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Wednesday, September 3rd, 2008
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1:05 am - Politics ho!
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Oddly, I tend, lately, to get more steamed up and soap boxy about the way people talk about politicians than what the politicians themselves actually say. I think I so automatically expect politicians to say asinine things that I just don't really have a reaction any more when they do, other than to roll my eyes.
But the media and the bloggers now ... One thing that I've now heard once from a classmate and seen once on a certain blog in particular has me doing breathing exercises to keep myself from just completely losing it:
Sarah Palin shouldn't be governor, much less VP. This is not because of her lack of experience or anything substantive, but because she should be home raising her new baby.
WHAT.
First of all, and I can't believe I even need to say this: how she and her husband decide to raise their baby is none of anyone else's business. Even were it, I fail to see in what way it figures into the current political climate.
And further more, though I can't find the article any longer, I believe I read that her husband is staying home with the infant during the early stages. So is the suggestion then that neither of them should work and earn a living or that because she's a woman it's her job and not his? Get back in the kitchen and raise some babies wench! And make me a sandwich! Do I need to burn my bra to make my point here? I'd rather not, but christ, if that's what it takes, that's what it takes.
GRR. There are plenty of valid reasons to dislike Palin and to question her experience. Dragging her baby into it and questioning her parenting skills are things no would would ever do if she were a man. Why? Because it doesn't fucking matter.
ETA Feministing has an interesting article on the subject, one that actually poses (what I consider) a valid reason to be discussing Palin's parenting decisions. Something I haven't seen elsewhere.
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| Tuesday, September 2nd, 2008
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3:32 pm - =D
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My computer is back! They replaced the HD, as I knew they would have to. I remembered that last time I had the hard drive replaced, I had been able to just restore my user pretty easily, but I didn't remember how to do it. The guy at the "Genius" counter told me that wasn't a thing I could actually do, that I had to go into each folder and drag all of the contents manually into the corresponding folder on the computer. Which is completely stupid. I trusted my memory over him and googled it, and he was wrong. You have to log in as the root user and utilize the Terminal, but it's both possible and pretty easy. So, YEY! I has computer again!!
I don't have Word yet though, so note taking capabilities are still irritatingly limited. My mom mailed me my installer CD's though so I should get them soon.
I am so pathetic, because the return of my computer has made me ridiculously happy.
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| Saturday, August 30th, 2008
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7:36 pm - So, I live in NYC :-)
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I haven't had a chance to so much as wander around since I got here, from moving in to orientation to classes (and associated panic). Today, I walked out looking for a book store and found that, a farmers' market and an outdoor art exhibition/sale.
Here's reason number many to finish my law degree and get a job making lots of money: When I randomly wander into an outdoor art exhibition and stumble across some paintings I think are just gorgeous, but the cheapest of which costs $1200, I can actually afford them.
Seriously, they were really gorgeous paintings. I am sad for I have no money. Do you know how many sale signs I resolutely ignored today? 70% off shoe sales! And I did not go in!
I still have no computer, and I'm still waiting on the delivery of half of my books. But I'll freak out about that later. :-)
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| Wednesday, August 27th, 2008
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11:37 am - AWESOME
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| Sunday, August 24th, 2008
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10:40 pm - Nerdsville
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So, today was the first day of orientation. And, as an ice-breaking exercise, our entire incoming class, all 450 or so of us, split up into teams of 8 to 10 people and went on a scavenger hunt around the west village. We had to find the addresses of obscure buildings, take embarrassing photos, and, oh, wear matching t-shirts. The end goal was to get a phone number, which we would call in order to get the address for a party. Free food and open bar for the win!
Anyway, it was fun, but, honestly, we are such nerds. I love it :-)
One thing that I found pleasantly surprising was how friendly and involved the dean of students was. She walked around the party chatting with people, asking if we were all enjoying ourselves. At UT, I couldn't even tell you what our dean of students' name was, much less what he looked like, and I certainly didn't meet him at a party. Which isn't a condemnation really, 'cause UT was too huge for that to be possible, but it was nice that ours did tonight.
I hope and pray my books I ordered from Amazon will get here in the next two days, cause I have reading to do.
current music: Wait for Me - Theory of a Deadman
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| Saturday, August 23rd, 2008
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8:28 pm - In NYC
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Well, I'm here, and settled. :-)
My dad and I took a fairly leisurely three days to drive up. We stopped in Kentucky to see where he grew up, and in Vicksburg to see the battleground. We also made sure to eat at a Waffle House, because it amused us to do so. Dunno why. We both have really odd senses of humor sometimes.
Once here the move in process went surprisingly smoothly, mostly, I think, because we got here about 8:10 in the morning, only 10 minutes after they opened the doors. I suspect it would've been a bigger pain in the ass later in the day.
My apartment is actually not as tiny and cramped as they made effort to indicate on the student housing website. They kept emphasizing that there was NO STORAGE and I was really worried that I was bringing too much stuff. But, you know, I actually have plenty. And my closet is actually kind of huge! Sweet.
Had a minor freakout because the ethernet port on my precious computer wasn't working. I took it over to the Apple store and they said I could drop it off, and it would probably take 3 to 7 days to fix. I was like, um, I know everyone says this, but I NEED MY COMPUTER PLEASE DON'T TAKE IT AWAY! I didn't say that, but I thought it really loudly, looked a bit panicked, and kind of clutched my computer to my chest. I think they may have gotten the idea. So, anyway, I filled out the form to drop it off and handed it over to the tech, and he took a look at the port and fixed it with a pair of tweezers. Yey! I love that guy. Whatever his name was.
Orientation starts tomorrow. :-)
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| Wednesday, August 20th, 2008
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12:50 am - Hm.
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The stream of constant bitching on this thing lately has probably gotten a bit tiresome to read. It's been more than a bit tiresome to live, to tell the truth. My loan stuff all worked out fine in the end, but it was a lot more stressful and panic-attack-inducing than it needed to be. But, I don't want to talk about that anymore. So, a quick update, including mention of only things that made me happy.
I got more ink! A couple weeks ago I finally went and got the acorn tattoo I've been wanting on my ankle for ages. I'm really pleased with how it turned out.
Canoe trip with my sister! Not only did we not suck at canoeing, we were actually pretty good at it, if I do say so myself. We got lucky and it was overcast about half the time, so it wasn't nearly as cook-an-egg-on-the-shore hot was I was expecting, so that was nice. It really was quite beautiful. I need to spend more time in West Texas. How anyone can pass through there and not see some truly beautiful country I'll never understand.
I'd post pictures, but, I'm lazy. Also, we had a waterproof disposable film camera, and even though the prints look good, I'm less than impressed with how they scanned. I may try to get them scanned with a better scanner.
Birthday! I had a really great time at my bday/going away party. I'm going to miss the hell out of everyone, that's for damn sure. But, party was fun. (Lori, do you have pictures? I saw you whipping out your camera a couple times. Sendy please!)
Holy shit, I'm leaving for school tomorrow. I mean, later today. Is it strange that I should be more nervous about this than I was about going to China? I think I sort of dove head first into that with my eyes shut. I don't know why I wasn't nervous, but I wasn't. Law school ... well, it matters a hell of a lot more, and I really don't want to screw it up. Here's hoping I don't.
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| Monday, August 11th, 2008
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11:59 am
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At this point, going back to school does not seem worth the hassle of dealing with NYU admin. They send out emails with incorrect URLs to their own fucking website; they take nearly a month to respond to queries (during which time I get my questions answered via phone); they spell my name wrong when they do finally respond to queries; and, oh, they royally fuck up my loan applications.
DO. NOT. LIKE.
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| Friday, August 1st, 2008
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10:46 am - Livid.
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Am I the only person who didn't know that NYU was going to apply for loans for me? I just don't understand this confusion and I can't figure out where I went wrong on this.
Because I don't want the Stafford loans, but NYU already processed my Citibank loan under the assumption that I did want them, I now have to apply for a second loan to make up the shortfall -- and at a higher rate of interest because Citibank raised their rates. It just seems to me that it can't be the case that a lot of people are having to do this. I just really don't understand. I applied for my loans early, and it's not just biting me on the ass, it's taking chunks out of it. WTF happened?
I just really want to scream at someone right now and there's not anyone to scream at.
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| Tuesday, July 22nd, 2008
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8:54 am - ::sigh::
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If anyone's interested (I suspect this is only of great moment to me), I've worked out wtf happened with my financing: I applied for my loan too early.
NYU assumes that you will be getting Federal loans. They do NOT, as Joe/Joel/Mumblefuck told me, apply for a loan on your behalf, but they do work under the assumption that you will apply for one, and that assumption affects the amount they approve on private loans, if you happen to apply for one early in the game.
But here's the thing: I didn't KNOW I was applying for one so early in the game. They send you your financial aid information in two parts, and don't tell you either that that's how they've done it or when they will be sending you the rest of your info. So, back in early June when I got some of the info, I thought that's all there was and went out to go apply for a loan. (Incidentally, it's a good fucking thing I did that, because Citibank raised their rates starting in July of this year.)
It wasn't until July 19th that I got the rest of the information from NYU -- which, incidentally, contained nothing particularly new, except for the letter about Federal Loans, which I'm uncertain why they couldn't send earlier. So I was finally able to email them and say, "Hi, the reason I applied for a private loan in the full amount of the budget, is because that's what I want. I'm not interested in these other loans, and please to stop trying to help me out by assuming I want to do things I do not want to do. You're making this harder on both of us. Also, fire Joe/Joel/Mumblefuck. He knows not of what he speaks."
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| Friday, July 18th, 2008
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8:43 am - ow
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I came across the website hundredpushups.com from a link in something on my RSS reader -- it promises to give you the ability to do 100 pushups in 6 weeks if you follow their schedule -- and I decided to do it. Once upon a time I had some moderate upper body strength, and it has completely disappeared since I quit rowing, and I don't like it.
So, yesterday morning, I did day one on their little routine. And I thought, "Rest days are for wimps! I'm totally hardly even sore from this! I will do day 2 tomorrow."
... yeah, it caught up with me today. My arms twinge a little bit, but that's hardly enough to bother me. What hurts is my abs. WTF! I had no idea you used your abs so much doing push ups. So much for forgoing the rest days.
But! Soreness is good in a way I suppose, and I intend to keep with this routine. I want muscle definition!
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| Wednesday, July 16th, 2008
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11:32 am - I am miffed.
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I called the NYU Financial Aid office yesterday, and of course now I'm more irritated than I was before.
First of all, the guy on the phone mumbled so badly I had to keep asking him to repeat himself. Then, possibly because of all the repetition, he started to get irritated with me. He talked to me as though I'm a retard, and interrupted me a couple of times. Customer support at its finest! His name is Joe, or possibly Joel, and I do not like him or his stupid face.
It turns out that the reason my loan award is so low is because NYU applied for a Federal Stafford Loan on my behalf without telling me about it. WTF?
Here's what the website says about it:
Once NYU receives your FAFSA information from the federal processor, your eligibility for federal loans will be determined. If you are eligible for federal loans, you will receive instructions from the New York State Higher Education Services Corporation (HESC) about how to complete the application process on-line at www.hesc.com.
Not only did I NOT follow through with any such instructions, I never even received them. How they managed to get a loan for me -- one I don't even fucking want thanks ever so much for ASKING -- without me even knowing about it, I don't know. But I'm kind of pissed about it.
According to the asshole on the phone, I can turn the loan down once it's finalized, and then adjust the amount upwards for the loan I actually applied for. But since I haven't received any of the paperwork, this will all have to wait.
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| Tuesday, July 15th, 2008
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11:46 am
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You know, I was shocked and almost appalled even by how easy it was to apply for a student loan online. Without even any contact with an actual person. "Wow," I thought, "that was ridiculously easy. Perhaps my loathing of bureaucratic processes was unfounded after all!"
I should have known nothing could ever be that easy.
My understanding of the way student loans are meant to work is thus:
Your school publishes a budget. You take out a loan for anything up to that amount, and the school signs off on it. Anything over that amount is not allowed.
So, WHY, I'd like to know, is my loan approval amount two-thirds of the published budget? WHY?
I look forward to learning the answer from the Mensa candidates at NYU admin. Really, I expect fun and games. Already I've called them and left a message and they've done me the simple courtesy of calling me back.
Wait, no they haven't.
What an awesome way to spend my lunch hour.
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| Thursday, July 10th, 2008
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4:46 pm
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blarg... When my alarm went off at 6:00 this morning so I could get up to work out, I said "hell no" and rolled over and went back to sleep for an hour. Then, I ate a donut and two (smallish but still) pieces of cake over the course of the day and now I feel GROSS.
I've been trying to get up every morning before work and get in some exercise, but it never quite works out. 3 or 4 days a week is all I seem to be able to manage. I feel like crap when I don't work out, because I get NO exercise from anything else. I sit on by butt all day, staring at a computer screen -- I NEED that 45 minutes of rigorous activity. I know this, and yet, some days, the knowledge is just not enough to pry myself out of bed. I'm a whore for sleep, what can I say?
I will do better next week!
No seriously, I will damnit.
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| Thursday, June 26th, 2008
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11:36 am
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So, those ads for weight loss programs on Facebook really irritate me. They purposely put up tummy shots of people who are 10 lbs overweight at a maximum, and they're like "Lose weight with us!!" basically purposely making everyone who has a little tummy (which would be, in effect, everyone) feel like shit about herself.
I try so hard not to be obsessive about my body and to get over my stupid image issues, because they ARE stupid, and it's nigh on fucking impossible with all this bullshit WEIGHT LOSS CRAP FOR SKINNY PEOPLE in my face all the time!
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| Monday, June 23rd, 2008
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1:28 pm - Don't make a move without your papers!!
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This scares me. The TSA has been eroding our right to privacy for years, and it's just infuriating. In particular, I find this bit troubling:
A TSA employee said to the guy who wrote in, "these new regulations must have been as a result of someone trying to get away with something, because there's always a reason for these thing but they don't always know what those reasons are."
That is frightening. The whole "government knows best and will protect me from fears I do not even have" mentality just really scares the crap out of me. That people are willing to embrace this kind of thing on the strength of such diaphanous reasoning ...
I agree with Chris Soghian, quoted at the end of the article.
"The change of rules seems to be a pretty obvious case of security theater. Real terrorists do not refuse to show ID. They claim to have lost their ID, or they use a fake.
TSA's new rules only protect us from a non-existent breed of terrorists who are unable to lie."
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| Wednesday, June 18th, 2008
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9:11 pm - Cry for me!
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I just signed my name to a student loan in the amount of OMGALOTOFMONEY.
Did you know that the expected repayment period is 240 months?
OW. My sense of frugality and my general dislike of debt! They hurtses me!
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| Sunday, June 15th, 2008
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3:26 pm - Unfunny business.
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This is hilarious in a way that isn't.
You choose a picture of Clinton's chest as the accompaniment for an article about sexism in campaign coverage? Really? That's what you thought would be appropriate?
Though I suppose it is quite apropos.
current mood: disgusted
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11:17 am - Why you shouldn't talk on your cell phone while driving:
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Because you'll end up with the head and shoulders of a cyclist smashed through the back window of your car.
My mom and her friends were out riding yesterday morning in a big pack of about 70 people, going their usual speed of 30 mph. They were on a road with no stop sign, coming up on an intersection where the cross street did have a stop sign. This woman, who was talking on her fucking phone, rolled through the stop sign into the intersection, THEN turned her head to check for oncoming traffic. She saw the pack of cyclists coming, freaked out, and stopped. Right in front of them.
My mom's friend smashed through the back window of the woman's SUV, and there was a huge pileup of people as some of them smashed into her car and the rest of them tried to avoid it. The guy who went through the window broke his collar bone, and his bike snapped in half. Another cyclist plowed into my mom, and his sprocket went about 1/2 an inch into the meat of her left calf. The cut was about 3 inches long and half an inch deep and, if I may say so, it was really gross.
She called my brother and I to come get her, and then ended up riding to the hospital in an ambulance before we got there. Once there, they told her that since it was such a deep, jagged cut, she'd be wise to get a plastic surgeon to sew it up, otherwise she'd have a huge and very ugly scar. But, they said they didn't have one on call that morning, so she'd have to go somewhere else if she wanted to do that.
So we took her to another hospital, and waited and waited and waited more than 3 hours, and the surgeon finally showed up. In the course of sewing her up, he asked how it had happened etc, and it turned out that he worked at the first hospital she went to, and had even been there that morning. WTF!!! He told her he was going to make a complaint to the administration to find out why no one called him in, and I freaking well hope someone gets chewed out over it.
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| Friday, June 13th, 2008
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10:19 am
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I finished Iron Council and Blackpool last night. The first was as amazing as China Mieville always is, the second ... hm.
( musings )
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