Bappy

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

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

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

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

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

Freaks and Geeks

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

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

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

Spiderweb

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

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

SB

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

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

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

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

Conditioning

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

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

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

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

Sunburned

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

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

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

Okay, bye.

Ahhhhhgh!

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

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

Happy Bastille Day Yesterday!

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

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

Hmmmm

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

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

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

Camp

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

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

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

Hasta la semana proxima!

Ponderings

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

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

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

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

Up and Running

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

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

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

Que lastima!

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

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

Note to self

Start going to bed earlier.

Tonight

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

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

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

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

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

Way too much fun

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

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

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

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

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

Good times

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

First day

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

Definately a nerd

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

Funness

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

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