This isn’t really an “I’m sorry for not blogging!!!” post. It’s more of a why I’m not blogging post.

School started up again about a month and a half ago in August… I can’t believe it’s already October! Insanity. But, I’m taking 19 credit hours and they require a lot of reading and work. I’m working on two semester-long research projects simultaneously, one for my advanced experimental psychology class (Peception of Optimism’s Effects on Performance) and for my extra-curricular research team (Gender Differences in Spatial Ability Under Total Sleep Deprivation Conditions). Obviously, the research for two papers in a semester is very time consuming… you need about fifteen sources to write a good introduction. I’m also putting a lot of work into these papers because, once finished, I can actually submit them for publication in a peer-reviewed journal. I don’t necessarily have high hopes that either will be published, but if they do get published, it would look amazing for graduate school.

I’ve also continued working at my job with the campus newspaper as the creative services director (which is a fancy title stating “I make ads for thirty bucks a week). I love working there. I’ve had a particularly difficult client where the right hand doesn’t know what the left is doing, but I think we’ve finally straightened out what he wants exactly for his advertisement. I certainly hope so… I’ve redesigned an ad three times for him!

I’ve also joined a social sorority. Shock, horror, amazement, etc etc etc. I know, leave me alone :P But in all honesty, I really do love it. I feel close. I have friends that I go and do things with. I feel the sisterly bond. I actually helped plan a sisterhood retreat that we’re going on today through tomorrow morning, and I think it’s going to be a lot of fun.

I’m getting a semi-hard time from some of my friends for being in a sorority because they see the stereotypes. And it’s not like sororities haven’t earned their stereotype — they have. The girls you think are in sororities are. But there aren’t that many of them, and most of us are just normal people who joined an organization with a group of people that will turn into really great friends. Because it’s not just “paying” for friends. That money goes to food, shirts, gifts, sisterhood events, parties, philanthropy and pays for us to work in our communities.

And uh. I have this thing called a life. It’s pretty cool. I rather like having it.

Also, I’m pretty sure I never mentioned it, but anyone following my Twitter knows. I managed to injure myself rather hellaciously back in July. I don’t know how I did it, but I managed to strain the inner retinaculum of my right knee. For everyone who isn’t in a biology or health profession, that means that I strained one of the tendons running parallel to my knee cap; the sole purpose of this tendon is to keep the kneecap in place. Well, if it’s all strained, it’s like a rubberband that’s all stretched out — so my kneecap is basically shifting over my knee joint every time I move it and it’s extremely painful (it’s called patellar subluxation). I’ve been going to physical therapy and I’m off the pain medications, but it still hurts. I’m trying to avoid having surgery, but I don’t know what will happen. I do lots of stretched every day and it allows me to move, but I’m not sure how much better it’s actually getting.

And that’s pretty much it! I’m definitely going to try to get back on the bandwagon on updating things. With any luck, I’ll clean my bedroom one of these days and take a few pictures so everyone can see my new apartment!

I’ve only blogged a few times these last couple of months, because I’ve been pretty busy with my real life this summer. For the most part, I don’t really ramble about what’s going on with me because I don’t think it’s all that interesting. Unless something funny happens to me (see Words in Passing) or I just have a really bad run of things (see The Blog In Which I Complain About Everything), I normally write about things going on in the world or put up a delicious recipe. Or pictures. Pictures are nice, too. However, in my strenuous effort to procrastinate today, I decided I’d bring everyone up to date. I mean, really, my life hasn’t been that interesting this summer, but I think enough cool things happened over the past three months that I could make some sort of blog entry out of it.

First off, I’ve been working as an HR intern. Most of the stuff I do is filing and sending out letters to people in the company to keep them up to date on the standings of their benefits and such. Since I’m the intern, though, I do get the grunt work like running around and picking things up, faxing stuff, doing refunds and the like. But, it’s a pretty good environment and the money is nice. I’ve actually spent way too much money this summer updating my wardrobe when I SHOULD have been saving all that money for stuff I’ll need next semester at my new apartment. Which brings me to the next topic!

I’m officially moving into my very first apartment in two weeks. It’s where I’ll spend the rest of my undergrad studies, so basically two years. I’m really excited, and I am living with/nearby an abundance of friends. The apartment is spacious and inexpensive, but I think the location explains for that… this same apartment would cost a LOT more in a metropolitan area, but being in the remote foothills of South Carolina, they can only charge so much. But I adore it, and I can’t wait to decorate. Once I have everything set up, there will for SURE be a bunch of pictures and a large entry all about the process.

I’m really FREAKING OUT about all the stuff I need, though. I’ve been living in a dorm for the past two years off a food plan (or with my boyfriend, who buys food and I cook for him, so we both get a delicious and healthy meal… it’s a trade off), so I don’t really have any cooking utensils. Or dishes. Or ANYTHING. You should see the list of things I need to buy, and there are more things that keep popping into my head as I putter around the house. I really want to just go out and buy it all NOW, but I’m containing myself and waiting until I get to my apartment so my room mates and I can sort out what we have and don’t have. I plan on buying a majority of my kitchen stuff, because I’m an avid cook and I really prefer having my own tools. I think I can stock my kitchen fairly well between what my mom’s giving me and what money I have saved for this, but it’s mostly the matter of remembering everything I need that’s giving me troubles.

I’ve done a lot of stuff this summer, though. Lots of traveling when I’ve not been working, or having people come here. I went to my boyfriend’s graduation (so happy for him!), visited his family quite a few times for various gatherings, went to the beach for a week, visited my best friend in Charlotte, hung out with my boyfriend and our mutual acquaintances in Clemson, went to Jacksonville, FL for a weekend, and last week we celebrated my mom’s birthday, so we had a TON of people coming in and visiting. I’ve enjoyed keeping myself busy. It’s very different from last summer, which I spent in Washington doing a whole lot of nothing while my boyfriend worked. We did lots of fun things together while he wasn’t working, like go to the movies or go to cool places in the Washington/Oregon area, but I was alone during the day because I didn’t get a job. I wouldn’t trade the experience for the world, though… it was so much fun!

So in two weeks, my summer will be over. I’ll be back to school with my books, highlighters and ungodly number of notebooks. I’ll probably stop wearing makeup and doing my hair because I don’t have the time, and I’ll be hellishly sleep-deprived. But I’m excited. I love going to school. And this has been a pretty great summer vacation. I feel refreshed and ready to get back into academia.

I’m not too sure about those 8 am classes, though. I don’t know what I was thinking when I was making my schedule…

This country was built under the principles of personal responsibility and self reliance. So do me a favor and:

1. Quit pawing through my money
2. Keep your nose out of my health care decisions
3. Get the hell off my case about what property I own
4. God has nothing to do with it
5. Stop expecting me to work more to be paid less — which is what happens now, thanks to your brilliant methods of tax bracketing
6. Stop telling me it’s my problem that other people make bad decisions — I’d rather use those tax dollars I’m forced by law to throw at welfare abusers to invest in charities I know will actually put the money to good use
7. I want a company vehicle from GM… part of my taxes goes to the American people’s investment, right?
8. Give me my guns. Banning guns from all the good, law-abiding citizens means they’ll be defenseless when criminals hold them up with weapons they got off the black market. It’s not like criminals have licenses for them, anyway.
9. Quit giving a crap about what some two-bit country in the middle of nowhere thinks. Your responsibility is to us, the taxpayers. You don’t have to make citizens of other countries happy; they have their own governments for that. It’s none of their business what we do here.
10. And please. Get a press secretary who has a vocabulary that expands beyond, “I’ll have to talk to my people about that.”

Leave everyone alone and let us fend for ourselves. I’m tired of being coddled. You’re just so suffocating, government, you really are. The founding fathers are spinning in their graves because of how you’ve so closely entangled yourself into our lives. Get the eff out; I’m tired of you being so involved. I love you, but really. Sometimes you just have to let go.

Sincerely yours,
Stephanie
Advocate of Deregulation

As a general rule, I am not an Al Sharpton fan. In fact, I think he’s rather out of his mind, at times. But today at Michael Jackson’s memorial service, which I did indeed watch with undivided attention like many, many millions of people in this world, he impressed me thoroughly with what he said to Michael Jackson’s three children:

There was nothing strange about your daddy, it was strange what your daddy had to deal with.

I have always thought the media had vilified Michael Jackson, but it was my mother that really put it together for me. On the news, the talking heads were discussing how Michael Jackson was a hermit and never spoke in public or addressed any of the rumors surrounding him. My mother made an excellent point upon hearing this. She asked angrily, “Why would he come out in public? Why would he talk to the media? They made him a joke!” And then it hit me full force that it was indeed the toxic pop culture media that enjoys bringing people up only to watch them fall that, in effect, made him out to be a freak. They were the ones who named him Wacko Jacko. They were the ones who insinuated that he was the odd man out and exaggerated every move he made into a gigantic freak show. Would you want to show your face to a world that seems to ridicule you? Wouldn’t you want to protect your children from the rude whispers and disturbing stares? In his shoes, I don’t blame him. I see him as a man who never got a normal childhood and, in effect, wanted nothing more than to give his children what he couldn’t have. The only way to do this was to keep them out of public scrutiny. Do I think some of his actions rather paranoid and odd? Sure. But can you honestly blame him when he thought he walked in a world where people hated him because they read about his so-called freakish actions every other week in the magazines?

I haven’t met many people that would say anything about Michael Jackson other than that he was a devastatingly talented human being. Those who could even imagine that Michael Jackson would dare bring harm to anyone has fallen victim to the vicious rumors that the celebrity gossip mill has produced. It disgusts me that magazines show pictures of the man when he was dead (see the cover of the past week’s OK! Magazine) with a headline crowing, “How Michael REALLY Died!” And then now! All of these media outlets worshipping him reverently as though they had always given him the respect he deserved if not for being extremely talented then at the very LEAST being a human being? They can bite me, the whole hypocritical lot of them. They hadn’t given him an ounce of respect until he died.

I am sorry that his children will have to grow up one day and realize that all the people being so kind now were not always so polite regarding their father. You couldn’t listen to Paris Jackson speak today and think Michael had ever so much as yelled at her or her brothers, or treated them with anything but pure love. I am glad that while the media might be a bunch of dirty, brown-nosing turncoats, Michael Jackson’s family does have the respect and reverence of his fans, whose numbers and voices easily drown those of the malicious.

And for the record? I don’t think he was a pedophile. I never have. He was an amazing man. Talented, kind spirited, unequivocally just in his regard to people of all walks to life, and an amazing humanitarian who wanted and gave nothing but a whole lot of love.

I have a goal for the rest of the summer — to read 20 books between now and August 15th, the day I go back to Clemson for school and move into my new apartment (hurrah!). I’ve downloaded a bunch of free classics from Project Gutenberg, including plenty of Austen, Dickens and Shakespeare. I use Stanza to convert all the books I download into Kindle format. Which, by the way, I absolutely adore; the Kindle is a great tool. Books are lot cheaper in a digital format (newly released books for ten bucks that would cost $21 USD in hardcover? Count me in!), and thanks to sites like Project Gutenberg mentioned above, you can download thousands of books for absolutely nothing because their copyrights have run out and they’re now part of the public domain.

The first book I plan on reading (and I am making Amanda very proud, I know it) is Pride and Prejudice. I’m about six chapters in and have met Mr. Darcy only briefly, where he’s described as… well, not the hero I expected. I suppose his charm will come out in time, yes? I really know nothing about the book beyond its title, author and that it’s the one with that Darcy character, so I’ve been playing a guessing game as to whom he eventually ends up with.

I’ve no idea what I’ll read next… I’m considering The Time Machine by H.G. Wells. I have exactly 35 days to meet my goal… I actually think I can beat 20 books if I’m diligent, as I’m a very fast reader. Of course, reading older literature is a bit more difficult and therefore takes me longer because it’s not in modern prose. Austen’s writing style, while absolutely gorgeous, is rather hard to actually comprehend at first because of the many stacked clauses and, to be frank, back-assward sentence structure. I imagine I’ll get used to the feel of it once I have been reading for a while. I’m sure I’ll read plenty quick to complete the task… it just won’t go by as fast as a Gossip Girl book might, haha.

Here’s a quote from the dear girl from a recent cover of People Magazine:

“If girls realized the consequences of sex, nobody would be having sex. Trust me. Nobody.”

Oh. Really? Because I know the consequences of sex, and I have it. Regularly. Wanna know what they are, Bristol, since you don’t seem to have any clue?

1. Pregnancy (no duh)
2. STDs (ORLY?!)
3. There is no three

Here’s the deal. PLENTY of people (teenagers included) realize the risks of sex. They know there is the possibility of getting pregnant and there is the risk of getting a disease. However, they are EDUCATED about these things. Thanks to Bristol Palin’s mom, all she knew was God was gonna kick her ass if she didn’t wait. Well, she didn’t wait, and you know what? No repercussions from God, unless you count her baby (who is very cute, by the way).

Except, that baby could have been avoided if Bristol ws educated about the available options in the ways of birth control, body rhythms and alternative sexual activities. Babies don’t come from God; they come from the joining of egg and sperm, which is allowed during this thirty-six hour window during a woman’s menstrual cycle. It’s all about timing. There’s no miracle behind it.

My mom said what Bristol meant was, if girls knew that sex leads to crying, screaming babies, then they wouldn’t have it. Well, I know that unprotected, unregulated sex causes crying, screaming babies… so that’s why I don’t have unprotected, unregulated sex. I’m in a monogamous relationship (which is protection within itself) and I use birth control regularly. So I have safe sex. And so do plenty of people. EVERYONE is having sex. The difference between the people like Bristol and people like me is that we know about methods of birth control and when we’re most likely to get pregnant.

Bristol Palin is a prime example of why we need TRUE sex education in this country, not abstinence education. When I took Sex Ed in 9th grade, I was basically told that if you have sex before you’re 18, you will get pregnant, your baby will have a horrible deformity, you will get AIDS, your parents will hate you, the baby daddy will leave you, you will be poor and then you will die. And that’s why you shouldn’t have sex. Know what? Didn’t stop me or my friends. Scare tactics don’t work. People are going to have sex. We’re hard-wired like that for a reason. If we didn’t have sex, there would be no more people left. Sex is a GOOD thing, not bad. I’m tired of adults vilifying the act, because with the right knowledge and tools, everyone can get their freak on with little risk of any negative effects.

And even if you do end up in an OOPS situation, there are still things you can do. Unprotected sex? Meet Plan B, the morning after pill. Pregnant? Research your options… there’s abortion, adoption and, of course, keeping the baby. STD? Most are curable or, at the very least, treatable. And for god’s sake people, HPV is NOT a dirty disease. 80% of the sexually active community have HPV. You aren’t gonna die.

So here’s the deal, all you young readers. Have your regular exams with your physician. It’s important. Read EVERYTHING about sex you can get your hands on. There are people out there who want to help you learn about your bodies and your options, but they seem to be silenced by the overbearing majority who want you to think sex is something dirty, bad or evil. Educate yourselves, people, because it looks like the previous generation of baby boomers isn’t keen on helping their children out.

I’m officially home from college for the summer to work and, well, take a break. I’ve kicked my butt for a 4.0 this semester; I’ve now a 3.6 cumulative.. a few more semesters of this and I’ll get to graduate magna cum laude, which looks all sorts of good for graduate school and those other silly things that I’m SO not going to worry about until next semester. I can’t believe I’m already having to look into grad school… it seems a bit ridiculous.

Anyway, the whole point of this post is to give a recipe, which you’ll find below. It was borne out of the fact that my house kinda doesn’t have any food in it. Well, that isn’t true… there’s food, I suppose, but nothing, really, I want to eat. My father has been on that nutrisystem diet for a while now, so all he eats is their silly fiber-enriched food, and my mom basically eats lean cuisine because it’s easy. Which I don’t begrudge her, of course. But I was raised that we ate together as a family and well, ever since I left home, that hasn’t been the norm.

So yesterday I was searching for food for dinner… ended up with buttered pasta. This morning, no cereal or eggs for breakfast. Ended up with cinnamon toast with the questionable white bread that I found in the bottom of the bread basket. Lunch time has just rolled around, so the hunt for food resumed. Needless to say, I’m going to the grocery store this afternoon once my mom finishes her radio show (don’t ask) and getting some basics so I’ll be able to cook for myself. Thankfully.

But this recipe was thrown together based off what was in the fridge. It was light, delicious, fresh and satisfying. I’m very much a fan. In fact, I’ll be buying some fresher ingredients so I can have this more often!

Wilted Spinach Salad
Ingredients:

• Raw spinach
• Cherry or grape tomatoes, sliced into quarters
• Goat cheese
• Olive Oil
• Raspberry vinaigrette dressing
• Salt and pepper to taste

Instructions

1. In a medium sauce pan, heat olive oil over medium heat. I don’t really use measurement… I suppose about one teaspoon would be sufficient.
2. Once the oil is warmed, add handfuls of fresh spinach into the pan. Remember it will wilt down, so add a little bit more than you would add to a bowl if eating fresh.
3. Lightly sauté spinach until it is wilted. It will take on a dark green color, but won’t lose its firmness. Remove from heat and put into a salad bowl.
4. Crumble the goat cheese over the salad and add tomatoes. Drizzle the raspberry vinaigrette over the salad and toss. Salt and pepper to taste.
5. Enoy!

This salad is delicious because the sweetness of the dressing complements the bitterness of the cheese very well. The tomatoes taste excellent with it as well, and the pepper adds a bit of bite to the salad.

But that’s ’cause I have this thing called life. Which is, actually, GREAT if you have a blog. However, when the most interesting thing that happens to you in your life is having your professor showing you a YouTube video in class of little kids dancing to Low by Flo Rida… well, you get the point.

But I s’pose I could let you know that my sophomore year in college is officially over. I guess that means I need to change all my about me pages in which I state I’m a sophomore at Clemson University, ’cause I’m NOT. Hurrah. Most people would be a little sad that they’re moving into upperclassmen-dom, but really, it doesn’t faze me. I have six more years of this college thing with my plans to go to grad school. And by the time I get near the end of that, I’ll probably be weeping with joy. As far as finals went, I only had two and scored pretty much perfect on them. I do believe I should have 4.0 this semester, but we’ll see.

This summer I plan on working with my mom’s company, doing various Human Resources sort of things. All of my interviews from this semester’s career center were cancelled because evidently absolutely NOBODY is hiring, “due to economic calamity,” as one email said. FML to the max.. I’d rather not work at my mom’s company (not because I don’t like her or the company, hah) because I feel like I should “branch out” and have experiences beyond the ones I can easily get. I like having to work for things. But honestly, in this economy, I s’pose we should all take what we can get.

In internet news, I have a Flickr Pro account. I’m slowly putting all my photos onto it, so you’ll eventually get a taste of my mad photography skillz.

…but after receiving an anonymous blog comment on my last entry, I felt like it should be addressed here, because no blog is complete without this sort of entry.

It should be apparent that I withhold personal details of my life from this blog. There is a lot more to many of the personal stories I write about than what I let on, for my own privacy and that of the people involved. I find people who assume that a single post includes all of the dirty details to be incredibly close-minded. It should go without saying things are left out. You, anonymous poster, do not know the full story, and frankly, I don’t care to tell you. It’s none of your business.

People who assume they know everything there is to know about a person because of a few blog entries or even a thorough perusal of a website need a head examination. What we as bloggers and webmasters display on our site is a very watered down version of ourselves (at least, for the most part). There are plenty of bloggers who don’t show pictures of themselves, give their real names, give the names of their fellows, talk about their jobs/schooling and are completely vague about the life they lead. This should point to the glaringly obvious point that people on the internet are not who they are on their website. That is to say, who they display is not their whole self. It’s very presumptuous for a reader to assume they understand all circumstances of a post or a page. If I’m ever leaving a comment, I am sure to preface it with the knowledge that I am going off of the incomplete information given because there are obviously more intricate dynamics going on than what’s displayed.

I am not my blogging persona, and nor am I my website. I am all of the things you see, but I am also so much more. Assuming I’m nothing more than the words on your screen is ignorant at best and a bit hurtful (on my part) at worst. Nobody is one-dimensional. Don’t treat people that way. Give them the benefit of the doubt that there’s more to the story than what you see before jumping down their throats.

I am incredibly angry right now.

For those who aren’t aware, I am a member of a professional sorority on campus. It’s an engineering and science sorority, with the goal of uniting girls in a predominantly male field. I joined it when I was a computer science major; now that I’m a psychology major, it’s pretty much irrelevant to me. But, I like the girls, so I was active in the organization for two semesters, serving as the philanthropic chair for one.

This semester, I was too busy with my job at the school newspaper, my biology lab, my research and a seventeen hour course load to be active in an organization that I’m involved in for a nonacademic reason. I was stretched entirely too thin last semester. I said I would try to be active, but it ended up not working out. I went to no meetings, I did not participate in the recruitment process, I will not participate in the upcoming semesterly trip, I won’t be involved in Ritual Week, and I will not be attending the Formal. However, against my knowledge, shirts were ordered for me and they were basically counting on my money.

However, seeing as how those dues serve to pay for the costs of me participating in various activities that I did not and will not be involved in, I see no reason why I should have to pay. I told them at most I would pay for the t-shirts because they were ordered for me (and I’d get three nice shirts out of the deal). But I pretty much categorically refused to pay dues for activities I did not get to participate in. I hope they don’t force me to pay, because I do like the sorority, and I would be very embittered towards them if I do. If they force me to pay, I suppose I will.

But they better not expect me to be active for the rest of my college career. I will not be inducted as an alumni, and I won’t be paying the required $300 “gift” to the sorority after I graduate.

Edit: They are forcing me to pay. Their loss.

Edit Two: Please kindly remember anonymous comments will be deleted.