I believe... Even though it's silly, I believe

Classes have largely stopped and my papers are nearly done. Ok, well the Due dates are nearly here. In fact, my last class is tonight.All that leaves now is Christmas! Yay!
Today my mother, who seems hellbent on distracting me at all costs showed me this website. Who doesn't want to see when Santa will get here?

Here is the video from "last year."

I am redefining weird on an hourly basis.

I'm trying to avoid writing a paper on Confucianism and it's political influences on Imperial China. So I analyzed my blog using Typealyzer.

I cam up with...
ISTP - The Mechanics
The independent and problem-solving type. They are especially attuned to the demands of the moment are masters of responding to challenges that arise spontaneously. They generally prefer to think things out for themselves and often avoid inter-personal conflicts.

The Mechanics enjoy working together with other independent and highly skilled people and often like seek fun and action both in their work and personal life. They enjoy adventure and risk such as in driving race cars or working as policemen and firefighters.

...yeah. School ends on Dec 15. I'm looking forward to it.

Let my armies be the trees and the birds in the sky

I've been playing around on Aviary, and this is one thing that I have come up with so far.

Nazis. I hate these guys.

I'm so angry right now. My 80 year old aunt, who I always tough was a little too thought on her daughters but still respected and liked, said this evening that we have four years of Nazism to look forward to, comparing Obama and the Democratic party to Hitler and his followers.
I didn't call her on it. What would I have said? She doesn't respect any opinions that dissent from her own. She voted for McCain because he was Pro-Life, never mind that he doesn't actually believe it. Or that if he had won, he would have been little more than a puppet for the Neo-conservative agenda. Or that Obama actually had a platform with a plan to help women that decided against abortion, something that McCain lacked.
I don't have a problem with honest to goodness Conservatism. People have a right to their opinion and I also think that both sides need the other to rein them in. I also think that conservatism has its merits, I just don't happen to agree with them at all. I'm just not conservative minded. But what irks me is Neo-conservatism and its Scare tactics, using fear to control and motivate people and to divided them against one another in the name of patriotism. It's not just bad, it's truly small minded and to use these tactics is cruel and hateful.
I know that there are people who dislike the two party system, and perhaps we do need a third or Fourth party. But so far we do have just the two parties, and it works well when we agree to listen to each other instead of insist that our party is right and the other are traitors. That gets us no were. Or it gives us the last eight years.
Since it is all we have we need to work together. Not resort to name calling.
But it does give me a certain amount of satisfaction to lambaste a woman who will never find me on the Internet. It may not be the most grown up thing to do. But neither is comparing Obama to Hitler.
I feel better now.

Spitting distance? How vivid!

Did someone just cure Aids?
I read this article on my rss feeder and it just seemed so surreal. A German doctor has apparently cured AIDS. Let me say that again. There may be a cure for HIV. That disease that kills hundreds, thousands, of people all over the world everyday may have a cure now.

Why is this not bigger news?!? I mean, yay Obama and all that, but AIDS. Dude's not even in office yet and already theirs a cure for AIDS. What's next, he's going to fix the Global Economy? Ok, that's a joke. Especially since the cure was admiistered 2 years ago, which is why it's being reported now. It seems to be working.
I had heard about a vaccine, but that is still in the research stage.

This is just so cool.

Hate cannot drive out hate: only love can do that.

I thought this was cool. I may not remember the Civil rights movement, and may not get the full impact of this history in the making, but I can try.

My name is Barack Obama, and I am the president.

see Barack Obama pictures

Just a curse. Have a nice day.

Dear God,
I'm ready for this election to be over. But if you feel the need to kill me in the near future, please let me at least first cast my ballot and cancel out the "person" who ripped my Obama bumper sticker in half and felt the need to key my car while I was in class. If possible I would like to see Obama win. On the other hand, if he's going to lose, I would rather not know.
Thanks bunches,
Gina

PS. If I do have to go, can you also take out the person or people responsible for defacing the "Eastern Shore For Obama" signs. Especially the one who put the Sickle and Hammer on them. I mean, come on, the Socialist Candidate and his supporters are a bit miffed that he's being called a socialist when he's clearly not a socialist. And I also did not see one McCain sign defaced. And I was looking. So, really, it's only fair.

Thank you for the Grand Canyon, and good luck with the Apocalypse.

Ah, the knee jerk reaction.
I just read an article that says that there is a movement in DC to try and start mining 5 miles outside of the grand canyon for uranium. Specifically it is talking about how McCain supports Bush's plan and that "The Bureau of Land Management has published a proposed rule which rejects the House Natural Resources Emergency House Resolution enacted in June that bans uranium mining and exploration near the Grand Canyon National Park."
But it is ok. This can not possibly pass while Bush is still in Office.

Any one want to take a quick road trip out to the Grand Canyon this January?

The older generation are leading this country to galloping ruin!

I'm shocked, Appalled, and horrified.
And I wish i was joking.
I just read a story about a group of children being gassed with what seems like Mace because they were Muslim. If this had happened in any other country, it would have received International press and there would be a serious search going on to find out who did this. Or if it had been Christian children in a Muslim country, or any country for that matter it would be international news. But instead it barely makes the local news.
What the fuck?
Yesterday, I went to the Baltimore Book fair and hear the author of How does it feel to be the problem?. Just hearing parts of the stories he's recounted in his book was amazing. I'm horrified at some of the knee jerk reactions that occurred and continue to occur in this country against this one group of people. It's not like they are the only ones with fundamentalists. It's not like there aren't Christian fundamentalists who wouldn't hesitate to kill anyone who didn't agree with them. Fortunately I don't have any examples.
But why isn't this being covered?

What we've got here is failure to communicate

So...
Grad school is kicking my butt.
I feel like I'm always playing catch up and that everyone else gets it. I think I'm just out of practice. But I have this fear that I'm not supposed to be doing this.
But I think that the week that I manage to get all of my reading done and significant portion of my paper done, everything will magically fall into place. Everything will be fine.
Since I just got a flash back to college, I think it will.
Thank you, dear void, for listening to my rant.
And if you get a change to see Burn After Reading, and are huge Cohen Brothers fan, then by all means go. If you are not a big fan, or just really liked O brother where art thou, Run for the proverbial hills. That is all.
Good night.

I'll get you, my pretty, and your little dog, too!

I think I accidentally sold my soul to Google.
I realized yesterday that I rarely leave a Google Owned website anymore. I blog on Blogger, Read News on Google News and Reader, Check my mail on Gmail. So Thank God for Facebook!
On the Other hand, I am well informed.
Like, I know that American is planning on putting wireless on their airplanes by the middle of next year, Steve Jobs apologized for Screwing up the release of Mobile Me, and that the Still President is in S Korea.
My grasp of World events is more detailed and broader than that, but Google has made me late for work.

Yes, politics is the cause of the world's problems.

This is a bit sensationalistic, but I am also a bit insulted. I was listening to the radio when I heard an interview with Cindy McCain. And it was light fluff, about how she and her son race cars and stuff like that. Then she was asked about John commuting back and forth to Phoenix on the weekends and how they thought that was more natural environment to raise children than DC. That is what she said that has me a bit putout. DC is not a natural place to raise children.
I'm sorry, but I have friends, quiet a few in fact, who were raised in and around DC. I was raised within an hour's drive, within a half hour if you drive fast enough. Was it the East Coast sensibility she dislikes or the fact that most of my friends turned out to be liberal?
I admit, this is a bit ridiculous to have a problem with. I'm sure she meant...Phoenix is her home and it's where she was more comfortable. But there are significantly better ways to put that.

That was the Pope? That old fella living in the art gallery?

On Thursday I went to see the Pope, with 30,000 of my closest friends. It was insane how many people where there. But that is to be expected.
I managed to get a ticket through a member of NPM, where I work. Tom Stayle (I think that's how his name is spelled) was in charge of the music for the mass. So the people in the office, my mom and me where sitting with the choir, right behind the multi-cultural choir, so we could hear the music great, which was pretty great.
The mass it's self was pretty standard. Which was what the planners were going for.
Pope came in, there was a mass, pope left. Not that I was underwhelmed or anything. Far from it. I like him better now.
But the most notable event of the day came after the mass on the way back to the Metro.
Some "Christians" decided that it would be fun to protest. I've heard of this shit happening, but I've never actually seen it. I'm not sure what they were hoping to achieve, but I'm sure they failed massively. Especially with all the people they were protesting forming their own sort of counter protest with singing and arguing. Imagine a river of people singing psalms in English and Spanish. Kinda hard to hear people yelling at you over that.
But I'm sure I made a couple of priests laugh. When they where yelling at us that the Catholic Church preached fornication, I responded, "We are!?! Yes!" I figure the best way to ignore bull headed stupidity is to laugh at it and move on. Especially when they are so sure they're right, they aren't going to listen to you.
But the pope was nice.

Carpe diem. Seize the day, boys. Make your lives extraordinary.

Today I went to the Walters for a exhibit on maps. All kinds of maps. Some really old maps, from the crusades, from Ancient China, Rome, maps that where used to explain that the earth was indeed round. There were several interesting ones. I liked one that was used as directions for how to get to Palestine on a pilgrimage in the middle ages. But it was not written for those who were actually going. Instead it was written for those on a meditative pilgrimage, to imagine the way there, or something like that. There was another map that showed how the earth was created by the rainbow snake, if you are from Australian native. Then there was an incredibly detailed painting of a dutch city. There was so much detail that you could see the shadows of passing clouds. On the wall past that was the second aerial photograph ever taken. the first, sadly, has been lost to the ash and dust of time.
But what i really liked was the companion exhibit. The Walters worked with Johns Hopkins and NASA to get a selection of pictures taken from the Hubble. Some where pictures i've seen before, but they still amaze me. One (above)was a picture taken of deep space where nearly every point of light is not a star but a galaxy. If you look at it, you can see all these different kinds, most of them swirling, but some of them more irregulars, simply because were seeing them as they form. They're so far away that it's more like looking back at the beginning of time or the universe. Ok, maybe not that dramatic, but close.
So today I also got into the Grad school of my choice. Kinda. I have been excepted to the program and recommended for acceptance to the Grad school, so it's not official, just pretty much guaranteed. Provided that I didn't lie on my application, which I didn't.
So yay for me. Next September I (hopefully) shall be attending UMBC's Public History Program, emphasizing museum studies. It's odd knowing what I shall be doing for the next year or two.
Next Thursday, I also know what I'll be doing. I'm going to see the pope. He's visiting DC and NY and I get to go the mass at the Nationals stadium. It should be interesting.

As God is my witness, I'll never be hungry again.

It always amazes me when I realize that the world is doing things while I'm being a sloth. It shouldn't, but it does.
Lately, I've been working for a company in far away Silver Spring. It's an hour away, no matter what form of transportation you take. But it has some nice perks, like the highest salary I have received thus far in my short life, and lately there has not been a lack of excitement. There have been three interesting events that have jostled my tidy (more or less) Little world. One was watching a car get trapped by the gates at the Garage where I park. I don't know what it was about, but it was amusing. Another is talking with one of my co-workers about an alleged scam being run by the Virgina DMV. Lowell, the co-worker, received a letter from a collection agency stating that they had an outstanding ticket for him from 2001 for a traffic Cam in DC for a car that he had never owned registered in VA, where he has never lived, to a set of Plates that VA says don't exist in their records. He called the DC office, who directed him to get a letter on official letter head stating this. Va says that will be $8, please. Yes, It's a measly $8, but whatever. He's pissed.
The most exciting thing came today. Apparently a worker in the other office on the same floor was fired on Thursday, we got off early, so we didn't see or hear the fireworks, but apparently she threatened to kill everyone. And on Friday and Monday, while our offices where closed, there was a private security guard out side the office door. Today, when we got back to work, there was one only inside the front door. And our office has been gossiping about this, because we have nothing better to do and we are slightly worried that she will decide to kill us too. The reason that we are at all worried is gossip from the other office saying that this woman is possibly truly unstable.
But I'm not worried.
Much.

Holy smokes my friends! I'm so pleased you're not dead!

So, lately with the primary's going on, I've been thinking of movies that are politically oriented. And here are my top ten. Really, they're the only movies I could think of that I've seen that have to do with politics, or presidents, but I like them.

Top Ten Political Movies:

Mr. Smith goes to Washington- Like I could leave it off
Dave- What would YOU do if you had the presidents power for about 3 months?
All the Presidents Men -strictly not about politics, but it is about what Nixon
The American President- Like the West Wing, Only a romance.
Man of the year -this is what would happen if Stewart or Colbert really ran
The Great Dictator- Mistaken Identity, Politics and a Globe! What could be Better?
Amazing Grace- William Wilberforce is my hero
Wag the Dog- The importance of spin, mass media, and not believing any of it
1776- I would have loved to hear the pitch for this. "Its a political musical..."
V for Vendetta- a warning?

Holy Smokes! The Indiana Jones teaser is out! I'm excited!!



And if this movie sucks, I'm putting a hit out on someone.

I want to see what love looks like when it's triumphant. I haven't had a good laugh in a week.

I seem to have once again fallen off the face of the earth. So sorry.
But since the most exciting thing that has happened in recent months is death (my cat, Heath Leadger, various others), I'm not going to comment. Instead I am going to share the meaning of my name, which i think is pretty spot on, if I do say so myself.

What Gina Means

You are deeply philosophical and thoughtful. You tend to analyze every aspect of your life. You are intuitive, brilliant, and quite introverted. You value your time alone. Often times, you are grumpy with other people. You don't appreciate them trying to interfere in your affairs. You tend to be pretty tightly wound. It's easy to get you excited... which can be a good or bad thing. You have a lot of enthusiasm, but it fades rather quickly. You don't stick with any one thing for very long. You have the drive to accomplish a lot in a short amount of time. Your biggest problem is making sure you finish the projects you start. You are very intuitive and wise. You understand the world better than most people. You also have a very active imagination. You often get carried away with your thoughts. You are prone to a little paranoia and jealousy. You sometimes go overboard in interpreting signals. You are usually the best at everything ... you strive for perfection. You are confident, authoritative, and aggressive. You have the classic "Type A" personality.

What's Your Name's Hidden Meaning?