This post is manually crossposted because the Livejournal Crossposter has decided to stop working. It's really irritating me. Anyways. I originally posted this on the actual Thursday on Wordpress.

This week I decided to hit the books. This is something that will undoubtedly happen again as the weeks wear on and I find myself desperate for things to get rid of. In this particular case, if you don't know, I've been in a book club for 8 years now in which we read about ten books a year. Since I started the whole book club thing, I have felt obligated to maintain the physical artifacts of our legacy of reading.

Well, that ends now.

Some of the books I outright hated. Some of the books I just didn't like enough to finish. I wasn't able to bring myself to get rid of the ones that I liked but won't ever read again... maybe later this year when I'm better at non-attachment. The infamous Patricia Cornwell "worst book we ever read" Portrait of a Killer goes! V.S. Naipaul, who I thought was a dick even before I read his shitty book, goes! The high-school lit classic The Catcher in the Rye? Hated it. Past that it gets less vitriolic, but their presence in my house does not stand up to scrutiny.

So if you see anything in that stack you want, let me know. I think I may try to become an amazon seller for the remaining books. Can anyone tell me about their experiences using amazon to sell books? Anyone have a better idea? Is it worth the hassle?

I also need advice on taking 360° photos of a room. I want to take before and after pictures of our office for a total overhaul, but it's a really cramped space and I am not sure how to do it - do I need a fisheye lens filter? Do I simply need to use photo stitching?

Phew. I have been reading and reading after the giant freakout the Valleywag post created! (I suppose technically the layoffs are the source of the reason to freak out, but the sensational tone of the post did not help.) I can't see LJ at work any more, as you know, so I had to wait until now.

Here are some really, really informative links:

List of specific layoffs and collection of official and unofficial links.

Press release on livejournalinc.com.

Hopefully most of you have seen this stuff already and have put the Tums back in the medicine cabinet, or were blissfully ignorant.

Having got that out there, I just want to say that I do not think you can get the comment functionality and security level customization you can get on LJ elsewhere. I would still encourage new users to sign up for LJ today, even though I now maintain a Wordpress blog (that almost no one visits because hello, everyone's on LJ) (to those who do visit: THANK YOU!) and just crosspost. LJ was a pioneer from the beginning and still has a feature set that rocks socks. So, you know, back stuff up, experiment with other stuff, but don't like, leave.

I love my google feed reader but my friends list is like a daily stroll through the neighborhood.

We still don't have a permanent professor. It's been 3 class sessions with either no teacher or a sub, and 3 class sessions with no lecture to speak of; maybe I'd call it 4 since one of the subs was a little lost. This is pretty tough for me, feeling a little rudderless in a difficult class, but for people who were just trying not to fail it's somewhat devastating.

Full disclosure: I got an 88 on the lecture exam (I got the exact set of questions wrong which I had marked on the side of my scantron sheet that I would get wrong - there's a lesson in that somewhere.) and an 81 on the lab practical. Most of my class feels this is stellar and grew up in a world of curves or wonders why that is disappointing when they all got something in the 40-60 range. I, on the other hand, find this totally unacceptable, particularly after studying my butt off. So I'd like to talk to my professor about what I can do better next time. Only I don't have one.

I'm not that worried about it apart from the fact that since vacation it's been hard to rein in my attention span and focus on the textbook. But my problems aren't quite as rough as those of my favorite study buddy (not the aryan study group leader I've told some of you about - she dropped the class) who is coping with other stuff outside of class and is playing catch-up on any and all math skills. I really want to help her succeed. Which is where you guys come in.

I'm trying to sort out some ways to help with her test anxiety. I sure have some test anxiety of my own, but I think my friend's may go beyond and are limiting her ability to get things she knows translated out onto the test. I've studied with her; I've quizzed her and asked her questions and made her explain stuff back to me. I know she does know or has the ability to know. But her test grades are not reflecting that. And from what she's been saying, it's because she gets into the test and freaks out and decides she doesn't know anything. I told her about my experiences with automatic thoughts and we tried to tease out the direction her mind goes when she gets into the test situation, but I'm by no means a professional.

So does anyone out there have experience with test anxiety and some ways to overcome it? Maybe I could set up some real test taking situations and she and I could self-test together and grade each other or something. I really want to help but I'm not sure how.

So that's current school. I've also been thinking a great deal about future school, and trying not to limit myself. I am still following my original plan with a target entry to HCCC for the abbreviated Associate's in 2010. But in the meantime I am looking around at other programs all over the country to see what the course offerings are and who offers what kind of RN to BSN or RN to MSN, what kind of specialties, etc. In my groping and stumbling (there are so many ways your nursing career and education can go. it's kind of ridiculous.) I discovered a bunch of pages about forensic nursing. And I got really excited. There seem to be two schools of thought:

1. "Don't get excited, Forensic Nursing isn't all about CSI and cool dead bodies."
and
2. "People think Forensic Nursing is boring, but just think! You could help solve crimes!"

I intend to look into this more thoroughly because apart from my desire to someday specialize in psych nursing this kind of piqued my interest. In the meantime I've been adding every nurse blog I can find to google reader (which I just started using - and almost demands a whole other post!) in the hopes of getting as diverse a set of public internet opinions on the field as I can.

This is totally appropriate. (Well, not the spiritual part.) (And I don't get what they mean by being open to new aesthetic experiences.)

Your result for What Your Taste in Art Says About You Test...

Conscientious, Fulfilled, and Spiritual

32 Renaissance, 21 Islamic, 15 Ukiyo-e, -28 Cubist, -39 Abstract and -4 Impressionist!

( Read more... )

Hello!

Are any of my knitting friends taking custom orders/willing to do a commission thing/needing extra cash?

This is something I'd want within the next month, and probably hella easy. I was looking at Etsy but why not help out a friend while being a consumer?

You know the drill... who's playing, what server, etc. This is my mid-semester present to myself. Probably foolish but evilhat got me wound up about it.

copied from chiba

* Put your music player on random.
* Post the first line from the first 32 songs that play, no matter how embarrassing the song.
* Let everyone guess what song and artist the lines come from.
* Bold the songs when someone guesses correctly.
* Looking them up on Google or any other search engine is CHEATING!


(Hilariously the first song that came up was "Exotique Bossa Nova" by Martin Denny & orch, which has no words.)

1. Don't you ever / feel sad / lean on me / when times are bad
2. Good morning gentlemen / why the uneasy frowns? maroonmd
3. I know I make mistakes / I will have to live and learn
4. Like the rain on the leaves / like the fields after rain / like the longing that wakens the trees
5. Bjartar Vonir Rætast / Er Viô Göngum Bæinn
6. The possible dream / finale of seem railwaymadness
7. May the lord protect and defend you / may he always shield you from shame salami_salome
[Two songs in a row with no discernable lyrics... Humming the Bassline from that graffiti game, and Breakfast at Denny's by Combustible Edison.]
8. I don't want us to have a fight, but in the background I can hear you chattin' shite carneggy
[Another instr - drum duet with Phil Collins & Chester Thompson]
9. I'm not the wreck of the Hesperus / feel more like the wall of china
10. Well you've got your diamonds / and you've got your pretty clothes daisydumont
11. I walk alone most every night / beneath the stars that shine so bright
12. I'm stupid / I'm smarting / I'm stupid / I'm smarting maroonmd
13. Past the cheerless towns / past my window / I can see a washed out moon / through the fog
14. Young, dumb, don't see a problem / Bloodshot, stare like a hoodlum maroonmd
15. So well I know who's happy / Too well I know who's happy
16. Newspaper face / against the ground / phantom buss pass / through violet town
17. sit at my table / and wage war on myself / it seems like it's all, it's all for nothing railwaymadness
18. There are pyramids in my head / there's one underneath my bed / and my lady's getting cranky
19. You've gone too far this time / But I'm dancing on the valentine msteleute
20. Once your mind's been sickened / you'll scratch for your life
21. In Newry Town I was bred and born / In Steven's Green now I'll die in scorn
22. On the first and final day / lonely Sheba hides away
23. When I was just a lad of ten / my father said to me daisydumont/carneggy
24. Put on my blue suede shoes / and I boarded the plane judithiscariot
25. A river a mountain to be crossed / The sunshine in mountains sometimes lost
26. Here comes Dick, he's wearing a skirt sharkycharming
27. Magistrates dream of Plague / Tongues loll in anticipation
28. In Europe and America there's a growing feeling of hysteria salami_salome
29. Public Warning Who's in town / Public Warning All bow down salami_salome
30. It was only one hour ago / It was all so different then jfboyd
31. On a hot summer night, would you offer your throat to the wolf with the red roses? peregrin8/carneggy
32. A bunch of lonesome and very quarrelsome heroes / were smoking out along the open road maroonmd

Good luck, some are gimmes, some are... not?

Poll #1259929 Glasses Poll
Open to: All, detailed results viewable to: All, participants: 52

If I had to replace my glasses frames, what kind should I get?

oh my god, who can DVR the old 120 minutes on VH1 classic for me? I had no idea they had this.

I just heard about this on the Crowded House fan list.

This was such a big part of my musical education!

I am tempted to call the cable company and upgrade to that package immediately.

Girls rock camp is in the WaPo and the Examiner! I cannot believe it's the last day.

I am at home. But really only temporarily; Last night I definitely dreamed about rock camp. I can only imagine what the main organizers are going through.

I was going to talk about some of the experience and about why I appear to have semi-randomly started up a new blog outside of LJ but I can't think. I used it up.

I am guessing there also is not going to be a whole mess of me reading LJ or email this week, so, um, patience?

Buh.

Oh, but I do feel extra-alive. Yeah. It's good.

edit: PLEASE COME SEE THE SHOWCASE! SATURDAY! 9:30 CLUB AT 11AM!

Since I finished re-reading Watchmen last night, I was wondering if I could get you all interested in some cheap internet punditry.

What are you worried the movie will get wrong? What is the most beloved aspect of it for you?

And in case it wasn't obvious, the thread will be for people who have read it and therefore be spoilers up one side and down the other. (I mean, unless everyone is too busy for armchair movie critiquing this morning.)

edit I ask this because my friends list has been peppered with posts that are, essentially "please don't screw this up".

I don't beg (too) often for people to come to things, but this time I really mean it! Come out and support the first class of Girls Rock Camp in DC! August 16th at the 9:30 club. I will be coaching one of these bands on to success so come out and cheer for them and give them encouragement!



OH YEAH I should post the direct link.

I had quite an emotional rollercoaster all the way through the weekend... fortunately I am pretty sure I can attribute at least some of it to the ol' feminine business. I couldn't figure out why I was so hateful and cranky towards the end of last week... well, now I know at least in part.

My 33rd birthday came and went, I had a little dinner with some friends - I wanted to include more of my wonderful, giving, terrific friends, but it wasn't going to work out. Things had to scale down this year due to stress. Tapas was lovely and I was grateful for getting to have a night off from studying and stressing. Thank you to everyone who sent me well wishes - they got me through an irrationally tough week.

Thursday night I ran around packing - you'd think for a 2 day trip this would be quite simple, but then you're not me. I was worked into quite the froth. It doesn't help that right now deadlines at work are looming, and my final exam hadn't been taken. (It has as of this morning, and I am pretty sure I did just fine.)

Friday after work we were free!! tzel allowed me to run the stereo and the weather was lovely and despite a touch of traffic, we made good time. There had been a request for Shoney's, as the nearest is out there by I-81. Fortunately for me they were having a seafood buffet. After that it was a short hop to the West Virginia line and the town of Berkeley Springs. The weekend was full of laziness, hot-tubbing, walks about town, reading, and more hot-tubbing. For a girls' weekend the topics ranged far and wide (not that I expect girls to only talk about shoes!), although I think the farthest and widest was a historical lesson on sharecropping... yeah, I still can't get over that. (And I don't think I talked about shoes more than one time.) Of course, I took a few pictures...



Of course you should probably check out the whole set with notations here.

Now I have THREE, count 'em, THREE weeks of no homework or studying. I hope to finish some or all of the ten books I'm in the middle of reading... I am so fricking relieved to be done with that online class. You'll hear more from me later as it's 1 week to rock camp and that means I'll be plugging the showcase.

more cat pictures

Name me at least one thing that everyone seems to really like that you just can't get into.

Name me at least TWO things that you enjoy which are not enjoyed or maybe not known by many other people with whom you fraternize.

I have started off the week on the wrong foot, what with waking up at 5am from a dream where I slept in til 3pm and missed all my meetings and got chewed out. It felt very real and I was in a mild panic for a few minutes... but fortunately was able to go back to sleep.

Last Thursday we assembled a ragtag crew for a crab leg night; Captain Jerry's is under new management (although we can't remember if it was last time we went) but the crab legs taste as sweet. Service there is always spotty but you can always get a table, so I am not complaining. eedge and her family just moved back north and I am glad we could do a little socializin'. I also found another cheap beer to add to my list of beloved cheap beers; bud light lime. It's definitely the kind of beer I can put a 6-pack of in anyone's fridge and expect it to still be there when I return.

meercat and I managed another tennis date on Friday, and this one was a doozy. We were out there for 1.5 hours, with a little break, but my wrist didn't hurt much afterwards and I maintained energy! Her intrepid coworker who can actually *play* tennis came out for a bit and hit the ball at us, doling out many compliments! I wonder, are any of you guys out there in internet-land also interested in playing tennis? I would like to play more, or there might be times when Jen can't go and it might be nice to still play! I am kind of doubting I could talk Jack into it.

Saturday my big plans were to see the batman movie and maybe level up one or another of my WoW characters. Done and done: ( batman stuff behind cut ) After the flick I dragged Jack through the LLBean and the rest of the mall. Didn't buy much since the birthday is coming up and you never know. We polished off the evening with Sushi King and then herded our slowpoke mains to level 69. We may have level 70s before they raise the stupid cap again!

Harvest Moon DS makes me feel like a moron, by the way. Tiny children can play this game, and I'm still wondering if my turnips will ever grow and where I can get more seeds. And then I read online that you have to like, raise the entire town's friendship factors? This game is too open-ended for me. But, see, I promised Jack I would stop playing Jewel Quest because he thinks it is rotting my brain.

drivingblind re-kick-started his tabletop game, from which we have had a 3 month break, in medias res. It never ceases to amaze me the wit and wisdom of rob_donoghue who, frankly, is the brains of any operation. Do you have an operation? Does it need brains? Talk to that man. We cracked wise a bunch, but by the end of the session Things Got Serious. We will have to wait a month to find out what happens! I proved that no matter what kind of game mechanic you give me, I will fail to understand it in some critical way. This week it was XP spending.

When I got home I forced myself to hunker down and finish off the last of my rote crap work for my class. Now it's just the final exam & rewriting my paper. The prof hasn't given me her comments so that last part will be a challenge. Grr.

As a reward for that (I did not deserve a reward for that, it is just what I needed to do!) I bought myself a new domain name, which I may or may not turn into an independent blog, inspired by my good friend Genie. I also may have screwed up by getting the username on LJ when I probably should have just renamed this one. I am a little hesitant to let go of snidegrrl, is all. I did fix it so that snidegrrl.com and .org forward here, at least.

Who here has been to the Lebanese Taverna?

If you have, have you had their garlic sauce?

If you have had their garlic sauce, do you have any idea how they make it?

Because I need to mainline it into my face.