Day of Reason

So... I am pleased with today. I got up, and helped a 3rd grader with the attention span of a gnat and the shyness of a mouse finish her test even though she had 15 minutes less than the other kids to work on it. : ) Granted, she rounded 4,187 to 4,298, but hey, she finished and got a lot of other questions right! She could only round to the 10s place. After that, she was just really confused.

After work, Brigit, Tom, Zak and Tanner came to pick me up and we went to the state capitol in St. Paul. Brigit and I were asked to speak on behalf of SANRA (St. Olaf Society for Atheism, Non-Religion and Agnosticism) for the Day of Reason. The Day of Reason is a response to the Day of Prayer, the nation-wide government call for all citizens to pray (so much for the first amendment, eh?)

In any case, I've never given a non-school speech, let alone a speech at the capitol. It was pretty cool. : )

Since then, I've been working on my PSCI presentation for tomorrow about how gas relations have affected the political relationship of Ukraine and Russia. I should have picked a different topic... At least there's a lot of information on the subject. Just look at the wikipedia page for "Ukraine Russia Energy Relations."

Also, I finally managed to get my computer to restore to default factory settings without overheating. I'm in the process of waiting to use it. It is Vista, after all. Can't wait for a new computer.

Also, there's a girl in the elementary school whose name is Abcde. Pronounced Absidy. Is this a common name? Or was this an ironic parent? It's a pretty-sounding name, though. Also, I work with a woman named Usa (Ooh-sah). I wonder if it was wishful thinking on her parents part, or if she changed her name. Or I suppose it could be a common Thai name, but I doubt it. Reminds me of that comic with Ruthie in it who has a friend called Nosmo King.