because i've been in TN for such a long time (um, 4 days), i'm headed off again.
to chicago today, for two lovely days with grandma, then to indy saturday for heather m.'s wedding, staying put for new years eve at tammy's house, then driving a rooster from indy back to TN for my dad on new years day. totally jealous right? now i have mellencamp's "peaceful world" stuck in my head.... i think "up from indiana down to tennessee" rather fits this leg of the journey. :P
a fantastic week to all y'all. happy almost-2007! :)
Wednesday, December 27, 2006
Monday, December 25, 2006
i said i wanted a computer...
and instead i got a $600 check from the parents. don't get me wrong, my desktop is ok, but for awhile i've really craved (1) the portability of a laptop, and (2) ridiculously good processor/amounts of memory to do my research without periodically freezing the stupid machine from making it do too much at once.
when i started looking up prices on what i wanted with my mom this afternoon, i came up with this HP dv6000t which seems to have pretty good reviews just about everywhere... and sure it says starting at $569.99 on the website, BUT when you give it the best processor and tons of memory, you can jack it up to well more than that. we finally settled on:
HP Pavilion dv6000t customizable Notebook PC
* Genuine Windows XP Professional
* Intel(R) Core(TM) 2 Duo processor T7200 (2.0 GHz)
* FREE Upgrade to 15.4" WXGA BrightView Widescreen!!
* Intel(R) Graphics Media Accelerator 950 - Core
* HP Imprint Finish + Microphone
* 2048MB DDR2 System Memory (2 Dimm)
* 80GB 5400RPM SATA Hard Drive
* DVD/CD-RW Combo Drive
* 802.11b/g WLAN
* Microsoft(R) Works/Money
* System Recovery DVD w/Windows XP Professional
mom is paying, and i will pay her back for all but $600. sooo excited, it's going to be a BEAUTIFUL machine. :)
the end.
p.s. merry christmas!
when i started looking up prices on what i wanted with my mom this afternoon, i came up with this HP dv6000t which seems to have pretty good reviews just about everywhere... and sure it says starting at $569.99 on the website, BUT when you give it the best processor and tons of memory, you can jack it up to well more than that. we finally settled on:
HP Pavilion dv6000t customizable Notebook PC
* Genuine Windows XP Professional
* Intel(R) Core(TM) 2 Duo processor T7200 (2.0 GHz)
* FREE Upgrade to 15.4" WXGA BrightView Widescreen!!
* Intel(R) Graphics Media Accelerator 950 - Core
* HP Imprint Finish + Microphone
* 2048MB DDR2 System Memory (2 Dimm)
* 80GB 5400RPM SATA Hard Drive
* DVD/CD-RW Combo Drive
* 802.11b/g WLAN
* Microsoft(R) Works/Money
* System Recovery DVD w/Windows XP Professional
mom is paying, and i will pay her back for all but $600. sooo excited, it's going to be a BEAUTIFUL machine. :)
the end.
p.s. merry christmas!
Saturday, December 23, 2006
what a loooooooooong day...
... as if driving from pittsburgh, pennsylvania to memphis, tennessee all in one shot isn't already long by itself.
but add in:
(1) coming within 5 feet of starting the day in a major carwreck
(i was in rush hour traffic on I-376 in pittsburgh this morning. when i saw all the cars in front of me completely stopped, i started braking so that i had plenty of room to stop... the car coming up incredibly waaaay too fast behind me apparently decided instead of braking to just zip around me, and he did, merging in front of me again just in time to collide into the car in front of me at about 60mph, and then went flying across 2 lanes of traffic in a ball of smoke, seriously all less than 20 feet from my car. made me EXTRA alert for the start of my day...)
(2) lots of rain and fog for 70% of the day... which after a certain event 3 years ago makes me more tense than normal....
(3) inadvertently taking a 30 minute detour completely the wrong way
(seriously, i know interstates on the eastern half of the country insanely well, but when i finally temporarily got out of the rain in southern kentucky, it was at sunset. the sun was glaring so bright in my windshield straight on that i couldn't see a freakin thing in front of me, so i just followed the dotted lines on either side of my lane and crossed my fingers that the cars in front of me didn't suddenly brake because i couldn't see them... unfortunately following the dotted line led me off of I-65, and onto a kentucky state highway that didn't have any exits or chances to turn around for 20 minutes, hence an unintentional detour... doht. at least kentucky hills are really pretty at sunset?)
at any rate, the usual 12.5 hour trek took 14 hours instead this time and i'm TIRED.
on the plus side there are nice people. i pulled over at a rest stop in eastern ohio early this morning and there were two guys in a trailer in the parking lot handing out coffee, hot cocoa, fruit, cookies, and chips for free (with a tip jar on the counter). they were super friendly and totally made my morning after being moderately distressed about witnessing the accident an hour before.
anywho, i'm here.... TN for 4 days of craziness, and then leg 2 of lara's winter break roadtrip 2006 continues on wednesday. stay tuned for more fun!
but add in:
(1) coming within 5 feet of starting the day in a major carwreck
(i was in rush hour traffic on I-376 in pittsburgh this morning. when i saw all the cars in front of me completely stopped, i started braking so that i had plenty of room to stop... the car coming up incredibly waaaay too fast behind me apparently decided instead of braking to just zip around me, and he did, merging in front of me again just in time to collide into the car in front of me at about 60mph, and then went flying across 2 lanes of traffic in a ball of smoke, seriously all less than 20 feet from my car. made me EXTRA alert for the start of my day...)
(2) lots of rain and fog for 70% of the day... which after a certain event 3 years ago makes me more tense than normal....
(3) inadvertently taking a 30 minute detour completely the wrong way
(seriously, i know interstates on the eastern half of the country insanely well, but when i finally temporarily got out of the rain in southern kentucky, it was at sunset. the sun was glaring so bright in my windshield straight on that i couldn't see a freakin thing in front of me, so i just followed the dotted lines on either side of my lane and crossed my fingers that the cars in front of me didn't suddenly brake because i couldn't see them... unfortunately following the dotted line led me off of I-65, and onto a kentucky state highway that didn't have any exits or chances to turn around for 20 minutes, hence an unintentional detour... doht. at least kentucky hills are really pretty at sunset?)
at any rate, the usual 12.5 hour trek took 14 hours instead this time and i'm TIRED.
on the plus side there are nice people. i pulled over at a rest stop in eastern ohio early this morning and there were two guys in a trailer in the parking lot handing out coffee, hot cocoa, fruit, cookies, and chips for free (with a tip jar on the counter). they were super friendly and totally made my morning after being moderately distressed about witnessing the accident an hour before.
anywho, i'm here.... TN for 4 days of craziness, and then leg 2 of lara's winter break roadtrip 2006 continues on wednesday. stay tuned for more fun!
Wednesday, December 20, 2006
wasting the day away...
it's wednesday.
my work for the semester has been done since monday. if it were just up to my schedule, i could have actually left town yesterday.
but, my students have their final tomorrow, so i figured i'd be nice and have extra office hours this week while they study, since so many of them said they'd need it and it would help a lot.
don't get me wrong, i'm happy to help. but here it is, less than 24 hours before the exam, and i've been in my office for the past 3 hours. NOT ONE PERSON has shown up. if i could have predicted that, i could have slept in another hour, i could have gotten a haircut this morning instead of tomorrow on the way out of town, SO MANY other things i could be doing.
but alas, 10-6 today i said i'd be in my office to help, and here i sit... working on my research and playing minesweeper alternately... such a productive day. (sarcasm)
one of two things is going to happen, and both are potentially frustrating
(1) no one could show up all day, and when i just spent 8 hours sitting in a very quiet math building, glued to my office when i could have been getting lots of other last-minute-get-out-of-town things done
(2) since they all decided not to come in the morning, a TON of students will come after lunch time and due to volume, not all of them will get their questions answered.
it's not like i've not given them ample opportunity. monday's office hours were like this too... 3 people came in for 5 minutes each in the course of 4 hours. and i've gotta pack to be gone for a month tonight. it's not like i'm not available. they're just not showing.... oi.
we shall see.....
complete tangent:
in happy news, the fridge at home is nearly empty, so i'm getting takeout for dinner. the gas station down the street from me has a new kitchen in the back that serves southern food. ben, jessica, and i tried it out on saturday afternoon and it was amazingly good. seriously, you don't think of gas station food as that great, but it seems to be this guy wants to run a takeout service, doesn't need a whole building to himself, just a corner with a grill and a fridge, so he rented the corner in the station. now i have somewhere to go to get catfish and cornbread that even delivers to my house and is cheap. yay! when i ordered on saturday the cook asked me "girl, where'd you learn to order soul food?" and when i said i was from memphis he got super excited.... he's originally from arkansas and just enjoys making good eats even while stranded out in jersey. :P good food, good people. makes laras happy. :)
... now if only some students would show to entertain me with questions...
the end.
my work for the semester has been done since monday. if it were just up to my schedule, i could have actually left town yesterday.
but, my students have their final tomorrow, so i figured i'd be nice and have extra office hours this week while they study, since so many of them said they'd need it and it would help a lot.
don't get me wrong, i'm happy to help. but here it is, less than 24 hours before the exam, and i've been in my office for the past 3 hours. NOT ONE PERSON has shown up. if i could have predicted that, i could have slept in another hour, i could have gotten a haircut this morning instead of tomorrow on the way out of town, SO MANY other things i could be doing.
but alas, 10-6 today i said i'd be in my office to help, and here i sit... working on my research and playing minesweeper alternately... such a productive day. (sarcasm)
one of two things is going to happen, and both are potentially frustrating
(1) no one could show up all day, and when i just spent 8 hours sitting in a very quiet math building, glued to my office when i could have been getting lots of other last-minute-get-out-of-town things done
(2) since they all decided not to come in the morning, a TON of students will come after lunch time and due to volume, not all of them will get their questions answered.
it's not like i've not given them ample opportunity. monday's office hours were like this too... 3 people came in for 5 minutes each in the course of 4 hours. and i've gotta pack to be gone for a month tonight. it's not like i'm not available. they're just not showing.... oi.
we shall see.....
complete tangent:
in happy news, the fridge at home is nearly empty, so i'm getting takeout for dinner. the gas station down the street from me has a new kitchen in the back that serves southern food. ben, jessica, and i tried it out on saturday afternoon and it was amazingly good. seriously, you don't think of gas station food as that great, but it seems to be this guy wants to run a takeout service, doesn't need a whole building to himself, just a corner with a grill and a fridge, so he rented the corner in the station. now i have somewhere to go to get catfish and cornbread that even delivers to my house and is cheap. yay! when i ordered on saturday the cook asked me "girl, where'd you learn to order soul food?" and when i said i was from memphis he got super excited.... he's originally from arkansas and just enjoys making good eats even while stranded out in jersey. :P good food, good people. makes laras happy. :)
... now if only some students would show to entertain me with questions...
the end.
Sunday, December 17, 2006
Friday, December 15, 2006
equation
gingerbread margarita + chocolate mint martini + vanilla vodka + scott + dr. seuss + cheesecake + spinning = happy lara
Monday, December 11, 2006
so i would have guessed centrist, but ok....
| You are a Social Conservative (26% permissive) and an... Economic Liberal (31% permissive) You are best described as a:
Link: The Politics Test on Ok Cupid Also: The OkCupid Dating Persona Test |
Sunday, December 10, 2006
how well can you do?
You Passed the US Citizenship Test |
 Congratulations - you got 10 out of 10 correct! |
crazy alert...
2 things that amused me in the past few days:
(1) friday, i checked my mailbox in the math building and had an envelope mailed without return address from somewhere in california. i expected it to be some sort of math newsletter or math advertisement... or something math related... after all, who sends me mail at my math building address besides math-related stuff? open the envelope and inside there was a postcard telling me where to go to download snood to my cellphone and two bumper stickers that read "forget life... play snood!". i didn't ask for this, it just appeared. how the heck me, and only me, out of the whole math department ended up with that... not a clue. people are funny. apparently i have a snood-adverising stalker.
(2) i've been on a chewing gum kick lately... dentyne ice, trident with the center-filled 2-flavor gum, etc., etc... all the gum packages now say "not a low-calorie food". are there really people out there who try to live solely on chewing gum? if so, that's mildly disturbing. if not, then i find it hilarious that the chewing gum manufacturers have to explicitly tell us that chewing gum does not make a meal.
the end.
(1) friday, i checked my mailbox in the math building and had an envelope mailed without return address from somewhere in california. i expected it to be some sort of math newsletter or math advertisement... or something math related... after all, who sends me mail at my math building address besides math-related stuff? open the envelope and inside there was a postcard telling me where to go to download snood to my cellphone and two bumper stickers that read "forget life... play snood!". i didn't ask for this, it just appeared. how the heck me, and only me, out of the whole math department ended up with that... not a clue. people are funny. apparently i have a snood-adverising stalker.
(2) i've been on a chewing gum kick lately... dentyne ice, trident with the center-filled 2-flavor gum, etc., etc... all the gum packages now say "not a low-calorie food". are there really people out there who try to live solely on chewing gum? if so, that's mildly disturbing. if not, then i find it hilarious that the chewing gum manufacturers have to explicitly tell us that chewing gum does not make a meal.
the end.
Friday, December 08, 2006
you never know...
...what my students will do on the last day of recitation.
last semester one of my sections gave me a standing ovation which was really cool. that might be a one time ever thing. they were a special group of students... i just had a super good rapport with them.
this semester, my first two sections were nice. in my 12-1:20 section though, three of the louder guys came in with pizza for the whole class while i taught. it was amusing.
it's been fun as usual this semester, but i'm super glad that i don't have to wake up before 8am again for quite some time. :)
the end.
last semester one of my sections gave me a standing ovation which was really cool. that might be a one time ever thing. they were a special group of students... i just had a super good rapport with them.
this semester, my first two sections were nice. in my 12-1:20 section though, three of the louder guys came in with pizza for the whole class while i taught. it was amusing.
it's been fun as usual this semester, but i'm super glad that i don't have to wake up before 8am again for quite some time. :)
the end.
Thursday, December 07, 2006
end of semester random life update
* in the past week my car cost me $500 plus 5.5 hours sitting around at the car repair shop... i made use of that by writing out 106 christmas cards. they get mailed saturday. if you're reading this and i actually know/keep-in-touch-with you, you probably have sparkly mail coming soon. :)
* tomorrow is my last day teaching this semester. i'll miss my students, but i'll also enjoy having spring semester off from teaching. keeping on top of material in an "i can explain it in 10 different ways if necessary" way and keeping on top of grading 90 kids' work every single week is a LOT.
* my first monthly lunch meeting with the carnegie institute teaching fellowship people (see here) was earlier this week. i'm looking forward to the next year of forum discussions and other such fun with them. it'll be good for me to have other people who are worried about quality of education to discuss and enact things with.
* research wise, i've managed to sucessfully procrasinate my way through the two weeks since thanksgiving... that amounts to a lot of fun reading and TV watching lately (SOOOOOOOOOOOOO excited scrubs is back now, you have NO idea)... and a day in manhattan last weekend oogling at christmas lights (how can you not love the rockefeller tree?)... it also means i really need to do a TON this weekend so that i have something besides excuses to show my advisor before the semester is up.... doht.
* no finals for me anymore, but i'm hanging around for two weeks to get paid extra for grading other courses' finals, and to help my students study for their final... after that i've got the craziest christmas break to date planned:
dec 21-22: drive to memphis
dec 23-26: in memphis
dec 27: drive to chicago
dec 28-29: visiting g-ma
dec 30: drive to indianapolis in time for heather m's wedding that afternoon
dec 31: in indy
jan 1: drive to memphis
jan 2-3: in memphis
jan 4: drive to new orleans
jan 5-8: national joint mathematics meetings in new orleans (see here)
jan 9: drive to memphis
jan 10: in memphis
jan 11-12: drive back to jersey
here's to hoping for safe weather on the driving days -- there's no TIME for me to get a day behind!
* after weeks and weeks of reasonable weather, we're only getting up to a high of 34 tomorrow and a windchill of more like 15... NOT excited, unless it comes with snow.
* scott owes me about 4 margaritas from doing his computer work this semester... that means there's a very fun non-math night in the near future. :)
... and that's my december. tons of fun, right?
* tomorrow is my last day teaching this semester. i'll miss my students, but i'll also enjoy having spring semester off from teaching. keeping on top of material in an "i can explain it in 10 different ways if necessary" way and keeping on top of grading 90 kids' work every single week is a LOT.
* my first monthly lunch meeting with the carnegie institute teaching fellowship people (see here) was earlier this week. i'm looking forward to the next year of forum discussions and other such fun with them. it'll be good for me to have other people who are worried about quality of education to discuss and enact things with.
* research wise, i've managed to sucessfully procrasinate my way through the two weeks since thanksgiving... that amounts to a lot of fun reading and TV watching lately (SOOOOOOOOOOOOO excited scrubs is back now, you have NO idea)... and a day in manhattan last weekend oogling at christmas lights (how can you not love the rockefeller tree?)... it also means i really need to do a TON this weekend so that i have something besides excuses to show my advisor before the semester is up.... doht.
* no finals for me anymore, but i'm hanging around for two weeks to get paid extra for grading other courses' finals, and to help my students study for their final... after that i've got the craziest christmas break to date planned:
dec 21-22: drive to memphis
dec 23-26: in memphis
dec 27: drive to chicago
dec 28-29: visiting g-ma
dec 30: drive to indianapolis in time for heather m's wedding that afternoon
dec 31: in indy
jan 1: drive to memphis
jan 2-3: in memphis
jan 4: drive to new orleans
jan 5-8: national joint mathematics meetings in new orleans (see here)
jan 9: drive to memphis
jan 10: in memphis
jan 11-12: drive back to jersey
here's to hoping for safe weather on the driving days -- there's no TIME for me to get a day behind!
* after weeks and weeks of reasonable weather, we're only getting up to a high of 34 tomorrow and a windchill of more like 15... NOT excited, unless it comes with snow.
* scott owes me about 4 margaritas from doing his computer work this semester... that means there's a very fun non-math night in the near future. :)
... and that's my december. tons of fun, right?
new playlist
it's been at least 6 months since i've made a playlist of songs to suit my mood... here's the latest though... it's one of the more eclectic hours of songs i've put together :) enjoy
the adventure (angels and airwaves)
chocolate (snow patrol)
stacked crooked (the new pornographers)
love and memories (o.a.r.)
bitter end (dixie chicks)
mercedes benz (janis joplin)
suddenly i see (kt tunstall)
scream (zoegirl)
something beautiful (newsboys)
mathematics paradise (klein four)
white and nerdy (weird al yankovic)
dear slim (kj-52)
dear slim, part 2 (kj-52)
where is the love? (black eyed peas)
black horse and the cherry tree (kt tunstall)
welcome to the black parade (my chemical romance)
hide and seek (imogen heap)
irreplaceable (beyonce)
the letter (newsboys)
look at me now (kirk franklin)
the end.
the adventure (angels and airwaves)
chocolate (snow patrol)
stacked crooked (the new pornographers)
love and memories (o.a.r.)
bitter end (dixie chicks)
mercedes benz (janis joplin)
suddenly i see (kt tunstall)
scream (zoegirl)
something beautiful (newsboys)
mathematics paradise (klein four)
white and nerdy (weird al yankovic)
dear slim (kj-52)
dear slim, part 2 (kj-52)
where is the love? (black eyed peas)
black horse and the cherry tree (kt tunstall)
welcome to the black parade (my chemical romance)
hide and seek (imogen heap)
irreplaceable (beyonce)
the letter (newsboys)
look at me now (kirk franklin)
the end.
