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January 26, 2007
Bold As Love
My friend steve defended this morning. Because it was friday, I got to go up and watch. I was kinda lost, but not really. I still understand things like charges, magnetic fields, p-n junctions. In the days where i feel surround by stupidity, I miss science. I miss the intelligence of scientist. I miss the not self-entitled scientists (young ones that is). Science teaches you who is really boss and it isn't you or your advisor but the will of the universe.
Congrats to steve. I am so excited for him. He is off to post doc at the national lab on the southwest side of the chicago burbs, which is awesome because him and his wife will still be around.
Posted by christina at 2:17 PM | Comments (0)
January 24, 2007
Big Eyed Fish
my mom and babylove
I go to school with some really immature people. Or they are just stupid. I'll give them the benefit of the doubt and say they are immature. Though the stupid questions they ask during class point to stupidity, but then again, we all have stupid questions, we just know enough not to ask them in the lecture hall of a 100.
I decided that there should be a limit to how many questions a person should get to ask during one lecture. 2 seems like a good limit. The same people ask questions over and over. I am convinced they just like to hear themselves speak. The majority of our professors so far just put up with it and answer their questions. Clarification questions and interesting question are okay. If you are having trouble with the math, go to the TA! Many lectures have been sidetracked due to these people's disease.
Finally, though, I have a prof that will say what I think every time. Okay, not really. But he got the "thank-you for finally acting like this is a professional graduate degree program" award yesterday. One of the worse suffers from the aforementioned disease asked a question totally about last week's reading. Why she didn't ask it when we talked about that subject, I don't know. I do suspect it is because she didn't do the reading. This class is very segmented from class to class. She was asking about minority representation and we were talking about political parties. There was no connection to her question. And the professor just said, that is something you should have asked last time and then moved on. It was awesome.
Today I lost (if this was even possible) more respect for my classmates and gained some for a prof I thought was lost to the sea of question. It has to do with the midterm being schedule for the day after the superbowl. Of course, the bears are in it and a fair amount of my classmates are complaining about it. The prof can't move it because there is a classmate who have a 3 day interview at the end of the week and went out of his way to talk with the prof at the beginning of the quarter and schedule the trip around the midterm. Also, two versions are never the same (agreed). I am not sure why the prof told us this. I would have just said, you all are adults, act like it! I feel bad for that person b/c now all these stupid people hate them. The test is at 10:30 on Monday. The game at 5:30 on Sunday. Study before hand. From the snide remarks of the people behind me, it isn't the studying, but the fact that they are going to be hungover on Monday. What are they, freshman in college? Though I believe that they should go for it, better for the curve.
Posted by christina at 2:06 PM | Comments (0)
January 19, 2007
counting stars on the ceiling.
one of the more entertaining things i've read in the times
i love soup.
i am having a love affair with soup.
speaking of love affairs, I must confess that I am a cheater. Hopefully I will be forgiven.
I spend time thinking about my new love. I feel guilty. But you can't help what catches your eye.
Her name is Gracie.
She is a precious miniature schnauzer puppy. She is the puppy of this older gay couple in our puppy class. She is so amazing. I spend all session just staring at her. I beg Ben for one. I want one more than I want anything right now. Well, except soup, but I am eating some, so puppy love it is.
Posted by christina at 12:18 PM | Comments (0)
January 17, 2007
We could float among the stars together
one of the more interesting things i've read lately on people and jails
I am so tired today. It was the worst trying to get out of bed this morning. I am sure this is due to the fact that the dog's snoring and ben in the middle of the bed drove me to the couch. I could have made them both move - out of my side and to their other side to stop the snoring, but at 1 am, it seemed to make more sense to just relocate.
I think the bitter cold, which has finally arrived, is also making me tired.
The kitty, puppy, and I spent the afternoon on the couch. They napping, me reading my political institutions. Today's topic is minority representation. I'm pretty much convinced that our voting system where each person gets one vote in a single winner district and the majority winner wins sucks. It seems to me that cumulative voting is much better. This is where you get as many votes as seats say for your state and therefore you can self-segergate according to interest groups to get some sort of representation. The majority winner system usually provides the minority with little representation. And since I've been feeling especially unrepresentated lately as a women, I'm all for it.
Every story I read that lists why people don't like Hillary Clinton just pisses me off more and more. The traits that people list of why they don't like her are traits people love in men. This is not true just for her, but for ALL women in the country. Men and women just don't like strong, forceful women, but a strong, forceful man, people swoon over. Girls are socialized to please authority and boys. Boys are socialized to please other boys. Men and women expect women to be sweet and soft spoken.
Women are not elected in this country. From the times:
"Evaluations of men and women running for House seats in 2006 have turned up disturbing numbers. In the 42 top-tier ''Red-to-Blue'' races selected by the Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee for intensive financing and support, 25 of the candidates were male and 17 were female. In those contests, male candidates batted .800: 20 victories to five defeats. The women faced higher barriers: three won and 14 lost, batting .176."
Posted by christina at 3:48 PM | Comments (0)
January 14, 2007
funny little frog
running while hurt
this is an interesting article about running while hurt. I'm a big proponent of sucking it up and getting moving, so it is nice to know that some doctors agree.
Dinner was quite yummy last light. i got my egg rolls, in case you were worried.
Ben is quite happy about the Bears game. Puppy and I are quite happy that scary football man will be gone for the week. Though he will be back next week. Of course, I am convinced that the Bears will be in the superbowl b/c it is my birthday and the universe hates me that much. : )
Our dog snores so loud. I've been walking up a lot at night. Now that I have gotten Ben to stop sleeping in the middle of the bed, I just lie there and count the weeks until it in time to take the puppy in for spaying. At that time, they are going to correct her asymmetric nostril and hopefully that will diminish the snoring.
Ben is currently watching Rome, a miniseries on HBO. It make me wonder what it would be like to be carried around in boxes by slaves. Is it bumpy? What if someone slips? What if someone has to pee?
Posted by christina at 9:04 PM | Comments (1)
January 12, 2007
there's room inside for two
the puppy's favorite thing about fridays.
school has picked back up. thursdays are ultra-long (to me) from 9-4:30. ha ha. i would have loved those hours in my past life. But being in classes (or discussion section) except for lunch is very draining. Though i do really enjoy our lunches. We are finally getting all of our significant others together tomorrow night. We are getting dinner at my favorite Chinese/asain fusion place. I've been really wanting an egg roll alllll week and so am quite excited to have one.
Have I mentioned how strange the Chicago weather has been? It has been so warm. I have been loving it. The cold of the past couple of days have sent me inside to Mr. Elliptical, but this morning i got back out for a run and loved it. Boy do I love my new pedometer. I woke up this morning excited to get out of bed and run with it. I am off to the PT this afternoon for gait analysis to figure out what kind of insole exactly i need to correct all my mechanics issues. I hate the PT, but b/c it is just for the insole, i don't think (i hope) i'll be doing any of the exercises that I hate. (funny, i don't mind doing them if the pilates chick tells me to, but a PT, i'm hating it. i just hate PT.)
Izzy got her lump taken off on Monday. They shaved her bum area. The lump was at the base of her tail. She is so funny looking and seems to not even mind. She even tries to rub the stitches on stuff, including me, which totally freaks me out. The saddest part of the whole thing is that she is separated from the puppy due to the stitches and pepper's chewing problem. It breaks my heart to see her in the hallway pressing on the gate to try to get into the kitchen/living room. but i am glad we finally got the lump off. I really adore our vet. She is light years better then the old vet. We've seen her a lot lately due to some kitty infections and the surgery. Though nice to see her, it means that we've been paying a lot of money to the vet. INSURE YOUR PETS. the puppy is insured, but the cat was basically uninsurable. not that the insurance covers much of anything, but it would help. oh well, hopefully we are done visiting the vet every week with the kitty, who does not like riding in the car. OH, in good kitty news she has lost 5 lbs total now. That is awesome considering that is 20% of her body weight.
Posted by christina at 12:35 PM | Comments (0)
January 8, 2007
Give unto me all that frightens you
pepper and her bee
so this weekend, in the quiet of the beginning of the quarter, i have redeveloped my addiction to online canasta. it is a lot of strategy and some luck. (unlike gin which is a lot of luck and some strategy.) i think it might be too stressful to me. my "new year's resolution" is to cute out all stress. the things i stress about do not deserve to be stressed about, therefore, i either need to stop caring if i win canasta, or stop playing. we'll not be so drastic and work on the first one.
Posted by christina at 11:39 AM | Comments (1)
January 7, 2007
And I'm still waiting for the rain to fall
baby love
on gift cards
on libertarians.
i have had a distinct libertarian streak in me. If someone wants to use drugs, eat poorly, drink their life away, i've always said, more power to them; of course, only if they don't hurt anyone else. Lately I've come to realize that the latter part of that statement is impossible. If we were all islands, maybe it would be true. But we are not. We have people that love us. We have people that live next to us. We have people that our lives affect wether we want to or not. Parents, friends, siblings, children, coworkers. And for that reason saying "its your life" is never completely true.
Posted by christina at 1:43 PM | Comments (0)
January 5, 2007
I will break my way out when it rains
alright, so i am delinquent about wishing everyone a happy new year. i am delinquent mostly b/c i am not a fan of the new year's eve party. yeah, the pressure is off now that i am married b/c i have someone to kiss, but there still is this expectation of great parties and staying up drinking until the wee hours of the morning. i am too old. : )
the day after new years i went up to the old school and took a couple of measurements for my oxide paper. it was weird how normal it felt to be there. funny how normal it felt to then go to the new school the next day. funny how things just seem so normal. though i was reminded how awesome it is to be pretty much done with that kind of research. i am happy in my decision, though still a tad angsty about my future.
classes started and it was super great to be back with my friends there. one of the best things about this quarter is no class until 10:30. boy what a difference that makes in traffic. it is only a 25 minute commute. and we have a break between classes, perfect for the most interesting lunch conversations. seriously. i never knew lunch conversations could be so interesting.
Posted by christina at 5:50 PM | Comments (0)