And a Good Morning to You

We decided to take a quick nap at 5 p.m. which lasted until 2 a.m., at least for me. The Hub is still in bed, dreaming of his half-day at work today, I am sure. Time off is one of the best gifts one can get, I think. The cats were thrilled when I emerged from the bedroom. Yet another reason why I’m glad we do not have children. You can’t just have a snack, skip dinner and sleep for seven hours whenever you feel like it.

I think I’ve forgotten to mention that I’m going back to school for a Computer Science degree. Two years at TMCC, then two years at UNR. It’s the best major for me, considering how it will complement my old Masters degree. I think it will also be challenging, and frankly, my psych undergrad was about as challenging as opening up a paper bag. Yeah, things are easier because you remember them to be so, and also majors that you’re good at are easier anyway, BUT…this time around I’ll be going all the way up to Calc 3 in math. Finally having a good relationship with mathematics will be a real joy. It’s like filling a forever blank spot on a color-by-numbers canvas. I’ll be able to see how well I can concentrate on school, sans extracurricular activities like my old sorority. It’s not that my grades were terrible in my undergrad years. They weren’t. My grad school grades were excellent, for that matter. It’ll be satisfying to see how I progress through this journey.

As my father used to say, “If it was easy, everyone would do it.”

I do try to mention important life events on this website. I usually forgo small, piddling activities because I can’t be arsed to blog about them, and do you really care or not what level my Lore-master is in Lord of the Rings Online? (She’s 22.) Thought not. Anyway, I bring this up because I recently caught up with an online friend who I hadn’t spoken with in a couple of months. I told him what I’d been up to. I’ve gotten very good at being pretty succinct about it since I have to give The Life Update to my friend, Heather, every few weeks and she’s only got about ten minutes to spare when she’s on the phone. He told me what he had been up to, which is what I thought he’d been doing. Work and gaming. Nothing wrong with that. Most people are not off wrestling alligators or test-driving Ferrari Testarossas every day. Or even every other day. Looking back at the post, I had spoken with him on and off for four hours. Everything that I had been up to had been covered in this discussion. Everything that I did not discuss had been posted in this blog.

Right as I was saying good-bye online to the fellow, he says this to me, “Ok, next time I catch you I want to hear how you’ve been.” What? Do people think this housewife gig I do is a ruse and a cover for my alternative Secret Agent spy lifestyle? “Oh yes, well I’ve not been around much because I’ve been trying to overthrow the government in Zimbabwe. Charming local people, though. They make this absolutely delish dish with snake.”

“Someday I want to be rich. Some people get so rich they lose all respect for humanity. That’s how rich I want to be.”
~Rita Rudner

 

Quick update for the masses

Wireless connection isn’t working right, so we’ve got an uber-fast, uber-expensive wired connection from it now. Jesse will be dealing with the Linksys people again hopefully tomorrow.

I’d give detail as to why it’s not working right but I am a poor describer of all things computer hardware-related, and I have a splitting headache, which I acquired around 11 a.m. today.

Still, I feel proud of myself that I managed to continue my daily flossing streak today. Small victories, one day at a time.

 

“Carpe diem quam minimum credula postero.”

This man won the Noble Peace Prize this week. He speaks five languages.

He also used to be the President of Finland.

It’s fascinating to ponder what makes some people rise to the top of society while the rest stay in relative mediocrity. Mind you, there’s nothing wrong with being average. Someone’s got to be the top of the bell curve. Heck, it’s better than being the bottom. Nevertheless, it seems like one has to be in politics or show business to gain this kind of notice. Not quite sure how I feel about that. Yes, one could be a fancy-schmancy scientist but you wouldn’t have the “CNN” name recognition.

Today’s post isn’t a preachy deal, despite the title. Spend today watching TV for all I care. It’s just interesting to see how people’s choices affect the way their lives turn out in such a dramatic fashion in some instances and in most others not at all.

Most people have very boring lives. I guess that’s why reality television, dramatic shows and soap operas are so popular.

“I’m writing a book. I’ve got the page numbers done.”
~Steven Wright

 

“I am big. It’s the pictures that got small.”

I had a brilliant list of things to discuss today but I forgot to save the list while rebooting so ehhh.

On a fabulous note, I am thrilled with the latest WordPress UI design. At the very least, I can see whites and grays while I type this out, and not that horrible Institutional Baby Blue. Also the option layout – what wonderful improvements have been made! I no longer have to “trial and error” my way around some backasswards Dashboard (though that feature is still there for those freaks who choose to use it.) None of this is apparent to the reader. However, for my part, I think it will greatly enhance my desire to update my blog.

On a related note, I changed my blog theme. Hope you like it.

I still cannot stand the word “blog”. It sounds clumsy, fat, and gurgling. Like an obese toad drooling on itself. Maybe it’s because it rhymes with the words “bog” and “slog”, both of which I do not like, definitions and sounds included. Having a “journal”, on the other hand, can go either way. You’re either doing the “Are You There, God? It’s Me, Margaret” thing, or you’re going to be meeting Dr. Livingstone in Zambia and your notes will be featured in the Smithsonian.

And now for something completely different:

“In Vegas, I got into a long argument with the man at the roulette wheel over what I considered to be an odd number.”
~Steven Wright

 

“If you talk to God you’re religious. If God talks to you, you’re psychotic.”

So you go to the internet, the bastion of all things good and gracious in this wide world, in search of a tasty yellow cake recipe. The internet is tricksy, however. It has other plans for Ye Olde Google Searche. Instead of your goal, you get side-tracked looking in awe at this real recipe for Tufeen Hushani (Vulcan Wedding Cake). This blew my mind only slightly less than when I found out that Klingon and Elfish (from Lord of the Rings) both have complete and extensive linguistic rules, structures and alphabets.

I think I need to start updating this in the morning. In the evening, I’m too easily distracted by people or things. My brain has more momentum around 6 a.m. from morning chores than it does around 10 p.m. Speaking of chores, I still have to brush the cats.

I started on my math review project today. My major at TMCC is going to be Computer Science, which will require a good amount of math. Plus, I’m going to have to take an ACCUPLACER exam before school starts. The test is mandatory and is used to place students in math/English courses when they haven’t taken the SAT/ACT (or in my case, haven’t taken it in many moons.) I’m not sweating the English side of things at all. My math skills need work though. I’d like to place high so I have less math to take before transferring to UNR. So long story short, I’m starting back at Algebra to review what I used to know.

It’s amazing what your brain retains, especially at the mechanical level. So much information came back to me today which I thought I’d forgotten, and I felt oddly at peace doing my math problems – it was almost meditative. Since it was all review, I found myself doing my math problems back the way I used to when I was 14. Only when I started stressing about the placement exam did the process get sour. I am pleasantly surprised that my brain hasn’t completely gone south on me, and that there is still some processing power in it yet.

I think the secret to success for this whole project, and math in general, will be to embrace the subject, rather than avoiding it as I did for so long. I think that if I meet these challenges head-on, apply myself, and have confidence, I will have great success.

“A man has one hundred dollars and you leave him with two dollars. That’s subtraction.”
~Mae West

 

A Day of Thanks

“I love Thanksgiving turkey… it’s the only time in Los Angeles that you see natural breasts.”
~Arnold Schwarzenegger

Another year has almost come and gone and we arrive at one of my favorite holidays: Thanksgiving. I love this holiday, despite its rather shady/awkward historical beginnings. The modern meaning is what matters to me. Screw what the pilgrims thought – they were a bunch of weirdo religious extremists anyway. I’d have been the person who stayed back in England.

Thanksgiving is wonderful because we celebrate three joyful things in life: a bountiful life, a bountiful harvest, and American football. One cannot really be happy, I think, without a full heart, a full stomach and a full mind. Thus, the trinity of “all things good” comes to pass on this most auspicious day. Also, and this is somewhat of a side note, I do love autumn colors, which is frequently used for Thanksgiving decor.

As a child, I enjoyed Thanksgiving because of the artwork – the turkey/hand montage – and the charming pilgrim/Indian propaganda. In some sense, it is sad when that propaganda gets smashed to bits – almost as a coming of age as an American nowadays – the innocence of the first “American dinner party” is ruined.

“I celebrated Thanksgiving in an old-fashioned way. I invited everyone in my neighborhood to my house, we had an enormous feast, and then I killed them and took their land.”
~Jon Stewart

As a teenager, I couldn’t have cared less about the holiday because I was an extremely picky eater back then, and Thanksgiving brought no presents. It did bring annoying or hated relatives, all of which are gone in some fashion now.

As a young adult, I had moved off to college and could pick and choose which holidays I returned home. Later, I got a job at a retail record store which was open 365 days a year. At that point, I could not choose what holidays I went home for – I found I was working on most holidays, including Thanksgiving and Christmas. Working in retail made me realize what I really liked about Thanksgiving: the lack of presents – which was what I didn’t like about it years prior.

It’s hard to commercialize a holiday where you’re supposed to give thanks instead of get stuff like Christmas. As Americans, Thanksgiving is one of our only true United States holidays, yet it’s one of the holidays we’re the most disinclined to enjoy. We hate making the effort to see others, and we hate the idea of having to appreciate what we have and be content. Almost everyone, myself included, so very often thinks of what they don’t have instead of what they do. Is it human nature, or is it part of our cultural paradigm? I am wont to think the latter. We are so busy trying to gain, achieve, get, and amass that it becomes a problem when we take our minds off of the idea of being thankful.

“We can only be said to be alive in those moments when our hearts are conscious of our treasures.”
~Thornton Wilder

With this economic crunch on many of us, I wonder if people will be more thankful for what they have this year or less?

I have a loving, wonderful husband who puts up with my constant stream of lolcat links on AIM. My relatives, friends and cats are well and healthy. We have money in the bank. We have a safe residence and our landlady did not raise the rent on us for next year’s lease. My football team is 10-1. Our favorite sushi restaurant is open today and we shall be able to eat there instead of having to attempt to make Thanksgiving dinner for two.

Also my husband just informed me that Tennessee is beating Detroit 38-10. For that, Lord, we are truly thankful.

Amen.

“Stand up, on this Thanksgiving Day, stand upon your feet. Believe in man. Soberly and with clear eyes, believe in your own time and place. There is not, and there never has been a better time, or a better place to live in.”
~Phillips Brooks

 

An Update on Life

Better late than never, says I.

Jesse’s almost fully-recovered. I can’t seem to get my sleeping hours in order. I have a dentist appointment tomorrow at 9 a.m.

For Monty Python fans, this YouTube change is a breath of fresh air. Or maybe it’s more like a fresh loaf of bread. Or a clean pile of clothes.

Good night.

“I have the world’s largest collection of seashells. I keep it on all the beaches of the world…perhaps you’ve seen it.”
~Steven Wright