Resolution?

Well, here is is the last day of 2004 and what have I accomplished? If I remember correctly, I sat in this room exactly a year ago and wrote out a list of resolutions for 2004. They were things that I wanted to get, I wanted to do and I wanted to stop doing. Everything I wrote out was easily within reach, and so I thought it would be easy. I could write about if I reached my not-so-lofty goals or not, but I wouldn't have much to say. The reason is because I can't remember my goals. I'm sure they were simple, stop biting my nails, strengthen my vocabulary, be more open to the people around me, these types of things. So this year, I've decided to forego the required resolution. There are many things I want to accomplish, but I'm going to do it in a more productive fashion. Rather than think about them New Years Eve and then forget about them, I will set goals for myself as I think of them. Setting five goals one day doesn't make sense to me, because it's immpractical. It would be close to impossible to follow through with them all, so I'm just going to have fun tonight and hopefully the rest of the year will fall in place as it should:)

It actually worked!

Well, this journal has actually officially proven to be useful. About a week ago I wrote an entry that had little known facts in it, and the ways they may help me in the future. What amazes me is that one of these things actually helped me in real life. I included a fact about Winston Churchill; he was born in a bathroom during a dance. Well, the day after Christmas I stayed at home and I played the game Cranium with my parents and my sister. I was teamed up with my father against my mom and sister, and the game was close. We were all doing well, so neither team could put very much space between us. Then, I rolled a purple. We answered the question correctly, and were then able to roll again- finally some ground could be won! My dad did the rolling this time, and we had to answer a question from "data head." These are either multiple choice, true-false, or open-ended questions. When my mom pulled out the card with the question deciding our fate on it, she said it was a true-false. What a relief. At least this way, we had a 50-50 chance. Then she read the question. "Winston Churchill's mother was a poor potato farmer throughout his life."

Ooooh, was I excited! My CIS blog came into my head, and I automatically knew the answer. False! What in the world would a poor potato farmer be doing at a dance when she was pregnant?? She wouldn't be there! "False! False!" I practically screamed out. My dad looked at me with squinted eyes- he thought the answer was true. But no-sir-ee! False was the answer, and we jumped far ahead of my mom and sister in the game.

So thank you, blog. You made my day. I won at Cranium, due in a large part to you.

Dumb, to me at least

My list of 9 stupid resolutions people may make...

1) Stop chewing your nails. Most people do this because they're stressed. If you tell yourself not to, you'll become stressed from thinking about it, so you'll have an even larger urge to chew them. Hypocritcal if you ask me.
2) Change the world. Everyone does this every day, whether they realize it or not. If you set out thinking you're going to make some drastic change in the world, chances are you'll be disappointed because you won't notice the little things that you have an effect on all the time.
3) Lose weight. This one blows my mind. Our country and world are so preoccupied with being perfect that nothing is ever good enough. It's perfectly fine to want to lose a coule of pounds, but I think if you're going to make a resolution it should be more thoughtful than losing weight.
4) Get a boy/girlfriend. It will never happen if you're anxious about it. Sometimes, having one isn't a good idea anyways. Just live life and let it happen- it's too big to always be controlled!
5) Getting closer to family. If you really wanted this to happen, you would have been working at it already. If you're already doing it, there's no need to make a resolution for it.
6) Be happier. Setting this goal will do nothing but make you more depressed. It's impossible to just wake up one morning and stay happy forever. Humans go through cycles, which make us appreciate the good times and respect the bad. No one will be happy all the time, because if that were the case we would have nothing to compare happiness to.
7) Stop procrastinating. This is very circular to me. People want to stop putting things off, and they wait until the last day of the year to set this as a goal? I think this should be a resolution made on New Years morning. That would start the year off on time.
8) Keep in touch with people more often. If this is a resolution being made, go into your phone book and call the people you want to connect with. If they don't answer, leave a message. If they have a cell phone, send them a text message telling them happy new year.
9) Stop drinking/smoking/doing drugs. So many people make this resolution New Years, and then go out and get drunk on New Years Eve. They're being so hypocritical that they don't even realize it. They think that having one last hurrah! will make them more likely to keep the resolution. In fact, it knocks their effort to its knees.

I really do enjoy New Years, it just makes me think. I wish people would stop focusing so much on resolutions, and just do what they need to do. Call your friends, don't eat 2 pieces of cake, do stuff on time. Not to sound like the Scrooge of New Years, but I think we should all just celebrate the new year and forget about these things that add stress to our already overflowing lives of it.

Your Car

The song had ended
But we weren't
Going to let that bring
Down our mood.
Yesterday in your
Car, with nothing
But eachother and
The wind and the music.
Nothing was extraordinarily
Distinctive
It was no birthday or
Anniversary or holiday,
And yet I'll forever
Remember being
In your car with
You on that special day.
Driving with the
Radio turned up,
Singing to every song.
The best of friends
Is what we are,
And perfection is here.
No need for the tension
That is ineviatable
With dating.
The two of us, in
One car looking
Like a couple and
Being everything but.

Season One

For Christmas this year, I was given a lot of very cool stuff. Books, movies, cds, clothes- they will all go in my room and make it a nicer place to be. Out of everything I was given, however, one thing sticks out in my mind. My favorite present this year was the complete first season of The O.C. on DVD. I don't know what it is about the show, but I abosolutely love it. Seth is the former-dork made man-stud because of his newfound confidence. Ryan had a big hand in giving him that confidence. Ryan is a very intelligent guy who grew up on the wrong side of the tracks. One day he and his older brother steal a car and get caught. His brother gets thrown in jail, but Ryan ends up living with Seth and his family. Summer is the "typical" popular girl. She's pretty, but only nice to people she knows and deems worthy of her. Marissa is the girl-next-door. She's also pretty, but begins to have a drinking problem when her world starts to fall apart. It's a lot of fun to watch the relationships between these characters strengthen, then fall apart, then strengthen, then fall apart again. Set in California, it shows what life could be like if you had way too much money and an abundant amount of gorgeous people with over-sized problems. I know what I'll be doing this break- watching The O.C.!

Leftovers

The food has been cleared away and the wrappings are still sitting around the tree. Some presents have made it into their respective bedrooms; the majority still lay among the torn paper. Ashes are left in the fireplace as the last remnants of the fire that burnt throughout Christmas night. Television has stopped playing holiday shows and are now focusing on the new year of 2005. No longer can I turn on the radio to be greeted by sentimental Christmas songs.

Christmas has left many things in this house, and is now gone. The most important leftover we have, though, cannot be consumed or thrown in a garbage can and rolled away. The memories of the laughter and excitement of new toys and old family are now embedded in our hearts. When the next cold and weary day comes along, I'll always be able to look back on Christmas and know that it wasn't just a wasted day- it was a day made for remembering.

My break

Well, when I got up this morning at the horrific time of 3:45 am to go into work, I told myself I would skip writing in my journal. It's Christmas Eve, I have to work 8 hours and then help my mom cook dinner for the family. One day wouldn't make a big deal. I've written every day, and I've had many varied topics. But something has drawn me into my room. I told myself I would just check to see if I could even get on-line (my computer is notorious for not allowing me to connect). Somehow, though, I ended up going to blooger.com and clicking on "add post." It's become habit for me. Every day I try to get on-line, habitually fail and then turn to my journal to write something for my CIS blog. I couldn't just skip today. It's one of the most important days of the year, and I needed to write something. This blog won't be very moving, or important or make anyone laugh. But I've now realized that this is my favorite part of CIS. The rest is enjoyable, but filled with stress and anxiety. Here I can just let loose and write what I want to. Punctuation should be thought about, but it won't be graded. So now that I've written something, I can go back to my family and celebrate Christmas:)

Shrunken

The ring slips
Around my finger
Until I can no longer
See the red of the ruby

My finger is smaller
Than when I first
Bought my ring
And now it won't stay

Around and around
Like the blood in my veins
Goes my ring, taking
A tour of my finger

I try to set it straight
But the dips don't
Cease
I give up the fight

And allow my ring
To allign itself
Wherever it feels
It need to be

Losing of Minds

Yesterday I lost my mind. Literally, physically, metaphorically lost it. The day was too short and the night was too long. Somewhere in the cross-section of the two my mind decided to pack up and go on a ride without me. So here I sit in Honors International Business with no mind to speak of. ASHLEY HAS A MIND (a note from stephanie). Well that was Stephanie interjecting on my behalf, but I guess she's not as smart as she believes herself to be. She seems to be in an even worse set of affairs than I am at this moment in time. So erase what I said before and exchange it with "So here Stephanie and Ashley sit in Honors International Business with no minds to speak of." Inside of our heads there is little more than black space. Mine has a nifty little ball going back and forth, knocking on the sides of my head. I'm not really sure what is going on in Stephanie's head now, but I can see her fingers typing rapidly as she writes a blog about me- dissin' me, she says. That's okay, though. Because we both lost our minds somehow yesterday, I know that whatever she writes will not be thought through. (It would be quite impossible to think something through without having a mind.)
You may be asking just why I say I have no mind. Well, here's the reason. This morning, I put on my shoes. This is an everyday occurance, and it even happens multiple times everyday. However, this morning was different. Rather than put my shoes on the right feet, I somehow got them mixed up and ended with my left shoe on my right foot and vice-versa. It was quite uncomfortable, but I soon figured out what was wrong by looking down and seeing my duck-feet.

So, this is a plea for help. Has anyone seen my mind? I would love to have it back, because it does come in very useful during the day.

It seems to me that recently, life has been going at a hectic pace. I've been learning new things, sticking them in a "temporary file" in my head and then shoving them out with new information. I don't want my life to be led this way- I want to learn new things and appreciate them for what they mean. I want to be able to add useful things to conversations, rather than only my opinion. But instead of going and finding a whole bunch of current even information, or even very useful things, I decided to learn the most bizarre trivia I could. These are the things I came up with (many thanks to www.superkids.com).

Winston Churchill was born in a woman's bathroom during a dance. This could come in handy in the future. If ever someone is talking about the black curtain that went over Europe, I can astound them by knowing Churchills' beginning.

The national anthem of Greece has 158 verses. When I go to Greece at some point in my future, it will be a good thing to know about their national anthem. Though I probably will never be in a situation where I will have to sing it, at least I'll know why they don't always sing it as Americans do- it
s too dang long!

Al Capone's business card said he was a used furniture dealer. If I had known this when I went to Alcatraz a couple of weeks ago, I could have shared it with my family . When we saw the cell they believe he was held in, it would have been very interesting to let them know this little tid-bit of information, since he was obviously not involved in that.

Well, that's all for now. But I'll come back and write more about little-known facts. They are so fun!

Rudeness

The audacity of some people absolutely astounds me. American Sign Language is one of my least favorite classes, and yesterday a girl in the class said something which made me want to be very mean to her. I'm normally a pretty nice and happy person, but the thing she said was so out of bounds I was even embarrased for her. Christmas vocabulary was the lesson for the day, and our mission was to fill the white board with words relating to the holiday. After we had a lot on it, Mrs. Jerzac asked if anyone was Jewish. She began to teach us words such as Menorrah and Jewish, and then a girl in the class spoke up. She said "Is anyone in here Jewish? If you are we're sending you back to Germany." I couldn't believe it! How any person could be that heartless and say such a thing was beyond me. I told her what I thought, and she went on to say "Who cares? They don't really matter anyways." Oooh, was I ever ticked. Being easy-going is probably one of my largest personality traits, but this got under my skin. Luckily the bell rang and I was able to duck out of the room before I said anything regrettable. I wish this is the last time anything such as this is ever said, but I know it won't happen. All I can say to whoever is reading this, is to think twice before you speak. And if you're still unsure if your comment will be rude or not, please refrain from sharing it.

To play

The essence of the playing spirit is oftentimes lost to the adult world. When we look around our own world all we are able to see is the blur of money signs and the occaisonal act of love we find time to do. Children have forever been the people who are in charge of the act of playing, and will forever be the masters of this endeavor. Finding Neverland explores this fact through the eyes of the writer of Peter Pan. Peter Pan itself is the story of a child who refuses to grow up. While this may be taken further than most humans can go, with flying and Captain Hook and mermaids, this should be a goal we all have for ourselves. We should hope that in our children's future they don't have to grow up as fast as they now are. Play should be the cornerstone for all of our lives, with the rest of the details of life coming in to complement the playing.

Memories

The sun sets behind us
As life looms before us,
We can't tell where
We're headed next.

We want to be ready,
We aren't really steady.
The future is still
Ever-changing.

We are going in every direction
Our hearts will always be here.
When we come later, all will be changed
Will we still see this as home?

The sun sets behind us
As life looms before us.
We can't tell where
We're headed next.

Looking back we'll still remember
All the times we were together.
The memories will always stay
Just the way they are today.

Paper, paper, paper

Every person who has ever used a paper has commited a heinous crime against humanity. Because the word "ape" is present in paper, anyone caught using this item is a throw-back to when all humans were barbaric, and that includes anyone now reading this paper. (Well, not paper, it's preferred to say journal, because the author would never wish to be connected to paper.)
As anyone knows, paper is a very evil thing. By just holding it a wrong way, a cut can be inflicted on anyone, which will send this person into the throes of agony. Paper needs to be done away with, because it's bad. Because paper is bad, it must be done away with. There is no point in continuing to use it, because it can be obliterated so easily. It can rip, burn, crinkle, and if it gets wet anything that was put on it will be lost forever. The author believes that in all cases, at all times, for everyone, paper has done nothing constructive. Our earliest documents on paper now have to be preserved because of the poor quality of paper. If people in earlier times had had the brain capacity to invent the computer, the state of our world would be in a much better place. Murders would be gone, as would hunger, sadness, and divorces. These things are well-documented, though the author forgets where exactly they were found by her. Shout-outs to whoever wrote the statistics down!
All in all, paper needs to be gone from our lives. Pain, suffering and loss of memory are all attached to paper, and these are things which are not acceptable in today's world.

Food!!!

My Favorite Foods...

Egg Rolls
Mashed Potatoes
Apples
Macaroni and Cheese(cold)
Grapes
Salad w/ Ranch dressing (nothing else, just Ranch)
Warheads
Raspberry/Cream Cheese Figure 8's
Garden Vegetable Bagels
Spaghetti
Buttered Bread
Egg Bake
White Cake
Jolly Ranchers
McChicken
Cottege Cheese
My mom's chocolate chip cookies
Thumbprint cookies
Turkey
Chimichangas
Pringles
Escargot(Snails- I love em'!)
S'mores
Sausage Pizza
Fruity Pebbles

I think I have to go get dinner....

Death and Such

The death penalty should be allowed. There is no reason why we should allow horrendous criminals to walk through life in a comfy jail cell while their victims are sitting either six feet under or in a life of dispair. We must go back to the days of Alcatraz. We can't let prison and our punishing system seem like a break from the real world. No tv, few visits, way too much free time, uncomfortable beds. Our prison system now works more as a reward system. If you're good you get tv! Music! Better food! This isn't punishment, this is a carnival game. The criminals we have don't deserve to go to the carnival. Human rights activists may disagree, but when these people went into prison they gave up most of their rights. It was a consious choice they made, so let's give them back a consious decison- what they did was wrong. Taking away the death penalty would mean giving them even more power. Leave it instated, but dont' use it very often. Let them suffer for the acts they have committed.

The Needy Elephant

The evening began with my parents, my sister and myself all jumping into our rented sparking white car and drving through town. The hotel slowly disappeared behind us as our destination came into view. The Elephant Bar is a restaurant in Sacramento, CA, and it was here that we were going to quiet our rumbling stomachs. Filling the parking lot were cars with CA liscence plates. As we pulled in front of the restaurant, a person we assumed to be an employee approached our car. My dad, the full-time chauffer for me, mom and Nikki unrolled the window, and was greeted by a plea for food and money for the family of the obvious non-employee. Uncomfortable and somewhat amazed, he did nothing but say "sorry, no" and pull away to find a parking space. As we started the walk to the frong door, this person then had the audacity to scream out to my father, "You need some f***ing hair!" Shcoked, we tried to ignore this and went on to hae a good dinner, though we all had the same thought in the back of our minds: whether we would meet any trouble when we left our meal.

Logic Puzzle Queen!!!

There I sat on a NW Airlines airplane, row 19 seat E. My boarding pass said I should have occupied, but because my sister wanted the window seat I was forced to squish in between her and my mother, who insists on having the aisle seat. Mom read the same Family Circle for the entire hour and a half we had been sitting, and Nikki jumped from activity to activity. She started out doing word searches, slept for a little while, and then moved on to reading a book. While they were busy with their respective activities, I did one thing. Only one thing. One stupid logic puzzle. Stupid may be a harsh word to use, but the puzzles drive me absolutely crazy. The graph that you have to place tiny a tiny "X" or "." in. Only to go back later and realize that you read something wrong, and the entire puzzle is thrown off track. The book I had has been in my room since 2000, and since that year I had successfully completely 2 of the puzzle. No, that wasn't a typo or a memory error. All the puzzles from 1-100 are still in the book, and only 2 of them have been finished. I really think that it's time to give up the hobby, and yet something always drags me back to it. I know that the day will come when I'll be able to raise my finished number to 3, and I wait in sweet anticipation for it to happen! So until now, I'm the queen-in-waiting. But one day, hopefully soon, I'll be crowned the official Logic Puzzle Queen!

The one

The one in the upper left-hand corner is giving me a look
The look is one I've had before, because I give it to myself
The picture on the wall stares down from where it's hung
And my sixth grade smile awakens me
To where I was back then.
The world was cold and harsh
And I didn't feel much love.
My friends were there to leave me alone
And turning their backs left me cold
But the world is not the same right now
And the girl that stood in my shoes cannot be found
Life is no longer colored slate, but rather full of love
The one in the upper left-hand corner is giving me a look,
But I stare right back and give her a smile
Because I know I've left her behind

The Bad Persuasion

Every year on December 25th, millions of people around the globe celebrate the Christian holiday of Christmas. It has recently come to my attention, however, that this date is very wrong. The actual day of celebration should be July 12th.
A very popular Christmas carol is entitled "The 12 Days of Christmas." Relating this to December 25th makes no sense, because there is no comparison of the number 12 and 25. It is obvious when the song was written, therefore, Christmas was celebrated on the 12th of the month.
The fact of July being the actual month is undebatable. The very word "July" looks like the word "Jolly." When speaking of the second most popular Christmas person, besides Jesus, we see Santa Clause. In almost all descriptions of Santa Clause, he is said to be a "jolly" man. This adjective is uncontestable proof that Christmas was originally meant to be celebrated in July.
Thirdly, and perhaps most importantly, is the evidence that comes straight from history. When drawings are made of Mary, Jesus and the 3 Wise Men, they are always depicted wearing robes and sandles. If Jesus was born in the middle of winter, as is widely believed, everybody present, including baby Jesus, would have perished in the fridgid stable.
It is now time that we stop celebration this holiday on December 25th. The true day for celebration, July 12th has been covered up for much too long, and it deserves its due glory.

The Girl's Bathroom via Alien's p.o.v.

The young people I have been watching for the course of this study are very strange beings indeed. The room I put myself in is a very small room; approximately 10 nieps by 7 nieps long, with another area where the earthlings step through a portal and vanish entirely.
Along one wall of this room there are four other doors, which are of an off-pink coloring. The three on the left are very similar, and for some reason the last on the right is quite a bit larger
I have yet to discover what goes on in these tiny room, because everytime one enters they quickly close the door. I did enter one on my own, and my best guess is they are some sort of mailing center. There are two long sheets of white fabric-type paper, and it seems to be quite aggreable to writing. It is very clear they are master of the written word, because there are examples of this covering the back of the pink doors. It is my belief that the young earthlings write on this paper, and go on to thrown it into a small pool of water-like liquid that is encased in an interestingly-shaped mail sorter. When the paper has been succesfully placed, there is a silver knob which is pressed to add more water to the pool and send the paper away.
If at any time a mistake has been made, there is a small receptacle on the side that has a lid, where I suppose they place misused papers.
Upon leaving the small pink rooms, they then go on to wash their hands in similar basins. Many of the girls spend a great amount of time at this step, because they become very focused on the reflective glass. They very often apply some sort of paint to their face, and brush the hair that comes from their heads. My most educated guess would be that this is the ending of a ritual that was the paper-writing. The earthlings seem to be most occupied with this portion, so I also believe it to be very important to them.
All in all, I know that I will need to spend a lot more time in my present endeavor to fully understand the ritual writing ceremony that is currently taking place. I will venture to say that in another 3 months of continual observation I should understand it well enough to be fully involved in the ceremonies.

Music

Music, in my life, is a key player. Nothing else can connect to me the way a great melody or chorus can. I love to listen to the ways that artists can express their emotions in just a three or four minute song. Novels are too long to be as hard-hitting as a short song is, and movies have too many other factors involved to really have an effect on me. But a good band can do just that.

When I first heard of the band Rooney, I instantly became hooked. You could even say I was a little obsessed and I wouldn't argue with you. I wouldn't agree with you, though, if you said that Rooney was a bad thing for me to become involved with, because it did in fact drastically change me. I became proud, confident and happy during the time when I first became a fan. Something in their unique mix of drums, bass and vocals got inside of my head and let me be the person I wanted to be. Without this band, I don't think I would be the same person as I am now.

So wheter or now I'm weird for being such a fan, I know that it was a very good thing for me.

Cal-I-For-Ni-A

The excitement of the trip wasn't going to be held back by fear. Planes have never scared me. Whenever I pass by an airport I look at it and wish I could be leaving somewhere. In my opinion, airports have a different vibe to them than any other place does. Anywhere you look you can see people from different countries and different walks of life converging for the same goal: to go somewhere. I love going to the airport, because I love to travel. When I walk through one of the many entrances leading into the terminals I feel at peace.
When I did this to go to California I was super-excited. I absolutely adore California, and the fact that we were going solely to look at a school shocked me. The sun waited for us. The sand, the shopping, the people, the school. They were all at the end of a short four-hour plane ride. I filled my time by doing logic puzzles and listening to music. When we touched down I put everything away and stood in anticipation of whatever adventures would be waiting for me on California soil.

Helpless or Hungry for Handouts?

When we left the Elephant Bar last night, the people had who had yelled at my dad had left the area, thanks to the manager who informed them they had to leave. The whole experience led me to wonder, though. What should we have done when a homeless family approached us outside of a restaurant? Given them money? Told them to get a job? Do what we did, just walk away and say no thanks? Who knows... Is there a right way to react to such a request as this? I don't think so. Every person whose home is the street has reached that point through a different set of circumstances. It's impossible to know what these are, so it's therefore impossible to know whether they need the help or not. Coming from my 'lens,' which is suburban, white, middle-class America, I don't think them ridiculing my father for not giving them money was acceptable. Maybe they really needed aid, but do they have the right to yell at my dad when he's not willing to provide it? I think not. If they needed help as they were asking for, they should have went to an agency that can help them instead of asking for handouts from random cars.

Annoyances

1) People who don't use their turning signals
2) The groups in the hall who block ALL traffic
3) When zippers get caught on clothes
4) People who disrespect themselves.
5) People fishing for compliments
6) Spilling sugar on the floor- impossible to clean up!
7) Close-minded people
8) When people don't listen, just assume
9) When people try to be who they're not
10) Shoelaces coming untied
11) Getting scratches on cd's
12) My garage opener not working
13) Channel-flippers on the tv
14) After 3-hole punching papers, having to pick up the little circles
15) The way Christmas light strings work- one bulb goes out and the whole string doesn't work
16) Losing one sock
17) Folding clothes
18) Scraping off my car in the morning
19) Paying for gas
20) Cleaning floors
21) My belt setting off the metal detector at the airport
22) My job
23) The people at my job
24) Missing spots when putting on sunscreen and looking blotchy afterwards
25) Drinking orange juice after brushing my teeth

The Importance of Being Arnold

Ahh, the glory days of coming home from school and not being stressed out. Sure, there was homework, but nothing that would take more than 20 minutes. Rather than sit down and tackle it directly after school, I would search in my room and find the remote control to my brand-new tv set(which, now, is very outdated). When the item was finally retrieved from the back of my sock drawer(how'd it get there), I'd point it at the TV and get comfortable for my favorite show, Hey! Arnold to start. While it was about a boy with a pig for a pet and a football-shaped head, I learned a lot through watching it. I learned that the meanest girl may have a very large soft spot for the one person she's meanest to. From this same character, Helga, I've learned to never name a child Helga who already has a "perfect" older sister. I've also learned that there are rat kings who live under all of our streets, and to get things back from them you need to beat them at chess. Grandma's are very often crazy, just as grandpa's are some of the coolest people you can meet. Old turtles have feelings, too, and it may not be a good idea to try and get into the Guiness Book of World Records. Friends will always say your house is coolest, and if they get in fights with their parents your house will the the first place to go. Also, I learned to never let pet pigs out in streets, where they could get lost. I learned that apartment buildings always have the one creepy man who lives upstairs, and that if I were a cartoon character I would never change my clothes.

Mostly, though, I learned one thing- I remember this show way too well.