It's going to be another year!

Hey everyone! I like to read the end of the year reviews whether they are serious like NYT or not so serious like VH1's best year ever! Anyway, I ran across this photo from the NYT in Congo. The guy is wearing a white Cal hat looking at the camera while army dudes in the back are firing missiles at rebels in the valley. I wonder how he got it? Click on the picture to get a better view.

Hit by a Train

I almost got hit by a train yesterday due to a fault in the railroad signs not going down. Hm... let me say this. Your life doesn't not flash before your eyes. Instead you're thinking "Holy Mother of --- SHIT---AAGGHH!"

HAPPY HOLIDAYS

I hope you guys are all doing well! I really do miss you guys! Sorry for being so not online. My online life has drastically shifted to IRC... it's kind of weird, but I think I can now say that I "meet" with my online friends more frequently than my real-life friends.

So no one *Kicks Yuri and Mel* has updated, so I'l update a little. The holidays were okay. It didn't snow any of the time I've been home, then all of a sudden it started snowing. Which was cool, except this morning there was black ice, which is not so cool as far as driving conditions go. >_<

Now I'm at home, baking goods. I've mastered the Cheesecake (Cheesecake Factory style), the carrot cake, and banana nut bread. Much to the help of my adorable Kitchen Aid. Those things really rock when it come to preparing food. I've also managed to make my own pizza dough and experiment with that. The only problem now is that there's not enough people in my house to eat the things I make.

So the card I was going to send you had these cartoon penguins skiiing. There were four penguins. They were cute. Too bad. I'll find out your address next year and then I'll send them then. Or send them now and be early for next year's Christmas because I wouldn't want to say I'm late for this years Christmas.

Abstinence only works for the unattractive

Jamie Lynn Spears is pregnant at 16 by her met-at-church-boyfriend. She's keeping it. In an interview with OK! Magazine she says that she advocates that people wait to have sex, but she says she obviously cannot comment on it because she's put herself in this situation.

I haven't entirely decided if she's really brave and responsible for keeping the kid (having lots of money probably doesn't hurt) or an idiot for getting pregnant in the first place. Despite all the fertility issues seen on daytime tv, it seems that most women are fertile myrtles. I understand that no form of protection is 100% effective short of sterilization. It's perfectly possible that what has happened to her is just an accident and a malfunction of whatever preventative methods she was using. 

Given what pregnancy has done to her sister, I would have to assume that getting pregnant at 16 wasn't intentional. Every time unexpected pregnancies come into the news, I always think about the status of sex education in this country. I think a lot of people are faced with situations where abstinence only education is inadequate. 

Lynne Spears, Britney's mom was going to write a book about how to raise a daughter, specifically Jamie Lynn, because she was the model child. If a supposedly good and responsible girl could find herself pregnant at 16, clearly abstinence only education isn't ebbing the flow of sexually active teenagers. I think Jamie Lynn is a model for supporting that wholly informative sex-ed isn't a going to make our schools into whore factories.

Good Riddance!

I'm finally done with that stupid magazine I've been working on. I don't think I want to do an upaid project like this EVER AGAIN. Totally hard. Really hard. :( Ugh. Not fun. I'll post a link once I figure out how to merge the PDF pages which should be relatively easy.

Done :)

The finals are over now for me. No more studying for me at least...for two weeks. Starting in february, my cumulatives start, and I have to pass 5 out of 10 of those tests to stay as a graduate student. It is every two months, so I have one on February, April, June...etc.

Because of that cumulatives, I don't think I'll be able to go anywhere next summer...or maybe next winter as well, depending on how fast I'll pass these tests. So this winter is it, if you want to see me :)

There's been a huge snow storm lately, and the snow is up to my knees right now. There is supposed to be another snow storm coming in tonight/tomorrow morning, so there will be more snow on the ground.

Other than the semester being over, there's really not much news. I'll be in California in a week!

Nothing Nefarious

So I guess I have a handful of stories to tell, but I'll just talk about one until later.

Las Vegas was interesting. I was supposed to visit SF b/c I had a plane ticket to use but family in LV decided they wanted us to visit. I haven't seen this particular cousin in over 5 years so I was like okay. We get there and they're like, "Something's happened. We changed our mind." Great, except we had planned nothing because we expected to be hanging out with the family the entire time. So what do you do? You hit the strip and explore.

Hm... I was very disturbed by the Mexican guy on the street who seemed to be trying to solicit his family member as a ...yeah... The hotels were okay. Not nearly as cool as I'd thought they'd be - having watched all of the Travel Channel's coverage of the city. The shows are AMAZING THERE. And cost an arm and a leg. The discount tickets are the ones that normally cost $400 that are going for half off- which to me defeats the purpose of a discounted ticket. I was the most impressed by Bellagio's art exhibit and the Wynn's interior design. Caesar's Palace was okay and Mandalay Bay was an absolute dump. So was Excalibur and Luxor --- that pyramid--- it literally makes you feel like you're in a tomb when you go into it.

Food is on a whole other level in LV. The buffets are good - probably the best as far as buffets go and the prices are reasonable. The restaurants where you sit and order are good, but not nearly as good as SF's best, or Portland for that matter.

I was surprised at how many people wanted to see Chip n'Dales and the other topless revues. Some of the topless women in the ads pasted around town were just downright saggy. And as far as the male stripping went, plenty of males were waiting outside in line for the Australian Revue Thunder Down Under or something like that. The Spice Girls were in town and so was Celine Dion. Too bad it's her last year. I say instead of paying for $90 in the nosebleed section, just buy the Costco DVD of Celine Dion Live in Las Vegas for $12.99

I was so looking forward to the Sirens of TI but the place was shut down for construction. The old hotel off the strip owned by that billionaire whose name I can't remember is being rebuilt with about 6 cranes at the moment. To give you an idea, renting one of those cranes is $2,000 per day and they've been in construction for over a month.

Slot machines. I can't believe how many slot machines are everywhere. Although yeah, the smaller hotels off the strip offer machines that actually let you win... so I guess that's cool.

I'll put up pictures later. I haven't downloaded off the camera yet. Oh yeah so I ended up seeing Ka by Cirque du Soleil and the set design was cool.

I'm having a pretty baller day.

Yah so I dropped massive cash today. Yoz! 

I finally got a new computer. 

I got a 24" IMac much to the chagrin of everyone. But you know what? It's really nice to have your own computer. It's like finally having a home again. I can't describe to you how happy I feel about it. It's like on par with not ever having to share your underware. Not that I ever did. But sharing computers is like that. It's gross, unhygienic, and should be socially frowned upon. I know this is going to come off sounding really bourgeoise, but I have my pompous middle class moments. I also taught myself how transfer data from my old computer. I know I know, should be a no duh thing. But you don't understand! My laptop was messed up. The video card was kaput. Plus having a mac really makes you duh. I can give you examples, but they're hard and boring to describe. Needless to say, if it doesn't involve drag and click, it'll be over my head. (Confessions of a Middle to Low End machead)

Did I mention that after I dropped said dough, my laptop miraculously resurrected? The process is way too boring to explain. With 25MB left, clearly it's been well worn. I've had functional use of that computer for approximately 3 years so far, that means roughly $570 a year for a computer. Based on the cost of this computer, I better have it for 4 years or more. Fingers crossed. My dad angrily said something like, I could have gotten a computer for $300. 

Can't wait until the break.

That does sound like an awesome beginning of the story. You should go on with it.

For those of you who don't know, I decided to create another blog on blogger exclusively in English just to update on my life. Since none of my friends know the existence of this blog, and I'd like to keep it that way, I made sure that this blog doesn't show up on my profile. So, if you just want an updated on my life, go to that blog. This will be just for us :)

Nothing much going on in my life. I'm going to the holiday party tonight, and apparently, it's a big deal. I was told to wear a dress. I don't know if I am. I might just wear a nice top and a skirt or something. It's super cold though....so we'll see. Hopefully, one of my nice friends will give me a ride.

Alright, back to lab reports. You guys need to update this!