The Laursonian Institute

Bathroom has tv volume nob…?

January 23rd, 2009 | Tags: twitter | Category: life | Comments Off

Made it! Checked into the Omni. Woot!

January 23rd, 2009 | Tags: twitter | Category: life | Comments Off

Good day, though I’m a bit unclear as to why I’m still awake.   I think it’s going to be a list night.  My brain feels like pudding.

The Good:

• rocked semantics class/ beginnings of homework
• got eye exam and am uber healthy though nearsighted
• had pie with my sweetie
• got all my prescribed work done!
• acquired massive stack of books from library
• successfully navigated unitrans and bussed to school
• half set up date w/ Devin in LA!
• downloaded Obama audiobook!

The Meh:

• got rained on all day?
• total exhaustion
• failed to pick out frames (see above)
• am still up doing laundry…?
• haven’t packed for trip tomorrow… arg.
• spent forever trying to circumvent audiobook download doucheiness
• nearly killed beloved 6-yr-old mp3 player?

Yep.  A few days in LA.  Not going to post much past a few twitters perhaps?   All I want is bed.

January 22nd, 2009 | Tags: audiobook, bus, laundry, list, meh, pie, travel | Category: life | Comments Off

It was one of those big days today.  Got up early.  Took sister to airport.  Got home just in time to put books in bag and bike to school.

Eventful school-happenings du jour.  Fire alarm during Quechua, thus allowing Michiq and I to do our dialogue outside on the grass instead of inside where everyone is watching.  This is much preferable, but sadly won’t happen again.  Also sadly, we have a dialogue due Monday and it’s much harder than today’s.  This class sometimes kills me.

Had meeting for the rest of the afternoon.  Spent my lunch hour gathering library call numbers for all the semantics reading I need to copy tomorrow afternoon.  Had my second meeting with the professor I’m TAing for, who bears this incredibly uncanny resemblance in both looks and manner to Damien Jurado.  This pleases me greatly.  He’s also much too nice to me, which is breeding a mutual appreciative work situation.  He straightens and staples papers before he gives them to me, makes me an answer key, and posts it online so I don’t have to hand correct anything.  In exchange, I expertly and expediently grade all his papers.  I feel as though this is how TAs are supposed to be used, but I probably shouldn’t get used to it.  Something tells me last quarter is probably a better indicator of TA workload and appreciation than this one.  Odd thing to note: professor mentioned that he had heard good things about me around the department, particularly that I was a good student and worker.  My reputation proceeds me?  Graduate advisor is at it again!

Second meeting with professor I think I’ll dub QP Advisor, for this ought to be his role in best possible of worlds (as in, the world in which this research turns into my first QP).  Advisory was impressed with the bones of the paper (had given me an A, “Excellent!” on it in first grading round) and thought that with the right amount of work we could make it into “the perfect QP”.  This is a good note to start on.  Unfortunatley I seem to have lost the short-lived grasp of Halle’s arguement for morphonemic analysis that I had last quarter and based said paper on, so I’ve got some brushing up to do.  Other than that, advisor gave me a hundred other trees to start barking up, which pretty much cuts my work out for me this week.  Odd things to note number two: QP advisor had heard that graduate advisor wanted me to turn my other essay from last quarter into another QP.  My reputation proceeds me?  Graduate advisor strikes again!

Came home and for the first time this quarter put more than three things on my Tasque list for next week.  House seems a little lonely and quiet without the sister around today.  I guess it’s back to business.  I did get four whole days off (and subsequently had too much fun to blog regularly…) so I suppose I can trade a mini-vacation for a few weeks (8 weeks?) of hump-busting.  It’s really only fair.  Anyway, got everything I put on my list for today back off, which was a fair load.  I’ve got a lot of things lined up for the upcoming weekend, but managed to for the most part avoid putting anything on Saturday when I’m sure to be busy.  I am looking forward to LA.  Been a while since I’ve seen that town!

And now, I really must go to bed.  It’s not very late, but I’ve been nodding off since about 6:30 this afternoon, and I’ve got another few days of early wake-age to get through before my weekend starts (and is filled with more early wake-age).  All in all, a solid way to start the first day of my life under Obama.

January 21st, 2009 | Tags: dialogue, meetings, QP, quechua, reputation, schedule, sleep, tasks | Category: life, school | Comments Off

It’s 10:30.  It’s Friday night.  I’m exhausted.

I had a really chill day, compared to what I was worried about.  Doctor’s office cancelled my appointment at 7:30 this morning, so I didn’t have anything to do but my neuroimaging class.  Class went pretty well; it’s a good class, and it’s nice to be done by 11 on Fridays.  We have a three day weekend coming up, so that’s pretty bueno.

Did some work this afternoon when I got home, and got the house all cleaned up and ready for my sister.  Well, at least most the house.  Thankfully our house is always really easy to clean up.   I’m really looking forward to this weekend.  I should have tried to get all my work done today, but I burned out pretty early.  There’s something about the end of a Friday that really makes work difficult to do.   So instead, Lewis and I went and got frozen yogurt downtown and did some windowshopping at Ace, made a nice dinner, and watched a movie!

And now, all I really want to do is go curl up in bed and read my book.  Which is what I shall do!

January 16th, 2009 | Tags: chores, lazy, movie, yogurt | Category: home, life | Comments Off

Lazy, lazy day.  Took a nap.  Did very little reading.  Did go to the one class I had, and made the photocopies I needed for the weekend.

I’m feeling rather nervous about a doctor’s appointment I have tomorrow.  Nothing but a routine check up, I just hate new doctors and all the rigamarole.  And I have a class off campus tomorrow morning that’s complicating matters a bit.  I decided that if I drove to that class, instead of biking, it might make me feel less stressed and pressed for time.  I can drive there, have a leisurely morning, not stress about the bike, then head home, bike to campus, and make it to my appointment without issue.   Or so I hope.  Sigh!

This is no time to stress.  I think I should go to bed!  I’ve got some Dostoyevsky waiting for me, and a big day tomorrow.  I do hope the doctor is not too icky!  :-\

January 15th, 2009 | Tags: doctor, lazy, nervous | Category: life | Comments Off

Boy, I’ve had one of those fantastically productive days.  I blame this all on Lewis having made grapefruit juice this morning.  Mmm, grapefruit juice.

Anyway, I’m really not feeling like I can excrete some sort of erudite epistle tonight, so instead let me yammer on about the few things I really did do.  First of all, I went to Quechua class, wherein I sang songs, appropriately replied to prompts, and forged an inane dialogue with my convo partner, Michiq.  It goes like this:

Me:  Allillanchu kashanki?
Michiq:  Allillanmi.  Imata yachashanki?
Me:  Noqa qheswata yachashani.
Michiq:  Kusa!   Maypin Mariya kashan?
Me:  Pay wasipi kashan.
Michiq:  Pay imaynan kashan?
Me:  Pay allinmi kashan.
Michiq:  Kusa!  Tupananchiskama!
Me:  Tupananchiskama!

Boy, that was pretty entertaining, no?  Oh… no?  Oh well!  I’ve got to perform it next week, and it is not to be missed.  What if in the intervening time I decide *not* to study Quechua (manan qheswata yachashani!), or Maria becomes unwell?  (*cliffhanging organ music*)

Today got started on a great note.  First thing this morning, I heard back from my undergrad thesis advisor, Todd!  Todd is great.  And he was ready and able to send out a duplicate copy of his letter of rec from last year, and thus complete the letter-of-rec-trifecta I needed to get my fellowship application in.  I can’t believe I went from zero to finished on the fellowship application in a mere two days.  I’m going to procrastinate this long every year.  Or not.

Well, maybe finishing that application was really all I did today, but it felt momentus!  Oh wait, I did go to the Co-op and buy ice cream and other comestables.  That’s pretty zang.  I’m really looking forward to some sort of grapefruit blueberry nectarine and who knows what kind of smoothie / juice experience tomorrow morning.  Every day should be as good as this day.

Did I mention I watched two hours of Law & Order, and had a quesadilla?  Well I did!

January 14th, 2009 | Tags: application, coop, dialog, fellowship, juice, quechua | Category: life, school | Comments Off

Massively productive day.  Now I’m massively tired.  Better opt for list:

• got 2/3 of fellowship application done
• finished semantics reading for the week
• made eye doctor appt
• did quechua homework
• got class schedule straightened out
• assembled new desk chair!
• yummy chinese food with lewis
• went to jazz show @ the mondavi

And now, honk shoe.  Three more days this week?  Everything’s looking pretty easy except Friday, where I”ve got some stuff piling up.  But then my sister will be here!  And Monday is a holiday!  Is it bad when I’m looking forward to Monday on… Tuesday?

January 13th, 2009 | Tags: busy, chores, concert, list | Category: life, school | Comments Off

I had a really liberating morning which lead me to a very envigorating afternoon.  Then some time after dinner I completely crashed into the state I’m in now of total blankness.  I think the culprit may have been the 40 pages of semantics reading I plowed through (and accidentally enjoyed).  Relief this morning was garnered by fixing my class schedule after confirming I could swap the over-my-head philosophy class with two units of research towards my first QP.  Woot to that.  Anyway.  Today was great. The weather was so nice I read outside for a while (my thermometer told me 75 degrees!) even though it drives my cat crazy when I sit right outside the window.  Lewis and I also succeeded in getting chairs for our office (our backs will thank us) and a stapler that’s capable of stapling realistically-sized papers.  Apparently regular staplers are only intended for undergraduate-level work.  The big term papers of graduate school make my old stapler cry.   Oh, also on the success-o-meter today, Lewis made the most delicious grapefruit and blue cheese salad, and I made biscuits to go with it.  Mm, salad and biscuits.   Oh yeah, and I had my first neuroimaging class, which was completely awesome.  I’m really glad I stuck that class out.  Our professor is hilarious and kept referring to nerdy stuff like the X-Men and the dangers of hidden piercings.  Yay for one of my out-on-a-limb classes working!

January 12th, 2009 | Tags: biscuits, blank, chairs, rambly, staplers, sunny | Category: life, school | Comments Off