elanya

I managed to get out of Nassau this morning, which is a good thing. I nearly didn't - my flight was canceled and they out me on an earlier one, and i did my best to rush through customs, etc.... but that's never a good idea. One of these days I'm going to need to get someone who I trust to really know what they're doing to sit me down and explain exactly what the deal is with the SEVIS and entry cards, etc, because I swear every time i go somewhere I get a different story. Okay, maybe there are really only, like, two stories, but they're different enough to be very worrying. One says: never give up your card *EVER* (until you're leaving foe good), the other says give it up evey time you leave the country. So, yeah, a bit of conflict there. Argh! part of me thinks it doesn't matter, because it is the guy (usually a guy) at the desk who you have to listen to to get back in to the country at any particular check point.

*sigh*

Anyway, here I am, in Florida. I've been here for almost two hours now, and my flight doesn't leave for another, hmmm, three and a half, ish? The ladies at Continental Connections desk, who put me on the earlier flight from Nassau said I should see about getting an earlier flight to Houston, but I checked, and there isn't an earlier *shuttle* from Houston I could get, and I'd much rather kill time here.

And why? Fort Lauderdale airport is small. It is easy to get around. There is decent food (including a Dunkin Dounuts). there is FREE INTERNET, and also electrical outlets to plug your computer in to. Houston International is big, crowded, and smelly, no free internet and nowhere to plug in a laptop. In other words, it is full of poop. Why would I want to spend an extra three hours there? Well I wouldn't, so here I am! I have somewhere between two to one hours to kill there tonight anyway after my flight gets in at 7:30-ish. Oh also, I worried about my luggage not getting to where I need it to be if I took an earlier flight.

So anyway, all is well, I'm back in the states, and I'll get my puppy back either late tonight or early tomorrow, I hope - I'm going to call Aaron from Houston and figure out what will work best.

Huzzah!

So it begins. 40 minute delay for crew rest already. I'll have an hour to get through everything in Toronto. Bleh. They priority tagged my baggage at least. The smells from the airport restaurant are, strangely, mouthwatering. Maybe I'll go see if they have something like an affordable bagel and egg deal in a bit. I did just set up the laptop though, ad they just opened, and have subsequently been swarmed by the rest of my flight. So I'll sit here for a bit, charge up my ipod, and add all the music I pilfered to my itunes... Okay, done. I guess I could read? I can't seem to load my friends page :p

Man, how can airport food smell soooo gooood ;_;

In other news, I'd like to mention how the F'ton airport has free wireless, while pretty much no other airport i've visited does. There might have been one, but I forget which now. This maybe a dinky little place and only have 1 real gate, but hey! At least they have free wireless! Bigger airports take note: you are a bunch of cocks.

In other news, I did, indeed, get to the bank, and did banking, whee! I did not get ahold of Lisa, alas. My schedule for yesterday filled up pretty fast. I got to chapters, and we played a fun one shot of L5R. Jodie killed me, the tart!

I am sad to leave everyone. Sadness ;_; Especially the ones where I'm not sure when I'll have a chance to see them next. Fredericton is slowly emptying out...

Okay, let us not dwell. I am looking forward to seeing peeps in CS again! Also I am just going to finish loading new songs, and then I'm getting me a food. Enough of this not having any deliciousness!

Yes, here I am in the Eller computer lab, yet again. I thought I'd be done with this all by now, but apparently not!

I had a nice lunch with Dr. Ewen, and ran into Chris, and made tentative plans for this evening to do.... something? Well, I will call their house once I get back from my meeting, unless I have major changes to make. I really hope that I don't, so that I can get this stuff delivered to the library tomorrow. I'm not really expecting to be able to pick stuff up before I leave though - I expect I'll have to get my copies when I come back to sort out my crap.

What else... I guess that's it for the moment, really. once I have my thesis all finished and approved and shiny, I'm going to see if there is anyone around who has a program that I can use to PDF it. I believe that somewhere in Eller there exists a copy of Acrobat Professional which should do the trick. Ahh, and I even found which computer it is on. Awesome. This means that I can burn copies to disk for people, woo-hoo! I will send copies to people whose stuff I used (Nevis guy and Barcadares guy). This will also be good for relaying copies to anyone else who might want one, or if I want to put it online. In fact if I do this, I suspect that the department will link to it online :) So that's keen.

I am wondering if there is something I can get published out of this. I might ask Carl. Technically I could go over there right now and ask, hmmm... nah. The bees are attacking and I don't really want to do much wandering around. Otherwise I might go to the library.

Bah! I wish I'd thought to bring something else to work on or read or what have you, but I was kind of in a hurry when I left the house. Anyone out there alive have suggestions as to what I could to to kill time for an hour?

Score! Hazel got a free hammy cage in TO! :D Habitrail space station. I guess Scallywag is just a space hammy - moving from one space themed cage to another ^-^

I bet you were through with my 'killing time at school' posts! Ha, I sure showed you, didn't I? ^-^

I saw Dr. Dudley this morning, and all was fine. he gave me back my last few chapters, and I could count the the corrections on one hand, almost, woot! he asked me some things and gave me a bit more of anm idea what to expect for the oral comps. He did say that they have been more intense lately. Dr. Babits popped in as well and told me at least one thing he will ask, which I think I can handle. I guess Carl will be the only unknown! He can be pretty scary, but I think I can handle it.

Karen also forwarded info about my defense to all the students, eeek! Not that I really expect anyone to turn up - maybe some of my friends for support. That would be okay. I really need to study more for comps still.

I thought I might have more to say, but instead I got distracted chatting on g-mail, hee!

Anyway I am in a pretty good mood this morning, though I am a little tired. I will probably nap when I go home, before Dance class. Otherwise I will study, work on Ice, or prepare mails. I get to use my new zills tonight, wheeee! :D

Eeee someone recorded part of the Cohen reading from last Saturday.

I see the ghost of culture
With numbers on his wrist
Salute some new conclusion
That all of us have missed

Wow. I have just been reading through some old Daniel chapters so that I could remind myself of some stuff that he did on Nu. I also read through some of my other chapters and I have decided to reclaim one of my storylines, and turn it into something else. That particular character concept has been deemed too awesome to abandon. As for the Daniel chapters, there was a lot of stuff he did that I'd completely forgotten, including when he fought a ten foot tall demon and escaped by shooting it in the crotch, using a basic mind rote that increases the feeling of pain.... Heh. And other awesome things such as stabbing himself in the side with metal tube to relieve the pressure of internal bleeding. realistic? maybe not, but hey, Nu had magical healing, after all ;)

It is also good to remind myself of how he progressed in Nu, from being a mindless Technocratic drone, to developing his own personality and self-awareness, and how he came to be more conscious of his own magic. It also shows me that my Daniel style hasn't really changed that much which is... consistent, at least. Anyway, good times. Alas I haven't gotten much new stuff *written* tonight, but you can't have everything, right?

Anyway, I hope that I can have a more productive day tomorrow. Today all I did was buy some very basic groceries (and I forgot to get vegetables, boo), go to dance class, and bake cookies. That's it. I guess I did some wikiying but apart from that everything else I've done has just been killing time with random (mostly useless) crap.

Is it more satisfying to make cookies from scratch, which is messy and time consuming, but also gives you a bit more of a break from computing and gives great opportunity to snack-as-you-go on dough, etc; or to just go to your freezer and slice up some cookies that can go in the oven as soon as its warmed up? No mess, no hassle, you can still have raw dough (in fact, this process allowed for weeks of snacking on raw dough, depending on your resolve), but doesn't give you as much of a break....

I suppose it really depends most on what you are looking for. Which is mostly cookies, atm. I did just watch an episode of House.

Alright, back to the paper - I have two sections left to write, and two more days of working, which sounds about right.... I'm actually waaay more productive at night though, and this is my last night. So, here is me buckling down! On the other hand, I have absolutely no worries about length, as my text is up to 16 pages, and it only has to be 20+. I'll probably get two or three pages out of both the remaining sections at least, and then I have pictures to insert, and then the bibliography, woot! I;m golden, as long as I get it all done.

In random news, itunes is apparently in a Metal mood tonight - right before this is played Welcome to the Jungle...

So... I have everything done for the Horsies, and 15 min to kill before class. I have nothing better to do than spam LJ!

So some random notes:

I learned today that if I want tograduate this term, then I need ot have my thesis defended and submitted to the graduate school by April 17th. Eeep! Well, i can probably manage that. And if I can't as long as I defend before the end of the term, I'm okay.

In other news, I just read the most annoying V for Vendetta review ever. It annoyed me because it gives full credit, for the story and everything, to the Wachowski brothers. Also it said that Natalie Portman's debut was in Star Wars. Ummm... no and no! The reviewer liked the movie, but was clueless. Clueless! How do people get jobs doing things they are clearly not qualified for? Well, that's Greenville for you :p

In other other news, I have not heard more from Michelle and thus have no idea what's going on tonight :o

I have to go hand back the exams I granded in about 15-20 minutes. I am at the History lab, whee! I did however mosey over to the library and clean out ILL! They had about four different things for me, including a book I'd recalled. Sweet!

I ought to make a to-do list for the day...
-Thesis Thesis Thesis - I can never get enough done on this :/
-Wrap and mail SW package
-Probably have a nap (~4 hours sleep last night ;p)
-Dance class
-Take out something for dinner
-Cogs?
-readings for Stewart? (conveniently, the readings this week were on cogs - two birds, one stone! :)
-PAT meeting at 4! That is what I was missing!

I'm sure there was more.... there always is. It shouldn't be as bad as yesterday though. In fact I pretty much got everything I wanted to done yesterday, with the exception of Thesis stuff ;p I made two parrot toys for my SW. I couldn't find the fake fur, so the kitties will have to go without, alas. the parrot toys were more interesting anyway ;)

What else, what else... Ahh yess: I posted the latest installment of Pieces late last night over at measured_words. I really ought to write some other stuff to put in there, just so I can use my main Icon, which I am very happy with. She kind of looks like me in larger views ;) Maybe a bit more like my cousin Melissa, or like me when I was younger.

Anyway. I have also been working on transcribing a story I finished... Well, sometime in the last year, anyway. I'm not sure how much I like it - it is kind of trite, but I'll type it up and post it anyway. When I have time and inspiration, there is something else I am working on as well - a sequel to "Breaking Into the Market", for anyone who's read that piece.

Hmmm, do I have anything else to talk about? I would say not much at the moment :/ Lots of people have commented that I have lost weight recently I hadn't been paying that much attention. It isn't like my lifestyle has changed that much. My ipod encourages me to walk a little faster, maybe, and I haven't been able to afford as much junk and snacks, so I guess that must be it. I can see my ribs when my posture is right ;) Ahh well... once I have money again I'm sure it'll all come back ^-^

I'm at school. I had to come in early to see Dr P about the marking I did. I am supposed to go in in about half an hour to return them. They were actually pretty good this time around, escape goats nonwithstanding.

I managed to get a lot of stuff done yesterday, although not all, or even most of it, was school related. I did go through my lecture, and even though I panicked when I realized that it was all in outline form,I could still remember pretty much all of it. I'll go over it again tomorrow. I also made and mailed a bunch of Valentines. If you want one, you need to reply to my earlier post. I made biscuits, revised and posted a story section, bought some stuff... It seemed like there was more to it at the time. I guess i read aboutcogs and such. I've also realized that one of my ILL books is almost a month overdue... But I need it ;_; I really don't want to give it back. I suppose I can get a bunch of it photocopied, and I do have notes. I think I'll lie and say I misread/misremembered the month it was due ;) That'll give me another week, anyway. I'm naughty! But hell, who else would need it? :p

Today I am going to go and see Dr. Ewen about the Nevis stuff, and go grab some cog stuff from the library, maybe. I have dance tonight and... I guess that is about it for plans. All in all this has not been my most productive weekend, and I hope that I can pick myself up and get back to the pace I was working at before. I can start looking at the Skuldelev ships for my presentation later this month too, I expect, and maybe do readings for Maritime Hist&Arch of Europe.

I really am just killing time for the moment. pardon my mental disorganization. In other news my back is *killing* me today. My computer chair is pretty much destroyed, form a year+ of my not being able to sit like a normalk person. The back is completely useless, and the seat's padding is smooshed into uselessness. I can't afford a new one, and I waiver on whether or not it would be a worthwhile investment anyway. I do spend a lot of time at my computer, but I'd only have it for a few months.... I suppose it is moot at this point anyway, but it is distressing how *nice* it is to sit in the lab chair. I wonder if anyone would notice if I yoinked one? ;) The answer is yes, of course, heh.

Meh, still another 20 min to kill. Maybe I'll e-mail Dr. Ewen and make sure he will be in today, and find out exactly when.

In more random commentary, I am trying a new conditioner, and though it has some crap in it that I usually try to avoid, it is designed for hair which is greasier at the roots and dry at the tips and I am so far quite pleased with the results. It's one of the Aussie products, but I can't remember the exact name.

Also, I haven't heard anything back from UCl again. If I can find the time, I am just going to re-do my proposal with some more specifics and see what he thinks. Maybe I will take it by Dr. Richards first, maybe :p