All the mending I can do will not fix it
Hi, all. Have an unorganized list of things!
1) Paul the Psychic Octopus died! I don't even give a hoot about soccer, but I was a big fan of Paul the Psychic Octopus. I love cephalopods, and it's so rarely that one becomes a celebrity. :-(
2) So, Tuesday, I clicked what I thought was a Windows Alert window. It was not a Windows Alert window. My computer was at the IT hospital for two days and--I don't want to sound ungrateful, which I think I came across on the phone to the IT people later, because they did give me a program to get rid of malware--but when they gave it back to me Thursday, poor old Herbert still had the same malware program that I'd taken him in to get rid of on Tuesday. I called, they said they couldn't help me over the phone, I called my mom, she helped me over the phone with the power of Google. Problem solved. But I wish I would stop having computer problems--between my modem dying two weeks ago and this, I have spent way more time having to take a trip to campus just to check my e-mail than I really should.
3) Speaking of checking my e-mail...eh, suffice to say, I am having a really hard time this semester dealing. I know, this is incredibly vague, but I'm having a harder time coming up with a better way to describe the increasingly aggravating anxiety I have around paperwork, checking my e-mail, all the administrative stuff having to do with being a grad student and an instructor. It's a totally different kind of anxiety than my schoolwork-related anxiety--I can't describe the difference, but it's actually worse for me. People are used to seeing someone have difficulty getting school projects done, but they don't expect it to be really difficult for someone to be able to check their e-mail without hyperventilating, so I feel all the more failure-tastic trying to explain it. I think that's one of the downsides of the technological revolution--it's a blessing to be able to contact people at any time, but it can be a curse when people expect you to be in contact at any given time, and your ability to interact with other people has a time limit.
4) Four-day weekend! I got to go to the state fair with Rebecca and Meredith, which was fun, and I didn't eff up during the drive up OR back, which is pretty special for me. The weather was beautiful. I didn't get as much done as I would have liked, but that seems to be pretty universal, and the fact that the due date of my second Latin paper has been pushed back to Friday makes my life so much easier.
5) I had my presentation on my terrible Latin article today. (I didn't write it, but it was terrible nonetheless, which made it kind of fun in an MST3K way.) I wasn't as articulate as I would have liked, and it didn't help that my professor wanted to look at something in the article when I was presenting, because I had actually planned to read some quotes and explain what I thought was wrong with them. But anyway the presentation's out of the way now, and my professor seemed okay with how I did, so I'm not gonna stress about it.
6) The other day, I saw a bumper sticker that said, "Thank God your mother was pro-life!" I almost wished the owner was there so I could say, "She's not."
7) So, despite not having watched the vast majority of Chuck season 3, I'm watching season 4 now. And all this stuff with Mama Bartowski...is it wrong of me to want a million fics about Chuck and Ellie's parental abandonment issues, and how they formed a family between the two of them, but how they always sort of felt that as a loss, and how this vulnerability covered with a bunch of intelligence and strength attracts people like Sarah and Awesome? Probably. Doesn't stop me from wanting them.
7) Music meme!
Day 01- A song that makes me happy
Day 02- A song that helps me clear my head
Day 03- A song that makes you laugh
Day 04- A song that reminds me of something
Day 05- A song that has a new meaning to me every time I hear it
Day 06- A song I can always relate to
Day 07- A song that is my guilty pleasure
Day 08- A song I liked when I was younger
Day 09- A song that makes me want to dance
Day 10- A song that makes me cry
Day 11- A song that reminds me of summer
Day 12- A song that reminds me of my best friend
Day 13- A song I sing to in the shower
Day 14- A song I like hearing live
Day 15- A song people wouldn’t expect me to like
Day 16- A song that holds a lot of meaning to me
Day 17- A song that annoys me
I don't actually know that many songs that annoy me, now that I think about it. Which isn't that surprising--I don't listen to the radio, and if I don't like a song, well, I just don't put it on my iPod, which cuts the chances that I will ever listen to it again down considerably. But there is this one song...
"Hey Soul Sister" by Train
My first reaction to this song wasn't hostile or anything--it was on an episode of CSI New York that guest-starred the lead singer of Train. Afterwards, I looked the episode up, because it seemed like the song was something I'd heard years ago, and I wondered if it was an old episode. Nope. New song, it just sounded so incredibly generic that I thought I'd heard it sometime in the late 90s on one of my brother's "Now That's What I Call Music!" compilations.
My feelings towards it grew increasingly less favorable the more I heard it--in stores, on TV, in the cafeteria at Notre Dame, that sort of thing. I'm not used to hearing songs often enough in stores that I become familiar with them, but I sure as heck got familiar with this one. More's the pity. I mean, it's not the worst song in the world or anything--it's just not something I needed to hear more than, say, once or twice.
Here's a video that expresses what's annoying about this song more than I could:
Day 18- A song I have as my ringtone
Day 19- A song I'm currently obsessed with
Day 20- A song from a new album I'm waiting for
Day 21- A song I want to dance to at my wedding
Day 22- A song that would be the theme song to a TV show about my life
Day 23- A song that makes me angry
Day 24- A cover song
Day 25- An acoustic song I love
Day 26- A song by my favorite band
Day 27- A song I make fun of
Day 28- A song that reminds me of my significant other
Day 29- A song currently stuck in my head
Day 30- A song I haven’t listened to in awhile
So...that's all for now, folks!
1) Paul the Psychic Octopus died! I don't even give a hoot about soccer, but I was a big fan of Paul the Psychic Octopus. I love cephalopods, and it's so rarely that one becomes a celebrity. :-(
2) So, Tuesday, I clicked what I thought was a Windows Alert window. It was not a Windows Alert window. My computer was at the IT hospital for two days and--I don't want to sound ungrateful, which I think I came across on the phone to the IT people later, because they did give me a program to get rid of malware--but when they gave it back to me Thursday, poor old Herbert still had the same malware program that I'd taken him in to get rid of on Tuesday. I called, they said they couldn't help me over the phone, I called my mom, she helped me over the phone with the power of Google. Problem solved. But I wish I would stop having computer problems--between my modem dying two weeks ago and this, I have spent way more time having to take a trip to campus just to check my e-mail than I really should.
3) Speaking of checking my e-mail...eh, suffice to say, I am having a really hard time this semester dealing. I know, this is incredibly vague, but I'm having a harder time coming up with a better way to describe the increasingly aggravating anxiety I have around paperwork, checking my e-mail, all the administrative stuff having to do with being a grad student and an instructor. It's a totally different kind of anxiety than my schoolwork-related anxiety--I can't describe the difference, but it's actually worse for me. People are used to seeing someone have difficulty getting school projects done, but they don't expect it to be really difficult for someone to be able to check their e-mail without hyperventilating, so I feel all the more failure-tastic trying to explain it. I think that's one of the downsides of the technological revolution--it's a blessing to be able to contact people at any time, but it can be a curse when people expect you to be in contact at any given time, and your ability to interact with other people has a time limit.
4) Four-day weekend! I got to go to the state fair with Rebecca and Meredith, which was fun, and I didn't eff up during the drive up OR back, which is pretty special for me. The weather was beautiful. I didn't get as much done as I would have liked, but that seems to be pretty universal, and the fact that the due date of my second Latin paper has been pushed back to Friday makes my life so much easier.
5) I had my presentation on my terrible Latin article today. (I didn't write it, but it was terrible nonetheless, which made it kind of fun in an MST3K way.) I wasn't as articulate as I would have liked, and it didn't help that my professor wanted to look at something in the article when I was presenting, because I had actually planned to read some quotes and explain what I thought was wrong with them. But anyway the presentation's out of the way now, and my professor seemed okay with how I did, so I'm not gonna stress about it.
6) The other day, I saw a bumper sticker that said, "Thank God your mother was pro-life!" I almost wished the owner was there so I could say, "She's not."
7) So, despite not having watched the vast majority of Chuck season 3, I'm watching season 4 now. And all this stuff with Mama Bartowski...is it wrong of me to want a million fics about Chuck and Ellie's parental abandonment issues, and how they formed a family between the two of them, but how they always sort of felt that as a loss, and how this vulnerability covered with a bunch of intelligence and strength attracts people like Sarah and Awesome? Probably. Doesn't stop me from wanting them.
7) Music meme!
Day 01- A song that makes me happy
Day 02- A song that helps me clear my head
Day 03- A song that makes you laugh
Day 04- A song that reminds me of something
Day 05- A song that has a new meaning to me every time I hear it
Day 06- A song I can always relate to
Day 07- A song that is my guilty pleasure
Day 08- A song I liked when I was younger
Day 09- A song that makes me want to dance
Day 10- A song that makes me cry
Day 11- A song that reminds me of summer
Day 12- A song that reminds me of my best friend
Day 13- A song I sing to in the shower
Day 14- A song I like hearing live
Day 15- A song people wouldn’t expect me to like
Day 16- A song that holds a lot of meaning to me
Day 17- A song that annoys me
I don't actually know that many songs that annoy me, now that I think about it. Which isn't that surprising--I don't listen to the radio, and if I don't like a song, well, I just don't put it on my iPod, which cuts the chances that I will ever listen to it again down considerably. But there is this one song...
"Hey Soul Sister" by Train
Click to viewMy first reaction to this song wasn't hostile or anything--it was on an episode of CSI New York that guest-starred the lead singer of Train. Afterwards, I looked the episode up, because it seemed like the song was something I'd heard years ago, and I wondered if it was an old episode. Nope. New song, it just sounded so incredibly generic that I thought I'd heard it sometime in the late 90s on one of my brother's "Now That's What I Call Music!" compilations.
My feelings towards it grew increasingly less favorable the more I heard it--in stores, on TV, in the cafeteria at Notre Dame, that sort of thing. I'm not used to hearing songs often enough in stores that I become familiar with them, but I sure as heck got familiar with this one. More's the pity. I mean, it's not the worst song in the world or anything--it's just not something I needed to hear more than, say, once or twice.
Here's a video that expresses what's annoying about this song more than I could:
Day 18- A song I have as my ringtone
Day 19- A song I'm currently obsessed with
Day 20- A song from a new album I'm waiting for
Day 21- A song I want to dance to at my wedding
Day 22- A song that would be the theme song to a TV show about my life
Day 23- A song that makes me angry
Day 24- A cover song
Day 25- An acoustic song I love
Day 26- A song by my favorite band
Day 27- A song I make fun of
Day 28- A song that reminds me of my significant other
Day 29- A song currently stuck in my head
Day 30- A song I haven’t listened to in awhile
So...that's all for now, folks!