| yay i have "free time"! |
[Dec. 8th, 2008|08:20 pm] |
I am so completely exhausted; ever since the Saturday after Thanksgiving, all I have done is wake up, maybe go to class, work on my senior design project, then go to sleep. I haven't seen Alex, and I've hardly eaten. In fact, I've lost like 4 pounds because of this class. feel free to completely ignore this post, but I just need to vent.
In the past week, my group spent 74.5 hours working on this report. That's an average of about 9 hours a day. for 8 days. and it's not because we procrastinated - we worked on in for 4-8 hours a day for two weeks before break too. but you know what? it was really fulfilling. out of all the classes I've taken, I think this is the only one in which spending that much time wouldn't be completely and utterly miserable (although it was at some points, like yesterday during the 18th hour of fucking formatting). we turned the report in today, after printing for about 3 hours. I'm not sure how it could possibly take that long. Our group has the shortest paper in the class (6 groups), and it is 60 pages: 18 single spaced of text, and 42 of graphs and calculations. I am really really really proud of it. I think we did a great job, and I have no regrets about it. you know how sometimes you'll turn in something knowing there were things left to do or it could have been better? none of us feel that way at all. it is the best we could have done.
and if that satisfaction wasn't enough, there is another benefit. because engineering is awesome and unashamed of being too "corporate", my professor got sponsorship for this project from Dow Chemical (they are the ones with those "the human element" commercials). so now, the group that does the best on this project will get recognition at graduation AND A $300 PER PERSON AWARD. yes, a monetary award for doing an assignment. sweet. and my group is definitely in contention for it because we had the highest grade on one of the other two group assignments and we are the only group without a major disfunction. there are some funny stories about that, but they'd be too long.
so, in summary: this class is absolutely ridiculous and consumes everyone it comes into contact with, but it has again reassured me that I really like my major (except for the keeping me from my fiancee part). now I just need to use that as motivation for the two problem sets, two papers, two presentations, and three finals I have in the next two weeks. I don't really drink (or have fun) anymore, but if I were to, December 19th would be the day. maybe I'll see you out. or maybe I'll just go to sleep for 14 hours. |
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| online applications, interviews, schmoozing...... |
[Sep. 9th, 2008|04:25 pm] |
it's that season again. recruitment.
*warning* you will have to excuse my excessive usage of: "really" and parentheses
it's so tiring; going to all the career fairs (which are now hella far away instead of in the union), info sessions, seminars, and interviews all in a suit, plus all the online applications and skills assessment tests.... it leaves no time for schoolwork! let alone relaxing/a social life! which is bad since I'm taking 2 out of the 3 hardest ChemE classes this semester, plus another ChemE class, plus two other classes that have a lot of reading (more on that later). this might very well be a repeat of last fall when I didn't see anyone except alex for weeks at a time. but at least it gets done quickly; that's one of the benefits of being at such a big school - the recruitment is done by the middle of october. and I should have at least a few offers by then.
I really like interviewing, especially behavioral interviewing (which I believe to be far superior to traditional, along the same lines as how I really really hate grade inflation), which is weird since I really hate bragging and being competitive. I don't know. I just had an interview with (gasp) ExxonMobil, and I left feeling really happy. Which is partially because I did really well and partially because it just makes me happy. Now before you go all hatin' on me for selling out to the "evil oil companies", I don't really intend on working there, I am just trying to get the offer because they all pay like 25% more than chemical or consumer products companies, so I can use the offer to leverage a higher salary at a place I actually want to work.
It's weird how I still have an entire year left of college and I already have to think about not only what company/position I want but also where I would be okay raising children and owning a house, etc. like, seriously. this is a career I'm starting, and I may potentially live in the location that I choose with my first job for the rest of my life. Which actually limits the jobs I'd take a lot because I refuse to live in about half of all the states (semi-arbitrarily). Not only do you have to match a person and his/her skills and personality to the appropriate company and the appropriate position within that company, but also you have to just hope that that position is in a location that also matches the person's criteria. there is no use forcing yourself to live somewhere where you are not comfortable/satisfied. It's a tough match. My criteria include mid-size (80,000-200,000 people), fairly close to a large city (a few hours), not in the south, not in the clusterfuck that is new england (but possibly an area that is less densely populated on the east coast?), not in southern california... basically I am looking for a town that is exactly like Champaign except not in Illinois or another state that I don't want to live in. I also have to consider how readily available jobs for Alex are.... there's just so much to think about besides salary and whatnot. and it's pretty stressful. so far dow corning is still the best match, although I'd like the town to be a bit bigger and less conservative. but I highly doubt I'd be able to find a job that is closer. I hear back from them by sept. 30, so hopefully I'll get an offer (I did a kickass job so I don't see how I wouldn't).
My classes are also really hard/time consuming this semester. First off, I have a history course and a seminar course that require a bunch of reading (not that much actually, just like an hour per class), and this is a foreign concept to me. I have been having a hard time remembering/motivating myself to do that. None of my other classes have reading assignments because it would just be reading stuff that is, as of before lecture, impossible to understand/an inefficient use of effort. there are also no weekly/bi-weekly/regular assignments, which is disconcerting to me in terms of scheduling. I feel like the workload for those classes is just gonna jump out at me from behind a bush sometime in the middle of the semester. HOPEFULLY IT'S AFTER I HAVE A JOB AND FREE TIME. in terms of my technical classes, I am currently taking the hardest chemE class, process design. in the description it is referred to as the "capstone of the chemE curriculum", which is accurate because basically every class I have ever taken has been a prerequisite for another and so on and so on all leading up to this one class (which, yes, I am taking a semester early). It is a pretty fun class though. we are assigned a group, and we basically are just acting as practicing engineers rather than students. we don't have homework assignments or exams, we just have to submit items to our fake corporation regarding the design of a new plant. but this basically means that all the intermediate deadlines are set internally in each group. luckily for me, everyone in my group is really smart and driven and responsible. I think we are going to do very well.
Sorry this is such a huge entry. I have been feeling extremely stressed out lately and it is good to just take a little bit and write about what's been going on. |
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| quick update for jessica |
[Aug. 31st, 2008|12:09 pm] |
this is an addition to jessica's update about palin. before I get to my main point, I have another article that I thought was funny. I usually dislike dowd's writing because she is irritatingly biased without much support given, but parts of this article are hilarious.
okay, now on to the discussion. Normally I don't get into arguments about abortion because I have found that it is pointless; everyone has already made up their minds and there really isn't much to say that everyone doesn't already know, so it is impossible to alter anyone's opinion on that subject. But this is just different.
People keep talking about how palin is anti-abortion and then cite the fact that she is an incredibly self-less and angelic hero for not having her own baby with down syndrone aborted. there are two things that annoy the shit out of me about this. first, someone who is well off and completely prepared to raise a child not having an abortion is VASTLY, MONUMENTALLY, INFINITELY DIFFERENT than someone who is, say, a 16 year old in the inner city with maybe one working parent and no 'baby-daddy' around to help out not having an abortion. it is just retarded that anyone would even make that comparision. and that is because...
HAVING A BABY WITH DOWN SYNDROME (in my opinion) IS NOT A VALID REASON TO HAVE AN ABORTION. this is, of course, with the exception if a mother is literally not able to support that child for economic reasons (or other?) and it would just result in poverty or worse for both individuals and possibly others in the family. and all the exceptions for each and every situation are why abortions should be the choice of each woman. but back to the point: it kills me that people are painting palin as a saint because of that. that is not an exceptionally honorable thing for her to have done - it is the only responsible choice. she was being responsible, the same as millions of americans are every day. when she got pregnant she made a decision to care for that baby, regardless of what that entails, and to do otherwise (have it aborted) would have been incredibly selfish (but nonetheless, she should have the right to make that decision, I am just against it). discuss.
and also, jessica, I don't know if lauren reads my journal or not, but you might invite her to. i forget how friending works because I haven't in like 5 years.
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| well, i'm sure you are dying to hear... |
[Jul. 31st, 2008|07:50 pm] |
...about the weekend. First of all, let me just say that I began planning quite some time in advance. But here's how it went down:
*warning: this will have more run-on sentences than you can possibly imagine*
Friday
First off, Alex had gotten here thursday night, and I gave her this awesome north face fleece that I knew she'd love and look great in. And guess what? she loved it an looked great in it! it is incredibly light, and green (her favorite color) and apparently very warm in cool weather but cool and breathable in warm weather. friday morning we got up and got ready, then packed up our stuff and drove about 2.5 hours up to mackinaw city. mackinaw city is the mainland portion of mackinaw island, which I imagine to be somewhat like martha's vineyard. it is the quaint, historical, touristy, people-who-are-super-rich-and-own-the-detroit-pistons-live-there type island for michigan. so we got up to mackinaw city where we were camping, and went to our campsite, which I had reserved a month in advance to get a spot right on the lake. the view was excellent; there was a beach-ish thing, and a long coastline, and wildflowers, and a view of the island, and a view of the bridge, and on and on... so we set up our stuff real quick, then went into mackinaw city to (what else) find the irish pub! we did find it and it was absolutely awesome. we got lunch there and I had the best reuben yet on my nationwide quest to find the best reuben, and alex has some fish that actually tasted like fish and fell apart when you tried to eat it. being close to 2 great lakes is an excellent place for fish! overall, an excellent beginning. then we wondered the little downtown and i bought some fudge, then we went to an outdoor outfitters and almost accidentally bought a full size rope hammock because it was only $20. after that we went back to the campsite to relax for a while, then we had dinner and came back to camp. this was our night for the campfire, so we got it started, and alex fetched things for s'mores. after we enjoyed a few, I brought out alex's second present: funky flames. they were these things I found that you throw into your campfire and they turn the flames colors. we had shenanigans. after that we went to bed and I had the best night's sleep I've ever had on the ground. It was actually very comparable to sleeping in my bed here in saginaw.
saturday
the next morning I really had to pee, but I wanted alex to walk with me to the bathrooms, plus we had to shower and leave pretty early. except she was all groggy and didn't want to get up. so to wake her up I decided to give her the 3rd present: a pink xbox controller. she had been wanting one for quite some time, and I thought it was silly. so after that she perked up and we got ready, then drove into the city to take the ferry to mackinac island! it was really really foggy, and i was cold with my huge sweatshirt, but alex was fine in her tiny fleece. the ride was fun. when we got there it was very quaint. automobiles have been banned since 1898, so everything is transported with horses. they have carriages all over the place, and shipping horses, and garbage horses, and even street cleaning horses (kind of a big deal). we sought out somewhere to eat a quick breakfast, and by recommendation of a local, we found this diner-style place called jessi's chuckwagon. it was really cheap and pretty good and a nice size. after that we explored the little strip of shops, then went up near all the historical stuff. there is an old french/british/american fort there, but it cost a bunch to get in. so instead we hiked around the little back roads and saw some stuff and went into the forest a bit. after a while we headed back to downtown for lunch. at this point all the fog had cleared up and it was sunny and probably 75 degrees, just like always. for lunch we went to this place that had caught our eyes called the pink pony. it was a bar and grill. the bar portion looked pretty sweet, but we ate out on the dock with a good view of the fancy houses. the meal was decent, and I actually saw someone there that I knew from work, which was strange. After lunch we strolled a bit, and then i managed to find a bakery. We got some pastries of some sort, and I got a ginger cookie for later. With our pastries in hand, we went off to find a quiet, peaceful place to enjoy them. we started to walk on the nice wooden boardwalk that is next to the road that goes all the way around the island (about 7 miles). there are tons of people and families riding bikes around because that's what you do there, it's all very joyful. a couple of minutes down the road I saw this great little secluded spot off the sidewalk that was surrounded by small trees. another cute old couple had found the spot too and were sitting about 25 feet away in some shade and being cute and friendly. so we sat in the sun for a bit and enjoyed our pastries and the view of an island, 2 lighthouses, a cute beach with many types of wildflowers, and the mackinac bridge. after we were done with our pastries, alex wanted to move into the shade which happened to be in a super cozy little spot under a tree arch. after a couple of minutes of contemplation, I decided that there probably wasn't going to be an opportunity better than this, because the sunset options were not looking too good (i.e., all the good places faced east, plus it ended up getting cloudy later on). so I told alex that I was going to give her the last present, and that she needed to close her eyes. then I got out the scrapbook that I made, and I secretly got out the ring. Let me tell you about the scrapbook. I collected a whole bunch of picture of alex and I together, then sorted through them all and boiled it down to about 30 that were really special. then I put together this scrapbook that showed the beginning of our relationship, then all of the things we have shared over the years like hobbies and new experiences and traveling and whatnot. then it said the most important thing that we share is our future, and on the next page it said "alex, will you marry me." so we looked through it together and alex made comments but I don't know what they were because I was freaking out too much to listen. Then she got to the last page and I showed her the ring (that I had been hiding), and she of course said yes, and then I put it on her finger and accidentally cried. and we had a happy moment and basically just sat there for probably another hour just being really happy and close and taking in how perfect everything was and how beautiful our special spot was. we also documented it extensively if you want to see. after that we strolled back to the ferry place, and headed back to mackinaw city. then we lounged at camp, and I called my mom and told her and she cried too, then alex and I took a really great nap together and cuddled a lot. after that we had some dinner, burned the last of our firewood, and went to sleep.
sunday
we got ready and left pretty early in the morning. on the drive home, however, it started to storm pretty bad. alex (who always drives when we're together) started to get really stressed out because of her hydroplaning incident a while back. so in order to support her, I suggested we get off the interstate and take a break. we ended up deciding that I should drive, and although it was really tough, alex felt a ton better and it made it worth it for sure. it is, of course, my duty to protect her, physically and emotionally. so I drove the rest of the way home and she was distracting in a hilarious way, and she commented that the weather definitely owed us a rainbow. when we got back it had stopped raining, and we celebrated our return with taco bell. it was excellent. alex was supposed to leave by 3 ish in order to get back to champaign by around 9. but we just couldn't seem to say goodbye and she ended up staying until 6 (and didn't get home until 12:30). it was a very happy time. after she left I did some stuff, and then we had a little severe thunderstorm like we seemingly always do up here, but afterwards I looked out the window and saw the hugest, most defined, brightest, most complete rainbow I have ever seen in my life. It was enormous and actually connected all the way across and was really really bright. It made me extremely happy, so I immediately called alex to tell her that the weather gave us our rainbow. it was extremely symbolic and a perfect ending to a perfect weekend.
so that's what happened. you can now begin being jealous that your future husband will probably not do anything nearly as kick ass as that. |
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| (no subject) |
[Jun. 8th, 2008|04:11 pm] |
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what the hell has been going on with the world lately? i mean, first there was the thing in myanmar, then the earthquake in china, and now every single time i go onto weather.com there is some sort of warning for champaign, and sometimes up in michigan. literally, every time. there's been a million tornados, and all that flooding. yesterday i had to guide alex home from chicago using google maps for an hour because I-57 was closed because a tornado touched down there and overturned a semi. and now in literally 5 minutes it went from being fine outside to a severe thunderstorm warning with 1 inch hail. and there's been lightning for 3 nights in a row. it's all just so fucked up. the earth just got pissed i guess. maybe it's pms. |
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| pet peeve alert! |
[Jun. 7th, 2008|09:14 am] |
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IS IT REALLY THAT HARD TO FIGURE OUT HOW TO LOAD A DISHWASHER!? I MEAN REALLY! omfg. |
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| (no subject) |
[May. 15th, 2008|09:41 am] |
hey everyone! it's been forever... i have been hella busy. i had midterms starting 2 weeks before finals... so by the time i was done i had been taking exams for 3 weeks. not fun. i think i did pretty well on finals though; i definitely owned two of them. and i actually had fun taking one of them. it's fulfilling to see how much you've learned about something and what all you can accomplish, ya know? anyways... i also wrote the report on my research for the semester, and then the professor that i worked for decided that the work me and two other undergrads were working on wasn't beneficial enough to his business (which owns the rights to the research we do) and told us all not to work there anymore. i don't really care because it'll be easy to get into another group, but it's just disappointing when there is an educator that isn't at all interested in the education of undergrads. or the scientific community in general, because the stuff i was doing hasn't been done before, so it's important. whatever, he's a douche.
since school has ended i've basically been running a shit ton of errands. i've had so much to get done before saturday when i move up to michigan. i am getting excited, i think it's going to be very fun. my roommates seem cool (i have 3) and are willing to go camping with me, and the company has special programs for all the interns to get to know each other. there are 47 interns in my area . also, the work i'll be doing is product development which is way more exciting than process design. although i will get a bit of process design experience on a side project, which is good. i will try to update much more frequently about the goings on up in saginaw, and if anyone wants to come visit me, i'm sure alex would be pleased to have company. |
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| A letter.... |
[Apr. 4th, 2008|12:19 pm] |
Dear "The L Word" viewers who obsessively watch the show then immediately get on lj and rant about how bad you think it is,
You are retarded. I am extremely tired of this fad of saying that the writing is horrible and there's no character development and you are about to stop watching the show and ever since dana died it's just gotten crappy. You're wrong, just wrong. As much as I know you like to equate things happening in the show that you don't like to the show being poorly written, they are not the same. Here are some other things I feel that you should know:
- Showtime is by no means a big network. As such, they find it more difficult to have actors who solely devote their careers to a show on Showtime, especially if they're not gay and their agents keep telling them they should stop playing a gay character. When an actor's contract is up, they leave the show. That means that if an actor decides to leave, the writers can't have an extra 5 episodes to come up with a complicated and overtly believable reason for them leaving, they just have to come up with something on the fly. I'm sorry that this show isn't real life, and that you can't know about the entire life story of every character.
- I'm not sure where you come up with this claim that there is no character development. I've only been watching since season 3, and there definitely has been some (examples omitted because no one on here actually watches the show). Plus, that complaint is in complete disagreement with the following point....
- Everyone just wants the show to be exactly how it was when they first starting watching it, whenever that was. Unfortunately, if that was true, the show would be incredibly boring. Nothing would happen. Now, I know we all love commitment, but if everyone just paired up in the first season and then we had like 5 couples who just sat around and talked for 6 more seasons instead of cheating on each other, the show would be pointless, we could just watch Ellen instead.
So, my advice to you all is to just shut the fuck up and enjoy the show! I know it's entertaining because I watch it, and, what's more, you keep watching it even though you think it's horrible. I know you're probably an english major (no offense, Jessica) who feels the need to over-analyze everything and thinks you could do a much better job, but guess what? There is more to producing a television show than writing the most beautiful, realistic, idealized script; there are real life aspects. So if you don't want to watch the show, then don't. And if you do, stop bitching about it because everyone else wants to just relax and enjoy it instead of being complained at. Thank you,
bitches,
Alix |
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| it's the turnovers. |
[Jan. 1st, 2008|09:01 pm] |
i will post on a few things. first, the rose bowl. it is disappointing how big the spread was by the end, but i am satisfied with their performance. the first half sucked (which is basically why we lost; we all know that the first half determines the game for the illini) because for some reason they didn't have juice try to throw some passes until the very end. you'd think that after like a million straight laterals to mendenhall then he gets tackled behind the line of scrimmage they would have figured it out. but oh well. props to the defense though, they stopped them an impressive number of times. the second half would have been impressive and competitive except for all of those damn turnovers. i'm not sure why no one could keep a good hold on the ball! like seriously, they were making goods passes and got mendenhall through a few times, and could have easily scored at least two more touchdowns. plus, if you take away the 21 points usc got from turnovers, the game would have been close. i think that they played a great season and put on a decent show (minus the fumbles) but usc gets so much hype that people aren't going to stop trash talking the illini about the game. i was kind of ticked off that with 30 or so seconds left usc could have easily taken a knee, but instead they went for another touchdown to increase the lead to, what, like 39? that's just poor sportsmanship. usc is a better team, as you could see by how well they force turnovers (okay, so many of the fumbles weren't really our fault, they seriously ripped the ball out of our hands) and how easily they can get into the end zone, so i didn't expect us to win, i was just hoping the spread would be 14 or less. the most disappointing part, though, is that it's just going to feed the obnoxiously huge ego that everyone from southern california possesses.
secondly, new year's happened. didn't do much since almost everyone was out of town, but did manage to re-enact freshman year new year's sufficiently. .....................fas;dkvcjas;dlkfasjdf...............
i have been having ridiculous buffalo wild wings cravings lately. it's so odd, i don't even like wings.
i really want to see cloverfield. we'll probably go on jan. 18 or 19 if anyone wants to come.
goals for the rest of break: read the book on visual basic and write a few programs (for fun???), eat at the bread company, and........ okay well i forget the other one but no one really cares so i guess i won't try to figure it out. |
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| cabin trip! |
[Dec. 22nd, 2007|09:40 am] |
here are some of my highlights:
- the hot tub: it was really cold outside, and you had to walk over snow and ice barefooted to get there, but it was perfect and i really enjoyed all the colored lights. plus, who doesn't want to make a snow angel while wearing a bikini?
- playing guitar hero is pretty sweet no matter the context.
- exploring the river and building the snow fort. i would say the snowball fight was fun, but it really wasn't, just the building of the fort.
- the spaghetti dinner was very delicious as always. plus, gigantongs.
- big fires are always awesome, and it was even better with the snow. and making plans about pushing the devil down the hill.
- the group blintz-making process was fun.
- ooh, having a dishwasher counts as a highlight.
- seeing lake michigan and the cute little downtown was enjoyable. i managed to get a bit of christmas shopping done.
- i really liked the stray dog bar and grill. i should have gotten the reuben, but i'll just have to go back some other time. it really was a very nice restaurant.
- as always, the car rides there and back are a blast. go estrowagon plus jason!
all in all, a very nice trip. it was different having it before christmas, but i really appreciated there finally being some snow on the ground. |
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| (no subject) |
[Dec. 11th, 2007|04:38 pm] |
oh man. finals are so evil. i had two today, including physical chemistry. i have never studied more for anything than i did for that exam. it went okay, i'll probably get average or a bit more, and i'm thinking that'll be something reasonable... maybe 75%? the other one i didn't study for at all and it went pretty bad. i still think i'll be about average though, maybe 65%. but now i get to relax for the first time in four days! woooooo! time for some sunset wheat. only one more to go... on saturday. then is the cabin trip! yay! after that we're thinking of having a christmas party, so keep an eye out for that.
good luck everyone! |
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| he's my fav |
[Nov. 27th, 2007|01:29 pm] |
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yay! the holiday hawk is back! |
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| hahaha |
[Nov. 8th, 2007|10:06 pm] |
if you are ever feeling down, just stop and think "at least i'm not amy winehouse" and then you will feel better.
that is all. |
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| (no subject) |
[Nov. 4th, 2007|07:03 pm] |
hmmmm, i always mean to post, but i just never have anything to say. this weekend was nice i guess; we didn't exactly do what we had planned though. christina's party was fun, i liked the witch cupcakes (cute!!!), and who knew glow sticks could be so damn entertaining? saturday alex and i had planned to go canoing or something, but instead we just laid around and did chores around the apartment. and by that i mean that i did dishes for an hour and a half and alex picked up the trash in the livingroom for 2 minutes, and by doing so signed herself up to clean the george foreman ;). in the evening, we went to my house and had some dinner, then went to see a movie with my mom at the art theater. it was called "into the wild" made from a book i've read by jon krakauer. it was a very well made and good movie, but.... eh. all of the stuff was just impractical philosophical bullshit. i mean, i enjoyed watching it, but never in a million years could i agree to the opinions the guy was expressing. maybe all you humanities majors out there would enjoy it more... anyways, after the movie we grabbed some coffee (pumpkin spice latte? it was alright) and went back to my house and sat by the fire (of real wood, not gas. we are not pansies in my house) and alex and i did this puzzle in the paper called kakuro. it's kind of like sudoku but different. it was pretty fun. after that we made plans to meet up with a friend at a drumline party. it was okay, but there were seriously only like 5 drumline people there even though it was at the drumline apartment, which was weird. so we basically just talked to this one guy for a couple hours then left. ha, plus there was this really drunk girl falling all over the place and being stupid. so we made fun of her in the elevator on the way home, and then some random guy who sounded gay said we should be arrested for being so ugly, to which the north face jacketed friends of his said "you shouldn't say that" in a really apathetic way. but whatever, i don't take criticism from guys who 1) live in green street towers and 2) are carrying plastic treasure chests that say captain morgan on them. so that was saturday. and today i've just laid around all day and done a bit of homework. oh! and i also made this really spectacular meal and it was all fancy and tasty, so alex cleared off the dining room table and put the flowers that i bought her in the middle, then popped open a bottle of wine and we had ourselves a romantic dinner. so that was my weekend.
thoughts:
- i really really want a wood fireplace in my future house
- i also happen to want my future house to be half underground (like cave-style, not a basement)
- ooh, and a special little nook for a hammock, inside
- and outside too
- and a deck with a hot tub
- and we'll live in the mountains so it'll be all snowy
- mmmmmmmmm, the future is nice
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| (no subject) |
[Oct. 12th, 2007|04:38 pm] |
well, i haven't had much motivation to write lately. i'm not sure why.
the monotony of school is starting to get to me. it's that time of the semester when you're just so tired of doing all this shit (especially on thursdays....ugh) and the grades start slipping and whatnot. i'm just looking for something to re-motivate me. not only that, but i haven't had time to see anyone is literally 5 weeks or so. well. okay, i have a friend in Cincinnati that i visited who is also coming here this weekend. but the fact that i've seen her more than anyone else is kind of depressing.
here are a bunch of other thoughts/events/whatever:
- i'm glad it's cold now, fall makes me happy. i'm hoping to get to curtis orchard this sunday.
- never ever use a george foreman. they are impossible to clean.
- i received my armor and am in the process of putting it together with my dad. it is really complicated! it requires painting and gluing and drilling and screwing and adding tons of velcro. and there are soooo many pieces... but i suppose the building is part of the experience. it is a little bit large for me; i think it is meant for men who are about 6 feet tall, but whatever.
- i am excited to see various bands play tomorrow, mainly MI. their drill is so good these days.
- happy belated birthday jessica.
- i love football. i love illini football. it is so fun to not suck horribly. plus there is just this nice ambiance of chilling in your orange tailgating chairs in your living room drinking a beer and watching us win. or standing at the game in the stadium and yelling a ton and watching us win. or sitting in a bar with all the drunk excited fans and watching us win. mmmmmmmmmmmmmm.
- on a related note, if you go to espn.com and look at the fan rankings, illinois is number 1. for those of you who don't follow it, this is impossible. but the reason for it is one that proves just how kickass the u of i really is: someone in the computer science department (which is very good and highly ranked) found an error in the script and somehow hacked it to give us like 4 million more votes than everyone else. then he sent an email to espn saying how to fix it. how hilarious is that? they haven't fixed it yet though. it's silly.
oh. i do actually have some kind of big news. i got a call on tuesday, and it was dow corning. they didn't even ask me to have another interview on site like they said they would, they just offered me a position. i must be a big deal ; ). anyways, i thought it was going to be tough to decide, but since they paid (kind of) almost twice as much as adm i decided to accept it. i hope i can work in michigan, but i may end up in kentucky (ew). anyways, that's that. i will start sometime in may and then be even more inaccessible to all of my friends who have most likely already forgotten that i exist. but alas, the things i do for my "future." |
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| (no subject) |
[Oct. 4th, 2007|02:19 pm] |
you know that feeling? the one where you work really really hard through all of this crap, and you're starting to feel okay or even good about something, then some little thing happens that totally knocks you back down to where you were before and all you can see is the steep climb up again?
yeah, that sucks. |
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[Sep. 21st, 2007|11:13 am] |
ahhhh.... finally at the end of another week, so i've got time to update. this week was busy as usual. i randomly got this really bad fever on sunday and was in bed all day (not doing homework :( ). but then it went away, and now i'm sick with a cold. i think what happened was that i had a cold before the week of expo (last week), and then i was actually too busy to be sick, so my brain made me temporarily better, but then during the weekend it caught up with me with a vengeance, and now i'm just back to being sick again. i wish i had time to get better! oh well. so this week was slightly easier in that i had more time to do homework, but i had a bunch of running around to company info sessions and interviews and whatnot. when was the last time i updated? i don't remember, so sorry if i'm being redundant.
anyways, i had an interview with a company i don't really like, but i think it went well. after that i went to an info session about dow corning, which is a subsidiary of dow chemical which is a huge company. from what they said it pretty much sounded like a mini-google in that it was amazing to work for. it seemed exactly like what i'm looking for: flexibility in not only hours but also your job (you can pretty much do whatever you want in whatever industry you want as long as you're good at it.), all their plants are in mid sized towns (mainly midland, michigan. the benefit of this is that you're close and it's a really nice community, plus it means that like half the school board has ph.d's in engineering and there's super low crime), and they are looking to hire lots of full time employees (so the chances of getting an offer after the internship are really super high). so i was excited about that when i went to interview on wednesday, and i think it went quite well. i would have had time to go to logo night on wednesday, except our air conditioning decided to break and it was literally 90 degrees in our apartment. this caused me not to go to logo night where there was air conditioning like the logical person would do, but instead to sit on the couch and do homework while being pissed off. but then i got homework done, which made thursday night less stressful. on thursday night i had to go on a tour of the krannert art, which was very nice.
oh yeah! also on thursday i got an offer to intern at adm over the summer. this was my first choice (tied with dow corning), so yay! i didn't even have to have a second interview. i'm almost hoping i don't get offered a position at dow corning because i don't want to have to decide between them. i'd prefer adm for the summer because it's in decatur, so i wouldn't have to move up to michigan and pay for another apartment and whatnot, but i'd prefer dow corning for full time after graduation. i know i should choose dow corning if i get the chance because it's my future blah blah, but i mean, there's no reason i can't just work there after interning at adm. well, whatever.
on a side note, i've just made a big purchase. i think you all know what it is, and i thank you for your support. especially sabria. i'm thinking that throughout the year (mainly near halloween of course) i could possibly rent said item to whoever would like to rent it (i realize the market for this is extremely small, but maybe i could put up a notice at dallas) and that would give a bit of the money back. i mean, over the course of 30 years it might actually pay for itself???
a related question: if you were at some sort of event, and a stormtrooper, the identity of which you know to be alix, came in and you talked to it (?) would you be creeped out if the stormtrooper actually had the voice of a stormtrooper, or would you be creeped out more if the stormtrooper actually had the voice of a person who is most definitely not really a stormtrooper? because they have voice modification stuff that i'm looking into, i think that'd be neat, but i can't tell if it would be creepy or not.
phew, what a long entry! just one more thing: i'm going to cincinnati this weekend to visit my friend max from the drumline my freshman year, to do some hiking, and to go to octoberfest. i sure am excited for some sauerkraut, sausage, and other german items of my "heritage." i know i won't be a poser since my last name has one vowel and six consonants.
ooh, one other important thing: i just found out that as of the new year, not only will underage drinkers be fined, but their driver's licenses will be revoked. even if they weren't driving. so i am officially not drinking in bars for the next six months.
comment! there must be things to say! |
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[Sep. 16th, 2007|08:19 pm] |
okay. important question. for quite some time now (think 5 years), i have wanted to purchase a complete set of stormtrooper armor (don't judge me :) ). i've had this lifelong dream of wearing it to the grocery store and buying an absolutely ridiculous variety of things. like say, tampons and powdered doughnuts. how funny would that be? i think it would really make some people's days, and i like making people happy. now, i had found some for sale a couple years ago, but never committed to buying it. i have found a new set now selling for about $700 including shipping. i don't know whether to buy it or not.
of course it would be best to buy it soon so i have it in time for halloween (how awesome would that be?). i don't know what's keeping me from getting it. i know i'd think it was fun to wear occasionally, but i guess i'm not sure what people would think if they knew i spent that much on something society has deemed lame. i feel that i've finally gotten the point where normal people seem to think i'm cool, and i don't know how this would affect that. and yeah yeah, i'm not supposed to let that kind of stuff influence what i want, but everyone knows it does. i mean, in terms of my life, what is $700 little dollars?
i have no idea why i thought this merited it's own post, but here we are. any comments/advice? |
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[Sep. 9th, 2007|01:03 pm] |
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yesterday was overall a nice day. i slept in until like 8:40, then hung out with alex for a bit before she went off to go sailing. after that i accidentally watched the food network for a while then looked up recipes online. then i somehow got inspired to be productive, so i cleaned up our guest bedroom, bathroom, kitchen, dining room table, living room, and did the dishes. then i did a bunch of my homework, too! on saturday! and then, as alex was on her way back, i started cooking this tuna sauce for pasta that i had found earlier in the morning. it actually turned out only mediocre, but we were rushing to leave for the game anyway. i had to go early to see the drumline warm up because somebody there had my tickets (which i got for free). so we sit there waiting for the new 28 tranSPORT (they thing they're clever), which was super slow, and it finally comes, so we get on and are driven down goodwin with periodic stops, and once it gets to gregory we figure we'll get off at the next stop, but it doesn't stop until it gets to the stadium. so that was annoying. but we rush back to the band building just in time to see the last two minutes of the warm up and get my tickets. then we catch up with my dad and follow the band to the stadium. then we go find our seats and sit in the rain a bit. the game was okay, it was a little bit slow since neither of the offenses seem... good. juice was throwing a bunch of stupid little lateral passes, and he really couldn't get past that. he threw like 2 passes longer than, say, 15 forward yards the whole time. lame. but we weren't losing, which was nice. at halftime we watched the show and the drill was amazing. like, the best drill i've ever seen. during the second half it had stopped raining and we ate some dinner, then headed home after it was over. we decided to take the bus home even though it kinda screwed us over before the game, but it turned out good and we got home quite fast. then jason came over and alex went out for a beer run, and then there was just some chill-age. an enjoyable day, it was nice to have a break from school (even though i still did homework). |
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