i'll never have to eat again
busy days ahead. have to write an essay for mañana, export a video for friday, put together a video for sunday, freshen up a webpage (not my own, duh), and find some time to sleep in between. yesterday i had a huge lunch with something from every food group. my dairy serving was cheese pizza; my meat serving was bacon; my bread serving was toast; my fruit serving was orange juice, tomatoes, and bananas with peanut butter; my vegetable serving corn; and my dessert was ice cream with chocolate sauce. i didn't eat anything til this next morning. lunch today at Greenbriar was nice, but i am afraid that the bun of my barbeque sandwich was soaked in grease. normally, it's not, but today—let's just say the blood was flowing a little slower in my veins. i think the bun was old & they were trying to cover it up by saturating it with pork grease. mañana 9th thru 12th, all 19 of us, is having a party during 4th period. good thing i'm not on a diet. or is that a bad thing?

ticked off
"OH DEAR GOD!!!" i screamed as i flung the soapy tick against the shower door. this wasn't the first time i had found a tick in my hair. it was the second. hoping it was a scab but knowing it wasn't, i plucked it gingerly from my shampooed head. then started the whimperings and maudlin mutterings in an unknown language that is reserved for moments when i'm too panicked to say anything intelligible.

you see, the dogs had a tick problem several weeks ago, so we medicated them. but instead of dying right away, the hell-born creatures are allowed saunter around for a bit on the dog, which is just long enough for them to get into the house and pepper the carpet with their little corpses. now i might be ok if it stopped there. but it doesn't. because the dogs' skin is poisonous, they are driven out ALIVE into my realm, finding their way onto my scalp.

before i found the first tick in my hair, i was able to hold it together in tick situations, despite my near-phobic disdain for any and all eight-legged freaks (excepting, of course, the harmless harvestman aka grandaddy-longlegs). but there's always been something worse about ticks, maybe because spiders are afraid of humans while the ticks see us as fleshy, walking burger kings. anyway, even after the first incident, i was able to keep my sister calm while i pulled a tick off of her butt (excuse me, "lower back") with my bare hands, which i later found out is a no-no. the second tick experience made me panicky, but it was what happened later that afternoon that pushed me over the edge.

i sat in the backseat of the car with the dogs after a trip to my grandparents' house. i saw a tick on biscuit's back, so i snatched it up with a kleenex. the dogs had been literally sitting on top of me, so i began getting concerned. the next tick appeared on me, and i sufficiently panicked, but i got it off. as i sat curled in the corner of the car, it didn't take long for me to reach the hysterical point. here i was, trapped between two dogs dropping ticks and the door of a moving car. there was no getting out. imagine arachnaphobia mixed with claustrophobia, and you have my panic attack. then the next dread devil appeared on my hand. the terror alert was red, let me tell you. after five more torturous minutes, i was home and on the brink of madness. after a thorough clothing search and scalp scouring, i doused myself in DEET. it was only 7%, but i hear they make 100%. like my mom says: "DEET is our friend."

the biscuit crumbles
he hates the vacuum. well, they both hate the vacuum, but daisy is a little more laid back about it. and, as i suspected, when the vacuum was brought out, biscuit began to whine and make his doggy-talking noises. you know, like he wants to say something but can't? all while i was vacuuming, he barked and barked, darting bravely around the imposing plastic beast. he even nipped at it a little. maybe he's getting braver, which is suprising since he's...less than a man. it even seemed like he was trying to protect daisy. either that or trying to keep her from stealing his kudos. sometimes, he would get tired and walk around panting, then after mustering some strength, begin barking again. he barked until i put it in the closet, then he went up to it and sniffed, shuffled over to his water bowl, dripped puddles from his cheeks onto the floor, sprawled out on the linoleum, and farted. boys are so weird.

a gallimaufry of events
well, i've just been listening to clips from william hung's (of american idol fame) new four song EP at the iTunes Music Store. they are so funny. and kinda eerie, too. after being inundated for months with form letter from colleges i have never heard of, i'm a little angry. they tell me that the PSAT/NMSQT people say that i might have scored well enough on the Num-Squat to be recognized for the National Merit Scholarship thing. 'course, they've told everybody but me. and i won't find out until september or october, so that sucks. and so do the ticks on poor biscuit. we removed four from him, but only one was fat. and that one's head didn't come out. so from my exhaustive research on the internet, we're supposed to take him to the vet immediately to curtail any nasty infections. oh, and one more thing: don't roll around in a sleeping bag after eating Burger King, no matter how fun it sounds.

cold feet
once in science class, we used the scientific method to determine if tapping the top or bottom of a coke (actually it was a sprite) really kept it from spraying. i've always been a fan of the scientific method; it's one of the few things that i'll actually go over and above with. Veritas is worth working for. for the past few hours, i've been trying to find out how to compress video for the web while retaining quaility and small size. that means i've been tinkering with settings that i have no idea what they do exactly. while the test movie exports, i come over here and piddle. the subwoofer under the desk is blowing cold air on my bare feet, which keeps my feet chilly, until the dogs decided to fight on top of them. then they're quite warm. i guess i'll check on my experiment now.

why canada?
i got the newest downhere cd last christmas. they're a band from canada, and for some reason, everytime i listen to it, i think of a toronto photo blog that i frequent. it's updated everyday with excellent pics from around toronto and some other places around the world, like france and iran. it has inspired me to take up photography. too bad i don't have a good camera. anyway, this guy's images, i don't know why, but they make me WANT to go to canada. never in my life have i had any use for that big french-speaking tundra where all they do is hunt and fish and fight hypothermia. but it turns out they actually have a summer time! imagine that! oh, and my sister has stolen my new kutless cd. at least she listens to it around me.

viaje a target con rebecca
rebecca came over on friday to work on invitations for the grandaddio party (7th grade class reunion; rebecca, pain pills, long story...). she wanted to sojurn to the nearby target because it's so peaceful since everybody is at wal-mart. :c) on the way, we listened to the iPod and sang along to oldies, like "tearing up my heart" and "i want you back" by 'n sync and "show me the meaning of being lonely" by backstreet boys. you remember those days? when britany spears wore clothes and christina agulera (sp?) had normal hair? remember cleopatra, that group of island girls that sang the song "cleopatra comin' at ya"? they were pretty popular for a while. and o-town, which was created on a reality show. i still hear their songs sometimes. anyway, remeniscing like that made us feel really old. the teeny-boppers today don't know that justin timberlake came with four other guys and that aaron carter had a brother. they don't even listen to that music anymore. they listen to good charlotte and nelly these days. and probably marlyn manson and nine inch nails in a few months. where have all the boy bands gone? and have you seen those "bratz dolls"? and "cali barbie" or "melanoma barbie" as we like to call her. soon, all the little pre-teens will be either goth or slutty. i think it's time for another boy band movement to save the teeny-boppers of america. i remember when justin and brittany and christina used to be role models. fame destroys people. the degredation of society can be seen in its pop stars and celebrities. we need morals and values again. and barbie needs sunscreen and maybe some chemo if she's not careful...

no more monkeying around
Meaningless! Meaningless! Utterly meaningless! Everything is meaningless! The site that taught me most of what i know about web design and programming, the home of beautifully helpful tutorials, Webmonkey, is closing its doors. I blubbered and sobbed while i read the Wired News article about its untimely demise. I can just hope that they keep the site on the web, even if they fire all the staffers. They wouldn't take it down, would they? I mean, I could deal with no new content, but the wealth of knowledge—how could someone flush all that down the preverbial toilet? Well, we'll just have to see what happens. And I guess that's all I have to say about that.

best books ever
i just finished reading my other favorite book. i've never been able to say "i couldn't put it down" and mean it so much. i read almost all of it today. it wasn't too long and it wasn't too short. it was just right. the plot was wonderful and detailed with multi-tiered meanings almost worthy of Hawthorne. and the suspense...oh the suspense. Alfred would be proud. and it read well, too. colorful enough to be a vivid screenplay for a movie and sprinkled with just enough interesting words (aka "big" words) to keep it intellegent without being verbose. and where the plot seems a little thin ("technology like that's hardly believeable..."), it's where the message takes over, and the reader realizes that it's a warning. it doesn't seem that dangerous, even inviting in some aspects, and it's so widespread that it's scary when i think how incredibly imminent it is. you think i've used "it" enough? how vague can i be? well, the name of the book is nightmare academy. it's by frank peretti, one of the best authors of the 20th century. my other favorite book is this present darkness, and hangman's curse, the first book in the veritas series, is really good, too. those are the only two books i've ever read twice (or even wanted to read twice). forget that harry potter stuff. who needs it? give me peretti anyday.

misanthrope i am
i hate stupidity. which inheritly means i hate driving, since all the stupidity of all the people on the roads is brought to a crescendo around my vehicle. please, don't use your turn signal. i don't need to know what erractic paths your whimsy will direct your little european car. oh, and just now, i was trying to take a nap. i just wanted 3 more minutes. but no. my sister had to start her american idol audition. i had asked her nicely to be quiet before, so why should ask again? i gave her a chance and toughed it out for a minute (a muscle-tensing, impatient minute that i could have spent resting on the thought plane) before i let out a short, irritated "shhh!" common courtesy would dictate being quiet. i would have, and i do when i am asked. but she let out a awful, defiant trumpet and kept on just long enough to be a butthole. what she couldn't see beneath the afgan blanket was my balled fists and my face bending around a scowl. so i threw off the blanket, cranked up my iPod, and posted this entry. nothing productive, but it's better than what i could've done.