Brianna's sitting! well, sort of, anyway - she sits on very stable surfaces (like the floor, not the couch or a mattress - if you put her hands down to help prop her up. But still, it makes me happy. And also scared - here comes the crawl (otherwise known as the ability to get into everything in site!).
Today was the first day I got dressed for work, looked in the mirror, and actually felt like I was looking at me, not my head put on someone else's body. So there's at least light at the end of the tunnel for my post-pregnancy body image issues. In a related note, I may quite possibly buy an entire work wardrobe of crimson and black.
Speaking of post-pregnancy body woes... My feet are bigger. Like, at least a half a size. Enough that most of my shoes are uncomfortable, and some of them I can't even get on at all. Someone warned me this would happen, but I don't think I believed them. Anyone interested in a closet full of shoes?
I hate it when people butt into my parenting and inform me that I'm doing it wrong. For instance, the whole breastfeeding thing. I would never. Never. Never tell a mom that was using formula that she's not doing it right, that she's somehow hurting her child by not breastfeeding. There are so many reasons why it might not work for that person at that time - and in the end, it's totally a personal decision. My decision was to breastfeed, as long as possible. This isn't always easy. My doctor agrees it's the best choice for my situation, and as long as I can do it... keep on it! But the daycare people (or rather, one of them) have been going on from day 1 about how Brianna likes formula better (we supplement as needed), or her bowels would be more regular if she were on formula all the time, or she'd sleep better, or whatever. I was even told that some infants can't take breastmilk, that it's not healthy for them. I call BS. My choice. As long as she's gaining weight, and her doctor is happy, and she's happy - we'll keep doing it. People just need to butt the hell out, seriously. Ok, so that turned into a rant. Sorry. But it was on my mind.
Going to see a nutritionist in a couple of weeks, to hopefully get a diet that helps my supply levels, energy levels, overall health - and if I could lose weight and beat Chad, that would be awesome :-) I hope this will help... I'm at my wits end trying to figure out how to lose weight and maintain a milk supply. The weight has to come off (it's not just vanity - my knees and back hurt, I'm exhausted all the time, and I need to be healthy again. Being 40+ pounds overweight isn't conducive to being healthy).
Chad's still winning the biggest loser. I lost 0.2 pounds last week. Yep, you see that right - two-tenths of a pound. Total weight loss: still less than 2 pounds. I need to catch Chad, and win, so that I can spend a ridiculous amount of money on total vanity and silliness. Maybe the nutritionist will help. Or maybe I should just fill the house with Oreos, lol.
It's hot as blazes here, in case you wondered. Like, over-100-hot before you figure in the heat index. Don't get me wrong, I hate cold... but this is unseasonably early to be this hot. It's record-breaking hot, and it's killing me. But at least I have AC in both my car and my house - we love AC. And couldn't live without it.
Things that I would never think of in a million years I would never, ever, be walking along on day and suddenly realize that it might be possible to use a human head as a bong. Who thinks of this stuff? Regardless of who thinks it up in the first place, exactly what kind of person would think that it was such a good idea that they would then go to a cemetery and dig up a casket to procure the aforementioned head? I mean, really.
This is officially the oddest thing I've read in a while. And I read some pretty weird stuff.
Bombarded by philosophies that satisfy the surface / I flee to something deeper For the record, I believe in the right of every human to decide what they do or don't believe on just about any issue, and to hod lthat belive without ridicule or persecution. I will, in fact, defend that right even for people who's views are opposed to mine.
That being said, I know I hold some rather particular views. Several people, over the last few months, have asked me what I believe. Since that is a huge topic, which would probably take years to exhaust fully, I'll just list a few things that I've been questioned on lately. I'm disabling comments for this post, as I'm not interested in starting a war on my blog.
I believe in an eternal, omnipotent, omnicient, omnipresent God. I believe that God is love, but He is also a God of justice. I believe in the deity of Christ, and that he was born, lived, died, and rose again. I believe that God can still exist in a world that doesn't believe in Him, and that sometimes He allows bad things to happen to good people for His own reasons that we don't understand. And we don't have to understand. I believe that there's something after this life, some greater existance that we are moving towards. And I belive that, in my own small way, I can make a difference in this world while I'm here. And that, dear readers, is literally what keeps me alive. If I honestly thought that this life was it, that when I die I will cease to be, cease to exist, be nothing but dust and ashes... I would have seriously killed myself a long time ago.
I believe in Intelligent Design. To be more specific, I belive in a literal six-day creation. Why does an educated modern woman believe in biblical creation? Because I can. Because I choose to. Because you can't prove me wrong. I know science dates things as being millions of years old. That's fine. Had you scientifically examined Adam the day after he was created, he probably would have looked to be about 20 or 30 years old. Not 1 day old. The underlying difference between me and someone who belives in some form of evolution is that I use a different set of underlying assumptions than they do. That doesn't make my view any less valid than anyone else's, or make me stupid or weak for having faith in something bigger than myself.
I am pro-life, more ardently than you can probably imagine. That being said, I don't advocate picketing clinics, or bombing anything, or killing abortion doctors. I don't come by my views lightly either. My reasons for this are mostly personal, and I don't really care to explain them in detail here. Suffice it to say, I belive that life beings at conception, and that a child's right to live is greater than a woman's right to choose. And, being a woman, I like to think I have more right to say that than most of the old, male politicians you find espousing that view.
That concludes, for now, my rant. I might follow it up with more later, at some point, if I am in a ranting mood.
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.
Dumb girls Ok, so I'm a member of an online community of female IT & computing professionals. Which is fine, but occasionally they go of on a tangent that I find entirely not worthwhile. Or just plain stupid.
For instance, the current campaign is to boycott a given company because of an ad they had printed somewhere... The ad has a picture of a fairly attractive woman, and said something like "Don't worry, our servers won't go down on you either". [I'll look for a link to it later, I know someone Digged it Edit: link.]. Now, I thought this was pretty funny when I saw it several days ago. The online community? not so much. People are selling stock, writing letters, complaining to NASA (who buys from this company), etc.
Exactly what is the deal? I understand why some people would be offended by the sexual reference, but why are women taking this as a dig on women in computing? What about it is offensive to women, in general?
Got up on the wrong side of life today... I'm in a really odd, kind of rant-y mood today. No idea why. Really. These are (a few) of the random things that have bothered me today:
The word data is plural. Data is literally a bunch of "things" not just one. So why do we say "the data is on the server" as opposedto "the data are on the server"? You would never say "The dogs is onthe porch" (unless you were from some geographic regions, in which case you probably aren't concerned with whether data is singular or plural.
Why is the world so concerned with having "stuff"? You know, things, stuff, toys, items that you don't need that cost extra money and then you may or may not use them... I'm fast becoming less of a "stuff" person (we'll assume books don't count, here). I'm really tired of the materialism, the "how much do you make?" implying that making more money makes you more valuable as a person. And when did living within your means go out of style?
I think the pop-up previews that outlook puts up when you get a new message are the worst invention ever. Not because I don't use them.... I do, all the time. But because too many people overuse them. Read the whole e-mail before you respond, not just the one line that displays. I try to keep it short, but really, you could take the time to read it.
Scrum uses the most bizarre terminology ever. I dislike being dubbed a "chicken" (although the alternative title, "pig", wasn't much better). And what are "sprints", anyway? Why can't they call them "iterations", like everyone else?
I'm annoyed by "news" that isn't newsworthy (imho). Bridges collapsing = news. Pregnant celebs choosing county lockup over city lockup != news. Especially when the story ran yesterday, and was rewritten (with no new information) for today's news. Stuff like this is what clogs up the tubes of the intarweb. Srsly.
I really hate the term "starting a family". Um, I already have a family started, yo. Chad + Deedee = family. If someone asked me, "do you have any family?" I would say, "yes, I'm married, my parents/siblings live in Alabama, and my in-laws live in Mississippi". Not "no, I haven't got around to starting one yet".
And since that rounds out six points, I will stop ranting.
Annoyance of the Day (yesterday): Why, oh why, would you package a book printed in 1887 in a Tyvek envelope (the thin wrinkly envelopes used by FedEx, etc), with no bubble wrap or anything like that? After I paid like, $4 for shipping?
The book survived, not too much worse for the wear (it was hardly in mint condition to start with), but still. I mean, I send out $0.75 paperbacks in bubble wrap.
Also, eBay's new detailed ratings do not include packaging, only time to ship.
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.
"The Greatest discovery since King Tut's Tomb" Ok, so back to the Hatshepsut thing.
This is not the greatest discovery in King Tut's tomb. KV-60, and thus Hatshepsut, was found in 1903. Howard Carter stumbled upon King Tut's tomb (KV-62) in 1922. After KV-60 was opened and mostly emptied, a decision was made to leave the "extra mummy" in the tomb, while taking Hatshepsut's wet nurse to a museum (undoubtedly a British museum). A while back, the tomb was reopened, and then resealed. Then, this year, the tomb ws re-reopened, and some brilliant scientist said, you know, in the interest of knowledge and all that, lets run some modern DNA tests and see if this is really who some of us think it is. And, amazingly enough... she was.
So. She was "discovered" in 1903, and it's taken us 104 years to prove it was really her. This is not an archaeological find, this is a scientific find. Yay for advances in DNA, which allow us to identify mummies, establish paternity, and catch criminals.
Also, the findings about Hatshepsuts health and state of being should banish forever the image of a slender well-formed woman with oiled bronze skin... and yet, the newest documentory on one of the Discovery channels shows just that.
Come on people. Really. You want fabulous looking dead royalty? Look up Esther. or the Queen of Sheba. Or Diana. Don't try and force you (admitedly more pleasant) mental image onto history when the facts clearly tell another story. Historians, for some reason, seem to have this strange romantic streak...
Rant(s) of the day. So. Why is it that no one seems able to read?
I share an office. There's a note, on the door, that says that my office-mate is working from home today (same as every Tuesday and Thursday). Yet 3 people in a row just felt compelled to stick their head in my office, and ask if she's working today. No, she's working from home. Like is says on the sign. The bright yellow sign.
2nd rant: I am not a god. I wish I was (sort of, I guess), but I'm not. I'm also not a demi-god, a magician, or a time traveller (although that would be cool, maybe). Or a graphic designer. So why, oh why, do people feel the need to ask me to do the impossible? Like, say, design and deliver a new, as of yet unrequested batch of icons... by Christmas. Ha! At this point... yeah. Might instantly teleport to Denver, kick some developers around, and instantly teleport back. Oh wait... not a magician. Forgot for a second.
I love my job. At least I'm not coding PDFs by hand, I guess :-)
Isn't it ironic? So I went shopping for a suit coat to wear to my next interview... And I had no idea it was going to be such an ordeal! apparently, I was not designed to wear suit coats. At all. After going to Ross's, Marshall's, Sears, JCPenny, Foley's, Mervyns, and Dillards, I decided to hit the little (more expensive) stores... (Well, less expensive than Dillards, but more expensive than everywhere else). So I went to all these stores I would normally never set foot in... Banana Republic, Bebe, Talbots, Express, Limited, on and on and on (every place in the Baybrook mall)... Nothing fit me. Except a really cute shirt at Ann Taylor, which I bought (I didn't even try on coats there, they were out of my budget).
I was frustrated, and tired, so I headed home. On the way home, I decided to stop at Target to look at cabinet shelf thingies to hold game controllers and stuff... and what should I find? The perfect charcoal blazer... one button, fits perfectly. And it was only $30. And it goes perfectly with the aforementioned cute shirt from Ann Taylor.
I can't wait until the career clothes shopping starts in earnest *rolls eyes*.
Speaking my mind (or not)... I hate it when someone says something that really pisses me off, and I bite my tounge in the interest of not causing a scene... and then later, I realize I really should have said something. And in hindsight, I know exactly what I should have said...
*sigh* I guess there's a fine line between speaking my mind and being a bitch. And I probably need to push that line a little more than I do... I'm just so tired of putting up with crap that I really shouldn't have to put up with.
I don't expect the world to move underneath me, but for God's sake could you try?
ok. I'm probably going to cuss a lot in this entry. Get over it.
So we live in a town with a bunch of fucking savages. Specifically, we live in an apartment complex with a high concentration of said savages. And I hate Starkville cops, but only because they are the most ineffective, unhelpful, stupid waste of taxpayer resources ever.
So one of our neighbors (the savages) tried to beat the shit out of Chad when he came home Sunday morning. They didn't succeed in actually hurting him, but they broke his glasses (annoying and expensive), they tipped over our couch, knocked over the speaker stand and a dining room chair, and scared the crap out of me. We called 911. And the cops came. And did shit. Seriously. They took statements, and refused to arrest the guy because a) Chad was bigger than him, and b) the jail was full. Only in a godforsaken city would drunk people who attack neighbors be left free because there was not another bed in the jail.
That being said, dude should be arrested soon. Because Chad pressed charges. Ha.
The landlord refuses to do anything. So we're moving. Possibly closer to Marc and Richard, but no telling... I get a raise effective in August, so we might can affoard a better place.
I hate this fucking city... and all the stupid redneck people in it. An yet... I will be here for the rest of my life. Doesn't that just figure?
look. I am a computer science major. not a marketing major. not a communications major. not a business major. I chose a major where I wouldn't have to fake enthusiasm, or deal with people. Thus, I have no cause to paste a dumb expression on my face in an attempt to make people think I am having a good day when I'm really not. I hate doing that.
I'm not having a good day. My head hurts. It's hurt for most of three days. I broke my project this morning... and I'm supposed to demo to my boss this afternoon. Chad's car is in the shop (which will be free), and mine is acting up (which will at least cost me whatever a bottle of fuel cleaner costs, and maybe more). I haven't had enough sleep, and the vending machines in Butler... nevermind.
I have smiled several times today. I smiled when I called and woke Chad up this morning (he's funny when he's mostly asleep)... Joe said something stupid and made me smile... Dr. Bridges butchered the tale of Hansel and Gretel, and that was funny... William got an onsite interview ing Huntsville, which was worth smiling for. But having someone shout over IM or over the phone that I need to smile... no. That realy won't make me smile. Sorry. But I really don't see the point. And I know I've said that more than once.
Rant number one. Vending machines in Butler. They've been empty for a week. I mean. Empty. They are out of everything... includeing bottled water and diet coke. Yeah. Computer science students need to buy caffiene. It's a fact of life. So why is there no caffiene in the building? grr.
Rant number two. People cause extra drama by dealing with their problems with a specific group's method of doing things by announcing them to the world, thus making everyone else uncomfortable and hurting people's feelings. Let's take, as a "hypothetical" example, the Wesley. Ok. So I have some problems with the Wesley at the moment, and some of the people involved, and some of the way things are being done. I took up a few of my problems with people (who had the potential to do somehting about it) mostly in private. Things haven't changed, the majority seems happy with the current state, and i have huge amounts of work to do... so I really haven't been to Wesley this semester. I just don't have the time and energy to deal with it. However. If I had interrupted worship, under the pretense of praying, and listed all my petty gripes in the prayer... yeah. that would be way out of line. Way. Out. Of. Line. Even if the points made are valid (which, in this hypothetical case, I have no clue)... the method is bad. And uncalled for. And that's all I have to say about that.
Rant number three. People need to learn what is and isn't their business. Like, for instance, It might be rude to ask someone's age, in certain settings, or if you're tlaking to a woman who is more than like, 16. It's probably rude to ask how much someone makes a year, but not so rude. It is probably extremely rude to enquire after someone's sex life, unless you have been invited to, or you are a medical professional. In my oppinion, "When are you planning to have kids?" or any variation thereof falls under the sex life catagory. I mean really. What business is it of anyone but us whther we even want to have kids? And what if either Chad or I couldn't have kids? Should I have to explain that to everyone I'm connected to in 6 degrees or less? No. People should butt out. When/if we have kids, we'll let you know.
Rant number four. anti-discrimination disclaimers. They just keep getting longer. Take, for example, MSU's disclaimer. It's like, 5 or 6 lines, and includes age, race, national origin, sexual orientation or group affliation (exactly what is sexual group affiliation, anyway?)... and a bunch of other crap. So, in order to be in vouge, I have come up with my own disclaimer:
I do not discriminate on the basis of gender, sex, race, religion, creed, sexual orientation, age, veteran status, disability, belly button depth, shoe size, eye color, or artistic ability. However, I reserve the right to discriminate on the basis of stupidity, hair color, State of birth, gut feeling, and level of annoyance.
Hey... David and Lain are now publishing a new comic strip based on the Hippie and the Black Guy strips they did back in the day :-) The new strip is (coinsidentally enough) called "Hatbag". I updated my little button thingy for it over in the sidebar. You should check it out, because it's pretty funny. Yay for webcomics with real humor!
And another link blatently stolen from David... (which I was posting here for my sister's enjoyment, but upon reflection I realized that she doesn't read my blog... which is weird. She is online, like, 24 hours a day. And she has the url. Huh. Anyway, I IM'ed it to her. But left it here for you to enjoy).
I have several ranty type things to say, but I'll leave it at that for now (so as not to detract too much attention from the new comic) :)
First off... a funny. Did you know you can list Douglas Adams as a technical source? In a textbook, no less. Taken from my Memory textbook "...as when people recall that the number 42 is crucially important in metaphysics (see Adams, 1981, p. 180)." And sure enough, it's listed in the references... go figure.
Now... a rant. Sorry. I have to. This ones been a long time coming, and several of you have heard bits and pieces of it...
I have a serious problem with performance bands that pose as worship leaders. Really. I do not, however, have a problem with performance bands who sing christian music, or choose to ocassionally lead in worship, or whatever. For instance. Petra sang a lot of praise music. It was awesome. I thought it rocked out (no pun intended). But. If I went to a Petra concert (which I didn't, because they changed members about the time I would have had money/transportation to go to a concert) I would expect them to perform. I would expect to be invited (as an audience) to sing along or worship or whatever... but I would be there to see Petra live, and not really to get some phenominal religious experiance. Having been to many christian rock concerts, I can honestly say that there's nothing particularly religious about them. Like, the words are religious. The people addending might be. Who knows, the performers might even be. But the event itself? Is a performance. Which is cool. That's what it is designed to be. Yay for performers and all that.
However. If D.C. Talk, or Petra, or j-random other christian band chose to come into my place of worship and *lead worship* (say, they replaced the musicians and choir on Sunday morning)... I would not expect them to perform. I would expect them to actually lead worship. I would not expect a new musical bridge to be added to a hymn so that the band could show off their lead guitarist, or their spiffy cool drum set, or whatever. I would not expect the lead vocalist to change notes and rhythms in a song, just to showcase the fact that they can sing. I would expect the band to play to the best of their ability, but not to go out of the way to draw attention to themselves.
I don't know... I have some funny idea that maybe worship is about more than a kickin' base player... But more and more, I find myself standing around listening to the worship band play, and waiting for the part where I get to join in and sing... I feel more like I'm at a concert. It's actually distracting. And annoying.
And in unrelated news, it is now legal to drink and or posses hard alcohol on campus... but beer is still illegal on most of campus. Go figure. The dean said they changed the policy to "reflect the action on campus." Heh. If a bunch of people go around killing students at random, will they make that legal, too? I mean, since we're changing the standards to fit the lowest common denominator. We might as well.
Hell, why do we have rules anyway? People are just going to break them. If enough people break them, we'll have to change the rule, and that's just way to much trouble. We should abolish rules. And rulers. And protractors, dadgum it. I hate protractors.
I'm sorry. I forgot that friends are only supposed to say nice things that don't piss you off or hurt your feelings. Stupid me, I thought that pat of being a friend might possibly be voicing concerns and worries, and I don't know, possibly trying to figure out why you make the decisions that you do.
But then, I regularly ditch my friends to do homework. What do I know.
Dude... they are drilling holes in the second floor of Butler today. It's loud. And all my classes are on the first floor. Apparently right below where they are drilling. Which is annoying, because it's freakin loud. But funny, beacuse I have visions of a worker dude drilling right through the ceiling and falling into the classroom.... which would be a very entertaining. Very. Entertaining.
The internet pisses me off. I mean. I can deal with the over abundance of porn, spam, hate, misinformation, and general crap. But a paragraph like this:
Duhz.. Hope i figure out wat all these blogging stuffs r all abt.. Kinda chim leh. Well, i'm definitely BOREd. Or else i wun be here figuring out this blogging stuff. Kinda fun in a way. Kills time. But hmph... Isnt it weird letting ppl invade ur personal daily stuffs? Anyway just a plain jane. Wat else can others know
more abt me?!
[Excerpt from XiNYi's Daily] Now. really. I don't proof my entries. I don't have time. And I use some odd contractions (prolly comes to mind). And I use the word "like" like, way too much. And I'm addicted to elipses... but. Come on people. At least try and post something readable? Even if you are a Junior High / high school. The entire world is reading this, after all (potentially, the entire internet world, anyway).
ok. So in this entry, I am going to attempt to talk politics. Because it is election day. And you've probably already voted. However... if you are one of those type of people (you know how you are)... the type that gets all whiney and hatey and weepy over politics. Don't. Read. Thank you.
Now. The presidential election. Just in case you wondered, I am voting for Bush. Now... don't get me wrong. I have no great love nor loyalty to the Bush family. I like Dubyah only slightly better than his father. He has made some questionable or possibly even bad decisions as president (stupid us, we elected a human). But. Overall, he hasn't screwed up that badly. I mean, really... he hasn't let any part of the US fall into the ocean. He has only sent our troops in to quell one war that wasn't ours (and we had a vested interest in it, unlike say, Bosnia). No one is trying to impeach him (other than in rumors). The economy, which is so not dependant on the current president but we like to think it is, is... well, the economy. I actually don't know if it's up or down. Huh. The job market is up, for the moment, anyway. No other counties are invading us (other than Mexico).
So, in short, I think that the president is oding an ok job. Maybe not a great job. Maybe not a spectacular job. But it works.
Now. Kerry. I can find very few reasons in Kerry's campaign to actually vote *for* Kerry. Socialist Medical Care? Eh... I (strongly) don't agree with it, but sure, you cold vote for that. Raising the minimum wage? Ok... bad idea, but if you have no understanding of economics, you could vote for that... but that's it. I mean. If you get your political input from the TV (and most people these days do), you would think that Kerry's campaign slogan was "Don't vote for Bush!" How constructive is that? I hate voting against people... I much rather vote for someone than against their opponent.
My prediction? Bush will win, albeit not by so much... and Hillary Clinton will run in 2008. My conspiracy theorist mind thinks that maybe it's planned for Kerry to lose just for this reason... but that's just me.
Next topic: the Mississippi Constitution. Did you know that there's an amendment up for vote today to ban gay marriage, and in fact to refuse to recognize gay marriages from other states. I personally think this is great, while it lasts, but that if it passes it's only a matter of time before the Supreme Court overrules it. But... no one I know really new it was on the ballot until they saw it there... granted, the college community is not informed. I would think that this would be bigger on a college campus, as we have a more outspaken (if not larger) gay population. But no. If we read the Clarion Ledger, or something like that, we might have seen an editorial on it. But there were no "Vote yes on Amendment ###" signs (or vote no, for that matter)... it hasn't been heavily campaigned. Is that because people just expect it to pass? Or is it less of an issue in Mississippi? I'm really not sure...
Ok... political rant over. Go and vote, support democracy, free your mind, and all that. Yay.
Worship time is... for worship. Not for socialization, or gossip, or show-off music stuff (no matter how good the band is), or for any kind of showing off how cool you are in any way shape or form.
It is certainly not a time to entertain the person next to you with a running commentary on your day and life in general. Especially if people are, you know, trying to listen to the sermon, or concentrate on the words to the music, or actually participate in worship in any way. Save your catty remarks until the service is over. Then have at it. If there is a break in the service for some reason (like for everyone who is finished worshiping to leave, which is kind of a silly idea... but that's another tangent), and you are instructed to either stay or to leave quietly, do not stay and carry on a 2-5 minute conversation (shouted over the worship music)with a friend over who has more homework than who, and when you are going to be home. Go outside. Talk there. Go back into the service if you feel like it. When you are done talking.
And don't act like you own the place. It was there long before you were, an likely will still exist when you leave. It would run perfectly fine without you, you are not the glue that holds the place together. So... Enjoy the fact that you are there. And have some respect for your upperclassmen, no matter if their personality "meshes" with yours or not... it's a campus ministy, not the United Methodist version of Survivor. The object is to bring more people in, not kick out (or piss off until they go home) people who are already there.
But what do I know. I'm not a member of our "strong" Freshman class. I am a gradute student, and not a preppy rich brat, therefore I am not so cool.
ok. So there have been some complaints about my last post. So I have some things to say.
One. This is not, nor has it ever been, a G-rated blog. For the most part, I try to keep it "work-friendly" so that my friends in the real world can read it. However. If I have something to say, I'm going to say it. And if you have a problem with it... deal with it. Or don't read. I have not the patience nor the want-to to make my personal weblog conform to whatever standards other people wish to impose on me.
Two. I chose that statement to make a point. Because I am fast burning out on people who spend all their time hanging out and goofing off, and put off their homework until the last minute, don't get it done, and complain about their bad grades. Especially when the same people complain that I never hang out with them anymore. (Before you get all pissed and take this personally, there are several people who fit this description). I thought the language in the statement, unaltered and in the form I heard it, made the point very nicely. Sometimes bad language (when used in small doses) can provide the emphasis needed... and, although I hardly think anyone will change their homework habits over it, I thought this was something that I wanted to emphasize.
Three. I have a very very short fuse this week. Consequently, I feel the need to make my points very clear. And I have very little problem saying exactly what I mean. This is not a typical thing for me. So... I will take advantage of it, while it lasts. I'll be over it eventually.
Four. I am not responsible for anyone who reads this blog. Yes, I know that people link to me. Yes, I know that younger people, ie, middle and high schoolers, have the potential to read this. However. I cannot censor my thoughts here so as to not offend or corrupt whoever may happen to come across this site. I am linked on Google. This is a public blog. That means that anyone has the possiblity to find and or read my blog. If this offends you... I'm sorry. I really am. Go read Yahoo News. It might offend you less.
I guess that's about it, for now. The main point is... although lately this has been a link repository, it is in fact, and will always be, my personal blog. So treat it as such. If this means you have to delete all your links to me because I used the words fuck and masturbate in the same sentence... then do so.
ok... So I feel compelled to share this, as it is frustrating me. These are the CS department formatting rules for page numbers on papers and other such assignments:
Use page numbers as required for theses, dissertations, and directed project reports. Specifically:
Do not put a page number on the cover pages.
Number the first page of an abstract or summary page number 1. Place the page number in the center at the bottom of the page. Set the bottom margin for the text at 1.25 inches and set the bottom margin for the footer at 1.0 inch so that there will be a margin of 1.0 inch below the page number.
On each subsequent page of text, place the page number in the right top corner of the page, one inch from the top of the page. This can be accomplished by defining a header in which the page number is right justified, the margin for the header is 1.0 inch, and the margin for the text is 1.25 inches.
Place the page number in the center of the bottom of the page for the first page of the reference list. Leave a margin of 1.0 inch below the page number. If the reference list requires more than one page, place the page number for subsequent pages in the top right corner of each page with a margin of 1.0 inch above it.
I'm sorry... that's just too confusing.
Now I have to go figure out how to make MS Word (or open office, I'm not picky) actually *do* that... Or I could go to bed. Tempting...
Today is a bad day. Capital BAD. Capital DAY. Everyone from the Coast is stressed out about Ivan. The brochure that I am (was) supposed to do for the church isn't going so well (the printer says it got messed up between the Macs on campus and her Mac... go figure). On the way to get my paycheck, my car stopped working (as I was in the ERC parking lot, this wasn't as catastophic as it could have been). And they don't have my paycheck, even though I've worked for a month and they haven't paid me yet... somehow, they lost my paperwork or something. So... I'm now at school (not at work, where I should be)... sans working car, sans paycheck (aka, money to fix car). Hopefully, Chad and I can get it working tonight... (I think it's the starter).
And Dr. Bridges said she's going ot take points off of my paper because I didn't follow all the formatting rules (i.e., I single spaced where she took off points for double spaceing last time).
The vending machines in Butler Hall (the CS building) are out. I mean. Out. The snack machine has literally nothing in it except chewing gum. Like, it doesn't even have that one awfully stale bag of pork rinds on the tops row that most of the vending machines on campus has... no pop tarts... no candy bars... no chips. Nothing. The coke machine is out of Dr. Pepper, Mello Yellow, and Diet Coke, and one of the CocaCola buttons is out. This leaves only CocaCola available, and in limited quanitities. The juice machine is out of orange juice, apple juice, cranberry juice, and green powerade. This leaves only bottled water and blue powerade. It's been this way since Monday.
So the CS majors are like, shrivelling up without their normal sources of sugar and caffine. Reduced to drinking relatively low caffine CocaCola... we are driven from our building to seek other sources of food... To the Union. A scary place with *gasp* other people... who *horrified look* aren't geeks.
I think it's an evil plot to socialize us, and to prove to other majors that we really can exist outside our building. But... I'm hungry. So I'll go.
At least the Union has wireless (unlike the other food places on campus).
Update: The coke machine is now out of CocaCola. And the juice machine is out of blue powerade. But they refilled the snack machine. So we might not revolt. Maybe.
The most annoying thing in the world: working on a computer with a Sun keyboard, and then switching back and forth to my laptop (or any other normal computer). See, Sun thought it would be a bright idea to swap the Control and Caps Lock keys. Which is all well and good, if you only work on one computer. But if you say, have a Sun machine at the office, and a regular (PC) type machine at home... then lots of things get capped that shouldn't. And while Windows command line is very forgiving about random capital letters... Unix, not so much.
The second most annoying thing in the world: TMJ. No more chewing gum for me... ever. Blah. Anyway... class is supposed to be starting soon, and my professor is glaring at me. I guess I should actually look attentive or something.
So now you'll know how long it takes me to get them addressed and sent out. I still have to get the maps and directions to the church printed out... should get that done tomorrow, and we hsould be ready to rock and roll. Or something.
I had to fight with the post office today... see, I wanted 100 of the .60 stamps with flowers on them, and 100 of the .37 candy heart stamps... so I went to the Mastin Lake post office. And they looked at me like I was crazy. The only stamps, I'm told, that they have 100 of, are flag stamps. They actually didn't have *any* of either of the stamps I was looking for, and offered to seel me 20 Dr. Suess stamps instead. When asked where to go to find said stamps, the lady said (and I'm not joking)... "Well, you could try the Wynn Drive post office... it's a Fah-la-del-ic center. Or the post office sells stamps on it's website, but I don't rememebr the web address. I think there's a 1-800 number, but I don't know what it is, either."
So I left, trying to figure out what the crap Fahladelic was... a few minutes later, it hit me. Philatelic (Fil-a-te-lic). Like, stamp collecting. And all this time, I had being trying to relate it to something Freudian.
The Wynn drive post office, by the way, had everything I needed. And the USPS website, should you ever wonder (don't ask the Post Office people, they don't know)... is http://www.usps.com.
I hate the new blogger. But I don't feel like ranting about it. Actually. I ranted about it for a minute to David, who has similar feelings on the issue. Feeling much affirmed, I have lost the need to rant at length.
In other news. The last week of school was good... I finished up finals (yay!) and passed everything (double yay! They'll actually send me my diploma!). Hillary came into town for graduation, and we got to catch up on old times... interesting to see how two people can chage so much, and yet not really have changed at all. Went to a party that reminded me why I don't go to parties like that (everyone was way too drunk, and girls in next to mothing were playing water Twister... oh yeah. My idea of way too much fun). Parents came in for graduation too....
So I'm graduated. and stuff. Getting geared up for the wedding. And school in the fall. Cleaning the house. And eating and stuff. And playing some Kingdom Hearts (I just want to do like, a couple more cool things before I beat it).
So. I'f you're in Huntsville, look me up. Socialization is good.
One more thing. A catchy song. *does a litte dance* Where can you see lions... *stop dancing* Ok... enough of that.
Ok... back in huntsville, cooling my heels in town, trying to get wedding stuff done. Yeah.
Gripe of the moment: The entire world is on an Atkin's Diet kick.... low (or no) carb, high protien.... which is ok, I guess, for most people. But. As one of the apparently five people in the world *not* on the atkin's Diet.... enough. I am sick of eating out and being asked if I want to low carb alternative to my food, or whatever. Alcohol is even low carb now.... Bacardi and Diet Coke? I mean really. It is great that there are lots more low carb alternatives out there... I just am tired of them being in my face all the time. I want to be able to eat a bowl of pasta at a resteraunt without feeling guilty because it itn't labeled "smart eating" (like the 16-oz steak). Blah.
Anyway. Better now. If I can survive a week at home, I'll be doing great! :-)
Life is good. Spring break is upon us (or, well, almost). I am about sick of wedding planning... but that's ok.
I feel the need to rant... why, oh why, is it ok to use some words on prime time tv and not others? For instance, you can say ass, but not shit... bitch, but not pussy... all in the same show? either bleep all of them... or don't bleep all of them... but not be all weird about it... I don't know, I guess I just don't understand being all selective.
Anyway... so... rant finished. Other things going on here... Not much. Really. I think Chad and I are going to see Hidalgo tomorrow night... that's about it :-)
I might have some cool updates to the Wesley site soon... working on it.
Ok. People. If I am ever a size 4 (and I never will be, but bear with me), and I ever tell someone how fat I am that I had to order a SIZE 4 DRESS... when they have just finished telling me they had to order a size 12 dress... hit me. Hard enough to knock sense back into my head. Please.
Disclaimer: I am not suggesting that I will ever attempt to be a size 4. I am actually pretty happy with my current size... although I could stand to get back in shape. So don't freak out... I'm not going on any crash wedding diets or anything. (I get measured for my dress tonight, so I can't loose too much weight, anyway).
Ok. I get to go home now. The Civil Servants went like, at noon. And We haven't had water since... noon. But we had to stay.
The building could have caught on fire, and there would have been no sprinklers to put it out, and since we're contractors, we're not allowed to use fire extengishers... so we would have all like, burned up or something (because we are too dumb to go outside). Yeah. Don't you love the government?
Anyway... going home to do laundry and go to church... and maybe eat. Food would be good.
But my immeadiate need... is a toliet with running water.
ok. Two things. First I must rant. Then I will talk about cool stuff.
Rant: Why would someone ask me to help plan a bridal shower, and then never call me with contact information for the other girl who's planning the shower, never contact me with any information on the wedding beyond sending me an invitation and telling me what dress to buy (I'm a bridesmaid, hence the reason I'd be asked help plan the shower)... be out of town everytime I've tried to contact her.... and then schedule the dadgum shower when I have to be at school? *screams* Ok. Yes. I'm better now.
Cool Stuff: So I went to this bridal fair yesterday, and signed up for lots of drawings... And I won! A Honeymoon trip! 3 days 2 nights to like, Cancun or the Domincan Republic, or a bunch of different places... All food and everything included... plus a camera and 100 rolls of film. Wow. Yay for me! (and Chad, I guess, since he gets to go, too). *happy dance*
You know.... as much as I hate stupid people, I would never tell someone to their face that they are stupid. And I would never make condecending remarks towards them because I think they don't know what they are talking about, especially if I'm the one talking out of my butt.
I miss Chad. But he'll be back tomorrow. Sometime tomorrow, anyway.
I wish people would tell me when they have problems. Instead of sending other people to tell me. Or telling other people, in the secret hope that they will say something to me and make it all better. That doesn't make it all better. That pisses me off.
I wish people would stop overprotecting other people. And let them grow up and fight their own battles.
I wish, that when I try to explain a situaton, people who have no idea what's going on would butt out, and not lecture me on my personal life and interperonal relationships.
And, I wish that saying "I had a crappy day yesterday" would be enough explainantion for most things, and that people wouldn't push for details you don't care to give.
But unfortunatly, the world doesn't work that way. And now, people are going to read this, and be pissed I blogged it.
Dadgum it, it's my blog. If you have a problem, don't read it. How hard is that?
Hackers... you have to admire their daring and arrogance, if nothing else. I mean, who else would hack a system, and then leave a note saying how stupid the design was, and how easy it was to hack?
It has been brought to my attention that I have, of late, posted a fair amount of sexually oriented links.
In my defense, I would like to point out that all of them (except the Nerd Pr0n, which I stole from David) are news stories. And therefore, admissible to view at work. Or at school. And, also to my credit, I didn't post anything about the UK's Naked Rambler, or Turkish Prostitutes, or any of several other stories in the news lately. And there have been no explicit pictures.
But, I will try to be good from now on *sigh* At least for a few more days. *eVil grin*
And besides... I can't get much worse without posting real honest to goodness pr0n on my site. and that would be bad. *grin*
Oh yeah... and to quote William (since his blog is password protected):
People that find jokes about what "NASA" really stands for to be funny, need to go somewhere.
and they can take the people that think we should go back to the apollo capsules with them.
I mean really... making jokes about NASA and the Columbia Disaster at this point is a little out of place... A lot out of place. Maybe in a couple of years, it would be less not-ok (it may never be ok)... but right now, when emotions are still raw? You cannot forget the fact that seven people died... seven people who had families... not nameless robots. People. Like me.
And Apollo capsules were not only less efficient, they were still dangerous. and they barely fit three people. And we threw them away after every mission. And started over. Go back to the dark ages where you belong.
I hate stupid, pointless assignments. That being said, I also hate stupid people. Especially ones that bug me when I'm having a bad day... and expect me to do their work for them. So there.
So, for the last two days, all I have done is homework (except for an hour or so last night when William came over and I hung out, and today when I grabbed a quick dinner at the Wesley). When I got to lab today at 3:30, I was not in the best of moods, having had two extremely long and, for the most part, unproductive. A heart-to-heart with my lab TA help my mood a little.... but then this guy, who has decided that I'm his lab partner, decided to bug the crap out of me. He wouldn't even read the frickin' lab, he kept asking me what he was supposed to do.... then he wouldn't think about how to solve the problem, and wanted to copy my code... and after the lab TA explicitly told him he couldn't just copy, he needed to work it out for himself, he still bugged me until the TA and I showed him how to modify his code to make it work.... But he was still an ass. And he still pissed me off. But *ha*ha*.... I almost finished my lab, and he didn't get halfway done. So there.
Speaking of asses.... I hate it when people assume the know things about my personal life. They find out Chad was here last weekend, and they asuume that all kind of crap went on, and they feel obligated to ask me about it and say stupid things like, Did you have *fun*? Did you get rugburn on your knees? Do you like to take it up the ass? etc, etc... ad nasuem. People assume that just because Chad and I are dating, certain things happen in our relationship.... and they also assume that our relationship is somehow their business. Ok, everyone, I know this may be a suprise to you... anything that happens between me and Chad stays just that.... between me and Chad. And our God. Not between you and me, or you and your deity, or you and your friends, or you and your imagination. Not that anyone that regularly reads my blog has been a problem.... but just in case the thought ever occured to you, don't ask. Grr.
But dinner at the Wesley was nice. Everyone is worried about my lung problems... everyone's being so nice. Hopefully, Myra (my nurse practitioner) will figure out something to do... this inhaler thingy isn't helping a lot. But i go back to her tomorrow. Damn bats.
And now I do more homework... and more homework... and tomorrow, I will do still more homework. And next semester, I will have buttloads of homework.... but only one lab (yay!!). Note: Never take three labs. You will die. Or wish you had.
I think I'm going to cut (guys read: trim) my hair this weekend. And maybe highlight it some more. We'll see. And I might buy Memento, if I can figure out if Chad has it or not... I dreamed about Guy Pierce last night.... it was odd.
This is my brain..... in part, at least.
