Loaves and Fshes

I am having a most incredible day. Today is Wednesday, and on Wednesday nights Toni has Geography from 6-9 pm. In addition, Toni also had 3 classes, an hour in the tutoring lab as well as a meeting afterwards. Thus leaving her with an hour to spare in the late afternoon-early evening. She planned on buying some ridiculous $5 sandwich at the 'unnamed local hogies and yogurt place of business.' Then squeezing in some research time for her Anti-Semitism paper (I'm against it, basically). The most bothering part of the entire day was staying alive considering the lack of food she was prepared with.
She parks her car and takes 2 packs of Teddy Grahams and a SlimFast shake (chocolate)
She promptly drinks the shake and shares one pack of Teddy Grahams with sister.
She then goes to 2 classes and walks up to the institute, starving.
Arriving in Institute she finds that someone has brought treats! Oatmeal cream pies cookie things!
Eating one and taking one for the road, She heads to the tutoring center.
As her regular Tutee comes in, she gives Toni a Twix candy bar for helping her with her history!
At current, Toni is in possession of a SURPLUS of food, including one pack of Teddy Grahams and one oatmeal cream pie-cookie thing. No need to spend her valuable allowance on frivolous Sanwiches, she is able to invest it in something grand, like scrapbooking stickers!
what a fine day this has turned out to be.

Political Aspirations

Let me tell you something about the Political Science Department.
It's not about science at all.
and it's really easy.

All you need to know to do well in any Political Science Class
by Toni Gaines.

You should understand basic differences between Communism and Capitalism.

If you want to do really well in a Political Science class

You should understand basic differences between Communism and Capitalism
and have a basic understanding of History and Geography.

If you want to excel in a Political Science class

You should understand basic differences between Communism and Capitalism.
and have basic understanding of History and Geography
and read the paper or watch the news at least twice a week.

the end.

I choose not to waste time with the news because if they talk about it in class, and I have a basic understanding of the differences between Communism and Capitalism, I can infer what is going on and why people care.

Acorn Seedlings

From the 6 Progeny of Bus n' Sue Gillespie we have at current the following:
2- children with degrees allowing them to teach at a secondary educational level
1- of which taught Art lessons privately
1- another of which spent a semester as a writing tutor.
3- other children currently working as tutors for different educational systems in different fields.

Postal Appreciation

I heard some...I guess we would call them 'nerds' talking rather animatedly in the hallway at school the other day. I do not post this to poke fun at this demographic, rather I encourage others to seek out this minority in their societies and ask them if Fantasy is better than Sci-Fi.
and I quote:
"I'm writing a story - it's set 50-60 years in the future. It's a post-apocalyptical word and there's a man who's figuring out what happened 20 years before. He discovers the most beautiful thing he has ever seen and she's a clone that was developed to save and destroy the world at the same time."

Consuming the Levant

Last night Ben and I had an adventure in Salt Lake
We called it "Our Salt Lake Adventure"
Ben's friend invited us up to have dinner with her and go see the Opera.
The opera was called "Ariadne auf Naxos" and it caused us to realize why we'd never seen an opera before.
Because it's boring and pointless.

Dinner however was fantastic.
I have been wanting to try Moroccan food since my Middle Eastern History professor talked about it. So I asked if there were any Moroccan restaurants in Salt Lake that we could try.
She went online and found several restaurants in the area that serve Moroccan food, and one that was only a few blocks from the Opera house. The additional bonus to this restaurant with the food and location that we wanted- was the entertainment.
Bellydancers Friday and Saturday nights.
oh boy were we excited.
when we got there they said the Bellydancers usually start around 7:30. Unfortunately that was when the Opera started so we thought we'd miss it. but we were continually blessed.
It took so long to get our food we were late for the opera and were able to catch the first of the BellyDancing. It was really cool.

The Ruminations of Rabbits

The smell of crisp autumnal and wintery air, especially at night;
It reminds me of my childhood.
The smell of decay and rot
that promises a fantastic spring

Smells like feeding the Rabbits in their rusty cages after dark.

Flushing out the Fishes

I had a very weird day today.
and I'm feeling kind of introspective about it.

My boss and I are different kinds of people (that's the nice way to say I hate him)
Today I found a note that said "there is a bag of old mail and things, open and file it all"
I had seen it on the floor.
I thought it was garbage.
Turns out I was right.
There was not a single piece of mail that wasn't sent before the year 2006.
I threw some away but didn't have time to openandfile the rest of it all.
For some reason he thinks that having more paperwork will make his business more organized.
Well, the good news is that I'll be able to throw it away next year under his "all paperwork from the last 3 years stays in the office" rule.

Ridiculous.

Mannequin Equilibrium

For the past month, I've been dieting. For the past 3 weeks I've been going to the gym fairly regularly. While I believe my overall health has improved, I have not lost an ounce of weight.

In fact, I haven't lost or gained weight since softball season of my Sophomore year of High School. I've been in a multitude of different situations since then that usually cause people to vary in size and shape. Not for me. It's as if my body as adjusted ahead of time to compensate for any and all changes that might occur.

I wonder what will happen when I get pregnant...

Chocolate Frustration

Why is it that women began wearing purses? It just doesn't make sense, with our small, narrow shoulders, you'd think the aggravation of the straps constantly falling off would lead us to evolution and adaptation? Where is Darwin on this?

King Ko's Reign of Fear

I went to Kinkos today, I've made a day planner for myself in my book-making frenzy.
I hate Kinkos. It would have been cheaper for me to buy a printer and color ink to print my own dang papers.
Double-sided color. That's all I wanted.
They wanted to charge me almost 2 dollars per page.
I decided to go with black and white.

They also charge 30 cents a minute to use their computers if you need to print things.

I think things have gotten a little out of control here.
So I encourage you all to visit your locally owned and operated Copy-mats. Be it Honor Copy or Cougar Creations, stay away from this Kinkos Conglomerate Corporation of Consumerism.

New Classes, Same old Faces.

Kennedy is back.
I cringe to announce that he is in my Foreign policy class.
Sitting in the back
Asking inane and pedantic questions
like always.


"I'll stab you with forks until you bleed!"
Max Berman
"Best In Show"

New Projectiles: A Short Narrative

Once upon a time Toni visited her sister Jan. On Jan's livingroom floor she had some books. Toni really liked these books. Jan had made them herself and used some of the decorations from Toni's wedding to decorate them. They were some groovy books. So Jan taught Toni how to make books.
When Toni got home she went right out to Roberts Craft to buy the equipment. Toni also discovered that Roberts was having a super killer sale, this increased her interest in making books. Toni made the cutest book. But it wasn't exactly what she wanted so she made another book.
Then she decided she could probably figure out how to make those fancy Scrapbooks as well. Now this was a great idea, except Toni doesn't really like to Scrapbook, but it's worth a shot anyway.
Toni also just finished her first quilt. It's a jean baby blanket for her nephew who she hopes to see in a few weeks for his birthday.
Yesterday Toni organized all the photos on her computer and started a few albums on Picasa. If you think you might be in any of these pictures and would like to see them, please visit http://picasaweb.google.com/hosander.
Toni has filled her vacations with new projects. She's a producer now.

The end

The Fiery Destruction of the Blame Thrower

I hate telling people they are wrong. I hate assigning blame to people (probably because I hate it when people blatantly and unequivocally assign it to me). I don't usually do it but today I was instructed to go tell someone they were wrong. For no other purpose than to tell them they were wrong. I hate my job.
I also hate being the personal mail-girl for my boss.
is it time to go yet?

The Sultry End of the Sultan

I got my semester grades! I did pretty well (and I don't mind tooting my own horn here), I got a 3.77 for the term, 2 A's one B+ and one A-. It's about what I expected and am eagerly anticipating next term, it's will be busy busy. 12 credits, plus a TA gig for Jewish History plus working more hours at the ole desk job. Here's hoping I don't crash sometime in early March!

I am also anticipating the debut of the blog of the great Jethro!

Take out the Trash

I feel like Garbage.
I was looking at the facebook profile of a girl I went to High School with, she's married now. That's not why I feel like garbage. She has two photo albums. The first entitled "Italy" chronicling her travels there with her family. The other is called "Russia" where she apparently did a semester abroad. It's not merely Russia though, she traveled with her other El Ed friends to Estonia, Latvia, Sweden, Norway and Finland.
I spent a summer in Wyoming.
That's all I can say.
What the devil is an El Ed major doing traveling around the world, visiting all these fantastic places?
Maybe it's just because I'm finishing my WWII class and can now properly identify and tell you facts about cities like Bergen, Norway.

Random thoughts to get down

Did you know Germain was the first lead singer of the Jackson 5?
I learn a lot while listening to the radio at work.
We've moved in to Grumma's house. Don't be deceived thinking that we're in an apartment. Although we may have given off that impression, it is yet to be realized. As of now, the renters that had indicated they would move at the end of November are still in there. This was a simple misunderstanding that could have been cleared up if we had asked one more time before we sold our contract. We might have been able to spend Christmas in our apartment with our favorite neighbors, a comfy king size bed and a little tree. However we are quite cozy in our one -room-full-size-bed-abode.

The Kennedy Era

This semester I have had the opportunity of encountering the definition of "Young Republican" we'll call him Kennedy, to annoy him.
Kennedy is in both of my Political Science classes, both Tuesday/Thursday classes. The best way I can think of to define Kennedy is like a charging porcupine. You're only safe if you are behind him because he will hurt you if you attempt to approach him at all. and he's charging toward the republican nirvana, whatever that is. He's always right and he can prove it, so don't even try to debate with him. He's quite bright and will someday be a successful lawyer and probably, after a personality transplant try his hand in politics.
I got really sick of this kid, really fast.
Our relationship basically consisted of him leading all our classes down the republic yellow-brick road while I bounced between trying to ignore him and trying not to call him bad words out loud. One day, in our second class it got to be too much and I fought for truth, freedom and the opposite of whatever he said. The professor publicly applauded my courage in standing up against the class loudmouth. After that Kennedy stayed mostly quiet. Once, before class I ran into him and he said he'd save me a seat in class. I said that would be great and sat 2 rows ahead of him and to the far right.
Today my first class with Kennedy went out to lunch at a Korean restaurant in Provo. I was supremely grateful that I didn't have to sit next to him or talk to him at all. Before our second class started today he asked if I liked the restaurant. His confused cronies immediately questioned why he would even talk to me, when he immediately replied, "yeah, we went on a date." I hurriedly stammered out a rebuttal and turned around and tried to flash my wedding ring. I heard Crony A behind me say "When you said that I..." and he trailed off, the next thing I heard was Kennedy saying "Well she's pretty but..." and it made me sick for the rest of the day imagining that conversation.

Conspiracies are for Theorists

I wrote this as a "viewpoint" paper for my class, an excuse for my professor not to assign grades to anything and allow a pass/fail system for everything. It's about Kennedy, obviously. I hope it's not too long for you.

09/13/06

Viewpoint 1: Conspiracies are for Theorists

Having just spent an entire class discussion on Conspiracy Theories surrounding September 11, I have come to the conclusion that the biggest conspiracy theory is the idea of conspiracy theories themselves. Conspiracy theories are statements, stories, or ideas based on the notion that for some diabolical reason, the government is out to get us; that the government is not “by the people and for the people” but rather, “by the underhanded and against the people.” The reason I say that conspiracy theories are the greatest conspiracy of all is because of the kind of people that are attracted to these bogus doctrines, and the effect they have on people unwilling to grasp reality and never let it go.

When you look at the types of people to whom these theories cater, you see varieties of people; among them the most vulnerable of mind and the mentally/socially unstable –people who might need just a bit of an increase in their dosages. They don’t trust the government because, obviously, there are satellites reading our thoughts and tracing our movements. In many cases, the government must be out to get them because they hold information valuable to the state in their trailers and underground bunkers filled with Spam and Easy-Cheese. But that is just one group, and they aren’t the ones who concern me.

The ones that concern me the most (because I have to sit through two classes each day with them) are students –not all students though, just the ones that apparently read every article in every newspaper publication every day and spend every spare hour watching C-SPAN and the BBC. This type of student generally believes what is said in the news, but is more interested in the “unconventional” ideas presented, usually by people in the first demographic I have presented. They latch on to these ideas, expand on them, make them their own, and will defend them to the death (as we found in our class). The reason this demographic is so susceptible to conspiracy theories is, ironically, because of all of the information they have absorbed from the news media.

These students feel intellectually invincible; they are the Achilles of news. They are so well educated and informed that no one should dare ask this Achilles any questions about current events because the inquisitor will inevitably receive a four hour lecture on the reasons why globalization is a good or bad thing. This Achilles is smarter than the government; he has read and seen everything written or broadcast, he somehow knows more than the experts and government leaders that have worked hard and been elected as people that this nation feels it can trust. But to Achilles it’s all a ruse; Achilles sees the holes in the stories, or makes up the stories and then puts holes in them; nevertheless, the government will never slip one by this informed, intellectual demi-god. Thus is this Achilles’ heel. He has slipped, and become so over-confident that he is unable to think reasonably and independently. All these theories have him convinced that the government is indeed an evil institution and that everything it does is for an ulterior motive. Eventually his heel has been hit so hard and he has fallen so far that he can no longer trust the government at all.

He has become the subject of one of the greatest conspiracy theories, that great conspiracy that ruins the promising minds of the future. The bright, inquisitive student has fallen subject to the wiles of the media, and thus the race of crazies grows. Now everyone is under suspicion because, before you know it, even the squirrels will have microphones. And so he builds his underground bunker, buys a big satellite dish, plenty of Spam and cleans every grocery store and gas station in the county out of Easy Cheese.

Some Hosander Thoughts

Mr. McPlad contributed this, I find it quite apt. maybe it will help those that never really knew our Hosander.

"One morning Hosander woke up, combed his long brown hair and his long red mustache, put on his favorite flannel shirt and went for a walk..."

The original stories were phenomenal. However, the real lifeblood of the Hosander sagas was his elasticity. New adventures came with every campfire. They would stretch him and squish him. Prod him and poke him. (I recall one of his experiences in which he took a Scantron(TM) test without a pencil, and so pricked his finger for the blood). Yet he always awoke the same each day...oblivious to the tale that would follow.

The old stories I enjoy, but Hosander needs us for the future. For his future.

Reduce, Reuse, Recycle

I keep coming to my blog hoping to see that someone else has posted something for me, like, the blogging elves or something. Blogging Elvis?

Following a most raucous Thanksgiving weekend I have returned to the pace of everyday life. It's amazing to me how easy it is to return to this lifestyle of work and school and schedule after having spent 4.5 solid days going to the beat of a different drum. I'm grateful for Thanksgiving break though, because now it's only a week and a half until the end of the term. With this comes a very stressful move, focusing on Christmas times, and possibly working more. A welcome break.

On another note, we discovered the culprits who have been playing all the practical jokes on us these past few months. It seemed these secret Elves have been continually stolen items from our apartment for over 2 months. Including but not limited to almost all the fingernail clippers, my tweezers, a candle, a decorated egg, a decorative tile and a deck of cards. We had not noticed any of these except the egg, and we thought we were pretty savvy for catching that one!
well, in the end it has all boiled down to a blood feud. These pranksters have not won, the game is now afoot!