harry potter 6 update
i finished. i started and finished yesterday. :)
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i finished. i started and finished yesterday. :)
so don't read the extended if you find things gross.
anyone else function like they have a learning disability while they're on their period? i can't focus, i can't form ideas into coherent thought... i can read, but can't retain anything.
it's been really pesky to deal with when i have to write an essay.... and study for an art history exam which mostly has to do with memorization. :P
not to mention that i had a splitting headache yesterday that had me too aware of how fast my heart was beating and basically rendered me bed-prone all day. and lots and lots of sleeping... like hours during the day, hours during the night.... :P
oppose The Parental Notification and Child Protection Act
i have a feeling that this act is the "parents have a right to know" oddness that meta and i walked by on the irvine campus earlier this year.
i don't see how making an amendment to the california constitution will solve the fundamental problem of non-communicative (bad) parenting. i like how it's labeled "child protection." what are you exactly protecting the child from? some amount of privacy from their parents? how about the possibility of not being a parent?
bleh
from the website running the petition against the weirdness:
As part of a special election called by Governor Schwarzenegger, Californians will see a dangerous initiative on the ballot this November. Qualifying for the ballot is a parental notification measure on a woman's access to abortion, which threatens the health and well being of young women in our state.
We believe that real family communication begins at home, not at the ballot box. The best way to protect our daughters is to begin talking to them about responsible, appropriate sexual behavior when they're young and to continue to keep the lines of communication open as they get older. Our focus should be on prevention of unwanted pregnancies through comprehensive sex education, counseling and access to contraceptives.
This proposed amendment to California’s constitution would do nothing to reduce the number of unintended teen pregnancies - pregnancies that have in fact declined 40% in California over the past decade without government mandates like this one!
Join us in opposing The Parental Notification and Child Protection Act, because parents and teens need real world solutions, not constitutional amendments.
we went to the vet today. found out that some rabbits were heavier than i thought and others were lighter than expected:
stormy: 4.0 pounds
beau: 4.2 pounds
lena: 6.8 pounds
pearl: 6.8 pounds
they are all in good health. lena and pearl got microchipped (a service provided by HomeAgain Pet Recovery Service).
and while i was sorting through the file folder i have for them, i found a form i'd neglected to see before: rabbit personality profile. for beau.
the basically summary is that he's a store-bought rabbit who was probably cared for (traumatized) by child(ren). he didn't have an adequate diet (carrots and grass). he was surrendered by the owner because there were too many rabbits, and it suggested that he only had other rabbits for company in the backyard when he was outside of his cage in the garage. i think that cage was also shared with other rabbits and probably why...there were so many rabbits. :P
and i think this explains why he's so afraid of people and hands. because really.... the number one thing is to never have rabbits around young children. it's bad for all around.
the exact questions and answers are in the extended. some of the stuff just angers me because they are so blatantly wrong and ignorant, but chances are it was just a kid who didn't know any better.
Sex: M
Where did you get your rabbit? store
(stores are very bad places to get rabbits. it's unethical of them to sell rabbits there as they tend to take them away from their moms too young and they fail to mention things like lifespans of 10 years. purchasing rabbits from stores only encourages stores to keep them around. it's best to rescue rabbits from rabbit shelters or animal shelters if you can. if you are absolutely wedded to a breed, a responsible breeder can be found. more information about rabbits from House Rabbit Society)
Who has been the primary caregiver? Karla Sobalvarro
What type of food is the rabbit used to? carrots, grass
(this is very bad nutrition for rabbits. you need to give them good, non-fatty pellets like Oxbow Bunny Basics/T (for adults. for babies, 15/23) and plenty of hay. veggies are nice supplements and tasty treats for the rabbits but you can't rely only on that for food. grass is certainly not enough, and you may have pesticides and other toxins in a yard.)
What is it's feeding schedule? morning, afternoon, night
Has it been litter box trained? no
If not, did you try to litter box train it? no
How was the rabbit housed? cage
If caged, how big was the cage? 6 ft
Where was the cage kept? garage
Did the rabbit spend time out of the cage? yes
If yes, where did it spend time out of the cage? Backr
(i'm reading this as an incomplete backyard)
Was the time out of the cage supervised? yes
If yes, how? somebody staying with it
(it bothers me that the owner is referring to beau as "it")
Is it used to children? yes
(and this is another area where i start twitching...because i know from my experiences with beau that he was clearly frightened and terrified of people and being held or even a hand being anywhere near him. so i would argue that he was kept around children unwisely and probably unsupervised.... not used to them. :()
How does it react to children? OK
(and this bothers me because of the aforementioned reason as well as it implies that this person hasn't really paid attention to how beau was feeling. i doubt that beau was ok. he snorts and grunts and runs away even to this day. so it just feels callous to say that beau was ok with people and children when he clearly was not.)
Was it around other animals while out of it's cage? just rabbits
How does it react to them? fine
Does the rabbit have any health problems past or present? no
Is the rabbit used to having it's nails clipped? no
Is it used to being picked up and held? yes
(he's afraid of it and hates it... though he's starting to not freeze up in fear anymore)
Has it ever bitten anyone? no
Does it like to chew? N
(though if he was kept only in a cage and in the backyard, i don't know how you would know whether he chews stuff or not. after all... my furniture certainly says otherwise.)
Is it destructive? N
(ditto from above)
it makes me sad. no wonder he freaks. and really... for all four of my rabbits, they all came from such bad histories. i'm just glad that they are doing well now.
the paperwork says that he was probably surrendered to the pound in april 4th. i picked him june 27th. they told me that he was ~6 months then. bunnies aren't technically supposed to be sold until they are at least 2 months old, though stores don't tend to know enough about rabbits to adhere to that. so let's say he was sold at 2 months.... he basically had about two months with his last owner before they had to give him (and probably many other rabbits) up to shelters and pounds. *sigh*
no one is allowed to talk to me about #6 yet.
i basically haven't even started yet because i have ~150 pages of art history text to read, then an outside source, then study for vocab test, then write an essay, then study for final (which is on the 27th).
so chances are... i won't get to read it until the 27th at the earliest. maybe even later than that if my family does end up visiting me next week.
i'm not saying you should beat me off with a pillow when i get within 2 meters of you (the way kwc did)... but hey, that definitely worked. :)
thank you very much to all who wished me or participated in making my birthday a special one. :)
i'm usually used to having my birthday get lost in the craziness of summer, so it was really special to have people call with well-wishing. and the gifts were definitely cool. :)
thank you. :)
please don't take any offense. i still love you and i still think of you all the time, i just haven't really had a chance to say hi.
i've been crazy busy instead, though i said i wouldn't do that to myself this summer. i will leave out day to day things like lunches/dinners with friends errands and whatnot, but man... those certainly add to the many things i have to keep track of.
also... some unexpected things have come up as well, but yeah, will talk about that stuff later.
all this while, i've also been cleaning up my place so that my bunnies and i actually live in san jose. :) that and so my mom won't freak when she sees my place.
june:
4-13: visit family in LA
9: sasha-josephine rhee is born
11: meena leaves for korea
13: first traffic ticket
18-19: trip to tahoe/reno, maxfield parrish show and automobile museum
20: art history class starts
29: vocab test
july:
4: fireworks
6: midterm
7: grandma's birthday
6-10: seattle visiting amanda
12: drop off rabbits at sitter
12-17: sdcc 2005 (i steal kwc's fun and entertaining descriptions of team uni: team roster, prologue, thursday stage, friday stage, saturday stage, quick draw, drafting)
17: my birthday
18: pick up rabbits from sitter
20: get more rabbit food
21: aunt's birthday
22: vet visit
25: vocab test
27: final
29: parakkum's birthday
28-31?: visit from family
august:
2: alisha's birthday, hair model session
4: angela's birthday
8-13: sheldon's art academy
15: mom's birthday
20-24: erica visiting
23: wicked
24: fall 2005 begins
this is all i can remember for now. :P
i am in seattle. :)
i arrived last night around 840PM. we had dinner around 930. and what a dinner it was. *happy*
it was at a cute, interesting place called B&O Expresso. They have a beautiful array of desserts. Our waitress happened to be from the bay area as well as having travelled to many places, so there was much exchange about various favorite eateries in sf.
the food line-up (for me, i can't remember everyone else's):
1. baked brie with bread and slices of apples and pears (shared by everyone: amanda, scott, mike and jeff)
2. thai crab cakes (really really tasty. there were two small rice cakes--i'm guessing this is the thai part--and two small crab cakes with some aioli sauce and a tasty green salad on the side.)
that was a small entree (there were large and small entree sections on the menu). i knew to get a small one because i'm eating with amanda and mike, which naturally means.... LOTS OF DESSERTS.
1. sarah berhardt (sp?)
2. chocolate fondue
3. la poire something - a dessertly prepared pear with ice cream on the side
and....
4. creme brulee.
i love creme brulee. it gives me happy flutters and fuzzy feelings and a general sense of warmth. :)
we started out with a really sweet but tasty riesling and pinot grigio. i had about a total of one glass of wine, the first alcohol i've consumed in about 4.5 weeks, and i seem to be fine. i guess my body is slowly ceasing to punish me for the abuse i inflicted on it this last semester. :)
the summary:
With the resignation of Sandra Day O’Connor, President Bush will soon be nominating a new justice to the Supreme Court.
The current Supreme Court is divided – it has decided more cases by a 5-4 margin than any in modern history. These divisions come on issues that are critical to the everyday lives of Americans – rights such as reproductive freedom, gay and lesbian equality, freedom from government-sponsored religion, and environmental protections. Sandra Day O’Connor represented the center of the Court. Her replacement will have enormous power to shape our society – our fundamental rights and protections – for decades to come.
What kind of justice will President Bush appoint? President Bush has cited the two most conservative ideologues on the Supreme Court as his model justices – Antonin Scalia and Clarence Thomas. They have been the template for his lower court nominations, who have been uniformly anti-civil rights, anti-choice, anti-environment, and in favor of powerful corporate interests over the rights and protections of ordinary Americans.
We urge the President to follow the Constitution and consult with senators from both parties to nominate a moderate, consensus candidate. The American public overwhelmingly desires a moderate on the Supreme Court.
We urge you to join with the Alliance for Justice Action Campaign and demand that President Bush choose consultation over confrontation. Let him know that you expect his Supreme Court nominee to defend the rights and freedoms Americans hold dear.
parakkum wrote a pretty good summary of animations that we've been watching lately, so i link to it here (i'm lazier than he is).
Contemporary animation worth watching
i would add teen titans and justice league unlimited to this. he says he hasn't had a chance to add those yet. :)
i don't think i'm seeing things for more than they are... after much observation, i think my theory is plausible:
stormy enjoys classical music.
i was playing a best of chopin cd and now josh groban, and she gets into this trance, with her eyes half closed and with either one or two ears directed towards the music.
sometimes, she even rocks back and forth to the music.
apparently, she didn't think that much of josh groban's closer album, since she decided to hold both ears back and smooshed to her head. when i put in a in concert cd, she put up one ear to listen again.
update: when parakkum turned off the music, she got up and hopped away from her "music listening spot."
new leonardo picture discovered
i think it's pretty cool that they can see a picture underneath all the paint with this infra-red technique, but it never ceases to amuse me when people write as though a past (or sometimes current artist) went into a painting knowing exactly where everything was going to go:
"It is under this painting that experts believe they have found a drawing of a kneeling woman.
She is pictured with her eyes downcast and one of her hands stretched out.
Experts think Leonardo da Vinci was probably planning a picture of an adoration of the Christ child, but abandoned the idea before drawing Jesus as a baby, our correspondent says.
However, why he painted over the work may never be known, she adds."
they try to make it sound like it's some romantic mystery as to why he may have changed his mind. but really... he probably just changed his mind. or maybe the conditions of his commission changed after he'd already started on the drawing (after all, this definitely happens still today). or maybe he just had a partially used canvas that he didn't feel like simply throwing away.
it's a little funny, because the artists of that day didn't consider their drawings to be art. they considered their drawings to be pre-work, or scratch paper. but we still live in a post-victorian society which attaches a lot of romantic ideas of talent and divine gifts to artists. as though you had to be divinely gifted. as if these great masters didn't create art or study art or talk to artists every single day but came to their work because they were just divinely talented.
it's like trying to figure out the mysterious and divine reasons why someone did something in their sketchbook in the present day--they were probably just trying things and figuring things out.