it is almost over...

my poorly-researched opinions on the various presidential candidates:

1. Mitt - he's mormon so I expect him to have decent morals (i may be overestimating him). he was a good governor & i liked his healthcare plan there. he's also a xenophobe who said he'd like to double gitmo. i think he is dead in the water so it doesn't really matter either way

2. McCain - the only one i refer to by last name. maybe b/c of j.edwards. i wish with all my heart mccain had won the primary 8 years ago. (if he had i might still consider myself a conservative) *sigh* he's always been an independent thinker, but has been sucking up to the GOP the past few years. he's been a bit blasé about the torture issue, but he wore a grinch tie on a TV interview once & i've like him ever since. he'd be probably be okay if the GOP wins

3. Barack - his name is a derivative of the name "baraka" which means "blessings" in swahili. he seems like a decent option. his healthcare plan is also good. he is the only candidate that opposed the war from the beginning so he must be fairly intelligent & independently-minded. of all the candidates i think he'd be the best for foreign policy. old-white-man presidents from america haven't set a very good precedent lately & hillary could struggle in areas where women are not respected. but, more liberal than hillary & i prefer moderation.

4. Hillary - i simultaneous love & fear her. she is smart, fairly moderate, & a woman. has a lot of experience and has a more global view than some others. i do think her health plan is a bit overzealous. the biggest problem with hillary is that i think mccain could beat her - she is so vilified. i would hate to have another 4 yrs with the GOP running the country. people dislike her b/c they think she is power hungry. i think this is latent chauvinism, but will avoid a rant on that right now.

the light has fallen amongst the living & the dying...the world's on fire

(regan, a little boy who went to the orphan day care i visited daily. he came to our house to eat sometimes and played with us often. he & his grandmother are both okay, much to my joy)


ever since the violence broke out in kenya i've been trying to find out what is going on in area i lived in. it is about 45 minutes north of eldoret, one of the most volatile cities. i was hoping that the violence was centered in the urban areas, but today i found out that the village i lived in has been severely affected. many homes & shops have been burned and at least 19 people in my small village have died. one of my favorite women was attacked and beaten, but survived. luckily the other people i was close to have managed to avoid the violence so far, but school has been cancelled. the village next to mine has been completely burned & leveled. i can't imagine the idyllic countryside i lived in descending into chaos so quickly. the worst part is that i cannot do anything about it. according to my friend in kenya, the red cross cannot reach that area of the country because of the violence so even donating money would be futile. i am so angry at kibaki(corrupt president) & odinga(power-hungry opposition leader) for delaying their talks until the conflict had spiraled out of control. why is the world like this?

re: ch-ch-ch-changes

a couple months ago i decided to give up swearing. i'm happy to say i've made some progress. i hardly ever swear in front of people anymore. now it is mostly for my own personal benefit. like yesterday i only swore when i was driving in atlanta traffic. and when i forgot something. and when i couldn't steal my roommate's tortillas b/c she hadn't opened them yet. yup, good progress.

manifest destiny

Earlier this week The Manorexic discovered that he was accepted to GA Tech for a master's two years ago. He never got the acceptance letter & ended up going to the U instead. Now he is applying for PhD at GA Tech (and other non-important schools) and feels like the last 2 years at the U were a waste of his academic life. I think it has been really good for him to live in SLC & told him God hide his acceptance letter so he could find a wife in Utah.
I usually think that whatever actually ends up happening must be for the best. Sometimes I wonder if that is really true. I once expressed this sentiment regarding my dating of a boy when I already had my mission call. My Canadian dentist friend (who liked to tell me how poorly I treated guys) informed me that I only thought it had turned out for the best b/c it is what happened. Maybe I live in fatalist delusion to make myself feel better about poor choices. But, if that is how I've turned out, it must be for the best, right?

in the bleak mid-winter

I spent most of my break travelling around the East Coast. Here are the highlights:

We looked around for Jim & Pam, but they must have been on vacation.

Nathan & me in the Book of Mormon print shop. Our ancestors are from Palmyra. Not that they joined the church or anything. That took a few more generations.

The path leading from the Sacred Grove back to the Smith farm. My grandma grew up in Palmyra and was good friends with the Mormon family that moved back here to acquire the land (the Bean family for you church historians).

The view from my hotel room in NYC - right on Times Square & I didn't pay a cent to stay there. Thanks, Boy! We had lots o'fun in nyc - one of the best trips I've had there. More pics to follow on Facebook.

And, of course, visiting the niece is always the highlight. Here she is modeling the hat my roomie gave me for Christmas.

the best idea ever

Whomever invented NetFlix should be given a Nobel Prize

as promised

random thoughts:

today it snowed in atlanta. we got a whole 1/8 inch. wow, i'm so impressed. actually, it made me really happy.

today i went to atlanta's art museum & realized that i kinda like modern art more than some old art. but a lot of it is still crap.

yesterday i had an insanely boring computer class for 6 hours. how did i survive? by g-chatting with PopularBloggingFriend, PC (who was in the same class), the Manorexic, and older sister. i love g-chat.