Yesterday was a good day

Yesterday was a very good day. I actually woke up early because Emmy had to go to the bathroom and I couldn't fall back to sleep. So while I was making breakfast, our friend Katie called to see if we wanted to go apple picking with some friends. I had said that I wanted to go while we were at Color Me Mine on Thursday and it was nice that she remembered. Since Edward's stomach can't really handle many apples, we didn't actually pick any apples, but we did pick raspberries and a little pumpkin for Emmy. Their pumpkin patch with big pumpkins was pretty sad looking. The place had already harvested all of the good pumpkins and was selling them out front at their store. We spent a few hours there and got to try out Apple Cider donuts, which are pretty good, but not really worth going all the way over there just for that. It was fun though and nice to go out with friends.

After we got back I pretty much took a nap from 3-6 and then we went to RPI's womens hockey. Ed was so excited for the game even though the women aren't nearly as fun to watch as the men. When we got home we were invited to go back to Katie's place for apple pie and an apple bunt cake that her bf Steve made. They were both really awesome. We played some Wii and I got a kick out of one of the Turkish guys that was there. I don't think that he liked me laughing at him much, but I was having fun. We left fairly early and I got to watch the rest of the Ugly Betty season and Edward played Resident Evil 4. It was a very unproductive day school wise, but it was quite a bit of fun. Besides, that's what are Sundays for.




Emmy sitting on Great Grandpa Levie's recliner (the most comfortable chair we own).




Sorry, just turn your head. I'm sure that your coworkers will laugh, but at least you'll be able to see the pictures. The couple is Katie and Steve, the people that invited us along.





Emmy's pumpkin.

Yay! The picture thing is fixed. Too bad the video uploads don't work well for me. That would be great.

Resolution

Yesterday my boss called and made me feel so much better about that whole work issue. I told her that I was upset, which was kind of funny because I think that she thought I was going to say that everything was alright, and pretty much said to not expect me to show up at the Y until our program starts. She said that she knew that would happen when the BB was telling her about wanting me in the school sites. It's nice because my boss is on my side and is trying to understand my situation as much as she can. She never went to college so I don't think really does understand how important school is to me, but she's trying and she supports me. Anyways, it was a big long conversation, but she's okay with me not coming in since I got all of the work that she wanted me to do done.


Here are some new pictures of Emmy.




This is what Emmy does every night. I think it's because I snore.


A Gryffindor and a Ravenclaw


Last week I had to write some stuff called "Flash Fiction", which is basically short short stories under 500 words. This is one that I wrote and is going to be changed to suit a more "mature" audience, but I think that I like it this way too. It's called Yellow Snow and I thought of it because Edward always says "You Chinese, you so smart, you no eat the pee pee part."

Yellow Snow
By: Allison Chin
Word count: 435

“Don’t eat the yellow snow,” she told me. I didn’t know why she would say that. It was a free lemon snow cone just waiting to be found by that lucky someone. That day I was the lucky boy. When I tried to scoop it up with my snowball maker she yelled at me so loud that Mrs. Robinson almost dropped her snow shovel. “What did I just tell you? Don’t eat the yellow snow, Dimwit.”
She was right. I hate when she is right. When she wasn’t looking I took a quick mouthful. It didn’t taste like a lemon snow cone at all. It tasted like pee! I had eaten someone else’s pee! I thought that I was going to die after that.
I was mad at her for not telling me that it wasn’t lemon flavored. I was mad when she laughed at me and said “I told you so”. I was mad when she said “It serves you right” when I told her that I thought I was going to die. I was just plain mad. I had just eaten some else’s pee after all.
That night I went to bed clutching my stomach, scared to death of death. When I woke the next morning with the bright, heatless winter sun shining on my face I was so happy that I could have kissed my ugly sister. I was alive! And I told the whole family so. I told Mrs. Robinson who was out shoveling her walkway. I told the milkman. I told my cat, Pebbles, who was looking at the little birds from the window. I told the little birds. And then I told Jeffery Parson, the boy from next door, that I was alive.
“Why wouldn’t you be?” he asked.
I gave him a serious look then; one that I hoped would get how grave the situation was across. “I ate yellow snow,” I said.
“Did it taste like lemon?” His eyes lit up like a Jack-o-lantern on Halloween.
“No, it wasn’t lemon at all.” I shook my head solemnly. He looked so disappointed at this news that I thought I shouldn’t have told him at all.
“What did it taste like?”
“Pee.”
“How do you know what pee tastes like?” he asked with a disgusted face.
“Believe me, you just do,” I said. “Don’t eat the yellow snow.” I turned away from him then and headed back towards my house.
“No, I don’t think I will.” I heard him say from behind me. I never ate yellow snow or lemon snow cones again.


That's all folks!

I'm P'ed right now

So I went to work today so that I could get an hours worth of work in...and to make my billions of photo copies. Right after I walked in and clocked in the Big Boss (executive director), we'll call her BB, asked me if I could work at some of the school sites that the Y does. These are seperate after school programs from the program that I'm running.
I was like, "no, I have too much school work to do that."
So BB was like "Well then how is your 21st program going to work?"
I was like, "well I'm only going to be working two hours a day Mon-Thurs and now I'm doing the scheduling and stuff before the program starts."
Then BB was like "Well I'd rather have you at a site than doing paperwork here for two hours. You can do paperwork on Saturdays at home and I'll pay you for it. We're really hurting for people here." And then she listed off a bunch of people who aren't working for the Y anymore. Then she said that my boss was even worried about if she would have enough staff, especially if my hours aren't flexible. Then she said "Other people are stepping up from other departments."
And then I thought to myself, I don't even have time to come in for a good three hour block during the week, what makes you think that I can work for the Y on Saturdays during my own time? And I don't have time to be stepping up for your lack of staff.
I was like, "well it all depends on my workload. I got most of my writing done so that's why I'm in right now. It just depends on how much homework I have to do."
Then she was like, "So you basically don't want to do the school sites."
And was like "Yeah." So then she wasn't to happy. I don't know what her educational background is, but grad school is a lot harder than I thought.

I went back into my little closet of an office and did my copies and talked to my cousin JenJen and was telling her about how dumb this whole thing is. While I was in the back I started to feel a little guilty about not "stepping up" when everyone else was so I went back out and talked to the secretary, who we will call S, and was like, "I just don't want to commit myself because my workload is pretty hefty." Basically, I just don't want to let anyone down, but good golly, school comes first.
S was like "I totally understand. Just write your hours down and put them on my desk." Needless to say that made me feel a little better. So I went back to my room and wrote something like this down:

My hours are limited from Mon-Wed because it depends on how much homework I have. You can call me, but I can't guarantee anything. Thurs and Fri. are better for me, but even then I can only work 2-2.5 hours. Other than 21st century, I don't want to commit myself to anything because I do have school.

I figured this would make them feel better, but also leave me with no more than 2.5 hours. Since I was still a little peeved and my copies were done, I was like forget this, I'm going home to see my Emmy. On the five minute ride home I got more and more worked up. I started talking to JenJen again about how dumb it is. I was like the reason why I can do 21st century because I'm committed to it. I'm not committed to the other school sites. And JenJen was like, well did you tell the BB that school come first? I was like, no, but I told my boss that, and she's known it since the beginning and seems to be fine with it.
So I think I'm going to be talking to my boss to tell her what's up. Also that she doesn't have to worry about me just getting up and leaving. She'd really have to tick me off before that happens. I just don't want to be guilt tripped into working when I have other things to concentrate on. I think that the Y has a misconception on the importance of school because a lot of people work full time there and go to school part time. I'm obviously not one of those work comes first gals and I think they're learning that. I get all the work that they need done, so they can't really complain.

I was telling JenJen that I think I did this all to myself though because when I first started with the Y I was very available and wanted to help out a lot. Now that I don't have as much time and can't help I'm getting myself in trouble. Oh well. At least I'm not upset anymore. I told JenJen that I'd be fine in half and hour and I was right. I get upset easily, but at least it doesn't last long. Anyways, I think that I my venting session has helped and now I'm going to go eat my lunch and watch Rachael Ray. Toodles.

*Sorry if you read this when I first published this post on my site. I was upset when I was writing and my mind was going faster than my fingers could type, which is saying a lot since I think that I can type pretty quickly. So now I've gone back and done some editing, but there are still no promises for perfection.

Foucaultian thinking

So that you guys have a little taste of what I've been doing here, I'm posting a part of a response that I have for my Body Politic class. This subject is based off of Foucault's writing on the penal system and how it has evolved. Keep in mind, that this is an opinion-based article and that you may not agree what I am saying. This is only a portion of the essay that I wrote. The other part isn't that interesting and written in essay format. I had not really thought about this subject until I began reading Discipline & Punish: The Birth of the Prison. You can find it on Spark notes if you are interested in reading about it. http://www.sparknotes.com/philosophy/disciplinepunish/

Situating Theory #1: Discipline and Punish

"The issue of punishment and what it has become has made me feel like our penal system is not strong as it should be. Sometimes I feel that some people deserve to be put on the spot and truly “punished” for what they have done. Although it was brought up in class that within the penitentiaries criminals are often punished among other criminals, I sometimes feel like there should be a harsher system. Though I do not agree with the public display of humiliation, I do feel that minor torture like the forty-hour questioning shown in the opening scene of The Lives of Others is acceptable.
I cannot see how treating criminals in a humane way can be justified when, for the most part, the criminal himself acted just as or more inhumane than the punishment itself. A mere slap on the hand does not make me feel that our penal system is holding criminals responsible for their actions. Think of it in terms of a child. If a child pulls the cat’s tail and is yelled at he will stop for the time being, but when the child pulls the cat’s tail again and is scratched he will have learned his lesson and will not do it again. If the penal system wags a finger at a the criminal who has committed a petty crime the criminal will most likely do it again because he knows that he can get away with it, where as if the petty crime is repaid by an equal mistreatment it most likely will not happen again.
Foucault talks in length about the portion of history where the criminal was punished with the eye for an eye logic. Although it may sound harsh to say it, I think that I agreed with the thinking of the age. Like I said, I do not think that public punishment is the right way to go, but equal punishment is a good tactic to make criminals learn their lessons. The modern role of judges and their desire to “correct” the criminal does not seem like the best logic to follow. Do people really learn from following example? It can be said that learning from the mistakes of others is nearly not as effective as if that person himself were to be punished.
In terms of The Lives of Others and Foucault’s observation on the evolution of the penal system, I think that the movie definitely shows how much more lenient societies have become. After Wiesler was caught in the act of treason, he was sentenced to twenty years in the mail room. Back in the 1700’s, the time period that Foucault had been talking about with his torture example, he would have been flayed alive for committing an act against the government. Even now, people are put in jail for a few weeks for working against our government. Punishment has become so much less severe.
Whether this is a good or bad thing I do not know. People still fear what the government can do, but I think that I would have feared committing a crime much more if I knew that my skin would be torn off and I would be pulled apart by horses in front of the whole city. I do have to say that I am definitely one of those people who fears what the government can do to me and I do learn from the example of others, which pretty much makes me an unreliable opinion on the penal system’s operations; however, for those who do not easily learn from example, the penal system needs to step up and take action.
The whole aspect of the government shaping its community the way that it wants is frightening to me. The fear that our society (for the most part) has for what may happen to us if we do something wrong is outrageous. It makes me question whether or not this tactic is working. Is the relationship that the average citizen and the government has healthy? Let us look at it this way. If I was in a relationship with man who I feared could do terrible things to me, my friends and family would tell me to dump him. So why do we put up with our government, when we clearly fear them. I know that I can safely say that when I drive to school every day I’m always looking over my shoulder in case there is a cop car behind me. Mere police officers, who are citizens as we are, can still strike fear in my heart. They may just be a low rung representation of the government, but the power that they hold over the average Joe is incredibly daunting.
What aspect of fearing our government should make us feel safe? I know that I’ve heard people say, and probably have said it myself, that we feel safe that our government protects us from criminals and other people with deviant intent. How can we truly feel safe when the people who we are calling our protectors are the same body of people who we fear can harm us?"

Well that's all folks. Once I have a short story finished the way I want it to be then I'll post some of that too. If you're interested in the short story that I'm working on now I can post some of that, but it is subject to change.

Picture hassle

Oh boy, so for some reason it looks like I can only upload one picture at a time. So that means that you won't be getting as many pictures as you were before because it's so much more of a hassle now.




So who said that Emmy isn't a lap dog?





My Hogwarts Castle. I painted this at Color Me Mine.


The Hogwart's Sorting hat

Picture problem

For some reason I'm blogger is having a problem uploading pictures. I'm not sure what it is yet, but it's been like this since last week when I tried to post. So once I have time to figure it out I'll post pictures of our precious Emmy.

In short, school has been kicking my butt. I haven't had time to do anything else but read, write, cook, clean and sleep. I would have much more time if I didn't cook or clean, but I get hungry and I can't work when I know that there is mess around me, although by many people's standards, dirty dishes and unfolded laundry isn't a mess. I've never been able to work when there is a mess. In school when I was still living at home and I was banished to my room to do homework I needed to clean all of the stuff off of the floor and bed before I started my work. Maybe that's why my room always seemed so much neater than Christopher's. I don't think that he has that problem.

So much reading!

I was assigned 426 pages of reading this week and I've done about 300 of it. Ah, actually trying to do all the reading for class is hard!