scholarships is good

fark, bless their souls, has once again provided me with entertainment for the week.

this high school kid, willie williams, is being heavily recruited by a number of colleges. the miami herald is covering his trips to FSU, UM, Auburn, and U of F. sorry, willie, but you're a poster-child for idiot jocks.

while i suggest you read each of the articles, i have to share these nuggets:

Williams ran out of the tunnel through a giant-sized UM helmet and the infamous smoke. The music playing over the loudspeakers was Bone Crusher's rap hit Never Scared. Oddly, though, Williams kind of was.
''I was running like a blind man,'' Williams said. 'I had my eyes closed cause I didn't want none of that smoke to get in my eyes. Coach was like, `It's OK, Willie. It isn't going to hurt you.' Now, I know. Running through that smoke was awesome.''

''Auburn opened my eyes a little bit,'' Williams said. ``But they closed them, too.''

"The girls at the party were much better than the farmer girls we'd see all day around campus,'' Williams said. ``I was kind of worried all Auburn had to offer was those farmer girls that talked funny. But the girls at the party weren't farmer girls at all. I thought they must have bused them in from Miami.''

and he's gonna go to college. and graduate. and make a *lot* of money.

willie williams, i salute you...

and in other good news

colorado is rockin' for working on new legislation that would strip companies of their state contracts for sending jobs overseas.

Dem. senators Hanna and Phillips weigh in:
Hanna said she was shocked when workers for EDS, a Texas-based company that has a contract for computers for the state human services programs, recently told lawmakers it was sending technical support jobs to workers in India and Pakistan.

Hanna said her measure (Senate Bill 170) would require companies to keep workers assigned to state contracts in the United States.

"I know profits are important to companies, but we in Colorado need to do all we can to make sure people have jobs," Hanna said.

Phillips said IBM recently announced it was moving 900 jobs out of Louisville. His measure (Senate Bill 169) would bar companies that relocate 100 jobs or more outside the United States from doing business with the state for seven years.

wouldn't it be nice to have a thriving economy again? available jobs? customer service representatives who understand english, speak it fluently, and can be understood?

i'm all for keeping american jobs in america. worry about the local economy before you worry about the global one, please.

ooh! job!

haha - trust fark to help me find the perfect 'at home' job...

i often wonder how much money i can make by just selling all of the random crap i've collected.

speaking of at home, here's a great article. i like this quote:
"Let's be realistic about this," Casady said. "When have you ever seen anyone smoking tobacco in a hash pipe or a bong?"

dude - i've seen ppl do some very strange things when they're stoned...

last cool link of the post:
if you die young, blame your mom.

“We have shown that minor manipulation of maternal diet can increase life expectancy in mice by more than 50 per cent, a discovery that calls for attention to this in humans,” the researchers wrote in the journal Nature.

cool. and then they point out that "There is, after all, a significant difference between living to be 50 and reaching 75.”

well, damn, smokey - see how much they learn 'em good in them there science skool?

patience, my dear

i'm the most jittery, impatient, annoying person who has ever tried to sit still. when i'm excited i bounce, when i have a secret i want to burst... when i sit for too long, i jiggle - my feet, my hand, sometimes my head.

so it amazes me that i kept quiet abuot my boyfriend for so long. as you may have noticed, i'm blogging pretty rarely these days. it's not that i hve less time, or less to say, it's that i want to share every thought, every everything, and i know i can't, so i share nothing instead. annoying, i miss blogging, and .

so... i called someone a prude the other day on protocols. i felt bad about how harsh i was, but the thing is, the guy really pissed me off. it's ok to not like a link someone posts, and to comment to that end. even to say "i found it offensive" or "i think it's detrimental to your readership". but to use that dislike to launch a personal attack? the way it was framed made it seem that posting that link was a motivating factor in the commenter's opinion of the person.

which is when the prude thing popped into my head. it made me think of those people who see someone do somehting hey wouldn't do, and then judge that person as bad. not cool! and so not the place to air personal issues.

i'm not sure if i have a point here. i believe i'm rambling, and i've lost myself in the middle. again. dammit.

i'm not the only one!

i was sent this link by a friend, and i have to tell you, it made me quite happy to learn that someone else goes through this with my name:
So meeting someone new was often a mini-ordeal:

"Hi, I'm Dani."

"Oh, nice to meet you Danny/Dana/Donna/Dina."

AAARRRGGGHHH!!!!
oh, do i feel her pain.

she makes the same point i've made from time to time - we have this idea that names are important, and having mine messed up so often by so many people is beyond aggravating. so, take heed, pronounce carefully, and
FEMALE DANIS OF THE WORLD - UNITE!

wandering down the street
my destination known
steps directed by the wind
freezing tear embedded in my cheek
to never hear your voice again

baruch dayan ha'emet

i didn't think i'd be doing this for many many years, but today is it.  Mikey Butler, a highly cherished friend of mine as well as many others, was niftar this morning.  to anyone who knew him, you know how special he was.  and to anyone who didn't have the honor of his friendship - and to know him was to be friends with him - my words can never give you a sense of who he was.

The funeral will be tomorrow @ 12:30 in Pittsburgh.  Driving directions are here.

ps - mikey's tradition of talking online to help others and himself started early.  funny how he never told me he met clinton.  or spielberg.

naughty

i've been terribly remiss with my blogging stuff and stuff.  there's just been so much going on, i've been barely answering my emails (unless they're job offers, in which case i call back v quickly).  i'm insane with bouncing-ness.  i'm scarily in love, and it's overwhleming in its sense of right-ness.  i know i'm making up words again, i apologize,  it just seems to me that everyone i know had to struggle with love, and from the first moment, thank God, everything has just clicked and worked and been beautiful between us. 

i think it's largely a function of us having grown so close before we ever dated, and knowing we were going to do everything we could to keep it as wonderful and exhilirating as it was that first week.  i can't picture fighting with him, at least not the way we fight in my house.  at worst i'd say we'd argue, but none of the screaming and anger and rage and crying and door slamming and crap that i'm used to.

some people call that passion and think it's great, but i find it exhausting and corrosive to everything i hope this relationship can be.

there's also that wonderful feature where i eventually tell him all those crack-headed things in my mind - my secret neuroses, the wandering thoughts that meander into frightful questions.  he likes to call it constant updates.  it's amazing to be able to look at someone and see that person looking back at me.  the real me, without al the extras and shennanigans and personalities i've built up to hide myself from everyone else.

i'm not sure how i'm going to be able to do school and work when i've got Someone on the mind, but i guess i'll find a way.  *grin*

i positively hate being shomeret...

we're going out tonight, another free drink thing, which is how this blog got started, as some of you may recall.

more later

gah

wandering around YU looking like crap, feeling like gold.  mildly perturbed by the way i look but not enough to change it.

talking to random strangers in the library is always a healthy interlude, you know.  me (looking like crap in the corner), a bunch of boys...  none of them mine.  oh, well.  i spy a moshe and an eliot - off to play bbye!

me, job

ive been craiglisting applying for every job that looks somewhat like i can maybe do it.  i hate jobs.  the thing is, im totally flexible bc i dont have a school schedule yet, so i can work all day and school at night or school in the morning and work all day IF SOMEONE WOULD JUST GIVE ME A JOB.  poo-ness.  <sad dani>

 

in other news, that sad dani was a total lie cause i'm really happy.  *grin*

shoimer...

i hate being shomer negia. i've decided that it's a relic left over from ancient times... i came up with a really good expanation of how that is last night, but now i can't recall a word of it. dammit. it was so brilliant, too. i'd ask Someone, but he's resting right now. the cuteness is unbearable. : )

in other news, i'm looking for job. not the funnest thing to do in NYC. when it's snowing. and the coldest week *ever*. so, if anyone needs a babysitter - i'm responsible, fun, energetic... i love kids.

i'll probably end up working @ JTS again. : ) i love that library. although i'd still love to get a babysitting gig going. it'd be nice to develop a relationship with kiddies here so i have someone to play with now that my niece and nephews are so far away. cute cute babies.

as my nephew informed everyone who walked through the door on shabbat (he's 3) "dani nisheret b'new york l'shabbat ki hee im" my boyfriend. what a smart little boy. mental note - have children much like my sister's childen, because they are awesome.

i'm too happy to think anymore, and therefore to write anymore. : ) hope you're enjoying the snow!

*happy*

i love my boyfriend. my boyfriend loves me. all is great with the world. i didn't sleep last night, and i have enough energy right now to fly around the world. *happy*

shoah

just got this in an email.

i like the sentiment

emily the weird

ugh.  big sneezy, in the YU library.  sittin' with my boy, happy happy.  yay!

i need a job.  help me, people...

YAYAYAYAYAYAYAYAYAYAY!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

family guy!

according to this article, Family Guy is going to be back.  Seth isn't sure where the show will end up, but due to the insane DVD sales (which is funny, cause every FG fan i know has all the eps DLed, and bought the DVDs anyhow), they're going to start production again.

grumpy

my stats aren't working and boys are stupid.  they say things like "put in a counter".  blah.  the counter will be false and will misrepresent the number of hits i have and my pathetic ego can't take that.

beyond that, there is nothing happening in my life today.

my boyfriend is being cheaper than i am.  didn't know it was possible.  he'd theoretically be ok with my dating other ppl simultaneously, cause they'd all split bills.  well, not ok with it.  just stating it would be cheaper.  nunu, one day he'll learn to stand up for me on ocassion.

avraham bronstein

avraham bronstein can now be found at this blogging address : www.thebronsteins.com : ) good to have you back in the world of bloggers!

stuff

i'm in NY.  rejoice.

does anyone want to help me put away my clothes?  i seem to have no more interest in organizing.  blah.  but my room looks good.  and yes, that bedding is actually what i bought, but it's far less offensive in real life.

i have nothing else interesting to say.  oh, yes i do - quesadillas at dougie's milchig are damn good.  and strawberry smoothies are always good with that, of course.  and then coffee.  and then coffee.  commence the bouncing.

so

i just finished packing and i have a hard core stitch in my side. let's assume for now it's a stitch and not a hernia. anyhow, it's freezing here (it was -2 in the middle of the day. lovely). it looksl ike i have soooooo much crap packed, but i realized - one suitcase is all pillows and towels, 2 suitcases are my clothes, one small suitcase = my shoes, and the rest iss all apt stuff. blankets, tissues, hamper, pillows, garbage can... stuff.

so i'm freezing and awake and i have no one to play with. dammit. ooooh! benjy. nice... off to play.

winter wonderland

playing in my head. oh, well...

my packing skills are for shite. or maybe it's the lack of ability to do one sustained thing for hours at a time. well, when that thing is kinda boring.

freezing cold in the land of the endlesss mountains, where it is currently -1.5 degrees or some such. wacky, ain't it. anyone want to help me move in tomorrow? 11 am or so, washington heights. be there. or be elsewhere. you know.

shavua tov

that's it for now. : ) nothing further

stupid asshats

anyone here like computers? anyone here ever IM? net send? well, if you do this in school in texas, you have apparently broken the rules - although they have no stated rule about it. check out what this kid did and what other people think

as numerous people have pointed out - these are public addresses listed on public websites which are also through a public system, so i don't see a problem listing them here if you would like to share your thoughts:
Beverly Sweeny (Beverley_Sweeney birdville.k12.tx.us), Computer teacher and campus computer liaison.

Principal Tommy Rollins (Tommy_Rollins birdville.k12.tx.us)

for those of you who are too lazy to read the article, here's a choice quote:



Because Sweeney wrote her e-mail using her taxpayer-funded district e-mail account, it is a public document, and therefore, I quote it in full so we can all share insight into the mind of one of the educators who busted Carl for writing "Hey!"

..."I am speaking about one incident in the Birdville School District in which a student was expelled for tampering with the district's computers. Having been a computer teacher in the real world of public education for many years, let me say that suspension of students who are guilty of such tampering sends a message to all students that is beneficial and necessary.

"Students should not be of the opinion that it is acceptable to abuse the privileges that are afforded them by the taxpayers. If they are allowed to experiment and do things on the computers that the teachers have not specifically given them permission to do, we would never get any computer education accomplished.

UPDATE
fark has removed the link. you can still access the story, just not the fark comment board.

tired and pouting

can't sleep through the night any more. yay. so i figure i may as well air a complaint. i love that my friends IM me to discuss the blogs i post, but it would make me very happy to get some comments on here so people could actually discuss it. it's all well and good when we talk privately, but when i make grandiose statements, i expect an exchange of sorts. unless you're all trying to tell me that i'm the 2nd smartest person who's ever lived, and you all agree with everything i say... which is a distinct possibility.

why do people burp in the morning? it's not like they've been eating or drinking for the past few hours... i'd like to also point out a minor accomplishment in my life. i usually type while watching my fingers (force of habit). i've typed this looking at the screen. takes easily twice as long, but - yay!

that's it for the deep thoughts. blah...

how many 24 year olds can furnish their rooms primarily from the juvenile bedroom area in wal-mart?

very important side note: i'm looking to collect glass bottles, all different colors, shapes, sizes. if you find any cool ones, please let me know. thanks!

to one of mine

i was up all night thinking about this, and about you, and how to say this. i could never say it to you in person, but i think you read my blog.

we live in a society, maybe a world, where a lot of people are mysogonists. that doesn't mean that they hate women, per se, rather that they have a v unrealistic vision of what Woman is. these are the guys who hold women up on a pedestaal, and say all kinds of flowery beautiful statements about them, but at the end of the day, if the woman doesn't meet his expectations, or voices an opinion which he finds to be unfeminine for whatever reason, the hate and vitriol start pouring out.

you've heard it, read it, seen it. "I love women, but they should know their place." i'm afraid that this viewpoint, this twisted version of life, is something you've become convinvced is true in your own life. i've heard you refer to yourself as a bitch, and a slut - always with a wry grin on your face - and i've seen you collapsse in tears wanting to know why the world judges for doing things no differently than the boys do. why people can't seee how nice you really are.

your having opinions, and voicing them - that does not make you a bitch. a bitch is someone who maliciously attacks people. if stating that you disagree with someone is perceived as an attack by that person, it is not your problem, it is not your fault.

by the same token, you need to decide how you feel about people who fool around. either it's ok, or it's not. but beyond that, be careful how you refer to yourself. there are two terms generally used to refer to people who fool aroundd - slut and player. what is the difference between these two? don't you dare say that the slut is a girl and the player is a guy. that is not true. the slut is the person who does it because they're dying for affection, attention, and they're looking for it everywhere and indiscriminately. the player fools around for the pleasure (maybe a bit for the rep. *grin*), but is never talked into or forced into anything s/he doesn't want to do.

decide if you want to see yourself as needy and tragic/pathetic, incapable of having solid viewpoints... or if you want to be the person we all see when we look at you. someone strong and willful who shouldn't take shit from other people. i don't mean that you don't have patience for your friends. i mean that when other people start to put you down, you can not and should not give them any credence.

i love you very much. i respect you. i look up to you. i hope you can start to truly respect yourself as well.

eating disorders unite!

i've always hated the idea of dieting. restricting food just to lose weight so that as soon as it drops you can go back to comsuming as you please while attempting to maintain... blah. traditionally, i have lost when i i got busy, whether it was playing ultimate frisbee for 7 hours a day and eating the same way, or walking all over yerushalayim while eating a tooooooon of bread, or workign all day and only having time for smaller amounts fo food. but making food the focus of the change has always seemed crazy to me, more than any person can handle.

then i went to my doctor and complained to him about how now i'm fat, but my schedule doesn't allow for running around the way i used to. (my theroetical schedule, shutup). anyhow, he told me to check out the zone, and i did, and i like it. i'm eating normal food, which is happy yay for me, cause i like good food, and i'm using food to make me healthy. ie, not declaring it The Enemey. which is good, causse that's not a long term approach. so.. wish me luck, i'll tell you if i'm still happy in a week. : )

house sitting

i want to do this to someone. right now. it makes an interesting case for cheap decorating options...

also, my soup was disappointingly gross.

sweet things

i'm not sure who told me that life should be bitter or that i should spend my days frowning and being sad and lonely, but that person was wrong. life is sweet, life is warm, life is happy. life is what you make it.

i can't do this anymore. it's been two months (on monday, actually), and i need to publicly acknowledge that i have a wonderful boyfriend who gives my life extra sweetness every day. : ) the more i'm with him the more i realize that this is how life is supposed to be, it's not the exception to the rule. thanks, sweetie. don't blush - that's my job.

hm

what would you do if someone were having a memorial dinner for your grandfather? if the cause that the dinner will be funding is one you don't care about? one that granpa wouldn't have cared much for?

what if your grandmother had sent out letters asking people to donate money and come to the dinner? what if it was your uncle's cause?

what if you found out that your uncle went through the donation book from after granpa's funeral, and used those names and addresses to solicit funds for his cause? what if he asked 2 of the 16 grandchildren to match grandma's $1800 donation because they're "the ones who have jobs"? what if you just hung up after a phone call from a woman in the community calling on his behalf to remind you to make reservations for the dinner and to put in an ad before the deadline?

what if the whole thing felt dirty and under-handed to you and you ached to explain to your uncle how truly offensive the rest of the family (read: grandchildren) finds this dinner to be?

the rest of the story

i can't begin to recap the trip right now. but i'll share stuff from my last day and the flight which i find infinitely amusing.

let's start with the poor planning which resulted in my visiting bnei brak in pants. my family handled it well. i noticed people were nicer about it there, actually, then here. or even in NY. funny. points to my strikover chasid great-uncle. : )

oh! i went to the cemetary to visit my grandfather, and saw some ebautiful tributes. the one that got me crying was the man whose tombstone included a tribute to this three children who were killed in the Shoah... he lists them there so they won't be forgotten.

annyhow, back to the day i left. we were flying at minigh modany night/tuesday morning, so we firgured we'd leave close to 8. then we decided it was safest to do early check-in because my sister andi were flying with her three very young children, and we wanted to make sure our seats would be together, unlike the flight to israel where we got seriously farked. we call el-al, they tell us we have to bing everyone who will be flying to early check-in. so @ 10 am we start paccking like crazy women, i have to call She and cancel our 'date', and we sent the kids off with my mom's best friend and her amazing and talented daughter. they are so so good to us, btw. anyhow. we pack, we get the stufffin the cars (nice little caravan of 2 cars and a van - 7 suitcases, a stroller, 5 backpacks, and 2 children in car seats. plus 8 people)

we get to early check-in. they now charge, by the way. 20 shek a person, not bad at all, just be sure you have money with you. the people there were ammazingly nice. i was so confused. i had no red tape problems last week at the american consulate, and now el-al personnel were helpful. it was a total warp of all my fondest beaurocratic memories. anyhow, turns out we didn't have to shlep the kids along... misinformed again. gah.

ok. by the time that's over with, we have 2 sleepy and fussy kids, and one sleepy and crying baby. on to dinner, then bnei brak, then back to the airport. 7 month old baby gets strapped into the baby bjorn, and the 5 and 3 year old get into the stroller, her sitting, him standing in the basket behind the seat. we get a cart, pile up all of our beongings again (car sseat for the baby on the plane, 5 backpacks, and coats).

kids are in their PJs by now, excellent. we get in, and there's an escalator. ok, so around we go to #37, where they do a security check, then take us up in elevator. squishy beyond belief and funny, too. we get upstairs, and security won't let us go in with a cart. so the el-al guy, avi shimon who deserves a huge thank you, gets us a wheelchair, in which i pile all off our stuff. sara is shlepping 3 kids, i'm shlepping a half ton of stuff... off to a great start. especially when we get to the stairs at the gate that take us to the bus that takes us to plane where we have more stairs. ah! a very nice woman named shir-li helped us out by escorting the older kids (we had to check the stroller). sara had the baby and a back pack, i had 2 backpaacks and a car seat... fun and games.

i think i've told enough of the story for you all to glimpse the frustration of traveling with small children. wait til part two where you glimpse the frustration of traveling with small children who are not yours, and therefore refuse to listen to you while you watch them on the plane for 12 and half hours, and then in the airport after for another hour and a half.

or, you know what? on second thought - i don't want to relive that. not at all. i'm back. i am happy. thanks for coming out...

return from the Holy Land

i know it's so cheaty, and i'm sorry, but i wanted to officially announce that i am back. and that i am going to sleep. update wil hopefully come soon. : ) ie, when more awake, and slightly more coherent.