Beginnings of life in Covington

After a not so bad 26 hour drive across the United States, we finally arrived in Covington, Louisiana. Our new home. We split up the drive between 3 days. The first day we made it to Amarillo, TX which was a 13 hour drive. Day 2 we drove to Shreveport, LA which took us 8 hours. And the last day was 5 hours to Covington. (It definitely helps when you make the first day as long as you can. The days after seem easy in comparison!)

I did pretty good on the drive as far as my emotions went. But the hour before we got to Covington, I started getting anxiety, which I mostly expressed in the form of being a "keep your eyes on the road!" sort of backseat driver to Nate. 

I really like Covington. I like the size of it. It's smaller, but still big enough to where you have all the major stores you want. The main thing we don't have is a Costco, but I found out today that there's one across Lake Pontchartrain in Metairie. But there's also a Sam's Club 15 minutes away as well. Our apartment is off of the main road that runs through town but it's tucked back in the trees away from the main road. 

The humidity hasn't been terrible. But when the sun is out on full blast... gahhhh it's bad. If it's overcast, I don't mind it as much. It feels good on my dry Utah skin right now. The lady showing us around a furniture store gave us some advice about the humidity. She told us to "get a drink. Get a few drinks and after that you won't even care." Obviously she didn't know that we don't drink and the only thing we'd be having is water, which I'm pretty sure I would still care about the humidity after drinking water, so.... wasted advice. 

I like our apartment right now as much as I can, seeing that we have a cheap air mattress as our only furniture. Yes, that baby serves as a bed, couch, and seat... stupid thing. We have what we brought in our car. Which was basically vacation essentials for 2 weeks, along with cleaning supplies that our movers wouldn't transport. Oh and my 2 little house plants. They survived the drive! We have no cooking ware. No pots, pans, silverware, baking dishes, cooking utensils... the works. We bought paper goods to use, cereal for breakfast, sandwiches for lunch, and microwave dinners. It's a blast. 

We bought a hibiscus plant for our little patio and finally some chairs to go out there last night. (We finally have something to sit on other then the floor!) The hibiscus plant is doing pretty well and we already have a couple of blooms! 

This is the view from our apartment patio. I secretly love it. I love that there are no buildings behind us. I just stand out there at night and listen to all of the noises from whatever bugs/creatures/animals are out there. They really are quite loud. Also, no crocodile has been spotted yet. I'm on the lookout. 

Brainiac

Did any of you happen to see this article the other day? (17 year old girl builds artificial 'brain' to detect breast cancer) The title alone blows me away let alone her simple matter of fact statement, "I taught the computer how to diagnose breast cancer."

I don't know about you but I was no where near building neural networks when I was in 7th grade. And as much as I feel like a complete failure after reading articles like these, I still love reading all about them. Smart, talented little prodigy kids are awesome. They blow my mind.

Here's a link to her project summary, if you feel like delving a little further.

Example

Sometimes I'd rather just not bother reading or watching the news because of the way it makes me feel. I get so frustrated and mad about these ridiculous people in this world... never good. Like today while flipping through the TV channels, I came across a news story of a young mom shaking her baby to death because it cried and distracted her from her Facebook "farmville" game. If that doesn't just make you absolutely sick to the stomach, then I'm afraid I must call you heartless. I was so appalled! But it comes down to addictions. People tend to lean toward the notion that only chemical substances that enter the body rewire the brain. But the same things happens when you become addicted to gambling, pornography, even food can have the same affect. When you become so addicted to something that it can break the bond of nurturer that's been made by the release of oxytocin in the body... you're in trouble. It just makes me sad. I can't even imagine...

Sorry for that depressing beginning. I wasn't planning on talking about that. What I really wanted to show was this great news story I came across! Can you just picture this 73 year old man, in his wheelchair, wheeling himself 3 miles to help his 61 year old sister whose car got stuck in the snow for 2 nights in a row? That is true family love right there. I wish the news would post more stories like this. They give me hope in the future. I have to admit I'm afraid to raise kids in this day and age! (Of course it still won't be for a while now don't worry. I'm definitely not pregnant or engaged in the least.) But I'd just like to say thank you to the 73 year old man who shows that family is your best friend no matter how far down the road of life you are. They will always be there for you.

Only picture I could find with the WHOLE family in it!

Prop 19

I came across this article today.
Thank you California for your generous contributions of starting all these propositions. Now everyone is going to start trying to legalize marijuana.
Does it blow anyone else's mind away that a formal surgeon general would be quoted of saying, "It's not a toxic substance" or stressing that the drug is not physically addictive?

In looking up the definition for physical addiction we learn that physical dependence is: substance abuse. A physiologic state of neuro-adaptation to a specific opioid, characterized by a withdrawal syndrome if the drug is stopped.
I don't know about you but it sounds like marijuana could be put in that category.

I also found this article (well it only gave me the abstract). But I thought this was particularly interesting: "It is suggested that when there is a dysfunction in the brain reward cascade, especially in the dopamine system causing a hypodopaminergic trait, the brain of that person requires a DA(dopamine) fix to feel good. This trait leads to multiple drug-seeking behavior. This is so because alcohol, cocaine, heroin, marijuana, nicotine, and glucose all cause activation and neuronal release of brain DA."

Here's another article with a quote from it to think about, "Legalization would be a significant change in that marijuana production and sale would move above ground. State and local governments could then tax it. California is expecting $1.4 billion in additional tax revenue from legalization, along with reduced criminal justice expenditure."
They also go on to say, "In a free society, the presumption must be that people can smoke, snort, eat or inject whatever they wish, so long as they do not harm others."

Food for thought.
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Updates

Well, right now in life I'm living at home, inbetween semesters at BYU Idaho. I go back to school mid April until the end of July. And thank goodness I've found things to keep me busy. Three days a week I watch my neighbors autistic boy and get paid from the state for that. Which is great, I'm making more money there then I did at my old job. The other two days of the week I tutor a girl in math. She's a junior in high school taking algebra 2. And then sometimes I fill in shifts at my old job when they need me too. So altogether it's been good having these jobs. I got a lot to earn to pay off my school loan.
I'm also taking two institute classes at UVU, which have been so great for me. I miss the school atmosphere so just being in a class learning something again is wonderful. I'm also dating someone amazing right now. He keeps my nights busy, but hey that's great. Before I met him I was bored to tears.
My birthday was last thursday, so I'm 19 now!
But yeah, I guess there's some updates for you.

Ridiculous

So, sitting at the dinner table, newspaper in hand... I come across this small little article off to the side that really just is pathetic and made me laugh at the same time.

National Debt Clock runs out of digits...

New York- In a sign of the times, the National Debt Clock in New York City has run out of digits to record the growing figure.
As a short-term fix, the digital dollar sign on the billboard-style clock near Times Square has been switched to a figure- the "1" in $10 trillion. It's marking the federal government's current debt at about $10.2 trillion.
The Durst Organization says it plans to update the sign next year by adding two digits. That will make it capable of tracking debt up to a quadrillion dollars.
The late Manhattan real estate developer Seymour Durst put the sign up in 1989 to call attention to what was then a $2.7 trillion debt.


Now if this just isn't ridiculous... we are apparently expected to rack up this debt to a QUADRILLION DOLLARS!! That's pathetic. It only took us 19 years to sink 7.5 trillion dollars more into debt. How are we not making anything to help drop this number instead of it skyrocketing up. Oh that's right, we get everything from China. Good one nation. Let's put all of our dependence in other nations that want to overtake us. Very strategic. Hey but good news... gas prices have dropped around 30 cents in I think 4 weeks!! That was a definite happy day for me.