Senior Pictures

Yay! I finally found the disk they were on! I'm not so sure I like many of them, but hey, at least I have them.


Probably my favorite

Biking to Work

Well, I finally figured out my route to work.
It is 23.9 miles one way, and I cross over three bridges to do it. I charted it out on Thursday, when it was in the 70's and the sun was blazing down on me. I got sun-burned, to say the least, and I was really stupid to not pack any water. Well, it can't be helped. I was biking over the 494 bridge, which is really close to the water, and I just wanted to jump right on in, for a moment, I even thought I would do it. But I went home and ran through the sprinkler instead. I was very proud of myself, making almost 24 miles in an hour and fifty minutes. The hardest part was going up the Fairwiew hill, which is twisty and curves at a steep angle, so you can't see if there are cars coming around the bend. And some of the drivers just don't stay in their lanes.

The Senior Play

I am SOOOO excited! I get to be Dromio of Syracuse in our production of "A Comedy of Errors" on the Saturday night performance. EEEK! My heart is just about bursting out of my chest right now, I am so excited. I hoped and prayed for this role, and I got it! Happiness is mine, and I will relish it dearly today.

John Stuart Mill...

"The truth of an opinion is part of its utility. If we would know whether or not it is desirable that a proposition should be believed, is it possible to exclude the consideration of whether or not it is true? In the opinion, not of bad men, but of the best men, no belief which is contrary to truth can be really useful: and can you prevent such men from urging that plea, when they are charged with culpability for denying some doctrine which they are told is useful, but which they believe to be false? Those who are on the side of received opinions, never fail to take all possible advantage of this plea; you do not find them handling the question of utility as if it could be completely abstracted from that of truth: on the contrary, it is, above all, because their doctrine is "the truth," that the knowledge or the belief of it is held to be so indispensable. There can be no fair discussion of the question of usefulness, when an argument so vital may be employed on one side, but not on the other. And in point of fact, when law or public feeling do not permit the truth of an opinion to be disputed, they are just as little tolerant of a denial of its usefulness. The utmost they allow is an extenuation of its absolute necessity or of the positive guilt of rejecting it."


I hate you Mr Mill

I hate you

For your terrible words against Truth

You slander with words most uncouth

The very most basics of logic

in reasoning most demagogic

And I for one can not abide

The way that your arguments slide

My decision to go Vegetarian

Well, I've been giving it a lot of thought...
And I decided that I was going to become a vegetarian. It struck me as odd for the longest time why anyone would want to do this. I personally like the taste of chicken, and think that women who are pregnant or planning to become so should eat meat to provide enough iron for themselves. But I have weighed the pros and cons and this is what I have decided.

1. That I don't trust the meat packaging industry. How old is our food exactly? How cleanly prepared, and how many preservatives have they stuffed our food with? You can never read "the Jungle" and be the same. Plus, I happen to hate artificial food and unnatural things. (like high-fructose corn syrup Spawn of the devil!)

2. That this is a form of fasting of me, giving up something I actually like, and will hopefully put a curb on my rather glutinous appetite.

3. It's cheaper
seriously. I checked out our monthly grocery bill, and it's almost 800 dollars a month for 8 people. HOLY COW! that is 100 dollars a month per person in my family. I figured out that cutting out meat is an easy to reduce costs in my family's budget. I also figured that if we bought bulk rice and beans and nuts, and other good things like that, we could eliminate all the awful fake food my mom buys for my little brothers. Unfortunately, they shot down that Idea.

So, here I am, a vegetarian. Let's see how this goes!

God Provides

As some of you may know, I was desperate for a job this summer, and then I got one and I was really hesitant about it. Well, i took the job, and it consisted of watching a young girl with Downs-syndrome for 5 dollars an hour. I know that this doesn't sound like much, and I thought so too. Well, it turned out being alot of fun and good experience by the end of August. And then I was approached with the oppertunity of working in a nursing home. Pays 9 dollars an hour, they will let me work on Friday, Saturday and Sunday, and all because I have experience working with the mentally impaired. God, thank you. What I thought was going to be a terrible experience turned out to pave the way towards me attaining this new job. Praise him!

Biking is my life

I love biking.

I would do it all day if I could.

I costs nothing (except routine check-up fees) and is great exercise.

I feel free, like I'm flying on a bike.

But....

It is a hassle to try and bike the 17.5 miles to volleyball practice, and then get back in time for work. It usually takes me an hour to bike to school in the morning, but that is only 10-12 miles and that is when I'm rested. Thank God I won't have to deal with the Montreal hill, or the Lillydale State Park hills, or the Delaware Hills, but the distance is formidable. And I will have to go over the longest bridge in the Twin Cities. Not only that, but after volleyball practice, I will be pooped and I only have an hour to get back home to wait for my charge at the bus stop! Can I do it?

We'll see.

Of course, a solution is to leave volleyball practice early.

We'll see.