LOST

I love this tv show!
I like the spiritual content. They don't talk about Jesus, I don't think, but there is a spiritual content that is missing on most tv shows and from most movies. Hollywood maybe creating these shows with spiritual content just to sell it not because they believe it, but at least it's there and good, I think.

Culture Shock

Yesterday I had my first BIG culture shock "episode" at the farmer's market. I went to the Tuesday night farmer's market downtown and was having a nice time and enjoying watching people and buying fresh food and reflecting on how happy I was that I was living in a place that has a farmer's market and where I can easily buy fresh fruit and vegetables. But then we (my mom and I) ran into a girl I knew in elementary school and junior high and I felt very awkward and had nothing to say. Then my mom and I took our lovely basket of fresh food and sat down to eat at a restaurant with sidewalk seating and I was thinking and thinking about things like I typically do and I just felt sad and felt like I just don't fit in here. I don't know if any of us really fit in anywhere but the truth of my experience yesterday is that I just felt very overwhelmed. I also ended the day feeling frustrated that I am not working yet and not interacting regularly with many people. I don't feel like I can do much to change that if I'm not working.

My mom tried to reassure me with the truth that Santa Barbara is just kind of a weird town. It's beautiful but it is weird. I think all of California is weird. I love living so close to the ocean, a large body of water, but I'll be okay to move out of California. I know I'll move eventually, but who knows where.

FLYING HI

I still need a job, but now that I am spending the money that I had in the bank I am more motivated to get working. But I am SO excited that I am spending that money, cuz why? Because I am going to visit Czech Republic twice, TWICE!, this year! I hope it doesn't make me feel even more like an alien when I return to the U.S. from the visits. Hmm.

SO! Check out British Airways online (BA.com) they are having the best sale until September 22nd, the dates are limited but the fares are valid for travel Oct 27th, 2005-Dec 15, 2005 and Dec 24th, 2005-April 3, 2006. If you schedule to depart on a Monday, Tuesday, or Wednesday you get the best prices, if you depart on a Thursday -Sunday the ticket will be 30 dollars more.

He's always loved us

Ok so Monday I was feeling sucky and like a loser in America and then it was the end of the day and this song came on my iPod as I tried to go to sleep and it was JUST what I needed to hear and I've listened to it before but it was as if it was the first time, and very much of just the right thing at the right time so I share it with you. There is no one like God to comfort you.


I've Always Loved You
Lyrics by Mac Powell / Music by Third Day

I don't know how to explain it
But I know that words will hardly do
Miracles with signs and wonders
Aren't enough for me to prove to you

Don't you know I've always loved you
Even before there was time
Though you turn away
I'll tell you still
Don't you know I've always loved you
And I always will

Greater love has not a man
Than the one who gives his life to prove
That he would do anything
And that's what I'm going to do for you


P.S. I got to go to sleep being comforted by this song then Tuesday was a really good fun day. My mom had the day off and I didn't even know it. We decided to go out for breakfast at the beach (5 minutes away!) and it was the first time either of us had spent time at the beach in S. B. all summer. So we're sitting there and I'm eating my favorite Eggs Benedict (the first time I've eaten it in maybe two years or more) and we are sitting outside with the sand and ocean right there. While we sat there (about an hour) at least two different groups of dolphins swam by and played in the ocean in front of us!! Ok I AM in Cali.!! Then we sat and read for about an hour on the sand in the sun. We ran errands then went home, ate lunch, ate the Krispy Kreme donuts I bought and cleaned. GREAT day in America!

Because I'm bored...

I guess maybe if I have a blog I should share stupid random stuff, so that's what this is: (see below)

My point? Czechs sms tons! I MISS sms-ing. I feel like texting is more expensive here so I don't do it. Being in America sucks, my biggest joys are washing dishes and then exercising (sp?) in front of the tv, especially if a movie is on. But I am actually generally hating tv. It's like if you are a smoker and you really want to quit smoking but you keep smoking and then you hate yourself after a cigarette, seriously I watch tv and then feel bad about it, but it's because I am spending too much time in front of the tv, ah life. I feel like a loser in America, I don't fit here right now. I'm impatient for the time when I will fit better here, and I don't know when that will be.


28 December 2004

Czech mobile phone users sent 53 mln short text messages (SMS's) on December 24, according to statistics provided by the three mobile phone operators.
That's an increase from Christmas 2003, when 46 mln text greetings were sent via mobile phones.

Each Czech sent five SMS messages on average on December 24 this year.

Clients of T-Mobile, the country's second largest operator, sent 20.7 mln SMS's, an increase from 17.4 mln SMS's last year.

Clients of the country's biggest mobile operator Eurotel sent 20.2 mln messages, up from 18.9 mln last year. Oskar, the youngest of Czech three mobile phone companies, registered 12.2 mln text messages on December 24.

Mobile phone companies expect a similar rush on New Year's Eve.

Mobile phone penetration in the Czech Republic exceeded the number of inhabitants in September 2004. Eurotel registered 4.36 mln clients in September 2004, followed by T-Mobile with 4.13 mln clients and by Oskar with 1.75 mln clients. Experts estimate the number of mobile phones to reach 10.5 mln by the end of this year.

Katrina

Here is a picture I found at yahoo. The caption is as follows:
Volunteers give a round of applause to elementary school students as they return to the shelters at the Reliant Center and Astrodome in Houston on Friday, Sept. 9, 2005. The children, who were displaced from their homes in New Orleans by Hurricane Katrina, were finishing their first week in schools in the Houston area. (AP Photo/David Zalubowski)

It's so great to know that these kids have the chance to try and have some normalcy and that people are supporting them through this difficult time. The scope of this disaster is so huge and really hard to not have an opinion or reaction to and so many people are turning this into a political thing and a bash-Bush-time. It really irritates me when famous entertainers (actors, singers, etc.) take advantage of their positions to push their own opinions and bash people, I don't think being negative is ever a helpful thing, it NEVER is!

I don't think that's fair, but I'm not famous. I do agree that some pretty crappy choices were made and huge mistakes happened. I heard on tv that some of the Federal funding for hurricane damage in that area had been shifted for earthquake preparedness in California. And that was something that took place long before there was a Katrina, but yes under the Bush administration, so bad fore-sight, I guess. And the media is all over this thing about the FEMA guy Michael Brown (Under Secretary of Homeland Security for Emergency Preparedness and Response) having lied on his resume, apparently he claimed to have been a professor when he wasn't but you know what bugs me, I agree that this guy isn't the right guy for the job, but my opinion is based on the info about him available at the www.FEMA.org website that says his only experience with emergency preparedness was being in charge of a city in Oklahoma (with supposedly a population of a mere 40,000 according to someone on CNN). So tell me how that and being a lawyer prepares you for being in charge of FEMA for the whole country??? Maybe it does, I don't know, I haven't walked in his shoes.

And he is not the only one to have made mistakes, according to this guy (a Republican Colorado state Representive) stated on some show that I thought was Larry King Live but I didn't see his name in the transcripts for today's show, but can be found at: http://edition.cnn.com/TRANSCRIPTS/0509/09/lkl.01.html- anyway he stated that Louisiana has had problems with corruption for years and he thinks that affected the breakdown in communication, he says firemen showed up from another state but were turned away by members of the state of New Orleans government which seems weird. I wish I could remember the guy's name and could remember exactly what he said because he was pretty convincing and interesting.


I've been looking into going with the Red Cross and on their website or at least on the website for my local Red Cross (http://www.sbaco-redcross.org/) they have an "Online Intro to Disaster Services Course" and you click on it and it is a really great informative interactive presentation about the Red Cross and responding to disasters that lasts for maybe 20 minutes or more.



From the FEMA website:
(about M. Brown) His background in state and local government also includes serving as an assistant city manager with emergency services oversight and as a city councilman.

Here is the website to look at the Bios of the FEMA senior staff:
http://www.fema.gov/about/bios/bio.shtm

Hurricane Katrina

I'm starting to think about trying to volunteer to go with the Red Cross down to help with disaster relief in the wake of Katrina. They actually do need people and it sure would be nice to feel useful again. But I'm not sure if it really makes sense for me to go, if I have to pay for my own airfare then I couldn't go anyway. I've got 40 bucks and that's it until I start working again.

The world sure is crazy right now, the Tsunami disaster last year and now this, seperately and especially combined these events make me feel nervous and give an urgency to life, like hurry up and live life, experience and do what there is to experience and do.

So what am I gonna do?
What are you gonna do?