Survey

1.
What’s your name?
Pam

2.
What is your favorite thing to wear?
Jeans and a t-shirt, and maybe a sweatshirt too.

3.
Last thing you ate?
A Dove chocolate

4.
One place you will NEVER eat at?
Micheal Jackson’s house

5.
I say Shotgun, you say:
“Okay”, I am probably in the driver’s seat anyway.

6.
Last person you hugged?
Kate

7.
Does anyone you know wanna date you?
No comment

8.
Would you date anyone you met online?
Probably not

9.
Name something you like physically about yourself:
I like my hair color

10.
The last place you went out to dinner to?
Hoss’s

11.
Who is your best friend?
Kate, Emily and Mabel all tie for best

12.
What time of the day is it?
9:21 AM EST

13.
Who/What made you angry today?
My day just started. I made myself a little angry for filling this out instead of studying for my math test.

14.
Baseball or Football?
Rugby

15.
Ever gone skinny dipping?
Not yet

16.
Favorite type of Food?
Comfort

17.
Favorite holiday:
Depends.
I really enjoyed Thanksgiving this year

18.
Do you download music:
I don’t buy cds anymore (except for Hank Green’s SO Jokes).
I get them from iTunes

19.
Do you care if your socks are dirty?
I can barely tell if my socks are dirty

20.
Opinion of Chinese symbol tattoos?
If you are not Chinese you shouldn’t permanently brand yourself with a culture you don’t belong to.

21.
Would you date the person who posted this?
I got this from John Green’s website. Yes, yes I would date John Green, but he is married and lives in Indiana, so I don’t think the relationship would start off on the right foot.

22.
Has anyone ever sang or played for you personally?
Don’t think so.

23.
Do you love anyone?
I love my friends.

24.
Are colored contact lenses sexy?
No

25.
Have you ever bungee jumped?
Ick, no.

26.
Have you ever gone white-water rafting?
Almost.

27.
Has anyone ten years older than you ever hit on you
Yes.

28.
How many pets do you have?
Zero.

29.
Have you met a real redneck?
Sure.

30.
How is the weather right now?
Yes.
(I am starting to doubt why people start these things, they aren’t interesting to read, are they?)

31.
What are you listening to right now?
The pads of my fingers hitting my key board.

32.
What is your current favorite song?
Oh, um, erm… too difficult a question!

33.
What was the last movie you watched?
Star Wars: Return of the Jedi

34.
Do you wear contacts?
No.

35.
Where was the last place you went besides your house?
The Schreffler’s house

36.
What are you afraid of?
going mental

37.
How many piercings have you had?
Ears

38.
What piercings do you want?
None.

39.
What’s one thing you’ve learned this year?
I am a Nerdfighter

40.
What do you usually order from Starbucks?
Hot chocolate

41.
What Magazines are you reading?
I’m not reading any magazines right now. I am filling out a survey.

42.
Have you ever fired a gun:
No, hope never to.

43.
Are you missing someone?
Yes.

44.
Favorite TV show?
Anything on CBS Monday nights 8-10, and on NBC 8-10 on Thursdays

45.
Do you have an obession with WoW?
No.

46.
Has anyone ever said you looked like a celeb?
At the NYC Paper Towns book release party the girl I sat next to told me I look like The Katherine

47.
What celeb do you look like?
Oh, I was supposed to leave my last answer here ^

48.
Who would you like to see right now?
My friends

49.
Favorite movie of all time?
The Princess Bride

50.
Do you find yourself loved?
Yeah, sadly too much.

51.
Have you ever been caught doing something you weren’t suppose to?
Yes.

52.
Favorite smell?
Good food

53.
Butter, plain, or salted popcorn?
Butter

54.
What’s something that really bugs you?
I have to pee, that’s bugging me.

55.
Do you like Michael Jackson?
I like the “Billy Jean” Jackson.

56.
Taco Bell or Burger King?
I haven’t been to Burger King in forever, so Taco Bell

57.
What’s your favorite perfume?
I don’t wear perfume

58.
Favorite baseball team?
Phillies!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

59.
Ever call a 1-900 phone number?
Nope.

60. What’s the longest time you’ve gone without sleep?..
Almost three days when I discovered Brotherhood 2.0, I went crazy and had to quit my second job, but I didn’t like that job and I realized how awesome everything I like is.

61.
Last time you went bowling?
I think it was Mabel’s birthday party. I didn’t participate because the time I bowled previous to that I bowled a 50.

62.
Where is the weirdest place you have slept?
In a cardboard box on my church’s parking lot

63.
Who was your last phone call?
My last phone call wasn’t a person, it was a phone call. My last phone call was with Kate.

64.
Last time you were at work?
Yesterday

65.
What’s the closest orange object to you?
A shopping bag from Payless

Pardon My Post

Dear Neil,

I just wrote a post, and then it disappeared. Maybe that is for the better; it was a WEIRD post. Maybe a lot of my posts are WERID, but this one… well… okay it was not that weird, but… this one is advancing towards being too weird.

Anyway, when I was writing my lost post there was no tagging option, so maybe the page I was writing with was bugged, because the post has disappeared.

So, pardon me today, Neil
Love, Pam

The Anals of Learning

Dear Neil,

I am currently shopping for text books on HACC’s bookstore’s website. Why has no one ever told me about this web site before? I am thinking that there is some kind of catch to it. Like, oh you can pick out your texts books on line, but you have to come to the campus book store and find the books on the shelves like everyone else. Last semester I went to the book store wrote down the list of my books with all the information vital to finding them on line; then Dad helped me find some cheaper, and I bought some at the book store. I do not think Dad wants to do that this year. Which begs the question: should I ask Mom or Dad for a blank check to pay for the books, or should I (because I think I could) pay for my books myself.

I estimate that if I buy my books used from HACC the total will be a bit over two hundred dollars, which I regret to admit I can pay. But just because I can pay for my text books, Neil, does not mean I can practically afford them. Hmm, okay, I have decided that I am going to buy my books from the book store physically. Just because I feel like it. I also think I am going to pay for them with my checking account. Then maybe Mom and Dad will reimburse me half, or something.

I feel like I should by my text books as soon as possible so I can get cheaper, used books. And, also so my summer ends sooner. I have nothing to do before work except shower. If I get to the campus at two thrity, depending on how long it takes me to shower… I will have forty five minutes to buy, buy, buy because I need to leave campus at three fifteen in order to get to work on time. Shoot I should have done my lanudry yesterday.

Oh, well… So far I have looked up two of my classes on the on line book store catalog and the used books are costing me one hundred and twenty four dollars and fifty cents. I hope the total for my four classes will not sky rocket passed two hundred and fifty dollars. I just talked to my friend and the total for her five text books will be more than three hundred dollars.

Yikes my math book just more than doubled my text book total.

Oh, grr! You stupid Health text book! Why do you have to be so expensive!?!

I will update you late, Neil

Don’t Forget to be Awesome
Love, Pam

Jello

Hey Neil,

I start class in eighteen days. I almost forget what it is like to be in class. I feel rather directionless without a set schedule for my mornings. Summer life is a life without perspective. Summer life is a life of eating for the heck of doing something with my hands. Ugh, that is so terrible. I am bored again. This boredom makes me feel like I am suspended in a swimming pool of jello. I can move forward to the fall semester soon enough, the calendar is in charge of how quickly I progress towards the rest of my life.

I should be enjoying my summer. But I do not want a summer of suspended jello swimming. Or maybe my boredom is making me lose perspective, or maybe I am really really bored. Ugh, this is painful. I do not know what to do with my day; my plans depend on whether other people already have checked out the DVD I want for the week. I have not opened a book in days; I have not read more than a chapter of a book in two weeks! Why am I so lethargic? And it is not that I do not want to make an effort to read a book; I do not think I can read if I want to.

The jello is stopping my brain from getting up and doing… doing anything. Maybe class on the eighteenth will melt the jello, or eat up the jello. I really doubt I will be able to maintain my kick ass academics with jello in my brain. Maybe all the television shows on DVD put the jello in my brain. But you know the upside of borrowing things from the library every day? Exercise. DVDs from the library are a great reason for me to take a walk everyday. If I walk fast enough I can get there in five minutes. I know that ten minutes of elevated heartbeat a day is not enough, but it is better than nothing. Plus I get aerobics at work. That’s another thing.

I think my work schedule is helping the jello. Dinner time is an inconvenient time to work for social purposes; all my friends work during the day. So I am alone all day and jello is making me fat and my brain lazy. And my boredom is making me complain. Maybe I should take more walks.

Don’t Forget to be Awesome,
Love Pam

If I had a Million Dollars

Neil,

We should do Hershey Park earlier in the summer next year so I can reap the benefits of all the vitamin D I get from waiting in lines for fifteen minutes at a time to ride waves and loop de loop. I will not lay out in the sun, but an amusement park is the perfect excuse to wear a tank top. Neil, I have got to tell you that Hershey Park is the only way I can have a guilt free summer tan, and I want to have it not just for August. And also, it is obvious that the sun screen I used is a tad expired. But that is okay because it was, like, 50 spf and I would not have this nice tan. So, next year’s Hershey Park visit will be a day of spf 20. And a lazy river; I can not wait. I hope this lazy river will be all that I am hoping for. Neil, tell Hershey Park not to screw it up. Although I don’t know how exactly you screw up a canal of moving pool water and some fun waterfalls.

I wonder how much the Wave Rider cost. If I am going to be rich I need a goal to reach. If a roller coaster cost fourteen million dollars do you think a little bitty hill with gushing water could cost more than a million dollars? I wonder if I could find how much it cost Hershey… Okay, found out that the Wave Rider was manufactured by Aquatic Development Group; Cohoes, NY. Now, I found out that the manufacturers call the attraction a Flow Rider. They make a double, like that of Hershey Park and a single which could possibly not cost a bizillion dollars. Oh my goodness they can conjoin the Flow Rider with a lazy river. And it comes with ten boogey… bugey boards. But I can not find the price.

Well, Neil, if I ever have a million dollars to spare I will look into how willing Aquatic Development Group is to selling a Flow Rider to a private residence. Even if this beautiful, awesome attraction of water and thrills cost more than a million dollars for me to get into my back yard, chances are a million dollars is a good start. So, that is what I would do for a million dollars. Chances are if I can spare a million dollars, chances are I will own a big enough back yard.

What would you do with a million dollars?
Love, Pam

Television and Med-school

Dearest Neil,

If I could get paid for watching television shows on DVD all day I would be rich. Right now I am in the middle of the first season of 30 Rock, and i already have seen half of these episodes. More than half of these episodes really. I must get the rest of this series. But I have bigger fish to fry.

Neil my “T” button on my key board is not working nicely! I have to press harder to get it to work or hit the back space when I realize I did not hit it hard enough. Dang “T” is a popular letter. This is too difficult. As a fellow laptop owner, Neil, what advice do you have for sticky “T” buttons?

I am looking forward to Hershey Park tomorrow. I am sure they do not have sticky “T” keys. And Mom found me some son screen. Wow I just typed “son” instead of “sun”. Maybe I am just too tired for this… this late night blogging. Ha, late night. Sticky “T” buttons, typos, and head aches; Late night blogging is not worth it.

Night time blogging is so not cool, I have been at this post so long I am now watching Grey’s Anatomy season two on DVD. Well, now it is apparent, Neil, that I have nothing to write about tonight. Maybe night time blogging is really not for me. Maybe I need a hat with topics written on pieces of paper. A topic hat.

Ick, Dr. McDreamy’s estranged wife is so ugly and fake looking.

I wonder how many typos I have written so far.

Now they are attempting the same surgery House did. But I think this show came first, not sure. Grey’s is calling it a Stand Still operation where the surgeons stop the patient’s heart in order to operate on the brain. House did it to remove a tumor, and Grey’s guy has an aneurysm. I do not know much about aneurysm’s but I know they can be removed.

I am learning so much watching these hospital shows. But I think they are turning me into a hypochondriac. Last week I was convinced I was getting pneumonia. I feel better now. They also make me want to become a diagnostician; I love solving problems. But there is no way I could get through pre-med classes. Too bad all the hard careers are the useful ones.

See you tomorrow Neil, don’t forget to be awesome,
Love, Pam

Stolen Survey

Dear Neil,

I think I am getting sick. Or I am having a terrible allergic reaction to something. But anyway, John Green posted this survey on his blog, so I think it would be fun… maybe.

37 Things

Taken from John Green who took this from E. Lockhart:
37 Odd Things About Me
1. Do you like blue cheese?

I hate it. Well, it is nice when you are eating buffalo wings… but really, it does not taste good. At all.

2. Have you ever smoked?

No, thank God.

3. Do you own a gun?

No. I don’t think I could buy a gun if I wanted to.

4. What flavor Kool Aid was your favorite?

I have not had Kool-Aid in the longest time. One year at my friends birthday party we had a blue Kool-aid that looked like toilet water after you put that blue stuff in it. And it tasted good, so Toilet Water Kool-Aid is my favorite.

5. Do you get nervous before doctor appointments?

I guess, normally yeah.

6. What do you think of hot dogs?

I think the taste like a culinary masterpiece when they are grilled. But when they are boiled I want to throw them up.

7. Favorite Christmas movie?

A Charlie Brown Christmas…it’s the best

8. What do you prefer to drink in the morning?

Whatever I am thirsty for.

9. Can you do push ups?

Eh, not really. No.

10. What’s your favorite piece of jewelry?

I don’t like wearing jewelry, no matter what it is I end up playing with it until I get distracted from the lecture I am sitting in, or it breaks. But other people sometimes wear pretty jewelry that I like to look at.

11. Favorite hobby?

Right now, watching House M.D.; Grey’s Anatomy and; 24 on DVD from start to finish. It’s a long process if you rely on the library for the DVDs.

12. Do you have A.D.D.?

I Thought I did in 10th grade, turned out that my Spanish class was just really boring.

13. Do you wear glasses/contacts?

I did.

14. Middle name?

Ann. Like everyone else in America.

15. Name 3 thoughts at this exact moment?

1) What if everyone in America did have Ann as their middle name?

2) Do I really need to make a list for this answer?

3) I wonder what Neil will think of this.

16. Name 3 drinks you regularly drink?

Water, the lemonade from work, juice cocktails our parents always buy.

17. Current worry?

What if I gain too much weight drinking juice cocktails and lemonade?

18. Current hate right now?

The feeling in the back of my throat.

19. Favorite place to be?

Haven’t found it yet.

20. How did you bring in the new year?

Party at my friends house. Then we all tried to hunker down for the rest of the morning, but Mabel wouldn’t give me her blanket (she has a BED in the house, and she refused to go sleep in it), so I left.

21. Where would you like to go?

Good question. For vacation? Anywhere I haven’t been… except for places I really don’t want to go. That should be the question. Where would you NOT like to go?

22. Name three people who will complete this?

Complete this as in make it whole? Or complete this as in see it, and copy it? Uh… um… your mom… your face… and…. your mom’s face…

23. Do you own slippers?

Too many.

24. What shirt are you wearing?

The zebra/giraffe t-shirt.

25. Do you like sleeping on satin sheets?

I might.

26. Can you whistle?

Only at random times when I don’t expect it.

27. Favorite color?

Brown. Not poop brown. Chocolate brown.

28. Would you be a pirate?

If I got to go home after my fantasy is complete, yes.

29. What songs do you sing in the shower?

Whatever is in my head. Show tunes sound especially nice with those acoustics.

30. Favorite Girl’s Name?

Can’t say, you’ll steal it.

31. Favorite boy’s name?

Don’t know yet.

32. What’s in your pocket right now?

Lint.

33. Last thing that made you laugh?

Considering I just woke up, and right before bed last night I was watching 24… I can’t remember.

34. What vehicle do you drive?

Chevy Cavalier, purple, two door, sun/moon roof, manual; oh, I know you’re drooling over it now.

35. Worst injury you’ve ever had?

I guess when I had it get a couple of stitches in first grade. Don’t jump on beds kids!

36. Do you love where you live?

PA weather is really nice in comparison.

37. How many TVs do you have in your house?

I really don’t know. Blame Dad.

Don’t Forget to be Awesome,
Love Pam

Where’s the Estrogen?

Dear Neil,

I’m glad I got to hang out with Mandy yesterday. And I am glad we got to see The Dark Knight together. How did you like it? It’s great, is it not? But it’s not perfect.

I think, overall, the biggest problem I have with Christian Bale’s Batman is the voice he uses. I understand that he does

t want to sound like Bruce Wayne when he meets with the police or when he interrogates the criminals, but I think he does’nt sound like a real man. Batman is supposed be a civilian vigilante, but he sounds like a mad baseball player on the juice. And it’s not just Bale’s Batman other men in the movie, like Aaron Eckhart’s Harvey Dent and Two-Face opt for the deep, gravely and unnatural voice. And I know it’s a comic book movie, you do not see me complaining about the improbability of The Jokers ability to pull off his major crimes, or how Batman, or Bruce Wayne (however you want to look at it) managed to pull that trick with the cell phones off. I am all for suspending my belief to allow the plot to sail pass the screen without a problem in an unbelievable world, but Christopher Nolan created a Gotham City that could easily take place in America without anyone being suspicious of the city belonging in a comic book. For instance Heath Ledger’s The Joker is real, and life-like. While who The Joker is remains a complete mystery, the audience can see that The Joker is a man. Underneath is make-up lays a nose, and eyes that are organic and can be found on anyone’s face. And Batman’s Batmobile isn’t a vehicle a seven year old would design and stick in a comic book. The Batmobile looks like something the military could, and would send to the Middle East to fight terrorists. So Gotham City in Nolan’s movies don’t resemble Tim Burton’s interpretation of a comic book setting caught on film, but a real place. So if Nolan’s Batman is so real why is Bale allowed to talk like a creature that doesn’t fit in the real…er… more real world of Gotham City. Also if Bruce Wayne spent his nights lowering his voice and roughing it up, in the morning he would be sporting a sore throat and scratchy voice.

But they didn’t mind giving Maggie Gyllenhaal’s Rachel Dawes a scratchy voice after she was kidnapped. What is with comic books and women? Just because it is written by men and focuses on violence more than most women appreciate does not mean the women characters need to take a back seat in the plot. I think I counted, like three and a half female main characters: 1) Rachel Dawes- lawyer, romantic interest; 2) Anna Ramirez- detective, barely her own person, and bribe-able; wife of Jim Gordon- house wife, kidnapp-able; 4) daughter of Jim Gordon- not the favorite child (more on the later), she her face once for one second. Everyone else is a man, and a lot of those male characters have interesting character development. For instance, take the more minor characters: 1) the mob bosses- all male, all interesting (depending); 2) the mayor of Gotham City- played by the guy from Lost who never ages, how does this guy keep getting cast when he has tattooed eye-liner! If I were a  casting director in Hollywood I would never hire a actor/actress with tattoos (not that tattoos are bad, but for an actor tattoos interrupts your ability to create a new person); 3) the news anchor- could have easily been cast as a female and add more balance of gender in the movie; . As for the main characters, like Bruce Wanye, Harvey Dent, Jim Gordon, and Lucius Fox I understand this is a “male” movie so there needs to be strong male characters. But as for the minor characters, a little estrogen would not hurt anything.

And my last beef with The Dark Knight is Jim Gordon and his family. They have two children, I think one of them is a girl, but we barely see her, because when asked to pick who he loves the most Gordon does not answer right out, but with a gun pointing to his three loved ones the villain saw something in Gordon in order to pick Gordon’s son to threaten. I do not know why, but I feel that it’s clear that Gordon’s son is favored, and it isn’t because he has a vagina. Also the idea that the villain could push his victims further by targeting the most loved one is absurd. In an average, well-adjusted, and healthy nuclear family neither of the parents should favor one child or the other. Love normally does not work that way.

Don’t Forget to be Awesome
Love, Pam

Eight Books

Dear Neil,

Hank Green has a new Harry Potter related song up on the vlogbrother’s YouTube channel. And while I understand that you and Mandy are still only in December of Brotherhood 2.0, you should understand that if you watch this vlog-song you will not be violating your attempt to watch all of John and Hank’s videos in order, because… it is just a song. Anyway, it is a good song.

And this song got me thinking about the seventh Harry Potter book. And I am think this: I could have written a better epilogue… and some other bits. What bothers me about the Deathly Hallows includes two things: 1) that weird chapter when Harry gets knocked out or something and he is in that white room with Dumbledore. J.K. Rowling could have written some meaningful, and beautiful prose about life and death. But I feel like she copped out of writing more. Maybe she did not expand on that particular experience of Harry’s because her options were to either scrap that chapter or put it in as it was. But I do not like that chapter with Harry and Dumbledore in that mysterious place because through out the Harry Potter series Rowling had the uncanny ability to explain this magical and unbelievable world. If something inexplicable happens readers can close the book and feel satisfied and convinced that these things happened to Harry and his friends. But this chapter in The Deathly Hallows does not give me that feeling. Plus we do not know why it happens either. Harry is a hero who learns from every experience that crosses his path to adulthood. But I do not think he learned from hanging around with the dead Dumbledore in a white room. So what is the point?

And the second thing that has me losing my English Nerdfighting faith with Rowling is the epilogue. I am so disappointed in it; I think for the last words the world would ever hear about their beloved Harry Potter I think Rowling should have nixed the epilogue altogether or concentrated more on it. I feel that the epilogue, the way it was published seems too diluted and uninteresting. Honestly, I just want to know about Harry’s godson. That character alone would make an excellent book, and Rowling could write it without breaking her vow to stop writing Harry Potter books after number seven. And after awhile I think Rowling will get bored with her Potter-less life and starting writing again. Who knows, maybe she is already working on her eighth novel.

Don’t Forget to be Awesome, Neil
Love, Pam

Superheros, Robots and Dresses

Neily Bo-beily,

The Dark Knight opens today, and I could probably go see a matinee with my friend Danni Ryan (she was in the children’s shows at Little Theater with me). But I’m too lazy to call and see if the Cinema Center still has tickets. SO lazy. Maybe I should ask Danni to call… naw, I don’t want to put that much pressure on her.

*Le sigh* (Neil, that is French for *sigh*). I read The New Yorker review of The Dark Knight, and now I am not so sure it is as awesome as Batman Begins and the movie trailers lead me to believe it is.

The reviewer said the movie is too dark, violent and claustrophobic. He said the plot is too entropic; the end offers no relief from the bad guys. But the writer loved the bad guy, the late Heather Ledger as The Joker. He is why I really want to see this movie. Ledger knew how to act. He acted like the character he was cast as; instead of just saying the lines the script gave him. That is good acting. I hope he wins a posthumous Oscar or a lifetime achievement award, because in his lifetime he did achieve things.

Also he reviewed Wall-E and LOVED it. Now I really want to see it. What really impressed me with the review of the Pixar film is how the writer made the kid’s animated movie seem like any movie made for anyone. If you had no clue what Pixar was you would think Wall-E was just a movie. So it must be said: kids movie’s do not have to be dumbed down so the little kids minds can grasp it all. Kids movies, and books and songs should just omit violence, sex, language and other mature things. But kids movies do not need to shy away from themes and motifs that only adults can understand fully. For example Wall-E is about dystopia. Ask a fifth grader to spell dystopia, then ask him or her about Pixar’s movies.

With this school of thought any kids film could be entertaining to adults, and many are. But my problem with some kids films are they become flimsy and disentertaining (that is the opposite of entertaining, Neil). I want, I need movies that make me think, let me form an opinion. For example I watched 27 Dresses yesterday. While it was not perfect I really liked it. As far as romantic comedies go this one has something different: character! It gave me something to think about, so it succeeded in my eyes.

Update you later about The Dark Knight if I see it soon.

Don’t Forget to be Awesome,
Love, Pam