Great, just great:

STATE TUITION CAP MAY INCREASE TO 8 PERCENT

Budget cuts affect higher education

The last few weeks have been busy, and its only going to escalate from here. This upcoming week is my last week of classes for the quarter, but I have two finals and four papers due this week (thank goodness two of the papers are short!). Frankly, I'm not looking forward to the stress. I cannot stand being stressed out. There are a few things that I'm stressing over currently.
First, there's the issue with my co-op. The place where I worked during the Winter quarter, I won't be returning to during the Summer. No hard feelings, but it made me a upset when my former boss claimed that I had said turned down the postion for the summer. In reality, I told him that I would contact him asap about coming back. So, basically, he offered the position to the current co-op that took my spot, and I'm left without a co-op position. I did have a meeting with an editor of a local magazine that I met during an entrepreneurship workshop on campus on Wednesday. The problem is that he's offering an unpaid, part-time internship position in advertising/sales at his magazine; co-op positions are paid positions. There may be a chance that I can earn something for my time spent working there part-time: a car. Sounds very eccentric and risky, but I've had time since then to think about it, and discuss this with my mother. My Mom is always available to discuss hard decisions with me such as this one; bless her <3 I truly love her for that! I would just be glad that I can find some type of experience, unpaid or not, I'm not to crazy about the car idea though. I never want people to see me as a charity case, because I am so far from that. I would rather struggle and save to get a car on my own means, than to have someone to purchase a vehicle for me. I actually do have some money saved up, pretty much for a buggy, a hooptie, or whatever your word of choice is for a junker. Hey, I'm not too stuck on the appearance of the first car that I do purchase, but at long as it has the basics, and can get me to where I have to go, that will be suitable. In ther next few weeks, I am hoping to negotiate with the magazine editor about his offer.
Secondly, although this is so far from the other issues in my life, that it seems almost insignificant. As I was leaving campus yesterday from a Bearcast meeting, a friend and I was walking to the nearest bus stop and chatting all the way there pretty much. Lo and behold, I walked past my ex's car, just parked oh so nicely on the street. Now that I'm discussing it here, it seems lame that I even mention it, because a few weeks prior this, I saw it parked in the same spot, oddly. Thinking nothing of it, or almost nothing, I continued my conversation with my buddy, who's a guy (forgot to mention). A minute later, we walked past McDonald's, and I'm 85% sure that the ex was sitting in there looking right back at me. I looked at him, and continued my conversation with my friend. All I could think then is redemption! That's definately my closure on that chapter in my life. Yes, granted its normal to run into an ex, I'm not used to that, since he was my first real relationship (the 'out of sight, out of mind' theory does not work). I'm a late bloomer in that aspect. But I read Huny's latest entry before writing my own; she talked about how you realize after the relationship is over, how you changed yourself, or put on your public face to mask all your personal flaws. It's like you put your heart on the line for someone to just crush it. I'm not giving up hope though; I'm aware that there is someone out here in the world that would acept me for me, along with all my flaws. I'm destined to find my equal someday. But for the time being, I have the summer to focus on.

The fate of the Cincinnati Public School buildings are left up to the voters to decide if the bond issue is worthy enough to be on the ballot again this November, after a defeat last year of just 600 votes.
Here's the technical info about the bond issue.


In more news about the 'melee near campus', I saw on the local news this morning that the police department was "suprised" that the distubance went on for the second year in a row. Their reason: because Cinco de Mayo fell on a Monday this year. My only rationalization is that they seem to dismiss that college students will find a reason to party, even if its a few days shy of a holiday. I don't know whether to shake my head or laugh at the CPD for their idiocy. If you unsure what 'idiocy' means look it up. Honestly, I had to look it up myself, on the accout that 'idiocracy' isn't a real word.
Also, it was announced that letters have been sent all to all UC students, asking them to identify anyone that they know that may have been involved in the disturbance. Basically, they're asking for students to be a nark and rat out their friends. I will be on the lookout for my copy of that letter in the mail today, just to see what it actually says. I can hear speculations and diluted stories about it all day long, but the letter will be an interesting read, nontheless.

I've been pretty busy with classes, sleeping, and a little partying to mix things up a bit. But I haven't done any partying like some of the other students at my university. Too bad the report lacks any pics.
Cinco de Mayo Madness near campus!

Scratch that. Found something even better: video footage.

This statement is no longer valid. I was watching Smallville last night, and I saw a commercial announcing that the Justified & Stripped tour is going to be in Cincy on July 26th! And the tickets go on sale this Saturday! My poor Mother had to see me spaz out for like 5 minutes straight, just jumping for joy and squealing and such. There has to be some really big event that would get me to jump around like a maniac like I did last night. I was just so heartbroken knowing that they weren't coming here on tour, that the commercial just took my by suprise! Also, I found this great tutorial on how to make blue spikes in psp. The result came out pretty cool when I tried it, but I haven't converted the pic to jpeg or gif in order to post it here. I made mines in two shades of purple, it came out pretty cool! I'm quite proud of it! :)

And yet, through all of this, I still had one more exam to study for. I had the motherload of exams this week, I'm just happy that they're over, for now. On Monday, I had an exam in Quantitative Analysis, an exam in Intro to Sociology on Tuesday, and the last exam in Global Business Environment this morning. Like I told my buddy Des, my brains will be mush by today, and that I'm looking forward to going out partying Saturday night. I also told her that my cousin gave me the nickname of "party girl". Des told me that maybe she should see if "Party Boy" from 'Jackass' would want to go and party with me. Omg, I'll have to pass on that one! :) If you saw Jackass: The Movie or the weekly show, you know what I'm talking about!

Too bad that this list wasn't out about 3 years ago when I was coming out of high school. Hey, better late than never to learn some new words.

This tour is going to be one of the best of the summer, too bad its not coming to Cincy, though:

Actually, selling Cincinnati sounds like a good idea, although its used in another context in this editorial cartoon by Jim Borgman.

I've been so caught up in school and living [which is a good thing :) ] that this is the only moment that I could spare to post an entry. I've had it on my "to do" list but haven't got around to it until now. I could go on and complain about my allergies or my "interesting" family, but it's all seems petty at the moment, I'm just estatic that I made it to campus this morning to go to class, which reminds me, I have to go attend two more before my day is through.

[vent]

The media is bugging the hell out of me right now. I'm sick of hearing 124635773 different stories about Sadaam being killed. If he was fine, then report it, if he wasn't killed, be honest and report that too. Better yet, the media should have breaking news coverage when they are 200% sure that he's dead; like when they find his body or something. For all we know, it could have been one of his body doubles in that building. I'm fed up with hearing half assed stories with half truths or assumptions in the reports.

[/vent]

Forgot one important detail from the previous entry:

Happy 21st Birthday Desarae!!!
(so lucky!)

My hectic school life has resumed for now. I've been in school for almost two weeks now. My schedule is actually good this quarter; I only have one class on Thursdays and Fridays, which means more sleep in my book. :) Or more partying, depends on the week. Speaking of partying, I finally got to go out clubbin on Saturday with one of my best friends and her cousin. We had the best time just dancing with people (like 5 people in a line at once) and acting silly. Sometimes just going out is just a great stress reliever. I swear that my life is one big ball of stress, my family's crazy, as usual, survival is a test within itself, plus I'm pretty sure that I'm going to have one hell of a time surviving this Finance II class that I'm taking, since the professor doesn't seem to care, or make much sense. That's just the short list.


And then there is the return of the occasional procrastination. I had since Monday to work on my first Finance II assignment, which is due tomorrow afternoon, but I waited until now to work on it. It's hard to remain motivated when the professor takes 10 seconds to explain the chapter, and spends the rest of the hour trying to translate his own chicken scratch to the class. I rather put my energy into preparing for this career fair on campus tomorrow afternoon, since I got some assistance on revising my resume. Maybe one of these days I'll post the updated version on my other little site. But for now, I have to get back to work.

"Virus Spreads in Hong Kong, Cockroaches Eyed"
This is just plain nasty. I know that its about the whole SARS virus that is spreading around the world, including a couple outbreaks in Ohio, but these are cockroaches!

A feeling of accomplishment. Finally got my layout for spring completed. Having free time really helps. :)

March 21 was my last day of co-op for the winter quarter. Thank god. I decided to take this entire week off just to celebrate, relax, and just get some errands done finally (like my taxes for example).

In between relaxing and such, I had time to sit down and check through a long list of emails that I got from Webzine which is a site devoted to independent media. Back in 2001 they had their yearly conference in NYC, and I happened to see it on Huny's site, which is one of my favorite sites that still have the same address. A few people that I used to read regularly have changed addresses a few times, such as Lisa, formerly of PinkHandcuffz.com
*just found out that she moved from MySteelo too* I guess people are just tired of the net right now. Who knows. Anyway, back to the story at hand. I was reading through a collection of emails from the Webzine email list about Michael Moore's acceptance speech at the Oscars Sunday night. For those who may not know who Michael Moore is, he won an Oscar for his documentary "Bowling for Columbine" which (from what I read about) is about gun control and such (I haven't seen the movie, or didn't see the Oscars on Sunday, but heard a little about the controversy over his speech). Here is transcript of his speech, as seen in one of the Webzine emails I received:


BOWLING FOR COLUMBINE
> Michael Moore and Michael Donovan
>
> ACCEPTANCE SPEECH
> Michael Moore: Whoa. On behalf of our producers Kathleen Glynn and
> Michael Donovan from Canada, I'd like to thank the Academy for this.
> I have invited my fellow documentary nominees on the stage with us,
> and we would like to - they're here in solidarity with me because we
> like nonfiction. We like nonfiction and we live in fictitious times.
> We live in the time where we have fictitious election results that
> elects a fictitious president. We live in a time where we have a man
> sending us to war for fictitious reasons. Whether it's the fictition
> of duct tape or fictition of orange alerts we are against this war,
> Mr. Bush. Shame on you, Mr. Bush, shame on you. And any time you got
> the Pope and the Dixie Chicks against you, your time is up. Thank you
> very much.
>
> http://www.oscars.com/oscarnight/winners/win_32297.html


I read through many messages about how some people are pro-war, or how some people think that all the hostility is towards bush when it comes to those who are anti-war, etc. Being the brave soul that I am (at times anyway) I threw in my comment on the whole war issue:



I must say, at the risk of sounding foolish, that I’ve enjoyed reading everyone’s comments on Michael Moore’s Oscar speech and all the issues and baggage that comes along with this war at hand. I just want to put in my two cents:

Honestly, I don’t know which side to take on the war, because I can (partially) relate to all sides. I have friends that are anti-war One of my friends is a part of a group on campus that have been organizing anti-war rallies on Friday afternoons on campus , months before the war actually began. I support her cause, as a friend.

I have an aunt and three cousins that are in some branch in the armed forces, whether they are almost about to retire soon, or just joined right before this war began. In the city where I live, Cincinnati, which has enough issues on its own with local politics and schools and such, there have been a few “pro-troops” rallies, one of the most recent was on fountain square downtown where there was a “shouting match’ between anti- war protestors and “pro-troops.

Then there’s the media. At times I just settle to watch an infomercial rather than hear the up-to-the minute updates on the “Attack on Iraq” or the “Showdown with Sadaam”. Every local and national has some sort of “name” for the war. It’s ridiculous! At times the Media can be so persuasive with their extensive news coverage, after watching it for awhile, it gets old and bothersome. These news networks are possibly giving too much information to the public in ways that are far from the truth. But since they dominate the airwaves, its hard not to ignore it, unless you cut the television off.

Last but not least, there’s President Bush (the second). I have no clue what his problem is. To me, he seems like some schoolyard bully trying to pick a fight. Maybe I’m wrong, I don’t know.

Since there are all of these labels about the war already (anti-war, pro-war, pro-troops, etc.), can “neutral” be added to the growing list?

There are my two cents, or twenty. Thanks for reading anyhow.

Shamekko
www.random_thoughts.blogspot.com



I'm usually not the one to comment on such things like war, I usually keep my comments to myself. Good thing I have this blog, I can vent when I want to without criticism, hopefully. This counts as free speech too!

Since this entry is long enough and I could go on for more paragraphs complaining and venting about how I. forgot to confirm my classes for Spring Quarter, or how I heard about the passing of my Great Aunt (my late Grandma's Sister on my father's side) after she was buried, or how the IRS screwed up my tax returns, which caused me to make yet another visit to their offices downtown, which in turn means another bus ride that I shouldn't be taking because I should have my driver's liscense by now...but I'll just be nice and end this entry here. Besides, I need another nap.