Less filling... Tastes great...

For the record, if you were ever wondering if it's pop, soda or coke... it's pop. Look at the link, and you will see that most of the country actually calls carbonated beverages pop. Not soda, and not coke, but pop. There you have it.

Saw this in a friend's away message and really liked it:

**Wait for the boy who will be your best friend, the person who will drop everything to be with you at any time of the day no matter what the circumstances, wait for the boy who makes you smile like no other boy makes you smile, and when he smiles you know he needs you, wait for the boy who wants to show you off to the world when you are in sweats and have no makeup on, but appreciates it when you get all dolled up for him, and most of all, wait for the boy who will put you at the center of his universe*

Back to work again...

Well, it's back to the world that has a strong resemblance to office space for me :(

I really don't like my hair cut at all. It's quite upsetting. I did like it the first day I got it, but now I really wish I'd never cut my hair. Usually I only feel bad the day I cut my hair, and then I get over it and begin liking the style, but not this time. This time the dislike grows every day...

So because of my wonderful blogger account, I get to be one of the first people to try out gmail, google's new e-mail service. So far I mostly really like it. (Today I don't cause I can't seem to open it!) I has sooooo much storage, which is great for an e-mail packrat like me. Also, there's this neat feature that when you've replied to an e-mail it give you the option to open the original message in what looks like another window. I can't explain it really well, but it seems to me to be a very organized way to look at your mail. If you want to help me use this, shoot me an e-mail at alison.stephenson@gmail.com

A few points about it:
1. I've heard a ton of talk about the advertising that google is using, for the record, it's the same kind of advertising that is at the top of this page. (Yahoo's advertising is way more obtrusive). As far as it looking at key words in your mail to decide what kind of advertising it should use, that really doesn't bother me. a.) it's not a person sitting there staring at my mail. b.) if I have something that is so sensitive that I don't want it to be accidentally seen, I won't use that service. (actually I'd try not to use any of the free services). c.) the advertising is only seen by me. (Unlike yahoo that sends out flashing advertisements with some of my messages. )

2.) It's got 100 mb of storage!! For free. That alone is just about enough to make me consider it.

3.) I really like the way that the reply feature works. (Like I said, I really can't explain it very well.)

4.) You can search your e-mail archives, a definite plus.

That's all for now. I know what I think of it isn't very sophisticated, but if you want the average, can't program for crap person's opinion, I think it's great.

drum corps... :)

It's been quite a day.

I don't really feel like going into it, but it's been a day. Today made my post from Sunday have a whole new meaning.

Also, I've realized in the past week that I can be quite a distant person. Especially when it comes to physical distance. I don't give many hugs, or get really near people very often. I'm not sure why this is. I really don't have any aversion to hugging people, in fact I quite like it, but it's just how I am. I only give/get hugs when it seems that they're really needed. What makes this quite perplexing to me is that I feel like I'm quite an extrovert. Wouldn't you think that someone that seems like an extrovert would be more of a physical person? Interesting. All right, that's enough about me for this evening. Have a good night!

After seeing my dog today, it's his time. I'm gonna miss him.

I don't know who this is, I stole it from Scott Carter, but wow...

Matthew's Contribution
"I don't think a lot of people sit around and contemplate their lives. I mean, people think about their futures and what they're going to do, and what they should have done in order to achieve something, but I don't think anyone contemplates their present. What they're doing right now. Everyone's heard of living in the moment or whatever, but I think very few people act on it. Myself included and that's something that I regret immensely.

Life is a finite thing. Obviously, everyone's life is going to end, but mine has a time limit. No surprises for me, and depressingly enough, that time limit is going to run out rather soon. I've never really told anyone how long I have left, or what exactly (in great detail) is wrong with me, because I would rather my friends viewed me as a vital, volaile, rather silly human beings, but at age 21, most people don't understand or know how to ! contemplate the thought that
someone they know will leave forever, they would abandon me for more secure, lasting relationships.

So everyday, every minute is vital to me, the most mundane things are breaths of fresh air. The things that most people take for granted but shouldn't - a kiss, a pudding fight, a good long walk or an intriguing conversation - are now intensely important to me, and I think they should be important to everyone. The fact that I know I won't be able to experience these things makes them achingly more important to me, and they make me desparate to achieve them one more
time.

I want to close my eyes and kiss a girl one more time; the kind of kiss that makes you feel like you're floating, the kind where you forget to do something with your hands because it's so good. I want to go camping, and lay in the grass and think how naively beautiful the day is. I want to shoot off fireworks and ! run away when the cops pull up. I want someone to hold my hand and tell me something nice about myself. I want to be able to read the paper and deride George W. to someone, and have them hate that {jack} with me. I want to sit on a stoop late into the night, drinking ###### beer and telling stories. I want to feel alive, and not dead or dying, and think that those things - the most trivial and passing connections to the world and people in it - are violently important.

So this is my contribution to you. I'm desperately telling you - all of you - to take advantage of your youth and vitality. I hear too many people talking about college and getting ###### jobs afterward. I hear too many people talking about work and how this and that sucks. ######, we're all wasting our lives doing things that disconnect us from everyone else! You don't need a four or five year plan, and you sure as hell don't need to worry about feeling innocent
and immature again. Worry about making everyday something to talk about, and not just another blank page in your life.

I used to act like you. I had a plan, I had a future, and all that blew away, but right now, I barely have a present, and that's how I've realized the error of our ways. Please, please don't get old and die, and die of cancer, and realize you did nothing with your life but make plans that never happened. Don't miss opportunities anymore. If you like someone, tell them, if you think the time is right to kiss someone, do it. If you feel like you're in a rut, do something silly and fun. If you feel the world is ugly, make something beautiful. Stop being so cautious, some movie line said: if you take life too seriously, you'll never get out alive.

Trust me, as much as life sucks sometimes, and wow, do I know it sucks, it is still the only thing we know. It is the only thing that matters, and it's wonderful. Life is a beautiful, ridiculous, tragic disaster, but it's the only thing we have. So don't let it lie by the wayside in pursuit of crap that's barely important. People are the most important resource, and so are the relationships we build with them. I feel the pinch of that more than ever now. If we could spend 400 billion dollars to cure cancer instead of building and maintaining weapons, I wouldn't have to write this. So this is, essentially, a plea. This is the most personal thing I've ever written, and I hope it reaches more people than I ever could.

Don't forget this is the only life you have, make something worthwhile out of it, and no one you've laughed, cried, kissed, and bled with will ever forget you."

-- Matthew D. Lazzara (April 2, 1982 - February 15, 2004)

For the record, the only thing that sucks more than the Mac that I'm currently using is

X-box

If you agree (or if you just want to help me have some fun) open aim and click here! Do it many, many times. The person getting it loves getting im's!!

My dog is being put to sleep this weekend. :(

He's been my bud for the last 17 years. I'm really gonna miss him.

Thank you so much to everyone that came to my recital and to everyone that sent little messages! For the record I rocked it out!!!

Give me the splendid silent sun with all his beams full-dazzling.
Walt Whitman

The sun is shining and it is a beautiful day!!

And I rocked out my senior recital dress rehearsal yesterday, so hopefully I'll rock it out

Tuesday, April 13 at 8 p.m. in Pease

Boredom sounds so lovely. I'll have to try it again sometime. Perhaps after April 13.

Things will work out the way they're supposed to, and when they do, it makes you smile.

serendipity

n : accidental sagacity; the faculty of making fortunate discoveries of things you were not looking for

My insides have stopped rebelling! Well, mostly. I still can't eat much, but I haven't thrown up in a while, so that's a plus. I really thought it was just food poisoning, but apparently 7 other people from the music building had the same thing, and when one went to the hospital she was told it was a "highly contagious intestinal virus." Grrrrrrreeeaaattt..... After that I decided to stop infecting the world and go back to my apartment.