No way! It's Friday!

Hi everyone I have actual things to tell you today! Yesterday (Thursday) I had my spring concert. I thought it went pretty well, I got lots of great comments. Hopefully tomorrow at our MICCA competition the judges will agree. Wish us luck! I also have some good news to mention. I won’t be here next Friday! I’ll be in sunny Florida playing at a Disney competition! I'm so pumped about going to the parks. Last time I went to Disney I hated it, but this trip was very expensive so I'm determined to go on every ride and have lots of fun. Whether I'm scared or not. I get excited just thinking about the trip! I’m not phased at all by the fact I have to get up a 3:00 in the morning on Thursday!

I would also like to say that my birthday is April 14th! That is the day I get back from Disney! For my birthday I'm getting myself a digital camera. I have almost enough money saved up, so I'll be able to get it. Let me tell you: this camera is amazing. The preview of the camera on kodak.com is so great! I’ve looked at several other cameras, but this has the best features and I’ll be getting it in this great red color. The only thing wrong with it is that it’s kind of small/skinny. I will get use to it though. Well I have to go make menu for the week and make sure I have the stuff I need for the trip. Love ya,

~Liz

Phrank: Not Another Almost Late Post

This week just goes to prove that I'm undeniably the good son. My post is not right before the 11th hour is spent. Also, I went ahead and changed the blog's time to be Eastern Standard instead of Pacific, so the time stamp should be more accurate. Also, my post is not going to suck terribly before a post edit. My hair is bright blond, siblings, because I bleached it this past Sunday. I think it looks goofy but I've been told it looks good by some people on campus. I do get a lot of strange looks from people I know when they see it for the first time. Classes are going well, enrollment for classes next semester will be soon as will housing sign-ups. Housing was a terrible pain this semester, one of the guys in our quad didn't pay his housing deposit and we couldn't enroll. He also happens to be in Ireland. Luckily my current roommate stepped up and paid the housing deposit and we should be all set now. In other news, thanks to a cruel April Fool's Day joke, I thought I was going to lose my on-campus job.
Greg, I accept your challenge.

Where were you? We were all getting high, where were you?" he asked
"Buried under a landslide, maybe someday you'll find me there." I replied.
"Dude, that's not really an answer!"
"Listen, we agreed when we became roommates, I could come and go as I please, no questions asked. Let's keep it at that, fair enough?"
"Fine, but people are going to want to know. Especially, you know, with the hair."
"I bleached it, is that seriously going to freak people out?"
"Yeah, dude. It will."
"Why shouldn't I be different? How many lives are living strange, honestly?"
"You're the biggest straight edge that's ever stepped foot on this campus, people are going to freak out when you do something different. You are the definition of normal."
"I would have kept my hair my normal color if I was given the choice, but it was out of my hands. Hey, if I'm a such a straight edge, why did you want to know where I was when you were getting high?"
"You're our lookout, we were too paranoid to really enjoy the experience."
"Whatever, I've gotta go to the library and do some research, catch you later."
He just nodded as I walked out of the room. I unconsciously ran a hand through my now bright blond hair. The only giveaway of my deepest and darkest secret. I had kept it hidden for so long, but this past weekend, I was forced to use my talent more than ever before. You see, I'm actually a sorcerer. I've made the past two years of college as a cover to study ancient texts to unearth the secrets of an ancient mystical order. All of this study came to a head this past weekend, when a light beige explosion in the sky forced me to summon a dreamer's dream. That's where I was when they were getting high. That expenditure of energy and my art changed my hair to its bright hue, an interesting side effect of using such large amounts of magic energy, I suppose.


So my stories tend to revolve around my life in one way or another. I was intending to do some creative posts about the "true" reason for my blond hair, but I thought this would be a nice tie-in. Can you tell me what song it was? Maybe I'll write more on this theme next week. Until then adieu adieu, remember me, adieu.

An Even Closer Call

I'm going to only write five sentences. Then I will go back and edit this post to add "content". Liz was supposed to post for me so I wouldn't be late, but she didn't. She is a tool. Luckily, I made it back from trivia just in time.

~Anne

*Added Content* (after midnight, but we never made rules about editing our posts!)

One of my friends asked me about the new 7 deadly sins. Since that makes for an awfully long Facebook message, I'm going to post it here. I got the list of the sins off the BBC website, so they should be accurate.

(1) genetic manipulation: This I can understand, because we were created in God's image. To tamper with that is to reject a part of yourself that God specifically designed for you. As for genetic defects- I think preventing inbreeding might help that a lot. But there are some conditions that genetic manipulation might cure. And that's where I've decided I need to think about it more. At the very least, we need to be very cautious as genetics as a field progresses. And it wouldn't hurt to examine why we research the areas we do. Cure disease? Good cause. Make you younger? Not so much.

(2) morally debatable experimentations: The first thing that comes to mind is the Nazi experiments on concentration camp prisoners in this category. But it does include stem cell research. While some may say "waste not, want not", I can't bring myself to relax my views against abortion* to be comfortable benefiting from it. I think that's the main issue concerning this sin. Besides, if it's morally "debatable", then that's a red flag to check the motivation and process of this experiment. My personal guideline? It should respect life and advance scientific research in way that can improve the human condition.

(3) environmental pollution: How about an "Amen!" for this one? Respecting the environment is just an extension of respecting one another. "Love they neighbor" in the global sense. I'm really in favor of this one. I'm not about to join Green Peace, but I can make sure I recycle. This does have larger ramifications about companies dumping toxic waste and such, but it generally comes down to the individual. People wanted cleaner cars. Guess what? We got cleaner cars. When it becomes the social standard to care about the planet, the companies will get in line.

(4) violation of fundamental rights of human nature: God gave us free will- we should be able to exercise it. I think this sin is meant to target those who practice torture and oppressive governments. Since I do not condone either, this one was simple for me.

(5) Inflicting poverty: Poverty is a vicious cycle that dehumanizes people, as well as providing an environment for crime and disease to flourish. What else is there to say? Other than it is usually the impoverished whose fundamental rights are violated in order for others to become even richer than they already are. See a pattern yet?

(6) Accumulating excessive wealth: This is just a modern way of saying "greed". It's one thing to earn money, it's another to amass a fortune just because you can. Bill Gates made tons of money, but he gives generously to charities, and lives quietly. Donald Trump? Not so much. There are concerns about Microsoft being a monopoly, so he might not be the best example. Maybe Steve Jobs would be better? But you should be able to get the idea.

Let's try another one.
Bono: has been using his influence and money to help people in 3rd world countries.
Paris Hilton: goes to clubs, parties, award shows. Uses her influence and money to inflict the population with her "acting" skills.

(7) Drug trafficking and consumption: see sins #1 & 2. The human body was created in God's image, it's a miraculous and precious gift. To take drugs (at least to the point of addiction) is to enslave and damage that gift. To push those drugs is to encourage others into sin, to spread the disease. Addiction does get out of the control of the drug user, so there must be compassion and help. But saying "no" to that first shot of heroin or line of cocaine would have stopped a downward spiral of physical and emotional damage.

*My views on abortion: There's no way I can make a judgment call on cases with rape victims or where either the mother or the child will live. But abortion should not be another form of contraception! I think that the women who use it as such have already made their choice- to have unprotected sex. And this is besides that fact that most women who have abortions don't get the necessary physical and mental treatment they require.


I think that's about it- you can have the soapbox back now. KT, be careful what you ask for! And of course, feel free to comment.

Almost late

Almost counts in horseshoes, hand grenades and thermo nuclear weapons but not posts. So here I am again, a little late in the night but still on time. I had to work late on setting up a laser at work to engrave gold. That got done around 6:45ish, the rest of the night was spent with my boss's boss and a few co-workers. Had dinner and a few drink and talked sports. Still not sure how a guy that can root for the mets, raiders, jets can root for the Celtics. Let see, got my review I did good, maybe a little better than good. Made some beer last weekend. If I had to describe the color of it, I'd say as black as oil. Should be good, many props to Justin for helping. Well I'm done my 5 sentences, maybe i'll give a little more time I still have to hit the elliptical machine before I go to bed. Night All

~~Bill

A Short Story Challenge?

I've been on campus all since 8am. And I'm writing this post from my office tonight. I've been busy today. Writing out what being busy means turned out to be two very long and very dry paragraphs. Two paragraphs that are no longer in this post cause they're not even interesting for me to read, or for worse edit. Normally, I've be out by 5pm and on my way home. Tonight was a a long night preparing to teach a lab tomorrow. So Its now late, and I'm fearing holy retribution if I don't post in time. So supper can wait so I can get this out of the way.

Looking back over the first week, there's one moment that was a bit surreal. This was a comment left by one of Anne's friends that was directed and intended for Anne alone. Where we take the turn for bizzaro is that this friend left the message on Frank's post. ... Okay. Whatever. ... Speaking of Frank, I'm not exactly sure why he can't spell his name right. But I suspect that it's because he's an English Major. Anne is too but she has her own delusions.


I've been thinking of a challenge. A short story challenge.
I'm proposing that each person first finds a piece of music, tv, or something other than text as an inspiration. Here's the twist to the challenge: You're can't refer to the piece directly. Your story has to derived from an idea or piece from it. You're supposed run with that and diverge as much as possible. Think of it as the path not taken. Having said that, all clever references to your inspirations are of course allowable. So Who's in?

Well, it's before Midnight. Call back the bombers.