better about giving money to someone who would actually use it for food, but as I drove home, I thought about the guy with the sign.  I wondered if I had passed judgment where it wasn't my place because I gave when I knew where the money would go.

I judged that six students who chose to work for the summer for a group that had to elicit money to feed them were more worthy of my money than a guy who chose to stand on the road begging for money.  That doesn't sit with me well.  I know I can't give to everyone, but that doesn't make me feel any better about it.

Am I Nuts?

I'm subjecting myself to a TV series that I never saw a full episode of when it was on television.  Not even in syndication!

Am I crazy?  I'm starting to actually care about the characters of Dawson's Creek.  What am I doing?  I've finished the first disc and am about to start the second.  There are only three discs for the first season!

Watching this makes me realize that my Buffy love is a pure thing.  At least Buffy is a show that has some hidden intelligence in it.  I'm even glad that it doesn't have words in the theme song.  Having to hear Paula Cole over and over is crazy-making.

It never bothered me much before, but:
"Open up your morning light
And say a little prayer for I.
You know that if we are to stay alive
Then see the peace in every eye"
is really starting to get to me.  First it doesn't make sense.  Then the stupid "prayer for I" part.  I think that sounds off to everyone who hears it.  And I and eye are not rhymes.  They are the exact same sound!  Ugh.

I'm going see Pacy get it on with his teacher some more.  That's just ... ugh.

New Obsession

I've just found a great website that I will use probably too often.

www.wheresgeorge.com

Here, you can track bills all over the world.  Now I will start writing all over my dollar bills and entering all the bills I get.

This will probably get a bit obsessive.

My Life as a Sim

I just realized life as a Sim is very analogous to my life, especially the friendship meter.  In the game, The Sims, you have to keep in contact with your friends either by talking to them or inviting them over.  If you don't do that, the meter, which runs from 0 to 100, starts to decrease.  After a certain point, you lose him as a friend.
 
While I'm not trying to increase the number of friends I have to get a promotion at work, I realized that I have a good bit of friends that I don't keep up with on a weekly basis.  I know it's not just me who has to keep up with other friends, but I still feel like I've lost contact if I haven't talked to a person for a week.
 
While I have been quite social with one small handful of friends and talked to another small handful, there is one other small handful of friends that I haven't talk to this week.  While I know they are still my friends, I feel like I'm losing touch and need to call them, just to maintain the current level of friendship. 
 
I'll probably call one or two friends soon just to see what's up.  That way my friends meter will stay nice and level.

Between Books

As some of you may have noticed, I've added a little book list to my side bar.  For a bit of time I had a Mary Higgins Clark book and Frankenstein sitting there. 
 
I have a little secret.  I finished Mary Higgins Clark yesterday and started Frankenstein today.  "Where is the secret?" you might ask.  Well I've read 4 books between those!
 
Really, they are 4 children's books, so they don't take much time to read.  I didn't feel like changing the html in the template every four hours.  The books are from A Series of Unfortunate Events.  I already read the first one and picked up the next four at the library yesterday.  They're quite funny and entertaining, and I would suggest them to anyone.
 
I actually can't wait until I have kids to read them to because it's a great way to increase their vocabulary (because Snicket defines the big words in the story).
 
I just thought I would share.  I'm quite excited about Frankenstein and My Life.  I just hope I have time to read the other pile of books by my bed before school starts.

Happy French Independence Day!

That's right! It's Bastille Day in France. I think that's a time to celebrate.

I'm going to have french fries, french toast, french bread, french dressing... and on and on today!

Whoo hoo! Down with the aristocrats! Up with the peasants!

Fahrenheit 9/11

Ok, it took me long enough to see it, but I am outraged.

I didn't take the movie as gospel, if that's what you're wondering. Actually one of the things that ticked me off the most wasn't even a big part of the movie. I wanted to hurt all the Congresspeople who condemned the war and the Patriot Act yet voted for it! I mean, if you don't think it's a good idea, why the hell did you vote for it? Political accountability, anyone?

Oh and my favorite quote: "Here we have the have, and the have-mores. Some may call you elite; I call you my base." (Or something like that.) Dick.

And why don't the Congresspeople want to enlist their children in the military if they support the war? Good question.

Some of the movie was a little too much speculation, like the percentage of Saudi money in the American economy. There was nothing to back that up.

I'm an outraged American. I'm tired of the war. I hate Fox [Un]News (or Fox Fiction as a more proper name). I have enough of stupid Bush. I probably have the FBI starting a new folder for my file right now, but I don't care. I'm not going to stop saying what I have to say. I don't agree with my president, and I think everyone who does should question why.

WAKE UP AMERICA. YOU'VE BEEN FOOLED. DON'T BE FOOLED ANYMORE.

Rowing

I've got the urge again. With all this water around me, you'd think I'd be able to just pick right up again, right? Wrong. Why couldn't the bug bite me two weeks ago? Then I could be doing the July class. I can't do the August class because I'll be gone the entire first week.

I'm really ready to start waking up at 4:30 in the morning again. I miss it. I love the boats. I love the water.

One thing I hadn't thought of was the swim test. I've never had to take one before. In order to be able to row, I have to swim for 10 minutes straight and then tread water/float for another 10 immediately following the swim.

I can swim, but I'm not actually sure I can swim for 10 minutes straight. Hmm... maybe it's a good thing I can't register for the class. I'll practice the swimming for 10 minutes for a while and then I'll start my classes when school starts.

It's an awful plan I know it, but I really want to start rowing again and don't want to wait until next summer.

We'll see.

More Books I Have Already Read

I just finished going through the entire J.K. Rowling website.

What did I learn? Well, Book 6 has a bunch of stuff that was originally going to be in Book 2 (and the title of Book 6 was the title of Book 2 for a while). Apparently Book 2, though, still has a ton of information and clues that tell about the end of the books.

What does that mean? I have to re-read Chamber of Secrets to see if I can catch anything. I have a ton of other books (that I haven't read already), but Harry Potter will always win out.

Oh, and Book 5 will be published in paperback on August 10 (for those of you like me who collect them in paperback).

Ooh... Ooh. OOH!

I just found out the name of the new Harry Potter book!!!!!!!!

It's Harry Potter and the Half Blood Prince! For those of you who aren't counting, this is book number 6! The second to last book of the series!

OOH OOH OOOOOOH!

I'm so excited. I signed up for an alert when the book will be published. OOH OOH OOH!!!!!!

(Am I really a 23-year-old? I look at a post like this, and I start to wonder if I will ever grow up. I don't think a 23-year-old should act like this.)

The Simple Life in Henderson...

They were near my home town tonight on Fox. I actually saw the trailer while I was on my trip home. I didn't think they were actually filming anything.

I was shocked to see the episode tonight was set in Louisiana. It was a fluke that I found out about it. I'm glad I did because now I can comment on what they did.

First of all, I can't believe they went to the Northgate Mall. No one goes there. I guess that's the best place to go then. I promise they didn't clear it out for the show; it's always like that.

I was so disgusted when they put boiled crawfish in the sack and then sold it for 78 bucks! I went crazy! It's maddening knowing about crawfish and seeing them do that!

And then, the two of them were going to chaperone the 13 year-olds first date. There were all these rules about not dressing slutty and not kissing, but how could they expect the date to be safe and respectful when Paris Hilton has her own sex video?! What were those parents thinking?!

Ok, we're not all like that in Louisiana, but there are some. That was crazy. My parents are not like that. We don't talk like that. Like I said, there are some, so it's not like they had to search to find people with those accents, but it's more likely that you'll find people like that when you're going crawfishing.

Post It, Baby

It' been a while since I graced you with a post, so I'll just dive right in.

The John-John ticket. I'm still voting for Nader. This will probably come back to harm me in my future political career. (GO DEMS!... There, does that make it better?)

Ex. Haven't really seen or heard from of him in a while. That a big PLUS.

4th of July. Spent it on the Columbia River. Took lots of fireworks pictures. Maybe I should link to the album.

Work. Busy, busy. Wrote my first affidavit today. Woot. My to-do list was crazy long yesterday, but it's only half as long today. More woot.

Jeopardy. Man, Ken is AWESOME, even if he does keep making less and less everyday. I almost thought he wasn't going to have to go into Final Jeopardy yesterday. Who will ever unseat Ken?!

That's it. I think. I'll probably think of more later. Does anyone want to share the lyrics of that awful grammatical song that starts, "I love you, period..."? I just thought of that stupid song for some stupid reason.

Why Can't It Be Over?

I'm so tired of this break-up thing. I want to be done with all of it. I'm tired of friends who don't really act like friends. I'm tired of Ex acting like a dick. I'm tired of feeling like this will never end.

I totally get why people jump from one relationship to another. How much easier would this be if I were already in another relationship and I wouldn't have all this to deal with? I know that's not the way to deal with it, but I'm just so tired of it.

I know I won't be ready to date someone else until I'm actually past this. This isn't the only reason why I would like to get past this. I just don't feel that I'm over it until I have these thoughts finished with.

I think I could just move forward if everyone were to leave me alone about it!

It Wasn't Me

No, I'm not talking about that awful Shaggy song.

I'm talking about my former relationship with Ex. Now, I know many of you are saying, "Duh, I told you that already," but it helps to hear it from a psychologist sometimes.

I found this article the other day, and it's just made me feel a whole lot better.

First of all, the article is about commitment phobes. If you watch the video, it's even better. Something I had questioned in the back of my mind was if I gave him enough time to commit. Well, I know now there wasn't anything I could do.

The first thing the article suggests I should do is get out of the relationship. Well, I'm happy to say that I did get that far. The other solution would have taken therapy and years. I don't think he would have done the therapy and I would have been able to deal that long.

I'm serious about this, though. It's really good to know that there wasn't something I was supposed to do and there is a reason I felt I should have been able to change his mind about his fear of commitment. Funny how the Today show could make such a difference.