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I just can't wait to be on the flight home already.

Polar Bears, Pop, and Current Events

Don't drink Coca Cola like this ad tells you! Drink Pepsi instead.....

Actually, I don't drink carbonated beverages unless it is in a mixed drink. All the same, I am currently boycotting Coca Cola until they stop "pouring bad business ethics on Israeli recycling laws".

Check it out at treehugger: http://www.treehugger.com/files/2007/03/cocacola_pours.php

Apparently Coca Cola doesn't want to continue shelling out the 5 cents per bottle to recycle and would rather trample Israeli law than throw away a measily $5 to recycle 100 plastic bottles. That's $50 to recycle 1000 bottles etc. The process helps keep Israel clean and beautiful. When I was in Israel I never saw waste or trash on the ground anywhere. For the most part it was very clean. If you think about it Israel is a tiny little country comparible in size to about 17 Rhode Islands and has about 7 times the population. They recycle at least 80 percent of recyclable waste. Not half bad. But Coca Cola, one of the largest distributers of carbonated beverages is getting selfish and brown when it comes to the little Jewish state's laws. Personally, I can drink something else if Cola intends to be so ungreen and so mean.

Another note: Coca Cola's Favorite Spokesman, the Polar Bear, is Now on the Endangered Species List
A summary of what's happening: The sea ice is melting away. Polar bear NEED the sea ice. They can swim long distances for long periods of time, but they need to take breaks. With less and less ice, polar bears swim for longer distances for longer amounts of time. Lately, a lot of polar bears haven't been making it and consequently have been drowning. They've also been losing weight. Less fat means less insulation, meaning that some female polar bears may not have enough insulation to carry baby bears to term. Sad isn't it? Scientists predict all the sea ice well vanish by 2040. But the polar bears will be long gone by then. And what does the Bush administration think? They think you shouldn't know about it. According to the New York Times, memos being circulated at the Federal Fish and Wildlife Service place a gag order on employees in order to keep them from discussing polar bears. The government is forbidding biologists from discussing “climate change, polar bears or sea ice if they are not designated to do so.”

Check out the article here: http://www.nytimes.com/2007/03/08/washington/08polar.html?_r=1&ref=washington&oref=slogin



Save the Polar Bear? You sure can! Some of these websites contain prewritten emails to important government figures and all you have to do is type in some info and click a button on your mouse and you already did something incredibly helpful for the polar bear. He'll thank you in 2040:

http://www.polarbearsos.org/?gclid=CL2N6La_6ooCFQgTWAodMEgMqA
http://www.worldwildlife.org/polarbears/
http://www.earthplace.org/about_earthplace/support.html
http://action.environmentaldefense.org/campaign/polar_bears_list?qp_source=searchpolarbears
http://www.panda.org/about_wwf/where_we_work/europe/what_we_do/arctic/polar_bear/index.cfm
http://www.projectthinice.org/
http://www.savebiogems.org/polar/

Happy IWD!

Today is International Women's Day. Be excited ladies! You get your own special holiday just for being a woman! I say celebrate. Celebrate the sexy, smart, amazing, woman that you are. And men, celebrate women too. You wouldn't be here if it weren't for one.

To learn a little more about IWD check out the official website : http://www.internationalwomensday.com
The website contains a great timeline about the history of IWD and how women's lives have changed over the past century.

I also recommend learning more about women from different parts of the world that are currently struggling for their freedoms.

http://electroniciraq.net/news/2941.shtml
http://www.rsf.org/article.php3?id_article=21236
http://allafrica.com/stories/200703050855.html

Simplest things

The simplest things in life are the things that are the most amazing.

Yesterday a guy gave me pistachios because he was happy he finally got his laptop to connect with the wireless. That made my day yesterday. I thought how interesting it was that just a simple joy made him want to share it somehow with others.

I ran into a couple people that I know and haven't seen in a while today. It's so pleasant to see old friends...

Speaking of seeing old friends... Can't wait. ;)

VAGINA

Three highschool girls were suspended for saying the word "vagina" while reading a feminist play, the Vagina Monolgues.







Article: http://abclocal.go.com/wls/story?section=bizarre&id=5099458

First of all, if they didn't say VAGINA I want to know what they did say. PENIS? or BEAVER? or PUSSY? What exactly were they supposed to say? And why would an anti-feminism highschool board allow the performance of a feminist play that so obviously concentrates on female sexuality? This I don't understand. This is an obvious attempt at censorship and a pretty obvious rejection of feminism. It's a pitty such ignoramuses run high schools.

First of all, VAGINA is a perfectly suitable word for the community to hear. Half of all children have them, all children come out of them, and the community includes vagina-havers among its members. So....why censor it? Oh yes. Not everyone has one. Jealous are we?

Vagina Monologues: http://www.randomhouse.com/features/ensler/vm/
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Vagina_Monologues

V-day: http://www.vday.org/peace_vmailsplash.html

Please watch this!!!!!
video of eve ensler performing her play herself: http://www.ted.com/tedtalks/tedtalksplayer.cfm?key=e_ensler

THEEND

UGHHHH! I am SO sick of school. I can't wait for it to be over. I really did very well this quarter up until this week. I can't wait to go home. It's all that's on my mind besides men. And that's always on my mind being that I'm 21 years old and constantly...um...something. So anyway, I was doing great. And then this week I just fell apart. I have 4 papers due, three concerts, a lesson, like 4 more rehearsals, a final, and probably something else. I'm just gonna explode. I don't really know if I can survive the next 7 days.

I think I can I think I can I think I can

I've been slacking in a few classes... actually, a few areas of my life, as of late. My room is a mess, and has been for weeks. My car needs to be clean and the oil needs to be changed. Econ needs a lot of work, and so does Soil. I haven't worked out in so long. And Spring Break plans need to be finalized, I need to make my portfolio, I need to write the firms in San Diego, and I need to find out my living situations next year. A lot of these things I can't do much about until further notice, but all the same... there's a lot of fine tuning that I need to do. It's time for some motivation!!!

Boo Grey's

So last night my friend Yafit came over to watch Grey's Anatomy with me, but alas we were surprised by the unfortunate rerun. I couldn't take it, so we left and went to Meijer. Yafit wanted some hairdye and I wanted to get some food for the fridge. It gets hungry. What can I say?

Anyway, the deli was closed. Boo. But...they did have some persimmons. So I got as many as I possibly could. I LOVE persimmons. I was introduced to them last year by my teachers best-friend, Laura. She's a clarinetist out in FL. Anyway, I believe she came into Ixi's house carrying a carton of persimmons and I implied, "What's wrong with your tomatos?"

Anyway, persimmons are a fruit. They are a delicacy. They are almost gone.

And meanwhile, it is gorgious outside. I love waking up before my alarm clock because my apartment is flooded with the warm orangey glow of sunlight. My bedroom window faces West. But there's a window in the living room directly opposite that faces East. It's a lot easier to get up early in the mornings if it's not dark as night outside.

P.S. I am going to a Purim costume party this weekend. What should I dress up as?

Goodies

So my current phone is going...going...dying...almost....dead. The battery works alright. But the phone itself is not really functioning. The ear phone really sucks so a lot of times in order to hear someone I have to put them on speaker phone. It constantly dies suddenly or drops my calls (which is more than likely a Cingular problem). It gets pretty shitty reception and it used to rock. And it's supposed to take pictures but then they always come out blurry or messed up after I save them. Anyway, the phone is old. It's seen good times and bad times. And now it's going to be retired. For a beautiful new w300i!!!!!

Cloud Facts

Definition: a cloud is a visible mass of condensed droplets or frozen crystals suspended in the atmosphere above the surface of a planetary body.

Study of clouds: nephology

A droplet of moisture in a cloud is about .01mm in diameter. It takes billions of droplets to make a cloud. There are three ways to make a cloud: 1) air is cooled below its saturation point. This happens when the air comes in contact with a cold surface, like a cold front. 2) when two air masses below saturation point mix. Examples are breath on a cold day, aircraft contrails and Arctic sea smoke. 3) The air stays the same temperature but absorbs more water vapor into it until it reaches saturation point.

So why does it rain? Well, the best I can do to explain it as simply as possible is that something happens inside the cloud and the present droplets start to make even more droplets or ice crystals and fall from the cloud and melt, and you can only assume that if they don't melt then we get snow etc.

The color of cloud tells you whats going on inside of it. It doesn't really take a brainiac to figure it out though. If a cloud looks dark and ominious you can safely assume that more than likely a certain size droplet is forming rapidly...and melting on it's way down....etc.

Bottom line: I really wish it weren't cloudy outside. But obviously I can't do anything about it. Boo.

The Weekend Review

This weekend had a great kickoff with active civil disobedience, a birthday dinner, close friends, some hookah and vodka, and unfortunately...Salad Fingers.

My friends, Gary and Nate, were mean enough to go to www.fat-pie.com/salad once everyone had some hookah. It's technically a deranged cartoon of a sick character called "Salad Fingers" that has a thing for rusty spoons. Whoever made these sick videos had to be on crack or needs to be locked up. I totally believe in freedom of speech...but that doesn't necessarily mean I need to know about this stuff. It's just creepy and wrong. But aside from that smoking hookah, knocking back vodka with crazy Israeli friends and debating liberal vs. radical feminism was a great kickoff to the weekend.

Crazy/Fun Friends

Saturday the highlight was the CSO concert with Jimmy followed by The Departed followed by a debate of Godfather vs. Departed. Excellent.

Sunday: biking, running, and strength training followed by a call home, practice, FOOD, and probably a DHW gathering at mi casa, followed by a prompt Good Night. And then...another week of....CCM.....

the truth

Film Review: An Inconvenient Truth
I had been wanting to see this film for a while but I had to get on a waitlist with Netflix so I opted to wait till it was more available. Since the summer, I've been reading up a lot on Global Warming or what I call "Anthropogenic Climate Change". I prefer that name better than "Global Warming" because it inferrs that the damage being done to this planet is being inflected by the human race, primarily the part of the human race living north of the equator...

And Al Gore emphasizes the same point. The film is great. I think it's a great tool for informing people of what global warming is, why it's a climate crisis, and what needs to be done to halt it, and what we can do individually to help in the fight to save the planet.

GREAT WEBSITES:

http://www.climatecrisis.net/

http://www.onetonco2.com/index.php

http://www.environmentaldefense.org/home.cfm

check out CFLs: this is one huge way to save lots of $$$$ and lbs of CO2
http://www.environmentaldefense.org/page.cfm?tagid=483&campaign=mts

http://zerofootprint.net/

http://www.seventhgeneration.com/index.php

http://www.truthout.org/index.htm

Israel yafeh meod!

My favorite chaverim: Debbie and Idan!
View of Yaffo from Tel-Aviv beach:
Vender selling sesame treats or b'ivrit "sum sum matok":
Underneath a Chabad outside the Kotel and down the street from Chadaya:
Camel ride in the Negev:

Taylor'd for a Graceful Legacy

This is my mom's beautiful pup. It was supposed to be Ned's, but as always, the dogs bond to her instead... and it doesn't help that Ned is on travel most of the time.

So this is him. At 4 months. 40 lbs. He'll be about 80 lbs of pure power. A massive pooch, yeah?

So I would post pictures that I have taken, but Nooooooo. Those pictures are lost. Gone. You don't understand what I do with pictures! I treasure them. And I keep my little disposable camera for months, and pull it out on a random, memorable occasion and take a picture. And they are lost. Gosh. Freaking. Darn. It.

Oh well... I'll just have to get batteries for my digital.

Green Thumbalina

On Sunday it was gorgious and sunny outside, so I ventured ouside of my apartment and took a trip with Rachel *pictured below* to Home Depot.
I felt that I desperately needed some life in my apartment. It's been snowy, icey, and grey outside for about a month. Not being able to be outdoors and being cooped up inside all the time and not being able to see the grass started to become pretty depressing so I got some plants.
They really brought some life into the apartment. I bought a lot of primroses in different colors: orange and red with yellow in the middle, some cacti, and some "folliage" (sp?) as well as simple pots to put them in. Makes a huge difference. And it's even becoming warmer outside. Very nice changes! These plants have also sparked an old interest of mine: Botany (a topic Lady G and I loved studying in high school).

Here are some links to some interesting plant sites: http://plants.usda.gov/
http://www.botany.com/
http://www.nmnh.si.edu/botany/

Spring Break

I'm looking forward to Spring Break.
I'm coming home to OK. I think I'm leaving Wednesday March 14th, in the a.m. And I don't plan on coming back to Cincinnati till March 24th or 25th. I can't wait! I can't wait to see my friends and family. I can't wait to see Oklahoma. Go biking. Practice in my bedroom. Etc. I need to get some warm weather.

Yisrael...

View from the top of Tzipuri

rachov yehudim: (translation) Jewish Quarter of Jerusalem

Top of a wall outside of Tzion Gate: the glass is to keep people from climbing. Built in security system.

Masada: King Herod's cistern

A Thousand Words...

I am going to try to get back to my former love of photography. Nothing huge, but I want to do something here and there... even if it's with a disposable camera (undoctored) --->

There's this album that I'm also getting in to... just testing it out right now, but I really like it. Can you guess what it is?

Justin Timberlake's Future Sex Love Sounds.

Yeah. That's right.

Visualization Board

I know this is going to sound "hokey" (sp?) but I have a Project 2A: a Visualizatin Board.
I got the idea from watching a DVD called The Secret (http://thesecret.tv/) which I had heard about on Oprah (http://www.oprah.com/tows/pastshows/200702/tows_past_20070208.jhtml) and had to watch in my Sports Psych. class. The Secret focuses on the Law of Attraction. Essentially, the idea is that you attract things to yourself in some way or another. And if you know this you can use it to your advantage. The way this tied into Sports Psych. was that in sports psychology (mainly Psychological Training Skills- PST) people have to have motivation and goals in order to have the results they want. And one of the strongest tools of successful people is imagery: being able to clearly and vividly see what you want. And James Cambell, the author of the Chicken Soup for the Soul books, had a board hanging in his office. He had pictures of the things he wanted to see in his life. There was a picture of the house he wanted. A picture of a family. All sorts of things. And years later he dug up the board and he found that he had all the things that he had taped to his board. I'm not saying it's magic or anything silly. I just think that because he had a clear tangible vision of what he wanted he was able to maintain his focus, remember his motivation, and attain his goals.

So I've accomplished Project 2A: empty corkboard.

Project 2B: put something on it. have a clear vision.

An End to A Week

This weekend I plan on having one of these kinds of weekends --->

So I went to pick up my disposable black and white pictures that I've been looking forward to getting for the past 4 days, and they couldn't find them. They were supposed to call me back today, and they haven't... It really makes me sad. So hopefully they'll find them because some pictures you just can't replace.