"Pat Downs don’t want anything to do with your junk."

For anyone traveling in the near future, I hope your name isn't Pat Downs.

Hello, my name is Pat Downs.

Wishes for Winter Break

If there is ONE thing that I am truly looking forward to after this semester is over, it has to be sitting down and reading a good book. Or twenty. I don't care if it's not a literary classic, anything that is interesting and amounts to a page turner will work for me. I will just be so glad to think about well, nothing for a few weeks. I also want to read a lot of good fiction because I am taking a fiction workshop next semester (my first fiction class ever) and would like to get some ideas on topics, things, characters to write about. So, in that case, if you have any suggestions for me--feel free to post!

Christian Woman Faces Death for Blasphemy

This article was kind of scary and a lot disturbing. I hope this works out for the good in the end and isn't another story pitting Christianity versus Islam. It also makes me very thankful that I have the right to say what I want in my country and that I don't have to worry about being tried for blasphemy... because you know, that's so 19th century.

Christian Woman Faces Death for Blasphemy

Greyhounds Needing Homes

Hey all. I wanted to post this about the Greyhound Pets of American Maryland Chapter if you're thinking about getting a dog or if you're even willing to foster a dog until a home can be found. I adopted my own greyhound, Molly, last year from this same organization. Sadly, with the economy being the way that it is, greyhound owners are finding that they have to give up their dogs because they cannot afford to keep them due to lack of funds. Of course this is not limited to greyhounds, dog owners are having trouble in general. I just thought it would be worth mentioning to anyone thinking about opening their homes to a doggy in need or even just fostering one.

GPA MD

More Westernized Please!

I read this and couldn't help but say out loud? What the hell??? Surgery to look more westernized. Surgery as a gift for getting into college. Well whether your in the east or west, it looks as though materialism and being good looking is as popular in South Korea as it is in the good ole' United States. What a shame. And don't forget to click on the link about the new bride show where the women are competing to win plastic surgery! Barf.

South Korean Plastic Surgery

Lego My Fun

When I was a kid Legos were just little blocks that you built "stuff" with. I say that because I wasn't too ingenius when it came to playing with Legos, in fact, I didn't really play with them too much. Now it's all I hear about! But, that is because I have a six year old nephew who is a Lego fanatic. However, Legos from my day have come a long way. No longer are they just the little blocks to piece together, now there are Lego Wii games (Indian Jones, Batman, etc) which even I can get into. I even find myself sitting down with him to build Spongebob Square Pants hamburger mobiles. For Christmas this year the list is long (as it usually is for six year old little boys), and I've been instructed by my sister to buy him the newest Lego craze: Creationary. Of course I had never heard of it and had no idea what it was, but I've been surfing through ToysRUs's website and find that Creationay is actually a Lego boardgame (kind of sort of but not really). Basically what you have is a lot of Legos and a dice which you roll and piece together what you get when you roll. Apparently you should be able to show off 1) your creativity and 2) you masterful building skills. Either way, I thought it looked cool so Aunt Sam is being suckered into buying it of course. Little does he know he's also getting a shirt and pants too. Maybe Lego has a cool Lego box to hide those in to make them more appealing? You never know...

Lego Toy

And Yet Again... Another Project Update

Blaaaaah. Another snag in my project. Last Monday I learned that all that I had been working on in terms of splicing together my film footage was, to my great horror, lost! So I am back to square one. But not at the same square I first started from. I am scrapping my film idea completely because it just hasn't gone right since I began. So, instead of using moving pictures I am opting to use photos instead and am moving from YouTube to Flickr. That also means I have a little more  flexibility in being creative when it comes to designing and editing my photos as well as trying to find innovative ways to get my writing out there within each photo. I am sticking with my "on the road" theme as far as pictures and text go. So far I see my photos as being something similar to postcards where each card (or photo in this case) is telling a story and since my form is the repeating of a single phrase throughout, I think relating my project to moving postcards is accurate. I also have to admit that since changing my format I have become a lot more motivated to create in general which is great because I am really coming down to the wire in terms of having enough time. Hopefully my project will convey a part of me as both a visual artist and as a writer. I think at the end of this that that is my true goal, expressing myself in a way that will motivate me to continue with these sorts of projects and getting my work out there.

Tallest Living Married Couple

I just thought this article was interesting if you like Guiness World Records, and I know I do. The stranger the better! I'm just shocked that this lady is almost six and a half feet tall!

Tallest Living Married Couple

Replanting Trees to Go Green

While I am pro-green (recycling, trying to conserve, or reuse that sort of thing) I was really confused a few days ago when UB sent out an email explaining that sometime in the future roads around campus might be blocked, have limited access, or have no parking due to the university's plan to plant new trees. Hooray! I love trees. But the kicker here is that the school is cutting down trees to plant trees which, to me, was taking a step backward. Any thoughts on this? I have a few favorite trees (maybe that sounds strange, but you start to notice those kinds of things when you're walking down the same streets week after week just like you notice certain little street attributes) and I am sad that they are in jeopardy of being ripped up and replaced! Maybe I'm a tree hugger? Or maybe I just don't like change. But what I really don't like is seeing ugly orange plastic fencing all over the places that I walk. Sigh.

Project Update

I have been struggling for the past several weeks on trying to write a poem that corresponds to my film. So far I've gotten the majority of the film spliced together and have edited the color format, etc. to where I am almost finished with the visuals and need to begin adding sound/music. The most important part, however, is the text and I just couldn't get a grasp on what I wanted to say. Everything I tried ended up at a dead end or sounded flat and uninteresting. Then I had a breakthrough due to my Seminar in Lit and Writing class. We had an assignment where we were using an essay called, "In the Fifties" as a guide to write about a neighborhood we knew or made up while incorporating some of the essay's techniques throughout. Suddenly I realized that this form would work great in my film and I have finally begun to generate ideas that are actually producing something of worth. Very exciting stuff because I was starting to panic since we only have a few more weeks left. I knew if I continued on with my poem idea I'd wind up writing crap. I am very happy to have moved through that uncertainty and am hoping to have a completely finished piece by next week that I will be able to cut and paste to fit into my film.

Ghost Writer's

Today after running many errands, I sat down on my couch to veg out. Flipping through the channels I stopped to watch a few bits of E's Kendra and happened to stop on a section where she was talking about writing her book. No, but that's not true. She was talking about her ghost writer writing her book. Here we go, I thought, this should be good. And I wasn't disappointed. If I remember correctly, Kendra worried about her writer portraying her in the way that she wanted others to see her. She made a comment about having a lot of soul, and wanting that soul to shine through in her book. Isn't that the point of writing a book? I wanted to yell at the tv. If it's YOUR book you create the persona of well, yourself or your characters. You tell people what you want them to know and create the "soul" of the book. Kendra kept calling the book her's, but I just don't think that's accurate when you are relying on a ghost writer. Overall the whole scenario just made me angry. Angry because there are so many of us who are sitting down and taking the time to create things that probably won't ever get the chance to see the light of day and here because she is Hugh Hefner's ex, she gets a book deal and doesn't even have to do a quarter of the work. It all comes back to that old saying, "Well life just isn't fair..." Well, you got that right!

Sex and the City 2 Does a Belly Flop

I finally made time last night to sit down and watch Sex and the City 2, which I had been looking forward to watching since it came out. I guess I am a closeted fan these days as there is not a lot of Sex and the City out other than the films. I also just recently read the book (I, too, found it hard to believe that I own every single episode, including movie 1, and still had never read the book!). So, I watched movie 2 and was sadly disappointed for the most part. Of course it was funny as Carrie and the girls usually are, but it didn't grip me like the last movie (were Carrie and Big REALLY getting married?!). I think the fact that the majority of the film being spent in Abu Dhabi had something to do with it. Not a lot was going on plot wise either. I thought that Carrie and Aidan were going to do more than kiss since it seemed like it was such a big part of the advertisements, but they did not. I think the only person who was her usual self was Samantha. She was as in your face during this movie as she was when the series first came out. Carrie's, Miranda's, and Charlotte's characters seemed to fizzle out. I guess my main issue with tv shows/series turned into movies is thinking that it is going to be 100% comparable to the show. This, of course, is not the case. I feel as though if this were still being filmed as a show and not a movie, then the plot would have been better because it could have been dragged out over several episodes instead of trying to cram so much into two and a half hours. That being so, even though this movie didn't do it for me, I still hope that they give Sex and the City 3 a try.

"Bad hair day: Boy, 4, barred from pre-k for long locks"

Bad Hair Day

I find this situation really heartbreaking. A four year old boy is not allowed to go to pre-school at a Catholic institution because his hair is long, why? Because he is growing it out so that it can be donated to people who have lost all their hair due to cancer. In cases like this I really start to question the validity of religion. As Christians, we are taught to love everyone no matter what they've said or done because in the end it is God who will judge them--not us. Well, at least that's how I see it. I don't know exactly what having long hair is going to do in a classroom, but it's pretty disgusting that school officials think it's okay to turn a good thing into--as usual--a needless problem. I could see if the hair was distracting, and come on, little boys with mohawks probably cause more of an uproar than a kid with long hair. But seriously, why do people think they can decide what and what not is appropriate if it's not hurting anyone in the end? And what does this teach children about accepting others who aren't like themselves if adults can't seem to accept them?

Food Review from a Non-Food Reviewer

This weekend I found myself eating at a new restaurant (at least it was new to me) called Houlihans located in Columbia. I received a gift card for my birthday and just got around to trying it out. I heard their burgers were really good (and I love a good burger), but I actually went a different route and had something called a So Cal Fish Taco with homemade chips and salsa. They were very good and I was happy with my pick. I also got stuffed mushrooms as an appetizer and here I was thinking that they'd be little tiny mushrooms, but they were huge. And although I liked my tacos, I think I was happiest with the mushrooms. Instead of getting an alcoholic drink I instead opted for a raspberry lemonade which was also very good, but maybe next time I'll ask for a little spike of vodka. Overall I enjoyed my meal and would recommend it to anyone looking for a new place to eat.

Don't forget....

If you're a Maryland resident and you can... VOTE tomorrow!!!!!