Summer 2010 Academic

I don’t think I have posted in a little over a month. You can’t imagine how much work 4 courses over the summer semester is. They really make the credits the equivalent of a 5 month course. Imagine all the reading, all the writing, all the research and all the studying of a 5 month course squeezed into 6 weeks. It really has been crazy.

So I took an Academic Writing course (B+), Marketting (A-) the first summer semester and right now I am in the last week of Philosophy in Film (Guessing a B+) and Children’s Literature (Guessing a solid A).

We have been trying to stress to Seporah all summer long that when school starts Mrs. VanTreese won’t be there because she is staying home with her kids. Today, she finally got it, and said “Mrs. VanTreese is not at school, she is staying with her kids.” Of course today is the day we found out that she is actually still working and will be Seporah’s special education instructor. I swear she came back just for Seporah, but Märia’s guess is probably more plausible, that she came back due to finances and the economy being bad.

Märia and I are looking forward to Modern Family and The Big Bang Theory starting up. This summer has really been a dud for television. There hasn’t been one show that I have enjoyed (not that I had a lot of time to try a lot out).

I actually won’t have a lot of time Fall semester either. I am taking 7 courses, 21 credits. Here is a quick list: 1. Civilizations of Asia, 2. Modern European Civilization, 3. Science Fiction in Film, 4. MultiEthnic American Literature, 5. Hawaii during WWII, 6. Hawaii’s Economy, 7. Directed Reading and Research (I decide what I want to study, outside of class, for 3 credits). That last class is a present from a professor that I have particularly impressed (not the chemistry professor who gave me the award last semester). Basically I tell him what I want to study, he finds nice academic pieces for me to check out, and I read other, related items, and report back to him on what I have learned. I am going to use it as a lead in to my Senior paper in the Spring. I need 36 credits to graduate, so 21 now and 15 in the spring will finish me off.

Um, I guess that is my update. It was nice that I saw Lynda on Skype today, and had a quick chat with her before me and the girls went and had some fun. It would be nice if some of you other awesome people logged on to iChat or AIM or Skype sometime so we could do a video chat with the girls (I am looking at you grandparents!)

And the Sewing Fiasco Continues (the Fiasco Part Referring to the Mess that is My Living Room

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I made these darling pants…

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…as well as the girl wearing them.

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Magical Shroom…

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…the “Magical” part referring to that they are gender neutral for the co-worker who’s not finding out. Craziness. I mean who doesn’t find out in this day and age?

My Domestic Abilities are Expanding

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It’s called a Taggie and believe me, they are all the rage in today’s baby consumerism population, google Taggies if you don’t believe me. I made it for a good friend who’s having a baby. They have waited a loonnnggg time for him. I was so thrilled and bought her some stuff, but the stuff (although super cute) really didn’t feel personal at all. So I was like dude, I just bought a sewing machine and I’m gonna start making excuses to use it. I used 3 different types of soft feeling fabrics (don’t ask me what they’re called) and I thought it turned out well. Felicity and Seporah said it was “actually really, really soft” and tried to insist they were the babies that needed it.

There’s a Reason Why The Last Airbender Only Has An 8% Rating at Rotten Tomatoes

Märia: I want to go see a movie tonight.
Steven: Which one?
Märia: The Last Airbender *reading Fandango information* Hey Jackson Rathbone is in it. Did you know that?
Steven: Who’s Jackson Rathbone?
Märia: You know Jasper.
Steven: What do I care about Jasper?
Maria: Don’t even give me that Mister I Saw the Midnight Showing of Eclipse.
Steven: Hey I went to go see Alice. Jasper is just competition.

So Seporah and I went to go see The Last Airbender tonight. I actually really wanted to go see it having nothing whatsoever to do with Jackson Rathbone. It just looked like fun. I’d seen commercials for the show Avatar and though I never actually watched it (since I don’t really have the time to just sit and watch a whole cartoon television series) it did look interesting and I figured I could sit through a 2 hour summary movie instead.

The storyline was interesting, the choreography was beautiful, the music was epic, the costumers were amazingly talented, the CG was really cool but the whole thing just plain sucked. There was no soul to the movie, no depth to any of the characters, plus I’m pretty sure the dialogue was written by a 3rd grader. It was like someone was making this wonderful sweet bread and forgot to add yeast, so instead of tasting delicious it was hard as a rock and was good for nothing but a doorstop.

Anyways I haven’t seen a movie this bad since, well I don’t think I’ve ever sat through a movie this bad before. I’m pretty shocked that the same director of Unbreakable put this out as well. So here’s your warning: RUN, Do not waste your money on this movie, it is not worth it.

If the Spirit tells you to do something, just do it

I did it, but I was timid when I knew I needed to be stern. I was afraid of hurting feelings, and I was afraid I might be wrong, and I was afraid I was overstepping boundaries. As a direct result, a young man’s life is changed forever, and not for the good. I can’t say more than that, except to say that it didn’t have to be that way. Heavenly Father made a way for it to have been different, and I didn’t do my job.

All Men are Pedophiles!

You probably remember my post about being some kid’s carnival/festival and needing to go to the bathroom. The bathrooms were packed and so I snagged a teenaged girl and her friend coming out of the women’s restroom and asked them if they would watch Seporah and Felicity for a few minutes while I went to the bathroom for $5. And then I was given a stern talking to by a police officer, first for “loitering” outside the women’s restroom in search of teenaged girls to give money to, and then for allowing strangers to watch my children for any amount of time.

I have also written about the major difference between how women (especially those with children) looked at me back when it was just me, and now that I have children. Before there was generally fear in their eyes, and they would move their children so that they were between me and them. Now they see me with two little girls and smile, allowing our kids to play and even for me to play with their kids.

It really is insane how our society has come to view men, based on an incredibly small minority of heinous crimes.

Yesterday Märia and I took the kiddos to the local bouncy house, where there were probably over 100 kids and 5 bouncy houses. There was a man, did you hear me? A MAN, in one of the houses and HE WAS PLAYING WITH CHILDREN!!!!

It totally freaked Märia out “he gives me the heeby jeebies!” and she told me I had to go check him out to make sure he was a “nice guy”. I asked her if it would bug her if he was a woman and she said of course not. I initially refused to go over and check him out, but she insisted, and so I went over. He was just your average dad, rough housing in the same way that I do, or Matt (old neighbor from church) did or Adam (new neighbor from church) does. Throwing kids around, pushing them, playing and such. I honestly don’t know what the big deal was. It was a well lit area with parents all around, watching their kids, and lots of kids old enough to know if “bad” playing occurred.

Did you know that in England an adult man cannot sit next to a juvenile on a plane unless they are related?

We as a society have got to quit seeing all dads as pedophiles. The insanity has to stop.