Huh, damn, it’s nearly midnight. I’d meant to write about the weekend (summed up in one word: AWESOME) but I’ve been at home all day with an ugly headache, so I’ll just take it easy today and will hopefully find some time tomorrow to inform you of everything that happened this weekend.
But right now, sleep is in order. Mmm, sleep.
Originally published at retstak.org. You can comment here or there.
on my way from san francisco and the night of writing dangerously. Testing my mobile blogging interface. It works well. And I made fifty thousand words tonight. Yay!
Originally published at retstak.org. You can comment here or there.
So Berkeley professors have been besieged by protests and spurious fire alarms this week as people protest about their fees going up (again). I don’t want to talk about the California budget situation right now, because it just makes me angry and — well, that’s no fun.
So instead, here’s a picture of one of our intrepid Cal professors finishing his lecture outside, using one of the exterior walls of a campus building as his chalkboard.
Your mission, should you choose to accept it, is to caption this photo.
Originally published at retstak.org. You can comment here or there.
Today will be the 112th replaying of the Big Game. I’m hoping for an Axe for my birthday, but Cal has a 4-7-1 record against Stanford on November 21, and Stanford’s won the last three on that day. Also, Stanford’s in the Rose Bowl hunt, and all Cal can do is play spoiler. I can only hope it’s enough.
The last time I wanted an Axe for my birthday, Stanford won 10-3 when I was sure Cal would win that game. I’ve cried at very few football games, but I distinctly remember crying at that one. I’m attempting to temper my expectations this time — Stanford will probably win, but that won’t stop me from rooting for my Bears and hoping for the upset.
Anyway, for those of you who made it through my Big Game neepery, today is indeed the completion of my thirty-first rotation around the sun. In the common parlance, we call this a “birthday” and this year, it shall be prime. (Remember, we number completions when they’ve finished!)
There was cake at the office yesterday, there will be cake at a party tonight, and then Sunday is the Night of Writing Dangerously, which is what I wanted to do for my birthday when I realized Big Game was out.
And if I’ve worked it out right, this will post at precisely the time I was born.
Have an excellent day, everybody.
photo by Jessica N. Diamond on flickr
Originally published at retstak.org. You can comment here or there.
So, how are you all doing? Anything exciting?
Anything you want to hear about?
Anyone? Anyone? Bueller?
Originally published at retstak.org. You can comment here or there.
Q: How many members of the U.S.S. Enterprise does it take to change a light bulb?
A: Seven. Scotty has to report to Captain Kirk that the light bulb inthe Engineering Section is getting dim, at which point Kirk will send Bones to pronounce the bulb dead (although he'll immediately claim that he's a doctor, not an electrician). Scotty, after checking around, realizes that they have no more new light bulbs, and complains that he "canna" see in the dark. Kirk will make an emergency stop at the next uncharted planet, Alpha Regula IV, to procure a light bulb from the natives, who, are friendly, but seem to be hiding something. Kirk, Spock, Bones, Yeoman Rand and two red shirt security officers beam down to the planet, where the two security officers are promptly killed by the natives, and the rest of the landing party is captured. As something begins to develop between the Captain and Yeoman Rand, Scotty, back in orbit, is attacked by a Klingon destroyer and must warp out of orbit. Although badly outgunned, he cripples the Klingon and races back to the planet in order to rescue Kirk et. al. who have just saved the natives' from an awful fate and, as a reward, been given all light bulbs they can carry. The new bulb is then inserted and the Enterprise continues on its five year mission.
Originally published at retstak.org. You can comment here or there.
The Bears last week against Arizona. Photo credit Monica’s Dad on flickr // CC BY 2.0
There was a point in time where Tedford seriously considered bolting for another job. Those opportunities came early during the Tedford era, fresh off of Cal’s most impressive season to date in 2004. However, one of the main reasons why a lot of Old and Young Blues alike have an adoring respect for Tedford has been because of the coach’s loyalty to the program and his desire to not only win, but win at Cal.
So it turns out that Saturday will be Coach Tedford’s 100th game. This is a nice article about the change Tedford’s made at Cal — not only in terms of making the football program a winner, but for his part in turning boys into men.
My undergraduate career at Cal was the football seasons from 1996 to 1999. In those four seasons, Cal went a depressing 18-27. We made it to one bowl my freshman year (which we lost to Navy), we never won the Big Game, and we were pretty much the conference doormat. We also cheated, and rightfully got slapped for it, but it’s not like we could even cheat right — the point of cheating is to win, no?
Anyway, the highlights, which were few, were beating Oklahoma twice (although those OK teams weren’t very good) and taking three of four from USC — but they weren’t very good at the time either. Then, it culminated in the disaster of 2001, where my beloved Bears went 1-10. Okay, I admit, by the end of it, I was idly rooting for a “perfect” season, but we managed a win in the last game of the season, a postponed-by-9/11 game with Rutgers in New Jersey. I still maintain that if we’d played Rutgers when scheduled, we’d have won that game and gained the confidence to take a couple over the course of the year, but I can’t prove it, and if it had worked out that way, then it might not have lead to something good.
The good, in this case, was the fact that we managed to convince the offensive coordinator from an Oregon Ducks team that really should have played in the National Championship that year to come to Cal and be our head coach — a dude named Jeff Tedford.
Tedford said that from the beginning, he wanted to change the football culture at Cal. And when, that first season, my first year as a grad student at Cal, I was in the stadium to watch Cal completely blow the Baylor Bears out of the water 70-22, and when the first Cal play from scrimmage went for a touchdown, I began to believe again. When we went 7-5 with the same players that had gone 1-10 the year before, and would have gone to a bowl if it wasn’t for the aforementioned cheating, things got a bit better. Of course, the greatest thing was finally seeing a Big Game victory — the first Big Game victory for Cal since I was a junior in high school.
Being a Cal fan’s a hard thing. My Bears are pretty much the Chicago Cubs of college football. The last time we went to a Rose Bowl was in 1959, and Cal fans start every year with the high hopes that this will be the year in which we go to the fabled promised land of Pasadena, California for New Year’s Day. And year after year, the hopes turn frail and bitter as the Bears inevitably find ways to lose games they shouldn’t, or have the unfortunate luck to get good just as USC is putting together a dynasty for the ages.
This season’s been a really disappointing one — we thought we finally had all the tools into place to beat USC and take the Rose Bowl. Well, USC won’t be going this year, but Cal isn’t in position to take advantage of it. About the best we can do is play spoiler to Stanford’s Rose Bowl dreams, and, well, that ain’t looking overly good. (Did you see what Stanford did to Oregon and USC? Wow!)
But get rid of Tedford? Are you kidding me? He’s 66-33 overall. That’s a pretty good winning percentage — and he’s done it at Cal, where the institutional support is always going to be somewhat lacking. Sure, we haven’t made it to the Rose Bowl yet, but on the other hand, I actually believe that we will go someday. And we’ll go with Tedford as our coach.
I mean, I finally actually got to touch the Axe, right? I gotta believe.
Rally members who graduated from Cal without seeing a Big Game win finally get to hold the Axe for the first time. Note the huge smile on my face — I’m the one in the blue and gold rugby and Cal hat
Originally published at retstak.org. You can comment here or there.
If I can manage to write 4000 words/day for the next three days, it’s entirely possible I’ll hit the 50k Sunday night. Since nobody’s entered the betting pool, I suppose that will have to do.
(Besides, I don’t think I’m going to write 4k a day for the next three days. I have a ton and a half of other crap to do and no time to do it in.)
Other than that, slow day, which I needed, considering it’s pedal to the metal all the way to Thanksgiving.
And that’s about it.
Anyone? Anyone? Bueller?
Originally published at retstak.org. You can comment here or there.
I’m sitting here at the computer trying to figure out something to tell you all. I figure I ought to post in the middle of the day because it might get more comments, but that’ll be for another time. Tonight, it nears midnight, and I have a deadline.
The biggest thing I want to talk about, I’ve promised somebody I would wait until the right time, and the right time is not now. It will take patience, and some waiting. Waiting is.
Got my H1N1 flu shot today. One less worry. Also dropped a class. Also, one less worry.
Things have gotten a bit better since the implosion that was earlier this month, but I still get shaky every time I look at my precarious financial situation. I guess I ought to be happy I have a job, even if it’s only part-time and doesn’t pay overly well. But it’s hard to reconcile that with sitting down with budget numbers and wondering just where you’re going to come up with spare money for things like regular maintenance of the car and clothing and replacing the laptop and saving to move out. Add in the really stupid mistake, and yeah…it’s no wonder I end up in a minor panic when I look at my finances.
I mean, don’t get me wrong, I’m thankful that I have enough of a job to mostly afford my bills and wonderful and outstanding parents, but … as the clock ticks down to the thirty-first rotation around the sun, I can’t help but think that it wasn’t supposed to be this way.
Originally published at retstak.org. You can comment here or there.
After I finish this, I’m going to go write about a paragraph or so into the novel file so that it isn’t a true zero day, but it’s as close to zero as I’m going to get. I’m about six days ahead of the game, and I figure if I put in a superhuman effort, I may be across the 50k boundary by the end of next weekend. It’s just a guess, though, and things could change. The betting pool is still open. ;)
That said, I’ve managed to raise the $200 I need to go to the Night of Writing Dangerously, and my thanks go out to everybody who contributed. As soon as my next paycheck drops, I’ll buy thank you cards that I can write in and begin the task of writing thank you cards to everybody who donated to the cause. I’ll probably make a blog post about it too.
Other than that, things go as expected. I have a post in mind for Thursday that I should probably start writing now, because I can’t type it up in ten minutes. Got another post sitting on the back burner half-typed. Got a few suggestions, too, and I might go with some of those. Could use more suggestions too. If you’ve got any, feel free to throw them at me.
And that will do it for tonight. Back tomorrow, hopefully.
Originally published at retstak.org. You can comment here or there.
I finished my 11k challenge for the weekend, and now have somewhere just north of 35,000 words. I’m shooting to hit 50 next Sunday night, but I’m not entirely sure 15k in 7 days is entirely realistic. So we’ll leave that alone other than to open the betting pool for when I’m going to hit 50,000 words.
In the challenge to write a blog post every day, I’m on track (other than moving the one I posted to LJ over to the blog because my server was down for maintenance). The problem is that my life is boring and I’m stuck for things to write about.
So hey, if you’re reading this, say hey and give me some ideas for what you want to hear me say. I need help here.
But the news is, despite a bit of a rough start, the month’s on task. Now to just see if I can get some focus on my GIS project.
Originally published at retstak.org. You can comment here or there.
It was a pretty good day, but I’m going to eschew blogging for the sake of increasing wordcount.
But today was good because:
* I crossed the 30,000 word mark
* Cal won, which is always good
* I had lots of good times with people who are pretty awesome.
Worrying:
* Stanford curbstomped USC today, to match their curbstomping of Oregon last week. Next up for Cal? Stanford. Yeah, not expecting an Axe for my birthday this year…
Count stands currently at 31,403 — hoping for another thousand before midnight.
Originally published at retstak.org. You can comment here or there.
Random thoughts from ye olde brain of mine:
* The stoplight question from a few days ago? The reason it came up was that I was reading a fascinating book about traffic and automobiles, and in a discussion about relative corruption levels and traffic laws obeyed, he brought up that point — that even at 2 AM, when the roads are deserted and you’d have just about the perfect opportunity to get away with running the red, you still stop. Stopping at red lights is that powerfully engraved in your psyche. Of course, he points out, the same can’t be said about speed limits. ;)
Anyway, fascinating question, and that’s why I thought I’d bring it up. My thanks to ![[info]](http://stat.livejournal.com/img/userinfo.gif){kind=small}
glinda_w,lirazel, and melchar for engaging me with it.
* I crossed the halfway point tonight. I’ll update the graph later, and then open the betting pool for when I’m going to cross the 50k mark. ;) Sadly, there will be no prize other than our happy recognition and cheers for being the closest.
* Had a bit of a meltdown at work; talked with one of my coworkers; she gave me some really good thoughts. Yah, I think the rest of this year is going to be getting myself aligned and ready to hit the ground running in 2010. And yeah, I’ll be looking just about everywhere I can.
* Came across a bumper sticker on the drive home tonight that read, “It’s time for America to bless God!” You know, the funny thing is, I thought it worked the other way around…
* If Paypal will hurry it up, I’ll be going to the Bay Area for the Night of Writing Dangerously, as the last bit I need is coming across that way. My thanks to everybody that helped. There will be a longer post about this in the next few days, once things are confirmed.
* And that’s about it.
Thoughts?
PS: Google Chrome DOES NOT play nice with Wordpress. It just kinda ignores it when you hit the publish button…
Originally published at retstak.org. You can comment here or there.
So, y’know how I’ve been asking y’all for money? I’m down to needing to come up with ~$20. This is because I have a set of awesome friends.
I’m going to write (by hand, mind you) thank you cards to everybody that’s supported me once things have calmed down a bit and I know who I need to write them for. And yeah, given the ugly mood I started November in, this is just that more awesome.
So yeah, after the rocky start, November’s gotten a lot better, if for no other reason than I’m reminded I ain’t alone out here. Not that they needed to say it, but sometimes my head gets strange. :) And so this is just a shoutout to all my awesome friends. :)
Originally published at retstak.org. You can comment here or there.
Yeah, that’s *my* mint farm! (Or it might just be an anagram for my first and last names.)
Anyway, I need eight more donations of ten dollars each to get to The Night of Writing Dangerously, thanks to a few awesome friends. Can you help by donating?
Also, since a picture’s worth a thousand words, here’s my wordcount per day for this year’s NaNoWriMo excitement:
The blue line is my wordcount per day, the red line is the rolling average. Yeah, it’s very choppy. But I’m writing! I just passed 22k! I keep trucking!
Originally published at retstak.org. You can comment here or there.
First of all, and I know this is becoming annoying, please donate to help send me to The Night of Writing Dangerously. I just need 15 more people to donate $10 each, and the clock is starting to tick down. (I have to make it to the goal by Nov. 18!) This is what I’d like for my birthday, so if you can spare a bit, I’d appreciate it.
That said, I’m taking a zero day today. There’s a strange concept at work these days called work, and so I’ve been doing that. And then there was school. At least it’s the class I like, so there’s a good thing.
I’m feeling a bit better tonight, although I suspect the chronic low-level depression won’t go away until I address some of the structural problems underlying some of it. This is harder than it looks.
And with that said, I’ve got an interesting question for you to chew on. It’s two AM, and you’re driving a lonely highway. As you approach a red light, you can clearly see that there’s nobody around at all.
So why do you stop?
Just a thought.
Originally published at retstak.org. You can comment here or there.
I swear, Mondays account for 53 and three-quarters percent of all my extensional crises. This was another bad Monday.
Anyway, to explain my topic, it comes from the children’s book Alexander and the Terrible Horrible No Good Very Bad Day, in which the main character contemplates several times about moving to Australia. I’ve thought about it too, and so really shaky days are Alexander days. And today was just one of those days.
Part of it was triggered by getting money out of my bank account to pay for gas, and realizing I have ten dollars to get me through a week and a half after the gas was accounted for. That wasn’t happymaking at all. Of course, this is a common lament these days not just for me but for everybody. It means, at least for me, that once NaNoWriMo is over, I need to just start throwing resumes at anything that comes up that might even remotely have anything to do with what I do, even if it means relocating to a far away city. I’ve given up hope that the company I currently work for will offer me a full time job at all, and I’m just barely making it on what they pay me.
Of course, the long term cure for some of my big issues is to move out from my parents’ house, so I don’t have to justify half the stuff I do them. But that’s neither here nor there, and frankly, I’m just barely scraping by with the bills I have, and if I save anything, Social Security will crack down — they already have, which makes a tenuous situation that much worse. (It also makes it impossible for me to take on other part-time work to try and get a bit of spare change — health care. But I’ve been over that rant before.)
And then to top it off, Monday night is the night of my SQL class. Now, generally, computer classes don’t bug me, but this one for some reason does. And I think I figured it out. Not only do I shut down when faced with instructors I can’t stand, this guy’s teaching style and I don’t match well. He provides notes, but the notes aren’t helpful if you have trouble paying attention in lectures. And that’s how I learn — by seeing, and by doing. And well, really, we haven’t done much. So it puts me in a jam about studying for quizzes and tests. I think I’ve studied well enough and I get blown out of the water.
On today’s quiz, I guessed like heck and then spent the rest of the time doodling xkcd-esque stick figures all over my exam. When I handed it in, I offered a strange smile to the prof. Dunno what he’ll make of it.
Anyway, tomorrow’s gonna be a working day, so I’m trying to get some rest.
NaNo count holding steady at a bit over 18.5, but Monday and Tuesday != good writing days.
Originally published at retstak.org. You can comment here or there.
I need to go back and add yesterday’s server-maintenance delayed post, but it will be up. Meanwhile, today, I’m giving you an excerpt from my novel-in-progress.
Help me get to the Night of Writing Dangerously! I only need about 16 more people to throw $10 at the pot!
Anyway, this is told from the point of view of a reporter character who is doing a series on a Congressman and would-be presidential candidate, and in this bit, goes to interview the Congressman’s son.
( Meet Joey Breen )
Originally published at retstak.org. You can comment here or there.
Another post just to have something up. I promise you all that I’ll try to write you a longer one tomorrow — well, after I do some other things I’ve been slacking on.
I’m feeling a little better emotionally, but I’ve got a bit of a cold, so my head hasn’t completely been in the game. I still remain two days ahead of where I need to be in NaNoWriMo land, so that’s good.
Yeah. And I’ll name a character after you if you donate some scratch here. C’mon, please?
[PS: Take a wild guess who forgot to change the timezone on her blog back after the timechange last weekend? Am going through and fixing all my November posts now.]
Originally published at retstak.org. You can comment here or there.