SEXY CHICKEN

A world in which the sentence "He'd be the second-sexiest chicken alive!" actually makes sense is a happy, happy world indeed.

BTW, er_poma, you were the one being discussed when that sentence was typed, and draughanten, you have the honor of being the potentially most seductive fowl in existence. I say "potentially" because neither of you actually have mohawks.

GOD, I love my life.

Admiring Einstein

At the Student Activities Council training on Friday, we did a get-to-know-each-other exercise, a list of questions like "What's your favorite holiday?" and "If you were a color, what color would you be?" One of them was "Who do you admire?" Several people said they admired people like George Washington and Michael Jordan, and it made me think.

Admiring a person's accomplishments is not, in my opinion, the same thing as admiring that person. I can appreciate that Albert Einstein created the Theory of Relativity, for example, and I know that he made a significant contribution to science. However, that doesn't necessarily mean that he as a person is worth admiration. I have never met him, therefore all I know about him is what has been relayed to me by people who also have never met him. This is not a good way to get the truth about a person. It's painfully similar to gossip- painful because of my own experiences with the effects of gossip.

The subject of gossip has come up in several discussions I've had lately. Today I ran into Tommy and D.J. at the Democratic picnic in Swope Park, and D.J., whom I don't know all that well, mentioned that I have quite a reputation among the LEARN crowd. He also said that he didn't pay attention to the gossip, but I know that it's impossible to hear that someone is a blood-sucking child rapist without at least feeling a little wary.

I know that comparing my situation to admiring celebrities/historical figures is a long shot, but honestly, I'm not trying to create an analytical comparison or anything. I'm just writing down a few things I've been thinking over the past few days. It bothers me that people say they admire Einstein, or Joan of Arc, or even Jesus. We don't know these people. They're pretty much characters in history, and they're flat characters. People aren't like that. Einstein was a person, too, and I have a problem with people saying they admire someone they cannot objectively judge. I have a problem with people admiring anyone whose flaws they can't or don't acknowledge, as a matter of fact, and I don't count Einstein's bad grades as a flaw.

Okay, disjointed rant over.

The good and the bad

The good: I think I'm getting this whole French thing, and enjoying it too.
The bad: I'm struggling in algebra already and the semester started a week ago.
The good: Kat and I have three weeks' worth of exercises for writing group.
The bad: Nobody except the twins showed today, and no one except Bronte showed last week.
The good: I talked to Davin today, and got into the honors program.
The bad: For the honors program, I have to take three semesters of honors seminar and get fifteen credits of honors projects, meaning two projects per semester including this one. It's gonna be a challenge...
The good: I e-mailed the teacher of this fall's honors seminar, whom I'd met at the AIDS Walk, and she's fine with my joining late. Plus, the seminar is on HIV/AIDS, and I'm really interested in that.
The bad: She told me, "Of course I remember you, Julie!"
The good: Honors seminar doesn't interfere with any of my classes.
The bad: Honors seminar is at eight AM on Tuesdays. Meaning I get on the bus at 7:22. Meaning I get up at 6:30. Six. Thirty. Every. Tuesday. O.O
The good: I saw Jonhenry today.
The bad: We broke up.
The good: It was like when me and Dan broke up- "this isn't working, let's be friends."
The bad: Metanoia didn't update yesterday because Jesse Hajicek hurt his wrist.
The good: It's updated now, with more full-color psychotic Zan-dream. (At least, I'm pretty sure it's Zan's dream.)
The bad: Only two pages. Meh.
The good: Mom made this delicious curry thing for dinner. It was the first time she's cooked for the entire six-person family since May.
The bad: I have to clear the drainers, sweep, do homework for all three classes, and then get to bed early enough to get enough sleep not to be a zombie tomorrow, and it's ten to nine already.
The good: I'm organizing my first event on the Student Activities Council, a movie and speaker for National Coming Out Day on October 11th.
The bad: I need a speaker, and I'm not sure where to look. I'll do some intensive Googling when I have time.
The good: I'm keeping busy.

Thank you, Mia. Thank you very, very much.

Now there are 70-something Carolyn Pajors in my brain, laughing at me, eating money and swelling to vast sizes.

Oh, thank god for Gerard Butler and the hobbits. *breathes a sigh of relief*

And no, you don't want to know.

Nonstop awesomeness

*points to title* That's what today was. Seriously, it was the best day I've had in a while.

I got up at eight, had a bagel, and trotted off for the bus, Student Activities Council collage in hand. My algebra teacher is a moron, but I'm doing all right anyway, I think. Check with me again after I get the results of tomorrow's quiz back. I was supposed to have SAC office hours, but there was nobody there. They were all tie-dying with the UPS guys out front. Which is honestly pretty cool. I chatted with a UPS guy for a while, then went to the library with the intention of starting in on homework. I sat down, pulled out a pencil, and proceeded to spend an hour writing an essay about the concept of loving America and how I relate to the idea. This was not homework, by the way, just something that popped into my brain, and I felt better after I'd written it.

In French, we were supposed to team up into pairs and compose a conversation consisting of the vocabulary words we've learned so far. Leanne, my partner, had somehow located a list of French swear words. The teacher was listening with a great deal of amusement to quite a bit of our argument over whether or not it would be okay to use any of them in our dialogue, so I knew she wouldn't be horrified by much... so when Leanne insulted me in her part of the dialogue, I responded with derision, "Mange moi!" ("Eat me!") Far from being horrified, Madame Brandt, after she stopped laughing, actually gave me extra credit for creative use of French. I shit thee not. I love this teacher.

Then was the Advocates 4 Better Government officer meeting, which four of the five officers attended. At one point, we voted on what topic the first general debate will be on, and the vote was split in half. I jokingly suggested Rock, Paper, Scissors, and no one could think of a better idea, so I beat Victor's pants off in a two-out-of-three game. As secretary, I'm responsible for recording the meetings, typing up the minutes and sending them to Stephanie to check over before passing them out. After the meeting, I went to the computer lab to type them up because I had some spare time, and I was there for about five minutes before Victor sat down at the computer next to me and engaged me in a roughly 45-minute argument about Macs vs. PCs. During this time, I was typing up the minutes. I noticed he was watching my screen, so I added in, "The vote was split evenly between Iraq and Social Security. Julia and Victor debated using Rock-Paper-Scissors to determine the outcome- Madame Secretary’s sk1llz far surpassed those of the lowly historian, and the debate topic will be Social Security." His reaction amused me, but the e-mail returning the checked-over minutes amused me more: Stephanie actually left it in, "lowly historian" and all. I cracked up for about ten minutes when I got it.

I tried and failed to enroll in honors seminar- apparently I need a letter from one person, a form from another and permission from a third before I can enroll in a class that Ms. Harrington supposedly kept open for enrollment. It's a pain, but it would be more of a pain if I had to take classes next summer. It'll get sorted out tomorrow, though, and all is well.

Chess club went well. Ryan was there, Mollie's brother, and so was his mom. She actually said hi to me, albeit not too warmly. I played an hour-and-a-half-long game with Kat, which I almost managed to stalemate again, and then a maybe ten-minute game with a kid called Thomas who played fast, wildly and well. I spotted Kat with the new Andrew Clements book, "Things Not Seen," and we had a brief wrestling match between there and the reference desk to determine who got to check it out first. David said he could order another and have it in tomorrow, though, so no hard feelings. Right, Kat? Right?

I got home, wrote my response to the English reading and went over algebra for the quiz tomorrow. I'll do the French audio if I have time before class- must remember to budget time for that tomorrow afternoon. I called Karen, and it looks like I'm going to get to go to the Renaissance fair and help with her psychic booth in exchange for free admission, lunch, and tips. That should be fun.

I'm feeling very optimistic right now. Life is going well. Now, hot tub and bed.