chase the horizon...

It's a beautiful day

Wed, 23 Aug 2006 14:32:53 GMT

It's a beautiful day here in Ann Arbor, and I'm in the best mood I've been in in a while. I don't really have any good, new information to update, so I'll just post these lyrics, 'cause they express my mood right now. Listen to the song whenever you get a chance.

"Let Me Love You"
-Tim McGraw

Sometimes I close my eyes
And imagine you're with me
Chasing passion into the night
All tangled in a dream.

Oh if you could see my heart
The way I feel inside
You would know just how far
I'm willing to go to get to you
There is nothing I won't do.

Show me what its like to lose control
Free the desire in your soul
Oh oh let me love you.

Let me take you to a place like no where else
Show you the things you never felt
Oh oh let me love you.

Oh I want to taste your kiss
Be the reason for your smile
Touch the magic on your skin
Be the one that drives you wild.

Oh if you could read my mind
You'd know you're everything I need
You'd see yourself through my eyes
You may understand what I'm going through
Just how much I want you.

Show me what its like to lose control
Free the desire in your soul
Oh oh let me love you.

Let me take you to a place like no where else
Show you the things you never felt
Oh oh let me love you.

Let me love you.
Let me love you!

Show you what its like to lose control
Free the desire in your soul
Oh oh let me love you.

Let me take you to a place like no where else
Show you the things you never felt
Oh oh let me love you.

Oh I love you.

Show you what its like to lose control
Free the desire in your soul
Oh oh let me love you.

Yeah baby.

Let me take you to a place like no where else
Show you the things you never felt
Oh oh let me love you.

Let me love you.
Let me love you.
Let me love you.
Let me love you.

Superman's super package

Mon, 03 Jul 2006 19:32:00 GMT

Okay, so I went and saw Superman Returns this past weekend. It was really well done, I enjoyed it immensely. I was talking to this man outside the theatre while we were waiting to get in, and he showed me a newspaper article from some paper I can't remember. It was absolutely hilarious, and I wanted to share because it made me laugh a LOT.

Apparently, the studio executives were not very happy with a specific element the new Superman film. Nope, you guessed wrong, they aren't worried about the production quality... they're worried about the size of Brandon Routh's bulge. Evidently, the new Man of Steel is so well endowed, the costume department had to fit the red underwear in the costume with a special piece for the movie. The execs were worried that his bulge was going to become a distraction. According to the article, "It was a major issue for the studio. Brandon is extremely well endowed and they don't want it up on the big screen."

The article then went on to discribe how, after the first screening, a large number parents in the audience complained about the bulge. They had to REDUCE THE SIZE OF THE BULGE WITH DIGITAL EFFECTS.

For those keeping track, this is just about the biggest compliment a man can recieve. "I'm sorry, but you're just too big for the big screen. We're going to have to make you smaller."

How good must life be for Brandon Routh right now? I can just see him in a club hitting on some woman: "Yeah baby... they had to hire another special effects company to REDUCE the size of Mr. Krypton if you know what I mean". Hilarious.

"We are afraid to live, but scared to die."

Wed, 21 Jun 2006 17:23:40 GMT

I don't know how many of you that read this knew a woman at Hope named Darcy Quick, but she was a friend of mine. We weren't close, but I knew her and respected her. Darcy is the Hope College graduate that was in the news recently who was lost on Mount Rainier this past weekend. Her body was just recently found, and it seems that she simply slipped and fell. This is pretty gut wrenching, and I just wanted to post the Chicago Tribune article that describes the events, for anyone who hadn't heard and still knew her.

Mount Rainier searchers find woman’s body

By Crystal Yednak
Tribune staff reporter
Published June 19, 2006, 6:37 PM CDT

LONGMIRE, Wash. -- A team searching in Mt. Rainier National Park found a body Monday afternoon matching the description of a missing 22-year-old woman whose family lives in Winfield, National Park Service officials said.

The body was found near the base of a waterfall, in an area surrounded by steep, rocky cliffs and rugged terrain, said Lee Taylor, a National Park Service spokeswoman. The woman appeared to have fallen, she said.

Darcy Quick, a recent college graduate who had a temporary job at the park in Washington state, left work Friday evening and set off on a hike in the southwestern part of the park. When she didn't return, a roommate reported her missing Saturday, triggering a search.

On Monday, dog teams, a helicopter and ground crews continued to cover the area, looking for signs of Quick. About 11:20 a.m. PDT, a searcher in a helicopter spotted a body near the base of Comet Falls, one of the highest waterfalls in the park at 320 feet, Taylor said.

About 40 minutes later, a ground team was able to confirm the body matched a description of Quick.

While relatives said Quick wasn't a "hard-core" hiker, she did a lot of camping, hiking and rock climbing growing up.

Quick grew up in the Pacific Northwest and took advantage of being close to mountains and the ocean, said her sister, Amanda Andrus.

Her parents, who moved to west suburban Winfield a few years ago, flew Sunday to Washington after learning she was missing. Her father, uncle and cousins joined in the search Monday.

Quick graduated in May from Hope College in Holland, Mich., with a degree in social work. College president James Bultman said Quick was involved in many service activities that distinguished her as a student.

"Darcy was highly respected, even admired, for her positive influence on others," he said in a statement issued Monday afternoon. "She was educated and prepared to make a difference in the lives of others with her degree in social work."

Andrus said her sister also was involved with several Christian groups on campus.

After graduation, Quick took a temporary job at Mt. Rainier National Park. She worked with a Christian ministry in the park and also was employed by Guest Services Inc. as a receptionist in the lodge lobby, Andrus said. Quick arrived at the park about three weeks ago and planned to work until mid-October.

The Comet Falls trail is hiked by thousands each summer and is not generally considered dangerous, though lingering snow and ice in the early summer can pose some risks, Taylor said. For safety reasons, the National Park Service recommends hikers not travel the trails alone.

After picking up information on the trails earlier in the week, Quick mentioned to others Friday she was going hiking after her shift ended. Officials believe she took a daypack with her.

Quick had hiked trails in the area alone before, though her family discouraged her from it, Andrus said.

As crews searched the area Monday, the days of waiting for word on Quick took their toll on family and friends.

"One minute you feel excited and hopeful that everything will be fine and she'll come out of it. And the next minute, you think what if something bad happened, and you really don't want to think about it," said Andrus, who could not fly to the park because she is nine months' pregnant.

At the family's home in Winfield, neighbors who wanted to help but didn't know how mowed the Quicks' lawn. At College Church in Wheaton, where Quick's parents sing in the choir, friends had the same feeling of wanting to help the family during an exceptionally difficult time.

"There's an active circle of people praying for them," said music pastor Chuck King.

cyednak@tribune.com

"There are no certainties in life, no promises that we all get to live out our lives full of years." Truer words were never spoken.

V for Vendetta

Wed, 14 Jun 2006 03:51:43 GMT

I just saw the most incredible movie I have seen in years: V for Vendetta. It's one of those movies that is so good, I can't sleep, and I can't stop thinking about it. If you haven't seen this movie, go see it immediately. I'd write a bunch of stuff about what makes this so amazing, but I just have to take the time to work it out in my head. Amazing. Simply amazing.

Fri, 26 May 2006 19:39:36 GMT

This is hilarious, thanks for the idea, Chrysti. Go to Google, and type in "[Your name] is" and write down the best responses you get. Make sure you use the quation marks. Learn all sorts of things about yourself! I tried just doing Chris, but I got about 80,000 responses of "Chris is gone!" referring to American Idol, so I decided to go this route.

Christopher is a pseudonym for Samuel Youd
Christopher is looking a bit grey
Christopher is a member of the Church of Scientology (not for all the tea in China)
Christopher is dating actress Laura Prepon of That 70's Show
Christopher is a saint venerated by Eastern Catholics
Christopher is sometimes represented with the head of a dog
Christopher is right
Christopher is not right
Christopher is traveling for the rest of the week
Christopher is chairman of the National Security Subcommittee of the Government
Christopher is a man whose talent is marked by intellectual power
Christopher is a very rare and special person
Christopher is of mixed heritage (Asian-American)
Christopher is a newly refurbished boutique hotel
Christopher is also a world class fly fishing and casting champion
Christopher is the literary equivalent of sparkling banter
Christopher is impetuous and trigger-happy
Christopher is the Tony Robbins of Internet Marketing

Interesting, huh? Learned all sorts of new things about myself... Like apparently I'm a nutbar that belongs to ridiculous church.

I heart Anna Quindlen

Fri, 26 May 2006 16:36:41 GMT

Anna Quindlen commonly writes "The Last Word" op-ed piece for Newsweek, and while I don't always agree with her, she is so insightful that I have to respect and appreciate what she has to say. This was such a good piece, I had to post it. Hopefully I'm not breaking any copyright laws, 'cause I got it for free on the internet.

A Cublicle is Not a Home
by Anna Quindlen
May 29, 2006

Creeping codgerism is an inevitable effect of getting older, a variation of memory loss. When I complain that my daughter's skirt looks more like a belt, or that my sons keep vampire hours, those are the churlish carpings of a woman years removed from the days when her own dresses were sky-high and her idea of a good time was sleeping until noon. "Turn down that music," I have been known to yell, and my only saving grace is that I hear the words through a filmy curtain of generational déjà vu.

Perhaps that is the kindest way to explain why Hillary Rodham Clinton veered off the grid of common sense to complain in a speech recently that young people today "don't know what work is." As she talked of an unfortunate sense of youthful entitlement and the good old days when there was only a single TV in her own home, it seemed as though any minute she would soar to the rhetorical heights of codger deluxe and describe walking five miles through the snow to school.

The senator was indulging in a time-honored tradition, the older generation's complaining that the younger one is not like them, and therefore somehow not as good. Maybe there is anecdotal evidence of absurd indulgence on television: teenage girls' being gifted with BMWs at lavish birthday parties or peevish brides obsessing over ice sculptures. But for every one of those you can find plenty of young people waiting tables to put themselves through college or waking before dawn to get to the construction site or the firehouse.

If it's anecdote that tells the story, consider this: In 1974, I graduated from college. I'd paid my own way the last two years with jobs as a resident assistant and a newspaper summer intern. I rented a small, cheap one-bedroom apartment in lower Manhattan and started work as a reporter. I still have the Royal typewriter I used to write my stories.

Only a fool would think that experience had any resonance for the class of 2006. To earn the money to pay for a year at a fine liberal-arts college today, a student would have to have a summer job robbing banks. There are no cheap one-bedroom apartments in lower Manhattan. In fact, the monthly rent today on my former apartment is probably about the same as my total annual tuition was in 1974. And the use of computers means that when these students begin working, they are essentially at the office every hour of every day.

What lesson have they learned from watching their parents leave for the office early, come home late, check e-mail at midnight? If they've seen their elders laid off from a company to which they'd given the best years of their lives, young people may have concluded that loyalty to the corporation is a historical artifact. If they've watched marriages buckle and work tasks displace family time, they may vow to find jobs that accommodate their own kids. If they've been listening to the drumbeat of burnout, downsizing and stress, the tom-tom of modern existence, maybe they've decided that they intend to try to have a life life as well as a work life. I, for one, can't argue. My father traveled constantly on business. Is it coincidence that I've somehow finagled a job that allows me to work at home?

An executive at a group that looks at law firms said recently that the rate of attrition among young lawyers at big firms is now greater than ever before. Some newly minted attorneys wanted more of a sense of serving the public weal than a corporate practice provides. This makes sense because the younger generation in this country has done more volunteer work than any other in history. When you're watching girls gone wild in Cancún, don't forget kids gone philanthropic in New Orleans, where some students spent spring break helping out post-Katrina.

But many associates just don't value the life of a big-firm drone, which in countless articles and books has been portrayed as a cross between being an indentured servant and a prisoner of war. Sure, the money's great. But maybe this younger generation is populated by those who are willing (or able) to trade slightly less money for slightly more contentment. I'm part of the generation that said it wanted to change the world, and it did. We let the 40-hour workweek morph into the 60-hour workweek and even the 80-hour workweek.

Senator Clinton was jolted out of the codger cul-de-sac by a well-placed, highly educated source: her daughter, Chelsea, who is 26, and who reprimanded her mother with this news flash: "I work hard. My friends work hard." The mystery is why Hillary didn't run her ham-handed remarks past Chelsea before she pandered to a Chamber of Commerce audience with stale old stereotypes, and why more of us don't listen to what our kids say about what they've learned from our mistakes. If the experience of their exhausted, insomniac, dispirited elders makes them decide they'd prefer not to go straight from the classroom to the cubicle to the coffin, it doesn't mean they're lazy. It means they're sane.

© 2006 Newsweek, Inc.

In other news, there was a massive rainstorm last night in AA, and I got home right before it started. I made my dinner, stuck it in the oven, and then went for a run. That's right, I ran through a rainstorm, and it was freaking awesome. There just something about being in the middle of that kind of energy and force that is just awe-inspiring to me. My song of late has been Natasha Bedingfield's "Unwritten" which was running through my head the whole time. I've included the chorus below, maybe you'll understand why.

Feel the rain on your skin
No one else can feel it for you
Only you can let it in
No one else, no one else
Can speak the words on your lips
Drench yourself in words unspoken
Live your life with arms wide open
Today is where your book begins
The rest is still unwritten

In other news, my refridgerator finally got fixed. It only took months and my mother coming over to AA to sit in my condo all morning waiting for the repairman to come. Turns out that the reason it was so loud was that some plastic piece was bent, and vibrating against metal in the back of the fridge. The whole thing took approximately 5 minutes. I'm happy and bitter all at the same time. At least it's fixed, that's what I tell myself. Anyway, it's a relaxing Friday at work, and with any luck, I'll head home a little early and pack up to go to Holland in the morning. Relaxing Friday, that's all anyone can ask for. :)

What's a Billion?

Mon, 22 May 2006 17:12:11 GMT

Here's something thought provoking -

The next time you hear a politician use the word "billion" in a casual manner, think about whether you want the "politicians" spending your tax money.

A billion is a difficult number to comprehend, but one advertising agency did a good job of putting that figure into some perspective in one of its releases.

a. A billion seconds ago it was 1959.

b. A billion minutes ago Jesus was alive.

c. A billion hours ago our ancestors were living in the Stone Age.

d. A billion days ago no one walked on the earth on two feet.

e. A billion dollars ago was only 8 hours and 20 minutes, at the rate our government is spending it.

While this thought is still fresh in our brain, let's take a look at New Orleans - It's amazing what you can learn with some simple division. Louisiana Democrat Senator, Mary Landrieu, asked Congress for $250 BILLION to rebuild New Orleans.

Interesting number, what does it mean?

Well, if you are one of 484,674 residents of New Orleans (every man, woman, child), you each get $516,528.00.

Or, if you have one of the 188,251 homes in New Orleans, your home gets $1,329,787.00
Or, if you are a family of four, your family gets $2,066,012.00.

Obviously, a lot of this money goes into things like clearing streets and building an infrastructure again, but I still thought these numbers were interesting.

Apparently, I would rather do this than do work today.

What the...???

Mon, 22 May 2006 14:04:47 GMT

I just saw a trailer for a movie this morning on the Today show. It's about a MAGICAL MAILBOX THAT SENDS LETTERS BACK AND FORTH IN TIME, CAUSING SANDRA AND KEANU TO FALL IN LOVE. I think that deserved all-caps, don’t you? What the crap...

Sigh...

Mon, 15 May 2006 14:23:17 GMT

What is it about a really good movie that can force you to stop and re-examine yourself and your life? How is it that a film made before we even knew ourselves can speak so clearly to parts of our souls that we never knew existed? Maybe I’m alone on this one, but there are just some movies that make me stop in my tracks and acknowledge some belief or hope or desire that I never knew I had. I think this is the real reason certain movies become classics. There are a ton of movies out there that I love and enjoy but that I get nothing out of except 2 hours of entertainment. (Josie and the Pussycats being a great example. Hilarious movie, not so much on the take-home message.) But there are some that I see and days later I’m still thinking about it. They turn into these thorns in my brain (painful sounding, but reasonable analogy) that I just can’t seem to get rid of.

Books do it to me as well. I can always tell a good book by how sad I am that it is over. When I get to the end of these books, my mind starts racing with questions that were unanswered in the pages. The characters in these stories become a part of me, and I start projecting myself into the story, taking things personally, feeling the emotions with the players. As one of my friends here would say, I begin to live vicariously through the characters. Maybe it’s just a storyline that deeply relate to, seeing myself in a lot of the different characters. Maybe I’m just nuts. It’s possible.

The West Wing ended last night. I’m in a fragile emotional state at the moment. Sue me.

I should really be working right now, but I’m incredibly distracted and not feeling very good. Physically, not emotionally. I feel a little ill, but I’m going to try to fight through it. A friend of mine defends her thesis today, and I’d like to see her do it this afternoon.

My week off

Fri, 28 Apr 2006 17:49:46 GMT

I have finished my first year of graduate school. Wow. First off, I can't believe that it's the last week of April and classes are over. Most other places have another 3 weeks or so before they finish up, but here at UM, we don't believe in taking that long. The last day of classes was mid-April, and so we've finished exams. It's a big relief, I have to say. It's nice to be a little relaxed now.

All of us first years have until May 1st to relax before we have to begin reporting for summer research session, so most of us are hanging out recovering from this crazy semester. And this has been a crazy semester. Holy cow. The ridiculousness of this past semester makes up for the cake walk I had this past fall. But enough of that. Actually, what's irritating me at the moment is that we STILL don't have our lab assignments. We were supposed to get these things a week ago, but we can't start until we are officially accepted. Which is why we all are waiting until May 1st to begin. Grrrr. I hate departmental politics.

At the moment, I am sitting in my parents house, taking care of the cat while they are going to some conference in Kansas City that I don't really care to know that much about. I'm here using their electricity and eating their food. It's a good life. Okay, I'm going to get back to what I was doing.

And... I'm 23

Mon, 27 Mar 2006 03:50:38 GMT

This past Thursday was my golden birthday. I turned 23 on March 23rd. Thanks to everyone who sent cards and emails and called. I appreciated it a lot. :)

I'm glad my birthday was this past week, because the week was less than a highlight. I got back two tests, both of which I unceremoniously BOMBED, and I sprained my right hand. That's right, I sprained my freaking hand. I have discovered that having your thumb braced into a specific position on the hand you write with has got to be in the top ten most inconvenient things in the world. All of this happened before Wednesday. So, Thursday, I taught and then went to class, and headed home. I was going to go see a movie, but in the end I called up a friend and we went to a bar in Detroit. It was actually fun, but let's just say it was a late night. The one highlight of my week.

After that, I spent Friday night and Saturday afternoon with my parents, which was nice, considering that I haven't seen them since Christmas. Life gets busy, I guess. It's interesting, but the more I visit them there, the more it becomes clear to me that I don't live there anymore. I know that sounds stupid, but when I go back there, I don't have any stuff there, and I stay in the guest room. I guess this is the fact of growing up. My home is in Ann Arbor, and my parents live in the house I grew up in. When I go there, it's a visit, not a homecoming. Small difference, but it's still a new thing to wrap my mind around, you know? It's still nice to see them, don't get me wrong. Okay, I'm rambling. Moving on...

Saturday night was a prospective student visit weekend for UM. I helped some other grad students pick up the prospectives at the hotel and walked them over to the restaurant. We had dinner and then went to a bar for the evening. I actually went with a smaller group to get ice cream and coffee and to sit and talk. There was a guy there who wanted to talk to me about my lab, so I said I got with them to talk. It ended up being a really good time, we just talked about a ton of different things. More than wanting to know about Michigan, they really wanted to know how we made our decisions. I think it was pretty refreshing for them to hear someone talk about making the best possible decision for them, not just "Come to Michigan! Come to Michigan!!!" At least, that's what they told us.

Today was low key. Worked on some homework, graded some papers. Now I'm watching Grey's Anatomy, and then going to bed. Wish I had something more interesting to report, but that's really it. Cheers!

No matter where I go...

Fri, 03 Feb 2006 04:24:05 GMT

... extracurriculars seem to follow me.

Funny story: Wednesday night was our first ever meeting of the condominium association that my condo place has. Our real business of the evening was to formally hand over control of the condo complex from the developer to the board of directors. To do that, we had to appoint a board. The developer guys was droning on and on and ON and it was about totally unrelated crap that I didn't care about. So I went to the bathroom to splash come cold water on my face and stay awake. By the time I got back (less than 3 minutes later) the nominations from the floor were just finishing up. So I voted for the 4 people who were interested who were present. When the votes were all counted and they announced the board, I was one of the names announced. I was totally thrown and confused. It turns out that none of the people who were on the ballot showed up to the meeting and I got nominated from the floor while I was in the bathroom. No one else was willing to do it, so I said I would. It just better not be very much of a committment or I'm resigning. It's flattering to be wanted, but I barely have time to update my LJ. One of the biggest lessons I've learned in the last year is to say no (be proud of me DeBo) and I hope I won't have to exercise that.

And now, I'm going to go try to catch up on Monday night's sleep. Don't even ask me about the sleep I missed last night...

And... wasting time

Thu, 26 Jan 2006 19:29:03 GMT

I'm bored, so I'm posting this.

Your Gemstone is Amber

Creative, happy, and logical.
You shine in any intellectual endeavor

What Gemstone Are You?

the new year begins...

Fri, 06 Jan 2006 18:17:24 GMT

Well all, I hope you had an enjoyable break. Mine was nice. It was good to get away from the irritation and stress of grad school for a little while. Although my last few days seem to have made up for all that relaxation that occured. Since I have a spare hour, sitting here waiting for my class to start at 2, I'll tell you about it.

First off, I'm sick. I'll grant, I'm light-years better than my parents are, but still, it's annoying. My parents have come down with this Martian Death Flu, and I'm just clearing my throat a lot, but I can deal with that. At least I'm not kept awake at night from coughing fits. I went to the doctor, just to try and nip this in the bud early on, maybe reduce the severeness that I thought was coming, and he told me to gargle with some foul tasting thing he perscribed and to take Advil. For this he went to medical school. Sigh.

In other news, Wednesday night I recieved an email from the chair of the chem department informing us first-years that one of my classes had been cancelled. No warning or explanation (other than scheduling conflicts) or anything. Just cancelled. I was pretty irate, because this means I have to take a different analytical chem class that I really wasn't to keen on. We had our first lecture today, and while the prof seems like a nice guy that I would get along with, I'm still bitter that this other class got cancelled. Supposedly it'll be offered in the fall, but I'm not sure I'll be willing to risk it then. What if it gets cancelled again? No, I'm just taking a different chem class and then all my chem classes are out of the way this fall. All I'll have to take are 2 cognate courses, which shouldn't be too bad (I hope). You know, I kinda hoped that once I got into grad school, classes would just fall my way and everything would be easier. I never expected to have to compete for a spot in a course. It's just stupid, but like always, I'll suck it up and deal with it.\

Hmmm, let's see... Yep, that's really all the interesting stuff I have going on in my life. Wish I had more to say, but that's really it. I hope all is well wherever you are. Cheers!

Grad School semester 1 = finished!!!

Thu, 22 Dec 2005 21:00:56 GMT

As of this morning at 11:29 AM Eastern Standard Time I am completely done with my first semester of graduate school.

Thank God.

It's been a rough few weeks, I have to say. Especially this last couple days. My exam today was over material for a class that basically ended 3 weeks ago, so the materials is stuff I haven't thought about in weeks. It took a lot more studying that I expected to remember what the crap the lectures were about. I've also come to realize that my note-taking ability is not quite up to where it really should be. I seem to have reverted to writing in this shorthanded code that I developed in high school, and it's been so long since I used it I don't really remember it, which is a problem when you're writing equations. It took me a whole day just to understand the notes I'd written in the margin. The test was also a lot harder than I expected. But I'm done thinking about it. It's done and over and I'm happy.

I spent the afternoon having lunch with my analytical chem friends at this great Chinese place, and then shopping for Christmas presents with friends. It was fun. Kate and Anna are awesome people, and I like spending time with them. It's amazing how close my circle of friends has gotten in a few months. I am so glad I came to Michigan. I can't imagine being anywhere else.

Okay, I have to go take a nap. Laura and I were going to work out for a while, but she hasn't called me back , so poop on her. I only got 4 hours of sleep last night, so I'm going to go to sleep. Merry Christmas everybody!!!

Year in Review

Mon, 12 Dec 2005 18:37:25 GMT

Great idea Justin! I needed yet another way to avoid doing the work I should be doing right now. Right on!!!

Go to your Calendar and find the first entry for each month of 2005. Post the first line of it in your journal, and that's your "Year In Review".

Here's mine:

January: Well, I'd like to tell everyone who isn't aware that funerals totally suck.

February: Okay, I know it's been a while, but this was just too good not to share with the world.

March: Welp y'all, it's official: I'm now 22 years old. And I'm not gonna lie, I feel freaking old.

April: **This month must not have occured as I did not post during this month at all.**

May: My life has fundamentally and irrevocably changed: I have graduated college.

June: Lazy summer days.

July: **This month must not have occured as I did not post during this month at all.**

August: I'm spending my last few days at home, and soon will be heading off to Ann Arbor permanently.

September: Today was the first day of classes for us wolverines here at the University of Michigan.

October: I'm finally getting paid back for all the freetime, all of the easy ride that I've been enjoying for the last month and a half at grad school.

November: Well, this has been an interesting few weeks.

December: It's funny, I actually did give a homeless guy change last Monday.

I remember not posting at all for these long stretches of time, but I didn't realized I'd gone a whole month. Twice. I guess I'm a slacker or something. (As evidenced by the fact that I'm sitting here doing this rather than actually doing my work.)

Tomorrow is the last day of classes for the campus, but I only teach tomorrow, so today was really my last day. It was pretty stupidly easy, so that's good, but I've got a lot to do tonight. I've got to finish a homework assignment today as well as grade my lab reports for my students. It doesn't sound like much, but it's a lot. I'm looking forward to being done teaching for a while. I'm beginning to understand now why all my friends in education say that the first year is the hardest. I feel like I'll be a much more effective teacher next year now that I know how everything works. Anyway, Christmas break is looking mighty fine right about now.

Oh, I went and saw the new Chronicles of Narnia movie. HOLY CRAP. I was completely and utterly blown away. Seriously, I think I've found my new favorite movie. I can't even remember the last time I was so moved. AMAZING.

Okay, back to work.

This was too funny to pass up

Tue, 06 Dec 2005 04:12:11 GMT

Dear Santa...

Dear Santa,

This year I've been busy!

In October I donated bone marrow to knottyamc in a life-saving procedure (300 points). Last Friday I committed genocide... Sorry about that, hopecronkite (-5000 points). Last Monday I gave change to a homeless guy (19 points). Last Saturday I gave twizzlers888 a kidney (1000 points). In June I pulled dimundangel's hair (-5 points).

Overall, I've been naughty (-3686 points). For Christmas I deserve a lump of coal!

Sincerely,
avery2383

It's funny, I actually did give a homeless guy change last Monday. Ann Marie, you better appreciate the bone marrow. ;)

So. Random.

Tue, 29 Nov 2005 15:09:18 GMT

Okay, so I'm standing at the bus stop in front of my apartment this morning waiting for the bus. I'm taking a later bus because I happen to not have to teach today, and I happen to be out there a minute or two earlier than I normally am. Of course, this unusual confluence of events conspires to pull a fast one on me. This red sedan pulls up with their window down (I'm thinking they're gonna ask for directions) and I hear "Chris?" Of all the people that it could be, it turns out to Paul Hayes, a classmate of mine at Hope. Not someone I was every really close to, but an acquaintance nonetheless. We never really agreed on much, but we were always respectful to one another. He offered to drive me in to campus, and I agreed. It was all of a 7 minute car ride, and we ran out of things to talk about. I told him about grad school, he told me about the exam he was in town to take, and then there was this silence. Yeah, that was about it. It was pretty strange. Such a totally random way to start off my day.

Switching topics now, I have decided that students cannot listen at 8:10am. I told my morning class at least 6 times that we did not have class today because of the Thanksgiving holiday, and I still recieved about 10 emails asking if we had class. By the last one, I have to admit, I was a little snotty. Don't get me wrong, I totally understand about forgetting things over break, I'm just a little confused how someone could ever forget that class has been cancelled. I always planned stuff into those times, like sleep or homework. Well, not as a freshman, but still... Okay, anyway, moving on.

It's pretty nice that I don't teach today, because I have a lot to accomplish between now and this weekend. I'm heading over to Holland this Saturday to see my sister get ordained, and I've got a lot to get done before then. My students are turning in a long lab report today at noon, and I have free time from 1-4pm today to get as many of them graded as possible, because I also have a homework assignment and a second presentation to build this week (I already finished building my first one, a fact that my classmates hate me for). I've also got virtually all of Thursday free, so that'll be nice. Hopefully I can accomplish a lot and get everything taken care of before Friday, so I can just enjoy the weekend and be there for Amy.

Okay, I'll get back to work now. Enough wasting time on LJ!

HILARIOUS

Mon, 21 Nov 2005 21:25:01 GMT

Okay, this is hysterical. I bet Bush wishes he could get away with doing this... http://www.cnn.com/2005/WORLD/asiapcf/11/21/thai.pm.ap/index.html

And... I'm tired

Mon, 21 Nov 2005 21:18:05 GMT

So I'm sitting here in a computer lab updating this instead of studying for the test I have in less than an hour because I am just sick to death of studying this crap. I was supposed to have this test something like 3 weeks ago, and it's been postponed and postponed and postponed to the point where I can't remember this junk anymore. So preparing for it has become irriating and exhausting, and I'm looking forward to having it be done. Honestly, I'm saturated, so I think I might be doing myself a favor and taking a break before going in there and bombing this test. Woot. I can rationalize anything.

This next month is going to be more challenging than I would like. I've got two assignments I have to get done by Wednesday afternoon because it's due the Monday after Thanksgiving break and I need a special program that's only on the computers here to do it. Then I have 2 presentations to begin building over the break that I give the first week of December. I'm losing the weekend right before to work on it because I'll be in Holland seeing my sister get ordained, so I have finish those during the week. After that, I have two finals: one test and one group presentation. Plus, throw in there two or three more homework assignments. What'll be much more annoying is grading the final exam for my kids. Funny, when write it out like that it doesn't seem so bad. But trust me, that's a lot. I still have trouble whining about it too much, but I'm quickly working through that self-inflicted guilt.

I can't believe that I'm roughly one month away from finishing my first semester of graduate school. It seems like I just graduated Hope a little bit ago. But it was actually more than six months ago! Wow, life is passing quickly. I guess that's a good thing; it means that I'm having fun here and will finish pretty quickly. I just feel like right with I'm getting to the part of my life that I really like, it's speeding up and out of my control. Middle school sucked and dragged by, but ever since I got into high school, my life has been accelerating. High school seems like a lifetime ago, and college seems like it only took a few days. Now, I blink and it's a month later.

I only get philosophical when I'm tired, so I apologize for bad grammar and strange sentence structure.

Okay, I'm going to go read the headlines on CNN.com, and then get back to studying. With any luck, I'll rock this test and be set. Cheers!

Snowing

Thu, 17 Nov 2005 16:27:07 GMT

I'm in the middle of the busiest week of my life here at grad school (Justin, Andy: no, I'm not expecting any sympathy), and today is the first day of snow. It makes me a little bitter. Don't get me wrong, I like snow- while it's coming down. Once it's down, it's a nuisance.

Okay, enough complaining. Back to work.

Long week, little sleep

Thu, 10 Nov 2005 18:30:35 GMT

So for some strange reason that I don't really understand, I haven't been able to sleep well for the last week. I've been getting 2 or 3 hours of sleep a night, and it's not for lack of trying. I've been giving myself enough time each night to get at minimum 6 hours of sleep, and I just can't fall asleep. So last night, I bit the bullet, and at the advice of a friend, I went and got a sleeping pill. I took it at 10:30pm, and it finally kicked in around 2am. I meant to get up today at 8am to come in and see my students at their prelab lecture. But I woke up to my alarm at 10am. Apparently, it had been going off for like 2 hours and I hadn't noticed. I'm still tired, so I'm going to see how well I survive the next few hours in lab, and if I can't think straight I'm just going to go home. When I'm like this, it's not such a good idea to be in lab anyway.

So I was watching the news this morning and a commercial came on that just shocked the heck out of me. These people were in an office at work, and they brought a cake to this one guy with two candles shaped into the number 3. They were saying things like "Happy 33rd Birthday, Jack!" and stuff like that as they put the cake down on his desk in front of him. He was smiling all happy and stuff and blew out the candles. Right then, he got this upset, pained look on his face and fell face-first into the cake. All the people there looked startled, looked around at each other, then walked back to their desks, leaving Jack in the cake. Then the shot changed back to Jack lying in the cake and text came up on the screen that said "AIDS has changed Zambia's average life expectancy to 33 years." Some announcer started talking and then a website came up, and that was the end of it. I was so startled by this whole commercial. Talk about different and effective. It made me laugh.

Let's see, what else... Oh! My sister is getting ordained in Holland on December 4th! It's going to be at Fellowship Reformed, out on 168th by Tunnel Park, so anyone who wants to come is more than welcome. I think it's pretty cool. I'm excited for her.

Hmmm... okay, that's really all I have going on right now. I'm going to go collect some lab reports and try to stay awake for the majority of the day. Cheers!

Fri, 04 Nov 2005 19:09:15 GMT

Well, this has been an interesting few weeks. Last week, I finished my research project for the semester, and now I'm using that information on a new research project, where I'm basically acting as another grad student's lab monkey. It's not too bad actually, and I feel like I'm actually contributing. We might even be able to write up this work for a paper, so I'd get something good out of this. I'm in the middle of making some self-assembled monolayers right now, so I thought I'd post while sitting around waiting for them to self-assemble. (90% of the work on this project is cleaning the glassware.)

On another good note, I had my morning class cancelled this morning. This is the 3rd time my prof has cancelled class in the last 2 weeks. No one really knows what's going on, but hopefully nothing too bad. He also pushed back the test, since we haven't covered everything that is supposed to be on it, so happy times! Today was actually supposed to be the last time he lectured; a new prof comes in on Monday, so I'm not really sure what's going to happen. All I know is, I don't have a test when I thought I did, and that's fine with me. I do have another test next week, but I have plenty of time to finish studying for that. (I've found that I do better when I start studying several weeks beforehand. I have enough time to do that here, as opposed to Hope, where I started studying 3 days early, because that was all the time I had.)

My students take their first test next Tuesday. That's going to be one long freaking day. I teach from 8-11am, have a staff meeting from 11-noon, then teach again from 2-5pm. After that, I usually have a staff meeting from 5-6pm (which I'll likely be skipping) and then I'll have to proctor the exam from 6:00-7:45. I'm actually in charge in the room I'm in, and that room will contain approximately 450 students. Score. After that, starting at 8:00, all the GSIs sit in a room together and grade these exams. We've been told it will take until midnight or 1:00am. I then have class at 10am the next day. Sigh. What I haven't included is that the lab my students will be working on that day will likely go over by half an hour or more, because the professor who wrote all these labs screwed up and didn't write it short enough to finish in 5 hours (it's a 2 week lab). So I'll probably be in lab teaching until 5:30pm, which gives my students just enough time to miss dinner completely, and we all know how effective it is to take a test on an empty stomach. Sorry, I have attitude about some of the way things are done, and it bugs me. My friend Laura and I want to be the head grad students for this class next year so we can change some things. I think we'd be good and the prof seems to be interested in us, so we'll have to see how that works. Right now, I just want to survive next Tuesday.

Okay, back to research.

How can a day be exhilarating and frustrating all at the same time???

Thu, 27 Oct 2005 18:55:11 GMT

Okay, so today has been totally awesome and completely sucky all at the same time. I woke up early today to come in a use the laser to confirm that I actually succeeded in making a self-assembled monolayer(SAM), which has been my project this semester. All I had to do was prove that I made the things. I spent the last week trying to make them, and when I came in to use the laser the pump was broken. It took 4 experienced labmates and half an hour to replace a fuse the size of an M&M. Once the pump was working, everything else booted right up, and after letting it warm up for an hour or so, analyzed my substrates. To my shock and everyone's surprise, I succeeded in making these things. On my first try, I finished the research project for the semester. Woot. In fact, I'll take another one. Woot!

Now, I finished everything before lunch. So now I'm sitting here in the building's computer lab farting around on my laptop because I have to stick around until 5pm when my classes' lab reports are due. I'm bored out of my mind and I have a caffeine withdrawl headache. I'm trying to drink less of the stuff, but when I don't get to bed until midnight and have to get up at 6am 3 days in a row, it's hard to force myself to get up. (I caved and went and bought a coffee.) I'm okay with it.

You know, you'd think I'd have more to say, but really that's all that's going on at the moment. I've been filling the hours and enjoying life. That's about all I can ask for at the moment. Peace.

Fall Break

Thu, 20 Oct 2005 03:08:01 GMT

This past weekend was fall break, and I spent some time over in Holland. It was cool, but overall, I'm glad I did it because it confirmed for me that I don't really belong there anymore. It was homecoming weekend, so I got to see a few more people than I expected. I stayed with Erica Oosting at her apartment, so we went out to lunch on Saturday and then went to the parade and football game. It was actually kind of cool. The Sigma Sigmas are celebrating their 100 year anniversary, so there were over 300 women there celebrating. I as pretty impressed, but more importantly, I got to see some graduated friends who were sigmas. That was nice. Sunday was a hangout day, just relaxed and groovy, and then I got to see Silent Praise sign at the Gathering. That was pretty emotional for me. It was so awesome to see them sign, and it made me miss the group a lot, but the main feeling I got was one of contentment and pride in the group. I know I've left it better than I found it. And that makes me pretty happy. Monday I went and said hi to some profs in the chem department and then went to Kalamazoo to spend the rest of day with my sister in Kalamazoo.

Overall, it was a good break, very relaxing, which was exactly what I wanted, but I have to say going back to Hope was not quite what I expected. It felt just a little off, not bad, but definitely not good like it was when I was there before. Hope was beautiful, as ever, and the people there were just as awesome as I remembered them to be, but it just wasn't right. It felt small, and something just wasn't the way I wished it was. I really like U of M. I'm feeling more comfortable here than I expected to. I like the people in my department, I like my friends, I like the building, I'm even starting to like my research. (The only thing I really don't like here is my classes, but that can't be helped.) I guess this is a good thing; it shows I've moved on, and I'm living my life here now. I know it's a good thing. Part of growing up is moving on. It was just a little more realism than I expected on a break.

Anyway, I have decided that I officially hate Comcast. I spent a large part of yesterday afternoon running around trying to straighten things out with my account. I have recieved 4 bills from them since I started, and not one of them has been correct thus far. I called to get it straighted out ( I swear, I've basically put 1-800-COMCAST on speed dial), and the lady gave me some grief so I finally went through with cancelling my internet service. It'll save me some money each month, and convienently, it turns out that I can recieve two different wireless networks in my condo that I can log on through without paying anything! Here's hoping they don't put a password on!

I'm getting tired and typing badly, so I'm going to go. It's taken me like an hour to write that above passage, and I need to crash.