Nerdy By Nature's blog: "Caley's Inner Thoughts, Ramblings And Findings"

When I find myself in times of trouble, mother Mary comes to me, speaking words of wisdom, let it be. And in my hour of darkness she is standing right in front of me, speaking words of wisdom, let it be. Let it be, let it be, let it be, let it be. Whisper words of wisdom, let it be. And when the broken hearted people living in the world agree, there will be an answer, let it be. For though they may be parted there is still a chance that they will see, there will be an answer. let it be. Let it be, let it be, ..... And when the night is cloudy, there is still a light, that shines on me, shine until tomorrow, let it be. I wake up to the sound of music, mother Mary comes to me, speaking words of wisdom, let it be. Let it be, let it be, .....

For the benefit of Mr. Kite There will be a show tonight on trampoline The Hendersons will all be there Late of Pablo-Fanques Fair Have you seen it? It’s great. They got stuff. Over men and horses hoops and garters Lastly through a hogshead of real fire! In this way Mr. K. will challenge the world! With the blue people! They're great! They're just... chilled out! The celebrated Mr. K. Performs his feat on Saturday at Bishopsgate. Nice neck of the woods. The Hendersons they’re gonna dance and sing As Mr. Kite flies through the ring don't be late. Messrs. K and H. assure the public Their production is second to none baby. And of course Henry The Horse gonna do the waltz! Oh you gotta see it, it’s genius! I mean she’s ready, she’s got the stuff and movement and waltz. Horses how do they do that stuff? You gotta give her sugar, you know, and shes called Henry and it’s a lot of explanation but don’t worry about it kids. Ok? Just tune in, turn off, drop out, drop in, switch off, switch on, and explode. The band begins at ten to six When Mr. K. performs his tricks without a sound And Mr. H. will demonstrate Ten somersets he's gonna do on solid ground. Whatever they are! Having been some days in preparation A splendid time is guaranteed for all And tonight Mr. Kite is topping the bill baby! Across the universe. It's me! I'm on top of the bill! I spent years getting to this point! I’m bloody brilliant. This is golden, you gotta see what I do man. I got horses, and dogs, and cats, and monekys, and blue people. Its just , its such a collection. I spent years putting it together. You gotta watch it. You gotta see it. It’s me. In the thing! Yeah!

Almost every high school, college student and graduate student worries about big midterm and final exams. Most students end up cramming and trying to shove as much material and information into their heads as possible in a very little amount of time before this exam. According to doctors, this is by far the worst method of studying and recent studies show that test scores may be adversely affected without the proper amount of sleep before the exam due to too much studying. So the question remains, with the big exam coming up, how do you maximize your time to study? Here are some helpful tips and suggestions for studying. Don't study for more than 2 hours in a row. This will lead to a headache and you won't retain much of what you jsut learned. The best study tip is to study for two hours, then take a 15 minute break with a cup of coffee or watching the news. Then go back to your studying by taking another skim of the reading you jsut had just to familiarize yourself with what you've jsut read and to make sure that you retain the information. Then repeat these same steps. Sleep time: Make sure that before your exam you get at least 5 hours of sleep. The recommeded dosage of sleep is usually around 8 hours for most people but since you will need the most amount of time to study, you can get away with 5 hours of sleep and still be mentally prepared for the exam. Food is also a must. Food helps to give you energy and the mental strength to get through the long periods of studying. Food also helps your body physically gain more energy.

Family searches for teen who disappeared from nightclub By ANDRIA SIMMONS The Atlanta Journal-Constitution Published on: 11/15/07 Fighting off a creeping sense of dread is easier when you're busy. Erica and Steve Wilson, the mother and stepfather of 18-year-old Justin Gaines, have done everything they can think of to find their son since he vanished from Wild Bill's nightclub in Duluth two weeks ago. They've organized search parties, hired a private investigator, collected $50,000 for a reward fund for his safe return and just this week set up a toll-free tip line at 1-877-270-9500. Amid all this, Steve has been trying to keep it together for Erica, who in turn is struggling to hold up under the strain for the sake of the six other children in their blended family. But when the phone stops ringing and all the people leave, it's all they can do not to plunge into despair. "The worst thing is at night and in the morning, Your mind and hands are idle," Steve Wilson said. The Wilsons had reason for renewed hope Wednesday, though. A nonprofit search-and-rescue team, Texas EquuSearch, arrived to orchestrate a large-scale search that is scheduled to begin today. Tim Miller, the director of Texas Equu- Search, said he hoped to mobilize 150 to 200 volunteers to scour the area around Wild Bill's. Anyone 18 years or older wishing to join the search can meet at Berkmar United Methodist Church at 675 Pleasant Hill Road in Duluth from 9 a.m. until dusk. The search will include the use of all-terrrain vehicles. The search team also has access to horses, helicopters and boats with sonar equipment should they be needed, Miller said. Most of the searching since Gaines' disappearance Nov. 1 has been conducted on foot by friends and family members who have little to no experience with missing persons cases, said Erica Wilson. Texas EquuSearch has offered its services in searches for more than 800 missing people, including Natalee Holloway, 18, who disappeared last year in Aruba, and 17-year-old Ben Stanford, the grandson of Alabama state Sen. Jim Preuit whose body was found Tuesday near Villa Rica, Ga. Miller said he expects to "hit the ground running" today. He started Equu- Search after his own daughter was abducted and murdered in 1986. Gaines, a Brookwood High School graduate, is Erica Wilson's second son of three. He's also the one who looked most like her. She clutched her cigarettes in one hand and cellphone in the other as she spoke to reporters in her driveway Wednesday, as if clinging to her only lifelines. Erica Wilson said she could not sleep or eat and admitted lately she had started smoking "like a freight train." She wore no makeup, and her hair was pulled back in a hasty ponytail. "I can't cry all day long," she said. "I have to be able to think and take care of the other kids." On the day he disappeared, Gaines drove home from Athens to Gwinnett County and told his mother he was going out with friends. He later called his roommate to pick him up from Wild Bill's, but the friend told Gaines he couldn't, family members said. His last phone call was made shortly before 2 a.m., relatives said, and he has not been seen or heard from since. Gwinnett police say they have no reason to suspect Gaines was a victim of foul play, and they are still treating the disappearance as a missing-person case. The investigation has slowed over the past week because some associates of Gaines have been uncooperative, said Cpl. Illana Spellman, spokeswoman for the Gwinnett County Police Department. Anyone with information on Gaines' whereabouts is urged to contact the department's Criminal Investigations Section at 770-513-5300. Gaines was making A's and B's during the first months of his freshman year on the Oconee campus of Gainesville State College and was a popular student. He was a bit of a partier and a regular patron at Wild Bill's on Thursday nights, which target the 18-and-up crowd. Gaines had VIP tickets. He had two fake IDs in the name of Brad Allen and Brad Shewe. He used them to buy alcohol, Gaines' friends would later tell his parents. Gaines wasn't always so sociable, according to his grandmother, Karen Yaroma, who shares Gaines' brilliant blue eyes. Years ago he was a "chubby little freckled kid with not a friend in the world" until one summer in high school he discovered weightlifting and the tanning bed, she said. "All of a sudden that one summer, he redesigned himself," Yaroma said. Friends and family members reject the idea that Gaines left of his own accord. They say he would never leave for so long without letting anyone know. "I don't believe for a second that he's got some wild college itch and he's gone off to Florida," Steve Wilson said. "We were close," he added before correcting himself. "We are close."

Its 2006 now and I'm still the same Ol' son of a bitch in the wind I act like I did back when I was a kid But it hurts more than it did back then I go out on the town and make a fool of myself I run around with the same rowdy friends I get drunk and obnoxious And wake up the next day swearing I'm never drinking again My grandma still tells me enough is enough Life ain't a game son, its time to grow up Chorus: Maybe next year I'll start acting my age Turn a new leaf over my wicked ways Get a real job and start pulling my weight Only 365 days until I change my ways Maybe next year ... I dress like a slob, I never tuck in my shirt I let it hang over my baggy jeans Wearing an old baseball cap on the top of my head With the logo of my favorite team I still got the same dirty mouth that I had Since my first cousin taught me to cuss And I just quit my 9 to 5 occupation To play a whole bunch of songs I made up Yeah, I'm a big ole kid, but I ain't ashamed Because when the time comes around, I know I can change Maybe next year I'll start acting my age Turn a new leaf over my wicked ways Get a real job and start pulling my weight Only 365 days until I change my ways Maybe next year ... Maybe next year I'll quit blowin' all of the cash Start working out and get off my ass Or maybe next year I'll quit puttin' off all the chores Maybe next year I'll visit my grandparents more Maybe nent year I'll go back to church and repent Maybe next year I'll pick up my Bible again I oughta straighten up and there's no better time than now To kick all the habits that are bringing me down Maybe next year I'll stop singing the blues And maybe next year I'll start telling the truth And maybe next year I won't stay drunk all the time And maybe next year I'll have a little more peace of mind And maybe next year I won't be so sad when I'm alone Maybe next year ... Maybe next year ... Maybe next year ... Maybe next year ... Woah-oh-woah maybe next year ... Maybe next year ...

INTERESTING FACTS 1. If you yelled for 8 years, 7 months and 6 days, you would have produced enough sound energy to heat one cup of coffee. (Hardly seems worth it) 2. If you fart consistently for 6 years and 9 months, enough gas is produced to create the energy of an atomic bomb. (Now that's more like it) 3. A pig's orgasm lasts for 30 minutes. (In my next life I want to be a pig) (How'd they figure this out, and why?) 4. Banging your head against a wall uses 150 calories an hour. (Still can't get over that pig thing) (Don't try this at home...maybe at work?) 5. Humans and dolphins are the only species that have sex for pleasure. (Is that why Flipper was always smiling?) (And pigs get 30-minute orgasms? Doesn't seem fair) 6. The strongest muscle in the body is the tongue. (Hmmmmmmmmm........) 7. Right-handed people live, on average, nine years longer than left-handed people do. (If you're ambidextrous do you split the difference?) 8. The ant can lift 50 times its own weight, can pull 30 times its own weight and always falls over on its right side when intoxicated. (From drinking little bottles of...?) (Did taxpayers pay for this research??) 9. Polar bears are left handed. (Who knew....? Who cares? How'd they find out, did they ask them?) 10. The catfish has over 27,000 taste buds. (What can be so tasty on the bottom of the pond?) 11. The flea can jump 350 times its body length. It's like a human jumping the length of a football field. (30 minutes...can you imagine?? And why pigs?) 12. A cockroach will live nine days without it's head, before it starves to death. (Creepy) 13. The male praying mantis cannot copulate while its head is attached to its body. The female initiates sex by ripping the male's head off. (Honey, I'm home. What the....) (Well, at least pigs get a break there...) 14. Some lions mate over 50 times a day. (In my next life I still want to be a pig ... quality over quantity) 15. Butterflies taste with their feet. (Oh, Geez) (That's almost as bad as catfish) 16. An ostrich's eye is bigger than it's brain. (I know some people like that.) 17. Starfish don't have brains. (I know some people like that too.) Interesting Facts II 1. Mosquito repellents don't repel. They hide you. The spray blocks the mosquito's sensors so they don't know you're there. 2. Dentists have recommended that a toothbrush be kept at least 6 feet away from a toilet to avoid airborne particles resulting from the flush. 3. The liquid inside young coconuts can be used as substitute for blood plasma. 4. No piece of paper can be folded in half more than 7 times. 5. Donkeys kill more people annually than plane crashes. 6. You burn more calories sleeping than you do watching television. 7. Oak trees do not produce acorns until they are fifty years of age or older. 8. The first product to have a bar code was Wrigley's gum. 9. The king of hearts is the only king without a mustache. 10. A Boeing 747s wingspan is longer than the Wright brother's first flight. 11. American Airlines saved $40,000 in 1987 by eliminating 1 olive from each salad served in first-class. 12. Venus is the only planet that rotates clockwise. 13. Apples, not caffeine, are more efficient at waking you up in the morning. 14. The plastic things on the end of shoelaces are called aglets. 15. Most dust particles in your house are made from dead skin. 16. The first owner of the Marlboro Company died of lung cancer. 17. Michael Jordan makes more money from Nike annually than all of the Nike factory workers in Malaysia combined. 18. Marilyn Monroe had six toes. (rumor) 19. All US Presidents have worn glasses. Some just didn't like being seen wearing them in public. 20. Walt Disney was afraid of mice. 21. Pearls melt in vinegar. 22. Thirty-five percent of the people who use personal ads for dating are already married. 23. The three most valuable brand names on earth: Marlboro, Coca-Cola, and Budweiser, in that order. 24. It is possible to lead a cow upstairs...but not downstairs. 25. A duck's quack doesn't echo and no one knows why. (Or does it? http://www.acoustics.salford.ac.uk/acoustics_world/duck/duck.htm) 26. The reason firehouses have circular stairways is from the days when the engines were pulled by horses. The horses were stabled on the ground floor and figured out how to walk up straight staircases. 27. Richard Millhouse Nixon was the first US president whose name contains all the letters from the word 'criminal.' The second was William Jefferson Clinton. 28. Turtles can breathe through their butts. 29. Butterflies taste with their feet. 30. In 10 minutes, a hurricane releases more energy than all of the world's nuclear weapons combined. 31. On average, 100 people choke to death on ball-point pens every year. 32. On average people fear spiders more than they do death. 33. Ninety percent of New York City cabbies are recently arrived immigrants. 34. Elephants are the only animals that can't jump. 35. Only one person in two billion will live to be 116 or older. 36. Women blink nearly twice as much as men. 37. It's physically impossible for you to lick your elbow. (or can you? http://www.uvm.edu/~dfisher1/random/elbow.jpg http://www.uvm.edu/~dfisher1/random/elbow2.jpg) 38. The Main Library at Indiana University sinks over an inch every year because when it was built, engineers failed to take into account the weight of all the books that would occupy the building. 39. A snail can sleep for three years. 40. No word in the English language rhymes with 'MONTH.' 41. Average life span of a major league baseball: 7 pitches. 42. Our eyes are always the same size from birth, but our nose and ears never stop growing. SCARY!!! 43. The electric chair was invented by a dentist. 44. All polar bears are left handed. 45. In ancient Egypt, priests plucked EVERY hair from their bodies, including their eyebrows and eyelashes. 46. An ostrich's eye is bigger than its brain. 47. TYPEWRITER is the longest word that can be made using the letters only on one row of the keyboard. 48. 'Go', is the shortest complete sentence in the English language. 49. If Barbie were life-size, her measurements would be 39-23-33. She would stand seven feet, two inches tall. Barbie's full name is Barbara Millicent Roberts. 50. A crocodile cannot stick its tongue out. 51. The cigarette lighter was invented before the match. 52. Almost everyone who reads this will try to lick their elbow.

Caley Cook October 20, 2007 Love Conquers All, or does it? Writers use themes to set the scene for every type of literature there is from informative to narrative. Although different views are expressed in A Midsummer Night's Dream, by William Shakespeare, the most prevalent is that of love and the effect is has on us all one such example of this theme at play is in Act 1, scene 1 lines 232-239, "Things base and vile, folding no quantity, Love can transpose to form and dignity: Love looks not with the eyes, but with the mind; And therefore is wing'd Cupid painted blind: Nor hath Love's mind of any judgment taste; Wings and no eyes figure unheedy haste: And therefore is Love said to be a child, Because in choice he is so oft beguiled." To fully appreciate Shakespeare’s quote from you must dissect it into small pieces and examine them closer to recognize the full scope the writer used in describing Love and the effects it has. When Helena speaks lines 233 and 234 she is telling us that even though there are things that are vile, ugly and worthless in this world, love has the power to make them worthy, and beautiful making everyone else around them see that they are amazing. This helps us to see that even though Helena may have been snubbed by Demetrius she still holds a small hope. a hope that her love for him will make him see how attractive and precious she really is. As readers we begin to feel for her and identify with her as a character who doesn't always get what she wants. Helena goes on to say "Love looks not with the eyes, but with the mind: and therefore is winged cupid painted blind." (lines 235-236) this is Helena’s way of saying that when we're in love we do not necessarily see things with our eyes, but with our psyche; and for that reason, paintings of Cupid, the god of love, always depict him as blind. Helena’s words bring about the sense that love is unseeing and boundless and offers the reader a feeling that love lives on devoid of judgment. In the last four lines of this excerpt of A Midsummer Night's Dream, "Nor hath Love's mind of any judgment taste— Wings and no eyes figure unheedy haste. And therefore is Love said to be a child, Because in choice he is so oft beguiled," Helena is expressing that in her opinion that love does not have high-quality judgment either. She also relays that Cupid has no wings or eyes, and thus is bound to be irresponsible and reckless. Therefore people say that love is a child because like children so often do it makes bad choices without thinking or meaning to. This section of the quotes makes the reader go from feeling that love is blind and caring without pause, to a feeling that even though it does care without condition it also can be reckless with your heart causing a person to fall to easily or not at all. By the end of this monologue, the reader has been drawn into the play not only making it personal but believable and pertaining to their own lives making us all through examples of emotions we all share and strive to relate to on a daily basis. This play teaches us about love, hope and the importance of perseverance, in an uncanny, humorous, love triangle filled way. The reader is left with an important message at the end of this play. Love conquers all.