I can barely stand to be at work today. I am so sick of this job. I do the same stuff everyday to keep this lab running and get paid the same per hour as the high school students working in the lab for the summer. I can't even make $1000 a month if I work 40 hours a week, which is all I am allowed to work. I thought I would learn a lot working in a lab like this, but I haven't really learned anything that will help me in my future career. I have probably made a few good contacts, but I don't want to work in a lab so I am not sure how much good they are going to do me. I am seriously thinking about looking for another job. One that pays better for sure. The one thing I really like about this job is the flexibility of my schedule, but I know I am spoiled and should get used to the idea that being able to set your own schedule is not the norm. I have no money in my savings account and about that much in my checking account and my rent and bills are due soon. I am so sick of having this same problem every month. I found a job where I can work 20 hours a week and make about 2/3 what I can make working 40 hours a week here. After I graduate I don't even know if they will offer me a full-time position here as an RA. I don't know that I would be any happier at another job right now, but I am frustrated with this place.

I have an iPod!!!!!

My sister called my on Monday to tell me my iPod arrived. I was confused because I didn't even know I was getting an iPod. My mom and I had talked about it, but I told it wasn't necessary, so I didn't think she actually bought me one. She got it using one of our friends educators discount. He ordered iPods for Lexsea, me and hopefully himself and possibly Corey. I know Corey was there because I could here him talking in the background when my mom called me.

The one I got holds 4GB and is green! My mom even had my name put on it because it was free. I personally would rather not have my name on it, but I am not paying for the iPod so I won't complain too much :p

I am going to look at fun accessories for it now!

Check this out. Shawn showed it to me at work yesterday and we were probably annoying everyone with our laughing!!!
Triumph vs Star Wars

I was going to post, but I don't think I an organize my thoughts enough right now to write anything coherent. I was going to complain about my dad, but I am not even sure where to begin. I just got an email from him which made me realize he knows nothing about my financial situation. He says he will help me when I need it i.e using the credit card to by gas and groceries, but then when I do, he complains about not having the money to cover it. I know where much of his money has gone over the last year so I don't feel bad spending a little of his money to get by. Maybe I will get into the details later, but right now I need to get back to work.

I wish I had money! (at least $200 anyway)

I really want an MP3 player. I am currently looking at this one. I can't decide between green or purple. I don't know why it matters since I can't afford one anyway. It has this thing so you can listen to it in your car. I will have a new car soon that has a CD player so I won't have to listen to the radio all the time, but an MP3 player would be so nice. I like these better than iPods because they have FM radios and the radio thing I just mentioned as well as playing more of the audio formats I am used to and it comes in colors I like better. They seem pretty much the same otherwise.

I blame Josh for getting me thinking about these things again; he has been looking at them. Do you think I can convince him to buy me one? He was talking about getting a digital camera (which I also want) and then letting me hold on to it since he has his sister's if he really wants one. Do you think I could convince him to do the same with an MP3 player?

I am really going to need one in the fall when our lab moves to a new building and we are all in one room. My bench is going to be right in the middle of the room, so I will hear pretty much everything going on in the lab. Currently we occupy several rooms, each with their own radio. I don't know how we are going to handle 6 radios in one room. I have a feeling everyone is going to be walking around with headphones. Some people already do! Who wants to donate to the 'Chelsea MP3 Player Fund'?

I have been drinking a lot of carbonated water lately. It is better for me than pop, and I am sick of drinking plain water all the time. I have already had two cans tonight and am thinking of having another.

I made some excellent creamy, cheesy spinach pesto and chicken pasta tonight and some coffe flavored chocolate chip cookies last night. They aren't too bad either!

Is it weird that Josh called me two times yesterday and the calls were 12 hours apart: 11:17am and 11:17pm?

Well, Sunshine asked for the revised version of my paper for my Greek Civ. class so here it is.


Women Against War

Euripides in The Trojan Women and Aristophanes in Lysistrata explore the consequences of war. The focus of each play is the affect war has on the women and how they respond to a demanding situation. However, the women are characterized in entirely opposite ways. Even with the same topic and group of focus, Euripides and Aristophanes take their respective plays in completely different directions yet come to the same conclusions about the ramifications of war.

At the time these plays were written, Athens and Sparta were about 20 years into the Peloponnesian War. When The Trojan Women was written, Greece had just captured Troy. It makes sense that these two playwrights would choose the backdrop of war for their plays. However, it is the portrayal of the women that is really the core of these two plays.

Euripides uses tragedy to give the audience an idea of what the women of Troy had to deal with after the capture of their city. Pretty much everything bad that could happen to these women did. Their husbands were killed and left without proper burials, their children were taken from them, and they were assigned to Greek men as concubines and slaves; some were even killed. These women are powerless to defend themselves against the brutality of the men.

Hecuba has lost almost all the people important to her as well as her city and home. She has “no limit to [her] misfortunes. They are beyond number” (The Trojan Women 56). Her husband and children are dead, her daughter-in-law, Andromache, is enslaved and her grandson is thrown off the walls of Troy. One of her daughters, Polyxena, is killed on the tomb of Achilles and her other daughter, Cassandra, is chosen by Agamemnon to be his concubine. Andromache, widow of Hecuba’s son Hector, is another woman focused on in The Trojan Women. She is grieving the death of her husband and fearful her fate and the fate her infant son, Astyanax. Her grief only increases when he is thrown off the walls of Troy and she isn’t allowed to openly mourn his death. The horrible things these two women face encompass what has happened to all the women of Troy. Their lives and futures are rife with tragedy.

On the comedic side of things, we have the women as portrayed by Aristophanes in Lysistrata. The title character, Lysistrata, calls together the women of Athens as well as Spartan women with an idea she thinks can put an end the war. They have taken over the Parthenon and are striking against sexual relations with their husbands. These women have obtained power through cooperation and their husbands’ sexual appetites. Lysistrata knows that if they “want to force the men to make peace, [they] must renounce…sex” (Lysistrata 145).

These women are suffering as well. Their home lives have been disrupted because their husbands are not around, but they are not helpless. These women have banded together to get what they want. They have a strength that the women in The Trojan Women do not possess: strength in numbers. It was very unusual for women to have this kind of power handed to them by men at this time in Greek society. This play is an example of the role reversal of men and women in ancient times.

The Athenian and Spartan women are waging their own battle against the Peloponnesian War. Waging war is generally the masculine thing to do. As with the actual war going on, this fight against a war is a power struggle, but instead of being between two cities it is between the two sexes. It seems less war-like because it is centered on sex and there are men walking around with erect phalluses much of the time.

Even the goddesses involved in each play are as opposite as comedy and tragedy. In The Trojan Women, the women have Athena on their side. She is quite upset with the Greeks for defiling her temple in Troy, especially after helping them take the city. In Lysistrata the women have the backing of Aphrodite for their sex strike. In one play we have a goddess of war and in the other a goddess of love. Both goddesses are upset with the men and their disregard for the women in their lives. The gods don’t approve of a war so why should the women.

At the beginning of a war, no one really knows what the consequences are going to be. It is not known how it will affect people not fighting the war, like women and children. Around 400 BC it probably wasn’t up to the women whether they should go to war or not. Their input wasn’t important to the men making those decisions. How war affects the women was probably not taken into consideration when the battle lines were drawn.

In The Trojan Women we see women and children suffering at the hands of the invading army. The women are being raped and murdered and their children are being killed all because of a war they did not have input on. Even though the war is over they are still suffering. Everything in their lives has been disrupted by a war that probably could have been prevented. The men are using their power over the women to hurt them for a war they had very little to do with.

In Lysistrata we see women on both sides of the war dealing with the difficulties of living in a country at war. The men have disrupted their home lives by going to war. They are worried about losing their husbands, and they are living in poverty and dealing with the corruption of their government and the hostility of the Greeks. The women in both plays have lost all sense of domestic normality. They aren’t happy with their current situations, and the men don’t have a clue until they lose something they have taken for granted. Lysistrata believes they are “ruin[ing] Greece’s towns and slay[ing] her men” for no reason (Lysistrata 186).

Euripides and Aristophanes take their respective plays in entirely different directions, tragedy and comedy respectively, yet have the same conclusions about the ramifications of war, especially on the women. Because of wars, people are dying, living in poverty, being treated unfairly, losing the people they love and the powerless are taken advantage of. Euripides and Aristophanes have demonstrated these things in their plays through the women of the time. The women handled their situations very differently but they showed the usually neglected side of war. They showed there is not always a victor in war because of what war does to the people at war even if they do win. They also showed the wars did not benefit anyone. Everyone involved suffered in one way or another. Whether it was becoming a slave or being denied sex, everyone suffered.

I just downloaded the song from the HP picture commercial, I have over half my paper written, my exam and presentation are done, my toenails are teal (to match my new shirt) and my fingernails are purple and sparkly. I am feeling pretty good considering I have only slept about 10 good hours in the last 2 days.

Does anyone else think it is crazy that the new pope is 78? Do they not want him around very long? If they don't want him around long, why did they elect him in the first place?

If you are bored, here's my paper so far. Remember that it is just a rought draft and incomplete. It's also probably really boring, but I did get to use "sex" and "phallus" so it can't be all that bad.


Women Against War

Euripides in The Trojan Women and Aristophanes in Lysistrata explore the consequences of war. The focus of each play is the affect war has on the women and how they respond to a demanding situation. However, the women are characterized in entirely opposite ways. Even with the same topic and group of focus, Euripides and Aristophanes take their respective plays in entirely different directions yet have the same conclusions about the ramifications of war.

At the time these plays were written, Athens and Sparta were about 20 years into the Peloponnesian War. When The Trojan Women was written, Greece had just captured Troy. It makes sense that these two playwrights would choose the backdrop of war for their plays. Even with the war in the background the portrayal of the women is really the core of these two plays.

Euripides uses tragedy to give the audience an idea of what the women of Troy had to deal with after the capture of Troy. Pretty much everything bad that could happen to these women happened to them. Their husbands were killed and left without proper burials, their children were taken from them, and they were assigned to Greek men as concubines and slaves and some were even killed. These women are powerless to defend themselves against the brutality of the men.

Hecuba has lost almost all the people important to her as well as her city and home, Troy. Her husband and children are dead and her daughter-in-law, Andromache, is enslaved and her grandson is thrown off the walls of Troy. One of her daughters, Polyxena, is killed on the tomb of Achilles and her other daughter, Cassandra, is chosen by Agamemnon to be his concubine. Andromache, widow of Hecuba’s son Hector, is another woman focused on in The Trojan Women. She is grieving the death of her husband and fearful of the fate of herself and her infant son, Astyanax, that is until he is thrown off the walls of Troy and she isn’t allowed to openly grieve his death. The horrible things these two women face encompass what has happened to all the women of Troy. Their lives and futures are rife with tragedy.

On the comedic side of things, we have the women as portrayed by Aristophanes in Lysistrata. The title character, Lysistrata, called together the women of Athens as well as Spartan women with an idea she thought could put an end the war. They have taken over the Parthenon and are striking against copulating with their husbands. These women have obtained power through cooperation and their husbands’ sexual appetite. Now these women have some power.

These women are suffering as well, mind you. Their home lives have been disrupted because their husbands aren’t around, but they are not helpless. These women have banded together to get what they want. They have a strength that the women in The Trojan Women do not possess: strength in numbers. It was very unusual for women to have this kind of power handed to them by men at this time in Greek society. This play is an example of the role reversal of men and women in ancient times.
The Athenian and Spartan women are waging their own war against the Peloponnesian War. Waging war is generally the masculine thing to do. As with the actual war going on, this war against war is a power struggle, but instead of being between two cities it is between two sexes. It seems less war-like because it is centered on sex and there are men walking around with erect phalluses much of the time.

I can't study anymore. I am reading and not comprehending. I have an exam tomorrow that I don't feel at all prepared for. I have been staring at this stuff since about 5:00 and I don't feel like I really got anywhere. Too much information and too little time. I wish I had been able to start studying earlier. If I hadn't been so worried about my presentation today, I may have been able to get a little mroe studying in. I have so many other things to do this week, that I just want to get this exam over so I can focus on them. With 40 pgs of Plato to read for a quiz on Friday and a paper due on Friday and biostats homework to do an the Gym Nest to go to on Thursday night, I am left with a lot to do tomorrow night. Maybe I will try to get up early and study some more.