My friend Bryan and I got some great news last week. I guess I should put it on here! We both won awards through our fraternity! He was named scholar of the year, and I was named one of the ten outstanding members. They’re going to present the awards during our national conclave in June. I was going to the conference anyway because I’m a facilitator, but now Bryan will be there, too. We’re both really excited. Last year, I was the fraternity’s international talent of the year, so he keeps coming in my room to look at my big certificate to imagine what his will look like. I’m really happy to have won the award, but I’m even more happy to have a friend winning an award, too. It will be fun to have someone I know with me.

Last night I watched [tag]Shrek the Third[/tag]. It was hysterical! There were some jokes that I thought were pretty dumb, but they were great for a children’s movie. There were also plenty of jokes that adults would enjoy. It was really cool how they incorporated some of the other princesses and gave them distinct personalities. There were some parts that I think aren’t appropriate for kids who are fairly young, but as long as the parents watch the film with them, it is probably okay.

The frustrating part of the show was the baby who cried throughout the majority of the film. I understand that it’s a family film, but I went to a 10:00pm showing because I figured the kids would be in bed. This particular child did not look to be even a year old. I think if you’re going to a movie, whether it’s a family film or not, and it’s a 10:00PM showing, then you should only bring a child in who (1) is old enough to have their own seat, and (2) will make it through at least an hour without having to go to the bathroom. The mother took one of her other kids to the bathroom three times during the movie. Now, I love kids, and I know that going to the movies as a family can be a fun experience, but can you please restrict it to showings before 10PM? Am I being unreasonable?

It must be the summer of [tag]trilogies[/tag]. First, we had [tag]Spiderman 3[/tag]. I didn’t really like it. I thought it was pretty corny. Then [tag]Shrek 3[/tag] came out. I haven’t seen it yet, but I’ve heard good things. I’m going to see that tonight at 10PM. The latest to come out is the third installment of [tag]Pirates of the Caribbean[/tag]. I saw it last night. A local theatre had a special showing at 8PM, even though it wasn’t supposed to come out until today! I thought it was pretty good. Not as good as the first, but much better than the second. I suggest seeing it as soon as possible. Now I’m just waiting for [tag]Oceans 13[/tag]! I think I will try to take my dad out to see that one.

Remember when I got a call from my top-choice grad school offering me a [tag]graduate assistantship[/tag] about two months too late? Grrr. That happened today. I told the doctor who called me (who just happened to be the head of the program) that I appreciated the offer but I had already committed to another school. I was very nice about it, even though I was a little offended that I wasn’t offered an assistantship to begin with. Oh, well. [tag]Miami of Ohio [/tag] is a much better program, and they offered me more money to teach! I’m pretty sure I’ll love it there.

I’ve decided that I’m going to eat healthier food, and I’m now in the second week. I bought some [tag]turkey burgers[/tag] that I have discovered taste really good! They’re made by [tag]Jennie-O[/tag] and I had three last week, and one this week so far. I’m probably going to have to go to the grocery and get some more, soon.

Last night I swam laps in Butler’s pool for a half an hour. It was pretty fun. I hadn’t been swimming since January, so it was nice. I think I’m going to go again tonight. Maybe my friend Bryan will go with me. He’s been in a health kick lately, so the exercise might be appealing. Do you like to swim?

There was a bad storm on Tuesday night. It damaged Notre Dame’s Basilica of the Sacred Heart. I love storms, especially when they are full of thunder and lightning, but I don’t like it when they do a lot of damage. A few years ago a tornado went through my town and ruined people’s homes and businesses. Luckily, it was on the other side of town so our house wasn’t hurt, but it was scary to think of how fragile our daily lives are.

Do you like storms?

I graduated. Woohoo! I officially have a BA in Political Science and Communication Studies. Now it’s off to grad school to get my master’s.

The ceremony was okay. It was hot in the fieldhouse, but I had a fan pointed directly at me, so it wasn’t too bad for me. The speakers were not very good. Dr. Eugene White spoke. He is the superintendent of the Indianapolis Public Schools. He was not a very good speaker, and I honestly don’t remember anything he said. That’s never a good sign.

The faculty speaker was very frustrating. He was basically telling us that when we look back on our graduation, it will be overshadowed by the fact that the United States is fighting a pointless and needless war, in his opinion. I don’t care what he thinks, I just wanted my diploma.

Why is it that people think they have to make a political statement out of every speech? Don’t people realize that their audience is probably tired of hearing about Iraq?

I recently went to Oxford to find an apartment for graduate school, and it really got me thinking about how exciting it will be to live in a completely new place where I don’t really know anyone. I found out that I will be teaching two sections of speech, so I’m looking forward to that. It will be interesting being on the other side of a classroom. I think it’s crazy that I will be teaching and grading and really affecting students’ daily lives.

Four more days until graduation!

I don’t understand the way some people come to their conclusions. A guy I live with said that he thinks that in order to fix the property tax crisis facing Indiana, we should raise taxes for businesses, but then offer the businesses tax breaks for funding certain educational programs.

There are two reasons that won’t work. First and foremost, if you move the taxes to businesses, but then you don’t charge the businesses all of their taxes, where are you going to get the money that you would otherwise have been getting from property taxes? You can’t give them tax breaks and still expect to receive all of your funding.

The second reason this won’t work is because it’s an anti-business bill, which is an anti-economy bill. In a state like Indiana, where much of our industry is dying, we have to be competitive in recruiting new businesses and showing them that they would benefit from being in Indiana. Having high taxes for businesses won’t do the trick. If they want to be close to Chicago, then we should be showing them the benefits of being located in Northwest Indiana and not giving them reasons to locate in Illinois or Wisconsin. After all, those states are doing the best they can to recruit businesses, too. We must stay competitive so that we can provide jobs for our citizens.