June 1998

Wednesday 10 June 1998 ::: Preknowledge? :::

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Things that make me go "hmm." Would you have lived your life, knowing in advance what kind of experiences your life would encompass? Me? Hell, I'm not sure. My life _has_been_ hell and there are very few rewards for me. I definately would not re-live what I have already gotten through. Fortunately or Un- there is this shakey thing called hope. Things can't get much worse, right? Then you live another day and find out that, yep, they sure can get worse. sighs. Oh well, maybe tomorrow...

Thursday 11 June 1998 ::: Factory Farming :::

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Well, here we have a shameless plug for my vegetarian lifestyle. Factory farming just sucks, okay?! Every year in North America 8 BILLION animals are slaughtered. I don't like killing animals. (Heck, I have a hard time killing bugs!) I like to enjoy animals in their natural habitat. I hate to see filthy feedlots. I hate those little sheds which hold thousands of birds. I hate the buildings pigs have to live their short lives in. Ugh. And after the animals have spent a fraction of normal life span in these horrible places, they are killed, usually in some traumatizing, painful manner.
Well, anyway, go vege, and then I will be happy. :)

Friday 12 June 1998 ::: Suicide Attempts :::

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Today's thought involves suicide attempts. I was thinking the other day that about 50% of my friends (or more) have attempted suicide at some point in their life. Now I have to wonder. Is this a "birds of a feather, flock together" kind of thing? Or is this kind of a "signs of the times" thing? Just wondering.

Saturday 13 June 1998 ::: Death :::

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Okay, if you got the chance to pick how you were going to die, what would you choose? To die peacefully, in your sleep? How boring! Last night I had a dream about me dying in a plane crash. That was pretty fun but not my first pick. Guillotine. Yep. "Off with her head!" I've heard that you have about 15 seconds of consciousness after your head is chopped off. I just think that would be the most interesting experience! My last experience, if nothing else, haha.

Sunday 14 June 1998 ::: End of World :::

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Hmm. End of the world. Supposedly it's coming. That Cayce guy says August '99. Pretty much between that date and 2012 is what I have heard. What do you think? Can the end even be predicted? Will we do it to ourselves or will it be a natural event? Or will we past through these dates without anything significant happening? Will have to wait and see, I guess.

Monday 15 June 1998 ::: Mini-vacations :::

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Mini-vacations. That is what life is about. No matter how much you love your great wonderful job, family, friends, whatever, everyone needs a break every once in a while. The thing is, you have to know how to take a mini-vacation. A mini-vacation involves something you love to do but don't allow yourself to do very often. For me, a walk in the woods is very helpful. Or catching a movie is great too. Or maybe you could buy something small that you usuallly wouldn't buy. How 'bout your favorite ice cream? Stickers are cool, too! You deserve a break today, take a mini-vacation!!

Tuesday 16 June 1998 ::: Our Animal Friends :::

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Companion animals are the greatest. And it saddens me when people treat the little ones like "throw away pets." Today I met a rabbit with a very broken leg. The surgury to fix it is going to be very expensive. It sounds like they are going to do the surgury, which is so wonderful. But someone said something along the lines of "Why bother? I know people get attached, but these little guys are cheap [to buy at a pet store]."

Sigh. That's so sad. Animals are individuals. Sure, you can meet new animal friends, but you shouldn't just throw the old friends away when they get to be too much trouble. You would never do this to humans, would you? Animals are not inferior, just different.

Wednesday 17 June 1998 ::: Goals :::

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Do you have a goal for your life. Yeah, me neither. But I suppose a goal would be a good thing. You are supposed to print these goal things up and post them right next to your computer (or where ever you hang out a lot!). If you had a goal, what would it be? A goal for me might be to get a short story published in a magazine. This particular goal is pretty far away right now, considering the last time I actually wrote a short story was when I was a college girl! So why in the world would I say that getting published is my goal, right? Oh, just because I am crazy and lack motivation, you mock me! Some people! :)

Thursday 18 June 1998 ::: Journal :::

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Do you keep a journal? I do. I am very proud of myself... I just started journaling on a serious basis this year. It is the only non-academic and non-work related thing I think I have ever stuck with! I have been writing for five months now and am now on page 205. Wow!

And what is the point, you ask? It doesn't really have a point. I write about the day's events, or a dream I had the night before, or just random thoughts. Some times thoughts demand to be written down. Other times I write crap just because I like the feel of ink flowing out of my pen. Crazy, isn't it? Oh, well, that's me!

Friday 19 June 1998 ::: Reading :::

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I think reading is great. Tho I don't have time to read as much as I would like to, I am always reading something. Usually several somethings, in fact. Right now I am reading three books and several magazines. "Don't you get confused?" people ask me. Um. Not really. At least no more confused than I am already! :)

I just believe that expanding your mind is very important, and books can do that for you. All kinds of books. Books will introduce you to new ideas and new concepts. So go visit your library today, (or Amazon.com if you are holing up :) and grab a book that grabs your attention!

Saturday 20 June 1998 ::: Cows :::

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I am a vegetarian. One of the questions I have often been asked is "What would happen to all the cows if everyone was a vegetarian?" Heh. Let's be realistic, people. Is everyone in the world just going to wake up one morning and think, 'Man, I'm gonna go vege now!'? No. In the 'perfect' world, demand for meat and animal products will gradually decrease as more people decide to pursue the vegetarian life style. As demand for cows and other species decreases, supply will decrease. See? That stupid economics class I took was good for something! :)

Tuesday 23 June 1998 ::: Cancer :::

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So the headline reads "One woman beats breast cancer." This lady had a golf ball-sized lump which led to a double mastectomy. She refused chemo and all traditional treatments and became a vegen (eats no animal products) and a marathon runner. That was 15 years ago and she is still running around with no more cancer.

The American Cancer Society (ACS) has a program, "Reach to Recovery", where cancer survivers talk to newly diagnosed breast cancer patients. The ACS did not want the running vegen to speak about how she beat her cancer. The ACS did not want to make waves with the doctors who practice conventional treatments.

Is this not completely insane??? This lady might have the cure for cancer, definately a legitimate treatment that needs to be studied further, and the American Cancer Society doesn't want her to talk about it. Why is the world so warped that it picks the status quo over some real helpful progress??

Wednesday 24 June 1998 ::: Mulan :::

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So, I'm just back from the movies. I went to see Mulan. Gotta say it: It was great. I highly recommend it. Great animation, great story line, great character development, all that stuff. Definately worth the five bucks I paid for it!

Friday 26 June 1998 ::: Win98 :::

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So. Upgrading to Win98? Yeah, me neither. I think I have a fear of upgrading. I am still working with Netscape 3.01, My DirectX is like version 2 or something like that, I still play Doom2. Am I stuck in a rut or what?! :) And the only cure is to buy win98?? Are you insane? Of course you are. No one in the really real world is going to fork over 100+$ for yet another windows operating system that is going to crash anyway! Yes, it's true, folks, win98 crashed on Bill when he was giving a demo at some convention! heh.

Saturday 27 June 1998 ::: AOL :::

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America Online sent me a free coaster today. No more free 3 1/2 inch disks, unfortunately... now they send out the cd. It is packaged very attractively tho, I must say. I could punch a hole in it and hang it in the window as some kind of weird sun-catcher thing. On the front it says they have teamed up with Microsoft "to bring you the entire internet". Stupidly, the AOL disk only comes with the "NEW" version 3.0 of Internet Explorer. Explain that one to me. AOL, just not worth it. They raise their rates, and I know someone who couldn't connect with them for _Days_! Just not worth it, I say. Shop local, people. Local ISPs are great, have personal service, you don't have to deal with junk mail as soon as you sign on, and if you shop around you won't ever have to deal with the dreaded busy signal!

Sunday 28 June 1998 ::: Paranoia :::

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They're out to get me. And I am not just being paranoid, here, people! Two people tried to kill me today. I'm driving along, minding my own business, going to and from work, a car tries to pull out in front of me. This happens not once, but twice today. What are the odds?! And I own a small car, if I even ping someone with it, it will probably crumple. If I don't die in the wreck, I will probably have to spend thousands getting it fixed and getting myself fixed, thus putting me in debt, I won't be able to pay my rent, I will be thrown out on the street to die a miserable death by starvation. See? I told you, they are out to get me!

Monday 29 June 1998 ::: Vegetarianism :::

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I'm a vegetarian, as you may know. I will never eat meat again. I mean, you've got Mad Cow Disease, the E.Coli thing, Salmonella, all kinds of various diseases. They pump those animals full of hormones to make them produce more, and antibiotics so they aren't as likely to get sick. Meat, dairy and eggs are linked to heart disease, strokes and definitely cancer. On top of all this, you've got cruelty to each and every one of those animals that you eat. Why mess with my karma by eating animals??? It's just not worth it to me.

Tuesday 30 June 1998 ::: Atari :::

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So, yesterday I thought I discovered the greatest thing in the world. An Atari 2600 emulator and the Original games that you can play on it (on your computer!). Then I discovered... Atari really sucks bad in comparison to today's standards. Blocky graphics granted, but Slow! Can't believe how slowly Pac-man eats up those little dots! Wow, how games have advanced since the good old days. Yep, I am old enough to remember Pong. :)