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Deal or no deal

In my Advanced International Theory class we have been talking about risk aversion and how foreign policy is shaped by how averse a state is to risk.

This has aroused a simalr debate in my own mind. How averse am I to risk, particularly in my career?

The game of "Deal or No Deal" plays out in my mind

I see some offers from "the Banker" as certain pathways to mid-level stardom. Garunteed success on a smaller level. Perhaps by taking the deal I can be content with success in a smaller sphere which possibly could grow and grow over a long period of time.

But part of me wants to shout "NO DEAL!" and keep opening briefcases until I gain what it is I truly, truly want.

However, I wonder, and you might say argue, that the analogy of the game and life ends there because I am not so sure if there is really risk of "all or nothing" in life. In reality, by continuing the game and not accepting the $36 or $72,000 preliminary offers of the banker I am not really risking losing everything. Unlike the game show I can actually go back and pick up a few previous offers if I dont get the big prize at the end of the game.

Instead of "risk aversion", The game of life might more appropriately be influenced by the concept of "work aversion". How much are we afraid of, dislike, or avoid work. I may be more tempted to take the preleminary offers of life because I am afraid to put forth the effort to continue the game. This effort includes working to be educated about other possibilities, aquiring the skills and knowledge to be competitive and entering your body into the rat race.

Life is an exercise of gains and losses, successes and concessions. I understand that and I beleive that compromises are essential to the success of both professional and private realtionships. But if our settelments come under pressure of work aversion, then, in my opinon, we have lost the game.

Deal girls

Threadline Clothing is co-hosting a Block Party this Saturday. On the bottom of the flyers that were handed out my roomate Adam printed that "Blake Owens will be there signing autographs!!!" Blake is one of our roomates. It was a funny joke that some people were taking pretty seriously. We have had a few girls come over and ask if Blake Owens lived here or if they already knew blake they were asking why he was signing autographs. Well we made up a lie that he had done modeling off and on over the last several years but that over summer break he did some work for Chanel Cologne. Then the lie kept growing so I took some pictures of him and used my limited newly learned photo shop skills. Here is a part of the results. Keep in mind that these were done with a small point and shoot camera, picasa and photo shop.

SDC10855-2 copy

Blake Owens

Now all of my roomates are a little jealous that blake got the spot light and want some hot pictures of their own. It would have been a lot easier with a nice nicon camera.

I last posted at the end of my summer semester in July. I took a long and short break before comming back to school in september. I went home to AZ. Thoughts

Northern Arizona Summers are still perfect in their imperections.

The stong Euro means tourists drink more while on holiday. Strong euro= better tips

Pnemonia, is a downer (second hand observation)

So are alergic reactions to antibiotics

Propecia works

Brunette is the new blonde

Hometowns are craddles for memories and black holes for careers

Universities are craddles for memories and black markets for careers (networking is key)

Taking a cyclical perspective, a down economy now is no worry for me. I will probably enjoy a roaring ecomnomic environment through my mid twenties and capitalize on the upswing well into my thirties. The perfect timing and atmosphere for a budding career.

Ralph Lauren is a patriot and his paisley prints evoke enough pale blue americana without being nautical

If that girl doesnt want a second date it is surely her loss. And I truly (but not conceitedly) believe that

There is a difference between conservative and relief society. I know plenty of fun women in Relief Society

If Cuba had become a state as Adams and Washington had believed it would be, how would JFKs presidency been remembered?

Sometimes do ends justify the means? Sometimes? Maybe?

I saw a banister with painted spindels in a Traditional Home "before and after" feature and I say yes.

I believe Fred from Scooby Doo would be a good roomate and the Ken Doll would live a the Ridge

I wish I had a camera of my own so that my vox posts wouldnt be so boring.

Exam

Finally, I am finished! I finished my last final, an essay, at midnight last night just in the nic of time to turn it in via email. Yesterday was one of the busiest/most stressful days of my college life.

I am outta here

Summer Break, finally, Here I Come!

What was the best thing about your weekend?

 

Tangoing couple

 I placed sixth in the Cha Cha Dance Competition! (I know the picture says tango, you get the idea)

There were over 100 couples who competed and my partner and I just kept making it to the next heat until we were in the finals, yeah! it was a lot of fun and we both got a ribbon.

Dancing in the street

What was the best thing about your weekend?

 

Tangoing couple

 I placed sixth in the Cha Cha Dance Competition! (I know the picture says tango, you get the idea)

There were over 100 couples who competed and my partner and I just kept making it to the next heat until we were in the finals, yeah! it was a lot of fun and we both got a ribbon.

Dancing in the street

This semester I have been in a a legislative class where we have experienced the legislative proccess first hand by simulating the United States House of Representatives. I have represented the Arizona 6th District which includes the South East Phoenix suburbs of Mesa, Gilbert and Queen Creek. For our closing project we had to run for re-election against another representative from our class who we were assigned to. Our task was to make a negative ad against our opponent and a positive ad for ourself. We could do a poster, power point or video. Here are my ads.

The class votes for a winner based on our ads. My opponent never comes to class so I am pretty sure I will win hands down

"The Big Read reckons that the average adult has only read 6 of the top 100 books they’ve printed.”

1) Bold: I have read.
2) Italics: Those I intend to read. 
3) Underline: Books I love.
4) Strike out the books you have no intention of ever reading, or were forced to read at school and hated.
5) Reprint this list in your own blog

 Well, my own reading is not extensive but I dont mind. There are a few that I intend to read and other I just enjoy hearing about

1 Pride and Prejudice - Jane Austen

9 His Dark Materials – Phillip Pullman
10 Great Expectations – Charles Dickens
11 Little Women - Louisa M Alcott
12 Tess of the D’Urbervilles - Thomas Hardy
13 Catch 22 - Joseph Heller 
14 Complete Works of Shakespeare
15 Rebecca - Daphne Du Maurier
16 The Hobbit – J.R.R. Tolkien
17 Birdsong – Sebastian Faulks
18 Catcher in the Rye - JD Salinger
19 The Time Traveler's Wife (just because I had an adventure at the library)
20 Middlemarch - George Eliot
21 Gone With The Wind - Margaret Mitchell (does the movie count for half)
22 The Great Gatsby - F Scott Fitzgerald
23 Bleak House - Charles Dickens
24 War and Peace - Leo Tolstoy
25 The Hitch Hiker’s Guide to the Galaxy - Douglas Adams
26 Brideshead Revisited – Evelyn Waugh
27 Crime and Punishment - Fyodor Dostoyevsky
28 Grapes of Wrath - Steinbeck 

29 Alice in Wonderland - Lewis Carroll (no thank you)
30 The Wind in the Willows - Kenneth Grahame
31 Anna Karenina - Leo Tolstoy
32 David Copperfield – Charles Dickens
33 Chronicles of Narnia - CS Lewis
34 Emma - Jane Austen
35 Persuasion - Jane Austen
36 The Lion, The Witch and The Wardrobe - CS Lewis
37 The Kite Runner - Khaled Hosseini
38 Captain Corelli’s Mandolin - Louis De Bernieres

39 Memoirs of a Geisha - Arthur Golden

40 Winnie the Pooh - AA Milner

41 Animal Farm - George Orwell  (I did advanced english senior year and was able to avoid this one)
42 The Da Vinci Code - Dan Brown
43 One Hundred Years of Solitude - Gabriel Garcia Marquez 

44. A Prayer for Owen Meany-
45 The Woman in White - Wilkie Collins
46 Anne of Green Gables - LM Montgomery
47 Far From The Madding Crowd - Thomas Hardy  (I loved, loved loved this book. It taught me about symbolism in literature and I found a lot fo connections and application in my life. Love it)
48 The Handmaid’s Tale - Margaret Atwood
49 Lord of the Flies – William Golding (not a favorite, but don't hate enough to strike. wierd)
50 Atonement - Ian McEwan
51 Life of Pi - Yann Martel
52 Dune - Frank Herbert
53 Cold Comfort Farm - Stella Gibbons
54 Sense and Sensibility - Jane Austen
55 A Suitable Boy - Vikram Seth
56 The Shadow of the Wind - Carlos Ruiz Zafon (yes! and a fave now with the serendipitous visit to Quatre Gats! It really was very neat to have a connection to this book. I want to read more from historic Barcelona)
57 A Tale Of Two Cities - Charles Dickens
59 The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night-time - Mark Haddon
60 Love In The Time Of Cholera - Gabriel Garcia Marquez (...have begun)
61 Of Mice and Men - John Steinbeck
62 Lolita - Vladimir Nabokov (no, precisely because everyone says I should)
63 The Secret History - Donna Tartt
64 The Lovely Bones - Alice Sebold
65 Count of Monte Cristo - Alexandre Dumas

66 On The Road - Jack Kerouac
67 Jude the Obscure - Thomas Hardy
68 Bridget Jones’s Diary - Helen Fielding (started it because it was in the sleeper of one of my dads trucks while I was out working for several days. An odd trucker book eh?)
69 Midnight’s Children - Salman Rushdie
70 Moby Dick – Herman Melville (I own and have no desire to read)
71 Oliver Twist - Charles Dickens
72 Dracula - Bram Stoker
73 The Secret Garden - Frances Hodgson Burnett
74 Notes From A Small Island - Bill Bryson
75 Ulysses - James Joyce
76 The Bell Jar - Sylvia Plath

77 Swallows and Amazons
78 Germinal - Emile Zola
79 Vanity Fair - William Makepeace Thackeray (started it then finished with the movie. good lessons in it though)
80 Possession - AS Byatt
81 A Christmas Carol - Charles Dickens
82 Cloud Atlas - David Mitchell
83 The Color Purple, Alice Walker
84 The Remains of the Day - Kazuo Ishiguro
85 Madame Bovary - Gustave Flaubert 

86 A Fine Balance - Rohinton Mistry
87 Charlotte’s Web - EB White
88 The Five People You Meet In Heaven – Mitch Albom
89 Adventures of Sherlock Holmes - Sir Arthur Conan Doyle
90 The Faraway Tree Collection – Enid Blyton
91 Heart of Darkness - Joseph Conrad
92 The Little Prince – Antoine de St. Exupery
93 The Wasp Factory – Iain Banks
94 Watership Down - Richard Adams
95 A Confederacy of Dunces – John Kennedy Toole
96 A Town Like Alice – Nevil Shute
97 The Three Musketeers - Alexandre Dumas
98 Hamlet - William Shakespeare 
99 Charlie and the Chocolate Factory - Roald Dahl
100 Les Miserables – Victor Hugo

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"Well I just heard today that you can donate a testacle for $250,000. Tempting."

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"Do you know who put my boots under the sink?"

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Show us your favorite YouTube video.

Ok, we are youtube fanatics in our apartment. My roommate Adam has seen every single video ever to be put on youtube so it is very difficult to choose just one. But I will have to go with... Poodle Workout!

Poodle Workout exemplifies the variety, randomness and quality of videos available for our veiwing pleasure on youtube.