Inspired

I have decided to teach myself to play the piano. I've always wanted to play. I love listening to piano music and I've always envied people who could play. I don't think it ever occurred to my parents to have me learn it.

My grandmother had a piano when I was younger, but I don't ever remember her playing it much. She offered to give it to my mom when she decided to get rid of it, but we lived out of state so there was the problem of transporting it, and then where would we put it, and would any of us ever play it, etc etc. So she sold the piano to some acquantaince of hers. The lack of access to a piano has been my most major stopping point.

At some point Meredith got a small (cheap) keyboard, which would have been good enough to learn on, but Mere and I have never been big on sharing with each other and it didn't really occur to me to teach myself at the time.

I have a few advantages going into this undertaking. I have almost abnormally long, thin fingers for a person of my size. As in, during geometry when we did a project on the proportionality of the human body, the proportions of my fingers/hands were ridiculously off, to the point that we re-measured them. Also, in sixth grade when we were all picking instruments, my band director begged me to play the bassoon because I was one of the few kids whose fingers were long enough to reach all the keys. (This did not happen because a) I hate the bassoon and b) my mom forbade me from playing any instrument larger than I was).

I also have a strong background in music. I've been playing saxophone for 8 years now (omg) and have had courses in music theory. I'm not terribly good with chords, which will be an issue, but we'll cross that bridge later. Not having to teach myself to read music is a huge advantage because it's not easy to teach music theory to yourself. If you already know what a key is, how to read notes, rhythms, and the basics, you can learn an instrument much more quickly. It's like if you speak english, and were going to learn a new language, it would be a lot easier for you to learn French than Russian because at least with French you would already know the alphabet.

There is of course the problem of me being 19. Most people start piano as kids. Most people also have a teacher and take lessons. I am teaching myself in my spare time.

But I really really really really want to play piano, so I went to the library today and checked out three beginner piano books (Modern Method for Keyboard: Volume 1, Recital Classics for Beginner Level Players, and the Hannah-Barbara Songbook). The first book is my lesson book. It's what's actually teaching me to play. I did lesson one and two today because lesson one is like "this is a whole note". There was no playing involved so I skipped it. I think I'll stay on lesson two for a few days until I can do it all without making any mistakes. The other two books are pieces that I can practice with, once I learn a little more. I think after lesson two I should be able to do the easier pieces. I'm so excited about the Hannah-Barbara book: all the best cartoon theme songs, including Flinstones, Jetsons, Scooby-Doo, and Johnny Quest. That book's significantly harder though so those may take some time.

But, wait, you say! You spent all that time saying you just never had access to a piano! Where did you get a piano? Well I have this wonderful thing called a roommate. Sam brought her keyboard from home (much better than Mere's) and we keep it beneath the futon. So I have that for everyday practice. There's also a keyboard in the common room, but I don't want to embarrass myself so I'm only going to use that as necessary. And if I feel like walking down to the music hall, there's a gazillion practice rooms in the basement.

So there you have it. I'm going to learn to play the piano.

Not feeling inspired.

not feeling inspired at all today. I had a bad day, but not the sort of complete abomination that is as fascinating as it is depressing. No I just had a bad day.

There were good things. I and my chem buddy Lindsay each had a piece of chocolate just before the start of organic. I felt it necessary to bring us each a piece from my stash. My lab was not as long as it would have been if we had done experiment 5, but we did the much shorter experiment six. I've gotten quite a bit of homework done so far. I got a peanut butter and jelly bagel sandwich for lunch from einstein. With chocolate milk of course.

But then there were so many bad things. I did horribly on my vector calc quiz. I spilled over half my product onto my lab manual, which now smells strongly of 9,10-dihydroanthracene-9,10-alpha, beta-succinic acid anhydride. I still have quite a bit of work to go. There was no american idol tonight. And I missed the farmer's market, which I always look forward to, because I had class the entire time it was going on. Maybe next month they'll have it on a wednesday.

So as you can see my day was very disappointing and dismal, but hardly astonishing. So I apologize that I really don't feel inspired at all, and can't blog about something interesting and captivating.

This will be the last note until the inspiration fairy returns to the desk of

Jackie

Thoughts about Oscar

I'm watching the Academy Awards tonight, and I'd like to share my thoughts.

I will not be commenting on who won what, or who I think should've won, or which movies I liked best, or which stars I wish hadn't been announcing.

Instead I will be commenting on a rather different, and slightly different matter: the fact that I have not seen most of the movies being awarded.

Slum dog millionaire: haven't seen it. probably should, it's being given so many awards. all my friends are giving it rave reviews. the problem is, I already know what happens. I know the story, the plot, parts of the beginning, most of the middle, and all of the end. I hate watching movies for the first time if I already know the plot. I can easily watch movies I've seen before and it doesn't bother me that I already know what happens. It only bothers me when it's a "new" movie, at least new for me.

Dark Knight: seen it, loved it. very much worth all the acclaim. heath ledger is amazing, best supporting actor.

Wanted: like it more than many other people. some of my friends called it predictable, but I really was taken a bit by surprise with a few twists. there were some undeniably cliche (sorry I don't know how to do the accent on here) moments.

wall e: wanted to see it. really. but then everyone told me that it was weird, so I didn't go.

kung fu panda: never considered seeing it. I'm not a jack black fan. except for his role in The Holiday. that was good. (that was jack black right? if not then scratch anything about liking jack black).

frost/nixon: kind of wanted to see it, but never got the chance.

the curious case of benjamin button: I don't like this movie. It was not deep, thought-provoking, or moving. it was not worth the time. at all. the story is ridiculous, the actors wore poorly cast and lacked chemistry, and the "special effects" were not really all that special. Im glad it didn't get very many of the oscars it was nominated for. also don't like brad pitt.

doubt: not sure if I want to see this or not. I don't know anyone whose taste in movies I trust who has seen it. the verdict is still out. may watch simply because of meryl streep.

valkyrie: I love this movie. I saw it with my dad and sister. So historically accurate, very moving. Excellent plot, even though you know the eventual outcome. not mentioned at all. possibly not in these oscars?

rachel getting married: not an anne hathaway fan. liked the princess diaries (just the first one) and devil wears prada, but nothing else. and those are rather in spite of her.

the reader: had never heard of it until today. kate winslet is amazing though, best leading actress 2008.

the duchess: I really really really want to see this. Just haven't had the opportunity.

the changeling: too weird for me. won't watch it.

Milk: won lots of things, including best lead actor. have no idea what it's about (something to do with gays) and hadn't heard of it before today. not sure if i want to see it.

So there you have it. What Oscar watches and what Jackie mostly doesn't. Why is it that so many of these I haven't heard of? Am I just not watching the right tv channels to see the commercials for these or what?

Cantwell Family Story

Apparently my family has some extremely funny stories, so I decided to share one of them with you. Some I actually remember, others have simply been told to me enough times that I know them by heart. This is the story of Jurassic Park, which falls under the latter category.

I was about three years old at the time. My parents had decided that they wanted to go to the drive-in movie theater. It was a double feature that night; the first movie was a mundane romatnic comedy that would be perfectly fine for a three-year-old to see. No problems there at all. Since the first movie started at about 7, they assumed that I would have long since fallen asleep by the start of the second movie, Jurassic Park. Once asleep I am quite a sound sleeper, and my parents used to joke that I could sleep through a bomb going off beneath my crib. My sister is the complete opposite, which is really funny because she tends to be a louder person in general. Anyway, my parents felt quite safe in taking me to see Jurassic Park, resting assured that I would sleep through it. Little did they know. I did not sleep through Jurassic Park. I did not doze off for even one minute. I also apparently enjoyed every minute of it, and contributed to the general amusement of several cars around us. You see, I was rooting for the dinosaurs. Throughout the latter half of the movie, at age three, I was yelling, "Get em' gators, get em'!" I suppose a velociraptor does look a bit like a swamp monster, if you squint. Needless to say my parents learned their lesson.

I never have been able to sleep through a movie.

No longer rooting for the gators from the desk of

Jackie

College Wisdom

Some choice bits of college wisdom:

1) Cycling is harder than it looks. Approach cycling classes with caution.

2) Expecting anything other than a last minute notice of a french club meeting is silly.

3) Dressing appropriately for the weather is an accomplishment, especially if you don't have a mom standing there telling you it's going to be cold and windy today.

4) Money can't buy you happiness, but it can buy a reese's cup and a pineapple paradise smoothie, which will give happiness.

5) The television is always more distracting when you have better things to do.

6) Fish don't feed themselves.

7) At IHOP every number is lucky. Just ask the lady giving the call numbers.

8) Naps are good for you.

9) Hot showers are God's way of paying you back for good karma.

10) Friends are those people who will listen to you whine about your day even if theirs was a thousand times worse.

The desk has spoken

So I'm giving up on the story. I wasn't really going anywhere with it anyway; I hadn't given it that much thought yet. Sorry to disappoint, I had planned on just wrapping the thing up for you but...well the desk has spoken on the matter.

My desk is nothing in the way of cute, inspiring, or really even practical, but it gets the job done. It happens to be a rather used desk, probably dating from about 10 to 15 years ago, and having had a rather large number of people use rather mercilessly it is aging a bit prematurely. So who can really blame it for being a little cantankerous? After all, it's not exactly in it's prime condition...

Anyway when I sat down to start part 4 (and I assure I had no idea what I was going to write) all of the books on my shelf fell over. They tend to do that alot; I really ought to get a book end of some kind. However they fell over in the other direction, opposite of their normal shift. This I took as a sign that the desk was displeased.

The desk has spoken. So it shall be written, so it shall be done. The dog story is over.

Dogsitting (Part 3)

If you haven't read the first two parts, go do so. No seriously.

_________________________________________________________

The sun somehow managed to come in full blast through the curtain-less windows despite their dirty coating. Josh glanced at the clock: only ten til six. He groaned and rolled over, pulling the covers over his head. He could not have spent a more uncomfortable night. The matress was hard and lumpy, the room was hot, and the covers smelled like dog breath. Even now he felt uncomfortable. His feet felt pinned down beneath the heavy blanket. As if someone were pressing on them. Someone with paws.

As he looked up into the face of Charlie, there was a sudden general concurrance that getting on the bed was the best way to wake him up. Josh was pinned beneath the weight of the four dogs.

"Fine lay on me. See how much good it will do you. I'm not getting up. I don't have to obey you."

This was answered in a simple, curt, and extremely effective response: Max bit his leg. Hard. Screaming with pain, Josh bolted from the bed. He stared in shock as the dogs raced downstairs to breakfast.

"Un-fucking-believable." Grumbling as he filled their dishes one by one, Josh turned to see his grandfather on the stairs.

"What, not dressed yet? Hurry up, you'll need to start their walks soon before it gets too hot." Before Josh could even whine the old man was back up the stairs and out of sight. The dogs looked back at him with interest and bemusement as if saying, "Yeah Hurry up!"

It was almost ten when he finished taking Max on his walk. Max was always last because he needed the most attention. As Josh filled two plastic baby pools with water, his great grandfather came out of the house with paint buckets.

"What are those for?" Josh asked stupidly.

"Didn't you read that list? You're painting the house and washing the windows today. Now don't give me that look, I don't expect you to finish today. But you should try to get at least one coat up."

"What are you going to be doing?"

"Drinking lemonade and distracting the dogs. Give that second one a bit more water; it's almost 85 degrees out here."

"Tell me about it."

Dogsitting (Part 2)

Sorry for the long break but I just wasn't inspired for a couple of days and then yesterday was my birthday and well, anyway, here's the second part.

________________________________________________________

Josh threw his duffel on the bed of the room he had been pushed into by Beauregard. The dog was almost human; Josh half-believed it was the dog telling him to hurry up. But no, it was his great-grandfather calling up the stairs,

"How long does it take to put a bag in a room? Get down here; I have to teach you how to feed the dogs!" At this Beauregard bolted from the room. The entire house seemed to rumble with the sounds of the dogs running towards their dinner. Sighing, Josh started back down stairs and muttered to himself, "How hard could it be to feed some dogs? He must think I'm an idiot."

"Here we are; this section of the basement is the dogs'. The part through the door over there is storage. That's also where the furnace and the electric box are in case you ever need to know, " the elderly gentleman led him down a rickety set of stairs into a dark concrete basement. He led him over to some cabinets in the corner and flicked on a desk lamp. Pointing, "This is where I keep their food. Feed Beauregard first or he'll take the other's food. Take the ground beef the minifridge and scoop out two cups of it. Come on now don't be shy. Then add a scoop of potato skins, a scoop of the carrots and peas, and a half-scoop of plain yogurt. And don't mix up the scoops. Put it in the microwave for five minutes, then let it cool for a minute before putting it in his bowl; it's the high one. Don't ever put his in one of the others because he'll eat to fast and choke. "

"Now while you've got that going, give Charlie and Miss Daisy theirs. You have to feed them at the same time or they'll bicker about it. They get the Iams, two scoops for dinner. Then Charlie has this sauce on his, just a squirt. Miss Daisy gets a half scoop of the plain yogurt and a carrot. Now you have to be sure to put them in the right bowls or they'll bicker. Charlie is teal and Miss Daisy is pink. The puppy here has to eat last or the bigger dogs will steal it from him. His is a scoop and a half of the bil jac puppy chow and one of these vitamins at dinner. He doesn't get a vitamin at breakfast; don't let him trick you tomorrow morning. It's really not hard to feed these guys. They don't take long to eat; just make sure their water bowls are full and wash out Beau's bowl when he's done. The sink's by the washing machine."

Josh felt like he'd been hit in the face. Talk about high maintenance dogs.
"Do the dogs always eat at four?"

"Oh yes. They won't let you wait much longer than that. They love their food and they won't let you forget. They'll wake you up for breakfast too."

"What time's that?" Josh was almost scared to know.

"Six." Josh almost laughed. Of course it was at six am. We wouldn't want to keep the doggies waiting would we?

"Now I'm just going to go over their bedtime routine while we're down here."

"Bedtime routine?"

"Yeah, there's just a few things you should know. They usually go to bed around 8:30. Beauregard sleeps on the race car bed; he likes you to put that red blanket over him once he lays down. Charlie and Miss Daisy sleep in that disney princess tent. He's very protective of her so don't ever try to go in there if they're down here. They have a bunch of pillows in there and that's really all they need. For Max put him in the play pen he'll lay down soon enough. Don't let him take toys in there with him. Just make sure he has his bed, his water bowl should be full, and he needs a fresh potty mat every night. He's just about trained; I just don't want to risk it until he's a little older. That's all you really need to know about that. Any questions?" his great-grandfather looked up from the dogs. Josh shook his head. "Good. Why don't you go ahead and get started on that list I gave you? The lawn mower is in the garage. I don't really care whether you do the front or the back first, but when you do the back you might need to scoop it first. It's probably been a few days."

With this image in mind, Josh went in search of the lawn mower, a shovel, and a garbage bag.

Dogsitting (Part 1)

I will be starting a story as my new series. Please read the parts in order; it really won't make sense otherwise.

____________________________________________________________

"Josh, don't give me that look. You got yourself into this mess. You screwed up and now you're being punished. Besides, you hardly know your great-grandfather. This will be good for you," Mrs. Dirds reproached her son.

"Whatever. I just want to get this over with."

"I will be back in two weeks. Tell Great-Grandpa we send him love!" Josh slammed the door of the car and trudged up to the front door of the old victorian mansion. He looked for a doorbell, but upon not finding one, knocked, exasperated. His knock was answered after the third time by a middle aged maid with red hair.

"Thank god you're here. I'm going on vacation for the first time in four years; I'm going to see my niece in Florida," she pulled a suitcase behind her as she walked out the door, "Mr. Henderson is in the study, first door on the left. Good fucking luck kid." She pulled a pack of cigarettes out of the pocket of her oversized sweater as she slid into a beat-up gray van. Sighing, Josh entered the house; the moment he closed the door behind him, he was thrown to the floor. A giant German Shephard was on top of him, sniffing him over, while a small golden retriever investigated the pockets of his coat. As he slowly sat up, he felt his left shoe being pulled away from his foot in quick short tugs. Before he could even recover his senses, a small black dog was running off down the hall with his shoe.

"Hey! Come back with that!" he started to run after the dog, but he heard a hoarse, but commanding voice call,

"Joshua? I'm in here!" Groaning, Josh opened the door to the study. It wasn't a large room, but it made its impact. The walls were a dark red and covered with shelves of books. The light filtering in through the grimy windows fell on rich mahogany floors. His great-grandfather was seated in a large chair by a fireplace stroking the head of a stately, as well as enormous, gray speckled Great Dane. Mr. Henderson was a fragile looking man; it was obvious his health was not what it used to be. However, his clothes were sharp, his hair was combed perfectly, and his eyes portrayed strength and pride. "Come closer. And stop slouching."

Josh stepped forward into the room, automatically straightening his posture. The dogs pushed their way in. Mr. Henderson snapped his fingers and the dogs quickly sat at his feet. Looking around, he asked sharply, "Where's the puppy?" Looking over his grandson, he added, "And where's your left shoe? Or are you kids only wearing the right ones now?" The Great Dane let out a deep and ominous bark. Within minutes, a black labroador puppy skidded into the room, pulling the shoe along by the laces. He took his place by the other dogs.

"Here you go. Keep your laces tight, or he'll steal them both next time," his great-grandfather tossed the shoe with disgust, "And comb your hair before dinner. That mop needs a haircut too. Well, we'll get to all that in a minute. I am your great-grandfather. You may call me Sir. These are the dogs. Beauregard is the great dane, Charlie is the german shepard, and the little golden is Miss Daisy. The puppy here is Max. Follow my orders to the T concerning them, or I assure you they will make you regret being born. You will learn the protocol soon enough; there's really not that much to know. Oh, and I've written up a list of things for you to do over the next two weeks," he handed him a typed list from a side table. Josh's eyes widened in horror.

"I have to do all...all of this...in one week?" Josh stammered.

"Yes, of course," and the old man's face lit up with a grim smile, "And you will, or I will make you stay here until you do."

"That's not fair! We had a deal! Two weeks, that's it, remember?"

"I don't make deals with terrorists."

"I'm not a terrorist! I got drunk at a party!"

"Same thing." Josh stared at the old man, who looked pleased with himself.

"Welcome to hell sonny."

SCHC 366Q (Part 2)

I suppose one of the benefits of creating your own class, as a professor, is that there are no real expectations for what you should be giving your students as an assignment. My professor chose to make us his own personal work force, because after all we are free labor.

Our assignment this week is to put up posters for the play he's working on. To be fair, we have been reading and discussing it in class, and generally working with it. Because I don't have a car, I was given the task of putting up the posters at the locations in Five Points. Five Points is within walking distance and is therefore much better for me than the other off-campus locations. It was a ton of walking though.

I was given a list of 20 businesses and 20 posters by a man named Kevin in the theater building. I had never been in the theater building before, by the way. Interesting enough experience. It smells like potpourri in there.

Anyway, I don't spend much time in five points; I could probably count out the number of times I've been there actually. So I really don't know my way around there very well. I just started walking down the streets and I came across most of them pretty readily. A few took me a little longer. Many of them just took the poster from me, but others let me tape it up myself. The ones I taped up will probably stay there until someone replaces it with another one. The others...who knows if they'll ever go up. But I can say I delivered them.

I have four left. Two of the places I couldn't find, one wasn't open, and one had only one worker who refused to talk to me; he didn't really speak english and was insistant that I talk to his manager who wasn't there. I don't think I'm going to try again there. I think I'll just ask another business; almost all the businesses in Five Points have posters all over the place.

The wonderful outcome of this little adventure was really three things. I got to spend time outdoors, and the weather has been divine for three days now. I hope it continues. I also got in quite a bit of walking, which I count as exercise. If it burns a significant amount of calories, it counts as exercise. I walked for around an hour straight. Works for me. Finally, and most importantly, I now know much more about the shops and restaurants in five points. There are some really cute places down there which I will definitely investigate more in the future. Plus, there's a place called College Mart which intrigued me and I really wanted to go in and see what they sold and if they had good prices, but I was really hungry and tired. So I went back to Russell House instead.

Typing tiredly from the desk of

Jackie

PS. I'm stopping this series. Not very fun. Look for the new series!

SCHC 366Q (Part 1)

Those of you who read my blog know that I take an honors course having to do with the theater in order to satisfy my fine arts requirement. This course is called SCHC 366Q.

The class is all about taking a play from the written word to the actual theatrical production. Very interesting, most of the time. Far more interesting is my professor.

My professor is named Robert Bourne. But he calls himself Robert Richmond. Why does he have two names? We may never know, as he didn't seem very inclined to tell us himself.

He is british, from somewhere on the coast towards France. At any rate, he definitely mentioned being from a seaside town. Because he had to explain to some people what a boardwalk is.

From what I can tell, he has two different looks. Mondays and Wednesdays he comes in a nice button-down shirt with nice slacks, a long overcoat, and a fedora, of which he has several. There is almost always a silk hankercheif tucked into his coat pocket as well. Fridays he wears casual slacks, sneakers, a hoodie which he doesn't remove, and a baseball cap which he does. He is also bald, which may be the reason for the hats.

He does not care about offending people, generally speaking. Curse words are a natural part of his vocabulary. You get used to it after a while. He doesn't mind making lewd jokes from time to time, assuming they are related to the topic of conversation.

He is obviously well-qualified for his job; he has directed a multitude of plays, many of which have been in New York City. His directing is also very innovative. For instance, he is putting on The Skin of Our Teeth in a few weeks and the entire first act will be in black and white. Yes, a live play will be in black and white. How do you pull that off? Well one of our assignments was to think about that and come up with ideas.

Think of him what you will, he is a theater professor, and that alone qualifies him to be very interesting. Pondering things from the desk of

Jackie

We Interrupt this Broadcast for the Letter:

H. A lovely letter all things considered. It is the eighth letter of the latin alphabet and the tenth letter of the Romanian alphabet. Either way it is proceded by G and followed by I.

The Brits, Canadians, and Americans all pronounce it "aitch". More or less anyway. The francophones don't pronounce at all, 90% of the time.

It comes from the Egyptian heiroglyph fence, which over time shortened to only one horizontal bar between two longer vertical bars. The Greek called this letter eta.

In binary, the capital letter H is 01001000.

The NATO phonetic alphabet for H is Hotel.

H is the symbol for Hydrogen.

H is also the military designation for helicopters.

H has been the title of a Korean film, a French tv series, and a song by Tool. Never heard of any of them.

H is also the Planck constant, 6.626 times 10 to the -34.

The CIA World Factbook lists 7 countries under the letter H: Haiti, Heard Island and McDonald Islands, Holy See (Vatican City), Honduras, Hong Kong, Howland Island, and Hungary.

England had 8 King Henry's, and France has had 4.

Good Hs: horses, homes, hens, Hawaii, honey, hippies, hope, happiness, hugging, help, honor

Not so good Hs: hornets, hockey, hillbillies, hell, hogs, hippies, hitting, hoarding, hackers

Girl H names include: Hayley (in a variety of spellings), Hannah, Harmony, Harriet, Heidi, Helen, Heather, Hillary, Holly, Hope

Boy H names include: Harry, Harold, Harvey, Hayden (multitude of spellings), Heath, Hector, Henry, Herbert, Howard, Humphrey, Hunter

Hope you have a happy hour honoring the letter H! Handling the alphabet with care from the desk of

Jackie

PS. The series SCHC 366Q will begin this afternoon.

A Post about Posting

Yes, yes, I realize I posted less than five minutes ago, but this will sort of make up for my absense of almost a week a few days ago.

I have not been a serious blogger for very long. Oh sure, everyone gets one in middle school, realizes they have nothing to say, and forgets about it a month later. This is really my first serious attempt at a true blog. I have two followers, I don't know either of them, I'm fairly certain they don't actually read my blog, and that's kind of depressing. On the other hand, I have not given anyone very much time to find and become interested in my blog. I have a totally of 127 visitors to date, which is almost 4 a day, which is good.

What I'm getting at is that I'm fairly certain very few to zero people read my blog. It's ok, I'm fine with that (for now). I understand that I'm not offering anything special here. My blog is not in a foreign language, although I do speak french. I do not discuss any experiences in a foreign country, although I will this summer. Watch out France, Here I Come! is a series which will begin in late May. This series will become Allo from France starting May 29 and ending July 3rd. For anyone who cares.

Back to my topic, I'm not sharing any awesome photography or amazing revelations about art, literature, or culture. I'm a science kid. I'm also only a freshman in college. So I don't have any stories of super human motherly powers saving a soccer jersey from total ruin, I don't have cute pet stories (fish don't do much), and I don't know anyone with cancer (but I do know a girl who had brain surgery when she was like 12). I also can't share any fascinating new scientific discoveries. I'm only a freshman after all, even if I am in Honors Organic Chemistry II.

So I don't really have a niche. I just write about whatever comes to mind. That's not really rare on the internet.

So from now on I will be working in series. This will give my topics a bit more of a baseline for people to follow. I will also be adding pictures to all my posts from now on. All the cool Blogs of Note do it. And I will be adding a random tidbit of information.

Today's Picture at the top of the screen is of a type of orchid called Lady's Slippers, because they look like little fairy shoes. Picture taken during our family vacation to Canada this past summer.

Today's Random Tidbit: Saponification means the making of soap.

Look for tomorrow's post as we start the series SCHC 366Q!

Perhaps

Perhaps today was a good day.

Perhaps I did well on my chemistry exam.

Perhaps I gave good advice to a friend in high school.

Perhaps I did a good job advocating my university.

Perhaps I aced my vector calc quiz.

Perhaps I brightened my friend's day by spending time talking with her.

Perhaps today was a good day.

Or perhaps not.

Perhaps from the desk of Jackie

Apologies from the Desk

Dear Jackie,

This is a note of apology from your desk. I know you didn't choose me, that this relationship was forced upon us by the Housing department. I have always been aware of this, but in the past I have taken out my own frustration on you. It was wrong of me to make my drawers stick and to resist your efforts to make me better. I shouldn't have been but I'll admit that I was jealous of Sam's desk because she decorated it better. It's not your fault that you're an anal retentive math-science person who favors clean lines and simplicity. I appreciate your efforts to personalize me by adding a framed family picture and some novels to the shelf where your store those textbooks. Those textbooks by the way, weigh a ton and you really should consider taking lighter courses. Anyway, I was just writing to say that I'm sorry for all the things that I have done to you which you didn't deserve. But could you maybe pretty please consider dusting me once in while?

Thanks,
Your Desk Bernie