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FROM THE MIND OF THE MUNCHKIN...
February 27, 2004 Well...for those of you who know me well and have been around me lately you know that I've been really anxious about my grandmother lately. Her alzheimer's kept getting worse and worse, to the point where she didn't know anyone in my family anymore. Well now the nurse has given her 48-72 hours before she passes - she's stopped eating and drinking, so it's only a matter of days. My dad says she isn't in any pain, and she's basically comatose, so her passing will be peaceful. I've been expecting this ever since I left home, but it's still hard. Pray that she just lives through the weekend, though, because my cousin Paul is going to come down and see her. He's been in Iraq since 9/11, and he's only going to be here for a few days before he gets restationed, so he wants to see her before she passes, since he probably won't be able to make the funeral. For anyone in Ohio who reads this, I'll be in Columbus sometime soon. That's where my grandmother's funeral is going to be, and I'd love to meet up with some friends just to get my mind off everything. Maybe meet for lunch somewhere or something. I'll try to get in touch with Anna and a few others if I can. So yeah. just thought you all should know. Here's something to cheer you up.   Oh and here's Makayla Rose Carpenter, my new cousin! 
 February 25, 2004 La la la. So bored. Got locked out of my room without my cell or my keys (obviously...since I was locked out...) So now I'm in the student center. Nobody here either. Trying to decide whether I want to go to the Harbin Devo or if I want to just go back to my room and sleep early tonight. When I get my computer a computer where I can actually download photos I'll put up a picture of my new cousin! Makayla Rose Carpenter was born Tuesday February 17, 2004 at 12:17am. She's so cute! I'm so glad we have another girl in the family. All the great-grandkids are boys! Beth and I were starting to feel left out...but now we have a girl to pamper! Not much else to talk about. I'm about to go update the OEGE page with this last week's meeting devo (the prayer requests are in my room - but I'll get those up soon). In the next week or so I should have the calendar for March so look for that. When I get my computer back I should finish the Random and Writing Pages, and I'm going to put some more pictures up in my Yahoo! Photo Album. Umm...so yeah. I guess that's all for now! February 24, 2004 Just got out of a Color Theory test. I have to be back at 11, but I was like the second person done (and I didn't even study!), so I'm just chillin here in the SC. In case you hadn't noticed, I still have no computer. Wes said that the My Documents folder took up half my hard drive, because I had so much music on there. Why am I not suprised? I had a pretty good weekend. It started out great anyway. Friday Amie and I went to Walmart, came back and dyed my hair (sorry mom, I couldn't take it anymore), then went to Spring Sing Practice, then I spent the night at her house and watched MTV and TLC until like 1am. Then Saturday we got up *early* and went Thrift store shopping in Little Rock! We had so much fun. I got 2 Men's suit coats for $1 a piece! We got totally lost too, and ended up discovering Park Plaza Mall, which is SO much better than McCain. We had fun. Then back to Searcy for Spring Sing practice at 4, then home to take care of my very sick roommate, who had a 101 degree fever. Saturday and Sunday were spent taking care of Katy and getting my homework (sorta) done. It just feels right now like I'm just going through the motions. I'm doing a lot, but I don't feel like I'm giving anything my all. I'm slacking in my really important classes, I'm almost neglecting my campaign, I'm not ever practicing for Spring Sing, and I'm getting this lacksadaisical attitude about OEGE and everything else, like I care, but not enough to make it important. I dunno, it bothers me, but I can't seem to get out of this rut. I'll be glad when Spring Break and Spring Sing are over so I can concentrate on just school and OEGE. February 16, 2004 So technically, I'm supposed to still be doing class work, but as it is 11:23 and everyone else from my class has pretty much left the lab so...I don't care anymore. Today's class was fun though, I got to listen to the guys talk about how hot my teacher was when she wasn't in the room. :) They're hilarious. Anyway, this weekend was a lot of fun. Friday night was the Switchfoot concert, which rocked. They played my favorite song Let that Be Enough. I almost cried. Katy was sure I would, because we didn't expect them to play it. But I just enjoyed it. Then Saturday was Valentines Day! I have to say, that this year was probably the best Valentine's Day I have had in a really long time. The function was actually fun! Not that I thought it wouldn't be, but I was skeptical, you know? But we split up into groups, and it was me and Wes, Amie and Nick Pshaw (her date) and supposed to be Jackie and Aaron, but Aaron accidently overslept, so he never made it. We had fun anyway though, we had to run around campus and Searcy with a camera taking pictures of us doing random things and such. It was fun. Then all the Spring Sing people went out to lunch at Mi Ranchitos. I'm never eating there again. The food wasn't bad, but apparently the guy at the cash counter thought I was cute, because he kept staring at me, and when I went outside he asked Amie and Wes who I was. *shudder* So the only guys interested in me right now are apparently weird Mexican guys with a lazy eye. *shudders more violently* I didn't do much else Saturday. We went straight to SS practice after lunch, and since it was mainly a guys practice the girls got to leave after like half an hour, so I went home and changed then hung out in the SC for a bit with Katy and Aaron, until Katy had to leave for her date, and then I went to the computer lab here in the Art Building, worked on some stuff for a friend, then went to see The Emperor's New Grove here on campus (they showed that for Valentine's Day. I mean, come on people, can't you at least show a somewhat cheesy movie on Valentine's Day?) Yesterday I accidently slept through church (again) and then Katy and I made pancakes. Fun times :) Other than that we mostly stayed in the room all day. I got out a little around 7 to go visit my guy friends during open house, but only James and Matt were home, so I hung out with Amie the rest of the night. So that was my exciting weekend. Still no computer, this was a really bad weekend activitiy wise for my computer to go haywire. Hopefully since there isn't a basketball game tonight and nothing other than Spring Sing practice tomorrow then Wes will be able to take a look at it in the next few days. I'm going stir crazy in my room without my computer! I'm such a nerd. February 12, 2004 Man this has been a PSYCHO week. Monday I did the whole class thing, and then I had to work the basketball games. But not concessions, oh no. My campaign group was supposed to do hocking (that's where you go out in the stands with candy and drinks to sell) but only me and Ashley showed up. SO not only did we get pointed at, laughed at, and generally annoyed beyond belief, we didn't make any money for it either, because we were volunteering and there weren't enough people to work the game. It was awful. Tuesday class blah blah, then I went to the computer lab to work on a Graphic Design project. The lab was closed for class until 7pm. Class, until 7!! I had a campaign meeting at 7:30! My Tuesday night class was cancelled, so I actually got to go to my campaign meeting, but then, I was going to try and go after the meeting, but I had to go to Walmart, and the lab closes at 10:30. Wednesday I tried to get up early to go to the computer lab before class, so that I could at least have something to show Ms. Shoen, but once again - THERE WAS A CLASS. After classes, Amie and I had to make another Walmart run after class, and ended up staying there until almost 5, then went home and ate dinner then went to bible study. I was going to go to the Harbin Devo, but i had a project due today, so I didn't even get to go to the lab again to finish the Graphic Design project that's due tomorrow. Grr. And now, today, once again, the lab is closed for class until 7, and I'm working the basketball games (in the concession stand this time - no more hocking for Stephanie). So I probably won't even get out of the games until 9:45/10:00, and then I'll have like 20 minutes to do what I can then get them printed off in the lab. Sigh. This weekend isn't going to be any less hectic either. I'm not going to get any sleep - I'll probably crash Sunday afternoon. Friday is the Switchfoot concert, Saturday morning we have the function, then Spring Sing, then they're showing the Emperor's New Groove on campus. I seriously feel like a chicken with it's head cut off. I NEED A BREAK!!! AHHH!!!! February 9, 2004 Sorry for the lack in updates - Stephanie's computer has decided that it doesn't like her anymore. FIRST, okay, Thursday morning, miss retard here decided it would be a good idea to dry my hair while my space heater was going in my room. Yep, shorted out the entire room. So I had to wait until after classes to go switch the breaker in my suitmates room, then when I did, my computer came back on, but my internet didn't! So I called DormNet and resigned myself to just playing Tetris. But it doesn't end there, oh no. THEN Windows ME decides it doesn't like me either, and randomly decides that Microsoft Word won't work. So now, to add to my levels of boredom, I can't even write anything. Now severely annoyed, I started messing with Norton's to try and figure out WHY word wasn't working. Nortons told me I needed to run Defrag. So I did. BAD IDEA. Know why? NOW MY COMPUTER WON'T EVEN START! Sigh. Wes said he'd fix it though, so I'm happy. He's going to save all my stuff onto cds and then reinstall Windows ME. Yay. In other news, this weekend has been fun. There was an Indiana Jones movie marathon (dun da dun dun, dum da dun) and so I've now finally seen all 3 movies in their entirety. That took up Friday night and Saturday night...lets see...oh we had Spring Sing practice on Saturday morning, that was fun. I'm not that sore either. Umm...I think that's all the exciting news. I'll update if I can, but until I get my computer working again, don't look for too much! February 1, 2004 Okay, brace yourselves, this is going to be a long entry. First of all, Relient K and Audio Adrenaline ROCK. That was the most fun I've had at a concert since high school. We all got so into it...and there were a bunch of us there. Katy was a little out of it because she was on pain killers, but me and Amie were TOTALLY rocking out. The first 2/3 of the concert was ok, but as soon as Relient K came out, we just let loose. But when Audio Adrenaline got on stage...oh man...they played Big House, then Get Down (which is my favorite Audio A song ever) and were were on the floor dancing - people up in the seats were pointing at us. We were that awesome. And now I am SOOOOO sore. It didn't help that we had Spring Sing practice yesterday morning too. That was fun too. Our show is going to rock this year. We spent the night at Amie's, and didn't wake up until like 11. So we missed church, then I came home, changed, and pretty much spent the rest of the day in the Art building finishing our projects. They are SO awesome. We're so proud of them. We finished around 10:30...but that's only because we took our time getting them done. And they're all so good. I'm so relieved. OK so lots of new people have signed my guestbook! Yay! So here we go: Anna - As of right now, I am definitely going to try to come to your wedding. I really want to, but there are still legistics to work out (like...not having a car...). I have plans to make a road trip to Ohio anyway, becaue I turn 21 in June and that means I'm legally allowed to look for my birth mother. So I have to file some stuff in Columbus, and since I had already planned on coming to your wedding, I was going to do it all in one trip. If I can manage it. So yes, I am coming, for now. Oh and just for you I promise the lack of Ohioans on my website will be remedied. GO BUCKS! Maggie - I don't know how much almonds cost. I don't even like almonds. GO BUCKS! I can't believe you had to take 2 entries to tell your joke. You crack me up. HUG rocks! Megan - No, I won't excuse the pun! You and Lisa...I swear... OK so that's that! Keep checking this week, now that I have a little more free time, I'm going to try to get the Writing page up, and add more to the Random page. And in honor of Anna Omen, look for a Friends page (Including the cast of Wizard of Oz! :) ) coming soon to a website near you! January 30, 2004 Josh Kelley rocked my socks! He was cute too! Except he looked JUST like Chris Parrott, who was the youth intern at my church like 2 years ago. And I totally just typed "Christ" instead of "Chris" and had to go back. It's 1am and I just drank a Pepsi-V. And I have Spring Sing practice at 10am. I'm nuts. I'm so ready for tomorrow. But I'm worried that with all this stuff I want to do this weekend that I won't get my part of the Graphic Design project done. I might just have to skip church *again* on Sunday and work my tush off so I don't have to face Chad and Jarod and not have my stuff done. OH I know what I wanted to tell you. If you want to help one of my friends' older brother become rich and famous - and I know you all do - then go to this site and vote for John Delony for entertainer, solo artist, song, cd cover, and website design. If you want to hear some of his music, lemme know and I'll hook you up. Or just go to www.johndelony.com and see what he's all about. Oh and Scott's hot. :) January 29, 2004 I can't write long - I have a project to work on. Which, by the way, Jarod is a dork because he keeps neglecting to help us work on it. Grr. Life has been stressful. I'm so tired, and been running around pretty much non-stop all week. We had a basketball game Monday, plus the Blood Drive, then I've been working on this project for Graphic Design, not to mention my other classwork. Luckily this weekend will be fun. Tomorrow is the Josh Kelley concert. Apparently I have heard him before, just didn't realize it. Anyway, Katy and Zeb are both going too, so that promises to be fun. Then Saturday I've got our first Spring Sing Practice (yay!) and then we're going to see Reliant K and Audio Adrenaline in Little Rock!!! :) So exciting. We're all dressing up too - we're gonna get all "punkified" as Amie says. We're gonna streak our hair purple and everything. Fun times. Not much else to talk about. Lots of new posts to the guestbook I see :) Okay, so Ashley had to go and be a dork and ask a real question. "How is your spiritual/prayer life?" Sigh. Could be better, Ash. Being Spiritual Life Coordinator this year has given me a renewed sense of closeness, but at the same time, every semester I spend at Harding I seem to get farther away from him, part of that may be because I get complacent in my faith. I'm hoping that being SLC will help, as well as going to Natick (with you ash!) for spring break. This whole deal with my grandmother has helped my prayer life, I do talk to God more often these days, but I still need work. Katy asked if pelicans can see underwater. Answer: I have no idea. I looked, they can swim underwater, but I don't know if they can see. But I can now name several different species of pelican, how they hunt for food, and how they use their beak. The brown pelican is the state bird of Lousiana. And Nigel is a pelican. Well don't everybody fly off at once. January 25, 2004 My brain hurts. Most of this weekend was spent doing research and coming up with ideas for my Graphic Design project. Blah. Chad, Jarod and I spent 3 hours Friday brainstorming, then Chad and I got together again today for another 2 hours trying to work on our ideas. We've got two really strong ideas, now we just need a third. I can't think anymore. They showed the movie Radio on campus this weekend. It was pretty good, but it was really lacking in plot development. I mean, I know it's based on a true story, and you could really tell how it affected that little town, but a lot of that was lost to the audience. They could have done more with Radio's mother, and Coach Jones's daughter, and more with the story of Radio himself. There were some montage sequences (like the football season sequence) where you realize that lots of stuff happened that you don't see because of time constraints. I wonder if there's a book about Radio. That would probably be better, because you'd get more of the story. My favorite part, at least in the Harding setting, is during the football game where the coach starts yelling at the ref. Gotta love Harding editing. The movie was silent for like a whole minute. Good times. Tomorrow should be fun. Lots of work to do, plus I'm working one of the basketball games and then we have an OEGE meeting, and I'll be giving my first devo!!! :) Look for the OEGE page to appear sometime this week. I'm going to be beat tomorrow night...especially since it's 12:30 and I'm not in bed yet...I'm just a sucker for punishment, aren't I? January 22, 2004 Just so y'all know, the guestbook is just so I can write about something other than myself every now and then - so keep posting! I like talking about random stuff. I figure that reading about my life has got to get pretty boring every now and then. Paige signed my guesbook! Yay! (Oh, and GO BISONS!) Paige's question was "Do you think it is possible to travel back in time" Answer: No. In imagination, sure, but in reality, no. And I was trying to come up with a good explanation why, but I don't think it really matters. I just think it's impossible. For anyone who hasn't noticed, the site has been recently updated, the Dorky Fan Sites and Randomness pages are up, though sadly lacking, but up. Soon to come: the OEGE and Writing pages! Check soon back for more new stuff! *NOTE* Due to file size and problems with loading, the HUG picture pages have been deleted. If you want to see my Greece pictures, they are now located in my Yahoo Photo Album. The album also has a lot of other pictures on it too, so check it out! January 19, 2004 I hate my computer. I had just written like, 3/4 of this entry then AIM went stupid on me and I guess I accidentally closed the window instead of minimizing it. Sigh. Trying this again... Anyway, today was the first monday of classes - the real test! It wasn't too bad either. Graphic Design is going to be a great class - defintely my favorite this semester so far - and a great way to start my week. Missionary Anthropology isn't exactly riveting, but I think I'll enjoy it. Art History...well...at least it's the last class of the day. I was going to talk about working concessions at the basketball game tonight, but I don't feel like retyping all that. It's almost 1 am. It was fun. That's all you really want to know, right? I want to thank the people that have been posting in my guestbook! :) Katie McCrummen gets the award for the first post. Ashley, great joke! I'm not answering your question though (makes the retarded cow face!). Daniel Lawson actually asked me a question though, that I can answer. He asked "Do you think they'll do a movie for The Hobbit". Answer: YES. I have actually heard (don't ask me where) that Peter Jackson does want to do The Hobbit, but that he is "taking a break" right now - not really true because he's working on the remake of King Kong. What I think that really means is taking a break from the LOTR films. Personally, as far as The Hobbit is concerned, I think that's a good idea. To come out with The Hobbit so close after LOTR would be dumb, because unless it was a true cinematic masterpiece (even more so than LOTR) then it would NOT get a good response. It is a different type of story all together from LOTR, and therefore needs to be entirely separate. I think Jackson will wait until he finishes King Kong at the earliest before he starts work on The Hobbit, and even then it will be several years before we see anything. There isn't nearly the amount of CG work there was in the LOTR films, but Weta will have their work cut out for them still with the trolls and Smaug as it is. Not to mention the re-appearance of Gollum - but Gollum as he was over 80 years before we seem him in LOTR (Not many know that Bilbo had the Ring for 60 years before he left it to Frodo - and in the books Gandalf searches for nearly 30 years before he learns the truth about the Ring). Now, Gollum himself is hundreds of years old so 80 years won't effect him much - but he will be much more like the first Gollum - before he remembered the name "Smeagol". Here's my question. We all know (well...okay maybe not all) that Arwen's role was boosted in FOTR so that there would be another female lead - and boost the love triangle tension for TT and ROTK. As much of a purist as I am, I do agree that cinematically the writers made a good choice - otherwise the movies wouldn't have nearly as much impact (would we really care if the first time we really met Arwen was in that last scene in ROTK? or would we all still be rooting for Eowyn?). There are virtually NO females in The Hobbit. So how far will Jackson go to get a box-office selling movie? How much will be changed - and is it worth making The Hobbit at all? There is no way it can even measure up to the success of LOTR. The story is not good enough. Tolkien hadn't really matured in his own "knowledge" of Middle-Earth and the mythologies he was working on. The Hobbit was a children's book, more or less, and the Lord of the Rings was the "sequel". Really The Hobbit was more like a prologue than a prequel, if you ask me. People expecting the same type of movie as LOTR will be dissappointed because The Hobbit is a very different type of story. Sure there is elements of good vs. evil, but it's a much more lighthearted story. A hobbit and a bunch of dwarves go out to kill a dragon. Yes, there are some dark undertones - the finding of the Ring, for instance, and the mysterious Necromancer (Sauron) that Gandalf leaves to investigate - but other than that it's just a basic adventure tale. Not only that (and believe me, I hate to admit this) but a huge selling point of LOTR was the actors - Orlando Bloom, Viggo Mortenson, Elijah Wood - the drool-worthy appeal (the "lets make 8 bazillion fansites for Legolas" appeal). Unless they get someone really cute to play Bilbo, really, the only other characters are nine dwarfs and Gandalf. Some real lookers there. To really sell a movie of The Hobbit, some major corners will have to be cut. So I ask, is it worth it? Wow I can talk a lot about that. Daniel, you just had to ask me a question about Tolkien didn't you? Hope I, uh, answered your question well enough. Any response emails are welcom :) Well for all those still with me, I didn't mean to make this such a long post! For those of you who are really bored with me talking about hobbits...I am a hobbit! And thanks for listening :) January 18, 2004 Well, it looks like classes are going to be really fun. I like most all of my teachers, and the classes seem promising. Art History of course is still going to be the most horrible class ever, but I'll get over it. Katy and me and a bunch of other people went to see ROTK in LR yesterday. Man, I love that movie. So awesome. I have to say, though, the second time I was much more critical. I still enjoyed it though. Ashley kept laughing at me because I would sigh and smile every time Sam came on the screen. He's my precious! :) Um...I think that's all for now. It's too early in the semester for the really exciting stuff! :) January 14, 2004 Yesterday was fun! Katy and I got up early so she could do all her registration stuff and then we could go get groceries and stuff. We though it would take us forever. We were done in an hour and a half! So we came back here and napped for a while, then went to Little Rock to see a movie. We were going to see ROTK (she hasn't seen it yet! gasp!) but it was too late, so we saw Peter Pan instead. It was okay, but we there were only two other people in the theater, two guys from the Air Force base up in Jacksonville. They were kinda cute, but they were making fun of the movie, and we were laughing. There was SO much you could take the wrong way, and they were...it was fun though. We didn't even get their names. We should have. Oh well. Today was the first day of class. Well I say was. It's only 12:30. I still have 2 classes today. BUT let me tell you, I had my first class at 9:45. Graphic Design I. It's going to be an interesting class. There are only five people in my class. Me, and four of the hottest guys in the art department. Thank goodness my teacher is female. I think I would die. But all kidding aside, I think this is going to be a good semester. Well gotta go, almost time for Missionary Anthropology! :) January 12, 2004 Ahh, back in Searcy. Well Christmas break was fun, except for the lack of interent access (hence the break in entries). I worked a lot, and got to see my mom's family in Kentucky, which was lots of fun. I had a good time. I had a good Christmas, I got just about everything I asked for. Break was stressful, still, what with my dad's mom being in and out of the hospital, and work, and having to share cars, but I'm back now and hoping for a great semester. I am kinda bummed because I just discovered I won't be able to graduate in four years. It's going to take me one extra semester. So I'll graduate in the Fall of '05. I guess that's not too bad, it's only one semester, and I can live off campus, and I'll probably only be taking like 6 hours, so it won't be too expensive. Classes start the day after tomorrow and I can't wait. I'm so ready to get back into things here. Being home and working is fun, but it's so...monotonous. Every day at work its the same crap over and over, and at home I just sit and watch tv, or play video games with Mark, since all of my friends are all working too. Sure life is kinda boring and monotonous here, but at least I have a little bit more free time to hang out and shake things up a bit (not too much though - I've had quite enough shaking for a while). December 19, 2003 RETURN OF THE KING IS SO FRICKIN AWESOME. That's all I have to say for today. Here's something funny for my other true LOTR fan friends. 
December 18, 2003 Yay I'm Home!! It's good to be here too. The house is all decorated and there are present under the tree and everyone's happy...well except my brother who's grounded from the car and my mom and dad because my grandmother's in the hospital doing worse and keeps trying to break out...but really, it's good to be home. It's good to know that I have a few days to relax too. I'm not going to work until Sunday, so I'll have tomorrow and Saturday to settle in (AND see ROTK tomorrow with Paige!!!!). That's exciting. And I can get all my Christmas shopping done. I have *NO* idea what to get my family. I mean, I know what to get Mom and Dad and Mark...but as for the rest of them...like my extended family...NO clue. None. Whatsoever. Sigh. Today was fun though. I got up early, saw Katy off, then got a few errands done around campus, then Tina, Nate and Zeb drove me up to the Little Rock Airport and I flew home. My flight went well, I was in a true puddle-jumper though. A 3-seater. I had the single seat too, I was very excited. I love puddle jumpers. There's just something about big airplanes that makes me uncomfortable. And I got home, had dinner with the family, watched a little TV with mom, then we all played a couple games of Clue (which my lovely roommate gave me for Christmas). All in all, a good day. I have been such a klutz today though! I kept dropping things at the airport, my Burger King bag (no spills there), then I knocked over my cup (did spill-but just ice), then I hit my head with my luggage disembarking, and then while I was trying to unpack I tripped and hit my hand on the door. I seriously thought I broke my finger. Then I hit myself in the face with a book while talking to my brother. I need to go to bed before I seriously injure myself anymore. December 17, 2003 Look ma, a new website! I can't tell you how many times I've redesigned this thing. Oh well. Today was my last day of finals. Woohoo! Tomorrow Nate and Tina are taking me to the airport around noon, then I fly home, and then hopefully go to see Return of the King (hereafter referred to as ROTK for those of you non-LOTR fans) with Jenny and Paige. I'm going to see it tomorrow or Friday, if I have to go by myself, I will see it. Mark my words. My finals went okay I guess. I really should have studied more for that Geography final today, but I think I made a decent grade. I'm doing well in the class, so I'm not too worried. I just hope that I made enough A's to cancel out my Christian Home and Print Advertising grades. If I did well on the finals for those two classes (and I think I did) I may not have to worry, but I still need to make a 3.0 this semester. I guess I should have been better about projects and assignments...I kinda slacked off there for a while. These things always come back to haunt me. Overall I think this has been a good semester though. It had its ups and downs, but in the grand scheme of things, I think this is the best semester I've had at Harding (not counting last spring in Greece). Of course, I can think of innumberable ways I would have liked this semester to turn out differently...but alas. Until next time! :) |