Lead me, don't tease me

This past weekend was my last ballroom competition as a college student :( It was a pretty successful comp and I think that all of our new competitors had a great time. My highlights of the day included 3rd place in Tango and West Coast with Jill leading, 2nd in Waltz and Hustle with Bryan, and 1st in American Rumba with Bryan, Jack and Jill Waltz with #133, and Merengue with me leading Kathy!

I also got to drive one of the 15 passenger vans with Thomas as my co-pilot. We had the sweet setup shown below to pump our iPod music throughout the van. I love my Belkin TuneCast II FM transmitter and power adapter! There are a few cables to deal with, but once it's laid out in a good spot, there isn't a problem.

It's great for long rides because the power adapter takes care of the iPod and the transmitter, hence all of the cables. The transmitter does a great job with reception and you can choose from the whole spectrum of radio channels, so finding a free frequency is not a problem. Now I just need a new source for road trips.

Embrace your roots

I don't remember all of the fun things for my Apple back in the day, but who could forget Number Munchers and Oregon Trail? Here is an awesome site that supplies good entertainment for several hours. I'm sure I'll at least use it to keep up on my math skills :)

Cheap lovers make expensive wives....

I don't have any experience with this, so is it true, and if so, why? Does that make expensive lovers cheap wives, or is there no connection? Do they think because they were cheap before they can get more now that they are not just a lover?

This song came on today so I decided to post my internal question about this line so that I can get some input. But now for your visual enjoyment... a pretty:
Name the spot this photo was taken from and get 5 life points. I don't know what they accumulate for, but it could be fun.

Philosopher's World

Have you ever felt like you have too much energy and potential to do really good things for people, but you're stuck? I've been feeling this way for a while and I relate it to chemistry (dorky I know, but deal!): When you learn about heat and molecules and how when you heat the molecules up, they move faster and faster... This is me only in a tiny box so that I keep smacking the sides over and over wanting to get out and do something. I've decided that after I get settled into my new home I'm going to try to get a little sister or brother. No, not biological, but one through Big Brothers, Big Sisters. I think this could be a fun way to channel my energy since I love kids and can hopefully make a positive difference in someone's life. I have actually been thinking about doing it since last summer, but I tend to do everything on the long-term, so only being able to dedicate a summer was not good enough. The downside to this solution is that I still have to exert patience, but in the meantime I can sit and ponder fun activities to do with my future "little". Any suggestions?

Tadoodle!

I am now officially done with my half semester tech elective, w00t! My group gave our kickass presentation on Wednesday and I turned in my take home final today and now I just need the good ol' Dr. to give me my A and I'll be happy. This also means that I should theoretically have more time on my hands, but we should all know by now that when this rare event does happen, new activities manage to find their way into my path.

And now to throw a "you had to be there" moment in... My engineering meeting tonight was filled with fun jabs at random majors and my favorite run started with a ChemE stating that she could "do whatever she wanted" with her major, the counter attack from a CprE saying that he would hack her systems and make it backfire, so she then decided that she could blow him up. And it all ended with an Industrial Engineer saying that his major was great because it "isn't all guys" and an AgE saying that she loved her major because of all the guys. It was sad, but very entertaining.

I need a theme song...

Ok, I'll play too...

Does my character looked tired or just scared?

I'm a big kid now

I have made my big step toward the world after school; I accepted a job! I'll be working at Intermec with all of the cool people and living with my good friend Jordan again. Now that I have a job set up for myself, I wish I could transfer my other offers to people who are still waiting or at least help them more than by just listening to their worries. The Bobby Mcferin song doesn't seem to help much either...

In other news, everyone should go to the Frightmare Forest on October 15th and 22nd and pay for parking so Ballroom can earn some money! I will be doing the parking thing and NOT scaring because I'm such a chicken that I wouldn't be able to scare anyone else. So as long as you're not scaring me, happy haunting season!

Tom Sawyer for an evening

I finally got to go kayaking this past Friday with Seatasea and it was fantastic! I loved every second of it and I don't want to wait until April for the next opportunity. Ryan has already blogged about this same trip that he went on in August, so I'll just add highlights from my experience.

I ended up trying out a Dirigo by Old Town and it suited me pretty well. I have never kayaked before this trip, so it took a little bit to get used to the paddle stroke that we were shown. It was very different from the dig and pull method used in canoing, but once I got going, my kayak was easy to maneuver. The current wasn't very strong, so if you wanted to go anywhere you HAD to paddle; no speed floating like you can in a canoe.

The whole trip was quite nice and the new people I met added to the excitement. There were two other girls about my age, but they pretty much stayed together, so I had fun paddling between everyone else and talking to new people. The river was just the right size to socialize with everyone or paddle off to one of the sides and explore by yourself.

One other tidbit is that Seatasea will be selling the boats that they use for these trips at a discount starting November 1st. One of the owners will be fixing any that have lost screws or various other wear and tear items before they sell them, so it could be a great opportunity to invest in a kayak... and then let me borrow it until I get my own!

Props

Yay for ISU ballroom this year! I'm so proud :). We've now had 110 people in one beginner lesson and have been featured in the Des Moines Register, a Des Moines radio station, and in Visions, the ISU alumni magazine! It's like a fantastic epidemic of dancing, the only problem being that we're running out of space to hold everyone. Our Wednesday lessons have moved to one of the Forker gyms, and last week we had 4 rows of people on both the girls and guys side. It would be awesome if we could buy or build a building for us, but unfortunately we don't have that kind of money. Maybe the solution to that problem is to get a corporate sponsor! If only it were that easy... It would also be cool if we could create "virtual space" so we would always have enough room no matter how many people came. Maybe the people working with the C6 could give us a hand with this idea.

DINKs

I can breathe clearly now! I think I'm back to life and I'm glad because I have a busy week coming up. It's E-Week and that means I get to promote ISU, promote myself, and dance at the end of the week!

This weekend was also busy and fantastic! My best (girl) friend, Wendy, and I have known each other for about 21 years now and no matter how far away we live or how long it has been since we last saw each other, we somehow manage to pick up right where we left off and have a great time. She came down Friday night and indulged me in a late night college dinner at Perkins while we caught up on a few things. Saturday we perused Main Street and found the new chocolate shop. Then we met up with Liz for pizza at Old Chicago, yes Ames actually has a new restaurant! After stuffing ourselves, we headed to C.Y. Stephens for an awesome performance of Miss Saigon. It was a pretty heavy story, but at least I didn't pass out like at Rent; stupid hospital stuff. To round the evening off we watched Napoleon Dynamite and Strictly Ballroom at Liz's and apparently Napoleon is much funnier with alcohol... Then I discovered that Liz's boyfriend plays Warcrack too so we geeked out a bit while Wendy and Liz probably sat and made fun of us. To end the night we introduced Wendy to Mitch. Oh Mitch you make my abs strong from laughter! There's a new exercise idea: aerobic laughter. It would be similar to the pole dancing and striptease lessons on the west coast.

One of my favorite new "terms" I picked up this weekend was DINKs: Dual Income No Kids. Leave it up to Wendy to use some fancy word to describe her and Brad's married life. Now I need to get in gear so I'm still sane by the end of the week. I wouldn't want to scare the other kayakers on Friday. And speaking of this, anyone who is going to be in CR, or even IC, Friday afternoon should let me know so I can say hi and keep myself out of trouble before I float down the river.

Squawk squawk, tastes like chicken

Well it looks like the best bird won on Saturday! The Iowa/ISU game will probably be the only football game I make it to this year, but it definitely feels good to graduate after one more win against the dark side. And now that the game was so awesome, I have to say that the tailgating party was not as fun. I spent the majority of my time being a bouncer and a human body shield to prevent random people from snatching the food and drinks. Nothing too exciting happened besides being challenged to fight with some drunk guy from Iowa or UNI (he couldn't remember). I guess rushing the field was fun until we tried to leave the stadium, and yet again the goal posts stood strong against the people determined to topple them. It was worth the free ticket and $3 bottled water, but now it will be nothing more than a line on my resume of life... and something to brag about to all of the Iowa fans for the next year!

Warm Fuzzies

Yay! I ran into one of my mentees from years back and he made my day. He said that Keith and I were his favorite TAs of all time! What a nice little ego boost. I also ran into the learning community lab instructor from my first and second years, so it was a nice little walk down memory lane. Now I just need to get a Beat Iowa shirt to wear tomorrow and have my advisor officially tell me that I can graduate, and my day will be complete. I'm also debating on getting another plant from the Horticulture Club's plant sale, but I don't know if that would be breaking my "no more plants until I graduate" deal with Keith or not...

Long time, no blog

Ok, so in theory this will break the blog stalemate that has been going on, i.e. post something to entertain me! And as a warning, this is going to be a random blog to procrastinate going to bed. First of all, everyone needs to dig out their cardinal and gold this week to support the only game I half pay attention to. Yes, I am actually going to the ISU/Iowa match du football americain, but only because my brother is giving me his ticket. The best part about the football season is that I get to help out with the College of Engineering tailgate. Yay for schmoozing with awesome old people. Ok, so they aren't all old, but I haven't graduated yet, so I can still call them old.

Next... Jason, you were right. I do need you guys around to remind me when to drink water. I think random reminders throughout the day would be good so that I don't become dust, especially since I've been good and have kept to my goal of trying to bulk up and I have yet again that I do indeed need water :) So far the bulking is still not happening, but I think that McDonalds needs to play a bigger role in my routine for that to happen. I have, however, gotten back up to 450 crunchy stomach things and 30 push ups (yes army, not girlie) per week which is half way back to my old high school sports days. I don't think I'm quite to the ass kicking level, but I can safely say that I am more in shape than most of my major. I guess that's not saying much, but I can still smile about it.

Ok, last thing for the early morning. I finally saw Mr. and Mrs. Smith and while some of the fight scenes are cheesy, I thoroughly enjoyed it. I won't ruin it for anyone who hasn't seen it yet, but I think that Brad Pitt's last line is my favorite. Go watch it again if you don't remember!

Life is like a box of chocolates. Take little nibbles and if you don't like it, try something different. You're bound to find something you do like.

Yay for unique birth control!

I can't describe it in words, just watch this WoW ad!

Quality Virtual Crap

I definitely blame this idea on being up too late and watching QVC people try to sell tech stuff. Suddenly features that warrant dropping $1600 include a modem!, software: PeachTree, Nascar game, Acrobat Reader (wtf!?!?!), etc., and "lots of plug areas". Whoa buddy. The next item was some flat TV, I wasn't really paying attention because this idea popped into my head... I want TV "tiles". I want to be able to buy these tiles as I go so that I can start off with maybe 4 5x5 tiles and add to it as I get more money. They should be thin and be able to be hung on the wall. Connectors on all 4 sides similar to how waffle blocks used to mesh together could sense the edges because there would be no connection on one or two sides. Theoretically you could have an entire wall as your TV :). I would draw a picture now, but I'm going to make the last intelligent decision of the evening and go to bed!

Senti-Mental

As I'm seeing the light at the end of the tunnel getting closer now that it's my last semester, I've already started getting nostalgic. While I was on campus yesterday I took some pictures of interesting things and favorite places that I've decided to share with the rest of the world.


This first one is outside of the Design building and either pleases or annoys me depending on the day. I don't really know why, but it is still interesting to look at.

This one is from inside the Design building and it's awesome up close! It's a full scale representation of DaVinci's flight invention thing. Some architecture students made it for a project. I want to see it in motion!



Ok, this is the last picture from Design. I was in there because the view from the roof is THE best, but unfortunately the access was locked. Maybe they don't want people jumping off since it's the first week or something. So because of that you have to deal with this picture of Science Row from the top floor. Look at all of the green! Love it!





Water is the next best thing to green, so here is a small picture of one of the water features outside of Howe Hall, the big Titanic looking building for Aerospace Enginerding, I mean Engineering :). Anyone have a big thing of bubbles...?



Moo U and proud of it! Where else would you see a cute kitty on campus next to horses and new ponies? No animals were harmed during the photo session, but this cat is very clingy. It wouldn't leave us alone last year when we would visit the horses and kept jumping into Keith's lap when he would bend down to pet it. It again brings up the debate between getting a cat or a dog... which do I want?


And now time to reveal my favorite place on campus! Since I'm leaving soon, I decided that I need to pass it on to others that have not already experienced this gem. To the normal eye this may just look like the steps up to Catt Hall, but the cool part is when you stand on the stairs. Depending on your height relative to me, if you sit or stand around the INVENT step and face toward central campus everything you say will be echoed back to you. This comes in handy if you feel the need to talk to yourself or would like an invisible audience, and it has entertained me since my freshman year when I discovered it.

Of course these are only a few of the things that make ISU great, but maybe it will bring attention to the details that you haven't noticed or show you things that weren't there the last time you visited. If it's the latter, get back and pay homage! You know you want to.

"God don't make lonely girls..."

So the CD that the above song line belongs to made it into my player on the way to Ames and it reminded me how many of the songs I enjoy on there, even the radio played ones which tend to get on my nerves. But then again, I bought the CD back around middle school so the annoyances could be trumped by time. It also provided me the opportunity to post this picture of three of us in our apartment. I'll have to get an updated one with Katie sometime. Back the the music... I especially like Invisible City because his voice is hot on that track, and Josephine just because. Guess the CD and artist/group and you don't win anything but a time check of how old you are :). If you're The Cheat and look up the answer, it's ok, I won't tell.

On the school front: week one is done (oh yeah, no Friday class!). My most time intensive class looks like French and only one class presents the need and opportunity to multitask. This is good because then I will only feel like I could be doing something more productive twice a week instead of the usual twice each day. I am also proud to say that I have started on my workout attempt for the semester and so far it's going well. I'm going to make a formal plan on here so that I have to live up to my post and not just what is in my mind.

And now to make this post more interesting to you, here is the most awesome college apartment artwork ever! I know you're jealous...

Drool!

So I went down to Des Moines today and test drove the Lexus RX400h the luxury utility vehicle (luv) hybrid... and I love the luv! It would take some getting used to because it's so quiet when it's just running on electricity and you don't get the familiar "start up" sound when you turn the key. But with all of the techy gadgets, including Bluetooth, that come standard and especially the fact that I didn't feel dwarfed inside of it along with its awesome handling in town and on the interstate, I'd say that it is highly likely that I will get one... eventually. Until then, I will just have to savor my test drive and save up my money. Oh and I'm now taking donations. Your benefit in the deal will be the opportunity to be a passenger when I finally get one! So who's first?

Oh how I love Firefox

So even in general Firefox is awesome, but when connecting to the Iowa State University network, it's even better. If you happen to be an ISU student, listen up and I'll tell you how to by pass the crappy AIT (or whatever they're called now) software.

Background: When connecting the to ISU network and "NetReg-ing", AIT forces you to download their software to check if your system has virus protection on it. Good idea in theory when a couple of years ago naked computers were connected and spread viruses like wildfire during move in. But if you know that you have protection, it's a waste of time and if you run it for fun, it usually gives you the wrong information. Imagine that!

Solution:
1. Get Firefox. Get it before you come to ISU, install it from a CD, I don't care, just get it.
2. Open Firefox and type "about:config"
3. Right click and select New -> String
4. Name this string general.useragent.override click "Ok"
5. Type anything your heart desires for the string content, but be creative (AIT sucks, smacky the frog, etc.) and click "Ok"
6. Restart Firefox and NetReg! Voila, you can now bypass the crappiness that was.
7. Spread the news and enjoy.

Subliminal message: Play WoW

Just as a funny side note, the spell check suggested that NetReg should be neuters :)

Hook me up.

Have you ever felt that you just needed an extra zap in the morning to get you going? Or maybe you're the type that forgets to charge the cell phone before heading out the door. Or even worse, you leave your charger at home while on vacation like I do. Well soon the wonderful Iowa State University will solve these, and other, problems for you. Right now research is being done on wearable solar cell technology.

I don't think I'll buy any of these techy items until they come out in a color that matches my eyes, but I'm definitely interested to see if this idea goes anywhere and what items, if any