Today is one more reason that I really like the company I work for. Today we invited a law professor who specializes in Middle Eastern affairs (legal and political) to speak to us at a brown bag lunch. About 75% of the company showed up to hear his talk and ask questions. We've had these discussions from time to time and I like the fact that we take time out from work to talk about tough issues and learn something that is not at all related to our particular jobs or our industry. (I work for an internet company.) Since I knew almost nothing about the history of that region before, I learned a lot. While I didn't 100% agree with the point of view that the speaker expressed, I definitely learned and thought about our country's policies in the Middle East. The speaker was really pushing for the stopping of the Israeli settlements in the West Bank and Gaza Strip areas. I know nothing about the conflict other than that it exists and both sides send suicide bombers, kill civilians, and assassinate leaders. He made a convincing argument for his position but did not really explain the reasons we might not want to follow his suggestions. So I would want to hear the other side first before I decide what I think and feel about that issue.

Excellent! The changing colors thing worked thanks to the very good instructions by Marcus (who is, I assume, the creater of the blogback stuff). For someone who works at a web company, I am woefully under-educated in how to write HTML. Other programming languages - sure, I know C, Java, LISP, but I haven't taken the time to really learn HTML. Of course it seems that I can figure stuff out when I need to, but still, sort of pathetic not to know it already.

I added a comment thing to my template today. Seems very cool. I will change the colors eventually since I think the black writing on dark blue background is hard to read. Gotta be one of Nielsen's top ten worst things to do on the web. Which is not to say that I don't greatly appreciate the person who went to all of the work to create the comment thing and share it.

I'm in this weird stage at work where I know I am going to be hit with a ton of stuff to do but at the moment I don't have anything to do. So I can ruminate. I've been emailing my sister daily, generally several times a day and it always makes me happier. I am not a phone person, never have been, even as a teenage girl. Email is good, as are face to face conversations. And letters sent through the actual mail. Throughout college I wrote letters to my grandmother (the only person who would write back to me). Now at work I'll walk to someone's desk before I'll call them. I don't know why that is, it's just always been that way. Trissie's emails are always fun to get even if they just talk about everyday events. She has a way of phrasing things and an outlook on events that is just fun to read. Also, it is good to feel connected to my family since I don't live near any of them. Although I am driving down this weekend. It seems that recently the only time I've seen them is at funerals (it's been a very bad year). So this should be refreshing. I am dragging down birthday gifts for 1 brother, 2 sisters, 1 neice, and my dad. August and September are big birthday months in my family. Actually, I am still trying to find a gift for one of the sisters and waiting for the gift I ordered for my brother to arrive.

Okay, so my rant for the day is about my roommate again. She's taking the LSAT. No problem with that. But she's taking everything so seriously. My take on the LSAT (and I could be wrong) is that it is roughly like the GRE. No specialized knowledge, just your average standardized test. Now I could see stressing over the MCAT or a single subject GRE. But the LSAT?

It's not that she's stressing, it's that she took 2 weeks off of work so that she could study and prepare. She takes practice tests about 3 times a week if not more often. The Friday before her Saturday morning test, we have a half day at work. It's the day of our company anniversary. No one actually works, there are just fun activities. Until about 1 p.m. I asked if she was coming (because seriously, how often does your company hand you money and say "do something fun with it and we'll judge at the end who had the most fun"?). She acted shocked that I would even think of asking - as if I had suggested that she stay out until 3 a.m. the night before.

Okay - how hard is this test? I mean, I took one practice test about a month before I was scheduled for the GRE. I almost forgot about the thing. And I still did fine. I bet roommate #1 took an SAT prep course too. (For the record, I think those are about the biggest waste of money out there - and I used to teach one!)

On the terrorist attack topic -- I was reading some posts here (on other blogs) and articles, etc. and I have to say I agree somewhat with the editorial in the San Jose Mercury today - so many people are taking this attack and using it to forward their pre-existing agendas and that's annoying. I just read one about how what we should learn from this is to be more environmentally conscious. How that came from this attack is still beyond me - and I did read the entire post. There are many issues here and so far I've had several conversations with my roomates and others on US foreign policy (a topic about which I am woefully uneducated), violence, spirituality (a word I generally hate for its blandness), and other topics that I generally avoid in polite conversation. Yet never once have I thought of pollution, except in terms of the dust in NY, or gender relations. (Someone apparently gloated about how it was the *men* who stopped the terrorists and caused the plane to crash in PA - how do they know? And even if they do, I don't necessarily think that proves anything about the vast majority of gender related issues. I don't think men and women are exactly the same. I feel that sameness and equality are too often confused. Harrison Bergeron is a story that I highly recommend. But I still think that if I do the same job as a male co-worker, I should be paid the same amount. Thankfully I work at a company where I am pretty sure this is the case.)

Wow, am I off topic here. Yes, off topic. I don't think the events of Sept. 11 have anything to do with gender equality or environmentalism. I resent people who use the tragedy to forward their own agenda. That is almost as bad as those who are using it to price gouge or solicit donations for non-existent charities.

I'm back - that took longer than originally planned for obvious reasons. About which I will not write at the moment because I don't think I have any coherent thoughts. And what I have heard from others is still jumbled.

I am having the hardest time getting work done. I leave for vacation this Saturday and I keep wanting to do stuff to get ready for that. Like rent a car (gotta remember to get that done today) and make reservations at the youth hostel for the one night when I won't be staying with friends. This is going to be a vacation on a shoestring. My tickets were $202 - for a flight from San Jose, CA to Baltimore, MD. The car rental will be more than that but I'm staying with friends in Baltimore, Raleigh, and Charleston. One night I'll stay in a youth hostel in VA. Excluding food I think I can keep the whole thing under $600 - not bad for a ten day trip. Certainly better than my $3000 (or so) for 11 days trip last summer. Then again, that was Europe and real hotels and Oberammergau, so it was worth it.

I saw someone else's web page on which she listed, or attempted to list, every book she ever read. I don't know that I could completely list every book I read last week (I tend to forget titles and authors and stuff like that). During the summers in high school I read at least 6 - 10 books a week. That was a combination of having no life, a side effect of living 45 minutes from where you go to school, and being a relatively quick reader. At one point I was down to reading my parents' parenting books. I even gave in once or twice and read one of my dad's westerns. Never gave in and went for the younger brother's sci fi/fantasy though. I seriously tried to read one once, but couldn't get past the first few chapters. (Lord Foul's Bane - I gave up with the rape scene) I tried again when my bookclub was reading Snowcrash. I got farther on that one and might even finish it some day. It was okay - nothing really repelled me - but I didn't get into it that much either. Reading her list brought to mind lots of other stuff I've read too. Stuff from Spanish lit class in high school, and required reading for some of my college classes, and stuff I read as a child. My list would have a lot more 'light' reading than hers did though. Like all of Helen McInnes, most of Dick Francis, Tom Clancy, Robert Ludlum, and, I hesitate to admit this where anyone could read it, but lots of Nora Roberts and Sandra Brown too.

We just found a pretty big wolf spider in our pod (like a cubicle, but for multiple people and with less demeaning types of walls, but still no door or ceiling). We caught it under a bowl and slid a paper under that, then some cardboard so we could safely transport it outside. Ick! I'm okay with small to moderate sized spiders, but once you hit 1 in. in size, that's it.

This morning bereakfast was the rest of the cantloupe from last night. Except for the part that my roommate apparently ate.

I don't mind sharing food, in fact I prefer it to having jealously guarded stashes of stuff, but she always ends up taking "the good stuff." Like we had a gallon of chocolate brownie ice cream that one of my friends brought over. My friend and I each had a small bowl around 10 or 11 p.m. on a Friday. On Sunday early afternoon I went to get another small bowl. There were only about 2 small servings left! So somehow she ate at least half a gallon of ice cream, by herself, in a day and a half. (I checked with my other roommate and she hadn't had any.) Or I buy natural peanut butter. While I was still unpacking the groceries, roommate 1 came into the kitchen and was like "oh, this is great, I prefer this peanut butter" etc. and immediately started making something for herself with it. I hadn't even opened it! I think I used the pb (normal sized jar) twice. Then it was gone. Wouldn't be a problem if she bought similar stuff to contribute. But it never seems like she does. And the groceries she does buy she keeps in some bags separate from the normal canned goods, etc. that we store in our cabinets. So we feel like we can't take the stuff she's bought. Not that we would want to because she never buys stuff for herself that falls into the 'good stuff' category. But if we buy it, she'll eat it faster than anyone I've ever seen. Roommate 2 and I have discussed it and agree that we have stopped, or cut down on buying things that roommate 1 might like because we know that we'll get maybe one taste of it ourselves before it disappears.

Okay, I realize that this sounds ludicrous. And I do have a weird relationship with food. But when I buy a jar of peanut butter I expect it to last about a month or two. Not under 2 weeks.