Off

In 15 minutes to Chicago. :)

The long hard road to Utopia

Some days my computer just doesn't make a lot of sense.

I wanted to print off extra copies of my flight ticket. Having discovered that, yep, my email program had performed its usual maintenance operations, and nope, it hadn't kept useful old emails like e-tickets, I tracked down the site that had issued the ticket and discovered that yes, they did indeed allow customers to log in and retrieve useful data like itineraries.

That's just an introduction illustrating my perfectly logical approach to computers.

So I attempted to print the 4 pages of ticket (contrary to popular opinion, the world will not end in fire or ice but in paper), but for some reason, my computer couldn't quite load the page, and then couldn't quite get all the data sent to the printer before informing me that an error had occurred. The next time I tried to print, Compu informed me that I would need to add a printer. The latest printing ordeal must have been too traumatic, as it had wiped both printers from the system.

I tried giving Compu a brief nap by logging off. Jason advised restarting with a hard kick, which magically restored both printers and Compu's sanity.

But Jason informed me that it really wasn't my computer. "It's all because of Microsoft. Microsoft is the cause of all the world's problems. If Microsoft didn't exist, the world would be at peace... no wars, no fighting... and we'd all live together in harmonious brotherhood."

So maybe I should say, some days Microsoft just doesn't make a lot of sense.

Look out, Future, here I come

Well, this is it! One week from now I will be out of the country. Or maybe flying out of Philadelphia and just barely out of the country. One week from 9:45 A.M. tomorrow my plane will be landing in Paris. One week from tomorrow afternoon sometime my train will be pulling into Dijon, where I will study at the University of Bourgogne for four months.

Do you believe that? If so, you're doing better than me. Study abroad was always the distant part of college. Now suddenly it's here. But after eight years of French, I guess I'm ready for France. :)

Here's my year: France till early June, a month at home, Argentina from late July till early December, then home for another nice long Christmas break before one last semester and graduation (now that I really refuse to believe!).

My first plane ride's coming, yippee!

Latest acquisitions

Want to see how many books you can get for $9?


Cyrano de Bergerac, Edmond Rostand

50 Great American Short Stories (Hawthorne, Twain, etc.), ed. Milton Crane

The Secret Garden, Frances Hodgson Burnett

Oliver Twist, Charles Dickens

How to Write Science Fiction, Matthew J. Costello

*The Lennon Sisters: The Secret of Holiday Island, Doris Schroeder

A Doll's House, Henrik Ibsen

*Heidi, Johanna Spyri

Anne Frank: The Diary of a Young Girl, trans. B. M. Mooyaart

Germinal, Émilie Zola, trans. L. W. Tancock

*The Wrestler of Philippi, Fannie E. Newberry

Sue Barton, Visiting Nurse, Helen Dore Boylston

Emily Post on Entertaining, Elizabeth L. Post

*Captains Courageous, Rudyard Kipling

(*hardback)


According to my division, that's 64 cents per book.

I dare anyone to come up with a theme for this set!

The state of today's university

I eagerly anticipate the culmination of my career as a college student- "identifying a location on a map". Only $80,000. Bet you never guessed inflation was that horrendous.

Current top three technological pet peeves

3. Sluggish Internet connection.

2. Phone menus, especially interspersed with ads and finished off by unavailable CSAs.

1. Clicking to complete an online application and confronting the following screen: The page you requested has expired. You will have to start over at the beginning. We apologize for the inconvenience.

Here goes for round 2 of #1.

eghh

Do you know how annoying it is to walk around and feel your Achilles tendon squeaking?

Sharon's Sleep Scale

This sleep scale (specially adapted for students) is in honor of all my friends returning to class this week, and in memory of my last and most pleasant semester, and in anticipation for jet lag. With this scale, you can determine how much sleep you got the previous night simply by exercising a little self-observation the next day.

0 hours: Completely insufficient. Feel wired but will not be standing after 11 a.m. Brain function sporadic at best and shuts down after noon. Not recommended for long term survival.

1 hour: Virtually equivalent to 0 hours.

2 hours: Marginal improvement over 1 hour. Adrenal system has received minimal rest required to continue functioning all day and often (unfortunately and by no means desirably true) all the next night. Brain capacity at functional most of day. Some homework potential. State sustainable for most of a week.

3 hours: As I have no experience with this particular category, I must call on other survivors to testify. I would tentatively hypothesize that the day-after experience of such a sleep level would fall more or less within the range between 2 hours and 4 hours. (This statement brought to you by COW (the Center for Overkill Writing), copyright 2006)

4 hours: Minimal level of optimal sleep. Feeling of semi-sanity and even a distinct sense of existence often prevail. Sufficient for all necessary activities, relatively cheerful demeanor and ability to focus on persons outside self. Continuing but supportable fatigue.

5 hours: Fully functional amount of sleep. Some drowsiness during after-lunch hours. Sanity and near-clearmindedness.

6 hours: Normal. Ideal for students. Person unquestionably alive.

7 hours: Excellent. Increasingly rare.

8 hours: Superb.

9 hours: Unsurpassable.

10 hours: Too much. This is twice the student's normal. Subject should keep hopping if desires to sleep the following night.

11 hours or more: If you sleep this much, you are clearly close to death from sleep-deprivation the rest of the week.

For your convenience, I've included a precise and more concise sleep level assessment chart. Since the above warnings pertaining to large amounts of sleep are presently being debated in the scientific community, the following definitions take a more traditional approach.

Deprivation:
0 - Impossible
1 - Insufficient
2 - Skimpy
3 - Tolerable

Maintenance:
4 - Decent
5 - Normal
6 - Ideal

Health:
7 - Excellent
8 and above - Superb


Sleep well. Pleasant dreams.

From your loving sister

This one's for Jason. :)

Mañana

Well, I was going to post about real life, but seeing as it's almost 11 PM, I think I'd rather read... especially since Daddy has tomorrow off. No need to get up at a decent hour and be a good, morally supportive daughter. But, in case any early risers in my family are alarmed on reading this, don't worry, unless you don't see me by 9 or 10 AM. Then you can worry.

I'd rather read, because Sanditon is waiting for me to return (in fact, if you like reading your computer screen, how about this), and because reading late will make me a perfect hypocrite, since I just informed my family that every minute of sleep before midnight is worth four after midnight. Hey, it's just self-adjustment for the next two nights of Pride & Prejudice.

Whaddayaknow

Laura is so nice, she won't mind me passing on her link!

Betcha didn't know Shakespeare wrote Beowulf.

Let's dump Spanish

I was rather pleased to read this in the latest issue of U.S. News & World Report.

Gas and politics

It's not that I'm too busy or too lazy to post. I just forget. That's my excuse for posting on this Le Monde editorial three days late. But editorials don't die so quickly as regular news. I translated the last and most interesting paragraph for (those of) you (who don't read French). Here's the opening line to give you an idea of the rest: En obligeant l'Ukraine à accepter de payer cinq fois plus cher le gaz russe... Vladimir Poutine a certainement marqué un point . . . By obligating Ukraine to pay five times more dearly for Russian gas... Vladimir Putin has certainly marked a point...

First Tsarist, then Soviet, Russia has always been obsessed by creating around herself a buffer zone for protection from harmful influences. This kind of politics realized its apogee with Stalin and the creation of the "Socialist camp" after World War II. Mikhail Gorbatchev and then Boris Yeltsin had broken with this tradition by trying to integrate their country into a pan-European political system. Convinced that the disappearance of the Soviet Union is "the greatest catastrophe of the twentieth century", Mr. Putin is joining again with the politics of zones of influence. It isn't a good piece of news for Russia's immediate neighbors or for Europe as a whole.

The French have us beat by 150...

...Bible verses, that is. When reading a French Bible, keep in mind that every Psalm has an extra verse. Verse 1 is the brief phrase introducing the Psalm in the English version (i.e. "A Psalm of David"). Just made this fascinating discovery tonight when trying to reconcile Pastor John's verse references with la Sainte Bible.

Fun things to do in an elevator

1. Whistle the first seven notes of "It's a Small World" incessantly.

2. Sell Girl Scout cookies.

3. Crack open your briefcase or purse, and while peering inside, ask "Got enough air in there?"

4. When arriving at your floor, grunt and strain to yank the doors open, then act embarrassed when they open by themselves.

5. Greet everyone getting on the elevator with a warm handshake and ask them to call you Admiral.

6. Meow occasionally.

7. Stare at another passenger for a while, then announce "You're one of THEM!" and move to the far corner of the elevator.

8. Leave a box between the doors.

9. Wear a puppet on your hand and talk to other passengers "through" it.

10. Start a sing-along.

11. Say "Ding" at each floor.

12. Say "I wonder what all these do" and push the red buttons.

13. Listen to the elevator walls with a stethoscope.

14. Draw a little square on the floor with chalk and announce to the other passengers that this is your "personal space".

15. Bring a chair along.

16. Make explosion noises when anyone presses a button.


Used by my sociology professor in class.

#4, #11, and #16 are my favorites! How about yours?

Christmas break hours

Sorry for the posting lag. I was fighting the nasty cold, and have finally won back health, well-being, and sleep.

My schedule was already off since the only hours I really dropped off last week were generally after 5 or 6 in the morning. Now it's continuing with the annual Christmas Lord of the Rings viewing before Christmas break ends (at least for Jason and Kendra). Yesterday I ate breakfast at noon, lunch at 4:30, and supper at 7:30. Really an admirable arrangement! Sleep is the priority, of course, not food.

To make up for this horrendous blog lapse, another post will magically appear later on today.