The end of a very crazy week. It's 4am, and I really should be in bed. The promised update will have to wait for the weekend.
It you have a moment, though, check out this Wes Clark ad for Rock the Vote. The end is pretty funny.
And if you've become an election junkie like me, you'll want to peruse the American Research Group website.
Current mood: Optimistic. And very sleepy.
Current songs: Chance Thomas, "Silmarian Meanderings" and Alessandro Scarlatti, "O magnum mysterium." No, I don't expect anyone else to have heard those before... :-)
Saturday, January 31, 2004
Friday, January 30, 2004
Monday, January 26, 2004
Sunday, January 25, 2004
I really wish I could have made it up to NH this weekend, especially since there isn't much to do around here this weekend. Yes, I need to get healthy, catch up on sleep, clean my room, prepare for classes, do some reading, and apply for jobs...but I don't feel like doing any of those right now (except for the sleep part). And, yes, the conference next week will be a huge opportunity for networking and possible job contacts.
Anyway. Today was another recovery day -- sleeping, eating, and cleaning. Tomorrow I'm going to start back into the student routine -- do some reading for biostatistics, finish a problem set, and apply for a few jobs. Or so I hope. I'm starting to remember the craziness of last term and recognize the many things that I have to do in the next few weeks. It's not overwhelming yet, but I expect the job search to dominate much of my time this quarter, and job searches are never easy. I'll keep my fingers crossed.
In other non-exciting news, I think I've finally found a way to block the cold drafts of air that keep my room so cold. You see, I have an air conditioner unit in one of my windows, and since the seal with the window isn't perfect, my room is often cold. After a few attempts, I think I've found a combination of platic wrap, plastic bags, cardboard, and duct tape that will block the air. I'll know tomorrow...when it's really cold outside, I usually wake up in the morning and find that my room has dropped 10-15 degrees overnight. (shudder) It's not pleasant.
I think I'm going to end up taking an elective this term, which means that my formerly class-free Wednesdays will now have a class, although supposedly it's not especially challening. I still have Mondays free, which helps a lot. :-)
Current Mood: Contemplative, a little anxious, not quite nostalgic.
Current Songs: Enya, "Day Without Rain" & Evanescence, "Anywhere"
Anyway. Today was another recovery day -- sleeping, eating, and cleaning. Tomorrow I'm going to start back into the student routine -- do some reading for biostatistics, finish a problem set, and apply for a few jobs. Or so I hope. I'm starting to remember the craziness of last term and recognize the many things that I have to do in the next few weeks. It's not overwhelming yet, but I expect the job search to dominate much of my time this quarter, and job searches are never easy. I'll keep my fingers crossed.
In other non-exciting news, I think I've finally found a way to block the cold drafts of air that keep my room so cold. You see, I have an air conditioner unit in one of my windows, and since the seal with the window isn't perfect, my room is often cold. After a few attempts, I think I've found a combination of platic wrap, plastic bags, cardboard, and duct tape that will block the air. I'll know tomorrow...when it's really cold outside, I usually wake up in the morning and find that my room has dropped 10-15 degrees overnight. (shudder) It's not pleasant.
I think I'm going to end up taking an elective this term, which means that my formerly class-free Wednesdays will now have a class, although supposedly it's not especially challening. I still have Mondays free, which helps a lot. :-)
Current Mood: Contemplative, a little anxious, not quite nostalgic.
Current Songs: Enya, "Day Without Rain" & Evanescence, "Anywhere"
Saturday, January 24, 2004
I'm interested to see that the opposition to the "No Child Left Behind Act" continues to grow and gain media coverage. On Friday, the Republican-controlled Virginia legislature overwhelmingly approved a resolution calling on Congress to exempt the state from provisions in the act.
The Washington Post article states, "By a vote of 98 to 1, the House passed a resolution calling on Congress to exempt states like Virginia from the program's requirements. The law "represents the most sweeping intrusions into state and local control of education in the history of the United States," the resolution says, and will cost "literally millions of dollars that Virginia does not have."
The federal law aims to improve the performance of students, teachers and schools with yearly tests and serious penalties for failure. In his State of the Union speech Tuesday, Bush said that "the No Child Left Behind Act is opening the door of opportunity to all of America's children."
Officials in other states also have complained about the effects of the act, signed into law in 2002. But Friday's action in the Virginia House represents one of the strongest formal criticisms to date from a legislative chamber controlled by the president's own party.
In other news, it appears -- shockingly -- that we still can't find weapons of mass destruction in Iraq. Richard Stevenson wrote in Friday's NY Times, " David Kay, who led the American effort to find banned weapons in Iraq, said Friday after stepping down from his post that he has concluded that Iraq had no stockpiles of chemical and biological weapons at the start of the war last year.
In an interview with Reuters, Dr. Kay said he now thought that Iraq had illicit weapons at the end of the 1991 Persian Gulf war, but that the subsequent combination of United Nations inspections and Iraq's own decisions "got rid of them."
Asked directly if he was saying that Iraq did not have any large stockpiles of chemical and biological weapons in the country, Dr. Kay replied, according to a transcript of the taped interview made public by Reuters, "That is correct."
It's snowing in Baltimore again. In the last month and a half, I've only been in a non-snowy environment for a handful of days. Weird. After the negative temperatues in NH, though, today's high of 30 sounds pleasant. Oh, yeah. For those of you who don't know, I was quoted in a Dallas Morning News article about my experiences doing outdoor visibility work for the Clark campaign when it -40F or so.
My plans for the weekend? The basics: get healthy again, start eating on a regular schedule, catch up on sleep, start reading for classes, and get ready for the NHPC next week.
Current Mood: Calm
Current Song: Norah Jones, "Come Away With Me"
The Washington Post article states, "By a vote of 98 to 1, the House passed a resolution calling on Congress to exempt states like Virginia from the program's requirements. The law "represents the most sweeping intrusions into state and local control of education in the history of the United States," the resolution says, and will cost "literally millions of dollars that Virginia does not have."
The federal law aims to improve the performance of students, teachers and schools with yearly tests and serious penalties for failure. In his State of the Union speech Tuesday, Bush said that "the No Child Left Behind Act is opening the door of opportunity to all of America's children."
Officials in other states also have complained about the effects of the act, signed into law in 2002. But Friday's action in the Virginia House represents one of the strongest formal criticisms to date from a legislative chamber controlled by the president's own party.
In other news, it appears -- shockingly -- that we still can't find weapons of mass destruction in Iraq. Richard Stevenson wrote in Friday's NY Times, " David Kay, who led the American effort to find banned weapons in Iraq, said Friday after stepping down from his post that he has concluded that Iraq had no stockpiles of chemical and biological weapons at the start of the war last year.
In an interview with Reuters, Dr. Kay said he now thought that Iraq had illicit weapons at the end of the 1991 Persian Gulf war, but that the subsequent combination of United Nations inspections and Iraq's own decisions "got rid of them."
Asked directly if he was saying that Iraq did not have any large stockpiles of chemical and biological weapons in the country, Dr. Kay replied, according to a transcript of the taped interview made public by Reuters, "That is correct."
It's snowing in Baltimore again. In the last month and a half, I've only been in a non-snowy environment for a handful of days. Weird. After the negative temperatues in NH, though, today's high of 30 sounds pleasant. Oh, yeah. For those of you who don't know, I was quoted in a Dallas Morning News article about my experiences doing outdoor visibility work for the Clark campaign when it -40F or so.
My plans for the weekend? The basics: get healthy again, start eating on a regular schedule, catch up on sleep, start reading for classes, and get ready for the NHPC next week.
Current Mood: Calm
Current Song: Norah Jones, "Come Away With Me"
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