So, I am testifying in front of the college board at the next board meeting on the 14th. I'm not really sure what I'm going to say. I know that I've been told by 'insiders' that the board is looking for more personal stores of how the cuts affect the students more directly then just overall affecting them.

Erm, maybe that didn't make sense. The board is looking for testimony from people in programs that are directly affected by the cuts. There, that's better. Since I'm actually in two programs directly affected, I get to speak. I'm kind of nervous, and at the last meeting a lot of people cried. Other people crying is difficult, it always makes me want to cry. Sappy, but true.

I think the best way to approch it is just to say who I am, what I'm involved with and give (hopefully some fresh) perspective on how it will impact not only the students but the community. I am not a public speaker, but I can write. I should have opted for written testimony but it's too late now. Will someone read over what I'm going to say when it is done, and make sure it's decent? I'd really appriciate it.

The beagles love guys named "Pete". Bubbas laugh at television evangelists. Spiritualists panic the racing car drivers. Fossils make the best doctors. Without exception, the brats hit on optical illusions. Slime balls are destined to marry cockroaches.Employees discriminate against ogres. In the dark of night, the peanut butter eaters maintain that cannibals say nasty things about idiots. Karate instructors say that the finite element fanatics beat up Aggies. Boys will marry the industrialists. Shoe salesmen gaze longingly at telephone operators. Student senators are befuddled by spirits. Civil servants lecture sternly to goblins. The President announced today that the classical musicians make good substitutes for orphans. Why do drunks believe that geographers are allergic to shoes? Bullfighters are really Aggies. Cowboys should kiss the scientists! Giants cohabitate with ballroom dancers. Ecologists worship grandmothers. Vipers have affairs with walruses. Most actors feel that the savants invalidate the children! Administrators are always running into ladies. Many teaching assistants join forces with jokers. Ghouls will no longer tolerate turtles. The hammers are believed to be dental assistants. AT&T operators are destined to become notary publics. Cowboys spy on employers. Grocery clerks shun the tailors. you can debate with liberal arts majors. Ballroom dancers look down upon jugglers. True or false: Amway distributors idolize grandfathers. Pity skeletons! Marmosets pester cat lovers. Mandrills malign aliens. Pigs work for the spelunkers. The T.V. doctors insist that the yuppies breed with optical illusions. Punks are from outer space, say the karate instructors.Economic geologists hit on system analysts. Everyone knows that the human beings wish to meet moms. Sitting alone in his room, I suddenly realized that nomads dance with editors. During the summer months, the Americans are believed to be administrators. Fast food cooks keep telling me that the National Park rangers join forces with fast food cooks. Did you know that the veterans hold discussions on maniacs? Mermaids have gained control of psychiatrists. Teenagers cannot understand merchants. Guys belittle the spirits. During winter, the white collar criminals wreak havoc on seismologists. Nobody laughed when he said that the television personalities kiss the mobile home owners. Painters analyze aeronautical engineers. Managers are looking for mobsters. Hippies blame the professional wrestlers. Physicists salivate over termites! Cattle like to be thought of as Vikings. I read in the newspaper that the hermits like to be referred to as Yankees. While I was in Mexico with Jeff, he told me that undergraduate students secretly long for the millionaires. Why do you deny that the bellhops are more fun than boneheads? Ballroom dancers follow the web geeks! Geographers drink to the health of soap opera stars. Lion tamers feel that lion tamers are pleased. In broad daylight, only videogames insist that the primates curse the children of drones. In some cases, graduate advisors supervise the soap opera stars. True or false: topologists are jealous of violinists. Rock stars make music with policemen. Intellectuals do not know how to use their pigs. Geophysical technicians sicken mad scientists. Husbands will crush all the reflection seismologists. True or false: topologists think of themselves as fathers. Bugs analyze peanut butter eaters. Spiritualists cleanse the truck drivers! Cadets tend to think that the aristocrats burst into tears if they see freaks. In the summer months the circus geeks avoid angels. At the last conference on law students, we learned that pediatricians have been seen dancing with the babies. Institute personnel always respect caribou. Student senators hit the mailmen. Candidates are experts on Sumo wrestlers. You can't deny it -- all psychoanalysts harass procrastinators. The robots dream that the opera singers taunt campers. Bears blush when they see girls. Yuppies wave their hats at bookworms. Caffeine addicts amuse heathens. Marsupials annoy feminists. Babies were all once dads. Didn't you know, the geniuses say, that the beagles completely trust Vikings? Endocrinologists refuse to believe that troglodytes scratch the faces of seismo-zombies. Preachers refuse to believe that laundromats rebel against sadists. Robots rule over the fishermen. Have you seen the news reports which claim that the employers seek golfers? Was it you who told me that maniacs like to tease editors? Was it you who told me that Presidential cabinet members make prank telephone calls to babies? While you were at the toy show, didn't you contend that endocrinologists always hog all the cadets? Actuaries swoon over Oklahomans. Imbeciles wish to be windsurfers. Tenors shout imprecations at turtles. Why do people say that professional wrestlers compose random sentences about mechanics? Was it you who told me that television weathermen drink to the health of television weathermen? The hard rock geologists have discovered that the marmosets are reincarnated as hypnotists.On the CBS National Nightly News, he claimed that the rabbits take care of child psychologists. All the faculty advisors care deeply about the children. Policemen blush when they see laundromats. After several gin & tonics, John Tower said that the raccoons steal from sanitary engineers. Puppets do not trust Democrats. Parents could learn from insects. Mermaids live next door to mandrills.



Text from a spam letter I got in my E-mail. I'm not quite sure what exactly they're selling (or taking, for that matter) but I'm thinking I want some.

I need a new layout. This is insane, it's almost March. I've got four (paying...shock, gasp) web clients right now and so I'm avoiding working on anything of my own, but it's getting bad enough that I may have to write myself a ticket for voiolating the no Christmas themed anything past the 1st of February rule.

So do you want to know something embarrassing? I knew you did.

On Thursday I worked a late shift at the SL&CS Office, and I was the very last one to leave at about 4:45 (the office closes at 4:30, but I was pretty absorbed in posters that another co-worker had asked me to make, so I lost track of the time. The poster I was working on, by the way, is pretty swanky. It's an entire underwater scene cut from construction paper. I'll snap a picture.) and since I had been sitting in the poster room for like three hours, I really had to go potty (I swear, it's relevant) and so I wandered into one of the bathrooms.

Side note, I hate public restrooms. They give me the heebies.

So, I was lifting my backpack up on to one of the hooks in the stall by the handle, and the handle tore off the backpack, and I punched myself square in the chin.

Yeah, you read right. I cold cocked myself. It hurt. I was actually so startled that I just started laughing. I laughed hard enough that I gave myself the hiccups. The other people in the bathroom must have thought that I was deranged. What else was I supposed to do, cry? It was tear-worthy, I've got a nice black and blue chin now. It was really embarrassing. But funny.

On Friday, when I told one of my co-workers about it, she laughed so hard popcorn went up her nose. It made me feel a little better. I mean, what's life if you can't make other people laugh at you?

HotD:

Such lovely weather!
It is almost springtime now.
Pretty blooming trees.

My legs look like I've been beaten by a sack of oranges. Besides vitamin C, does anyone know anything that helps with easy bruising? I'm tired of looking like I fell down sixty flights of stairs and then was kicked in the shins while I was dazed by a pack of rabid children. The weather is so nice this week, I'm wearing Capri’s, but...my legs are a disgrace!

I'm trying to work the entire 116 hours I'm allotted for Work Study into four weeks, so I'm spending the majority of my time in the Student Life office, where I'm part of the Student Leadership & Community Service Team. This is why I haven't posted. Working two full time jobs (for the time being) and going to classes full time has really laid waste to my already sad posting skills.

What's funny, is where I am now is where I wanted to work in the first place, but I ended up in Financial Aid instead. Basically we organize all the Community Service and Leadership projects and events that happen on campus. Lately I've been working on two other peoples projects: a hygiene drive for Northwest Medical Teams (I've been doing all the calling to local businesses pretty much sweet-talking donations out of them) and Project Page Turner, where they're having local grade schools come in for students at the college to read to them, and they get a free book. I've been doing PR for that one; my hands are covered in paint.

I get to work, where I can paint for hours, and nobody cares, because it's part of the job. I think I'm in love.

I am really enjoying it, and all the staff who works in there are fantastic. It's a lot more relaxed then where I was working before as well, I don't feel like I am just doing someone else's grunt work, I feel like I am actually doing something important. It's nice. Plus, it's all community service work, which just really floats my boat.

Sadder news, CCC has undergone major budget cuts because our Governor made a 32 some odd million mistake in the budget for community colleges and is only going to fix 3 million of it. This means that they've cut a ton of things from the college...all sports but men’s and women's basketball, a bunch of tutoring and literacy programs, and...the Early Childhood Education program.

Yeah, that's right. The cut the entire program. This means that all of the licensed providers will have a harder time getting their yearly trainings to keep their licenses because CCC is (besides...PST) the only place in the area offering classes that count. It means that people who are working in Head Start on the contingency that they'll have their degrees are going to lose their jobs. It means that the only place you can get associates in ECE is in Portland or Eugene now. It also means that they'll have to close the center they have on campus. It's a shame, and it affects more then just the college, it's a major blow to the community as well.

It came as a big shock; they just called everyone in and gave them their termination letters.

Since this bothered me (and I do need the degree, since it is one of my majors) I started working with the Student Reps on campus to try and convince the legislators to give us more money. So far I've been trying to do as much publicity on it as possible, and have students fill out cards they'll give to the legislators at the next meeting. There is a board meeting on Wednesday I'm going to, and then another one next month. I'm hoping that something positive will come around, and they won't have to close the program.

I should go in to the meeting tomorrow and toss myself down on the floor and wail, "Oh, won't someone think of the children??". Think it'll do any good?

HotD:

Mid-Term is due soon.

I really need to finish it,

But oh, the lazy.

I've written several long babbling type posts but just either keep losing them or walking away from them without posting. I have lots to talk about, and I shall do better in the future, I solemnly swear.

I landed a snazzy "A" on my Zoology mid-term that I was completely convinced I had gotten a "C" or worse on. I mean, I had brainwashed myself beyond a doubt that I had bombed it worse then any girl has bombed anything in the existence of forever. I'm not exaggerating, I wouldn't do that to you. Needless to say, I was shocked. I was shocked enough that I said something that could be interpreted as vaguely foul in front of my professor. Then when I told him I was sure it was going to be a "D" and he just laughed at me and told me he didn't think so. I'm not sure if that is good or bad, but hey...I got an "A"!

While we're on the subject of grades, what is with this +/- system thing. It drives me batty. My Zooprof doesn't do it, but one of my ECE professors do, and it's worthless. Worthless, I tell you. She doesn't even put points-out-of on your paper, just a grade and then a +/-. How am I supposed to keep track of my current grade in the class, when +/- can totally mess up your accumulative grade? It can. Just give me points! If the points are above 90% then I got an A. It's simple math, which is about all I can do anyway, so don't make it harder on me! An A is an A is an A. Don't hash it up inside the grade like a nit-picker, just let me get what I earned. Damnit.

Plus, it really bugs me to see "A-". It wasn't good enough for a full blown "A", it has to have a negative attached? Especially when I'm in a class about how to develop a healthy child by being positive and supportive structures in their lives. I don't know about the rest of you, but it certainly hurts my feelings and stagnates my intellectual growth when I'm given a minus. I'm sorry, but I just don't think I can do that paper right now, my insides are crying.

HotD:


Bottles are missing.
Where have they gotten off to?
Did you steal them all?

I'm throwing a dinner party tonight. It's my first in my new place. I'm currently making a chocolate cherry cake, which seems to be cooking faster then it should in my mutant stove that heats 600 degrees hotter then what you actually set it at. Not only that, but I came home the other day and the stove was on, and I hadn't turned it on for almost two days. This leads me to believe that not only is it alien controlled, it's also trying to kill me.

Ah! See! See what did I tell you? I put that cake in like 15 minutes ago and not only is it done, it burned the top of it. That sucker was supposed to cook for 35 minutes. Now I'm irate, irate people! Oh well, I have ice cream to cover up the burnededness.

I'm making BBQ pork spare ribs (it's a craving, I can't explain it. Usually I steer as far away from meat as I can, but I really like ribs) mashed potatoes and gravy, rolls, green beans with bacon, and cake. It's not elegant or anything, just yummy - albeit slightly messy - food with good company. It should be fun, I'm looking forward to it.

HotD:


Mutant, killer stove.
Ruined my pretty dessert.
Stupid burningness!

I've got three minutes until I need to start hoofing it to campus, and I don't want to go. So, I'm whining to myself. It's unpleasant. It's Friday. It's cold outside. It's raining and foggy and I'll get hit by a car. I don't wanna be road hash. My backpack is heavy. I want to skip. My roommate has skipped class for three weeks now. In fact, he should have been on campus a half hour ago and he is still in bed. Why can't I skip? Why is it I would be the one kicked out of all my classes? It's warm in here. It's cold out there. I want to go back to bed. I want to watch bad daytime TV all day long. Six back-to-back runnings of The Magic Bullet infomercial followed by Jerry Springer. That's stimulating television right there. Classes are stupid. I want. I want. I want...

Oh alright. I'll go. Damn being so responsible anyway. Have a good Friday!

Edit: Class was canceled. Isn't that how it goes?

HotD:


The weekend, hurrah!
This week was very long, yo.
Vacation time yet?