Two little blurbs

I can't promise that they will actually be little though.

So I read the blogs of Emily, Steven and Beckie recently and have decided to respond to them in blog form rather than comment form.

Mainly because I love doing things that are unimportant.

First off, Emily and Steven asked what is on my knightstand (I mean night stand of course but wouldn't it be cool if you had a handsome knight standing in your room?)

My nightstand is more of a little bookshelf. It has 4 levels and two drawers on the bottom. It would greatly increase the length of this post if I go into great detail concerning every shelf so I will be brief at first. I apologize for not having a picture. I can't seem to find my camera.

The two drawers are brimming with all kinds of crafty things. Scissors, glue, a cornucopia of stickers and writing utensils (markers, crayons, colored pencils, etc.). There are also a bunch of cut out pictures and words from magazines from when I used to glue those in my journals.

The top shelf has my alarm clock, lotion, a tin labeled "chocolate" and a basket with all my past entertainment weeklies.

I'll come back to the shelf directly below that.

The second shelf going down has a letter opener, a box filled with old and foreign coins and my cell phone graveyard.

Below that is a shelf filled with all my old journals. I like to have them on hand in case I want ot remember something, reminisce or laugh/cringe at myself.

The bottom shelf is a mess. It has the jackets of a few hardcover books I am trying to read as well as a few books I got for Christmas that I haven't gotten to yet-"difficult conversations", "Harry, a history" and the book by Audubon. There you will also find my calculator and a smattering of other things including even more stickers.

Back to the top shelf. I have the bad habit of re-reading books before I've read books that I own and have never touched. I let the number of books I am reading pile up to an unmamageable number and then purge the pile to about three. Right now the long list is as follows (ahem)...

1. "'Salems Lot" by: Stephen King-An epically long novel that I have already read.

2. "The medium is the massage: an inventory of effects" by: Marshall McLuhan-I have also read this book but not in depth because it's not a cover to cover read. You just have to flip through it and catch new little nuggets of inspiration each time. It's a great book.

3."The Bourne Identity" by: Robert Ludlum-I tried to read this book two year ago and got stopped up by Harry Potter I'm pretty sure. 6 months ago I tried to start it again. I haven't gotten very far.

4. "God Emperor of Dune" by: Frank Herbert-I love this series. I tried to read this book for a project my Senior year @ hickman and didn't manage to get past the first quarter of the book. It was the first and only time I used sparknotes.

5. "Peter Pan" by:J.M. Barrie-I've owned this for over a year and decided that I need to read it. i't charmig so far, but other books have distracted me.

6. "The Kite Runner" by: Khaled hosseini-I saw the movie and started the book while I was in Rhode Island. Lack of reading time was the reason I didn't get far. I haven't read any of it since I got home 5 months ago.

7. "The Dead Zone" by: Stephen King- I stated this in Rhode Island the same time I started "The Kite Runner". I got further in this one but, again, I had to stop and focus on other things.

8. "Wizard and Glass: The Dark Tower IV" by: Stephen King-I know, my third King book. What can I say? I'm a fan. I was a part of his book club for a while. This one I started many years ago. It was a lot slower than the others in the series so I put it down. Now I've picked it back up again.

9. my scriptures. I am still trying to get in the habit of reading them every night. They are placed before all the other books on the shelf so I see them first and remember.

There you have it. I think I will cut the list down to a book I want to re-read, a book I haven't read and book I started and want to finish. Three is a good number. Add to that the books I have to read for Brit Lit and I should be set!

This is already a long post, but I want to do my top 5 jobs list like Beckie did. This will be much shorter, I promise.

TOP 5 REALISTIC JOBS (in no particular order)
1. Writer/photographer for National Geographic or some Nature magazine-If I had planned things better I probably could have done this. There is a smidgen of a chance that I still could.

2. Zoologist-This was what I wanted to be graduating from High School. Mizzou did not have a zoology degree so I started out in Biology hoping that I could find my way from there. Mom told me of a woman she knew who did things similar to a zoologist and had majored in Fisheries and Wildlife. I looked into it and here I am. Zoology would have been preferred, but I am really excited to work wither as a conservation biologist, a behavioral ecologist or something similar.

3. Geologist with a specialty in cave geology/Cave ecologist/ Some job that means I get to spend my days in caves-I have been caving times in my life. Not that many. But I have loved it every time. I find cave ecosystems and geology fascinating. I wish I could just be a professional spelunker and take people into caves as a guide. I'm sure that doesn't pay well.

4. Volcanist-Next to caves, the coolest geological phenomenon would be volcanoes. I don't care how dangerous they are. I think it would be amazing to work with a team of people trying to determine the likelihood of eruptions and causes and effects and all that blah, blah, blah.

5. Animal security-I put this one last because it is the least plausible of all the plausible dream jobs. Though it would often be tragic, I would love to help abused or injured animals. Animals that just need help in general. Like that show on TV. Plus it would be great for those abusing animals to receive justice.

TOP 5 SLIGHTLY LESS REALISTIC JOBS

1. Movie animal trainer-I realized a long time ago that I was never going to be an actor, a director or a writer for a film or tv show. I'm not competitive enough. So if I was going to be in the movie/tv industry in any way it eould be to train, the dogs, cats, monkeys, horses, elephants, kangaroos, fish...okay, not fish. I want to be the person who gets that dog to nark at just the right monent. Or that horse to rear without killing the rider on cue. That would be awesome.

2. Professional Musician-more specifically in a band. This a completly fantastical dream. There were a few unsucessful attempts. The first that I remember was Trent Co. later to be renamed TIKKI. This was me, Trinity Koger and her friend (I forget her name). It was gonna be sorta punk/alternative rock. I think we got some band logos, outfits and lyrics down. But no music and no actual rehersals. Then I was gonna be in a band with Mary James and Marcia Stull. I dont even know what we were called but I never went to their few rehersals. Apparently they wrote some songs. And last, but not least, there was the Micky Finns. Me, my friend Jessica and our friend Brandy. We were going to play rock and on the side be a basket ball band like Stomp. Jessica and Brandy were in love with Guns N Roses. These were all in Jr. High and none of them got off the ground. It's still a wonderful dream.

3. CGI & Special effects creator/editor-You all know that I was obsessed with Star Wars. During that time I watched the extras concerning all the work that went into the special effects. I was hooked. I thought it would be so cool to work with that. This also panders to my dream of somehow working in the film/TV business. Watching Lord of the Rings re-kindled this flame, though at that point I knew it would never be.

4. Sled dog trainer and racer-This dream could become a partial reality if I get the Alaska internship I really REALLY want. I'm sure that I wont get to do a lot of actual training. But just working with sled dogs in alaska would be fantastic. Anyway, this is an unrealistic dream in terms of my real job.

5. Astronomer-I have always been fascinated by space and its expanse. I have always wanted to be an astronomer. I have also always known that it could never be. I'm not good enough at higher math and science. I can do the easier biological/ecological/statistical stuff but that's about it. I think the movie Contact greatly influenced this dream.

So there you have it. You know the geography of my nightstand and my top 5 jobs (both somewhat realistic and completely unrealistic).

Thats all I got. This post is long enough as it is.