So it’s halfway through November, and I’ve not written anything personal or decent since about August. I feel pretty rotten for that - I guess school and the social life got the better of me. And ever since my grandfather passed away, I’ve been feeling glum… I saw him about a week before he passed, while he was unconscious. He didn’t really… look human at that point. I miss him.
So my family is moving. Yup, moving - I’ve never moved - that house has been mine ever since I was born. So this is kind’ve a big change. From the sounds of things right now, my mother and father have found a house design and a lot for it to be built on, both of which they rather love. The reason for this move is because my grandmother… really probably shouldn’t live alone. It’s lonely, and… many other reasons. So she’ll live in her own mother-in-law suite attached to our new house by a little breezeway. :) I think we’re getting this house paid for in straight cash, so hell yeah, no mortgage. For anyone that lives in Augusta and (still) reads this, it should be just over I-20 in Grovetown… I’ll see the exact location over Thanksgiving break.
Otherwise, not much has changed. I did end up picking up a PS3, and I’ve acquired a little over a dozen Blu-rays by now, too (my most recents being WALL-E and Tropic Thunder yesterday). I really love the picture and sound quality… And LittleBigPlanet was a surprise bonus towards purchasing the PS3. I’ve gathered all of the items and survived each stage without dying. XD
I could ramble on for hours about all the little things in life that have occurred… But right now I’m excited for learning the bass guitar. Cody is helping me out and being rather patient, which is great. He lent me his Ibanez bass and an amp, so I’m learning. Slowly, but I’m learning. I’m going to save up and hopefully when I’m better and I have some cash I can get this amber beauty. It’ll be a while, though…
So I’ve not posted in forever. I can update on quite a lot, but I’ll do so later. For entertainment (if anyone checks this anymore), here you go - something very awkward I wrote almost a year ago, based on the actions in the following video:
One day in Teletubby land, Poe and Tinky-Winky decided to hold hands.
Tinky-Winky, suprised at his own sudden, dire urges, looked bashfully from the ground up at Poe’s round, curious eyes, and at once Poe knew what he desired, but Poe knew better than to let on immediately. Tinky-Winky uttered a soft moan, which didn’t go unnoticed by Poe - were these pangs of wanton lust normal? They’d only known each other briefly… this field of dreams, as it were, being their own meeting grounds… Tinky-Winky took a short, sharp breath and held his arm out, a facade of confidence surrounding his bold, yet internally terrifying, gesture.
Poe looked. There, before him, was an invitation of a variety he was familiar with - a sign of togetherness. His hand twitched nervously towards Tinky-Winky’s but Poe retracted it for a moment, and gazed up at his tall companion’s eyes… their looks locked, and Poe looked away, breaking the connection. He stared forth, and only said softly, “…Tinky-Winky…” and his hand moved mechanically towards his mouth, as if he’d vocalized some taboo curse. Then, with brazen intent, grasped firmly on Tinky-Winky’s invitation, and looked back at Tinky-Winky. The air was still with silence as Poe said, almost as silently as the air around them, “…holding…hands.” Moving together, the two shared the moment of spiritual bliss - this was it. Tinky-Winky repeated Poe, louder, as if to solidify the moment, this moment: “Holding hands!” They looked not at each other, but their future before them, when a familiar march began.
Dipsy and Lala were fast approaching. Poe and Tinky-Winky stiffened their resolve, resolutely holding hands. Dipsy and Lala spotted the two, and simultaneously knew what their symbol meant, emitted each an “Uh oh”… could the four never be a group again? Would this illusion of brotherly love diminish with realized truth that it’s no longer Tinky-Winky, Dipsy, Lala, and Poe, but rather it’s Tinky-Winky and Poe, then Dispy and Lala?
Dipsy and Lala… Dipsy… AND Lala…
So Dipsy and Lala decided to hold hands, too. They’d frolicked into this field not only to find their friends, but also themselves… With bold intent they clasped their hands firmly together, only to realize, after saying aloud together “We’re holding hands too” that their gesture meant nothing compared to Tinky-Winky and Poe’s, their….love.
Dipsy had never had love. He looked cautious from Lala to Poe and again at his one empty hand, worthless as it was empty, he could fill it with another, and maybe… it will fill his empty heart too. Again he looked at Poe… And Dipsy decided to hold hands with Poe.
Poe wanted Tinky-Winky, and only Tinky-Winky. He automatically moved closer to his larger, stronger protector, unsure of the consequences of offering the other half of his two hands… the other half of his heart, to another TeleTubby. Should he betray Tinky-Winky’s generous, unrelenting desire? Tinky-Winky has never wavered, never faltered from Poe’s side, supported unceremoniously-
But Dipsy was determined. With a commanding tone and deft speed he grasped Poe’s hand, and Poe shuddered as he felt the warmth of the grasp flow up his arm and into his chest… but he felt love again, twice today.
Tinky-Winky was astonished. Flabbergasted, intent on jealousy and revenge, he looked towards Lala… Then Tinky-Winky decided to hold hands with Lala, knowing he could shatter Poe if only he had Lala’s beautiful feminine touch within his own. Holding out his hand, he addressed Lala, “Lala…”
Lala looked up, trying not to concentrate on the meaningless grasp he’d been focusing on up until now. He felt used, an tool used to hammer a nail and never touched again, gathering dust in a toolshed far away from desire, when he noticed an outstretched hand. “What’s this…” Lala thought. Passion, hunger, an eagerness for Lala? Determined the hand lay, steady in the silence as Lala stood, taken aback. He felt himself move forward, but didn’t know he was walking - it was all a dream to him, and soon he found his once free hand occupied by Tinky-Winky’s… Lala smiled for the first time. He coveted that hand.
Poe at once knew his mistake. Suprised, his heart betrayed, he spoke the name of his first love, “Tinky-Winky…”
Then all the Teletubbys were holding hands. But then something happened. The four at once knew no strife. Their hands, their circle of love and hate, pleasure, and pain was indeed a circle, where one emotion led to another, and one to another. Something simultaneously clicked within each other their Teletubby minds, and knew at once that their differences mattered not, that they could find solace and relax with each other’s love - that their bold acts of indecency were among only themselves, that they were in this taboo circle together, them against the masses… Their love against, and alongside of every other love in the world.
They grasped tightly to one another, smiling, then soon laughing - “Teletubbies holding hands!” This was it, their moment, their world, their lust, free at last, and they twirled in their garden of dreams finally realized - nothing could take this love from them, from each other…
Sometimes I wonder about this place.
Whether those noises are significant or if my reality radio needs a tuning.
Maybe then I can stop turning the dial endlessly,
Looking for something that might not be found.
I think the fan is going to fall right off the goddamn ceiling.
I’ve always looked at the stars, y’know. They’re scarce, but…
I wanted one.
I couldn’t ever have one. I reach for them and they blur or disappear.
I’m working on that.
Oh good, it stopped.
We run around in circles, much like that fan.
Unfortunately we blow hot air, unlike the fan.
Perhaps we should cool off sometime.
Look at me sometime. And tell me what you see.
I want to hear it.
All of it.
Raise your hands, kids, but I don’t have the authority to call on them.
So speak out of turn.
Pretty much sums up that network in a breeze. So the other day a “FOX News Contributor” Liz Trotta had a very interesting remark live on-air:
Wow. You stay classy, Faux News. She wasn’t fired or even reprimanded - she only gave a contrived and condescending “I’m SOOOO sorry! *snicker*” apology as an afterthought at the end of another segment a few days later. Y’know, maybe that “apology” is all she had time for - knitting all those white hoods must really cut into your free time.
So to cheer everyone up after that:
PANCAKES. Apparently Cabin Fever was supposed to be scary - news to me! I just laughed when I saw this. :P
As an update to something I previously wrote, MSN will allowed Youtube links now - they fixed that fast, thank goodness.
So I didn’t do too much at work today, sadly. I got to read Tricia’s paper on the Haitian Vodou religion and proofread it back for her, then I stalked Marci for a while to get her to look at the website stuff I’ve done. Unfortunately after a long weekend Marci had a lot of other more important things to get done, so I scanned a TON of drawings with Amanda in Document Control. I came home and sleeeeept. About to sleep some more, and work, and sleep… I hate how that happens to my summer. Sure, I get a nice paycheck, but all my time just goes…. away. Which is worth more? Time or money? Money’s only important if you have none… *shrugs*
Rap entertains me when it’s done right. That is to say, intelligent humorous lyrics help. :P That said, check this video out (thanks to Maria for this):
There’s a display up at my campus right now as a memorial to the war, a multimedia event including army boots to represent each Oregonian killed in Iraq, hardhats (which I have not found; they may be indoors somewhere close) for Oregon contractors, an prayer flags for American service people. There were also poster stands telling facts about the war, such as what life would be like if America were in Iraq’s place- thousands killed daily, NYC would have four hours of electricity a day, etc. Somewhere they also are playing videos for the event.
As usual, I will let the pictures do the speaking for me.
104 pairs of boots in the EMU amphitheater surrounded by civilian shoes.
Many had photos, flowers, or other keepsakes around them.
These represented Iraqi civilians killed.
Although far from the youngest, this pair disturbed me the most.
Also poignant. The youngest I saw was 18 months.
There were thousands of prayer flags, flapping wildly…
Each was personalized with dates, pictures, RIP, etc.
I don’t know why this one effected me so, but it did.
So I was in line for food on campus, and the two guys in front of me, obviously friends, were named Luke and Han. Not EVEN kidding. I thought that the sheets they filled out for their meals might have had aliases, but those were the names on their student ID cards.
By now you should have guessed that I’m at least politically aware enough to believe my vote counts and to pay attention to what the candidates are up to. If you read my last post, you could guess that I’m a pretty big Obama fan (much like the Fish himself). However, that wouldn’t stop me from going to a Hillary rally Monday night …or more specifically, a rally for the woman that has someone else speaking in her place. And who would be best at that? Why, her husband Bill, of course! So tonight myself and my friends Marie and Jess waited in line for about two and a half hours for the rally - it was supposed to be one, but he got caught up in traffic coming down from Corvallis (home of our rivals, the Beavers of Oregon State).
The crowd wasn’t quite as big as Obama’s, reaching between 2,300 and 3,200 attendees, but it was still so much larger than expecte that we had to forfeit the right for it to occur at the EMU Ballroom (largest room of the building in the center of campus) — instead when the line finally moved we snaked our way through the building and back out the other side, finding ourselves in the outside amphitheater, pushed together like we were ready to mosh. Not that it was a bad thing - it was getting pretty cold by then (around 9:40), so all the body heat was fantastic. Unfortunately, although I was only about 20-30 feet from the stage the tallest guys near the front were directly in front of us. So any pics that I have to offer are blurry for a number of reasons- limited chances to get a view above swaying, tall heads, twilight dark and bad stage lighting, a shifting crowd overall…and not necessarily the best shutter speed on my camera. Oh well, it worked well enough to make memories. <3
Crowd.
Bill.
Terrible Youtube I made of him speaking for about 40 seconds about the environment- only clear thing about it is the sound. At least it tells you pretty well how ticked off I was getting at people Fish’s height or more (6-foot-something) who couldn’t stand still and couldn’t understand that 95% of the people behind them couldn’t see. XD That’s alright, I enjoyed the experience all the same. By seven seconds in you also realize that it’s not my fault that the man is completely dark- his secret service agent to the left side is lit up like a lightbulb. Someone even made a shout in the crowd for them to move the spotlight, heh.
Now I’ll get the rest of my two cents on politics for the time being out of the way. If anyone wants to read more about the Obama rally at UofO that I went to on Friday night, go here. l About 8,000 attended the rally, and an estimated 7,000 new individuals in Lane County (here) registered as democrats specifically to vote in the Primaries.
Among items mentioned in the article include that he attempted to appear more casual for the student population by appearing without a tie, the man visited a track meet unannounced beforehand, two Oregon super delegates already support him openly while shouting how “McCain’s four more years of Bush!” — I think that this has become one of the new slogans of the campaign season, as this is the second or third time I’ve heard it so far (the first was Michael Moore, not surprisingly).
He wants 25% of energy used in the USA to be solar by the year 2025, plans to expand AmeriCorps and the Peace Corps and establish a tax credit of $4,000 annually for students who perform 100 hours of public service a year.
As a folklore student, I get a kick out of discovering that there was a banner hanging from a window above that said “Folklorists 4 Change” (actually, the real text was Folklorists 4 Continuity and Change, but I guess the irony of that didn’t seem as pro-Obama to the newspaper). Speaking of, the head of the department is actually teaching a course on Tracktown traditions and running culture this summer. And on that note, the U.S. Olympic Track and Field trials will be happening this June on my campus, and Eugene is going crazy preparing for it. The trials will only last ten days, but millions of bucks are being put into renovating bits of the town- hotels, touristy areas, etc. Hayward Field on campus has a nice new digital scoreboard, and has the occasional sign already of who they’ll be catering to….
Starting this last Friday and lasting through the weekend was the annual Pow Wow on campus, as I mentioned in the last post. To read more about the 40th annual event, go to the Daily Emerald’s article… Just too bad the Obama bit overshadowed the beginnings of it. Also unfortunate that there aren’t clearer representations of Native American culture in the area, as the campus used to be tribal territory not so long ago. We do have a Natural and Cultural History museum and a longhouse behind it, and I’ve heard that there’s a statue somewhere of a Native American girl with a deer, but it’s apparently a bit hidden in the bushes. Unlike the Pioneer statue and Pioneer mother, the former of which might look a little familiar to Simpsons fans….
Well, it’s University Day, the time we celebrate by planting trees and bark-dusting flowerbeds. I’ve got all my day’s errands run- including putting my ballot in the mail, so here’s to a relaxing day after a long and exciting weekend!
So Friday was fun. Come midnight an Indian pow-wow took place in Mac Court (MacArthur Basketball Court at UofO for those who aren’t in the know), Friday was also the last of our campus semi-annual Street Faire (which I’ll talk about more in my next post), and biggest of all- Obama was coming to town.
Here was the dilemma for me. I had to clock on for work at 5:30 (a three hour shift at one of the school cafeterias- not hard work and not long, but I get a free meal every shift and I like the people), and the Obama rally started seating at 5:45. I got off work at (the latest) 8:30, and he’d begun to speak at 7:30. There was no way I would get to see the candidate that I have every intention of voting for as my president.
The line was intense. The sign may say “Do not enter” for vehilcles, but there were hundreds of human bodies that I could see as I walked just to my dorm, and I knew that thousands more were behind them and heading toward the throng. They had blankets, books, and poker cards at the ready to entertain themselves for the next few hours- and they had definitely started gathering several hours ahead of time.
The security was also fitting for a presidential candidate: a straight line of courthouse/airline worthy security checkpoints, each manned with the Secret Service Police and other officials. After the event had started, they penned all those who entered into a metal fenced area, after which there was a line of officers patrolling the flock, then another fence behind them. Those who came late had to watch from afar. Made sense, of course- couldn’t let knives/guns/bombs close to the stage.
So I had a terrible time at work, depressed that I’d missed Obama, and short of staff - myself and someone who had never done the work station before were together, and the language barrier of trying to explain things to a Hong Kong kid was…less than stellar. You know what it’s like when someone tries with all their might to help you, but they only make things more complicated. You just smile and thank them all the same. Anywho. Myself and another coworker rushed off as soon as we’d clocked out at about 8:15, hoping that it might still be going.
And was it. We were a few blocks still off the main campus when I heard the boom of loudspeakers, clear as day from hundreds of feet away. He was still going strong (later I heard that the last part of his performance was the best anyway). I took a while trying to get anything that even resembled a view, moving to the edge of the hundreds gated out to look into the main crowd…
…then I wandered like a hungry jackal to the other end, convinced that there was no way I was going to see the man. Finally I got up on a little bit of raised ground beneath a tree where the roots had pushed up the soil, and there he was- pacing on stage, laughing loud and joking. It was too dark and faaaaar too distant to get a good picture, but hey, at least I tried.
He discussed fair trade agreements, the price of oil, being proud when he had refused to personally respond to his opponents and regretful of when he’d taken a swing, said we need to raise the salary of schoolteachers, and praised his mother for raising him well after at age two his father left them and she had to at times depend on Food Stamps. He felt like real America- certainly at least the type of person that Oregon wanted to hear from. And he wasn’t just coming to my campus- his website showed three or more other locations in the state that he was to visit in the next couple days. It was so big and so sudden that even one of my professors had to at the last minute send out an email saying she couldn’t come to her office on her day off to drop off our papers — because the campaign had been given her parking spot.
It was certainly a fun event- and Obama continued speaking until nearly 9pm, a full hour and a half after he’d begun. He was coughing from an obvious dry throat long before he stepped down from the stage. It was riveting. I hope the man wins, because he certainly knows how to make a girl swoon.
As in birds. Because I’m known as “Chik”. Moving along.
As you can immediately tell, Clint has foolishly given me the power to write here, which will eventually lead to a most imminent demise. In the mean time, I’m thanking him greatly for letting me have access in lieu of obtaining my own blog.
I hope that my writings can serve the site well, although nobody should expect me to be quite as active as Clint. He’s got a creative genius in journalism that I can’t compare to.
Anyway, I’ll offer you a bit about myself (hopefully not too much of which you could have gotten from reading my response to his surveys thus far). My name is Patricia Lownds, 23 year old senior at University of Oregon. Brown hair, green eyes, 5′3 and about 98lbs. An Aquarian Rat who only likes long walks on the beach if the breeze isn’t too strong and I haven’t been out wading in the water too long. Trust me, sea salt on your legs itches.
In other words, I grew up in a coastal town of about 5,000, though the population can get up to about half a million in the summer when we host the Hood to Coast Relay, the largest relay race in the world, which (big duh) starts at Mt. Hood east of Portland and ends in Seaside, lasting two days before large-scale festivities occur on the beach. We also host an international volleyball tournament in August and an amazing fireworks display on the 4th of July, at least so far as you can expect for one hosted by a small town. The official ones (and thousands more illegal ones) are being shot off right above you, so pretty damned fun.
Let’s see. Interests. I’m majoring in Cultural Anthropology and and also trying to get a certificate (which really counts for nothing but looks nifty) in Folklore (as they only offer Masters and Doctorates in the field here). Enjoy drawing, fave T.V. shows that are on the air include Desperate Housewives, Lost, and Heroes. I love food. Loooove food. I can be a bit picky, but eating’s always on my mind. Blame the high metabolism. Oh, also like the interwebs, but otherwise I wouldn’t be talking to you right now for a variety of reasons.
Well, need to cut and run- about time to go after dinner! So I hope to see everyone soon and actually give you something to look at!
Sorry about the downtime, everyone! I’m hosted off of Khuffie’s server, which he warned me would be going down for some scheduled maintenance (server reinstallation, weee). I think I lost a few comments on the last post, though. :S But, we’re back, and thanks to the wonders of K2 RC6, we’re back with new useless doodads too!
As you’ll notice, if you scroll on the main page, the thingy at the top follows you. Click “Older” and a scrolling bar shows up to scroll through previous months - spiffy. The search bar on the right is a live search - just type and wait a second and it’ll show up with results. There’s an RSS feed to recent posts, now, too. :) Also, I added a spam filter to the comments of the site, so if you can’t comment (this was the case last time nobody could comment - the spam filter went Terminator-crazy and wouldn’t let ANYTHING through), alert me, k? Shouldn’t have that issue this time though.
I haven’t really much else to add, other than I missed being able to get to Atlanta and hang out with everyone, which is upsetting. u.u So… I’ve been entertaining myself with old animated films and the like that were/are touching. I’ll post about them later, if I remember. Also, Earthworm Jim. So much fun - I forgot that was so awesome. XD
I saw Iron Man and then Speed Racer recently. Iron Man was incredible - Robert Downey Jr was perfect for the role, and the special effects were top-notch…. but Speed Racer’s CGI was so, so much better. Speed Racer really nailed the futuristic, super-saturated colorful world, blending it with an anime feel, great actors and humor, and gave it the campy, quirky feel that movie needed and deserved. The movie felt animated. That was the important part. And if racing was that KICKASS in reality, I’d watch it. The choreography and action was fantastic - I want to have an excuse to go see it again. :) Next… I have Indiana Jones to look forward to (!!!), then The Incredible Hulk, and WALL*E… and if I decide to do it, The Love Guru, Get Smart, and You Don’t Mess With The ZOHAN. And in August… Star Wars: The Clone Wars…. Yay movies!
Okay, that’s all I got. XD
EDIT: Found something pretty upsetting. Microsoft IM servers are blocking YouTube links as of last night. This would explain why it seemed like none of the videos I was linking to Jessica and Tricia were going through - they weren’t. Completely monopolistic bullshit. I tried this myself with Khuffie - neither his nor my links went through. There’s a loophole, though - you can remove the “http://www” from the front and it still works. And, I guess, if you wanted you could always just send the random letters at the end to affix to the youtube url (like “oHg5SJYRHA0″, for instance) - there’s no way they could block that. Still, this upsets me greatly. The article speculates that Microsoft is attempting to block competition, as Messenger TV launched in 20 countries today… I just hope it’s a corporate fuckup rather than MS being truly evil. Others have been reporting that deviantart links are blocked too! Makes no sense…
type, and don’t backspace at all. My name is Trish and I like fish. :D Especially salmon. Although albacore and and and shrimp on salad and of course halibut and cod are also good. Fried, anyway. With crust. Num num.
It’s “OM NOM NOM”, hon. o.o
I’d say that the elk on the dorm room door disagree. They are eating grass. And saying “numnumnum” about it. Like civilized herbivores.
Leave it to Canadians to screw it up. Canadian ELK.
…but it’s elk in Clatsop County. Like…a half hour from my house at the most. XD OMG CANADA IS INFILTRATING OREGON.
ILLEGAL IMMIGRANTS. WE NEED MORE WALLS. AND BORDER PATROL FOR THE GORRAM ELK.
GET THE EAGLES TO PATROL THE BORDER! Bald eagles! - what the fuck is an eagle going to do against an elk? That’s like… one epicly bad battle. Really? C’mon. “I’LL PECK YOUR FUCKIN’ EYES OUT AND….AND NOTHING ELSE.”
No, you’re getting it wrong. They’ll shat upon the elk’s fur. And get it incredibly and disgustingly sticky. Besides, if you’re dissing eagles for not being able to do more, you’re also dissing my high school mascot. BECAUSE I WAS A FRICKIN ANAL PROBE.
A.HAHAHAHAHAH.
Okay, now that we’re going to IGNORE Fish. IGNORE. Riiiiiight. Ignore. HA. HAHAHA.
Yeah, he really does need to get more sleep. This multiple personality bit is just freaky. Anyway. Eagles are a symbol of AMERICA. Not the America that includes both “North” and “PENIS” and therefore those ridiculous Canadians (except the ones who are really PENIS), nor the PENIS that have those damned terrorists (by that I mean Nicaraguans, not Mexicans). The America where freedom PENIS reigns, apple PENIS is baked, and birds represent all of our hopes and dreams rolled up into one feathery ball. ESPECIALLY the ones that are endangered PENIS.
Also, Fish is a twat. HEY. Just because there is an old saying “You are what you eat” doesn’t make it true.
