Recall Walker

Don't worry guys I'm not talking about recalling Walker Texas Ranger. Who could live without his amazingly fake round house kicks? Not me that's for sure. (oh and don't tell chuck norris I think his kicks are fake, the man scares the bajeezus out of me.) Anywho, the walker I am talking about is currently our state governor and in case none of you have noticed nearly every college student and teacher in wisconsin hates his guts. Now, as a college student myself I might be so inclined to hate him too. I mean, he is sucking funds from schools that can be used to fuel my education. But who needs an education anyways? Later on in life when my boss asks me why I can't spell supercalifragilisticexpialidocious i'll blame it on Walker. (Actually I'll blame it on society as a whole because i'm pretty sure no school in america teaches you how to spell that word.) HOWEVER, Wikipedia does. God bless Wikipedia. Moving on, for that reason i would be inclined to dislike our governor just like everyone else. But, taking a step back we can analyze this situation from a different non-college perspective. In reality the man is doing what no other person has had to the guts (and dare i say smarts?) to do. Essentially Walker is attempting to save Wisconsin from the depths of debt. Which is good, yes? I do agree he may be pulling funds from the wrong places, like colleges, but he's doing it for the kiiiiiiind of right reasons. If were to be sympathetic to his cause. Think about it, most of you are planning to have children (nodding. yes.) So since they obviously won't have the opportunity to be living in a debt free america (face it guys Obama is not changing anything for the good of the people.) < Now a recall obama petition, thats a good idea. Anyways, not my point, if right now Walker is working to pull wisconsin out of debt and cut loose spending habits then in the future when there are no more budget cuts and fund pulling and wisconsin is happily surrounded by a sea of debt, but not a part of it, wouldn't that be good? Can we not sacrifice some of our money right now to provide for the future of our kids. So far people have pretty much left shit for a country and a state for us to live in, so why is it now that someone is trying to not leave shit for the future are people rebelling and getting angry? It's like the ozone layer guys, we could keep polluting and polluting until the ozone layer rips so large we get sucked into outer space... okay i dont know if that would actually happen. OR, we could stop polluting (spending money) and not get sucked into space (debt.) See that analogy right there? Pure genius. My point is, give the man a break, hes helping Wisconsin in a roundabout way. Isn't that what we ask for in a governor?

100 miles

For the past three months my boyfriend has been consistently 100 miles away from me and i hate it. For the one and a half years that we were dating before we went off to different colleges we lived five minutes apart. Now, we live more than an hour apart and neither of us really has much time or means to get to each other. In the past three months we've seen each other three times, me going to him twice, him coming to me once. It hasn't been bad, I mean i've missed him like crazy but we've worked through it, we've endured. I've been optimistic. Until now.

Dont' get me wrong i still love the boy like crazy. I can still see me marrying him, starting a family, and living happily ever after. But in the month that i have been unable to see him i worry what he's been thinking. He's a guy.. i feel like they, by inheritance, have a wandering eye. I can't say that i haven't myself. Of course i haven't cheated on him but sure i've thought a couple times how much more easy it would be if i wasn't dating him. Less hurt, less worry, less stress. But i know hes worth it, i know i want to be with him. Does he want to be with me? Friday i was talking to him and he said he was going to bed so i said good night, i love you. I was expecting reciprocated feelings but all i got was a "k night." K night, ouch. so i said uhm thanks? and he said love you. Like it hurt him to say it. He was drunk at the time, or at least coming down from that, but still. drunk words are sober thoughts? and today i mentioned that two days was too long to wait to see him and he said it was punny. not miss you too, or i know. just punny. I'm trying to not get worked up over it but i am and i feel like i cant say anything to him about it because he'll just deny it and call me crazy. and maybe i am but if i am going crazy its because of this 100 miles.

Patrick

This is going to be a boring post because I cant really think of anything to say and its 11:41 and I need to wake up for this class at 7am tomorrow. So I'm not really inclined to think of anything really exciting to write about. So I'm going to write about Patrick and the dilemma I have involving him. For the record Patrick is my fish. And he is very awesome. Life with Patrick has been a really good time. He lights up my desk and gets really excited when I come sit down. (Which is very funny.) He also has a plant at the top of his tank so I get the added burst of oxygen around my desk (except not really because I'm pretty sure I'm slowly killing that plant.) In any case, my latest dilemma with Patrick is that I need to figure out what I am going to do with him when I go home for thanksgiving. There is the option where I could put him in a small container and bring him home with me and then bring him back. Unfortunately, I live four hours away and I don't think that much travel is very good for a fish. So, my other option is to leave him at school for 5 or more days and hope he survives that long without food. I've done small amounts of research on this and supposedly he can live that long without food because Bettas are opportunistic eaters. This means that they eat whenever they can and if they cant then they wait it out. So. I could feed him a lot the day I leave and then wish him the best. That just seems kind of cruel though, I would be so upset if I came back and found out Patrick died. (Granted I have a one year warranty on him.) But I've grown rather attached to Patrick and would not want to initiate that warranty if I don't have to. So I'm stuck. My mom suggested an automatic feeder but that seemed kind of ridiculous. In reality, I need to figure this out anyways cause I cant leave him here for the whole of christmas break. Perhaps I'll let my imagination run loose. In case it doesn't though, anybody have any ideas?

vegetarianism?

for the past few years of my life i have thought that someday I'm going to become a vegetarian. (shh dont tell my dad.) Coming from a meat and potatoes kind of family i suppose it is kind of surprising that i want this. However, i do in fact want it. (Mostly because i feel bad about all the ways the poor animals I'm consuming are treated.) So anyways, since I'm bored and don't feel like doing any other homework I've decided to create a comparison between the pros and cons of vegetarianism. Starting with the pros..

To begin with if i became a vegetarian one really good thing would be that i wouldn't be eating animals anymore. Animals that are mistreated and murdered just so i can eat a cheeseburger. (super depressing when you think about it.) Another great thing is that i could get sit all high and mighty with my strictly vegetable diet and give people who are mowing down on a steak very dirty looks (dont try to deny it all vegetarians do it.) Another good thing about being a vegetarian is that i would be healthier. Generally plants and other delicious green things don't contain any source of fat or other gross things that could pack on the pounds. Oh, another good thing is that i wouldn't have to worry about parasites and other disgusting worms crawling around in your body from sushi and other gross foods. (take that mad cows disease.) I get to avoid osteoporosis, kidney stones, diabetes, multiple sclerosis, arthritis, gum disease, and acne. Above all since vegetarianism is a pretty hot topic right now and kind of trendy there are a lot of easy substitutes that you can find if you have the time and resources. 

Moving on to the cons. The obvious one is that i wouldn't be able to eat meat anymore. (although i have been saying it makes me sad most of the time because i'm eating animals i would still miss food like bacon, and steak, and hamburgers.) These are just too good how could i not miss them? Becoming a vegetarian also means i would need to be motivated to do so, although there are a lot of easy substitutes (even at UW-Stout) they may not always be appealing. And i would have to make myself not give in to the smell of bacon and burgers (yum/ew) so conflicting. Some people say when you cut out meat from your diet your likely to have a lot less protein. This means for most vegetarians it is essential to take vitamins and other supplements to make sure they stay at the peak of their health. In addition, most people who go vegetarian dont plan out their diet very well and end up just eating junk food that isn't really good for them at all. This can lead to weight gain and eventually giving up on vegetarianism because 'there isn't enough to eat.' 

Taking all these into consideration i dont think i'm ready to make this life changing decision yet but i think someday i'll at least try. just for the heck of it. 

Why Midterms Suck...

Since I've been sitting on my butt in front of my computer for about.. three hours now doing homework relating to tests and essays and speeches and other fun things. I thought it was prime time to go on a rant about school.. and why it sucks for ever creating the notion that students need to be tested half way through the semester on what they know. Right now I know that I'm going to rip my hair out. However, if i put that on an exam i would probably fail. I want to meet the masochistic jerk who thought that all teachers shoveling tests and essays and speeches down our throat all in the same week was a good idea. Because right about now i'm pretty sure i would do very unspeakable things to him or her. How in the world do people expect us to not drown in all the work they are making us do in such a short period? I mean obviously were going to procrastinate and put it off until the last second and if your one of those people who do all their homework like three weeks before its due; i hate you. I wish I wasn't a procrastinator i really do, but how can you not be in college? There are so many more things that can be done besides homework. Like watching scary movies on halloween (which all my friends are currently doing while i'm holed up in my room like some sort of homework gremlin.) It would be so much better if I didn't live in some state of denial. Oh yeah you can get this homework done if you do it tomorrow.. or the next day.. .or the next day.. I'm pretty sure i'm going to start talking to myself pretty soon and then people will really think i've lost it. 

Another thing that really sucks is my whiteboard list. I swear it grows on its own accord, i'll be doing some homework, being productive and getting stuff done and when i finish i'll stand up and cheer and then remember that i have something else to do. So rather than been excited and throwing a party when i erase something off my list i grab my marker and write something else. What this basically has made me discover is that i need a bigger whiteboard because i could go on and on and on with my to do list. I remember when i was a little kid and i always dreamed of being a big kid and do lots of homework and being responsible. Well now i've officially determined i was crazy for wanting that and curse the day my little lips ever wished for it. At this very moment I am really excited that in a few sentences i'm going to end this and erase 'BLOG POST' from my whiteboard.. hopefully i wont have to add anything else because space is tight guys and thats no joke. Midterms were probably the worst thing ever invented and i'm just thinking that two months i'll probably be thinking the same thing about final exams.. oh joy. 

Not for Women

Lately I've been hearing rumors about a certain soda that had presented a new advertising tactic. However, I did not believe it until this sunday when I was obliviously watching the football game and an add popped up in the bottom of the screen. "Dr Pepper 10-Not for Women." I don't know about you but I think this is seriously offending. I mean seriously, how stupid can you get? How can Dr. Pepper believe that advertising such a sexist soda could possibly go over well with the general public. Especially with all the laws America has these days preventing just that sort of thing. Quite honestly I'm surprised they haven't gotten their butts sued yet. If someone can sue over a spilled cup of hot coffee I'm pretty sure they can take someone to court over a very sexist soda advertisement. Did Dr. Pepper have a death wish here? I don't even like the drink very much (23 flavors my butt, it tastes like cherry coke) but I would still drink it but after their little stunt going on now I'm certainly thinking about boycotting it. Women all over America are pissed and it's not just them. Men aren't happy either.

Since the commercials first started airing at the beginning of October the perception ratings of Dr. Pepper have decreased detrimentally and not just from women although their ratings went from 32.9 to 18.4 (which if you didn't notice is almost a 50% decrease.) Men aren't taking to kindly to the sexist advertisements either their ratings went from 21.5 to 16.4 and this was all on the same day the advertisement premiered. I'm pretty sure as the word was further spread the ratings have probably dropped more. Now of course some people get the 'joke' and say Dr. Pepper is just poking fun. Of course that's what the company itself is saying to. They said before the advertisement even aired they tested it on the two different genders and said they reacted well to it although that seems unlikely now. On the Dr. Pepper's facebook page a few commenters also agreed it was all just fun and games and women would either drink it anyways or drink it just to prove the commercial wrong. Either way it appears to me that the majority of the world is unhappy with this new advertising tactic the suicidal company had come up with and something tells me soon it'll be Dr. Pepper 10 - Not for Sale.

Can I get a PIN?

has anyone ever lost a really important password? Like the password to your computer or a website you hardly check but is still maddeningly important? Thats what I did tonight, well actually it was my mom, yeah I'm going to blame it on her. I'm a teenager, nothing is my fault yet. Anyway, so there is this silly little process getting in the way of my paying for college. And that silly something is affectionately referred to as 'loan counseling' cant you hear the angels singing? No, good cause I can't either. For those who are involved with FAFSA and are receiving loans that will sooner rather than later bury you in the ground you know what I'm talking about. For those of you who don't know loan counseling is the schools way of informing us that sooner rather than later we will get buried under a pile of bills, and then we get to answer questions based on that fun fact, yay! Not really, so anyway since our full school payment is due in around two days I decided i better get my butt in gear and do some fun loan counseling so I don't end up an educationless hobo. So I get to this site and I click the giant neon green SIGN IN button and go about my business. Until that is, I get to this lovely little box that says 'PIN.' Now usually this wouldn't pose a problem if I knew the PIN number in which this little box wanted. Unfortunately, I didn't know this "PIN" and thats where my problems began.

So naturally I called my mother and was like "yo, what be my pin?" and of course she was like "oh sweet child your pin is etc etc etc." But who are we kidding? My mom knew the pin just as well as I know where I leave my cell phone every morning (good thing my roommate always tells me where it is.) Not to be deterred I was like "no big deal mom" and I click this helpful looking 'recover pin' button and go on my merry way. Little did I know I just ejected myself into a chaotic mess of numbers, dates, questions, and the stupidity of forgetting a pin. First I tried to reapply for my pin and that didn't work because of some silly security question (yelling MY MOTHERS MAIDEN NAME IS JAR@#$@SKI at the computer for five minutes didn't help.) So I decided to try something new, aha I said to myself all excited, i clicked the 'apply for a new pin' button like I'm some sort of genius. So I type in my information and click submit and this stupid error message comes up saying that I've already entered that information and they have a pin on record for me. So I click next and get to the same security question, not helpful. At this point in my conversation with my mom I'm swearing left and right and I'm pretty sure if she was next to me I'd have a bar of soap in my mouth. My dad is yelling because he's watching a TV show and he wants to unpause it. My mom is yelling because he's yelling and I think I heard my dogs bark in there somewhere. My life has unfolded into chaos over a four digit number. So I take a calming breath and release my mother from her pin hunting duties say goodnight to my raging father and return to the quest all by myself. I go in to apply for a new pin again and this time I don't request the PIN I want and let fate spin out of control and push submit. After that I get an email notifying me where my PIN is (answer a security question correctly) and get my PIN! Excitedly I go back to where I insert my PIN to successfully complete my loan counseling so I insert all the information and wait for the page to load... but the only thing I get is something saying my PIN is not yet verified and to come back in 48-72 hours. I hate PINs... 

To change a culture...

anyone ever see the movie the invention of lying? If you haven't it's basically about a society of people that never ever lie. However, eventually one person discovers the awesome power of lying. The best part about one person in the world lying when everyone else tells the truth is that everyone believes you. At one point in the movie this guy goes to the bank and even though he has absolutely no money in his account he tells them he has 300 dollars and instantly its there. Anyways this is not the basis of my newest blog post although it is somewhat related. Has anyone ever thought of what it would take to change the culture of america? To wipe out one ideal everyone abides by and completely change it? If it was even possible? 

Think about it, what if tomorrow the government made a new law that made everyone have to tell the truth all the time. Do you think people would actually listen to it? Probably not, unless we had some weird brain implants that made it so the government could hear our every word and thoughts, oh wait thats the cell phone... just kidding. Anyway, lying is so embedded into american culture i think it would be nearly impossible to make people stop doing it altogether. Even things that we dont really consider lies, like telling someone they look great in an outfit when really they look like a wrapped sausage, would be deemed illegal. But if you think about it these lies are really considered social norms and used as methods of politeness. So if you tell your wrapped sausage friend whats on your mind thats considered rude and improper, but lying is technically frowned down upon as well. Its a very convoluted  system we run around here. But to program that out of peoples brains seems nearly impossible. It would take generations upon generations just for people to forget that they ever lied in the first place. And then there might always be that one person who discovered the beauty of lying again that would mess up the whole system once more. 

Obesity linked to stupidity?

Not to long ago I was relaxing on my futon in my dorm room watching t.v and munching on a bowl of cereal. I so happened to have on TLC and was watching a documentary on the worlds largest dad, or something like that. This man weighed almost 1000 pounds! However, this is not the subject of my newest blog post. Before the show changed to a commercial it spewed one of the most disturbing statistics I have ever heard in my entire life. Are you ready for this? Here we go: "Last year Americans spent more money on fast food than they did on higher education." Lets let that sink in for a second..... okay. Any college students who may be reading this, do you know how much you or your parents are spending on college a year? UW-Stout's tuition is around 14,000 dollars a year, thats a lot of money out of pocket for your education. Now lets say there are around 10,000 students that go to this college all paying that tuition. That comes to around 140,000,000 dollars. Now if there are 26 campuses in wisconsin(lets say there are the same amount of students paying the same tuition) that would come to 3,640,000,000. That is a lot of money on higher education and that's just in wisconsin, don't even ask me to to calculate all the states combined together you can do that yourself. Can you believe that americans spend more than 49 x 3,640,000,000 dollars on fast food a year. No wonder why everyone is so fat!

Now don't get me wrong I'm not really calling fat people stupid but think of how the frequent fast food goers money could be better used rather than on a hamburger. If everyone pushes higher education on the new generations of teenagers getting ready to leave college how can we justify spending more money on something as stupid and gross as fast food. No wonder why America is considered the most obese country. Does Japan even have fast food? Their smart and skinny! I think this is saying something. America needs to get rid of all their fast food, eat rice, only have two kids, and get smarts shoved down their throats... Alright maybe nothing that extreme. I'm just saying this statistic is a little ridiculous, can we work on this america?

Not so Subtle

I've been thinking these past few days about something I want to write for this blog, I wanted to express creativity and originality.... let me tell you now I'm thinking that my goal is nearly impossible. Every single topic that can be picked apart, prodded, and gossiped over is already taken. I guess that says something about America, we have nothing else better to do than gossip about inconsequential things. I, on the other hand, would prefer to gossip about important things although what I classify as important may differ from what you call important. I don't enjoy talking about which celebrity married who or for that matter whether Snookie hooked up with some girl last week. However, I do enjoy music and although that seems like one of the 'inconsequential' things I was talking about there is this rather interesting song I've recently discovered. It's called Handlebars by Flobots and if you haven't listened to it yet you should. And don't sit there and think you know what the song is about because you know the opening line, NEWS FLASH: everyone does. All I'm asking you do to is sit there and listen. 


http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HLUX0y4EptA

Intense right? I'm sure I'm not the only one who picked up on the not so subtle message behind this song. The band is practically screaming at us to listen, and if you do listen it certainly hits home. Toward the middle/end of the song it really starts shifting to what they are really trying to get across. Honestly thinking about how true of a song it is is kind of scary. Think about it, what's a major factor of electing our presidents to date? Their public speaking and promises. Do they lead the country with a microphone? Yes. Can they guide a missile by satelite? Yes. Hit a target through a telescope? Yes. With all the technology lying at the hands of the worlds most powerful men you think we'd be a little more worried about what may lie ahead. Perhaps not a holocaust, but I'm pretty positive every worldly leader now has nuclear elements under their control, its really only a matter of time until a 3rd world war breaks loose. I don't think we stop enough to think about what our world is coming to in the hands of the people we choose to lead us, but it is rather fascinating to think about isn't it?