So I voted last Tuesday. I could have sent in an advance ballot, but I wanted to do it the “real way” the first time. The Kansas State University Democrats had shuttles going back and forth from the student union to the polls all day so that was nice. I had to go to a nursing home to vote, so that was kinda weird, but it was okay. It was strange because nobody even asked me for my ID or proof of address. I just had to tell the election attendant (is that what they’re called?) my name, she asked me what my address was, I told her, she checked to make sure it matched and I was on my way. They had electronic voting machines with touchscreens. I was quite amazed that they had such technology after all I’ve heard about the crappy voting machines in, say, Florida. It only took me five minutes, if that, to cast my ballot and get my “I voted!” sticker. Watching the poll results roll in was quite fun, too. It was exhilarating and exciting and all kinds of awesome. I did not enjoy the obnoxious girls in my dorm’s hallway spouting about Obama being the anti-Christ and how the apocalypse was nigh but I didn’t really expect anything else out of them. I’m surprised they know how to read. Anyway, I digress. It was just really cool, if that’s the right word, to have voted and been a part of an election. I’m super glad that Palin went back to Alaska where she can do minimal damage to the US, too. Hooray for that.

Thanksgiving break starts on November 26th and I’m really pumped. Not to mention… I don’t think I’ve talked about this here and I can’t believe it now that I think about it… I bought Smashing Pumpkins tickets awhile back since they’re going to be in Kansas City on November 25th. Myself and some friends are going and we’ve got 14th row tickets which isn’t too bad. I’m still in shock about getting to see my favorite band play and I’m really excited. I’m trying not to get my hopes up too high because I don’t want to go and be disappointed, but it’s very hard. So if anyone else happens to be going to the same show in Kansas City on the 25th, I’ll be there and you should say “hi” as long as you’re not a creepy stalkerish person.

As usual, I’ve got quite a bit of work to do before I’m allowed on “break”. I put this in quotes because I’ve got a rather interesting project for my logic class that I’m doing with a friend of mine that we’ll probably have to work on over this “break”. I just really want this semester to be over with. I’m only taking 13 hours next semester just because 16 was entirely too much this semester since I’m working so much. I don’t even remember what I enrolled in, but I do know that I have a 7:30 a.m. class next semester which is going to suck big time. I hate walking to class in the dark.

I align much more with Obama than McCain based purely on the issues. I highly value civil and human rights because without them I believe we aren’t hardly anything that America is supposed to stand for. I value people being able to be with whoever they want to be and call that union whatever they want to call it because I don’t think it’s any of my business to tell them what they can and cannot do (as long as it’s consensual) based on my beliefs. I think that Bush f*cked the big one with his backwards politics and the Patriot Act was the one of the biggest masquerades taking away rights in the name of “safety”. While I realize that McCain is not the same as Bush, even with the jokes of “McSame”, he voted “yes” on reissuing the Patriot Act as recently as March 2006 (*1). McCain obviously has a disregard for what the core values this country used to have even if, as he constantly reminds us, he was once a POW. Giving up freedoms in the name of safety is never accomplishing anything in my opinion. He also supports allowing school districts to allow the teaching of creationism in their schools if they so choose - flying directly in the face of “freedom of religion”.

Oddly enough I think I dislike Palin more than McCain. She infuriated me when she could not even name a single Supreme Court decision she thought was wrongly decided besides Roe v. Wade. Seriously? You’re wanting to become Vice President of the United States of America and you cannot name a single Supreme Court decision besides Roe v. Wade? That’s ridiculous and a blight on the face of American politics that such an ignorant idiot could make it so far. Every time I hear her speak she just infuriates me with her constant unfamiliarity with basic concepts. The very idea that she, as a vice president, would be next in line if McCain kicked the bucket is completely scary to me. A quick Google search for “palin daughters travel expenses” reveals quite a laundry list of interesting items. She’s tried to cover it up saying that her daughters were invited to these conferences even though with some of the interviews I’ve read the conference organizers feel otherwise. It all just seems too fishy to me not to mention the controversy over the firings in Alaska she was involved with.

So I’m voting for Obama. I’ve said all along that I don’t think either one of the tickets are really suited for the job and that it’s really sad that I have to choose who I’m not voting for in order to figure out who I am voting for. Even if Obama fumbles around about “change” and “hope” without much substantial backup, at least he doesn’t have an ignorant running mate. A very small step forward is better than a huge step backwards to the land of Mavericks and “my friends”.

(*1) While Obama also voted on reauthorizing the Patriot Act, he did vote to rid the Patriot Act of its wiretapping provision which is a very small step forward.

Note: This is not a comprehensive list of my reasons for voting… there are a lot of things I did not discuss, but alas I have to work tomorrow and can’t spend all night typing up a blog. I hope everyone gets out tomorrow and makes their voice heard.

My class load isn’t too bad - I’m taking 16 hours, but if you count the C/C++ lab that only counts for one credit hour but really lasts for two - then it’s really around 17. So 17 hours of class a week on top of 10+ for the yearbook makes me pretty busy most of the time. Monday-Wednesday-Friday’s are horrible because I’m completely busy from 8 a.m. to 5 p.m. I have to rush across campus and that also really sucks. If one of my professors decides to babble on a bit more than he should then I’m late to my next class and that kinda thing really irritates me. I hate being late.

Here’s the classes I’m taking if you’re interested:

1. Expository Writing II
2. Foundations of Programming Logic
3. Finite Applications of Math
4. History of Europe in the Modern Era
5. Moral Philosophy
6. C/C++ Language Lab

I’ve had quite a bit of homework for so early in the semester and I’m hoping it’s only because my professors are trying to weed out the kids who aren’t willing to give a little bit of effort in the class. I may be getting my hopes up but there you go.

I’m still contemplating getting a second job to cope with my current lack of monetary funds but I don’t want to get myself in too deep and not have enough time to get things done for my classes. 17 + 10 is already 27 hours I know I’m busy, and I need to spend at least one or two hours a day studying so 27 + ~10 = ~37 hours of stuff to do. Once my programming classes really start kicking up I’ll be spending a lot more time working on those projects - depending on what exactly they want and whether or not my brain goes in the correct directions, projects can take 8 hours of mapping, scribbling, scratching, erasing, screaming, typing and rattling my monitor. Sometimes they take more, but who knows.

I’m probably going to be getting an apartment next year and I’m really excited for it. It’ll save me about $1500 a semester being out of the dorms. It won’t be as convenient and David will likely still be in the dorms, but I’ll survive. Come to think of it, Ethan (a friend of mine) will probably still be in the dorms, too. Brandon and a lot of next-year-incoming freshman as well. I’ll just be missing out on all the good fun All in the name of money I guess…

Time to go and hit the sack - 9:30 a.m. C/C++ language lab tomorrow morning across campus in the Nichols lab. Hoorah.

Before you read this, keep in mind that I’m not exactly a film/movie nut. I just like to watch them for fun. I don’t claim to be a top notch reviewer who notices all the nuances of a film. So, in other words, I’m a n00b and don’t expect a whole lot from me in this department

After the movie I just could not believe how good Heath Ledger was. (Please note that I’m not a celeb-fanatic and really knew/know nothing about Heath other than the fact that he died some time ago and he was also in The Brothers Grimm.) It was amazing how he transformed himself into the Joker… it was as if he was no longer himself, he was just the Joker. For some actors/actresses it’s almost like they are famous so it’s just them in the film and they are no longer acting. I was completely convinced Heath was the Joker, I didn’t have to try to see past Heath to find the character he was playing.

The rest of the movie was very good and kept my interest the entire time. One of my peeves with the film was how Batman made his voice all deep and gravely just when he played Batman. It just sounded cheap, dumb, over-the-top, “I’m going to try to disguise my voice with this guttural noise”. I also did not like Batman’s costume - they always end up trying so hard to be “high tech” that it ends up looking fake. It looked more like a Halloween costume you’d pick up at K-Mart than anything else.

Anyway, it was just a really good movie and it must be otherwise it wouldn’t still be doing so incredibly well in the box office after being out for so long. I certainly recommend it

The following comes a bit late as I’ve not had time to even think about it:

I’m a bit used to people publicly “talking shit”/”outing me”/bitching about me or my site/”calling me out”/what have you. I was honestly surprised to see that I’d made it onto the “Your Site Is Not Valid” list. Thank you, nameless person of the internet, for pointing out that my site suffers from not being completely valid thanks to the defective Lightbox 2 plugin and a nasty “target=”_blank” attribute on a pagerank button that I’d slapped on my sidebar. I’d like to point out that unlike yourself I have gotten off my ass and made my own layout and it is completely validated except for a plugin (I got rid of the pagerank button). Until I can decipher what is going wrong with the Lightbox 2 plugin, it’s going to stay unvalidated. I might have time this week to figure out what the issue is there but… in the mean time I’ll be proud of what I’ve done even if someone else’s code is messing it up. I’ve done better than a lot more people on the internet. Gracias

It’s late, I’m tired, so I’ll head off now. I want to try to work on this new layout for my Quilting Bee quilt…

I don’t usually read the celebrity gossip section of MSNBC.com, but I was appalled at what you said in an interview with Access Hollywood in regards to Hillary Clinton’s bid for president. In case you were too busy thinking about how best to pose your “ladies” for your possible upcoming shoot with Playboy to remember what I‘m referring to, here is what you were quoted as saying:

“You know what? I am actually not that much into voting. I think it’s kind of crazy that a woman is running because I think that women deal with a lot of emotions and menopause and PMS and stuff,” Brooke said. “Like, I’m so moody all the time, I know I couldn’t be able to run a country, because I would be crying one day and yelling at people the next day, you know?”

I find it incredibly offensive that you would categorize all women as being “moody all the time” and “crying one day and yelling at people the next”. Seriously? You’re crying all the time? That’s probably more of a symptom of depression or maybe an anxiety disorder.

Although I decided fairly early on that I would not be voting for Hillary Clinton that decision was based solely on her stances on policies and certainly had nothing to do with gender. If you judge a candidate’s worthiness and presidential aptitude based on whether or not they have a vagina then I’m going to have to say that I’m incredibly happy that you’re “not that into voting”.

A presidential hopeful should be judged on how well they can cope with the many trials and tribulations involved with simply being president as well as how they stand on various political and social issues. I also tend to judge fairly heavily on how well presidential candidates use the Constitution as a definitive guideline for the United States in general. But, of course, I’m sure you don’t give a rat’s ass about what’s happening in this country as long as you manage to coerce thousands of tweens to buy your shitty music.

In closing (because I’m sure reading all of the above will have strained your dyed blonde head): it’s people like you that make it seem a faux pas for girls to try to be anything but stereotypical, brainless bimbos. Maybe you should include that tidbit on your next album, although if I was in charge of your record label I wouldn’t be renewing your contract anyway.

Sincerely,
Heather Onnen

PS: Your music sucks. It sounds like just about every other female (and male, actually) solo artist. Not that you actually write your own music or anything - and if you do, you should really be ashamed.

[Edit 5:13 PM] Yes, I did also send this same message in an email to the contact address listed on Brooke Hogan’s Web site. Who knows if I’ll receive a reply — and what I do receive will probably be akin to “like, OMG, whatever, like, I have money and I have a wrestler for a daddy. kthxbai”. Or one of her hired lackeys will reply which will probably be the actual result.

I’m now a level 56 Elf Priest in the Euphoria guild (well, long story short, we’re now “ephoria”).

I also have this cute dress that I like to wear on occasion, although it seems to attract more PKers (player kill). So that’s rather unfortunate but I live with it. I also bought some pretty badass wings that allow me to fly faster which is a great asset on the large Perfect World map.

If you also play Perfect World, let me know and maybe we can meet up sometime in-game. I’m always in need of people to do boss quests with

I’m currently reading Angels & Demons by Dan Brown. So far it seems a carbon copy of The Da Vinci Code but it’s good nonetheless. I just hope that Brown deviates from the plot of Code enough to keep me guessing - I hate being able to tell the plot so far in advance.

The main reason that I’ve been working so many hours this summer is because I knew there would be a fairly larger than normal discrepancy between what my financial aid covered and how big of a bill I’d get from my college (KSU gave me a scholarship that was for freshman only, and since I’m not a freshman anymore…) At any rate, I was left balking because there was a $1400 gap between what my financial aid and loans added up to and how much my bill was. I need to come up with this $1400 before August 15. I have managed to save most of that over the summer but it’s going to completely wipe out my savings account and I’ll still probably have to put some of the amount on my credit card. I just hate not having it all sorted out ahead of time - as bad as it is, I’d feel better if that amount was just on a loan and not that I’d have to worry about coming up with the cold cash. With gas as much as it is nowadays, I’m just working and coming home because it’s hardly cheap to drive anywhere to go do anything.

The incredibly sad thing is that I got this bill the very day after I bought a Nintendo DS Lite because I felt like I’d been working so much that I deserved to get something that I’d been wanting for quite some time. I bought Harvest Moon along with it and so far I’ve been loving it. I had thought about taking it back, but the $150 all of it cost will hardly make a difference in the big picture and I’m so tired of my entire life revolving around working what seems like every waking hour.

Bleh. At this point, college is just one of those things I just want to get over with so that I can get the debt paid off and get a nice job doing something I enjoy. I’ll just have to ask for money for college for Christmas instead of a new Wii remote…

I had to work downtown this morning from 8 a.m. to 3 p.m., and then I went to my second job at concessions/admissions at a local pool. The clouds were already looking ominous - very dark and obviously laden with rain. Rain started pouring in waves on the pool patrons but despite that most of them stayed in the pool (I guess it doesn’t matter since they were already wet anyway).

In any case, everything started happening at once. People who had been listening to the radio or receiving calls from friends quickly found out the merits of the storm that was heading towards us: extremely heavy rains and flooding, hail, and strong rotations found in the storm. The patrons had to get out of the pool because the rain was too dense to be seen through in the case of an emergency situation, and shortly after the pool was closed completely after it was found that we would definitely get hit by at least part of the storm.

The manager told us just to get whatever we could done in 15/20 minutes and go home. As I was clocking out, the tornado sirens went off. Kids started screaming and crying, and a number of adults that were left herded them towards the storm shelter. The rest of the employees were told to head home and/or seek shelter. The clouds were looking very bad on the way back to my house, so I made the decision to take shelter at David’s house instead since it was closer.

There were several reports of tornadoes touching down, but no severe damage was done. Southern areas of the city that received more rainfall are still currently experiencing the after effects: streams and creeks are entirely over their banks and certain roads are dangerous to be driven on due to water. All in all, we got lucky today. The storm went straight over us - though the heart of the city - and no tornadoes swept though.

Yesterday, though, Manhattan, Kansas (where my university, Kansas State University, is) sustained damage from an F2 tornado. Damage was done to several buildings on campus, including the engineering complex where I have some classes. Photos of the damage to KSU can be found on the KSU Web site. Damages were reported to have been around $20 million.

I hope that those who were unfortunately hit by any tornadoes or severe weather find solace somewhere.

In other, more happy news, I’m still working on that layout that I mentioned in my last post. I’m really working on details so that maybe it will be good enough to be in a few CSS design galleries… hehe

Anyway, I’m working on something extra special for the 4 year anniversary of At0mica.net I was hoping to have it done by tomorrow, which is the actual anniversary date, but I’m not sure I’ll have it finished since I have to work all tomorrow and it’s already 10PM here after I got back from getting my car. I will say that I am extremely proud of it and I hope everyone likes it as much as I do. (Yes, it’s a layout - I haven’t had time to pump out any content lately… working around 40+ hours a week makes it hard to find the time.)

I hope everyone is doing well and I hope those that weren’t as fortunate as us here in northeast Kansas keep safe.