For the Record

For the record, I do, once again, believe in gravity. Thanks to capillary action. Incidentally, for more information on the Leaning Tower of Pisa, check out: http://torre.duomo.pisa.it/

The Links

http://www.albinoblacksheep.com/flash/llama.php

http://www.albinoblacksheep.com/flash/banana.php

http://www.familyguyfiles.com/

You HAVEN"T read the book!?!

Dear Indiana, Mom/Dad, Tina's, Waitress, PF. Chang's, Little Tibet, IMA, Residence Inn, B-town Theater, Trac, Erik, Rena, Jon, Steve, Becks, Misa, Aaron, Lenny's, Circle Center Mall,

Thanks for a nice drive to/from Indianapolis on Wednesday to pick up "Alaskaboy." Thanks also for a fine and somewhat windy drive to Indianapolis on Thursday for Thanksgiving festivies with my folks. Thanks also for not being too annoying with traffic or weather and delivering the other travelers safely to your state. Thanks also for not having the police decide that 10 miles over the speed limit was worthy of pulling over the blond in the civic...

Thanks to mom and dad for driving Thanksgiving food across three "I" states and sending me home with ALL of the leftovers. Thanks to Tina's in Bloomington for delivering a scrumptous pie. Thanks to the waitress at the Hilton hotel resturaunt for carding me and taking a long time to find my date of birth. Serves her right, haha. No thanks to P.F. Chang's mushrooms, though depositing them on other people's plates was a tad entertaining and the pin noddle soup made up for this slight problem with fungus. Thanks to Little Tibet for still serving their Iced Thai tea..sooo yummy.

Thanks to the IMA for having a real Norman Rockwell painting, which my dad found worthwhile and interesting to see (as so often I feel I drag him to art museums and subject him to lots of cultural things he could care less about.)

Thanks to the Residence Inn for having a hot tub! SCORE! :)

Thanks to the B-town theater for hosting a lovely and interesting affair called a matinee of Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire.

Thanks to Trac for pointing out things that are different between the movie and the book, since no, I HAVEN"T actually read this one (grad school got in the way). Thanks to Erik AND Trac for the combined effort to engrain the words "It's Peanut Butter Jelly Time" in my brain probably until I die. Thanks to Erik for attending some after movie dinner beer time at Lenny's. Thanks to Rena for letting us bug her afterwards.

Thanks to those I talked to on the phone: Jon, Steve, Becks, Misa, Aaron

No thanks are in order for Lenny's being out of my newly discovered Ruby beer. No thanks are allowed for the Friday morning 6 am wake up call for Circle Center Mall shopping, and no thanks for the fact that it was the record low for the past 16 or some odd years at 17 degrees upon the 4
block walk to said venue.

But THANKS overall for a good break.

Signed,
one of your visiting students from Iowa


PS: According to Trac - I should also thank Martha and her Baking Handbook something. :)

PPS: Faraji wants me to thank him also, even though I technically didn't talk to him over Thanksgiving weekend, but this evening - so thanks Faraji 11/30/05

Hey look, a post. Wow. I'm amazed at myself...could it be I've finally got a bit of free time and can write something brilliant, witty, or earth-shaking? Nope...well, the first part is corrent...a bit of free time, the later, well you're expectations far exceed my own if you think I'll be writing brilliant, witty or earth shaking things. More aptly, this is what you'll be getting, so you'll need to be satisfied.

Happy Thanksgiving to those of you who celebrate it, and happy Thursday off of work/school for those of you who don't. :) May you enjoy it with family, friends or fun of some sort.

For myself, I'll be here in Indy, celebrating with my parents, who are driving over from Iowa. It will be a MUCH needed break from the academia. I am only responsible for a bottle of wine from the Butler Winery and a trippple berry pie from Tina's...both of which I'll yay or nay after the festivities...

Perhaps seeing Harry Potter this weekend, very exciting. ;) and yes, SOME people who see it in IMAX theaters first might find the whole experience somewhat lacking, but my guess is at least the company will be worthwhile...

What's Your Signature City?
S, your signature city is New York

Whether you like to have lots of options at your fingertips or you like to be in a metropolitan environment that's buzzing with energy, the Big Apple is the perfect place for you. Maybe you like to mix and mingle at some of the edgiest restaurants, shops, and clubs in the world. Or maybe you like to be in the middle of it all — in the bright lights and big city.One night could be dinner and a show on Broadway, a stroll through Central Park the next, or a trip to the Met the next. From Grand Central Station to Greenwich Village, New York's got some of the biggest and edgiest things to see and do anywhere in the world. No wonder a trendsetter like you would be right at home in the Big Apple.

take the test: http://web.tickle.com/

Cosmic Forces and Something More

My Horoscope from Monday: You have information and the ability to express yourself with grace and creative power today. Your words can move others to powerful feelings of awakening and awareness. Those close to you can have their eyes opened by what you have to say. Expand your mind by spending time with intelligent people, particularly those who are very different than you.

Well, now that it is Tuesday evening, I can reflect on how true this horoscope prediction was for yesterday. I did indeed expand my mind by spending time with some very intelligent people, and conversed over the use of vocabulary. I had information to share. I'm not sure I was up with the grace and creative power, but I do hope my words will move others and help them see what is out there for them, especially those with differing viewpoints from my own.

There is an interesting dicotomy to my thought process about superstition, horoscopes, karma and the whole "something out there" in some ways belonging to the qualification as "destiny" or a "higher power."
It's very easy for me to sit here now and apply what fits from yesterday into my horoscope, which was a prediction, that I didn't read until five minutes ago. Had I read this horoscope on Sunday night, well, perhaps I would have felt the same way about occurances yesterday. But perhaps not. I guess it's interesting to think that we all live our lives with a sense of "knowing" what is around the corner or what we plan to do with ourselves or others, in say, the span of 24 hours, or what we'll have for lunch, or what we'll want to be doing 20 years from now.
Truth is, no body knows with 100% certainty what lies ahead, in the next minute, or the next 20 years. We can plot out our course and chart out our lives with a sense of purpose and plan, and still we have to allow for, excuse the expression, the inkblots of life. Or perhaps, I feel as many friends my age feel, that even though we've got a direction, or have some sort of idea of where we're heading, or want to go, we don't know for sure that it is the RIGHT way to go, the path we are meant to be on. Maybe one of these "inkblots" will make us change our minds about that direction, and we'll veer toward a new one. But are we really the ones in control of those moments, or is there something more powerful that guides us to make the choices we make? Is there really something so vast and influential that can be summed up in a simple word like "Fate"? I don't claim to believe in organized religion as an outlet for myself, but I do believe that there is something out there that acts upon us, and causes us to have impulses and thoughts at defining moments. Sometimes we dont' even know that those moments are defining ones until much later.
So, when I ask myself, would I have believed that my horoscope came true at the end of yesterday, I have to also admit that hindsight is 20/20, and that the best I can do is live my life with an attempt toward being kind to everyone and everything, to hope that I make good choices with positive results, and to know that, inevitably the "plans we've made will give way to the reality of today and quickly become recollections of the past." If they come to fruition, all the better. and if they don't...well then, there's always tomorrow's horoscope to read the day after.