Getting in a car accident is horrible. Everyone assumes that if you have no physical injuries that you are fine and should be lucky. Well, I am lucky that I dont have injuries, very lucky. But that doesn't mean that I am fine. It is so emotionally taxing. I've been pretty torn apart inside ever since it happened and I don't know how to get over it. I know a bunch of people will think this is silly and tell me to just be glad that I am fine. I am glad, but man I feel awful.

omg, the show aliens in america is so hilarious. The show this week made me laugh harder than I have laughed in a long time. Watch it. Go to CWTV.com

Despite charles' prediction that my novices would get faced crushed, they did wonderfully. One team went 3-0 and the other 2-1. I am so proud of them!! :)

I really really need to thank Emily Hogen, Mrs. Ries, Mr. Vogl, and Dr. Sandomir. I love teaching! These are the people that have either inspired me to teach or helped convince me that I could. I am currently employed with the Princeton Review teaching the SAT and PSAT. It is so exciting to feel like I am making a difference for these kids. It is so fun to watch them learn new things and see how excited they are when they see their scores improve. I am also coaching the novice debaters at mountain view and I love that as well. It is great to work with kids that are so excited to learn. Teaching is such a rewarding experience. It is more stressful than I expected though. I get nervous for my students when they take tests or are going to a tournament because I want them to do well. I want to see them proud of themselves and happy with their accomplishments. There is a lot of preparation work for teaching too. Students count on teachers to know the answers, so I have to be prepared for all the possible questions relating to the subject at hand. But the stress and hard work are totally worth it. I can not wait to be a government teacher, it is going to be the best job ever.

I have two very different things to comment on, I'll start with the bad one first.

In my National Security and Terrorism class we were talking about how the phrase "War on Terror" elevated Al Qaeda's status because the term "war" often means a conflict between two countries. By calling it a "war" on terror the terrorists were also able to use the following logic: "We support the Nation of Islam, therefore the United States is fighting the Nation of Islam." This argument helps them recruit. Here is the bad part. This guy in our class raises his hand and says: "I have nothing against Muslims, but if they think we are trying to fight them isn't the only way to have eventual peace to just wipe them all out." The class got silent for a second then uproar. The teacher responds "Let me be clear, not all Muslims think the US is fighting Islam, Al Qaeda is only a fringe of Islam the way the KKK is a fringe of Christianity." The guy responds but its the only way we'll make sure none of them kill us, what is your plan?" The teacher responds "To engage in discussions with Muslim people and to show them that Al Qaeda is the enemy not the US" The guy did not seem satisfied with the answer but as most of the class was glaring at him like they wanted to wipe him out, he kept his mouth shut. I still cant believe he said that. I mean, i know there are morons out there, but rarely do I encounter ones that bad.

Now the happy stuff. I was always inspired by Mother Teresa but now I am even more so. The fact that she questioned her faith and gods existence until the day she died teaches everyone a great lesson. Religion and a strong belief in god is not necessary to a strong sense of morality and justice. Mother Teresa gave all she had for other people and it turns out she did it because she herself wanted to, not because it was what she believed god was up there watching her do it. I think that that is even more inspiring than what I thought of her before. :)

So there is some dude that is saying "The Internet is the new Afghanistan." His argument is basically that terrorists are training over the internet and dissuading westerns to continue fighting. This got me thinking about how our generation perceives the internet as a very different entity than the previous generations. For us saying the "The Internet is the new Afghanistan" is like saying, talking is dangerous, you should watch out how terrorists use words. It is an obvious statement. Of course the terrorists are using the internet. It's because everyone uses the internet. The older generation seems to separate the internet as something separate from ourselves. I think our generation sees the internet as something integral to ourselves. I'm not saying people from older generations arnt also dependant on the internet. But i guess what it comes down to is that someone from our generation would compare the internet to an action while someone from an older generation would compare it to a thing (eg. a country). I dont know if any of this makes sense. But the sentence "The Internet is the new Afghanistan" really got me thinking about the internet and what it means to different people. It is an interesting thing to ponder.

I'm going to be teaching the SAT with The Princeton Review. I am so excited!!! yay for new jobs!!

http://www.blizzard.com/blizzcon07/gallery.shtml

check it out, kevin is the last photo on page two and im the first on page three. Our costumes didnt win but they were hella fun to make and lots of poeple loved them. oh and the conference was sweet. For those of you who care ask me about the new wow expansion: wrath of the lich king.

I'm going to blizzcon bitches! Only a few days... Eeeeeee!!!!

ramble time

I've been searching on the internet for over an hour finding the cheapest used book websites, only to find that after adding shipping, I will only save like 20 bucks by ordering my books online vs. just going to the damn bookstore. At least at the bookstore I can be sure of the condition of the book. Oh well.

Kevin and I have been working on our costumes for the world of warcraft conference we are going to. We were lucky enough to make it into the costume contest (there was very limited room). Four people will win laptops. And personally it will be bomb to end up on the blizzcon website. I dont care if you think we are dorks. When I finally post the picture of our costumes, you will have to be impressed. We are spending a lot of time and creativity on these things.

The apartment is great. It is so nice to have my own place. It is so much fun to be living with sara. I still don;t know where stuff is around here though. But im figuring it out quickly.

I am going to be going for training for my new job in about two weeks. I am so excited. I am going to be a Princeton Review SAT prep teacher. It sounds like a really fun job to me. It will be great teaching experience.

Well thats about it. oh, and Im so glad sara and I finally have internet. stupid cox.

hope everyone is having a great summer!

So I was at Olive Garden with Kevin, Mike, and Dennis. In the middle of the meal this older man says "miss, I wouldn't want these to go to waste, here are some sweets for a sweet" and gives me his andes mints. Then his wife tells me that I am beautiful. I say thank you, smiling the whole time. It was such a wonderful encounter. Then when the couple walk away Kevin starts laughing and says "they thought you were jewish." I was like what? I guess I totally missed it, but according to the guys the man had a huge blingin star of david necklace on. and i do kinda look jewish. Either way, Andes mints are now officially called jew candy.

I'm leaving for hawaii in a few minutes. Then when I get back I interview for a job with the Princeton Review. Then I get to move in with Sara into our new apartment!! Then a few weeks after that I'm going to Blizzcon (world of warcraft conference and hell yes I'm wearing a costume). So the next month holds some very exciting adventures. :)

I miss everyone. Everyone should come visit me and Sara after we move in. :)

It's reflection time:

So coming from Highschool to ASU I expected I wasn't going to learn much more. I figured it would be hard to pack as much learning into only aprx. 15 hours of class time a week compared to about 35. And while there have been some 10o level classes that taught me little I didn't already know, I still feel on the whole I learned a lot. The texts books and extra texts were more challenging, the assignments often required more thought and involvement, and the concepts were more abstract at times. I'm very pleased with the track I am taking. The social sciences thrill me. and I am very excited to teach in a few years.

I have met a lot of new friends, not as many as I expected to, but I have also reconnected with old friends which is great. There arn't as many poeple that I connect with at ASU, which I guessed would happen, but I have made friends with my Human Event group and they are all very smart and entertaining. I generally don't fit in with the poeple in education classes but I have found a really awesome group of girls that accept me despite my nerdiness. I have gotten closer to Kevins room mates, all of whom are awesome guys who help me feel like I have a place to belong when I'm feeling geeky (which is a lot).

Kevin and I are still together and things are going great. I love him so much and owe much of my sanity and many many meals off of campus to him.

College is a time of change for a lot of poeple. I don't really feel like I have changed that much. But where I am in life has changed and I feel it has definately been for the better. A year ago I had my family, friends, kevin, but no idea what i wanted to do in life nor my place in it. Now I still have my family close by, even more friends, an almost two year relationship with kevin, a career path, a passion for teaching, ideas about my existance, a few part time jobs, and my own appartment next year with another one of my awesome friends.

But there is always room for improvement which is why I am excited to know every year will bring more exciting new things into my life to help me mature and grow and live life in a beautiful way.

My history teacher amazed us all. She had written a speech about what she wants us to have taken from her class, how thankful she is to teach, and then general recomendations for life. That so sounds so siple and generic but it was amazing. She is an amazing writer and an amazing woman. I wrote down top ten suggestions. She expounded on all of them, but here they are simply:

1. Ask Questions
2. Words Matter
3. Act with intentionality
4. Violence in not the answer
5. Do not ignore that women are still discriminated against
6. Do not dehuminize others
7. There is often no perfect action, but this is not a reason not to act. Be concious of your decisions and act in order to help the globe.
8. There are both beauty and horror in the world
9. Do not confuse the two
10. Again, DO NOT CONFUSE THE TWO

I can handle stress or depression. Not both..

I;ve been pretty depressed lately. It's hard to see so much pain in the world and to see violence escalted globally. It's like no matter what type of news I look at it involves someone inflicting pain on humanity. But, i found one article which does give me hope and a bit more faith in the future. A transgendered student is being allowed to run for prom king in Fresno. Cintia was nominated by her peers and the school placed her on the prom king ballot in accordance with a law protecting students gender identity. http://www.cnn.com/2007/US/04/20/transgender.prom.king.ap/index.html

I'm not as cheery as usual, but this at least made me feel like something right in the world is going on.

EDIT:
Yay for high school kids, this news helped me too. 90% of the kids at a high school walked out in protest over a vote that knocked down a tax increase that meant keeping freshmen sports and summer school. http://www.app.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20070421/NEWS/704210333

I know a lot of poeple are feeling kinda gloomy today so here are some videos that I guarentee will make you laugh and smile.

So i have lots of reading already lined up for me next year but as some of you you read my lj know I want to eventually have a mini-library in my house. So I want you all to recomend books that I should pick up and eventually read. Tell me name of book, author, genre, and a short description. Thank You!!!

So the brits are banning the phrase "war on terror" with some really great reasoning. woot

http://news.sky.com/skynews/article/0,,30000-1260741,00.html

I want so badly to go find all those bitches from junior year with their stupid "viva bush" stickers and tell them I fucking told you so.

Soooo pathetic, "losing" the e-mails that have incriminating evidence.

fuckers..