I  loved my first day of classes.

Turns out there's a good reason for the ridiculously nitpicky and kind of infantile rules in the syllabus for that one class: it's a grad/undergrad course, and the undergrad version fulfills the requirement for all science majors of a "Science & Society" course.  So, there are a lot of 21 year old engineers and pre ( Read more... )

I just got my grade in last semester's law class: kept my 4.0, and ran into the professor, who said I'd done a great paper, and we should talk about getting it published. Woohoo!  And, I found out why I hadn't gotten my grade earlier: the course was cross-listed in Law and in Biology: I was enrolled under the Law course number, but since I'm not a ( Read more... )

From today's New York Times:

The Interior Department’s Minerals Management Service has announced that early next month it will sell oil and gas leases on nearly 30 million acres of prime polar bear habitat in the Chukchi Sea. Meanwhile, the department’s Fish and Wildlife Service has postponed a long-awaited decision on whether to place this iconic ( Read more... )

I know I've really only complained about school here. But, in fact, I love the work I'm doing - at least when I get to do my own work.

I mean, what other job in the world would let you turn out stuff like this?

Identity in SL may include the perspective of “neo-Kantian constructivism:” (Sismondo 2004, 61) If my avatar looks like a vampire bunny ( ( Read more... )

My last minutes of vacation are running out as I write...

I discovered yesterday that the first three pages of my term paper are now ASCII gibberish.  This did not help my already subterranean motivation levels. Now that I've run every possible system utility, backed up everything to an external drive, and finished off a Scrabulous game, it's time ( Read more... )

I've come out of my hole to look around - and yes, only 7 more days of winter.  Then the next semester starts, and this groundhog will be running flat-out on its wheel, probably until I turn in my dissertation in 3, 4 years.

The break has been fantastic.  I was so burnt at the end of last semester, I had nothing left. I've been re-reading the Harry ( Read more... )

Happy holidays, everyone, and especially, happy birthday,
( Read more... )

I just brought my semester to a close - turned in my term paper, then submitted it as a writing sample to complete my application for transfer to the new program.

The past 5 months have been the longest year of my life, and just, WOOHOO!

I left the house for the first time in 10 days, got some comics, had a nice lunch, and I think I'm actually going ( Read more... )

It's not that I don't want to write this paper.  It's actually a really interesting topic, on international privacy law and policy.  It's just that I WANT TO DRIVE A STAKE THROUGH THIS SEMESTER!!

It's left me with such a bad taste in my mouth.  It's entirely the fault of the core course in my hopefully-soon-to-be-former program. One of the fun ( Read more... )

It's finals week, so I'm exploring social networking again.  :P

Last finals got me into Second Life, and this one has me getting set up on Facebook. If you're there, friend me - John Carter McKnight.  I'm impressed by the music applications:  Pandora and iTunes that I've found already.  I could use some new music, so bring on the suggestions!

In ( Read more... )