Sunday, May 27, 2001
01:23 a.m.
mini movie review, etc.
Just got home a little bit ago (I had the night off - woo!)after seeing the movie "Shrek". While the animation was certainly very good, there were still points about it that I didn't like. For one thing, it was riddled with clichés. I guess what got to me the most was the bathroom humor - I just don't find it funny. ::shrugs:: I think the movie could have been enjoyed by more people had it been cleaned up a bit.
The best part of the night, of course, was being able to see some friends whom I hadn't seen since winter break. ::grin:: I was able to meet someone new, too which was really nice.
Plus, I wasn't bored out of my skull while sitting home by myself on my night off. This weekend is really shaping up to be great. Tomorrow (or I guess, today, now ^_^;;) is my mother's birthday, and we will be spending some time with other members of my gigantic family for our traditional Memorial Day get-together. I'll finally be able to meet my new-ish, one month old....second cousin? I think. The whole second cousin, once removed, blah blah blah thing is very confusing. And when one has twenty-three first cousins alone, it gets even stranger. ^_^
Wednesday, May 23, 2001
05:52 a.m.
Working nights has been interesting so far. Not very enjoyable, really, but interesting nonetheless.
Besides some of the people I work with (ugh, ugh, ugh), the worst part of it seems to be when I have off. I mean, I like not having to work, but it's really rather lonely when you're the only person awake in the house during the night. I can't very well call up a friend to chat at four in the morning. I sometimes sign on to the instant messenger, but again, those people whom I normally talk with are sleeping. There are other things I would like to do, but by moving around the house I risk waking up my family. My father has developed periodic insomnia within the last few years, so it's extremely cruel to wake him up if he's finally gotten to sleep. Besides, neither of my parents get enough sleep anyway.
::sighs:: When will this summer be over? I want to go back to school!
Friday, May 18, 2001
03:55 a.m.
Gotta stay awake... o_- ::blinks:: Maybe thinking nocturnal-type thoughts will help?
No way, this is too weird. ::counts down the hours until sleep is allowed::
I've got an R.E.M. song stuck in my head - guess which one. ^__^
Thursday, May 17, 2001
12:43 p.m.
Hmm... last day to play in the sunshine.
Too bad it's overcast and drizzly today. ^_~
Tuesday, May 15, 2001
07:10 p.m.
It's nice to be home.
It's nice seeing my family and our pets. It's nice being able to wake up in my own, very comfortable bed. It's nice being able to listen to music all night long if I feel like it. It's nice not having to wear shoes in the shower.
It's not so nice that I'll be starting work soon -- orientation for Target is tomorrow evening. Why retail once again? Well, this summer, I'll be working the night shift: 10:00 pm to 6:00 am. That means no customers to deal with and steadier hours. ^__^ I'm determined to have enough money to take summer session courses next year.
Having never worked a night shift before, I'm really curious how it's going to be like. I mean, I usually have to be in the total darkness in order to be able to sleep, so I'm wondering if I'm going to be able to sleep in the daytime. It'll certainly be different, and thus I'm rather looking forward to it. That is, I'm looking forward to the nocturnal bit, not the work part, really. Stocking shelves can be pretty mindless and boring, no matter what time of the day it is. ^_^;;
Tuesday, May 8, 2001
08:13 p.m.
After tomorrow night...I'll be finished. Must last a little longer... only five more sets of data to input for analysis...then I can type the freaking papers up and assemble my presentation...nineteen hours left to do it in... minus two hours for a literature final....
::deep breaths::
Saturday, May 5, 2001
07:01 p.m.
Heehee, I hadn't thought about the Evil Overlord list in quite some time -- not until I dug up an old email (from 1999... ^_^;;) from my files. ::grin::
Ick. My arms, face, and neck are totally sunburned from being at a fundraising carwash this morning. I hurt.
Friday, May 4, 2001
09:25 p.m.
I'm in a writing mood right now; unfortunately, not of the science-paper variety. ^_^;;
What to write about? Hmmm. Well, there is the camping trip from yesterday and the day before. How shall I begin?
It was a dark and stormy night--
Waitaminit, no it wasn't. It was dark, I'll give it that, but definitely not stormy. In fact it was gorgeous, though buggy. Lots of small, biting black flies during the daylight hours. At night, however, the fire kept them all at bay.
We told stories (or in my case, listened with rapt attention). Because I am the youngest in the class, everyone else has had more experience in just about everything, and some of the stories really reflected that. My professor's stories of when he was in the Peace Corps and his different adventures while conducting research in foreign countries were simply priceless.
The next day, after the storm had cleared--
It didn't storm! I thought I had already established that. ::grin:: Anyway, the next morning on the way back to campus, we stopped at a Burger King for breakfast (:P). The woman taking our orders at the counter was certainly...something. Short and stout, she positively barked at us and to her co-workers about our orders and the status of available foodstuff. And while I have yet to come to a conclusion, I think that there must be a correlation somewhere: upon looking at her name tag, I read the poor woman's name.
It was Agnes Stump.
A more fitting name for a person I have never seen.
Friday, May 4, 2001
04:26 p.m.
Wednesday night I went camping with my ecology class up on Hawk Mountain. I had a great time (not counting the night which I spent awake with a migraine >_<). Unfortunately, I'm now seriously sleep-deprived. The good thing, though, is that I don't really feel it now. Heehee, like that is going to last. ^__^
While we didn't get to see any bears or rattlesnakes ::sigh::, there were owls which we heard at night, and we were able to see some wild turkeys and chipmunks.
Uh...I just spaced. Oh well. I'll be working all weekend on my two major projects and =hopefully= finding some time to study for next week's finals. ^_^;; I hope everyone takes it easy and has a nice weekend. ^_^
Sunday, April 29, 2001
05:19 p.m.
Saw this headline today: Gene Therapy Used to Restore Sight to Blind Dogs. These kinds of studies are why genetics research is so important. I would say that those people who can't see the significance are blind, but that would be pushing the lame-o humor limit. ^_^;;
Thursday, April 26, 2001
08:22 p.m.
Last Thursday during our birding expedition for ecology, we saw a great horned owl back in "The Bush" - the wooded area just off the edge of campus which is used for scientific study and smoking pot (^_^;;). That was a great thing to see and definitely made our efforts worthwhile.
Today, though, we topped that by going to a small nature conservation area about eight miles from campus. There, I saw something I never really expected to see again in my lifetime: a pileated woodpecker. I just about died from excitement. I've only seen one maybe three other times in my life (one of which probably doesn't really count as it was at a wildlife recovery center).
Okay, so I just had to share that. I was sort of disappointed when I came bouncing back to my room after class and told my roommate about it. Her reaction was what I should have expected had I been in the right frame of mind at the time - one of those "oookaaaaay" kind of responses that people give when they don't really know what you're talking about and think you're crazy anyway. ::sigh:: Happily, I called my mother who was extremely excited for me. ^_^ Gosh, my family is cool.
Saturday, April 21, 2001
02:53 p.m.
Hey everyone, remember that Sunday, April 22nd is Earth Day! Get out, get some fresh air, and maybe even visit your local park - you might just learn something. ^_^
Entomology club rules! It's a motto (or in our case, a battlecry ^_^;;).
Tuesday, April 17, 2001
06:55 p.m.
Eheh. The freedom thing? Well, as much as I love the movie Braveheart, I'm afraid that wasn't what it was about. ^_^;; It was more of an 'ohmigosh, I have some free time' sort of thing. Of course, I realized later that I had spoken too soon. ::grin::
Last week felt like what the high school thespians, if I remember correctly, called "hell week". I had a paper due, a psychology exam, a chemistry exam, and a presentation to give. It really would not have been too bad if my literature teacher hadn't screwed up the date in which I was supposed to give my presentation and had given my topic to another student without letting me know before hand. Yep, the topic I signed up for back in January was given to another student two weeks ago. My professor explained it as being an oversight on her part but still wanted me to give my presentation during the following class period on Friday. However, she wanted me to focus on a different aspect of the topic. So I spent hours researching a different topic (though one closely related to the original). Really, there aren't too many different things you can talk about when discussing Hannah Webster Foster, an eighteenth century American writer.
To make an insanely stupid story short, I gave my presentation on Friday on feminism in the late eighteenth and early nineteenth centuries. I suppose it went fairly well, considering I had only a day to prepare it. In the end I had ended up writing two different papers and preparing two different talks for a single class.
All that I can say is that I'd better get an 'A' in Early American Literature. =^_^=
Luckily, the only major projects I have left include finishing the mouse behavioral study (which has been extended until Sunday evening when I'll be monitoring my three favorite specimens of Mus musculus for the last time :D) and a bird population/forest fragmentation study. Final exams are in three weeks' time, but the only one I'm concerned about is chemistry (it's cumulative over two semesters and administered by the American Chemical Society - eep!).
Well, I know there's more to blog about, but I figure I've written enough to bore folks for a while. Gotta go head down to the labs in a half-hour. Next up: raccoons, insomnia, and The Faculty. ^__^
Oh, and for those who felt that they had a lot of free time during college, may I ask you what your majors were? ^_~
Monday, April 16, 2001
09:14 p.m.
...um, freedom? Okay, I take it back. ;_;
Friday, April 13, 2001
03:18 p.m.
FREEEEEEEEEEEEDOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOMMM!!! ^___^
Friday, April 6, 2001
03:53 p.m.
Mmm...I like the smell of wood smoke on a damp and chilly day.
Oh, wow, I've been linked to both Spent Casings and trekpuppy. Now I feel all warm and fuzzy. ^_^
Next Wednesday is not looking to be so very bright: I have a paper due, a presentation to give, and a chemistry exam. o_o I think that I may be absent from the 'net for a few days. In light of that, here's looking forward to next Thursday, April 12!!
Thursday, April 5, 2001
08:55 p.m.
::adopts Spock-like voice:: Fascinating. ^_^
It makes me wonder if, after finally making long-range space travel possible, humans could introduce living organisms on one of the "habitable zone" type planets which previously had none. It'd be rather like creating a mirror site for Earth: if the original happens to go down, we can always visit the mirror. ::grin::
I suppose then the question isn't could we do it, but instead would we do it? Like cloning, I could see a lot of controversy springing up from something like that.
Of course, what people tend to forget is that homo sapiens evolved to be one of the most highly adaptive organisms on our planet. It's simply in our nature to find new places and manipulate our surroundings in order to survive. (^_^)
Thursday, April 5, 2001
04:36 p.m.
Gosh, what an amazingly beautiful day! I think I'm going to go find a patch of grass to flop in. (^__^)
Wednesday, April 4, 2001
01:17 p.m.
Grabbing it by the horns here.... someday we have to tame time, don't you think...?
I popped in my old Jekyll & Hyde CD set the other day and rediscovered some of the wonderful songs there.
One of my all time favorite songs is the nineth track on the second CD: It's a Dangerous Game. Never have I heard a song so sensual before or since. I suppose musicals aren't everyone's cup of tea, but this song can be played without having musicals in mind. ::sigh::
Tuesday, April 3, 2001
07:32 p.m.
I'm wiped and look as though I've been on drugs for the past three days. Someone please give me some drugs so that I can justify my appearance and future actions... ^_~
Monday, April 2, 2001
06:06 p.m.
Why did cigarettes have to be invented?
Sunday, April 1, 2001
11:10 p.m.
Happy April an'at. I've archived the last few entries in order to start the month nice and clean.
Not too much is new around here. I've begun monitoring the activities of our mice the last few, consecutive nights. My only bit of disappointment about the experiment stems from the poor image quality of the monitor we're working off of. Actually, it's not the monitor's fault; the problem is due to the low amount of red light that is being emitted from our single bulb. It'll require me to modify the parameters in which I am testing the mouse behaviors, but I don't believe that it'll have too much of an impact.
Other than that, nothing else is new. I saw a skunk down by the art building Friday night while I was on my way to SciTech. Skunks certainly are rather peculiar in that they waddle. ^_~
