End of an Era (and a few movies)

I graduated! No more school posts! I can now say I have a Master of Environmental Science & Management with a specialization in Economics & Politics of the Environment! Now to wait for grades...

It was a good graduation and I really enjoyed it. It hadn't really sunk in that I graduated until last night when I got an e-mail from Dave Parker (director of our career services) giving us a congratulations and I went, "Oh my gosh. This is one of my last e-mails from Bren ever again!" For two years I have received hundreds and hundreds of e-mails from Bren and now I won't be getting that many! Kind of weird. At any rate, it feels nice to be finished, but it's also scary, sad, and just a little weird. This is the first time in 25 years of my life that I have not known what I was going to do next. I know I'll be getting a job, but the questions just compound upon each other. Where will I get a job? What will I be doing? WHEN will I get a job? etc, etc, etc. Looking for grad schools was similar, but did not come with the same feeling and I think it's because I am NOW entering the REAL WORLD! We joke saying school is the "snooze button on life" and has been for me) for the past two decades of my life. Now I don't have school!

A PhD is not out of the question and, if I was honest with myself, I am leaning towards wanting a PhD, but I don't want to go into a PhD program just because "I want to." Honestly, no one would take me on with that kind of answer and I don't have a topic/question I really want to spend 4-5 years of my life on. So maybe with experience I'll find something I want to get my PhD in and I'll go back and do that, but we'll see. Maybe a PhD is also not in the works for me too. Who knows. Time will tell. :) I would like to get a PhD in marine policy (you know, just saying. :P ).

I did get a contractual job with the Monterey Bay Aquarium. It's short term (only 6 weeks), but pays pretty well for only 35-42 hours of work. I'm basically going to be a "beta tester" for their new Seafood Watch Program criteria system so that'll be interesting. It's something I like to do and it will be interesting. It's not a lot of money, but...hey...money is money and it'll be good not to have a "gap" in my resume from the time I graduate to the time I get another job. Plus, this gives me another thing on my resume, another contact, and perhaps a full-time (or even part-time) job down the road. I'm taking it and running with it!

Now, on to movies!

Green Lantern comes out this Friday so we'll see that sometime this weekend or the following week, but this past week was Just Go With It and Super 8!

Just Go With It (Adam Sandler & Jennifer Aniston) - It's not as bad as you think given the two main actors. Chris and I saw a preview for it and instantly went, "We gotta watch it." It didn't let us down. It met expectations, which is "It won't be great, but it won't be horrible." It gave laughs here-and-there and it was an interesting storyline that did set itself up for some funny situations. Basically, Sandler's character has gotten into the habit of lying to chicks saying he's married and his wife beats him up, yaddy, yaddy, and gets pity sex from them. Aniston is his secretary at his plastic surgeon office. Anyway, he finds a girl he really "connects with" (like no other girl) and she finds the wedding ring and he gets tangled up in these lies that he drags Aniston and her kids into. Anyway, it's pretty funny. There are quite a few sexual-ish jokes made throughout the movie (what kind of Sandler film would it be without those?!), but they're not too bad. We enjoyed the movie. It wouldn't be a buyer, but if you want to watch a rom-com that Aniston isn't actually that bad in (it's almost a miracle, I swear!) and Sandler is good in too, I'd recommend it. It's a good rental film. Nicole Kidman is also in it and is pretty funny too. Grade: B

Super 8 (Joel Courtney, Kyle Chandler, Elle Fanning, etc) - I won't spoil it for those who are going to watch it (as I try not to do for any of my reviews), but if you've seen the preview even once you know the general gist of it (as far as we can tell at least). So...This movie is like (and you'll understand if you watch the movie) an alien version of The Goonies (if they had cameras). I kid you not. It's a good film and it's not scary. It's more suspenseful than scary. It has its lulls, laughs, touching moments, suspense, slightly scary moments, etc. It's a nice balance of everything and seeing the Super 8 cameras was pretty neat. I enjoyed the movie within the movie too. :P I don't know if I'd say it's my favorite movie of the summer (so far and I know others who say that), but it's a good film and holds up well against PotC 4, X-Men: First Class, and soon-to-come-out Green Lantern. In many ways, it's just nice having a non-superhero-ish, non-comic/action figure, non-sequel, and non-book-related film for once! It kind of makes you go (like Inception did), "Wow, Hollywood CAN make good original screenplays and movies!" At any rate, if you like suspenseful type movies, I'd recommend it. It's a good movie and it's nice having child actors being the main actors. Like I said, it has that The Goonies feeling and it's nice and a change from what is normally in theaters these days where the children are supporting actors or there's only one and not a bunch of them. My only complaint about the movie is the flow seemed a little choppy sometimes and something just doesn't quite jive with me (perhaps it's the quick ending). Other than that, I liked it.  Grade: B+

One of the best things about seeing Super 8 was I got to see the latest Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows, Part 2 trailer on the big screen! It totally rocked and I had to restrain myself from cheering. I'm like a little kid, but it really does look like a fantastic movie and I can't wait!

Now, with that, time to eat, and play Minecraft. :)

Farewell grad school

I finished my last class today at Bren and turned my final two assignments in tonight. I had another 5 days before my final two assignments were due, but I had already written and edited them. They were just looming over my head the past few days so I decided to just bite the bullet and say farewell to my Master's program all on the same day instead of dragging out the papers when all I could do was quibble over a word here-and-there. It's a little weird and bittersweet. I am FINISHED! No more classes and no more assignments. It's all in and finished. All I have to do is graduate and wait for grades. Weird...

Now if I can only find a job...

With that...I'm off to continue to not do too much besides read, watch TV shows, and job hunt. Graduation is next Friday, though!

PotC and Misc

Went and saw Pirates of the Caribbean: On Stranger Tides today. It was good and it had some funny moments. The battle scenes still sometimes feel a little long, but the story was infinitely better than Dead Man's Chest (#2) and At World's End (#3). I enjoyed Penelope Cruz's character and Jack is just as ever, well, Jack. The movie doesn't QUITE set up for a 5th film, but it doesn't mean a 5th film can't happen. Since this movie was a story that started and ended in the movie (not even a trailer like Jack leaving with the Fountain of Youth Map at the end of #3), it'll have to be something totally new. I'm sure they could accomplish it, though. I do find it a little difficult to pick the "good" guy and the "bad" guy. I guess that's the problem with pirates. :P You end up picking the lesser of two evils, so to speak. The bad guy (Blackbeard) this time was like Davy Jones vs Jack. You always side with Jack, but Blackbeard's crew you felt a little sorry for since they were coerced into service and didn't know they'd be working for Blackbeard. So, it's sometimes a mixed bag. The sideline stories (in particular, the priest and the mermaid) were interesting. It was kind of "out there", but I liked it. I still want to know what happened to the priest, but the story was a little "Beauty & and the Beast" (with the roles reversed). At any rate, I recommend going to see it based on the PotC franchise more than anything and it is a good film. Grade: B/B+

I rewatched Harry Potter & the Deathly Hallows, Part 1 the other day. It really is an excellent HP movie. I'm resisting buying it so I can buy the two parts together, but it's hard!

Any any rate, school is almost over!! I've got TWO classes left: tomorrow and next Wednesday. I've already written a rough draft of my final paper and I have my presentation tomorrow. I keep having to alter the paper a little because the shark fin ban, recently, has picked up steam (passed the State Assembly on Monday) so that's a little annoying, but oh well. I just hope it doesn't pass the Senate in 2 weeks or the purpose of my paper is moot (one of my question is "Will it pass?") and then I'm in trouble. I doubt it'll pass the Senate, though. It's still in the Rules Committee for the Senate. At any rate, almost finished!!!

I applied this week to a temp, part-time, contractual job with the Aquarium's Seafood Watch Program. Since it's contractual, it's off-site and I can do it remotely in Santa Barbara. It's basically research and report writing based on literature reviews, but...hey...it's money! It's also only 10-hours a week, which works out nicely in case I DO get hired for a full-time job I can take the job and do the SWP work until it's over (either through Sept or Oct). I've had my resume bounce around a lot recently so I'm hoping networking solves my problem of finding a job, but we'll see. A lady with BLM who works in the CA Coastal Monument department emailed me recently (thanks to our BLM client!) and wants to talk about what I'm interested in. They're short on money (as everyone in the government is), but at least she's willing to talk with me. At least I'm not the only one in the "no job, yet" boat. It seems like a good portion of our class is still struggling to find jobs. Most have applied to things and some have come up with interviews. I've heard of 4 people having jobs so far, which isn't too unusual since I don't really converse or hang out with my class, but still. Usually Bren has about a 60-70% rate of students having jobs by graduation and around 90% by September (even last year's stayed this way). We'll see if our class can keep tradition or not. If anything -- as we're all QUITE aware of -- December is the deadline because loans start to be due January.

Well, with that, time to go play Lego PotC! It's all 4 movies and I'm almost finished with movie 1. I doubt I'll get to 4 (doing a day-by-day rental from Redbox), but we'll see. It's quite fun and it's hilarious because Lego Jack Sparrow runs like movie Jack Sparrow. :P

Movies, Sacramento/Davis, and Misc

I had a crazy 35 hour roundtrip to Sacramento/Davis this week. Left Monday around 2 pm and got back Wednesday at 1am. It was nuts. I got up, went to my morning class, Chris picked me up for lunch at In-N-Out, got back to campus, did my presentation, and left for Sacramento. We took a UCSB vehicle (minivan) up and there was the 4 of us and Melissa's dog. We had to drop Carly off because Melissa didn't have anyone to take care of her here in SB. Stopped at her mom's in Oakland, had dinner her mom nicely made for us, and headed to Sacramento. We got in at the hotel around 10pm. I fell asleep around 12:30am, woke up at 7:15am. Met everyone at 8:20 for breakfast in the restaurant in the hotel. Their CC machine went down, so it made us a little late getting to BLM, but we all ended up paying in cash, and headed straight to the BLM office. We went through security around 9:40, set-up, did our presentation, did some Q&A, packed up, and headed to Davis for our second presentation at around 11:20 (only know times because we had to sign in and out). We arrived at a deli in Davis around 12pm. Ate REALLY quickly and walked the half block to the meeting place. Arrived like 10 minutes before the meeting started at 12:30 and sat through a 4 hour presentations/meeting. Left that at around 5pm, had dinner with the guy who invited us to the Delta Tributaries Mercury Council meeting, and left Davis around 6:30pm, got home at 1am. I figured out we sat for about 25 of the 35 hours. It was ridiculous. My lower back was KILLING me the entire day (I haven't popped so many Tylenol in years) and even today my butt and lower back still hurt. Even though it was a whirl of a trip, it went well (both presentations). One lady wasn't so happy with our presentation at the DTMC meeting, but we already figured that since she sent a critical e-mail during our breakfast in the morning. She was also the one we were most concerned about. Other than that, it went well, and I have a few more contacts for job hunting, which is good. If one of these contacts pans out to help me obtain a job, the trip and all the hassle will be WELL worth it. I'm just glad it went all okay (other than the CC issue at the hotel). Now the next and last thing for the trip is reimbursement forms, which should be fun...I did come down with a small cold this morning. I probably have just been fighting it and the crazy trip just exasperated it. I only have a sore throat and runny/stuffy nose so it's not too bad. I hope I can just rest the week away and it'll go away and not get any worse.

I have 2 weeks of classes left. TWO WEEKS. I only have a total of 4 classes left to attend (3 next week and 1 the following). My last assignment is my policy paper, which I need to work on, and the accompanying presentation. We also supposedly have to critique and rewrite or something a climate change adaptation plan for a city or locale for my marine class, but I think us 2nd years are all going with the "denial" and hope he'll make it extra credit or something. It's all very sketchy since he hasn't sent out anything formal on it. We'll see.

Job hunting has been a little slow. With these new contacts, I need to get back onto it. I look every once in a while, but it's still hard to make it a priority when you're still trying to finish with school. The past week was one of my most stressful weeks for the quarter with a paper and presentation due, traveling to Davis/Sacramento, and the problem with the rabbits (which is still being sorted out...). Hopefully I can get back on track with the job hunting.

Well, other than that...Movie updates! I watched 2 movies today (the first time in weeks I've been able to rent movies). I have a few backlogs, though, with Green Hornet and Thor. It's been a very "Natalie Porman" movies recently...

Green Hornet (Seth Rogen, Jay Chou) - It wasn't as bad as you'd think, but it was also nothing great as expected. So it was entertaining, but not something I'd readily suggest someone to watch unless you were curious about it and wanted to watch it already. The Black Beauty car was interesting and some of the gadgets too. I watched the Mythbusters episode that involved Green Hornet myths before I watched the movie, so it was pretty interesting to get to watch the actual movie and after knowing what was and wasn't actually plausible. Grade: C

Thor (Chris Hemsworth, Natalie Portman) - It was as good as people were saying it was, but it's definitely no Iron Man (1st film). Hemsworth does a good job, but Portman's role is kind of weird. Paltrow in Iron Man plays a pretty large role in the film and Portman's is more of a side note (almost the Beauty & the Beast thing -- taming the big, bad man to be gentle). The story is more about Thor's family and everything. It was interesting how it tied more into Iron Man 2 also. They are definitely ramping up for The Avengers movie. It'll be interesting to see how Captain America moves that along. At any rate, it's an enjoyable film. Some minor cheesy one-liners and the story is pretty decent. If you're interested, I'd recommend to go see it. Grade: B

The Other Woman (Natalie Portman, Scott Cohen) - It's actually based on a book called "Love and Other Impossible Pursuits" by Ayelet Waldman and it's also an older film (released in 2009). It just showed up on RedBox so I rented it. It's kind of interesting seeing her in so many films in such a short span of time because you can really see she is a versatile actress. This film is a drama and is about Portman's character and the lives she's entered into. Cohen cheated on his wife with Portman and so then Cohen and Portman get married because she finds out she's pregnant. They end up losing the baby at 3 days old. The plot revolves around Portman and Cohen trying to cope with the loss, but the center of the movie is Cohen's son and Portman's stepson (Lisa Kudrow is the mother) and how he centers in all their worlds and helps and unhelps them get through the baby's loss and Kudrow's hatred for Portman and everything. I cried through about half the film as Portman struggles with the loss and guilt and some other issues. She did a great acting job and you could see when she was doing better and when she was struggling. The plot and acting wasn't as fine as Rabbit Hole, but it was a decent enough drama. I like it, but I don't know if I'd really recommend it. Based on the topic, I'd recommend Rabbit Hole much more over The Other Woman (title reference I believe is to the lost baby that was a daughter named Isabel, but it could also be to Kudrow's character, but I kind of doubt it). Grade: B

No Strings Attached (Natalie Portman, Ashton Kutcher) - It was a cute rom-com that was utterly predictable from start to finish (more predictable than a typical rom-com). It had some funny moments, but (as most rom-coms end up as) it was kind of "heavy" at the end as they go through the denial, apart, etc stages. I wouldn't say it's one of my favorite rom-coms, but it was nice to see Portman in a different role too. Kutcher was okay. I don't particularly like him and he doesn't really "match" Portman well, but the story was okay. I have seen better and worse rom-coms, though, so it's somewhere in "eh" rom-coms where it's not horrible, but not particularly great either (The Proposal, The Holiday, and the Prince & Me rank as some of my top favorite rom-coms). Grade: B-

Next on the agenda is PotC 4 comes out this Saturday, Bridesmaids (which I hear is very funny), True Grit, and Just Go With It (Jennifer Aniston and Adam Sandler -- the preview actually looked funny). I might watch Blue Valentine, but..I don't know. We'll see.

Country Strong

Since I had a short class week (I almost have a 6-day weekend since my Wed class got moved to Tues and it ended at 10am LoL) I have literally been nose pressed to this book a friend sent me the PDFs to (between the iPhone and iPad, I have been reading at almost every available minute) and watching movies. Amazed my brain hasn't rotted yet... :P I guess I'll spend this evening and weekend doing homework to make up for it, but I have managed to get ahead in my schoolwork so it's not bad.

Next week starts my fisheries economics intensive course (April 25-29 and May 2-3, 2 hours a day). We have a final paper and presentation in the class. I've picked my topic, but have yet to start the paper or any reading. I want to get a jump on that. I also need to continue my search for my poll summary results for my policy topic. It's due in 2.5 weeks, but I've already started researching polls for it and my legislature profile is due next Wed and it's already written (just needs editing and a good fact to pull out to tell the class). So...in all, can't really say I was wasting the week since I'm in a good position. :P I also sent out queries about job help last Sunday so...Yup.

Country Strong (Gwyneth Paltrow, Tim McGraw, Garrett Hedlund, Leighton Meester) - Another somberish film. One of the main title songs (either Country Strong or Coming Home -- can't remember) was nominated for best song at the Oscars. It was a good film. I liked it, but -- as Chris said -- it was hard to tell who the "villain" in the film was. Not to say that you have to have one, but everyone made decisions that were not helpful so it was sometimes hard to feel a connection to anyone because you just thought they were all being semi-stupid and self-serving. By the end, though, it got to a point where you were able to connect to Hedlund's character (who is the main character of the movie, but it's hard to tell for a while) and the movie came to a point at the end. It is somewhat sad, but doesn't leave you down there at the end of the film. However, you do have to get to the end of the film. Paltrow's character is a troubled, famous country singer who is getting out of rehab and her husband and manager, McGraw, is struggling. to manager her career and trying to get her back on track (not to mention their marriage). I read the story is losely based off of a country singer (Mindy...something), but Paltrow's character is based more off of Britney Spears. At any rate, I liked it. I thought the acting was good. It's not a musical, it's more around the lines of Walk the Line for where the music is placed. Might be even less than Walk the Line, but I haven't seen Walk the Line in a while so I can't really say. I'd recommend it if you want to watch a drama (especially if you liked Walk the Line, but, in the end, this is sadder than Walk the Line). I wouldn't say it's as somber as Rabbit Hole since the subject isn't as heavy, but I don't think it's quite as good as Rabbit Hole because Rabbit Hole has a quality to it that Country Strong lacks. Grade: A- (like a 90%)

In other movie ponderings, I forgot to mention something I was thinking the other day about Tron. We had rented it to rewatch it and the movie holds up well on a second watch. I enjoy the film, but you do seem some of the corniness in the second rewatch more than the first time. It's still good, though, and I'll probably buy it eventually (action films are always rewatchable -- especially the grid motor-battle-thing). Anyway, I came to the conclusion that, in basic story, Batman Begins and Tron: Legacy, are somewhat similar (Chris takes offense because Batman is, well, Batman and Christian Bale is, well, far superior to Sam Flynn).

Both...

1) Lost their parents at a young age
2) Were fairly close to said parent(s)
3) Were sole heirs to a big corporation
4) More-or-less went out to "find himself" and left the corporation stuff alone
5) Came back to the corporation to find someone saying they should take the corporation back
6) Found a loyal employee from parents time that helped him (in some capacity - Sam's to go to the arcade, Bruce's to help him create Batman)
7) Went on journey, returned, and took back company
8) Installed loyal employee as the Chair of the Board of Directors

Classic basic stories. :)

GP public presentation - Check!

The GP Public Presentation went very well! It was a super long day, though. I had to leave at 9:15am, hung around till around 11:30 (put our poster up, had our class photo, went to mic checks), went home to eat, fell asleep so I missed the first two sessions, got back to campus 3 hours later (2:15pm to be there early to set the computer up at 2:45pm), had our presentation and Q&A, took some group shots (client contact and advisor with us), went to the last two sessions, had the poster session, left at almost 7pm, went to the Elephant Bar for our dinner with our client, got home from the Elephant Bar at 10:30pm. Phew. Long day. The thing I did? Brought my Skechers nice looking shoes so I wasn't in my heels the whole day. Oh my gosh my feet were killing me at times! Bren also saved me. If there is one thing Bren does well, it's receptions and snacks. They know to feed you and feed you often. LoL They had snacks and beverages available throughout the sessions. So I had some snack mix stuff at the last session and a Dr. Pepper till the reception. At the reception they had alcohol for free, water, meat platter, two types of hummus, some type of rice dish (really good!), breads, big flat crackers, cold veggies plate, and maybe something else. At any rate, that helped to tied me over till dinner.

The presentation itself went very well. Our room was only about half full, but it's what we expected since we were competing with the Aquapods group and knew everyone was going there (half of us even wanted to go!). We all answered a question at the Q&A. I got a dreaded policy question, which EVERYONE in the group immediately honed in on me as our mediator was asking the question (I didn't even bother looking at them because I knew it was for me). We are all super glad it's finished!

We will be presenting twice more and I feel like those are more intimidating since we'll be presenting at the BLM Sacramento Office and the Delta Tributaries Mercury Council Meeting. It's like presenting to our peers...We'll be presenting both on the same day too, so it'll be another long day. Sacramento in the morning, Davis in the afternoon, dinner with some people in the evening. Phew. BLM is going to try and find money to fund our trip (2-nights too!). That will be May 16-17 and we'll come back the 18th. I will probably miss all my classes that week. :P If there's one thing Bren is tolerant about, it's students attending conferences and doing things for GP. It's one thing I like about Bren.

Here are some random GP photos for the day: GP Photos

In other news...Watched Hereafter (Matt Damon). It's an odd little film that is semi-depressing. It has a semi-happy ending, but it's so low key that it kind of levels the movie to a somber ending rather than a true happy ending. Basically chronicles three different people and their issues with death. Damon's character is a "psychic," but he truly can communicate with the dead. Unfortunately, he can't touch someone's bare hand with his bare hand without flashing to someone in their life so he can't have any real meaningful relationship because of it and also his dates tend to be freaked out over his ability. This French lady has a near death experience (dies, sees shadows of people, etc, and comes back to life) and it ends up messing with her relationship and her career (until she gets published). A child loses his twin brother to an accident and tries to find a way to communicate with him (he was very dependent upon his older brother and his mother ends up going into rehab after his death). They end up all, in the end, meeting each other in London and helping each other in various ways. So...it's interesting. I don't know if I'd readily recommend it to most people unless you like the more somber type movie, but it was interesting and Clint Eastwood directed it and it's (I think) based off of a novella. Grade: B

GP public presentation and other stuff

Our GP Public Presentation is next Friday the 15th! You can find the schedule at this link. We are from 3:00-3:40. 3:00-3:25 for the presentation and 3:25-3:40 for Q&A. The entire event starts at 1pm and the final presentation ends at 5:30pm with a reception following. It's a pretty big day. Each group will have its own table/display for their brief and poster. We will have an extra copy of our report there for people to flip through if they choose. I won't be presenting this time, but I'll be there the entire presentation and, of course, afterwards. Bren sends out an invitation to just about everyone affiliated with the program and beyond to the day since it essentially highlights what Bren is/does. It's like capstone festival day for CSUMB, but I feel this is even bigger since Bren tends to go all out.

I turned our poster, brief, and report in today to get printed. I'm glad I asked for a test copy for the report because the report had some page numbering issues. The brief looked fine. So we need to fix the page numbering issue and then I can return it to get it printed! The messed up one we got bound (we paid for the test print since it's 202 pages) so we'll use it as our "public sample". If it walks off, gets food on it, smudged, etc none of us will cry. :P Last year, a group's report walked off and it was the one for the client -- oops. To say the least, I don't want that happening to us!

We also might be going to the Delta Tributaries Mercury Council meeting in May to present our paper. We still have to pat down the details, but it looks like it's happening. We might have to pay out of our pockets to go, though. Our extra funding from BLM got lost somewhere and we used almost all our money up for the printing. It shouldn't be that bad considering there are 6 of us and it's only one night. We'd go up Monday afternoon and come back Tuesday night. The sad thing? UCSB Arts and Lectures recently added David McCullough to their series and he'll be speaking on May 16th! The meeting is the 17th so we'll be on our way north. :( He'll be signing books and he's got a new one coming out about Americans in Paris at the end of May (I think). A popular historian coming to Santa Barbara, that would be interesting to hear. He's speaking about something to do with the importance of history. Oh well.

I also picked my policy topic for my policy class! I'm going to write on the shark fin ban in California (AB 376). It has an interesting culture vs environment thing going on.  Shark fin soup is considered a status food in the Asian culture (specifically, I think the Chinese culture) and some people are seeing the ban as an attack on their culture. At least one cosponsor (haven't read about the other one) was raised as a traditional Chinese so it's interesting he proposed it (recently passed the committee with a unanimous vote). The Asian community is not strictly against the ban either. It seems rather split. Some Asian orgs are for the ban. So, to say the least, it'll be an interesting thing to research and I'm excited to research it. It's always good to be interested in your topic and for the first time in a quarter, I am excited to write a school paper. Last quarter was just not fun with the forced assignments I had no clue what to write on...So, it's a breath of fresh air this quarter.

I will say, I am for the ban. I think shark fining is a horrible and cruel practice; our shark populations are decimated; and shark fin soup has no nutritional or taste value. Shark fin tastes like whatever broth it's cooked in and there's no nutritional value. It's a status food because it's so expensive (around $40 a bowl in some restaurants). However, because more Chinese are moving up to middle class, the demand for shark fin soup has increased. There's a point that banning shark fins in California won't do "any good" because shark fins will still be sold/bought outside of California, but it's a good step in the right direction. Hawaii recently (last year?) actually passed a shark fin ban and Oregon and Washington are both considering it too.

In other news, I strained my back last Sunday. It's been hurting all week and it was bad enough that I did an urgent care appointment. The physician's assistant checked me out and determined I just strained it (no muscle spasm or herniated disc). Told me to baby it, heat/ice it, and not to lift anything heavy. I'm a student...with a laptop...Is that possible?! To say the least, it hurts enough that I have decided I can't make the trip to Santa Anita tomorrow. :( I'm pretty bummed, but I can't imagine the 4-hour round trip and then all the standing/sitting on hard seats at Santa Anita all day tomorrow. I have troubles even lying down and sitting at my chair for my computer. Also, I've got a minor cold so I'm sneezing and coughing a lot and the pain from doing either tends to send me into the fetal position if I sneeze/cough too many times. In this case, health before pleasure. I really want my back to be a-okay so I can start exercising again and so I can go to school and not be in pain as I sit in class! Still bummed, but oh well. I've gone twice this year at least!

Movie update. UCSB was showing free-to-student Michelle Williams videos this past Wednesday. Went with Melissa to see Wendy & Lucy. They were also showing Blue Valentine (she was nominated for an Oscar this year for it), but it was later and neither of us quite felt like being out that late. Wendy & Lucy was a little bizarre. Not quite happy for sure, but the entire movie is basically about her, Wendy, looking for her dog, Lucy, in a small Oregon town. She's traveling from the midwest to Alaska to find work. She's living in her car and has her dog. Lucy is okay (I was worried the entire movie!) and everything, but Wendy ends up losing her car (it'll cost her $2k to fix the car with money she does not have) and decides to leave without Lucy (who's being fostered with this nice older man after she was turned into the pound). So Wendy ends up train hopping. Kind of slow, not horrible, but it was definitely a small independent type film. I don't really dislike it, but it's not one that really grabs you either. Grade: C/C+

Well, with that. Time to go attempt some school reading or watching more Top Gear. Netflix has all the Top Gear seasons on instant now, except season 1. There has been a LOT of Top Gear watching of late. :P We also started watching Smallville, but neither of us are completely enamored of it. Chris just sits there and says how stupid the town is. LoL And how someone always morphs into the bad guy from being exposed to kryptonite. He also complains about how the stories aren't following the comics. Yes, the stories aren't that original, but, it's okay. Going to finish season 1 and then might move on to Chuck or Northern Exposure. We'll see.

Update: End of Quarter

Well...It's been a while since I updated and it's mostly because it's the same thing and it's just been crazy.

I finished classes on Thursday and next week is finals and the 21-25 is Spring Beak. Most of my classes are finished. I took my coastal zone law final two weeks ago (was due the 1st). I got it back on Monday and I got a 92! The 2nd question I kind of bombed on, but I did very well on the other two questions. The 1st question I missed 2 points and the 3rd question I had more than a perfect on, which I'm confused about. Our final said it was worth 40 pts and I got 41...So...I'm not sure what happened there. Anyway, it all worked out to a 92 point wise, but whatever. Since I did the rewrite on our case brief and got an A on that, I'll get at least an A- in the class, but we'll see what she does to participation. Granted, half our class dropped by the end (almost half when the final was given out) so maybe we should all get brownie points for that. In addition, I think I'm one of the few in the class (that are left) who kept their grade as letter grade and not pass/fail (some people changed that before turning their final in). So...I don't know. I some how take these classes everyone drops! It's like cost-benefit analysis last quarter when the class went from 45+ students down to 9 by finals. It was ridiculous! This class was like 30 down to 10, I think. My enviro institutions class was at 12 and went down to 9. So...I've had some very small classes of late.

Anyway, environmental institutions is almost over. Had our presentation on Thursday and our paper is due on Monday. So got that, but my work is mostly finished for it. Not sure what I'll get in the class. I think I'm pulling, right now, a B+/A-. I think it'll come down to the paper for what he wants to give me.

Conservation planning is finished. Turned our final paper in yesterday (Friday) and had our presentation on Monday. We kicked butt because we changed our objective and did all our modeling in 2 days (Thurs/Fri) before our presentation so our professor was very impressed with us since we were first to present on Monday and the last she heard (the Wednesday before) we had nothing to show and had not modeled anything to that point. So...We rocked it! This grade will be dependent upon our final paper, but I'm thinking an A- at least. I'd be surprised if I got less than that, but who knows with our final paper. We've had very little graded and our final paper is worth 40% of our grade so it'll be dependent on that.

Environmental international law is still going along even though the class ended almost 2 months ago. That's basically done and we all agree that we'd be surprised if everyone who turned something in just didn't go ahead and get an A. We've gotten NO feed back on the thing we turned in last time and it's basically like "uhhh...what is there to grade us on?" So...I'd be surprised if I got less than an A for this class.

And last, but not least, GP. *sigh* The short of it: we're in editing. Our poster and brief have not been made yet and those drafts are due the 18th, but our final paper is due the 18th so our main focus has been that. Unfortunately, we've had a hiccup with one of our groupmates and it's going slow on certain parts of the paper. It's stressful, but at least we're getting close to being done. We also got an extension to have our report printed after Spring Break since we knew we weren't going to get it done in time to be printed and bound by the 18th. In addition, the copy we turn in has to be signed by everyone and we have a funky schedule where one person will be here the 18th and one is leaving the 17th and we'd have to pre-sign and then make sure the printer remembered to swap out signed sheets with non-signed before binding and...I just decided they offered us the extension to print so we will take the extension for the print job. (It's not preferred we turn the print copy in later, but it's okay if we ask for it ahead of time.) Our paper is 175 pages (so far) from cover to end of references (includes two appendices) and we're still missing a few pieces (e.g., executive summary hasn't been written and we haven't put our flow charts into one appendix). I think 250 (or is it 200?) is our absolute max they allow and I'm pretty sure we'll be fine. I can't image writing that many more pages since I think we have maybe 5-10 more since the flow charts (3 pages) and the exec summary (2 pages) is the last big pieces we have to do. Oh well, the important thing is we're almost finished. It's a little stressful, but at least all my other school work will be completed come Monday and I can concentrate on GP and what needs to be completed. But we are in the homestretch!

Saturday the 19th (day after our GP paper is due) Melissa, her boyfriend Kyle, and I are going to Santa Anita! Oh yeah! Soooo excited and they're both relatively new (Melissa's been to a racetrack once) so it'll be fun. It's also the Saint Pat's Pitch that day and you can sign up to throw a horseshoe and if you get a ringer, you win $1mil! (Totally not doing that myself.) And it's also a giveaway day. You get a BBQ apron. LoL It's not special at all, but...hey...it's a freebie! We're going to try and make it to the track tour too since I missed most of it last time and they've never been. We'll see how we succeed.

Anyway, with that, I'm off to watch How to Train Your Dragon. :) I bought the soundtrack (finally) the other day and I love it and I still love the movie. Time to relax! Oh...movie updates. I've watched like 3 movies since my last movie update, but I'll have to remember hard what those were and update later. I watched The Illusionist (animation foreign film in the Oscars), Unknown (Liam Neeson), something else I can't remember, and I did finally watch Monster vs Aliens which is a few years old animation film now. LoL

Has it really only been 2 weeks...?

Man...It feels like I updated just a few days ago...I've been so overtaken with stress and being busy that I lost track of time.

I haven't even said anything about my international law class! I think I'm too tired to update completely the last two weeks. I've put in ridiculous hours this week at Bren, though. 8-10 hours on campus and then I was up till 12-1am every night finishing stuff for school or for the defense that was yesterday. I'll update at some point...The defense was good, though, and that's OVER with! That stress is gone. Our draft of our paper is due in 2 weeks so that's stressful, but...one thing at a time?

Actually, the next two weeks will be stressful like the last two. I've got 2 papers due next week and a 5-minute presentation. I'm not too worried about next week (except my op-ed piece...still not sure what to write and he's going to be super picky about it - 1,000 words max), but the week after is horrible. I have a lab due the 14th, my case brief rewrite due on the 15th, the group treaty memo (my int'l law prof is taking our ideas to UNEP that week when he goes for their meeting) on the 15th, an extra 2 hours of class on Wednesday, a memo due on the 17th, and our GP draft due on the 18th. President's weekend is going to be VERY relaxing...LoL Course, I have a final and draft of a group paper due the week after, but it's much less crazy.

Speaking of groups...I have 4 group assignments this quarter: GP (group of 6), int'l law assignment/treaty/memo (group of 5), conservation planning (group of 4), and environmental institutions (group of 3). I really am disliking group activities right now. It also doesn't help that we have defenses next Friday (the 11th) too for the OTHER half of the class so people are still not 100% done and everything that's not GP gets pushed last. So...it's more than a little crazy to do this many group assignments.

Anyway, defense was good. It's finished. The presentation can be mostly used for the public presentation in April now too. We got good feedback (or very little of it for that matter) so it's good!

Now...Today Chris and I went to Santa Anita! Zenyatta was being awarded the Secretariat Vox Populi Award (Voice of the People Award) and so Team Zenyatta and Penny Chenery (owner of Secretariat) was doing these special posters and signing for them. I had to go! I got my poster signed (after standing in line for a VERY long time in a black shirt with black hair in the sun -- I've got a touch of heatstroke (no sunburn!)) and I love it! My two favorite horses together. :) I thought I'd never seen Penny Chenery in my lifetime either. She's 89 years old. It's incredible that she flew out in 2010 to see Zenyatta run once, but to fly out again and sign a few hundred posters? Incredible. She is amazing. I'm glad I got in line early, though. The signing was supposed to be only an hour (11:30-12:30), but they instead went by the number of people (at least, some might have stayed longer). The line went practically out the track again and people were told they wouldn't get a poster signed, but they still wanted to stand in line. I think maybe another 20 people behind me were in line to get a poster signed and then it cut off. So I was kind of close to the back. I think they estimated 150-200 people for the signing and they probably signed maybe 300 posters (might be a bit more). So, yeah, it was close for a minute that I thought I wouldn't get anything signed, but I got it!

I love Santa Anita too. It's HUGE first off and they have a ton of places to sit in the paddock and there are trees you can sit underneath and it's just a really nice place. The quality between Hollywood to Santa Anita is quite evident. You can tell Santa Anita is the moneymaker and they take care of the place to keep it at a higher standard. I want to see Del Mar now and see what's that like. The facility is much smaller than Santa Anita, but it's supposed to be A+ service and is like the premier event on the West Coast for horse racing and opening day is a BIG deal. So we'll see. Santa Anita also runs more like a sports venue. They have parking vendors so you pay for our parking there by car, whereas Hollywood is parking by person. Course...Santa Anita is right next to a HUGE mall. So that might be why they take the parking fee as you drive in. They don't want the mall people to park in Santa Anita's parking. However, Chris and I got into Santa Anita parking fee free AND got into the park for free (no program, but I could have bought one for $2.50). We got there early to do the free tram tour (if we made it in time) and there was no one to take money for parking. So we parked, went on the tour, and the tour dumps you in the park at the end of it. So you get into the park for free when you go on the FREE tram tour. :P If you don't care that you don't have a program for the day, you save $4/car and $5/person. I almost bought a program, but didn't get one. I also signed up for the free Thoroughbred Rewards Program so I think I can go in now for $1. Horse racing definitely does not make its money on entry fees. Oh yeah, the gift store -- Champions -- made me chuckle. Almost all the workers in there (and there were like 8 of them for this TINY little store) were all older ladies (in their 50-60's) and they were so incredibly attentive. It was almost to the point it was intimidating because they were watching your every move to assist you and clean-up things (place was PRISTINE), but it made me chuckle. Who'd of thought that age range would be working at a race track gift store? :P

Anyway, my Santa Anita Photos: Vox Populi Signing, Seabiscuit Tram Tour, MISC

Quick school update

Before I die at the end of the week from my stress, I wanted to update really quickly.

GP is getting stressful the closer we get to the presentation. The presentation has been created in its simplest form and will be beautified over the next 1.5 weeks. The paper itself has taken a slightly back seat till the presentation is over because we are going to need to take into account their critiques and see if we need to update the paper in some way anyway. February 18th will be coming very quickly for the draft due date. I also realized that March 18th (the Friday of finals week and the week before Spring Break) will be dedicated to finalizing the paper. We have to all sign the final paper and that's due March 18th.  So I have to be back on the 18th to sign it or just not leave. Oh well. I will be finished the week before finals week, but not quite finished.

My other classes are going okay. I've got a lot of minor assignments to turn in starting February 1st and a lot of them are after the defense presentation. Which means...the weekend after the defense I will be reading and writing a TON. I'm trying to preread the assignments due that week, but it's just not happening. I'm so swamped in reading for my environmental institutions class that I can't fit in other reading.

Lastly, this week starts my international law class. I was tempted to drop it this past week because it's 3 hours of extra class a day (M- F) and the reading assignment is ridiculous. I have 330 pages of school reading to do for this week and almost 300 of it is just for international law. Did I also tell you that 300 pages is spread out among THREE days? What happened to reading for Thurs and Fri? Anyway, I'm up to my eyeballs in legal stuff since I have to do a case brief for my coastal zone law class. I'm sure if I was a lawyer, briefing a case would go much quicker. Anyway, international law this week might just kill me. Because of the 3 extra hours, I have a little more than 4 hours of class everyday, but with the way my schedule works...I'm just staying on campus all day Tues and Wed and maybe Thurs if my meetings go too long. So Tues I'll be at Bren from 10am to 7:15pm. Wed I'll be on campus from 10am to 6:45pm. Joy. I'm going to have to pack a ton of food and drink to sustain me that long. LoL

Then, of course, next, next week is our defense and we are practicing in 1414 on Monday and to the group on Wednesday and then will be practicing on our own. This Wednesday we're supposed to do a run through of the presentation, which will be super informal since I won't have anything memorized or remotely solidified in my head by then. We only tonight put the presentation together and I don't have time to really work on it between now and Wednesday morning. Oh well. I'm sure Arturo will understand.

Anyway, my stress level is incredibly high and I just keep thinking of all the stuff I have due in my other classes after the week after defenses (3 papers and 2 presentations). I really don't feel like I'll be able to breath till March 1st. Course, I have 2 group papers in classes too....so I have to find time to meet for those too. Ugh. I really am disliking group things right now. Too many right now.

*sigh* Well, I need to go. I want a draft of my case brief finished tonight (due Tues) and I still have 60 pages of international law reading to do. I'm reading, right now, all about treaties.

Random school things

I'm a little sad that I have class on Tuesday at 10am. The Santa Barbara County Board of Supervisors are getting together on Tuesday to try and convince the Coastal Commission to give certifications for major revisions to the SB County and Montecito Land Use Codes. Our prof said she will try to find out when they're actually discussing this and see if it's still going at our class time (1pm) and figure out a way to see if we can watch it on-line. That'd be neat. The meeting starts at 9am and I've got class at 10am so if it starts then, that's a bummer. I'm learning quite a bit in class and we've only had 2 classes. It's the most law like class I've had (the prof has a JD) and it's all Coastal Zone law so it's pretty interesting. I've never delved deeply into the Coastal Commission before (kind of an area I was lacking knowledge in) so it's been pretty interesting. She's also teaching us how to brief a case, which is a little tedious since you have to actually think about the cases in a deeper manner. :) I am learning more about the judicial system too. Nothing major, but little things here and there and how rulings can effect quite a few things.

I still find I enjoy reading legal cases, though. I don't enjoy legalese, but I enjoy legal cases. That may be why I like County Board of Supervisor meetings too. It's like a legal case in person. People are arguing why their side is correct and they're like little histories in front of you as people explain about their lives and how something might affect them and the legal arguments within it. It's just interesting. Wouldn't want to do it for a full-time job (I think -- Bethany Taylor running for County Supervisor -- eh), but it's interesting. It's by far my favorite class and the reading is dense, but it's at least on a topic I enjoy and the prof is good.

My environmental institutions class is interesting...I like the prof on a personal level and he's more of a lecturer-seminar type prof, but he does run off into tangents and stories quite easily. It's actually pretty funny because he KNOWS he shouldn't say the story, but he runs through it anyway after a mini-battle with himself. It's slightly annoying, but his stories always end up being interesting/weird/funny in a good way so it's a toss up about whether he should or shouldn't do them from an interest level. The class goes by quickly if anything, which is good since it's at 10am and I'm still half asleep through it. There are only 10 of us in it so we're definitely small and hard to miss. The class, though, is going about issues in a way I never thought of before so it's been a learning experience. I don't particularly like the class still, but at least I'm learning something and something new for that matter.

We're basically going to be researching an environmental problem (one that is anthropogenically caused like air pollution, overfishing, deforestation, etc) and come up with an institution to fix it. You know, that's hard! If it was that easy to take this class and we could solve all our problems, we wouldn't have all these environmental problems anymore. It's particularly interesting because this book we're reading (Governing the Commons by Elinor Ostrom -- totally dense, but interesting and she won the 2009 Nobel Prize) has these "principles" to create a successful institution for common-pool resources and even she knows that applying all these are not fool proof. This class is like thinking "outside of the box" and, at the same time, thinking within it. Instead of using a central government to fix everything or privatization (both have their issues), can you create another type of institution (in this case, rules, but it can be an agency too. Right now in class we're talking about a set of rules) where the common-pool resource (CPR) is sustained over a long period of time and followed generation after generation? Ostrom lists these general principles that successful communities have followed to sustain the CPR and have everyone follow, but even she knows these principles can't fix everything. And, truthfully, her principles aren't anything mindboggling. They're things like clearly defined boundaries, collective-choice arrangements, graduated sanctions, etc. Individually, not innovative and, I like to think, the principles have been included in a lot of things, but got warped over time. So, anyway, that's basically what we're learning right now. It's complex, but I feel like I'm being taught to look at the issues with CPRs and think up new ways to try and solve them than our already worn out ways that don't seem to work. We'll see how it goes.

Conservation planning is pretty...boring...We're using GIS which has been fun. I haven't used it in 3-4 years so it's been a "Ohhh...I remember doing that!", but it's coming back to me pretty quickly. The only issue is that ArcGIS has a lot of quirks so it's relearning all those weird things again. It's going well, though. I apparently look "very knowledgeable" to my classmates because I've had a few people come up to me ask for help and comment on I look like I know it well. I am thankful for CSUMB's GIS lab, though. I feel like I REALLY learned the program when I took the class. I've talked to others who have been certified and my certification was much more intense than there's since we actually went out into the field with GPS units, plotted, came back, and combined all the different layers into one GIS map and manipulated it. We also covered a lot of things in the basic training too (making models for example). Making models was funny for me because the instructions our lab TA gave us were horrible. He missed random steps or didn't explain things well so a lot of deduction skills were involved to try and understand what he was trying to get us to do. Once I figured out he wanted us to make a model, it all clicked and then, weirdly, my brain suddenly remembered how to make a model. So weird. Weird things like remembering F5 is the refresh button for GIS came back too. It really has been a weird relearning process. It's good for the refresher now, though. I feel less guilty about putting the GIS certification on my resume now since I remember how to use GIS again. :) I'm still on the fence about taking the GIS class next quarter...I may or may not take it. I don't NEED it, but it might just be fun to take. I might talk to the prof and ask if I can drop in every once in a while. Anyway, conservation planning is boring and I doubt I'll learn much, but I am enjoying relearning GIS.

Group Project is...going. We're all feeling better about the project, but it's also a high stress level still. It's like we're almost there, but not quite there. So we're fine-tuning now, trying to do some last ditch research efforts, and writing drafts as they become complete. So..it's getting there. Deadlines this quarter are a little intense (our final paper is due March 18th in hard copy with our signatures), but it's moving. It's been a lot of "breathe...breathe...breathe" moments. We had a 2 hour meeting this last Wednesday and I have a feeling it's going to be 2 hour meetings for the rest of the quarter...We need the time, though.

Oh, random thing, I got a free cookbook out of Amazon.com! I got a misship book (Sara Moulton's Everyday Family Dinners) and I contacted them saying they misshipped the book. They replied saying to give them this set of letters and numbers on the bottom barcode so they can track the order and give me a new shipping label so I can mail it out. Well...weirdly...3/4 of the shipping label was missing. Somehow everything BUT my address and the Ontrac shipping number got ripped off. I told them I had the packing slip, but apparently that's not enough for them to track the order or too difficult or something because I got an e-mail reply back saying to just keep the book, free of charge, and that they "hope you'll consider this an isolated incident and give us another chance in the future." So weird, but...Hey! Free book! It retails at $35 and the person paid $23. I'll take it! It has some good recipes in it too. :P

In other news...Saw Easy A. I rather liked the movie. It's a more adult version of Mean Girls (language is more adultish and the topic too), but the acting was good and it was an interesting storyline. Instead of spreading rumors about others, though, it was more of a letting-a-rumor-take-over-your-life-and-how-it-destroys-it kind of thing. If you didn't know what the title meant...It's a reference to the Scarlett Letter and how getting her "A" (for adultery) was, well, easy. I liked it. It's not as funny as Mean Girls because Mean Girls has some truth in it about how girls in high school treat each other. This one was less satirical, I suppose. It also made fun of this Christian group too (which, they way they were portrayed, was...yeah...They were signing songs and holding hands underneath the gazebo at school and their big thing is they wanted to get rid of the the girl with the "A" (the main character actually starts wearing an "A" on her clothes -- again, Scarlett Letter plays a big role in this movie and its script)). So...yeah. I'd give it a B.

With that...today is my relax day before I hit the books tomorrow. I've got to come up with an environmental problem to write about for my issue brief for my environmental institutions class on Tuesday...No clue what to write. What I do want to write about isn't really the type of environmental problem I can solve with an institution (though it does stem from an anthropogenic issue) so I need to come up with something else to write about.

Welcome back to school -- Have a dose of stress!

The first week back to classes. I have class tomorrow morning (Thurs) and have my GP meeting and a workshop on Friday (that'll be a looooong day), but I'm through hump day.

I found out today (as did the rest of my classmates) the GP defense schedule. My group is presenting second out of ALL the groups! We present at 9:45am-10:25am on Friday, February 4th. All presentations (and Q&A) are 40 minutes long with a 5 minute switch in between. We'll get the logistics of the presentation within the next week (exactly how long our presentations can be, what's expected, etc), but that means 4 weeks from Friday I will be presenting our GP...STRESS! However, I am glad I'm presenting at the defense and not the final presentation. I will feel loads better knowing my speaking role will be finished. :) I feel like we have tons more work to do in between now and then, though. I am glad I'm presenting with my friend. We're taking hold of the presentation now so we can get it the way we feel comfortable presenting it. In addition to the defense, we have our final paper due at the end of the quarter and our draft due shortly after our defenses. When a quarter is 10 weeks long (11 weeks with finals week), that's NOT a whole lot of time to get things done when you're also taking normal classes and some of us in our group works. Ugh. Stress!

In other news, I will have a 2-week Spring Break! My one final is a take home final and, for whatever reason, we get it in week 8 instead of week 10 or 11. My other two classes have group papers/presentations the last week or two of classes and, of course, GP has nothing in finals week. So...Two week spring break!! Yes!

As for my actual classes, they're okay...I'm not enamored of all the group papers, but I'll live. I'm taking conservation planning (ESM 270) and it's the same prof I had last quarter for environmental modeling. The class is Mon and Wed from 2:30pm to 3:45pm. She has a marine background so the class will have some relevancy for me. If Frank Davis had taught it this year, it would have been land based and been a little less relevant for me. Now that it's marine related...Perfect! We'll see how this goes, though. She's a nice lady, but not a fantastic professor. This class has a group paper/presentation and she wants it scientific paper publishing quality. So...that's a little intimidating, but I have a good friend in the class with me so that'll be nice to work with her.

My other class is environmental institutions (ESM 248) and it's Tues/Thurs from 10-11:15am (a little bit of a rough time, I admit it). I was not (and am not) excited about the class, but it's a requirement for my specialization. It'll be interesting, I think, since we're talking about institutions and how they can be applied to environmental issues and the problems with the common ones of today (private property, central governments, etc). On the downside, it's just not a class I'd normally be drawn too so that has its downsides. The professor is interesting, though. I'm still deciding whether he's going to be an unorganized professor or simply one that has a mind that runs in a million directions and will be okay. He talks quickly and randomly remembers different things in the middle of what he's saying and runs off on that thought instead. Sometimes he simply forgot to go BACK to the original thought and we'd have to remind him. On the upside, he's a laugh-er. He does not have an issue with laughing at himself or anything. At the end of class he wanted us to write our names on a piece of paper and write an interesting story he could associate our names to (to help him learn our names since he's bad at remembering names). He specified stories could not be about illness or injuries (since they lack the personal touch when you write "I broke my arm") and if it was about traveling, it had to be something different. It couldn't just be "I went to England." He read all the stories out loud (he told us this early) and we laughed for about the last 20 minutes of class at the stories. It was actually quite fun and we learned something new about our fellow students too. BTW, there are only 10-12 of us in the class. So we're a SMALL group. We also have a group paper in this class and he's going to have us "judged" by another Bren prof during our presentation. He's also stressing writing in this class. So we're writing two memos, 1 op-ed piece (he wants it be like an op-ed piece you'd see in a newspaper or magazine), 1 brief, and our final paper will be a white paper. I've never written an op-ed before. It should be interesting.

My other class is an advance course so it's once a week and it's about Coastal Zone Law (Tues from 1-2:15pm). It's right up my alley since the prof who's teaching it has a JD, but is now a prof at MSI (Marine Science Institute). So it sounds like we'll be learning more about the actual laws in California. I've already learned something, actually. California's jurisdiction is out to 3 nautical miles and our Economic Exclusive Zone (EEZ - fed gov) is from 3-200 nautical miles. Did you know that our territorial seas is only to 12 nautical miles and anything beyond 12 nautical miles is technically open seas? Who'd of thunk. I always thought open seas was past the EEZ since, well, within the EEZ the US (and other countries after the US declared this) has declared claim over all living and nonliving resources. When I normally hear "open seas", I think of pirates, uncharted waters (those don't really exist anymore), and dangerous areas that are unruled by any country. I kind of feel like my fantasy about the "open seas" is a little dashed now by legal terms. :P It's all quite confusing, though. For example, most countries have a 24 nautical mile contiguous zone, but since the US never ratified those treaties, we only have a 12 nautical mile contiguous zone. In addition, why do we have a 12 nm territorial sea and a 12 nm contiguous zone? Anyway, there's a lot of weird overlap like that so I'm learning about that! We also watched an interesting video the first day (partly) called "Coastal Clash" that was done by KQED. It was interesting and I'd like to see the rest of it. It was mostly about beach rights/laws and homeowners. You know...People own waterfront property so they want to restrict the beaches from public access (against the law) and homeowners have their homes falling into the ocean so they want to put a seawall in. Anyway, it was interesting and I'm excited about the class.

My last class is another advanced course, but it's an intensive course. Sadly, the class is the week before my GP defense. I also have 2 assignments due the same week as the intensive course. So, it will be long days that one week (Jan 24-28). I will have 3 hours extra of class each day. That class is international law and I don't know anything else about it since it's just the one week. Should be interesting and rather stressful.

My last class, of course, is GP. So I'm taking 16 units this quarter, but really 14 for the ENTIRE quarter since that one advanced class is only 2 units and it's one week (all advanced classes are 2 units).

Well, with that, it's time to go to bed. I got class in 10 hours...Ick.

Stuff

My brain is lacking in vocabulary or creativity (one or the other or both) so you get a boring title. :)

I finished my final yesterday. I'm 50% confident on the material I answered. The other 50% is up in the air. I'm particularly worried about the last question's first two parts. I had NO clue so I more or less took an educated guess. Hopefully I was right or I'm screwed. I already turned my paper in. I couldn't take having the final and knowing I still had my paper to turn in so I edited it one last time (I think I could have edited it forever...) and turned it on Wednesday night. I have to tell you, having the final over and no more paper to worry about is a nice feeling. I'm glad I turned it in early.

I still have some GP work to do this next week, but it's a little more leisurely so I feel better having the final complete and my classes finished. I'm more-or-less taking the weekend off and will work next week on GP. If I work diligently, I should have it finished in 1-2 days.

Tomorrow is Zenyatta's appreciation/farewell day at Hollywood Park. Chris isn't looking forward to being stuck at Hollywood Park almost all day (it opens at 10:15pm, but she's not parading till around 3pm). I'd like to get there later, but don't want to miss anything earlier in the day too...So...We'll get there around 10-11am. Apparently someone from the Dodgers will be giving Zenyatta her own Dodgers jersey too. I'm intrigued to know if she'll actually be able to wear it or not. LoL I suspect a couple thousand people (easily) will be there tomorrow (another reason I'd rather get there early). Camera will be in hand! Now if I only could steal a kid for 10 minutes so I can get one of the Zenyatta coloring books they're giving away to kids... :P Mike Smith will be autographing again so I'm *cough* printing photos to have him sign, but may just have him sign my Blooodhorse commemorative issue for her instead. We'll see. In the midst of looking for photos, I stumbled across the photo finish of Zenyatta's Breeders' Cup Classic loss. It's painful to look at. She really did lose by a head. She was SOOO close. Ugh. Painful. Anyway, tomorrow should be fun and interesting. The energy of Hollywood Park should be incredible too.

Next Friday The Tourist and Narnia comes out! I'm still not 100% sold on The Tourist, but I'll probably go see it at some point and Narnia (of course) I will see. :) I think this year (or next) I will do what my friend does and try to see all the movies nominated for Best Picture for the Academy Awards. I'm intrigued by the one Colin Firth is in (The King's Speech), which has him as King George VI and Helena Bonham Carter as Queen Elizabeth. It's already getting comments that Colin Firth may be nominated for Best Actor award. There are some other small pictures I'm interested in too, but tend to watch on DVD instead. We'll see, though. I think last year I ended up seeing most of the Best Picture awards, but not all of them.

Well...with that...I'm off to watch my Criminal Minds DVD and continue to relax. :)

Movies and Life

I've seen Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows, Part 1 twice now (almost saw it for a 3rd time today, but saw Tangled instead). I think it's the ONLY Harry Potter I have had the strong desire to see over and over again in theaters. I've rewatched a few of the others in theater, but it was for various reasons other than pure enjoyment for the film itself. I'd even see it again for a 3rd time. It's definitely one I will want to buy on DVD and gives me hope for Part 2. I cried through a good majority of the film, but it's a good one on a more low-key level than the latter half of the book. Everyone definitely stepped their game up for this film to bring a great film. So, yes, if you like Harry Potter, go see it in theaters!! I am super excited for Part 2 and can't WAIT till part 1 and part 2 come out on DVD together. By far my favorite Harry Potter film. Oh yeah, Desplat as the composer, might just be my 2nd favorite composer of the films. He really goes all out with various instruments. No one will compare to John Williams, but Desplat does a really good job and I enjoyed the sountrack more than others.

I saw Tangled today, which apparently is Disney's 50th animated film. Alan Menken (Beauty and the Beast, Little Mermaid, etc) is the composer for the film, which was nice to see. There were some awkward moments in the film for me because they reminded me briefly of Little Mermaid or Beauty and the Beast, but it was a cute film. It's about par with Princess and the Frog (I may like Tangled a little bit better, but it's close). I liked the movie and the telling of Rapunzel. Some of the songs seemed a little forced where they were placed, but I'm not sure if that's because I'm not used to animated films where characters break out into song anymore or what. The songs themselves were cute. They're similar to Enchanted (also composed by Menken) and there's, of course, the "wish" song which for Rapunzel is the "When Will My Life Begin" song (reminded me a little of Little Mermaid). Donna Murphy sings this funny song called "Mother Knows Best." She plays the villain, but it's a good song. My favorite song is "I See the Light". It's supposed to be the "A Whole New World" type of song and it's not as "strong" as some others you've heard (i.e., you don't immediately fall in love with it), but it fits for the movie and the characters. I like it and I'll warm up to it more, but it took me a minute or two to fully "get it." The "Kingdom Dance" song is pretty amazing since Menken throws in some Celtic flair, but Princess and the Frog also had a pretty amazing dance song too (is that a requirement nowadays?). Anyway, the movie is a good Disney film. It's not the Disney animations of old, but they're enjoyable films with a good story and some nice character singing and compositions. Plus, you gotta love Pascal the Chameleon and Maximus the Royal Guard Horse (Chris's favorite thing about the movie was the horse)! I don't know if I'd see it again in theaters (maybe a home rental), but I'll buy the soundtrack for sure and probably the DVD.

As for the rest of my life...I am finished with classes on Friday (the 3rd). It's totally nerve wracking because this week is stress, stress, stress. Tomorrow (Monday) we have our review meeting via the phone with our client (and then my classes so I'm on campus for 5 hours straight). Tuesday I have to meet up with a group to finish my last lab for environmental modeling (I already completed the REAL last lab). Wednesday is ANOTHER review meeting (was all supposed to be on Mon, but a last minute scheduling issue came about) with our external advisor (and lab is due for enviro modeling and I'm stuck on campus with 5 hours of stuff again). Friday is my CBA final, which accounts for 50% of my grade and we are not allowed a page of notes. Sad to say, but this is THE first final I've had in grad school that is your "typical" final. I've either had no final, final with notes, or take home final. So am I nervous that I have to remember the ins and outs of 7 different CBA methods and 5 other lectures? YES! I have been studying for a few days now and it's about my primary concern for this week. However, I am having some bad dreams about GP and I'm not even presenting....At least my CBA paper (worth 40% of my grade) is written and edited. I may re-read it one more time to check for grammatical errors, but I could print it out now and feel good about it too. So...yes...I'm stressed and nervous all at once. Ugh. I just have to keep reminding myself I will be finished come 4:30pm on Friday (final is from 2:30-4:30pm) and Sunday I will be wishing Zenyatta a farewell at Hollywood Park. Zenyatta ships to Kentucky on Monday. It'll be a sad day, but at least I'll get to see her in person! I am glad I don't have anything to do on finals week. So I'll have an extra week of Christmas break. :)

Anyway, with that, I need to run off to do my reading for tomorrow's classes and study CBA some more.

Another Steve Haskin piece on Zenyatta (and life/movie update)

This article by Steve Haskin is about Zenyatta and the impact she has had on people. These are touching personal pieces about people who have had different obstacles in their life and how Zenyatta has helped them get through them. She's better than most therapy and most of these people have only seen her on TV or read about her. I think part of her allurement is the fact she dances and paws the ground before and after races, but she's also known to have this very, very sweet temperament which is highly unusual for Thoroughbreds (they tend to be high strung, territorial, etc).

Haskin's article: Zenyatta Stirred the Emotions

No news on her retirement yet and she's back in California. I suspect they'll wait a little longer to think it out and watch her.

School right now is a little stressful. I have 3 weeks left until I'm finished. I don't have anything finals week so I end up being finished Friday, December 3rd (so I get an extra week of break -- 4 weeks instead of 3!). Unfortunately, it's a packed 3 weeks between GP, environmental modeling, and cost-benefit analysis. GP is stressful...VERY stressful. I think Wednesday is an "oh crap" meeting since our advisor won't be there. We also have to decide who will present for our progress report meeting, which is being scheduled Monday, November 29th. Environmental modeling was pretty easy in the beginning of the quarter and now they're reformatting a little so I'm a little stressed this weekend and early this next week. I have managed to make up for my 6.75 first assignment (there are nine 10-point assignments and 10 pts for participation) and have pulled myself to a 91%. I just need to keep pulling 10's and high 9's and I MIGHT just manage to pull an A in the class. I at least am on target for an A-. Phew. I'm starting to write my CBA paper. I decided to do a critique instead. I need to start studying for the final too. So, yeah, I'm a little stressed. On the other hand, I'm nowhere near as stressed as some of my fellow classmates. So...I keep trying to tell myself that. :P

In other news, I MIGHT be going to the doctor on Monday. I'm drinking tons of fluids and it seems to be helping, but my kidney or appendix (something down near there) and stomach was PAINFULLY hurting Thursday night and all day Friday (it was a sharp pain if you pressed it, if I laughed, etc and my stomach was having these sharp pains too -- so weird). I've drunk over 36 fluid ounces of cranberry juice and am trying to push fluids and it seems to be helping so I'm hoping I was just a little dehydrated and my kidney wasn't being flushed enough. Now that it's being flushed, it'll be okay. It does seem to feel a lot better this evening, but it still hurts a little. Fingers crossed the pain goes away Monday and it was just the kidney not being flushed. Anything else I can't afford to have (monetarily and school wise).

Other than that...not much is going on. I did see Just Wright (Queen Latifah), The Girl Who Played with Fire, and Megamind in the last month or so. Just Wright was surprisingly better than I thought it was going to be. It's predictable, but the chemistry was good, the story was good, and Queen Latifah was great in it. It's one of the more enjoyable rom-coms I've seen. I wouldn't buy it (it's not The Proposal caliber), but it was a good rental. The Girl Who Played with Fire is the 2nd book in the Larsson series. Another good movie. It had more of the feeling of the 2nd Bourne movie (she's being set up for crimes she didn't commit, has to go out and prove herself, find the guys, etc). If you liked the first, you'll like the 2nd. You can't watch it without the first movie, though.  Megamind was also good. Of all the animations I've seen this year (How to Train Your Dragon, Toy Story 3, Despicable Me, and Megamind), I'd rank them How to Train Your Dragon (Toothless is just TOO cute!), Toy Story 3 (very, very, close second), Megamind, and then Despicable Me. Despicable Me wasn't that fantastic of a story. What made the movie enjoyable were the minons. Without them, the movie would have fallen flat for me. Megamind had a good story and the trailer I always saw actually is NOT what the movie is really about. Brad Pitt makes a big headliner for the movie, but...he's not in the movie that much at all. So perhaps that's one reason why I liked it more than Despicable Me.

Upcoming movies I'm looking forward to are Due Date (I know it's already out -- maybe a rental at this point), Harry Potter (!!!), Tangled (new Disney), Narnia, and Tron. I MIGHT want to see The Tourist, but I'll wait for the reviews (Angelina Jolie and Johnny Depp romantic thriller). Next summer is going to be interesting! Gotta see Thor and Captain America (gotta get ready for Avenger!),  Pirates of the Caribbean 4, Kung Fu Panda 2, Cars 2 (that was a surpriser for me), The Green Lantern, and Transformers 3. I haven't decided yet if I want to see Breaking Dawn next fall...Gah I hate that last book. I think I will invent my own version of the Twilight Saga and it will only be 3 books!

With that...Back to writing my CBA paper (due Dec 3). I've written 4 pages and the max is 10 pages. I think I'll write till I can't write anymore about a critique of this paper. Hoping it'll be around 8 pages, though. Tomorrow's homework is all dedicated to environmental modeling and then I'll study CBA the rest of the week off and on too.

Fun times! And stressful times...

Last, last Saturday (the 9th) Chris and I went to the Santa Barbara Harbor and Seafood festival with a friend of mine and her mother. It was fun. It's like a harbor street fair. There are booths for people to sell their stuff and lots of food booths. The maritime museum was open for free and they had some boat rides along with a tall ship present. I tried a mussel for the first time and it wasn't a pleasant experience. I guess they didn't get all the juice and stuff out of them and biting into it was a big burst of saltwater -- ICK! Yeah, didn't get to swallow it. It just wouldn't go down...Chris was slightly amused. I did order albacore and got 2/3 of that down before my system (possible mental state) just couldn't take it anymore. :P I did get a strawberry shortcake and strawberry lemonade and those were REALLY good! Anyway, it was fun! Chris says it should happen every weekend. LoL

Last Wednesday I saw Jhumpa Lahiri (Pulitzer Prize winner for fiction - Interpreter of Maladies) and got a book signed. It was one of the quickest book signings I've been to and there were a lot of guys. Most signings I go to (perhaps with the exception of Neil Gaiman...) there are not a lot of guys. Lahiri read from Unaccustomed Earth and took some questions. Some of the questions were just "odd." Like one lady asked about how positive thinking is a big movement right now and Lahiri's books aren't so "positive thinking" and what she thinks of it or something. It was odd. Basically she was saying what Lahiri thought about how most books these days have to have a happy ending at the end of them and Lahiri's books don't always have a happy ending, but something more realistic. Lahiri's books are usually about immigrants or moving from one area to another and everything that goes with that -- positive and negative. Anyway, it was weird and Lahiri asked back, "Are you saying my books are depressing?" It made us all chuckle. She seemed tired, though. So she wasn't as chatty as you'd imagine someone like her would be. Or, maybe that's just her personality. Who knows.

Last weekend, Chris and I went down to San Diego and visited our friends Tori and Andy. :) It was fun! We went all around San Diego on Sat and Sunday we all went to Medieval Times. Sat was a busy day since we went to Todai and the Birch Aquarium. They took us to dinner at this place called CheeBurger, which is pretty cool. It's like The Counter (custom burger place), but it's a 50's theme and they basically do everything custom - milkshakes, burgers, sodas, etc. The milkshakes were insane because you could mix a TON of stuff together and the burgers too. They also do a pounder and if you eat the entire thing, they announce it to the whole restaurant and you get a picture up on the wall. We arrived right when someone ate one and I saw one guy who couldn't finish one. Chris says the next time we go down, we're ALL ordering a pounder and finishing it. If I finish it, I won't be able to move...Birch Aquarium was super small, but fun to see. I still enjoy going to aquariums even if they won't live up to the Monterey Bay Aquarium. Medieval Times was really fun! We got an upgrade so we had seats in the first row, which was cool, but the 2nd row might have been better. There was a stupid glass piece in front of us (it's fine), but there was a bar at the top! So the bar was right in your line of vision. Other than that, it was fun, though. We want to do the Pirates Dinner Adventure next (it's right next door to Medieval Times).

School is pretty much the same with stress about GP piling on...So much to do and we're just not making much progress. We all know what to research, but there's just a LOT to research! So it's stressful. Especially since our review meeting is in a month. *sigh* Oh well. What are you going to do? All you really can do is keep working at it and hope it all comes together when you least expect it to. :) Rest of classes are fine. They're so repetitive now that it's kind of boring and uneventful. I need to start writing my econ paper so I don't let that get lost in my "easy" class schedule and start looking over stuff for the final. Environmental modeling we have our 3rd assignment due tomorrow, but we haven't received our last 2 back yet. So who knows how I'm doing there! I'm definitely looking forward to next quarter...Maybe not environmental institutions (might be interesting), but the rest should be interesting.

My fish and shrimp are doing well. My water definitely doesn't evaporate as fast here in SB as it does in Monterey. Not sure why, but I'm sure it has something to do with the temperature. The one new plant I bought when I moved back is growing like gangbusters! I keep having to trim it and planting the new trim. One of my shrimp missed a cycle. It looks like she may have aborted the eggs, but I can't tell for sure. I don't check them enough to really know. I just know she had the eggs and then she didn't have another set ready. I'm pretty sure, though, she had another set of eggs ready when she got rid of the last set. So...I don't know. They're healthy, though. They live to 1-2 years and these guys are going on a year old, so maybe they're slowing down a little.

It's been raining here in SB and lots of thunderstorms, which is kind of nice! The only downside is the power flickers. It hasn't gone out but it definitely flickers every once in a while. I don't remember rain this early last year so maybe we'll get more this rainy season! Let's hope for less warm days, though. This school year definitely started hot and it wasn't this hot last year!

Well, with that, I need to head off to do more reading for GP. We've got our team meeting tomorrow and we got an e-mail from our project manager that kind of was a slap in the face to wake-up and smell the coffee. On the other hand, I don't think it was needed (I already knew everything she said), but none-the-less it was good.

Photo albums:
Seafood Festival
Birch Aquarium
Medieval Times

What happened to the first two weeks?

I can't believe the 2nd week of the quarter is already finished. I'm not sure if the week is going by fast or if I have so much to do that time seems to be going fast...

We had our GP meeting with our advisor yesterday. It was a good meeting because it got us on track to what our outcome at the end of this quarter should be and a way for us to present options to BLM. I feel like we're all back on track now. Last week's meeting was a good discussion, but it put us into a "What the heck are we doing now?!" mindset. I feel good about the project again; however, I think we all feel a little down about it. Mercury is such a hard topic and being with the Fed gov and Cache Creek's issues encompassing different jurisdictions (Tribal, Fed (BLM, EPA, Wilderness, etc), State, and private), it's kind of ridiculous to think that the mercury issue will be solved thanks to us or, in fact, that much progress will be made with our suggestions. So, that's kind of depressing, but we're all trying to stay positive about it and remember that no results is also a result. It'll take some convincing too. One of my teammates did the internship during the summer up there and she said a lot of fed people were basically "Yeah, there's no solution." So...they're skeptical and we'll have to be extra convincing with our final paper. The amount of work we have to do in the next 4 weeks is a little scary. We have to have a progress review about mid quarter, but need a draft of it completed before then and since the 2nd week is already finished...4 weeks it is! We're hoping to have the review sometime during the 8th week so it gives us a few weeks to get a draft written and handed out. I mean...The quarter is finished in 2 months! The last day of the teaching week is the 3rd of Dec with finals the week after. Goodness...Time to buckle down and stop slacking!

Other than that...This week has my first homework assignment! And I'm utterly stuck on it. It sucks. LoL I can't figure out if my research question is not a good modeling question or if I just can't model my question well. I feel like I'm missing something to be able to retool my question to model well or missing a state or rate (or misunderstanding a rate) to make it work. Hopefully I'll figure it out by Sunday because the assignment is due Monday! And we have another assignment due next week since we ended up with 2 labs this week (usually once a week). I have to be on campus to finish it and I need my friend because my R got messed up on my account (or maybe it was just that computer...?) and requires a re-installation. Anyway, environmental modeling sounds fun, but I feel like the prof kind of through us into the deep end. It's like I semi-know what she's talking about, but there is some terminology and math I need a refresher on or more explanation. So it's a little frustration too. I'm sure it'll get better (or I hope so), but we'll see. CBA is easy. He lectures once a week and we do a discussion once a week. I'm afraid the final is going to be horrible! My paper should be good (doing a proposal based on a topic I did last quarter), but the final might not be good. We have no assignments at all so it's basically "in your face" once the final arrives. I did ask him to do a practice exam, so hopefully he finds time to accomplish that. Being here for only 1 quarter and working with another prof too means he doesn't have the same amount of time as other profs may have (even my enviro modeling prof since she's here a year).

Well...with that...Time to watch Bones and eat dinner!

Welcome back to school -- have a cold!

Unbelievable...Tuesday I came down with a cold. It's nothing too big, but it affected my head the first few days and now it's moved to my nose and sinuses. It's rather annoying because I keep waking up in the middle of the night coughing because a part of my throat dries out (it happens when I'm getting sick or am sick ever since my tonsils came out). My throat also hurt a lot the first few days too (the most in a long while). It's all so annoying, especially since it's so warm here! It was in the low 80's today! What the heck? It's now fall! Where's fall weather?! On the other hand, it's been kind of nice having the sun since Monterey's summer consisted of about 5-7 sunny days the entire time I was there. :) Now I miss the fog...grass is always greener on the other side, right?

The move down went well. My fish all survived and I picked up a new plant and 3 neon tetras! The neon tetras are much more lively than my glowlight tetras so it's kind of amusing. Since the water is also warmer here (easily between 78-82 degrees), my fish and shrimp are much more active in general. One day I caught all 6 fish chasing each other around in a conga line. I'm a little worried for my glowlight tetras because my neon tetras are much more aggressive food wise. I'm not sure if it's because that's thew ay neons are or if they're just smaller so they're more aggressive about it. My glowlights are full size so maybe they don't need as much food? I'm not sure. My glowlights seem to be getting enough, but the neons are FAST and definitely out compete them for food. My sucker fish are actually doing their job too. Not as well as when I first put them into the tank months ago, but they're seen actively eating on the logs. I MIGHT get an algae eating shrimp (they're smaller and look a little different than the ones I have), but we'll see. If my logs start growing hair again, I'll get one. Chris thinks I should get even more fish, but I like my tank balance right now. The problem with more fish is more waste. But...we'll see. I do enjoy my fish tank. :)

Classes started on Thursday and Bren had its reception on Thursday. I went to say hi to people and it was good to see the class again. I actually don't have class till Monday since I only have class on Monday and Wednesday. My classes are lookin' pretty easy at this point. I'm taking 232 - environmental modeling, 245 - cost-benefit analysis, and GP.

I'm pretty excited for cost-benefit analysis. I know a little about cost-benefit analysis and the different methods, but I've never in detail have gone through each of the methods and really tried to learn them. The class looks pretty easy with 50% of our grade based on the final, 40% on our term paper, and 10% for class participation. He lectures and also gives us examples to read (based on the syllabus). The book wasn't required to purchase since it's available to us electronically, but I decided to buy the book. It's $50, but it'll be easier to read (and I actually want to read the book) and it'll be something I can have forever since it goes over the basic CBA methods. It's published by the OECD (Organisation for Economic Co-Operation and Development), which is an international organization. So it'll be handy.

232's environmental modeling should be interesting too. I have to take a modeling/computer type class for my POS (program of study -- our "schedule" of classes we're taking to complete our specialization requirements to graduate). I was going to take GIS to fulfill the requirement, but I'm technically already certified (I have a certificate and everything) and it's offered only in the spring. I initially thought my spring 2011 quarter was going to be crazy busy, but it turns out I'm only taking 8 units and it'll be a light quarter. So I still might take it, but I'm taking ecological modeling as my requirement. That class looks like it'll be fairly easy too. We have a lab assignment due once a week (9 of them) and then the rest of our points is for participation so...90% labs, 10% participation for a total of 100 points. I have a good friend in that class too so I'm not sweatin' it. I'm hoping this prof is good, though. I'm planning to take conservation planning in the winter with her to make-up for a class I needed in the spring not being offered this year. So...we'll see. She's a visiting professor this year, as is the professor who's teaching CBA. So...interesting year at Bren!

GP is startin' up again. It's time to put back on my mercury remediation and BLM policy cap and start thinking, researching, and planning for the GP. We basically have to do all our research this quarter and have it pretty squared away so we can start writing and finalizing things the beginning of winter quarter. I think our paper is due end of winter quarter-ish and our defense presentation is close to the end of winter quarter (maybe week 8?). They haven't finalized dates yet. Should be intense! Hopefully I won't be cursing GP too much this quarter. :P

Well...with that. I'm off to watch my CSI: NY episode from yesterday. Fall TV shows started this week. :P So this week comprised of CSI, CSI: NY, Project Runway, America's Next Top Model (totally a guilty pleasure...though I never finish the season...), Bones, Glee, and Castle. I don't think I'll watch House or Dexter right now. Dexter is too high intense for me wondering if he'll get caught this season or not. LoL House is about the same thing, though Huddy happened so...maybe I'll tune in for the House-Cuddy drama as they try and work through their relationship while she's his boss. :P I'll do a movie update later. I've watched Date Night, Letters to Juliet, Dear John, The Back-Up Plan, Kick-Ass, Cash, and Diary of a Wimpy Kid

TNC

So...for those praying, sending happy thoughts, etc...I just wanted to let you know I got the job!!!!

I had my interview on Wednesday with The Nature Conservancy (TNC) and she called me today to let me know she wanted to offer me the job! I go in tomorrow (Friday) morning to sign the paperwork and get myself set-up. My start date should be July 6th. :) So I'm excited! I won't be internship/jobless this summer and I'm getting paid so I'll have money for the school year. I won't be so broke! The sad thing is I'll make almost more money in the 2.5 months I'm at TNC than 9 months full-time at Borders. So sad...It's pretty funny because she name dropped a professor at CSUMB and he was one of my letter of recs for grad school (I told her that). Then she mentioned at the interview that she knows Bren's reputation because she's worked with Steve Gaines (current Dean of Bren) and Chris Costello. Costello has been my prof for the last two quarters. LoL I ALMOST used him for one of my references for the job, but thought since he's so economic-y that it wasn't appropriate for the position. I used another prof instead. Shame, but oh well. It didn't hurt my chances. :P She also knew Judy (mentor/professor/boss), which was also nice.

In other news, I got my last grade for my enviro law class and it's a B+. : Sad it's not an A or even A- since that'd mean no more B's, but...Oh well. I suppose I should be happy since it was being taught by a law professor from Duke and it's not like the final was super easy, but still!

I'm also all moved back in. Now it's just a matter of remembering where I stored something...My fish all made the move back also. They're doing well in the tank and didn't look to have suffered any lasting trauma from being transported back in a big bucket with colder-than-normal water. My fish and suckerfish turned really, really pale. Apparently since the shrimp can't get any paler (they are clear!), they turned white. My male shrimp molted in the bucket, which obviously says the bucket wasn't too bad. The tank looks the same, but I took out the big plant on the right since it was basically dying. I took all the shoots it sent off and made a grassy area in that corner instead. The shrimp hide in it pretty well, but they still prefer the plant on the left since it's pretty big now. My sucker fish still don't do anything, but oh well. It's kind of normal now. My female shrimp (the big one) molted today and, last I saw, wasn't pregnant again, but the male has been chasing her around for about 2 days now. She lost her eggs 3 days ago so this is the longest she's gone without having new eggs. I expect by the morning she'll have more.

Anyway, time for bed. :)

Oh yeah!!

I got an A in natural resource economics! It does make me wonder if he even read our paper, though. LoL Considering it's been barely 28 hours since I turned the paper in. :) I was thinking an A- was more likely, but I got an A! Office hours probably helped a lot. LoL

Formally got my A- grade for stats (already knew that since we get the same grade for Winter/Spring quarters). I should be getting an A in marine processes (95% on assignments at least). Should get an A in GP, but...who knows. Grade is based off of a few different factors that are more opinion and quality then a real "grade." 207 is my real question mark. Hopefully I did well on the final, though.