"...no dead end in sight..."

still here

I'm still here. I just haven't had time to post a proper update. Or rather, I had an update about a week ago but Typepad upchucked it and in a flash three pages of blog post turned into nothing.

There are also lots of photos to upload, and eventually print, as I am determined to scrapbook at some point in the month of September. Scrapbooking means updating LCL but we'll see.

Grad school is a beast. I hate groupwork. Especially with people who are my intellectual inferiors. Am also determined during the month of September to try to be more tolerant and understanding of people who are dumber than me. We'll see how that goes.

I wrote out a September calendar in the style of Martha Stewart magazine's September calendar, and according to today I should have been scrapbooking. Oops. Finances don't allow it, babehs. Tomorrow is supposed to be dessert making. We shall see how that goes.

If it sounds like I'm tired it's because it has been a long forty-eight hours. But I'm slowly coming back on the up and up <3

hilarity during MSA app

I'm applying online for the University of Phoenix. A little annoyed that I don't get scholarship money from being a married white woman who already has a bachelor's degree who wants to further my education. I'm not gay, a little person, have some debilitating autoimmune disorder, a minority, a single mother, or space alien, so I get no scholarship, apparently. For the first time evar I feel really discriminated against.

Why can't we all just level the playing field? Who cares what color you are (or, even worse, if you have a sob story [just like everyone else] that you've managed to "overcome"? OMG I HAVE A HANGNAIL I NEED MONEY FROM THE HANGNAIL SCHOLARSHIP FUND PLZKTHX)? I think they should ask two basic things: 1) an identification number; 2) stats of how smart you are. No backstory, no excuses as to why you couldn't succeed the first time, no quotas, no nothing. Smart people should be rewarded for being smart, and stupid people should be given the tools to make themselves smarter. No exceptions. BAM.

Maybe everyone should get awarded a set amount of government assistance, regardless of income or religion or number of freckles, based solely upon their GPA (or equivalent, if they didn't graduate high school and got a GED or similar), and of course they would have the option to refuse the money if their parents could afford it. 

Maybe those who don't have high enough GPAs but still need the money the most (or those who are brilliant, get the money, but it's not enough - say, those applying for medical school) could sign a contract that, upon their graduation, they will commit to (x) many years of government work in their chosen field to pay the government back for the cash, in a location of the government's choosing based on communities' need? Wouldn't that be easier than just saying HERE PEOPLE TAKE MONEY? It would be rewarding the community and getting kids educated, all in one fell swoop.

NOT ALL SMART PEOPLE GO TO COLLEGE EITHER. I am not aligning intelligence with that silly piece of paper, although look around and realize that society sure does. I think some of the smartest people I've ever met work in blue-collar technical jobs, and some of the dumbest walk around with doctorates. Also, there is a difference between being ignorant and being stupid. Ignorance is when you recognize your stupidity and realize it can be fixed with education. True stupidity is terminal.

Also, I'm really annoyed that I didn't have the sense to get pregnant in high school so I could get scholarship money to reward me for being careless and/or promiscuous years later. It's not having a live human baby out of wedlock, it's an investment in your future! *thumbs up :D

I'm willing to apply for essay-type stuff but in the grand scheme of things considering the thousands of applicants it looks like this is going to be a huge student loan that will hopefully get paid back when I kick the CPA exam in its mighty brass cojones and land an awesome job someplace. I want to start the Saturday after Labor Day and hopefully that will happen.

Determination is one thing, but realizing I can't continue succeeding in my current career path is more along the lines of desperation. I've got to do something about it, though, or it's my own fault if I'm unhappy.

current events, container gardening

I love this commercial!! I don't think it necessarily makes me want a JITB smoothie, but it's rather entertaining XD
I have been rather manic depressive lately. Wednesdays are usually a bad day but I was at the doc all day Monday (long story short, I'm fine, as the details are probably way too TMI anyway) so maybe that's why I was all grumpy Tuesday instead. Now it's Thursday and I keep meaning to post an update, but alas, you know how that goes.
Lately the impatient obsessing side of my personality has kicked in and I'm guilty of mad envy when it comes to Things That are Unreasonable Right Now. Maybe in another six months. It will still be there, I keep telling myself. If it is meant to be a part of your life, it will still be there, ie: calm the heck down, stupid. It's like, I have the rest of my life to be a Big Kid so I need to just enjoy this time of my life. Be more Tao and focus on the moment, instead of dwelling on what I don't have or what I probably really don't need.
Anyway.
Everybody is all like OMG AMERICAN IDOL. I'm like "who cares?". When the first season aired I was a freshman in college, living in an all-girls' dorm (don't ask), and it was the big thing to get together in somebody's room and watch AI because it was a new thing. We watched Justin and Kelly and I remember where I was when the last episode aired and it was exciting. But now? What's the draw? They're all great musicians from the projects or similar who are looking for their big break, a quick fix that will be a fast track to Hollywood and an easy, well-funded life. I'm pretty sure things like that don't readily happen to the other 249,999,999 people in this country. It seems as though shows like AI are just promoting the instant gratification, no-work, overindulgent lifestyle that has made the US a country of spoiled, lazy infants. And I'll include myself in that description as I'm not exempt from that attitude at times.
Okay and now that I'm off my soapbox I read this article yesterday about Shanna Moakler resigning from stupid beauty pageant world and I was impressed. I watched their little reality show and I didn't peg her for the type to have ideals. Certainly not the type to stand up for them and to quit because she's apparently so disgusted by Trump letting the little harlot hypocrite Miss CA keep her crown. Heck, if it had been me caught with topless photos on the 'net I would have resigned out of embarrassment and some attempt to retain my dignity. But I'm a Texas girl, I guess.
I sold my xbox 360 on Ebay and now that it's not here I don't really miss it. It's a first step to pare down my life, make things simpler. In the long run I'm not sure what that will accomplish but it will make me feel lighter, I think.
Looking ahead to this weekend: I have to go back to the blood lab place for more testings (follow-up from an appointment with the gastroenterologist last month -_-), and Saturday night my mando teacher has told me one of his other students is having a jam someplace in Irving. Other than that...I haven't really thought ahead to what I'd need to get knocked out. I renewed my car sticker online so I think mostly it's just going to be a lot of cleaning and straightening and laundry. 
OH ALSO I was watering my plants last night and I think a couple of the big pots can be replanted, so I might stop by Calloway's on Saturday morning and see if they have any hot weather-tolerant lovelies. Specifically, flowers, as the ones I have now are pretty but I need some more color variation. Or I may just transplant the lima bean and tomato plants that are growing in the living room so I can finally put the plant light back in the closet for another year and vaccuum all the stray potting soil from the carpet. I think if the weather turns out well it will be an excellent weekend for balcony-container gardening.
I keep saying to myself that I will post photos so we shall see! Happy living everybody!

nortx wildfires

This was taken Thursday evening as I was driving home from work - the downtown Dallas skyline. Just think how thick the air must have been in Bowie (or even Ft. Worth!) if this was how bad it was a hundred miles away. It made an otherwise beautiful day incredibly overcast and hazy-looking, and the air outside reeked of burning leaves or similar.

I have photos from this weekend's Food Experiment to post, and they are even uploaded to my computer, but my guts are hurty again today and plus we are about to go to bed. Both counts require me to lay down and/or sleep, so I will post photos tomorrow, in the midst of making Easter bread and trying to fix my planned main meal, which I have botched (but that is also another story for tomorrow's food post)! Good night, lovelies! <3

okay so really quick!

I downloaded a few select pics from Gucci's spring-summer 2009 collection that I am going to use to base my summer wardrobe from. Seriously, I need new clothes, and that is not just me being a stupid girly-girl. I need to clean out my closet, finally take that bag of Goodwill clothes from the hall and give it away, and then go shopping like a fiend.

In an earlier post I discussed an Einstein Brothers rant, which I guess really isn't a rant. It's more like, I went in last Friday looking for something delicious to eat on the way to work, and walked out with one of their Santa Fe wraps, which in spite of an overpowering influx of ancho chile flavor was pretty tasty. Although! I give it a 3/5 total because this is NOT something you eat in the car. I almost spilled it all over myself, and driving 65 mph down the freeway with half a burrito in my lap steering the car with my pinky finger is just asking for a ticket. Or a wreck :P

After a lot of thought - I don't understand why people are so obsessed with Twitter. I really don't. I am more obsessed with my friends' Facebook statuses (statii? o.o) and I can't comprehend why it's suddenly such a HUGE HIT! I also think making up their own jargon (tweeting) to describe the act of posting self-absorbed stuff on Twitter seems to be along the line of parents making up euphemisms for their little children to explain body parts (and you all know what I'm talking about). Maybe I'm just completely missing the point of this. I wish someone would explain the appeal to me. I mean, I love jumping on the intarwebs bandwagon. I just don't get it.

Also, there is something off about my body and I don't know what it is. I am going in for more tests, so wish me luck :( The medicine is working, I think, but I still have the hurting and that is no bueno. The next few days are going to be insaaaanely busy so we shall see what's up probably by Mondaytime.

And...I think that's all, for now. Time to get beautious for work~