"The end of the human race will be that it will eventually die of civilization." – Ralph Waldo Emerson
Urk ~ Wednesday, February 28, 2001 ~ 8:30 PM
I just got out of an amusing TransEng class. We got back our midterms (I got an A!!!) today and spent the entire class just goofing off. At least until the last five minutes when he handed out our first project. In the next four weeks, I have to design three roadways over a given mountain, then do an anlysis, pick the best one, and do a detailed profile about the design of that chosen one. *sigh* It seems overwhelming because I don't really know where to start, but I think once I get started, everything will be fine.
My linear teacher is such an ass!!!!! He can't teach, he's rude, and he has managed to singlehandedly piss off every single person in my class. The real kicker of his class is that he assumes we understand everything just because it's been written on the board. If he writes up "span (V) = {v1, v2,....,vn}", he expects us to know exactly what that means. And of course we don't. It's nto that we're stupid, it's just that we don't have the vocabulary or the concepts yet. Be that as it may, today he was very nasty to me in particular and the class in general. I asked a question and instead of answering it, he asked me it back. So I said (nicely, not spitefully), "I don't have a clue." And so he just stands there a minute, then gets up in my face (I sit in the front row) and says, "Well, get a clue!!!" About this time, my classmates attacked him with chains and ropes and lynched him right there on the spot.
Well, I wish they had. They did start arguing with him and sounded almost as pissed off as I was. We went back and forth for a while, until finally we just gave in and stopped paying attention to him. Sometimes the frustration of not understanding is better than dealing with the pure fury welling up inside you, just waiting to be unleashed in a rampage of violence. I think one day they will find Dr. Gibson with his body stuck full of mechanical pencils and his head slammed shut in a Linear book. It's called death by engineer. *sighs at the fond mental image* Anyway, the fact remains that he's not a good teacher and should be sent away to a place where he can't bother me anymore. Preferrably somewhere in Tibet.
I have soooo much to do in the next few weeks. I have a Dynamics test March 6, Linear test March 9, History test March 9, Mechanics test March 12, Forum paper due March 13, History essay, History book report, homework for all those classes, lab reports, and a TransEng project. It hurts!!!! I need a vacation soooo badly. *sob*
Anyways, enough bitching. Jessica's cooking Greg and I dinner. She's a good friend to do that, you know. I was supposed to help her, but she told me to go do my lab report and she'd do it herself. *grin* Of course I'll have to do the same for her soon, but I'm looking forward to it.
Speaking of, I guess I should actually work on that lab report. *sheepish grin* Fun fun!
Current Music: 'At the Stars' - Better Than Ezra
Ice Cream ~ Tuesday, February 27, 2001 ~ 11:29 PM
I have met the love of my life. No, not Jeff, although he's pretty great too. Actually, he's almost perfect, but no matter how wonderful Jeff is, this is better. It is Ben and Jerry's Cherry Garcia Frozen Yogurt. Oh my God, this is the best stuff I have ever eaten. It's not exactly ice cream 'cause it's frozen yogurt, but you can't really tell. It's got dark chocolate and black cherries all through it and it is the absolute god of dessert. Words defy me. There's still half a carton of it in my freezer and all I want to do is go wallow in it. I can hear it calling me from the kitchen, a siren song of chocolate cherry perfection begging me to indulge myself. I have the distinct feeling that I shall have to meander into the kitchen, spoon in hand, shortly before bedtime to discuss the situation, seeing as I don't believe I can sleep knowing it's in there waiting for me. *drools*
Uh, yeah. *sheepish grin* Anyways, the rest of today went really well. I was planning on going to the ASCE meeting at the duckpond after my forum class to eat pizza and to learn to paddle the concrete canoe. Unfortunantly, they forgot they were supposed to have pizza and it was cold and rainy. I opted to NOT go swimming in the 35 degree nasty duck water today, but I'll probably end up out there sometime this week. I actually like those people - they're nice enough, although they're all seniors, so there's a bit of a communication gap at times. I ahven't had all the advanced engineering classes yet, you see. ;-)
It's funny, though. Despite the fact that today went really well, I was on edge all day. Maybe it's PMS, maybe there's a full moon soon, maybe I'm just crazy, but I was about one chocolate bar away from losing my temper with people all day. Everyone, that is, except for Jeff. He and I are getting along great this last week - hardly a single argument! We've started a new tradition where we get together and cook every Tuesday night and I really enjoy it! *grin* He's really a wonderful guy and I am so lucky to have him.
Unfortuantly, not everyone was so lucky as Jeff. I can usually put up with Greg (Jessica's best friend) and his personality quirks, but today while we were out at the duckpond, he kept kicking the poor ducks. We have a joke about them, how they're evil ducks and are really planning to take over the world. We have all kinds of elaborate plans to combat them and their holy war. But it's all a joke. Because of this joke, Greg thought it was funny to kick them and HURT them. Now, I'm hardly a rabid PETA bunny-hugger, but I don't like to see animals get hurt, even if they are evil ducks with plans for world domination. Well, Greg finally kicked one too many and I rounded on him. I only said two sentences, but I definitely made sure I put every ounce of contempt, fury, and command I could into those two short phrases. I'll admit that I was a teeny bit harsh (judging by the absolute shock on Jessica and Greg's faces), but I thought it was justified. Later, I felt bad for coming down on him so hard (I mean, I'm not his mother to tell him what to do and not do), but not tooooo bad. After all, he shouldn't have kicked the duck. But I think he's a bit upset with me now....and since he's my ride to class, I think I'll be walking the next couple of days. Ah well. I did it today and I did it all summer, and it has never bothered me before. Good exercise, actually. And I don't think he'll kick any more ducks. At least not while I'm around. *smug grin*
Current Music: 'Isobel' - Dido
Incompetency ~ Tuesday, February 27, 2001 ~ 9:46 AM
For some reason, the last two mornings I have woken up mind-numbingly exhausted. I don't know why - I've been getting seven or eight hours of sleep, an unheard of luxury for a college student such as myself. I have two theories, though. Either it is that my body has become so accustomed to four or less hours of sleep that it can't handle eight, or I'm experiencing alien abductions that each morning are wiped from my memory before they place me back in my bed at UAH. Either case, the end result is complete and utter fatigue. And when I'm that tired, it results either in violence or incompetency.
Now normally my brief bouts of fatigue-induced incompetency don't really present a hazard. After all, the majority of the world's population is incompetent, therefore the majority of the world is designed to accomodate a certain level of stupidity. But today...no today was different day. I'm the idiot who decided to wake up, who stagged out of bed, fell into the shower, staggered back out, and prcoeeded to start my day. The one who let my spastic obsessive-complusive nature notice a small thread hanging off of my shirt sleeve. A thread! An insult by the universe to my otherwise orderly life! It must be removed! So, instead of leaving the thread, like most people, I stagged over to my desk and grabbed my little set of sewing scissors. My SHARP sewing scissors. Then, at that point, my brain decided that it had had enough, thank you very much, and that it was going on break for the next five minutes. So I decide that while I'm trying to clip off this thread hanging off my sleeve I'll just take a little vacation mentally and not pay attention. So I did. That is until I cut off most of the skin on my left pinky knuckle. My mental vacation was cut short by the sudden realization that not only had I trimmed my thread but also my finger. After a brief moment of staring at it stupidly while while blood dripped everywhere, I then realized that maybe I should do something about it. Resignedly, I went out to wash it off and met my roommate at the sinks. She didn't say anything when I told her that I'd cut myself with my scissors, but I could almost hear the thought. "How the hell could you cut your own finger with a pair of scissors? I thought we grew out of that in first grade." *sigh* Just goes to show you that even brief moments of stupidity can happen to you!
Current Music: 'Silent All These Years' - Tori Amos
*yawn* ~ Monday, February 26, 2001 ~ 2:25 PM
Today is an absolutely gorgeous day. Almost perfect, in fact, except for that little pesky bit about being Monday. I'm in a pretty darn good mood. ;-) I'm about to head out to Mechanics, but I have just enough time to post before I have to leave.
Well, I'm back from Hendersonville. I had a pretty uneventful weekend. I got to see my grandparents and my parents and sister. I came back to UAH with lots of good homemade food and actually managed to get most of my important homework done. Of course, the best part of going home is that I get to play with my cats (you can keep in touch with people over the phone, but pets you have to actually visit). Well, play is a relative term....they spent most of the time sleeping on or around me and generally not being very playful. But they were really darn cute. Ah, the true sign of a cat's approval. ;-)
Today has been good so far. I have a TransEng midterm today *makes a face* but that shouldn't be too bad. I just finished my Mechanics homework. Jeff's lucky - his last class has been cancelled, so he's done at 3:45. Lucky boy.
An old friend e-mailed me last night. It was very surprising because I've been laboring under the impression that she absolutely hates me now. The e-mail was about getting her picture off my website, but it wasn't a "mad" e-mail. In fact, I wrote her back, and now we're actually talking. I'm really glad - she's a good friend that I thought I'd lost. It was actually making me depressed, especially because I had (and have) no idea why she was so mad at me. But it looks like things are going to be better now between us. She sounds really sad and lonely, and I really regret not being there for her this last semester. Maybe this is my chance to kind of make up for it, if she's decided to be friends again.
Well, off to scrounge dinner to take with me to class. I have the choice of peanut butter and jelly or jelly and peanut butter. *sigh* It really is too bad that there's no food over there, since I'm stuck there for the next five hours. Mmmm, nasty snack-machine food. ;-)
Current Music: "Don't Think of Me" by Dido
Weekend Plans ~ Friday, February 23, 2001 ~ 11:59 AM
I'm not going to get to make it to the rally. I'd already been planning for the last couple of weeks to go home to visit my parents. My granparents drove the four hour trip into Nashville from Memphis just to see me while I was home. My grandmother can't travel very well, so they won't get the chance again for a long time. This proration thing came up at the last minute and I can't exactly tell me granparents "Oops, sorry, something more important than you came up." *sigh* I would like to do both, but it's just not possible. The good thing is that the entire city is uproar, so there's going to be a huge turnout. I don't suppose one person less will make the difference. There's also a huge protest going on in Montgomery Saturday night.
I think this weekend will be nice, even though I have a lot of work to do. I have to study for my Transportation Engineering midterm, do Dynamics and Mechanics homework, and write up a Mechanics lab report. I also need to start on my History papers and work on Linear homework. I hope I'll have time to sit down visit with my family. *big grin* I get to see my cats too! :-) :-) :-)
I really am looking forward to going home. There are just times I need to see my parents. I know, I'm on my fifth semester in college, soon to be a junior, and theoretically that's supposed to mean that I don't need my parents. Well, that's one of the stupidest ideas that college students get. ;-) Everyone needs their parents, whether they admit or not, including me. There are times when it's just nice to go sit in my mom or dad's lap and just go back to being their child again. I get so stressed with everything I have to take care of and everything I need to do, but when they tell me that it's all going to be okay and that I can handle anything the world throws at me, I can't help but believe them. Parents are just cool like that - they have been cultivating their mind control ability for years, and mine are just damn good at it. And they give me cookies to take back to school! :-) Mmmm....home made chocolate chip......
My dad and gradfather will be here after my linear algebra class. I don't suppose I'll have the time to post until Sunday or Monday. We'll see. ;-)
Rally ~ Thursday, February 22, 2001 ~ 3:51 PM
If you live in Alabama, then recently you have heard the meancing word "proration" thrown about a lot in the media. If you don't, then what follows is an explanation of recent events that, if pushed through, could seriously affect the lives of everyone at the University of Alabama in Huntsville.
Alabama's educational system is primarily funded by sales taxes and income taxes. When the economy drops, people in Alabama make and spend less money, meaning that the educational system is suddenly affected by a huge drop in funding. Proration. Because the citizens of Alabama do not want a lottery and don't want to pay higher property taxes, our dear Governor Siegelman decided that the solution was to simply cut the funding to K-12 schools. They, of course, protested and filed a lawsuit. Which they won. Sounds good, right? No.
Because the K-12 school will be recieving their full budget, it is the four-year colleges (such as the University of Alabama in Huntsville) that are taking the entire brunt of the budget cuts. 28% The President of our University, Frank Franz, has stated that it will take either a 50% tuition increase or the firing of 200-250 employees to offset the financial crisis we are currently facing. That, or ALL the funding for the research programs here will be cut. Any of the three solutions will destroy this university.
Saturday night, Governor Siegelman is coming to Huntsville. We are planning a rally to meet him at the airport when he flies in. We're hoping to have as many people as possible. I'm hoping I can make it.
If the tuition rates increase, half of the student population here will be forced to leave. I can pay the increase, but that removes the option of graduate school. Most of the people I know will lose jobs here AND will possibly be forced to leave because they can't pay the new tuition.
Damn this state and it's God-before-education mindset. They'd rather their children grow up ignorant boors than have a lottery. Idiocy really is contangious.
*contented sigh* ~ Wednesday, February 21, 2001 ~ 9:23 PM
First off, I can't figure out why my picture doesn't show up half the time. If you hit refresh enough times, it actually will load, but I'm getting sick of seeing that stupid little red x. I thought it was Geocities, but it loads fine from there. Maybe it's Pitas.
Today I am inexplicably happy. I had a good time through most of the evening and I suppose really most of the day. I've been pretty much consumed with thoughts of Dagorhir. I'm in charge of the fledgling chapter here, so I'm trying to work out how to organize the building of weapons and the making of clothing so that everyone has something to wear to and to fight with at the next national event. I'm nto too experienced with the organization, so I need the help of veterans. But the good news is that we're officially a Duchy of the Southern Marches (based in Atlanta, Georgia). Now all we need is a name....
Like I said, today actually turned out pretty good. Hump day....the worst is past. My history class was interesting. We're talking about the impact of Christianity on Western Civ (yes, I put off history 101 until my fifth semester *grumble*), and I LOVE watching professors try to dance around the topic. They're so afraid someone will get offended, they bend over completely backward to cover their PC asses. It's quite amusing.
Linear was interesting. Have you ever been in one of those half-awake half-asleep states where you're dreaming, but everyhting from the dream and the real world is mixed together? That's how I spent my math class today. I kept dreaming about Dagorhir, but I was being held in a classroom and forced to do linear. It was very disorienting. Mechanics and TransEng were pretty good. I had a great time in TransEng and came out of there in a wonderfully happy mood. We have our midterm Monday. :-P
Well, I'm going to wander out into the rain to meet up with Jeff. We're going to watch Babylon 5! :-)
RANT ~ Tuesday, February 20, 2001 ~ 8:39 PM
I am currently in one of the grumpiest, grouchiest, foulest, piss-poor moods I have been in in a long time. This morning, I had to sit through a lecture on Jazz, when all I wanted to do was go to sleep. Engineering keeps me awake. Lectures on Black History month and Jazz do not. Then, everyone I know in the not-so-small city of Hunstville proceeded to get on my very last nerve for the rest fo the day! Right through my second class, right up until about ten minutes ago. My friends all mean well, I know, but for some reason, human contact is driving me absolutely crazy!!!!!!! My boyfriend is too busy watching one of my favorite shows (and he didn't even tape it for me) to spend two SECONDS on the phone with me so I can tell him I'm back from class. My friends are all driving me insane. Maybe it's me, but EVERYONE I know seems to think that if you ever consider disagreeing with them it's a form of personal attack. They immediatly get hostile, defensive, and STOP LISTENING TO YOU. It doesn't matter if you were totally agreeing with them - if they think you said one thing, they won't wait to find out if they're right or not. No, they just jump down your throat!!!! The next person who insists upon misunderstanding me because they're too fucking stubborn to shut the hell up and LISTEN, I will kill with my bare hands, I swear to God. I can say the sky is blue and everyone here will assume I'm attacking them!!! *screams in total frustration*
Ahem. Errr...*blushes* Okay, done venting now. I'm still pissed off, but if everyone I've had to deal with today will come back to me groveling at my feet for forgiveness, I'm sure this foul mood will clear right up. *sigh* In the meantime, I'm going to do homework and hope no one comes over to visit.
I'm back! ~ Tuesday, February 20, 2001 ~ 9:47 AM
I really didn't mean to drop off the face of the planet for most of this month. It's just that everything hit me at the same time and suddenly blog writing got pushed to the very end of my To Do list, right along with eating, sleeping, and breathing. But I survived the midterms and lab reports and homework assignments from hell.
I got an A on ym Mechanics test, but I didn't do so hot on my linear test. My linear preofessor doesn't let us use calculators. He doesn't seem to understand that once you reach higher math, you forget how to do those pesky things like add, subtract, and multiply - they just aren't as important because you have much more to worry about. Well, this man counts off a lot for simple math mistakes. This bothers me, but even more because HE makes sooooo many casual mistakes on the board. So I've decided that since he counts off for us, he should get counted off too. We get counted off our grades, but since he's essentially graded by how much he gets paid, I'm going to put a tip jar up at the front. Every time he makes a mistake, he should have to put a dollar in the jar!
Jeff and I are getting along wonderfully. We had a great weekend where we just lazed around and had fun. I think I really needed the break I got this weekend. I had nowhere to be, very little homework to complete, and all the time in the world to just relax. The only thing I went out and did was going to see "Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon" with Spencer, Eric, Jeff, and Clint. Now THAT'S a GOOD movie. Go see it!
Anyway, it's almost time for today's rat race to begin. On your mark, get set....GO!!!!!
Too much work!!!! ~ Saturday, February 3, 2001 ~ 9:39 AM
Ack!!! This week and next week have suddenly become the weeks from hell!!! I don't know what happened...it was a nice, peaceful week as far as homework and such goes. Then all of a sudden...BAM!!! Dynamics test this Tuesday, Mechanics homework, Mechanics lab report, extra history essay from the test (honors requirement, so it's extra on top of everything else), transportation engineering homework, history topics to look up and research to do, and on top of it all, I somehow got conned into being at the History building to meet with my teacher at 8:45 AM on Monday morning!!! Now, don't get me wrong...I spent three semesters with an 8AM class, so 8:45 isn't soooooo bad. It's just that I wouldn't be getting up until 9 if I didn't have to be there before then. I don't have class until 10:20! Ah well....enough bitching. *grin*
Jeff and I are getting along much better. He and I both kind of agree that we just needed to get away from each other, to spend a little more time apart. We see each other every day but more often than not it's in between classes when all we can think about is what's due next and all the work we have to do. This usually makes both of us grouchy and stressed, so we fight. Quantity, not quality, I guess you could say. But we're doing much better now.....we've both just kind of backed off, and the time we have spent together has been a lot of fun.
Actually, something kind of neat has come up. Jeff has been offered a job back in the CCRH dorms here on campus. Right now he's an RA in Southeast housing, where I am. Southeast is basically a group of eight apartment buildings, in which the juniors, seniors, Greeks, and even the occasional sophomore live. CCRH is the Freshman-Sophomore dorm. It's a very active place, unlike apathetic southeast. I'm actually encouraging Jeff to go over there because of everything that goes on there. Because of his time at ASMS he has the the perfect background to be an RA in a dorm like that. Putting him is Southeast is almost a waste, because they never utilize his people skills. CCRH would be a better place! Yeah, I probably won't ever see him because he's going to have so much to do there. They have to do a lto mroe programs and meetings, along with office hours, bulletin boards and stuff. Plus, CCRH is clear on the other side of campus. I don't have a car and I have this odd thing about wandering around campus at night. But I think he'd like it a lot more there than here at Southeast. There's lots of happy people there (not burned-out-cynics, like SECH ;-), and the staff is cool. He'd have a lot of fun!
I went to the Homecoming hockey game last night! It was fun! :-) Jeff couldn't make it because he was sick, but Chris, Mike, Jessica, Greg, and a bunch of other friends made it. The second game is tonight. We won last night, so I hope tonight goes as well. ;-) Hehehe...they let me have Shakers!!!!! *evil grin*
Stressed Out ~ Tuesday, January 30, 2001 ~ 12:53 PM
*sigh* Dynamics again. And Mechanics Lab report. And all kinds of other things going on. I'm stressed out again! *rueful grin* Seems like only a day ago, I was content and happy...oh wait! It was.
My Dynamics teacher, for some reason, has deemed it his duty to reteach us Calculus. Screw Dynamics, that's not important! The focus should be on Calculus, because you knwo that in the REAL world, engineers will have to derive ALL their own equations - they won't have /books/ or /calculators/. No, Calculus is THE WAY. What a load of shit. I am so sick of doing pointless derivations with countless lines of diferentiation work. The other class doesn't have to do this! And they don't have to memorize everything. *sigh*
Jeff and I still aren't talking. I can only guess that he's still mad at me, and I have no idea why. I suppose I could cave in an call him (I almost did last night about 3 AM, because I couldn't sleep for thinking about our fight) but THIS ISN'T MY FAULT, and I'll be damned if I apologize first. I was about to yesterday and he ran away, so there's no way I'm going to today. I miss him....
Ah well, enough of the melodrama. There's a movie coming on tonight (and I think another couple nights) called Atila. I wasn't going to watch it, but I saw "the making of" last night, and it looked awesome. I think I'll take a break tonight from everything and just curl up with hot chocolate and chocolate chip cookies to watch.
Sad ~ Monday, January 29, 2001 ~ 1:54 PM
Todya started out lovely. It was sunny and warm, and I woke up well rested and in the best mood I've been in for days! I was bouncy, cheery, and I suppose, in retrospect, annoying the hell out of my boyfriend - that's the only explanation for today. I joked with him all the way to class, and for once, it wasn't until after class that we started to argue. I think it was his fault, and he obviously thinks it was mine, but that aside, the fact remains that for the first time he won't let me close enough to him to make up the fight. After a later class, he practically ran away from me, without even looking in my diretcion. Normally, fights like these are usually over pretty quick, especially since they're over stuff so MINOR. I don't know what's different today. But the thing that has me so upset is that today started out so wonderful and now it's all messed up because of a STUPID FIGHT. That's not how things are supposed to be - they're supposed to get better around him, not worse. I'm not sure what is going on, but things have been weird for a long time now and.......I'm just not sure what to do. Maybe it'll just blow over.
On the other hand, maybe we're just acting so odd because of the weather. It has abruptly changed to a rainy cold day with tons of storms predicted. I'd love it, but I have to be in class all day. If I didn't have to go, I'd curl up with a good book and a cup of hot chocolate. Ah well.
Good day! ~ Saturday, January 27, 2001 ~ 9:27 PM
Today has been a good day! I've done absolutely nothing, and loved it. Well, not exactly nothing....I /did/ make it to Wal Mart, and Jared and I sword fought this afternoon for an hour or so. But since I got back from fighting with Jared, it's been so QUIET. Jeff, Clint, and Spencer are all goen to a Vampire game in Montgomery, and both my roommates are gone. Why am I not in Montgomery, you might ask. Well, the whole answer is that I'm too damn lazy.
Yep, that's right. I didn't want to go to a Vampire game. That's gotta be a first - usually I jump at the chance to travel and I love the local games. But for some reason, all I wanted to do this weekend was sit quietly at home and do NOTHING. *shrug* I guess I was under a bit too much stress this week. ;-)
The network was down yesterday, but it didn't really matter. Jeff came in from the mall at about 4:30 or so and immediatly pounced me with the entirely unexpected question of "So...where do you want to go for dinner?" Yep, he's wonderful. We hadn't gone out to dinner in a while, and he saw how much I needed to get off campus, so he took me. :-) Then we got back and watch FOUR HOURS of Babylon 5. It's like crack, except better (and cheaper).
I've been updating my webpage a lot since Saturday morning at 3AM. I put a bunch of Babylon 5 sounds up, and changed a bunch of other things around. It's starting to actually come together. The link, if you want to look at it now, is http://www.geocities.com/slyflame. Yes, I know it's evil geocities, but it's nice and easy and already available through my yahoo account. Did I mention I'm lazy? ;-)
Tomorrow, Jeff's hosting a Magic Tournament as an RA function. He's not getting back from Montgomery until about 4 or 5 AM, but he still has to get up at 9 and go to an RA meeting, then host his event. It's going to be a long day for him, the poor guy. ;-)
Anyways, I'm about to just pass out on my keyboard. Yeah, I know it's early, but YOU try swordfighting nonstop for an extended period of time and see how awake you are a few hours later. ;-) TTYL.
Yet another day... ~ Thursday, January 25, 2001 ~ 12:34 PM
I just got out of Forum. Today we listened to Dr. Whatley perform a bunch of piano pieces she's preparing for a concert she's to give in a couple of days. Dr. Whatley is my roommate Beth's piano teacher. ;-) Beth had her 21st birthday yesterday, so her old roommate, Sarena (an old friend of Jeff's from ASMS) is coming to visit for the weekend. Sarena's a lot of fun - it's really too bad that she left UAH.
I have lab today from 1:50-4:50, then Dynamics from 5:30-6:50. The from 7-8:45 I have a Vampire meeting. Since I don't have a car, once I walk over there, that's where I have to stay until my last class is over. I'm trying to figure out how I can get lunch over there. There are no fast food places anywhere near and I have yet to find a microwave accessable to students. I guess it's back to the days of brown-bag lunches. *grin* Ah, nostalgia.
Tonight we have our Camarilla meeting. I have a great idea for a new character, so I'm actually looking forward to it! And I always like to hang out with most of those people. There are a few I want to have stripped and beaten, but the rest are great. ;-)
I got the other package my parents sent today. It's full of cookies! Chocolate chip and oatmeal, and some kind of Valentine's Day package with orders to put away until then. My parents really love me!
Anyways, it's almost time to leave for lab. *sigh* Let's just hope I survive today!
Brain...hurting. ~ Wednesday, January 24, 2001 ~ 5:40 PM
Now don't get me wrong...I love Mechanics, but every time I leave that class, I feel as if my brain has been forced through a chunk of pink panther insulation. It's all squishy and it hurts to use it. I think I pulled a brain muscle today. Our professor, Dr. Gilbert is an awesome teacher, but he's from New York so he talks like he's on speed or something. He published notes for the class specifically because there is not a single person yet who has been able to successfully take notes in his class. The last few that tried never regained conciousness.
Right now I'm in the MAE computer lab. I think I'm not supposed to be doing any type of personal stuff here, but as you can see, I'm blatantly disregarding that particular rule. Ah well. If I get thrown out by the lab police for having AIM up and working on a blog, I'll just go find another computer lab with less security. ;-)
I have a wonderful boyfriend. A couple days ago, I was working furiously on an application for the NASA USRP. Several things went wrong, but he helped me so much, even to the point of driving off campus to find me an envelope that could hold the 60 pages. He also snuck into the RA office and let me use their copier when I discovered right as I was about to seal the damn thing that I had to have FOUR copies plus the original app. He's just so awesome. And he's a nice guy too. ;-)
I suppose I should be studying for Linear. There's always something else I'm supposed to be doing, it's just not often that I'll actually go and DO it. Our first Linear test is this Friday. Yucky. And I have to find a book to do a review on for History. *grimace*
Jessica's lost her Thermodynamics book. She was already having a piss poor day, what with being sick and all, and then she realizes she can't find a $70 book. She's going to have a nervous breakdown soon. She feel guilty because she snapped at me earlier, and I keep trying to tell her I'm not mad at all. After all, I /was/ picking on her (in jest!) and she's a good friend. I don't give big chunks of dark chocolate Hershey bar to people who aren't my friends.
Only two hours and 46 minutes until my day is officially OVER!!!! *cheers* I just have to survive one more class with synapses still active, and then I can slip into the blessed mindless oblivion of Babylon 5 and yummy food that Jeff and Jessica are cooking. And I just found out I get to keep Biscuit for one more day!
*yawn* ~ Wednesday, January 24, 2001 ~ 9:21 AM
I'm tired. I didn't sleep very well last night, and all I want to do now is crawl into my nice warm bed and snooze until about 4:00. But no...this is my other hell day. I have History at 10:20, Linear at 12:40, Mechanics at 3:55, and Trans. Eng. at 7:00. The problem is that once I go to Tech Hall for Mechanics, I have to just wait around for an hours and a half until my next class, and then I don't get out of that until 8:30. So I'm going to be /really/ tired by the time I get home tonight.
I was informed yesterday that I have the dubious honor of being the new contact/coordinator of the Hunstville Dagorhir chapter. I don't have more than a slight clue what it is that I am doing, but there it is. I'm trying to come up with a name for the chapter right now, but so far no luck. We're a part of the Southern Marches, so our region will be a duchy of theirs. We'll see if I can actually get this thing off the ground!
Cats and Stuff ~ Tuesday, January 23, 2001 ~ 7:18 p.m.
Cats are the most perfect form of carbon-based life. I think one of the reasons I like them so much is that they're just as, if not more, attention-whorish as me. Right now, I can hardly type because a beautiful yellow tabby named Biscuit is headbutting my chin. It's very hard to type while something so wonderful is giving you their complete and undivided attention and affection.
Biscuit is the proud owner of two of my friends who live in another southeast campus apartment. They're getting new furniture today and tomorrow, so their RA's are doing inspections of the rooms. Of course, cats aren't allowed in on-campus housing, so Biscuit had to disappear to my room for two days. I don't think I'm going to give him back.
I actually finished all but one of my nine Dynamics problems!!! And I managed to actually receive a word of praise from the professor. He says I shouldn't have any problem passing his class because I was able to successfully explain to the class that at the top of a parabola the magnitude of the velocity is equal to the x-component of the inital velocity because there is no vertical velocity at that point, and that's the one you use to calculate the normal component of acceleration.......err, you probably didn't want to know that and it sounds like me bragging. *sigh* Anyway, I was happy.
My parents sent me a package today of useful thingies I'd wanted. Gave me a warm fuzzy feeling. My mother's sending me cookies soon too. They take good care of me. :-)
We had a very cool forum session today. The speaker was a storyteller named Christine Schumak (sp?), and she was very interesting. She made us do all these listening exercises, and told us a funny story. She was really entertaining! I thought about skipping class so I could do all my work, but I didn't because I'd had plenty of opportunities to get the work done, and just bacause I'd been too lazy to do it on time didn't give me the right to skip. Now I'm glad I didn't. I would have missed a great presentation.
Now Biscuits pawing at a framed picture I have of a butterfly. He wants to play with it, but it won't play back, it seems. I'd better go and remove him from the table before something gets broken!
Mornings...Pah! ~ Tuesday, January 23, 2001 ~ 9:29 AM
The moment I opened my eyes this morning, I began to worry. By the time I got to the shower, my mind was already skittering around like a hamster in an exercise wheel, shying away from contemplating all the work I have to do today. But showers are good, magical things - they make you calm down because you know that as long as you're in the shower, you can't possibly do any work, so it's not like you're really procrastinating. Breakfast is the same way. I have resolved to never do homework when I'm eating - it's just too difficult and I usually end up absentmindedly munching on important papers. So right now I have a reprieve from my stress because I'm going to make this apple last forever.
Tuesday is my break day, anyway. It and Friday are the only two days that I have only two classes....and on Tuesdays, one of those classes is Honors Forum. Forum is a great class; most of the time the session have nifty speakers, and the ones that don't, class lasts only 10-15 mins. It's wonderful.
Hmmm...very curious. It would appear that I have a package waiting for me in the housing office. I wasn't expecting one for another three days. It's always nice to get stuff! It makes you feel loved. :-)
Tired...so tired ~ Monday, January 22, 2001 ~ 11:45 PM
I still have Dynamics to do. And I still have Matlab. But I did manage to meet my monthly quota of vanilla ice cream and chocolate syrup. You see, Jessica and I were both about one more cosine away from snapping completely, so she invited me over to have comforting gooey ice cream. That's why she's such a good friend. :-)
Now I'm working on this instead of my homework. I'm going to pay for it tomorrow, I know. Ah well. The motto of the procrastinator: "I'll pay, but I'm too tired to care." Or maybe that's just my motto. I really can't seem to remember.
Greetings ~ Monday, January 22, 2001 ~ 9:36 PM
Well, here it is. The very first entry in my very first blog, on this very first day of the soon-to-be first hell week of my fifth semester here at UAH. Yes, indeedy do, this is a day for firsts. And I believe that if I hadn't gotten out of class precisely when I did, it would have been the day I committed my very first murder. But seeing as I did escape class before that particular first could come to be, it will have to wait.....until tomorrow.
This is going to be a very short entry. I still have quite a bit of Dynamics homework to do, along with a Matlab assignment to complete. But before I can leave, I must rant about Matlab.
Matlab is horrible. I thought Maple was Satan-spawned, but now I realize that Maple was merely a second cousin once removed form Satan. Matlab is TRULY of the Devil. It has the oddest save function I have ever encountered, and it is maddening. I have to keep telling myself that it is truly not my computer's fault and I shouldn't smash in the screen. But it's so hard to resist!
I also found out today that we actually have a mail service on campus. Usually to mail stuff we have to drive all the way out the Huntsville post office and wait in nice long lines until we begin to understand why postal workers are nuts. But no longer! Today my wonderful, wonderful boyfriend showed me the on-campus one. It is carefully hidden back in the depths of the physical plant univeristy storage facilities, where no normal student would dare to go.
Anyways, time to be a good little student and do my homework. :-) Dynamics, woo hoo!
