Tag Archives: observations

Personal Blog

CD Player Woes

4 Comments

My CD player is shot, which I discovered late last night after tearing apart my entire room to figure out what that obnoxious buzzing noise was.

I got my first portable CD player for my birthday when I was in the 6th grade. It was a Sony, and it lasted me until my sophomore year in college. I think that…(does some finger-toe math)..8 years is quite a respectable lifespan for a cd player. Granted, by that time it was a clunky old warhorse, had to be held closed with a rubberband, and needed extra encouragement to get the buttons to work, but it still did its job.

Sophomore year of college, after Christmas and before my England trip, I decided to treat myself to a new cd player, and retire the warhorse. The wretched new thing barely lasted 6 months before it broke. I tried going up on price a bit with the next one, an Aiwa that was working wonderfully until last night. I had so much faith in it!

Now, I do put my cd players through some abuse. I fall asleep on them, drop them, smash them in my backpack, expose them to dangerous chemicals (oil paints), and the like. I might need to break down and buy a “really nice” one next. I don’t know if I can find one that I can squeeze another 8 years out of, but one that would last at *least* a year would be nice.

Anyone have any recommendations?

Personal Blog

Honors

6 Comments

I got to have an extremely brief visit with and yesterday as I ventured to UK to see their Beowulf Cluster for a presentation. I was sad that the stay was so short, but I had to get back to Centre for the Honors Convocation, because I’d received a cryptic note in campus mail informing me that I would receive an honor.

I also learned an important lesson about Centre’s Honors Convocation. It is very different from the honors assemblies in high school. The college superiors must have done research into how little one really cares about a fancy certificate that you’ll just throw in a box as soon as you return home, and decided to give students something worthwhile for their honors.

Now, we all know that there are two fundamental worthwhile prizes: food and money. Having missed dinner, I would have been thrilled to receive a cookie for my outstanding achievement in art, but when I discovered that the little envelope I got did NOT contain a dinky certificate, but a check, I was equally enthusiastic.

If they’d given us money in high school honors assemblies, I would have been much more spirited about going! So that was my pleasant surprise for the week, I’ll use it to buy art supplies…or maybe a playstation 2 ¬_¬

Personal Blog

Easter stuff

As my third year as the official family Easter-egg hider, I once again took careful count of the total number of eggs (there were 18, just 18, seems like a manageable amount), and once again there were two missing by the end of the hunt. I carefully checked all my hiding spaces, and at last had to tell my cousins that it was the work of the mischievous Easter Weasel, who’d come in and stolen them for himself. Next year, I plan on creating an accurate map of the yard, and plot all egg locations. Maybe I could employ some GPS, just for good measure.

On another note, I’ve discovered that the limit for who my grandma gives candy to is not based on age. It must be based on when you get married, for this year my brother did not get a huge bag of Easter candy, and I did. Unfortunately, I’ve found that I am no longer able to metabolize the huge amounts of candy I receive like I used to, so I’ll be doing a lot of sharing this week.

I have gripes with Easter candy anyway. It’s too shape-driven, and I’m particularly upset with those speckled, bubble gum eggs and the similar looking malted milk ball eggs. They’re like frickin identical! They’re both tasty in their own right, but biting into one while expecting the other is not a pleasant experience. Bleh!

As far as candy-holidays go, I’m still with Halloween. It seems to cater to general, commercial candy much better. Just look at M&M’s. You have red and green for Christmas, pink, red and white for Valentine’s, pastels for Easter, but for Halloween it’s like they relax. No pressure.

Back to school with me..

Personal Blog

Night Thoughts

At around 4:30 this morning, I sat straight up in bed and thought,

“3 hours ago, at Rodes, David Flora lulling me to sleep by playing the Zelda song, Pink Floyd, and the James Bond theme on the accordion…….did that really happen?”

…

“Yes, it did.”

28 seconds later, I was sound asleep again.

Personal Blog

Resssst

1 Comment

Spring Break thus far has been absolutely exquisite. I have done nothing. Sweet, pure, absolute nothing. I’ve been reading The Worthing Saga, which Brendan lent me long ago. I like it, but I would probably like any book at this point, just because it’s been so long since I’ve had a moment to read for leisure. I love having those days where you read late into the night, only to wake up early the next morning for the sole purpose of lounging about and reading all day.

I think this is just the recharge my body needs. I’m already feeling much more refreshed and pleasant, and I think my body is getting plenty of rest. By Monday I’ll have created enough relaxation reserve to last me through the rest of the term.

As a side note, I find it particularly annoying when you’re at a meal, and someone offers you a dish, and you say “no thank you,” and they interpret that to mean “no, I don’t like it”, and respond with such things as “but it’s good!” or “but I thought you liked _____!” It drives me up the wall! Is this a normal family thing, or is it just mine that does it?

Personal Blog

Busy busy busy

4 Comments

Today, I was helping Kay fill glass molds, holding open the annealer door for her, and it didn’t register in my head that my sweatshirt was not cotton…it MELTED! My poor poor sweatshirt that I’ve had since like the 7th grade, all melted down the side. It’s really not a terribly big deal, but I think I’m worn enough that it upset me a good bit.

I sat down the other day to re-organize the stuff going on in my life right now. You know, categorizing it into stuff that’s important, stuff that’s urgent, stuff that’s important but not urgent…that sort of thing. I did this once in high school, and I remember the not important/not urgent section being pretty full. There were things like “watching tv” and “playing video games” and stuff, and I remember cutting back on a lot of that to make room for more important things.

So I was like, “ah! I’ll find some time by cutting back on some of those!” So I made my list…and it was the category that was least full >_< I already don't watch tv, and though I would have said that Halo could use some cutting back in the fall, even those games are few and far between in the spring. So, the internet is suffering the biggest cut, which is still a stretch, because I don't spend a terrible amount of time on the internet as it is. Not as much as I used to, at least. I mean, I don't even have time to read web comics anymore, I struggle to keep up with two a day, how unpleasant! So, I'm not going on any sort of big hiatus or anything, I'm just going to be around less than I already am. I did, however, implement my School AIM settings, so that now, if you see me on AIM, you'll know that I intend to stick around for longer than 15 minutes at a time ^_^ It won't be an easy feat, but I tried it today. I'm fortunate to have a wireless keyboard and mouse, because I can just take them and put them in the closet, it really reduces temptations to spend my blocks of free time futzing about online. There's also an alternate reason for my taking a break. Sheldon's been giving me lots of advice about my wrists lately. I told him about what the doctor said, and he instantly turned into mother hen, telling me to do this or that or be careful of this. I'm going to start listening to him. Sheldon (for those of you who don't know, he's my painting instructor) has pretty severe carpal tunnel syndrome. He has big foam grips on his paintbrushes to help him, he has to treat his arms every day when he goes home, and he chatted with me about things he just has to do all the time for it. I think it's kinda sad, I mean, he's a painter. That's what he does for a living, he paints, he draws, he teaches others to do the same, that's his life, and he has to do it with a rather unpleasant nerve problem in his hands and wrists. How awful! I really don't want to end up like Sheldon (well, not in that sense at least, in every other sense maybe so, Sheldon's my hero! ^_^). I guess I just want to do what I can to keep my symptoms from ever wandering anywhere outside of "mild," and this would be a good way to help do that. The wrists have been bothering me more often since glass picked up this term anyhow. I'll keep this journal up, I'll try not to be *too* late in webpage updates, you know, that sort of things. Things might not even be so busy when March is through, we shall see, I guess.

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

Oh, bloody hell

By the end of finals week, I was fully rested and fully recovered, and a good thing too, for yesterday I got an email from an old high school acquaintance whom I hadn’t heard from since graduation. It seems her aunt was having a difficult pregnancy; they needed O negative blood and she found out from another friend that was my blood type, and asked if I could donate.

That was no problem (although I must say, it did kinda creep me out that old highschool friends know my blood type), so I put aside my Saturday plans to go donate. Us O- kids have to stick together.

Blood donations are somewhat up in the air for me, they can either be problem-free or really really bad, so it always makes me slightly nervous. One thing that puzzles me is how much the finger prick bothers me. It shouldn’t, logically, as I cut myself on a regular basis working with glass, it shouldn’t be any big deal at all. Strange.

Anyway, this time the donation went well, but I am always flustered at how slow it takes me. Perhaps it’s low blood pressure or low pulse, but two people sat down after me and finished several minutes before I was even close! Not fair!! Still, I was thankful that there were no problems this time.

And yet, a good donation does not get me off the hook, it still drains a lot out of me (ha ha!). Even after a good donation, I’m generally reduced to a shivering mass of protoplasm, unable to use the arm I gave out of for several hours. That doesn’t matter, though, as I fell asleep for at least 6. This is also quite unfair, especially when there are people like Nate, who can hop in, donate a pint, then go out and play a game of Ultimate Frisbee right away.

My dad suggested I look into apherisis, since I have such a problem with the donation affecting me, because you don’t lose any blood volume. He gives platelets quite regularly, so perhaps I’ll check that out.

At any rate, I’m still a bit drained and woosy, so I think I’ll go sleep for another day and a half. I am on break, afterall.

Personal Blog

Sweet Irony

Finals week is *supposed* to be a time of stress and worry for the average college student, I suppose, but this year it’s been quite the opposite for me. In fact, I’ve not been under less pressure the entire year than this week, how strange! I suppose it is because I get to sit still for once. No rush, no worries, no jam-packed schedules, just one spread out week to study quietly and take some tests.

I think I’ve spent more time in my own room these past few days than I have collectively over the entire term! At least, that’s what it *feels* like. My final painting critique was Sunday, and we cleaned the studio, and the glass 1 kids cleaned the glass studio on Monday. So, no art responsibilities. The one act plays are over, so no drama responsibilities. No comp sci projects, no work in the slide library, no glass blowing slots, just all this blank, free time. I have never been so pleased to sit and study, with plenty of time to stretch and take little breaks.

It’s somewhat creepy, in a way. I was terribly worried, because my illness and the general busy nature of life kept building and building and building…I thought this week would kill me! Yet, it’s worked the other way around, how ironic.

Anyway, I know there are plenty of people in quite the opposite case who are full of stress and pressure for finals, so I wish you all the best of luck!