Planking

Here is a news clip about the funniest new sensation I have ever seen: planking.
And here is a picture of me planking my TV:Stevie Nicks wrote a song called "Soldier's Angel." On May 26 of this year (which happens to be her birthday and mine) she gave a concert during which she explained what inspired her to write the song. The song has a great sentiment for sure, but it sucks on the whole. All of the songs she has written recently sound the same, with the same minor-sounding high note-low note combination being repeated over and over again. However, Lindsey Buckingham came out and played the song with her onstage, which I found priceless in spite of the song. I am putting the video here, because they are one of the best, if not THE best, duos of all time.

article about Aubrey

Here is an article about Aubrey that was in the Carnegie Mellon Today magazine. You can find it here, about halfway down.

Tearful News

It's nearly evening on the last day the high school senior can receive the news. Since seventh grade, Aubrey Higginson has been a part of the Jack Kent Cooke Foundation's Young Scholar Program, which every year picks another 50 students nationwide to receive extra resources and guidance. For Higginson, the program has led to an array of pursuits and made her eligible for a scholarship from the foundation. But the phone call hasn't come.

Higginson knows where she wants to attend: Carnegie Mellon University. She immediately felt at home during a campus visit. Going to school within driving distance of her family in Leesburg, Va., would be an added bonus. When she received the news she was accepted, she was thrilled. But wait. Even with a "generous" aid package, her family was in no position to cover the difference. She needed that scholarship.

To make matters more heartbreaking, one by one her friends were updating their Facebook status, proclaiming their lives are "complete" because they would be attending the colleges of their choice. Higginson could only wait. And cry. A realist, she was already thinking about options. Still, if only . . .

8 p.m. Nothing. But wait, there's a message that she somehow missed. It's from the foundation; the news is good. Higginson starts "bawling" and proudly posts on Facebook that she's going to Carnegie Mellon. Last fall, she joined the freshman class. -Elizabeth Shestak (HS'03)

fox and chicken

Here is a picture of me with the chicken Laverne: Here is my new hair color:

There is a fox on the run in our neighborhood. Here is a song in his honor ("Fox on the Run" by Sweet, 1975):

shooting a pistol

I love this show Bones.

I am going to learn how to shoot a pistol in April. I have always wanted to. I would like to own a pistol. If you break into my house, I will warn you once to get out. If you do not, I will more than likely kill you.

When I was little my brother and I were at home alone and a man broke into the house. He walked right up to us. I said, "Hey mister, who are you!?" and chased him out of the house. Luckily my brother and I are not dead or scarred. It could have ended differently. I want my children to be taught to safely use a gun; Rebekah is coming to the pistol training class as well. She is plenty old enough, and I will feel better knowing she has access to a gun when she is at home alone.

bug and incomprehensible mumbo jumbo

The above bug was nearly my household's undoing recently. Screaming and crying ensued, but the bug left my house in an un-smooshed condition and only missing one of his legs. Or was it a her? I didn't get close enough to be sure.

Here is what I have been reading for some work training. I find it hilarious.

The challenges for IT managers are to co-ordinate and work in partnership
with
the business to deliver high quality IT services. This has to be
achieved while
adopting a more business and customer oriented approach to
delivering
services and cost optimization...
to transform service
management capabilities into strategic assets, by using
Service Management to
provide the basis for core competency, distinctive
performance and durable
advantage, and increase the service provider’s
potential from their
blah blah blah

pictures of me by Rebekah

Here are some pictures Rebekah took of me and some other things yesterday.

Lemmings

As I was facing the rush hour in to work this morning, this song came on the radio ("Synchronicity II" sung by Sting):

Another working day has ended
Only the rush hour hell to face
Packed like Lemmings into shiny metal boxes
Contestants in a suicidal race

What a fine subject, Lemmings. JJ says that they follow each other around so closely that one will follow another right off a cliff. It is said that they control their own overpopulation by killing themselves in this manner. This may be a myth, but I don't care.JJ also says there is a really cool game called Lemmings. I will take his word for it that it is cool.

*addendum: Rebekah pointed out that Lemmings are in another song we like, and that we find poignant: "I Like Giants" by Kimya Dawson

When I saw Geneviève I really liked it when she said

What she said about the giant and the Lemmings on the cliff

She said 'I like giants

Especially girl giants

Cause all girls feel too big sometimes

Regardless of their size'...

So I talked to Geneviève and almost cried when she said

That the giant on the cliff wished that she was dead

And the Lemmings on the cliff wished that they were dead

So the giant told the Lemmings why they ought to live instead