He Did It Again!

Mr. Most-Awesome-Chemistry-Teacher did it again. This afternoon in class, he performed a demonstration of combustion. He made something 'splode! He did it last semester too, in our first semester chemistry class. He told everyone to move to the back of the class and he put a large, probably 50-gallon, glass jug on the desk with a small amount of fuel in it, and then ignited it with a match. The ensuing explosion blew out the ceiling tile above his desk. CHEMISTRY ROCKS!!

On the serious side, he did explain what took place on the molecular level, how it wasn't just the fuel catching fire, but it was the combination of the evaporated fuel and the oxygen that it had mixed with inside of the jug. In fact, dear children, that is what combustion is: "the burning of a fuel by oxidation with oxygen in the air (according to my textbook, Fundamentals of General, Organic, and Biological Chemistry, 4th ed., McMurry and Castellion)." We also learned about chlorofluorocarbons today, how they cause pollution. CHEMISTRY ROCKS!!

Okay, I had better get myself hence to sleep before anyone reads this and decides to defenestrate me, again. I hope that you have a good night, and dream of lovely, correctly balanced chemical equations!

Forensic Nursing is a Possibility

I have really not done very much research as to what kinds of career I might be getting into as a nurse, but one of the options that I have briefly looked into is that of forensic nursing. According to the International Association of Forensic Nurses, "Forensic Nursing is the application of nursing science to public or legal proceedings; the application of the forensic aspects of health care combined with the bio-psycho-social education of the registered nurse in the scientific investigation and treatment of trauma and/or death of victims and perpetrators of abuse, violence, criminal activity and traumatic accidents."

Those who know me well, and you know who you are, could tell you that for quite a while I wanted to be a forensic pathologist. The most likely career paths here would be a coroner or medical examiner, depending on the resident state's system. North Carolina Wesleyan College's Forensic Pathology Information Page lists establishing the cause and estimating the time of death, inferring the type of weapon used, and establishing the identity of the deceased, among the responsibilities of a forensic pathologist. As well as I can remember, and what I have recounted to those who were willing to listen, I have wanted to be a forensic pathologist since about the fifth grade. And there were a number of influencing factors:

• My interest in anything morbid and dark


• Characters on shows that I watched with mom


• A developing (though weak) analytical curiosity


• I liked the idea of helping to "solve" a crime and catch the bad people

Since I have more recently fallen into an interest in the broad field of nursing, I though that I had perhaps left this previous childhood ambition behind. However, a career in forensic nursing sounds like it might be just the ticket. I still am not certain of just what I will be doing. It will require a lot more prayer, listening, learning, and not wretching. Can I do it? Not on my own. But I am looking forward to seeing what I will be doing.

I better start by not being lazy and going to class. Have a good day and may God bless you according to His abundant mercy!

You Like What?!

A few semesters ago, two to be exact, I was very blessed to be in the class of an amazing composition teacher. She asked to keep journals, though not a daily journal like a diary. Occasionally she would give us a topic to write on. One of the assignments was something like, "List 50 things that make you happy." That was one of our first assignments, as I remember, because we also used it as an ice breaker in class. She had us say our name and one thing off of the list. I chose "hanging upside down." I do enjoy hanging upside.

Well, today in philosophy we barely touched on the nature of certainty, or the question, "Is there any one thing certain?" Our teacher pretty much got it down to saying that the only certain thing is that thoughts occur. I don't know precisely how I tied these two ideas together in my head, but there have been a few times when people said that they want to get to know me better, so they ask me what I like, or what makes me happy. As I knew when I was doing that assignment for my composition teacher, what makes me happy today won't necessarily be the same thing that makes me happy next year, next month, next week, tomorrow, or even an hour from now (an hour from now, sleep will be the number one thing on my happy list).

So, giving a nod to the fluid nature of my mind's judgement of pleasing items, activities, and thoughts, a current, up to the moment (as of 11:42:24 pm 1-24-05) list would look something like this (for the most part in no specific order):

1. Being a Christian
2. Being able to freely live a Christian life
3. Chemistry class with Mr. Most-awesome-chemistry-teacher-ever
4. Spanish class with Ms. Wonderful-spanish-teacher
5. Running
6. Eating ice cream
7. Spinach
8. New socks
9. New crayons
10. Drawing
11. Showing people my drawings, and them liking the drawings
12. Writing
13. Reading
14. Learning
15. Pretending that I can juggle
16. Hanging out with BBB
17. Chillin' with Sis, Bro, and Lil Sis
18. Sharp Cheddar cheese, tomatoes, and turkey
19. Going to church
20. Listening to music
21. Christian rock/urban music
22. Listening to Lil Sis talk about animals
23. Playing with my hair
24. Having my hair styled/braided by someone else
25. Making music with my nose
26. Root beer
27. Cinnamon Raisin bread
28. Watching movies with Sis, Bro, Lil Sis, and BBB
29. Talking on the phone with good friends
30. Taking care of my car
31. Bicycling
32. Pretending that I'm Evil Knievel's granddaughter
33. Talking with Grandma
34. Cooking
35. Making things
36. Helping out those who need help
37. Being right
38. Watching time/nature/mutant squirrels/life/people go by
39. Listening to BBB tell a story
40. Listening to Sis or Bro tell a story
41. Telling Lil Sis a story
42. Remembering
43. Playing with make-up
44. Using big words
45. Learning new big words
46. Trying to speak Spanish
47. Flirting with birds, cats, or dogs
48. Driving the back way home from school to see the horses
49. Driving Lil Sis the back way home from school to show her the horses
50. Spending time with the whole family!

That is not even remotely close to being anything like a nearly complete list of things that I enjoy or that make me happy. There millions of billions of other things that I enjoy, from general to specific, but I don't think that I have the time. I will instead start a new list:

1. ZzzzzzzzzZzzzzZzzzzZzzZzzZzzZzzZz z z z z z z...

P.S. What do you like? Do you have your own list of 50 things that you really like? Maybe a more modest list of 49 or so? If you would like to share it, just post a comment to this entry, or if you know it, you can e-mail me. Just be sure to put Re: Blog Post "You Like What?!" in the subject line. Have a very enjoyable and blessed day!

Baby Powder!

My car smells like baby powder. This is something that I am proud of. I feel a little bit bad though, because last post I was talking about how I felt that I am a somewhat frugal person. I don't know if this blows that whole conception out of the water, but yesterday I took my car to one of the local "full-service" car washes to be cleaned, vacuumed, polished, and deodorized. I also have a problem with one of the mirrors, and they put tape over it to prevent any damage. They did a wonderful job!

The car that I drive is a nice car, no question. There isn't any sunroof, no CD player, but it does have AC and heat, a decent AM/FM stereo, and a tape player. And it gets me where I need to go quickly and safely. However, I had been neglecting it aesthetically. Sure, it got an oil change and new wiper blades a week or two ago, but it was SOOOOOO dirty. It hadn't had a bath in probably a few months. You may think, "so what?", but when I stayed with the lady to whom the car originally belonged, she took pride in having not just an efficient car, but a clean, unsmelly car. In a way, I felt like I was disobeying, or disregarding her by not keeping the car clean. I am glad that it is clean again. Hopefully I can keep it clean for a while.

Speaking of which, I think that I need to go get my self cleaned up. *Pee Yew!*

Frugal, Frugal, Frugal!!!

I don't know what the quantitative difference is between being frugal and just being cheap; it probably is not that substantial. But there is probably a more meaningful difference between the qualitative characteristics of frugality and cheapness. I am a somewhat frugal person. I base this self-evaluation on the following facts:

1. I try not to spend money unless the item being purchased is a necessity
2. I do not think that the world will come to an end if I make a few spontaneous purchases (emphasis on FEW)
3. I like to recycle anything that can be recycled (plastic bottles, plastic bags, cereal boxes, newspaper, jewelry)
4. I look for the best deal while maintaining good quality as well.

But, for the sake of equitable argument, is there really anything wrong with being cheap (here this word means the opposite of being a spendthrift; one does not only NOT spend money wrecklesses, but one is quite guarded in their finances and makes very few to no extravagant purchases, and on average, does not pay more than the lowest price for any item or service). According to http://dictionary.reference.com, synonyms for "cheap" are, "stingy" and "miserly." I feel that more often than not, the colloguial connotation of the word "cheap" is somewhat different from its dictionary denotation.

All this to say that, while I do not see myself being as regimented in dealing with my money, I feel a good deal of respect for people who are able to be so disciplined. We are almost constantly bombarded with advertisements about things that we "absolutely must have, can't live without," when in reality, most of us already have more than we know what to do with sometimes. I am thankful for what I have, and thankful that if I need to, I am able to purchase new things. I don't want to take what I have as if it is my right to have it, and nothing less. I could be living on chewy leaves, crunchy bugs, and small helpless rodents in the middle of a remote forest.

The only problem then would be keeping the toilet paper clean and dry.

(And you're thinking, " I had to read ALL of that, for THAT punchline?!" Be relieved: School is starting again soon and I will not be able to post as frequently. "Ahhhh")

Shout out to Daddy!

I did not know that I had not given my dad the link to my blog, but now I have. If you are able to read this page, Dad, HI!! If you are someone other than my dad, you can still read this page to, I don't mind. I know that my adoring public all wish access to my great and magnificent thoughts. Well, that's all that I can come up with for now. I must go rest and recuperate my great-thought-thinking-area of my brain before I return.

Perhaps a nice swim would revive me.

Au reservoir!!

Sexual Harassment on Wheels

When I saw them, I told Brother and Sister that this would be the title of my next post, which is this post. I was thinking that another viable title might be "Chivalry is Victim in Honk and Run." This may become a bit of a tirade, but going by what I know of my nature, I don't think that it will be too terribly mean.

The stimulus for this post was an incident that took place this afternoon when I was walking to meet Sister and Brother. I was just walking down one of the more trafficked streets in our city, minding my own business, when a car that turned onto the street from one of the local fast-food eateries honked. It was one of those weird sounds that resembles and electric version of the familiar whistled "cat call." I did my best to not respond in any fashion to this behavior, other than to silently start plotting this post. There have not been too many similar occasions, but in the few instances that such a thing has happened, it has really upset me. Perhaps irritated is the better word. I just don't like that behavior, and hope that Brother is learning that this is demeaning behavior.

I know that I have heard strict lectures on the degredation and objectification of women, and that it is this kind of thing that is both the cause of and caused by these unpleasant socio-cultural shifts in view. Each time a man or boy sees another male treating women like this, even if he doesn't feel that this behavior is appropriate, witnessing the behavior itself can be a reinforcing factor for these harmful viewpoints.

"You act too much like their mommy, and you're not," has been an oft heard cry from friends in reference to the way that I sometimes treat my siblings. But I care about them very much. To me it is as important to talk to your kids about the way they treat other people as it is to talk to them about sex, drugs, drinking, and all those other big talks. Brother is a wonderful young man (way too funny and smart, but still an okay guy), and my hope is that he will stay a nice guy.

Seriously, most chicks dig nice guys even more than nice cars (heard so on the radio)! Just don't forget to wear matching shoes when you go on dates.

^-1:$-2:^-3:<-3:$-2:*-2:^-1 _ <-1:<-3:$-2 _ #-3:$-3:#-2 !

*-2:+-2:&-3:^-1 _ $-2:#-2:*-2:<-3:&-1 _ &-3:^-1 _ +-1:<-1:<-3:*-2:&-3:<-1:*-3:*-3:&-1 _ $-2:#-2:^-3:<-3:&-1:+-1:*-2:$-2:*-1 . ^-3:<-1:#-2 _ &-1:@-3:$-3 _ ^-3:<-3:<-1:^-3:^-2 _ *-2:+-2:$-2 _ ^-3:@-3:*-1:$-2 ?

You might be checking your computer and monitor for problems right now, or you might be trying to reload the window, just to make sure that everything is okay. I assure you, everything is fine. I am pretty sure that Sister will know what this is as soon as she reads it. You know now too, don't you? Codes and encryption are a lot of fun as kids, especially back in the good old days when we would save up proofs-of-purchase to send in to bye little plastic decoders. I think that we once had a Spiderman decoder.

Sister, Brother, and I have made a modest number of codes ourselves, usually nothing too complex, but something fun to work on. Sister is quite good at this. The code that I have used is based on one of the recent codes that Sister made.

Along with Sister's encrypted letter that she gave me not too long ago, I have been thinking about secrets. The movie that we saw the other night, Shall We Dance? talked about secrets a little bit. My memory was jogged this morning when I came into Sunday School(late as usual *sheepish grin*), and there on the table was a package for me. I don't know who it is from exactly, but I know that it is one of the ladies in the church. We started something last Sunday called "Secret Pals" for the women in the church. We wrote down information about ourselves on forms that were folded and put in a basket, and then each lady drew out one of the forms, making certain that it wasn't her own. Over the course of the next twelve months we have promised to do or send a little something to our "Secret Pal" each month. I have some friends at other churches who have also done this kind of thing, and it seems like such a neat idea.

Well, my little package that awaited me turned out to be a beautiful Day-by-Day box calendar. Each sheet has a picture of nature with a Bible verse for that day. Also, each month has a theme, like strength, comfort, etc. It's beautiful. I wish that I could go ahead and thank the lady who gave it to me right now, but unfortunately I can't know who she is until the end of the year. That's alright. It just helped me to remember to do something for my Secret Pal.

+-2:<-1:#-1:$-2 _ <-1 _ @-1:@-3:@-3:*-1 _ @-2:$-2:$-2:^-2 , _ <-1:#-2:*-1 _ GOD BLESS YOU AND YOURS!!

P.S. Each letter is comprised of a symbol(+) and a number(1) joined together by a hyphon(-). The letters are seperated by colons(:), and the words are seperated by underscores(_). If you are able to solve the code, just leave the decoded message as a comment to this entry; or if you know it, you can send it to my e-mail address. Have fun!

WARNING: Some content may not be suitable...

For those with a weak anatomical constituent (esp. a heart, stomach, or other vital viscera), please look away. I suppose that this should be in the subtitle of my blog, or at least somewhere that it can be in plain sight for any poor sole that may just surf right on in here and find their constitutions filleted. On that note, I should probably add a disclaimer for those with severe allergies to bad puns as well. It's always better to err on the side of caution, as they say.

"They" also happened to say that "chick-flicks" are cheap, mushy entertainment made to feed the feeble-minded. I almost always agree with the mushy part, even when I don't necessarily agree with just what movies can fall into the category of "chick-flicks" (Braveheart anyone?). We recently viewed the picture show Shall We Dance?, which I feel is most certainly eligible for this vilified genre. Well it did have its share of mushy parts, it was not completely without substance. It preached, but it did so rather gently within the context of the story. It is a good movie.

Motion picture caliber is always debatable. But, in the grand scheme of things, it's not really worth debating. For instance, my current Top Ten (which is in constant flux due to my own chemistry, Earth's magnetic fields, and the style of Bill O'reilly's hair) probably looks something like this (in no particular order):

1. The Jungle Book (Disney circa 50's; always number one)
   
2. Whale Rider
   
3. Pitch Black/The Chronicles of Riddick
   
4. The Phantom Tollbooth (How cool would it be if they remade it now? Anybody have connections?)
   
5. The Professional
   
6. Brokedown Palace
   
7. Collateral
   
8. The Passion of the Christ
   
9. The Green Mile
   
10. Runaway Bride
    

There are only about a bazoogillion other movies that I really like, and probably a few that I might have otherwise put in my top ten, but couldn't think of. I could probably make lists upons lists of movies; My Top Ten...

1. Movies that I really, really, REALLY want to see... SOON
   
2. Movies that I would eventually like to get around to seeing
   
3. Movies that I am ashamed to admit I have seen
   
4. Movies that I have seen part(s) of but would like to see ALL of
   
5. Favorite Romantic, but not too "un-macho" Movies
   
6. Favorite Macho, but not too macho Movies
   
7. Favorite Train Movies
   
8. Favorite Period Movies (would Ever After and Gladiator count?)
   
9. Favorite Children's-Fictional-Books-made-into-Movies
   
10. Favorite Spine-tingly Movies
    

Of the last category, Sister and I agree that the 1967 film Wait Until Dark is one of the very best. Without a doubt. And Audrey Hepburn does a superb job! Wait. I thought that I began by saying that movies aren't that important. As cosmically insignificant as I believe that I believe movies to be, they are sometimes so fascinating, so distracting. And sometimes, especially in difficult, painful, or confusing times, a good distraction is very important. . . .

How else would you be able to get those fries from your stingy brother, eh?

Packing up, moving out: I want my mommy!

Okay, I don't know if I can actually write anything right now and have it actually make any sense. But, I will try my best as I know that my adoring public has been without my wonderful rantings for far too long. I can deny you all no longer.

BBB and I saw the Lemony Snicket movie again today. Lots of fun! And BBB cut her hair today too. It looks cool. I kind of want to cut my hair too, but I can't just yet. Why? I want to grow it long enough to donate it. Sister did this, and it's really an awesome thing to do. I probably still have a few months to go. Now, I made a deal with Sister that when the time comes, she has the rights to chopping my hair. You are now witness to it. Yup, maybe I'll see if I can borrow a digital camera and get a picture of it on here when she does cut it off. Maybe we can even streak it with some temporary pink dye. Woohoo!

Well, the only thing that I have left is random stuff:

• There are about two weeks until the next semester starts.
  
• Sister has another Forensics thingee coming up in a few weeks.
  
• I got sick yesterday. I even regurgitated! (Did I spell that correctly?)
  
• Sister is going to take another ACT test in a few weeks too.
  
• Oh yeah, Welcome to 2005!!