What a Harry Potter Dork I am… April 30, 2008

Today, after I dropped my sister and her friend off at dance class, I went to the library.  My main reason for going was to try sending emails with their wireless network.  I recently set up Thunderbird email on my laptop, and for some strange reason I have not been able to send emails using this on my school’s wireless network.  It works perfectly fine at home, but not at school.  So my dad told me test it at the library and see if it would work there.  It did.  I’ve got no idea why it won’t work at school.

Anyway, while I was there I decided to see if they had the 4th Sisterhood of the Traveling Pants book.  They did and I got it.  I also decided to check and see if they had Deathly Hallows on CD, since I never finished listening to it when I last checked it out.  Sadly, they did not.  However, they did replenish their supply of Harry Potter bookmarks!

A couple of months ago, they had a pile of HP bookmarks in the children’s section.  There were 7 different kinds and I took 2 of them, one of each kind they had.  Today, I noticed that they had three of the ones I did not have.  I was so excited!  I now have numbers 1, 2, 3, 6, and 7.  I only need 2 more and I’ll have the whole set.  But I’m not sure if I’ll ever find them since these are leftover from the book release last summer.  But anyway, this made my day.  They’re cool bookmarks.  They each have a different question on them, such as ‘Who will live?  Who will die?’ and ‘Will Voldemort be defeated?’  I now have 3 new bookmarks to add to my extensive collection of Harry Potter stuff, yay!

My New Favorite Bushism… April 29, 2008

Today, our lovely president was talking about high gas prices.  Being someone who lives in an area where gas prices are above average, I am very sick of paying so much to drive my car.  I got gas on Sunday and paid $3.65 per gallon, which was a sale price.  There are a few stations near me that have gas sales on a certain day of the week.  I try to buy my gas whenever there is a sale.  It cost me $44 to fill up on Sunday and it wasn’t even a full tank.  My tank is 18.5 gallons and I did the math today and found out with the current prices, it would cost me about $67 to fill up my whole tank!  Most stations near me are at $3.70 for regular and a few stations have supreme for over $4.  I’m so glad there’s only 3 more weeks left in the semester.  Once school is over I won’t have to drive as much.  And next year I’ll be living on campus so I’ll hardly be driving at all.

Anyway, back to Bush.  Today he said, while talking about gas prices, “I firmly believe that, you know, if there was a magic wand to wave, I’d be waving it, of course.”  I just started laughing.  Of all the things to say about gas prices, that’s what he said?  Of course he’d be waving a magic wand.  If we could just wave a wand to decrease gas prices, I wouldn’t even be driving anywhere.  I’d be Apparating to school and work and I wouldn’t even need a car to begin with.  I do believe that this has become my new favorite Bush quote.  It has surpassed my other favorite,  “It’s getting harder and harder for gynecologists to practice their love for women in this country.”

All I can say is, I can’t wait until January 20, 2009.

Success! April 28, 2008

I got my calculus test back today.  I thought I did well on it, but I wasn’t positive.  Turns out, I got a 74 out of 80!  That’s a 93%, my best test grade so far.  I may manage a B+ in this class yet…

I just have to hope that I don’t fail the last test and the comprehensive final.  I really hate comprehensive math finals.

Nickels Can Add Up April 27, 2008

Spring has sprung.  Well, we kind of skipped Spring and went straight to Summer here.  It’s been 70-80 degrees the past couple weeks, with hardly any rain.  It’s very strange, considering we usually don’t go 3 or 4 days without rain.  But whatever.  It’s now warm enough to open the moon roof in my car, Benny has started shedding off his winter coat, and the dandelions are in full bloom.

Ah, yes, the little yellow weeds that send many people running for chemicals to wage an all-out war against a small, but resilient flower.   My entire neighborhood  is  filled with people who hate  dandelions.  The little yellow signs that warn you of chemicals are all over the place.  Except my yard, of course.  My family does not feel the need to spread hazardous chemicals throughout the already hurt environment.  But that’s a rant for another  post.

The dandelions reminded me of a very profitable venture I participated in when I was much younger.  I must have been only 10 or 11.  My dad wanted to get rid of the dandelions, but not use any chemicals.  So he had the brilliant idea of paying my siblings and I to pick them all out of the yard.  For a nickel each.  I’m sure he thought this was a great idea to rid the yard of yellow weeds without having to do it himself or pay much money for it to be done.  However, nickels can add up.  Either he vastly miscalculated the number of dandelions in our yard, or he underestimated how much time 4 kids could spend picking weeds out of a yard for money.

By the time I finished picking the dandelions, I had picked enough to earn me somewhere between $30 and $40.  A nice profit for a 10 year old.  My bro made about the same, or a little more.  One of my sisters made around $20 or $30, and my other sister who was only about 3 at the time made $10 or so.  Needless to say, he never asked us to pick the dandelions again, even when we offered to lower the cost of each dandelion to only a penny.

A week later, our yard was once again filled with the little yellow weeds that we have surrendered to.  Never again has anyone in my family tried to get rid of the dandelions.  They are just starting to bloom now and soon our yard will be the only yellow covered one, in a sea of perfectly groomed and manicured suburban lawns.

For the Third Time… April 25, 2008

Tonight, everyone in my family had someplace to go.  My youngest sister was going to the sixth grade dance, my other sister was going to play rehearsal, my bro’s play was being performed tonight (I’m seeing it tomorrow), my dad went to go watch it, and my mom and I went grocery shopping.

My mom, both sisters, and I left around six.  My bro had left an hour earlier.  My dad was leaving sometime after we left.  We dropped my youngest sister off at a friend’s house before the dance, and she realized she left her ticket to the dance at home.  Of course.  So, we had to drive back home.  It wasn’t very far, but in the days where gas is almost $4 a gallon, well, it is $4 for the super premium, any small bit of driving is a pain.  We get home and my sister runs into the house to get her ticket.  However, she was sidetracked by the mess that was left on the oriental rug in the living room.

An empty bag of bread and an empty container of feta cheese.  Yup, you guessed it, Benny got into the fridge once again.  There had been a half loaf of bread in that bag.  It’s the same bread that he’s eaten a couple times before, he must really like it.  The cheese container was practically empty when we left the house, so he didn’t get much.  I ran into the house after I heard my sister shout this out the door and saw the garbage on the rug.  I threw it away and went to the fridge.  Sure enough, it was unlocked.  My dad forgot to lock it.  He also forgot to put the shoes that were sitting near the door away.  But, luckily for the persons who those shoes belonged to, Benny was too distracted by the unlocked fridge to indulge in the leather chew toys, aka shoes, that were near the door.

Is That Fan Fic? April 24, 2008

Last week J.K. Rowling was in NYC for a trial with Steve Vander Ark, who wants to publish a Harry Potter encyclopedia.  The trial lasted 3 days and it wasn’t resolved.  I personally think that Jo should win because I don’t think anyone else has the right to publish and make money off her work.  I fully support her and think Steve Vander Ark shouldn’t be able to publish his encyclopedia.  Especially since Jo has announced that she is going to write her own encyclopedia with new information along with old.

So a couple days ago I was on MuggleNet and saw that they had transcripts from the trial up.  I clicked on one and scrolled through it for a little while.  I didn’t read the whole thing because it was incredibly long.  I was talking about it with my sister who was in the office with me.  I was reading various excerpts from the transcript when my bro walked in the room.

He walks in, takes a quick look at my computer screen and asks, “Is that fan fic?”  My sister and I start laughing hysterically.  My bro just asks, “What?”.  And I tell him that I was reading the trial transcript.

Hard Core Huckabee Voters April 23, 2008

Yesterday was the PA primaries, if you didn’t know.  Clinton won for the Democrats.  I like both of them, but I’m more of an Obama person.  What I’d really like is both of them on the same ticket, but I don’t think either of them will suck it up and be satisfied being the running mate.

Anyway, my dad was reading the results online and they listed all the candidates and the percent of people who voted for them.  They also had the candidates who have already dropped out listed.  12% of PA Republicans voted for Huckabee.  I just started laughing when I read that.  Huckabee dropped out months ago.  What a waste of a vote.  I don’t even see the point in the Republicans having anymore primaries because they’ve all dropped out except McCain.  But 12% is a pretty big number of people to be voting for a candidate who’s already dropped out.  People are strange.

Way to Rip Off the College Students April 22, 2008

As if text books weren’t enough.  You now have to drop an entire paycheck just to participate in the graduation ceremony.  The other day I went to the book store to buy my cap and gown.  Cap/gown/tassel cost me $38.  Your standard black gown, black cap, and gold tassel.  I get a gold tassel because I’m graduating with honors (as long as calculus doesn’t bring my GPA down that much).  Otherwise, you get a black tassel.  Then, since I’m in Phi Theta Kappa, I get to wear a little gold piece of fabric around my neck.  That cost $25.99.  Tell me how a three foot by 3 inch piece of fabric could possibly cost $25.99.  Yeah, somebody’s making a fortune off this.

In high school, if we were in National Honors Society, we got to wear a white piece of fabric around our necks that cost $25, but if we brought it back to the school after graduation, we got our money back.  They don’t let you do that in college.

Of course, my parents agreed to pay for all of this anyway.  But it’s still a ridiculous amount of money for something you’re only going to wear once.  I wish my college colors were the same as high school, but they’re not.  For high school, I had a blue gown, now I’ve got a black one, and for my next college graduation I’ll have to buy a green one.  I’ll have a nice rainbow by the time I’m done.

Also, only slightly off-topic, I look like Professor Snape in my gown.  Due to this, I’m calling it a robe from now on.  Yesterday, I put it on and went up to my little sister saying, ‘I am Snape, the Potions Master.’  Yes, I am a dork and proud of it.

Even My Caluculator Doesn’t Like Calculus April 21, 2008

Yesterday before work I was doing some calculus homework.  We have a big test on Wednesday and I’m not ready for it.  I typed an equation into my calculator to find the limit of it was (if you don’t know what a limit is, consider yourself lucky) and the calculator tried to find it.  It’s a TI-89 Titanium, a really expensive calculator that can do all the stuff we do in class that we’re supposed to do by hand.  Anyway, it spent about 30 seconds trying to find the limit, before I gave up.  Usually it’s instantaneous.  So I gave up and decided to do the whole Windows thing and turn it off and back on again.  It didn’t like that either.  I had to try and turn it off numerous times.

Then, it didn’t even turn off.  It just came up with a new message I hadn’t seen before- ‘Error:  Break’.  I just started laughing.  The limit was so insanely difficult that it broke the calculator.  It just could not do the limit.  It’s not like the calculator is really broken, it still does problems that aren’t incredibly difficult perfectly fine.  I just thought it was hilarious that I got an error message that said it broke.  Calculus has gotten to the point that even my calculator has given up.

I Can’t Believe He Ate the Whole Thing… April 19, 2008

…Actually, I can. You’ve probably guessed that this is about Benny. Today, my mom made a cheese cake. It had a oreo cookie crust and was topped with dark chocolate chips. She put it in the fridge before we went out to dinner. We thought we locked the fridge. Turns out, we did put the lock on, but it didn’t latch because the fridge was overly stuffed with gallons of milk that I bought after work.

So, Benny opened it while we were gone and ate the entire cheesecake. Yup, the whole thing! He also opened up a bag of bread, but didn’t eat it. He must have been stuffed from the cheese cake. He didn’t eat the chicken that was in there, either.

What a pig. I think he is part pig, goat, and dog.