Happy Holidays

Happy Holidays to everyone. Things here are in perpetual motion it seems. I can’t tell if I’m coming or going. Today was a day to pause between the opening presents and the getting back to work. A nice little break, in which I installed guiders so the snow plow would know where the driveway is when it snows. So I suppose even then it was working.

I pretty much decided grad school is a necessary evil. Don’t much care for it, other than the fact I recognize it as a necessity for my future. It also means I need to a) get over moving and b) get over moving to Wisconsin because it looks like that’s the basket I should be placing my eggs in. Brrr. Why couldn’t they have school some place nice and warm, like Tahiti? Days to miss being a marine science major. I could have studied tropical fish. Alas.

I do like my position at the museum. I get to go exploring and it’s all about learning new things so that’s always a fun time. The people in my program are lovely. Some are from the south so we get to reminisce in all the wonders left behind. As I look back it nearly seven months ago, there’s something to be said for South Carolina. Even if it does have blizzards. The next day you can go play in the snow in flip flops. (Not that I encourage that).

Personally things are at a standstill, I’ve been so busy and focused on grad school and doing well that not having a life was the norm. I don’t miss that part, but being in an apartment, in a huge city, makes you realize how alone you can be. It’d be nice to meet someone I guess. Preferably someone that is not a total jerk like the last three exes, but I digress. And it’s not like I would really have time, I’m still in grad school, I still have a Masters to complete and a PhD to accomplish so I suppose having a personal life will wait even longer. As it stands with my family at the moment, it’s probably not a good idea to bring any one new into the mix.

This Christmas it seems has been one to reflect on those who have passed. Perhaps it’s because Gigi’s sister died just last week at the very young age of 28, from something that could have been prevented that makes you sit there and go, well hell, what’s next? Dad has pneumonia again and with the other issues well any news now is good news, because not knowing is just worse. Of course as J pointed out, “you are so damn stubborn, you had to have gotten it from somewhere, so just make him more stubborn.”

Ah, love J somedays, she makes everything better with cookies or a fight. It’s sad how much you miss having a roommate. Casual conversations can be deep philosophical talks without intending to, (but what do you expect when you get scientists’ who read Shakespeare and Plato for fun.)

H has been there too, cyberaly. There’s only so much she can do being across an ocean, course she sent cognac home so worse comes to worse drowning the sorrows or celebrating with heavy intake will work just as well.

Well this was not meant to be as depressing as it’s turned into so....I will just wish everyone many happy returns for the holiday seasons. Be grateful for friends new and old, and enjoy the winter/summer (where ever you may be) oh and you know if you have white stuff on the ground, don’t shovel, make a snow angel.

Piracy...not the kind you're thinking

So I’ve just finished Piracy by Adrian Johns, and I have mixed feelings. It was 600 pages and for one class it did make me want to cry but as historical and legal books it was amazing. The idea that intellectual property is really something that was an abstract idea even hundreds of years ago is something I suppose I didn’t consider. Johns however is quick to set you straight. The beginning is a fascinating look at the Gutenberg Press and how the concept of intellectual property came about. The fact that China had a printing system far more advance hundreds of years before and never came upon the idea of intellectual property makes Europe’s case so much more interesting.

Now however its something we take for granted. You know what happens if you plagiarize. There’s a good chance you’ll get kicked out of school or seriously reprimanded. If you do it a field that lives on citations your career is over. Yet its not simply just cite the author, there are rules and formats and what can and cannot be citied and what’s common knowledge and what’s not. It can be quite complicated.

Piracy in other formats, media is what comes to mind first, is also exceptionally common. Limewire, Torrent, YouTube, everyone uses it, and everyone does it. Does this make us bad immoral people? Or do we just want our favorite movies and music for free, because we’re cheap? I’m not sure. I do know, after reading this book I’m going to be much more careful about what I write in papers and where I get my music and movies from.


Anyway...just food for thought.

In other words I would like to get a little Elizabeth Swan and kick some ass on a certain ‘authority figure’ who is responsible for my grade and degree. At least she’s a universal hater? And on that note, I’ll stalk to see if the preview for Pirates 4 is out yet?

Into the woods And down the dell, In vain, perhaps, But who can tell?

Oh Thanksgiving, the family gathered around the table and three of my nearest and dearest friends. Wonderful times, really. Apple Pie for everyone else (I hate it.) Pumpkin pie to make H jealous, not so much pity, she’s in France after all. (love you dear).

It was an interesting experience, fun, but tiring. We had a lovely turkey, and then yesterday we wandered around Greenwich, window shopping, and it reminded me of how many things I want for Christmas that I“m not getting...sadly.

Today is Gameday, big rivalry so that will be fun as well!

I’m to tired to type more. Maybe more next week as the saga of the Master’s continues.

"Polar Bear, Polar Bear why is your world melting?"

So this weekend was quite the adventure and ended on just the right note of victory!

I was up at 4am Friday morning to ensure I caught the train to Baltimore where I began a weekend of travel to an Icy World...otherwise known as Polar Weekend! I was there to teach about Arctic Sea Ice melting and it was a wonderful experience. Everyone was very nice there and the girl I had come down with and I had a blast as we learned about the Poles and the various science being conducted. The kids were overall a good group and full of good questions. The parents were at least mostly supportive of the kids and occasionally had some good questions, mostly were happy their kids weren’t running everywhere or trying to get up close and personal with the real African Penguin. Yes I said real as in alive, and walking around right behind us. Nearly scared me to death. It was one of those...this cannot be really because penguins do not wander halls of science centers. But it was very cool to meet Tails and Ascot and they were very curious about us ;)

Dinner was excellent and then Saturday morning dawned bright and lovely. It was again a good day but a long train ride home. Once I finally got out of the trains and subways I got the amazing news. A Gamecock Victory! Yes, the Gamecocks hold SEC EAST title! They crushed Florida in the Swamp and I hear it was one of the most beautiful things in the world. So here’s a health Carolina, forever to thee!

Quote of the Year

I realize the year is not over yet, but really props where their due. This pretty much rivals the defile god one.

LHC-“So your day consists of cognac, great white sperm, and cocks? Sounds like something bacchus would approve of.”

I was caught unawares...

This week has been a peculiar one. To start no class Monday and Tuesday, apparently the most liberal University decided that election day means no classes, well I won’t complain, but then goes a step further and gives us Monday off “to get the vote out” or you know, spend the day at the Aquarium playing ;) Whatever works really.

So I had a mini vacation to better recover from that horrible, terrible, really bad virus, I’m really not complaining. Halloween was Sunday, my favorite holiday, yes it’s better than Christmas, my birthday, and Shark Week. I celebrated not with giving out candy to trick or treaters as we had none (I blame the parents) but with a lively dinner with the ever wonderful Rowlena. A very nice biblical debate ensued, but all was well. The joy of old friends, sometimes you need to go, remember when, and they laugh because it was eons ago but still amusing. Yes. Tepper will take over the world. Get over it.

Tuesday I came back to my apartment, went grocery shopping and then to an even put on by the graduate students council or something, it was open mic, I did not participate in the open mic part, but was a good member of the audience and kept the drinks coming. Although I was halfway cajoled into a sing speak rendition of On the Steps of the Palace but it rather turned into on the steps of the library with my thesis do tomorrow. Or something. Can’t really remember.

So my “Work” week really started Wednesday which has the day associated with my favorite class ever, so I figured no matter how it started, it was going to end well. Except...it started with a meeting with the advisor. A meeting I was not completely looking forward to as I figured it would result in me being told my ideas were the equivalent of worthless and really why couldn’t I conform to the norms, as I had been forewarned might occur. As J said, either she had prosaic or someone had a few words with her, she liked my thesis idea. Liked....and Supported. And then we had a lovely chat about our dogs and siblings. Call me confused. I walked out of there feeling like the world was clearly upside down and any minute the Hatter was going to tell me it was time for tea. Whatever happened, I suppose I’ll just be thankful and leave it at that, especially since class later that day was totally awesome and really if I only was taking this one class I would still pay all this money. *in love*

Today was also interesting, I spent the morning at the museum wandering around, doing my observations. Apparently people really love beavers. I don’t know why, but they really do. Like to the exclusion of the lynx and the wolf, which I find so much more interesting. Although I suppose I did that third grade report on beavers and my dad thought I really loved them to.

Class this evening resulted in my outline being teared apart because apparently I was the only person who actually read the assignment and the part where it said, SEND BEFORE 9 AM on Thursday. Yea, great. I don’t think most people grasp the idea I was trying to convey but I was not outing myself so to speak. There maybe thirteen of us, but me knowing it was mine was just fine, everyone else could wonder. Although if they had half a brain it would be obvious is was mine. Which of these is not like the others. Duh.

Alas. Poor fools.

I was going to include a rant on the ballots, not the election turnout, not the results, not the politics, simply the fact that paper ballots suck. Really, this is the 21st Century. Let’s get with it.

...and frequently humming a ighthearted air...

I talk to myself. It doesn’t mean I’m crazy. It usually means I can’t keep up with my own thoughts and have to speak them out loud to slow them down. Nothing wrong with that. Nothing at all. I also hum, not very well but there’s always music in my head and it doesn’t take much for a foot to tap along as well. It passes time. Especially when you’re going after quarries.

What does any of this have to do with anything? Well, I love my new internship. I get to play at the museum for hours on end. Of course it’s not really play, I do have things to do, and I do them, but I have fun with it and of course I spend most of my time in my two favorite wings so there’s always something fun to look at as well. Even meetings are entertaining, especially when the writers I work with inquire what class I’m off to later and I respond Scholarly Research and Writing, they say “can we come?” I respond “Sure I don’t think the Dean will mind.” Which launches an amusing rendition of having an administrator for a professor. It ends with the sad knowledge that said Dean is one of the few professors I actually enjoy. I may be going to a highly “prestigious” institution, but sadly most of the people have the personality of a newt, actually less, newts can be quite lively. Maybe it’s because they feel the need to act the diligent professor part, but I really just get the feeling they think we’re nothing more than dirt. Not all of them, but there are some that really come across that way.

Then there are the few that every moment is a learning experience and they are nice, kind, very intelligent and down to earth. They’re the ones I enjoy immensely and gee you know they have senses of humor. Let’s see what was it, oh so one of my classes we get a behind the scenes look at things the museum and how some things like lighting or graphics that people don’t consider get done. Well, the lighting guy was explaining something and I commented that it appeared they were using multiple colored gels for lights to get the color effect. He inquired if I had any lighting experience to which I laughed and simply replied, that yes, but not that much, nor was I particularly good at it. He inquired why, I responded I had been a dancer for eighteen years, so I was concerned with which lights would reveal and hide the feet and make the dancer look thinner and not clash with the costumes and only briefly had I expanded that to the theatre lighting when I received a crash course during the full length musical I choreographed. He asked where and what it had been, I answered honestly, Into the Woods in a black box in SC. He blinked, and queried “A black box?” I nodded. He sighed and said very simply “That is far braver than I would’ve been willing to be, were you crazy?” “By the end we thought we were, but it was a wonderful expereience and just simply fun to be on stage.” He then started to hum into the wood, and one of the girls glanced over and sighed “I love that musical, I know all the words.” I snickered slightly and she defended “I do!” I nodded and said, “Last verse of the finale.”

“To find, to wed, to kill, to teach, to go the festival,” I simply said, “Wrong order, wrong, song, and not enough words.” She looked at me, I quite calmly said “To have, to wed, to get, to save, to kill, to keep, to go to the festival.” She asked how i knew it so well, I simply responded I had listened to it everyday for six months straight, aproximately 100 times a day. And we stopped every time it was wrong and went back. You learn it real fast then. Both lighting guy and the girl said the music is so wonderful and at the point I just laughed.

The other side of the fence is such a fascinating place to be sometimes.

In My Little Corner

Well the apartment is coming together quite nicely I think anyways. It’s got a more homey feel to it and I clean it religiously. Course it helps that I’m at my parents house most weekends it seems. Gator can’t stay home alone so since my parents have been away I’ve been volunteered and its fine. We have great weekends together, hiking, reading, playing fetch, watching random marathons and of course doing homework. The homework is the killer. Its not that its more than undergrad, its that its just...boring? Yea. boring. Very, very tedious and dry and I don’t remember the undergrad stuff being this bad. The reading will most likely result in me needing a new prescription one of these days but for now it just ends in headaches.

I went to the library fair with Rolwena today and a friend of hers. We had a lovely time and it was a beautiful day. It was altogether fun, except for the distinct reminder that with the exception of Rowlena most of my good friends are hundreds of miles and away. It’s rather sad to think about it that way but so it is. With H being in France for the next year, and Gigi in Florida, not likely to travel anywhere it’s been a sad commentary. I’m hoping J will convince her dad to come through this way, it’d be nice to see a familiar face. That’s not to say that the people in school aren’t nice. They’re quite pleasant, but its just the ease that comes with knowing someone for a while that I miss. That and dare I say it, the single men that are straight. That’s been a problem as well.


*sigh* I better go make sure I didn’t burn dinner. The pisco sour has addled my brain a bit.

You're Leaving Monday, Right?

I have been home every weekend since Grad school started, mostly to take care of Gator while my parents have been away. This pattern is going to continue for the next two weekends and each time I usually leave Monday morning. So my dad wants to buy a sign to hang on my door or my sister’s door depending on who’s home. To which I then responded “ Unless you don’t want to take Gator with you or travel at all, I would rethink that statement.” To which he reminded me I lack a life so it really can’t be that much of a problem. And reminded he’s taking me to dinner in two weeks. Well such is life.

Grad school on the other hand is not as...difficult as I was imagining it to be. I’m sure this will change, I hope it will change, but thus far I’ve just done the readings and the writings and been fine. Course it’s week 1, maybe they have low expectations for that week.

Week 2 begins today and we shall see how it all goes.

Can I just say....

I’m in love with one of my classes. It’s an undergrad course I managed to convince the teacher to let me take and it’s amazing! Just met possible the coolest guy ever, works in Exhibitions at the museum and then...then I find out not only is class at the museum but we’re getting super cool access to some of the exhibits! Now I realize I’m overusing the word but how cool is that?

Seriously? I’m in love with a class. Ah what a nerd.

First day of....Grad School

So I have had a lot of first days of school, but this one...is odd. First off, I’m actually deciding to go to school, this is a choice. I could be done and just get a job, but I choose school. Clearly I need my head examined.

On the other hand, ideally this would mean I get to choose what I’m studying and to some extent that’s true. The fact of the matter is that administrations like to give you these things called “requirements” i.e. you actually have to take classes you might not want to, because they’re supposedly important. I understand that, I do.

But how about when there’s a class that I actually want to take, that would be the cornerstone of my education, and you won’t give me a straight answer? Seriously?


*sigh* School is school wherever you go apparently, but still, it’d be nice to think I had something of a say.


In other complete ramblings, I have a place that’s all my own. It’s small but its enough, and it’s different to be living completely on my own. I had roommates before and I actually miss the “J, get your butt in gear I’m hungry and I’m not going to the bar by myself.” Those impromptu dinners followed by a movie because we had one drink to many actually were good times. I miss that spontaneity I guess.

Not Quite According to Plan

Complications arose....haven’t quite been overcome.

Will have to wait and see on that one. So The A-Z five point plan has a little misstep but hopefully there will be something else to fill the blank space on my map.

Do Not like people who have the power to decide your future.


In other news, I know remember why I found other friends. They’re nice. They don’t judge, and they don’t blame you when things out of your control happen, oh they also don’t go whining to professors about it.

Month Two...Of the Last Semester

Well Rehearsals got canceled today so I’m watching NatGeo, trying to find inspiration for a story. I can’t really believe its February but at the same time it feels like it should be March. Gigi is going to FL and then OR later this month for school. She’s being recruited for programs. Girl J got into three programs...and I’m still waiting to hear. Going to apply for some more fellowships and jobs. I really hope something pans out or I be in big trouble come May. Suppose I could find a husband too, *sigh* bad idea I know.

I’ve been sick off and on, had a major allergic reaction to red wine which totally sucks because I like it better than white.

Suppose I should probably work on my thesis. I just had to pick the hardest topic.
Oh Well.


Off to read about currents and climate modeling.

Classes Start Tomorrow...

The Last Undergraduate Semester begins tomorrow...

Bag is packed, outfit is picked out, meetings all arranged, car cleaned, books purchased...

Nothing different from the last seven semesters, except how it is different...

Eh....could just be the wine too.