Hope

There are only a handful of people who read this blog, and all of you know how political I am. Further, you must all know how I feel about the "W."

And, I'm sure you know how I feel about this:
http://en.wikinews.org/wiki/Bush_uses_his_first_veto_ever_on_stem_cell_bill

And surprised, but very pleased about this:
http://californiastemcellreport.blogspot.com/

Here's a great article about the subject.

For someone who is going into a profession helping people with incurable diseases/disabilities, I would like a little hope for these people.

Could stem cell research be the answer?

...I'm not quite sure I believe it

I just had to document the hottest day in all the land.

California has been seeing some really drastic weather in 2006, and the year is only half over. In February, Santa Cruz, CA had three inches of snow on their beaches. The town hall of San Jose had a light snow dusting on the 13th floor that same week. This was the first time the Bay Area has seen snow in 25 years.

San Jose is nestled between two mountains to the east and the west. Most days, especially during the winter, you can see the mountains and the Lick Observatory, which is up about 5,200 feet on Mount Hamilton. Lately, there is only a hazy shadow of the mountains...a thick layer of smog covers the view. Carbon was burning my eyes and throat as I waited for public transportation yesterday. I stood on the platform, waiting for lightrail. Families left the public library with their children at 5:00pm at closing time and stood outside with me, waiting for an air conditioned ride. The only breeze we had were the cars driving by, and it smelled of exaughst. Before the train's horn sounded, the man next to me yelled, "You know, I've heard of this phenomena called 'Global Warming,' but I'm not quite sure I believe it."

Things I want to do in this life

*Picture of the Aurora Borealis* (Southern Lights)

...read on, it will make sense later.

Everyone has a mental list of things that they want to accomplish in life. I've been so concerned with the present tasks of volunteering, studying for the GRE and applying to graduate school that I forgot about my life goal of learning how to play the banjo.

And that's no joke. I really do want to learn how to play a banjo.

Some day, I will learn, but I want to take it seriously and have the time to set aside hours for practice. Like Woody Allen does with his clarinet. I worked with a costume designer who designed the clothes for a few Woody Allen movies, and the production staff had to work around his daily clarinet practice. Each practice was precisely 37 minutes long. Weird, I know, but he always stuck by that.

But, I digress.

My new thing I want to do is take a voyage to Antarctica. I was looking into this some time ago and there is a company out of New Zealand that uses old research boats that are fully functional, Icebreakers (which I just saw on Modern Marvels on the History Channel, which made me think about writing this), and large tourist boats for educational excursions for everyday folk. I've been to various aquariums across the country, and visited some amazing museums of natural history, but being able to see the southern lights, see the amazing glaciers up close...I would crap my pants.

I don't know what they mean by "simple" but comfortable ships. Not that I'm high maintenance, but still.

And, no, I'm not dreaming of the arctics because of the nationwide heat wave...just in case you were wondering.

The Oven

My apartment is an oven.

Hot Momma

That's right. Hot Freakin' Momma. And I don't mean the sexy kind, either. This is the thermostat in my non-AC apartment in San Jose, CA. Not sexy at all. :(

My Poor, Neglected Baby Blog

I usually post once a month. At least. These past few months, I was studying so hard that I couldn't even think about spelling my own name at the end of the day, much less compiling a compelling blog entry. I've been at Foothill College taking two sections of Human Anatomy and Physiology and a section of Elementary Statistics. This school operates on a quarter system, so the schedule is really intense; I had at least two tests going on in one week. In my last two weeks, I counted up how many lectures I sat through in one week and was very surprised I had kept myself interested. NINE. That's right. NINE lectures in one week. The amazing thing was, well actually there are two amazing things:

1. I really enjoyed the classes and the laboratories. Four out of the five teachers enjoyed experiencing their students learning the material.

2. I ended up pulling straight A's. Statistics always scared me. I hadn't had a math class in almost nine years, and math is one of those things that if you don't use it, you lose it.

So, enough about school. I'm actually on a break and will begin volunteering soon for Santa Clara Valley Medical in their Occupational Therapy out-patient clinic. Their rehabilitation facility is the best in Northern California, so it should be a great experience. I'm also looking into volunteering at a children's hospital for special needs. It will be a growing experience, but I am definitely up for it.

Many things happened over the past couple of months:
1. My fella graduated from graduate school.
2. Mom and Cactus visited NorCal and we tore it up. San Francisco will never be the same again. :)
3. My fella got a great job working for the City of Los Altos.
4. My baby blog turned one year old.
5. I became slightly addicted to MySpace and have reconnected with many old friends.

So, while I am studying for the GRE and volunteering, I will try to be a better blogger.

Just as a side note: I was performing spell check and the dictionary on this site didn't recognize "blog" or "blogger."