Hold Up

Sunday Afternoon

I'm sitting here watching the Texans have their typical sub-par first half, to say the least. My break has gone great so far. Significantly less responsibilities combined with late nights with friends has been the theme of these last 5 days. It's been a good rest from a hectic first semester. I still haven't seen all the people I want to , but that will happen. I just finished helping my mom wrap presents for the Jeans' family. For those of you who don't know who they are, they are the family that my family has given Christmas presents to for 20+ years. My parents met them at our old church way back then and decided to sacrifice some money and time to give presents to their 12 kids who are less fortunate than us. It has been a blessing every year, and, honestly, this means more to us than the usual selfish, capitalistic season this is. Tonight, we head over to their house to deliver gifts, catch up, and sing Christmas songs.

In other news, True Grit comes out December 22nd. I am feeling a little midnight showing birthday celebration.

If you are traveling this month then I thank you for serving our country. The TSA's new policy on flight security is at its best, and I wish I could take a part in keeping America safe too. People are complaining about being looked at and being violated. Suck it up. This is America. A woman went on CNN news and complained about having to take out her prosthetic breast for the woman searching her. She was completely "embarrassed" and "ashamed." First of all, you shouldn't be ashamed to be a  breast cancer survivor. Secondly, if you were so embarrassed you wouldn't be signing up to go on national news and talk about it. For the people who diligently claim this is a violation of constitutional liberties, sit down and shut up. This is completely fair. You lose your certain liberties when everyone else's liberties are at risk. So for the greater good of the 200 other people on the flight, be happy you get to be semi-groped, and like it. One guy had an interesting idea as to what to do about security. He called it "Free Market Air." He said you should get rid of the TSA and let the individual airlines decide how tight to make their security. This way if you were a timid person you could fly on a relaxed "bring any contraband you like" airline. Problem solved? As 9 years ago shows us, the issue isn't people on the plane, it's people one the ground or in buildings. So that is perhaps the worst idea to fix security. It doesn't need fixin'.

Happy Holidays

That is such a genius marketing ploy. Now if you have religious differences with Christians, you don't need to worry. It's the holidays, not Christmas. If you don't believe in Christmas, you shouldn't celebrate it. There is no logic in celebrating in something you don't believe in. TV stations and stores are worried about offending everyone so they've switched over to saying "Happy Holidays" instead of "Merry Christmas." It's offensive to Christians is what it is. Most likely, this is the first step in just creating a co-existing holiday with Christmas. I wouldn't be surprised down the road, but hey what can you do? "Happy Holidays is what terrorists say!" -30 Rock

On a serious note, I hope you all have a Merry Christmas. I hope to see most of you. Cheers.

Bashful

I haven't posted in awhile so here we go...

Finals

They are boring and painful, so this is all I have to say

Christmas Break

Not so boring! I was worried about this break being enjoyable, but now the break looks like it could turn out to be the best one yet. I have tentatively scheduled parties and hang outs already that are getting me excited. My birthday is 10 days away. Christmas is 12 days away. Then going to Micah's ranch as much as possible after that. I couldn't ask for anything better. I went home this weekend for a mini break. I got to hang out with my two best friends Micah and Sam. I have two finals left, but the lowest grade I can get is a B now so I have no motivation for either. Christmas break is on the horizon and it's looking good. I gave myself a Christmas/birthday present that should be getting to my house next week. Unfortunately, this season has also wrecked havoc on my bank account, so I will be selling many of my prized records to get back to the black. This is sad, but I would never take any of it back. I've had to buy things for friends and family. It's sacrifice. Selling my own belongings to pay for them just makes them mean more for me.

Burn

For the group of girls that unwillingly, unknowingly roped me into buying them all Christmas presents, I've decided that I am burning them all cd's. I feel this is the most cost-effective, loving gift I can give all of you. You're welcome...Cat Crozier.

I can't wait for a good Texas break filled with eating animals and burning fossil fuels.
The new year is almost here! Be excited Repubs...

Love you all

Yearnin'

I decided today that I want to make a lot of money. This may be shallow, but that's just fine by me. I want enough money to have a big family and afford it. I don't know what my childhood or life would look like without all my brothers and sisters. My parents have certainly paid for having such a number of children with lots of hard work. So ya...I wanna work really hard and make enough money to have a family that doesn't want. My suite mate has a pretty cool view too. He wants to make enough money to fund his own missionary operation. I think that's awesome. I think God gave us money as a tool. If you aren't attached to your money, then there is no problem with wanting a bigger tool.

I discovered my English teacher is an alcoholic yesterday. This is only my hypothesis...but I feel like I am usually right. A couple of months ago he mentioned that his grandfather was an alcoholic and said alcoholism was hereditary. That didn't sell me, but yesterday he stopped in his lecture and started talking about confessional poetry. He talked about how it is therapeutic for some to get things out in the open to strangers. That's when I realized that's what he does when he comes to class. The little off subject stories he tells are him using the class as his medium of confession. This and other factors have convinced me he is a current or recovering alcoholic. 

The most interesting thing he has said in class is about the draft. He doesn't think the draft will come back because of women. He's right. The draft was pre women's rights movement. If they brought it back now then technically women should have just as much of a right to be drafted as men. There would be uproar over this. It will never come back. It's ironic when you dwell on it...

Today was one of the worst days I've had in quite a while. It did not feel lonely but rather was filled with sadness, coldness, and darkness. It reminded me why I am attached to blues music so much. It doesn't pick you up. It relates. Everyone is searching for a relation with another human, and blues music relates on a deep level saying "hey I've gone through rough times too." 

You fell down of course
and then you got up of course
and you started over
forgot my name of course
then you started to remember
pretty tough to think about
the beginning of december
pretty tough to think about

Dirty Pool

Doing Laundry...
I squeezed what was realistically 8 loads of laundry into 5 and spread them out across 3 washing machines in my dorm. It was a competition for machines on my side of the hall, but I finally walked to the other side of the building where all machines were open. It's a good thing I grew up with 2 sisters and a crazy mom. I realize that more and more in college. Some of my neighbors don't know how to do laundry, or dishes. This doesn't bother me directly, but what is worse is most of them don't know that there is a lint guard in all of the drying machines. This means I am the one who must clean them all out.
Cleaned my entire room today including throwing my pile of trash away, sweeping, and organizing. It's been a busy, but efficient, several hours. My music is getting me through it just fine. My roommate should come home to quite the surprise since my side of the room has been wrecked for a while (I blame tests).

Math v. Dead Weak
So dead weak is finally here. This means no more tests or homework in classes! Right? Wrong. I have math homework due Thursday night. How is that even allowed? Math final is on friday. This is a bittersweet moment for me. It's going to suck taking and studying for this final, but I will finally be done with all math. Trying to use that as inspiration.

Tomorrow I schedule for classes. I am totally unprepared. This is what I will be spending my time doing tonight. I am pretty sure I literally have the last schedule time out of all the students at Texas A&M. This means I will get nothing I want. It will be a busy add/drop week the first week of school. Hopefully I take some of these courses: Oceanography, Pols 207 (State and Local) , History 106 (Texas), Business class (not sure which), Lit class, and/or Philosophy. Wish me luck!

I made my own graph this week! If you click on the link below you can vote (rate) for mine and it may make it to the actual website. Either way, it's funny.
http://cheezburger.com/redorchid/lolz/View/4233571328

Level

My Record Player is Long Gone
No worries, I have another record player in the mail. Today, I worried that I will be out of touch with everyone younger than me, or even the same age as me. At least musically that is... When I told a guy in my dorm hall I have a record player in my room, he asked if I was a DJ. That's sad. Most friends that have never been in my dorm ask me to play a record on the player. Yesterday, Amanda Kirkscey had me play a record (a Black Keys record mind you), and she had the most shocked/happy/surprised reaction that there was sound coming of off the black circular disk. That's awesome. Most of my friends don't understand my obsession/collection of vinyls...on the other hand most 30+ year olds think it's the coolest thing ever that a young person has such an obsession. A little like the 70 year old volunteers at the voting center were excited when they saw me walk in the door. A lot of people tell me that vinyls are antiques and vintage history. This can be true, but vinyl is not dead. All of my favorite musicians know enough to keep releasing on vinyl. I love my vinyls. Everything about them is what music is supposed to be. The sound quality is immensely superior to that of audio files or cd's. The sleeves have large artwork of the album which actually makes it art! I could go on...

Instinct Blues
My favorite genre of music is blues. I love blues from every generation. I am searching for some vinyls from black blues artists from the 50's. Yes, I think that is cool.
I don't know if I would be considered "open" when it comes to music. I hate the majority of rap and pop and perhaps as Alyssa puts it "John hates everything mainstream." This is not entirely true, but I am ok with it. I am always finding new bands I fall in love with though so I think that gives me some degree of openness.

Music is infectious. It's very interesting. I infect people with my music all the time. People show me new stuff that I end up becoming crazy about. That's part of the joy of it all. Music is discovery. I am gonna wrap this up now because I am rambling, but if you ever wanna talk about this I am ALWAYS up for it.

To end, these are some bands or songs I am currently obsessed with:

Anything Jack White (Dead Weather, Raconteurs, White Stripes)
Kings of Leon's first two albums and Back Down South
Black Keys
Led Zeppelin revival
The Kills
The Happen-ins
You Only Live Once-The Strokes
Something- Beatles

Could go on for pages but I'm done.

Something

So this is what stress is like?
 I am in the Evans Library studying Political Science 206 with my friend Tiffany. I got a 90 on the first test and an 88 on the second test. I have done the math, tests are weighted differently, and I will have to get a 92 tomorrow to achieve an A in the course. That is the bad news. The good news is, short of a complete mental lapse, I can not get lower than a B. This doesn't put my mind at ease at all. This sucks. In history it's a similar situation. In English I have to get a 97 on the final to receive an A, not fun. I don't care to add up my Math grade...I'm hungry and tired.

I've decided that I don't like the phrase "live within your means." That makes me think hey it's just as fun being poor. It's not.

I am trying to count my blessings, but it is hard during finals in my situation. I am going to try and recover from this. On the positive side, I have great friends and family that will be here. This semester, despite my stress over grades, has been one of the best periods in my life.

I've been criticized for having a dark sense of humor. I'm trying harder every day to keep it up.

I think it's funny that Jimmy Kimmel had a "National Un-Friend Day" for facebook users. The premise was to delete your friends lists down to your actual friends. Jimmy Kimmel is a pirate. I did this over a year ago. I decided that facebook was for staying connected with friends not building a friend base and weeding through futile posts. I find it humorous that some high schoolers (and even people in college for that matter) have somewhere between 700 to 1500 friends. Really? I don't understand why you would have (or want) that many friends on your facebook. I deny more people in requests than I accept. You should do it.

Somebody come give me food. I'll be your friend if you do.

Blog break over.

P.S. I am experimenting with Labels to see what it does to my Stats.