Artsplosure

Oh how I love a craft fair. Especially a craft fair with a wide variety of artists and media. I have now been introduced to some great Raleigh art. It was so much fun too with all of the kids' events they had going on as well. I couldn't help from buying a really pretty mirror and a few glass beads. Although I did hold back from the $200 metal wall sculptures, which was tough.

There really is something about craft/art fairs, though. It's something that makes you think of what some great artists have to go through to be noticed and then some people who just think so much of themselves that they apparently don't really have to sell anything (or be nice for that matter). But in general there are so many great pieces that I admire or would love to put on my walls/table/anywhere but unfortunately cannot afford it all. It's like walking through a museum sometimes where everything is marked "Buy Me." If you were walking through MOMA for instance and you saw "Buy Me" stickers on everything there, some things you would want to carry out with you that minute, but some you would say, "well it's really interesting and I do appreciate it, but it's just not my style." That's how I feel at an arts fair. Unfortunately, though, there are still far more things that I want to carry home with me that minute.

Weekend Plans

First of all, I'm a planner. I have multiple calendars and they all integrate online, on my computer, and my PDA. I have separate calendars for work, church, KD events and so on. So it was funny to me that after I was checking on events this weekend, I have nothing planned. Not Friday night, Saturday, or Sunday. I mean, my Saturdays are already booked through July (or at least tentative activities I can go to). I am not afraid of being bored or anything, because I'm embrassing the gardener in me and went to Ace yesterday to buy soil, seeds, shovels, and things. So I do definitely have a garden ahead of me for the weekend. But this is not a time-scheduled thing and so I'm still just a little wierded out that I have no plans for the weekend. It's kinda cool once in a while and I think I'm definitely going to enjoy sleeping in for a day or so.

In other news, my VW Cabrio is getting its little top fixed, so I've been car-less for the last day+. I miss DC and it's so awkward trying to bum rides of people. I kind of feel like high school again when I was 14/15. But the good news is that the top won't actually cost me anything to get fixed (it's got such a major hydrolic problem with the automatic top that the mechanic just disengaged it and now it's a manual top, which is totally fine with me as long as it goes topless). Definitely looking forward to some wind in my hair this weekend and driving along the Blue Ridge Parkway on Tuesday (after hiking Chimney Rock, that is).

Continuing Education

Alright, I admit it. I have a problem with school. I just can't leave it. I have been in school for 19 consecutive years now. Yes, the last 3 have been grad school (2 working on my thesis while also working full or part time jobs). Nonetheless, I found myself today registering for another class.

But it sounded SO interesting, and like something that could really help my job skills for all those applications I'm sending out. So now I will be taking a summer grant writing class at Durham Tech. It's just one class and will hopefully help me out in the short and long term, but as soon as I register for one class I start looking at the online website development classes.

Hey, I'm also interested in some clinical research positions, perhaps I could get an RN certification along the way? NO! This is where I must stop and hone. I don't like the sight of blood nor do I want anything to do with taking it. Ok, moving on my career path. At least I already have a BA or I'd probably be worse. I guess that's why they call it continuing.

I am an evangelist for the Dark Side

This weekend my college roommate came to visit me. She's a nurse and loves to relax and do outdoorsy things like hiking and rock climbing (yes the sweaty things that I only do on the rare occassion and with friends). I had a great time planned out-- going to downtown Durham, downtown Raleigh, shopping, and even walking some trails around Umstead Park. However, the first night she got here we relaxed at home after she'd driven up and my boyfriend introduced her to Guitar Hero.

Now like myself, my ex-roomie did not really engage in the gaming rage that brought up our generation. I opted for playing cards as a kid (and no I did not grow up in the 1950's). I just severly lack much of the hand-eye coordination that is required in such things. I admit to my Ms. Pac Man hours spent in the arcade, but it really only lasted about a year for me, which was when my allowance was spent up and I reverted to other past times.

My boyfriend, on the other hand, (like most men in their 20's and 30's) is a true gamer. He has an Xbox, PS2, Wii, and the super gaming computer as well. We have it all: Zelda, Tiger Woods, Gran Turismo, NFL, Soul Caliber, Dance Dance Revolution and Guitar Hero (many more as well, but the other games are still in boxes). And since he has already beaten all the games, he loves to show them to new people.

Thus, I have corrupted my dear friend. At least 4 hours every day were spent on one of either Guitar Hero or Dance Dance Revolution, and sometimes both. While I was prepared to go hiking, my roommate was practicing her fingering for Sweet Child Of Mine. And after dinner, I asked: do you want to go see a movie or do something else? To which she replied: Can we go play some more Guitar Hero? Definitely a job well done. Now she's thinking about which system she wants to buy so she can play at home. I have brought her over to the dark side.

Hooray for Stephen Hawking

If you didn't already know, Stephen Hawking rode on a Zero Gravity Corps flight to experience weightlessness. Although he was excited about the idea of it the quote tells it all:

"After one zero-gravity ride, crew members asked if he wanted to go again. Hawking dramatically stretched his eyebrows upward in an apparently emphatic yes. 'He was grinning the entire time,' Diamandis said."

I can't really think of anything right now that makes me feel more giddy inside. It's that whole childish imagination of space flight, of Stephen Hawking reliving his own little boy fantasies, and the possibility of exploration all rolled into one. Also, Hawking's flight was a fundraiser for Lou Gehrig's disease and Easter Seals.

Now I'm only shocked that these flights are only $3,500 and will be available through Sharper Image!! I remember sitting in my apartment not 6 months ago watching TLC with one of my housemates and watching the competition between companies to "fly" in space. At the time the flights were $1 million a piece, which still kind of seemed a reasonable amount for someone who wanted to do such a thing. But only $3,500 is like the cost of two people going on a cruise-- I can't imagine that everyone wouldn't want to try it. Who knows, maybe they'll get a 12-month payment plan going.

The Politics of it All

My friend LMNtal Attraction wrote about an interesting issue today breaking with his all-too-relationship-centered blog world. I however have absolutely no qualms with getting into the nitty gritty of politics. Found an interesting definition that I think is the most perfect one I've ever found for the word politics (Of course I had to get past all of the other definitions that use the word politics in the description. Did everyone else forget that you can't use a word to describe itself?) So here it is: Politics- "The often internally conflicting interrelationships among people in a society." How much truer could that be? It is after all the art of governing, and deciding between what we want as individuals and what is best for us as a nation.

While my friend LMNtal argues that people are slack in their knowledge of world events, I have to give people a bit more credit. Governance IS an art and it's never perfect the first time. As the first modern democracy in the world, the US has come a long way from appointed governors and senators, landed elite voting, and the 3/5ths clause. Just looking into that a bit more, voting rights have been only universally established for about three quarters of a century. You could really argue even less than that with southern Jim Crow laws and such. So for the last 50 years people in our own country have been granted (-for lack of a better word) voting rights who never had any engagement with government before.

Unfortunately what ails the US is not the lack of awareness of government and world affairs, but the disconnectedness of individuals with government. As we sit in our computer chairs browsing news headlines on our own separate continent, it's hard to relate to the sheer terror that occurs daily in the rest of the world. My college roommate had a huge picture of children starving in the Sudan hanging over her bed. It disturbed me every time I went over to talk to her, but it's a jarring image that can only hint at what some people around the world live with every day. Moreover it's difficult to know what I can do about it. I've worked in a senator's office and let me tell you how ineffective writing your congressman/woman is. So that leaves the voting booth as the last bastion of effective public engagement with our government. I do have to admit that after the response in 2006 I still have hope that people come together and act when they realize how government affects our everyday lives. Democracy is not the ideal government, it's just the best we've been able to come up with yet.

In a similar vein, HOORAY to Charlie Crist, governor of FL, for reinstating voting rights to ex-felons. It may be an unpopular idea, but the right thing is rarely ever popular.

"Never doubt that a small group of dedicated individuals can change the world. In fact, it's the only thing that ever has." - Margaret Mead

Men and Their Toys

OK, so this time it really worked out in my favor. How did it ever start with men tinkering with things to make them work? Not just work, but work BETTER! Every man I have ever known has definitely been partial to this at one time or another. Whether it's building something from scratch or fixing some electrical gadget, there's just a guy-thing about tinkering and doing more with the appliances you buy that makes them just not quite good enough and in need of expansion.

So back to my initial discussion. This time it worked in my favor. My boyfriend is a game buff ('course I don't know many guys in their 20s who don't own at least 1 game console). Anyway, I don't really care much for the games. Even the Wii-- yes, it's great that it's wireless, but I only have so much patience for the games. Could be the poor hand-eye coordination I've got going too.

Anyway, if you've heard anything about Apple's iTV I have the boyfriend mocked-up version of one and I LOVE it. So all you need is a Netflix account, MactheRipper (for Mac users), a router, and an X-box. Netflix has now become so much more valuable to me. As soon as I get my movies I can run them through the ripper and they are on my hard drive. Then the amazing boyfriend set it up for the Xbox to recognize those movies and I can scroll through them and select the movie I want to watch. That means 1 day turnaround for my Netflix, which means more movies I can see (since I usually want to watch a whole lot at one time), and no fiddling with DVDs and cases and that whole putting it into the machine. I know it sounds crazy, but it's the best thing since Tivo. Props to the amazing tinkering boyfriend!