I need to go back to school.

So there's this woman, last name of Palin. She wants to be vice president under a Mr. McCain. This woman has stated that she favors abstinence only sex education. I may have mentioned before now that I think abstinence only sex education is not only ineffective, it's wasteful and harmful. In any case, Palin's daughter is gonna have a baby. I say "gonna have a baby" and not "pregnant" because she fully intends to keep the child. I suppose that having a mother who is the governor of Alaska is as good a support structure as you can hope for, as far as teen pregnancies go.

Oh well, fingers crossed for 2010.

Entirely unrelated to that, Amy (my roommate) got a new dog. She's about the same age as Sebastian but larger. She was rescued from a pound where she was soon to be euthanized, but the guy who saved her could not keep her. Amy, now down to one animal in the apartment (both cats have moved in with her mom) decided that it would be a good idea to adopt her. She needs some work, but she seems to be obedient at least, and is certainly intelligent. Based on the (short) time I've spent with her I'd say she is dominant and insecure, which is leading to some issues with territoriality around her cage and possessiveness of toys. It doesn't help matters that she is currently in heat, but she will be spayed within a couple of weeks. That issue was probably not particularly important to the pound that was going to euthanize her or the rescuer that couldn't keep her.

I'll post pictures once I take some.

I acquired an ipod over break, and have subsequently become addicted to podcasts. They're nice for passing the massive gaps in my schedule. I have replaced those awful white earbuds though. They don't stay in, I don't particularly like the look of them, and I don't feel like looking like an ad for Apple. I have replaced them with a pair that stays in, have a black cord so as not to look like a silhouette advertisement, but are still reasonably ugly. Two out of three ain't bad.

I'm moving to a different host. They offer a better product for the same price. I'm hoping the transition will be pretty seamless, but we will see. In any case, that's why I've been reluctant to post new content.

On a related note, I think our wireless router is dying. For the past couple days I've had to leech off some unsuspecting neighbor with an unsecured network. One of these days I should really replace it, though.

I also took a picture of a spider web with the morning dew still on it. That's the only way I can ever capture them, my hand isn't steady enough and I don't have a big enough tripod to capture them when they're dry. Any pointers?

Unfortunately, the building where I have lab is down the hill from my class. Ok, I was like two minutes late to class, that's not too bad. I don't take that class particularly seriously.

All the BT busses have bike racks on the front, so you can theoretically ride your bike down the hill and take the bus back (or vice versa if you live downhill from campus). I was in no rush to be anywhere though, so I figured I'd just ride home. Bad Idea™. In low gear up the hill, I took nearly half an hour to get home. I thought I was going to die. I am so out of shape.

I woke up this morning and my chest and legs are still sore. I'm still trying to figure out why my chest is sore.

I spent June and July in Bloomington, IN with my Steven, volunteering at a vet clinic and a wildlife rehabilitation shelter. I have a number of experiences to relate regarding my time there.

I am currently in Blacksburg, VA, attending Virginia Tech. I'll be here for at least two years.

I really need to update this website.

goodnight.

The trip here was supposed to take 10 hours if you believe MapQuest, but I figured if we made a decent pace we could cover it in nine. Aparently ever road crew between the Pennsylvania border and Indianapolis heard about our plan and decided to mess it up. Driving through Ohio was mostly spend in construction zones. There would be 10 miles of reduced speed with one lane, and about fifty feet of work going on. It was just like home.

Somewhere in the middle of Ohio we encountered what is probably the classiest McDonald's in the world. They were playing classical music. There were little vases with fake flowers on every table. There was even a faux fireplace! I was reminded of the movie Demolition Man where every restaurant is Taco Bell. I'm just glad they're not like that back home. I'm not sure if people would know what to do with themselves.

I started this post on the 7th of June. It is now the 6th of July. Read up. I'll update again eventually, I promise.

When I say cult, I mean it with the admiration normally reserved for RHPS, not the morbid fascination that goes with Kool-Aid cults. There is a huge internet following. To be perfectly honest, I never understood it until I held one in my hands. That fateful day in Barnes & Noble, I picked up my very first (and certainly not last) Small Ruled Moleskine. I haven't been able to bring myself to write in it yet. I'm still waiting for the shinyness to wear off. I did come up with an interesting solution to a problem that enthusiasts seem to be having trouble with: labelling. By attaching different colored ribbons, I've created an attractive coding system. I think it's attractive, anyhow.

To accomplish this mod (hack is such an ugly word), I used 7/8" satin ribbon, a glue stick, and some thread from my emergency sewing kit. I started by wrapping the wribbon around the cover, overlapping the end by about 2". I glued the facing sides of the overlap together and slid it off the notebook, and sewed all the way around the outside of the overlap, and slid the loop back over the cover. Presto! If you want it to last, make sure you use acid-free glue, or just forgo the glue step if you are good at eyeballing measurements.

UPDATE (15.May.2006):

If I really knew how to sew, I'd use pins to hold the ribbon in place until I sew them, instead of a glustick. Thanks K.

I am also sad because I took a picture of my shoe-holes, and now I can't find my card reader for my camera. Pictures will have to wait.

UPDATE: I found my camera cable, so here is a picture of the offending hole.

I didn't weep for long, because I have a short attention span. Later I wanted to use a program I had stored on the flash drive. I plugged it in, and to my surprise, it worked! All my files and whatnot are still there. It also smells April Fresh™, which may be even better.