Volunteer, Advocate, Trekker.

"...hit call all you want, but there's no one home..." Good News of the Day: According to a Gallup poll asking American who they admire most, Secretary of State Hillary Clinton ranked "Most Admired Woman of the Year" for the 9th straight year! Woop Woop! 17% of Americans say they admire her most, with 12% saying Palin (who made second place for the second year in a row.) Third place was Oprah. Bad-... well, I suppose this is also Good News of the Day actually: Sarah Palin on the other hand, has won the well-deserved "Misinformer of the Year" title for all her cockamamie lies and deceptions - ranging all over from her reality show to those imaginary "death panels." Haha, here's to another year of her crazy zaniness and annoying methods of insulting Democrats while making herself look like uneducated. Best Selling Album of the Year: The Fame (Monster) by Lady Gaga ! WoooOOOOO! Lady Gaga's next album, "Born This Way...

Haha, so broken-Sarah and I are watching Top Chef (again!) this time Top Chef: All Stars . And my favorite character (Marcel) is back! He got cheated out of winning Season 2 (which we were watching the other day in a marathon. I've noticed Cable is nothing but marathons...) But he was, according to Wikipedia, offered a SyFy channel cooking show ? Anyway... Bahahaha, I couldn't help but make this comparison cause it kept jumping out at me when I was watching the show the other day. Low and behold, I'm not the only one who's thought this before! Bravo's seen the resemblance (or at least noted it) and so did other people , whom I stole elements of the above pic from. Anyway... This challenge is about going to famous awesome restaurants in New York City , then creating a dish the restaurant's owner would want to put on their menu. So I'm googling all the restaurants so that next time I go to NYC I can go to them, regardless of how expensive they are. ...

(This post was primarily written on Friday 12/17) - Sitting on the couch keeping warm, watching the Ohio Supreme Court (in a case from June 9, 2010...) Toledo Bar Assn v. Ritson - while mom is out picking up David from his last final of Tri-C classes this semester, and stopping at Chipotle on the way home :) Ahh, the relaxation of winter break. Gonna take Sarah back to Akron today with her wrapped up leg which is healing from her surgery. (Sarah noted at Thanksgiving that with the set up Grandpa had, the TV looked like it was "suffocating between the bookshelves! Fighting to get out!") So, lately I've been slowly turning my Grandpa's condo into a house Mom, Dave and I would feel comfortable in. Grandpa's house is set up for a single, elderly man (pictured)-- decorated all at once in 1994 after Grandpa moved to Stow following his house-fire in Maple Heights. (For those who have not followed my life closely: after Grandpa's passing this summer Mom inheri...

11.  The top 7 in my iTunes play-counts are Lady Gaga. (Telephone: 183, Bad Romance: 174, Poker Face: 99, etc. The first non-Lady Gaga song is number 8: "Firework" by Katy Perry.) 12. I am a packrat, and inherited that from mom and grandpa. Cleaning my room is such a hassle when I cannot throw away that 2008 Travel Guide to Connecticut cause "I may want to go there some day soon..." psh, USE THE INTERNET! 13. If you don't already know this, I insist on using the word "Pop" over "soda", or one of it's other variants. On that note, I LOVE when I see/hear a TV show use pop - cause "Soda" seems to be so prevalent!  14. I will never, ever, do or smoke any drugs because I find them absolutely repulsive. Caffeine, and legit prescription are obviously exempt from this. 15. My favorite sea-faring vessel is the R.M.S. Carpathia , the ship that rushed faster than their fastest-capable speed in the ice berg-ridden waters to rescue ...

So for various reasons I was googling screen caps from one of my favorite Disney movies, Beauty and the Beast, and I found this super-awesome IMDB website of Voice Actors for cartoons . So I'm going to blow your mind with some revealing Voice Actor revelations.... Did I mention they have voice clips of each individual character too!? Belle was boring and this was her only voice acting. But the Beast was voiced by Robby Benson, known to Patsy & Blondie I'm sure as Sabrina's (first) dad ! (Later replaced by the Clueless girl's second dad.) Actually, let me draw you a diagram... And then Robbie Benson as Sabrina's father was replaced by Doug Sheehan , who played the Dad on Clueless ... But that was after HE replaced Clueless dad #1 (from the TV series), played by Michael Lerner. (This is ignoring the movie , which had it's own dad.) And Sabrina (the character!) actually cameo-ed on Clueless at one point . ( Video: This contrived clip is actually on...

The holidays are approaching, and I'm eager to feel the Christmas spirit! :D I had my one and only final today, and tomorrow I have to observe at the middle school for the last time (voluntarily, actually) while they make mummies. Then it's Christmas break all the way! Somethings on my Christmas list this year: a new suit, or even just new dress pants. X_X being in ASG and observing at schools puts a lot of strain on my dress clothes. Never would I have imagined hoping for clothes for Christmas. But not just any clothes, I gotta stay classy - and silky whenever possible. Some other things I'd like this Christmas? Well, there's these Antique Theodore Roosevelt book set at a local store that cost 95$, a Roomba for carpets, this Antique Victorian dictionary stand I've been looking for for years (these are things I really never ask anyone for.) A police speed-radar detector, the collectors edition of the new Black Eyed Peas CD, etc. Picture of the Day: So while ...

Blah, I hate getting myspace surveys. But I guess it's better than no one giving me any :/ I saw this one on Facebook at least twice now, so I thought I'd do it (to avoid doing my International Institutions homework...) real quick. You are under no obligation to do this after I do it! In fact I'd prefer you didn't. Haha, I am so big headed. I love the attention and the compliments. I know, I should try to be less so - and I do. But I work hard for (most of) my accomplishments, is it so wrong to bask in them occasionally? My two favorite books are The Collected Mysteries of Sherlock Holmes , and Star Trek: The Eugenics Wars - The Rise and Fall of Khan Noonien Singh . My 2 most prized possessions lost in the house fire of 2005 was the handwritten recipe card for our family recipe of Chicken Paprikas (written by my great grandmother and passed down to dad), and a smoked-glass chess set my grandpa bought me. I really, really, really hate the song "Everytime We Touc...