My Mom

Ladies and Gentlemen of the world and blogosphere:
My mom is awesome.
Seriously awesome.
A classier woman has yet to walk this earth. She is the most mature person I've ever met, and certainly one of the most level headed. She controls her emotions well. She does not hold grudges. She does not lose herself to alcohol. She does not give in to temper or violence. She goes through the daily drama of the public educational system and never loses focus. She can hold an intelligent conversation over coffee, and isn't afraid to get dirty to do what needs to be done (like chopping wood at 9 months pregnant). She carries herself confidently. She maintains calm when most others would lose it. She is more of a woman then I could ever be.

Love you Mom.

Specimen Processing...

...is awesome.

I'm so out of practice on phlebotomy though. I'll need to practice on Darlene.

Yay for science!

Obama repealed the global gag rule!
And stem cell research!

Could this be the age of reason?
Probably not, but its a hell of a lot better then what we had. I was so excited that I was actually eager to study chemistry. I wonder if the feminist club will have a party. The pro-life club (which is made up up of religious rationalizing airheads) will undoubtedly be out with their 8 foot posters of dead fetuses, but really, I couldn't be happier. The Global Gag Rule was literally the first piece of bullshit Bush instated as president, and I'm glad it's one of the first Obama repealed.

And we get to study stem cells now! Huzzah! After 8 years of prohibiting a very promising science, we get to finally explore it further.

Here's a toast to women's rights and scientific advancement!

{F-you Bush.}

It Lives!

My car is fixed! Anxiety attack averted. Apaarently it was an alternator problem.

I caught a ride with Jesse to get to our Saturday class, located in the next town over. He and Paul have been having some problems, so he vented a little on the drive. Their relationship has been shaky ever since he returned from basic training.
I'm actually pretty proud of Jesse. He's one of the few people I know who went into the military and didn't come out a total dick or asshole, like most military guys end up becoming after basic. Well, I suppose they were assholes before, but something about the military, especially army, seems to bring out the worse in people. Maybe its that whole mindless pride thing. Or the overkill of testosterone.
Anyways, Jesse has a good head on his shoulders, and managed to rise above the military bullshit instead of succumbing to it.

Class was loooong, but manageable. I picked up my car afterwards, and went to Z's for a nap. I woke up with enough time to install my Chem program, but the guys showed up for their weekly D&D game shortly after, so I packed up.

I took the car out for a drive, trying to test it. On the highway it seemed to have a rough shift somewhere between 62 and 70, especially when it was downshifting. After a while it smoothed itself out. It'll run for now, hopefully a transmission flush will keep it going a little longer. My lease is up in April, and my classes don't end until the end of June (most will be don't by mid-May), with a three week practicum afterwards, and possibly another summer class.
This summer I'll practically be living in my car.

I ended up out by the sea, my favorite place to go think, and after a week like this, I had a lot to think about. It was so dark by then you couldn't really see anything, but you would hear the waves and the splashing of the half-frozen waterfalls. It was nice.

Well...that sucked.

My car died in rush hour traffic today.
Fortunately, Z was in the car because he bribed me with food to drive him, and he walked down to an auto shop while I waited for the tow truck. It was an hour long process, and a lot of pissed off drivers. We did get some people to help us, but my battery cant even hold a charge. It's dead.
Zombie batteries.

It had just gone to the shop today too.

It got to the shop just as they were closing up, and we walked through town to the Barnes and Noble where Darlene and Chels were waiting for us and gave us a lift to Z's apartment. I used the last of my B&N gift card to buy the lastest release of the Nana manga as a treat for myself.
All my books and lap top are at his place because I was there last night working on my online class (my apartment is internet-less), and I had done laundry there too, because its cheaper then using the crappy coin-op machines at my place. So I have a change of clothes too. Hell, I even have food here!
I was supposed to give Jesse a lift to class tomorrow, but it looks like I may have to get a lift from him.

I'm so exhausted. I was going to try to do homework tonight, but I'm too exhausted to do anything but read a few pages before passing out until tomorrow. I'll get up early and review homework stuff then. Or maybe I'll actually get 8 hours of sleep. The college shut down for two days due to floods and ice, and I still can't get a full night's sleep. After homework, we had a Supernatural night/going away party for Sony (shes back in France now). It was awesome to hang out with her and Ryan N. and Darren, even if it was only for a few hours.

On the bright side, Darren should have the new episode of Supernatural tonight!!! Huzzah! after a freaking six weeks of waiting, finally! Its the only show I watch regularly anymore, and the only series that I can actually stand to watch re-runs of without getting bored.

Today

I woke up today realizing I had nothing to live for. I feel like I'm suffering a slow death of negativity.

Three hours of Specimen Processing homework later, I felt a little better. At least its something familiar.

eeek!

School started!
New classes!
BREATHE!

I can get through this.

I love school. It is one of the best things that has ever happened to me. I love that I am actually learning stuff and not just mindlessly processing busy work, which sums up most (thought not all) of my high school experience.

And specimen processing is going to be w-o-n-d-e-r-f-u-l!!!

It made me laugh

Messed up Family Tree
Many many years ago
when I was twenty three,
I got married to a widow
who was pretty as could be.

This widow had a grown-up daughter
who had hair of red.
My father fell in love with her,
and soon the two were wed.

This made my dad my son-in-law
And changed my very life.
My daughter was my mother,
For she was my father's wife.

To complicate the matters worse,
Although it brought me joy,
I soon became the father
Of a bouncing baby boy.

My little baby then became
A brother-in-law to dad.
And so became my uncle,
Though it made me very sad.

For if he was my uncle,
Then that also made him brother
To the widow's grown-up daughter
Who, of course, was my step-mother.

Father's wife then had a son,
Who kept them on the run.
And he became my grandson,
For he was my daughter's son.

My wife is now my mother's mother
And it makes me blue.
Because, although she is my wife,
She is my grandma too.

If my wife is my grandmother,
Then I am her grandchild.
And every time I think of it,
It simply drives me wild.

For now I have become
The strangest case you ever saw.
As the husband of my grandmother,
I am my own grandpa

Karma

At the 1994 annual awards dinner given by the American Association for Forensic Sciences, AAFS President Don Harper Mills astounded his audience in San Diego with the legal complications of a bizarre death. Here is the story...

On March 23 the medical examiner viewed the body of Ronald Opus and concluded that he died from a gunshot wound of the head caused by a shotgun. Investigation to that point had revealed that the decedent had jumped from the top of a ten story building with the intent to commit suicide. (He left a note indicating his despondency.) As he passed the 9th floor on the way down, his life was interrupted by a shotgun blast through a window, killing him instantly. Neither the shooter nor the decedent was aware that a safety net had been erected at the 8th floor level to protect some window washers, and that the decedent would not have been able to complete his intent to commit suicide because of this...

Ordinarily a person who starts into motion the events with a suicide intent ultimately commits suicide even though the mechanism might be not what he intended. That he was shot on the way to certain death nine stories below probably would not change his mode of death from suicide to homicide, but the fact that his suicide intent would not have been achieved under any circumstance caused the medical examiner to feel that he had homicide on his hands...

Further investigation led to the discovery that the room on the 9th floor from whence the shotgun blast emanated was occupied by an elderly man and his wife. He was threatening her with the shotgun because of an interspousal spat and became so upset that he could not hold the shotgun straight. Therefore, when he pulled the trigger, he completely missed his wife, and the pellets went through the window, striking the decedent.

When one intends to kill subject A, but kills subject B in the attempt, one is guilty of the murder of subject B. The old man was confronted with this conclusion, but both he and his wife were adamant in stating that neither knew that the shotgun was loaded. It was the longtime habit of the old man to threaten his wife with an unloaded shotgun. He had no intent to murder her; therefore, the killing of the decedent appeared then to be accident. That is, the gun had been accidentally loaded...

But further investigation turned up a witness that their son was seen loading the shotgun approximately six weeks prior to the fatal accident. That investigation showed that the mother (the old lady) had cut off her son's financial support, and her son, knowing the propensity of his father to use the shotgun threateningly, loaded the gun with the expectation that the father would shoot his mother. The case now becomes one of murder on the part of the son for the death of Ronald Opus...

Further investigation revealed that the son became increasingly despondent over the failure of his attempt to get his mother murdered. This led him to jump off the ten story building on March 23, only to be killed by a shotgun blast through a 9th story window.

The medical examiner closed the case as a suicide.

New hair

pink insanity!!!