Electric Lib

Last Post of 2005

Oh readers, it's been exactly three years since I began this wonderful little website, and look how it's grown! Well, the format has changed very little since the start, the tone of the entries is relatively consistent, so it's really just the reader base that's grown. Maybe I'll have to think of a new look for 2006 for my website... Hmm, I'll ponder that. In any case, happy new years eve!

The Ski Meet

I awoke at 6:30 this morning so that I could go to a ski meet at Mt. Hor. It was a pretty typical bus ride, sitting around and waiting for your race experience, so I won't go into much detail there. But oh my, the race was pretty tough. As we are now seniors, we are finally expected to do the varsity race (this is mainly applying to Alice and I, as we are accustomed to doing the jv race, which is much shorter). The first 3K was fine and I was feeling good... then came the monster hill. It was a very gradual, never ending uphill (even for those who have been training hard all season, and of course for those who haven't... me and maybe a certain other member of my team, it was absolutely painful). It was followed immediatly by an even steeper hill, lined with skiers from other races, along with some observers all saying "you got it 171, keep it up!" which is encouraging long enough to make you get by them. I pretty much walked up the hill and a lot of the flat part following it. I did finish eventually, of course. This race had two skiers start at a time, and I was towards the end of the race, so I finished last, and I think I came in last too, which is consistent with my predictions. But that's what ski team is all about for some of the traditionally more slackerish members. It was fun though and it was nice to get some fresh air and exercise! Nice job to Alice, Ruthie, Jimmy, Matt and Dan who were all there racing too!

This race also marked for me what is hopefully the conclusion of a cold I've had for the past few days. It verged on a fever a few times, but Tylenol kept it down (I didn't feel like testing my immune system out this time). And now, on my dear Father's birthday (happy birthday dad!!), I'm relaxing and listening to my "Congo to Cuba" cd (it actually isn't mine, I bought it as a gift, but it's playing right now). I'm sure Tyler and Keith would appreciate the Spanish influence, as I know they're all about their "salsa mixes." (Don't worry guys, the quotes around salsa mix were merely to separate it as a title, not to make it look like a joke or anything). Pues, en el espíritu de los mesclados de salsa, terminaré mi parrafó en español. Es el cumpleaños de mi padre y tengo que comer la cena con my familia y los Seases. ¡Adiós muchachos!

Christmas Eve

Merry Christmas Eve! In preparation for the holiday, Abra, Tyler, Kate and Emma came over yesterday to decorate a beautiful ginger bread house. Loukas and Zoe helped as well, of course. So it's just lovely, and now I am completely ready for Christmas!

Yay Ty!

Today as I sat with Ty, Adam, Travis and Emma eating my super expensive french fries at Sugarbush, Ty's Bro walked in with some interesting news: some college mail had arrived for Tyler. He called home and to get to the point, Ty found out he got into BC and was invited to be in the Honors program. Good job Ty!

So Cute

My father just pointed me to a really cute site.

What a Shame

What a disappointing day in news. First I watched the news report about race riots in Australia. That was particularly disappointing to watch as the pyscho white christians (I added the psycho part because 1) they are and 2) obviously not all white christians are racist, only the crazy ones) were rioting against Arabs. It was also unsettling because if it hadn't been for their accents and the pretty beaches, it could have been this country. I realize that's a pretty obvious remark to make, but that thought just popped into my mind when I saw it. The other thing that was disturbing about it was that it was a lot of young people. The news report said anti-Arab feelings had intesified after a bombing at a night club in 2002. The one encouraging thing about the report however, was that the government official they spoke to was very upset about what had happened, which makes sense, but it's good to hear anyways.

After that report, Tookie Williams' story came on. He was denied clemency and will be executed tonight. Like my dad said, Schwarzenegger really showed what kind of guy he is. It's really disgusting that they execute people at all, especially when they're claiming to condemn violence, but it's especially bad because of all his efforts to teach kids about how terrible gangs are. Because it seems to me that kids would be most likely to listen to someone who's been in the situation. And why not let him try to redeem himself for his crimes instead of killing him. Those are my thoughts on the news tonight, now I must go read Madame Bovary by Gustave Flaubert.

Practice Makes Perfect

I was asking my father the other day about the appropriate way to abbreviate United States (with regards to the periods and whether or not you put a space between). Being the attentive father he is, he sent me a link (from Josh's site, I know, this was really a family effort) with the answer. So, I have to try this out at least once, to get it stuck in my head. It's probably fancy enough that I won't use it again, but who knows, maybe I will. My tester word ought to be the word that provoked the question; U. S.  that was a hair space. Now with a thin space: U. S.  Notice a difference?

Okay Emmett, Enough

Earlier tonight I decided to take the responsibility of the picking up the phone. It was around 7 or so and my first guess was that it would be Emmett, as he often calls sometime in the evening. So, I picked up the phone, and of course, it was Emmett, playing some prank phone call on me.

"Hey, I'm calling about the mazda," I heard him say with a slight Vermont accent. Mm hmm, sure Emmett. Nice try. I thought.

"Right, okay."

"What?"

"Very funny Emmett."

"You think my name's Emmett?" he asked. Nervous that he was actually fooling me, I handed the phone off to my mother. She recognized her son's voice right away and laughed and told him to stop joking. I rolled my eyes that he tricked me once more.... Until he had my Mom convinced too. Turns out it really wasn't him. It actually was some poor kid trying to buy our car. You really outdid yourself this time Emmett, you had us all fooled in a phone call you weren't even a part of. Clever.

It's a Boy!

Ah, congratulations to me, I am now the proud parent of a battery powered baby doll for the next day and a half! I've been in a sociology class this semester and we have finally begun to the notorious baby project. My baby, Benny (named after Taye Digg's character in "Rent"), is a cute little African-American baby (he looks just like me... not). The babies are surprisingly heavy, which makes sense. Earlier today when I was walking with Alice and my baby (in it's carrier thing) I felt kind of bad because some other woman with a real little baby passed me and gave me one of those "isn't it great being a mom?" looks. So I gave her one of those "I wouldn't know, but I'm sure it is" kind of looks.

For those of you unfamiliar with the baby project, I'll fill you in a bit. These babies have a battery box in their backs which control the baby's crying. The babies can be set for Demo, Easy, Normal or Cranky (we have easy today and we'll switch to normal tomorrow). These modes control the frequency of the crying (which is a recording of a real baby crying played over and over and over) and the battery box is sensitive to rough handling, being laid on their stomachs, or left sides (left and not right to mimic babies indecisiveness about being laid on their sides). It also has a "realistic neck feature" which requires you to support the head. I failed at that earlier when I was trying to stick the key in it's back to keep it from crying. Anyways, I think Benny wants to watch tv, so I must go.