shameless soliciting...for a good cause

I have been getting much more involved with SHH this semester, including going up to the yearly summit at GMU last weekend to kick off the semester's fundraising campaign. We are shooting for $200,000 as a whole organization, with the Virginia Tech chapter pledging to raise $25,001 (that extra $1 is to best William and Mary, who only pledged $25,000...losers!).

Here's the breakdown of where the money will go: the first $100,000 is going to an education and empowerment fund, to keep kids in school and help them succeed. The next $50,000 will go towards building a business center in Villa Soleada, so the village will become self-sustaining and be able to support all of these various projects that we've been working on. The final $50,000 and any extra money we hope to get will go towards starting a new children's home project, to give orphaned and abandoned kids in the area a better place to live. If you read that novel down below that was my trip recap, you know how badly orphaned children can be treated, so this is something we are all very passionate about starting. So we really want to get to that $200,000 mark!

To help reach our fundraising goal, I have set up a webpage: http://giving.studentshelpinghonduras.org/shh/participantpage.asp?uid=3147&fundid=1678

Please donate if you can! It would mean so much to the kids of Villa Soleada, and it would make me very happy too. I love you all.

[Here is the general fundraising website, with a video and a running total of all the money raised by the different chapters: http://giving.studentshelpinghonduras.org/ ]

finally!

After November weather in the mid-70s, I was so ready for winter to get here.

And get here it did!

After the Arsenal win, I walked to campus with the vague idea of getting food. Then I realized that it was the first snowfall of the season, and so I had to get a peppermint mocha from Starbucks. When I got downtown, I decided to pick two up and take one to my friend LA, who was holed up inside her apartment because she hates snow.

On the way over however, the snow went from a light but steady dusting to a blinding swirl of white, and by the time I got there, I was soaked. So I ended up staying the afternoon because I didn't want to walk back in the blizzard.

Home sweet home!

we are virginia tech.

Hard to believe it's been two years. In some ways it seems like it happened a lifetime ago; in others, only yesterday. As a campus and as a community we have moved ahead, but I can't easily say that we've moved on. I don't think it's something that I will ever fully get over, and I know many of my friends, classmates, and sisters feel the same way. It's not easy, with gun violence still extremely prevalent in the US and even abroad, and with unthinkably easy access to guns it's no wonder we still have a problem. However, the Hokie Nation has grown stronger, and we are healing.

For all of those who have helped in the recovery process over the past few years - thank you.

And for all of the Hokies no longer with us - requiescant in pace.

happy new year!

And what better way to ring in the new year than a day filled with good old American (and maybe Canadian) sports?

First, we have a strange fusion of baseball and hockey with the Winter Classic - Blackhawks and Redwings playing at Wrigley Field, home of my beloved Chicago Cubs. Weird and pointless but I'm going to watch anyways. Unless my sister complains and takes the remote.

My parents will probably want to watch the Rose Bowl, even though the Illini aren't playing this year, so I'm sure that will be on later. I don't really care about the Big 10 or the Pac-10, so I can't muster up a whole lot of excitement about this game. I do think that they should have somehow made Illinois go to the Orange Bowl, simply because it would bring me childish amusement to think that a guy named Juice was playing in a tournament called the Orange Bowl. Ahem, anyways.

And onto the Orange Bowl. No Juice playing, but we do have a Macho. Virginia Tech against Cincinnati. Last year we lost it to Kansas, so I'm hoping for a big win tonight. Although we were a better team last year; the team's been pretty inconsistent this season. I guess we'll see how it goes.

free at last

Do you see the light at the end of the tunnel? I do!

I'm done with all of my work and my exams and my studying and my papers! I am now looking at seventeen days of blissful freedom, with nothing to do except give Christmas presents, get Christmas presents, bake cookies, and pack my life up into two small(ish) suitcases to take overseas.

Which will be a chore in itself, but it's not a stressful one. Well, not that stressful. Although I still have to figure out how they expect me to live on three (seriously?) pairs of shoes for six months...

to do this week:

• Start Romantic Lit paper
• Finish Romantic Lit paper (Due: Tuesday 9^th)
• Psychology Extra Credit (Due: Wednesday 10^th)
• Study for Philosophy final (Friday 12^th)
• Write Romantic Lit final (Due: Monday 15^th)
• Study for American Lit final (Monday 15^th)
• Study for World Politics final (Tuesday 16^th)
• Revise/finish American Lit Interaction Journal (Due: Wednesday 17^th)
• Complete American Lit free writing folder (Due: Wednesday 17^th)
• Clean room
• Stuff everything I own into my car
• Drive home

(To do after the semester is over: Eat, sleep)

florida, here we come...again

Once again, we beat BC to be crowned ACC Champs! Two years in a row, baby. We're going back to the Orange Bowl, and this time we're gonna win it.

maybe i just shouldn't eavesdrop

It's strange how different opinions can sometimes be. Today I overheard two girls in my American Literature class bitching about my Romantic Literature professor, who they have for Creative Writing. They were going on and on about how horrible a teacher he was, and how unnecessarily harsh he was on their papers, and how what he wrote was all subjective anyways.

Funny thing is, he's my favorite professor this semester. I think he's a fantastic teacher, and yeah he's a tough grader, but he certainly knows what he's talking about. Maybe I'm biased because I've gotten several very good grades in his class so he likes me, or they're biased because they've gotten bad grades, but it's still strange to me. I also love the subject matter which could make a difference; maybe I wouldn't like him as much if I took his Creative Writing class.

I have my second paper for that class due Tuesday: a comparison/contrast between William Blake's A Little Boy Lost and Percy Shelley's The Mask of Anarchy. I haven't gotten very far on it. I haven't even fleshed out my thesis yet. But even if I get a horrible grade on my paper, I honestly don't think that would make me like Dr. Welch less because of it.

[Random side note: People always ask why I'm not an English major, and sometimes I have a hard time coming up with an answer. Is it weird that I'm actually looking forward to writing this paper? Blake is one of my favorite poets in general, and The Mask of Anarchy is probably my favorite poem at the moment. Maybe I'm just odd, and that's the reason I'm the only one that likes my teacher.]

worst halloween costumes ever: blog challenge two

So yesterday, as I'm sure you are all aware, was Halloween. My costume was pretty sweet, if I do say so myself...

...but there were others that I saw that really were not up to par. So I have compiled a list of what-not-to-wears, Halloween style.

1) Most of us have seen Mean Girls, but really, the "slut rule" should not be taken that seriously. Don't be slutty unless your costume is also actually good. The generic ones that you buy online (eg. French maids, Catholic schoolgirls, Playboy bunnies) are boring, overdone, and show far too much of what lots of girls probably shouldn't be showing. There was one girl I saw at the party last night just wearing a black bra and underwear and boots. WTF she was supposed to be, I have no idea.

I did see a few somewhat clever ideas though. One girl that we met on the bus was wearing birthday wrapping paper with a tag that said "From God, to men": God's gift to mankind. There was also a girl who was wearing a rather revealing outfit, but she had two plastic fried eggs on her head: eggs over easy. I can forgive whoreishness on Halloween as long as you've got a unique idea to go with it.

2) Do not dress as Sarah Palin. It's just a big no. That includes both girls and boys.

3) Guys, do not go out with just a wig on. That's ridic lazy.

4) Girls, a black dress with two lipstick spots on your neck does not a costume make. I don't care how much you pout when you take pictures of yourself on the bus, you do not look like a vampire.


Some of the good costumes I saw out:

1) A grocery bag

2) Tweedle Dee and Tweedle Dum

3) Indiana Jones (okay this was nothing that special, but I love Indiana Jones so this costume is always good)

4) A Piñata (already broken, with candy stuck all over)

5) Party on Garth, party on Wayne!
Schwing!

florida = worst state ever.

Florida State just injured both our first and second string quarterbacks. Sean Glennon I don't care so much about, but Tyrod? Really? I'm heartbroken. If it's serious I'm gonna go down there and kick some Florida butt. We don't even have a third string QB.


Also, this crazy woman comes from Florida:



"Are you joking? Is this a joke? Is that a real question?"

Oh, Joe the Biden. You crack me up.

macho man

I love Macho Harris.

That is all.