This situation in Iran definitely seems like the real deal. Probably Iran is using the need-for-power excuse to cover a weapons program when it comes to these new centrifuges. However, after everything that we have gone through with Iraq, I wince every time I hear the words “weapons of mass destruction.” I should be uneasy at the prospect of any country developing such capabilities, but instead I am just afraid that we will get ourselves into another senseless war over a nonexistent problem.

I do not deny that some good has come from our presence in Iraq. However, I feel like there are countries, possibly Iran, that really have nuclear weapons. While we were banging around Iraq looking for these weapons, maybe other countries were taking advantage of the world looking the other way to get their programs going.

I do hope that this situation turns out to be nothing, but I feel like it’s only a matter of time before there is a country with real nuclear capabilities. Maybe this is Iran; maybe it’s not. Only time will tell!

I must admit though, in an act of defiance against Mother Nature, I have worn flip-flops the last two days. I know it’s silly and my toes feel like they are freezing off, but when people start wearing flip-flops it’s a sure sign that summer is coming. Since I already broke out my 10 pairs, I refuse to put them back in the closest.

I am thankful that all things considered, this has been a light winter. But I am REALLY ready for spring to be here!!

So, while everyone else seems to being going away to a tropical island for Spring Break, I will be stuck in the sub par climate in Albany. Not that cold- not very warm either.

This summer I had to get my head stapled back together, which sounds awful. It’s actually rather humorous looking back on the whole thing.

I was walking up the slate walkway to the back door of a guy’s house who I had met a week or so early through a mutual friend. I knew this guy, Dana, liked practical jokes from being around him over the past couple of weeks. What I didn’t know was just how much, and nothing could have prepared me.

It was pitch black out. As I got closer to the door, I heard running. Suddenly, a giant gorilla appeared- Dana fully clad with ape head, feet, and body wearing a coconut bra and grass skirt. The “gorilla” flew through the air, apparently to give me a giant money hug. I fell backwards, landed first on the slat with my tailbone, and cracked my head against a jagged piece of stone.

I thought, “I’m sure I have concussion.” Thinking not of my own pain but of how embarrassed my new friend must be, I forced myself to jump up (probably not the smartest move). He rushed me into the house and yelled to his mom. “Amanda’s hurt really bad!” I insisted that I was fine as I held my hand against the back of my head. I removed my hand to find it covered in blood. We eventually decided I better go to the ER.

Dana drove me home to meet my dad for the first time and inform him that he had “attacked his precious daughter while dressed as a monkey.” My dad was surprisingly “cool” about the situation. My Marine Corp. brother threatened to tear “monkey boy” limb from limb, however.

At Urgent Care (I refused to go to the ER), the nurse found my story extremely humors. We chatted as the doctor came in and stapled the gash in my head back together while my dad and Dana bonded in the waiting room.

“Well is he at least cute?” asked the nurse.

“Let’s not loose perspective here,” I said. “He did tackle me to the ground wearing a monkey costume!”

Three specialists later (a doctor, massage therapist, and chiropractor), I can finally laugh about the whole thing!

Even though we didn’t get far, the Danes making it to the tournament really put Albany on the map for something positive.  It was really cool to feel everyone in the capital region getting excited for the game too.  The night the game was on, I was out at dinner with my parents at a nice restaurant.  I couldn’t sit still so I went to the bar to see if the game was on.  When I walked in, I found tons of people crowed around the TV watching the Danes play U Conn.  (Students, kids, adults…everyone.)  Even the waiters and waitresses were there watching the game with 6 minutes left.  (The manager made them get back to work of course).

I guess the whole thing just made me really happy for our school and our community.  This is one of the first times I really ever cared about who was going to win a sporting event.  Now that it’s all over, I am just proud of our school and happy that this event brought so many people in the community, young and old, together.

I love this site!  Here we find, at style.com, a wealth of photo galleries all dedicated to fashion.  Users can easily scroll through a long list of designers and choose from that list the collection they wish to view in slideshow format.  While some might feel that there are too many pictures here, for fashion lovers it’s the next best thing to being in the front row at “Fashion Week” in New York!  The photos themselves are straight forward since their paramount function is to display the clothing.  The art here is in the clothes, not the photographs.  This is definitely a site to add to your favorites if you have a passion for fashion.   

Okay, so this site is amateurish and not particularly user friendly.  However, I had to add it here for the simple fact that the photos I found really made me say, “Wow”!  This photo gallery is all pictures of “Java Art”.  I feel that my description won’t really do these photos justice- you really have to check them out for yourself.  Basically these photos are all snapshots of the amazing designs that people have created with the foam on top of their coffee.  It’s definitely worth clicking through this slideshow!  

Maybe not. Apparently H& R Block knows about as much as I do when it comes to doing taxes…at least their own….

According to the website Red Herring, “the tax preparation and software provider [H& R Block] admitted it…miscalculated its own state income taxes, understating its liabilities by $32 million as of April 30, 2005.” So basically, they messed up their own taxes by $32 million! Wow!

Of course, this blunder resulted in a subsequent drop in the companies stock. It will be pretty hard to trust them. The effects of this incident may not be fully realized for several years. No one knows how long it will take for consumers to regain faith in H& R Block’s services. The competition must be happy!

I guess you really can’t trust anyone to be right 100 percent of the time. It all comes back to the age old saying: If you want something done right, do it yourself. Looks like I should learn how to do my own taxes….

…Eventually.

Today I found out that a young mother whose four children I used to baby-sit is likely going to die from her cancer as well. She had breast cancer, which she chose to treat with natural methods. She passed on chemotherapy and adopted an organic, caner-fighting diet. After keeping the breast cancer at bay for nearly a year, she found out that it has advanced to her liver and brain.

So, all of this has left me wondering who’s right? Those on the conventional side or those on the non-conventional side? I mean, I know there is no cure for cancer, even though some people, like Kevin Trudeau, say that with alternative medicine you can cure it. Having just experienced the scenarios I discussed above, I find myself totally confused.

Recently, Coretta Scott King (widow of the Rev. Martin Luther King Jr.) died after trying to treat her cancer naturally. Some say natural methods don’t work and some say she should have explored them sooner. Who knows?

Perhaps this whole thing is so confusing to me since I have grown up with parents that don’t even use a microwave because it “kills the cells in the food with radioactive waves”. (Go ahead- say it, “Hippies!”) My point is, I’m used to the whole “natural thing”, but now I question if it really works.

I have no conclusion since all I have seen is failure on both sides. However, it’s one of those: “What would I do if it was me?” questions that everyone thinks about eventually. I have no answer.

Brad met up with Angelina on the set of a movie, Brad left Jennifer Aniston, Angelina and Brad started jet-setting as planet earth’s good-will ambassadors, Jolie’s two, little, bundles of joy were suddenly sporting the new surname Jolie-Pitt, and now Angelina is pregnant. To me, it’s all neither here nor there. Good for them.

I guess the only thing that actually really annoys me about the whole Brad Pitt/Angelina thing is Jennifer Lopez and Ben Affleck’s fault. After all, it was with the horribly overexposed relationship of Jen and Ben that the couple naming craze started. Jennifer and Ben became “Bennifer” and now Brad and Angelina are “Brangelina”. It gets worse too. Katy Holmes and Tom Cruise are “Tomkat” and even Brad Pitt’s ex, Jennifer Aniston and her new beau Vince Vaughn have been christened “Vauhgniston” by the likes of E! News and Entertainment Tonight (ET).

What’s the deal? I feel like the message in all of this is that once you are in a relationship no one cares about who you are as an individual anymore. Your new identity is solely in your significant other. Celebrity couples that receive these ridiculous names should just get a card that reads, “Congrats! You are officially in an over-exposed relationship. Warning! This means we don’t care who you are anymore and this stupid name will haunt you for years to come.”

I can’t even pretend to act like I really understood what transpired and led to the eventual defeat of the Seahawks by the Steelers 21-10 even though I was there for full duration of the game. I usually watch the game for the commercials, but they disappointed me this year and by the fourth quarter all I could do was think about it being over… I thought boredom might actually kill me.

So I guess the question is: why would someone like me that doesn’t even like football or understand it bother to watch the Super Bowl? The answer is simple: If I didn’t watch, I’d feel like a bad American. Out of sheer guilt, I’ve been watching the Super Bowl since I can remember. I even know people who were ashamed to admit they didn’t know who was playing until the day of the big game, but know you, they watched the game too.

Maybe that’s the great thing about the Super Bowl. It brings everyone together and it’s not like the holidays. You don’t have to think of witty things to say, compliment your relatives on their new hair dos, weight loss, or Christmas sweaters. You just get to enjoy chips and dip, drink beer and sit in a recliner, yell as loud at you want, and hang out with friends… At least that’s what it looks like to me. Is there really more to it?

            Since I was sick on Sunday, I decided to go home to my parents’ house for a little TLC.  On the drive over, I couldn’t get the Woodruff story out of my head.  I guess as a journalism student this story hit so close to home that it was impossible for me not to think about.

            When I finally got to my parents’, I ran in and turned on the television to get an update.  How were they doing? Had anything changed?  I told my mom about the story.  She said, “Well, I think maybe this will give people more of a picture of what soldiers go through everyday.”  (My younger brother is in the Marines.)  

            I said, “Yeah, but maybe it will give people a picture into what journalist go through everyday, too.”

            From this entire story, both Woodruff and Vogt’s ordeal and my conversation about it with my mom, I have realized two things.  One, it is unfortunate that the danger the journalists and their photog.s/camera people put themselves in when embedded with troops is not recognized or appreciated until one of them is injured or looses their life.  We do not recognize or thank them often enough for the lengths they go to bring us coverage of war.  This is unfortunately true of every war, not just this one. 

Two, I have to agree with my mom as well.  It seems like the stories of soldiers are not told often enough.  In a way it does feel like people care disproportionately more about a famous journalist wounded in the war than soldiers who fight everyday to protect one another and fight for our country.  Their stories are just as important and should be told.  For every Bob Woodruff there are a hundred soldiers wounded and forgotten about.