When I got my email/general account for my university, they gave me a couple of options based on my full name for identification purposes. The one I liked the most was cnsulli-- the first letter for my first name (C), then the first letter of my middle name (N), and the prefix for my last name (Sulli).

While I do have other names I go by on the internet, I'm not sure why I went with cnsulli over my usual names I use for other things, AlmostAugust being my other choice).

I shower everyday. If I don't, my hair becomes disgusting and I have problems with my piercings.

Sometimes, depending on the day, I'll shower twice. Especially the hotter it gets and if I work with food. (I don't enjoy smelling like a kitchen.)

I can't keep count of all of the concerts I've been to since I was 13 or so.

But my first show was Kenny Chesney (x3)
I've seen Rascal Flatts (x2)
Toby Keith (x1)
Deirks Bently/Miranda Lambert (x1)
Keith Urban (x1)
Brad Paisley (x1)
Trace Adkins (x1)
Jason Aldean (x1)

Non-country shows

Red Jumpsuit Apparatus
Anberlin (x3)

For Anberlin, I've gone 100+ miles to see them live twice. Second time, I saw them out of state. Third time, I was three rows from the stage (and that was my most recent concert).

I went to three concerts in about two weeks time at one point, and two concerts in the same week. (And that was pretty rough-- I lost my voice and got sick between the two shows.)

My favorite band is Anberlin, and here's the link to one of my favorite songs:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=welW04x876g

It's titled "Dismantle. Repair." I find it an emotional, powerful song that helps in the moments when you need it.

On an upbeat note:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sIzlK_wUGgw

This is "Burn Out Brighter (Northern Lights)."

Light Knight : I don't understand why people say that those with big families want big families, those with big families want their peace and quiet once they move out of their parents' home. It's not exactly fun growing up as the oldest (or surely the middle or the youngest child) child of a family with four kids-- personalities clash, you compete with the other children for attention, etc. I don't see how people can deal with it for 18 or more years, then say they want the same amount of children (but my view is from being one of four-- I'm sure one of my best friends, who was an only child would beg to differ though.) The financial strain of four children is enough to send me running in the opposite direction (especially now-- three sets of braces and college funds for us.)

Like you, I want pets. I want all of the dogs-- I know the first dog I'm getting is a lab/German Sheppard mix if I have space. If not, a Yorkshire Terrier or a mix bred of a Yorkie and another dog (rescued, of course.).
~
I come from a family of six. Mom, dad, two younger brothers, a younger sister, and three dogs. My parents consider our dogs honorary siblings, regardless of their origins or furry 'human' status, and I've grown up with the same view (my parents got our first dog when I was five-- I had a dog before a brother.)

Also known as-- I know I'm not the favorite child. The dogs are. I would say they don't talk back, but they do. (One of our past dogs had to have the last word in an argument.)

Then I have more than one family-- I'm close to my best friend's family. She's an only child, but her parents have been there for me a lot like my own-- my family's helped them when they needed help and they've helped us when we needed help. It's a bond I'm grateful for.

danielbelitch : I like your story-- it's cool how you found Aerospace Engineering. But the power of just being put in random classes in high school changes your future.

Now, educate me, oh wise Aerospace Engineering major-- what do you have to focus on in your major? What kind of classes do you have to take? Do you need to take a minor?

pray75 : That sucks that your professor lowered your grade when you argued with her-- that's not fair at all O_o I've heard of professors liking you and willing to bump you up a letter grade if you're straddling a percentage, but not lowering you a grade. (I've had professors who've liked me-- I had plenty of awkward conversations with my technical writing professor at Starbucks after class and my constant emails with questions that I'm sure he liked me. I think...) 

But I understand changing out of being an English major for your reasoning-- I can't stand talking to English majors about books. It's not a simple conversation on a level you can understand, and why I'm afraid to take an English class now.

Good luck to you and your Political Science career, though ^^ Politics is an interesting topic to discuss, especially in today's political climate.

Juliet : Two out of three posts here so far have said that their parents picked the classes/majors their children are going into. My experience with that has been completely independent of my parents', besides listing off classes and which one I should take, but not them actually picking out the class.

So, my question is-- how has that influenced you so far? Are you picking your own classes, or are your parents picking the classes? (I don't mean to be rude, but I'm curious-- when we picked out classes for the first time, we were separated from our parents and send into a small room with a lot of other people, also picking out their classes.)

How many of you get federal help? (In the USA, it comes in the form of a Pell Grant and/or Stafford Loan.)
Most of what pays for my schooling is fed aid-- you name it, I probably got it. I'm going to regret it later, but I have no other way to pay for college. 

Do you pay for your textbooks in cash or via the "free" money?
My tuition, housing and meal plan is about 16k a year-- there's no money left over to use on textbooks. I don't even know how to do that O_o But I've paid for my own books, had them given as gifts, and to start me off, someone gave me $125 to cover my first semester. The first time I bought books, I went through the used bookstore right off campus. Second time was all through Abe Books, but for what I had to buy on campus (writing and communications classes with special manuals). For the fall, went through Amazon and Abe Books for my text books. 

How much have you paid for your textbooks using either method?
I've paid anywhere from $125-$250 for my textbooks. First semester was around $175, second semester was about $150 or so-- I got off easily, but this upcoming semester killed me when I had to buy one of the text books brand new (and it's an Economics book too, which are expensive.)

Was it worth it... would you do it differently?
So far, it's been alright. If I had a choice, I would have gone digital when I didn't. That, and I wouldn't keep books-- when writing papers for International Relations (or Studies-- we call it International Studies), it's a lifesaver keeping the textbooks to source. So far, I've kept two out of three, and am already in love with my Intercultural Communications book for the fall (and surely my Arabic book if I can get the smell of men's cologne out of it.)

That, and resell value is terrible. Paid $75 for a Journalism text book to get $20 back for it in the winter. I was slightly annoyed with that.

Dragoon26 : I want to read "Under the Dome" so bad, but I don't think I could get a library copy of the book before I go back to school next month But maybe over one of my breaks, since I don't have time to read during the school year.

I've been watching the television show-- it's pretty awesome.

~~

I just finished "Little Brother" by Cory Doctorow the other day.

It's gotten me to think about a lot of things-- basic American rights, what would happen if another terrorist attack would happen on America, Internet/physical privacy. A lot of things, along with sparking an interest in programming.

Right now, I'm reading "Homeland," the sequel to "Little Brother." It's just as great. ^^

While in the wrong place at the wrong time, hacker/techno whiz Marcus Yallow and his friends get caught in middle of a terrorist attack on San Francisco. When hiding in the BART tunnels, Marcus's best friend is stabbed in the crowds fighting for safety.

Fighting their way back to the surface so they can get help for Marcus's friend, all four high schoolers are taken prisoner by the Department of Homeland Security, who think Marcus and his friends are members of the key organization who orchestrated the attack on San Francisco. Taken to an island dubbed as "Gitmo-by-the-Bay," all three teens are held as prisoners without basic rights. After a couple of days, three out of the four are let go with a warning.

As Marcus makes his way back to his parents' house, he realizes that San Francisco is no longer the home of Americans, but a police state under constant surveillance. Every step, every action of the populous is being watched by the DHS, their movements tracked by their BART passes, their toll bridge passes, gait recognition  cameras-- the whole nine yards. Privacy no longer exists.

But Marcus doesn't like this. On top of being arrested by DHS, his friend not being released, and the police state within San Francisco, Marcus wants to fight back.

The founder of an open youth revolt born and bred on the Internet (using the xNet-- a secure and anonymous Internet connection through a game console), Marcus and his friends point out the basic freedoms of Americans has been lost as the DHS tries to find the terrorists within the community through many means (hacking, demonstrations, etc).

But the only way for Marcus to make the difference he is looking for is to come clean and tell his story. About the interrogations, about his best friend never coming home.

For those who would like to read the book themselves-- the book can be found for free on Cory Doctorow's website.

To those who have read "Little Brother" (and possibly "Homeland")-- a Viz for your thoughts?  

I really don't have a set time on when I get my hair cut/trimmed. I let it grow out-- I'm too cheap to get it professionally cut, so when it does get cut, it's something I do on a whim when I can't focus on homework. The last time I remember cutting it was in February, when I dyed my hair red. Since then, it's grown out some and my bangs are no longer butchered.

So, I cut it every couple of months. I would love to grow it back out so I can donate it.

I might cut it soon. Trim up the dead ends and reshape my bangs. Something I've put off along with recoloring.

play4fun : If you're interested in other books about logic/critical thinking, you might try "Asking the Right Questions" by M. Neil Browne. His book (and course) are very intense, regardless of how short the textbook is. While I couldn't stand the class and did miserably, what I learned to do is amazing and helpful.

The next time I get online, I'll go through what I have saved to my laptop and see if I can add anything.

I've had all three of those warnings before-- recently too. Thunderstorm warnings this week, along with the flood and the tornado warnings/watches. Life continues, regardless of what's going on with the weather-- Ohio has rather bi-polar weather.

A couple of years ago, there a tornado touched down about 3 miles from my old house, up by our mall. It ripped off roofing off a carpet place and stuff, and my dad had to take his employees and costumers into the back of the store he was working at because it was so close.

Four years ago, we got the remains of one of the hurricanes in the Gulf. It came up here, wiped out most of the state's power, brought down power lines, trees, roofing, etc. School was canceled for a few days before they got it back onto the power grid, and my family went without power for about a week. But I had friends who went two weeks without, since it was that bad.

Recently, a couple of good sized thunderstorms came through and knocked out our power. The retail store I worked at lost power and screwed up our tills for the night it went out and the day it came back on. For a hour or so, we weren't sure we would be able to open. Then the next day, my neighborhood lost power for a couple of hours.

Flooding hasn't been too bad-- after the 1913 Flood, levees were built around the Miami River to prevent it. Instead, one road used to connect two towns gets washed out on occasion and we have to cut through the neighborhoods if we want to go over a town.

But the 1913 flood has left it's mark on my community-- with it being the 100th anniversary, my town's doing a lot for it and putting up markers where the water level was. From what my mom can figure out, our house (built in 1853), was flooded up to the second floor, since we're a street over from the river. 

Fun story about me and a friend in high school during the Pledge:

I don't even remember how it started, but every Monday during video announcements in the morning, we had to say the Pledge. I worked next to a guy who was too lazy to stand up to say the pledge, so he would pull up a picture of the flag, scoot his chair back and say the pledge-- soon enough, it became a race between us to see who could pull up the flag. But I've been scolded for doing last minute work during the Pledge when I was in high school-- high profile life of a newspaper student...

But to me, it showed that it wasn't worth standing up, putting my hand over my heart and reciting the pledge. Why do I have to feel oppressed for doing it? Why with some teachers, will I get in trouble for doing it our way?

But should we have to say the Pledge? I think not. It's not written into the Constitution as "You there, stand up and say the Pledge once a week/every single morning of your school career." If it were, I would still fight it. I don't see the need to pledge myself so often to a country that lies to me about a of things-- even before I had the views I have today.

Like everyone else, I think it shouldn't be mandatory. Give respect though and stand (or have a computer with a flag in front of you...) and daydream for a moment. If you're really ballsy, just pretend it's not happening.

I don't even remember the last time I said the Pledge since graduating from high school though. It's been nice.

Should countries be able to fire someone from not saying the pledge? Again, I don't think so. That's a discrimination case in the works.

Question-- did anyone else have to say a pledge to their schools? I had to in middle school...

Let's take a step back and not focus on a man alone, but what can be done on the nation-state/international level about world peace-- rather than starting small, let's talk about it as a broad topic.

So, can world peace be achieved?

The philosopher John Mueller points out that we're actually closer to achieving world peace than we realize-- the general definition of war isn't being used in the same, consistent context as before.

Today's "wars" are not exactly wars, but armed conflicts. The difference? The violence seen today in the Middle East and elsewhere is not seen on the same level as either World War. Trench warfare doesn't exist, along with gassing or massive genocide close to the millions. While genocide has happened and hasn't been stopped in some cases (see Rwanda), the death totals don't match up to what happened during the Holocaust.

What has stopped these massive wars from happening? The state of the global economy. If the bigger countries (America, China, Russia) were to start physically fighting, the global economy will collapse because the strongest are battling amongst themselves. America no longer has the capability to support the world economy on its own back, so war between America and China/Russia isn't going to happen easily, even though relations can be shaky at times. (The train of thought is that developed countries do not fight each other in the name of global treaties and trading.)

While Mueller points that out, Francis Beer has two theories-- peace creation and war reduction.

One of the many outcomes of World War II (and the Great Depression) is how the global community was established. The powers in charge realized that in order to prevent such a tragedy from happening, prevention was necessary. The United Nations was created (peace creation) in order to act as a moderator between countries. Measures can be taken to prevent war from happening, which the UN does. Sometimes, it works, other times, it fails, but World War III has yet to happen. Along with peacekeeping organizations, the global economy has also been established in a much different way from the powers fighting.

But Beer also calls for the loss of the nation-state's independence and one world government, but right now, the nation-states are independent enough to make their own decisions.

Beer's other theory, war reduction, also has to deal with containment of possible conflicts or wars, along with management of nuclear weapons and the arms trade, both of which have been curbed in the recent years.

Immanuel Kant also offers his own views on world peace-- more structured than Beer, they're both on the same track about international peace organizations. Kant believes all governments need to be republican in nature (which hardly actually exist), along with a list of requirements for the republicans exist-- no grudges in peace treaties, no domination of one state or another, no standing armies, no national debt for military purposes, and interference with another country's governance. Kant pushes for all nation-states to be equal, so there is no need to attack one country to gain their wealth.

With such a big picture painted, does it seem possible that world peace can be created? We're so much closer to it then we were 100 years ago and a lot closer to it than we were, even 60 years ago.

(This was a 6 page paper on world peace that I summed up from a philosophy class on War and Peace.) 

One of the most common questions I've been asked since graduating high school/getting into college has been "What's your major?"

A short, simple question can tell someone a lot about yourself-- your dreams, your aspirations, your abilities when you answer. Sometimes, it scares people, sometimes it's a breeze to answer.

So, my question for the college students (of past, present and future), is what's your major?

Why did you choose this major? Have you changed majors before? What changes have you seen in yourself when it comes to what you've learned?

For those college students in the future-- what are your burning questions about picking a major, or have you made up your mind?
~~~~

In the fall, I'll be going into my sophomore year majoring in print journalism. I've yet to declare my major, but that will happen as soon as I get my GPA up and into more journalism classes (I had a rough spring).

I chose journalism after being involved in my high school's newspaper for all four years-- I was known for my involvement and dedication to it-- I was the head editor for two papers twice my freshman year, design editor my junior year, and then editor in chief my senior year. I've always loved to write, and I want to be able to do more informative writing over creative writing, so I went with journalism.  As far as I can tell, journalism/writing has been where I've excelled, so I continued with journalism in college.

I haven't changed majors even though I've been told I should/need to, but I refused to. My alternative choice-- international relations/studies (my minor) takes at least a Master's degree in order to get a decent job, but I'm not looking to stay in school after I get my bachelor's.

As for what changes I've seen in myself-- my editing ability is getting better. I've spent a year copy-editing, so I know AP Style rather well, and apply it to my own writing-- all the experience I have so far is from working with the school paper.

thenumberone : Americans have the ability to do postal voting-- it's called the absentee ballot if you were curious to what it's called here.

As for how many people would vote for the President if you could call in if it were like American Idol?

I honestly think it's an abuse of the voting system if people could call in 20 times. The statistics would be so off and calling centers would be established for candidates where they could call 20 times, ditch the phone and call another 20 times. How would that be regulated? Disposable phones are a dime a dozen and would be perfect to use. Not to mention sending the methods of picking jurors out of the window. When you register to vote, you're committing yourself to jury duty. My roommate last year was summoned when we got back from our winter break and I was summoned at the end of the semester (so I might have to do jury duty in the fall then) and saying you're not committing voter fraud.

It also doesn't stop those who shouldn't be voting-- illegal immigrants, children under the age of 18, those with felonies. There's not enough information with just calling in your vote.

When someone fills out that piece of paper, they get sorted into a lot of different sections. Age, race, where they live, their parties. If you're working for one party, you want to target those in the same party and check on the undecided-- I spent a morning do that in the fall. It tells you what side a state leans to, which parts of the population leans where-- the numbers are amazing when you look at it. Which states can swing either way-- much like the state I live in.

I don't want to guess how many votes would be cast.

What would happen?

I'm honestly not sure. Part of what won Obama the 2008 election was his ability to reach the younger demographics through the power of Internet campaigning-- grass roots.

If I had to call in my vote, I wouldn't want to participate.

I figured I would bring a serious light to the whole annoying siblings thing. She's annoying because she can't help it and I don't know how to handle it besides get upset when she pushes too many of my buttons.

Hopefully, the space helps. I don't live at home full time anymore. I'm just here for the summer and holidays, but this has been the longest I've been at my parents' since a year ago in the spring. It works out, as long as we're not exposed to each other for too long. But when I'm around too much and I take away mom's attention from her, it's when the fights start. Sibling rivalry rears it's ugly head and... Yeah.

Thank you, Light Knight for the encouragement. A low peak's been hit and it's wearing on all of us O_o

I had the same Bio teacher two years in a row in high school. I loved her to death because of how organized she had-- if you filled out a paper with your scores and added them up for the chapter, you'd get extra points on your test (and her science class changed my mind about science in general after elementary/middle school nightmares.)

One night, I had a dream-- no, it was more of a nightmare. I went into Bio without doing my homework for the night and the teacher scolded me. One of the most horrific nightmares I had, all because I went to Bio without homework and she got mad.

Other classes, I've missed the homework. Sometimes it's hurt me, other times it hasn't. I did miss a reading for a critical thinking class one day, and the professor found out and chewed me out in front of the whole class.

But I've spent a full day writing a paper so I wouldn't miss being late the next day...

Well, it's 4am right now. The latest I've stayed up has been 11am (before going to bed for a couple of hours). But I'll probably go to bed sometime soon.

It depends on what time of the year it is/if I'm at school or work.

School, I tend to go to bed around 2am for 9:30am classes. But there were times where I went to bed at 5am because I had papers.

When I'm at work, I go to bed at 1am since I have to be at work at 9am (ready to go between 7-8am, depending on breakfast with other workers). But right now, I have to take sleeping pills since my body's used to 4am bedtimes.

Wow, I remember reading the book about Schivao case years ago-- way before I was even in high school.

For me, I think I would want my parents to decide in the case I cannot justify my own death. Like what is stated, my parents (rather, my mom) know me best, regardless of any spouse would. I assume, even now, my mom would know what I would prefer. She knows more about me than any person would ever know-- my true colors, my beliefs/aspirations as much as someone else would claim to know me inside out, regardless of the state our relationship is in. I personally couldn't justify living when I cannot feed myself/take care of myself, so why should I live when the possibility of me recovering is low? I try to be more independent than I really am and she knows it.

But, the times I've been close to someone other than my parents, it's backfired in my face.