Word of the day

Last night I woke up and thought to myself that the word "sarcast" should exist. As in, "I was just sarcasting." And then I promptly went back to sleep. So I'm creating a new word. However, the question arises whether it should be passive or active. I vote for active, because we don't really have a lot of passive verbs in English (actually, we might not have any, except for passive versions of active verbs). And passive verbs are so hard to use, and with sarcasm, it's all about the doer, because the receiver is usually being made fun of, so they don't even matter. And since I vote for active, active it is.

Anyways, the reason for this when you say, "I was being sarcastic," you really mean that I made a sarcastic action. Because, if we're honest, most of us are "being sarcastic" all the time, we just don't always say the sarcastic things we think. So to say, "I was being sarcastic," and to use the word sarcastic as a temporal adjective is silly. Really, sarcastic is describing a part of my personality, but saying "I was sarcasting" is pointing out when exactly I was letting that part of my personaility out.

We don't say, "I was being joking," do we? No, of course not. So why do we say, "I was being sarcastic?" We shouldn't, and therefore I'm going to start using my new word, sarcast. Later will come all it's irregular forms (if there are any, I haven't decided yet) and it's derivation from the ancient languagues.

If only...

... my life was like my dreams. I had a fun one last night involving shapeshifting into a dragon and various other fun times. There's one scene that I can't quite figure out:

I was running and hiding from people due to my shapeshifting abilities (they were afraid of us) and there was a member of an underground movement that was helping me. We went into a store, and he asked me if I wanted three bags of gummi bears or two. Now, I could only take two bags with me, but I could get three if I wanted, and I couldn't give the third bad away. So, since I knew this was a test, I instead asked for just one bag of gummi bears. I answered this way because I knew the person with me was a traitor, and as soon as I walked outside I would be captured, but I wanted him to be a little puzzled, and perhaps change his mind about the dragons. Why only taking one bag of gummi bears would do this, I have no idea.

Summer is officially starting this week (with a high of 85 degrees to start things off right) and I'm sad to be missing it. I keep wanting to plan things for the summer, and then I remember that I can't because I now have responsibilities to wake up on time in the morning. Which really sucks, let me tell you. But I'm hoping some frisbee action will happen (especially since I won't be the only one obsessed with frisbee soon since Patrick will be in town soon), even if not as frequently as last summer.

"You're turning into Chris."

Jessica accused me of this while we were playing Settlers because I said, "It starts," and then quietly continuted with, "You think you know a guy." In my defense, I've been saying this line ever since The Lion King became my favorite Disney movie way back in elementary school before I really knew Chris. So I'm not turning into him, but apparently only he is allowed to quote movies.

Anyways, this week it seems true that I'm turning into Chris. Monday I had to get up at 5 because I took Alan to the airport for his flight to the midwest, a task that usually falls to Chris. And this week I have been watching Callie and house sitting in general for them.

I read the first two Inheritance books, and enjoyed them. The second book much improved over the first one, although the first one wasn't bad. The books lean very heavily on LotR, but that's not really a bad thing, and it's really only in specific areas of the book. I think only somebody who has read LotR like I have would notice it, and I don't even mind. After all, almost all fantasy which has elves and dwarves in it has to borrow from Tolkien. But I think I'm ready to swear off books seeing as I've done practically nothing the past two days (outside of work) but read.

I've been thinking about perception lately and how it changes. It's interesting that how you perceive something can change so drastically with only a little time, and it's also interesting how certain things (notions, moods, expectations) influence how we experience places and people. I don't really have a point with this, just thought I'd share what I've been pondering lately. I think I'll have to read some Plato because I seem to remember Forrest talking something about knowledge and perceived beauty, but I don't really remember. Maybe I'll have to focus my thoughts (since I'm done reading) and actually come up with some thoughts and ideas.

But I'm lazy so I probably won't.

A long week

Well it has been a long week, but that's not necessarily bad. Last week was three day weekend, and I spent most of Monday relaxing and sleeping, which was great. Wednesday I got Amy and Jessica together and we Settled in the land called Catan. Since they have played very little previously, we decided to play two games, the first being more of a practice where I helped them place their settlements and gave advice.

Well, apparently I gave advice that was too good, because I got the beating of my life in that game. When Amy won the game, I had three points. I won't try to excuse my failing here, but for those of you who think Settlers doesn't involve luck, you're sorely mistaken. I had all sorts of luck in that game - it was just the bad kind.

The second game went better, and I redeemed myself, although perhaps the bitter taste of defeat fueled my quick victory. It also could have been that bedtime was looming and we had to finish quickly so that I could get home. Thursday Rachel and I hung out since nobody else showed up for HP group and enjoyed ourselves at Applebee's. Then on Friday I got to talk a half day off and head down to the OC with Rachel for our funfilled trip to Disneyland.

After meeting up with Susie and John, we headed somewhere to meet with her great uncle, and from there to a nice little restaurant by the bay (or at least I think it was a bay). After a nice meal and a huge piece of chocolate cake split by the six of us, we headed home to rest before the big day.

Bright and early Saturday morning, we headed to the Magic Kingdom for our fun filled adventures. I should explain - it was John's company's day at Disneyland or something like that, and since they have season tickets, passed along the company tickets to Rachel and her friend of choice (last year she took Chris, this year she was reduced to take me since he's out of town). But when we arrived, we discovered that the company had a goody bag for John, consisting of a hat, fan-spray-y thingy, M&M's, trail mix, and a nice little backpacking thing to carry it all in. Since I was the only one without a hat or bag, I got to carry the stuff, and had a fun day randomly spraying people while in line. We proceeded to get our first Fastpass to Space Mountain (well John did while we got in line for the Matterhorn) and our day was off to a running start.

We went on Space Mountain twice (it so happened that the line was about as long as the time remaining until our passes went active, so it was great). This was my first time on the new ride, and while I really enjoyed it, I don't think it was necessary to update the music. I especially enjoyed one of the opening moments when it really feels like the whole car is spinning due to moving lights. All in all, we went on Space Mountain three times, Astro Blasters and Big Thunder twice, and just about everything else once.

But the best part of the day was Fantasmic. We we pretty tired by about 9, and decided to eat and see if we could get good enough seats to see it during the first show. For those of you who don't know, Fantasmic is sort of a light show, sort of a live action show, and completely awesome. They project clips onto waterscreens in front of Tom Sawyer's Island, and it's great. Anyways, I had never seen it before, because most of my Disneylanding is done by the time 9 PM roles around (the trips with band and chorus in Jr. High) and the one time I could have seen it, my brothers opted to go on rides with shorter lines due to the many people watching the show.

It was great, a truely well made show, and I hope that whoever created got paid a lot of money. Of couse, it could help that I can easily slip into a 5-year-old's mind, so I could experience it that way. But still, great.

After this, Rachel and I headed to Rob's apartment for the evening, which he was kind enough to share with us. It was the first time I've seen his place since I helped him movie in, and it really hasn't changed that much. He still basically has most of it empty, with a mattress lying on the floor. In his defense, though, he does now have more appliances, and a nicely stocked bar and blender. I forsee more trips down there in my future.

Yesterday I got back just in time to play in my soccer game, although they really didn't need me and the field was a swamp (how one can manage to create a swamp in a Bakersfield summer is beyond me).

The thing about this weekend is - I didn't watch tv or get on a computer at all. From Friday afternoon until this morning when I arrived at work. I don't know if I should be proud of myself or dismayed.

And if you read this, you have way too much time on your hands. Get a job or something. Or go watch a movie. May I suggest To Have and Have Not, which I will be watching this evening? It's supposed to be a good one.

Frickety Frack

I don't remember where I got that phrase, but I think it applies. Actually, more would apply right now, but I'm not willing to go there quite yet. Here I am, sitting at my desk and it's 5:23. You might be asking youself, "Why would Rebecca, who really doesn't enjoy her job all that much, be sitting at her desk an hour after she's allowed to go home?"

Well, the answer is that some of the people who work here are morons. I asked at 3:30 for them to do something that was required for me to do soemthing else that must be done before I leave. But did they do it? No, of course not. Not until 3:45, and even then they didn't finish. So I had to call out to this department (numerous times to even get somebody to answer) to ask somebody else to finish it. And now they're taking forever too.

So I'm annoyed, but it has give me time to put this post up. Of course, if I wasn't sitting here I would have nothing to post about. So I think I'd take not posting and not sitting here over sitting here and posting. Grrrrrrrrrrrrrrrr.

Part Deux

I saw an interesting question today as I was looking at my various online things. The question was basically: Even if it completely impossible, which movie would you see a sequel made from? My initial response is Serenity, Serenity please! But after that I have to wonder. What are the movies out there that I think have the character potential to warrant a sequel? Because, let’s face it, many of the sequels (almost all?) are made simply because they have huge stars attached to them, not because of the story or characters (in my opinion good characters will almost always make good story).

So what else? To tell the truth, I’m having trouble coming up with sequels that I would actually enjoy seeing, so help me out. What movies would you actually like to see sequelized?

Who needs sleep?

Well, Alias is officially gone, and I'm very sad. Granted, the show hasn't been nearly as good the past couple of seasons as it was early on, but there is still so much potential in a show like that. There's so much hinted, and then it turns out that either those hints are realized, or the writers have to make the hints lead to something lame and short so that they can get the driving story done. I can accept things like this, but I don't have to like them.

Lost is also done for a while, which just means that I have three months to catch up and understand what's going on. It's very interesting to see what I can figure out and know from just watching the three episodes I've seen so far. It's also interesting to see which characters I'm interested in, compared to the people who have been watching it more than I have. I can see the characters that the writers want me to like and be iterested in, and maybe it's my dislike of doing what I'm told, but I just can't seem to care. It's the seeming superfluous characters that I want to know more about, but I don't think I will, sadly.

I'm usually like that, though. I see a character who is mostly thrown in the story as a place holder and am intrigued by them. Maybe this happens because I'm not usually interested in black and white characters (as so many lead protagonists have been, historically), so I get interested in the shady and subtle ones that who's motivation we don't necessarily know.

Well, this was supposed to be about Alias and Lost, and hasn't really been, so maybe I'll talk about them in a later post.

Death be not proud

Who needs a bedtime when there are friends to hang out with?

Distraction

So Chris introduced me to a movie quiz, and from it I found an intelligence (or three, actually), and all five (there's a second movie quiz) are very fun and addicting. You should check them out if you haven't already. I especially enjoy the movie ones, but the intelligence ones are also fun, and way better than most 'intelligence' quizes. (I'll include links at the end of the post).

One of the things I hate most about office life is pleasantries, especially in the morning. Everybody around here knows I don't like mornings, and yet they insist on saying chipperly, "Good morning!" every time I walk in the door in the morning. I feel like responding with a "Hmph," but know I would have to explain this, and people would think I'm having a bad morning (I'm not, I just don't want to have to say "Good morning" every day).

I know, I'm an anti-social jerk. How do I live with myself?

Movie Quiz 1
Movie Quiz 2
Intelligence Test
Intelligence Test 2
Intelligence Test 3

Enjoy!

Desperation

I can't stand having long fingernails. I probably clip them 2-3 times a week (not the same ones, but they grow at different rates). But lately I've misplaced my little clipper things, so I have resorted to desperate measures. I used scissors. But the problem with that is I can't really see what I'm doing, so I tend to cut the nail too short, which ends up being annoying and hurting a little. And I make sharp edges, so it's not a great solution. A better one would be to go to the store and buy a new set of clipper things. But I like improvising better.

And yes, I really have nothing else going on right now other than this to talk about.

Napage

There's not much in this work better than an afternoon nap. They were one of my favorite things about college, and the only thing that allowed me to stay up until 4 am playing Gemstone and still be able to argue in class. I miss them so much that I've found myself taking afternoon naps on Sunday even when I'm not tired. But I take one because I can.

It does make for interesting dreams when I'm not tired, though, and I tend to remember them more when I'm not tired. To continue the theme lately, Robert, Chris, and I were embarking on an adventure. I don't remember what the adventure involved, but it was very adventurey.

Unfortunately, the drawback of an afternoon nap is that I'm not tired when I should be going to bed. Which is probably why I'm really tired at the beginning of every week.

Happy Birthday...

Katharine Hepburn.

I thought we'd celebrate by remembering our favorite Hepburn movies (K Hepburn, not A Hepburn).

The point, gentlemen, is that they lived.

With the up-coming (or in some cases past) season finales for various tv shows, I'm struck with the fact that I don't really like happy endings. Now, contrary to the (probable) popular belief that I don't like them because I don't like happy things, the reason for this is more that I don't trust them, because I don't trust endings.

Even in books I hate endings (even happy ones), because I always want to know what happens next. Perhaps I've had this feeling of late because of the abundance of shows I've been watching which have been prematurely given a happy ending. In Firefly, Arrested Development, Freaks and Geeks, and even Alias (okay, it's not really premature, but I don't think it should end) I feel like there has to be more going on, because the main thing the heros fight against doesn't go away.

Sure, they've told the story they meant to (well, in Alias, not Firefly) but there's still something to fight, and the enemy isn't going to let the hero rest. I can't see the government ever letting River get away (she's way too powerful) and I can't see the evil out there ever letting Sydney live her life in peace. The only way either could happen is if they go and hide, and given both characters, I can't see that happening.

All this to say I will miss my shows when they're gone, although I'm trying to get hooked on Lost. It's not nearly as good as Alias (I might post about why later) but I've used the word "intriguing" a lot when talking about it, so there's something worthwhile there. And the alternate reality game or whatever it is a pretty awesome idea.

The bygone days of Winter

I've finally admitted to myself that winter is over. It's not that I don't like the spring or the summer, it's that I really love the winter. I love being cold when I sleep, and wearing warm clothes (scarves and beanies!) But last night I finally officially took my flannel sheets out of circulation and steeled myself for only cotton sheets for the next six months.

It was only a couple weeks ago that I stopped wearing my jacket to work (although it's freezing in my office so I think I might take and leave one at work). So I must accept that the cold weather is gone, and I will only get a little glimpse of it when in the mountains. But with the fans that I have going in my room, I can pretend that is at least November. Or the later part of October, at least.

The stuff that dreams are made of

Yes, I'm going to quote The Maltese Falcon for the third time. Deal with it. There's a reason that it's ranked 14th on AFI's Top 100 quotes, after all.

I think I've posted this before, but I very rarely have bad dreams. Even when I was young, I don't remember having very many nightmares (although I had one reoccuring nightmare when I was little that was fun). And even when I do have bad dreams, they definately involve me fighting the bad guys, not just sitting and hiding or running. And strangely enough, they are almost all in my house, and especially in my room.

Growing up, my favorite bad dreams were the ones when I would wake up convinced that there were witches in the house, and I would sit perfectly still in bed coming up with ways to battle them.

I think I've discovered that I either need to stop watching shows like Alias and playing adventure RPG's, or I need to find some adventure to put in my life so that my dreams stop being interesting. I'm not going to give up Alias (well, I will give up new episodes when I have to, but I won't like it!) or video games, so I guess I'll have to find some adventure. And I think I know where to start.

Girthiness

I have a cankle. Yes, singular. Just one. I'll try to take a picture and put it up here, but it looks like Girthy is getting girthier, at least until the swelling goes down. But I am living up to my name, even if I have to hurt myself to do it.

Vegas was fun, although I'm probably going to disappoint everybody by saying that I didn't do any gambling. Yep, none. First, I was much too tired and hot to go do anything after the games, and second, I was already having trouble breathing with all the dust in the air, and didn't feel like dying of smoke to go in a casino. Even so, I had fun.

The soccer was very good, actually. Nice and competitive, with one of my teammates even getting in a fight with another team. She didn't start it, but she sure did finish it. I never have figured out why other teams always go after the biggest person to pick a fight with. This other girl apparently (I didn't see the beginning) hit Megan in the head, then ran. She ran because Megan is about 5'10 and built like a linebacker. Silly girl. Needless to say, Megan grabbed her, threw her to the ground, and got one punch in before the other team grabbed her and pulled her off. It was funny, although annoying that we afterwards had to play one player down (they did, too, so it wasn't too bad).

Lately

I've thought of a lot of different posts to make lately, but somehow haven't managed to find the time to put them up here. Or, perhaps I just haven't found the inclination to put them up. Either way, they're not here.

Robert might have finally succeeded in getting me hooked to Lost (although why he would want to given my track record with the tv shows I watch I don't know why), but I was never really against the idea, it was just a matter of timing. So here's to hoping that Lost doesn't die within a season of me starting to watch it like all of the other shows I've watched recently.

I finally got to watch M*A*S*H, which I've had for probably about two months now, on Monday. It was funny, and has definately made me want to watch the Robert Altman film coming out soon. Even if it does have Lindsey Lohan in it.

Also, I got a new phone! I'm officially IN the network now, so those of you with Verizon can call me without fear of using all you minutes. I have the same number, though, so you don't have to worry about that. Also, I'm headed to Las Vegas, to hopefully not hurt myself playing 7 games of soccer in two days. It should be interesting. And the intersting part will be spending three days with my mom, not soccer.

Alias Tonight!

That's all I have to say.

Shattered goals

So when I took this job at Bolthouse I thought to myself, "Okay, nobody here knows you (with the exception of Catherine, who is my mom's age, so it doesn't count). Nobody has to know what a nerd you are if you don't want them to! They won't pick on you like everybody else in the world does!"

It turns out that I do have a sign taped to my back that says, "Please pick on me," because it wasn't even a week and the teasing had already started. I think I'm going to have to accept that I bring this on myself, and I think I'm okay with it.

But I did hide a good deal of my nerdiness from my co-workers. I did not once mention Gemstone. I often mentioned my love of soccer and sports. One place that my nerdiness came out was in my discussion of movies, but even this was disguised. The only games I mentioned were when Xboxing was brought up by another memeber of the sales team, and I never mentioned Gemstone or anything that would give me away. Until today, that is.

A guy I work with is going to be in Las Vegas this weekend, where I will also be. So I decided to ask him, "Why are you going to Vegas? Just because?" The resulting conversation went something like this:

Joe: Is there another reason to go?
Becca: Well, I can think of one (thinking that they would remember the reason I'm going is soccer). long pause Soccer.
Everybody: Oh yeah.
David: I was thinking you were going to say something like a video game conference.
Everybody: Haha. Do they even have those?
Meanwhile I'm not saying anything and go back to work
David: They do, don't they.
Becca: not liking where this is goingWell, yeah. It's called Vegascon. But I haven't been!

So this wasn't turning out very well, but I didn't think it could get worse. Then I decided to try to explain that it wasn't a video game conference, but an online game conference (I've made the hugest little mistake). So I said, "Well, it's actually not a video game, but an online MUD." When asked what a MUD was, I responded, which promptly caused the person sitting next to me to almost die of laughter.

When I finally got her to calm down enough to explain what was so funny, she told asked me if I play D & D, to which I responded, "Well, no," but apparently I wasn't convincing enough, because she started laughing more. I told her, "I have never played D&D in my life, although I've played many games that are based on it, but all in an electronic form."

She told me that the people from her high school who played D&D were the types of kids who wore capes to school. To which I responded (without thinking), "Oh, well I have a cloak and a cape."

This was the last straw, and she had to go get a tissue to mop up the streaming tears from laughter. When she finally got back, I assured her that, yes, I really do have a cloak, and that I have worn it at times other than Halloween, mostly at camp and when filming movie, though. This seemed to calm her down a bit, but I've officially lost my lack of "nerdiness" here at work.

Oh well, it had to happen sooner or later.

Previously, on Alias

Alias, quite possibly the awesomest of awesome shows, will start the home stretch tonight. Two hours of glorious CIA action! Unfortunately, the experience will be bittersweat due to the fact that it will all be over soon, but there's always the hope of books and movies and what-not following shortly after the end. After all, no character ever truely died (except Lauren! I'm pretty sure she's dead and gone. And Francie), so why should the show die when it's supposed to?

Is it bad that I'm tempted to get a new phone so that I can download the Alias theme song as my ringer?

Comfort activities

It's amazing what Marlon Brando and Lego can do to make a day better.

Boring post, don't read (I'm serious)

It's amazing how much time I can waste writing then erasing both titles to posts and posts themselves. Especially when I have been posting frequently. But I usually post when I need to waste time, so I guess it's all good. If this post is so boring, you may be wondering why I posted it. Well, I did because it's my blog, and I can do what I want, even just write my rambling thoughts down. And I need to waste 45 minutes before I can go home.

I've been thinking lately about culturally expected actions, and how I hate them. But there must be some reason for them. Actually, I've been thinking about a short story by OSC in the Enderverse about when Andrew's mom and dad met. Now, they were both brilliant, and she (Teresa) was a grad student in like cultural anthropology and ended up teaching him (John Paul). So they started talking about survival of the fittest and societal influenced actions and what not, and I have to wonder how true it is that society causes actions that are going to help it survive. I mean, there's always been Darwin's idea of survival of the fittest (don't make me go Darwin on your butt!) and I've always had a little bit of trouble buying it. I mean, sure, it makes sense, but doesn't seem to apply to humans anymore. Seriously, look at current reproductive trends. It's not the smart people having lots of babies.

Anyways, does this mean that SoF doesn't apply anymore? Or does it mean that instead of breeding traits in individuals that will help us survive (big teeth and claws) we're "breeding" actions in society that will cause the survival of individuals (certain societies). Like the fact that you should work and not be lazy, and "grow up." I've always hated the idea of growing up, and yet it seems like I can't get out of it. It's ingrained into me (okay, not acting old, but getting a job and what not).

I told you not to read this, but since you have, you should read the short story, I think it's called Teacher's Pet. Actually, you just have to read the first part, because after that it's about John Paul trying to get Teresa to like him (apparently he succeeds because they are married and have three kids in Ender's Game), but the class part is interesting. That's what I love about OSC's books - they make me think long after I'm done reading them.

Tax Time

I don't really care about my finances, for the most part. If I have money in the bank, and have a general idea that income > expenditures, I'm good to go. And if they aren't, I just spend less, and it all works out. So when I get things in the mail regarding finances, I tend to misplace them. Usually there are a couple of piles of check stubs and other mail I get from the various places I work/worked for.

So I had to search through all these piles this morning looking for 10-99s or W-2s or whatever it is I get so that my mom could do my taxes today (thanks Mom!). Luckily they were all there (except for one that my mom had kept or something), but I also found three checks! So while I might have to pay money for my taxes, I've ended up getting around $300 from the whole thing (before taxes). So I think I'll have to take my mom out to dinner as thank you for doing them for me.

It's so nice having a former accountant (mom) and future accountant (Billy) in the family around this time of year.

Fewmets and Frivolities

Is anybody else as tired of animated wild animals in movies as I am (no offense, Rob)? I mean, seriously. Don't these animated studios talk? There might possibly be such a thing as market saturation.

I've decided to start saying the saying in my subject line, as much as I can. I think it will be a new curse, much like Zedd's "Bags!" in the Sword of Truth books, and Merlin's "Pollux and Castor blow me to Bermuda!" in The Once and Future King and spin-off's. I'm not sure the opportunities I'll have to say it, but I'll do my best to find them.

Fun sounds in the dead of night

For most of Jr. High and High School my bed was broken. There are two metal braces that go underneath the mattress and help the springs hold up weight, andthe one towards the foot of the bed popped off one side I don't know when. It makes a very fun sounds whenever anything gets on or off the bed, since it bounces back and forth.

So last night I was just about to fall asleep (must later than I would have liked, stupid Skype!) when I hear a loud popping sound. It gave me a start because I'm always paranoid about my tv is going to fall off it's perch. After waking up fully, though, I realized what happened (due to the bouncing noise) and promptly went back to bed.

I guess my girthiness finally got to the bed again.

Yeah, it makes me look more...

Whenever somebody says the word "pensive" I always respond (unless I stop myself) with, "Damn, I was going for thoughtful." And sadly, nobody ever gets it. Which makes me think that maybe I do quote movies and tv (but mostly movies) more often than most people. But at least there's a small chance of them recognizing the quote, whereas if I quote things my friends and I say, there's no chance. So I guess it's better to quote movies.

What's really bad is when I want to quote deleted scenes, like has been the case recently after watching Serenity.

Love affair

I love cheesecake. Actually, love is too weak a word for what I feel. I lurve it, I loave it, I luff it. Yes, two F's. (Couldn't miss the chance to quote a movie). But somehow, Natalie was surprised last night when I went straight to the cheesecake when ordering dessert, passing up some other very nice looking choices. So, in order to make sure all my other friends know about my love for cheesecake, I've decided to post my poem about it. I know most of you already know (how could you not?), but apparently there are some out there who don't.

A note to the reader: plain cheesecake is the only way to go, although a bit of say raspberry topping is okay. As long as it isn't overbearing, because then it ruins it.

You sit in solitude,
Towering in your simplicity.
Though others may garnish you,
There is nothing you lack, they are
Frivolities.

Standing tall and proud,
The perfect pie, but
Nothing so base to be described thus.
For there is nothing better than you,
Cheesecake.

It brings a tear to the eye!

"i" vs "y"

If your name was Sidney (male) and you had a daughter, would you name her Sydney? That's just got to be confusing.

a fear of commitment

It's true - I'm afraid of commitment. I never have liked making decisions that have a lasting impact on my freedom and independence, and in many cases I put them off and put them off until one is made for me.

I've been trying to figure out why this is the case, and I think it's because I have such a problem letting go of what I see as my responsibilities once I commit to a group regarding something. Case in point were many of my soccer teams growing up when I wouldn't be able to stand many of the people I was playing with, and yet still felt some responsibility not to desert the team. The same thing happened my senior year regarding softball.

So I've resolved to be more selfish, and to try and ignore any guilt I may potentially have about 'deserting' a group or team that I'm associated with. Of course there aren't any cases where I can practice this new-found resolve now, but hopefully it will help me feel better making commitments to things and people, without fear that I won't be able to make myself get out of them when necessary. Because I think there's such a thing as too much patients, and I often suffer from it.

So here's to being selfish sometime in the near future. I hope.

Just 5 more minutes...

Lately I have been sleeping very well. Normally, I wake up 3-6 times during the night, which I used to think is normal, but it seems it might not be. Anyways, this past week, I've been waking up only once (or not at all). This has led itself to some interesting dreams (my strange somewhat reoccuring school dreams), which has been fun. This, however, has made it very hard for me to get out of bed in the morning, because I've been so comfortable.

I've spent a lot of the past week reading a webcomic called Order of the Stick, which is kind of a spoof on table top gaming, but has a lot to do with Gemstone. It's very entertaining, but probably only to those who are familiar with those sorts of games, so I won't put the link here because most people wouldn't appreciate it. If you want it, however, let me know and I'll tell you.

The power of girth

I generally spend a lot of my lunch break in my car for various reasons. 1) After spending all morning hearing people talk I want some ‘me’ time. 2) I usually read or nap, which is much easier to do in a car than outside or in a restaurant. 3) I have a clock in my car. Anyways, today I was sitting in my car during lunch with my shoes off listening to some music while I read some of The Once and Future King. I had my feet up on the dashboard mostly because I didn’t want to get my socks dirty, but also because it is comfortable. I guess I stretched a little too much when my right foot was against the windshield, because all of a sudden I heard a *pop*.

“Oh no,” I thought. I can’t have popped my hip out of socket (it occasionally threatens, but thankfully that has never happened). Nothing felt out of place, and I figured I’d be able to feel something (I hear that can be very painful) so I looked elsewhere for the source of the pop. I thought perhaps I had bent in the little arm rest thingy, but that wasn’t the case either. Suddenly I realize that I should move my leg and inspect the windshield. Somehow I managed to break my windshield. Actually, the break is in a pretty cool pattern; it looks like a star.

My poor car has gotten so hurt lately! A couple weeks ago he decided to get a flat tire for no apparent reason (that I could find). When I got home from work he was fine, and the next morning my dad woke up me to tell me my tire was completely flat. Luckily it was a Saturday, but still! So my dad took him in to get it fixed, and it turns out that there’s a ton of other tire/axel work that needs to be done.

But I guess if all I have to deal with is tire problems (and I’ve had more than my fair share of them) and my own strength, then I’m okay with that.

I guess I’m just too girthy for my own good, or rather for the good of my car.

"Do we have a fire extinguisher in here?"

My computer blew up today. Okay, it didn't go *boom*, but it did catch on fire, which made for an interesting day. I was sitting there, minding my own business, when all of a sudden there's smoke coming out from underneath my desk.

"This is strange," I think to myself, "smoke shouldn't usually come out from a desk." So I looked down and saw orange flashy things inside my computer. "Also strange," I think. "Let's see how this plays out."

However, when the orange flashy things became somewhat stronger, I decided some precautionary actions would probably be wise. So I asked for said fire extinguisher, finally convincing my co-workers that there actually was something wrong with my computer (they didn't believe me when I said there were sparks coming out of it).

Turns out something in my computer caught on fire, but luckily, the hard drive didn't get fried, so all my hard work is intact in the temporary computer I have till I get my new one (hopefully) sometime next week.

Vegas, baby!

Anybody want to go to Las Vegas the last weekend in April to watch me play soccer? Okay, you don't have to watch me play soccer if you don't want to, but it would be nice to have a fan for a game.

Multi-tasking

I haven't figured out how to both live and work. I feel like all I do is wake up in the morning, go to work, waste time there, come home, and do nothing all evening. Then I go to sleep early so I can get up in time for work. And that's so lame. There should be more to do in life than what I'm doing now. I need to figure out how to do that.

A weekend of tv shows

I watched more tv this weekend than I think I have in the past two months. And I mean tv shows, not movies on tv. Friday Rob came over "with a surprise" which, as I correctly guessed, was Firefly. For those of you who don't know what Firefly is, I might consider not being your friend anymore. But I'll tell you so I can remain friends with you. It is a sci-fi show created by the guy who made Buffy the Vampire Slayer, and who is one of my favorite creators of shows.

Anyways, this show was only on for a season (what's with us watching one season long shows lately? It only leads to heartbreak), but that's because it was too good for tv. So what did they do? They made a movie, called Serenity, with the characters and story.

So Rob and I watched the first disk (4 episodes) of Firefly (we only watched that much because he only had one disk) while celebrating St. Patrick's Day with pizza and Newcastle.

Having reminded myself that I do like some things on tv, I decided to watch the rest of Clone Wars that I've been sitting on for a while. I'm not sure how many "episodes" I watched, but it was about a 2/3 of the entire thing. Then I decided I'd waited long enough to watch some more of Season 4 of Alias. I watched the whole third disk of that yesterday.

Not to mention also seeing V for Vendetta Saturday afternoon with some of the crew. So it was a good weekend for me to watch tv. But not to seem like a completely lazy person, I did play soccer on Sunday, and scored a couple goals after being unable to do anything in the first half. It was fun, and now I'm planning on going to Vegas with my team to a tournament. That should be fun.

Leprechaun Day

So as I left work today I saw two whole rainbows at the horizon. Granted, one was very faint, and you had to look for it, but the other was very bright. I thought it fitting for today. Another thing fitting for today was that I felt like bombing some people due to how stupid they are. Actually, I felt more like throwing rocks at cars, but exageration is a fun thing.

I'm reminded almost daily how stupid people become when they get in cars, and it's very annoying. Now, I'll admit that there have been times when I've not paid enough attention while driving and done some dumb things, but from the looks of things, most American drivers do stupid things all the time.

It's especially annoying that most have no clue how to drive in the rain. They either go faster than is safe, or go slower than is safe. Let's talk about Aristotle's Golden Mean.

In happier news, it's finally the weekend after a very long and boring week. Yay for Saturday and Sunday!

Child of the sun?

Tonight was the BHS choir Spring Concert, or whatever they call it. Chris and I, not being satisfied with the Winter Concert, decided to also grace this concert with our presences. Actually, Chris, having such a big head, had to go because his and Patrick's song was supposed to be performed.

After searching for the church where they were performing (Chris couldn't find it even though he's been there before) we finally arrive just as they were taking their places on stage. It was a fun concert, with, of all things, a ton of Christmas songs. Finally, the song we had come to hear was performed, and although it's a good song (very good, I'd say), I had to fight most of the time not to laugh.

After Chris talked to Mr. Bourgis (is that how you spell his name), we were on our way out, when who should we see but Mrs. Polite and Mrs. Bell (former teachers for those of you who are non-Drillers). Mrs. Polite actually saw me first and said, "Rebecca?" which was surprising to me, because of all the teachers I had in high school, she would be one of the ones I would expect to forget me (although how anybody could forget me I have no idea!). It was fun talking to them, and reminded me that it actually has been a while since I was in high school. Sometimes I still feel like I just got out of BHS, while other days I'm reminded of just how long it's been.

This weekend is shaping up to look pretty busy, but thankfully not as busy as last weekend. My adult soccer league is finally starting up for the year on Sunday, which is exciting. I still don't have pictures from Robert, (due to technical difficulties) but I should get them this weekend, and then you'll learn all about our adventures there.

Do ya feel lucky, punk?

I’m not a big fan of westerns, but there are a few that I really like. One of those few is Hang Em High, a Clint Eastwood movie about a man who is lynched, but survivies. He then becomes Marshall and hunts down the up-standing citizens who did it to him. It’s also a story about how law and justice come to a territory, and the judge who wants it to become a state, with the help of Clint. Clint is torn between hunting down the people who hurt him and helping innocents. He also is torn between letting frontier justice or the law prevail, when both have the same outcome (death by hanging). After that, 12 Angry Men was on, which is another story about law and justice.

Whenever I watch either of these movies, a part of me wants to study law (a small part). Actually, I probably want to study more the philosophy of law and government. Maybe I should just read some Locke and Hobbes. And some Plato for good measure. In other news, we got back from Mammoth without incident, and I should have pictures to put up soon.

And yesterday was Rachel's birthday, so hopefully I'll have some pictures from that, too. Apparently I look like a gansta' in a couple of them. Don't ask me how.

The stuff that dreams are made of...

Every once in a while I will have a dream that influences my actions. Generally, my dreams are hazy, even right when I wake up. I only have a vague impression of what was going on, usually some adventure or other. But now and then I have a dream that I remember vividly when I wake. And even less frequently I'll have a dream that affects my actions during the day. I find it necessary to remind myself that it was a dream, and didn't actually happen. A couple times I've even talked about my dreams as if they actually happened, and halfway through have had to realize that those things didn't really happen.

Well, I had another one of those last night, and it was very interesting.

Anybody else occasionally dream like that?

Millions

It's not exactly the same, but this reminded me of Millions. How do you just say to your friends, "Hey guys, lets go rob a bank for $100 mil?" That's awesome.

These are a few of my least favorite things.

How much better would that song have been with that premise instead of the one it used. "When the dog bites, when the bee stings - I smash them with a hammer!" Okay, don't ask me where that came from.

Since I know you all care about what I think, here's a list of things that have annoyed me lately (in no particular order).

1. Stupid people, especially those behind the wheel of moving vehicles going 40 on the freeway.
2. Condiments ruining my sandwhich. If I wanted a mouth full of mustard, I would have asked for one, thanks.
3. Hypocritical and condescending people.
4. Mornings.

And the things I've liked recently (also in no particular order).

1. The rain.
2. The ocean and creatures found therein.
3. Star Wars book (don't judge till you've read them!)
4. Soren.
5. Late nights with friends (even if they can't be too late because of #4 above).

Okay, I'm done now. Good night.

Whales + ocean + sun = good weekend

Well, I'm back safely from SB and had a pretty good weekend. Unfortunately, my brother Robby had to "study" this weekend, so he didn't come. And being 20, he can't stay home alone, so my mom also didn't go. That left Billy, my dad, and myself to make the trip to SB.

Saturday we went Whale Watching on the Condor Express, which is a pretty awesome boat. I remember going on trips when I was younger and it being loud and somewhat uncomfortable. Well, the skipper has since gotten a very very nice boat to take people out on, and it was great. It probably helped that the day was beautiful and the sea was calm. We saw two Grey Whales that we followed around for a while, and Dalls Porpoises and Bottle-Nosed Dolphins.

Then we went to the Sea Center and played with all the cool things that my dad said I shouldn't play with because they're for kids. I asked him what he thought I was, and he didn't say anything more. Other than that we didn't do much except sit around the house with Scotch waiting for dinner (Yum!) and watching some of the Olympics.

So it was a relaxing weekend, all in all. The only thing that would have been better would have been some wine tasting, but Billy is a loser and didn't want to go, so that'll have to wait until next time.

Hiding

So I haven't posted anything lately because I haven't had anything to post. Every day I've just come home and gone to bed, with the exception of Tuesday when I just stayed home and went to bed.

But this weekend I'm going to SB with my family (for those of you uncool that means Santa Barbara). It should be fun since we're going whale watching on Saturday and I haven't been since probably before Jr. High. I don't know what Sunday will hold, but probably a late breakfast and the beach. All in all, I'm hoping for a good weekend, especially since I'll have Soren to keep me company when I need him.

Mass genocide is the most exhausting activity one can engage in, outside of soccer.

Well I wouldn't really know, but I sure am tired right now. I also can't walk, but that will pass.

I had some soccer games, and it seems like the only thing that my teammates have to talk about with one another is pregnancy and giving birth. I think there are like 5 of us who don't have kids, and we definately feel like a minority. Luckily I just put on my headphones and blissfully listened to Franz on Soren. Yes, I named my iPod Soren. I was going to name him Pascal, but that's Blaise's last name, and really I like the name Soren better. And besides, if I named him Pascal, some people might think I really like math, since it seems that's the only thing Pascal is really known for.

Of course, nobody out there will know who Soren is. Well, a few of you might, but the majority of people won't. Teleological suspension of the ethical! What could be cooler? Okay, a lot of things, but still, Soren is a cool name.

I guess a post like this is what I get when I try to post something when I should be in bed. But I have to wait for my comforter to finish drying, so you get the pleasure of reading this when my mind isn't really functioning. Lucky you.

I want a farm in Africa.

Watching Out of Africa made me want to live there. Or maybe it made me want to live there around WWI when it was being colonized. I think there's always been a part of me that has wanted to live on a farm. No, I take that back. A part of me has wanted to live on a ranch. And yes, there is a huge difference between a farm and a ranch.

Ranchers get to ride around on horses and fix fences all day. Farms have to milk cows all day. (Yes, I know I'm simplifying, leave me alone). The only thing I wouldn't like about living on a ranch would be getting up early. Maybe I could be a late night rancher.

I probably just feel like this from all my summers spent on my grandparents and I associate ranch with adventure. But who cares! You do get to have adventures on ranches! You get to chase away coyotes from the cattle, and hunt stuff, and ride horses! Not to mention try to get lost and sleep under the stars.

Hmmm, I think I need to go camping.

Snob?

So last night was HP discussion group at Russo's. I got there a little early (meaning on time) before the people in the discussion group who don't work at Russo's had arrived. Rachel promptly told everybody that I want to work at Russo's and would fit right in because I'm a snob. Not having any argument with this statement, I asked what I'm a snob about (yes, there's more than one). Rachel replied "She doesn't like people with low intelligence. *pause* She doesn't even like people with moderate intelligence." I don't think that's really true. I'm not that much of a snob. I just don't like stupidty. Is there something wrong with that?

Later I was telling Chris about how Rachel thinks I'm a snob. I started with, "Apparently I'm snobbish," and continued with the story. After finishing I said, "So I'm a snob." Chris replied, "You're also a bish." If you don't see why that's funny, trying saying it out loud.

Yesterday I watched most of Lawrence of Arabia, which is an awesome movie. Rachel didn't like how much of it was "wasted" on shots of the desert, but I think that visually it is amazing, and that is what makes it so awesome. But it made me want to be a nomad, probably because Omar Sharif is so awesome. And I want to wear Arab/Jedi robes (the robes the Arabs wear make me think of Star Wars, what can I say?). Hey, they're like dresses!

Troll alumni?

Last night Chris and I were watching the news after 24 while playing Scene It with Paul (how's that for a sentence?). Apparently the city of Bakersfield wants to build a new freeway - through the IT building at BHS. While being outraged (as any good Driller should be) Chris promptly said, "We're going to be troll alumni. Aren't they the ones that live under bridges?" Of course this is only preliminary, and at least a couple years off, but still, how could they do that to one of the oldest (not to mention awesomest) high schools in the state?

And the salt in the wound? They're going to name it the Centennial Corrider. Sounds like a dirty and rotton plot by the Golden Hawks to me.

Disturbing

Yesterday after church my parents and I went to pizza for lunch, and as I was leaving the store I looked at the vending machines (you know, the ones for a quarter or 50 cents). Now, from the creators of Homies, you have "Trailer Park" action figures. These include (but aren't limited to) the fishing guy, a girl in a bikini pumping gas, not one but two seperate figures with guitars or banjos, and commando boy. So apparently Oildale is a big market, who would have known?

The scary thing is the huge market (apparently) on eBay that these things have (I had to find a picture of them).

Due to technical difficulties, I can't upload the picture right now, but I will.

Schleepy scheepy

Last night was Movie Night. I know, some of you are wondering, "Isn't every night movie night?" and the answer is "Yes, of course!" but there's a difference between movie night and Movie Night. Last night we watched The Great Escape (after having it taped since December) and Chris and I actually got Rachel to come hang out with us (only because it's a historical film, or maybe because of Eddie). It was a night full of quoting various things (mostly Dress to Kill) and enjoying ourselves.

But unfortunately The Great Escape is three hours longs, which I had forgotten. It doesn't really have to be that long, but the director had to get ample footage of Steve McQueen (disguised as an American man) riding his motor bike. I think there's about half an hour of unneeded footage of this. So because it was three hours long we all got to be late, and now I'm fighting against sleep.

Also, since this is a post of links, for those of you not in the know (and who don't check blog profiles frequently enough) there's a new quote board of sorts here. If you'd care to contribute, let me know and I'll set you up.

More like Lamespace

A friend of mine has just joined the dark side. In the world of blogging, there are blogs (I unfortunately have to include things like Xanga in this, and of course independent weblogs) and then there is Myspace. The two cannot be mixed. Or at least shouldn't be.

But a friend (I won't disclose names) recently did the unthinkable and made a Space. I looked at it and really can't figure out what to do. I mean, there's nothing to read, and the profile is the exact same thing that this person has on blogger. So what exactly was the point? The thing with Myspace is, to do anything you also have to be a member. Well I for one will protest!

In other news, is it bad to have seen more movies in a month than there are days? I think perhaps I need to think about my priorities.

Okay, I've thought about them and I see nothing wrong with it.

I think we should all just go to my Quik-E-Mart

I hate how convinienent stores don't have prices on most of the products they sell. It's annoying. I don't know if a package of peanut butter cup is going to cost me 60 or 80 cents. And since you don't get a reciept or anything, If you buy more than one product, you'll never know. You can guess, but you won't know.

On a completely unrelated topic, what does everybody think works better: negative or positive reinforcement?

Sad day.

I wish I was in high school again so I could play two hours of soccer a day. Instead I have to be frustrated as I watch high schoolers play poorly. I can't decide if I think coaching would help or make it worse, but it doesn't matter since I have no time to potentially coach with. Asi es la vida.

Fans Part Duex

Did I spell two right?

I decided today that fans don't really care if the ref hears them, they are just trying to out-do the other moronic fans around them. I just wish they would go away to do that. It annoys me that I can't tell them exactly how stupid they are. It's not fair that there would be such a great opportunity to trash somebody, and not be able to take it.

This month I've seen (so far) 12 movies that are on one of AFI's lists. Go me.

You've got me? Who's got you?

They say confession is good for the soul, and I have one. I love Superman. It doesn’t matter what it is (cartoon, movie, tv show); if it’s about Superman, I’m probably going to be a fan. After all of the disappointments of hyped up movies lately (I won’t name them because it’s too depressing) I have refused to get excited about any more hyped up movies (until I think of X-3 at least) but I can’t help it when it comes to Superman. Even as a kid I would get excited as soon as I heard the intro to the theme song.

Most people don’t really root for Superman because there’s almost never a question if he’s going to succeed (of course he will, he’s Superman!), and in order for him to potentially fail, the plot must draw in space aliens or space rocks of some sort. Sometimes even huge evil robots. He’s not one of those superheroes that is just normal and uses gadgets or good training to fight (Batman) and doesn’t have a couple powers here and there, but really needs a team to kick some butt (X-Men). He works it. He goes against any human, and he’s going to win. He doesn’t have to be crafty or cunning. He's just a big super boy scout in a blue suit.

But deep inside the story of superman are real moral questions. Why does he save the world when he really doesn’t have any connection to it other than it’s his adopted home. Why is he so good and was never tempted to do evil (I’m sure in some version of some story he is tempted and commits evil, but not in the mainstream stuff as far as I know). Superman is good, but why? What makes him so innately good that his father knows he will use his powers for good and not evil on Earth where he could be Supreme Ruler of All?

So I don't care what other people think. Superman is the coolest super hero there is.

ABCrap

Just kidding.

Every time I see a headline that says something like “Arrested Development renewal unlikely” a little part of me dies. But then I realize they are talking about the fact that Fox hasn’t officially canceled the show and "probably" won’t renew it, and that little part rises from the dead. Duh, we all know that. What I want is more information on the possibility of Showtime or ABC picking it up (ABC would be much, much better). If ABC picked up the show, I would partially forgive it for killing the best thing on tv and not giving it a chance to come back after Garner can take a more active role in the show (stupid pregnancy). I hate ABC!

Technology is Kant

I don't understand technology. Now don't get me wrong, I know more about technology than most people. I can write my own html and once upon a time knew some basic C+(or was that C++?). I understand that everything is based on 1's and 0's which basically are either closed or open gates that lets the little pulse of energy go through. And I can pretty much figure out how to use any computer program there is with minimal instruction and a lot of playing.

But I can't let myself think about how little gates and an electric charge makes music, or a picture, or a video game show up on my screen because I just don't understand it. And I don't like things I can't understand, so I try not to think about them if there's no hope of me understanding.

It's the same as Kant's phenomenal and noumenal worlds. I can use the phenomenal world pretty well. I think I understand it pretty well, know physical laws and stuff like that, can calculate the air speed velocity of a swallow, know how hard to kick a soccer ball to get it to go a certain distance, that sort of thing, but once I think about why, about the how behind what I know, I have to stop thinking because I don't know, can't understand, and will never know or understand. And I hate it. Stupid noumenal world. All I have to say to it is, "Mahnoumena!"

Free company stuff

Chris gets gift cards and movie tickets. Robert gets food and movie screenings. I get a turkey, an ice chest bag, and a jacket, and the ever present carrots. My free stuff sucks. Why can't I get toys, food, and movies? Curses!

Act like you've scored a goal before.

I don’t understand fans. Now, mostly I’m talking about the kind that you see at their kid’s game, or niece, neighbor, or whatever, but I also don’t understand the type that can watch five football games in a row, yelling at the ref, players, and who knows who else in the process. The first kind are the people that I laugh at while I’m reffing (I have to do something to entertain myself, and I can’t always count on trying to translate the Mexican teams’ Spanglish). I get such a laugh out of the people who yell, “Go go go!” the entire game, no matter what’s happening on the field. Someone needs to thank them for reminding the players to actually do something. “Run run run” is perhaps the only thing funnier. Because they wouldn't otherwise.

Then there’s the people that carry on for 5 minutes about a call that the ref missed. I especially love the case when a coach will turn around and tell the person to shut up because the person is so obviously a moron and doesn't know the rules.. Granted, it doesn’t happen often, but when it does, it’s great. Last night I heard one parent yell, "Cheater! Offsides cheater!" Yes, I'm cheating for the other team because it matters to me if they score. Why the hell do I care who wins? I get paid either way.

I guess I’m strange because when I watch a game I tend to be very quiet and analytical. I don’t want to yell the whole game, and I don’t want the people around me yelling. I don’t cheer. One “whoo!” is about all you’ll hear from me, and only when something worth celebrating happens, like a goal in a championship game, or when you’re behind. Perhaps it’s because in high school and college we were very relaxed on the bench (and our parents were, too). This might have been because we were used to good things happening (like winning) so we didn't feel the need to celebrate. I actually heard Leslie say, "Act like you've scored a goal before," when an underclassman was celebrating too much after a goal. I've wanted to say that on numerous occasions to numerous teams.

When the cat's away...

... Becca will buy a new mouse. Unfortunately, my mouse that I've had since my sophomore year of college could no longer run it its little wheel. It might be that I just need new researchable batteries, but I decided to get a mouse with a tail anyways, because you have no idea how annoying it is to be playing Warcraft III and have your batteries die. So now even if my wireless mouse is miraculously resurrected, I'll have a back up.

The only problem is that I don't like the new one. For one, the thumb button is much too small, and is too high. And it just doesn't fit my hand very well, either. But it's the best that was available. All the other ones at Best Buy (or Best Buys as all of the older people I know call it) either were wireless or didn't have a thumb button at all. So after who knows how long, I finally picked the only would I could, and got to more important things.

Chris was looking for an "adventure strategy" game (which he later changed to "adventure mystery"), so we got to spend some time looking at the computer games. Unfortunately, the place decided to close early on Sunday, so we didn't have nearly enough time to look at movies. Or maybe that was a good thing since I didn't end up spending too much money.

The other thing I don't like about this mouse is that the wheel doesn't click. And I can't click the wheel to scroll, it cycles between windows. And yes Rob, I realize I can change button assignment, but I shouldn't have to.

Get off the road!

I hate people who don't turn on their blinker when they're at an intersection with no turn light. You know, the one where you have to yield if a person isn't turning. I turn on my blinker so that they know my intentions, why can't they? Jerks.

You play ball like a girl.

Yesterday The Sandlot was playing where I had lunch. There's just something about that movie. There are so many classic parts in it, but that could just be because I grew up with the movie. It does, however, raise an interesting question.

What's with categorizing things as "children's," mostly in regard to books, but also movies. I can understand that the books and movies you read to five year olds (and only five year olds) should be categorized as such, but where should the line be drawn? I can remember when book stores had a children's section, and a fiction section, but now there's Young Adult, Teen, Pre-Teen, and who knows what else.

The most obvious example of this is Harry Potter. I can understand that it's a "kid's book," but to categorize it like that is almost an insult. It is so much more than a children's book, much in the same way The Cronicles of Narnia and the Wrinkle in Time trillogy (or however many there are) are so much more than children's books. It's not like there is a difference between what makes a good children's book and an adult book: interesting characters, a driving plot, and usually some mystery or adventure.

This isn't to say that there isn't 'children's' literature out there that is truely children's literature, but where should the line be drawn. I started reading both Ender's Game, the Wheel of Time, and the Recluse Saga in Jr. High (I was 12) so does that mean that all those books should be considered Pre-Teen? I don't think so.

Okay, I think I'm done.

What would Dumbledore do?

Die. I hope that if you haven't read The Half Blood Prince you don't plan on, because I just ruined the book for you, and you deserve it.

If, like I think, Snape killed Dumbledore on his (Dumbledore's) urging, should Snape be held morally accountable for the action? Even if Dumbledore wasn't urging Snape to kill him, if Snape killed Dumbedore to get in Voldermort's good graces in order to betray him, should Snape be held morally accountable?

For those of you who've read Shadow Puppets (Orson Scott Card), should the Sury be held accountable for "betraying" Peter only to be able to betray Achilles?

Here's to a new one!

Well, another year is over, and every Jan. 1 I sit and think about how arbitrary time is. I know, there are a lot of things that make me think about time (too many philosophy class topics on it), but New Years is one of the biggest. That and Leap Day (if that's the name of it). But in the hopes of not boring everybody, I'm not going to talk about what I think about, I'm just going to mention that I had thoughts. I know, you're amazed that anything is going on in my head now that I have a job.

Today the Armstrong family started their Mammoth trip, which the three college grads had to miss out on due to jobs. I was okay with this idea when there was hardly any snow, but beginning like Friday the heavens decided to open up and rain down beautiful snow in the mountains. So now Tim letting me know exactly how much snow Mammoth got up, and I'm no longer okay with missing out. Hopefully I'll be able to make it up there a couple times this year. Otherwise I might cry, and that isn't a pretty sight, rare as it may be.

I spent most of today playing Civ IV (be jealous Stacy!) and getting absolutely nothing done, because that's just how Civ is. And Chris and I decided to becca-and-christen his TCM version of Scene It yesterday. I won, but mostly because Chris didn't get any "my plays," and most of the "my plays" that I got were really easy, like who is the director of 2001: A Space Odyssey? That and who played Spencer Tracy's daughter in Father of the Bride.

But if you've ever played that game, you know that the hardest part can sometimes be answering the final questions. So after a couple rounds of Final Cut with neither of us getting a correct answer, we decided to play a tie breaker and let it go from there. I had the birthday closest to Jan. 7 (I don't remember what the significance of that date was) so I won.

Women should be kept illiterate and clean, like canaries.

This week at work hasn't been very much fun, since my distractions have been gone for the most part. Luckily, it's the end of the month, so I've had some stuff to do. I've discovered some of my new favorite movies lately, which is very exciting. I've watched High Society, a musical with Grace Kelly, Bing Crosby, and Frank Sinatra, based on The Philadelphia Story. It also has Louis Armstrong, as himself.

I also finally finished Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind, and was throughly impressed. I'm sad that I had never it before. Robert hit it on the nose when he quoted Freeks and Geeks saying, "I wish I had never seen it so I could see it again for the first time." Or at least I thinks that what it was.

You should check out this commercial. It's pretty awesome, and there's no CG at all. It made me happy.

And now I'm watching Cary Grant in a comedy, so my day is complete. If anybody is in town on Saturday, we're going to be playing frisbee at 11:00 am at Cal State.

Feliz Navidad, prospero ano y felizidad

So it's Christmas, and this year was actually enjoyable for me, unlike most. Now, there are bits and pieces of each Christmas season that I enjoy, but for the whole, they are stressing and I don't want to be home. This year, however, we all seemed to get along. This is probably due to the fact that there was hardly a time when all five of us were home, but if that's what it takes, that's what it takes.

I got a ton of clothes this year, which was interesting and a surprise. I knew about three pieces, but my brother and dad decided they needed to go to Buckle in the mall and buy me new jeans and a t-shirt. We'll see how long those stay.

Friday was Christmas with my friends (sadly Natalie couldn't make it) which was so much fun. Any excuse I can have to hang out with them is great. Saturday we had family over for lunch, and I think we're expecting more throughout the week. I also have watched three classic movies this weekend, and I'm thinking I'll get through a couple more tomorrow. Tonight Brandon is bringing over Civilization 4 so we're going to play that, which is exciting.

Now, I know that you didn't need all that information, but some people were accusing me of not updating, so I figured I would when I can. I'll put up my philosophical thoughts about Christmas later.

The pellet with the poison is in the flagon with the dragon. The chalice from the palace holds the brew that is true.

Okay, okay, I get the picture. I'm boring, need to get a life, and need to update more often.

It may be hard to believe, but I haven't had a lot of free time at my computer lately, and I feel (somewhat) badly when I update at work. However, I will do it anyways. Actually, I made an update to post yesterday, but for some reason blogger didn't want to publish it, so I emailed it to myself to publish later, and just didn't have an opportunity.

Right now they guy sitting next to me is playing some very interesting Christmas music. Some of it is good (Judy Garland singing "Have Yourself A Very Merry Christmas," but then there's what's playing now, and I don't even know how to classify it it's so bad. Unfortunately, I keep forgetting to bring in some speakers (I'm going to steal small ones from the family computer that nobody uses anymore because I think bringing in my computer speaker system would be a little over the top), so I can't listen to my good music.

I feel like I'm re-living the teenage days of pinning up magazine covers and pictures in your room that I missed. The room I'm staying in belongs to an 8th grader, and I've been catching up on who's hot and who's not as I try to fall asleep and end up staring at a wall covered with teen magazine covers.

I got a turkey yesterday and thought to myself, "What the heck am I supposed to do with a turkey?" So I took it home and put it on the counter thinking that my mom will somehow dispose of it to a worthy cause. She did. But it made me feel all "grown up" to get a turkey. (Not a word, Amy).

So, does this suffice for an update? There hasn't been anything happening in my life recently, and I didn't want to remind myself of how boring my life is by posting about the boringness, but "my friends" have made me, and now I feel depressed. Thanks a lot.

But you hate women.

Anybody know what that quote is from?

I've been busy lately, which is why I haven't posted an update in a while. Besides, I figure everybody else is too busy to check my blog due to finals, holidays, and what not. Lately I've been working, watching movies, and not much more.

Saturday we saw Narnia, which I will refrain from talking about here, because I don't know who's seen it and who hasn't. Suffice to say I was disappointed, but I'm hoping King Kong is much more satisfying (don't fail me Pete!). From what I've seen and read, it looks amazing, but we'll see.

Not much more than that has been going on in my life except work, and I really don't care to talk about that much, so I won't.

"I'll call you if anybody anywhere gets drunk."

Name the movie that this quote comes from and you're super cool.

Yesterday I saw the awesomest thing. When I come home from work I drive through Kern City, which for those of you who don't know, is like a retirement community near West High. But before I even got there I had to pass a little old lady driving a gold cart. There were like plastic doors on it, I guess so that the wind doesn't make her too cold. It even had a liscence plate and lights and everything. I want that to be my car when I'm old. That or a little moped (is that how you spell it), but that could only work if I live someplace like Italy.

I think that the people I work with think I only care about two things: old movies (well, maybe movies in general) and soccer. That seems to be all I really end up talking about, mostly because if I start talking about some of the other things I'm into, they'll think I'm even stranger than I am. However, I do think it might be time to bring a toy or two to work, just because my desk is kind of lame right now. I don't think it will be legos, though, because those would be too tempting for somebody going through the office to accidentally nab.

I've been settling into my job, which is nice because now I am pretty much able to do my work without needing to go to somebody and ask if I'm doing it correctly. I think they've finally realized that I kind of know what I'm doing, which is both nice and not nice, since I might now be getting more to do. Ah, things that are bitter sweet.

I'm hoping this post is as random as I'm feeling right now, but if it hasn't been, I'd like to add that last night I dreamed about playing high school softball again, but I had pissed off my coach so much that he made me go coach the JV team. If only that had happened for real my senior year.

Tonight Rach, her sister, her sister's husband, and I are all going to laugh at Chris who is in the Boar's Head, which is a play at his church. I think he's in a comic role, but even if he isn't, I know I'll be laughing. Actually, especially if he isn't I'll be laughing.

Trying to enjoy a day

The reason I asked the question in the previous post is that I really don't like Thanksgiving very much. I don't think I ever have. Part of the reason is that I don't enjoy stuffing myself silly, and don't particularly like most of the traditional food of Thanksgiving. Turkey and gravy? No thanks.

Some people say that Thanksgiving is a day that you remember what you're thankful for. I think that's stupid. I rememeber almost every day what I'm thankful for. When you go around a table and everybody says what they're thankful for all the answers are so lame and cliche. I guess I don't think there should need to be a day where you're reminded to be thankful for what you have, you should just be thankful.

So, needless to say, when I wrote that post I wasn't in a very Thanksgiving mood (I don't think I was at any point that day), and just thought I'd say something. Maybe I should watch A Charlie Brown Thanksgiving, or whatever it's called.

Question

In your opinion, what is Thanksgiving supposed to be?

101st Post!

Go me! This is my 101st Post! I feel so special.

This weekend was the official end of the fall soccer season. I know I might have said that before, but now it is true. My AYSO somehow made the playoffs (some of the teams above us didn’t have a team ref, which you need to go to the playoffs), and we had our game on Saturday. Unfortunately, we didn’t win, but the team played really well. We just couldn’t seem to find the net, and the ref was pretty horrible. She didn’t call any fouls, and when she did, they were wrong. I think we played the team that Natalie’s dad coaches, though.

Then on Sunday we had our adult league Scramble Tournament (don’t ask me why it was called that) when they decided that everybody could play six games. Granted the games only had 20 minute halves, but six of them still adds up to 3 “real” games of 40 minute halves. Take into account that we normally only play 35ish minute halves, and you have a long day. I wasn’t looking forward to the games because I thought that the co-ed and women’s games would be playing at different times so I would have to play for both teams, but I only ended up playing with my women’s team.

That was fun because we can actually play well, plus I actually enjoy talking with some of them now, and can joke around. We had a couple people come out who I know from high school (one person coached the JV team when I was a senior at BHS and she was more like a teammate than a coach). Plus it was a potluck where each team brought something and then everybody pigged out during our hour long break at lunch. So a huge lunch for the 3 dollars I had to pay for my team’s part.

The holiday season officially starts this week, and it is going to be weird working. I keep thinking that I’m going to have the whole Christmas time off, and have to remind myself that I won’t. That means figuring out when I’m going to hang out with friends gets a lot harder, and figuring out when I’m going to make it to toy stores (BN, Toys R Us, Best Buy) is getting tough because I don’t want to go on weekends when all the stupid little kids will be screaming. Oh well, the rest of the world seems to find a way to exist around the holiday season, so I’m sure I will too.

We were oozed.

I drank gunk today. Well, not really, but it looked and had the same consistancy that I would think gunk would. Bolthouse has a little store on site, and it has the new juices that Bolthouse has started producing. There's one called Green Goodness or something like that. It wasn't bad (I think it could grow on me), but I just can't trust a liquid that I can't see through, with the exception of milk, I think. Luckily, the label on the bottle is solid, and covers most of the bottle, so I didn't have to see that what I was drinking was opaque.

I found out that my little soccer team might have made the playoffs, which is good to know now instead of like Sunday after the game. It does mean that the season hasn't really ended yet, but that's okay because my women's league has one final tournament on Sunday. I can handle one more weekend of soccer.

Frankly my dear, I don't give a damn.

Just because Rachel for some reason got this connection in my previous post.

This weekend was my final weekend for soccer, which I guess is bittersweet. It will be nice to have more free time (especially since I'm working every day now), but I know that I'll miss soccer. The good (bad?) news is that high school starts this week, so I'll have plenty of refing to do, so I'll still be involved in soccer. But I won't be playing, which isn't good. I have one final hurrah in my adult soccer league, but I don't think I'll be able to play the whole tournament.

I've been playing Fantasy Football this year, and have been doing pretty well until the past couple of weeks. My two star running backs decided to get hurt - my big name is out for the rest of the season, and my quarterback has been sucking. Yesterday he got me five whole points. Quarterbacks should get at least 15, and mine usually gets more than 20. But yesterday he decided to throw no touchdowns and 3 interceptions, which is horrible. But my excuse is that I was playing my brother and I wouldn't want him to feel bad by getting beat by his sister at football.

In other news, Cal got stomped by SC and I'm really tired. That's it for now.

Play it, Sam. Play "As Time Goes By"

Since Rachel isn't available to do so, I will wish everybody a happy Armistice Day. Too bad WWII came along and made it so today isn't Armistice Day, but Vetrans' Day. But on the 11 hour or the 11 day of the 11 month a long time ago we stopped the Germans. Or something like that. Which is good, because otherwise we might all be speaking German right now, which would be bad for everybody except for Amy and Nat who probably remember some.

Last night was HP Discussion group, which was fun, if small. Then I came home and watched some Tomb Raider, which is surprisingly like the game, at least from the little bit of both that I've seen.

Yesterday while I was here, I created Pascal's Triangle to the 17th line without using a calculator. Yes, I was that bored. But it was fun to make the Triangle and think about Pascal's philosophy, which I always enjoy thinking about. I also started my Top 100 list of movies, but I'm having trouble thinking of ones to add to the list, so it'll take a while, but it appears that I'll have time.

You know what they say... no noose is good noose

I have news. I, Rebecca Jennings, now have a full time job. Not a lot of people knew I was looking for one (myself included), but this one kind of appeared, and it doesn't sound too lame. Hopefully it isn't too lame. Not a great job, but not a bad one either, and we can't all get our dream job (Robert).

The only bad part (besides working all the time) about it is I'm either going to start at 6 or 7, which are both way too early. Oh well, I guess I'll get used to it, much like Chris has gotten used to waking at 5:15.

I've been officially ditched by everybody for the next three days, but that's okay, I have some movies. And GuildWars. Oh, and I don't get to see Hilary Putnam because somebody left me in charge of a certain HP discussion group, and it happens to be at the same time. I think I'll survive.

PS. Name that movie.

You're the best around!

Last night The Karate Kid was on, so I watched it because that's the sort of movie that you have to watch when it's on. It is a very interesting movie, one that I don't hink would be able to be made now. For one, the action sequences aren't very good. They are all short, and there isn't much karate. That would flop these days. We want long, loud, totally suped-up fight scenes, not just a series of three quick kicks or a couple punches then it's over. It's still a classic movie, though, and one that our generation will forever cherish. I mean, who can ever forget the line, "Wax on, wax off?"

Volleyball is finally over (yay!) which means that I will now have all sorts of extra free time with which to do nothing. That is, until soccer starts, and I spend even more time making even less money. But I like soccer more, so its okay. Also, my AYSO soccer season is winding down, which means I really don't know what I'm going to do with all my time.

Today I'm in a seventh grade English class, and the GATE class just started reading The White Mountains. It seems like just a little bit ago that I was reading that, but when I think about it, it was a while. I'm surprised that they haven't gotten new curriculum by now, but I guess that just shows you that good books never get old. It does make me wonder if any of the newer good books will ever be in curriculum, Harry Potter for example. Although I guess the really good ones in the series are towards the end, so it would be hard to teach them well. But there are all sorts of good children's (or young adult) books out there, especially now that HP has done so well. Will they ever make it into the schools? Probably not. The California school system sucks.

Now I'm off to see Zorro with Nat and Rob, which should be fun. I'm feeling like an action movie, and you can't really go wrong with those two.

Putnam

Hilary Putnam is going to be in Bakersfield, and the one person who might (might) be willing to go with me is half a world away. Boo. Wait! Jessica! Come up from la and see Hilary with me! You know you want to. I need someone there who'll understand as I make fun of him.

In other news, Rob and I just saw Wallace and Gromit with his mom, which was pretty fun. A lot more adult humor than I would have expected, but I'm not complaining. That's it for now.

This is Halloween, this is Halloween!

You'd all better know what that quote is from. I love Halloween, because its the one night of the year that I don't have to explain myself or get strange looks when I wear a costume. This year, I asked my mom to finish the Jedi outfit that has been like three years in the making. I've had the cloak, but could never find a good enough pattern for the tunic and stuff. Well this year I found one, and it turned out awesome, if I do say so myself, and I do.

My mom also helped Rach to make a very cool Quidditch robe, which rocked. Chris and Rob were Buster and GOB (respectively), and I even got Chris a hook to be his hand (If you haven't seen season 2 of Arrested Development, don't worry about it). We had a fun night going over to Ronnie's house (a friend of Rach) and playing first Cranium then Apples to Apples. Chris and I were on the same team for Cranium, so we won. We were in dead last place (getting beaten pretty badly) and pulled out the win, which was pretty rad.

The only problem is now I'm struggling to stay awake, which will make volleyball interesting. Luckily I only have one game instead of the usual two, and then it is time for home for another small nap, then some tv. Tomorrow night I think will start the two weeks of movies that Rob and I have planned. Hopefully I'll put some pictures up on my site from last night by tomorrow, so you should check them out. Maybe that'll make me put up the rest of the pictures I've been avoiding, but probably not.

Everybody hail to the Pumpkin King!

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.