elanya

I was watching the Teaser trailer for Goblet of Fire, and was reminded again of my reaction when I first read that line in the book. I was shocked, and impressed.

I was thinking about my cadet days last nightand I realized that I often have a hard time giving up on things into which I have envested a lot of time, and money, and emotion if they are giving me back things that I should appreciate, even if I don't enjoy them. I feel anobligation. It took me a long tome to quit cadets after I stopped enjoying it, because it was still a useful thing for me. It gave me money, in the form of jobs, and skills, and some friends. But I hated the things it asked of me in return. I eventually realized how much I dreaded and hated it, and left without a word of warning. IN my tired brain last night, I thought there was an analogy to be made there with my relationship with Joel. It was something I had put a lot of time and emotion into, and I was still getting a lot of things. In fact, joel never did anything wrong, or rarely enough that it should hbave counted. But I nevertheless was unsatisfied about *something*, and it was making me unhappy. So I left, finally, and now I am happier. And no one was really expecting that either, were they? And though I do have good memories from each of these experiences, I don't regret ending either of them.

I think the point of the realization was that I need to watch out for other situations like that, where I continue to invest myself personally into various kinds of relationships because I *should* appreciate/enjoy them, rather than because I actually do.

In other news, I am trying to figure out how to soend my day. I still need to sort out my tuition, and buy a present for Bart's wedding. Those are my most pressing errands, as they both need to be done by the end of the week, and sooner is better.

Also, eek! I can't believe that I am leaving for Ohio in *two days*! Eek!

I think my plan is a s follows: I will go to school and see if I can sort out the tuition thing. Tonight, I will cann Dina, Michelle, and/or tsiankiio (if she is still in town), since this is the last free night I will have to see people before I got to Ohio. I don't know if they are around next week, or how their schedule for this works out. Anyway, if I can see one or more of them, *and* get someone to take me to BB&B, bonus! Otherwise, I will go up on my own, probably via taxi.

I also need to get some rosemary, because I forgot I took out my shank of lamb to thaw on Sunday. And I need to read moe South, and possibly some other things. And make more Gnomes. I hope it doesn't take me as long to make all my NPCs as that one did last night :( Experience, though, is key! And most of them don't need to be very detailed. I did find some useful name lists/generatos, at least. However, if anyone has time for quick and dirty NPC creation, I'd appreciate them. This is only a short game, after all... I think the way it is working out is that most of them don't need much detail at all, but those that do need a lot :p

Breakfast, then get dressed, then go to school, then come home and read, I think.

I have a lamb shank to cook, but all the recipes that i can find for lamb shanks involve things I don't have. I guess what I will do, is that I will improvise the *way* that the lamb shanks are cooked with the things that I have and I know are good on lam. So, um. Here is to culinary experimentation :o

Oh, right, I have paid for fieldschool, go me!

I browned my lamb on the outside in olive oil. Then I added some oinion and garlic to the stew pot and put the lamb shank into a baking dish. Then, I added some salt, pepper, and rosemary. And more garlic. Then I poured in some apple juice and applecider vinegar, and a touch of ketchup. Once that boiled, I put it into the baking dish, and then shoved the lamb in for an hour.

When the timer went, I re-read the Joy of Cooking stuff on its recipe (which I was desperately improvising on), and decided that I cold cook the lamb for longer in more liquid. So I added some more apple juice and water, and put it back in for another 1/2 hour. then I put in some carots and mushrooms. It was only supposed to take another 15 min, but it would up taking another 45 min for the carrots to be tender. I actually turned up the temperature too. But whatever. It is done now, and it is deeeelicious! But fatty. Ahh well.

This is what happens when I have too much time on my hands :p

I am not sure if I am cut out to be an empiricist. I have been reading South, because my advisor wants me to. I understand the basic principles of what he is saying, but as soon as he starts presenting data and tries to exlain how the threory is put into practice, my eyes glaze over and I desperately crave naps. It should not take me a week to get through a 300 page book. I am also unsure how exatly I will apply his pattern recognition stuff to the data that I'm going to be working with. I am wondering if I should look into other people's use of patterns as well, to see if they might be more applicable to what I've got. The other thing I need ot do is get Daniel Finamore's thesis again. Once upon a time, I found a place onlie where I could order theses from the Ann Arbour microfilm place, but last time I looked, I couldn't get back to the right page :p It was only about 30$. I can look again, I suppose.

Really, I probably *do* have enough info to write my prospectus, I am just getting antsy about actually doing this project, not just doing the background research for it. :/

I called people about a movie tonight. If anyone calls me back, that will be cool. I think I will pack for Thursday some, and work up on NPC descriptions for gnomes. I can work on some antagonists too, whee! My lamb was tasty, but I am still hungry, and still kind of sleepy.

Meeeeeh......

ETA: I ordered the thesis. It was 38$, but whatever. I'll use it as a tax write off or something :p I now need to fiddle with my budget so I can ask my dad to send me some money. My money :p Meh.