The Laursonian Institute

So we meet again, blog.

It’s 7:30, and I’ve just sat down at my desk to start my night of work.  I was anticipating being a little more busy today, but this morning I got the very pleasant surprise of getting my paper deadline extended until Monday.   So now I actually don’t have anything due this week – just two papers to finish by next week.   Life is good.

This morning I gave my cognitive neuroscience talk, which was the thing I was dreading most all quarter.  I practiced it three times this weekend, and looked my slides over with Lewis already, and I think it all paid off.  I felt very comfortable giving the talk, and I think I sounded like I knew that I was doing.  There was only one question from the audience, which was the part I was really dreading (the students in this class are a little… brash and cock-sure sometimes) and it was only to ask if the scan parameters I quoted was really what they did – which it was, of course.  So yay!  I also got to go first, so it was really great to get it out of the way, and be done for the rest of the morning.  And nearly the rest of the quarter!

I’m at the point where I can list all the places I need to be and all the things I need to do: two Ling 1 lectures to attend, one to collect homeworks, and one to hand back papers, one section to teach, one study session to help run, one informal paper discussion to give, and two papers to hand in.  And in 8 days, I’ll be completely and totally done until nearly October.  Incredible, isn’t it?

The only other piece of news on the Laurfront is that I seem to have contracted Davis allergies.  Yesterday on the way home from sushi, my eye sort of itched.  By the time I got home, my eyelid was all poofy.  I washed it off and it went away.  This morning when I woke up, my *other* eyelid was swollen.  It felt like it was twice the normal size, and I had trouble looking in all directions.  But I took a shower, and by the time I was done, it was pretty much gone.  Same thing happened this afternoon – suddenly itchy eyeball, which puffs up as soon as you scratch it, and goes away 15 or 20 minutes after you wash it.  Yuck!  I haven’t the faintest idea what it is that’s setting me off like this, but I’m putting my money on pollen or dust of some kind.  Davis is well renowned for being one of the most allegry inducing places you can live, and I guess my allergy-free self finally met her match.

June 1st, 2009 | Tags: allergies, extensions, papers, presentation | Category: Uncategorized | Comments Off

I dremt this morning that I decided not to go to class, and then omnipotently realized that none of the other TAs came either, and felt bad about it.   Then I woke up and realized that I had actually turned my alarm off already, and thus was already a bit late.  Not much, but mussing up my pre-consciousness routine always messes with my day.  My optimal wake-up strategy is to wake up the first time my alarm goes off, calculate how many minutes until I actually get out of bed (usually the exact same time, give or take about four minutes) and then sleep in three to five minute chunks until I arrive at the sweet spot (total = about 18 minutes).  If I have to haul myself out of bed the first time I see the clock I stay muddled all morning, if not all day.

So my day was sort of a drag.  I got my handout made for the presentation I’m giving tomorrow, and I got all my papers graded and put in the grade book.  I also went to yoga, and had a particularly rough class today.  Somehow it seemed to take me three times longer to do anything than it should.  And I was mid-level grumpy all day, which is stupidly so hard to shake, and compounds on itself.  Meh.  Anyway, I’ll be glad to have tomorrow out of the way, and this week over with.  We’re having a cute game & snacks night with a bunch of us linguistics kids, which should be a lot of fun.  So I just have to get through a section, my office hours (which are sometimes quite a trial..) and this presentation, and then I’m home free.  Phew.  Four weeks of nothing, and then one last class presentation, and we’ll be on summer vacation before I know it!

April 30th, 2009 | Tags: grading, grump, presentation, routine, sleep, yoga | Category: life, school | Comments Off

I had one of those days where I felt like I never really rose out of the bog and instead flailed around covered in swamp gunk all day.  Actually I take that back – this evening has been very nice.  I went to yoga (new instructor – decent!), came home, riled Lewis up for a walk to our local Sushi place, took another leisurely walk home, and then read an article I need to present to my lab’s reading group next week.  I think I’ll go to bed soon, though it’s not quite even 10 yet, because I’m feeling quite finished.

Rest of my day was decent enough, besides feeling generally incompetant.  I only have Lin 1 on Thursdays, which is both nice and somewhat aggrivating since I’ve got no other reason to be on campus, let alone awake so early.  I came home from that and got all the rest of my grading done, which I probably spent longer on than I needed to.  It’s amazing how well the kids are doing on the homeworks this week, since this is a part of the class kids usually don’t get very well.  Something must be working!

Though I might fall asleep on the couch so instead I did a little more work on Lewis’ PJs.  They’re coming together really surprisingly nicely, though every little thing is screwed up in one manner or another.  It’s all a big learning process, so I’m not too concerned with these… I haven’t thought through constructing a shirt before, and I know lots of things I’ll do differently next time.  However, I think the end result will be wearable (or at least I hope!) and if it keeps going like it has been so far, it will even be something to be proud of!  Today I sewed the front panels to the back piece, and got the whole collar made (including fancy-pants piping!).  Haven’t attached it yet, but I guess that’s off a few steps further.  I’m getting a little nervous as we get closer to the sleeve parts, but I don’t know if in reality those are going to be any worse than anything else.  But… circular!   Does seem daunting.

April 23rd, 2009 | Tags: ennui, paper, presentation, reading group, sewing, sushi, taing, yoga | Category: home, school | Comments Off

Blog, I had such big plans for you tonight.  But my legs are absolutely killing me (I do not know why.. they do this sometimes) and now I’m not sure how much I can stand before I go to bed.  I can at least hit the major points… maybe it’s time to go list-format:

The Great:

• semantics presentation went smashingly!
• triumphant post-presentation hot dog lunch with my sweetie
• got a surprising amount of work done
• excellent Obama speech watching!
• settled on San Diego travel plans finally (I owe Lewis for this one)
• went out for pie and coffee this evening just because!

The Bad:

• cat tried to bite me, shame on him.  had to swat him with a midterm I was grading.
• my legs… boo!

You can tell it’s been an excellent day when I have to grasp at straws like that on my bad list.  What’s even better… I’m not sure I’m even going to go to class in the morning.  I’ve left it up to morning-me to decide, but I’m feeling rather self-congradulatory, and like I deserve a little spoiling.  Besides, I’m taking Quechua pass/fail and I’ve got like 99% at the moment.  I can well afford a little slackage.  And sleeping in!

February 24th, 2009 | Tags: celebratory, list, pie, presentation | Category: life, school | Comments Off

Presentation tomorrow. Stupidly dreading it. I’ve practiced twice today, and it’s alright. Important to keep the eye on the prize: moving my mouth for 25 minutes, then being done doing that.

February 23rd, 2009 | Tags: dread, presentation | Category: Uncategorized | Comments Off

Oh my lord… 64 bit flash!  Thank you, Adobe!!  Not only does it work in Firefox… I even got to resurrect my beloved-but-abandoned Opera and Liferea!

Today went pretty well, though I’m completely drained.  Had my last presentation this morning and had the odd feeling that I was saying exactly what I wanted but it still felt like maybe it was all gibberish to my audience.  I imagine that’s an ongoing problem with presentations as you get further into your studies.  Fewer and fewer people will know what the heck you’re talking about and fewer and fewer people will probably care, but there’s certain a way to finesse these things so that it’s obvious to your audience what you’re doing.  Things to learn!

Got a lot done today after the presentations, too, like getting my whole 260 paper outlined!  I’ve got a lot of work to do this week, but I think I’ve spaced it out into nice even chunklets, and that’s really the only way I get things done.  Here’s to hoping tomorrow is another incrementally successful day!

December 2nd, 2008 | Tags: flash, linux, opera, presentation | Category: life, school | Comments Off