Wow, The Connections Are Endless

Hmm, I read a lot of interesting things while browsing through this month's Star Trek Communicator, the Official Fan Club magazine. For instance, Rene Auberjonis (Odo from Deep Space 9) joins William Shatner on Boston Legal in a recurring role. Then I read about Judith & Garfield Reeves-Steevies, the authors who help Shatner write the continuing adventures of Kirk after his death in Generations (he was brought back to life in book form) as well as other fine novels. They've joined the writing staff of Enterprise, hence why William Shatner is in negotiations to start appearing in the show as Kirk. Hmm. Wonder how that will work. Also, while scanning through the numerous awards in that past couple of months that anyone who even guest starred on Star Trek in the last forty years has won, I am reminded of how many famous people were in Star Trek. The magazine includes updates of Jason Alexander (Kurros, Voyager), Whoopi Goldberg (Guinan, Next Gen), Kirstie Allie (Saavik, Star Trek II), Christopher Lloyd (Kruge, Star Trek III), Kelsey Grammer (Captain Bateson, Next Gen), John Rhys-Davis (Leonardo DaVinci, Voyager), and others. Then I started to read about the Emmys that Enterprise won this year (Yes, it wins awards!) and I read about the Sci-Fi awards it won too. There is a Gene Roddenberry Lifetime Achievement award, named after the creator of Star Trek who died in 1991, and this year it went to Joss Whedon. Angel also beat Enterprise for best theme song and best episode (A Hole in the World). Then I started reading about William Shatner's new CD. Ben Folds arranged a bunch of his music, and Brad Paisley (there is a big interview with him in the magazine) sung with him. This stuff is cool. Ok, I'm a geek.

Another Great Day

That headline doesn't refer to today, although it certainly ended well with a nearly two hour phone conversation to the girl I was out with Friday night. :) Other than that, I worked 12 hours. Yesterday, however was great. After my awesome late Friday night, I slept in until nearly noon on Saturday. Then Tim and I became Manly Men and went out and cut down a tree from a tree farm. Arrg!, as we kept saying. We cut it down, drug it back to the truck, and headed home where we preceeded to act girly again and decorate all day, including a big construction paper fireplace on our wall. So to feel more manly we made a sign with markers that showed how fierce we were with our saws and the tree cowering in fear. Manly, right? LOL. We had a ton of fun decorating until midnight. Nick even came over and made a lifesize Nick from his comic coming out of a gift wrapped box. It is totally cool. And we put lights outside to scare our neighbors. :) So, come check our place out. Bedtime soon. Got to get up. Maybe a little 24 first. I'm not moving nearly fast enough on that. Gotta get through three seasons by the end of the year.

This Update Has A Happy Ending

So I need to update quite a bit. It's been an eventful week. I finishied my exams on Monday and my last project for the quarter on Tuesday. It was a paper about Music and the Holocaust. Very interesting, but if I start typing about it now, I'd put in half the paper, so never mind. :) It's a relief to be done with classes for awhile, but now it actually is fully sunk in that I will be leaving Otterbein in two quarters. It is extremely sad. I will very much miss it.

So Wednesday I worked 8-8 as it is the busiest night for pizza in the year, plus cooked three turkeys, pies, and all the fixings for about 100 people. How fun is that? Then I picked up my little sister from her basketball practice and went out to my aunt's house fully expecting to have more Thanksgiving prep to do (but not really wanting to as I was tired). Luckily my two littlest brothers had been there and did all the cleaning and table setting and stuff. One was still there. My uncle arrived about the same time I did (not the one that lives there - he was driving his truck and didn't get home until 5am! but the one from Kentucky that I don't get to see that often). Then his wife and their twins came home (sans their little sister) and we all played Euchre and talked and drank until late (I was overserved!). My aunt had bought Smirnoff for me. Devil. I have cut back on drinking but I would have felt guilty when she bought it for me if I didn't. So I got up kinda late (10:30ish) on Thursday and helped her in the kitchen getting ready for the big 35 member family feast. Then of course the feast, all my mom's family showing up (we're all very close), good wine, good food, good conversation. I finally left about 10pm and headed home, where Tim & I arranged our apartment for the tree.

Friday I had to work 8 hours, but the worst part of Friday was when I found out my car repair is going to be $2000! So it's not getting done. I don't have the money, the car is only worth about $3000. Problem is I still owe $1600 on the car. So I don't know how I'm going to afford a new car while staying paying the old one. I tried to tak my dad about it, but he's still a total asshole sometimes, which is a shame because we haven't fought in awhile and it was nice to have a little peace with him. Anyway, I am still driving his pickup and I have no idea what I'm going to do.

Lucikly Friday night is the capper and was very fun. I went to the zoo with someone and then we hung out at Steak and Shake until 3am. I really don't want to say much more because I don't know where anything is going, but I am happy that the one and a half year streak is over, and that I had so much fun with this person. It made me completely forget about my other problems and she is extremely cool. Anyway, talk to you all later!

Friends Don't Let Friends Vote Republican

I am sitting in my room, waiting for a friend to go to lunch, and flipping through my Farenheit 9/11 Reader. I am struck by what a powerful piece of film that movie was and the implications of what it reveals. The film really puts things into perspective and reminds me of 1984, which I guess it was meant to since it ended the movie with a quote from that book by George Orwell. In case you haven't read it, the main point of the book is that 'Big Brother', the leading political figure in the part of the world the story takes place in, is always watching you and controlling you. Big Brother and his two counterparts (the world is only in three main regions at that time) are perpetually in a war to keep people under control. Two are always against one, but the alliances change and all the past media is rewritten so it appears that the sides of the countries never changed. People are so brainwashed that they always buy it. Bush has been compared to Big Brother. Throwing us into an unjustitified war with Iraq allows him to control many people in this country into pushing his views on us all, and of course getting re-elected as he did. I am pleased that almost half of the voters in this country saw through his bull shit and did the smart thing by voting against him, but it wasn't quite enough. Still, those numbers give me hope that we can prevent a 1984 from happening in 2004. Don't let the tyrant Bush control us. Don't let corporations decide our global policy. Some people say get behind the president, the majority has spoken. I've thought about that for several weeks, and that would be the easy thing to do. Put aside my political beliefs for the next three years until the next campaign and then get passionate again, but that's not what life's about. Life is fighting for what you believe in and doing what's right. Bush is not doing what's right. I would be proud to be part of a campaign speaking out against him for the next four years. We need a president, not a dictator. I'm not getting behind him.

NOT MY PRESIDENT - SAY NO TO GEORGE W.

Interesting Concert

So, I feel bad about letting it go 6 days between the last two posts, so I thought I'd rush another one out. The headline does not refer to last night's concert. It went fine. And I also finished Lemony Snicket Book the Third in between warm-ups and the concert. Books 4-9 are in the mail to me. And than afterwards I hung out with a friend I hadn't hung out with in awhile. We seem to get along really great. I wish I saw her more. We hung out a bit last winter and spring but I hadn't seen her since then.

Anyway, back to my headline. I played a 'concert' at the City Center this morning. Everything that could go wrong did. My clarinet was in my car, which is broken down at my mom's house. Kristen let me borrow hers, though. Then I parked on the top floor of this really scary, steep parking garage that made me to dizzy to go down from. They had told us to be there at 10am, so we were there by 9:40. When we got there they said they didn't need us until 11, although it was almost 11:20 before Santa showed up. Then they were upset because we weren't in uniform, another fact no one knew anything about. So they gave us red City Center t-shirts and little antlers with bells attached. Then they say they wants us to play "Here Comes Santa Claus" and nothing but "Here Comes Santa Claus". Interesting, because we had only brough a medley of Jingle Bells, White Christmas, and Jolly Old St. Nicholas. Luckily we were there an hour and a half early and Nathan managed to write out the melody and even add a slight bit of harmony and a few cool things for "Here Comes Santa Claus". So we wait outside for 'Buckeye Santa', who we then follow all around all 3 floors of the mall. It's a big mall. Playing nothing but about 16 bars of "Here Comes Santa Claus" over and over and over and over and over and over and over and over and over and over and over and over and over and...you get the picture, right? BORING!!! Then we played out medley twice and left about noon. What a morning. My first day off in a month and a half...ah, well. They did give us free passes to a sneak preview of "Christmas With the Kranks" for Tuesday night. Ok, time for more television because that's what I do when I have an exam Monday morning, have to work 16 hours on Sunday, and have a huge research paper I haven't started due Wednesday (I have to finish Tuesday because I work all day Wednesday). Maybe some daquiri tonight too. I've been off my alcohol. :( Which is another reason I should hang out with my friend I hung out with last night more: She loves alcohol as much as I do! :)

Sorry So Long

Sorry it's been so long since I updated you. I'm sure you were all hanging on edge to find out what's going on this week in my exciting life. :) j/k So it's been hell. Week 10 is over, but I still have an exam Monday morning and a big paper due by Wednesday. Of course, I am working 8-8 next Wednesday and cooking a Thanksgiving buffet dinner for about 100-120 people, so... I have 3 turkeys, pies, and all the trimmings. Yay. Can't wait to switch my job and get out of the kitchen, possibly as soon as the end of this year! Yeah right. It'll prob be like summer, but here's hoping.

So my car died this week. The timing belt or some such thing blew and it's a very expensive repair, so I got the bank to 'refinance my car', which was almost paid off, and I'm going to have to do like an extra 4 car payments at the end. And without a co-signer! Yay! Not too bad because at least it'll get fixed. Plus I get to drive my dad's truck until it's fixed and even though I hate parking it because it's huge, it's a 4 door and a 4 door pickup is pretty cool.

TV wise I finished Boy Meet World Season One and was about to start 24 Season One, but stopped after 1 episode because Friends Season Eight came out. Don't worry, I only have 6 episodes left on it and I will be well into 24 by Thanksgiving. Of course, I need to get Smallville Season 3, and watch Lost which I've been recording since it premiered but never watched it.

Reading wise, I feel bad because I did very little pleasure reading this quarter. I just finished a John Grisham novel (he's really cool) and two Lemony Snicket books in the last couple of days. They are short but great. Read them before the movie hit theaters! My book, I just finished my first edit! I am so excited! I want to work hard and get the second edit done in the next week. It should be much quicker. I want to get the damn thing published! I'm kind of hoping it'll solve all of my money problems, but not really counting on it.

Ok, onto dinner and the Wind Ensemble concert! Adios my amigos!

Last Football Game

After 8 years, a significant portion of my life is at an end. Today I marched my last marching band game. It was pretty sad. As I sit here, band uniform pants still around my ankles because I'm too lazy to kick them off, it has finally sunk in that I will be done with this school in June. Granted, I am not hitting the real world next year. I will be finishing my music education certification at another school. Still, I will have a degree in June and I will be out of this quiet, peaceful village. I don't want to leave. I was drug here kicking and screaming...shit, now I'm slipping into Garth Brooks lyrics. Anyway, I don't want to leave. I didn't want to leave West Jefferson, and I couldn't be happier that I did, 97% of the time. I'm sure it'll be the same next year. And yet, with only a week left in this quarter and only two more quarters after that, I realize that I am going to miss it very much. To the next step.

What A Day

So I finished Alias Season 3 today. It freakin' rocked! I rushed through the season in less than a week, even with school and work. The ending surprise, while I did not predict it, was not so much a surprise. Despite that, I can't wait until January to see Season 4! Now I guess I need to get started on 24. Probably Thursday or Friday. I'm too tired tonight. Well, maybe just one episode....we'll see. Prob not because I want to watch the 3 seasons in 3 24 hour marathons (well, more like 18 hour).

Tonight I got hit in my driver's side door of my car. Again. This is the third time I've been hit in that spot; all 3 times I was parked and not in the car. Only 1 of those 3 times did the person leave me their insurance info so I could actually get the car fixed. It was not this time. This really pisses me off. I mean, have some common human decency! You make a mistake, own up to it! I can't afford to fix my car by the time I pay the deductible. It's going to remain badly dented unless Westerville Police can catch the bastard off of Meijer's surviellence cameras, which is doubtful. I'm too tired to rant anymore. 16 hour shift tomorrow. Night all.

Productive Day

I slept in until 4pm sorry Jenn. I was asleep around 2-3am. I had no idea I would sleep anywhere near that long. I feel really bad. You can join Nate and being mad hat I slept through a recital. I don't know how, but I'd like to make it up to you somehow. I really do feel bad. Then after I got up I watched Alias until bedtime. Very productive day. On the Alias note though, I only have 2 discs left...just 6 episodes.

I'm So Happy :)

I'm so happy. Bet you can't guess why. :)

Not My President

WAIVER: If I offend anyone with this entry, I don't apologize. These are issues I feel strongly about and because of amendment number one in our bill of rights, I have every right to express them. If you don't want to hear them, don't read this entry.

So Kerry gave his concession speech today. I heard it, and I was even more impressed with him than I already was. He did what was best for the American people and didn't drag it out for a month like those idiot Republicans did in 2000. He showed a lot of class. People have called him a flip-flopper, but I think he just wants what's best for our country. He has to do his best to represent the people, and the people often change their minds. He just tried to serve our country the best he can. I do have to admit Bush actually won this election. Granted, he lost the last one and so should have never been up for re-election, but this time he barely pulled it off. But what tactics did he use? A lot of people I know didn't like him, but voted for him because they didn't want to change presidents in the middle of 'a war'. Yeah. A war he created to a. make himself money, b. be like his daddy, and c. get himself re-elected because he wouldn't hav had we not been in this stupid war. What I fear the most is after four more years of syaing 'fuck you' to the rest of the world, as Bush's foreign policy seems to be, are we ever going to recover foreign relations? We're moving towards a global society pretty rapidly. We don't need a president who doesn't see that and won't participate in that in the slightest. Basically what I'm sayng is I will be wearing my "Not My President" button for the next four years. Why don't Americans get some sense and listen to true patriots like Michael Moore who actually care about more than the money in their pocket and riding on their father's coattails?

Now onto another issue in the election. Oh, before I get into that, shame on all you heartless bastards who voted to defeat school levys! Kids need that money! Our schools, especially in Ohio, suck! Now, Issue 1. I am so hugely disappointed that we passed it with 61% that I want to leave the state. Except there were 11 states this year with similiar laws, and 61% was one of the low numbers. How can we have regressed this far? We just spent the last century fighting for civil rights. This is a huge step backwards. Not letting gays get married? Why don't we take away women's rights to vote and make black people sit on the back of the bus? I'm not kidding. If we're going to be so narrow-minded and discriminatory, when does it stop? I've heard the argument that it's not natural. It's a disease or caused by molestation as a child. That is total bullshit. Do you know how many gay people are in the world? 10% of our population. That is a huge number. Tell me a disability or disease that affects 10% of people. You know what else 10% of our population is? Left handed. Let's not let left handed people get married because it's unnatural. Actually, only 10% of the world's population is Caucasian. Let's repress ourselves because we're a minority. The other argument I often here is that it's against biblical ideas. Again, I say bullshit. God created gay people just like he created everyone else. Are you saying God screwed up when He did that? That's just stupid. It has been pointed out that once or twice in the bible it mentions something negative about gays. I've got news for you people. The bible is flawed. Yes, it is wonderful and is based on great ideas and values. But it was written by men. Men are flawed. The bible is also sexist and racist. Let's be sexist and racist because the bible is! Everything changes. Something that was relevant 2000 years ago and has not been updated is bound to have some mistakes in it. We are finally living in a world where some gay people feel it's safe to come out. Support gay right and don't make us take a step backwards.

November 2, 2004

Sorry, couldn't think of a more creative title. About Jenn's comment to my last post, I'm sorry if my bringing up politics this fall has offended you, but I only bring issues I feel very, very strongly about. To Jonathan's new headline in his blog about winning my award, thanks for mentioning it! That's cool. I already got back from the voting booth. West Jeff's wait was nothing. I was in and out in 5 minutes. Of course, since I forget to change my registration to Franklin County, I didn't get to vote on Issue 106 or 12 or anything cool like that. Sorry Erin. I did get to put in my vote for John Kerry (Nadar made the ballot. Interesting.), a solid no on Issue 1, and yes on keeping the good ol' WJ post office (why is that even an issue?). Other than that, there were a bunch of minor Madison County office to vote for with only one candidate. Now, tell me if I'm just stupid, but why even be on the ballot if there isn't a choice? Anyway, the best part of last night was watching the SNL Presidential Debate Bash (and it was a bash!). I loved when Clinton let us all know that he felt our pain and sadness that he was not on the ballot this year, Kerry's refusal to quit speaking because he can't, Bush's three step program (Phase 2: lull the terrorists into a false sense of security and confidentthey are winning. Phase 3: Um, work hard. Work Saturdays if we have to. We will beat the terrorists by coming on on Saturdays. We're still working on it.) Then that was followed by Jon Stewart and the Daily Show's coverage. Did you know Florida reinstated slavery last night in a deseparte attempt to be the worst state in this year's election ("From a state worse than Ohio...") Of course, the Ohio reporter did plenty to muck it up themselves. Anyway, now to sit back and watch Kerry win...I hope.

Election Day

So tomorrow is November 2, 2004. Election Day. Only one candidate will win. Latest polls for electoral votes show Kerry in the lead by 67 votes, with 9 (New Mexico & New Hamsphire) left undecided. There were only a few votes listed as barely Bush, but 68 (Ohio, Pennsylvania, and Florida) are barely Kerry. Hmmm. I'm as anxious for Kerry to win Ohio as the entire presidency. Both candidates of course spent the last campaign day in Ohio. Today's manager meeting for my company decided to talk about the election. My bosses are very strong Bush supporters. They wanted to have a 'non-bias, non-arguing' debate. I think everyone was scared to go against them. It was them and 1-2 other people talking about Bush and every once in awhile them letting me something about Kerry. They also did some Kerry-bashing. Now I like my bosses and I don't believe they intentionally turned the conversation into a one-sided bash-fast. I think that part was accidental. Personally, I think it would be smart not to talk politics at all, but I understand the reason behind it. Oh, well. I just hope they didn't sway anyone.

Re-defeat Bush! Vote John Kerry!