The only people who comment on my blog are people writing in symbols that I cannot understand. 1) That is one of the main reasons I stopped posting and 2) I think I will start a brand new blog with a purpose-I will post in it everyday something that I have done worth sharing! An experience I've had, something I learned, etc. BUT...I won't start that today, this summer has been quite uneventful except for:

A few side trips to College Station.
A birthday party.
A trip to Florida.
A long weekend in the Texas hill country.
Planning for a trip to Italy (coming up quite soon).
And altogether enjoying my leisure before I start work.

So, if you would like the address to my new blog, when I do start it, let me know. Or else-sionara all the crazies/bots who post haphazardly all over this thing!

Perhaps soon I will post a snippit of how I'm preparing for my trip.

I am THOR hear me roar!

Today, I decided to delve a bit deeper into my family ancestry. I traced the usual path that I know, and then decided to branch off into England. Little did I know what I would discover!

In 1635, Christopher Lynn Foster came to America on the "Abigail" with 3 children and a young wife. One of his daughters is my great (11 x) grandmother. (Not to mention her grandson fought in the French and Indian war, and great-grandson and great-great grandson in the Revolution). Going back to Christopher Lynn---He was the son of a knight (John Foster) who's family for generations ruled over this castle. (Which coincidentally is featured in the new Robin Hood Movie).

Well, once you get to some sort of nobility, it's all intermarriage from there (as well as very accurate records). From this line I am descended from Lords of Croy, Sussex, and Etherstone, Dukes of Normandy, Count and Countesses of Barcelona, as well as King's and Queens! Kings of Scotland, England, and even viking Lord's. It is reported that I am even descended from William I *The Conqueror* himself. Just think...it only takes 32 generations for William I's descendant to be sitting in a house in Texas leading a relatively (in comparison) trivial life.

And let's go farther back (really, nobility records are crazy...they all have to prove they're someone...so they go WAY back). In 800 AD Jarl of Uplanders Glumra *The Noisy* Eystein, my...a lot of times removed grandfather on my fathers side, descended from none other than the Germanic God THOR himself (or so he says)! Now you see where I get my fight. ;)

I am surprised I've never found this before, but it really puts a sort of perspective on my life that I didn't have before...I am sitting here looking at several papers where I traced royal lineage, not only am I realizing that probably everyone has some sort of nobility in them...I am also seeing that if I don't do something amazing with my life, I definitely cannot blame it on the genes.

"If Google told you to jump off a cliff, would you?"

It never ceases to amaze me how ridiculous lawsuits sometimes are.

Music

For some reason I thought everyone knew of Playlist.com, but evidently people don't. Basically, you just create a log-in (you can listen to music without it, but you can't save playlists without it) and you can create as many playlists as you want. You can also view friends playlists and listen to their stuff, too. No ads! Just type in what you wanna listen to, and chances are it'll be there!

Just type in a song and start listening!
Playlist.com

I am buying a ticket to Freepress Summerfest coming up in June in Houston, TX. Free press summer fest

ACL also has a SWEET line-up! I'll probably toy with the idea of going all summer. But I don't know what my schedule will look like come October... :/
ACL

Gingham vs. Plaid

Is Gingham plaid?

I could not find a definite answer to this anywhere online, so I had to infer from the wonderful wikipedia. Which states "plaid...in the USA, [refers to] any checkered cloth". Thus, gingham is plaid, although plaid is not necessarily gingham.

I just figured other people may have the same question, so I wanted to post an answer for others to learn from! Thus, a checked gingham shirt can be considered plaid.

Gingham
Tartan aka Plaid
Thanks Wikipedia!

Modern Marvel

Non Man Made Modern Marvel

A beaver dam that was started in 1970 is now visible from space in Northern Canada. I thought it was interesting, because people tend to take animals and the marvels they can create for granted. This beaver dam is 2,788 feet long (more than twice the length of the Hoover dam)! Well over the 300ish average length.



Yahoo news-World's biggest Beaver Dam
Weekly World News-World's largest beaver dam

Man made Modern Marvel

There is this new building that is nearly completed in Singapore that will be a resort/casino/hotel/mall that I found to be very interesting architecture. Mainly of note is the sky park on the very top of the skyscraper which is very apparent in all pictures.




Singapore Sands

China-US Relations Conference

John Best, a student from OU, created this video from the China-US Relations Trip which took place in October 2009.

Things in my life

Things I Did to celebrate my 22nd Birthday
1. Went to Northgate with Christine S.


2. Ate lunch at Cafe Eccell with my family.
I may have gone overboard and ordered a bit too much...



3. Had Cake, ice cream, and fun with friends and family


4. Martini and burger/soup in Downtown Bryan (because everything's closed on Monday's?)



5. O'bannons karaoke



6. Lunch with friends
7. Dancing



According to the Director of Fellows and some leadership books I've been reading, it's important to write down three things at the end of every day that you have learned. So I think I may turn my blog into that. I think of things every night, but I have yet to begin writing them down....these are just some recent thoughts I have contemplated writing.
Things I have recently learned.
1. Bacon and Ham are some of world's best natural seasonings
2. Watch the time when writing essay tests
3. Do not wear a dress then roll around in bluebonnets unless you want bug bites and rashes...
4. Spontaneous pictures are some of the best
5. Ninfa Happy Hour is worth going to at least once a week
6. It's fun to extend dinner into other things (The Corner @ sunset, then Wine Styles, then dancing)
7. There's this really good Cabernet Sauvignon you should try! Sandholt-2005. It's really smooth and rich.
8. If you (or your roommate) attempt to open a bottle of wine with a wine opener, and work on it for a while before your roommate (or you) walk up and informs you (or your roommate) it's a screw top bottle....both of you have probably had enough. ;) (I <3 Rebecca!)

Lindsay, Get over yourself

Wow, when the world of celebrities couldn't get more screwy, now, Lindsay Lohan is suing E*Trade for using the name "Lindsay" in a baby-commercial???

Lindsay Lohan has been out of the spot light for a good couple of years, which is eons in show business. The world does not revolve around you. In the 1980s, Lindsay was the 44th most popular girl name! (Lindsay--not even the derivations!) Chances are, the people making this commercial are from that decade, and thus, have every reason to use a popular name.

Lindsay Lohan sues E*Trade



What do you think?
(Ok, I guess if you watch it, and think of it in that sense, you can kind of see it....but suing for $100 MILLION dollars for using her first name seems a bit much. )

Beerfest

Over 200 Beers, one place. The only problem was, it was $10, for 5 tickets, or $15 for 10. Good thing I knew people and managed to bum off everyone else and was able to try 20 different beers last night (not in the correct order). At least I was smart enough to write them down!

Wild Blue
-Anhueser Busch, 8% ABV
-Notes: Blueberry Beer, Blue in color, sweet
Golden Monkey
-Victory Brewing Company (Penn), 9.5% ABV, one of their top sellers
-(I had tried it before, so I recommended it to Rebecca, she liked it)
Bohemia
-Cervecería Cuauhtémoc Moctezuma, S.A. de C.V (Mexico), 5.3% ABV
Harpoon IPA
-Harpoon (Boston, MA), 5.9% ABV
-Notes: (I picked it because the bottle looked pretty, but it was pretty hoppy, so I made a face and the lady gave me another one for free)
UFO White
- Harpoon, 4.8% ABV
-Notes: Told me it was like a Blue Moon, but it wasn't really, tasted a bit watery after the other stronger beers
Modelo Especial
-Crown Imports LLC, 4.4% ABV
-One of Travis' first picks of the evening
Brooklyn Lager
-Brooklyn Brewery (NY), 5.2% ABV
-Travis' favorite beer of the evening
-I will be going to the Brooklyn Brewery, in Brooklyn, for a tour over Spring break
Langunitas Dog Town Pale Ale
-Langunitas Brewery Co
-Rebecca's pick
Gordon Biersch Marzen
-Gordon Biersch Brew Company (Atlanta), 5.7% ABV
-There Oktoberfest beer, auburn Lager
Gordon Biersch Hefeweizen
-Gordon Biersch Brew Co., 5.4% ABV
Black Cherry Lambic
-Lindeman's (Belgium)
-I had the Raspberry Framboise before with Christine S, so I decided I should try the cherry one.
-More of a cherry juice with a slight kick, Rebecca's description: "cough syrup"
Arrogant Bastard Ale
-Stone Brewing Co (Calif), 7.2% ABV
-Sometimes we picked beer based on the name
Red Stripe
-Desnoes & Geddes Limited (Jamaica), 4.7% ABV
-Hooray Beer!
Oktoberfest Spaten Munich
-Spaten-Franziskaner-Bräu (Germany), 5.9% ABV
Michelob Ultra Honey Lager
-Michelob, ABV 4.9%
-One of our last tickets, I went to the flavored table and asked for something good
Audacious Apricot Ale
-Pyramid Breweries (Seattle, WA), 5.1% ABV
-Apricot taste came in the middle of the flavors
Ace Pear
-California Cider Company,
-I only list this one because Kim had bought 2 for herself, and this is her favorite, I have definitely had it before (Kim just doesn't like to experiment)
-Sweet, like juice
Woodchuck Pear
-Woodchuck Draft Cider (Vermont)
-Kim was forced to get this when they ran out of Ace, not as sweet as Ace Pear, easy to tell it's in the Woodchuck family
Strongbow
-Green Mountain Beverage (England)
-This was actually at Murphy's, and now that I'm looking for stat's I never realized Strongbow and Woodchuck had the same Corporate HQs
Fireman's 4 Blonde Ale
-Real Ale Brewing Co. (Texas), 5.1% ABV
-The live band kept singing about them (I wonder how much they were paid)
Sierra Nevada Pale Ale
-Sierra Nevada Brewing Co, 5.6% ABV
-Sierra Nevada's signature Ale


Beerfest


Kim with her 2 Ace Pear's

Class Projects

Ever had a large group project that took about an hour to complete and turned out pretty good? Me Neither, but if you would like to see one of my group projects that fits into the first part anyway, look below: (It's not that bad).



Enjoy and Happy Tuesday!

"These kids are millionaires before leaving college...why aren't you?"

Wow, Thanks yahoo news. Way to put a damper on my Saturday. "These kids are all millionaires. You're how old?? And you're just going to a corporate job like everyone else...hmmm...you've gotta do something more productive". That's the message I just received.

Well, yahoo. I am quite fine not being an entrepreneur in the economy. It rarely works. I would be too afraid to fail. But thanks for that boost in self-worth that you gave me this morning.

List of Millionaires before Graduation

Pierce. And I say an ooh, ahh.

Evidently, some people follow my blog by RSS feed...you know who you are. Although, I do not. Today's post is going to be somewhat of an "up by request" from one of these RSS follower's.


Guy doing my piercing. Definitely looks like someone who would work here.



My red ear



End result

College before high school

I have not decided if I like this yet, but students in 8 states will soon be able to take a test to start community college in 10th grade, so they graduate 2 years earlier.

My thoughts on this:
1. Staying with peers is important.
2. At least at my school, the high school teachers were better than community college teachers...the people who go to community college are....less than college material some of the time.
3. Graduating from college before you're 21...does not seem like an ideal situation
4. Do these states have the top 10% rule, because this would definitely skew that.
5. By the time they are graduating from college, will they even know what they want to do? These are formative years! People change their mind a lot and are definitely still maturing...

Then again, I know some people who did things like this their senior year. A family friend in Florida did. There, the level of education at high school, let alone the people who are going to college anyway is lower than my high school...so it was beneficial. Also, some people in Texas do dual enrollment where they do not offer AP classes. So, I guess if you count AP classes, I kind of started this, too. But for some reason, the way they're saying to do it, does not seem right. How will the kids get government and economics in high school? I guess that's what community college would be for.

NY Times-Link on Plan in the NE to let high schoolers start college early

Winter Olympics!

Pay for Online Media?

According to an NYTimes article, Mr. Murdoch, of News Corp. is wanting to change the model of online newspapers (by subscription only).

Why is this a bad idea?
For one, the internet is a conglomerate of a free exchange of ideas. "Information" at your fingertips. If his reputable sites such as the Wall Street Journal, The Sun and New York Post become pay sites, people will be forced to go to his competitors who will gain in ad revenue, as well as other people's blogs out there.

In the same article in the Times, let's read on "News Corp. is not alone. The New York Times, which owns the International Herald Tribune, says it intends to start charging some Web readers in 2011 under a metered system that will offer users a limited number of free articles." What? Thanks NYTimes and Wall Street Journal.

On the other Hand, Rusbridger, CEO of The Guardian does not want to make people pay for his sites, partly because he admits to losing money because The Guardian is a nonprofit versus answering to shareholders. I guess I will be forced to learn more via the Guardian (eh...) and these other media outlets(more than likely).

I'm glad the NYTimes even had the audacity to call The Guardian liberal. Didn't anyone teach you, for every one finger you point, three are pointing back at you.


Murdoch vs. Rusbridger

Dismay

Well, I would like to express my dismay in a number of things.

First, I would like to buy work clothes that 1) fit, and 2) don't like like frumpy old lady clothes or whore-y 15 year old slut clothes. Is that too much to ask? I find it a near impossible task to find clothes that fit appropriately and are work-appropriate as well. This afternoon I was looking online and typed something like "petite women's business clothes" or something like that, and got this horrid site: Appleseed's. Really??? No, Thank you. And then I go to this site that I like, because clothes fit, and if I look really really hard, sometimes I can find something worth wearing: Bebe. But really, the majority of the clothes make you look like a skank. I was asked to complete a survey while leaving the site, and one of the questions asked what we search bebe for, and the first answer was "work clothes". Maybe the majority of these women are "professionals" if you know what I mean.

Another random tangent. Honey Bunches of Oats, I have become recently disillusioned by one of my all time favorite cereals. I thought it may have just been the last box I purchased, but this new one is the same! It is full of the plain cornflakes, and lacks the "bunches of oats" and the sweetened flakes. Really? I did not pay for this. Give me the bunches that I love so much!

That is it for now....now a flake fell under my space bar and is making it quite difficult to put spaces in! Another dislike toward the Honey Bunches...you get stuck in my keyboard!

Creativity

According to several classes I had yesterday, school has killed the creativity of man.

Take my Ends 101 class. I am in a freshman creativity class to fulfill my visual and performing arts credit. Yes, I need to graduate. Well, the professor passed out an apple to everyone in the class, had us close our eyes and pretend to be the apple. And then we could eat it. Perhaps higher education has killed my creativity. Growing up I was always creative, but as Dr. Hill was going through the slides, I couldn't help but to cringe at every slide...they were all different colors, each sentence was a different color, a different font, and I nearly went crazy with the lack of direction. Thank you business school. Also, according to this class, 90% of 1st graders are "Intuitive", but by high school, it's less than 10%. And a larger number of CEO's tend to be intuitive. Interesting...According to Meyers-Briggs, I'm intuitive. So either I'm like a 1st grader, or I will be the next great CEO.

In my Management class we had to read an article about "weighing the giraffe". It talked about this guy who went to the "gifted" classes, and none of the students could answer questions like "how do you weigh a giraffe" or "how does a bird fly" because they all wanted an exact answer, whereas he went to some regular under-achievers, asked the same question, and they all had answers. He attributed this to the under-achievers having street smarts where they always were having to make answers like this in order to survive, whereas the "gifted" went to french and music lessons. Guess I have street smarts! In elementary school I got into the gifted program because this lady tested my creative ability. "What can you do with these styrofoam cups" etc. Maybe they mis-diagnosed me and I should have stayed with the regular street-smart kids? Where would I be today?

Just a thought. Have school and lessons stifled our creativity? Where will the next great inventors and thinkers come from? Obviously not over tested stressed out high-achievers. Good job society! Way to kill our drive.

How Stuff Works

Well, my break is nearly over, so today I spent it wandering through the realm of the internet. I wound up on HowStuffWorks.com, and have since read everything from handiness (yes, Rebecca, like I don't have a complex already), how abortion works (yes, it made me more resolute in my beliefs), and currently how swearing works (it talks about gender roles and swearing, as well as the TV show Firefly, and Harry Potter). I also read about the obesity paradox (obese people have less chance of dying in the hospital). I learned that my chances of being a genius are pretty much over because they were stifled by school. Most genius' evidently make their great discovery when they are quite young. I have also read up on several other interesting topics as well.

I spent time reading some news, (China is still mad that America is supplying weapons to Tiawan...surprise!...Anne Frank's protector, Miep died yesterday, etc). I also started Steven Covey's 7 habits today, but ended up taking a nap during the first paradigm chapter.

So to all, enjoy reading and learning, there is so much out there in this world to know and observe!

Time for a New Decade

In an unpublished blog-post I wrote about things that happened in this past decade. To be honest, it was not very interesting (considering a large part of it I wasn't even legal to drive). Now, it is time to look forward to the next! I look forward to spending time with the friends I've made this past decade!

The oddest thing about this past new year, the dawning of a new decade, was that New Year's eve (December 31, 2009) was a blue moon. Perhaps there is something to this blue moon crap.

Happy (belated) New Year!!!

Also, I am taking defensive driving at 9am tomorrow morning, at the Laff Spot, so I will have 4 free tickets to the Laff Spot to use, so, if anyone is in town (i.e. Christine is the only one I believe who reads this who may be interested) we can go the Laff Spot if you're still in town on Friday.