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December 30, 2004

the sunscreen

The following is lyrics to one of the best songs/speeches ive ever heard. It has a lot of good advice. It seems, lately, ive listened to this song at least once a day to remind me that everything isnt as bad as it seems.

Everybody's Free to Wear Sunscreen, Baz Luhrmann

**Wear sunscreen.
**If I could offer you only one tip for the future, sunscreen would be it. The long-term benefits of sunscreen have been proved by scientists, whereas the rest of my advice has no basis more reliable than my own meandering experience. I will dispense this advice now.
**Enjoy the power and beauty of your youth. Oh, never mind. You will not understand the power and beauty of your youth until they've faded. But trust me, in 20 years, you'll look back at photos of yourself and recall in a way you can't grasp now how much possibility lay before you and how fabulous you really looked. You are not as fat as you imagine.
**Don't worry about the future. Or worry, but know that worrying is as effective as trying to solve an algebra equation by chewing bubble gum. The real troubles in your life are apt to be things that never crossed your worried mind, the kind that blindside you at 4 p.m. on some idle Tuesday.
**Do one thing every day that scares you.
**Sing.
**Don't be reckless with other people's hearts. Don't put up with people who are reckless with yours.
**Floss.
**Don't waste your time on jealousy. Sometimes you're ahead, sometimes you're behind. The race is long and, in the end, it's only with yourself.
**Remember compliments you receive. Forget the insults. If you succeed in doing this, tell me how.
**Keep your old love letters. Throw away your old bank statements.
**Stretch.
**Don't feel guilty if you don't know what you want to do with your life. The most interesting people I know didn't know at 22 what they wanted to do with their lives. Some of the most interesting 40-year-olds I know still don't.
**Get plenty of calcium. Be kind to your knees. You'll miss them when they're gone.
**Maybe you'll marry, maybe you won't. Maybe you'll have children, maybe you won't. Maybe you'll divorce at 40, maybe you'll dance the funky chicken on your 75th wedding anniversary. Whatever you do, don't congratulate yourself too much, or berate yourself either. Your choices are half chance. So are everybody else's.
**Enjoy your body. Use it every way you can. Don't be afraid of it or of what other people think of it. It's the greatest instrument you'll ever own.
**Dance, even if you have nowhere to do it but your living room.
**Read the directions, even if you don't follow them.
**Do not read beauty magazines. They will only make you feel ugly.
**Get to know your parents. You never know when they'll be gone for good. Be nice to your siblings. They're your best link to your past and the people most likely to stick with you in the future.
**Understand that friends come and go, but with a precious few you should hold on. Work hard to bridge the gaps in geography and lifestyle, because the older you get, the more you need the people who knew you when you were young.
**Live in New York City once, but leave before it makes you hard. Live in Northern California once, but leave before it makes you soft. Travel.
**Accept certain inalienable truths: Prices will rise. Politicians will philander. You, too, will get old. And when you do, you'll fantasize that when you were young, prices were reasonable, politicians were noble and children respected their elders.
**Respect your elders.
**Don't expect anyone else to support you. Maybe you have a trust fund. Maybe you'll have a wealthy spouse. But you never know when either one might run out.
**Don't mess too much with your hair or by the time you're 40 it will look 85.
**Be careful whose advice you buy, but be patient with those who supply it. Advice is a form of nostalgia. Dispensing it is a way of fishing the past from the disposal, wiping it off, painting over the ugly parts and recycling it for more than it's worth.
**But trust me on the sunscreen.

December 16, 2004

surprise surprise

**as many of you know from reading my last entry, i have a surprise... but a few things first:

1- id like to throw a party for kelly because he beat that stupid bitch (jen) out and won the apprentice season 2
2- im so glad im done with my fucking final exams
3- im getting up at 345am so i can finish packing and get ready to
4- go on vacation...
5- and be in albuquerque by 8am and
6- be at the airport by 9am because im flying

**TO DENVER!!!
**my flight leaves albuquerque at 1030am friday morning, landing in denver at 1144. im very excited but i am also very scared. i havent flown in over 16 years. ive never been to the denver airport. *wimp!!* anyway, i hope to see everyone over the weekend but i cant guarantee how much time ill be spending online. *hugs* hope i make it and dont get lost and cry in DIA.

December 14, 2004

incredibly busy

**This week is going to be rather interesting... and incredibly busy.
**Tomorrow (Tuesday) I'm taking my Civic to get serviced. I also get to work on the second half of my Accounting Final (I got a 98% on the first half!!). Then I get to pack, because my mom and I are going to Lubbock for my aunt's divorce. I still have to study for my Management Final (at 5pm on Wednesday night). Lubbock is three hours from here, and I bet I get to drive. Mom hates driving.
**On Wednesday at 8am we go to the court, hopefully it will be done by noon. On the way home, I get to study some more for my Management Final and then go take it. After that, there's studying for Marketing. I hate Marketing.
**Thursday morning at 11am, I get to take my Marketing Final. After leaving there I have to study for my Business Law Final so I can get at least a 90% on it. If I don't, because of the bullshit plagiarism, I won't get a "B" in the course. Thankfully, after BusLaw, I'm finished and get to go watch the three hour finale of The Apprentice!! And then, I get to go home and go straight to bed.
In addition to all that (Tue-Thur), I still have to find time to hang ornaments on my Christmas Tree, wrap presents, and pack for Friday...
On Friday, I get up at 4am and leave Roswell by 5am because I have to be in Albuquerque by 8am because I'm going to my aunt's house for something I'll mention in a later post. Surprises, Surprises! Its vacation time!

December 12, 2004

nailed to the cross (oh shit, i bet someone said that before, i probably should cite it)

**I called my instructor this morning. as predicted, I was accused of plagiarism. there's nothing I can do about it. I received a zero for the paper but will not be expelled from the university. I can't help but be extremely pissed off and sick at my stomach. it was a goddamned accident. I didn't intentionally misrepresent information. Following is the quote I am accused of plagiarizing:
**The EULA for Napster includes: 1) The Software contains and/or embodies copyrighted material, trade secrets, patented (and/or patent pending) inventions and/or other proprietary material and intellectual property of Napster and/or its licensors. All title and ownership rights in the Software remain with Napster and its licensors, as applicable; and 2) In addition to those prohibitions contained elsewhere herein, you agree you will not: rent, lease, loan, sell, copy, or distribute the Software in whole or in part.
**while the text implies that it is a quote, it does not 1) have quotation marks around it, or 2) have a citation listed in the references section. I'm sorry but out of a 13 page paper, a MINUTE mistake like this is easy for MOST people to overlook. BTW, if you want to know where I got that quote from, you can look in the EULA for Napster.

**And yet another email, after I called him:
(Me),
I am sure that you're mistake was not intentional and that you will not let it happen again. I really felt bad because you are a very good student. However, I have taken a zero tolerance policy regarding plagiarism, and several other students this semester have been similarly penalized. You can be confident that as far as I am concerned the incident is behind us.
(Instructor)

**how about that to start your day? getting fucked over by an instructor first thing in the morning. on a weekend. while i SHOULD be studying for finals. *sigh*

Plagiarism? I dont think so.

**I turned in my paper on the RIAA to my business law class several weeks ago. the paper was returned to me (and to everyone else in my class) so we could have a chance to redo them... apparently no one did very well the first time. our instructor started posting grades for the papers last week. as of friday, I still didnt have a grade. I began to get worried. I emailed the instructor. saturday morning, i got an email back stating the following:

(me),
You need to call me at my office on Monday. I will be not be available until after 10:00 a.m. on Monday morning.
Thank you,
(instructor)

**so naturally, I wrote him back:
(instructor),
Is there a problem with my paper? If so, I would like to take care of it as soon as possible.
Thank you,
(me)

**then I got another email:
I have a 9:00 a.m. meeting on campus tomorrow (Sunday). I will probably
arrive in my office between 8:30 and 8:45. You can call me then.
(instructor)

**I'm worried as hell. the only thing I can think of is that he thinks I plagiarized my paper. which (if youve been in #naughtycloset or #blogshares) you would know for sure that I didnt. I'd never think of plagiarizing. not in a million years, particularly on a paper on copyright infringement (RIAA). I come from a family of educators and have been one myself. the last thing I'd do is plagiarize a paper.
**I started looking at turnitin.com (where we submitted our term papers) and noticed that several of my resorces they listed as OTHER STUDENTS' PAPERS! thats complete and total bullshitza! i have a stack of papers on my desk that i printed the original source of my information (and then reprinted tonight) that I used to write this paper. i also have written logs saved in my mIRC folder of talking to people WHILE I was writing the stupid thing. I did, however, find (just now) that one source I used -and gave credit to- I forgot to put a citation in the references section. but that was an accident. they still got credit! I'm sure I'm not the only one that's ever forgotten to put the source in the reference even though I credited them in the text of the paper...
**I hope this gets taken care of tomorrow (for the good). im worried because if I'm accused of plagiarizing, I can fail this course and be expelled from the university. I'm supposed to be graduating in may... this wont do. update to come tomorrow, asap...

December 11, 2004

happy holidays to me.

**as many of you know, final exams for most college (and other) students is next week. this year, i decided to reward myself. not only am i rewarding myself, its also an early christmas present... to me. *yippie!* im going on a trip. granted, its got some motive behind it... but its still a vacation nonetheless. its about time i took one. with the exception of last spring break when i went to see my friend christin for three days, i cannot remember the last time i had a vacation. *yay for me!* more later.

December 08, 2004

Almost over

**I guess its about time I wrote an entry for December. Looks kinda sad when ya go to look at the page and its nothing but a blank spot with a bunch of links on the side... So, the year will be coming to an end here in a couple of weeks, whoopie. For some of us, final exams are next week and semesters are coming to an end. To this, I give thanks. I hate marketing with a passion. I could probably enjoy it a whole lot more if I had a decent instructor. 8 days... thats all 8 more days. (Which boils down to one more class and a final) *three cheers!!!* Perhaps later I'll think of something more interesting to write about. I'm in a rather bum mood this morning.