WALL-E - there might be spoilers. read at your own risk.

Let me just say that Pixar has really outdone themselves this time. I'm not afraid to admit that I'm 19 years old and HUGE Pixar fan. It's just amazing how real everything looks and their story lines are so cute and original. So, as you can probably imagine, I was super pumped to see WALL-E this weekend.

I have to say that going into this movie I didn't realize that it was largely a love story. I thought it was more of an intergalactic adventure or something. Not to say that I was disappointed. That's hardly the case. I'm always up for a good love story. Who isn't?

And that robot is just SO cute. Like, I can't even get over how cute he is. And he makes cute noises and does cute things. He's just adorable. He likes musicals and collecting junk and has a cute little bug friend who gets run over more than once (the audience literally gasped - me probably louder than anyone - when he gets run over because that's how attached we became to his little pet.)

All through the movie he's pretty much trying to hold EVE's hand which is the sweetest thing in the world. And she keeps spurning him and spurning him because she doesn't quite understand. Meanwhile everybody is sympathizing with him and really just wants her to get it and hold his hand. Heck, I want to hold his hand.

He's small, but he's brave as we realize when he and EVE set out to save the human race and make them return to and re-colonize Earth after living on a spaceship for 700 years. They left in the first place because the world was overrun by GARBAGE. So, all the humans left to live in some deluxe spaceship in the sky where everything is automated. They don't even have to move and because of it, they're fat and mindless.

The social commentary in this movie isn't exactly subtle. What do you mean it attacks consumerism? What do you mean it raises questions about environmental impact? Huh? I didn't pick up on that at ALL... not. They didn't hit you over the head with it like, I dunno, HAPPY FEET. Holy crap. I feel like I was tricked into seeing that movie. I will never forgive WB for dangling potentially adorable baby penguins in front of my eyes while shoving a stark message of global warming down my throat. The only good part of that movie? Steve Irwin was in it.

Anyway, I'm getting off topic. The point is that WALL-E is adorable and everybody should see it. I mean, it has life-threatening parts, funny parts, sad parts, and the world's, no - the UNIVERSE'S - truest and sweetest romance. Which is hands-down the best part ;) And, frankly, I think it's amazing that Pixar pulled off such a delightful movie with SUCH little dialogue. Maybe things like love and bravery don't need words.



Look at him!! He's soooo cute!

PB & J

So, I've been feeling a wee bit on the lonely side lately. It's weird going from being the RA on a floor of freshmen who need you for everything to living by yourself and nobody needing you for anything at all. Not that it's a bad thing, but it was just a big transition. Against my better judgement, I bought fish. I don't know what I'm going to do with them when I go to the convention, and I don't know what I'll do with them over longer breaks when I go home (you can't exactly fly with fish)... but I suppose I'll figure that out when the time comes. They're not all cuddly and sweet and affectionate like dogs and cats (assuming the cats want to be affectionate), but frankly it's really nice just to have some other living beings around. And it's nice to know that they need me to feed them every day. I like to take care of people and animals and other living objects, and i like to feel needed. So there's two birds with one stone.

They're just basic goldfish from Petsmart and I named them PB & J. I think those are perfectly cute names. Dorky, but cute.

Here they are:

Des Moines Arts Festival!

This weekend was the Des Moines Arts Festival and it was great fun.  The weather was awesome (a bit too windy for the vendors, though) and there was a lot of cool art and bands nobody has ever heard of and food that was too expensive to buy. 

here are some pictures 

Cranked up the contrast. I think it's cool

Day At The Zoo

I've been dying to go to the zoo and yesterday i finally went. Of course, that was also the first time it's rained in three days... but I wasn't going to let a little rain stop me from seeing some animals. I took loads of pictures of course! Check it out.


Poor baby - he's too tall for his water bucket.




Baby elephant JP


Feeding frenzy


Tortoise!


I shall call you squishy and you will be mine. And you will be my squishy!


We go out.. and back in... and we go out... and back in... and out... and back in... and if you want to do it four times, that's ok.

Floods of Doom

So... it's been pretty crazy around here as far as the weather goes.  It's calmed down the past couple days, but we were experiencing some pretty severe thunderstorms and torrential rains.

And, of course, because of all the torrential rain and such, we had some considerable flooding throughout the state.

"Considerable" is an understatement.  

Everybody and their mom has been talking about the Iowa floods of '93 like this was a repeat of that year and, frankly, that didn't have much of an effect on me since I wasn't here for the floods of '93.  

Trust me, it was bad.  The flood was so bad that the water was shut of in the city for TEN days.  TEN days.  Can you imagine?  There were more than $1 billion in crop damages, 50 people died, and it went down as the worst flood in U.S. history. It affected 9 states in the Midwest and crushed 55,000 homes.  The Red Cross spent 44 MILLION dollars on recovery efforts.  

And this flood is WORSE than that one.  But, being the smarties they are, the Des Moines Water Works people took extra precautions after the "500 year flood" (meaning it only floods like that once every 500 years... so this one is a liiiiitle ahead of schedule) and the state still has running water (thank goodness).  

But, sadly, there are entire cities and towns under water.  Like Cedar Rapids.  Only rooftops are visible.  A voluntary evacuation was issued for downtown Des Moines, emergency spillways were breeched, and volunteers were helping fill sand bags around the clock. 

The flood is mostly over... but now the recovery begins.  

Check out these pictures.  By the way, Drake is too far from the river to be in any immediate danger.  Just so you know.  

1993

1993

1993

2008

Cedar Rapids 2008

2008

Tornado Warnings

So this time of year in Iowa brings with it some pretty, um... "exciting" weather. And by "exciting," I mean "terrifying." First it should be known that my greatest physical fear is, hands-down, tornadoes. Don't ask me why. I have no rational reason - I've never experienced a tornado, my best friend wasn't killed in a tornado, and a tornado has never ripped my house to shreds. So where or why or how this fear developed... I pretty much can't tell you.

The fear itself isn't irrational. Tornadoes ARE scary. They're powerful and dangerous, so I'm right to be afraid of them.

Back home in Colorado they're not much of a problem. All the tornadic activity usually happens way east of us on the plains. In the ten years we've lived there, I think maybe two have touched down within five miles of us.

Iowa, on the other hand, is a bit different. There's not a huge mountain range interfering with storm cells and breaking them up. Nope, these storms just gather steam out here.

The other night the weather was getting really wild and we had been in a tornado watch for quite a few hours. In case you don't know, tornado watches simply mean that the conditions are right for a tornado to form, whereas tornado warnings mean that something has been seen - a wall cloud, a funnel, some sort of rotation... something - and you should take shelter. So, that day we were in a watch pretty much all day and the night seemed fairly calm. The weather guys kept breaking into programming to give us updates because the weather was getting pretty severe to the west of Des Moines.

I was getting really nervous because, as a newbie to Iowa, I didn't know where the counties in the tornado warning were in relation to me. I didn't know if they were 100 miles away, or just down the road. I was talking to a friend online and he reassured me that the warnings didn't really include Polk County. Ten minutes later, the city tornado sirens went off.

My heart was in my throat - I live on the very top floor of my building.

But, as an RA, I had to keep my head because it was our responsibility as a staff to alert the residents on our floor and give them clear directions to get into the bathrooms on the 1st floor. Surprisingly, I found it kind of easy to not panic on the outside... inside is a different story.

So I had to stand outside in the pouring down rain getting residents into the rooms on the first floor, and eventually took shelter with the other RAs for a few minutes before the threat passed.

Later I found out that there was some threatening rotation in a couple of the Des Moines suburbs - Urbandale and Johnston, both of which are pretty close to the city.

After I went back upstairs, the television was following yet another tornadic cell to the south of the city that threatened to enter Polk County (where Des Moines is). It very narrowly missed us, however, and another warning wasn't issued. But, needless to say, I was panicking. Although, I probably wasn't panicking nearly as much as I would have been had I not been online with a friend at the time who is an Iowa native and has seen these storms dozens of times before. Probably hundreds of times, actually. I don't know, either way, he pretty much kept me from curling up in my tub and shaking myself to death.

The point is - tornadoes are a serious threat in Iowa. Here are some tornado tips and resources:

Get low when there's a tornado - basements are good. No basement? go to the lowest possible floor.
Get in the innermost part of your house/apartment/building - preferably where there are no windows.
Cover yourself with something like a blanket
The "Southwest corner" thing is a myth - the southwest corner of your house isn't necessarily the safest
If the news advises you to take shelter, TAKE SHELTER - a lot of tornadoes are rain-wrapped which means you won't be able to see them. The meteorologists know what they're talking about.

Here are some resources:
For example, a county map of Iowa that I find particularly useful when trying to figure out where the heck the warnings are:
http://geology.com/county-map/iowa-county-map.gif
Weather. gov does a good job of tracking warnings and things
http://www.weather.gov
And weather.com
http://www.weather.com
Here's KCCI channel 8 (they break in the most during programming with weather reports)

http://www.kcci.com/index.html