Nice car.

Today's my last day of undergrad, ever. Well, technically, last Wednesday was my last day. But I had a take-home final that I finally turned in today.

Anyway, I'm watching Run's House. In this episode, Diggy's embarrassed by his father's ultra-richness because he drives a Phantom to pick him up from the bus stop. It reminded me of a time when I was in about 6th grade, in Catholic school...

I was on safety patrol. This meant that when the parents came to pick up their kids after school, I would walk the kids to their parents' cars and open up the door for them. Whenever my Mom came around the corner, I'd go get my little brother, and some other safety patrol officer would open up the door for us.

There was one girl in my class, Nicole. Her grandmother had a tight whip. it was kind of a convertible, kind of not. Let's just say that it had a weird sunroof thing going on. Anyway, my point is, it was probably the coolest-looking car anyone's parents had in the whole school. Every time her grandmother came around, everyone would be all "OH WOW COOOOOOOLLOLOLLOOOOOLLLLLLLRLLLRLLRALOSDAHHA!!!" I wasn't really jealous, because I didn't really think all that much about the car (I thought her grandmother was too old to be driving it anyway). I never thought much about the lack of praise for my Mom's car...I just went home. Every day.

Anyway, one weekend, my Mom bought a brand-new, 1997 Chevy Cavalier. It was the coolest car I've ever seen. Everything was round. No sharp edges, no corners, you can't hurt yourself in the car. SAFE. And it was black, so it looked expensive. So awesome. I couldn't wait til Monday.

Monday came around, school was over, I was safety patrolling...and there it was. Sleekness. I ran inside and called my brother. No one knew whose car it was, people were asking "who is that?" I was saying, with that nonchalant confidence..."it's mine."

So my brother and I get outside, one of the saftey patrol officers open up the door, we get in, the door closes...we leave.

No praise. No "WHOOOOAHHAHHHAHAHAHAAAAASSSRRRDASDAGGG!!" nothing.

That sucked. You don't want to be an 11-year-old with the newest car on the market, and no one says anything. Worst day.

Hiatus.

Sorry.

I'm on academic hiatus with Blogger. I will be back when I graduate.

Sorry for not saying this two weeks ago.

Like you care...hahahahahaha

2 in One Day!

Yeah, I decided to write a second one today, because of this whole Don Imus situation.

For the record: I'm black. I'm a woman. And my mind is still un-exploded.

Let's be realistic. Calling a Women's Basketball team a bunch of "nappy-headed hos" is wrong. Calling any group of people a bunch of "nappy-headed hos" is wrong. I don't care who you are; you could be famous, infamous, unfamous, or whatever, but if those words come out of your mouth, whether in jest or in sincerity, you're wrong.

I'll give you this: I'm not angry. Maybe because I'm not a member of the Rutgers Women's Ball team. However, I am a member of the female community, and I am a member of the Black community. Still, I'm not angry. Why?

How about I get angry right now? How about I get piping mad, start turning tables, put together a picket, start a riot, scream at the top of my lungs? How about I convince every woman I know to come and bring every woman they know to get angry with me? Will that solve anything?

No. That's the truth. Petitions, press conferences, newspaper articles, everything...will do very little, if anything at all. Because the truth of the matter is that the media don't care how you feel. As long as a reaction comes out of you, they're doing their job. That's why news only evokes the most interesting of emotions: anger, sadness, excitement, etc. Have you ever watched an entire news program and feel nothing? Have you ever listened to a whole radio show and feel nothing? Have you ever watched a television show that isn't on C-SPAN and felt absolutely nothing the whole time? Probably not, unless you don't in the least bit fit the demographic the show is targeting.

Anyway, my point is that this is what Don Imus just did: his job. Of course, he's saying he's sorry about hurting the team's feelings, as well as the feelings of anyone who empathizes/sympathizes with them. And he probably is really sincere. But at the end of his two-week suspension, the First Amendment that we love fighting for all day will kick in and he's going to have his job back. He will be sitting in his usual chair, with his usual co-hosts, talking to his usual audience. Sorry to say, but getting angry won't do anything helpful.

Don't worry about it. Every day, somebody is going to say or do something that offends or should offend a person or group of people. They're going to get away with it most of the time; some of the time they won't. But you must realize that ignorance will unfortunately always live. So in many of these cases, all you can do is make sure you know the truth, and educate who you can. But you have to remember that educating someone doesn't include getting all hot and bothered when they say or do something ignorant. If they refuse to learn, that's their bad for choosing to be the way they are; rest assured, they will learn sooner or later.

So...I'm not mad.

So would you like to see our newest set of knives?

I'm so disappointed right now.

I finally land a job interview, and I made the mistake of not going too in depth with my research of this company.

Vector Marketing sells knives.

This means if they hire me, I have to go to people's houses and places of business to convince them to buy knives from me.

I DON'T WANT TO DO THAT!

What do I look like, walking into some old lady's house with a gigantic briefcase full of cutlery she can't even lift? What, do I bring a soda can, a shoe, and a piece of cement to demonstrate it's Ginzu-ness? Should I cut off one of my own fingers from time to time to really sell the product?

My interview is tomorrow, and I don't want the job. But I might have to have the job.

Please put me in the office.

And I prayed that God would give me this job! Yikes...can I take a prayer back?

I bought a suit! And it LOOKS GOOD ON ME! Ay-yi-yi...I don't know what's gonna happen.

So here's my plan: I'm gonna go to the interview tomorrow, and if it goes well and they decide to hire me, I'm gonna take it...for now. But if I get another job that I might actually like in between now and when it's time to actually earn some money, that's it. I'm out.

But who knows? Maybe I'm not giving kife salesmen enough credit. Maybe I'll have the time of my life and want to sell knives forever. Maybe I'll be innovative and become a millionaire before I'm 30.

We'll see.

It's True (taken from my Facebook note)

I actually wrote this on Thursday (Apr. 5), but I'm in Port Charlotte and I'm too lazy to write a whole new post so I copy/pasted it in here.

Billy Donovan is staying. He farted in Kentucky's general direction and came running to us, while we run to him, in a meadow, while "Chariots of Fire" plays in the background.

I love this school.

But...#11 Taurean Green, #13 Joakim Noah, #2 Corey Brewer, and #42 Al "Shimmy" Horford are leaving us to go to the NBA.

You know what? That's alright. I'm okay with that.

I'm especially happy for them.

AND...our team still won't suck too badly...because we have an amazing coach that we can depend on.

I listened to/watched the press conference:

The Gator Boys cried. So all you punks who thought they were robots, HAH! These guys probably have bigger hearts than I do. Actually, since they're all men and are way bigger than me, they scientifically do. But you know what I mean.

I love them.

Today's Rant: Bad Grammar

I will be the first to admit that I am not the absolute best at grammatical structure when it comes to writing or speaking. I'm taking an advanced grammar class right now, and I've got a high C/low B in there. So I'm not perfect.

However, I am definitely not far from it, according to what I read and hear every day.

It's really hard for me to understand how people can go to college if they never learned the basics of grammar. I mean, I know I had to turn in an essay in order to get into Florida. And, I still had to write essays and papers at least 5 times a semester in order to get decent grades. How is it that the people who have no clue can get in and/or graduate?

"Grammar Check. That's how we get it done." You must not be aware that a computer cannot figure out the context of your writing -- ever. Microsoft should never have made that a part of the Office software. Sometimes I hate how everything is so easy.

Anyway, I'm writing about this today because this morning, on my way to the library, as I'm walking through The Set (a.k.a. Turlington Plaza), this girl handed a flyer to a man and said: "Come find out about the genocide that's happening in Darfur next Wednesday."

Do you see anything wrong with that? If not, let me enlighten you:

She should have said: "Next Wednesday we're having a seminar on the genocide in Darfur; you should come." It could be less formal than that, but my point is that the first sentence makes it seem like there's going to be genocide in Darfur next Wednesday, and I should go to this girl's forum to know stuff about it before it happens. Had I been an all-out radical for Darfur who happened to take what this girl said literally, I would have gotten all my Darfur friends to hop on a plane to Washington with me so we could harass the President; then we would fly down to Darfur and find out where these genocidal people are and stop them, all before next Wednesday. Get me?

I also hate how people don't know the difference between "your" and "you're." If you're one of these people, let me help you:
- "you're" is a contraction between "you" and "are." Example: "You're so smart, Gaellissa, how do you do it?
- "your" is a possessive pronoun, meaning that the subject belongs to "you." Example: "Wow, Gaellissa, your grammar is so good!"
If this doesn't help, come see me personally, so I can knock some sense into your head.

"he/she/they and I" vs. "me and him/her/them" (or vice versa) vs. "me and he/she" vs. "him/her and I."

The last two phrases do not exist in the educated person's English language. Stop using them. The other two are easy to figure out. If you're saying a sentence that includes you and other people, drop out the other persons/people's pronoun.
- Example: If Jill went to the bathroom with me, I would say "She and I went to the bathroom." Why? Because if I went by myself, I would say "I went to the bathroom," not "Me went to the bathroom." So you can't say "She and me went to the bathroom."
- Example: If Rex and I were given trophies by an important person for being awesome, I would say "He gave Rex and me trophies" or "He gave me and Rex trophies." Why? Because if I were the only awesome one, I would say "He gave me trophies," not "He gave I trophies." So you can't say "He gave Rex and I trophies."

"I was" vs. "I were." This is complicated, so I'll just correct you when I hear it.

You might be saying something to the effect of: "But Gaellissa, you're using bad grammar, too. Your sentence structure is something awful. There are fragments all over the place. This is terrible."

I reply: there is a difference between style and plain bad grammar. Do my fragments confuse you? Do you get distracted by my lack of 5 sentences in each paragraph? Have you reached the end of this post and not gotten anything from what I said? No. If so, tough nuggets, read someone else's stuff.

Anyway, I've found a simple and easy solution for all bad grammar in the US: If you can't, don't. If you can't write, don't. If you can't speak, don't. The environment will be so much quieter. Oxygen will be much more plentiful. The Ozone layer will patch itself up. Unless you're all about that "freedom of speech," with which I can't argue. If that's the case, I guess New Zealand and parts of California could use a little skin cancer.

Heeyyy...

Well, this is nice.

As you might have already noticed, I created a blog just now. I did this because I've relapsed in my writing addiction and feel that writing a Facebook note every day just makes me look like a hopeless Facebook addict...when my weakness is really in typing as much as I can in as little time as possible.

Plus, Malene told me I should "do something with my life." So maybe someone famous will come across this one day and call me and tell me that I should write a book. Because it's going to take a famous person's advice to make any type of effort in writing professionally. Someone like Richard Roundtree or the Denzel Wannabe in the Allstate commercials. Ooh, or Betty White. She looks well-read. But we all know that I only take celebrity advice from Jeff Goldblum. Alright, well it's now obvious that I'm just naming the most obscure famous people I can think of. Lame.

I hope you like the template...I chose it because it reminds me of my backpack. That's it. Well, I mean my backpack is really nice and stuff...it holds a lot of pens...and books. And clothes, as I learned last night.

Anyway, I'm going to try to write in this at least once a day, so hopefully you're not bored. However, I included the word "try" in there because I do have a life, and I don't want you to cry or kill yourself if you become an avid fan and one day see that I haven't written anything.

I might copy & paste my Facebook notes on here, but until that happens, you're just going to have to deal with not reading about 19 of my posts.

Here's what I'm planning to do on this thing:
1. Write down some thoughts I have throughout the day but can't because I either am in the middle of class and can't talk, in the middle of a discussion and don't want to be rude by changing the subject, around no one I know, or the person doesn't want to hear it.
2. Ask for your opinion every time. Even without saying so. I like to get responses.

I WILL NOT:
1. Dish any secrets.
2. Gossip. Sorry.

I'll think of more later. Now I have to study. Peace.