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.

Damn You, Compy!

My computer is dying. If I try to do anything to it to try to fix it, it overheats and stops halfway though. Highly annoying. : (

It's on risers, and I even tried fanning it by hand the whole 40 minutes it was resetting to factor defaults. It passed out from the heat 8 minutes in. I wish I could afford another computer now. Unfortunately, I'll have to wait until mid-June at least before I can afford another computer. However, my next computer will be a fancy desktop instead of a middle of the road, outdated giant laptop. If I want to sit on the couch and fiddle online, I can do that with my netbook.

In other news, in the next 2.5 weeks, I have to write a 25 page research paper, a 15 page research paper, a 5-7 page stupid paper, give 2 presentations on my research and take 3 exams, 2 of which are in-class essays. In addition, I am organizing a team for the MN AIDS Walk, and helping organize a banquet, and securing a job for the summer, and working my usual 12 hours/week.

Time to check back in, Catey.

In other news, registration for next semester is done, and I kind of have the same classes. This semester, I'm taking a religion course, a Polisci seminar, a Soc/Anth research methods course, and an econ course. Next semester, all of that is true as well. They're even in the same rooms, except one is next door. It's a little weird.

I won't let everything get me down! Nothin's gonna keep me down!

Technological Advancement

Well, it's not really advancement. Just a movement. I downloaded Google Chrome onto my netbook. It's a lot nicer. I was using Firefox before and the browser itself took up half the screen. Chrome is smaller, so I can actually see most of my window. The netbook is only 10.1" diagonally, so having 1" taken up instead of 3" is really nice. Also, its faster, so my farmville doesn't lag. lol.

Also, I have utilized the sound recorded on my cell phone. My ringtone is now "ring ring ring! ring ring ring! phone call! phone call!" From the 2nd (?) episode of Pokemon. Also, my text tone is now the PokeCenter healing tune. "Do do dodo do!" Yay! Coupled with my pikachu charm hanging on my phone, I am now one of the nerdier telecommunicators. hehe.

A mostly good time

So, with the exception of the fact that I must write this on my netbook. I don't mind writing it on my netbook but it means that my regular laptop is kaput. Why can't I find my install cds? When it go the blue screen in January, I had to wait a few weeks to restart it. But it restarted without the install CD. A few days ago, it got the blue screen, but restarted an hour later. I've been trying for 3 hours tonight. It hasn't been working. I guess I'll try it tomorrow or something. Or later on tonight. I'm impatient.

Otherwise, I guess I'll be taking a trip home soon. Who knows when, but I will!

In any case, I have to go home to have my mom sign a few forms for my trip abroad! Shazaam! I'll be going to Thailand in January. Yay! I'm really excited! I've been wanting to do this since freshman year, but it wasn't offered this year, so I went to south central Europe instead. The nice surprise, though? It's only $3,614! Most trips are around $5,000. I feel privileged.

Also, I feel accomplished. Since December, I've been planning a day for Robyn Ochs (http://robynochs.com) to come to campus and speak. It finally happened yesterday! I did the contacting, the contracting, finding the funding, PR, etc. I know it's poor practice of me, but I didn't really use help from others except for funding from organizations (including the Grose Family Endowment, the Soc/Anthro, Social Work and Family Studies, American Studies and Women's studies departments, the Gender and Sexuality Center, GLOW and the Student Organizations Committee), as well as Prof. Bill Poehlmann, Willa Simmet, Brian Walpole, Pierce Devol and his mom to help with transportation. It was a really great day! We were late to the first class, but the class is 85 minutes long, so it's probably all right. She spoke to two women's studies classes, a human sexuality class, and then did a lecture called Beyond Binaries and a workshop called Choosing the Label. It was a very full day, and also very successful. She spoke to around 110 people total yesterday. Pretty cool.

Anyway, today was also the Day of Silence (http://dayofsilence.org). We had an estimated 85 people participate in that, and GLOW raised $175 from t-shirt sales. Awesome!

Netbook! p2

Well, I've had my netbook for a couple days now. I'm pretty much in love with it. It's awesome. I am charging it for the second time ever, and it still had 50 minutes of battery life. It's very handy to have to whip out and find out everything I need to know. Review: positive.

In other news, I tried to give blood today. They were too busy and wouldn't take any more walk ins even though they still had 3 hours before they ended. I would have made an appointment except they only tabled outside the caf, and didn't hang up posters anywhere else. What are faculty and non-meal plan students supposed to do? How are we supposed to find out?

So, it's a full 2 years since I last gave blood (low hemoglobin, and tattoo are two other reasons). It makes me sad. I enjoy giving blood (except when I passed out that one time - which was the last time I gave blood, but is not a reason I haven't given since then). Maybe I should find a different blood drive.

Netbook!

I has a netbook. Yay!

I haven't used it extensively yet. Why use a little one at my apartment when I have my normal laptop here? I just got it started, and turned it off. So far, it seems fine. I am a little saddened that it comes with Windows 7 starter which has less options than the basic home edition. I may upgrade if I get too annoyed with the beach desktop. Of course, and if I get money.

Test drive tomorrow at Olaf. I just won't go to the Star Tribune website. Apparently there has been a rash of viruses coming from the Strib website on campus. Dunno why!

Camp Wellstone

Last November, I signed up for something called Camp Wellstone - a weekend long community organizing workshop. It was in February. That was far enough away to make me want to sign up for a two-day long event where I would have to get up at 7:30am.

Well, I'm glad I did. I enjoyed myself so much. I learned a lot, I got free lunches, a free tshirt and a free book, and met a lot of new people, and reconnect with people I already knew. Most importantly, I was inspired. I have been feeling myself burning out, and I hate that. I am less burnt out now.

Plus, the Olympics kick ass! The 1500m short track final was freaking insane! You just need to watch the last 3 laps, and you will see how exciting it was.

In other news, I ordered an additional computer. This one is to check my email everywhere, since my laptop isn't that portable. So I ordered a netbook to bring around. It's 2.9 lbs and has 11 hours of battery life. It should be here in a week or so. I'm pretty excited!