The Troops are coming home!

As mostly everyone by now knows our troops are coming home from Afghanistan. It's a time for celebration, relief, and most of all a time when showing our support is most needed.

When I was in high school most of my friends were those who were in JROTC and nearly every one of them enlisted after we graduated. One of those friends was enlisted before we graduated and was due to ship out to boot camp the morning after gradation. It was two years before I saw him again but when I did, he was on leave and he told me he'd already received 4 purple hearts and he was planning to continue his military career. I wished him luck and told him to be careful. I didn't hear from him again until recently when I found him on facebook.

This friend is still on active duty in Afghanistan and will be coming home soon. He posted so on facebook in not so many words but in a message that made me worry. He said: "Warriors and Civilians don't mix... coming home should be interesting." I guess that got a few people who I don't know but who are his friends a little offended. Someone mention that it wasn't 1968 and that he would be fine. A lot of the comments seemed like all too easy brush offs.
I told promptly told him that I am glad he's coming home and thanked him for his service. I told him it is an honor to have gone to school with him, to know him. I told him that he was a strong and courageous person and that I have complete faith in him that he would overcome and land on his feet.

He wrote back a general message saying that he was sorry if he'd offended anyone.  I don't feel that he should've had to apologize. I feel that his concerns and nervousness are granted. I mean, not too long ago, my Dad spoke to a service woman in the doctor's office who said she rarely gets thanked for her service to our country, that people scream hateful things and obscenities at her, that she's even had rotten food thrown at her. I can't believe there are people out there who could or would do that! But sadly there are those who do. And I think some people forget that transitioning isn't simple, quick, or easy. It's noting to brush off.

Every single troop coming home needs even more support, care, and love. This is a time to let them adjust and a time to be there for them. They made sacrifices, endured more than we can even imagine. They were strong for us now we must be strong for them. We should show our appreciation instead of brushing them off and telling them they'll be fine because a lot of them won't be fine.

Happy Halloween!

Happy Halloween! My medicine-foggy brain just realized it was 12:30 and thus the 30th of October had given itself over to the 31st.

What are your plans for this evening? Have anything ghoulish in mind?

Unfortunately I have my trigonometry class tonight from 6pm to 10:30 pm so that's killed any plans I might have had, which kind of sucks since Halloween is my favorite holiday of the year. However, my college is having a family oriented celebration that begins at 5pm, so I will at least get a little fun for an hour before class begins and I am sure I will find something to do with my family afterwards. Also, I get to dress up, provided that it's acceptable attire. No worries there. I don't really have a costume readily at my fingertips. They're, the few I have, are all packed away.

So, I am going to probably go as a vampire or an Japanese demon. At least, do the really awesome make up I saw in Onmyoji. I can't find a pic of her so I will have to get a screen shot later to post. I haven't decided on the make up and probably won't until I am actually working on my face tomorrow afternoon. As for what to wear... We're doing laundry as I work on this post and I will pick something out from the clean clothes... That reminds me, I wonder if I can wear one of those dresses we've got hanging up in the wardrobe I can't quite get in to...

As I aforementioned, I'm suffering from a medicine-foggy brain tonight. While my back is getting gradually better, I still have a lot of pain, and I am incredibly stiff. So I've been stretching as much as I can and tonight I was forced to take a muscle relaxer and my dumb-ass took a whole one instead of breaking it in half. I think I might have cat-napped off and on while playing sims on facebook. I gave up on it and apparently thought I was done with the computer and put it on hibernate, only I'm not finished with the computer, I still have some homework to do and I wanted to listen to some music while doing it.

Of course with it being Halloween, that means tomorrow is a very important day. It's the beginning of National Novel Writer's Month and I decided that I am going to participate again this year. I don't actually know if I will reach my 50,000 words due to school/homework, moving, and spending time with family and friends before I go, but I have a set of short story ideas I want to work on and a novel I want to work on. The short stories will be put together to make a small collection book and they are very naughty! ^.^

Well, I've got homework to do and clothes to fold, so I'm off! Hope everyone has a safe and fun Halloween!

 

Been meaning to post...

I have several blog entries that I have been meaning to post with subject like politics, make up, school, and the up and coming NaNoWriMo. But... I haven't been in the position to really focus on it. I've written three papers in the last two days, been dealing with my back, and believe it or not, I got out of the house to go somewhere other than to school. That's right, I went shopping today. I was a bit too rambunctious and thought I could handle going to two stores, one of which I will blog about later. Needless to say when I got home I was more pain than when I awoke and I was exhausted. I did manage to make it across the street to my cousin's house to watch Supernatural with her but I had to come home shortly after due to being tired and having homework. Boy will I be glad for a break in homework. Too bad I will be moving.

Back pain strikes again.

For the last couple of days I have been having pain in my lower back again. Since Tuesday it's been especially bad, bad enough that I am having difficulty walking from my sofa to the bathroom and back. Which is a big problem. I have classes I need to get to and sit through, house cleaning, errands to run. Needless to say I don't have the time or luxury to be stuck on the sofa with ice packs. 

Previously I've gone to the doctor and since I can't afford an MRI my doctor can't say for 100% certain what's going on. However, based on the pain that I have described, where it's located, and so forth she's pretty sure that I have a herniated disk in my lower spine. I cannot afford physical therapy either so she gave me a book with back exorcises to do. I haven't been following them to the letter every day but I have done a few of them off and on. I have been working to lose some weight, actually a lot of weight, but I can't lose it all over night though I am making some slow progress.

Still, it's not enough. Pain pills and muscle relaxers only get me so far and I hate taking them. I don't ever want to build up a tolerance. So, I have been trying to figure out what's aggravating my back and come up with ways to help myself so I do not have to rely on pills.  

The very first problem is, of course, how I sleep. I'm mostly a side sleeper but I also sleep half on my side and half on my stomach and very rarely on my back. So to help, I put a pillow between my legs to help stabilize my hip. It doesn't always stay there, but for the time that it's there, it helps a little. I do need to start sleeping on my back a little more and I've read that putting a pillow under my knees will help as well.

The second problem is the chairs at school. My classes run 4 hours long with two breaks. However, the chairs are hard plastic and I always find myself bending forward, over the table to take notes. I need to be sitting straighter and possibly take a pillow to class to sit on.

Another problem is how I sit on furniture at home. I tend to sit leaning to one side or the other. That needs to stop. I need to sit straight. My posture standing isn't really a problem, I stand straight.

Most of all I need to keep moving. It's so easy to get caught up in watching movies, sometimes two or three at a time. When I do homework, I'm often at it for hours at a time with almost no breaks except to go to the bathroom or get a drink. I need to get up and move around a bit.

I have also been looking at some spinal decompression. While I can't afford to go to a doctor to do it or invest in those over priced home machines or equipment, I can do a few little exercises to help. There is one where you lie on your bed to the floor on your back. You have your knees up and move them from right to left. But if you move them to the right, you push up with your left foot so your left hip comes up off the floor and vice versa. I hope I explained that well enough. If not, there are some videos on youtube that will explain it better.

I am hoping that sleeping on my back tonight with a pillow under my knees will help me, even a little. Tomorrow I have a midterm I have to take and can't miss.

Dispicable and senseless animal massacre

(photo from abc news)

I don't know how closely anyone pays attention to the news or has access to, but recently a man, who owned a wild animal preserve in Zanesville, Ohio, let his animals lose and then ended his own life.

I don't really care as to what led the man to let the animals free or why he killed himself. What bothers me is the measures authorities took to manage the situation. Supposedly they tried to tranquilize the animals and when that supposedly didn't work, they shot them to death. They shot 49 innocent animals who had done nothing wrong but had the audacity to have been set free, scared, and run.

Yes, I understand that these were wild animals. Yes, I understand that they could have hurt people. Yes, 49 animals are a lot to deal with, especially when the are lions, tigers, bears, ect... But I don't care. I do not think that the authorities handled the situation in the interest of the animals, I don't believe they even tried. I think they brutally murdered them. Not only did they murder them but they drug them behind a backhoe with chains to a mass grave. Talk about adding insult to injury. You'd think they would have the decency to at least treat them better in death than in life. Worse than that, some of those animals were the rare Bengal Tigers. WTF! Aren't those still on the endangered species list? Aren't we supposed to protect them? 

I've always said animals are far better than people. My best friend in the world is my cat, Yoda-chan. I would never allow someone to treat him as those animals were treated.  

An Exodus in the making...

It's official, my Gf and I are moving to Northern Idaho. So I'll be leaving the grass plains for the mountains and snow again. All we have to do is square a date. I'm much more relaxed about it than I was a few weeks ago. I think I have had some time to process it and while my family isn't too happy isn't too happy, I am looking on the positive side of things. I'm going to have to transfer from one ITT Campus to another but I've talked to the people in charge of that at school and it'll be relatively easy.

Speaking of school, I've got a test tonight and I am hoping that I built my circuits right for lab. I'm probably going to have to leave early. We've got a car issue and my lab partner seems to be having as much trouble with formulas as I am. But I've got a handle on the formulas for this chapter so I'm going to help him out. My problem is the conversion aspect. The math is fine but the labeling is giving me trouble.

Well, off to take a shower and get ready.  

Making horns with my hair! And other hair topics.

That's right, I've been twisting my hair up and making little horn buns on the top of my head, sadly, because I don't have a hair band, they aren't staying and now I've managed to give myself some tangles. And I thought since I've had some pretty heavy blogs, it was time to do a fun one, especially since I'm in a much better mood today.

I have what most people deem long hair. I think it's short but that is because I am use to having my hair so long I can sit on it much like my friend Katwarrior. But after awhile and lack of funds or people I trust with my hair, it gets split ends and doesn't look as nice. So I've kept it between shoulder length and as long as the middle of my back. I've also dyed it just about every color except orange and yellow. I don't like those colors, for some reason they make me jittery. Don't ask why, they just do.

Recently I've wanted to go back to dying my hair black because everyone thinks it looks better than my natural medium brown or even red (as I had it in high school). But since I am currently unemployed and going to be for the next couple of months due to college and moving out of state, I've really wanted to dye it black with blue streaks. Sadly, I won't be adding the blue. I don't have the money for it but if I did, I would use Special Effects Hair Dye. I've used Manic Panic before but Special Effects is the better of the two. You can get it from several places online but I get it from www.goodgoth.com .

Now if you have dark hair and need to bleach your hair or if your hair is really dry, I suggest using a hydrating conditioner. Herbal Essence's Hello Hydration is good and more within a budget. Because people, it does matter what shampoo and conditioner you use. I really can't stress that enough. So it is best to try those out that are within your budget and find what works best for your hair. I'm not going to tell you to go out and buy salon products or anything expensive, just find something within your price range that works. Also if you have dandruff, use a dandruff shampoo until the problem is under control and switch back to your regular shampoo. I do this on occasion because for some reason I have a dry scalp but oily hair and I'm not afraid to tell anyone that.

On to hair styling. For myself, I don't typically use any products in my hair. I don't like the flakiness gel gets after awhile or the straw feel of hair spray. I'm not even sure I like moose or hair glue. But I do have those fly away hairs and I have a patch of baby bangs that never grew out. I hide those with bangs. However, there are times when I want to curl my hair for a special occasion. My hair is almost a nightmare to curl. I'm not talking about the layers, no. My hair doesn't like to hold curl and often times if I curl one side, it's fallen by the time I've gotten the other side finished. So in cases where I want my hair to curl, I have to use product. Moose doesn't do the trick so I have to use hair spray. So, I find that spraying my hair a little when it's strait, just before I put the curling iron on it helps and then of course I have to spray it again after I set the curling iron aside.  I'm sure there are other ways to do it, but this is what works for me.

Make up! Oh boy do I love make up! I even love watching make up tutorials on youtube done my professional make up artists to amateurs. But what I hate more than anything is seeing someone talk about using these high priced make up brushes and products. I simply do not have the budget to go out and buy a load of make up brushes let alone a lot of the make up they advertise. So I usually end up using my fingers, those cheap little make up applicators you can get from wal-mart for eyeshadow, and believe it or not, paint brushes from craft stores that I've collected over the years. But I don't use the brushes all the time and only when doing costume make up at Halloween for friends.

The point is, you don't have to go out and buy expensive stuff to get the looks you want. I get a lot of my make up from The Icing or Clare's, but most often I buy it from Wal-mart or Walgreen's. There is an online store I've been ogling that has some really nice deals on eyeshadow palates, http://www.bhcosmetics.com/ . I have also bought eyeshadow and lip gloss from Good Goth.com but unfortunately they don't have near the selection they use to.

Also, if you are going to buy make up and make it last, make sure to keep it clean. This was one of the main principals I learned in a theatre make up panel at a Thespian convention I went to in High school. The same applies for everyday make up. Don't leave it open for dust and dirt in the air to get into it. You'll also want to replace it once it starts separating and certainly after no more than 3 years. I think you're supposed to replace it sooner than that, but if you take really good care of it, you can make it last longer. If you have brushes or applicators make sure to clean those as well. You don't want any nasty bacteria building up in them and certainly don't want it on your face much less the dust and dirt everything seems to collect.

Lastly, perfume. Ladies and gentlemen in your perfume or cologne. A lot of people have allergies or sensitive noses. My Dad and I can't walk through a department store near the perfume section without getting a headache and my Grandpa is allergic to a lot of perfumes. Vanilla is a big pet peeve of mine, a lot of people love it, I use to until a friend we use to carpool with started spraying herself all over with it. Mornings and afternoons were spent with the windows down when she was in the car. So down play the scents. You can still smell good without the over kill. Oil perfumes you especially have to be careful with. I love patchouli oil but I don't use much if it when I have it. It's fast to overwhelm. I also use a variety of body splashes from Bath and Body works (when they have a deal going on in the store). One sprit in front and one in back and I'm ready to go and no one's nose gets offended.

Well, that's all for today.  

Very frustrated

Yesterday I spent a little over 4 hours reading my DC Electronics textbook. Granted I had several breaks or rather interruptions here and there but in the end I read that chapter and studied it. Tonight, after returning home from my math class, I sat down to do the work for DC Electronics and found that I couldn't answer a single question. I don't know what formulas to use and am completely lost. It's not that I don't remember anything that I read, I do, but they don't spend time explaining how or why these things work. My GF offered that I should get a tutor at school. Well, that would be ideal and I would be willing to put in the time, the only problem with that is, I'm not sure where to look for one. The gals in the Learning Resource Center are only qualified to handle the basic stuff like math and composition, so where are the other tutors?

After explaining that, my GF asked about the teacher. Last class, my so called teacher made it clear to another student who asked about tutoring and if he could get help from him that the labs are open from a certain time to a certain time and that he was pretty much on his own. This instructor doesn't seem to even want to be there or really to teach or is just in this gig for the money.

All in all, at the end of the day, I haven't done my homework, my head is killing me, and I am generally disappointed in my education with ITT Tech thus far. You'd think paying 47 thousand dollars I could get some help with the things I am struggling with but I guess that is too much to ask for.