a not so lazy day

Pictures: I was searching through my pictures looking for something to post when I found that picture of Jo and I and I decided to do a tribute of fun pictures to my fam. they got out of intentional order but oh well.

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the first one is my Dad and I - it was new years (the year before last) and we had a murder mystery party (so thats the reason for the outfits) and it had just hit midnight which was kind of a big moment for us because it was exactly one year before that I had just been admitted to the hospital (yup new years eve) before we knew I had lupus. I like this picture because it was midnight the year before that dad was sleeping on a hospital chair while I was passed out in a hospital bed; it was a fun new years. haha.

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the next one is of my Uncle B (jojos hubby) and Oliver when he was still pretty young (this was from my birthday in July)
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the next picture pretty much sums up my sister and I - this was christmas, and i made that sweater for my dad as an ugly sweater contest for work LOL.
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the next one is my mom and I, I loveeee this picture because were both laughing and its fun, she hates it for some reason. haha.
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then Jojo and I, this was at the mandolin cafe they were having an open mic night so jojo, brian and I went when I happened to be in town one weekend and the glasses are these joke glasses my sister had from work which is why im laughing so hard.

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MENU OF MY DAY:

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Eating: an apple, (don't get excited about my healthy choice, it was only followed by a million other snacks from prednizoning)

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Drinking: A bottled water (yet again dont get excited, it was followed by 2 diet cokes.)

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Listening: I've abandonded my playlist and I'm just listening to my Ipod and shuffling through the songs I dont really like - Currently listening to Coldplay - Everythings Not Lost

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Feeling: Excited, Anxious, Relieved, Accomplished, Proud.

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New Goal: to pull a Julia/Julie but instead of cooking one recipe a day and blogging about it, i'm going to watch one movie everyday and blog about it- well i'm actually giving myself 5 movies a week (because monday and thursdays i have class from 12:30-10:00pm so i dont have time to watch any movies.) but I reactivated my netflix and upgraded to 2 movies at a time and i've already watched 2 :)

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New Stress: my global design project; everyone in the class got a different country and we are all designing a community center that serves the needs for the community we choose within the country.

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I got Pakistan and then I chose Islamabad as my location -- normally as a designer we get a program (basically a list of all the rooms.) because everyone is in a completely different country we are creating our own program and for that reason as well we are designing the building from scratch (usually we are given a building and we do a "remodel")
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So to start everything from a completely blank slate was completely overwhelming and having a country like a Pakistan it was hard to isolate and concentrate on the problems i could actually address (i was trying to save the world with this community center until my professor finally grounded me.) I finally decided to close in one major problem the country has (that I can actually address) and thats lack of healthcare and immunizations. 1/10 children in Pakistan don't live to see their 5th birthday and they are dying of ridiculous things like diarhea and other preventable things. they also have 100,000 cases of polio in Pakistan and 20,000 new cases every year so I thought it was really important to include an immunization clinic to prevent this kind of thing.

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So at this point (after hoursssss of redesigning what I already had designed I think I offically have a final program and "final" floorplans and I'm starting to feel really good about the project.

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thats my day. the end.

SoapBox it.

photo: I'm not sure of the photographer but Seattle held a competition for people to submit their favorite photos of Seattle (they had so many entries they ended up choosing ten winners and this was one of the ten.) this is personally one of my favorite because it doesn't idolize the needle which really isn't something that important to us locals, I think this photo is something that really captures the essence of Seattle, the real identity of how Seattle is an Urban city in the middle of true environment (that being Mt. Rainer in the background.)
I couldn't decide what LOST boy to choose so I avoided that all together, lol

Menu of my day

Drink: Fanta Strawberry - So yum.

Eat: Strawberries, they aren't the greatest but its hard to find really great strawberries these are mediocre.

Music: oldschool U2 "with or without you" right now

Read: still reading the really awesome Hunter S Thompson book that was gifted to me 'Curse of Lono' it has illustrators from Ralph Steadman (if your a HST fan you'll know all about him as well, they were drug buddies, pretty much, lol) its really cool though I like the book more as a collectors item than the story itself.

SoapBox: I've had my first big bum-out from Obama. (I know shocker that I would even admit to having one lol) but Nuclear Power Plants. I just think its a big mistake, I personally feel like its a step backward. If you are unfamiliar; Obama basically is giving $8 billion dollars to basically start up nuclear power plants again (which by definition is "energy harvested by nuclear reaction" that is of course non-explosive chemical reactions.)

it is technically safe for the environment (as long as their is no "mistake" "leak" -- basically an explosion.) nowadays NPP are built in overly protected buildings the walls are like 3 FEET thick and they are basically "contained" buildings so if there was a mistake or explosion (like what happened on 3 mile island in Pennsylvania) everything was completely contained in the building, the cleanup has been long and expensive but the area is still habitable where as when a "mistake" happened in Chernobyl in the 80's (a NPP that was not built in a contained building) that was a HUGE explosion and the area is currently still inhabitable because of radiation (and people are still affected by radiation poisoning)

now the idea and the reasoning is that we need to have so many possible ways of creating and harvesting energy, we are after all in an energy crisis and Nuclear Power is considered a sustainable method and safe.

HOWEVER, the waste from nuclear power is around for 10,000 YEARS, we are in an energy crisis but we are also in a waste crisis where we are trying to reduce waste and become sustainable, and here we are harvesting power that creates 10,000 years of wastes?

my objection doesn't just come from these facts, my objection comes from our alternatives. We have already discovered great ways to harvest energy from Wind Turbines, Microhydro Turbines (harvest power from moving water) Photovoltaics (solar panels) others that aren't quite as popular or effective-- (interestingly enough in the study of interior design we study a lot of this and I've taken a whole class on sustainability and we spent weeks and weeks just on energy harvesting.) So why don't we use $8 billion dollars to make these even better? more innovative? why even bother with Nuclear Power anymore? (technically I've heard the argument is that the creation of the nuclear power plant has no off-gasing as the others do, and this is speaking of the buildings and equipment themselves.)

I wasn't planning on having a blog about Nuclear Power but that's where the soapbox led so we will let it be...

My Fair Maher

from this month's issue of Vanity Fair (thanks jojo for my subscription!) I'm a fan of Maher although sometimes hes past vulgar and ridiculous, his answers are pretty clever and funny! I always respect his honesty...most of the time.


Proust Questionnaire: Bill Maher

What is your idea of perfect happiness? being in love while organizing my closet

What is your greatest fear? waking up after a sleepover at John Water's house and finding my sleeping bag isn't zipped up the same way as when I passed out. or "President Palin."

What is your great extravagance? Hope.

What is your current state of mind? cautiously pessimistic




What do you consider the most overrated virtue? sobriety

On what occasion do you lie? to advance my personal agenda.

What do you dislike most about your appearance? based on your caricature on the left: everything this was his answer in the article but the picture shown above is not the caricature from the article.

What is the quality you most like in a woman? proximity

Which words or phrases do you most overuse? "its an honor just to be nominated"

When and where were you happiest? right now, here with you. let's not ruin it by talking

Which talent would you most like to have? the ability to bullshit

If you could change one thing about yourself, what would it be? my desperate need to be liked

What do you consider your greatest achievement? staying on the air

What is your most treasured possession? my freedom

What do you regard as the lowest depth of misery? thinking of the right thing to say - later.

What do you most value in your friends? non-disclosure

What historical figure do you most identify with? Paul Revere

Who is your favorite hero of fiction? Jesus of Nazareth

What is it that you most dislike? Hypocrisy, animal cruelty, and yams.

What is your greatest regret? its a tie between muttonchop sideburns and believing Judith miller. Honorable mention: Lehman Brothers - thanks a lot, assholes.

How would you like to die? surrounded by my enemies, holding a grenade.

What is your motto? "Religion is bad, drugs are good."

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Proust Questionnaire: Modern Hippie
What is your idea of perfect happiness? success in love, work and family

What is your greatest fear? being shot and killed for a gang initiation, what a horrible way to go.

What is your great extravagance? optimism

What is your current state of mind? hopeful

What do you consider the most overrated virtue? impartiality; there is no such no thing we will always be partial to an argument we will always have a smidgen of bias

On what occasion do you lie? when the truth will only cause problems

What do you dislike most about your appearance? currently? my prednisone induced chubby cheeks.

What is the quality you most like in a man? his music selection

Which words or phrases do you most overuse? "I'm not a fan of..."

When and where were you happiest? I prefer to think that time is in my future (not that I didn't have happy memories in my past I just don't like to dwell on the past, whats the point on dreaming of yesterday?)

Which talent would you most like to have? something musical; singing, playing piano or guitar

If you could change one thing about yourself, what would it be? probably appearance related because otherwise I'm pretty happy with who I am, I know I have my negative aspects but I wouldn't want to change them.

What do you consider your greatest achievement? my education; doing running start and now getting my bachelors degree in 3 years!

What is your most treasured possession? Oliver.

What do you regard as the lowest depth of misery? being hungry on prednisone and not being able to eat or not having anything to eat

What do you most value in your friends? honesty and humor

What historical figure do you most identify with? Obama. he may not be considered a historical figure yet (probably because hes still alive) but he is definitely already writing history books so i'm picking him.

Who is your favorite hero of fiction? fiction? i don't do much with fiction i prefer real people...

What is it that you most dislike? mushrooms, olives, Obama-haters and spam email

What is your greatest regret? I honestly do not believe in regret. its another "whats the point?" ideal, you cant go back in time and change anything so you might as well spend that time fixing what you are regretting...

How would you like to die? either of lupus or of old age, just seems logical.

What is your motto? i can't think of one right now but I certainly don't share Maher's motto... :)




Share your Proust Questionnaire :)

Happy Birthday Oliver

A shrine of pictures to the one thing in my life that can always cheer me up. After a whole year from being a tiny little furball that couldnt even get down from my bed (which isnt even a foot off the ground.) to leaping and running around the house. after a bad eye infection, worms, and an embarrasing haircut he is still the best thing around. He loves me unconditionally just as much as I love him!! (with hair or not, although most of it is growing out pretty nicely now!)