Lookit! A logo!

Everybody stop!  Look up the page.  Just a little bit.  That’s right.  There.  Check it out.  I have a logo!  Okay, so it could totally look sharper and more professional, but I happen to like it.  I might neaten it up sometime, but I might not. 

Now quick!  Look to the left of the screen.  Check out that background.  Isn’t it a pretty background?  Yes?  Alright.  First you see flowers.  Now if you shift your focus just slightly, you see diamonds.  The flowers, by the way, are totally accidental.  How do I know that?  Because I drew that too.  Also, Tiling is really hard to figure out how to do, just so you know.

Art may not be my forte, but I do like it.  I’m willing to bet you all know what a change in background means though!  That’s right! A new season for the blog!  This one called Charger Season, because look at me, moving in today to the Home of the Chargers, University of Alabama in Huntsville!

Who are the Chargers?  That is an excellent question.  I have no clue, however, so it shall have to remain an excellent question.  Maybe I’ll answer next blog.  Probably, I won’t.  I like to ask questions here and never answer them.  Either way, their colors are blue and white, I believe.  I would claim the blue is in their honor, but let’s be honest.  I just really like the color blue.  It happens to be my favorite.

Summer ends today for me, and I’m back in school again.  Classes start next week, of course, but I do have to get settled into the dorm.  It’s been a wonderful summer, and I’m glad to have had it.  I managed to cut down on boxes I’m bringing to the dorms, and put more stuff in a smaller space than ever before.

I think I’m becoming a little too talented at packing for my own tastes.  Let’s see if I can hold still for a few months.

Psh. Nah, who am I kidding?  These feet were made for wandering, and that’s just what I’ll do.  I already know that much!  I can’t wait for school to begin again!  I’m hoping for some challenging courses so I can properly learn what I need to know.  Hopefully, I’ll find a part time job as well, which I’ve been told isn’t that hard, on or off campus.

I’m already going to be looking into joining a co-op for next year.  That’s basically work experience set up by the college.  You do get paid for it, and the college claims it will ‘pay for a substantial part of you college education.’  We shall see UAH.  We shall see.

Regardless, UAH’s co-op programs seem to be set up as a semester of full time class, then a semester of full time work.  They do have a part-time course load/part-time co-op work possibility as well, though you have to discuss that.

Either way, we’ll see how it turns out. 

One of my roommates contacted me as well!  I have been reassured that a lot of people bike in Huntsville, especially on campus, and that a lot of people don’t have cars. Phew!  What a load off my bike.  I like bike-able cities.  Either way, I can’t wait to poke around on my lovely bike (it matches my purse!) and see what Huntsville has to offer.

One Final Byte: When nervous, I cook.  I made many candies.

Nearing Summer's End

Alright! My last burst of traveling for the summer is almost over with everyone.  I arrived in Nashville save and sound, after a harrowing adventure in Orlando.  Getting there was nerve wracking, on the wee little puddle hopper I was in.  It was small enough, though I barely had leg room, and normally I find plane leg room to be quite adequate.  And everyone had to check their carry-ons, because there was just no room under the seats and no overhead compartments at all.  Itty bitty puddle hopper.

Then I got to Orlando.  Orlando is…well, it’s a confusing airport, and you’d best hope you don’t have to change terminals, because if you do you have to exit security, then go through it again, just to get to the other terminal.  Also, because my first flight was with a different airline then my second, I didn’t know my gate number…so had a horrible time getting to the gate.  I did make it though!

Then up to Nashville and to baggage claim, where I was thoroughly surprised by my boyfriend, who snuck up on me.  I had thought I bumped into someone with my back pack.  Nope.  He’s a sneaky man, he is.  Definitely a ninja.  Hm, considering my pirate nature, I worry about this.

I got to spend a half handful of days with him and they were some of my happiest days this summer.  We got to see a movie together, and I got to try on all of his helmets.  He wears a large hat size, so of course they looked ridiculous on me.  The movie was Total Recall which is an absolutely wonderful movie I wouldn’t mind seeing again and highly suggest.  We even went to a history museum, combining my love of museums and his love of history.  It was about Shakers.  Apparently it was both the farthest west and south colony of Shakers that had ever existed.  In the early 1900s though, it ended up closed.

The things you learn.

All around, it was a great visit (that I could say much more on, but I suspect you don’t want to hear, as once started, I don’t shut up about him), and then I was off to my aunt and uncle’s for the rest of the summer.  Boy, this place has changed!

I love their new home.  It’s got an amazing view, and the windows make me happy just to see them.  My stuff was all here, and they’re letting me keep some nonessential stuff with them.  I even got most of my school supplies! I just need some organizing bins now, so keep everything tidy.  Well, that and my textbooks, but I need a class list before I find those out!

I also got a bike for on campus and around town, as cars are expensive things that cost way too much when a bike and a bus pass out to do me.  Amusingly, and quite by accident, the bike matches my purse.  I find I approve!

I’m winding down summer to get everything ready to go for school now.  The year will start soon, and I have a wonderful surprise for the blog when it does.   I can’t wait to unveil it!

One Final Byte:  Shopping for a college dorm? Remember cleaning supplies!

On the road again!

I can say with all certainty that I love visiting my sister’s family.  Even the first day there we had a lot of fun.  I’ve officially seen the new Spiderman movie and I absolutely loved it.  Peter Parker was perfect.  He was a nerd who suddenly had to deal with a mutation…one that thoroughly freaked him out. In his search for answers, he-  Well.  I won’t spoil it, but this movie was more than just good vs bad.  This movie was about both inner and outer conflicts, an in the end, owning up for what you have done and created.

I loved it.  It was deep, and still packed full of terrific moments.  Definitely worth the cash to see it and I wouldn’t mind seeing the movie again.

We ate at Buffalo Wild Wings as well, which is always a treat, as far as I’m concerned.

The next day, we wound up on the beach.  The water was so clear you could see the sand, and where we were you could walk out what felt like forever and still not hit deep water.

Not to say there weren’t some deep points, but not a lot.  And we discovered an island!  Mind you, probably a thousand or so others have also discovered it, but so have we, and it was a lot of fun.  The water was so shallow at that point it came up to our ankles, with a ‘steep’ drop off of about four feet.  Not quite, but it was still entertaining if you got to close to the edge.

Someone might decide, after all, to bump into you, and then, well, splash!  Getting back onto the small island from that side was hard work too.  It was very much a climb to get onto it, it seemed, if only because it was so steep.

Oh.  I also got very sunburned.  A lovely shade of red that matched my pink tank top well, I think.  It was excellent.  And since that was just the first two days, you can imagine how much fun the rest were.

We went to a different beach, the pool, did a little bit of shopping, and I got to go to a robot spa.  Or, well, mechanical one.  It was incredibly weird.  The facial consisted of me washing my face, and then them shining lights on it, while I sat in the massage chair 5000.  This chair was incredibly odd.  It was all hydralics, and I could hear those working, and the air beign pushed in and out of the massage balls in the chair.  Not very comfortable.

Then I got to lay down on a massage bed.  This consisted of laying on a think canvas that covered rubber, that kept jets of water with 45 lb of pressure hitting me.  Instead, they pressed against me, going up and down my body.  It felt odd, and tickled my calves horribly.  I kept giggling.  Then I was in a hydration station, which reminded my of superman's space crib and was, essentially, a individual spa.  The papers on the wall promised you would sweat out fluids, toxins and fats.

I disbelieve.  Still, the entire trip was exciting, and I can now say I've been to a machine masseuse.  I think I prefer a person though! 

I had such an amazing time on my trip.  But now, well...

On the road again!  Bright and early on the road again!  I guess I couldn't wait to be on the road again, this time sometime between 5 and 6 in the morning as I have an 8 am flight.  I get to be on a Beechcraft 1900 turbocraft airplane.  This means I have propellers, not jet engines, on my airplane.  Once again, of course, I get to go south before I go north.

Am I the only one a wee bit confused by the logic of that?

My luggage held up admirably.  The wheel that was fixed still works fine, and I'm very happy.  The big one with the owl served well too, though her side handle sheds like nothing else if you pick it up.  Yuck.

I bet you're wondering where I am going this time.  Up north to Kentucky!  Westernish Kentucky to be exact, though no details of course.  What were you expecting an exact location?  Silly thought that.  I gave you a state and a vague direction.  That's enough, right?

Either way, I'm on my way to spend a few days with another favorite person of mine and his family.   It will be nice getting to know them all, and from there, I'll head over to my uncle's!

Farm living.  For like a week and a half.  It'll be fun, perhaps maybe.  If I squint. Well, I'll be glad to see my family again nonetheless.  I'm really eager to see what's changed since I was last there!  This has been a great week so far, and I'm looking forward to the next week of being with some people who really rock.

One Final Byte:  This is a busy time period, I think.

Traveling!

As you read this blog, there is a high chance that right now, this very moment I am traveling.  Bwahahahahahaha!  I believe evil laughter is surely required, because guess what! I’m on the road again! Everybody break out into that one twangy song no one can remember more than a few words to. 

Good.  Now that that’s out of our system!

Has anyone else noticed how very odd traveling by airplane is?  In order to go south, first you have to go north, inevitable, to get to another plane which will then take you south.  East and West pull the same sort of hijinks.  It’s all very odd, don’t you think?  In Europe, it’s not so bad, but here in the States, I get sent every which way but the right way!

There is no such thing as a straight line in air travel here.  No wonder everyone gets all turned around.

Of course, this usually doesn’t apply to car rides, but despite how sensible car rides can be, they take longer.  Besides, unless you have a family with children attached, they rarely cost less than the airplane ticket does.

Summer in sweet Maryland was wonderful.  I held down a part time job, with decent enough hours for my much needed re-Americanization period, and got a chance to breathe and take a break. It helps when the work doesn’t really feel like work. Much too easy.

Next summer, I hope for something more of a challenge, and to get a job with Space camp.  Working with kids is always a challenge, so it should be fun!  This is, of course, a hope.  But can you imagine Space camp?  Man. Even being a counselor there would be fun.

This being my choice if I don’t somehow get a summer internship of course.  The camp is done at my college, so I am hopeful to get a job there.

Ah, but ya’ll don’t want to hear about something happening next year.  You want to hear about Maryland.

I will tell you now I very purposefully lived an adventure free life while visiting Maryland.  Very purposefully, as I could have had many adventures, if I so chose.    I got a lot done, despite my claims of it being a veritable vacation, but despite all that got done, and all the studying I did manage, it was still nice to be on vacation for a time.

I will miss Maryland.  I made good friends here.  My coworkers were generally amusing, especially the two younger than me, one who admitted to going to college because it seemed the thing to do to improve her lot in life.  She didn’t feel smart enough to go however, which is worrisome.

There are other career advancing options than college out there.  I told her that is college itself didn’t work out, perhaps she could see about a vocational school or something similar. She had never even heard the term.  That worries me.  However, I have promised myself I shall not rant about the state of education and college alternatives this time.

Instead, I shall redirect my attention to the great Sunday school group I met at my grandparents church, who made me feel very welcome, and were all very kind.  I joined the bible study they held as well, and had a great time making friends there.

Overall though, I’m glad I got to spend time with my grandpa and grandma in Maryland, and I’ve enjoyed my vacation from working as hard as I had been.

And now, now I’m on the road again!  This week I head way down south to visit my sister and her family.  I can’t wait to see them, as I admit they happen to be some of my favorite people out there.  (Especially my niece, I am a sucker for my niece.)

I did mention this was a traveling adventure didn’t I?  No?  I should have, because this is the first of four stops, culminating in a stop on campus for the school year.  All this in three weeks!

But don’t worry about missing out on my blog.  I’ve got it set to post automatically, though I don’t guarantee these posts will be up to date in my latest adventures.  You won’t be missing out however, that’s to be sure!  If I can get to it, then I’ll post a blog updated with what’s going on.  If not, there will be a blog waiting here for you every Wednesday 7 am PST.  Why PST?  Because I can’t figure out how to change it, that’s why.

It’s not that I’m technologically challenged.  It’s that I just don’t feel like finding that setting, because, well, it works just fine for me.  Unlike phones.

Phones and I. Well.

I’m generally pretty proud when I figure out how to call people on those things, especially smart phones.  Those I’m lucky to find the keypad to call at all on, or figure out how to call people.

Why are phones not just phones anymore?  I am not Sailor Mercury.  I do not need a mini-computer in my pocket.

Ah, but I know they are now important to have and such.  As such, I shall cease my rumblings, and move on to sad things.  Sad things being what happened in Aurora on Friday.

I have no words for this.

It was wrong, terribly wrong, and yet nothing will change anytime soon.  As for myself, I believe education is the answer, and a deeper sense of community.  I don’t believe a lock down on anything helps.  I think a culture shift promoted by education on gun use is the answer.  Seems to have decreased teen pregnancy, at least.  I don’t see why it can’t decrease gun related violence.

That’s all I can say, other that I’ll pray for the victim’s family and the victim’s that survived.  Whatever caused this man to do this, whether it was a surplus of stress, or a deep depression, I don’t know, but I hope he gets help in jail.  I sincerely do.

One Final Byte:  I’m rather at home when on the road.

Genetically Modified Foods

Okay.  First off, that term makes me snicker a little on the inside, all because of what I know about farming.  We were genetically modifying foods before we knew what genes were.  In fact, these unnatural foods are the only reason anyone is alive on the planet today, as they increased the needed nutrients in our diets.

Don’t believe me?  I have two examples: Strawberries and Corn. 

Have you ever seen a wild strawberry before? No?  Well it’s about the width of a dime, and less than half an inch long.  In other words, it is incredibly tiny, and smaller than a blueberry. I’m not certain about the first person who started growing wild strawberries on purpose.  Looking at them, I can’t imagine how he even tasted them.

Over the years however, strawberries have been cultivated on purpose to be larger, and larger.  In effect, they were selectively mutated.  I’m calling that genetic modification my friends, because these mutations were not necessarily for the best for the strawberry.  Strawberries even look different from wild strawberries entirely because of this selective breeding.  If they were human, we’d like even use that cringe inducing term of eugenics for what was done.

This isn’t that bad.  It isn’t the genetic modifications they are doing today, that are keeping the human population worldwide from starving to death.  It’s not like they’re splicing fruits and vegetable together.  But it is still a genetic modification and it was done, as far as I can discover, before genes were discovered.

Well, you say, that’s not that bad.  Allow me to bring up exhibit two: Corn.

Corn is not a natural plant, at all.

You are looking at Teosite, which looks, as you can see, nothing like modern corn.  In fact, it doesn’t look like anything you see today.  Yet, 7000 years ago, it was modified through selective breeding to become corn.  It is the reason for how vast and huge the nations of the Americas were before they were thoroughly wiped out due to famine.  


Look at that.  It went from six of even widely spaced kernels, to around one hundred closely packed kernels.  The male plant grew closer together and thicker as well.  Both became larger, tighter packed, and instead of one ear per stalk, there are now multiple ears per stalk of corn.

Corn, in other words, is a man-made plant.  I don’t want to hear anything at all about GMO corn.  All corn is GMO.  And you should all thank your lucky stars it is.

If it weren’t there would be a lot less people in this world, a long time ago, and some of those less people who have been colonist and your ancestors.

One Final Byte: Bite your tongue about things keeping you alive.

Freedom

What is freedom?  I’ve come across this a lot this week.  People have used freedom as an excuse for bullying.  “Freedom of speech means I can say what I want!”  I’ve seen them use it as an excuse for so many things.  But the worst I have seen is the game designer who made a flash game in which the goal was to punch the image of a person as much as possible.

He was ‘free’ to do so.  Did this make it right? No.  There was irony though in the game.  The person whos picture was being used was the face of ‘Tropes vs Women,’ Anita Sarkeesian.  Tropes vs Woman launched a kickstarter calls Tropes vs Women in video games.  The whole point of this kickstarter is to examine how the video game represents women in a web series online.

I will not lie.  Sarkeesian is a feminist that I cannot stand to listen to.  But that does not mean I will insult and degrade her for her work which is well-researched and rings true.  There is a preponderous lack of women in video games who are not there for the romantic angle or who are not there to be rescued.  This same lack occurs in many places in literature.  A female heroine is rare. The only two I can think of are Samus Aran and Mulan, both of whom have their own problems.

Freedom is about choices.  But when those choices harm others, should there be a limit? Should it depend on the type of harm done to the others.  It’s hard to say.  Should freedoms be limited at direct harm, or at potential harm.  I have so many questions!  I’m not the only one either.

I believe, however, that when you exercise your freedoms to harm others mentally, emotionally or physically that you are abusing their freedom to live unharmed.  This is an abuse of your freedoms as well.  However, merely because the potential for harm exists does not mean that it will be exercised.  Take gun control.

I own a gun.  It’s a .22 caliber long range rifle.  I like to target shoot with it, and it was a gift.  This gun gives me the ability to potentially harm someone.  Will I?

Only if they threaten me in a significant manner first.  That’s the catch.  The gun is for target shooting.  I’m not very good at it just yet, but enjoy it all the same.  However it produces a show of arms.  Not a great one, but enough to make a person threatening me think twice.

Admittedly, a .22 is a squirrel hunting gun, good for target shooting and very small game.  The sort you make stew out of because there’s just not enough meat for anything else. (None of which matters, because I don’t hunt.)  But does my having the potential to harm someone infringe on their freedom?

No.

No, it does not.

A gun in the hands of a responsible owner is there for protection against those who believe that they are free to help themselves to your possessions, your money, or that they are free to harm you as they will. 

These are just examples though.  Freedom is choice.  But with freedom comes the responsibility to make good choices.  Everywhere I look, the ability to make choices, good or bad, is being eroded.  Whether it is the choice to purchase health insurance or not, or the choice to worship as you please, without being called a terrorist, our choices are being eroded.

I worry.  I worry about our nation, I worry about America, I worry about what we are becoming.  We are a nation that values the individual’s ability to choose historically speaking. Lately, it seems more and more like Huxley’s Brave New World though.  We are overwhelmed with the pressures of a culture that values pleasure above all else, and promises more of those pleasures if only we give in.

America used to be a nation of frontiersmen and women: people willing to go forward and bravely discover more.  Now all America seems to discover is  what’s going on in the life of celebrities and what so and so said and did over fifty years ago.

One Final Byte: Oh sweet America, where did your soul go?

Implementation Issues

This past week they ruled that the healthcare law is constitutional. I have no problem with that. In fact, the vast majority of this healthcare law I like and support. My main issue is in one teeny tiny bit, one small road bump, that I was really hoping the supreme court would toss. I don't want the whole law repealed...just one small portion.

It's that requirement that gets me.

For those of you who know me, you know I hate the idea of any thing forced on me, whatsoever. Force a union on me? Gain a rant. Force me to purchase healthcare that I cannot afford at an ever increasing rate? Get a much longer rant. I've been informed I start soap boxing if it's brought up. Oops.

Well, seeing as how this is my soapbox, and a lovely one with flowers even, I think I shall stand on it and, if you'll forgive me, soapbox a little.

Look. I like universal healthcare. I like inexpensive healthcare. In fact, once the overhead of insurance is removed, I find most costs for healthcare to be reasonable enough, baring you know, big emergencies and the like. Big emergencies are costly pennies, don't you think?

But what I don't like is the current implementation of the healthcare law. Change the implementation, I might be feeling more kindly to it. While I have to pay college bills however? Tell you what. You pay all my college, and I'll purchase health insurance. It'll just work out.

My biggest beef with the healthcare law is the requirement, entirely because of that big gaping hole in income earners where you make too much to be on medicare/medicaid, but still can't afford health insurance for the family. Where you aren't considered poor, but you aren't rich, and you are just barely maybe middle class, clinging tenaciously to that title. Where you are trying to make it work...but can't afford insurance.

Healthcare is a necessity. It's lengthened our life span significantly, and the more it improves, the longer, it seems, we live. While living forever seems an awfully boring thing, I'm in no hurry to die, I admit. I'm grateful for healthcare! It's given me more time with my family than I ever could have imagined before.

But here's the rub. The insurance. Okay, I admit that I have some health issues that some people may or may not consider significant. As for me? I've lived with them this long, and I seem fine. Everything is attached, and I can still live a normal life. So for now, until I can afford it, I'll live with it.

I wouldn't mind paying an insurance company to pay most of my healthcare bills...if I could afford it. I'm lucky the age went from 23 to 26 on healthcare as it is. Otherwise, I'd be one of those penalized (next year) for, you know, being poor, but not poor enough, or too confused by all the paperwork, or denied for no real good reason other than someone had their panties in a twist that day.

I'm not certain I even know how to go about purchasing insurance. I suppose when the time comes I'll spend several days feverishly researching online, and take about a month to decide who I want to bleed my paycheck dry.

If I can afford it.

If not, I guess I'll pay the $95 or 1% total income (whichever, by the way, is greater) in a fine and sigh dramatically. By the way, to pay the $95 dollars, you have to make $9,500 or less a year. If you are making that much, I would like to point you to the lucrative business of unemployment. You can have 2.5 straight years of making just barely enough to afford a home and food on, and still be in a better place! But that's a very different rant for another day, and it's not one that anyone want to hear me go on. I'm no economist, after all, and I will freely admit it.

If I wasn't required to have the insurance, if this was simply an actual tax, than I would have no problem. But this is not the tax that the supreme court has labeled it as. It's forced consumerism. For raised taxes, I won't mind if they tax me to pay for free healthcare, so long as I am paid a wage that I can still live off of. They'd have to raise the minimum wage for people to be able to afford it, but hey, I'm all for raising that anyway, and what a nifty way of confusing people who don't realize that they'd still be making the same amount of money.

Of course, then business would hire less, so aren't we in a conundrum.

I want universal healthcare, but this is not that. It's been labeled that, and called that, and I've been told off my people in Canada and Europe for not supporting universal healthcare because I don't support the entirety of this bill.

In short, we have implementation issues with this law, that seriously need to be fixed before I ever even begin to think about supporting it.

One Final Byte: One tiny road bump makes a big headache.