Amazing... I'm not bummed about my classes being dropped!

You know why? Because my life RAWKS! I'm so HAPPY that I don't care!

In fact, without all kinds of insanity going on and messing up my brains, I might just go back to writing about Science and Wackmobiles and have lots of Spurious Brainchildren, just like before!

Imagine that!

In fact, I feel probably much like how Violet feels now that the yard is full of spring robins! Look -- she's about to pounce!

Even MORE wackily, I may actually go out and re-integrate myself into the BlogWorld and read other people's blogs and have them read mine!

WHOA! I'm totally mad!

That's how great I am feeling now that it's Spring Break and there's no insane people pushing me around!

Okay, so finals week was hard, which is why I've been BlogGone, and it turns out that I didn't get Financial Aid for next quarter and all my classes were dropped and now I'm on a wait list and only have any realistic chances of getting into one of the four classes I had signed up for, but that's okay because I'll probably have time to take those same classes before next spring, which is when I plan to transfer to University of Washington in Bothell, where I'll be pursuing my Science Writing Degree.

Science Writing Degree! Yes, I'll be writing science articles FOR REALS!

And no crazy roommates to make school hard for me! Even Andrew is not blasting his music anymore. And yes, he is crazy, but he doesn't like being crazy, and since he's been out from under the Bad Influence of those meth heads, he's been pretty normal.

So let's see, since I've been writing this blog, I've been into the ghetto, out the other side, have finally gotten the ghetto out of this nice house we live in now, and I may actually wind up having a career on top of that.

Oh yeah, and my Fiance Lucas and my kittehs!



I feel so great thinking about this that I don't really care that all the blog comments back from the REAL HOPPIN' DAYS when this blog was like THREE POSTS A DAY have been ERASED somehow. I was really sad for a while, because I had never backed up the comments, just my posts directly after I had written them.

It's a real shame because often the comments were just an extension of what I'd written, both owing to other people's comments as well as mine, and the blog lost a lot because of that.

It's not just my blog, either -- Dr. Nociceptor has also experienced the same thing!

Why did it happen? The posts whose comments were erased seem to be the posts before I put my spam filter on them, though a few of them still have comments anyway. It's weird. Weird and really disappointing.

I wonder what happens if I take the spam filter off? I'll try that once I get all the comments that I do have backed up on my hard drives.

So, real quick, what have I written in my journal for you good folks since last time? Not much, since I've been busy...

...plotting with Vada in the backyard.

March 6, 2010:

It seems that Troy's CD player, complete with Wu-Tang Clan CD, is missing and his tall lamp is screwed apart and strewn across Andrew's desk. We think those meth-heads Lacy and Mike have something to do with it, considering that Andrew doesn't seem to know.

Thankfully, Lacy and Mike will not be back.

Right now, Lucas and I are on our way to Alice in Wonderland 3D: Alice All Growed-Up. Or whatever it's called.

We have just picked up our Secret Non-Movie Theater Snacks, which we are smuggling in our coats!

By the way, Andrew may be in jail, according to Lacy, who called Lucas three times after one in the morning last night/morning! Or whatever it's called.

Later: Hey, the movie wasn't bad. I didn't know what to expect, other than the fact that I noticed that the Alice in this one was too old for Lewis Carroll's liking, as far as taking nude photos of.
` No really, I read it in this Annotated Alice in Wonderland book I have, and it's pretty well-documented, like in Lewis Carroll/Dodgson's diary an' stuff... yeah, he liked all children except for boys and when they got past like 12 years old he got bored with their looks....

Okay, enough with the dirt on Lewis Carroll, especially since this movie was NOT indeed the book Alice in Wonderland; this story occurs when Alice is older and falls down a rabbit hole and the whole bit.
` If you haven't seen it, I won't ruin it. All I will say is this is definitely... a Tim Burton film. It even answers the question of where the Queen of Hearts puts all those severed heads!

Also, there's an important reference between the fact that the illustration of the boy who kills the Jabberwock looks a lot like the illustrations of Alice, which was also mentioned in the Annotated Alice -- maybe it is supposed to be Alice?


And now for something totally different!

Since there's nothing for the next several days in my journal, I shall post to you one of the emails I've written about my life from this period of time.

This one is to the co-hosts of a certain Skeptic's Guide to the Universe podcast who might appreciate my gossip:
` It's sad, but it's too funny, and I think they'll laugh at the "Oh, yeah?" part, because it's an inside reference to people whose logical responses to things amount to... "Oh yeah?"

Basically, it reminds me of some anecdote they might tell, but with more social awkwardness involved. Because I'm socially awkward.

For the most amusing and wonderful skeptics in all of podcast land, a conspiracy theory absurdity that happened in English class the other day at college:

Luckily, it wasn't my instructor, it was my classmate, we'll call him Jeff, whose presentation was all about all the 'evidence' that 9/11 was faked.

I have to say, he did a very good job on putting it together, especially considering that the other three people who had been in his presentation group dropped the class. If his information were true, it would have been very convincing.

I basically sat through a half hour of misinformation that was a little like Loose Change, in PowerPoint form.

In the discussion at the end, a bunch of classmates sitting around me revealed themselves as believers in the conspiracy, and a few more seemed to be persuaded. ("Wow, I didn't know that!")

When Jeff asked, "How come there have been no plane parts found at the Pentagon?" I answered; "There were all kinds of plane parts and body parts found in the Pentagon."

And you know what he said?

"Oh yeah?"

Well, actually he said, "No, there weren't," but, same difference.

And then the instructor was like, "No, I think he's right, there wasn't any evidence of a plane at the Pentagon."

I was like, WTF?

I also countered a couple of other things, and his answer was literally, "No, it isn't, Spoony."

Then, one student said that he saw pictures of bulldozers picking up MELTED steel.

I pointed out; "I think you should know there's a big difference between completely liquid melted and just deformed," and explained how it only takes like 700 degrees to make steel beams bend and subsequently stop supporting a building, whereas it takes like two thousand degrees to make it melt into a puddle.

Jeff then said that there was melted steel at Ground Zero, and I pointed out that it wasn't specifically steel, it was METAL that was found (and was gray, unlike steel).

He replied "But Spoony, steel IS metal!" as if I was so stupid for not knowing that, and then some of the other students were like, "Yeah, Spoony!"

My logic instructor would have been shaking his head.

And I should mention to you here that my logic skills have been not been of any use to me in any class outside of logic and critical thinking classes. I think something is wrong here.

So then afterward, Jeff and another classmate were posting links to 'evidence' of a conspiracy on the school internet forum, so I posted my own article (packed with excellent references) on how the evidence is distorted to support the 9/11 conspiracy theory, which I wrote a long time ago, but I don't think he read it.

Instead, Jeff said he didn't want to get into a debate with me in the school forum and asked me a few questions which I then answered very straightforwardly, like this: "Actually, the formal investigation does exist and is available to read here, and you will probably see that the 'Official Story' is a lot different than what conspiracy theorists say it is."

I also pointed out that the article wasn't a response to him, but that I wrote it a couple of years ago, and was just trying to get him to see how they MADE the conspiracy theory.

Jeff (or anyone else) didn't respond, so I started a new thread about how the Death Star was an inside job.

Nobody responded to that, either.

The next time I had English class, Jeff didn't look at me, and neither did the people whose table I would normally sit at, so instead I sat in the corner.

Just another example of how people get alienated from one another for showing that they're skeptical.

Sure, this maybe wasn't the best situation to reveal my true self to the class, but situations don't seem to matter anyway.

Even when it is entirely appropriate, so many people seem to think I'm less than human or diseased or something because of how I think....

I'm thinking of just living in a hollow tree until 2012 takes down civiliation -- just kidding!

Love you guys! Especially Jay.

Spoony

Yes, I actually wrote that to them, and yes, I am well-aware that I probably should have just left the room and hit my head against a wall from all the pent-up neurosis and cognitive dissonance going on in my head.
` I just couldn't take it, and my brain was exploding with... well... basically the reasons why some crazy ideas make sense and others don't, and the dismay of being surrounded by people who don't understand that.

Even so, what can I say? Though misinformation is not funny, I think that logical fallacies are window-lickin' good entertainment!

March 17, 2010:

I've been working on my finals a lot. We've had a few more people come over to look at the house (or at least say they're going to) and I've been helping Lucas out on the website front, with GoDaddy instead of Google Sites.

I'm getting 'A's so far in math, by the way.

Since the other drummer lived too far away, Lucas had to get another drummer, which he is playing with right now. They rawk!
` Speaking of RAWKING, Troy has been cooking for us because we've also been cooking for him. His chicken alfredo (which I had but with salmon) was FAN-tastic!

Later on:
` Oh crap! My Financial Aid didn't come through, although I thought it had, and all my classes have been dropped! Arrrgh! So, I wasn't even on the wait list for any of 'em, but now I'm at the back of the line!

Will I get in next quarter?

Tune in next time!


March 19 2010:

And while you're waiting, have some pie!

Breakfast of Champions! (At least, it was my breakfast this morning!) Oh yeah, why don't you check out my March 2010 Flickr set? I don't dare cram any more photos on here, or someone's computer will crash!

Update at 7:25:

I come out of my office to find... THE POLICE! Just when I thought we wouldn't see them again.

They're looking for Lacy the meth chick. She just ran into the house and apparently went right back out through the back door. Why was she running? Hit-and-run. It sounds like they're talking to her on the street right outside... hard to tell, though, since our windows don't face the street.

In other news for today, I took some more pictures of Vada and Violet frolicking with me in the ravine, though I probably won't upload them tonight. Next time, though....

And while I'm updating, we've had another potential roommate over yesterday. We've done extensive background checking on him, and he seems pretty okay, so we're hoping he moves in.

Further Update:

At about 10:30, Lucas and I were on our way back from the gym and stopped at the 7-Eleven where we ran into... the same cops as before! They said they hadn't caught Lacy yet, but that justice will be done sooner or later.
` We also told them some of our encounters with cops over the years and how none of it had anything to do with any wrongdoing on his behalf, like the time they were surrounded by the SWAT team while shooting a music video.

Yet another update, March 20th, 6:50 p.m.:

There was a knock at the door and the lady cop we had seen yesterday and last night met Andrew at the front door as I watched, looking for Lacy once more.

She even had a picture, which Andrew said didn't look like Lacy. Maybe it does and maybe it doesn't. I actually don't recall what Lacy looks like.

Oh, now Lucas is home. He didn't recognize the picture, either. He says it might be because the picture does not look like it depicts a meth-head, so maybe it's not the most recent photo.

In other news, wherever Andrew's car has been, it's back today.

Hmm, looks like Andrew has been charged with something, like obstructing the law. Does he really not know, or what? I don't know what's going on.