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trixietamu03
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Name: Amy
Birthday: 6/6/1981
Gender: Female
Interests: aggie sports, reading, volleyball, tennis, knitting, cooking, cheesy abc family movies, sleeping, snow skiing, math
Occupation: Education/training
Message: message meEmail: email me
AIM:  alc0012
Member Since:
7/27/2005
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| get rid of it!
i have been on an anti-clutter kick lately, for a variety of reasons. since i observed how a few of my san diego grad school friends lived, minimalism has appealed to me. imagine being able to pack up everything you own in just your car and move cross country! for a while (pretty much the first year and a half i've lived in my condo), i was lazy in this area and did nothing. but my boyfriend is something of an aspiring minimalist himself, and he's been a great inspiration and motivator for me to declutter my life.
probably the most helpful thing i've discovered about my personal de-cluttering skills is that i work best in phases. i'm simply not going to be able to get rid of everything in one fell swoop (still hanging onto that high school basketball jersey for some sentimental reason...). instead, as i get rid of more and more, and my condo and life both become lighter, i'll be able to revisit a box or stack of clothes that i held onto three months ago and successfully toss and/or give away the things which do not serve to make my life more functional - clutter. it's very freeing.
it can also be difficult, because several aspects of my personality make me a natural pack rat. for example, i am pretty frugal, so the appeal of holding onto things i "maybe might use in the future" is strong. what if, two months from now, i suddenly have a need for that gadget? i'll have to go out and spend $7 on another! gasp! i also have trouble decluttering items with sentimental value, though bret's advice of, "take a picture of it and throw it away!" is very smart. stuff that represents who i want to be (egs. an avid reader, a knitter, a chef) is also difficult to toss - which means i haven't got rid of many books, yarn, or kitchen items.
while i am a long way from fitting everything i own into my nissan sentra  , i am very satisfied with the progress i've made thus far. and maybe one of these days i'll be able to part with that basketball jersey.
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| 1 grey poupon
1 jar of minced garlic
1 bottle each of lemon and lime juice
1 bottle maple syrup
8 grade A large eggs
1 bottle each of half-used mustard, ketchup, and balsmic dressing
1 jar (mostly used) marinara sauce and package (mostly unused) of pepperonis
1 unopened bottle of champagne (from lisa and adrian's wedding, nearly 18 mo ago)
1 nearly empty box of bisquick
1 package each of white sugar and AP flour
2 bottles of water
2 half-gallons of organic milk (one new, one almost gone)
1 brita pitcher, complete with filter and water
1 package of blueberries
4 jars of salsa, to varying degrees of fullness
4 types of cheese - a block of sharp cheddar, pre-shredded mexican mix and mozzerella, and pre-sliced kraft american
1 half-used block of tahini
1 half-used jar of capers
1 tub of country crock
3 sticks of unsalted butter
2 unopened boxes of parkay stick butter
4 sticks of lady of the land lakes butter, varying degrees of length - i have no idea why we have so much butter
the list seems long when typed out in this form, but it's really not a lot. it's actually sadly paltry. i need to start seriously cooking again.
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| i sat down to reply to lisa’s comment on my last entry, and
it turned into more than just answering lisa’s post. it turned into (my version of) a case for a
ron paul presidency. so i decided to
make it an entry rather than overwhelm lisa. 
i could not agree more with lisa’s statement that "when
we solely rely on the market the good of the commons can be ignored". and this is probably the issue i find myself
at odds with dr. paul the most. the
cynic in me just can't believe that corporations (as a whole) have any goals
separate from 'the bottom line'. and
promotion of the bottom line often seems to run counter to things such as the
welfare and safety of society, the environment, alternative energy, etc.
but i ask you this (rhetorical) question: is there a
candidate with whom you fully agree on everything? or even your, say, top 10 concerns? also, the president is not an emperor or a
king; there are checks and balances. ron
paul cannot abolish the IRS, the federal reserve, or even the EPA unilaterally. but what he might do is simply to start
chipping away at the excesses that have come to define D.C.
in my opinion, the defining question of paul's candidacy is
this - do you believe that the federal government has gotten too big and/or
overstepped its constitutional boundaries?
if your answer is no, then i have to respect that (though i
might suggest that you skim a copy of the constitution  ), and you should find
a candidate to support other than paul.
however, if your answer is yes, ron paul is your man. he is the ONLY candidate who stands for a
break from the status quo.
and not just in policy, but also in politics - watch him in
a debate (refer to youtube); he answers the question, directly and with his
reason(s)! because he knows what his convictions
are, they don't have to be defined by the public. how refreshing! in congress, he has no qualms about voting
against party lines when he believes the legislation is unconstitutional. imagine, voting your convictions. how crazy.
he is also different financially. where do you think all of the other
candidates are getting their "war chests" from? the same place everyone else in washington
gets their money! the corporations and
PAC's and unions that hold a disproportionate say in our government. electing one of them, democrat or republican,
really isn’t going to change anything of significance. last monday, ron paul raised over $4 million
online, with an average donation size of $103.
this money is from people like you and me (and i actually did donate ),
not the corporations that lisa and i don’t trust.
i believe that the status quo is broken. i support ron paul for president 2008. and i have hope for america. | | |
| not over anything big, but i feel as though people (and by people, i guess i mostly mean "mainstream media") are oversimplifying ron paul's candidacy for president. (when they cover it at all.) they are brushing aside, and nearly outright ignoring, his huge grassroots support online. but, and correct me if i'm wrong, when howard dean garnered similiar support in 2004, he was considered a frontrunner for the democratic nomination - before he flipped out, anyways. but paul is painted as a 'long-shot dark horse'.
also, and this bothers me more, they way oversimplify his appeal, crediting solely his anti-iraq war stance (a loner among the republicans). this is not actually why i am a ron paul supporter. at all. i'm not even sure where i stand on the iraq war exactly - it may have been a mistake, but then again, "you break it, you buy it." anyways, i think ron paul's candidacy is attractive because he is the ONLY candidate suggesting WIDESPREAD change in the way the federal government and politics operate. other republicans may espouse "smaller government", but they don't really mean it. i believe in his run in 2000, president bush's policy was that america shouldn't be a nation builder (i realize 9/11 changed a lot of things, but still). he was a "compassionate conservative." conservative?!?!?! really?!?!? how come the government, and our deficit along with it, has just grown, and grown, and grown??? our federal government is TOO BIG!!! let ron paul be the man to pare it down. that is why i support ron paul. not because he is anti-war, but because he is a true conservative. the only one running.
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| i'm about an hour away from having my final exams graded. then all that will remain is assigning grades, which i suppose will happen some time tomorrow. once i'm done with my summer class, though, unfortunately no break for me. i took the entire month of june pretty much completely off, so that means the next couple of weeks will be dedicated to (somewhat frantically) getting ready for the fall semester.
for some odd reason, i'm going through an interior decorating phase. i mean, i'm not so much interiorly decorating as i am finally clearing out junk that's been lying around for months and rearranging some furniture. but still. i am thinking about things such as painting, new furniture pieces, art work, upgrading flooring, etc....and thinking about it brings you one step closer to doing. or something like that. anyways, i'm having fun thinking about it.
enough about me. what's up in your life?
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