"Look out, its gonna start raining."

...commented one guest as my uncle and aunt Laurence and Sioux Eaglefeather started dancing. But before I entertain you with the details of the wedding it should be noted that it was a lovely wedding with few real problems. The flowers were beautiful, the weather was awesome, and the bride was stunning. What I am about to tell you might make it sound like a circus, but in reality no one person would ever have noted all that was going on. I had a great time even as a bridesmaid, and so did everyone else. That said, on with the parade!

First off, poor Kenny (my new brother-in-law). During the ceremony all the wedding party came in and then a new song came on for Terri and my dad to walk down to. So we wait and wait and the song comes. And plays. And plays. The bridesmaids start whispering, Kenny starts to squirm. Finally, when all hope seemed to be lost, we were able to make out some white dress passing through the trees far away. So we pass the word up to Kenny just before he's about to pass out or cry or something. Poor kid told us later he thought he had been stood up. Actually the coordinator just was slow about telling Terri and my dad to start walking. And according to my dad, Terri just about hyperventalated cause she was so nervous about everything going off as planned.

Then there were little panics of the ceremony. The little pillow that the ring bearer carries didn't actually have the real rings on it, the best man and maid of honor actually had them. However, the rings that were on the pillow were deceptive. Terri's mom had put one of her big sparkly diamond rings on it along with a random ring of Terri's. So the best man looks down at the pillow and freaks out thinking he's got the rings mixed up. Fortunately he figured it out in time.

During the reception questions started being asked. "Who are the Indians?" Those are relatives of mine, though I should have denied it...they actually sat on Kenny's side. Just so you get a better idea of what I'm talking about, Laurence has long black hair that he ties back, was wearing a leather fringy vest thing with bear claw necklaces and bones, with a big something like a cow skull hanging around his neck made of bone and turquoise. Sioux had a similar ensemble, though a little more feminine and with less bear claws. To make matters worse, Laurence isn't one for smiling. So I would see him walking around with this grave face and he looked like he would pull out a tomahawk at any second.

Then there was the women's restroom and one drunken guest that will remain nameless. My grandmother and one of the bridesmaids, Sarah, were in there at the same time as this one lady. Suddenly she starts yelling in her rhaspy voice "Sarah! Sarah! You have to help me! Sarah! I dropped my dress in the toilet!" The rhaspy, drunken yelling continued for some time. Finally she comes crawling out under the stall door half naked still yelling "Sarah! My dress fell in the toilet! Help me!" She gets out and precedes to take her dress off and stand naked in the bathroom as she washes her dress off in the sink. All the while different people are coming in and out and she continues to yell for Sarah, and I have not heard report that she ever helped her at all. I don't blame her.

I was busy figuring out who I was related to. Kenny's side of the family is similar to Terri's. His parents are divorced and have been each married more than once (more than twice?) and have children. My dad made a chart so he could keep track and showed it to us before the rehearsal dinner so we could be prepared. Terri's mom has been married three times. My dad is married to my mom and was at one time married to Terri's mom. Terri's mom has a son who was a groomsman and he was the son of her second husband and he was at the wedding. So Joey, Terri's mom's son, is my sister's brother, but is not my brother. I met my sister's brother's father's sister, she was nice.

There was much more that happened but I think I'll finish this off with the bouquet toss. Obviously everyone wants to catch it, but there are those that you think ought to and those that ought not. Katie, one of the bridesmaids, dressed in pink and looking lovely was the one to catch it and she was one that ought to catch it. But it didn't end there. She caught it and as her hands were in the air another girl in a red vavavoom dress grabs it out of her hands so hard that some stems were even left in Katie's hands. Turns out, this girl is in Roller Derby. (for the uneducated, Roller Derby is like WWF on roller skates) Immediately people ran up to Katie telling her that they had proof on film that she had actually caught it. She was a bit upset and days later was still talking about how it was stolen from her.

So that was the wedding. I guess that wedding would be boring if interesting things didn't happen. Probably the only way to avoid such stuff is to elope. Not a bad idea...

Feelin' Hot Hot Hot

Today it got to about 103 degrees in Simi Valley. It is almost midnight right now and we have the air conditioner on. So in honor of the heat wave I'm putting up this Sesame Street song that I still know the tune of.

It Sure Is Hot!

BOY:
A girl named Rosalita moved in down the block
I think I like her but I'm much too shy to talk
A little bit of conversation is my goal
I'll break the ice with just a little Espanol

Hace calor, mucho calor
Could fry an egg on the cement it's so caliente
Hace calor mucho calor
How 'bout this weather it sure is HOT?!

ROSALITA:
The boy from up the block just totally made my day
But I'm too shy to think of anything to say
A little bit of conversation would be neat
I guess I'll just go right on talkin' 'bout the heat!

Hace calor, (Hace calor) si si senor
Could fry an egg on the cement it's so caliente
Hace calor, (Hace calor) si si senor
How bout this weather it sure is hot?!

Hace calor, si, it's as hot as an enchilada
Si, la cabesa it cooks like a cheese toastada
Hace calor, si, it's as hot as a hot tamale
Hace calor, si, it's as hot as a hot Timbale

Shoulda Guessed

I think this is an exaggeration of my personality and my actual self...as some could attest, but I'm pleased with the result anyway.

"[To] serve God properly we must learn to give up our own wills, thoughts, and desires. Why? Because otherwise we will be wise in our own conceits and will imagine that we can serve God with this or that, and thus spoil everything."

You are John Calvin! You're the most intellectual and thoroughly intense theologian on the block. You know what you're talking about and you recommend people to ignore you at their own risk. Yeah, baby, you know your stuff. You speak in riddles and confuse people for fun. Still, this hurts your social skills a lot... and you end up always appearing arrogant and rude.

What theologian are you?

A creation of Henderson

AI

I wish that did stand for artificial intelligence. Then maybe I could cast the blame for all this on some inhumanity. But alas, people are truly idiots. What follows is my letter to Fox about tonight's American Idol results show. I'll try to find a good article on it tomorrow in case you need to catch up on what happened.

To Whom It May Concern:
It was because of sympathy votes and a lack of reflection on whether or not the voter would actually buy the cd of the contestant they are voting for that Jennifer Hudson lost tonight. I have voted for her EVERY chance I have had to vote. I would be among the first to buy her album if she was given a recording contract. Please do your best to set her up with a recording contract and publicity. She represents what current music has almost lost: real divas. I am outraged at the bottom three of this week. Thank you to the producers and to Ryan Seacrest for handling the show the way they did. Hopefully the voters will see that they are being unfair to the real talent and will not turn out more sympathy votes.

I would suggest in future seasons that of the top 12, the first 4 be voted OUT. This would eliminate those such as John Stevens that the general population rather dislikes but simply cannot compete with the crazy voters that vote for 2 hours straight despite talent. I think that by specifically voting people out for the initial first weeks that the best talent will be able to engage in real competition. It would also stave off fanatical voting that generally only comes from the younger, tone-deaf demographic until the whole audience had a chance to get rid of who they dislike.

All that to say, this season seems doomed to failure. The voters do not understand that they are expected to actually wish to buy the album of who they vote for. I, however, do know whose album I would buy. Jennifer Hudson's. So please please set her up with a recording contract that goes beyond just the American Idol top 8? 12? tour and album.

Sincerely,

Kristen Young
(and I am sure many many an angered viewer)
P.S. If possible, please pass this along to Jennifer Hudson.

The Nephilim Gland

This is a really tall guy. He claims its God's punishment, though I never heard of God punishing anyone by making them tall. Apparently this guy is on his way to being the tallest man in history. The article cites the tallest man in history as being 8'11, so my assumption is that they are referring to Goliath. I'm not actually convinced he was the tallest man in history, I would actually be more inclined to think that the giants in Genesis were taller, or at least that with so many of them the odds would be in favor of one being taller than Goliath.

"There were giants [nephilim] on the earth in those days, and also afterward, when the sons of God came in to the daughters of men and they bore children to them. Those were the mighty men who were of old, men of renown." Genesis 6:4

So really it is possible that the nephilim and the children of the sons of God could have been taller than Goliath. Still, as far as documented height is concerned, I guess Goliath takes the cake. I wonder if this guy will ever stop growing. And, if he doesn't, how tall will he get? Will growing too tall kill him? If it was the result of accidently messing with the pituitary gland, have we opened the way for a dangerous new fad? Hehe...for instance, people my height (5'3 1/2) wanting to be as tall as supermodels. Or people with really big egos that was bodies to match!

The Mess

Often in situations like these you would say "pardon our dust." But I am not feeling so polite since this is not my fault. Somehow, someway, without the html changing a lick, my blog started changing in those obnoxious ways I am sure you were all witness to. The current problems are (1) the format is not what it used to be and (2) the lines are spaced very far appart. Both of these things have no cause that can be seen. In fact, in order to put things in the better order that they are in now I had to change the ORIGINAL template. Blah. No, make that BLAH! So I cannot see the light at the end of this very icky tunnel. Check back daily I guess. Maybe I'll continue to blog. Just be prepared to scroll down a bit to read it.

"There's going to be some big changes." "Changes..."

As you can see, I got brave and messed with the HTML. I don't do that often, I'm always frightened that I'll mess something up. But it turned out fine and now everything is much more readable and italics look pretty. I think I'm going to work on making some more changes, but baby steps are probably better in my case. Perhaps new colors. Blue really isn't a color people would probably associate with me. Let me know what you think of the font...after all, it is mostly for the sake of my readers.

(2 points for whoever tells me what movie that quote is from.)

Not the Big One, But Big Enough

This is nice to know. I wonder if they're right. I wonder if this article is legit. I guess we'll find out soon enough. Go buy the water jugs.

.......

Thanks to Shant I just accidently got my first dose of Homestarrunner. I really don't know what to say. There are no words for this.

Civic Duty

Hmmm, these past couple days have been filled with civic duties. Last night I went to the Simi Valley Neighborhood Council #2 meeting. That was cool. I was the only unofficial person there, so I represented the people. That was kind of fun, though it would have been nice to see more participation by the people. Still, I didn't even go until last night, so I'll give everyone the benefit of the doubt that they either just don't know its there or couldn't make it. We heard a liaison report from a police officer and a report from someone in the city planning department. We also gave approval for a new Starbucks with a drive through to go into a really run down plaza that they are hoping to renovate. Normally I would say, my goodness we already have some 9 Starbucks' in Simi, what do we need more for? But in the case of the Mountaingate Plaza, I think that putting a Starbucks in will draw in business to that area.

Today I gathered signatures for a petition. In a nutshell, it denies public benefits and drivers licenses to illegal immigrants. It also requires that state and local officials report illegal immigrants to the feds, it is a misdemeanor if they don't. The total estimated savings that would come of this would be over $100 million annually. Tomorrow is the deadline to get it on the November ballot and they hadn't made it yet, so today I decided to make it a goal to gather 20 signatures for the petition before the post office closed. I made my goal, though I accidently let a guy that doesn't live in Ventura County sign it, so his signature won't count. So I got 19 valid signatures today but if you count my signature from a week ago I did contribute 20. Hopefully it will be a significant enough contribution. I think I made a good effort of it for a last minute job.

Bugs

Today I saw a fat ladybug and was so intrigued by it that I immediately thought to myself, "write a poem". So I did. Actually, I wrote two.

On a Leaf
Little bug on leaf.
Much too plump for his green perch.
Oh fat ladybug.

Contented
Happy rounded red
The very fat ladybug
With a splotchy spot.

Dominion Necessitates Responsibility

This disgusts me. If the claim is true that the seals are depleting the fish supply there are more humane methods of solving the problem that have been implemented in other species. As for a renewed demand for fur, that is no excuse as far as I am concerned. Fur is nothing but vanity taken to a destructive and careless level. Fur is not a necessary clothing item in most parts of the world anymore and certainly is not necessary for those who are buying seal fur. Consider the purpose of wearing fur. Its primary purpose in today's world is to display wealth. Does not anyone else find the use of dead animal as a status symbol rather disturbing? I'm also annoyed with that photo-op with Paris Hilton. Nothing is gained by having that bimbo make fake sad faces. She probably has a fur lined t-shirt that she wears when its considered fashionable. Really, I was so glad that the fur trend had finally seemed to have seen its last days. Then I discovered last year that people forgot why they stopped wearing it in the first place. Its nasty as far as I'm concerned. In fact for years as a child I would jerk away if you tried to have it come in contact with me.
But back to the seals. Here is one serious concern. It has happened numerous times that a country, when they determine that a significant profit can be made, will go against the will of other countries with environmental concerns and will allow hunting to resume resulting in tragic and dangerous depletion of the populations. Don't even try to argue back that these concerns are overdramatized. While things like global warming and whatever do get overdramatized, near extinction and realized extinction do happen. Hunting animals unnecessarily is very suspect in my opinion and hunting near extinction is wrong. God created the animals and gave us dominion over them. However, dominion does not give us the right to remove His creation from existence or to take our responsibility lightly or to do whatever it is that we want with it. Consider that at different times God gave us more options as to what could be done with the animals. It was not until after the flood that we could even eat them! Apparently dominion, which was given to man over the animals at creation, did not necessarily include permission to eat them. What makes us think we can do whatever we want with them for our own purposes under the guise of "dominion"? Sort it out how you will. But Canada's actions seem very motivated by profit and as I consider our responsibility of dominion I begin to wonder if pure excess profit is a justifiable reason. Especially in this case, I would reconsider the wisdom of Canada's actions.

I'm Going on Welfare

Just kidding.
Job hunting is such a chore. First of all, why is it that all these businesses aren't coming crawling to me begging me to work for them because they have heard of my great fame? Maybe I've just seen too many lendingtree.com commercials. But really, I would like to know how it is possible for me to turn in an application to a company that is hiring, that I meet all their qualifications, that I have work experience, and have only 4 hours of the ENTIRE week that I cannot work and yet they never even call me in for an interview. Even more frustrating is that I am usually inquiring of some pierced up, green haired weirdo where the manager is. I am beginning to think that in order to get a job I must have a streak of purple in my hair and wear all black. They just don't hire normal people, oh no, they couldn't do that, that would mean they would be discriminating against people with blue hair. I AM POOR! SOMEONE PLEASE HIRE ME!

As I promised, though a little late, here is how to bug your mom for dinner in Greek.

deipnhsein mellomen, h ti;
You would say that something like "Deipnesein mellomen e ti?"
So that is a little Aristophanes for you, it translates: "Are we going to have dinner, or what?"

Pictures

Soiree 2004 pictures are here (its the TPCS prom). Compliments of Heidi. Some highlights...Heidi and her mom made her dress and it is gorgeous as is Heidi (Heidi is in the middle). I talked her into wearing it to "the soi". Anna is wearing a stunning green number that looks just perfect on her.

I did not go...being graduated and all. No, I sat at home and ate pizza and watched American Idol. Gee its fun to be old.

Comment System

Yes, at long last I talked my dad into letting me get a comment system. Do comment, especially if I don't know you. I find that fascinating, I'd like to find out who from other countries and who that I simply don't know is coming here. Also IMPORTANT: KEEP THE COMMENTS CLEAN. I'm not kidding. Though I imaging that won't be that hard to abide by. So have at it, especially those of you that have been bugging me about this. And thank you Heidi for being the first to comment.

Drivers Licenses for Illegals

It seems the whole Bush family has bad illegal immigration policy. I'm so mad I could spit. Thank you to the Drudge Report for pointing me to this one. Apperently Gov. Jeb Bush is condoning a move in Florida to give illegals drivers licenses. I can't even begin to tell all the reasons why this is such a bad idea. My first question is, does he have an election coming up? Maybe he's motivated by the upcoming presidential election? I just don't buy that safety talk. If someone comes in to the DMV for a license and they turn out to be illegal then it should be reported to the INS. It is really that simple. Now obviously they aren't going to try to get licenses until they are allowed to, but you know what I mean. If a public government type worker identifies someone as an illegal then they need to report it. (actually I'll be talking about a petition about that very thing some time soon) When this happened in California recently it was entirely motivated out of a desire to tip the election. Gray Davis had actually turned down the bill before, but when he was going to lose the recall race he suddenly passed it. Now, I know as well as you that pretty much all you have to do to vote is fill out that registration and then show your drivers license as ID. So basically it made it totally easy for an illegal to vote. Fortunately it had all of California in an outrage and Davis got the boot and as far as I know the law has been repealed or is going to be some time soon. It really is a commonsense issue. They shouldn't be here in the first place, do not reward them for evading the law.

Petitioning, part I

I decided to take these petitions in parts. There are too many to just sit down and write about them all. First off, these are California petitions, so my foreign readers may or may not find this of interest. I also don't have any details or even specific names for these, I'm pulling them out of my head as I remember them.

INDIANS WANT TO PAY TAXES
I was like, that's hilarious. Now what is it they want? They want to be able to build more casinos and have unrestricted gaming. I can't remember what sort of gaming it was, it seems to me that it was hunting type of gaming and it was primarily for that reason that I said NO. Even if that wasn't the case, the taxes didn't make up for more Casinos popping up and they wanted other rights and exemptions and privilages to go along with it. So don't sign this one. Yeah, they'll pay taxes, but I have no doubt that they are asking for much more in return.

INDIANS WANT TO PUT IN SLOT MACHINES AT RACE TRACKS
For this one they didn't ask for much, just the bigger portion of the cut. The state gets certain percentages amounting to an estimated $1 billion a year. There might have been provisions about no tax increases, but it didn't amount to enough to prevent me from signing this petition. The way I figure it, there is already gambling going on at these locations. Let the Indians put the slot machines in at their expense and we can get a much needed cut of the money. If it turns out to have more to it and it makes it onto the ballot, I'll let you know whether or not to actually vote for it. Still, I signed it and I would encourage you to do the same. If it gets voted on and passes but was actually not the best idea, it isn't such a big deal issue anyway and $1 billion would be very helpful.

Yeah, I lied. But I did warn you, didn't I? Anyway, expect the rest tomorrow.

The Fateful Trip, part III

Before my interview, my mom and I drove around Purcellville for a while taking pictures and seeing the sights. (houses and trees and barns) My interview went very well. Mr. Beavin put me at ease while pretending to try to make me nervous. No doubt the many prayers being said for me at home and Mr. Beavin's prayer before the interview made a giant difference. I was very calm, even inside, which never happens. Actually, although I love talking and am a very public type person, I get really tense and shake almost any time I speak to people about anything even remotely important. There was none of that. A miracle indeed.

After the interview we had lunch in the dining hall. Magnus, an old highschool friend and fellow Mock Trial person, met us there and we had lunch with him and a few of his friends. Great people. Not too nice so that they seemed insincere, actually they were sarcastic and such, but very friendly. It was amazing to me how easily I was able to get along with them. Must be a homeschooler thing. We sat in on two classes, Western Lit I and Philosophy. I enjoyed that, it reassured me that the students weren't out of my intellectual range. I needed that. But obviously that they are in my intellectual range means they are all brilliant! Right after Philosophy we went on a campus tour. Got to see what the dorms are like. Spacious enough, especially compared to what I've heard is common for school dorms. We saw Dr. Farris (president of the college) running on the treadmill in the gym. (little little gym) Actually we also saw him during lunch eating with some students.

While in the library I got a little surprise. Professor Vanderpoel, who I had for Western World History I last semester, came walking in the door. Throughout the day everyone I spoke to told me what a wonderful teacher he is and that it was a shame that I would not be able to sit in on his class. This comment nearly made my head spin each time it was made. My experience of his class was nearly completely confined to his tests, quizzes, and the infamous Roberts (author of our main text). Because of this, my opinion of Prof Vanderpoel was not incredibly high since I pretty much only experienced his difficulty. Apparently though, he is a great lecturer and I will have the opportunity to find that out when I take part II of that class. So, to get back to the point...he came walking in the door. The girl giving us our tour introduced us and he said that he remembered me. My mom said my face turned bright red. I mumbled something about "hearing great things about him its a shame I couldn't have you in person." What an awful thing and very embarrassing. Why couldn't I have met Prof Bouchoc or Prof Culberson? I got A's in their classes!

After our tour we wandered about taking pictures. I got a few nice ones and maybe I'll find a way to put them up here. Then we decided it was time to leave. I was very sad to be going, I wanted to stay there. But at that point I also had no assurance that I would ever come back in my life. Now I do. And I am so very glad of it. Do check out my school. The site seems to be down at the moment, but I can't imagine it will stay down for long. Patrick Henry College

More Promises I Can't Keep

I think today I shall catch up on my blogging. Last week was very busy so I couldn't blog anything substancial and actually this week and next are very busy as well, so it looks as though I'll have to do it all today. Therefore, look forward later today for part III of my trip, a synopsis of petitions currently circulating that I have or have not signed, and my "final" decision on the marriage amendment. I also might treat you to an analysis of some Cranberries songs from a while back that may be of interest to many of my readers. But before any of that I have to go send in my "yes please I want to come to your school" check and do some serious homework. So I'll leave you with some trivia. If you want to yell at a telemarketer that calls during dinner say:

"Malus es! Habeo cibum! Vale!" translation: "You are cruel! I am having dinner! Goodbye!"
Not only will they hang up, they might never call you again because they won't have anyone working there that speaks your language (Latin). Tomorrow I'll tell you how to bug your mom for dinner...in Greek.

Philosophy Classes

"Over the history of the human species, a great deal of evidence has accumulated to the effect that dead people stay dead."
-Ronald Nash paraphrasing David Hume

Dude, thats deep.

Unsolved Mysteries

Apparently modern science still has been unable to solve the mystery of faery circles. After testing numerous theories they were left back with the same old explanation: faeries. That is fine with me, we need some mystery in this world.