Yo, I'm not dead

Although work has gotten so insane I forget to sleep some nights.

My brother has decided to do what we've all been thinking about:

people of college - it's people of college, but now all the delta delta girls with leggings on in the snow. Go Scott.

Lunch!

Thoughts and Week in Review

First:
I got my kindle in the mail on Wednesday! It's all that it is supposed to be and I love it. YAY. But I have two papers that must get written before spring break, so yuck - I don't get to play with it much til then :(

Second:
The state of the building I work in is ridiculous. It would be better if they blew it up and started over. Today it was so muggy in the room I was teaching in that you could see the condensation in the air. I'm going to stage a protest.

Third:
Writing papers sucks.

Fourth:
Ok, done with the numbers. Generally this week has rocked. Been very busy between yelling at the DVR for not recording anything and getting this paper written. It's at least half way now. Also it's been package city. Got my kindle wednesday, cory sent me a hoodie thursday and today I'm supposed to get my stuff from sephora in. :) I also have to order books for book club. Damn! :)

Something I find disturbing:
The new it thing to do on Facebook is to take "explored" pictures from Flickr and make them into fake album covers and fake band names. I know this whole thing is just for fun, but it kind of frightens me. Photographers already have issues with copyrights and digital use of their pictures. I know plenty of people who have been stolen from. But if you don't put yourself and your pictures out there, you never get better or noticed. Double edged sword. The thing that bothers me the most is that people don't notice that it's 1) illegal with out a common use license on the picture and 2) stealing with out mentioning the photographer. And we spend all of our time talking about plagiarism? This is just as bad.

Noses

"Nasal congestion is an erection inside your nose."

I'm reading Bonk - The Curious Coupling of Science and Sex by Mary Roach.

She is hilarious. I thought this book might get slightly vulgar (given the topic) but it's straight up funny times. Because when talking about how erections work, she throws in how the same tissue is located in your nose to diffuse the whole uncomfortable science of talking about penises. I can't read too much at a time, it's not like a page turner sci-fi book. But a little bit a day makes me laugh :)

And apparently, I am procrastinating all the real work I have to do.

BUT! The physical plant brought me a heater!! :) :) :)

Beer on the Cat

Soooo, in all my tryings I still managed to fall asleep mid afternoon yesterday. I've discovered that naps are just no good for me. They give me a giant headache that slowly gets worse instead of go away. I had a massive headache all night. Trying to concentrate simultaneously on a small cross stitch project and the TV probably didn't help either. But I should be getting my glasses back today/tomorrow so that's going to help a lot.

What's this got to do with beer you say? Well, since you can't buy cold beer in this county in Mississippi, Lafayette (not - law-fi-ett like most of us say no no no lu-faye-ette emphasis on FAYE like a middle name. Ridiculous). Back to my story. Since you can't buy cold beer I put mine in the freezer to get cold and oh forgot about it. In my mind, I'm thinking "alcohol doesn't freeze". Alcohol doesn't, but beer does indeed. Yesterday I figured this out. So, I took it out of the freezer, and thought it had defrosted in my fridge. Again, wrong city. It was still partially frozen and had all the pressure still built up. So guess who got sprayed with such things when I opened it? Yep, Bruce and I both. Fun times. It was too funny to get mad.

Andddd hooray for getting stood up at 8am again. Hey, don't sign up for an 8 am time if you can't show up. Sheesh.

Couch! Couch!

I ordered a cool couch from wal-mart's website. It's a convertible bed. Like whoo-hoo. I'm going to stop sitting in the middle of my empty living room in a lounge chair. But I have to wait for it to get here :( Sadness.

Also sadness - Ole Miss was so closeeeee. Tech isn't doing that hot and A&M, well it's A&M. Football is madness. Samford game this week! Tailgating! Yep!

Not too much else to say except that I'm about to order that hurley hoodie. Yeah, I'm going to splurge. On the coolest hoodie, reversible and everything.

God Love the Onion

"I brought my baby to touch the wall, so that the power of Darwin can purify her genetic makeup of undesirable inherited traits," said Darlene Freiberg, one among a growing crowd assembled here to see the mysterious stain, which appeared last Monday on one side of the Rhea County Courthouse. The building was also the location of the famed "Scopes Monkey Trial" and is widely considered one of Darwinism's holiest sites. "Forgive me, O Charles, for ever doubting your Divine Evolution. After seeing this miracle of limestone pigmentation with my own eyes, my faith in empirical reasoning will never again be tested."

http://www.theonion.com/content/news/evolutionists_flock_to_darwin

At first, not paying attention to what I was clicking on Digg - I thought this was real. And then I checked out the website. Whoops. Anywaysssss - off to school on a Friday I didnt plan on going :( Stupid reports to grade. Much easier if printed out. And then I have to work out. Cory's got me on this work out program that involves every single part of your body hurting continuously for weeks. (Ok just kidding I like it). Totally wearing sweats to school - whee!

OHH EMM GEEE a post

HI

I haven't forgotten about you oh wiley blog and website. But I have rediscovered you and this thing called free time. That's right! erin is done with her dissertation and about done with all things chool work. I have to edit my dissertation as the grad school says so (waiting on that report), post grades for my class (doing that tomorrow), be good (not possible), and finish this paper thing we are trying to get published.

Oh and find a job. No biggie.

I actually finished a book today. I was explaining to Cory on the way home from Austin today (sadness! that we had to leave) that I hate when I can't finish a book. Makes me completely nutty actually. So I set out to finish The Appeal today. And I did. And I still didn't like it. I wrote a review on goodreads (see here). I really hate writing long reviews of things. I read some other people's reviews and they didn't like it as much as I didn't like it. Anyways, trying to finish another half read - Mark Z. Danieleski's Whalestoe letters. I like it, so it shouldn't take long. I'm really putting off the ones I know I'm to whip through - the 3 Chuck Palahnuik's I have, the 2 discworld books I have (oh terry pratchett i <3 your writing), nick hornby (although I can't seem to finish high fidelity).

In other news, the river is wonderful, sunscreen is weird and I'm tired.

laterz.

Letter to the World

Dear world,
Please stop sending me rejection letters several at a time. I would like to receive rejections to make mad moneyz at least several days apart. Also, do not give other people good news mutliples at a time. It's depressions. Kthanks.

Please let the people at Texas A&M University (College Station, just to make sure everyone is on the same page) come into awareness that they are assholes all at the same time. We should give it a name : TAMU Awareness of Screwing Former Students Day. Then, let's make it a tradition and induct newcomers every year. Then, make it a yell.

Please turn down the wind. I can't think when constantly being worried about blowing over.

Please stop making procrastination so easy. Heroes? Lost? I'm months behind and the urge to procrastinate is hugeness.

And finally stop getting warmer. (Note: you may get warmer in Lubbock Texas, where it is currently way too cold for general comfort of the erins.)

love

erin

FIXED

Got this working again after some finagling. Hoping to get my iphone to sync with it soon :) Anyways - here's some funny stories of the week.

A+M/Tech Basketball game - well it was a lot of fun, especially since I had never been to a game here at Tech. They are crazy and it was pretty packed and that made it more fun. Word to the wise though - shouting A+M sucks dick doesn't improve your image. And you wonder why we all (Texas, A+M) think that you're a little immature. I just rolled my eyes. We (A&M) got our asses handed to us, but I'll survive. We were siting next to Graham Harrell (read: Tech's quarterback) and Cynthia had to take a picture with him. He was really nice about it, especially since we were decked out in A+M stuff.



Bday party went off with only a couple small hitches, including some rude people being immature. But we (ahem: Katie) dealt with them pretty effectively, and they finally got the hit. Vague enough? I thought so.

I had a phone interview today :( It went ok, but I was nervous and said "stuff" a lot, which is annoying. I felt like it went ok, not bad (I didn't say anything incredibly stupid) but not great (OMG we have to hire this girl). I was honest, so that's the best that I can do. I had answers for everything that they asked me (about mentoring students, research plan, teaching etc). Going to stay positive about it though. (Read I NEED A JOB HIRE ME PLEASE I'M AWESOME).

What else? OH!

Last night I tried to set the house on fire! Well ok not really. Katie's tried to by burning toast in the toaster oven (collectively we have about 15 years of higher ed and we can't figure out to make toast). So, I start to smell burning, to which I ask katie why I smell burning:

Me: why does the house smell like burning?
Her: I'm not making toast!
Me: Oh shit! My power cable is sparking! It's melting on the floor!

Yep that's right. My four year old laptop cable for power decided to melt last night. Sigh. I'm about to buy a new computer and this happens. Oh well, since I have to buy a new one makes it easier to sell, but still! Couldn't it just have held on another week! And then I bought a new keyboard and mouse, which I don't get to play with because I got them in the mail and was practicing delayed gratification (read: erin work on your dissertation before you play with your new toys). No playing til i get the new cord. And Monday is a holiday. SIGH.

That's all for now. :)

Useless

I have been a completely useless slug today. Everytime I sit down to work on my dissertation, I fall asleep. I wish I had my camera to take a picture of me curled up on the floor in my office, completely passed out. I can sleep almost anywhere.

Also, what part of "I have no idea what you are talking about, I'm not in charge of that experiment" don't people get? Hi my name is erin and I'm running this experiment, not one of the other 5 and I don't got a clue about the other ones. FYI, just because I'm young doesn't mean you can harrass me about things I don't know about. Jesus.

Geez, I'm tired again.

And a Big Thank You to the Ground

My right ankle is raging war against me. I ran outside again yesterday, which I have yet to figure out is a bad idea. Really you would think that after doing this a couple times and my ankles hurting I would give it up.

Anyway, not far into the run, I'm screaming mercy because my ankle didn't give up the fight, and recruited my knees to join in. Nearly fell down a couple of times, but thanks to my graceful manuevers, (haha) I didn't.

Things I have decided this week:
MSNBC is pretty cool, aka Keith Olbermann.
IHOP at midnight is ALWAYS a good idea.
Wal-Mart is best foraged alone and when it isn't be sure to have an escape plan.
Statistics is magic.

That's all for right now, gotta jet. Experiments are calling.

the we're doneness

DSC_4424 copy
Originally uploaded by erin is a star

done with quals = passed = relief beyond means.

what's next? finishing my dissertation proposal. Ick. Almost done with it actually. The propose the damn thing. Then do it. Then defend it. Then get the hell out of this place. The end is actually forseeable. Weird.

things i'm loving right now:
maroon 5's new album
not being so insane due to school
the heat
my hair being blue

things i'm not loving right now:
the heat (a.k.a. my car is black with black leather)
being insane because i haven't really thought about this class i'm teaching in a week
texas just in general

Oh. Go here. View the celebrations. It was a party for my quals and several people's dissertation defenses. There was beer pong. Seriously, how old are we?

Interesting side notes:
Other than all these being pictures of me with people (hey it was my party and i need pictures for when i leave right? or maybe I'm just a picture whore).
i take pictures nearly the same way everytime and make the same face
you can tell who i'm closest to because i'm much closer to them in the picture than other people. (maybe those magazine things are right?) Aka see attached cynthianess.

ok i'm out.

Statistics

So glad that I'm getting a statistics minor. Wheee. Then I get to read fun things like this:

"Unfortunately, too many people like to do their statistical work as they say their prayers - merely substitute in a formula found in a highly respected book written a long time ago" (Hotelling, Bartky, Deming, Friedman, & Hoel, 1948, pg 103).

Who said math nerds didn't have a sense of humor?

Seriously, something else I read the other day said that "scientific misadventures" were the cause of lack of progress in the field. If I wasn't a psychologist, I totally would be a statistician. Monte Carlos all day. And then I could tell the people on Deal or No Deal what freaking idiots they are.