WHY DOES APPLYING TO COLLEGE HAVE TO BE SO HARD

You can, of course, see here the august body that is the Pittsburgh City Council, including the greatest councilman of them all, my councilman, William J. Peduto!

One time he came over to my house and we ate enchiladas. And that's pretty much my defining memory of Councilman William J. Peduto.

I hope all y'all had a good day!

Here is a video promoting Florida orange juice that my high school did in the late '80s:



I feel honored to attend the same school as these cool kids!

also: some of the teachers in this video are still at CAPA. And they look exactly the same.

Yeah, so I made the mistake of searching "teen jeopardy" on Twitter.

There were a ton of positive comments and a ton of LOL NERDS comments about all of us, but there was a lot of personal vitriol thrown at me.

I can't figure out if it's because I'm fat or if it's because I'm a girl who beat two boys (all of the obnoxious comments were from guys). That always tends to piss people off.

And someone compared me to Gabby Sidibe! I think it was meant to be insulting, but ANYONE WHO'S ANYONE knows that Gabby Sidibe is the shit:



Oh, and I am the crush of three different Twitter folks. So there's that.

http://www.post-gazette.com/pg/09318/1013420-67.stm

...you know that's how I do.

SUPER GIANT EDIT WHOOP WHOOP: On Youtube, some guy wrote: "that fat chick won"

YEAH, THAT'S RIGHT MUTHAFUCKA

...MADE IT TO THE JEOPARDY FINALS!!!!!!

WATCH ME TOMORROW AND FRIDAY!!!!!!

On again tonight, folks! Check yer local listings!

This is just to remind me that I'm gonna be on Jeopardy tomorrow night! Check your local listings for the time!

http://www.wpxi.com/video/21481106/index.html

Here is a video of my folks and I being cool!

Next week, kids!

the pizza guy is flirting with my roommates right this minute he is offering them CANADIAN MONEY

GOD BLESS THIS GREAT NATION

Here are the two pieces of music contributed to the Voyager Golden Record by the United States in 1977:





I don't know how aliens would feel about "Dark Was The Night, Cold Was The Ground." In my opinion it's one of the most beautiful pieces of American music ever written, but it's hard to listen to, it's so haunting. Blind Willie Johnson was the stuff. On the other hand, I think that "Johnny B. Goode" pretty much would cross any and all intergalactic boundaries as a rollicking good time.

What do you think we would put on the Golden Record today?

I'm rereading Flannery O'Connor's short story "Good Country People," and I keep imagining Manley Pointer as Kenneth Parcell from 30 Rock.

It's very disturbing.

http://tinyurl.com/y8lnqju

So, one random out-of-towner d-bag decides that it's REALLY COOL to smash things up.

Which means that all the people around him, including my friends, get tear-gassed and arrested. And local businesses have to pay to repair his destructive behavior.

Groan.

In conclusion:

EAT A BAG OF DICKS, JAPENGA.

EDIT: Also, he smashed in the windows of Lulu's Noodles in Oakland. THAT'S NOT EVEN A CHAIN, IT'S FAMILY-OWNED AND CHEAP AND TASTY. WTF.

Today was pretty good. Got to skip Spanish and gym to go see Crime and Punishment at PICT, and it was pretty sweet! Then we had a picnic in the park, which was also quite nice--cute boys playing Frisbee. And THEN I had to go back to school and write a proposal for my short story cycle, which blew giant chunks. But.

I may or may not be seeing "9" soon. You can tell which of the sack people in "9" is voiced by Elijah Wood because it actually looks like Elijah Wood.

We were reminiscing about Elijah Wood's appearance on "Yo Gabba Gabba" the other day. Turan says that "Yo Gabba Gabba" is where hipsters go to die, but I am not sure of that. Biz Markie is on it, for heaven's sake!

This entry doesn't make very much sense to me. I think I'll go to bed!

A girl in my Stats class was wearing cherry-red Doc Martens yesterday and I realized that I have been missing a serious part of my necessary fashion.

I MUST HAVE THOSE BOOTS. NOW.

Also, my Chucks are pretty much beyond the point of no return. I need new ones...badly.

I've been feeling kind of blah in the fashion department lately, maybe because of school or the fact that my Chucks have fallen apart. I've pretty much been sticking to the uniform of jeans/interesting t-shirt. I tend to be a lot more fashionable in winter, actually, because layering is my jam.

But yes. Those boots. MY GOD.

...and even though I'm a senior, I feel like a freshman again. They renovated the school over the summer, and Literary Arts got moved from the eighth floor (where the middle schoolers are now) to the second floor. While it is a relief not having to walk up all those stairs, let me share with you some things that the second floor doesn't have:

--Air conditioning
--Clean floors
--Internet
--Printers
--Rooms with windows
--Rooms where more than fifteen people can congregate
--A working bathroom
--Painted walls

Yeah, it pretty much sucks. I'd take walking up the steps to have our old space back.

Also, it turns out I can't take AP Gov because it would conflict with my required English Lit. class. Which is also an AP course, but...you know, five credits are better than four. So I'm taking History of American Film instead.

Tomorrow I find out if I'm in the Michelle Obama Show. I hope so, because I want to meet Herr Sauer, that adorable German hermit, more than anything. I want to ask him whether he ever, at any time, felt the urge to punch George Bush (especially after the neck massage incident).


livin' dangerously

On Jezebel today, they profiled a piece in the London Times where the author shared some letters that her parents wrote at the beginning of WWII. That reminded me that I had some letters belonging to my great-grandparents that are kind of interesting.

From 1928-1931, my great-grandfather Clyde was working in Pittsburgh as a journeyman electrician while my great-grandmother Beryl was at teacher's college in Washington County, and then at home in Fayette County (on the WV border) caring for her alcoholic father. They kept up a lengthy correspondence during this time. They married in 1935 and had four children, the eldest of which was my maternal grandmother. So there you go.

Clyde Anderson is my great-grandfather. He was maybe twenty-two in 1928. My great-grandmother, Beryl Uphold, was twenty in 1928. Clyde had a half-sister named Helen Brobeck. His mother, Quinn, is famous for being very domineering (she wouldn't let the priest administer last rites to my dying great-great-grandfather, since "Popery" was "sinful"). Her boyfriend (and later husband's) name was Bill Dawson (who just died two months ago). Beryl had two younger sisters, Dorothy and Helen, and a younger brother named Ray. Beryl was the "smart one," Helen the "pretty one," and Dorothy the "wild one." Helen's boyfriend was Leo Caldwell, who was Clyde's BFF. They got married around the same time my great-grandparents did.

The letters aren't in chronological order (my great-grandmother was kind of disorganized) but I'll just share some ones that are interesting. I think this first one is interesting because it's dated on the day before Black Tuesday.

( Clyde to Beryl, October 28th, 1929 )

( Beryl to Clyde, November 28th, 1929 )

( Clyde to Beryl, December 29th, 1929 )

( Beryl to Clyde, July 20th, 1930, Bruceton Mills, West Virginia )

Well, I think they're kind of neat, anyway.

...seen District 9? I thought it was very powerful and profoundly disturbing, enough that it has kept me thinking for several days. I'd like to have a discussion about it with someone who's seen it (I went with Annah so no one in my house actually has). Let me know!

...FOR CALIFORNIA TOMORROW

...FOR JEOPARDY.

I CAN DIE HAPPY.