We Have the Facts and We're Voting Yes

Ok. I (Jessica) stole this from one of James' friend's blogs, but I thought it was really interesting. There's this site that you can go and take a survey and from those limited results, it tells you who you'd be interested in voting for.

http://selectsmart.com/president/2008.html

And these were my results:

1. Theoretical Ideal Candidate (100%)

2. Stephen Colbert (campaign halted) (70%)

3. Chuck Hagel (not running) (63%)

4. Duncan Hunter (withdrawn, endorsed Huckabee) (63%)

5. Sam Brownback (withdrawn, endorsed McCain) (63%)

6. Mike Huckabee (withdrawn) (62%)

7. John McCain (59%)

8. Mitt Romney (withdrawn, endorsed McCain) (59%)

9. Tom Tancredo (withdrawn, endorsed Romney) (57%)

10. Alan Keyes (withdrawn) (56%)

11. Newt Gingrich (says he will not run) (51%)

12. Jim Gilmore (withdrawn) (50%)

13. Tommy Thompson (withdrawn, endorsed Giuliani) (49%)

14. Fred Thompson (withdrawn) (46%)

15. Bob Barr (46%)

16. Ron Paul (concedes nomination not possible) (45%)

17. Rudolph Giuliani (withdrawn, endorsed McCain) (44%)

18. Michael Bloomberg (says he will not run) (43%)

19. Wayne Allyn Root (is now Bob Barr's running mate) (42%)

20. Al Gore (not announced) (41%)

21. Hillary Clinton (defeated, endorsed Obama) (40%)

22. Kent McManigal (campaign suspended) (37%)

23. Wesley Clark (not running, endorsed Clinton) (36%)

24. Joseph Biden (withdrawn) (33%)

25. Barack Obama (32%)

26. John Edwards (withdrawn) (32%)

27. Bill Richardson (withdrawn, endorsed Obama) (31%)

28. Christopher Dodd (endorsed Obama) (27%)

29. Dennis Kucinich (withdrawn) (27%)

30. Alan Augustson (campaign suspended) (24%)

31. Mike Gravel (withdrawn) (19%)

32. Ralph Nader (18%)

33. Elaine Brown (withdrawn) (16%)

Who knew? I mean, it's a limited survey and it doesn't go into all of the issues, but it makes you decide about most of the major issues.

And it took up 15 minutes of my time. 15 minutes of non-boredom means 15 minutes of time well spent. :)

Her Eyes

Work at Blockbuster has officially begun.

And I (Jessica) already got hit on. I think. Actually, I don't really know what to think...

Here goes.

I'm shelving movies, minding my own business. I then notice that this guy has slowly made his way next to me. I kind of saw him eyeballing me earlier, but I ignored it. I find that being ignored takes away a lot of gumption that creepers think they have.

Anyway.

He looks at me and starts saying something. However, he's speaking in such a low tone, that even a person with the best hearing in the world couldn't have heard it. We all know that I'm practically deaf, so I obviously didn't hear him.

I ask if him he needs any help finding anything and he mumbles something more and then sulks away.

As I continue to put more movies away, I notice that he is now facing me...no...staring/gazing at me over one of the shelves. I ask him again if there's anything I can do to help him. He says, "mlckdanjdalsjfdslkjfasdlf." Or at least, that's what I heard. I told him I didn't understand him and then he says at an audible level, "Are you wearing contacts?"


"Uh...no." I respond, slightly disgusted and a little taken aback.
"Oh. It was just a question. I was making small talk."

Right. Gotcha. Guys - please add "Are you wearing contacts?" to your list of pickup lines NOT to say to a girl. It's weird. You can only say that after you've known them for a while.

And then later, a coworker was just staring at me and when I asked him if he needed anything, he said no and asked why I said that. I told him that I tend to ask people what they want when they just stand there staring at me for no reason, and he was like "I can stare at what I want."

I then proceeded to tell him and another coworker about the contact guy, and the staring coworker says, "maybe he was just in awe of your wonderful beauty."

Maybe he was. But still. Weirdo McBeardo.

Whistle While You Work

Ok. Most of you know that I (Erika) got an internship this summer.

But I have failed to explain what it is I am doing exactly. Well, here is that post. :)

First and foremost, I must say that The Office has forever skewed my view on what office life is and should be. I want, and expect there to be a Dwight, Michael, and Jim in every office in America. There doesn't have to be Pam, I'll be Pam. :) No Roy either, he's a bum. Anyways - there isn't a Michael, Dwight, or Jim at my office, much to my dismay.

And, as for the blog title - I don't whistle while I work (I do listen to my iPod, though), but there is somebody who everytime he/she walks by, he/she is whistling. It brightens my day. Before you start wondering - I said he/she because he/she walks on the other side of my cubicle-like wall, so I can't see who is doing that. Not because it is a person that I can't really tell by looking whether it is a boy or a girl.

So. What I do there...

The fun stuff is designing flyers, making graphics for the website, photo editing, and coming up w/ new ideas for the website. Here's some examples of that.

So, they have a company store online that's pretty ugly. This is my updated version. It's pretty conservative. I know. But it had to be.

This was a flyer for a sales incentive they are doing. This actually isn't the finished product, but it's the one I have on my computer at home, so it's the one you all see. :)

The boring stuff is helping the web lady research and compile the research of how good their website is doing. Blech. It's all excel stuff copy, paste, organize. Copy, paste, organize. Copy, paste, organize. Copy... well, you get the idea.

So, yeah. Despite the boring stuff and lack of "The Office" drama, I am really enjoying it. And I've said it before, I'll say it again: as much as I love ice cream, it's definitely better than Dairy Queen. :)

In other news, if you haven't seen Wall-E yet. Go. It was SO cute.

Twilight

Ok.

Now I'm bored.

My (Jessica's) job hasn't started up yet, and my family is in Arizona and my friends are far away. It's just me and my dog, which, I know for some of you would be worse than being alone.

Anyway, I've had lots of time for reading. So much time, in fact, that I'm already re-reading a book I read just last week.

Pathetic. I know.

But in my defense, ALL of the books that I'm interested in reading are checked out of the library and I'm on huge wait lists.

Anyway, in my boredom, I'll tell you a story about this new book series that's captivated me: Twilight.


I first heard about this book from facebook flair. I saw all these stickers about "Edward Cullen" and "So what if my boyfriend is a vampire?" and lame stuff like that. If you haven't noticed it, you have to get out more...or stay in more, i suppose, being it's on the computer. Seriously. I'd never even heard of this Edward Cullen, and I didn't realize those bumper stickers were related, so I figured if people were obsessing about him, he must be from American Idol or something.

So one day, I wikipedia-ed it. And I found out that he's a character from a book about vampires. I thought to myself "how lame. A human girl falls in love with a vampire. Whatever."

I was wrong.

I think this is one of my new favorite books. I would even bring it on a deserted island before I would bring Harry Potter. It's captivated me.

So, before it took over my life, I was in Aruba and saw it on sale on half. com for $4, and I figured, if I hate it, it was only $4. So I bought it. When it came, I read it in less than 24 hours.

My next step was to buy the next 2 books. I saw the prices online, and the 2nd book was comparable to prices at Borders right now, and I wouldn't have to wait, so I bought the 2nd book at Borders and ordered the 3rd book online, figuring I could control myself and be done with the 2nd book around the time the 3rd one arrived.

No dice. I finished the 2nd book even faster.

And then. Much to my chagrin, my 3rd book couldn't be delivered. I reordered it (It was 2x as expensive at Borders, and I'm not that desperate) on Friday. It still hasn't been shipped. I then called up my library and am on a wait list of like 25 people. Ugh.

In my attempt to defeat boredom, I created another monster. It's something combined with impatience and anxiety. I know. I'm obsessed.

But, for what it's worth, I still function like a normal human being. I just want to read. Right now. And I can't. It's infuriating.

I would really recommend the books. The 4th one comes out in about a month and it's the last one of the series, so you won't totally be held in suspense for long. And the movie comes out in December, which I can't wait to see.



Ah. I'm glad that you guys put up with this "woe is me" post. I know I've been doing exciting things that normal people would be jealous of, but after going nonstop for a month and then coming home to nothing...well...that's culture shock, in and of itself.

Chapel of Love

About a week ago, Erika and I were reunited.

And it was great. I miss my best friend a lot. A lot, a lot.

Erika was able to fly up from South Carolina for the weekend for the purpose of going to the wedding of Justin Slager and Laura Hawkins.

And that was also great.

To be honest, I wasn't all to worried about saying goodbye to a lot of my senior friends this school year because I knew that I'd see them at Justin's wedding. And I did. And it was great to see everyone. And to see Justin and Laura get married of course.

Their ceremony was beautiful and I totally want Pastor Mark to do my ceremony too. Justin (at least, I'm assuming it was Justin) put together a slide show of the couple before and after they met and it was super cute. And then the groomsmen "lost" Justin's ring. His face made it look like he didn't think it was that funny, which surprised me because he thinks just about everything is funny. I dunno. Maybe he thought it was funny and I was just sitting too far back to really know anything :)

Their reception was pretty hoppin' too. There was great food and cheesecake and line dancing. That was sooooo funny to watch.

As for the present that Erika and I got them, you won't understand it if you haven't seen The Office. We got them an exercise orb (red), a makeshift Jello mold, Jello, and scissors (to put in the jello in the jello mold and then eat them out and pop the exercise orb).

And yes. All of what we got them was on their registry.

Except the jello and scissors. No one in their right mind would put those on a registry. That was just our own creative touch.

So that's pretty much it. She's already back to SC and I'm bored again.



Not too much is interesting after South Korea and Aruba (yeah. i know i'm rubbing it in a bit...ok...maybe a lot). I'm waiting for my job to start back up at good old Blockbuster. Yay.

Welcome to Detroit

Just once, I'd like to arrive at Detroit Metro on the same day that I was scheduled to arrive.

I hate delays.

Especially in the Miami airport, because it is FREEZING. Blech. I for sure peaced out Miami. Good riddance.

Ok. Not too much happened, but I want to tell you 2 things.

One, we saw the a man who could have straight up been the father of Beans, from the Disney Channel show, Even Stevens. It was incredible.

Two, a girl fell down the escalator and it was terrifying. I wanted to cry. Seriously.

You could see it coming from a mile away. She stepped on 2 steps at once and when the escalator went down, she kind of teetered, and then she tumbled - like somersaulted - all the way down.

I don't know how my dad made it down the side stairs that fast, but when my dad's on the move, you best be gettin' out of his way, because he's a colonel and he will take you out. No joke.

But he got down on the scene. The girl's skirt got stuck in the escalator and was dragging her into the crack between the floor and the stairs. Her shoe also got stuck and was being sucked into the bottom of the escalator. She was just laying like a rag doll, bleeding from her knees. They had to rip part of her skirt off in order to keep her from getting even more hurt.

Seriously. It was terrifying.

I mean, it could be funny - once it made it to America's Funniest Home Videos or something - but not today. Yikes.

She got up and was being tended to. She looked kind of dazed and they didn't stop the bleeding by the time I left. They called an ambulance, though, so at least she got taken care of.

So, that's pretty much it.

I'm home and it feels great.

Welcome to Detroit.

Big Rock Candy Mountain

Ok, Jessica's in Aruba.

Let's all take a moment and be insanely jealous of her.

.

.

.

.

.

.

Well that was fun. Time to get back to the lives of people who don't travel the world in a span of 4 weeks. Like me.

My internship. I promised I would update when I had something to report. And I do, now that I've been working there for 3 days. It's pretty alright so far. I've gotten to do a logo, and some graphics for their website, so those were fun. But the downside is, I still have to do typical intern-y type stuff like putting information about their company into 500 water bottles for the baseball game they are sponsoring. And make spreadsheets w/ all the info on how well their website is doing. But, you win some you lose some. And it's still better than Dairy Queen. :)

For Father's Day this year, my dad, sister and I went to this place called Stoney Mountain in Georgia. And it was super cool. This mountain... is a big rock. Literally. We took a skyride up to it, and we could see for miles around - Atlanta looked sweet. (Brian, if you happen to read this, yes - I was right outside of Atlanta, I would have called you, but I figured you wouldn't really be interested in hanging out w/ my family all day).

After hanging out at the top of the mountain and watching the people who had walked up the mountain (haha, suckas - shoulda taken the sky rail), we walked down and checked out the festivities down there. Oh, I forgot to mention: there is a carving in the mountain too. It's kinda like the confederate version of Mount Rushmore except not quite as big. There's Robert E. Lee, Stonewall Jackson, and.... shoot, I can't remember. Google it if you want. Anyways, there was this thing called the Sky Hike, and that was super sweet - it was basically a high ropes course. I'd never been on one of those, but - like I said, super cool.

So that was the excitement that was Father's Day.

And that's that.

Oh. One more thing. In my short experience, the guys down south are much bolder than the guys up north.

And that's that.