I'm the king of the castle...

Yeah, listening to Crash Into Me. An a cappella version though. Life is better than my last post. The hurricane caused some damage, but nothing near my friends and family so that's good. The situation with my friend is doing better and he's talking to someone, which is good. It's my sister's birthday today, she's 17. Her friends went all out and even covered the car with pink streamers. Funny because she's not a pink person. Not that I am either, but still, funny. My cell's not charging right though, which really annoys me. Why can't phone chargers work like they're supposed to? Murphy's law again, I guess. *shrug* Not much point to this post except that life is better and less sad than it was a week or so ago. I really want to get into this one class next semester though and its filling up too rapidly. But, I did have the professor last semester so maybe I can blue card in. We'll see, I suppose. Later days.

Thoughts Dump

I hate not being able to help my friends. Currently a very good friend of mine, one of the first I made in college, seems to be going through a rough spot, as described to me by my other first friends in college. Let's call him...Stan. I personally have not witnessed any alterations in behavior, but they are there, according to these friends. I'm not questioning their accounts but it all seems so...odd because it goes against everything I ever thought his character was. Frankly, they are scared of Stan. I don't know how to help. I don't want to say anything about it to Stan because he'd just deny it, most likely, or even exhibit the same behavior that was described to me...and frankly, I'd rather not know the extent of the change. But how can I help if I don't say anything? Do I just act like I always do? Stan apparently has refused to meet with anyone who'd be able to help. This is why I'm not a psych major.
And ever since this transformation was described to me, I can't stop thinking about it. I don't know if it's worry or what, but I can't keep myself busy enough to not think about it. I'm too far ahead in my reading for classes...no hard reading or projects to keep me occupied. And it's hard, it's really hard. And I'm getting tired of it. I don't envy my other friends at all, for they've known about it, obviously, a lot longer than I have. I'm not in the habit of exhibiting to the world my private thoughts, but maybe if I put them down in this context they will go away. And I can't talk about it with anyone. I don't want to break their trust, I don't want to burden them any further, and I sure as heck can't talk about it to Stan. And frankly, they're the friends who are the great listeners.
The whole situation completely bites, if you'll forgive the lack of swearing. I hate not knowing what to do. And I really wish something else was going on. I suppose I could always start worrying about the wretched storm going by the name of Wilma that's headed for Florida, and thus my family and friends back home. It would of course be that the worst storm of the year, worse than Katrina and Rita, is heading for Florida. And we thought we'd scrape by without one this year after being stuck with four of the bloody things last year. C'est la vie, I suppose. Murphy's Law. Fate. Wrath from the whatever high atop the thing.

Flying Spaghetti Monster

That's right. Flying Spaghett Monster. As a response to this whole silly intelligent design issue, a genius has created a site, www.venganza.org, dedicated to the FSM. Because, as he points out, who says the intelligent creator has to be a being in a human form? Why can't it be the FSM? And if ID is going to be taught in schools next to REAL science, then the FSM should get a mention as well. I first saw an article in the New York Times about the FSM and couldn't stop laughing. It's on my wall right now, next to my desk, ready to give me a laugh when I need it in the middle of Behavior Principles reading or equally dull pursuits. Yeah, I'm Catholic and all, but I believe in evolution, if anyone can believe in the truth. Maybe intelligent design just explains that a supreme being got the whole shebang started, but that doesn't mean it has a place in a science classroom where cold, hard, facts are taught. Religion has no place in a science classroom nor a science textbook. True, the two can be reconciled, I do it all the time, but I place science above religion in terms of truth about the world. ID is sort of referring back to deism, the whole "Clockmaker" thing where a being got the universe going according to some rules and let it run itself. Sometimes I think deists have it right with everything going on in the world sometimes. Besides, if the argument is that evolution doesn't jive with the whole seven days thing, well, how long is a day to God?

Quadrants

So, as I was sitting in Civil Rights and Liberties today, Professor Ivers brought up an interesting point. When you ask someone where they're from, they often mention a geographic quadrant of a state. He used Pennsylvania as an example, but since I'm from Florida, my thoughts turned to my state. Beyond all the stuff it's known for, Mickey, oranges, depressing election problems, I was thinking about how I define where I'm from. First, Florida. Then perhaps Central Florida, then perhaps "near Orlando" then, 45 minutes northeast from Disney World (more if there's traffic). Then, maybe, dear old Oviedo, the actual town name. So, I got to thinking and determined Florida, beyond having just the quadrants, Panhandle, North, Central, and South, also uses the coasts, so you've still got the Panhandle, or West or East Coast. So, I'm on the East Coast side of Orlando in Central Florida. At any rate, just a thought.

jennifer

jennifer
Originally uploaded by gcsilmoldor.

Here's me with John Glenn last year when he spoke for a KPU event!

Post Number 1

Yep, creative title. At any rate, here it is, post number 1. I don't know how many of these will pop into existence. Likely when I have the time or inclination, hopefully both at once. But this may be a good venue for some public airings of thoughts somebody else must be thinking out there.