Practicing Writing

Obviously, I missed another day in my BEDA (Blog Every Day in April) challenge. Having missed a day, I started thinking about why I'm bothering to blog everyday this month. Some of my blog posts are as short as two sentences and a link, more of a Tumblr than a blog. Yesterday I told my friend Bethanie that Tumblrs are blogs for people who are to lazy or busy to write a whole post, but then was ashamed of myself for saying that because sometimes my blog posts are little more than a few lines.

So, back to why I have tried BEDA two years running - the goal of BEDA, in my opinion, is to increase the ease of putting your thoughts on paper in a coherent, readable manner. Essentially, the goal of BEDA is to improve my writing and blogging. So now the question is, does BEDA actually improve my blogging? I'm honestly not entirely sure. I can say that at the beginning of the month, I do really enjoy the challenge of having a thoughtful post, and I make more of an effort to observe the world so that I'll have something to write about, which I think improves my writer's eye, but not necessarily my grammar, sentence structure, etc.

My roommate, Katrina, drafts almost everything she writes. She'll draft emails and blog posts, save them, and come back to them later, with a fresh eye. I tend not to do that - usually what you read here is what I wrote, with minimal edits. I think Katrina is an incredibly talented writer, perhaps because of her tendency to draft and revise (for a sample, see her blog post here: http://aerophobickat.blogspot.com/2012/04/inspiration.html).

Both Katrina and I use our blogs to share whatever thoughts come into our heads - there isn't a specific theme or point, it's just a place for us to talk and record the thoughts that we've had. However, my friend Megan is using her blog to talk about her stay in Ireland. My friend Bethanie uses her blog to explore the Psalms of David. Themed blogs are pretty popular - the whole premise of the movie Julie and Julia is a themed blog that rose to fame. A few weeks ago, a journalist from the Baltimore Sun came to speak with the staff of the Retriever Weekly, and she mentioned that blogs are a great way to get people to read your writing, so that they will want to pick up your articles, so the paper will get read. So, I think, regardless of the blog theme, or the length of the post, BEDA and blogging in general is about one very specific thing - practicing our writing.

Gender Profiling

So, I was just browsing LifeHacker, and it mentioned that Google builds an ad profile for you. So I checked out my ad profile, and learned that Google had assumed, based on my geeky browsing preferences, that I was a guy. Talk about gender profiling! You'd think it would realize how often I hit sites like Pinterest, and that would have tipped it off, but I guess not. I corrected it and opted out of ad profiling.

I won't deny that gender profiling makes some amount of sense. I do it myself sometimes. For example, yesterday, when my RC car robotics team met, my teammate Nathan had brought along a wire crimper/stripper, and was regretting not having brought some other tools. I remarked that I simply didn't have that kind of tool collection, and he said, "oh, you pick things up when you need them for projects". My other teammate, Andrew, had a soldering iron, a power screwdriver, and several other tools for us to work with. They were both regretting the lack of a voltmeter, and Nathan remarked that he was thinking of buying one, to which I replied, "So you can add it to your man collection of tools?"

Well, they got pretty defensive about that, so I dropped it, but see, gender profiling comes naturally to people. The question I guess I want to ask is, when is it appropriate, and when is it not? As a female CS person, I'd say both the examples above (geeky browsing sites and tool collections) are not appropriate gender profiling...but then I'm left wondering what is? I know that there are definitions of biblical masculinity, biblical femininity, and roles for different genders to fill - so when should we fit the profile?

Neurons...

I had at least six different things I thought of today that I could have blogged about. And unfortunately, they've all disappeared tonight. Which reminds me of my class this morning. We were talking about what causes neurons to fire, and the nature of complexity in neurons firing. At some point today, some neurons in my brain fired and I thought, "I'd like to blog about that", but the connection wasn't strong enough to last to now, when I actually got to sitting down at my computer. Speaking of neurons firing, one of my classmates mentioned something totally crazy today in class. Did you know there's a neuron devoted to Jennifer Aniston in your brain? Check it out: http://www.npr.org/blogs/krulwich/2012/03/30/149685880/neuroscientists-battle-furiously-over-jennifer-aniston

Comics

I really enjoy comics - although I've never been quite sure why they're called that, because most of them are not comedic, but actually quite serious. Like this one. Enjoy. http://kanelynch.com/therelics/

Tea

Drinking a cup of lemon tea right now. It's delicious. We have a club here at school devoted entirely to the drinking of tea. It's called Tea Empire, and it's quite fun, each week we drink a different themed set of teas. Reminded me of this poem, that I first read in a Laura Childs Tea Shop Mystery.

Tea Poem, by Annonymous

When the world is all at odds
And the mind is all at sea
Then cease the useless tedium
And brew a cup of tea.
There is magic in its fragrance,
There is solace in its taste;
And the laden moments vanish
Somehow into space.
The world becomes a lovely thing!
There’s beauty as you’ll see;
All because you briefly stopped
To brew a cup of tea.

Making Good Ramen

I'm eating Ramen out of a coffee pot like device right now, with a bag of pretzels and my Latin textbook on the desk next to me. I'm laughing at myself a little because I fulfill the stereotype image so much right now. But you know what? I don't really have a problem with that. Who decides stereotypes are derogatory, anyways? My Ramen is delicious - I mixed it with a package of instant Miso soup, so it has really great flavor. I think an interesting idea for a Food Network TV show would be to have a show about how to make pre-packaged food taste really good. Sometimes they make them use things like Rice Krispies cereal in their dishes, and they make it turn out good. Wouldn't that be a great show?

(There are only 8 more days in April, and then you'll stop having to read my one paragraph silly thoughts like this one).

Love Songs

My good friend Adele just posted this song on YouTube. (No, not the famous Adele...an Adele who has yet to become famous). http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UKOkspo4W9E&feature=g-u-u&context=G290b8a2FUAAAAAAACAA

I thought it was interesting, her challenge to herself to write a non-romantic love song. So then I started thinking about the love songs I know (which are very few - and most of the one I do know are country love songs, like Are You Gonna Kiss Me or Not). So then I started thinking about other songs that I know, and realized that most songs are about breaking up. Or the post broken-up, can't get over you feeling. That's...a sad and disappointing social commentary. So instead, songs like Adele's should become famous. Problem solved!

Another solution would be to treat dating, and sex, and all that stuff, less casually. If people weren't so quick to give that stuff up, they'd be less heartbroken if it doesn't work out. However, I feel like with movies and TV the way it is (think movies like Friends with Kids, Friends with Benefits) people are going to treat it casually. Something else that makes commentary on our society.

Robots and Oates

This post is prompted by the fact that my team won the Robotics class Championship:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3Xm0LNk3x24

Robots are a lot harder than you think they are. We had an assignment where we had to write how we would design a robot that would take orders from students in the ITE building and deliver them food from our Commons. It was really hard. I think of movies like Robots (with Robin Williams) and Pixar's Wall-E. The robots in those films are far too human like. They reach for a kind of technology that we don't yet have. However, it's a kind of technology that Dr. Oates (one of my favorite professors, and the robots instructor) thinks is achievable. Rather than recap it, I am just going to point you to some Oates resources. I really do want you to read the first link, with his thoughts about the future of robotics - I think there's some great food for thought there. I also think it's worth it to check out his appearance on Prog. Rock Block, because come on, a professor who's willing to do a radio show with one of his students is AMAZING.

Here's his profile on the CSEE website, where he talks about his robot dreams and has an amazing smile:
http://www.csee.umbc.edu/research/research-profiles/dr-tim-oates/

The class website for our robotics class, with details about SumoBots (the competition linked above):
http://www.csee.umbc.edu/courses/undergraduate/479/

And, to prove how awesome he truly is...here is the time he and Alec hosted Alec's radio show together.
http://www.pulianas.com/Alec_Pulianas/The_Prog_Rock_Block/Entries/2012/3/15_Episode_18__Dr._Oates_Special.html

Writer's Notebooks

Several years ago, my mother gave me a book for my birthday called "A Writer's Notebook" by Ralph Fletcher, and a lovely little notebook. The book described the kinds of things found in a Writer's Notebook, how to choose a good notebook for yourself, and some exercises to get your own writer's notebook started. For example, one of the exercises is to make a list of your favorite words to say (my list includes the words harpsichord, assam, concerto, waltz, and piazza.)

Since that day, I have filled several little notebooks with my "Writer's Notes", and other things (like a list of blog post ideas). I now recognize that the trick of carrying a notebook is not unique to writers, but still do some of the exercises in my current notebook, which has been carefully chosen to meet my notebook criteria. Three of my favorite CS professors carry small  notebooks to keep track of their ideas and to-do lists - and each one's notebook reflects their personality. For example, Dr. desJardins carries a floral print journal. She doesn't feel the need to write on the pages in order, she just finds an empty page, dates it, and writes the to-do things for that day. Dr. Rheingans has a simple dark green composition book in which she writes notes from our meetings and which she uses to reference old notes she'd made. Dr. Oates has a running Notepad on his MacBook to track his to-do list, and a 3 by 5 spiral index notebook to write things down when he doesn't have his MacBook.

Personally, my notebook is a mini-composition book, stamped with Hello Kitty. I had initially bought it for Katrina, but I liked the size so much that I kept it. It's a perfect size for both my purses, but not so big that it draws too much attention to itself. One last story to demonstrate the importance of these notebooks: my friend Dave has a list of things he never leaves the house without, and on that list is his small black moleskin and a pen. Do yourself a favor, and go buy one.

Dr. Hrabowski

Have I ever told you the reason I write for the Retriever Weekly? Well, if you don't already know, I write for the Retriever because a fantastic person here encouraged me to do so. Last spring, a lot of us CWITs were talking about how Meyerhoff Scholars get recognition at this school that we simply do not get. We were encouraged to get that recognition for ourselves by writing for the school paper. We were told that when we honored and respected ourselves, other people would see and hear that and begin to recognize us. I, consequently, joined the paper journalist staff and will be on the editorial staff this coming fall.

The person who encouraged me to write for the paper was none other than the fantastic president of this university, Dr. Freeman Hrabowski, who has just been named one of Time Magazine's 100 most influential people. Which is fantastic publicity for our school. Check it out below:
http://www.time.com/time/specials/packages/article/0,28804,2111975_2111976_2112119,00.html

Alec and I don't talk about our great professors for nothing! We really are receiving our educations from some of the best people the world has to offer, and we both have the pleasure of personally knowing Dr. Hrabowski.

Tricks of Consumerism

I have four Vera Bradley bags. A wrist-let that I carry everyday, a labtop case that I carry at least once a week, a little purse that I carry my Bible in to church on Sundays, and a big purse for other occasions. I've already replaced the wrist-let once, and the handle on my labtop case is getting worn. You'll notice that Vera Bradley comes out with new bag patterns every year, and a year is about the time it takes for the bags to "wear out". Which doesn't mean become unusable, it simply means gets worn and not-new looking. And then people get new ones. Tricks of consumerism!

Another consumerism thing that Katrina had been talking about in GWST is the difference in advertising for women and men, particularly when it comes to hygienic products. Think shampoo, hair products, deodorant. Which means a husband and wife could potentially be buying different shampoo and deodorant, for no other reason than that one is advertised for females and one for males. Again, tricky with consumerism.

Who wants to be an Engineer?

Have you ever noticed that the things on television don't highlight engineering? Shows like CSI and Castle highlight police detective work. Shows like How I Met Your Mother and Friends don't focus on jobs at all generally, but when the jobs do come up, it's jobs like teaching, or investment banking, etc. The only show I can think of that emphasizes science/tech jobs is the Big Bang Theory - and that show is designed to make fun of the people who do the physicist jobs. (I think Big Bang Theory is hilarious, by the way, and I am in no way saying it's a bad show). But I do want to know why there aren't any "glamorous" engineers on TV - preferably female characters, if possible. Granted, there aren't a lot of real female engineers, so it would be hard to make a TV show about them when they're already scarce, but I think if we were to make them more cool on TV, more kids would want to go into those fields. Who wants to be an engineer if they don't see how cool it is? Just a thought from the female advocate in me. :)

Signatures

This post is going to be a bit short, but I have a question for you all to consider. How do you sign your letters/emails? And what does the way you sign your letters/emails mean? For example, one of my favorite professors always signs his name "tim" on every email I've ever sent him. Is that giving me permission to call him by his first name? Sometimes I sign my emails with just my first initial - usually only to people I'm super close/casual with, like my father. My CWIT mentor signs her emails "plr", which are her initials. When I write to my friend Yna, I like to sign the letters in more flowery ways - "Very truly yours", for example. Not for any particular purpose, just because I write her often enough that I like to add that for a slightly different flavor. According to Dr. Shields, signing my letters that way is a sign of my Western training, the fact that I include language of love in my letters to a friend. You all know now that I have saved several letters over the years, and they usually end with "Write Soon", etc. How do you sign your name? Does it have any significance?

Elevators

Christina and I recently watched "Kate and Leopold", which is allegedly about the inventor of the elevator, so I've been thinking about elevators for an unusually large amount of time. Yesterday, I summoned the elevator to my floor, and then decided to run down the stairs to get my laundry, instead of waiting for the elevator.

When I got down to the basement (where the laundry room is), I called the elevator again, so that it would come back down to me when I was ready for it. Then I went and took my laundry out of the dryer - and came back to find that the elevator still hadn't come down yet (the light was still on). This turned out to be because there was someone else in the elevator with their laundry when it came down.

So, like the nerd I am, on the way back up I started thinking about how you might program an elevator. My guess, from Data Structures, is to use a Priority Queue. You'd have to have some way to differentiate between when you were headed up and when you were headed down. You need a tracker to follow which floor you're on. No one wants to get on an elevator to go up before they can go down, so that's another factor you'd have to consider when assigning priority to commands.

There's one last thing with an elevator. It's an embedded system, so you don't have the regular coding that you normally have. So maybe programming an elevator isn't really programming, but only circuit control, in which case I'll have to hit up one of my computer engineering friends for advice.

I'll bet you've never thought so much about elevators, have you? :)

Expectations of Friendship

Today was Dr. Shields' "Lunch in the Lounge", and she talked to us about the language of friendship from the Tang Dynasty. She told us that the language of love that we tend to use in Western cultures to define friendship is not used in Eastern culture. She gave us examples of monks writing letters to each other, saying how much they longed to see each other, etc. (Think like the letters of the apostle Paul, Ephesians 1:16 as an example). This language isn't present in Chinese literature - any discussion of friendship that does appear in these texts is an extremely polished, formal writing. She then told us four different words that are used for different kinds of friendship in Chinese, and how these words have evolved over time to the meanings that they have in contemporary China. For example, there's a whole new Chinese word that has evolved to mean internet friendships. Did you know that there are more people in China on social networks than the population of the United States? (by a tiny little bit). That's a LOT of people! Dr. Shields told us that this has changed Chinese young people's expectations of friendship, and even of dating. So after her talk, I asked her if there was a word to describe friendship between a husband and his wife (I mean, it is my parent's anniversary, after all), and she said no, there isn't, because the expectation of friendship in a marriage is a (relatively) new concept. Which I thought was interesting. Don't you? Friendship in a marriage is something I've always expected. Maybe it's because my parents are introverts, but they're pretty close to each other, and they're my obvious model for marriage. Well, whatever the reason for my expectations, happy anniversary to my parents!

Connections

Yesterday, my friend Brandon posted this status - "did you guys know that "pixel" is short for "picture element"? Makes sense....."


I responded with:


"I did! I think it's one of those things they tell you in an intro level CS class, and when a photographer finds it, you feel a brief moment of soul matching, realize you're actually connecting as human beings and aren't two totally different species, and see how cool the world could be...before going back to your separate lives. :) Kind of like when we talked about pinhole cameras in relation to machine vision in my robotics course."


I really love the connection moments between disciplines. They're usually pretty rare, but it makes both parties really happy. Wouldn't you agree?

Dr. Osherow

Along the same lines as my post about Dr. Shields, here's a post about Dr. Michele Osherow, another one of the most fabulous professors here. I don't imagine that Dr. Osherow remembers this, but she was actually one of the first professors I ever had at UMBC. During honors orientation, they have the students attend artificial classes to get a feeling for what the campus is like, and what the professors are like. I attended the Shakespeare class with Dr. Osherow. She began the class with a short summary of the time period in which Shakespeare was writing, to give us some context about his plays, told us a little bit about the thought process behind staging a Shakespeare play (since, in addition to UMBC, she's the resident dramaturg at the Folger) and ended by asking us to break into teams and act our various scenes from Macbeth. I loved that first false class, not only because I love Shakespeare, but because I was completely amazed by someone as dedicated to literature and as intelligent as Dr. Osherow.

This past semester, I had the great pleasure of taking Dr. Osherow's course, The Bible as Literature (ENGL 349, if you're interested). She had some fascinating insights, and I adored taking a class with her. As an English Lit. minor, I think my new philosophy for taking English classes is going to be 'follow Dr. Osherow', because I know she's amazing. I also, happily, got to see a play she was helping with at the Folger. Because of Dr. Osherow (and being in the Honors College) I was able to attend the dress rehearsal for Othello last spring, and to meet the director of the production and hear some of his thoughts. It was an absolutely fantastic experience.

link to UMBC profile:
http://www.umbc.edu/english/fac_mosherow.html
link to work at Folger:
http://www.folger.edu/template.cfm?cid=3216

Dr. Anna

Today I was having lunch with Alec, and he remarked that he doesn't know anyone else at any other school who so consistently talks about the great people there. We were talking about one of our favorite subjects - the sheer number of phenomenal professors at our school. And, with our excellent rating as the 4th top school for undergraduate education, why wouldn't we talk about that?

In all seriousness, one of the main reasons I'm at this school is because of some fabulous professors who scored in my book immediately. One of these professors is Dr. Anna Shields, who at the time was the Director of the Honors College. Dr. Shields, with her bright, happy smile and commitment to an Honors education, persuaded me of the benefits of the UMBC Honors college and won my heart, in terms of professors, with her excellent presentation about the poetry of Chinese letter writing (see, more letters!) during Honors Forum my freshman semester. When a relatively small blonde woman starts a lecture by jabbering in Mandarin, you remember!

While my interaction with Dr. Shields has greatly decreased since her stepping back from the Honors College, she's still in my list of top professors at UMBC, and I hope that she teaches another Honors Seminar so that I can enjoy the pleasure of her instruction again. This Friday, she's going to be hosting Lunch in the Lounge, and I really look forward to getting to talk with her again!

(link to an abstract about Dr. Shields' work)

https://docs.google.com/viewer?url=http://www.hjas.org/contents/pdf/HJAS_66_2_ABST.pdf&embedded=true&chrome=true&pli=1

(PS - this might turn into a new mini-blog series about my favorite teachers. We'll see.)

Letters!

I absolutely, positively, 100% love letters. I love getting them, I love writing them, I love the whole process. Part of it might be because my primary love language (according Dr. Chapman's Five Love Languages quiz) is Words of Affirmation (followed by a close second of Quality Time and then Acts of Service). Part if it might be because letter writing has been a part of my life for as long as I can remember - I wrote letters to my cousin Megan and to my friend Madeline starting at (I think) eight years old.

At camp, letters were always important. Receiving three or more resulted in the "torture" (which really meant fun and excitement) of running around the dining hall, and everyone waited with baited breath to hear if their name was going to be called in that round of mail call. As a Jr. staff, I tried to leave little notes for my campers who didn't get mail - on their bed, in their backpack - because I knew how desperately important it was to me, as a camper, to get mail, and figured they'd want some to.

When my sister went to Colorado for five weeks one summer, her letters were a treasure in our family. We'd pass them around and read them. I remember one particular letter she had addressed to me that began by saying "This letter contains all the private stuff". As a rule, when we're at camp, our family tries to write individual unique letters to our younger siblings still at home - it's so much more fun when you have your own unique message.

Regardless of why I like them, letters are really important to me. I keep most letters I receive - every college acceptance I got, even though I only attend one university, for example. So I was thrilled when I discovered this site, that publishes letters worth reading from famous people. http://www.lettersofnote.com/

My favorite on this site so far is the letter from C.S. Lewis about writing. Writing to an author is always an exciting experience, but getting a letter in return is even more special. I've received letters from two authors in my life - Elie Wiesel, who wrote Night, and John Grogan, who wrote Marley and Me. Mr. Wiesel wrote my entire English class, because we had sent him poetry that we had written about his book.

Mr. Grogan's letter was much more personal. He thanked me for enjoying his books and then said, " I hope you keep writing. All I can advise is the more you do it, the better you get. And the more you read, the more you will know how to tell great writing from just OK writing."
Three lines, but a fantastically exciting letter for sixteen-year-old me.

In terms of letters now, I'm currently pen-pal-ing my friend from high school who goes to St. Mary's College. I collect postcards, so if you're in an exciting place (cough, Ireland, cough). I'd love to get one from you too! Even if you're not in an exciting place, send me a postcard. I promise, I do keep them. :)

He is Risen indeed :)

He's Alive, by Don Francisco, is a pretty good summary of what we celebrate in church this morning, and a song that I really like. Check it out, and have an absolutely wonderful Resurrection Sunday! (aka Easter).
Link to lyrics:
http://www.risa.co.uk/sla/song.php?songid=18001
Link to video:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EO-7gehGYII

PS - sorry for missing two BEDA days guys. Friday I was out and about most of the day, and forgot about blogging, and then Saturday I was mad at myself for missing a day and didn't post.

German Games

I've played board games almost my whole life. I can't pinpoint the first time that I played Settlers of Catan, and ever since that day, I've been hooked. I wrote one of my college admissions essays about German strategy games - at that time, I had just been introduced to the game Goldbrau. By some magical fluke, I was really, really good at Goldbrau (which, embarrassingly, is a board game based on beer sales), and had beaten my Dad, sister, and lifelong friend of my parents three times. I've played many, many other games in my lifetime. My cousin Ben and I have played thousands of matches against each other - or, more frequently, in partnership with each other against our siblings.

Needless to say, when Felicia Day's youtube channel announced a board game show, I was super excited. The first episode is here - go watch and enjoy! :) http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=X9QtdiRJYro

(PS - I need suggestions for blogging topics for BEDA (Blog Every Day in April). So far I've taken posts from school news and from conversations with a friend of mine, but I need more ideas!)

Do you have regrets?

There's a really interesting post on the UMBC discussion boards this week. It's titled "Too Young to Have Regrets" and lists the (supposedly) five most common regrets in people aged 25-35. (http://my.umbc.edu/news/13408) The author (who writes interesting posts quite frequently - David Hoffman with Co-Create UMBC) then goes on to list his personal five youthful regrets.

It asks us any regrets we have, ending with "Name them, learn from them, move on". So, here are my five:
1. Not knowing my grandparents better.
2. Losing a lot of my Spanish literacy skills post-high school
3. Losing my pattern of memorizing Bible verses post-high school
4. Not writing in my journals often enough
5. Not taking good care of my teeth

What about you?

TRW articles

Today I had two articles come out in the paper. Thought you all would enjoy (and it's a cheating way to get BEDA day 3 done).

Human Trafficking
http://www.retrieverweekly.com/?cmd=displaystory&story_id=7713&format=html

Google Play
http://www.retrieverweekly.com/?cmd=displaystory&story_id=7723&format=html

My story of dance

So. BEDA day 2.
Once, there was a freshman in college who saw an advertisement for dance classes. And she signed up for the classes on Sunday night. And they were good classes. She learned how to do the tango, and the cha-cha, and the mambo. And then she forgot how to do them, because she didn't practice.

Two semesters went by, and she decided she wanted to take classes again. She signed up again, and started taking classes again. The second time was so much better than the first time, because she had actually learned the right way to stand, and the place to stand, and stuff. Her teacher was pretty good, and told the class to practice every week. Which wouldn't have happened for this student, except that one of her classmates asked her if she was going to go out dancing, and she said sure. So she went, and it was amazing. So then they started practicing every week, and going out dancing more and more.

That's my story of dance. :) If you're interested, this is where we go every week. http://mddancesport.com/
It's really, really fun. You should totally go. As my teacher says, "go and make dancing!"

Two BEDA introductory thoughts

So, I was talking to a friend of mine, and we talked about my blog, and I was reminded that I hadn't written on here in a while. After that, I thought up some blog posts that I wanted to write.

1. Why I'd be a bad housewife
Today I left my laundry in the washer for 4 hours. And then, when I remembered to put it in the dryer, I left it in the dryer for another couple of hours. It was wrinkled, but I put it away anyways. Yeah. I hate laundry. Also, I'll tie off the trash, set it down to take it out when I leave, and not take it out. I do make my bed every morning! I do the dishes, because I can't handle dirty dishes stacked up in the sink. In general, I keep things neat, in a shallow clean kind of way, in that my desk is always organized, and I pick up the floor, etc. I scrub out the sink everyday. I'm good at keeping things neat, but not good at cleaning. I'd be a pretty bad housewife.

2. My School Bus experiences
I went to the ballet with the Honors College, and we rode a school bus to get there. On the way there, I thought about the number of times that I have ridden a school bus. The first time was the freshman high school orientation. The second was when we went bowling for a freshman reward for honor roll students. The third was when I attended the student learning conference, where the high school interns presented their projects to other students. The fourth was going to Rockburn elementary to teach elementary school art. The fifth was attending the MESA student conference my junior year. The sixth was teaching at Rockburn a second time. The seventh was attending the MESA student conference my senior year. The eighth was the CWIT summer retreat to a rock climbing thing at College Part. The ninth was attending my first honors college Shakespeare play. The tenth was attending the BSO with the honors college. The eleventh was attending the Othello dress rehearsal. The twelfth was attending the ballet tonight. Now, I might be missing some. Actually, I wouldn't be surprised if some people came on and started telling me some that I forgot. But the point is, I don't often ride a school bus. It feels weird.

OK everyone. See you tomorrow, as I am trying to do BEDA (Blog Every Day in April) for a second year in a row.