Friday, December 10, 2010
12.10.2010 Friday
Department carry in. Baked rolls and made honey butter and they were well received. Worked in the afternoon and planned to work in the evening, but didn't get it accomplished. Just need a night to detox for the weekend and week ahead. Den and I were alone most of the evening and he actually stayed awake during the movies I had selected. Amazing! I'm glad this week is in the books and that this semester is just about history. Nothing like living in the moment.
12.09.2010 Thursday
The James' transport service couldn't quite make the scheduled stop on time with Kendall for preschool. They wondered about the building trying to find her class and then gave up and came home. All ended well with Granny's call, calling off the A.W.O.L truancy squad. I hope they all had a nice morning at home.
To continue with the plan from last night...
1) Scheduled appointment with research instructor
2) Emailed TCOM instructor to renegotiate contract....he was agreeable and even generous with the terms.
3) Research instructor also agreeable and required less make up work than I expected.
4) Monkeys on the loose in Muncie as they have been released from my back, making me actually walk
straighter and able to process workload at a somewhat normal pace. (Monkey's must have also had a
tourniquet on my head)
5) Was able to work the entire day on workstuff
6) Arrived home at 8:00 and the house filled with NFL spectators, so refreshment was needed.
7) Succesfully duplicated the "Loose Meat" sandwich recipe of Greenfield, OH
8) Had a great family time during the football game.
9) Went to bed but got back up to go on an ink run for the printing of Kristen's portfolio. I was mad at her for waiting so long and mad at myself for letting the inventory dip too low.
10) Bed at 2:15 with rolls rising in anticipation of tomorrow.
To continue with the plan from last night...
1) Scheduled appointment with research instructor
2) Emailed TCOM instructor to renegotiate contract....he was agreeable and even generous with the terms.
3) Research instructor also agreeable and required less make up work than I expected.
4) Monkeys on the loose in Muncie as they have been released from my back, making me actually walk
straighter and able to process workload at a somewhat normal pace. (Monkey's must have also had a
tourniquet on my head)
5) Was able to work the entire day on workstuff
6) Arrived home at 8:00 and the house filled with NFL spectators, so refreshment was needed.
7) Succesfully duplicated the "Loose Meat" sandwich recipe of Greenfield, OH
8) Had a great family time during the football game.
9) Went to bed but got back up to go on an ink run for the printing of Kristen's portfolio. I was mad at her for waiting so long and mad at myself for letting the inventory dip too low.
10) Bed at 2:15 with rolls rising in anticipation of tomorrow.
Thursday, December 9, 2010
12.08.2010 Wednesday
Total freak out day! Just too many things to accomplish in too little time. Definitely at the apex, teetering and not sure which way the load will shift. The afternoon class ended well. My last time with this cohort of individuals. I wouldn't say that I made major inroads into this group, but I don't feel totally shunned, just on the periphery. Turned in my last assignment. One class done!
Evening class was a great learning experience about the other presenter's topics. My first Prezi was adequate though not stellar. Presenting to educators is akin to doing your first tonsillectomy in the surgery theatre at John Hopkins.....a little intimidating. At lease only one other person in attendance knew anything about Prezi, so I was showing them something new.
Went to the library after class to try to make a dent in the remaining stuff. Turned in a paper, so the only thing left in a second class is a reflection. PC still not working well. Made a loader full of texts to take home and left by 11:00pm. Gave up and went to bed with the plan to contact my educators and lay at their feet the evidence of my inadequacies and ask first for forgiveness and then for a plan to complete this all in a reasonable fashion. Let's hope that cool heads prevail!!
Evening class was a great learning experience about the other presenter's topics. My first Prezi was adequate though not stellar. Presenting to educators is akin to doing your first tonsillectomy in the surgery theatre at John Hopkins.....a little intimidating. At lease only one other person in attendance knew anything about Prezi, so I was showing them something new.
Went to the library after class to try to make a dent in the remaining stuff. Turned in a paper, so the only thing left in a second class is a reflection. PC still not working well. Made a loader full of texts to take home and left by 11:00pm. Gave up and went to bed with the plan to contact my educators and lay at their feet the evidence of my inadequacies and ask first for forgiveness and then for a plan to complete this all in a reasonable fashion. Let's hope that cool heads prevail!!
Wednesday, December 8, 2010
12.07.2010 Tuesday A Day in Infamy
Carla K. is having BOTH of her knees replaced today. That surgery just sounds scary to me. I finally went to have my left foot x-rayed. They were inconclusive. Dr. thought I probably damaged a capillary and thus all of the bruising and swelling from such a small injury. He also said that it could take 3 months to heal. So does this mean that the 24 hour rule must now become the 2160 hour rule? The good news was that the bill was only $155. Since I am currently only insured at the Death Center, that was a good amount to handle. He also gave me license to continue to "baby" the left foot. I think it probably needs breakfast in bed most cold, snowy days.
The last week of classes. This is good and bad. Good means that I actually am going to survive this hellish fall semester. The bad news is that all assignments are due and I am just getting the rhythm back for academics after breaking the force field of the medical field. It is going to be a race to the finish especially with the Qualitative Research Project, but at least the tunnel light is getting brighter.
Another computer went "belly up". This time it was the PC in the library carrel. Malware attack. I think that came after a Facebook sojourn into one of their features on the right side of the page. Skype and Facebook are my usual suspects when there has been sabotage of any type. I'm just saying....
The last week of classes. This is good and bad. Good means that I actually am going to survive this hellish fall semester. The bad news is that all assignments are due and I am just getting the rhythm back for academics after breaking the force field of the medical field. It is going to be a race to the finish especially with the Qualitative Research Project, but at least the tunnel light is getting brighter.
Another computer went "belly up". This time it was the PC in the library carrel. Malware attack. I think that came after a Facebook sojourn into one of their features on the right side of the page. Skype and Facebook are my usual suspects when there has been sabotage of any type. I'm just saying....
12.06.2010 Monday
Bitter cold! Feels more like the dead of February than early December. My PC at work has a bad fan so now I'm working exclusively on a laptop. This is fine, but it might be better to take the laptop and move to a little warmer climate. Our office temperature registered at a frosty 54 when I got there this morning. I hope our two space heaters enjoy running, because that is exactly what they do all day long.
Interesting presentation on Internet Security today in class. Ironically one of the servers with most of the presentation housed on it was "down." The blog RethinkSecurity@tumbler is where the dialogue is kept. Something to think seriously about. Some of the security settings on Facebook are so ambiguous that I can't tell whether to enable or disable will do the most damage. That is some very circular vernacular.
Speaking of internet security all of Comcast when "down" this evening. That was very frustrating, so Kristen and I trekked back to campus at 11:30 to utilize a computer lab. She applied to two internships, so it was definitely worth the effort. Just a late, drawn out night.
Interesting presentation on Internet Security today in class. Ironically one of the servers with most of the presentation housed on it was "down." The blog RethinkSecurity@tumbler is where the dialogue is kept. Something to think seriously about. Some of the security settings on Facebook are so ambiguous that I can't tell whether to enable or disable will do the most damage. That is some very circular vernacular.
Speaking of internet security all of Comcast when "down" this evening. That was very frustrating, so Kristen and I trekked back to campus at 11:30 to utilize a computer lab. She applied to two internships, so it was definitely worth the effort. Just a late, drawn out night.
Monday, December 6, 2010
12.05.2010 Sunday
Kind of a disjointed day. Attended our church and decided to try out another one only to arrive too late, so we just ended up taking a long drive in the country. The internet being unavailable tonight was a definite pain. So is the beginnings of a sore throat. I thought I was going to make it through the semester...maybe I still will. Started chugging the vitamins. Worked on two more projects. This coming week will be a doozie, but when it's over, I'm pretty much home free. Here's to pushing the grindstone some more and not falling under it. I need to figure out how to add graphics to this site. I'm getting bored with just text, so I'm assuming that anyone who may happen to read this is even more bored (if that's possible). Here's to surviving this week.
Sunday, December 5, 2010
12.04.2010 Saturday
I definitely needed a day off and that's what today turned into. Snow, big fluffy white snow covering the ground but not so much to require shoveling. Ran errands, ate out, talked to kids in person, via cell phone. No huge crisis today as has been the norm this semester. Great to not have fires to put out. Nice to actually relax and turn my mind off for a few hours. The Red Green Show has produced a movie, Duct Tape Forever. Even that gave me some ideas of competition pieces for the coming year.
12.03.2010 Friday
Started at 4:00am and ended at 8:15pm glued to the same laptop screen, writing, writing, writing. I came home spent but happy that several jobs are moved along the route. Gathered more qualitative research tonight that contributed to much more data and information...yippee!
12.2.2010 Thursday
Extra work still making up hours from the first of the semester. Finally finding some references that make sense for the journal article. The time taken to compose a relatively short article is considerable. It would much easier to work on an article on which I have some basic knowledge. This has definitely been the most learning-filled semester of my life which is amazing considering the number of years that I have been a student.
First research paper close to being completed. There should be some stray monkeys scampering about the streets as they loose themselves from my back! James and Holly moved back into their apartment tonight. I'm sure they will be glad to have a space to themselves though Sonny will probably be lonely without her pet friends on Royal Oak.
I have also learned that I cannot work without sleep anymore. My days of an all nighter (or two) are over. I have to have at least 4 hours of sleep, but I am able to wake up and get right to work, so that is a vast improvement over the layers of sleep that must usually be climbed out of on a normal morning.
Grandpa Pyle's obituary appeared in the local weekly newspaper today. It was an honor to have taken the portrait that was selected by the family for his last image. It was taken four years ago to the day from his death. I'm so glad that that photo shoot was set up and completed even with the protests of several of the family.
First research paper close to being completed. There should be some stray monkeys scampering about the streets as they loose themselves from my back! James and Holly moved back into their apartment tonight. I'm sure they will be glad to have a space to themselves though Sonny will probably be lonely without her pet friends on Royal Oak.
I have also learned that I cannot work without sleep anymore. My days of an all nighter (or two) are over. I have to have at least 4 hours of sleep, but I am able to wake up and get right to work, so that is a vast improvement over the layers of sleep that must usually be climbed out of on a normal morning.
Grandpa Pyle's obituary appeared in the local weekly newspaper today. It was an honor to have taken the portrait that was selected by the family for his last image. It was taken four years ago to the day from his death. I'm so glad that that photo shoot was set up and completed even with the protests of several of the family.
Thursday, December 2, 2010
12.1.2010 Wednesday
First actual snow (the last frozen precipitation was more of the freezing rain genre). Cold and slippery. December has made it's presence known in January or February fashion. I hope this is not a sign of this winter's design.
Dennis is stockpiling food. Just about every day he comes home with a flat of Mushroom Soup or 5 pounds of sugar or buttery crackers. Is the preparedness or the start of Alzheimer's. This inventory would be wonderful if we owned a pantry or larder...but we don't so I have the challenge of Tetris(ing) these staples onto shelves that are mostly full. Because Dennis' shopping is like the outdoor cat who proudly drags in the various rodent and places it on the kitchen counter for all to admire. He has to display his treasures and I'm left to try to free another horizontal surface held captive on Royal Oak Drive....another favorite hobby of his. Maybe this winter break is the time to build a storage unit that I have in my head for the corner of the kitchen with doors and not a counter-type plane to welcome any old load of stuff that is going by. Ahhh to come home to the habitat that is in my head rather than the one that is actual. It could happen.
The semester is winding down and the projects/papers are getting checked off. Nothing like a good TO DO list with lots o' check marks. Though breaking into a new academic department was terrifying, I am glad for the opportunity. My fellow co-learners are all exceptional and willing to share their particular area of interest with gusto. Since I am definitely (and will probably remain) an outlier, it is great to be exposed to all of the nooks and crannies of digital communications without the need to master them all. Could it be that I am actually learning to say "No" and that it is adequate to just be exposed to something new without feeling the need to master it and become expert in the area? A milestone...yeah tho I dare say... a marker....
Dennis is stockpiling food. Just about every day he comes home with a flat of Mushroom Soup or 5 pounds of sugar or buttery crackers. Is the preparedness or the start of Alzheimer's. This inventory would be wonderful if we owned a pantry or larder...but we don't so I have the challenge of Tetris(ing) these staples onto shelves that are mostly full. Because Dennis' shopping is like the outdoor cat who proudly drags in the various rodent and places it on the kitchen counter for all to admire. He has to display his treasures and I'm left to try to free another horizontal surface held captive on Royal Oak Drive....another favorite hobby of his. Maybe this winter break is the time to build a storage unit that I have in my head for the corner of the kitchen with doors and not a counter-type plane to welcome any old load of stuff that is going by. Ahhh to come home to the habitat that is in my head rather than the one that is actual. It could happen.
The semester is winding down and the projects/papers are getting checked off. Nothing like a good TO DO list with lots o' check marks. Though breaking into a new academic department was terrifying, I am glad for the opportunity. My fellow co-learners are all exceptional and willing to share their particular area of interest with gusto. Since I am definitely (and will probably remain) an outlier, it is great to be exposed to all of the nooks and crannies of digital communications without the need to master them all. Could it be that I am actually learning to say "No" and that it is adequate to just be exposed to something new without feeling the need to master it and become expert in the area? A milestone...yeah tho I dare say... a marker....
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