$5/hr. Vietnamese Translator

Joe just called and asked if I could translate for him, "because it's just like talking to your Mom." I am a darn good assistant because not only did I communicate with the customer, I found out where he needed to be! Who can find you an address that's not on the map? Han can!

If you ever need any help, let me know.

The Wonders of REM Sleep

Luckily for me, Joe must've woken me up during my REM sleep this morning. I remembered my dream that - h - drove "across the pond" just to hang out with me. It was fun, then it was time to go, so she just packed up and left.

Terrible Tuesdays

Tuesday is my least favorite day of the week. I have classes all day, then I head straight to work afterward for some good-time physical labor. I'm lucky that I don't fall asleep on the drive home each night. I got to come home to a fresh-baked pizza and To Catch A Predator, so that made up for however tired I was.

Things that still make us wonder about the events on To Catch A Predator:

• Why haven't they caught a woman? We've checked the National Sex Offender Registry and we've found many women listed among all those men.
• Almost all of these guys tell Dateline that they've seen the show, and some of them admit with the "decoys" in their IMs...so what on earth are they doing?
• Why didn't that guy drink the Kool-Aid? It looked delicious.
• That old man was way too creepy! "Phew! It's hot in here. Do you mind if I take off my jacket?" (as he's walking at an increasing pace toward the decoy)Um, someone get this guy some better lines.

Speaking of heat, I don't know what's going on but I feel like I've been getting hot flashes for the past few days. I was complaining about this to Emily this afternoon because I seriously felt like I was going to pass out from heat and humidity that only I could feel.

In addition to the wonderful two things aforementioned, the linguistics book I ordered (Language: Its Structure and Use) last week was waiting for me on the sofa. I began to read it, but then I got too distracted by the fact that 10:00pm was fast approaching and I couldn't wait to see the new Schedule of Classes for this summer. I need to take 7 credit hours' worth of classes to complete my degree and certificate. I've been worried about the availability of classes since I know which classes I really need to take (French Civilization and Intro to International Studies, 3 credits each), but I didn't know if there would be a good 1 credit hour class. I expressed this concern at poker some time ago, and Truc suggested a Physical Education class. I looked it up, and there is only one class available for exactly one credit hour: YOGA! I'm so excited. I will be one of the first people in the Internet line to sign up for these classes. I'm so pumped! Don't you just love it when things work out perfectly? This usually never happens to me, so I am very shocked and thankful at the same time. Hooray for things working themselves out in the end!

Another sign that today has taken a toll on us? We went to bed around 9:30pm. That's just sad.

Senior Salute!

Emily and I have been excited about today for a little while now. Why? Senior Salute! We got a medium-sized postcard in the mail that said today is our special day: 10% off our cap and gown, information, and best of all--freebies! We were devastated when we arrived to merely 5 display tables on the Ground Floor of Kettler. I did get confirmation from a nice lady that I will be graduating with that International Studies Certificate; she also gave us a cool lapel pin! That was the only thing we got for free. We got black caps and gowns with white tassels for our degree and department (Arts got pink! Labor Studies got green! Some other department got peacock blue--we were jealous) and some more information. Hooray! We're so pumped about graduating that we're kind of silly, but hey, it's something we are definitely allowed to do after all this hard work. Oh, we also signed up to win an IPFW briefcase. YAY. We're going to try putting polka dots on our gowns so that we'll be cute.

Sharing is Caring

I love it when other people share, so I thought I'd do my part and share my favorite links. This set of links will feature FREE stuff. Who doesn't love the word "FREE?"

• The Free Site: I'm pretty sure this is where it all began. I've been going here since I first got the Internet.
  
• Cheap Stingy Bargains Freebies Forum: I've received a free Venus razor, countless free magazine subscriptions (good ones, too!), and so many other things for free.
  
• Free stuff on Craigslist.com: Free stuff from nice people.
• Free stock photography websites: Most of them have photos with great quality that you can use for free. Don't you just love that?
  
• Free software: The kind that doesn't tease. Links to absolutely free software in categories such as 3D graphics, anti-virus, photo editing/manipulation, video editing, and many more.
  
• The 46 Best-ever Freeware Utilities: Why pay to make your computer clean and happy when you can get it all for free?

That's all I have for now.

As We Wait Patiently

Joe and I e-filed our taxes last night. I made more money than he did, but he's getting more back. I kept thinking that I made a mistake, but I double checked and everything looked okay. Joe did mention that they start taking money away when you make a certain amount, so maybe that's it. Thanks a lot, IRS. Just kidding--kind of--I'm grateful that I'll get some money back to pay for the summer session of school, and that Joe can have some extra money to spend on something fun rather than those dreadful bills. I'm just sad because I'm poor. You know how that goes.

She's not dead!

Last week, I began to worry about my Mom--she's on vacation in Vietnam. She usually calls me often, so when she hadn't called for over a week, I automatically thought that she fell ill with SARS or the Avian Flu from enjoying her exotic foods. My Mom's gutsy and she doesn't like normal things. Have you ever heard them talk about "blood pudding" on the news? Thanks to Mom, I know exactly what they're talking about: duck's blood that's been set. I don't know the proper way to prepare it, but I know that it's served raw because that's how a lot of people in Vietnam got sick. At least, that's what TIME magazine told me in an old issue. I think it was TIME magazine...that, or BBC News.

Anyway, I thought that she was either dead or deathly ill, so I turned from merely worrying (ha, I kid, I never just worry) to panicking that my lively mother had given her life for the sake of a good meal (is this where I get my appetite?). When I saw my brother at the soccer game on Thursday, I asked if he'd heard from her, and he did--only a few days ago--so I stopped worrying and resolved that she's just too busy having fun to call me and calm my nerves. Good for her!

P.S. I didn't call her because I don't have her number over there. I'm not that silly.

A New Prescription

I've been getting pretty bad headaches from my glasses lately. I think I might need a new prescription. It's been 2-3 years since my last eye appointment...but now, I've just turned 23 and that means I am no longer on my parents' insurance. What to do? I wish eyeglass stores would list their prices online (they probably do somewhere) because I don't really want to go through the trouble of calling different stores. Does anyone out there know how much it typically costs to get a new pair of glasses (non-fancy ones) without eye insurance?

Childhood Snippets, Part 1

Before I was seven years old, my parents were making me take art and penmanship lessons. I remember my Mom dropping me off at the art teacher's (an elderly man) house with a couple avocados so that I could have a nice snack at the end of my lesson. My teacher was so nice, he would take those avocados and turn them into delicious avocado smoothies! Art lessons were definitely worth it just for the snacks. I'm terrible at drawing.

I feel like a slacker because I decided to sit down for a break and I'm still here 2 episodes of C.S.I. later. I will generate a list of things I have done today in order to make myself feel better.

• Dishes
• 2 loads of laundry
• Started cleaning our very messy office (Update: I am beyond proud of myself because I cleared out all the boxes that were in the way--all 6 or so--and I also cleared the table off, so now I actually have some space to do my homework! I am, however, writing to you right now from the sofa with the computer on my lap. Ha.)
  

I'd like to have children now, please.

I worked for less than an hour yesterday, then I got to go home early and hang out with Joe before his soccer game. Paul was there! It was his first game and he didn't know that you just sub during game play and that offsides doesn't exist in this league. The other team was playing dirty (hacking, pulling on shirts, etc.) so Joe got frustrated at times and took them out. I might've missed any more action (including a goal by Joe) because there was a little kid (he belonged to one of the players) sitting close to us and he was adorable. I wanted to take him home with me. Needless to say, he was a big distraction and I spent the whole game watching his silly antics instead of looking at the field.

At one point during the game, he grabbed his bottoms and told his Daddy, "I have to PEEEEEEE!" They came back with a new drink for the little boy (whose name is Joe, I found out later). It must've been a cold drink, because he would take a swig, make a face, then set the bottle down and let out a big, "Aaaahhhhhh!" He did this several times and I squealed after each one of them. I told Renée, Zach's girlfriend, who was sitting next to me, that my ovaries were going to burst just by watching his cuteness.

They ended up with a tie at the end and I had to part from the cute little boy. Maybe he'll be there next time! Gah, I love kids.

Reno and Freezing Rain

We walked into a very empty theatre for Reno 911: Miami last night while everyone was at home avoiding the freezing rain. It had just started when we got there. By the time we left, there were icicles hanging from the bottom of our car and 1/4" sheet of ice on the windows. We were still able to roll down the windows, so I had fun knocking out the ice as if I was a criminal breaking glass.

How was the movie, you ask? It was silly and ridiculous, as one would expect from watching the show. It did fulfill its job to entertain us. There was roaring laughter and chuckles and man, those shorts were short! My favorite character: Deputy Trudy Wiegel. This is her bio from the film website: "Trudy Wiegel has been a member of the Reno Sheriff's Department for 9 years. Before joining the force she worked in yogurt sales."

Other than the movie and the freezing rain, I've been training a lot on ChaCha. I was promoted to Master level in just one day! Let me know if you'd like to have me as a Guide for your searches and I will send you the link to the ChaCha toolbar. Any search you perform from the toolbar will be guided by me. Cool, huh?

Looking Forward

Yesterday, a guest speaker visited our Photojournalism class. He started taking pictures of the Burmese people in this area, then his boss sent him to Burma! The pictures were phenomenal--National Geographic quality! This guy, he knew what it was all about. I was blown away throughout the whole presentation. He was also very funny and entertaining. I think I have a new favorite local photographer. I've tried finding his series on Burma on the Internet, but without success. I may take the effort to e-mail him for more info. I'm that interested. Whoo! Hooray for inspiration!

My next photography project requires me to take photos of a treasure chest in different places. I'm excited. It's a class project, so we'll get to see what everyone else did at the end of the project. Our professor showed us a slide show of her last class' photos and it was pretty cool; I'm just glad I don't have to lug around a full-size chair like they did.

I recently became an apprentice/guide for ChaCha search. It's a service that allows you to have a guide assist you in your searches, rather than a robot. Pretty cool idea, non?

Things to do today:

• Loads and loads of laundry
• Dishes
• Vacuum
• Clean out the spare room
• Read the rest of Polyeucte and Tartuffe to brush up for the upcoming French exam

Good things:

• Opportunities
• Good TV nights with Joe
• IHOP
• Meijer cereal
• Eating a bit healthier
• Inspiration
• Creative ideas (where have they been all this time?)
• Finally get a good night's sleep at the end of the week
• Bell peppers! I can't get enough of them.
• Progress
• Having something to look forward to
• Correspondence
  
• Dreamweaver classes for FREE (thanks, work!)
• A new layout is on the way!
• Reading - h -'s blog
• My back is hurting less...yay!

not one without the other

I'm studying for my Psychology exam, and I just ran across the fact that taste and smell are interrelated. It brought me back to some time ago, when I asked my Mom why deaf people have to go through not being able to talk or hear at all. She told me: "That's so they can't hear when people are talking bad about them because they wouldn't be able to talk back."

She had a friend whose daughter did not speak at the age of 6 or so, who screamed when she had to go in an elevator, who is now a genius and fluent in French.

Tuckered

My best friend Holly is adorable. Lately, she's been describing her exhaustion by saying, "I'm pretty tuckered," and that's how I feel right now.

Work was more tiring than usual and I'm still recovering. To Catch A Predator was awesome, except for the part during which they did not censor enough a photo of a man's downstairs. Oh, my, my... please block it off with a black bar or pixelate it some more! You're scarring me for life. I can't believe that man killed himself.

Tomorrow, I'm training for the last time (I hope--I can't wait to actually start working) at my new job, then studying for the Psychology exam, reading for French, finishing up a roll for Photography, and somewhere inbetween all that I need to clean the house and go to work. It's not the worst thing ever, but it's still exhausting!

I got really giddy with Emily this afternoon when we were talking about the future. I showed her the house I like in Georgia and I think she liked it, too!

Oh, man, so tired...

Top 10 Reasons We Should Move to Georgia

1. Better weather
2. Lower cost of living
3. I've already found a pretty much perfect house
4. Joe's parents will move there with us
5. That house has a waterfront view!
6. Urban Outfitters is merely a couple hours' drive away
7. We can visit Joe's best friend David and his family more often (they live in Florida)
8. Peaches!
9. The NSA
10. HOTlanta...haha (I ran out of reasons, you see)

Yeah, I'm just waiting for class to start because I came to school an hour and a half early ... because I woke up around 6:30am. Craziness. I'm pumped because I have Chai in my system now. Whoo!

(Please excuse this most ridiculous post ever.)

A Future

Up until a few Fridays ago, I had no idea what I wanted to do with my life after graduating college. I picked up some sort of job guide for Liberal Arts students and I decided that I would want to work for the NSA. I'd already wanted to work for the government, but I had no exact goals. They have a location in Augusta, GA, and maybe we'll move there next year. I'm so excited to have some sort of plan or goal.

Eating Healthier

I don't know how healthy this is, but I've been trying to eat more healthy since my recent declaration of vegetarianism. I decided to add seafood to my diet in order to keep it more balanced or whatever.

I've been eating:

• A 6" Veggie Delite sub, with "the works" (-onions), Chipotle Southwestern sauce, from Subway
• Jambalaya with shrimp (-chicken and oil)
• Oreos and milk
• Small side salad with creamy Italian dressing
• Garlic bread slices and Fettuccini Alfredo
  
• Cappuccino muffin and milk

The Study of Language

Emily, Cameron, and I absolutely love linguistics, but we dread going to our class each Tuesday and Thursday. Our fellow classmates, graduate students included -- have no clue regarding any aspect of language. They are unaware that a dictionary provides the correct spelling and definition of words that may appear in our exercises. Is it because they are so closed-minded that they don't recognize other languages exist outside of English? Their philosophy: this is how we say it, this is how it is. One lady even said it in class, I'm not joking. She couldn't pronounce "rouge" correctly, but that only meant that whomever pronounced it differently than she did was wrong. Ugh. Oh, and there is a native Spanish speaker who does not understand the rules of her own language while Emily pulls her hair out. I understand that it may be hard to diagnose one's own language, but man, must we be so ignorant?!

In addition to all this, our book does not contain explanations of language rules, but merely exercises in which we have to guess them. I just ordered the companion our professor thought was too expensive as an additional textbook so that I can actually understand what's going on; going to class actually makes it more confusing and irritating...and we're convinced it sucks out our brain cells.

Photos from the Snow Days

Unlike New York, only 8" of snow accumulated on our grounds in a 2-day period. We didn't have to work or go to school, but we did spend hours getting cars out of the snow. Ugh.

Less blur!

Last night, at the soccer game:

• Paul scored 2 goals, José and Joe each scored one afterward
• There was a crazy guy in yellow shorts who screamed like a gorilla when his shot was missed; he got kicked out later for sportsmanship issues...he was weird
• It was frrrrreezing cold!
• We were exhausted when we got home

Going to class at 8am would not be worth it if I didn't have Photojournalism. I got an A on my Portrait assignment! I'm not so hopeless after all.

Bo, watching duplo on Vimeo

Joe, playing with Einey

Bo and Belle

I went to Sunny Shick to get the GorillapodSLR, but I guess they don't have it. They tried to sell me the Ultrapod II, but the demonstration took a terrible turn when the camera fell after the man tried to set it on its side. I didn't like the idea of Velcro, either -- too flimsy. I thanked them for their assistance, then I was on my way to the parents' house to pick up my old tripod. Goodbye, blur!

Next photo assignment: controlled lighting. I'm using a ceramic salt & pepper shaker set Mom bought for me in Australia - a dog holding a heart - as my subject. Ha.

My eyes are tired and Monk is too funny.

Extreme!

This morning, I decided that I would try to become a vegetarian again in order to eat more healthily. It's extreme, but I think it'll work. I mean, I won't have any other choice than to eat healthy foods, right? Haha...

Speaking of which, there was some free food in the student union around lunchtime and everyone was going nuts (well, not really) for a fancy taco buffet. I decided against it in the first place, then a guy reinforced my decision by letting me watch him dig his paws straight into an aluminum tray of tortilla chips. No, thanks.

So I worked really hard (5+ hours) on a French Théatre paper and I got it back today with a "B" scribbled on the bottom. What a disappointment! I thought I did so well. She wrote all over the paper in barely legible scrawl that she couldn't understand this or that... and it's starting to make me sad that I will not be getting straight As this semester. I will try even harder, though! I will get those As and I will get my shoes & purse at the end of the semester!

I filled out paperwork to get paid as a Note Taker for one of my classmates in my Psychology class, which will actually pay at the end of the semester. It'll help my summer school fund, so I'm not too bummed that I won't be getting paid regularly.

I got paid to go to training for my other position at the school as Web Content Editor, too. Dreamweaver 8 training for free...and wait, I get paid to learn? Amazing. I learned some, but I had to leave early to go to class. More training to come next week!

I'm incredibly sleepy right now. Joe's game is at 10:55pm, then I have class at 8am! Tiring, but tons of fun. I think I might stop by Sunny Shick to see if they have the Gorilla pod for SLRs, because I can't afford to have any more blurry photos. I also need Finnegan's Linguistics book to accompany the very vague and confusing book we currently have for class.

Bah! I'm going to try catching some zzz's before the game.

Snowed In

I woke up to a radio DJ listing off the school closings due to this blizzard of ours and I was pretty upset that she named off every college except for mine. I scrambled around the house, then I checked the news website just to find that my school was added to the list! I'm glad don't have 12+ inches of snow like they do in New York, Maryland, and New Hampshire... they literally can't leave home!

In other news, I am given another chance at studying/doing homework and cleaning up the house.

Update: We're up to more than 6 inches of snow and still accumulating. Joe got to come home from work before noon since we have a Level 2 Snow Alert or something. I can't wait to take pictures tomorrow!

Happy Valentine's Day!

Attempts at Video Editing

I got bored and this clip needed audio (my camera doesn't provide any), so I messed around in Windows Movie Maker (since I am iMac-less and thus iMovie-less) and made this:



That's my cousin Chelsie, and she's dancing on the way to some place in Australia. The music is my favorite part (and also the part that gets stuck in my head) of "Lived in Bars" by Cat Power.

A Series of Sometimes Exciting Events

Since my last post...

• Some kids broke into Joe's car and took about $5 in change, nothing else. It's going to cost us near $200 to replace the broken window.
• I found out that I will be graduating this summer! I also found out (thanks to Emily) that I will be able to walk at commencement (with Emily) in May!
• Yesterday was my birthday! I am now 23 years old. Mom got me some fat jeans, a fish/koi charm bracelet, and a Fossil watch! Official celebrations are to follow this weekend.
• I completed my Photography assignment early this week! I can't wait to see the results.
• Oh, and I accidentally deleted the Cameron's 2:00 pm Surprise photos from my phone...sorry.