Mommy The Journalist: 2009

"Age cannot wither her, nor custom stale
Her infinite variety; other women cloy
The appetites they feed, but she makes hungry
Where most she satisfies;..."
--Shakespeare's Anthony and Cleopatra

Cleopatra was an infamous Egyptian ruler. Most of the myth surrounding her history is just that, myth - tales spread by her Roman enemy, Octavian, unintentionally crystalized her legend. The legend grew even more through the writings of Plutarch, Chaucer and Shakespeare, as well as through the many film versions of her story.

Cleopatra VII was actually the seventh Ptolomaic queen of the same name. She ruled Egypt from 51 to 30 B.C., first sharing a co-regency with her father Ptolomy XII. After her father died, she co-ruled with her brother, Ptolomy XIII. However, hard times throughout the country drove the siblings apart, and Ptolomy ousted Cleopatra in 48 B.C. Cleopatra tried to raise a rebellion with no success and eventually fled to her Roman protector, Pompey.

At the time, Pompey had just been defeated by Julius Caesar. In an effort to gain Caesar's favor, Ptolemy XII killed Pompey, and upon Caesar's return to Rome presented the severed consul's head. Caesar, however, was not pleased with Ptolomey's act and subsequently had him drowned in the Nile. Cleopatra was restored to the Egyptian throne, and thus her entanglement in the Roman Empire began.

It is said that Cleopatra bore Caesar a son, whom she named Ptolomy Caesarion. Caesar refused to name the boy as his heir however. Cleopatra returned to Egypt after the assasination of Caesar, where she arranged to have her brother/husband disposed of and installed Caesarion as her new co-regent.

After Caesar's death, Marc Antony and Octavian defeated the rebellion and divided the Roman Empire between them. Antony summoned Cleopatra to Tarsus and then spent the winter in Alexandria. Cleopatra bore him twins. Four years later, Antony returned to Alexandria where he renewed his relationship with Cleopatra. Alexandria became his permanent home soon after. The two were married according to Egyptian rite, and Cleopatra bore him another child.

Marc Antony divided his portion of the Roman empire between Cleopatra and their children against the wishes of the Senate. But in 33 B.C., Octavian defeated Antony in a naval battle. Cleopatra's fleet had mysteriously withdrawn. Octavian pursued Antony and Cleopatra back to Egypt, where Antony committed suicide believing Cleopatra was already dead. She followed suit a few days later. Her son, Caesarion, was declared Pharaoh, but was captured and executed by Octavian who then declared himself Pharaoh of Egypt.

Now, you're probably wondering what brought on my sudden history lesson of Cleopatra. While I was looking through Yahoo, I found this article. Egyptian archaeologists just recovered an ancient granite temple pylon from the harbour at Alexandria. It was part of Cleopatra's palace complex and stood at the entrance of a temple to Isis. The pylon will be the centerpiece of a museum that will showcase the sunken city that is believed to have toppled into the Meditterannean during an earthquake in the fourth century.

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This is my horoscope for Monday:

If you have been blinded by your own dreams, your high hopes may be dashed in an instant today when you realize the truth of what's actually happening. But this flash of awareness also contains the seeds of a more realistic plan that can pave the path to your future. Don't be overly dramatic about your own version of paradise lost. Just pick up the pieces, adjust your plan and try again. A touch of disappointment can fuel your greatest success.

Paradise lost. I'm not really sure what this could be referencing (not that I put much stock in horoscopes usually)... It's just that there are a few situations in my life right now that are in, shall we say, limbo. And in their own way, each represents kind of a paradise for me.

If one is lost, sure it will hurt...probably as much as it did the last time I lost it. But, fool that I am, I'll gather my feelings back into my heart and move on once again. Only this time, even though I might look back, there will be no returning. Heartache dealt by the hands of the one you truly love is the most heart-wrenching of all the heartache you could ever experience. Once felt is excrutiating. I can't imagine a second time, and I won't be around for a third.

If the other situation turns out to be a false hope...well, I've had my doubts from the get-go. The secrecy surrounding said situation is baffling. I can't even disclose the nature of the situation here for fear that the wrong person will see it, and I end up getting screwed. But, like all tough times, if this falls through I will persevere.

I'm a Sagittarius, by the way. We're generally optimistic, always looking for the silver lining of the dark cloud that plagues us. We tend to be honest to a fault - I often find myself saying exactly what I think before realizing it could hurt someone's feelings. We like learning new things and seeking out adventures, especially if it's going to bring about some type of awareness (maybe that's why I became a journalist...).

People are drawn to our outgoing and joyful personalities, but if we feel our wings have been clipped we can become sullen. But we rarely lose hope, which is what leads us to our greatest successes.

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In general, I'm not a big fan of technology. I think we've, for lack of a better explanation, made our lives overly complicated by trying to make things simpler and better.

Computers annoy me to no end - they never seem to cooperate and prove to be especially fickle in those moments when you desperately need them to work. And then there's the internet, or rather internet service providers (commonly known as ISP's). First there was dial-up and all of the problems that went along with it. Now there's DSL and wireless, which are supposed to be amazing in terms of their service. Bologna. Just last night my DSL just stopped working. For no reason. Everything was set up correctly, all the right lights were blinking, and my computer was shown to be connected, but it was all lies! There was no internet, and consequently I currently hate my ISP. With that being said, however, I obviously could not survive without my computer or the internet.

Which brings me to cellular devices. I don't consider the new cell phones to be phones at all. They've got way too much other stuff on them for them to be simply a phone. Now we've got the iPhone with its thousands of applications (all designed to make life simpler, of course) and the Blackberry with all its different versions, also with thousands of applications, and we can't forget Google's version of the smart phone. All come with text messaging capabilities, cameras to take pictures and record videos, and of course limited internet access. They're all designed to keep you in touch with everyone you could possibly know (and even some people you don't) at all times through all possible means.

But not all service providers were created equal. In the grand scheme of things, there are really two major contenders for the title of "Best Cell Phone Service Provider" - AT&T and Verizon Wireless. Both offer nationwide (their versions of it anyway) coverage as well as 3-G coverage. Personally, I prefer Verizon over AT&T, but that's mainly because my neck of the woods (a.k.a. the middle of nowhere) doesn't fall under AT&T's coverage. With that said though, I prefer AT&T's "More Bars" commercials over Verizon's "Can You Hear Me Now?" ads.

Which brings me to what started my technology-hating kick today - a commercial. More specifically, a lawsuit over a commercial. That commercial is Verizon's new "There's A Map For That" ad, which makes fun of Apple's "There's an App for That" spot. AT&T is suing Verizon...not because the commercial is poking fun at the iPhone, which they provide the service for...but because of the maps used in the commercial.

In the commercial, Verizon displays two maps: one showing its national 3-G coverage and another showing AT&T's national 3-G coverage with blank spaces to show the areas not included. The Verizon map is (obviously) more colored-in than the AT&T map...which is what all the hullaballoo is about. AT&T says the map used to show their 3-G coverage is misleading because they offer regular phone service in the blank areas. Apparently their customers are getting confused. I guess their customers aren't capable of understanding that the commercial is about 3-G coverage alone.

So does that mean Verizon is the more intelligent choice? Well, that depends on your phone preference. I, for one, don't look at 3-G coverage area to determine which service provider best fits my needs because when it comes down to it, a cell phone's most important feature is just that...the phone!

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I'm sitting in my mom's gifted certification class tonight for lack of anything remotely productive or entertaining to do. My days are so filled with excitement these days. I wash dishes, do laundry, take care of the dog and cat, and apply for jobs that don't even have the courtesy to acknowledge my application.

These people in this class are an interesting bunch. They fall into two categories - the ones that think of themselves as gifted and those that just think of themselves as ordinary people. This one lady, for example, takes great joy in pointing out inaccuracies in the teacher's lecture. She is loud and very oppinionated. No one has said anything to contradict her opinions. I get the feeling that they're all afraid of her. She would probably just point out all of the inaccuracies of their opinions. I get the vibe from her that she is the type of person who feels entitled to her opinion but doesn't have time for the opinions of others, especially if they differ from hers.

I went through the gifted program during my regular schooling. It changed drastically from elementary school to middle school to high school. However, never once did I feel like I was being "trained" because I wasn't able to handle my own mind power. The teacher of this class just asserted to her room full of educators yearning for their gifted certification that gifted students need to be discovered early in life so that they can be trained. The loud, opinionated woman took it so far as to say that gifted children are being trained for "jobs that don't even exist today." I resent that. It's as if these educators are being told that they have the power and the responsibility to manipulate these gifted children to fill the roles that they think they should fill.

I know gifted children need to be taught in different ways than children with average intelligence. However, I do not believe that these children should have their lives and way of thinking molded for them by a group of "well-meaning" educators.

I came through the gifted program without any teacher trying to manipulate me into thinking a certain way. I was allowed to form my own opinions and choose my own path in life. Or at least that's how I remember it.

I suppose it's possible that my teachers did attempt to mold me into the type of person society seems to think a "gifted" person should be and I was just too strong-willed and independent to be influenced by the manipulations of someone who may or may not have been less intelligent than I was/am.

Normal teachers and normal teaching methods do not exist. No two students learn the same way. It is a teacher's duty to discover the strengths and weaknesses of her students and present knowledge to them in a way they understand and will benefit from, whether those students are gifted, average or below average in intelligence. It is not their duty to interfere in their way of thinking or to try to make them into something they may not want to be simply because they have a higher or lower IQ than the average person.

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I did something that I should probably be ashamed of recently, but I'm not, and I would do it again if presented with the same situation...and that's pretty much all I have to say about that.

I'm finally completely moved in, and even have furniture. My parents are supposed to be bringing me another mattress so I can give Laura her bed back, although I don't know if they'll ever actually come back and pick it up. It's a pretty nice bed, to be honest, even if the frame is metal and squeaks with every move you make.

The ferrets are absolutely in love with my room, especially Bella. She took a nap in my fuzzy blanket on top of my bed this afternoon. It was adorable. Anya can't do that though because of her affinity with biting. They both like my giant fuzzy rabbit and fuzzy flower pillow as well. Bella keeps moving the pillow to wherever it is she wants to take a nap.

I got my last round of proofs today. I've got to actually apply the corrections tomorrow, print out all the corrected pages, write the files to the CD and mail them back to the plant. We're still waiting on the cover design to come back. I hope it turns out the way I had imagined it. I turned in the DVD yesterday and finalized a simple design for it. I need to start working on the "policy guide" for my independent study so that it can be presented to my successors at the camp we're planning for the fall. I already know what I want to include in it. It's just a matter of actually putting it together. I'm not sure exactly how I want to go about that yet. I hope it will be useful to them. The only problem will be if they don't go with Herff Jones next year because that's what the guide will be tailored to. I hope they don't switch it up. Bess is an amazing representative and they do so much for our publication that we wouldn't get with any other company. I know I'm about to graduate, but I'm genuinely worried about the future of the Palladium. I'm afraid my successors will get overwhelmed and/or let the staff walk all over them. I'm afraid the Publications Board will succeed in their attempts to move it to another department, even with the disapproval of Dr. P standing in their way. And I'm afraid that the school will accept a bid from another publication that will end up doing the same thing Jostens did 3 years ago. A part of me wishes that they could create a permanent position where I could do what I'm doing now, only with more control of the publication...kind of like being the advisor without being a professor. That would be a pretty nifty starter job, but what with proration and the budgets being cut I know it won't happen. But it would be nice to stay in Troy for a little while longer.

Speaking of jobs, I'm getting pretty freaked out about the lack of response I've had from the dozen or so positions I've applied for. Don't get me wrong, I have faith that everything will work out the way it's supposed to and I'll end up exactly where I'm meant to be. But just because I have faith doesn't mean I can't be afraid. I just wish I had some idea of where my life will be taking me after graduation. At this point, even a rejection letter/email would give me some peace of mind.