This picture was taken in Godewaersvelde, France and was posted on Yahoo!'s daily photos today.  I never thought frost could cling to a spiderweb - I find this fascinating.

If your dog ate your ZZ plant PLEASE DO NOT PANIC!  It is a poisonous plant, but it is not a fatal poison. 

Here is my story:

I have two dogs; an 11 year old hound named Marcus and a 3 month old mixed breed puppy named Buddy.  Here they are together:



Two nights ago, my dogs ate my ZZ plant.  A ZZ Plant is a Zamioculcas Zamiifolia, an african plant common to many houses.  It is a super easy plant to take care of - it needs very little water, low light and grows best if you just leave it alone. 

Last night, I came into the living room to find my plant destroyed.  It was pretty well grown, it had three tubers (roots) that grew about 10 stems.  We only found two of the tubers, four of the stems and about a dozen leaves - in other words, the majority of the plant had been eaten.  I realized I had no idea whether or not this plant was poisonous.  I went online and found many website that listed only the following information:
All parts of the plant are poisonous if ingested.

I freaked out.  Knowing that my dogs had eaten at least a bunch of leaves, a few stems and one of the roots I was sure that they were both poisoned.  I immediately called the emergency vet who referred me to the animal poison control center in my county.  The poison control center charged me $60 to get hear that the best course of action was to do nothing because the plant wasn't actually harmful. 

I should restate that - the plant is harmful in that it contains a toxin that will give your pet an upset stomach.  They both had terrible diarreha for about 14 hours follwing eating the plant.  The vets main concern was that they might start vomitting.  The vet instructed me that if they happen to vomit profusely - 3 times for the puppy, 5 for my dog - that I should take them to the emergency vet to be treated for dehydration.  They also said that I might want to try to get them to eat to help their digestive system pass the plant.

Having paid $60 for this consult, I ask if I could get a second opinion.  She consulted a second vet who said the same thing.

I was in shock.  After being so worried and completely stressed over the prospect that I had poisoned my dogs I could process the relief.  So I called the emergency vet in my hometown - over 600 miles away.  That emergency vet said that they worked with ingestion of a zz plant before and asked if the dogs had eaten a flower from the plant.  I told them that the plant hadn't flowered yet.  They said I might want to feed them and then give them each 1 teaspoon of hydrogen peroxide for each 10 lbs of their body weight.  This vet said the the peroxide would induce vomitting and that the only reason to make them vomit was becaue "It would be nicer than giving them the stomach ache they are going to go through."

I chose not to induce vomitting.  I stayed up a good portion of the night and when they both ate dinner and their treats and didn't  and we to sleep.  They both slept through the night, had no accidents, never vomitted and never showed any sign of discomfort.  They did have continued loose stool for another 10 hours following - which incidentally did contain the leaves of my plant.

On day two, after my partner spent the night comforting me and cleaning up the dirt and plant bits (my efforts were focused elsewhere) he pointed our efforts to google "dog ate zz plant" would have produced many more hits if the plant was actually fatal if ingested.  As it currently stands, a google search only produces a Yahoo! answers post and a bunch of info on ZZ plants that says they are poisonous.  In retrospect, he was absolutely right.

If you happen across this blog and your dog ate your ZZ plant, please don't panic, just wait out the next 12 hours and make sure your dog doesn't get dehydrated from the stomach issues that are about to follow. 

Current Mood: relieved

Rest in peace, Bo Diddley.

HoRde WiN!!!!

It is so much like a family.  We've got some awesome stuff planned for this event season and I can not wait to kick it off.  :D  I love Horde - it's Belegarth without all of the serious and with a lot more fun.  haha!!!

An den yoo bleedin'!

I should be working…but I can’t get my mind out of Brazil.  The country was absolutely beautiful.

On our last and final day in Brazil, we found ourselves without a place to be for several hours.  We wandered and had lunch at the usual spot, had a Skol on the beach…  It was pretty laid back.

Everything was closed because it was Easter Sunday.  However, every year on Easter Sunday Rio has a “Hippy Fair” in which all of the local artists come to sell their wares.  For those of you from Madison, you might compare this to Art Fair on the Square or the Farmer’s Market.  It felt very much the same to me with the individual tents and the goods that were being sold.  I bought souvenirs for all of the people who were kind enough to give us rides to and from various airports and who assisted in our trip in any way shape and form.  I only spent a total of R$40 which is $24.8 and I even bought a small painting from a local artist.

I have come into the habit of collecting landscape paintings from the various places that I travel out of the US.  I have from Europe (well…only Paris) and Rio so far, each are in the local style and I treasure them as memories.

I really didn’t want to leave Rio.  As I have been thinking of my experience there, some things come to mind.

1)      At a super pale white and 100+ pounds over weight I was very afraid to go out to the beach with the thongs and tanned bodies all over.  No one pointed, laughed or really even paid me any mind.  They are a lot less judgmental in Brazil than they are in the US.

2)      They drive like nuts in Brazil.  I saw a taxi make a left turn from the right of three lanes, in front of our taxi and also cutting off another car.  Neither our taxi nor the other car honked because they didn’t have to slow down…it’s just common driving.  Red lights are optional.  Signal lights are used only as flashers when you are stopping your car in the middle of a lane.  It’s wild but I never saw an accident or a dented up car.  Makes you wonder really – maybe they are just more mindful of who is around them.

3)      In Brazil, sugar grows like a weed, but corn is difficult to come by.  In the nice restaurants corn pierogies where a delicacy.  It makes me both appreciate what I have and realize how crappy corn syrup really tastes.

4)      Everyone would feel more special if your waiter would remember that you only like a little milk with your coffee.  It’s noticing/remembering the little things that make a difference.  Even a wave from someone I had briefly met the day before made a difference.

I will miss Brazil and I will always remember Rio as a happy place.  The people were nicer, the food was delicious, the streets were clean and the ocean clear…I think this is my paradise.

Some of the pictures from this trip are uploaded to my MySpace account.  All others will be on my Flickr account tomorrow – www.flickr.com/photos/jllv  check them out if you get a change later this week.

Brazil Day 4

Our final full day in Brazil.  :(  ...  :)  It’ll be good to be home, it’ll be good to see everyone again (especially Marcus) but I’m going to miss Rio de Janeiro like I’d miss my right hand - and I’m right handed.

I got sunburned in a horrible lapse of judgement today.  We woke up later than previously - 9:30am.  We had to meet our tour guide at 1, so we decided to head out the beach before we met our tour guide.  After breakfast (which was packed that late in the day) it was already after 11.  Knowing that we had to be back upstair by 12:15 at the latest to shower and everything else, we agreed to spend no more than 20 minutes at the beach.  Figuring we were only going to be there for 20 minutes and realizing that I didn’t have the 30 minutes I needed to give sunblock for it to work, I headed out the beach without any sunblock on at all...I didn’t think I got burned until we got back from the tour today and James noticed that the back of my neck was red.  It’s my shoulders, my back (to my swimsuit line which is just below my shoulder blades) and my neck are bright red...everything else is fine.  wtf?  My legs, which never see the sun...no burn.  My face, arms, chest...no burn.  Doesn’t make a lick of sense.  Ah well..I guess I can’t change anything about that now.

At 1 we met Marcio again - the tour guide I hired to take us from the airport to the hotel.  He took us to all kinds of neat places.  We saw the "Two Brothers Mountain" which was a beautiful perspective of Copacabana and Impanema.  We also saw Parque Lage - which is a public park connected the rainforest.  We didn’t see any monkeys, but we heard them and got to explore some really neat pathways including a cliff that looked over the lagoon.  We then went to a beach where the hanggliders land...James is going to make me hang-glide one day.  :(  We had acai and guava smoothies and caramel corn.  Not the best lunch, but delicious.  When then went to see some of the finer architectual points of Rio - a cathedral, a monestary, the imperial palace...  Then all of a sudden Marcio says "oooh!!  I have a surprise for you two before we go to the cathedral.  Most tourists don’t know about this place." 

I was...speechless.  He took us behind the aquaducts, up a winding road, onto a back street and in the middle of nowhere - Escadaria Selaron (Selaron’s Staircase).  It’s 250 stairs up the side of a mountain that a man named Selaron has made his life’s work to cover in tiles and bathtubs...sounds weird, but it is beautiful and inspiring and proof that dedication and imagination can lead to wonderful things.  Selaron is hilarious.  He was there when we arrived.  He looks...imagine if Arioch (Helhammer) and SuperMario had a lovechild - that would be Selaron.  He showed us articles of Ed Norton, Snoop Dogg and Pharrel ... all kinds of famous people who have stopped by to see him.  I am going to find a tile and send it to Marcio to give to him.  I can’t wait to post pictures for you all...it was amazing.

After we got back to the hotel we discovered my burn and I showered to cool it down.  Then we headed out - supposedly to dinner.  We ended up at an open air market.  I found some lovely treasures and met some more wonderful people including a vendor who sent his brother to take us to the restaurant we asked him to recommend.  I’m not lying.  We asked him to recommend a restaurant, he tried to describe where it was, but we didn’t understand, so he said his brother would show us.  It was...a very nice gesture.

The restaurant they recommended was amazing!  It was a buffet-style restaraunt called "Expresso Grill" where you pay by the weight of the food you eat.  It allowed us to try all kinds of different cuisine including shrimp (well...James didn’t try the shrimp) which was the most fresh I’ve every tasted and Brazillian ribs which are far less greasy than American ribs, *WAY* more salty and without any sauce.  They were delicious.  I also had rice and beans Brazillian style which I had seen two other people eating so I decided to try it - needless to say two other people where right. 

Everything Rio is wonderful.  I’ve met nothing but fantastic people, the food is amazing, the scenary is spectacular...there are not enough good things to say about this plus.

Plus...I’m apparently missing another horrible snow storm in Wisconsin.  ha ha

Tomorrow is Easter which is a huge holiday here.  Apparently it is a tradition that there is a "Hippy Fair" in Impanema each year.  We are going to hang near the hotel until check-out at noon (honestly I think we’ll need that much time to pack).  The hotel is going to watch our luggage while we hit up the Hippy Fair.  Then we are going to eat dinner and take a taxi to the airport. 

Yeah...I’m going to miss Brazil. 

Brazil 3.1

I didn’t get quite enough sleep last night...but today is beautiful so it makes up for it. 

This morning we woke up late - about 7:30am and we were supposed to meet Wanderson at 9...we ran down to breakfast came back, quick showers, sunscreen, bugshield and out.  We were only 5 minutes late but the car was parked in anyway so no big deal.

We spent almost 2 hours at Sugar Loaf.  It was amazing.  The view was incredible and it was the nicest hike we’ve had all trip.  James had to climb over two walls, up a tree, over another wall due to an incident with a monkey that had a death ray...but you’ll see the pictures.

I *almost* got sunburned.  It was really close actually.  I was turning pink and my skin was burning to the touch.  I got dehydrated and was feeling very lethargic.  Thank goodness I had my Nalgene bottle with me (Thank you again Kris for the bottle-holder!) because I drank the entire bottle.  I came back and just showered the coldest shower I could possible muster.  Then I aloed up.  I think it’s stopped the burning.  Thank goodness.

Wanderson was awesome as ever.  He recommended some shopping and verified what Beth told me today - Skol is great, especially cold on a day like today.

Today is the hottest day we’ve seen yet.  It’s scorching.  Next stop...beer then the beach.  Can you really beat that?  

Brazil 3.2

I should check to see where I left off earlier...but I’m lazy, so please forgive me if there is any overlap.

This morning we went to Sugar Loaf...I’m really sure that I blogged about that.

After Sugar Loaf I needed a shower, I’m pretty sure that I blogged while James was showering...  so we’ll start there.

After getting freshened up, we hit Rio with cameras in hand.  I took a bunch of pictures of things that I liked about Rio.  Everyone brings their dogs everywhere for example.  There are dogs running and playing all over the streets and I love that...also, pigeons.  Birds love this place!  :D

Then we had pizza.  I have a rule - when in Rome, eat like Romans.  Normally pizza would be out of the question, except it’s everywhere.  It’s crazy.  So I thought wth, try the Brazillian Pizza.  It’s only slightly like American pizza.  It has this crazy cheese that I’m pretty sure is goat cheese.  It also lacks any substantial sauce (a very light "dusting" on the crust only) and is served with Ketchup "Catchup" and Mustard.  ???  We tried a chicken pizza which was okay, nothing noteworthy and we also had Skol which was recommended both by our driver and Beth.  It was really good.

Then we went to the beach and took some pictures.  There was a rainbow over Sugar Loaf which was beautiful to take pictures of.  We then bought some coconuts to drink and headed to the roof of the hotel.  We met a guy from San Francisco who was a chauvenist ass and rich as ... I actually have never even seen anything that rich.  He was cool to talk to though...

For dinner, we took a taxi to Rio Scenarium - there was a live band playing that the food was very good.  We had Penne, Filet Mignon and Tarte Brasilleira which is basically a cheesecake with guava sauce...it was delicious.

The music was amazing.  It kept sweeping me away.  I think the band that was playing was something like the Brazillian "They Might be Giants" though.  The crowd kept laughing and at one point they played the song that a grandfather clock plays every hour and made snoring noises...  They were a big hit.  They had a couple of songs that the crowd sang along too and many of the guests watched the music from above because seating on the floor was sold out.

When we left the restaurant there was a line backed up around the block waiting to get into this restaurant.  For good reason too - there was an R$25 charge for entereing the building.  To give you an idea, 1 Real (Brazillian money) = $0.62 ... so it was nearly a $20 cover charge.  All told (taxi faire to and from, cover charge, dinner and drinks) we spent R$180.  Yikes!!!  Another idea of what that means - this entire trip, we are on day 3, we’ve spent R$480...R$180 was on tonight’s dinner.  I’m not so sure it was worth all of that - even with the awesome band.  I guess it was a good experience.

Tomorrow agenda.  Sleeping in - I’m tired of waking up at 7am.  :D  Then we are spending some time at the beach, I’m going to try not to get beat up by the ocean again.  :)  Then we are meeting Marcio - our awesome tour guide for some shopping in an area of Rio that I wouldn’t go without an interpreter.  haha 

Saturday night is open, but it’s our last night here :-( so I want to do something special...maybe Marcio will have ideas.

I don’t want to come home.  Although I miss Marcus.  Can someone just send Marcus down here and I’ll stay in Rio forever?

Happy birthday nerdcodegeode.  Something tells me that we're due for another traditional birthday hangings out. 

 http://stuffwhitepeoplelike.wordpress.com/

I can't take credit for finding it - that goes to Derian, but it is gold.

I attended two of four classes today.  My first class is “Transatlantic Jewish Studies”.  My professor is Susan Bernstein who I’ve had before. 

Wait…a little injected prelude to this story.  It snowed like hell here yesterday.  We got 6 inches of snow in about 20 hours and the city decided plowing wasn’t really *really* necessary so the roads were crap today.  In addition to that, a water main under the city county building a-sploded and needed repair so two of the four main thoroughfares through the city were shut down.  Lots of traffic+slippery roads+closed streets=bad traffic.  I left the house an hour before my class started.  It took me an hour and forty minutes to drive 17 miles.  Now back to our top story –

I walked into class 40 minutes late today and she was very understanding.  You can tell that she is passionate about the subject although my favorite thing about Prof. Bernstein is her sense of humor.  She tells these mildly funny jokes, but does so without changing her pitch, intonation or breaking the rhythm of her lecture.  If you’re not paying attention, it is completely lost upon you – it’s hilarious.  Anyway, it’s just another lit class and I’m not sure a monotone teacher at 9:30am will be too engaging but should be fun. 

My second Tues/Thurs class is “Anthro Approach to Folklore” with Professor Kirin Narayan.  Prof. Narayan taught Anthro 104 when I took that class also, she is adorable and really (I mean *REALLY*) excited about her fieldwork, which happens to be folk songs of the women in India.  Happens to apply to this course and she spent almost an hour today excitedly talking about her project.  J  We have a field work paper due at the end of this semester on the cultural significance of some aspect of folklore.  I’m thinking of doing family (last) names, how individuals identify with them and how the family lore/geneology is associated/passed-down with that name… eh…there are still a few kinks to work out.  The biggest plus to this class is that it is super intense.  I have a one-page paper due every Tuesday and four articles to read each week.  At least Prof. Narayan is excited about the material and is fun to listen to.

Tomorrow I have another lit class and a weight-loss class.  Should be a really busy semester, but it’s good to have a game-plan and an end in sight.

I bought these on Wednesday to go with my snazzy new Blackberry Curve (which is also a GPS navigator and an MP3 player and is awesome and was the world's greatest gift).

They worked great on Wednesday and I loved them greatly.  I turned them off last night before going to bed and when I turned them back on today, they froze.  They were registerring the signal from my phone, but not outputting an sound.  So I disconnected the bluetooth link and tried to turn them off.  Nothing.  You can't turn them off anymore.  

Awesome.

I took them back - quick exchange for another pair.  No problem.  I get the second pair back to my desk, open the package and I can't keep the padding over the ear piece on.  So I took a look at it.  It's a piece of foam stretched over a plastic ring which attaches to the speaker.  The plastic ring was never finished - the two ends were never fastened together.  The gorram thing won't stay on the speaker because it has no grip...being broken and all.

:sigh:  Tomorrow I'll go back to the store.  I think I'm going to upgrade to the next model up this time.  It's $30 more expensive, but if it will consistently work I'll take it.

Meme stolen from Evan, Paul and jpfed consecutively.

* Why do you not believe in God?
Religion was a great idea when you needed to control mass amounts of people from undesireable behaviors.  In this day and age, most people are civilized enough that religion - or the need for religion has become obsolete.

That being said - I think the idea of "God" or a set of "gods" helps give people hope in desperate situations and can be beneficial in that regard to how difficult life can be.

That being said - doubt that any idea of a "God" would disapprove of any type of religion or behavior if you had the best interest of all parties involved.  

In short - it's not so much "God" I have a problem with as it is religion.

* Where do your morals come from?
I am the nicest and most generous person you will ever meet.  My morals come naturally simply from a natural desire to be a valuable member of society and to make the lives of those around me better.

* What is the meaning of life?
Does life really need to have a meaning?  I mean honestly, a world with several billion (actually, if you count viruses and single-celled organism that number goes up to infinity) do you honestly think that every single "life" has a meaning?  I think that we are all inter-connected...like the "in Kenya a butterfly sneezes" sort of domino theory...but that really doesn't even give life meaning, just a rhyme and reason to otherwise unexplainable happenings.

* Is atheism a religion?
Hrm?
Do they have a set of thoughts that they subscribe to?  Check
Do they let those thoughts govern their lives and actions?  Check
Do they have propeganda?  Check
Do they congregate and form a community based on their like beliefs?  Check

Seems like a religion to me.

* If you don’t pray, what do you do during troubling times?
Reiterating what I said above, I believe largely in fate - I believe that I have little to no control over what's going to happen.  

So what do I do in troubling times?  Roll with it.  Sometimes life sucks.  It sucks a lot more if I let it get me down.

* Should atheists be trying to convince others to stop believing in God?
I find it annoying when any one person tries to project their beliefs onto any other person.  However, Johovah's witnesses and excentric Christians all over the world do it.  Why the hell should an atheist be denied that same right?

* Weren’t some of the worst atrocities in the 20th century committed by atheists?
Um...no

More atrocities have been commited in the name of "God" than in defiance of it.

Also - Most of the terrible things that happened in the 20th century were committed because people who were in charge were either crazy or terribly misinformed.

Take Hitler for example.  Many people forget or were never taught in the first place (but don't get me started on the short-comings of American education) that Hitler was an elected official, elected by democratic vote on the platform that he would "rid Germany of the root cause of it's problems".  Popular belief at that time was that the root cause of all of Germany's problems were the Jews.  (Mind you, minority groups have been blamed for a nations problems for a long time, and continues today.  How many times do you hear that illegal immigrants are one of America's biggest issues.  News flash - all Americans, even Native Americans were at one time illegal immigrants.)

Another reason that the holocaust or equally atrocious events could occur in the 20th century is because communication was in it's infancy.  Many of the world's super powers couldn't tell what was going on in other countries.  Most American's didn't know what was happening in WWII until after the war (for example).

* How could billions of people be wrong when it comes to belief in God?
...because we've been told since the early medieval period (from a Western civilization pov, much earlier than that in Egyptian times as an example) that only "bad" people don't believe in God.  It's peer pressure at it's finest.

* Why does the universe exist?
...because at some point a couple of molecules bumped into each other causing an exchange of ions and probably some sort of atomic reaction creating the energy necessary to combine other molecules.

* How did life originate?
See above.

* Is all religion harmful?
Depends on what you mean by "harmful".  Take Heaven's Gate for example.  That was harmful to the few people who subscribed to that religion.  Christianity on the other hand, has been harmful to much more people who refused to subscribe to that religion. 

The necessary circumstances for these situations to take place however are not common.  I think over all, a religion and the hope it inspires in people may be more beneficial to those indiviuals than harmful.

* What’s so bad about religious moderates?
You know...I'm probably a religious moderate.  I think the worst thing about it is confusion.  I think in a lot of people, confusion inspres fear and that cause irrationality. 

* Is there anything redeeming about religion?
I think first and foremost, it allowed for leading officals to control the behaviors of masses of people which created the necessary conditions for civilization as we know it.  After all, if we weren't moving toward some moral ideal - what would have caused us to stop killing eachother, or what would have defined what is someone's property?  

Also as I've stated before, I think it gives some people hope and a sense of community.

* What if you’re wrong about God (and He does exist)?
The same thing that would happen otherwise.

I saw a bumper sticker once that was black with flames at the bottom.  In white writing it said "If you don't believe in God, you'd better be right" - implying that those who don't believe in "God" are going to hell.  

Personally, I don't believe in a heaven or a hell.  I think the universe recycles everything regardless of what you've done in this life. 

* Shouldn’t all religious beliefs be respected?
Absolutely.  Every religion has merit.  Everyone religion should be given credit.  After all, God wouldn't have made religion if He didn't want us to follow it.  

*Are atheists smarter than theists?
What does intelligence have to do with belief?  Belief is simply the faith in something you have no logical evidence to prove - such as what caused the extintion of dinosaurs, whether or not there is extra-terrestrial beings or the existence of a deep-ocean giant squid.  I honestly think the most intelligent people are those who think about their theories and can argue them convincingly.

* How do you deal with the historical Jesus if you don’t believe in his divinity?
The exact same way I deal with Beowolf, Robin Hood and George Washington. Stories are told, history is fictionalized, people's bad deeds are forgotten and their good deeds are exaggerated.

* Would the world be better off without any religion?
Absolutely not.  As previously stated, I believe religion was necessary for the formation of society and I think that it relieves despair.  I think it can be extravagent, and is a terrible thing when that happens...but over all I think it was beneficial.

* What happens when we die?
Your heart stops.  Your brain loses its ability to function.  Your physical form begins to decompose and you become fertile dirt which is ultimately the bottom of any food chain allowing other organisms to continue life.  

I do believe that there has to be some sort of element of consciounsess...a "spirit" if you will.  I think the only logical conclusion is that the consciousness is recycled by the universe just like everything else is.  Why would it be any different than anything else, after all?

I know he doesn't read my journal.  When Jonathan Coulton sang "Mr. Fancy Pants", I could only think of Evan.  How 1) he would love a song about pants and 2) how badly he needs a Zen Drum (which Coulton uses to sing the song)

Here's a video of the song - the actual performance doesn't start until 2:38 in this video, but it's the best audio quality recording I could find on You Tube.

Love and kisses.

I spent the weekend in Chicago and it was a fantastic weekend.

James flew up from Nashville.  I met him on Saturday night and we went to Schuba's to see Paul and Storm and Jonathan Coulton.  Paul and Storm were pretty good.  They did these "scenario" songs - James Taylor on fire, Bob Dillan hiding at the bottom of a well.  They asked "If anyone drove in to see us from far away and would like to hear something yell it out."  Someone yelled "Freebird!"  Paul started singing the second verse with "There's an asshole in Chicago"...it was funny.  They also did these commercial jingles they had come up with.  The first one was "When you've finished your domino's pizza, eat the box because it tastes the same!"  Hilarious.  They kept going off on these tangents also.  Largely because the audience kept yelling out random things.  There were two running jokes - the first was "That's the name of our emo band" and the second was about needing tons of ridilin.  It was random and that made it even more funny.

Jonthan Coulton came on and he was fantastic.  He started his show by saying he'd like to thank Paul and Storm for that coked-out poo-throwing monkey of an opening (which is the name of his emo band).  JoCo was fantastic!!  I really loved his show - I had hardly heard anything that he'd preformed and it was great.  My favorite was Mr. Fancy Pants.  He also ended his set with Neil Diamond's Sweet Caroline.  When he performed the "All we Want to do is Eat your Brains" song, he had the audience sing that line.  We sang it clearly and in unison and he said "that was a little too clear, remember some of you have had your throats ripped out by other zombies and some of you can't talk at all.  English has become a foreign, sort of forgotten thing...'cause you've been a zombie for so long."  So the crowd split.  Half of us sang the lyric right and have of the crowd sort of groaned the melody.  It was phenomenal.  So much so that JoCo kept laughing.  I love when a comedian stands on stage and laughs.  It shows that they're having a good time.

The only bad thing about the show, Schuba's seating is really cramped. My hip popped out of place because I was squished between the wall and James.  That hurt and made me very crank-tastic by the time we left the club. 

Sunday, we were going to go to the Museum of Science and Industry, but there was terrible freezing rain so we stayed close.  We went to see "The Mist".  Despite mixed reviews - it was a fantastic movie.  I really enjoyed it.  The theater was beautiful also and nearly empty...for such a large extravagent theater there were very few people.  Added to the creepiness of the movie.  Then we had Chicago style deep dish pizza.  I have the left overs!

James flight kept getting delayed.  I took off and met up with Guts and Pandora.  Guts offered me crash space which was awesome!  We played some Rock Star.  I hadn't seen the game before, but it is amazing!  I'm going to have to buy me a copy.  haha  Pandora came home and I met Scrabbles...that dog is crazy.  It bit my lip and drew blood.  He's cute and super sweet though.  Guts and Pandora and I played Munchkin.  Guts kicked everyone's ass.  I didn't even get any usable treasure until Guts was already at level 9 of something like that.  Grr.  Then we went out to The Cheesecake Factory which was delicious!  Came back to the house and read some online comics (Guts, you need to send me the link to that so I can read through them).  Crashed out. 

Then I drove home.  And now I'm home.  :)  Thanks to James and Joe, and Stevie for a fantastic weekend!

In the next two weeks:
This week - last week of classes.  TMA is on site at work.
Next week - paper due on the 18th, exam one on the 18th, exam two on the 19th, exam three on the 21st.

Upcoming interesting factoid: The last day of exams this year, is the -1 anniversary of my college graduation.  Yay for no more school.

That's all folks!

Life is tough just about now.

In addition to the normal every day hardships that each of us face; trying to juggle school, work and a social life, pulling the financial ropes trying to make ends meet, &tc -

I have three lung disorders. It makes it difficult from time to time. For various reasons, I have not been able to take the drug (the one and only drug) that has ever done anything to help me gain control of my breathing. My two largest allergies are grass and trees, this time of year is usually particularly difficult - this year is especially bad.

This is the second night that going to sleep has put me into an asthma attack so terrible that I've considered going to the ER. I am wheezing, it feels like I have gravel in my lungs...it's awful. So I'm medicating and the medication is almost as bad as the suffocating.

It feels like I imagine going crazy feels like. I have headaches, but not painful headaches, more like cloudiness. My body is moving faster than my mind is. It I'm exhausted but my eyes won't close to sleep. My emotions are all out of whack, partially the medicine and partially from the fear associated with the feeling of suffocating. I can no longer control my reactions to anything, I feel like I'm over re-acting to everything. And the adrenaline, I mentioned the fear it's associated with an ectasy as a result of being alive each moment. I can feel my heart beating in my chest. I can feel my blood flowing through my veins. I have headaches.

I don't know - it's hard to explain.

Monday I can start getting my meds again. Thank goodness. I'm not so sure I can take another week of feeling this way. I should be back to Jules just in time for the holiday. (Yay for 5 days off!!!)

I am grateful for nothing more than my dog, my mom and a very understanding friend who had to deal with my stupid reactions today.

Tomorrow I'm taking it easy. I have a paper to write and a lot of sitting on the couch to do. Hopefully some down time and medicine on Monday and I can get to sleep.

Aka - Things people have to go through to get a record deal.

James found this on YouTube and I love it! Check out the reaction of some of the folks on the subway (except for that one tight wad guy with the dark hair).

I'm tired of offering apologies and receiving no apologies in return.  I am tired of sacrificing my comfort for the comfort of others and getting no recognition.  I am tired of putting my time and money into relationships where I don't even receive respect.

I hate for it to be this way.  The selfishness of others has been overwhelming lately.  I learned this weekend that my wrath turns into nothing more than a good fist-shaking when my friends are involved.  That will be no longer.

Beginning today I am standing my ground.  If you abuse or offend me - I am going to let you know.  If you don't like it, or can't handle it - I kindly ask you to step out of my life.

Beginning today I am going to demand my dues.  I deserve to be treated as kindly as I treat those around me.  I deserve to be respected.  I deserve to have people go out of their way for me and I deserve to be repaid what I am owed.  

It's not about losing the things that make me a sweet person.  I will always bend over backwards for those that I love.  It's about standing up for myself and ensuring that I am not used.  

I have a book of logic problems and like to solve one per day.  It's my way of relaxing (believe it or not) considering everything that's been going on lately.  Anyhow - tonight's puzzle udderly stumped me.  I finally figured it out (by using trial and error) after several hours of trying my damndest.  I still need to go back and figure the real way to solve it, but I thought those of you who like brain exercises might want to give it a try.

John and Zack have 4 blocks.  Each block has a single letter of the alphabet on each of its six sides.  In all, the four blocks contain 24 letters of the alphabet.  By arranging the blocks in various ways, John and Zack found they could spell all of the words listed below.  Can you figure out how the letters were arranged on each of the four blocks?
BRAT
CRUX
DOWN
GLUM
IMPS
JADE
JOHN
KNEW
LEFT
POUR
SPRY
ZACK
ZINC

Let me know what you think, if it stumped you a couple times too, comments, etc - just please don't post the answer and ruin it for the others.  

PS - If you want to check your answer, let me know and I'll open the super-secret answer thread that I will create shortly.  lmao

1. Go to http://www.careercruising.com/.
2. Put in Username: nycareers, Password: landmark.
3. Take their "Career Matchmaker" questions.
4. Post the top ten results.