One of those days...

I had my surgery pre-op this morning at the ENT. It's in Dunwoody. My appointment was at 9:20, same time as all my other appointments. I was usually back at work by 10:15.

Not today. First I sat there for forever, then at 10am they moved me to a room, then at 10:15 the doctor finally saw me (and really scared me about my condition following... ew.), and I was on my way by 10:30. Yep, that was great.

Then, since I was in the area, I decided to stop by Wal-mart. Bad idea when half of Ashford Dunwoody is closed. Then, just after 11 I headed back to campus for my 12pm class.

Except they decided to close 3 lanes of the highway right after 400 merges... for a good reason? Yeah, right. Because there was debris, specifically a wooden board, in the right-hand lane. What the crap?!?!!

I got back just in time for my class. I feel like the whole day was wasted. Well, except for my signing my life away in case something goes wrong in the surgery. :-p

Lostprophets

Sitting here in the lab on a Saturday morning, supposed to be working on my report but instead and going through the gazillion emails I haven't had a chance to get through in the past few days/weeks.

One is from ticketmaster for upcoming events, and there they are listed, Lostprophets, one of my favorites! Tickets are only $15.50... I'm getting excited.

Oh wait... it's on November 1st. I'll be bedridden. Wonderful.

Hopefully they'll make it back to the U.S. again soon...

Busy

No time, too busy! Grad school is kicking my butt lately... so much so that I'm keeping Melissa hours!

For real update sometime after I sleep, and get some down time... in November.

Surgery: Oct 31

Twisted Taco

Man, it was awesome to be at a bar full of Georgia people when Georgia lost so badly to Tennessee!!! And, then, to celebrate with lots of dancing!

Ok, I need to quit staying out so late. Especially on nights that I need to study or when I need to get up early the next day.

Oh well. Said I stayed in grad school for the fun, right? Can't remember the last time I went out, stayed out late, both nights of two weekends in a row (including Thursday... when I have an enormous test on Monday!)

Let's make it 3 in a row!

Melissa... how's that for your plan of remembering Sunday that I have a test the next day!

Oh, and way to go Jackets. You definitely are better this year. Last year you wouldn't have been able to come back. But, just for the heck of it, let's actually make the spread from now on and not leave things until the next minute.

Love,
Livia

P.S. I love Will Evans and Melissa Scholz

Observation

The other day I heard a story on All Things Considered about Donald Rumsfeld and how he refuses to resign. As of this December, his tenure as secretary of defense will be longer than Robert McNamara's. Is it just me, or is it a bad thing when people compare you with the "prime architect of the Vietnam War?"

Hmm... I've heard of several figures refusing to step down... Chavez comes to mind.

Just a thought.

Amusing Moment of the Day

One of my projects (both research and classes, they somewhat overlap) has to do with the FAA and planning/predicting future environmental impacts of aviation as well as what policy regulation will do to the aviation industry. Very with the times as far as environmental concerns go. Pretty neat stuff.

So today I'm in a class group meeting and my team leader informs that he doesn't believe in global warming. Not only that, but he recommended a (fictional) Michael Crichton book (State of Fear) as his evidence. Not so sure, but I'm not going to use fiction as my evidence. Perhaps instead of engineering my team leader should've looked into punditry.

Then, we're in a review with our Professor, who starts going on and on about the environment, how it will become increasingly more important in the future, and how not believing in global warming is, well... not smart.

Ah, the irony. The team leader of the environmental group doesn't "believe" in it. Doc lectures him on the evidence as to why he's wrong.

That's the only thing that made the impromptu-until-7pm-meetings today bearable.

Now it's time to go out and celebrate Marni's 4th anniversary of her 21st birthday!

Panic! At the Lab...

I guess there's a reason they call this semester boot camp. Most days lately I have this panicked feeling in my chest, the one where there's so much to do that you can't even remember it all and you're so worried you keep forgetting the little things and making stupid errors. Seems like it's a common ailment around the lab lately, but particularly for those of us in boot camp.

On top of boot camp, my RE is double dipping me so I am spread between 2 research areas, one of which has 6-7 different projects/deliverables going on. While the second one is what I like, it's just too much. My brain is full.

I'm in meetings all day, usually for research. While I'm in research meetings, I'm missing meetings for my 2 different group projects. And sometimes classes. 4 of them.

Coming up:
Oct 9: Advanced Design Methods test
Thank goodness I have the 2 fall break days and this week to catch up on everything!
Oct 19: AE Systems presentations (I have yet to make a meeting for this group... I bet they like me already)
Oct 20: Fixed Wing Design project due (haven't started)
Oct 20: Computers/Fortran code due
Oct 24: AE Systems Test
Oct 27: Fixed Wing Design Test

Not to mention the ongoing ADM project that I am behind on. And ONR workshops coming up, Lockheed meetings, a proposal to write and 2 people waiting on me for direction for my EDS work. Oh, yeah, and the trying to get my sinuses fixed which includes repetitive visits to the ENT, ct scans, and most likely surgery.

And I absolutely refuse to give up my life, which includes Will, fun, friends and exercising.

Is October over yet? I'm scheduling the massage that Kristy bought me almost a year ago for Nov 1.

Go Jackets!

Yesterday was a good day to be a Yellow Jacket. I'm bad luck, so I only watched the 4th quarter of the game against Va Tech (and interestingly enough things didn't go as well after I turned on the tv). Regardless, we upset. Which we do well... away. It'll be a challenge to upset Miami at home, but possible.

Go Jackets, keep up the good work!

Girl's Night Out: Success!

So, I was the orchestrator of Girl's Night Out, it took place last night. It was somewhat tough to plan... it's not exactly simple to coordinate 15 people's schedules. I was also getting irritated with some of them towards the end. I guess no matter how much you try to accomodate some people, at the end of the day they don't care and won't think twice about taking advantage of it. Or maybe I was just irritated because of PMS.

Ultimately, 9 of us ended up going (and, fitting in Melissa Young's blazer) and it was a blast! We started off (after I dropped by Heather's place to say happy birthday to my big brother) with dinner at The Spotted Dog. It was pretty good food and any place that has Newcastle on tap is a good place in my opinon. We then moved the fun (via the blazer) over to loca luna for drinks and dancing.

And we did drink. And dance. It was fun times. Except for a horrid Laura A (ghost from the past) sighting, but fortunately it was only once and then she disappeared. We wrapped it up at around 2 am.

It seemed to me like the other girls come from girl-rich environments, so I suppose they don't have to go out of there way to get an estrogen fix. And some of them don't like as much estrogen time. We explained how they more than doubled the amount of girls that I knew, both in undergrad and grad. But we agreed that our next outing would be to a "booty-shaking club" (as if we didn't do that at loca luna) and we'd bring the boys, too.

I think everyone had fun though, except that we lazy americans close up shop too early.

Verdict: success

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Disappointment

Tonight I went over to Yak's place to watch Gilmore Girls. I gotta say, I was more than a little disappointed. I only remembered that the show's original writers had left after a few minutes into it... something just didn't feel right. The pace wasn't there and the wit and humor were watered down at best. Last season I thought the characters were behaving very un-character like, and it seems as though this trend will continue. Makes me wish they had ended it on a high note.

Nevertheless, it's awesome to have fans/friends to watch it with! Perhaps eventually (not on a Wednesday) we will play the drinking game... drink once for a pop culture reference, drink twice if you don't understand it.

Past episodes would've put me under the table by the first or second commercial break. I guess with this one we'll all last longer.

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Done

Among the many things that I have had enough of/with lately, my living situation is one of them. Don't get me wrong, I love the apartment and may consider selling my soul to live here alone. If that could happen one hour from now it wouldn't be soon enough.

Is there a statute of limitations on how long you can tolerate a roommate, or is it just cause I attract the mentally/emotionally/responsibility challenged ones?

Yeah, I'm picky, and so I thought living with one who is "neat" (note that neat doesn't imply cleanliness or that there is a lack of smelliness) would make life easier, but as it turns out in this case it doesn't. Melissa, I'd take your messiness (all over, not just in your room!) and mental/emotional stability and the fact that you come with logic over neatness anyday.

I miss the Melissa days.

Due to my oh-so-considerate roommate's actions/mental problems, I'm out of a place to live in February. Yep, a whole 2.5 months before I'm done with grad school. Wonderful timing, isn't it?

Who wants a visitor?

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Thursday!!!

Melissa's coming to town!!!

Yay! Couldn't ask for a better pick me up!

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Ringo

I woke up to my phone ringing (vibrating) this morning, it was my dad. He asked what I was doing today, and I told him. I thought maybe he was calling like he does when my mom is out of town. A few minutes later my mom called. She said my kitty Ringo was dead, something bit him (most likely a dog).

I got Ringo on my 16th birthday. He was a tiny, fluffy, fuzz ball little kitty. He was abandoned, so he though me and my mom were his mommies. He was so small he couldn't jump up on the bed. He learned to give hugs and kisses. I would carry a string and he would follow me for hours. When I went out of town, he would get mad at me and hold a grudge. He had a little snake that he would carry around by the neck. Later on he found a big stuffed Hobbes and would make biscuits on it.


He was special. He drooled when he was really, really happy. He rang the doorbell when he wanted to come in. He preferred fresh running water from the sink and would sit in the bathroom every morning while I got ready. He didn't care for meat, so my dad gave him fresh vegetables to eat, usually in the morning. When he was younger he would sit on the sit of the bathtub while I took a shower. Once he got in the bubble bath. When we got Einstein, they became buddies and would always snuggle together. He liked to sit on top of my mom's car.



Ringo's hair would get matted so we would have him shaved. They would leave his head and the end of his tail so that he looked like a little lion. When Alden was a baby it would make him giggle. This winter he needed to wear a sweater, but he kept hiding them from my mom. He got so big and fat and he was moody. He liked to climb trees. One morning my dad asked me to come see something from the 2nd story landing. There was Ringo, eye level, in the trees.



I just got back from burying him with my dad and I don't much feel likegoing to the football game. We buried him next to Einstein, since theyalways used to be together when they were both alive. I buried him with his snake. That's one of the only times I've ever seen my Dad cry.

I'm going to miss him.

Balancing Act

There have been so many things (as usual) that I have wanted to write about, I just haven't had the time. And I've been running around like a crazy person. It's been difficult to settle back into this semester and my very precarious balancing act of school, work, cycling, boyfriend, and now friends (yay), not to mention the occasional babysitting job. These past few weeks have been very social and I've been making exceptions to many usual rules so that I oculd get to know my new classmates and it's been going well. The boyfriend thing is easy to deal with since he's not around very much, and the cycling thing wasn't a big factor lately because of bad weather for mountain biking and my inability to get back into the swing of things. I've been riding about half as much as the summer. It's hard to motivate myself to train hard again because riding without aching and tired legs is so much more fun than with them. I have been watching what I eat but not as closely. That has just happened because I liteally haven't had the time to fill out my food journal. Much less input it all online.

The weekends have been packed with fun. Last Friday I enjoyed an evening of dinner and movie watching with my new friends. Saturday was Tailgating and the game. Sunday some time with my favorite kids then some time with my favorite show (4 Gilmore Girls episodes) and my new girl friends. Monday was shopping and bbq time.

This weekend will be another crazy one. Friday I have tickets with 7 of the new girls to watch Beauty and the Beast at the Fox. We have class til 6pm on Fridays (sometimes 630) so it'll be a challenge to get dinner and get there on time (and we will, because tickets weren't cheap!) Saturday I have to be in 3 places at once: the GT Cycling hosted mountain bike race, the ASDL picnic and the GT-Samford football game. Right now I've committed to the mtn race, which will eat up 6am-6pm of both days, but I'm considering bailing due to extenuating circumstances. Ideally I'd like to be at all places... why is cloning a bad thing?

Hopefully I will get to sit at some point and share my thoughts on:

• Hillary's book ( I finally finished!!)
• The GT-Notre Dame Game/Stupid Tech boys
• Summer of Speed: Mission Accomplished?
• To PhD or not to PhD... that was the question (or perhaps still is)
• Renewed motivation and the high quality higher education I'm getting... NOT

Stay tuned.

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Ready

Thanks to my Mom's "Straight A" gift (it only took me 15 semesters!) I am now ready for football season.

Let the Tailgating commence!

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Money Makes the World Go Around

This past Friday I finally got around to watching Fahrenheit 9/11. It came in from Netflix about 3 weeks ago (after putting it off for 2 years... I guess I'm a bad liberal) and sat on the coffee table. I guess I knew it would be difficult to watch.

Sure, it's meant to sway you emotionally, and with that in thought everything that is presented must be taken with a grain of salt. Even so, the movie is incredibly moving. While mostly tastefully done and subtle, there were scenes from both 9/11 and the war that had me in tears.

I'm certainly not a fan of this administration and have done a lot of reading on the mistakes and corruption surrounding this administration, but some of the information in the movie shocked even me. Sure, Michael Moore spun some of it. But you can't spin numbers or the reactions of Congress people when asked if they would send their kids to war. It's easy to see the blundering military mistakes and how the U.S. is handling itself in an extremely insensitive manner, which only fuels the fire of hatred in the area of the world.

The take away story from the movie is that money is still what makes the world go 'round... and, absolute power corrupts absolutely. It's hard to stop those at the top, or even get a word in edgewise. The amount of corruption in politics now is astronomical and there are very few things unaltered by the current administration. Dishonesty abounds, from wiretapping to following bank accounts to altering Nasa's mission statement to not allowing the coffins of soldiers to be shown to ignoring the geneva convention to blocking investigations to accusing people of being unpatriotic for exercising their right to free speech, I wonder if anything will remain unscathed. Add to that a domestic agenda that cuts funding for educational programs while cutting estate taxes and a deficit that is out of control. In my opinion, 2008 won't get here soon enough.

It seems that "Dubya" has been surrounded by all of that so long he may actually believe the bs he promotes. I'd love to sit down with him and ask him how he sleeps at night, with the blood of thousands on his hands and the lives of many more ruined and altered, for the worse, permanently. But, I would congratulate him on his success in the war on the middle class.

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Joy!

There are a couple of "normal" girls in the new class. And by normal I really mean abnormal because they don't fit your typical aerospace engineering (ASDL) mold. Don't get me wrong, there are some that do, but some that don't. You know, those ones who can match and won't look the other way when you address them. And who like to be sociable.

We've been passing notes during class and girl-talking (ok, so it's gossip) outside of class. I can't begin to explain how starved I've been for some quality girl time. And in the past few weeks, I've been blessed enough to meet several women who I'm very excited to get to know better.

I've had some trouble with the female engineering types (what is it with them/us, anyway?) and my few good girl friends have since moved on to the next phases of their lives. While we still communicate by email (one in Hartford, one in D.C.), there's nothing like talking about shampoo and how to deal with the frizz and the crazy humidity. I'm hoping that I will have better luck with these girls, since they seem to be girlier (is that a word?) than the usual. In a good way.

I am overjoyed!

And so is Will. He's tired of hearing about my shampoo.

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New Additions to the Family

Ok, I'll be honest: I definitely covet when it comes to bikes. Probably every cyclist does. When I purchased my first bike, I wasn't sure what my commitment to the sport would be so I bought from a generic company to get a better deal on the components I wanted (I wasn't about to have any of this sore-thumb Sora stuff). It was a great first bike, even though I had some bad luck with the mechanicals. The components were awesome, and Will assured me that upgrading would only involve the frame and wheels.

So I did. Meet The Stig. Some say he can smell corners.

The Stig was purchased used for about half of what it goes for new. It features all of my old components, wheels, pedals, even handlebars. The Mercier got all the stuff that the Stig came with (mostly comparable quality) and was sold this past Saturday morning to a nice rich old lady. I thought I'd be sad to see my first baby go, but then again it's like the cars. The Stig is such a huge step up that I didn't think twice. Actually, that's not true. I spent about an hour deliberating about whether I should get it or not. I always intended to upgrade, but not before I was actually fast. After my Summer of Speed (recap to come), I've gained speed but am not exactly fast. But what better inspiration and motivation to train is there than an awesome bike. The frame is so much stiffer and stronger that I've effectively gained 2 gears, which is especially useful for a poor climber such as myself and have turned into a not so bad descender. I've gained a lot of confidence in my handling, which will certainly pay off in the future. So far it's just helped me have frequent "oh shit" moments and my first "real" crash.

I had to sell my first bike to make up the loses accumulated from buying two bikes in less than three months. Mid-May I bought a mountain bike.

Meet Jocelyn DaKontents.

With Jocelyn I again aimed for racing level components and my price range (which wasn't a lot, because I didn't think I would like moutain biking... I was right). Beyond that I didn't know what to get so Will recommend her. So far Jocelyn and I haven't gotten along so well, mostly because I feel like throwing up from all the jostling and I like to wreck her pretty frequently. Most recently I ended up in a tree. It wasn't her fault though, it's more operator error. But, the objective of learning to mountain bike was to become a better bike handler, and I can already feel some differences (coupled with the best frame ever) out on the road. As far as the mountain season goes, we'll see if I'm capable of not being a slow poke.

Those are my new kids. You're supposed to love your kids equally, but let's face it, everyone has a favorite. I'll give you one guess about which one I prefer.

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Newly Oriented (orientated?)

Yesterday I attended ASDL's new student/1st year orientation. Why would I do such a thing, since I'm not a new student? Well, being different than most and having started in January, I'm partly a member of last year's class since I've taken the 2nd and 3rd semester classes, and partly a member of this year's class since I'll be in the 1st semester classes with them this Fall. And, I didn't attend it last year.

I was excited. Pretty much as excited as I was at FASET or maybe even the first day of Kindergarten. The new class has 40-50 new people, and from the looks of it about half of them break the normal engineering student mold and actually have personalities and social skills. Imagine! I can hardly contain myself. People who actually have stuff to talk about besides how many binders they have at their desk or how they know powerpoint way better than you? Or, during the introductions, when having to provide an interesting tidbit, actually provide an interesting tidbit besides stating (asininely... is that an adjective?) that they are "one of the few people in the ASDL capable of getting an insurance waiver." I'm sorry... if that's your interesting life tidbit, you're pathetic. All the others talked about sports, hobbies, travels (several served in the Military), jumping out of planes, living in other countries, studying other subjects. Although Will did point out that the longer the person had been at ASDL, the less interesting their tidbit was. Which means I have to get out. ASAP.

I'm hoping this new crop of potential friends, along with the previous first years that I've been hanging out with, make my remaining semesters more bearable and help me to keep my negativity in check. After all, I did choose it, so according to my own theory I can either change my situation or shut up about it.

Being that I am 6 classes away from another degree, 4 of which I'm taking this fall, I'll shut up about it.

But my RE has another thing coming if she thinks I'm going to put becoming one of her little coding monkeys above my health, fitness and grades.

And guess what? There's no way I'm staying for a Ph.D.

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The Tie that Binds

One week ago today I tried my second group ride. We left early because will overestimated my slowness. We arrived at the parking lot of Atlanta cycling about 15 minutes early and just tried to stay tucked away in the corner until it was time to get started. After a few minutes, a guy asked us (because of our jerseys) if we went to Tech or if we were alums. We told him that we were grad students but did undergrad there also, in AE and he told us he was an architecture major, bs in 82 masters in 88. He mentioned that at one point he had to take a materials class from an AE professor... did we by chance ever have a professor named Virgil Smith?

Virgil Smith... aka the Devil Himself. Brought out of retirement to teach AE Dynamics in the Summer of 2003 because there was no one else to do it. The one who failed 23 of 26 people. The one where my 46 on a test was actually one of the highest grades in the class. The one that told us that the homeless people out on North Avenue would make better engineers.

The Devil, apparently, is timeless.

But, I do credit that class with introducing me to Will.

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Sign on my forehead?

I attract stupid people. Or, rather, people with lazy brains who can't think or figure things out for themselves. So much so, that it even happens on the street.

The other day I was on my way home from a bike ride (same day as the crash, slightly before). I am pulling up to the intersection of Ptree Battle and Howell Mill to get in the line of cars making a left when a woman in an SUV (didn't notice which kind it was) rolls her window down and flags me down.

Me, I'm thinking she needs directions. I couldn't have been more wrong. What she needed was the ability to figure stuff out for herself.

She seemed very distressed, so I became concerned. Then she started talking. She said there was a "poor little dog" running down Howell Mill "looking tired and lost" and she wanted to know what to do.

Seriously? And me... about to get caught in a bad storm out on my bike, I'm supposed to 1) know and 2) care? Actually, I do. When I'm not out on my bike in the evening trying to hurry home.

I asked her if the dog had collars. She said yes.

Hm. If it were me, I'd look to see if the collar had a phone number, and if it did I would call it and tell them I had their dog. If it didn't, I'd take it to an animal shelter or something. If I could, I'd keep it for a few days and put up signs. But, then again, that's me. The one who tries to use their brain and logic on a daily basis and who has some initiative. I guess that's abnormal, these days.

I told her that, after which she said she thought I might live around here and know something.

I apologized and said that I didn't (an apartment complex a few miles up the street doesn't count, does it?) and also said that I would help if I could but at the moment I was just trying to get home. After which the light turned, thankfully.

Just one of the many (almost daily) occurrences in which I think "WTF?!?!" I must give out some signal or have some sign on my forehead that says "hey, you know what? I don't feel like I think enough for myself day-in and day-out, let me do some thinking for you, too!"

And then I go home and complain to Will about it.

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Helmets are good

All cyclists crash... that is inevitable. Which is why I believe in always wearing a helmet. Myself, I was waiting for it to happen. I didn't count the two times I ended up horizontal before. The first time was the first day I rode my new road bike, back in October of 2004. I was learning to use "clipless" pedals. Clipless is a funny name since you actually clip in and out. Anyway, I came to a stop, unclipped my right foot, and fell over to the left. No biggie. The second time was at the Silver Comet, after I switched from one pedal and cleat system to another. Once again, came up to an intersection, slowed, unclipped my right, fell over to the left. Not "real" crashes. I think my c.g. may be a little off to the lleft.

Well, now I can no longer say that I am dreading the day that I will crash. That day was today. I was following Will out to one of his rides. The weather was bad, my left hip flexor was bothering me, and I was having trouble shifting. About 1/2 mile away from the apartment it started storming and pouring rain, the kind that hurts when it hits you. I was happy to be turning into the apartment complex, then the next thing I am horizontal and right in the way of incoming traffic.

I always thought my first "real" crash would involve other people. This one can be attributed to the extremely slick pavement at the complex and the torrential downpour. And the fact that my new bike makes me more prone to "oh shit" moments than the previous one. I guess there is a downside to the handling and confidence I get with my "new" wheels.

At least it didn't hurt... that badly. The slick pavements means I only got a few scrapes instead of a lots of road rash. And a few bruises.

Now I'll reset my counter... Will says he crashes every 4000 miles, the last one being a few weeks ago, but through no fault of his own. Me, this one happened after 2200 miles... let's hope the next doesn't come sooner.

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The Little Things

I made "the switch" and purchased my first Apple computer last October. To this day I am discovering things about the os that makes me one of those fanatical "mac people." Which is hilarious when you consider how much I ragged on my friend Lucas for being one... although he can be credited (along with the god-awful Windows XP Tablet PC edition I was using) for inspiring me to take the plunge.

The other day I wanted to zip up a folder of music to send to Will's sister via Bluetooth (which is awesome in itself). So I'm googling to figure out what program I need when I stumble across the answer: just hit right click (yes, it exists!) and select archive. I was overjoyed. Nothing extra needed? Just like the fact that macs have the ability to convert to PDF embedded... simple, easy to use.

When Google Calendar came out I switched from iCal since I could share my calendar with Will, so that he could attempt to keep up with my usually-running-around-like-a-chicken-with-its-head-cut-off schedule. This past weekend I switched back to iCal after learning that there are ways to publish my calendars via WebDav without having a .mac account. Google Calendar is great, but really it's almost exactly like iCal with the exception that I can't change the window sizes/view options as easily, which is why I switched. Well, that, and you need an internet connection.

Even though I share my calendars with him, Will likes to get my agenda via email at the beginning of the week. I was doing this by hand with Google Calendar open. Switching back to iCal gave me the opportunity to use my mac in ta manner for which it was intended. I started by setting up my gmail account for pop access in Apple's Mail (I don't use Mail, I use Thunderbird and like to use GMail in the browser, but that's another story). Then I opened up Automator and created a workflow to grab my next week's calendar events, compose an email to Will, and mail them off. Now this will automatically occur at the beginning of every week. Show me a PC that can do that...

Lastly, I have a bunch of videos of Alden and Kaya that Kaya loves to watch. Instead of searching through and clicking on them, I decided to stich them all together in iMovie. Great! Now Will used his Macbook (he converted after playing with mine and listening to me gush about how much I loved it) to burn a DVD (my ibook doesn't have the combo drive), including gorgeous looking title menu feature scrolling pictures of the kids. Sure you can do that on a windows machine... but how much does that software cost?

Now I will stop blabbing about my nerdiness. I just was so delighted I couldn't help it!

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Talk Nerdy to Me

I am completely geeking out right now...

My first day off happens to coincide with the WWDC, where Steve Jobs makes his famous Keynote speech every year covering what's new with Apple. I'm sitting here (when I should be cleaning my apartment) refreshing the feed like I do with the Tour.

Mac love... it's contagious.

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Me

How to make a livia

Ingredients: 5 parts competetiveness 5 parts ambition 1 part empathy

Method: Layer ingredientes in a shot glass. Serve with a slice of curiosity and a pinch of salt. Yum!

Username:

Personality cocktail
From Go-Quiz.com

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Notice: Temporary Suspension

Due to my just having finished this horrendous semester/past two semesters and that this afternoon marks the beginning of my first significant number of days off since I can't-remember-when, all training and dieting activities will be temporarily suspended until Friday, August 4, at 12pm to allow for celebration activities.

The end.

Upcoming

T-minus 24 hours until I am free of this semester and free of classes and work for a wonderful but not nearly long enough well overdue 12 day vacation. That will leave me with time to pretend like I'm going to catch up on everything I've been meaning to do but really I'm just going to run around like a crazy person as usual. And here is a list of upcoming posts that I've been collecting notes on mentally and on paper for the past few weeks:

Benefit of a Doubt - Floyd Landis' Drug Test
Summer of Speed update
Year 3 Review
Movie Review: The Devil Wears Prada
ASDL Women/Big Red Carpet Heart
Movie Review: The Motorcycle Diaries

and probably more, if I get around to clearing the cob-webs out of brain.

Uncanny

It's uncanny (and would be slightly amusing if it weren't extremely disturbing) how Scientologists and this Admininstration use the same reasons and logic to keep people who disagree away from them and out of sight.

To me it just seems like they've got something to hide.

Both via Digg

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Zidane (FR) = Moron (EN)

Remember replying "sticks and stone may break my bones but words will never hurt me" to the taunts on the playground as a kid? Well, we all know that words hurt but, since we're grown ups now, have had to learn to handle them in a mature, non-violent manner. Correct me if I'm wrong, but it's not ok for people to go around picking fights because of stuff people say. Particularly in sports. Half the fun in sports is trash talking. The better atheletes respond by outperforming... like in the 2005 Tour de Georgia where Lance Armstrong and Floyd Landis shared words (or maybe just a look)... then Armstrong turned on the afterburners and left Landis, causing him to lose the Yellow Jersey to Tom Danielson of Discovery, who won the whole race the next day.

But France's (mediocre) soccer star, Zinedine Zidane? Watch out for him, he's got a temper.

So I'm sitting here wondering why, after Zidane head butted an Italian player in the World Cup final, FIFA is investigating the Italian player.

BBC SPORT | Football | World Cup 2006 | Teams | Italy | Materazzi gives evidence to Fifa

Is that logical? Sure, the guy should've kept his mouth shut. But who can resist at that level of competition? Zidane loses his cool and gets sent off, yet again, for despicable behavior on the pitch.

Makes me think something is going on at FIFA. It's known that there is corruption in the Italian league, but what about at the world's governing body of football? Could this corruption be the reason that the head World Cup official killed himself immediately after the final?

Why else would they coddle such a low player? Surely it can't be because he's French.

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Yellow Looking Not Nearly As Good

Dammit!

Cycling - Menchov wins, Landis in yellow - Eurosport

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The Pot or the Kettle?

Shell says biofuels from food crops "morally inappropriate" - Yahoo! News

Oh yeah? Well I find putting making money ahead of human rights and environmental concerns "morally inappropriate."

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Yellow Has Never Looked Better

BBC SPORT | Other Sport... | Cycling | Photo Galleries | Tour de France stage two photos

technorati tags:tour, cycling, hincapie

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Disgraceful

Brazil's World Cup Futebol team's performance against France yesterday. They are undoubtedly consistently one of the best teams in the world, if not the best, quite possibly the best team EVER. Especially as the only team to qualify for every single world cup ever and win 5. Yes, they are that good. That is, when they show up with their jogo bonito.

Yesterday? They forgot to bring it. The last time I saw them play that was was vs France in the world cup final in 1998 (also, incidently, the last world cup match that they lost and their only loss in the World cup in quite some time since they won it in 1994). In '98 and again yesterday they played like they don't care to repeat their title. They may be one of the best, but not even the best can win just by showing up. If they're going to be playing that way, then they certainly don't deserve to win.

But France? Give me a break! At least lose to a decent team! I mean, we're talking about the team that is made up of Zinedine Zidane, who is kinda talented but doesn't even touch the likes of Ronaldinho, Roberto Carlos and Ronaldo, and the rest of the team who backs him up by faking horrible fouls, getting the refs to agree with them and giving them free kicks that allow them to score. Their world cup history? Sometimes they qualify, sometimes they make it out of group play. '90? Didn't qualify. '94? Didn't qualify. '98? The home team is the only team who doesn't have to go through qualification... fortunately for them, the competition was in France this year. Incidently they won the final... in France... with what I believe was a French referree. Those who haven't seen this game should watch. In '02? Played worse than the Americans (my 2nd least favorite team, behind the French that is) with not a single goal and not making it out of group play. Was '98 a fluke? I think so.

But seriously. Those who don't know the records and the statistics are going to think that the French are the only ones capable of beating Brazil in World Cup play. Is this true? Sure... when Brazil doesn't show up.

One of the commentators said the Brazilian coach was not looking for revenge. Why not? It's good to hold on to a sports grudge... fuels the fire to win. If I were out there, I would've played my heart out just to kick some French ass and show them what a fluke '98 truly was. Not only that, but to show the world that the team can be consistent, good, and repeat the win.

Now? The two favorites (Brazil and Argentina) are out and the semi-finals are completely composed of European teams. Which means no jogo bonito to watch. Perhaps the Italians and especially the Portuguese can dig down deep inside and show us some of that sort of play. Me? I'm rooting for Portugal on Wednesday. With their new "golden generation," I'd love nothing more than for them to show Zinedine Zidane his last game ever and walk all over the rest of his team. And let the jogo bonito prevail.

Interestingly enough, the two favorites are also out of the Tour, which started yesterday. I don't mind, that gives one of my favorites ever, George Hincapie of Discovery, a solid chance to win. And a chance for Americans to sweep the Tour.

Don't get me wrong, I don't usually root for USA in international competition. But an American sweep of the Tour? As Will says, it would cause the French to declare war on America.

After which they would promptly surrender, because, they are French, after all.

technorati tags:soccer, worldcup, brazil, sports

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Swamped

Not only have I been swamped with class work and research work, I've been swamped and stressed by life in general. I'm not sure how much of it is caused by my too-much-school-for-the past-6-years funk, but I definitely experienced a major dip in my "estado de animo" (as Ray once said) this week.

I'm not overwhelmed by the amount of homework or the material. I'm still sticking to my grad-school-is-easier-than-undergrad-and-funner-too hypothesis, at least for the time being. Despite this, I'm afflicted by a complete lack of motivation. Even more so than than this past Spring semester... or so many more before that. And even though I wasn't struggling with the course load, I dropped one of my classes. Not hard, not entirely a lot of work... just a lot of work that I didn't feel like doing. Why spend 5 hours a week working on a project that I am uninterested in when I could be outside?

I'm still trying to make progress in my Summer of Speed (and general fitness/get in shape time). I am speedier than before. I finished my first four weeks, the last of which was rough. I was upset, emotional and unmotivated. Cutting calories (being hungry all the time) and upping hours is rough.  I thought it was my third week, but midway through the week we checked my logs and realized I was in fact in the middle of a "rest" week that had not started restfully. That week helped me a lot more than I realized and it finished with me ready to hit the road again. Which I did. Week 5 was awesome, one of my top mileage/hours weeks ever. I wanted to up it another notch for week 6... but then work happened.

I was trying this new thing where I would spend more time doing things I like, including being outside and riding, and quit putting that stuff off for work. I realized how closely my estado de animo is tied with the amount of sunlight I get on a regular basis. It was going well, until the workshop. Another workshop. In early, out late, this past Tuesday, Wednesday and Thursday. So much for another high mileage/hours week, so far I've gotten in 50 minutes. Not only that, but the stress and politics of the workshop have really gotten to me.

The good news is, I'm not going back until next Wednesday. 5 whole days without class or work. I hardly know what to do with myself... except I could clean the apartment, sit by the pool, finally finish Hillary's book (I'm almost to the Lewinsky thing), watch the world cup, watch the tour (man, my tivo is going to be busy!) and ride a lot, naturally. I'll be doing all that in Columbus with yet another visit to Will's parent's house, making it the 4th visit this summer and doubling the number of times I've been there ever in just a few weeks. Fortunately, it's become one of my favorite places to get away and the timing of this visit seems flawless. Not to mention we're kicking off the weekend at Sweetwater with many of our friends. I couldn't think of a better way to start my longest block of days off since... I can't remember when.

They're going to have to drag me back Wednesday morning. At least Wednesdays start with David's spinning class... my favorite spinning class.

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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.

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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.

IMG_0022.JPG
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.
IMG_0141.JPG
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.

IMG_0049.JPG
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.

IMG_0106.JPG
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.