Useless Information

This is a page where I ramble about useless information, namely me. I tricked you into coming here too. I know when you saw that link "useless information" you said to yourself "hmmm, maybe it's something amusing" or "hmmm, maybe it's email addresses or links or something like that and that 'useless' thing was just an attempt at wry wit." Well you're wrong!! I don't have any wry wit, I'm really just faking it, and I wanted a forum where I could put up a picture of my non-existant goldfish and talk about useless things.

I was born in American Fork, Utah on December 24, 1979. (Yes, Christmas Eve; yes, it is neat; yes, it is a pain in the butt; yes, for you gushing sentimentalists, I really was quite a gift; yes, to you women who have born children, I do feel sorry for my poor mother. Can you tell I meet quite a lot of reactions when I impart that bit of information? Can you tell I tend to just nod my head and roll my eyes because I've heard it all before? Challenge: can anyone give me a sincere yet original reaction? Email!!) After calling me "Pumpkin'" for a few months my parents finally decided to name me Raina Janel Olsen. They then decided to call me by my middle name. Who knows why, maybe Janel Raina just didn't have the same ring to it. This, however, caused a bit of stress later in life when, going into high school, I decided to change to Raina. I didn't expect my family to change, but it still prompted my dad, from whom I inherited my wry wit, to do things such as ask me "what, the name we picked for you wasn't good enough?" and say "there's no Raina living here, you mean Janel" when my friends called. Since that fateful December day I've lived in Utah, Illinois, Utah again, and finally Misery (some folks call it Missouri). Despite my dislike of humidity and the hypocritical Ozark "mountains" I decided to go to college here at the University of Missouri-Columbia . I am planning on dual majoring in computer and electrical engineering as well as obtaining a minor in math (I just like to say that because it makes me sound better, I actually get a minor in math simply because I'm an engineering major.) After college I imagine I'll get a job and probably go back to graduate school someday, cause I think school is neat once you get out of that tedious place they call high school and can finally concentrate on some real areas of interest. My hobbies include biking, watching TLC, reading too much, and wishing I had a life.

My family

Dad - My dad and I have a strange relationship. There's always been these things we just plain don't see eye to eye on, and I think that kind of hides some of the feelings there sometimes. We do have a lot in common though, not the least of which is (as I mentioned above) our developed sense of sarcasm. And I must admit that it was my dad who developed my sarcasm by challenging me so often, and, in a more serious way, similarly developed several other helpful traits such as my sense of independence and honor. He is an Associate Professor at Southwest Missouri State University in the Economics Department. My impression is that he mostly does research, but I imagine he's also a good teacher if he pushes his students like he does his kids, and I imagine he does.

Brett - Brett is my 16 year old brother. (16, wow, the kid is growing as fast as I am!!) He plans, I think, on majoring in Physics when he goes to college. He's always been a smart little bugger, from the time he learned to read when he was 2, to the time when he used to annoy me by trying to prove he was smarter than me, to the present (although I haven't checked in the past few weeks). My family, Mormons though we are, tends to be rather liberal, but Brett is the most conservative of us. I don't agree with him on a lot of things, but I still think he's a pretty special, honorable, intelligent young man that will go far in life. We, especially when we were young, were very close, and we've a lost a lot of that as I got older, but I hope to still be close to him when we're in our 50's and are wrinkly.

Cullam - Cullam is the most special little boy in the world. Really!!! I'm not just saying that!! He's 6 years old (on September 17th) and just started kindergarten this year. I've loved that kid ever since I saw his wrinkled little face in intensive care the night he was born. I think the 12 years age difference between us has fostered a motherly sort of addition to any normal sister's feelings. Goodness knows our relationship has changed a lot over the years, as he has grown up from a little baby that will take a nap with me on the couch after school to the sensitive, stubborn, smart little boy he is today, but I love him a lot!!

My Goldfish - I don't have one (see this page) I had one once when I was about 6 or 7. It's name was Goldie. It died and we flushed it down the toilet and my dad likes to tell the story about how I watched it go down and said "it's like flushing a whole dollar down the toilet." A few years later we got some little tropical fish and me and Brett named them Stanley, Nanley, and Lanley. Stanley and Nanley started eating Lanley alive from the tail up and it finally died, little half skeleton that it was. Stanley and Nanley met their unfortunate demise later that year during the summer when we went on vacation and left the AC off and they boiled to death. A few years ago we pulled out the old fish tank and Cullam had a try with it. He named his goldfish Rubber-Band Cotton. At first I thought it was a dumb name, I mean rubber band I can see, but cotton? Then I heard that there actually was a person named Cotton Mather. He was a Puritan minister or something......it still sounded dumb. But it was cute, I don't think Cullam knew about the minister thing. Anyway we had these goldfish pellets for it, and I think they were too big because the fish could never seem to get a hold on them. It would spend hours and hours just trying to get one of them. I bet you never knew goldfish had hunter instinct. That's probably because you feed yours those flakes and they don't have to work at ALL to get them. Then they get all depressed and wonder what the point of life is. I can't believe you do that to your goldfish.... Rubber-Band Cotton on the other hand, well it got to try and sneak up on the pellet, attack it, try and scare it a little, and then let it go and go for another try (many many more tries). It died a few weeks later. Cullam was upset, so him and I buried him in a jello (rasberry flavor I think) box in the backyard. Cullam said a prayer and I read a pertinant scripture. (That bible doesn't have hundreds of pages for nothing!!) The most unpleasant part of that particular experience was fishing the fish out (pun not intended). Anyway, I never took any pictures of them, so that explains why I don't have any up. (Again, see this page) So in a way, my lack of goldfish pictures inspired the page, which is why I thought I would include the chronicle in with my family.

Also, in case you didn't see on the main page, I'm currently well ensconced in the solar car project. It is really neat and I spend almost all of my free time down there, when I'm busy sleeping through classes or at my disgustingly easy job at IATS (also known as campus computing). Anyway, the solar car team is going to be racing June 20-29 from Washington, D.C. to Orlando, FL in the Sunrayce . We are going to kick MIT's ASS!! I've been putting in a lot of work lately on constructing the solar array and it's a whole lot of fun.

Anyway....that's about all I can think to say about myself for now. Bye!!