Some Official 2009 Poll Results from JUST RIDICULOUS POLLS

2009 has taught us many things.  Things like the fact that 43% of people think that the best name for a pet owned by an indie band would be Death Cab for Kitty.  Let's look at some of the other IMPORTANT facts we've learned from Just Ridiculous Polls.  These are some VERY scientific* poll results:

• 50% of people would prefer to be called Classy.  (Instead of Ritzy, Distinguished, August, Regal, Resplendent, Imposing or Stately!)
• 40% of people would choose Hanson as their wedding band over Spinal Tap, Iron Butterfly, Air Supply, 98 Degrees and Milli Vanilli.  SHOCKER!
• 55% of people think that "Freddie Dangerbone: A Danger Story" isn't the worst movie title.
• 7% of people wouldn't make a sound if they were a tree and fell down.
• 57% of people think there were a lot more spiders in 2009 than normal.  Also, apparently 14% of those polled were actually spiders themselves!
• 25% of those polled had tried telekinesis in the previous 24 hours!  Also, 6% of those polled lied and said that they'd never tried it. 
• If forced to kick one of the Beatles in the shin, 41% would kick John, and another 41% would kick Ringo. 
• 28% of those polled had laughed to tears within the previous week.
• Of all of Maria's "My Favorite Things" that she sings about, snowflakes that stay on my nose and eyelashes was poll-takers' least favorite, with 27% of the vote.

Well, these are important things to know.  Feel free to head over to Just Ridiculous Polls and contribute to these polls, or weigh in on the few new 2010 polls that are already posted.

Hooray for chill Saturday nights!
 *By VERY scientific, I mean not scientific at all.  ...Pardon the slight exaggeration!

Democratic Republic of Congo, George Mason, Haiti...

UNHCR News Story: New UNHCR video report on DRC
Originally uploaded by UNHCR

This morning I went to my geography class on Violent conflict in Sub-Saharan Africa. We had a great lecture on the DRC (Dem. Rep. of Congo). My teacher spent time there recently and really wanted to communicate to us the magnitude of the situation the people face there. That country is in a REALLY bad way. The factions that are all fighting and years of international intrusion have left a nation that could be incredibly wealthy due to its resources in a dire state. It's quite tragic. After all the discussion about DRC and its issues, my desire to go to Africa is even stronger. I just REALLY want to go there and make a difference. In fact, after I got home from class I sent in an application to win a trip to Africa with a NY Times journalist. The lecture today just put me in one of those mindsets where I suddenly am very aware of the incredible span of difference between the life I lead and the lives of many of Africa's poorest folks. As I got a drink from a drinking fountain right after class I realized that I should even be joyful that I have clean and fresh water that I can trust so readily available. I lead a life full of luxuries that many Africans can't even imagine, and they lead lives devoid of things I can't even imagine. It's quite sad, but makes me want to make a difference. Of course I most want to contribute to human rights, but any difference I could make at all would be great.

After my class I came home and applied to win that trip, and then after a while I headed back up to campus. On the way there I looked at my phone and realized that I'd missed a call. It was from an area code I didn't recognize, so I thought it might be a law school. They left me a message and sure enough, I got accepted to George Mason! Woot! It's definitely one of my top 3 choices. I was thinking it was one place that I was feeling fairly borderline about my admission chances.

So I was feeling pretty great about that and went and bought some food in the student center. I sat down with my food and saw that they had CNN playing on the TV there. Of course they were covering the earthquake in Haiti. It's an incredible thing when nature can shut down the center of a nation badly enough that people can't even get into the country. Watching the coverage brought my mood back down, but also reminded me of how much I want to make a difference in the world. Hopefully the more I say things like this the more I'll be driven to actually do something about these feelings.

Anyway, that was the roller coaster of feelings that I felt this morning. I can't wait to figure out what comes next. K, see ya later.

Hot-Boiled Drat...

I heard that phrase said on an episode of the Dick Van Dyke Show the other day, and I thought it was pretty darn hilarious. 

Random:  If anyone that goes to USU really needs a job, even one with very few hours, please let me know.  There are a few openings at my work that will be available to interview for on Friday.  (Two days from now!)  Anyway, let me know.  You need to be pretty computer savvy, and friendly-ish.  That's about it.

Anyway, all I want right now is to sleep.  However, I'm at work.  This isn't a great place to sleep.  A great place to sleep, though, can be found in the institute building.  It's quite peaceful there, and there are a myriad of couch/chair options.  I had myself a nice 5-10 minute power-nap this morning.  I'm a fan of power-naps.  I always over sleep and ruin the "power" part of them, but when I can get in just a brief 15 minute nap or so, I feel great!  Napping for an hour or more always makes me super groggy.

School is going fairly well thus far.  No major complaints. 

Spencer and I played racquetball yesterday, and my K-nees are K-illing me!  That's all about that.

Hmm... the only other important update that I feel I need to add to this entry is that today I'll be mailing off the very last of my law school application paper-work.  So I'll be officially done applying for law school after I get one envelope off in the mail to BYU.  SWEETNESS~~!!!

Hmm... since I've still got about 2 hours of work left, I think I shall compose a list of a sort that I haven't done in quite a long while.  A RANDOM THOUGHTS LIST!!!

• I hate making résumés.  Really not a great activity.
• I ate a really good cherry cheese danish this morning.  Mmm...
• I just randomly got the song with the phone number "867-5309" stuck in my head.  Or, I guess I should say, I got the chorus for said song stuck in my head.
• I feel for the people in Haiti.  I wish I could actually go there and do something to help out.  I think it's great to donate money and all, but really I wish I could actually physically help, ya know?
• I really want to go to Africa.  If I can't get a decent internship this summer, or don't land any other great job, I really want to volunteer for an international aid group or something for the summer.  That would be a dream come true.
• My friend said a word the other day to describe gross stuff (like skuzz, or goobers, or whatever) that I think is DISGUSTING sounding, but perfect for said definition.  The word?  Bonch.
• 867-5-30 NIIYINE...
• I hate when my leg starts bouncing involuntarily and I can't control it.  I'm sure other people around me hate it, too.
• I just had a craving for a sausage egg Mcmuffin!  Gross...
• Some people look cool.
• BONCH!
• There's some dude that keeps wandering around by the front door of the lab... what a weirdo.
• I don't think I should be allowed to call other people weird.  Besides, he just left.

K, see ya.

Oh Inverted World...

Free climber on inverted world...
Originally uploaded by gardawind

The title of this post is the title of an album by The Shins. It's not necessarily a favorite of mine or anything, and I'm not reviewing it, but rather employing its title to explain how I feel about my present situation. Whereas I had been going to sleep in the a.m. hours and waking up in the p.m. hours for the last month, I've definitely switched everything around and I'm now very much awake in the a.m. hours having gotten in bed in the p.m. hours. I know that to the passer-by, there is nothing remarkable about this, but to anyone who knows how late I LOVE to stay up, and how late I LOVE to sleep-in, this is a HUGE change indeed.

I have class at 7:30 every weekday this semester, and it will take a lot of will power for me to get over my normal late-to-bed, late-to-rise type of lifestyle. My world is pretty inverted right now.

I'm doing okay as far as staying awake and getting through my classes this morning, however, the very hard part was the getting out of bed and getting on my way. I struggle with that no matter what time I get up, but it's particularly hard for me when it's crazy early. Anyway, I'll quit my whining. I recognize that getting up in the early morning to live my life is a totally normal thing for everyone else, and I should just get used to it. It will take me a while, but I believe that I'm capable of becoming a morning person. (I'll have to!)

Hmm... I feel like my ability to write interesting stuff will be seriously hampered by how tired I feel, but you, my loyal 2 or 3 readers, will just have to deal with it.

So my first day back to school started off with a class that is extremely easy, especially for an upper division history class. She just makes us watch movies and then prove we paid attention the next class by taking a quiz. So it's basically just a participatory class.

In other news, I'll be finishing up the last of my applications in the next couple days. I just need some signatures, and to mail some forms and I'll have applied to 12 schools. I'm kinda going crazy waiting to hear from all of them. I WANT TO KNOW WHERE I'M GOING! I just had a conversation with a fellow classmate about my law school apps, and I forget that it's NOT an exciting topic for most others. He seemed highly disinterested. Fair enough. I'm kind of a spaz about the whole topic, but the anticipation is really getting to me.

Well, enough rambling. I'm just chilling in the institute building and waiting for my Spanish class. Wish me luck on staying awake! K.... bye.

Why am I not napping?

RandomaniaSideBar
Originally uploaded by u2aholic

This month off of school has been great. However, it has left whatever semblance of an internal-clock that I may have remaining very discombobulated indeed. I sleep more during the day than I do at night, and even when I do sleep it's often not for long and is interrupted. Last night I tried to go to sleep at an almost normal time, but I failed due to waking up after only sleeping a couple hours. I had a weird dream all about escalators. (Some were really fast... which was actually kinda fun.) Anyway, it was the middle of the night so I just decided to stay up so I could go to my staff meeting on time this morning. (Or at all.) I really hope that I can pull it all together and get my internal-clock on a semi-normal regimen within at least a week or so. I have classes at 7:30 am every day this semester. We'll see how that goes...

Anyway, I should be taking a nap right now as that couple of hours of sleep last night is all that I'm running on right now. So... maybe I'll take a nap. Sometime. Possibly soon.

As for law schools: still waiting, sweetheart, just waiting.

Umm... it's frigid. Ok, I'm writing about the weather and I'm seriously struggling to spell... it's definitely time to end this post.

K, bye.

Racquetball, I've missed you.

Racquetball tuckered me right out!  I think I look dead in this picture.  Anyway, it's been since probably September that I've played racquetball, but Spencer and I went and played this afternoon.  As soon as we started warming up I realized how much I've missed it.  It's great playing with Spencer because we have almost exactly the same amount of experience, so we're pretty evenly matched.  We have very different games, but they are fairly equal score-wise. 

I'm SUPER out of shape after the holidays.  I weigh more than I ever have right now.  (I put on some Christmas pounds.)  Anyway, so it's probably a good thing that I'm picking racquetball back up.  I want to shed these pounds as quickly as possible.  I felt really dead after only a game, whereas normally Spencer and I can play 5 games and contemplate continuing on depending on whether or not we have to be somewhere.  Today we played a fourth game and I did NOT move much.  Uber-sluggish!  Anyway, the point of writing all of this is to remind myself of my love for this game and to encourage me to get off my butt more. 

So school is starting on Monday again and I'm once again barely thinking about it at all.  I'm so focused on law school stuff right now that this last semester has just been pushed to the back of my mind.  I should probably keep that in check though, as I need to finish strong and get myself in a decent habit. 

The other reason I really need to start thinking about this upcoming semester is that I need to get to bed earlier this weekend so that I can start waking up at 7 am every weekday this semester.  Oi. 

Well, I'm finally going to shower for the day.

K, see ya.

P.S. I had Gandolfo's this morning!  It was kick-trashtastic.

Law School Applications and the Wait-time

The anticipation is already killing me.  I'm always excited when I'm waiting on a package or something in the mail, and especially when it's something potentially exciting.  Now I have to wait for 11 different somethings to come in the mail, by phone, or even by email.  I don't know where they'll hit me from.  (Oh, happy new year, by the way.  ...uh... cool... anyway... back to anticipation...)  Some of the law schools have said that I could hear from them within a couple weeks, and some of them say they can take upwards of 8 weeks.  Yeargh.  That's WAY too big a window for me.  I've never had such a big window for a package or anything. 

Spencer also makes fun of me for always checking my email, but now I'm probably going to check it always times two. 

Rejected, waitlisted, or accepted?  Scholarships?  I am having a hard time waiting.  Oh well, I guess once I know, I'll just have to go through the labor of figuring out how to pay for law school... so maybe it's not that exciting.  But alas, I'm still excited.  Or at least VERY anxious.

Anyway, I'm sure you (my millions of readers) will get to hear plenty about the many communique that will inform me of my law-school fate in the future.  K...

bye.