I packed them. You know, somewhere. :P

I think, I'll have to check my numbers, but I think this month I can fix the computer with new motherboard, new RAM, new case, AND windows 7.

That would pretty much solve computer issues for a long time, assuming my CPU is fine and was never the issue.

I had a dream about something or the other but even as I struggled to keep it fresh in my memory upon waking, it vanished the moment the ball of my foot crunched into the heel of one of my work shoes turning off the alarm. Nice going, Liz. Maybe NOW you'll put your shoes away, eh?

Something that kinda bothers me, maybe a lot:

I've noticed on more than one occasion that when my guy friends talk politics (or, really, even otherwise heatedly), they put on vagina blinders. That is to say, usually if I have something add, I have to work three times harder than another guy friend to actually add anything to the discussion. Luckily, I have a couple of guy friends who are slightly better at noticing when this is going on, but really I'm not okay with needing a foot in the door with a dude to get a word in edgewise.

I don't think it's just because I'm a girl and guys think girls have nothing to add (though maybe, just MAYbe, they do subconsciously?). I think too many girls are just uninterested in politics or too nonconfrontational (a related but separate issue) to join such a conversation. Or, maybe I should just get better at talking over people and steamrolling them (not my word) to make my points. I dunno. It was a bit jarring to see the definite segregation that happens. Maybe more on gender differences later today, maybe not. Depends on my mood.

Not much to say except that life is going well and I stay pretty occupied. December is a month of multiple family gatherings, a Calc final that's 3 hours long and on a Friday night (who DOES that), several family and friend birthdays, and general insanity.

This week is Thanksgiving, my mom's birthday, TWO JEANS DAYS AT WORK, studying, etc.

Today I found out I selected the wrong Southwest airfare type (Business Select vs. Anytime) for my coworker last Wednesday. Luckily I'm not going to have to pay anything, they're paying it this time with a "HEY WATCH WHERE YOU CLICK" type warning. Oops. Sigh. At least my boss and VP were talking me up like I was God to the new Sr. VP.

Plus I hate when my job gives me info that I find fascinating and want to talk about but Should Not.

Sigh sigh. Ok studytime bye.

1) Go to the Denton County Clerk's office at 8 a.m.
2) Apply for passport
3) Dance dance dance
4) Do residence planning with the amazing kamoriaha
5) Study for Exam 3, which totally will not be counting toward my final grade, so my motivation is lacking, which is bad
6) Reward myself, hopefully, with some more research and planning for my personal programming project (exciiittiiiiinnnnng)
7) Dance dance dance

Down with DITLs that are ordinary pics of your face on your way to work.

Today I give you a picture that I took with my cellphone of a sight I see almost every day that makes me glad inside. Probably because I like the look of the metal stairs, stones, and old tree with the ivy covering the ground. It looks great in all weather. I'll miss my front door.

The packing went pretty well. I was too unrushed about it for my tastes, but I blame it on the ability to come back after move day to get what I missed. (Official move day is November 7, so I can have plenty of time to clean up after myself.)

My room still looks totally lived in, if more dangerous because of the pointy boxes everywhere. But really, I've got left:

Books (more than you'd expect, really)
Clothes (again with the more than you'd expect)
4.5 drawers of office supplies, medicine stuff, and a PS2
Loose odds and ends that I either need to toss or whatever
Random ancient computer hardware that's probably no good to anyone anymore

The good news is I don't have to pack all the clothes (because Em is loaning me a pretty LARGE empty closet). And a lot of stuff I'm transplanting directly from here to there pre-move to avoid hassle. I already have to move twice.

Oh, and my computer. Must move that too. But since I'll be working on it at Em's, it's just getting taken over as is.

After move #2 I hope to have come up with a really excellent organizational plan for my stuff. I've never had much of it, so organization seemed superfluous, but I'm gonna give it a shot in the attempt to be a less cluttered person.

Also, where the hell is my Halloween bra? :|

Bye! I'm off to sign a roommate release and get a latte.

1) Packed to move next week
2) In bed on time
3) Tipsy
4) Hungry
5) Ready for my next Calculus quiz Tuesday
6) Ready for my conference at work next Friday
7) Eating mentos *sadface*
8) Not thinking about my electronics wishlist
9) Or Windows 7
10) Or pandas
11) Finishing this list
12)

So, my great-aunt was not overly optimistic and my 92-year-old great-uncle went home from the hospital today!

Yay! May his train choo-choo its way through many more stations!

So, the last tornado nightmare I had I figured would be the end of it because I figured out it was a dream while dreaming, and that's the sort of thing that ended the crumbling teeth dreams I had in my childhood.

Well, nope. My subconscious just got smarter. This time I was out in the middle of nowhere and I knew there was a bad storm, it was overhead, but I needed to find some specific somebody I don't remember. The fields were marshy from all the rain, and lightning was ominous overhead. My car friend (don't remember who it was) was looking for funnel clouds. Then we saw one, it was right above us, and before we could do anything, we were up in its winds. We got carried to a very run-down farmhouse, where a guy had just lost his fiance (though it was unclear whether he meant she had died or he didn't know where she was). Then we went to the Londoner (I blame this part on having been there last night) and I ran into a sort-of ex, who used to be quite tall and thin, but in the dream he'd gotten short and put on a LOT of weight. He looked very different, as he was as short as me, and a couple of woman-sizes bigger. I have no idea what to blame that part on, except that he'd come up in a conversation earlier in the day.

Then I was trying to go home, which was I think supposed to be Em's apartment, though it looked much different, and a lot of people lived there and there was no Em for some reason. But I got robbed. Eep.

The end, gotta go. So tired today. My computer auto-updated during the night (gotta turn that off) and got itself into the infinite boot loop, which woke me up around 3 a.m.

On the way home I think I might have seen my old car. I wasn't sure, because black cavaliers are pretty generic, but it was the right model, with a sun roof, and with that familiar ding behind the driver door. I hope that the driver doesn't run into serious transmission issues soon. I might have waved at it.

Calculus feels like an ever-growing burden. Just when I start feeling good about my B+, I realize that I have three more big hurty exams to go and 2.5 months of this. I'm not a natural, guys. If I get warmed up and a lot of practice, I can do it, but this is NOT like breathing air to me and it is NOT fun (most of the time. shut up I'm a nerd). Larry recently told me that Physics is actually harder. That scares me.

NTTA let me just pay the tolls and waive the admin fees, because I had an account on the day the tolls happened. I did it over the phone. It was easy. So no real harm done, except my initial upset over a bill for $36 for $2 worth of services.

Also, hey guys, I'm moving in with whatgiraffe  in like a month. I have to pack!

The title has nothing to do with the post. I just wanted to say vexing vectors or vectors are vexing, when really they're just complicated numbers.

What's REALLY vexing is NTTA. I hate them. I got a bill that I SWORE I PAID TWO YEARS AGO with 3x admin fees on it. Yep, that is $75 total in admin fees. Oh, but if I pay by Oct 7, I only have to pay $36. For $2 in tolls in 2007. Ugh. Stupid.

How do they get away with that? Why has the whistle not been blown on an OBVIOUS exploitation, here? It happened to my mom twice when my deadbeat niece ran all those tolls up, too. The admin fees caused her two bills in excess of two grand.

I mean, really?

I guess $36 will be paid. I don't want to be lynched, and it beats paying $77. Bastards.

Please come back online. I want to see my test grade. Don't you realize the potential positive effect you could have on my stress level were you to be online?

Thanks,

dragonsbones

I was planning, earlier today, to make a post about how stressed out I am about my Calculus II exam on Thursday. I'm weak and rusty on my integration skills. However, I'm no longer feeling nearly as stressed as I was.

I have just rolled out of bed during what was supposed to be snoozing the alarm but I hit dismiss by accident. I have all this dream to write:

First, I was in a huge rec center, like the kind of gym they have at schools only bigger and it was crowded with kids and adults alike. I remember very specifically that all different sorts of people were there, doing different things. I can't remember what all activities there were, but I do remember a weird sort of ping pong, with a bigger ball, not unlike a wiffle, and a large, rectangular plastic paddle, all hollow and puffy. Seems like it was designed to make the ball go as far as possible. Also, you were supposed to play in rolly office chairs. I was playing with Em.

SWITCH SCENE
At first it was poodle puppies. Adorable, mid-sized (as if they were half-grown already), and super fuzzy. Oh so cute, and I was helping. I don't remember where they needed to go, but I was helping transport them or something. I was carrying a litter of four, and one was eggshell white and the others were chocolate. But then the white one fell out of my arms, stiff as death, his pulse was 23. I was scared, I didn't know what to do, but it occurred to me he could be saved, so I did CPR. Well, sort of. I didn't do any mouth-to-mouth (in fact, the thought wasn't even there). I just pumped the chest twice and he was fixed, his pulse raised to Really Fast, like in the one-hundreds. I complained to the older person with me (who I don't recall being there before then?) and said that he was very very anxious, and couldn't she let me calm him down a minute, but she wanted to go onward right then, and she didn't care about the dog... but wait, it was now a small oxen with a single colorless mole on its jaw! Also, it was now chocolate, and I have no idea what happened to the other healthy puppies. Now the goal was to get the oxen (which was pulling a cart of some sort) moving. But there was construction it was caught on and it could not go.

SWITCH SCENE
I am now underground and there is a train. Not an actual train, but the kind that's like a rollercoaster with the low seats, and it wasn't designed to be exciting or anything, just to take me somewhere. It took me and whoever I was with...? forever to decide to get on it. I was totally sure in the dream of where it was going, but now I'm not. I remember Chris didn't want to get on it but finally decided to, I guess since we were going, too. It stopped at a few stations on the way, and after a while we were outdoors, but the light level did not increase because we had arrived at some port on a dark and stormy ocean. I saw that part of the train swept us underwater right before the boat, so I held my breath. It turned out to be unnecessary because it only got me wet up to my upper thigh. But I had my phone in my pocket (which was my phone from over a year ago, before I got the Instinct) and I worried that I'd gotten it wet and ruined it, but it was not wet. Happy Mel was there, at the boat, also talking about how underwhelming the water part of the adventure was. We were all about to get on the boat when my alarm went off.

And now I am up 15 minutes early on a Friday. *yawwwwn*

1) Life is going really excellently right now. I can't at all complain about my personal state of affairs. Yep, things are great.

2) Moving this December. I realize I'm CRAZY for saying so. Most people seem to hate moving. And it's not even necessarily to do with my current living arrangement. My roommates are good people who pay rent and do not steal my stuff and plus they are my friends. That is way good. However, I'm excited about the possibility of living in a house! My neighbors will be more than a wall away. Instead, they will be TWO brick walls AT MINIMUM away, and some space. Even if that doesn't work out, chances are I will have more space and more privacy, both good things. I will also be closer to most of the events I end up going to, which will in turn provide me with more time to study (among other things).

Also, I just like the process of unpacking. Packing and cleaning sucks, but UNpacking rocks. I get to plan my new space and organize and plan and ... yay!

3) My Halloween costume. I think it might kick ass, if I can just find time to make it.

4) The 24/25 on the last quiz I got back in Calculus. It was easy, sure. There technically wasn't even any calculus on it. But I did well and it's a good sign, etc. Calculus II is requiring a lot of work and it's hard. I hope it's over with quickly (that's what she said). Still, I'm excited about getting on with it, maybe learning something useful, and exercising the old squishy stuff between my ears.

5) Did you know the youngest brain cell you have is 10 years younger than you? The brain also contains the oldest cells in the body, some of them the same age as you are.

6) I'm actually excited about #5, but I think I'm just in a good mood and it's a cool fact.

Also, I can't stop trying to use my mouse as a thumb trackball mouse, which is what I use at work. It's gotten so bad I avoid using it altogether. Maybe I should just buy a thumb trackball for home, too.

Also also, I do wish things were going better for friends of mine and my mom, who got yet another NTTA bill, courtesy of my deadbeat niece.

Today I fired my very first shots from an actual GUN!

It was a Ruger .22 that kept jamming, but a very cool experience. I believe this is the gun I used.

I would probably not buy my own one of these since it jams a bunch. I am daydreaming about owning my own .22 pistol though. Maybe someday.

Now time to clean up and start getting ready to dress up!

Edit: upon review, the gun I shot didn't look nearly that nice. Maybe it was an older model.

She has a door fetish. She paws them to get them open, she pushes with all her might when that doesn't work. When desperate, she'll even throw all of her body weight at them. Well, it turns out that when she uses her box, which is cradled discreetly between the corner and the open closet door, instead of pawing the litter to cover her stuff, she paws the door.

No wonder it always stinks, fuzzy genius.

Yeah, it wasn't much better, today. He says "drangle" instead of "triangle" and "Q uh one-uh, neck-a-dif doo, tree" instead of "Q is one, negative two, three"

Sigh.

I could feel bad for him under other conditions, but this guy from what I hear has been a TA for a while. He doesn't appear to be stupid, since he can work Calculus II equations effortlessly on the board. So, he's got to know that he's difficult to understand even for a foreigner. Since he relies on his ability to communicate in his job, it's to his benefit to seek out helpful individuals, like English tutors, anything, to help him get his speech more comprehensible.

I could forgive him a little if it seemed he tries. But he doesn't enunciate at all. :/

On top of it, I could probably muster some pity if he were at least trying to teach well. But all he does is scribble on the board without explaining steps at all. His handwriting is almost as unintelligible as his accent. His v's look like 6's. His u's look like v's. His w's look like pig's tails. He accidentally writes vector symbols above point labels ALL THE TIME. It's almost detrimental to my understanding of calculus to pay him much attention!

I'm not alone, either. Several students opted to not attend Problem Session and skip the quizzes (one of the four grades, the quiz average or one exam, gets dropped. They are banking on passing the other three.). Others just sit there not writing anything waiting for the quiz to start. (That's mostly what I did tonight. I just couldn't follow what he said.)

I want to lodge a real complaint with the math department. I know it won't go anywhere, but I guess I have to do what I can.

horse riding is fun
went stargrazing in the night
ate too much pie

So, Calculus I I had a professor that went a bit too quickly and was difficult to follow. But he was alright, and kinda funny on top of it. My TA was amazing, explaining everything in extreme detail, with tips and tricks to help people like me.

I was very hopeful when I found my new professor for Calculus II was easy to follow and understand. My hopes were CRUSHED tonight in Problem Session because the TA for this class barely speaks English. He says things like "one up on four times thintegral of the ex up on one plus ex skwa"

It took me over an hour to finally decipher the more common language quirks, like "up on" for fractions and "the" instead of "d" and the way he runs words together. On top of that, he does not explain his steps. He just writes the simplification or reordering and I guess hopes you get how he got there. He is obviously very uncomfortable with public speaking, which is understandable given his issues speaking English. He can probably smell our confusion and horror.

So, I will need to study. Lots. Because this guy isn't going to be able to help me. I miss my old TA. I am going to designate immobile weekly study nights. Two of them. This means I will have three nights that aren't Sharky's nights free for socialization.

Yep.