Confessions

#1 I read Austenland and I liked it.
#2 ...I actually didn't even put it down (and stayed up til 3:00 am reading it)
#3 I stole the cookie from the cookie jar.
#4 I'm sort of afraid of heights (wasn't aware of this one til last Friday night)
#5 I'm really good at not doing something because I simply don't want to (good luck persuading me)
#6 I just dripped orange popsicle on my white shirt
#7 I'm responsible for three of my siblings' scars
#8 My grammar pretty much stinks for an English major. (I made a spelling error in that sentence -- good thing I caught it).
#9 I can be a really big punk sometimes. And a ditz.
#10 Many of my favorite books are actually for young adults (like 14 yr olds)
#11 My favorite thing to buy is music.
#12 If I get embarrassed I laugh for a long time (and start all over when I think of it again). Then I get more embarrassed.
#13 Sometimes I get jealous.
#14 If I don't know what you said/are talking about I'll just laugh and say "ok" or just agree with you.
#15 I haven't had a boyfriend since high school
#16 Sometimes I really take criticism to heart and sometimes I care too little.
#17 I really really really don't like bugs
#18 I've gone tanning before. It didn't really do much...
#19 I'm really bad at small talk. I actually hate small talk.
#20 If you ask me a question that I don't want to answer, I'll reply with a question. I'm good at getting you off topic.

A change of taste

I used to hate chocolate covered cinnamon bears. Even the idea of it made me want to gag. Now I like them. Funny how that happens.

But I still hate peas.

More little lessons from Astronomy

• There is a sombrero galaxy (see above? Sombrero)

• Galileo, famous for his discoveries using the telescope, went blind from studying the sun so much. Lesson? Don't study so much, you will go blind.

• To all you little romantics: the twinkling of the stars at night sure is pretty, huh?

• Well it actually implies that the atmosphere is unstable, meaning astronomers won't be able to get clear images. So while you're swooning, they're cursing.

Gone Daddy Gone....

my hair is gone.

An anecdote of a clean apartment and burnt popcorn.

I have a roommate moving in today.
To prepare, I cleaned my apartment last night. As I was wrapping up, I decided to pop some popcorn and watch a movie. While the popcorn was popping, I was touching up some cleaning in my room and wasn't able to hear the pops die down, signaling the completion of the popped popcorn. Instead I heard the ding of the microwave, signaling the completion of transforming my popcorn into charcoal. I could vaguely smell that it was in a burnt state, but the thick of it greeted me in a thick smoke as I opened the microwave.
Oh, and it smelled awful.
I opened the bag, which was a bad idea, as it simply allowed the stink to burn through my nasal cavity, permanently lodging its rancidness in my memory. I kindly escorted the bag out the door and threw it in the dumpster, not wanting the smell to stay in my apartment. I then opened all the windows, hoping to get a draft to replace the stink with the fresh outside air (the same fresh outside air which now was contaminated with my burnt popcorn). It was hard to tell if the smell was going anywhere, since my window is right over the dumpster where my popcorn was relocated. I shut my door and hoped the morning would welcome no more stank.
Today I awoke and greeted my living room, which was freezing. Alas, the faint smell was still in the air. So, new roommate, sorry for the smell, and sorry it's so cold, but isn't this place CLEAN?!?

Little Lessons from Astronomy

Fun facts learned as I finally caught up on my reading:

• To you little romantics: unfortunately when you pay to get a star named after you or a loved one it is usually through some "unscrupulous commercial firm." The money you pay for the service is real, but the star names are not, seeing as none of them are recognized by astronomers. Rather, as my text kindly suggests, if you want to be remembered by astronomy, make a donation to your local planetarium or science museum. (Isn't it romantic?)
• The change in seasons is due to the tilt of the earth as it rotates, not due to the change in distance from the earth to the sun. Though the distance does change, it only undergoes a 3% distance variation in an entire year, hardly enough to influence seasons (besides, if this were the case, the seasons would be the same in the northern and southern hemispheres...and that's just crazy talk).
• A year is approximately 365 1/4 days long, which is why the leap year was introduced. And who was it introduced by? Julius Caesar! (That one Roman guy who invented salad). Unfortunately his system would have only been good if a year was exactly 365 1/4 days long, which it is not. He was actually off by 11 minutes and 24 seconds, which adds up to 3 days every 4 centuries. We can't have that...but his astronomical advisers blew it off...that is, until the first day of spring was on March 11th (and Easter kept moving earlier, which the Roman Catholics weren't down with).
• So Pope Gregory XIII reformed the calendar by dropping 10 days (Oct 4th, 1582 was followed by Oct 15th, 1582). Caesar added Feb 29th to every year divisible by 4, but Pope Gregory decided that only years divided by 400 evenly should be leap years. And ta da! We have the Gregorian calendar! This is far closer to the true length of a tropical year (which is 365 days, 5 hours, 48 mins and 46 secs long or 365.2422 mean solar days), seeing as the Gregorian system assumes a year is 365.2425 mean solar days.
• Sirius is a character in Harry Potter -- the dog-man. Sirius is also a character in...the sky. He's a star. And guess what he helps make up? a DOG. (Draco is a constellation too, a dragon, the little fire-breathing punk...) And my professor is named Moody. No joke. I love Harry Potter.

That's all from the book of the universe today. I hope you feel enlightened (the next chapter is on light...).

On Happiness Part One: Simplicity

Originally uploaded by Little Thoughts

"Being happy doesn't mean that everything is perfect. It means that you've decided to look beyond the imperfections."

I wish I knew who I was quoting, but I don't.Regardless, lets talk happy. When you are happy, you are healthy (or at least have better chances of healing quicker when not healthy...it's true).

I'm most happy when I am just comfortable with the way things are. No more trying to change myself too much, and definitely no more trying to change anyone else. No more asking "why did this happen?" or "what if...?"

And when I quit worrying about things that aren't necessarily in my control -- I'm happy then. (Bobby McFerrin summed it up pretty well with "Don't Worry, Be Happy").

Happiness is being able to balance contentment with where you are at (and with who you are) with the motivation for positive change. It's "looking beyond the imperfections."

But also, happiness involves embracing simplicity. We hear all the time about how children have an impeccable ability to forgive. They also are pretty dang good at loving small things --like a sock. I'm not saying we should all laugh and clap with glee when we buy new socks, it's just an example. I'm just saying loving simple things can lend towards one's happiness. As childish as we may feel in doing so, it really does help in appreciating life a lot more.

I am happy when I have popsicles or fruit snacks. Or when I go run, or curl up with a book on a hammock in the sun (rhyme unintentional...just naturally poetic, I guess). Or make my niece laugh by the way I eat a grape, or listening to music, driving with the windows down, singing out loud, dancing weird (pretty good at this....), having a good conversation, getting flowers, giving flowers...really the list goes on.

It's hard when life is kind of blowing up in your face as it sometimes tends to do, but really, if there is always a selection of small things that really cheer you up stored away in the back of your mind, it can work wonders.

Anyways, call me a child or way too simple, but try to notice the small things and you may see what I mean.