Might as well get in one last post before the new year. It doesn't fell like New Year's Eve to me. My guess is because there's no leftover snow on the ground. Actually, its been too warm to have snow, been in the high 40's and low 50's for part of the week. The snow should be back soon, this is just one of those unsuspecting changes in the weather that Cincy is know for. My prediction is that there's gonna be some snow lingering around the city until April.

That's enough rambling on the weather, on to other things. I was supposed to go out tonight (at least over a friend's house), but that was all a bust when my friend Simi never returned my calls. I love her dearly, but she has her moments of being unreliable. She's been one of my best friends for 10 years now, so that can be forgiven. Besides, I'm here at home with my Mom, who I was worried about leaving at home alone in the first place. Things worked out for the best for tonight, there's always next year for big celebrations. Besides, my friend Teresa's birthday is on Sunday, so we're going out with a group of people on Saturday night to bring it in the right way, in a loud, noisy silly manner. :) My plan was to get at least one party night in before going back to school on 1/5.

There haven't been any big developents in the shooting that occured two nights ago at my neighbor's house next door. The family that stays came back today. They've been avoiding the house since the homicide occured; who can blame them. When I got home Tuesday evening, there was another news van on the block, reporting live on the 6pm news. I could tell by the spotlight shining on my neighbor's fence a few houses down.

A bittersweet ending to a bittersweet year. Too much drama went on this year locally, nationally and internationally. Lets hope that there are better things in store in 2004. (I meant to make that rhyme, that phrase has been in my head half of the day. I'm a nerd.)

Happy New Year! I'm gonna go and watch the ball drop.

These homicides happened in my neighborhood, the second being right next door to my house. Its bad when you have to avoid speaking to reporters while you're going out the door. It's even more strange to see part of your house lined in police tape.

Other Reports:
WKRC.com | WLWL.com | WCPO.com

I'll post more as things calm down...

Here's the last friday five for 2003:

1. What was your biggest accomplishment this year?
Reconciling with an old friend from high school. We haven't talked in like 6 years except when my Father passed. Being around her now made me realize how much fun we had then, and now too.

2. What was your biggest disappointment?
My family, well some of them. They never seem to amaze me. One day they will, maybe.

3. What do you hope the new year brings?
New opportunities for my Mom. It's been kinda rough lately.
As for me, I hope to find an internship, some volunteer work, something. If at any cost, I want to get involved in music more (songwriting, creating video concepts).

4. Will you be making any New Year's resolutions? If yes, what will they be?
Yes, I got one resolution: to exercise before going on spring break in March. Scratch that, I have another one: to make the Dean's List.

5. What are your plans for New Year's Eve?
Party!

Merry Christmas!
I just checked my inner child, just for kicks:

My inner child is sixteen years old!

Life's not fair! It's never been fair, but while
adults might just accept that, I know
something's gotta change. And it's gonna
change, just as soon as I become an adult and
get some power of my own.


How Old is Your Inner Child?
brought to you by Quizilla

Garfield's Big Fat Merry Christmas!

Happy Holidays, everyone. I've been keeping up with this Garfield's version of The Twelve Days of Christmas, and wanted to share the link to it. It's pretty cute!

I got some last minute shopping in today with Mom. It was fun, but hectic. My feet were hurting, like three times during our trip from home to Kenwood Towne Centre. I blame it on my shoes, time to buy a new pair. Maybe there will be a good after-Christmas sale on some shell toe addidas somewhere. Ran into a couple of buddies from hs, Cassandra and Jennifer. Haven't seen Jennifer in ages, either, so that was a real treat. She's at UD, and we talked about how the Bearcats gave em their first loss of the season. And with Cassandra, it was good to see her and her sis as well. I think I talked and worried about her birthday gift so much that my Mom and I would run into her at the mall. Actually, her birthday falls on Christmas. Happy Christmas and Merry Birthday, Cass! :)

Wow, its hard to believe that Christmas is just in a few hours. Its cool though, there's going to be plenty of television watching. Marathons and movies galore. I really want to watch Merry Christmas, Charlie Brown!; my favorite part is when they decorate the tree. If anything, I just want to relax all day, make a few phonecalls to friends. do the gift exchange with Mom, and think about Dad for awhile. I miss him so much around this time of year. Its hard to deal with the holidays at particular moments, but I'm learning to cope with the holidays more than I did two years ago. Mom is as well, she even got into decorating a bit more this year. We're taking baby steps......together.

One of these days there will be a new winter layout. Actually, I'm just changing the image at the top to fit the season. I'm lazy. Hey, it's winter break...there's still time.

Once again, Happy Holidays.

Earlier this morning, around 1am I realized that I have a lot more gifts to purchase than I originally thought. Still looking for gifts for my Mom, and gifts for my two friends that have birtdays close to Christmas, or the day of Christmas (Hi Cassandra, Hi Teresa!). Also, there are a few more friends on my list At the risk of them reading this post, I won't mentioned what I got them....

I'm planning to go after leaving campus to do some more shopping this afternoon. I'm hoping to get back to Old Navy before Thursday, I got my eye on this long sleeved tee that I want to get. Looked like they marked it down again, and I just went there on Saturday (the official day I began to look for gifts, while out with 'the almost b-day girl', Teresa)! :) I enjoy a good sale.

Now, if I can only find something to do at work to look like I'm busy. It's a slow day already, the office can get like that around the holidays.

Here's the Friday Five, a day late:

1. List your five favorite beverages.
Dr. Pepper, Cherry 7-up, Lipton tea, Cherry Coke, Smirnoff Ice.

2. List your five favorite websites.
mtv.com, tug messageboards, oldnavy.com, torrid.com, Yahoo (the strange stories section).

3. List your five favorite snack foods.
chocolate, chips, popcorn, cookies (oreos, peanut butter, etc.), and ice cream.

4. List your five favorite board and/or card games.
Uno, Monopoly, Life, Checkers, and Poker.

5. List your five favorite computer and/or game system games.
I don't play that many video/pc games but I like Tetris and Grand Theft Auto. Does internet checkers count? :)

Did I mention that the Bengals won another game. too? The box office is actually going to sell playoff tickets this year. Amazing, huh? Thanks to Marvin Lewis, he made it cool to be a Bengals fan again. Dad would be saying "I told you they would make a comeback" right about now. God, rest his soul...

It's Tuesday already? I'm still wondering what happened to my weekend! Anywho, I decided to take Monday off in order to have a three-day weekend, a small break to celebrate the completion of the quarter. There were a few highlights in the weekend overall. I did find another winter coat on Saturday, which was the same day that we got 3 inches of snow, ironically. Ah, the first snow of the season. (minor correction: Aaaahhhh!) Like I mentioned in the last post, snow is pretty to look at, but only if you're inside looking out the window. I guess I don't have that much room to complain, compared to other cities (NYC, Boston, Cleveland, etc.) Cincinnati gets the barely there/just enough to see snow. I was upset at a friend Saturday night after calling me to go out and then a half our later (after I fully changed clothes) to tell me that there were a change of plans cuz of the snow falling. The snow issuse I can understand, but waiting a half hour to call me back was questionable. Moral of the story: I seriously need to get my liscense, before it expires yet again.

Sunday was an exteme lounging day, didn't go anywhere, I just sat around and watched television and worked on my laptop all day, trying to burn mp3 cd's and copy them to my new gadget. Got the mp3 player about 2 weeks ago, and its much more convient than carrying a cd player and a travel case of cd's around. Plus the player fits inside my coat pockets as well, which makes it even more convenient. Since I have the old usb 1.1 connection on my laptop, it takes a while to transfer a bunch of files.

Can't forget to mention that Sadaam was captured. Is it just me, or did George W. sound quite odd saying that "Mr. Hussein" was captured? I forgot the exact quote that was repeatedly shown on the news the last two days, but it was just an odd, overexposed soundbyte for the media to use. I'll probably come across that quote later on.

Oh yea, must mention about my Aunt that stays in Alabama got married this weekend. Does it help that she didn't send out any official announcements of the ceremony, or that none of the family, (with the exception of a couple of people) has even met the guy?? They're going to come up for Christmas; I'm anxious to see how the family is gonna react to meeting him. This sounds like a fiasco waiting to happen.

Ahh, I'm now back from the abyss of studying (more like procrastination and frequent napping), finally free from final exams. On my way to work this afternoon, I turned in a portfolio for poetry, that I spent part of Thursday evening and this morning revising. I'm sure that the portfolio is B-worthy. If I get two A's and two B's on this quarter's report card, I can make the Dean's list. It's not that necessary that I make it this quarter, just at least once before I graduate.
For now, I'm going to enjoy the well deserved time off from going to class, and just work, write some hot songs, and party. The plan that my friend Teresa (helloooo, LOL*) and I are scheming up is to gather up a lot of our friends and just go out and ring in 2004 the right way!

*goofy inside joke, that's how we greet each other on the phone; we're bonafide goofballs, lol*

On to other news, here's the Friday five. It was on a hiatus last week:

1. Do you enjoy the cold weather and snow for the holidays?
It's alright, I prefer the summer heat really. Snow is pretty to look at, when you're sitting in the house looking at it out the window. :)

2. What is your ideal holiday celebration? How, where, with whom would you celebrate to make things perfect?
My ideal holiday celebration would include a good mix of friends and family, a lot of food (and drinks...), and plenty of party music. Decorations wouldn't hurt either. A good location would be my house, there have been a handful of celebrations thrown here, and they've all worked out well, so there's nothing wrong with sticking to what's good!

3. Do you do have any holiday traditions?
My favorite holiday tradition is listening to Christmas albums. Not CD's albums. My Mom plays The Temptations Christmas Card, "Please Come Home for Christmas", and "Christmas Comes but Once a Year" both by Charles Brown. Can't forget Donny Hataways "This Christmas", which has been remade by sooo many artists, but is the best soulful Christmas song in my opinion. And call me corny, but I love the Barking Dogs version of Jingle Bells! Everytime I hear that tune, I think back to when I was 6 years old when I first heard the song on the radio while in the car with my Dad. Ah, the memories, LOL.

4. Do you do anything to help the needy?
No, but I should be giving back, and voulnteering in the community.

5. What one gift would you like for yourself?
Does piece of mind come in a box? If it does, I would like two please. :)

Rick Minter, Fired!

Ouch! Not too long after UC's move to the Big East Conference, Minter, the head coach of the football program, was fired.

One word for this soda: ewww! Yea, there's that rule of not judging things before you try it, but this Turkey and Gravy drink just sounds gross.

Can Cincinnati get some peace, please?

Early Sunday morning, a 350 pound black male died in police custody after a scuffle that they had at a local White Castle. 'Scuffle' is the lightest of what can be said about the footage. The man that died (Nathaniel Jones) based on the footage, rushed at the officers first. There were also news updates of a preliminary toxicology report stating that he had PCP and cocaine in his system. Like the effects with some other drugs, I'm sure that his mind was altered during the occurance. All throughout the day yesterday I kept hearing these three words during commercials for the news, and during actual newscasts: 400 pound man (changed to 350)...died in police custody...took 6 men to restrain him, and so on. Afraid to say that this puts the city two years behind all over again. I got a feeling that there's going to be more civil unrest in our city soon.

With this being Yahoo's top story at the moment, I'm sure that there are many insensitive comments posted to the message boards, along with racist ones. I actually got distracted from this entry from posting on the message board. There are a lot of people on the outside looking in, that live in other states, seeing the story on the national news.

It's gonna get ugly.

Update 12/2/03: It has became ugly, if you can resist, avoid the Yahoo! message board on this subject. Its pointless to try to post your view to have some fool just attack it.