Christmas Shenanigans? Meet my Chrismanigans.

Sometimes people just don't have near enough fun around the holidays.  Naturally, I devised a way to combat this great oversight among the human race :).

Meet RaptorClaus.  A fun-loving mix of ingenuity-filled robotics all dolled up in one of those cute but occasionally obnoxious dog costumes.  The perfect mix of lighthearted fun with subtle mocking undertones :).  You really just can't top that. 

You just can't.

I personally think there is a lot of value in things like this around holidays, birthdays, and well...every other day in general.  Gag gifts and strange things such as RaptorClaus are exceptionally enjoyable. 

Christmas was super fun.  I got to spend a lot of time with my family, and got a miniature pie maker.  My sisters and I spent the entire afternoon of Christmas Day making little pies in all sorts of flavors and kinds.  Today, we used the kitchen torch that we got my mother to include toasted meringue.  A very tasty Christmas.  Homemade things and special gifts are always near and dear to my heart. My family did really spectacular at finding things that I had not even thought of that is absolutely well suited to my taste.  I got amazing luggage in a color I love, the Steve Jobs bio, the mini pie maker, and stones that will be perfect to make into jewelry (which I already did) ((see below)).

This is the necklace made out of the stones that my oldest sister got me.  I wrapped them in wire and was able to attach them together to make this necklace. 

In other Christmas news, the Steve Jobs bio is really great starting out. I am pretty excited to get to learn more about someone that was so incredible and innovative.  I like these qualities.  It is really interesting to read about someone who made so much difference in the lives of every single person in this country, even though some may never realize the full extent of how much he has contributed to.

Between the Lord of the Rings Pez and Season 4 of the Big Bang Theory, it was a delightfully geeky Christmas.  And a good time was had by all!  I hope all of you readers out there had a great holiday as well! 

You Just Can't Hide Geek

You can wear amazing boots but you can't hide geek.
I am absolutely cut throat and one hundred percent ruthless when it comes to word games.  I love them.  You get me near "Words with Friends" or "Hanging with Friends" and there is really no more friends about it haha.  I get extremely excited to lay down a 60+ point word, and about hyperventilated when I played "macabre" for 120.  I have yet to lose in HWF, and I am legitimately proud of this.

When I was in 8th grade, we had a system called Reading Counts.  I read and read and read and specifically strategized my last book so that I would have exactly 100 books and exactly 1000 points for the year.  It included everything from Steven King's "The Stand" to a book called "The Little Bug that Went Cachoo".  I will always remember it, I was so excited to have it work out so perfect. 

I begged for years (well ok maybe just one year) to get a roboraptor.  AND I FINALLY GOT ONE :).  And I love him, his name is Trogdor.  My friend made me a double ended light saber in my two favorite colors, and it is spectacular. 

There are few things I have loved as much as rollercoaster tycoon, Jurassic Park, 3D movies, and a tech based field of study (besides family obviously).  I love my iPhone, my giant laptop, and have rarely met a device I didn't adore (Kindle Fire, you are next on my list).

Enough about me, and more to the point.  The point is, you have no need to ever try to hide who you are.  It's actually nice when you recognize and embrace who you are and all of the strangeness therein.  Now is a great time to be a geek, look at how popular the Big Bang Theory is. Sidenote: I would completely marry Sheldon on there, even though germaphobes drive me bananas. 

I think that girls need to not be afraid to be smart.  We kind of tend to act like ditzs some, and we are often afraid to look smart in case a guy won't like it.  But really, there are a lot of people out there that appreciate brains.  So put those gorgeous boots on, tease your hair up, and knock em dead with your brains! 

Merry Christmas All!

It's Funny the Things You Worry About

Tonight I got my order from Snapfish.  Except it wasn't my order.  It was on the outside, but on the inside it was an order of another lady's.  I feel bad for her, what if those posters were a Christmas gift? I promptly got on to Snapfish and told their customer support via live chat that it was the wrong order, and I can only hope that they are sending hers out overnight shipping as well as mine.  I wonder if the metallic prints were for a child of hers or a relative, they looked like things a young teen would like.  And somewhere out in the world, someone has a stunning metallic finish print, 20x30, of a beautiful church door.  I only hope that they will enjoy it as much as I hopefully will get to.
I also worry about the FedEx and UPS guys.  They run these routes so late every evening and it is kinda strange to think about.  We ship so many things and do so much online shopping and it keeps some of these people from their families late into the evening.  I know that it also helps them support their families as well.  It is just sad that something I take so much for granted, like getting to be home in the evening is something that others cannot enjoy. 
And people who work at theaters and have to work on Christmas day.  Is it really that important that we go see movies on Christmas? Can't there be ONE holiday where all of the hustle and bustle is shut down and EVERYONE gets to be home?
I just hope that the customer service person from wherever they are in the world really did put in the orders and that if those prints are Christmas gifts they find their way to that person. 
It is strange though, to worry so much about someone you have never met, and likely never will meet.

Santa's Elves are Probably Robots

We might as well face it.  The times have changed, the world has gotten more technologically advanced...
And Santa's Elves are probably among some of the highest unemployment rate at this point, as I am sure they have been replaced by robots and state of the art machinery.  If Santa is gonna make a buck these days he would obviously have to stay competitive with cost cutting practices.
I think Christmas has gotten a wee bit overboard on the material side and spending sprees.  I know, I know, beating a dead horse here, everyone always harps on this and yada yada yada.  But I am actually quite serious. I really wish it would get more focused back on things like Christ, family, charity, stuff like that.  I realize it would hurt the (not so) well-oiled machine known as the economy, but if Christmas was more like Thanksgiving, I would not mind a bit.
This year, I am making most of my Christmas gifts for family and friends.  I have bought a few that I found good deals on, or ones that people really wanted that I could not make, and I actually am very excited about the things I have made.  I have also made things for other people to give as gifts, such as personalized coasters and magnets done with their family photos and stuff like that.  It is really amazing all the things that you can personalize.  Making your own coasters, magnets, jewelry, keychains, and stuff like that can be really fun and you can use a lot of things that otherwise might be tossed away.
So far I have made jewelry using bottlecaps, pokemon cards, scrapbook paper, magazine paper, an old dictionary, and am going to be repurposing older jewelry into pieces that look more modern.  By using tiles of various sizes I have made coasters and magnets, and I am even personalizing a wind chime using paper, mod podge, and copious amounts of polyurethane.
All this to say, I think we can learn a lot from making things, personalizing things, and repurposing things.  Later on, decorating an apartment or house, you could really find some interesting things in vintage shops or flea markets that could easily be tailored to your own taste.  You can make jewelry out of all sorts of things if you put a little thought into it.  It teaches you to be resourceful, use your imagination, and I think you really appreciate things that you make or enhance.
And really, Christmas does not need to be so money driven or about who buys whom the best or most gifts.  Why can't we all just get one or two gifts from stores if need be (preferably useful things that we use a lot or something), and some homemade treats and goodies.  If Christmas became a cookie swap, I would not have a single issue with that (with younger kids still getting toys, as that is something I find completely sensical and reasonable).
It really should be a time of family, of looking back on the past year and everything you have been through, and remembering what it really means to celebrate Christmas.  Even if you do not want to or believe in Christ and his birth, I still don't think that Christmas needs to be so commercial.  I think if we thought of our families, those without families, and those that cannot be with their families at the holiday time and made goodies, cards, and just let people know that we care and are thinking about them...I think we would all get a lot more enjoyment out of the holidays instead of dreading it as a time of having to drop hundreds if not thousands of dollars.
Well... and if everyone would drop the arguing over calling things "Holiday Trees" instead of Christmas Trees.  But my rant will inevitably come about being politically correct.  So we will save that topic for then.  :)

MERRY CHRISTMAS EVERYONE!

Is that house flashing?! Oh no it's just the trees...

Tis the season to be jolly...
And enjoy the variety of Christmas decorations that people put up.  Driving down the road you can see these beautiful houses with their perfectly placed lights that are not even the slightest bit crooked.  Reindeer are out perfectly in their yard spaced to high flying perfection, and any trees they have decorated are immaculate.
And then...there's the ones that look like a light weilding monkey ran through their yard chasing a ninja with a banana.  Which is an analogy I happen to think makes perfect sense. 
But seriously, Christmas lights are incredibly fun to look at, whether they are gorgeous or completely disastrous.  I literally wonder sometimes if people go outside with a string of lights and let their five year old run around a tree and call it a day.  Don't you just see those lights that look like someone tossed a strand up there, maybe even two or three in different colors?  I saw this poor scraggly tree with clear lights at the bottom and a red strip at the top.  I never understand why people decorate their dead trees either (no offense to any of you who do).  It is mind boggling.  I really think at the very minimum people should use net lighting so that when they tossed it into their tree it would look more intentional (and less dead).
I am so attuned to believing many have lost their mind with Christmas lights that I actually believed that an entire house was flashing.  We are driving down the road and I see this house and the lights look like they keep blinking and I am flabbergasted at how annoying this must be until it was then determined that no, in fact, it just looked blinky because of all the trees that we were passing as we drove by.  We can't be smart all the time now can we.
The house did have color changing lights on it, that was quite frankly pretty cool.
I do like that people decorate for Christmas, and I love light shows like Lights Under Louisville, and similar things.
Merry Christmas all you scraggly tree decorators!

Reality Strikes Back

Last night the Christmas Baketacular: College Edition officially baked to a close.  My resulting spread was white and chocolate dipped pretzels and rods, strawberry thumbprint cookies, mini snickerdoodles, and three flavors of cake pops: pineapple (which ended up tasting like glorified vanilla), key lime (pretty good), and chocolate truffle.  The mistakes in the pineapple batch were twofold 1) I had no pineapple extract so my only hope was canned pineapple juice and 2) I had frozen my pineapple a few weeks back and it quite frankly didn't taste as strong.  When I originally had this idea I was going to carmelize brown sugar on the pineapple in the oven and then hollow out the center of the pops and stuff them.  So after I had added all the pineapple to the batter itself thinking that was a better idea....
They don't even taste like pineapple.  But they are actually quite good, so I guess I should be happy that a flop turned out yummy. 
The other result of this Baketacular was the entire both sides of the sink being completely full of dishes.  This might not have even been that bad, but I did not get finished dipping the cake pops, letting them cool, and packaging everything up until midnight.  Which for a college kid shouldn't be an issue.  But when you have spent the better part of 9 hours baking and dipping things in chocolate...
You no longer have college kid stamina.
This does all bring my to my main point.  I am washing dishes, my fantasy team had just lost in the playoffs thanks to a last minute TD by Marshawn Lynch, and my back is killing me from sitting in the crappy kitchen chair all evening.  I get the dishes done and dry, walk in to my room, flip on the light, and almost start crying.
My room is a complete and utter trainwreck.  It looks like every drawer in my dresser exploded and a hurricane went through.  I have been working two jobs all semester with some of my tutoring sessions running until mid evening, and by the time I get back, make food, wash dishes, and finish up homework...cleaning my tiny room just doesn't happen.  And it is about half the size of a real room, so a little mess covers a large portion. 
And all this to say, I really don't get how my mom has done it all these years.  We kids were all mini hurricanes, leaving wakes of messes and destruction everywhere we went.  We have baked goodies all throughout the year every year.  And she never had anyone that really helped clean.  I pretty much have a new found respect for all the things I never noticed as a kid.  Though if I could go back in time I would smack myself upside the head and tell myself to be more aware of things like that and help out.
Sometimes I think that most people should have to live in a college apartment before they really get out on their own.  It is a completely different world out there when you start finding out how much it costs to buy groceries, how long it takes to keep something clean, how much effort goes in to stuff like baking and whatnot, etc. 

It is interesting to think, but I do imagine that this year of being in the apartment may very well end up teaching me more life lessons than any of my other college years.

Such a Heart Baker

For one of my finals this week, we are giving presentations and having a pitch in party.  As far as I am concerned this is by far the best semester ever.  They say a picture is worth a thousand words, so technically this will be my longest blog to date.  Prepare to be hungry:

Strawberry thumbprint cookies with my sister's homemade jam

SneakyDoodles- I added a tiny hint of nutmeg!

Chocolate dipped pretzels, they lost their pretty shine because I had to fridge them.  The apartment is too toasty for them!

Chocolate dipped honey wheat pretzel braids.  Simply put? One of the best ideas I have had in a long time.



I think this is probably my favorite things about the holidays.  Getting to make things and share with friends and family and those that you love.  It is always special to me to get to make something for someone that they can enjoy. 

In the spirit of all this baking, I'ma keep it short and sweet this time.

I haven't been kicked out of Wal-Mart...yet...

Today my best friend and I went shopping.  We shopped the entire afternoon, hit the mall twice, the Dollar Tree, Hobby Lobby, TJ Maxx, and Wal-Mart.  We knocked out the list without knocking out any other shoppers.
A close call mind you, a very close call.
I have determined that when you walk into a mall these days, you might as well check your manners and patience at the door.  No one else is bringing theirs in with them.  We were cut off or ran into by no less than 15 different people/couples and not a single one said excuse me.  We held doors for people twice and not a one said thank you.  I don't know about you, but I was a little shocked.  I was always told as a child that if you run into someone you say excuse me or I'm sorry , depending on the situation. 
Also, a much smaller infraction of society, but I went to buy cookies and the lady who rang me up neither said have a nice day or made any indication that I was good to go.  So I stood there awkwardly for a few moments and then walked away somewhat less awkwardly with my cookie for my friend and my brownie for me. 
Are we really losing these small niceties in society?  It kind of makes me worry.  Maybe it was just a coincidence, maybe I was just imagining it.  But I was not impressed. 
On another note, when we went in to Wal-Mart, and that was quite an event in and of itself.  My friend and I were walking down the seasonal isle- you know that one with all the candy that college kids should never be allowed on.  So we walk and marvel at all the things we want, debate on which types of different candies are better (butterfinger snack size versus butterfinger bells, I personally like regular shaped butterfingers myself).  And then I see these little redneck bags of chocolates with deer on them and a camo tag...
And I yell "OH" about as loud as a human could have possibly yelled it.  You would have thought a zombie was behind it or something with as ridiculously loud as I said it. 
Up until this point I had been reflecting on my theory that this cold weather was severely reducing my lung capacity (clearly not, mind you, the fact that I don't do any cardio).  Well let me tell you, that yell shook all the cobwebs out of my lungs!

Maybe my new theory will be something along the lines of "Yelling in Wal-Mart, when done in moderation, is good for your lungs."  The way I see it grants are given to do all kinds of research that is super unneccessary (shoving a hundred hot dogs down a rat's throat makes it obese...duh?), so I DEFINITELY think I could get funding for that.

I may not have much else to say this weekend, but either by late Sunday or Monday I will probably have experienced plenty of more of life's shenanigans, as I will be baking a ton of goodies for Christmas gifts and treats for classes and peers.  My apartment kitchen is roughly the size of a hotel kitchenette, with a stove half the width of a real one.  Surely nothing can go wrong under those conditions :)!

(Famous last words, anyone?)

What's Cookin' Good Lookin'

This has been my first year of really cooking a lot of meals for myself.  And so far I have not burned down the apartment, which is a pretty fantastic accomplishment when you recall that I am a college kid. I really do enjoy cooking, but despise doing dishes with a passion.  If there was ever something that needed to be illegal, it would be not having a dishwasher. 
Last night I knew I was going to use leftover rice and make my (in)famous MexiRice.  There is really hardly anything that is "authentic" Mexican in it except Wholly Salsa (if that is even considered authentic) and some taco seasoning.  I'm not going to lie, I used mozzarella and colby jack cheese.  Don't judge me, it is DELICIOUS.  However, this MexiRice brought me to the most unusual and unexpected circumstance. 
I go to the Circle K near school to get tortilla chips, thinking surely every convenience store must sell tortilla chips.
WRONG.
They had queso, but no tortilla shells or chips...because that makes sense.  I know I would want to buy some ruffles and dip 'em in queso.  So after being somewhat bummed that I was going to have to change my menu idea, I decided that, in fact, I would change for no one.  And within five minutes I had found a flour tortilla recipe that did not require lard or any other ingredients I did not have (for any of you thinking "Oh God" it gets even better!).
I get out the flour (I am going to owe my roomie a bag at the rate I am going) and mix the baking powder and salt in with a fork.  We don't have a sifter, so naturally a fork seemed like the next best thing.  I pour in the cooking oil, stir it around a bit with the fork, and then decided I was going to be even more awesome chef-like and mix it by hand...
Bad choice.
In hindsight dousing my hands in cooking spray might have made this experience a little more enjoyable.  But I didn't think of that until after the fact, which is just how it always seems to work out isn't it... So I am completely covered in tortilla dough and trying to find creative corners of fingers to reply to text messages throughout this whole scenario (I couldn't possibly just reply later, that would be too much like admitting defeat.)  I add the warm water and get it into a much more manageable ball.  I read the next step and it is wrap the tortilla dough in plastic and let it rest.
We don't have Saran wrap in the apartment or anything like that, so a gallon size zip bag was pretty much the next (and only) best thing.  So I am letting this dough rest and getting all the rest of the dough off my hands.  I let it rest 30 minutes, rolled it into balls, and went to roll them out. 
We don't have a rolling pin (is anyone wondering why exactly I took this on yet? I blame Circle K for this).  However, I do have this fantastic waterbottle that I got from the World Wildlife Fund which happens to be perfect as a pseudo rolling pin.  So I roll out my first one and cook it and it comes out looking just like a pita bread.  So I roll the next ones out so thin I can practically see through them and they still kind of look like somewhat thinner pita bread.
The homemade "tortillas" tasted pretty good and I never thought anything of it until my mom asked me what kind of flour I had used.  I had literally never even given it a second thought, but I had never asked my roommate what kind of flour she buys! So I figure the flour was self rising and I added baking soda to it to make it even more delightfully puffy haha.  Or the recipe is just wrong. The recipe though would have been highly delicious (even with the wrong flour) if I had left out the salt, as it really would have been like pita. My conclusions from this venture?

• Listen to my mother's advice and never take a completely new recipe to someplace when you don't know if it will work (although I still think variations on trusted recipes is fine)
• Ask your roommate first what kind of flour she got, or for that matter even remember the fact that different kinds of flour exist
• Homemade pita would be super easy to make
• Tortillas are very easy to make if you use the right stuff
• The best laid plans usually fail the hardest

Even though these weren't perfect, I had a blast.  How many people ever even TRY to make their own tortillas, much less their own pseudo-pita.  I will try to make tortillas again someday and I will conquer them.  And then I will probably determine they aren't worth the work and I will just buy them like I have been.  And as for tonight, I will eat my non-authentic MexiRice with my Pita tasting tortilla leftovers...
And love every bite haha.

PS- In my defense I am usually pretty decent at cooking basic things and bake a mean cakepop.  I had a successful first try at a cheesecake a few weeks ago, yet I failed tortillas.  Life, unscripted!

Thinkaphobia

I would like to start this one out by saying I believe in God.  I look around at the complexity of everything, how detailed life is, and how the Earth works like a fairly well oiled machine and I believe it is much harder to chalk it all up to chance than God.  I do not agree that the Earth has only been around 10 thousand years, nor do I think that not believing that in any way shape or form goes against the Bible (the vast majority of religious people do not believe in that 10k year mumbojumbo either for the record).  I also do not think evolution poses a problem either, as there is really nothing in the Bible that says "God did not create the planet in a fairly successive order" and in fact it even goes through an order of creation so I am not sure why evolution sways people's decisions to believe one way or another.  In my opinion, it is a lot like apples and oranges, the two subjects just really don't affect each other.
That being said I do have some problems with the current way that religion can at times make people function. 
I am reading this book called "Heaven" by Randy Alcorn and so far I am really enjoying it.  I did almost fall asleep in the first chapter, but to the books defense I was laying under my sherpa throw in my bed...which is basically a perfect storm for catching z's.  His book describes what he believes scripture says that Heaven will really be like and how things will progress.
I really like how he describes things.  I think so many of us somehow get latched on to this notion that Heaven will mean floating on clouds, perpetually strumming harps, and singing the same songs over and over again.  And let's face it...that is not exactly the way that many of us want to spend the rest of our eternal being is it?  Alcorn agrees, that option wouldn't sound good to anyone.  And then he comes right out and says that isn't what the Bible says at all.  Hopefully when I am further into the book I will be able to provide a better description of what he suggests.  And it is topics like this that get me to my train of thought for this particular blog post.
I think that to a certain extent, some people have really tried to dumb religion down.  It is a little like we latch on to this "the Bible tells me so" mentality and think that it is all we need and pretend we never have questions or concerns or doubts ever again.  And maybe as an individual you can get by with that, but honestly how are you going to tell someone in the academic setting that they should believe God created the Earth by using "the Bible told me so"?
Me personally, I have struggled off and on with short panic attacks throughout my teenage years and even still every now and then.  That is what brought me to the book by Alcorn.  I think of eternity...floating on a cloud in a dark hazy space...singing (which I am not even good at let me just say)...and I start to panic.  I have never once gotten decent help from anyone in any of my churches for it, which isn't their fault necessarily.  But I have found great book resources that I do really think will help my solve my own doubts.  I am the type who cannot handle "the Bible tells me so".  Call me skeptical if you will, but there are just times I need a solid foundation (stone instead of sand anyone?). 
For a while I was in Intervarsity at my college.  I remember being in a training class that was supposed to get help us "spread the word to our peers".  About the time that the leader started drawing out circles with squiggly lines around them and stick people, and this was how I was supposed to tell my colleagues in the science department that God came to save their soul...I knew I was in trouble.
I am not saying that it isn't a cute way to tell people Christ died for them and took the hopelessness (or squiggly lines) out of the equation.  It's adorable, if you are ten years old.  But this is young adults we are talking this is some of the (arguably) better years of our thinking lives.  We are nearing the ages when the greats like Newton and Pascal and the lot were all inventing things and discovering gravity and whatnot.
This is the single worst time in a persons life to present them a cutesy dumbed down version.
And I really feel like to some extent various people have used this mentality for their entire outlook on Christianity and religion.  I consider myself pretty intelligent, not rocket scientist material but smart nonetheless.  And there's times when my brain flatlines with the way stuff like this is presented to me.  Those circles and squiggles quite frankly insulted my intelligence.  I have since turned to books like Lee Strobel's the Case for Faith (and others in the series), William Lane Craig (a prominent philosopher) and his book Reasonable Faith, and the book by Randy Alcorn. I do not understand why reading the Bible ends up equating to either being afraid of science or never trying to look at what your opponents are believing in and their arguments behind it.   I want to know about relativism, humanism, all the other isms that people are chasing these days and see what the thought is behind them.
I don't think religion and science can't mix.  I really don't.  My life in the science realm has quite frankly helped my religious stance.  I think it is imperative that Christians and similar start thinking again, start reading, studying, reflecting, etc.  There is so much that floats about like the idea that Heaven is floating around on clouds singing, when there is little to no Biblical literature to back that up, and plenty to suggest it is far more than that.  Religions all have a lot of issues these days no doubt, but miscommunication is going to be the worst of all (though tied with hypocrisy).
Newton, Pascal, many of the scientific greats were looking for different theories because they thought that they would prove God's existence.  Not necessarily to prove Christianity, but even they felt that there was so much more to life than random chance.  I am not by any means saying I am qualified to debate with someone on the reasonability of the existence of God, and I will leave that to people like William Lane Craig.  But if anyone ever hopes to reach my age group, and really most of the other people in the world, people are going to have to stop dumbing it down. 
My main reasoning for this is that a lot of times if you go to ask someone higher up or that has been in the Church longer a serious question or one that is deep about religion...they say go read your Bible.  Now that is a fine answer in some respects, but I have to wonder if they are saying that because they think you will get more out of it if you study it yourself...or because they really don't know any other answer except the Bible told them so...

It's Just Like if You Give a Mouse a Cookie

Alright hopefully everyone remembers the children's story about that moochie mouse that you give him a cookie and he ends up overstaying his welcome and eating you out of house and home, which just goes to show that you should never give someone something because inevitably you will have made a friend that you just don't want, right?
Story of my LIFE.
There's this dude I can't shake.  I have tried it all.  Ignoring him, blaring music through my earbuds, telling him I writing papers, making up literally every excuse to not have time to go out with him or hang out or anything like that.  I mean every excuse.  I am probably going to Hell for lying at this point.  I have been done with my assignments for school for weeks.  I mean WEEKS.  But I have had to keep this under wraps because he is a lot like a leech.
To paint a bit of a better picture, he is an Asian PhD student.  I won't mention names, if for no other reason other than I cannot pronouce, spell, or even remember his name at any given time.  I literally do not get this whole situation.  So many people have told me I am intimidating...apparently not.  I have literally no idea why I cannot get rid of him.  Some of the highlights:

• He asked me to go out and get Chinese food.  I am not sure if it is just because he is Asian but I literally had to choke back a laugh.  I said my roommate was making dinner for me (she wasn't)
• He invited me over to his apartment. This was actually before asking me out to dinner, and therefore skipping every step humanly possible.
• He asked me and a girl in my SI session no less than 8 times (it only lasts an hour) if we were hungry, said that we must be hungry it was so late, and similar comments.
• He said we were neighbors practically and asked me my room number (I pretended I did not hear exactly what he said and answered something vaguely similar about if I ever found time maybe I'd let him know)
• He asked me if I liked football, I said I rarely watch it (huge lie)
• He asked me how many credit hours I was taking next semester, I said 18 (I am currently registered for 12)
• He asked me if I ever go to the rec center, I said no (which is actually completely true)

Just today the question about the next semester courses happened, and I have LITERALLY been blaring music with my earbuds for three hours.  I have ignored him saying hi TWICE throughout the three hours, pretending I could not hear him due to the music.  The third time, he popped up right in front of my face to get my attention (maybe next time I should fake temporary blindness?)
I mean really what is a girl to do at this point?  I blame my mother for raising me to be to nice to tell him to go jump off a cliff! I am getting really good at photoshop, so I think my next step is going to be photoshopping myself into a picture with a really hot guy.  It makes me wonder how much he really watches football, because I wouldn't mind being photoshopped in next to Wes Welker...
Regardless, either movies lie, or this dude is an anomaly in the boy species.  He is not afraid of rejection (or just doesn't realize he is being rejected), he will absolutely not take no for an answer, and he is really good at catching you off guard in your conversation.  Persistent as the day is long.  And right now, this feels like the day that will NEVER end.
And if he lurks over my shoulder one more time...
I know, right, I said every post wouldn't be about nutcase boys...but they are just so easy to rant about.
AND to top all this off, he just asked me if I was listening to music...yes....hence the earbuds...
I worry about humanity.

Change your attitude, change your life.

I am one of those girls who probably could have an entire blog solely about crazy ex boyfriends, crazy guys asking me out, and similar topics.  Luckily, I am not the type of girl to only post about such topics.  But there's no reason we can't begin with one.  I was dating a guy off and on for six years, he ended up leaving me for the mother of his five cousins (cougar), which should explain why I could do an entire blog on stuff like this.  Technically I broke off the relationship, but he was long gone out of it way before I did.  They recently got married and I am not going to lie, it actually got me a little worked up again.  But I am a firm believer that everything happens for a reason, and this is no exception.
I got to thinking to myself, reminiscing on the relationship and I came to a couple of conclusions:

• It is very hard for a woman to admit she is wrong, and that a guy was actually not a good boyfriend at all.
• You end up missing the person you thought existed, even though they were pretending to be someone they weren't the whole time.
• It is much harder to get over things you cannot understand.  If I got left for Megan Fox, that is something I would understand completely.  :)
• And perhaps the best of all: Changing your attitude changes everything.

Yes, I could sit around and dwell on what happened and be annoyed that someone would do that, but does it solve anything? Nope.  Does it make me feel better? Nope.  What makes me feel better is knowing that his decisions do not still affect me, I have so many great friends and family, and have absolutely nothing holding me back.  And that is incredibly important to me.
I think so often we settle, especially women.  We get so scared we will not find someone else and we just settle.  Sometimes you just have to call it like it is.  The guy doesn't have a car or won't come pick you up? He better have a darn good reason.  The guy never wants to go out just the two of you and always wants to bring his family (aka his younger cousins) with you? Gigantic red flag.  TLC tried to tell us years ago with their song "Scrubs".
The fact of the matter is the good guys are hard to find, the sucky ones are a dime a dozen.  But you wouldn't buy a lemon of a vehicle just because there were more on the lot than the good ones.  So why get a lemon of a boyfriend? This might be one of the hardest things for women to learn and do, to stick to their guns, not be afraid to move on, and to not settle for anything less than they deserve.
You teach someone how to treat you by letting them get away with things.
Sometimes you just have to let your heart soften back up.  The stone cold thing can work for a while, but the more you dwell on something the more it affects your life. I do believe it was Eleanor Roosevelt who said "No one can make you feel inferior without your consent".

Welcome

I think everyone needs a little haven, so welcome to mine.  I may get on a few rants here and there, maybe a soapbox or two, but I think it is important to have opinions.  Right or wrong, I would rather talk to someone with opinions than a person who never thinks, or doesn't care about anything.
As for a little bit about me, I am studying Geographic Information Sciences (think Google Earth), and when I am not being technological or sciencey I like to craft things.  I have recently found a lot of enjoyment in taking old materials (bottlecaps, old jewelry, old belt embellishments, etc) and turning them in to new jewelry and wearables.  Does it make a lot of difference in the world? Maybe not, but it sure is a fun hobby!
I am also in love with almost everything on the food network. Cooking is an interesting way to express yourself and experiment.  My theory to life is pretty much find something you enjoy, find something you are good at, and stick with it.  I usually say "find something you are good at and stick with it" almost in a joking manner to people, but there is a lot of truth behind it.  Everyone can succeed at something.
I may never have anyone following this, it will almost certainly never be made into a movie, but it will help me keep myself in check and express what I can.  Let the blogging begin.