gift buying time is upon us

Buying everyone Christmas gifts is always hard. You want to find them something they really want, but there’s not much time to do it in, especially if you’re like me and in grad school. There’s not even enough time to sleep! So you definitely don’t want to hit up the mall. There’ll be swarms of people and no parking. With the internet, you don’t have to worry about any of that. There are, of course, multiple places to do your online shopping and one of those sites is http://www.opticsplanet.net/. There you can find a wide-variety of outdoorsy or sports-related gifts. Get the direction-challenged person in your life one of those GPS devices! They also have tons of flashlights and everyone can use a flashlight. I know I need one to dig out all the toys my cat shoves under the fridge! Depending on what you buy, you might qualify for free shipping. And even better, you only have to pay sales tax if you live in Illinois.



This post is sponsored

oh what fun

About two weeks ago, I decided I might like to have the evening off. So I asked someone to cover my shift after the dinner break. I wasn't sure that I would need the time off for anything. I figured if I didn't really need to do anything, it would at least still be nice to get some sleep and maybe do a little cleaning up. Now I'm very glad I have it off. I got back comments on my paper yesterday. What I wrote was really good, but the professor thinks I need to add more to the discussion and conclusion sections. So that's what I'll be doing this weekend. No sleep for me.

Johnny Depp

I like a lot of Johnny Depp movies, so it’s hard to pick a favorite. I know a lot of people didn’t like Secret Window, but I actually did. Johnny Depp plays Mort Rainey, an author. Maybe I like it because he’s a writer. My favorite part is when he starts screaming about how he can prove he didn’t steal someone else’s story. He offers up the "proof" of a magazine that the story was printed in (unfortunately for Mort, the pages have been ripped out of the magazine). The best line from the movie is "I have the magazine, you lunatic. I have the magazine. I have the goddamn magazine!"

I also really enjoyed Edward Scissorhands, in which Depp had the title role. My sister and I used to watch that movie all the time. Especially when we were out of school for the summer. It played on cable a lot back then. It’s so much fun to watch him giving suburban housewives haircuts with the same scissorhands that sculpt the shrubs. The way hair and branches fly is simply amazing. The haircuts all look great while the shrubs are nothing less than works of art. But the ending is so sad; he goes to his castle all alone.

So which is better? While Secret Window definitely has some great scenes, I think Edward Scissorhands is the overall better movie. All these years later, I still love the talent he has with his scissors. Plus, the plot is more moving. The sadness and love from Edward is better than the anger and insanity from Mort.

And now Depp has a new movie coming out called Sweeney Todd. I’m very excited for that one. I’ve never seen Sweeney Todd on stage, but have always wanted to. The plot sounds awesome. I don’t see many movies in the theatre, but this one I’ll go see.



visit the official Sweeney Todd movie site

visit Sweeney Todd on MySpace

resume workshop

Well, the pizza was a bit disappointing. Lukewarm and from Papa John's--probably my least favorite pizza. But then again, it was free.

And I talked to someone about my resume. She had some good ideas on how to cut back on the number of lines used. She also said that if I expand the descriptions (and brag about myself a little more) that a two-page resume would be fine. So I'm going to play with it a bit. See what I like. Then I'll bring it back in. They have quite a few more workshops on the calendar--hopefully the pizza will be fresh when I come in next time!

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your very own business cards

I’ve just discovered something I hadn’t even thought about before; but when you think about it, it does make sense. Regular businesses hand out business cards to people, so why shouldn’t writers? Writers probably don’t because printing the cards can be expensive, but now they don’t have to be. There’s a company out there offering professional-looking business cards for the cost of shipping. According to the website shipping is less than $6 for a regular delivery of 100 cards. I think the shipping cost is worth it when you think about the extra revenue you might be able to bring in once you start passing out cards!

Here's the company's link: 100 FREE business cards

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This post is sponsored

emo kids

If you thought the Seattle hipsters and Tri-City girls who make out with their boyfriends were bad, you should try the Spokane emo kids!! I'll take the hipsters over them any day (esp. since now you can't smoke in bars). Apparently the hip new thing is to take pictures of yourself at the show using your camera phone. The band even commented on it. I bet if I did a search on MySpace, I'd find a bunch of those "Me at my first rawk show!!" pictures. Maybe next time they'll actually watch the band. I don't see how you can say you "saw" Anberlin when you spent the entire time taking giggly pictures that you then showed to your friends and giggled some more about. Oh yeah, and get a haircut already.

P.S. When we have Dashboard sing-a-long time, don't sing if you don't know the lyrics.

aw, it's pretty

Wow, there are some amazing looking garages on this site http://www.carguygarage.com/gaflti.html. My favorite one is http://us.st11.yimg.com/us.st.yimg.com/I/yhst-81563436181518_1977_20539540 …though I might also be slightly attracted to the car as well!

I do not have a garage with anything like this. Boring, boring concrete with a stain from where my car drip, drip, drips something. My guess is oil, but I really wouldn’t know. These tiles look like they’d clean up easily, which would be nice. I suppose I’d have to give the company a call, but since the pieces are interlocking I would think it’d be easy to remove the floor so you could take it with you when you move. I move a lot, so that would be a concern of mine. Wouldn’t want someone else to get to use my fancy new floor just months after it was installed! If it can be removed and then reinstalled in a different garage, this would be nice to have. So if you've got a garage, check it out.

garage flooring

snow!

And the first real snow of the season has hit Spokane. Of course, we all had to freak out about it and not remember how to drive even though this happens every year. I'm so glad my drive to and from work is not at the peak times. People can't drive even in perfect conditions; it's so much worse when there's snow.

Woohoo!! PayPerPost

A while back I saw an article in the Seattle P-I (my favorite of my four daily newspapers!) about people who were getting paid to blog. PayPerPost was one of the companies mentioned in the article. I love to write and like money even more, so I decided to check it out. PayPerPost looked like a good company, so I decided to sign up. And now here I am!

I’m still new to this, so I haven’t taken any of the opportunities (besides of course, this first one), but so far it looks like there are quite a few. Some of them pay quite well. I’m looking forward to making some extra money, which will go towards all the silly things I end up spending my money on when I really should be spending it on my grad school tuition! But first things first, paying off the credit card I charged the laser hair removal on!

In all, I’m excited to be a new PayPerPost member. I quite enjoy blogging, so I think this will be fun. Plus, getting to blog about different subjects satisfies my crazy desire to research. I’ll get presented with a new topic, research it, blog about what I’ve learned, and make some money!

And guess what? You can join too!

get paid to blog

fancy new phone

I don't change phones everytime the trendy new one comes out, I actually haven't changed phones in three years! But I think I've dropped my phone too many times. It's doing weird things, like turning itself off. T-Mobile lets you change phones for nearly free if you sign an additional two year contract. So I did, and now my fancy new phone is being shipped to me for the mere sum of $18. Best thing I see about it is that it's not as big as my current phone.

resume time?

I wasn't going to go to the upcoming resume workshop at school, but then I found out there's going to be pizza. I'll show up to nearly anything if it involves free food! And then I started thinking, it has been a while since I really updated my resume and I'm definitely going to be wanting to send it out in about seven months. So it probably would be beneficial to go. One thing I need to find out is how to balance education with work experience. I have three different degrees to list, which seems excessive on a one page resume. Maybe it's time for the two page resume.

cheesecake balls!

Tragedy struck a while back when I discovered Sonic was no longer selling strawberry cheesecake balls. I loved those things. Today I was informed that Arby's has raspberry cheesecake balls. I'm completely thrilled. I can only hope they taste as good. And if they do, Arby's had better keep them on the menu!!

there's things that aren't worth giving up

Procrastinating Your Novel 101

decide you need to "live" more
decide you can't possibly write the middle until you've figured out the end

Procrastinating Your Novel 102

decide your broken-hearted state is no condition to write a romance
abandon novel

Procrastinating Your Novel 201

decide your new murder mystery must be crime scene accurate
decide current course load won't allow for criminology course or reading
delay novel until grad school over
decide there's more money to be made in magazines anyway (or at least that it's more immediate)

Procrastinating Your Magazine Article 101

well, of course, you have to research all those potential markets first!

for your amusement

So I’m having fun with this website: http://www.freerice.com/

Don’t know how much it really helps people who need food, but it does help improve your vocab. My vocab level is 41; what’s yours?

yummy food, but...

I decided to try out one of those meal-prep places that seem to be gaining in popularity. I went to Cena since it's the closest to my place. I enjoyed the experience. They provide beverages and cookies while you prepare your food. It was definitely nice to have all the ingredients right there ready to go and to have them clean up after me. But now that it's all home, I've found one little problem: I still don't like to cook! This kitchen is terrible for one. And even though I didn't have to figure where to prep the food in the limited amount of space I have or clean up after preparing the food, I still have to clean up after cooking the food. And that sucks. Plus, I have to wait for it to cook. I think I'll be sticking to my high-end take-out (even though it costs way more than I should really be spending).

easy cash??

I just skimmed through American Carnival by Neil Henry for my thesis research. Doesn't look like there's a whole lot there that I'll be able to use in the thesis, but I did come across something interesting. He said that he had wanted some back issues of some magazines for some research. When he couldn't find them at the library, he called the publisher who suggested eBay. He then purchased the issues he needed from eBay. I had no idea people sold their old magazines on eBay. I just checked it out for myself, and sure enough, there are issues there. Now I don't know how many sell, but since I have tons of magazine subscriptions maybe I should try to sell some of the issues I'm done reading.

another election day passes

Election day is always stressful at work. I wish there was a way to avoid it next year. I really don't want to be around for Gregoire/Rossi Round 2 at the same time as the presidential race. Though at least for the national races, the national news takes over.

This year's election really didn't have much to it, at least for someone who is voting in Spokane Co. without having anything invested in the area. I honestly don't care about improving the water parks here or who wins the school district races. I'm not going to be here long enough to use the new water park facility nor will I ever send any kids to school here. I voted, but it was the statewide stuff that made me bother to stick the ballot in the library drop-box.

give the kids access!

Poll: Most OK birth control for schools
By ALAN FRAM
ASSOCIATED PRESS WRITER

WASHINGTON -- People decisively favor letting their public schools provide birth control to students, but they also voice misgivings that divide them along generational, income and racial lines, a poll showed.

Sixty-seven percent support giving contraceptives to students, according to an Associated Press-Ipsos poll. About as many - 62 percent - said they believe providing birth control reduces the number of teenage pregnancies.

"Kids are kids," said Danielle Kessenger, 39, a mother of three young children from Jacksonville, Fla., who supports providing contraceptives to those who request them. "I was a teenager once and parents don't know everything, though we think we do."

Yet most who support schools distributing contraceptives prefer that they go to children whose parents have consented. People are also closely divided over whether sex education and birth control are more effective than stressing morality and abstinence, and whether giving contraceptives to teenagers encourages them to have sexual intercourse.

"It's not the school's place to be parents," said Robert Shaw, 53, a telecommunications company manager from Duncanville, Texas. "For a school to provide birth control, it's almost like the school saying, 'You should go out and have sex.'"

Those surveyed were not asked to distinguish between giving contraceptives to boys or girls.

The survey was conducted in late October after a school board in Portland, Maine, voted to let a middle school health center provide students with full contraceptive services. The school's students are sixth- through eighth-graders, when most children are 11 to 13 years old, and do not have to tell their parents about services they receive.

Portland school officials plan to consider a proposal soon that would let parents forbid their children from receiving prescription contraceptives like birth control pills.

Teenage pregnancy rates have declined to about 75 per 1,000, down from a 1990 peak of 117, according to the Guttmacher Institute, a research center. Still, nearly half of teens aged 15 to 19 report having had sex at least once, and almost 750,000 of them a year become pregnant.

The 67 percent in the AP poll who favor providing birth control to students include 37 percent who would limit it to those whose parents have consented, and 30 percent to all who ask.

Minorities, older and lower-earning people were likeliest to prefer requiring parental consent, while those favoring no restriction tended to be younger and from cities or suburbs. People who wanted schools to provide no birth control at all were likelier to be white and higher-income earners.

"Parents should be in on it," said Jennifer Johnson, 29, of Excel, Ala., a homemaker and mother of a school-age child. "Birth control is not saying you can have sex, it's protecting them if they decide to."

About 1,300 U.S. public schools with adolescent students - less than 2 percent of the total - have health centers staffed by a doctor or nurse practitioner who can write prescriptions, said spokeswoman Divya Mohan of the National Assembly of School-Based Health Care. About one in four of those provide condoms, other contraceptives, prescriptions or referrals, Mohan said.

Less than 1 percent of middle schools and nearly 5 percent of high schools make condoms available for students, said Nancy Brener, a health scientist with the federal Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.

Underlining the schisms over the issue, those saying sex education and birth control were better for reducing teen pregnancies outnumber people preferring morality and abstinence by a slim 51 percent to 46 percent.

Younger people were likelier to consider sex education and birth control the better way to limit teenage pregnancies, as were 64 percent of minorities and 47 percent of whites. Nearly seven in 10 white evangelicals opted for abstinence, along with about half of Catholics and Protestants.

In addition, 49 percent say providing teens with birth control would not encourage sexual intercourse and a virtually identical 46 percent said it would.

Though men and women have similar views about whether to provide contraceptives to students, women are likelier than men to think it will not encourage sexual intercourse, 55 percent to 43 percent.

Asked when young people should first be allowed to get birth control, ages 16 and 18 drew the most responses, while only a third chose age 15 or younger. Women's selections averaged just over age 16, slightly higher than men, while young people and Westerners preferred younger ages than others.

"I'd be pulling my kids out of that school," Ron Wrobel, 55, an engineer from Port Huron, Mich., said of the Maine middle school. He said birth control should be for teens at least 17 years old.

Mirroring the rift that has played out in countless battles in Congress, Democrats were likelier than Republicans to favor freer access to birth control and to have more faith that it reduces teenage pregnancies. Forty-five percent of Republicans - including 51 percent of GOP women - say birth control should not be provided to any students, compared to 19 percent of Democrats.

The poll involved telephone interviews with 1,004 adults from Oct. 23-25. It had a margin of sampling error of plus or minus 3.1 percentage points.

---

AP Director of Surveys Trevor Tompson and AP News survey specialist Dennis Junius contributed to this report.

give me beauty or give me death

Who knew I'd get so many compliments for dressing up a boy! I took the kid (though he's older than me) who dresses in sweats all the time to the mall and made him buy some decent clothes. He wore them today and everyone said what a fantastic job I'd done. I doubt he'll maintain it even though everyone told him repeatedly that he looked great. Regardless, I'm thinking I can get paid for this. And why not grab a camera when I take badly dressed males shopping? What Not To Wear Spokane!!!

neighbors

One thing I really hate about new construction apartments is how much neighbor noise can be heard. I think (can't be sure) my neighbors have a car racing game. Whatever it is, the constant faint sounds of an engine are really annoying. And I thought the people with the screaming baby were bad!