Two Things That Are Pointless

1. Webinars
2. Powerpoint Presentations

So the webinar that includes a Powerpoint presentation is ten minutes I'll never get back.
I mean, maybe it's because they're free, but REALLY?! People thinking about graduate school or job interviews need to be told to brush their hair? to not act bored? to dress conservatively? darn, and here I was going to wear go-go boots and chomp on gum while yawning and texting during my next interview. Thanks, Princeton Review, for reminding me that I shouldn't do that.


"New Webinars from The Princeton Review Will Help You Craft a Winning Resume and Ace the Interview

Want a leg up on the competition when applying for jobs or graduate school? New webinars from The Princeton Review offer helpful tips on how to create an impressive resume and make a positive impression during interviews.

The 10-minute webinars are exclusive -- and free -- to active Phi Kappa Phi members.

Click here to download "The Resume" webinar.
Click here to download "The Interview" webinar."

Cool, cool, cool

I got a call for an interview next week. Might not work, but at least a possibility.
And I've made a decision to go practice free pool for a while later this afternoon.
Now if my brother would be available for lunch this week, all will be great.
I need to get to work on all the usual stuff too, but it's much easier when I'm feeling positive.

Lunch with bro: Friday. YAY!!!

music!

One good thing about having an electric piano instead of the real thing: volume control so that I can play at 1:30 in the morning. Now I am very carefully numbering pages of awesome new music that I am delighted to be borrowing.

Telling jokes works better in dreams

I had a dream about last night last night

:)

Happy

When Did I Become Such a Huge Dork?

well, that happened a long, long time ago.
But it is pretty lame that it is a Friday night, and I am almost compulsively checking my school website to see what grade I got in my class. The instructor has until midnight to post grades, and he's really dragging this out to the last minute! Geez!

Anyway, I hope the extra credit that was promised on final exam has NOT yet been applied because I did the calculations for the individual grades that have been posted, and have an 87%. I want an A.

a stupid assignment was worth way more points than it should have been.

OKay, just checked again, and it says I got an A-. Yay

Maybe I should work on my vocabulary

I haven't done this for a long time: as I find words that I like or just think I should know, I will use them so that I don't forget what they mean. If I just read a definition, I forget and end up looking the word up every 3 months or something (e.g. "supercilious"). It makes no sense to me that that doesn't mean silly or superfluous.

I don't like that musician because she seems supercilious in that she acts arrogant and full of disdain when anyone asks her anything. However, she is better than that other musician who just will not yield to any opinion other than his own --- no matter how wrong he may be, or how persuasive others may be -- he is an obdurate person.

Goals as they pop into my head...an ongoing process

Pre-1. Um, Hello?! I forgot to mention a little thing called my Advanced Project that is the only thing getting in the way of my graduating. Idiot. GET IT DONE.

1. Get an 'A' in Abnormal Psychology. (out of my hands now)

2. Buy GRE Prep book and study

3. Take GRE by end of September in order to take advantage of 50% off.

4. GET A JOB!

5. SAVE SAVE SAVE!

6. Get my own apartment that makes me happy

7. Get a poem published (within a year??)

8. Keep trying to win the New Yorker cartoon caption contest (good luck with that one)

9. Lose weight (P90X, Pilates, biking, USE SCHOOL GYM while I can!)

10. Get to AZ to see Mom!

11. Be better about communicating with friends and family

12. Make an effort socially (I hate small talk, and don't like schmoozing, and I tend to hold onto one favorite person for dear life, but that doesn't always feel good to the other person

13. Practice Piano Daily. Find new music online. Work on Improvisation.

14. Read more.

15. Write more.

16. Think less; Act more.

17. Clean and Maintain. Rinse and Repeat.

Now I'm just making stuff up...stop.

18. Think about stopping trying so hard with people...it's possible that they'll like me without me trying to please everyone and be perfect, which I fail miserably at anyway. Maybe smile less?? (someone mentioned that I do that when I'm nervous, and it threw me for a loop: I'm not sure if that's true. I don't really think it is. I think things just make me happy easily, but there might be something to it) Chill.

19. Get back to reading "Remembrance of Things Past." Reading the first 1 1/2 books in the series is NOT ENOUGH. Although, so far, "Within a Budding Grove" is boring and not nearly as good as "Swann's Way."

I really want to put punctuation OUTside the quotes. grr.

20. Damn it, I keep thinking of stuff. These are my last few (?) of the day.
Stop comparing myself to others and finding something to be jealous of in EVERYONE. I will never be best or smartest or prettiest or most likable or youngest or most accomplished or cleanest or organized or anything ever, so....just cut it out.

21. some longer term goals:
Graduate school: decide MSW or PsyD (planning on PsyD, but is it realistic?)

22. Relationship issues...nuff said.

23. Savings. Own property. Nice stuff. Travel. Sophistication. Be more polished. Career, not job. Stability. Lawn and porch. Piano. Dishwasher, washer and dryer. MUCH nicer neighborhood, so I don't have to feel so negative and critical because of my own issues.

Image of my first Constitution story

NOTE: I learned a lot by doing everything from the research to the writing to the page layout to handing over to copy-editors to the actual published copy. For example, it's amazing how quickly I went from, "oh boy! I'm going to be published!" to "how dare they mess with my artistic integrity!" (I didn't get to have complete say about the headlines. To me, you shouldn't say, "Free to say what's on our Mind?"....you should say "minds" plural. Ce'st la biz.

2001 trip with Louis and Vicky

View of Paris from hostel balcony



A Parade in Brussels that we discovered late at night

2007 Chicago Sun-Times article on The Constitution (I think this was the last of four)

Even though this is just the text without the images (or formatting), I still want to have a record on the computer of these articles, since they were in print editions only, and paper doesn't last forever. NOTE: This is the article where the copy-editor CHANGED my spelling of "Montesquieu"-- which was correct -- to "Montesquier," which was not correct. I changed it back here. copy-editing rule #1: never give copy back with more mistakes than it started out with!

This was for a special series for Constitution Day in the Newspapers in Education section of the Chicago Sun-Times that is in the print edition only (if that's still the case). The target audience was kids who were in the grades that are required to take a test on the Constitution.
________________________________________________________


Celebrating the Constitution of the United States: Keeping us safe and
free
Author(s): Nicole Parker Special to The Chicago Sun-Times Date: September 25, 2007 Page: 42
Section: Features
"The people made the Constitution, and the people can unmake it. It is the creature of their will, and lives only by
their will." -- Chief Justice John Marshall, 1821.
There have been many documents that have come and gone throughout history, so why did the founding fathers place so much importance on getting the United States Constitution just right?
Ten years prior to the creation of our Constitution, the Declaration of Independence was written to free us from English rule. Five years later, the Articles of Confederation were created as the first system of governing principles
made between the thirteen American colonies. The Constitution would replace the Articles of Confederation after just six years, as it became clear that a stronger central government was needed.
The Constitution's influences were vast; they came from England's Magna Carta in 1215, the Mayflower Compact of 1620 and the philosophers John Locke and Baron de Montesquieu who wrote about the separation of
power and system of checks and balances. The Virginia Declaration of Rights, written by George Mason, was a major influence for the Bill of Rights.
The Constitution was drafted at a time when America's democracy was in danger of splintering. It not only saved the nation then, but also has helped us survive the Civil War, Depression, school desegregation and even our
nation's efforts to recover from the tragedy of Hurricane Katrina. With only limited changes the Constitution has
presided over the growth of scattered colonies and taken us safely through crises that might have broken other
nations.
The Constitution authors debated how to balance the rights of states with the needs of a strong national
government. When the U.S. Senate debates a Supreme Court justice nomination, we see the Separation of
Powers doctrine in action. One branch, the Executive, is nominating an officer of a second branch, the Judiciary,
and submitting it for a vote by the Senate -- a body in the third branch, Congress.
Most of the framers of the Constitution expected the judicial branch of government to be the weakest of the
three, but the Supreme Court has reached the lives of every citizen and has resolved some of history's most
dramatic confrontations. Overturning a Supreme Court decision often requires revising federal law or even
amending the Constitution.
"Just as it did more than 200 years ago, the Constitution is what makes us a free people today. Keeping the
Constitution alive, and understanding and protecting it, depends on all of us. When people don't understand and
value their rights, it is easy for others to take them away," Michael S. Greco, American Bar Association.
Source: www.abanet.org

DID YOU KNOW?
- Only two of the delegates to the Constitutional Convention signed the Declaration of Independence in 1776, the
Articles of Confederation in 1781 and the U.S. Constitution in 1787; Roger Sherman and Robert Morris.
- James Madison was the only delegate to attend every meeting of the Constitutional Convention. The journal he
kept during the Convention was purchased by the government in 1837 for $30,000 (about $504,000 today) and
was published in 1840.
- Virginia's Declaration of Rights, written by George Mason, was the basis for the Bill of Rights and was used by
Thomas Jefferson in writing the opening paragraphs of the Declaration of Independence.
Source: www.usconstitutionfacts.com
FIRST AMENDMENT QUIZ
1. One provision of the First Amendment is
a. Freedom of speech
b. The right to an impartial jury
c. The right to bear arms
d. Freedom from unusual punishments
2. The new Congress first conducted business under the Constitution on April 6, 1789, the same day George
Washington was elected President.
a. True b. False
3. What is the name of the beginning of the Constitution?
a. Preamble
b. The Bill of Rights
c. Introduction
d. Article I
4. The first state to ratify the Constitution was Virginia.
a. True b. False
5. The Constitutional Convention signed the U.S. Constitution on Sept. 17, 1787.
a. True b. False
6. Which future U.S. President submitted a plan to change the Articles of Confederation, which led to creating the
U.S. Constitution?
a. George Washington
b. Thomas Jefferson
c. James Madison
d. Abraham Lincoln
7. How many states must ratify an amendment to the Constitution?
a. One-half
b. Two-thirds
c. Three-fourths
d. All of them
8. What is the Bill of Rights?
a. The first paragraph of the Constitution
b. The last 10 amendments
c. The main ideas of the Declaration of
Independence
d. The first 10 amendments
Source: www.whitehouse.gov
FIRST AMENDMENT - CORNERSTONE OF OUR FREEDOM
The First Amendment was written because, right from the beginning, Americans demanded a guarantee of their
basic freedoms. The words haven't changed since they were adopted by the United States as part of the Bill of
Rights more than 200 years ago.
The First Amendment is our blueprint, and the cornerstone of freedom in the United States. Commonly referred to
as the "five freedoms," the First Amendment has aided Americans in exercising their rights to work for a more free
and just society.
Without the First Amendment, religious minorities could be persecuted, the government could establish a national
religion, protesters could be silenced, the press could not criticize government and Americans could not come
together for social change.
Every important struggle for social justice has involved the First Amendment in one way or another. From the
abolitionist movement to the environmental movement, such efforts have all relied on the First Amendment.
Schools should be a place where students learn about democracy, but more importantly they should be a place
where students live in a democracy.
"When the John S. and James L. Knight Foundation found that nearly three-fourths of U.S. high school students
take the First Amendment and its protections for granted or are unsure how they feel about them, the
Anti-Defamation League felt compelled to reduce that number. We felt that we have a responsibility to make sure
that future generations know what it means to live in a democracy; to understand their rights and responsibilities to be active members in supporting that democracy," notes Lindsay Friedman, Director, A WORLD OF
DIFFERENCE Institute, Senior Associate Director, Education Division.
The Anti-Defamation League, in partnership with the Philadelphia Bar Association, created "The First Amendment
in Public Schools: A Curriculum Unit for High School Students" -- to assist educators in engaging students in
exploring what the five freedoms of the First Amendment freedoms are and how they function today. The 70-plus
page curriculum guide includes detailed lesson plans outlining student objectives, activity sheets, topics for
discussion, student surveys, key words and more. In addition, each of the lessons specifically details the national
educational standards they support.
For more information and to receive the free, "The First Amendment in Public Schools:
For more information about our Newspaper in Education program, curriculum materials and classroom
newspapers, please call
Return to the
Chicago Sun-Times
© Copyright 2009 Sun-Times Media, LLC

Here.

If you haven't done so already, read this. It's one of my favorites.
http://shakespeare.mit.edu/measure/full.html

Things that Make Me Happy

Mom, Dad, and Eric!
My smiley face slinky key chain that sits next to my monitor
Magic Eraser
Finding a new band that I really like.
Finding a person I actually like as opposed to just being okay with
Finding the perfect place to store something that's been in the way.
Succeeding.
Free money (as in scholarships and grants)

Iowa Republican Debate in 1 Minute

It's like a train-wreck (or so people say)...I personally don't like watching train wrecks and what not, and yet, I have to watch to see what the Republicans say. ugh....one huge eyeroll. then back to homework and sandwich.

Why I have Stomach Aches So Often...

by Nicole Parker.


In order to get financial aid money for summer, you need to fill out an application online of course. In order to submit, you need to put a value in the drop down box for credit hours taken over the summer. The drop down box is grayed out. I've tried this in Firefox, Safari, and Internet Explorer. WHY is it not working? And of course, the person in the fin. aid office is gone for the day, and this has to be done by tomorrow morning. Breathe in. Breathe out. I am aware of my feet. My negative thoughts are just flooooooaaaating like bubbles..... bla blobbidy bla. :)

Okay, the box is probably grayed out because the value is automatically filled in with how many hours I'm enrolled for, so the true problem is that the value inputted automatically is "0". Probably because I owe money, which is WHY I'M TRYING TO DO THIS IN THE FIRST PLACE...TO PAY THAT MONEY!!! On 4 hours of sleep, I am having a VERY hard time dealing with this crap. And my shoulder and my stomach are both hurting a lot. :( And I have to write ten learning points (easy) plus an explanation as to why I could not hand this in today.

Bleeding Heart Liberal Emails

It's kind of funny how many of these "Please Help!" emails I get. It's my fault; when I have a job, I do try to give when I can...so, please help if you can.

"Dear Nicole,

I wanted to be sure you saw my email. With the support of people like you, we're swiftly moving into Mogadishu, now home to nearly half a million refugees from Somalia's famine. They're crowded into little huts made from twigs, rags and plastic bags. More arrive each day, and they desperately need help just to survive.

Please make a donation now to save lives in the drought-ravaged Horn.

Thank you.

NKG"

––––––––– Forwarded message –––––––––
From: Neal Keny-Guyer, Mercy Corps
__________________________________________________

And shortly thereafter, this one:

"

Mao Hengfeng was delivered home from detention unconscious and in a wheelchair.


Dear Nic,

The last time Mao Hengfeng was home from jail, the celebration was short-lived. She had roughly two days of freedom before being re-detained on vague charges.

Two weeks ago, when Chinese police returned Mao Hengfeng home from her most recent term of "Re-Education through Labor" - it didn't feel right to celebrate at all.

She was home, but she was delivered unconscious in a wheelchair...severely beaten...clearly tortured...barely alive1.

It gets worse. Shanghai authorities have been known to return detainees to their homes shortly before they die so that they can later wash their hands of all culpability. Because her release was completely unexpected, Mao's husband and family could only expect the worst.

I can honestly tell you that some of my happiest moments here at Amnesty International have been the days when a prisoner of conscience is released. Just knowing that they are being reunited with their loved ones makes our work all the more satisfying.

But bittersweet doesn't even begin to cover the disgraceful "homecoming" of Mao Hengfeng.

Not only should she have never been detained in the first place for voicing her beliefs, but no one - and I mean no one - should ever experience the appalling treatment she did while in detention.

Help us demand accountability for the torture and abuse of Mao Hengfeng.

For simply demanding political and social change, Chinese authorities have repeatedly arrested this wife and mother of three.

Her most recent detention stems from her 2009 protest of the detention of Liu Xiaobo, a prominent human rights defender in China and the recipient of the 2010 Nobel Peace Prize. She has also been a strong advocate for women's reproductive rights and the victims of forced evictions in Shanghai.

We've been told that since being home, Mao's condition has improved slightly. She regained consciousness and has started to walk and talk again slowly. We couldn't be more relieved to hear this news and hope that her progress continues.

But even though Mao's condition may continue to improve, Amnesty International will not let her wounds be forgotten.

Take action for Mao Hengfeng. Please take action to support this courageous woman's struggle for human rights!

Thank You,

Michael O'Reilly
Senior Campaign Director, Individuals at Risk
Amnesty International USA "

from The Onion...I'm done with trying to embed it perfectly, so you get the text, some pictures, and no main picture, and you'll like it.

New GOP Strategy Involves Reelecting Obama, Making His Life Even More Miserable

August 10, 2011 |

ISSUE 47•32

WASHINGTON—Calling a GOP victory in the 2012 presidential election antithetical to the party platform, top Republicans revealed a new long-term political strategy Tuesday: reelecting Barack Obama and making his life even more of a living hell than it already is.

"For three years, the Republican Party has coalesced around the single goal of making President Obama's every waking moment sheer and utter torture," Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell told reporters. "But we can't continue to do that if he's not in office."

"If we are going to make the president a haggard shell of a human being by the time he leaves the White House, we need four more years of never compromising, four more years of miring every piece of legislation in unnecessary procedural muck, four more years of pretending we want to work with the president and then walking away from the table at the last second," McConnell added. "Four more years! Four more years! Obama 2012!"

According to GOP sources, the decision to cede the 2012 election to Obama came after rank-and-file Republicans agreed that grinding the president down to nothing and pushing him to the brink of insanity was far more in line with the Republican Party's core principles than actually controlling the White House, making laws, or governing the country.

Republican officials said that because they won't be burdened with a time consuming presidential campaign, they can start looking beyond the 2012 general election and begin developing a four-pronged attack designed to ruin the president emotionally, physically, personally, and professionally.

Moreover, giving the president a second term in office would reportedly allow GOP lawmakers to build on the mental distress they've already caused him.

"If you look at what we've accomplished as a party in the last four years—making President Obama lose his temper on multiple occasions and even causing him to storm out of a meeting in frustration—it doesn't make sense for us to throw all that away, not when we could do so much more," House Majority Leader Eric Cantor said. "If by being impossible to work with we are able to make the president physically shake with frustration during every single meeting, give him the nervous tick of mumbling angrily under his breath, tarnish his entire legacy, and in the process completely destroy his faith in humanity, then we've succeeded as lawmakers."

"If you thought this debt ceiling thing was bad, wait till you see how unbearable we are when it comes time for the Bush tax cuts to expire," Cantor added. "We are going to pummel this man over and over and over until he regrets ever getting into politics."

In order to make the president's next four years the worst of his life, GOP legislators are reportedly working on a new "Destroy Every Fiber of Barack Obama's Being" initiative, a plan that includes benchmarks such as making Obama look 10 years older than he is just six months into his second term; ruining his marriage before the 2014 midterm elections; and, by the time he leaves office, making him break down in front of the entire nation and say the words "I give up. Just please stop."

"If Barack Obama doesn't go to bed fuming with deep primal rage every single night, then we haven't done our job," said House Speaker John Boehner, who later called the residual effect of getting to watch Obama's supporters become more and more disillusioned with their country as their president's posture deteriorates, his face becomes exceedingly gaunt, and his once booming voice turn shaky and unconfident "definitely a plus." "Mark my words: The Republican Party is committed to giving the American people a president who has a chronically bleeding gastric ulcer that makes it almost impossible for him to stand up."

"To be honest, I'm glad we're pulling out of this election, because I really don't know what we would focus on if we won," Boehner added. "Health care?"

While a major party forgoing a presidential campaign is considered unorthodox, Beltway insiders were not surprised by the Republican announcement, saying the GOP was simply playing to its strength.

"Making Barack Obama's life a waking nightmare is what we do best," Republican strategist Todd Harris said. "It's also just smart politics. After all, getting the man reelected and watching him whither away to nothing before our very eyes will fire up the base more than any of the current Republican presidential candidates will."

ARE YOU KIDDING ME?!

How am I supposed to stay calm when I deal with idiocy like this? A certain non-professor (instructor) who shall remain nameless requires that for each of our writing assignments, we hand in two copies. First of all, I have no idea why that is necessary. Second of all, in a huge rush to finish the assignment on time, I forgot to print out a second copy. As a GESTURE...(I assumed that is all it was because it surely wouldn't be important)....I saw him after class and mentioned that I had forgotten to print a second copy, and could I bring it to his office later or email it to him? He says no. I say, is there a penalty if there is not a second copy? He says, yes, there is a deduction in points. I ask how many...he says 5-7 points. I verify that that is enough to go down from an A to a B..he says that is correct. Oh my gosh, seriously?!!!!! I feel like pulling my hair out: THAT MAKES NO SENSE AT ALL. GRRRRRRRRR. What is the point?! I hate sounding like this, but my GPA better not go down because of a PSYCH class of all things! I understood when I had to give up a 4.0 GPA due to a Statistics class: that was kind of expected, but if it goes down again because of this class, I will be livid.

I love my nerd friends

"I need you to find several pictures of Dr. Who's tardis and email them to me as links."

"The Worst Cleaning Jobs Made Easy"

Okay AFTER this, I'll get to work. But the OCD side of me loves RealSimple.com and their awesome tips. The pictures in this article are awesome and so realistic, but I can relate ... these jobs are not fun ... but I think I've come up with pretty good strategies on my own. Nevertheless...
Now I want to clean instead of read, but NO! oh, here's the link: (wait...if anyone reads this, or if I read this later, is there a way to embed a video when there is no code for embed to copy and paste in?) That's something else I can distract myself with! Oh boy! http://www.realsimple.com/home-organizing/cleaning/worst-cleaning-jobs-made-easy-00000000032847/index.html

Who Needs Sleep?

The whole sleeping thing just didn't work out last night. So now...I wait until a decent hour to call my friend and see if she wants to go out for breakfast.