Monday, November 26, 2007

Contests

On top of everything I'm doing, I've added the title of "Contest Manager" for the Harry Potter fansite I work for. I've been filling in the spot waiting for our manager, but she's sans a computer for sometime now. To have the contest team have an official manager, I've been made it. Or, well, I was asked and I accepted after deliberating about it.

I'm into my last 4 weeks of the semester. I'm stressed beyond stressed. I have so much to do I don't even know where to begin, yet I'm still somehow procrastinating on a daily basis...

Thursday, November 15, 2007

Non Sequitur

Just about the best comic I've seen all year!

This is from today's Non Sequitur



(If you click on it, it'll bring up the Photo Xanga and if you click on the image there, you'll see the whole comic...so complicated...)

Tuesday, November 6, 2007

Snorkeling

Well, I survived the 50 degree water and 55 degree weather.

We saw some AMAZING things and we weren't even that far out. In ways of fish we saw senoritas, perches, some really fish that you could barely see, and a school of some silver type of fish. We saw all types of invertebrates like sea stars, abalone, sponges, crabs, etc. We saw all types of algae too (of course). The neatest thing was a gray harbor seal that was hanging out at one end where we were snorkeling around. It swam by us, it looked at us, and it swam underneath us! It was directly below us. It was so cool. The deepest part we went to was probably about 20-30 feet deep. Wasn't too deep and you could see all the way to the bottom. Visibility was amazing.

My wetsuit did pretty well. It was a bit big on me, but served its purpose. I'm about to return it back to campus in a few. I was forgetting to breath for the first 10 minutes or so. We're so used to breathing out of our nose that I'd forget to breath out of my mouth. Once I got used to breathing out of my mouth, I was really comfortable and enjoyed the whole experience. Water was cold so I went all numb when we got out, but it was good. All-in-all, it was fun and I'm glad I went.

Monday, November 5, 2007

Happy November!

Welcome to November. I began my entrance into November with a marine biology test (2nd of three) on Thursday and spent my Saturday doing the GRE (Graduate Records Examination - test to get into graduate school). What a way to start the month off!

Marine biology test wasn't too bad, but we'll see Thursday how I did. Tomorrow we're going snorkeling. I rented my gear today (wetsuit, mask/snorkel, fins, booties, hood, gloves) for $15! Thank goodness for the dive class/programs here. I don't even want to think how much it would have cost me renting from some dive shop on Cannery Row. It's supposed to be cold tomorrow. *sigh* Which means even with my wetsuit, it's going to be cold. I don't even want to think about it! We'll only be in the water for about an hour though, so that's not too bad. I may just stay in my wetsuit when we get out of the water until I get home. I'd probably stay warmer that way. LoL

The GRE Saturday was, well, the GRE. It's like the SAT only it's computerized and if you answer a question wrong, the next question is easier and if you answer a question right the next question is harder. So, strategy says to do the best you can in the first third over the next 2/3. Course, when you're taking a test sometimes that all goes out the door. Anyway, with the minimal studying I did, it could have been worse. The two essays at the beginning (at least one) I nailed. It was on a topic I knew a lot about so I had fun writing that one. The other one was just a boring topic. I ran out of time on the math section so I literally was guessing on the last 10 questions. I barely was even reading the questions. So there definitely was not a whole lot of thought in my answers. The verbal section wasn't too bad, but I'd find myself staring at the words or questions and not thinking of an answer. Would have gone better if I studied up on vocab. :D To say the least, I will be taking the test again (probably in June). I didn't do terrible, but I definitely could and want to do better than what I got. I went with 3 other people and I, overall, did better than everyone else, but still.

This week is not a fun week (nor was last week). I have a paper due (draft on Tues, final on Thurs), my revised capstone proposal due on Wed, and a lit review for marine bio on Thurs. Capstone proposal just stresses me out. I have missing holes in my proposal and places I need to fill in and flush out. The final capstone proposal isn't due till Wednesday, December 19th, but the end of the semester is lookin' ugly.

We have next Monday off thanks to Vetran's Day. The following week we have the entire week off due to Thanksgiving/Fall Break. We have class for 4 weeks and then it's winter break! Our last day of classes is Friday, December 21st (my birthday). My final papers/presentations/tests are spread out between 2 weeks, so that's kind of nice, but still nuts.

I registered for Terminus on Wednesday (last day to get the $140 registration fee, it's $20 more now). I got sorted into Kohilo House. It's a completely random sorting, but it's the "horse-y" house! I guess as horse-y as you can get since all the houses are dragons. :P If you read about what the house is, you'll get the whole horse thing. I haven't book plane tickets yet, because I'm HOPING ticket prices will come down from Monterey, but I'll probably end up going out of San Jose since, right now, the price difference is $200.

Still looking into whether I'm going to Australia in July or not. Airfare has gone back UP. So it's back to $2300. I was finding some airfares between $1900 and $2100 for a while, but in the last week it's gone back up. :- I did find an off-season ticket to Heathrow from San Fran (Jan 8th to 21st) for $565, though! LoL Talk about being tempted! I can visit Maria in Ireland, Kate in England, and Mads (my friend who I'm trying to visit in Australia is doing an exchange program in France) will be in France in January! I can also visit Glasgow, Scotland and check out Edinburgh University, but oh well.

With that, I must go and write my rough draft of my paper that is due tomorrow and work a bit more on my capstone paper.

Last thing, I'm going to start tagging my posts. Not that it makes a big difference, but whatever. Might as well.

Laters!