Now all the demons look like prophets and I'm living out / Every word they speak... It's funny how the smallest thing someone says can really get to you. In good ways, as well as bad (although more often the former, I guess).
For instance. The other day, I got a voice mail message from someone... not a personal voice mail from someone who directly called my phone, but a voice mail that was sent out to a somewhat large group of people. The message, for the most part, didn't even pertain to me. But at the end of the message, there were four words that made me feel really really good (which is completely nonsensical, based on the distribution of the message, etc). "I'm thankful for you". A very small thing... but it really made my day. For the rest of the day, when I got tired or was having a rough time, I thought back to the message... and the fact that someone was thankful for me. Not for my work, or my skills, or what I had done... for ME. And that, for whatever reason, means something to me.
Six things I'll never get tired of hearing:
I love you
I'm so glad you came
I appreciate you
I miss you
I'm praying for you/thinking about you
I'm thankful for you
Seriously... it's all the little things that keep me from drowning in the vast chaos of life. Without them, I would truly be lost.
Out of the shaker and onto the plate / it isn't karma it sure ain't fate So I've been eating the same brand of string cheese for something like 8 months now. And I just (as in, about 30 seconds ago) realized that there is a joke on each wrapper. Ha!
I saw a tornado on Saturday. A funnel cloud, I suppose, since it apparently didn't touch ground. But it was pretty cool, since I'd never really seen one before.
Things are kind of slow here (although I'm still not managing to get much of anything accomplished), which is a nice change of pace from the April/May rush of travel and stuff. We're not traveling again until we go back to Memphis and Huntsville for a couple of days each next month.
We'll all stay skinny cause we just won't eat So I bought a box of Kashi chewy granola bars... they have more fiber, and more protein, and less sugar than the granola things I have been eating, and are full of whole grains and stuff instead of unpronounceable preservatives.
The problem? They taste like bird seed. Which isn't as bad as it could be, I suppose. It's better than cardboard. But not exactly what I'm craving when I reach for a granola bar.
I need some healthy type food that doesn't make me feel like a bird.
Take some time, mellow out / Party up, but don't fall down Yay! Fun stuff is happening! and more is about to happen!
Went to a graduation party this weekend for Dr. Sarah Nagel. Who's dad is now the Faculty Senate President at State. So we spent a lot of time catching up on the real story of what's going on at State (not the nice, clean, daffodil-drama-free story that I get in the alumni newsletters). Fun times! And best of all, Sarah might not be moving far away from us (yet, at least)! While we were there, my mom called to tell me that...
My sister is coming to visit me this week! She's flying in Wednesday, and flying out on Sunday, which is the same day we leave for our...
Disney Vacation! Cruise and theme parks! As grown-ups! Yay! and a couple of days after we get back, we get to leave again because...
William is getting married! So we get to travel to The Coast and see old friends and stuff. I love visiting old friends, so we're doing it again in late June or early July when...
We meet Richie and Angela in Orlando to go to Universal for a couple of days. But, it gets better than that. They just got engaged, so...
We'll be traveling to Seattle for their Wedding in November!
So much travel! It's crazy! But yeah, it should be fun. Sometime in all of this, we might have to think about going home to visit our parents...
I feel like a million miles away / And I don't know what to say I've been kind of anti-social lately. Not sure exactly why (although being pretty busy has kind of helped it along). Also not sure if I'm really over it. For what it's worth.
Maybe I'm just tired of reaching out. I feel like, all too often lately, I reach out to people only to have them walk off, leaving me standing there with my arm sticking out like an idiot. I guess that's preferable to having them cut my arm off. But, metaphorically speaking, my arms are tired. I'm not sure what the solution to this is, but I'm pretty sure that it isn't to board myself up in my house and become a hermit (and yet that's more or less what I'm doing).
Anyway. If you haven't seen me, that may be why.
In other news... I've been watching Deadliest Catch this season. I don't know why I like that show so much, but I do... it's pretty funny. The dynamics between the guys on each boat are interesting, too. Lots of families. Family dynamics are always interesting.
Summer has hit Houston, humidity and all. Everywhere, that is, except my office. As in, not the building I work in, by my particular room. Where it's like, 50 degrees. and about 72 in the hallway. I'm waiting for little tornadoes to form in my doorway, seriously.
Maybe I push when I meant to be still / Maybe I take it all too personal In general, I over-analyze things. By "things" here, I mean everything: conversations, emails, body language, the importance of what is for dinner, etc. I have this sometimes crippling fear that someone, somewhere, will be mad at me for something. That they (whoever they are), in fact, might be mad at me right at this very moment. So I spend a great deal more time than I should trying to figure out who (if anyone) is mad at me, and what I did to cause this, and how I can make it better.
Amazingly often, I talk myself into believing that someone is mad at me (even when they aren't), and I get all stressed out about it, and (when I've exhausted my other options for trying to make this better without actually communicating the fact that I think they are mad at me) I resort to some more adult method of dealing with my problems: I avoid said people in person while saying vague, snarky, passive-aggressive things about them on my blog. Then, if (by chance) I find out that they were not, in fact, mad at me in the first place, I feel guilty.
Occasionally, though, I don't realize that people are mad at me until long after the fact, when whatever it was that made them mad in the first place is now so huge that it causes them to avoid me entirely. Then I feel guilty for having missed whatever secret sign that I was looking for in all my over-analyzing. All the while, telling everyone else that it doesn't really bother me.
The moral of the story? I should stop over-analyzing and get over myself :-) Generally, I don't get it right, and even if I do I can't really change anything. People who value relationships generally will let you know when you've seriously upset them (you know, before they can't stand being around you any more).
That being said, I really enjoyed church yesterday. It was the first time I'd really felt home there... I don't know how to describe it. It was nice to have people stop to talk to me and know my name. Joining a women's small group wasn't what I expected, but I'm glad I've stuck with it... it has certainly helped with feeling like I'm a part of something, and is encouraging me to reach out into other small groups.
My mission for the year: don't over-analyze interactions with people at church. They aren't all mad at me.
I want to be meeker / but have you seen this old Earth? I'm tired. At least it is Friday :)
I miss old-school music (old school, for me, means mid/late 90's christian rock). Pandora is awesome for being able to listen to said old-school music. Unfortunately, I can't get Pandora in my car :-(
I bought some CDs at Half-Price books, though. So I can still have some amount of Old School, in the car. And if I got it together, and figured out how to make play lists work on my nano such that I could easily swap music on and off of it... I could listen to that in the car.
Long story short, I'm whining, there's an obvious solution to my problems, and I'm just to lazy to deal with it. That's like, the story of my life.
I guess that I was hoping / that you'd finally understand The six month curse has stuck again. And interestingly enough, it wasn't me.
In other news, we're trying to tie down our cruise plans for the summer... so if you're interested in cruising, let us know kinda soon. We're looking at going the second week of May. And possibly leaving from Galveston.
This weekend I may try to catch either the CSI exhibit at the Museum of Natural Science, or the Pompeii exhibit at the Museum of Fine Arts. I feel the need to go experience some culture of some kind. If the museums don't work out, maybe I'll talk Chad into going to the movies with me or something.
For what it's worth / It was worth all the while So we drove to Denver this past weekend, which was awesome (which is to say, being in Denver and visiting people was awesome, having a captive audience in the car for 36+ hours was awesome, the driving itself was not so awesome). I got to see all kinds of interesting things for the first time on the trip though:
Oklahoma, Kansas, and Colorado. Ha!
Giant windmill things (in Kansas)
Tumbleweed
Prairie dogs
Oil wells (the kind that look like those bird-looking perpetual motion things... not sure how to describe it)
The Rockies
I also learned some things on the trip:
Kansas is the birthplace of Annie Oakley, Buffalo Bill, and William Chrysler.
The first patented helicopter was in Kansas.
In spite of all this, Kansas is lame.
Apparently, real trees don't really grow where there's no water, so you get stuck with these little weedy trees... which are funny. But not really trees.
Those windmill things are bigger than I could have imagined.
Traveling to Denver while trying to get over a sinus infection will make your ears hurt. But they won't actually explode. Which is good.
We got to visit Krys, Manda, and their boys, play Shanghai (though not the last couple of rounds), eat pancakes and sushi (not at the same time), tour Boulder, appreciate the awesomeness of friends who have known you forever and don't manufacture their own drama, run around Pearl St. mall, and Manda introduced me to a store that sells happy-hippie eco-friendly natural soaps and shampoos and stuff. And they are opening one in Houston. Yay! I might have to buy stock in them or something, seriously.
All in all, the trip was a success. I would definitely do it again, with less car this time, and more airplane.
Right and left it's all the same conspiracy / just cause you ask, doesn't make a difference to me Did my civic duty and voted yesterday. Not that it really mattered much... I always was one to go for the under dog :-) I had an unrelated excuse to work from home, so I was able to go to the polls at an off-peak time, and mostly avoid the lines. This also meant that I was the only person in my party at the polls who was under, like, 100 years old. (This probably holds true for the other party, as well, but I didn't sneak over to their side of the building to look)
I went to the first meeting of that Tuesday night women's bible study last night... it looks like it's going to be a good group, but (as of last night) there isn't really anyone my age. And I'm the only one without kids. But everyone seemed happy to have me there anyway. Interestingly enough, there was a woman there who had recently moved from Starkville. So we sat and talked about places we ate and shopped in Starkville, and where exactly we lived.
Somehow, the year has gotten away from me. I was pretty sure it was still the middle of January, and then people started asking me what I want for my birthday, and reminding us to nail down our summer travel plans (since we're looking at traveling in May)... How did it get to be March already?
The sky starts to crash the rain on the roof starts to drumming I managed to take an hour for lunch again today… I went to Target, and bought Propel and paper towels. Which is entirely uninteresting, but saves me a stop on the way home.
Chad and I bought two apple trees this weekend. One for the front yard, and one for the back. We managed to plant the one in the front, but planned to do the one in the back yard tonight. Unfortunately, no one told the weatherman this, and now we're under a thunderstorm warning. So it'll have to be Wednesday, as I think we're both busy tomorrow night. And tonight, maybe I'll read or something… or at least pick out a book to bring to work tomorrow. I'm currently in the middle of several (which is typical), so I need to decide which one I want to finish next. Slowly but surely, I’m working through my "to read" list.
The best thing you've ever done for me / Is to help me take my life less seriously I actually took a lunch today. As in, I packed my lunch and took it to work (this in and of itself isn't unusual these days), and then (and this is the amazing part) I stopped what I was doing for an hour and took a lunch break.
I did it yesterday too.
The sad thing is, neither of those two breaks were actually used for eating... I still ate over my computer, while working (or attempting to, at any rate). Yesterday, I took the break to run down to Half Price Books and look around, specifically for a little journal-type book to use for the bible study thing -- I found one that will work great, I think, and in addition to that I found another journal that has graph paper instead of lined paper. Who thought of that? And why didn't they call me when they did? I bought it, with no specific purpose at the moment. I just miss writing on graph paper -- and today's break was spent reading (with my office mate out of the office, I could shut the door and enjoy some quiet for an hour, reading the Time Traveler's Wife. Except it wasn't really quiet, as I share an office wall with someone who projects very loudly into the phone, mostly about finance, and am around the corner from someone else who also projects into the phone (and at people in person), mostly about travel arrangements).
I might continue to take real lunch breaks. Until such time as I have too much work to do to really enjoy them (which will be, you know, right before the next big deadline). Not sure about the reading thing though... might have to take it outside, at the very least. Not just to escape the loud phone people, either. I forgot that 9/10 of my reading time is in bed, right before (and sometimes slightly after) bedtime, so when I finished my hour and stood up to open the door, I thought I was going to fall over. I didn't, but I'm still not sure if the lightheadedness had to do with the reading, being stationary for too long, or was just a fluke.
Actually, this week has been really easy, work-wise. Which is a nice change after last week, where I was rushing to get everything ready for user testing and trying not to die in the process (In the end, everything was ready, and I'm not dead yet). I attended a conference for two days, and spent some time tying up a few loose ends that slipped through the cracks last week. Since then, I've actually been inventing work to do, as I was so busy last week I forgot to ask for extra work to do this week :-P
There's a lot in my head, and very little of it particularly blog-worthy.
And in the air the fireflies / Our only light in paradise I ate Brussels sprouts for the first time in literally years last night. They were awesome, just like I remembered only better. Thank you, Bird’s Eye, for inventing single serving frozen veggies that cook in the bag in like, a minute. Actually, frozen veggies in general are pretty awesome. Tastes almost as good as fresh, and I don’t have to worry about them going bad in the crisper while I get around to eating them.
I joined a Curves studio down the road from my house… I’m now working out 3+ times a week. So far, it has been pretty good. On the off days I‘m trying to do something aerobic, but that’s been kind of hit-and-miss the last two weeks. At least I’m doing something. (That’s what I keep telling myself).
This week, I picked back up Kingdom Hearts II, noting that there will be a sequel coming out at some point that will actually fit in the timeline right before the game I’m playing. I figure I should actually beat this one before the sequel comes out, so I can justify buying it. I managed to get to Johnny Depp world (Pirates of the Caribbean), but I haven’t beaten it yet. Almost 12 hours into the game, and I still had to have Chad explain to me what was going on in the plot (to be fair, he had to look it up online to figure it out).
I’m joining a women’s bible study starting next week… should be interesting, and will give me a chance to interact with some more people who might or might not be my age (the jury’s still out on the age thing). The woman who’s running the study has been married for something like 15 or 20 years, so I would guess she’s quite a bit older than I am, but younger than my mother. I’m hoping there’s a good mix of ages in this group (that always makes it more interesting), but that I’m not the only young married chick without kids (it’s less lonely that way).
I’ve been thinking for a while that I really miss State. I came to the conclusion the other day, while talking to a friend, that I probably do miss State somewhat… but what I really miss isn’t Abner’s, SEC football, the Union, or the Drill Field, but feeling like I really belonged someplace. Like I was supposed to be there, and like I was part of a community. When we moved to Texas, I kind of retreated into my own world, mostly because I didn’t feel there was a good community to be a part of. And I’ve missed that feeling… so I’m trying to reach out of my now tiny comfort zone, and find a community. It was easy at school… we were all basically the same age, and dealing with basically the same set of experiences. In the real world it’s hard. But not, I think, unattainable. And probably worth the extra effort.
Throw me somethin' mister / I wanna dance with your sister We went to Mardi Gras Galveston this past Saturday... it was fun, and crazy, and everything I suppose Mardi Gras is supposed to be (except, you know, it wasn't in New Orleans). And now I want to go dancing, so that may be the plan for this weekend (we'll see).
I spent most of Sunday recovering from Saturday (and the weird feeling-tired-and-blah sickness thing I've been fighting for like, two weeks now). It was raining, so I couldn't finish the yard work (which was more than ok with me)... but I did get some house work done (go me!).
I bought a new calendar this week... the squares on my old (free) one were so tiny I was having trouble recording all the things I wanted to keep track of. I ordered this specific calendar because everyone said the squares were big enough for anything. So yeah, it came in the mail this week, and I opened it up to put it on the fridge on Sunday. Oh. My. Goodness. This is like, the calendar of huge squares +10. It is so freakin' big, I couldn't hang it on the freezer door (it's too skinny), so I had to move everything from the fridge side to the freezer side and put this one on the fridge side. I was able to write meals for the week (instead of trying not to lose my little meal plan lists), and still have room for everything I need. And more. nd I don't have to write tiny (or smaller than usual, anyway).
I'm the best damn thing that your eyes have ever seen There are some days when I'm so freakin' awesome that I can hardly believe it. I just managed to make the impossible graphics library that I've been fighting with integrating into my prototype for a couple of weeks work, not only from my machine, but from Java Webstart (so anyone can run it). I finally determined that the problem was including the .dll files in the download... and figured out how to do it.
Now I'm happy. Because this means I'll have something that is actually testable to send overseas at the end of next month for user testing. Unless I run into more problems between now and then.
This is why I love coding... the buzz you get from solving a problem in a innovative way, and seeing it work (after hours and hours and days and days of seeing it not work).
You treat life like a picture / But its not a moment frozen in time So there’s been a lot going on in my head lately, most of which doesn’t translate well into language, much less blog-world. Just a lot of rambling stuff, I suppose, about growing up, friends, family, and life in general. And I’ll throw some religion and politics in there, just to spice it up a bit.
But yeah. Point is, I really haven’t had much to say. That anyone wants to read. Or for that matter, that I want to write. But, one of my brain ramblings has produced a series of thought that (I think) are actually post worthy, so here goes:
I always have these high plans for things… like this year, I started out with some goals (some realistic, some... well, will take some work, at best). And I go along pretty well for a while on the adrenaline of accomplishing things... I think, this is awesome! And then I miss a day (or whatever)… and I spend so much time beating myself up over the missed part, and feeling like I screwed everything up (I tell myself I’m good at that), that I miss the next one, and the one after... and after a while, I’m like, what’s the point? I've already "fallen off the wagon"... so I might as well not try (after all, I'll probably just mess up again).
And then I get to a point, again, where I’m faced with the consequences of not having done whatever (for example... having 8000 loads of laundry to do, because I put it off… who knew we owned so many clothes? Or having gained weight because I was too tired/lazy to cook, and we ate fast food several times during the week)... and I say to myself... Self, if you had done what you were supposed to, you wouldn’t be here. So I jump back on the wagon, and resolve to do better. Next time. Next week. Next year. Whatever.
I’m working through the FlyLady system... which I really like. But I’ve been doing the crash-and-burn cycle for like, 6 months. I keep reading: "You’re not behind, just jump in where you are", and I think... sure, I’ll jump in. As soon as I get caught up on the dishes. As soon as the laundry is done. As soon as the house is clean. As soon as I lose the 10 pounds I gained over the holidays. As soon as I find the perfect notebook to hold my control journal. As soon as I’m not behind…
The point is, I need to not get so hung up on the "wrongs", and learn to bounce back. Without falling off the wagon. I need to celebrate the "rights", and remember why I’m trying to make changes / do things better. And to see the big picture, not just the tiny corner that says this isn’t working.
So, following that idea, here are the things I’ve accomplished so far this year:
I have started eating healthier, most days of the week (this includes cooking healthier dinners, which has been kind of hit-and-miss, and packing lunch).
I have managed to work out for at least 15 minutes at least twice a week (go ten minute workout dvds!)
I cleaned out one drawer of the dresser and (finally) started using some of the drawer dividers I bought forever ago.
I got (with Chad’s help) almost half of the dvds scanned and into the new cataloging software I bought.
Chad and I cleaned out most of the garage in preparation to make it into a martial arts workout room (this was a huge task).
I’ve been drinking more water (not back up to 8 glasses a day consistently, but working on it).
I have entirely cut out caffeinated soda, and only drink soda at all if I’m out at a restaurant.
The worst is over now and we can breathe again I think I broke my toe. And it's the weirdest toe to have broken, too... the second from the smallest toe on my left foot.
I fell down the last three stairs. which kind of put a damper on the rest of my day. But there's not a lot they can do for broken toes, besides xray them and say, "Yep... that's broken." It turned an interesting shade of purple, though.
It's good to be home. Although the whole toe thing might mostly kill my plans for getting the house back in order.
We'll love you just the way you are / If you're perfect I think I'm finally done Christmas shopping. For the most part. I *think*. Sheesh. I don't think it's quite Christmas in my head yet, despite the fact that I've sung the Christmas Tree song to the tree every time Chad has turned it on (and Chad is counting the days until he can ban that song for another 11 months). I'm hoping I'll feel more like Christmas when I get back to Memphis/Huntsville, where it's cold, and everyone is wearing sweaters and stuff. "Going home" for Christmas kind of helps set it apart from the rest of the year... there's something about pulling into the driveway after a long trip when it's dark and freezing cold, and being greeted by family and (warm!) food that always makes me feel like Christmas.
And then, you know, the family drama catches up with you, and then it *really* feels like Christmas. You know what I mean. You can't have a family gathering without at least a strong undercurrent of this kind of drama. And since I only come home a couple of times a year.... it all hits at once.
So what did I accomplish this year, from my family's perspective?
I once again failed to produce grandchildren for my parents (through lack of trying on my part, which makes them sad).
I left school, which is probably good, since I was getting too educated for my own good (or something like that). In any case, they're pretty sure this should hasten the arrival of grandchildren.
I sold out to the corporate man, and work for the devil. Which might not hasten the arrival of grandchildren. Since I'm now a "career woman". And stuff.
In all seriousness, I think my parents are more or less proud of me. But they make no secret of the fact that they would be *prouder* if they had pictures of grandchildren to show off. Because that's what it's all about, in the end. Or something.
You wait and see when the smoke clears Lessons for the day (more for archival benefit than because you guys will be interested...):
You can't use relative path names for images that you want to load from jars. You have to use a ClassLoader to getResource().
It takes about 3 hours to determine this, if you forget that you can see the console output *if you run the jar from the command line* instead of trying to load it through Java WebStart.
It takes about 10 minutes to fix this problem, thanks to Find/Replace.
You cannot load files into a File object by their filename (even if you use getResource) if they are stored in a jar. Apparently, jarring them cause them to not be files any more (I know, it makes no sense to me either, but that's the best answer I could come up with from the forums). You need to use ClassLoader.getResourceAsStream() to put the jarred file directly into an input stream, skippign hte file object all together.
It takes another three hours of [Run the program in Eclipse. See that it works. Jar the project. Sign the jar. Run the jar through WebStart. See that it's broken.] repeated, ad nauseum, and googling various variations on the theme of "jar read from file" before you remember that you can run the jar from the command line. And get the exception output, with the error name, and google that.
It takes about 30 seconds to fix this problem, once you know how.
And, if you spend all day debugging all this stuff... you get no real quantifiable work accomplished.
Live in hill top mansions / driving sixteen cars In case you wondered, Rock Band is awesome. I'm so gonna sneak down to the living room and play while Chad's asleep. And I'm gonna play as the singer. And no one will be there to laugh at me. Ha.
So we now have an XBox 360. So someday (when I get it), I'll be able to play Beautiful Katamari. And that makes me happy.
And the quote of the day: You can't squeegie a gorilla!
It's true, we're all a little insane... Just so as you know, I totally suck at writing. (Not that I'm giving up, I'm just saying is all). The chances that anyone will ever get to read the novel? Practically zero. I mean, really. I'm hesitant to even post an excerpt on my NaNoWriMo profile, it's *that bad*. ~Disclaimer: I know there are worse writers out there, but I've also read enough to know that I wouldn't read anything that was as poorly written as what I write. I might not be entirely objective about this. But it's how I see it.~
Odd issues with writing... I feel the need to write an abstract. Too many journal papers. Sheesh.
Also, I have this weird desire to "get things right", and instead of making a note to look something up, I have to drop my story and spend time in Google trying to determine which is more correct - shawabti? or shabti? Or, how far is the Valley of the Kings from Giza? How long does it take to fly from a US hub (say, Houston) to Cairo? Does it take longer if you're on a budget?
Blah. Research.
I'm hoping to make my target word count today... somewhere around 3400 words. I'm sitting just shy of 2300 now. And I'm going out tonight, won't be back until after 10pm.
Can't feel the force that holds me down / but I believe in gravity
So… anyone want a kitty? Because we might have an extra, if no one claims it… Chad rescued a lost kitty at JSC (very domestic, friendly, with a collar and no tag)… when he called the security people, they said it would probably be put down at the end of the day if no one claimed it.
So we’re bringing it home, and we'll try to find the real owners. Meanwhile, we'll have an extra cat in the house, which should be interesting and all that… hopefully Kitty won't eat her.
Otherwise, we're our normal boring selves. I'm working, Chad's working, we play games sometimes, and yeah… that's about it. Boring people, I know.
Still sorting out life but I'm doing alright It's 9pm, and I'm actually thinking about just going to bed. How freakin' lame is that?
It has been a crazy week, though... or couple of weeks... geez, a month? the summer? Suffice it to say, the craziness abounds.
Chad's schedule has been crazy, doing ISTs and other cool acronyms... which has given me a couple of evenings to chill, and have the house to myself. This is in theory pretty cool, but I have yet to figure out how to make it work. For instance, Monday night I reviewed a list of things that Manda suggested doing the last time she had the house to herself... and ended up doing none of the listed things, and instead watching City Confidential, followed by crappy reality TV (WifeSwap), followed by a really odd documentary type show about a family that has 13 kids and only spend $150 a week at the grocery store. I got some cleaning done in there, too, but mostly just watched crappy TV.
Tonight I watched City Confidential, and then got sucked into a documentary about a serial killer who eventually got caught and put on death row, but they never found half the people he killed... yeah. Really healthy TV habits. But I got some other cleaning stuff done, read the first couple of chapters of a book someone lent me, and now I'm ready to call it a night I guess...
In other news, starting September 1 I'll be a real full time employee at Landmark, doing usability and like, getting paid and stuff. And benefits. Like a real person. Isn't that amazing?
In other other news, apparently my brother tore his rotator cuff at work... so now instead of stocking produce, he's greeting people at the door. So if you happne through the Sparkman Drive Wal-mart between 4am and noon (no clue what days), you should wave at him and stuff.
And for the record, I'm not terribly fond of hurricanes. Phenomenal cosmic (destructive) power aside, the build up is annoying. And people freak out, and panic, thus causing other people to panic, and it's not fun. I like tornadoes better. They destroy smaller areas, they don't tend to come with floods, and you only have a few minutes to panic and freak out.
That being said, we have an evacuation plan, and I have now put my finger on everything we would need to take with us (a surprisingly small list, really, which makes me wonder... why do we have so much other stuff?).
Anyway. I'm falling asleep whilst typing, which is always bad. I'm going to quit fighting it, and go to bed, which is pretty sad, actually).
I hear you say, that I'm totally a mess So I absolutely hate New Years resolutions. Because I make the same ones every year. You know: keep the house cleaner, lose weight, eat healthier, be a nicer person in general... And by January 15th (if I'm lucky) I've managed to screw them all up to such a point that I give up. This I suppose, is the quintessential problem with being a perfectionist... I'm not perfect.
So I didn't make any this year.
But now I have a better plan. Instead of resolutions, which are made once a year (usually when the house is still full of Christmas candy and such), and are easy to screw up... I'm just going to try and start good habits. And if I screw up a couple of days in between... I don't need to "catch back up", only jump back in where I left off.
You're crazy for believing I don't care Dear Microsoft,
You know what makes me mad?
Web pages that resize my browser window. Honestly, there's no reason for it. The desktop, and thus the size of the windows on it, is owned by the user. What if I had my screen resolution set to 800x600 or something lame like that? You would have just resized my window to something that overflowed my screen, in all directions. Do you have any idea how annoying that is?
Do me a favor. Hire some real usability people. Please. And while you're at it... provide me with some reasonable way to make Office 2007 look more like a it used to, and less like it was designed by someone who had never used a WIMP interface.
Pharaoh, he was a powerful man / With the ancient world in the palm of his hand This is just cool. A little disillusioning, though, to find out she was overweight, diabetic, and probably had liver cancer. Kinda spoils the typical vision of the good looking, fit, take-charge female who did something no other female has ever done... become pharaoh, with all the requisite titles (except, of course, Bull of Ma'at).
But cool and interesting, none the less. When I was about 10, my life ambition was to be an egyptian archeologist... probably why I enjoy my Elizabeth Peters books so much. This tomb (KV 60?) was actually discovered during the time those books were set... I think one of the Amelia Peabody books mentions it, actually... I'd have to look it up.
Right or left, it's all the same conspiracy Having flexed my political activism muscles yesterday over the internet music debate, I wasn't planning to delve into the realms of politics again this soon... But yeah, I have something to say.
Read this, about Massachusetts' initiative to "make sure everyone has health insurance". And everyone is praising it, and if it succeeds it could be a role-model for a national plan, etc.
But I don't see how they are helping. Telling people to get insurance, or risk paying a fine probably isn't going to get great results (look at how many motorists don't have insurance in states that require it -- and the fines for not haveing car insurance are much much higher)... And what about people who can't afford health insurance? I mean, there is a substantial SES demographic that falls between the "I'm so poor I rely on the state to provide my basic needs (and healthcare)" bracket and the "I have enough money to get by (and buy insurance)" bracket. Simply telling people to get insurance isn't going to help.
Asking insurance companies to play nice, probably not going to help either. I mean, really. Plus... if you forced the insurance compies to comply and insure *everyone* who applied... They will raise rates.
Having the government provide health insurance isn't the way either... honestly, I don't want to spend my tax money paying for druggies and alcoholics and people who are otherwise screwing around with their health (any more than it already does).
So the answer? No idea. I agree the healthcare system is broken... but I don't think that either a) mandating health insurance for everyone or b) providing government health insurance for everyone is the answer.
The day the music died... Pandora (along with a great number of other internet radio stations) is participating in a Day of Silence, to protest the new increased royalties that are going to be charged to internet radio stations.
I wrote my representative... who was very politic, and basically said the bill to exempt internet radio from this is in committee, and she can't do anything about it, but to please vote for her the next time she's up for re-election.
Pandora is one of my biggest sources for discovering new music. I have bought probably 50 CDs, just because I heard the artist on Pandora and liked them. Regular radio around here has a rotation of like, 40 popular songs, so it's difficult to find things that are new and interesting (especially if your taste in music happens to be slightly off the mainstream). As usual, the music industry is missing the mark by putting these people out of business...
Separate words from the sentence themselves / I pack double meaning like bread from the elves I'm not a big fan of rap, but this caught my attention. The lyrics are really well put together, and well... funny. And geeky. I might have to look into more of this group...
Answers, finally. Answers to the TV show theme quiz:
1: Where is the World is Carman Sandiego? Sung by Rockapella. 2: Suicide is Painless, the theme from MASH. 3: DuckTales. 4: Sesame Street. 5: Family Matters. 6: Due South, written and sung by Paul Gross. 7: Theme from Firefly, written by Joss Whedon. 8: Everywhere you go, the theme from Full House.
Now what's cooler than bein' cool? Totally weird.... So I'm listening to pandora (because it rocks, and to drown out the ringing in my earsthat's driving me crazy)... and my girly music station plays a cover of Hey Ya by Ediblered. A very slow, angsty, girly music cover. My brain is rebelling against even recognizing this as the same song. And yet... somehow I feel compelled to listen to more of their music. Very strange.
Apparently, I suck at this game. ... Or else I'm just too obscure for you. So it's hint day... I've also added an extra line or so to each of these.
she put the "miss" in misdemeanor / When she stole the beans from Lima -- aired on PBS, right before (or after?) Square One.
The only way to win is cheat / And lay it down before I'm beat / to another give my seat / for that's the only painless feat -- you all know this one, just probably not the version with words.
Tales of derring-do, bad and good luck tales, oo-oo / D-d-d-danger, watch behind you / there's a stranger out to find you -- Cartoon...
Sunny Day / Sweepin' the clouds away / On my way to where the air is sweet -- Another PBS show.
It’s a rare condition, this day and age / To read any good news on the newspaper page / Love and tradition of the grand design, / Some people say it’s even harder to find. -- Ran forever. Think suspenders. And saddle oxfords. And cheese.
You know you have to leave here / You wish that you could stay / There's four directions on this map / But you're only going one way -- obscure. but one of my favorites. starred Paul Gross.
Take me out to the black / Tell 'em I ain't comin' back / Burn the land And boil the sea / You can't take the sky from me -- was cancelled after the 3rd show, filmed and aired 12 episodes, became amazingly popular.
Everywhere you look / everywhere you go / There's a face / Of somebody who needs you -- Came on right before (or after?) #5. Also ran forever. starred twins.
she's from the city of angels/ like Betty Davis, James Dean, and Gable Alright, alright, I'm succumbing to the music game as well. With my own twist: name the song, and the TV show it was the theme for... extra kudos if you get the artist (in some cases there might not be one...). Some of these are kind of obscure...
she put the "miss" in misdemeanor
...to another give my seat / for that's the only painless feat
D-d-d-danger, watch behind you / there's a stranger out to find you
Sunny Day / Sweepin' the clouds away
It’s a rare condition, this day and age / To read any good news on the newspaper page
There's four directions on this map / But you're only going one way
Take me out to the black / Tell 'em I ain't comin' back
everywhere you go / There's a face / Of somebody who needs you
Maybe I've been here before / I know this room, I've walked this floor Having a good visit home.
Busy though, so I apologize to everyone I haven't contacted about getting together, etc. Went to Sbbn's wedding today... it was great, but all I have to say is this: Hallelujah by Rufus Wainwright is not a wedding song. I'm just sayin.
Anyway. Must eat food. And stuff. Going to Memphis tomorrow, Home wednesday.
The Mississippi's mighty, but it starts in Minnesota/ at a place where you could walk across with five steps down
My keywords are not working exactly as I would like them to. So weird. Don't know how to fix it.
Settled on a d20 character idea. Already having fun with it. (and we haven;t started playing yet). Chad says I'm evil, but he's enjoying it, too.
I will never never never understand women. So don't call and ask me for advice on how to figure them out. 'Cause yeah, I don't know. Don't have a clue. On the other hand, if you figure them out, by all means let me know.
It's funny, when you're used to coming in to work for like, 3 hours at a time, how much 8 hour days kinda suck. But that's ok... 80 hour paychecks sure beat 10 hour paychecks.
I need to learn XML, which to this point I've never bothered with. I'm considering renewing my Safari subscription to gain access to some books... but not sure. It's kinda pricy (about $20 a month for the base rate, $40 a month for unlimited). Maybe I should check out what ACM has to offer, as I've already paid my dues for the year (ouch! I forgot how much dues were once you added in SIG memberships and transactions, etc).
Um. Yeah. Still totally addicted to LotRO. Started running quests with my secondary... the thing that annoys me the most? It takes freakin' forever to get somewhere. Like, anywhere. I spend more time running than anything else.
Have-to's and need-to's and get-to's by three Sleep. Is good. But now that I have tiem for sleep... yeah, I'm not really taking advantage of it. LotRO has somewhat cut into my sleep (something about never getting off the computer until 10:15 or 10:30, and then having to do all the stuff you should have done before gaming...), and I've be trying to get out of the house early(ish) to beat traffic. This morning, didn't work so good. I left at like, 6:45, but I had to run by the school on the way to work (the words "on the way to work" here mean "before I could go to work", not that the school is actually "on the way" anywhere from my house). So I didn't get to work until 8:30.
And all day I've been drawing little pictures. that are not icons (not that small). And trying my hand at interaction design.
Back at work full time, starting today. Yay for work!
Finished my First Year Project Paper last night at about 7pm. Also finished my stats final, and ran the exams I need to grade through the scantron machine. Double yay for being done!
Played more lotr online... not sure if I like it or not, but I can't stop playing. :-)
Fixin to start playing in a d20 future campaign. Have almost zero workable character ideas. If you have any ideas of dynamic female hero-type people I can model after, by all means let me know. Out of the running already: Lara Croft (already done), Tank Girl, and Ameila Peabody (couldn't seem to figure out how to port her from 1900's to the 2100's), and Grace Hopper (because, alas, computer scientists aren't heroes). I am severly lacking in inspiration.
Someone asked me on Friday if I could live anywhere, where would I live? I shocked an entire table of people by saying I'd live in north central Mississippi. Apparently, this is weird, as no one actually wants to live in Mississippi.
I miss Abner's chicken, and lots of otehr back home food, but I'll be back in the south somewhere around the 25th of this month... in Memphis for a couple of days, Maybe Thursday evening through Sunday morningish, then in Huntsville part of Sunday, all of Monday, and maybe part/all of Tuesday. Yay for travelling!
Once I know who I'm not then I'll know who I am Life... is exceedingly busy. Not bad, just really busy. I feel like I'm running behind, too (although I'm not completely sure that I'm actually behind in the real world. Maybe just in my head).
But yeah. Having a four day weekend last weekend totally rocked. I did lots of stuff. Including unpacking some of the large number of boxes that we still have laying around from the last (several) time(s) we moved.
Less than two weeks of classes left, then I'm working fulltime for the summer. Yay for summer! I know I've already planned more stuff than I can possibly do in like, three months. But it'll be fun to try and get it all done.
Slow dancing in a burning room... So school and work (but mostly school) have kind of been ruling my life lately. Which is to say, I have had no life, as I'm still dog tired from whatever it is I'm getting over.
But. Today I finished my Stats midterm. Yay! Now all I have to do this weekend (school wise) is write a presentation, write some part of my first year project paper, write a paper proposal for linguistics, and write a results section for stats. And something else, I'm sure, but I can't remember it.
Also, in the realm of annoying, it looks like I may end up spending my birthday giving make-up exams. How lovely.
And... you may have notice the I implemented the labels feature... it's really more for my benefit than yours, so I can find stuff kinda quickly. I'm trying to figure out if I can make the labels less prominant, but don't hold your breath as I don't have much time to devote to it. And it may take me a while (read: possibly years) to get all of my archives tagged... there are like, 1060 some-odd entries. Seriously.
Belief is a beautiful armor / But makes for the heaviest sword I survived my midterm. And today started both March, and Spring Break, as I have no classes tomorrow. Sometime this weekend, I'm am headed out for destinations unknown... Vegas, I think, but for a while it was looking like Grand Canyon or possibly Boulder.
Hopefully we'll figure it out before we leave ;-) Brian is coming with, which will be cool.
And I should probably clean the house, instead of blogging. But Chad's gone to karate, and I'm not terribly motivated to clean by myself.
There's more that rises in the morning than the sun today... was an ok day.
I have a voice scheduled for Thursday. Yay! Then I can start running subjects (right after spring break). And I'm mostly done studying for my midterm. Which is good, since it's tomorrow. Now I'm just tired. So I'll probably go to bed when Chad gets home (in like, 30 minutes).
After tomorrow's midterm, I've just got one more assignment due before the break. Yay! and some papers to grade, but that should be fairly short work.
I never was much of a martyr before / and i ain't 'bout to start nothing new I am so tired of putting everything I have into something, only to have it come crashing down around me. And part of me is like, But look, I invested all this time, and I worked so hard, yada yada... and the rest of me is like, Shut up and deal with it, no one likes a martyr anyway. Obviously, you didn't put *everything* into it, or it would have worked out.
Warring factions in my brain. Gives me a stupid headache... which then makes it difficult to work on my current soul-consuming project (my midterms and first year project).
I wake up and tear drops they fall down like rain... Blah. Been having kinda a blah week, really. I think I'm coming down with something (when am I not?), I've been waaaay stressed out at school (having your ass handed to you on a platter by the departmental progress committee will do that), the realization that New Orleans is never going to fully recover has finally hit me, and it's just been kinda blah.
But this past weekend was awesome. I enjoyed New Orleans Mardis Gras to it's fullest (and by that, I mean the drunken part but not the orgy part. Contrary to popular opinion, I do have a few limits). I caught beads (lots of beads), ate decent New Orleans food (port of call was really busy, so no hamburgers for us), watched parades, walked down Bourbon Street, and drank a drink that was literally more than half as tall as I am. In case you wanted to know, I cannot in fact hold my liquor like He-Man, everything is funnier when you're drunk, my drunken vocabulary mostly consists of the words "totally" and "awesome", and fire is the most totally awesome thing ever to be in a parade. Oh yeah, and I'm never (ever) allowed to drink that much Hurricane again.
But yeah. Back to the humdrum (but not boring, no never boring) life of a grad student. I've finished tonight's homework, and now I'm trying to decide whether to read Eugene Field while taking a bath, or to play Elebits (the greatest Wii game evar).
Oh yeah... all my pictures are broken. I'm working on that, it's annoying, I hsould have it fixed sometime this week (moaybe tomorrow).
Broken Roads So I was going to post somehting mushy yesterday, in honor of it being valentine's day, but I forgot :/ Then when I rembered today, I realized that 1) it's not valentine's day any more, and 2) the song lyrics I was going to post that remond me of Chad... I already posted them. A while back. When the song came out, I think. So yeah, I'm not going to repost them here, but I think "Bless the Broken Road" by Rascall Flatts would have been appropriate yesterday.
Other than random forgetting of stuff (which is totally normal, for me, I suppose), I'm kind of just hanging in here. I think I might have pissed off my advisor, and I'm really really tired for nogood reason, and I fixing to have to sue my car insurance company because my health insurance company is going to stop paying for my back problems, since they were caused by my accident, and my car insurance company thinks they shouldn't have to pay all of it (or something). it all lovely.
But. It is all ok. Because, rain or shine (weather.com says shine!), I'll be in New Orleans for Mardis Gras weekend (which is to say, Saturday), and I get to see all (some) of my Mississippi people, and be totally crazy (within some amount of reason, I suppose). Yay for Mardis Gras! Yay for New Orleans! Yay for Port of Call hamburgers, and other good NOLA food! Yay for parades, and beads, and old friends! Yay for Harry Conick, Jr. (just because)!
This is my brain..... in part, at least.
