+ this morning sucked. Let's move on.
+ All the food that had been damaged out? Most of it now belongs to a JC employee. At the end of the day, when there were no clients for the last hour, Leslie, Becca, Susan, & I all divvied up whatever we thought was safe. Which means we all went home with a whole lot of french toast, pancakes, and chocolate cakes. I know what I'm having for breakfast tomorrow! (and every day after lol)

+ This afternoon was nice. Mike & I brainstormed for our roleplays a teensy bit. I watched Tarzan & Hercules. I love those movies! YAAAAAY DISNEY.

+ We went to Chili's for dinner. I have most of mine left. My bland food diet thing is not working very well. Even the quesadilla from tonight didn't sit all that well and all it was was cheese & chicken! I didn't even get tomatoes on it! Stupid lactose intolerance....of course...it doesn't help that I ate Stouffer's mac & cheese as a late lunch either. That stuff is volatile!

+ Earth Hour!! My family participated here & I think my dad's house too. Here we played Imaginiff by flashlight. It was a lot of fun. I won :D Even Granny sat by for most of it and listened to us (I think she left after we all called her a fishing trawler, lol). So she didn't last the whole time, but she lasted through part of it & didn't go around turning on every light like last year. So yaaaaay Earth Hour!

And now I really need (and deserve) a shower. And some sleep maybe. We'll see. I might watch Grey's, but I might also just have an ABC marathon tomorrow with Grey's, Private Practice, and Better Off Ted (on Hilary's recommendation).

I need it to be Monday. I don't work on Monday & I get to read a nerdsomewriter post! That would make me happy :D

I find my icon ironic. Yet appropriate.

I ran into Sam today in the cafeteria line, so we ate lunch together & prattled on about class & nonsense. And then we got into a discussion of teen pregnancy & how maybe we'll have kids SOMEDAY but not for a LONG LONG time because we're smart like that. ANYWAY we then got into a discussion on how our natural resources are running out (did I mention I know Sam from my eco class?) and how a change needs to be made soon. Sam said she wants to make a change, but doesn't feel like one person actually can. I said that one person can, but in that area, I was not that person. I know that I will never be the one to find an alternate fuel source, or the one to come up with a solution to global warming. I'm just not that kind of person. But then I got to thinking about The Jungle and Teddy Roosevelt. When TR read that book he became so moved by it that he raged about it down the halls of the white house & forced congress into making new laws to fix the problem presented in that book. In that way, Upton Sinclair made a big difference. So, maybe I won't make some scientific breakthrough, but maybe I'll write a book that will inspire change. Maybe The Conqueror will inspire new, better, more people-centric governments...or maybe it'll get me labelled a radicalist/communist/idealist/what-have-you.

But one person can make a change, and one book certainly can.

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On a side note, I feel very college-y talking about this stuff. Ever since I started college it's been the same old crazy stuff from high school. Although this one time Jess, Matt, Jeremy, & I came up with a plan for a worst possible scenario: What if the guy with the Skittles touch touched the ocean?

Things Jez Did Today
-Worked. Went crazy for LACK of things to do. OMG there is nothing to do for 6 hours on a rainy day!! I was the only cashier after 4, so closing wasn't that fun, but Steve helped me out.
-Called my aunt, left a message. But she called back later & my mom talked to her. I thanked her for sending me the ingredients to make the world's greatest sandwich. Then we began working out a time for a meeting on Sunday to return The Silver Bullet to her. ...I wonder if I could get more ingredients?
-Went to Taco Bell, Jewel Express, & Jewel for stuff for dinner. AT 8 O'CLOCK?!? GAAAAAAAH. Jez does not play well with others when underfed.

Things Jez HAS to do before midnight
-Post here. In progress!
-Watch episode 26 and/or 15 of Ouran Host Club. Fangirl.

Things Jez WANTS to do before bed
-Catch up on all her youtube subscriptions
-Finish reading FMA vol 3
-Begin reading Bud, Not Buddy for class

Things Jez is doing tomorrow
-Working
-Reading books for class & writing up reviews/filling out worksheets. I should put all my self-selected evaluations up on my blog, huh?

Things Jez wants to do tomorrow
Hang out with someone, preferrably Frankie or Crystal because I have not seen them lately. But anyone would be just fine :D


That was all very boring. Watch this now! It's the world's rarest rhino on film!

I see awesome stuff. Like the whirlpool galaxy? Coolest. Thing. Ever. I am not just saying this, it really is. The fact that something is that entirely awesome & that far away, yet I can still see it from the softball field at school is just beyond me. And one of the first things I got to see tonight was Saturn, with its rings. It was so tiny & it looked fake like someone drew it on there, haha. But it was really neat to see, and then once I knew where it was in the sky I was able to see it without the telescope--rings too! One of the teachers told me that if you think of Earth like the globes you see in classrooms & set the universe to the same scale, Saturn would be about 20 miles away from the globe. WOW that's far.
Generally, the star gazing was a great experience (even if it was like 40 degrees outside & after an hour out there, you start feeling pretty darn cold). It also earned me three percentage points, which is a LOT of extra credit in the long run.

On being sick: Being sick sucks. I woke up this morning feeling kind of gross, but otherwise okay. By the time I was done with my shower I was miserable, I sat down on the floor for a few minutes & actually ended up combing out my hair and blow drying it while I was down there. I talked to my dad, then decided to lie down for a bit to see if it would pass once I had taken my allergy medicine. It didn't. I ended up throwing up & that's a very rare thing for me, especially considering how often I'm sick & all the weird things that are wrong with me medically. So I knew I was pretty darn sick & called my dad to tell him Renee & I weren't going. Then I spent the rest of the day either sleeping or reading.

On Howl's Moving Castle: I just finished reading Howl's Moving Castle and I LOVED it! But I have to say, I'm vastly disappointed with Miyazaki-san's depiction of it. It's nothing like the book at all really, and the book was at least 10x better!
( rantings ahead, along with plenty of spoilers for the book )

On Earth Hour: at 20:00 today my family shut off all the lights, both computers (my laptop Anabella being the second), the printer, & all television sets in observance of Earth Hour. I really hope the rest of you did this too because it's such a cool idea. Sydney, Australia did it last year for one hour & it actually did make a big impact. It was the equivalent of taking 48,000 cars off the roads for a year. And it was all sponsored by the WWF. This year Earth Hour went global, including many major cities & corporations. McDonald's & Coca-Cola were two big ones who participated. Here in Chicago (the US city leading this) the Sears Tower & Hancock Buildings shut off their lights too, which is pretty dang cool. Especially since the Hancock Building is not a business, but full of tenants. A lot of the local gas stations joined in too.

I encourage you guys to check out the Earth Hour website for more info. And check out the Chicago Earth Hour page there as well, to get some facts on how Chicago is working to the US's greenest city. Or, y'know, you could go to EcoGeek to see how awesome Chicago is green-wise.

I seriously just spent an hour writing this post & looking at the Earth Hour website.

In other news:
-The scar looks better already, it is healing quite well with a combo of the cool cloth treatment & lots of Neosporin.
-I picked almost all the winners for the KCAs, except for Jessica Alba and Drake & Josh. Not to say I voted for all of these, but I did predict the winners. The Jonas Brothers took best musical group of course, & Miley won 2 of her 3 nominated categories. I was fairly surprised when Hannah Montana did not win best TV show, but I had voted for iCarly & was happy to see that Miranda Cosgrove received the award still, though for her work on Drake & Josh. I did not think Jack Black did a very good job as host this year & still think Justin Timberlake was the best so far.
-The Great Miley Debate, which was supposed to happen today, has been put off until I get better.

bored bored bored.
That's pretty much the whole day. I finished Devilish, still love it of course. Maureen Johnson is my writing idol :D Pulled out GenX: Crossroads to read, but set it down on the mini-fridge & forgot it there. I'll start it tomorrow after school (I'll read War of the Worlds at school).
Mum waxed my eyebrows today, they look all pretty again. & I redid my nails because they were looking all weird & I had put enough coats on it. I was going to make them red but my mum reminded me tomorrow is St. Pat's day, so they remain green.
I sound so girly in this post.

They found a new species of bird, isn't that cool?

Local Weather
First, I must say that I think my house is going to blow in. Like, I would be afraid to be sitting so close to these windows here if they weren't facing North. Now...the windows across the room, which are on the West side of the house, currently being blown at full force? I ain't going near those. I'm just waiting for an explosion of glass & lots of snow & wind & COLD. (ICY ;D)

Second, let's look at some actual facts that have nothing to do with my paranoia.
(from weather.com--last updated 36 minutes ago)
Current Weather: Light Snow and Windy
Current Temp: 3°F
Feels Like: -22°F
Wind: From W at 30 mph gusting to 41 mph (okay...fine...not window-blowing strong, but I'm still not going near that window)
Visibility: 0.4 mi (...that's like nothing. Normally, on a clear day, I can see the Chicago skyline 45 minutes away)

Current Severe Weather Alerts
WINTER STORM WARNING
MCHENRY-LAKE ILLINOIS- DUPAGE-COOK-WILL-LAKE INDIANA-PORTER- NEWTON- JASPER- INCLUDING THE CITIES OF...WOODSTOCK...WAUKEGAN...CHICAGO... JOLIET...GARY...VALPARAISO...MOROCCO... RENSSELAER (3!! areas that apply to me, being on the border of Will & Cook (uh..Will-Cook Rd anyone?) & near Joliet aka where I go to school)

NEAR BLIZZARD CONDITIONS... PARTICULARLY IN RURAL AREAS...A BAND OF WIND DRIVEN SNOW PRODUCING VISIBILITIES NEAR ZERO IN SPOTS
IN ADDITION TO THE SNOW...WINDS WILL CONTINUE TO GUST OVER 50 MPH AT TIMES. THESE VERY STRONG WINDS WILL COMBINE WITH THE BITTERLY COLD TEMPERATURES TO SEND WIND CHILLS PLUMMETING TO 20 TO 30 DEGREES BELOW ZERO BY MORNING. (50 MPH?! Dude. ...-20° to -30°?!? HOLYCRAP)
A WINTER STORM WARNING MEANS HAZARDOUS WINTER WEATHER WILL MAKE TRAVEL VERY HAZARDOUS. (Noooo, really?)

...why does the Weather Channel write only in capital letters? They're like screaming at me.
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The flooding in the Kankakee is still really bad. Weather.com says the latest height was 9.2 ft. I talked to my friend today & she is still not allowed in her house (she was evacuated last week because of the flooding). She said they were all out there very early this morning with chainsaws to cut through the ice to try to get to their homes. She's afraid the ice will damage her home & says she wouldn't mind the flooding if it were just water. Hopefully when I talk to her Thursday she'll be back home. Please pray for her!
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I heard that some states & local grocers are no longer using plastic bags, offering only paper. RIGHT ON!! YES! FINALLY!! This is so fantastic. The idiot DJ on The River was complaining about it because he'd have to make more trips to the car, but he didn't realize that paper bags now come with handles. I really don't like that guy btw, I can't even listen to that station anymore when he's on.

I've talked about some of these things with you guys & at this point I think it's easier to just link the articles. ^^;

The 100 car pile up caused by fog on I-90/39 near Madison. Some of those injured were taken to the hospital in Stoughton, which is where my cousins live (the ones from New Zealand).

The 11 FEET of snow in the Sierra Nevada. From what I can tell Lake Tahoe took the biggest hit. The skiiers are certainly happy.

All the winter tornadoes sweeping the Midwest. Thankfully the 2 deaths harvardbarbie told me about near her in MO were the only ones, but wow there was a lot of damage.
To sum up the tornado article:
-2 deaths in Missouri
-Kenosha, WI: 11 houses completely destroyed, 9 others damaged, 13 injuries
-Kenosha, WI: 300 people were held in the basement of the court house when the tornado interrupted a murder trial. I just find that interesting.
-Poplar Grove, IL: 6 houses destroyed, people trapped but rescued
-Harvard, IL: train derailed: 1 locomotive, 12 cars, big shock fluid leak from one car
-McHenry County, IL (unincorporated Lawrence): 500 evacuated

The same article tells about more weird weather elsewhere.
-Chicago has record-breaking heat of 64 degrees. In January. We were in the negetives the week before after an ice storm.
-Other record-breaking heats in Buffalo, NY; Toledo, OH; Atlantic City, NJ
-6 snowmobilers go missing in blizzard in Colorado. They were safe, they broke into a nearby cabin for shelter.

More notes on Chicago's weather

This is the first time a tornado has made it as far north as Chicago in January. The closest one has come prior was Kankakee County (I'd guess about 45 minutes south of where I live?)

Floods. In LaSalle the Illinois River got up 9.5 feet! The Kankakee, Iroquois, & Vermillion Rivers also got really high. (thankfully the canal wasn't listed. I wasn't in Lockport, anyone notice how high it got? Or the Des Plaines?) Okay, the Des Plaines probably had lots of flooding because it connects the Illinois with the Kankakee. All the rivers listed except the Vermillion feed off the Des Plaines from Lake Michigan.

Local Flooding. Monday 151st was flooded over, and that doesn't happen too often. I shudder to think what Orland must have looked like.

High winds. I was kinda freaked out driving on the 355 extention Monday morning, it's very open & nothing to stop the wind. We were all being blown around a lot.

40 reports of tornadoes on Monday; 8 on Tuesday

Fog. Not nearly as bad as it was up in Wisconsin, but we still had it.

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It's come to my attention that some people on my flist have never experienced a tornado & have no idea why we're getting so many in the Midwest. It's because of the warm front that has moved into an area that has been showing very cold weather. When the warm front comes in, it rises (cause, y'know, heat rises), which turns over the cold air trying to push it down. This causes high winds and later funnel clouds. Also, like I was telling stormelle just now, we get so many watches that we do not act upon them until the sky either turns green or we get pummelled suddenly with hail. Those are the two warning signs of a tornado.

Little known fact: IL gets the most earthquakes in the United States each year. They're all very small, generally, which is why you don't hear about them like you do the California earthquakes. But yeah, we get the most. We're on a fault line...as is the nuclear centre near my house. Real smart guys. Anyway, the last one we actually noticed by some hanging ornaments bouncing around a lot, on Christmas.

So I wanted to be lazy and just lie in today, right? So I turn on the tv and the only thing I can find to watch is the Discovery Channel, which is Blue Planet. Oh. My. Gosh. AMAZING. I watched the first episode that was on today, about the artics, and I got so into it. The polar bears are so cool and it's really really sad to think they'll be gone in 50 years. Polar bears drowning because of global warming? That is NOT cool. They were hunting beach ball seals (well, that's not what they're called, but that's what they look like to me) with their cubs, it was interesting to watch. And leopard seals still sort of scare me.

And then there was another episode! I'm watching it now and it's so much better than the last. It's the deep, deep sea fish. The freaky ones that glow and look like alien ships. The only thing I could think was "I really really hope that sci-fi writers watch this sort of thing because these creatures would make the best stories EVAH." The phosporous luminecience thing is by far the coolest. If I were a fish, I'd be dead in minutes because I'd be so taken in by the glowing...^^;

So yeah...I'm fangirlling the Discovery Channel. I'm actually taping it at this point. And if I ever write a sci-fi that involves aliens* I will base a lot of them off some of the survival techniques these beautiful, wonderful creatures have.

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HAPPY BIRTHDAY MALIA!
So glad I added you as a friend ^^

*In a few years, if I still like the idea (after I write all my other books) I will write a book about werewolves. In Rome. And then I will be able to write all about my obsession with Italian history too. I'm in love with this idea & I'm trying my hardest not to write anything for it because I seriously need to finish The Conqueror before Christmas and I can't do that if I keep starting new projects.