Happy Halloween

I finally started working on revisions to the manuscript that LADF sent to me a couple weeks ago.  Wow!  It. Is. A. Mess.  None of the paragraphs support the first paragraph, it's like reading a schizophrenic paper.  The intro is six pages of crap.  I need to re-write the whole thing and find new articles.  I hate finding new articles!  It's the worst!  It's so time consuming!  Ugghhh  Then I'll probably have to modify the methods and results a bit.  And I'll have to re-write the discussion too.  I couldn't get that far because the intro was so awful.  Now I understand what my advisor wanted from my papers all this time.

And just because it's Halloween:


And with the original animation:

Re-balancing

Traveling, even in the same time-zone, always throws off my circadian rhythm and eating habits.  It didn't help that I had to hear drunken Halloween revelers returning from the bars and clubs until 4 AM. Anyway, I've been feeling low on energy and just not myself in general, I know that part of that is due to being really stressed in the weeks leading up to the conference and partly due to not sleeping enough.  But I feel a great deal of it has to do with not eating right in the days leading up to and the days of the conference.  To remedy that, I decided to not go to campus today and just work from home.  Additionally, I'm going to put together a meal plan for this week and next, sticking to my 18+ vegan meals a week.  I need to really find some recipes that are cheap and can be made in bulk and frozen.  If I find any good links I'll post them here.

Revolution

I'm getting kind of bored with Revolution.  I feel like the most interesting parts of the show are when they do the flashbacks to how life was weeks and months after the blackout.

Stupid websites

So my flight was canceled due to weather.  I went online to rebook, like the e-mail told me...only I couldn't...over and over again.  So I called the reservations number, "We are experiencing high call volume due to Hurricane Sandy, please visit our website or call back at another time."  I finally managed to get to a human and rebooked my flight, after trying to call all day and being on hold for more than 40min.  Sometimes I wish a modified version of Mr. Garrison's entity was real, MODIFIED.

Hostel people

I'm out of town for a conference and I'm staying at a hostel, four of us in  a room, private bath and toilet for the four of us.  I got back to the room at 10:30pm and everyone was already asleep!  One of them went to bed at 8pm, I was in the room at that time, then left to get a bite to eat.

Exhausted...

Woo!  In two days I finished revisions on four chapter, gave a presentation, sent everything to my advisor, watched all of my Tuesday and Wednesday shows that I missed, paid my bills, called my credit card about a suspicious charge, packed, and took a 2 hour nap!  I'm exhausted!  I've been running around like crazy the past few days that now that I don't have anything to do (well there is that manuscript that needs revising, but I need a break too!!) I'm so antsy and wired.  I can't sit still for more than a couple min and my mind is still racing.  It's weird to all of a sudden not have anything to do when you've been so stressed for so long.  I think I might get me some ice cream!

http://vecto.rs/design/vector-of-a-happy-cartoon-girl-big-waffle-cone-ice-cream-treat-by-bnp-design-studio-4104

Did Rip Van Winkle really have it so bad??

Sooo, tired.. Spent half the day recovering from the last couple of weeks.  Still have revisions.  Joy.

Isn't it Thanksgiving yet?

Still freaking out over everything I need to do this week.  Luckily though, I don't have to re-do my analysis for one of the chapters until after my pre-defense :)  But, I still need to revise 2.5 more chapters this week.  And...my advisor wants to see the latest revisions before I send them to my committee members...they are supposed to go to my committee members by tomorrow...and my advisor won't get back to me by then...plus I have a presentation this weekend, so I won't even have time to work on them.  Awesome!

........

I woke up today thinking it was Friday and my week was practically over, then I realized it was only Tuesday and my week had only just begun.....

Run away! Run away!

I've got so much to do this week, I don't even know where to begin.  I feel like a deer caught in headlights.  I've got so much to do that my brain can't decide which task to tackle first and they pretty much all equally important and due around the same time.  Those of you contemplating grad school, DON'T DO IT!!  RUN AWAY, RUN AWAY!

Australian for...

I went to a German restaurant tonight, which had exotic meat sausages and I had kangaroo meat.  It was the best tasting meet in the world!!  So tender and smooth, if that makes sense.  It went down like good vodka *slaps fist on table*!  

The Zombie Apocalypse is upon us

No, I am not talking about tomorrow night's new episode of the Walking Dead.  I went to a restaurant tonight to celebrate a friend's accomplishment.  There were only four of us at the dinner.  One of the people there, who is 34 years old, was on the cellphone the whole time!  I'm not say s/he was talking on the phone, but rather they were playing games on the phone when not eating.  This particular person does that all the time, even did it earlier that day at lunch.  Extremely rude and knows it.  But just to be even ruder s/he had the volume of the game up loud while the rest of us were talking.  Friends have told this person that their behavior is rude and age inappropriate but s/he doesn't care.  I used be able to tolerate his/her other idiosyncrasies but lately they just seem to be getting worse and I'm just not as tolerant.  We used to be better friends, but because of this behavior I don't want to be considered friends with someone so immature and anti-social.  I'm even considering not inviting him/her to group functions with mutual friends.  I'm not saying that my phone isn't important to me, but so are my friends.  And it's one thing to take a quick and important 1 min phone call or quickly read or reply to one text and quite another to be playing a game throughout dinner when you're out with friends.

Don't try this at home, kids!

I went to the shotgun range again (my second time using a firearm).  It was a lot of fun!  Too bad it's too expensive of a hobby to have without Groupons.  I'll be going there again this year since I have another deal for the rifle range.  I've never used a rifle before, I'm a little apprehensive about it.  There was someone there today shooting with a double barrel shotgun and he was all dressed in hunting gear, just like Elmer Fudd (side note: YouTube does not have even one good clip of Elemer Fudd saying be wery wery quite, I'm hunting wabbits).  The handle of the gun was really nice, it was engraved metal.

Arrrrrgggggg

I woke up this morning with an e-mail from a professor who is a co-author on a manuscript, let's call this one lazy ass dumb fuck (LADF for short).  Quick timeline for background:

January 2012: I sent a manuscript to LADF per their request, for LADF to make changes to the document
May 2012: LADF gives me revisions
1 week laster: I sent manuscript back to LADF
August 2012: LADF gives me revisions
1 day later: I send LADF revisions
October 2012: LADF gives me revisions, I send document to advisor, per advisor's request
1 day later: LADF asks me to run asinine analysis
1 day later: I send analysis to LADF

About two weeks later (which was yesterday) my advisor gives me revisions on LADF's latest draft and says it was worse than it was before, it's a jumble, and I should rework the intro and "turn it around in a couple days".  Today, LADF asks me to re-do analysis using another wave of data just for shits and giggles...oh and uh, can I recheck values on another manuscript too, while I'm at it.  I was like,

 

I just now finally got a little bit of time to work on my dissertation revisions, that my advisor finally gave me, before having to work on another presentation for a conference and flying to a conference the next and then having my proposal meeting a week after!

Grad school deadlines

Woohoo!!  One of three dinners for this weekend got rescheduled!  And my poster is finished and sent to the printers!  And I'm almost done with revisions to one chapter!  So I only have revisions to three more chapter, re-do analysis for one of them, revisions to a manuscript (needed within the next two days, according to my advisor), and changes to my presentation (need to be done by next Wednesday)... yippee (@_@)

On the plus side, I spoke with a couple other students in the department, one was in my cohort, the other was a cohort ahead.  I'm farther along on my dissertation than both of them!  (^v^)

Oh yeah, and...NEW SUPERNATURAL TONIGHT!!!!!!  I'm still on used it being on Wednesday nights.

Public transportation observations

Using public transportation does save money and gas and is less frustrating but it sure does make it difficult to transport your usual (laptop, lunch, and water) and 6 bottles of drinks for a department party.

Aaaahhhhhh!!!!!!!!!

I have so much to do in the next four weeks (@_@)  I have four dinners this week (not sure how that happened), I have to go over my poster and presentation for two upcoming conferences with my advisor, finish the revisions on four dissertations chapter, one of which includes re-doing my analysis.  Next week I have two presentations and one conference, week after that I have my certification classes and my pre-defense, week after that I have another presentation at another conference.

I'm officially starting to freak out about getting everything done.  But I'm in that initial stage of freaking out where I'm just in denial about the monumental task ahead of me.  I've also overdosed on homemade stovetop popcorn, which is affecting my judgment and motivation.  I think I might have used too much olive oil.  Ok, brain not working anymore.  Blog done.

The Walking Dead Season 3 Episode 1

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This post is about the AMC show The Walking Dead.  If you have not seen up to season 3 episode 1 this post will contain spoilers.
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Tonight was the Walking Dead Season 3 premiere.  The gang finally made it to the prison.  There was a time jump between seasons 2 and 3, from the looks of Lori's belly, I'd say it was a four or five month time jump.  I think when season 2 ended Lori was 3 months pregnant and she looks about 7 or 8 months pregnant now.  Though they said she would give birth soon, so maybe even more.

Hershel gets bitten by a walker and Rick has to hack off his leg to prevent the disease from spreading, he is the only doctor around to help with the delivery after all.  And the gang finds humans in the prison!  That out to make next week's episode interesting!  Andrea spent the winter with Michonne and her zombie pets.  It seems like those two have gotten close.

I think in this episode we saw elements of old Rick, but he has definitely changed from the seasons 1 and 2, especially in his behavior towards Lori.

It was interesting to see Carl, Maggie, Carol, Beth, and Lori more involved in the zombie action.  Though maybe Lori not as much, Lori has always been one of the tougher female characters.  Carol, inarguably the weakest female character of the past two seasons, started to come out of her submissive battered wife shell in late season 2, after finding Sophia as a walker.  Now, Carol is picking off walkers like a seasoned pro.  Carl too, has definitely lost his innocence, Beth is almost there.

Seasons 1 and 2 were definitely about innocence, both in the adults and the children.  Their innocence was lost when their haven, Hershel's farm, was over run with migrating walkers, (what was up with the chopper, will we find out soon?) and the group was separated and reconnected (minus Andrea and Hershel's people).  And, just to put the last nail in the coffin of their innocence, in the last scene of season 2, Rick admits to killing his best friend, Shane, for the good of the group and snarls, "If you're staying, this isn't a democracy anymore".

Season 3 looks like it will be all about them accepting this is their life and there is no cure and no hope for the world and they better just adapt as quickly as possible.  Even the opening scene of season 3 throws the audience into this new loss of innocence, with little Carl busting through doors, clearing corners, and taking out a walker in the kitchen without batting an eye.  And how does Lori feel about her young son becoming a seasoned walker killer?  In season 2, Lori was opposed to the idea of Carl even taking shooting lessons from Shane, now it seems Lori, and the others, has accepted the inevitability of their new existence.

Around the Corner

Today I called or wrote six friends, whom I hadn't chatted with in a while!  I mean to call or write my friends but then things come up and I don't.  Then a lot of time passes and I think the conversation will end up taking longer because we have that much more to catch up about and I don't have time to chat for an hour or what if they're busy or out and I'm bothering them.  Today I realized they don't want to be on the phone for very long either, so it'll be ok!

I wrote three friends and set up times to meet up with the two who live in my city, the third lives in another country. Then I called three others; one, who lives in another country didn't pick up. I talked with two of them and set up a time to meet one tomorrow, the other lives in another state.  We kept getting disconnected because he's in the middle of nowhere at the moment. We got caught up on the basics and made plans to talk again when he returns to civilization in a few weeks.  I still have three more on my list, two are in other states and I need to set up a time to meet with the third.

Calling those friends in succession reminded me of when Homer was calling everyone in his family to prove to Lisa that not all the Simpsons are loser and he asked Marge, "Marge, get me your address book, four beers, and my conversation hat".  Unfortunately, I can't find a YouTube video of it :(

I'm really happy that I finally just took the plunge and contacted my friends, and it didn't take up too much of my time! Every time I read the poem Around the Corner by Charles Hanson Towne I think of all my friends I want to remain in contact with but don't because of school or distance.  I guess part of the reason why I don't feel the pressing need to regularly keep in touch with friends is because I've had friends that I was separated from for years without contact and we met up again by chance, we pretty much just picked up where we left off.  Hell, I'm even dating one such case, that's why I like the picture below, I think it totally applies to me.  I have the type of personality where I just feel comfortable with my friends after long separations and I understand that people have different layers of friendships and different types of friends, not every friend has to be your attached-at-the-hips bff.  I mean, we are adults after all, friendships are built on more than who have homeroom with.  Never the less, I'm trying to change my behavior and stay in contact with my friends more regularly. It's one of my resolutions for the month and for life, contact at least one old friend a weekend.  I'll let you know how my resolution goes.

Around the corner I have a friend,

In this great city that has no end,

Yet the days go by and weeks rush on,

And before I know it, a year is gone.

And I never see my old friends face,

For life is a swift and terrible race,

He knows I like him just as well,

As in the days when I rang his bell.

And he rang mine but we were younger then,

And now we are busy, tired men.

Tired of playing a foolish game,

Tired of trying to make a name.

"Tomorrow" I say! "I will call on Jim

Just to show that I'm thinking of him",

But tomorrow comes and tomorrow goes,

And distance between us grows and grows.

Around the corner, yet miles away,

"Here's a telegram sir," "Jim died today."

And that's what we get and deserve in the end.

Around the corner, a vanished friend.

Onward and upward!

I decided to finally start pursuing my dream of owning my own business.  The academic's life is not the life for me, and I don't really have the type of personality to tolerate working for someone else for the rest of my life.  I signed up for my certification class and exam.  I'll be done with that part of the process by this time next month.  The classes start next month and the exam is a week later!  Hopefully the state will finish processing my license by January or February.  On my way to a conference next month, I might also spot by and take a look at a potential business to buy!  If it's still available. :)

Jogging, not Red Bull, gives you wings!

After nursing an Achilles tendon injury for four and a half, which caused me to have to put my jogging and a lot of other exercises on hiatus, I was finally able to start jogging again today!  I had forgotten how much my body loves jogging, it immediately put me into a better mood and energized and relaxed me after a long week at work.  Even though I got supportive feedback from my advisor today regarding my dissertation and am in the process my scheduling my pre-defense, I still felt kind of meh, sluggish, tired, and unfocused today.  Now, I'm razor sharp and ready to climb a mountain!  Wait, aren't I already climbing a mountain everyday??

2012-2013 TV season

I'm going crazy trying to keep track of the all the shows I'm interested so I made list of the shows, time, channel, and time conflicts with other shows.  Not watching all of them every week.  It helps that the cable shows have shorter seasons and are staggered.  Not sure if I'll continue watching Revolution or 666 Park Avenue.  How did Tuesdays and Wednesdays get so crazy?? 

Monday

Gossip Girl 9/CW

Revolution 10/NBC

Tuesday

Hart of Dixie 8/CW, Ben & Kate 8:30/FOX

New Girl 9/FOX, Go On 9/NBC, Happy Endings 9/ABC

The New Normal 9:30/NBC, Don't Trust the B in Apt 23 9:30/ABC

Wednesday

Arrow 8/CW, The Neighbors 8:30/ABC

Supernatural 9/CW, Modern Family 9/ABC, Suburgatory 9:30/ABC, Psych 9/USA (Feb 2013)

Thursday

Vampire Diaries 8/CW

Burn Notice 9/USA, Office 9/NBC

Friday

Nikita 9/CW, Grimm 9/NBC

Sunday

Walking Dead 6/AMC

Once Upon a Time 8/ABC

666 Park Avenue 10/ABC (decided to stop watching this, I think it will end up being a Lost type of show, where every answer leads to more questions just to string you along and not for the sake of the story)

(^v^)

Woohoo!!  Finally got that reassurance!  Met with my advisor today and got the go ahead to start scheduling my pre-dissertation meeting.  This meeting and my defense are all that stand in my way of finally being a PhD!  Also, I have the ok to give my committee my dissertation chapters at this pre-dissertation meeting, instead of giving them a proposal I will never send in, since I've already written my dissertation.  This means that I can get more focused feedback from my committee on the dissertation and be that much closer to having a dissertation they will approve! :D :D

Grad School Neuroses

A labmate finally became ABD today, two years after we took our written qualifying exams together.  Our advisor said the dissertation could be written in two months.  I'm totally happy for my labmate.  But, I'm just wondering why, when I asked my advisor if I would still be able to graduate in May despite pushing my proposal date to some time after Thanksgiving, the reply was "well, maybe, we'll see...that's not important."  I know it's probably nothing, and just part of my advisor's manipulative and controlling nature, but still...I WANT REASSURANCE THAT I'LL BE DONE IN MAY *throws temper tantrum*  >:( 

I've got a bee in my bonnet!

Well, actually in my recessed lighting. Yup, that's right, I've got a bee in my bedroom. A couple months ago it was a wasp and its nest and larvae on the inside of my window and now it's a bee. Oh, what I wouldn't give to have a regular run of the mill spider problem at the moment. Dare I say, I think a cockroach is even preferable to a bee! Not the flying kind of cockroaches of course. But then again...a flying cockroach won't sting you in your sleep...I need a wren, or a summer tanager or some such insectivore aves.

Ladies Night In

I spent the night with a few friends that I hadn't seen in awhile.  It was so nice to spend the evening with them and NOT have the conversation revolve around men and boyfriends.  Such a welcome change!  But, on the downside...while it was fun spending time with my friends, it just became more clear that I am in a different place in my life than they are and I have goals that I'm actively working towards achieving while they remain in the same position year after year.  They want things...I think...I'm sure they must, but they are not (at least two of them are not) doing anything to achieve those   goals.

It's ok that they are not actively doing anything to reach their goals, I don't need all my friends to be ambitious.  But it would be nice to have a few friends to motivate me to constantly try to work towards my goals and re-evaluate them and adjust accordingly.  I don't want to just simply be content with mediocre.  I want friends who share that value.  And not just in words, but in action as well.

Home Buying Seminar: Part II: Credit and Loan Types

Credit
https://www.annualcreditreport.com/cra/index.jsp
Payment history=35%
Amount owned=30%
Length of credit history=15%
Recently opened credit accounts=10%
Types if credit in use (credit cards, loans, etc.)=10%
Expense:Income
Debt:Income (credit cards, loans, child support, alimony, etc.)

Loan Types
Conventional
Government
Fixed-rate mortgage
Adjustable-rate mortgage (ARM)
Purchase and renovate loan (money for repairs, based on future value of property after repairs)

Miscellaneous
Apply for Priority Buyer Pre-Approval (only good for 90days)
Seller pays realtor commission

Home Buying Seminar: Part I: Costs and Fees

I went to a home buying seminar today, here are a few of the things I learned:

Costs of home ownership
• Loan amount
• Interest rate
• Loan term
• Discount points
     -fees paid to lender at closing to lower your interest rate
     -1point=1% of loan amount
     -tax deductible

• Origination fees
     -What the lender is charging you to do the lending

What makes up a mortgage payment
• Principal loan amount
• Interest
• Taxes*
• Insurance*
• Mortgage insurance (PMI)

     -For any loan with <20 br="br" down="down">


*Escrow accounts/reserves can be created to help for these a little bit every month. The bank will then pay them from the escrow account when due.

Closing costs
• Origination fee
• Home appraisal fee
• Escrow reserves
• Property taxes
• Title insurance

Additional costs
• Utility bill
• Furnishing
• Landscaping
• Home maintenance/repairs
• Appliances
• HOA

Good faith estimate
• Loan fees
• Reserves
• Title Charge
• Government charges
• Other fees and additional charges

Well, I'm getting tire of typing so I'll make this a two parter. Tomorrow I will be posting credit and loan types.

Theeeey're heeeere!!

It's here, it's here, it's almost here!!!  The season 8 premiere of Supernatural!!!!!  Dean is coming back from a year spent in purgatory.  The pics and the clip look great!  The whole let's use everything imaginable to make sure we're really human and not some abomination, never gets old! http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2012/09/20/supernatural-season-8-video-sam-dean-reunion_n_1901787.html

Can't wait!!!  I might need to buy popcorn before getting home.

The egg to apple sauce baking soda conversation factor

I went to another Grubwithus meal (yes, two in a row, it just happened that way!).  This one was amazing!  Not because of the food or the conversation per se, but because of the wealth of information I got on gluten free vegan foods!!!  I'm so excited!!  There is an egg to apple sauce and baking soda conversation formula!!  I don't remember what it is, but I sent an e-mail to the person you mentioned.  I can buy gluten free Bisquick and make pancakes and biscuits using this conversation factor!  I'm so excited!!!!!!!!!! 

Grubwithus

Earlier this year I signed up with a website, called Grubwithus, where the owners organize meals with various local restaurants and people sign-up to eat with strangers and have great conversation and meet new people over delicious food.  Members can initiate meals too, and meals can have topics/interest groups or they can be general.  You can also use the site to organize birthday dinners where you pay for all the guests or each guest chips in for a guest of honor.  The Grubwithus team works with local restaurants to crete a set menu for the dinner and a set price.  Everything (meal, tax, and tip) are included in the meal price and everything is paid for in advance when you reserve on the site.  If you want to order something extra that is not on the menu, you are charged separately at the end of the meal.  Usually there is a minimum number of attendees (4-5) for the meal to actually happen and maximum number (I've seen as high as 12!).  Your credit card isn't charged until enough people sign up for the meal, and though I've never used this feature, there is a 72 hour cancelation policy incase plans change.  Like Gorupon, Grubwithus started in Chicago and spread throughout the country, and is now also in Vancouver, Canada.

I have only been to four of these meals so far and all of them have been fun.  Tonight's dinner, in particular, was very fun!  Three out of the seven people who signed up were no-shows, but the four of us who did show up had great conversation over yummy English inspired food.  I haven't made any lasting friendships with Grubwithus yet, but I have learned a lot from other grubbers (as users are called) and even dinned with a couple more than once, and I have always walked away throughly loving the experience.  I'm usually pretty introverted and shy and definitely more comfortable with a small group of people I know than at a big party.  I use Grubwithus as a way to force myself into situations where I have to be talkative and extroverted, as well as a way to meet fun to people in my city.  I've become rather bored with my group of friends.  I love my friends...most of the time :) but they don't always want to explore new restaurants like I do, or they want to but don't have the money/would rather spend it on other things.  With Grubwithus I can explore new restaurants without having to eat out alone, I then go and tell my friends about my new find.  Since meals with Grubwithus are usually 2-3 courses and some are family style, you get to try a lot of different foods at one restaurant without breaking the bank...as a graduate student, I find that awesome!  Most meals are in the $20-$35 range total, and I usually just get water to drink so as not to have pay extra.  Some meals include alcohol, and thus are pricier. After meals you are encouraged to keep the conversation going by commenting about your meal on the meal's individual site and on fellow grubber's profiles.

The web-developers have re-designed the site and added features that I find confusing and that clutter the space.  The site has also become increasingly glitchy since the re-design.  Hopefully these issues will be resolved soon.  Surprisingly, the iPhone app works better than the site.

If you want to explore your city and network or meet new people, or even if you just want a night away from your friends, give Grubwithus a try!  I guarantee it will be a unique experience!