The Hand That Feeds

Last week Will, my sister and I went to the Nine Inch Nails concert. I have been a fan of NIN since I was about 13, which is the same age that I was when I started my "i love live music" kick. Who knows how many hundreds (possibly thousands?) of dollars were spent on me going to concerts all through middle and high school You name it, I was there... several Music Midtowns and 99x Big Day Outs (where I saw many more people than I could possibly name), Metallica, Nine Inch Nails, Kenny Wayne Shepherd, Bush, No Doubt, Smashing Pumpkins, Willie Nelson, BB King, Marc Anthony, even NSync (most expensive tickets to date - 75 each for the last row of Phillips arena - but not because I wanted to.)

It kinda stopped when I got to Tech, for many reasons I guess. The prices kept going up and I was always so busy that I didn't hear about concerts, much less make such an effort to keep tabs on music. The few that I did go to (Live, Fuel, Ludacris) were all free. There were several that I wanted to see, but the cost was ridiculous (and prohibitive?) so I just skipped those.

At one point a few months ago, though, I decided that I wasn't going to continue missing concerts of my favorites because of money. Just a short while after I said that, NIN announced another show (they played one last year that I skipped) so Will and I bought tickets almost immediately. I love that they cost just as much as they did the last time I went to a show (some 6 years ago), but these were the best seats I'd ever gotten.

So we headed to HiFi Buys. I was tempted to wear my pink shirt and floral skirt, but I didn't . We were pretty early and sat through the Bauhaus set. I remember why I am the exception, not the rule, to your general NIN fans. It really was as if all of these people had been frozen in time. We were hugely entertained by what some people think is appropriate to wear to a concert. Perhaps I should've asked to borrow Kristy's corset... although I'd probably be pushed to find fishnets and tacky boots on such short notice.

The music was, as always, amazing. Trent Reznor (whom I was infatuated with when I was younger) has aged more gracefully than his fans. He was sporting a new Will cut (buzz cut) as opposed to the JT cut (shaggy, but short). And he obviously had been to the gun show. They played a good range of all their songs. The show seemed a little short though (just under 2 hours) and they gave no encore. Weird... first concert I've ever been to without the whole encore thing.

One very noticeable change from 6 years ago was the integration of new technology into the show. It was more visual than ever before. The last time featured the band up against a backdrop that played visualizations. This time that same background was there, but had a noticeably higher resolution. In addition to that they dropped a screen of little led lights in front of the band from time to time and used that as well. At one point it was very matrix like, at another it looked like floating blood cells but then morphed into carbonation bubbles. Very cool. The show ended (somewhat abruptly, in my opinion) with this on the led screen:

I thought I heard a new song somewhere in the middle, or at least one that I'm not familiar with (the only one, possibly, although I admit I'm not up to date on my obsession). I distinctly remember him singing lines having to do with being rejected by the whole world, etc (as usual... definitely a recurring theme in his work). That kind of rubbed me the wrong way. I mean, isn't thousands of people paying $50 each to see you proof of just the opposite? But then again, it is the formula that worked for him for so long, and the majority of his audience is still extremely angry (just asked the guy in the row in front of us... screaming his head off and gesturing... and all of his feelings multiplied by the astounding amount of pot he consumed in such a short amount of time). But, what about growing, maturing, trying something new? NIN spans several decades and generations now, the creator is in his 40s. I'd like to see some evolution. What about taking all that anger and making it productive? Or political? He is from New Orleans, and I know he hates "the man." I'd love to see him take it in that direction.

This desire of mine made me feel like I'd outgrown the whole experience. Will and I certainly stood out like sore thumbs, and while I enjoyed hearing all those songs that I know so well and that brought back so many memories, somewhere in the past few years I grew past identifying with them. And with sitting in between chain smokers just to catch an in-person glimpse of the person who creates the music that I admire so much.

But I don't know that I can ever outgrow enjoying live music, of any kind.

Blogged with Flock

Not Exactly Wedding Crashers

Last weekend two friends from the lab, Sara and Ian, got married in Huntsville so Will and I headed out there for the wedding. And since we're nerds, we decided to continue with our visits to aerospace museums by arriving early and checking out the U.S. Space and Rocket Museum that is located there.

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Originally uploaded by gatechcycling.

We left at about 730 on a rainy Friday afternoon. Will surprised me with earrings to match my pearl necklace, which was awesome because they matched perfectly with the dress I got to wear. We decided to take the shorter more scenic route, which first went up I-75 north.
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Originally uploaded by gatechcycling.

What's up I-75 north? My favorite place ever, Texas Roadhouse. But, since we had eaten there more than several times the past few weeks (just luck, I guess) we stopped at Provino's instead. The drive was nice took us through the southern part of the mountains in Georgia and Alabama, including Lookout Mountain parkway. We arrived at the hotel in Huntsville at midnight, which we then realized was 11pm Alabama time (yay!) but not before witnessing a really bad car wreck that somehow left my car mostly unscathed except for all the shattered glass all over it.

We woke up early and after asking for a later check out time, we headed to the museum. It was a pretty neat experience, and we got some neat pictures. The museum had some neat exhibits chronicling the history of space exploration, which I don't know as much about since I'm an aviation snob. Inside they had many historical documents, space suits, wind tunnel models, engines. They also had a neat exhibit that made me very disoriented and we rode the simulator which took us on a Martian roller coaster (ok, that was disappointing, we were hoping for something more realistic). Outside, they have many different rockets and spacecraft just sitting around, including 2 saturn 5s, one standing up so you can see how tall, and one lying on it's side. They also had a g force accelerator, which we went on (I didn't not enjoy that) and another ride similar to acrophobia, which neither of us wanted to ride.

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Originally uploaded by gatechcycling.

We headed back, changed, grabbed lunch at Chili's and headed to the church. We sat with other ASDLers and watched the nice (and short) ceremony, then headed to the reception (located in the church, as well). Sara and Ian looked awesome, and after a relatively calm (read: no alcohol and not much dancing) reception we piled back into the car and reversed the beautiful drive home.

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Originally uploaded by gatechcycling.

All in all, a pretty decent (but expensive... who would've guessed?) weekend.

Summer Days

This past weekend I spent the most amount of time outside that I had in a long time. And that was nice.

The weekend started with a trip to ABC with some of my classmates before heading to Columbus with Will to visit his parents again. I still contend that Sweetwater is better.
We spent the next 2 days hanging out, swimming, playing with the dogs, cycling and generally having a good time.

Monday morning we headed to the Silver Comet with Cameron. Craziest Silver Comet experience yet. It seems that since it was a holiday every idiot and their entire family was out there. It was even crowded well beyond the first 3-4 miles, which is unusual. There were plenty of instances of kids running into the path without looking, people swerving all over the place and in general just acting like they were driving, which is not good. We even passed a girl who had crashed and had to call the paramedics. I actually yelled at people several times. What about being at a place known to have cyclists traveling at 20 mph+ makes it seem like a good idea to stop in the middle of the road or intersection? Or let your kid run out infront of people traveling that fast? Ugh. I was a little disappointed because the Silver Comet is a place that I feel very comfortable riding and feel that in general I can relax a bit. It seems like perhaps that isn't the case anymore...

Following that we met up with my friend John, just back from sailing around the Caribbean for a bit and went to a cookout at my parent's house (they got a new grill) with lots of my favorite people, including Heather, my brother, sister, Becky, Alden, Kaya, the Wolffs and some of my sister's friend's parents. Good times.

The weekend was so fun that when I woke up to the alarm Tuesday morning, I was actually depressed. It becomes harder and harder to motivate myself for work or classes. I've made a pact to not bring any schoolwork home and to try to accomplish a lot during the week so I can take weekends completely off (although I never was good at working on stuff during the weekend to begin with). I hope this will help maintain my sanity so that I am not completely apathetic and unmotivated when the hellish Fall semester arrives.

Thankfully, tomorrow is the start of another weekend! This weekend we're traveling to Huntsville, Alabama for a wedding and we're going to continue our nerdy museum visits by checking out the Space and Rocket Museum there.

I'm pretty excited.

Mountain Biking (aka Livia eats it... several times)

Yesterday was my first real attempt at mountain biking. I went with Will and Jesse to a place near Lake Allatoona called Blankets Creek. I started on the beginner trail, which was pretty easy and fun. I rode that many times, both backwards and forwards, while Will and Jesse did the intermediate course once. We met up, and since I was bored I decided to give the intermediate course a try.

Big. Mistake.

The first part went ok, considering. Some parts were not fun and I had many close calls but somehow managed to stay upright. I was happy that I had just made it over some logs when I washed out. For the first time. Then I did it again. And again.

I think fatigue was starting to creep in and I was having a hard time paying attention. Just call me Michael Rasmussen. I ended up just walking the rest of the trail (probably something around 1.5 miles) because I was rattled from all the falls and I thought that trying to finish on the bike wouldn't have gone well in my mental state.

I guess I need to spend some more time on the beginner trails. I don't know at this point if mountain biking is something that I'll grow to really enjoy and right now my main motivation for not giving up is the fact that I paid not a small sum for the bike and that I don't like to give up. We'll see what transpires.

One thing did occur to me, though, while I was hiking back with my bike.

I don't like hiking that much. Particularly with a bike.

New Wheels, New Start

I have a new baby, a mountain bike. (picture to be included when I get around to uploading the pictures on my camera).

The past few days/weeks I have been spending sometime reacquainting myself with my road bike and getting to know my newest acquisition. The roadie felt foreign to me the first time I got on it. It hadn't been the longest break, but certainly the break where I lost the most. But we're quickly getting to know each other again and I'm sure that soon we'll be back at it like old friends.

Things aren't going so well with the mountain bike. They say you shouldn't pick between your children, but I must admit I am partial to the road bike, perhaps completely based on perception. I don't like falling, I don't like jumping over things, I don't like how bumpy it is. In almost 2 years I have only fallen off twice. In several hours of "mountain biking" (read: riding around Will's parent's wooded yard) I quickly equaled that number.

Then why get one? Because I know that once I learn, it will become more enjoyable and my road riding will benefit as well. The learning curve is steep, but I like a challenge.

But for now, given the choice, I'll choose the road bike.

History Repeats Itself

I encourage everyone to go out and rent the movie Good Night and Good Luck. It is amazing. Definitely not in my usual style of "light and fluffy." But it is perfect given today's political climate.

Many lines in the movie hit me and I had to remind myself that it was talking about the past.

For example:

We proclaim ourselves,
indeed as we are...
the defenders of freedom wherever
it continues to exist in the world...
...but we cannot defend freedom abroad
by deserting it at home.

and

The American people realize
that this cannot be made a fight
between America's
two great political parties.

If this fight against Communism
is made a fight against America's
two great political parties
the American people know that one
of those parties will be destroyed...
and the Republic can't endure
very long as a one-party system.

Notice that we could replace the world communism with terrorism and it still works. I feel that things are reverting back to the way the were in the period addressed by the film, and not only that but becoming more extreme. There are people who are being accused of being terrorists and whose rights are being taken away, and this time they're being sent to prison without due process (ok, so maybe back then there was only the appearance of due process). There is a war being fought where evidence for it never existed. More and more social programs that Americans pay for with their tax dollars are being stripped away to pay for it. And finally, each of our lives is now monitored (that is, if you have Verizon, Bellsouth or AT&T) without warrant, and, in my opinion, is a waste of resources and will do no good.

What more will happen before people will stand up? It's been shown that history will repeat itself until the lesson is learned. Why haven't the lessons been learned? Are they even remembered at this point?

I guess this is what we get for electing a President who got a C in history.

Not that I had anything to do with that.

Quickie

I have no had the opportunity to post my many thoughts. Partly because finals week (although I had no finals) and graduation (although I was not graduating) was hectic and partly because I was in the middle of moving (also hectic). That, coupled with the lack of internet (due to comcast screw ups) and trying to see everyone I've ever known before they leave has kept me from writing.

New hookup time is Saturday... look for many updates then.

Congrats to all graduates... many of you I have known from day 1. Life will not be the same without you.

Cycling Love

The only word to describe last week is cycling. Wednesday afternoon Will, Sarah, Alex, Jesse and I packed into Will's car and headed up to Rome to watch the circuit finish of the 2nd stage of the Tour de Georgia. It was a lot of fun... between all the fun people there and being so close to all the action, it was my favorite day of cycling watching to date.

Until Friday. Thursday night I decided to go up to Dalton with Reuben and Chet to volunteer at the Dalton start the next day. We again spent a ton of time in traffic. We spent the night at Chet's parent's house and got up early the next day. The first few hours were spent setting up barricades then draping then with banners (under the careful supervision of asinine I will micro-manage everything I'm ordinarily a salesman but right now I'm on a powertrip guy). Following that we had some breakfast and got to the most exciting part: holding bikes while the riders signed it. I was amazed, not only by the bikes but by all the cyclists as well. I was totally reliving my starstruck teenager days. We watched the Dalton start, which included a parade lap and the riders leaving across the bridge. We then hopped into the car and hurried to try to catch them climbing up Fort Mountain, but they beat us there so we headed onto Ellijay, where we watched them pass by and have lunch. We then went to Wolf Pen and watched them climb the mountain.

Friday was awesome because of how close we were to everything and because we got to follow them around. I felt like a groupie, but I'm alright with that.

Early Saturday morning (after Will called to wake me up because I overslept) I packed into the van with the other guys on the Cycling team and headed to Auburn for the last race (conference championships) of the season. Since I hadn't done any real riding in about a month due to the ankle, I dropped out of both the road race and the crit but had an awesome time watching anyway. A few of the guys had really awesome sprint finishes and I don't think I've ever laughed that much in 2 days. Between all the moonings and the pink polo pop-collar crit, it was one of the most fun few days I've ever spent... until the van broke down 55 miles south of the city. And even then, they guys were really entertaining, which helped the time pass.

Why I love the GT Cycling Team.

Only 1 Year Left

Last week I was in the process of filling out the application for Tech's Dual Degree Program... and now I'm not. I realized last week that I will finish my masters degree next May, and the thought of staying in school for another year and a half after that was just simply not appealing. I know, the time will pass quickly and if it's something that I really want, I should do it. But, I don't know that it would give me that much more access to what I want to do, on top of the fact that I barely have the motivation to finish this degree... or even this semester.

So, May 2007... the end of school. After that I plan on taking a few months to have the vacation that I've been waiting to have since before college started. Now accepting suggestions for things to do and places to visit.

Who knows, maybe I'll get one later in life. Like after I make a couple of babies.

The Age of Intolerance

I read several things today that really upset me and made me just outright mad... and scared. I'm scared of the direction that we're headed in and what will happen if people don't start standing up to those who seem to be trying to take away the rights that this country is supposed to protect.

I'm talking about hearing and reading on the news all day about states who want to establish official religions, of schools kicking students out because of their sexual preferences, and of students suing for the right to harass people that are different from them. Not to mention thousands turned violent because someone, who isn't a member of their religion, broke one of the rules of their religion. Maybe only the bad stuff does get reported, or the only ones who get heard are the loud, crazy ones. In either case, it's disturbing that some of this is even an issue.

I was also bothered after reading one of my favorite blogs ever, where the writer keeps receiving insulting e-mail and comments from those who disagree.

Let's get things straight. Your rights end when they start infringing upon mine. And vice versa. Sure, you have a right to disagree with homosexuality. But your right ends the second you start abusing a homosexual. There is a marked difference between saying you disagree with something and insulting someone because they're different. How disgusting is it that I'm even associated with a person (by going to the same school) who is suing for their right to be mean? Is that the same as burning some embassies because someone completely unrelated to you drew a picture that you think is bad?

Plus, show me the passages in the Bible that deal with homosexuality. Last I checked, it isn't dealt with in the 10 commandments (but adultery is... I'd like to see some statistics on super conservative christians and adultery). AND, show me where Christ teaches to hate someone because they are different or because they disagree with you. Is it just me, or didn't he try to teach the exact opposite?

It's people like that that make me want to distance myself from organized religion. Read here. On the other hand, there are those inspiring people like my dear roomie who refuse to judge others. Too bad tolerance doesn't get good media coverage.

And another thing. That whole first amendment, it means that Dooce is allowed to write about her family life and not have to read insulting emails from people who can't help but take everything seriously. It's one thing to email her and say "hey, i disagree"... it's another to send insults.

Different is not bad. And I'm sticking with that.

A few of my favorite (most useful) things

Will and I were having a conversation about Flickr and how awesome it is and it got me to thinking about all the new programs/technologies/applications that I enjoy that just make computing great (definitely magnified by the fact that I'm doing these things on a mac, but I'll save my favorite mac things for another time).

So, here goes (not necessarily in this order):

1. RSS Feeds

This is brilliant. Want to monitor 80 different news sites without having to check each individual one? Check. All your favorite blogs? Check. Newest Flickr photos? Check. Pollen trends for Atlanta? Yep, that too. In fact, these days I get irritated when a site doesn't offer an RSS feed. The other day I had to sign up for an email newsletter because a site I wanted (offering daily deals and tips) didn't have a feed. What a waste. But, monitoring feeds brings me to

2. Google Personalized Homepage

I have never really used an RSS reader. Before using Google, I used myyahoo. Google surpassed them. Who knows, maybe they're catching up, but so far I haven't had a reason to look back.

Email, news, craiglist, all my favorite blogs, flickr feeds and so much more. I monitor Reuters news, BBC news, Slate, huffingtonpost.com, dooce.com, flickr photos, del.icio.us feeds, Slashdot, digg and many many others. And now they're beginning to add more and more modules. It's awesome. I've actually had to read articles on how NOT to spend all your time in your rss reader. Because man is it easy to keep going back.

3. Blogging

What's a personalized homepage without a blog to monitor? A recent report on NPR said that there are thousands and thousands of blogs created every day. You can find just about anyone's perspective on just about anything. Not to mention keep up with friends. In my opinion, some of the best writing I read is done by bloggers.

4. Flickr

What's a blog without photos? I stumbled upon this over a year ago and it is awesome (back then it wasn't yet owned by yahoo...) It's extremely easy to upload photos and they can all be organized by tag or set or both. Flickr even records your camera data, the date you took it, the date you uploaded it, and many more. But what makes it so valuable beyond these features is the social aspect. No more emailing everyone the albums you've uploaded to *insert other service here.* You can comment on photos, mark them with notes, mark them as favorites, and save your friends to contacts so that you see their most recent every time. Better yet, all the photos are saved online, just in case.

5. Del.icio.us

What's one step beyond sharing photos? Social bookmarking. This is extremely useful and convenient. I discovered it through a link to Jen Lee's del.icio.us site (thanks Jen!) All of my bookmarks accesible everywhere, organized by tag. I also use this method to mark interesting articles for friends, which is really convenient since we just used to send emails full of links. Now I just monitor their del.icio.us feed of items tagged with my name.

6. Podcasts

I wasn't very big into podcasting initially, especially since I'm really bad about plugging my ipod in to update it (a dock might be useful for this purpose). However, recently NPR started offering more podcasts, specifically of their show Wait Wait Don't Tell Me, which I think is some of the best stuff on radio. I have since added about a gazillion more podcasts on my computer at work, which I listen to throughout the day.

7. Awesome websites

There are just a few websites that I particularly enjoy (that I feed to my homepage, of course), that I think are just either useful or cool or both.

wikipedia - who doesn't love it?

digg - you can really find some interesting stuff here

del.icio.us/popular - what everyone on del.icio.us is tagging

43folders.com - many useful tips for productivity, geared towards mac users

lifehacker.com - useful tips and info about anything you can imagine

craigslist - I'm going to find my mountain bike here

listible - want to know the top 10 of something? go here

NPR - need i say more?

Slate - gotta love it

BBC news - usually covers news about stuff here better than the news people here

macosxhints - because i'm obsessed with getting the most out of Snow White (this is just one of the many feeds i have regarding hints, software, and news about macs)

Media Matters for America - ever wonder how much mass media sucks or how wrong those people on tv are? here ya go

Two Weeks

The last time I was on my bike, let alone worked out at all, was two weeks ago today. Man does it suck. Why?

Because of this:
That happened on the 2nd night of the cruise, I was running to catch the elevator in evil flip flops (these pictures are from 3 or 4 days after, it had already begun to look much better). I rolled my ankle, the same way I had broken it almost exactly 4 years earlier. I was pretty upset: I kept thinking of all the bike riding I would be missing.

When I got back I went to the health center, where they told me (thankfully) that it wasn't fractured or broken. It continued to get better day by day, until the next Friday when I tried to ride my bike. It hadn't occurred to me that unclipping from the pedals was almost the same motion as how I hurt it.

Now, 5 days after that, I can fit my foot back into a shoe, but it is still pretty painful to walk and stairs are even more difficult. I'm anxious to get back to working out. I feel lazy, which I hate. It's still too early, but I'm hoping that if I take care of it well (fortunately I mostly just sit on my booty at work) I'll be able to go to spinning on Friday and ride on Saturday.

It was kinda sad to not ride in the UGA race (although I probably wouldn't have liked all the hills). I never intended on going to the race that is this weekend (I don't think going up a mountain would be fun... for me or the people who would have to wait around for me), so that leaves Auburn in a few weeks.

I may be cursed, last year I didn't make it past the Tech race either (bronchitis/pneumonia). I'm hoping to store my motivation right now so that I can get back on the bike and give it 110%.

The extra 10% comes from the steroids. :-)

I'm working on it, really!

I am still in the process of writing about Spring Break (it's taking longer cause I want to stick pictures in).

In other news, I have in my possession two of the best seats in the house to the next Nine Inch Nails concert here in Atlanta (June 7 at HiFi Buys Amphitheater), all made possible by my wonderful boyfriend. He gets a gazillion bonus points... to go with the gazillion more he already has for being my bitch when I am gimpy.

Immigration and Border Patrol

Yes, I remember I said I would write about politics. No, I hadn't gotten around it yet. I downloaded this spiffy mac program for blogging called Ecto (haha... windows users be jealous... as a mac users, there's tons more where this came from) and it's helping me at least start the entries I mean to write, then I can go back later and upload them. Right now I have 3 or 4 that are started... look for me to catch up on those soon.

ANYWAY, there are a couple recent political things I'd like to comment on.

I am retarded and still occasionally read the blog of the most ignorant and immature person I know (well, top 3 anyway). I guess I do this because I hope that someday he will open his eyes, but as well all know, you can lead a horse to water but you cannot make it drink. Anyway, yesterday he said this (formatted exactly as I have below):

" 'Justice, for Illegal immigrants'

Is it just me or does that not make any sense at all, i read that in the AJC a few days ago."

Apparently he's forgotten that the purpose of the justice system is to deal fairly and justly with those who do not obey the law, so clearly that sentence makes sense. Maybe he just hasn't looked up the word justice (I wouldn't be surprised). However, even more than this his opinion of immigrants shines through in that simple little statement. I suppose this may be the opinion of many Americans, although this kid actually is on the extreme side as far as it comes to intolerance (he is the one that justifies the war and prisoner abuse by saying they did it to us, so we do it to them). I'm actually quite surprised at our dear President's stance on this, although to be honest I haven't read much beyond him telling everyone not to fear immigrants (the irony of him telling people not to use fear is amazing). So, I figured I'd post my thoughts, being an immigrant.

A little background on my immigration to the United States. I came here with my family when I was just 4 years old. To my knowledge, we arrived legally. We followed all the proper procedure for becoming residents and naturalized citizens. But, if you recall, I did not become a citizen until roughly half a year ago, and my dad and I are the only citizens in my family, despite everyone applying together. So, what happened?

When we first applied (all together) they lost 4 of 5 applications. All except my Dad. He went on to become a citizen in 1996. Because we had to reapply (and hence save up again to reapply, since it's not exactly cheap), I did not receive a green card until 2000. Yep... some 12 years after having arrived. I wasn't that interested in becoming a citizen (much like my sister) until I chose to do AE and realized it would be necessary. So I applied.

Here is what happens when you apply for something with the former INS/current department of homeland security. You send it in. They send it back saying that (although you were meticulous in providing everything they asked for) you are still missing something. You send that something in. They send it back, saying that since your original application date, the fees have increased. Rinse, repeat. Finally, about 1 year after beginning the original application (and considering that I am the daughter of a citizen and that should help me out) I was naturalized. I figured life would be much easier now that I am a citizen. Did the problems end there? Certainly not. Just the other day (Sunday) while waiting to disembark our ship in Port Canaveral, I heard my name being called over the ship's loudspeaker asking me to go to immigration. Hmm... I wondered what could be the problem. When I arrived, they asked for my identification and I showed them my naturalization certificate (I didn't have enough time to get a passport without expediting which I think is ridiculous). Anyway, they asked when and where I turned in my green card, and I told them in Atlanta in August when I received the naturalization certificate. They said they knew, because you have to turn it in in order to receive a naturalization certificate, but that I had been flagged for not turning mine in. WHAT THE CRAP?!? You JUST said that you have to turn it in to get a naturalization certificate... I have one of those, so deductive reasoning says that I turned in my green card. And yet there I am, flagged by border patrol. Now I have to make sure that I get my name taken off this list, or every time I travel I will be flagged.

This little story, of which I have many, I think hits my point on the head. I believe that people would come here legally if they could. Many of the people who come here illegally pay others lots of money to bring them in. So if it's not the money, then what is it? It's the fact that the process that you have to go through is absolutely ridiculous. And your forms are constantly being lost by the lowest common denominator that works for the Department of Homeland Security (funny that they change INS to that, isn't it??) Sadly, bright, well-organized, efficient people do not work for the government. They go on to well-paying jobs with mobility. So, the futures of immigrants are in the hands of people who could really care less, which doesn't help the amount of paperwork the department has to process. In the meantime, there are millions of workers here that are illegal, but contribute to this society and economy more than some people born here, and many more waiting in line to get in.

What this country should do is give a test to everyone wanting to come in. And a test for everyone already living here. Let a person who proves that they will be a productive, contributing member enter, and send a mooch back to live in their place. Do an evaluation a few years later... if the mooch has changed, let them back in.

No, I'm just kidding (sorta). I like letting the workers stay, and especially giving them residence after a few years. Although, many just want to save up for a while then go back home. Don't get me wrong, I don't condone entering illegally. But as a person who has done it the legal way... I gotta say, there must be a better way. I just hope that people can look at the situation from different perspectives.

But I guess I can't and shouldn't expect that from the kid who says it's better to be a female in Darfur than to go to school here.

Time

Friday I had a day off. It was amazing. I slept in til almost 11, then Will and I went to the aquarium, dinner and a movie. It had been quite some time since we had just done fun activities together... usually the time we spend together is at work, cycling, sleeping or running errands. We do eat together a lot too, although we hadn't had dinner together alone in a while. There was an incredible difference in the mood of the day. I knew that life and every day events wore us down, but I hadn't realized how large the impact was.

It got me thinking about yet another conversation I had with Sarah Riley (we always have tons to chat about!) We were talking about people who get married while they are in school or right out of school, and Sarah says she knows friends who are having a hard time coping with the working world because they don't see each other very much.

Really? Less time than this? Is that possible? Perhaps we have a different experience because we don't only have class, we both work, and have a very homework intensive major, so we haven't gotten to do that whole hanging out all the time thing. Don't get me wrong, I'm not complaining. I see Will all the time now compared to in the past (although I've been known to say that I preferred it when he lived out of town because then I got undivided attention for a couple of days instead of an hour here and there).

Anyway, it makes me wonder if we will see each other less if we ever make it to the "real" world (we have 2 more years of the school thing to do). I had been assuming all along that it would be easier because the evenings would be totally ours, with no homework or studying to take up the time. Maybe I am wrong though. I also wonder if grad school will improve things a little, since we'll be able to do a lot of class work at "work" work, although I know the first fall semester at the ASDL is supposed to be hell.

V for Awesome

Friday night Will, Lucas, my sister and I went to watch V for Vendetta. It was awesome! I, in general, like to watch fluffy light-hearted happy movies because hey, sometimes you just want a brain break. But I am so glad I went to see this movie and I think the timing is impeccable. I think it should be required watching for everyone 16 and up in this country right now. It deals with intolerance and terrorism, two very hot topics. I think it's extremely interesting that it shows what could happen in the future if things do not begin to change. The movie addressed many of the things that I had been thinking about recently regarding politics and the current state of this nation and I can only hope that many people watch it that discussion regarding the many ideas and issues addressed in the movie ensues. Sadly, I know that many people, including those who most need to watch something like this to open their minds, will choose whatever teeny-bopper movie is currently out. And that makes me sad.

Let me know if you've seen it, I'd love to talk about it.

Playing Catch-Up

It seems like the more stuff that happens that I'd like to write about, the less time I have to write about them. But, this is Spring Break, so I've decided to seize the opportunity to catch up on the past few weeks... before the wave of craziness arrives. I couldn't decide whether to do one long one or break it up, but I'm going to start with the one long post (perhaps with subheadings?) idea and see how it goes. This one is mostly going to be about cycling, because hey, that is what has consumed me and my time as of late.

Weekend in Review...

I last wrote about being concerned about traveling with the Cycling Team to Georgia Southern to race for the weekend (March 4 and 5). I was extremely nervous, although not about the cycling. I had had only a few encounters with the team and guys on the team before the weekend, and they were mostly not good ones. I didn't feel welcome or included with them, which I thought would make spending several days with them very difficult.

We left Friday afternoon. Will was smart and we rode in the car with just 2 other guys, while the rest of the team went in the CRC van (more on that later). This was a great idea, because I already knew and liked the driver of the car and the other guy was also nice. We stopped somewhere at an ihop and had dinner, which went really well. We arrived at the hotel late at night and basically went straight to bed since we had to get up early the next morning.

Saturday there were 2 events, a Criterium (laps around a closed course, first one done wins) and team time trial (fastest time wins). At this point my nervousness about spending the weekend with all guys changed itself into apprehension and doubt about cycling. I felt extremely out of place and out of my league. Fortunately, I was able to overhear some of the UGA girls talking and that made me feel better, because even if I wasn't faster than them, I did have much more knowledge about my bike. Since only one group could race at a time, I got to watch and cheer for the team, which helped my mood and was a lot of fun. Since the women's field was so small, they did only one race for both levels of cyclists (A and B... usually there are 3 but there aren't enough girls to even do that). The event in itself was a lot of fun. Since there were such strong women racing, I couldn't keep up with most of them, but the course was flat and it was just over 45 minutes long, so physically I was pretty comfortable. I also began to feel better because I wasn't the slowest one, and that was my goal (gotta aim low so I have some chance of making it). The best part was passing all the guys from the team every lap and hearing them yell for me like they hadn't just met me 12 hours before. I then watched Will's race, we went to lunch, came back for some guys racing Cs to do the time trial, then did the dinner/evening/sleep thing.

Sunday's event was a road race. They again started Women's As and Bs together, which means I was dropped after about 20 minutes. I decided that I would stick it out and finish the course (it wasn't that long), it was a beautiful day and I would still earn points for the team. It was pretty windy, so it was difficult at times, but I just decided to consider it a tough workout. Things were going along according to plan until I got a flat tire, not even 1 hour into the race. I had to call Will for him to come get me (the wheel car had long since passed). I was extremely disappointed because I was determined to finish the event, but I guess there was nothing I could do about that. I left shortly after Will's road race started with the people in the car since I wanted to get home early, with the van to follow later. Turns out that was a good decision because about 15 miles south of the ATL the van's tire blew up and tore the brake lines. Fortunately Will was driving and was able to get it off the road without harming anyone or any of the equipment, but they were stuck on the side of the road for quite some time. Turns out the tires were dry rotting...

Tell me this, when you sign the Georgia Tech waiver to ride in school vehicle, don't you assume that they are in basic working condition? If you (like me) do assume this, I think you're wrong. I think it's even more amazing that they didn't seem the least bit concerned that the van was left on the side of the road on I-75 south.

BUT anyway... the weekend ended up being my favorite of this semester to date, not to mention definitely one of my favorites of all of "college." Unfortunately, my opinion of the team had been tainted by one or two loudmouths, and had kept me from participating in more events. I was talking to my friend who had also had the same opinion (because of the same guy, no less) and she said "if they were all more like Will, I'd definitely come to stuff and join." The thing is, they are mostly "like Will": genuinely nice, funny, fun and entertaining people. I definitely came away looking forward to traveling and racing with them in the future... which leads to my next subheading

My Fast is Slow

I came away from Georgia Southern with a very good idea of what my weaknesses are. I have a power output problem. That means I am slow uphill and that's where I get dropped from the group. Fortunately instead of being discouraged by my slowness, I was extremely motivated. After talking to Will about what to do, I decided to take my cycling up a notch by doubling the amount of time I was working out every week as well as adding 2 days of weight lifting. The first week went extremely well, especially since I was able to work out twice on Wednesday, which was a good precursor of the upcoming weekend's race events.

Exactly 1 year after my first race, Tech hosted the cycling race again (it fell on the same weekend). I was extremely excited: I would not doubt be able to measure my progress over the year since we'd be doing the same events. The previous year I had participated in the time trial, and was dropped and dropped out of the road race. I wanted to beat my time on the time trial this year and finish the other events. The previous year I had gotten so excited for the time trial that I went all out for the whole time and was extremely sore for the rest of the day/weekend (and hence did not ride the other events). This year I did much better. I pushed but not to the extent that I had last year, and the results were immediately evident. I was still passed by 3 girls, but not until much later in the course and I was able to catch back up to the one who started right behind me. Interestingly enough her name was Olivia and she and I ended up swapping leading and trailing right up until the finish of the course. I felt much stronger and much more comfortable on the bike, and it's a shame I didn't have a working big ring, because I probably could've taken some time off my total time. Regardless, the first year I did the course (almost exactly 8 miles) in 31 minutes and this year I did it in just over 27 minutes. I finished 7 out of 8, and still have a long way to go, but if I can make that much progress in another year, that'll put me up into the winning times.

After the time trial we got lunch and I got to sit around with Jocelyn and all the guys that race men's Cs while men's As and Bs and women's As raced the road race. It was fun sitting around and cheering for the team and just goofing off in general.

My legs weren't nearly as tired as they had been the year before, so I started the road race. I was able to hang on for about half the first lap (way longer than the previous year before) and found myself alone once again. At this point I was a little irritated because I thought since it was only Womens Bs I would be able to keep up, but thanks to some sandbagging that was not the case. I convinced myself to say in, completed the second lap, and as I passed Will he said if I didn't feel like finishing I should just save it for the next day. So I dropped out, and almost immediately I regretted it. I was riding fast (averaging my time trial speed) and I was already 2/3 of the way done, but oh well. That made me 0-3 for finishing road races that I had entered.

I suffered a crisis of confidence Saturday night, but decided to still show up on Sunday to prove to myself that I could. Sunday was rough. This time they started all the women together again, which means I was dropped. The good news is so were 3 other girls, and I stuck with them for a bit, until they also dropped me (damn hills). I wasn't about to let myself not finish again. The course was extremely challenging for me, 3 11 mile loops of rolling terrain. It definitely is the hardest ride I have ever done, and even though I was the slowest person out there (and technically the very last to finish) I was glad that I completed it. Everyone except the group i started with passed me, but that was sort of neat in and of itself because I could see what was going on with the race and cheer for people as they passed by. I finally finished and was rewarded with people on the team handing me a beer (ok, sorta... miller high life doesn't count) and singing happy birthday. The best part of Sunday was Jocelyn surprising me with brownies (even though I knew she called Will the night before) for my birthday... just cause she thought I was cool. What a compliment.

Once again I came away not disappointed or discouraged but extremely motivated to train harder and again looking forward to racing and traveling again. Consider it one of my new favorite things. Sadly, because of a hellacious work week, I wasn't able to get much riding done, but that will all change. I even plan on working out during the cruise (how cool is that, that they have exercise stuff! Hooray!)

Ok... end boring cycling stories...

Slacker

My dear Melissa... and everyone else who reads... I have been swamped with life and have barely had time at my own computer to compose several pending entries. I'll get to it soon, before I get too far behind (like I am with my episodes of Related). In the meantime, please visit my flickr page to see sorta-photo-blogging of my past two weekends of cycling races (a significant part of why I haven't been around to update).

Work and getting older has otherwise kept me occupied... but I'm on spring break as of tomorrow afternoon. At, in the words of Ben, party thirty.

Hilarious!

And also extremely flattering! I read something on a blog today that made me laugh out loud. It's amazing to see how people hold on to things.

Apparently there are those in the world still obsessed with hating me. I am flattered. It truly is a compliment to know that you are so concerned with me that you take the time to stalk me online. Quite possibly this is the new highest form of flattery.

And hey, who could blame you? I have an awesome life and you're probably sad that you're not a part of it anymore (high school shenanigans will always make me exclude people from the pleasure of my company). It's especially great that it's free of the drama caused by you and girls just like you. I kind of pity you: that you have to go so far just to feel special and included. I hope that's working well for you and I wish you the best of luck.

Melissa, we should start a new club or something!

Weekend Preview?

This weekend I'm going with the Cycling Team to race at Georgia Southern. I have never travelled anywhere with just guys, let alone 10-15 of them.

I think tonight's meeting was probably a good indicator of what my weekend will be like.

Scene: Room full of boys and Livia

*Fart*
Laughter

The end.

Guess I'll have to make sure I pack the immature sense of humor. :-p

Bandwagon

I'm going to jump on Melissa's ranting bandwagon:

1) If you want something done, and I work for you, give me proper instructions. "This needs to change" doesn't cut it. If you don't like how I did it, fix it yourself. None of us are mind readers. And none of us thinks it's funny that we have to keep changing what we've already done 5 other times. And I'm not going to stay late and work my ass off for a deadline if you keep changing your mind about what you want. Here's a suggestion to making a deadline: perhaps look at the work before the day before it's due. Revolutionary concept, I know.

I can't imagine 2 more years of this.

2) Everyone judges, this I know. But try not to judge what you don't understand. Especially if you're dumber than me. That does not fly.

3) It's incredibly amusing to hear clueless people wax philosophic about life. Until you realize that they're the "best and brightest" of our generation. The future of this country is fucked.

4) If you are in a class, and you miss what the professor says, try to figure it out on your own before you ask. Also, trying listening: you may find that it helps in understanding what's going on. Before you ask a question, think to yourself: is this something I could figure out on my own? If it is, do it, and quit wasting my time!

It is unbelieveable to have higher degrees and still be so retarded.

But, besides those things, I am having a great day. More random thoughts:

1) I'm ecstatic that I don't look like a 12 year old boy with a mosquito head.

2) I am a workout fiend. Well, not so much. But definitely moreso than I used to be.

3) Sinus infection count 2006: 1 to date

Spoiled

I worked late many nights last week. Will definitely was working on his bonus points. He picked me up a couple times from work so I wouldn't have to walk back. On Wednesday, Will surprised me with a yummy dinner of chicken parmesean, broccoli and cheese, garlic bread, and my favorite beer (yeah, I know it's supposed to be wine but maybe I'm just not that classy). All that was missing was airplane napkins ;-)


Brings to mind the Joss Stone song:

I'm spoiled
By your love boy
No matter how I try to change my mind
What's the point it's just a waste of time
I'm spoiled by your touch boy
The love you give is just too hard to fight
Don't want to live without you in my life
I'm spoiled

Overworked, boyfriendless and rainy

When I started grad school I promised myself I wouldn't be one of those people who were there until 7pm at night.

That lasted all of 5 weeks. We have a contract deadline Tuesday and since my stuff depends on other stuff getting done, I got to stay pretty late all week. Yay me.

Collegiate cycling started this weekend, so Will is out of town this weekend... and next... and pretty much every weekend except the cruise and easter until the end of April. It's funny because when we first started dating I only saw him on the weekends. Spring semester I only see him during the week. I think I preferred the former, but probably wouldn't be thrilled to go back to that format at this point.

Today is yet another rainy Saturday. What is up with that? Yesterday was beautiful, but how would I know since I work in a room without a view. I have a long ride planned for sometime this weekend... but of course it's going to be cold, rainy, or both. I need to go anyway, though because next weekend I am going to go race with the cycling team at GA Southern and I haven't been on my bike for more than 25 miles in quite some time. Definitely need to rectify that before going to a 40 mile race.

No, the reason I'm going is not Will (I try very hard to not be like that), but I figure it's a win-win-win situation. I get to ride, they get a girl to race, and I get to spend time with Will. Although it's not really "quality" time. Should be fun, nontheless.

I've been meaning to sit down and write about the "Cartoon Controversy" but have barely had time to form my thoughts. Look for that soon.

Shout-out to my roomie Melissa, who got accepted to Georgetown, even though she thought she wouldn't! I knew you could do it!

Amazing

It's amazing how people slowly reveal their true character and personality through the little things... or, sometimes the huge things. I've also noticed recently how some people deceive themselves into thinking they are one way, when the world perceives them as completely different. I wonder what people think of me.

I'm incredibly blessed to have not just one but several "real" friends... not the ones that as time moves on you realize wouldn't put as much effort into you as you would into them. And I hope to always be thankful for that, because I realize I know many people who conduct themselves in a manner that suggests that friends, good friends, are easy to come by and just as easily replaceable.

Amazing the things you learn as life goes on.

Ticked.

Yep.

Tons of fun anyway, though.

Here We Go Again

I was on a roll... sorta. Sure, I hadn't been riding weekends (damn weather), and I missed this past Monday cause we actually had class for once, but other than that I hadn't missed a single spinning class workout since I started.

Here I am, because as usual this time of year my sinuses have begun to act up, and I woke up with the most awful earache ever. Since I know an expert in post nasal drip, I called my coach/emotional and mental advisor on the way to the workout.

In this day and age, and with such access to medicine and health care (sorta... and thanks to my mom's new job) there's no reason my lifestyle should be compromised because the plumbing in my head is messed up.

I will beat this (even if it means getting surgery)

And the weather won't stop me anymore, either.

Uphill, both ways

Being a girl is hard.

Being a girl at this school is even harder.

How do they know this stuff?

Me

Your Birthdate: March 13

You're dominant and powerful. You always need to be in charge. While others respect your competence, you can be a bit of a dictator. Hard working and serious, you never let yourself down. You are exact and accurate - and you expect others to be the same way. Your strength: You always get the job done Your weakness: You're a perfectionist to a fault Your power color: Gray Your power symbol: Checkmark Your power month: April

What Does Your Birth Date Mean?

Will

Your Birthdate: March 25

You excel at anything difficult or high tech. In other words, you're a total (brilliant) geek. It's difficult for you to find people worth spending time with. Which is probably why you'll take over the world with your evil robots! Your strength: Your unfailing logic Your weakness: Loving machines more than people Your power color: Tan Your power symbol: Pi Your power month: July

What Does Your Birth Date Mean?

Freaky.

Two of My Favorite Things

Will took me to an early Valentine's dinner at Canoe on Friday. Best. Meal. Ever. Even though I felt a little out of place. I had new york strip with mashed potatoes and cabernet. It was awesome. I finally found the perfect cow. For dessert we had this chocolatey thing called "Love Cake" that was just as awesome. Weird thing is there were some families there out like they were out for Friday night dinner. What do kids eat at a place like that?

My second favorite thing: the beach, the sun, the ocean. This past weekend Will and I booked our cruise to the Bahamas. I found a great deal through one of the many travel websites that I monitor. We're heading down to Cape Canaveral on March 22. Thursday we're touring Cape Canaveral in the morning then boarding The Fantasy and heading to the Bahamas! I can hardly believe that I'm so fortunate. It's even more exciting because we'll be at sea on Will's birthday, which quite possibly is the coolest thing ever.To all those who referred to us as boring: How do you like me now? Still jealous? You should be.

All Hurry and No Rest...

...makes Livia forgetful. Usually I am pretty good about remembering things (such as my keys) but I must have lost my mind the past few days.

Saturday night, upon my return to campus at 1am, I discovered that I had no keys. It occurred to me that in my hurry to catch my ride to the aquarium, I probably left them in my desk. One trip with Will to the ASDL confirmed my suspicions.

I forgot to take Elise's video tape back to her Friday.
For several days now I was supposed to bring in Friends Season 1 for Shuo.
I forgot my buzz card in my desk drawer yesterday.
I left my wallet in my room today.
I got my wallet... then I left my computer at work (in the drawer).
Just now, I discovered that my cell phone had fallen out of my purse and was still in the car.

I wonder how much time I've spent in the past few days making trips to retrieve the stuff I've forgotten. It's so frustrating because it's usually not something that happens to me. My brain function must be deteriorating. I'm probably just trying to fit too much running around in on too little time and energy.

But, isn't that how it always goes?

Siriusly Awesome!

I wasn't necessarily picky when it came to choosing the option for my new baby (yes, it lacks a name, just like my bike). No, I didn't really want a sunroof (hardly ever used the bug's), nope, a superly nice stereo wasn't necessary. Neither was a 6 cd changer (my ipod made cds obsolete). So, the one I ended up with is pretty basic. Manumatic (yes, I gave up manual driving cause of the darn city traffic and yes I miss it), air conditioning, power locks, cd player... all the stuff that's pretty standard. It was missing the essential tape player (used for ipod hookup) though. It did, however, have one thing extra though, that I thought I wouldn't use.

Satellite radio.

After doing some research on FM transmitters, I was disappointed. So Will said he'd buy me a month of Sirius satellite radio to try out. If I didn't like it, I could get a transmitter for my birthday. His Dad has XM, so he was convinced I would love it.

And, as much as it pains me to admit it, he was right (just this once, don't let it go to your head!) I haven't missed the ipod a bit. I can burn my favorites to cd in case I ever need to, but so far I haven't. In fact, it's so good I've really only listened to 4 of the 180 channels. What else do you need when you have 2 NPR channels, BBC world news in English and Spanish, 2 comedy channels (definitely my favorites, behind the news of course), Discovery (haven't even listened yet) and every kind of music you can imagine.

Of course, being the news junkie that I am, I doubt I'll get around to exploring the music channels anytime soon. Although I did enjoy some opera (Rigoletto) with my Grandma this afternoon.

Seriously. It's awesome.

Mother Nature Hates Me

My workout plan for this semester includes 3 rides a week (rides that I should never miss) and extras on top for good measure. That means 3 indoor spinning classes (Monday, Wednesday, Friday) and one day on the Silver Comet (Saturday). Two weeks about I made 2 spinning classes and a Silver Comet ride. Last week it was just the 3 spinning classes. I really want to go to 4+ a week...

Of course, the weather has been gross almost every Saturday. Mother Nature is doing it on purpose! :-p

Congrats to Jen S. for getting a new bike... and thanks for reminding me of the joy that I felt when I first got mine.

Now if only I could spend more time on it. :-p

A Change of Pace...

Normally I just use this for writing about what has been happening lately or what’s on my mind. Recently, what has been on my mind has been increasingly related with politics and current affairs in the world. I haven’t written much about that on here… not purposefully, but mostly because I haven’t had time.

Yesterday Elise said that she’s going to stop reading the news because it’s simply too upsetting. And Will says he doesn’t understand why I continue to read things that I know will make me mad or sad.

I will continue, because I think being informed is important. I think the beginning of making a difference is being informed, so I will continue. But, I’m going to post my thoughts here, as a way to vent a little of my frustrations and just make known what I think.

I already know, due to past events, that this is going to make people mad. I want to state right now that what I write here, unless cited, is my own opinion. As an A-mur-i-kun, and contrary to what many of our leaders would have you believe, I have the right to express my opinion. You, as a reader, also have a right to express yours. That being said, please leave any thoughts as comments, I welcome both agreements and disagreements. Part of being informed is knowing both sides of the coin. I don’t, however, want any comments having to do with whether it’s inappropriate to post my own opinion online. Sure, it can be insulting, but it’s a freedom that I am (supposedly) guaranteed here.

Along those lines I leave one of my all time favorite quotes from a movie:

“America isn't easy. America is advanced citizenship. You've got to want it bad, because it's gonna put up a fight. It's gonna say, "You want free speech? Let's see you acknowledge a man whose words make your blood boil who is standing center stage and advocating at the top of his lungs that which you would spend a lifetime opposing at the top of yours. You want to claim this land as the 'land of the free'? Then the symbol of your country cannot just be a flag. The symbol also has to be one of its citizens exercising his right to burn that flag in protest. Now show me that, defend that, celebrate that in your classrooms. Then you can stand up and sing about the 'land of the free."

- Michael Douglas in The American President

P.S. I’m sure you can infer my opinion on the Jyllands-Posten Muhammad cartoons controversy. I find it incredibly amusing that to protest, they turn to violence. This also can be connected to my opinions on stereotypes and the fact that they are, sometimes, very accurate.

I think it was the car question

You Are 70% Boyish and 30% Girlish

You are pretty evenly split down the middle - a total eunuch. Okay, kidding about the eunuch part. But you do get along with both sexes. You reject traditional gender roles. However, you don't actively fight them. You're just you. You don't try to be what people expect you to be.

How Boyish or Girlish Are You?

That surprised me, because I feel like I've been increasingly more girly over the past few years. But the car question must've done it... last time I bought pased on looks, this time on power (yay for my v6!)

Back In the Saddle

I suppose you could say I fell of the workout wagon. I was doing so well. I doubled the amount of miles I had put on my bike in 3 months last summer (as compared to 9 previous months of ownership). I was making most spinning classes.

... and then I got sick (again)... and didn't get well.

Now, 2 weeks after taking dramamine 3 times a day, I can say I've gotten back on. And it feels good. I was worried for a bit. I never had a problem with motivation, and all of a sudden I couldn't seem to make myself go. Thankfully, motivation wasn't the problem (it was taking sleeping pills 3 times a day).

I really missed working out, but riding my bike in particular. This past Saturday was a beautiful day and I really enjoyed the ride. Which has really helped me be excited about trying to get back to (and surpass) the shape I was in. It seemed like a daunting task, but I had forgotten how enjoyable riding is and how much better I feel when regularly excercising.

Now, my challenge is staying well enough and keeping my sinuses in check so that I can stay on the wagon/saddle.

Out With the Old, In With the New

At the end of Christmas break my Dad turned to me and asked if I could have a new car, what would I get? He told me to start thinking and crunching numbers. The Beetle was intended to last through college, after which I would join the "real" world, make some money and get something new. Well, my detour to grad school left two options: fix the Beetle up so that it lasts through the end of grad school, or trade it in for something new.

That got me to thinking. Man, would it be nice to have a new car. Plus, the Beetle needed at least $2000 worth of repairs... not including labor. That, along with the fact that it was only worth $3700 and nearing 100k made me start car shopping. My dad suggested a Mazda3, and I remember how well it did on Topsis, so I started there. I considered the 6 also, and started doing comparisons versus everything in the same class... honda accord and civic, toyota corolla and camry, ford focus, vw jetta and passat, etc etc.

I settled on test driving a 3 and 6 (but leaned more towards 6... I remembered how much I loved it at the car show), so off Dad, Will and I went to Jim Ellis last Friday afternoon. After 2 hours of test driving... first a 2005 4 cylinder Mazda 6, a 2006 Mazda 3 and a 2006 6 cylinder Mazda 6. I can now say that I understand why their slogan is "zoom zoom." Unfortunately, I loved the v6, which means bigger price tag.

I ended up getting one from a dealership my brother recommended. It's the first car where I've considered performance as seriously as any other metric (in fact, I chose to spend more for the nicer engine as opposed to moonroof and cd chager) and boy does it show. Everything I drive it, I smile. And it's not hard on the eyes, either.


One of the best parts, though, is that I totally did everything myself. Well, except for the male support that every girl needs at a dealership. It's only my name on the papers, which is awesome. I feel like such an adult... up next, a "real" place to live!

Plus, this car is so nice compared to my other one, it's a huge step up. I even forgot to be sad to part with my little Beetle... even after all we'd been through.

Some of the features I adore:
215 hp (makes it very zoomy)
6spd automatic... but still manual in a way
Climate control
Satellite radio (1st month as a trial, thanks to will!)
Auto-dim mirror
Audio control things on the steering wheel
Nice stereo system
Power seats
HUGE trunk!

and I'm sure I'll find many many more!

... ok, so I'm being totally superficial. Oh well :-p

Code for Dramamine

I was really struggling last week. Completely exhausted all the time, even though I am logging more sleep than ever (am actually logging... if I average 8hrs/night for 1 month, I get something from Will... that something tbd). I could've been so productive last week, but I found myself just hanging around, usually napping. I was confused about what it could be: Am I just burnt out? Depressed? Is Kristy rubbing off on me?

Then, on Saturday, a discovery. The medicine I had been prescribed to take 3 times a day for 2 weeks has a label on the back of the bottle (where one looks for instructions, naturally) that says "may cause marked drowsiness, do not operate heavy machinery." Today, when I was looking up what is in it to see whether I was eligible to donate blood and it's just generic dramamine.

Yep... I'm taking dramamine... all day long. Well, at least it's not something more serious.

This weekend was pretty fun... until Monday. Dinner, Friends watching, Jaime's graduation party, babysitting, Mansion party, Swim club movie thing. Then Will woke up sick Monday morning and shortly after Hurricane Bill (aka the roomie who flooded the apartment) struck and the rest of the day was spent cleaning up. I myself played the part of FEMA this time, except I was actually useful (retrieved my Dad's carpet machine from Dunwoody) and by the early evening we weren't splashing about anymore.

The Mansion party was pretty fun. Two guys on my fixed wing design team went along, which was surprising. I thought both the band and dj weren't very good, but the company was good and it was nice to see people I hadn't seen in a while. And, extremely amusing to watch all the "shenanigans" that took place. And they're on video.

And now it's the soggy start of another week and it looks like I'll be pretty busy, so I should probably get going on something... like taking a nap, cause I just took my medicine.

The Do-Gooder

What Famous Leader Are You?
personality tests by similarminds.com

I'm not sure about that example thing, but otherwise seems to be correct.

Grad School: Week One

Well, this week has been relatively calm, with the exception of some money stress (thank you Tech for not paying me for another month!) It really is extremely surprising, since unlike other more fortunate majors, AEs usually get slammed with reading and homework from day 1. None of this 'let's go over the syllabus and call it a day stuff.' And not this happened in any of my classes, but 2 of the 3 were cancelled this week. So it made for not only definitely the easiest first week I've ever had, but also one of the easiest weeks I've ever had at this school. Period.

Just in time, too. Because I am dealing with some serious lack of motivation, man am I burned out issues. This week did come with the usual what classes do I take drama. I signed up for fixed wing, adm 2 and design seminar like I was supposed to, but struggled with propulsion and spanish linguistics. I heard many bad things about propulsion, including that it wasn't very useful... plus it's Fridays 3-6, so the decision to not take it was somewhat easy. Although I still fear the wrath of Doc on this one.

Spanish was more difficult. For the first time ever I found myself dreading going to that class. Never has this happened with a language class before... not even when they were 3 hours long. The class I went to, Spanish Linguistics, is taught by a woman from Spain and sounds extremely interesting. However, there is a fair amount of work involved with the class, including a project that comprises nearly half the final grade. I just didn't feel like doing the work... which was really disappointing, because I try to never let that stand in the way of a great class.

But, after some chats with my favorite people, we all agreed that I should ease up on the course load to give myself time to adjust and to also recover from last semester. There you have it folks: for the first time since I can remember, I am taking the easy way out and not pushing myself.

As hard as this is for me to be ok with, I feel that in the end it will be the right decision. After being sick almost all of 2005, I'd like to focus more on myself and my health this year. That includes not having to stay up late to finish work, not stressing out so much, not running around like crazy, sleeping enough and excercising regularly.

Now if I could only find the motivation... Melissa is probably waiting for me to lose what she has to gain!

And so it begins...

New year, new degree, same great roomies! (Missed you girls, glad we're all back and I'm looking forward to hanging out... even though 'Mommy' disaproves of some things that transpired over break...)

So it begins again. Here's hoping this semester will be less stressful and more beneficial. And healthy. For everyone!

Yay to no morning classes!

2005: Year in Review

Taken from Jen Lee!!! (who is my most favorite internet person... both on flickr and blogs!)

1. What did you do in 2005 that you'd never done before?
Raced a bike. Graduated from college. Went to Chattanooga. Worked an 18 hour day.

2. Did you keep your New Year's resolutions, and will you make more for next year?

• finally finish my pilot's license - didn't happen
  
• get an internship - didn't happen either
  
• ride my bike a lot (get in shape) - sorta happened
  
• read my bible/pray more often - sorta happened
  
• be better about getting work done early - ?
  
• stretch at least once a day - sorta
  

My new ones will be similar and mostly health/athleticism associated, but they will have more measurable goals.

3. Did someone close to you give birth?
Nope!

4. Did anyone close to you die?
Nope!

5. What countries did you visit?
It was a slow year for the countries... sadly... does south Georgia count as another country? Cause it sure does feel like one sometimes...

6. What would you like to have in 2005 that you lacked in 2005?
Better friends.

7. What dates from 2005 will remain etched upon your memory, and why?
July 26 - 2 year anniversary
December 17 - Graduation!

8. What was your biggest achievement of the year?
Graduating? Getting a decent grade in aeroelasticity, surviving NASA's ESAS fiasco, racing in a cycling race (ok, only one event, but that counts, right?)

9. What was your biggest failure?
hmm... my several meltdowns

10. Did you suffer illness or injury?
It was the year of the illness... 6+ sinus infections, bronchitis twice, almost caught pneumonia, my first asthma attack, ear infection, getting sick from flu shot and the list goes on

11. What was the best thing you bought?
my ibook! helping will get his digital camera, aquarium passes for the whole family, kaya's dollhouse

12. Whose behavior merited celebration?
Will. He is my rock and my sunshine. And deserves to be acknowledged for insisting that I call him at 330 am when I am having a meltdown... and that he helps me with just about every tough situation that I have

13. Whose behavior made you appalled and depressed?
All those wonderful girls who turned out to be no different, the kid affectionately known as "biker-pussy" and mostly all politicians.

14. Where did most of your money go?
Eating out, gas, clothes... aquarium passes?

15. What did you get really, really, really excited about?
Spending New Year's with Will, travelling

16. What song will always remind you of 2005?
hmmm...

17. Compared to this time last year, are you:
i. happier or hardened? happier.
ii. thinner or fatter? fatter? thinner? who knows... :-p
iii. richer or poorer? poorer... til february, then richer!

18. What do you wish you'd done more of?
sleep, cycling

19. What do you wish you'd done less of?
stress, procrastinate, stay up late, fluids lab writing

20. How will you be spending Christmas?
family and friends

22. Did you fall in love in 2005?
My love keeps growing... pretty amazing!

24. What was your favorite TV program?
Gilmore Girls!!! The Daily Show and The Colbert Report

25. Do you hate anyone now that you didn't hate this time last year?
I wouldn't dignify them with hate, but thank you to all those females who taught me that women in engineering can be no different that your regular catty, two-faced, shallow high schoolers.

26. What was the best book you read?
Memoirs of a Geisha. Hands down.

27. What was your greatest musical discovery?
hmm... Lifehouse, Howie Day, Ludacris

28. What did you want and get?
The Friends 10 season collection, an awesome ring and a beautiful necklace. 3 great roomies!

29. What did you want and not get?
a bike rack for my car

30. Favorite film of this year?
Wedding Crashers

31. What did you do on your birthday, and how old were you?
I turned 22 on March 13. That weekend was my first cycling race, and we went out to Mellow Mushroom with my closest friends. Then to ice cream. And actual birthday day was at home.

32. What one thing would have made your year immeasurably more satisfying?
Less drama/disappointment.

33. How would you describe your personal fashion concept in 2005?
Old Navy rocks!

34. What kept you sane?
Will.

35. Which celebrity/public figure did you fancy the most?
Lance Armstrong.

36. What political issue stirred you the most?
I have to pick just one? All the corruption.

37. Who do you miss?
At the moment? my friends that all have scattered for the break...

38. Who was the best new person you met?
Melissa! And re-meeting Heather

39. Tell us a valuable life lesson you learned in 2005:
To not let people walk all over me. To choose to be happy and not sweat the smaller things.

What is going on?!?

Ok, so I just found out another set of friends got engaged. That makes 6 couples that I know in the past few months... plus the 2 that actually got married.

Is something in the air?

Converted.

I am a convert.

Meet Snow White. Isn't she pretty?

Merry Christ-makuh

I can just see the smoke coming out of Bill O'Reilly's ears. Christ-makuh? Certainly that goes hand-in-hand with his whole War on Christmas.

But the thing is, my little 5 person family (6 during the holidays when my Grandmother visits) doesn't have the luxury of spending Christmas with our extended family. The few that we still communicate with couldn't afford to come up here, and we can't afford to all travel down there.

So, it has been a long custom of my family to open our doors to anyone on all the holidays. I think this stems from our culture. Always the more, the merrier. Over Thanksgiving our house is opened to whoever didn't get the chance to make the trip home. This year it was Lucas, Heather, Christy, and Ryan.

For the past several years we have celebrated Christmas with our neighbors across the street, the Wolffs. We have known them for many years and consider them to be the family we have chosen.

One thing... they're Jewish. And we're Catholic. That means we don't even really say a blessing or a prayer before we eat. Yeah, ok, so what? Some people don't even stop and pause between all the shopping and bad traffic to think about what Christmas means or even to just be a little kinder. What does it matter if you ignore all the details?

It matters to me, though, and I think that's why we actually capture the "Christmas" spirit with our half Jewish half Christian celebration. What better than to spend time with the family we've chosen and to appreciate diversity and learn a little while we're at it?

Plus, since Hanukah starts today, this year we had potato pancakes too. With ham (it helps that they're mostly 'culinary' Jews). :-)

How's the family?

Wednesday, after running around for a few days trying to catch up on stuff, I headed down to Columbus to visit Will at his parent's house. It took me 3 hours to get there, thanks to Atlanta traffic, but fortunately I was entertained most of the time with All Things Considered (up to the point where it started repeating, anyway).

It's an interesting situation. Will has spent countless hours with my family. He is so comfortable with them (and vice versa) that it's ok to leave him alone with them at graduation or talking with my dad while I run errands with my mom (weird, I know). Not so for me and his family. In almost 2.5 years (Jan 26!), I've been down there maybe 6 or 7 times.

They're definitely very nice, but they don't have that friends are family mentality that my family does... most likely because they are blessed to have plenty of family around (a luxury the Carneiro clan does not have). Then there was the stuff about his mom disapproving. He says it's because she doesn't like anyone.

This visit was definitely the best. Perhaps they're becoming accustomed to the idea of me... hey, I think it's about time! Doesn't hurt that I try to butter them up with wine every Christmas. But this time, they had gifts for me too... one for graduation and one for Christmas.

I enjoy spending time getting to know his family. His brother and sister (especially his sister) have really warmed up to me and this time I even met one member of his extended family, one of his aunts.

But mostly I love the visits because I get to spend lots of relaxing time with Will in his element... such as building bonfires for us and his sister's friends to roast marshmallows and hot dogs... and drink booze from Boo's later after his parents have gone to sleep.

There was one hiccup this visit, though. Will agreed to go shopping with me Thursday since I didn't have time to finish everything on Wednesday. His sister went along and we grabbed some lunch. After lunch, Liz and I were in Bath and Body Works while Will was getting something in Bed Bath and Beyond. As we were walking out, they run into someone they know. Then someone's mother. Then I caught on... hey, isn't that Will's ex-girlfriend's last name? To help me confirm, there comes ex-girlfriend herself and another member of her family.

So that was awkward. Even more so for Will since he hadn't seen any of them since they broke up in early 2003. All I have to say is I'm really glad I fixed my hair that day.

I know girls who refuse to leave their house looking like bums, ever... I think I now know why!

Gradumanated!!!

Everything turned out fine with aeroelasticity (in fact, I pulled my grade up a lot, which surprised even the Dicky) and this past Saturday I walked at Graduation.

I guess with the bachelor's degree becoming what a high school diploma once was, graduation isn't a big deal to a lot of people. But, for my family, it is the culmination of the move away from our home country and family in order to have access to better lives. I actually at one point almost became really emotional. I have reports that my dad didn't cry (he did at the high school one). Who knows, maybe when I get my masters?

There are certain things that I will never forget about the event: the look on Will's face, the mayor getting the year wrong (and the idiot kid next to me agreeing with her... shouldn't they not give you a degree if you can't even get the year straight?), the man horribly butchering my name, crazy Buzz and how it looked to be in a white and gold balloon shower.

Afterwards my parents took us out to lunch with the Wolffs, Heather, Becky, Alden, Kaya and the Malloys at Maggiano's. Definitely one of the best meals I've ever had, made infinitely better by all my favorites there with me.

Later that night was my party at my brother's, which was lots of fun. I'm irritated because a good number of people who said they would show didn't, which wouldn't have been a big deal (because most of my favorites were there!) except that it made the keg unnecessary and even more irritated that some (ok, one) that were there shouldn't have bothered! But any, we played all of my favorite drinking games and the night ended with what I like to call "the Will show," this episode being about on-campus bedding and its similarities to a "fuzzy tampon." It turns out that he meant to say maxi-pad... hilarious!

I am just truly grateful for all those who helped me celebrate (Kristy, I know you were there in spirit!) especially Melissa, Stephen, John and Justin who all drove long ways and Lucas who delayed his departure.

As I look back on my 12 semesters (yep, it took 12!) there are a lot of things I did and wish I hadn't, didn't and wish I had, but mostly I am satisfied with my experience. And hey, hopefully getting my masters will be a shorter, funner continuation of life there...

I guess things won't be changing that much for me, unlike many I know who are moving clear across the country. At least not yet. For the time being (til May) I will live with my favorite girls, work at the same place (new desk though!), and the classes will be considerably different. Mostly I just know the time will fly by and before I realize it I'll be walking again... and after that time I won't come back for more! Michelle has already argued with me about getting a PhD... by I think I'm going to stand firm on that one. I could be persuaded to go for an MBA though...

My Growing List of Pet Peeves

For the past few weeks I have been compiling in my mind a growing list of the political/social issues that I stand for (and very often disagree with the government with). This list includes:

1) human rights abuses and capital punishment
2) the right to choose
3) gay rights
4) simultaneous tax cuts and education/health care spending cuts
5) health care

and the list goes on... and on... and on.

This article sums up a lot of how I feel recently. And probably written a lot better than I would write.

And...

I'm done!? Sorta...

Where has the motivation gone?

Invitations have gone out for the kick ass party... 1 week from today it will all be over.

Nowhere can I find the motivation to do the work that is left. I have been procrastinating like no other this week. Or, the past few. This was a rough semester, each week was crazy. Dead week has actually been not as busy (although still extremely busy) for once...

I really need to motivate myself because one grade actually matters. For the rest I try a little (between being sick and having no motivation) because for some reason I can't completely let go.

School Left:
1) Spanish presentation tomorrow (already finished, just needs to be practiced once)
2) Aeroelasticity project... more than half coded, coding needs to be finished, project written up
3) Aero final... Wednesday at 8am... I need to study my butt off for this one!
4) Structures final... ah... I'll try a little
5) Spanish independent study paper... needs a little background story, re-read the Gabriel Garcia Marquez story that it's on and write it!
6) Cats2 (graduate aircraft design class) presentation to Doc at some point

Wow... that looks like a lot. I probably should get going on that.

Hey Melissa... how about we cheer each other on?!? :-)

My (Lack of Good) Health

Will says I have been sick ever since he's known me (right around 2.5 years). I have struggled with many sinus infections, asthma, and various colds and flus since my senior year of high school. This year has been by far the worst.

In the spring I was placed on antibiotics 5 separate times for sinus infections. The last one turned into brochitis and a strong likely hood of pneumonia (I have to admit that the health center was very good about monitoring me weekly and treating what I had). Unfortunately these all happened right after my first cycling race, so that put me out of commission until the summer. Summer was ok (lack of things to be allergic to, lots of rain).

This fall I have fortunately only had 1 sinus infection (actually, it might have been 2... at this point it's hard to keep track). My allergies were the worst this fall. I've only struggled with excercise-induced asthma in the past. This fall I found myself wheezing after the AE stairs, walking to class, walking up the stairs to my apartment. I was put on an every day steriod treatment that helped immensely. I was just about to start back with the workouts when I caught a cold. It went straight to my chest, and here I am with broncitis... again.

Right now I'm just extremely anxious about getting back onto the whole workout thing. On the bright side, today marks the beginning of my last week as an undergrad. I was officially accepted to grad school on Monday. The offer I received was better than I expected, so that was exciting. I also will only be taking one or two class, so hopefully things will calm down for a bit.

I hope to sleep more than 5 hours each night, workout every day, read everything that I want to, and many many more things. Yeah... we'll see how it goes.

Oh, interesting news. It turns out Mike Griffin (or Mr. Gobble, as I like to refer to him) is giving the commencement speech this Fall. He's also stopping by the ASDL for a little bit, since we did all that ESAS work this summer. Should be interesting. Sadly, it means that we have to take down the huge picture of him and his gobble neck.

Good and Bad Things

"Bad things happening to bad people. Don't lie, it makes you feel good because it gives you a sense of justice, even though you know that life is not just and that true justice comes only at the end of all things. It also reaffirms that which you know to be right and good, like our own morals."

Yep, Melissa, you nailed it. I always feel bad because I feel good when I see people who were crappy to me or wronged me get some karma. But it's superly nice to know that in such a crazy world, some things still make sense.

Last night at dinner Will told me the most hilarious thing. I am so evil that I enjoy that. But hey, what you send out in the world will come back to haunt you, so if you've been walking all over people for a few years, don't be surprised if you have some "bad luck" for awhile. Although, in my experience these people don't actually realize that they are the reason they are having hard times.

Last week of classes coming up. The work load has been much lighter since completing the last fluids report. It's amazing how much time those suck up. I only have 2 presentations, a homework, and a project left this semester. Then 2 finals and a Spanish paper. That's like nothing! Which probably explains why I am so unmotivated. Most kids I know are having their last week of classes ever. Not me, I start back in January as a grad student. Although, to my knowledge, I will only be in one or two classes. Thank God, I could use a break! The stupid AE department still hasn't given me my letter, even though Lexie (the financial manager of the ASDL and a total bitch) called Dr. Jagoda and yelled at her. He attempted to argue with her about Dr. Mavris accepting me. I can't wait til all of the out of touch dinosaurs leave, then the department can actually try to be good. I don't blame those who run as quickly as possible after graduation. The ASDL is that department's saving grace, in my opinion (both monetarily and educationally).


I made an album of a lot of my favorite pictures of me and Will on facebook and it made me realize that we've had a lot of fun together, which is great! Not to mention one of my favorite dates ever last night. Too bad he irritated me this morning :-p

Heather and my brother had a good date, which I am excited about. I'm not interested in the details, though.