Merry October. Callooh! Callay! 

(That is from the book Attachments by Rainbow Rowell, which is probably in my top 100 favorite books. (That's a lie. I love more than 100 books on the same level.))

Anyhow, yesterday we were finally blessed with autumnal weather! I was so happy that I opened the window (I chose to ignore that opening the window is like death for allergy-havers) and then walked to the grocery store for milk. I also worked on an Op-Ed I'm writing about why TTIP is bad for everyone.

So, TTIP. The Transatlantic Trade and Investment Partnership. I don't like it. It would just lower trade barriers between the US and Europe, and work to make sure that both sets of regulations were monitored at the same time. Somehow this is supposed to bring jobs to the economy (unless you're the redundant set of regulators). The Europeans really don't like this idea (unless they're conservative, powerful, and rich), and the Americans are pretty unaware of it.

My favorite part of this is reading FAQs about it from the European Perspective. My favorites, from the CDU, translated for your reading pleasure:

Q; Will the American movies cause the end of European film?

A: No. 

(This is hilarious because European movie theaters are already 80% American films dubbed into local languages.)

Q: Isn't it "typically American" for TTIP to get rid of our data protection?

A: No.

(The Germans can't get over the NSA scandal...although they do have a point given all the recent photo hacks.)

Q: Will German farmers have to plant American genetically modified corn?

A: No.

Q: Is it true that with TTIP fracking will soon begin in Europe?

A: No.

(Do Germans understand what a trade agreement is? I think they're concerned that they're signing their entire continent over to the Americans to do what they will with it.)

Despite this compelling pro-TTIP FAQ from the German Christian Democrats, I'm still unconvinced that this is the best thing for the world. First of all, we'd be putting ourselves on an even playing field with countries such as Chile and Mexico, who are nowhere near as rich as us. That seems a bit unfair. Let them keep their economic advantage! Second, we'd be damaging the environment by transporting more goods from here to there. Finally, Europeans don't want our stuff. The corporations may want to transport our stuff to Europe, but Europeans consumers are pretty skeptical of buying it.

Okay, boring stuff is over! Now for the photos!

I caught my car kissing another car the other day. (Read: Someone low-level ran into my car on campus. I took a photo of their license plate too, but there wasn't any damage.)

I changed my horrible shower head for one that actually has water pressure! It was really easy, too.

The only problem now it that it's really tall, so I have to stand in the middle of the bathtub to wash my hair. The best part is that it's super easy to clean the bathtub now with this handy removable shower head!