Vacation
Or something like that. Not surprisingly, it's been mostly a staycation. Oh no, there's that word again? That's, what, 2008? So what!
Anyway, if you follow my social networking feeds, you know that I survived the manual! By the slimmest of margins, but still. This time, I got 42/50 on the manual itself, and I clearly understand why she marked off the points she did. Again it was small details that I could've corrected in 2 seconds.
Speaking of details though, I almost got nailed because my diagnostic case studies were "far too short". In the message she wrote me, she provided extensive examples that showed how it should've been done. Of course I got the concept then.
I guess more than anything, I'm afraid I'm the only one who needs this kind of intensive explanation to understand what I'm to do. Somehow I have to get myself to thinking better and faster on my feet, or I won't make it here or anywhere. I know I'm not unintelligent, I'm just out of it at times.
So anyway, that's that. Now I just have to come up with my research topic in order to get this paper started. That'll be the next thing on the agenda. I have ideas, but am not entirely sure how to put them into the correct format. Perhaps I should camp out in my advisor's office.
So, it is nearly time to wrap up 2010. Knowing my sporadic writing, this may well be the last entry I post during the year.
My overall impressions are that this was an extremely tough financial year, not just for me but for many of us. January and February found me so hungry at times that my body literally shut down. I had to crawl into bed and fall into sleep, waking groggigly and with a pounding headache to scrounge for something, anything! to suck down. My mentor and the old woman upstairs saved me then, no question about it.
In April, things finally got a little better because I went to sign up for food stamps. The leasing manager all but dragged me over there, and obviously I should've gone much earlier. Many in this complex aren't high on the folks in that office, but I can say nothing bad about them.
Throughout the summer and Fall, I should've been evicted at least four times. However they just kept waiting and waiting, allowing me to push things till the last possible minute. And amazingly, something would always happen at that last minute that would keep me kicking into another day.
Hopefully those extremely stressful days are now totally behind me, thanks to some funding that came through and the online job I got via a good friend. I guess we'll see how those things pan out in 2011, though. I guess adulthood will always present a set of new challenges, and I will learn and grow by finding more creative ways to overcome them.
I think my hearing has also gotten significantly worse this year. Thankfully I was put into contact with someone who will continue to help me find solutions to this longterm. I'm finally initiating the transfer of my case from the Charlotte office of Division of Services for the Blind to the Raleigh office. Even my advisor has recommended that I do this, because he spoke with folks in Raleigh who confirmed that Charlotte just tends to move much more slowly. So once this is done and I have a new counselor, I intend to see what can be done about acquiring a permanent set of new hearing aids. As I've mentioned before, these I have now were loaned to me by the audiologist at the UNC Hearing and Communication Center. Fortunately I can keep them until I attain my own.
Now onto happier subjects. What have I read this year. Surprisingly, I still managed to get in at least a fair amount of pleasure reading. Let's try and name every title:
Impact, by Douglas Preston
The Lost Symbol, by Dan Brown
The Help, by Kathryn Stockett
House Rules, by Jodi Picoult
Caught, by Harlan Coben
Change of Heart, by Jodi Picoult
Matterhorn, a novel of the Vietnam War, by Karl Marlantes
Cemetary, by Douglas Preston and Lincoln Child
Solar, by Ian McEwan
Fever Dreams, by Douglas Preston and Lincoln Child
Little Bee, by Chris Cleave
The Lion, by Nelson DeMille
Slumdog Millionaire, by Vikas Swarup
The Last Surgeon, by Michael Palmer
Over My Head: A Doctor's Own Story of Head Injury from the Inside Looking Out, by Claudia L. Osborn
Blasphemy, by Douglas Preston
The Fifth Vial, by Michael Palmer
The Passage, by Justin Cronin
The Art of Racing In The Rain, by Garth Stein
American Gods, by Neil Gaiman
Highest Duty: My Search for What Really Matters, by Chesley (Sully) Sullenberger
Cutting For Stone, by Abraham Verghese
Born on a Blue Day: Inside the Extraordinary Mind of an Autistic Savant; A Memoir, by Daniel Tammet
Blackout, by Annie Solomon
The Memory Keeper's Daughter, by Kim Edwards
Lost Moon: The Perilous Voyage of Apollo 13, by Jim Lovell & Jeffrey Kluger
The Devil's Punchbowl: a Novel, by Greg Iles
Pushing Ice, by Alastair Reynolds
Room, by Emma Donoghue
Wow! I've read 30 books? That surprises the heck outa me. And that's just what I recorded. I probably didn't write about them all. It may be no wonder I barely passed, I spent too much time lost in the pages. Ah well, it helped me to maintain my sanity.
And if I in fact do not return, I wish you a merry Christmas, and a highly successful new year! I'll contemplate which, if any, resolutions I'll make on New Year's Eve. I hardly ever follow through with them anyway, though. And now I'll end this and sink my teeth into something tasty. Buh-bye.
Anyway, if you follow my social networking feeds, you know that I survived the manual! By the slimmest of margins, but still. This time, I got 42/50 on the manual itself, and I clearly understand why she marked off the points she did. Again it was small details that I could've corrected in 2 seconds.
Speaking of details though, I almost got nailed because my diagnostic case studies were "far too short". In the message she wrote me, she provided extensive examples that showed how it should've been done. Of course I got the concept then.
I guess more than anything, I'm afraid I'm the only one who needs this kind of intensive explanation to understand what I'm to do. Somehow I have to get myself to thinking better and faster on my feet, or I won't make it here or anywhere. I know I'm not unintelligent, I'm just out of it at times.
So anyway, that's that. Now I just have to come up with my research topic in order to get this paper started. That'll be the next thing on the agenda. I have ideas, but am not entirely sure how to put them into the correct format. Perhaps I should camp out in my advisor's office.
So, it is nearly time to wrap up 2010. Knowing my sporadic writing, this may well be the last entry I post during the year.
My overall impressions are that this was an extremely tough financial year, not just for me but for many of us. January and February found me so hungry at times that my body literally shut down. I had to crawl into bed and fall into sleep, waking groggigly and with a pounding headache to scrounge for something, anything! to suck down. My mentor and the old woman upstairs saved me then, no question about it.
In April, things finally got a little better because I went to sign up for food stamps. The leasing manager all but dragged me over there, and obviously I should've gone much earlier. Many in this complex aren't high on the folks in that office, but I can say nothing bad about them.
Throughout the summer and Fall, I should've been evicted at least four times. However they just kept waiting and waiting, allowing me to push things till the last possible minute. And amazingly, something would always happen at that last minute that would keep me kicking into another day.
Hopefully those extremely stressful days are now totally behind me, thanks to some funding that came through and the online job I got via a good friend. I guess we'll see how those things pan out in 2011, though. I guess adulthood will always present a set of new challenges, and I will learn and grow by finding more creative ways to overcome them.
I think my hearing has also gotten significantly worse this year. Thankfully I was put into contact with someone who will continue to help me find solutions to this longterm. I'm finally initiating the transfer of my case from the Charlotte office of Division of Services for the Blind to the Raleigh office. Even my advisor has recommended that I do this, because he spoke with folks in Raleigh who confirmed that Charlotte just tends to move much more slowly. So once this is done and I have a new counselor, I intend to see what can be done about acquiring a permanent set of new hearing aids. As I've mentioned before, these I have now were loaned to me by the audiologist at the UNC Hearing and Communication Center. Fortunately I can keep them until I attain my own.
Now onto happier subjects. What have I read this year. Surprisingly, I still managed to get in at least a fair amount of pleasure reading. Let's try and name every title:
Impact, by Douglas Preston
The Lost Symbol, by Dan Brown
The Help, by Kathryn Stockett
House Rules, by Jodi Picoult
Caught, by Harlan Coben
Change of Heart, by Jodi Picoult
Matterhorn, a novel of the Vietnam War, by Karl Marlantes
Cemetary, by Douglas Preston and Lincoln Child
Solar, by Ian McEwan
Fever Dreams, by Douglas Preston and Lincoln Child
Little Bee, by Chris Cleave
The Lion, by Nelson DeMille
Slumdog Millionaire, by Vikas Swarup
The Last Surgeon, by Michael Palmer
Over My Head: A Doctor's Own Story of Head Injury from the Inside Looking Out, by Claudia L. Osborn
Blasphemy, by Douglas Preston
The Fifth Vial, by Michael Palmer
The Passage, by Justin Cronin
The Art of Racing In The Rain, by Garth Stein
American Gods, by Neil Gaiman
Highest Duty: My Search for What Really Matters, by Chesley (Sully) Sullenberger
Cutting For Stone, by Abraham Verghese
Born on a Blue Day: Inside the Extraordinary Mind of an Autistic Savant; A Memoir, by Daniel Tammet
Blackout, by Annie Solomon
The Memory Keeper's Daughter, by Kim Edwards
Lost Moon: The Perilous Voyage of Apollo 13, by Jim Lovell & Jeffrey Kluger
The Devil's Punchbowl: a Novel, by Greg Iles
Pushing Ice, by Alastair Reynolds
Room, by Emma Donoghue
Wow! I've read 30 books? That surprises the heck outa me. And that's just what I recorded. I probably didn't write about them all. It may be no wonder I barely passed, I spent too much time lost in the pages. Ah well, it helped me to maintain my sanity.
And if I in fact do not return, I wish you a merry Christmas, and a highly successful new year! I'll contemplate which, if any, resolutions I'll make on New Year's Eve. I hardly ever follow through with them anyway, though. And now I'll end this and sink my teeth into something tasty. Buh-bye.