Color has the ability to influence our feelings and emotions in a way that few other mediums can.

I love color. I love wearing fun colors (well, not pink). I love coloring, drawing, flowers, nature.. anything that involves color. But wait, colors have meaning? Whoa!
http://www.digitalskratch.com/color-psychology.php

I found this website just Googling around (hehe) and I found it to be quite interesting. You should read it. Just sayin'.

Currently I am at work, but technically I'm on a break. I'm eating my new favorite candy, Peanut Butter M&M's. I forgot how awesome these were. I like to separate them into colors, then eat them in their color groups. I also do that with Skittles, but that's more important because each color is a different flavor. My favorite is the red skittle. Mmm. Currently there are 6 groups of M&M's scattered on my desk. It adds a little bit of color to my otherwise boring desk.


I start with the color with the least in it. In this bag, it's yellow. Sadly there were only 3. Next is blue, with 4. Red has 5. Brown has 6. There's a tie for first, orange and green both have 8. If that happens, then I eat my least favorite color first. That would be orange. Green is the winner for this bag!

Anyway, that was random. Sorry about that. Today is an absolutely beautiful day. It's not too hot and it's not humid! It's the kind of weather I wish was year-round. Sadly, in Iowa, the weather is a little.. bi-polar, if you will. One day it's hot, the next it's cold. I have yet to put my sweatshirts away because I know Iowa. It's testy.

I have officially been 22 for a whole week now. I feel no different, I sometimes forget that I'm 22 and not 21. What's the difference? Nothing but a year.

My advice for the day?
Age is just a number. You're only as young (or old) as you feel. Don't worry about aging. Hey guess what, everyone does it! I'm glad I'm not the only one :)

I have no fun fact today

Surprise! I have no fun fact nor do I have a picture. Oh well.
That's mostly because I'm at work. That's right, guess who has a job!
Well, I sort of gave that away now didn't I?
Whatever.

I work for a professor of mine, sort of for the Archives too.
What do I do, you may ask.
Turns out I scan pictures into this computer I'm on.
I write down the name of the file, describe the picture, put a number on it, and put it back in it's file.
I have a whole file cabinent full of pictures to do. A thousand pictures, most likely.
It's a fun job, I get to look at fun pictures and learn about the past of a local radio station.
I like history, because I'm strange.
Also, I get to wander around the Archives, looking at old stuff while the pictures are scanning.
Or do my homework. Or Facebook. Or blog!

I got to thinking about today's world, and what the future will be like.
What will Archives look like in the future, looking back on my generation?
Will there be file cabinents full of old photos? Or old memory cards?
Some of the stuff in here is awesome, like old microphones and video cameras.
What are those going to look like?

All of this goes through my head as I check out the old things that Wartburg keeps in it's archives. It's so interesting!

That's what is inside my head today.
Oh, and that it's raining/storming and I love me some thunderstorms.
Oh and it's Friday! I have a birthday party tonight. My niece turned five yesterday and tonight she's having a magician, cotton candy, and balloon animals! I'm probably as excited as she is! Ha..
I like to think of it as a joint birthday party. Her birthday was yesterday, my brother's is tomorrow (19), and mine is on Monday (21). I'll be 22! Bah! My friend's birthday is today. Another friend's was Wednesday (16). Seriously, this is kind of ridiculous!

Anyway, I should go back to work :)

Senior Year reflection

The best thing about a picture is that it never changes, even when the people in it do.
-Andy Warhol.


Sometimes I wonder what life would be like if I had gone to a different college. I wouldn't have the amazing friends that I have. I feel like I would be a completely different person.

I had a best friend all throughout school. We were inseparable, bffs if you will. Senior year came along and a decision was made. We were going to colleges 2 hours a part. It may not sound like much, but really it is. When we were so used to being together all the time, suddenly we were not anymore.

She went to a big state university, I went to a small private college. Initially I had wanted to go where she went, but decided that it wasn't the type of atmosphere I wanted. There, students are just a number. Where I am, I matter. My professors know me by name. It's small and I love it.

At first, we called, texted, but never visited. I never had a good weekend where I could come visit her and vice versa. Our breaks were different. My car was a piece of crap. We both had jobs.

Finally, I got a chance to visit her and stay for the weekend Freshman year. It was.. well.. sort of awkward. We didn't have the same friends anymore. We didn't really have anything to talk about. It was fun, but I really missed her.

I still miss her. I see her about once or twice a year. I haven't been back to see her since, and she hasn't visited me either, since Freshman year. It's really sad.

We're going to be seniors, then going off on our own paths to different places. The way we're going now, I might never see her again. I hope I do, I still consider her my best friend. But we're different people now.

I know I am. I'm not the same person I was when I was 18. I've grown up, matured, leveled out. I really got to know myself and I've learned a lot. If I had gone to her school with her, like I wanted to originally, I don't think I'd be this person.

I'd probably be an alcoholic, my grades would suck, I would not be me.

No matter how hard life gets here, I know I made the right choice. This is where I was supposed to be, right here. I have made friends that will last a lifetime. I got a fantastic education.

I just wish friendships would fade...

What's this? A connection?

Like I've said in previous entries, my parents have no internet. This is really unfortunate for an internet addict such as myself.

And on top of not having internet, they rearranged the living room and my wireless internet spot has been taken over by a giant entertainment center. Again, quite unfortunate.

So I was doing my accounting homework on the dining room table and my laptop suddenly got the internet! Huzzah!

This should probably be brief, who knows the connection could go away! That would be terrible. I can't help it I'm an Internet junkie. I love it.

I guess I really didn't have anything to talk about. So far I'm having a boring summer. I don't have a job because no one will hire me. So I go to class, come home and do some homework, and then do nothing. I don't have any money to do anything and I refuse to borrow from my parents. That leaves me with a boring social life. Everyone is so far away! Bah!

The funny thing is is that I'm practically laying on the table. The connection is on the other side, but only when my laptop is facing me. If I turn it around, it goes away. I've tried. So I have to lean all the other on the other side of the table and type. I'm basically falling asleep.

God I'm boring. I couldn't even find a fun picture, that's how lame and boring I am.

Don't interrupt my pity party. It's just getting started. But don't leave, I'll get you some punch first.

Distractions

It seems like it happens all the time to me. I walk into my room with the determination to do homework.

Yes, I'll get this and this and this done.

So I sit at my desk and pull out various notebooks and books, click some pens, and wait.

No ideas? Okay, well I'll pull up the internet. My homepage is Facebook.

He did what? Wait, who's she dating? Oh then someone pops up on chat.

Well, they wanted to talk so I must now hold a conversation.. that lasts for fifteen minutes. Facebook is usually a 20 minute distraction

Crap, I was doing my homework. I need music to keep me occupied. iTunes! Yes.

I plug in my iPod and look through some playlists. I'm not finding anything really, so I look at the iTunes store. 10 minutes later, I close out.. spending $5 on some new songs.

I did it again! Shoot, I have to do my homework!

I put the pen to paper and write a few sentences of meaningless garble. I click the pen, again and again.

Wait! I was supposed to get an email from my professor.

I pull up Google Chrome and check my email, which leads me to checking my Gmail, which leads me to checking Twitter. I don't know why though.

Someone tweeted me! Well I must now reply. And add another tweet. 10 minutes on Twitter,

Well that was fun.. My cursor is over the 'x' when wait, is that Ray William Johnson's new video?

Youtube! I click on my subscriptions and see how far behind I am in my videos. I should probably catch up and get these off my queue.

Thirty minutes later, I'm done. It's been almost an hour since I originally started my homework.

Look at that, it's time for dinner. They're waiting for me.

Dinner usually lasts an hour and a half.

Almost three hours later, I sit down again to do my homework.

My phone buzzes. A text? Nope, a call from my mom.

Twenty minutes later, I finally get my homework started.

Oh I have an idea, I should blog about this.

Homework done? Nope.

I still wonder how I'm on the Dean's List...

At least 25% of adults suffer from insomnia, but over 18 million prescriptions are written every year for sleeping pills

Insomnia has kicked in for me. It's officially 12:30 and I'm still awake.

This is quite unfortunate.

I just get these nights where I can't even begin to fall asleep

There's just too much going on in this brain of mine to actually fall asleep.

So much stuff to do, so little time.. you know?

But then there are some nights where I just sleep like a baby.

What is up with that? I need consistency. I need a routine!

I've looked up some ways to help cure insomnia.

I have to see if they actually work. I'm hoping, because I really do enjoy sleep.

http://www.well.com/~mick/insomnia/ I think this is someone else's blog.

I find it weird to blog about someone else's blog. What if they're wrong? Then I'm passing false information around the inter-web. It's a conundrum. (I just like that word).

So, this mick character gives a lot of suggestions. Some I'm like, well yeah. Duh.

But really..

"To help you sleep after a high stress day, lie down with a hot water bottle on your stomach, close your eyes and breath deeply, so the bottle rises and falls. We carry a lot of tension there and the weighted heat releases it."

I'm not doing that. Nope. That's just weird.

Another says "Sex Alone or with Another Person." Uh.. what? Of course, the link wouldn't work so I couldn't read what that was all about. Sex makes you tired, yes. But I'm not going to go sleep with someone just because I can't.. well.. sleep.

I found a more legit article. It's written by Laurie Pawlik -Kienlen from suite101.com

http://psychology.suite101.com/article.cfm/getting_your_sleep

I think one of my biggest issues is that I drink a lot of caffeine throughout the day.

That doesn't really affect me at the time, but obviously it does at night. I'm wired right now, and I have to get up at 8:00.. eesh.

Also, it could be due to the fact that I slept in this morning, since my class was delayed an hour and a half. That should make that much a difference, right?

I find it hard to believe that only 25% of adults have "insomnia." What I find funny is that over 18 million prescriptions are written a year for sleeping pills. That 25% are real pill poppers..

Sleep is important. I'm pretty sure without it, we'd die. I know I'd be extremely crabby. No one wants that. To spare those poor souls I have to see tomorrow, I must get some sleep since it is now 12:49 and it's getting later by the second.

Okay, yeah that was a bad joke. I know this.

Want to hear another one?

What do you get if you cross an insomniac, an agnostic, and a dyslexic?

Someone who stays up all night wondering if there really is a dog.

Yeah, it took me a minute too.

Older people with a large circle of friends were 22 percent less likely to die during the study period than those with fewer friends

My topic of today is friendship, if you haven't guessed by the pictures above.

I guess I never realized how great of friends I actually have.

I mean, don't get me wrong, I love the close friends that I have, but I guess I

didn't realize how many I can count on.

And I have different categories.

A) The high school friends: they are the ones that I've known forever and probably will never forget in my lifetime. Seriously, these girls have been with me since kindergarten. They've known me the longest and knew what I was like growing up. But people change. I changed when I came to college. I grew into this person that I am today. I wasn't always like this. I was once a quiet, shy little girl that wouldn't speak her mind. Well that definitely went out the window.

B) My freshmen year friends: I met this group of girls my freshmen year of college. We all lived on the same floor and we just clicked. We had the same values and interests, and we all acted crazy. Now that I'm in my third year, we've stayed connected and they are some of the best friends that anyone could ask for. Some have come and gone, and that's unfortunate. But that's, I suppose. Like I said, people change. I don't know what I would do without this amazing group of friends that I have in my life right now. I always wonder what I would have turned out like if I had gone somewhere else, met a totally different group of people. Would I be different? Yeah, I believe so. They helped me change into a better, more mature person. I love them all so much and I hope they know that.

I'm sitting here, staring at a picture of my best friend from high school and her boyfriend. We used to be so close. I guess that's what happens when you go to different colleges. We drifted, but we still tried to make an effort. It makes me sad, but I haven't talked to her in about two months. We text sometimes, and email. But I actually haven't laid eyes on her since.. well since December. That was almost six months ago. That's just not right.

My roommate is a really good friend of mine. We hang out a lot. Recently she went overseas. I didn't know what I would do, since she was one of the people I liked to hang out with the most. But with her gone, I realized that I have so many other friends that I seemed to have neglected. Now, I have an opportunity to just be with them again and get to know them all over again. And I'm excited. For instance, I just spent an hour talking to a friend that I hadn't seen for almost two months. How sad is that?

Friendship is a two way street and anyone who tells you different is lying to you. It takes time and effort to build a friendship, but in the end it's worth it. You have a person you can trust with your secrets and to be there for you when you need it. Friendship is golden. I just wonder what I would do without these friends that I have.

So cherish the friends you have. Spend time with them. Don't let your relationship slip away. I know you're busy. We all are. But you still have to make time for them.

http://ezinearticles.com/?Definition-of-Friendship---A-Few-Facts&id=1267049

I found this interesting. What is the definition of friendship?