Hearing and Serenity

Bordem

2007-12-30T22:12:40Z

Okay, I'm fairly bored. I've been trying to find a job; not to much sucess. I had two interviews week before Christmas, the first rounds went well and I was invited to a second round for both. They didn't go so well. The first I went with a girl from the office to a Wal-Mart and she sold kits for Amber Alert. Not a bad thing, but spending all day at a Wal-Mart, not so cool. The second one was door to door sales of entertainment books. Ugg. The second one advertised them as doing promotions for charities, which only a small portion of their sales goes to a charity. So I'm still feeling rather stupid. Neither one even offered to pay for lunch! Maybe my dad has been lying but when a company is "wooing" you and has a lunch as a part of an interview, they pay. We didn't go to a sit down resturant either time, Subway in the Wal-Mart and MacDonalds. So I learned my lesson there. I was excited about these jobs since both said they do promotions for charities. Maybe I should have used my former-creative writing major skills and thought about the different meanings of "promotions". Now I'm bored out of my mind since I haven't found a job yet and being stuck at my parent's place since I don't want to spend the money I do have. *Sigh*

What Do You Have To Say? - What A Character

2007-12-08T17:22:54Z

There are so many books that I've read, but the two that had the greatest effect on me is Homer Hickam, and Meg Murry.

Even though Homer Hickam is a real person and not technically a literary character, his Coalwood Triliogy has been profound on my outlook on life and the people of Appalacia, a place I went to college at. And incidently enough Emily Sue Buckberry, Homer's friend from childhood is a retired professor at my alma mater. The way Homer describes about his struggle at math and desire for something better, even though that was unlikely in his circumstances. It was very inspiring.

Meg Murry in A Wrinkle in Time. I *still* relate to her at 22 as I did at 10. She made it almost okay, that I was so unpopular and miserable growing up, since she was going through it too.

Things That I Will Miss About Athens part 2

2007-12-04T04:34:45Z

The continuation of the things I will miss about Athens:

Court Street: Okay, I'm not a drinker, but having that as an option, within walking distance? Even for the funky hippie shop that's near the end of the street by State Street.

Piano Playing Man: That guy who plays piano over by the old Taco Bell, Woolsworth area during the warm months at night. Need I say more?

What is considered a "riot": The general overreation by Athens PD. Some students set fire to a (single) couch after a game. That is a riot. Nevermind that is considered normal everwhere else in the state.

Rudy's Red Hot: Great hot dogs and brats. Cheep, and they offer lots of toppings.

Hocking River: As polluted and dirty as it was, it was fun to walk along it on the bike path.

Bike Path: Nice place for a walk. If you feel ambitious you can bike (or walk, yikes) the 15 miles to Nelsonville.

Casa: I became a tofu fan because of this place. Really, really good tofu tacos and good drinks. Never did a proper Latin Dance Night. :(

I'm a Nerd, Okay?

2007-12-01T05:59:17Z

Which Stargate Atlantis character are you most like? Your Result: Dr. Elizabeth Weir A natural born leder, Weir cares about the people around her. As well, she has a love for languages, and is a humanitarian and social activist. Being simmilar in personality to Elizabeth is a good thing. It means that you know your place in the world, and you are a genuinely good person.
Dr. Radek Zelenka
Dr. Carson Beckett
Col. John Sheppard
Teyla Emmagen
Dr. Rodney McKay
Ronan Dex

Chirstmas Commercials, WTF?

2007-11-05T23:12:04Z

What is the deal with Christmas commercials? I first noticed this before Halloween, one of those Toy-R-Us commercials, now it's Overstock.com, and some car commercial. Come on! It's barely November!! I'm not that old and I remember you'd NEVER see Christmas commercials before Thanksgiving. Now it's getting a bit ridiculous. It's bad enough with the Presidential election starting way too early, now Christmas? I get the Christmas season starts earlier and earlier. But come on!!!!! I am already starting to hate this Christmas season, and I love Christmas. I am already over-saturated with the "Christmas Spirit" (totally not the true spirit since these are lame commercials, the real spirit is family, thank-you very much). How much longer until December 26th?

Things That I Will Miss About Athens part 1

2007-11-04T02:31:25Z

So it's hit me, though not entirely how much I am going to miss Athens once I leave here on the 21st. This place has been and is my home, so I will miss it terribly when I have to move back in with my parents, which is something I'm not looking forward to at all. Some things that I will miss about this crazy college town:

1. The bricks- brick streets, brick sidewalks, brick buildings. One doesn't see this very often in large quantities in most cities. A pain when wet or in heels, but I couldn't picture Athens any other way.

2. The hills- Okay, just being surrounded by them. Walking up them sucks. But the hills surrounding Athens are gorgeous, especially in fall.

3. (General) Safety- I like being able to walk while listening to my iPod and not fearing someone attacking me.

4. Coffee shops- Not a huge coffee fan, but the coffee places here are cool. Breannen's, Front Room, Donkey, Village Bakery, and Perks all are cool townie places. I know people are gunning for a Starbucks, but I think that would ruin the vibe of A-town.

5. Places open late- I love how I can order a pizza after midnight if I want to on a weekday and after 2AM on weekends. There's not many towns where you can do that. A 24 hour Wal-Mart and Kroger were always good when I wanted to make a run to the store because I didn't want to deal with crowds during Parents weekends.

6. DP Dough- I'm going to miss this place. Only DP Dough in Ohio. A great Calzone place, lots of cheese, lots of toppings ( stuffings?) and lots of calories. But, oh so yummy. No other place compares, and I've tried calzones from the other major pizza chains and a minor local calzone chain.

7. Relative Temperate Climate in Fall- Yeah, Athens is in Ohio and it gets cold and snows, but not on the level it does north of here. It's usually 10 degrees warmer here than it is in NW Ohio, where I am from. This place is boiling in summer, so it's a bit of a trade-off.

8. Beads and Things- A cool bead shop run by old hippies. They'll give you free beading lessons and with a place that has thousands of different kinds of beads.

9. Athens Farmer's Market- Lots of vendors and baked goods. Most things are priced well. Somethings are a bit of a rip-off, but the atmosphere is fantastic. The local guitar players are always a nice addition.

10. The Athena- I love how there's a place that will show artsy films. The Athena used to be the only theater in town and showed (usually) first run movies. When OU bought it a few years ago (Sophomore year?) and The Athena Grand was built in the old Big Bear on East State Street and The Athena started showing art films. I'll miss it since most places won't show these films outside New York, LA and those "big markets".

11. Athens International Film Festival- Occurs every April/early May. Usually only time you'll see most of these films, since most of these movies are really hard to find in the States. I've become something of a German film buff because of this film festival.

More to come later since I'm tired and I don't want to ramble on all night.

Computers Are Annoying

2007-11-03T02:04:42Z

So I have a project due on Monday and I've been trying to put a video montage together from DVDs to my computer, since bringinnig all of my DVDs to class is not practical. My computer is so not having it. I either get video and no sound or an annoying waring saying file does not exist. What's the deal with that? Seriously. I know I'm going to spend most of the weekend on this, but it shouldn't to be dealing with this stupid computer thing the whole time.

And Depression Set In

2007-10-11T00:48:38Z

So it's really truly fall now. Damn. It's going to be 36* when I go in to work tomorrow. I had to break out my lighter winter coat. GRRRRR. In the meantime I've been up since 4.30AM EDT and it's now 8.45PM EDT. Not cool. I want to sleep but I have to study for Medical Terminology, which sucks since my bed is looking mighty inviting at the moment. Anyone able to teach the cardiovascular system in ten minutes? No? How about five? Takers? Anyone?

Necklaces Breaking Outlets part 2

2007-09-16T03:24:54Z

So this is what the outlet that blew yesterday looked like after my surge protector failed. There were some bright red sparks so, I suppose I'm lucky that there was no fire. I was able to get maintence to get here this morning to fix it and now things are honkie-dory.

Necklaces Breaking Outlets

2007-09-14T23:22:11Z

Seriously. You read that right. My klutzdom has been raised to a whole new level. On a little shelf above my desk I keep a small jewerly box because I'm in an small apartment and there's no other place to put it, I was opening the little drawer when one of the necklaces fell behind my desk (speculation starts here) and it fell on my surge protector which wasn't plugged in all the way. This caused some pretty sparks and power to half of my apartment goes out. (fun, fun). I go to unplug said surge protector and low and behold the prongs on the surge protector are black and so is the bottom part of the outlet. How does this happen? Seriously!

New Apartment

2007-09-03T05:20:48Z

Yeah!!!! I'm finally in my new apartment. Yippie!!!!!! Of course I'm fighting off a nasty summer cold (why do people get colds in the summer?) so I've been sleeping a lot. Here's hoping all of this sleeping doesn't screw me over when classes start up and I have a lovely 8AM research methods class (booo!!!!) Now time to go back to my cup of tea, then to bed for some more sleep.

Manly arm muscles

2007-07-29T04:24:32Z

I've come to the conclusion that I really need to start working out again. As I've been moving out of my apartment (for only a month no less before getting into my new one) I've realized how much of a weakling I've become from sitting on my butt this summer. Not that I wasn't before, but it is much more apparent now. I used to be able to move fun things like my t.v. and all of my other fun electronic crap with my manly arm muscles. Now I have to have someone help me.

I've been trying to get myself all the way out of my apartment and moving my bulky crap down the stairs I've nearly dropped it/fallen down with whatever I'm carrying at the time. Not that tripping is unusual, being the klutz that I am; however it is not fun when your face is about to become close friends with concrete at the bottom of a flight of stairs because you decided to drop something, that is in a whole nother league of klutzum. Then there's the whole issue of me not liking stairs in the first place since I fell off some when I was 7. (Yep, I mean fall off, not down. Like fall under the banister and onto the concrete basement floor. And this happened I'm special like that. Fun, fun.)To this day any stairs I use I HAVE to use the banister, which is lame and annoying.

But anywho. I have to start building up something that resembles manly arm strength for when I have to move into my new place at the end of August. Though this time I won't have to contend with stairs. I'm going to bed now since I need sleep since when I was setting my mood I thought one of them was silky and I was wondering what the hell silky was until I figured out it was silly. Dear lord that's a long sentence. Is it a run-on one though? My grammar sucks in the first place, but add sleepiness (not silkiness) to it, everything goes to hell.

Into the Black Waters

2007-07-20T02:43:40Z

This is an old writing assingment from my junior english comp class. My assingment was to take a short story from our textbook and create a new piece from a different point of view. I chose Maxine Hong Kingston's "No Name Woman" a short story from her book The Warrior Woman. This piece doesn't make much sense if you do not read the original first. My original version of this all of the dialogue was in Chinese, but LJ got angry with me when I tried to have the english cut underneath it, so I just put the dialogue back into english.

Title: Into the Black Waters
Rating: PG-13/R for sexuality

Walking along a dirt road she spotted a piece of bread in a pile of rubbish, but another hand grabbed it before she could pick it up. The others slowly left seeing there was no more food left for them. The bleak road extended past the horizon as the soaking girl walked in the gray sunlight.

It was a warm spring morning in the market when she noticed him tending to his stall. A trill of excitement shot up her spine when he brushed her finger as he handed her the goods. He said nothing more than, “Have a good day,” but she felt as if they had talked for years. She remembered her face flushing with embarrassment as he smiled at her showing white teeth, a rarity in the country.

The pots were boiling over as the girl caressed the spot where he had touched it moaning slightly as if he had touched her all over. Footsteps brought her out of the ecstasy of the dream. Her mother-in-law walked in as the rice burned, “Daughter-in-law, watch the rice! You should be ashamed of yourself, burning our meal.”

“I am sorry mother, I will try to be more careful,” the girl muttered as she tended to the rice.

“It is alright, daydreaming about the day my son returns from the Golden Mountain is no crime. I must feed the chickens now,” her mother-in-law stated as she walked out of the kitchen.

The girl saw him again at the market they could do nothing except exchange simple pleasantries with gentle caresses of the hands. She felt an ache for him as the weeks wore on; this was nothing that she had felt for her husband who had left nearly two years ago for the West. She was considered one of the lucky ones to marry a man so near in her age; many of her friends had married men twice their age. Their wedding night he had his way with her, he never looked her in the eyes, never whispered her name. She remembered the pain it had caused her; she was sore afterwards. The morning after the wedding night he left for the Golden Mountain.

It was a sticky moonless night when she slipped out of her husband’s parent’s home in her nightgown. She crept through the field taking care not to rip the abrasive cloth. She felt his lips before she saw him as he pulled her to the ground. The girl allowed him to touch places that seemed to come on fire as he brushed over them. There was no pain of her first time, this was not her husband and for that she was thankful.

She noticed the gray of dawn when she opened her eyes. She would liked to have stayed there in his arms for hours more, but she had to get back to her father-in-law’s home before the family had noticed she was missing. She dressed and dashed through the field to reach the home of her in-laws who had just started to stir as she walked in the house, and started to prepare breakfast.

There was a chill in the air this time, the harvest had come and gone. She had delighted in seeing her lover in the market. They could never show their affections here for all to see. She had delighted in their secret love affair; she had a man who whispered her name as they made love. She began to wonder if they would ever be caught, she was taking a great risk sneaking out of the home of her father-in-law, and her punishment would be harsh if she were caught.

Winter had finally come to her village; it was bitterly cold with many children starving. She felt she was going to die as she bent over every morning. Her relationship with her in-laws had changed after she stopped bleeding every month. They no longer looked or spoke to her. There were whispers in the village. Then one day her father-in-law put her in the cart and drove her to her parent’s farm. No one looked at her as she walked into the house. She was sent to her girlhood room which had become her niece’s room before she died of a fever.

She was no longer permitted outside the family homestead; there were whispers of her causing the deaths of the children of the village during the harsh winter. She no longer sat with the family, not even the small children; she was banished to the outcast table where she was the only outcast. She was only given scraps of food, despite the child growing within her.

The trees were in full bloom and her family had finished planting their crops weeks ago, the greenery of the rice was starting to poke through the ground. For the first time in months she went to the market and there she saw her lover with another woman. He was giving his new lover gentle kisses as he never did with her in public. She could only hang her head, hair falling into her eyes as she collected the needed items from the market. There were whispers about how the village had been counting; they knew what she had done.

The house was destroyed everything was covered in blood, the family’s possessions laid in ruin. Her family had cursed her and her child, “You have disgraced my family, you don't belong to this family anymore.” She had run to the open field and that is when she started to feel herself convulse. She felt a scream fill within her with the pain like nothing she had ever experienced before, she desperately wanted it to end. She knew the child was on its way. During a break in her screams she made her way to the pigsty to have her child. The sky was clear with millions of stars, it was much like the first night she had with her lover, and now she was about to bear his child.

It was a girl, a small creature who had suckled at her breast. She knew her child had no chance for a life, her crime would ensure the death of her child; one with no family had no chance of survival. She stroked the sleeping child as it slept in her arms. Tears started to flow down her mud caked face; she saw her lover splatter blood in the home during the raid on the family homestead. She had desperately wanted to call out his name, but she knew that it was her shame and she had to carry it alone.

The well was made of a gray stone that wasn’t more than a few feet high. The child started to fuss, she was hungry again. She caressed the soft head of her child, with a rueful smile as the image of her lover on that first night flashed through her memory. Biting her lip she sat on the edge of the well. She kissed her child’s brow and took in her scent for the last time. She brought her child close to her breast as she slipped off the edge into the black waters below.

Walking along the dirt road she carried her child with her into eternity. The tiny creature always needed, yet she had nothing to give the child. There was nothing left for her to use in her afterlife. She took the offerings the living had given to honor their dead, the meals and other gifts of love for the dead ancestors. Even other forgotten spirits looked away in shame at her soaking form as it passed. She did not exist even in the realm of the forgotten spirits; she had ceased to be anything. The gray sunlight held no warmth for her as she wandered alone with her child, with no family and no name.

Of Cookies and Frostbite

2007-07-19T02:19:35Z

I have a rather interesting job, as in boring, at least it should be. I answer phones at my university bakery since I'm not cool enough to actually bake anything (that and a rather freakish egg allergy, but whatever...) I got to organize the bakery freezer today. A nice alternative to answering phones and filing paperwork you say? Oh-no-no-no. Since it's been pretty muggy here and the A/C in my apartment isn't run that often so I wear shorts to work since I don't feel like changing that often in one day. (Aside: I also wear a tee-shirt and a hoodie while I'm in the bakery since they have the A/C cranking on high. Life is funny sometimes....)

So I got to go into our big sub-zero freezer in shorts, sneakers with ankle socks and a freezer jacket that covers my butt, but (hee-hee) doesn't go down much further. Anywho, I have to make my way through a jungle of metal shipping racks that are as tall as me. (And that's the shortest of the bunch, like me. Hee.) I navigate my way around trying to organize everything, after a bit I need to go into the bakery to ask one of the bakers a question about some of the cookies that are stored there. We make about 20-30 different kinds of cookies. Granted most of the time we stick to the standard peanut butter, chocolate chip, sugar and oatmeal rasin. Most of the other ones are for catering events. Since they all look the same to me, I had to ask questions; because no one labeled the dough.

When I get out I realize that I can't feel my legs and I'm starting to get frostbite. (Yay! ) One of the bakers made lunch for us (ham and cheese sandwiches on a baguette, yum!) so I got a change to warm-up. Being the intelligent creature that I am I go back in there to finish sorting the cookies after I put on a coat that has legs on them. (They could have told me where they were. GRRRRRR)

When all is said and done I moved about 100 dozen cookies, 20 dozen cakes, too many pizza dough, got the beginnings of frostbite on my legs and lost feeling in my feet since somehow my shoes got wet and I was in the freezer for almost 4 hours straight. Let's hope I can stay somewhere where I won't get frostbite tomorrow...

Writing Fanfic

2007-07-15T22:33:03Z

So I'm in the middle of a major writer's block. I've spent over a year writing a Stargate story; After the Storm and I've been posting it here under the pen name of Rosmontcavisfan. The Colony Project which was the challenge which brought life to my title character, Angie. This is one of the more unconventional challenges I've done. Unlike most Stargate stories, none of the major or minor characters are a diving force in the stories. They might show up occasionally, but only for a few paragraphs, or mentioned only in passing. I've been emotionally invested that I want her story to end, since as much fun as it has been I would like to move on to other inerests. I will most likely get around to posting After the Storm in it's entierty at some point down the line.

Pondering as I avoid packing

2007-07-15T03:10:52Z

This is my first blog/Journal so things mighty not be as witty as I hope they'll be in time. I have to be out of my apartment in 2 1/2 weeks so I've been packing things in my car for the first of many trips back to my parent's place. This was something I was hoping to avoid, but I digress. It will only be a month before I move back down here for my last quarter of school.

I talked to a friend I haven't seen since high school graduation recently and it made me wonder how important people are in each others' lives. Lord knows it's been talked to death in Dear Abby, but inevitably everyone encounters this issue at one point. When does someone you were best friends with, someone who you told all of your secrets to, stop being a driving force in your life? This is becoming an issue as I get ready to become a real "grown-up" (though the question if we ever really grow up can be left to Meredith Grey). I'm at the point where I want to cut my ties to my childhood and become the person I want to be. Whenever I periodically talk to this person I seem to regress, quite embarrassingly back to my high school self; which is someone I don't particularly like.

How pervasive is this? Does everyone become seventeen again when they speak or around their high school friends? How do our old friends react when we start acting like grown-ups? I have a tendency to let people fall out of my life if I don't feel like a relationship; romantic or otherwise is going somewhere. I am in the belief that if someone is truly that important to you then you'd remain in contact. You'll e-mail, IM, talk over the phone and actually go visit whoever this person is.

My friend from earlier in my post is someone I care for, but we rarely do any of these things. We IM each other, that's about it. We might talk to each other over the phone once a year, if that. I was invited to go to an amusement park four hours away for the day with my friend and all of her friends; all of which I never met before. I don't think I have the energy or the connection to her to be able to handle that. Meeting over a cup of coffee or lunch I can handle. But something like 8 hours in an amusement park is too much. What do we have in common, other than fragmented memories from high school? Which brings me to the beginning of my rambling, when do we figure out when our old friends are not a driving force in our lives anymore?