The Soap Box
A place for me to dump my brain and you to pick thru it

This BURNS Me
11:03am

I am furious about this story. In a nutshell, there is a 13 year-old girl, in state custody (read foster care) in Florida, and she's pregnant. Now, even though Florida has a law that minors don't need to get parents' permission to get an abortion, this girl has been told that she "lacks the maturity" to choose an abortion even though she has one scheduled for Tuesday. Good one. Because if she lacks the maturity to make medical decisions about her own body she must have the maturity to raise another human being. Because the Florida foster care system needs more children to lose...

She is not mature enough to make decisions about her own medical care but the state thinks she can take care of herself in such a way that the baby which she is being forced to carry against her will will receive proper nutrition for the next six months? The state is going to stop her from drinking or smoking or doing whatever else may be harmful to the unborn child? She is not mature enough tot take care of herself but she's mature enough to take care of this growth insider her that she doesn't want? (Not to be too graphic, but where do you think coat-hanger stories come from?)

So, best scenario, this unfortunate girl who has had a rough start in life looked for a guy to love her and ended up pregnant. Worst care scenario, she had sex against her will. Either way, it was a mistake. This mistake is being compounded by a state infamous for neglecting/losing/screwing up (pick one) the children in their care. I just don't understand. It's insanity.

Of Course!
9:50am

Where do you go when you get cold feet and fake your own kidnapping in order to avoid getting married? Albuquerque, of course! Jennifer Wilbanks, from Georgia, must have felt really guilty when she saw her family having a vigil in her name, praying for her safe return. She called her fiance from Albuquerque about 7 hours ago.

Welcome to New Mexico honey. Home of dysfunctional families. Sounds like you'll fit right in.

PS: I think there's some warm Mexican balogna left in a suitcase if you're hungry.

Quote of the Day
12:04am

"Revenge of the Sith" is, quite simply, fucking awesome. - Kevin Smith

I Speek Reeeel Gud!
11:32pm

I am proud to be 30% Yankee!

Good Luck...
12:03am

...to Brian Weikle, aka "Locke" for those of you who knew him way back in the CIS days (if none of this makes sense to you , don't worry. It's pretty cryptic), who will be participating in Jeopardy's Tournament of Champions this Friday. I've known Brian for over 10 years. It's always interesting when old friends pop up in unexpected places.

Speechless*
10:11pm

http://www.di-links.com/link1382.html

(feefed from Presurfer)

*and if you know me, you know that's rare!

Beware of Flea Market Bologna
3:44pm

I'm just going to post this story as it was reported by a New Mexico news web site because it's just too fucking funny:

WASHINGTON (AP) - Over 800 pounds of Mexican bologna smuggled into the US without refrigeration has been destroyed by the Agriculture Department. It was found in suitcases aboard a bus earlier this month north of Las Cruces. The man who owned it says it was going to be sold at a swap meet or flea market. The man entered the country legally, and is not being charged.

The Agriculture Department has approved some imports of Mexican bologna, but it must be refrigerated. Un-refrigerated bologna can create health risks such as Classic Swine Fever.

Who exactly would buy warm Mexican bologna out of a suitcase at a flea market? *shudder*

Excuse me, I think I just made myself sick.

Ohmyeffinggod
3:30pm

I just found out today that my stats final is 4 hours long. 4 HOURS! That's longer than the fucking GRE! I mean, that's just cruel. I need to calculate how many Diet Mountain Dews have enough caffeine to keep me going for 4 hours. Anyone know?

Never Ceases To Amaze Me
12:15am

Just for fun, here are some search phrases used to get to my site this month and my comments in italics:

largest dick in the world - That would belong to the Blue Whale.

how do you pronounce ristra? - "REE-strah"

let s just say i wouldn t kick you out of bed for eating cookies - uh...thanks

how to make your own fake boobs - socks? kleenex? silly putty?

julianne moore urine - uhhhh...yeah....ok....

do you need a license to use a veterinary ultrasound machine - Beats me, why? You got one?

tom cruise overweight - I actually did write about this one. If you use the Body Mass Index, then Tom is considered overweight...as am I...make whatever conclusions you want...

semen swallowing for muslims - and I thought they only made "for dummies" books. Who knew?

what does a lizard in my shoe mean? - It means there's a lizard in your shoe?

what kind of bees make milk instead of honey? - boo-bees...boobies! Get it?

I Could Have Told You That!
11:26pm

E-mails 'hurt IQ more than pot.'

Shit, if pot only drops your IQ by 4 points, pass the duchy.

Stupid New Mexico
3:32pm

I was totally out of Alavert and the pollen level here is high (like a 10 on a scale of 12) so I went to the grocery store to get some and I found it all locked up! Apparently they are afraid I'm going to use it to make crystal meth or something. However, it does not have pseudophedrine (sp?) in it. It's just loratadine, an anti-histamine, and as far as I know, you can't use that to make meth; not that I'm an expert on meth. All I know about making meth is what I learned from King of the Hill when Bobby made it for his school science fair and I think he used cough syrup.

So anyway, I have to give the guy at the store my ID. He writes down my name and address, then he has to walk the box of 24 tablets up to the register. Once I've paid for them, I can actually touch the box. The REALLY dumb thing? I can buy a box of 6 or 12 without all the hassle but the box of 24 was verboten without a record of my purchase being made at the store. How fricken dumb/time wasting is that? If the stuff didn't work so well, I certainly wouldn't bother. The makers of Alavert may want to educate the hicks down here as to what their product does and does not contain before they start losing sales.

Random Entertainment Notes
11:10pm

C'mon, you know you want to know all the dirt, so here it is...

Rob and Ambah of Survivor fame, married this past weekend in the Bahamas. The wedding was filmed (and paid for) by CBS and will be broadcast on May 24th, opposite the last American Idol episode.

The Wedding Singer is being turned into a Broadway musical. No, really! Seems Broadway is really trolling for ideas, huh?

Rumor has it that for Simple Life 4 (like we actually need it) Ritchie is out and Rod Stewart's daughter, Kimberly. I'm sorry, I can't even pretend to care. Next...

Why why WHY is Mr. Spears in the French version of Vogue? Damn redneck. Gawd, I hope all French people don't think that WE think he's sexy. Gag.

Joaquin Phoenix, who watched his brother River die of a drug overdose, entered rehab. Makes me sad. He's such a great actor. I hope he can beat it and stay clean.

Seriously...
11:49am

If you are thinking about creating a living will and need a great example of one, check this out. There are many things included here that you might overlook, such as "Do not resuscitate me before noon."

My sentiments exactly!

Guess Who I'm Boycotting?
10:54pm

I've always been a fan of Guess clothes. Can't always afford them but sometimes they have some really cool stuff including some hot shoes. I found a Guess store at the Metrocenter Mall here in Phoenix and I am now officially boycotting all Guess stores until they get rid of Paris Hilton as their spokeswhore. EVERYWHERE you looked, there were pictures of Paris...in tiny tops, in her underwear hugging a blue teddy bear, pouting as if her daddy just told her she couldn't buy a new Jaguar dealership. Ugh! I don't want to wear anything she wears, that's for sure so I am now avoiding their stores until they regain their sanity and can this "I'm famous for no reason," over-exposed, bleach blond dingbat (which is very easy to do as there are no Guess stores in Albuquerque).

Long Story Short
10:10pm

I am now the recipient of the 2005 RMPA Student research award for outstanding empirical research that comes with a check for $200 (which I've already spent). Yay me!

Wish Me Luck!
12:52am

Well I give my talk at 10:20am pacific time. If you are around then, send me some good energy, will ya? Thanks! :)

Hello from Phoenix!
11:11pm

How can ANYONE live in a place where it's 90 degrees at 6pm on April 14th??? That's fricken crazy! Ugh! I'm not sure I've ever visited a place where the taxi driver kept his money in his driving glove, returning very sweaty bills to his customers. Charming, indeed.

Anyway, I"m here to give a presentation on Saturday morning entitled, "The Influence of Ethnic Experience in Cognitive Ability Assessment." Sounds exciting, huh? I have about a 1 in 4 chance of winning a cash prize so that's something to look forward to. That is, if I actually finish creating the presentation before I have to present it.

I have forgotten how lonely it is to be in a hotel alone. It's been a long time since I've traveled without my better half. I used to travel constantly and I have to say I don't miss it.

In other news, I got an A- on my latest stats exam so I think now I can get a D in the final and still pass! Woohoo!

An Open Letter to a Friend
11:16pm

Dear Dufus (and you know who you are):

I am the most vulgar person you know? I am actually the least vulgar person in my family. So, if I am too much for ya, don't come over for Thanksgiving or Christmas with my family, muthafucka.

Sincerely,

Me

PS: You know I luv ya, right?

Phew!
8:22pm

Scary Stats test #2 down, only one stats test left in my academic career! Woohoo!

Memories
10:18pm

This Scary Stats course that is torturing me endlessly somehow has brought back a memory from when I was an undergrad in the engineering program. I only had to take 5 physics classes but the first one was taught by a guy straight out of the 50's. He totally looked like the science guy from the muppets. He was roundish with black plastic rimmed glasses. We'd ask him to do a problem on the board and about half the time he'd come up with the wrong answer. He'd step back from the board, look at his work and pronounce loudly, "I've got a boner here but I can't seem to find it!" which would all make us giggle and snicker. "He's got a boner and can't find it? Bwwaaaaahahahahahahaha!."

Ah, good times.

An Afternoon with Dr. DeSade
6:02pm

So I go to the dentist today and he does whatever it is he needs to do to make my root-canalled tooth ready for a crown. He then tells me to look int he mirror because he had something to show me.The tooth next to the one he's working with needed a new filling. Of course! Not one single trip to the dentist can be simple for me, I swear. (Now, if I were him, I would have wiped some of the blood off my face before he gave me a mirror.) So he now has to numb that area and start drilling away. He puts in the new filling and tells me to bite down, which I do, and the new filling breaks. He now has to dig out all of the new filling and do it all over again. Whoopee!

Then, strangely, they didn't have a temporary crown small enough to fit on the stump of the root-canalled tooth so they have to give me some bogus silver colored thing they dug out of somewhere so now I'm all gangsta looking with my temporary silver tooth, which I will have for a full week. Luckily, it will be replaced with the permanent, tooth colored crown before I present at the Rocky Mountain Psychological Association next weekend.

Oh, total cost so far for this root canal? Over $1700! *faint*

Another Banner Day
6:53am

Guess where I get to go today? Back to the dentist! Woohoo!

It's been 2 weeks since I got the root canal. I am not really sure what's going to happen today but I'm betting they are going to do something about the temporary filling I have then make a mold of my tooth to make a permanent crown then give me a temp one. Is it just me or does that goop they use for the mold drip down your throat too? *GAG*

PS: Whoever is calling my cell phone at 7am, you are out of luck. No way I'm getting my ass out of bed to answer that mofo.

Thought of the Day
8:44pm

God bless Diet Mountain Dew.

So Low
12:06pm

It's amazing to me how I can be in such a good mood one day and so low the next. Today is a low day. VERY low. It's about all I can do to get my shit together to get to school and not break out in tears. I blame it on hormones. Fucking hormones.

Thinking Out Loud
12:41am

I have to take this diversity in counseling course, which is cool. I think it's important that we learn different ethnic groups have different needs when it comes to counseling and all that but one thing I'm having a hard time accepting is that because of my skin color, I am considered prejudice against others as I am part of the "oppressors" within the United States and that I am considered racist because I am of European descent (i. e. white). I can completely admit that certain doors have been open to me because I'm white. However, I do not consider myself racist or prejudice. I believe we are taught to be racist within a family and am not simply racist by being born in the majority culture of the US. And let me tell you, my family was not racist. I learned as young as 5 years old that certain words (like the "N" word) was NOT acceptable. If anything, I grew up color blind. I didn't even know that those of Asian descent weren't the same race that I am until midway through high school.

Being color blind, according to my course, is also not acceptable. I can see this in one way. If someone comes to me for counseling because they are having problems that are related to their race or ethnicity, I obviously can't pretend we don't have any differences. I guess I'm a little confused now if I'm supposed to acknowledge someone's ethnicity as soon as we start counseling or treat them as an individual. If I don't treat someone as an individual, then I'm depending upon stereotypes, aren't I? The drunk Indian, the lazy Hispanic, the overachieving Asian...? the problem is I don't believe in these stereotypes and I think they are damaging to both sides.

I still have no answers. I feel like I don't have prejudices but maybe I do. It's hard to talk about these issues when everyone else in the class is white. I'm not getting other people's points of view. Race in this country is such a volatile subject that it is not really discussed in a calm manner around a table of students. I know I'll have a client that will tell me I have no idea what it's like to be like them and this is true! So how do I learn? How do I find out what sort of doors are closed to minorities? How do I know what it's like to have to struggle for every little thing? I don't have security guards following me around stores. I don't know what it's like not to be able to find products (make-up, hair and skin care) appropriate for me. I don't know what it's like to not have people that look similar to me around me all the time. I know I've had certain privileges that others haven't. I just don't know what to do about them.

Question for You
2:18pm

Why is it "playing God" when someone pulls the plug from life support machines but not playing God when we hook people up to machines that breathe, "eat" and eliminate their waste for them?

Now That's Just Mean!
6:59am

I get gypped out of an hour of sleep this weekend? That's just a cruel April Fool's joke, isn't it? Isn't it?

Quick Check-in
12:06am

Yes, I'm alive. No, I haven't had time to blog. Gave my 2 presentations, got some THING removed from my back surgically, doc doesn't think it's a mole so...WTF is it? Ugh! Worked over 10 hours on this week's stats homework and will probably get a low score on it. Gotta be back on campus in less than 8 hours and I wish like hell that it were only an April fool's joke. Going to bed...zzzz....

Blog Name: The Soap Box
Email: jenben[at]g-r-c.com
Introduction

Jen's tattoos
Movies
Ways to waste time
Flash
Digital art
Poetry
Olympic pictures
Crafty things
Cats
Officiant

2007

2006

2005

2004

2003

2002

November
December

Blogroll Me!