my opinion matters

I am very proud of America. I am especially proud that Ohio went for Obama, because I am an Ohioan and it feels good. It’s the first time I’ve voted for the president and it was counted, and other than Ted Strickland, I actually voted for a winner. It feels awesome.

Today is Election Day. I voted this morning at around 7:50am for Obama/Biden. I was seriously tempted to vote for the Socialist candidate – who knew there were so many people running for president this year? I was really happy because usually I’m the only person in the church basement voting, but this year I was actually in line outside. When I voted, the polls had only been open for less than an hour and a half and I was voter #64, which is impressive. That’s more than my polling location usually gets for the whole day. Huzzah for Dayton!!! I am very happy and optimistic about today. I have my whole night planned out with my electoral map and sparking grape juice to toast President Obama (omg I hope). I know, I’m lame, whatever. I have to be optimistic because thinking about McCain/Palin winning might make me cry. OBAMA!!!!!

Since last night was Halloween, Ryan and I went to Family Video to get a bunch of scary movies. The problem is, I hate scary movies – well… I hate watching scary movies right before I go to bed because it’s dark and scary and I have nightmares. So we ended up getting three actually scary movies and The Happening for me. I should have known better because it’s directed by M. Night Shamalanalamalamaman and his movies suck. Signs was god awful and don’t even get me started on The Village. UGH. But it had Mark Wahlberg so I figured it couldn’t be THAT bad. And it really wasn’t. I mean, the directing was awful and the acting was even worse, but it was a cool concept for a scary movie.. but like all M. Night Shamalamalan movies, the ending was terrible – but not because there was a twist ending. Cause there wasn’t. UGH. But I was sufficiently scared enough that I made Ryan go into the kitchen with me to get more water because I was afraid the plants were coming to kill me. So.. good job, I g

I am a Democrat, which means I will always vote Democrat. And to be honest, I was a Hillary supporter so I wasn’t overly jazzed about Barack Obama. However, I saw a two-minute commerical (which is now on my myspace page) by Obama, and that honestly won me over – that plus the first debate. There’s something about him that’s very likeable and relatable, and that’s a fantastic thing to see. The vice presidential debate, I don’t even want to talk about it because Sarah Palin is such a fucking idiot that it isn’t worth mentioning. Ha ha, she has no experience – it isn’t even funny anymore, it’s just sad and pathetic. It gave him an early jump in the polls but it really didn’t pan out because, oh yeah, she’s retarded and is ill-prepared. And usually I hate the whole “heart beat away” argument, but damn that would be some scary shit. She better not be planning for 2012 because she’s dumb and nobody will vote for her. Plus, she needs to be taking care of her tard baby and not try to be someth

For once, I was pleasantly surprised. Every year, I expect the VMAs to be terrible, and let’s face it, I’m usually right. However, this year – not without it’s lulls – was a million times better than normal. First off, there was the host. I personally think Russell Brand went a little far with some of his comments, but at least he was funny and entertaining. I didn’t really like that he was basically mocking the show he was hosting, but that’s cool. He’s British, whatev. Funny. The performances were pretty good too – I thought Rihanna was good, so was Paramore, and I loved the side performances with DJ AM and Travis Barker, especially with Katy Perry! I love that song! Obviously, TI sucked and so did Lil Wayne. Ugh. Why do they even exist? But Pink was super good (I already downloaded the song she sang and am very excited about her new album next month) and, if things weren’t good enough already, Christina Aguilera was AWESOME. I love her omg!!! Kid Rock was good before stupid Lil Wayn

Ryan, Rachel and I saw Hamlet 2 last night and OMG seriously I don’t think I have ever laughed so hard in my entire life. Holy crap. Whoever the lead is should be in every movie because he is aboslutely hysterical. The funny part was it was the three of us, two more people younger than us, and then three couples of people aged 60+. Weird. Some of them did not enjoy it. For more Hamlet 2 fun, click here: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ah34X25K1sU Enjoy!!!

i love robert downey jr. and here is a recent comment he main that explains why: “My whole thing is that that I saw ‘The Dark Knight’. I feel like I’m dumb because I feel like I don’t get how many things that are so smart. It’s like a Ferrari engine of storytelling and script writing and I’m like, ‘That’s not my idea of what I want to see in a movie.’ I loved ‘The Prestige’ but didn’t understand ‘The Dark Knight’. Didn’t get it, still can’t tell you what happened in the movie, what happened to the character and in the end they need him to be a bad guy. I’m like, ‘I get it. This is so high brow and so fucking smart, I clearly need a college education to understand this movie.’ You know what? Fuck DC Comics. That’s all I have to say and that’s where I’m really coming from. You know, you’re never too old to burn your bridges because I believe I have offended everyone. I think I’ve got a couple more. ‘I’ll burn that bridge when I come to it’ is my favorite phrase I’ve ever coined.”

I love the Olympics. I have been doing nothing since the opening ceremony but watching olympic coverage on every station it’s on – right now, in fact, I’m watching men’s volleyball on Universal HD. HD olympics rules. Anyway, another reason I love the Olympics is that there’s something peculiar about it that makes people (not all people, but me at least) overly patriotic for about two weeks. The perfect proof of that came during the opening ceremony. I loved the whole thing and nobody will ever do a better opening than China did – they rock. But the interesting part for me was President Bush. According to NBC, he is the first president to ever attend a non-US Olympic Games, which is awesome. I would totally go to the olympics too if I were president. And then they sat him and Laura next to Putin in… get this… ROW 10. Is it too much to ask that the president of the US be sat in a box or in special seating? I was irrationally offended as an American until I realized what I was saying. Tha

Yesterday, I saw the new batman movie, The Dark Knight. First off, I don’t like the title – I think all the batman movies should start with Batman, but whatever. As I can’t stand everyone talking about how Heath Ledger should win an Oscar because he’s dead, I was expecting the worst. I was also the only person on the planet who hated Batman Begins, and I don’t think Christian Bale makes a very good Batman. I swear, the first half of Batman Begins is like The Last Samurai. Weird. Anyway, so I had low expectations. Very low. But you know what? It was really really good. There were only a few moments that were boring, and I really enjoyed the film. Heath Ledger, in my opinion, did a fantastic job as the Joker. I love when you can’t tell who the actor is, and that’s what this was like. True, he didn’t do much acting, relying instead on a weird voice, makeup, and creepy facial ticks, but who cares? It was believable and I loved it. However, let me make myself clear. Heath Ledger should not

So I was reading perezhilton.com this morning and on the site is a link for a leaked version of Mamma Mia, which doesn’t come out until Friday. Sweet!!! So right now, at work (because my job is amazing) I’m watching it, and I’m really glad I didn’t pay $8 or whatever it is to see it in the theatre. I mean, I love musicals probably more than the average person, but as it turns out, I don’t really like ABBA. However, I LOVE Meryl Streep. A lot. She is totally the best ever, and she’s a pretty good singer too. The biggest surprise is the daughter from Big Love, you know, bug-face, blonde hair – is actually really good too! She’s one of the leads, and I really like her… Plus she looks a lot like Meryl Streep, so it’s believable that she could be her daughter. It’s getting progressively better, but I think seeing it once is plenty, unlike RENT or Chicago which I could watch over and over again. I also didn’t know that Madonna’s “Hung Up” song was sampled from ABBA. Creepy. Anyway, if you wa

KANSAS CITY, Kansas (CNN) — Army Spc. Jeremy Hall was raised Baptist. Army Spc. Jeremy Hall, who was raised Baptist but is now an atheist, says the military violated his religious freedom. Like many Christians, he said grace before dinner and read the Bible before bed. Four years ago when he was deployed to Iraq, he packed his Bible so he would feel closer to God. He served two tours of duty in Iraq and has a near perfect record. But somewhere between the tours, something changed. Hall, now 23, said he no longer believes in God, fate, luck or anything supernatural. Hall said he met some atheists who suggested he read the Bible again. After doing so, he said he had so many unanswered questions that he decided to become an atheist. His sudden lack of faith, he said, cost him his military career and put his life at risk. Hall said his life was threatened by other troops and the military assigned a full-time bodyguard to protect him out of fear for his safety. In March, Hall filed a federa

I swear, I’m a sucker for advertising. All the magazines I read and all the shows I watch have been promoting this new show on ABC Family called The Secret Life of the American Teenager. According to the previews, it’s about a girl who finds out she’s pregnant and… well, that’s really all you get from the previews, other than Molly Ringwald is her mom. So, of course, since Greek is over and the only new shows on are seriously awful reality programming, I figured it can’t be that bad, so I taped it and watched it last night. Here are my thoughts: I understand that shows today need to have a lot of drama to keep people interested, but this show goes a little overboard. The first episode starts with band geek (and French Horn player) Amy coming home from school and discovering she’s pregnant. Then we find out she’s 15. Seriously. 15. Scary. Plus her mom is Molly Ringwald, and that’s also weird because she’s old and it’s creepy. Her little sister is 13 and dresses like a whore. Funny. Anyw

I am way too excited about the Olympics starting in August. Seriously. I wish I could take two weeks off work and do nothing but watch 24/7 coverage of the Olympics. Yay!!! The only good thing is that there are a few summer sports I don’t care about, especially track and field. I couldn’t care less about that. I’ll stick with gymnastics, volleyball, swimming (synchro too!), diving, table tennis, and regular tennis. so really, I don’t need to watch 24/7 coverage, because that’s only like half the sports. Ryan I think will want to watch soccer, and that’s cool. I usually end up watching a bunch of sports I don’t care about… except track and field. I have no desire to watch that. Another awesome thing is now that we have a GIANT hdtv, the olympics will be that much cooler. Woo!!!!

So my car has been acting really crazy (I won’t go into the boring details because nobody will know what I’m talking about anyway), so I took it to the dealer (Lang’s Chevrolet! Hurrah!) and said fix it. They didn’t really know what was wrong so they called the tech guys and they said to reprogram something in the computer, so they did, and said it would probably fix it. I guess there was another car (same make and model as mine) that had the same problem and that fixed it. But it didn’t fix mine. Thus, I took my sad little Aveo back to the dealer this morning, but this time they gave me a loaner/rental car to drive. AND IT IS AWESOME. It’s a 2006 Chevy Malibu and it is a sweet car. The best part (besides the smooth ride and comfy seats) is this: The Display. It tells you the temperature outside and exactly how many miles you have to go before you need to stop for gas. And when you change the radio station, it tells you, for example, WTUE; Classic Rock; the website for the station; WH

I bought farina. Apparently I spelled it wrong last time, but now it’s correct. Farina. Mmmm. I haven’t had any yet because I fear it will be disappointing. Wow. I officially have nothing to talk about if all I can think to type is farina. Faaaarrrriiiiiiiiinnaaaaaaa. Omg I‘m retarded. I saw Iron Man with Ryan & Rachel and it was super awesome. Like… SUPER awesome. I hope it does really well and I‘m taking the parents to go see it on Saturday. Hear that, dad? Mom? Do you remember we talked about that? You have no choice. We’re totally going. Plus, this Sunday is mom’s day, so I will buy her a slushie. delicious! And we’re going to regal because when Ryan Rachel and I went to showcase by the Dayton mall, right before it started some obnoxious 15-year-old came out and announced that they have a (and I’m quoting here) “zero-tolerance policy” on cell phone, text messaging, and people putting their feet up on the seats, and if they see the light from your phone, they’ll come and ask you

- LOST. it is the greatest. - my new house! - the invitations for our exhibit opening - my elliptical machine - my recliner that doesn’t recline - living next to my parents - job interviews - pudding - ferina. i miss ferina. i think i will buy some. - LOST labels on cream soda. hooray!

I love being in school because school makes me want to read. I know that might sound a little weird, but it’s true! When we’re on break, I don’t do much but watch TV and play around on the Internet – but once the quarter starts, I’m motivated to read a lot more. Since the beginning of this year, I’ve read 16 books, and I plan to read several more. And the best part is that they aren’t just lame chick lit books like I usually read… I’ve really started stepping out of my reading comfort zone and I’ve realized there are a lot of great writers out there… some of them suck, but there are a lot of good ones. Normally, I never would have picked up Then We Come to the End, but it was surprisingly fantastic. Of course, once I’d hammered my way through all the new books they carry at the Wright State bookstore (except the memoirs of one Barack Obama, which I’m sure would make me scream), I had to go to Barnes & Noble to find books. Unfortunately, I think it’s B&N that gets me to buy the

Being a records manager would be cool. I mean seriously, it’s like the perfect job for me – I heart organization (at least with paperwork… it’s debatable when you see my bedroom) and I love filing things and making folders, etc etc. It is super fun. So.. that would be great. At the moment, I have two applications in. One for a job at Wright State, which I keep doing even though I never get called for interviews, and the other one is really exciting. This girl Amy, who was in my Victorian England class, asked me to give her my resume and she would pass it along at this company in Dayton where they edit textbooks. Now, I’m a realist, so I never expected her to actually do it. But a few days ago, this guy calls and is talking to me about how they need people with history backgrounds for their social studies textbook team. Hooray! So he sent me this editing test, which was either really easy or I’m an idiot and missed everything. Who knows. I’ll let you know when I hear more. Oops have to

So now I’m down to three classes instead of four. The fourth class on Wednesday nights turned out to be architectural history with THE MOST BORING PROFESSOR IN THE WORLD. Seriously – I’ve been going to school for like 17 years and I’m pretty sure he’s the most boring teacher I have ever had. Ever. And that’s saying a lot. Anyway, the local history class will be really boring, but easy. The exhibits class should actually be pretty cool – no exams, which is always a plus. And the other class I’m taking, information management, is really records management and how to set up a system to preserve records – evidently records managers make MAD cash, so perhaps if I’m good at it that would be a way to go. Totally. Other than that, nothing really new with me. Work, school, work, school, sleep, eat. That’s basically it.

I had my first two classes last night: local history archives and museum interpretation & exhibits. The local history class will be super easy – 2-page papers every week and then a longer one at the end of the quarter.. most of the time for that class will be spent in the dusty, hot, smelly archives. Ick. They really need to get their own building. The exhibits class is actually really cool. We have to go to two different museums and compare/contrast the exhibits and all that – that’s a short paper. Then, the big project is that the entire class creates, installs, and shows an exhibit for the museum our instructor works at the Afro-American museum next to Central State in Wilberforce. we chose African-American inventions as our exhibit, which will be super interesting. Seriously. Did you know the potato chip, traffic signal, beer keg tap, and the plastic disposable syringe were invented by African Americans? I know, you didn’t really care. Me neither, but history is great!! I’m in

Today is the first day of spring quarter and I am super excited. I’m taking four classes, 12 credits, which is double the class load I had last quarter, but I kept my 4.0 so I’m sure it’ll be fine. PLUS, if that wasn’t awesome enough, I’m able to work 30 hours a week at student support services on campus, which means more money!! And ALSO, Ryan and I are moving! INTO A HOUSE!! NEXT TO MY PARENTS!! OMG it’s so exciting. Teresa, who owns the house next door to them, moved to Germany… yesterday… and we’re totally moving in and I can’t wait. Tthe best part is we have all month to move and she’s even paying us to break our lease! How super awesome is that? Very. It’s going to be especially great because this quarter there are two days a week that I’ll be on campus from 9am until 930pm, and there’s no way I could leave Ally and Jiggles alone for that long – but I won’t have to because my parents, who will be NEXT DOOR can come over and let her outside! Woo! I’m also hoping to get this grad s

So we were going to go to three or four bridal shops to look at dresses, but the first one we went to… the first dress Karolyn put on… she bought. Omg. It’s ivory and very pretty. It’s very Rami from Project Runway – draping got really dull on that show after awhile but it’s still uber pretty. And the lady that helped us was nice and helpful. She also got shoes! Hooray for wedding things!!!

So here I am in abnormally sunny Oklahoma. Well, I guess it’s not abnormal that Oklahoma is sunny but it’s abnormal for me to be in sunny weather. Whatever. I did the drive in two parts, which is GENIUS by the way and I can’t believe I haven’t been doing it that way the whole time. Karolyn, Evan (recovering from wisdom teeth removal) and Lindsey went to… somewhere for karaoke night. Let me tell you, Karolyn singing Spin Doctors is hilarious. I also assisted with an Eminem song, because I’m lame. Fun. So now I’m sitting on my sweet inflatable queen bed that I borrowed from Ryan’s mom, checking my emails and everything before I venture into Karolyn’s bedroom and try to wake her up. That‘ll be fun. Today we’re going into the city (Oklahoma City) to look at and try on wedding dresses! Woo!!

1. Of all the bands & artists in your collection, which one do you have the most of?: weird al, i think. although i do have a lot of bon jovi. 2. What was the last song you listened to?: welcome home by coheed & cambria – i swear i hate that guy’s voice but i can’t get enough of that song. 3. What’s in your CD player right now?: i’m at work, but the cd in my car is britney 4. What is your favorite album right now?: hmm there haven’t been any full albums i actually liked lately so i’ll say my favorite album is one that i made 5. Bands that are still together you would love to see live?: well, i’ve seen eminem, weird al, christina aguilera, and the pussycat dolls.. so i’ll go with bon jovi, madonna, and britney. 6. What was the last concert you attended?: weird al with ryan at the fraze – and we’re going to columbus to see him in july!! 7. What was the greatest concert you’ve ever been to?: the up in smoke tour in columbus with my seeeester. dre, eminem, ice cube, snoop, warren g

i’m pretty excited about spring quarter, which starts on the 31st of this month. i’m taking four classes, which is only 12 credits because two of the classes are only 2 credits each. - local history archives - historical interpretation & exhibits - information management - historic preservation ryan is taking historic preservation with me, which will make that 3.5 hour class a little more palatable. i’m not really looking forward to the local history class, because it sounds like all we’re going to do is hang out in the archives and look up stuff about paul laurence dunbar or the wright brothers. snore. the exhibits class should be good, and i’m glad there are no books for that class – i’m hoping it’ll be hands on. i have to get an internship at some point before i get my degree, and that class will be super helpful with that. the information management class i’m not really sure about because the book is *really* expensive, and that’s never a good sign.. but you never know, i guess

if you *are* ready to waste time, go here: www.songtapper.com because it is genius. i have been trying to stump it, and it even knows the theme to gilmore girls! that’s impressive. ugh back to work tomorrow. hopefully i’ll also take my car to get it checked at walmart before i drive to oooooooklahoma to visit my seeester. i think that’s all i need to do, other than hopefully get gas money from her for the 14-16 hour drive. fun fun fun. ryan got into grad school at wsu, which is super exciting and we’re taking a class together. he doesn’t want to get his degree from wright state, so he’ll probably take advantage of the relatively cheap tuition for awhile until he decides where he wants to go – probably ohio state, but who knows. we should also be finding out soon whether or not he gets a sweet raise and an assistant manager title at his work, which would be super awesome. i, as always, am looking for a good job that pays $10+ an hour and isn’t a call center. slim pickins in dayton, let

i read the other boleyn girl in about 2 days, which is impressive for me because i’m not a speed reader and the book was 660 pages long. but it read fast and that makes me happy because i absolutely LOVED this book. unfortunately for myself and for ryan, i was determined to see the film because 1) the book was so good there’s no WAY they could mess up the movie 2) karolyn saw it twice and loved it now, i know what you’re thinking – you’re seriously taking karolyn’s advice on movies? you two have completely different tastes! she’s a pi, donnie darko, requiem for a dream and you’re a mean girls, rent, coyote ugly. but, nonetheless, i gave it a shot. and it was a waste of time and money. it’s like whoever adapted the book into a screenplay just opened the book to random pages and said, “let’s use this!” with no regard to plot of the book, the dialogue of the book, or historical accuracy. and that is excessively irritating. what sucks is not only did i suffer through it, but so does ryan.

alright, so the fourth season of lost, so far, has been going pretty well. they started pretending like they were going to answer a bunch of questions but then decided not to, like always. however, we do know who some of the oceanic six are: - jack - hurley - sayid - kate - sun and nice try with the fakeout about jin – but i was not fooled. i know better. obviously ben isn’t the sixth because he wouldn’t want people to know that he’s back, and we know it isn’t claire because kate stole her baby. what about this as a hypothesis: when they got to the island they entered some sort of space/time thing that made it seem like it was a really long time before they were rescued when it was actually only like a couple days. they can’t tell people that because they’d think they were completely nuts. and it would also explain why hurley told the cop that he didn’t know ana lucia – if they’re going with the “she was killed on impact” story that would only make sense if they were there a few days,

i am excited about my new blog, which was inspired by dorothy’s new madagascar blog for the peace corps, found here at: http://pcvdorothy.blogspot.com/ i’m not quite sure what i will be using this blog for, but as my interest in xanga has fallen by the wayside (mostly because the only person who ever read it was my sister and that was every few months) and i no longer keep a journal on paper, this seems the logical progression. plus, i really like the word blog. blogblogblogblogblog.