This is my blog. It will remain text.
don't complain if it's boring

 

November 2, 2004:Of course, as a (albeit unknown) member of the blog community, I couldn't resist adding a few words to the election day hype. It's got me on the edge of my seat just like everyone else! I didn't vote, though. I honestly couldn't choose any of the candidates. I think I'm too middle-of-the-road. On the plus side, whichever candidate wins I will be able to see some advantages--well, and some disadvantages, so I can happily complain as well (I'm a noted whiner, after all.) Anyhow, I've been watching the poles and things are close. That's good, since I haven't made up my mind :P I still prefer Kerry over Bush for another four years except on certain issues--but they're important ones. Eh, well. Right now... at this moment... when I am posting... Kerry's ahead, 77 to 66 votes.

September 26, 2004:This one's gonna be shortbecause I'm pretty stupid right now. We rode in the Apple Cider Centurytoday, so I feel very good but very sleepy. I did 50 miles in total, at least accordingto Dad's odometer (mine only said 48, even though we did some extra in the parkinglot to bring dad's odometer up to 50.) We averaged about 11 miles an hour in total.We came home to grab lunch after the first twenty-five, which for Dad and me wasa couple of nuked burritos (bad idea but we had to be fast.) The second 25 wasvery different because we had the road all to ourselves except the many fast cars; trafficwas better in the morning. We had a very good ride, and plenty of yummy snacks to eat--they had cider, sandwhiches, cookies and fruit at the rest stops, plus the stuff we brought.Also, we got lots and lots of complements on our tie-dye t-shirts!

September 24, 2004:We are getting all gearedup for our Apple Cider Century this Sunday... clif bars, fig newtons, the wholebit ;) and plenty of bike riding. I can't wait! A (almost) whole day riding, forgetabout homework, yeah! The whole family is doing 25 miles, then Dad andI are going back for another 25 or so to make it a half-century. (Next year I'mdoing a whole one, I hope.) Other news--I'm planning on going to Wisconsin inearly October for the Wisconsin Dairy Expo. I'm pretty excited about it. Mooo!

September 21, 2004:Oops, I forgot August.(Actually I just kept busy with other stuff, what with school starting and so forth.)Once more I'm attempting to find the illusive balance between classes, homework,life, work, prayer, sleep and fun. It would all be easier if I didn't have to read the Iliad.Actually that's the only piece of homework I have that eats up hours, I just have Chemistrywhich is fairly easy so far, math which is laughably so, and dairy which really has nohomework except review for quizes. Also I have P.E. which just means I have togo biking--yay! But then there's that lit class.
Sorry the site is in such disarray, I began a major upgrade before school startedbut didn't get it done. However, check out the kittens!

July 25 (just barely), 2004:Yay!!! We won!!!Another Tour over and another record made. Too cool. Speaking of biking, it'snow time to prepare for the Apple Cider Century which is sometime time inSeptember, hence I should get some sleep since I'm getting up at 6:40 a.m.to go for a bike ride. First, however, let me show you a cool piece of JavascriptI ripped blatantly from a piece of phishmail purporting to be eBay "needing" toverify my father's account info. Check it out, dude. Peace out.

July 11, 2004:Yay Pistons!!! We are theChampions!!! OK, now that's out of my system, so let me tell you aboutthe Tour de France. O%O` Go LANCE!!! Go POSTAL!!! O%O` (Heehee.) Lanceis of course in the running not only for the traditional yellow jerseybut also to make history as the only person to win the Tour six times,also six times in a row. Check it all out here forESPN's spin. I'll be following it for the next few weeks. (I'm intocycling myself, on a comparatively small scale.)

June 6, 2004:Go Pistons!!! Yeah! Well,I am from Michigan after all. I've only ever been to one Pistons gamebut I'm very partial to them. That was a great game they just played,87-75. Only three more wins and we have the championship... Check outthe play-by-play at ESPN.

May 4, 2004:OK, here's the news you'veall been waiting for! The message board is up and running, albeitcertainly rudimentary. Emoticons are next on the list, then will comeaesthetics. But for now, I'm just glad I got the code working. It wasslightly difficult (I didn't know php at all) but fun. Hey, here's afunny tidbit of news--I got pecked by a duck yesterday. He (Fred) justwanted to peck at my pantlegs and tug on them. It was really funny.

April 29, 2004: Yay!!! As of yesterday,I am done with finals and officially a Sophomore. And all my goodfriends went home :( . Well, there's still one guy I like on campus,but he doesn't know...
I want to put up a rudimentary message board,but I'm having technical difficulties. We'll see if it will work.
I've got a new job! I'm feeding calves at the dairy. It pays ok, but Iwon't be getting many hours. So not a lot of money. But it's very fun!They're cute, and they try to chew on your fingers. And I got tobottle-feed one little guy who wasn't old enough to be given a wholebottleful. They have chickens too! We all know how much I like those...

April 27, 2004: OK, as a sample of thebizarre study assignments I sometimes wind up with I'm going to includethis list I need to memorize for Honors Comp. It's also a way to killtwo birds with one stone--study and update my blog.

Annie Dillard, An American Childhood (underlined).
Ecclesiastes. The Jerusalem Bible.
Phillip Lopate, Ed. The Art of Personal Essay: An Anthology fromthe Classical Era to the Present (underlined).
Essays include:
Virginia Woolf, "Street Haunting."
Robert Benchley, "My Face."
Joan Didion, "In Bed."
Annie Dillard, "Seeing."
Richard Selzer, "The Knife."
Scott Russell Sanders, "Under the Influence."
E. B. White, "Once More to the Lake."
Other Essays:
Sono Motoyama, "Rebel With a Dye Job."
Neil Steinberg, "O.K., So I'm Fat."
Annie Dillard, "God in the Doorway" from Teaching a Stone to Talk:Expeditions and Encounters (underlined).
Elizabeth Rankin, Ed. The Great American Bologna Festival and otherstudent essays.
Essays include:
Katy Reising, "Call Me Eydie May."
Kim Tweten, "Good Food, Good People."
Other Essays:
Abigail Zuger, "Struggling Up an Unfamiliar Holy Path."
Richard Marius, A Writer's Companion (underlined).
James McBride, The Color of Water: A Black Man's Tribute to His WhiteMother (underlined).
That's all I can think of. Peace Out.

March 19, 2004:Yay, my Linux box is upand running. OK, so my Linux box is the same as my XP box--dualingOS's. So far I'm impressed. I've got Grub as my bootloader, which worksfine. (I actually have it set to go into XP as my primary OS, but Ihave only been back into XP once or twice since I installed Linux. I'vebeen toobusy bonding with GNOME, my window manager. It's a very comfortableenvironment.) I changed my innittab file to boot me into command-promptLinux instead of directly to X, so I can learn text-based Linux, but Iusually just type startx and go into GNOME. It came with some sweetsoftware--the GIMP is a lot like Photoshop elements, only it has a coolmodular setup. 'nyhow, more later.

March 8, 2004: MyOfficial Brown Studydid some good, I guess. At least I did reasonably well on one test, andtolerable on the other I hope. I set up speech recognition softwaretoday just for kicks. I would never have imagined they would sell aproduct feature that worked that poorly. Here's a link to a sample; bear in mind that verylittle of that is anything I actually said(although it got Microsoft& Nasdaq composite). A little low on the artificial intelligence...So far I can't recommend this technology. I can, however, recommendhandwriting recognition, as I am in fact successfully using it to writethis.

March 7, 2004:Sorry no posts in awhile,just trying to keep up the grades some. Tomorrow I enter an officialbrown study. Two big tests on Monday... (On a related note, I neverknewthere were so many economically important diseases in poultry.) I got atricky ad today, pretended to be my display dialog box. I almost fellfor it. Here's a pic. Yes, I blurred out thespecifics(they were different popular stuff like celebrities, cartoons,etc.) Oh and one more thing, I'm thinking about installing Linux tocoexist with XP. I might do it over break. We'll see.

Feb. 23, 2004:Here's a funny website--www.ralphdontrun.net.Be sureyour sound is turned on. (If you're interested in politics this is foryou.)

Feb. 19, 2004:What's a body to do? My"namesake" John Kerry is now the most likely choice for a DemocraticPresident, with "the other John" Edwards running second. Bush is ofcourse the only Republican choice. Why isn't there a"Democratic-Republican" or "Republican-Democrat" party for those of uswho would love to see somebody else in office, somebody who understandsthe economic issues and the environmental issues that the Democratsseemto do better at, and the moral issues that the Republicans havetraditionally upheld, with appropriate moderation in all things? I findmyself wishing that the Democrats would win until I remember themillions of people who are murdered before they are even born justbecause someone is comfortable calling them a nonperson forconvenience's sake. Then again I'm not so sure the Republicans havemadeany real progress in that area either. And there were the thousandskilled in Iraq. I don't know anything to do but wait and see what sideof this Catch-22 we'll end up on. Why does the middle ground always getleft out?
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So here I am pontificating. I didn't tell you that I have a historypaper due this afternoon and I haven't had a decent sleep in days. Butinstead... I think I better go pontificate about the American andFrenchRevolutions instead of this nonsense.

Feb. 16, 2004: Oncemore February 14 hascome and gone, that day that always reminds me of my birthday but thatIdon't like nearly as well. (My birthday is one month earlier--somepeople get confused about that.) Valentine's day is a silly comercialholiday that exists mainly for the benefit of the greeting cardcompanies. It is also a selfish holiday--only two can play... I wasgoing to enjoy a sulking fit on Saturday night--hot chocolate, beanbag,the whole bit--but then my parents "dragged" me out to eat (OK so Iagreed to go) and I stuffed myself at Baker's Square. Theirchocolate-peanut butter pie is wonderful but I advise saving room foritbecause half-way through it can be hard to keep shoveling it down(*turns slightly green*) if you don't.

Feb. 8, 2004: Yay!My room is de-junkedand redecorated in a much more simple manner. I like it. Also, no onehas bugged me about the lack of new entries on this page, so I concludethat I comprise the readership. That means I don't need to worry abouttimeliness.

Jan. 26, 2004:Yeah, right now my mottois simplify-I'm actually trying to de-junk my room. Its not like it'stotally full of junk as in worthless stuff, problem is most of it's toogood to pitch. That leaves me with the dilemma of throwing away stuffthat's not totally worthless; but I just have too much stuff! Oh, byethe way, I got the Checkers page up finally. Isn't he cute!

Jan. 20, 2004: Ifyou ever want to knowwhy we have the government, read John Locke. At least he'll tell youwhywe came up with it in the first place. At least according to him.According to him it's a social contract--I give up my right to act asexecutive of natural law, and allow the government to set up civil lawsdesigned to protect my--and everyone else's--rights to life andproperty. That's how it's supposed to work. That's also how thisobnoxious essay is supposed to work...

Jan. 19, 2004: Yeahright. Eh well.

Jan. 16, 2004:Sleep deprivation: thecollege version of sleep. It's pricier and not as good, like manycollege things. Yes, I'm tired. I only slept from 1:30 to 7:30. Andthatdidn't help me in my classes today. However, tonight I mean to be inbedby 10:30. Life's a great balancing act, and part of my balancing acthas been to get just enough sleep on weekends to survive the rest ofthe week. Of course, "survive" is very basic; I'm trying to work my wayback up to "feel rested and want to get up in the morning." So far,Western Heritage and the rest have limited my success. But wait--aren'tI taking them to improve my success? If I shrivel up and diefromback of sleep, that won't help me in that aspect either...

Jan. 15, 2004: OKso this is my firstofficial day after having turned nineteen. Has anything changed? No, Istill managed to flunk a quiz this morning in my avian productionclass,not get a paper in, go a little nuts, and get stressed out... andI'mstill procrastinating on my homework. I'll probably wind up going tobed late again. At least there's nothing terribly important tomorrow.So as long as I can keep from going nuts tonight (doesn't help to be inthe house alone at night) I'll jump back into the morning with my usualsleepy enthusiasm. It's funny... some people get stressed or depressedor worried or whatever and act that way... I get stressed and depressedand worried or whatever and act like I'm not. I have to admit it'seasier for me to respect people (including myself) who are like me inthis regard. I realized that tonight. Well, at least I'm being honestabout it. And at least I know it's an issue... I should respect peoplewhether they express their feelings or not.

Jan. 14, 2004: Iread online today thatBush finally made a statement about his plans for the future of spaceexploration. I read this or MSN of course. He says he wants us back onthe moon sometime by 2015. He wants us to put up a moonbase, give uponthe shuttle, create a new "crew exploration vehicle" to replace it, andbe done with the ISS by 2010. Then he wants us to get ready to go otherplaces like Mars. If I was really sure this would all happen, I'd bethrilled. But I tend to be a skeptic, especially about such long-termpromises. I mean, Bush won't be in office by then, so what differencewill it really make? What it does do is boost his campaign ratings, andit also gives Congress an opportunity to cut funding for other NASAprograms. Then, later, as public interest and the economic needdictates, they can let this program fizzle too. I don't know what theirplans are at present--but either way, this could be the long-termresult. It's an interesting theory, anyway. I came across it on CosmicLog and/or BadAstronomy.com. Well, today was my birthday. I had a niceice-cream cake and a peanut-butter pie made by my fellow-FreshmanfriendLaurel. They were both scrumptious! I am now the big One-Nine.Strange...

Jan. 11, 2004: OK,down to business. Igot my poetry page up today, nine poems up so far. It's harder than youwould think--HTML can be a pain. Every line has to end with a br tag,every paragraph has to be marked and title fonts tagged. It gets old.However, I'm glad I'm learning HTML finally. I'll probablylearnJavascript next--that won't be a big deal because it's similar toActionScript for Flash. Oh, speaking of poetry... just a hint... Idon'tsuggest putting your poetry on poetry.com; they spam annoyingly, andthey mixed up my sister's and my poetry so that I get her spam and mypoems have her name as author! One more thing--I got to go shoppinglastnight for my birthday present like I hoped; I got a pair of cool bootsthat I've been wanting to find. It's so hard to find tall boots thatfit in this country if you're as long-legged as me! I was geeked tofind these at L. S. Aires

Jan. 10, 2004: Fourdays until mybirthday!!! Yay. I'll be nineteen this year, not a "big" one--18 makesyou an adult, twenty makes you no longer a teenager, 21 means you candrink (not that I would want to! Ugh) but nineteen just makes you ayearolder. I've already been that. If I'm lucky I'll get to go shopping, maybeeven some type of a party or a get-together with friends. Or maybe I'lljust have pie with my family. That's fine too, I don't need to make abig deal of this one. Well, church was pretty good but hard-hittingtoday. The sermon was about "getting out there and spreading the word",something I feel like I don't do much of. It's too easy to be apew-warmer, and I need to do something different.

Jan. 9, 2004: Justcorrected a year-dateerror in last entry. Oops! I always have a hard time with the yearchange. Well, it's a Friday, and school's out which makes me veryhappy.I took Checkers out on his harness and leash around the house--hedidn'tlike it much. Too cold! But I kept him outside until he'd made itaround the house and had something closer to a "good time" so he'll notbe so scared next time. I always say that, it never works... Now I haveto clean house some. We just took the tree out so I have to clean thefloor; that entails sweeping up the pine needles, and the dog hair.Happily the one sweeps up with the other.

Jan. 8, 2004: Thisis my new blog. In itI plan on jounalizing in proper blog fashion: random thoughts,interesting stuff I find on the web, maybe stuff that happens to me orstuff I think is funny. I'll try to keep it applicable to the generalreadership. I will also place a limit on my blogging; ten lines maximumper entry. I don't plan on blogging daily, maybe weekly at most. And ofcourse I will delete previous blog entries--I haven't decided if thatshould be monthly or a certain number or a length. We will have to waitand see.