Volunteer, Advocate, Trekker.

Well, that year had it's ups and downs, but I think was a pretty un-interesting year overall actually. Sure I got a lot done, but I just don't feel that sense of excitement and adventure I always hope for. I student taught (man, that seems like forever ago), finished being Circle K Governor, graduated with much family and friend hoopla, went to New Orleans for Circle K and got my wallet stolen, went to the Clinton Presidential Library and Museum in Little Rock, Arkansas; went to my first Anime convention in Maryland, met the Green Power Ranger; picked up Patsy from Camp, visited the Jersey Shore and D.C.; passed the Foreign Service Officer exam; worked on Senator Brown's re-election campaign down in Chillicothe, got him reelected (woohoo!) paid my credit cards down to zero with the earnings from that, now in the process of getting my student loans taken care of so I have no debt to my name going into early 2013. Got myself a PS3, a new phone, mom got me a digital pictu...

I've been in a political mood lately, and with that, comes predictions for the 2012 Presidential election. First of all, I am hopeful and supportive of President Obama being reelected. Romney has no foreign policy stances, his understanding of the plight of the common man is abysmal, and overall has done nothing to identify with any issues important to voters. He's not "going to beat Obama on the economy" or on "healthcare" or by riling people up over this or that, he wants to beat Obama because he's "the Republican challenger." I am hopeful and optimistic, that Ohio will go for President Obama. (As they say in politics, "So goes Ohio, so goes the Nation.") I have also, after playing with CNN's election map app - given Nevada, the Carolinas and Florida to Romney (and his homestate of New Hampshire, which I think I was being generous about.) But rather than the "sideburn" states that Kerry won , I think there are ...

Oh jeeze, I am radically behind on studying for my Science & Technology in World History final at noon! I meant to wake up at 6am, ended up closer to 9... so I'm gonna hop in the shower, and then study non-stop. But first - I want to say it's about time, US military forces killed Osama bin Laden this weekend. (If you somehow managed to miss that news.) I want to remind people we are not celebrating death or murder - but that death and murder of innocents does not go unpunished. Some quotes from Twitter and elsewhere: "It took killing Osama Bin Laden to get the news to stop playing highlights of the Royal Wedding... Thanks President Obama" - GloZell "I see the world's longest game of hide and seek is finally over." - Amanda Video of the Day: It's just Barack Obama weekend, isn't it! The other day was also the yearly-Correspondents Dinner, where Obama does a stand up routine making fun of himself and other political people. This ye...

I am sooooo tired, I got sporadic sleep last night and at one point woke up at 5:49 for some reason x_x I also utilized the snooze a couple too many times, busy day today! Need to be awake! Must go buy some redbull... But this last snooze I also had a really strange dream. Sarah was driving me, Brit, (maybe some other people in the backseat) to Tri-C for some event. Then, while caught in the traffic, I heard the President speaking like it was being put on loudspeaker. And I'm like "OH! GUys, ya know why it's so crowded, the President is visiting today." And they're all like "Oooooh Yeaaaah!" And we get to some building, and there's like no one there, and poor President Obama is like at a podium awkwardly in the corner without much glam or pomp - speaking kinda like this is a practice engagement. Then I want to go run to my car to get my camera, cause I figure if he's giving a speech to that few people, he'll have time to take an individual ...

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...

Snippit of a blog. Movie of the Day: Aw, while perusing Youtube I found this short video by Lady Gaga. It doesn't have her singing, just a brief message to the incoming President, posted January 22, 2009 - a day or two after President Obama was Inaugurated. Song of the Day: AHAHahahahhahahahhaaAaA! "One Time" by Justin Bieber. So the day Telephone came out, all the videos on youtube had a Telephone banner around it advertising go watch that song. Okay. Well then Ludacris or someone did that this morning to. Yeah, no thanks. Then I saw one of Justin Bieber -- and laughed for a minute about how much he looks like Dani, the girl that ALMOST won A Shot at Love with Tila Tequila - haha, one of my favorite shows Freshman year. Oh 2007, I miss ya! Anyway, thought I'd best hear this kid (KID, born 1994. I remember 1994, that was when my active memory kinda first started.) Btw: He's Canadian, I didn't know that. Anyway, the music video for this song has him playing ...

Morning boys and girls, Christmas in my house was not as bad as I'd worried! Mom got the presents right for Sure this year! (By actually shopping for the stuff on our list, surprising but its a method that works...) I made off with the list that follows! 1. "Team of Rivals" by Doris Kearns Goodwin . Book about Lincoln's cabinet that inspired Obama to select his cabinet. Number 1 New York Times best-seller! 2. "Rated R" CD by Rihanna . Woohoo! I've been hoping to buy a Rihanna CD, I don't have any yet. Listening to it now, looking for a song of the day. 3. "Star Trek" (new Movie) 2 disc special edition DVD . WOOHOO! Watched the special features already! Glad no one tried to get me the Star Trek movie without the special features, cause that puts me in an awkward position of "well, I want the special features, but I don't want to buy a second copy..." which is why if you're going to get me a DVD, try to be careful about Spec...

So, the other day I was in the mood to change the direction of my life in a few little ways. Most people took my facebook status "like Barack Obama said, it's time for a change!" to be a political reference to one thing or another, either Pres. Obama himself, or the mayoral race in Garfield Heights (Longo, mayor for 27+ years not running for reelection, his long time rival Wagner vs. Vic Colova. I personally voted for Colova after a ridiculous incident I'll talk about another time.) Anyway, it was actually a reference to how stressed I was last week and just wanted to change things up enough that life got more exciting. The hair is helping. Also, after a fun weekend at MAC -- I've stepped down from the Circle K district board. Ugh, I am not too pleased that I was one of the spearheads opposing step-downs at Board Trainer -- but after half a year, it seems like my position is just another layer of unnecessary bureaucracy. I talked to people, and reassured them it ...

So today went interestingly. Got like 4 hours of sleep, had to be up crazy early for our numerous service projects - but cleaning up at Salvation Army went well, and was kinda interesting. After that went out to Cedar Point with Sarah, Amanda and Van der Kamp and Kyuhun (who it turns out brought two Japanese lady friends!) Which meant I got to practice the tiny Japanese I know, lol. But even though it was Hallo-weekends, I would say we had pretty good time rode alot of rides considering. BLAH, but had to work at 4am and we stayed till like 10:30, so I was deeeeead tired driving back while the girls were asleep. Though I avoided falling asleep at the wheel, I got pulled over and got a speeding ticket for 79 mph - ARrr. Considering how often I average 80mph, Karma was bound to catch up with me but still - my opinion of today despite how much fun it was was blaahed. After some googling into fighting tickets (some) I'll have to read the thing closer to figure out what I want to do. No...

Hello internet. Not much happening today, had a light day as most Mondays - after classes went back to Garf to pick up a few things (like my Presidential Seal M&Ms, West Wing DVDs, The Great Gatsby , a Seal of the State of Ohio, and an ironing board among other things. David bought an iPod touch with his own earned money from work! >/ I am not happy. This whole "getting an education" thing is suddenly seeming annoying. But before my day went a tad bit sourer, this morning I woke up and while wandering the internet found THIS awesome website that produced the following pictures: Omg, that's so awesome! Lol, its Barack Obama's inauguration - in LEGO's! Also among pictures I found while wandering today, behind the scenes images from Heroes : Elle, from the episode she's killed in. The funny caption for this image is "Dear Diary, its been one of Those days..." OH! And can I just disclaim my disagreement with the decision to move Heroes , who...

So as I have mentioned, I occasionally follow several blogs devoted to following the career of Hillary Clinton (such as All Things Hillary , Secretary Clinton , etc.) And occasionally they post a "pic-spam" which is just bunches and bunches of pics from an event or dinner or something, often with a bunch of pics of Hillary. Well, I like to occasionally post pic spams of random things I find lying around my computer when I'm trying to clean it (metaphorically speaking of course.) ROFL! Points to Patsy for sending this to me, but I get a kick out of the fact that the first thing Mike thought of when he saw this was me too. Here we have someone's Post Secret card from the popular book series and website , that's updated daily ala` FML: ----------------------------------- ^Bonus features of my TV show: another look at the Birmingham trip, 2009. See what didn't make Facebook. Here's the Africa room of the Birmingham Art Museum. ^Here's an interesting wee bi...

Woo, so for some reason I was up till like 6:30 -- but my insomnia finally got me to clean my room significantly. So the other day I did some preliminary explorations around various places - abandoned paint store in Garfield, abandoned school and house in Garfield, etc. So I haven't actually gone in any of these, but am considering in the future. Here we have the abandoned school by Dan's house on the outskirts of Garfield Heights, in the ghetto-est part of the city. Lol, I actually didn't compute that this school existed where it did. My mom actually worked here very briefly in the 1990's as an office clerk. All I really remember is that she taught a bunch of hoodlums to make paper airplanes and she felt accomplished. Another thing that never computed: a former school in Garfield was named after one of my two favorite Presidents! OMG! *u* Likely Franklin D., as it was built in 1960. Still, reminds me of a scene from Star Trek where they time travel back in time and fi...

Woo/bleh, Tuesdays are busy days. Got my W2's finally and gonna use the UA-ASG free taxprep service, went to Polski's Dep of Foreign Programs and found out my application will go through next week and I'll be contact woowoo, Grandpa got my new cell phone battery, speaker at College Dems, and of course the Circle K meeting. Then work and a paper due tomorrow :( (Watching CSPAN) lol, the Prime Minister of Britain (Gordon Brown) just joked with Obama about how they have to work out together sometime, that he's not good at basketball but maybe tennis. Quote of the Day: "Are you on the list of people I send things to?" "You *send* things to people!?" (Me and girl from my U.S. History sine 1877 class, lol - the way she said it seemed really funny to me at the time.) Song of the Day: "Good Morning, Baltimore" - Hairspray (2007). I woke up this morning, looked at my wall and the sunlight looked weird and this song just started playing in my head ...

Yo readers. So today was a bit'a fun - bought me a PS2! Yes, you're thinking "so what?" But not having a major system in so long has been draining my youthful vigor, and what is a college student without one? Also, I now have a DVD player so *Yes!* Cause that TV deserves a good movie night or two. Can I just say that -- the phrase "Google Gadget" bring a grin to my face. It has something to do with things Google can do I guess, but it makes me think of inspector gadget immediately. Now as ya'll will know, my birthday is coming up this February. So I compiled a list of some things I want. Not particularly what I expect my friends to get me, just a thought exercise of some items I feel like getting/buying in the months ahead. Birthday Wish List! Any Spryo game that isn't "Enter the Dragonfly"!!! (Which is one of the only games I have left at home.) The Spyro's are really pretty much some of the best games ever! And this way, next winter...

Those words, spoken so eloquently by President Gerald Ford upon taking the oath following the resignation of President Nixon in 1974, relate quite perfectly in the modern age as well. The Bush Administration, pockmarked with conspiracy and controversy, checkered with unconstitutional practices including but not limited to torture and domestic wire-tapping, and forever tarnishing our national image abroad by mishandled wars in the middle east - is at long last over. At noon, January 20th, 2009 - Barack Hussein Obama became the 44th President of the United States of America. Let me just say, WOOHOO! Standing in the crowd of 1.8 million people on the national mall in Washington D.C., elation does not begin to define the mood. Finally the Bush saga is over. We don't have to hear about Rumfelds secrets, Cheney's darth vader-like wackjob-ness, Gonzallez's attorneys, Condi Rice's attempts to fix something, Scooter Libby, or Bushisms ever again. And in Obama's first secon...

Woo! Break is almost here, with the exception of a Microeconomics final I'm severely dreading. So I thought I'd post the plans I'm considering for over break : 1.) Saturday, celebrate Chinese New Years with Grandpa and his Tai chi class. I try to go to this every year, grandpa's allowed to bring a guest and they all remember me from when I went and visited their class back when I was like 7! Though this time its during the day, and at a Thai restaurant, hrmm . 2.) Read Barack Obama's The Audacity of Hope which mom bought me for 2005 Christmas. It looks nice on my book shelf, but like many of those books, I really do mean to get around to reading them. 3.) Party with the gang, which seems to include returning to Akron a sure-heck-of-a-lot. 4.) This weekend, Christmas-up the house! After the Saturday night uber -cleaning (u.u; why can't my family clean on their own...) I'll put up all the Christmas decorations, and maybe even get the tree - or maybe go Sund...

In politics today, President-elect Barack Obama has announced a whole bunch of positions (officially) at once today - his special hoosy-whatsit team. Top of this team? Hillary Clinton as Secretary of State! n.n This means she'll be in charge of representing America abroad - ala current Condoleezza Rice, and former Colin Powell. This also means on the Presidential order of succession, she's fifth to be president in a horrible crisis. (President, VP, Speaker of the House, President of the Senate, and Secretary of State.) Other nominations today, names you probably won't know: Eric Holder as Attorney General, Janet Napolitano as Sec. of Homeland Security, Susan Rice (no relation to Condoleeza) as U.S. ambassador to the United Nations, and two Republicans. Yes, Barack Obama is having Republicans on his cabinet, mr. uniter himself. Gates (Bush's current Sec of Defense) will stay on, and Jim Johns or Jones (haha, no relation here either) another republican will be National Se...