Oh my!

I stink at this game . . . again! I use to be so good at blogging but now not so much. Oh well. I'm going on a diet! I'm gonna loose 25lbs by graduation. I'm gonna do the South Beach diet I'm excited! Maybe that will give me something to blog about? I'll try . . . no promises that ends in disaster lol.

Hope you all had a wonderful holiday season!

Yvonne

Day 2 at LSUS

Well, day two of the LSUS debate tournament has begun. We are currently in team debate finals. Team debate is where there are two teams of two debaters that go up against each other. We have two teams in quarter finals. We started Individual preliminary rounds last night and we have four more to get through today before we find out breaks. After the 6 prelim rounds are over all the wins/losses and speaker points are calculated and the top 32 debaters are advanced to out rounds. Out rounds are single elimination.

I feel pretty good about my last two rounds but we'll see when breaks are posted! Wish me luck!!!

Debate Land

So right now I'm hanging out in Debate land at LSUS (Louisiana State University--Shreveport). We are at a debate tournament waiting on individual debate to start. Zack, Tiffany, Anna Blace, and Chris are all off in Team Debate and Katie is competing in prose. Unfortunately we still have 5 hours until individual debate starts. AGHHHHHH I'm gonna go nuts! I'm ready for some debate.

Smartest Criminals

I was browsing the headlines today and I ran across the article in the following link. It made me laugh so hard. I'm thinking this kid may actually be a pretty smart guy. Too bad he dropped out of high school.

Barefoot Burglar

Ahhhh . . . . Halloween

I'm so excited! This is one of my favorite times of the year. It's Halloween. I absolutely adore Halloween. Now I know some of you are appalled that a christian would love "the devils holiday" but c'mon folks I think we all know that Halloween isn't about devil worship and black magic. Halloween is the gateway to the holiday season. Halloween is about dressing up in a silly costume and begging for candy and my favorite, Halloween is about scaring the mess out of my friends in our annual haunted house. For the next 3 weeks I will be eating, sleeping, and breathing haunted house stuff lol. We are doing this big interactive game for our lovely house of horror and I am so excited. 25 actors and about 10 behind the scenes crew. It is going to be a big spooky, bloody, funny, house complete with video screens, bad guys, innocent victims, walkie talkies and about 10 gallons of fake blood. I can't wait to hear the screams and the laughter and my ultimate goal is to make someone pee their pants!

Muuuahahahahahahahaha

I'm going to have so much stinkin fun!!!!

I'll post pictures yay!

Professor Grandma . . .

I really have no idea what brought this on but I wrote this about my grandma about 10 minutes ago. I hope you enjoy it :) I may make some changes to it but this is what came out in the first draft.


Professor Grandma

It’s my senior year of college and I’ve found myself looking back a lot these past few days. I asked myself the other day which professor I had learned the most from. Perhaps it was Dr. Strong with all the guidance that she has given me. Or maybe it was Dr. Wright who managed to show me what I DON’T want to do in life. But then I had to ask myself another question. What is a professor? Well a professor I concluded is simply a teacher. So who is it then that has taught me the most important lessons?

She died 8 years ago. But she taught me so much

She taught me ingenuity: who else would have had the creativity to make a band aid out of scotch tape and a cotton ball when she couldn’t find one in the medicine cabinet?

She taught me the art of debate: Don’t back down even if you are wrong and never say you’re wrong and pretty soon no one argues with Grandma.

She taught me my first political science lesson: Clinton was the best President since Kennedy and we should have left his personal life out of this.

More importantly she taught me the true meaning of the phrase Actions speak louder than words: Grandma rarely talked about how much she loved you she just showed you by always making sure you had snacks to eat when you went her house. She never told me to be kind to others she just made grandpa fire up the grill while she slaved away in the kitchen so she would have food to take to a family at the hospital.

Yes I think I have my answer I may have learned the high theories of International Relations from Dr. Strong but I think I’ve learned even more from Professor Grandma

Falling behind

Oh wow I've got to get back into the regular habit of blogging!! I hate falling behind in things. I suppose a blog should be the lowest on my priorites list and if that is all I've fallen behind in then things aren't so bad right? I've discovered the wonderful world of Twitter and I have once again fallen in love with podcasts. I wouldn't mind starting my own weekly podcast but I obviously don't have the time.

School is going great so far I have a feeling that graduation is going to be here before I know it! I'm so excited to finally be graduating from this place!!!

Well I'm going to update my layout and add some new features talk to y'all later!!

My not so subtle reminder . . . .

That I'm the one who fixed your internet! :)

(to all my blogger friends. I FINALLY fixed my families internet so it would work at their house on all the computers. When I did I changed their homepage to this blog so they would know who to thank LOL)

Summer School, Heartless, and Beer Summits

First of all allow me to scream for joy as I have officially finished summer classes!!!! THANK GOD!

Second of all I've been listening to Kris Allen sing the song "Heartless" and I find myself wondering if Kanye West hates his guts for doing a much better job than him.

and finally does anyone besides me wish that Obama would focus on more important things than two adults who chose to act like children? That situation should have never become the national issue that it did and the two certainly shouldn't have been invited to the white house of all things!

Ok that's my little rant for the night.

Blessed

A few weeks ago I got a phone call saying that one of my residents from Royer hall had been killed in a car accident. Her younger sister was alson in the accident and the doctors weren't sure if she would live because of some swelling in her brain. Nicole the one who died was only 21 years old. It was a very sad situation. Her sister Ashley was so badly injured that she was unable to attend the funeral. Tonight I logged into facebook and I saw Ashleys facebook status. I was moved when I read it. It said, Ashley Won't Complain! I've Suffered From A Broken Back, Dislocated Elbow, A Fractured Vertebrae In The Back Of My Neck, Fractured Bones In The Front Of My Neck, Fractured Wrists, Swelling Of The Brain, And Cuts And Bruises, After It's All Said And Done I Can Truly Say "I AM BLESSED!" I Also Want To Thank Everyone For All The Prayers And Love You've Shown! God Bless You All! -Words From Ashley- ♥

I am always so encouraged by the strength of people like this. I am sure that her heart is breaking but yet she still has the strength to say I am blessed.

I just wanted to share this with you all. Let it remind us how truly blessed we are!

It's been a long time . . .

So It's been FOREVER since I've blogged! I haven't had time. I've been doing the summer school thing all summer and that ends this Tuesday THANK GOD!!! I'm sooo tired of school. BUT there are only 286 more days until I graduate. Yes I am counting already! I'm still not sure where I'm going after that but I'll figure it out soon I'm sure. I don't have a lot of time today but I wanted to say hi and say that after Tuesday I plan to catch up on my blogging. I'm headed to my sisters house in Osceola for Praise Break and a much needed break from school. I'll be there for 10 days and then it's back to UAM for RA training. Lots and lots of fun! Anyway I hope all is going well for you all! Can't wait to talk with you again and share all that has been going on in my little world.

Priorities People!!!

So I was browsing through a few news websites this morning and I noticed something that just amazed me. Right now in the world today there exists problems with North Korea, an election in Iran that was probably rigged, Obama is about to try and mess up the health care system even worse than it already is, Americans in a terrible economic depression and I'm certain that somewhere in the world last night a murder took place. Do you know what the most popular story is on CNN? "Hillary Clinton Fractures Elbow." You can tell what Americans really care about here.

A bit of political ranting just for you . . .

So I haven't quite finished my London journal but I've been sick with strep throat since the second to last day of the trip. I'm safely back inside U.S. borders and I'm back to rolling my eyes at the latest headlines and political news breaks.

First of all lets talk about the Presidents date with his wife the other night. If you're upset that he took his wife on an expensive date that cost the taxpayers money GET OVER IT!!!! I mean come on people. First of all 24,000 is NOT that much money. It's less than a penny per tax payer. Second you do realize that it costs tax payers way more than that for a lot of transnational flights the president has to take on almost a weekly basis right? Second why the devil are people making such a big deal! Is he doing that good of a job that we have to find that small of a thing to gripe about? I've come to realize that we are in fact a nation of complainers.

Now let's talk about something that actually means something. GM announced their plans to file for bankrupcy. Big suprise there right? I'm not sure how I feel about the fact that the government will have a 60% interest in the country when the company is restructured. Yes I realize that GM was a major part of our nations economy so I don't dispute the need for government intervention but do we really need a majority interest? Basically Barak Obama now controls GM. People say it is neccessary and in a way I agree but I'm afraid this is just going to open the door for more and more government control in areas I feel the government needs to stay out of. What do you think?

I could go on and on but I'm starting to feel like total crap again. Hopefully the medicine the doc gave me today will start makin me feel better.

First Video Blog

Sorry I accidentally stopped recording about 2 seconds too soon!

Daily Journal

Hey guys!!

I found a way to make sure that you all get a daily update on my trip to london. I have to keep a daily journal since this trip is technically a class. I've decided to do it in the form of a blog. I wanted to keep it seperate from this blog so I created a new one. Yvonne Goes to London, will be my daily account of everything that goes on while I'm London. This way at the end of the trip all I have to do is send the link to my professor! This also insures that you guys get a glimpse of my trip to London!

Love you guys!!!!

Yvonne

High Tea and Castles

Yay! I'm so excited. I leave for london in less than 48 hours! I can't wait. I probably wont be doing the whole high tea thing because it's crazy expensive but I will see lots of castles!!! I'll be "trying" to post pictures here every day but I make no promises. You may just have to wait until I get back! I'll be gone until the 26th :) I'm all packed and ready to go! I'm heading to Conway tomorrow and from there I'll go to the airport on Sunday.

Pondering . . .

I like Adam Lambert. I really want him to win American Idol. I like Kris Allen too but I just think that Adam is better. However the other day I was having a conversation with someone about this very thing. He is a Chrisian as I am but he said something to me that kind of upset me. He said and I quote so please forgive the harshness "I can't believe you would support a faggot". I hate that word. Anyway I was a bit upset with him but I didn't say anything. I just started pondering his statement. Adam has never come out and said yes I am gay but he has offered clues to suggest such a thing. He said kissing girls might not be his preference. There are pictures of him making out with guys. So yes there is a good chance that Adam Lambert is gay. The thing that has me perplexed though is how do Christians deal with the homosexual community. We can't deny its existence nor should we participate in that lifestyle. However I don't think that my liking Adams voice is me showing support for his lifestyle choice. I have several gay friends on campus. They all know that I disagree with their lifestyle choices but I still accept them as friends. So because they are gay should I just not associate with them? A better example would be the gay professor that we have on campus. She is an amazing professor but according to my friends logic I shouldn't take her classes and I shouldn't like her teaching because she is gay. I have to say I disagree. But then again according to him I'm a left wing wacko liberal so maybe I don't know what I'm talking about.

I just don't think its very christian to speak with disgust about someone just because they choose a lifestyle that we disagree with. Yes being gay is wrong no I do not support the gay lifestyle. I just like Adam Lambert and I like really good English teachers and I happen to have gay friends. However I'm very clear on how I feel about the lifestyle. I'm just not rude about it. I believe in the saying, "Hate the sin not the sinner"

One more year . . . I think I can I think I can

I'm feeling horribly trapped and I think that is part of my problem. I have grown to dispise Monticello and I'm so ready to leave. However I have to stick it out for one more year. I think I can, I think I can . . .

That's what I'm going to have to keep saying for the next year. Oh well I'll get a bit of a break and somewhat of a new routine over the next few months. I'm off to London in less than two weeks. YES!!! This summer I'll be working as a summer RA in a different dorm all summer and that will be something new to look forward to.

Anyway I'm going to get back to pretending to work now.

Have a good day.

Because I had a Bad Day.

Today was not the best. I found out that I am for sure not getting the GA job in the dorms and it upset me pretty bad but I didn't make a big deal out of it. I understand the reasons. I totally disagree with the reasons but I understand them just the same. Then a little bit ago I got a phone call that made me cry and I hate crying. However I caught the tail end of American Idol and Adam Lamberts song made me feel all warm and fuzzy inside so I'm all better now *grin*.

I'm so ready to be out of Monticello though. I'm tired of pretending to be happy here so I can't wait to move!!! I'm going to miss some people but I'll keep in touch with the important ones and forget about the rest.

I think London will be good for me and so will living across campus in the other dorm over the summer. I guess my boss felt bad about not being able to give me the GA job so he gave me the Summer RA job which is fine with me. Either way my summer classes are being paid for. :)

So even though today wasn't the best I'm still smiling and life will go on. I've decided I'll just be the best RA ever next year even though I didn't get the promotion I wanted. Things in my family may not be the greatest but they aren't the worst they have ever been either. Life is still good.

Washington DC #4

I have a little bit of free time before my terrorism class so I thought y'all would enjoy some more pictures of my trip to DC.



This is Zach. He is a UAM graduate who now works in DC and he acted as a great tour guide for most of our trip.

This is the first picture I took of the whitehouse. It didn't turn out so great.

This is us at the oldest pub in DC. It's now a nice restaraunt. We ate here with another UAM Graduate who is now working in washington as a lobbiest.


Us at old Eberts again.

I'm sitting at Congressman Mike Ross' desk.

Ok I'll post more later!!

Struggle

I hate that I'm being emo and blogging about this crap but I'm struggling right now. I'm not happy with certain areas of my life so I'm looking for a change but I feel like I'm being pulled away from things that have always been a constant in my life. I'm so ready to leave Arkansas and start a clean new chapter in my life. I'm ready for a place where no-one knows my name and I can make a brand new life.

I hate the fact that I dont enjoy going to church here anymore. I love going in Conway and other places I just do not enjoy going to church in monticello. It just doesnt feel like home anymore and it makes it so easy to find reasons not to go. I need help I do know that. I just hope that when I move I can find a place that I truly enjoy again. I feel like I'm in such a dry desert in my spiritual life.

Just pray for me that I make the right decisions in life over the next few months.

On a happy note: 3 WEEKS TIL I LEAVE FOR LONDON!!!!!!

Excitedness (yeah I totally just made up a word).

I have a lot of things to be excited about in my life right now. First of all the end of the semester is almost here! That means I have ONE YEAR LEFT!!!!1 I'm sooooo happy. I am so ready to leave Monticello. I'll miss my little 16x16 ft home of 4 year but I'm ready for a bigger place with a kitchen and a bathroom. I'm also ready for a drivers license from another state. Second I leave for London in 25 days!! I'm so glad that I'm taking advantage of these trip opportunities. Third I am now the chairperson of the student activities board here on campus which is totally awesome. Fourth I just love life wich excites me! Now I'm off to work to share my love for life with everyone.

Yvonne

P.S. please pray for my car. The fact that it is being dumb does NOT excite me.

Apparantly I'm not a fan of marriage (I titled this after I wrote the blog).

Well the conference is over and I did OK. It wasn't my best presentation but it certainly was not my worst. Now I'm sitting in my room about halfway done cleaning it and I really really don't feel like finishing it. I HATE cleaning my room! I would rather scrub a dozen toilets than clean my room. If I ever get married my husband will be in charge of keeping the bedroom clean. I'll do everything else but he can do the bedroom. However I don't plan on getting married so I can have a messy bedroom all I want. Now don't condemn me for saying this but I wish it were OK to just have long term relationships instead of marriage. I hate the whole idea of marriage sometimes. I think it's because I have serious authority issues or something. I hate the thought of being accountable to some guy just because he's in love with me. I know my logic is totally screwed up but that's OK it's my logic not yours. I'm serious though I'm semi dating a guy right now and I love the fact that we can be best friends, have great conversations, and go out and have fun, but at the end of the day I don't have to plan my life around him. If our paths happen to cross and we can make time for a date great if not nobody gets upset. I don't have to tell him every time I leave the house and I don't feel bad about going to the huddle house at 3:00 AM because guess what we don't live together. We aren't super romantic and mushy we have just entered into a relationship of sorts. Yeah there are those soft sweet moments where I feel all special and stuff but it doesn't make me want to change my last name to Janisko. Sorry I know all my church friends probably think I'm horrible but I'm not. Bottom line: I don't want to get married! At least not anytime soon. Anyway I have NO idea where all that came from. I'm going to get back to the dreaded task of cleaning my room.

Nervousness Abounds

I have been working my butt off on a paper for the last 6 months or so and tomorrow I get to present my research at a conference (actually it's technically this afternoon). I am so nervous I can't sleep. Wish me luck! The paper is called, The Path to Europeanization: Opposing views of Havel and Klaus. I realize that means absolutely nothing to most of you but it is a fun topic. I wont post my abstract here which would help you to understand the paper a bit better but they are publishing these papers in a journal so I need to be careful about where I'm posting it until after publication. Anyway I'm basically comparing imposed communism to imposed democracy we'll see how it goes tomorrow. Pray for me and wish me luck!!

Yvonne

Some people anger me.

I'm highly angered as I read the news today. I see where people who are miserable insist on making everyone else's life absolute hell. We have three instances and probably more in the past few weeks where people have decided to kill themselves but decide to take a few people with them on their way. I'm not talk about suicide bombers either. They at least have false justification for their actions. Please note that I am not sympathizing with suicide bombers but they usually aren't the father of the people they decide to blow up. It's usually a random target and they feel as if they are doing Gods work. I promise you this man that all five of his kids because he was mad at his wife was not doing Gods work. Nor was he fighting for some cause that he felt was worth fighting for. This crazy insane person was so screwed up in the head and so miserable with his life that he shot his own children WHILE THEY WERE SLEEPING!!!! I get so angry when stuff like this happens. I want to question and ask why and I want to demand an answer.I realize that God isn't going to give me one and I will be totally honest there are days when I struggle with that. However in the end I always know that God is still God and he is still in control and I need to just let him do his thing because he knows exactly what is going on. He certainly didn't cause that man to shoot his children but God still knows what's going on.

OK that's my rant for the night sorry about that I'm just upset.

Randomness and DC # 3.

It's Sunday morning and we are about to leave for church (we being my family and I). After church I get to have lunch with a friend. This is the friend that I went on a date with about a week ago. I don't think I mentioned said date here but it was very fun. It's nice to date someone just to date. No love, blah blah mushy stuff. Just a guy buying a girl dinner and two people enjoying each others company.

Here's a few more DC pictures for your perusal

Adam makes me happy.

So for the first time in a few years, I decided to follow American Idol. Right now the competition is down to the top 9. Last night someone went home that I really thought didn't deserve to but hey it happens. I have already picked a winner in my brain and I'm going to be so sad if he doesn't win. My choice?











Adam Lambert. That's right gay rocker dude that wears too much eye makeup. He decided to go for a more manly look in his last performance and well he stole my heart. He has an incredible voice that can do so many things. In his last performance he sang Tracks of my Tears and it gave me chills. If he wins I can see him being as big of a winner as Carrie Underwood or Kellie Clarkson.







What do you think?

Yvonne

P.S. I'm really glad he ditched the nail polish.

Word Association?

I was browsing through facebook today looking at various friends pages and I noticed something. The majority of the freshmen college students on my friends list have something in common. They all have their political views listed as liberal. It kind of made me chuckle at first but then it kind of started to upset me.

Then I started thinking about the word liberal. What is the first thing that people think of when they hear the word liberal? Well it kind of depends on your environment so let's take it from a Christian perspective. The minute a Christian hears the word liberal they cringe (don't deny it I've seen it happen). There are very negative connotations to the word. If you're talking politics you instantly think the liberal supports abortion, gay marriage, and taking away your guns. If you're talking about churches you instantly think the pastor doesn't have any standards and anything goes. But is this an appropriate view of the word liberal? College students hear liberal and because we have placed these bad connotations on it, it appeals to them because they feel they can use their "political views" to justify their wild behavior. Again I have to ask is this appropriate?

How many of these young people know what it means to be a political liberal? How many of you that call yourselves conservatives know what it means ot be a political conservative?

Taking it agian from the Christian perspective, when a christian hears the word conservative they smile and instantly associate themselves with the conservative sect. One automatically thinks that to be a conservative means you are a pro-life, God fearing, gun toting (or at least supporting), homophobic republican.

Now I'm not saying that it's good or bad that these young people call themselves liberals. I just wish that people would become more educated before declaring a political viewpoint. I was guilty of doing the same thing. I'm a Christian so therefore I must be a conservative republican. Upon educating myself on the true meanings of these words though I have discovered that while I still support the republican party I am in fact a liberal.

Did you know that it was the conservative movement that fought against freedom of religion? The state should use religion as a method of controlling the masses. In other words the state should decide what religion you practice. It was the liberal movement that fought against religious conformity.

I'm just throwing out a random fact about the conservative movement. There are some great merits to the conservative movement but there are also some great things about the liberal movement. That's why I love the fact that we have a mixed government.

I've heard Christians make the joke that democrats can't go to heaven. I'm going to change the wording of that a little bit because I think that's a bit harsh. Do you think that in order to be a Christian you have to be a conservative? I'm interested in knowing what you think.

I realize I have rambled here but I do that often. I promise that pictures of DC are on their way!

Yvonne

DC Trip Blog #2

So I'm back from D.C. and it was so amazing. I had a blast! I didn't get to post pictures because the internet wasn't working at the hostel where I was staying. That's right I said hostel not hotel. A hostel is an interesting experience. If you've been to church camp it's a little bit like that. If you've never been to church camp then you need to stay in a hostel at least once in your life. Anyway I've got pictures coming. I'll post a couple right now but I'll do a bunch more later.

My first daytime glimpst of the capitol.

Riding the escalator into the subway. Don't be an escaleftor or you will become an escalump.

Standing in front of the eternal flame of JFK. It's raining and it still burns I love that.

DC Trip Blog #1

Ok we are at the airport. I went to Conway this morning and picked up Zack and Tiffany and we all went and ate lunch at Old Chicago. Now we are at the airport way too early but that's ok we're excited! I'll try to post pictures everyday but we'll see how that goes :)

This is Zack and TIffany. I love these people!!!!! We're just sitting in the airport at the starbucks waiting on the rest of our group to arrive.

Talk to you soon!

Yvonne

3 days to go woohoo!!

I know the countdown says to but the countdown lies and I don't know why! I told it that lying was bad but it doesn't seem to care. So anyway. 3 days to go and I'll be flying to Washington DC. I'm going to have such a great time. I'm going to do like I did last time and try to blog during the week to keep you updated on how much fun I'm having so you can be jealous . . . er I mean enjoy the trip with me. I know when I was in Scotland my "daily" blog only happened like twice but hopefully I'll be able to actually do it this time!

I was looking back on past blogs and I can't believe that I've been blogging for almost 3 years now!! I also can't believe I wrote some of that stuff! It's been a fun 3 years though I love blogging it's such an awesome way to vent.

Anyway that was totally random and has nothing to do with DC. We fly in really late on Saturday night and coming in Late on Thursday evening. It's kind of a short trip but I plan on making another trip back for a much longer period of time. There is so much to see and do and I'm not going to have a chance to do it all while I'm there.

Anyway I'm going to stop talking now because I'm not really saying anything.

Talk to you later!!

Yvonne

Only 5 more days . . . Can I take a 5 day nap?

I'm at work and I'm super bored. I'm counting and recounting the days until I go to Washington DC. I just realized that I don't have my 15 minute presentation ready that I'm suppose to give when we get there. Oops. I guess I better get started. I'm doing it on the world war II memorial and I'm rather ticked that it has to be so long. The amount of actually classwork that we have to do for this trip is way more than what we have to do in the London class. In the london class we have to write a 1-2 page paper and give a 5 minute presentation on it. I'm doing Abbey Road the famous Beatles crossing. In DC we have to prepare a 15 minute presentation on some monument or building that we will be visiting and then when we get back from DC we have to write 10 page paper on that same topic. It's not fair really. We pay the big bucks for these field studies so we don't have to work!!!!! Oh well it will still be a great trip.

Looking somewhere else when it's right in front of you.

I was sitting in my World Conflict & Terrorism class the other day and someone said something that made me have this thought. We had just convinced the professor to move our test back a couple of days so we wouldn't have to take it yesterday and so we decided to have a round table discussion on the two essay questions that were going to be on the exam.

At the beginning of each semester, we stand in really really long lines at the bookstore and we buy text books. For most of the classes they are required. Each book costs around $50 to a $100 dollars and maybe more. When I was a freshmen I rarely had to use the books so I just wouldn't buy them but now that I'm an upper level student I absolutely have to read my text books in order to make A's in my classes. What's the point of me telling you this? Well keep reading I'll get to that.

We were discussing state run terrorism vx. state sponsored terrorism and some people just weren't getting it. One student starts talking about how they were "studying" for this exam and she kept saying I was doing research online and I found this . . . or I found that. Or such and such website says this. I look over at her table and she has a book for the class but you can tell it's never been opened. By this point in a semester my books are all marked up and have a billion of those little colored tabs sticking out everywhere. So anyway I spoke up and said something to the effect of "the book sums it up like this" and after I got through speaking the student that had been looking all over the internet for the answers was like Oh that makes so much sense!

I have never understood the concept of paying that much money for a book and then not using it. It makes NO sense to me at all. It's a book that you KNOW is going to have the answers in it. Generally, unless the professor just stinks at picking books it's going to be a book that explains the concepts very well.

Yes if you're writing a 20 page paper you have to use outside resources but for an exam all of your answers are found in the text book or handouts that the professor gives you.

I think that sometimes people do this in other areas of life as well especially spiritually. We have a Bible it's Gods word. Believe me it holds all the answers! So why don't we use it??? If you are having a hard time understanding something in a text book you can always go to a professor for further explanation. If you cant understand something in the Bible talk to a pastor and ask for his understanding or better yet pray and ask God to open your understanding to his word.

The point I am trying to make is this. You have some of the best resources right in front of you as a Christian young person and if you actually make use of those you'll have no trouble passing lifes tests. You don't have to hunt for the answers they are right in front of you in your Bible (the text book) and in your spiritual leaders (kind of like the handouts we get in class).

I don't know if that makes any sense or not but read the Bible it's pretty much awesome. If you're a collge student either read the text books or stop wasting $300-$600 a semester on them!!

Yvonne

YAY!!!!!!!

So I'm the president of RHA. I love being involved on campus it's so awesome. Anyway every year RHA hosts a karaoke contest and I always participate. Well being the president this year I wasn't sure how well it would go over if I planned the contest and competed as well. So I decided I'll do all the advertising and I'll let my Vice President take care of securing all of our judges that way no one could accuse me of anything suspicious.

The contest was last night. We had an AMAZING turnout!!! we served mocktails all night long. We set up a little bar and everything and the students LOVED it!

I'm not trying to toot my own horn but the last few events I've had have had really good turnouts but yet SAB (Student Activities Board) the group that has about $40,000 per semester to spend has a hard time getting people to come to events. I figured out why. When I advertised for this karaoke contest as well as most of my other events, I flooded this campus with about 1,100 flyers. I also had about 10 e-mails sent out reminding people about it. I had a sheet sign hung (though it seems to have dissappeared along with my stakes . . . stinkin thieves). I even hosted an open mic karaoke night about 2 weeks prior to the event just so I could remind people to come out. You know what SAB does when they have an event? They send out TWO e-mails. One of them goes out about 3 or 4 days before the event and the other one goes out the day of. Now keep in mind that these e-mails are going to the student e-mail accounts. Students are suppose to check this everyday but guess what . . . THEY DONT! I would guess that a vast majority of the students don't utilize the free e-mail account they are given when they come to UAM because they already have their own personal accounts set up when they get here. So yeah that's what SAB does to advertise. It's very interesting.

Now on to the really important stuff. The contest was super long. We should have planned things just a little better as far as the rounds of competition went. It was a lot of fun though we had quite a few contestants (I think like 25). We had an audience of well over 100 students (that's a lot for this campus believe me!). It was so much fun. I worked behind the bar when I wasn't singing. The first round was a fun round that no-one got eliminated in. I got second place for the girls in that round. The way it worked was all the guys had to sing a song that was originally done by a female artist and all the girls had to sing a song that was originally done by a male artist. I sang "Hey there delilah" by the Plain White T's. It was kind of funny but hey it got me second for the round and a 10 dollar gift card.

Now in the second round I sang because of you. I ended up in third place at the end of that round. At the end of the second round the top 8 got to advance to the final round. The points errased for each of the 8 contestants. I was the third person to sing and I sang a song called "Right to be Wrong" by Joss Stone. I got a total of 80 points for the round and I was pushed into first place. I was nervous at that point because I really really wanted to win. I've been trying for first place for 3 years now. Anyway I kept having friends go look at the scoreboard because I was too chicken. It was down to the last two singers. Tiffany a friend of mine who won first last year and a guy who's name I can't really remember. When Tiffany got through singing Errin comes up to me and says "how much do you love Tiffany." I was like aww did she beat me again? She hadn't. We were tied for first place!!!! Now when we planned the rules for the contest no-one thought about a tie breaker so Tif and I didn't know what the judges were going to do in order to determine a winner. We were standing there doing the whole Miss America Pagent thing and hugging each other when they were announcing the winners lol. Well anyway they went all the way back to the first round and added up the points from the judges in that round to see who the winner was. I was ahead by about 11 points and so . . . . I WON!!!!! I'm so stinkin happy!!!!! I FINALLY won a karaoke contest. I place in the top 3 every year but I wanted to be number one!! The prize? A $200 wal-mart gift card. YAY!!!!!!

Life is good

I'm sitting in the office and I'm eating a delicious toasted roast beef sandwhich from Brunos and I'm drinking a Dr. Pepper. It's nothing major but it makes me happy just the same. My life is really good you know that? I am getting a great education with the opportunity for an even better one when I graduate next year. I have an awesome friend in God (he is my everything). I have a great group of friends that I hang out with all the time. My family is pretty stinkin awesome too!

I LOVE MY LIFE!!!!!!!!

I'm super duper excited because we leave for Washington DC in 2 weeks and 2 days!!!! I can't wait!!!!!

It's going to be so much fun.

Again I must say

I LOVE MY LIFE!!!!!!!!!

No matter what they take from me . . .

THEY CAN'T TAKE AWAY MY DIGNITY (in my best Whitney impression)


So I walked into the middle of a speech at an alumni dinner last night. I walked in at the right time because Reverend Shay Gillespie was passionately quoting the words to a Whitney Houston song. I felt the urge to bust out in song but I refrained.

I've always liked the Greatest Love of All but it now has a comical aspect to it because just a few days ago I hosted an open mic karaoke night and someone (a male) got up and sang that song and well it was hilarious.

So imagine with me walking in the the university center and hearing someone shout at the top of their lungs the following words.

I decided long ago,
never to walk in any ones shadows
If I fail, if I succeed
At least I live as I believe
No matter what they take from me
They cant take away my dignity
Because the greatest love of all
Is happening to me
I found the greatest love of all
Inside of me
The greatest love of all
Is easy to achieve
Learning to love yourself
It is the greatest love of all

It was suppose to be an alumni dinner for Black History month but I think he ended up preaching a sermon. And apparently quoting Whitney Houston was the best way to end it.

I just wish I could have heard the rest of his speech.

Anyway there is as usual absolutely NO point to this blog other than to say for some odd reason I have Whitney songs stuck in my head today!

I just want you to know . . .

That having the flu sucks dirt worse than a broken hoover. I started feeling sick last night during church and now I have the full blown flu. I was hoping it was just a cold until I started running a fever

I went to one class this morning and I've been sleeping all day long.
I have a paper on George Mason due tomorrow and I haven't finished it. I guess I'll get to work on it. At least it's not due until 4:30.

Pray for me please!
(and to whoever the idiot was that left a comment on my blog last time I asked for prayer if you've ever read the Bible and if you believed the Bible you would know prayer works.)

I probably shouldn't have called that person an idiot but I'm sick so don't pay any attention to me.

Free Bread and a Barnyard (the story of capitalism with a democratic twist)

I snagged this from a friends facebook page. I'm posting it because it's pretty funny and perhaps it will make you see that while I may say that I come from the liberalism tradition I haven't gone and joined the Democratic party. I will continue to bake my own bread and not share it, Thank You very much. HA


You've heard this story before, now read the rest of the story.If this doesn't make you at least smile you're probably not awake yet. Like it or not there are a few more critters mucking in the barnyard.

The Little Red Hen, she called all of her neighbors together and said, '
If we plant this wheat, we shall have bread to eat. Who will help me plant it?''

Not I,' said the cow.
'Not I,' said the duck.
'Not I,' said the pig.
'Not I,' said the goose.

'Then I will do it by myself,' said the little red hen, and so she did.
The wheat grew very tall and ripened into golden grain.
'Who will help me reap my wheat?' asked the little red hen.

'Not I,' said the duck..
'Out of my classification,' said the pig.
'I'd lose my seniority,' said the cow.
'I'd lose my unemployment compensation,' said the goose.

'Then I will do it by myself,' said the little red hen, and so she did.
At last it came time to bake the bread.'Who will help me bake the bread?' asked the little red hen.

'That would be overtime for me,' said the cow.
'I'd lose my welfare benefits,' said the duck.
'I'm a dropout and never learned how,' said the pig.
'If I'm to be the only helper, that's discrimination,' said the goose.

'Then I will do it by myself,' said the little red hen.
She baked five loaves and held them up for all of her neighbors to see.
They wanted some and, in fact, demanded a share. But the little red hen said, 'No, I shall eat all five loaves.

''Excess profits!' cried the cow. (Nancy Pelosi)
'Capitalist leech!' screamed the duck. (Barbara Boxer)
'I demand equal rights!' yelled the goose. (Jesse Jackson)
The pig just grunted in disdain. (Ted Kennedy)

And they all painted 'Unfair!' picket signs and marched around and around the little red hen, shouting obscenities.

Then the farmer (Obama) came. He said to the little red hen, 'You must not be so greedy.''
But I earned the bread,' said the little red hen.

'Exactly,' said Barack the farmer. 'That is what makes our free enterprise system so wonderful. Anyone in the barnyard can earn as much as he wants. But under our modern government regulations, the productive workers must divide the fruits of their labor with those who are lazy and idle.

'And they all lived happily ever after, including the little red hen, who smiled and clucked,
'I am grateful, for now I truly understand.
'But her neighbors became quite disappointed in her. She never again baked bread because she joined the 'party' and got her bread free. And all the Democrats smiled. 'Fairness' had been established. Individual initiative had died, but nobody noticed; perhaps no one cared...so long as there was free bread that 'the rich' were paying for.

EPILOGUE
Bill Clinton is getting $12 million for his memoirs.
Hillary got $8 million for hers.
That's $20 million for the memories from two people, who for eight years,repeatedly testified, under oath, that they couldn't remember anything.

IS THIS A GREAT BARNYARD OR WHAT?

It's a bad word . . .

Ok so I realize that my last blog made absolutely NO sense but that's ok because my name is Yvonne and I'm random like that.

My next bit of randomness:

I have a new goal. Last semester I had a friend that decided she wanted to quit cussing. Don't worry I haven't gone and picked up the habit of cussing people out or anything. However it was really funny to watch or listen as she tried to come up with new ways to express her anger instead of cussing.

What does that have to do with my new goal? Well nothing really except that I also want to stop saying a certain word. I myself consider it a bad word. What is that word you ask? Well I'll tell you: It's "fixing" as in, I'm fixing to go to the store, or I'm fixing to slap you.

It makes NO sense AT ALL! However I find myself saying it allllll the time. So my goal is to stop saying that dreadful word. It would be much better to say I'm about to go shopping or I'm about to dropkick you in the face don't you think? Or just even I'm going to do my homework now (that's just an example you don't really think I'm going to do homeowork do you?).

So anyway if you have any ideas on how I can stop saying "fixing" then I would love to hear them.

Yvonne

Hello again my blogging friends!

I haven't been blogging regularly. That's bad! I like to blog I just don't have as much time as I use to :(



I had a birthday yesterday! I'm 23 years old now. I'm glad that I'm still young enough to be excited about birthdays.



I've had several things that I've wanted to blog about but I haven't taken the time to do it. Sadly I don't write these thigns down so I can't actually remember what they were!!



Did I tell you that I went to Denton TX to look at the UNT campus? Well I did! My sister and I went up there a couple of weekends ago. I LOVED it!!!!! I think that may be where I want to go for grad school.

I was suppose to take the GRE next weekend but I'm not going to be able to. I'll have to take it in a couple of weeks.

I'm currently working with our schools student government to re-write our constitution. It's been a lot of fun but it's also been some hard work. It takes a lot of work to reform government at a student level. I feel sorry for our national leaders! I've discovered something about myself that will shock the pants off of most of you. I'm taking a class called contemporary political ideologies (it's very interesting so stop rolling your eyes) and guess what. . . . I'm . . . . a LIBERAL *gasp* No it can't be so! Me the hardcore republican that thought liberal was a bad word am classifying myself as a liberal.

And guess what . . . most of you republicans out there are liberals too and I think that's fuuuunnnny!!!

Liberal doesn't mean we like killing babies and taking guns away. It doesn't mean that we want to take the rich peoples money away from them and give it to the poor people.

Let me ask you this: how many of you agree with the famous line "all men are created equal" or that we have certain unalienable rights and that among this are "life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness"

I thought you all would agree! Guess what . . . those come from a liberal!

Wow I have no idea why I'm blogging about this.

Liberals fought against two things when the ideology of liberalism first came about.

First of all they were fighting against religious conformity
Second they were fighting against something called ascribed status.

Religious conformity is exactly what you think it is . . . the state forcing people to adhere to a specific religion.

Ascribed status is basically the theory that whatever you're born into is the status you must remain for your whole life. There is no room for improvement or betterment. All men are not created equal under the theory of ascribed status.

Liberalsim means I want individual freedom as long as my freedom doesn't infringe upon your freedom. Guess what (I keep saying that) I can be a republican and still be a liberal at the same time. I think that is so awesome!

Now if you don't like calling me a liberal I guess you could call me an individualist conservative like Reagan or Margaret Thatcher and I'm totally cool with that because I like both of those people.

Now I have absolutely no idea why I wrote this except for the fact that I take great pleasure in shocking my family. (as if they actually read my blog)

I must reassure them though that I am still loyal to the republican party (sorry grandma) lol.

Yeah you guys can just ignore this rather odd little blog. I think it comes from not getting enough sleep or something. What do you think?

Obama's decisions regarding international abortion funding.

Yes folks I'm waxing political once again. It's been awhile since I've done that here and I know you all have just missed it so much! I'm actually a few days late on this topic but I have been dealing with other more important stuff in life. I also needed some time to decide what I thought of the whole situation. I know all you right wing republicans are saying, what's to decide? The man just proclaimed his stance on abortion very loud and clear and so of course as a good republican I should frown and say "bad president!" Or should I?

First of all I do not support abortion. I don't believe a woman should ever have an abortion. For one that is the Christian way to believe. For another I love babies!

Now here is the thing: yeah I don't like that he did it however you have to keep in mind the funding ban that was lifted does not directly fund international abortions. We can't fund international abortions because of a totally seperate law so there is no need to start pointing fingers and calling our president a baby killer. Secondly I truly think that Obama thinks abortion is wrong (call me crazy if you want). He has stated that he would like to see the number of abortions go down. I think he just has a general liberals view on the issue. LET THE PEOPLE DECIDE! He basically is saying you know what abortion is legal therefore we need to leave it up to the people. Yes I know we as Christians feel that abortion is murder. I agree whole heartedly one hundred percent. Unfortunately there is this little thing called seperation of church and state and we can't make something illegal just because it's the christian thing to do. It's the same as many other sins such as smoking, drinking, pre-marital sex and that sort of thing. We as Christians feel that all of that is wrong but we know that none of it will be made illegal just because of our Christian views. Smokers have restrictions because of the surgeon general. Drinking has an age limit for safety reasons. Even sex has a few legal regulations. Guess what so does abortion. There are certain types of abortion that just can't happen. There are rules that have to be followed so as not to endanger the health of the mother.

NO I am NOT a pro-choice advocate at all. I'm again playing devils advocate like I enjoy doing. I am a member of the national right to life organization. Once again I LOVE BABIES! I just don't think we should be so shocked and appalled at Obama's decision. I mean after-all Clintion did the same exact thing his first few days in office. It's kind of expected of a president from the Democratic party. When we get a Republican president again the ban will once again be reinstated. It's kind of like a game the two parties play with each other.

I stink at this game . . .

Sorry guys! I stink at keeping up with my blogging. I'm happy to report I made it through the first week of classes! I am also uber excited because I'm taking a very light semester. I've had like 3 in a row that almost killed me so I'm ready for a nice n easy one! I'm only taking 13 hours and 4 of those are my trips to London and Washington (I don't know if I can handle all that work!!). I'm pretty excited about this semester and this year. I know that things are going to be totally awesome!

This coming weekend I get to travel with my sister. I love my sister she is pretty much one of my hero's but we dont get to spend a lot of time together so it will be cool to have her all to myself for a couple of days!!! We are traveling to Denton Texas to check out University of North Texas. I am super interested in their PhD program in political science. I've talked to several staff members from there and they are all really friendly which is a huge plus. A lot of times you try and talk to teachers (especially the PhD types) and they act like they are too intelligent to pay attention to the dumb undergrad from Arkansas.

I'm truly blessed to be at a small school where the teachers have the time to focus on me and my education and I'm not just a 9 digit Student ID number to them. I've pretty much adopted Dr. Strong as my advisor and she is helping me work on getting ready for Graduate school. I love that woman she is another one of my heros! She takes the time to not only make sure I'm learning something from her classes but to make sure that I'm ok in general. If she thinks I'm having a bad day she lets me just hang out in her office and ramble on about how crappy my day has been it's pretty stinkin AWESOME!

Ok I'm done rambling now!!

Talk to y'all later

Maybe healthy isn't so bad afterall . . .

First of all I apologize for not blogging lately. I just haven't gotten around to it!


Over Christmas break I went over a week without drinking any caffiene I was so proud of myself! I then started drinking it again but not a 2 liter a day like I was doing. Then last week I did a lot of cooking with friends and I discovered that *GASP* I like a few veggies. I even ate MUSHROOMS!!! I ate carrots and peas and greenbeans too! When I came back to school I have had several people tell me I look like I've lost weight. Hmmmmm maybe healthy isn't so bad after all!!