A Travel Blog

No, I haven't gone anywhere, but I did take an exciting trip around the Blogosphere. Using Blogger's exciting new feature that allows one to go from blog to random blog, I explored several other web logs. I saw a variety of blog styles, all of which make me even more excited about the web production knowledge I'm gaining.

I was also amazed by the geographic and language diversity: there were bloggers from Japan, Canada, New Zealand, the UK, Korea, Mexico, Australia, the Dominican Republic, and TWO from Kansas (both at the University of Kansas--apparently a blogging hot spot). It was like the Olympics; I felt wrapped in the warmth of shared experience that bypasses national borders.

And it further fed my desire for real travel. I've been seized by an increased awareness of wanderlust recently. I always enjoy travel, but lately, I've been practically craving a trip to Europe.... Actually, with all the political problems in this country, I've momentarily seriously considered the idea of moving abroad. I just wouldn't know where to go or what to do. And I don't think I could live so far away from family and friends. So the solution is.... I need to start a colony of US expatriates, and just bring my close acquaintances and loved ones with me! Who's in? Heck, that's how America started!

Update, So You Don't Forget Me

Just over a week til the 5k! I'm very excited and a little nervous. I've gotten comfortable running around 3 miles now, and the race is 3.1, so I feel pretty good about that.

I'm enjoying my classes so far, but I'm keeping busy with homework already. And I'm trying to get my law school essay done this coming week, so I can send in my Yale app before the week's over. We'll see if that happens.

And I've watched the Olympics almost every day. Yeah, I'm slightly obsessed. But I just love watching people do what they're great at. It's a beautiful thing.

And speaking of sports, I can't believe that Cal is going into the football season ranked 12th! Unbelievably great; maybe it'll make up for how badly the Niners are gonna do this year.

I think things will calm down a little after this week. Once my law school stuff is under control and the race is over, crunch time will be over. There are so many other things I've put on the backburner. Like getting back to all the people who have called/written/emailed... And that'll also be easier once my cell phone works again, hopefully that'll happen soon too.

Bracing Myself

As most of you know, I have braces. My orthodontist has me wearing elastic bands from the top teeth to the bottom to close my bite. But whenever I wear these elastics, after 4 hours my lips are swollen to twice their normal size, in tremendous pain, and they continue to be sore for days afterwards.

At first, I thought it was just the rubbing that irritated them. But I did some internet research, and now I think that I might have a "sensitivity" (one step below allergy) to latex. The ortho has sent me some new non-latex elastics, and as soon as my mouth recovers from the previous elastics, I'm gonna try those out. Hopefully, they'll solve the problem. If not, I may be wearing braces forever...

In other news, I started my new classes yesterday. So far, so good, but I look forward to the coming weeks when lots of students will drop out. It's waaaay too crowded on campus right now.

Don't you just LOVE the Olympics? I do; they make me so very, very happy. I'm trying to watch as close to all 226 hours NBC is showing as possible. On NBC's cable affiliates, they're airing over 1300 hours of coverage; it's probably a good thing I don't have cable. =)

For Lack of Anything Better to Write

Or, for that matter, anywhere better to put this, here's my list of every song I can think of that I don't have, but wish I did. Many of these, I had at one point, but no longer do (insert sad face here). In no particular order:

Time of Your Life (Green Day)
Little Black Backpack (Stroke 9)
You Were Always on My Mind (Elvis)
Karma Chameleon (80s Culture Club)
How Do You Talk to an Angel (Jamie Walters)
Just a Girl (No Doubt)
Don't Speak (No Doubt)
I Will Survive (Gloria Gaynor)
I Want it That Way (Backstreet Boys)
Manic Monday (Bangles)
Eternal Flame (Bangles)
Girls Just Wanna Have Fun (Cyndi Lauper)
This Kiss (Faith Hill)
Breathe (Faith Hill)
The Way You Love Me (Faith Hill)
Can't Help Falling In Love (Elvis)
Stuck in a Moment (U2)
Iris (Goo Goo Dolls)
It's Gonna Be Me (NSync)
Cry (Faith Hill)
Lose Yourself (Eminem)
Breakfast at Tiffany's (Deep Blue Something)
You're Still the One (Shania Twain)
Hanging By a Moment (Goo Goo Dolls)
Without Me (Eminem)
Maria (Blondie)
Bobby McGee (Janis Joplin)
California Girls (Beach Boys)
Big Yellow Taxi (Counting Crows version)
Cathedrals (Jump Little Children)
Stacy's Mom (Fountains of Wayne)
A Woman's Worth (Alicia Keys)
The Call (Backstreet Boys)
Falling (Alicia Keys)
Next Year (Foo Fighters)
I Need a Girl-Part 1 (P. Diddy)
California, Here I Come (Phantom Planet)
I Want Love (Elton John)
Wherever You Will Go (The Calling)
Our Lives (The Calling)
All or Nothing (O-Town)
Roll out-My Business (Ludacris)
I'll Never Fall in Love Again (Burt Bacharach)
Still the One (Orleans)
It's Raining Men (The Weathergirls)
Total Eclipse of the Heart (Bonnie Tyler)

Bibliophilia: A Dangerous Disease

For me, summer is inextricably linked to reading. As a kid, I took part in the library's summer reading program--always going way over the required numbers to get the prizes (exciting things like bookmarks). Then in junior high and high school there was summer reading. I was one of the nerds who read all the books on the list when they said to choose one.

And summer remains for me a time to tackle reading projects, and I'm definitely a sucker for classic literature. Sometimes, I go for the hard books, the kind you can only slog through when you have the time. For example, last summer I read Dostoevsky's "The Brothers Karamozov," a book that is, I swear, longer than "War and Peace." Other summers, I choose to go with fluffier works, appropriate beach or pool-side reading, like "Bridget Jones' Diary."

Having moved back to Davis, this year I had the chance to organize my book collection, and I pulled out several books that I've purchased but never gotten around to reading. I have a very large pile of books to read now, and I really don't think I should buy another book until I get through all of them.

I just finished George Eliot's "Adam Bede," which was okay, but I didn't like it as well as some of her other works (ie. her masterpiece, "Middlemarch.") In the past couple of days, I read "The Chosen," by Chaim Potok. This book rocked, and I want to read more by him (too bad about my book buying ban).

In my reading pile, I have a couple of Dicken's novels ("Our Mutual Friend" and "Martin Chuzzlewit"), "The Beautiful and the Damned" by F. Scott Fitzgerald, George Orwell's "Burmese Days," "Life of Pi" by Yann Martel, Anne Diamant's "The Red Tent," "The Long Loneliness" by Dorothy Day, and another George Eliot work, "The Mill on the Floss."

Anyhow, summer's coming to a close, and I wonder how many of my books I'll be able to fit in before law school applications completely distract me. There are so many wonderful books to read, and so little time.