42 + 2/3 hours till takeoff!

I'm tired and my feet hurt.  I still haven't started packing yet and I'm leaving muy pronto!  However, I have selected a suitcase.  See, I am not a complete procrastinator :) Cheesy smile.  Hehehehe.

Yesterday, I was forewarned about a problemo.  Certain hoitytoity hair straighteners are not supposed to be used with electrical converters.  I had a freakout moment when my ears received those sound waves.  My thought process went a little like this:  Holy carp!!  This cannot happen.  My straightener better be compatible!  However, since I didn't buy an expensive one it probably is one of those lame-o incompatible straighteners.  But I only use my hair straightener for a maximum of two minutes every day!  I don't want to buy a whole other hair straightener for three weeks!  But if I don't have a straightener with me in Spain my bangs won't look right and my fly-a-ways will indeed be flying away.

Then, to make matters worse I sustained 15 mosquito bites directly after hearing this news.  Ginormous mosquito bites.   They itchhhhhhhhh.  Badly.  But I digress.

On a happy note, I got colorful socks today :DDDD They're purrrty.  :)  But they don't make up for all the itchy bug bites.

Now, I'm worried about credit cards and foreign transaction fees and if the company will shut down my card if I try to buy something overseas.  We shall see.

I'm also really, really, really wanting to see my pretzel picture from Katherine's fantabulous shindig last night .  Like mucho.  Well, I suppose you've had your fill of my thoughts for today.  I shall bid you tah-tah now!

P.S. You'll be relieved to know that I do not need to buy another hair straightener. Yipeeeeeeeeeeeeeee!!!!!  All that unnecessary panic I endured.

¡Menos de cinco dias!

These last 24 hours have been a tad on the crazy side.  Last night half a tree just about fell on my house!  There was a severe thunderstorm --accompanied by a lot of wind-- and it split a tree which now hangs a couple inches above my roof.  Twas scary.

Then, it just kind of hit me today how close my departure to Spain is getting.  Sure I've gone shopping and purchased some dresses and Spain-esque clothing, but it was all for that far-off viaje.  I've also mentally drafted a to do list for the days before I leave.  Well, today while I was at the Spain trip party, it hit me.  Spain is less than five days away! I don't have anymore time to delay packing and familiarizing myself with the airport regulations. I need to get moving!

And get this: me and everyone else on this trip have to wear matching T-shirts!  It has a blaring yellow and red colored "España" plastered on the front of the shirt and "Lawrence North Wildcats" in slightly smaller print on the back.  We are all going to look so cute in matching shirts walking through the airport terminals, going through customs, sitting in one section of the plane, etc; you can feel my sarcastic annoyance. 

On top of this, when I was mowing the lawn today I got a huge chunk of skin peeled off my thumb.  Owie.  It's throbbing now as I type this :( 

Well, I need to sign off now and commence the packing.

¡Hasta luego!  

Web-party!

Advisory- Henceforth, this blog shall be redirected to another topic: Mi viaje a España!

I've sorta kinda neglected my blog.  I'm deeply sorry--I hope I don't abandon you on my trip to Spain.  We shall see how long my attention span lasts.  Any bets on how long it'll last?

Anywho, I would just like to have a private celebratory web-party!  In nine days time, I'll set sail for España!  I have a lot to be happy about. 

Firstly, I have young host parents!  I was sightly worried about the age factor since I've heard through the foreign exchange grape vine that old host parents are boring and not very nice.

Secondly, I'll be able to fall asleep listening to the sound of waves--possibly.  I'm not quite sure if the sound waves will travel a mile inland, but if not I'll be just out of hearing distance.  Not a bad deal at all!  Plus, the weather in Malaga is awesome!!  Today it is a fantabulous 75 degrees Fahrenheit and I'm looking forward to more sunny days just like today when I go to Spain!!

Thirdly, I'm going to room with someone from France!  Plus, I'll be able to associate myself with people from Sweden, Portugal, Italy, France, Russia, etc. at the school I'm attending.  There are going to be boatloads of people from all over the place!  Tis super exciting!   
  
As you can see, everything is looking just peachy!  The only damper on my parade is that I'm taking the SAT this Saturday :(  But it is a slight damper.  Very minute.

Well as the French say:

A plus tard!

Religion intolerance and ethnocentrism

 Intolerance is everywhere.  Even when we aren't intolerant, we are still ethnocentric.  I find this to be especially true in religion.

As part of my Theory of Knowledge homework we had to do this quiz (http://www.beliefnet.com/Entertainment/Quizzes/BeliefOMatic.aspx).  This quiz takes your answer on religion and spits out a list of religions that are close to your answers.  When I did the quiz I was surprised by how many religions that I figured were way different than mine were actually similar.  Now, before I tell you my results, I challenge you to take this short quiz!

So I was given a list of 27 religions, ranked in order of percentage, based on my answers.  Here they are:

1.	Mainline to Liberal Christian Protestants (100%)
2.	Liberal Quakers (90%)
3.	Orthodox Quaker (88%)
4.	Reform Judaism (88%)
5.	Baha'i Faith (88%)
6.	Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints (Mormons) (86%)
7.	Unitarian Universalism (79%)
8.	Islam (77%)
9.	Orthodox Judaism (77%)
10.	Jehovah's Witness (74%)
11.	Mainline to Conservative Christian/Protestant (72%)
12.	Sikhism (68%)
13.	Mahayana Buddhism (64%)
14.	Theravada Buddhism (63%)
15.	Neo-Pagan (62%)
16.	Christian Science (Church of Christ, Scientist) (60%)
17.	New Age (57%)
18.	Secular Humanism (55%)
19.	Seventh Day Adventist (52%)
20.	Jainism (51%)
21.	Eastern Orthodox (50%)
22.	Roman Catholic (50%)
23.	Scientology (49%)
24.	New Thought (46%)
25.	Taoism (45%)
26.	Hinduism (32%)
27.	Nontheist (31%)

There are a lot of religions I've never heard of on this list.  I must go investigate.  How about your list?  Did it surprise you?  Comment below!

The I-don't-have-any-money syndrome

The I-don't-have-any-money syndrome is something I've called an annoying habit most of us do at some point or another in our lives.  None of my friends complain about not having any money to spend on stuff, but that doesn't mean they don't have the I-don't-have-any-money syndrome. 

To have this syndrome one must either say they don't have any money to spend, joke about being broke, or just whine about their current financial affairs.  Then, they must go spend money on something stupid or on something absurdly expensive.

I get really annoyed when people talk about their financial problems and then go buy some five dollar drink.  Here's something that has happened to my mom:  She and her best friend (who was several thousand dollars in debt) went shopping and every time they went to a store, my mom's friend kept pressuring my mom to buy something.  Even though my mom didn't end up buying anything, her friend bought stuff at all these stores.  And it was stuff she didn't really need!

This is what people need to cut back on!  People waste money all the time and don't even seem to realize it!  Never feel pressured to spend money every time you leave the house.  Try to go for the water instead of buying that two dollar pop or expensive coffee.  Don't shop for brand names; the clearance rack really isn't all that bad.  Also, cut back on how much food you buy at the movie theater; it's way overpriced.  (What I do is I buy some candy across the street and then sneak it into the movie theater and that way I save a couple bucks!) 

Just by saving a few dollars everyday, you can dramatically increase the money left in your wallet at the end of the week.  Make sure you set aside this saved money and put it into a savings account.  You never know when there will be a need for it.

Get rid of that I-don't-have-any-money syndrome and start saving! Don't forget to vote in the polls!

Are Roman numerals really useful?

Like many Americans yesterday, I watched the Superbowl.  Well, actually I watched the last two minutes of the second quarter and half time.  In those 15 minutes that I was watching, which by the way I wish I could get back, I saw that it was indeed the 45th Superbowl.

Hip-hip-hooray!  No, that is not what originally went through my mind.   Instead it was, "Why do they have to use the Roman numerals XLV instead of the normal number system currently in use today?".  I mean, we already have our own number system, so why do we use an out-dated number system? 

When I raised my concerns, I was told "It looks fancier."  Lame-o.  It is actually a bit confusing with these seemingly random letters that represent certain numbers.  Then, add in the subtraction notation (IV instead of IIII) and this additional number system that is present in everything from books to sporting events games, becomes even trickier.

Did you know I had a test over Roman numerals in my Geography class last year?  Double lame-o, but it was an easy grade :)  My question is: Why memorize two number systems?

Here's a little tidbit I heard from my Theory of Knowledge teacher today.  Somewhere in this world, (she couldn't remember where), there is a tribe that doesn't have specific word/symbols for numbers!  Doesn't that seem odd?  Immediately, we all askourselves (or we did in our Theory of Knowledge class) "How do they function without concise words/symbols for numbers?"  Apparently, the tribe has a word for one or so and a word for a couple.  From what my teacher said, it didn't sound like any of the words or symbols they used were specific; they were only used as approximations!  I would very much like to observe how they order things.  My imaginative psyche is already making up random situations with this interesting number system: "Yes, I'd like one or so of that shoe."   

Doesn't that blow your mind?!  The pleasure of being a human being!  What's going on in your mind?  Comment below and don't forget to vote in the polls!    

 

What do we read books for?

I was reading the book La vida de Lazarillo de Tormes y de sus fortunas y adversidades when I happened across a good quote.  Here is an English translation: "The point is that nothing should be destroyed or thrown away unless it is really detestable; instead, it should be shown to everyone, especially if if won't do any harm and they might get some good out of it."

That being said, why do you read?  As I read this quote, the blinders on the sides of my head vanished ~to some degree anyway.  I read all the time.  I've finished every single book I've ever started (except for The Kite Runner).  I was so traumatized by that book that I couldn't read it anymore.  I'm getting shivers just writing the title of that book down (No offense to the author; he writes very well.  I just can't handle those types of books.)

That means that I've stuck with the bad books as well as the good books.  You know the only reason I ever finished this one book that was excruciatingly boring was because I had high hopes that the characters I liked would actually do something half way interesting.  That was not the case.  As I got closer to the end of the book, I kept telling myself, "Here's were it's going to happen!" or "This is it!".  Then when I finally read the last sentence of the entire book, I couldn't believe that the book had a plot, good characters, but it left me feeling like nothing had happened.  Then, I wondered how could this book get published!  But maybe people besides me actually liked the book.

Quick philosophy note: What is a bad book?  Is there really such a thing?  How can you define this in specific terms besides a vague definition like:  it leaves the reader with a disagreeable taste in their mouth. 

I'm not a hard reader to please~AT ALL!  I can honestly say that besides the gruesome books I've been forced to read in school (which all have stolen a little peace of my heart even if they are scary and a tad bit evil) that aforementioned boring book is the only book I've ever read that I still harbor dislike for.

I really value the characters in books.  They are what attract all readers to a story.  When you read do you attach yourself to your favorite character?  This brings up the Twilight series and the whole team Edward and team Jacob thing.  Do you find yourself doing something like that?  I don't.  I mean, I like all the characters in books.  The only time I really have favorites is when it's for moral purposes (mostly when it's the good people versus the evil people).  So I'm inclined to believe good characters make great stories, but they aren't the aspect that really makes me like books.

I don't analyze books at all.  I'm quite horrible doing this in school,  let alone doing it on the books I like to read for pleasure.  So maybe it's something in my subconscious that judges the book.  I don't have a clue.

I know for a fact that I love books with super tricky plots.  I love long books!  This is another factor.  Maybe it's just the plot that really attracts me to certain stories.  What do you think?

I've also read that we all read books to learn things.  When we read a book, we search for a lesson.  I don't think that's really true for me.  I recognize lessons as I read, but I don't think that's what's driving me to read.

I mainly read fiction, I love made up circumstances, planets, anything!  I like to stretch my brain!  Maybe that's a key factor in how I determine the good books.  Perhaps, I like certain books because my curiosity is in high-gear, but that's just another theory.

In the end, I don't really know what to think.  I know some of you are probably saying "It's a combination of elements, not just one aspect that makes me want to read a book", sure I believe that.  But what aspect really makes the book great?