tree trimming party is in full swing
Mood:  caffeinated
Topic: Work
A group of about 8 of us are playing caps downstairs in the lobby! This is one of the few things I like about Harms....... it can be good. :)

woo-hoo!
Mood:  celebratory
Now Playing: Junkies
Topic: School
Got my Psych paper back last night --- A+ 100%! Of course, at least half the class got the same grade. That tempered my joy a bit, but an A is an A. :)

I'm so tired this morning......... must be the weather. I had a hell of a time just getting out of bed. Especially since the bed was sooo warm and it seems like the house has been a little chilly lately.

Well, last night was my final night of classes -- all I have left are final exams. My Psych final is take-home, we got it last night..... 10 essay questions. It doesn't look too hard, just rather involved and lengthy. Oh joy. Christmas party is this weekend..... and I have nothing to wear! So much to do, so little time.

the pictures tell the story
Mood:  celebratory
Now Playing: Dashboard Confessional
Topic: Football
The offense has finally arrived! A few weeks too late, but it's here nonetheless. First time they've scored 30+ points since the second game of the 2003 season. Pretty sad. But I'm going to revel in the victory while I can! Those little birdies better look out next week -- the Skins are back in action. They'd better not hurt T.O., though... I need him for my fantasy playoffs.

Wow.... 50/50 finally made a big play!

Haven't seen Patsy look that happy all season. :-P~

Must've been the red socks.

finished project
Mood:  suave
Topic: School
Here's the finished project......... I would write more, about the concert yesterday and the interesting time today with our new sofa bed (let's just say that there's a hole in the drywall upstairs), but I don't have time..... I want to watch the "5 people you meet in heaven" special, I read the book.... I think it's on ABC. Anyway it was a good day for the most part... Redskins won. Not sure about the fantasy team, though. I'm a bit worried about them.

ANyway, here's my assignment:

Lauren Grande
Professor Paoletti
ENG 112-400
December 6, 2004
Othello Act V Scene 3
CASSIO: Damn you, Iago! Look what you've done!
IAGO: I have done nothing wrong. (bell) I have done something wrong. (bell) I did it on purpose.
CASSIO: Did what on purpose?
IAGO: Wait a minute, I'm not supposed to be talking! (bell) I'm not supposed to be walking. (bell) I'm a dead man walking.
CASSIO: Yes you are, damned Iago. (bell) I shall spare your life.
IAGO: You'll spare my life? Thank you!
CASSIO: I said that I shall spare your wife.
IAGO: But she's already dead, I killed her. (bell) She's not dead. (bell) Bring out your dead!
CASSIO: Who killed your wife? (bell) I loved your wife.
IAGO: I used to love her, but I had to kill her.
CASSIO: Is she buried right in your backyard? (bell) Where is my sword?
IAGO: You may borrow mine; I have it hidden in my boot.
CASSIO: In your boot?
IAGO: It's the newest invention; it collapses in on itself, like a telescope.
CASSIO: Do you mean that you've been armed all this time?
IAGO: I'm afraid that is so. (bell) I'm afraid of snow.
CASSIO: It doesn't snow in this area, you must be crazy.
IAGO: Crazy? I was crazy once. They locked me in a padded room, and I died in that room. Then they buried me with rats. Rats? I hate rats! Rats make me crazy. Crazy? I was crazy once. (bell) I was happy once.
CASSIO: As was I, until you ruined everything. Now might as well be the best time to tell you...
IAGO: Yes?
CASSIO: Emilia and I were lovers.
IAGO: I knew it! How dare you! (bell) I never liked her much anyway. (bell) I loved Emilia, she gave me a handkerchief.
CASSIO: No, villain! That handkerchief was Desdemona's - that's how you concocted your wicked plan.
IAGO: Did it have blueberries on it?
CASSIO: Did what have blueberries on it?
IAGO: Your pancakes.
CASSIO: No, I don't care for pancakes. (bell) I have a stomachache.
IAGO: Here, have some Pepto. (hands Cassio bottle of Pepto-Bismol)
(Cassio takes a swig directly from the bottle)
CASSIO: Yuck, is that cherry?
IAGO: Why, you don't like it?
CASSIO: I prefer the regular flavor. (bell) I prefer the blueberry flavor.
IAGO: Of pancakes?
CASSIO: Of course, that's what we were discussing, wasn't it?
IAGO: I thought that you didn't like pancakes!
CASSIO: No, I said that I didn't like earthquakes. (bell) I've got an earthquake!
IAGO: What's that supposed to mean? (bell) What happened to the handkerchief?
CASSIO: It had blueberries on it.
IAGO: No it didn't. It had strawberries on it!
CASSIO: I'm allergic to strawberries. (bell) Didn't you tell me that you killed Emilia?
IAGO: Yes I did. I couldn't bear the thought of the two of you together.
CASSIO: That doesn't seem like a good reason to kill her.
IAGO: You've got a point. I killed her for the hell of it. (bell) I killed her because that bitch set me up!
CASSIO: So the truth comes out! Do you know what I'm going to do to you now?
IAGO: It doesn't matter. Death would suit me best.
CASSIO: Since death is what you desire, we will not kill you. Instead, we will coat you in honey and roll you in gummy bears.
IAGO: No! Not the gummy bears!
CASSIO: Yes, villain. The gummy bears.
IAGO: But I'm diabetic!
CASSIO: I guess you should have considered that before you ruined everything.
IAGO: Have mercy on me! (bell) Go ahead, I don't care. (Cassio pours honey over Cassio) Wait - before you finish, grant me one wish.
CASSIO: What is it?
IAGO: Make sure they are Brach's, not some lame generic brand.
CASSIO: As you wish.

it's red alright
Mood:  surprised
Now Playing: breaking benjamin
Topic: Weekend happenings
much redder than before. I think that the Feria probably does a better job.....

I'm pretty excited about the HFSmas nutcracker todayh..... still don't know what I'm going to wear, though. Hmm. guess I'll figure it out!

red just doesn't stay
Mood:  lazy
Topic: Artistic endeavors
I'm putting this under artistic endeavors, because dying your hair is just that, I think...

I'm trying Feria this time... I can't remember the name of the color......... I'll let you know how it turns out when I wash it out in 2 minutes. :-P~ hopefully it'll look okay.

up late
Mood:  lazy
Now Playing: Tai purring in my ear
Topic: Weekend happenings
At least for me, I'm up late. Patience and I were IMing for an hour or so...... it was therapeutic for both of us, I think. At any rate, it was nice and I'm glad that she was online. These past few weeks I've realized how much I miss spending time with friends, and how important they all are. I really am fortunate to have as many friends as I do..... some people might be better classified as acquaintances, but coming from a small community, you get to know an awful lot of people. A lot of times, if I'm talking about someone Kurtis will be surprised because he's never heard of them before...... but that's how my friends tend to be; they come in cycles, I suppose..... but fortunately most of the people that I know are the kind that you can pick up with right where you left off..... Stef is probably the best example of that.... we could have not seen eachother for months or a year, and within five minutes of seeing eachother, we're babbling like we're in 8th grade again...... One of my resolutions was to spend more time with friends. I think that I accomplished that, and I'm trying to do that more often. Kurtis and I are together 24/7, it really wouldn't hurt for us to be apart for a few hours here and there! So since I now have a dependable vehicle (better knock on wood, my bumper to bumper warranty expires soon!), I'm going to try to get together with people more often. I'm also trying to make some friends at school... maybe some students similar to me that screwed up in the past and are trying to do well this time... if I end up studying with 40 year old single mothers, that's fine with me. Speaking of school, I'm working on my final 100 point English assignment.... fortunately Prof P is letting us be creative in this one... it had to be related to Othello... we could write the next scene after the end of the book Act 5 scene 3, write a song, do an essay, make a recipe, etc... pretty much whatever we wanted as long as it related to the story. Well Wednesday night in class, we read a play called "sure thing" where these characters Betty and Bill are sitting at a cafe and Bill is trying to pick up Betty.... after every few lines, and sometimes after every few words, a bell rings, and they either change topic completely or say something else... anyway, it was a lot of fun, so I decided to do my project in the same way...... here's what I have so far:

Othello, Act V Scene iii

CASSIO: Damn you, Iago! Look what you've done!
IAGO: I have done nothing wrong. (bell) I have done something wrong. (bell) I did it on purpose.
CASSIO: Did what on purpose?
IAGO: Wait a minute, I'm not supposed to be talking! (bell) I'm not supposed to be walking. (bell) I'm a dead man walking.
CASSIO: Yes you are, damned Iago. (bell) I shall spare your life.
IAGO: You'll spare my life? Thank you!
CASSIO: I said that I shall spare your wife.
IAGO: But she's already dead, I killed her. (bell) She's not dead. (bell) Bring out your dead!
CASSIO: Who killed your wife? (bell) I loved your wife.
IAGO: I used to love her, but I had to kill her.
CASSIO: Is she buried right in your backyard? (bell) Where is my sword?
IAGO: You may borrow mine; I have it hidden in my boot.
CASSIO: In your boot?
IAGO: It's the newest invention; it collapses in on itself, like a telescope.
CASSIO: Do you mean that you've been armed all this time?
IAGO: I'm afraid that is so. (bell) I'm afraid of snow.
CASSIO: It doesn't snow in this area, you must be crazy.
IAGO: Crazy? I was crazy once. They locked me in a padded room, and I died in that room. Then they buried me with rats. Rats? I hate rats! Rats make me crazy. Crazy? I was crazy once. (bell) I was happy once.
CASSIO: As was I, until you ruined everything. Now might as well be the best time to tell you...
IAGO: Yes?
CASSIO: Emilia and I were lovers.
IAGO: I knew it! How dare you! (bell) I never liked her much anyway. (bell) I loved Emilia, she gave me a handkerchief.
CASSIO: No, villain! That handkerchief was Desdemona's - that's how you concocted your wicked plan.
IAGO: Did it have blueberries on it?
CASSIO: Did what have blueberries on it?
IAGO: Your pancakes.
CASSIO: No, I don't care for pancakes. (bell) I have a stomachache.
IAGO: Here, have some Pepto. (hands Cassio bottle of Pepto-Bismol)
(Cassio takes a swig directly from the bottle)
CASSIO: Yuck, is that cherry?
IAGO: Why, you don't like it?
CASSIO: I prefer the regular flavor. (bell) I prefer the blueberry flavor.
IAGO: Of pancakes?
CASSIO: Of course, that's what we were discussing, wasn't it?
IAGO: I thought that you didn't like pancakes!
CASSIO: No, I said that I didn't like earthquakes. (bell) I've got an earthquake!
IAGO: What's that supposed to mean?


Anyway, I'm having fun with it..... we have a 300 word minimum that it has to be, and I've already surpassed that, but I'm going to keep going. It's too much fun to stop!

check out this editorial/article
Mood:  chillin'
Now Playing: Velvet Revolver
Topic: News

Here is the link, but I'm cut & pasting it onto my blog: Epic change in the Middle East? (Joe Scarborough)

I really think that this is a great article... I'm sure that I'll get some nasty comments from my left-leaning friends and family, but I think that he makes some really good points!

Epic change in the Middle East? (Joe Scarborough)

There are cracks in time when leaders are given a chance to bend history and forever change the course of events inside countries and across continents.

Americans did it in 1776, the French in 1789, Europe reverberated with revolution in 1848 and 1989, while New Yorkers and the world saw their lives transformed on a clear fall morning three years ago.

But being the optimistic fool that I am, I dare to believe that 2005 could be a year of epic change in the Middle East by ushering in an era of freedom to a region that has only know death, despair and dictatorships over the past century.

I know I sound terribly naive in a week when we are confronted with stories of a young Palestinian girl riddled with bullets, U.S. troops continuing to be blown up by cheap and plentiful roadside bombs, and Israeli security checkpoint guards taunting Palestinian citizens in a way that elicits memories of the Holocaust for Jewish survivors.

As a strident defender of Israel, I am sickened by the news of this young girl being gunned down and then filled with countless bullets after she was already dead. Read the story and tell me how the hell this could have happened.

Meanwhile, the chances of success in Iraq seem more remote everyday, but only because media outlets in America and across the world obsess on the negative while dismissing U.S. progress there. The notable exception at the New York Times was Dexter Filkens' piece on Iraq that we linked earlier this week. In case you missed it, here it is again. A MUST READ!

As Tom Friedman noted in his "Postcards from Iraq" column, U.S. troops continue to believe they are fighting a war that is noble, and more importantly, the most important military battle of our generation.

America is not fighting to defend oil fields or colonial holdings. We are fighting to save Western Civilization from an exceedingly grim future filled with terror attacks in New York, Washington and the rest of the world.

But it is a war Americans are determined to win.

A year ago, NBC executives visited MSNBC to get a briefing on the 2004 election. While some outside analysts present predicted American deaths in Iraq would spell doom for the President's reelection effort, I took a contrary position. (What a surprise.)

I told NBC's leaders that Americans outside of Manhattan and L.A. understood on a visceral level that our nation was in a world war with Islamic terrorists, and that the cost of victory would include the death of many young Americans. I said Iraq would not be viewed as Somalia or Bosnia or Kosovo.

This would be seen as a war centered on American self-interest-- the very narrow interest of protecting our families and loved ones from future terror attacks.

Given the choice of fighting the war in America or Iraq, Americans would chose Iraq any day of the week.

I repeat this conclusion a year later-- which set a few eyes rolling at the time-- because Americans confirmed my prediction in the 2004 election by picking George Bush and a group of new Republican Senators.

While that shocked most journalists in the mainstream press (read Tom Wolfe's column in Rolling Stone this week), it surely shook up Zarqawi and the other terrorists fighting in Iraq even more.

Forget that BS you've been reading from some left-wingers saying these thugs wanted Bush to win to aid recruitment. It is absolute nonsense.

Zarqawi has been posting messages to his followers for months predicting doom for his deathsquads in Iraq if the Shiite majority backed Iraq's new government and January's free elections. Bush's re-election sends the clear message to terrorists that Americans have decided this is a war that must be fought and won.

Regardless of what the New York Times wants you to believe, this war is not Vietnam. JFK stumbled into Southeast Asia and LBJ got elected in 1964 before any serious escalation took place. By the time Johnson was up for reelection four years later, the war had destroyed his presidency.

About 30 years later, Americans rehired a president who let them know he is going to use all powers available to hunt down and kill every last terrorist on the face of the earth. So just as that cowboy Reagan getting elected in 1980 and 1984 cast a pall over the Kremlin, Bush's victory made bin Laden's cave-for-the-night seem a bit more damp and cold than usual.

OBL always believed America was a paper tiger that would cut and run at the first sign of trouble. He used Bill Clinton's speedy retreat from Somalia as exhibit #1. But over the past three years, America's president, its brave troops, and its stubborn voters have ignored the same liberal elites Reagan brushed off twenty years ago to prove bin Laden wrong time and again.

That determination gives America-- and more importantly Iraq-- its best chance at establishing the first liberal democracy in Middle East history. As Tom Friedman wrote in his column yesterday, we are throwing seeds on rocky soil. But those seeds will grow because we have no other choice but to keep tilling and planting until freedom trumps terror from Palestine to Pakistan.

Ahh. But what about the Palestinians? We are continually reminded by our European allies that Israel will continue feeding bin Laden's terror network while breeding resentment across the Middle East.

I have long said that it was worthless to negotiate with Arafat or any elected Palestinian leader. Why? Because after Arafat walked away from the Oslo peace talks in 2000, he became a lame duck tyrant. Clinton, Barak, and the world finally figured out that Arafat couldn't take the best deal the Palestinian people would ever get because he knew Hamas leaders would order his killing the next day.

But with the Godfather of modern terror six feet under, Hamas leaders are suggesting they may consider laying down their guns and become part of the Palestinian political process. (See yesterday's post on MSNBC.com.)

At the same time, Israelis repulsed by the sight of their solders gunning down a young girl and then firing a flurry of bullets into her dead body may be more willing to follow Sharon's move to transfer Gaza and other territory to the Palestinian authority.

Only Nixon could have gone to China, and perhaps only Sharon can go to his own people and explain why it is time to make peace with their most hated enemy.

If Sharon can make that sell, then the future of the Middle East will rest in the hands of a group of terrorists who have spent the past few years blowing up little children at bus stops and slaughtering students and grandmothers on buses.

Will Hamas choose peace and change history or continue deluding itself by believing Israel will wilt under continued terror attacks?

Let's pray they choose peace, because just like George Bush and America, Mr. Sharon and his people will get peace with security or they will keep hunting down and killing terrorists until the last one is dead.

And God knows we will all be dead before that day comes.

dammit
Mood:  irritated
Now Playing: Christmas music
Topic: Work
Just got my paycheck and I'm 20.5 hours in the hole with leave. Argh. Nickel & diming my leave has really taken its toll. After I turned in my timesheet Monday, Mitch came up and told me that if I took more leave it would put me even further in the hole... I told him that I knew, but I wasn't planning on having to go to a funeral last week. That really pisses me off. I get shit for taking off for a funeral or a few hours for a doctors appointment or migraine, yet other people don't show up to work for days at a time without calling, and are barely spoken to about it!!! *sigh* I won't make up that leave until January, and won't have ANY leave until February. Project managers and principals can go into the negative hundreds of hours in leave. What the hell is wrong with this place???

I am so money!
Mood:  celebratory
Topic: School
Don't have much time to say this cause I've got stuff to do, but I got an A+ on my english paper.. 202 out of 200 points!