Mar26

Update

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Update

I have finally heard from graduate schools and the decision has been made….

3 schools said no, 1 said yes.  The one that said yes was the top choice and of course I accepted the offer!  It’s been a very stressful couple of weeks and I do apologize for not posting anything in 20 days.  Spring break is over and now I have to get back into the grind of the rest of the semester.  Should be slightly easier now that I’m not applying, waiting, and freaking out about graduate schools.  Now I get to figure out if I’m going to choose the thesis option or the written comps option.

In my atheist world, I did have a interesting conversation with a family member that had admitted to me that she questions a lot of what religion tells her.  She made the comment “I have a hard time believing that a spirit or whatever created all of this!”  She said she leaned more towards being agnostic because she’s still questioning and figuring things out for herself as she gets older.  It made me so proud that she had said all of that.  That part that I am proud about is that she’s thinking for herself.  I don’t care if later she decides that she believes, it’s the fact that she’s asking questions to come up with her own answers!

TAM 10 has been officially announced!  Nick and I are planning on donating plasma to help pay for it.  LOL!  The hotel is booked, we’ll be buying the tickets here in a few weeks, and we’re waiting for Southwest to lower the prices for Reno to Vegas and back.  Right now they are at $100 each way.

Again I apologize for slacking on the posting!  I’ll try to get back on a schedule now that life has gotten a little less stressful.

Mar5

My Spammers are getting smarter

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My Spammers are getting smarter

When someone comments on my blog for the first time, their comment needs to be approved by me before anyone else can see it. I read all comments that come my way so I can make sure they aren’t spam.

Lately I’ve been watching my comments and reading the ones that are spam and it’s funny to see them ‘evolve.’ At first they were just trying to get you to go to their website. I sent all those to my spam file. Then they started getting more and more smart. They are now looking like actual comments, but when you start reading them and then look at which post they were trying to comment on it’s pretty clear that it was spam. Lately there have been a few that were sooooo close that I almost approved them, but then I read the last line and it goes something like this “I hope so&so goes to *insert website here* to find the right answers”

Oh you silly silly spammers trying to trick me. I’m to clever for you! No win for you tonight!

Also I like to look at the different search phrases that people will put in that somehow leads them to my blog. here are a few examples (spelling errors are not mine):

awkward encounter with an atheist

get aressted hell no

can atheists foot get poisonous

knowers ark

And the best one………….

pregnant flushing semen down toilet

I have no idea how that last one could have brought someone to my blog. I’m pretty sure non of my tags or posts involved “semen” “toilet” or “flushing.”

Very weird.

Feb23

This is getting out of control!

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This is getting out of control!

I’m now dreaming of grad school applications!

Last night I had a dream that I had gone to Utah State University to talk to someone about their speech pathology grad program.  As I was talking to a woman I had one of those moments where you realize that you’re dreaming, during this moment I remembered that I never even applied to Utah State and it was already past the deadline.  I told the woman “oh you know what I never even applied.”  She then turned around went to a desk and came back with a paper application for me to fill out.  It just happened to be the last application because someone else had gone to get it and she told them “Sorry, Amber got the last one.  There are no more applications.”  And then I woke up.

I’m so sick and tired of this waiting game!  UNR doesn’t even meet to decide who gets in until mid March.  Right before spring break!  Same thing goes for the colorado schools I applied for.  My fellow classmates are going through the same thing.  Everyone’s dreaming about this damn applications!

And now I feel like I’m being looked at even more closely by my professors.

After I got my first rejection letter I’ve had no desire to study.  I’ve done no reading for a week.  That will change tonight.  I have to get back on track because I’m still being judged by these people so I need to keep up this appearance.  As soon as I get home tonight I’ll be reading my assignments in prep for next week.  I also have to start working on my take home mid term (which is said to be something the board looks at when making a decision because they look at the writing style).

UGH!  This better all be worth it!

I need wine…

Feb22

A small update

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A small update

I haven’t been keeping up with the bible challenge due to school and having to read other things.  I know a few other people in the group who are in the same boat.  Also we all got burnt out after reading Job.

I’ve heard back from one grad school…they said no.  My GPA wasn’t high enough (They wanted a 3.5, I had a 3.33 for the last 60 credits).  ugh.  Thankfully UNR looks at the speech classes when it comes to grad specials like myself.  My GPA is about a 3.7 in those classes.  So keep your fingers crossed that I get into UNR.

I went back to the dark side of owning a iPhone.  I missed it soooo much!  My favorite app is Instagram.  I just started a Photo A Day challenge and i’m having fun with it.  I’ll see if I can post my feed on here like I did with Pixplz.

Other than that, school is still kicking my butt.  I no longer feel like I’m running around like a chicken with it’s head cut off….I now feel like I’m spinning out of control.  Though this weekend helped me calm down a little bit.  I didn’t study or think about school at all.

Anyways that’s all I got for you today!

Feb15

Awkward Moments

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Awkward Moments

Hey everyone!  Sorry for the break in posts.  I had some serious writers block, along with having a hard time sitting do to actually write something.

The past few weeks I have been watching myself when it comes to awkward moments.  These awkward moments are when I’m around people who are believers and they just mention the word ‘god’ or ‘church’ or ‘bible’ or any of those kinds of words.  It’s not really awkward, but they feel awkward because I feel like when they say those particular words they look at me in that moment.  Now they could be looking at me normally and not meaning to make me feel awkward,but it does.  I’m 99.99% sure it’s me who is making me feel awkward.

One of the moments that caught me was on monday.  I was driving to Sacramento with a few friends for a one day conference and we had sat down for lunch when the other 2 started talking about their kids and how one of them was curious to know where babies come from.  The kid was about 5 and her mom told her that ‘mommy and daddy pray really hard about a baby” then the daughter responds “Then I’ll pray really hard for you and daddy”  It’s a cute littler conversation, but it was so hard to keep biting my tongue.  I wanted to yell and say “STOP INDOCTRINATING YOUR CHILD!!!”  But of course it’s not my place, so I held my tongue.

I’m fine with people being religious and believing in a higher being/invisible friend, but when it comes to kids, I have a really hard time keeping quite.  Kids believe what their parents tell them to believe.

Anyways…getting off topic.

It’s weird now to be on the other side of the fence.  I used to talk about God and Jesus and religion all the time.  I was really interested in it at one point.  Now I know how others felt when I talked about it.  I had no clue what people believed, I just wanted to share the “Good” word.  I enjoy talking about being an atheist/non believer.  But when I start talking about it to people that don’t agree with it, 2 things can happen…1. they could get involved with the conversation and we eventually walk away frustrated with the other person, or 2. their eyes gloss over.  Number 2 happens a lot.  Heck it happens to me when someone start talking religion.

I’m learning to choose my battles, and I’m finding that some battles just aren’t worth the fight.  It’s just like the whole coming out as an atheist talk.  There is a time and a place for that conversation, and sometimes it doesn’t need to happen at all.  I still have not straight up told my dad that I’m an atheist.  To be honest it isn’t that big of a deal.  His wife is on facebook so I’m sure she has seen me post atheist quotes and ideas and I’m sure she has told him.  I think he has put certain pieces together and just assumes that I no longer believe.  He still talks about the church with me, and that’s fine.  I’m fine with the people at the church because they had an important role in my life, so just because I no longer believe that doesn’t mean I no longer care fo them.  It’s not my place to tell him that he’s wrong for believing, just like it’s not his place to tell me that I’m wrong for not believing.  It doesn’t matter what we believe, we’re still family.

I’m really not sure if this post is making any sense, so I do apologize for that.  The point is, I don’t really have an issue with people believing in a higher being, my issue is when they choose to force it down my throat.  I’m trying hard to not push my non-beliefs down others throats.  It’s hard at times, but there are some fights that just aren’t worth the hassle.

Jan31

Sorry for the long pause

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Sorry for the long pause

So the semester has started and I’m already trying to catch up on readings!  I apologize for the long pause between posts.

I’m taking 15 credits and it’s kicking my butt!  Of those 15 credits I’m doing 6 independent study credits.  One is a TA position for the speech anatomy class and the other is to work on the voice research we started last semester.  The other 9 are actual classes.  My online Speech Acoustics class is way over my head, but I seem to be keeping up with the weekly quizzes.  The first test is coming up in a few weeks so I’m really trying to make sure I know all the info so i can get a passing grade.  Oh and it’s a proctored exam, so I need to find a proctor.  The other 2 classes are on campus and each one is required outside work.  I have to do a 20 hour service learning project by going to a nursing home, or extended stay facility and interact with the elderly.  This is for my Aging and Communication class.  My other class is making us go out and interview Speech Pathologists and observe them for a few hours.  My area that I was chosen to research is psychiatric hospitals/prisons/ private practices among other areas.  OH! and we have to observe one of the grad students and their client during the whole semester.  I’m pretty excited about it but I’m feeling overwhelmed in trying to figure out when I’m going to have time to do all of this.  I’m pretty sure I’m going to cut my hours at work down to possibly 15 hours a week.  ugh.

So if you don’t hear from me for a while, it’s because I’ve been running around like a chicken with it’s head cut off.  I’m also waiting on pins and needles to find out from schools if I was accepted into their grad programs.  The deadline for UNR is tomorrow (feb 1st).  I’m nervous, but I’m feeling like  I have done all that I can do and I’ve made the right moves so all I can do is wait for that decision.

Not much atheist news happening in my life right at the moment, so that’s another reason for why I’ve been slacking on blogging.

Well I need to go because I have a dog that needs to be let outside and a husband that needs to be fed.  I also would like to eat.

Jan23

Just a quick note

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Just a quick note

So Newt Gingrich just damned Fidel Castro to hell during the Florida debate.  I just thought it was interesting.

Anyways.  Today I woke up feeling achy.  It sucks because after November I though I would be ok for a while longer.  I guess not.

I did get to help teach the Speech Anatomy class tonight.  While feeling crappy, but thanks to the awesome people in the Speech Path Clinic I was able to function because someone had 1 DayQuil Pill.

Tomorrow I start my other classes.  I’m really trying to get over this cold or whatever by tomorrow because I really don’t want to be sickly on my first (well second) day back!  The husband recommended I take a shot of whisky and I did.  I hate taking shots.  This is why I stick to the fruity drinks.

Anyways enough of my rambling for the evening.  Until next time!

 

Jan19

“It never was about Religion”

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“It never was about Religion”

I was in the process of writing a post about Jessica Ahlquist and her victory about the prayer banner being taken down and then I found this awesome youtube video of her addressing the School Committee Meeting.

For those who think that she was offended by the banner and thought that she was doing it because she hated religion, you need to watch this 3 minute video.

School Committee Meeting

Make note of the people booing the first gal that spoke and how the Superintendent scolded those people and asked them if this is what they wanted their children to do when someone disagreed with them.  These people were booing a 16 year old girl!

So it wasn’t about religion, it was about standing up for everyones rights.

Also think of the other times in history where the minority stood up for their freedoms.  They were threatened, but they still kept going dispite the negativity and they came out victorious.  That is what the secular movement is doing.  We are taking a stand!!

Jan8

1st Bible Sunday Meeting

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1st Bible Sunday Meeting

This will be a short post, so don’t get to excited.

Today was our first ‘bible study’ sunday.  We met at a Starbucks that was busy, I think there was another bible studying on while we were there, but not our kind of bible study.

We all came to the meeting having read the assigned chapters and we had all made notes.    I had talked about my points that I had mentioned in my previous post and we all were feeling the same way, totally confused and even more Atheistic.

This weeks readings are to finish up the book of Job, so chapters 14 through 42.

I’ll write up a post about Job as soon as I get through most of the chapters.

I’ve had a lack of inspiration of what to post either about being an atheist or about my personal life.  It’s winter break so I’m enjoying it while also organizing and cleaning my house. I do have an online class that starts tomorrow and then my other classes start in about 2 weeks, so I have a little bit longer to enjoy our winter break.

Until next time!

(see, told you it was short)