Songs to Aging Children [Don't] Come...

So, here's a quote pulled from Sarah Palin's recent interview with Katie Couric.:

"I'm not going to solely blame all of man's activities on changes in climate. Because the world's weather patterns are cyclical. And over history we have seen change there. But kind of doesn't matter at this point, as we debate what caused it. The point is, it's real, we need to do something about it."

Right, good to know that not all of my activities are going to be blamed on changes in the climate. I appreciate that, though even I'll admit to getting a bit cranky when it's very hot out. And yeah, that's not what she meant, and you can tell, from context, what she did mean. But still. Pretty funny.

Spencer just got back from walking the rent cheque down to the manager's office. We had fried rice for dinner, so that was nice. It's a good meal for us to make, because we both contribute; I cook the rice, and he fries it up. We're both good at our own parts of the process, and not terribly good at the other person's.

Also, a note: young adults are not, in general, terribly good at reading aloud. Particularly from the Bible, but I'd go out on a generalizing-limb and venture that they're just not very good at it in general. I mean, come on. How do you get into college (no, skip that, get to the age of 18) without figuring out how to pronounce Gilead? And, once corrected, don't you think you'd at least make an attempt at pronouncing it properly the second time? The third? Please, just shoot me now.

*Teddy is frustrated by stupid people*

But, never mind. I'm sure Logic tomorrow will make me feel much better...

In other news, I fell off my step today in aerobics. (And yeah, those are actually exactly what our steps look like.) We were in the middle of a new routine, and I suppose I was concentrating on the wrong thing, because I went to step up and found the edge of the step, followed rapidly by the floor. I've got a nice bruise on my left hip, but it wasn't too bad; the girl next to me stopped to help me up. We usually have someone fall off the step once every couple of class periods; today was just my day to be special. It's usually a problem that the girls with longer legs have: you step out to do a part of the routine, and hey! No step. Oops.

I sewed up a hole in one of the pockets of my brown leather jacket today. Now change will hopefully stop falling in to the lining of the jacket. not that, you know, it's at all cold enough here to warrant full length trousers, let alone a jacket. But soon! We're forecast (drumroll...) Rain! This Friday and Saturday. That would be different. Might have to hunt down my umbrella...

Hmm, down to the end of the entry, and I still don't have a good song lyric for the post title. I'm listening to Joni Mitchell's Clouds album right now, but I think "I Don't Know Where I Stand" is a bit harsh for even Mrs. Palin.

And it's simply irrational weather, I can't even hear myself think

Constantly bailing out water But still feel like I'm gonna sink.

But no joining the Army just yet. Maybe next week. We'll see how the Proofs test goes. For now, head's still above water.

Weather could use to simmer down a bit, though. It was 90 today. Sigh.

The class went well today, though. Prof really liked the proof I put up, so that was satisfying. And I got through another section of Logic without killing anyone. That's gotta be worth major points in my favour.

Made blueberry muffins today. Ate them. Watched Spence fill our dwindling freezer back up with frozen mini-pizzas and pepperoni hot pockets. Worked on physics and proofs homework.

But now, bed for Theodoras. My back hurts, and the tylenol pm is starting to kick in. Yawn...

In the meantime, here are some camera pics from a couple of days ago. We're very cool.

To days of inspiration,

...Playing hooky, making something
Out of nothing, the need
To express-
To communicate,
To going against the grain,
Going insane,
Going mad

Well, not playing hooky. And we're just trying for the days of inspiration. The going insane part is pretty spot-on, though.

I'm at school right now, down in the basement of the student union. I don't have class (Bible) for another 45 minutes, so I'm responding to emails and resisting the urge to go buy and consume grossly overpriced (but delightfully tasty) foodstuffs. No. Will not. Will wait until I get home and scarf a Totinos before leaving again for aerobics.

I have a busy night tonight; lab report from today's physics lab is due tomorrow, and I really should do another one of the proofs we were assigned for Proofs homework, though I doubt we'll get through any but the first one of the set, which I've already done.

Want....food...

I had a really nice rant thought out about the stupidity of how money and time are spent on campus by the bureaucracy, but I can't quite work up the fervor for it right now. Maybe later.

Spencer's only class tomorrow (math) got cancelled, so he has tomorrow off, the lucky bloke. Though, he did trip and rip a hole in the knee of his jeans this morning, so things balance out. Except that they don't, because he was on his way to getting In N Out for lunch at the time. Mmm, In N Out...

Oh, I almost forgot! I've been downloading lots of music lately, for free and (allegedly) legal, from spiralfrog.com. It's pretty easy to use, all of the songs play nicely with Rhapsody, and they have a decent selection. I adore free music. It's grand.

Well, I'm going to wander on over to my classroom now, I think. I'd like to just go home and nap until aerobics time, but never mind. Sleep is for weekends, anyway.

People Take Pictures of Each Other

Or, at least of their food. I was noticing today the... sparseness of Spence's pantry shelf compared to mine, though as he fairly pointed out, all of his food is in the freezer. Here's a pic of it I took with mi telefono; Spencer's shelf is nice and empty enough that we can keep all the ziploc bags there, too.



Spencer's contents: 2 boxes of popcorn, 2 boxes of jello mix, 1 brownie mix, 1 almost-empty thing of peanut butter

Teddy's contents: Bag of tortilla chips, bag of chocolate chips (don't get the two confused!), 1 box mashed potato mix, 1 box Rice a Roni, 2 boxes of pasta meals, 6 boxes mac n cheese, approx. 3 pounds of spaghetti, 4 boxes of cereal, 1 full box of strawberries and cream instant oatmeal (you might almost think I like carbs!), 3 jars of spaghetti sauce, 2 boxes blueberry muffin mix, 1 jar of applesauce, 1 tin of chilli, 1.5 things of peanut butter, aaaaaand 1 jar of Nutella.

But of course, I couldn't just stop with the pantry. Here, therefore are pics of our perishable food stores. Because I can. Mwahahahaha!



Spencer's contents: 2 mini frozen pizzas (not shown), 2 cartons of ice cream, 1 thing of frozen jello, I frozen Totinos, I box breakfast toaster things, 3 boxes off-brand hot pockets

Teddy's contents: 3 frozen Totinos, 1 popsicle




Spencer's fridge contents: 12-pack of cherry cola, 2 things of lunch meat, mozzerella cheese, sharp cheddar cheese

Teddy's fridge contents: 3 (cherry!) yoghurts, eggs, gallon of fat-free milk, torillas, jam from Teresa's mum, 2 things of colby jack cheese.

Plus miscellaneous bits in the fridge door: communal carrots, condiments, and butter, my applesauce, Spencer's cranberry juice

So, there you go. Mostly, an excuse to play with my cameraphone :)

In other news, I really love Word 2007. It is my friend. It lets me write out reeeeealy pretty equations for my lab reports, and formats them properly. La. Plus, a full complement of math and Greek symbols that don't require any special keystrokes. Me gusta mucho.

While we're on the topic of things I like, I quite like my gas stovetop. It's fun. And I like the Rent soundtrack a lot. And sleep, too. And not-crazy-hot weather is nice.

yawn. Speaking of sleep...

Things, are what I like to do...

...Doing things is what I like to do

Things are what I like to do
No twiddling of thumbs
I get everything done

I'm slightly more productive now than previous because...
I'm slightly more efficient than I previously was...

Doing things is what I like to do, YES!
Doing things is what I like to do, YES!

Courtesy of They Might Be Giants, via a lj I follow, from a Dunkin' Doughnuts commercial. And yes, I'm quite good at doing things.

Particularly, it seems, if those things resemble failing physics tests. I went in, sat down, collected my test, read all of the problems first, then proceeded to freak out. Badly. I suspect the test was something of a train wreck, though I did get pretty fully through 2 of the 4 problems, and at least wrote some stuff down for the other two. Still, I think I'll be lucky if I get over 50 points, out of 100. It would even probably be all right if it was being curved, but it isn't. Sigh. Seriously have to try harder next time (when, thankfully, there isn't a calculus exam two days beforehand).

But! The calc exam, I actually did quite well on that, at least. Since Pavone has a TA this semester, we actually got them back the class after we took it (today). And... the damage: out of a total of 40 points, I got 28. Which, on its own, isn't even horrible, but then we also have the pretty grade curve! So, more important than my personal score was the class average, which was a grand staggering 20.6, with a standard deviation of (equally impressive) 9.4. So, I'm very nearly a standard deviation above the mean, though unfortunately this semester you have to be 1.5 above to get an A. Ah well; I'm still entirely pleased with this result. Three of my four good friends in the class actually showed up for it today; they got 29 (yay for Joanna!), 22, and 20, respectively. The fourth friend is hacking sick, but showed up f0r proofs (homework due) before bolting off to her physics test. Still, I'm looking forward to Monday, to find out how she did. I am a nosy parker...

Spencer's out tonight, seeing a Autobahn by Neil LaBute in town to fulfill a requirement for his drama class. I wish there were more plays here I was interested in seeing, although the Blue Room is going to be showing The Laramie Project in Novemeber. Maybe I'll get around to seeing that...

But for now, there's a pleasant weekend ahead of me. The only thing I have to do is run to the bank tomorrow, and then I get to stay curled up at home, working on homework and getting the tidying-up done that I didn't manage during the week. Hey, maybe I'll cook something more complex than pasta-with-sauce-from-a-jar-poured-on-top. That'd be neat.

And, while I'm thinking about the nice things I get to do this weekend, I think I'll wander off and contemplate getting more than 6 straight hours of sleep. Mmm, sleep...

What's the frequency, Kenneth?

Well, Dan Rather didn't know, and I sure don't either. Sorta the theme for the week; people beating me over the head, while demanding to know incomprehensible things.

Right. And that's the end of my attempt towards a meaningful metaphor towards life for the evening. Everyone should really just go read some of Piet Hien's Grooks instead. Some samples:

OUR GREATEST ACHIEVEMENT

We must expect posterity
to view with some asperity
 the marvels and the wonders
   we're passing on to it;
but it should change its attitude
to one of heartfelt gratitude
 when thinking of the blunders
   we didn't quite commit.


OUT OF TIME
A holiday thought.

My old clock used to tell the time
  and subdivide diurnity;
but now it's lost both hands and chime
  and only tells eternity.

Nice, quick, pithy little things, with a lot of fun rhyming. Me gusta.

I made a grilled cheese sandwich for late dinner this evening. Burned both sides, but it was scrummy anyway.Lots of hot, melty cheese. I'm a fan. With a cold glass of milk. *Sighs happily*

Washed towels today, which was good; we've been out of clean kitchen rags for about a week. But now, clean ones. So that's nice.

Physics lab tomorrow, along with bible class and then aerobics. Our lab is going to be on projectile motion, so that'll be interesting. *Pictures 20 college kids flinging stuff around, in the name of projectile science* Which is not quite like trying this type of science, but will be intriguing anyway.

And that's all from me. Going to go lapse into unconsciousness now. Mmm, sleep...

Six o'clock already, I was just in the middle of a dream...

Monday again! I'm fed, dishwasher's running, and I've still got ten minutes left before I have to take off for calc. Man, I don't know if I can even describe how glad I am that I only have one 8:00 class this semester; last year, it was every morning. Now, only Thursdays!

Physics session last night went well. I need to do some more projectile motion problems, so I really know what's going on there, but I think I'm generally in good shape. We'll see come this Friday, I suppose...

Spencer had a bit of a math-induced meltdown last night. Sigh. Got hissy and stalked off. Him, not me. Obviously.

Now, calc followed by proofs followed by logic followed by physics. Everyone have a good day!

Religiously, I'm speaking on the science, 'cause...

...We've gotta live on science alone.
I'll tell you what, Mathematically I'm having it.
I wanna live on science alone.

Well, even if I don't want to, it seems like it's my lot at the moment. Which is okay, though it's keeping me extraordinarily busy. Thus, the lack of blogging.

In fact, I have to leave in half an hour, to go to the physics evening study session for our first exam, which is coming up on Friday (otherwise known as, far too quickly!). Was out all day yesterday, studying calc for that exam on Wednesday. Today has been devoted (nominally) to physics. Barely seen my computer, which is unusual for a weekend :)

Spence made pizza dough this evening, so we had pizza for dinner. A batch of dough makes about 5-6 of our toaster oven size pizzas, so we have plenty left for food tomorrow.

Honestly, that's about it; school's been pretty all-consuming. Hopefully it'll get better after this week is over, but I wouldn't bet on it. Whinge, whinge, whinge :)

So here, from the mouth of an expert, is what academia is all about, folks:

The Endless Plain of Fortune...

...is mine this afternoon! Just got home, and hey! The internet's decided to fix itself and is now back up and running. Sooooo, okay. Good enough for me.

Bookstore was either sold out of or never got in, the bible I need. So, the RELS prof will just have to deal with some of us not having our bibles tomorrow.

Picked up the app for summer orientation leader for next summer here. Pay's eight bucks an hour, it's guaranteed work for two months, and I would just be able to stay here and not move any of my stuff. (Not that staying in Chico for the summer is the world's most brilliant plan, but money is nice.) So, we'll see how that goes. I thought about doing it last summer, but at the time I was still getting charged $339 a unit, and the training for it is a 3 unit spring class. So, no. Wasn't going to happen. This year though... *ponders*

Speaking of Chico's weather, it's currently an overly-sunny 90 degrees F out. Better than 90 C, but still rather warm, thank you.

I'm all alone...

There's no internet beside me...

Actually, at the moment, there is. I'm at school making use of the nice student union computers that HAVE INTERNET. It was still down at home this morning, so I suspect that will be what I spend my afternoon working on.

Until around 17:40, when I get to go the math club monthly pizza night. It's a good deal: I pay them 5 bucks for the semester, and get buffet dinner at Round Table once a month. Mmm, food...

The logic prof is such an unbelievable idiot.He can't deal with students who disagree with him, so he either makes fun of their arguments or just ignores their point. It's... just ridiculous. Plus, there's the whole I'm-going-to-shove-my-political-agenda-down-your-throat-now that just doesn't let up. Gaaaaaaaaaah. Total jerk.

Other than that, school is good. But for now, I have to go buy a new (non-$100!) bible, and then go home and try to reestablish my contact with the outside world :)

Grr, internet is down, grr. Pretty sure it's a problem on my end; not all the lights are lit up on the linksys box that are supposed to be

San Francisco's Calling Us...

...the Giants and Mets will play.

Or not. And actually, more San Jose than Frisco, but never mind. Pretty song.

I wish that you were here with me to pass the dull weekend...

And I will be!

Present wrapping tonight. I've been trying to get Scrobbler to find the tracks I play in Rhapsody, bit all I can make it do is list the tracks I play from the Rhapsody library, rather than the ones I've imported myself, which is 99% of what I listen to. Sigh. Music doesn't count unless it's been scrobbled!

Oh, everyone should go read this xkcd strip. Because dang, funny. And don't forget to hold you mouse over the strip, to get the extra punch line.

Got my lab report turned in on time, though the prof was mistaken in his assumptioin that there would be lab space open today for people to finish/rerun experiments. Soooo, I just finished writing it up as it was, noting the (kinda sad) systematic error in the acceleration portion. D'oh! On the upside, I got the quiz question of the day right! Go me!

Hah, so I went to the library comp lab this morning to correct a typo (for some reason, Word on my comp isn't correcting my spelling) and add the error explanation. I sit down at a comp, load my doc of my flash drive, and it comes up fine EXCEPT that the previous Word user had set the default language to Japanese. Kinda not cool. And, of course, hard to fix. I had to call over one of the nice tech people who staff the lab, to swap it back so I could, you know, type in my own language and preferred font. He fixed it pretty easily, but dude! Japanese!

Went to the math club welcome back picnic this afternoon. Last year, there was barbeque, but no one wanted to go to all that effort this year. Sooo, the obvious solution? Chinese delivery! I haven't been that full after a meal in a long time. Plus, they ordered too much, so everyone was ordered (by math club official decree) to take some home. Lots of people, for some (to me) inexplicable reason didn't want to take any home. Needless to say, I had no such compunctions. Brought home two things of rice, one of orange chicken, and one of sweet and sour chicken, for Spence. Who is still a bit sniffly, poor dear.

Hmm, perhaps I should throw together the things I need for a daytrip down south...

Right then, bits-gathering I go. Ta ta!

Girl of 100 lists

...and hey, not all of them have to do with my upcoming due assignments! (Though yeah, okay, most of them do.)

Stupid due-the-next-day-sorry-if-you-had-ANY-OTHER-WORK-TO-DO physics lab reports. But, we got back our ones from last week (my first ever lab report) and I got full points! *Teddy does retroactive happy dance*

And tomorrow is, after all, Friday. La. We have a small quiz in physics, but it's just about adding/subtracting vectors, so it shouldn't be too bad. This class really is better having a couple of semesters of calc under my belt then I think it would be otherwise.

And blogger appears not to like the word shouldn't. That's... kinda weird. But then, Word 2007 really doesn't like me using contractions at all, so what can you do? And hey, it doesn't like doesn't either. Weeeeeeird.

The math club welcome back picnic is tomorrow afternoon. I'll be attending, if only for the promise of free food. Maybe I can talk some of my calculus/proofs friends into joining me... *ponders*

Right, back to work then! Sadly, no fun macros tonight; must go and build more data tables, instead of entertaining my adoring masses. Speaking of whom... if you're reading this, leave me a shout. I'm curious to see who's curious. But no dead cats, please.

I wish I could figure a way 'round this...

...she says, like a sad song.

Poor Stevie. Though, on a related note, they played a really sped up, peppy version of Fleetwood Mac's Everywhere for the first 6 or so mins of aerobics this afternoon. That made me giggle on the inside. I was not giggling when the last 15 mins of class got cut off by a shrieking fire alarm. Ah well; less ab work for me.

But! I wish I could figure away 'round this proofs homework. Or mosquito bites. I think that, at this moment, given a choice between getting rid of my proofs homework or these insect bites, I'd pick the bites. Gaaaah.

Of course, ask me again in an hour when I'm not yet done finishing these stupid truth tables. I may have a different answer for you.

grrcontrapositivesgrr...

Labour Day weekend was fun, though. *Teddy conjures up the mental image of a weekend devoted to Tony and Gordon, is disturbed* Lots of fun telly watching and pizza making. I love love love my toaster oven. Engineer's gift to college students, honestly. Though, depressingly, it's not that great at making actual toast. Good thing I have my 6 dollar backup Target toaster (it has a Pop Tart setting labelled on it!).

Right, back to proofs. Le sigh. But first! Time for this evening's macro, courtesy of David Tennant, Hamlet, and a old school DW reference: