"Freedom Drops"

As sad as it is, this is how I stay up to date on the news that matters. I can't even explain how disgusted I am by the news reporters featured in this clip. (Insert own wise crack about balding middle-aged men here).



Jon Stewart and Kristen Schaal and Hillary Clinton and sexism

Like morels from a burned forest floor...

Something good always comes from a disaster.



I don't know much about morels, but supposedly they are delicious. (I think they look creepy.) Isn't it interesting that disasters push people to create new inventions, discover new information, and become more diplomatic? I like to think that even though somethings are disasters currently, the amount of information that society takes from that event is amazing. Makes me proud to be a human - an Earthling.

"Unauthorized reproduction is encouraged"

Stolen from another blog... hehehe! ... "corporal cuddling".



An Engineer's guide to cats by Klusmanp

Why didn't we evolve with wings?

I know there are people looking at this blog ... vote on my poll! (By the way, I love Moby, and I'm ever so grateful that I got the opportunity to see him in concert... maybe it will happen again?)

Missoulians... beware!

This morning, I heard a cop pull over not 1, not 2, but 3 people in less than a half hour. The speed limit (conveniently unposted) is only 25 mph, and there is a stop sign at Johnson and North that people frequently slide through. The cops patrol this area like crazy. If you are over here, do not speed, and do not slide through the stop sign.

Gotta Love this Man (or his writers - Thank you writers!)

New Season = Change

Decided to change my blog layout around. I did this for a couple of reasons. The primary reason was because my pictures and videos were difficult to see with the dark background. Another reason was that I simply like to change things around some times. (And, I'm avoiding cleaning up all of my school paperwork crap among other things like the dishes, laundry, and general organization). Hope you like the new do and...

REMEMBER TO VOTE ON MY POLL! yes... I'm talking to you. You don't even need to "register." Sweet and simple. Click on an answer and thats it. There is room for computer malfunctions, but luckily a mistake here doesn't decided our next four years. This poll is for my own curiosity.

Oh yea, it would probably be good for you to vote/register for the presidential election. Just got my voter card in the mail the other day! :D *Beaming proudly*

Long time coming

Here are some pictures I've been meaning to post since oh... September!

Ready, set, READ!!!

113 Days of summer here I come! I have several different Nicholas Sparks books lined up to read over the course of the summer (including the one that I checked out in February that I haven't gotten around to finishing yet). Others on my list include:
A Million Little Pieces
My Friend Leonard
Going to Bend
Prozac Nation
1000 Tables
The Way we Eat
Hubler's "Leadership and Nursing Care Management

Hopefully I'll be able to finish all of these this summer and still have a great time. I'm still looking for more suggestions!

Post Script - 5-13-08
When we were in Bozeman, we stopped at some bookstores: the Country Bookshelf and Vargos Jazz City and Books. While perusing the shelves, I found at least a dozen more books that look fascinating. Being the dork that I am, I took some pictures with my phone so I wouldn't forget them!
Cooking with Spices for Dummies
The Spice Bible
The New Intercourses
Dog Years - random- don't even know what it is about, but the dog is surely cute!
Letters to a Young Chef
Street World
The Expert's Guide to 100 Things Everyone Should Know How to Do

ACP - Advanced Care Planning

I can understand why families have a hard time making end of life decisions. If they decide that DNR is best and comfort care is provided, the family can feel as if they are "giving up" on their loved one. If they want to prolong life at all costs, they may feel guilty that they are making them live in pain. What if a person with a DNR just needs a little help now and still has a couple years left? What if you're making the person live a life that you think is best when all they really want is a good ol' juicy cheeseburger? What if you give him that cheeseburger and it essentially kills him? What if you had just stuck to the healthy way and he would still be there five years down the road but those years would be painful?

While I do not have a person family member experiencing this now - she is better than any person, she is my dog. Come July 18, she will turn 13. My mom called me yesterday and said that she thought she had died the other day because she wouldn't get up and wasn't even moving very much to breathe. Kashmira has been with me more than half of my life. I haven't really talked with my mom about this, but I'm pretty sure she thinks that we should put her down soon. But, what if...? My mind is racing, and the tears are flowing.

I feel guilty that I haven't been with her very much the past several years I've been in school. I try to remind myself of all of the things that we did get to do together. When we were both much younger, she pulled me in a sled every where. It was the highlight of my day to come home from school and go race around on the trails by my house with her. She even had a real dog sled harness! Then she had puppies and they were oh so cute. Then we would go walking all around the woods all of the time. She loved to go to the park on Main St. and chase the squirrels. She would get very antsy whenever I would take her for a walk because she seemed to like it so much. Then, she was my only companion for a while, and we did everything together- including going to school! Then she traveled with me. We stayed next to a gopher town in N.D. and she had a blast there trying to hunt them down. (Of course it didn't work). We went to MT, UT, and NV. She stayed there for a while, then came back to MN with my mom and sister. I took her back out to MT to live for a while. It was funny watching her pounce through the deep snow. She got sprayed by a skunk one night after she had been to the groomer (or else she found a dead skunk and rolled in it). Classic. She tried to chase the deer once out there ( I know it is uncouth, but I couldn't stop her). Then she came back to MN and has lived with my mom until now.

I don't know what to do.





Disclaimer, she is 80% fur. When ever she gets wet you can see her body and she is not as big as she looks with her puffy fur.

Earth Week

I know this video seems long at first glance, but before you know it, you're already six minutes and then... it's over! I would like to post some more articles/pictures for Earth Week, but we'll see what how my procrastination abilities pan out.


http://view.break.com/381084 - Watch more free videos

My Simple Mind

I don't really get many opportunities to watch television. The only time that is pretty consistent for me is in the afternoon - when seemingly nothing is on. The afternoon is too late (and too early) for all of the good Food Network shows, and it is too early to watch classic reruns of CSI (the original in Las Vegas) on Spike. This lack of options has made me search out for something new. I found several wastes of my time such as Extreme Dating on Fox Reality (on a side note, how can there be an entire channel dedicated to reality TV?). However, I have found several shows that I actually like: The Daily Show, Colbert Report, Scrubs, DogTown (animal rescue), and Code Blue (or some other form of reality show that is situated in the ER). Yesterday I saw the funniest episode of Scrubs. Today I saw a very surprising thing on the Colbert Report. Who ever knew Stephen Colbert could sing like this! Wow. Well, I'll leave you with this video of Stephen singing and now, onto the mound of dishes! :p  

Renewed Invigoration

After my last stressed out post, I found some ways to help cope. First, I decided to buy a subscription to Bead Style magazine. I rationalized this with my resolution to make more jewelry this summer. In buying the magazines, I'll hopefully be more inspired and my inspiration will grow and I'll be able to create my own works of wearable art. 

Second, I'm finally going to commit to changing my position to one that isn't as demanding in the amount of hours that I'm required to work. I know people can work 20+ hours a week and they are just fine. For me, it is mostly brutal. (Warning rant coming!) In working so much, I'm not able to spend as much time doing stuff that is good for me. I miss not being able to go out with Nate or my close friends on a whim. I miss not being able to cook dinner whenever I want (as opposed to 3 nights a week - usually I'm too exhausted anyways). And I miss being able to go to cultural things - even if I can't drag anyone along. 

What cemented my plan to switch positions was an email from Mason Jennings regarding his summer shows. He and Jack Johnson are playing at River's Edge in Somerset, WI on June 22. I think the last (and first) outdoor music festival I was able to dance freely at was the Green Man Festival outside of Duluth in the summer of 2002. I guess there were sporadic trips to Duluth to dance outside of Pizza Luce to WookieFoot and high school dances where people asked if my friends and I were on drugs (because we took up the unoccupied back half of the cafeteria to have room)! Anyways, rambling aside, I need to be in an unrestricted atmosphere and dance my little heart out to music that I like to dance to. If I were to keep my position, I would not be able to live as recklessly as I would like (take a week off here, week off there, etc). 

In addition to the above mentioned stress relievers, I also found a couple websites that I'm really enjoying right now. Baking Bites and Not Martha are my favorites so far.

Me

I don't like who I am. My less than ideal personality quirks have made things - life - more difficult. The latest confrontation I had about me made me feel so awful. Why do I do this? Why don't I do that? More often than not it seems that I could be more ideal if I just shut-up and didn't say anything to anyone. I have gotten better at moderating my comments and anything that comes out of my mouth, but I still am less than ideal. (I'm refraining from the word "perfect" because I am realistic.) 

When I was younger (throughout grade/middle/high school) I wanted to be other people because it seemed like they had everything - the nice clothes, caring parents, lots of friends. Now, I wish I had other people's personality traits. (On a positive note, I'm grateful because I recognize traits that I'm glad that I don't have.) It seems to me that if I were less of a "know-it-all" and more of a _____ (I don't even know what it is trait these people have), my life would be easier. How do I do this? How do I become a better person? I am trying but what if there's a key part that I'm missing because I can't see it and others can? Oh and on top of this - I don't want to be a nurse this week. Hopefully next week my perspective will change. 

Newly discovered oddities

At times, I am strange. Some may already know this to be true, but I am finally admitting it. Recently, I've found that I like to read obituaries. I'm not sure what started this fixation, but I enjoy reading about people's lives - some being very impressive! 

Another oddity is that I dislike when people ask how you are, and since I only use proper grammar when I have to, I say "good." When I return the question, they say "well". What are they trying to prove? Well you, sir, are working at a grocery store. I suppose that I annoy these people just as much because I am not using proper grammar, and am therefore, uneducated. 

During my spring break, my imagination is running wild. I have really odd dreams, and very odd daydreams. (Watching the Travel channel's lists of Best Beaches in Florida, the Caribbean, the United States, Hawaii, and the Sexiest Beaches of the World, only increases my daydreaming capabilities). One dream that I had, I was crawling in three feet of fluffy snow with a machete. 

This is all I can think of for now.