Classes start today. Got dropped off yesterday. And apparently I was so out of it when I was cooking dinner that, after I pulled the plastic and washed the inside of my new pot, I forgot to check to see if there was any paper or tags on the bottom and plunked it right onto the stove. It was concerning to see smoke curling up from the bottom of the pot, tracing up the sides and swirling upwards. Luckily, I didn't set off the fire alarm.
Roommie's sister has transferred here and lives just down the hall.
Only 4 classes this semester, but it's 15 credits, since 3 of the 4 classes are worth 4 credits, instead of the traditional 3. Shouldn't be as busy as last semester....but we'll see.

Guess I'll disappear again for now. nothing left to say.

There are these guys down te hall who use their white board as an in/out board to tell people where they are. Usually says something like "Tyle is: studying. Ben is: at class" or something like that.....
So, over the weekend, those guys' white board read:

"Tyler was abducted by aliens.
"Ben is wondering where they took him."



What a bunch of weirdos.
It was kinda funny, though.



Okay, time to study. First final begins in 3.5 hours. And then Paleo is over forever!!!! And it's back to studying for later today and the rest of the week.

So, last night there was a speaker here at school. She's an author and Hmong woman and her book is about her family's journey from the refugee camps to the US and so she was here to tell us a bit about it. We also saw a short (20min) documentary/film she'd put together before. It's called, "The Land Where We Were Born" and if you want to see it, maybe you can find it on youtube or something...

and I really wish I could've just taped it and posted it here, because there's no way I could explain everything she said or what it was like.

It was moving. And depressing. and inspiring. all at once.




Sorry, that's all I got.



"My father used to tell me I was his and Mom's happy ever after. Everyone is someone's happy ever after." Kao Kalia Yang, the speaker from last night.

Okay, so I guess today is "Link Day" haha. Just kidding of course...but I am posting 2 here.

First one: a youtube video my roommate put together for one of her art classes. It's a reading of the tale of Persephone (well, a little adjusted. heh) with collages/pictures they chose to put with it and music in the background. Pretty fun, anyway.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=l7HJx5d9YjM



Second one is to a website, Land O' Lakes (to be exact). There's a button in the right-hand side, semi to the upper corner. When you click it, they donate money to food shelves. Button reads, "You click, we donate!" So, uh...well, clicking never killed anyone, did it? (Thanks to my sister, for showing me this.)

http://www.landolakesinc.com/default.aspx

**You can only click once a day**



So, you, that's all I got. Went shopping today with my roommate, bought some Christmas presents, but I'm not done shopping yet. Also played pool with a friend I haven't seen in awhile. It was amusing.
Now, I need to finish my assignment so I can goof off sooner.
Hope everyone's weekends are going by pleasantly.
Cheers.

I just heard an amazing band play today! They're called "Speaking in Tongues" (see url below...but it's only a side link from one of the members' websites...apparently, the band hasn't got its own.)

http://www.chinesepipa.com/jazz.html

It's really cool hearing them play. They combine elements from all of their different cultures to play music together. It's spectacular.
(Though, the Mexican fellow wasn't there...there was a sub for him, so there was still a bass player, but not the same guy...And the Chinese pipa player is the same lady who came to play for us last semester, which I enjoyed very much.)
Their music is traditional and contemporary at the same time...

Highly recommended, if you couldn't tell. ;)

And now I'm off to bed, for the basement here is too noisy to get any work done and my room is too warm to concentrate...and since it's already going on 10, I won't be heading to the library tonight. All the work I wanted to get done.....will need to wait for morning.

Cheers.

I think I'll try to get up to see it. But I'm in the middle of town, so viewing won't be the best. Oh well.


http://news.aol.com/article/strong-leonid-meteor-shower-peaks/769135?icid=main|main|dl1|link3|http%3A%2F%2Fnews.aol.com%2Farticle%2Fstrong-leonid-meteor-shower-peaks%2F769135




EDIT: I missed it. Again. I never seem to get to see this stuff anymore...cursed since the cloudy night on top of Arthur's Seat in Scotland... ;_;

My Mineralogy prof. put his foot down today. With several people always coming in late to class and lab, and some people never showing up for the lectures and some people always talking while he's speaking...

He looked at two people in the front (opposite side of the room from me) who always just sit and talk through class. (And they sit in the very front!! Right where they're obviously being rude and ignoring him!) He walked over to them today, after he had started lecture, and put his hands down on their table, leaned over them, and said, "Are you guys just messing with me or what?" I didn't hear if they replied or not. He then said, "I'm sick of you coming into class and not paying attention. I'm up here trying to tell you people something. If you don't want to listen, then get the hell out!" (pretty much an exact quote) And the class stared at him in stunned silence. He returned to his place and continued his lecture. I felt like applauding. He's not the only one who's gotten very annoyed and sick of the rude people of the class.

Seriously, I'm of the opinion--if you don't intend to pay attention to class, you may as well not go. Learning does not occur through osmosis. (Like the guy who sleeps through my Lit class....he's also one of the ones who's always late to Mineralogy....and he doesn't care. He came in a good 25 minutes after lab started today, so he missed my prof's outburst...And he's obnoxious while looking at stuff in lab and usually quite rude by way of language as well. Most days I just want to smack him. ...and the ironic thing? He's the guy I met my sophomore year who told me he wanted to be a priest. And then, when he was in my Hist. Geol. class last semester, he said he was a Geology major so he could work for oil companies and make lots of money. And he sat next to me in that class, and was always trying to talk to me while the prof. was lecturing....)

And not to mention the fact that it's super disrespectful to the professor, to always be coming in late or to be talking all through class.

I'm sick of these people.

Okay, rant over.

(You can just listen to it, you don't need to buy it) Their sound reminds me of Evanescence.

http://www.myspace.com/noctura

Family Day here at school. Crept up when I wasn't paying attention...too busy with homework to bother with the junk they picked out for today--football game (as always), magician, concert by The Dweebs (whoever they are) and the movie Up (which is probably the best option out of all of them.)
My family won't be attending, of course. They're safely at home having fun and I'm locking myself in the computer lab to get some homework done.

This is the most awake I've felt all week...I finally got a decent night's sleep. And I slept in, trying to catch up on all I lost all week.

I've taken to listening to one particular playlist repeatedly lately...guess I can't complain when radios play the same 5 songs over and over anymore, 'cause I do the same thing. (only difference is whether I enjoy it or not...makes me a hypocrite)

Happy Saturday, everyone. I'll be going back to work now.

Here's some comics to brighten your day.

So, I seem to have bad luck with bracelets. Especially ones my sister has given me.....and it's only seemed to have started since I came here.
Freshman year: broke and lost (since it snapped and fell off) the bracelet sister bought me from Relay for Life...just earlier that year.
Sophomore year: lost (don't know if it broke or not) the bracelet got as replacement at the second Relay for the one lost last year....
Junior year: broke my yellow bead bracelet sister made me a loooong time ago and I'd finally dug out and was wearing again...I still have most of the beads.... (at least this one lasted longer, I guess...)
And, now, Senior year: just yesterday....the bracelet my sister bought me at her school's fundraiser event for the CF Foundation (our cousin has CF) that was one of those rubber band bracelets, and it said "Making Happily Ever After Happen" broke yesterday. I still have it, but...I doubt tape or glue will hold it. So...there goes another one. She just bought those over the summer, too....didn't last long at all.

Well, the good news is...
       ....it snowed last night! And it's still here this morning!

the bad news is....
      ....in anticipation of the snow=cold weather....they turned the heat up...*headdesk*
      ....when I went to bed, I opened the window all the way and crawled into bed...and it was still so hot, I didn'tneed even my light sheet and I sprawled out like I do in summer, to keep my self-warming body parts away from each other. And then when my roommate came back, she pushed the window to nearly all the way shut, just a crack open....but I was sleeping and thus couldn't protest. I woke up to the heat this morning. uuuughhhhh. Maybe we two should switch sides....she gets colder easier than I do, so she really shouldn't be on the side where the window actually opens...

Okay, that's all. Back to homework.

So, last night....I had just quit working and goofing off both and decided to go to bed...lock the door, crawl into the loft...and I hear my roommate's voice in the hallway. She had been out with friends, so now she was coming back. Perfect timing, ne? So she comes in and asks if she can turn on the light, I tell her I just crawled up here, so it's no big deal...and she and 3 girls troup in, and she shows me a mouse in her hand. She and the others found it behind our AgSci building...and, since it was white and beige (mostly white) and, as they discovered when they picked it up, it was very calm and docile while held, decided it must be a domesticated mouse that had escaped from somewhere, so they brought it back, 'cause they didn't want to leave it in the wild.

So, they had this mouse. And my roommate asked me if I thought it was wild or not...I said i did't think so, either. So, now the question was--what to do with it? I guess the rules of the dorms is no pets besides fish....I had always been under the impression that, as long as it was in a cage and wasn't about to get out, anything was fine. But, it's been four years since I read those rules, so I don't know. since it was believed to be trouble for people who got caught with it, people were hesitant to let it stay in their room...so, while the girls were thinking it over, we arranged a little container for the mouse as a temporary home, complete with cut-up paper for bedding and the bottom part of a plastic cup for water. And the girls also started texting and calling people to see if they wanted to adopt a mouse.

So, it was finally decided the girl who'd originally found it would keep it in her room overnight and, since her mom was coming to school to visit her the next day, she'd send it home with her mom, and her mom would drop it off at another girl's friend's house, since they all live in the same city. However, she still had to walk across compaus back to her room, and so the mouse box was placed into a dishes bin and covered with towels for the trip, and she got 3 guys as escort back to her room.

Never a dull moment.

So, yesterday was the doom day of the week--2 tests (in consecutive classes--Mineralogy and Native American in Lit), one "discussion" (debate) that required research (Env Geol), and one quiz (in Paleo--id fossil and say it's group's geologic time range etc)
But, it didn't go as badly as I expected. At all. I know there's no 100%s coming up from that, but...I feel pretty good about all the stuff that went on.
And, after my paleo lab (5pm) I went to hear my Env Geol prof. give a talk about mountain building in the Pyrenees, and that was fun--he's a character, so his stuff usually interesting. And, in the middle of his talk, right as he finished a particular point, and clap of thunder rolled, and he said, "Oooh, punctuated by thunder. That must've been an important point."
And that was the only thunder I heard all night.

After the talk, I went to get  quick dinner from the UC's little convenience store (a really nasty sandwich of mushrooms, cheese, tomatoes, lettuce...which would've been fine, but the mushrooms tasted kinda funny and the sauce stuff they put on instead of mayo tasted awful. Ruined the whole thing) and I treated myself to ice cream for having got through the day without bashing my head into a wall or pulling my hair out or having my brain ooze out my ears--and it was even my favorite flavor from what the school makes! Mmmm, maple nut ice cream.... And a hot cocoa to take with me on the way back to my room in the rain. I was very chipper as I returned to my room.

So, all in all, this week wasn't bad. Stressful, definitely. But not bad at all.

I slept in today. Until I woke up at 7:30. I didn't even awaken when my alarm usually goes off. It was nice to finally catch up on some sleep I've been losing since Saturday.

And today is a catch up on neglected homework day and correcting tests and quizzes for my boss (whom I've been neglecting as well...I'm such a bad employee this semester...)

Okay, I'm ready for my allergies/asthma-type symptoms to go away. I don't need to be left hacking after every little bit of air pollution gets in my throat. The heating system has been bothering them lately. And the dryer exhaust that is thick in the basement has, too...seriously, I think everyone and their families all decided to do laundry this week, the dryers have been running almost non-stop since Sun. night.

And I thought a basement was usualyl cooler than the upper floors...? It's roasting down here. Probably because there's no windows to let out the heat...

The heat can be turned off any time, now. Thanks. I don't need to wear my bikini (haha) around the dorm. Really. It's okay.



There are 4 seasons here in the Midwest, dangit! It's not supposed to be summer weather all-year round, 24/7!!!!
*dies while trying to crawl to a window*

I got a rock/mineral testing kit in my Mineralogy class on Monday! Hooray! Now, I've got all the things necessary to test rocks when I'm wandering around to find out what they're made of (okay, he hasn't given us the HCl yet, just the bottles for it). Especially awesome is the handlens that came in the packet. Now I can stop borrowing everyone else's in Paleo! And I can sit and stare at stuff with it until I go cross-eyed!

I'll probably keep mine in it's case in my pocket, instead of on a string, though...even though it does have a little loop-thing on it for a string to go through.


That made my Monday happy.

You know you're amongst Geologists (Geology geeks) when...

...they go down a road and stare at the roadcut and say "this is new" and pullover to check out the exposed rock layers
...their pockets are full of fossils
...their backpacks weigh at least a good 15-30 pounds
...they have a rock hammer hanging from their beltloop and a handlens on a  string around their neck
...the only things they say to you are, "Here, look at this {insert rock/geologic terms}" and/or ask you to help them carry all their little/big rock and fossil specimans and otherwise ignore you
...they only care about the "money metals" (gold, silver, copper) in relation to what crystals they form and their symmetry
...they carry little bottles of acid (HCl) in their pockets so they can test rocks and minerals they find
...the lunchtime conversation is about geologic history and the good locations (or lack thereof) to see certain rock formations
...when they say "overharvested" they don't mean current species, but the fossilized remains of dead ones at well-known fossil locations
...getting a new rock/crystal/fossil to add to their collection makes their day
...they go camping and, not having an axe or hatchet, decide to try to cut the logs up into smaller pieces with their rock hammers (This happened this weekend. It was hilarious.)

More will probably come to me later; we'll see.

Well, that didn't go too badly.
We stopped at 8 different locations to look at the rock formations and collect fossils and discuss the differences and what they tell us about the environment at the time.

The first 6 stops were on Sat. (left around 8am...we were done and setting up camp around 6:25...) I've got a lot of fossils now, again. ^_^ Brachiopods, stromatoporoids, crinoids, gastropods, cephalopods, pelecypods, and bryozoans, to name most of the groups. It was good fun.
We set up camp at a tiny little campground made more for RVs, and it was a lot like Prairie Island---2 feet from the next campsite and you can peer at people's tent/RV windows from the comfort of your own site. After setting up the tents (4...for 6 people?? wha...???) we drove back into town for dinner. Dinner was at Subway and then we bought firewood at the gas station convenience store...but then it wouldn't light, 'cause it was damp....and so the logs were smoldering and the twigs we'd gathered from around were burning, and it looked really sad.
After about an hour, people from a neighboring campsite took pity on us and gave us some of their wood--it was kinda funny. The kid ran over and asked us if we needed some, so we said sure. So, one of the my classmates goes back with him and gets some. After the boy has delivered one extra piece from what was already given, he ran back to his site and shouted, "Dad! They need more!" And my prof was like, "He saw our tiny little smoking glow and realized we needed more help than he thought. He's probably thinking 'geez, these guys can't light a fire on their own, can they?' " And we all started giggling and talking about other stuff. But, with the wood from the nice other people, our fire finally became a fire instead of damp cinders.
We were looking at the Big Dipper and our prof was wondering what we were all looking at, so we told him we were discussing how to find the Little Dipper (apparently, I was the only one who'd ever heard that the end of it's handle is the North Star and it appears to be "pouring" into the Big Dipper...) and he pointed it out right away (by doing exactly as I suggested already...my problem was I misplaced the North Star...ooops....*headdesk*) And, right as we're all looking up at the North Star, a shooting star passes right by it. Talk about perfect timing. (so we did. haha)
As the fire wound down, so did we and we all went to bed. It was pretty chilly, too. My toes wouldn't stay warm...and I'd even brought extra socks for the cause, too. So, I had difficulty sleeping. Plus, I had to get up to use the bathroom too much....
Wake-up call was at 7. We had breakfast (cereal and oranges ....but the oranges tasted kinda sour...) and then we were packed back up and on our way by 8. After a brief stop to buy coffee at another convenience store, we were truly on our way. We stopped at the quarry and found some more fossils (and we had to wear hard hats, in case rocks decided to fall from the wall....if, you know, they weren't big enough to just kill us anyway...)
Our last stop was at a place that advertises the fossils in the area and tried to draw tourists...luckily, it wasn't as cheesey as it sounded when he described it to us--just a parking lot, and small pavilion, outhouses, and some paths to follow around an old quarry and a lake. He dispersed us to try to find fossils. We ate lunch there before leaving for good. And then it was just the long drive back. I managed to finish my Native American Lit reading homework in the van, and then I tried to study via my notecards for the tests coming up in Paleo and Mineralogy...but I couldn't keep my eyes open (my head was bobbing, seriously...) so I gave it up and just tried to sleep...which I also failed at, somehow.
Got back to school a little after 4, and then we had to sweep out the van (it was covered in rocks and dirt....) 'cause if we return it to the school dirty, we get charged a fee.

And that's the quick summary of my weekend.
Oh, yeah, and no pics forthcoming, 'cause nobody sold film that I could find here at school and town...except for the gas station, which sold them for $7 per individual roll...so I didn't get any...and I checked at every store we stopped at, and nobody sold film. Not a one.

P.S. Nee-san: I saw a chipmunk at one of the stops. ^_^ It's cheeks were bulging full of goodies as it scampered above us on the rock ledge.

I got to doodle all over my window on Tuesday, and it was fun. Roommie bought window markers and she's been drawing stuff on one window, and she said I could draw, too. So I finally did. I drew a firebird (I finally settled on that one after debating a bunch of other mythical creatures and possibly story characters...) and it didn't turn out half bad, either. Though, it did make me almost late for my Paleo Lab at 3 on Tues, 'cause I didn't want to leave it unfinished. Hahahaha.

First exam next week. In my Native American in Lit class. Two essay questions is the entire test. Ew. I better remember to bring extra pens--mine always seem to die when I'm in the middle of a test. Oh, well. There are pros and cons of essay tests. Now I need to read "[so-an-so's--yup, forgot the name, sorry] Featherweight" by next class (Tues) and it's only 80 pages, so it normally wouldn't be a problem, except...

...This weekend is the Paleotology field trip. We leave Sat. at 8am and don't get back until 3 or 4pm on Sunday. We're camping overnight in northern Iowa. We're touring around Minnesota (southern) and Iowa (northern) to look at rock formations and collect fossils. It should be a memorable experience. But, it makes it so today is my only real day to get anything done...

and...

...I have tests coming up in both Mineralogy and Paleontology pretty soon, and they're both classes heavy in memorization, so I should've been studying over summer already (but I didn't have the info...should've emailed them, I guess) and so I need to cram hard this weekend...

and...

...There's a Mineralogy assignment due next week Wed, and I'm still trying to remember the concepts it entails and figure them out...(phi and rho angles of minerals, anyone?) I have the definitions, but that doesn't help much with application...and since half the assignment is about them, it's no fun. And a third of the assignment needs to be done in the lab, since that's where the "unknown specimans" are we're supposed to categorize...

and...

...I have an article write-up and analysis to do in my Environmental Geology class. It's not due yet, but since it's practically the equivalent of a paper, I should start it, since it's due right before Thanksgiving...

...Plus all the other odds and ends I've been neglecting for classes...

(I know, it seems I'm merely whiny, since boiling the list down like this doesn't look like a lot...but it all takes up so much time...I don't think I'll ever finish...)

And I need to get out sometime today and go buy film for the trip, just in case any "kodak moments" pop up.

In unrelated news...
    "just because a knife won't slice doesn't mean it won't stab" (it doesn't mean what it sounds like, trust me, as I'm the one who coined it---explanation here: the knife I use for chopping up veggies for my stir-fries isn't very good for slicing...but, as I was quick slicing up a tomato in my room to make a sandwich, the knife pierced through the tomato and punctured through the microwave cover I'd been cutting on, in order to not get the floor a mess....it stabs far better than it slices. Maybe now I'll cut my veggies by making a series of stabs, instead of sawing away...)

Okay, I guess that covers it. I need to go get some work done. I hope you all have pleasant weekends. ^_^
Cheers.