Sherise's Sunya

2009-10-07T16:15:00.001-04:00

Lunch tastes better when it's free. :)

2009-09-05T22:45:00.001-04:00

This party sux, not my kind of music at all...

2009-09-03T10:06:00.001-04:00

I think I can summarize this meeting already: PLEASE don't drink! Pretty please...agh..freshman orientation...

2009-08-26T16:58:00.001-04:00

Tou buscando um chuveiro elétrico pra meu irmão no Caribe mas isso fica difícil bastante nos Eua

2009-08-22T18:39:00.001-04:00

I got my jerked chicken and pork! I'm in my happy place. :D

2009-08-19T16:48:00.001-04:00

What's it called when you have writer's block but you aren't writing but instead trying to design something? "Creative block?" "You're an uncreative ninny?" "Fail?"

2009-08-18T12:13:00.002-04:00

Que chato...nada pra fazer hoje...ou amanha...REALMENTE preciso começar faculdade JÁ!!!!!! Let's fast-foward to the end of August....

OK for those who don't understand my pitiful attempts at the Portuguese language, I was complaining about how I have nothing to do and that I really need to start college now. Believe it or not, I would rather be in class than Miami. It's a priority thing. And besides, although I live in Miami, according to my documents, I never really felt "from" here. Being neither rich nor Cuban I wasn't the characteristic Miami person.

Besides, I don't have a car and I've lost contact with most of my friends, so it's just dead boring. Plus my mom is looking down on the fact that her little girl has no desire whatsoever to stay at home. It's all insufferable.

At least by fall I'll be on the other side of the country in college, with more freedom and less of the guilty "I'm an adult stuck in my mom's house" blues.

2009-08-17T09:09:00.001-04:00

Is it bad that I already got 5 out of the freshman 15?

2009-08-16T22:09:00.001-04:00

I'm not evil! >:-}

2009-08-14T18:35:00.001-04:00

@ the north star academy banquet

2009-08-12T18:06:00.001-04:00

Getting my hair did.

2009-08-12T14:58:00.001-04:00

Aim makes writing class fun.

2009-08-11T16:56:00.001-04:00

Off to the "dinner conversation"...crap

2009-08-09T16:11:00.001-04:00

The wheels on the bus go round and round

2009-08-08T15:12:00.001-04:00

Stuck here watching an endless dodgeball game in the RIT gym because it's "official" north star academy time. Who needs 3 hours of dodgeball?!?!?!

2009-07-31T13:58:00.001-04:00

Dead tired

2009-07-30T23:17:00.001-04:00

Showin' em how ta wine in Rochester. Then studying for my sociology exam. College life. :-/

2009-07-29T09:19:00.001-04:00

I just got my butt whooped by that sociology paper last nite...well...this morning. Que merda...

2009-07-27T09:09:00.001-04:00

Already late to the first class. What a good start...ain't my fault tho...

2009-07-25T10:44:00.001-04:00

Ready to Roc! Just landed in Rochester, NY.

2009-07-20T10:39:00.001-04:00

Stop staring, creepy man

2009-07-20T08:42:00.001-04:00

@jury duty right now...it's gonna be a long day...*sigh*

2009-07-19T03:09:00.001-04:00

Jury duty on Monday...que droga...

2009-07-17T11:36:00.001-04:00

Nossa! Bloody tire blew out on our way back home from Jacksonville. Thank God we didn't get hit while swerving through 4 lanes of traffic on the interstate.

2009-07-17T07:13:00.001-04:00

I'll be back in Miami by noon :)

2009-07-15T06:48:00.001-04:00

Back in the USA but not home since the parents are dragging me to Jacksonville.

2009-06-27T16:41:00.001-04:00

One day, you just kinda wake up one day during a placement test and realize that you're lost 'cuz you took Trig instead of Calc.

2009-06-24T22:13:00.001-04:00

Tickets to Forró do Bosque pista = 110 reais, Getting an awesome view of the band in the soundbooth because the sound technician thinks you're cute = priceless

2009-06-14T20:01:00.001-04:00

Okay, I'm tired of curly hair, I need a perm. But now I gotta find a salon...again and try to explain "relaxamento. sim, com ammonia...sim tem cheiro...sim, eu realmente uso isso..."

Happy Birthday to Me!

2008-08-04T22:17:00.000-04:00

Well, I certainly haven't posted in quite a while. But I am going to Brazil for a year in about 4 days. And you can read all about it at my other blog at www.ctoot.goin.to or alternatively by clicking here.

In other news, today is my 18th birthday. Other than the onslaught of Facebook messages, it was a pretty uneventful day, which works just fine for me as I am not a super fan of surprises. In any case, I celebrate my legal Monday at home eating cake and sleeping late.

I know someone's thinking, "WHAT! No party?"

Well...on a Monday...that's really kind of lame. And last Saturday I was 17 so, I doubt I'd get anywhere fun, and then by this weekend I'll be too tired from 27 hours of flights and layovers until I arrive in Salvador where I will stay for a year as an exchange student. So really--home is just fine for me. Plus, I'm not much of a partier. I'm a cute, sweet, goodie-goodie at heart.

Overall, it's just another day.

Plus, I don't handle excesses of attention to well.

On another note, Barack Obama and I share the same birthday.

I just thought that was cool...on that note, I realized that I forgot to register to vote, so I'll have to do that abroad...somehow...

Oh well, ate ano!

My Must-Have Firefox Add-Ons

2008-01-02T12:42:00.000-05:00

Despite those horrid memory leaks that leave my poor 512MB RAM computer crawling and dying and begging for some Opera therapy, I still like Mozilla Firefox. It's the top dog as far as Internet Explorer (IE) alternatives.

Granted, I do use Opera as well, but I prefer Firefox. It's more compatible with sites. With Opera, I have to contend with compatibility issues with sites that automatically check if you're running IE or Firefox. Then there also appears to be some Javascript issues. Maybe all of these have remedies, but I'm not techy or
patient enough to use it. (And yes, I'm aware of the "Show as IE/Firefox" feature, yet for some reason, I've only had limited success.)

And IE is just out of the question. Being a constant target for a omnibus of viruses and exploits, as well as having to annoyingly ask me constantly about running an Active X since removing that nag would be dangerous, I really don't like IE. The only reasons I even keep it are:
1. Because some more archaic sites may have compatibility issues
2. I can use the "IE View" extension (which comes in handy if I want to be signed in more than one accounts at a time *cough* like Yahoo!Answers to vote for myself */cough*)
3. It's easier for visitors to use IE and I don't have to sign out of anything.

But anyways, back to the original subject of this post as well as one of the major reasons I still use Firefox, "My Must-Have Firefox Add-Ons" (in no particular order).

"Book Burro is an extension for the FireFox and Flock web browsers that tries to save you time and money when you find a book you want.

When Book Burro senses you are viewing a book, it will add a small panel to the upper right corner.

Clicking the panel will trigger the agent to go query for prices at other book sites and check your local libraries for availability." ~quoted from the site

del.icio.us I like the idea of social bookmarking, and I'm also curious about which sites people think are worthy to bookmark, however, I don't like the idea of clogging up my Bookmarks Toolbar with the bookmarklets. That's where this extension come in. That way, I can put two little buttons up there by the address bar.

FoxLingo
Translate pages with ease! What's not to love? I'm sure there are other lovely features, but I just mainly use the translation options in the context menu (aka the "right-click" menu).

Foxmarks
My del.iciou.us is for my more whimsical bookmarking, however, for those grounded and necessary bookmarks I still use the menu on Firefox. But then what happens if I need the link at a different computer? Then I can use Foxmarks!

"The Foxmarks Bookmark Synchronizer automatically synchronizes your bookmarks between two or more computers running Firefox. It also lets you access your bookmarks from any computer anytime via my.foxmarks.com. An easy-to-use wizard guides you through the quick startup process. Then Foxmarks works silently in the background to keep your bookmarks up-to-date on all your computers.

Simple. Solid. Free. And ready to use." ~quoted from Foxmarks homepage

FoxyTunes
"Do you listen to Music while surfing the Web? FoxyTunes lets you control almost any media player and find lyrics, covers, videos, bios and much more with a click right from your browser." ~quoted from FoxyTunes home page

Google Toolbar
Obviously useful if you use Google to pretty much LIVE like I'm starting to do.

"Greasemonkey is a Firefox extension that allows you to customize the way webpages look and function.

Hundreds of scripts are already available for free. And if you're the tinkerer sort, you can also write your own." ~quoted from Greasespot homepage

I love this thing. There are tons of little useful scripts for Yahoo, Google, eBay, and much more. Search and ye shall probably find.

"With gTranslate you can translate any text in a webpage just by selecting and right-clicking over it. The extension uses the Google translation services to translate the text." ~quoted from gTranslate page

This is good. Sometimes I don't want to translate the WHOLE page.

IE View Lite
Remember earlier when I was talking about needing to open stuff in Internet Explorer every once in a while? Here is my quick means of doing so.

KarClient
You need this in order to record on the karaoke site kSolo.com If you think you can bust a note, or you at least have a fun time trying to, then this is for you!

Link Alert
It's nice to be able to know what you're clicking. This alerts you to whether the link is a pop-up in a new window, PDF, Javascript, .EXE file (aka application), Zip file, Excel spreadsheet, or Word document.

Orbit Downloader
Not quite an add-on, but it does have Firefox support. I use this to download files from video streaming sites like YouTube, CrunchyRoll, and etc. It also functions as a great all-around download manager. I'm pretty sure that it can download almost anything off of a site.

Paste and Go
I missed this from Opera. The ability to paste a link into the address bar AND go to it in one click. There's also the ability to paste something into the search box and search, but I don't use that one quite as much.

RetailMeNot
What's better than the ease of shopping online? Getting a deal while you're at it! That's what makes a site like RetailMeNot.com so awesome. It compiles all of those coupon and promo codes in one place. And now with this extension, it can automatically tell you when there are available coupons for a site.
Pretty cool, but it can get annoying, especially when you can't find a code that fits your needs. Like Amazon.com. Trying to find a useful code for them is a mess.

rikaichan is a popup Japanese-English/German/French/Russian dictionary extension for Firefox.

Features:

* Simple to use, just hover the mouse on top of a Japanese word.
* Automatically de-inflects verbs and adjectives.
* Has an optional toolbar that allows you to manually type the word to lookup.
* Detailed kanji view shows meaning/keyword in English, on/kun readings, and other information.
* Hiragana, katakana and half-width katakana are treated the same making it possible to lookup stylized/emphasized words." ~quoted from polarcloud.com homepage

Session Manager
"Building upon SessionStore, this extension allows you to save the current state of Firefox (history, text data, cookies) and return to that state at any later moment. Besides the manually saved states, Session Manager automatically stores the current state in case of a crash." ~quoted from session manager page

"ShortShip allows you to find the *lowest* price on eBay, by adding new functionality to the eBay search! The problem with eBay? A $10 item with $2 shipping is more expensive than a $9 dollar item with $10 shipping according to eBay's 'sort by lowest price' since it doesn't take shipping into account at all!

Shipping costs are different depending on the seller. It could just be that one seller is located closer to you than another, and thus, shipping is cheaper if you go with the local guy. Every seller calculates shipping differently, sometimes to make his item appear cheaper on eBay's sorting. Check out the problem here. This is a major issue on eBay, and little has been done to correct it, until now!" ~Short Ship homepage

Smart Middle Click
One of the best things about tabbed browsing is being able to open a link in a new tab by middle clicking on it. However, if the link was javascript, you were out of luck. Not anymore!

"Speed Dial allows fast access to your most visited websites. It loads in a tab, and will show thumbnail views of it's assigned websites. Those thumbnails will be refreshed automatically in the background." ~quoted from the Speed Dial main page

It's not as smooth as Opera's version but it functions.

And there's my list of must-have Firefox Add-Ons. Enjoy.

Abortion

2007-12-17T23:14:00.000-05:00

I made a post in Cultures Shocked on abortion yesterday. It was funny since I considered myself pro-life, but I ended up sounding a bit choicy.

Basically, I believe that life starts at conception when the sperm get into the egg. So, therefore, unnatural destruction of it should constitute murder.

I also believe that most pro-choice argument stems from greed. They don't want to worry about a child so they will get rid of it. They could have the baby and give it up for adoption but they don't want the guilt of the possibility of giving it to a messed up system.

Another justification I heard thrown around was "it could turn into a serial killer" but I say it could turn into a really inspirational person who pulled themselves up by their boot-straps (pardon the cliche), so what gives you the right to make that judgment call?

I believe that reducing this life with terms and phrases like "mass of cells" "fetus" and I even saw someone mention an interesting comparison to "parasite" is all a tactic to feel less guilty. That way we'll play around and tweak meanings until the law fits our wishes.

However, I do have points where I struggle.

I don't believe it's right for a rape victim to be forced to go on with the pregnancy. Aside from the psychological problems that can manifest themselves physically there is also the way that it just seems fundamentally wrong...But how can I say abortion is murder and then allow a special case?

A poster pointed this out. Legal abortion may be worth keeping just for the avoidance of the unsafe alternatives.

And a distressed and potentially pregnant poster brought in a pro-choice argument from a more Christian perspective. She implied that she believes in predestination and/or election and that if God had a purpose for that life he would have picked a better host. While it's compelling, I still sustain that we cannot know for certain. After all, the "saved from potential abortion" story may be part of a bigger picture.

Also, I refrained from posting this since the environment seemed a bit hostile to opposing viewpoint but I am 17 years old. I am a virgin. I believe in abstinence. I was not raised in a bubble and I do think about sex. As a result, I do not really have much compassion for those who get pregnant and want an abortion, unless they've been raped. I do believe that abstinence is possible and we should all be aware of what we risk even with "protection." After all, things happen and we should take responsibility. Do we really want to put complete trust into mass-manufactured products that can have glitches for something as important like this?

However, I must admit that my stance on what qualifies as living is a bit wavering. Perhaps there is a small window where things like the "Morning-After Pill" can come into play so no major damage is done.

X-posted here.

Back to School

2007-08-21T23:15:00.000-04:00

Well, I have finally gone back to school on my final year as of last week on Monday, 13 August 2007.

It's annoying to have to go back to homework and stuff, but at the same time, it's a bit depressing. I am not one for these types of sappy remininces (or maybe I am...), but I might actually miss some of it.

...Yeah right!

No, but seriously, so far everything seems pretty cool. It also helps that I don't give high expectations to my school anymore, I just sort of try to grin and bear it. After all, I should be used to some of this crap by now, so I know the drill and I can pick my battles. But with the exception of a few things, I'm doing alright so far.

Don't get me wrong, despite what anyone wants to believe, I do not and will never love school. The blaring and apparent inadequacies in some of the teaching and "rules" irk me, but overall, I think this year can be pretty bearable.

Just Lord help me, because I have college to worry about. Applications, fees, forms, and retaking the SAT for the millionth time.

I suppose looking at that kind of stressful stuff has given me a different perspective on school.

Plus, this year I want to be more organized. I just wish we would get our second locker already! My books don't fit and I'll admit it, I'm too short too be having to mess around with a top locker with the big hardcover books. I already dropped them on my friend twice in the first two days within getting them.

Anyways, aside from that. Since I'm not a class officer this year, I need something impressive to do. I'm hoping that I can land a volunteer job at Jackson Memorial Hospital. Preferably, some kind of office or runner job since, I'm really squeamish and I can get all chuichi(I'll have to define that word one day)...

Also, I want to go back out for volleyball this year, but I need my stupid physical. So, I can't go to practice until I get that settled. I'm kind of mad that as long as I've been on the JV team, that I can miss just one year and that coach already forgets about me. I love how he's teaching that complicated formation to beginners, I'm just glad I know it already since it's annoying, and I always somehow get blamed when others forget their rotation spot.

Anyways, I'm short, so I don't expect much. I'm content with my usually back positions and then sub out and then sub back in to serve, before subbing back out when I get to the front. I'm short and chubby and I cannot jump very well, but my underhand serve was enough to keep me off the bench!

Anyways, I pray to God for a great school year.

ESPECIALLY FOR THE CLASS OF 2008!!!!

Happy Birthday!...to me...

2007-08-05T01:33:00.000-04:00

Well today is...or seeing how there isn't much day left, was my birthday. I am a proud Leo who celebrates her birth from August 4, 1990 6:42 P.M.(I need to confirm that time thing...)

Anywho, I didn't do much today. I'm not the type to throw parties, so I kept it low-key. This morning I did some work by the church. I helped prime the wall so they could paint and then I help clean out some of the garbage from the unused lot. Apparently, a bum used to live there, so it smelled really gross. I must have washed my hands a million times when I got to go inside. On top of everything, we were on a field in Miami, so that's means a summer heat index of at LEAST a kajillion degrees. (I better have earned some Jesus Points! j/k)

But aside from the fact that I woke up the unholy hour 8:30 A.M. on the morning of my birthday, I don't mind doing some work. I don't like throwing parties anyway, it's too much of a hassle. And isn't it better to give than receive? So, I would rather give someone else the gift of my presence, than to receive a headache trying to plan a party in the summer and tracking people down around vacations.

Anyways, I had a serious ice cream craving, so I told my dad to take me to Cold Stone Creamery. This man had to take a "short cut" so we wound up driving all over North Miami. Finally, we gave up and went to Walmart for some AC since it was still hot, and that beat up car doesn't have AC. So I showed dad the kinds of digital camera I want:
Cute, red, and enough megapixels to make out what you're taking a picture of...

Anywho, he said he didn't have any money, so we would have to get it another day. Plus, it didn't like that one I saw in Walmart. That shutter delay seemed like a million years.

We FINALLY got to the ice cream place. The stupid guy didn't even sing when I tipped him! That's the best part of Cold Stone! Geez...

Well, I finally got home and layed (is that right? I don't know lie vs. lay) back for a while in my beautiful AC while I watched some TV. Then my dad took me to his room to pick out a camera online, but that was interrupted when my oldest sister came. She brought me some cake...and a Christmas card with a dollar. Apparently, it was her little joke--it worked! lol She gave me the real cards one from her sons and one from her with a hundred dollars. HAPPY Birthday!

Then my other sister who the second youngest, decided to show up...giftless...and she pick today of all days to take my dad to go car shopping. Of all the nerve!

So I decided to go with my other sister to her house for a bit. She got a new phone and it's nice, the Blackberry Pearl. So I was playing with it the whole time. Then her son has a Sidekick out of nowhere, so I was trying to steal that.

Well we rented a movie, went back to my house and had some cake. My mom was still at work and my dad was still...somewhere with my other sister...

I just took a took a nap and wasted away the rest of the day. Not much to it. Of course, I got some calls and stuff. But what do you want me to do? List their names and numbers on the internet?

Oh and for my future reference, "Wait, I need to go back inside and set the alarm!"

I'm falling in looove again (with shoes)!

2007-07-26T21:00:00.000-04:00

Warning: Somewhat Materialistic

Oh my...I found such an awesome site last night. When I found it, I just could not stop myself from browsing and browsing.

No, it wasn't some gold mine dating site!

Actually, it was a site that sold the most lovely shoes! The best part was that they were CHEAP too!

And as if I weren't drooling enough already the standard shipping is supposedly free for each additional item within its category (which are separated into: Apparel, Shoes, and Boots)

Anywho, the site is called CutesyShoes and they ship from California. They seem legit enough, however, it appears that they started off on Ebay. But they accept Paypal and they seem very put-together. Plus they ship international!

On their "About" they include a statement about how they believe in feedback, good or bad, and then they link to a Google search for "cutesyshoes." However, I hardly found it very useful, since the search results were dominated by their sites. That's why when I do a search to find if a place is legit, I add keywords to the search like "forum" or "complaints" or "reviews." Basically, things that would lead you to unbiased reviews and comments by real people. It could take a while to find enough to ease your fears, but it is worth the time in my opinion, to find a real gem of an online shopping site.

I LOOOOVE SHOOOEEES!

I just need to convince my mom that I want to do my back to school shoe shopping online. She's still wary of that online stuff, especially with such a large purchase that I'm going make. *drool*

The best part is that they have my dreaded size 5 1/2. It's hard enough to find a half size, but a half size under 6 that's not a children's shoe? *cries at the stupid shoe stores made for all those bigfoots out there...* Loooove it!

Here are some of my picks for potential back to school shoes.

my wists | clone this

2007-07-22T14:43:00.000-04:00

What's this I feel?

I think I'm feeling pity!

My mom was surprised the other day by an out-of-nowhere call from my sister. The reason that this is such a surprise is because this sister is my mother's only other daughter and she has two sons. Even though they live about five minutes from here, they never visit and they scarcely call. My poor mum gets more calls from my brother in Trinidad than my sister that's five minutes away.

So then my sister--who acts like a total hermit and ALWAYS has an excuse of why she couldn't come or why she didn't pick up the phone (even though she was most likely just screening her calls)--finally calls our mom to tell her that she and the kids are visiting on Sunday.

My mom is pleasantly surprised and she even cooks extra. Unfortunately, hours pass. And noone comes. My mom calls my sister to find out what happens and it turns out that my sister decided to get her hair done and her son went to some other person's house because they have a pool.

Now that's just RUDE!

I never knew my sis that I looked up to could be so inconsiderate. That was wrong, I could see the disappointment on my mom's face as she hung up the phone after talking to my sister.

Apparently, in an attempt to make it up, my sister is going to come over for a few minutes.

Yeah! Way to step up there!

I could tell that it hurts my mom, now she's upset and trying to pick a fight with me as I'm typing this. My mom is tired of having to explain why noone ever hears from my sister.

Oh...there she is...

The {Prada-wearing} Devil Made Me Do It!

2007-07-21T03:20:00.000-04:00

The Devil Wears Prada. I just finished watching this movie since I heard it mentioned in Ugly Betty--which is my recent obsession.

What can I say about this movie?

Well, it did not jump out to me when it was out, and it certainly did not jump out to me now. It was not the total lack of action that got to me. It was the total lack of…well…anything…

Unless you just want some fashion eye candy, there is absolutely nothing worthwhile to see about this movie. The so-called “Devil” of The Devil Wears Prada is actually quite average and it is just the kind of normal “devilishness” that you would expect from anyone in business. Frankly, if I wanted to watch something this average, I would go and find a job pretty much anywhere.

Of course, I’m not supposed to expect much from a chick flick, right? But my goodness! The best part of chick flicks are romances and drama. The pathetic excuse for Andrea’s romances, seemed horribly rushed. I probably could count the amount of scenes of her with either of the guys on one hand.

Thoroughly an unremarkable movie. I spent most of the time amazed at how huge Anne Hathaway’s eyes are…wow…Why even line them? I'm sure we can find them...

But if I must say something nice to make a full criticism sandwich, I enjoyed Meryl Streep’s nonchalant voice as she played Miranda Priestly, our local Prada-wearing Devil.

First Post

2007-07-20T23:47:00.000-04:00

Oh God! Another one?

Yes, I have decided to bless the internet with yet another blogging attempt. But the same rules apply: I suck at updating.

I suppose I so say some things, ne?

My name is Sherise. I am currently sixteen years old and I will be turning seventeen in a couple of weeks.

My interests are varied but I like anime, Harry Potter, some reading, fashion, and the internet. Plus my favorite colors are red and gold.

I'm short, black, and chubby. Or to be more eloquent, I should say that I stand just a little over five feet tall, my heritage is mixed Afro-Caribbean, and I am working on my weight issues, but I am happy to say that I have finally come down to the maximum healthy weight for my height range.

Last, but not least, I am a Christian. If you want to be technical, my church is Southern Baptist, but in name only.

Well, I hope this blog survives, I suppose I'll find out. This is more for me, anyway.