I guess its been awhile since my last post. I can't say I've been terribly busy, I just don't get on my computer that much. I'm disappointed in myself that I didn't have a day to day journal this past month as I had hoped. But alas, I will try again next month.
This past weekend my parents came into town. It was nice to have them around. Got me away from campus and school for a bit. Gave me some time to reboot and get ready for the final month of school for the semester. Thats so wierd for me to think. I was getting excited for the fact I had only 191 days of school left, but I have to take summer classes which sucks, but hopefully after that I will be officially done. So I'm going to have to take on another 70 days to that and basically I'm back where I started.
Anyways, when my parents were here, we walked alot along the beach. My father and I attempted to go swimming, but the water was pretty darn cold, but so was the air temprature. My mom didn't even stick her toe in the water. We went to the CCU football game and they lost of course. During the entire game, we had this idiot sitting behind us. Yelling about this that and the other thing. He was yelling about the quarterback saying he sucked and that he didn't deserve to play, but then the quarterback makes a wonderful pass and then he's like wow I'm surprised he threw that good. All 3 of us were about ready to punch the dude's lights out. Mom was a popsicle by the time we got back to my place. On Sunday, we did some more walking and I took them to a couple of tourists shops. Then they had to get back home.
What I'm most looking forward to next is Thanksgiving break!
Wednesday, October 27, 2010
Sunday, October 17, 2010
Pumpkins
One of my favorite things to do during the month of October is to carve pumpkins. Usually I would just draw the typical face and have my dad saw out the face. I don't have much patience to sit and work on a project for 5 continuous hours, but last night I did. I decided to carve out the Minnesota Wild's logo. They are my favorite hockey team. (It's funny my sister has a blog and her post had to do about sticking with a team regardless of how well they do.) The Wild hasn't been doing so well, but I'm not going to switch to another team, just because mine tends to lose.
This is my pumpkin. Not exactly the greatest picture, but I think it turned out rather cool.
As we were laboriously working on our pumpkins, one of my friends asked "how come we carve pumpkins anyways?" I thought that years ago people carved them and lit them to keep evil spirits away, but I wanted to find out more. It all started in Ireland and Scotland during the 17th century. They originally carved turnips but after the potato famine sent thousands of immigrants to America they then began carving pumpkins. There are stories about how the carved pumpkin got the name jack o'lantern. One version of the story that I like was "There was a guy named Stingy Jack and he was having a drink with the devil. When the bill came Jack refused to pay. Somehow Jack convinces the devil to turn into a coin. Jack puts the coin/devil in his pocket. Jack also has a cross in his pocket which makes the devil powerless. Before Jack released the devil he made sure the devil would never claim his soul. Jack managed to save his soul from the devil, but God wouldn't let him into heaven. So Jack was stuck to walk the earth in darkness. Jack cried to the devil and asked how he could find his way through the darkness, the devil laughed and gave him an ember from the eternal fire. However, the ember was too hot so Jack put the ember in a carved turnip." Thus we have the beginning of the jack o'lantern.
Sunday, October 10, 2010
Ten Ten Ten
Yes its 10/10/10 today. Pretty cool. We are a third of the way through this month already. Rather hard for me to believe. Not much has been going on around here, besides school and chasing more cockroaches. :p I'm so sick of finding them and trying to kill them. I shouldn't have to be dealing with this. I shouldnt be having to spray roach spray and inhale fumes, isn't that someone else's job? Isnt that why I'm paying this school a ridiculous amount of money, so someone else can take care of the bug population? I should get my money back then, if I'm the one doing someone else's job!
Anyways, enough about that...I spent most of the day at the beach, since I couldn't stand the smell of bug spray fumes in my place. The ocean was near flat today. The weather was absolutely perfect. I walked about 3 miles down the beach and back and got to see 2 jellyfish, 5 crabs, a starfish and lots of unique shells and coral. My parents have also decided to visit me in 2 wks which will be nice. But that does nothing for me...because I want to get away from here for a bit. Only in time it will come. I'm also very happy that someone upset the established order in college football. I love when teams upset number ones. It makes me happy. Next week should get even more interesting and juicy.
From an amazing man and author, Mark Twain "20 years from now you will be more disappointed by the things you didn't do than by the ones you did do. So...Explore. Dream. Discover."
Anyways, enough about that...I spent most of the day at the beach, since I couldn't stand the smell of bug spray fumes in my place. The ocean was near flat today. The weather was absolutely perfect. I walked about 3 miles down the beach and back and got to see 2 jellyfish, 5 crabs, a starfish and lots of unique shells and coral. My parents have also decided to visit me in 2 wks which will be nice. But that does nothing for me...because I want to get away from here for a bit. Only in time it will come. I'm also very happy that someone upset the established order in college football. I love when teams upset number ones. It makes me happy. Next week should get even more interesting and juicy.
From an amazing man and author, Mark Twain "20 years from now you will be more disappointed by the things you didn't do than by the ones you did do. So...Explore. Dream. Discover."
Wednesday, October 6, 2010
Ooooooo
Ok so I'm not going to fill you in on the history of ghosts or any factual stuff. I'm here to state my feelings on ghosts. I have tried for many years to understand why people think ghosts exist. I don't believe in ghosts. I believe that when you die your soul goes to heaven or hell. There is no in between where your body hovers around in a building, haunting those who live or work there. I watch shows like GhostHunters and just get a kick out of them trying to pick out a noise that automatically means theres a ghost. I know most of the time they try to debunk that there is a ghost present. It is hard because when you are not physically there and you are just watching it on tv, it seems ridiculous. Maybe if someone could take me some place thats filled with ghosts or paranormal activity I could believe they exist. But even then, it would be hard for me to believe. I want to see a ghost, not feel something that is cold, or see a meter moving. Those things wouldn't seal it for me, I would need to see the physical spirit/ghost being thing. I believe that demons exist and maybe thats what people think are ghosts. Until someone can point me in a clear direction, I will not believe in ghosts!
Tuesday, October 5, 2010
Witches
I'd have to say out of all the possible classic costumes a child could wear, witches are the best. A witch is someone who has skills in sorcery and magic, beyond what a normal human could ever think of doing. When people think of witches many think they are evil, because they are mixing with an unknown world so to speak. They could be mingling with satan and his evil spirits among other things. But many witches were not really intending to be evil, many were just mixing herbal potions and tried to heal the sick. Witches dated back to the ancient Greeks and even Egyptians.
Of course move to the late 1600s and you begin the Salem witch trials, which is probably the famous trial of witches in the world. Those were said to be witches, had convulsions (be possessed) or were seen supposedly casting some sort of evil on people in the community. Many were tried and executed.
Witches were found in plays, and stories and then movies. People have had such a fascination with witches, but many who practice today reamain 'undercover'. Witches aren't as popular today as they were hundreds of years ago, but don't go on thinking that they don't exist.
Also witches don't tend to ride around on brooms and they also don't usually wear black and have a pointy black hat. Not all witches own a black cat or a cauldron. (that would be Hollywoods version of a witch.)
Of course move to the late 1600s and you begin the Salem witch trials, which is probably the famous trial of witches in the world. Those were said to be witches, had convulsions (be possessed) or were seen supposedly casting some sort of evil on people in the community. Many were tried and executed.
Witches were found in plays, and stories and then movies. People have had such a fascination with witches, but many who practice today reamain 'undercover'. Witches aren't as popular today as they were hundreds of years ago, but don't go on thinking that they don't exist.
Also witches don't tend to ride around on brooms and they also don't usually wear black and have a pointy black hat. Not all witches own a black cat or a cauldron. (that would be Hollywoods version of a witch.)
Monday, October 4, 2010
I vant to suck your blood!
So recently there have been lots of movies and tv shows about vampires. I'm not sure what the recent interest is, but vampires have been around for hundreds of years. The first time vampires were mentioned was 5000 b.c. Thats a long time ago. Todays vampires aren't exactly what vampires were back years ago. Vampires were not able to go out in the light, according to some shows if they wear a special ring they can, but thats not true. According to the twilight gang they glitter in the sun and not burn like real vampires do. Vampires also feed on human blood, not typically animal blood.
According to researchers, there are certain medical cases where people have a sexual thirst for blood and that categorizes them as vampires. (otherwise known as insane.) There was this one vampire named Vlad the Impaler who would nail hats to people's heads and then skin them and impale them on stakes. He would then dip bread into their blood. Thats disgusting.
In Europe through much of the middle ages and onward, when someone who was suspected to be a vampire was dead they made sure to put a boulder on their grave to they couldnt leave. Ways you could repel a vampire include, but not limited to: garlic, fire, bells, peppermint, running water, etc.
Another interesting fact about vampires is the whole concept of being invited into someones house. A vampire cannot entire a house without first being invited in. If you do invite them in, they will forever be allowed to enter, even without permission.
Mermaids can also be vampires, instead of sucking blood, they suck breath.
There are some countries that believe pumpkins and watermelon can turn into a vampire if not eaten by Christmas. If any sort of blood is dropped on them, the surely will turn into a vampire.
Fascinating isn't it? And this is just scratching the surface.
According to researchers, there are certain medical cases where people have a sexual thirst for blood and that categorizes them as vampires. (otherwise known as insane.) There was this one vampire named Vlad the Impaler who would nail hats to people's heads and then skin them and impale them on stakes. He would then dip bread into their blood. Thats disgusting.
In Europe through much of the middle ages and onward, when someone who was suspected to be a vampire was dead they made sure to put a boulder on their grave to they couldnt leave. Ways you could repel a vampire include, but not limited to: garlic, fire, bells, peppermint, running water, etc.
Another interesting fact about vampires is the whole concept of being invited into someones house. A vampire cannot entire a house without first being invited in. If you do invite them in, they will forever be allowed to enter, even without permission.
Mermaids can also be vampires, instead of sucking blood, they suck breath.
There are some countries that believe pumpkins and watermelon can turn into a vampire if not eaten by Christmas. If any sort of blood is dropped on them, the surely will turn into a vampire.
Fascinating isn't it? And this is just scratching the surface.
Sunday, October 3, 2010
Arrrr....Matey
I'm not sure how interesting this is going to be, but here goes nothing.
I want to start off a story about pirates. This event happened in my early childhood, around 6 years of age. My family and I went to Disney and we were on the Pirates of the Carribean ride. I wanted nothing more than to get off the ride (even though it was probably really harmless). My parents tell me that I tried to jump off the boat (as if that would have helped me escape). This makes me question if pirates are scary? I've seen and own all 3 Pirates movies and love them. But then again those are movies. I don't think pirates are meant to be scary. Sure they robbed and pillaged and would do whatever it took to get treasure, but honestly who wouldn't?
Many children dress up as a pirate for Halloween and rightly so. They may not be robbing someone of their candy, but they are getting treasure. Here are some interesting things about pirates:
They have a code. I honestly just thought that was something made up. I read the code which has essentially 9 rules. Many of them if not followed result in a beating or death. And to go along with the Pirates movies there are such things as pieces of eight. The jolly roger shown on many pirate flags were meant to show no mercy towards crew/capitan that are captured. There were many different positions held on a pirate ship from the capitan to a powder monkey to a boatswain. They also have their own language so to speak. Ex: I will send you to Davy Jones' Locker aka I will send you to the depths of the sea, where you will meet your death. Most pirate ships were captured out at sea and not built on land and then taken out to sea. Of course there are plenty of famous pirates, who left their mark on the world forever.
I want to start off a story about pirates. This event happened in my early childhood, around 6 years of age. My family and I went to Disney and we were on the Pirates of the Carribean ride. I wanted nothing more than to get off the ride (even though it was probably really harmless). My parents tell me that I tried to jump off the boat (as if that would have helped me escape). This makes me question if pirates are scary? I've seen and own all 3 Pirates movies and love them. But then again those are movies. I don't think pirates are meant to be scary. Sure they robbed and pillaged and would do whatever it took to get treasure, but honestly who wouldn't?
Many children dress up as a pirate for Halloween and rightly so. They may not be robbing someone of their candy, but they are getting treasure. Here are some interesting things about pirates:
They have a code. I honestly just thought that was something made up. I read the code which has essentially 9 rules. Many of them if not followed result in a beating or death. And to go along with the Pirates movies there are such things as pieces of eight. The jolly roger shown on many pirate flags were meant to show no mercy towards crew/capitan that are captured. There were many different positions held on a pirate ship from the capitan to a powder monkey to a boatswain. They also have their own language so to speak. Ex: I will send you to Davy Jones' Locker aka I will send you to the depths of the sea, where you will meet your death. Most pirate ships were captured out at sea and not built on land and then taken out to sea. Of course there are plenty of famous pirates, who left their mark on the world forever.
Saturday, October 2, 2010
New Month...New Ideas
We have finally made it to what I think is the best month of the year. It may not have the best holidays, but it has a pretty good one. Plus, this is when (if you're in a northern state) you are able to witness full on color change and much cooler weather. It also gets you in the mood for the holidays that are coming.
So my thoughts for this month are to blog on different things associated with the month of October like Halloween, Reformation, Columbus day, etc. I also want to focus in on traditions and specific halloween costumes like witches and vampires etc. I want to get historical and learn some things for myself and share them with others. I have quite a bit in mind. I hope that I can write almost everyday, otherwise I will write longer posts. I of course will keep you updated on my life as well. I don't anticipate anything exciting to happen, but thats just it...I don't plan for things and crap happens.
Tomorrows anticipated post: Pirates
So my thoughts for this month are to blog on different things associated with the month of October like Halloween, Reformation, Columbus day, etc. I also want to focus in on traditions and specific halloween costumes like witches and vampires etc. I want to get historical and learn some things for myself and share them with others. I have quite a bit in mind. I hope that I can write almost everyday, otherwise I will write longer posts. I of course will keep you updated on my life as well. I don't anticipate anything exciting to happen, but thats just it...I don't plan for things and crap happens.
Tomorrows anticipated post: Pirates
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