It's been a while... (9/25-29)

...but I'm too tired to even try to remember what's happened the past few days. 😴

Got a B on my midterm. Better than I thought I did, though I did make a couple rather stupid mistakes. @_@

And the Packers won yesterday!

Other than that it's pretty much been nothing but homework and class and the occasional tv show when I just can't focus anymore. Maybe the mayhem will die down in two weeks once my database class ends. But probably not. >.< Plus it's just going to be chaos until then, so there's really no point in thinking that far ahead. 😔

Good night. Maybe I'll be in a better mood for writing tomorrow. 

September 23-24

Again. @_@ The app just crashed and erased my almost finished draft. @_@ It's especially annoying since today's barely worth writing about to begin with. @_@

Yesterday I did homework. Today I did homework and went to class. I had fun hanging out with my classmates. 

My right hand and wrist have been bothering me for the last two days. I'm hoping it's just strained from the midterm on Tuesday, since I haven't done much writing like that since I broke it. But still when it hurts to use the mouse and all the homework is on the computer, I have to wonder if I might just be making it worse...

That's it. End of chapter. Goodnight.  

September 22

So today I studied for my midterm. And by "studied" I of course mean: I cleaned my room, watched anime, and updated my phone to iOS 9 (and the subsequent playing around with it). 

Clearly I did well on the staying focused front. @_@

The midterm went so-so. Or rather it went as well as it could have when I didn't know the answer to the first question. @_@

Four and a half hour class, two and a half hour midterm, and a short break, that meant we had an hour and a half more of class. Of course a lot of that got wasted because of technical difficulties, but still. I have no clue whether or not I actually retained any of that new information. :/

That's the thing I wanted to write about:

Before he passed out the test, McDonald had us put our cell phones on our desks, then he came around and made sure they were turned off, and we had to leave them in plain sight until we finished the test. That was different. 

Unless you want me to go into detail about the new iOS, I have nothing more to say. But honestly in terms of how I use my phone it's not all that different from iOS 8.whatever. The new version of notes looks like it'll be cool. The updated look for closing apps is going to take some getting used to- everything is on the left instead of the right. And they didn't fix the thing I was hoping they'd fix (but then, when does that ever actually happen?). So the default music app is still stuck in the crappy mode iOS 8.something put it in. Anyone use a third party music app that works with iTunes playlists? (Cuz the couple I've tried so far don't. :/ )

September 21

I'm not sure that anything today is worth writing about. I did homework and went to class. The food at dinner wasn't anything special, and there aren't any anecdotes about my classmates to share. 

Tomorrow I get to do some last minute studying for my database midterm. That'll be interesting. Last time I tried to study (aka yesterday), I ended up watching anime and doing my nails. Ironically in one of those episodes my favorite character is supposed to be studying for a test but ends up doing her nails instead. 

And that's it. Goodnight. 

September 19 and 20

So much for writing about Friday yesterday. *sigh* It's been a long weekend. 

First things first though: GO PACK GO!! That was a tough game to watch. It would've been more satisfying if we'd creamed the Seahawks, but at least we won! And also satisfying: having a Seahawk get ejected for unsportsmanlike conduct. *smirk*

Now back to the other things. 

Yesterday was the final day of SAS boot camp. So I was in class all day on a Saturday. :/ After class I did some shopping at the little mall that's just a block from the building. It's where the Old Navy is and I had to exchange the shirt I got for my birthday. That was like fate: they had ONE of that style and color, and it was the size I needed. Yay. :)

I also went to bed bath and beyond and got some stuff for my bedroom, but I'm not done putting those together/up, so no pictures yet. Maybe tomorrow. 

My birthday present to myself came in the mail yesterday. Isn't it awesome?

Now for the awfulness that was Friday: 

Day three of boot camp. I started the day exhausted: the day before I'd been on campus for 14 hours straight. *blech* And to top it all off the only thing in the catered lunch that I could eat was some (in all honesty) rather nasty roasted broccoli. The main entree was chicken pot pie, with the vegetarian entree being veggie pot pie, both very dairy heavy dishes. The other side dish was corn on the cob, which I can't eat because of the wire retainer from when I had braces. It was the perfect storm of everything I can't eat all at once. >.< @_@ 

Normally it wouldn't have been a big deal, as they let us have an hour break for lunch, so I could've gone to one of the fast food places nearby. Except that it was Friday. >.< Which means that we had a guest lecturer during the lunch break. >.< So I couldn't leave, because 1) I didn't want to miss that opportunity and 2) those events are supposedly mandatory for GRAs. Talk about a lose-lose situation. I didn't get to eat hardly anything because of the speaker, but I was so hungry and frustrated that I completely missed everything that was said. 😰😓 I should've just skipped the speaker.

I did finally get food when I got home:

We went out to the Three Dollar Cafe. I had the mushroom and Swiss burger (without the cheese of course). Best burger I've ever had in a restaurant [Dad's are still the best overall of course]. The picture doesn't do it justice but those onion rings: first: they weren't the greatest, but they were definitely far from being the worst (for those who don't know: onion rings are one of my most favorite foods, and I am EXTREMELY picky about them). Second: I'd complain that they only gave me four, but they were each an inch thick and at least four inches in diameter- they were as big as the hamburger bun!

I think I might have gone straight to bed when we got back, but I honestly don't remember. I don't even remember what we learned at boot camp that day. :/

It's after midnight now, and my phone is almost dead, so I better go to bed. Good night!

September 18

I'm too tired to write today. 😴😩😴

I'm too tired to even remember what happened today well enough to write about it. :/ 

It'll be an early night for me. Maybe I'll write about today in tomorrow's post...

September 17

I'm so tired. :/

Today consisted of programming boot camp from 9-4 and class from 7-10. Of course nine am is rush hour, so I left the house at just after seven to get there on time. So I've been awake for quite a long time now. And it's not even that I've been awake, it's that I've been doing stuff that entire time...

But that's not the point. 

Boot camp was long and a little slow. The real-world practice we ended with was interesting though. And it was challenging. But Palin and I managed to solve it!!

They fed us twice today: both lunch and dinner. But what they failed to mention was that by "twice" they meant the same food. @_@ At least it wasn't bad food. Everyone said the Mac and cheese was really good. Too bad that's something I can't eat. >.<

Somehow I ended up at the rowdy table at lunch, but that was fun. The best part was trying not to laugh while Matthew lobbed veggies at our other classmates. 

Programming class was long. But before I start on that: we voted at the beginning of class to not speed up, so that's good for my sanity. 😌 He also extended the deadline for our homework assignment, so I no longer have to worry about getting that done in between the rest of boot camp this weekend. :) Beyond that I basically spent the rest of the class trying to stay awake.

Bedtime now. Goodnight!

September 16th!

Happy birthday to me! Lol. I appreciate all the texts and Facebook messages. 

Today was relatively great. I mean I didn't do anything spectacular, like two years ago when I was in Rome. But I didn't have class and I did barely any homework today. That might come back to haunt me this weekend, but today it felt good just to relax and do nothing. And hey, if I can't do that on my birthday, when can I? ;)

I got a care package from home today: some things I didn't have room to bring with me, and some birthday presents. A cute little picture for the wall that almost made me cry, and an outfit I'm looking forward to wearing this weekend. 

 

Went out for dinner at a little Japanese restaurant called Tanaka. The atmosphere was great, and the food was good. But the service left something to be desired. :/

(I'd have taken more pictures, but the place was so small and crowded that I didn't feel comfortable with that.)

That's all I've got to say. Tomorrow is going to be a really long day, so I'm going to bed early. おやすみ！

September 15

I'm gonna try to keep this short. Tuesdays are really long days. :/

So I started with a group project meeting (we've decided that the best time to meet is the hour or two before the class the project is for). Of course we didn't do much work on the project, as we were more concerned with getting the day's homework assignment done. 

Four+ hour long database management class. The class that we usually spend at least an hour of on random creativity projects. We didn't do that tonight. Tonight was completely lecture-based all the way through to the end. But that's not surprising: our midterm exam is next week. For those who are confused by that: this is a mini-mester class, it's a semester long class crammed into half a semester. So as of next week fall semester will be a quarter of the way done. 

The reflection on the window kinda ruined it, but you still get the idea. ;)

Also: Alex has been giving me crap for writing in colored pens, but not color-coding my notes. But I did tonight. ;) 

Isn't it pretty? *sigh* My hand hurts. I wrote more notes in tonight's class than in the previous three combined. At least I understand the material. Which is good since I'm getting tested on it next week!!!

おやすみ！

September 14

I don't know that there's much worth sharing about today. I had a meeting with my assistantship group. There were tech difficulties once again, and the meeting seemed to drag on forever. That was followed by stats class. Which as it stands could almost be labeled "remedial". @_@ I was so bored that I had trouble staying awake. >.< 

*sigh* I just know that in a couple weeks I'm going to be complaining that this class is too hard. 😞

I got a birthday card in the mail today. That cheered me up for awhile. Then came the realization that because I'm an adult, birthday cards no longer have money in them. *sigh*

At least the weather was nice today. 

September 12-13

I forgot to post yesterday, but today's post will be a little backwards. ;)

Today I did homework and watched football. The Packers beat the Bears! And the Seahawks lost to the Rams! woot! Go Pack Go!!

Now back to yesterday:

This was the first day of SAS bootcamp. (SAS is a programming language.) We're shoving about a semester worth of lessons into four days, with the intent of taking the certification exam when we're done. 

So eight hours of class. It was sooo slow. The instructor adjusted her pace by the questions from the class, and it just ended up dragging on and on. @_@

They fed us lunch, which was good, but there wasn't quite enough. :/

After the class I had a meeting with one of my group project groups. After a lot of discussing, we finally settled on a direction for our project. Yay. 

The weather was perfect, so I walked around a bit after all that was done. 

Went out to dinner with my aunt and uncle. Another little hole-in-the-wall place in the Canton Street area, called Swallow in the Hollow. 

BBQ in the south. The place had great atmosphere, but I was disappointed in the food. The coleslaw was vinegary, the beans were chewy. The sauce on the ribs was spicier than I care for, but the ribs were cooked well. The chocolate chip banana pudding they got for desert was good. Too bad I couldn't eat any of it. :(

I can't think of anything else to say, so goodnight!

September 11

Today was another long day. Yesterday was long and late, and today was long and early. I only got like four hours of sleep. 😓

So I had to go to the downtown campus for a Responsible Conduct in Research training for my assistantship. That wasn't bad, Dr. Lisa made it tolerable. 

We all got an email yesterday that basically said "don't be late!" And guess what, more than 2/3 of the students were late. >.< On the one hand I feel bad for them cuz it means that they have to retake the training in January. But on the other hand: half of the students that were late are in my program, and I'm kinda pissed at them for the effects that them being late will have on our program's reputation. *sigh*

I sat with Aida and Timi, who walked in thirty seconds before the instructor announced the start of training; he was especially relieved once we found out the consequences of being late. It was a discussion based training. And you know it's a quiet group when I'm one of the most vocal participants. *sigh*

They fed us lunch, the catered sandwiches weren't bad, but in order to get done on time we had to work through lunch. But that didn't bother me. 

Some pics of that building (just the interior- the exterior was really plain):

I thought the way the stairs are was really cool. 

Sushi for dinner at Haiku Sushi and Hibachi:

It was mediocre (that is: I've had better and I've had worse). The sweet potato tempura roll (the smaller one) was good, but it was warm and seafood-less, so it technically wasn't sushi. I debated ordering hibachi, but we went there because I wanted sushi. It ended up being a good thing though, cuz they used a ton of butter on the hibachi stuff. The chef was good, nothing spectacular, but he was nice. 

And that's all. Unless you want to see the creepy escalator from yesterday that I forgot to share:

It was ridiculously long. And steep. Looking at the landing felt like I was looking straight down! It also moved agonizingly slow and creaked the entire time. *shudder*

September 9 and 10

Yesterday was spent on homework. I don't think I even remembered to eat dinner. :/

Today was a looooong day. -_-

First there was the career expo hosted by the college of business. I wish I'd taken pictures: the Hyatt Regency hotel in downtown Atlanta is gorgeous. The expo itself was ... crowded. There were a total of 95 companies there, and there were enough students there that there were lines at every booth. The lady at check-in was impressed I had my student ID number memorized (really? I know my sister's library card number, that's what I do). Of course the event went downhill from there. :(

I wasn't sure what to expect, so I walked around for twenty minutes just getting a feel for the event. I finally got in line at one of the booths (we got a list of what positions everyone was looking for), and I was in line for about a minute before the panic attack hit. -_- I retreated to the reception area, and it took me half an hour to calm myself down. *sigh* I suppose that's what I get for pushing myself too far out of my comfort zone. I debated going back in, but I was too much of a mess to make a good impression. I bumped into Mari and Lisa on my way out and talked to them a little, that helped a lot, just to be able to tell someone what had happened. 

I went up to the buckhead campus after that, I had homework to do before class and it didn't make sense to go all the way home. Anyway the reason I'm mentioning this: I realized as I was sitting there that what I had experienced earlier wasn't a nasty panic attack- it was a minor panic attack that triggered an asthma attack; it was the combination of the two that was nasty. (I hate asthma attacks- by my calculations it's eight hours later and I'm still feeling the after effects. >_< ) Also talking to my classmates this evening, I no longer feel bad about missing out: those who went said they felt like it was really geared towards the undergrads, and those who didn't go said that our graduation date is still too far out for it to have been worth it. So I figure I got the panic out of my system, so that next time when it actually matters I'll be ok. (In theory anyway, guess we'll have to wait and see on that one.)

I realized at dinner tonight that I forgot to write about dinner on Tuesday. If you recall, last week there were lots of issues with the catering. This week they switched back to the company from the first week. Which is both good and bad news for me. This company labels their food as vegetarian and vegan. Which is fantastic: I can't eat dairy products, and vegan is non-dairy. But it's depressing when it turns out that all you can eat in the line of food is peas and gravy-smothered chicken (I wasn't going anywhere the cauliflower and kale quinoa-like thing). *sigh* :(

Programming class was long. I'm not sure if it was long because I was already exhausted, or if it was because I felt like the material was too easy. Next week will be interesting: I came home to an email from the professor; some of the other students were complaining that he was going too slow, so next week we're going to start class with a vote on whether or not we want him to speed up. I hope we don't. All the other classes we have are hard, I enjoy the more relaxed pace of this class; it's helpful for my sanity. (Yes sanity is overrated, but I'd like to at least have a little of it!)

Tomorrow's gonna be another long day and I've already been up way too long today. Good night!

September 4-8

Let's see, what all happened this weekend?

Well Friday was lab day, so I got to listen to some guest lectures. That was both nice and overwhelming; I didn't get half the stuff they talked about, which I guess is ok, since I'm still at the start of the program, but it was still stressful. :(

I spent the rest of the three day weekend working on homework and watching tv. 

There're two pieces of good news: 

Our final grades from that programming boot camp in August were posted. I got an A. Which wasn't too surprising as I only needed 50% on the final to get a B, but it's nice that that's finally done with. 

The second I believe falls into the category of "overdue nerdiness", as I haven't posted much of that lately. ;)

But I need to set the scene first. ;)

My favorite manga (Japanese comic) series is called D.Gray-Man. [It's also got an anime version that's really good too, so if you're more into watching than reading you can do that. ;) ] For those who don't know, in Japan manga chapters get published in monthly/weekly/etc. magazines and they can run for years. About four years years ago dgm (as Danica and Becky and I abbreviate it when we talk about it) got bumped from every other week to once a month, because of the author's health, and about a year later it went on hiatus for like six-months. I'd compare the feeling to when tv shows stop for the summer, but it's more like having to wait through a six month long commercial break. We were all happy when it started up again, but then in December 2012 it just stopped. In true Japanese fashion, the artist worked herself so hard that she ended up in the hospital, and for awhile there was real concern over whether or not she'd ever be able to draw again. Of course as sad as that is, all we really cared about was the cliffhanger she'd left us with. Anyway, long story short, I've spent the last two years pretending that the story didn't exist in order to not drive myself mad. But this weekend I found the next chapter!!!! It's only going to be published every three months now, which is sad, but it's ongoing again!!! The author has recovered and I'll finally get to find out what happens next!!!! I'm so excited!!! I mean even now, days later, I still get bouncy thinking about it!!!

And now back to more normal stuff. Today I met with my group for a research paper, and we made some progress. Of course we had issues with printing on campus, but why wouldn't that happen. @_@

Database management class tonight felt really long. But then it is a four hour long class. We reviewed last week and got through a bit of this week's lecture. Then after a break, we broke up into our project groups, for an activity. All but mine that is. @_@ The activity required six groups, and we were the seventh, so we got broken up and added to other groups. Anyway this activity, in our database management class: he gave each group a picture and we had fifteen minutes to write a story about the picture. 😑 I'm not complaining, I much prefer creative writing to academic writing, but what the heck does that have to do with computers?!? McDonald said it was something to do with creativity, but I don't really get the connection to database management. Anyway because I'm sure you're wondering: our story was about vampires in a hospital. 

Then we moved on to another group project, this one with our actual groups. This one was work though. We've been learning a diagramming method, and the project was to do that. It was really complicated, I slightly strained my wrist (the one I broke last year) with all that writing. That was not fun. It still aches a little. We took another break after that, but what was supposed to be ten minutes turned into over half an hour, McDonald can really talk when he gets going, which left us with only ten minutes left of class. So he talked a little more about the lecture, and by that I mean he clicked through the slides really quick and told us we could go. @_@

おやすみ！

September 2-3

I don't have class on Wednesday, so yesterday I did homework and watched tv. 

Most of today was also spent on homework, as my class is late. Dinner was disappointing. Once again they ran out of the entree and only had sides left. @_@ But I sat with friends from my class and we chatted, and that was fun. Jennifer complained about the lack of meat for the entire hour we sat there (not straight of course, she just kept going back to it). And then class was (hey stupid predictive text: stop getting my hopes up with words like 'cancelled'!!)- class was boring. But I can't tell if that was because the professor was going too slow, or because I was tired and couldn't concentrate. :/

That's all there is to say. Ttyl!

August 29 - September 1

I spent the weekend on homework and research, so there's nothing to report there. Except that I kinda sorta broke up with my kinda sorta boyfriend. We'd only been on like six dates, and neither of us has the time for a long distance thing. So we decided that the mature thing to do was end it before it caused problems. On the one hand I'm sad that the relationship has ended, but on the other it's one less thing causing me stress. 

Yesterday (August 31):

I was too tired after everything that happened to do anything other than watch TV until I fell asleep. So here's what all happened:

Weekly meeting for my assistantship at 2. There were tech issues and it started late. Even after all my prep and research over the weekend I still feel really ... I decided today that the proper word is "lost". I just can't figure out how we're going to take this topic, which to be honest I still don't understand, and turn it into a semester-long project. And Dr. Javad keeps talking like it has the potential to last the entire length of our program. *sigh* Part of me wonders if I'd be better off taking to the GRA coordinator and seeing if I can switch projects...

Anyway that ran late, so I had to rush to the meeting with my group for the project for my database class. We talked and searched the Internet and came up with a tentative subject for our research paper. We may change it later, once we know a little more about the project, but for now it's just relieving to have that much done. 

Stats class after that was agonizing. It was so slow that I couldn't tell if the class participation questions were actual questions or rhetorical. @_@ The worst part came when after two and a half hours of the most remedial review, he jumped to a concept that none of us had ever heard of and his method of "explanation" was to repeat what the slides said. @_@ This is going to be an awful class. 

I went up to dinner after class. They switched caterers (or at least it appeared like they did), and they ran out of food. Completely. All that was left was soggy steamed broccoli and hard bread rolls. I, fortunately, was one of the first ones up, which meant I was one of the last people to actually get food. Chicken jambalaya pasta, yeah I know, it was as weird as it sounds. Plus the quality sucked. :/

Today:

Today's events started with a trip to the Apple Store at the mall to get my phone fixed. One of the guys I talked to called me his new bast friend because of the Legend of Zelda t-shirt I was wearing. The hour without my phone while they fixed it was agony. (A different kind of agony from class yesterday.) Unsurprisingly I'm one of those people who can't do anything without their smartphone. But now it's like new. So at least the waiting was worth it. ;) (Yes that's right, a girl alone at the mall, with Dad's credit card, and all I could think about was my lack of smartphone. I've certainly got my priorities straight, huh.)

I walked from the mall to campus, which was only like four blocks, but in the middle of the afternoon it was really hot. Worked on homework for a couple hours, then went up to dinner. Tonight they served us turkey in gravy and mashed potatoes. It was mediocre and really salty. :(

Database class tonight was good. The information was new and complicated, but McDonald went through it at the right pace. I'm still not sure if I like it or not, but while he lectures he walks through the classroom, like between the rows and such, and asks questions of us constantly. It's a little stressful not knowing when you're gonna get called on, but at least I know I'll remember those things. ;)

And I think that's everything, I'm a little exhausted so it's hard to tell. I suppose I can always post anything I may have forgotten tomorrow. 

Good night!