Christmas Time

:)  So Christmas totally rocked. My family is very big on the Christmas thing--the family is always together and we make a great mess of things. I think Ryan had a minor coronary with all the attention.( :P)  I had to explain that normally closed doors and laptop time is not quite as sacred in my house when my grandparents are over. So every 15 minutes there were questions--"what are you up to?" 

haha--I was so used to it I never thought much about it but it's generally dif

ficult to get 15 minutes without have someone be "up in your business". I like ot think it'

s because we're all so close anyways. haha. 

I had already gotten tickets to Transiberian Orchestra from Ryan and went to that in

 November, so I got one of my presents early. Some of the stuff I got was great...

the big purchase of the season? A sony E-book reader. My mom got one a while ago. I was only a bit jealous

Now I have my own pretty blue one! I recently did a project for my Marketing research clas

s discussing student's willingness to adopt E-books and I know that eventually these babies will be owned by most book worms world wide. (Although nothing can give you that "new/old book smell" *sigh*). 

I also got a 4Gb memory stick which now has ton

s of music and movies on it for my PSP. (I appreciated this since I had no Ipod Touch for my trips fro

m Rochester to Dallas and back.) I was ridiculously excited about

 getting it. :)

I also got a 500Gb hard

 drive--after my mom visited me for brickcity I was terrified by her comment of my hard drive sounding similiar to the one she used to have before it died. (I really thought the whirring noise was natural for the porr thing). 

So I got this new one and was in for a scare when I turned it on and heard-------nothing.  no joke, I thought it was broken. >.<

Amongst the other awesome things is was burberry the beat perfume. :) I've just gotten into the burberry scent (I always get the little piece of paper with the sampler to keep in my purse--it smells so nice!)

I also got bento box accesories--note to self: get a bento box. I also got stemless wine glasses and a super cozy hoodie...mmmm. 

Then I went to ryan's for New Years and hit the present jackpot!!

A cook book I've been lusting after since Fall because of the pretty pictures and a crock pot! I haven't decided what I want to make first!!

New Years was supposed to be going to First Night--however unlike my T-brenda I did not brave the storm--I got a reaaaallyyy bad cold. :(

Now I'm bad at school enjoying all my new presents--mmmm   :)

addendum: I also got crazy bling from T-brenda in the form of green peridot earrings. They be shiny on my ears. :D

Aliens vs. Vampires

So over vacation Ryan and I watched a show on Discovery Channel discussing Alien technology--sort of like evaluating laser guns and such. The show was funny but I asked him slightly panicky to change the channel before turning the TV off. (it's like watching a sickeningly sweet anime after watching Silence of the Lambs). He looked at me very weird but knowing that my overactive imagination causes me nightmares he agreed and we watched someother silly show. Two night's later I woke with a fever (I'll let you know baout my vacation once I get the pics on to my computer) in order to keep my mind off my night terror I pulled up the first episode of True Blood (It was a crappy version but it's a good view). I told Ryan that morning and he looked at me weird "you need to stay up a little later because of an alien show but vampires are good for watching?" wass along the lines of what he said.

That got me thinking--why would I be more afraid of Aliens in stead of Vampires--both are a sort of monster, both possess a certain inhuman quality, according to the pictures above they have pointy teeth and I would totally lose to fight against them in a dark alley. after thinking about it I figured out why I'm more afraid of Aliens than vampires, scientifically speaking the probability of Vampires existing versus the probability of Aliens existing is pretty low. Aliens hit a little to close to home for me (and I think I had been watching too much X-files) and I'm predispositioned for Aliens to be some unkillable forde of nature while vampires...well...in general you are very capable of killing one.

pretty weird huh? (I wasn't kidding about the over active imagination)

I brought it to the lunch table as a conversation topic and then I realized how geeky my friends are.

what do you guys think?

Grad School Update

up to date check list:

Biz Gov't Mini Paper writing
Storytelling responses for the past 2 weeks
McNair's Final Report
Coop Report to Kathy Ozminkowski
getting my Ipod Touch replaced (UPDATE: I'm in a stack of 30 people to get my stuff--2 weeks tops)

ok... so not much was accomplished. >.<

So, the only thing that I need to do for my grad school's is to take my GMAT. If you knew me in High School, I was pretty much locked into studying for my SATs for a good 3-4 months (thanks mom *sarcasm*). Last quarter I was very good with my studying but because of the lack of calculators used in the test I was still very weak in the Math section (details of an event I can do--of geometry? not so much). So I have not take my GMAT's basically meaning that my applications that I have are pretty useless and I will not make my Round 2 deadline. >.<

My strategy now is to get back into the hang of studying, take my exam and hand in my applications for the final round-defer acceptance for a year-apply for next years financial aid-attend school. (this is of course hinging on the fact that I get accepted since a majority (3/5) of the schools are "strongly recommending" 2 years of experience prior to enrollment.

So now I'm on the look for a good Job for anyone with a major in Marketing and minor in Japanese Language and Culture. *crosses fingers*

It's hard to believe but I'm graduating in 134 days. >.< The stress is kicking in. Now's the time to buckle up and make that final dash to the finish line. Wish me luck!!

*crickets chirp*

Heya!

I'm sorry for my disappearing act. I've been so freaking busy since my Week 2 post that I really have not even had an opportunity to breathe until now (I'm in the middle of my Business Government and Society class break)

Here's upcoming posts--

Grad School Update (uuuggggghhhh)
Christmas Presents inventory (It rocked btw)
The Enduring question we always ask....Aliens vs. Vampires
My Google obsession

However, you will have to wait until a little later in the week.

Now I'm off to

Biz Gov't Mini Paper writing (fun fun)
Storytelling responses for the past 2 weeks (yeah...I slacked off a bit on that >.<)
Candidate Retreat (always a good time)
Apologizing the Mike for missing E-council yesterday (Sorry!)
McNair's Final Report (almost there!)
Coop Report to Kathy Ozminkowski
Strategy and Policy Project follow-ups
getting my Ipod Touch replaced (the Insurance company is about to send me the check)
reporting my broken Ipod (yup! the screen cracked)
oh...


and lunch (yum)

(I'm sure I'm forgetting other stuff--but I'll make do with this list for now)

Dre the Champion of Romance!!

Have you ever read an article and paper/ anything that states an opinion and while reading it you are formulating the counter argument?

this is an assigned reading I had for my Storytelling class this week. let me tell you--the first article "Explorations and Formulas" was too much for me to not write about. The weekly discussion topic had nothing (and I mean NOTHING) to do with this essay--rather it was the role of the women in the two following stories. However, this essay was too much for me to NOT mention something.

My mom runs a blog that reviews various romance novels so--I would say that while I am no expert I feel experienced enough to look at this and want to argue against it--

so here's what I wrote--

"Before I delve into the women characters that were portrayed in both stories .I’d wanted to talk about this formula fiction essay; specifically the formula fiction that was portrayed for romance novels. As someone who reads both classics and the romance novels published today—what I feel the writer of “Explorations and Formulas” did not realize is that there are always exceptions to the rules that the tip sheet formulated. My mother is a part of a romance novel community as a reviewer for various authors—the “Do not interject murder, extortion, international intrigue, horror or the supernatural elements in the plot” was the most shocking “rule” that I saw. Especially because some of the best sellers of romance are in fact ones that have the murder, or intrigue…so on and so forth—It is what keeps the book moving. While I understand that, yes,—some women are looking for the quick read (boy meets girl, girl leaves boy to sacrifice herself, boy saves girl, and they live happily ever after) however a lot of the authors that are popular or seen as “classics” or “must reads” in the romance fandom are actually stories that do have a plot that drives the romance forward. There are whole series of romance novels solely dedicated into creating a fantastical universe of political intrigue and great action scenes.

I’ll use one of my favorites for an example, J.R Ward has written multiple books based of the Black Dagger Brotherhood, these are books that you will find in the romance section, one of her most recent books ended with the heroine actually dying. It was with the hero’s mother’s great sacrifice that the heroine still exists as a mere ghost/projection. This is not the “and everyone lives happily ever after” ending—even in following books the guilt that the hero feels in failing his “beloved” is an ongoing theme in the next few books. Or another is the Historical romances Diana Gibaldon spends 3-4 books where everything is not “hunky dory-press-the-female-character-against-studly-scots-chest”. There is sacrifice, death and even some really great historical facts.

True there are many authors of books that do follow the formula to satisfy their readers—however on the flip side, I feel that there is an equal amount of authors who don’t care what their readers want—they are going to write whatever they feel is best for their characters or their story lines. As a writer I don’t want to take into account what someone else wants in my stories—I’m writing as an art form. No one ever told Picasso—“hey, why don’t you make Guernica look a bit more realistic.”

Katie MacAlister, a romance best seller, writes as Katie Maxwell for her Young Adult books and as Katie Marsh when writing mysteries—something that many romance authors have to do since being a “romance author” has become synonymous with poor literature.

Now that I’ve proclaimed myself the champion of Romance novels—let’s move on to the actual stories that we covered."

(from here I talked about the actual assignment--I totally had to get this off my chest and post it on my classes discussion board.)

SIMPLIFY IS GIVING AWAY A QUILT!

Thanks to my T-brenda, I have been getting into looking at designers of quilts--I'm now moving into "designers in general". One of my favorite quilt designers is Camille Roskelley from Thimble Blossoms.  On her Blog Simplify she is giving away a quilt of your choosing. :) pretty awesome huh?

This post get's me 3 more entries!! :D

--signing off

dre

VOTE!

This is  your friendly Dre-approved reminder to VOTE TOMORROW!!!

This year there has been an outpouring of registrants to get to the polls on November 4th. For what some people are saying is one of the most important elections in our history. However statistically speaking, according to historical data, only 40-60% of Americans who register to vote indeed vote. 

Do you know how many people in Iraq voted? 100% of the population able to vote in Iraq did. 

People always complain about the lines and "how long it takes". Women in a country where their children can be a casualty of war just by going to school one day, in a country that doesn't view them as equals came out and stood in lines that took hours--not minutes--HOURS! 

So everyone who has registered to vote--I'm telling you a day in advance so you can mark it in your schedule!!!--VOTE!