Happy Halloween!

Happy Halloween from all of us! They're not black cats, but what can you do? (the top pic is Indy and the bottom one is Linc)

The trick-or-treating hasn't started here yet, so I don't know how that will go. We are in a win-win situation, though. If the kids come: yay, cute kids. If the kids don't come: yay, lots of Reese's to eat! We'll see how it all turns out very shortly.

Good news: I passed my drivers' test today. Phew! I had heard that it was hard, so I was a bit concerned. I was more concerned when I was waiting at the DMV and a woman came out to tell her husband that she had just failed. All was well, though, and I got a 90%. The test is the kind that makes you second guess yourself, though, and I bet that is how many people who fail are caught.
Bad news: They wouldn't let me get my photo for the license taken with the devil horns on. It was a let down. I thought I had a chance because the DMV employees were dressed up to the nines (the Halloween nines, that is). Oh well, at least my picture looks better than it did on the CO license. I realized by way of the one-year-later comparison to that photo that I have really been underestimating the growing ability of my hair - it is much longer now.

In other seasonal news, the time change here has, of course, brought the darker hours earlier in the day. Yesterday, I saw the most amazing thing: a skateboard with a headlight! It was mounted under the deck and appeared to be similar to a bike headlight from what I could tell in passing. Wow.

Thrilling Weekend

So I had a great weekend of being violently ill and not being able to study at all for my midterm on Tuesday. Bleh. At least I am better now.

Edit:
New evidence in: Two of the people I ate out with on Friday were also sick this weekend. Coincidence? Probably not. Food poisining? Probably so. Other possibilities? The sick baby at dinner infected us all! (But I don't know what the baby was sick with...)

Quoting

"You know how to think, and then you just do things."
-Prof. Larry Chen

"[Sheldon Jacobson of University of Illinois] compared national health data and passenger-car fuel consumption from 1960 to 2003 to find that because of a heftier population, [Americans] use 983 MILLION gallons of gas more EACH YEAR than we did in the slimmer '60's."
-Jennifer Harper in the Washington Times Oct 26, 2006, emphasis mine

Conversation Vortex

I went to Great Harvest yesterday expecting a great harvest of grains and deliciousness, but in addition to that, I reaped a terrible harvest of unsolicited, mind-numbing conversation.

I went in, and the lovely GH staff offered me a slice of bread, as usual. Well, they had a pumpkin quick bread AND cornbread, so I HAD to get one of each. Anyone who has been to GH knows that they aren't shy about doling out the goods; I had quite a bit of bread to eat. So, I'm eating right along checking out the cookie selection all the while (the real reason I came) and wishing that this branch had the good practice of making oatmeal raisin (which they don't, on any day!!). Sometime during this feast, a man came rolling in (in one of those scooter things). He appeared to be a normal, sane individual.
Well, I don't even remember how it started (because my brain now has a mushy sludge part where the memory of this time would normally be), but we started chatting.
So this guy is talking and talking and talking and .... I can't break free! I don't know why. The conversation started off as somewhat normal, progressed into less normal but more interesting, then degressed into off-the-wall-nuts-uninteresting and never-ending. At first, it was just small talk.

--Oh yeah, it all started because the bread guy asked where I was from ("At MY Great Harvest they make oatmean raisin cookies.") and I said Michigan, and Scooter chimed in that he was from Kalamazoo. So that's how it all began.--

Then he started talking about healthy natural weirdo foods. The kind of stuff that I'm into. He even had a portion of his disgusting juice drink on hand for show and tell. (Disgusting juice drinks are a requirement of these diets.) So, he's preaching to me about vegetables and his personal scale of healthfulness, which is measured on a Cartesian scale, apparently. How We don't eat healthily and We all need to get back to the basics, blah blah stuff I know. He then goes on to tell me the details of his personal food preparation and timetables of consumption (including a morning dose of the juice while on the can!).
By this time, I'm wishing that someone from the GH staff will notice my troubles and somehow rescue me from peril.
After some mind-obliterating digressions, he goes on to tell me that the reason he eats so healthily is so that he will live long enough that the technology will be developed to have his conciousness transferred into a computer so that it can one day be put into a robot (and therefore realize immortality). He predicts that will be possible in fifteen years.
I was about to knock myself over the head in hopes of unconciousness, when he let me escape. I think this whole thing took about thirty minutes.

I hope this guy doesn't become immortal.

Support Group

I found a website to provide support to econ phd students. I am glad such a thing exists, but I am NOT surprised. I have only been here for a short time, and I have already had at least four emotional/mental/existential breakdowns. It is a bad time to be my journal, my mom, or Andrea. Probably worst for my mom, since my journal can cope with pretty much anything (no brain), and Andrea can at least offer the comfort of mutual suffering (also hers will last longer). So, THANKS MOM!
I have to look a bit more deeply at the website to see if it will truly be helpful or not. I must check for message boards, even though they can be poisonous to your brain as often as they help...

Things I've Learned in the Past Week

One: NPR's Car Talk is strangely wonderful.

Two: How to find the characteristic root(s) of a matrix. The characteristic vectors still elude me for some strange reason (even though I understand the steps/concepts).

Three: I am bad at butchering rabbits. I keep thinking bunny, bunny, bunny. I even found myself singing Little Peter Cottontail to myself during the deed. And I feel inadequate for not being good/efficient at the task.

AND

Four: It is very intimidating when a MATH class begins, "Okay. We'll begin today by reviewing the Greek alphabet..."

Solar

We got solar panels installed on the house today, which is pretty sweet. But better than that, Leslie was not here when the installation was finished, so I posed for the picture of the 'job well done', pretending the be the homeowner. Maybe the photo will end up on the company website or something, and I will be an official home-owner-impostor. My first step toward accomplishing the life-long goal of owning my own home.

The kittens are very popular with our guests. Questions so far have included:
- What kind of cats ARE those!?
- Did you shave them?
and
- I'm sorry... is that a cat??

Sighting

I have seen people walking their dogs...

... while walking.
... while running.
... while biking.
... while also piloting baby joggers.

and new today

... while longboarding. (skateboard version not surfboard version)

Longboarding is big here. People are doing it all over the place. I am, sadly, not one of them. However, it would be one heck of a ride between my house and school. I would have one very muscular leg and one puny leg, I think.

Did a lot of catching up on work today. Yay(?)! Also, I have a line on a free couch. It is UGLY. Which leads me to the question: Why are slipcovers crazy expensive ($100+ for most)?
Columbus Day just makes for annoying furniture store ads on the radio and a one day delay in receiving my Netflix. Boo.

Okay, I believe it now.

Yes, I'm finally giving in and admitting that I am once again a student. I have so much to do. Always. That is studenthood; that is what I signed up for. Basically, I have a lot of math to do at any given time, which is frustrating in a way. It is weird that I have basically no economics in class. Okay, that's not entirely true. I have one class that has econ, but it is much less work than the other two. On Friday, there was a seminar hosted by the department, which was uplifting in a way. Basically a light at the end of the long tunnel (even though I just entered the tunnel, it is often stressed that this is a long. long, and difficult journey). I actually saw the results of all this math in an econ context. And, when all is said and done, I do find some appeal in math. But, enough about that.
In my non-school life, I have joined the OSU triathlon club. Everyone is really friendly and welcoming, which is important because I am not in awesome shape and I don't know how to swim. I can stay afloat and all, but I don't know how to swim well. Luckily there are coaches that have dealt with this very thing before. Right now I am sore from a hill run we did yesterday.
I have also been spending time playing and cuddling with the kitties. They are a non-stop stream of cuteness.
My goal for the upcoming week is to fit guitar practice into my schedule. Basically, I need to hone my work hard/play hard skills.