You know, that would be a great way to get kids to drink their milk.

I don't get Alma Maters. I mean the songs. Last night I was at a volleyball game and looked to my right and saw the Ridgeview High Alma Mater standing above the doors to the gym. I read the words and really can't understand what the big deal is. I remember some of the words to my high school's song, and don't see why you should sing "We pledge our hearts to the purple and gold," (from Ridgeview) or "praise and tribute bring" (from BHS). Maybe it's the same thing as saying "Once a Driller Always a Driller" or "We bleed blue."

Last night we celebrated Rob's birthday by trying to take him some place that was about to close. We had to do that because it was done for my birthday, but who would have thought a bar/diner would close at 9? Anyways, we ended up going to pizza and drinking some beer there. It was fun, mostly because we sat around for at least an hour and a half talking.

Tomorrow is another day full of soccer, which will almost be the last. Chris and Rach leave on Tuesday, which means that Rob and I are getting ready for two week when we'll have to entertain ourselves, and it looks like that might be done by raiding Chris' movie collection and watching as many movies as possible. I'm looking forward to it.

To die will be a great adventure.

So I've decided to make the subjects of my blog quotes from movies I've seen recently. Or at least for a while. Chris got the previous one, but will anybody get this one? I sure hope so, mostly because there are a couple possibilities. But if somebody says the one I watched recently, more power to you.

I thought that my previous post would garner some comments, but I guess not. Any thoughts out there about the difference between Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid and Bonnie and Clyde? How are one group heros and the other villians?

Sunday I got a hat trick in my soccer game, which is impressive considering I usually try to miss my shots. You might ask why I do this, and I have a pretty good reason. The reason is that I and my team can pretty much score at will against most of the teams we play, and I really hate running up scores, something that the rest of my team doesn't really seem to have a problem with. Anyways, I usually try to miss, but make it look like I tried to score. But on Sunday I had three completely break aways that I couldn't make look good by missing. So I scored, and they were pretty good shots, if I do say so. But after I scored the third one I subbed out. Apparently I was playing too well.

I watched Clue last night, which is awesome. Tim Curry is great, and there's some other great talents in it. Plus its just plain crazy, which is awesome. I'd been holding out watching it just because Chris likes it so much (much like Chris refused to read Harry Potter because Rach is obsessed with it). But I really did enjoy it, and am glad I watched it.

The stuff that dreams are made of.

I watched AFI's Top 100 Movie Quotes tonight on Bravo. Well, I started at about 79, but that's okay. It was pretty cool because they had all sorts of people talk about the movie for about 5 minutes, showing clips from it, and working up to the point of the quote. I think I ended up seing about half of Casablanca since it had so many quotes on the list.

Seeing all those great quotes made me want to watch more old movies, since most of them are from before 1980. I've seen quite a few older movies lately, which is great. I think I've seen three Tracy Hepburn movies in the past month (No, Tracy Hepburn isn't a single person, for those of you in my generation and uneducated). Now I really want to see Guess Who's Coming To Dinner. I don't think you can get a better duo on screen than those two.

I was looking at the AFI Heros and Villans list, and I'm a little confused. On the heros list is Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid. But on the Villan list is Michael Corleone and Bonnie Parker and Clyde Barrow. Doesn't really make sense to me. I also throughly appreciate the fact that Han Solo is 14 (although he should be higher!), instead of somebody stupid like Luke. Luke really doesn't get interesting until the books, while Han is always interesting and the kind of hero you can root for. Luke is just whiney in the movies. He must get it from his father.

Catcher in the Rye

I've had a great week. Tuesday my friends attempted to kidnap me. Well, they successfully kidnapped me, but weren't too great at not letting me know where we were going. We tried to play golf and storm a castle at Boomers, but they were closed. So instead we checked out the Elephant Bar, which was fun.

Yesterday Manny was feeling sick, so I had Dr. Robert come over and check him out. I think he is feeling much better now. By the way, Manny is my computer. Then, after practice, Rachel came over, on the pretense of working on her novel. I tried to make her work, but we didn't get much done. Instead she looked at old pictures on Dave (her computer) and we watched the end of Woman of the Year. The entire movie is good, except for like the last 20ish minutes. Its like The Taming of the Shrew. I love the movie, but have to turn it off before the end. Oh well.

Anyways, here's to a good weekend where I get much done, because I need to get work done. Stupid GuildWars.

What if...

... Luke and Leia were actually Anakin's older brother and sister? Then, instead of trying to save him later, Luke would have had the chance to influence Anakin towards the light as a teenager.
Or what if there was a duck that had the healing properties of a phoenix?

Wow

Oh the things I never thought I'd see. And I shall say no more.

Themes

Lately my dreams have had themes. Not song themes (that would rock), but all the dreams that I've had in a night have had a common theme running through them. Last night it was camp. I was (at various times in my dream) at Calvin Crest (well, it didn't look like Calvin Crest, but that's what it was in my dream), a sports camp (Patrick was there for some reason), and a couple others that I don't remember.

A couple nights ago the theme was school. I was both at BHS and Whitworth. And before that it was the night of epic adventures. Quite a few of them were movie adventures (Star Wars and LotR), so it was pretty fun.

In other news, our Harry Potter discussion group finished The Philosopher's Stone (I'm going to rebel and start calling it that), so now we get to start on Chamber of Secrets. I've usually kind of ignored this book, because I don't like it as much, so I'm looking forward to giving it some time and thought. Maybe I'll begin to like it more. I think the movie especially ruined it for me, because the movie really isn't good at all.

I got to paint today (sadly, it wasn't with my fingers), which was fun. I made a blue pumpkin, based off of Pascal's - er, make that Picasso's - blue time, or whatever it was called. I like it, and I think that it really speaks to the blueness in me and others. Haha, just kidding. I did hang it up on the fridge, just because I can. So far my family hasn't said anything, but I think they expect things like that - like when I came home from camp (as a counselor) with a finger painting. My dad put it nicely: "You're like a big kindergartener."

Fallacies

Did I spell that right? I really don't care, so I guess it doesn't matter. Anyways, for some reason I've been hearing some things on the radio that really bother me. Every once in a while, some radio talker-person will feel the need to share the latest scientific study with their listeners. This morning (afternoon I guess) I got to hear about one which has shown that if you eat breakfast in the morning, you're less likely to get sick.

What's so wrong what that, you might ask. Oh, nothing, except I'm sure that this so-called study just polled people as to whether or not they eat breakfast in the morning or not, and then found out how often they get sick. They didn't bother to compare the fact that people who eat breakfast in the morning are going to (on average) have a healthier life than people who don't. But instead of breakfast being a sign of a healthy life, and this being the reason the person doesn't get sick, breakfast is the reason.

Let's see, what was the other one.... oh yeah! Apparently if you sit down to eat as a family five or more times a week for dinner, you're kids are more likely to do well in school, less likely to do crap they shouldn't, and quality of life will all around increase. Now, let's think about how they did this little experiment. Is it see what happens with meals, then use the same family without meals and see what happens? Or is it poll families and see how often they eat as a family, then rate the kids? So once again, we have a sign (generally) a healthy family, blah blah blah, and its taken as the reason.

I probably will name it wrong, but isn't this Ad Hoc. (Yes Will, I do expect correction if I'm wrong, I never did pay attention to those stupid names). And I don't really know why its making me so angry, but it is, so now I've vented, and its out of my system. Until I hear about the next stupid scientific study. Is this what Universities are getting grants for? Because that's pretty lame. They can give me the money and I'll tell them why their tests are stupid.

Weekend update

Well, I haven't done much this weekend. Actually, I did a lot, but none of it was really interesting. This weekend was the Business Conference, so AYSO games were all canceled, well at least the ones at Cal State. Did this mean time off for Becca? Of course not. What this meant was that I could get out to Hart Park earlier to ref more games. Luckily I only had three, instead of the four he was sort of threatening me with. Then I came home and collapsed into bed, which was nice.

Sunday is soccer day, with two games after church. I can always expect to lose the first one (its a co-ed game and almost all of my team has never played competitivly before), and win the second one (its a women's game, and almost all of my team has played in college). This week was true to form. Then afterwards I went to church.

Frequently throughout Sunday, I'll be at my computer, checking for scores. NFL scores, to be exact. It looks like this week I might win, which is awesome. That'll take me to 2-3. Unfortunately, my first three games, I played tough opponents, and my key players didn't produce how they should have. That's changed these past two weeks, which is good, so I have high hopes for the rest of the season. I'd say right now in the standings, I'm in the upper middle of the pack, which is a good place to be, because people aren't gunning for me, could underestimate me, and I'm still in the running.

Plus, football has given me a chance to brush up on my excel skills, which I never really had to use in school. So don't ever say that fantasy football is worthless.

Compassion

Its interesting to see that an action which can cause compassion, or a sense of empathy in some people, will cause a desire for vengence in others. Yesterday, I was the center ref in a U14 girls game. At halftime the score was 8-0, which is almost unhead of. Its not unheard of because its impossible, but its almost unheard of because most teams have more class than to score 8 goals in a half.

So at half timeI go up to the coach (who is also a ref) and ask (fairly nicely) if he's going to make his girls show some restraint. He turns to me and says, "Well, that was us three years ago. We got beat like 18-0, so its our turn now. We're going to run up the score!" Finally, once the score was 14-0 or 15-0 I walk over and say, "If you don't make your team back off, I'm going to yellow card you for unsportsman-like behavior."

Finally, he made his girls not score (sort of), but the game was still horrible. Here's the thing. You would think that if a team had that happen to them in the past, they would be more willing to show some class and not run up the score. Most the teams I've ever played on have been like that. And the worst part is, in a game where the score is run up like that, neither team learns anything, because one team has no chance, and the other team has no challenge. Its lame all around.

So I have more to say about my life for the past week, but I'll do that later.

I want some!

So awesome! Why didn't they have these when I played? I would have picked a cool demon name and everything. Don't know what I'm talking about? Check it out. All I can say is, "Cool!"

Huge Pink Bunny

So I've been wanting to post about this for some time because I saw a link to it on a friend's website. But alas, I didn't save the link and am too lazy to search for it. But check it out. I just laughed when I saw that. Talk about too much time on their hands.

PS. Thanks to Amanda for having the link in her AIM info, so lazy Becca didn't have to search for it.

Deep thoughts

"I would not live forever because we should not live forever, because if we were supposed to live forever then we would live forever, but we cannot live forever, which is why I would not live forever."

Miss Alabama
--Responding to a question in the 1994 Miss USA contest

That's so deep, I have nothing to add. Or maybe I have nothing to add because I have to go to work.

Basque food and soccer

Last night my family got together in honor of my grandpa's birthday. We would usually go to Woolgrowers for a gathering like this, but couldn't for some reason, so we went to Benji's. Both have Basque food, which is pretty fun. There's the "Set up," which includes bread, vegetable soup, beans, tomatos, salad, tounge (yes, tounge), and french fries. Then you order your main meal, which comes with either red or white wine.

It was great fun, as anything with my extended family is. We were there for about two and a half hours just talking and carrying on. It was hard to tell which half of the table was louder, the young side or the older side. Only one of my cousins was there, which could have had something to do with it, since the more of us there are, the louder we get.

Today was the second week of the women's soccer league I play in, but I couldn't play last week because I was camping. The new team I'm on is very interesting. They are all older than me (which I've come to expect), but only a couple years. The "manager" was actually my coach for a year in high school, and is somewhat difficult to get along with. A lot of them have small children running around, which is funny, because when the ball isn't near a person, they tend to look over to the sideline to make sure their kids are behaving.

I don't have much in common with them, except that most of them have played before and know how to pass. There are a couple really good players who have lost a bit of touch, but it doesn't matter because of the competition. It was nice being able to make a run and know that the person with the ball would be able to get it to me, so I got to do a lot less running.

Fantasy Football

So, those of you who know me well enough know that I don't particularly enjoy watching sports, I enjoy playing them much more. This is the main reason that I don't really follow professional or college sports. The more I watch a sport, the more I want to play it, and I generally don't have the opportunity to (with the exception of soccer, which I can watch because I play often enough).

Hi, my name is Becca and I am dumb. :)

By the way, that was Jason, and he made me not delete it. Anyways, back to fantasy football. Apparently, this is something that's really huge, and tons of people waste all sort of time checking sites and planning rosters. So I decided to play this year with Chris and his brothers and their various acquantiances. Its fun, mostly because of the smack talking that can go down.

Anyways, my team plays Chris' team this week, so hopefully I'll win, mostly because he's done all his research and I haven't. I'll let you know how it goes. Last week I had the third most points of anybody, but got creamed by Paul, who had almost 30 more points than anybody else. It was insane.

Its been fun, but I think that fantasy soccer would be more interesting, because there's less points and stats in the game, so you would have to be very careful in who you pick and play.

Meanderings

"He that hath wife and children hath given hostages to fortune; for they
are impediments to great enterprises, either of virtue or mischief.
Certainly the best works, and of greatest merit for the public, have
proceeded from the unmarried or childless men; which both in affection and
means, have married and endowed the public."

I got this through my daily philosophical quotations, and it kind of made me think. I seem to remember reading part of a book that was along these lines. Its Sci-Fi, so bear with me. Basically, there's kind of a rebellion while these people are on a ship, and one of the teenagers realizes that the parents can do nothing to stop the big bad, its only the un-tied down teenagers who can really do something, because they don't have a family that can be held as collateral.

Anyways, it makes sense. We see all sorts of movies (most recently The Negotiator comes to mind, even though I didn't see it) where the weakness that all these heros have is their family. We even see it in normal life, where working people with families have to have their priorities straight.

I don't really have a point, just thought I'd share what I've been thinking/reading lately. Although I read the book forever ago.

The Aftermath

So I just got back from the camping trip. And by just got back, I mean that I've had time to take the necessary nap and shower to recover from the camping trip. Let me just tell you upfront, it was great. One of the better times I've had in the past couple years, I'd say. I'm sad for all of you who couldn't go, because you missed some fun happenings.

Let's, see... where to start. First, the camping site that we were headed to was a bit of a wild card. I had never been there, but the site we wanted to go to was not available, so I found this site though the Reserve America website. We weren't entirely sure how to get there, even with instructions. It turned out to be a pretty sweet place, but more on that later.

So Thursday night, Chris, Rob, and I went grocery shopping for the trip, which was really brave of Nat, because she trusted us to buy the food. And I'd say we did a pretty good job. But we had to do speed shopping, because the store was closing at 9, and we got there about 8:30. What kind of grocery store closes at 9. We made it safely out with a couple minutes to spare, almost forgetting the S'more fixings, jam, sausage, and tortillas, but managing to get everything we needed. I was impressed with us.

We left Friday around noon. Well, we were supposed to leave around noon, but I showed up late (11:30), and Rob couldn't tear himself away from the tv, so we left a little later than we thought we would, I think around 12:45. After various errands we still had to run, we left Bakersfield probably around 1:30. We headed to Santa Maria and beyond.

Now, Chris had done his homework to find some different wineries that we would go to, but saw so many that he decided we would kind of just go where looked fun. We were expecting something along the lines of Paso Robles, where there are huge signs that say, "Wine this way!" but alas, this is not the case in Santa Barbara County. We got off at Bulleton, and put in the Sideways soundtrack to get us ready. But we could find no wineries! We finally found one, but there was a w-word going on (Rob and Chris kept sushing me, but I say, if they want to have their w-word at a winery, they can deal with the noise! I'm not sushing) but it was so crowded, we decided not to fight the crowd.

Feeling defeated (and somewhat confused) we decided just to head to camp and check that out. Hopefully it would be more of a success than wine tasting was (on the first day). Turns out that it was a success, because the campsite was pretty nice. There was a (mostly dry) creek running pretty close to it, which we got to explore, and also held some nice wood for us to gather. Nat showed up about an hour after us, and then the real party started.

A little about the campsite. There were some very interesting people camping by us. One party had four tents (I think) but 5 SUVs and one little car. Another site had a "Mystery Machine" van and that was it. I think we sometimes saw an air mattress lying around. Another site had four tents, a psuedo-tent for keeping bugs away from the table, a bike, and an air rifle. All of this came from one truck, not to mention probably 5 or 6 people. The final site had a motorhome, and old beat up car, and a tv. So it was an interesting place.

On Saturday, we decided since we had no luck and Nat had never been wine tasting, that we would forgo the hike and exploring in favor of finding some wineries. We headed towards Lompoc and scored! We found a very nice winery by the name of Melville, where there was a very fun pourer who gave us the hookups. Not only did she pour us very nicely sized portions of each wine (about a third full of very large glasses), but she told us of some of the better wineries around the area. It was great.

The rest of the day was kind of normal, except for the last one we went to, which is owned by two Aussie brothers. There was a very different atmosophere there than most of wineries, which was fun. It was much more laid-back, and struck me as I think an Aussie winery should.

Sunday, we hit a couple more (2) wineries on our way out after breaking camp. They were pretty good. The thing about SBC wineries that's different from the PR wineries is that all of the Paso wineries are located at the vineyard, which I think is pretty awesome. It gives you the whole atmosophere, and just plain looks cool.

Most of the SBC wineries are not located on vineyards. A lot of them are like little stores in the small towns around there. I think I prefer the Paso wineries better. Plus, SBC doesn't make a lot of Zin because the grapes need more heat. They can turn out a lot of Syrah, which is nice. But Paso has the Zins, of which I am a fan.

And if you read this whole thing, I'm impressed and amazed. Check out my site soon for some of the quotes from the trip, which are pretty funny.

This weekend

I'm going camping this weekend. I know you're all jealous that can't go. You'll just have to get over it. So there will be no new posts until at least Sunday, when you will get to hear all about the crazy adventures we had over near Santa Barbara. In the mean time, I'll leave you with this quote.

The man you want to keep bound to you should be chained by food and drink. - Plautus

My blister is healing nicely

So I guess my previous post was pathetic, because only one person commented. Lets see if I can do better. Monday, Chris and I decided to play some golf. Bet you didn't know that I can play golf, did you. Well, neither did I. The last time I played was like summer after sophomore year in high school, and I really sucked at it. And I mean really. The problem was that my muscles were so used to swinging for softball, that they automatically did that any time I didn't put my full concentration towards a golf swing.

My hope was that after not playing softball for four year (well, except for church softball in the summers) I would be able to golf better. But really, it wasn't a big hope. It worked! I didn't suck nearly as much as I used to. I would almost say I didn't suck at all, it was just normal new golfer stuff. And I beat Chris on two holes! Woohoo! Not that that's saying much (sorry Chris).

Last night after planning our camping trip, Chris, Rob, and I played some Cettler, as we've taken to calling it. I won again, but it was close because Chris had 9 points. It was an interesting game, because we were all playing in the same space. Luckily, the 3's were rolling last night, so I won.

Okay, that really wasn't interesting. I'll try to do better tomorrow.

2-0

Even though the games don't count towards playoffs, my team is still 2 - 0, which is pretty awesome. We still need to work on our defense, though. Todays' game was 5 - 3, which is good, but not great.

We had out second DA meeting on Thursday, which was fun. There was more to talk about in the first 5 chapters than I would have thought. We had a 100% comeback rate, plus one new person (it was Rob so it doesn't really count because he should have been there before). All in all, a good time was had by everyone.

Last night I had a dream that I was moving out of a dorm room. Does this mean that I'm actually ready to get past college? I don't think so, because I was moving out of my Jr. year dorm room. So I really just want to be a Senior again.

I have two hours before I have to go lifeguard, so I think its high time for a nap. I did get up at 6:15, after all. And Chris, I don't want to hear it.

Adventures

I was in Mervin's because I had to take something back for my dad, and decided to wander in the women's area. I remembered why I hate shopping. Instead of having nice sections that tell me what's there (casual, sporting, and so on), they have Petite, Junior, Misses, Misses Career, and Women's. Utterly confusing. And not only that, but all the sizes were weird. In the women's section, there were no S or M, but 1x, 2x, and 3x. What the heck does that mean? Then there's PS, PM, and so on. What is the world coming to when you can't even shop for clothes simply?

Last night I totally (on accident) took out one of my players at practice. I was trying to show them how I wanted a sweeper to clear the ball, and asked Maddi to dribble at me. I said, "When you're about to me, kick it a little ahead of you." So she did, and I got ready to clear it. I looked up at everybody to make sure they were watching, and to say something, but Maddi had decided that she was still dribbling. So she had touched the ball again after putting it in front of her, and was following. So instead of clearing the ball, I cleared her. Bam! On the ground. Luckily, I hit her foot, so no damage was done. Instead, I got to give a lesson on the importance of fouling at the right time. I think they'll have a healthy fear of me from now on.

Amanda left for Davis today, which means that there are four of us left in town. Well, three and a half, because Rachel is gone all the time during the week. Hopefully Rob will get a job soon, and there will only be two and a half (not that I want you to leave Rob, but I hope that you get a job).

I have an interview tomorrow, which should be good. Hopefully it pans out, because I need a more full time part time job than subing. Peace!

Breakthrough

I had a breakthrough today. Well, Chris helped. BECCONOMICS! How awesome is that? Its amazing that I'd never made the connection before. Well, maybe I had, but didn't pay enough attention. I think it will be like horsism, but not non-sensical. Well, less non-sensical. Anyways, I don't have much more to say, other than that.

Inconceivable

My soccer team had its first game yesterday, and I think we did pretty well. We won, which is important, but more importantly, they played pretty well. After the first quarter, that is.

Yesterday we had a small bar-b-que at Chris' house in celebration of, uh, nothing really. It was fun. After we went shopping for the necessary food, we had a little bit of time before we needed to start cooking, so Chris and I turned on TCM, which has been having its month of stars, which is that every day is devoted to movies that a particular person stared in. We watched Adam's Rib, which was very interesting. There was all sorts of nominalism vs. realism. Very fun.

And right now I'm watching the Princess Bride as I type. I bought this at the same time that I bought my tv, as sort of a warming gift to my tv. So many classic lines in this movie. Its great. "You keep using that word. I do not think it means what you think it does."

PS. The title was for the movie, not the fact that my team won.

New occurances

So last night Rob, Chris, and I, after watching some Simpsons (I actually had seen the two episodes we watched), decided to play some Settlers. I think I prefer the three person game to the four, because there's more room to expand, and I think the game is more interesting. Rob won on a two (very unlikely roll), which was kind of funny, except for the fact that he won.

In other news, I am now coaching a girls U12 AYSO soccer team. I'm still not quite sure how it happened, but oh well. It should be interesting to see if I can water down how I think a game should be played and teach them some stuff. I've decided that I don't really care what our record is, as long as I can manage to teach them a lot. We'll see how well that goes over with the girls, though.

For some reason last night my calf was mad at me. It could have been because I ran around yesterday at practice with no shoes on. Or it could have just realized that I had started being around a soccer ball and remembered all the fun it had had waking me up in the middle of the night cramping during high school and college. Anyways, its still really sore this morning, which is strange.

What else is new. Oh, my first volleyball game is tomorrow, which should be very interesting. I'm not playing, but refing, and I have no previous knowledge of the sport, unlike when I started refing soccer. But it seems really easy (although there are some people that just can't seem to get it, so maybe I'm missing something difficult), and Robby enjoys it, which tells me it can't be hard.

Oh, the other new thing is that today Brandon officially went to Basic (for the Army). I hope he has fun.

2-1-1

I believe that's my record thus far from playing Settlers of Catan, although I could be missing a loss in there. And yes, you can tie a game if you run past your allotted time because somebody has to go to bed. Anyways, last night after the Fantasy Football draft (yes I'm playing FF) Chris, Rob, and I decided to play a game of Settlers because we didn't quite have enough time for a Freaks and Geeks episode. So we played, and it was a very interesting board set-up, because all brick hexes were low (except for one 6 that Robert had but was always blocked). I had no ore or brick, but lots of wheat and a wheat harbor.

So after a while I realized my only hope of winning would be through D Cards. I think I ended up buying 8. And I won! Woohoo!

My family is a patron of two different pizza places, Rusty's and Papa O's. Its always a tough decision when we need to pick one. Rusty's (in my opinion) has far better pizza. But Papa O's has stuffed crust, which my family loves (I personally don't like it). Rusty's also has Bust-a-Move, which is one of the best arcade games ever. However, Papa O's has a lot more games, some of which give tickets, and most of which are newer. Which would you choose?

I have an eating disorder...

... its called laziness. Its really not a good thing. As I was going to bed last night, I realized just exactly what I had had to eat during that day. It wasn't pretty. So I've made a pact with myself to start fixing more food. Like right now, I'm fixing myself some ravioli (yummy!). Its a start.

In other news, Rachel's first HP discussion group is tonight, so we'll see how that goes. Even if its just us there, I think it will be fun. But I don't think it will be just us there, in case you were wondering. We'll see what wonderfulness we come up with that needs to be in Book 7.

Does anybody out there have a copy of Photoshop that I could have? I'd really like to have it. *coughRobertJasoncough*

Thunder only happens when its raining?

So Rach listens to this band called the Cors, and they have a song which has a line that is the same as the title to this post. And when I was in her car once, I mentioned that its not true, because you can have lightening storms where there is no rain. Well, as luck would have it, we had one of those last night. While it did sprinkle for like, a second, most of the thunder was happening when there was no rain.

Actually, it was pretty cool, because it was huge thunder and lightening. There was a black out for a second, followed by the longest roll of thunder I've ever heard (I think). Anyways, it was awesome. And then this morning, the sky was all cloudy, which was also pretty cool.

Also, last night Chris and I decided to play Oil Power, which is a game similar to monopoly, but a little different. Basically, you have to buy leases to all these fields, and once you have all the leases to a field, you can drill on the field. You can either get a gusher, 100, 50, or 0. Then, if a person lands on that field, they have to pay you money.

Chris killed me the first game because he kept getting lucky on his drills. He had something like four gushers and two 100's on his only field, and I couldn't find oil to save my life. But I won the second game pretty well, so it made up for it. It was a fun game. Its funny that I haven't played monopoly in a long time, and now I've played it and a game like it twice in a week's time.

He's going to be all right.

So last night was fun. Chris and I joined Rachel at a night of Major League Improv, where she was Ms. Voice. It was fun because there was a large audience, when there usually isn't. The only bad part about that was there were some suggestions that weren't very good. Major League Improv, for those of you who don't know, if like Who's Line Is It, sort of.

Afterwards, we went to Lengthwise, where Rob caught up to us. Poor Robert just had his wisdom teeth out, so he was a littl puffy, but I insulted him till he braved some real food (french fries), so I think he's glad he went, because now he knows he can eat real food, it just takes a while. Then we went over to Chris' where Nat joined us. It was a fun evening.

Lately I've been wathing Arrested Development, which I think I've mentioned. It is one of the funnies shows I've ever watched, because its so bizarre, but with the characters, bizarre seems normal. That might be the reason I like it so much. They manage to make strange an every day occurance, which takes some work. So its awesome, and very much a show that we would enjoy, which we do.

Summertime, and the living is easy

I'm going to be sad once the summer ends. Its like everything is put on pause for summer, and then fast forwards once its over to make up for it. Soon I'll be officiating volleyball, and subing, and maybe working someplace else, plus the occasional soccer games on the side. Meh. Oh well, it'll keep me out of trouble, I guess. Wait, what am I talking about. Nothing could keep me out of trouble.

Catan

I just spent the evening playing a very fun game by the name of Settlers of Catan. Its pretty awesome. And actually, we were playing an expansion of that game called Knights and Cities of Catan, which is a lot more complicated thatn Settlers. It also means the game takes a lot longer, so we didn't finish it, although Nat and I got pretty close to winning.

Its a great game, which has a little to do with economics, but not much. Mostly its about how lucky you can get with dice rolls, although Knights and Cities makes it a little less based on luck. Only problem was, we were too sure on the rules, so Rob, Chris, and I were at a slight disadvantage (because Nat had played before), so once she did something, we realized we could, but would have done it sooner had we known.

I just wish that there was some way to destroy the other player's towns once you get strong enough. You know, more like Civilization or something, where you use your knights to go kill and take over. But then again, I can just play Civilization.

My brother is gone for two weeks, which means my house will be very peaceful. Now if I can only get the other one to leave. Yeah right, like that will ever happen. He won't go anywhere there isn't a tv and a vcr.

School starts soon, and it'll be weird not leaving to go. I keep thinking that my life will change a lot once the summer is over (like it always has in the past), but it really won't. I'll still be here in Bakersfield, hanging out with Chris and and Rach, Nat, and Rob when they're in town. Oh well, I suppose that isn't so bad.

The Aftermath

So I'm back from my fun weekend around Santa Barbara. It was a blast! I had so much fun hanging out with my family. Some of you will be amazed that I just typed the previous sentence, but I did.

On Saturday we gathered at the Arroyo Hondo Ranch, which is now a land preserve in Santa Barbara County. It really hadn't changed at all, except that this year there were no tents in the meadow to get hit by volleyballs. We played the required volleyball game, which was awesome, but I think my team loss. Not that we really kept score. Its hard to really keep score when you're playing with at least three kids under 8 on each team.

After the main day of activities, we went to a campground where a lot of people were staying in these nice little cabin things and played cards and just hung out until about 11 when we decided that it was time to head in. So my brothers and I drove to Solvang where we were staying because my parents didn't get on reserving a cabin in time. But that was cool because I got to drive by The Hitching Post. If you don't know what that is, you're lame and need to watch more movies. Unfortunately I didn't get to stop in, because it was closed by 11:45 when I drove by.

The next day was spent at the beach with the assortment of Aunt, Uncles, and cousins that had stayed. We got there about 1 and played about an hour and a half of Ultimate Frisbee. Half of the field was in the ocean, so it was a blast. I had only expected a couple people to play, but almost all of my relatives played, which made for an amazing game. Then we played in the ocean and made a huge sand fort with my younger cousins, got sunburned, and headed home.

Its really funny that I do the same thing with my family that I do with my friends, which is play cards, sit around and talk, and this year, play frisbee. But really, there's not many better ways to waste time, so I can't complain.

In unrelated news, I'm so excited that my past couple of posts caused so many comments! Woohoo!

A Few Good Days

Got back from SB today and played a little frisbee. It was fun because only six people showed up, and all six were siblings. I was there with Robby, Chris with PJ, and Rob with Tim. So first we played older siblings vs. younger ones, and then we mixed it up a little bit more. Was really fun, but really tiring.

Billy and I had a blast over in SB doing nothing. Yesterday we hung out around the pool of my Aunts hotel, then went to the beach for a little bit. Today we hung out around my grandparents house and went on a walk with our Aunt (a different one) and cousins.

Then on the way home we stopped at the Outlet Mall, where I got a sweatshirt for 4 dollars. Go me! So it was a good couple of days, to soon be followed by another good couple of days starting on Saturday. Yay for the summer.

I need you like Ben Affleck needs acting school.

Well, I'm off to Santa Barbara today, if my brother would ever get up. Then its back to Bakersfield on Thursday, and back to the SB area on Friday. Woo! Some of you might be wondering why I'm spending so much time over there. Well, first of all, its like 20 degrees cooler over there than here, and second, my family is sort of congregating over there for this week, so I'll get to see some people who, due to school, I haven't seen in a long while.

Two nights ago, Chris, Nat, Rach, and I watched Sideways, which was awesome. In recognition of the film, we went to Vons and bought a Pinot Nior (I think that's how its spelled) and drank it during the film. Then last night Chris and I watched Team America and had some Bombay Sapphire and tonic, which was great. (There's a scene where you see some bottles of Sapphire, so that's why we had it). That is a very wrong, but funny movie. I don't think I've laughed that much at a movie in a long while. But afterwards Chris and I were talking about it, and I realized that I really couldn't repeat any of the funny scenes, mostly because they're unrepeatable.

But I do love the songs in the movie, my favorite being the two montage songs, one called Montage, and the other, well, I don't know what its called, but it makes fun of Pearl Harbor (the movie, not the historical event).

Bappy

So apparently this summer is the summer of nicknames for Becca. I think the count is up to five. So far the crowd favorites are Roxy and Cuddles. Both of which are obviously me. I'm amazed people didn't come up with those earlier.

I found out last night that I'm bappy, or fappy (adjectives, not nicknames). Not sure which one it is, although they might be the same thing. Those are from Robert, so if you want to have them explained, you might ask him, because I don't think I understand. Or maybe I do understand, but I just don't want to explain.

We had fun last night (Rob, Rach, and I) watching the last like six episodes of the first season of Arrested Development. Its a great show. It was especially great because two of my top four episodes were watched, which was awesome. On Friday I was down in LA for a friend's going away party. We came back that night (Rob, Nat, and I), so I didn't get home until about 4:30. I was a good friend and stayed up to talk to Rob as he drove. It was pretty fun, too. Interesting conversations come about after 2 am.

I'm listening to a song right now called "Bowling Ball." Its great. A line is, "You need that boy like a bowling ball dropped on your head, which means not at all." Its an entertaining song. But now its over.

Now its time to head out to more evening fun with my friends! Woot!

Freaks and Geeks

So we've been watching Freaks and Geeks lately. Well, so far I've only seen the first two episodes, and part of another one, but I will be watching more shortly. Its a great show. All of the characters are hilarious. And just watching the pilot, I already knew that I would appreciate this show.

In other news, I'm headed down to LA with my friends tomorrow for the day, which should be fun. I'm looking forward to it. A couple days ago I was driving down Ming and I passed Stine. I realized that there are two 99 cent stores across the street from each other. They're different brands, or whatever store chains are called, but come on. How much competition can there be in the 99 cent store market. It really makes me wonder sometimes how the economy can function with so little efficiancy. I mean, I know competition is necessary to keep big corporation from totally inflating prices and what not, but it seems like there should be a point when we don't have two 99 cent store on the same block.

And I'm done with my tirade. Its time for bed.

Spiderweb

I just watched a spider spin a web here in SB. It was interesting. It was very hard to see unless you got really close, but you could see that the spider was moving around with some purpose, even if you couldn't see the web. There is some sort of philosophical implication in my observations, but really I've been having a much too relaxing time to write it out right now. Perhaps once I get home next week and have to work all the time I'll put it down in cyberspace, but I don't know.

In other news, we're watching Whale Rider right now, which is a really interesting movie. If you haven't seen it, you should. I'm also about to go through more pictures and scan some so hopefully sometimes soon you might see them on my website. I love weekends like this when I don't have to do anything and can just wander around the house busily doing nothing. I think I need more weekends like this.

SB

There aren't many places I love more than my grandparent's house in Santa Barbara. It combines everything in life that is nice. Its up in the mountains above Westmont surrounded by oak trees, but there is an amazing view of the ocean (or at least there is on clear days). All of the doors are open to let a beautiful breeze through, and there is so much history in this house.

Everywhere I look there are pictures of California's past. From books to rocks and fossils to pictures of my family's past. I love it here.

Plus I'm not in 100+ degree heat baking. That's a definate plus. We went to the beach today, which was a lot of fun because I haven't gone in the ocean in I don't know how long. I mean, I've been to the beach, but not in the water. The water was just about perfect. The only downside is that SB has very little surf, so we couldn't really play in the waves, only splash around and throw mud at each other.

Anyways, I hope all of you at home are enjoying your heat. I am definately enjoying Santa Barbara. Maybe I should go to school here.

Conditioning

So the past two days I spent eight hours at the pool. And today I only had to be there for four hours. Usually, four hours of sitting in the heat and sun staring at the pool feels like forever, but today it didn't. Its amazing what a person can be conditioned to endure. And this was only after two days. Adaptability is a pretty cool thing.

Last night four of us were at Chris' house to make cookies for Amanda. Well, we're going to eat some too, but hopefully they will make it to her. Last year the cookies that were made to send to somebody didn't actually make it, but this year I think there's more hope.

An unfortunate side effect of the fact that all the other lifeguards like country and I don't really care what we're listening to, is that I now know way too many country songs. Plus I will occasionally have some of these songs stuck in my head after work. Like I do now. Its annoying.

Well, tonight is a frisbee night, so I'm excited. Its been good to be able to play almost weekly this summer. And its a great excuse to hang out with some people I don't see all that often.

Sunburned

Yes, I am a little red tonight. That's what happens when its a hot day and I have to work for 8 hours. I spent a good deal of time in the pool. I think tomorrow will be sunscreen day. I just spent about an hour and a half playing a game that I never could like, mostly because I'm horrible at it. I'm talking about Super Smash Brothers. I've never been really good at button pushing games, so it was to be expected that I suck at this game. However, I think my skills are improving. At least as long as I use Link.

On a side note, I love Who's Line Is It. I was just watching it. Its great. And I love Tim Burton. I really need to see Charlie and the Chocolate Factory. It was one of my favorite books as a kid.

Well, its been really hot lately here, so my family has finally gotten smart and decided to go to Santa Barbara. Yay for us, it should be fun.

Okay, bye.

Ahhhhhgh!

All I have to say is bravo JK Rowling. Half Blood Prince is everything I had hoped it would be, and some things I hadn't dared to hope it would be. I won't spoil anything here, so don't worry. I finished it in under 12 hours, which is pretty fast, even for me.

Anyways, I hope you all ready it. I'd even say its worth reading the first five just to be able to read this one. By far my favorite. By far. So, if you want to talk about it and are done, look me up. But please don't say anything about it (well, don't spoil it) on comments or I'll beat you soundly.

Happy Bastille Day Yesterday!

So we stormed the Bastille last night. Oh wait, no we didn't. Actually, I wanted to do a dramatic reenactment of the storming, but that was shot down. Instead, we ate French bread, cheese, and had some wine. Oh, and we watched Casablanca. It was fun. Afterwards, we sat around and made predictions about The Half Blood Prince (coming out tonight), and tonight we get to see who was the closest.

Well, its time to go play frisbee, so I'm off. Tomorrow you should check out my quotes page since I have some new ones from last night, and I'm sure tonight will reveal others.

Hmmmm

Yet another night when I'm heading to bed shortly before Chris should be getting up. I think I missed that earlier note to self. But in my defense, I'm towards the end of Knights II, and its really starting to get good. The best part about this game (well, the plot of the game) is that the whole time, you have no idea what's going on. Like, you see what's going on, but you have no idea what it means.

That and the fact that you get to either fry people or force push them into submission. And tear it up with dual lightsabers.

Maybe I'll leave myself a memo to go to bed earlier this time.

Camp

I'm going to be at camp for the next week (July 3 through July 9) so I won't be updating or anything. If you really feel like you must know what's happening in the life of Becca during that time, you'll just have to get over it. Or you could check out my other site and see the new fun things that have been added recently. Well, not really recently, but if you haven't checked it out in a while, you should.

Rob and I found a friend that also plays Gemstone today. He's actually a friend of Patrick's from school who is working in the Bay Area this summer and is down for the 4th weekend. We were talking about books, then Robert mentioned Gemstone, and Brian was like, "Gemstone 3?" (even though its actually Gemstone 4 now), so we got to have fun talking about both books and Gemstone.

We also played some Apples to Apples, and Nerts, besides just the normal random converstaions that are what usually happens when all of us get together. It was a good night of nerdiness, which was throughly enjoyed by all present, I think. So now I get to go hang out with high schoolers for the week, run around, wear costumes, and get no sleep. And the only difference from what I normally do is that I've been hanging out with elementary school students lately, not high schoolers.

Hasta la semana proxima!

Ponderings

So I've recently had some feedback that might cause me to not weblog on my site, but just continue to do it here. The only problem with that is that I feel people won't check my site if I don't weblog there. Its quite a conundrum. I haven't decided what I'm going to do, but I'll keep you posted.

Today I subbed (again) at summer school, and just watched a movie. It was kind of lame watching the same movie two times in a row, but oh well. It was Island of the Blue Dolphin, which was fun because I read that book in 4th grade and really enjoyed it.

But watching that movie made me think about how no matter how much things change in education (and they've changed a lot recently because the California government seems to think that different must mean better), some things won't change. Like the classic books we read in grade school and Jr. High, for example. Classes today are still reading some of the same books that I read, including Island of the Blue Dolphins, Fourth Grade Rats, Maniac Magee, Dealing With Dragons, and Ten Little Indians.

I'd write more, but its time to go swimming.

Up and Running

So I finally got around to putting the weblog part of my (other) website functioning again, which means that this site can go back to its original purpose.

Is there ever a time when an ethical person will have to act against their morals? I think that there us, but only in a sense. Soren calls it the teleological suspension of the ethical, from the greek work telos, which means purpose, sort of. Really, its just Aristotealian ethics, in a different form, and spelled out a little bit better.

Well, I don't really have time to go into more depth about what I've been thinking about this, but you can leave comments, and I'll probably write more later.

Que lastima!

Let's take a minute and feel sorry for Chris who became a "real adult" today. That is, he started his real job today. I'd say pobrecito, except this does mean he's going to have a more-than-steady income, which is more than I can really say for the rest of us.

In other news, Knights of the Old Republic II rocks.

Note to self

Start going to bed earlier.

Tonight

I can't sleep, and I know I thought of something witty to put here sometime over the past two days at work, but I can't remember it. Tonight was an awesome night, being that it was the first time in I can't remember how long that the entire group got to hang out. And who knows how long it will be until the next time.

Our house looks weird because the carpets are getting cleaned tomorrow and that means all furniture must be on non-carpted surfaces. Its amazing how you don't notice something until you have something else to compare it to. Like you can't really notice how bad dirty carpets are until you have an unblemished part to compare it to. I guess that's kind of like life, where you don't realize how un-green your grass is until you see your neighbor's lush lawn and can compare the two. Or at least what you percieve as lush.

Using that train of thought as a spring board, lately I've been thinking a lot about distinction. A lot of philosopher talk about distinction, especially as pertains to universals and language. A lot of people will argue that you can't describe something except by pointing out what it isn't. Some people will actually say that is the only way you can percieve the world. By making distinctions through colors and shapes.

Anyways, thinking about distinctions lead me to think about universals as the pertain to humans. What exactly is in human nature, and what about nature is different between men and women, yound and old, and even just between individual people (stupid feminists, making me take some of what they say seriously!). Ockham says, "There is no distinction without a difference," which makes me think if there can ever be a difference without a distinction. I think distinction is the cause of social injustice (ie racism and sexism and other isms), but does that mean that any differences is necessarily going to cause injustice. I think of Harrison Buegeron (not sure about the spelling), and how they tried to solve social injustice by getting rid of all differences. But its not the differences, its the percieved difference that these differences make to other people. If differences didn't matter, in other words if differences didn't cause distinctions, there wouldn't be a problem.

Just so you know, yes stuff like this is what occupies my mind at 2 in the morning while I try to sleep. As I said to Amy earlier this evening, "My mind has a mind of its own when its left to its own devices, and its scary what it can come up with." And now I've shared some of that with you. Thus endeth the rant.

Way too much fun

So if there is such a thing as too much fun, I think I passed the threshold this past week. Not only did I spend four days at the beach, but afterwards, Heidi was still in town for two days, so Chris and I had to show her the town. Last night we went to play pool (I know, random), which was fun because there were six of us and we just goofed around. Patrick, who was on my team, had to continuously remind me that I was supposed to be trying to win, but then would proceed to mess me up by talking right when I'm hitting the ball.

So tonight, which is traditionally the night you go out and have fun, I decided to stay in because I reached my fun quota for the week. Also, almost everybody was busy and couldn't do stuff. Anyone that wants to should check out my other site, because I've been adding some stuff to it recently, most noticeably, on the quotes page. Most of the new ones are from Cambria, and they're pretty funny.

In other news, almost all the lifeguards at the pool like country music, so its usually on the radio. Now, today I was at work for four hours, and during that time, I heard four songs twice. You would think that there are enough songs so that the station doesn't have to repeat itself that often. I think that is the reason that I don't like country music. Every station repeats itself about that often, some more often. For the most part, non-country stations aren't like that.

And now that I'm done with my rant, I bid you adieu (is that how you spell it?).

PS Leave a comment! I've been commentless lately!

Good times

So I just got back from half a week at Cambria with friends. It was amazing. I really don't have to say more about the week than that, because amazing really sums up the week. I might say more later, we'll see.

First day

So the pool opens today, which is good because I'll start to get a little money, but bad because its only a little. I really should find a "real" job so that I can actually start to be able to have a savings account. That would be smart, but I probably won't do it. Go me.

Definately a nerd

I just spend about an hour playing on a philosophy website. I was taking quizes and polls and other stuff like that. I'm so proud of being a nerd. And I beat the computer when it came to philosophy know-how! Go me!

Funness

Last night was awesome. First, I went out to dinner with some friends, which rocked. We had a blast. Then, we played some three-on-three frisbee, which equally rocked. My team won! Woohoo! Then a bunch of people went over to Chris' house to play Apples to Apples. I think we had nine people playing, which made for some interesting rounds. I've learned that I have to stop playing intelligent cards when I play, because if I have to explain my card, I usually don't win.

I've decided to try to start leaving shotrter posts, because then I think I'll post more often. So we'll see how that goes.

Educational Television

I just spent the night at Chris' house, and we ended up watching an educational tv show that was very entertaining. When we caught it, they were talking about properties, to which I replied, "Its Aristotle!" No sooner did I say this then their expert says, "In the 5th century BC Aristotle..." Then they talked about the different states of matter, which Chris throughly enjoyed, having taken way too many science classes. Somehow by the end of the program, they ended up talking about plasma and fusion power.

But the best part of the show was when they had little kids talk about gases, solids, and liquids and ways you distinguish them from one another. Chris almost had a fit because he wanted to answer for them. It was funny.

All in all, it was an entertaining night that made both of us feel smart and learned and everything.

Friday

So I've done nothing all week and have loved every minute of it. Or, I guess I should say nothing productive, because I've done plenty of stuff, like seeing Episode III for the second time, and playing softball (we rocked!). I also watched a bunch of Scrubs episodes with Rob and Chris, which was hilarious.

Last night I dreamed that there was a watermelon patch at the Beach Park, but when I was trying to take one home, my car broke down. It was interesting.

I've been playing SimCity lately, which is fun, but I think that last night I was dreaming about remaking Bakersfield to have higher land value and better zoning. Which wouldn't be a bad thing.

Softball

We had a softball game last night, which was fun. This is the fourth game this year, but the first we've actually been able to play due to lack of people. I got to play shortstop (which is where I usually play, even though I'm left-handed), and got to dive for a catch. It was fun. But the best part was when I was driving the other team's rover crazy by hitting it where he just was.

Like, since I'm left handed, most teams shift their outfield towards right field because they think I'm going to pull it. Unfortunately for them, I hit much better opposite field than I do pulling the ball. So I hit the ball where he had just moved from. For my second at bat, he figured out I could hit opposite field, so moved towards left. Then I hit it up the middle to where he had been standing. It was fun.

I'm headed to Yosemite on Thursday for a fun weekend of avioding my family. Its possible that the valley will be flooded because its been too warm there recently and all the snow is melting. I hope that doesn't happen, although it will be cool to see the Merced all full (its the river).

Oh, I saw Star Wars, but the votes still aren't tallied on how I think it was. OBviously it was the best of the new trilogy, but I haven't decided exactly what I think of it. I let you know once I watch it again, or once I read the novel.

Boy is my face red

Yeah, I got a little sunburned today. Mostly due to the fact that I spend the hours between 8 and 5 in a pool. Yay for re-certifying my lifeguard stuff. Actually boo, because I can't take the re-certification class, I have to take the beginner class.

Max is barking really loudly right now and I don't know why. Just thought I'd share.

Anyways, last week was fairly uneventful. I worked three days, which is a lot for me. And they were really easy days because I was at Actis, and two of the days I was the band teacher, which meant I subed for three periods and helped other teachers for three periods by grading papers. That's what I call my kind of day.

Hopefully I'll get to see Star Wars tomorrow night, because I'm terribly sad about the fact that I haven't gotten to see it yet. And yes, I'm going to dress up and have my lightsaber and get into fights while in line. So who wants to go with me? I'll even bring extra lightsabers so you don't die right away.

And apparently tonight I have to find some entertaining way to teach others about the different ways to treat burns. I'm thinking an epic poem might do, although a ballad is also on the list. Not like a rock ballad, but rather a Tolkien style ballad, like the Lay of Luthien. (Can you guess that I just re-watched and -read The Return of the King?

Officially Gradumacated

So its official. Not that having a diploma made it official that I'm grownup and graduated. No, sitting in an arena for three hours bored is what made it official.

I did have a good time in Spokane. It was good to see friends that I hadn't seen for a couple months again, possibly for the last time. But now I'm back and I really don't feel different. Everybody I talked to said I'd feel a sense of closure more if I went to the ceremony, but not really. And sadly, the program didn't say I was cum laude (which I am!), so I didn't even get a little cord thing to play with. I did get two tassels, which was fun, and they ran out of econ tassels, so I got one that was red and black (our school colors), so really it looked like I had three majors. Mwaha! Oh wait, that made me look dedicated or something. Maybe it wasn't good.

Anyways, now summer has almost officially started, although that won't happen until the school year ends here and I'm not subing anymore. Then I have to find another job. Yay. Well, that's it from here.

Harry Potter Strikes Back!

Last night we watched the second Harry Potter movie because it had been on ABC with Goblet of Fire stuff during some of the commercial breaks. It was fun, but more fun was the commentary that Chris, Rachel, Paul, and I put in. I'll try to remember some snipets of conversation.

Paul: How old is Dumbledore? Because he looks the same in the flashback.
Becca: He's a Master (Jedi).
Chris: He's Yoda.

Other conversations were about how many people in the movie wanted to tell Harry they love him (Hagrid especially), and how many times Harry was going to touch Herminoie's (I'm too lazy to look up the spelling) hand (like 5 because as we all know, she and Harry are going to get together). And Dumbledore's inclination to look into souls.

Chris made me realize last night that if I'm going to get my Master's, I need to start thinking of a Jedi name now. I can't just be Master Becca. But that's not just something you can pick spur of the moment. A lot of thought must go into a decision like that.

Good fences make good neighbors

So this week is testing in the Panama district, so I haven't been working. Instead, I've been doing all sorts of stuff that magically appeared when I have nothing to do, like build a fence. I was reminded of the poem, by I believe Robert Frost, although he could have written Mending Wall instead. Anyways, I don't really know our neighbors, on either side. That's what you get when your parents move when you're away at college. Actually, I don't think anybody in my family knows our neighbors. But, I've decided that good fence makers make good neighbors because this guy put up a section of the fence in like 15 minutes. That takes talent.

Two nights ago I went over to Rachel's to "write". For some reason she hasn't figured out that most of the time we spend writing together, I'm trying to distract her from actually getting any work done. Now she has everything she's written so far all printed out, so how distracting do you think that was for me? It was a fun evening, full of quotable moments, most of which I've forgotten. Hopefully Rachel wrote them down.

I go up to Spokane to officially end undergraduate work next week, which should be fun, but I really don't look forward to sitting around listening to people talk for three hours. How boring. Luckily I'll be sitting by fellow philosophers (I hope) so I can talk to them. That should be interesting and entertaining.

Ouch

So, I was playing Warcraft all evening, and now my forearm really hurts. Its fine if I don't move it, but if I rotate it in any ways, it starts hurting. Is that bad? I think that means I've been playing too many video games, so tomorrow I'm not going to play any. Except for maybe Gemstone, because that's not really a video game, since there is no video.

I dreamed a dream

More dreams from last night:

First, I was some sort of a strike settler who was sent, along with somebody else, to England to try to end the railway strike. Our two guides actually worked undercover for the owners, but we still managed to get a good agreement in favor of the workers.

Then I was in the Star Wars universe doing something Star Warsy. I don't think this one got fully developed, or I just can't remember it.

Then I was playing basketball with Micheal Jordan, and the refs were horrible. They kept trying to make us lose the game, but we didn't. Actually, the game didn't get finished, but we were winning.

And there was another one, but I can't remember it now. Maybe I'll remember it later.

I'm trying to get my other website up and running. I think right now some pages are linked up, but the colors are all weird, and many of them aren't done. So check it out at your own peril.

Strange things are afoot at the Circle K

Well, not really, but if you can tell me what movie that quote is from, you rock. Anyways, I've been having the strangest dreams lately, so I thought I'd share them as I remember. Last night, I was apparently in the army and shipped off to somewhere like Vietnam, but it wasn't, because it was currently going on, and I wasn't back then. Anyways I was there for like 3 hours before the war ended and I was sent home. Once I got home, I was somehow up in the mountains and had to use my newfound knowledge from the war to lead a group of bad guys on a wild goose chase while the rest of the camp (I think it was a camp) got away. I had tons of experience from my three hours of war time.

The next dream involved little flower things growning out of the back of my leg. I don't really understand that one. That's all I can remember, but be on the look out for more later.

Coming soon: an interesting conversation I had with Rob about superheros. (Sorry if you've read it already, but its mostly for those people who don't know Rob.)

Steps towards recovery

Well at least I'm surrounded by people who will and do encourage my addiction.

My name is Rebecca, and I'm an addict.

Video games are addicting.

Xbox

So Billy and I bought an Xbox. I've been wanting one for a while, and finally got around to buying it. I've been playing Knights of the Old Republic, which is pretty awesome. I have a feeling that I'm going to be replaying it, just because there are way too many different choices that you can make which will influence the gameplay.

All in all, its a pretty sweet game, made all the better because there is a sequal. That's one problem with all too many RPGs - they're usually stand a long games, and most of them are good enough to warrant a second one.

So I've been spending much of my time doing that, which is both good and bad. Not too much else has been happening, although softball is about to start up, so if you're ever in town and want to play, let me know. And don't worry if you are horrible, we're just out there for fun and the pizza afterwards.

Paaaaarty.

Well, Saturday was Chris' birthday, so I headed down for his party, which was awesome. That made three weekends in a row that I got to be in LA, which is pretty cool, and I might head down next weekend, also. Anyways, there were a bunch of people there, and about a full half I know (mostly people from Bakersfield, but I've also gotten to know a few of Chris' LA friends).

Rachel and I went down together, and she taught me about the Cors while I taught her about philosophy, and we both talked about the global economy. So we had fun. Let's, see, what happened at the party. Well, there was a lot of drinking, so the party got louder as the night went on. I apparently didn't drink enough, but I drank enough for me, so oh well. We played Apples to Apples, but I had a horrible hand, so I spent more time trying to argue for the bad cards I played than actually trying to win.

There was also a video camera going around, so that was fun to watch. Ethan was interviewing people about the most redeeming qualities of Chris, but it turned into most embarrasing moments, which was much better.

Then on Sunday we had to get back for my soccer game, which was really lame because my team is made up of people who really shouldn't be playing (except for the two people who I played with in high school and myself), while the team we played was made up mostly of people who had at one time played for Cal State. Needless to say, it was like 8 - 0, but they were complete jerks about it. Usually you stop shooting when you get to 5 or 6. So Tiffany, Diana, and I decided next time we play them, we're basically going to get all of our friends from BHS and school them and run up the score. Just because we could.

Oh, I also bought an Xbox, which is awesome, even though I haven't opened it yet. I knew that once I opened it, I would have to start playing, and I've had too much to do lately to play more video games. But soon it will be opened and I will become a Knight of the Old Republic. Woooo!

Anyways, that's it in my life. Its starting to get warmer, but for some reason I've been wearing warm clothing lately. Like today I was wandering around the house in fleece pants and a long sleeve shirt. I think something's wrong with me.

Can't think of a title

Well, I'm back from my week of Mexico fun. A little sicker for the time spent there, but really that's Robby's fault and it finally got through my immune system due to lack of sleep. Anyways, I had a great week, and I just watched the Alias episode that I missed while I was gone, so I thought I'd make a post.

I don't have a lot of really great stories, but the palm of my hand is bruised. You might ask me, "How do you possibly bruise the palm of your hand?" Well the answer is to get it pinched between two huge sheets of ply wood while you're laying roofing. Its pretty cool looking.

Oh, and if you ever go to CPK (California Pizza Kitchen), order the cheesecake for dessert. Its awesome. We went there today when my dad came to pick me up from LA.

Today Chris and I spent the day watching Arrested Development. Its hilarious. And the good thing about it is that you don't have to watch a whole season in order to enjoy the show. And now, because I've slept for most of the past 26 hours, I can't manage to fall asleep. Oh well. I have lots of internet surfing to catch up on.

What I want to know is, what did I miss while I was gone. Leave a comment! They have been sadly lacking lately. Bye for now.

Gone

Well, I'm off to Mexico for the week, so there won't be any posts coming for a good reason, as opposed to the normal reasons why there aren't any, which are bad.

I realized that I would love it if there was a high speed train (or any speed, really) from Bakersfield to LA. It would make my life so much easier, and I would be spending pretty much every free weekend down in LA hanging out with people. You'd think that with all the hubbub about how California has a traffic problem, they would have made one a long time ago, but only recently have they started arguing about it. Although then it would be possible (maybe probable) that Bakersfield would turn into another suburb of LA, and then it would suck more as a town.

Anyways, back to a couple weeks ago. I was watching Robots, as I posted earlier, and the first part of the movie drew me back into philosophical ponderings. Of course, I had had a couple drinks earlier (in celebration of St. Patrick's Day), so I shouldn't have been pondering things like that, but I did. Anyways, in the beginning when they're making the baby robot, and then as he grows up and gets upgrades, I had to wonder if the creators of Robots had figured out how the Robots had a personal identity. I don't think they did, since no questions of uploading or storing or anything like that came up, but I thought about it, and now I'm done talking about it.

Anyways, I'm currently sitting in Chris's apartment waiting to go to the train station to get down to SD, thinking about either downloading Firefox and hiding all his IE icons or posting something on his website. I think I'll download Firefox, because I really can't think of anything witty to write this early in the morning.

Veni Vidi Vino

I know that's not how it goes, but whenever I can, I adopt Caeser's phrase for my purposes. My favorite is "Veni vidi wiki" the first time I used a wiki. In ancient latin, a "v" is pronounced as a "w" (which makes me think that perhaps w's name should be double v), so really, "veni vidi vici" is "weni widi wici". Well, I thought it was clever. Too bad for most people to get it, I have to explain. That's the problem with learning ancient languages, nobody else knows them.

Anyways, its on to the Misadventures in Cambria, where we spent our time playing Apples to Apples, eating, and drinking. For those of you won don't know, the road from Paso Robles to Cambria is full of vineyards, which means lots of wine tasting. Having not yet acquired the taste for wine, I was a little aprehensive about it, but decided I would at least try to like wine, since it seems most of the rest of the world does.

The first day was somewhat meh-ish, seeing as most of the wine just tasted like vinegar to me, but I plowed through with lots of water and crackers. And pretzels and mustard, for not only do they sell wine, but most places sell lots of very good food. However, by the second day I was more able to appreciate the wine, and poured very little of it out. Hurray for me.

Anyways, there wasn't too much craziness going on in Cambria, since the triptofin (stupid big words) was usually kicking in by the time we got back from tasting. But Chris and I did manage to spend about an hour using the Apples to Apples cards to create extemporaneous stories. That was entertaining, and I think my story about Katherine Hepburn getting in car accidents in Italy that she thought was the Effiel Tower. Guess you had to be there, but everybody was entertained by it.

What else.... oh. On Thursday, Rob, Chris, and I went to see Robots, which was very entertaining. Its not really comparable to The Incredibles, because its not a serious movie at all. I mean, Robin William's character sings "Singing in the Oil." There's no way it was serious. It was surprising, however, to see how little screen time all the huge names got. Especially when they played them up so much in the previews. Oh well. It was entertaining.

Well, that's it for today. Tomorrow will be all about my family vacation to Arizona and Utah. So stay tuned!

mistakes

So there are some typos/grammer mistakes in my previous post that I'd like to explain. I'd just spent the day at church, and then entertaining three little girls that thought my room as a play room and proceeded to play with all the toys in my room, which I had to take away from them for the most part because they're too little to play with them (like the katana that's in my room, for instance). So I was tired and didn't really want to proofread. So sue me. Now I'm off to buy lego!

The Further Misadventures

So, a couple weeks ago it was Rachel's birthday, and since Chris was in town, we were over at his house. Rachel complained that she was bored on her birthday, which isn't allowed, so we decided to go try to find a game to play. Well, this was at 9 pm, so there weren't too many stores open at that hour. We tried Toys R Us, but that was closed, so we asked Rachel is there was anything she wanted to do. Frist bowling was mentioned, but then Rachel told us that there was this "seedy" pool hall near her house that she's always wanted to check out, so we decided to go there. We played two rounds of pool (I won both!) and then had to leave because the smoke was making me sick (yes there was somebody smoking inside). After that, for some reason Rachel suggested that we stop at Kinko's and make copies of stuff. Well we get there an one of her friends was there doing something, so Rachel wandered off to talk to her, while Chris and I was the little kids table and began coloring.

My picture was called "Hi Mo" (which is funny and will come up during a later post), and I don't remember what Chris named his. Anyways, after this we decided to go to Barnes and Noble because both Rachel and I are obsessed with books, and its open until 11. There Chris bought the game that had started the whole adventure (Apples to Apples, which is an awesome game) and we returned to his house to play.

Thus ends the Further Misadventures of Becca and Chris (and Rachel), which will be continuted tomorrow with a recounting of the trip to Cambria and my foray (how do you spell that word) into wine tasting.

Lack of posts

Well, some of you have probably noticed a lack of new posts recently, and I've got some pretty good reasons for it. This past week, I've been on vacation with my family across Arizona and Southern Utah. How fun. Before that, I spent part of the week in Cambria tasting wine, and when I got home I was just plain busy. So I do have much posting coming up, which should hopefully make you sick of reading about my life, which is really my goal anyways.

More to come shortly.

Good movies

I watched two good movies today. Well, actually I caught most of one two days ago, but I finished it up today, so it still counts. The first is Gattaca (released in 1997), which is a very good sci-fi movie in it with Ethan Hawke, Jude Law, and Uma Thurman, who all give great performances, I think. Its about what could happen if genetics gets to the point where out entire society is based on identity through DNA. And the story of a person with "imperfect genes" who tries to overcome them. I won't do it justice trying to describe it here, so I'll stop and just say you should watch it.

The second was Fight Club, which is more recent, so everybody should know what it is. Fight Club was on FX's dvd program, so I got to see some behind the scenes stuff, which was interesting. Apparently, according to the director and actors and stuff, its supposed to be a dark comedy, which I can see. Its got some pretty cool camera shots, and the dialogue is pretty good. I appreciate some of the randomness of the characters that shows through the dialogue. And its got a very interesting ending.
And both Brad Pitt and Edward Norton give excellent performances.

If you haven't seen Gattaca, I suggest watching it, and the same goes for fight club. Although, just so you're warned, it is a little dark and violent, hence the word "fight" in the title.

Soccer

I love soccer. Everyone should know that. If you don't, I don't see how you can be my friend. Anyways, the reason I say this is that I remembered how much I love just practicing soccer. See, I've joined this adult league, and the team really sucks, but they try, and the main reason they aren't good is because there are like four people who have never played soccer before. They want to learn, and go to the one practice a week when they can, so I'm having fun trying to teach people.

The good thing is that my friend Tiffany who I played with in high school also wants to play, so I have one friend on the team, and she's good. Which is going to make things much more enjoyable. But tonight I just had a blast playing 3 on 3 and keep away, or just passing and trapping. And I'm going to play indoor, too, which just makes my day. Because I love soccer. Have I mentioned that?

Anyways, not much has been going on in the life of Becca, except that Spring Breaks start soon, which I'm excited for. That means people will be in town, starting with Chris next week. Which means that I have more people to hang out with and cause a ruckus.

Leave a comment!

Waiting for what?

So I was sitting watching the clock for the bell to ring today, and I realized how much of my life I've spent waiting for something to happen. Of course, for the most part I've been waiting for class to end, but I also spend a lot of time waiting for other things. Like last night, I spent an hour waiting for Alias to turn on. Pascal talks about how the present is the scariest part of time, because there are ways we can control the past and the future. The past is okay because it can't change; we know what happened so we don't have to worry about it. And in the future, its possible to change whatever we want/need to. But in the present we seem powerless to a certain extent. All the things we could have changed are in the past, and the present just seems to be the consequence of the past.

Okay, done rambling.

At the book store

Today I had to go to Barnes and Noble. And yes, I do mean had to. Shadow of the Giant was released today, and I had to buy it and read it. The only reason I'm typing this now is because I finished. That's one thing about Orson Scott Card's books that annoys me; they're too short. Except for Speaker for the Dead and Xenocide, which are only so long because there's tons of philosophy disguised in them. And we all know philosophy is long winded.

Anyways, this book again lived up to my expectations of OSC. Although I thought there was supposed to be one more in the series, and it appears that he's pretty much left no loose ends, except for one that I think is meant to be remain loose. But who can tell. Although if the series is over, I will be sad. Not disappointed, but sad.

Then again, he could start over after Children of the Mind, now that he's developed Peter's character.

While I was at BN, I saw something that made me sick. It was The Nora Roberts Companion. Has literature been so degraded that we now have companions to those books? I mean, how much stuff could there be to fill that book? Apparently a lot, since it was a good sized book, but come on! Who would actually want/need to buy that book!

And I just realized that there is a loose end which could warrant another book. And I realized another thing. OSC hardly writes any physical descriptions of characters of places. Everything is focused around dialogue, which I think is awesome. Because in his stories, physical descriptions don't matter. Well, things like troop movements matter, but the looks of buildings, and even people, don't. Anyways, its getting late and I'll probably have to work tomorrow.

And if you haven't yet, go find your nearest OSC book and start reading it. I promies you won't regret it.

Ethics

Okay, so I've been thinking about ethics lately. Please don't ask me why, because I really don't know. Perhaps it was a quote from Alias when one character says, "Legally, he's right. Morally, he's a jerk." So anyways, onto ethics.

Plato said that if we know the good, we'll do the good. Now, all talks of incontinent actions aside, the real problem that ethics tries to address isn't how do we do the good, but how do we know the good. So many of the ethical frameworks out there focus not on how to do the good but on how to know what it is that we're supposed to do. Like Untilitarianism just takes for granted that you'll do what you should, as does Kantian(ism).

I guess I just always thought that we kind of threw Plato's ethics out due to his lack of ethics, but really, all the people that have come after him have tried to do is figure out how to know the good. Now, this doesn't take into account weakness of will, which is when we don't do what we think the good is. Or at least I think that's what it is. Keith gave us a cursory glance at weakness of will, even though its his area of expertise.

I don't really have anything to say on ethics except that I think you should be thinking about it, but not just like the philosophers do, as in what is the good, but also as in, how do I do the good. Because that's the hard part. And perhaps especially, how do I want to do the good, because no matter what Kant says, an action is more ethical if it is inline with your desires than if it isn't. As in, an action is better if you want to do it rather than if you do it out of a sense of duty.

And I'm really trying to live up to this site's claim of incoherentness and rambling, so I'm going to leave it at that. Just thought I'd let you know what I've been thinking about.

Okay, okay

Okay, so here's a new post. I know that you have all been sitting on the edge of your computer chair (or whatever your sitting on) to read it, and now you can once again have a life full of useless Becca happenings.

So, onward to the happenings! This past weekend was Chris's annual (one n or two) trip up to Berekely, and I decided to go along because I was sick of being home. As many of you know, its always interesting when Chris and I have time to hang out with no mature influence (hence this summer's work in progress). Anyways, the trip started with a four hour car ride in driving rain, which was fun. Halfway through it, the windshield wiper came off and proceeded to make a horrible screaching sound, reminicient of nails on a chalkboard. So after Chris tried to mask the sound by turning up the music (we might have been listening to the Shins then), I made him pull over so we could fix it. Yes, in the driving rain. And did we, smart people that we are, park under some sort of covering? Of course not. So we both got soaked, because of course neither of us put on a jacket.

So, let's see, what else happened on the ride up. Oh, Chris came up with a potential title for his potential story. It is actually a quote that somehow came up in normal conversation, "Even winebago's dream." I believe we were talking about the stupid pictures that are painted on the back of some RV's, of like African animals (lions and so on) and how, even if you did take a car to Africa, it certainly wouldn't be an RV or winebago, due to the fact that it would get stuck on the first hole in the dirt roads there. But even winebagos can dream of going to exotic places. And that was probably more information than you wanted, but ha. You've already read it, and I've already wasted your time! I win.

So we finally get to the Bay Area, and Chris doesn't exactly know where he's going. He knows how to get there once he sees a landmark, but he doesn't know what the landmark will be prior to seeing it. So we're listening to the soundtrack from The Life Aquatic (Very fitting. If you haven't heard it, you should listen to it) and trying to find our way to Rob's apartment (still in driving rain). Eventually (after no wrong turns, good job Chris) we get there, and Chris proceeds to parallel park. Now, to be fair, the cars on either side were very close and it was going to be a difficult park. First, after backing up and going forward about four times, Chris ends up getting stuck so that his back tire is flush against the curb, and he's too close to to front car to really do anything about it. At this point I decide that he might need some directing, so I hop out (yes, its still raining). Eventually we are able to get the car parked by some very clever maneuvering. It was impressive. And I'm wet. It was very fitting that we were listening to that soundtrack. I think I have pictures of the final product of parking, and hopefully they will be up soon.

Okay, what else. Oh! We came up with a new sort of insult/threat. "Don't make me go Darwin on your butt (or other word)." This came about because we were crossing the street, and I told Chris about the stupid people up in Spokane that wear all black and decide to cross Division in the middle of a block at 10 at night. Then I said, "I wish natural selection still applied." Because in all honesty, it no longer applies to human society. And if you want to argue that, bring it on!

Oh! And I got a Chris point! It was great. We were at swing and for some reason, punning about "bee". Don't ask me why, I don't remember. Anyways, Chris, in his usual punny way said a pun using the word "be." Something like, "It'll have to beeeeeee (with emphasis) blah blah blah." And I turned and said "Maybe you weeeeereeeeee (with emphasis)." I was gleeful because 1) I got to make fun of Chris punning and 2) I got a Chris point for it. Lauren also got a Chris point later (darn her!), for remembering Rob's nickname from Mammoth, which was Whisky Bob. Don't ask why.

Oh, and on to my philosophical rambling. So we were in the car coming back from swing, and somebody asked where we were. The response was "the middle of nowhere." Then Rob's friend Stella who had gone with us said that there can be no middle of nowhere. Since I had been stopped by Lauren from talking about the Chinese room (Penrose!), I needed to get my philosophy out for the day. I said yes there could, but she said no. So I turned to Stella and asked her why there could be no middle of nowhere. She said that because nowhere had to be ever expanding, there could be no middle of it. Now, I was about to start a full fledged argument (not that I really vehmenently disagreed with her, nor was it important, I just haven't got to argue a lot recently) but Rob ruined all my fun. He warned Stella that she wouldn't win, and it was in her best interest to stop. She asked why and he told her that I'm a philosophy major. Unfortunately, she gave up without a fight.

So I have to think about this. The first question that must be addressed is if nowhere exists. For there can only be a middle to something that actually exists. SO lets assume that nowhere exists. Does that mean that it has to be ever expanding? I don't understand that. But even if it is ever expanding, wouldn't that mean that everything is the middle of nowhere, for everything would be equidistant from the non-existent edges of nowhere? I think so. This is the same question as whether a geometric point can have a middle. I've thought about this before in the context of the universe. Medivals thought that the Earth was the center of the solar system because God created the Earth as the most important thing. This was why they couldn't accept the idea of the Earch orbiting the sun. But if the universe is expanding, can anything be the center, or is everything the center? This is somewhat different than if there were no edges to the universe, but only a little.

Okay, I'm done rambling for now, because there isn't that much to ramble about. I just wanted to let everybody know that I have been engaging my mind a little. In other news, my new website would be ready if I could get some images. Hinthint shen who has Photoshop.

Okay, that's it for now. I'm glad I've bored you by now.

Coming soon...

The Misadventures of Becca and Chris will be at a website near you on Monday or Tuesday.

Pie

So this month is Marie Calander's pie discount month. Its a month I truely love, because their lemon cream cheese is like the best pie ever made. Ever. If you haven't had this pie, you must. Its like lemon cheesecake with lemon meraing pie filling.

Unfortunately, Marie's was all out of this pie when my dad went to buy them on Monday, so he got two chocolate satin or something like that. Its what the rest of my family likes. So that means I'm going to have to go there by myself and buy my own pie. But I've been working all the time, and my evenings have been full of soccer, which are luckily ending next week.

As you can tell, I'm a bit obsessive about this pie. As you would be if you've tried it. I also bought three packages of Hot and Spicy Cheez-Its yesterday, which makes me very happy. And they're the big boxes, not the little ones that I can go through in like two hours. And I have a pack of Mt. Dew. In other words, I'm in bliss right now.

Oh, and I forgot to mention that I have peanut butter cups also.

So, what has been going on in my life other than food? Well, I've started working, which is both lame and good. Its lame because I have to wake up before 7:30, but its good because I'm getting paid. I've worked every day this week, which sort of surprises me, because I had expected more of a part time thing seeing that I've been hearing how many subs there are. But I guess that most of them are also working for the other districts around town, so that stretches the numbers a bit thinner.

Also, my website is getting close to completion. I've figured out most of the content, now I just have to write the code for it. And see if what I want to do is possible/easy enough for me to do. Which it probably isn't.

As for philosophical thoughts recnely, I think I've had some, but I've forgotten them. Maybe I'll remember it later, but probably not. I'm sure you're crushed.

Let's be serious....

Are you kidding me? I heard about this on the radio and was disturbed. For dogs who need to stay connected. I mean, come on.

In other news, my new program for corrupting the youth has officially started. I subed for half a day yesterday. Mwahaha. And soccer is finally winding down, since the regular season ended yesterday. That means that my weekends will finally start opening up, which means travel time, hopefully. And to start that off, I'll be up North visiting Rob next weekend if all goes well.

Stupid....

Stupid sickness, stupid orientation meetings, and stupid lack of quick easy food for dinner. Okay, I'm done complaining now. In better news, after missing a week due to the stupid State of the Union address, Alias was back on last night. Hurray. And that's it.

Post-Superbowl

Okay, I'll admit it. I slept through most of the Superbowl. Its just that the NFL doesn't interest me all that much. See, I'd had to get up early the past couple days, and then had to go to my brother's Eagle Court of Honor, so I was tired. Oh well.

After my nap, I went over the Burzlaff house for the end of the game and some good dinner. We watched the Simpsons episode that was on after the Superbowl and then Chris headed back to LA.

I haven't been doing too much lately, although I have been helping my mom's students with Science Fair and other stuff. She's an ESL teacher, so her students don't know how to write English all that well. I've also been very busy refing soccer, which never fails to remind me that there are a lot of stupid people out there. Friday I went to watch BHS play Liberty so I could actually enjoy the game. And it was very interesting to be on that side of the game. Its been a very long time since I've just watched soccer without playing or refing. But some people are just stupid. Fans will always yell for a foul, sometimes so loud that they can't hear when the ref does call it. The problem is that it takes far less time for a person to open their mouth and yell then for the ref to bring the whistle up to their mouth. Stupid fans.

And BHS fans are some of the best around, because Leslie won't let them get out of hand. But Liberty fans are horrible. You'd think that Mika would have them under control since she went to BHS and knows how fans should behave.

In other news, I'm meeting Rach in a little bit to work on my story. She has a novel and I have a story. But I'm not sure how much work I'll be getting done, since my goal is to steal what she's done so far so I can read it. Mwahaha. But don't tell her.

I've been working on my other site, so hopefully it'll be up soon, although that might be delayed depending on when I can get a copy of photoshop.

Universals

So yesterday during one of my games I was thinking about universals. And I was thinking, if they do exist (which I think they do), what they exist as. I mean, it'd have to be something like probabilities, but how can something like a universal exist as a probability that something in its subset will do something. I haven't quite figured out what I was thinking about last night, since all three games were boys, and they're too fast for me to be able to think while running.

Anyways, another reason I was thinking about this is that a couple weeks ago I was eating with my family and we somehow got to talking about Title IX and differences between men and women. So I had to think that if there are some sort of intrinisic differences between men and women, they would have to express themselves in probabilities, but how can you say that something is universal if its a probility. Anyways, that's it for my incoherent rambilings today.