Hello from...what month of missing blogs? Shhh........
Today I went to Owensboro with my mom for a one-year-old's birthday party. There were eight kids there between the ages of 0 and 6. Most of them were cousins. I don't know where a few of them materialized from, though. One surprise hugged me. I didn't know how to respond. Kids...
Later on tonight--or last night, technically--I met up with Anna Beth and Sara at GADS to celebrate the 26th. Two months until we leave for our road trip! We sat on top of my car and felt like we were in high school again.
And doughnuts. And Supernatural. Have I mentioned that I really love Supernatural? Misha's the best. But so is Jensen. And I just really love Supernatural. And New Zealand. And Poland. And CANADA!!!

Love,
Jill

Best cat video: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Awf45u6zrP0

Also!!!
This: http://i-believe-in-john-watson.tumblr.com/post/36705715373/themeeg-tin-pan-ali
Read the posts underneath, not just the picture. I want it to be a full book so bad!

Hello from I nearly forgot to blog again (thanks Anna Beth)

And since I have only 30 minutes to blog and not a very strong desire to do so anyway, here's the first 2 pages of that story Amy, Rachael, and I took turns writing back in high school Pre-calc.

*edit*
- Anna Beth has just told me that I've posted this story before on the blog. As I don't actually remember doing this, I'm going to be lazy and pretend that didn't happen. So enjoy a reviewing :P

A Wonderful Fantastic Story:
            Once there was a guy who didn’t realize that he was all powerful and owns a goat. He didn’t know why he didn’t know that he owned a goat, but he did. One day he and the goat were swimming in the ocean and met a water fairy who also had a companion: a dwarf. “So, what are you and your goat doing so far out in the ocean,” questioned the fairy.
    “We’re looking for a magical seahorse that will grant us three wishes,” answered the guy.
     “I would like to wish that my goat friend could talk. My second wish would be to become a prince. Not a king because they have too many worries. My third wish is to be able to talk to all living beings. I wonder what trees talk about as they stand in the same spot day in and day out.”
“Well, good luck with that!” cried the fairy. “And because you seem trustworthy, I’ll grant you a fish sandwich for lunch and my dwarf, Harold, to guide you.”
So the guy, whose name was Warren Peace by the way, set off ON A QUESTE with Harold, the goat, and the fish sandwich. As Warren followed Harold past the shore and sand dunes into the nearby forest, he heard a peculiar sound coming from the pocket where he put the fish sandwich. Oh no! A little, miniature kangaroo was eating the sandwich! He took out the little animal and said, “Hey, kangaroos don’t eat fish!”

“Too bad, I’m magical,” replied the kangaroo.

“Tell me little carnivorous kangaroo, do you know where to find a seahorse that grants wishes? Harold seems to be lost,” said Warren.

“I’m not lost!” said Harold, and he scampered off into the trees. When Warren followed, he saw that Harold had pushed a secret button to open the secret mines of the dwarfs. The Kangaroo ran after Warren in the hope of eating the rest of the fish sandwich.

“Hold on! Wait for me!” the kangaroo yelled.

“Baa!” exclaimed the goat as they squeezed through the passage.

Though it was dark in the caves, there seemed to be an eerie glow just out of the corner of each of the questers’ eyes. There was the sound of trickling water that became louder as they continued. When they reached the source of the sound, they saw it was an underground stream flowing into a deep pool.

“This is where I leave you,” sighed Harold.

“No! You can’t leave!” said Warren.

“Baa!” said the goat.

“Fish sandwich!” said the kangaroo.

“The water fairy said you would guide us but you’re leaving us in underground passage?” continued Warren. “Where are we supposed to go? How will we find the seahorse?”

“You won’t need me now that you’ve found the magical kangaroo. As long as you have the fish sandwich, he shall do your bidding. It seems luck is on your side. Plus, I must hurry and go back to the fairy. She promised that we will play chess today,” said Harold as he dived into the tunnel.

“OK,” said Warren to the kangaroo. “Where do we go next little kangaroo? Tell me and I’ll give you a bite of the fish sandwich.”

The kangaroo stared at Peace for a moment and replied, “First of all, my name is Lil’ Loo and second, you go into the pool – don’t worry, it’s filled with magic so you can breath underwater.”   

With a sigh of relief, Warren held out the sandwich. Lil’ Loo snatched it away and stuffed the whole thing into his mouth. “How did you do that?!” yelled Warren. “That was, like, a 2 pound sandwich, and you’re 5 inches tall!”

“I’m magical, remember?” answered Lil’ Loo as he started to hop away.

“Wait! Come back!” yelled Warren.

“Haha! You can’t catch me, silly human. The only power you had over me was the fish sandwich, and now – ” Lil’ Loo was cut off as he was suddenly jerked off the ground. He looked up to see that the goat had appeared and had snatched him by his scruff and now stood holding Lil’ Loo in his mouth. “No, don’t eat me! I’m magical. You’ll die just like the princess with the 7 dwarfs. You don’t want that, do you?” he yelped and pleaded to the goat. But his cries fell on empty ears for the goat was already moments from eating him. Using his arm and legs, Lil’ Loo held his mouth apart and continued to yell. “Don’t just stand there, tell this beast to stop!”

Warren replied, “Only if you promise to lead us all the way to the magical seahorse and then back home.”

“Oh, Ok!” cried Lil’ Loo, and the goat dropped him. Brushing himself off, Lil’ Loo said, “I was going to follow you anyway to make sure you didn’t get in trouble.” And so the threesome continued their journey. They followed Lil’ Loo’s instruction to dive into the underground pool and swam downward. The water got darker and darker as they continued to dive. Eventually, Lil’ Loo tugged on Warren’s shirt and pointed to what looked like an underwater cavern or tunnel. Warren pulled the goat along with him as they advanced toward the opening. Holding his finger to his mouth, Lil’ Loo indicated to Warren to be quiet. Using his fingers, he told them that ‘guarding the cavern was a gigantic sea creature who is asleep. Once he is awake, he will yawn and cause a whirlpool that will suck them to his stomach.’ Still using sign language, Lil’ Loo asked Warren if he had any extra food. Digging through his pockets, Warren found that he had 8 sunflower seeds.

‘That’ll do’ signed Lil’ Loo. ‘It will be just enough to throw into Sentrax’s mouth when he’s yawning to stop the whirlpool, leaving him shocked and momentarily blind so we can go into the cavern.’

Warren stared at Lil’ Loo and fingered, ‘How do you know the creature’s name?’

‘Me and Sentrax play poker every other Thursday.’

‘Can’t you just ask Sentrax if we can go by?’ fingered Warren.

Lil’ Loo answered, ‘No, Sentrax is way too much of a workaholic for that, but the sunflower seeds will work.’

While they were having their signed discussion, the goat wandered/floated toward the opening of the cavern. It was suddenly knocked aside by a giant tail the color of the rocks around it. The goat was pushed back toward Warren and Lil’ Loo who looked with shocked expressions at the tail and what it was attached to, which was a giant serpent-like water dragon. The dragon stared at them, baring its teeth and flaring its nostrils while water around it began to boil.

‘Oh hey Sentrax! How’s it going?’ said Lil’ Loo.

Sentrax suddenly sneezed and then looked confusedly around him. “Oh it’s you Lil’ Loo. Did you come back to pay off your debt or to lose some more. We are now at 999 to 1 with me in the lead,” yawned Sentrax. “Since I don’t see/smell any fish sandwiches on you, I would guess the latter. So what’ll we play…today,” Sentrax said sleepishly. Suddenly his eyes opened wide and glowed green as he caught sight of Warren and the goat. “Who are you?” questioned Sentrax in a deep throaty voice that totally contrasted with the voice he had spoken to Lil’ Loo with.

“We’re a Mariachi Band!” yelled Warren who doesn’t work well under pressure.

“Heck yeah!” said Sentrax. “I love Mariachi bands! The word is so funny!” When the serpent-dragon gave a bellowing laugh, Warren threw the sunflower seeds into Sentrax’s throat.     

------------------------------

To be continued...(technically it already is continued, I just never typed the other several pages we wrote.)

Hope that was random enough to entertain.

Love,
Jill

    Hello from Jill doesn't really feel like blogging right now. I totally would have forgotten to if Anna Beth hadn't reminded me. Spring break is almost over and I just want to avoid non-vacation things. oh well.
    Our roadtrip to Florida was awesome, and almost immediately upon returning all I could focus on was more planning for the big roadtrip this summer. gahhh!!! I can't wait.
    And since I'm too lazy to give a descent recounting of our Florida adventures, I'll just give a bullet list of certain gems.

• Throwing Anna Beth into the pool then jumping in afterwards - fully clothed
• Measuring time by cows and Klondike bars. (I think cows are about 30 minutes and Klondike bars are 5 minutes?)
  
• Taking pictures of the backseat sleepers with their mouths open
• Thinking Sara and Anna Beth seriously looked no older than 10 years old as they played in the waves
  
• Conquering the sand castle Sparkleland, renaming it Newpoland, and continuously raising taxes on the inhabitants (aka building sand castles)
• Inventing new mini-golf terms like "an England" - aka when the ball goes into the hole but then bounces back out (named for the dumb news that another chance for me to go abroad was cancelled)
• Walking around St. Augustine and feeling like I was in Europe
• Sunset during our seaside dining at Cap's

And there were other awesome things, too.

And in honor of St. Patrick's day, I feel like I should put green on the blog so you can't pinch it.
They turned the Chicago River green again apparently.

So I guess that's a thing.
I'm gonna go now
bye

Love,
Jill

P.S. -
This week in Things Weebly  doesn't think are words: Sparkleland and Newpoland. Granted, these aren't dictionary words, but the nice imaginary people that lived there don't appreciate the lack of representation. I mean, England and Poland don't get the mean red squiggles. :P lol

        Hello from Monday. Rachael needed to use a computer last night so I let her use mine in exchange for some delicious homemade bread and a blog deadline extension. And now the blog's finally here:
Question Sunday/Monday/Funday:

Anna Beth

What's your favorite/most frequented level of reality?
I probably spend the most time on Levels 2 and 3. Between those, I’d say I prefer level 3. I also really like the idea of level 4, but I definitely spend the least time there.

Do you think everyone--or at least a lot of people--have the same levels of their thoughts? For the ones who don't, what do you think they think about?
I don’t know if anyone else defines it the way we do, but I think everyone definitely thinks on levels 1 and 2. I mean, I’m not in anyone else’s head so you’d have to ask them, but I think most people think in ways that fit in the levels we made…maybe? idk

What's your favorite restaurant/place to get chicken?
Well, it’s Walmart now since Amy introduced me to their delectable popcorn chicken.

How many different stories do you have cataloged in your head right now that you could write in some form if you really wanted to?
          I don’t really know how to answer this question. How detailed or minimal does the idea need to be before it counts? Obviously if it’s on the minimal side, I have tons. But if only full or mostly full plots count, I don’t think I have very many. 
            And I think most of you know about the ideas that I have some stuff, but not much, thought out like ‘The Traveler’ or (what I used to call the ‘Essay Story’) what Anna Beth called ‘The Profound Story’. (btw, have I ever mentioned that I like working titles and how odd they usually are?). And of course there’s the ‘Log Cabin Story’ that we all worked on together. Back in middle school I had ideas for a story where a group of kids became stranded on a really weird tropical island (the idea later got turned into a crappy short story) and an idea for a trilogy following three siblings who become master thieves. Both of those got fairly fleshed out, and though I haven’t thought about them in years I think I still have the notes for them somewhere in my room.    
            Then from high school I remember ‘Olyan’ and ‘Globetrekkers’, two story ideas that came from when I was supposed to be brainstorming for a Geography assignment. ‘Globetrekkers’ actually had a basic plot line figured out, and I still have the notes and even the draft of the first chapter (no you can’t see it). The story followed 10 students and 2 program leaders as they traveled through different countries for a program sort of similar to Semester at Sea (but without the cruise ship). ‘Olyan’ was supposed to be a fantasy novel, but it had absolutely no plot, only character names. During class I would amuse myself by collecting any words that I had accidentally misspelled as I was taking notes and see if they would make descent character names. So Olyan came from a rushed scribble of Olympian. The 16 names I ended up with are still on my computer.
        Then if you count my time spent on level 5, well, there’s more. One followed a group of shape shifting wolves, another on an alien invasion, another on the aftermath of a virus wiping out most of the population, etc. So, I’m not sure what you were looking for for this question, but hopefully I answered it. 

What are some of your other ideas for drawings to fill your wall by the window?
I believe I promised you a Queen Elizabeth Corgi, but you can put that wherever you want.
I’ll just take the list directly from my phone, in no particular order:
-Moya & Talyn
-Pilot
-Farscape coin
-DRD 1812 fetching slippers (or coffee or the newspaper or something)
-Balto & Jenna + Northern Lights
-Appa
-maybe a basic map of the world of Avatar: The Last Airbender
-Wishbone
-some kind of wolf drawing (idk what yet)

What's the best book you've read so far this year?
I can’t remember for sure if I read it at the very end of last year or the very beginning of this year, but I’m going to say The Miles Between by Mary E. Pearson. I’d highly recommend you all to read it (if, you know, we ever really took book suggestions from each other seriously and actually read what we suggest, lol).

What books have you been wanting to read but haven't gotten around to it yet?
There are two books (maybe more but I can’t remember anymore at the moment) that I’ve wanted to read for quite a long time now but either haven’t found the time or haven’t found any copies of the book anywhere

If On A Winter’s Night A Traveler – Italo Calvino     *it’s not at the library or any of the bookstores, and I don’t know if I really want it enough to actually buy it online since none of the descriptions are description-y enough. But what I have found is just SO intriguing: “The narrative is about a reader trying to read a book called If on a winter's night a traveller.”

A Dog’s Life: An Autobiography of a Stray – Ann Martin    *scratch my first annotation, I think I’ve vaguely wanted to read this since middle school

I also have an archive on my phone of books I’ve found out about over that last few months that seem intriguing (The list has actually gotten a lot shorter recently since I magically “found” time to read for fun instead of schoolwork):

Son – Lois Lowry
The Best Night of Your (Pathetic) Life – Tara Altebrando
Infects – Sean Beaudoin
The Turning – Francine Prose
Assault – Brian Falkner
Winter Thunder – Mari Sandoz
Undead – Kirsty Mckay
Partials – Dan Wells
Lindsey Lost – Suzanne Marie Phillips
Dark Inside – Jeyn Roberts    *just got this one from the library yesterday
Starling – Lesley Livingston
Ireland – Melody Carlson
The Maze Runner Trilogy – James Dashner
The Waiting Sky – Lara Zielin
This is Not a Test – Courtney Summers
Blood Work: A Tale of Medicine and Murder in the Scientific Revolution – Holly Tucker
Thou Shalt Not Road Trip – Antony John
The Magic Circle – Katherine Neville
The Magic Circle – Donna Jo Napoli
Ashfall – Mike Mullen

Also:
 Mere Christianity
Screwtape Letters
Macbeth

Why are books and visual media too different to compare? (in reference to your conversation with Rachael last night)
        I don’t remember saying they were too different to compare. If I said it, to what specifically was I referring?
You can compare and contrast them, it’s just notable to say that they both have their own pros and cons. Sometimes I think people are quick to put down visual media inferior to books (or vice versa) when they can both offer so much. 

After sitting here for like 10 minutes, I give on trying to remember all the things I wanted to say here. Note to self: when you’re having an awesome debate and discussion in your head, WRITE IT DOWN SO YOU DON’T FORGET WHAT YOU WANTED TO SAY.

You know, I also had a really cool thing to say about the concepts of Art and Science the other day, but that’s totally gone now too, sigh.

What is your favorite type of visual media: tv, movies, or online video?
Hard choice.
I’m going to choose TV this time.

Who do you think was best dressed at the Oscars?
I really liked Jennifer Lawrence’s dress. (though it would have been cooler if it burst into flames and ended looking like a mockingjay…)

Why is "Best Original Song" a weird category?
     It’s weird if nominees include songs that don’t actually appear in the film and are just in the credits (we were talking on Oscar night whether or not that was the case since we hadn’t seen the nominated movies). To me there’s a big difference between credits and the actual film. Once the story’s over, the song shouldn’t get the same credit towards that movie. It makes sense in my head. All the other awards honor something that went towards making the film as a whole. A song in the credits does not make a movie better.

Why the heck did Michelle Obama butt into the Oscars?
Because she could. I guess if you had the ability to make yourself a presenter you would too? (not that she should have been there…)

If you could design a college class on anything, what would your ideal class be like?
Wait, is this asking what subject matter the class is on or what the structure of the class is?
Subject matter: bread, pizza, cake
Structure: Eat bread, pizza, cake

How many items on the Human Test apply to you?
Of the 27 items I counted on the Human Test, 15 applied to me….I believe I passed the Human Test

Is anything objective?
Objective: (adj.) - (of a person or their judgment) Not influenced by personal feelings or opinions in considering and representing facts.

        Very unlikely. People can only see and think from their own point of view, so it’s kind inevitable that at least a little bit of their personality or how they were raised (etc) would leak into their judgment on an issue. So complete objectivity is probably unattainable. Even a computer needs a person to tell it how to make decisions, which could be a form of bias.
        The cool thing about humans is that we can at least try to see from another point of view, and can often do well enough. It’s important to look at a situation both from your own perspective and the other parties involved, as well as the end result of the whole ordeal. (you can empathize with a murderer, but the end result is still that someone was the cause of someone else’s death and should therefore be punished accordingly)

Gah, this question is hard.

Who's your favorite superhero?
Eh, I was never much for superheroes, but I don’t want to choose something easy like Superman.
So…I like Green Arrow 

What 5 things would you add to your current buckletlist?
- explore Pompeii
- enjoy a natural hot spring
- either make or get sent on an intense quest
- backcountry camping
-Have dinner with someone I had only dreamed of meeting

How has fiction/media helped shape who you are and/or affected how you view the world?
Fiction/media shows us potential. It shows how we as individuals or we as a society can act and react to different scenarios, feelings, disasters, etc whether they be good or bad. It lets me get a look into someone else’s mind while at the same time (usually) seeing a reflection of my own self. Seeing (or trying to see) through different perspectives often let’s me see the good in the world, though sometimes it can also make me hate humanity *coughJulieoftheWolvescough*

I have no idea what I’m saying here.
Stop giving me hard questions.

What was your favorite book as a child?
I was kinda obsessed with the Berenstain Bears books as a kid.
But my favorite may have been White Fang or The Good Dog.

How do you differentiate between a "crush" and a "passing fancy?"
Crushes last longer.

How did a Jonas brother get a part in the 25th anniversary concert of Les Mis???
In ENGLAND!?!
He probably auditioned?


Rachael

What's your favorite vegetable?
Peas if they’re cooked the way I like them (which hardly ever happens)
But you can’t go wrong with raw carrots.  

Favorite soup?
Miso soup

Do you like stew?
Probably? I don’t remember the last time I had stew (if ever)

Would you wear a fake fur coat?
Sure, if I liked the way it looked.

What kind of alcohol would you consider sampling?
I don’t know

 Favorite tree?
I’m gonna pick Aspen because I like the word aspen (and the aspen tree can be pretty)

Ideas where the treasure is?
On Earth

How do you know it's north of Santa Fe?
  I don’t. But there’s wilderness and canyon’s surrounding it to the north, and the guy’s from New Mexico (I’m pretty sure Santa Fe). Apparently a Santa Fe Jeweler who knows the guy has been out looking 20 times already. I feel like it’s most likely within a couple hours drive of Santa Fe, but we still have a few months to look over the clues and decide where to look and stuff before we go on the trip.

 If all the soda products and squeeze it's disappeared, what would you drink?
Is Kool-aid still around? I could live off of that. Lemonade can also be good if it’s sweet enough (huzzah church lemonade!)

Can you believe we'll be in Florida later this week?
Yes!
Woohoo!

What disease did cured ham have?
Swine Flu

Do you think the people who work for Lipton are allowed to have coffee breaks?
No

What's something we don't know about you?
Did you know I liked odd working titles? I guess I mentioned that earlier. I can’t open my eyes underwater.

I thought of a great superpower-- the ability to bring things in/out of reality I.e. to control reality. Can you think of a better/cooler/more powerful one?
My favorite is never going to stop being telekinesis.

Do you think I would/could be corrupted with power?
yes

How should I go about using my power--should I if I can be corrupted?
Make me more bread. Corrupt? Pfft, if you’re making me food, go ahead (unless corrupt means bad food?)

Should I hide my identity (by wearing a costume/mask or whatever) or go all Tony Stark?
 Hide your identity. Gives you more reason to design cool costumes that way.


Sara

Why does Joss Whedon have to repeatedly rip out my heart and stomp on it?    
(at least for Firefly) it was to make you really believe there was potential for real risk in the final battle. Without…certain things happening…you wouldn’t really believe anything bad would happen to the characters that have been around for a long time – at least that’s what Joss Whedon thinks

Does he take some sort of cruel pleasure in seeing me miserable?
Yes
Definitely. Yes.

What exactly is brain dead? How do doctors tell whether someone is?
According to friend internet
Brain death is the irreversible end of all brain activity (including involuntary activity necessary to sustain life) due to total necrosis of the cerebral neurons following loss of brain oxygenation.
(not to be confused with ‘persistent vegetative state’: a disorder of consciousness in which patients with severe brain damage are in a state of partial arousal rather than true awareness. It is a diagnosis of some uncertainty in that it deals with a syndrome. After four weeks in a vegetative state, the patient is classified as in a persistent vegetative state. This diagnosis is classified as a permanent vegetative state after approximately one year of being in a vegetative state)
A brain-dead individual has no clinical evidence of brain function upon physical examination. This includes no response to pain and no cranial nerve reflexes. Reflexes include pupillary response (fixed pupils), oculocephalic reflex, corneal reflex, no response to the caloric reflex test and no spontaneous respirations.
An individual determined to be brain dead is legally and clinically dead.

Why can't I ever do my homework before Sunday afternoon?
  Because if you leave for the last possible day, you’ll be older and wiser than any other time.
But Mainly
and also a little bit of this if you replace Tumblr with YouTube.

But hey, I have a solution

What are you most looking forward to about Florida?
The smell of the beach

Is 21 any more exciting than 20?
Yeah! You get to have the cool sideways license!
Oh yeah, and you can drink alcohol or whatever…

Favorite subject to draw/paint/render artistically in some way?
When I was younger it was definitely horses. It was basically my go-to.
Now I think it’s wolves (or floor plans)

Without spoiling me, what did you think of The Madness Underneath?
 Hehe, if feelings are spoilers, then don’t continue.

Over all it’s a good book. There were parts where I was like this and like this
And closer to the end there was some
But ...
then ...
.................
Wait

This and This and this
oh wait, oops, definitely not that last one. I meant THIS
and then some of  This, This, This, and This.


I also had the pleasure of seeing Anna Beth’s reaction which started off as this
But ended in this, this, and this.

Rachael’s reaction was more like this, this, this, and this.

I’d imagine Amy’s reaction would be like this

TL;DR


Mr. 15

What's the difference between a Ferrari and a sack of dead kittens?
You don’t have a Ferrari in your garage. Are you related to Rachael by any chance?

-------------------

Man, that took forever. The winner this week is Sara because finding all the gifs I wanted to use to answer you was SO MUCH FUN.

Love,
Jill

P.S.
This week in things Weebly Doesn't Think are Words:
else's
Walmart
vice versa
Berenstain
Tumblr
pupillary
oculocephalic
respirations

        Hello from Oscars night! Where Jennifer Lawrence is an adorable derp, dead Frenchmen come back to sing, and Ben Affleck has all the jobs.
        As you all know, this weekend was quite fun what with the surprising Shelby and the sort of practicing for the roadtrip.

    Since I am idealess for blogs at the moment, I thought I may as well use this week to explain the question I gave Anna Beth for her question Thursday: "What's your favorite level of reality/which do you spend the most time with?"
    One summer during High School Anna Beth and I were at The Balloons Tunes and Barbeque with several friends and we got to talking about daydreams. We found out we daydreamed and made up stories quite frequently in our heads. We ended up trying to classify the different types of daydreams we had, and several years later this was born:

Question of the week (probably shouldn't actually expect this to be a weekly thing): What do you think 'Levels of Reality' should more aptly be titled. I like the sound of it, but I have this feeling there's a more accurate title out there.

Love,
Jill

P.S.
And this week in Words Weebly Doesn't Think are Words: Roadtrip, Reality
And we have a special segement this week as well: Words Weebly Can't Decide are Words since the Red Squiggly Line Keeps Appearing and then Disappearing: Derp

    Hello from Sunday night following three-hour TV and friendship time. With the return of Once Upon a Time and Downton Abbey lasting an unexpected 2 hours, we were wholly unproductive tonight.
    I'd thought I'd take this week to talk a little about my classes for this semester as I haven't yet, or more specifically, I wanted to tell you all about Amy and I's Organic Chemistry Lab. For whatever reason the Organic labs didn't meet until this last week, and we had an interesting first class. In theory the first class followed the routine of my past chem classes (safety lecture sometimes followed by a short lab experiment). In reality, well...
    In Chem 1 and 2  the safety lectures were maybe 15 minutes long and I believe all chemistry lab sections get the same safety list that tells you to wear close-toed shoes and safety goggles and to use the eye wash station or fire extinguisher or safety shower as needed (which was ironic when I had both my previous labs in North Wing *coughJankyHallcough* that didn't even have fire extinguishers in the room or safety showers at all).
    In Comparision....  (really it should have been apparent just with the fact that we were in the nice building instead of the run down one)
The Organic safety lecture lasted at least an hour and went into detail about what makes the organic labs different from the other chemistry classes. In chem 1 and 2, you deal a lot with various types of acids and etc that if you spill it on yourself it...well it doesn't feel pleasant and can do some damage to your skin. The chemicals we're going to be working with apparently often don't feel painful at all if you spill it on yourself, but since they're organic chemicals they can do far more internal damage if not dealt with properly. Nine times out of ten a 15 minute wash with water will do the trick, but every now and then it won't. Like a certain chemical where if a tiny drop lands on your hand and you think "oh this doesn't hurt. I'll just wash it off and not bother mentioning such a small thing to the TA" and then you wash it off and think its gone but you wake up the next mornign to find a crater in you hand because the chemical just kept disolvling you flesh overnight.
        In at least one of the labs this semester we're working with known carcinogens. As in, if you don't follow procedure, you could get cancer. And anyone thinking about getting pregnant or could be pregnant (1) is strongly advised not to take the class (2) will require a note from the obstetrician, and (3) needs to sign a liability waver. So yeah, no big deal....
The lab instructor had plenty of "fun" examples and stories for the entire safety list, most of them her own. She said she really shouldn't have been a chemist, she's too clumsy. She would be blind three times over if not for the eye wash stations.
Speaking of...
We're advised to walk to the eye wash station once or twice during lab each week. You know, to get the muscle memory down in case we need to use it...because if you need to use it, you'll probably not be able to see and will have to get there blind. The lab instructor had a story where she was in her stock room pouring a liter of acid out to use for an experiment. I think this was before policies changed to require safety googles rather than just safety glasses, and some of the acid splashed into her eye. The stock rooms don't have eye wash stations, so she had to get from the stock room to one of the labs to the eye wash station completely blind. Fun story bro.  
And because the lab instructor has had to use these eye washes, she got to tell us some of the interesting details....like most likely you'll have to be held down into the water becuase gallons of water splashing up into your eyes doesn't feel much better than the acid or pipet tip jammed in your eye and becuase of that you'll feel like you're being drowned.
    We're encouraged to not fight the people we think are drowning us that are actually saving our sight.
        Panic does interesting things to the human brain. The lab safety instructor had plenty of things to say on that subject, mostly dealing with fires. The lab sheet tells you to call 911 in case of fire. A lot of people, when faced with their experiment in flames, forget they own a phone. The lab structor encouraged us in this scenerio to grab our lab partner's phone, because they likely own one as well. And if all else fail and you forget phones were invented due to panic, we're told to just run and shout "FIRE!!!" because if you run down the hall shouting "FIRE!!!!!" someone's likely to take notice. The lab instructor reiterated that the most important step there is the screaming of "fire". Apparently one year she was standing in the front of the lab and saw one of the students in the back corner stations run out of the room, not saying a word. She was admittedly a little confused at first and discussed with the TA whether or not the student just really needed to use the bathroom. Then they noticed the flames coming from the back of the room. They didn't hear from the student until the next week's lab. When asked, he said he didn't really realize what he was doing until he pulled into the driveway of his house. So, the moral of the story is that a really good way to communicate something important is shouting and the human brain in panic mode is a very interesting thing.
But really, I should get to the most interesing portion of the saftey lecture: the safety shower. It's a lovely thing, really. It could totally save your life. The lab instructor mentioned a time when she literally witnessed the clothes dissolving off a girls' arm and torso, but that she ended up being totally fine withour so much as a scare. But the thing about lab safety showers is that you are required to remove your clothes before using the shower because otherwise the water pressure will just push the chemical throught the clothing up against the skin and usually make the injury worse. And just to make sure you all get the full scenerio, the shower isn't a stall or anything. It's just a showerhead sticking out of the wall. So if you need to use the safety shower, you will be completely stripping down in front of all your labmates. And you will be glad of it because you will not be dead.
    And I'll leave you with one last personal story from the lab instructor. She was working on an experiment in a room without a safety shower, spilled some stuff all down her pants, and subsequently had to run down the hallway of Central while taking off her pants. Quite a sight to imagine.

These were just the things from the safety lecture I could think of off the top of my head. It's a shame I can't remember some of the other good stuff, but just know that the instructor did a fantastic job of making us desire to respect the safety procedures (and to make me think I'm totally going to die this semester)
Isn't science fun, guys?

Love,
Jill

P.S. 
In a fun turn of events this week, there is no "Words Weebly Doesn't Think Are Words"
This segment will instead be replaced with "Spelling Mistakes Weebly Thinks Are Valid Words"
In my haste to quickly get a blog out on time, I mistakenly types "carginagins" instead of "carcinogens" and "drowing" instead of "drowing." And weebly had no qualms whatsoever.  

        Hello from Super Bowl XLVII, which I didn't actually finish watching because we decided Downton Abbey was a better use of our time.

    As I have once again been lazy, I seem to have left this blog to the last 30 minutes of this Sunday, part of which I plan to use to beat Anna Beth at image searching on Google.   
    Speaking of, it's fun to search by images (click the little camera in the search bar when on the Image Search tag if you don't know what I'm talking about)
Like I was looking through the random pretty pictures I had saved on my computer and I found out this is rare Silver Fox (Red fox with unique black coloring) - at least that's what it is according to the Internet

And the first thing to pop up when I Googled this was just something called www.epic.com

And this sign is real.

Wikipedia says: "The Secret Nuclear Bunker at Kelvedon Hatch, in the Borough of Brentwood in the English county of Essex, is a large underground bunker maintained during the cold war as a potential regional government headquarters. Since being decommissioned in 1992, the bunker has been open to the public as a tourist attraction, with a museum focusing on its cold war history.

And I found out that this is Devetashka cave in Bulgaria, and now I really want to go to Bulgaria.

And this was taken in Perth at an Australia Day celebration, and now I still really want to go to Australia.

And here's an Ice Cave in Iceland, and I certainly wouldn't mind going to Iceland.

   
    I feel as though this blog has spiraled down into "Jill posts pretty pictures of places she wants to go". Oh well, word count of 303 + 6 pictures worth 1000 words = 6303 words = adequate blog is adequate.

So yeah, as long as the internet isn't lying, all that's pretty cool.

Love,
Jill

P.S.
Not that much in this week's "Words that Weebly doesn't think are Words" (sad face)
Just Googled, Kelvedon, www, Brentwood, and Downton

btw, apparently Devetashka is a word <-- except in this sentence.

        Hello from Sunday.
        Though it doesn't really make sense to say this as it's only the second (or third depending on how you define the  beginning of a week) week of blogging and I haven't really made a blog as of yet, I kinda feel like I enjoy having Sunday. I mean, I loved foot-face Friday (especially because it was foot-face Friday), but Friday was almost always on the brink of something exciting happening that I would always want to blog about but couldn't because it hadn't happened yet. Sunday feels more relaxed. It's like a reset button. A whole week of things happen, often leading up to some Friday night or Saturday adventure with you all. Then Sunday is usually a relax and chill day before the cycle starts over. I'm curious if I'll still feel this way in a few weeks. (memories from a few semesters ago where Amy and I would always cram Biophysics lab work into the Sunday night before class the next day particularly come to mind. But hey, I only have one class on Mondays now, so that should be a good thing).
        So what's been up with me lately? Well, my obsession with Farscape has lasted a surprising amount of time, but I feel like I mention it enough in person (DVD commentaries are so much fun/interesting/cool).
         I put in for a volunteer position at the hospital, hopefully in the ER, this week. I have to have a background check, but hopefully they'll get back to me soon.
        Ooh, here's something really random - therefore I'm just gonna go with it because why not - If I were to ask you what causes thunder, what would your first response be? I kinda want to ask you to write it in the comments before reading further, just to see. I ask because I somehow (can't remember how now) got into this conversation with this girl about the thunderstorm that was happening today, and she said something about wondering if there was lightening outside right after a big boom of thunder. And I said something like of course there is lightening, it and thunder come together. And she was like "Not all the time". And I'm like "But that's where thunder comes from. It's a result of lightening." It turns out that she thought thunder resulted from two clouds crashing together instead of you know, real life. Thunder is sound vibrations resulting from electricity passing through the air, heating it, and making the air, well, vibrate. And that's the simplified version I remember from elementary school. I only bring it up because this girl isn't unintelligent by any means, and she insisted she learned the "clouds bumping into each other" in school. I actually had to pause and look online to make sure I was right. What were you all taught about storms? (if you remember)

        So I'm officially starting this writing challenge (if it is a challenge, or is it more of a New Years Resolution? I think I'll consider it a resolution. I won't feel as bad if I don't complete it) of writing the Log Cabin Story - one page at least a week.)

        For a little inspiration on how in the world to start a story (I've never been good at beginnings), I've been looking through my bookcase and reading the first page of each (it hasn't been very helpful), but then I ending up looking through old annotations I had to make for high school english class and thought I might as well share a few since they're kinda weird taken out of context. +10 points if you can correctly guess the book that goes with each.

On one page, I have underlined "A rat."
On another I have written, "singing women with red forearms"

Underlined: "None!--nothing but despair!"
Underlined: "No!--not to thee!--not to an earthly physician!"

Underlined: "He was naked" -- I almost didn't put this one, but considering what I wrote in margins about the whole scenario, I think it was understandable.
In a book I didn't like: "You are the embodiment of selfishness" - underneath this I drew an arrow and wrote, "no, you are" (it's fun to be snarky to books sometimes)
A few pages over, in the margins I have written "Oh snap" and "I think she's just stupid"
Elsewhere in the margins: "Ooh, drama!", "Was she not listening to the rest of what she said?", "She's tired of everybody, she's like a stupid teenager", "actually, everyone's story is humorously symbolic", "They're both idiots"
At one point I think I had a problem with how they presented the layout of a setting and then disregarded it because I circled and passage and just wrote "Nope"

In the margin: "There's no way this is a title" - pointing to a passage that lasts half a page
Underlined: "He was also lame because of breaking both his knees: not because of any excess of genuflective piety, however, but because he fell down a gangplank while crossing on the boat to Ireland."
Underlined: "There were 1,029 pigeonholes built at first"
In the margin: "Nice use of repetition"
In the margin 4 pages later: "Now the repetition's getting annoying"
Page 190: something I'm still trying repress actually. Perhaps I won't share it.

So, what kind of annotations can you all find in your old books?

Ok, I just got off youtube (because I interweave blogging with other things like youtube) and I watched nerimon's latest video, and I think the idea is pretty cool.
So here are the badges I think I've earned so far:

Driving
Kind of a no brainer for a lot of people in the United States where driving is incredibly common outside of major cities like New York. I passed my permit test. Fibbed a bit when it came to logging how much practice I had behind the wheel. Then passed the driving test. And Voilà! Drivers license achieved.

Watch the sunrise
I done this on several different occasions - some more pleasant than others. When I was younger and my family went to the beach for vacation, sometimes I'd wake up before everyone else, go out on the balcony, and watch the sunrise. Sunrises always seemed different than sunsets - a little more golden maybe.
More recently I watched the sunrise as I pulled an all-nighter finishing an essay for class.

Be in a Parade
I was little so some of the details are a little hazy. I recall being asked by my horse-riding instructor if I wanted to be in the Christmas parade. I along with some other kids my age were pulled on a big trailer while some of the older kids got to actually ride horses decked out in Santa hats.

Mountain Climbing
I feel like I might be stretching this a bit. It might just be because I often don't think of The Appalachians being that tall in comparison to other mountain ranges. That, and we didn't have to climb/walk for all that long. An hour maybe? Anyway, it was last year on the Ecology field trip Amy and I were on. *sigh* Good memories from that trip.

        Hello from the first Sunday blog of 2013, where Jill decides to take a mini-vacation. I believe I managed to survive a whole year of blogging every week and somehow didn't miss any days...so I thought I might miss a day. Sort of. I mean, there's this little paragraph here, so it's sort of still a blog. Idk. I was reading something the other day about how Americans give themselves enough vacation time (compared to the rest of the world) so why not start off the year with a bit of a breather (not that some of some of my blogs from last year were incredibly taxing on the mind or anything...).
        So, one week to relax, then the coming weeks will hopefully see progression in the whole Log Cabin Story thing I promised Anna Beth.

Love,
Jill

P.S.
Apparently, weebly doesn't want to recognize 'great' as a real word today.