Monday, November 23, 2009

From my most recent ebay seller

Dear Sir/Ms.

This gift card is from a beautify country (Hongkong) : )

We are really thanks for your phourse and appreciate choose us!
Hope our item and our service make your setisfy and happy!
Your advice is our fortune which can help us to get progress in the Ebay CrossBorder buisness!

We know our shipping cost and shipping time might make you not satisfy,
but its just an sals skill and our place is far away from your country. : )
Ebay Fee is very expensive so we use this way to save cost!
But the item's total price is still lower than other sellers : )

So please leave us full star positive feedback if you satisfy with our service and item : )
Ltem as described [5 stars]
Communication [5 stars]
Shipping Time [5 stars]
Shipping and handling charges [5 stars]
[insert picture of smiley face smoking a cigarette in the margin next to that]

we make promise to every custome we ship out item in 24 hours.
if have any question and problem of our item.
Ony contact us fist we will provide the best solusion

So please don't leave nagetive or low star nagetive feedback without communication : )
Ltem as described [4.5 stars]
Communication [4.25 stars]
Shipping time [4.1 stars]
Shipping and handling charges [4 stars]
[insert picture of frowning face with odd red blurry lines at the ends and apex of frown]

Second thanks for your chose! Hope to deal with you again!

Yours sencerely

Sunday, November 22, 2009

Pirates marathon

Today, I meant to do a lot of homework. I have a paper due Tuesday that I don't really get what I'm supposed to write about. It's about a book called Friction, which is an ethnography about the Meratu people in Indonesia and the effect of globalization and deforestation on their culture. That's a really shallow explanation. It's a really complex book.

In any case, I am supposed to pick a theme of the book and write a paper without a thesis on that theme as it relates to the book in 1200 words. I am at a loss for what to write about, as I generally think of themes as only in fiction, not non-fiction, particularly since I can't have a thesis to base my paper on.

I think I am just going to pick a chapter, probably the last one which is on collaboration between the different actors involved. Tsing writes about how all the groups had different conceptualizations and aims in cooperating with each other.

I would normally not take so much time explaining the assignment, except that I had just spent from 2pm-10pm watching all the Pirates of the Caribbean movies. I came in near the end of the first one. They're good movies. Not good as in elitist meaningful cinema, but as in they're a lot of fun to watch and were an appropriate use of my day, even though I have a difficult paper due in just a few days.

I was able to draw connections to my assignment, in that all the main characters had different aims and perspectives on situations. I mean, the third movie is just really bloody complex and I have no idea what is happening sometimes. Like, why did Elizabeth care so much about what happens to the pirates? In the third movie, is she now a pirate? They should have made her conversion to a pirate-identity more obvious, if that's the case.

Also, how did Will fall in with the pirate group so well again after the exchange on the sandbar when he had been previously locked in the brig, and subsequently betrayed their location? What happened to Will and Elizabeth's relationship tension? Their trust issues were never worked out (although, what is so bad about making decisions on one's own? particularly if it ends up that you only see each other once every 10 years?) and just kind of dropped in exchange for a mid-battle wedding ceremony (which, while ill-conceived and tacky, was epic).

Anyway, that's all. I also did not each any vegetables today. It was not a useful Saturday, but it was still good. Vegies would have made it better. I feel a little sick from eating only carbs and dairy today. Ah well, tomorrow will be a cooking day. Chana masala, maybe?

Thursday, November 19, 2009

TDOR

Today at St. Olaf, we celebrated Transgender Day of Remembrance.

The MN GLBTA Campus Alliance came to Olaf to give a workshop called (trans)gender 101.

It was very good. It was one of the better workshops we've had. We learned about gender systems, what makes up identity, about different genders and sexual orientations. Our facilitators were Mike and Anna. Mike is has a really long job title at Augsberg. Anna also has a shorter job title at Metrostate. Both are GLBTQA coordinators at their colleges, basically.

We also had a display throughout the day. We had a tall kiosk. On one side we had information about TDOR, resources to be involved with orgs that work with the trans community, a few stories of some of people who have been murdered in the past year.

On the other side was a list of all 354 people who have died as the result of transphobia. Most were stabbed, shot or strangled. One three year old boy was beaten to death by his father because he wasn't acting tough enough a few years ago. A 19 year old gay man was decapitated, dismembered and then burned in Puerto Rico earlier this year. One person died of AIDS because the hospital wouldn't treat her because she was transgender.

We also had a large pile of shoes to represent all the people who have died. We covered it with chicken wire (mainly for symbolism, but also to prevent shoe theft).

It is so good that we had that pile of shoes. So many more people looked at our kiosk just because they had no idea why the pile of shoes was there.

I normally don't have much patience for making displays like that. Luckily, I didn't have to do anything to make it. I'm not so good with that sort of thing. I'm more of an organizer, not an artist. I put the kiosk together while Matt and Willa put the shoes together.

Very good day, imo. Nothing huge, but it was successful.

Tuesday, November 17, 2009

Odd things I noticed whilst on my way from the bathroom to the computer

There has been a headless piece of caramel apple candy corn sitting on our bathroom floor for about 2 days now. None of us have picked it up. I'm not sure why.

Maybe we haven't picked it up because the only time we notice it is when we're sitting on the toilet. It's rather awkward to bend over and pick up a piece of candy whilst taking a shit.

Ergo, it lies there.

Also, my Flintstones Complete vitamins are now more complete. Apparently, they weren't completely complete. The ingredient they added doesn't have a daily recommended amount yet.

I hope I don't die.

I probably won't.

Sunday, November 15, 2009

Uninspired

I am sick of doing homework.

I never want to do it, but now I don't want to do it so much that I don't do it.

That's not true. I am doing what's necessary, getting papers written and reading the things that papers are about, but I just don't do the other reading.

It's homework anomie.

Yes, Blogger. Anomie is a real word. Go to college, maybe you'll learn something.

Maybe I'll learn something if I do the readings. Well, I'm learning stuff anyway.

This is a bad path. This is a path that leads to Bs.... I hate Bs. Yeah, they're not bad grades. They're just not something to be proud of and I like to gloat.

Saturday, November 14, 2009

Ode to Progesterone!

Today, I got my vaccine. My pregnancy vaccine, that is!

I don't know if this is considered too personal to share in a blog, but I'm going to share anyway. Depo Provera is amazing.

I got my period for about an hour on Monday, which made me realize that oh shit, I need to get my depo soon. So I called them a few minutes later. Normally, I can get the appointment for the next day and the scheduling is pretty flexible. It takes about 5 minutes to get it.

However, there was one appointment this week open when I called early Monday morning. Friday at 10:45. That's the last day of the 2-week window. Not only that, but I have class at 10:45 on Mon, Wed, Fri.

My lovely roommate drove me there at 9:45, just in case they could squeeze me in early.

We walked out at 10:05.

Aside from a sore right ass cheek, I am pretty happy. Except for some reason when I glanced at the TV and saw a hokey Pillsbury commercial and choked up. It was about a college student coming home for Thanksgiving. And croissants. The sudden influx of hormones must be freaking me out. That'll go away in a couple days.

Ah... hormones and menstrual suppression!

Thursday, November 12, 2009

Excitement!!!!

Last night, we had our first meeting for getting ready to go abroad in January.

Even though there are a lot of things to be excited for, I am really excited to pack. I will be an awesome packer. 1 carry-on suitcase and a backpack for a month. No checked luggage for me!

Also, the hostel and institute we will be staying at/studying at both have wifi, so I am definitely bringing my laptop.

I've decided to use of my free weekends to go to Venice. It's about 2.5 hours away from the institute we are staying at in Piran, Slovenia.

We are also taking a bus tour of Croatia and Bosnia. I will be going to Sarajevo. I am really excited. And nervous. There is so much real history there. Not like here in America where there are very few monuments or museums dedicated to the bad shit that happens/ed here.

There are no monuments to the genocide against the First Peoples. I'm not used to this. When I went to the Holocaust Museum in France, I almost puked. It was so intense. In America, it's easy to just ignore it and picture it happening far away but never where you live (even though it did).

The bombing of Sarajevo only happened less than 20 years ago. I was alive during this. I innocently started school, got a dog, was a kid. How can life just go on when people are being killed, slaughtered?

How can it still be happening now? I'm still sitting comfortably in my apartment while ethnic violence is perpetrated. Kids are dying. People are scared and trapped.

God, what a shitty post.

What a shitty world.

Sunday, November 8, 2009

A Hot Topic

I was thinking/reading about abortion today.

While I am personally pro-life, I think abortion is and should be a legal option for women who have no other options (politically pro-choice, I suppose). I don't really know anyone who thinks abortion is a good thing, but making it illegal isn't going to reduce the number of abortions. It will just cause more people to die from abortions because they are unable to do it safely.

Proportionally, more women die carrying a child to term in this country than do women who have abortions. Right now, it is a safe medical procedure. Yes, the baby's life ends, but women do not get abortions without taking this into account. The mother and the people who support her have decided that this is the only viable option. I don't think anyone has the right to tell her/them otherwise.

The best way to prevent abortion is to prevent unwanted pregnancy. To me, this is a no-brainer. I think abstinence-only sex education is stupid. It doesn't work in prevent pregnancy or STDs. Yes, abstinence works 100% of the time, but far from 100% of people are abstinence. Comprehensive sex education is a life-long education. Abstinence works until you decide to stop being abstinent. Say you get married, but don't want to have kids right away, or want to know how to have sex in the first place!

They should have basic sex-ed in high school, and then have optional sex ed II either as an elective in school or as a community education course. People should learn how to have sex safely, make dental dams out of condoms (or even know what a dental dam is), what kind of lube to use for what activity, etc.

Just my two cents, anyway. Feel free to disagree.

Saturday, November 7, 2009

Apple Cider Glazed Squash

I recently joined a cooking club. The magazine they sent me was timely, as I had been looking around for a good squash recipe and lo and behold, they had several recipes for baked squash as a side dish.

So I tried the apple cider recipe (below) with an acorn squash. It was delicious. I think next time I will thicken the glaze a bit more, and add brown sugar to make the flavor stronger, but it was really good. I also left a couple dashes of salt and a dash of pepper out, but that's because I don't really like salt and pepper. And, as in almost all of my cooking, I added a dash of ground ginger to the glaze. They didn't look as fancy as in the picture, but they didn't look too different either, so I think I did something right.



Need:
13x9 pan
Tinfoil
Small skillet
Brush

1 squash
1/2 cup water
1 1/2 cups apple cider
2 tbsp butter
1/4 t. cinnamon

1. Preheat oven to 400. Cut the squash into quarters with the large knife, scooping out the goop. Cut 1/4 inch deep scores in a crisscross pattern in the flesh.

2.Place in baking pan skin side down. Pour water in the pan (this is where you could add a dash of salt and pepper). Cover with tinfoil. Bake for 45 minutes or until tender.

3. While that's cooking, bring cider to a boil in the small skillet over medium heat. Cook 15-25 minutes. Adjust temp to avoid scorching. When there is about 1/4 cup of cider syrup, remove from heat. Add butter and cinnamon (and ginger and another dash of salt).

4. Blot any liquid collected in the cavaties from squash. Brush half of the syrup on the squash. Bake for 5-10 minutes. Brush the rest of the squash.

5. Slice in half so there are 8 pieces. Serve in shells or mashed.

Friday, November 6, 2009

A message from el presidente!

Dear Oles:

Thank you for your patience, cooperation, and flexibility during the power outage yesterday. I’m grateful to the staff who worked diligently through the night to bring the campus back on-line as quickly as possible.

Here’s what happened: fuses in the campus electrical loop blew. It’s not entirely clear right now why this happened, but it may be something as simple as a squirrel in a switch gear cabinet. If so, it was a bad day for the squirrel. The big electrical loop that carries electricity around campus appears to be fine. We’re doing final checks on the system now. If something needs to be repaired, we’ll do everything we can to minimize disruptions.

Meanwhile, life goes on. Please note two things in particular:

And I’m grateful once again to the St. Olaf community for its care for everyone on the Hill.

David

Thursday, November 5, 2009

Blackout

Today, as I was walking between Buntrock and Holland hall to my office hours, the power went out. All over campus. I walked in the door, and hit the button for the elevator. Nothing happened. "Did I miss it?" I hit it a few more times. Nope. One of the nursing profs explained that the power had gone out in the couple minutes I was between buildings.

I sighed, and walked up the 3 flights of stairs to the GSC (it doesn't sound like much, but these flights were built long before current regulations were put in place, ergo, they are big flights of stairs. the third flight is 22 steps). I am in better shape this year, I guess, because I wasn't even breathing hard when I got up there. It's quite an accomplishment.

I took advantage of the power outage by eating in the caf, who couldn't swipe any cards to make sure people had meal plans because there was no power! It was really dark in there, though, so I couldn't really tell what people were serving. I just got a burrito because I didn't know what else there was. Interesting how the emergency generator powers the food heaters but not the lights in there.

Doing homework and anything useful during office hours was impossible, but I finished my test at my apartment where I still had power and internet.

I wonder what happened? I'm sure I'll hear it through several rumours tomorrow.

Wednesday, November 4, 2009

Childhood pro

It is a lot harder to be spontaneous when start to grow up.

I was recalling a summer evening by the lake when a cousin and I decided to jump in a lake, and did.

I didn't have to take my watch off, or my cell phone out of my pocket. I didn't have to worry about my contacts falling out, or whether or not the shirt I was wearing would be ruined.

I just jumped in. She got in trouble. I didn't.

Tuesday, November 3, 2009

Brown eyed girl

I just saw a comment on Facebook in which someone said their eyes were "boring brown eyes."

I don't understand this, I guess. One of many things I do not understand.

How can someone's eyes, or features in general, be boring? No ones features are the same. Everyone looks different. Yeah, brown eyes are more common, but where did people get the idea that green, blue or hazel eyes are interesting?

Everyone seems to change themselves to match everyone else. How many people do you know who have brown highlights in blonde hair, or blonde highlights in brown hair? Or how many people a few years ago died their hair maroon/purple/red? So why is it that when we have a feature we can't change, such as eye color, we are rarely happy with it?

I love brown eyes. I mean, I love all eye colors, but not because of the colors themselves, but how eyes manage to capture you. Looking into someone's eyes can be so intimidating, so communcative. How could that be boring?

I wonder if anyone has told her that her eyes are boring?

Elections - but no one will be elected... Maybe Selections?

I voted a week ago. Yay absentee voting!

CD 6, SD 48B, Ramsey W1 P2 only had two things on the ballot. The school board guy was up for reelection, but no one was running against him. And there was a school levy renewal.

I feel a little bad voting yes for it, because I don't pay property taxes. But at the same time, the schools need what little money they have, and people were already paying these taxes since it's a renewal.

We'll see how my voting habits change as I get older. I can't imagine they will too much, but you never know!

Monday, November 2, 2009

Awesome, I am.

So, I have to go to bed, but I wanted to share this with you.

I wrote 4 papers this weekend, starting Friday at 5 and ending at 12:30am Monday morning. And I threw an awesome Halloween Party that took up 25 hours of my weekend (cleaning, party, sleep, cleaning, shower). Luckily, I got an extra hour from the end of DST.

Anyway, I have to get up at 7, so goodnight. I just wanted to share that with you.

I'll do less homework-related posts. Even though I think about it a lot, I understand it's probably a little boring and you could care less. Ergo, I'll post about a wider variety of topics starting soon.