smelly people in libraries

BBC news stories again:

A rule that will allow public libraries in the US city of Dallas to ban people who are considered to smell badly has drawn criticism by charity groups.
Under the guidelines, which come into force in February, sleeping, eating, loud talking, fighting, bare feet, sex and washing will also be banned.

Since when have these been OK in libraries?

I love this kid.

An American 16-year-old has secretly travelled to Iraq on his own as part of his school project.

Farris Hassan from Fort Lauderdale was studying a high school class in "immersion journalism".

This is what they call taking things to heart.

The Kite Runner

I just finished reading The Kite Runner by Khaled Hosseneini. Actually I read the entire thing in one sitting and it isn't exactly a flimsy book. I read the first 1/3 but then I got this strange awakeness so I decided to read more, then I couldn't put it down because I was at a good part, and then my eyes started to burn with every turn of the page, but I was already 2/3 of the way done, so then I had to finish it. The Kite Runner is about a boy growing up in Afghanistan who deals with some heavy issues. I would definitely recommend it.

'Nun Bun'

I wish I would find a food item with the image of a religious person on it. From the BBC:

Christmas thief steals 'Nun Bun'

The famous bun has been preserved with shellac.
A cinnamon bun that bears a striking likeness to late Catholic nun Mother Teresa was stolen from a US coffeehouse on Christmas Day.
The owner arrived to find that the famous flaky pastry had vanished from the shop in Nashville, Tennessee.

The Bongo Java coffee shop sold T-shirts, prayer cards and mugs with the bun's image until Mother Teresa wrote a letter asking the sales be stopped, before her death in 1997.

A. Who would buy those things?
B. Poor Mother Teresa's last wish had to be to stop the commercialization of her image on a bun. Something is very sad about that.

Fabric and Sewage

Today we hit all the after Christmas sales! I got a sewing machine for Christmas so we stopped at Joanne's to get fabric and stuff to supplement it. I want to make a dress, pajama pants, and a jacket. I put up a picture of some of the stuff I got, plus a pic of my Christmas outfit (that matches my bedspread freakishly well).

Earlier we went to the mall, and at the BON TON I said "Look, Michelle, sewage is dropping from the ceiling. Don't stand under it. I turn around for a second to look at something and when I turn around she is standing right over the giant stain on the floor where ugly brown water has been dripping out all day. I say, "What are you doing? I told you not to stand under that," and what does Michelle do? She looks up, and a big drop of sewage drops on her face. That made my day.

Awwww, Sherman

Awww, look at Tara's big puppy. Isn't he sooo cute? Awwww. Who's the cutie? Who's the cutie? Cute things have a way of reducing people to baby talk. An interesting concept, eh?

I think I am still resentful of never having had a real pet when I was younger, other than a tank full of fish and Tuddle the turtle. I had caught grasshoppers in the field beside our house every day of the summer to feed Tuddle, and walked him in the grass in the back yard, and let him swim in my blue kiddie pool, while I stuck my feet in the water, but then one day when I came home from school, I found him out on the porch, frozen alive in his container of water-turned solid ice. A bit of a tragic experience for a child.

NYC

We had lots of fun in NYC. Sure, it was cold and the subway was closed down, and we had a few bad things happen, but for the most part our trip was successful. Everything started out fine, the traffic wasn't as bad as we had expected, but after I got off the bus, the door closed and Tami and Emily kept going. My life flashed before my eyes as I figured I had been abandoned in New York City, left to fend only for myself. Fortunately they stopped again and we met back together. First we got standby tickets for the View because they are giving out Christmas presents to audience members, but they ended up turning away even ticket holders. Next we walked around, got Starbucks, ate at Rachael’s, went to Macy's, and tried to get tickets to Letterman. Little did we know that they interview you when you sign up for them. They asked how often we watched the show, so we lied and said a lot, of course, but then they wanted to know what our favorite bits were, and we morons just sat there like lumps on a log, looking at each other. Needless to say, we didn't get those tickets, lol. Finally we made our way to Rockefeller Plaza to look at the Christmas tree and NBC studios to go to Conan! They threw us free t-shirts so that made us happy. We had very good seats to watch the show, but I was a little disappointed with the stage. It is so grand, and seemingly large on TV, but kind of small and crappy in person. Conan is really skinny and tall, but he seems like a very cool guy. Tami had the lucky red mark on her chair so she had to crawl out of her seat while a member of their staff sat between Emily and me. So the side of my face made it onto TV, how exciting! After Conan, we went ice skating in Bryant Park which was a nice outdoor rink. That was definitely fun. Then we made our way to a comedy show, but after walking 20 blocks we decided we had hit a bit more of shady area and decided not to go any farther for fear of our well-being.
Then it was time to go home but at the restaurant I had put the directions down on the table and apparently the waiter had taken them away with the plates. Soooo, we had no directions on how to get home! Obviously we took the NJ turnpike south but after never finding a place to turn onto I-78, we stopped at a service center and asked 'Joe' for directions. We had to go way out of our way north to get back to Pennsylvania, believe it or not. And after napping at a Wendy's we finally made it home!! I'm glad we decided to go even despite the strike. Fun, fun.

Why a strike today?

WHY? why? why? Someone hates me. All NY transportation services went on strike today which just happens to be the day before we planned to go.

Why? Who is it that wishes malice on us? Those Conan tickets were so hard to get, we planned our whole trip perfectly even at a minimal cost. Fortunatly NJ transit is still working, which we were planning on using anyway, and a "contigency plan" is supposed to be in place by tomorrow morning for the subway and buses. I know we can still go and still have fun. This will not hinder my last piece of excitement in the year 2005, I will still go to NYC, and that is final!

(Picture is from the subway in March-I love the blurriness, doesn't it just say I'm on a speeding train deep under the surface of the earth?)

CONAN

So, I am a little perturbed. We are going to a taping of Conan O'Brien on Wed, and who are the guests? Tea Leoni and Doris Kearns Goodwin. Who on earth are those two people? One is a B list actress and the other an old woman who wrote a political book or something. Why is it that the day we choose to go to NYC there are crappy guests that I've never heard of? At least there is still hope for the band, I can't find listed anywhere what band will be playing, but I am thinking good thoughts...

Giant Paint Cans and Strippers

LOL, I found this article on the web- I live near this giant paint can, but I particularly like the part about the protesters versus the strippers.

Giant paint can
Off Interstate 81 , there's a big refinery-style tank painted to look like a can of latex housepaint.

Impossible to get a picture, so be prepared with a telephoto out the car window.

From a hypertour in 1996, we have this interesting note: "At the exit across from the can, there was a hand-painted sign: 'PORNO PROTEST THIS EXIT.' On the east side of I-81 is a new strip joint. While protestors picketed in day-glo orange vests out front, tattooed beauties sunbathed out back, facing the can. There's nowhere to park without being arrested or set upon by the protestors!"

...An interesting dilemma, just to take a picture of a giant paint can.

Christmas Blues

Christmas is in the air. I can feel it.

I tend to think that Christmas is overrated. We break our bank accounts, spend time with those lost relatives that we never really liked in the first place, waste time writing on cards that get thrown away, eat too much till we're sick, pretend that we like crappy presents that people get us, lie to children about the existence of fat man in a red suit, wrap presents that get ripped open, buy Christmas CD's that you can only play one month out of the year, talk for hours to people that only want the gossip on you to share at the next family gathering, baby-sit other people's kids so they can relax while you want to rip your hair out, answer questions about what you want to do with the rest of your life, and ultimately if you are feeling bad; it only doubles during the holidays, and all for what? To celebrate the birth of the Christ child? Who are we trying to kid? That isn't what Christmas is about in America. That is what it should be about, but it's not.

If we really wanted to celebrate the birth of Jesus, I'd sit in my house with my family and do nothing, well... maybe go to church, or volunteer somewhere...but I'm sick of all the Christmas glamour that is really just hollow attempts at being happy. Are people really more happy at Christmastime? or is that just what we tell ourselves to not feel like Scrooge? What has happened to Christmas being about a birthday party for Jesus? I don’t remember singing the happy birthday song at Christmas parties, ever.

Cookies Galore

Today was the annual cookie-baking-marathon at my grandma's house. Ugghh, I never want to see another cookie again. I'll be seeing cookie dough in my dreams tonight.



When I went outside for a break an Amish buggy was coming by so I snapped a picture; only in Pennsylvania.

Done I am

So today was my last final and I am done with my sophomore year now (at least here at Shippensburg University). I'm little ruffled though because I raced through my test so that the professor could catch a train out of here. I really would have liked to have read what I wrote because I was just writing like a madwoman. Guess I won't find out how I did until I see my grade. Man I hope its an A, or even an A- or even a B+, my GPA needs the help.

Blog Birthday

Happy Birthday to you,
Happy Birthday to You,
Happy Birthday dear Jenn's Blog,
Happy Birthday to you!

Moonlight Masquerade's first birthday, *tear*
It's just so special.

Music Genome Project

Whoa, I found the music Genome Project on Pandora . It is so awesome. All you gotta do, is type in a song/artist you like and it will come up with a whole stack of other stuff you should check out. I'm sold; this is a good idea.

An illusion or delusional?

Stare at this optical illusion for a while, and you'll really think you are losing it. But, you gotta admit; it is pretty cool.

Survivor Stephanie loses again

Noooooooooo, it was supposed to be Stephanie who won Survivor. I am so disappointed, she was my hero...

Found this cool place on cbs.com where people make up their own captions for funny survivor still frames (They will probably only make sense if you are a Survivor fan and have been watching this season--Meaning I was rotfl, but you prob won't be.)

Blanket of Snow

Brrr, it's cold outside. Today, from a lack of a more constructive activity to do, I went outside into the backyard and took pictures. Snow makes everything so pretty... until the smog and pollution of cars turns it black and sloshy.

Mental Exhaustion

Sorry its been so long since I posted. My classes are done!! Whoopee. "Hell week" (as I like to call it) is over. All my art projects and portfolios, papers, and exams were this week, save for the one final I have next week. I also have portfolio reviews, some meetings, and loose ends to tie up, but other than that I am home free until the end of January. I am soooo mentally exhausted and my back is killing me from being hunched over the computer and art stuff all week long. Thursday I didn't sleep a wink writing a 10 page paper and finishing a huge final drawing. Thank goodness I can relax a little this weekend. Ahhh, it feels good.

Christmas decorations- blog style

Had a rough week.
Also decorated blog for Christmas. Ho ho ho.

Thanksgiving Vacation

So we had a great time at the beach, like I said before. Somehow it is just strange to see people sitting on the beach in lawn chairs, with giant blankets on. That was us too. One day the temperature got up to the low 70's. I got to go swimming in the hotel pool and sit in the hot tub which was quite fun. We went for walks along the beach. We picked up lots of seashells, and stole a few. Actually my dad saw a big bag of seashells underneath the pier in the rafters so we decided to take it and hope no little kid would come back looking for it.

We stayed on the 12th floor of a hotel overlooking the water so I attempted to rise early enough to watch the sunrise but that didn't happen. I actually got my own room and my parents got their own, the two being separated by a little kitchen area. I watched some movies, read my book, and did do a little art work. We ate at a restaurant for Thanksgiving dinner that did include turkey, but I preferred the ribs. Black Friday we went shopping of course at the outlets. They we sooooo packed, people swarming everywhere. And we checked out those beach stores that have huge discounts during the off season. We drove all around Myrtle Beach, and just had a lovely care-free vacation.