Skratch 'N Sniff

Library Scout

2009-03-12T23:23:00.000-07:00

I've often considered posting about the hall monitors at my school's library. No, I don't know what the official job title is, but that's essentially what they are. Only thing is, I don't always know what to say about them. I've seen three of them. Two look to be in their late 20's, the third is some indeterminable age that qualifies for AARP. Poor guys sit at a desk most of the day. Yes, that's it. They sit at a desk, near the entrance, facing the detectors that alert all 300 (completely arbitrary number) students in the library to anyone that tries to take a book out that they didn't check out. Or the detectors will go off if ... I don't know why else they go off. Maybe they're attracted to students' cell phones.

But I digress. These hall monitors go around and make sure you're not doing bad things on the computer. Things like Facebook (which will close automatically). Or Twitter. Or eating Starburst, or talking on your cell. But that's not the only time I've seen them. They occasionally patrol the quiet study areas. For what? I have no idea. But I did once have one walk up to me and ask me ... to make sure I put my trash in the trashcan when I was done and leaving. Umm, I know these guys have no idea who I am or what my personal feelings are on food wrappers, but still, throwing away the wrapper from your Nature Valley bar should be a no-brainer. But maybe I give the general populace too much credit.

Today I saw one of the hall monitors going around the computer lab (the shortest one). Now, these guys always look cranky, but this one looked even crankier than usual. And he looked like he was bobbing his head, the same way a chicken might do while walking. I think I figured it out: he was looking to see if we'd stashed food or drink (both big no-no's) by our feet. Poor guy must have been hungry.

I've Been Tagged

2009-03-07T23:08:00.000-08:00

Okay, so I got tagged for this about 3 weeks ago. Been busy, but I also thought I might wait until my birthday to do this, since your number of random factoids depends on your age. Now is close enough to my birthday, so it'll have to do.

1) Tolkien's birthday is a holiday. Best celebrated by watching the LotR movies (special extended edition), eating pizza, and dressing in costume.

2) One of my best friends has her birthday the day before mine. We've had two joint birthday parties.

3) In 8th grade above best friend and I were the top readers in our English class. We got the prizes for the first semester, and second semester the prizes had to go to the third and fourth readers, because my friend and I were still numbers one and two.

4) I have four Elven names that another friend and I made for me. I use all of them, in one form or another, for my internet stuffs.

5) This blog has nothing to do with my Elven names.

6) I have been on the Dean's List every semester so far in my college career. Getting the letter in the mail isn't even a surprise anymore (although it's still nice to have).

7) Most of the time I'm at my computer, I either sit with my legs folded under me, or with my feet up by the monitor.

8) Roughly once a week I have to reteach my dad how to access his email. He has 5 separate email accounts.

9) I enjoy painting rooms. Paint smells don't bug me that much, either, although I do seem to get my words mixed up more when I've been around the fumes too much.

10) I have a pair of pants I wear every time I paint a room. They have several colors on them now, and I plan on expanding the collection on them.

11) MLA was the first formatted writing system I used. I used it for 5 years and got to a point where I could pretty much do works cited by memory.'

12) I now have to use APA writing system for my major/career, and I hated it. It's alright now, but I get the works cited process mixed up, because I still have remnants of MLA hanging out in my brain.

13) I have several fiction works I've started throughout the years. I've never yet finished one.

14) I share my brain with several other people. I started off sharing it with only 3 other people, but the number has grown throughout the years. Sometimes my thoughts get mixed up because someone else is hogging the system.

15) I take naps in my car. When my car is parked in a parking spot somewhere.

16) I try to never buy anything for full price.

17) I spend an ungodly number of hours playing with a 3D art program on my computer.

18) I have been known to dream in Spanish and ASL.

19) When I read things, or hear someone talking, I tend to try to translate it into ASL.

20) I sign along with songs in the car. It's really hard to sign Country music sometimes.

21) I don't have an iPod. I play music on YouTube.

22) I hate Daylight Savings Time. I need sunlight to help me move in the morning. Furthermore, DST is the wrong time. We now spend 2/3 of our year on the wrong time, too.

If you're reading this and want to do it, consider yourself tagged. If you don't give a care, don't bother. :P

My Very own Rhino-thingy

2009-02-11T21:56:00.000-08:00

A woman I highly respect has been known to say that we get sick during the winter not because there's more bugs running around, or because we're particularly weaker during the colder months. It's because we sit around inside all day, doing nothing, and that makes our immune systems weak/deficient. Which would explain why, as I sat at my computer during all my break, I was perfectly fine, but after two weeks back at school I caught a cold. Yes, that perfectly explains it. Got the sore throat on Monday afternoon, and got the sniffles while at school yesterday.

Last night I actually helped prepare my brother for some cosplay. Of course, he wouldn't call it cosplay, but that's essentially what it was. About a year ago, he became Link for the "blast from the past" dress-up day, and I made an extremely complicated piece for him: Link's sock hat. IT was so great, it even acted like the real thing. So today he was allowed to wear whatever, as long as it was red or pink, and so he became Link, albeit wearing the Goron tunic. Enter need for a new sock hat. The one last night took me less than 30 minutes, and that was with being dozed, dazed, and having a cold. I even got up early this morning so I could paint the Triforce on his hand, but he wasn't ready at the moment I got up, so I told him to call me when he was ready. I never heard his call, although he told me he called just a minute after I'd talked to him, and he called me four times. So I guess my score is 1 win, 1 fail. 50% isn't bad.

As I sit here not-working on my discussion, I thought this would be an opportune moment to get the pages for the website I'm supposed to be in charge of to be updated. Finished making up one of the picture pages, and the server is being wonky again. Not for any particular reason, I don't think, it just is doing that because it can. For once, it's not my fault!

I'm going to go take a shower now and hope the steam clears me out before I crash in bed.

The Dead Zone

2009-02-09T22:59:00.000-08:00

Ever have those days where you seem to exist on two planes? On one, I'm just me, and I can do things, like think, and write, and my karate techniques. On another plane, my brain is swimming in my research stuffs, and I think it's drowning. In case you're wondering, the sensation of a drowning brain is not fun. Different from drowning lungs. Seriously, this is one of the biggest things of my life up to this point, and I feel like I've never before had so much work to do. Probably because I never before have had so much work to do.

I'm so glad we have all this rain. It makes me happy. Wind with the rain, though, is giving me a headache, and I started developing a sore throat tonight. My [anti-old] tea isn't helping, either, even though I put in honey. It has managed to make me sleepy, though.

Have my first test of the semester tomorrow. It's in my geology class (natural disasters). I'm nowhere close to worried. It's such a lovely feeling. Everything is directly from the notes, I've been taking good notes, and I already know this material. Yay for should be easy class. I need it this semester, that's for sure. Is it pathetic that I'm still geeking out about plate tectonics, four years after graduating from high school?

Who Stole my Cheese?

2009-02-06T23:20:00.000-08:00

No, I'm not talking about the book.

In case you don't know already, you should: I like cheese. Cheese is awesome on a level that cannot be comprehended unless you understand. A week ago Monday, Dad asked me to pick up more Velveeta. Luckily for me, I couldn't find any, so I brought home some of my favorite cheese instead. Two blocks. Before the end of the week, Dad thought we were out of the cheese, so he had my brother get more. This left us with almost three blocks of cheese. Today, a beautiful rainy day, I wanted grilled cheese. I found that all the cheese is gone. I know it wasn't my brother, because he was on a fast from Monday evening to Thursday evening (don't ask). Dad was supposed to get more cheese today. I haven't yet looked to see if he got something acceptable, or if he picked up some atrocity. Either way, he will pay for eating all my cheese.

In other news, I saw something interesting on Failblog the other day. Babynames.com reports an interesting name possibility, a name that would work for either a boy or a girl. Espn. Or, more accurately, ESPN. Like the sports network. A name that would work for a boy or a girl. Yep. Want to know what else? Enola is a good name for a girl, too, apparently. It's "alone" spelled backwards. I hope nobody actually burdens their baby girl with that.

Cultural Diversity Fail

2009-02-04T22:02:00.000-08:00

One of the classes I'm taking this semester is titled "Social Pluralism." Sounds exciting, yes? It's through the Social Work department, and I'm taking it for my cultural diversity requirement. Apparently Eastern Europe isn't culturally diverse enough, doesn't matter how many people have no clue that Czechoslovakia (no, that's not what it's called now) was rather kinda sorta important to the start of something like WWII.

So here I am taking a class about how we should all be friends (which is what true diversity is about, I'm sure), and we were given almost no time to do an observation of someone that's of a different culture/whatnot. Which basically means I'm supposed to interview/observe a not-me, someone who is not female, early 20's, White, Republican, and Christian. Does that read like a personals add to anyone else? Take a guess who I interviewed. My dad. Yep, I searched high and low for someone to interview (prof said we could interview our dads, though, so it works :P ). He's not in his early 20's, and he's not female, so it works.

And now, some general nonsenseness for amusement (according to my Jr./Sr. Bible teacher, "amuse" means "a- muse," as in against the muses, or against anything that will encourage art, music, poetry, drama, etc.) :

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Terrible Tuesdays

2009-02-03T23:22:00.000-08:00

I know I must have said it before, but Mondays aren't bad for me. Mondays are just after Sunday, so they still tend to be good. And I get to see Sensei.

Tuesdays, on the other hand, are long days (especially when I don't get to go to karate on Tuesday nights, angry face). I'm always hungry. I get sleepy during class (today was my first day of the semester getting drowsy in class, yay me!). I feel the results of whatever I did at karate on Monday, like Tenno Kata, Son Don Gi, pushups, crazy crunches, or ... say ... thwacking my knee with a bokken.

Tuesday I find out assignments are due on Thursday. Tuesday my email gets flooded with messages from all sorts of people: "Please share class notes, because I'm deathly ill." "Please join our organization, because we know you're awesome, even though you've told us already you don't have time for us." "Please put pictures up on the website." Tuesday the servers for said website randomly don't work.

Tuesday my mentor asks me to bring in my (continuous process) literature review for him to look over again the next day. Tuesday my mentor holds me in his office until 8 minutes before my class, even if I have to walk to class and really have to go to the bathroom. Tuesday I find out my brother is randomly doing a 60-hour fast (no worries - less reason for me to cook this week).

Yes, Tuesdays are fun.

Nerdoholics

2009-01-03T22:03:00.000-08:00

Today was Tolkienfest. I'm trying to count back to think of how many times we've done this now, and I'm pretty sure this was the 5th year. That's absolutely amazing, no?

Know what else is amazing? I know I don't have the extended version of Fellowship, and yet I always put it off until right before. Why? Who knows. I guess I forget, get caught up in other stuff. Oh, and nowhere in the east-ish part of San Diego County has the extended version of Fellowship for rent. Just in case you were wondering. One of my friends has the limited edition (theatrical or extended version, and only on 3 discs instead of 4!), and if I hadn't already been sure I'd love her forever, I'd love her forever. Now I just love her more forever, for she saved my hide.

Took Inka to the vet yesterday. Yep, roughly once a year she has something that needs to be taken care of, aside from general check-ups and vaccinations (no, she hasn't had that yet, either). I had lots of errands to run yesterday, between getting a tb skintest read, trying to find Fellowship, and Inka's appointment. As I expected, the vet's office was running late. She went to the dojo with me, was very well behaved, and got more treats on that day than she had ever gotten before on one single day of her life. I'll stop in tomorrow to make sure it doesn't smell too much of dog in there, vacuum, aerate a little, things like that.

My day today essentially started last night when I got home from the dojo. I tore down the Christmas tree, by myself. Picked up the dining room table, by myself. Made my lemon bars (which are absolutely demanded for Tolkienfest, I get flogged if I even consider not having them there). Got everything ready to go in storage again. Washed dishes. Cleaned counters. Got phonecalls from my brother as his return time last night got pushed back later and later. Went to bed at almost 1, got up a bit after 6:30. Put away clean dishes, washed more dishes. Put Christmas stuff in storage. Vacuumed where the tree had been. Took care of Inka's owies (why she had to go to the vet's). And then I was able to get into my dress, just in time to start Fellowship at 8, even though no one was here yet. When I tried to put my hair up today, my brother hopped into the shower. All of this for roughly 12 hours of sitting around and doing nothing.

But everything went well today, even if it was a little small. We ordered the exact right amount of pizza this time. We had lots of people that had to leave early, so with a smaller crowd it got quieter towards the end and my sleepiness caught up with me a little. I'm off to bed soon, seeing as how I have a headache from little sleep, lots of caffeine, and being all out of my preventative medication for my migraines. Tomorrow ... I get to jump back into working on my applications, whee. I hate these stupid statements of purpose.

Fluency Disorders

2008-12-16T22:36:00.000-08:00

Is it just me, or is there something really odd about my hearing this song on the radio for the first time this season on the day of my final on stuttering?

No Service

2008-12-15T22:33:00.001-08:00

Those who know me probably know that I've been helping with the Deaf Ministries at my church for a while, helping to interpret. Not the sermons, because I'm nowhere near the talent, practice, or capability required for such a feat. I do some of the songs, and have even done a prayer or two.

I've know for a while that there have been ... "politics" ... in Deaf Ministries, but up until today I've been allowed to remain, blissfully, pretty much ignorant of said politics. Got an email today about some of the stuff, and it disappointed me so much that I've been unable to rally myself into finals mode. It's been 12 hours since I found said email, and I've barely gotten anything written on starting to flesh out my literature review (for my research mentor, but ultimately for me), let alone studying for my final tomorrow, or the one I'm really freaking out about: Wednesday. Happy happy joy joy.

Thankfully my mentor seems to have a very placid personality, or I'm sure he'd skin me tomorrow. I'm gonna see how much I can get done before midnight, and then tomorrow morning before I leave to meet with him. Wish me luck.

Gibberish

2008-12-12T23:00:00.000-08:00

Was working on my applications for grad school today. I know, scary. It's actually a very scary concept for me. Basically, I printed up an application for being a graduate assistant. Or so I thought.

Turns out, it was an insight into the thinking processes of my computer. Don't know what or how my computer thinks, but the results were ... interesting. There were lots of exclamation marks. Many, many of them. Probably where the lines were supposed to be. Can't compare it to how it was supposed to look, because I gave away my evidence to one of my students. He thought it was particularly funny, and is old enough to understand the complexities of computers. If you think you might know who he is, his hair looks like exclamation marks.

Oh, and I think my printer has started running out of ink. I'm getting funny little shadow lines where there should not be any ink. No, I don't know why that translates to running out of ink, but I always only ever see this right before the ink starts fading.

Oh, and in case you care, I finally came up with a name for my computer. After three years of ownership (roughly). Ask me, and I might just tell you.

Not so Silent Night

2008-12-08T23:44:00.000-08:00

So, for a few days now (read: several) my computer fan has been very noisy, especially upon turning on my computer. Like it sounds as if it's about to rattle itself out of the casing. Think I should take it apart and see what's up? Maybe tomorrow. Or some other time still much later. For now, finals are next week.

Is it sad that I'm getting excited rereading through the preparation materials/articles my research mentor gave me? They're about speech-motor development. And the interaction between linguistic processing demands and the stability of the speech-motor system. The guiding theory behind this line of research is the Dynamic Systems theory, which my mentor didn't see fit to have me read about until ... this last week. I started reading craziness for him in September, and now I start reading about the guiding theory. Makes perfect sense to me. Either way, rereading through everything (so I can make guidelines for writing my literature review) is making everything make so much more sense now. I'm even getting faster at reparsing data in the lab that was parsed incorrectly, and the grad student hasn't even been reparsing anything. She's only analyzing data that I've already reparsed. I know. We have a progress checklist. I'm doing all the work. No, I don't think she's doing anything else for our mentor (<----sarcasm). Who knows? Certainly not me. I'm working right now on a pretend cover letter for a pretend resume in my Rhetoric and Writing Stuidies class. So glad I'll never have to take another one of those again. It's stupid and boring. And my professor is a recovering hippy that's still big in social activism. Makes for an interesting time, it does. And for your viewing entertainment, a little bit of commentary, courtesy of ihasahotdog.com:

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Our Weather is Bipolar

2008-12-07T22:34:00.000-08:00

San Diegans are accustomed to the fact that they have cool weather at the start of October, followed by the Santa Ana winds (hot + dry = fire). Then November was full of ups and downs, including rain leading right up to Thanksgiving Day. Now, we're not very far into December, but we've had both rainy weather and very dry weather. All last week I had a massive headache, thanks to the bipolar nature of our weather. I'd just like some well and proper sweater weather, thank you very much.

In other news, I took the GRE last month, and now I'm all ready to be doing grad school applications. Except I need to get some letters of reccommendation. Badly. Yep, I'm working on that. And not looking foward to thinking about how much money I'm spending on those applications. I'm not asking for much for Christmas this year.

Greetings

2008-10-05T23:51:00.000-07:00

Yes, it is almost midnight on a Sunday night. Yes, I did drop off the face of the world. Yes, I'm fine, and yes, there are monsters here.

School is keeping me busy, as expected, and this semester is simultaneously easier and harder, more exciting and more boring, than I thought it would be. It's scary getting ready for grad school, it's scary getting ready to write a real research paper, one that I'm using real experimental data on and will defend in front of a committee.

Yesterday and today were our first cool days of the season. They've been absolutely fantastic, and I even got some rain in the deal! Sweater weather is my kinda weather, and today I got to change into my Charles University sweatshirt once I got home from church. Doesn't get much more relaxing than that. Except when you have the rough draft of a thesis proposal to show your research mentor tomorrow, a test the next day, a second test the day after that, and a paper due the day after that. Those are the nice, relaxing weeks.

I've been playing in my 3D art studio a bit more than I should, but oh well, I really enjoy it, and it's (mainly) relaxing. This is one I did recently, and I'm really proud of it, so I thought I'd share it here.

Prague 2008: Day 10 (1 July)

2008-08-28T14:25:00.000-07:00

I profusely apologize for the delays in getting the day-by-day of my trip to Prague posted. Admittedly I've been lacking in my ability to get sufficient time on the computer to be able to write the play-by-play, but I believe I should be granted a bit of leeway. For two weeks I was without internet access at my place of residence, which therefore prevented my being able to log on and post new entries in my blog, let alone post pictures to go in the blog. Thank you for your time. Now, without further ado, we return to your regularly scheduled blog.

After breakfast I did my Czech homework because I was a bad girl and hadn't done my homework the day it was assigned. Class was difficult, as could be expected on the second day of learning a language.

Megan and Annelise showed us a traditional Czech restaurant they had found. Since I had spent almost all of my money in Brno and hadn't been able to figure out my Fleet card yet, I ate a frugal supper of onion soup and a soda. The soup was very good, though, especially since it had cheese on the bottom! We returned to the brewery for dessert. Some of the girls ordered a glass of port because we couldn't remember what it was that Michelle had for a drink the last time we were there. To put it simply, the port was wonderful. Stunning. We also arrived early enough in the evening to see just about all of the dances. There were more big tour groups there, including one from Spain. Most of Europe was still celebrating España's win in the finals, so the band played "Olé, Olé" and what I can only suppose was the Spanish national anthem. Alicia and a couple other girls left early, but they missed one of the best sights of the night: one little, old, drunk Spanish lady was dancing her heart out, using her Spanish flag as a bull flag and as flamenco skirts. She came over to our table andtried to get us to stand up and dance with her. Christine and I stood up and did dance a little bit. We then managed to have a very broken conversation with her, and with the aid of a paper napkin we showed her the states we lived in and she showed us that she lives due west of Madrid along the border between Spain and Portugal. She asked us if we had boyfriends, and when she found out we didn't, she exclaimed that it was okay, because we were powerful. Then, with another cry of "España!" her group departed.

My Old Prague Onion Soup.

Palačinka Praha (Prague Pancakes). Mine had strawberries and grapes inside/below the pancake.

The dancers at the brewery in their traditional costume.

Prague 2008: Day 9 (30 June)

2008-08-05T22:16:00.000-07:00

Being Monday, this was our first day of classes. I was signed up for two, both of which would be meeting that day. First was history, and it was a long trek up the stairs from ground floor up through the first and second floors before we reached the third floor. The professor had an utterly unpronounceable name and very broken English. She did her expected professorial ramblings about herself before handing us a syllabus and announcing that she was taking us on a field trip, but not before she got more money so that she could make sure that we would all be able to get in at Vyšehrad. Only problem was, by the time we got there, it was time for four of us to turn around and go back to school so that we could go to Czech Language class. We hurried through the public transportation, being stopped once as we got off the metro at school to prove that we had our transportation passes. Back up to the third floor we hurried, somehow only getting to class 15 minutes late.

Czech class went a little easier, although the professor enjoyed confusing us and scaring us by speaking in far more Czech than we could ever hope to understand in our first class. The first class was mainly the sounds of the language and how they are perceived and categorized, along with some of the most basic vocabulary. I don't think I need to describe how much I enjoyed geeking out about all that and the sorts of deductions I made about the language and its sound system. I read a quote once about Slavic languages: "Whichever Slavic language you choose to learn, go ahead and follow your heart, because your head will hate you anyways." The quote is right. As opposed to the two genders I'm used to in Spanish, Czech throws in a third gender: neutral. Beyond that, there are cases. Don't ask me to explain them, because I still don't rally get it. But we're only learning nominative and accusative cases. I haven't really been able to process why they're used, I just memorize the rules.

I hung out in a room downstairs that night. Kendra taught us a drinking game called "zoo" that entails performing your own sign and someone else's while still keeping to the rhythm the rest of the group is setting. If you mess up, you have to take a drink. Obviously this gets harder the more you drink. I think I had two advantages: playing comparable (albeit non-drinking) games in American Sign Language, and the fact that I wasn't drinking. Some people wanted to play a card game, too, so I ran up (the three flights of stairs) to my room to get my awesome, random animal playing cards. I ended up being very glad I wasn't drinking, because the drink was $1.50 (20 kcz) wine which was apparently atrocious. A chair randomly broke while someone was still sitting on it, but Alex was able to wedge it back together. I went to bed about 1, the person to turn in the earliest.

Prague 2008: Day 8 (29 June)

2008-08-05T21:28:00.000-07:00

Our fist stop on our sort-of way home was the castle Pernštejn. The first written record of it is from the 13th century. It's out in the middle of a beautiful green wood and looks everything like a proper castle should. There was a dirt road that led to a small market area before the castle proper. The whole of the castle had been built with a rock as its foundation. The castle had a bit of a split personality, though. The original construction was in the gothic style, but reconstruction and new construction after a fire added baroque qualities. One of the new baroque rooms was a formal dining room full of portraits of the family as well as family friends, like a Hapsburg emperor and his wife.

After the castle we had a long bus ride to the Moravian Karst (caves). We had about a 30 minute walk to get from the parking lot to the entrance to the karst, but it was a beautiful wooded walk along a stream. The caverns stay at roughly 48° F all year 'round. It's difficult to describe how beautiful the caves were, but probably one of the best words for them is "ethereal." There were fantastic stalagmite and stalactite formations, and we saw a crater that formed when an underground cavern/cistern collapsed on itself. After that we got to go on a boat ride through the caverns.

Our last tourist stop was in a little town called Křtiny where we saw a baroque church that is called "the pearl of Moravia." It was truly awe-inspiring, but we didn't get to see it for very long because we had our time table reformatted so that Barbora and Zdenek could visit the guy in the hospital. The rest of us had one quick final bus tour of Brno and ate at McDonald's while we waited. We then hurried back to Prague because many wanted to be able to watch the football finals in Old Town Square. Alicia was among those that went to the game, but after the adventure from trying to get to the semi-finals, I decided not to go. Everyone came back late from the game, and the cheers of "España!" went on for days.

The view walking up to Pernštejn

Inside the caverns

More inside the caverns

The newly-formed crater from the collapsed underground lake

She was waiting outside the giftshop at the caverns

The Pearl of Moravia (this picture does it no justice - it's huge!)

Prague 2008: Day 7 (28 June)

2008-08-03T16:06:00.000-07:00

Breakfast at the hotel was wonderful. They had cocoa puffs, fruit, and a very extensive selection of pastries available. Before loading on the bus to go back into Brno, we found out that one of the guys on our trip had gone to the hospital the night before for high blood pressure (tingling in his arm). We also found out more about a guy who had fallen off the fire escape outside his room the first night in London. That guy apparently had his arm mangled when he landed atop a power generator, aside from having his pelvis shattered, a bone broken in his back, and five bones broken in his face. He wasn't going to be let out of the hospital for two weeks at minimum, and his mom was flying to London to be with him.

In any case, we were supposed to have started with a guided tour in Brno, but since Barbora and Jana were going to visit the guy with the blood pressure problems, we went to Mendel's abbey first (Gregor Mendel - father of the study of modern genetics). The abbey was really very beautiful, but there were no benches so that anyone could sit down and enjoy the garden. I got my picture taken with Mendel, but our guy on the trip that was a little bit special took the picture, so he cut off Mendel's head. I got a postcard for Miss Wagner there, so I hope she likes it.

After that we really did go to Brno town square to visit and appreciate the churches there. I think we saw four, but I'm not positive. One of them had a little naked man mooning the town hall. Apparently the architect wasn't given his promised price/fees for the church. Isn't that a nice way to be remembered? We noticed all day that more and more police were showing up in the area around the town square. We broke for about an hour and a half so we could get something resembling lunch (that's not quite long enough for a proper meal here), at which time some of us got gelato. We ate that on a bench in the town square and found out why the police were gathering: the country's first Gay Pride demonstration, to be held there on that day. The neo-Nazis, as well as one priest carrying a large cross, showed up at the demonstration to protest. The skin-heads brought eggs and firecrackers. After one firecracker went off, we hid behind a pillar at McDonald's. Unfortunately, it was also time to meet with Z. In the town square. We all made it safely back to the bus, the only casualty being a girl who had been egged while she was in the crowd (I found out later that one guy had also been pushed over by a neo-Nazi, and he had a big scab on his leg for several days). The Gay Pride demonstration was legit, so that meant that the Czech SWAT-type guys needed to be there. Everyone was talking about the riot on the bus, of course. I made an effort to keep quiet.

Our next stop was Slakov (Austerlitz), aka "The Battle of the Three Emperors." We saw a memorial there, which was actually the territory of France, so we got to stand in the Czech Republic and France at the same time. We went next to a memorial built to commemorate all of the soldiers who fought in that battle. From the Memorial of Peace to the wine cellar, someone (the other Jessica) asked me what I thought of the riot. I became rather unpopular when people found out I had conservative political and social views.

Dinner at the wine cellar was nice. I had a half glass of white wine, a half glass of red wine, and tasted two other white wines after dinner. I liked the white better than the red, and the second taster better than the first. There was a bread with a rich, flavorful lard-based spread, pork goulash, and apple strudel. My camera was starting to complain of low battery power, so I didn't get many pictures taken. The AIFS personnel didn't load us back onto the bus right away after dinner, but we were made to take a walk first, so that we could sober up a little.

Back at the hotel we hung out at the restaurant for a while, but the stress, wine, extra energy from no karate, and the frustration of being the only one with my conservative viewpoint on the trip added up for a horrendous bout of homesickness, so I headed back up to the room to have a little cry and to work out some. Alicia came back up to the room for a bit before going back down to the bar. I felt a bit better after a bath, then went to bed. Alicia was out to 3 in the morning.

Where Mendel's greenhouse used to sit.

Gregor Mendel

One of the churches in Brno

A very small part of another church

The battlefield at Austerlitz

Outside the winery

Prague 2008: Day 6 (27 June)

2008-07-15T16:23:00.000-07:00

We left the dorm at 10:30 to head to our weekend trip to Brno, in Moravia (another province in the Czech Republic). We stopped in the town of Tisnov to visit a cloister built in the 13th century. We only arrived at the cloister after an extremely long bus ride, but the whole country is gorgeous and wonderfully green. The cloister seemed attractively simple enough, but the Gothic arch that made the entrance to the church was amazingly intricate. Z led our tour, and he started stopping to seem like some random guy with lots of stories and started seeming more like our personal tour guide, history expert, and authority on architectural periods. Not to mention that he has a certain mother hen-type fondness for each and every one of us.

The name of the hotel in Brno was Hotel Myslivna, and our rooms seemed like palaces compared to the conditions in the dorms. Even the bathroom was nicer than the bathroom in the hotel in London. After some brief confusion where Alicia and I ended up in the room that was supposed to be Jana's (it didn't matter, though, since both rooms had two beds), we progressed to having a misunderstanding about where and when our group was going to meet for dinner. We had dinner at the hotel, ordering off the English menu rather than the Czech one. I ordered, and received, chicken on a salad consisting entirely of bell peppers, tomato, and cucumber. Some of the vegetarian girls ordered fried cheese and got omlettes, which they had to send back because there was ham in them. Apparently the positions of those items on the menu were either really close or they were switched. We got dessert, too, and I ordered something that was simply called "cheese dessert." If you know much of anything about me, you know I couldn't possibly pass up the possibility for cheese in a dessert. It turned out to be what was essentially a cheese mousse with a dressing of forest fruit (tiny, tart berries). The poor waiter, who was overworked and rather flustered from messing up the fried cheese, brought Alicia the wrong ice cream dessert.

We managed to pay for our dinner just in time to hop onto the bus and go into downtown Brno. We had about an hour to wander on our own before going back to the hotel that night. Alicia hung out downstairs for a while, and I enjoyed getting clean in the nice, shiny, clean hotel room bathtub.

A random view from the gas station where we stopped for a snack and potty break. We saw a lot of this gas station on all our weekend trips.

The outside of the cloister and its gorgeous arch/entrance way.

This was outside of the building, a representation of Jesus in the Garden of Gethsemane.

Linden Tree, the Czech national tree. It was in full blossom, and it smelled so good.

My dinner at the hotel. The big poofy things are croutons.

My cheese dessert with a forest fruit dressing.

The plague column in the square in Brno. These things were everywhere!

Prague 2008: Day 5 (26 June)

2008-07-15T15:58:00.000-07:00

Even though the dorms are so spartan, the beds were comfortable enough and we were tired enough to fall asleep fast. We met out front of the dorm (Komenskeho Kolej, in case you're wondering the name of the dorm) and took public transportation (with our handy-dandy student public transportation passes) to the building where we would have our classes. We passed a statue of Dvorak in front of the home of the Czech Philharmonic Orchestra. We sat through orientation and a power point about all the things we would be doing on our various weekend trips. It was hot in the room, and most of us were still very tired, so almost everyone nodded off at least once or twice.

We were initially supposed to have free time for lunch, but apparently we hadn't eaten as much the night before as we were expected to, so the AIFS people saved the meat and bought more bread so that we could make sandwiches at the AIFS office. We also got our Fleet cards, which had the money for our meals, and were able to activate them. Most of us didn't understand the full procedure, though (read: we were napping), and didn't create a PIN then, so we weren't able to access our cards. Once we were done at the office, we got a little tour around town. We were shown Billa (a grocery store) and Tesco (a multi-level department store with a grocery store in the basement). We got a chance to shop some in Tesco, where Alicia and I bought a pan, two plates, two forks, a set of spatulas, and some dish soap. AIFS promised to refund us 200 czk (up to 200 czk, which isn't much) on purchases for the dorm. We were also shown where the university's computer lab is and had a new, 5-storey mall pointed out to us.

After the tour we were able to go back to the dorm, and we had the rest of the3 evening free. Alicia wanted to watch the semi-finals football game on the big screen in Old Town Square, so we decided to go to dinner right before that. I changed to my smaller purse, rather than my jumbo Target tote, and in the process left my public transportation pass in the tote back at the dorm. That was when the undercover police showed up and checked us for our passes, so I was fined 700 czk, which Colin payed for me, since I didn't have any money yet. I stopped at a bankomat to get some money before we ate at a Mexican restaurant that was far too expensive (and yes, I did pay Colin back that night).

We went back to the dorm so that I could get my pass, and then we attempted to find the game. Only thing is, everyone had a different idea of how to get there, so we arrived when there was three minutes left in the game. After not-seeing the game, most of the group wanted to go out, so we got lost looking for a pub that wasn't really crowded. We met some guys from Brazil who were looking for a hostel and became increasingly lost. A few of us bailed out early to head back to the dorm before we were absolutely lost. The rest of the group arrived back at the dorm an hour and a half later. They never did find a hostel for those guys.

From inside the gardens of a home next door to the stop where we got off the tram for school. This home was confiscated from the owner after the 30 years war because he had been making a profit off the war and everyone hated him.

Prague Castle behind the home. The castle was an orienteering mark for us the whole time we were in Prague.

The peacocks here were so loud, and sometimes it would seem like they were yelling at you.

A memorial to the period of Nazi occupation of then Czechoslovakia.

Charles Bridge, the view to our right as we walked across the Vltava to go to school. Life is rough.

Prague 2008: Day 4 (25 June)

2008-07-05T11:07:00.000-07:00

Check out was fairly nice and quick. We didn't have too much difficulty at the airport, although security scrutinized my bags while they wre under the x-ray. Then we just had a couple of hours to wait before we could board our flight. - I almost forgot that we got to ride a double-decker bus to the airport. - Boarding for the flight opened late, but we all got on fairly easily. Most of the students fell asleep right away, but I only took a short nap before breakfast was served.

London was enough like the States to not really believe I was anywhere but home. Flying over Prague, I knew I was going somewhere completely different. How can you think you're still back home when every roof is either terra cotta or beautifully aged copper, or when there is a beautiful series of bridges across the same river (the Vltava)? Of course, it really hit that I was in a different country when we got off the plane and all the signs were in a different language.

After getting through customs, I was able to see where to go fairly easily because I could see all the people I'd met in London. Either way, I had this older guy with longish hair and big glasses ask me, "AIFS?" I didn't understand what he'd said until he repeated himself, and he led me to the rest of the group. We waited a minute for our bus to arrive, then on the bus they (Barbora, Zdenek, Jana, and Jana) told us everything we needed to know, giving us maps of the city and passes for the public transportation. We were dropped off at the dorms and were given time to unpack and unwind before going on a bus tour of the city.

The dorms presented the first round of culture shock. The beds are low to the ground, consisting of a pillow and a duvet. There is very little walking space between the beds, let alone in the "kitchen." The kitchene has a sink, a couple very cramped cabinets, a mini-fridge, and two hot plates. We were under the impression that there would be things for our kitchen, like plates, cutlery, maybe a pan or two. We found a total of ... three glasses. We were all supposed to be supplied with two towels each, apparently for use after a shower. These towels are roughly the size of a dish towel.

We unpacked, then headed downstairs to meet again for our tour. On our flight into Prague the pilot had warned us of the possibility of showers that evening. The rain started not long after we began our tour. As we were driven around hte city, "Z" (Zdenek) gave us a narrative about where we were and what the history was. We tried to pay attention, but between the change in time zones, the flying and accompanying early morning, the rain, and the sound of Z's voice, most of us fell asleep on the bus. After a while we all had to wake up, as we had arrived at our dinner location.

Dinner was at a brewery near the dorm. We all had to climb out of the bus and walk down the alley in the rain, but it was worth it. The food was set up buffet-like, and I ahve to admit that 1) I'd been wanting kolace, and 2) I probably had more kolace than I needed.

We walked back to the dorm, thankful that the rain had stopped. Alicia wanted to see the football (soccer) quarter-finals game, so we walked the streets looking for a bar with a TV. We ended up back at he monastary/brewery, but in a different part. Why? They had a sign that read "live music." We had fun trying to translate the menu before we realized that it was written in both English and Czech. A couple girls ordered beers, one ordered a glass of sherry (we were out supporting her, because one of her suitcases had been lost), a couple ordered "palacinka praha" - pancake with fruit, ice cream, whipped cream, and chocolate syrup - and I found out that Europe doesn't let you order a glass of water to be sociable but avoid paying. Water in a restaurant comes in an extra-fancy glass bottle. The music at the brewery was great. Some of it was traditional, some was older, and at 11:00 pm the band played "Auld Lang Syne" to close up. Our waiter was capable of communicating in English, but he dealt with us amicably while we tried to order in Czech. As we left, we vowed that we had to come back to the brewery again.

A view from a street near the dorm

The front of the dorm, through the trees in the park just across the street

Me and my extra special fancy water that I had to pay for!

A glowy, pretty, blurry picture of the city at night

Prague 2008: Day 3 (24 June)

2008-07-05T10:55:00.000-07:00

We had breakfast at the hotel before going off on a bus tour of London. We saw most of the major landmarks, including Big Ben, the House of Parlaiment, Westminster Abbey, Picadilly Circus, and Buckingham Palace and the changing of the guard (both the foot soldiers and the mounted soldiers). We got day passes for the tube so that we could go back to some of those sites to take pictures. The tube was an amazing network of stations, but it was running slow because part of the Circle/District lines were unuseable because a person had been under one of the trains and that needed to be cleaned up. Still, we made it to the Tower of London and took a nice walk along the wharf, even though it was longer than we intended. We took a detour to King's Cross Station to take pictures at Platform 9 3/4. We would have taken pictures inside of "Gringotts," too, but we couldn't remember how to get to Australia House, which is where Gringotts was filmed. So we took a short nap at the hotel before buying pasties and eating them in a park near the hotel. We had an early night because we had to check out by 4:30am for our flight to Prague.

Buckingham Palace

Part of the gardens near the palace

King Richard the Lionheart

The Tower of London

Across the street from the Tower

Gratuitous touristy shot at Platform 9 3/4

Prague 2008: Day 1-2 (22-23 June)

2008-07-04T14:38:00.000-07:00

Okay, so I've been able to have internet access for a few days, and yes, I know I'm just getting to my blog now. Don't worry, I'm behind with my hand-written travel log, too. Anywho, I'm gonna try to play catch-up, so here's the first day/entry (first day is really two days, because the transition was somewhere in the middle and there really wasn't any sleep).

An 8:55am flight doesn't sound terrible, does it? That is unless you live an hour away from the airport, like to guarantee you'll arrive early rather than late, and like to double-check your packing in the morning. Which all translated to my waking up 4-4:30am. Getting out of the house was easy enough, and things went smoothly. I have the post-9/11 security down pretty well. I had a brief teary/panicky moment when I hugged Mom goodbye, but that passed fairly quickly.

The flight that I had thought was non-stop to London actually stopped in Atlanta to change planes, despite it still being the same flight number. The first half was uneventful enough. I spent most of it playing on the DS Patrick loaned me (thank you!). When we landed in Atlanta we had a few minutes to hurry over to the second half of the flight. It's funny, but when I flew to Montana I was on three Canadair planes before I got to fly a 737, which felt huge by that point. On my way to London I got to fly on a 757 and a 767.

I sat in the very back row for both flights, but it was a window seat, so it was all good. My seatmate on the second flight was a very interesting young man. He has a Nigerian passport, a British accent, cousins in America, and lives with his sister and her boyfriend in England. He made a very friendly seatmate for the 9 hour flight to Gatwick. I played the DS some more, but I don't think it lasted quite 10 hours. I also managed to get in a couple of naps. Dinner was almost decent, "chicken" mixed with rice and smushed into a bowl. It came with a roll, too, but Addi (the seatmate) didn't trust it. Very thankful for my window seat, I enjoyed watching the light grow on the horizon. Breakfast was served about an hour before landing, and it was marginally better than dinner. The guy at customs/passports asked me three times how long I was staying in London and looked very put-out by the fact that he had to talk to me. I'm certain that if he asked me a fourth time how long I would be in London, I would have started second-guessing myself. I met my ride without too much trouble and rode to the hotel with several other AIFS girls I wouldn't see again, because they're in a different AIFS office.

My roommate in London was also my roommate in Prague, a 25-yr-old former SoCal resident by the name of Alicia. She moved with her Marine boyfriend to Vermont and is taking this trip while he is at school in Virginia. Poor Alicia had much more difficulty getting to the hotel than I did, and was supposed to room with one Alex, who turned out to be a guy rather than the girl that all his paperwork said he was. Since I had checked in after Alicia, the electronic keys were acting funky. Hers wouldn't work but mine would, so we went to the desk to figure that out. Then my key didn't work and Alicia's did. Later in the afternoon, a third girl showed up in our two-bed room. So we all went downstairs to figure that out and get the keys reconfigured again, since the third girl now had the only operating key for our room.

We wandered and found food (after I took a shower) before returning to the hotel that night for orientation and drinks with the rest of the AIFS Prague people. We followed a girl (Jessica) who had studied in London before on a very long walk from the hotel to Picadilly Circus in search of a good pub. Some of the group opted to take the tube back to the hotel, but Alicia stayed out with Jessica and one other girl, returnign only as I was getting ready to go to bed.

A really pretty church/yard not very far from the hotel. Alicia and I found it as we were wandering.

The Green Park in London. Apparently it has grown over what was a mass burial site during the plague. Therefore, because the plague is still active/alive where it's buried, there's no gardening in this park. It just grows the way it grows. We went through it on our long hike that first night in London.

The Adventure Begins ... Soon

2008-06-17T17:05:00.000-07:00

I have this problem with surrealism. No, not the art movement. With things being surreal for me. How in the world has time passed so that I'm going into my fourth year of college? How could it be time for me to start looking for grad schools? How could it be the middle of June and time for me to go do my study abroad?

The adventure actually began already. How so, do you ask? Well, we had fun looking for my ticket. A packet was mailed out on Friday, June 6 from the study abroad agency, located in the state of Connecticut. Express, 2-day mail through UPS. I watched and waited eagerly for this packet. For a week, I saw no sign of it. I emailed my study abroad adviser, relaying this distressing news. She got back to me yesterday. "Well, UPS says it was delivered, so look harder. Maybe they put it in a bush so that no one would find it." A bush, eh? Well, I looked harder. Still didn't find it. So I emailed her again last night, like she told me to do if the packet was not found. She called emailed this morning, sent me the tracking number. Sure enough, UPS said it had been delivered to our front door last Monday. Emailed the adviser one more time to tell her the packet must have been thoroughly lost. Dad told me he thought he remembered putting something on my bed, or telling my brother to put something on my bed. Then he wasn't sure if he'd put it on my bed or meant to, or put it there and then picked it up again to put it somewhere more important. Well, I hadn't seen anything on my bed in the last week except for bed stuff, and I changed my sheets over the weekend. Frustrated, I sat down to do the finishing on an afghan I just finished, and I saw a corner of something sticking out from under the old rocking chair.

Of course that was it. Why would I bother writing this whole long post if it weren't? The poor adviser, dealing with so many frantic emails and calls from me. But the ticket is found.

Which means it's now packing phase. Just about all my toiletries are packed, but that's not hard, because most of them stay packed, anyways. Part of the reason why I'm not packed yet is because I looked at my suitcase. Yes, I looked at it! I can pack perfectly fine for a week with my suitcase, and since we have washing facilities available to us, I'm fine with washing those clothes and re-wearing them. The problem comes if I want to bring anything home. If I'm gone for a week, I can accumulate enough stuffs to fill odd crannies in my luggage, both checked and carry on. But I'm going to be in four different countries, gone for four weeks. I'm gonna need more room. Solution? Ask Dad to borrow a suitcase of his that's a bit larger, so that I can have more leeway. He gave it to me, too. I think I have ... about 3 extra square inches, and there isn't a nice pocket on the inside of the lid like I'm used to. So I'll probably do a trial run tonight with my packing, and if I don't think it will be enough, we'll keep searching the house for one that calms my fears.

Kitchen Sink

2008-05-31T22:49:00.001-07:00

So, yeah, what if I barely blogged while I was in Montana? There was barely anything I did in Montana. Sewing, knitting, watching HGTV. But you already knew I did all that (whoever "you" are). When we went out to eat on Tuesday night, we were waited upon by a guy who'd had his jaw broken at his last job, whatever that was. Point is, he hadn't been able to taste anything at that shop, since his jaw had been wired shut. But he gave us an extra slice of cheesecake.

I wore my big, blue, fluffy cowgirl/peasant skirt on the plane. Helena, MT security patted me down to make sure I wasn't smuggling anything in my skirt. And yet, they didn't do anything about my grandma's screwdriver that I'd forgotten I had in my purse.

On Wednesday I got my shots I needed before I travel this summer. The tetanus still hurts a little.

Inka has gotten herself loose twice more in the two times I've put her out since I got back. And she always looks so meek and innocent and sad, too, unless she's running right past you playing hard-to-get.

To Grandmother's House I Go

2008-05-22T20:51:00.000-07:00

My flights were nice and uncomplicated, even if the planes were small. While waiting for my first flight, I got to talk with an almost-3-year-old and his parents who were on their way to Hawaii. After that, I spoke with a man from India. First flight I sat beside a man from Brazil. Sounds exciting, yes? Well, don't worry; on my second flight I sat beside a late-middle aged Caucasian American man who was strugging to stay awake while reading his extremely boring looking books (something historyish, categorical perception, and propulsion).

Mom picked me up, and we ate at a restaraunt in downtown Helena. The waitress smiled all the time, and she came to check on us no less than 5 times during the meal. We also got to swing by Mom's condo, although I didn't get to see the inside. That might happen tomorrow, yay!

Mom's been spoiling me, too. She had a piece of cake waiting for me when we got home to Grandma's (which I was too full to eat, but I had for lunch today), and she picked up Wendy's tonight for dinner, complete with a frosty. I think she enjoys having me out here.

I've been sewing today, since Mom was off working. Yes, I know. I came all the way up to Montana to sew. But I'm working on stuff for Mom, this project being an apron. I'm almost done. Sorta. I just have a couple more ties to sew on, then buttons to attach and button holes to put in. More exciting, though, is the fact that I managed to thread the machine on my own. And it's a very complicated threading process. The pedal for the sewing machine is ... interesting. When I started sewing this morning, it sounded like a hot iron. If you have never ironed your clothes, or don't know what an iron is, then I'll say it sounded like a bowl of rice crispies. Which I think isn't a good thing. The pedal also warms up pretty quickly while I sew, so I've been taking my time, just in case the thing is going to short circuit or explode or do something else exciting. I don't know where the fire extinguisher is.

There will be a Test

2008-05-15T22:59:00.001-07:00

Remember those billboards from so many years ago? The ones that were signed, "God." Like the one asking if we'd read his bestseller, because there would be a test.

Most people seem to think that the final exam for a class is the actual stack of papers they hand you that you're supposed to draw on. I've come to the conclusion that the final exam must actually be something different. The last test a class has to offer you: show up to the right classroom. Yes, you heard me right. A week ago was the last day of classes at my school. Generally everyone shows up because they want to know what will be on the test. Well, we had someone extra come to class. A dude who most definitely isn't in that class. For one, there's only about 100 of us in the year, so we all know each others' faces. Two, there's only about 4 guys total in the year, so it's not hard to figure out that he's not one of them. Third, the professor for this particular class is the major's undergrad adviser. He knows who each and every one of us is. When the dude walked into our class, he asked, "This ... isn't where my class is, is it?" Last day of classes, guy. Way to overachieve.

But if you think that's bad, just wait until you read this. We had two more such guys in that same class for the final today. One came in 5 minutes before the test was scheduled to start, holding his skateboard. The prof/adviser said, "Dude, I'd bet the house that this isn't the room you want." Luckily for the dude, he listened. 30 minutes after this (which means 25 minutes after the scheduled start time for the test), another dude came waltzing in. He was twirling his pencil, complacent as can be, searching for an empty seat. One of the grad students helping to proctor the test tried to tell him this was a Speech, Language, and Hearing Sciences class (that made no sense to him) until the prof/adviser came up and repeated that this was not where the guy wanted to be. His face turned bright red. Go figure.

Now, I'm not trying to bash on anyone, but how can you go so long without knowing where your class is? What time the final is? Did you even attend the first day of class? The second? What kind of grade do you expect to get from doing nothing all semester? Do you not know anyone in the class? Did you not know that there's a website that maintains records of all the classes you're enrolled in and where and when they meet?

Did you ever find your correct classroom?

Summer

2008-05-13T21:46:00.001-07:00

Everyone has their own definition as to when summer starts. For some people, it's the beginning of June. For some, it's the summer solstice (which really doesn't make that much sense, but whatever). For many, it's when school gets out.

For my brother, summer has two starting points. The first is when there has been enough direct sunlight during the day to make the lake warm/swimmable. For him, this is summer.

My brother's other point for the start of summer is when the snakes come back out. Especially the black and white king snakes. He found a huge one last summer that he named Scourge. Well, I've seen two king snakes already, but apparently neither of them is big enough to be Scourge. The important point is that they're not rattlesnakes, and yet that the weather is warm enough for snakes.

I have two more finals before this semester is over. It's crazy. One of my finals today was in my Philosophy class (Social Ethics). We had to write two essays in class. I took nearly the whole two hours. I finished seven hours ago. My hand still hurts.

In other news, remember the trees I talked about two posts back? If not, you can go back and look. Well, they were supposed to be ornamental plums, but apparently they're not ornamental no more. They have fruit! I'm not sure how big they'll get this year, since no one has really fertilized them ... ever. At least not in the 7 years we've been here. Or has it been almost 8 years that we've been here now? Whatever the case, there are plums growing. They're just growing extremely slowly.

2008-05-07T00:00:00.000-07:00

You know those nights when you just can't sleep? I had one of those. Ran out of my preventative medication for my migraines, so I didn't sleep through the night. This morning I was tired and could feel a migraine coming on, so I grabbed ... a soda. Yes, I know you're not supposed to have soda in the morning. But I needed the caffeine, I hate coffee (in case you didn't know), and didn't have time to make tea. The best thing is, in the car I couldn't find my soda. Anywhere. I was almost to school (it's a 40 minute drive) before I found it. It was in my cupholder. Duh, you might think. What a novel place to put your soda. Well, it is for me. Furthermore, my cupholder sits in my arm rest. Really? Yeah, really. It's not one of those things that extends beyond the armrest, but it actually sits in the arm rest. I have an option of storing either audio tapes there, or one drink. Usually it holds loose coins and the gloves I keep in my car in case those Alpine mornings are super cold. My arm rest sits all the way back, too. Further back than my elbow is when driving. Which means that putting anything back there doesn't make much sense. No wonder I couldn't find the soda.

I'm used to taking naps, too, especially my nap after I get to school and before class starts. I pull a blanket and an extra sweater out of my back seat and enjoy 30 minutes more of shut-eye than I would get otherwise. I couldn't nap this morning. So instead I called my dad and had him look up the number for Travel Advising at Kaiser so that I could tell them all about myself in order for them to advise me on what immunizations I need before I go abroad this summer. I should expect to hear back from them in about two weeks. It's really hard for me to believe that I'm leaving in just less than 7 weeks. Two of those weeks are still school, and then I'll have a week I'm going to spend in Montana. Which means, my trip is almost here!

When my dad called me back with the number for Travel Advising, I was admiring my Legend of Zelda ringtone. Which reminded me that I still need to get that Rocky ringtone for whenever people from the dojo called me. Which means that I've been unable to get "Eye of the Tiger" out of my head for the last three hours. You're welcome.

Lovenote

2008-03-12T22:29:00.000-07:00

Last spring (after I got out of my spring semester, actually), I read a book called Captivating. One chapter spoke of how God longs to romance the soul of every human, and he sends gifts to us just as an admirer or significant other would. A bunch of roses. A sticky note on the fridge or the bathroom mirror. A peck on the cheek while making dinner. This month, I feel God has been sending me one of those same lovenotes.

There are these two trees that sit just outside my window, but there is a third one on of their kind on our property. They are beautiful trees, with stunning branch structure (I'm a nerd, I know). Their leaves are a dark purple, which is what first really attracted me to them. I don't know what to call the trees. Our gardener calls them ornamental plums. The tree trimmer called them oaks. Their blossoms remind me of sakura.

Now, with having recently redone my room, I tend to keep my blinds open more often than I did in times gone by. I'm proud of my room, what can I say? With the way weather is around here, it took until January/February for these trees to completely lose their leaves. But almost as soon as March started, their blooms arrived. Beautiful, tiny pink blossoms. The bees apparently like them, too, but that doesn't bother me. I can still look. And there are more blossoms every day. Some have started to fall, and they leave a dusting of pink petals on the grass. Tiny purple leaves grow in their wake. And when I look at those trees, I can hear God telling me that he made those trees bloom just for me. He sends those blossoms to me and causes their petals to drift so peacefully so that I can have a little message that reminds me that God loves me as a man loves his bride. And I know that nothing can separate me from the love of God (Romans 8:38-39).

Over the River and Through the Woods

2008-03-04T23:30:00.001-08:00

What do you know? It's been a month since my last blog. Yes, I really have been keeping busy. What, knitting doesn't count? How about if I knit while reading my texts? I bet you don't know very many people who can truthfully say they can do that. Sometimes I can even watch tv while reading and knitting, and throw in the odd conversation. That's talent.

Speaking of talent, I exercised one of my least favorable talents today. When I'm behind a wheel, I call it experimental driving. I don't know what to call it when I'm walking around for an hour, trying to find the speech clinic that's associated with my school but not on campus proper. Yes folks, an hour. And with my pile o' books still in-arm, too. Because I had thought it wouldn't take much more than 15 minutes to get there. I walked across campus, down through the 6 flights of stairs in a parking structure, through an endlessly long parking lot, over a bridge that crossed a random stream-like valley, through another parking lot, and then around the 17,000 blocks that comprised the medical center/offices off of this street where the speech clinic should have been. 411 didn't even know where to find the place. I walked far enough that I actually found the next trolley stop. I seriously considered riding the trolley back to campus.

I still haven't signed up to do any observation hours at the clinic. I think I should get one hour already, just for trying.

iSister Down for Repairs

2008-02-07T22:48:00.000-08:00

I've had a couple of days recently when I've meant to blog, but just haven't gotten to it. The truth of the matter is that I get tired when it gets close to bedtime, and I don't always feel like blogging. But then there are times that I do feel the need to blog.

My brother drives me crazy, bless his pea pickin' heart. I know I'm not always the neatest person, and the gameroom and bathroom still haven't quite recovered from my room being redone (nor has my bedroom), but he's worse than me. His sax music is all over the floor. He can't books of his because they're in the laundry room, or just plain and simple in the laundry. When he last made an attempt to get his dirty clothes to the laundry, some items missed the basket, and they're still in the hall. Most recently, he asked me to recharge the iPod Shuffle tonight.

No biggie, right? Well, the clip on it had somehow gotten bent. In case you don't know how charging a Shuffle works, the charging port has a groove in it for the Shuffle to sit in. Inside the groove, though, is a block that stands up. Said block is designed to go between the body of the Shuffle and the clip. With a bent clip, the Shuffle doesn't fit in the groove and the block doesn't fit in the Shuffle. So what does dear sister do? She pulls out her pliers (she got very handy with them in redoing her room) and works the clip until it's flat enough to be shoved into its charging cradle while her brother takes a shower with the shower setting that's so loud it can be heard in all corners of the house. And does he care about the work she did? No. Does he say thanks? Only for the "State of the Union" address. And, of course, he claims he has know knowledge of how it got bent in the first place.

He should consider himself lucky that I didn't let our parents know that he'd nearly borked the iPod.

My List

2008-01-22T21:47:00.000-08:00

In recent years, Country artist Toby Keith has started putting out a lot of trash. But I can remember when he still had good music coming out. One particular song he did is called "My List."

My List
Under an old brass paperweight is my list of things to do today
Go to the bank and the hardware store, put a new lock on the cellar door
I cross 'em off as I get 'em done but when the sun is set
There's still more than a few things left I haven't got to yet

Go for a walk, say a little prayer
Take a deep breath of mountain air
Put on my glove and play some catch
It's time that I make time for that
Wade the shore and cast a line
Look up a long lost friend of mine
Sit on the porch and give my girl a kiss
Start livin', that's the next thing on my list

The song of course goes on from there, but it gives the general idea of the sweet, simple power of the song.

Well, I spent my whole break redoing my room. I got to spend some time with friends, and I even had Tolkienfest. But there were some things that I'd wanted to do that I hadn't done. Last night, I emailed a friend I hadn't talked to in three years. Do you have any idea how good that felt? And she wrote back, too. Ecstatically, with all the energy and joy I remembered her being full of. It just overflows from her.

Another thing I've been wanting to do: I managed to sort and organize my room while redoing it. And I really, truly plan on keeping it neat and orderly now. After all, I have a room to be proud of.

It's funny what you find when you sort and organize. I found my copy of Purpose Driven Life. I read it my junior year of high school. Or rather, I theoretically read it. We were given an optionally mandatory assignment/opportunity (one of the most stupid ideas they had in my time at that school) to read it. I had originally wanted to read it, sure, but when we had to start writing odd journals on each chapter, I lost my vigor for the book. I seem to recall fudging my way through a few of those journals toward the end. Well, I plan on reading it on my own. As a matter of fact, I already started it. I also want to read Mere Christianity. Why not? My brother's copy is sitting on the game room floor. I'm sure he'll be willing to loan it to me, and it's high time I get that read, too.

So, if you don't mind, I'm going to take my cup of tea, sit down on my nice, clear windowseat, and read Day 4 of Purpose Driven Life.

Back in the Saddle Again

2008-01-21T21:34:00.000-08:00

It doesn't ever feel real the night before classes start. Ever. But I've printed my syllabi for almost all of my classes (one of the classes isn't on Blackboard yet, which is very strange). I have a notebook that everything is in for now, but I'll probably need to get more. I have a feeling that we'll be getting a lot of papers/notes for each class, like usual. Wednesday will be a day that almost feels like vacation again, though. I've only got one class on that day. It's also useful that I found my parking permit. It's too easy to lose that silly thing, because it comes in the world's smallest envelope. Why should it be in a huge envelope, if the permit itself isn't huge? Grr.

I got everything back into my room today. Now, that doesn't mean that everything is back in its place in my room. It's just back. I have some things on the floor, a stack of stuff at the desk area, boxes that are holding things I'm not sure I wanna keep, and a box that's holding old textbooks I'm definitely ready to get rid of but the bookstore wouldn't buy back from me. And first day is always fun, too, for all that extra time you have to sit around and ... work on assignments you don't have yet? I'll probably bring my Audiology text with me, since it's taught by the same prof who had the Hearing and Speech Sciences class last semester. It's probably the class that will be the least intuitive, once again. I'll be bringing some flash cards, too, so that I can start on making those flash cards right away.

On a plus side, it rained today. And there is supposed to be more rain this week, too.

The Fun Never Ends

2008-01-20T21:37:00.000-08:00

My room is finally, essentially done. Fancy that. I sanded, primed, and painted my door today, and that was the end of that. I'm in the process of moving everything back in. It's like Christmas all over again: I have boxes worth of stuff everywhere. Most of my books are back on my shelves, closet has been whole for a week or so, and the floor has even been vacuumed!

I still need to finish refilling my drawers, even though most of my clothes of all varieties are back in my room by now. I just dread facing the boxes that have all that miscellaneous stuff in them that I should probably still sort through. That's for tomorrow. I figure, if I find things that I'm not sure I want to let back into my beautiful, pristine room, then they probably should be tossed. But I don't necessarily want to toss all those random papers that aren't really important, but I'm pretty sure I'll want again some day. Such are the woes of a pack rat raised by pack rats.

I still have two more mini-projects for my room, but those will have to wait until later. I plan on putting a dress on my desk chair, because orange doesn't fit with the color scheme, and I want to make a folding screen/room divider to go in front of my closet, because I hate those ugly, clunky, permanently spotted (dunno how) mirrored closet doors. People seem to have mixed emotions, at best, at the idea for my screen. Oh well. I'm sure people will see my brilliance once it's all done.

One other bit of brilliance I had in putting my room together was to make sure I had a shelf where I could put my texts for this semester. Yes, classes start up again on Tuesday. It makes my parents giddy to think that I won't be storing my texts on the chair in the front hall (theoretically). Of course, that doesn't mean that my purse, jacket, shoes, and karate bag shouldn't be kept out there for quick and easy access.

I have been given a mandate to get everything back into my room tomorrow, or be ready to toss or donate it. Out of 15 possible drawers, I now have 6 filled. We'll see what happens tomorrow. It'd be so much easier working in my room if the cd player on my brand-new boombox hadn't stopped working. I should write Mom a note about whether or not she has a CD player cleaner in her car, so that she can tell me before she leaves for work tomorrow at o'dark thirty.

My room last night, before the gradual process of its accessorization. Yes, I know that having the ceiling light on makes the room look funky. However, it's superior to having no light and having the picture be just of a blackish room, the way things normally look at night, without light.

Guess Again

2008-01-09T22:06:00.000-08:00

Ha! Betchya didn't think I was going to blog again this week, did you? Well, I fooled you. Of course, there probably isn't anyone reading right now, since I hadn't blogged in about a month.

I was able to turn in my papers for my passport today. I'm planning on doing a study abroad in the Czech Republic this summer. Note: it's the Czech Republic, not the "Check" Republic. In any case, I should get my passport in the mail in 4-6 weeks.

Clearing all my stuff out of my room ... again. I plan on painting the walls tomorrow, maybe even painting some of the shelf-like stuff in my closet so that I can get that reassembled, too.

Not much is really new around here. The dogs got new beds a bit before Christmas, and Eddy has already put a hole through the cover of his, which definitely isn't new. Dad tried giving the dogs some old, hard leather gloves as chew toys the other day and they ended up as Eddy's afternoon snack, instead. Also not very new, even though the dogs haven't gotten gloves before.

Thinking of dogs, Mom got me a puzzle for Christmas. It's Dalmatians. Just Dalmatians. On both sides of the puzzle. And cut so that you can't feel which side is up and which is down. Should be interesting.

Yes, I am blabbering by this point. I'm already thinking of the hours spent in my room inhaling paint fumes.

New Year, New Blog

2008-01-07T23:20:00.000-08:00

Yes, I know it's almost a week into the new year, but it's still the first week of the year, so I can still call it new year. It's still new year this whole month, but it doesn't always feel like that because of the birthdays that come up in the middle of the month. Some general observations from the holidays and the few days following:

* Ask Grandma for white socks for Christmas, and she'll give them to you (I needed them), but she'll still give you the bathrobe you said you didn't need.
* Only my brother would take his Bible and a notepad to go see the Dead Sea Scrolls exhibit.
* If you're not sure you'll have a project done by Christmas, you're vastly overestimating yourself.
* Never, ever leave painter's tape up for more than a day, especially if you just recently plastered, primed, and painted your ceiling.
* Sugar plums really are made with plum, and an assortment of other fruits. They're not terrible, but they're not chocolate truffles, either. I won't be sleeping with visions of sugar plums in my head next year.
* Clara's Godfather Drosselmeier really is an odd one.
* Make sure you locate the movies you want to watch on New Year's Eve before New Year's Eve, but when in doubt know that numerous rounds of Uno will pass the time very quickly.
* When given the option, do not allow your bedroom to be undergoing construction during Christmas. It makes for general inability to find anything.\
* Scraping popcorn is very messy. Applying plaster is very messy.
* Sugar cookies are too bland for my dad's taste, but he'll eat them anyways given that there are no chocolate chip cookies in the house.
* Subway will probably close early on New Year's Eve.

First Freeze!

2007-12-02T21:05:00.001-08:00

Okay, I suppose 38 degrees isn't quite freezing, but it's close. And I'm sure it was colder than that at 2:00 this morning, or something like that. But it was 38 degrees at 6:00 this morning, and I had a thin layer of ice over all my car.

We had rain Thursday evening, all day Friday, and into Saturday afternoon. It was glorious. I don't think the lake's any higher, but the duck pond is certainly full.

Had my test today. You know, the test. The running was hard. I officially find it hard to keep up with 11- and 14-year-old boys when they're running. The rest of the test was better. I kept well hydrated, but my nose is still dried out and tickley. Yes, tickley. That I'm-about-to-sneeze sensation. I've had it since about 10:00 this morning. If I breathe in too heavily through my nose, I sneeze. Kind of irritating, no pun intended.

Inka got an early walk today, and apparently it's been too long since her last walk, because she messed inside the house, as I've just been informed. So I'm off to clean that up, and then I'm going to bed. I'll sleep well tonight!

!Que Increible!

2007-11-27T21:07:00.000-08:00

Silly internet doesn't like to have diacritics on letters, so I couldn't put the proper accentos on my Spanish.

As I tried to fall asleep last night, I had an epiphany: "incredible" is something that is so amazing that it doesn't seem possible. It's not credible. It made me wonder how often we use "incredible" in the proper context. So, here are some of the first things I think about when I think "incredible."

The Incredibles: Okay, yeah, I'd say that Mr. Incredible is rather incredible. Mrs. Incredible/Elastigirl ... yeah, it's rather incredible to be able to stretch like that. JackJack is incredible, too. The jury's still out about Violet and Dash.

The Incredible Hulk: That movie was so incredibly boring that I can't get myself past the 20 minute long opening credits.

The Incredible Voyage: Some scifi/fantasy movie (from the 80's?) that involves going inside a person's body, I think. Magic School Bus is so much better.

And for good measure, here's a few quotes that involve "incredible":*

"I can believe anything, provided that it is quite incredible."
- Oscar Wilde, The Picture of Dorian Gray

"To stop the flow of music would be like the stopping of time itself, incredible and inconceivable."
- Aaron Copland

"The thing that is incredible is life itself. Why should we be here in this sun-illuminated universe? Why should there be green earth under our feet?"
- Edwin Markham

"Somewhere, something incredible is waiting to be known."
- Carl Sagan

"The power of the mind is an incredible thing, one that can never be underestimated."
- Mia Hamm

"Even against the greatest of odds, there is something in the human spirit- a magic blend of skill, faith, and valor- that can lift men from certain defeat to incredible victory."
- Walter Lord

*Thanks to http://www.quotationspage.com for being an awesome engine for quotable quotes.

Have Yourself a Merry Unlit Christmas

2007-11-26T21:46:00.000-08:00

I had my first bout of nerves today in ... I don't know how long. It's been quite a while. If you don't know what I'm nervous about, it's my test. If you don't know what test I'm talking about, well, too bad for you. You'll probably find out sooner or later. Maybe. Who knows?

My performance on this third Hearing Sciences test wasn't that great. I didn't get the grade I was hoping for, let's put it that way. I'm hoping to really ace this next test so that I can maybe get a B+ in that class.

Put the Christmas tree up yesterday. Or rather, I tried to put it up. The tree itself is up, but since it's an artificial, pre-lit tree, there were bad bulbs to sort out. Four sections, count them, four, were out. I have two of them resolved. The third I went all the way through and didn't find a bulb that lit the strand, which means there are probably 2+ bad bulbs in that section. The fourth section is the top of the tree, and I haven't bothered with that yet. All this translates to my not having decorated the tree yet, let alone having assembled my gingerbread house.

Of Making a Feast into a Vegan Meal

2007-11-25T20:09:00.000-08:00

Both Thanksgivings have been eaten, and each went successfully. My mom made some "tofurkey" for my big brother's gf. Don't ask how that works, I don't really know, and I refused to touch the stuff. The vegan stuffing was good (you could tell it was vegan, but it was good), and my dad said the vegan pumpkin pie was not bad. I stuck to the classic stuff.

On the plus side, I got to talk with the gf about SLP stuff. It was fun and good, and she was excited, and liked the description I'd given of the voice class I'm taking. I even photocopied for her the article I presented on last Tuesday. Hopefully she'll come back ready to talk about more, because I love being able to talk with her about it. The rest of the family thinks I'm loony. My dad even cut short the discussion about ASL classes while we were still at the table.

Last Sunday and this one I've been helping my church with a ministry called Angel Tree, which delivers Christmas parents to kids that might not get any because their family is in prison. It's wonderful seeing all the packages coming in, and I'm good at sorting. The people who volunteer every year are great and make sorting all the more fun. I won't be able to help next weekend, but the weekend after that all the gifts are gonna be loaded so they can be delivered. Exciting stuff.

Starting to plan my courses for next semester. They're sill funky and quite dispersed throughout the day, and they'll interfere even more with my karate schedule than they have this semester. Le sigh. One of the classes, a lab, I can take only on Friday, and that doesn't make me happy. That means I'm making an extra trip down the hill for that one class, and I won't have any day free of classes, aside from the obvious weekend.

My dad has started a blog. Seriously. It's only, like, his fourth blog he's had (including one he tried to create that would just hold my mom's resume). Actually, he's started two blogs in the last week. One is supposed to be more for his Christmas newsletter stuff, the other one is for his ramblings and rantings, which I think will be profuse considering the fact that he now gets to sit in front of the TV all day with his computer. Only thing is, he's just as inept at his blogs as he is at his email.

Tis the Season to be Cleaning

2007-11-20T21:18:00.000-08:00

Tomorrow is Wednesday. That means, since it's the Wednesday before the fourth Thursday of November, it's a day for cooking and cleaning. I hope I get to peel the potatoes. I like peeling potatoes, as long as I don't need to do them 365 days a year. But 3 days a year is a good trade off for mashed potatoes with butter, sour cream, garlic, and all sorts of other goodies.

We're having a friend from church come over on Thursday, and my older brother and his gf will be coming on ... Sunday. From what I know, we won't exactly be having a proper Thanksgiving-type meal on Sunday, especially given the fact that the gf is now vegan.

Speaking of family and holidays, my grandma is apparently going to be coming down for Christmastime. Keep us in your prayers: the last time she came down, she locked herself in the guest room for the day because she felt we weren't letting her help enough around the house. Oh, and the day when I was thinking of starting on my ceiling ... that's the day Grandma's supposed to arrive.

My two early classes tomorrow have been canceled, but I still have the option of going to school for ASL. I'm not planning on it; I'm tired. I might even not get up until 8:00 tomorrow morning.

We picked up the paint for my room on Sunday. I'm happy to have the paint, but it won't be painted for a while. See above note about Grandma being in town when I want to be working on my room. However, if I can manage it, I'm gonna sneak into my room some tomorrow and do some more cleaning in there. Who ever guessed that cleaning would be so therapeutic and purifying?

The Shin Bone's Connected to the Knee Bone

2007-11-13T21:07:00.000-08:00

Blogging early tonight, because I want to go to bed and get some sleep. Someone asked me yesterday if I'd been up late at night studying a lot, because I looked like I hadn't really been getting any sleep. Such a confidence booster. Even so, I didn't feel overly tired. Such sensations are reserved for Tuesdays.

I tweaked a muscle a bit in my training. It's a muscle that runs along the outside of your leg, from your knee on down your shin. Said muscle is very involved in, say, pointing or flexing your foot. Trust me, if you've done something to this muscle, you'll feel it. Going up and down the stairs today, my knee felt as if it'd rusted over. So it's some Tylenol, more ice tonight, and lots of stretches. That way I'll still be able to compete in the tournament on Saturday, and sort Christmas presents for Angel Tree on Sunday! And people say I don't keep myself busy.

Just over a week until Thanksgiving. I'm already making plans for my gingerbread house, which is not to be baked/constructed until the day after Thanksgiving at the very earliest. I think the Christmas tree will have to wait until, oh, December 3rd or so. I might be just a wee bit too tired to do anything about it before then. The big question is, do I use sour Skittles on my gingerbread house this year?

All the Leaves are Brown

2007-11-12T09:39:00.000-08:00

I've been told that as a grad student in my major, I'll learn what the definition of negative time is. I'm thinking I might be there already. 9 days before a test, I'm already studying. I never study for tests. Never. Until I started this year. There's just so much to learn.

I'm also on my way to one of the biggest tests of my life in karate. It's scary and exciting and exhausting. I apparently tweaked my knee on Saturday, and it's still a little sore. I'm back up on my trying to jog, too. I've been jogging fairly regularly on the treadmill, except for today because I didn't want to push my knee. I've been instructed to eat, drink, sleep, and breathe karate for the next three weeks. Which I suppose leaves learning my coursework at school solely by osmosis.

Meanwhile, the weather is changing again. We've had drizzle twice in the last three days, and most of our trees (excepting palm trees) are bare of leaves. Although, that might have something to do with the Santa Annas a couple weeks back.

Blogs will probably be getting fewer and farther between. At least for the next four weeks or so. By then I'll be done with finals, and I'll be able to relax by painting my room, or some other such thing.

The Ejection of a Voiceless Alveolar Stop

2007-11-07T21:46:00.000-08:00

Got my car back tonight! The difference between my car and the other one is like the difference between a hotel bed and your own comfy bed. That's on the familiarity scale, the comfy scale, and the scale of it fitting you well.

Test in phonetics tomorrow. Vowels of English and consonants of the world. Should be fun. I especially look forward to using diacritics, like aspiration or dentalization, on the test. Nothing better than pressure to throw off a transcription. I just hope my headache goes away by then.

Just across the hall from the room where I have Phonetics Lab, there's an Italian class that gets out just before my Phonetics Lab starts. One of my professors from last semester is in that class, as is one of the students from that professor's class. I found out today, though, that one of the singers from my voice class is there, too. For a school with 35,000 undergraduates, I sure see people I know a lot.

The Road goes Ever on and On

2007-11-06T21:33:00.000-08:00

Last night on my way home from karate, my car's "check engine" light came on again. It's been alternating between off and on for the last week or so. After it came on last night, it flashed again and went steady again. And then it flashed, all the way home. During this time, the car started to rattle/complain whenever I tried to accelerate, my gas mileage went down the drain, and my car smelled hot when I got home. So we dropped it off at the shop last night for work today: faulty/malfunctioning fuel injector. 3 hours of labor. 1 unhappy driver, who still doesn't have her car back.

And I got to drive the car that my brother would be driving if he had his license, but he doesn't have his license yet. I'd forgotten about the, erhm, characteristic sounds that the other car made. Sounds something like this: "pbbbbtbbbbpbbbbtbbbb." Repeat ad nauseum. And the radio says "ptoobptk" every time you try to turn it on. But the heater does work, even if the gears are broken in the driver's window.

To Blog, or not to Blog

2007-11-02T22:45:00.000-07:00

Just to let y'all know, the fact that I don't blog on some days doesn't mean I don't want to. It means I'm tired by the time 10:00 pm or so rolls around. When was the last time I blogged? Who knows. I don't feel like looking at the date because, umm, I'm tired. Seems to be a constant this semester. Although, today I feel pretty good in general, because I enjoyed my Friday. Ate a leisurely breakfast, took a bath, went on the treadmill my dad bought years ago at someone's moving sale, read, and went to karate. I even got candy at karate.

Halloween was awesome, too. Honestly, what other day can you see Cinderella and Captain Hook walking to the bus stop together? I also saw a clown driving out of a grocery store parking lot. Then, in the commons, there was Snow White, her step-mother, an evil fairy, a dude in a pink bunny outfit (the kind your grandma used to make you wear for Easter; I think he must have lost a bet), a prairie woman, and a couple of Asian kids whose costumes I couldn't quite decipher, but they were still cool.

I went walking around a random neighborhood with one of my friends on Halloween night, in our matching-ish costumes. Awesome stuff. Although, I found out I can't back up properly in her driveway at night. Normally I'm great backing down driveways, but this one just isn't very user-friendly at night. Thank goodness there's not a whole lot of shrubbery around.

I got a 93% on my last Hearing and Speech Sciences class, whee! The class average didn't change much, which is sad. Sad for other people. Of course, there's no curve, so my being two standard deviations away doesn't help me that much. But I still feel good. Now I almost have a B+ in there. I think my presentation in my music class went well yesterday, too. Now I just have to study for a test Tuesday, a test Thursday, the Writing Proficiency Assessment on Saturday, make flash cards for this next unit of Hearing and Speech Sciences as we go, practice karate like there's no tomorrow, finish an afghan, sew a nightgown and an apron, write a reaction to a Deaf Awareness Day I went to, write a response to a technical article for my music class, all by the middle of December. Oh, and I still have no idea what to do for over half of the people that I need to get Christmas presents for.

Mackerel

2007-10-29T22:09:00.000-07:00

The sky was really cloudy today as I drove to class. Not altostratus cloudy, which means rain. It was mackerel sky, which means a change in the weather. At this point, a change could mean anything, and wouldn't that be fun? I just hope that, if it is rain, it waits until Thursday. I do not want to be walking around campus on Wednesday in costume only to be rained upon.

The check engine light came on in my car on Saturday, so I took it in to the shop today. After I waited an hour for the diagnosis (a very unusual occurrence at this shop, they usually get you a diagnosis in 30 min. or less), I finally asked what was up. The computer had said there was a misfire in cylinder 2, but the techs couldn't find anything wrong with cylinder 2. So they cleared the message, drove the car around, and the light didn't come back on. Thanks for informing me, guys.

Today in my ASL class we were practicing descriptions. We were then supposed to get into groups of three. Signer A would say something to Signer B about Signer C, whereupon Signer B would ask Signer C if this was the truth. Upon hearing this "rumor" about themselves, Signer C was supposed to take this and correct the conception to end up with the truth. Sounds decently easy, yes? Well, one of my group members napped during part of the instructions (he works early in the morning, and he says it's easy to fall asleep in a classroom that has no sound), and he told his friend that I was beautiful. Oops, how do I correct his "misconception" without making either of us an idiot? It was funny. :P

I don't Wanna go to School tomorrow, Mommy!

2007-10-28T21:57:00.000-07:00

Tomorrow I go back to school. I feel like I've been on summer vacation all over again, except this time I'm not ready to go back to school. Hear me? I'm not ready! I wish I coulda had this Hearing Sciences test last Tuesday. I might be a bit better prepared now, but I've had a whole 'nuther week to worry and stress. Not what I need. I refuse to believe that Thursday is the beginning of November.

I have a project to present then, and I haven't been able to get all the materials I need because there was no school last week. I have a test to take with the University on the 10th (Writing Proficiency Assessment) that determines whether or not I'll have to take more writing classes as an upper-division student. If I don't take the test, I don't get to go to my school next semester.

Because I didn't go to the Study Abroad Fair on Monday at my school, I now have no times when I can have an "informational session" with the study abroad department, and I'm not supposed to be able to meet with a study abroad adviser until I have an informational session. Except, I need to send in my paperwork soonish (I think) to go abroad in the summer of '08.

Oh, yeah, and then there's the fact that I had a week of non-class, and we were already behind in 4 of my 5 classes. Please, just drop stuff from the curriculum, or something. Shorten your notes. But don't pile on extra work!

Anyone wonder any more why I don't want to go back to school tomorrow?

In America

2007-10-27T21:07:00.000-07:00

The painting in my mom's bathroom was finished yesterday. The dark green turned out to be a lot ... darker than we imagined, and a bit more brownish, but it's growing on us (us being my mom and me). I also set up a little vignette on a shelf that had a tv there before we moved in. It now has a conch shell, a few classic (old-fashioned) looking books, and one of my dad's nautical clocks. At least my dad likes the vignette. There's a sad little ivy that lives beside my parents' bathtub, and I pulled him out of the corner because I thought he was lonely. However, my mom was free to rearrange things as she liked, and the vine is back in the corner again. I feel bad for him.

The smoke is starting to leave, but now we just have ashes raining down on us. Mom said it drizzled (rain) a little, sometime late this afternoon. Obviously it wasn't anything really substantial, since I didn't notice. I hope it rains more, but then again that's just me.

My dad took a nap before dinner tonight and was disoriented when it was time to eat. There was a quip made about him being "lost in translation," and from that point on Dad kept referring to this or that being "lost in translation." Good grief, it's a running gag. Put that together with my brother's "in America" that he picked up from a Yugi-Oh spoof/parody, and you've got a really interesting conversation around the dinner table.

I walked into a pole today. It's in the middle of my friend's house, kinda separating the living room and the kitchen, I suppose. I never really noticed it before, and then it was suddenly there when I turned around. I thought it was funny.

Painting the Day Away

2007-10-25T23:00:00.000-07:00

Not much to report on today. Got started helping my mom paint the master bathroom. We should have taped it last night, but we forgot to. So instead we spent two hours taping it off today. I did most of the taping. I also did most of the painting. Even so, I had fun. We've got touch-up to do tomorrow, along with painting the door to the toilet room (shower, bath, and sinks are separate from the toilet).

We got more smoke and ash up here after the winds changed on Tuesday. It was fun having both smoke smell (we needed to keep the room ventilated) and paint smell while painting today. The dojo was a mess, too, from all the grime that had snuck in during the couple of days the dojo wasn't in use. Guess what I'll be doing tomorrow.

The Family that Sweeps Together

2007-10-23T21:10:00.000-07:00

Just a quick update. Nerves have been keeping me on edge, which translates to not sleeping well. My family is fine, the fires are really nowhere close by. Our worst complaints are the effects of the winds themselves. For example, I have seasonal allergy-type symptoms, and my head is constantly hurting.

Along a more fun note, our pool is jade green. Has something to do with the six or seven palm trees there. There's still a bunch of grunge in the pool, but after we spent more time cleaning out there today as a family (I spent over an hour out there on my own yesterday), all the vegetation is out. The winds are dying down, too, so that's a plus. Maybe I won't have to haul felled palm fronds all around the property again for a few more days. We really had about 50 fronds torn from the palm trees and scattered all around the property.

Classes at my university have been canceled through Saturday. I am planning on doing some work for school, but it's so much more fun knitting, or putting the hem into my costume. It's easy to forget that this isn't just summer break. We really see very little smoke, and we're very lucky. I know a couple people who have lost their homes, more who have had to evacuate. I just wish the county could figure this stuff out, after all these years.

A Blustery Day in the Hundred Acre Woods

2007-10-21T23:42:00.000-07:00

Fridays are simply not constructive for blogging. Neither are Saturdays. Both tend to be boring, with nothing going on.

Except, yesterday wasn't boring. I watched 6 lovely kids, and I didn't loose my mind. All were almost perfect the whole time, except for the 2-year-old. I had to put my foot down with her. Two of the kids really, really missed mommy at bedtime, but that's understandable because I'm the first babysitter outside of family that they've had in years. By the time that mom and dad got back, though, those same two kiddos were asleep. We didn't break anything (the dvd's were already all scratched up), didn't spill anything we didn't clean up (the last bits of melted ice cream you can never get out of your bowl), and we put away everything we took out. Not bad for over 4 hours with 6 kids, even if they all know you already.

Santa Annas have arrived again. The Crest fire started almost 4 years ago today (4 days short of 4 years), and we're experiencing a bit of deja vu over here. However, we've got all our stuff piled in the front hall, just in case we are evacuated. With these winds, you never know.

The winds can create some fun, though. The sunbrella out on the deck today almost flew away. The recycling was blown into the pool. A whole bunch of leaves were blown into the courtyard and Eddy is using them as a blanket. All that aside from the fact that the wind is just plain awesome.

Now that it's past midnight, I'm gonna see if my adrenaline rush has faded enough to let me sleep some before I study myself out of my mind for my test in Hearing Sciences on Tuesday.

Kata Kabuki Time

2007-10-18T21:57:00.001-07:00

Had a good workout at karate tonight. We worked All American Form 3 for most of the hour. That's a long, intense kata. Everyone was sweating, and it was only about 70 degrees (at the most) outside. Good stuff.

I'm starting to freak out about the Hearing Sciences test on Tuesday. I've got a jumbo stack of flash cards already, and I've barely gotten into the notes for this unit. Not very comforting. I've been doing good on the homework assignments, but I can't have another low score on this test. My grade is already too low as it is. It must go up! I just keep reminding myself that this next test will have a lot of anatomy on it, rather than crazy physics of sound. It'll only half-involve how sound works, the other half is how it's transmitted. Phonetics I'm pretty sure I can easily get from the A- it is now to an A by the end of the semester. Anatomy, well, that's going quite well, as is ASL. We'll see how I did on the Voice Pedagogy midterm today. And people say I don't keep busy.

The people in my Voice class today were surprised to find out my age. They thought me older, since I act mature. People either look at my face and think I'm younger, or they notice I (generally) act mature, and think I'm older. I've yet to have someone guess my actual age.

My brother got Transformers yesterday. Actually, he got it, but convinced Dad to pay for it, even though my dad thought the movie was going to be stupid and refused to go see it in theatres. Needless to say, he enjoyed watching it tonight, and he wants to watch it again soon when Mom doesn't need to hurry to go to sleep because of work the next day. There's more to that movie than meets the eye. *ducks tomatoes*

User Error: Cannot Access Page

2007-10-17T23:11:00.000-07:00

For as long as I can remember, my dad has been filtering his email through Microsoft Outlook Express. All the time. Doesn't check it online. I can't understand Outlook, and I can't stand it, either. For the past 7 and then some years, I've been checking my email online (used AOL before that, which is slightly different from how it works now). Anywho, we (my younger brother and I) got him an email account through Google where the whole family can have access to a family calendar and see what everyone's doing, if scheduled activities overlap, conflict, what have you. It's really very neat.

My dad can't figure it out. He has to log into Google Mail to access it. How hard is mail.google.com to remember? Honestly. Mail, Google. Instead, he'll try going to the standard Google homepage and logging in there. Doesn't work so well when you type your username and password into a search box. Even better is when he tries to use his email address as a website. Yournamehere@gmail.com is not an accurate web address, just in case you weren't sure. I re-inform him on the proper method of logging in to Google Mail at least twice a day. We made this calendar about four weeks ago. You do the math.

In other news, it rained today. Did I not call it, saying that the clouds yesterday looked like rain? CHP reported 108 accidents between the hours of 6-11am today. The road is wet, people. You walk slower on a wet floor, right? Why not drive slower on a wet road?

Inka would have gone out on a line again today if it weren't raining when I left for school. She's come down with cabin fever. She never used to chew papers or magazines before (unless Eddy was around to be a bad influence and the instigator of trouble), but now she'll apparently go into rooms she wouldn't go into before to get things to tear up. I don't care if it's raining again tomorrow: she's going outside for the whole day. Let her freeze. It'll remind her how good she has it sleeping inside, even if we do tend to run the washer and dryer when she's there.

The Rain in Spain

2007-10-16T22:09:00.000-07:00

I have been insanely hungry today, and there is no earthly reason why. I've eaten more today than I have any day since this summer when I helped my uncle move and we only ate out for every meal.

Today I got to see my Anatomy test from last week. I got 119 points out of 120, which amounts to roughly 99.6%. I suppose it's comforting to know that I've got phonation down pat if I'm considering a voice emphasis. Also, I don't need to study respiration or phonation much for the Voice Pedagogy midterm the day after tomorrow. For that Voice class, all I'll need to study is the weird music stuff that I don't know because my musical experience is in piano and not solo singing.

I got a lovely 4 hours of sleep last night, and I'm starting to really feel it now, but I know I won't be tired once I go outside in the cold night air to give Inka her walk. At least I'm not getting up until 6:15 tomorrow. Besides, it's pretty and foggy outside. No, I have no idea what my point is. But we've had a lot of fog recently. Today at school it looked like rain, but it didn't rain.

The Study Abroad Fair is on Monday at school. I'll be going so that I can have all sorts of people tell me why I should go to their program. Sounds interesting, no? I wonder if I'll be able to find any summer programs in the Czech Republic. Oh, yeah, someone in my Voice Pedagogy class today called it Czechlosovakia. Get with the program, people, Czechlosovakia split into the Czech Republic and Slovakia years ago, although it was some time after the fall of the iron curtain. I think.

And that's what happens with 4 hours of sleep.

Check Point

2007-10-15T22:14:00.000-07:00

Went babysitting again today. Yes, on a Monday. Watched the same boy that I sat on the 6th. He's home this week on suspension. He's 8 years old. I might watch him again on Friday, too, depending on schedules. There were no movies today, just in case you were wondering. I got some of my reading done for my hearing sciences class, then we had lunch. You know you're on the right track preparing to be an SLP when you can explain to an 8-year-old how swallowing works, and draw him a picture.

Middle of the semester is fun. A friend informed me that we have passed the half-way point of how many school days were in the semester, so that means it's officially midterm-type time. There's two quizzes Wednesday, a midterm Thursday, two tests Tuesday, and another test the following Thursday. That makes for all of my classes except for one lab (the other lab is one of the ones with a quiz). I keep my sanity by pretending that I don't really know what's going on, so I review notes regularly. Keeps it all stuck in there. Except for Hearing Sciences (the 7:30 am class). I still don't know what a "click" is, although I think I finally understand how the hair cells themselves work, and I know more about the basilar membrane after doing my reading today.

7 weeks until a particular day in December. I'm working hard at the dojo, trying to make sure I have everything solidified. I just wish my classes would let me be there more often. How I miss Tuesday night class.

How Many Beers would a Dalmatian Drink if a Dalmatian would Drink Beers?

2007-10-14T21:59:00.000-07:00

There hasn't been much interesting going on here. Weekends tend to be that way. I've been knitting and sewing, and I'm extremely pleased with my progress on both. Pictures will come when those projects are completed.

I took a neighbor girl I sit to her soccer game Saturday morning. It rained. She still played. They lost horribly, but it was a good game, and the sittee had some really good moves out there. So I got her a cup of hot cocoa, and then we went to the grocery store, because my dad wanted me to pick up a few things.

Later on I got to pick up my brother from his friend's house. They'd gone to their high school's football game out of town. Because it was out of town, they didn't go as the marching band, so they put blue in their hair and on their faces. In my brother's case, he put red on his face, too (school colors red, white, and blue). From there, I got gas, and went to the same grocery store again, because there was something else my dad wanted me to get, because he'd forgotten it earlier. Sounds like an exciting day, yes?

We rarely keep alcohol in the house. There's just no need for it, since I don't/can't drink, and my parents rarely drink. Mom got some beer the other day to cook with, and after a joke with my dad, put one in the fridge to chill. It was promptly forgotten about until this morning when my dad went to get a soda from the fridge. You guessed it, he absent-mindedly grabbed the beer instead of a soda, and was unpleasantly surprised. He considered pouring the beer into Inka's water dish, but it was full with water. I'm so glad it was. I don't know what I would have done with a drunk Dalmatian.

Sam is still growing very well. I'm afraid that he won't fit in his pot any more in a few months, so I'm thinking it's about time to move him outside. I'm afraid to move him outside, though, because I don't want him to be eaten by the rabbits. The rabbits are without mercy. They will eat anything, especially if it has personal value to you. The gardener says this time of year would be perfect for planting him, but I need to wait until I see the weeds growing again, because that means the rabbits aren't eating the weeds.

90% off Everything!

2007-10-11T21:56:00.000-07:00

Every year, without fail, this one salon that's kinda nearish my school offers 90% discounts to girls to come give them a try. It happens in the fall, after we've been in for a few weeks and, supposedly, are missing our hairdressers/nail dressers back home. In case you don't know, I don't do anything fancy with my hair, and I almost never paint my nails. There's no way I'm gonna pay 90% off of anything to get almost nothing done, when I can get my mom to do it for free.

Usually I'm just approached by one of these advertising girls each fall semester. That's not so bad. I had my one about three weeks ago. But then, I was approached twice today while I was sitting with a friend during a break, and after the friend left, I was approached a third time! Leave me alone, girls, I'm not interested. I don't know whether to consider it a good thing that they all want my business, or a bad thing.

Skrounging

2007-10-09T22:26:00.000-07:00

I didn't have my 7:30 am class today, so I slept in until 7:00, intending to go to school to see a friend during my normal break. Upon entering the kitchen, I found a note asking me to watch and wait for a fax to come in, and then fax it to another number. So I waited as long as I could before having to leave for class. No fax. Figures. I did take a nap in that interim, though, and discovered that I apparently can't fall asleep in the leather armchairs my parents like so much. So, hard, lumpy couches it is.

I went to a meeting for the Honors Program tonight. It's usually a waste of my time, but we have to go to at least two, so I decided I might as well tonight, since I didn't have the super early class. It was even more of a waste of time than usual: they sent us on a scavenger hunt before the meeting. Yes, you heard me right. A scavenger hunt. I'm so glad I don't need to go to any more meetings until next semester.

I went to the library today before going to the meeting, because I had spare time between class and the meeting. Some 40-year-0ld dude was at the computer next to me, and his voice evidenced that he's probably been smoking cigarettes since he was 18. He kept looking at my skirt (it has eight 2" slits, but it's knee length) for the ten minutes I was in the library. He happened to get up off his computer at the same time I got off mine, and informed me he had voted me for the prettiest girl he'd seen today. Get a life, dude, and someone your own age.

It's Beginning to Look a Lot Like ... Fall

2007-10-04T22:42:00.000-07:00

We have walnut trees on our property. Sounds like a great idea, yes? Apparently we have some odd species, and so the husks stick to the shells until the nuts drop. Our first year we tried to harvest the nuts. The problem was, we picked them off the trees. Because we picked them off the trees, the nuts hadn't dropped from the husks yet. We haven't bothered since. Want to know why we don't pick up the nuts as they fall?

Because of the crows. We must get at least 7 flocks of crows every fall, coming to eat our walnuts for us. They're ugly, they're loud, they make a mess, and they're everywhere. Remember the scenes from Bambi, whenever Man is near? All the birds freaking out? That's what it was like when I took Inka for her walk yesterday morning. There must have been a minimum of 50 crows that took off from our various trees, still quwacking 4 minutes into the walk. Now I understand why Man came to the forest. He was trying to shoot the crows.

Speaking of Inka, she hasn't kept on the bandages I've put on her foot. Yes, bandages, plural. I was supposed to change her bandage yesterday. I did, after I got home from class. She tore it up and spit it out (literally). So I put on a new one. The vet only gave me enough material for two. Well, she worked her way out of that one mere minutes before I got home from karate tonight. And in case you don't remember, she doesn't stay in the cone, either. I tried again last night, after she tore up the first bandage. No luck. I had to rumage through our personal first-aid supplies (my parents keep copious amounts in our house) to find more stuff to wrap her up, yet again. I'm hoping it'll last until she gets to the vet's tomorrow morning. I don't know why she takes off the bandages I've applied, but not the ones the vet applied. I don't care at this point, either.

Free Parking Tips

2007-10-03T21:31:00.000-07:00

The lines are there for a reason.
If at first you don't succeed, try again.
One well-maneuvered parking job is worth two bad ones.
Park by others as you would have them park by you.

And remember, if you're in too much of a hurry to park properly, go home and leave us good parkers alone. Come five minutes earlier next time so you have time to park properly. Also, if someone parked really close to your driver's side door and you have less than 6 inches to get into your car, you can always climb in from the passenger's side.

Tuesday, Tuesday, can't Trust that Day

2007-10-02T22:13:00.000-07:00

Earlier today I'd thought of something really witty to put here. Honest, I did. As it is now, I can't remember it. Maybe that's because I did my homework for anatomy lab and ASL tonight. Yeah, that must be it.

Inka's been really good about swallowing her antibiotics. After the first two doses I gave her last Thursday, she's swallowed every one on the first time. I've also been giving her large pieces of bread surrounding each pill, but whatever works. It's only until next Saturday or so. Yeah, Saturday is the last day. The inside of my car is starting to look like it's been snowing in there from all the hair Inka has left behind. Sure, I could vacuum, but I don't feel like it.

Why do Tuesdays have to be so long?

As the Dog Pants

2007-10-01T21:49:00.000-07:00

Went for a walk/jog this morning. Doing that Couch to 5k thing I mentioned before. Well, I'm horribly out of shape. I got seriously lightheaded before I was done, so I stopped early. I'm going to do this again on Wednesday, though, and Friday, and keep going as best as I can, even if I don't hold to the rate at which they think you should be able to progress.

After my exercise this morning, I called the vet's to see when I should bring Inka in. Yes, they wanted to see her paw again. Either that, or they wanted to see me, but I think her paw is significantly more interesting. The vet is still proud of her keeping her bandages on so well, and he put on this stuff (layterm "tough skin") that's supposed to help, um, toughen up her skin around where the talon was removed? I get to change her bandage on my own Wednesday and put more of that tough skin stuff on. She currently has a green bandage, but she'll be going back to blue on Wednesday. I'm excited to see what color bandage she'll have on Friday. Is this sad and pathetic? Sometime when Inka was climbing into or out of the car today, she apparently stepped on the button that turns on the seat warmer. When I was driving to class this afternoon, I couldn't figure out why in the world it was so hot in my car. Imagine me, AC on, windows down, and seat warmer burning it's way through my epidermis. Okay, at least through my jeans.

I have lots of projects coming up in school. Well, not so many, but it feels like a lot. A significant amount of homework, and there's a project for ASL, not to mention the tournament I have on Saturday (karate, not school). No laughing at me; I just might snap. My brain seriously seemed to stop higher-level processing at around 8:07 tonight. I was at the dojo, practicing tournament katas. Not a good combination, just in case you were wondering. Oh, and I have not yet started the two projects I have due in November for my voice pedagogy class. Is it Christmas yet?

Out with the Old

2007-09-30T22:10:00.000-07:00

Ever looked at your room and known you really need to clear things out? Well, I have that coupled with an intense, building urge to paint my room. It's been white since we moved in. White. Before we moved, I'd been allowed to paint my room a shade more green than white. After thirteen years of flamingo pink and ABC wallpaper. Paint is good. It's good for the soul. Maybe that's why the bathroom is now the color of a kiwi's flesh (the fruit, of course).

Well, my bedroom isn't in shape to be painted. And I have this old shelf I've been wanting to remove from my room for a long time. Saying "a long time" is an understatement. I got the thing when I was in 5th grade. It's an ugly, white metal shelf that I used when I had a bunkbed so that I could put down the book I was reading without having to climb out of the top bunk. This thing had long outlived its purpose, and yet it remained in my room, filled with junk. It is no more. Now my dad can use it, for putting his own junk on. But it's not in my room anymore. You don't want to know what color the carpet was under that, after seven years of not vacuuming. It's since been vacuumed, and you can't tell that there was a big, ugly shelf there before.

Next to go was an old laundry hamper full of odd pieces of fabric remnants. Now, I have some fabric remnants that are perfectly fine, but these are the gaudily shiny fabric remnants that I apparently convinced my mom to buy when I was younger. Probably somewhere around 5th grade. They were tossed, and that pointless old laundry hamper is no longer in my room, either. Next to go will be the cat-shaped cd rack mounted on my wall.

I also cleaned things out from my closet. Didn't really start to make a dent, but I found many interesting items. Lots of bank statements from 2005 (the year I graduated from high school, when Social Security paid me to finish high school). Papers from 2005. Powerpoint notes from this last spring semester. Lots of things from Oceanography. And a pair of shoes I don't think I've worn since my sophomore year of high school. I'll pick up my clothes before I go to bed, too, to compensate for the pillows and stuffed animals going back on the floor (they reside on my bed if it's made, on the floor if it's not). I've already filled my trash can to overflowing, and most of another trash bag. Once I have the room to a more-than-satisfactory state, I'll take a picture, and there will be a picture when I'm done painting, too. Don't know when I'll paint, between 18 units, karate, chauffeuring, knitting and sewing, cooking ... I sound like a mom, don't I? Yeesh. :P

How to Prepare for a Tournament

2007-09-29T22:53:00.000-07:00

Good Ideas:

Practice your kata multiple times a day
Practice your kata to an inspirational piece of music
Review your kata mentally, seeing yourself perform your kata flawlessly
Practice the facial gestures you want to use to communicate the mood of your kata
Practice sparring
Get advice from your instructors on adjustments you can make to your kata or sparring style

Bad Ideas:

Misperform a technique in your kata and injure yourself
Wait until 3 days before the tournament to practice your kata
Delay deciding on your weapons kata
Don't ask for constructive advice
Spar a black belt

The Airway is Shut

2007-09-28T22:57:00.000-07:00

How can a year go so fast? It doesn't seem like summer's over yet, but Monday is going to be October. I don't know how that happened. I've had my first tests in all of my classes so far this semester. Well, I've decided that I'm probably not going to try to be an audiologist in addition to being a speech-language pathologist. At least not if I would have to regularly deal with the physics of sound. That is, *ahem* apparently not my forte.

I did much better on the test for the anatomy and physiology of the respiratory system. Especially in comparison to the rest of the class. I suppose an audiologist might be able to get away without having to do conversions for sound stuff. However, I'd be rather scared if the SLP treating my child didn't know that another name for the "airway" is "trachea." How do you get away with that? How could you not know that? The trachea was just about the only thing discussed in the 2.5 hour Anatomy lecture every Tuesday.

Inka got a new bandage on her paw today, but that was about it. The vet was impressed she'd managed to keep her bandage on (as am I, believe me). Her new bandage is blue. And she behaved herself rather well in the car, too. I only had to half-push her in. On the way back from the vet's, she barely even begged for attention. She just sat curled up like a cat on her 101 Dalmatians towel on the passenger seat. There is some white hair in my car, though.

The Next Houdini

2007-09-27T21:06:00.000-07:00

How many times a month can I blog about my dog? Well, every day, if I really want to. I believe I've mentioned before how great an escape artist she is. Well, I didn't post this story last night, since I didn't want it to detract from the rest of my talk about Tennessee. On Sept. 19, she broke free of her leash/collar that I'd put her on before going to school. By breaking free, I mean she snapped the clasp. I got her three minutes before I wanted to leave, and I didn't have a chance to clean up her bloody front right paw. Luckily Mom was on her way home, so a quick phone call assured that the princess wouldn't have a muddy paw all day. That evening I took a look, in between packing, and it appeared that she'd managed to make cuts in the innermost long talon on that paw.

Flash forward to when I get home from Tennessee. She's walking on the paw okay, but it's looking like despite our cleaning efforts, she did get an infection. By Wednesday, Mom had enough, and took my princess to the vet on Wednesday. Enter a neon-orange bandage on her paw (looks like a cast, but cooler), antibiotics, and one cone. We all know how good dogs are at finding the medicine in their food, so I won't comment on that. But this mutt can get out of the cone. I've made the fool thing as small as it will go, and she still slips it off. I have to manipulate her ears to get the cone to slide on, but she manages to get it off. Dad tried to put it back on after he got home from work, and he said she had the cone off in two minutes.

I get to take her in tomorrow for the vet to look at the paw again, see if the infection had traveled very far up into her paw. Tomorrow you might be regaled with the tale of how hard it is to drive when she's begging me for attention during the whole 15 minute trip to town. Won't that be exciting?

If you have not already done so, please do so now.

2007-09-26T20:33:00.000-07:00

I know, it's been a few days since I've updated. Really, I've been tired all that time. Tennessee was awesome, but it throws off my sleep schedule, and anything that throws off my sleep schedule gives me migraines. Guess what I started getting Saturday afternoon.

The seminars on Saturday were great. I participated in 5 sessions that day: 2 of 3 sessions with Bill "Superfoot" Wallace (I was worn out by the time that his third session took place that day), ground fighting, women's self defense, and tai chi. All of them were very well done, very informative, exhilarating, and effective (I have the bruises to prove it). That evening at the banquet a black belt from our dojo received her 6th degree. It was a surprise for her, as it was for nearly everyone else. As a matter of fact, a couple of the highest ranks had decided on it the night before. I think that was without the input of her husband, too, who was the highest rank there at that seminar. If you know them, you know who I'm talking about.

I bought a book of Sudoku for the flight back home. Let me just say it's a good thing my professors put notes up online, because I wouldn't be able to get everything down if they didn't. I'm not saying I don't take any notes, I just wouldn't be able to get every point. Now I can at least write down the points I feel I need to emphasize.

There are multiple factors for why I was still so tired upon returning from Tennessee. One of them is the fact that my sleep schedule was thrown off, which brings in number two, the migraine. A third factor is the pressure point I had demonstrated on me Friday night (I could still feel its effects on Sunday and Monday). Fourth is the slight cold I caught on the trip, and fifth would be the two tests I had yesterday. After that I had a quiz today. All of that makes for a very tiring week, and I'm not surprised I've been out of it.

I'm going to start running. It's actually a walking/jogging program that's supposed to help one get up to jogging/running 3 miles (5k) in about 9 weeks. It's called Couch to 5k. Go figure. It looks doable, so I'm gonna do it. One of the students who got his black belt over the summer told me about it. Google it if you're interested.

The flight home from Tennessee was fun, as I'm quickly finding out every karate-related event tends to be. Taught one of our black belts how to play Go Fish (he's from Venezuela) in the terminal, then I learned how to play 21. After the dynamics of Go Fish, though, 21 seems a little ... simple. The other blackbelts on our trip were surprised by the intense dynamics my roommate and I had every night on the trip, playing Go Fish and watching HGTV. I napped on the plane until snacks arrived. I spent the rest of the trip taking pictures of clouds (actually, my roommate for the trip had taken them, since she was in the window seat), doing some of the puzzles in my Sudoku book, and taking pictures of sleeping black belts that will never be circulated, under certain pain of death. It was still funny, though. We had lots of turbulence we went through/around on the flight. The flight attendant even went down the aisle three or four times, passing out drinks. The strange woman on the other seat in my row (besides me and my roommate) had a white wine the first time he came down the aisle and didn't wake up until the flight was basically over. The best part, though, was probably when the pilot came on the intercom and said, "Ladies and gentlemen, if you haven't already done so, please do so now."

You have been Thwacked

2007-09-21T22:07:00.000-07:00

Did more shopping today, since there weren't any karate events until this evening. I found something each for my mom and my dad, but since my brother actually told me what he'd like, he's harder to shop for. Go figure.

I worked with escrimas tonight. Very little can match fighting with sticks. My partner was a yellow belt, and I think she felt intimidated by me. I don't know why. I didn't get thwacked at all tonight until I was at the banquet, and a particular callous I have on my right wrist was pointed out to an instructor who's big on pressure points. Said instructor got excited and showed me exactly how I can use that callous to hit a particular pressure point. I know exactly how it feels, and he didn't even thwack me hard.

Tomorrow's the real deal camp. The first hour of the day is stretching. Doesn't that sound like fun? Stretching with an undefeated middleweight sparring champ. At 9:00 in the morning, which is 7:00 on my time.

Flying High

2007-09-20T21:50:00.000-07:00

Traveling today was really easy. For me. Some people in our party didn't have as easy of a time, but all turned out well in the end. Once we got into Tennessee, we checked in and went to O'Connors for dinner. I had chicken tenders, french fries, and potato soup. That soup was wonderful, with lots of cheese in it. In case you don't already know, cheese is good. I had leftovers that I brought back to the fridge in the hotel room.

After that we went to the mall for about an hour and a half, before it closed at 9:00. I got a pair of shoes. Really my first pair of designer shoes. I like them. A picture will be posted after I get home.

Got back to the room, talked with my roommate some, and after we'd settled in to watch HGTV we had a knock on our door inviting us to go to the Waffle House. Apparently, the Waffle House is really big around here. It's like McDonald's, with one on every corner. So, at 11:00 pm in Tennesse we went and ate a waffle, taking pictures of our food, and we got special Waffle House commemorative hats, and the ladies in the next booth over were able to surmise that we aren't from these parts.

There are two computers here in the hotel lobby, so after getting back from waffles, my roommate and I came to check email and such. My roommate was singing Mission Impossible as we went down the hall, and she's a fully-grown mother of two. I now will rarely have fear again that I'm far too random.

Avast!

2007-09-19T19:23:00.001-07:00

I've heard tell of a wench what owned a Dalmatian. Now, this was no normal Dalmatian, for that dog could be shyer than a sea-sick horse and have more energy than a hurricane. The Dalmatian had a spirit as free as a summer breeze, and very little could keep the Dalmatian at bay. One after another, the Dalmatian would break the bonds placed upon her and roam as she saw fit. They say the wench still wanders the land, following behind the Dalmatian, searching for something strong enough to keep the Dalmatian in her place, but until then the wench is forced to live her life in futilely restless days.

Canniballistic

2007-09-18T20:32:00.000-07:00

Ever had dinner prepared before it was time to eat? All that needed to happen was for someone to turn on the oven and stick it in. I did that today. Wanted my dad to stick it in the oven after I called saying I was out of class. With the time the oven took to heat plus the 60+ minute cook time, it should have been ready about 30 minutes after I got home from school. I got home, and the uncooked dinner was sitting on the counter. Hadn't been anywhere near the oven yet. Remember, Tuesday is my day that I'm on campus for 11 hours. When I get home, I'm tired, I'm hungry, and I'm quite often cranky. If I expect dinner to be ready, dinner better be ready. So, here I am, an hour after I got home from school, and dinner should be ready in another four minutes, but I know it will be another 5 minutes minimum to get my dad and brother to the table, even though I told them 6 minutes ago that it was 10 minutes until dinner.

On a more positive note, I saw my high school choir director at my university today. Let that thought run through a couple of times: one of my high school teachers, studying at my university. He's going for his master's in business. He only has 12 units this semester, lucky duck.

~~~~~

Almost forgot, I took a couple pictures this morning of the lake. It was pretty and foggy. The temperature outside when I woke up this morning was 51 degrees. Because of the setting I had to use on the camera, the pictures are a bit blurry, but I think they're still rather lovely.

Gag me with a Spoon

2007-09-17T22:23:00.000-07:00

Something I forgot to mention before, although how I could have forgotten, I have no idea. My brother forgot to take his salsa in with him to school on Friday. He didn't bother trying to bring it in today for half credit. I think I'm going to make him eat it, with a spoon. I will sit there as he has to eat the whole container of garlic-flavored tomatoes.

I'm almost completely ready to go to Tennessee. Mainly packed, but I don't know what to pack as far as nicer clothes (for banquets, and then church on Sunday morning). Packing a gi is easy, it just takes up a lot of room if you don't want it to wrinkle too much. :P I keep checking the weather for Tennessee, too. It's supposed to be high 80's, and for a bit it looked like there were going to be thunder storms while I was there, but they look like they'll be much later (Wednesday, instead of the weekend). Don't get me wrong, I love a good thunderstorm, but I don't want one when I'm visiting a city for the first time. Speaking of weather, I had fog coming home from karate tonight. How weird is that? Fog, in September, in SoCal. I thought it wasn't supposed to arrive until February?

Doggonnit

2007-09-16T23:36:00.000-07:00

I love my Dalmatian. I really do. But to say that she's high-strung would be putting it mildly. Within the last four months, she's broken nearly all the lines we've had tied out so that our dogs can be outside without leaving the property. So the last couple of days she's been in the courtyard during the day, while she still gets to sleep in the laundry room at night. Talk about spoiled. Eddy was in the courtyard with her while we were at church today, and the two of them managed to find a box of old newspaper and tear nearly all the paper apart. After Eddy left the courtyard, Inka climbed up into the planter boxes and took a nap in my mom's ice plant-type plants up there. Dad told Inka he might send her to Tanzania.

Speaking of dogs, the both of them are about 8 1/2 now. At least, that's what we think. Eddy, of course, was rescued from a junkyard, so we're not positive on that one. The point is, though, that Eddy seems to be greying around the muzzle, maybe some on the neck, and we think he might be starting to get some arthritis. Don't they usually get arthritis onset somewhere around 10? And can you tell whether or not a Dalmatian is starting to go grey?

Mail Gene

2007-09-14T23:07:00.000-07:00

I'm getting ready to go to Tennessee next week for a karate seminar. I'm excited. I'd like some pocket money, so I asked my parents for a few odd jobs I can do around the house. Mom asked me to clean off the kitchen counters, clean the kitchen, and to clean up the master bath. So I did.

See, I had been sorting the mail into these folders toward the end of the summer, since it has a tendency to get super bad. If it were my mail, I'd be able to toss things right away. But it's my parents' mail, so I just sort, and try to make it as easy as possible for them to throw things away. When I started classes again this fall, though, I wasn't home anymore when the mail came, so it's been multiplying on the counter. So I sorted it today. I even arranged the fruit prettily in a bowl in the middle of the eating area of the counter, to emphasize the fact that I'd cleared it off.

Then my dad got home while I was at karate, with today's mail. It just sat there, so I sorted it when I got home. And then my dad pulled out all the junk that's been gathering in the living room and proceeded to sort it. On my clean kitchen counter. Mom's gonna be really happy to see that when she gets home tomorrow.

Salsa Mix

2007-09-13T23:55:00.000-07:00

I have an advanced algebraic equation for you to take a look at:

(1 brother + 1 college-aged sister)/(1 mom working out the house) + log(Spanish III assignment) = garlic-flavored tomatoes

In case you couldn't follow my astoundingly impressive math, my brother got an assignment (last week?) to make salsa. Simple enough, right? He told Mom he needs ingredients. Her work schedule was changed, and somehow the proper ingredients never made it home. The salsa is due tomorrow (I remember when I had this assignment, too), so once again, it's sister-mom to the rescue. What did I use? That's a good question. Get a load of this ingredient list:

canned, diced tomatoes
garlic (thank goodness we actually had the real, fresh stuff)
dried cilantro (from a bottle, no chance to get the real stuff)

But wait, it gets better. That was the end of the correlation between suggested ingredients and available ingredients (we did have an onion and some bell peppers, but since they were eligible for observation of microbiology in action, I decided they should be tossed, instead of tossed into the salsa). The rest, well, I basically pulled it out of the spice cupboard, and if it smelled like it might work, it went in:

basil
onion salt
salt
pepper
white pepper
wasabi (just a dash)
a the stems of a few leaves from my sage plant, Sam

And now you know how to make garlic-flavored tomatoes. We're hoping that the salsa will have a chance to let the flavors merge overnight. If his class doesn't like it, well, I'll just toss it. If I want garlic-flavored tomatoes, I'll make spaghetti.

The best part of this is, though, that my dad still doesn't know we even made salsa tonight, or that it was even an assigned project.