Monday, October 6th, 2008
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9:12 pm - IT'S SO TRUE
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9:19 am - Flu shot
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Just went and got a free flu shot. Now I'm all shaky because I hate, hate, hate needles with a burning passion. It was over quickly, but still. I have also found out that due to a administrative foul-up I am currently without health insurance. Lovely.
Sigh... is Monday over yet?
current mood:  aggravated
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(7 comments | comment on this)
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Sunday, October 5th, 2008
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8:10 pm - More fairytale
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9:55 am - Fairytale fragment
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Friday, October 3rd, 2008
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8:08 pm - Pumpkins in a pot?
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I am seriously considering ordering seeds for a Cheyenne Bush Pumpkin for next year and growing them in the large pot that I used for the Cherokee Purple tomato. It says it can be grown in a large pot, but I'm not sure I believe it. Still, it could be interesting. I'd love to have fresh pumpkin. I am intrigued.
I also have the perfect icon for this. XD
current mood:  contemplative
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10:42 am - Three's company
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1) Turned in my last paycheck with the internship this morning. It was a three hour drive, but it was totally worth it. While I was down there, I got to see the final report that went to the DNR. It is shiny. The maps I did turned out awesome looking. I'm so pleased. They're going to send me a copy so I can add it to my portfolio, which makes me doubly pleased. WOO!
2) I am sick. UGH. I feel like death warmed over right now and cannot wait till I get home so I can crash.
3) Sometime last October (and I know I made an entry about this, found it once, and now I can't find it again) one of the schools I applied to for 2007 asked me if I was still interested. Since I had already been accepted and started a program with another school, I told them no. Mid-September I got another email from them asking if I was still interested in attending for the 2007 year and that they didn't have all my references.
WHY YES, I WOULD LOVE TO GO BACK IN TIME AND ATTEND YOUR SCHOOL IN 2007. HOW DID YOU GUESS?
current mood:  amused
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(6 comments | comment on this)
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Wednesday, October 1st, 2008
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3:10 pm - Bureaucracy works by failing
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Ever since I came to my Graduate program in May of 2007, they have been telling us that they are going to move the graduate lab/offices down to the first floor. First it was supposed to be in Winter 2007. Then Summer 2008. Still here. But! they are making a great deal of progress. I have actually seen the new space (it's huuuuge) and there have been architects in the old space deciding how to chop it up into offices.
Today I was working on my computer when I heard someone opening the door. I figured it was one of my fellow grad students. When the lights for the other half of the room didn't come on (I only keep my half of the room on when I'm in here by myself), I knew it was someone else. So I wandered over to find out what was going on.
It was a locksmith. He had been sent to remove the card reader that all the graduate students use to get into the graduate lab and move it downstairs to the new offices.
Problem. We aren't down there yet. All our stuff and computers are up here. How are we supposed to get into the graduate offices without the card reader? He tells me that he was told we were already moved down there. They were going to change the locks and have a key made in a couple of weeks for the people moving into the space.
How about no?
I immediately pull the Dept. Secretary into this and explain what's going on. She calls around to find out what's going on. Seems this little exchange of locks was supposed to have happened a week ago but they were backed up. Um... what??? Can you just imagine what would have happened had I not been here or if it had happened a week ago? All the GIS graduate students would have been locked out of their office with no access to any of their projects or data. I think one of my fellow grad student's head would have turned around 360 degrees while fire poured out of his mouth because he was trying to finish three projects last week and was in here 12+ hours a day working on it.
Once again, bureaucracy works by failing. They went ahead and had him exchange half of the lock (I shit you not) and put it downstairs. We have a key for the half left up here. Our cards work on the half downstairs. When we move down there, they plan on moving the other half of the lock downstairs so we can also access that room with a key.
And these are the people in charge of educating the future generations. Be afraid. Be very afraid.
current mood:  apathetic
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10:39 am - Bueller?
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Anyone want to transcribe my truly shitty field notes into this Excel spreadsheet for me (seriously earlier self, could you please learn to spell the damn plant names or at the very least spell them wrong the same way every time instead of inventing new incorrect spellings)? Anyone?
Bueller?
Gah, this has got to be the most tedious part of doing this thesis work.
current mood:  bored
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(4 comments | comment on this)
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Tuesday, September 30th, 2008
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8:57 am - Let the flailing commence!
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I just registered to give a poster presentation at the regional meeting for one of the big professional organizations I'm a member of. I'm kind of flailing because a) I've never done this before, 2) I had to write a 200 word abstract in like 15 minutes because I waited to the last day to register, #) my adviser is MIA because he's on sabbatical so I can't get his help on any of this, and ©) I'm going to be traveling before and after this meeting meaning little time to prepare.
Even better, I have to get put an abstract and everything together to do another poster presentation in April at the big country wide meeting also without my adviser's help.
FLAIL.
current mood:  nervous
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(1 comment | comment on this)
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Monday, September 29th, 2008
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10:40 am - YES! VERY YES!
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Sunday, September 28th, 2008
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7:39 pm - Original fic, no title
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6:19 pm - The French Onion Soup Incident
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This was originally posted to my blog on Feb. 2002. ![[info]](http://p-stat.livejournal.com/img/userinfo.gif) kayay mentioned French Onion soup in my previous post about cooking onions and I could not resist the urge to dig this story on up. The next post to the old blog was reposted in my lj because that was when we set an oven mitt on fire.
Really, that was just not our week for cooking. XD
Tsaiko's Instructions on how NOT to make French Onion Soup
1. Start at 4:00, having carefully calculated that the recipe should be done between 5:30 and 6:00. Watch as the recipe laughs at your calculations.
2. For starters, you need to use a cookbook with vague instructions such as "cook the onions gently." How the heck do you cook onions gently? I don't know. Or stuff like "turn down the heat" without every telling you how high to turn the heat in the first place. This will confuse you and make you want to hurl said cookbook out a third story window and into a bonfire. Great place to start.
3. Your cookbook should also have strange ingredients that you've never heard of and can't find at the grocery store. What is vegetable stock? I don't know. And how the heck do you get stock from vegetables? Another mystery. Substitute beef stock and hope for the best. It should be noted that I now know how to make my own vegetable stock, or barring that, where to purchase it. For the longest time you could not find any vegetable stock at a regular supermarket in NC. Most likely because it is the land that believes that even vegetables should be cooked with meat.
4. Decide that the measurements given by the cookbook are off. The four large onions we got must have been twice as large as the ones used by the authors because we cut up three and filled our medium saucepan to the brim. Of course, I'm making the assumption the authors attempted this recipe in the first place, which is doubtful all thing considering.
5. How to cook: Start the onions. The cookbook says that it will take about 45-60 minutes to cook into a nice mahogany brown color. It lies. You cook the onions for 60 minutes. Transparent. So you up the heat. Cook for another 60 minutes. Kinda yellowish. Up the heat again. At this point, forget about cooking gently. Violate the damn suckers by nuking them in the microwave if you have to. Just get them done.
6. At this point be sure to send your roommate out to get you dinner, because guess what? Assuming these onions ever turn brown, you still have to simmer them in the broth for another thirty minutes.
7. Eat the dinner your roommate bought. It should be about 7:00 at this time. Your onions should be a very dark yellow but no where near the desired colors of brown or mahogany. Decide they are close enough and dump them into the beef stock. Set beef stock to simmer for thirty minutes.
8. Thirty minutes later, guess what? The beef stock is not simmering. Up the heat and let that sucker BOIL.
9. At 8:00 your soup is ready. Your apartment (or house) should now smell like onions for the next week or so. Your soup should look nothing like what's pictured. Take the whole pot and stick in the fridge.
If you follow these simple instructions, you wind up like me. With a pot of soup that may or may not be edible sitting in your fridge and four hours of your life wasted. And I wonder why I eat out so much...
current mood: amused
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(4 comments | comment on this)
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10:34 am - ;_;
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miome is cooking a big thing of onions in the crockpot. I love when she does this because it makes it super (and not supper like I originally typed) easy to use in stews or to serve over beef with mushrooms. I cannot stand half-cooked onions and this guarantees that they will be done.
The problem is that for the duration of the cook time, we cannot be in the apartment because the air because thick with onion vapor. Meaning your eyes get irritated beyond belief. The cats don't see to mind or care, but it drives us both bananas. As soon as Miome gets out of the shower, we're going to find something else to do today.
Sigh. And I was hoping to have the first draft of story finished today. Still might. Though before I'm posting it, I'm going to rewrite it because it needs it.
current mood:  uncomfortable
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(6 comments | comment on this)
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Saturday, September 27th, 2008
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8:01 am - 'scuse me while I kiss this guy
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Miome is still insisting that Jason Mraz, in his latest song, says "Open up your pants/and damn your free." I can't laugh (at least not too much), because she's been listening to songs on Pandora and we've had some interesting conversations on song lyrics.
Song 1: Verona by Heather Nova
Song: ~I use to dream about Verona~
Tsaiko: You know, every time I hear this I think she's talking about Coronas.
Miome: She's saying Verona. VERONA.
Tsaiko: I know. But she sounds so desperate and passionate that it's funny. "I use to dream about corona." Oh honey, there are better beers out there. Move on!
Miome: *laughs*
Song 2: Electrical Stormby U2
Tsaiko: Okay. I have to ask. What is he saying?
Miome: Electrical storm. Why?
Tsaiko: I swear it sounds like he's saying "electric toaster."
Miome: *listens* Or electric coaster.
Tsaiko: Don't they have something like that on Think Geek?
current mood: amused
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(comment on this)
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Friday, September 26th, 2008
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9:08 pm - MANGINAS AHOY
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Dear authors of m/m romance,
I swear to gourd, I have seen $1.99 romance novel heroines with more balls than your characters. Less flighty and prone to changing their damn minds too. I have said it before, and I'll say it again: YOU DO NOT NEED TO TURN YOUR CHARACTERS INTO WHINY BITCHES IN ORDER TO MAKE THEM INTERESTING.
No love,
Tsaiko
current mood: disappointed
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(11 comments | comment on this)
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6:42 pm - Why don't you love me?
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Why is it that some stories, the names for character just come to me and in other stories I spend an entire 2 hours just trying to come up with three names? It's so damn frustrating. And when I finally get three names nailed down, I decide I don't like one of the names and have to start over with that one. I use to keep a list of names that struck my fancy (still do... somewhere), but after awhile I started reusing names. That's all fine and dandy as long as I'm writing for me, but people notice when I have four different characters named Rioran.
I just wish these characters would stop being difficult and make with the porn already.
current mood: annoyed
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(3 comments | comment on this)
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Tuesday, September 23rd, 2008
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6:01 pm - STFU: Justin, Junior year, first semester
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5:36 pm - That's one way to put it
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Someone in my apartment building set up a wireless router and named it "My Fucking Wireless."
I'm amused.
current mood: amused
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(5 comments | comment on this)
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Monday, September 22nd, 2008
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8:41 pm - STFU fragment
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It was fall and that could only mean two things on the Stephen T. Frasier University campus. Classes and job fairs. Every year in the Quad various companies and organizations held recruitments, one smaller during the autumn season and a larger one during the spring before graduation. This week was devoted to the paladins. Every day a different set of blonde bimbos and romance cover rip-off men would come in and try to convince everyone to join the ranks of goodness and light and rainbows and defend the ordinary citizens of the world from those who had – gasp! – dark magic.
Erin would really be more sickened by the whole thing if the eye candy wasn't so enjoyable.
"Could you be a little less subtle there, Erin?" Canace said. They were sitting on a blanket under some trees that lined the Quad eating lunch. It was just the four of them: Canace, Brenna, Randolph and herself. One blood mage, a gray witch, a werewolf and a demon summoner. Perfectly normal. Nothing to see here.
"We're supposed to be keeping an eye on the paladins in case there's any trouble like last year. I'm just keeping an eye on them." A very close eye. Those jeans were so tight that they were practically indecent.
"You're a demon summoner. Those guys would call you evil and try to get you thrown in jail in a heartbeat. How can you even stand to look at them?" Brenna asked.
One of the paladins dropped a pen and bent over to pick it up. Nice. "It's a tough job, but I'm willing to make the sacrifice," Erin replied.
current mood: amused
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12:37 pm - *snorts*
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Take a look at the two gentleman behind the reporter in this video that are attempting to "console each other" as the other reporter puts it.
I laughed.
current mood: amused
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(2 comments | comment on this)
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accomplished