The Laursonian Institute

Wednesdays are great days.  Though I had section this morning, and it was sort of just alright.  For some reason, that section is sort of… slackery.  They only sort of of half did their homeworks, half participated in class, and only one or two kids really seem to care at all.  A couple fell asleep, which is par for the course.  My Friday section just seems sharper and more with it.  But as I said, section was passable, and I got through it, and really 50 minutes a week is nothing I should be losing sleep about.  Though I did have a total anxiety dream this morning that everything I wrote on my board was jibberish and I mixed all my examples up and everyone snuck out of the room but a few kids at the end.  A complete mess!  Thankfully section was not nearly that bad!

After section I always feel really free, even though I’m already running late for cogneuro.  Class was great, we had a guest lecture from a professor who is also heading up the “ERP Bootcamp” Lewis and I are attending this summer.  His lecture was great, his research was interesting, and he was really open to questions.  It’s interesting to be taking this cogneuro class which is being treated essentially like a weekly rotating seminar.  I’m getting at least a taste of all the major labs at the Center, and who is doing research on what.  Very neat.  Also heard from my lab professor today, and I’m feeling well relaxed about our plans.  He’s been on vacation and I was worried I was being lazy, but it turns out he’s really busy, and I think working by myself for now is probably best for both of us.

The rest of my day was great – hit up the gym, had a really delicious salad for dinner, watched episode three of our Masterpiece Theater adventure, read two and a half papers, and graded my Friday section’s homework.  So good!  It’s been a good, relaxed, productive day.  Yep.  Oh!  I also forgot to blog about summer jobs – Lewis and I both got minimal employment with the department for part of summer, which when I put it that way, sounds lame.  But realistically, I hadn’t been holding out getting any work this summer, and a TAing gig for each of us is fantastic.  Minimal work, minimal pay, but a little bit of cash flow is just what I could have hoped for.  And it’s within the school at that!   All is well.

April 15th, 2009 | Tags: class, lazy, section, summer, taing, work | Category: life, school | Comments Off

Well, another day, another something.

I woke up with a wonderful feeling of optimism.  My first thoughts were reassuring myself that I didn’t need to stress out about getting to campus on time (my usual thought pattern) and that I could have a nice morning and get to class no problem.  Which is exactly what I did.  It’s amazing how much of the timbre of your day is determined by the outlook you assign it.  So not only did the morning go well, but Quechua was enjoyable too.  Learned an interesting statistic – we’re the largest intro Quechua class in the world!  Or so my yachachiq says.

Only downside of the day was I also woke up with a big headache this morning, and it was pretty crappy.  Thankfully I managed to score myself a nap when I got home and it went away!  That never happens!  Spent the rest of the day relaxing and getting small work done.  And installing Mint!  Working quite nicely.   I know somewhere in my brain that I should be attacking this semantics paper from all fronts, but I just can’t seem to get past feeling like I need to calm down and take care of myself.  I suppose when I put it that way, it doesn’t sound as ridiculous as it feels sometimes.

Ooh, also Lewis and I tried to make a Dojo-style noodle curry that would be all saucy and delicious.  We’ve been failing pretty poorly with the saucy curries, though the results are always fairly tasty.  Anyway, I was feeling the inspiration tonight, but to no avail.  I found a decent recipe for a generic curry sauce, and it was tasty, but per usual not saucy enough for the masses of meat and veg we put in it.  Oh Dojo noodles, why must you be so difficult to replicate?  Or alternately, why must you be 5000 miles away?  Or even, why are there no good noodle houses in Davis?

March 4th, 2009 | Tags: curry, headache, lazy, noodles, outlook, quechua | Category: home, life | Comments Off

My day was pretty bueno.  I did take the opportunity to sleep in this morning, and it was fantastic!  I don’t skip class very often- in fact, I think this was the first time I’ve missed Quechua except the day I was sick, and let me tell you, sleeping in on a Wednesday is pretty dang fantastic.   My Wednesday was especially empty today at that, since the class I TA for had no homework due this week thus I didn’t need to meet with my professor.  Yay!  So one meeting was all I had today, and it went pretty well.  Talked to my QP advisor about some interesting issues today, and he seems to be really into what we’re doing, so that’s nice.  Now to polish off my blissfully short week – one class worth of student presentations in semantics, and a cancelled Friday class!  What luck!

February 25th, 2009 | Tags: class, lazy, skipping | Category: school | Comments Off

Big day, big day.   I slept in, had a lazy morning with my sweetie, and had a lovely walk.  We also finally made Valentine’s plans, which I’m really looking forward to!   Seems like I spent the next million hours grading papers and getting my semantics reading done, but when I came out the other side it was pretty early.  Managed a real dinner (Lewis made some Asian coleslaw – my favorite!) and watched a Pink Panther movie.   Hurray for PBS!  I can’t forget to mention as well that Lewis has been working on cinnamon rolls this evening and I’m reaaally looking forward to tomorrow’s breakfast adventures!

Also embarked on some sewing projects… turned some scraps into hankerchiefs for Lewis.  I was also hoping to cover a pillow we had sitting around to take in to the TA office to snazz our couch up.  Learned a very important lesson… you apparently can’t sew all the sides of something together and then hope to then turn it inside out.  Especially when you’ve sewn a pillow into it.  Har har.  Fixed it, though it’s not as handsome as I had envisioned.  Decent for a completely half-assed no-pattern sort of thing.  It will snazz our couch nicely, and it was an amusing learning experience if nothing else!

February 7th, 2009 | Tags: lazy, sewing | Category: home, life | Comments Off

It’s 10:30.  It’s Friday night.  I’m exhausted.

I had a really chill day, compared to what I was worried about.  Doctor’s office cancelled my appointment at 7:30 this morning, so I didn’t have anything to do but my neuroimaging class.  Class went pretty well; it’s a good class, and it’s nice to be done by 11 on Fridays.  We have a three day weekend coming up, so that’s pretty bueno.

Did some work this afternoon when I got home, and got the house all cleaned up and ready for my sister.  Well, at least most the house.  Thankfully our house is always really easy to clean up.   I’m really looking forward to this weekend.  I should have tried to get all my work done today, but I burned out pretty early.  There’s something about the end of a Friday that really makes work difficult to do.   So instead, Lewis and I went and got frozen yogurt downtown and did some windowshopping at Ace, made a nice dinner, and watched a movie!

And now, all I really want to do is go curl up in bed and read my book.  Which is what I shall do!

January 16th, 2009 | Tags: chores, lazy, movie, yogurt | Category: home, life | Comments Off

Lazy, lazy day.  Took a nap.  Did very little reading.  Did go to the one class I had, and made the photocopies I needed for the weekend.

I’m feeling rather nervous about a doctor’s appointment I have tomorrow.  Nothing but a routine check up, I just hate new doctors and all the rigamarole.  And I have a class off campus tomorrow morning that’s complicating matters a bit.  I decided that if I drove to that class, instead of biking, it might make me feel less stressed and pressed for time.  I can drive there, have a leisurely morning, not stress about the bike, then head home, bike to campus, and make it to my appointment without issue.   Or so I hope.  Sigh!

This is no time to stress.  I think I should go to bed!  I’ve got some Dostoyevsky waiting for me, and a big day tomorrow.  I do hope the doctor is not too icky!  :-\

January 15th, 2009 | Tags: doctor, lazy, nervous | Category: life | Comments Off

I probably should have gotten a lot of work done today, but I really am just tuckered out.  So I got my Quechua reading done, and reviewed my phrases, but it’s not particularly memorized as it should be.  But whatever.  I had a bunch of semantics reading to do as well, but I only got a tiny bit into it.  On the other hand, I had a very nice walk, made a delicious dinner, took down the Christmas decorations, and caught up on my internet business.  I can’t really bring myself to care much about that.  The semantics reading is optional, and I’m auditing Quechua… so… c’est la vie.  Getting stressed out now wouldn’t set the right tone for my week, now would it?

January 11th, 2009 | Tags: lazy | Category: Uncategorized | Comments Off

Happy new year and all that!   And happy birthday to my sister!

Nice party last night at a big mansiony place out in the boonies.  Good lazy day today watching football (USC -> Rosebowl) with the in-town Weasels and making the rest of our Xmas essens.  Now I’m off to get a little relaxing massage from my sweetie!

January 1st, 2009 | Tags: birthday, football, lazy, massage, new year, party, short | Category: life | Comments Off