"Thou Knowes't the mask of night is on my face"

 

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A shoujo's tale of life, love and lollipops

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angel_bob

:: 2006 20 May :: 11.08am

I'm doomed.
I heard this on BBC World News last night/this morning:

"New research suggests that a diet high in dairy products can greatly increase a woman's chances of having twins.

A study in the Journal of Reproductive Medicine showed milk drinkers were five times more likely to have twins than women who ate no animal products.

The numbers of twins in the world has increased significantly in the past 30 years, in some countries by over 50%.

Scientists have suggested fertility treatments and women delaying pregnancy can help explain the rise.

But this new research indicates that diet can also play an important part.

Ovaries stimulated

In the study, the twinning rates of women who ate a diet including milk were compared with women who followed a vegan, or no animal products diet.

It is believed that a protein found in the livers of animals may be the cause. Called Insulin-like Growth Factor or IGF, it is found in cow's milk and other animal products.

In women it makes the ovaries more sensitive and increases the number of eggs produced. Higher levels of IGF improve the survival chances of an embryo in the early stages of development.

The effect is likely to be greater in countries such as the United States that allow growth hormones to be fed to cattle.

The researcher behind this study says that women thinking of getting pregnant might consider alternatives to meat and dairy products to reduce their chances of having twins, as multiple births are more prone to complications."

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angel_bob

:: 2006 17 May :: 6.04pm

I hear that our zoo is going to have a stingray exhibit starting on Saturday in which you can pet the stingrays and stuff.

The kite festival is on Saturday in Grand Haven and I hear that they will have glow-in-the-dark kites at night. I would love to do that also.

So those are my plans for the weekend. If you want in on any of them, feel free to call.

I love you all.

3 Little LoverDolls | Wilt thou answer?


angel_bob

:: 2006 17 May :: 8.56am

My car is fixed!

2 Little LoverDolls | Wilt thou answer?


angel_bob

:: 2006 15 May :: 12.05pm

Dad says we're going to get my car fixed today. I hope we actually do. I miss my car.

1 Little Lover | Wilt thou answer?


Angel_Bob

:: 2006 14 May :: 10.29am

"German 'Robin Hoods' give poor a taste of the high life
ALLAN HALL IN BERLIN

A GANG of anarchist Robin Hood-style thieves, who dress as superheroes and steal expensive food from exclusive restaurants and delicatessens to give to the poor, are being hunted by police in the German city of Hamburg.

The gang members seemingly take delight in injecting humour into their raids, which rely on sheer numbers and the confusion caused by their presence. After they plundered Kobe beef fillets, champagne and smoked salmon from a gourmet store on the exclusive Elbastrasse, they presented the cashier with a bouquet of flowers before making their getaway.

The latest robbery is part of a pattern over the past several months, suggesting that the thieves deliberately set out to highlight what they perceive as the inequality inherent in German society.

However, the authorities do not agree. Bodo Franz, a police spokesman, said: 'They get off feeling they are just like Robin Hood. There are about 30 in the group. But whatever their motives, they are thieves, plain and simple.'

Carsten Sievers, the manager of a luxury supermarket in the wealthy Blankenese area of Hamburg, recently watched the robbers run off with trolleys full of expensive foodstuffs, including Kobe beef which, at more than £100 a pound, is always on their illicit shopping list.

In another recent swoop, the gang emptied a groaning buffet table in a top restaurant into sacks, while one of their number held up a sign saying. 'The fat years are over' - the title of a hit film currently doing the rounds in Germany.

In internet statements, the gang have made a point of saying their booty is distributed to Hartz IV recipients - the poorest of Germany's long-term unemployed. The benefit is named after the disgraced Volkswagen personnel director Peter Hartz who, before he lost his job with the car-maker in a prostitutes-and-bribes scandal, devised the new means-testing which is loathed and derided by society's most economically challenged.

When the gang robbed the gourmet store in April - triggering a massive police investigation that cost £20,000 in taxpayers' money without an arrest being made - they left a note behind saying: 'Without the abilities of the superheroes to help them, it would be impossible for ordinary people to survive in the city of the millionaires.'

Police say they are concentrating their investigation on a loose collective of anarchists and malcontents called 'Hamburg in Vain', to which they believe the superheroes belong. But they admit there is a certain panache and skill about their robberies.

The gang are also behind black market cinema tickets which they distribute free to the poor, and they have printed leaflets telling passengers how to dodge ticket inspectors on the city's underground and buses.

Mr Franz said: 'They try to make crime fun but are politically motivated.'"

5 Little LoverDolls | Wilt thou answer?


Angel_Bob

:: 2006 13 May :: 9.49am

Bleh.

Yesterday made it 23 months.

23. Months.

For you bibliophiles, that's one month less than 2 years.

Two.

And must I further accentuate the YEARS? Plural.

2 Little LoverDolls | Wilt thou answer?


angel_bob

:: 2006 12 May :: 9.22pm

I checked my grades and I have an Incomplete in one of my classes. Incompletes usually only occur upon a prearrangement with the professor because you're missing an assignment or you missed the exam.

I missed nothing. I was expecting a B or B+.

My professor has not returned my calls or my emails. I'm about to get desperate and call her at home.

Grr.

I love you all.

P.S. Kelly, I don't know if you saw it below but happy day of you. You have joined the old people group.

1 Little Lover | Wilt thou answer?


angel_bob

:: 2006 12 May :: 1.13pm

Last night Katti's car battery died. I went to pick up Nick from work and instead of reading and expanding my horizons with John Hodgman's book, I listed to Eddie Izzard for over an hour.

Apparently, it drained the battery. I had to get a jump from Nick's boss.

I returned to Nick's house, ate some foods and the car wouldn't start again.

Ben was asleep and no one else was home. I didn't know anyone downtown that could have given me a ride home. I called home and told them that I'd be home in the morning because the car wouldn't start.

Everything was okay.

Then this morning, I got a call from my brother and sister. They overslept even though they've been getting up at the same time for school for longer than they care to remember. Hannah's pissed because I'm not home. She calls my mom.

Oh, by the way, my parents are in Las Vegas.

I called Mom and got called irresponsible and told that my priorities are all wrong, that I broke her car and I have a loser boyfriend.

I ended up driving all the way home to take everyone to school and then all the way back to be late for work.

So, Kelly. Sorry but I don't want to chance leaving the house today and getting yelled at again. Have a beauteous stormy wet birthday. Maybe I'll see you tomorrow if I'm not dead when my parents arrive home.

I love you all.

P.S. John Hodgman is the PC in the PC v Mac commercials y'all might be seeing. I was right. You all doubted me because he gained weight but I WAS RIGHT!

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Jaganshi

:: 2006 9 May :: 9.48pm

So. Obligatory end of year post?

Sure. I'll do that. I have to do something to give this year some closure, after all.

I've spent another year at Butler and found that some things never change.

One, I will never ever have enough money. I will be perpetually screwed financially, and the best I can hope for is to survive up to the point where being screwed by Butler is irrelevant in any immediate sense. This is a result of the fact that my parents are changing their legal residence to New Hampshire, where they live. Up until then, we've taken advantage of various military loopholes that allow me to be an in-state student. My senior year I lose at least four thousand dollars in state funding. However, I won't have to register for classes again, and maybe I can save up to help defray that. I won't know until the time comes.

Two. People are the same no matter how old you are or where you find them. Many people are worth talking to, spending time with, even loving. Others are petty, greedy, and generally not worth any of the above. The people I've found are often variations on the same theme. These don't beg for respect. They take it. They simply are to be respected, without any need for them to cry out, "I told you so." I've met a few of these this year. Some people are distractions, but these new friendships... they are the diamond in the ashes, which I take in spite of you.

Some things have changed, though.

One. I'm becoming both more selfish and less self-centered if that makes any sense. I consider what I want instead of what is expected of me. I will not be guilted, manipulated, bullied, or abandoned when another more useful commodity comes along. My autonomy is coming along a bit. However, with this growing freedom is coming the realization that I don't have to need people to be around them. I don't have to be using them as a means to any end. It's okay for me to value the company of another person. It's safe to value the needs of others if I keep my head about me and remain conscious that their needs are not my needs. I don't need to mortgage my identity to anyone else to be relevant, but I can lend the identity I've chosen to the causes I value. The distinction may seem small, but it's a step in the right direction.

Two. Summer vacation isn't looming on the horizon as a three-months span in which life simply.... stops. I can spend that time with a young man I love very much, knowing that he loves me and is glad to have me around. I can go to my parents' house just long enough to see my cat. I can go to India. I can go to Ohio and get a job so that I can stay with Brian. Small sacrifices in order to gain everything worth working for.

Three. As I become more expressive of healthy emotion, I'm learning the difference between what's helpful and what isn't. I'm becoming a little easier to be around, very slowly and very gradually... but I'm getting there. I figure it's the least I can do for the people who stayed. They deserve that at least. The others? Let them remember me as they wish. I do not regret anything I have done. I was not unjustified in my scorn or dismissals all these years. I still have not been proven wrong. I simply intend to treat the people who love me with more gentleness than I've previously been capable of.

How are those for some changes? I am the same as I was, but greater in many ways. I will make different choices in the future than I have in the past, but the past is still there where it always was. I do not regret a moment of it.

3 Little LoverDolls | Wilt thou answer?


angel_bob

:: 2006 8 May :: 11.56pm

I'm supposed to pick up Nick from work. He said he'd call me 45 minutes before they were going to be done.

It's almost midnight. I'm tired.

And worried.

I love you all.

2 Little LoverDolls | Wilt thou answer?


angel_bob

:: 2006 7 May :: 8.49pm

Summer's barely started and I'm already bored.

I'm playing LOZ: Ocarina of Time again because it is a fun game and it's something to do.

Maybe I'll actually beat Majora's Mask and Wind Waker.

That would be fun.

I'm also reading this book on France that Nick bought for me. Every chapter or so, I have to stop reading and make myself stop freaking out so it's slow going. However, it is a very informative read.

It still freaks me out.

In other news, I want babies.

I love you all.

2 Little LoverDolls | Wilt thou answer?


Angel_Bob

:: 2006 5 May :: 12.19pm

I watched Good Bye, Lenin! the other day.

It was good.

Except Yann Tiersen is a lazy ass and reused one of his songs from Amelie.

1 Little Lover | Wilt thou answer?


Angel_Bob

:: 2006 4 May :: 10.00pm

Well. I am a sophomore now.

I don't even know about France anymore. It's just too much money. We can't even afford the $500 "down payment" due tomorrow.

I don't even know if I want to go. It's just going to be more money that I feel guilty about my parents spending.

Ignore me, I'm on the rag.




I will be working 12-5 on Wednesdays, 9-5 on Thursdays and 9-4:30 on Fridays until I get another job then I'll hopefully be working every day.


I'm going to get my car fixed this weekend (or at least get an estimate on the cost of such fixing).



"Singing" while driving makes me happy.

2 Little LoverDolls | Wilt thou answer?


Angel_Bob

:: 2006 4 May :: 8.27am

Today, I have my last exam.

Then I will be done with my first year of college.

Wow.

1 Little Lover | Wilt thou answer?


angel_bob

:: 2006 2 May :: 9.45pm

The man behind Neutral Milk Hotel, Jeff Mangum, is a genius.


Pedro the Lion is also a genius. You've got to admit that the rhythm and timing of Rapture perfectly captures sex.

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