Thinking in vain...

It seems I will be house sitting for my boss while she is at the beach next week.

There are only 2 bad things about this. 1) Next week we are apparently having record highs and she doesn't have air conditioning and 2) I won't be going to Richmond that weekend, which is unfortunate because my mother really wanted to see her sister.

The good thing about it is that I will have money to get my car realigned. Yeah, I fell asleep driving home from Blacksburg Sunday and ran off the road. I didn't wreck and I woke up as soon as my tire went into gravel. I've been told I was lucky because if both my tires had gone off I probably would've flipped the car. I know, fun. But my car is now slightly shaking at high-speeds - doesn't that mean it needs alignment? At least I think it's shaking - maybe I'm being paranoid.

I'm also paranoid that one of those new traffic light cameras caught me running a red light - I didn't run it-run it... I thought I had time and I went through a yellow and it changed to red. Think that'll cause me to get a ticket?

I'm not going to think about it.

and a $35 tab.

Yep. I had to test that quote. Still funny to me and now I'm sober. I can't claim the quote. That was my twin.

I believe some of our escapades from this weekend will still only be funny to me, so I'll refrain. Promise.

It was a nice weekend - not long enough. And I needed to tend to the ever growing number of dandelions in my yard. Thank G-d it rained or my flowers wouldn't have been watered.

Friday was quiet and Saturday Cat and I headed up for Blacksburg for a benefit concert. The "all day music festival" usually raises money for Push America, but this weekend they also used it to raise money for the Hokie Spirit Memorial Fund. It was a lot of fun.

I was surprised to see a huge line outside the venue to get in. I'm just not used to lines and I'm not a fan of large crowds. I'm not claustrophobic or anything, I just prefer to not deal with large groups of people. We got there in time for Carbon Leaf, but the place was packed already. There was no way to get down to the stage area because the stairs were lined with people (who were NOT going to move) - I'm sure that was a fire hazard. The balconies were lined 3 - 4 rows back with a tiny walkway between them and people standing on tables behind that. Yeah, I wasn't fighting that.

They put on a great concert, as they always do. They dedicated songs to the victims and sang Gloryland. Terry told us that they'd donated their fee (which is quite large nowadays, I'm sure) and any money they would have made from the show to the Memorial Fund. That's how nice they are.

Some were very surprised to see us. Although, I guess I'd be surprised to see me too.*

We hung out for a little bit and then headed over to Squires to look at some of the memorial materials. It was amazing. Paper lined the hallways and hung from the stairs - all with signatures from colleges, universities, elementary schools, and other countries. We then tried to hike our way to the drillfield but it was a little far for us**, we got to the War Memorial, stood there for a second then turned around and went back to the concert (fully intending to get the car and go back later).

There was still a good number of people there, some guy complimented me on my lipstick. Found out that there's a new book being put out by Tolkein's son using his unfinished manuscripts - kind of excited to go get it and read it (yes, I'm a dork and I'm proud of it). Hey, I'm not getting through Underworld*** so I might as well start something else. Hung out for a little bit - it was really... nice, really nice. I think nice describes it well.

Then it was getting late and I'm getting old so we walked to the car and headed for the drill field. We also went up to the memorials Sunday with my mother, but I think I preferred being there late at night. It was more peaceful. The only lights on were the street lights, some spot lights on Burruss and the candles flickering, the only sounds were the rustling of the plastic wrappings on the flowers and occasional sniffle.

They also have the white boards in the middle of the field covered by a tent. There are memorials for all the victims (including Cho's family - the most powerful message there was on a single index card - "I forgive you... "). There were still the large, white boards for visitors to leave condolences. Cat and I left ours and headed to Backstreets for some food before we headed back home.

Sunday we took my mother back up there and then I spent most of the day avoiding doing the stuff I needed to do - i.e. filling out some forms, working, cleaning, etc.

Should be a good week.

There are no pictures from this weekend - another memory card error.

*If you don't know why, I'll tell you later.
** It's actually not that far, but I think you understand why it was for us the other night.
*** I don't know why the book is taking me so long, I honestly love the subject matter and his other books, I just can't seem to get into this one.

According to my boss: I thought too far outside the box.

I dunno about you, but if I'm gonna go "outside the box," doesn't matter how far I go. She should've given me degrees instead of just saying "think outside the box." She should've said, "think outside the box, but only a little bit."

She was the one talking about die-cutting the cover in odd places that completely messes up our graphic standards.

Another comment was, "well, that's definitely outside the box."

Don't tell me to go there, if you really don't want me there. Don't lead me to believe with bad jargon that I can do something cool.

Okay, I'm done. What I did was pretty cool though. I toned it down and the client loved it. Yeah, I'm good like that. ;)

Seung-Hui Cho "could have gone into his dorm with 900 people instead of going into a classroom," the governor said.

Tech spokesman Mark Owczarski said Thursday that the families of all of the students killed during the shootings -- with the exception of the shooter Seung-Hui Cho -- would have their tuition and fees refunded.

Other students' requests will be handled on a case-by-case basis, he said.

• Are you going to make me wait until 1pm for lunch today you horrible, horrible, sadistic woman?

• Nah, we could go around 12/12:30. I'll make an exception since it's Friday. :p

• Well good, ‘cause I need to be out of there by 1:00 in order to make it to the 2 o’clock free crack giveaway across town!











• Latte through the nose HURTS.

• The radio played George Michael's "I Want Your Sex" this morning. I have an older sister (12 years) so I have a great appreciation for all things George Michael and Youthquake. I'm sure she'd love that.

• People who have the equivalents of Guitar Star, Guitar Hero or Hot Mama probably aren't. I saw one this morning with BSNSMAN, I think I feel sorry for his family.

• My mother told me never to get a personalized license plate because it was easier for serial killers to find you.
• I never spell license right on the first try.

• The painting of our porch and trim is taking a lot longer than I anticipated, and leaving a very fine white dust everywhere.

• I got to level/question 101 on that game. I don't think I can go any further without wasting a very large amount of time. This is why I don't play video games. I can stop once I finish and I never have to do it again... I just have to finish.

• Our neighbors puppy (a Bernese Mountain Dog) named Milly got her head stuck in the fence earlier this week. Her cries are heart-wrenching. My sister held her head until the family came home and took the fence apart.

• I nearly wrecked this morning because I was looking at a business who'd put the VT Ribbon graphics on their windows and a car stopped at a green light. I didn't though.

• I thought I broke my toe. False alarm.

• I'll be in Blacksburg tomorrow for Sud Flood.

• Didn't get to Here's To The Hokies yesterday. I'm a baby and it was cold and rainy. Hopefully it'll warm up for tomorrow.

• I have turned my TV off before midnight every night this week.

• Happy Friday. :)

Okay, this is impossible... I'm not getting anything done.

The Impossible Quiz

So I know that at least 2 people that read my blog know their way around a yard - and I'm hoping any random people happening upon this page do to.

I need help. My yard isn't pretty. And every other yard in my neighborhood is. They all have lush green grass - one guy just killed all his and put down sod. Short of doing that I need to get rid of dandelions and crab grass. I think the clover could stay (if it's possible to pick and choose), the rabbits like it - course they also like my pansies and my dahlias.

I'd preferably like a fix that's not poisonous to everything else - something natural. I think my main goal is to get rid of dandelions and make my grass greener.

In other news, my porch is getting painted. It's looking very nice. We just need to replace part of the screen - the nasty wind we've been having blew porch items into it and ripped it.

(Oh my leg has stopped twitching... for now.)

I know that for some reason someone at KFC thinks it'll be cool to put one of those mosquito ring tones in the some buckets of chicken.

They've got a commercial now for this. That ring tone is HORRIBLE. My sister and I thought it was just our TV, we both looked at each other like "what the hell was that?" But then we've heard it 2 times since. And if you have your TV up it'll make your ears bleed. Thank g-d I don't have dog.

I DESPISE this commercial. Not only is the acting bad, but it makes my head hurt. My only thought is the people who thought this was cool, can't hear that sound. Think of the highest pitch, shrillest noise you can think of - it's like one step below a dog whistle... but worse.

The good thing is that my TV upstairs is so old that it can't produce it.

When she heard someone had taken that stone from the semicircle that has drawn thousands of mourners to the Drillfield, she fired off an e-mail to The Collegiate Times, Virginia Tech's student newspaper. Cho was a Hokie, too, Johnson declared, a troubled member of the Hokie Nation, but a member nonetheless.

"You don't get to pick who's in your family," she declared.

My right leg keeps twitching. It's been doing it off and on for about 15 hours. It was bothersome... now it's worrying me because it won't stop.

Also, I have things to do this week.... YAY! For the first time in a while the week isn't dragging by.

That's all.

So I needed toothpaste yesterday. I never seem to remember what toothpaste I use, so I end up buying a different one each time.

As I meandered down the isle, I ran into something and was completely startled by extremely loud bird chirping... I believe it would be a common sparrow singing. I know because I listened to about 20 different bird calls trying to figure out what was outside my window.

Seems Crest has a new toothpaste - Nature's Expressions. There is a display at knee-level on the second shelf from the bottom. There's a tube of toothpaste wrapped in a fake vine, which I nearly obliterated when I ran into it. And... a motion sensor thingy so when I walked by and ran into the toothpaste tube, birds started chirping at top volume.

Yeah, it caught my attention, but I also nearly broke it. And it scared the hell out of me because I started looking around for a trapped bird. I didn't buy it... I bought some Arm & Hammer toothpaste.

I think I need to start making lists.

I also needed gum and I couldn't find what I usually buy. All I know is what brand it was and what color the package was. I think they changed packaging on me, so I bought a flavor named Mint Mojito. The gum tastes more like Key Lime Pie. It's not bad - it's one of those things you keep eating to figure out if you like it or not... or in my case chew.

Some guy with an MBA and a small working knowledge of HTML is annoying.

He wants the code formatted "correctly" because he uses source code a lot. Yeah, 'cause I was going to make sure me and the programmer gave him HTML that looked like it came from Word or Publisher.

*rolls eyes*

Disclaimer: I'm sure he's a very nice man. He seemed nice in the meeting. Just a tad annoying.

This weekend wasn't nearly long enough.

Alumni Weekend proved to me that I can't exactly stay up all night anymore on Friday and Saturday and drink and be functional.

It was awesome to see everyone. And the people that didn't get to come (that means you Kara [and Jenny and Cang]) were sorely missed. Alas, my telekinetic abilities haven't improved since last year... I couldn't make anyone fall down the stairs.

The sushi was fantastic as well.

Nanook is a gentle beast... greatest dog ever (even with the drool).

I miss Nes' quick thinking and witty comments.

The "art opening" was disappointing, but what was more disappointing was to hear it was that way because the professors are so burnt out on pushing people to do their best work.

The funeral Saturday was nice.

I had much more, but I can't think of it now. But the new camera sucks. Well, I'm hoping it's the memory card that sucks. I'm getting a new one and hopefully my problems will stop. So there are no pictures from this weekend.

Petition to rename Norris Hall Librescu Hall, via the MySpace VT Memorial Page.

http://www.ipetitions.com/petition/VTfunerals/index.html

Upping the ante, Hawass on Sunday told his country's parliament that he "will never again organize antiquities exhibitions in Germany if it refuses a request, to be issued next week, to allow the bust of Nefertiti to be displayed in Egypt for three months."

Press Conference this morning:

They said all slain students would be posthumously awarded the degrees they were pursuing.

In addition, the university announced that Virginia Tech's 26,000 students will be given a choice whether to return to class for the remaining weeks of the semester when courses resume on Monday.

"We're going to encourage them to continue with class," said Mark McNamee, university provost. "But also do it in the context of what they're capable of."

First off, I apologize if the VT posts are getting daunting to anyone that regularly reads this. I can't help it. It seems that writing about it is helping me deal with it a little. Maybe I'll try to make this my last.

Secondly - I wish the National media would stop showing that evil, little creep. He's everywhere. Now all they have is a split screen - you can't watch anything because there's his damn photographs and video everywhere, even when they're interviewing victims. They're burning the image of him in everyone's minds - he's unimportant - the people that are important are his 60+ victims and their friends and family.

There was a psychologist on Anderson Cooper 360 and he begged everyone to stop showing those clips. This horrible kid looked up to those Columbine shooters, he wanted the fame and the martyrdom and everyone is giving it to him. He doesn't fit the profile of normal college shooters, he fits the one of high school shooters, I'd be inclined to think he's been thinking of this for years.

If the administration and faculty and hell, high school teachers are at fault - then perhaps every single one of us is.

My best friend is a 7th grade English teacher, some of her kids are reading at 5th grade levels or can't read at all - and she's so overworked with having to write papers and lesson plans and being required to advise clubs that she has no extra time to work with troubled students or students falling behind. Teachers are so overworked and our school system is so taxed, I think it's hard for them. Hard for them to reach out to students or hard for them to intervene.

We've also created a politically correct society where this kid's freedom of speech is protected - no matter how violent or hateful (Re: horror films and Neo-nazis in Skokie respectively ). His right to express himself is protected. His plays and short stories are just as disgusting and disturbing as any horror movie. But he never did anything. If the school had started monitoring him or expelled him and someone found out, I'd be willing to bet the ACLU would have swooped to campus faster than the vulture-like journalists that are there now.

This kid managed to fall through the cracks in each instance. But how would any of you have stopped him?

I think it's not only human nature to want to blame someone, but I think everyone wants to think this was preventable (and I'm not saying that is wasn't). People argue that maybe if this gun law was passed or that mental health law was passed or if he'd been whatever that it wouldn't of happened. People can't handle the idea that the faculty, students and police involved did everything they could have and it still happened. I don't think as a society we like to think that evil can happen and that it's our job to pass laws to stop and prevent it.

As one of the English faculty points out - "Look, all our hearts are broken. There's no need to add to the pain with guilt."

I would hope people could learn from this and place blame the one and only place it should be at this point - on him. Firing President Steger and Chief Flinchum and others will only ruin more lives.

The only people I've seen handling this with decency is the local media. K92, a local radio station, announced this morning that they will not say the killer's name or play any audio clips of his videos... I think Q99 is doing the same - the other stations I don't know about because I don't listen, but I'd assume they're doing something along the same lines. As they pointed out this morning - we don't care about him, we care about the victims and they are going to be the only people we talk about.

I realize the national news channels want their ratings - but the degree that they are showing this is sick in itself.