Italy-Villas
Added on Mar, 22 2008 at 10:04 PM by Sarah
I decided this week what I am going to be doing next year. I have looked in to a bunch of different countries and places where I could study abroad and last week I had it narrowed down to just two places. I knew I would either be going to either Italy or Sardinia. I had been doing my research for a while I what it came down to was both the length of the programs and the cost of both Italy Apartments and Sardinia apartments. I know that I definitely don;t want to stay there for the whole year but I just want like a semester or half semester program. I also know that I don't want to stay there when it's warm here so spring I think would be the best time for me to go. So since I have made those two decisions I started looking at apartments, Italy villas and Sardinia villas, because I know that I also don;t want to stay on campus but I want to get the full experience and not just live like some touristy student. This is just the way I roll.
If I could completely immerse myself in either culture any more than that it would have to happen after I am done with school because I know I do need to get my degree done before I do anything more intense. I did some research in to apartments for both countries and found some really cool villas in Italy that I really loved. I found that most of the Sardinia villas were a little bit outside of my price range for the area where the transfer would be so I have made my final decision to go to Italy. Even though I still have about a year left until I go, I am already feeling the excitement every day. Each morning while I check my e-mail I can not help but do more research in to the area where we will be staying which is Tuscany. The area was also a big factor for me because it would be really hard for me to turn down a chance to spend any time whatsoever in the world's best
Talent Auditions
Added on Mar, 22 2008 at 10:02 PM by Sarah
So I have this...friend. His name is...Matt. Matt, ummm, he's not very bright. And ahh, well, he just got himself fired. Well now, it wasn't really his fault, I mean, in all reality it was her fault. I mean, everything would have been fine if she hadn't come into mi...his life and put these ridiculous notions into his head. I mean really? Did she really have to make him think that he had the remotest possibility of getting even one of the many acting jobs she told him about? But that's how it all went down.She strolled into the large, yellowed, flaking paint covered, fired brick three story building that served pretty well as the quasi district headquarters of the Juke Box Inc. multi blockal corporation. It started when he was young. Really really young. When he was two, his mother dolled him all up in a cute little toddler sailor suit-you know, the ones that are all baby blue and white? She took him downtown and set him on a little table and so began his baby modeling career-and ended it. But then, when he was thirteen he got his second chance. His mother, again, dressed him up in some scary eighty's style fluorescent pink and green wind suits (that was all the rage back then) and took him back to the same agency and got him in to some auditions for teens. He thought that was all over now, though. He figured it was a product of his youth, his innocence, his boyishly good looks. But when She sauntered up those faux leopard skin carpeted creaky stairs and into m....his office she told him about some acting auditions taking place near by. Nothing big, but just big enough to rekindle those long lost dreams of stardom and fame. And so I went with her, all the way downtown to the large windowed thirty story building that he'd visited some fifteen years before, and psyched himself up for his three movie auditions. When that was over, he drove himself on down to the agency headquarters for his modeling auditions. And that's when I remembered I had a meeting with my boss. Safe to say I was cleaning out my desk in the morning.
Backgammon
Added on Mar, 22 2008 at 9:17 PM by Sarah
The game of backgammon is actually a very simple game. I think most people are more thrown by the terminology than the actual game itself. I at first found the terminology very confusing, and when I would hear others speak about it, would just dismiss the idea of ever playing it. I have since learned what these terms mean and would like to clarify them, for those of you who find words like bearing off and containment to be confusing. Below I have broken these terms down so that a novice can understand.
Points – the narrow triangles
Bar – the strip in the center of
the board, between the inner and outer boards
Bearing Off – removal
of a person’s checkers (men) off the board
Containment –
blocking the opponents checkers in
Boards – the 4 squares that the
playing field is divided into
Inner Board – also your home board,
where your 1-6 points are and the last quadrant before bearing off
Outer
Board – the side of the board where your higher points are
Blot
– a single man on a point
Ace – rolling a 1
Ace Point
– traditional name for the one point arrow
Anchor – a point
with 2 or more of your checkers in your opponent home
Prime –
checkers of one players on 6 consecutive points at least 2 checkers on
each
Quads – double 4’s
Hit – to move to a point,
occupied by one of your opponents checkers, thus causing his checker to
be moved to the bar (center of the board)
Double - offer made by one
player to his opponent during the game (just before the player rolls the
dice) to continue the game at twice the current stakes
Refuse the
double – means the game is over and the person who refused the double
loses
Accept the double – means the game play continues at twice the
stakes, and the person who accepted the double is the only one who can
double next in the same game
Owner of the cube – the player who
accepts the double and then is the only one who can make the next double
in the same game
These are just a few of the common terms used frequently in backgammon. There are many more terms for the more involved player. The game of backgammon and the concepts used are relatively simple, however, getting past the terminology especially when playing with a more advanced player can be difficult. If you know someone who plays online backgammon, have them show you how, and then try to master the terminology as you go. If you just start reading up on all the terms before you begin trying out the game, you will probably be too overwhelmed to try it.
Dog Beds
Added on Mar, 21 2008 at 9:18 PM by Sarah
Still, on the idea of dog beds, I started to think as to whether the kind of dog beds that an owner chooses depends on whether the owner is the professional in the dog field or not. I would guess that if an owner is a dog professional, then he or she might know much more than the regular owner…even though I am sure that sometimes even regular dog owners know a lot about dog behavior, patterns, training, and so forth. So, I would think that the dog beds that professionals would use would probably be structurally different than just any sort of dog bed on the market. Like, for example, maybe dog beds for professionals are more anatomically suitable for the dogs (not just round with borders around, so that it is difficult for the dog to move inside of it), but something with only three sides, maybe, so that it is easier for the dog to get in and get out of the bed. Or, maybe, the bed in itself would have some sort of anatomical foam that would adjust to the dog's body and help to relax its muscles (I know that you might think that the next thing to follow is for the dog to get a massage and relax, but, really, dogs move around a lot, so I am sure that they need the muscle relaxation just like we, humans, do). Or maybe it varies by the dog breed. I am sure that someone in the dog industry has come up with something like that, like an anatomical something inside the bed. Or, I think that the professionals would also be careful about material that the dog bed is made of. Since dogs have fur on them (well, duh!), there could potentially be an electrostatic interaction between the fur and the dog bed material, which could potentially either harm or help the dog have a better fur. In that case, or if that is the case, I am sure that professionals would be rather choosy in the type of material that makes the bed. Again, all of these are to be true only if there is a difference in preferences of professional dog owners as compared to regular dog owners…but I am sure that there is!
VoIP
Added on Mar, 02 2008 at 9:21 PM by Sarah
College is supremely entertaining and more than just a little bit educational, but there are certain aspects which quite frankly chaff my slightly more educated bum. For instance, being entirely penniless, empty pocketed and broke is a tad bit annoying, especially when it come time to call home to my excessively paranoid and worry wart-ish parental units. I whip out my handy dandy, super fine cellular calling device whereupon I rack up enormous amounts of debt making my semi weekly call home, as I attend a tiny little school in the western prairies of that wonderfully homesteadish land of Minnesota, and thus, I am constantly accruing roaming charges! I believe, however, that I've found the perfect way to skirt these restrictions on communication and for free!! A
As I was stumbling around the internet one very fine, bright day, I came across a Unified Communications website and changed my life. It turns out, that all this time that I've been spending my money like a wholly naive sucker and or chump, I could have been calling for free using Voice over IP software! It's really a deal, I'm telling you! Using VoIP , I've been able to alleviate all of my progenitors' fears without so much as spending a plug nickel! My pbx phone system is so slick that I have spent less than ten bucks on my monthly calls, whereas I was spending somewhere in the neighborhood of one hundred dollars pre-IP telephony.
I know what you are thinking, 'cause I was certainly worried about my privacy and security. What with all of the new technologies potential cyber criminals have at their disposal to hack and steal...But you would be surprised with VoIP security! It's tight as snail out of water...I'm not entirely sure what exactly that means, but it sounded pretty good at the time. I trust it so much, I even use it as my Business telephone system!
All I'm trying to say is that cell phones have nothing at all on my softphone VoIP setup! So get to it, get out there...or in there... and set up your own Internet telephone!