Beyond the Dune Sea

Adventure!

2009-10-10T19:28:00.005-05:00

Yesterday we went on an adventure. You see, we had to prove that Texas is not in a recession. We were supposed to go to Port Aransas with some friends this weekend, but stuff happened, and we didn't. Which is actually ok, because it turned out that a storm came through and it's been cold and rainy. I mean, I think it's gorgeous and would have had fun running on the beach, but the other people we planned to go with are from warmer places and would have been frozen.

Where did we go, then? To the outlet malls! There are two giant outlet malls right next to each other in San Marcos (45 miles away.) There is basically nothing else near them. A road runs between them, and if you look one way, there is the freeway with a gas station on the other side of it. The other direction has.... nothing. Nothing, nothing, as far as the eye can see. Kinda cool, really. Well, as we arrived, the car decided it wanted to be very hot. Dan turned the car off immediately, and we pushed it into a parking space. We were worried since the coolant low light had come on a couple of times. But it always went away, so we meant to feed it more coolant, but forgot. We let it cool down and went off to do our shopping for like 8 hours, planning to get coolant later, and then had dinner because we were hungry.

We came back to the car at 10:30, dropped off our left-overs, and went to the gas station. We bought a stupid gallon of coolant for $15. Walked back to car, started pouring in, tank was filling up, got it full, Dan stopped. We watched it slowly go down a little, and figured it was going into the engine. Then it started to go down faster, and Dan was worried that it had gotten so low. And it continued, so I asked, "are you sure it's not just pissing that all onto the ground?" Yes, yes it was in fact. Green anti-freeze, all over the ground. (Sorry animals and water supply, we didn't mean it!) Well, the basic point is that we got home 3 hours later after a tow truck came to get us. So we got to buy nice things from the stores and help them out and then we got to give the nice tow truck guy some work to get it to a place where we can help out other people. We had the car taken to a repair shop that we've been to before, where the people were really nice. Only down side is that they're not open at all on the weekends. Monday we shall find out what they can tell us about it.

Let's be positive here! Look how cute my new Austin-weight jacket is!

Is it a short trench coat? No! Is it a sweater? No! Well, sort of. It's a heavy-weight jersey knit cut like a trench coat. I think it's super cool.

Why? Why?????

2009-09-23T22:09:00.002-05:00

Why must the verb phrase rule for Indonesian be so elusive? Does it exist? Is it complex? Or am I complicating it? Why can't it reveal itself to me so that I may go to bed and dream the dreams of one who has finished her work? That's all I ask of it.

Amazing ads

2009-07-19T23:13:00.003-05:00

I sometimes see ads in the sidebar that clearly need an editor. There was a really good one for eHarmony, but I forget why now. What just reminded me? Blue Diamond ad, like the nut brand. "Curve hunger now" I clicked to "learn more." Didn't explain to me why they used "curve hunger" 3 times. They did use "curb calorie intake" once, though.... clicked another "learn more" still no sign of why here, guys. Why are we curving our hunger? Is it a catchy idea? Are we moving it toward better things? Or is someone really just not paying attention to the words?....................

Old Clothes

2009-07-18T12:00:00.002-05:00

I meant to write this a while ago when I wore it. What did I wear? My eighth grade graduation dress. To work.

First, it's not anything fancy or frilly or lacy. Just a simple black dress with spaghetti straps. Originally it had a sort of string short-sleeve almost-sweater - you know, when they tie thread together and it looked cool like 11 years ago when I wore it. I don't think it's macrame, but maybe. I kept wearing it for a long time. I actually cut off a few inches once and then hemmed it on the way to a dance at one point. It even still has that hem - dark green thread and all. Not a bad job, eh? The sweater thing died years ago, but I kept the dress. So one day when I didn't know what to wear, I grabbed the dress to try it on. Looked fine! I threw a light sweater over it (to wear inside because the buildings on campus are permanently COLD) and it looked even better! So I went with it and when lunch time rolled around, I went to eat with Dan. He said it looked really good without me asking or anything.

It's pretty funny, because I'm sure I didn't wear it for a few years. But it fits alright now. And then this morning I stumbled across the pants of my genie costume from fifth grade. Well, I had to try it on! Very slowly and carefully, I managed to pull it up over my butt and snap it around my waist. I know it was made to go around my hips, but it's still fun to know that I can put it on at all. I'd take a picture, but the super cool body-suit style top my mom made to go with it (she made the whole thing, of course) isn't here. I think I gave it to someone when it got too small. It was all gold on top, with skin-tone fabric over the middle to make it look more "I Dream of Jeannie" style and the bottom was the same gold. The body-suit style made it so my underwear didn't show. It was very cool.

I don't think I have any other old clothes to fit into. Well, maybe my t-shirt from 5th grade camp (complete with tweety bird and all) but that's not really for wearing, just for having. Though maybe I gave that away, too...

Here's one I know Nan will like

2009-07-05T10:27:00.003-05:00

I love the the wii fit, but I do hate that it uses BMI. I hate anything that uses BMI, really. But when I start to say that, I feel like I come across more as a looney who might start doubting the moon landing or something because it's so widely accepted. But if you just think about it, how on earth can someone's height and weight alone tell you whether they're in shape? Well, I'm not the only one who thinks so, and now I have more ways to explain. If you listen, it's 4 1/2 minutes, and the written article is slightly different:
http://www.npr.org/templates/story/story.php?storyId=106268439

Also, I added a trailer for Flow to the water post, below, because I still haven't found a streaming version. Check your local library!

More on water

2009-07-03T23:13:00.003-05:00

I'm not the only one! I'm not crazy! Here's some nasty stuff about what is happening to fish, frogs, and people. Demasculinization. Crazy high rates of intersex. These are not good things. What's even better? You don't have to read it! Just watch for like 5 minutes. http://www.colbertnation.com/the-colbert-report-videos/232640/july-01-2009/nicholas-kristof

If you've got a whole hour, the PBS Frontline episode is here: http://www.pbs.org/wgbh/pages/frontline/poisonedwaters/

And THEN, if you want to know about water in general, and never want to buy another bottle of water, then you should watch FLOW. I can't find a good streaming site for it right now, but I'll find it sometime. Here's the trailer for you: http://www.apple.com/trailers/independent/flow/

Crazy weekend

2009-06-28T18:28:00.002-05:00

Yesterday we went to Schlitterbahn - supposedly one of America's best waterparks (maybe the world's, too.) It was fun, but I am not a line-lover. We did lots of rides and tubes and I didn't even get sunburned! We spent the whole day there, which was easy because they let you bring in whatever food you want. Then everybody throws their stuff on a table and goes to enjoy the water. Nobody seemed to touch our stuff at all. I suppose it's partly because EVERYONE does it. I bet if you had fancy-lookin stuff sitting out it might get messed with, though. I'm sure I could tell you loads more about it some time, but I don't feel terribly up to it.

Well, what's wrong with me? I somehow got an ear infection in both ears. It started before the water park, but I only went to the doctor today (hooray for big cities and large medical groups that have something open on Sunday!!!) One ear started to bug me Wednesday night, but I didn't think much of it. It got progressively worse, and I checked with a nurse on Friday afternoon to see if a water park would be bad, and from how I explained it, she didn't think so. Worse still today, with yucky feelings all over, and now I have antibiotics to get rid of it. I am so happy to have insurance.

On another positive note, there was rhubarb at the grocery store today!!!!!!! We were in the veggie section, and Dan gasped or something, and I turned around to see those beautiful red stalks! I've never bought it before, because so many people at home grow it in the backyard, but even at $3 a pound it seemed well worth it to get an integral part of summer. Of course, we also picked up a thing of strawberries to make us a nice little pie. Yay, summer!

Water follow-up

2009-06-17T10:38:00.001-05:00

I grossed out V and she didn't even see the documentary! My basic thought is, if these things are hard to get out, even though the levels are low, why make them higher where we can help it? I still use regular shower cleaner and dish soap, but I use better laundry detergent, toilet cleaner, and general surface cleaner.

Here's a short article: http://www.ens-newswire.com/ens/dec2008/2008-12-09-093.asp

And here are some key excerpts:

Testing sites include the White River in Indiana; Elm Fork Trinity River in Texas; Potomac River in Maryland; Neuse River in North Carolina; Chattahoochee River in Georgia; Running Gutter Brook in Massachusetts; Clackamas River in Oregon; Truckee River in Nevada; and Cache La Poudre in Colorado.

"Recent scientific advances have given USGS scientists the analytical tools to detect a variety of contaminants in the environment at low concentrations; often 100 to 1,000 times lower than drinking-water standards and other human-health benchmarks," he explained.

More than 75 percent of source water and treated water samples in this study contained five or more chemicals.

"The common occurrence of chemical mixtures means that the total combined toxicity may be greater than that of any single contaminant present," the USGS said in a statement accompanying the report.

"Most of the man-made chemicals assessed in the USGS study are unregulated in drinking water and not required to be monitored or removed," says Tom Jacobus, general manager of the Washington Aqueduct, which provides drinking water for one million people in the District of Columbia, Arlington County, Virginia, and the City of Falls Church, Virginia.

This study did not look at pharmaceuticals or hormones nor did it examine the implications of the findings to ecosystems or aquatic health.

Baking soda

2009-06-16T22:56:00.004-05:00

Complete this sentence: I have used baking soda to.....

Think of one yet?

One more chance....

Ok, so maybe you said "make cookies" or "do a kiddie science experiment" maybe even "scrub something" or "brush my teeth." When we were little, my mom used baking soda for loads of things. I always figured it was b/c it is cheap. Baking soda in the laundry, especially diapers. Baking soda to clean the tub. And, yes, sometimes baking soda for tooth-brushing.

The other day, though, I started finding new uses. The sink the bathroom was draining slowly again, and I wanted to fix it without going out to buy more dumb drano. So I looked up home-made drain cleaners, and what did I find? Baking soda and vinegar! Yep, the science experiment from above. Pour soda in (like a lot, enough to block the drain if it's not already blocked) and then pour in a similar amount of vinegar. The fizzy bubbles supposedly clean the drain for you. It's certainly not as clean as drano, but it's also nicer to touch, smell, and easier on the water supply. We watched this freaky documentary about water, and part of it was how much certain chemicals stay in water. Disgusting. Seriously disturbing. All kinds of cleaners and medicines that are washed down the drain or peed out by people or just flushed down the toilet. And they can't be taken out, really, and then all the animals and fish ingest them, so we get them back that way, and then they are in the water supply we drink, too. Bottled water isn't safer generally, because it's mostly just city water. Sometimes less filtered than from your tap!

Ok, another fun baking soda use: washing your hair. Yep, crazy, I know. I was looking for a way to get rid of chlorine build-up, because we go swimming pretty often, and lots of people recommended using part or all baking soda to wash your hair. I tried to look up if it's safe for hair, and after finding anecdotal evidence I wouldn't go bald, I decided to try it once. I lathered up my hair, then sprinkled in about 2 Tbs of baking soda, mixed it around, and rinsed really well. My hair looks better and is really soft, so it at least wasn't bad right off! Ok, it's almost my bed time!

***Note: Baking soda in your hair is also supposed to lighten up some colors of dye. In addition, no one should do anything I do without checking it for him/herself because I really don't know if it's a very smart thing sometimes.***

So cool!

2009-06-11T21:36:00.003-05:00

I haven't really seen a big thunderstorm since I was a little kid in Kansas. Which means I don't really remember it. Tonight, Texas decided to fix that for me. It was SOOOOOOOOOOOOO cool! Lots of lights and bangs and wind and rain! We went out to the balcony when we could see it a little ways off, and could feel the wind hit us a minute or so before the clouds and rain made it. We stood out there and Dan used me as a shield so that he could enjoy the rain just in his face a little, and not drenching his hair and body. Yep, that was me getting drenched. Not constantly, just every time the wind really blew.

One of the coolest parts was when the storm was right above us. We had moved inside by then. The lightening was mainly jumping in the clouds, so I wasn't afraid of getting hit. Dan had gone to the front door and I was sitting in front of the gigantic windows in the bedroom. There was a super bright flash followed immediately by a boom so loud that it set off several car alarms in the parking lot.

We should have taken some pictures. What were we thinking??

Summer!

2009-06-04T18:14:00.002-05:00

Well, what can I say?

1 - it's hot here. Today it was *only* 88. And it's humid. I don't appreciate it. The only positive is that it gives me a reason to buy cute summery clothes that I never really needed in Tacoma. But then I remember how much said clothes cost, and it's not really a positive after all.

2 - I'm working 30 hrs/week. It's sometimes fun, sometimes boring, I just need to remember to get more sleep.

3 - Rhubarb is not common in Texas. Did I already tell you that? I even asked the lady at the Safeway bakery if they do rhubarb pie. I got a really weird look and a "no." My magazine has a reallllllllly tasty-looking raspberry rhubarb pie. I would do strawberry, but still. Can't. No rhubarb. I haven't even seen it in stores, though I'm not sure I'd trust it here, anyway.

4 - I am hungry. So with that, after feeling a little better for updating, I will go get me some food.

Wet

2009-05-23T18:51:00.002-05:00

It was SOOOOOOOO cool. While we were in REI today, it started POURING. Like, I don't think I've ever seen anything like it. As in, I wouldn't be surprised if that's what a monsoon is like (but monsoons should be longer.) In fact, I'll try to see how much rain we got for you...

Ok, lame, so far all I can find is a forecast "rainfall totals will be up to one half inch." I've seen what one half inch is. One half inch is not pouring down enough to absolutely drench people and create RIVERS out of parking lots and make it impossible to see from the access road on one side of the freeway to the other side of the freeway. I found a site that updates at midnight, so I guess I'll have to let you know tomorrow. **Update** Local paper's site says that the rain was hit or miss, but in one area there was pea-sized hail (yep, that was us) and in that area there was 3 inches of rain. Average May rainfall here? Barely over 5 inches.

Well, we decided to leave the safety of REI, even though four or five groups of people were waiting safely under the awning and ran for the car only to find that we were now parked in a river. Yes, a raging river of rain water, splashing up around my ankes and making me glad that I had worn a skirt. Almost. Opening the doors was scary, I thought we might drown the seats. Then, slowly, carefully, wipers on high and hazard lights blinking, we made our way the 3ish blocks to Costco. That road is next to the freeway and we really seriously could not see a lot of the stuff we know is on the other side. It was cool. Then we waited in the parking lot, thinking it might let up, as we watched one or two adventurous cars creep out of the parking lot, hazard lights all around.

We got bored in the car pretty quickly. We tried to call Dan's family to share our fun disaster, but no sadly there was no answer. I had forgotten my phone, so really we had nothing left to do. Thinking we were already wet, in a decent parking space, and not in danger of melting, we decided to make a run for it. More water splashing around the ankles, and that was avoiding the deep spots. Me - scared that my sandals would lose traction and see if they could make me any more wet. Dan - scared his flipflops were going to be washed away in the torrent.

We arrive at the door to see and I am suddenly aware of a large crowd - probably around 50 people - standing there, waiting to see if the rain will let up and looking at us like we must REALLY want something if we got out of the car. (Note: Austin people seem deterred from outdoor activities by the rain in general. Galoshes come out on campus when there are gray clouds. Did you know they make adult pink galoshes?) I get inside and away from the extra eyes and immediate danger to note how wet I am. Soaked. Drowned rat. Drowned rat wearing a sopping t-shirt and white skirt. Luckily, there are front and back pockets, so I had some extra fabric helping me out. And freezing. Goosebumps and shivering and wondering why they don't have one of those heater dish/fans out.

Dan to the rescue! Go dry off in the bathroom. Yes, good plan. Lots of priceless looks on the way, but well worth it. Dry off arms, legs, feet, squeeze out hair (I swear to you I could even squeeze water out of my hair, I was that drenched from a total of less than 60 seconds.) Rub paper towels on clothes, get rid of extra water. Wander store somewhat aimlessly, get the few things we need, and finally the rain is only sprinkling and we can leave to go home, change clothes, and be warm. YAY!

Mulberries!!

2009-05-18T10:08:00.002-05:00

I was just reading another blog and, after reading a description of mulberries and looking up a picture, I think that's what I named dirt berries last year at the fruit stand. Why dirt berries? Some of you may remember. Well, the guys told me to taste them. I, being less cautious than Dan, tasted some. They didn't taste like a whole lot, and were kind of gritty. The random guy there who spoke French better was like "you see how it's gritty? It's because they are harvested off the ground once they fall from the tree." Or something like that, go back in the posts if you want a better quote. So they were dirt berries. And I was horribly disgusted. I don't want dirt berries from any country, but it seemed even worse knowing what condition fruit being sold might normally be in. Apparently they taste good when straight off a tree -- even a tree watered with toilet water.

I'm alive!

2009-05-18T09:45:00.002-05:00

Hello, world! I am, in fact, still alive here in Texas. And it actually feels a lot like May to me! Not Austin May, or even Ellensburg May, but good ol' western Washington May. It rained almost the whole day on Saturday. And then it was cool that night. And yesterday, Sunday, the high? 74, I think. Compared to 94 on Wed. or Thurs. I'm serious. Today it's supposed to be 80. How absolutely lovely. (If you're wondering, no, I'm sure this won't last, so I'm going around with windows open wearing long sleeves and warmer pants while I can!)

So what have I been up to? I finished my finals Friday. That was nice to finish. Really, that's about it. And what did I get to do to celebrate having everything in? Why, proctor a test, of course! The makeup final for the first year courses was from 7-10 on Friday night, so I got to stand there and watch people do that. Yay. or not. I did get to start cleaning our apartment more, too. I sort of let everything else go while feverishly trying to finish big ugly papers. Dan's a good cleaner, but with being gone 11 hours a day, and trying to sleep for about 7 hours a night, he doesn't have time to thoroughly clean up after both of us. And somehow I still make a mess when glued to the computer! It's crazy.

Yay!

2009-05-08T08:22:00.002-05:00

Where have I been?? Telling myself That I needed to work on stuff, not sit around and write things on the computer. And since I have 35 pages due in the next 7 days, this will be short. I just got some very good news, though. I gots me a summer job! Hooray! I'll be working in the study abroad office on campus :) Pretty great fit, if I do say so myself!

Ok, 5 pages down....

Oh, HAIL no!

2009-03-28T11:23:00.002-05:00

I generally don't mind Texas weather. It's certainly weird. It can be 85 one day and 50 the next, only to head back to 80 again. I got used to eastern Washington weather with 25-degree swings every summer night, but you knew that the next day you would be back to 95 and could dress appropriately

We had the tail end of a storm with tornado potential on Wednesday. Down here it was mostly rain, thunder, lightening and hail. Real hail. Like the kind I haven't seen since... well, probably since Kansas, but I don't remember that. Dan collected some for me because I wasn't quite home yet. It is 1-3 inches in diameter. Yep, like bigger than a golf ball. Like bigger than a tennis ball, some. Like window-smashing big.
Our friends got their window smashed while driving (no, that's not it, that's just to give you an idea.) At least two cars in our half of the complex had front or back windows broken. We thought that we had gotten away with 20 or so small dents in the hood and trunk (seems like the roof is stronger) but we were very sadly mistaken. Yesterday we noticed that one must have hit the very top edge of the windshield and so we missed it the first time! But it had taken the day and a half to spread its nasty little cracks down to where they are certainly visible now. Will have to be replaced, I'm sure. SOOOOOOOOOOOOO sad. I like our hail at home better, thanks!

Spring Break! Woooooo!

2009-03-15T13:38:00.003-05:00

Yep, I am officially on spring break. Yay! No classes to go to! Nothing to turn in! Of course, I do still have homework that needs to be done, and I'd really like to get started on the 2 final projects so that I don't get overwhelmed at the end of the semester quite so much. the last couple of weeks, I have been studying more for tests. No fun. I had a midterm on Wednesday, and one of my classes has 4 small tests throughout the semester. I also started private tutoring with an undergrad. It's actually a lot of fun. The hard thing about it is that languages build on themselves sooo much that this girl is trying to work on 4th-semester stuff when she doesn't remember the 1st-semester rules.

Last night we went downtown with a couple of friends. It's actually the first time we've been out at night downtown since we got here. We went to a free show that eventually had a lot of bands, but we only saw 3. They were... ok. The first one kept playing songs that were 45 seconds long. And not that good. The second band was better, but you couldn't understand the vocals. The third one took literally 45+ minutes to set up and then sucked. Dan named them the "Superfluous Keyboards." There were 4 on stage for a 5 person band. They had some issues getting things hooked up, too because they kept asking the sound guy to change the balance. So, we left and walked down to famous 6th street and wandered a bit and ran into two people that our friends knew and they talked for a while and we all got pizza. We didn't end up going into any bars, though, because by the time the pizza was done, it was midnight and our friends (who drove) had to be up at like 8 this morning. Dan did get a shoulder in the chest from some short retard who thought he was cool for running into people - I'm guessing he was trying to start a fight. Well... I do believe that's all.

Cut 1 lb of stomach fat A DAY by...

2009-02-26T15:09:00.002-06:00

Yep, that was an ad I just saw. As if they 1 lb a week wasn't enough of a stretch for a particular body area in a generic statement. I think the one rule is this: Each day, mess with your scale by one pound. Or each day, cut off a chunk of your stomach? Because I've seen weird displays showing 1 lb of fat. And that's a whole lot. But, hey, if it works, I can be stomach-free in less than a month!

State parks

2009-02-23T21:00:00.002-06:00

State (and national) parks are cool. You go there maybe for a day, maybe camping for a few days, and you hang out and it's nice and all. And to go there just for the day is free, right? If you're in Washington, yes, correct. There are some really popular city parks that make you pay, and boat launching often has a fee, but not regular people at state parks.

You've probably guessed that this isn't true in Texas. Want to go on a hike? Oh, they're all in county and state parks. And it's $3-5 per person. LAME. I know that it's not really that much, that upkeep does cost something, etc, etc, but what's with the sales tax if it doesn't pay for parks? If I want to go drive an hour each way to be able to walk around some foresty hills, I don't want to pay $10 once I get there.

Sales tax in Austin is 8.25% (6.25 for state). In Seattle, it's 8.8% (6.5 for state) (an extra .5% in bars and restaurants for the stupid stadium - didn't know that.) The state can up theirs a bit, and I will go to parks more and be happier.

"I could use this!"

2009-02-17T16:44:00.002-06:00

I doubt I could number the times that I've said to myself "I could use this!" and then proceeded to buy whatever semi-useless thing that I found. Usually these purchases are cheap and/or cute and get put in a drawer or a closet and forgotten.

Two of these, though, have ended up being used on my desk, years later. I don't even know when, but I bought one of those supposedly air-tight jars (glass, rubber ring around the top, and a stiff wire closing mechanism) and I would bet I bought it at a dollar store to hold candy because that sounds like me. Now it's my change jar, because it looks cute and I needed a place for change.

Another is a little "Page-Up" thing (you're supposed to stick a sheet of paper in it and it holds it up right while you type or something) I bought my first year of college because someone else had one and it was cute and I had more money from financial aid than I knew how to spend. (Don't worry, some got saved.) Well, I am now working on a powerpoint and my desk is a bit messy, so instead of cleaning it up, I grabbed my little page-up and it works! And then I went to go tell you about it instead of working on the powerpoint.... so I guess I didn't really save any time....

Learn something, people!

2009-02-11T08:36:00.003-06:00

I thought that the complaints in the news about the "family planning as part of the stimulus package" had gone away, and I decided not to blog about it. However, I heard about it again yesterday, so here we go.

Yes, family planning is a form of economic stimulus. One of the more long-range forms, but that doesn't mean that's all it's good for. It may seem unbelievable to some, but I have heard people say that birth control costs too much, so they don't use it. And then? Yep, some get pregnant. If they didn't have the money for birth control, they probably didn't for insurance or pre-natal visits or and hospital stays. Never mind another mouth to feed, another body to clothe. So, at least for the pregnancy, they get state help.

I don't think it's wrong for people to get pregnant, I don't think it's wrong for people to have families, I know that some people don't want to use birth control at all; I just think that this is easily one possible way to boost the economy. Why am I so sure of this? Tunisia. An interesting article is here: http://www.mongabay.com/external/tunisia_population.htm We could see it - parents with 8 siblings had only 2 kids. This is normal, not exceptional. I didn't quiz everyone I met on their siblings, but it seems they didn't mention more than 2. And the result? One of the strongest (or the strongest, according to some) economies in the region. They didn't start that way. Birth control isn't forced on anyone - it's just easily available for all who are interested. Our economy doesn't have as much room to grow as theirs did, but it's still beyond belief to say it's just a "spending measure" and not a type of stimulus.

Yay for us

2009-02-04T11:44:00.003-06:00

A little bit after we got here, our complex was bought by another management company. We were unsure what to think at first, but then they sent out letters talking about doing loads of upgrades and adding the word "luxury" to the complex name and talking about all of these upgrades they had planned. Scary, no? We (supposedly) got in on a deal on our apartment, so our rent was (again, supposedly) $75 under what they normally charge for our place, and we weren't excited about the idea of paying that much more when we need to renew our lease, so the "luxury" part was really not welcome.

*However* after we waited and waited for more news, I finally went in to talk to the people, and it sounds like it will actually be cool! The lady I talked to said that the current rent for new people in the floorplan we're in is what we're paying (hence all the "supposedly"s above) and they're not going to force us to move into a re-done place, though we will have the option. Yay for not having to move!!!!!!!! We really like living 15 min from downtown by car, but also on 2 handy bus lines and feeling like you're far away with the tree/deer view, while being able to drive 2 min (literally) to buy groceries.

Some of the changes they announced before are actually taking shape, too. They resurfaced the pool on our side, which has been gross and coming off since before we got here, and they are making us a bigger exercise room! The current one is jammed with one treadmill, one bike, two stair-steppers, and one crappy old dirty weight machine. The new one is replacing the laundry room (all the apts here have w/d included, so I never got why it was there anyway) which is much bigger and happens to be about 30 seconds from us. Again, yay! They have already taken out the machines and started remodeling - I peaked at it the other day while checking mail and it definitely looks promising. So all is well once more.

Lucky me! (and stupid cilantro)

2009-02-01T13:18:00.004-06:00

So we got our TA assignments at the beginning of the week, and........ I don't have to go to campus Monday or Friday! Yay! I'll still be go for talks and workshops, etc but it won't be required every week. Now don't go thinking that I'll have loads of free time - I will still need to be reading for all my TWTh classes those days, which should keep me plenty busy.

How could cilantro be stupid? Easily. I read a couple of things online "I don't know why people say growing cilantro is hard" "I think cilantro should be included in herb kits" "Cilantro is easy, as long as you XYZ." But I am going to agree with the "growing cilantro is hard" crowd. I'm not sure if I drowned them or the soil got too hot (apparently if it gets to 75, the plants try to go to seed - which for little starts just means die) but most of mine are dead. *sigh* It's ok in a way, because I planted waaaay too many of them, but it's still frustrating. Luckily, two new starts came up just as half of the guys died, so I have two new ones as well as a few that look like they might hold on. Also, cilantro is the cheapest herb to just buy - 50 cents for a bunch so big I always end up tossing some out - so at least it's not my basil that decided to croak.

Discovering new music

2009-01-24T10:43:00.003-06:00

Since I left for college, I haven't listened to radio. Well, I take that back - I listen to French radio and NPR. But not regular music radio. I didn't like the radio in Ellensburg and I don't like all the ads now. I started to feel old. One of those people who know and like music from "way back when" but nothing new.

A couple of weeks ago, somebody at Dan's work introduced him to Pandora radio. I don't mind giving them advertising, because it's free and there are *very* few ads. I think like one an hour. Anyway, the site is pandora.com and the cool thing is that you can choose a radio station by genre, or you can enter an artist/song title and it will play other music like that. Similarities are decided by the instruments used, tempo, vocals, and other things that I forget. It's really cool because if you can think of one type of song you like, they will give you lots more that are sort of like it. If they play a song you don't like, you just give it a thumbs down and they will quit playing it and move to a new song. My only complaint this far is that most of the French artists I like aren't on there. But there is enough free music that I may be able to get over that.

School bus

2009-01-20T20:05:00.003-06:00

I thought my days of school bus riding were over. I last rode the bus in high school, my senior year for some bowling stuff, and my junior year for the typical get-home-from-school needs. I take the city bus to campus now, but last semester with a class at 8 AM two days a week I was on the bus with a mix of half-asleep students and people headed to work downtown. The other days I didn't have to be there til 1, so it was a mostly empty bus.

This semester my first class is at 11. I was walking to the bus and saw another obvious student ahead. As I got closer, two more were coming from another direction. At the stop, there were probably eight of us. All very student-y looking. We get on the bus, and again, all students. Seriously. All young people, looking refreshed but not exactly excited, most wearing earbuds or on a cell phone and all with bags on the seats next to them.

The stop after ours is at a park & ride where at least 15 more students piled on, filling up the seats and requiring some people to actually sit next to someone else. There were even two guys who were late and really ran to catch the bus. After a few more stops, we got to campus where nearly everyone piled off. I get off the bus at the second-to-last campus stop, and looked back to see that there were only 4 people left. It was so weird.

Just nothing

2009-01-16T10:00:00.003-06:00

It's amazing how little there is to add when you don't have to go to school or work. That will all change on Tuesday, though, so I am making most of it right now.

Tonight we are going to a movie theater to likely hang out with scifi nerds. If there's anything worth telling, I'll let you know.

My Colorfix experience

2009-01-12T12:51:00.002-06:00

Well, I decided that my hair color was no good. I mean, it wasn't so bad, I just didn't like the pinkish tint to it and didn't want to wait for the semi-permanent dye to fade more. I found out online that there are several products that claim to fix your hair after dying it and, after way too much reading, settled on Colorfix.

So, what's this stuff do? The box says it shrinks hair dye molecules so that they rinse away. It also claims it will remove hair color no matter how long it's been on your hair, though it won't get rid of some non-permanent dyes. (I did my research on this part, too - it is reportedly good on the ones I use.) The hundreds of reviews I found, mostly on folica.com, were very good. Some people had great results just from getting out the dye - that it brought their hair back to a natural color. Since it takes out the dye, it takes your hair to the lightest color, and can turn orange-y because of the lightening. Apparently not all of the dye washes away with the colorfix, so for some people it darkens back up.

On Monday I went to the store, got a box of the stuff, and put it on my head. It definitely has sulfur in it, so the smell isn't so great, but I would say it was well worth the result! It got rid of all the red tint and left a dark blonde that is close to my natural color, but a little lighter and warmer (probably due to the peroxide in the dye I used) and it is really cool! So now I have an even hair color once more and whenever I decide to dye it next, I will have a clean canvas to work with.

We've got some sprouts!

2009-01-11T10:46:00.002-06:00

One of Dan's little peat seed-starter things sprouted first, so I wanted to wait til mine had too to say anything. Right now, I have at least a few sprouts from all 4 of my seed types, and Dan has 3 pots that have sprouted (I don't know if they're all the same plant, or if it's both of his kinds.) The seed packages said that his would take longer, I think, so I'm not worried about his.

So far so good, it seems. We planted too many seeds, so we'll have to thin out the weaker looking ones in the next week or two, but it is cool. My basil started first, and there is definitely most of that, followed by the oregano and (I think!) chives. The cilantro just has a couple of little starts, but they just showed up yesterday, so I give them time. Even if more don't sprout, it will be ok since I may have as many as I really need in my little window box anyway.

Grow some b...rains

2009-01-09T16:19:00.003-06:00

My interesting sort-of natural-looking reddish brown dye job has decided to fade on me. Yes, it was a temporary dye, but they usually go permanent in my hair, so this has been a surprise. It faded right out of my roots (the whole reason for using the dye!) within two weeks, so I've got my lovely ash showing underneath the red, so it makes the red look pink and the ash look even more grey.

Naturally, I began thinking about re-dying. I went to the Loreal site because I've used Feria before, and it's pretty good and I wanted to check out their full line of colors so that I would know how picky to be about Target's selection. Well, I found out that they have a color remover! I looked up some reviews, and apparently Loreal's is bleach-based, but there are others that are not! They remove built-up color from your hair to give you a fresh start when you want to re-dye. While I've taken a few long breaks from dying (like the whole time I was in Tunisia) all of the dying I've done has left the ends darker, and it's always annoying.

While looking up reviews about these (ColorOops and ColorFix) I found a girl's blog. She might be a nice girl. But the title of her blog made me want to puke. "Benisten." Not so odd. Til you see the subtitle "Ben and Kristen". NOOOOOOO! Fine, whatever, she may still have a valid review of the product. She did, and it was helpful, and I'm glad I read it. Some of the other things she said... more or less "I grew my hair out for the wedding, but then I wanted to cut it like Victoria Beckham, but Ben said I couldn't, so I just got it chopped to my collarbone." Ack! Please, woman! Either be honest that you weren't sure about what length, or quit letting your boy run your life. To make it worse, there was a comment that said something like "I know what you mean, I really want to dye my hair and cut it, but [insert dumb boy name] won't let me, so I'm just going to keep working on him and wait."

What??????? What's he going to do? Kick you out? If so, dye your hair and leave the bastard! The blog was from a young-looking girl, too, I'd say mid/late 20s. Maybe they read Twilight and buy into the female-too-weak-without-a-man bit. Charlotte Doyle wouldn't put up with such nonsense. Or Cam Jansen (they're still making books about her!) Or Hermione. (Those are all purposely characters from books I would expect girls younger than current Twilight readers to read.) Maybe one day the world will be a better place...

Lazy people!

2009-01-03T18:56:00.002-06:00

I have wanted an indoor herb garden for quite some time. My mom used to have chives and something else in a window box at our house, and it was cool. Plus, I figured out somewhere along the way that fresh herbs taste different. Dan looked for some for me for my birthday, but had no luck (not really surprising, I guess, but come on, people!) He looked again for Christmas, and they had some goofy looking kits. There have been plants on and off at the grocery stores, but they don't always have what I would want, and they're like $4 a pot and the pots are ugly so I'd just have to buy a new one... you get the idea.

Well............ I called Home Depot today and they just got in their seeds! After playing two really good sets of tennis (yes, I lost spectacularly, but there were a couple games where I had Dan scared) we went to Home Depot and got seeds. Basil, oregano, cilantro, and chives for the herb garden and cherry tomatoes and jalapenos because Dan thought they looked cool, and we thought they might maybe grow in pots since we have no garden space. I also got a window box and seed-starting potting soil. Dan got a peet seed-starting kit with its own mini-greenhouse lid for the jalapeno and tomato.

We planted them all, and now must begin the waiting process. 7-10 days for mine to sprout, supposedly, longer for his. But why did I call people lazy? I was looking up tips for indoor herb gardens (lighting, watering) and I found some helpful stuff. You don't *need* a south-facing window (good, we don't have one), a fluorescent light is pretty good for herbs (also good, we do have that), I found a few tips for growing them better (trim often, even if you don't need the stuff), and even for keeping it going year-round (re-seed every month or so for the kinds that stop growing - I haven't figured out what that means yet exactly).

I saw a link in my searching to an HGTV section on indoor herb gardens. It seemed like a good place to look, so I opened it up. http://www.hgtv.com/decorating/indoor-herb-gardens/index.html What did I find? Nothing really helpful, I assure you. How do they want you to start your herb garden? From plants from the grocery store! Lazy asses. And they tell you to put the info tag from your store box into your new little pot so you will know what herb it is. Umm... really? If you are GROWING herbs, maybe you can't tell basil from chives at first glance, but the point is that it's yours! You can pinch off a bit and smell it. Should clear up any confusion quickly, right?

I will let you know when/if my little herbs sprout.

L'appartement

2009-01-01T20:02:00.002-06:00

I realized that we never posted the pictures of our apartment that we took so that people could see where we live. We didn't take any when the place was empty because our batteries were dead (it was a sad, sad time. We also missed the "welcome to Texas" sign on the way here.)

Anyway, here you go! First is the living room facing the door.

Next is the living room, facing the TV. Dan was playing Mario Kart.
Here we have looking from the door towards the kitchen (with bar-type counter) and my "office" area that the floor plan calls a dining room.
This is a deer that Dan took a picture of from the balcony.
And another one.

So now you know that we are not living in a cardboard box. I hope you are happy!

Up waaaay too early

2008-12-31T11:36:00.002-06:00

So this morning we woke up at 5:40. Why so crazy? We took Dan's mom and sis to the airport to head back home :( We had a lot of fun with them here. We went down to the capitol, out to several restaurants, to a very large mall, and just wandering around our neighborhood as well. (There's a nature preserve that basically our backyard, so that's not as boring as it could be other places.)

I will say, though, that seeing sunrise on New Year's Eve morning is *not* my idea of fun. Especially after going to bed around 1:30. We came back from the airport and slept some more. Maybe that will help us stay up til midnight tonight.

Hooray for fun stuff!

2008-12-26T22:48:00.003-06:00

I got lots of way cool stuff for Christmas. Too much to list, because I keep forgetting parts of it. Thanks V for the gift card, Fred for the cool shirt, and Tiny for the tiger cub and cookie mix!

Last night, at midnight, we went to pick up Dan's mom & sister from the airport. They will be here until New Year's Eve, and we have been having fun. This morning, we had tasty breakfast and then went for a walk on the trails behind our apartment complex. We ended up going over 2 miles, so not bad. After that, we had a late lunch: dessert first at home - homemade cheesecake topped with raspberry and caramel, and then lunch at Chuy's, a tex-mex restaurant that a lot of people in my department have talked about, but we had never been. It was really good, and not expensive at all. 4 stuffed people with 3 iced teas for under $40!

Then we went to a big mall to be part of some after-Christmas shopping. I was happy to find a pair of Gap corduroys for $21 and Dan got some cute work clothes so that he can have more variety. I am extremely tired, though, so that is all you get for now.

Happy Christmas Eve Eve!

2008-12-23T12:29:00.003-06:00

Yay! It's cold outside, there are presents under the tree, and Dan and I are both free to laze about in whatever manner we please. Or go wherever we please whenever we feel like it. We might go to Target later. Play some Wii. Read some books. Admire my pretty mini tree and lights and snowflake window clings (no real snow here, of course) and the lovely presents beneath the tree.

I'll go get started now.

Whatever to do?

2008-12-21T20:01:00.002-06:00

My last final was on Monday. Which means I haven't *had* to do anything since then. I've cleaned, cooked, cleaned some more, read, watched TV and movies, finished Christmas shopping and played games. Ok. So that's one week down. What do I do with the other 4 looming ahead of me? I think I will need to make a list so that I don't start wandering in circles and being confused at not having things due or places to be.

This is the first real break I've had in about 2 years. That was when I was working at Central and had 10 days off around Christmas/New Years. Then I worked until 2 weeks before we left for Tunisia, and that wasn't a break - that was just rushing to get things ready to go. We went to France for 2 weeks, but that didn't feel like a break as much because we were SOOOOOOO glad to get out of Tunisia for a while. And when we got home, I was trying to do things like start finding an apartment in Austin and all that.

Dan's mom and sister are coming for a week (yay!) so I won't need to plan stuff for that time. I do have an empty scrapbook. And loads of scraps from Tunisia and France and Malta to put into said book. And I need to make a photobook for France. I got a "free" (just paid $9 shipping) little one that I used for Malta, and it is really nice looking. I'm not patient enough to pick pictures to print *and* scraps to go with them *and* pretty papers *and* fancy stickers or other decorations *and* then assemble it all myself with appropriate glue in some sort of eye-pleasing manner. So I will have a book with very nice pictures. And another with stuff put onto pages so that it can be looked at if one were so crazy as to wish to look. I think that will have to do, my friends. Unless I really do get bored, anyway.

Useless observation of the day

2008-12-18T09:26:00.002-06:00

Sometimes, getting the real brand does matter. I'm all for saving money and getting the same thing at a better price, but at times you just can't.

When I was little, I remember once Mom got fake Cheerios in a BIG bag. We voted they tasted like dog food. Mom did not believe us until she tried them. They were unbelievably awful. Not that we never got cereal in a bag again, I actually liked Magic Stars, but we never got that particular kind again.

In high school, someone bought me the store version of my favorite shampoo. I don't think it even had the first-use-seems-so-great like most shampoos. It made me hair feel tangly and a bit greasy. Even the purchaser said that my hair did not look very good.

Today, I am eating Frosted Mini Wheats. The real kind. A couple weeks ago, I bought some cheap-o brand ones, and they seemed a little stale from the beginning. Got soggy fast, frosting not crunchy once wet with milk. In fact, this morning I considered not eating the real brand of my once-favorite cereal at all. But then I decided I didn't want the gigantic Costco thing of it to get gross. How wonderful! This is why I like this cereal. Crisp. Crunchy. Enough frosting. Not soggy and stale. I approve.

Interesting way to start the day

2008-12-16T08:34:00.002-06:00

Somebody called me this morning not long after 8, and I ignored it. I don't *have* to be up at any certain time today, people! Then they called again, so I got up to get.

"Um, hi, I just found this cell phone at (cross streets not far from here) and I called a number and I guess it was his mom all the way in Washington and she told me to call this number. I just wanted to get it back to who it belongs to." This is all from an older man's voice.

(Me, stunned, still not really awake) "Thank you, it's my husband's cell phone, sounds like he dropped it on the way to the bus this morning."

"Are you here in Austin? (me: yes) If you want to come get it, I live in (name) complex, it's at (#) Jollyville and I'm in (#)."

(Not really sure what I said here, but I was fumbling around looking for clothes, so it probably didn't make much sense. After a minute I realized I didn't need to keep him on the phone so I said I'd be there once I found my coat.)

So I hop in the car, and turn on Jollyville towards the bus stop only to realize I'm headed the wrong way. I pull into a shop's parking lot, turn around, head back up the street and quickly see the complex the guy said, which I have passed many time and should have remembered where it was. I turn in, and right as I figure out which building is his, he comes out with Dan's phone. "Is this the phone?" (quite an odd question I thought, since he was just calling me from it.)

"Yeah, it matches mine." I hold mine up. "Thank you so much, really, you have no idea."

"Well, I just thought it looked expensive, so I knew it had to be returned."

"Thank you, seriously, I really appreciate it." (see, I sound like a dork even when half-asleep and confused.)

So, that's my fun and excitement for the day!

Finals = OVER

2008-12-15T14:38:00.003-06:00

It's so wonderful and amazing to feel free and like I have time again! Who'd have thought it possible! Now I can watch movies, play games, clean things, put pictures into a book, write people thank-yous for birthday presents and all those other things I'm forgetting that I didn't do in the last two months.

I'm not sure when grades come out, but I'm not too worried. I didn't know the grammatical function of different subordinating clauses, but I don't think you do off the top of your head either, or at least not how to recognize them in French, so I'm not going to think about it anymore.

Not so bad.

2008-12-12T14:09:00.003-06:00

I took my how-to-be-a-good-French-teacher final this morning. I think it went ok. There was one that sort of threw me. "Explain why the sentence below would be confusing for an Anglophone learner of french and give a context in which it would be correct." Ok, I can definitely say why it's confusing, because I am not sure why it's using that tense.... I get the basic idea of when you can use it like that, does that count? I made up some lame context, maybe it would work. Who knows? I sure don't. Now I am trying to draw a syntax tree without looking at my notes. Good fun.

First final in 34 hours

2008-12-10T23:05:00.001-06:00

So, I just finally finished taking notes for my final on Friday. Only 23 pages. I had already read it all, but waiting til the end to take notes forces me to go back over the whole thing. I hope this'll give my arm time to recover before I take the test because for the last test in this class I was writing for the whole hour and 15 minutes nearly without stopping at all. Intense, I tell you!

A ma place

2008-12-09T10:02:00.002-06:00

One of my favorite French songs is stuck in my head, so I am sharing it. The title is "A ma place" and it's a duet by Zazie and Axel Bauer. The title means "in my place" (like "what would you do if you were me?" or "in my shoes") Someone else's description of it follows, as well as a link to the video, and then the translation in English.

"I like the nostalgic message: two people that obviously love each other that feel the growing need to be their genuine selves while at the same time fearing that the other will no longer love them if they are. It really moves me how they are both unconsciously saying the same thing and yet neither has the guts to say it directly to the other." And then at the end they break through and can really be together.

http://mx.youtube.com/watch?v=IB-HdMudR3o&feature=related (no, don't know why YouTube insists my computer is in Mexico. It knows Dan's is here.)

"A ma place" english translation (by me - notes are numbered in parentheses and explained at the bottom)
Man:
In my place would she be stronger than a man
At the end of these dead ends where she abandons me?
Live through hell, die in combat,
Do I have to go so far to please her?
Could I make it?
Is it possible to be forgiven?
Is it possible to be loved?
For what we are?

Woman:
Does he sometimes put himself in my place?
When my wings get damaged
And my islands drown (1)
I bend under the weight
Bend under the weight
Of this half of a woman
That he wants me to be
I can play the beauty, but not sleep in the woods (2)
I can be the queen, but not the king's shadow
Do I have to give in?
Do I have to bleed?
For him to love me too
For what I am?

W: Could he do what it takes?
M: Would she do for me
W: Open the door a little?
M: Wouldn't it just be a step?
W: Could he do more
M: A little more effort
W: A gesture? a step?
M: A step towards me

Both:
I don't expect you to stay the same
I don't expect you to understand me
Only love me for what I am

Man:
Does she sometimes put herself in my place?
What do I have to do for her to see me?
Live through hell, die in combat
Do you want to make me something I'm not?
I can try to make the effort to face things
But silence is dead and yours freezes me
My soul mate, look for the problem (3)
The more my blood drains the more scared you are

M: Do I have to teach you?
W: I don't ask anything
M: The troubled waters where I linger
W: Where you go and where you come from
M: Do you really have to know
W: Everything you're hiding
M: Everything deep inside of me?
W: Deep inside of you

Both:
I don't expect you to stay the same
I don't expect you to understand me
Only love me for what I am
Only love me
For what I am

When I doubt
When I fall
And when the road is too long
When sometimes I am not
What you expect me to be
What do you want to do about it?
What would you have done in my place?

1 - There may be some sort of cultural reference I'm missing here, not sure.
2 - In French this is an obvious reference to Sleeping Beauty
3 - The original I used doesn't have a comma here, making it super ambiguous in English. He may be saying he is looking for the problem, or that she already is, or that she always does.

Two down!

2008-12-09T00:08:00.001-06:00

Just sent my teaching portfolio files to my prof. Will take the hard copy to campus tomorrow and then I will *only* need to study for two tests. Two very scary tests....... I'm going to bed.

One down!

2008-12-08T10:25:00.003-06:00

I just sent my final version of the paper. So now just the portfolio and two finals left. The bibliography didn't end up being quite so bad as I thought. I think I formatted the electronic ones incorrectly, but I don't mind. I wasn't using MLA or APA style (I'm supposed to use LSA, but as far as I can find, they only have one page and it doesn't even mention online sources or journal databases.)

Oh, and I better go get dressed for the dept. end-of-semester party because I have to get the bus in 30 min!

blaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaah

2008-12-06T17:50:00.002-06:00

I have one thing to turn in Monday, one thing to turn in Tuesday (that I'd like to have done by Monday so that I don't have to go to campus twice), a final on Friday, and a final on Monday the 15th. And, as you might have guessed, I REALLY do not feel like finishing the two things that are due first. One of them is a paper that is mostly done, so I know it's particularly lame to not want to finish it. The thing is, the parts I need to add are the parts that I am not really sure of.

And then there's re-doing the bibliography. Apparently, every time I cite a source that is citing someone else, I have to add them both into my bibliography. In other words, even though I don't have the book in front of me and never have, I get to try to find all of the information necessary to create a citation. Name, date, publisher, title, and place published. Name and date are given by my book, so that's ok. What's not so ok is trying to find titles, publishers, and publishing cities of books from the 1600s. Enough whining for now, back to work...

French MySpace and Z'Tejas

2008-12-02T23:21:00.002-06:00

I am working on a project for one of my classes. I have to use an authentic document to help students practice the vocab and grammar from a chapter - this one is about peoples' personalities as the main focus of the chapter is adjectives. For the web activity, I already had students check out online personal ads and look for someone they would want to hang out with or whatever. At the end of the chapter, there is a section about stereotypes. So for this one, I decided to grab some good MySpace profiles (as in, ones that actually had some information and adjectives). Early college students still use MySpace, right? Or at least they know it exists? I think so... I never used it. I know more people are on Facebook, but you can't just search random people.

It's funny to see all of the favorite movies and TV shows listed on MySpace, even the French ones. Some are very clearly American - LOST, Dr. House (isn't it just House in the US?), Grey's Anatomy, Charmed, Les Simpson. Others have French names - Les experts (CSI), FBI portés disparus (Without a Trace), Les frères Scott (One Tree Hill). Sometimes the things that get picked up are embarassing, but I suppose Americans really do watch them. At least they created their own nanny 911 show instead of using ours, like they do in the Emirates. The music sections tend to have a little bit of French along with Beyonce, Linkin Park, Offspring, etc.

On a different note, we decided to not make lunch today and instead went to Z Tejas. There's one at Bellevue Square, and I've wanted to go for a couple of years, but it's not terrible convenient to go there and it always seemed like it would be expensive. At least for lunch, it really wasn't. And the menu had enough interesting, slightly-unusual things on it to make it worth going. Feel free to check it out - www.ztejas.com. But the only people who read this near one are those in the Sound area. Maybe one day I will be willing to pay $8 for a regular ham & cheese sandwich with fries, but for now I refuse to go to a place that only has that kind of thing. I had a very tasty seafood enchilada and ate some of Dan's chicken/lettuce/bean/cheese/avocado/pumpkin seed salad. It was cool.

And did you know it's important to tip here??? Ok, background: in my dear state, waiters and waitresses have the same basic minimum wage as everyone else. So, as a broke college student, I do not feel the need to tip much, if at all, unless I actually get good service. Well, here (and in loads of other states!) anyone in a job that regularly gets tips has a lower minimum wage. $2.13 an hour. Are the prices any lower to make up for the added tipping need? Nope. Ridiculous, I tell you! (Note: I just looked it up, and apparently the employer is required to make up the difference if an employee's wages+tips is less than the regular federal minimum - $6.55. Still pathetic! $8.07 is much more reasonable.)

My pretty watch!

2008-11-26T13:40:00.003-06:00

For my birthday I got a watch, but it didn't fit right, and I took it back. The other watches were either too expensive (I needed one because my last one was lost, after all. I can't be sure its replacement won't suffer the same fate one day) or ugly or also didn't fit. I did try on a very pretty Skagen watch. It had a black face and instead of numbers, it had 12 clear Swarovski crystals. It was also very flat, especially considering that the face was only about an inch in diameter. Then I saw that it, too, cost more than I wanted to pay, so I left.

When I got home, I hopped online to see what other pretty watches might be out there. And I found that Amazon carries Skagen watches. I didn't see all the same ones as Macy's, but there is still a good selection as well as...... a slightly less flat version of the one I loved in the store! And for less than half the price, who can complain about that?

Isn't it pretty? I know, pictures never show the sparkle, so you'll just have to imagine it. Or next time you're at Macy's, go past the watch counter and see how pretty it is for yourselves. Thanks again, Wendy :)

Only one week left...

2008-11-25T13:43:00.002-06:00

One week of classes! So, for me, that means 2 actual class days, though I'll be on campus 4 days next week because of TA stuff. I can't really complain. It seems really cool until I stop to think that that means I've got two finals coming up soon and have to finish my portfolio and final paper (different classes) very soon as well.

But right now I don't have anything horribly pressing to do. I can sit here and type and say nothing, because there is no rush. **AND** Dan is at a job interview! Hooray!!!!!

I may be needed...

2008-11-20T22:28:00.003-06:00

Shortly after writing my earlier post today, I went to go talk to the professor of the course for which I have been insanely working on a paper. Well, apparently my hard work showed, because he said it was good for a first paper, gave me some formatting tips, and had even corrected my French in fewer places than I expected! (I have little hope of ever intuitively knowing the gender of nouns.)

To celebrate (and because I don't have to go to campus Monday or Wednesday, which will give me an extra 10 hours or so) I haven't done any school work this afternoon. Instead, I have been doing more important things, like finding pecan pie recipes and taking Dan to a new grocery store.

One of the things I do when I have time (and, I admit, when I don't have time) is look up tasty recipes, and try to find ones that fit a lot of categories - not too hard, not too time-involved, not too expensive, not too many things I don't already have, and relatively healthy. As you may guess, I often end up winging it. Today I ended up on this guy's food blog (http://www.cookingforengineers.com/) and remembered an issue I have over and over. Nobody tells people on a budget how to make edible things without taking forever.

I have a friend who is living on-campus, but without access to cafeteria food for a reasonable price. And has no idea how to cook. I was going to get her a cookbook meant for college students, but then I started to look at them. "College" cookbooks that include things like lamb and shrimp a little too often for me. Here's one of the most recently published ones, and you can see the table of contents: http://www.amazon.com/gp/reader/1580088260/ref=sib_dp_pop_toc?ie=UTF8&p=S007#reader-link Sorry, I'm just not convinced! That's not a college cookbook, that's a 'i'm young and hip' cookbook. Instead, I've been sending her tips and recipes (Tiny's typical ramen additions were very much appreciated.)

You've probably figured where this is going. And you're going to tell me "Um, hello idiot girl, you don't even have enough time to talk to us on a regular basis!" Yes, I know. But that's the beauty of the internet and blogging! I can post a bunch of stuff when I have the time/inclination, and tell it to post over time so that I can look like I am always at it! Besides, I've got a start because of the things I've sent my friend, and the many recipes I've saved over time. Plus, it's much easier to throw a recipe onto a page than to try and write about what I'm doing when I don't even want to think about all the things I'm doing/supposed to be doing.

I even looked at other food blogs. There's one girl who started a healthy cheap college food blog in 2007, but only made 7 posts. And she used things like smoked salmon and quorn and miso and wouldn't eat bagels because of the calorie content. Honey, that's not healthy and cheap, that's obsessive and things most real people don't eat often, if at all. Otherwise, the blogs are all older people with more time or more money or both, so the recipes are more involved. I know this is jumping waaaaaaaaaaaaay ahead, but what if people <> actually read it??? Then I could get ads or something, too, and make a dollar or two a month off it.

I wouldn't put my crazy plan into action until after finals, but what do you think? Too crazy? Just the right crazy? Or perfect?

Hi

2008-11-20T13:05:00.002-06:00

Yes, I am still alive. I think. I could be wrong. I've been working on so much stuff for classes that it's hard to tell. Even when I try to sleep, I wake up thinking that I am supposed to be doing something else. I have hope that this will end soon. There are so many things I've been meaning to do, but this ridiculous thing called "homework" got in the way.

Ahhhhhhhhhh

2008-11-10T09:39:00.002-06:00

Yesterday I went out in a t-shirt without being the least bit cold and rolled down the windows in the car when we went to take back my ill-fitting watch. Right now it's 65, overcast, with a light breeze and the smell of rain coming in the window next to me. Very nice.

Africa.

2008-11-08T16:04:00.002-06:00

Fine, Sarah Palin maybe didn't realize Africa is a continent, not a country. Can we please stop talking about her now that the election's over?

The problem is that most Americans also think of it as a country. People talk about mission trips "to Africa." News reports too often refer to a city in Africa, and skip the country. The most common map in the US shows the state of Alaska almost the same size as Africa. (Some say this has changed, but it was what I grew up with and I'm still not that old.) People assume all Africans are black, and that all of it is hot.

Africa covers 11,668,545 square miles. If you're like me, that doesn't help any. So try this - it's over 3 times the size of the US, including Alaska and Hawaii. There are 53 countries in Africa, with over 800 ethnic groups and 1000 languages. No one really seems to care what happens there. North Africa (from the news I saw) doesn't even pay that much attention to sub-Saharan Africa.

I know we can't all realistically know everything about every country. But we don't say "Asia" like it's one place, all the same. We know Vietnam and Thailand and China and India and Japan, even if we don't always break it up properly. We know they're their own places and have some idea that there must be distinctions between them (or if we grew up in the sound area, have a solid, if basic, grasp on some of the differences.)

I found a cool site that I used for the square mileage and other random facts when I was writing this: http://www.bu.edu/africa/outreach/materials/handouts/howbig.html

Awwww

2008-11-05T19:05:00.000-06:00

Just heard Michael Crichton (sp?) died. Sad.

I hope...

2008-11-05T18:17:00.002-06:00

Whether you like Obama or not, I think we can all hope for one thing - that the political engagement by the traditionally disengaged will continue. I heard undergrads on campus asking each other if they voted yet (Texas has early voting.) Then at the voting place across the street from campus, there was a giant line yesterday. There were even students who went home just to vote because they hadn't changed their registration to their school addresses.

Maybe we've finally overcome the seeming apathy of generation x. Obama's reminder in his speech last night told all of those people to stay involved:

And above all, I will ask you join in the work of remaking this nation the only way it’s been done in America for two-hundred and twenty-one years – block by block, brick by brick, calloused hand by calloused hand.

What began twenty-one months ago in the depths of winter must not end on this autumn night. This victory alone is not the change we seek – it is only the chance for us to make that change. And that cannot happen if we go back to the way things were. It cannot happen without you.

He has said before that he wants to expand the Peace Corps and Americorps - two groups made to get regular people involved and making a difference. So don't stop! Don't walk away from your enthusiasm! No matter what sort of future we want, we'll get there faster if we pitch in to make it happen, even if it's not easy.

I JUST WANT TO RECYCLE!

2008-11-02T21:09:00.003-06:00

We've got over three plastic totes of things to recycle. Glass, plastic, aluminum, 'tin' cans, cardboard, paper, newspaper.... is there anything else recyclable? Anyway, the city put out in their neighborhood paper that new 'single stream' (all-in-one, recycle almost anything) bins would be appearing in October. We were happy, and decided to wait for that instead of searching for a nearby recycling bin. In mid October, we see another thing that says they'll be 'rolling out' the new bins over the next 3 months. Ok. And then our crappy bins disappear (plastic, aluminum, and paper) so we figure we'll get the good ones! Nope. We get plastic, aluminum, and *newspaper.*

And is there a nice place to take the other stuff? A nearby obvious school or "we'll give you money for your glass" or even a random glass bin ANYWHERE?? NO! I even looked it up. The nearest place is 15 minutes away. Near school. A place to which I NEVER drive. Maybe I'll have Dan drive me during the bus strike this week and do it then.

I just want to put this stuff into a bin and not have it on my balcony. Is that so much to ask............................................

Only 5 weeks left!

2008-10-30T13:58:00.002-05:00

I realized something crazy just now - there are only 5 weeks left of this semester! At Central, with quarters (10 weeks) that seemed like a lot, but now it doesn't. Sure, I've got like 3 tests, one giant paper, and a teaching portfolio due between then and now, but it's only 5 weeks. Well, plus finals. And then I'll have a whole month off before starting classes again. But next semester, I'll know I already got through one and will have less to figure out, right? I sure hope so...

Deer stories

2008-10-29T16:20:00.002-05:00

Yesterday morning, on my way to the bus at 7AM, I saw a buck wandering through our parking lot, not too far ahead of me. He didn't seem too worried about me, but I could tell he was watching, so I slowed down until he was gone. It reminded me of the last time I saw a buck very close and I'm not sure I told many people.

On the way to Texas, Dan and I took 4 days to drive - 2 to Vegas, then 2 after that to Texas. We needed to make it to Austin by 5pm in order to sleep in our apartment, and not be stuck with a hotel. This is why we decided to leave Vegas early one morning and drive as long as possible. We had marked 3 or 4 campsites along our route so that we would have a choice.

After being on the road for a long time, we thought it would be best to just keep going and try to get to the place closest to Austin. This was Balmorhea state park. It's not far off the freeway, and the directions listed on their website were to take a farm road (I think it'd be an SR in Washington) that ran parallel to the freeway, and that way we wouldn't have to backtrack.

I would not recommend it in the dark. There were no lights along the farm road. It was really cool to see bats lit up in our headlights as they chased moths. I thought I may have hit one at one point. The speed limit on the road was 70, but I was a little bit smarter than that. I was cruising along at about 60, and Dan kept saying I should go slower. It was a long, straight road with no one else around, so I slowed down to about 55 to try to make him feel better.

After a while we saw a deer jump cleanly across the road pretty far ahead. We were both like "whoa, did you see that?" Then Dan says "hey, there's another one, you see it?" I did not see it. I think he said something like "stop, it's gonna jump" and I could finally see it, walking near the side of the road, but parallel to it. "watch out!" i think was his yell and I slammed on the brakes just in time to see the buck jump out directly in front of us - we didn't even get a chance to stop completely and I swear we were passing it before it was even out of the road.

I slowed down after that. But if you're driving east to Balmorhea at night, I would stay on the freeway and back-track. I'd much rather see a large deer while I'm outside of a car instead of driving one.

I have my phone number back!

2008-10-25T19:05:00.002-05:00

After 1 1/2 months of lots and lots of frustrations with At&t, T-Mobile and their employees we finally have our old phone numbers back!!!!!!! YAY!

$2.44

2008-10-23T16:23:00.002-05:00

I have not seen gas for $2.44 since....... Spring 05. Why do I remember that? Because I was student teaching, and driving from Eburg to Yakima and back 5 days a week.

On the way home today, our nearest gas station now has gas for $2.44/gallon! I bet it's not that low in Ellensburg still, since Washington tends to have some of the highest prices, but it's still nice.

The only bad part? We paid $2.69 on Sunday.

Sent!

2008-10-17T15:44:00.002-05:00

I just sent my last midterm. Hooray! I still have 3 chapters to read by Tuesday, lots of research for a paper to do, and exercises to finish by next Thursday (which I will do this weekend because I never have enough time Wednesday for anything) but at least that is finished. I am going to go lay down and do nothing for a bit.

Still alive.

2008-10-14T18:20:00.002-05:00

Finished one midterm today, one video-taped lesson (15 min that I get to critique with my entire class - yay), correcting one 'authentic document' activity, reading only like 50 pages for Thursday, and finishing a take-home midterm for Friday. Yeah, this is the part of being a student that is not so exciting. I can't imagine how people keep going when they have to PAY every penny to be a part of all of this. I suppose for things like lawyers, where you're likely to make more than enough to make up for it, it could be tolerable.

Dan's just finished making dinner, going to eat!

Objective resources for candidates' health plans

2008-10-10T11:07:00.002-05:00

Well, after hearing too many clearly slanted representations of the presidential candidates' health plans, I went to look for an objective source. Took a bit of time, I admit. Since it did take me some time, though, I've decided to share! Unfortunately, I also realized how impossible it is to find an impartial judge, so I am including a few links here and a summary of what they say so that you don't have to read the whole articles. If you wanna read just one article, the last one had the most info. Unfortunately, neither one says how to avoid insurance costs continuing to increase.

First, an analysis reported on by the AP: http://ap.google.com/article/ALeqM5jr3KPDdKbqYCjiAiWObt_K5SaAzQD93MKO4G1
- Analysis done by The Lewin Group
- McCain's plan was projected to cost more than $2 trillion from 2010 through 2019, while Obama's would cost $1.17 trillion
- about 16 million would lose their employer coverage in McCain's plan, though a few may gain it
- nearly 24 million people would use the tax credits McCain has proposed to buy coverage directly from insurers through the individual market
- Obama's plan is friendlier to those with chronic health conditions. It will cover about half the uninsured with chronic conditions, such as diabetes. Meanwhile, McCain's plan will cover about a quarter of the uninsured with a chronic condition.
- about 16 million people would gain coverage through government programs (which would include all uninsured children) under Obama's plan. An additional 10 million would use government subsidies to buy insurance coverage.

Next, from the Good Morning America medical editor: http://abcnews.go.com/GMA/OnCall/story?id=5978490&page=1
"The Main Difference
McCain is trying to get more people away from employer-based health care and into individual health-care plans. Obama is trying to get more people into employer-based health care.
Basically McCain would tax your health benefits as he would a salary and offset your purchase of an individual plan with a tax break.
On the other hand, Obama would have the employers make a decision with his pay or play rule. Medium and large companies would have to either provide health-care coverage, or pay a tax that would go toward funding the uninsured."
- McCain would give tax credits, but you'd be completely on your own to find a plan that fits.
- The average employer-sponsored family policy costs $12,680 per year. Right now, $5,000 on an individual plan might get you the bare bones catastrophic coverage, with extremely high deductibles. (McCain's plan - note that the Dr. here doesn't say employers will drop your coverage, he just states what $5,000, the family tax credit, would get a family.)
- Obama's plan would offer individual plans through a national health-care exchange, which will offer a certain number of pre-vetted plans.
- The point of the health-care exchange would be to make it easier to choose what's right for you.
- A lot would depend on what you can afford and neither candidate has clarified what subsidies would be provided.

Last, a report by The Commonwealth Fund: http://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2008/10/081002084219.htm
- both plans seek to expand health insurance, but Senator McCain would encourage individuals to select their own coverage through the individual insurance market while Senator Obama would strengthen employer coverage and public programs.
- Over ten years, Senator McCain's plan would cost $1.3 trillion and Senator Obama's $1.6 trillion.
- The plans are rooted in differing philosophies: Senator Obama's plan focuses on sharing responsibility for health care coverage among employers, the government, and families, while Senator McCain's plan aims to place more responsibility for coverage upon families and provide greater portability.
- McCain's plan would expand choices for healthy people, but potentially reduce access for older people and those with health problems. McCain has proposed to cover those with pre-existing conditions by expanding state high-risk pools.
- In Obama's plan, small businesses would be eligible for tax credits to offset premium costs, and affordability for families would be guaranteed through premium assistance on a sliding scale based on income. Insurers could not reject applicants or charge higher premiums because of pre-existing conditions or other health risks.
- Researchers at the Urban Institute/Brookings Institution Tax Policy Center have estimated that McCain's plan would reduce the number of uninsured by 2 million out of a projected 67 million in ten years, compared with 34 million uninsured covered in ten years under Obama's plan.
- Senator McCain would not require anyone to have health insurance. Children would be required to have health insurance under Senator Obama's plan.

Lessons of the day

2008-10-07T17:37:00.002-05:00

I learned a couple of interesting things today from my professors:

First, "senate" in old French meant a meeting of old people.

Second, adverb is a "stupid category" in grammar.

successful study session

2008-10-06T21:26:00.002-05:00

Well, I just finished trying to figure out how words changed from latin to French. A girl from my class came over to try to figure it out, too. We were both a little confused by the process, but it seemed like we were at least getting it a little by the end.

After she left Dan turned to me and said "You two sounded like Harry and Ron making predictions for professor Trelawney's class." Great, thanks Dan. Guess maybe we don't have it yet...

Be healthy!

2008-10-04T12:36:00.003-05:00

I'm working on a project for a class - find an authentic French document and make an activity out of it. The chapter I was assigned focuses on Health, Sports, and Fashion. The first thing that popped into my head was mangerbouger.fr - a site about health created by the French government (means eatingmoving). They have pages and info aimed at just about everyone - kids (to surf on their own), teens, adults, parents, senior citizens, caretakers of senior citizens, pregnant women, women who have recently given birth, and parents of kids under 3.

I thought of it so quickly because it is advertised during virtually every commercial break in France. Any time there is an ad for fastfood, snacks, cereal (I think just about everything, really) there is a final message on the screen. "[O]ne sentence is aired per ad, either “For your health, eat at least five fruits and vegetables per day,” “Practice a physical activity regularly” or “Avoid snacking between meals.” All of which are followed by the link to the website www.mangerbouger.fr." (check out the full article at http://calorielab.com/news/2008/04/18/eat-your-fruits-and-veg-and-more-diet-advice-from-the-french-government/) if you want. Candy and chips look much less appealing when they're followed by the "Avoid snacking between meals" one.

For modern societies where we all eat poorly and avoid excersizing, it only seems responsible for a government to combat the advertising of unhealthy options with a healthy reminder. If we want to avoid an overweight public, with all of the related health concerns, allow unhealthy things to be sold and advertised, but sneak a good message in there, too! I think the message is more powerful than "smoking kills", etc. labels they have on cigarette ads and cartons because it's linked to all of the ads, which are much more prevalent, and it's not like food is addictive. I like Kellogg's push to go lower-sugar and advertise sugary products to children less, but this kind of thing would do much more.

In case you are interested...

2008-09-30T23:49:00.002-05:00

http://www.ppaction.org/campaign/openletter_palin

Above is a link to sign an open letter to Ms. Palin. The beginning of the letter is below.

Dear Sarah Palin,
You are not our candidate.
You are not our candidate because you required women in Wasilla to pay for their own medical examinations after being raped.
You are not our candidate because you do not support a woman's right to choose, *even in the case of rape or incest.*
You are not our candidate because you've cut funding for teen moms, and for comprehensive sex education.

(If you need more, go to the site!)

A taste of Tunisia

2008-09-28T16:27:00.002-05:00

This morning I had a cafe turc and looked up "Radio Mosaique FM" - a radio station popular among Tunisian youth. I really liked this radio station while we were there because it is such a good example of the way people talk and think in a way. The commercials and announcers use both French and Arabic, sometimes they throw in English, and the songs they play are all three, with sometimes some Spanish and Italian along with it.

If you'd like to listen, here's the link: http://www.gawaher.com/pages/radio-tunis.html

I Google

2008-09-27T18:05:00.002-05:00

But who doesn't, right? So why this time? Well, I am currently deciding on a paper topic. Normally, I would go to the school library's site, search the online journal databases, see if I could find anything interesting that was available in full-text online (often the stuff that seems most helpful isn't) and then after that search the online book catalog. I would write down all of the journal/book titles and call numbers I wanted to look at in the library and then I would make a trip there to start pulling things off the shelf to see if they were really helpful.

This step can be a pain for a lot of reasons. 1 - It takes a lot of time to find all those books & journals. 2 - People don't always put them back in the right place so even if they're "in," they may be lost forever. 3 - You have to skim the whole journal article or hope the book has an index so that you know where to look. 4 - If there is an index, you go to the page, and can finally look at the context to see if it is really what you were going for.

This is where Google makes the process a bit easier. My school is connected to Google Scholar, which (in my humble opinion) is an easier way to search that ProQuest, Gale, or whatever journal database you prefer. It is also connected to the beta version of GoogleBooks. As far as I can tell, this means you can search the *content* of books instead of going off of the keywords that publishers decided people would want. The books aren't just in English, either. I can search for a few words, and find out that there are LOADS of books that include those words. (I admit that good word-choosing skills are necessary.) If the book is public domain (the copyright has run out) then you can look at the book right there, search for the words you want, and read the whole thing online if you'd like. If the book, like most books, is not public doman, then you can still search for the word/s you like and see the word IN CONTEXT in the book. I can save the book to my library, and come back to my list later. All from my computer. So before I even go to the library I can have a better idea of the books I want.

It's true that the books on GoogleBooks may not be found in my school library, but I don't mind checking two databases instead of hauling around loads of books for hours. Besides, with inter-library loan systems, most things are pretty accessible. For my purposes, though, I don't even need to go get the books yet. I just wanted to see how much has been written about the subject I'm considering. Since there does indeed seem to be a large body of work, I've saved all the possible resources to my library, settled a topic, and can worry more about it after my test Thursday.

Does anyone want to read about the delateralization of the 'lia' sound for me? :)

"nice fall temperatures"

2008-09-26T19:30:00.002-05:00

We still listen to some radio from washington on the internet. They always give weather reports and, occasionally, traffic-ish reports. Well, they just said parts eastern Washington will have "nice fall temperatures" of lows in the 40s to low 50s. Awwwwwwwww........ if we're lucky we might hit 59 tonight, but it was over 80 today!

Interesting things from today

2008-09-23T23:12:00.002-05:00

"You don't need to understand it."

Guess who said that? If you said "a professor," you are correct. And to what would you surmise he was referring? A textbook he chose. He made sense later, saying it's important to have and use a reference book. I am thinking of it like reading a dictionary or a grammar manual - on its own, it's not exactly a great read, but it's invaluable when trying to do some things.

The other interesting thing was this girl's outfit. There's a girl I see most days. She must have a class in my area. She's very tall and thin with 80s-ish strategically messy hair and could pass for someone who does modeling. She tends to dress the same. "Cut-off" jean shorts so short the pockets are hanging out paired with slightly masculine button-ups. Shorts just as short made out of slacks material and 2-3 tanks/tees layered on top. I'm bad at describing, but she could be out of the pages of Vogue most days. Well, today......... she looked like she was going for Pretty Woman. 80s and all. Start with a neon pink bra. Over it was a translucent baggy white tanktop. The back of the tank top was below the bra, and the front didn't completely cover the bra. At least she wasn't wearing a push-up or trying to fall out in any other way. And the black skirt. True to form, it barely covered any of her legs. However, it was not short. It started all the way up a few inches above her waist with a big ol' 3-inch braided/weaved black belt. Now that I think about it, I didn't see the shoes........

Hello, deer!

2008-09-19T17:49:00.002-05:00

I think I mentioned this before, but our apartment looks out over a treed area. We have seen squirrels and skunks, as well as deer. Since we're up sort of high, sometimes they're hard to spot through the trees, but we can hear them well, especially at night. The last few nights it's been cool enough that we've left the windows open and they wander around, doing who knows what.

Dan has this habit of throwing biodegradable things out car windows. Yes, the apple core will break down there much better than in a plastic sack at the landfill, but if everybody threw it out the window, how gross would that look!? Well, he started doing the same thing here. At first I was on him about it as much as when he throws things out of the car. But the other day he told me something cool - he saw a deer eating a banana peel he'd tossed out! I've seen deer eat whole apples while hiking, so I decided that he has a point. Today I threw my apple core off the balcony - not to 'decompose' but for the deer.

drawbacks

2008-09-18T13:09:00.002-05:00

The only thing that doesn't make me happy about the whole taking classes again thing is that I have a class at 8 am. It's only two days a week, but it is soooo hard to get up at 6:15 for it! I was at work in Eburg around 8 every day, but you can start your morning slowly - answer emails, organize files, check students' files - and living 5 min from campus meant that the earliest I got up was 7. there were a few days that I got up at 7:45. Just the fact that it's dark out until about 10 minutes before I leave makes it rough. I hope that Dan ends up having to wake up at the same time, or I may have real trouble after the time change.

The green light is on!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

2008-09-17T10:01:00.002-05:00

I am sitting in my apartment, using internet..... from my own computer! I know that may seem like a silly thing to be excited about, but I have not been able to do this for over a year. In Tunisia I would sometimes worry about my poor little computer, trapped in the storage unit in Ellensburg. But it stayed safe and now I am putting it to good use once more.

I've been able to update because Dan has a wireless card and has been able to pick up a network from somewhere around here. My wired-only computer was not so lucky. I used to have a wireless receiver, but my roommate at the time had trouble keeping me on the network, so I just got a 50 ft ethernet cord instead and lent the wireless to a friend. That was three years ago and when I asked him if he still had it, he said 'yes, but it doesn't work anymore.' Which is ok, because I had sort of forgotten about it and don't really need it.

Interesting link

2008-09-12T23:38:00.002-05:00

I found this on a friend's blog, but thought you all may find it interesting:
http://www.taxpolicycenter.org/publications/url.cfm?ID=411750

"Both John McCain and Barack Obama have proposed tax plans that would substantially increase the national debt over the next ten years, according to a newly updated analysis by the non-partisan Tax Policy Center. Compared to current law, TPC estimates the Obama plan would cut taxes by $2.9 trillion from 2009-2018. McCain would reduce taxes by nearly $4.2 trillion. Obama would give larger tax cuts to low- and moderate-income households and pay some of the cost by raising taxes on high-income taxpayers. In contrast, McCain would cut taxes across the board and give the biggest cuts to the highest-income households." [...]

"Neither candidate's plan would significantly increase economic growth unless offset by spending cuts or tax increases that the campaigns have not specified."

And from the report itself: "...without substantial cuts in government spending, both plans would sharply increase the national debt. Including interest costs, Obama’s tax plan would boost the debt by $3.5 trillion by 2018. McCain’s plan would increase the debt by $5 trillion.
The Obama plan would reduce taxes for low- and moderate-income families, but raise them significantly for high-bracket taxpayers (see Figure 2). By 2012, middle-income taxpayers would see their after-tax income rise by about 5 percent, or nearly $2,200 annually. Those in the top 1 percent would face a $19,000 average tax increase—a 1.5 percent reduction in after-tax income.
McCain would lift after-tax incomes an average of about 3 percent, or $1,400 annually, for middle-income taxpayers by 2012. But, in sharp contrast to Obama, he would cut taxes for those in the top 1% by more than $125,000, raising their after-tax income an average 9.5 percent.
These projections are built on descriptions of the candidates’ plans provided by senior McCain and Obama staff (see Table 1). "

Yay for increasing the national debt??? Yay for selling ourselves to China? I'm sure (or at least I sure hope) neither of these plans would be put into action. Solution? Vote third party! Ok, only if you live in a state where it doesn't matter. With the electoral college, many of our voice really don't make a difference because our states lean heavily one way or another. So, vote for someone else. If the party gets 5% or more of the vote, they'll get more government support and eventually more attention. Then one day we can have some more choices. Can you imagine how nice it would be to have 8 or 9 choices? Sure, it would be harder to know where they all stand on every single issue, but do we know that now? Besides, their stances would naturally be more varied, and they would still run along the same communist-to-facist spectrum.

I GOT A NEW PHONE!

2008-09-11T19:54:00.002-05:00

It's a slider phone and is pretty and has a big screen and was only a penny and is a cool deep red. (Motorola Z9 if you're curious) I'm a real person again! I can talk to people on weekends for free! And I don't have to worry about how much the blasted pre-paid minutes cost!

Oh, and copy-cat-Dan has the same phone.

Shoes

2008-09-08T21:49:00.002-05:00

Why (and how!) do I not own any shoes that I can walk around in? Did they all go to crap? Did my feet become wimpy? Were they bad in the first place, and I just never realized it??

These thoughts have been plaguing me the last week as I get more and more blisters on my feet. I started out with flip-flop blisters. Between the big toe and his neighbor, and then on the sides of my left foot (the right was ok at first.) So, I switched to a pair of sandals someone gave me. Then I got blisters in new places. Ok, sandals I've had longer - nope, just the worst pain yet. I think that part of it is that I only brought 4 pairs of shoes to Tunisia - one of which just had a button pop that I haven't fixed, one not suitable for weather this hot, one pair of flip flops (which I mainly wore around the house) and my workout shoes. I must have forgotten how to wear things. Or how to walk. One of those. Other than getting groceries (for which I always wore sneakers) we didn't have to walk much with hailing cabs at our door or getting rides from Leila.

Bye, I am going to fix that button now that I've remembered it.

Grad School

2008-09-07T19:47:00.003-05:00

So, what's it like anyway? Well, I am taking classes with other students from the US, France, Spain, and Russia (as far as I know! There may be more.) I have 3 classes, which doesn't sound so bad, but they EXPECT you to have only 3 classes, so there's still a lot of work involved. Right now, I actually think that it's not that much. But I haven't had to read things by a deadline for the last couple of years, so I am constantly reminding myself to do the reading. I think I've got 3 books per class. My classes are 15 weeks long, though, unlike the 10 weeks at Central, and we'll have to see how I handle the difference.

I haven't decided yet if it's wonderful or terrible, but I have classes 2 days a week - just Tuesday and Thursday from 8 to 12:15. That's not really typical. It's nice because I don't have to do as much on campus the other days, but I still have to read. And I can't put off reading for my classes because they're all in a row. So if I want to remember what I read, I have to glance over it in the 15 min between classes. At least it's 15 minutes.

"What *are* your classes?" you ask. Well, first is History of French. Like, all the way starting back at latin to modern French. It's really interesting to see how words and grammar have changed, but I still haven't taken any Latin. (The two days in Chambéry don't count since I dropped the class.) The books talk about declensions and how they simplified and all this (and I'm happy they did!) but I don't know how they work terribly well, so it's not as easy for me to grasp.

Then is Syntax. Yes, like just studying words/sounds/sentences and how they go together. No, it's not boring. I'm sure it could be, but the professor really is interested in it, and so he points out why it's worth studying and all that.

Last for the day is "Supervised Teaching." Really, it's just learning how to teach better, and is required before you're given a classroom of your own. We talk about language acquisition, teaching methods, and the cool first year curriculum they've created. We'll also be doing things like web activities, micro-teaching, and a 'teaching portfolio. The purpose of web activities is for students to go to real French websites and put the vocab/grammar they've been using into practice. The first one is due on Tuesday, and I have the idea for mine all planned out, I just have to type it up. The chapter is on describing people - physically as well as interests. Hmm... what sort of website would do that in a clear way? Personal ads! Yep, I'm gonna have them navigate a site, find someone (friend or date, I don't care which), and then write a paragraph about the person and what activities they would do together. It's only chapter 4, so they don't have extensive vocabulary or grammar yet.

On Monday to Thursday afternoons, I have TA duties. But I'll explain those another day.

Wow.

2008-09-06T14:46:00.000-05:00

I'm gonna go on again, because you don't have to read it if you don't want to!
Well, I heard reports that Sarah Palin (nominee for VP, in case you live in box) had commended her daughter's "decision" to have her baby, even though she is against abortion INCLUDING in cases of rape or incest. I figured that this must have been misrepresented by the media, so I looked up the press release myself. If you'd like to, it's here: http://www.johnmccain.com/informing/news/PressReleases/ab547fc8-d96d-4f87-aa8a-2e52be2b66fc.htm

"We're proud of Bristol's decision to have her baby and even prouder to become grandparents."

Ok. Sooooo........... you're saying it's a decision. As in, she had a choice. But now you'd like to go and get rid of that choice for every other woman in her position. If Palin has her way, the options for pregnant females will become:
- Raise baby
- Give baby up for adoption
- Go to a country where abortion is legal
- Get illegal abortion in the US

I am just floored that her official press release would call it a decision when she's so against one of the options currently available. She said HAVE. Not KEEP. If it was KEEP, then I could understand that what she meant was to not give it up for adoption. But HAVE - as far as I know, that just means give birth.

Why does that seem like a big deal to me? Well, if my mom had made a public statement due to her 17-yr old daughter getting pregnant, she would've just left any bit about a 'decision' out. She probably would have said something like, "While it may be sooner than I expected, I am so proud to be a grandparent." (In private she would have just been wondering what she could have said or done BEFORE that may have prevented such an event.) To her, it's not truly a decision, so she wouldn't call it one. That's where the issue comes in for me. Palin made a statement about choice where she consider one belongs. And that doesn't add up. So why'd she do it? ......

More about us here

2008-09-04T17:23:00.003-05:00

I've been reading the blog of a friend who decided to teach in Iraq this year, and it made me feel bad for not updating my own. Though, in my defense, she doesn't have to read around a hundred pages a day and actually UNDERSTAND them. She's *just* trying to teach English and Math (at the same time) to 4-7 yr olds.

So, what else can I tell you? It turns out that the express bus makes it about 25 min to UT and 30-35 to downtown. It takes almost 10 minutes to walk to the bus stop, but the campus is so big that even if I drove I would take at least that long walking from a parking garage to class, while the bus puts me really close to the French building. I started classes last Wednesday. Well, I started observing then; I only have classes on Tuesday and Thursday. That may sound like a great set-up, but they're all back to back, which means that I hardly have a chance to remember the reading from the next class before going in. I've been doing a lot of reading for classes, but being a TA is easy so far. I'll teach later this quarter, but for now I'm just observing and grading papers. I was afraid that observing might make me bored to tears, but they have a really interesting first year curriculum. I won't go into too much detail, because I'm sure no one else cares. But, it's cool because it was created by professors here based on studies about how students learn (this may be shocking, but many textbooks are based on how professors would LIKE students to learn rather than how they really do.) It's got a lot of videos made for the program, too, which makes it much more interesting.

What does Dan do all day? He's been applying for jobs. Mostly in law offices (it's amazing how many of them are hiring! I guess that's what you get in a big city.) He also does my laundry, vacuums the carpets, and cooks my food. Ok, ok, he doesn't really do my laundry - I'm much too picky about it and wouldn't allow that.

What else do we do? We've decided against getting cable due to the unbelievable cost. It's like $112 a month for cable + internet! No way! The last two weeks we've been listening to the Democratic and Republican national conventions. I know that each of them is mainly "preaching to [their] choir" but they still make me sick. At the DNC, they said "John McCain has voted with president Bush 95% of the time." Well, the president doesn't vote so I'm guessing that they meant he did what the president would have done, but how can we know that anyway? And at the RNC they're saying "Barack Obama would raise taxes x amount!" There was an economist guy that was evaluating statements of both sides and said that this is partly true - tax cuts would go to anyone making less than $200,000/yr (or $250,000/yr for married couples) and tax increases would go to the people above that. Soooo you and me are not in any trouble.

There was a segment on the news before we left Gig Harbor about that - they were doing a special interview with a family who made over the high amount and lives in a large four bedroom house (with their 3 very young sons) in the suburbs of DC or Jersey. They were talking about how they still clip coupons and don't make that much. Life must be difficult making more than 95-98% (it's between there, I can't remember what) of Americans, but I just can't feel sorry for you - I guess your kids won't all get private school educations AND cars when they turn 16. (Yes, I'm stereotyping, so what?)

Ok, fine, I'm done now.

I know, I know...

2008-08-28T12:46:00.002-05:00

I'm a lazy for not updating before now. But we don't exactly have internet, and I been doin stuff! I have unpacked alllll of my clothes (more of them are ugly than I remember - terrible!)

Then I had orientation on Thursday, Friday and Monday, and classes started yesterday. So far everything is going well, my professors seem cool and knowledgeable, and the other students in the department are friendly. There are a few other new MA students, though I'm the only one from Washington. It really is different here. Other than the weather.

Let's take the driving for example. It is terrifyingly insane. The arterials near our place have speedlimits of 50! And we're not talking like River Road, with only a few turn-offs. These are roads with loads of cross streets AND stores! So you pull out of safeway and have to stomp on the gas to avoid being hit.

I think that is all for now because I am FREEZING. They over-cool most buildings to the point that people who grew up here or have been here a while bring jackets to class. So I can't type. I think I'm gonna go outside for a bit.

Our stuff!

2008-08-21T20:22:00.000-05:00

It's amazing! We have a bed and dishes and clothes and pots and pans and a hairdryer and a TV and a desk and two computers and knives and wrapping paper and a mini christmas tree and lots of shelves and DVD cases (the DVDS came to Tunisia in a big folder-thing) and loads of other stuff!

Our trailer got here at around 1:30 and we unloaded the whole thing (despite the rain that trickled, then came down, then trickled, then stopped, then POURED). It was fun! And we even got to make our own dinner! How fancy of us! I'm sick of restaurant food.

OK, too worn out to think of anything else.

Still going...

2008-08-20T18:53:00.000-05:00

I think I can handle this place. I was pretty worried about moving to a city the size of Seattle - I have never really liked driving, and driving in Seattle is one of the worst things I can think of. Well, we did get turned around an awful lot, and I'll probably leave a good hour early for anywhere I need to be by a set time, but our little corner of Austin seems ok. We have 3 grocery stores within about 5 minutes, and all in the same direction. We also have several shopping centers nearby, with fancy stores like Crate & Barrel and Express, but there are also Bed, Bath & Beyond and (almost finished!) Target.

However, our apartment complex is on a smaller, very residential street. Our apartment itself looks onto the Bull Creek preserve (I think) and so we mainly see trees. Coming into Austin on the freeway, I was amazed by the look of it - a big city, mostly hidden in trees. Now northwest people should be clear - these are not gigantic, towering evergreens, but large deciduous trees all over. The ones right out our window are taller than the building and through them we see a few rooftops and other buildings peeking out. It doesn't feel like we're 5 minutes from just about any convenience one could want.

The only thing that I am concerned about is the cost of food - I swear things in WA don't cost this much! We have Whole Foods - a nice, but expensive store - HEB - which people say is the cheapest one but still doesn't have a decent loaf of bread under $2.50 - and Safeway - it says "Randall's" on the outside, but they can't fool me. We went to all three and I believe the cheapest gallon of milk was $4.00. Nope, that's not a typo. We'll have to try the Farmer's market (two days a week and year-round!) and though I'm sure it won't have cheaper bread, it might help a bit with produce.

Unfortunately, our truck o' stuff hasn't made it yet. I was really hoping it'd get here today, because I have orientation tomorrow. Nope. It's supposed to arrive in Austin tonight, so with any luck it will be here before I need to leave tomorrow. That way Dan can come down to campus with me, check out the downtown area, and I won't have to drive there yet. I'm sure I could do it, but.... no, thanks!

Travelers in strange lands

2008-08-16T12:01:00.000-05:00

Just a quick update from Las Vegas. We have made it here safely! Driving for long stretches isn't as bad as I expected, though I'm very grateful for cruise control.

Dan's never been through most the places between here and western WA, and keeps commenting on how much of it looks like eastern WA. I think he's right. I haven't been to most of the places sinc I was old enough to really pay attention, so it's been interesting for me, too. A few notes:

Hermiston, OR is not a place I want to live. I know I saw a small section of it, but too small and while the gas station attendant was nice, the people in Safeway were a little creepy.

Beaver, UT has a nice women's bathroom, but the men's could reportedly use some attention.

Utah people in general are also scary drivers. Weaving in and out all over, and almost into each other several times. I hope that Arizona and Texas are a little better.

We are off again early tomorrow, wish us luck!

The story will continue!

2008-07-29T00:27:00.000-05:00

I've gotten several questions about whether I'll continue my blog or not, so yes, I really will. Right now, having dial-up and a thousand things to get straight (car, moving, new apartment, keeping up on French) it's not my top priority. But, the addess will stay. The title may change (though maybe not, since there are certainly deserts between "home" in the Sound area and Austin.) I won't promise whether Dan will post or not, but I won't take him off the 'contributor' list. He's better with pictures than I am anyway.

Time for bed!

... And counting

2008-06-15T13:13:00.000-05:00

Well, we have packed our bags and realized that we need to mail a few things home. We have cleaned up the place a bit, and are being careful not to get too much new food (fruits, bread, vegetables) before we go. When will we be leaving, ladies and gentlemen? Around noon on Tuesday. In other words, about 40 hours from now.

Earlier, we sat down for a minute after deciding what to mail home, and American Gladiators was on. We somehow got sucked into the show, and after it was at least half over, I started to get up, asking, "why are we even watching this??" "We're readjusting to American culture! Besides, what else are we gonna do right now?" Dan told me. Realizing he was probably right, I plopped back down and threw my arms around him instead of trying to find something to do. Good choice, right? :)

Creative editing

2008-06-11T02:44:00.000-05:00

The channels from the UAE (or Emirates, whatever you want to call it) edit their movies. Sometimes for time, I'm sure, sometimes for content. The entire end of The Talented Mr. Ripley was gone, because it apparently becomes undeniable that Mr. Ripley is into men. In The Good Shephard, the CIA is interrogating someone and suddenly it cuts to them starting out a broken window, looking surprised, with the guy dead on the ground below. Passionate kisses are often cut short, and scenes with nudity are covered up (like the intro to Austin Powers 2, which Dan says only shows that he's naked and cleverly hides the 'important' parts) or taken out.

Perhaps my favorite, though, is the commercial break editing. Every once in a while, there's a break where an American network might put it. I think those are likely by accident. Otherwise, you get a break 30 seconds into a scene, or maybe in the middle of a sentence. Sometimes it really breaks up the logic and flow, and I have to wonder if they put a break there simply because they timed a certain amount and they think it's a good number of minutes in the movie and the break is needed.

The other day, Air Force One was on. I had never seen it, so even though we came in half way through, we watched it. There is one 'tense' series of events where the president (on the plane) is trying to get a message to the people on the ground, who are trying to save them, because they have a plan. The phone lines have been cut, but a secretary-type realizes that the fax lines on AF1 are separate, and likely haven't been cut. They make it to the fax machine, send the fax, and wait.

We see the fax print out, and no one notices it. Several times, the fax machine is shown very clearly again, with the message still on it. No one has seen it. The time was getting veeeeery close for the plan to be put into action, but still we had not seen anyone notice the fax. At the moment when the plan needed to be put in action.......... it was! WITHOUT anyone ever seeing the fax! I am quite certain this was due to the editing on Dubai One, not the American filmmakers' planning. And this is the channel that has some original programming all in English, no subtitles, so I know that they have at least a couple of crews that speak English.

Lasts

2008-06-07T04:59:00.000-05:00

It's always strange how time feels. When we arrived, the first day of Ramadan, it felt like we'd never see an open restaurant or be able to eat normally during the day. Once we could eat, it felt like we'd be here forever. Then we went to France for Xmas, and it felt a little closer for a few days, but then so far away again. Even when I knew it was three weeks away, it felt like we'd never leave.

I've found myself thinking deliberately "this is the last X here." This is the last weekend that will be followed by work at AMIDEAST. So, as you can guess, next week is my last week of work. Over a month ago, maybe 6 weeks even, we bought our last package of TP (a big pack, and there are only two of us.) Two weeks ago, we bought our last bottle of laundry soap and jar of honey. Today or tomorrow, we'll likely buy our last carton of eggs, maybe the last liters of milk. Next weekend, we'll see the Mediterranean for the last time on the ground as Tunisian semi-residents.

Even though I know all that, it doesn't feel any different yet. It seems like next Saturday, I'll wake up, stare out the window at the cars and feel the warm breeze, and be happy not to be working. The thought of packing up and buying last-minute things seems crazy. The thought of flying in a plane to London, where we can't speak English as an almost "secret" language is ridiculous. And driving a car or going into Costco???????? Beyond imaginable.

I know we're heading to Texas in just over two months. For some reason, that part hasn't escaped me, and I look forward very much to seeing all my stuff. I don't even remember how many pairs of shoes I have, or what shirts I left. I do know we've got about 30 teacups, nice knives, and an electric kettle that I've missed. I don't think the reality of leaving here will hit me until I have woken up in Gig Harbor at least once. I guess we'll see.

Tortilla bread and tack-o's

2008-06-05T03:45:00.000-05:00

BBC World likes to talk about the food crisis. Sometimes they show the riots, sometimes they comment on the rice crops that were wiped out in Myanmar, and last night they went to Mexico.

The anchorwoman mentions tortilla bread in the intro to the hour's news. When she gets to that section, she says that the correspondent will tell us about tortilla bread prices. "Tortilla *bread*?" we ask ourselves. But the news quickly shows us a man on a street, who informs us that in Mexico, where he is, many people live on $5 a day and an important 'restaurant' is the tack-o stand. He is standing next to an example of said 'restaurant' and then shows us a piece of "tortilla bread" that looks like it's been sitting out for a few hours after being dropped on the ground and is noticeably smaller than his hand- we know them as corn tortillas.

He explains to us that tortillas (he did change to the proper name) are made of corn (leaves out that in the parts of northern Mexico flour ones are preferred) and with the global spike in the cost of corn, tortillas cost 18% more than they did just months ago. He procedes to tell us that Mexicans often eat tack-os, which are tortillas filled with "Meat, rice, beans, cheese, vegetables, anything!" Really, anything? I thought there was a relatively small selection of things one might find in a taco. Perhaps tack-os are different?

(If you are interested, the point was that the Mexican government has decided to give a whole ton of families $12 a month for a bit to offset the rising cost of food until they can find a better solution.)

urge to kill: rising...

2008-05-30T14:00:00.000-05:00

In the past week, there have been soccer riots not once, not twice, but THRICE. Thursday was by far the worst. I'll admit that comparatively, these are relatively mild riots. Mob mamings are rare, there appears to be little out of the ordinary ill-treatment of property and very few monks exist in the country to begin with, therefore even less who are willing to set themselves on fire. However, the din of hundreds of horns all wailing, "BEEP - BEEP - BEEPBEEPBEEP!," and the shouts... oh, sweet Mohammed, the shouts! I have adopted a "fruit-on-sight" policy. Around midnight last night I threw half a grapefruit rind along with some cherry pits at a lone car speeding up and down the street with people hanging out every opening of the vehicle, screaming at the top of their lungs. I was hoping they'd slam on their brakes causing the passengers to fly out, and thereby learn a lesson, but alas, my aim was not true from 9 stories up. I feel like I'm doing the earth a service--like composting, but with style... and murderous rage.

On a less homicidal note, we downloaded Sweeney Todd last weekend. As musicals I've seen go, it was a tie for the most violent with West Side Story, and a distant third for most sexually explicit after the Rocky Horror Picture Show and the Little Mermaid.

I'd also like to note that since returning from Malta, in an effort to use up some of our Monopoly money, Beki and I joined the rich man's gym we've been outwardly scorning as opulent and elitist but secretly coveting since we moved in. A one month membership is 120 dinars ($95~100) and that's only for the use of their fitness room, but well worth it as no siege tactics were necessary to conquer the place as was the case with certain OTHER gyms. After a week or so of going, a simple bathroom scale appeared out of nowhere in the lobby and we decided to weigh ourselves as neither of us had since we arrived in Tunisia. Luckily, the scale was easily switched to display in sensible units of measure, unlike that metric/kilo rubbish (which is the favorite among heathen nations). I was suprised when the little readout told me I was “168”--I believe I was around 180 when we left. I think that it’s is due in no small part to a relative lack of dietary options (not to mention the semi-permanent state of ‘casual’ dysentery we live with).

BTW, Tami -- The turtle moves.

Tests

2008-05-30T06:12:00.000-05:00

As I have probably mentioned, one of the tests I give regularly is the TOEFL ITP. The letters don't really matter for these purposes - it is a test for academic English.

There is a listening section on the test, where the "candidates" (test-takers) have to listen and then choose a printed answer, or listen and choose a spoken answer. On the listen/printed answer section, a lot of the questions are "What does the speaker imply?" "What does the man mean?" "What can be inferred about the woman?"

I am sure that in the test books there are logical answers. However, I do not have a test book open in front of me, and sometimes I come up with my own answers. Here are some examples that are not directly from the test, but will give you the idea.

On cassette:
Man: How is your 10-page paper coming?
Woman: I think I'll be up all night finishing it. I only have 2 pages finished and it's already 10 o'clock.
(Directions voice): What can be inferred about the woman?
My answer: She is a typical American college student - lazy, procrastinates, and talks to friends while she is doing her paper, even though she shouldn't. She is probably going to finish her paper around 5AM, after some game or chat breaks, keep her roommate up with the keyboard clacking, and then complain about being exhausted in the morning.

On cassette:
Woman: You told me to put these posters up on that bulletin board, but it's already full.
Man with smarmy voice: You're right. So that means there are two jobs in front of you, doesn't it? First you need to take down those posters and move them to a bulletin board. Then you can put up the new ones.
(Directions voice): What does the man mean?
My answer: That he is a bastard that doesn't know how to give directions and would rather make the student feel like an idiot than admit that he forgot either to move the posters himself or to tell the student to move them first.

On cassette:
Man: What do you think of Bob's new haircut?
Woman sounding disappointed: I think he should have left it alone.
(Directions voice): What does the woman mean?
My answer: She reallllly thought Bob was cute before, but now with that new haircut, he looks like a 14 yr old whose mommy wouldn't let him go to the real hairdresser, and she has lost a good bit of respect for him. She'll still eat lunch with him, but the fantasies of yesterday are no more.

I bet my answers are better than A, B, C or D anyway.

Things to do/see/make/eat when we get home

2008-05-28T05:55:00.000-05:00

I started this post on April 28th, because I was admitting a small defeat. I had started thinking about "when we get home." However, you are reading this May 27th or later because I was determined NOT to be entirely defeated quite yet. Now that it is 3 weeks until we come back, I think I have won! So, here are my lists.

To eat/drink:

Mexican food
Asian food that I didn't make myself
Soy milk!
Iced soymilk latte
Cream of Wheat with brown sugar and craisins
Anything that has ice and comes out of a blender
"Healthy" prepared food in convenience form (bar, preferably)
Avocados
Powerade
Bacon
Pepperjack cheese
- In fact, put that between two slices of 12 grain bread, make it all toasty outside and melty inside, and give me some tomato soup for dipping!

To do:

Drive. In my car. To a grocery store. Where there are an obscene number of items for sale. And buy some of them. Including some I may not need. And drive home.
Go for a walk/run/jog
Play tennis
Take suitcase to washer. Put stuff in. Put soap in. Turn on. Sit in front and smile as it does the work for me and does not hurt my hands.
Buy alcohol on a Friday. Don't even have to drink it, just buy it.
Make a dish dirty. Then rinse it. And put it in the dishwasher.

To make:

Holiday treats I missed (pumpkin pie!)
Food for people that I like
Grilled tilapia with mango salsa

To see:

PEOPLE!!
Mt Rainier (easy enough, I know, I know!)

Carthage!

2008-05-19T04:05:00.000-05:00

And that's pronounced kar-taj. In French anyway. So, we finally went to Carthage yesterday. There are little bits and pieces of ruins all over the area. For some reason I thought it would be a bigger area than it was but when I stopped to think about it, I realized that there must have been way fewer people in the area at the time anyway. And it wasn't really an urban society.

We got some pictures, but the camera batteries died (which we expected) and the freshly charged back-up batteries..... were apparently too old to actually charge. But I think there are enough photos to satisfy the curious, once Dan posts them.

On top of a hill, where they think the Punic main area was, and where the Romans set up their forum, etc, there are ruins and a museum. There is also a good view of the surrounding area. We wandered through there, taking pictures, and went into the museum itself. One really neat thing was that all students with ID, including foreign ones, get in free.

The museum was small, but it had a lot of neat information about the history, even if it was in French. Because of the handy location, Carthage was a popular place to take over - Romans, Byzantines, and Greek all liked it enough to oust the inhabitants and build their own stuff. It was also on trading routes, so there were Egyptian and Italian artifacts in burial areas of the higher-ups (name of the cemetary that a lot of the stuff came from was the "Officials' cemetary") I think it's easy to forget about the trading links that have existed for long periods of time.

One funny (but understandable) thing about the museum was that almost everything was well-labeled in French and Arabic, so when Dan wanted to know something, I had to translate. Not normally a problem, but there were some words that I had never run across before (one of them turned out to be 'slingshot' so I don't feel bad.) There were a few things that were also labeled in English.

Ok, lame description, I know, but it was fun! And I wore sunscreen and so stayed respectably pale! I will answer questions, though, and I'm sure our pics will help.

Musicals

2008-05-19T02:09:00.000-05:00

If you liked the movie "Across the Universe" you may want to stop reading here.

People who have known me long enough will know that I like musicals. They may even know that I support recent attempts to make more main-stream feature-film musicals, or even just Disney channel ones meant for teenagers. I've never seen High School Musical, but considering Disney's general efforts, I'm sure it has some sort of plot, even if it's thin. I don't even think that musicals need to have original songs.

When talking about musicals, you have two main reasons for songs: to propel the plot or as a break. Some songs move the plot along, often by telling more story or singing about the actions as they happen. If you've seen The Little Mermaid, her song in the treasure trove would fit here. Some songs are just a song-break to tell about what a character has just decided or is feeling. Usually the love songs are like this. Operettas (with only a few bits of speaking here and there) use both of necessity, while musicals often lean more towards one or the other.

Songs can also be found in movies. As strictly background, as scenery (the characters clearly hear it), as the characters singing for fun, or as a montage. That does not make all movies musicals.

Someone should have told this to the Across the Universe people. Yes, it had good music, but that's hard to mess up with a bunch of Beatles songs. However, the movie played like montage after montage with a few spoken lines between them. Montages can be well-used to gloss over a section of time you can't treat otherwise, or show a bunch of people/groups doing things at once. If used in excess, you don't care about the characters or really understand the length of time or the plot or get any sort of real development. I could have forgiven some of the drug trip-like scenes if I had cared about the characters in it. There is so much you could do with the Vietnam war, the civil rights movement, and the rest of the era, but they didn't seem to try. They wanted to fit in so many songs that they didn't do more than give a few characters clever names to make them match song lyrics.

At one point in the movie I started to think "now this is finally having a bit more sense and logical progression. I think they could pull up the end so that I won't be so disappointed if it keeps like this" and then the credits started 5 seconds after I finished that thought. "Nevermind, that did kinda suck." At least we didn't see it in the theater like we would have if we'd been home. I'm sure others will disagree with me, and I allow it, I'd just like to see some better musicals made. Thanks.

HOLY hive fights!!!!!!!

2008-05-15T06:10:00.000-05:00

I heard an odd sound, and looked out my window and there are at least 300 bees in our little courtyard. No joke. The are now swarming around a small hole above the door to the kitchen. It's like a bad B-movie. ATTACK OF THE BEES PART 5. They are calming down now, and most are back in that hole. I have never seen such a thing in my life. Ick. Glad the window was closed.

Update: I have decided it was a fight between two hives. The evidence? Some bees never stopped swarming in the courtyard, and now there are 3 distinct clumps on the wall near the suspected hive entrance where there are bees clambering over each other. I have decided that they are beating up/exiling the ones they don't like.

Malta story

2008-05-15T05:32:00.000-05:00

Well, I thought I'd tell you more about Malta. I had noticed several places had iced coffee, so on day 3, I decided that we should have a pic-nic breakfast. The weather couldn't have been better. Cool enough to wear a sweater (to hide my sunburn), but warm enough to be outside. We went to Arkadia, a fancy grocery store, and got some treacle rings, apples, yogurt, Jammie Dodgers and dates. Then we went stopped by McDonalds on our way to the nice, clean, paved sidewalk with benches along the sea.

I chose McD's because I figured they would have the closest thing to what I'd think of as an iced latte. They did not disappoint. They had a "McCafe" that was actually a really nice area at the front of the place. Felt like a coffee house, with nice chairs and all. Dan got a strawberry frappe (it had real bits of strawberry, too!) and I got a capuccino one. I watched as they put real fresh espresso in it - not just flavoring. I don't think I'll be finding real strawberries OR espresso in the McD's at home.

Then we went off to look for a place to eat. We were looking for a bench in a nice spot. We started to walk right next to the water, down below the main sidewalk, and realized after a bit that we had passed all the benches. We kept walking, knowing that there were stairs back up to the sidewalk further down, and when we came to the stairs we saw the perfect place: a little concrete almost-patio after the stairs and therefore out of the way. We sat and had a wonderful breakfast and got to watch some fish, shrimp, and crabs having theirs as well. I took several pictures that turned out better than I expected. That's why you'll find crabs and fish in the Day 3 album - the crabs were eating, it looked cool.

There really are stupid questions.

2008-05-14T09:44:00.000-05:00

At least in context there are. I gave a presentation on the Fulbright program today to around 30 students. After about half an hour, during which I explained that it's a program financed by the US Dept of State (and thereby taxpayers) where US students go abroad and foreign students come to the US, that the goal is exchange between the US and other countries, and even the history that it used to be just US students going abroad, but they realized it would be cool to have other students study in the US, too, and have contact with people while there, a student asked me if it was possible to go on the Fulbright to other countries.

I actually looked at him like "what?" because I didn't realize what he was asking. I repeated that US students go to other countries, and foreign students go to the US. "So, I couldn't go to the Netherlands or Sweden or something with the Fulbright?" No. Sorry, bud. The other students actually laughed, so that made me feel a bit better. Some people amaze me!

7,000 years in 45 minutes

2008-05-08T12:11:00.000-05:00

"Experience 7,000 years of Malta's turbulent history in just 45 minutes!" Yes, indeed, that was the claim of a sign seen all over Valetta (the biggest city on the island and an old fort city.) What I couldn't guess was why you would want that much history condensed into 45 minutes. If you want to know about the history, wouldn't you see that 45 minutes couldn't possibly help you make sense of 7,000 years? And if 45 minutes is all you can digest, are you really going to care about paying to see a little about history? Clearly not every tourist was in agreement, since this did not seem a new venture.

We ate, slept, drank, and took 771 pictures (not all of which are clear or good) and so I'm sure Dan will have some photos for you, and I can fill in some more details at some point. However, I hope this will tide you over until that point.

Things to remember: Malta is a beautiful country, though there are not any 'sandy' beaches as we know them near where we were. It is part of the EU, has had Europeans (the Knights of Saint John) building forts since the 15 or 1600s, and was a British colony. Everyone seems to speak Maltese as their first language, but are great with English. It was very nice and if you ever want a Mediterranean vacation in a country that uses English, go there.

And we got to see Iron Man.

lousy Smarch post

2008-05-04T08:43:00.000-05:00

Perhaps some of you are wondering where I’ve been. Perhaps some of you have tumors of which the only ill effects are a drooping left eyelid and sporadic impairment of your ability to see all the posts I’ve made since December. Whatever the case, you can be certain that a conspiracy carried out by the Rand Corporation, reverse-vampires, and Public Television is at work.

For the benefit of those tumor-ridden, conspiracy-plagued individuals, I shall recap. Life has ambled on since our hesitant return from the wondrous land of all things Freedom. There was a time afterwards when I would not have hesitated to brave the beautiful, mercury-laden waters of the Mediterranean to return, but alas, Tunisia is a country devoid of many things—laundromats, social mobility, and an adequate supply of water-wings chiefly among them. I have now resigned myself to the fact that even the best water-wings would not carry me far enough to escape—as I’d likely be caught in a tuna net like a dolphin and drug back here anyway.

“I KNOW, but you still have to learn about a pig, even if you don’t eat it!” – Something I heard wafting out of a classroom window at Amideast recently.

Since we last spoke, I have been many things. I was a general of the American Foreign Legion in a campaign to spread the glory of our empire... I was usurped and forced into servitude where I learned to civilize savages by instructing them in our holy language... I returned to defy the Emperor and teach my students to use phrases like mooning, dine-and-dash, and Viagra. Though the last word had already permeated the local culture, for Pfizer, the omni-benevolent corporation that it is, has taken up the noble cause of eradicating impotence around the world.

I first heard this word uttered by Moncef while I was doing my teaching mentorship. During Jan-Feb I co-taught a class 3 days a week with an experienced mentor-teacher named Kyle (pronounced “Keel” by our level 4s). The classes were 110 minutes each and for the first few I only observed and participated in activities, but by the end of the first week I was pouring that English down their throats like a pro interrogator at GITMO. Well... maybe not a pro, but I was certainly making them talk.

Actually, that’s the trick. Making THEM talk. It’s surprisingly easy (now that it’s routine) to stand up in front of a class and drone on and make a ass of yourself (well, it is for me) but in order for the students to have the best chance of retaining the information, THEY have to produce something—especially in a language course. I could explain and give examples of what the present-perfect is (have + past participle) and how to use it for 3 lessons straight and only a few students might have a grasp on it afterward. The teacher’s understanding and ability to articulate the grammar point is important (and in several cases took refreshing), but you have to be able to give the students a context to see why we use the structure and the opportunity to produce it themselves.

So, back to the infamous Moncef... for the record, he is about 5’ 6”, in his 50s, and bald. I’ll make what I know could be a long story short—Moncef is a horny, old, bastard. During a lesson where the students were learning how to make requests and give advice through a Pharmacy role playing activity, a classmate asked, “What should I do for stress?” Moncef got to his feet, wearing an unmistakable ‘I’m the center of attention’ grin, and delivered his ill-stated, but well-conceived remedy to the class (and probably the surrounding classes), “You should to take some VEE-ag-ruh and jump in the bed with my wife!” Keel and I exchanged an, “OH SNAP! DID HE JUST TELL US TO F*** HIS WIFE?” look. At which point, Moncef gleefully clarified for his apparently stunned audience, “You know, in and out, IN AND OUT?!” Any possible misinterpretation of his meaning by the other students was surely doused by his accompanying hand gesture. Apparently, he had been prescribing “VEE-ag-ruh” for headaches, sunburns and the flu throughout the activity. His remedy may not have been quite accurate, but his enthusiasm made up for it—and I sleep better knowing that the world is a little less flaccid today than it was yesterday—and maybe I had a little something to do with that.

After mentoring for the 2-month class session, I was deemed seaworthy and in a small ceremony, received my christening and was smashed over the head with a full Coke bottle (I don’t believe they have champagne here). I ended up with three level 4 classes (same level as before, so I would be familiar with the material) for the March/April session. On my own at last, I reveled in the teaching possibilities that March and April would bring—such as educating my students about our most revered traditions...

Lesson Plan - Mar 21 (Good Friday):

TOPIC - WHICH CAME FIRST: JESUS OR THE MAGENTA, PVC EGG?

12:30 – Take attendance (use easy to pronounce western names, e.g. Dhouha = Jane; Radhouane = Bob)

12:32 – Sing The Star Spangled Banner and recite the US Pledge of Allegiance.

12:40 – Scold/humiliate late comers for being lazy, third-world halfwits; force them to perform the above activities alone in front of the class, repeating until correct.

1:10 – Go over homework.

1:30 – Ask Ss topic question. Answer: This is of course a ridiculous question. Everyone knows Jesus was the prize inside a hollow chocolate rabbit which are only known to grow on the illuminated noble fir trees of Mesopotamia. The egg issue is a common misinterpretation of the Gospel. If you weren’t savages, you’d know Jesus came to be associated with the indelible, holy orb when he forced a single chicken to lay 10,000 of them to feed a crowd at one of his “New Jew” seminars.

2:00 – Ss spend the remainder of class practicing present participles.

2:05 – Assign homework.

My innovative attendance technique was developed out of necessity after the first meeting of my Tue/Thur night class—by the end of the 160 minutes, my roll sheet had sixteen names, six of which were Mohamed.

In the classroom, I am known as “teacher,” or sometimes “Mee-ster Dan,” but that auspicious title has not exempted me from difficult situations. In dealing with cultural boundaries and stereotypes, I have argued against the belief (in more than one class, on more than one occasion) during a lesson using a food context that in general, Chinese cuisine does not incorporate dogs, cats, rats, insects or amphibians. Also, that you have to have created a very relaxed atmosphere indeed if you are to assign a female part to a male student for a dialogue/speaking exercise. Not all common stereotypes present a challenge, however. When a class begins to drift out of hand, all I need do to restore order is hint that I have brought my gun to class (all Americans carry firearms, as you well know).

Last week was actually the end of that session. All of my students passed, which means I didn’t get to make anyone cry—my mission in life (I guess it’s fairly common for students to get extremely upset if they aren’t passed on to the next level—and I’m talking about adults, mind you). I may yet have the chance in May though. After we are temporarily exported to Malta (see Beki’s post), I may be teaching a one-month intensive session (since we’ll be leaving before the regular one ends) but that would require them to find enough people who can leave their jobs for two hours during the day, five days a week for a month. We’ll see what happens.

To Malta!

2008-05-04T04:45:00.000-05:00

We are headed to Malta tonight until Thursday. We won't have internet during that time, but I am sure we will take pictures that Dan will post when we come back and I will tell you something about it, too.

Malta is a very small country in the Mediterranean, just south of Sicily, and only a one hour flight from Tunis. Even better? The two official languages are Maltese and English. Our flight and hotel are set, so we just need to go and have fun! See you at the end of the week...

Thinking about summer driving

2008-04-30T06:40:00.001-05:00

Note: since I first wrote this, there have been more articles published, some of them explaining the economics of it. I'm talking about the clear savings for me, the economists can tell you more about the savings that will be reflected (or not) in the economy as a whole.

Politics can be so... nonsensical. Politicians like to twist reality, hoping you'll listen to them instead of thinking about the facts for yourself. Take the "gas tax holiday" for example. If you don't know much about this, go onto any news site and you will find plenty of info. Obama is being painted by his rivals as "out of touch with average Americans" for saying that the proposed summer break on gas tax is a joke. The 'holiday' would mean eliminating the 18.4 cents/gallon in federal taxes on regular gas between memorial day and labor day. The revenue generated by this tax supports the Highway Trust Fund, which pays for road and bridge repair projects around the country and already faces a shortfall of 3.2billion. Shall we illustrate my personal 'potential savings' for them?

For about a month and a half of that period, Dan and I will be driving around the Northwest in my lovely little car. We'll go to Eburg and back a few times, maybe to Seattle once or twice, and around the area a lot, so I'll guesstimate high that we might drive 1200 miles in that time. In my wonderful 30mpg car, even using the lower 28mpg figure, that means we'll buy 43 gallons of gas and could potentially save $7.91 if the price of gas is steady (assuming the gas companies don't make gas a few cents higher just because there's no tax and they think people won't notice.)

That's $7.91 for our 1 1/2 months in the sound area. Then we move to TX, stop by Nampa & Vegas to spend a couple nights on the way, and end up with a max of 2700 miles driven. According to moving van sites, we'll get about 10mpg with our full truck and towing my car. We would use 270 gallons, and 'save' $49.68.

This brings us up to a running total of $57.59. After that we'll have a couple of weeks left in TX to buy gas with the "break" so I'll guess we could drive a max of 300 miles (maybe we'll go to IKEA twice?) in my car (28 mpg) and buying 11 gallons of gas and "save" $2.03.

We would save a "whopping" grand total of $59.62 after driving 4200 miles during the 'holiday' and likely help make state and federal transportation budgets short. (Clinton's proposal says to make oil companies pay for this shortfall - McCain's says nothing about it but the headline of some video I couldn't watch hinted that he may have realized that.) And the potential 'savings' are with moving across the country in a gas-guzzler! And, again, assuming that the gas co's don't raise prices to compensate.

Yes, $59.62 is a difference. However, most people would save less than $40. An article I read estimated average savings at $28. I seriously don't see how someone who sees saving $30 or $40 as a true relief is going to be the one taking extra road trips to benefit from the savings this summer - and yes, that is what the 'holiday' proponents are claiming. If you're worrying about $30 or $40, you most likely won't be doing a lot of vacationing this summer anyway. Even IF, in saving that $40 you decide to buy more gas, you will only get 10-12 gallons. Even in my car, that's only about 300 miles.

The next detail proponents jump to point out is that Obama did support a temporary gas break in Illinois when he was a state senator. They say this shows he's flip-flopped in addition to being out of touch. This STILL does not mean that it will actually make a difference to "average Americans" but, if you pay enough attention, you will see that he realized it wasn't helpful because when it came time to make the gas tax break permanent, he voted against it. I'm sure I don't fully understand the economy, but I also am sure that the gas tax 'holiday' on its own, no matter what stories politicians make up, is not going to make a true financial difference to me. The worst part is that no politician is going to learn to quit just saying things that don't make sense until people learn to STOP listening to it and START thinking for themselves. Unfortunately, I think most of us can't or won't sit down and think out even half of the crazy claims. *sigh*

First taste of America

2008-04-28T08:21:00.000-05:00

On Saturday I went to a farewell "reception" for someone at the Embassy who is leaving next month. She works with a lot of exchange programs, and the reception was for all of the alumni and recently accepted students she's worked with. I know a few of the recently accepted students from working with them at AMIDEAST and I was VERY excited to hear that they really do get to go!

The event was apparently catered by the embassy, so there was some typical American fare - potato salad, hamburgers, hot dogs, and cookies. The potato salad was pretty good, but sadly no Reser's or the good mustard one at Fred Meyer (I forget the brand.) Still -- best potato salad I've had in 7 months! The hamburgers were realllly small, and those do exist around here, so I went for a hot dog. Mmmm. I think it was turkey, but it was really good. The cookies were ok, too - oatmeal and chocolate chip, though nothing to write home about (haha.)

So, these thoughts were going through my head as I was eating and talking to a few of the recently accepted students. One of the girls was NOT impressed with her hamburger and could not finish it. "Oh, no, I am going to starve for 5 weeks!" I told her not to worry, that there are plenty of things to eat besides hamburgers, and that I hardly eat them at home.

"Yeah," said another one, "You know, the first thing I want to try when I get there is peanut butter! Every American I've met loves peanut butter."

At this point a YES (high school program) alumnus walks up, "oh, yeah! And I reallly miss brownies! The really fatty rich ones! I loove all the junk food."

First girl: "Well, is there spicy food?" (The recently accepted students all look doubtful) "I don't think I could live without harissa." (A hot chili paste.)

Me: "Yeah, there's plenty of hot food! Asian food and Mexican food can both be really spicy. But bring some harissa, because there's nothing exactly the same."

With Europe next door, and knowing French cuisine (rich, not spicy) I'm not surprised that they think we must eat bland foods. How lucky for us that we don't. I like that they already have heard about peanut butter, though.