the RAWR blag

brb

So I had my first REAL date with Alan last night.  Let’s just say some of these actually happened.

1. Talk in depth about world of warcraft vs. guild wars with references to Runescape.
2. Offer, “We could go shop at Best Buy…” to which the response is, “but I’ve already been to that one today.”
3. Use “nooblet” as a term of endearment.
4. Offer to watch the new Dragonball movie.
5. Verbally say, “I less than three you.”
6. Wear an “I love nerds” hoodie.
7. Have their first kiss in a GameStop.
8. Offer to watch a movie on one’s iPod.
9. Make a reference to South Park.  The World of Warcraft episode of South Park.
10. Use MMORPG terms in romantic conversation.
11. Use the word noob more than 20 times.
12. Text each other.  On the date.
13. Speak in LOLcat.
14. Chide the other for not watching Cartoon Network.
15. Quote bash.org.
16. Have conversations on Vent.
17. Think that a raid/mish constitutes a date.

And more.

I’m a small person, but I still experienced post-spring-break poundage shock.  I gained approx. 10 pounds (ish) over spring break.  Not even kidding you.  So here are a few tips I’ve taken into my life to help me shed some of those pounds:

• Put food on your plate at meals, then eat it, and don’t get more.  If you can see how much you’re going to eat, it’s a lot easier to manage it.  Don’t go for second helpings.  If you think you’re going to want more mashed potatoes, put them on your plate in the first place, then scoop ‘em onto your dad’s plate if you don’t eat them all.  He’s a garbage disposal anyway.
• Identify why you’re hungry.  Sometimes we’re bored.  Sometimes we haven’t eaten lunch yet.  Sometimes we’re procrastinating.  It happens.  If you’re bored and you want to eat, try turning on some music instead.  If you’re procrastinating, give yourself a song’s worth (or 3 minutes) of playtime, then get back to work.  If you’re honestly hungry, eat something lo-cal.
• Identify what kind of food you want.  If you’re like me, you go to the pantry and grab every last thing that tastes good, then snarf them all up.  Think about whether you want something sweet or salty, then pick a lo-cal food that fits that category.
• Identify what kind of food you need.  Sleepy? Diet Mt. Dew.  Sleep-deprived?  Carbs.  Working too hard?  Protein.
• Follow the damned food guide pyramid.  You don’t need five servings of meat.  You DO need six servings of grain.  If you’re hungry, think about what you haven’t had to eat much of yet, and go get that.  At least your satisfying what your body needs when you snack.
• For God’s sake, forget about twinkies.  No good ever came about from eating a twinkie.
• Diet sodas.  Zero calories.  Much better for you.
• Take a multivitamin so you don’t have to worry about drinking fattening juices or eating piles of food in order to get your vitamins.
• Filtered water tastes really, really good.  Zero EVERYTHING.  If you’re just thirsty, go for water.
• Zero-calorie sweetener is better than sugar.
• Pop-tarts are NOT healthy.  But they taste damn good, so if you must, only eat one of the two that come in a package.
• If you have nothing to do on your break, go outside and run around until you fall down.  You’ve gotten enough exercise then.

see more Lolcats and funny pictures

Fun activity.  Yes.

At first I set out to only get seven trinkets.  I picked the seven I wanted, and then found them all: Courage, Compassion, Heart, Patience, Selflessness, Strength, and Humility.

Then I decided to try for them all because I’m a perfectionist and that’s what we do. The others were Discernment, Humor, Joy, Faith, Perseverance, Wisdom, Integrity, and Insight.  I succeeded.

Courage – The Crayon: The symbolism of this I’m not quite sure of, but for me I correlated it to kindergarten, back when everyone was courageous enough to share their crayons and ask for things from one another.  Crayons aren’t erasable, so it takes courage to color or draw knowing that if you make a mistake, it’s permanent.  Also writing take courage, and the only writing utensil small enough to fit in our bags was a crayon (or a golf pencil).  I wanted the courage to stand up for what is right and not back down even in the face of imprisonment or death.

Compassion – The Hand The symbolism of this one is pretty obvious, helping hands.  Klauser even said that when we picked one up.  I loved how compassion resided in the Buddha, since Buddha was known as the Compassionate.  It takes compassion to extend your hand to another.  This one was the first one I got, and the one I wanted the most because compassion is the force that drives my life.

Heart – The Heart Honestly, Haff, you couldn’t've come up with anything more creative?  Kidding.  The heart is the soul and core of my being, and compassion is the force that drives it.  The heart is the home of love and all emotions: sadness, happiness, fear, anger.  Emotions win out in a game against logic with me all the time.  I wanted heart so I could never stop giving.

Patience – The Thread Okay, this one is funny.  I got a purple bag, and attempted to get everything purple to go in it, but there was no purple thread.  I went home, unwound the pink thread, rewound it with purple.  That took patience.  The symbolism, I think, comes from the patience it takes to do needlework.  I wanted patience so I could work with people even when they disagree with me.

Selflessness – The Eraser Of course, put yourself at the back.  I NEEDED selflessness.  That’s the entire point of my life, is to live for and serve others.  It was the last of my first seven to get, but it was worth it.

Strength – Sand A few things came to mind with the sand: strength in numbers, rock made of sand is strong, and the endurance of a beach with the lapping tide.  I originally got plain sand–traded with Moriah for purple.  I wanted strength to withstand the road of trials ahead of me.

Humility – Incense Buddhism?  Monks are perhaps the most humble people I’ve met, next to Alan Mensel.  I wanted humility because it goes along with selflessness, compassion, heart, etc.  Humility is being able to put yourself lower than the people you serve.  Modesty.  Admitting you have succeeded, but not letting it get to your head.

Then:

Discernment – The Eye A “keen eye” he said.  This one required going back more than a couple times.  I want the discernment to make the right decisions, see what’s going on with people,  and learn where I am needed.

Humor – The Smile I figured humor would add some levity to what would be an otherwise very trying life.  I want to have the type of humor Emilio Sandoz does, allowing himself to be happy even whilst he is serving the very poor and broken.

Joy – The Sucker Joy is finding the little things in life (suckers) and being happy about them.  I also see it as finding God in everything.  I picked a mystery flavor because the wrapper was purple, and because I never know where I’m going to find little bits of joyful God around me.

Faith – The Star Perhaps this comes from back in the day when people would look up at the heavens and see their gods in the stars.  To me, faith is about doing what is right and working for justice in the world.  Faith is about questioning what you believe until you are that much more sure.  Faith is put in other people, that they will be good and have good intentions.

Perseverance – The Stone This one took me the longest to get.  I walked by and by Mr. Brown’s office a million times, it seems, and this was the last on I received.  That’s either ironic or fitting, one of the two.  I wanted perseverance for some of the same reasons I wanted patience and strength: to endure against the odds.

Wisdom – The Quote I chose the definition of “Forever”.  I see humanity as forever, one giant process “eithout the bonds of time”.  Not that we will be around forever, but life does not begin and end with birth and death as we sometimes presume.  It flows onward.  Also, I hope to find eternal love one day, and I devote myself to the service of others for always, without end.

Integrity – The Lightbulb It’s a pure white lightbulb, a source of brilliance where others may be dull.  A light is an inspiration, which I hope to be for others, to sacrifice, serve, and love as I do.

Insight – The Mirror Good one, Haffley.  I wanted the insight for the same reason I wanted the discernment: to make the right decisions, to read people but also to learn and grow from the inside out.  Insight is always within me, it simply takes a S.A. to help me find it.

Purple: The color of me.  I am purple and I associate purple with myself in the same way I associate the moon and the cat.  It’s just this thing I have.  Don’t question it.

Friends: Friends assisted my journey, acting as supernatural aids, themselves.  Friends are very much people I trust to help me and guide me as much as entertain me.  Most of my good friends helped me along this search at one point or another.

Sometimes even when a song reminds me of things I’d rather not think about, I love it.  Meet “But Tonight We Dance” by Rise Against.  Although this song meant something else to me at one point, it means something new when I listen to it today.  It reminds me of my last night with my roommate in the hospital, Deanna.  Although Deanna is three years younger than me, she’s been through twice as much as I have in her life.  Still, we found it possible to inspire each other and help each other get a new grip on life.  As I just had an argument with my mom earlier this morning about whether Deanna could come over to my house so we could see each other, she’s on my mind.  But in a way, Deanna’s always on my mind because of how I live my life now.  The last nighttime conversation we had was about life, God, and people.  She’s possibly one of the smartest 14-year-olds I’ve met.  I don’t even think of her as 14.  I think of us as the same age.  In some ways, I seem older, in other ways, she’s had more experience with life.  She’s beautiful, bright, and full of life despite her hardships.  Her faith is strong, and so is her will to live on.  She’s my non-traditional hero.

At one point I would’ve never said that I was a shoe girl.  I wore my chucks every day and that was all I needed.  While chucks are still the vanilla of my shoe wardrobe… I’m beginning to feel like Imelda Marcos.  Now, none of my shoes are expensive at all.  Most of them are from Payless, Rack Room, Goodwill… My “nice” pairs are from Kohl’s, and almost all of the shoes I’ve bought have been on sale or clearance.  I know how to keep my habit in check.  HOWEVER.  I have too many shoes.  There is literally not enough room in my closet in the “shoe” section for all my shoes.  I have heels and wedges and flipflops and chucks and flats and boots.  I love shoes.

Of course, I could extend this to all of my clearance and sale priced clothing.  I have so many Goodwill bags and Kohl’s clearance belts.  I have so many kooky things that I only wear occassionally but don’t feel bad about because they only cost a few dollars.  I have sweaters and tees and jackets and camis and so many clothes.  It’s a vice.

But my worst vice is shoes.  “Ooh shoes,” is a very common phrase when you’re out shopping with me.  Only outdone by “ooh shiny!”

I’m way too tired to blog tonight (not to mention I have nothing I wanna blog about).  See you in class tomorrow, Ms. H.

I’ll make it up later…

Okay, this game is incredibly frustrated and SO FREAKING COOL.  I want a real-life version of it.  Try it out.  Apparently most people on addictinggames hate it, but I think it’s pretty tight.  It’s not a very long-lasting game though.    See if you can figure out the easiest ways to build the pyramids!