Category Archives: Personal Blog

Entries from my personal journal

Personal Blog

Graaaaaah!

I have been blessed and cursed with a very low stress perception.

On the upperhand, it means I don’t get stressed out about things easily. Upcoming tests and papers do not worry me, finals week does not send me on an emotional fray, and I do not get “stressed out” over school and such…

The bad part about this is that I usually do not detect when I really am putting a lot of stress on myself. Things just pile up, and I schedule and organize and everything gets done. But it puts a lot of wear on me, I just don’t perceive the stress. It’s generally not until, as it was last term, I’m limping to class feeling as though my bones are on fire, and my professor…my professor sends me home from class to get rest that I even consider “You know, maybe I’m pushing myself a bit too hard.”

At the end of every term, I’m amazed at how I barely survived, and every term I add a little more to my workload.

I generally do a pretty good job of keeping up with myself, but lately, I’ve been feeling myself shift and move and change beneath me. I know I need to catch onto it, so I don’t look back at myself suddenly to find I’m a changed person, but I really am so busy. It’s tricky, too, because isn’t all this wonderful…torturous work I’m putting myself through supposed to be for bettering myself? And yet I’m so busy with *stuff* that I’m neglecting myself. Tricky!

Ultimately, this is what’s happened…
A lot of stuff is going on in my life right now, and through much organization and planning, I’ve managed to get it all balanced. Sure, it may be an overly tall, wonky, wobbly structure, but it’s balanced!

Then, today, as I was fine tuning the balanced structure of my life, a large, menacing, godzilla-like creature came stomping up in the form of a memo that said:
“Rhodes Scholarship! You should consider applying!”
Then the monster kicked over my structure, and stepped on me.

Now, I think applying for the Rhodes Scholarship would be an awesome thing to do. It’s just that, I *never* had considered it before, and it’s so much work! I am overwhelmed. O_o I’m going to talk to Sheldon tomorrow.

Personal Blog

Maaaaaagic

4 Comments

Today in theory…

The Pumping Theorem:

Let L be a regular language.
Then there exists n >=1 such that any string w that is an element of L with |w|>n,
there exists x, y, z so that w can be rewritten as w=xyz, such that y !=e, |xy|<=n, and xy^iz is an element of L for each i>=0.

Me: “So, where does the n come from?”
Dr. McAllister: “Oh, well, the n is sorta like magic.”
Class: “Ah, magic..mm, yes *note note note*.”

Personal Blog

Just some links

Hooray! My glass fishie is doing very well ^_^ Approaching last chance!

http://cgi.ebay.com/ws/eBayISAPI.dll?ViewItem&item=2615652319

Meanwhile, in Computer Organization, we were discussing acronyms and their potential silliness, and Dr. Montgomery told us about this little piece of US defense. It’s…….interesting.

http://www.time.com/time/europe/me/daily/0,13716,423690,00.html

Personal Blog

Time flies

For anyone who particularly liked my glass fish…

http://cgi.ebay.com/ws/eBayISAPI.dll?ViewItem&item=2615652319

In other news, February has passed its midpoint! I noticed this today as I was making my calendar for the week, and had a brief moment of panic. The dreaded March-of-decision-making is that much closer. However, after a moment, I calmed down. I think I’ve done well about preparing myself…

-As far as the summer glass class goes, my slides are developed and I should pick them up today. I’m going to give Steve a deadline for my letter of recommendation, and today I’ll ask Sheldon if he’ll write one too. That just leaves the scholarship essay.

-I had Matthew revise my resume, and I’ve rewritten most of it. Today I’ll schedule another appointment to have him look over the second copy. SETC is almost here, but I’m more excited than I am nervous ^_^

-The what-to-do-during-winter-term-next-year issue may already be decided. As much as I’d love to go, I don’t think I can come up with the funds necessary to study in Morocco. However, there is a much cheaper biology trip to the Bahamas that may be affordable. A friend of mine went on it last year and really enjoyed himself. It’s a popular trip, though, and I may not make it in even if I can come up with the deposit money.

I’ve been rigorously setting goals and keeping to them, and I’m proud of myself for that. It’s only been two weeks and I feel like I’ve been back at school for months.

Personal Blog

Well…

2 Comments

They said it correct

I spent the other day doing work in the art barn, and so wore my steel-toed boots as I always do, just in case, to protect my toes from dropping heavy things upon them.

Back in my room, I was taking the steel-toed boots off, and I DROPPED ONE ON MY TOE. Is that not the most perfect irony?

It’s almost as bad as how I injured my neck yesterday giving someone a hug >_<

Personal Blog

Community

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Every time I go to some big thing at Centre–a guest lecturer, a speech, a play of some sort–I always feel invigorated and yet slightly frustrated at the same time. There’s always some incredible insight, or some important message, and I feel wiser for the world. But at the same time, I am always frustrated that I can’t hunt down every person I’ve ever known offline/online/whatever in that exact moment, and drag them there and sit them down and say “You need to see this.” It frustrates me that I can barely convey the message, which is reinforced so much by the experience, which is lost on me all together. It’s not even enough to say “this is an awesome play, go see the movie,” because the experience is just not the same. I suppose it wouldn’t even be the same to drag friends from across the country, it’s more forceful to sit and watch people you know in love in a place where you live draw frighteningly realistic parallels and make you think. The physical presence provided by theater is enough to drive any wavering point straight home.

The Laramie Project was beautiful and intense. Jeff’s sleepless nights and the grueling work of the cast and crew paid off, and I believe it was a very important thing that happened on that stage. It made me think a lot–about hate, about people, about how we do important things in theater, about how we do important things in art. Overall, though, the biggest impact on me was the idea of community.

I’ve never been one to deny the fact that I live in a college bubble, and more often a smaller, more personal bubble. I always say “I live in Louisville, but go to school in Danville,” or sometimes even opt out of the town name and just say “Centre.” I need to realize that I live here, this is where I live, this is a community which I am part of, and I need to take responsibility for that.

There are things going on here that I found out about just last night, that I had *no* idea about. There are places I’ve never been, and my interaction with the people has been limited to say the most. So here’s Wertle’s message of the day:

Physical community is important. No matter how detached you feel from it, how different you are, how little you could care about what’s going on down the street, YOU are a part of your community. You need to find a facet where you can affect it, and you need to take responsibility, because you live there, you are a part of it, you have a chunk of it to uphold. So, off with you now! Go on, take a look outside your window and see what you can. Take a few steps outside the bounds of your campus and figure out where you live. It’s important.

As for me, I have a few goals to set for myself regarding my final year and a half at Centre…or rather, in Danville.

Personal Blog

Laramie Project

So I declined getting into electrics for the spring show, even with my crescent wrench gnawing longingly at my sleeve. My wrists were scolding me by the end of the day, and I took that as a sign to not push it too far over the limit this term. I’ll save it for road shows.

If anyone’s near Danville tomorrow and Thursday night (I can only think of 2 right now), you should come see The Laramie Project. Directed by Jeff (the one who juggles flaming sticks) and with a killer cast, it should be a good show. Plus, if you visit, I might give you a cookie or something.

Personal Blog

The Camel’s back

The first weekend of spring term was surprisingly productive for me. I think I have discovered the secret for me not being a slacker–stay in the building in which the classes take place for which I must do my homework. Saturday morning I went to the art barn to shoot slides of some of my glass, and Steve asked if I could stay that afternoon and charge the furnace every half hour or so. I agreed, and actually got a lot of work on my casting project done.

Auditions for Chalk Circle are today, and I’m faced with a tedious decision. I’m already involved in the play, in that I’m going to help Katherine make masks, which should be awesome fun. I really want to do electrics as well, but judging how busy I’m going to be based on this weekend (and the glass slots haven’t even started yet!), I fear that would be the breaking straw. I certainly couldn’t sacrifice a large enough chunk of time to be light board op again, but I would still like to be an electrician. I’d even have tech weekend taken care of, as I don’t plan on picking up glass slots on Fridays or Saturdays, and the studio is closed on Sundays.

Still, I have a gnawing fear that it might be a bit too much for me. I don’t want to hurt myself, and I still have the big Decision-Making-March to contend with. And besides, there are tons of road shows this term, so I’ll get my electrician fix in regardless. I’ll wrestle with the idea a bit and decide by this afternoon I suppose.

Personal Blog

Glass auction

4 Comments

Well, there’s a first time for everything, I guess…

Wertle glass for sale! Yay!

http://cgi.ebay.com/ws/eBayISAPI.dll?ViewItem&item=2614135172

On an unrelated note, my great-grandmother turns 100 tomorrow. Happy birthday Meme!