My New College Major

Heya, back again to announce a new semester, a new major, and new courses with new awesome classmates!

First order of business: I've survived my first semester at University! I barely scraped by in Intro to Chemistry (rocking a C! Yeah!) but I passed US History I with a nice B+.

Secondly, I've changed my major. Okay, so it happened in November, but I had a ton of crap to do and.... yeah. Anyways, prior to mid-November, I was majoring in Animal Science, with a concentration on Horse Training. After some intense soul-searching and a marvey deep discussion with my mother about the pros and cons of my major, I made the decision to exit entirely out of the College of Applied Sciences and enter the College of Liberal Arts, with which I am entirely too familiar, having been an English - Creative Writing major at another College.

Ach! Gotta go to a class! I lost track of time! I'll finish this later!

A Recently Born-Again Friend

So, a few nights ago, I was at a Christmas party put on by some good high school friends, and I found out that one of my other HS friends had recently "become" a Christian (he's been atheist for as long as I've known him).

That night I was taking a break from the crowd and noise, checking my e-mail on a comfy couch in my friend's den. Then my friend PC plunked down into a chair across from me, book in hand. It was a Bible, which was weird for PC since he's always ridiculed religion whenever given a chance.

I make an offhand remark that it's a "classic", he then starts talking about how, yeah, he's studying Revelation because his church group leader said he might find it interesting and insightful. My ears perked at "church group" and "Revelation". WTF? I decided being peaceful and soft-spoken was the best way to go about talking with PC. I told him, "Hey, whatever floats your boat." This seemed to prompt him into telling me his I-got-saved-and-so-can-you! story about how one of his college buddies begged him to go to church one Sunday. He said he didn't really like the service, but that the church preacher asked him to come back the following Sunday, so he did.

It was at that point that I started feeling deeply uncomfortable with the direction in which this conversation was headed. He said that his 2nd visit to the church opened his eyes and he felt a heavy weight lifted from him during the service. PC told me he felt happier than he ever has in a long, long time. I told him I was happy that he found something that made him happy, saying this in a truly friendly way. This only seemed to push him on. PC said he wants everyone to feel as happy as he does and told me he had brought another of our friends (who, last I knew, was a lesbian and snorted whatever she had at hand) and that she was "saved," too. This is why he's studying Asian culture and languages so that he can go on a Missionary trip to Cambodia or Indonesia next summer, so that he could tell other people of the happiness he had found.
This gave me the chills. It was like Kirk Cameron had taken over my friend's body.

*silence*

I struggled to find something to say. I ended up telling him about some family friends of mine who have a Christian gospel band and have some beautiful, cultural songs that I enjoy listening to, if only because I enjoy my friend's voice. PC said that he didn't like Gospel music yet. He said, "I still like rock, like Rise Against and Genesis."

I giggled to myself. It seemed PC thought that when he became a Christian, his music tastes would change, hence not liking gospel music yet.

I've never had a Born-Again Christian friend. I've had a few Baptist and Methodist pals, but they just grew up like that. I have no idea how to act around PC anymore, the situation is just so otherworldly.

I welcome any advice or insight from you guys. Thanks.

A Familiar Pattern

Greetings from the Afterlife! No doubt it would seem that I've died, because I haven't posted anything since August 19th. But here again is your Savior! Summoned from the stupor of summer stagnancy! Annoying alliteration is alive!

Anyhow, I'm celebrating my 3-day Labor Day weekend by sitting on my ass all day and only moving for pepperoni pizza and Kool-Aid. Because I'm just that awesome. And because I've put my feet through enough abuse this past week: my first week of classes at a local university.

Yes, yes, here's the college chick inviting you to a personal pity-party for herself! But, really, my feet DO hurt!! I swear to the Flying Spaghetti Monster that I must walk at least a mile every day I have classes. I've been nursing a severe case of bicycle-envy since this past Tuesday. At least I'd be able to sit while my legs pumped furiously on the pedals! :P

I think I'll start investigating into whether or not I could fit a bike into my itty-bitty Nissan's trunk (maybe if I flattened the back seats?). Anything to prevent blistering tootsies!
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A Reason Humans May Cook Their Food

I've read a little further into "The Omnivore's Dilemma" (by Michael Pollan) and I found this little snippet on page 264 of the hardback edition: "One of the reasons we cook meat (besides making it tastier and easier to digest) is to civilize, or sublimate, what is at bottom a fairly brutal transaction between animals. The anthropologist Claude Levi-Strauss described the work of civilization as the process of transforming the raw into the cooked -- nature into culture."

Rather interesting stuff, don't you think?
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Cooking Shows

I'm laying on my couch now, watching Rachael Ray and Gordon Ramsay babble about pork chops and "simple" ways to prepare them.
Not only do I get hungry when watching these cooking shows, I also feel this urge to get off my lazy ass and go cook something. On occasion, I actually do this (to the shock and awe of my family): the Oreo cheese cake, yummy salmon salad, and spinach fritata.
Now, I want to learn more about cooking: the science of it, how different ingredients relate to each other. The fact that I'm reading "The Omnivore's Dilemma: A Natural History of Four Meals", written by Michael Pollan, has just spiked my food information interests even further.
Even while reading this book, I find myself craving more information: how and why humans began to cook their food, why most cultures have a 3-meals per day fixture, why we eat the meals we do, and many others.
I guess I'll blog these answers when I find them. I mean, I can't be the only one wondering this!
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Stretched Thin

Being a know-it-all sucks. You know why? Because I feel pulled in so many directions, so many kingdoms of subjects, kinds of topics.



I'm entering another year of college, and I don't know what I want to study. Granted, I don't have enough credits to even begin contemplating my major, but I have a problem nonetheless.



Here, I'll list what majors I've been envisioning for the past 3 years: Ornithology - veterinary science - English - creative writing - classical languages - ancient history - English history - linguistics - creative writing - anthropology - history - Exotic Animal Training and Management (a program @ Moorpark College, California) - vet tech - animal science w/ horse training concentration - animal behavior - history of human/animal interaction...



I'm effing all over the place. Sometimes I think of dropping all this institutional learning and start writing questions for trivia game shows. Or better yet: WINNING THEM! Just think: if I could win all the money I'd ever need, I'd be able to do anything, learn anything I wanted without any restrictions at all!



Your Tikia, building castles in the sky.

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