GRE Prep, Hardwood Flooring Adventure, My Dad's Upcoming Surgery, Skype, and LJ Communities
Maybe I should just stick to a subject line like "An Update", rather than that very long and descriptive thing. *grin*
This is my first entry using an LJ client, rather than the site, so let's hope that this comes out as it should. I am using Semagic, and I got help from someone on Twitter to make it a bit more screen-reader friendly. That help was definitely great, and I can use it fine, but I am still exploring its features.
Anyway, let's tackle things in the order of that subject line.
I spent a few hours today looking at one of the GRE books I have, looking at the explanatory sections for different aspects of the test. Started getting a bit of a headache/drained and exhausted feeling after about 3 hours, and so far, when I've looked at practice tests and doing them, I've focused on one section per session. I must run through a few tests completely and in the time I have available to me to take the test in order to apparently build up my endurance as well as practice--with double time, I've got 6.5 hours with the test. Once school starts, this preparation will definitely be my big weekends project until I take it. I'm glad there are now so many accessible study materials available for it--I've got a Braille practice test from ETS (will be taking it that way with a scribe to record answers, and using computer with Notepad to type essays), I believe four practice tests in text format from the ETS that are transcriptions of the audiocassette format, and I have one book from RFB&D and another from Bookshare (though sadly, the Bookshare book, which is a publisher-quality book, is pretty terrible in terms of access to the math portions, and I hope the Bookshare people are actively working on that problem; even simple things, like fractions, just aren't even in the book at all, which obviously detracts from the usefulness of the book).
We finished putting in hardwood floring in one room over the weekend, yay! This means two are done, and even though there is so much still left, each room done is a step closer. We literally have stacked, in one room, all the parquet we will need for the entire house--yes, it is a pretty massive pile--so it's also nice to have that very tangible reminder that we are getting there when we see that pile shrinking (not to mention walking on the much nicer new floors as compared to the old). It's nice that we're at a logical stopping point now (not in the middle of a room or some such), seeing as I don't know quite how long it'll be before we can resume, with my dad's surgery and all.
My dad's having surgery Thursday to remove some type of growth from his leg. We're not quite sure what it is--he had tests done today, so hopefully, we'll know something soon--and while it thankfully hasn't been painful for him, he's had this for about a month now, so I'm glad that it will no longer be there soon. Hopefully, he'll be up and about soon after, but we'll just have to take it one day at a time and see how it goes.
Yesterday, I went on Skype for the first time in quite a long time (I don't even remember how long). Caught up with quite a few people, which was nice to do--one I hadn't spoken to in 20 months, a fact that I did not know until he told me. Hoping to make more frequent appearances there, at least at times such as this break when I am definitely able.
Finally, I've been having fun exploring LJ communities. So far, I have read quite a lot of two relating to Economics--one a general forum about the subject and one on Econometrics--and I love the fact that I both learned some new things and engaged my brain in thinking about the arguments some people were presenting on certain topics. Will definitely be exploring more of those!
'Tis about all for now. Thanks for reading!
This is my first entry using an LJ client, rather than the site, so let's hope that this comes out as it should. I am using Semagic, and I got help from someone on Twitter to make it a bit more screen-reader friendly. That help was definitely great, and I can use it fine, but I am still exploring its features.
Anyway, let's tackle things in the order of that subject line.
I spent a few hours today looking at one of the GRE books I have, looking at the explanatory sections for different aspects of the test. Started getting a bit of a headache/drained and exhausted feeling after about 3 hours, and so far, when I've looked at practice tests and doing them, I've focused on one section per session. I must run through a few tests completely and in the time I have available to me to take the test in order to apparently build up my endurance as well as practice--with double time, I've got 6.5 hours with the test. Once school starts, this preparation will definitely be my big weekends project until I take it. I'm glad there are now so many accessible study materials available for it--I've got a Braille practice test from ETS (will be taking it that way with a scribe to record answers, and using computer with Notepad to type essays), I believe four practice tests in text format from the ETS that are transcriptions of the audiocassette format, and I have one book from RFB&D and another from Bookshare (though sadly, the Bookshare book, which is a publisher-quality book, is pretty terrible in terms of access to the math portions, and I hope the Bookshare people are actively working on that problem; even simple things, like fractions, just aren't even in the book at all, which obviously detracts from the usefulness of the book).
We finished putting in hardwood floring in one room over the weekend, yay! This means two are done, and even though there is so much still left, each room done is a step closer. We literally have stacked, in one room, all the parquet we will need for the entire house--yes, it is a pretty massive pile--so it's also nice to have that very tangible reminder that we are getting there when we see that pile shrinking (not to mention walking on the much nicer new floors as compared to the old). It's nice that we're at a logical stopping point now (not in the middle of a room or some such), seeing as I don't know quite how long it'll be before we can resume, with my dad's surgery and all.
My dad's having surgery Thursday to remove some type of growth from his leg. We're not quite sure what it is--he had tests done today, so hopefully, we'll know something soon--and while it thankfully hasn't been painful for him, he's had this for about a month now, so I'm glad that it will no longer be there soon. Hopefully, he'll be up and about soon after, but we'll just have to take it one day at a time and see how it goes.
Yesterday, I went on Skype for the first time in quite a long time (I don't even remember how long). Caught up with quite a few people, which was nice to do--one I hadn't spoken to in 20 months, a fact that I did not know until he told me. Hoping to make more frequent appearances there, at least at times such as this break when I am definitely able.
Finally, I've been having fun exploring LJ communities. So far, I have read quite a lot of two relating to Economics--one a general forum about the subject and one on Econometrics--and I love the fact that I both learned some new things and engaged my brain in thinking about the arguments some people were presenting on certain topics. Will definitely be exploring more of those!
'Tis about all for now. Thanks for reading!