Talking to thin air

I had a meeting with my whole thesis committee (what, me? a COMMITTEE?) this afternoon, and I think I might have annoyed the retired member of my committee because I didn't actually have my data all finished. Oops. I knew I should have gotten a little farther, but seriously, I spent six hours counting slides this past weekend; I don't feel like I've been slacking too much. I will, however, finish counting the rest of my slides before Wednesday afternoon, at which point I will (hopefully!) generate my first pollen diagram. Ooh, exciting.

On the other hand, I now feel like I have a ton of work to do, because once I actually get a chance to play around with my data, I will have to spend LOTS AND LOTS OF TIME looking at it. This is my biggest problem when it comes to class projects—I spend all the time getting the data (seriously, ALL THE TIME, by which I mean probably fifty or sixty hours) and not enough time actually looking at it and understanding it. This is triply sad because I spent so much time getting the data, enjoy playing with the data the most, and deprive myself of that opportunity precisely because I spent so much time getting it in the first place.

I won't do that with my biogeography project, or my linguistics project, or my thesis, I won't!

Also, I did so much work this past weekend—I counted three slides, I read six articles, I cleaned out all my emails, I sent a bunch of emails I didn't want to send, I saw my father, I walked 31,000 steps, I inquired about summer internships, I read Other Me's story, I started to read the Hermit's NaNo, I didn't watch very much TV, I didn't play very much Dominion. And then this morning I counted another two slides, had two meetings, studied for my linguistics exam, and am now taking a break. But it won't last long! I've decided to be productive in my life, and here I am, being productive!

Lastly, my brother's girlfriend got in to Harvard, and was uber excited. She was so excited, she was shaking. I think it is her life's goal to go to Harvard; I'm sure the program there is good, but unless it just so happens to be the best in her field, she seems a little overexcited. Perhaps I have just gotten over the awe of Harvard a bit, but she is way too invested in one school. The Juggler was much more relaxed about it, and aware that there are other programs that might even fit her better; but Harvard has the great advantage of location, which is the main reason why it is still on her list. I don't know, I probably shouldn't mock my brother's girlfriend, seeing as I too will probably want to go to Harvard when I decide whether I want to do ecology or social psychology, seeing as both departments have people who do almost exactly what I would want to do. But I sincerely hope I won't be shaking from excitement, that would be way too pathetic.

MUCH NEWS!!!!!!!

Thursday, I went to choir with the Roommate and sang.  Yes, sang.  Hard to believe, because not only can I not sing, but also we were singing religious songs.  God is great, huh?  But it was fun, if more than a little awkward because most of the people there had the mass songs, at least, memorized.  I might go back, I might not.

Also on Thursday, Other Me and I saw Nate from my language processing class last spring, and he was really obnoxious, as usual.  He's one of those weird people who is not a jerk but is still obnoxious—he always corrects you if you say something that he doesn't think is 100% accurate, and puts in his own opinion.  He isn't mean, precisely, but he's very patronizing—he always sounds like he's going to teach you the right way to whatever it is that you're talking about.  Perhaps I will steal him and put him in a book.

Last night, the Roommate and I had a whole list of social engagements.  A list!  I am never doing that many social things in one night again.

First I went to a talk on the healthcare bill and whether it was constitutional or not, for our Constitution Day.  (Apparently, there's some type of federal funding for universities that mandates that universities that receive that funding hold a Constitution Day, where they talk about the Constitution.  Who knew?  Pretty cool.  They gave me a pocket Constitution, too.)  It was interesting, but mostly because the lawyers who were discussing the bill had been teacher-student in law school, so they kept arguing back and forth.

Then, the Roommate and I had dinner with the Magician, Fortitude, and one of their friends.  He was pretty nice, but really quiet, so there were some awkward moments at the dinner table. :P

Then, the Roommate and I went to BOP (opera productions), which was actually a lot better than I thought it would be.  Other Me was helping to organize it, and there were some pretty cool songs—not only Stars from Les Misérables and Think of Me from Phantom (though that one wasn't very good), but also some interesting foreign-language songs.  (Papageno/Papagena or something like that was hilarious.)  On the other hand, nearly all of the songs involved women pining after their lost men, which was annoying; and even Papagena/Papageno started off with (guy) "Are you really mine?"  (girl)  "Yes I'm really yours".  Honestly, haven't we progressed a bit past that by now?  If it were "Are you really mine?"/"Yes, you're really mine" that wouldn't be problematic (though it does sound a bit funny).

After that, the Roommate and I went back to our dorm and played Dominion with several people down the hall (E and Ke).  The Roommate didn't play, obviously, but she seemed minorly interested in learning, which was a first step. (I WILL CONVERT THE WORLD!!!!!!)

And then, finally, the Roommate, the Magician, Fortitude, their friend, and I all went to watch Twister.  None of us have big rooms this year, so we went adventuring to the engineering building, where we got a lecture hall and watched the movie.  Unfortunately, the bulb in the projector needs to be replaced or fixed or something, because it had this giant green spot in the middle of the bulb; but, for Twister, that mostly managed to make the tornadoes look even more menacing, like the whole movie was occurring at twilight or something.  It was pretty awesome, though next time we're going to bring blankets because it was cold.

Edit:  And this morning, I made the huge mistake of talking to Fortitude about the genetics class, which I now kind of want to take.  But I think I will not—I want to stay sane this term, and I don't want the course to convince me I should go in to genetics, because I really hate that kind of lab work.