It's Driving Me Nuts!

On another book lovers blog, I discovered a neat little tool that can "read" your blog and rate its readability. You can find it and utilize it for your own blog here. I'm not sure how low it goes, but the golden star for me would be to achieve "Genius" status (I'm a geek, so sue me). My problem happens to be that I have not even reached "College." I'm stuck at "High School" level. And that drives me nuts. Has anyone been to high schools lately? Kids these days (which is a phrase I thought I'd be saying a lot later in life) are complete idiots. Most high schoolers do not possess the reading skills of a third grader. Seriously, I am not making this stuff up!

I was once a reading and English tutor for one of my local colleges, and most of the students I tutored were older than I, however, they usually had a grade level reading ability. Some of them were excusable. For example: one student spoke English as a THIRD language, so I can understand that it must be hard to get through some of the reading assignments, not to mention the labs and writing assignments, but most of the students I tutored simply did not pay attention, or did not stay in classes, long enough to achieve an appropriate reading skill level. It's anyone's guess as to how they graduated high school, but the entire point is to say that a "high school" readability level for my blog is insulting. Yet somehow, no matter how I tweak and change and whatnot, I still maintain a steady "high school" readability. NOT FAIR!

Being Girly (While Buying Dad Birthday-Boy Stuff)

This weekend I made a trip up to my hometown to be there with my family for my father's birthday. This trip was a last minute decision, since I had no idea my dad's birthday was on Saturday, so my sister and I made quick plans to head to the nearest mall (30 minutes away) and shop til we ....er, found him something good.

Our first stop at the mall was Best Buy. My father only really likes two things: books and computers (and their games), but since my mom already took away the easy gifts: Best Buy gift card and Walden books gift card, I had to actually consider what he might like. I came up with Rambo, old-school style, preferably in a convenient three-disc package. But they were all sold out. Seriously, who BUYS Rambo?!

Our next stop was Walden books, just because I'd just gotten paid and I was in a book buying mood. We also went to several other stores and tried on lip gloss, and gasped over cute bags and cuter shoes. We bought him some awesome cards at Hallmark, and traipsed about going into whatever store caught our fancy, before we realized that the mall was actually closing.

We raced to Target, where I found the one and only Rambo DVD they had, and so made up for it by purchasing a super old school Three Stooges DVD. I even managed to color coordinate the card I got him with an adorable blue plaid birthday bag and dark blue and light blue tissue paper. I'm sure he totally appreciated the way it all matched so well.

Shopping, being loud and girly that day put me in a super good mood, which is hard to get in these days, since I've been feeling crummy lately. Missing an SO will do that to a girl. :/ I needed that girly day, for my sanity if nothing else.

Can You Say Annoying?

Since I've been so busy with finals week and wonky hours at work, I haven't really had much to blog about, except finals (boring) and work (uneventful). Well, uneventful except for today. When I was hired on as a part-time worker at my current place of employ, it was understood that I was a student, and there was no dress code stipulated. As a result, my fellow student co-worker and I dress like what we are - college students. Jeans, t-shirts, and flip-flops? No problem. As long as we wear our tags stating that we actually work there. My co-worker has already been "talked to" however, by our department head for wearing a dress. First of all, let me point out that the department head IS NOT our head boss. If what we wear is really a problem, our head boss would be the one calling us on it. Second, allow me to mention that the only "immodest" part of this dress was the fact that it had little straps, and not sleeves, however my co-worker wore a little jacket over it, so it was not possible to really tell.

Today, I was "talked to" as well. I wore what I always wear: jeans and a t-shirt, and a comfortable pair of cute slip-on sneakers by Sketchers. Allow me to explain my problem: I am petite, and very slim, yet my legs and torso are long for my frame. As a result, it is hard for me to find jeans that fit around my waist (or hips, as the case is) and are still long enough. Shirts are impossible: I wear an extra small, which fits me except that I have a bust size, which I'm guessing designers don't realize some small women have, so my shirts are usually a little on the short side. However, if I buy a regular small, the shirts are baggy and ill-fitting and I look like I'm wearing a potato sack. So, my issue (which I didn't realize WAS an issue until today): you can see a small strip of bare skin right at the top of my hips, right above where my pants rest and just below my shirt's hem. The director of my department told me that I "need to cover up." I assessed the damage and realized that I wasn't revealing much at all. Even my behind was covered.
Not only was I mortified that she felt the need to point that out, but I was really irritated. So what did I do? I went into the main office, and asked another co-worker for two pieces of packing tape. Then I tugged and taped my t-shirt down. My co-worker thought my department head was "weird", which just goes to show that I wasn't revealing excessive amounts of skin, and I just muttered to myself because I was darn pissed. Grrr.

Myst on What?!

Nintendo is coming out with . . . get ready! MYST! I played this game when I was younger, and it really fostered in me a love for adventure games, not to mention appreciation for well rendered graphics and loving details inside a gaming environment. This appreciation is evident when I peruse any game, whether it be adventure or first person shooter. Graphics are a big decider for me. (You can see just how beautiful the graphics are in Myst in the picture to the right. This is not a publicity shot; it is really part of the inside world of Myst.)
At first, however, I was a little wary of how well it would play on a hand held, not to mention how good the graphics would be because, in my opinion, a huge part of the appeal for Myst was its amazing worlds. After speaking to a fellow geek (who happened to have the girliest looking DS I have ever laid eyes on. Baby blue? No thanks), I was informed that the graphics are prerendered, which means that they should do just fine on a hand held. As far as the point-and-click aspect of it, since DS has a nifty stylus for its touch screen, it should work out beautifully. The only problem, I think, is that smaller details will be lost on a smaller screen, since Myst was originally meant to be played on a computer monitor. I suppose only time will tell . . .

New Book!

Ok, I am aware that I have neglected to write a new post for awhile. This is not intentional; I have just been going through finals week, which (between work and final papers and projects) has left me little time to blog anything worth reading, really. However, as a literary geek, I am constantly buying new books to replenish my diminishing "must read" pile. Recently, I purchased a book, Four Queens: The Provencal Sisters That Ruled Europe, by Nancy Goldstone, that I had assumed would be a historical novel, the story of 4 sisters in the thirteenth century who practically ruled Europe due to their smarts and advantageous marriages. As soon as I returned home, I started to read it, just to see if it was as interesting as I'd anticipated. However, it was MORE interesting than I'd anticipated. It is not a work of fiction, but an actual historical biography, and I am just fascinated by it. The sisters become the Queens of England, France, Sicily and Germany, and apparently they wielded subtle yet strong influence over all that went on under their reign. I've only started reading it last night, but I have been reading it whenever I get the chance. Now I just need to avoid the temptation to stop working on such-and-such project to read just one. . .more. . . chapter.