Knit Socks, Curious Incident, and The Spot

So I haven't updated in awhile, so there's lots to talk about.

I finally finished knitting my first pair of socks!! Pictures will come. They were definitely a challenge, especially with me never having knit in the round before, but I have to say I'm really proud of them, and the second sock came out perfectly. I'll also post the pattern for anyone whose interested.

I've started knitting a baby blanket now. http://thecakeplate.blogspot.com/2008/08/luca-cabled-baby-blanket.html is the URL to the pattern I'm doing. It's coming along very nicely, it looks real sweet and I'm excited to complete it. My neighbor is having TRIPLETS instead of just one, so I have to work quickly.

I finished reading a few books as well. Well audibly, i finished listening to The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Nighttime. It is, for anyone unfamiliar with it, about a 15 year old English boy with Asperger's Syndrome (a form of Autism). In the story, he's writing a book about the mysterious murder of a neighborhood dog, but it's so much more than that. It is an incredible book and I would recommend it to anyone. It really gets into the mind of a person with an Autism Spectrum Disorder, and you come to realize and understand how differently they view the world than a normal person. It's cleverly written and a wonderful book to read (or listen to, in my case).

I also finished reading a book called The Wild Irish. It is about Elizabeth I, towards the end of her reign, and a female pirate from Ireland, and their stories and how they intertwine. You would think with such a premise and with two strong historical female figures, that the book would write itself and be decent. However, I found that it dragged in a lot of places and it took me awhile to finish it. Nevertheless, the ending was better than I expected. I wouldn't paticularly recommend this book unless you were paticularly interested in the subject of female irish pirates in the late 16th century. It follows Ireland's story more than England's, so be prepared when you pick it up.

And lastly, some good personal news. At the beginning of December I will be appearing as Gloria in the student-directed one-act play The Spot. More details will come when it gets closer to the date.

Palin

This is going to sound a lot like a rant, but it needs to be said.

Many people are now supporting McCain because he picked Sarah Palin as a running mate. Why? Because she's a woman. A younger, good-looking woman who has a son in the army and another child who has a disability. These facts do not, however, make her fit to be vice-president. People are losing sight of who she actually is and what the position of vice-president means. They gloss over the fact that a month before she was picked as VP, she didn't even know what the post entailed, she said so in an interview. It is incredibly hypocritical of the Republicans to say that Obama is young and has no experience to then pick a VP who is even younger than him and has absolutely no experience on the national level, or even in politics for that matter. Her record in Alaska hardly does her credit as well. She supported pork-barrel legislation, her claims that she refused perks is false, and her opinions of abortion and global warming are alarming enough to make anyone see how extreme she is.

If McCain were elected, he would be the oldest president, whereas Obama would be the third youngest, hardly a comparison. If something were to happen to McCain, Palin would then be president, and everyone must take that into account when voting. She has virtually no experience and would be entirely lost if she were to make any big decisions. We need a president that knows what they are doing, and although McCain's policies aren't the best, they certainly aren't the worst. But having Palin as a running mate makes me frightened as to what they could do to this country. If there was anyone that could be a worse president than Bush, it would be Palin.

So people need to stop being mesmerized by the fact that she's a woman and see her for her policies, not for her gender. If you didn't want to vote for Clinton for her views, then don't vote for Palin for hers, not cause she has boobs.

East Jabrew

My roommates and I have a phrase that we use to describe a particular part of a parking lot that we call 'East Jabrew'. The phrase is used to describe something that is incredibly far away. So far, in fact, that there's no actual geographic location to describe it, so we call it 'East Jabrew'. The parking lot for our dorm is incredibly small, so they have an auxiliary parking lot that's a block away that we can use. The parking lot is incredibly big, and the way that it's structured makes it so that there is a stretch of the lot that goes really far back. This part of the lot is termed 'East Jabrew'. I invite you to use this term as you will.

Post-It Wall

So I'm back at SCSU and had my first week of classes. The best part, however, is this new project that my roommate, Angel, came up with.

Last semester she had a lot of quotes from the Bible up on the wall to inspire her. This semester, however, she has decided not to put them up and instead we are creating post it spirals all around the room.

Let me explain how it works. We created a list of rules. Basically, each of us has to try to create one post-it a day, if possible. The post-it must be a phrase, sentence, drawing, etc. that is inspirational, thought-provoking, motivating, or just funny. No unnecessary profanity, and once a post-it is made it cannot be thrown out and must remain on the wall. The post-its will be put up when they are made and made to create a spiral pattern. Once we fill up the wall space above her desk, we will expand to other areas of the room.

I like the idea, it's a way for us all to express ourselves and what we find meaningful in a creative way that we can all share. The post-its are all different colors, so it will make the white walls more colorful. And she's planning to eventually make the post-it spirals into permanent inspirational posters.

Twilight

So I recently finished the book Twilight by Stephanie Meyer, and I thought I'd share my first reactions.

I was able to read it in about three nights, so it really only took me a couple of hours. I thought the flow was nice, and once I started reading it went by so quickly. It seemed like a much bigger book than it actually was.

Overall I thought it was a good storyline, kept me engaged. However I found it to be a little superficial. Although the character development of Bella and Edward were good, the rest of the world just didn't come alive for me. I know a lot of people compare it to Harry Potter, which I think is unfair. When Meyer is interviewed she distinctly says that she wasn't writing to make a statement or to do anything, it was just for her pleasure, and it shows. There's no real message or morals or hidden symbols in the books, which makes them less interesting. With a lot of other fantasy books that I read, I like revisiting the characters and hearing their thoughts over and over again, because I feel like they're live people just waiting for me to visit them. Especially with Harry Potter, I get transported to this other world that I feel I will never fully explore. With Twilight, she even admits doing no research on vampires, and the fact that they play baseball alone is a little off-putting.

It was a good read, I might go and read the other copies just to see what happens, but it's definitely not on par with J.K. Rowling, Tolkien, Lewis, or other contemporary fantasy writers. And I probably won't read it over and over again, which says a lot.

Smartpen

OK, so there is this really awesome pen that I would give anything to have, although I know I'm not getting it anytime soon. It's from Pulse and it's called a smartpen. you can check it out here. And I really suggest you do. Take a look around the website and look at the demos. It's frickin amazing.

Basically, it's a pen that records everything that the teacher is saying while you write, and records what you're writing at the time. So when you review your notes, all you have to do is press the play button with the pen on the paper you used, and it'll playback what the teacher said. You can even tap on your notes at a specific point. This way you never miss anything. Also you can upload your notes and the recordings to your computer. You can share them online with friends. It's really awesome.

Of course, the cost of something like that is, well, a lot. And it isn't a necessity. So I'll just have to wait until my parents are feeling generous one Christmas in order to get it. And besides, I'm not going to be in school for that much longer (crossing my fingers). It would've been awesome to have that in high school though.

Losing Weight & Textbooks

So I started keeping a mini food diary on my computer earlier this year, but it was too hard to keep track of on my computer since I wasn't going on it every single day.

But yesterday I bought myself a cheap composition notebook, and have decided to keep up with it. I keep reading recently that studies show that keeping a food diary helps you lose weight, and those that do usually lose more weight than those that don't.

The reason I'm becoming so adamant about it is because I've gained probably five or six pounds this summer, and fifteen pounds since I stopped going to NYU. The constant exercise I was subjected to at my studio, plus the walking around, helped me keep to a nice weight. However, now that I'm home and not jumping around in dance two times a week, I've put on a few pounds.

At first it wasn't a huge deal, but now some of my clothes aren't fitting properly and I can't put on the jeans I worked so hard to be able to fit into. I'm determined to lose this weight. Obviously two weeks isn't enough time, so a goal of by the end of the summer isn't plausible. I'm going to shoot for getting most of the weight off by the end of the semester, and reward myself if I get it off before the beginning of November.

On another note, I like to be prepared for the start of classes, and I'm really upset about my child psych class. The teacher decided two weeks before classes that it was finally time to put in her order for the textbook, and it just appeared. Now I have to spend another $60+ to get another textbook on top of the other $240 I've already spent. Most of my books are newer editions, so I've been having a hard time finding good deals on them. With the fact that refund checks don't come right away, it's hard to shell out so much cash for textbooks without any relief in sight.

Well, that's all for now. I'll keep you posted.

Robbie Greenberger

I'm sorry to say that my friend Robbie died last night due to an eight month battle with leukemia. He was a great, happy guy and he died too young.

I've only known him for what seems like a short time, but would have been about a year come September. He came up to me while I was sitting outside at Housatonic Community College and asked me if we had homework. I remember he reminded me of this guy I knew in high school who was kind of dorky but I liked. We had breakfast/brunch/lunch together every Monday and Wednesday in the cafeteria, sometimes venturing out for Dunkin Donuts. We'd talk or do homework. After awhile we went out on a few dates. Even though it didn't work out we remained close friends. He loved ninjas and rubber ducky's. What I'll remember most is his smile and his love of life. I'll remember introducing him to CryBaby in his basement and the walk we took at night on the beach. His understanding nature and me coaxing him to wear a Halloween costume during classes that day. He was a wonderful person and I only wish that I got to know him longer. He was planning on transferring and majoring in marine biology, and now he will never get the chance.

His death only underlines the fact that we all have so little time in the world. I was planning on calling him to say hi and let him know that I was thinking about him, and now it is too late. We must always do what we want to do today, say what we want to say to those we care about now. It's true that they might not be there tomorrow. We'll never know what the future brings and we must seize the moment. Robbie, you will be missed and whenever I see a rubber duckie I will always think of you.

Net Neutrality

I just thought I'd take a quick second to make everyone aware of something we have called net neutrality, since it's currently becoming an issue on the Congress floor.

Net neutrality is what prevents companies like Optimum and AT&T from making websites they want you to see faster and websites they don't slower, or preventing you from seeing certain websites altogether. Net neutrality forces them to give you their great service to the entire internet.

Their is a bill that is going to be on the House floor that will preserve net neutrality. And there is something you can do about it to help keep the internet's creative freedom thriving.

Check out savetheinternet.com for lots more information, and write your congressional state representative telling them your views on the issue.

The internet is a place where everyone around the world no matter how rich or poor they are can come together and view the same content and express themselves. Let's please try to keep it that way.

Chicago

So this fall at my school (southern connecticut state university) the drama department is putting up the musical Chicago in the fall. I would give away my left arm in order to be in this play, however  I am incredibly nervous about auditioning. For one thing I have no idea really what song to sing. Well I have ideas but not one that really jumps out as me as THE one to do.

The other problem being that in order to audition and know that I got the part cause they want me I would have to lie about my schedule, then do something about it to fix it. I am taking night classes three out of seven nights a week, and they run late enough to interfere with night rehearsals. Knowing that I wouldn't need room for field placement work in any teaching courses, I just left space in the morning for work. If I received a major role, I would definitely drop my Spanish class in order to take it.

When I auditioned for their Midsummer production, I thought that I did incredibly well, and did not receive a part in favor of people the drama department already knew. We'll just hope for the best and practice hard. Maybe I'll ask Gerald what he thinks a good song will be.

HAIL?!?!

So this past weekend we in Connecticut had quite a wake-up call when it came to the weather. On Thursday we were idling around the house, like any normal rainy day (or not rainy day, as it happens at my house) when my Dad called from work to tell us that we had a tornado warning. My Mom and I quickly ran up from downstairs and turned on the tv to find that this was true. Almost immediately the weather became increasingly worse and it started to hail. Not just some nancy pussy footing hail either. they were about 1/8th of an inch thick, big enough to tear apart my mom's pumpkin plant leaves and hostas.

Well, the storm went on, along with the tornado warning, for about a half an hour until the rain died down. Our pool looked like the hidden city of Atlantis was brewing underneath, our backyard turned into a menacing swamp, and our driveway had two inches of rainwater above it. With reports of funnel clouds touching down in the town next to us, we were very lucky that it wasn't any worse than that.

Of course, the next day my mom, sister and I went to the doctor's office, leaving my brother at home. Yet again, the weather was playing tricks with us, and my brother called us in a panic. There were severe thunder storm warnings and another batch of hail to completely ruin my mother's plants in the front yard.

And the moral of the story is to keep your roof in good anti-hail condition, cause ours started to leak.

Gerald the Hedgehog

I would like you all to meet Gerald. Gerald the Hedgehog. Gerald has had a harrowing tale of abandonment and really hot pavement.

This is Gerald:

Yesterday my family and I (sans my brother and plus my sister's boyfriend) went to Six Flags.

We had a great time, and on the way to the water rafting ride, I came across an orange fuzzy stuffed animal that was lying in the middle of the park. After a few moments hesitation I walked over and picked him up. Looking around for it's owner, I saw that no one was coming rushing up to claim him. I felt so bad for the little boy or girl that had accidentally dropped him, but seeing as how there was nothing I could do. I took him with me.

He had a wonderful rest of the day. After being so lonely, lying there without a friend in the world, he was grateful that I decided to take it upon myself to rescue him from the abuse of the unforgiving sun. Waiting for a ride, he was named Gerald.

He was really excited to go on the water rafting ride, especially because he was given the task of protecting our belongings from getting soaking wet while on the ride. He got a little scared for a moment cause he couldn't see anything, but after he got over it he had a lot of fun and barely got wet.

Now he has a permanent home and is very content. Hopefully nothing so horrible as being abandoned at Six Flags after having been won by a carnival game will ever happen again.

Driving

I have a sixteen year old sister who has just recently gotten her learner's permit. She was lucky enough to get it before the stricter driving laws took into effect for Connecticut, so she gets to take the shorter test when it's time. She went out twice and the second time apparently had a semi-mental breakdown when she refused to back up.

I should now mention that, at 21, I do not have my license yet. Yes, that is right. I am a complete and total bum and have not yet received my driver's license.

Now why, you may ask, well, there's lots of reasons and excuses I could give. It's not that I don't see the appeal of being able to drive to my dad's on the weekend without having to wait for him to be out of work, and go shopping when I wish. I think the major reason is that I'm scared.

I'm scared of failing. My whole life I've always been really good at what I've put my hand to. I took dancing lessons and was one of the best in the class, I took piano lessons and my teacher thought I was amazing. I did drama and was one of the best actresses in the school. But in this, I am definitely not the best. I have very little hand-eye coordination, and my mother braces for impact everytime we get in the car, which does little to help my self-esteem.

So unless everyone else gets off the road to let me get from place to place, there's always the chance that I'll screw up and hit someone, which freaks me out.

I'm hoping that future experience will alleviate these concerns; that is, if I can get my mother to sit in the car with me at the wheel.

First Post

Hey everyone out there! So my name is Jackie and this is my first time blogging. I've done livejournal a few years ago, and I figure this is the next step. I have a tendency to start projects and be really excited about them, and then I slowly lose interest and revisit them rarely, so we'll see how long this lasts. I'm hoping to keep this up in place of my private journal that I keep, where I get no feedback. After all, how much conversation can you get from an embroidered blank book?

I have lots of eclectic interests in music, books, and movies. And I'm hoping to share them all with you guys out there.

So, welcome to my blog, and hopefully I'll capture everyone's interest.

I'll keep you posted!