I’m starting to see the difficulties of life in graduate school. It seems you never have enough money, especially when it is the holiday season. As many of you can probably understand, budgets are pretty tight this time of year, so a little help might be needed. With gas prices on the rise and heating bills coming into play, a pay day loan might be the right option for you. If you are looking into payday loans, check out pay day loan rescue. They offer nationwide loan approvals. Unexpected things happen. If you are in a bind, make sure you remember a payday loan.

On Monday night, a student at Miami University student was found in his room at his fraternity house. He had died earlier that day, but they still don’t know the cause of death. His name was Cliff Alexander, and he was a Sigma Nu. That’s the fraternity that I belong to, so it got me thinking.

From what I can tell, Cliff was an awesome guy. When he was in high school, he organized a program where students could get backpacks and school supplies for free if they couldn’t afford to buy them. As a member of Sigma Nu, he was the Lt. Commander, which is the Vice President. He was expected to be elected Commander (President) of the chapter on Monday night. When he didn’t appear at the chapter meeting, they went looking for him.

A year ago, I was the Commander of my chapter. I can’t imagine what it is like for their Commander. He is having to lead during this horrible tragedy that is coinciding with the close of the semester. Moreover, he is having to lead when he just lost a great friend who was his right-hand-man. My thoughts are with Cliff’s family, friends, and fraternity brothers.

I am looking forward to seeing the new Johnny Depp Movie, Sweeney Todd. This movie is about a man who seeks revenge. Sweeney Todd was unjustly accused of a crime. He is sent to prison who where he suffers emotional and physical trauma. His family also suffers because of his situation. The scenario is one that cries for justice. Sweeney Todd vows that revenge will be his. He is a barber and uses his trade to give some great “haircuts.” You can visit the official Sweeney Todd movie site and watch the trailer as Depp portrays the Demon Barber of Fleet Street who “shaved the heads of gentlemen who never thereafter were heard from again.”

You know, revenge is sweet. I prefer quiet revenge. My favorite movie where the main character got revenge was Shawshank Redemption.

In Shawshank Redemption, Andy is sentenced to prison for a murder he did not commit. He quietly does his time. He is an accountant and the warden uses him for his accounting work. The movie takes you on a journey that shows how he copes with his imprisonment. He finds that he is trusted and as a viewer, we never realize how he uses that trust until the end. At the end, it is an Oh My Gosh moment when we see how he gets his revenge. Sweet!

I am anxious to see how Sweeney Todd gets his revenge. I have a feeling that this is going to be Johnny Depp’s best role yet. You can visit Sweeney Todd on MySpace and see what others are saying in anticipation of this movie.

Today has been an especially stressful day. I know that at final time it is going to be like this but it doesn’t mean I have to like it.

I did have fun talking with my sister today. she and I are trying to think of something to get Dad for Christmas. She saw a grill today and thought that would be something he would like. Dad likes to cook. He and Mom are going to start eating healthier on Monday. I use my grill all the time.

How many more days until Christmas?

I’m always looking for some good deals on interesting Christmas gifts. It seems like I never know what to get my dad because we have such different tastes. He is really into guns and knives and things like that, so this year, I think I am going to get him some police gear from 511tacticaloutdoors.com. Maybe I will get him Galco holsters. I guess we’ll see what kinds of deals I can find.

I spent all day today with the family and Taryn. We got up early and had breakfast at Cracker Barrell, and then we went shopping. I got some file folders for school while mom and Stacy and Grandma were in the quilt store. Then, we went to Best Buy and I looked at some radios for my car. The CD player that is in it hasn’t worked for a couple of years and I’d really like to get it replaced. We also were looking for a Wii. I really hope we can find one.

Sometimes I get kind of bored and I start thinking about completely random things. One of the things that I thought about today was that I wondered where the gills were on an octopus so that it could breathe. Where else could I go but octopus.com? I definitely found what I was looking for. Did you know that Octopi have three hearts? I certainly did not know that! It is amazing the things you learn when you are bored. If you get the urge to learn about octopi, then I highly recommend going to octopus.com and browsing through all of the information.

I just want to let you know that Taryn and I have been working on the wedding. I’ve decided that all of the wedding info will be posted on my other site, just because I want to make sure things don’t get all jumbled up. You can go to http://gregthepappabear.com/ to stay up-to-date. We have narrowed down the styles we like for our cake, so make sure you go there and give us your opinion.

I just found a new website that I wish I had known about in high school and undergrad. I was absolutely terrible at science, but somehow seemed to squeak by with good grades. It would have been a lot easier if I had used chemicool.com. They have a periodic table, chemistry tools, a chemistry dictionary, and they even have a forum. That is really helpful so that I can just go to the forum and ask a question if I get stuck. Hopefully, someone will know the answer to my problem and will be able to explain it well enough for me to know in my class.

I absolutely love it when it snows. As long as I don’t have to go anywhere, I love the snow. I hate driving in it, but I think it is just beautiful. It snowed today! That made me really happy. I hope it snows on Christmas. It really just makes it feel like the holidays when you see some of the white stuff. Did it snow where you live?