Getting Back into a Routine!

So, after much thought and debate, I have decided to get back into the bloggosphere!  Not that I ever did it for the views, but I always found it rather cathartic to just randomly type out things for strangers to read.

I shall start with a few of my life updates since, oh, I don't know, 2010?  Eeeek.  I was definitely in a totally different place and somehow kept it all together!  I'll spare the sob story, but I'm so much happier now.  My list of "I Nevers" follows (kind of sums up some stuff):

I Never ...

• Thought I'd be moving into my first HOUSE this soon!  (Maybe pics to come, it's definitely a great little home.  The kitchen is HUGE and I'm alllll about cooking.)
• Thought said house would be in ... Farmers Branch ... of all the places.  Long story for this one.  Not exactly happy about the town itself; luckily the green line runs close enough that I'll be employing the bike/DART method to go into the city.
• Imagined that I would be in love with someone.  More specifically in love with a man that can tolerate all my crazy.  The one sitting on the couch being a lazy fart while I do the housework, cook, and blog!  HA!  Maybe not perfect ... but so far perfect for me!
• Dreamed that I would be working for Gander Mountain - a company that basically thrives off firearm / outdoor product sales.  I don't sell anything there, but I manage a lot of the important behind-the-scenes stuff.  It's a job that is different and I enjoy it for the most part - it's still a job!
• Expected to be planning a real wedding, you know, the kind with family and friends and no fried chicken?!  Preferably sans light pole and somewhere around here:

Just a little bit of stuff in there.  I sort of also always thought I would be some successful scientist ... then I realized it is REAL boring!  I always pictured myself living my late 20s in the city - preferably in a highrise - not in the inner burbs of Dallas.  I also wanted to be wealthy, not that I want for anything, but still, you know what I mean.  Oh well!  I feel like that's life.  You make a plan and it doesn't pan out and then you deal with it.  In all my random travels and roads to get here, I have picked up some good things along the way.  I've become a much better cook, made some amazing, genuine life-long friends, become a better person, and I've learned a lot of things like tolerance and patience (VERY tough to master - and I have a LONG way to go).  So for now, that's all.  I just wanted to sort of warm up my fingers and brain to this bloggy stuff again.  I have missed it!  So, cheers to my attempt to get back into the bloggosphere!  :)

THIS Is Why I Want To Leave Texas. You Can't Just Rewrite History And Get Away With It.

This article is from Yahoo.  You MUST read it all.  It's ... appalling.  That's putting it nicely.  When I read this article on my phone yesterday, I really almost felt like crying.  I kept getting chills at what this article is suggesting.  I was both angered, and saddened by this.  It's things like this that make Texas the poster-child for foot-in-the-concrete conservatism.  It's things like this that make me hate living in Texas.  I'll continue my rant after the article.

Link to the original: http://news.yahoo.com/s/ynews/ynews_ts1253

U.S. history textbooks could soon be flavored heavily with Texas conservatism

The nation’s public school curriculum may be in for a Texas-sized overhaul, if the Lone Star state’s influential recommendations for changes to social studies, economics and history textbooks are fully ratified later this spring. Last Friday, in a 10-to-5 vote split right down party lines, the Texas State Board of Education approved somecontroversial right-leaning alterations to what most students in the state—and by extension, in much of the rest of the country—will be studying as received historical and social-scientific wisdom. After a public comment period, the board will vote on final recommendations in May.

Don McElroy, who leads the board’s powerful seven-member social conservative bloc, explained that the measure is a way of "adding balance" in the classroom, since "academia is skewed too far to the left." And the board's critics have labeled the move an attempt by political "extremists" to "promote their ideology."

The revised standards have far-reaching implications because Texas is a huge market leader in the school-textbook industry. The enormous print run for Texas textbooks leaves most districts in other states adopting the same course materials, so that the Texas School Board effectively spells out requirements for 80 percent of the nation’s textbook market. That means, for instance, that schools in left-leaning states like Oregon and Vermont could soon be teaching from textbooks that are short on references to Ted Kennedy but long on references to conservative activist Phyllis Schlafly.

Here are some of the other signal shifts that the Texas Board endorsed last Friday:

- A greater emphasis on “the conservative resurgence of the 1980s and 1990s.” This means not only increased favorable mentions of Schlafly, the founder of the antifeminist Eagle Forum, but also more discussion of the Moral Majority, the Heritage Foundation, the National Rifle Association and Newt Gingrich's Contract With America.

- A reduced scope for Latino history and culture. A proposal to expand such material in recognition of Texas’ rapidly growing Hispanic population was defeated in last week’s meetings—provoking one board member, Mary Helen Berlanga, to storm out in protest. "They can just pretend this is a white America and Hispanics don’t exist," she said of her conservative colleagues on the board. "They are rewriting history, not only of Texas but of the United States and the world."

- Changes in specific terminology. Terms that the board’s conservative majority felt were ideologically loaded are being retired. Hence, “imperialism” as a characterization of America’s modern rise to world power is giving way to “expansionism,” and “capitalism” is being dropped in economic material, in favor of the more positive expression “free market.” (The new recommendations stress the need for favorable depictions of America’s economic superiority across the board.)

- A more positive portrayal of Cold War anticommunism. Disgraced anticommunist crusader Joseph McCarthy, the Wisconsin senator censured by the Senate for his aggressive targeting of individual citizens and their civil liberties on the basis of their purported ties to the Communist Party, comes in for partial rehabilitation. The board recommends that textbooks refer to documents published since McCarthy’s death and the fall of the Soviet bloc that appear to show expansive Soviet designs to undermine the U.S. government.

- Language that qualifies the legacy of 1960s liberalism. Great Society programs such as Title IX—which provides for equal gender access to educational resources—and affirmative action, intended to remedy historic workplace discrimination against African-Americans, are said to have created adverse “unintended consequences” in the curriculum’s preferred language.

- Thomas Jefferson no longer included among writers influencing the nation’s intellectual origins.Jefferson, a deist who helped pioneer the legal theory of the separation of church and state, is not a model founder in the board’s judgment. Among the intellectual forerunners to be highlighted in Jefferson’s place: medieval Catholic philosopher St. Thomas Aquinas, Puritan theologian John Calvin and conservative British law scholar William Blackstone. Heavy emphasis is also to be placed on the founding fathers having been guided by strict Christian beliefs.

- Excision of recent third-party presidential candidates Ralph Nader (from the left) and Ross Perot(from the centrist Reform Party). Meanwhile, the recommendations include an entry listing Confederate General Stonewall Jackson as a role model for effective leadership, and a statement from Confederate President Jefferson Davis accompanying a speech by U.S. President Abraham Lincoln.

- A recommendation to include country and western music among the nation’s important cultural movements. The popular black genre of hip-hop is being dropped from the same list.

None of these proposals has met with final ratification from the board—that vote will come in May, after a prolonged period of public comment on the recommendations. Still, the conservatives clearly feel like the bulk of their work is done; after the 120-page draft was finalized last Friday, Republican board member Terri Leo declared that it was "world class" and "exceptional."

—Brett Michael Dykes is a national affairs writer for Yahoo! News

Okay.  So that's the article.  I just got all pissed again, just posting it.  I don't understand how the 3rd worst education system in America gets to control so much of America's curriculum.  I had no idea that so many people just follow our system.  Who the hell made it okay to literally REWRITE history!?  I don't mean the good way.  No.  I mean.  WHAT THE HELL TEXAS!?  I just.  I can't really even form into words how disgusted I am.  They want to take out Thomas Jefferson from the books only because he had his fair share of downfalls!  THOMAS JEFFERSON!  I don't know if the Texas Education Board knows this or not, but he was kind of a big deal.  He did more for this country than the other "replacements" combined!  Grrrrrr.  And adding country to influential musical movements!?  Okay fine, add it if you want, but you cannot take out hip-hop.  I don't even really listen to HH, but I am pretty sure that everyone knows that so much music today would not have come to fruition had people not started rapping.  I like how they're trying to make all of the atrocities committed by America seem somehow, less, just by changing terminology.  Basically, they're going to love euphemisms.  And really?  They want to minimize Latino culture and history???  HELLO!  TEXAS OWES IT'S ENTIRE HISTORY TO LATINO AFFAIRS!  I don't know if the TEB remembers this or not, but Texas used to be a Mexican state.  What's next?  Texas wasn't acquired from Mexico and we won the Alamo?  Jesus and crackers, this is ridiculous.  CRAZY.  I need to find out the closest board member to me and destroy them.  Haha.  Kidding.  I could never hurt anyone, but I would love to speak to them or something.  As soon as I get back from Colorado, there will be many angry letters and such mailed out.  World class and exceptional my ass.  Let us further be the laughing stock of education systems.

I Think God Is Telling Me To Move To Singapore.

Singapore, Singapore (from Wikipedia)

Today has been a pretty eerie day as far as signs from the universe are concerned.  Everything at work and with my schoolwork has been normal.  While at work, a bunch of my coworkers and I were talking about how Singapore has pretty much blossomed into a world-class, highly important city.  Not that speaking of Singapore is a weird thing, but what has happened since is just a little creepy as far as coincidences are concerned.  I got home around, oh, 5:30-ish and decided to read the January issue of National Geographic that just arrived a few days ago--don't ask me why I just barely got January, February, and March all together a few days ago.  (I LOVE Nat Geo, by the way)  I read the magazine and remarked that I was just speaking of Singapore earlier at work since there was an article entitled "The Singapore Solution."  Great read by the way.  The article pretty much recounts how Singapore has gone from tropical rain forests to a globally important metropolis.  Again, I just thought that I was reading a neat article.

After dinner (which was fried pork chops and mashed potatoes, mmmmmmm) I turned on the TV to watch me some nerd channel.  I ended up settling on an episode of Big, Bigger, Biggest that focused on the advancement of Ferris wheel technology.  The only reason I REALLY watched it is because I thought SURELY the Texas Star would be featured.  I thought that the State Fair of Texas HAD to be a pioneer of some sorts (the State Fair DID invent corny dogs, funnel cakes, frozen margs, fried confections, and best of all, fried butter).  Well.  It's not.  I mean, the Texas Star is only the largest Ferris wheel in North America, but I'm going way off subject.  The weird part, is that the end of the segment focused on the Singapore Flyer--the current largest Ferris wheel in all the lands at 541ft.  I did find it a little odd that Singapore just popped up again.  It just so happened that the whole episode was just telling how the technology has advanced to make the Singapore Flyer possible.

The icing on my Singapore weirdness cake started about an hour and a half ago and hasn't stopped!  When I'm on my iPhone, it tells me my location if I'm in the maps app and if I'm using Safari, it tells me the last place I was.  It SHOULD say Sulphur Springs (maybe Greenville), but instead, it's been saying I'm in Singapore.  No joke.  Screen cap from the phone on the left.  When I'm in the maps app, the little blue dot that pinpoints your location is also saying I'm in Singapore.  I just don't get it.  I even updated my location to where it says SS, but then I close either app, and it goes BACK to Singapore.  As if I've ever even been there!  As far as I know (barring any kind of weird alien abductions and such), neither my phone nor I have been to Singapore.  Ever.  I don't even really like Singapore!  My dream locale is Malmo.  I wish to be Swedish!  NOT Singaporean?  (Is that what you call someone from Singapore!?)  The only things Malmo and Singapore have in common are: being very clean, they're both very green, both are gorgeous, and English-speakers abound.  The moral of the story, kids, is that I think God wants me to go to Singapore.  Anyone wanna take a road trip?  I'll drive!!!  :P

Perfect Sundays (Kinda)

This Sunday has been particularly amazing.  It started off with seeing a great advertising campaign on the way to Church this morning.  I know.  Me.  Church.  Scientist.  Church.  Mexican.  Baptist.  HAHAHA.  That's a whole 'nother thing though.  Anyways, the window of this jeweler in "downtown" Sulphur Springs says, "Build Your Own Bling."  Holy crap.  This little hick town of 14K people with lots of dairies and truckers has a jeweler that said "bling."  Jackpot.  That's how you know that your day will start off amazingly.  When you walk past that.  I laughed for about, 10 minutes.  No joke.

Anyways, afterwards, my mom decided that we should go eat at one of the quaint little delis in downtown.  The church is right off the square so, so the walk to the "sandwich shoppe" was minimal.  The weather is so ridiculously amazing that it was great.  Little towns always have the weirdest stuff on the square like jewelers that use the word "bling."  My barber is even on the square.  (Not to jump too far off subject, but I've been getting my hair cut by the same barber for 20 years, so I am a "regular" ^_^).  Anyways, I had an avocado split in half with scoops of chicken salad on top.  Yum-o (thanks Rachel Ray).  I haven't had that in forever.  We even ate outside and people-watched.  It has been such a great day!

The only damper is that Sunday afternoons in Sulphur Springs means that your historic house has to be amazing because strangers love to stop in to tour houses.  The sign in our yard pretty much tells everyone, "hey, this is a really old house, come look at it!"  Oh well.  We knew that when we bought it.  all the houses on our street are old.  It's also convenient because we're only a block from the square, so everyone goes to church, eats, and then comes over, haha.  The plus side is that my mom gets to make lots of mint sweet tea.  It is quite delicious.  I like sitting outside on the porch on Sundays drinking sweet tea.  How typical small-town-Southerner, huh?  On a side note: our house is going to be 100 in 2010!!!  ^_^  Not that it really matters.  Maybe we'll throw it a party!?

I also WANTED to go to the library, but it's Sunday.  Grr.  I know, a 23 year old that uses the library!?  I like to read!  Get off my back about it!  I pretty much just go through the aisles and pick books out randomly.  It's pretty great.  I really like the inside of our library anyways.  It's got a lot of really neat art and old stuff from the city's history.  We live in a pretty historic town.  It's also the dairy capital.  I mean, we have a dairy festival complete with the naming of a dairy queen.  HAHAHA.  I love/hate it.  Moral of the story: today has been such a beautiful, leisurely day.  Woot.  I love days like this.  I must now go pour tea for strangers and wave at passersby!  HAHAHA.

Southwest Airlines Kicks Butt

That's my savior [on the left] in a land of aerial lame asses.

Alright.  I've basically had the most ridiculous 3 days of all time.  Okay, maybe just in the last couple of years.  It all started on Wednesday.  I was supposed to be on my way to Las Vegas in about 2 hours, but instead, I am not going anywhere awesome this weekend.  Oh well.

Wednesday, I get the news that one of my very best friends is having her baby (it wasn't due for about 3 more weeks) and I have to fly to Colorado Springs immediately.  Whelp.  This is where it gets tough.  I called US Airways (don't ask me why I didn't fly Southwest in the first place -- oh wait, it's Travelocity's fault), to see if I could change my flight for the next one out of DFW airport.  Apparently, US Airways doesn't have much of a presence at DFW because the next flight out to Denver was at 12:30p on Thursday.  I needed to be in Denver by, oh, as soon as possible.  Didn't work.  After about 50 minutes oh hold, I was told that I could take the next flight to Phoenix and fly from there to Denver.  The only problem is that it put me in Denver at 12:15p.  Seriously?  At least the lady was nice, the on hold music certainly wasn't.

That's another thing, who the heck comes up with music for people on hold?  They need new jobs.  The music always sucks.  It really put me into the mood to be a bitch, especially after 50 minutes of it.  I wasn't though -- happy day for the reservations agent -- trust me.

Okay, back to the story at hand.  I then decided that since Delta, US Airways, and United love each other, that I would try to get on a Delta flight.  Oh wait, Delta hates DFW because American Airlines rules DFWlandia.  That turned out to be a flub because they basically wanted to put me onto the same flight to Phoenix then Denver.  United ... pfft.  Don't even get me started.  They're extra lame.  I think they have 4 flights daily from DFW.  Really?  DFW is only one of the busiest, largest airports in all the world.  C'mon.

That's when I decided to cancel all my flights (the one to Vegas and then back home).  I then booked a flight over the phone with Southwest from Dallas-Love Field to Denver.  I was on a plane in 4 hours after getting off the phone and for only $114 round trip!!!  STEAL!!!  This bring me to my title: Southwest Airlines kicks butt!  Ahhhh.  I'm now back home (thanks be to now having to work this weekend to be able to go to Colorado Springs).

Side note: I hate how Dallas-Love Field is being reduced to 20 gates and a smaller terminal.  Thanks a lot Fart Worth for being the jealous sibling.  Fart Worth: I'm sorry, but you will always be Dallas' largest suburb. Basically Fart Worth forced Dallas into agreeing to the Wright Amendment because Meacham got 1% of Texas air traffic while Love Field got 51% back in the 40s-70s.  Look which airport is STILL more important.  It's still Dallas.  You.  Lose.  Plus, everyone (except those from FW) refers to the whole of the Metroplex as "Dallas."  Fort Worth is kind of like San Jose is to San Fransisco.  SJ is WAAAAY bigger than SF, but not as important.  Ft. Worth is WAAAY smaller than Dallas, but not as important.  Sorry Dango, Ft. Worth is the western, older version of cosmopolitan, sleek Dallas.

On a super great side bonus, I got to go through downtown Dallas (I'm just a little obsessed with Dallas) and scope out the new Margaret Hunt Hill Bridge construction.  It's definitely going to be a LOT huger than I thought.  And of course, Dallas has a gorgeous skyline.  Of which there are many pictures.

Yum.

OH!  I almost forgot.  On my travels, I acquired some great things: vanilla beans, New Mexico chili powder, cinnamon (you know, the real kind -- that being Ceylon Cinnamon), aaaaaand my favorite white wine (sparking Spanish white -- Muscado).  I pretty much love going to Dallas because I can find the rarer of things that I like to cook.  Like true saffron.  Not dyed saffron from Wal-Mart.  Real.  Yay for being forced to go to Dallas when I didn't want to!  :D

3 Minute Meals

This is not actually a three minute meal bit.  I mean, what meal can you really make in three minutes?  Well.  A sandwich.  That doesn't count.  Anyways, I felt that I should share this video with whomever.  It's basically the best video of all time.  I don't know why, but I laugh so hard EVERY time.  I love Rachel Ray (of course it's a parody of her 30 Minute Meals) and this just makes it better.



On a side note, it has been gorgeous outside ALL day.  My morning run was so nice.  I wish the weather were like this more than one month a year.  Dear Mother Nature, please continue being nice.  I might even go camping early this year if the weather keeps being awesome!!!  WOOT.

Also, I hate my life.  Just kidding.  But my phone did die.  I have to wait till MONDAY to get my new one!!! WHY!?!?!?!  How does one live without an iPhone?  I feel like I'm living in 1984.  Geez.

Edit:  Whelp.  Upon checking on the weather, I have discovered that it's supposed to storm today and tomorrow, get colder, and snow tuesday.  Thanks a bunch Nature.  Jerk.