Thousand Foot Krutch

Thousand Foot Krutch
I love this band. I listen to them daily. Even though we are looking at another camera, we all look like we're alert for it being a fan signing and it's 11:30 p.m. on a Friday.

29 February 2012

Leap Year

I HAVE to write about Leap Year. After all, we only get to write 2-29 every four years. Today were two wonderful speakers, Byron McCauley, director of Public Relations, at noon and Kurt Warner, the football player, at 7:30 p.m. I felt like I HAD to go to both (since both were free for students) and from BOTH I got extremely inspired. Even though Warner didn't know it, I came up with a very good question, which my friend Lisa asked him. He was rather surprised. That's because it was a) good, and b) she didn't talk at him, but to him. Plus she sounded totally dreamy and like she was madly in love with him. Honestly, I should have asked him a question just for the experience of it. I mean, I'll NEVER have that opportunity EVER again. I also need to get involved in SAC so I can actually MEET these people. It was just as great as meeting Michael J. Fox, if not better. This year's Speaker Series have gotten a lot better! I can't wait for Bill Nye the science guy :) YAY!

Praying you have faith, hope, and love always,

Rachel

23 February 2012

Candlewood

I know that everyone is hearing the good and bad about Candlewood. But we haven't heard anything this semester about living on campus in an off campus environment.

It has definitely gotten better, or I've adjusted to it personally. I know that some students are eager to leave but have remained and some are dropping off like flies struck by electricity. I know that some students like it and are happy here.

I am somewhere in the middle. I like the space, the TV, the DVD player, and the Internet connection in my room (as well as not getting kicked off said Internet connection every 15 minutes or so). The laundry is fine. I like feeling more independent. I like the free commuter parking pass, because now I can basically park everywhere on campus (at certain times). I like the option of cooking, but I have decided I will probably never be a gourmet chef. I am a lot more confident in my cooking skills - I know that I can cook at least! Other people love it! All the more power to them! They probably don't have problems with stove top food burning. (Don't judge me!)

Actually that leads to my two dislikes: cooking myself food (I like for other people to make it for me although I do like to cook for other people as well, so it's a terrible mix), mostly because I don't have an oven, and that gravel parking lot.

I already explained about cooking. But one more. I love stoves, and I miss having a stove. I miss muffins and toasted ravioli and fries and baking desserts and everything else you can put in an oven.

Now.

The gravel parking lot. Now, I am not from the country and do not appreciate parking on gravel all the time (although the fun part is that everyone makes up their own parking spaces). It's highly annoying, and luckily I didn't have to experience gravel with ice on it (I don't know what the results would be) because of our super warm winter. Sometimes I have to park in a grassy/muddy area if I get back "too" late (after ten). The drop between the entrance/exit to the parking lot and the ground is steep and I swear my car scraps the ground, and my car is not that low to the ground. I just can't stand it. I want a solution. Plus, the parking lot does NOT have lights and I feel in danger walking through it (I don't know why, but at night that parking lot is CREEPY!). Plus vandals have struck our cars twice - once each semester. My locks are broken. I mean, seriously?!

So, that is the major differences, and the factors I have to think of in deciding to stay in Candlewood next year, or go back to Dearmont.

Great.

Praying you have faith, hope, and love always,

Rachel

15 February 2012

The Vow

The Vow was very romantic, and perfect for the Day of Love. It was a little disappointing, but also left hope for the audience. I was disappointed the couple divorced. He was sweet. I felt he gave up too quickly. He was a good husband, and very defensive and protective of his wife. She seemed bratty after the accident, and I didn't like her most of the time. The movie probably could have had more depth, and reflected the couple better. Basically, the creators of the movie took Christ out of the story in the movie, and it seemed deflated without it. The movie had a Nicholas Sparks feel to it, even though he did not write it. It seemed like something he would write, except no one died. It's hard to believe she had such traumatic brain injury and could still survive.

Praying you have faith, hope, and love always,

Rachel

04 February 2012

Stove Top Cooking

Well, for my third year in college, I moved into a studio flat (which is actually a room in an extended-stay hotel but studio flat sounds better, makes me feel better, and is better to explain). I do have a roommate.

Well, I originally agreed to stay in the studio flat (rented through my university) because in the picture I mistook the dishwasher for a stove (and I didn't ask anyone to explain what was in the studio flat). So I came down all excited, figuring that, since I didn't have a meal plan and would have to prepare my own food, I would have a stove. I loved baking stuff in the stove. I rarely used a stove to prepare my food back home.

Well, big shock. I had a two-burner stove - and no oven. But I did have a dishwasher (which is rather nice). Well, my brother gave me a toaster oven he wasn't using, but believe me you, that is one annoying toaster oven (I do manage to use it, though, I just have to "baby" it and watch it and everything gets burned in it because it cooks the outside first and then the inside so by the time it's all done it's pretty burnt).

I've been learning exactly what you can make with a stove.

Here's my list.

1) Grilled cheese (with or without a fried egg).

2.) Grilled turkey and cheese (no egg for me).

3.) Fried eggs (and scrambled, but I only eat scrambled eggs if I have to).

4.) Bacon (if you have a place to put the grease).

5.) All kinds of canned and frozen vegetables.

6.) Hamburger helper.

7.) Spaghetti.

8.) Rice (mine has yet to turn out right, but I know you can make it on there).

9.) Pasta Roni (all kinds).

10.) Mac and cheese.

11.) Chicken breast fillets, premade, using veggie oil.

12.) Salsa con queso, cheese dip, salsa.

13.) Soup, canned or fresh.

14.) Pancakes.

15.) Hot chocolate AND cappachino (instant).

16. Whatever you can use ground beef for.

17.) Sausage gravy.

18.) Chef boyardi ravolis.

19.) Potatoes from a box.

* PLEASE GIVE ME MORE IDEAS :)
** Please, if possible, keep it fairly low-cost and fairly down to as few ingredients as possible. But really, whatever you come up with!

I use the microwave just as much (sometimes I buy stuff that can be microwaved).


And I use that good old toaster oven.

1.) Flameyons.

2.) Chicken breasts. 

3.) Party pizzas (big pizzas as well I guess).

4.) I will update this as I remember what I put in it.


I have some things I am going to try in the toaster oven.

1.) Muffins (muffin mix).

2.) Cookies.

3.) Chicken nuggets.

4.) Fries.

5.) Other meats.

Misc.
1.) I know how to make a no-bake cheesecake.

2.) I make juice (from cans of frozen juice).

3.) Pre-packaged, no cooking involved foods like donuts, candy, ice cream, etc.

Feel free to suggest stuff on Facebook or the comment section (for the stovetop, and for the toaster oven I guess if you want).

Praying you have faith, hope, and love always,

Rachel

01 February 2012

I'M BACK!!!!!!

I can't believe that I haven't blogged in such a long time. Well, break was, well, break. It was a normal break, and a good one at that. School has been, well, school. There isn't much to say about either of them after five semesters, and beginning my sixth, and facing two more (although one significantly shorter than the other). One goal I have for this semester: straight A's. I haven't achieved this yet, and I WILL.

Also, I am pondering my future (which gives me a headache, really). I know that no one feels like it is their right to interfere with my life (I'm not likely to show much appreciation if they do, no matter how much I need the advice, unfortunately). I just want to say that I am in my Mass Media Law class (finally, after everyone with as many credits as I have have already taken it), and I must say that perhaps I have found a niche. I feel really passionately about a federal shield law for journalists, and I want to be involved in that creation (IT WILL COME) either as the fighter for it or the politician who advocates it (the former, I would prefer). I just don't know how. Well, I could be involved in media law. Still, the thought of all those years of law school makes me cringe inside (the costs of law school hardly help alleviate it). Plus, my undergraduate degree(s) hardly provide much in the way of getting into law school (although English IS on the right track but it is not THE track). AND I want to make sure this is not just me trying to make up for something else (I don't know what). But law school for a woman is hardly a dream. And I'm old - 21 is old, trust me - but not only that I'm about to graduate college in a year with TWO degrees, which do not involve the law anymore than Small Press Publishing (contracts) and Media Law (introductory) are prepatory classes which practically don't even count! Why would this be growing in my heart the past two years? (Unfortunately, the years are right, even though I haven't admitted it to anyone until, um, today. Yea...).

Basically - I'm too scared to go to law school, too scared of failing. And I do not want to fail. What if this is God's plan for me? Why wasn't it more obvious...or, why didn't I listen?

Praying you have faith, hope, and love always,

Rachel