Here they have this system where you log on to use any computer from campus. Once you've logged on, it tracks all of your activity, including (among other things) how many pages you print. Thus, they give you a certain number of "free" (as in, included in the "technology fee" billed to your bursar account) pages to print from campus computers. I get 1000 as a grad student. I get 300 extra because I'm an instructor. I also rolled over 500 that were left over from last semester.
As of this afternoon, I am officially out of print pages. Yes, I've printed 1800 pages this semester. What have I printed, you ask? Reading assignments for two classes.
This means that not including the books I've read (which are a decent number) and the random articles I've read here and there online, I've already read 1800 pages. Now, this 1800 pages refers to one side of a page. Usually, I shrink the pages (to try to save trees and my print quota) to the size that there are two pages of whatever I was supposed to read per side of a piece of paper. Assuming I did that half of the time (I know I did it at least that much), that ups the amount I've read to 2700 pages. Add in to that the Arabian Nights, Tale of Genji, Decameron, Odyssey, Divine Comedy and sections of the Bible that I've read for Comp Lit, two plays that my professor gave us for Portuguese, and the two books I read for my presentation in my colonial lit class, and I don't even want to know what the total comes to.
I'm feeling something between admiration at myself and despair over my plight. Hooray for being a girl and a grad student!
Wednesday, February 27, 2008
Friday, February 22, 2008
Good and bad
So, my extra comp lit meeting that is sometimes a struggle for me to get to because it's the ONLY "school" thing I have on Fridays, is canceled today. WAHOO!
Now if only she had decided this BEFORE 6:30 this morning, I could have slept in instead of getting up early to do my reading. Ain't that always the way??
Now if only she had decided this BEFORE 6:30 this morning, I could have slept in instead of getting up early to do my reading. Ain't that always the way??
Thursday, February 14, 2008
So I'm totally doomed
I was looking at baby pictures of BeeBoo. I'm talking BABY baby....just born teensy.
And I'm doomed. I totally want another baby.
But I'm scared out of my wits that I'm just basically not good enough at this to do it!
So. I have moments that I can't WAIT for the timing to be right for the next one, and moments when I'm so scared that I never want to have any more babies.
Don't really know what the point of this is. Mostly just rambling.
And I'm doomed. I totally want another baby.
But I'm scared out of my wits that I'm just basically not good enough at this to do it!
So. I have moments that I can't WAIT for the timing to be right for the next one, and moments when I'm so scared that I never want to have any more babies.
Don't really know what the point of this is. Mostly just rambling.
Wednesday, February 13, 2008
Thanks, mom...
...for making me order my own food at restaurants, even when I whined about it.
Because now, thanks to your impeccable instruction, I am a fairly competent, independent adult.
Unlike the OBNOXIOUS undergraduate students who are incapable of 1) accepting responsibility for their own actions or 2) following simple steps to fix things that THEY MESSED UP.
Examples:
Of case 1: Today a student who skipped class yesterday came up to me and asked if it would be an excused absence because "I was confused and thought that classes were canceled yesterday." So, we had an ice storm. But not a blizzard. We're in college, we don't have snow days. Why on EARTH would it be an excused absence? I (relatively) calmly and with a (n almost) straight face told him that there are four absences built into the course for just such "misunderstandings." He was miffed. I internally rejoiced.
Of case 2: Today when I went to the computer lab to print out the 250 pages (yes, you read right, 250 pages...and really it's 500 because I put 2 pages per side to save trees and my print quota) of reading for tomorrow, I noticed that the printer was out of commission. This happens frequently because students don't report paper jams, preferring to leave and go to another lab. This tendency bothers me because it is quite easy to pick up the phone that is IMMEDIATELY ADJACENT to the printer, push the button that says "PUSH ME" and read "the printer is broken in Ballantine _____" from the script that is PROVIDED NEXT TO THE PHONE! So, I called before I even sat down at a station, and while I was sending my jobs to the printer someone came to fix it. I thought, "yay, now it will be fixed for my jobs to go through." The tech left. A girl in front of me in line grabbed her print job before it finished printing, causing a paper jam. She said "D*&%, now I'm gonna be late to class because I have to go somewhere else to print this!" and left. She did NOT call the tech to fix it. She did NOT bother to fix the problem she caused. So I called AGAIN and had the tech come. They had to reset the printer, which made it lose the jobs stored in the cache, mine included. I had to wait in line for a computer AGAIN, and RESEND my print jobs, then wait for them to print. This fiasco caused me to miss my bus, which caused me to not get home in time for Ben to catch HIS bus, which caused me to have to waste my reading time to take him to school which caused extreme frustration which caused RANTING ON MY BLOG!
Okay. I'm done being angry now. I'm going to go do my reading (yes, all 500 pages of it) before BeeBoo wakes up. (You think I'm joking....I really do read everything before she wakes up.....)
At least, thanks to my mother, I acknowledge that just as I CHOSE to be angry about the fiasco, now that I've chosen to be done with it I can go on and be productive.
Because now, thanks to your impeccable instruction, I am a fairly competent, independent adult.
Unlike the OBNOXIOUS undergraduate students who are incapable of 1) accepting responsibility for their own actions or 2) following simple steps to fix things that THEY MESSED UP.
Examples:
Of case 1: Today a student who skipped class yesterday came up to me and asked if it would be an excused absence because "I was confused and thought that classes were canceled yesterday." So, we had an ice storm. But not a blizzard. We're in college, we don't have snow days. Why on EARTH would it be an excused absence? I (relatively) calmly and with a (n almost) straight face told him that there are four absences built into the course for just such "misunderstandings." He was miffed. I internally rejoiced.
Of case 2: Today when I went to the computer lab to print out the 250 pages (yes, you read right, 250 pages...and really it's 500 because I put 2 pages per side to save trees and my print quota) of reading for tomorrow, I noticed that the printer was out of commission. This happens frequently because students don't report paper jams, preferring to leave and go to another lab. This tendency bothers me because it is quite easy to pick up the phone that is IMMEDIATELY ADJACENT to the printer, push the button that says "PUSH ME" and read "the printer is broken in Ballantine _____" from the script that is PROVIDED NEXT TO THE PHONE! So, I called before I even sat down at a station, and while I was sending my jobs to the printer someone came to fix it. I thought, "yay, now it will be fixed for my jobs to go through." The tech left. A girl in front of me in line grabbed her print job before it finished printing, causing a paper jam. She said "D*&%, now I'm gonna be late to class because I have to go somewhere else to print this!" and left. She did NOT call the tech to fix it. She did NOT bother to fix the problem she caused. So I called AGAIN and had the tech come. They had to reset the printer, which made it lose the jobs stored in the cache, mine included. I had to wait in line for a computer AGAIN, and RESEND my print jobs, then wait for them to print. This fiasco caused me to miss my bus, which caused me to not get home in time for Ben to catch HIS bus, which caused me to have to waste my reading time to take him to school which caused extreme frustration which caused RANTING ON MY BLOG!
Okay. I'm done being angry now. I'm going to go do my reading (yes, all 500 pages of it) before BeeBoo wakes up. (You think I'm joking....I really do read everything before she wakes up.....)
At least, thanks to my mother, I acknowledge that just as I CHOSE to be angry about the fiasco, now that I've chosen to be done with it I can go on and be productive.
Sunday, February 10, 2008
A near-perfect weekend
So, this weekend was awesome. Friday was the best part of it, I think. I went to my CompLit seminar and did a presentation. When I brought up my two "potential-problems-we-should-discuss" points, the professor said "Yes! Perfect!" I'm thinking that's good. :-)
Then BeeBoo and I went to a friend's house for a really basic, intro to music type dilly for little kids. SOOO much fun. Highly recommend it.
I went to the fabric store to get things for making BeeBoo's "big-girl" room set, and came home and took a nap while she did.
Then I went to cafezinho (Portuguese coffee hour...everybody just goes and talks for two hours...I only went for one, as I am free-time-ishly challenged).
Finally, we ate Korean food for dinner, which means that not only did I not have to cook (itself a wonderful thing), but we had really tasty pork and kimchi. Then we watched several episodes of "Numb3rs" on DVD. It's a pretty good show.
Saturday was almost as good, and we have a newly-cleaned and -vacuumed apartment....YAY! And BeeBoo's little cross-stitch squares that her room will be based around are coming along...3 down, 15 or so to go. :-)
Life is just good. I really like when I have time/energy to do other things besides just survive. And I'm REALLY glad that Ben can support me in it....and not be upset because I didn't want to cook on Friday, for example. ;-)
Then BeeBoo and I went to a friend's house for a really basic, intro to music type dilly for little kids. SOOO much fun. Highly recommend it.
I went to the fabric store to get things for making BeeBoo's "big-girl" room set, and came home and took a nap while she did.
Then I went to cafezinho (Portuguese coffee hour...everybody just goes and talks for two hours...I only went for one, as I am free-time-ishly challenged).
Finally, we ate Korean food for dinner, which means that not only did I not have to cook (itself a wonderful thing), but we had really tasty pork and kimchi. Then we watched several episodes of "Numb3rs" on DVD. It's a pretty good show.
Saturday was almost as good, and we have a newly-cleaned and -vacuumed apartment....YAY! And BeeBoo's little cross-stitch squares that her room will be based around are coming along...3 down, 15 or so to go. :-)
Life is just good. I really like when I have time/energy to do other things besides just survive. And I'm REALLY glad that Ben can support me in it....and not be upset because I didn't want to cook on Friday, for example. ;-)
Saturday, February 2, 2008
Says it so well
I've posted lots of comics lately. They just do such a good job of encapsulating my life! I can't help it.
I've ranted before (see my October 4, 2007 rant) about the assumption that moms have lots of free time. So go read this. I like it. Lots.
I've ranted before (see my October 4, 2007 rant) about the assumption that moms have lots of free time. So go read this. I like it. Lots.
Politics are crazy
But the more I read about Michelle Obama, the more I think she's an incredible person. People asked her if she was afraid of extremist groups who might threaten her family because of their race and involvement in politics.
She said "There are inherent risks for all people, but particularly for people of color, so, you know, I can't live my life worrying about what might go wrong. What we are going through, Barack and our family, is nothing compared to our leaders who pushed through on the civil rights movement.When I think of Martin Luther King and Coretta Scott King and true fears that they had and true sacrifices that they made, I think I don't have any right to hesitate for doing something that I think is important out of fear."
Well said.
She said "There are inherent risks for all people, but particularly for people of color, so, you know, I can't live my life worrying about what might go wrong. What we are going through, Barack and our family, is nothing compared to our leaders who pushed through on the civil rights movement.When I think of Martin Luther King and Coretta Scott King and true fears that they had and true sacrifices that they made, I think I don't have any right to hesitate for doing something that I think is important out of fear."
Well said.
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