Photo of the day

From Andrew Sullivan's blog.

D.C. Metro crash

I was on the Red Line at the time of the crash, probably a train or two behind the one in the collision. We made it to a station and then just stopped. They wouldn't tell us anything for ages, just that we'd be moving momentarily. Finally, they said we weren't going anywhere. I had to get to the Green Line in order to get home, so I finally just left the station, walked a mile (through a ghetto. Lovely) to the nearest Green Line station and went home, arriving home more than an hour after I normally would have.

My phone was ringing off the hook from my family, who knew more about what had happened than I did (it was the top story on the evening news, apparently).

I am tired and grubby and need a shower. But I am also safe, thank God.

Thunderstorms

We're getting them. So much for a walk to the store.

Chocolate Friday

DON'T FORGET!!!!

Pictures... click to enlarge

Lovely bands of clouds:





The swirl in the center of the photo was rotating rather quickly.




It was at this point that I thought it prudent to stop taking pictures and get James and Lily in their carriers.

Not good...

There are massively severe thunderstorms here at the moment (we're the dark red radar blob just north of VA). Everything just went dark outside, and it looked like a tornado was forming over the apartment. I've never seen clouds like that here before. I took pictures that I'll post later. I had to get James and Lily into their carriers in case I have to make a mad dash to the basement. The heat index is 91*

They're calling for severe lightning and hail. I should probably stay away from the windows.

This is a must-watch!

The annual Gloucestershire Cheese Rolling race. And people think the English don't know how to have fun.

Air France 447

Brazil has determined that the wreckage they discovered and retrieved and stated was from AF447 is not, in fact, from AF447. What it is from, no one seems to know. Which, of course, begs the question: where is Flight 447? And is it a weird coincidence that unrelated wreckage is found where they believe the plane went down?

In other news, today has totally sucked on the school front re: the administration. This is becoming a common refrain for me. The financial aid office, after pretty much yelling at me and telling me my loan would fund on June 1st and don'tcallbackthankyouverymuch, did NOT fund my loan because the school canceled one of my classes. They've known for weeks that they weren't going to fund my loan, and NEVER BOTHERED TO CALL AND INFORM ME so that I could take care of the situation before all the deadlines passed. Now, I've incurred late fees and other headaches.

I need my Murphy Brown dart board.

What the heck????

Did Detroit decide to nap on the ice tonight??

What??

What kind of dumb post office opens at 11:00, closes an hour for lunch, and then closes for the day at 4:30???

*is annoyed at having driven over there at 10:30*

Shopping deals

I went grocery shopping today.... boneless, center cut pork chops on sale for $1.99/lb. Unbelievable. I rarely eat pork, but I couldn't pass this up. Thick, and with hardly any fat at all, I got a package of 6 for $4.18. That's like 65 cents/chop. The sale lasts until Tuesday, so I may go back and get another pack. I wrapped them up individually and put them in the freezer, so they'll keep for a while. They also had a sale on packages of Purdue boneless, skinless chicken breasts, buy one, get one free. Couldn't pass that up, either. One pack is individually wrapped in the freezer, and the other is in the fridge. I got a mallet, and I'm going to pound them thin, fill them with herbs and cheese, coat them in breadcrumbs, and bake them. Sounds good in theory... I've never done it before, so we'll see how it comes out.

Sick.

With a bad head cold. Ugh.

Too funny...

Sent from a friend

Queen of Suckville

Continued from the prior post....

My professor emailed me about my exam on Wednesday, and I got a 123/180 on it. Which translates into a 68%, which works out to be "in the lower B range" (the man must be grading on an orbital curve). He then basically told me not to waste my time rewriting my paper, because it wouldn't change my grade much, unless I demonstrated some major broad knowledge of course concepts that didn't come across in the exam. And I may very well be reading into his email, but I gathered he didn't think I could do that, so I should just take my B and be happy with it.

The only thing I can say with certainty about this class is that I have NO idea what the schnitzel I was supposed to get out of it. I've never been in a class like that before. Ever. Grammar school, secondary school, three undergraduate universities, community college, and seminary.... not a problem. UMD LBSC 670? We joke about "it might as well be in Greek," but I have a classmate who has her Master AND Ph.D in Classical Studies and who is fluent in Greek and Latin and who has published half a dozen academic books, and who started crying in the classroom because of 670. She said it was the only class she'd ever taken that made her feel unintelligent. I understand that.

I don't like getting B's (though in grad school, it's not as bad), but I especially don't like paying good, serious money for a class where I learn nothing. How could I not have learned anything? I'm not a total idiot after all.

I'm just glad it's over.

Final exam

It took me about 2:35 to complete it. Our class runs for 2:45. I was feeling pretty good about it, until I took it upstairs to the professor, and his first comment to me was, "You finished already?"

Apparently, some people from the first class took nearly four hours to finish.

Oh, and my Shakespeare concept map? Totally wrong, and not what he was looking for, even though I did exactly what I said I would do in my purpose statement, WHICH HE APPROVED. He gave me a B+ on it, which I guess translates to a D+ in non-grad school grades. I have to have a B- or better, and he assured me I wouldn't fail the course when he gave me the option of changing my paper. If I don't get an A on the final (ha, right), I can change the paper, but it won't be between failing and passing, merely between an A or B.

Stanley Cup

I don't have a tv, but I can still watch them, thanks to some lovely soul somewhere in Canada who hooked up his/her tv to the internet.

www.ustream.tv

Most brilliant thing ever.

And...

Congrats to Rachel Alexandra, the first filly to win the Preakness since the early 20's.

Speaking of the Preakness, I got caught in Preakness traffic on the way up.

Star Trek

I went to see Star Trek today in IMAX. I haven't been to a movie in about a year, and never to a Hollywood IMAX, so I figured this was a good one to see.

Oh, was it ever.

The premise of this movie is so freaking genius. I would never have thought of doing this for a Star Trek movie. J. J. Abrams is brilliant.

Also, IMAX movie trailers: Night at the Museum 3, Transformers (I haven't seen any of the prior ones, so I don't really care, but it looked pretty cool), and Harry Potter. HBP trailer in IMAX? Unbelievable. I wish Jane were here to see it. It was her favorite of the seven. The movie, however, will be in 3D, so I'll go to the regular theatre to see it.

It shouldn't surprise me anymore...

But this time, it did. The Brett Favre saga, that is.

Brett, I love you, and if you could come back and win a SuperBowl, it would be worth it. But if you came back and lost at Lambeau, it would be crushing.

Only in Maine....

500 lb. moose falls out of the sky.

Well, that was quick.

My Information Technology professor has our final grades in (we only presented our final projects yesterday in class). My grade:

99.17%

I received a 54/55 over the course of the semester. Pretty freaking good for a woman who, in January, wouldn't have known what HTML/CSS/Javascript was if it had hit her in the head.

Awww....

I can't sing on key to save my life, but every time I sing, James Potter comes over and jumps up in my lap and purrs. I guess he's tone deaf, too.

Woo-hoo!!!!

I just emailed my final exam to my professor! He also just posted a link to a digital preservation cartoon, which is so freaking hilarious, and pretty much sums up our entire class in three minutes and nineteen seconds. I love Digi-Man's cape.

Random fact of the day...

The world churns out enough digital material every fifteen minutes to fill the Library of Congress.

Finals...

I continue to work on my digital preservation final, and hope that I sound at least somewhat intelligent.

Ask and ye shall receive

So last night when I really wanted ice cream? My friend upstairs randomly calls and says, "Let's go to Target tonight!" Whereupon I purchased a supply of Skinny Cow, the BEST ice cream sandwiches in the world.

With 90* weather and no air conditioning, it was heavenly.

White clover

Probably my most favorite scent is that of white clover. On my way back from church this morning, I picked some from the parking lot and brought it home. I was going to spend the afternoon breathing in its scent, but James and Lily have commandeered them and eaten the stems. So now I have decapitated white clover all over the house. Why they didn't want to eat the flowers, I don't know, because they certainly spent a great deal of time smelling them. And clover is pretty tasty.

Happy Mother's Day

to all the mothers out there.

Done working for the day

I'm about halfway through my final exam. I still have two essay questions to answer about the standards in digital preservation and about the threats I see to digital preservation. I might tackle the last one later tonight, as it's an opinion essay and I may not have to do as much digging into the literature as with the other, but for now, I want to eat dinner and watch something.

One more thing.

I really, really want some ice cream.