June, Leo, Quincy and Annie

Ugh. Maybe I should watch less Disney Channel. 'Cept I think the commercials are on all the channels. And I don't really watch Disney at all. But apparently there's some DVD called like Baby Einsteins, and the commercials for it drive me up the wall with annoyance and frustration. It's these four little cute cartoon kids. One likes to conduct, one likes to dance, one likes to sing, and one likes instruments. At the end of the commercial, the happy woman selling the dvd asks, "which baby einstein is YOUR child?"

I want to pull an elvis and shoot the screen out with a gun. Listen to me: not all children are geniuses. Not all geniuses are gifted in musical areas. Not all gifted people have such a focused strength in just one area. But really. Come on, people. Get over yourselves. Letting the TV babysit your kid isn't really the best way to nurture a young child, gifted or not. As Ian Holm's character in Chariots of Fire puts it, "you can't put in what God's left out." People expect children to become magically smarter if they listen to mozart. But there is WAY more that goes into a child's brain development than that. Music may stimulate the mind for a short period of time, but you can't play one song to a kid and then expect them to ace a history exam, or understand calculus. Learning takes work, folks, no matter whether you're Cameron Diaz or Albert Einstein or Joe Schmo. If you want to be smart, go out and study something. Be all that YOU can be, not all that someone else is (or was).

I am a Mouse Whore

No, mom, don't worry. It isn't anything morally wrong, I don't think. But really, I think I've got like five mice for my computer already, and I'm always on the lookout for another. Like seriously comparing features and prices and stuff. I've got one that's really tiny (REALLY tiny), with a retractable cord. I like that one for when I'm at school or somewhere where I can't really take a bunch of stuff with me, and can't use a whole lot of space up. It's portable, easy to use, and really cute. I've got a normal-sized mouse that I like to use at home. It's the closest thing I've got to a remote control for iTunes, being optical and wireless, so you can use it on any surface, like all the way across the room from my computer. Its usefulness is only limited by how far away I can be from my computer and still see the cursor. Also, the receiver is way too big, with like a three foot long cord. I've been seeing these newer mice that are smaller than my current wireless one, whose receivers are about the size of a thumb drive, and fit into the bottom of the mouse when not in use. That is what I really want. But I feel bad- I've almost purchased one several times, stopping short each time. I can't bring myself to buy something like that when I've already got several perfectly functional ones sitting at home. Plus, I just know that if I do buy one, the next week they'll come out with some amazing new one that is exactly what I want in a mouse and I'll have to buy that too, and I'll have an embarassingly large mouse graveyard in my desk drawer. Perhaps I should donate my extraneous mice to charity. But first I'll have to find one that is good for both traveling and staying at home, with all the features I've grown to love in all my other mice.

And, hooray! It's raining!

sigh.

you know that feeling where your plans for the evening fall through for the second night in a row, and you're looking all cute but have no one to show it to, so you decide to go shopping to make cupcakes, but you can't find those little paper umbrellas that you need for the cupcakes, so you spend an hour and a half looking for them at four different stores, finally find them, then come home and it's still only nine o'clock? that's how i feel right now.

Two reasons why ice skates are not to be trusted

Exhibit A: the blister from Hell. It's been almost a week, and it still hurts to walk on that foot.















Exhibit B: the bruise that is as big as my hand, and has since turned deep purple and green.




The rest of the night was just peachy, though. I had fun skating around, and I got pretty good at going fast without falling down. The only trouble with going fast is that if you don't know how to stop, you end up running into a wall at full speed. Which is what I did. Learn from my mistakes, children, and never, ever go skating in a place with walls. I vow not to go ice skating again till I'm in Canadia, where they can skate out in the open, and fall down onto the ground to stop. Or maybe I'll learn the real way to stop, and not have to fall down at all.

Today I'm packing up. Which is like, So Cool. Well, not really, because I'm packing up to move back to my parents' house for two weeks, but it's cool because it means I'm this close to leaving for school. Today begins my two-week preparation for the trip, and the year, and the rest of my life. I'm so excited that this whole exchange thing is actually happening, and that it's happening so soon I can smell it. But for now, I need to take a shower and finish boxing stuff up, so I'll be ready when my friend comes over with his truck to move stuff in a coupla hours. Maybe my next post will be a reflection on my few months in this apartment. Tune in next time to find out!

Bitter Much?

A certain roommate of mine is WAY better at the dvd game "Shout!" than I am. Perhaps I'd be better at it if I had actually seen a fair amount of movies, but I don't know. Probably not. Perhaps if I had been on her team, I would be rejoicing in this fact, rather than sullen and aggressive. As it is, we played Cranium later on tonight, and me and my teammate totally smoked the rest of the teams. Go us.