The other day Sharayah and I were outside and the windows to our
apartment were open. We saw Puma looking out at us through the screen,
and he seemed a little bothered. So, of course, we came over and taunted
him. It turns out, if you run the end of a stick along the screen he's
just dumb enough to think he can grab it or eat it. This actually went
on for several minutes without him ever understanding that even if he
was fast enough to catch it, he couldn't get his mouth on it. We also
found some berries and set them at the bottom of the window, and he
couldn't figure out why he couldn't eat them. It was pretty great. At
some point, though, he started getting upset that he couldn't get to us.
We walked back and forth between windows from two different rooms, and
he always ran to join us, whining as though we had him in a cage. See,
to Puma, a cage is any place where he is and we are not. Perhaps more
accurately, it's any place where he is and Sharayah is not. Sometimes in
Tulsa he would think we had left the apartment (since we had an
upstairs) and he'd start yowling the most sad, pathetic cries you've
ever heard. He'll do the same thing here if we ever have a closed door
between us and him. No matter the size of the room, if we're not in it,
it's a cage. Apparently this doesn't just apply to rooms, but the entire
apartment. Puma can curl up on a 1 square foot spot on the floor, and
he lives in an 1100 square foot cage.
Sharayah made a tasty potato soup today. I helped peel
the potatoes for her. It was pretty tough because they were those little
red potatoes, so there isn't much room to grip them while you peel. On
the other hand, the little ones are easier to wash. I told her that they
were small potatoes compared to regular potatoes. It wasn't my idea,
but I poured my soup over a Kaiser roll to get some sort of biscuits and
gravy style effect. I don't know about all that, but it was pretty good
so I'll probably do it again. I think the effect was more like bread
and soup, but that's probably better anyway.
Thanksgiving
is almost here. I'll be going with family (wife, parents, siblings) to
Williamsburg, actually to the same place where Sharayah and I stayed
this past summer. Hopefully the trees will still have some leaves,
because seeing them in all their fall color glory has to be amazing,
judging by what they looked like with green leaves. We'll have the place
starting from the Saturday before Thanksgiving, so it's pretty tempting
to skip the last two days of school before break and just take the
whole week off down there. Maybe someone can bring a laptop and Skype
the lectures to me. That would actually be pretty cool. Either way I'm
expecting some fun and finally some time to relax for a couple days.
Also food.
So it looks like next semester my TA
assignment will be to teach math education for future k-8 teachers. I'm
thinking that their method of randomly assigning TAs to different
classes is a bad idea. I'm not saying it's not an important class, but I have no interest in math at that level. If I end up teaching, it'll be at a university.
My only consolation is that it does seem to be a well planned and
organized course. I don't agree that it's a good use of my abilities to
teach it, but it's a good course for people who actually want to teach
math to children. There's a lot of stress on trying to obtain a deeper
understanding of numbers and operations, so that when they try to teach
the problem solving techniques, it's not just a set of steps, it's based
on an understanding of what the problem is really asking at a
fundamental level. At any rate, hopefully it will only be for a semester
and then I can teach something more interesting. I will probably teach
some level of Calculus over the summer, which is a little uninteresting
because I've TAed it so many times, but at least it's subject matter
that I enjoy.
the darkness around me
11.09.2011
11.03.2011
oh to be a child
Children's entertainment just got better.
- I thought Ratatouille was decent, but Ratatoing? That's pushing it. There's a blue mouse. I'm not sure what to do with that.
- I loved Charlotte's Web when I was a kid (all except for the millions of baby spiders released to roam the world at the end), but Spider's Web? Look, the pig's name is Walt instead of Wilbur. That's an instantaneous 2 point deduction right there.
- Chop.Kick.Panda. What a brilliant title to generalize Kung Fu Panda. Personally, I didn't think the actual Kung Fu Panda (the first one, I never saw the sequel) was that great (and I have a thing for pandas [and most things large and furry {and asian?}] so that's really saying something...), so I don't have super high expectations for the Chop Kick Panda. Unfortunately.
- House balloon to the rescue! I thought Up was a pretty good movie ("squirrel!!"), but I really thought the title was borderline unappealing. Making a rip-off "What's Up" is not an improvement. At all.
These just look like potentially hilarious (but most likely awful) movies. Part of me wants to watch them while the more logical side of me is protesting fiercely. Since I don't think I could ever get Jason to participate in such a viewing, I think I will give in to my protesting side. Sigh.
I figure a kid (if they're young enough, at least) won't care if his/her movie is a lousy rip-off of a better-in-nearly-every-single-aspect movie. The fundamentals are there: You have the talking animals, the bright colors, the kung fu (or should I say chop kicks?). If I were a kid, I think it would be a winning combination. Anyway.
I guess what I like about the good animated movies of today (which naturally excludes all of the above pictured) is that it is generally entertaining for an actual child as well as a child-like korean posing as a 25 year old. I don't believe these movies would fall into that category. I suppose I can't say that definitively since I haven't seen but bits and pieces of them, but I'm pretty confident. An 11 on a scale of 1 to 10, conservatively.
I suppose the primary point of this particular post has been accomplished, so I shall rein in all additional (but unrelated) rambling thoughts. Done.
I figure a kid (if they're young enough, at least) won't care if his/her movie is a lousy rip-off of a better-in-nearly-every-single-aspect movie. The fundamentals are there: You have the talking animals, the bright colors, the kung fu (or should I say chop kicks?). If I were a kid, I think it would be a winning combination. Anyway.
I guess what I like about the good animated movies of today (which naturally excludes all of the above pictured) is that it is generally entertaining for an actual child as well as a child-like korean posing as a 25 year old. I don't believe these movies would fall into that category. I suppose I can't say that definitively since I haven't seen but bits and pieces of them, but I'm pretty confident. An 11 on a scale of 1 to 10, conservatively.
I suppose the primary point of this particular post has been accomplished, so I shall rein in all additional (but unrelated) rambling thoughts. Done.
 |
| I would bet every single feather in this picture that they are not going to see any of the above-pictured movies. For one, they are ducks. For two, I'm positive the movies went straight to DVD. Positive. |
10.11.2011
once upon a time
"...i love jason, and i don't care if i'm a sap about it right now. do you know how weird (in a completely good way) it is to know, beyond a shadow of a doubt, that something is right? and this is right. he's so good for me, in so many ways. i second guess everything. everything. everything. but not this. why not? i know rarely is a thing perfect. and i know something that can span decades like a relationship leaves plenty of room and time for a flaw or imperfect moment. yet the thought of spending my life with him excites me. to no end. in all aspects. i know i'm supposed to marry him. and for once, i want more than anything to do what i know i'm supposed to do. God loves me. isn't it awesome?"
I wrote that four years ago and every single bit of it is still true (which is really saying something for me since usually when I look back at what I've written [three or more years in the past] it just makes me laugh at my own silliness/stupidity [which isn't always a bad thing]). Every single word is still true.
The absolute feeling of "this is right" rarely comes to me, frustratingly enough. And because of this, I tend to avoid the responsibility of as many life-altering "big" decisions as possible. That was always one of my worries, that I wouldn't know for sure when it came to big decisions. Because, likely as not, I would probably just decide not to decide and in doing that possibly make a huge mistake. Or take the 70/30 chance of choosing one of the options and, again, possibly make a huge mistake. God truly blessed me in that He not only gave me a best friend but He also let me know that he was to be my best friend for life, which I almost appreciate just as much.The feeling of just knowing something with complete clarity and peace is exhilarating. I wish I had those moments more often, especially since knowing there is such a feeling makes all decisions that much more apprehensive if the feeling isn't there. But that's life. I suppose it might get boring if there wasn't some sense of unpredictability.
This kitten doesn't think so. I am thoroughly reprimanded.
10.10.2011
the day of celebration
Ah, the day of celebratory adventures in honor of the past 11 months dedicated to Careerstep's course.
So, the much anticipated (and dreaded) MTE final was conquered unofficially on September 28th (as soon as I hit the little 'Submit Exam' button at 10:33 am, 7 minutes before the 48-hour testing period was over) and absolutely, positively officially owned in the face on October 5th (after returning to the apartment from a super long walk with Jason to find the scary email in my inbox). I graduated with High Honors on the first go. I had to read the email twice before I got up the nerve to tug on Jason's shirt sleeve, asking him to verify what it actually said. I hadn't really had any doubts that I'd graduate (even though only about 70% graduate on the first try, one only needs an overall score of at least 85% so... I wasn't worried), but I was pretty sure that if I got anything but High Honors (overall score of at least 95%) that I would be looking at a retake of the final, for my own sake. Ahh, but it was all unnecessary planning. No retakes for this korean. She did it. :)
On the 4 straight transcription files I got a 98%, but once it was averaged with the score from my 2 editing transcription files, my overall grade was a 97%. The highest grade that I know of personally is a 98% by another Careerstep student, so I am more than pleased. A couple other neat percentages:
- Currently, Careerstep's hire rate for High Honor graduates is 96%.
- Currently, Careerstep's hire rate for their MTE graduates (the specific course that I took) is 100%.
So, after Jason read the amazingly exciting email, he picked me up and spun me around the apartment. There may or may not have been some drooling involved. (You try having someone sling you over his shoulder while you're laughing giddily and being spun in [seemingly super fast and tight] circles... Drooling happens. I've learned to live with it.) Puma even joined in the celebration by jumping on top of his perch and whining at us, wanting to know what all the excitement was about. We made the night an official celebration by breaking out one of our 'For Special Occasions Only' drinks, the Grapefruit (or was it the Clementine...?) Izze. It was a celebratory night.
Obviously, one night is not enough of a celebration for such an occasion, so a weekend adventure was planned for the upcoming Saturday (though of course, now it's just this past Saturday so... yea) to be filled with Longwood Garden wanderings, a super cool corn maze "fun park" (I've always wanted to get lost in an all-out corn maze, so I was super stoked), and dinner at the Cheesecake Factory. Even though Jason has been stupid busy with homework the past few weeks (literally, nonstop), he told me he would take the whole day off for me. I still can't help but think that I don't deserve him.
It was a lovely day, a little bit on the warm side at times and ridiculously sunny at all times, and we exhausted ourselves with adventuring. The highlight for me at Longwood was their lily pad exhibit. It was ridiculous. They had so many kinds of lily pads, varying from really small pacman-like pads to super awesome, spike-lined lily pads that I'm pretty sure could support a small child. (*After further research about these lily pads, it turns out that if the weight distribution is done correctly, a medium-sized child may even be held. Definitely going to keep this in mind for the future...) Also, throughout our Longwood wanderings, I had Jason test the sharpness of all things prickly, and he definitively stated that the spikes on these lily pads were by far the sharpest of all the other test subjects.
We also discovered a really cool pepper plant (its edibility [that's a word, right?] was debatable) with yellow, red and purple peppers. I would love to put them in a salad just for the color (regardless of the taste [almost]). We wandered through a meadow and saw a groundhog-type animal eating lunch. We even got to see a pomegranate bonsai with 2 pomegranates ready for the picking. I really wanted to pick them... We took a small smattering of pictures, some of which can be seen in the haphazard collage below, and it was a pretty sweet afternoon. The only drawback was that we didn't get to watch the fountain show... but that'll save until our next visit.
 |
| Smattering. To see them enlarged, feel free. |
After getting our fill of super cool plants, we headed to the corn maze, which was about an hour's drive away. I loved it. Since it is close to the end of corn maze season, the corn was the drab brown/yellow and not the lush green, but it didn't matter. The maze was still plenty intact with the corn stalks well above my head. The maze was rather daunting, but we only got turned around a few times and made pretty good time once we figured out where not to go. It was such a large maze that, even though there were a ton of people there, you only ran into other people every now and again. At the beginning of the maze, the park gave us these flags made of a felt square and long pole. The purpose of said flag? 
By the time we left the mazes, it was late-ish and we were pretty tuckered out from the hours of walking in the sun, so we called an audible and decided to save the Cheesecake Factory for later on this week and just go make dinner in bed at home. It was a perfect way to end the day.
So yes. Good weekend. Life is good. I'm as content as this kitty...
 |
| ...well, maybe not this content. |
10.07.2011
Habits
I think I've heard that if you do something every day for 3 weeks, then you've made it a habit. Now, obviously you can still change that habit again, but it's harder to stop doing something (or easier to keep doing it, depending on what you're attempting) if it's a habit. That's good news for Sharayah and me (yes, "me" is the correct word there), because we've made it well past 21 days in our read-the-whole-Bible-in-one-year schedule. I believe we're on day 35 or so and we're still doing well. It's been really nice so far. I don't think I've read very much that I hadn't already, but most days things will hit me in a different way than they have before, or I'll catch a detail that I didn't remember. It's just a nice, peaceful 20-30 minutes we can spend together each night before bed. I'd really advise everyone to try it out. If a year or the whole Bible sounds like too long, there are shorter reading plans on the website (youversion.com, if you're too lazy to scroll down to find it again).
I've also been trying to start playing my guitar again lately. If I've ever had a habit in my life, it was playing guitar. People who knew me at ORU may have seen me with my guitar as much as without it, and may have a hard time believing it, but in the past couple years I've barely played it at all. It's strange to me how something can be such a passion for me for such a long time, and then it can just disappear. While I was at ORU, I think playing my guitar was one of the most important things in the world to me. I really miss feeling like the guitar is just an extension of my arms. Now it's a foreign object that I have to actually hold to play. I can no longer sit for hours and rattle off 30 or 40 songs in a row without checking the chord charts like I used to do on the honors and wing retreats. I can't even think of that many songs, much less play them without music. However, I'm making an effort to get it back. I think it's all still a part of who I am, it's just been asleep for a while. It's time to wake up.
it's Your mercy
I've also been trying to start playing my guitar again lately. If I've ever had a habit in my life, it was playing guitar. People who knew me at ORU may have seen me with my guitar as much as without it, and may have a hard time believing it, but in the past couple years I've barely played it at all. It's strange to me how something can be such a passion for me for such a long time, and then it can just disappear. While I was at ORU, I think playing my guitar was one of the most important things in the world to me. I really miss feeling like the guitar is just an extension of my arms. Now it's a foreign object that I have to actually hold to play. I can no longer sit for hours and rattle off 30 or 40 songs in a row without checking the chord charts like I used to do on the honors and wing retreats. I can't even think of that many songs, much less play them without music. However, I'm making an effort to get it back. I think it's all still a part of who I am, it's just been asleep for a while. It's time to wake up.
it's Your mercy
9.23.2011
progress report time!
One of my favorite parts of sponsoring children through Holt (or any other organization for that matter) is getting the progress reports about each child. I love reading about how they've been doing and what they've been up to. Currently, we're sponsoring these two lovely kids, Zu Fen (Xu, left) and Yuan Fei (Luo, right):
Anyway, yesterday we received the progress report for Yuan Fei, and I wanted to share parts of it.
"Yuan Fei studies hard. He likes thinking independently. He is good at math. Last month, his school held the math contest. He won the first prize and won the honor for his class... He often discusses the methods of study with his classmates to make a greater progress in his studies. He is also willing to help the classmates who have difficulties in study. One day, one of his classmates asked him a math problem. He explained the problem to him patiently. Half an hour later, the student understood how to resolve the problem... He also likes playing badminton and ping-pong. In the school sports meeting, he won the second prize in ping-pong match."
Math and ping-ping... It just made me smile.
On a kind of related note, reading the progress reports with their not-always-idiomatic English (I have no clue if idiomatic is the proper word in this context... but I figure there's a 23% chance that it's correct) never fails to remind me of all of my engineering courses at ORU. I'll read the progress report and hear Dr. Liu, Dr. Zhang or Dr. Ma in my head.
...and every time I read or hear or think about toes, I immediately hear Dr. Ma saying, "Foot fingers, not many have 11 or 12." Ah, so many non-engineering lessons learned from my asian professors. They still make me laugh.
Alright, that's all I wanted to mention. Jason has been meaning to blog but has not yet gotten around to it this week. Oh, he's started playing his guitar again, which is happy for me. My first distinct memory I have of Jason (the Honors forums aside) is of him and George playing guitar together in the fish bowl (which I just mis-typed as 'bowel,' which would not be accurate since neither Jason or George was/is Jonah...). It was a neat night. Guitar and Jason just go together, so I'm glad he's finding some time to fit it back in to everyday life.
Last bit: I've decided to take my transcription final Monday and Tuesday. Fingers crossed.
 |
| Zu Fen is 7 now and Yuan Fei is 13. |
"Yuan Fei studies hard. He likes thinking independently. He is good at math. Last month, his school held the math contest. He won the first prize and won the honor for his class... He often discusses the methods of study with his classmates to make a greater progress in his studies. He is also willing to help the classmates who have difficulties in study. One day, one of his classmates asked him a math problem. He explained the problem to him patiently. Half an hour later, the student understood how to resolve the problem... He also likes playing badminton and ping-pong. In the school sports meeting, he won the second prize in ping-pong match."
Math and ping-ping... It just made me smile.
On a kind of related note, reading the progress reports with their not-always-idiomatic English (I have no clue if idiomatic is the proper word in this context... but I figure there's a 23% chance that it's correct) never fails to remind me of all of my engineering courses at ORU. I'll read the progress report and hear Dr. Liu, Dr. Zhang or Dr. Ma in my head.
...and every time I read or hear or think about toes, I immediately hear Dr. Ma saying, "Foot fingers, not many have 11 or 12." Ah, so many non-engineering lessons learned from my asian professors. They still make me laugh.
Alright, that's all I wanted to mention. Jason has been meaning to blog but has not yet gotten around to it this week. Oh, he's started playing his guitar again, which is happy for me. My first distinct memory I have of Jason (the Honors forums aside) is of him and George playing guitar together in the fish bowl (which I just mis-typed as 'bowel,' which would not be accurate since neither Jason or George was/is Jonah...). It was a neat night. Guitar and Jason just go together, so I'm glad he's finding some time to fit it back in to everyday life.
Last bit: I've decided to take my transcription final Monday and Tuesday. Fingers crossed.
 |
| This is a completely unrelated picture. I just find him adorable. Oh, and I would love to own that swing. |
9.10.2011
football.mushrooms.half-asians. oh boy!
One of the best things about fall (right there underneath the cooler weather, colorful leaves, the coming of Thanksgiving and Christmas [yes, I know Christmas is a winter holiday, but my statement is still valid], and the better-to-roll-off-the-tip-of-your-tongue named months [September, October, November are such better names for months than April, May or June {though I just might think this because people name their daughters April, May, and June and it doesn't sit well with me... though the fall months would make awesome boy names, in my opinion}]) started this past Thursday: Football.
Wait, let me clarify: The NFL started this past Thursday, and that is an awesome part of fall. College football... not so much. I guess I just don't get college sports. But that's all I'll say about that.
The opening game was Saints vs. Packers. It was a pretty good game, if I do say so myself. I'm not a big fan of either team, but Brees seems to be a decent kind of fellow so I wish they could have pulled it out. But no biggie. Anyway, since we don't have television service, we weren't able to watch the game live, but to remedy this we decided to invest in NFL.com's Game Rewind. Basically, it lets you watch all of the regular season games, without commercials, in DVR fashion, anytime after the game airs. You can watch it the day after or several weeks after. Every single NFL game is available for you to watch with the only negative being that you can't watch it live. This setup works out for me and Jason splendidly. Due to some random events, we were able to get it for $30, and now we get to have football whenever we want it. Turns out, football is nice to have going on in the background whilst you do other productive (or not) things.
So, yes. Being able to watch the Colts game whenever? Win. Peyton being out for who knows how long? Major.Fail. As this topic saddens me and everybody already knows all about it, I only wanted to mention it in order to bring up a small side topic. Last season Jason and I did a fantasy football league for fun, with just the two of us. It was entertaining to say the least. I basically had the Colts for my team. Hooray. Anyway, for this season, Shawn apparently needed 2 more people to join his fantasy football league (this can't be said enough: who uses yahoo these days? :P ). Somehow he was left with asking me and Jason to participate. It's entertaining in that I think the others in the league are probably much more serious about winning than either of us. ANYway, I again pretty much just have the Colts for my team, and this makes me happy. I have Peyton as my quarterback, and I am going to keep him there, even though he's not playing. This will serve several purposes: 1) It's funny. 2) He's still the best quarterback ever. 3) I will be able to give everyone else in the fantasy league 2 free wins off of me. It's seriously an everybody wins strategy (well, I guess Peyton doesn't really win... it's a pretty lame situation for him no matter how you look at it). That's all for that.
It was brought to my attention yesterday that the Festival of all Festivals is occurring in Kennett Square, PA this weekend. In the words of the festival-put-er-on-ers, it's a "Fun(gi) for all!" festival. That's right, people. In the quaint little town of Kennett Square (which also happens to be the home of the absolutely awesome Longwood Gardens), the Mushroom Festival is happening! It's a pretty well-known fact that mushrooms top my list of Awesome Foods, so a festival dedicated to these tasty delicacies? Potentially mind blowing. Unfortunately, Jason has a lot of stuff to get done this weekend so I don't think we're going to be able to check it out. It's okay though. There's always next year!
Like Jason mentioned in his previous blog, I am this close to being done with my transcription course. I have to polish up a few things, await my last assessment results, prepare for the 48-hour final, and hopefully not just scrape through... by the skin of my teeth? Or is it by the seat of my pants? By the edge of a woods at the foot of a hill? Whatever. Just, hopefully not scrape by anything. I need to do extremely well or else I will think I did horrible. There's really no middle ground. So, while I'm excited that soon I will be finished with the course, I am also rather apprehensive. I just have to keep in mind my game plan, which is as follows: Prepare for final -> Take final -> Pass final to my satisfaction -> Find a job -> Work at job -> Increase the world's population of watered-down asians. (This would actually be better visualized with a flow chart [and boy do I love flow charts], but for simplicity's sake I won't go there.) It's a flawless plan, no? I'll have an option for helping out financially without having to loan my little guys out to strangers 8 hours a day. Win. I just have to succeed. Time will tell.
On a related note: Jason is going to be an incredible dad. It excites me.
One last thing: I wish to "learn" how to put together a scrapbook. I don't think I have the creativity or the eye to make it look special or anything, but I would like to put together a book with colorful pages filled with nicely placed pictures. My fear is that it will turn out like a regular old photo album or a 5-year-old's art project. Regardless, I plan on attempting it sometime in the near future.
A picture not at all related to anything I just rambled on about:
Wait, let me clarify: The NFL started this past Thursday, and that is an awesome part of fall. College football... not so much. I guess I just don't get college sports. But that's all I'll say about that.
The opening game was Saints vs. Packers. It was a pretty good game, if I do say so myself. I'm not a big fan of either team, but Brees seems to be a decent kind of fellow so I wish they could have pulled it out. But no biggie. Anyway, since we don't have television service, we weren't able to watch the game live, but to remedy this we decided to invest in NFL.com's Game Rewind. Basically, it lets you watch all of the regular season games, without commercials, in DVR fashion, anytime after the game airs. You can watch it the day after or several weeks after. Every single NFL game is available for you to watch with the only negative being that you can't watch it live. This setup works out for me and Jason splendidly. Due to some random events, we were able to get it for $30, and now we get to have football whenever we want it. Turns out, football is nice to have going on in the background whilst you do other productive (or not) things.
So, yes. Being able to watch the Colts game whenever? Win. Peyton being out for who knows how long? Major.Fail. As this topic saddens me and everybody already knows all about it, I only wanted to mention it in order to bring up a small side topic. Last season Jason and I did a fantasy football league for fun, with just the two of us. It was entertaining to say the least. I basically had the Colts for my team. Hooray. Anyway, for this season, Shawn apparently needed 2 more people to join his fantasy football league (this can't be said enough: who uses yahoo these days? :P ). Somehow he was left with asking me and Jason to participate. It's entertaining in that I think the others in the league are probably much more serious about winning than either of us. ANYway, I again pretty much just have the Colts for my team, and this makes me happy. I have Peyton as my quarterback, and I am going to keep him there, even though he's not playing. This will serve several purposes: 1) It's funny. 2) He's still the best quarterback ever. 3) I will be able to give everyone else in the fantasy league 2 free wins off of me. It's seriously an everybody wins strategy (well, I guess Peyton doesn't really win... it's a pretty lame situation for him no matter how you look at it). That's all for that.
It was brought to my attention yesterday that the Festival of all Festivals is occurring in Kennett Square, PA this weekend. In the words of the festival-put-er-on-ers, it's a "Fun(gi) for all!" festival. That's right, people. In the quaint little town of Kennett Square (which also happens to be the home of the absolutely awesome Longwood Gardens), the Mushroom Festival is happening! It's a pretty well-known fact that mushrooms top my list of Awesome Foods, so a festival dedicated to these tasty delicacies? Potentially mind blowing. Unfortunately, Jason has a lot of stuff to get done this weekend so I don't think we're going to be able to check it out. It's okay though. There's always next year!
Like Jason mentioned in his previous blog, I am this close to being done with my transcription course. I have to polish up a few things, await my last assessment results, prepare for the 48-hour final, and hopefully not just scrape through... by the skin of my teeth? Or is it by the seat of my pants? By the edge of a woods at the foot of a hill? Whatever. Just, hopefully not scrape by anything. I need to do extremely well or else I will think I did horrible. There's really no middle ground. So, while I'm excited that soon I will be finished with the course, I am also rather apprehensive. I just have to keep in mind my game plan, which is as follows: Prepare for final -> Take final -> Pass final to my satisfaction -> Find a job -> Work at job -> Increase the world's population of watered-down asians. (This would actually be better visualized with a flow chart [and boy do I love flow charts], but for simplicity's sake I won't go there.) It's a flawless plan, no? I'll have an option for helping out financially without having to loan my little guys out to strangers 8 hours a day. Win. I just have to succeed. Time will tell.
On a related note: Jason is going to be an incredible dad. It excites me.
One last thing: I wish to "learn" how to put together a scrapbook. I don't think I have the creativity or the eye to make it look special or anything, but I would like to put together a book with colorful pages filled with nicely placed pictures. My fear is that it will turn out like a regular old photo album or a 5-year-old's art project. Regardless, I plan on attempting it sometime in the near future.
A picture not at all related to anything I just rambled on about:
9.08.2011
Miscellany
I found out today that I passed the second preliminary exam, so I'm no officially 1/3 done with the requirements for the PhD. Not sure what else to say about it. I can already tell I'll be working twice as hard this year as last year. Maybe one day I'll really make it.
Sharayah and I each started a new Bible reading program on YouVersion. They've got dozens of different plans to read through the Bible in a year, such as in chronological order, arranged by topic, straight through in the normal order, or various other plans. You can just sign up for the site, pick a plan, and then each day go to their website and it has a checklist of passages to read for the day. We each picked a plan, and we're on day 10 or so. They actually have plans of varying lengths of time, but most of them are 1 year. I'll let you know next August if we made it through.
I've been reading a lot lately. This summer I made my way through the Ender's Game series, including the Shadow series and most of the short stories. I have a few more short stories left, but they're on the way to the library, and then I'll be caught up. I read the first book in college, thought it was awesome, and never gave it another thought. Then, for some reason, I started through the series this summer, and it's really all great. Many of the books have a very different feel from Ender's Game, but they're all compelling stories. I'd definitely recommend them. If you can manage it, try to read everything in the published order (rather than chronological). If you get confused, just ask me what to read next. I'm pretty excited because the next book in the series is coming out in November, and it's supposed to tie together a lot of the loose ends from all the different story arcs that didn't seem necessarily connected. Apparently I have good timing, because he had left the series alone for a while, and only came back to it this year.
Sharayah is almost done with her transcription training. Then she'll be (in her words) a "meat earner," though I think maybe she meant "bread winner." She's pretty much awesome. Apparently the rest of her plan is to start popping out babies, but she may have to wait a little longer for that.
Today, for the first time ever, I left my car's lights on all day and my battery died. It was sad. Also, difficult to solve, because my car was surrounded in its parking space so that no one would be able to get close enough to jump it. Luckily, just as I figured out how to unlock the gear shift without the car being on so that I could push the car out and back into another spot, allowing someone to get close enough to jump my car, the guy who owned the car next to mine showed up, so it was all unnecessary and I got my car going without any problems. Thus, all I lost was about 30 minutes and some pride (and who needs pride, anyway?).
the best I have
Sharayah and I each started a new Bible reading program on YouVersion. They've got dozens of different plans to read through the Bible in a year, such as in chronological order, arranged by topic, straight through in the normal order, or various other plans. You can just sign up for the site, pick a plan, and then each day go to their website and it has a checklist of passages to read for the day. We each picked a plan, and we're on day 10 or so. They actually have plans of varying lengths of time, but most of them are 1 year. I'll let you know next August if we made it through.
I've been reading a lot lately. This summer I made my way through the Ender's Game series, including the Shadow series and most of the short stories. I have a few more short stories left, but they're on the way to the library, and then I'll be caught up. I read the first book in college, thought it was awesome, and never gave it another thought. Then, for some reason, I started through the series this summer, and it's really all great. Many of the books have a very different feel from Ender's Game, but they're all compelling stories. I'd definitely recommend them. If you can manage it, try to read everything in the published order (rather than chronological). If you get confused, just ask me what to read next. I'm pretty excited because the next book in the series is coming out in November, and it's supposed to tie together a lot of the loose ends from all the different story arcs that didn't seem necessarily connected. Apparently I have good timing, because he had left the series alone for a while, and only came back to it this year.
Sharayah is almost done with her transcription training. Then she'll be (in her words) a "meat earner," though I think maybe she meant "bread winner." She's pretty much awesome. Apparently the rest of her plan is to start popping out babies, but she may have to wait a little longer for that.
Today, for the first time ever, I left my car's lights on all day and my battery died. It was sad. Also, difficult to solve, because my car was surrounded in its parking space so that no one would be able to get close enough to jump it. Luckily, just as I figured out how to unlock the gear shift without the car being on so that I could push the car out and back into another spot, allowing someone to get close enough to jump my car, the guy who owned the car next to mine showed up, so it was all unnecessary and I got my car going without any problems. Thus, all I lost was about 30 minutes and some pride (and who needs pride, anyway?).
the best I have
9.01.2011
four cuts and seven days ago
The fact that today is the first day of September makes me ridiculously excited. Fall is practically here! I am so psyched for the gorgeous fall colors and absolutely perfect weather. There's just something about fall that is so invigorating. I love it! I have my fingers crossed that there will be much bike riding and picnicking. Oh my. I feel all jittery in anticipation. The year here, weather wise, has been near perfect. The seasons are so perfectly spaced out that, with the change of each season, you're not left disappointed about the current season ending. The autumny leaves are around just long enough for you to enjoy them to the fullest. Right when you think, "Hm, I'm ready for winter," it's winter and cold and snowy. I know not everyone loves the cold months, but for me they are rather glorious. There is just another kind of beauty to them. When it snows and everything becomes white for days... Or when it's all blustery and grim outside and you're forced to stay inside, cuddled under blankets with a book or puzzle... It just feels like it can't get any better than that. And then, right when you have your fill of the snowiness, color starts to return everywhere you look. Nature wakes up. Spring arrives. And it's awesome and beautiful in a totally different way than either fall or winter. Everything just... comes alive. Car rides and walks are filled with many rather squeaky exclamations. Jason laughs at me, but he understands. The shift from spring into summer is a little less noteworthy, but still noticeable. The temperature warms up, the cool breezes disappear, the trees fill out with leaves and turn a nice dark green. Due to the heat, summer has never been my favorite season. But honestly, I didn't mind it too much up here. There were really only a handful of weeks with icky heat. I can handle that.
Anyway, all this to say, I'm ready for fall. It.makes.me.so.excited. God made a ridiculously beautiful world.
The not as happy part of September 1st is that it is Jason's first day of school. His schedule is basically 1030 to 4 every day. I know it's ridiculous, but I'm going to miss him. Having him around all the time was so nice. I know it's probably going to be a semester with a lot of studying going on, but he can do it. I'm super proud of him.
Speaking of hair*, I cut my own hairs. All of them. First time ever. With my own hands. And scissors. It was, seriously, so much fun. Now, I will answer all of the semi-pertinent questions.
Semi- Pertinent Question #1 - Why: I greatly dislike going to get my hair cut. Perhaps it is because I rarely got haircuts when I was growing up. I would get a trim every now and again, but for a good portion of my life, I just let it grow. My hair and I have always managed to stubborn our way into unpleasant situations. As a kid, I don't think I ever thought to brush it. It was annoying to brush hair since it only took about an hour to mess it up again. Plus, I honestly don't think I could tell a difference between nicely brushed hair and messed up hair. I wasn't/still am not very aware of things like that**. Add to that, I have/had an issue with obsessing over things, and my down-to-my-knees hair was just one of the stubborn points.
Anyway, I think the actual reason I dislike hair-cutting situations is because I simply have no clue what I want done with my hair and even less of an idea how to explain this to someone. So, the few times I've gone somewhere to have my hair cut, I always reach that same awkward point: I sit down in the chair, they face me towards the mirror, and they ask, "So, what do you want done?" I have no idea. I can give them a general length to work with and I can even throw that fancy word of "Layers!" in there, but that's about the extent of my cutting/styling knowledge. To make it more difficult, I also like to mention, "I wear it down and in a ponytail. I wash it and let it dry on its own. I don't use hair devices or goop***." With all of these vague and possibly restrictive instructions, I sit back and let them go at it. Once they've declared a finished product, I pay and leave.
And this is where the dissatisfaction comes in. Sure, my hair is now at a specific length, but that is basically all that is different. I realize this is partially my fault since I didn't tell them anything more specific, but it's because I have no idea about any kind of further specifics. It's silly, I know, but I just want to give a minimum length and tell them to do what they want with the rest, just remembering that I don't do any kind of styling or whatever on a daily basis and that I don't want to/know how to do any. I haven't yet found a gutsy enough hairdresser who will do just that, surprise me. Are my hair habits just too lazy to sustain any kind of different haircut? Again, I have no idea. No one will tell me. Add to this that I honestly don't think I would know a "good" haircut from a "bad" one (they all fall into the neutral zone with me so far) and you get an overall blah experience. Anyway, this is getting all drawn out and boring, so I'll go on. Suffice it to say, I just don't think that what they did was worth the time or money. The problem? How could I complain when it was supposedly something I couldn't do myself? So, I decided to try and cut my own hair, hoping that either I would A) do the same kind of "neutral" cutting without the money spending or inevitable frustration, B) give myself a "Hey cool, something different-ish!" haircut, or C) fail miserably, thus increasing my appreciation for hairdressers and removing my apathy for the blah haircuts that I've always received.
Semi-Pertinent Question #2 - Where: My back bathroom. Paper towel in sink to catch the majority of my hairs so said sink wouldn't get all clogged.
Semi-Pertinent Question #3 - When: It has been an ever-lengthening process (which I enjoy). I started off with my bangs-type hairs about two-ish weeks ago and have been slowly clipping away after every shower since, with the main event happening about a week ago when I hacked off about 4 inches in one go. So.much.fun. It is quite addicting, and I always want to do more (which I probably will, since the desire is there, until Jason tells me to quit or my common sense finally takes over). This wouldn't be a huge problem if I were just a perfectionist or something. You know, if I were a super perfectionist when it came to my hair, clipping a little here and there all the time to get it "just right" wouldn't be a terrible idea. But, you have to realize, I honestly don't think I would recognize a "bad" haircut. And I'm cutting because it's fun. This is a potentially bad combination. I just never knew cutting hairs could be so addicting and enjoyable, and I'm not sure if I'll be able to help myself from making minor cuts every other day. Hopefully, I won't make a mistake that will necessitate 24-hour hat donning. But then, on the flipside, I probably wouldn't even recognize that I did... So, I still win!
Semi-Pertinent Question #4 - How: In a very choppy fashion. I pretended I was all official by using little hair clips to hold my hairs up in sections and whatnot, but in the end I just did whatever the heck my fingers wanted to do. I even attempted to measure how much I was cutting off and such. But, seeing as I only had the desire to do that to one side, I think it was more of a decorative measure than actually a useful technique. I just cut the hairs that I felt needed cutting and then cut them a little more. I held the hairs at different angles while I cut them creating all kinds of potentially tacky, uneven looks. It was fantastic. Every 10 minutes I would run into the living room to pester Jason who was studying for his prelim exam. I think I was his main source of frustration when it came to studying that night... Oops. Anyway, I eventually reached a point where I felt it could be called "done" for the night. It was around-ish the right length, and my front hairs were doing what I wanted them to do. The hairs on the back of my head were more difficult to cut since I couldn't see them/reach them/cut them as easily. They are still are doing some things that I don't yet approve of but, again, it's a process. I'll figure it out eventually.
So, the big question: Was it worth it? Totally. I cannot believe I hadn't tried this sooner. I hope to never, ever again pay for a haircut. Not only will I save the 10, 15 or 20 dollars (and nope, I don't at all believe that a more expensive place would give me more satisfaction), but I will also gain a priceless amount**** of entertainment. I suppose the only thing that could ruin my anti-hair-salon goal is the spontaneous growth of self-awareness and a personal sense of style. But, I'm pretty sure that won't be a problem for me. :) So.many.wins.
This whole experience kind of reminds me of this llama...
*i realize i wasn't speaking of hair, but i had no other segue into this awesome topic.
**i can tell whether my hair looks brushed these days. promise. i think i learned it sophomore year in college.
***just for clarification: a brush does not fall into the hair device category. hair devices use electricity. goop consists of anything besides shampoo/conditioner that you put in your hair.
**** $43.
Anyway, all this to say, I'm ready for fall. It.makes.me.so.excited. God made a ridiculously beautiful world.
The not as happy part of September 1st is that it is Jason's first day of school. His schedule is basically 1030 to 4 every day. I know it's ridiculous, but I'm going to miss him. Having him around all the time was so nice. I know it's probably going to be a semester with a lot of studying going on, but he can do it. I'm super proud of him.
Speaking of hair*, I cut my own hairs. All of them. First time ever. With my own hands. And scissors. It was, seriously, so much fun. Now, I will answer all of the semi-pertinent questions.
Semi- Pertinent Question #1 - Why: I greatly dislike going to get my hair cut. Perhaps it is because I rarely got haircuts when I was growing up. I would get a trim every now and again, but for a good portion of my life, I just let it grow. My hair and I have always managed to stubborn our way into unpleasant situations. As a kid, I don't think I ever thought to brush it. It was annoying to brush hair since it only took about an hour to mess it up again. Plus, I honestly don't think I could tell a difference between nicely brushed hair and messed up hair. I wasn't/still am not very aware of things like that**. Add to that, I have/had an issue with obsessing over things, and my down-to-my-knees hair was just one of the stubborn points.
Anyway, I think the actual reason I dislike hair-cutting situations is because I simply have no clue what I want done with my hair and even less of an idea how to explain this to someone. So, the few times I've gone somewhere to have my hair cut, I always reach that same awkward point: I sit down in the chair, they face me towards the mirror, and they ask, "So, what do you want done?" I have no idea. I can give them a general length to work with and I can even throw that fancy word of "Layers!" in there, but that's about the extent of my cutting/styling knowledge. To make it more difficult, I also like to mention, "I wear it down and in a ponytail. I wash it and let it dry on its own. I don't use hair devices or goop***." With all of these vague and possibly restrictive instructions, I sit back and let them go at it. Once they've declared a finished product, I pay and leave.
And this is where the dissatisfaction comes in. Sure, my hair is now at a specific length, but that is basically all that is different. I realize this is partially my fault since I didn't tell them anything more specific, but it's because I have no idea about any kind of further specifics. It's silly, I know, but I just want to give a minimum length and tell them to do what they want with the rest, just remembering that I don't do any kind of styling or whatever on a daily basis and that I don't want to/know how to do any. I haven't yet found a gutsy enough hairdresser who will do just that, surprise me. Are my hair habits just too lazy to sustain any kind of different haircut? Again, I have no idea. No one will tell me. Add to this that I honestly don't think I would know a "good" haircut from a "bad" one (they all fall into the neutral zone with me so far) and you get an overall blah experience. Anyway, this is getting all drawn out and boring, so I'll go on. Suffice it to say, I just don't think that what they did was worth the time or money. The problem? How could I complain when it was supposedly something I couldn't do myself? So, I decided to try and cut my own hair, hoping that either I would A) do the same kind of "neutral" cutting without the money spending or inevitable frustration, B) give myself a "Hey cool, something different-ish!" haircut, or C) fail miserably, thus increasing my appreciation for hairdressers and removing my apathy for the blah haircuts that I've always received.
Semi-Pertinent Question #2 - Where: My back bathroom. Paper towel in sink to catch the majority of my hairs so said sink wouldn't get all clogged.
Semi-Pertinent Question #3 - When: It has been an ever-lengthening process (which I enjoy). I started off with my bangs-type hairs about two-ish weeks ago and have been slowly clipping away after every shower since, with the main event happening about a week ago when I hacked off about 4 inches in one go. So.much.fun. It is quite addicting, and I always want to do more (which I probably will, since the desire is there, until Jason tells me to quit or my common sense finally takes over). This wouldn't be a huge problem if I were just a perfectionist or something. You know, if I were a super perfectionist when it came to my hair, clipping a little here and there all the time to get it "just right" wouldn't be a terrible idea. But, you have to realize, I honestly don't think I would recognize a "bad" haircut. And I'm cutting because it's fun. This is a potentially bad combination. I just never knew cutting hairs could be so addicting and enjoyable, and I'm not sure if I'll be able to help myself from making minor cuts every other day. Hopefully, I won't make a mistake that will necessitate 24-hour hat donning. But then, on the flipside, I probably wouldn't even recognize that I did... So, I still win!
Semi-Pertinent Question #4 - How: In a very choppy fashion. I pretended I was all official by using little hair clips to hold my hairs up in sections and whatnot, but in the end I just did whatever the heck my fingers wanted to do. I even attempted to measure how much I was cutting off and such. But, seeing as I only had the desire to do that to one side, I think it was more of a decorative measure than actually a useful technique. I just cut the hairs that I felt needed cutting and then cut them a little more. I held the hairs at different angles while I cut them creating all kinds of potentially tacky, uneven looks. It was fantastic. Every 10 minutes I would run into the living room to pester Jason who was studying for his prelim exam. I think I was his main source of frustration when it came to studying that night... Oops. Anyway, I eventually reached a point where I felt it could be called "done" for the night. It was around-ish the right length, and my front hairs were doing what I wanted them to do. The hairs on the back of my head were more difficult to cut since I couldn't see them/reach them/cut them as easily. They are still are doing some things that I don't yet approve of but, again, it's a process. I'll figure it out eventually.
So, the big question: Was it worth it? Totally. I cannot believe I hadn't tried this sooner. I hope to never, ever again pay for a haircut. Not only will I save the 10, 15 or 20 dollars (and nope, I don't at all believe that a more expensive place would give me more satisfaction), but I will also gain a priceless amount**** of entertainment. I suppose the only thing that could ruin my anti-hair-salon goal is the spontaneous growth of self-awareness and a personal sense of style. But, I'm pretty sure that won't be a problem for me. :) So.many.wins.
This whole experience kind of reminds me of this llama...
 |
| "How's my new haircut look? Seriously, what does it look like? I can't see a thing." |
**i can tell whether my hair looks brushed these days. promise. i think i learned it sophomore year in college.
***just for clarification: a brush does not fall into the hair device category. hair devices use electricity. goop consists of anything besides shampoo/conditioner that you put in your hair.
**** $43.
8.30.2011
and then, suddenly, summer was over
Well, it's been a while, blog. Oddly enough I blogged a lot less during the summer when I had more free time than during the school year when I was busy. It wasn't a terribly eventful summer but I guess a few things have happened.
I finished my summer research, and it was what could conceivably be called a success. We weren't technically able to "solve" the problem (we wanted to find a cospectral mate for K(9,3) at a minimum), but we did show that a lot of classes of subsets of K(n,3) are not switching sets for any n. The world expert on the problem still hasn't made any progress either, so I think that means our summer spent narrowing it down a little wasn't a waste. Either way, my adviser was pleased with my work and my presentation at the end of the summer went very well.
The soccer season also ended in a way that felt successful but won't sound like it to anyone else. Our final game was not a loss. That's right, we played a game and we didn't lose. We didn't win either. It was a tie. Actually I think our teams were pretty evenly matched. I really wish someone had managed to score, but our defense managed finally to allow no goals, so our team walked away proud to finally not have lost. Our opponent was ranked 5 ahead of us, having beaten the 4 teams I thought we should have beaten and having lost to or tied the rest of the teams. That confirms even more to me that if we'd had a good game against any of those few teams, we actually might have pulled out a win. Either way, everyone sort of took it as a win anyway because other than a forfeit victory once when the other team didn't show, this is the first game we didn't lose.
I took the second preliminary exam, and (if I passed) I'm now 1/3 done with the PhD program. The next stage is pretty scary, though. It's the oral candidacy exams... It's pretty intimidating. Basically I'll have to sit in a room for 4 hours with 4 experts in my chosen field and convince them that I'm an expert, too. I'm actually not an expert, so that will be tricky. I guess I've got the rest of the school year to become one. Then I will be a PhD candidate, and all that will be left is a dissertation.
Also noteworthy is the earthquake, which was big enough for us to feel it, but small enough that it didn't cause much damage. I thought that was pretty cool, and it's the most I remember feeling any earthquake. Not as noteworthy was hurricane Irene, which was much over-hyped by the weather media. I suppose I shouldn't be surprised, since all news media is over-hyped. It's not that I wanted the hurricane to be destructive, it's that I was told it would be the worst hurricane ever to hit the northeast, even where we're located. Where we are you'd never have known there was a hurricane if the internet hadn't told you. Obviously I'd rather have a wimpy storm than a destructive storm, and I'm glad that the damage from Irene was nowhere near as bad as predicted. However, there is a middle ground (really heavy rain, high winds, but not extreme enough to cause real damage), and that's what I anticipated with something like excitement. Plus, all the people we saw preparing for their impending doom (for example, buying 9 cases of water and moving their stuff into storage) will just ignore all warnings next time, when there might actually be a big storm. If it's going to be bad, then yes, you should report that. If it's not, then tell people there are some precautions to take but don't expect to be holed up in a cave with no electricity, food, or running water for a month. This comic, including the note at the end, sums up my frustration. I'm more annoyed with the hype than anything.
Speaking of hype, it caused UD to cancel all activities from Friday until Monday (like students moving into the dorms, orientations, etc.), so school couldn't start today like it was supposed to. No, today students are moving in, because the weather channel said it'd be storming like we've never seen over the weekend. Well, it did rain for about 12 hours, and the wind topped 15mph for a couple of those hours. I guess that's bad enough weather to close everything for 4 days. Right? Anyway, at least now I don't have to start school until Thursday, since they're doing all the beginning of the year stuff today and tomorrow. See, there's always a good side. No damage from the storm, and no school until Thursday.
Now, if I can just manage to blog more than once a month, we'll be set.
the only hope for this heart
I finished my summer research, and it was what could conceivably be called a success. We weren't technically able to "solve" the problem (we wanted to find a cospectral mate for K(9,3) at a minimum), but we did show that a lot of classes of subsets of K(n,3) are not switching sets for any n. The world expert on the problem still hasn't made any progress either, so I think that means our summer spent narrowing it down a little wasn't a waste. Either way, my adviser was pleased with my work and my presentation at the end of the summer went very well.
The soccer season also ended in a way that felt successful but won't sound like it to anyone else. Our final game was not a loss. That's right, we played a game and we didn't lose. We didn't win either. It was a tie. Actually I think our teams were pretty evenly matched. I really wish someone had managed to score, but our defense managed finally to allow no goals, so our team walked away proud to finally not have lost. Our opponent was ranked 5 ahead of us, having beaten the 4 teams I thought we should have beaten and having lost to or tied the rest of the teams. That confirms even more to me that if we'd had a good game against any of those few teams, we actually might have pulled out a win. Either way, everyone sort of took it as a win anyway because other than a forfeit victory once when the other team didn't show, this is the first game we didn't lose.
I took the second preliminary exam, and (if I passed) I'm now 1/3 done with the PhD program. The next stage is pretty scary, though. It's the oral candidacy exams... It's pretty intimidating. Basically I'll have to sit in a room for 4 hours with 4 experts in my chosen field and convince them that I'm an expert, too. I'm actually not an expert, so that will be tricky. I guess I've got the rest of the school year to become one. Then I will be a PhD candidate, and all that will be left is a dissertation.
Also noteworthy is the earthquake, which was big enough for us to feel it, but small enough that it didn't cause much damage. I thought that was pretty cool, and it's the most I remember feeling any earthquake. Not as noteworthy was hurricane Irene, which was much over-hyped by the weather media. I suppose I shouldn't be surprised, since all news media is over-hyped. It's not that I wanted the hurricane to be destructive, it's that I was told it would be the worst hurricane ever to hit the northeast, even where we're located. Where we are you'd never have known there was a hurricane if the internet hadn't told you. Obviously I'd rather have a wimpy storm than a destructive storm, and I'm glad that the damage from Irene was nowhere near as bad as predicted. However, there is a middle ground (really heavy rain, high winds, but not extreme enough to cause real damage), and that's what I anticipated with something like excitement. Plus, all the people we saw preparing for their impending doom (for example, buying 9 cases of water and moving their stuff into storage) will just ignore all warnings next time, when there might actually be a big storm. If it's going to be bad, then yes, you should report that. If it's not, then tell people there are some precautions to take but don't expect to be holed up in a cave with no electricity, food, or running water for a month. This comic, including the note at the end, sums up my frustration. I'm more annoyed with the hype than anything.
Speaking of hype, it caused UD to cancel all activities from Friday until Monday (like students moving into the dorms, orientations, etc.), so school couldn't start today like it was supposed to. No, today students are moving in, because the weather channel said it'd be storming like we've never seen over the weekend. Well, it did rain for about 12 hours, and the wind topped 15mph for a couple of those hours. I guess that's bad enough weather to close everything for 4 days. Right? Anyway, at least now I don't have to start school until Thursday, since they're doing all the beginning of the year stuff today and tomorrow. See, there's always a good side. No damage from the storm, and no school until Thursday.
Now, if I can just manage to blog more than once a month, we'll be set.
the only hope for this heart
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