Spectacular Sky Scene Monday Evening

Every once in a while, something will appear in the night sky that will attract the attention of even those who normally don't bother looking up. It's likely to be that way on Monday evening, Dec. 1.

A slender crescent moon, just 15-percent illuminated, will appear in very close proximity to the two brightest planets in our sky, Venus and Jupiter.

People who are unaware or have no advance notice will almost certainly wonder, as they cast a casual glance toward the moon on that night, what those two "large silvery stars" happen to be? Sometimes, such an occasion brings with it a sudden spike of phone calls to local planetariums, weather offices and even police precincts. Not a few of these calls excitedly inquire about "the UFOs" that are hovering in the vicinity of our natural satellite.


Also on Monday evening, you may be able to see the full globe of the moon, its darkened portion glowing with a bluish-gray hue interposed between the sunlit crescent and not much darker sky. This vision is sometimes called "the old moon in the young moon's arms." Leonardo da Vinci (1452-1519) was the first to recognize it as what we now call "earthshine."


As seen from the moon, the Earth would loom in the sky some 3.7 times larger than the moon does for us. In addition, the land masses, the oceans and clouds make the Earth a far better reflector of sunlight as compared to the moon. In fact, the Earth's reflectivity varies as clouds, which appear far more brilliant than the land and seas, cover greater or lesser parts of the visible hemisphere. The result is that the Earth shines between 45 and 100 times more brightly than the moon.








That would be intense.
I get really geeked out about space. More than what I was ever willing to admit when I was younger. I got my hands on a book of constellations when I was nine or so, it had glow in the dark pictures and descriptions of all of the signs and star patterns, stories behind them, when you could see them, where you could see them..all the good stuff. I can still point out most of them.
Orion is at a stellar prime right now.





There is a "Life on Mars" exhibit that I was made aware of. The people set up a "terrain" to show what it would be like to live on Mars and apparently everything is just covered in packaging tape with aluminum cans strewn about. I still want to see it. If it's not similar to Mars I'm assuming its close to how Fed Ex is looking through holidays.

I got pretty stoked about this planet viewing earthshine thing until I realized that Pittsburgh's weather forecast looks mostly overcast. Bummer. I'll keep an eye out for a break in the sky though.

Today I decorated my very first Christmas tree, of my own, with the five ornaments that I have.
It's not that impressive.
Maybe I'll pick up some yarn and popsicle sticks and make mass amounts of diamonds. What else? Candy canes? Popcorn strings? Paper snow flakes? About two handfuls of people I know really dislike holidays. The rest are mildly indifferent. Last year I sat in that indifferent boat. This year, I'm keeping myself distracted. I want to bake cookies AND decorate them. Make a pie. Have a soup party. Learn how to make mulling spices like my brother does. Make ornaments and keep my wallflowers full of something good smelling. At least it will make one month of winter less daunting.

As for January and the utmost dreaded February.. Perhaps I'll take up that painting class. And go make wine goblets with Jen that one weekend.

Blistered.

My Mom's aunt asked my brother if he was my boyfriend.
My Dad asked me what a dominatrix was.
I wore sunglasses at the dinner table.
And my youngest brother made amazing sweetpotato pie.

All in all Thanksgiving was a win.

And today, Gene Simmons was in the mall. I'm so exhausted that I think my right eye is failing me. Or the laser beam at work really got me this time.

Coma. Cranberry Turkey Mashed Potatoes Coma.

Get older, wake up earlier.
I remember even last year being up before 11:30 seemed like a chore. Now I feel like I've slept way too long.
I've been having the most ridiculous dreams lately. There's always a part in them that I at least semi believe. This morning it was a dream about my place having three empty bedrooms ( that's what I believed, that would be awesome ) and living in building full of some of the cutest dressed people with the cutest apartments ever. Pink walls with little light pink hearts drawn on them. Or yellow walls with polka-dots that coordinated perfectly with their vinyl and matte bright makeup and crazy style. I did not fit in. I swear through the whole dream my clothes never matched and nothing was ever clean around me. Although, the spare rooms I had were gorgeous. Old dark wood, kind of tattered white curtains.. but the one room was up way high, circular, no walls, just screens. So much light and views and a breeze. It was like being outside, in your room. The other room had a bay window overlooking a city. No one knew I lived there til I forgot how to get into my apartment and ended up walking through everyone else's place. I only talked to one girl. She was the only other monochromatic character in the whole thing.
And throughout the whole dream I was so clumsy. I got stuck on bushes, I fell through a door, tripped up some stairs, walked into multiple homes as if they were my own, knocked over a vase, dropped anything I picked up, tore my clothes, ruined a girls shoes. Real life, I'm not that clumsy at all.
I also got into a physical altercation of sorts ( with a customer at HOT TOPIC, she broke my lanyard ), and caused a flood.


That's a lot to go through in one night.
Then real life feels so.. normal.


It's Thanksgiving. I'm going to hop in the shower, wash away dream land, and eat as much food as I possibly can handle with people that give me the appetite to live. My Mom makes the best cranberry jell-o salad ever. She's probably the best at a lot of things.
Stoked.
I could use this dose of reality.

Three steps back.

"I had an abortion-- And I did crack while I was pregnant. Other than that, I'm okay."




This was written in my hand writing on a piece of paper that read "Go home; make a journal," "Today it thundered and snowed," "I learned how to type today, thank God."


The typing part was a sarcastic note. The rest, was true. I had sketched out a journal that I needed to make for class and there was in fact a day that it thundered and snowed all at once.
I do not, however, EVER remember having an abortion, doing crack, or being pregnant.
Where this came from, I'm not sure. But I'm a little concerned for the well being of the past me. Creative, sure. But that's one hell of a plot line to make for myself.


On a neon green sheet of paper with more scribbled words I read the following;

"90% of the time I feel like I want to fly. But I can't draw a bird. Or a wing. Or a feather."

Next to it was a feather. And a sad penguin. This statement still holds ridiculously true. I can't draw anything avian.

I had also sketched a liquor bottle spilling out, creating The Great Wave of Hokusai.
That was a good idea.
What happened between then and now? A lot of life.
I think maybe I need to pull back on life a little bit and get back to those basics. Crazy or not, that's my core spilled onto scraps of paper. And maybe life has kind of stepped on that core a little bit.
My mom asked me to take a painting class.
Asked me to.
She wants me to paint a series of eyes, and sell them on the black market.
Or just sell them.
Or paint a bunch and give them to her because she liked the one I painted over the summer.


She said it reminded her of a bird.
So, I guess I can do avian. If it's in the form of an eye.

We're okay.

Safe Havens in Real Estate


With foreclosures skyrocketing and home prices plummeting, real estate has had a tough year. But in certain pockets across the country the damage has been minimal -- if nonexistent.

We found six cities with slow, steady growth, using data from Fiserv Lending Solutions, a home-price research company. These cities' local economies have kept unemployment and foreclosure rates below average. Plus, their affordability index -- a measure of home prices versus family income -- is low.
More from Kiplinger.com

For comparison, we also pinpoint an average market and the worst market in the country.


#5

Pittsburgh, Penn.

Population: 2,355,712
Median home price: $137,000
12-month change in home value: +.1%
Affordability index: 2/10
Homes sold this year: 7,634
Home value vs. national average: -33%
Top employer: University of Pittsburgh Medical Center

Although Pittsburgh home sales have dipped 16% this year, the properties have retained their value. This "Pittsburgh paradox," as it's called by locals, is attributed to the city's steady population growth and the construction of new, high-value homes.

Despite its reputation as a gritty city of industry and steel, Pittsburgh is now driven by the health care and technology sectors.







I'd know your lights from any angle.
I hate having the feeling of a dream stuck in me 10 minutes after the fact. Thirty seconds worth of the feeling, I can handle, but after that.. No thank you. I miss people.

Life.

"Hold on. Are those picture directions? Are those picture directions in English AND French? Let's see how well you follow French picture directions."


The box said it would take three minutes to assemble.
We challenged ourselves and followed the lovely French Ikea directions ( that were only pictures... ).


Three minutes. Go.



Ten minutes later;

"OH. No wonderrrr... I was following the directions out of order."


Son of a gun. Should've stuck with the English picture directions instead.
Mind you, the ONLY word on each of these pieces of paper was "ASSEMBLY" and "ASSEMBLAGE." Waste of paper.
Failed. Miserably.

Casual.

Crochet knit shawls.
Slouchy hats.
Ripped jeans.
Nice attitude.
Citizen Cope.


Changing weather gets the best of me. Strange sick for a month. Never fully sick. Never fully healthy. Two more weeks and it should be kicked right?

Starbucks and Twilight.

A) Gingersnap Latte. Two thumbs up. With soy, even better.


B) Twilight. "Your scent is like a drug to me."
I have my reservations about this. I haven't read the books and I don't plan on seeing the movie. But the previews alone kind of weird me out. The girl looks like she is pushing 13 years of age. The boy, the "vampire," is hangin out in the daylight. And I can feel the sexual tension leaking from the screen, the t-shirts, the posters, the keychains.. Everything.

Hmm.. I'm not intrigued.

I'm lucky to have met you.

So today it hits me; Live.
Learn something. Make something. Move something. Push something. Touch something. Say something. Do something you like. Tell someone a story. Say "Thank you." Laugh at something. Dance to something. Get into something. Throw something away. Give something away. Stare at the sun. Write a letter. Make a time capsule. Smile at a stranger. Take the time. Take a breath.


I get caught up in life. That's natural. Life is a big thing to wrap your mind around and I've always seemed to take strange pleasure in wrapping my mind around everything without an answer ( space, bottom of the ocean, dark matter, God, ...feral children ). It's fascinating to me but sometimes you can go too deep. I'll allow it to be as big as it actually is. I'll let it swallow me whole. And when life swallows you whole.. well, it's a strange position to be in.


New plan; Take my own advice.

Real World News.

Tiny, long-lost primate rediscovered in Indonesia






! Long lost Gizmo?

Read;


WASHINGTON (Reuters) – On a misty mountaintop on the Indonesian island of Sulawesi, scientists for the first time in more than eight decades have observed a living pygmy tarsier, one of the planet's smallest and rarest primates.
Over a two-month period, the scientists used nets to trap three furry, mouse-sized pygmy tarsiers -- two males and one female -- on Mt. Rore Katimbo in Lore Lindu National Park in central Sulawesi, the researchers said on Tuesday.
They spotted a fourth one that got away.

The tarsiers, which some scientists believed were extinct, may not have been overly thrilled to be found. One of them chomped Sharon Gursky-Doyen, a Texas A&M University professor of anthropology who took part in the expedition.
"I'm the only person in the world to ever be bitten by a pygmy tarsier," Gursky-Doyen said in a telephone interview.
"My assistant was trying to hold him still while I was attaching a radio collar around its neck. It's very hard to hold them because they can turn their heads around 180 degrees. [ ME TOO!! } As I'm trying to close the radio collar, he turned his head and nipped my finger. And I yanked it and I was bleeding." ---- This sentence structure is great and I highlighted it.



MORE;

The collars were being attached so the tarsiers' movements could be tracked.
Tarsiers are unusual primates -- the mammalian group that includes lemurs, monkeys, apes and people. The handful of tarsier species live on various Asian islands.

As their name indicates [ PYGMY -- as a NOUN is a derogatory word meaning VERY SMALL. Unless you use it as an ADJECTIVE - Then it loses the derogatory sense and just works as "very small.' ], pygmy tarsiers are small -- weighing about 2 ounces (50 grammes).[ BAAAYYBEES ] They have large eyes and large ears, and they have been described as looking a bit like one of the creatures in the 1984 Hollywood movie "Gremlins." [ Word. ]
They are nocturnal insectivores and are unusual among primates in that they have claws rather than finger nails.
They had not been seen alive by scientists since 1921. In 2000, Indonesian scientists who were trapping rats in the Sulawesi highlands accidentally trapped and killed a pygmy tarsier.

"Until that time, everyone really didn't believe that they existed because people had been going out looking for them for decades and nobody had seen them or heard them," Gursky-Doyen said.

Her group observed the first live pygmy tarsier in August at an elevation of about 6,900 feet.
"Everything was covered in moss and the clouds are right at the top of that mountain. It's always very, very foggy, very, very dense. It's cold up there. When you're one degree from the equator, you expect to be hot. [ I'm always hot. Ya know? ]You don't expect to be shivering most of the time. That's what we were doing," she said. ---- Really? I said.








I think I've always hated this thing. Maybe for half a second I was thinking "Aw cute." But then, no. I'd rather have the real thing with crazy turning head and tiny teeth that will make me yank and bleed.
Ha, we're gonna leave that one alone.




In my real world news, it's currently 26 degrees Fahrenheit and snowing. Biffy Clyro's "Now I'm Everyone" makes me want to dance. And they shipped me a donut maker at work... Unfortunately on accident. I had half a mind not to tell anyone but lucky for them, donuts aren't really huge on my list. If it were an EASY BAKE however..

Kate Nash

I'm listening.


Now it's not that I didn't know who Kate Nash was. "Pumpkin Soup" was insanely catchy. One of those songs you got stuck in your head at the most inopportune moments and couldn't help humming "I just want your kiss boy.." out loud "I just want your kisssss.." You really can't stop yourself from dancing to it. Nor singing way loud to it when it's on. You can't even turn it off.
And you wished someone would shoot you right in your spot but you still kind of loved it.
Kate Nash.
I had left her in a closet of bubble gum sap.

Until realizing how cute she was. Not so cute that you want to throw up. Not so cute that she blends right into a crowd of hipster junks. Cute enough to see that this girl has some type of story in her. Something that goes farther than poppy "KISSS BOYYY... ijustwantyourkiss."


Something worth looking into.
Alas,
substance.

So it's not the deepest thing in the world, but it's relatable. So simply relatable. One of those "I couldn't find the words that made sense until she said them."

Play something.

My personal favorite is the song "Dickhead." It's smooth with mega bluesy notes. I don't mind singing this to myself. AT ALL.

Then there's "Mouthwash." Regina Spektor meets Lilly Allen. I like tea, too.
"Dirt." Reminds me a lot of Yann Tiersen's piano. I love the man, therefore I love the song. And she's not censored, which maybe makes the sweetness of her voice 5x better.
Finally, "Nicest Thing."
Cut my heart out. I'm not sure there was ever a girl who has lived beyond adolescence who couldn't relate just a little bit to this.


"I wish I was your favorite girl. I wish you thought I was the reason you are in the world. I wish I was your favorite kind of smile. I wish the way that I dressed was your favorite kind of style. I wish that you couldn't figure me out, but you always wanna know what I was about."


Right? The end gets a little too much for me, but really? It's pure desperation wrapped up into a pretty melody that makes you want to stare at your ceiling.. and then maybe go out and shake someone. Or just cry about nothing. Until you feel pathetic enough to listen to "Pumpkin Soup" again and makeout with strangers. I should have written love notes like that, rather than "Yo, I like your style."


Whatever. Everyone's got their own style. And this girl has style. Luckily for everyone around me, her vocal range is right where my vocal range likes to linger. Oh yes yes, I'll serenade you without a sexy little accent. Or maybe I'll throw it in... just for fun.

Dance with me.

Fingerless gloves.


Wine colored fringe skirt. <-- [ le click. It's there. ]





Nirvana t-shirt.


Coat, scarf, hat. <-- [ le click, it's cute. ]


Tights. Boots. Socks. Thick socks.
It's snowing.



What's up winter..

More fail.

see more pwn and owned pictures



Ha.

Someone said pisces are psychic. Never doubt.

Funny how life is.. No sooner do I start to wonder where I am in life.. I am forced to find where I'm going in life.


Back to school perhaps? I hear teaching art couldn't be that bad. Summers off. Spend my days in highschool painting. Or, if I'm really good, spend my semesters in colleges talking about the "real world" and handing out creative criticism like candy.


Whethere it's here in Pittsburgh or off in another city, seems it's almost time to move on. I'm cutting my ties. I had an opportunity like this before, this time I won't let it go.


Welcome futures.

OH MAN - ONE MORE - BIG NEWS

First fuzzy photos of planets outside solar system






It looks like a cat eye! Space is kind of awesome... read on.



WASHINGTON – Earth seems to have its first fuzzy photos of alien planets outside our solar system, images captured by two teams of astronomers. The pictures show four likely planets that appear as specks of white, nearly indecipherable except to the most eagle-eyed experts. All are trillions of miles away — three of them orbiting the same star, and the fourth circling a different star.

None of the four giant gaseous planets are remotely habitable or remotely like Earth. But they raise the possibility of others more hospitable.

It's only a matter of time before "we get a dot that's blue and Earthlike," said astronomer Bruce Macintosh of the Lawrence Livermore National Lab. He led one of the two teams of photographers.

"It is a step on that road to understand if there are other planets like Earth and potentially life out there," he said.

Macintosh's team used two ground-based telescopes, while the second team relied on photos from the 18-year-old Hubble Space Telescope to gather images of the exoplanets — planets that don't circle our sun. The research from both teams was published in Thursday's online edition of the journal Science.

In the past 13 years, scientists have discovered more than 300 planets outside our solar system, but they have done so indirectly, by measuring changes in gravity, speed or light around stars.

NASA's space sciences chief Ed Weiler said the actual photos are important. He compared it to a hunt for elusive elephants: "For years we've been hearing the elephants, finding the tracks, seeing the trees knocked down by them, but we've never been able to snap a picture. Now we have a picture."

In a news conference Thursday, Weiler said this fulfills the last of the major goals that NASA had for the Hubble telescope before it launched in 1990: "This is an 18 1/2-year dream come true."

There are disputes about whether these are the first exoplanet photos. Others have made earlier claims, but those pictures haven't been confirmed as planets or universally accepted yet. The photos released Thursday are being published in a scientifically prominent journal, but that still hasn't convinced all the experts. Alan Boss, an exoplanet expert at the Carnegie Institution of Washington, and Harvard exoplanet hunter Lisa Kaltenegger both said more study is needed to confirm these photos are proven planets and not just brown dwarf stars.

MIT planetary scientist Sara Seager, at the NASA press conference, said earlier planetary claims "are in a gray area." But these discoveries, "everybody would agree is a planet," said Seager, who was not part of either planet-finding team.

The Hubble team this spring compared a 2006 photo to one of the same body taken by Hubble in 2004. The scientists used that to show that the object orbited a star and was part of a massive red dust ring which is usually associated with planets — making it less likely to be a dwarf star.

Macintosh's team used ground-based telescopes to spot three other planets orbiting a different star. That makes it less likely they are a pack of brown dwarf stars.

The planet discovered by Hubble is one of the smallest exoplanets found yet. It's somewhere between the size of Neptune and three times bigger than Jupiter. And it may have a Saturn-like ring.

It circles the star Fomalhaut, pronounced FUM-al-HUT, which is Arabic for "mouth of the fish." It's in the constellation Piscis Austrinus [oh how ironic] and is relatively close by — a mere 148 trillion miles away, practically a next-door neighbor by galactic standards. The planet's temperature is around 260 degrees, but that's cool by comparison to other exoplanets.

The planet is only about 200 million years old, a baby compared to the more than 4 billion-year-old planets in our solar system. That's important to astronomers because they can study what Earth and planets in our solar system may have been like in their infancy, said Paul Kalas at the University of California, Berkeley. Kalas led the team using Hubble to discover Fomalhaut's planet.

One big reason the picture looks fuzzy is that the star Fomalhaut is 100 million times brighter than its planet.

The team led by Macintosh at Lawrence Livermore found its planets a little earlier, spotting the first one in 2007, but taking extra time to confirm the trio of planets circling a star in the Pegasus constellation. They are about 767 trillion miles away, but are actually visible with binoculars. The star in this solar system is HR 8799, and the three planets are seven to 10 times larger than Jupiter, Macintosh said.

"I've been doing this for eight years and after eight years we get three at once," he said.









I can honestly say I've never tried to do anything for eight years. Maybe that's the next step. A lot of time and patience.

AIWS

Alice in Wonderland syndrome (AIWS, named after the novel written by Lewis Carroll), also known as Todd's syndrome[1], is a disorienting neurological condition which affects human perception. Sufferers may experience micropsia, macropsia, and/or size distortion of other sensory modalities. A temporary condition, it is often associated with migraines, brain tumors, and the use of psychoactive drugs. It can also present as the initial sign of the Epstein-Barr Virus (see infectious mononucleosis).


Signs and symptoms

Eye components are entirely normal. The AIW syndrome is a result of change in perception as opposed to the eyes themselves malfunctioning. The hallmark sign of AIWS is a migraine, and may in part be caused by the symptom itself. Using psychoactive drugs (notably dextromethorphan[citation needed]) may also produce micropsia. Although mostly limited to the eyes, AIWS also affects the sufferer's sense of touch, hearing and sometimes one's own body image.






Oh my.

"Can we just move that sac out of the wet spot?"

Sixteen hours of work. Not office work. Not paper work. Not meetings work.

Re-merchandising a furniture store work. With the owner/founder of the company (Shawn Nelson - He won the Rebel Billionaire back in the day - LoveSac was the idea that won for him).
In heels.

Let's just rephrase to sixteen hours in heels.
AND - I managed to look wicked cute up until the last hour.
Our store phone does not work. The floor is nothing short of an explosion. I don't have fingernails anymore. And the back room is simply a pile. Of stuff. Wires, papers, covers, hardware, pins, tools, pillows... In a pile. Covering the entire 4x5 floor and blocking the door to the bathroom.
Right now I wish this computer were a fancy touch screen so I could draw with my fingers ONTO the screen, what exactly is being pictured in my mind.


www.lovesac.com

Browse. This is my life... in web form.

When they get what they want, they never want it again

If I hear "You already got burned once," again.. This is leading into an empty threat.
I lost my hair brush. Maybe it's in Canada. Or Buffalo's YMCA. I never brushed my hair that much to begin with. You'd be amazed at the things hair will do when it's not brushed at least once in three days though. My magazine tells me big hair is in. Somehow, I'm not sure this is what it meant.





Ah my Love.. We're getting to this point.

May I share my new lust with Mike Aho.



He has a series with Volcom that I can't find on le web.. read like this; "Nostalgia Quilts" "Summer Stilts" "Endless Wilt."
Each piece with this wood grained animal head with a tree growing out of its dome and roots coming from its neck. Love it. If and when I have a scanner that works, it will be shown.
Worth seeing.


If you can't wait, pick up a Nylon magazine, flip seven pages in. Behold Aho. It's a shame these images are going onto purple girls t-shirts. Should be hanging on my walls.

Yes, this is my third post today.

I left the United States for one day. I, too, am wondering why it to me so long.

Whatever. I went up with my cousin, Tori. It was successful. I believe I did most things any normal tourist would do. I couldn't have it any other way. CANADIAN VIRGINITY.






After the phrase "I knew it would be cold but I didn't know it would be this cold," came out of our mouths multiple times, gloves seemed to be the best idea.
Why not gloves that say CANADA? Eh? ( oh, haha.. )


I also at lunch at what apparently is the best place in the entire world, Tim Hortons ( sponsor of Sidney Crosby ). Sorry Horton obsessed, the coffee ( plain black coffee ) tasted no different than what I make at home. The lines of cars around ALL Tim Hortons has lead me to believe that they use Ingredient X in their coffee. Similar to Coke's X ingredient. Similar to crack.






Then we took a lot of tourist pictures while our car was parked in multiple bus lanes and actual lanes, with the blinkers on, and our purses locked inside of it. It was like we never had been let out of our cage before. But really, it was probably from the crack in our coffee.


Followed it up with gelato. Candy. And serious hesitation outside of a strip club.
"Should we just go in?"
Tori has some plans for Canada and I once spring hits. Word is there are less touristy/more fun things to do.
Passport required.


We topped the night off with getting pulled over and a talk about our plans to get lunch at the 24 Karat strip club down the street from my uncles place. No cover during a Bills game. Heyy..
Next time my friends.

"They have emotional shorthand. They can just read each other without having to say anything."

Hold.

I came home from Buffalo today and as I pulled in, my Mom was walking out of my house. She never comes over. Not only does she never come over, but if she does, she lets me know.
How peculiar.

I get out of my car and she says "Ohh! Hello! Dad said you wouldn't be home til later tonight or tomorrow morning.. I have a surprise for you."

"Did you clean?"


"No. But, it definitely needs to be cleaned. Come in."


I walk into my kitchen to see a fake Christmas tree with little white lights on it and a bag of my five (count em, 5) Christmas ornaments that she's been buying my brothers and I one a year of. (Technically I should have 24...)

"I got it on sale last year. I thought maybe you could use some Christmas a little early."


My Mom borders on being the best.
And I left the country for the first time in my life.
To be continued..

I can feel it inside,

"You know, Nostradamus predicted an abrupt end to the world after a black man came into power."


"What."



"Hey man, I didn't say it."




YEAH. NO. THANKS DAVE. Thanks.
This requires research. I'm pretty sure Nostradamus also predicted the end of the world in 1999... And I'm pretty sure that didn't happen. Granted, Hitler and the twin towers ordeal was no fluke. But really, shouldn't everyone (even those of future existance) be able to experience these mass revelations? History being made? World disasters and such?
I really feel like we're hogging all the fun now.

2012 conspiracies. Aliens. Natural disasters. Terrorism. Politics. Economic crises. Black-hole-making-life-defining-dark-matter-religion-killing machines. PEREZ HILTON. I mean, come on, someone really stuffed our party bags a little too full.



Perhaps the research should be done on dates after 2012.
As fascinating as the thought and ideal of witnessing the end of the world would be ( at least in the case of an enormous tidal wave or if Earth would just stop spinning so we'd all lose our footing and slip right off into space ), I don't know if I could handle the metaphorical "end of the world."

Maybe R.E.M. has the answer. Jellybean Boom?




[ Don't worry Obama, I wouldn't blame you ]

You said it,

Just in case you missed it. Or really like his voice, like myself.
He didn't even use NOTECARDS. Man oh man... Eargasms for four years people.

Next episode.

Well I'm not complaining.

I happened to be at a bar last night for the tail end of the election. I had no idea it was going to be like it was. People were bawling their eyes out! Granted, Obama gets two gold stars for that speech. I've never heard something so eloquently put. He had my attention from start to finish and I was nothing short of impressed. But man, I'm just glad I was out otherwise I would not have believed it. Nor would it have had the amount of impact that it did.

"History has been made."

This isn't just history, this is mostly the future. Mark November 4th, 2008 in the record books for the United States for sure, but this was a long time coming. He's black, so what? I'm just glad to have someone take full control. I'm glad that he didn't mispronounce a word, say anything off-colored, or lose me in babble of politics.

In highschool I did a monologue for a class. I chose "Better Angels" from American History X;

It's 5:40 am and in about one minute I'm going to watch the sun come up. I don't know if I've ever done that. Anyway, we're going to try to pick things up, and start over. It won't be easy but we're all together again. And I feel good. I'm not sure if this paper is what you wanted, if I hit the social significance or whatever you're looking for. But, for what it's worth, thanks a lot.
So I guess this is where I tell you what I learned. My conclusion, right? Well, my conclusion is: hate is baggage. Life's too short to be pissed off all the time. It's just not worth it. Derek says it's always good to end a paper with a quote. Says someone else has already said it best so if you can't top it, steal from them and go out strong. So I picked a guy I thought you'd like. "We are not enemies, but friends. We must not be enemies. Though passion may have strained, it must not break our bonds of affection. The mystic cords of memory will swell when again touched, as they surely will be, by the better angels of our nature."


That quote coming from Abraham Lincolon;

"We are not enemies, but friends. We must not be enemies. Though passion may have strained it must not break our bonds of affection. The mystic chords of memory, stretching from every battlefield and patriot grave to every living heart and hearthstone all over this broad land, will yet swell the chorus of the Union, when again touched, as surely they will be, by the better angels of our nature."


No denying, that is good stuff. And if you picked up on it, Obama dropped part of that quote himself. Insanely smart man.

It's 2008.
And we have an African American President.


"I hope he changes the National Anthem to 'Gin and Juice.'"
Laid back!

The big day.

Election day.
If you don't vote, you can't complain.


This feels like a sinking ship to me. Regardless of who wins, the boat is going to sink just a little bit farther before hitting rock bottom. I guess the best candidate will be the one who is most capable of picking up the pieces and reworking it into a mediocre design.

I've never been big on politics. In my mind it should work like a ying-yang. Perfect harmony. Pick the best pieces from each ones plans and run with it. Right? It seems too obvious. Much like the furniture I sell at work. It comes in pieces, it hooks together, all of the fabrics that you cover it with come off and are washable. It's so basic. It makes sense. And it works.
It's so obvious.
Demopublican. Why not? I'm sure someone out there could tell me "why not," but I'm working with utopia right now.


My stance is to vote towards someone who is better than you. Personally, (yes - I will put this on the internet for the world to see) I think George Bush is hilarious. I won't trash talk him aside for a few little things (wars just aren't my thing).
Reasoning behind it; If I were in that position, I'd be winging it too. George Bush is 100% human. Having W run the country is almost the same as throwing me in office and handing me a bowl of pretzels to see if maybe I'd choke on them as well.
Alas, my qualifications only span as far as running a store in the mall (THUS FAR). If the United States were a mall, I'm sure Georgey would've done satisfactory work.


To the point, if McCain has the same views as Bush then at most, he's a nice man with some weird, goofy antics up his sleeve. He WANTS what's best. People like him because they see themselves in him. Ditto that for Palin.
But Obama has the meat and potatoes. People like him because finally here's a guy who is ready to take on something that quite honestly, no one should want to take on. And he's doing it with confidence and a real collection. He holds himself incredibly well when people have come at him, telling him he's no good, calling him names, bringing up his relationships, etc. That is something that not most people can do with class. Believe me, I've seen it happen way too many times. Human nature, you get feel attacked, you attack back.


Barack, you've one upped me in the smoothest way possible. If I were to lose against you, I can't say I'd feel all that bad. Walk that walk and talk that talk.
Here's hoping for a bigger man than myself.

One extra hour of pretty.

I went to bed at 1:30 last night (this morning) and woke up at 8.
Eight o'clock am?
I thought I was fooling myself so I tried to sleep more.
No luck.

I had set THREE alarms because I KNEW I would want to sleep in on a Sunday since that's my norm and due to an extreme lack of sleep from the night before.


But no. 8am. Wide awake.


It wasn't until 6:30 this evening that I realized (OKAY - I was TOLD) daylight savings hit. I could've sworn it was supposed to take place Sunday's crossing into Monday's. I passed out right before it happened! Eight hours of sleep. Without knowing it. Score.


Now I'll just count down the days until it's still light out at 9 pm. That's the best time of the year.



Kill time here:
Daylight Savings


Read "anecdotes" and "why." Especially the impact of voter turn out.
Oh the difference an hour can make...