Note to Self:
For Thanksgiving break I meant to bring a Christmas card I made for Tim and Mag with me so that I could color it. Unfortunately, much to my general vexation, it was lost amid the rubble of my desk. I have finally tracked it down once more upon returning and would just like to note that it is behind the framed picture of my Dad on my desk with a folder of loan information I should show to my father over Christmas break.
Thursday, November 30, 2006
The Perils of Hypochondria
Tim reminded me that there are still people who read my blog (even if it is just him). Well, to be fair, there's probably at least three, maybe even four if I haven't lost someone's interest. And as long as I have an audience, no matter how small, my vanity forbids me from giving up completely. So I apologize for my long hiatus. My life to date has unfortunately been filled with grad school applications, spending time with my family, and getting sick. You would think that Thanksgiving break would have been an opportune time to post in my blog, but I felt guilty about any time not devoted to spending with my family, grad school apps, or editing my novel. Besides, since my sister is a member of my audience, and thus also a large percentage all by herself, I felt that there wasn't a lot of reason for me to post over break. Plus, I also figured that all of the rest of my audience would be spending time with their families rather than reading my blog.
Anyway, I'm afraid I'm not very happy right now because I had to call in sick for work. Although, I suppose the "had to" part is the problem. I am sick. There's little question about that. I've been sick for days. But I have a little Confucius that lives inside me that says I'm never too sick to do work (where this Confucius goes when I'm writing papers, however, is a mystery). Still, I took one look outside which is a very wet-looking grey mess and decided that going out for the long walk down to the elementary school would not improve my health. It's a bummer because I actually love my job. I love working with the kids, and I feel bad when I can't go in. I worry the kids will think I've abandoned them. It's bad enough that I do have to abandon them at the end of the year. It seems I have precious little time with them as it is. But I also was so exhasted last night that I went to bed around 9pm but still slept very poorly. All night I was unusally hot and thought that I must have a fever. However, when I woke up this morning and asked my roommate if it was hot in the room she said that it was. She also reported that my forehead did not feel hot, so I must conclude my hypochondria got the better of me as far as the fever was concerned. But I still do have a bad cold and that's undeniable. It is doubtful, however, that I have Mad Cow disease, though I did consider the possibility.
I just wish this horrible weather had been last night instead of this morning because I was constantly woken up by drunks outside my window. Close enough to hear clearly but not close enough to shoot a water gun at. It appears to have stopped raining, though, which makes me feel even guiltier for not going to work, but what's done is done.
Tim reminded me that there are still people who read my blog (even if it is just him). Well, to be fair, there's probably at least three, maybe even four if I haven't lost someone's interest. And as long as I have an audience, no matter how small, my vanity forbids me from giving up completely. So I apologize for my long hiatus. My life to date has unfortunately been filled with grad school applications, spending time with my family, and getting sick. You would think that Thanksgiving break would have been an opportune time to post in my blog, but I felt guilty about any time not devoted to spending with my family, grad school apps, or editing my novel. Besides, since my sister is a member of my audience, and thus also a large percentage all by herself, I felt that there wasn't a lot of reason for me to post over break. Plus, I also figured that all of the rest of my audience would be spending time with their families rather than reading my blog.
Anyway, I'm afraid I'm not very happy right now because I had to call in sick for work. Although, I suppose the "had to" part is the problem. I am sick. There's little question about that. I've been sick for days. But I have a little Confucius that lives inside me that says I'm never too sick to do work (where this Confucius goes when I'm writing papers, however, is a mystery). Still, I took one look outside which is a very wet-looking grey mess and decided that going out for the long walk down to the elementary school would not improve my health. It's a bummer because I actually love my job. I love working with the kids, and I feel bad when I can't go in. I worry the kids will think I've abandoned them. It's bad enough that I do have to abandon them at the end of the year. It seems I have precious little time with them as it is. But I also was so exhasted last night that I went to bed around 9pm but still slept very poorly. All night I was unusally hot and thought that I must have a fever. However, when I woke up this morning and asked my roommate if it was hot in the room she said that it was. She also reported that my forehead did not feel hot, so I must conclude my hypochondria got the better of me as far as the fever was concerned. But I still do have a bad cold and that's undeniable. It is doubtful, however, that I have Mad Cow disease, though I did consider the possibility.
I just wish this horrible weather had been last night instead of this morning because I was constantly woken up by drunks outside my window. Close enough to hear clearly but not close enough to shoot a water gun at. It appears to have stopped raining, though, which makes me feel even guiltier for not going to work, but what's done is done.
Wednesday, November 15, 2006
Pulchritudinous
I bet when you learned the word pulchritudinous (the world's ugliest word for beautiful) for the SAT, you never thought you'd see it again, save for maybe something stuffy and literary. To be honest I had't seen it in anything outside my high school vocab book, and I've read some pretty esoteric stuff. Until now. Today I have found the word pulchritude (the noun version of pulchitrudinous) in MSN's current dating article: Are You Hung Up On Looks? proving that the SATs are not in fact useless but teach us how to understand internet dating advice.
* * *
On a completely different subject I'd like to note that I was a bit hard on Tim and that I misinterpreted his remark on my pictures of the Louvre. He was actually simply saying that the Louvre would be an excellent setting for a horror story. It already is the setting of The Da Vinci Code, though I suppose that's more suspense than horror. Besides, the scariest thing about Dan Brown is his writing style (or lack thereof).
I bet when you learned the word pulchritudinous (the world's ugliest word for beautiful) for the SAT, you never thought you'd see it again, save for maybe something stuffy and literary. To be honest I had't seen it in anything outside my high school vocab book, and I've read some pretty esoteric stuff. Until now. Today I have found the word pulchritude (the noun version of pulchitrudinous) in MSN's current dating article: Are You Hung Up On Looks? proving that the SATs are not in fact useless but teach us how to understand internet dating advice.
* * *
On a completely different subject I'd like to note that I was a bit hard on Tim and that I misinterpreted his remark on my pictures of the Louvre. He was actually simply saying that the Louvre would be an excellent setting for a horror story. It already is the setting of The Da Vinci Code, though I suppose that's more suspense than horror. Besides, the scariest thing about Dan Brown is his writing style (or lack thereof).
Saturday, November 11, 2006
Friday, November 10, 2006
Wednesday, November 08, 2006
Sciencey Thoughts
It has occured to me that the answer to my previous writer's question would depend on how hot it gets in a burning house. Tim seems to be estimating far higher than I would (read comments in Another Writer's Question for details). But my only basis for how hot a house gets when it's on fire is the book Fahrenheit 451 where the firemen had to make sure the house reached that temperature for the books to incinerate.
So, anyone know the average temperature of a burning house?
It has occured to me that the answer to my previous writer's question would depend on how hot it gets in a burning house. Tim seems to be estimating far higher than I would (read comments in Another Writer's Question for details). But my only basis for how hot a house gets when it's on fire is the book Fahrenheit 451 where the firemen had to make sure the house reached that temperature for the books to incinerate.
So, anyone know the average temperature of a burning house?
Friday, November 03, 2006
Thursday, November 02, 2006
Morris Dancing
I'm reading the new Terry Pratchett book Wintersmith right now and it mentions morris dancing. Now this isn't the first time Pratchett's mentioned morris dancing and in a newspaper article that Pratchett once heatedly criticized, they also said that the fantasy genre was nothing but "lords and ladies morris dancing to greensleeves" or some such nonsense. Pratchett got a lot of flack for criticizing this article because it was trying to praise JK Rowling while putting down all other fantasy authors. Personally I think Pratchett was too polite. I would like to find that reporter's house and have a stampede of morris dancers level it.
At any rate, all this inspired a great curiosity to actually SEE some morris dancing so I looked it up on YouTube. Pratchett always seems to associate this dance with some sort of dark portent, but as far as I can tell it'sEngland
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Rw8Cf1rPmio
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=q2YplTOOtEI&NR
* * *
EDIT: Well, I still couldn't find morris dancing with swords but I did find this video. I think it's more Asian style sword dancing and it's Star Wars themed! Anyway, these kids are AMAZING and the little girl's like a billion times cooler than Amidala.
http://youtube.com/watch?v=2DpFFIJKDBI
I'm reading the new Terry Pratchett book Wintersmith right now and it mentions morris dancing. Now this isn't the first time Pratchett's mentioned morris dancing and in a newspaper article that Pratchett once heatedly criticized, they also said that the fantasy genre was nothing but "lords and ladies morris dancing to greensleeves" or some such nonsense. Pratchett got a lot of flack for criticizing this article because it was trying to praise JK Rowling while putting down all other fantasy authors. Personally I think Pratchett was too polite. I would like to find that reporter's house and have a stampede of morris dancers level it.
At any rate, all this inspired a great curiosity to actually SEE some morris dancing so I looked it up on YouTube. Pratchett always seems to associate this dance with some sort of dark portent, but as far as I can tell it's
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Rw8Cf1rPmio
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=q2YplTOOtEI&NR
* * *
EDIT: Well, I still couldn't find morris dancing with swords but I did find this video. I think it's more Asian style sword dancing and it's Star Wars themed! Anyway, these kids are AMAZING and the little girl's like a billion times cooler than Amidala.
http://youtube.com/watch?v
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