Volunteer, Advocate, Trekker.

Well, July 1st at Midnight is the deadline for the State Department internship I am applying for. But I am absolutely positively done with everything that needs to be done today! :D What a weight off my shoulders, finally faxed my transcripts and Financial Aid report in. Which were pretty much the only things on my agenda of things to do today -- so I spent the rest of the day fixing my iTunes and playing my game Star Trek: Online , which has taken up pretty much all my extra non-Sarah time since I got my new labtop. (PS: I know laptop is spelled with a P. I just like the nickname Labtop, cause it conjures images of my lab! mwahaha. To people who prefer to be snooty and correct me, well f*** you -- plenty of worse things people misspell for you to be correcting.) Quick shout out to Star Trek Online: This game is AWESOME! It's a little bit of Sims, mixed with a little bit of World of Warcraft, mixed with typical Star Trek ship-battle games! You get to select your own character, and

Haha... so I've been meaning to post things, but I have like 4 blogs that are half done. So I've decided to kill two, and merge the other two. So forgive any temporal inaccuracies... (Written a while go...) First of all, MAH BABY'S BACK! Wooo! n.n I've had an awesome 24+ hours straight of hanging with Sarah pretty much since picking her up from the airport in her China trip, and it's been a blast (most of all because of the not-fighting!) But I'm so happy she's back, missed her so much, and my summer's been so boring with out her. And what better way for her to come back -- but we've been watching (and I bought) the second season of Veronica Mars! I'm just all kinds of happy n.n ANNND! My baby got me something from China -- an antique-looking (we're not sure if it really is, probably not because it's made in China, but it's got me fooled) chess set! To those who don't know, I lost my favorite chess set in the fire back in 2005 - s

Dunno why, but I'm in the mood to bash the band Owl City . I mean, seriously -- all they (he) sing about is stuff he walks past. It only loosely and occasionally rhymes, so I could seriously just sing-talk my walk through the park or a store or anywhere and make it into an Owl City song! Just yesterday, while with Panda and Sarah to confirm that the Abandoned School in Independence, OH is indeed no more, I wrote something about petting a cat so it "raises it's tale" while I walk to the street and check the mail... Yes folks, unfortunately -- the school is no more. I found it through a tip through Amy's Dad a couple years ago, we got into it on one or two occasions (the two different buildings) and I have some sweet souvenirs -- a map and a textbook. I got Amy the plaque that was the school's credentials as an educational institution. Panoramic of what used to be a swimming pool We visited this place after me, Sarah and Panda returned from exploring another a

"A resident of Ansan, [South Korea] near Seoul, reported seeing 40-50 objects resembling parachutes falling on a mountainside. The military and police mobilized a special joint task force. Upon investigation, the objects turned out to be helium balloons released by a local school." - (BBC News.) What a sad place the world is coming to when music about war is art imitated . Woah, sorry, had a deep moment. I'm back now. So I have a bunch of half-written back-blogs to post that I just have to finish and add aspects to (ie: song of the day, quote, etc.) So today was bad, but is getting better. Woke up at 6 am and realized I slept through my 4-6am shift this morning >( oh well, nothing I can do about it now, emailed my boss and we'll see what happens of it. But I was also planning to do my final project for Human Cultures that was due today at work -- so I quickly started working on that, and finished just before class. Got to class, then it wa

I've been meaning to explore this place for almost a year now. Anyone who grew up in the Cleveland-area of North-East Ohio should be familiar with the popular jingle: "Dover Lake, the Waterpark Place, Hot summer sun - and fun for Everyone! Dover Lake!" Similarly, you can imagine my surprise when Vienna and Chippewa native friends had never heard of Dover Lake Waterpark, nor Fun 'n Stuff. Dover Lake Waterpark , according to my research, was owned by Marc Glassman of MGI until 2006 when it closed, and was sold to Boston Mills/Brandywine Ski Resorts -- the property's neighboring local artificial snow aficionados. (Interestingly, further research indicates that Marc Glassman is the founder and owner of Marc's stores - ie: the cheap Save-a-Lot competitor!? Go figure! So Marc's used to own, and sold Dover Lake!) The park's website has been down for some time, but thanks to the magic of the internet - you can see what it once looked like on say, February

WooHOO! So, the Census is not as over as I thought it was. Instead, I'm being retained for phase 2 which goes all of July -- 30+ hours a week. And with no summer classes, that's a lot of hours of me making money and not being able to spend it. Combined with the money mom owes me, and my balancing my accounts -- I've had enough lately to indulge and live life a little! So I treated myself to a new 5th gen Orange iPod nano, as well as a new camera! Yeah, I'm pretty much loving life. And what better way to inaugurate a new camera than to go explore some ABANDONED BUILDINGS :D Our abandoned building today is a former Mini-Golf/Put-put place in Hudson*, Ohio -- incredibly close to my Grandpa's house actually. ((* -- on the border of Hudson and Stow)) The first trip to Grandpa's of summer we often went here, me, Grandpa and Dave. It's only been closed a year or maybe 3 though, so I def declare it in the first stages of abandonment. In the following picture there&

Awesome Video of the Day: If you don't feel like watching all of it, a guy in Texas is a collector of Presidential memorabilia - like JFK's Oval Office rocking chair, campaign things going back to Eisenhower, and pictures + autographs of him with each President going back to Nixon. Anyway, he built a replica of the Oval Office in his driveway (as an extension of the house, so it's like adding on a whole real room!) With a real desk, and designed to look real in every way! *u* it's soo cool. I wanna see an Oval Office someday. Certainly the real one would be best, but for the time I'll accept one of the professional replicas. There was a partial replica back at the FDR Presidential Library & Museum. IKEA created a replica of the Oval Office in the subways of Washington D.C. back during inauguration season I guess - I don't remember seeing it! There are replicas immitating the appropriate Presidents at the Ford, Carter, Reagan and Clinton libraries. I want to

So just started my 4a-6a shift at the Exchange desk, and while perusing the internet today I found an article of clothing I WANT! And since " Andrew's wardrobe " is one of the tags I can use on a blog that I don't think I use all that often, I'm gonna base today's on some clothes I wanna buy. And as for the title, I occasionally check out " Lady Gaga Daily: The Fashion Blog " which documents and explores all of Lady Gaga's different ridiculous outfits and how they are developed, etc. In it, the author of the blog often finishes with "Genie, I want a pair!" ie, wishing for them. So here are some clothes, if there be a genie, that I wish for. The first article of clothing is this Mandarin Collar Jacket from YesStyle . I like it! This is a combination of my two favorite things, futuristic-y looking things, and Asian looking things. I occasionally ask myself what business suits will look like in 40 years (because they are a slow-to-change f

Featured News Article: "Shuttles for Sale" So, clearly I am a fan of Star Trek. And this often accompanies in Trekkers an interest in Space Exploration in general, indeed I am very interested in NASA and modern/present day space exploration and travel. I remember a time I went to the NASA Glenn Research Center in Cleveland, asked about a ship they were planning -- and were taking the exhibit down for. Unfortunatly, they had scrapped that ship plan -- but the man was impressed by my knowledge of it. n.n Haha, I've noticed lately that I take every single compliment to my head. Star Trek actors at the unveiling of the real Enterprise . Where was I? Oh yes. So Star Trek and NASA have a history of shared interested partners. In fact, the first space shuttle (not everyone knows this) was named Enterprise because of a write-in campaign by Star Trek fans! Little did those Star Trek fans know however, that the first shuttle was merely a test-vehicle and never actually went int