Below are the 20 most recent journal entries recorded in chewbeck's LiveJournal:

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Saturday, June 13th, 2009
9:47 pm	Up! I saw Up! last night, and it was a fabulous movie. I saw it in 3-D, which I recommend because it adds an intensity to the image that you wouldn't get from the regular film. There was a teaser trailer for Toy Story 3, which I sure hope will be a happy movie, because the last two Pixar movies (Up! and Wall-E) both made me weepy. I feel a bit ridiculous sitting in a theater with tears streaming down my face while watching an animated movie that is designed for kids. But there were also some great humorous moments, and some nail-biting action and adventure! Also, the animation was incredibly beautiful and I love the thought of flying in a floating house attached to helium balloons and adventuring in the jungle. I don't think I have done the movie justice in my description, and I don't know that I am capable of doing so. (1 Comment |Comment on this)
Wednesday, June 3rd, 2009
1:54 pm	surveys I like taking surveys, I think probably because I am rarely asked my opinion and when I offer it, people don't listen to it anyways. I took a boring survey at the library today asking why I came to the library and did it meet my expectations (it definitely did), but the exciting survey I took on Monday is really what I want to tell you about. I get periodic emails from Ben and Jerry's, which I signed up for because I love ice cream. Monday they sent me an email asking if I would take a survey. I said yes, because we all know at this point how I feel about surveys. They first asked if I like chocolate, which I do! They then presented me with a flavor and its packaging. I was asked what I thought about the flavor and name and whatnot, and then they showed another flavor. The thing is, this second flavor was actually the same as the first flavor, just with a different name. I got to see the same ice cream, but with packaging modifications and different names, and what really gets me is that even though I knew it was the same ice cream, the different names made me feel completely different about whether or not I would buy it! My favorite name was "Chocolate Cookie Madness," but one of the options was "Monster Cookie Mash." I think this is a TERRIBLE name for ice cream. "Mash" implies that whatever was there was pounded into an unrecognizable pulp, like mashed potatoes, or cauliflower mash. And if that weren't enough, the label had a creepy picture of a cookie jar with a purple hand coming out of it! Even though the description of the ice cream still sounded appealing to me, there is no way I would have bought Monster Cookie Mash. And I totally would buy Chocolate Cookie Madness, even though the ice cream is EXACTLY THE SAME. And I experienced this emotional reaction to the flavor names EVEN THOUGH I knew what they were testing. It was so weird. The end result is that if I ever see Monster Cookie Mash in my grocery store, I may very well swear off all Ben and Jerry's forever. But if I see Chocolate Cookie Madness, I will purchase it and enjoy it. And I will be excited that they listened to my opinion. (7 Comments |Comment on this)
Wednesday, May 27th, 2009
10:56 pm	odd spam I generally go into my spam folder each day and do the whole "delete all spam forever" deal so that I don't end up with thousands and thousands of messages in there. I'm not sure why exactly I don't like this, but I don't. At any rate, I got the oddest spam ever: "Rebecca: Up to Four Pints of Blueberries a Day!" I didn't notice it until I'd already set the folder to delete so I am not entirely sure what the deal is. Maybe they send me four pints of blueberries a day? Maybe that's how many blueberries I should eat? If it's the latter, I need to seriously up my blueberry consumption. I suppose if it's the former I need to do the same. Coincidentally, my recipe calendar today had a recipe for blueberry cobbler. (3 Comments |Comment on this)
3:00 pm	Please do not ask how I came across this composter, but it is TERRIFYING. It looks like it would come to life in the middle of the night and terrorize me in a particularly arachnid way. ( cut to spare you unnecessary terror ) (4 Comments |Comment on this)
Tuesday, December 30th, 2008
11:18 am	weird dreams In the past two nights, I've had two strange dreams. The first was just strange, the one last night was a definite nightmare. Here they are for your dream analysis pleasure: Dream #1: I am driving in Baltimore and am trying to get home, but every street I turn down dead-ends into an alley. I can see the roads I want to be on to get home, but I can't figure out how to get to them. I finally stop and ask for directions and comment, "This is even worse than North Carolina!" I am directed to pass, on foot, through a juvenile detention center, which I'm not terribly keen on doing. I'm not entirely sure if I ever actually made it home. Dream #2: I am teamed up with Batman for some sort of mission, but things get gory, and all of a sudden, Batman is gone! The Joker and some other indistinct bad guys are torturing people and there is a lot of blood all over everywhere and I'm trying to hide so they don't see me, or maybe think I'm already dead, and Batman is nowhere to be found. At this point I woke up and was too terrified to move, even though I was a bit warm and needed to remove a blanket. I'm not sure what is going on with my brain, but it is seriously working overtime and I'd like to get a night of good sleep, uninterrupted by crazy, exhausting dreams. (1 Comment |Comment on this)
Tuesday, December 2nd, 2008
9:45 pm	mistake, but probably not a fatal one I was not paying attention to what I was doing and had a cup of caffeinated tea around 8pm. This is kind of a problem because I cannot drink tea later than 4pm without it seriously affecting my sleep in bad ways. I really should not have done this, but I was cold! It was Earl Grey! It was delicious, and I don't regret it. Though I might regret it at 4am. (Comment on this)
11:55 am	vandals! There was vandalism in my building on Saturday. Some punk kids ripped the numbers off our mailboxes. What I hear from the maintenance guy who was cleaning up is that four buildings along our row got hit, and the others were worse than mine. Apparently in the other buildings they took the fire extinguisher and sprayed it around the stairs and in the laundry rooms. Supid punk kids get off my lawn. (Comment on this)
Saturday, November 1st, 2008
7:13 am	darkness It has been a while since I've woken up before 7am, mostly because I have had no reason to do so. Well, I woke up today around 6:15am, and it is now approximately one hour later, and it is incredibly dark outside. Why have we not fallen back yet? It is not natural for it to be this dark this late in the morning. There should be sun by 7am, and there is currently none. I am not a fan of Daylight Savings Time in general, but I do concede that it offers some energy saving benefits and maybe also benefits for farmers? However, the energy saving benefits are not automatically extended by merely extending the amount of time the country spends on Daylight Savings Time. At a certain point, people start using lights more because there is significantly less daylight, regardless of whether that lack of daylight occurs during breakfast or dinner. George W. Bush, I am speaking to you. Maybe I should make this my issue in the upcoming election. I should figure out each candidate's position on the extension of Daylight Savings Time (which was extended this late only recently) and vote for whichever would roll back the switch back to Standard Time to where it was back in 2006, or maybe adopt the same dates for switching that the EU currently uses. Because it should not be this dark at 7am. (6 Comments |Comment on this)
Monday, October 27th, 2008
4:37 pm	here is something that does not make sense I do not at all understand why "babydoll" type shirts designed for ladies cost more than shirts for dudes. THEY USE LESS FABRIC. If they use less material, they should cost less money. What is the extra couple dollars for? The skill it takes to sew a curvy line? Hello shirt sellers, here is some news for you: IT DOES NOT TAKE MORE SKILL TO SEW SLIGHTLY CURVY LINES THAN TO SEW STRAIGHT LINES. Honestly, people. Start making sense. (5 Comments |Comment on this)
Friday, October 17th, 2008
11:50 am	ocean plans broken I had intended to go to the ocean today because I had nothing else to do and can't remember the last time I saw any ocean whatsoever. I picked the Atlantic Ocean because I only had one day for the trip, and any other ocean would have taken the better part of the day to get to, and would have resulted in a quite costly trip as well. I checked the weather and saw that it was supposed to rain at the ocean along the Virginia coastline. It was not, however, supposed to rain along the Maryland or Delaware coastlines, so I revised my potential destination, but ultimately decided the Bay Bridge is frightening and anyways I did not want to drive >4 hours each way (adding in for traffic) by myself. I need some friends here who are bums like me or at least have jobs that are flexible maybe or something so we can go to the ocean together if the weather is nice. I may go to the river. It is significantly closer, but much less massive. I am nearly 100% sure, though, that the weather is nice there. Current Mood: not at the ocean (Comment on this)
Thursday, October 16th, 2008
1:18 am	effectiveness I just finished reading The 7 Habits of Highly Effective People by Stephen Covey, and it was really quite inspiring and insightful. I had sort of snubbed it for a long time because I thought it was some sort of self-help type thing, and for some reason I connected it in my mind with How to Win Friends and Influence People, which I really am not interested in reading since I am pretty sure it is about manipulating people. Manipulation of others for personal gain is pretty much the antithesis of the message presented in 7 Habits, and I got a lot out of reading it. On the whole I think it was a solid book, and there are a lot of good points it makes. I guess I could probably list out the habits, but really I think that sort of cheapens them, since it's not just a list of habits, but sort of a change of mindset about the world and the place of the individual in it. It's about changing your attitudes on cause and effect and accepting responsibility for your actions and allowing others to have input into situations that affect them. Reading through it, I was reminded of the mindset of Martin Luther King, Jr: I cannot be all that I can be unless you are also all that you can be. The world is so interconnected, and we have this belief that our success must come at the expense of someone else, but there is so much in the world, so many resources, so much opportunity, that there is absolutely no reason why my success has to mean someone else's demise. There were also a few examples Covey mentioned that reminded me of what I understand some of the tenets of Cognitive Behavior Therapy to be. The main weak point in the book is the examples. I know a lot of them come from personal experience, or the experience of Covey's friends and associates, so it may not be appropriate to go into explicit detail, but sometimes the examples seemed too vague or hypothetical to really support the points he was trying to make. That said, there are many examples that are compelling, and there are many occasions when Covey asks the reader to do a bit of personal examination. I actually got a bit emotional at times, and was glad I was reading the book at home instead of out somewhere public where people might see me crying. The part on communicating with others in a manner that shows you care about their intrinsic worth really was very meaningful to me, but there were other parts of the book that spoke to me as well. This sounds a lot more like a book review than I intended. I guess I just got excited about the book and really think it's a worthwhile read and wanted to share that as soon as possible. It's probably worth a second read at least, and I plan to do that once I've digested this first reading. So, yeah, I liked this book, and I really think the world would be a lot better if more people made an effort to practice these habits. (Comment on this)
Wednesday, October 8th, 2008
11:11 pm	cleaning The stairs and landings in my building rarely get cleaned. In fact, I think last week was the first time in probably two months that the cleaning people came to vacuum. Which is why I was incredibly surprised when they came back again today, and not only vacuumed, but put down some sort of air freshener. An air freshener that smells like it was made of liquified cinnamon red hots. A lot of liquified cinnamon red hots. I am all for cinnamon red hots. I think they are excellent sugar cookie decorations, and are even fun to eat by themselves sometimes. However, the smell is really getting to me. It's not that my own apartment smells so much cleaner (it has been a while since I vacuumed, and the kitchen has been messy lately), it's just that it doesn't smell so artificial. From the smell, I expect the landing to be bright red when I open my door. And the smell is seeping into my living space! (Comment on this)
Friday, September 12th, 2008
9:05 am	totally inappropriate wedding song My pick is 50 Ways to Leave Your Lover. (Comment on this)
Monday, September 8th, 2008
10:36 pm	survey What do you think the absolute most inappropriate song is to play at a wedding, either during the ceremony or at the reception? I have a particular song I think is a winner, but I am also curious what other people suggest on this. So as not to taint anyone's viewpoint, I will not post my selection quite yet. (2 Comments |Comment on this)
Monday, August 25th, 2008
5:30 pm	GRE score update I just realized I didn't mention here that I'd gotten my writing scores for the GRE. I was kind of surprised, because I ended up with a 6, which is the highest you can get, and that's the scores from both essays averaged together. I mean, I knew my argument essay was fantastic, but the issue essay was only ok. If I'd had to give them scores, I would have given the issue essay a 5 and the argument essay a 10. Out of 6. I guess maybe they took into account that my argument essay was so amazing when they did the scoring? The issue essay really wasn't that great, so I don't see any other explanation. (1 Comment |Comment on this)
Tuesday, July 29th, 2008
7:52 pm	GREat! I took the GRE today! Scores: 720 Verbal 800 Quantitative No writing scores yet as I just got home from the testing center. Honestly, I'm a bit disappointed with my verbal score. I had managed to get an 800 on one of the practice tests, so I was hoping I'd do a bit better. I think the major difference is that the time I scored an 800, I had the verbal section first, but on the actual test, I had the quantitative first, so I was a bit brain tired when I got to the verbal. Oh well. I guess it's still a pretty good score. I was also somewhat concerned going into the test that I'd make some sort of careless math error and end up with a 790, which would have been SO FRUSTRATING! Apparently that did not happen. As for the writing, the issue essay was alright, but not stupendous. The argument essay was amazing though. I actually enjoyed writing it, which is odd since it was a standardized test requirement. I think it was fairly stellar, and I got to use the words "fallacious," "specious," and "spurious." Fantastic! (1 Comment |Comment on this)
Friday, July 18th, 2008
7:50 pm	career change Hello Internets, I need a new line of work. I am open to going to grad school if I need more qualifications. What kind of work should I do? Please do not say "Mechanical Engineering." (3 Comments |Comment on this)
Monday, February 11th, 2008
7:37 pm	primary I am not at all overtly political, but yesterday I had the opportunity to hear Barack Obama speak. If you are in a state with a primary tomorrow, I urge you to go vote for him. The man has Vision. He sees the great country America can be and wants to take us there. He is a decent human being and is, in my opinion, the only candidate who can unify the country. It's easy to say that after the last eight years, anyone would be better, but why settle for merely better than barely mediocre when you can elect a candidate who is truly great? I am stepping off my soapbox now. (Comment on this)
Friday, December 14th, 2007
11:31 pm	ch-ch-ch-chia! Does anyone happen to know if Chia Pets require sun to grow? Do you have to put them in a window like they show in the commercials? (Comment on this)
Saturday, November 17th, 2007
10:01 am	the menu called it corn chowder... but I prefer to call it "liquid joy." I went to dinner with a friend last night to a really good restaurant. He's a foodie, so he knows his restaurants. I looked over the menu, and the first item on it, under the "appetizer" category, was corn chowder. I love corn chowder in general, so I figured I'd go for it. I made the right decision. They brought me the bowl of chowder. It smelled delicious. I took a spoonful. It tasted delicious. I took a second spoonful, and the chowder warmed my soul. I have never before had a food item bring me pure, unadulterated joy, but that's what this corn chowder did. Every spoonful I took brought me closer to ecstasy. Alas, it was over far too quickly. They do not serve soup by the giant tureen. The rest of the meal was really quite lovely, but that corn chowder really stuck in my mind. I reflected afterwards that while everything was very delicious, I would have been just as happy with a large bowl of corn chowder and nothing else. (3 Comments |Comment on this)