Senator Obama spoke at the Call to Renewal Conference sponsored by Sojourners earlier to day. He spoke of the role of religion in politics.
“This is why, if we truly hope to speak to people where they’re at – to communicate our hopes and values in a way that’s relevant to their own – we cannot abandon the field of religious discourse.” Senator Barack Obama
It’s been quite a while since last I wrote an entry. I got rid of the “daily links” plugin, because according to my google analytics page, not many people are using it. I thought it might be something nice for everyone, but I am not providing ground-breaking news or anything, so I can understand why not many people are utilizing it.
Right now, it’s 10:30 a.m., and I’m drinking a White Chocolate Mocha from Starbucks. Ahhhhh. I love me some Starbucks! And as I intermittently sip on this mocha, Shaquille has just begun his tutelage at Sylvan Learning Center. I wish I could afford to have Shaquille tutored six hours a week, which is what he needs, but we just don’t have the money. At least we are fortunate enough to have beautiful friends and strangers that care, and enough to be able to spend $400 a month for his lessons (two hours of lessons a week @ $50 a lesson).
Kris called up Sylvan last week and scheduled Shaq for Thursdays from 10:30 a.m. – 1 p.m., because from 11:30 a.m. – 1 p.m., I attend freshman orientations here at UH where I introduce what the Women’s Resource Center is all about. I wish I could take a picture of myself, cuz I look pretty hawt, if I do say so myself (I rarely dress up). The only setback is that I’m wearing these pants that look great on me, but are a little too tight. All of the extra ten pounds I need to lose are above the endseem! Hahaha. If I stand up, no problem. If I sit down: “Houston we have a problem”. LOL.
Let’s see, what else. Hmm. Oh! That’s right . . . new people are moving into the house! One of my friends is named Nicole; she is the one who Jason is upset about because she dabbles in tarot cards and meditates. Nicole can’t move in until Kris fixes up her bathroom. Nicole is a mathamatics major at UH.
Another person who is moving in, who would rather be anonymous on my blog, is a Taoist. Toaism is a very interesting philosophy, and I enjoyed learning about it when I minored in religious studies as an undergraduate. Anyhow, he’s a real nice guy, with deep roots. Him and I have a lot of interesting conversations about the universe and the battle between good and evil. Of course, in the tradition of Toaism, good and evil are one in the same; thus, I tend to have a dissenting opinion about that because I believe good and evil are not the same. This friend of mine will be moving in this weekend. Oh, and he’s also a psychology major.
The final person who will eventually be moving in is my friend Darelle. Darelle is gay, and I know that Jason will also probably have problems with him because he ain’t no ordinary gay man. He’s a flamming awesome gay man. He ain’t shy about it either. I love Darelle. He’s an awesome man! He’s into RPGs (gotta love that) and reading. Darelle is a communications major.
Now that you have indirectly met the new housemates, LOL, wish us luck that Jason can behave himself and not continue to be prejudice and discriminate people who do not fit into his fundamental Christianity criteria for what it means to be a righteous person in God’s eyes. Luckily, Kris called up a good pastor we know, and he will be chatting with Jason on Monday. Thank you Jesus!
This is something fun I found on a friend’s blog, just put your name in the comments of this post and:
1. I’ll respond with something random about you
2. I’ll challenge you to try something
3. I’ll pick a colour that I associate with you
4. I’ll tell you something I like about you
5. I’ll tell you my first/clearest memory of you
6. I’ll tell you what animal you remind me of
7. I’ll ask you something I’ve always wanted to ask you
8. If I do this for you, you must post this on yours.
fun fun fun!
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For Azzie:
1. She makes beautiful artwork… especially kitties.
2. I want to see you hold a kitty, have someone take a pic of you, and post it on flickr.
3. Blue and silver. Blue representing water, because you are full of change and silver for some reason makes me think of tranquility.
4. Azzie is so down-to-earth and laid back . . . I totally digg that.
5. The time you commented about a picture I took of a singapura cat on flickr.
6. A racoon. Don’t ask me why, but that was the first thing that poppped up into my head. So I went with it.
7. What is the fondest memory of your childhood?
8. If I do this for you, you must post this on yours.
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For Matthew:
1. Matt is a music guru!
2. I challenge Matt to write a little bit more about his personal life (just a bit more).
3. Purple, because he loves Prince and it makes me think of Purple Rain by Prince.
4. He takes bada$$ pictures of a lot of occurences in his life. There is almost always a caption with his entries. This makes his entries all the more interesting.
5. Gosh, I honestly cannot remember! Pitiful, I know.
6. For some reason, Matt … you remind me of a snake. Not a “bad” thing, but shiny and beautiful. I just go with the first thing that pops into my head.
7. What is your job? I know it’s business, with music I believe, but I’m not too sure.
8. If I do this for you, you must post this on yours.
I can’t wait until both my husband and I get decent jobs that pay a “living wage” so that we don’t have to continue to live paycheck to paycheck. I mean, I know things will go right once we finish college. Kris has one and a half more years to go with his degree in computer engineering technology where he will be able to get a job at such places as Dell, Texas Instruments, Microsoft, or any other place where there is a need for computer engineers. Once I finish college, I’ll be able to work anywhere where there is a need for a mental health therapist like in a hospital, mental institution, public school, etc. On the other hand, I have a strong love for public policy as well, so, I’ll have to see if there is a way I can either choose or combine the two. Only time will tell. I mean, I love grassroots activism, but I also love giving therapy to people. It’s a hard decision that will take time and contemplation. Heck, I’ve even considered academia; thus, the skies the limit when it comes to the possibilites of what I can do with higher education.
Let me break down what the bills are like for me. I am fortunate right now to have earned $700 bucks in two weeks because we don’t have a director for the Women’s Resource Center yet. So right now, I’m able to work 35 hours a week as opposed to only 20. Kris worked almost 40 hours each week for a grand total of $430 in earnings (I know. . . pitiful). Our rent is $370, but Kris has done so much fixing up the house, so he recently asked our landlord if the rent could be reduced to $300, and he said that was cool ((sigh of relief)). My one statistics course is $968, and I paid a third of it. Our T-Mobile 3,000 minute family plan for our two cell phones is $150. The internet bill is $40. Shaq’s Sylvan Learning Center is $200 for two weeks (two hours per week), but we were lucky that we got the first two lessons free (Shaq starts Sylvan this upcoming week). All in all, if you count up how much we earn minus what our bills are, there is very little left. There’s about $100 we have left for groceries for the next two weeks to feed three people; and honestly, that’s not too bad. We’ve been in worse situations, and if you’ve been reading this blog since the summer of last year, you’ll know what I mean.
Of course, I’ll be getting friends of mine online that will say “Oh April, you shouldn’t have to be obligated to pay for your brother’s schooling . . . only worry about you and Kris” or “April, that cell phone bill is way too high! There’s no need for that kind of luxury” or even better “April, high speed internet with earthlink . . . you could be saving that money for something else”. Yeah, I could save an extra $390, but why? I’m already poor as it is, and if we didn’t have cell phones, high speed internet (and the free cable t.v. that comes with it), and pay for Shaq’s schooling, we would be completely miserable.
I wouldn’t be able to have fun blogging or catch up on blogs or the news whenever I wanted to. Kris wouldn’t be able to download movies for us to watch on our t.v., because we can’t afford to go to the movies. Without cell phones, we would constantly be wondering what each of us is doing when the other is away. Without cell phones, we wouldn’t be able to comfort each other from miles and miles away. Without our T-Mobiles we wouldn’t be able to contact anyone that we care about. Without Sylvan, Shaq would be a sitting duck in school . . . and that wouldn’t be right. He needs the opportunity to finish college so that he can become whatever he wants to be.
Is saving $390 and investing it into companies better, or investing that money into our well beings a better investment? I go for human capital any day. 
UPDATE: We changed our T-Mobile plan from $129.00 to 69.99 for 1,000 minutes, because we realized that we never used all of our 3,000 minutes. The only setback is that we had to extend the contract for another year.
A remake of the 1976 horror classic The Omen (1976), an American official realizes that his young son may literally be the devil incarnate.
Review
Despite bad reviews from a lot of sources, I think that this Omen was not bad . . . not bad at all. The collaborators brought something old and something new to this version. It was quite tasteful, and truly saved the gore for the climax of the story. This film seemed longer and more in-depth than the 1976 version even though it was actually one minute shorter than the original at 110 minutes. For non-horror regulars, this is a great flick, because the storyline is very thorough and direct as opposed to being quite mysterious and vague like the original. I must admit though, that I enjoyed the ‘76 version a lot more, but this one was not a bad compliment. There is no need to go and rush to see this flim; however, it’s definately a rentable, and perhaps even a keeper.
Directed by
John Moore
Genres
Drama, Horror, Thriller
Cast
Liev Schreiber, Baby Zikova, Baby Morvas, Baby Muller, Baby Litera, Julia Stiles, Tomas Wooler, Rafael Sallas, Marshall Cupp, Martin Hindy, Seamus Davey-Fitzpatrick, Amy Huck, Vince Valituti, Klara Low, David Thewlis
This is what I was hoping for . . . for someone to modify this theme in another color. It’s so beautiful in blue. I can imagine this theme in multiple colors with multiple headers. I am so thrilled to see when people work to make themes their own.
Shaquille’s kitten Sonny, an orange tabby, was named by none other than yours truly. He’s an impulsive and aggresive little guy, and this impulsiveness made me think of “Sonny” from the Godfather. If you haven’t seen the Godfather, it’s a must see. The difference between this Sonny and the Sonny in the Godfather, is that this one’s not going to be impulsive enough to die young. [insert laugh]
Oh wow, my dry humor or lack of humor for that matter never ceases to amaze me. Oh how I wish I were a funnier person. I’m so serious most of the time. I thank God for Kris though, because without Kris, I would be as dry as the Gobe desert. But seriously though, I need to start watching more comedy like the show I watched last night on Comedy Central entitled “Billy Madison” starring Adam Sandler. I also watched “National Lampoon’s: Van Wilder”, which damn near made me piss in my pants. It felt so good to laugh like that. I haven’t laughed like that since I was a kid!
And speaking of kid, despite the fact that I have no privacy whatsoever, and that Shaq won’t stop begging for attention every minute, the boy does help me fill in the gaps when it comes to what kids are into now a days. I mean, I can’t even believe I’m saying that. I’m 27 years old, and I just can’t believe how much older I am than my brother and what a diffence 14 years between us can make as far as pop-culture goes. I’m trying to learn more about anime, because it is a huge phenomenon and I don’t want to be behind the times. I don’t want to be one of those people that basically stays in their decade, and their decade alone. How boring is that? How out of sync is that?
Take for example, all of these people who are in their 30s, and are into the 80s stuff (sorry 80s fans . . . but it must be said). There’s just too many people stuck in the 80s. I mean I’ll admit, there were some great things in the 80s, but the 80s are “like so yesterday”. Maybe I’m biased because I am a child of the 90s?! There are just so many things about the 80s that I would like to forget such as hot pink shorts, bicycle shorts, multiple watches, big bangs with a lot of hair spray, tight jeans folded at the bottom, make-up that made women look like ghosts, outfits that were only for people with no ass, cheesy MTV videos, boys hair bands, mullets, punk rock, and a whole host of other 80s stuff.
Okay, but there is something I did love about the 80s: the movies and t.v. shows. The movies of the 80s, especially the horror movies, were great! I’ll also have to admit that I loved the Goonies (Goonies rock!) and Feris Bueller’s Day Off. I’m not into 16 candles though (yuck!) I can’t really stand Molly Ringwald. I know, I know, every 80s fan can’t stand me now, but dang-nabbit, I’m just not much of a fan of the 80s. I felt that for the most part, the 80s was all about being a “material girl” as Madonna would say. All about “me…me…me”… too materialistic. I know I’m generalizing here, I just don’t have that many found memories of the 80s except for movies and the whole environmental thing. Shows like “Captain Planet” were AWESOME.
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