It has been a good weekend.
On Friday I got all my summer externship forms turned in so that I can get credit for my summer clerkship, and I also found a summer subletter for my room. stolen_tea talked to him on the phone and gave the thumbs-up. Dude's even taking my parking space, so I won't lose that. (I'm letting K use my car for the summer. In true law student fashion, we are planning to draw up a contract. A K for K!)
I also found out who the other interns will be at CDT this summer. One of them, Ethan, is a third-year CS Ph.D. student right here at UW! What's more, we've been in the same RFID seminar all quarter. So there'll be a familiar face in my office. He went to Cal for undergrad. So did the other law student who will be at CDT (currently a 1L at Tulane, which I visited while I was in NOLA). And the last of the four summer interns is currently an undergrad at Cal. I feel so left out. But hey, that means we will have stuff to talk about, some common frame of reference. What's more, Sophia, who will be my externship field supervisor, is awesome. I wrote to her on Thursday saying "hey, could you send a letter of confirmation to my career services office by June 8? I need it for my externship application," and by Friday at 2PM - 5PM her time - she'd written a letter, printed and signed it, scanned it, and e-mailed it to Career Services as a PDF. I just needed it before the end of the quarter and she gave me 24-hour turnaround. Mind, not only was it 5PM on a Friday, but she's on vacation next week. This bodes well.
Friday evening I went to Wade's for the first time since my birthday Tea & Firearms. Nicholas was going to come along, but he had a migraine so we just had dinner together beforehand and then he took off. Since we went to Jai Thai, I am calling Friday night Thai & Firearms. yfdp went to Wade's with me and we shot his Glocks, a .9mm and a .40. I was shooting a lot of bullseyes with the 9! I've never done that well before! I was quite pleased. The difference: proper stance, I think - even though I was using the stance for someone right-handed, not left-handed. Even after I noticed I was on the "wrong" foot, I figured hey, this is obviously working, why change it? ilcylic said dominant eye is what matters anyway, so I guess between good stance and good eye, I had a good night. I put my two targets with the bullseyes all destroyed up on the fridge.
Yesterday was a really good day. I spent a few hours with Chelsea at Fuel, studying quietly together. I told her about target practice and she asked me why I like going shooting (which I take more seriously than some people do). I told her it's about fear: not being afraid of guns, not being afraid to handle a gun, and not being afraid of the baddies out there (since we women are supposed to live in fear and all, like Gwen Stefani said). Also, it's so much fun to do target practice.
yfdp was commenting on people who practice long-range shots at human-outline targets (not, y'know, elk-shaped ones) and he said he couldn't think how you could ever claim self defense if you shot a guy 50 feet away from you. Talking to Chelsea, it occurred to me that you could be in a situation where you needed to take someone down from that distance who was menacing other people, e.g. someone shooting up a mall or a school. Of course, there are various considerations for whether you're privileged to use deadly force in defense of a third party, depending on jurisdiction - it's a little more complicated than privilege to use deadly force in self-defense. (Washington is a make-my-day state and a stand-your-ground state; I'm not sure about third parties.) Even so: it's a good skill to have, and hope you never ever have to use it.
A little before 1, Chelsea and I walked to campus so she could keep studying and I could play in the big croquet tournament that the Honors Croquet League puts on every year during the U-District Street Fair. I played against jonsonite during my match. jonsonite finished second, ending the match, just after I passed the halfway point. I left to wander around the fair with Chelsea for a while; we ran into schoolmates and tylik and ate too much kettle corn. My Whittie friend Isaac came to croquet too, and we played Battle Croquet for a bit while the semifinal matches of the real tournament were going on, but it got cold and Battle Croquet takes forever so I left at an opportune point and went to the gym. Hung out with neutrinoj for a bit in the evening, got caught up on the Property reading I had skipped this week, and watched the Cowboy Bebop movie, then read some more of Zen and the Art of Motorcycle Maintenance, which I just started rereading for the first time since I was in college (using the book sfllaw sent me ages ago) and am really, really enjoying and getting a lot out of, before going to sleep.
Saturday's two other exciting developments are, first, that I finally got Rip It Up and Start Again: Postpunk 1978-1984 (recommended by giant_moose) from the library. I've only read the table of contents, the introduction, and a couple pages of chapter 1 so far, and already I'm so excited about this book. I may have to buy my own copy. The other great news is that my freshman roommate from Whitman, Michelle, finally got engaged! She and Neil have been together since sometime during college, I don't even remember when, and at last he popped the question. They're getting married in Hawaii. I'm thrilled for her.
Today: school stuff. This is our last full week of class; we have two days of class next week, and the week after that is finals. Aiee!
I also found out who the other interns will be at CDT this summer. One of them, Ethan, is a third-year CS Ph.D. student right here at UW! What's more, we've been in the same RFID seminar all quarter. So there'll be a familiar face in my office. He went to Cal for undergrad. So did the other law student who will be at CDT (currently a 1L at Tulane, which I visited while I was in NOLA). And the last of the four summer interns is currently an undergrad at Cal. I feel so left out. But hey, that means we will have stuff to talk about, some common frame of reference. What's more, Sophia, who will be my externship field supervisor, is awesome. I wrote to her on Thursday saying "hey, could you send a letter of confirmation to my career services office by June 8? I need it for my externship application," and by Friday at 2PM - 5PM her time - she'd written a letter, printed and signed it, scanned it, and e-mailed it to Career Services as a PDF. I just needed it before the end of the quarter and she gave me 24-hour turnaround. Mind, not only was it 5PM on a Friday, but she's on vacation next week. This bodes well.
Friday evening I went to Wade's for the first time since my birthday Tea & Firearms. Nicholas was going to come along, but he had a migraine so we just had dinner together beforehand and then he took off. Since we went to Jai Thai, I am calling Friday night Thai & Firearms. yfdp went to Wade's with me and we shot his Glocks, a .9mm and a .40. I was shooting a lot of bullseyes with the 9! I've never done that well before! I was quite pleased. The difference: proper stance, I think - even though I was using the stance for someone right-handed, not left-handed. Even after I noticed I was on the "wrong" foot, I figured hey, this is obviously working, why change it? ilcylic said dominant eye is what matters anyway, so I guess between good stance and good eye, I had a good night. I put my two targets with the bullseyes all destroyed up on the fridge.
Yesterday was a really good day. I spent a few hours with Chelsea at Fuel, studying quietly together. I told her about target practice and she asked me why I like going shooting (which I take more seriously than some people do). I told her it's about fear: not being afraid of guns, not being afraid to handle a gun, and not being afraid of the baddies out there (since we women are supposed to live in fear and all, like Gwen Stefani said). Also, it's so much fun to do target practice.
yfdp was commenting on people who practice long-range shots at human-outline targets (not, y'know, elk-shaped ones) and he said he couldn't think how you could ever claim self defense if you shot a guy 50 feet away from you. Talking to Chelsea, it occurred to me that you could be in a situation where you needed to take someone down from that distance who was menacing other people, e.g. someone shooting up a mall or a school. Of course, there are various considerations for whether you're privileged to use deadly force in defense of a third party, depending on jurisdiction - it's a little more complicated than privilege to use deadly force in self-defense. (Washington is a make-my-day state and a stand-your-ground state; I'm not sure about third parties.) Even so: it's a good skill to have, and hope you never ever have to use it.
A little before 1, Chelsea and I walked to campus so she could keep studying and I could play in the big croquet tournament that the Honors Croquet League puts on every year during the U-District Street Fair. I played against jonsonite during my match. jonsonite finished second, ending the match, just after I passed the halfway point. I left to wander around the fair with Chelsea for a while; we ran into schoolmates and tylik and ate too much kettle corn. My Whittie friend Isaac came to croquet too, and we played Battle Croquet for a bit while the semifinal matches of the real tournament were going on, but it got cold and Battle Croquet takes forever so I left at an opportune point and went to the gym. Hung out with neutrinoj for a bit in the evening, got caught up on the Property reading I had skipped this week, and watched the Cowboy Bebop movie, then read some more of Zen and the Art of Motorcycle Maintenance, which I just started rereading for the first time since I was in college (using the book sfllaw sent me ages ago) and am really, really enjoying and getting a lot out of, before going to sleep.
Saturday's two other exciting developments are, first, that I finally got Rip It Up and Start Again: Postpunk 1978-1984 (recommended by giant_moose) from the library. I've only read the table of contents, the introduction, and a couple pages of chapter 1 so far, and already I'm so excited about this book. I may have to buy my own copy. The other great news is that my freshman roommate from Whitman, Michelle, finally got engaged! She and Neil have been together since sometime during college, I don't even remember when, and at last he popped the question. They're getting married in Hawaii. I'm thrilled for her.
Today: school stuff. This is our last full week of class; we have two days of class next week, and the week after that is finals. Aiee!