Today I was excitedly telling my parents about several recipes I had found and food I was anxious to attempt making. I LOVE food. I recently tried to diet… but it was doomed from the start. I’m not really that overweight. I could stand to lose maybe 5 pounds because I DO have a teeny bit of a gut, but that’s it. I wouldn’t really want to lose anymore. So I forewent the diet in favor of a crunchily glazed blueberry fritter, freshly made spicy chocolate gelato, spaghetti with creamy vodka sauce, and the sweet promise of rich, moist, rarely-seen-out-of-season pumpkin pie squares.
SO worth it!
At any rate, I was eagerly going on about a recipe for pasta frittata that I wanted to try, as well as one for paneer that has piqued my interest, and expressing a general desire to try eggplant, most likely in eggplant parmesan-form, when my father interrupted me.
Now, my dad has never been one to sugar-coat, or even really to care if he tramples on someone’s dreams or desires. I think he’s actually proud of this ruthlessness in some bizarre, life-sucking way.
He informed me that “You know, you’re going to die someday, and when you do, you don’t want to have to have fifteen pall-bearers. If you keep obsessing with food like this, you’re going to, you know.”
EXCUSE ME? I’ll be honest, people, and give you the exact numbers. Last time I checked, (which was, just so you know, YESTERDAY) I weighed 130.2 pounds. I have a 29-inch waist. I sincerely wish that I could believe he was joking, as he may have intended me to, but this is how my father is. He is so INCREDIBLY critical of other peoples’ bodies, it’s disgusting. Mine, my mother’s, strangers’ in the mall, at a restaurant, riding down the road on a motorcycle…
The moral of the story is that my body is mine and I can do whatever I want with it. And I think, that just maybe, I want to join the culinary program at my college and quit letting myself be crushed by my father’s delusions.
List that is. This is my book list! Everything here was slowly compiled by brainstorming all of the books I’d like to read for fun, books I think I’ll feel smarter after reading, and books I think I’m culturally inept without having read. I also consulted several “best book” lists and added those I felt were a good idea, as well as googled “short classics” which brought me to a list of classic novels under 250 pages. I added all the ones I recognized. I want to be well-read, and I figure that there’s no excuse not to read them when they’re so short! I’ll be updating this list as I complete goals and add new books to read.
The list contains many big goals as well as individual books (such as reading the complete works of Shakespeare, every book in the Bible, every Dr. Seuss book, every one of Anne McCaffrey’s Pern novels, etc.) I chose to list each book individually rather than list smaller goals. This is more to help myself keep track than anything else. You might notice that some are crossed off already with no finish date beside them. Those are books I’ve already read; they’re on the list as part of a larger goal.
To see what else I’m going to do, take a look at my Bucket List.
Crossed Through means I’ve done it
Adams, Douglas: The Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy
Adams, Richard: Watership Down
Aesop: Aesop’s Fables
Alighieri, Dante: Divine Comedy
Anderson, Hans Christian: complete fairy tales and stories
Angelou, Maya: I Know Why the Caged Bird Sings
Asimov, Isaac: I, Robot
Austen, Jane: Emma
Austen, Jane: Pride and Prejudice
Barrie, J.M.: Peter Pan
Baum, Frank L.: Oz 01: The Wonderful Wizard of Oz
Baum, Frank L.: Oz 02: The Marvelous Land of Oz
Baum, Frank L.: Oz 03: Ozma of Oz
Baum, Frank L.: Oz 04: Dorothy and the Wizard in Oz
Baum, Frank L.: Oz 05: The Road to Oz
Baum, Frank L.: Oz 06: The Emerald City of Oz
Baum, Frank L.: Oz 07: The Patchwork Girl of Oz
Baum, Frank L.: Oz 08: Tik-Tok of Oz
Baum, Frank L.: Oz 09: The Scarecrow of Oz
Baum, Frank L.: Oz 10: Rinkitink in Oz
Baum, Frank L.: Oz 11: The Lost Princess of Oz
Baum, Frank L.: Oz 12: The Tin Woodman of Oz
Baum, Frank L.: Oz 13: The Magic of Oz
Baum, Frank L.: Oz 14: Glinda of Oz
Baum, Frank L.: Oz 15: Little Wizard Stories of Oz
Bellow, Saul: The Adventures of Augie March
Bible: Old 01: Genesis
Bible: Old 02: Exodus
Bible: Old 03: Leviticus
Bible: Old 04: Numbers
Bible: Old 05: Deuteronomy
Bible: Old 06: Joshua
Bible: Old 07: Judges
Bible: Old 08: Ruth
Bible: Old 09: 1 Samuel
Bible: Old 10: 2 Samuel
Bible: Old 11: 1 Kings
Bible: Old 12: 2 Kings
Bible: Old 13: 1 Chronicles
Bible: Old 14: 2 Chronicles
Bible: Old 15: Ezra
Bible: Old 16: Nehemiah
Bible: Old 17: Esther
Bible: Old 18: Job
Bible: Old 19: Psalms
Bible: Old 20: Proverbs
Bible: Old 21: Ecclesiastes
Bible: Old 22: Song of Solomon
Bible: Old 23: Isaiah
Bible: Old 24: Jeremiah
Bible: Old 25: Lamentations
Bible: Old 26: Ezekiel
Bible: Old 27: Daniel
Bible: Old 28: Hosea
Bible: Old 29: Joel
Bible: Old 30: Amos
Bible: Old 31: Obadiah
Bible: Old 32: Jonah
Bible: Old 33: Micah
Bible: Old 34: Nahum
Bible: Old 35: Habakkuk
Bible: Old 36: Zephaniah
Bible: Old 37: Haggai
Bible: Old 38: Zechariah
Bible: Old 39: Malachi
Bible: New 01: Matthew
Bible: New 02: Mark
Bible: New 03: Luke
Bible: New 04: John
Bible: New 05: Acts
Bible: New 06: Romans
Bible: New 07: 1 Corinthians
Bible: New 08: 2 Corinthians
Bible: New 09: Galatians
Bible: New 10: Ephesians
Bible: New 11: Philippians
Bible: New 12: Colossians
Bible: New 13: 1 Thessalonians
Bible: New 14: 2 Thessalonians
Bible: New 15: 1 Timothy
Bible: New 16: 2 Timothy
Bible: New 17: Titus
Bible: New 18: Philemon
Bible: New 19: Hebrews
Bible: New 20: James
Bible: New 21: 1 Peter
Bible: New 22: 2 Peter
Bible: New 23: 1 John
Bible: New 24: 2 John
Bible: New 25: 3 John
Bible: New 26: Jude
Bible: New 27: Book of Revelation
Blume, Judy: Are You There God? It’s Me, Margaret?
Blume, Judy: Forever
Bradbury, Ray: The Martian Chronicles
Bradbury, Ray: Something Wicked This Way Comes
Bradbury, Ray: Dandelion Wine
Bradbury, Ray: The Illustrated Man
Bronte, Charlotte: Jane Eyre
Bronte, Emily: Wuthering Heights
Brown, Dan: The Da Vinci Code
Bugliosi, Vincent: Helter Skelter: The True Story of the Manson Murders
Burton, Richard Francis (translator): The Arabian Nights
Camus, Albert: The Stranger
Capote, Truman: In Cold Blood
Card, Orson Scott: Ender’s Game
Carroll, Lewis: Alice in Wonderland
Carroll, Lewis: Through the Looking Glass
Cormier, Robert: The Chocolate War
Chandler, Raymond: The Big Sleep
Chaucer, Geoffrey: Canterbury Tales
Crane, Stephen: The Red Badge of Courage
Crichton, Michael: Next
Crichton, Michael: The Andromeda Strain
Dahl, Roald: Fantastic Mr. Fox
Dahl, Roald: George’s Marvellous Medecine
Dahl, Roald: The Twits
Darwin, Charles: On the Origin of Species
Defoe, Daniel: Robinson Cruesoe
Defoe, Daniel: The Fortunes and Misfortunes of the Famous Moll Flanders
Delany, Samuel R.: Nova
Dickens, Charles: A Christmas Carol
Dickens, Charles: A Tale of Two Cities
Dickens, Charles: Great Expectations
Dickens, Charles: Oliver Twist
Dickinson, Emily: Complete Poems
Dostoevsky, Fyodor: The Brothers Karamazov
Doyle, Sir Arthur Conan: A Study in Scarlet
Dr. Seuss: The Five Hundred Hats of Bartholomew Cubbins
Dr. Seuss: And To Think That I Saw It On Mulberry Street
Dr. Seuss: Bartholomew and the Oobleck
Dr. Seuss: The Butter Battle Book
Dr. Seuss: The Cat in the Hat
Dr. Seuss: The Cat in the Hat Comes Back
Dr. Seuss: The Cat’s Quizzer
Dr. Seuss: Daisy-Head Mayzie
Dr. Seuss: Did I Ever Tell You How Lucky You Are?
Dr. Seuss: Dr. Seuss’s Sleep Book
Dr. Seuss: The Foot Book
Dr. Seuss: Fox in Socks
Dr. Seuss: Great Day for Up!
Dr. Seuss: Gerald McBoing Boing
Dr. Seuss: Green Eggs and Ham
Dr. Seuss: Happy Birthday to You!
Dr. Seuss: Hop on Pop
Dr. Seuss: Horton Hatches the Egg
Dr. Seuss: Horton Hears a Who!
Dr. Seuss: How the Grinch Stole Christmas
Dr. Seuss: Hunches in Bunches
Dr. Seuss: I Am Not Going to Get Up Today!
Dr. Seuss: I Can Draw It Myself: By Me, Myself with a Little Help from My Friend Dr. Seuss
Dr. Seuss: I Can Lick Thirty Tigers Today! And Other Stories
Dr. Seuss: I Can Read with My Eyes Shut!
Dr. Seuss: I Had Trouble in Getting to Solla Sollew
Dr. Seuss: If I Ran the Circus
Dr. Seuss: If I Ran the Zoo
Dr. Seuss: The King’s Stilts
Dr. Seuss: The Lorax
Dr. Seuss: McElligot’s Pool
Dr. Seuss: Marvin K. Mooney, Will You Please Go Now
Dr. Seuss: Mister Brown Can Moo, Can You
Dr. Seuss: My Book About Me
Dr. Seuss: Oh Say, Can You Say?
Dr. Seuss: Oh, the Places You’ll Go!
Dr. Seuss: Oh, the Thinks You Can Think!
Dr. Seuss: One Fish, Two Fish, Red Fish, Blue Fish
Dr. Seuss: On Beyond Zebra
Dr. Seuss: Scrambled Eggs Super!
Dr. Seuss: The Seven Lady Godivas
Dr. Seuss: Shape of Me and Other Stuff
Dr. Seuss: Sneetches and Other Stories
Dr. Seuss: There’s a Wocket in My Pocket!
Dr. Seuss: Thidwick the Big-Hearted Moose
Dr. Seuss: Wet Pet, Dry Pet, Your Pet, My Pet
Dr. Seuss: What Was I Scared Of?
Dr. Seuss: Yertle the Turtle and Other Stories Party Edition
Dr. Seuss: You’re Only Old Once!
Dr. Seuss: Hooray for Diffendoofer Day
Dumas, Alexandre: The Three Musketeers
Eliot, George: Silas Marner
Ellis, Bret Easton: American Psycho
Ellison, Ralph: The Invisible Man
Faulkner, William: Absalom, Absalom!
Faulkner, William: As I Lay Dying
Faulkner, William: The Sound and the Fury
Flaubert, Gustave: Madame Bovary
Gaiman, Neil: The Graveyard Book
Garden, Nancy: Annie on my Mind
Grahame, Kenneth: The Wind in the Willows
Green, John: An Abundance of Katherines
Green, John: Will Grayson, Will Grayson
Fitzgerald, F. Scott: The Great Gatsby
Golden, Arthur: Memoirs of a Geisha
Haddon, Mark: The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night-Time
Hardy, Thomas: Tess of the d’Urbervilles
Hawthorne, Nathaniel: The Scarlet Letter
Heinlein, Robert A.: Red Planet
Heinlein, Robert A.: Stranger in a Strange Land
Heller, Joseph: Catch-22
Hemingway, Ernest: For Whom the Bell Tolls
Hemingway, Ernest: The Old Man and the Sea
Herbert, Frank: Dune
Hesse, Hermann: Siddhartha
Hitler, Adolf: Mein Kampf
Hollander, Xaviera: The Happy Hooker: My Own Story
Homer: The Iliad
Homer: The Odyssey
Hopkins, Ellen: Burned
Hopkins, Ellen: Crank 1: Crank
Hopkins, Ellen: Crank 2: Glass
Hopkins, Ellen: Crank 3: Fallout
Hopkins, Ellen: Identical
Hopkins, Ellen: Impulse
Hopkins, Ellen: Perfect
Hopkins, Ellen: Tricks
Hugo, Victor: Les Miserables
Hugo, Victor: The Hunchback of Notre Dame
Johnson, Maureen: Thirteen Little Blue Envelopes
Kafka, Franz: Metamorphosis
Kesey, Ken: One Flew Over the Cuckoo’s Nest
Keyes, Daniel: Flowers for Algernon
King, Stephen: The Stand
Kipling, Rudyard: The Jungle Book
Lawrence, D.H.: Lady Chatterly’s Lover
Lewis, C.S.: Narnia 1: The Magician’s Nephew
Lewis, C.S.: Narnia 2: The Lion, The Witch, and the Wardrobe
Lewis, C.S.: Narnia 3: The Horse and His Boy
Lewis, C.S.: Narnia 4: Prince Caspian
Lewis, C.S.: Narnia 5: The Voyage of the Dawn Treader
Lewis, C.S.: Narnia 6: The Silver Chair
Lewis, C.S.: Narnia 7: The Last Battle
Lowry, Lois: The Giver
Machiavelli, Niccolo: The Prince
Maguire, Gregory: Wicked 1: Wicked
Maguire, Gregory: Wicked 2: Son of a Witch
Maguire, Gregory: Wicked 3: A Lion Among Men
Marx, Karl: The Communist Manifesto
McCaffrey, Anne: Pern 01: Dragonsdawn
McCaffrey, Anne: Pern 02: The Chronicles of Pern: First Fall
McCaffrey, Anne: Pern 03: Dragonseye
McCaffrey, Anne: Pern 04: Dragon’s Kin
McCaffrey, Anne: Pern 05: Dragonsblood (actually written by only Todd McCaffrey)
McCaffrey, Anne: Pern 06: Moreta: Dragonlady of Pern
McCaffrey, Anne: Pern 07: Nerilka’s Story
McCaffrey, Anne: Pern 08: Dragonflight
McCaffrey, Anne: Pern 09: Dragonsong
McCaffrey, Anne: Pern 10: Dragonquest
McCaffrey, Anne: Pern 11: Dragonsinger
McCaffrey, Anne: Pern 12: The White Dragon
McCaffrey, Anne: Pern 13: Dragondrums
McCaffrey, Anne: Pern 14: Masterharper of Pern
McCaffrey, Anne: Pern 15: Renegades of Pern
McCaffrey, Anne: Pern 16: The Girl Who Heard Dragons (short story)
McCaffrey, Anne: Pern 17: All the Weyrs of Pern
McCaffrey, Anne: Pern 18: The Dolphins of Pern
McCaffrey, Anne: Pern 19: The Skies of Pern
McCaffrey, Anne: Pern 20: A Gift of Dragons
Melville, Herman: Moby Dick
Milne, A.A.: Winnie-the-Pooh
Milton, John: Paradise Lost
Mitchell, Margaret: Gone with the Wind
Montgomery, L.M.: Anne of Green Gables
Moore, Alan: Watchmen
Nabokov, Vladimir: Lolita
Niffenegger, Audrey: The Time Traveler’s Wife
Orwell, George: 1984
Orwell, George: Animal Farm
Parnell, Peter and Justin Richardson: And Tango Makes Three
Peck, Robert Newton: A Day No Pigs Would Die
Piccoult, Jodi: My Sister’s Keeper
Poe, Edgar Allan: Complete Poems
Poe, Edgar Allan: Complete Tales
Pullman, Philip: His Dark Materials 1: The Golden Compass
Pullman, Philip: His Dark Materials 2: The Subtle Knife
Pullman, Philip: His Dark Materials 3: The Amber Spyglass
Rand, Ayn: Anthem
Remarque, Erich Maria: All Quiet on the Western Front
Rice, Anne: The Lives of the Mayfair Witches 1: The Witching Hour
Rice, Anne: The Lives of the Mayfair Witches 2: Lasher
Rice, Anne: The Lives of the Mayfair Witches 3: Taltos
Rice, Anne: The Vampire Chronicles 01: Interview with a Vampire
Rice, Anne: The Vampire Chronicles 02: The Vampire Lestat
Rice, Anne: The Vampire Chronicles 03: Queen of the Damned
Rice, Anne: The Vampire Chronicles 04: The Tale of the Body Thief
Rice, Anne: The Vampire Chronicles 05: Memnoch the Devil
Rice, Anne: The Vampire Chronicles 06: The Vampire Armand
Rice, Anne: The Vampire Chronicles 07: Merrick
Rice, Anne: The Vampire Chronicles 08: Blood and Gold
Rice, Anne: The Vampire Chronicles 09: Blackwood Farm
Rice, Anne: The Vampire Chronicles 10: Blood Canticle
Saavedra, Miguel de Cervantes: Don Quixote
Salinger, J.D.: The Catcher in the Rye
Shakespeare: A Lover’s Complaint
Shakespeare: A Midsummer Night’s Dream
Shakespeare: All’s Well That Ends Well
Shakespeare: Antony and Cleopatra
Shakespeare: As You Like It
Shakespeare: Coriolanus
Shakespeare: Cymbeline
Shakespeare: Funeral Elegy by W.S.
Shakespeare: Hamlet
Shakespeare: Henry IV, Part 1
Shakespeare: Henry IV, Part 2
Shakespeare: Henry V
Shakespeare: Henry VI, Part 1
Shakespeare: Henry VI, Part 2
Shakespeare: Henry VI, Part 3
Shakespeare: Henry VIII
Shakespeare: Julius Caesar
Shakespeare: King John
Shakespeare: King Lear
Shakespeare: Love’s Labours Lost
Shakespeare: Macbeth
Shakespeare: Measure for Measure
Shakespeare: Much Ado About Nothing
Shakespeare: Othello
Shakespeare: Pericles, Prince of Tyre
Shakespeare: Richard II
Shakespeare: Richard III
Shakespeare: Romeo and Juliet
Shakespeare: Taming of the Shrew
Shakespeare: The Comedy of Errors
Shakespeare: The Merchant of Venice
Shakespeare: The Merry Wives of Windsor
Shakespeare: The Rape of Lucrece
Shakespeare: The Sonnets
Shakespeare: The Tempest
Shakespeare: Timon of Athens
Shakespeare: Titus Andronicus
Shakespeare: Troilus and Cressida
Shakespeare: Twelfth Night
Shakespeare: Two Gentlemen of Verona
Shakespeare: Venus and Adonis
Shakespeare: Winter’s Tale
Shan, Darren: Cirque Du Freak 01: A Living Nightmare
Shan, Darren: Cirque Du Freak 02: The Vampire’s Assistant
Shan, Darren: Cirque Du Freak 03: Tunnels of Blood
Shan, Darren: Cirque Du Freak 04: Vampire Mountain
Shan, Darren: Cirque Du Freak 05: Trials of Death
Shan, Darren: Cirque Du Freak 06: The Vampire Prince
Shan, Darren: Cirque Du Freak 07: Hunters of the Dusk
Shan, Darren: Cirque Du Freak 08: Allies of the Night
Shan, Darren: Cirque Du Freak 09: Killers of the Dawn
Shan, Darren: Cirque Du Freak 10: The Lake of Souls
Shan, Darren: Cirque Du Freak 11: Lord of the Shadows
Shan, Darren: Cirque Du Freak 12: Sons of Destiny
Shelley, Mary: Frankenstein
Shikibu, Murasaki: The Tales of Genji
Shute, Nevil: A Town Like Alice
Silverstein, Shel: The Giving Tree
Sophocles: Oedipus Rex
Steinbeck, John: Of Mice and Men
Steinbeck, John: The Grapes of Wrath
Steinbeck, John: The Pearl
Stevenson, Robert Louis: Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde
Stevenson, Robert Louis: Kidnapped
Stevenson, Robert Louis: Treasure Island
Stiefvater, Maggie: Shiver
Stoker, Bram: Dracula
Suskind, Patrick: Perfume
Swift, Jonathon: Gulliver’s Travels
Tendo, Shoko: Yakuza Moon
Thackery, William Makepeace: Vanity Fair
Tolkien, J.R.R.: The Hobbit
Tolkien, J.R.R.: The Lord of the Rings 1: The Fellowship of the Ring
Tolkien, J.R.R.: The Lord of the Rings 2: The Two Towers
Tolkien, J.R.R.: The Lord of the Rings 3: The Return of the King
Tolstoy, Leo: War and Peace
Tolstoy, Leo: Anna Karenina
Twain, Mark: The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn
Twain, Mark: The Adventures of Tom Sawyer
Twain, Mark: The Prince and the Pauper
Vonnegut, Kurt: Slaughterhouse-Five
Vronsky, Peter: Female Serial Killers: How and Why Women Become Monsters
1. As far as I know, I’m not in any danger of dying.
2. This was not inspired by the movie, The Bucket List. I haven’t even seen it.
That said, a few weeks ago, for reasons I have since forgotten, I decided that I wanted to make a bucket list. (This really isn’t that unusual. I love lists, and any excuse to make them will cross my mind at some point.) I started browsing the internet for examples (if you’d like to see what I was looking at, just look at the first 20 or so pages of the “bucket list ideas” google search). While searching, I realized that most people seem to limit their lists to about 100 items.
Why?
I mean, unless one is in danger of dying soon enough that they only have time for 100 things, I don’t see the point in only listing 100. I, for one, am only 19. I have at least a good 80 years left in me. (One of my things was to live to be 100.) I want to do A LOT MORE than 100 things. So I decided to list 1000. That’s not to say I’m not going to add any. This is a work in progress. However, I told myself at least 1000 before I’d blog about it. Ladies and gentlemen! I have over 1000.
Regrettably, I now realize that a list that large simply does not work in one blog post. It’s HUGE. So, I’ve decided that the best way to tackle this problem is to only list my categories here. As I add each post (one for each category) I’ll link them back here.
So I was browsing through Yahoo for news the other day when I came across this article. If you have time, it’s an interesting read, but the gist of it is that there are these people out there, lots of people, who are taking pictures of their food. Not in an “oh this is pretty,” sort of way, but in a “I’m about to eat this so I shall blog it” sort of way.
It sounds really weird.
However, after I thought about it, I realized that there could be upsides to this particular hobby, as long as it didn’t become a neurotic, OCD sort of thing. For instance, if you’re detailing every last thing you put in your mouth, you’d probably be more likely to eat things you’ll feel good about having eaten. (AKA healthier things, or possibly just less of what you’re already eating.) Or, on a different note, if you get sick, you’ll know exactly what you’ve eaten, although that’s more of a stretch as far as actual usefulness.
After reading the article, I decided to try it, just for one day, as a sort of experiment. SO, feast your eyes upon my incredibly unhealthy eating habits!
I started my day off right with a bowl Apple Jacks doused in 2%.
A couple hours later, I indulged myself in a hot pink, stale peep. Yes, the color makes a difference! The pink ones taste better.
Lunch for the lazy included microwaved poptarts and a glass of milk.
For supper, after a day of nothing but sugar, I brought home cheese ravioli and meatballs from work.
And that’s it! Aside from water, and a Dr. Pepper I had while at work, this is ALL I ate that day. To be fair however, I should point out that while these are typical meals for me, I found myself resisting the urge to snack while at work, say by popping a crouton in my mouth here and there. I normally do, but I couldn’t get the camera out during my shift, so I just waited until I got home to eat anything.
So there you have it! And now that I’m done with it, all I can think is that people must snack a whole lot less if they have to whip out the camera every time.
Just Animals Shelter, located in Seneca, IL, is a no-kill, non-profit animal shelter. Every year, they take in multitudes of cats and dogs, care for them, get them up-to-date on their vaccinations, spay or neuter them, micro-chip them, and finally, adopt them out to good, loving homes. In 2009 alone, the shelter placed 475 cats and dogs.
Just Animals Photo Collage
Just Animals currently rents a building from A+ Storage in Seneca. Awhile back, the landlords not only re-did the parking lot out in front of the shelter, but also added a parking lot in what was previously an empty lot next door. Ever since then, the shelter has been swamped. There have been puddles and mud surrounding the building even during dry spells because the water no longer has any place to drain to.
In addition to this, the septic tank is exposed. Every time the toilet is flushed, water (and everything else that was flushed, gushes into the surrounding area and adds to the puddles, contaminating them and making them larger. The contaminated water then runs underneath the building.
The landlords knew about this ongoing problem. However, it never got fixed. Instead, although the they have paid their $1000-a-month rent on time for the seven years they have been located in A+ Storage, the animal shelter recieved an eviction notice giving them until April 30 to get out. Since the local press got ahold of the story (you can view the two different news articles here and here) they have mentioned extending the lease to two months or six months, rather than one. However, the shelter has yet to receive any of this in writing, and therefore, must still assume they have only unti April 30.
The shelter has nowhere to go.
Because of zoning issues, finding a place, even to rent, within 30 days will be almost impossible. The shelter is being forced to stop taking in animals for the time being, and is trying to adopt out as many as possible before difficult decisions have to start being made. The shelter is in dire need of foster homes for all of the animals, and several dogs that either can’t be with children or other dogs have had their adoption fees slashed to just $65.
The shelter will not close, but it will be a struggle to continue and every little bit of support helps.
A few days ago I was out shopping with a friend when she complained that her roommate would kill her if she saw her out of the house like this.
Like “this?”
Apparently she meant out of the house with only minimal makeup and naturally dried hair.
I told her that I thought she looked fine and added that I wasn’t wearing any makeup and normally didn’t. Apparently, this is a crime as my friend’s roommate had been looking for a way to nicely ask me to wear makeup a couple weeks earlier when I had visited her in the city. My friend also added that she thought I should wear makeup as well.
Just one question: why?
At the time, I fended her off saying I didn’t know how to work the stuff… she told me it was simple. I told her I was too busy and short on time to deal with it in the mornings… she assured me it would only take a couple minutes. Eventually, as always (because this is NOT the first time we’ve had this conversation), I managed to change the subject. But honestly, why do others feel it is so necessary that I wear makeup? My friend and her roommate are not the only ones to tell me this. As a female who does not regularly wear makeup, I have had perfect strangers, people who I’m talking to for the very first time, inform me that I should be wearing some.
No one looks good in this.
Let me set this straight before I continue. I do not wear makeup every day, but I don’t shun it entirely either. I reserve light makeup (mascara, eyeliner, and lipstick, max) for special outings with my friends or boyfriend. The only time I ever wear anything more complicated is for formal occasions, like Homecomings and Proms in the past. It likes wearing nice jewelry. It’s pretty! But I don’t wear a diamond necklace to do dishes or go to psych class.
Why do so many people feel the need to wear makeup every single day? More importantly, why is it their problem, or indeed any of their business, if I want to wear it?
I feel that makeup is something to make you feel a little prettier on special occasions. Why would you want to wear it so often that you couldn’t feel pretty without? Furthermore, it does take time and money to wear full makeup everyday. On top of that, women seem to wear makeup as a way to attract men. Do you really think they’re going to be happy when they find out you don’t look anything like what you’ve made them believe? Will you ever really believe that they think you’re truly beautiful if they only ever see you with makeup on?
I have a wonderful boyfriend. We’ve been dating for over two years. I almost never wear makeup, but I know he thinks I’m beautiful anyway. When I do wear makeup, I feel even more special and pretty and it wows him. Isn’t that better than being scared to show your face without it?
On a different note, why is it that women like myself don’t seem to be able to go without makeup, but men never have to wear it? In fact, men are ridiculed, for the most part, if they do wear it. When’s the last time you heard someone tell a men they should really try a nice concealer? Never! If men have a little acne, they have a little acne and that’s all there is to it.
A quick Google search turned this up. How many people do you think look at this picture and wish their guy friends, boyfriends, or husbands would wear makeup?
I would also like to point out that putting goop on a zit might hide it for a while, but it certainly isn’t going help me get rid of it. It’s going to make it worse.
In conclusion, for everyone out there that feels the need to wear makeup every single day, and for everyone who is scared to let others see their naked face: go right ahead. But don’t try to pressure other women around you into doing it too. It’s none of your business. If someone can see that they’re beautiful just the way they are, who are you to try to make them hide it?
I was browsing through pictures on deviantArt just now and happened to come across an artistic nude. The model was posed well, the composition was great, and the model’s tattoos were fantastic. The piece had over 1100 faves and an assortment of comments declaring the model beautiful.
Before I start in on what I really want to talk about, let me add in a disclaimer: There are all different sorts of beautiful, and, personally, I think that this model is really pretty. She has a beautiful face. She has beautiful tattoos. I can appreciate this.
But.
Upon seeing this photograph I was immediately struck by how skinny the model was. I can count her ribs. I don’t find that beautiful… I find it slightly repulsive.
Now, please don’t take this as an attack on the artist or the model. If the model is healthy and happy with her body, then there’s really no problem. My point is merely that the incredibly skinny is not what women should strive for. It’s not healthy.
As a religious person, I believe that behaving in a manner that hurts my body or disrespects my body is a disrespect to my deity. I feel that if you are a person of religion you should realize that your god created you the way you were meant to be. Starving yourself is hurting your god’s creation. Similarly, gluttony can have the opposite effect and lead to obesity, which I believe is also a disrespect to creation. Isn’t keeping ourselves healthy and our bodies in shape the best way to honor the gift our deities have created just for us? Honor the precious life given to you!
I realize that no one really wants to be obese, but many who are don’t try to lose weight, and plenty of anorexic people want to weigh less than they already do. I believe that even if you don’t think you can attain a healthy weight, you need to try.
I once heard Elie Wiesel speak. He said over and over that, “The opposite of love is not hate. The opposite of love is indifference.” Similarly, the opposite of success is not failure. The opposite of success is never trying at all.
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For those of you who read this without any idea of what deviantArt is, it’s like a social networking site for artists. You can find it here.
I am a strong believer that keeping something I have no use for is selfish, lazy, and immoral. Of course, gazing around my room only to be greeted by visions of clutter on every surface helps too. So, I decided several weeks ago to get rid of all these things that I do not want or need. I call it purging.
I started by attacking the clothing. Due to a large weight fluctuation in high school, I had both clothes that were too big and clothes that were too small. Out they went. The eight formal dresses dating back to middle school? Those went too, as well as the clothes that fit perfectly fine that I never wore. The heels that hurt my feet, the slippers that fell off whenI tried to walk in them, and the clunkers I had used once for a costume all went too.
Next, I hit the books. When I was little, my family didn’t have a library card, but I loved to read. My dad remedied this problem by buying me 10 cent books from the used book store each weekend. I don’t think I had ever gotten rid of one. So, children’s books I never intended to read again? Gone. Books I bought from the library on sale but had never read? Gone. Magazines I hadn’t touched since finishing them the first time? Gone.
After that, I just started in one spot of my room and worked my way around. Necklace tree that doesn’t go with the rest of my decor? Gone. Purses I no longer like? Gone. Jewelry I don’t wear? Gone. Toys and games I forgot I had? Gone.
So on and so forth until I had a huge pile of unwanted goods heaped in the middle of my bedroom floor. Not so good for organization. There were a couple bags of trash, granted, but there was also a lot of good stuff. Many of the things I was getting rid of had absolutely nothing wrong with them, I just didn’t want them anymore. What to do with it all?
Now remember, I think it’s selfish to keep something I have no use for. That’s because someone else could use it! I could have donated all of my things, but there were quite a few items I wanted to make sure went somewhere they would really be appreciated. My solution? I roped together a few friends and convinced them to go through their things as well. We borrowed the use of a basement, laid out all of our unwanted goods, and went “shopping.” Most of us are broke, so it was a great way to get rid of some things while also getting new.
Personally, I was able to give all of my old formal dresses to a seamstress friend for modification into lolita dresses. Many of my old toys went to a friend who can’t afford to buy her young daughter many new ones. A good portion of my books found new homes among several friends, including a recent graduate just starting to look for her first teaching position. I was also able to give away most of my unwanted shoes, some of my other clothes, and a lot of knick-knacky type items. For myself, I came away with three new pairs of pants, four pairs of shorts, several cute shirts, and some jewelry.
When I left for the swap meet, my trunk had been full and I had a few things in my back seat. After the swap meet, we piled everything that no one had wanted into my car. We filled the trunk and the backseat, but that was for five girls, rather than just me. A couple days later, I took all of our books to a used bookstore for store credit. I took all of our stuffed toys to a police department. (Police departments will sometimes accepts stuffed toy donations so that they have something to give to the scared children they come across.) Everything that was left I took to the local thrift store.
Now, everything that I have left is something that I know I want. However, because I had been sorting through it all, what’s left is piled on my floor. Hardly anything is put away. Check back for tales of organization and cleaning!
As a college student, I am part of a generation of people largely connected to technology. Everywhere I look, at any point in time, someone is texting, IMing, emailing, Twittering, Facebooking… and while I do not by any means oppose communication, there are some things that I find completely unnecessary.
Somehow, in my household, I am the black sheep of this debate.
My teenage brother, as would be expected, spends almost every waking moment either on his high-powered gaming computer, his XBox 360, or his PS3. When he is forced to be away from home, he is never far from his mp3 player, or, at the very least, an issue of Game Informer.
My mother spends the vast majority of her limited free time either checking her email obsessively, racking up minutes and hours on the phone (with people she sees in person almost every day), or, at night, watching TV, which is a family activity.
Strangely enough, however, it’s not any of the three of us, but my soon-to-be-48-year-old father who cannot put the technology down. He was the very first one in the family to own a cell-phone, way back when. We have always had a steady procession of computers filing in and out of the house, starting with a black-and-white laptop back in the early ’90s. Today, he is the proud owner of two laptops, one of which is for back-up; two iPod Touches, an older model and a newer 64G; and at least six other mp3 players, left over from before the Touches, when he was using one for movies, one for music, one for podcasts, etc. That’s not to mention his two, top-of-the-line Canon cameras and all of the fancy lenses to go along with them. He refuses to read actual books, preferring instead audiobooks, or at the very least, eBooks, either of which end up on his Touch. He buys movies only to transfer them to his computer to watch later. He prefers to watch shows he has missed online, rather than just DVRing them. He has carried a PDA with him wherever he goes for as long as I can remember.
In contrast, I prefer a good book with real pages to a monotonous voice in my ear any day, and, while I do have a Facebook account I’m rather faithful to and this shiny new blog, I email as little as possible, IM rarely, and refuse to text anyone. My father is always on my case about how it would be easier to take notes on a laptop, rather than in the thick notebook I like to carry with me, or how it would be simpler for me to convert my video lessons to audio files so that I could listen to them in the car. However, I prefer traditional, analog versions of just about everything.
I don’t understand why someone would prefer to take the time to type out words one letter at a time on a phone, when it’s easier and cheaper to just hold the phone to one’s ear and talk. Not to mention, talking on the phone while driving, while somewhat distracting, is not nearly as dangerous as trying to text and drive. What are some of these people thinking?
I don’t understand why someone would prefer to watch a movie, while sitting at home in the living room right in front of the TV, on their computer. Isn’t the picture bigger and clearer and the sound better on a TV?
The biggest thing that I see that is so commonplace that I don’t understand is the need to text someone sitting right next to you. Maybe this is the college alternative to passing notes in class? I really hope that these people have unlimited texting. Otherwise, what an incredible waste of money. How hard is it to say something to the person next to you? Or if it’s so secret you don’t want others in the room to hear you, try waiting, or even pulling that person aside.
All said, I obviously have family and I also have very dear friends that exhibit this technological dependence. Seriously, though, while I love them, it’s confusing.
Faceless internet masses, a couple of polls for you. Am I just a technophobe? How reliant are you on these things?
Religion is such a funny thing. Everyone, even when they are members within a single church or other religious organization, has a different religion. I honestly don’t think that any two people on this planet have exactly the same beliefs. There’s always something to set them apart.
My religion is actually the entire reason I’ve started this blog. I’ve always had a problem with it. My mother was raised Lutheran, my father was raised Catholic, I was baptised Lutheran, and I was raised going to a Methodist Sunday School, not that we ever attended church.
I never really believed any of it.
Later on, I was an agnostic, and then an atheist, and then an agnostic once again, but none of it ever really felt right. I’ve researched so many different religions and I’ve never been able to find a good fit. So, for quite some time now, I’ve been trying to figure out what I believe. Within the last couple days, I finally reached my conclusion, however, it is label-less, which means a full-blown explanation is in order.
I believe in a Divine Essence. Or Spirit, Soul, Energy, Life Force… it could have many names. It is neither male nor female. It is not all-knowing, because it does not think, but it is always right. It is responsible for all of creation and the tools it uses are scientific ones. There is no need for magic when the Divine Essence is responsible for the creation of science. It is omnipresent. It is a whole entity, but smaller pieces of it fill every living thing.
Your small piece is your soul.
When you die, your soul moves into the world vessel-less for a while, either as a ghost or helping to shape and form the inanimate around us. Vessel-less Divine Essence is what formed the world. Eventually, your soul recombines with the whole and small pieces of the whole (including your piece, which by this point has mixed in, like a glass of water in the ocean) fill newborns everywhere, from single-cell organisms to other humans, with life.
Souls move in cycles. They need to spend just as much time in a body as outside of one. The Divine Essence, while it is living inside you, is something to be cared for and nurtured. This is done by keeping yourself healthy and happy. You could think of your soul’s well-being as your own emotional well-being.
Your body is the vessel, and therefore must be cared for just as well. A fish can’t do well without water, and much the same, your soul won’t fare well without a healthy body. Eat right and exercise. At the same time, things that are not necessarily healthy for your body can be healthy for the soul, like good chocolate or a lazy day just lying around the house. Happiness, and the highest level of well-being you can attain for your soul, is finding the right balance between maintenance and these kind of pleasures.
Beyond health and happiness, your soul needs to be around other souls, as part of a community. Surround yourself with life. People are great, but your “community” does not necessarily have to consist of other people. Plants and animals work well also.
One of the greatest pleasures a soul can achieve is helping other souls. Under this belief system, we are all made up of the same recycled Life Force. Therefore, helping others is helping yourself. That’s why everyone gets so warm and fuzzy inside! It’s not even just selfish to be selfish, it’s self-deprivation.
Harming a soul or a soul’s vessel, whether your own or someone else’s, is as close as it gets to sin. There is no heaven or hell, but sins like these will result in unhappiness for yourself and for the Whole, which can be just as bad as the traditional Christian version of hell.
Killing is terrible, but unavoidable, and this is understood. Even a vegetarian must kill a plant to eat. When killing is necessary, try to do it as quickly and as painlessly as possible.
Abortion is considered killing. Having a child that you cannot provide for and keeping it is almost as bad, as this is filling a vessel that cannot be cared for. Such children should be given up for adoption.
Sex with a loving partner in an established relationship, although not necessarily marriage, is not sinful. In fact, it can lead to religious experience. Sex with anyone else can easily lead to emotional turmoil, or distress for your soul.
Homosexuality is not sinful. Men and women were created separately to further the species, but furthering the species is by no means necessary or required. Homosexuality, in this respect, is the same as a heterosexual couple with no children or desire to have any. This is not to say that homosexual people may not adopt. In fact, it is encouraged that anyone who can care for a child in need do so.
All said, I think I’ve covered the main points and a couple hot topics. I’d love to hear from anyone with questions or who would like to post their own religious views in comparison. I’d also love to hear which religion anyone is, if everyone would be so kind as to answer the poll. I encourage open, thoughtful discussion. However do not turn this into a debate over which religion is right or wrong. I will not tolerate hateful comments. Be polite and respectful. Thank you!
thoughtleaf 