Wednesday, October 25, 2006
Wow
I'm freaking busy. Not very important, just busy.
Friday, October 06, 2006
Umm ... yeah ... I'll get right on that.
In talking with my professors today I found out I'm not doing enough work for them. So I came home and did some off the cuff calculations about the amount of time I'm already spending on school, plus the extra time they want, plus the minimum amount of time it takes to be a functioning and non-smelly human being. I'm into the negative hours of time per week now.
If anyone has some extra hours to come and wash me, sleep for me, eat for me, and pick up after me, I'll take it. If you could do some of my reading and homework I'd take that too.
I'll be spending my time doing RA work and running their projects in the laboratory (somehow RA work and running their projects in the lab are not the same thing ...).
If anyone has some extra hours to come and wash me, sleep for me, eat for me, and pick up after me, I'll take it. If you could do some of my reading and homework I'd take that too.
I'll be spending my time doing RA work and running their projects in the laboratory (somehow RA work and running their projects in the lab are not the same thing ...).
Thursday, October 05, 2006
Most Popular
I will never have one of the most popular blogs (certainly a mission in my life) if I don't do more updates.
I haven't had time. We've been busy as all hell. Though I did make time to go to the Petit Le Mans race at Road Atlanta with Matt, Christy, MFMJ, MFMJWR, and Palila this past weekend. It was fun. I brought articles but didn't do any reading.
The house is coming along great. Most of the work has been happening in the kitchen. We installed a new counter top range (one of those real slick looking kind with the burners under glass), and a new dishwasher (thank God for Sears scratch and dent). We also took out the backsplash on the sink side to see how it would come off. It will be replaced with tile at some point in the future. We also replaced the window above the sink.
We bought an MW window from Lowes because the sales guy swore to us it would be a perfect fit, the Pella windows would never fit, and there was no difference in quality. We bought it, and put it in. It is not a perfect fit. It is also not a quality window as evidenced by the gap between the sash and the frame. We are ... pissed. I wanted Andersen windows, but they do cost more. After putting this one in, reading about it on-line, and seeing the difference for ourselves at Home Depot, I think Andersen is the way we'll be going. We were originally thinking that we could go with the lower quality window because it really only needs to last 4 years or so and then it is someone else's problem. But, we've been reading on-line that they don't even last that long (luckily, the one we did put in is facing south and tucked under the roof overhang. When caulked and painted well it should last okay. We may not buy windows from Home Depot (can't stand the place) but we still haven't called around to get pricing from other places. But from checking Despot pricing, the basic Andersen window isn't priced that much more than the MW window and is certainly cheaper than the Pella.
School is also super busy. I am in 4 seminars this semester, which is the highest workload I've undertaken in the Ph.D. program. I read all the time. I actually forgot to do an assignment this week. The workload is about to get heavier because one of our courses changes gears part way through the semester and will require more ready (Yay!!). I am also going to start running a study on Friday. I will have to be in the laboratory about 9 hours a week now, and it is in the morning. I've also been told I need to spend more time at school because I am not being cultural-ized enough. I don't know what that's all about, but I'm following orders. The professors aren't there unless they are teaching, so I'm not sure what culture I'm supposed to be picking up. Oh, and I need to work on my 2nd year paper starting 3 weeks ago. I sat down to write the other day and just stared at my monitor for about an hour and a half before I gave up.
Oh, but I do have a new monitor! My 7 year old NEC turned kicked the bucket the other day. I have my computer set to turn off my monitors when I'm not doing anything. Over the past month or so, when ever my external monitor has turned off it has made a funny buzzing noise. Well, last week it buzzed, then there was kind of a pop and a bright light, and it wouldn't turn back on. I got to go shopping for a new monitor. I really didn't have the time or the money for this but I wasn't about to write three papers that day on my little laptop screen. I was really surprised at the features to price ratio of new monitors these days. I got a wide screen from Samsung at Best Buy (a store I like just about as much as Home Depot and Wal Mart). It is nice and bright. I keep trying to turn up the brightness on my laptop to get it to match the new monitor but it is already turned all the way up. Oh well. I prefer to have a real glass TV tube ("CRT" in geek), but those were out of my "I have no money" price range. And even though it is quite a bit bigger (diagonal screen size) it takes up much less space on my desk.
Well, I've got about 4 more articles and a book chapter to read before CSI comes on in less than three hours (gotta watch some CSI).
By the way, to check out pictures of the kitchen and race you need to go to Palila's Flickr page.
I haven't had time. We've been busy as all hell. Though I did make time to go to the Petit Le Mans race at Road Atlanta with Matt, Christy, MFMJ, MFMJWR, and Palila this past weekend. It was fun. I brought articles but didn't do any reading.
The house is coming along great. Most of the work has been happening in the kitchen. We installed a new counter top range (one of those real slick looking kind with the burners under glass), and a new dishwasher (thank God for Sears scratch and dent). We also took out the backsplash on the sink side to see how it would come off. It will be replaced with tile at some point in the future. We also replaced the window above the sink.
We bought an MW window from Lowes because the sales guy swore to us it would be a perfect fit, the Pella windows would never fit, and there was no difference in quality. We bought it, and put it in. It is not a perfect fit. It is also not a quality window as evidenced by the gap between the sash and the frame. We are ... pissed. I wanted Andersen windows, but they do cost more. After putting this one in, reading about it on-line, and seeing the difference for ourselves at Home Depot, I think Andersen is the way we'll be going. We were originally thinking that we could go with the lower quality window because it really only needs to last 4 years or so and then it is someone else's problem. But, we've been reading on-line that they don't even last that long (luckily, the one we did put in is facing south and tucked under the roof overhang. When caulked and painted well it should last okay. We may not buy windows from Home Depot (can't stand the place) but we still haven't called around to get pricing from other places. But from checking Despot pricing, the basic Andersen window isn't priced that much more than the MW window and is certainly cheaper than the Pella.
School is also super busy. I am in 4 seminars this semester, which is the highest workload I've undertaken in the Ph.D. program. I read all the time. I actually forgot to do an assignment this week. The workload is about to get heavier because one of our courses changes gears part way through the semester and will require more ready (Yay!!). I am also going to start running a study on Friday. I will have to be in the laboratory about 9 hours a week now, and it is in the morning. I've also been told I need to spend more time at school because I am not being cultural-ized enough. I don't know what that's all about, but I'm following orders. The professors aren't there unless they are teaching, so I'm not sure what culture I'm supposed to be picking up. Oh, and I need to work on my 2nd year paper starting 3 weeks ago. I sat down to write the other day and just stared at my monitor for about an hour and a half before I gave up.
Oh, but I do have a new monitor! My 7 year old NEC turned kicked the bucket the other day. I have my computer set to turn off my monitors when I'm not doing anything. Over the past month or so, when ever my external monitor has turned off it has made a funny buzzing noise. Well, last week it buzzed, then there was kind of a pop and a bright light, and it wouldn't turn back on. I got to go shopping for a new monitor. I really didn't have the time or the money for this but I wasn't about to write three papers that day on my little laptop screen. I was really surprised at the features to price ratio of new monitors these days. I got a wide screen from Samsung at Best Buy (a store I like just about as much as Home Depot and Wal Mart). It is nice and bright. I keep trying to turn up the brightness on my laptop to get it to match the new monitor but it is already turned all the way up. Oh well. I prefer to have a real glass TV tube ("CRT" in geek), but those were out of my "I have no money" price range. And even though it is quite a bit bigger (diagonal screen size) it takes up much less space on my desk.
Well, I've got about 4 more articles and a book chapter to read before CSI comes on in less than three hours (gotta watch some CSI).
By the way, to check out pictures of the kitchen and race you need to go to Palila's Flickr page.
