The TA for one of my classes just sent us all an email. Among other things, it advised the following:
***SESSIONS START AT 8 AM, CHICAGO TIME. PLEASE REMEMBER TO SET YOUR ALARM CLOCK ACCORDINGLY.***
Guess I can't use that "I was on Moscow time" excuse anymore!
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My homework is making me sick, literally.
My professor told us to read this six-page article and type a one page report about it. Sounds easy enough, but no. It's a bio-mechanics article about failure mechanisms in ACL implants. It's disgusting. They're talking about knees and cadavers and stuff rupturing. What's more is that I don't know anatomy and when I look for a picture or diagram on the internet I nearly vomit. Seriously, I can't read this stuff, but I don't want to skip the first assignment of the semester. I hate living things. Why couldn't it be a nice, un-nauseating article about composites or something else that isn't alive?
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Last night I went sledding with John, Masha, and her friend Olga. Turns out that there is a sledding hill in the arboretum, and John found a sled in his basement so we decided to go. It could possibly have been the most fun I've ever had at school. Four college kids riding down an icy hill on a piece of flimsy plastic dodging trees all the way! Fantastic fun. By 10PM there must have been 40 kids sliding down the hill on sleds, shovels, cookie sheets, and trays stolen from the dorm cafeterias. I love college.
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Usually, when I post at 4AM it's because I am up very late. Today, it's because I am up very early. I woke up to what I thought was my alarm clock, but quickly realized was not. Instead, the high pitched shriek was coming from the living room. After carefully opening the door so as to avoid an alien attack (I was still a little sleepy and confused) I discovered my smoke alarm/CO detector wailing at full tilt. Now, this is one of those cheap detectors that doesn't even tell you if it's smoke or rather CO that has it all wound up. Since I didn't see smoke, I assumed I was being slowly poisoned.
After failed attempts of telling it to "shh...be quiet!" (still sleepy) I took the battery out. After a minute, I put the battery back in and it was silent. I called the fire department and they thought it was just a detector going bad since it didn't go off again after I put the battery back in. I sort of agreed with that theory until I got off the phone. Now I'm thinking that it's because I opened my bedroom door, thus allowing the concentration of CO to drop in the living room, that the detector stopped alarming.
I thought about running to the store to buy a new detector with a digital readout, but then I realized that I don't have a car. I thought about staying awake until Schnuck's opens in a few hours, but I'm going to get tired and fall asleep. I turned down the thermostat so the heater won't fire up. Maybe that will buy some time if that is the problem. I feel OK. Yeah, I'm going back to bed.
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Every senior mechanical engineering student at UIUC must take the capstone design project course. This course draws on everything learned in undergraduate courses and applies it to solving a real problem. My team of four people will be doing this project. Yay for excitement! Boo for lots of hard work!
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Over the last couple days I've been working on the security clearance stuff for my new job. It's ridiculously detailed. One of my main problems is trying to think of people to use as references. There are numerous rules regarding who you can or cannot list. I'm running out of people. Guess I should have made more friends over the last ten years.
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It was either kindergarten or first grade that I was taught how to write the date. After telling us that the year was 1984, the teacher then asked the class if anyone knew why we wrote 1984 instead of 1985. When no one answered, she explained that we shouldn't get ahead of ourselves because God could end the world before we even get to 1985. Yes, that's really what she said.
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Just now, I was sitting on my couch in prayer and I thought "I would really like a Hostess Cupcake right about now!" Man, I haven't had one of those for a while and I really want it. I'm sure the gas station two blocks away has them, but right now it's zero degrees outside. No way am I leaving this place.
I'll tell you what I was praying about. The last week I've been really freaking out about doing well this semester and getting some other things accomplished as well. It pretty much seemed hopeless, so I went to my main man, Jesus. I started to tell him all the things I wanted help with, but he interrupted me and said "just let go of all that, I'll handle it!" Jesus is awesome, that's all I have to say folks.
By the way, my backspace is working very slowly. Isn't that odd? I hate computers. Maybe I'll get that cupcake after all...
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Right now, it's about 10 degrees outside. That's just way too cold for me. Don't get me wrong, I like moderately cold weather every now and again. However, this merciless frigidity is seriously crimping my style.
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My parents brought me back to school tonight. I got some groceries I needed, then Masha and John came over for a little while. I feel very alone and sad, but I don't know why.
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I was expecting to return to school for the last week or so of winter break to make some much needed money before school resumes. In addition, I promised to hang out with some friends at school, help Matt paint his house, make dinner for the retired priest living next-door, buy my books, fix stuff in the apartment, etc. Now, for the second time, my Dad decided not to go to Urbana because of bad weather. I want my own car right now. Maybe tomorrow I'll take the train to school. Yeah, trains are fun.
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Apparently, January is National Tea Month. Who knew?
I like tea, a lot. Right now, I have at least six different kinds at my house. I'm not talking sampler boxes, these are full boxes of different teas.
Sometimes, when I'm drinking tea and considering its fantasta-awesomeness, I start thinking of just how much tea I drink and how long I've been drinking it. For some reason, this thought makes me very sick and I have to stop drinking the tea for fear that it will make me explode.
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