Happy Halloween!!

Hey Everyone!

I am really excited because we carved pumpkins today!!! Hurray! I was really excited because I think they turned out really well. We bought a carving kit this year, so we had little saws that made detail work easier. Sandip used a stencil, too, to make a really cool, really scary clown pumpkin. Here's a picture:
Sandip's clown guy is on the left, and in the middle, we have a pumpkin eating a smaller pumpkin. Then, there is a standard, scary pumpkin on the right. I'm sad that you can't really see all the details. There's a lot of detail work that went into this year's pumpkins because we had those little knives. We could be very precise. For example, in the pumpkin on the right, I carved nostril holes, and cheek definition. But, I guess only people seeing them in person can be impressed. Oh, yeah, I carved the one on the right and the little, scared pumpkin. Both of them were freehand, which I feel takes less patience, but more skill than Sandip's stencil pumpkin. He also carved the scary cannibal pumpkin and figured out the engineering behind making the little pumpkin stay put. Of course, if I were the little pumpkin, I would roll out of the mouth too.

In order to be in the Halloween spirit while we carved pumpkins, I agreed to watch a scary movie with Sandip while scooping out pumpkin guts. After I rejected an exorcism movie, he chose Aliens. That is a scary, scary movie. I feel like it is just the right amount of suspense and gore to really freak me out. Not that I'm particularly good at watching horror movies. In fact, I usually refuse unless it's close to Halloween. People are obligated to watch scary movies during the month of October. It's a law in some states.

Anyways, that is actually why I am still up at 12:45 on a Sunday night when I have school the next day. I'm just a little too freaked out to go to sleep. The movie ended a little over an hour ago. Sandip went to bed right after that, but I stayed up to do school work. However, once I turn the lights off in the living room, I have to walk upstairs in the dark. IN THE DARK!!!! It's just not going to happen right away. I may have to watch an episode of Friends or something to get my mind off things.

I've never been a good post-scary movie person. After my family went to see the Blair Witch Project, my brother jumped out of the hallway at me, and I screamed so hard that I cried. I think I actually started shaking after that. Greg got in BIG trouble for that business. And anyone that says the movie wasn't that scary just doesn't have that great of an imagination. That's my big problem, especially with suspense. I think of all the awful things that could happen, plus I have this empathy with the characters, so I feel like I'm really there in the situation. It's terrifying. However, I would like to say that at least I'm not as bad as Kristy... She was freaked out after we watched a scary movie, and then she picked up our cat and went to go downstairs to get something. My brother was walking up the stairs , not being scary this time, and Kristy threw my cat at him. THREW MY CAT. Just in case you didn't get it the first time. It's fun to repeat things in capital letters.

However, hurray for Halloween. Hurray for October. I have so many costumes that I want to wear that I think I will dress up all week before. Anyways, have a spooktacular October!! Happy Halloween!!!!

Happy 50th Blog to Me!!!

Hey Guys,

I love my kittens.... It's the truth. Also, my half birthday was this week. I'm past halfway to 24, can you believe it??? Anyways, I just wanted to quickly put this kitten video in for you guys so people who are at home on a Friday night can watch my cute little babies destroy the evil bubble army....



I love it, I love it, I love it!!!

Movies, movies, movies

Hello Everybody!!

I made this video to say hi to everyone.



Hope you're all doing well!!

The curse of being Sarah

Hi Everyone,

I figure that since no one reads this anymore, now that they can just call me, I can write whatever I want... including the ickiness that has been my week. As I'm writing this, I am stuck at home because my car is at the dealership. It wouldn't start. I thought it was the battery and asked someone to help me jump it, but the guy said it didn't sound like the battery. All sort of helpful advice later, my car still didn't start and I called AAA.

By that time, my car was making the clicking noises that means the battery needs some love. So, when I called, they asked about the clicking, and I said that the clicking didn't start right away, but it was clicking now. However, I don't know the proper terms, so the lady was convinced it was just the battery. OK, whatever. So, I wait around for the AAA guy. I talk to Sandip on the phone, and he comes from Marysville, which takes forever. So, I waited and waited. Sandip got there, and he tried to jump it. It didn't work. Ten minutes later, the AAA guy came sans tow truck because it would be too big for the parking garage. He came, he checked the battery (I did wear it out with the trying to start it thing...), and then said there was nothing he could do.... he text messaged (taking a good five minutes per line...) to AAA, telling them that it was more serious (Which I mentioned to the lady on the phone the first time), and they sent a tow truck. Which took even more time. Then it was tricky to get the truck in there, and he had totally different theories about what was wrong.... Long story short, I had to get towed to the dealership. Whoo.

My car is gone, so I'm not going to school. How would I get there?? However, I am filled with guilt for not going because I could probably convince some of my friends to come get me. BLEH. However, this is not the extent of the curse. Every day something is happening.... I had someone steal some things off of my desk on Tuesday. People have been expecting so much of me lately, and I had to talk it out with everyone and their little brother.

I've been going through some really tough times, emotionally, lately. Part of it is Peru being one of those experiences that probably built my character and all that, but it was HARD. I think it was one of the hardest long term experiences that I've had. India was hard, and I was drained afterwards, but I didn't feel so wretched about myself. I guess I felt like I made a difference there, and it was really positive. Anyways, I felt so overwhelmed when I got back and didn't want to do anything. I talked to a few people about everything, and people really felt like I was being walked over and needed to take a stand for myself. So, I talked with Kendra (one of my advisors) about how I was feeling and how awful everything felt. She really understood and helped me out with things. It felt good to talk about, and she did what she could to lighten my load.

However, since then, I've tried to let people know that I'm a little sensitive right now and have a lot going on. Most of this has blown up in my face. I get 12 messages a day from people, which is nice, but it can be really overwhelming. Especially since I didn't lighten my workload THAT much. I'm still doing 3 different GGO jobs, being a TA, and taking my classes, not to mention editing my data, planning this stupid wedding, fixing up the condo, buying a couch, trying to make dinners in order to save money (think car fixing, re-buying books, and that whole WEDDING thing), and then on top of everything, I'm trying to fix my emotional health while dealing with the day-to-day existence of grad school. I'm stressed out. Argh.

I know that it doesn't sound cursed, but I keep doing embarrassing things like accidentally flashing my undies to couple kids in the class I TA for (OK, when the prof drops papers and doesn't move to pick them up, they're expecting the TA to do it, right?? Only problem, I was wearing a skirt. Sigh. I almost got in a car accident because we live off of the busiest fast road in Columbus, OH and you have to cross the right turn lane to go straight and there are a million cars. It's just all those little things on top of having someone take my $50 book and having my car break down and need hundreds of dollars to be fixed. AAAHHH.

All right, I'm done being "Woe is me." Not really, but I'm done writing about it. Anyways, if any of my friends and family do read this, thank you for the support! I really appreciate it. I can't promise to answer all the phone calls and be cheerful when everyone is looking for it. I really need to work on making myself happier inside or I'm going to crumble. That's the long and short of it.

Some Awesome Politics

Hi Guys,

I know I've been super political lately, so I wanted to add more fun politics. I like this video...



Whooo!!! This is perfect. Me at age 5. Ha!! Love you, miss you!!

Sarah's gone political

Yes, the message can be both me and Gov. Palin. But I have a couple of things that I want to show you all. One is serious, the other.... not so much.

First, I wanted to post Deepak Chopra's message that I received in my e-mail.

"Obama and The Palin Effect

From: Deepak Chopra

Posted: September 4th, 2008


Sometimes politics has the uncanny effect of mirroring the National psyche even when nobody intended to do that. This is perfectly illustrated by the rousing effect that Gov. Sarah Palin had on the Republican convention in Minneapolis this week.


On the surface, she outdoes former Vice President Dan Quayle as an unlikely choice, given her negligent parochial expertise in the complex affairs of governing. Her state of Alaska has less than 700,000 residents, which reduces the job of governor to the scale of running one-tenth of New York City. By comparison, Rudy Giuliani is a towering international figure.


Palin's pluck has been admired, and her forthrightness, but her real appeal goes deeper. She is the reverse of Barack Obama, in essence his shadow, deriding his idealism and exhorting people to obey their worst impulses. In psychological terms the shadow is that part of the psyche that hides out of sight, countering our aspirations, virtue, and vision with qualities we are ashamed to face: anger, fear, revenge, violence, selfishness, and suspicion of "the other."


For millions of Americans, Obama triggers those feelings, but they don't want to express them. He is calling for us to reach for our higher selves, and frankly, that stirs up hidden reactions of an unsavory kind. (Just to be perfectly clear, I am not making a verbal play out of the fact that Sen. Obama is black. The shadow is a metaphor widely in use before his arrival on the scene.)


I recognize that psychological analysis of politics is usually not welcome by the public, but I believe such a perspective can be helpful here to understand Palin's message. In her acceptance speech Gov. Palin sent a rousing call to those who want to celebrate their resistance to change and a higher vision.


Look at what she stands for:


--Small town values -- a denial of America's global role, a return to petty, small-minded parochialism.


--Ignorance of world affairs -- a repudiation of the need to repair America's image abroad.


--Family values -- a code for walling out anybody who makes a claim for social justice. Such strangers, being outside the family, don't need to be heeded.


--Rigid stands on guns and abortion -- a scornful repudiation that these issues can be negotiated with those who disagree.


--Patriotism -- the usual fallback in a failed war.


--"Reform" -- an italicized term, since in addition to cleaning out corruption and excessive spending, one also throws out anyone who doesn't fit your ideology.


--Palin reinforces the overall message of the reactionary right, which has been in play since 1980, that social justice is liberal-radical, that minorities and immigrants, being different from "us" pure American types, can be ignored, that progressivism takes too much effort and globalism is a foreign threat. The radical right marches under the banners of "I'm all right, Jack," and "Why change? Everything's OK as it is."


The irony, of course, is that Gov. Palin is a woman and a reactionary at the same time. She can add mom to apple pie on her resume, while blithely reversing forty years of feminist progress. The irony is superficial; there are millions of women who stand on the side of conservatism, however obviously they are voting against their own good.


The Republicans have won multiple national elections by raising shadow issues based on fear, rejection, hostility to change, and narrow-mindedness.


Obama's call for higher ideals in politics can't be seen in a vacuum. The shadow is real; it was bound to respond. Not just conservatives possess a shadow -- we all do. So what comes next is a contest between the two forces of progress and inertia. Will the shadow win again, or has its furtive appeal become exhausted? No one can predict. The best thing about Gov. Palin is that she brought this conflict to light, which makes the upcoming debate honest. It would be a shame to elect another Reagan, whose smiling persona was a stalking horse for the reactionary forces that have brought us to the demoralized state we are in. We deserve to see what we are getting, without disguise."

I would now like to post something a little more fun, if not less telling about Gov. Palin.... I'm hoping it embeds, but if not, please go to this website:

http://www.nbc.com/Saturday_Night_Live/video/clips/palin-hillary-open/656281/



I know, very little of me went into this message, but I feel like these two messages say it better than I can.....

Here's one of me....



There's no real point to that video, but I love how I get completely derailed by the chocolate sauce. All other concerns flew out the window in comparison to the chocolate sauce. It was a very desperate time in Peru, for me..... Later days!

Women Against Sarah Palin

Hey Everyone!

I know it's been ages, but the good news is that I am back in Columbus and ready to go back to school (well, not so much ready as having to go back anyways...). I was supposed to be working on my data more than I have, but I'm hoping some of my frustrations about how bad the transcribing is would die down. Never go through the friend of a friend for something that important to you... especially in Peru!! Then you can't complain about how they've screwed up or how they charged 3 times what a professional would have.... :-p

Moving on, I have no power. I am currently typing this up at Starbucks, one of the 4 places with power in our neighborhood. Super fun!! (This is another excuse for not working very much... this environment is not conducive to re-transcribing.) The rest of Hurricane Ike took out 280,000+ residents' power. I don't know if that number is for households or people, but I do know that the earliest prediction of when we'll get power is Wednesday. I have also heard Friday, and for those of us who are not emergency locations (electricity is a luxury! which it really is.... except we've lost our ability to do anything without it. NO FOOD!!!!), we may not have power until Sunday. However, they have said everyone will have power by Sunday at the latest. Hooray! It's like camping, but less fun. The icy showers in the pitch black bathroom are the worst.

Anyways, the whole point of this blog, beyond venting my frustration about the two biggest problems in my life (well, OK, I'll admit, I probably have bigger problems, in the grand scheme of things... but these are the two forefront in my mind), is to discuss an e-mail I received yesterday. It discusses a blog that is forming called "Women Against Sarah Palin." They are asking for a paragraph or so from every woman that wants her voice heard on this issue. Then they put them on the blog, with the name, age and location, and they are trying to publicize as much as possible. After reading the e-mail, which I would be happy to send to anyone who would like it, I was really excited to add my two cents. I have been really frustrated at the response of a number of voters who simply want to vote for her because she is a woman. Some people think that feminism will be advanced by making her vice-president. Perhaps it will, but we will also take 12 steps backwards in so many other areas, such as the right to choose, freedom of speech, etc. If we want a female vice-president, can we please have a COMPETENT woman in there????

Anyways, I wanted to share my paragraph with all of you, just for fun. I am so anti-Sarah Palin, it isn't even funny.

"While I support the idea of a female vice-president, or president for that matter, Sarah Palin is not the candidate I had in mind. As an active supporter of women's rights, I do not want to be taken in by the pandering attitudes of the Republican Party. I will not vote for her and McCain because she is a woman, just as I would not vote for Barack Obama because he is a man. I want to vote for a candidate that supports the ideals that I believe in. I want a cadidate who supports my right to choose, a person who realizes that absitence-only sex education does not work, a person who not only allows, but supports the variety of religions we have in the United States, a person who protects the rich natural heritage we have been blessed with, and a candidate who may not agree with what I am saying, but defends my right to say it (adapted quotation of Voltaire). Sarah Palin is none of those things. Not only that, but she is also inexperienced and only on the Republican ticket because she is a woman. The world is laughing at the United States for our recent mistakes in foreign policy and the economy. We would be continuing our path back in time if we allow someone whose policies seem so backwards be one heartbeat away from the presidency. Yes, I am a woman. But thanks to my mother, grandmothers, and great-grandmothers work towards gender equality, I can think for myself and will not vote for Sarah Palin."

I know, it isn't perfect. It does not even express all of the frustration I feel, but it is what I could do while hanging out at Starbucks. Also, I completely respect that families should be left out of the politics, but seriously.... her seventeen year old daughter is having a baby, but Palin still says abstinence only education works... However, if her daughter was one of the many young girls that did not have a lot of options or a rich family to support her, she would be completely out of luck. Those fabulous Republican policies that cut out funding for young, single mothers (although she and her boyfriend are being forced to get married soon....), so she would have to drop out of school, get a full-time job, and take care of her baby. It just seems so backwards to cut out options on all sides. You have to have the baby (especially since Gov. Palin is anti-birth control), but you will be given no options for taking care of her/him. Seriously?!?!?

Plus, I don't understand how the Republicans can have this argument of inexperience for Obama, but they can support Sarah Palin... Plus, she made fun of Biden having too much experience in Washington and needing an outsider to come in, guns blazing (literally!!), to clean up the corruption. What?!?! They can't have it both ways here. However, Americans are lapping it up like fat, lazy kitty-cats without giving it any thought. We are a nation of apathetic idiots. (I'm including myself, so you can't get mad!) I spoke with a number of foreigners about American politics, and they knew so much more than I did. However, one thing they kept asking is how Americans could let things happen as much as we do. I had no answers for them. The general opinion of Americans, as I gathered it from Peruvians and Europeans, is that we are all fat, lazy, stupid, uneducated, anti-environment, racist jerks. I'm serious, sadly. I'm sure I'm missing a few unpleasant adjectives, but that is just off the top of my head. Wouldn't it be so great if we proved them wrong and made huge, positive changes? Well, that will never happen if Sarah Palin has anything to say about it.... Oh, she makes me so MAD!

OK, also, she is Ms. Anti-Corruption because she stopped using her corporate jet and sold it or something else. However, she also lied and charged the government over $60,000 in expenses for herself, daughters, and husband when taking "business trips," some of which were while she was documented staying home. Also, it is illegal to charge the government for family members unless they are also employees of the government... The story was first reported by the Washington Post, but here is the most recent news article I found, http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2008/09/15/palin-tax-mystery-enters_n_126553.html. It is all very fishy.

The thing about taxes is that we all wish we could have that much more in our pockets, but honestly, I am a proud tax-payer in the United States. I drive on roads all the time, I went to a public-school, and I love state and national parks. None of those things would be possible without taxes. I don't understand how the anti-tax Republicans think this system works. We have this massive deficit. We owe big, powerful countries billions of dollars that we will have to pay back some day. We spend on the military like there is no tomorrow (do you know how much a tank costs???), but we don't want to pay soldiers' benefits because we don't want to pay high taxes. I know everything is more complicated than that, but still. Taxes are necessary. Deal with it! Hurray for taxes! Well, I might not go that far. However, I do want to point out that if they want to lower taxes, they should not declare war on another country. All right, I am just babbling on with my frustration at this point. However, down with Sarah Palin and her anti-feminist ideals! I am a woman against Sarah Palin!! Hear me roar!