Amazing Break

Although I have found out I don't really have many friends at home anymore, this break, I realized how much my family and Mike's family mean to me. When I got home on Tuesday afternoon, my mom took Mike and I out for pizza. She always loves spending time with us and my brother. After going out for pizza, she and I went shopping for some Christmas presents. Whenever we go shopping together, we have so much fun and always break out into laughing fits over nothing. Wednesday, Mike and I went shopping, and he somehow got dragged into working with me at Aero on black Friday. We worked for 10 hours...it was a long day! We went back to his house to have Thanksgiving leftovers with his parents, aunt, uncle, and cousin. We pulled up in his driveway right behind his aunt, uncle, and cousin. As soon as we got out of the car, they came up and each gave me a big hug. Mike's family has always been so accepting and hospitable to me. Saturday, Mike and I went to Chicago with his little sister and one of her guy friends. He was incrediby like Mike which made the day tons of fun. We have this program at our school called Natural Helpers. Lisa went at the beginning of November. During it, you write a letter to someone who has helped you or you look up to. She wrote me a letter, mostly because she and Mike aren't really affectionate. It was great hearing how she thinks I have helped both her and Mike. This morning, Mike's mom even made me go along to look at the houses they are thinking about buying. Of course, throughout this entire break, I spent lots of time with my family, and they are always completely supportive of me. It was great spending time with both my family and Mike's family over break.

Chinese or a Happy Meal

When I was between the ages of about 6 and 12, every once in a while, my mom, brother, and I would meet Bonnie Coulter and her daughter, Megan, at this cute little Chinese restaurant. Before each meeting, we would stop at the McDonalds across the street to get a Happy Meal for me. I had never tried Chinese food and didn't want to, but I did want to be grown up. It was always weird having to bring McDonalds into the little restaurant for me. I would complain and throw a fit if they tried to make me eat Chinese food. I wouldn't even drink the tea they served. I would get so upset when they were all enjoying their food while I was eating greasy fries. Looking back, I wonder what I was thinking...blech! They were all so much older and sophisticated (at least, that's what I thought at the time). Finally, I got tired of being the immature little kid. I was going to be brave. I decided to try the Chinese food. Keep in mind that my daring behavior went only so far as to try sweet and sour chicken. Pathetic, I know, but it was a big step back then. After that fateful transition period, I started to eat more varieties of Chinese food and more varieties of food in general. Seeing the older, more sophisticated people eating things other than American food helped me see that different things are ok too. Now, Chinese and Asian foods are among my favorites.

This is a picture of Star of Siam in Chicago. It is my favorite Thai restaurant as of right now!

Spring Break Plans!!!

Ever since the middle of the summer, Mike and I have been talking about going to Tennessee for spring break. Neither of us want to go down to Florida for the whole party scene since there is enough of it here. We decided that we wanted to rent a cabin in the Smoky Mountains. We both love the outdoors, and it is beautiful down there! We figured out that for 4 couples in a 3 bedroom cabin, it would only be around $190 a person for the entire week. That's a good deal if you ask me. Everyone that is going happens to be more Mike's friend, but that's ok because I have known most of them since my freshman year in high school. The cabin is in the mountains and has a great view. There are games and everything. I am really just glad to get away from the party scene of the warm places. As much as I love laying on the beach, I love being cold in the outdoors! Squirreled Away is a cozy little cabin that offers things such as 6 decks, a pool table, a jukebox, air hockey, and a hot tub. So I think that $190 a night is a perfectly acceptable price to pay for a cute little cabin in the mountains!

Born Into Brothels

In the movie, Born Into Brothels, the children were revealed to anyone watching the movie. This includes anyone across the world with a tv and an interest to watch this movie. If you think about the movie in the way that the children's lives were "on display," then hopefully you'd say it wasn't fair. Personally, I don't think that I would want my childhood on display, especially if it was like these children's. If you don't think about their lives being "on display," then you see children who are open to help. The documentary may deceive you by making you think they love every part of being taped. We will never know for sure. Parts have been left out of the movie. As for parts being left out of the movie, I would hope that the children could ask Briski to leave a certain part out if they were really uncomfortable with it being seen. I think that she chose this brothel and this group of children for a reason. They trusted her and were eager to learn. In the end, I believe that the children were appropriately portrayed and ok being in the documentary because it ultimately helped them. I would deem this documentary successful in the sense that it made Briski look like a Good Samaritan and put the problems of the children out into the public in hopes to get support for her organization. The end left you with a good thought to donate to Kids with Cameras.

Wonderful World of Engineering

So, being almost done with first semester, I started thinking about how my classes were going. Oddly enough, I am happy with all of them except for Chemistry. I don't want to talk about that though. Engineering has turned into a class that I am very glad I decided to take. I have learned a lot, and even though I get frustrated a lot, I realize that it will be worth it in the end. My mom and I were talking this weekend about what I will be doing this summer. After talking with her, I am pretty sure I want to try to get a Co-Op position. It is a great program and maybe a good way to find a job for after college. We even went out and got a suit so I would have one for interviews. It's crazy to think that we will be out in the real world soon. Mike is a junior, and I always make fun of him for being old. he is finally starting to think about the fact that he will be on his own in about a year and a half. There are a lot of people his age getting engaged and married soon, which is even weirder. I definitely don't want to get married until I have a steady job and can support myself. Glad he knows that... Maybe that's just me trying to be independent though, I don't want to have to rely on anyone. Oh well, I guess college is a great time to find independence!

Health

Although we have been discussing the origins of our food lately, I have noticed that nothing about my eating habits has changed. I would love to eat healthy, organic foods. I'm sure it would make me feel better about what I was eating. Right now, I don't even have time to worry about drinking enough liquids! With life being so chaotic down here at school, food is the last thing on my mind. It is quite honestly the last thing I worry about when going about my day. Sleep and homework rank much higher! If I were at home, I would be eating much better than I do now. I would eat regular meals instead of at random times throughout the day. I'm sure some of the food would have been genetically modified, but at least it would be a home cooked meal. As for my relationship with food...I've always been picky, and now, I will probably think about what I am putting into my mouth before I do. Even if I think about it, I will most likely eat it anyways just because that's what I'm being fed in the dining court.

Home gets harder to leave

This weekend, I spent some time at home. Each time I get to go back, I become more and more reluctant to leave. It's relaxing to be able to have conversations with my family and not have to get off the phone due to an assignment or group meeting. I love sleeping in my own bed because I feel like that's where I should be sleeping. I love going home and hanging out with my mom. When I'm at home, I'm not stressed or worried. My problems are left here at school, and I always have a great time. There is no drama there that I have to worry about, and I just get to hear stories about other people's problems. I am already looking forward to this weekend because Mike and I are both going home even though we are leaving Purdue again on Tuesday. I can't wait until Thanksgiving. There is a good chance it is my favorite holiday although Christmas is a close second. The thing I am most excited about is having time off from school for more than two days! Oh, and of course, not having engineering is a plus!!!

Food log for two weeks ago... :)

Breakfast:
-Oatmeal
-Hi-C Strawberry Juice box

Lunch:
-Croissant with turkey, mozzarella cheese, lettuce, and tomato
-Rice and stir-fried vegetables
-Glass of water

Dinner:
-Container of Minestrone soup
-Cinnamon apple sauce
-Gatorade

Snack:
-so far just water...
-probably something later

Today, I didn't really eat anything home cooked. I guess you could consider the dining hall stuff that I ate for lunch home cooked, but in my opinion, it's not the same. I'm pretty sure that the vegetables in my soup were probably genetically modified. They would be taken from somewhere with the ability to grow mass quantities. There were red beans, chickpeas, celery, potatoes, and carrots in my soup. I'm sure something out of that list has been modified. I doubt that the broccoli and mushrooms I ate for lunch were organic because they also have to be bought in bulk. Food didn't really have to travel far for me today. Everything I ate was probably from the Midwest...maybe not. I ate fast food the entire day. Nothing took time to prepare, and I didn't get the pleasure of cooking the food myself.

Stubbornness can lead to a career?

The last blog of the week is always the hardest to write. It seems like there is nothing left to talk about, so you just ramble on about nothing and hope to make it to 200 words. It always seems like it is on my last blog that I randomly talk about all of my problems and what's going wrong in my life! I'm usually the type of person that keeps to themselves and doesn't like to let anyone in. That's pretty much me in a nutshell. I consider myself very outgoing but don't trust easily. I also am usually super quiet...I guess that's changed since I've been at school. I know that over these past almost 3 months, I have changed. I feel like I can take more on now and am much more stubborn than I was when I came down in August. Trust me, that was hard to beat. There is no way that I can change my major now. I refuse. I came in for engineering, and I vow to leave with a degree in some sort of engineering. I think all of the engineers received Co-Op postcards in the mail on Saturday. It finally helped me realize that I need to start working on getting an internship. I know there is almost no use in trying for a Co-Op because I don't want to do engineering. I want to work in a patent office. I decided that I would talk to Jim, my academic advisor, about trying for an internship at the U.S. Patent Office. I highly doubt they would want someone without any experience in law, but hey, maybe they will give me a chance!

Spoof Ad to Mortify...

In the foreground, you see a heart monitoring machine. It has two normal heart beats, then you see the "Golden Arches" before it flatlines. On the bottom of the machine, you see the words "Big Mac Attack!" In the background of the picture, you see three doctors working on the patient hooked up to the machine. They are trying to get his heart beating again. The ad is referencing Big Mac commercials and ads in which Big Macs are made to look appealing and appetizing. This spoof has on objective of showing you what can really come out of Big Macs, death. In my opinion, this spoof does a great job of showing truth. Part of our nation's obesity problem comes from eating foods like Big Macs. Seeing this ad would definitely make me think twice about putting that nasty thing into my digestive tract. Would you really want to be eating a Big Mac while looking at this ad. You would have to be thinking about how you could feel the cholesterol in your arteries slowly moving to your heart and stopping it. These foods are so unhealthy! Maybe I was already biased, and that was why I chose to talk about this ad. I haven't had a McDonalds burger in probably over 2 years. They are about the least appealing item to me.

Weekend

Went out Friday night.
Sleeping by 1 a.m.
Woke up at 10:30 a.m.
Messed around on the internet until the Purdue game started.
Quit watching at half.
Put in Meet the Robinsons.
Watched about 20 minutes then slept through the rest of the movie and the second time it played.
Woke up to credits.
Put in License to Wed.
Watched the entire thing and loved it.
Turned to Lifetime.
Watched a movie about a missing kid who was still alive 7 days later.
During all the times I was awake, I was working on math for the week.
Mike came over at 9:30 p.m.
We watched Charlie and the Chocolate Factory.
Fell asleep by 12 a.m.
Woke up at 8 a.m. even though I thought it was 9 a.m.
Went to the mall with Mike for a couple of hours.
Came back and continued to do math homework.
Finished all math by 4 p.m.
Watched the Colts game with Billy, Torsten, and Carter.
Went over to Earhart to do Chem Lab write-up.
Came back to Owen did chem homework.
The rest of my week is dedicated to the research paper and studying for my engineering test on Wednesday and Thursday...Wish me luck and sorry if you actually read this whole thing!

Nervousness and Stress

As I was sitting in Engineering lecture today, I ran my hands through my hair, and like 5 strands fell out!!! It's so upsetting. I turned to the other girl on my team and just had this shocked look on my face as I was still holding the hair in my hand. I am so stressed that my hair is falling out. I mean, I always shed. It's normal, but never have I shed this much! I can't believe that I am already in my second round of tests. I had my second math test 2 weeks ago, but tonight I have my chemistry test. I'm really nervous about it. I feel the need to do well in that class because it is all stuff that I learned last year. The way my teacher gives us the information is not in the slightest bit interesting and completely confusing my thoughts from last year. So, to say the least, I'm pretty scared about this test tonight! Along with the test, I have to start on this wonderful research paper. I've never written a 10 page paper before. The longest has been 5 pages. College is something completely new to me. Sometimes I love it. Sometimes I hate it, and sometimes it's just crazy!

Continued Life

So my roommate and I are being civil. I think it's only because we both found other people to live with next semester! I went down to the lobby to get the forms to change roommates. The girl working the front desk told me that I was going to live on her floor. I probably gave her a really weird look, and she went on to say that one of the girls was graduating in December. This meant that her roommate needed someone. Annie and Lauren, RAs, told me to go introduce myself to the girl. She wasn't in her room so I just went to my room to work on homework. Like 20 minutes later, the girl comes up to my room and introduces herself. I told her what happened with my roommate, and she was disgusted, just like I had been. Her name is Laura, and she is an alumni of the same leadership conference as me. We are really excited, which is actually more than I can say for myself at the beginning of the year for the roommate I have now! Kind of odd, I'm more excited to live with someone I don't really know than someone I do. I guess experiences can change your mind some...

Life

Sometimes, you wish your friends would take sides until they choose the wrong one... I can't wait until next semester. There is so much drama in my life right now due to my roommate. I would rather dislike someone I didn't know before living with them than argue with and dislike someone that I've known for the last 15 years. I desperately wish that I could get a single room. With my classes right now, I don't need the stress of other people bringing drama. This weekend was so much fun. My roommate left for the weekend...and took the tv remote with her. Can we say immature? Friday night, I went out to dinner with a big group of people from my leadership conference. We are planning an event for this Saturday and needed to discuss it. I had a great time and was able to forget my problems. On Saturday, I went to the game with Torsten and Billy. Once again, loads of fun. After that, we went back to the dorms, watched tv for a little while and worked on our Postlab. Then, we went and tailgated with Mike's family. There was amazing food. It made me happy after thinking about dining hall food again. Last night, a big group of us went over to Farmhouse and watched a movie and tv for a little while. So overall, my almost stressless weekend was fabulous!

World Takeover

HERE ARE YOUR FOOTPRINT RESULTS:

CATEGORY GLOBAL ACRES
FOOD 4.2
MOBILITY 0.5
SHELTER 5.2
GOODS/SERVICES 4
TOTAL FOOTPRINT 14


IN COMPARISON, THE AVERAGE ECOLOGICAL FOOTPRINT IN YOUR COUNTRY IS 24 GLOBAL ACRES PER PERSON.

WORLDWIDE, THERE EXISTS 4.5 BIOLOGICALLY PRODUCTIVE GLOBAL ACRES PER PERSON.

IF EVERYONE LIVED LIKE YOU, WE WOULD NEED 3.1 PLANETS.

Before taking this quiz, I honestly thought that I wasn't very wasteful of selfish. After seeing these results, I am kind of upset with myself. I understand that it means if everyone in the world lived like me then we'd need 3.1 planets, but what about the people who live like Donald Trump or celebrities? How many planets would we need then? I think it is awful that the developed countries take everything away from the underdeveloped ones. I can easily compare this to my roommate and I. In definition, I would be a caring developed country, and she would be the one that wants to take over the world. Right now, she has taken 3/4 of our room, this is comparable to what the developed countries are doing to the underdeveloped countries. Overall, ignoring my problems at the moment, I think it's completely unfair that developed countries are using more than their share. All of these countries should be the ones coming up with ways to save our environment instead of more ways to kill it. All we do is use more and more resources instead of coming up with ways of ruining everything around of us.

First Half of My Week

So far, my week hasn't been extremely stressful. It's been pretty nice actually. I got to see Mike for lunch on Sunday before I started homework. I finished my CHIPS homework early so I got to relax last night. I sat downstairs with the guys and made fun of the fact that they were still working on their cars. Even though they are obviously much better than my team's is, I was still happy I was done with it. When my dad came down last week, we went to Walgreens, and I got a Care Bears coloring book. While I was sitting downstairs last night, I colored a picture. It was Wish Bear swinging on a swing held up by a star. After I finish this post, I have to go back to homework. I need to finish my Lab Bonus and chemistry homework tonight. Then tomorrow night, I have to start working on my Post Lab. Stupid Engineering!

Last Post of the Week

Ok, so I've finally come to the realization that I need to do blogs throughout the week like I used to. Now, I just cram all of them into one night and hope I have enough interesting things in my life to fill the box. My mind goes blank after one of them, and I have to scrap for the rest. At least I do them I guess. They aren't difficult or anything, but they just take time. I don't like sharing too many things about my life, so blogs don't really fit into my personality! Since this is my last one for the week, I'm going to describe what the rest of my night looks like. With about 10 hours of sleep over 2 nights, I am hoping to be asleep by midnight. To do this, I have to finish this blog, make sure my essay is good to turn in, start my chemistry homework, review for my math test, and hopefully do the written out section of my engineering homework. Needless to say, I'm somewhat busy tonight. One thing I'm grateful for is the fact that my roommate's not here tonight, which allows me to focus much better! Since I have complained enough already, I will let whomever is reading this get back to something more interesting!!!

Excitement and Relaxation of Fall Break

Being one of the many people who stayed for the disappointing Ohio State game over fall break, I didn't get home until Sunday morning. Although disappointing, the game wasn't the only part of my night. After the game, I went out with Torsten, Billy, Carter, some people related to them, and Mike. We went to B-Dubs, which was awesome! After that, Mike drove some people out to 65 and made $80 while the guys and I walked back to Billy's car. We had to go to a parking garage for someone's stuff and saw a do not enter sign on the ground on the way out. What we did wasn't inappropriate........it was already on the ground? Haha, but anyways, after that, we went back to Owen and said our goodbyes. Sunday morning, Mike and I left for home at about 8:30 and somehow made it there by 9:40. I was sleeping, so I'm guessing he was speeding or there was no traffic. I already went through the best thing (house shopping) that happened over fall break last week, so I will spare you the boredom of going through it again! Something just as good as house shopping was what happened afterwards. I went home and took a 3 hour nap. Seeing as I never have time to take naps at school, this was wonderful. Another fun thing that I did was going shopping with my mom on Monday. We always have fun together and have become so much closer since school has started. I got some cute clothes and more stuff to organize my room. I would put a picture up of something, but my camera won't charge and makes me upset!!!

Cedar Point

So yesterday, I woke up at about 3:45 to something completely inappropriate to say in a blog. I had to get up in about 15 minutes and was counting down until my alarm went off. I went and got ready to load the bus at 5. We were off to Cedar Point. At 5 in the morning, it's kind of hard to be really energetic and excited, but I was. 12 hours filled with rides, having fun, and walking. As soon as we got to the park, we ran to the Dragster. We waited for the front row, and it was amazing. By the time I got off the ride, my hair was plastered back against the seat, and Torsten looked even more like Einstein! After that we went and got lunch at Johnny Rockets. Then we went and stood in line for Raptor, which is a very fun ride but probably not quite worth a 2 hour wait. After the Raptor, we stood in line for the new coaster, Maverick. This was one ride that would have been worth a 3 hour wait. When you walk into the line, there is a sign which gets across the point that not all of the cars make it over all of the hills. The car right behind ours got stuck!!! We had to sit and wait by the end of the coaster until they could get it working again. It was so much fun though. When we finally got off, we walked over to a funnel cake place. On the way, there was a Halloween trail with fog lights and scary people and all. I got kind of freaked out! While Torsten and Billy bought funnel cakes, Carter and I went to find a haunted house. When we finally found it after getting lost, we waited for the other two before we got in line. Although I jumped a few times, the haunted house was less scary than the trail. Since we had just under 2 hours left, we ran to the line for Millennium Force. It was a great way to end the night before we had to go spend 5 and a half miserable hours on a bus trying to sleep!

Home home home

Home is where the heart is…

I haven’t been so excited in a long time. I got home this morning at like 9:45. My parents sat down with me, and we ate breakfast. Then, my dad went out to do yardwork, and my mom and I sat and chatted for a while. Even though she came down this past Tuesday, I already missed her by like Thursday. The first few weeks of school, I only talked to her like once or twice a week. Now, I talk to her at least once a day! But back to the day… After we all got ready, we went out to Valpo, just off of Division and started house shopping. I guess they have been going these past few weekends and just didn’t tell me. We went up to this subdivision called Tuscany. There were some gorgeous homes on not so gorgeous lots. I was so excited about this one house. It was amazing. For some odd reason, I discovered that I love rounded corners…I don’t know who came up with the idea, but it’s a great one. It makes the inside look much more finished and professional. I love looking at designs and architecture. So really, I wonder why I’m an engineer…

Honor the true person, not who you want them to be

By idolizing those whom we honor, we do a disservice both to them and to ourselves....We fail to recognize that we could go and do likewise.
--Charles V. Willie

Growing up, whenever I started a new relationship, my mom would always ask me if there was anything I would change about the guy. Of course my answer was always yes…sorry guys, but you’re not perfect, no one is. She would reply by saying that I should break up with him because I shouldn’t have to change someone to like them. Comparing this to the above epigraph, I see many similarities. We, as American citizens have heard many wonderful stories about Helen Keller and the wonderful things she has done. The only reason we believe she is so great is because history books and their writers have chosen to change her background to make her more perfect. Since they aren’t in a “relationship” with her, they feel that they can make any “adjustments” needed to give her the façade of perfection. By doing this, people see her as this angelic figure only doing great things for the nation. We look up to her greatness and feel that we could never measure up. Historians have done the same thing with Woodrow Wilson. They make him look like this great guy, when in reality, he was racist and only did good things by accident.

This epigraph completely summarizes what Loewen was trying to say. Everything that historians have made us believe about these great people forces into our minds the fact that we can never be as great as them. In all truths, we can do better than these “heroes.” Keller and Wilson probably weren’t passionate about as many things as people today that go unnoticed by society. By putting them in the limelight, others feel discouraged as if their cause isn’t good enough.

I agree wholeheartedly with the epigraph and Loewen’s arguments. I too believe that when we idolize someone, we take them out of reality and make them take the characteristics of perfection. This completely defeats the purpose of having someone be your “hero” because you should think of them as being heroic for who they really are, not who you want to make them.

A Few More Peaceful Hours

Wednesday
After turning in CHIPS
Relaxing
Not thinking about homework
Sitting by the engineering fountain
Calmed by the sunlight and cool breeze
Taking time to be myself
Silent, pensive
Watching people
Walking by with mad looks on their faces
Smiling at them
Trying to make their day a little brighter
Watching squirrels
Fighting over food
Which is plentiful in their environment
Wishing my peaceful few hours would never end
Waiting to hustle to my next class
And spend the next 3 hours inside
Until I can be out in the elements again
Until the next round of homework starts
And my mind becomes stressed
And the world doesn't seem as bright
Until I get a few more peaceful hours

Validation

Engineering Problem Solving Method:
State the problem.
State what you need to find.
Draw a representation of the problem.
Theory: solve the problems using variables.
Assumptions: state your assumptions.
Givens: state what the problem gives you.
Iteration: solve the problem by plugging your values into your theory.
Validation: this equals hell. They expect us to find another way to solve a problem we already have the answer to. This week is the worst! Even after going to office hours to get help from the TA's, it seems like I have no idea how to validate the stupid problem. Even the TA's have a not so great way to validate. It was a completely last ditch effort!

The Most Random Thing You'll Ever Read

sometimes the smiles fade even when you think it's right
or the moments don't mean the same things they used to
and you start to find shelter in someone else's smile
which is something not known for a long time
it's hard to think everything's perfect
and doesn't need to change
when there are so many unknown things around
so many new experiences and opportunities
not wanting to miss anything
homework taking up my life
spending more time with people new to me
and being happier than with old friends
talking to my parents way more than I used to
truly finding out how close my mom and I are
it's an experience of a lifetime
it's challenging, but you'll make it
maybe the best seven years of my life :-P (Hope not)
I wouldn't change where I am right now for the world
as confusing and stressful as it is, I'm happy
not even knowing how
but realizing I wouldn't want to lose anyone
that I have in my life right now

Photographs

Curtis’s intention of staging the Native Americans like he did was to supposedly help other people understand them. In all reality, he just staged them in the way that Americans thought of the Native Americans. One reason he produced these photographs was because he was interested photography and Native Americans. Curtis staged the Native Americans too much. It has been said that some of them aren’t in their native environments. The families are portrayed in some of them also. One reason he photographed the Native Americans was for his contract with J.P. Morgan. I don’t think he would have produced 19 volumes of posed Native Americans if it weren’t for the prospective money looming over his head. Neidich’s work, from what I saw in the book, was much more geared toward making the Native Americans look savage. There were pictures of a man with a knife to his throat and pictures of men falling off horses. Neidich also tried to make his photos look old but making them sepia toned and grainy. I think his agenda was more to contradict photos like Curtis’s than to make a living taking photos of Native Americans. Neidich’s photos definitely remind me of photos and paintings that I would see in my old history books. I personally prefer Neidich’s work because he didn’t only focus on Native Americans. He photographs other things that interest him.

Stupid High School

So I’m sitting in front of the tv right now. I volunteered for the Habitat for Humanity at the Gus Macker tournament from 4 to 8. I feel like after I got back, all I’ve done is eat. In reality, that really is all I’ve done. I tried to start homework, but I just couldn’t. I’m having such a hard time getting back into the swing of things after one weekend. I wish I could learn study habits and things I never had to in high school. There are so many of us down here who were able to slack in high school and got a shock when we got here. I have my first chemistry test tomorrow night, and I have no idea how to study for it. I read over my notes twice and looked at old tests, but I feel like it won’t be enough. High school is supposed to prepare us for college. I don’t feel prepared in the slightest. I don’t know time management. I never had to study for tests. My classes weren’t challenging. How does that prepare me for college? I know some bigger schools would have been better, but that wasn’t the district that I lived in. I would never have asked my parents to pay tuition for me to go to a bigger school with more challenging classes. So after wasting plenty more of my time, I’m going to go back to studying and trying to do other homework!

Unproportional Killing

The strategies of WWII were obviously not in proportion or morally correct. I guess I could understand if the U.S. Air Force was trying to get Japan to surrender. Sure, kill their civilians until they crack. Not exactly something I would agree with, but they obviously thought differently than I do. In my mind, firebombing is like torture. The civilians were unknowing of their deaths coming, and it’s not like they could have persuaded their government to surrender even if they did. After seeing the equivalents of the U.S. cities that would have been destroyed, my heart fell when I realized the damage. In my mind, I think the firebombings were too extensive, but I’m sure they felt differently back then. The nuclear weapons just went too far. After the damage they had already done, they had to go back and kill more people. Now, looking back, people wonder whether there was enough time in between the dropping of the nuclear arms. Before I decided on mechanical engineering, I had wanted to go into nuclear engineering. Although obviously not for the formation of nuclear arms, I thought that might end up being the only place I could find a job. I knew that I didn’t want to have any part in a nuclear war, and that is part of the reason that I changed my mind. So overall, I do not believe that the strategies were in proportion, and the ends did not justify the means.

Enough is not enough, but it will have to do...

When the first woman got up and read her “inspired fairy-tale,” I was completely impressed. All of her words went straight to my imagination, and it was as if I could see the evil sunflower and pages growing from the ground. After she finished, Kate Bernheimer went up to the podium and decided that her own introduction to herself wasn’t as good as the previous introduction. She started right off into the book reading. The books she read from were from a series about the three Gold sisters: Merry, the oldest, Ketzia, the middle sister, and Lucy, the youngest. Though she only read from the first two books about Ketzia and Merry, you could easily see the relations between the stories in the books, and also you got a hint of the fairy tales. She said that she uses German, Russian, and English fairy tales. Throughout her reading, I sat debating what I thought of her writing. In my mind, it was quite odd intermixing riddles with her stories. Also odd were some of the quotes about the piano and guitar teacher. It made me wonder if he were the reason Merry became so cold later on in life. It seemed like the parts Kate chose to read somehow flowed into the next. She went from talking about the “ice walker” girl to how she was later in life, walking around the streets looking for vodka. The two were related by her feelings from the day she saw the girl fall through the ice. Overall, even though I thought her passages were quite odd, I still have this nagging feeling to read her books.

HOBY...the love of my life :)

Ok, so I finally decided that since I mention HOBY in about half of my blogs, I would describe why it is so dear to my heart! First of all, HOBY is a leadership conference for students coming out of their sophomore year of high school. One student from each high school has the opportunity to come to this prestigious conference. It consists of 4 days of goofy cheers, panels, motivational speakers, magnificent Butler food, and bonding. You get down to Butler University on a Thursday morning. Immediately greeted by cheering junior counselors, you tell your mom or dad that you want to go home right now. If they are good parents, they make you stay. After registering, you are dragged into a circle to do ungodly embarrassing cheers. When all of the students have finally arrived, you are grouped into teams with a counselor and junior counselor. This is your group for the rest of the conference. The next 3 days are filled with more cheering. I could go through every little detail, but as I tell everyone else, it doesn't mean the same thing if you aren't there. On Saturday night, there is a dance. During this time, you get to mingle with people other than your group, who by this time, you want to spend time with anyways. Sunday morning could end up being one of the saddest days of your life. This is the hour of truth, how much did you come to love the people you just spent 4 days with. After leaving, you realize that you have just left some of your best friends. They aren't the same kind of friends as the ones from home. These people came to know the real you, because at HOBY, you don't have to pretend to be anyone else. If you choose to come back the following year as a JuCo, you must complete 100 hours of community service. In my mind, it is completely worth it. Being a JuCo is also a very rewarding experience. You get to go along with one of the groups but also see the change in the ambassadors. It's also a great chance to see some of the best friends you lost contact with over the year. I went back this past summer for the 3rd time. I was able to be a Special Assisstant. This meant that I was almost completely behind the scenes working to make everything go smoothly. That position meant a lot to the ones who got it. There were only 7 of us who were ambassadors together. These people are some of my best friends, and I cherish any time that I get a chance to see them now. The following video is from the talent show this year. The guy and the three girls have known each other since their ambassador year more than 6 years ago. They were grossed out but not as much as the crowd was!

This picture is our entire group of special assisstants from 2007!!!

Hmmmm... weekend update?

I feel so grateful that my parents live about 100 miles away. This weekend was great getting to see them again. Even though I have seen them about every other weekend, it still makes me happy every time. My brother even came up from Miami of Ohio! We kept it a secret from our parents until he walked in the door of my dorm room. I kept having to leave the room to talk to him on the phone! I told my parents they were going to meet my new boyfriend...I'm pretty sure they knew I was joking about that since right now, Mike and I are practically perfect. We all walked over to the golf course where we were tailgating with Mike's family and some of their friends. It was a lot of fun, and I think Timmy finally realized why I like spending so much time with Mike and his family. I guess on his way back to Farmhouse with Mike, he said something about how everyone else's families except for ours is outgoing, funny, and energetic. As I've said before, my family is very reserved. Then, when my brother tried to start his car, I guess it died so my parents had to go help him fix it before they left. I took a nap at that time! It was pretty great... When I woke up, I got ready to go out with Mike. It was one of our friends' 21st birthdays so we had to venture over to see his first shot. He dedicated it to his aunt who passed away over the summer. After saying our happy birthdays, we left. Today, all I've done is sit around and try to do homework! I finished about half of my engineering lab bonus even though it's not due till Friday, and I haven't started the stuff that's due on Wednesday. I have trouble with my priorities once in a while :) Well I think I'm off to do more homework and sleep. Hope you all had a great weekend!

"A Journey to Discover Yourself " ( Ishmael Beah)

I have definitely been impacted by Blood Diamond, A Long Way Gone, and hearing Ishmael Beah speak. Before these three things, I never really understood the issue with child soldiers and never even thought about the fact that they fought for the government also. I always had pictured in my mind groups of children fighting against trained professional troops. I never imagined it to be child to child combat. Ishmael Beah was quite honestly one of the most interesting speakers that I have heard. Usually, I can't sit through a long talk, but I think the fact that I already read the book for class helped a lot! While everyone else was squeaking in their chairs and rustling around, I was just listening intently to every word that rolled off his tongue. He spoke about many interesting things, some of which you could gather from the book and others you couldn't. One of the first things he talked about was how he gets upset when the panels he speaks on do not give him enough time to delve into the topic of child soldiers.
To me, the most troubling issue that Ishmael spoke about was the women in the army. I completely understand why he left their story to them. They could not have done justice to his story, and he couldn't have done justice to theirs. When he talked about this, it became mind boggling because he had never spoken of women and girls in the army. Throughout the book, I never once pictured Ishmael fighting next to a woman. He never spoke of any girls in the rehabilitation center. What happened to their children? Who took care of them if Mom had to fight? The thing that really disgusted me was how the girls would have children by the commanders and have to raise them in the midst of war. That is completely unfair to both mother and child. In reality, I understand why they didn’t leave. It was either be shot by the government or by the rebels, neither of which is a very pleasant scenario. I would love to hear about the war and fighting from a womanly point of view. As Ishmael said, some of them just aren’t ready yet. Some of them had to make it out alive, but right now they are scared of what society will think of them and their children. Before I leave you, one other thing I found interesting is that Ishmael has only been back to Sierra Leone once and it was this past year. After all he has done for the cause of child soldiers, I was surprised it took him that long to go back.

For the Love of the Community!

Wow, other than the awful CFU in Engineering Lab today, my day was pretty damn awesome! Tonight was so exciting. I went with one of my team members over to the Habitat for Humanity meeting. He has done it before, and I've always wanted to. We were like 40 minutes early so we just sat and talked for a while. When we went in and sat down, I suddenly got really happy. I'm one of those people who loves community service projects in every way, shape, and form. Pizza was offered, and everyone got up to get some. It was then that I saw one of the girls that I went to Girls State with before my senior year! We were so excited to see each other. Even though Girls State was by chance the worst week of my life, I still love all the girls who were in my city. Most of us got really close and had a lot of fun. As long as we weren't doing the required activities, we were smiling, laughing, and having a great time. I remember staying up until like 2 almost every night even though we had to be at breakfast by like 7. We would just stay up and eat and chat. Back to the present, when we started walking back to the dorms, we saw a squirrel. At the same time, we said, "I love squirrels." It was so random but funny because we hadn't seen each other in over a year and could still laugh like we did that week. I love seeing people that I met through activities like HOBY and Girls State because I usually know that they are nice and down to earth. But yeah, community service almost gives me a high it makes me so happy. I don't know exactly why, but I'm sure some of it has to do with the fact that every community service experience that I've had has been loads of fun!

Blood Ruins the Luster...

Diamonds are the norm… Every girl wants diamonds and roses. What could any girl want more? Growing up, I always liked to have things that were different. Of course, I though diamonds were pretty, but they were never really what I wanted. I loved coming up with my dream wedding and picturing the massive rock on my ring. Although I have received a few small diamonds from my boyfriend, he knows that I don’t really like diamonds, so he always buys me things that are different. My feeling on diamonds is affected by information about “conflict diamonds.” It makes me very cautious of where I would get diamonds. I’m pretty sure that texts, movies, and songs do make a difference. When I was working on my engineering project, one of my group members started talking about West’s song when I mentioned my blog. This means that people are obviously watching and listening. When people hear counter-storytelling, it causes shock. It makes people think about what it really happening in the world. Diamonds represent glamour and class, so of course there is always joy in giving or receiving a diamond. There is no way that I would buy a diamond without knowing if it were a conflict diamond or not. Seeing Blood Diamond helped me see the problems that arise when resources of value are desired and are killed for.

Rain, Rain, Go Away

So much for that football game today... Not that I was going anyways. I went to the beginning of Mike's rugby game and left once it started pouring. His sister had started to walk over to the field from the football game. It started raining on her about halfway through the walk over so she was soaked by the time she got there. It was pretty hilarious. I took Mike's truck, and we came back to Farmhouse to dry off. We went down and threw her stuff in the dryer. Then we sat in the kitchen and drank lemonade until the stuff was done drying. I think this is quite possibly the worst blog I've written yet...sorry about that. Mike's sister, Lisa, is a junior in high school this year. We became a lot closer over the summer. I took her to HOBY with me in June. Before that time, we always kind of got annoyed with each other. HOBY, in my mind, is the greatest experience I've ever had. It is a leadership conference that scares the hell out of you the first 3 hours and by the end of the day, it's your favorite thing. She didn't like it the first day, which I kind of expected. After that, she loved it. That's what I was hoping for because she had heard my stories from the conference for the previous 2 years. We drove all the way home from Indy when it ended and never faltered in conversation. I was so glad that I had her come with me and have that experience. I think it meant a lot to her, and it brought us a lot closer. I guess I'm going to go now though...I still need to write the diamonds blog and make some comments. Expect to hear more from me tomorrow!

Stupid Thinking Habits...

So it's one of those times. The times where counting sheep or backwards from 100 just won't cut it. Like the nights Ishmael would stay up not able to sleep. My reasons are much different from his. I haven't seen death. Every time I close my eyes, they open right back up due to some subconcscious thought or nagging feeling that I have forgotten something. I consider myself a thinking person. Just like my brother, I would like nothing more than to keep to myself and let other people do the talking. This is a great part of the reason I tend not to participate in class discussions very much. Another reason is because I hate speaking in front of groups of people. Frankly, it scares the bejeezus out of me and makes me cry almost every time. You'd probably laugh hysterically if you saw the video of my Valedictory Address...it was awful. Of course, one of the reasons it was so bad was because my uncle made a surprise appearance. Since his accident, I haven't been able to go a single visit without crying or at least tearing up. I'm just so grateful that God decided not to take him away from us. Even sitting here right now writing this I have tears in my eyes. I just remember waking up that Saturday morning in March of my junior year by my mom telling me that Uncle Bear had been in an accident and was in the ICU at Loyola in Chicago. I had to go to work that day so my parents wouldn't let me come with. They said it was probably for the best. The doctors didn't know if he would make it through the night, and my parents later said I wouldn't have wanted to see him like that. It was another month before I finally got to visit him. Through those weeks, I spent many days in school with tears in my eyes. I couldn't talk to anyone about it, or else I'd break down. So anyways, I finally went with my parents to see my uncle, the baby of his family. As soon as I walked in and saw the machines and feeding tube, tears started running down my face. My uncle just looked at me and said, "It's ok, He decided it wasn't my time. He sent me my guardian angels to take care of me." Needless to say, that day alone was hard. Then the next 4 months came along. He was moved to a nursing home. My 48 turning 49 year old uncle was in a nursing home. Those months were filled with biweekly visits and lots of Good 'n Plenty candy. The last visit we made to the nursing home before his 49th birthday and my senior year, he said he had a surprise for us. He maneuvered himself to his wheelchair and rolled to the bathroom where there were supports to help him stand. He hoisted himself up and said, "Look, I can stand up to pee now." My mom and I just started laughing while we were crying. This was the first time we got to see him stand since the accident. Now, over a year and a half since his accident, he still uses a cane for balance but walks half a mile every day. He has the mental capacity of a ten year old and takes everything to heart. He gets so scared that he's not the son my Nana and Papa want him to be that he can't sleep for a week. Just this past Father's Day, he started making jokes again. Keep in mind, he's always been the funny one in our family. Although he's slowly progressing to the old Barry, we know he'll never be that Barry again. We love him all the same. Just this past week, I called to wish him a happy 50th birthday. I don't think I've ever been so glad to be able to wish someone happy birthday. So maybe since I finally let all that out, I will be able to go to sleep. For those of you that actually read this, feel special. I've never shared all of that with anyone...Goodnight all! BTW, this is my uncle Bear :)

Home is where you don't have to wear flip-flops in the shower!

I practically ran home from class Friday afternoon. The excitement was as great as Ishmael’s was when he was close to seeing his family. Now I only had to endure an extensive hour and a half drive home! We hopped in the car as soon as I got back to go pick Leslie up at Shreve. Then, we hit the road and tried to make a speedy trip home to our families without getting pulled over for speeding. I just wanted to mention that I wasn’t driving. J Unlike Ishmael, I did actually get to see my family! As soon as I walked in the door, my mom and dad ran to give me hugs. They like to be goofy and fight to give me the first and last hugs, so I ended up getting like 5 from each of them. I hadn’t been so excited to be home in a really long time. Over the previous three weeks, I hadn’t realized how much I missed being there with my parents. We had all gone to take my brother down to Miami of Ohio the weekend before, but it didn’t cut it as being home with my parents. I was so tired Friday night that I was asleep by 8:30 home time. Saturday morning, my mom and I got up early and drove into Illinois because we love going to the Orland Park Mall. It’s so much better than ours. We shopped a few stores and ended up getting 4 free loaves of bread from Sara Lee before heading down to Lockport to see my grandparents. The four of us went out for an early dinner, and then my mom and I proceeded home. That night, Mike came over, and we watched about four hours of HBO Presents on Comedy Central. Sunday has been extremely exciting. I got to go buy baby clothes for my neighbors across the street because they just had their second child, a boy named Nicholas Dean. My mom and I went out to Kohl’s and found a cute little fuzzy sleeper. Then, we went to Barnes and Noble and bought a book for the baby and two short chapter books for the seven year old girl, Kayla. Later on tonight I get to go out to a new restaurant, Little Tokyo, and maybe up to the Dunes for a walk on the beach and to watch the sunset. Tomorrow before I leave, my mom is going to make me spaghetti, pretty much my favorite food if it’s her homemade stuff, and we are going to make chocolate chip cookies together. My bonding activity with my dad this weekend is going to be learning how to change the oil in my car before I leave tomorrow. I don’t even bring my car to school… Overall, this weekend will have been pretty fantastic by the time I get back tomorrow!

20 problems I can comprehend with my dust particle sized wealth of worldly knowledge!!! Pathetic I know...

1. Lack of reasoning for war
2. Rape
3. Civil war
4. Human rights abuse
5. Children soldiers
6. Children losing their parents and their source of love
7. Lack of psychological help for children and adults after the war
8. Poor responses by government military
9. Availability of resources to rebel forces
10. Use of conflict resources in non-fighting countries
11. Illegal resource exportation
12. Drug use
13. Lack of border control in the fighting country of both imports and exports
14. Lack of border control and monitoring of export destinations from other nations supporting the war
15. Bureaucratization of war
16. Media reporting that ignores important information
17. Negative views on the war causing a lack of help
18. Lack of gun control
19. Lack of safe havens for families running from the war
20. Physical effects on the people after war
21. Ecological effects of the war

In my mind, these are all problems in our world when it comes to war. One thing that I have thought about while reading this book is how the rebel soldiers came upon their weapons. I understand they pay people off, and many people nowadays would rather have the money than the feeling they did something good for the world. It seems like there are almost no surefire solutions to this problem. One thing I think that needs to be put to use is today’s power to track things. If we can track sharks and penguins, I’m sure we can track planes and where they are headed. Non-governmental forces get their resources from other nations, most likely larger nations. All planes and transport vehicles need to be searched, monitored, and tracked. Although governmental officials may be corrupt and accept money as a bribe, they should be required to search all international flights and track them after liftoff. There also needs to be consequences for pilots who “accidentally veer of course.” Not to make the jobs of air traffic controllers any more stressful, but outgoing and incoming planes need to be monitored if there is any chance of reducing the amount of aid to rebel forces. This, in my opinion, may slightly reduce the resources that are available to rebel forces. In the case of A Long Way Gone, resources to both governmental and rebel forces should have been cut off. I believe neither of these groups were in the right.

Meet Heat and Lab Bonuses... My ENEMIES!

After today, I am completely ready for winter if not a little fall weather, at least. I'm sick of walking to classes in over ninety degree weather and standing in front of my fans in the dorm for ten minutes when I get back from class. If only this stupid global warming would stop screwing up the Earth's climate system, we might get a little break. Not trying to brainwash anyone, but seriously, you have to believe in global warming... at least a little! For what other reasons have our storms gotten worse and more people died? Last week, I sat for three hours in front of Fox News Channel and CNN watching the news on the floods in southern Wisconsin and Findlay, OH. In my hometown, the storms were so bad that they knocked down over twenty of the massive metal poles that are in farm fields. A NIPSCO guy said he had never seen more than one or two knocked down at a time for the past twenty-five years. Certain people of the conservative persuasion can choose to ignore it for the time being, but something is going on! I regret admitting that some of this benefits my interest in snowboarding, which is another great reason of why I hate the heat. On to the other point of this post: ENGR126H Lab Bonus. I have bad feelings about this whole bonus point thing. Is it really worth an extra five or six hours of my time? In all actuality, it probably is! I just hate thinking about the fact that I stayed up until 2 AM last night to finish it. If it took me that long to finish the first set of tasks...how much harder are they going to get, and how long are they going to take? Those are some scary questions!

Intro to me!

Hey guys! My name is Taylor Bankroff, and I am a freshman in Purdue's Honors Engineering program. Mechanical is what I'm intending on doing, but it will most likely change. Being a patent attorney is what I aim for. I graduated at the top of my class from Boone Grove High School. Born and raised in Crown Point, I don't consider myself a complete city girl, but I have some of the characteristics! I have one older brother named Tim, but I still call him Timmy. He is 22 and in the process of going back to school for a Master's in Zoology. My parents are Tim and Laurie. My dad is a credit union examiner... I still have no idea what he does :) My mom is a guidance counselor at Lake Central High School. She was definitely a major help when it came to application and scholarship stuff.
So now on to my life... fun, huh? Starting at the age of three, I played soccer. I continued through high school and always loved it. I was sporty when I was younger to try to fit in with my brother and his friends... he didn't like it so much. I've always been comfortable hanging around with guys because of my brother, and I'm thankful for that. Girly-girl has never really been my thing, and I don't really wear skirts or dress up unless I have to. I'm usually pretty quiet and choose to not talk if I have the choice. Awkward silence isn't really something I comprehend. My favorite color is orange, but I love to wear aqua or any other blue or green color. I get annoyed with people who are fake or have no idea what work means. I never wanted to come to Purdue because I always thought it was ugly. It rained or snowed every time I was here last year. This has probably been the most random "paragraph" ever written.
I have a great boyfriend of two and a half years...kinda. We broke up when he left for college my junior year and have been back together since he came home the next summer. His name is Mike, and he is majoring here in Agricultural Economics. He is part of the Farmhouse Fraternity and plays rugby.
My hobbies include reading, playing soccer, running, snowboarding, writing when I'm in the mood, eating, and being lazy. I love being outdoors and doing things like canoeing and hiking. My favorite movies include Office Space, Supertroopers, and Out Cold. I love country music but am willing to listen to some other stuff. When I have time to relax, I read as much as possible. I love reading Harry Potter books and books by Dean Koontz. He is definitely my favorite author.
Since I have absolutely no idea what else to write about myself, I'm going to go! Later gators :)