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Work saga intensifies. High-strung boss leaving, too. Zomg...

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Why hai thar, big river. Good to see you again.

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Whoops. Tolls w/out 'stop and pay' bars much faster, but also much easier to not notice.

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Hallo big river, hallo Illinois.

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Hee! Random trucker honked at me to give me a wave. I'm so cute!

-yawn-
Up and out before 9am, home after 11:30pm, almost no downtime all day. And tomorrow I get to drive four hours each way to Chicago to go talk to law recruiters. Oh YAY. -_-

I need sleep now, so bad.

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Damn. So much for Herr Klabbes.

mini-politics post
So, as you could probably have guessed, McCain taking potshots at Adler Planetarium has me more than a little pissed off. And, of course, I'm not the only one. And other people are much more eloquent than I am, given how busy I've been this week and how little sleep I've gotten. So. Go read.

Look: there are some things the government does for the greater good. This is where libertarians and I part company. Government isn’t always bad. In many cases, it takes the money it gets in taxes and does fantastic things with it, like sending probes to Mercury and funding autism research. It makes the roads drivable, and makes sure companies don’t pollute our air (well, it used to do that).

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Damn, damn, damn. Got caught up in work and missed Herr Klabbes' office hours -again-. Blargh.

Yesterday sucked
Today kind of did, too.

Work goes ok, on the whole, except that my boss remains high strung, and having found out yesterday morning that Passive Agressive Coworker is leaving made her super high strung, which is exactly the mood I -don't- want her to be in when the sky actually does start to fall, like it did yesterday. Twice.

Seriously, two major screw-ups between Friday and Monday lead to much panic all day Monday, and I didn't get away from work till 7:30, with PACoworker stuck there at least another half hour, and since we'd been so busy I got no work done on my homework, which I then had to do during raid. Which was interesting.

And then today I got to spend literally four hours fixing screw ups from Friday (which, owing to sky-falling-itude hadn't gotten dealt with Monday) and Monday (which, owing to sky-fallling-itude, were more extensive than they really should have been). All that on top of dealing with a mess with my landlord and me owing money. Blargh.

But there has been food and wine, so I'm not feeling quite so stressed, and also the debates, so now I'm feeling cranky. In theory I should be working on my Personal Statement, and/or reviewing for Russian tomorrow, since I've totally failed to memorize the numbers we just learned, plus needing to work on learning cursive, but what I really want to do is veg out.

Maybe I can get myself to at least write personal statement outline. That counts as being productive, right?

Opinions sought
So, as my big goal for October is to get my law school apps all-but ready to go, am currently fretting over the letters of recommendation. I have my first, from the fabulous Debbie, my boss/adviser/favorite prof from the Astro department at V-school, and it will be excellent, I have faith. However, I need at least one more, as several of the schools on my app-list require two. A third letter might not be a bad idea, as several of the schools will allow you to include extras, but two is the most required at any of the schools I'm interested in.

My original hope was to have Herr Klabbes, one of my German profs who runs the Muenster summer program I went on before junior year; was hoping he could speak to my interest in internationalization, etc. Unfortunately, it seems he is the hardest man to get in touch with EVER. Hasn't answered my emails, doesn't pick up his phone or return voice mails. So. Going to try for one more week and then I need to give up on him and start working on getting someone else. Currently, have three possibilities, each with their pros and cons.

1) Yamagata-sensei. One of my bosses from JP, he was head of the schools dept of the BoE for two years (and thus my second level boss), and then principal of my favorite jr. high for my third year. Was an English teacher before getting promoted and speaks English excellently, but I have no . Pros: three year long professional relationship, can speak to internationalization experience, would be very unique and make the application more interesting. Cons: very hard to get in touch with, I have no direct address for him, would be sending the form internationally to a third party, could be significant delays. Also, despite being quite skilled in English, may be overwhelmed by the idea of writing rec in foreign language and asking might make him feel uncomfortable.

2) Sabrina, current boss who just fought HR and her boss to get them to hire me. Pros: professional relationship and at least some personal knowledge of me, can speak to my quick ability to learn, sense of responsibility, logical/critical thinking, etc. Cons: has only known me six months, unlikely to have any experience writing academic letters of rec and may not want to, particularly as knows that when I get into law school will be leaving the bank.

3) Irina, Russian prof. Pros: like all teachers, loves me. Can speak to quick ability to learn, international interests, drive to continue education, likely to have at least some experience writing academic letters of rec. Cons: shortest length of relationship (about a month), so does not know me at all outside of class.

So, dear readers, I turn to you with my quandry:

Poll #1272194 Letter of Recommendation
Open to: All, detailed results viewable to: All

Who should be my first choice for a second letter of rec, failing getting in touch with Herr Klabbes?

View Answers

Yamagata-sensei
7 (50.0%)

Sabrina
5 (35.7%)

Irina
2 (14.3%)

Why?

View Answers

Should I actively persue a third letter of rec?

View Answers

Yes
12 (85.7%)

No
2 (14.3%)

If so, who should I try to get to write my third letter?

View Answers

Yamagata-sensei
5 (41.7%)

Sabrina
3 (25.0%)

Irina
4 (33.3%)

Does this poll require a ticky box?

View Answers

Yes
5 (35.7%)

No
4 (28.6%)

Tickyboxes are obligatory
8 (57.1%)

Tickyboxes are so 2003
3 (21.4%)

TICKYBOX!!!!!!!!!!!!111!11!!!1
10 (71.4%)

No, really, now I sleep
I would hope everyone on my flist who can vote is registered, in whatever country y'all happen to be citizens/resident aliens of, so I'm posting this mostly because, wow, talk about being on message.

If you're not registered? Watch the video, then go do that.

Don't Vote

sleeeeepy meme
On my way to bed, but first, ganked from a couple people:

As was demonstrated in an interview with Katie Couric, Sarah Palin is unable to name any Supreme Court Case other than Roe v. Wade.

The Rules: Post info about ONE Supreme Court decision, modern or historic, to your lj. (Any decision, as long as it's not Roe v. Wade.) For those who see this on your f-list, take the meme to your OWN lj to spread the fun.

Tinker v. Des Moines Independent Community School District

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So far there is chance for today to be good day. Must do homework, drop off last temp time card, discuss T-day w/ boss and get oil change finally rescheduled.

Things that need posted about...
The job thing. The world's most boring (and useless!) meeting. How much John Tesh sucks. Why my weaving class fell through.

However, tonight is not the night I shall be posting about them because, being sort of downish (see: weaving class fell through), I called some of the kids from my Russian class and spent the night corrupting the not-so-innocent, and now I need water and sleep. Drinking vodka totally counts as studying Russian. Seriously. Will totally catch up on the email/livejournal/twitter stuff I've missed later.

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And am officially employed by the bank! No more temping for me. -dances-

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So, goals. Must have second letter of rec and first draft of personal statement by end of October.

yay! mini-break
Hoorah! Got my homework done early so I actually get to check my email before 11pm today! -dances- Out the door this morning at 7am and unlikely to be home much before 8pm unless work goes much better today than it did yesterday. Damn you, South Gilbert!

This is kind of horrifying
No, strike that. This is pretty damn horrifying and sickening.

McCain and the POW Cover-up

I don't do chain emails...
but this I approve of. So, rather than email, I put it here.

Instead of us all sending around emails about how horrible she is, let's all make a donation to Planned Parenthood. In Sarah Palin's name.

And here's the good part: when you make a donation to PP in her name, they'll send her a card telling her that the donation has been made in her honor. Here's the link to the Planned

Parenthood website: https://secure.ga0.org/02/pp10000_inhonor

You'll need to fill in the address to let PP know where to send the "in Sarah Palin's honor" card.

444 North Capitol NW, Suite 336
Washington, DC 20001-1512

PS make sure you use that link above or choose the pulldown of Donate--Honorary or Memorial Donations, not the regular "Donate Online"

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Seems like a truly excellent use of $10 to me.