first car

so i'm going to get my very own car. it's my grandparents' old car. a 1996 ford taurus. they got a new one and decided to let me have it.

i think it's a great first car. it belonged to at least one other person before my grandparents... it doesn't look like it's falling apart, but it's definitely been in an accident or two. its dirty. it's scratched. it's got 120 thousand miles or so. and... it's purple. plenty of character :)

anyways, the thing is i need a name for the car a purple, first car needs a name.

i feel like there's basically 3 paths. you've got cool names, goofy names, and names that make fun of the car. all 3 are fair game. and fyi, it's a boy. vote on one of the ideas below or offer another name idea.

donatello
purple people eater
barney
dino
eggplant
grape
grape juice
raisin

death

oh dear :(
it's like being told your mother has terminal cancer...
(just not quite actually that bad)
or like the day you realize your favorite childhood toy is getting worn out...

this popped up tonight:

my good friend erin

this is erin defending her honor

Athelia had stolen Joshua's glasses because they are arch-nemeses

and he turned to Rachel last night and asked her to sneak into the girls house and to retrieve his glasses back from Athelia's room. Rachel didn't seem very thrilled about this and asked Joshua why Chelsea and I couldn't get it for him.

Joshua paused for a moment...looked around at Chelsea and I (we were having a discussion with Kyle), and then whispered to Rachel that she was the only one capable.

Thinking nobody had heard his doubts about Chelsea and I, he went on like he hadn't said anything so cruel at all.


Well,
I had heard

and I felt stabbed at his lack of trust.
I mean, hadn't we been there for him?
Hadn't we taken his side over Athelia's?
Hadn't we proved ourselves?

apparently not.


So tonight at house dinner I saw Athelia. And still feeling incredibly hurt by Joshua I was now suddenly feeling a lot more loyal to Athelia, who trusted me. So I decided to warn her to be wary of spies to rescue her hostage.

When Joshua found out about what I had said I felt no remorse because he had already turned his back on me. and then he found grounds to blame ME for what had happened. And I admit I did behave a little bit childish but I was so hurt by his lack of turst.


....



So I left hurt and proud for bible study.

but the more I thought about it, I decided that I really must have hurt Joshua and even though he had hurt me. and I really didn't want him to be hurt. And so I decided our friendship was more important that this silly argument. So i asked Athelia for his glasses and I returned them very humbly and apologized.


For a while he was suspicious, and unmoving...but after a while he saw I was sincere and decided to accpet my peace offer.



I still have yet to receive an apology for the hurt he caused me

betrayal

tonight i was betrayed by erin.

it reminded me of a movie scene...

here's some pictures to jog your memory:































athelia is holding my glasses hostage.

i thought i could get them back...
but erin burned that bridge.

alas.

i was left with two options:
meet athelia's demands
or keep my honor.

it was tough...
but like william wallace,
i chose the second.

now i will go and mourn my loss...

scars

so if you read this, then you probably already know about my recent injury

we were over at the wcf cookout the other night. then i was walking back to west campus with molly, chelsea, erin, and a new friend, colleen.
molly wanted to visit some other new friends who had pledged to a fraternity nearby. after circling around looking for the place we were finally on the right path...

sadly for me, that path led right to a pole. i guess i wasn't paying attention, because i never saw it coming. i was just turning and looking up to make a comment when
BOOM.

pole

there was a short moment of "ouch."
and a bit of dizzy.

and then lots of laughing.

then blood.

the girls were concerned.
with good reason perhaps.
[from this point until the "but seriously" i had a pair of guest authors: chelsea and erin. i made a few edits, and left some comments in brackets... but it's mostly their work.]

it was actually pretty bad...
i'm just being modest.
there was blood all over the side of my face and in my hair...
apparently i looked pretty awful.

i was still laughing like i was the coolest person ever [because i have the best embarrasing story ever] when in reality i was standing on the sidewalk outside of a bunch of frat houses with blood plastered [good word choice..] to my face.
needless to say i have some pretty cool friends and they (very wisely) went straight to one of the frat houses to get me some water and band aids and cleaning swabs.

they're so sweet. [:)]

anyways this part is actually kind of funny because all the frat boys were outside dressed up with flowers ready to serenade the sororities, so i had a bit of an audience while i was wiping my face off.

so we headed home instead of to a hospital (very stupid idea) [uh... too bad there's not a hospital to go to....]

chelsea [thinks she] saved erin from walking into another pole [except not].
then as we were passing another frat house, chelsea's nose spontaneously began to bleed, and the familiar sight of blood returned. she was clearly being repaid for saving erin from certain blood [what?]. again we ran to a frat house to get napkins. chelsea then joined me in the very distinguished blood crew.

anyways
i got back and paraded around my dorm sharing my story with residents.
it's a good conversation starter.

i should run into things more often...

so yeah

i figured it was just a little cut...
it wasn't until later in molly/colleen/erin's dorm (to get a brownie that my awesome friend erin saved for me) that we pulled back the band aid to have a better look at the cut. it was WAY deep and STILL bleeding hours later (by now we really should have gone the hospital) [that still doesn't exist] but we settled on fixing it with hydrogen peroxide/neosporin/another band-aid/water/bed.

except...
i actually stayed up til like 1...
because it's fun to tell people that you might have to get stitches for walking into a pole.

i finally got to the doctor the next day after my classes and he told me that in order to sew it up he would have to rip the cut back open first.
and i decided that sounded stupid.
basically i would be paying them to make me bleed more, take up my free time, and remove my awesome scar.

it's pretty neat actually, it's sort of in the shape of a Y over my eyebrow. i'm practically harry potter. i bet i'll be able to sense the pole's presence next time i walk by it.

by now it's not so bad, but I managed to get a sweet picture of my face covered in blood.


but seriously

i decided things in life go this way a lot.
for me at least.

it's easy to just laugh it off when you run into a pole.
to pretend like you're fine.
to get too busy to take care of the problem.

and then it turns out it's worse than you thought.
and covering it up with a band-aid,
and wiping off the blood,
and getting busy with other "more important" things
doesn't help.

it's kind of lame when you finally realize it's a problem.
but you can't do anything.

and the worst part is when you
FINALLY
get to the doctor...
but now the scar is already part of you.
and he has to open it again to fix it.

but you won't let him.

if you had gone at first,
he could have fixed it right up.
and you'd have been fine with that!

but now you waited to long.

you're okay with him helping you when you're hurt.
but not okay with him hurting you to help.

if only, if only...

the blogger's prayer

wow
this is wonderfully hilarious :)

The Blogger's Prayer

Our Father
who lives above and beyond the blogosphere

Give us this day a life worth blogging,
The access to words and images that express our journey with passion and integrity,
And a secure connection to publish your daily mercies.

Your Kingdom come into new spaces today,
As we make known your mysteries,
Posting by posting,
Blog by blog.

Give this day,
The same ability to those less privileged,
Whose lives speak louder than ours,
Whose sacrifice is greater,
Whose stories will last longer.

Forgive us our sins,
For blog-rolling strangers and pretending they are friends,
For counting unique visitors but not noticing unique people,
For delighting in the thousands of hits but ignoring the one who returns,
For luring viewers but sending them away empty handed,
For updating daily but repenting weekly.

As we forgive those who trespass on our sites to appropriate our thoughts without reference,
Our images without approval,
Our ideas without linking back to us.

Lead us not into the temptation to sell out our readership,
To see people as links and not as lives,
To make our blogs look better than our actual story.

But deliver us from the evil of pimping ourselves instead of pointing to you,
From turning our guests into consumers of someone else’s products,
From infatuation over the toys of technology,
From fame before our time is right.

For Yours is the power to guide the destinies behind the web logs,
To bring hurting people into the sanctuaries of our sites,
To give us the stickiness to follow you, no matter who is watching or reading.

Yours is the glory that makes people second look our sites and our lives,
Yours is the authority above all authorities
Yours is the ranking above all rankings

For ever and ever,

Amen

thanks to this dude:
http://marcsmessages.typepad.com/

30 hour days

xkcd's comic for the day
it made me think of myself

it doesn't matter what time i have to wake up- every day i feel like going to bed at a later time than the day before.
this goes on until the weekend where i can compensate by just waking up later. then i gather my resolve to go to bed on time and start the next week...

too bad days aren't 30 hours long... i think that would work well for me :)

narwhal

NO FREAKING WAY!!
why have i never been told about this??!?!!

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Narwhal

(anyone else thinking this...?)

a link to the office - part 3

so
i had just gone into the restroom the other day when the lights flickered and went out.
it's a good thing i had my cell phone... it was pretty dark.
turns out it wasn't just the bathroom lights.
a few of the hallway lights and desk lamps worked.
but most lights, the computers, the AC were gone. for about 10 minutes most people were just sitting around talking because there's not terribly much engineering work to be done without computers nowadays.
then the fire alarm went off. so everyone in the 9 story office had to pour outside through the stairs, which of course didn't have emergency lights in them... (none that worked at least.)

it was hot. and we didn't know if it would even be fixed. and we only had about another hour left for the day anyways. so we left and went home.

didn't come in yesterday either. turns out they didn't get the power fixed until 1 something in the afternoon.

the day off was nice. got a bunch of random stuff done that i've been pushing off. and beat x-men legends with Jake and Reece. and read part of one of my favorite books, the Silence of Adam, which i've been rereading this week. (more on that tomorrow perhaps, when i finish it)

but back now. :)
sounds ridiculous, right?

okay okay...
i'll tell you what really happened...


so i found a new guy here on the 8th level of the dungeon who gave me a special sheet of paper and told me to give it to someone else on the 7th floor. and when i did, he told me to return to the 8th floor, where i would find a switch. stepped on it [doo daa doo doo dee dee doo!] and enemies began to pour out! of course because i was unarmed all i could do was flee...

i accidentally ended up missing the correct passageway and ended up on the 6th floor. but to my good fortune, there turned out to be some sort of armory there! there were 3 different colored weapons: black, blue, and red. i could only assume black is normal (but stronger), while the other two have ice and fire properties. so i took them all [da dee daa dee daaaaaaa!].

anyways, i returned and began to fight the monsters that had appeared. at first there were literally hundreds of them! however they were quite easy to defeat. it was simply a matter of attacking them all with my... ice rod first. this froze them and enabled me to handle them one at a time. i then would slash a few times with the sword and use my fire rod to destroy each of them.

as their numbers thinned i figured it would become easier. but i soon discovered that the last of the beasts were usually much more difficult. some of them could camouflage themselves to blend into the background until i froze them. they took more strikes with the sword than the first ones and often a little bit of magic.

the battle was moving along fine, but i decided to retreat and stock up in case a mini-boss should pop up after i eliminated the monsters. i had just stumbled into a room that appeared to be a fairy fountain... but suddenly the lights in the room died. it was fortunate i had purchased a candle recently, as i needed it to navigate out of the cave. when i emerged, i decided the only thing to do was first finish defeating the monsters from before. however, the entire dungeon was darker than before and the temperature seemed to be quickly rising as well...

but before i could continue my battle, there was a sudden loud noise. the natives of this dungeon (who seem to be cousins of the gorons, judging by the way they yawn,... though with an exceptionally higher intelligence.) were all suddenly hurrying to leave. i learned that this had happened before. from the darkening of the lights, rising heat level, and loud screaming noises i can only guess that some great evil lurks inside this place (a dragon perhaps?).
but of course there is. who's ever heard of a dungeon with no boss???

but where is he? and the key to his lair?
i need to find that compass...

after exiting, i decided to leave once again to reengerize and restock. (i was particularly low on magic) and now, after hearing from the natives that the dungeon had returned to normal, i have returned...

a link to the office - part 2

i am now back from my sidequest to florida...
(i'll say more about that in the next day or two i think)

and have once again returned to conquer this dungeon.

i was able to purchase a sword in florida,
but the evil magic of this place prevents me from equipping it here.

i spend most of my time on the 8th floor.
it's accessible, unlike the others.
however the only door that gets you anywhere of importance has a special lock.
5 switches must be pressed in the proper order to open it.
thankfully i learned the correct sequence from a man on the 7th floor of the dungeon.

i finally obtained a dungeon map.
however there's no sign of a compass. or a boss key. and the symmetry of this dungeon makes it difficult to even guess where the boss may be.

i'll have to keep exploring.

though i believe i'll have to briefly return to the overworld before long to restock on potions and the like.

i played my windows media player today and found that a number of songs seem to speed up time.
i wish one would teleport me to other floors... it gets rather tedious walking back and forth.

i did hear from an old man today, that a new room will be opened tomorrow, providing that i collect a number of "drawings."
but it's rather complicated. a number of switches on the 8th floor have to be pressed for them to appear on the 7th (and a few on the 6th i suspect), and then of course i have to find, obtain, and bring them back here.

oh
and i think i will be able to obtain a ton of rupees tomorrow!
that will be helpful

at least there is still no sign of monsters...
(though the guy who looks like he came straight out of the 70s is a little suspicious...)

:)

a link to the office

to get on some floors of our office you need a badge to unlock the door

the lock next to the door has a little red light on it, and when you hold up your badge it turns green and unlocks.
then about 10 seconds later it turns red again and makes a loud locking noise.

it reminds me very much of zelda, when you step on a switch and get through the door before it locks back. too bad there's no ticking noise.

to make it better, when i go through this particular door, i'm generally headed for the plotter room. to pick up a drawing.
which can look very much like a map.

too bad i don't have a sword
and there's no moblins.

then again... maybe that's my fault
because i haven't found it yet...
and i bet when i do, enemies will suddenly appear on all sides.

maybe i need to start kicking these filing cabinets open...

anastasia

For 60 % you are: You're Anastasia. You're confused and want to know who you are, because you don't have your real I deep in the heart, just some memories of the girl you would be if some things would went quite other way then they did. Stop judging yourself and searching for answers around. They are deep within your soul.

More IQ Tests and other quizzes!

that's exciting,