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November 15th, 2003
02:15 pm - Ridiculous Ridiculi, Ridiculous Ridiculi . . .
You know you're having a bad day when things like "the tow truck arrived quickly" and "it didn't cost much to fix my car" are among the highlights. Actually, yesterday was more ridiculous than bad.
Alecto woke me up by telling me that her brother and his fianc?e had finally set a date for their wedding - this Saturday. 30 hours notice is precious little time, but do understand, when you're a member of the National Guard (like her brother) sometimes you're only given three hours notice - hopefully he isn't actually being mobilized any time soon.
So, I'm missing the wedding. I can't afford to miss work, especially on such short notice. However, her brother understands the position he put everyone into. In fact, because things were on such short notice, he and his fianc?e took their respective families out to see Master and Commander. We didn't get much chance to socialize, but at least I got to talk to them before the wedding.
Master and Commander was surprisingly good. It felt a bit rushed in places, I think another 10 or 15 minutes of characterization would have helped, I kept getting the people mixed up. I thought that combat was done nicely, it was too hectic to follow most of the time, but I imagine close-combat on a ship would be like that. I think my favorite part was the ending, I could tell something was up after the French ship can been captured, and they way they dealt with this was quite humorous.
The worst part of the day, and you've likely figured it, was my car breaking down. Thursday night, I had driven through a snowdrift that was across the road (there was no going around it) and shortly thereafter, my power steering failed. Friday morning, I drove the car around a bit before going to campus (I had an important departmental meeting) and everything seemed OK, even though the steering still resisted a bit.
So, I'm driving along, and in the space of about 5 minutes, everything electrical in my car died one by one. This eventually included the engine. I was right off of a main road, in a large town, so it didn't take long to get towed. Even better, it was just a belt that had slipped off, so it was easy to fix. I missed the meeting, which I'm not happy about, but at least my alternative hadn't blown up!
Well, Alecto and her family just left for the wedding. I'll be heading down to work in half an hour or so. I'm feeling great, but then, after yesterday, it's hard not to :)
Current Mood: ![[mood icon]](http://stat.livejournal.com/img/mood/niaha/kitty/ankhappy.gif) relieved
Current Music: Three Dead Trolls In A Baggie - The Privacy Song
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November 6th, 2003
07:56 pm - Fortune Cookie
I had Chinese for lunch today, and the fortune I got in my cookie was "This is a great day to handle those real estate matters!"
I don't remember these cookies being so . . . topical.
To make things even weirder, the cookie wasn't lieing, today has been a good day to handle my real estate matters!
Current Mood: ![[mood icon]](http://l-stat.livejournal.com/img/mood/niaha/kitty/ankawake.gif) surprised
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November 4th, 2003
11:46 pm - We don't have a mortgage, but at least we get humorous junkmail!
Alecto and I finally called a mortgage broker about the house. Due to our student loans, we can't really get a good mortgage at this point, which is disapointing, but my parents are going to help us out. However, we did find out that we have excelent credit, which is likely why we get so much junk mail offering us credit cards. Actually, on the subject of junk mail, apparently one purchase from the Pyramid Collection puts you on a whole hell of a lot of mailing lists. I get a disturbing number of catalogues, ranging from the semi-tasteful, to the Playboy catalogue. Today, Venus Swimware arrived, it fits into the latter category.
Alecto decided to flip through it and laugh at the silly clothing before throwing it out. Silly items like the Black Sheer Grecian Tunic:
BLAH! I am Lucrela, Queen of the Damned and Puffy Shirts!
My favorite catalogue so far has been BudK, which sells inexpensive knives, swords, and other things. They also have a large collection of items featuring the Confederate Flag, although half the time it's called the Rebel Flag because, I don't know, it's cool or something. Although somewhat creepy, I find it very humorous that they have products like this, some are especially funny like shirts featuring the Confederate Flag being ripped apart by a wolf or, even better, a bald eagle. I mean, I understand that it's supposed to be an image of power to have a scary animal bursting through the flag, but I find the subtler conitations hilarious :)
The best however, shows the Confederate Flag with the line "These Colors don't Run," a semi-integent play-on-words that ignores who surrendered at the end of the Civil War. Of course, what makes this shirt painful is the unintended (I hope) double-meaning of "Colors" as colored-people. Put into this context, which isn't hard to do considering the racist undertones often attributes to the Confederate Flag, the shirt takes on a very different, quite unappropriate, meaning. I meaning I'd hope most people wouldn't want emblazened across their chest.
Current Mood: chipper
Current Music: Fhqwhgads
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November 2nd, 2003
10:56 pm - Ho ho! I'm alive! And better than that, I'm alive and have the internet back!
I could have sworn I signed up for automatic billing, but apparently I didn't. Ah well, now I have returned, and may again annoy the lot of you.
Of course, the lack of posting wasn't entirely due to loosing the internet on this computer, since I lost it near the end of September and I haven't posted much in here since . . . May. And of course, when I'm on campus, I have an internet connection, but unfortunately I haven't had as much time on-line there as I would like. I got a partial assistantship working at the library (yay income!) so much of the time I used to spend on-line is now spent shelving books and counting people.
So, what's been happening to Hungry Donner the past . . . six months or so?
( My Summer )
( This Semester )
( Buying a House )
I should be on-line more often now, not only on Live Journal, but on AIM and (if it will work) ICQ. Also, if Alecto and I do move down to Binghamton, we'll have a cable modem, w00t!
Also, no Live Journal entry is complete without a quiz or some other internet meme.
( Halloween really is my favorite holiday, haven't gone trick-or-treating in ages though )
And now I must go. I finally found a cool birthday gift for my sister, and need to find a box to ship it in. As you can see from my previous journal entry, I'm more than a little late.
Current Mood: present
Current Music: Thief Remix - Haunts
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August 29th, 2003
01:19 pm
Happy Birthday Summer!
Current Mood: happy
Current Music: [Howard Goodall and Ian Hu] Red Dwarf Extended Mix
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May 27th, 2003
04:47 pm
The graduate dinner on Friday was fun. A lot of the people I had hoped to see weren't there, but I still had fun talking with the RDs. Bernie's bit about my thesis was pretty good even if he was fairly brief compared to most of the others.
I was in Concord today and decided to have lunch at the Apple Blossum: Chinese, American, Japanese, Italian buffet because I wanted to know what sort of food a Chinese American Japanese Italian buffet has. Apparently, it's a lot like a Chinese buffet. There was a salad bar, friend chicken, and ribs and such, that must be American food; the sushi bar is of course, the Japanese section; and the lone pizza is the Italian portion. Maybe they were low on Italians the day I went *shrugs.*
It was surprisingly good food, the teriaki chicken was excelent, although the crab ragoon and the salad were only mediocre, I think they watered down their dressing.
Tomorrow I get my eyes checked and get new glasses, since my eyes will be dialated I'll have to wait until Thursday to go back down to Binghamton. This is unfortunate as I'd really like to be down there to help Alecto out, she hasn't been feeling well, although she is feeling better, yay!
It will be nice to be back, but I am having a lot of fun at home, I hadn't really relaxed since the end of semester, except for maybe one or two days. My sister, back from South Africa, has a great dress for the wedding, and she brought me back some neat key chains and a wonderful jade elephant. It's a shame I can't take it down to Binghamton to show off, hopefully soon I'll have a place for it.
Current Mood: happy
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May 23rd, 2003
01:04 am
I'm heading home tomorrow, I'll be staying about a week, it should be a lot of fun. Actually I'm heading over to the graduation dinner at Simon's Rock and then heading home. I'm looking forward to seeing Gabriel and some other people, and I suppose it will be nice to hear Bernie talk about my thesis. I'm somewhat ambivalent about that, I've heard a lot of seniors complain that Bernie missed the point of their thesis or focused on something unimportant. He doesn't have much time to read them all.
I my case, he'll most likely talk about the 'real world applications' that my thesis has on 'currents issues in the world today' which he could get from just reading the title: Acculturation and Immigration: Arabs and Muslims in the United States. My thesis is also aimed at an audiance who doesn't know much about the subject, so in a sense, if he doesn't get the point of my thesis the blame is partially my own.
( Oh, I saw Matrix 2 yesterday )
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May 20th, 2003
12:00 am - Yes, I am a nerd
Your
Ultimate Roleplaying Purity Score | | Category | Your Score | Average | | Hacklust | 50.94%
Will kill for XP | 52% | | Sensitive Roleplaying | 53.16%
"But what's my motivation for this scene?" | 49.2% | | GM Experience | 66.67%
Ran a module once or twice | 66.1% | | Systems Knowledge | 91.53%
Played in a couple of campaigns | 88.6% | | Livin' La Vida Dorka | 60.92%
Goes nuts on the weekends | 58.8% | You are 67.52% pure
Average Score: 65.7% | |
It's my birthday today, w00t! And I'm going home for a couple days on Friday, which is also nice.
Now, I'm going to go play Thief 2 for a bit (Thief 1 wouldn't install  but I imagine that there is a patch for the WinNT/XP issue)
Current Mood: pleased
Current Music: Thief remix - Haunts
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May 17th, 2003
02:20 pm
Wow, I'm not sure what's more surprising, my grades, or the fact that they're already up! I did a whole lot better this semester than I thought.
Current Mood: ![[mood icon]](http://stat.livejournal.com/img/mood/niaha/kitty/ankgeek.gif) accomplished
Current Music: Various Anime - [Julie Brown] Cause I'm a Blonde.mpeg
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May 16th, 2003
11:32 pm
The semester's over, I already know that I got an A in my Art History Class, although I only got a B- in Arabic. I don't really mind, my professors both said they were happy with me, and I know I'll do better next semester. Also, since it's an undergraduate class, it doesn't count on my GPA, not that GPAs matter that much in grad school. I don't imagine I'll get As in my other two graduate classes, although Randy did seem quite pleased with my presentation.
Andrew's Presentation Tip #1: If you tilt your note book up, you can give the appearance of having presentation notes when in fact, you have no notes at all!
Actually, I used the introduction of my paper quite a lot in my presentation, it had most of the applicable information and, in a 20 minute presentation, it isn't like you want to go into much detail. My paper . . . well my papers are never as good as my presentations, but I'm still happy with it. I wish I had more time to work on the conclusion. Then I think it would have ended up being much better. As for ANTH 504 . . . well, I hope I get a good grade, I really enjoyed the final paper, but I'll settle for a B- (the minimum needed to get my Master's) with no griping at all.
I've decided to do a 5-semester Masters. Between the Art History and Arabic classes, it will make it much easier for me to get the Anthropological foundation I need. As it is, my BA in Anthropology lies mostly on Independant studies on the Arab World. This isn't problematic, but I need a few things on Anthropological method that I've been lacking. For instance, next spring a course on Ethnography will be offered, and it's already on the top of my list for classes to take.
Also, by graduating a semester early, I've set myself up very nicely for a 5-semester Master's, as I'll graduate at a normal time. A fringe benefit of graduating from Simon's Rock when I did: I didn't have to partake in the senior prank, which sounds pretty obnoxious from what I've heard. I love Simon's Rock, I'm very happy that I went there to get my B.A., but there are some parts of the culture which just . . . . don't mesh with me. Not that senior pranks at other universities aren't usually obnoxious. I just miss the stories I heard at Walnut Hill School for the Arts, a high school I went to for one year. The senior pranks there tended to be much more creative. Actually, I can't say that this year's prank at Simon's Rock wasn't creative, it just seems awfully . . . loud isn't really the word I'm looking for, ah well *shrugs*
My favorite Walnut Hill story was about a prank that couldn't have been too long before I arrived, ST:TNG had to have finished at least one season. The seniors decided to advertise in several newspapers that a Star Trek convention would be held on campus the day of graduation, starting at the time of graduation, in the building that graduation would be held in.
Mean? Yes. Disruptive? Certainly. In fact, quite possibly the most disruptive senior prank I know of, as the administration had to deal with all of these costumed people swarming campus (Walnut Hill is quite close to Boston) when they really needed to be dealing with all of the parents swarming campus. Parking at Walnut Hill is cramped enough as it is, I imagine that day was a nightmare. I also feel sorry for the people coming for a convention and finding out that it was just a prank. Not cool Zeus, Not cool. Still, I have to applaude the people who thought it up.
Personally, I would have schedualed the 'convention' for the end of graduation, that way the people who came for graduation would have already parked, and the trekkies would manage to have a humorous presance on campus without being too disruptive. It would have been nice if there was something for the people who had been fooled as well, I imagine I'd be very displeased to be the butt of a prank like this. It's one thing to be disruptive, its another to involve outsiders like like. Although I can give Walnut Hill extra credit for humor and creativity, I have to remove about as many for being jerks. This doesn't just apply to pranks either ;)
I might be getting a job at Barnes & Noble, that will be a lot of fun. It is also nice because then I'll have employment next semester, it doesn't look like I'll get an assistanship from the Anthropology Department, but I might still be able to get one from the University.
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May 12th, 2003
10:29 pm - I'm not sure what is cooler, the spelling or punctuation
"That stouffe that we wrytte upon: and is made of beestis skynnes: is somtyme called parchment and somtyme velem"
- William Hornman (16th century)
Current Mood: FREE!
Current Music: Trigun & Excel Saga & Cowboy Bebop - [Solemar] El Mambo.mpg
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May 11th, 2003
07:42 pm
Tomorrow's the last day. I hand in my final paper and give a presentation. I just hope I finish it all while leaving me with enough sleep to present.
The Tranquil River Dragon is your guardian.
Powerful, wise and creative, understanding the
balance of life and death like no other.
What sort of Dragon watches over you?
brought to you by Quizilla
Current Mood: busy
Current Music: Alecto's keyboard clicking
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May 8th, 2003
05:52 pm
w00t!
current mood: ecstatic
current music: [Copland] Fanfare for the Common Man Anthropology Graduate
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May 6th, 2003
10:40 pm - Ren Clothing
Hello Eglamore,
If you really want a "badass leather jacket," and you have $280 to burn, there's the Classic Fencing Jacket or King & Country Doublet. However, $280 is . . . well, a ton of money. At least for clothing. Renstore.com has very good service, and in my experience good quality. Although it doesn't have a wide selection of jackets/doublets/vest you might find something you like.
In a more resonable price range is the Roughout Leather Jerkin, Medieval Hunting Jerkin and Fencing Vest. Also, for posterity's sake: Yaaaaaaaaaar!
There's a lot of stuff out there, renstore and museum replicas limited are good choices with the time constrait. Sorry about that, I'm a bit of a doof. Really, a nice pair of slacks (I'll be wearing slacks), a vest, and a ren shirt is fine with me. It's definitely ren enough, a cloak might be nice too instead (or with) a vest. If you do decide to go all out on a fancy doublet or jacket or something, I do have an extra ren shirt you can borrow.
My parents and sister got their clothing from Cloak & Dagger, I'm getting my new shirt from her as well. The lady who runs C&D is a very nice and the quality is great. Of course, although she does custom orders, you can't take advantage of visiting her first to see her stuff.
My requirements are that it has to be rennish and you have to be happy. YOU WILL BE HAPPY! There's no point buying clothing you're not happy with, especially since ren clothing tends to be expensive. Dark colors, and blue, are a plus. Colors that make you look like a jester or buffoon should be avoided :) Tights are up to you ;)
Current Music: Cowboy Bebop - [Jim Infantino] Stress.avi
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May 3rd, 2003
11:24 pm - Food and False Advertising
I rent my apartment from Alecto's parents and in fact, it is part of their house. As part of the rent, I get free food.
I was getting some food out of the fridge, this was a few days before Easter, I noticed something interesting.
Horseradish Wasabi Mayonase.
Horseradish
Wasabi
Together
Wow, I thought to myself, this must be hot! I showed it to Alecto, who decided to put some on a cracker since she is much more crazy than I am. I'm not going to put anything in my mouth that had both horseradish and wasabi in it, I value my ability to taste. Alecto "screwed her courage to the sticking place" (I told you she was crazy) and she ate it.
I was ready with a glass of water.
To my disapointment, horseradish wasabi mayonase isn't hot at all. I'm not saying I'm disapointed that Alecto didn't turn red and have gouts of fire come out of her mouth, as cool as that would be. Instead I'm disapointed by the fact that this product wasn't nearly hot enough to put horseradish or wasabi in its name, let alone both. Sure, they might be ingrediants, but such minute amounts are included, it's almost ridiculous.
On the plus side, it is quite tasty even if it is the worst case of false advertising since the makers of Root Beer claimed it was a cure-all.
On the subject of false advertising. I got myself a Pineapple-Guava juice at a vending machine resently. Very tasty, but it is one of these 5% juice deals. I was looking at the ingrediants, water, sugar, pear juice . . . . pear juice? Natural flavors were almost at the end. Granted, they are likely so concentrated it doesn't require much to add flavor, but I'm still cuirous why this isn't Pear-Pineapple-Guava juice.
Current Mood: ![[mood icon]](http://l-stat.livejournal.com/img/mood/niaha/kitty/ankfood.gif) hungry
Current Music: Neon Genesis Evangelion - [Weird Al] Alternative Polka.mpeg
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April 29th, 2003
11:08 pm - Aristotle, Homer . . . they sound like fun
( but I can't say I'd look forward to hanging out with Socrates )
Current Mood: ![[mood icon]](http://l-stat.livejournal.com/img/mood/niaha/kitty/anktired.gif) tired
Current Music: Neon Genesis Evangelion - [Nena] 99 Red Balloons (German).avi
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April 26th, 2003
01:12 am
A little over two weeks ago I really ran myself into the ground, I went a few too many nights without sleep I guess, any my immune system (in it's groggy state) accidentily agreed to a tag team bought with a couple of illnesses. It's actually kind of humorous how consecutive they've been. Ironically, not getting enough sleep led to me not being able to sleep. I wouldn't classify this as an illness except I couldn't sleep because I would get an incredible headache if I did. After a few nights, it went away and my head got congested, and as that started to wane yesterday my throat got really sore. I'm feeling a lot better now, but my unfortune decided to go out with a bang!
Tonight, I stuck my foot through a wall.
It was an accident, Alecto surprised me (I'm very ticklish) and my foot kind of shot out and put a hole in the drywall. It should be easy to fix, and it's even kind of funny, but that didn't make me any less embarrased.
Actually, I consider all of this a good omen. I've got two more weeks of classes, and I just purged myself of all my bad karma. :)
Onto the good news!
My doublet arrived, I got it in medium blue seude. It's a bit brighter than I expected, but I like it a lot. Now I just need to get my shirt, it's at home with my parents right now and they're going to send it over here after my sister sees it.
My sister, who has spent the semester in South Africa, will be coming home soon. May 1st if everything goes smoothly. I expect her home May 2nd. It sounds like she has had a really great time down there, right now she's at a monkey rehabilitation center, although apparently she isn't allowed to play with the monkeys since the center sets the monkeys free when they're better and they don't want them conditioned to play with humans. Earlier, apparently, she did get to play with monkeys, or perhaps it would be better to say the monkeys got to play with her hair, as they were very interested in her dreds.
Current Mood: good
Current Music: Jim's Big Ego - Noplace Like Nowhere - She's Dead
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April 15th, 2003
11:42 am - A comment made by Alecto today about her dog:
Poochie goes by two philosophies:
"Ask and ye shall receive," and "if at first you don't succeed, try try again."
Current Mood: hungry
Current Music: Dual! Parallel Trouble Adventure - [Ozma] Korobeiniki.mpeg
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April 13th, 2003
01:43 pm - Classes
The Perliminary Binghamton Course guide finally went up, early registration was supposed to start about a month ago. Unfortunately funding problems delayed it significantly. I need to check up on the Arabic course being offered, my understanding is that it was a continuation of Intermediate Arabic, but the title doesn't make it sound that way.
ANTH 501 - History of Anthropology
Tues/Thur 11:00 - 01:00
ARAB 380A - Studies in Arabic Literature
Tues/Thur 01:15-02:40
ARTH 597 - Independant Study (ARTH 388A - Gilded Pages: Calligraphy and Painting)
Tues/Thur 02:50 - 04:15
ANTH 571A - Anthropology of Art & Museums
Wed 01:10 - 04:10
Tuesday and Thursday are going to be somewhat compressed, but the Arabic course I'm taking for no credit, and the Art History class I'm sitting in as part of my tutorial with the professor, and she has told me she doesn't mind if I'm a bit late. In fact, for awhile it looked like Arabic was going to overlap a little with Gilded Pages, thankfully they don't.
I'll have to go talk to the head of the Arabic department tomorrow about the class, it might be that it simply makes more sense for me to work independantly with the resources I own. I'm near the end of book 2 in a series, and I do own book 3. I'm not very enamored with the series (neither is the professor!) but Gabriel, my Arabic professor from Simon's Rock, gave me an excelent text which should compliment it nicely. It'll require a lot of determination to keep on track, but I think I can do it. The problem is with the listening and speaking aspects, since such a plan of action would basically have none. :(
I'm most looking forward to Anth 571A, not only does it sound interested, but the professor (who recently agreed to be my advisor and head my thesis) is very nice. I should sit in on her current class and see how well she teaches. A undergraduate lecture might not be a fair way to assess how one will run a graduate discussion, but I should be able to get a general idea. She's invited me, I should take her up on it :)
I've been a bit sick lately, but oveall I'm doing well. It's warm again, which is very nice, I much prefer sandals to shoes. I'm definitely ready for warmer weather, winter this year was ridiculously cold. I suppose I should have expected it, last winter was ridiculously warm, there was a week or so in February when I was wearing t-shirts.
Current Music: Dragon Half - My Omelette
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April 5th, 2003
10:34 pm
I haven't updated this in a while, I really need to spend more time on livejournal, both posting and reading. For example, I'm so behind reading Eglamore's entires, and they're always so much fun to read too :)
I figured I'd update today because Summerific, my sister for those who don't know, might get the chance to go on-line this weekend. She's spending the semester in South Africa, for those living in the North East this winter, they know just how lucky she is!
My semester is going pretty well. My Art History class is great, and the teacher has even offered to do an independant study with me next semester - she's teaching an undergraduate course I'm interested in, I'll attend the class and have graduate level work expectations. My Archaeology class has been a lot of fun as well, I'll be starting my big paper for it soon, it's about the presentation in museums (focusing on the National Museum ofthe Native American which will be opening in Washington DC soon).
Arabic has been nice, but I find the verbal and listening expectation are often too advanced for me, and the grammatical and writting expectation are often not advanced enough :) My professors are great though, and I'm looking forward to Advanced Arabic next semester.
Current Issues and Debates in Anthropology is still as annoying as it was beforehand. We finally got to a topic I was interested in, and we spent the entire class (which ended early) talking about the war with Iraq. I don't deny that it is important, but it was basically just whining, there was no attempt to have a constructive conversation. They seem to have forgotten the in Anthropology part of the class title.
To add insult to injury, they decided to make up for the time they wasted by making two classes start an hour earlier. Yay, not only does class start at 8:00am, but it lasts four hours! Thankfully. I have had a cold this week, and was too sick to go to class.
I'll survive the class, I just hope I get the required B- so I don't have to re-take it. I don't think there will be a problem, in fact one of the professors said that he wasn't worried about me.
It looks like I'll have a thesis advisor soon. She's very nice, and has a cool British accent. I've had one meeting with her already and had a great conversation, I did some suggested reading and such, and will meet again on Monday to discuss things in more detail.
As for life outside of academics . . . I've heard its nice!
I've ordered my doublet for the wedding. I got a damaged one to ry on and it was very comfortable.
Alecto's bridal shower went well, I was playing Dungeons and Dragons with her brother and some of his friends. It was a bit odd (most of the game was spent getting our characters into the party) but it was still fun. Even better, most of the bridal shower gifts are things I can use, but I didn't have to wear a stupid hat to get them! :D
Current Mood: good
Current Music: Irresponsible Captain Tylor - [Howard Goodall and Ian Hu] Red Dwarf Extended Mix
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hungry_donner's journal