Dragons!

I captured a dragon egg. Help my dragon grow by clicking on this link.



Thanks!

PS. I refuse to comment on the fact that I haven't updated the blog in 6 months.

Still Busy

OK, I thought that after that last camping trip they constant strain of "I'm so busy" would fade and I would be free to do a post every day. Not that I believed I would have enough material to write something every day, just that I would have time to do so if I so chose.

The thing is, I don't. I'm working a string of 11-12 hour days this week, plus probably working on Saturday. The project is due Friday, but there's no way it's getting done by then. Understaffing a project for the first 5 weeks doesn't lend itself to meeting deadlines. Also, changing the requirements the week it is due doesn't help, either.

Anyway, I'm off to work now, I'll have to tell you about this terrific book I just finished later.

Schedule

I've been a bit lax about posting lately! My truly sincere apologies. I've been busy.

(That's always the excuse, isn't it? "Sorry I didn't do it, I was busy!!" Yeah right! )

But I actually have been. My schedule for the last week looked like this:

Wednesday evening: Improv, buy and make swaps
Thursday afternoon: run girl scout meeting, drive 4 hours to Nipomo
Friday: run errands for old troop's first big camping competition event, pick girls up at school, go on camping trip
Saturday: camping trip. lose voice.
Sunday: pack up from camping trip, drive 5 hours to get home.
Monday: rest... at work.
Tuesday: drive with HR to recruiting event at Poly, 3.5 hours
Wednesday: Recruiting event. lose voice again, since it was starting to come back. drive back home, 3.5 hours. make it to improv

And the rest of the week is like this:

Thursday: run girl scout meeting, introduce new girl, do camping trip shopping
Friday: shop for mom's party
Saturday: run mom's party. haul ass to girl scout camping trip, get there late.
Sunday: pack up camping gear, return home to air it out.

That's right folks. Two camping trips, one business trip and a b-day party to throw in one 9 day long week. What, your week doesn't have 9 days? Well, that explains why my kitchen smells funny and there are mounds of camping laundry to be taken care of.

Someone wanna clean my house? I'm too busy.

50 Book Challenge

You've probably noticed the list under 50 Book Challenge on the right getting longer and longer, so I expect it's time to share what the point is! Here's the summary from Librarything:

"The 50 Book Challenge is a way to track and share the books you read throughout the year. Some people also choose to set personal goals to read more books, or more non-fiction, or more new books. The point is that it's up to you what you want to do."

For me, the goal was to read at least 50 books in the first year of my blog. I figured I would have no problem with this, since I spend half my life with my nose in a book, but it's been harder than I expected - I assumed I'd reach 50 books in the first 4 months. This coming Friday is the 6 month anniversary of the beginning of this blog, so seems like a good time to assess how my challenge is going.

I also decided that I needed to identify which books were new. You will notice, now, that the list includes books marked (R). This is to signify that they are re-reads, (not adult-only content); books I have read anywhere from 1 to 15 times before. In fact, most of these rereads are my childhood or teen favorites, books I bought in college or books I've had since I was 12. I'm still counting them as part of my 50 book challenge, but I wanted a visual way to see how much I am actually reading for the first time. While I was doing this I noticed that one book is even on the list twice! It's now marked R2. (yeah, yeah, I'm an aspie, get over it)

To summarize, in the last 6 months, I have:
reread 17 books
reread 1 book twice
read 16 new books
started 3 books I intend to finish
started 3 books I do not intend to finish

...making a grand total of 35 books I am counting toward my 50 book challenge. Although I will not be reading 15 books by Friday, I have no doubt that in the next 6 months I will meet the 50 book challenge. Can you?

Grownups

I'm totally stealing this from the comment section of another blog I read. It's a response to someone who said that, as adults, if we liked the subject idea, we can't possibly be "real" adults, and should therefore grow up a bit. Neuffy, the responder, summarized exactly what I thought of this, better than I ever could, so I quote from him directly. Check out the links after the quote to see what he's talking about.

"Neuffy Says:

"The serious work of either a marriage or raising kids?

"Regarding free time: Of course there is copious free time. If you don’t have such amounts of free time, why have you arranged your life that way? From the tone of your comment, it seems that you think those things that are not practical or “serious” are not worthwhile. In my experience, it is precisely those things that are most precious.

"Sure, they aren’t what “grown-ups” do, but that is precisely the point of the comic: “Because we’re grown-ups now, and it’s our turn to decide what that means.” As long as the basic necessities of life are not being neglected (income/sanitation/hygiene/nutrition/etc), then this is the “serious work” of life.

Examples of things that I group in with ball-pits: An afternoon couching. An evening fire with dry ice and water-filled bottles. Fancy dress for a no-occasion dinner out. Snow forts/Igloos. Ticklefights. Lego nights. Dress-up parties. Strange-food dinner (eg. peanut butter pizza). Impromptu public plays.

"The reason this resonates so intensely with such a large number of people is precisely because it involves the kind of life-definition that seems sadly lacking in the archtypes laid out for us as life-models.

"Then again, maybe I’m just baised. My parents were a musician and an artist, and they did what they loved throughout their lives, and managed to raise children while doing so. They didn’t make the kind of sacrifice that it seems is being implied. I’ve also seen what I feel is the near-inevitable end result of self-sacrifice in the name of “maturity”: People who are burnt-out, inactive, have routines and habits set in stone, and really do not take joy from life.

"I know which life I want. I think that this idea symbolizes the choice of favoring strangeness and joy over practicality and seriousness."

Hear, hear!

If you managed to read this far, check out these links:
The comic that started it all.
The Blog to go with the comic that started it all.
A company that installed a ball pit.
And so did Google: Scroll to "Kidtastrophe."

Now, using Xkcd's Ball Pit Calculator, you may all donate to my fund. I need about $5000 to create a ball pit in our spare room.

Fail

The good news is, my results came yesterday.

The bad news is, as you can tell, I didn't pass. I scored a 130 out of a possible 294. The cutoff score was 153. I'm feeling pretty miserable about it, and I didn't sleep well last night. I was looking forward to it so much because I thought I had passed. Now I get to swallow my pride and tell people that I didn't pass. With a 45% passing rate, I'm not sure how I expected to pass on my first try, anyway.

This is the first time in my life I've ever completely failed a test.

I'll just be over there, having a pity party. You're all invited!

I'm alive

I'm alive and counting down to next week, but it's making my anxiety attacks worse.

I've been having anxiety attacks right before bed for years. You know the kind I mean - you lie down in bed, last thing in the day, and your brain starts going over things that happened during the day. Suddenly you are cringing at yourself inside. "Why in the HELL did I say that to *HER*? What possessed me to behave in such an odd way?! I wish I hadn't shouted at soandso. Am I doing the right thing by leading my scout troop in to do such and such?"

Ok, so maybe I'm the only crazy person who feels this way at bedtime, I really don't know. It makes it hard to fall asleep, though, so I have gotten into the habit of telling myself little stories at bedtime. I make a conscious effot to push all that anxiety into a little space at the back of my mind, and then I concentrate on my story. I should really write them down at some point, but for some reason, I can't remember them the next morning!

Anyway, the anxiety attacks have gotten worse. I still only have them at bedtime, and I still can push them to the back of my mind. But now I have anxiety DREAMS as well. I woke up one night this week after a dream in which I was upset because - get this - I yelled at my grandmother. I felt so guilty I sat down and cried (in the dream) and then my sister opened all my wedding presents. Ok, it was just a dream, but obviously I am juxtaposing all my anxiety from the day onto family members. In any case, Grandma, I'm really sorry I yelled at you!

I really need to work on controlling my anxiety. Somehow I doubt that waiting on my test results is the true problem. I have a feeling this is a genetic anxiety disorder that I need to learn to live with. I'm like my mother in so many other ways, it's not surprising that I am like her in this, too!

If anyone asks...

I want some of these for my birthday: http://www.chicobag.com/

They look pretty cool, they are WAY better than using plastic bags, they'd fit in my purse and the reviews are decent. They are not very expensive, either, 5 of the same color for $20 from the links on the chicobag website or $3.85 for plain white ones from Amazon.

Most of the bad reviews (4/300+ were bad) were because the bags came with defects. I'm not sure the people realized that the bags are under a one year warranty, though. Even if they didn't come with information on the warranty, it shouldn't be that hard to call the company and find out how to get them replaced. For that matter, it seems like it would be easy to run a second seam myself.

I'm looking forward to getting some of these!

Your suburb...

I'm going to start a new line of jokes. Forget "your momma" insults. Let's try "your suburb" instead! I'll start. Your suburb has so much sprawl, the UN just recognized it as its own country. Your suburb is so environmentally unfriendly that they give tickets to anyone not driving an SUV! Your suburb is so vehicle dependent they recently took out the bike lanes on a major thoroughfare! Your suburb is so apathetic, there's only one pollng place in town! Your suburb is so ostentatious it has more golf course acreage than strip malls (and that's saying a lot!) Your suburb is so SUBURBAN that the children think "downtown" means the place with all the strip malls.

Now it's your turn! If you can't come up with any good ones, no problem. Guess which one is true about my suburb! Go ahead, guess. I'll wait.

Well, ok, several of those are true, but if you guessed "removed bike lanes" you are closest! Recently, on a major thoroughfare, they wanted to widen the street. It's the main access from our latest zone of sprawling suburbia to the interstate freeway. Two lanes was just not going to cut it anymore, so they widened it in both directions to three lanes. Unfortunately, in doing so, they took away the bike lanes. Now, in one direction, there is a sidewalk labeled "bike route" which invites bicyclists and pedestrians to share a 6 foot wide strip of pavement. In the other direction, there's nothing. Did I mention this is the steepest hill in town? A bicyclist may choose, on the way down - coast down the bike route and risk hitting a pedestrian? or coast down with 3 lanes of heavy traffic and risk being hit by a vehicle?

This matters to me because last week I started riding my bike to and from work. My plan is to ride Mondays, Wednesdays and Fridays. It takes less time than walking, and it's better excersize, too. Already I've seen some changes: I can now see my thigh muscles, and today it was easier than ever to ride at higher speeds. I still walk up the steep hill on my way to work, though I'm confident that eventually, if I stick to it, I'll be in good enough shape to ride up. I'd love to tell you how great the scenery is (I know it is, I walked it enough) but when I'm riding, I have to concentrate too much. Our lovely suburban town has an awful lot of gravel and rocks in the bike lanes.

The thing is, for a suburban town, the roads really aren't safe for a cyclist, and not just because they took out the bike lanes in one stretch of road or that the bike lanes have gravel where they exist. The same day as my first ride to work, a 10 yo boy on his way home from school was hit by the short school bus and killed at a blind intersection. The following Monday, a 13 yo girl was hit by a drunk driver in a mini van who was dropping his own children off at school. I'm not surprised that they were hit; I've had my own experiences with really scary drivers, on the same two days!

Friday, on my way down the hill (the one where they took out a bike lane) there was a stupid driver who stopped abruptly with her tail end stuck out into the next lane over while she was stopped at a red light. To avoid running smack into her, I had to swerve out into traffic, luckily with nothing coming. Her action would have been stupid even without a cyclist right behind her; traffic in the next lane hadn't stopped, and they go 40 miles an hour down that hill. When I finally made it around the corner, and into the bike lane, she was driving just behind me, half into the bike lane, and drifting even further over. I was sure I was about to die. Luckily someone honked at her and she started paying attention. When she finally did pass me, I peered in at her. She was unwrapping an ice cream bar. Now, I'm overweight too. I understand the need to be eating an ice cream bar on the way home to dinner. But lady, get fat on your own time! Get away from my back tire!

Monday I had a similar instance, this time with a man who sped up when I signaled left. What kind of idiot tries to cut off a bicyclist? I'll tell you what kind... a man in a beemer with something to prove!

After much discussion, my husband and I decided that it's just too dangerous to use that route in the evenings. He came up with an alternate route for me. I complained bitterly that it was a mile longer and had 2 extra hills, but he was right, it was much safer. It has a bicycle lane the entire length and I don't have to turn left until I'm at a special intersection designed for bicyclists. Despite my original complaints, I am very pleased with the new route. Instead the old way, with a mile of uphill and half a mile of (dangerous) downhill, the new route has half a mile of moderate uphill and about 2 miles of downhill. The two extra hills turned out to be little blips I barely noticed. Indeed, I didn't notice the extra mile at all. I wouldn't want to use it the other way (two miles of uphill? EEK!) but I like all the coasting I did on the way home!

Yes, I said coasting. Those bicyclist enthusiasts out there would, if they ever read this blog, indubitably shake their heads over me. But it's not my fault, I swear! I DO know that it's better not to coast on a downhill like that. It's my bike that is the problem. It's not in the worst shape it could be, thanks to my husband, but it's not in great shape either. For example, I cannot shift out of the middle chainring gear. Instead of the 21 gears I should have access too, I only have 7. My top coasting speed of 20mph is not nearly high enough to compete with traffic going 40-50. What I really need is a nice road bike instead of my heavy mountain bike that has to be dragged up the hills. Given our bike lanes here, I'm almost glad I can't afford a road bike. How would I deal with gravel on a road bike?

Modern Medicine

A friend of a friend of mine started taking medication for a thyroid condition yesterday. Now, coming from a family with dysfunctional thyroids right and left, I was completely understanding that someone would need medicine for an under-producing thyroid, even a young someone. But no, they are giving her medicine to DESTROY her thyroid. She has an over-working thyroid, for which her doctor prescribed radioactive iodine. After the effects of the radioactive medicine wear off, she will be on prescription medication for the rest of her life to make up for a "damaged thyroid condition." Now, I've read the effects an overactive thyroid can have, and they aren't pretty. But neither are the symptoms of a damaged thyroid that underachieves.

My first reaction (when I finally worked out what they were giving the medication for) was that some crazy doctor in her third world country needed to go back to school. Then I did a bit of research. It turns out that my first reaction was one of prejudice: destructive prescriptions for this condition are standard medical practice even in the US. This shocks me even more.

What has modern medicine come to, that we BREAK a working part of our bodies, causing a different life long problem, to stop certain symptoms? Is this where the height of technology has lead us to? Damaging our bodies? I find it hard to believe that these medical research companies can come up with nothing to treat the symptoms of an overactive thyroid other than to injure it past repair. You may laugh and call me a holistic Californian, but I see a problem here! To me, permanently damaging our bodies in the name of medicine is like the practice of bloodletting: for YEARS doctors thought it was a good idea, only to find out they were doing their patients more harm than good.

I feel that this issue is a symptom of a larger problem I have personally noticed humans doing for a few years now, though it has probably been happening for decades without my awareness. It's the practice of trying to fix a problem we caused in nature by changing nature further. Some examples of this include: "oh dear, we damaged the natural watershed system beyond repair and now the river floods, let's build a dam!" and then the new reservoir destroys whole villages and wipes out 4 varieties of fish. Or: "Hey, when we built this road, we created a ditch that breeds mosquitoes with West Nile virus, so let's spray everything with pesticides" and then we get 3 legged frogs and children with asthma and food you can't eat off the tree. Or: "Hey, we tried to plant the prairie with farms and now all the dirt is spinning up in our faces and the buffalo have died, lets go do the same thing 400 miles north!" How about: "Uh oh, gasoline prices are going up, let's set a whole lot of it aside, expensively, so we have some to sell in the future!"

This is not sustainable living, folks. Nor is permanently destroying a working part of our bodies to fix a problem. Doctors, Scientists, Army Corps of Engineers, Environmentalists: If you cannot find a natural way to fix the problem, which DOES NOT CAUSE MORE HARM, then don't try!

Counting Down

I have now finished the test! They don't actually say what day the results will arrive, just that they will be sent out "in approximately 29 days." So I'm hoping they'll arrive on April 17. Check out the cool countdown I added on the right. I love the dancing mailboxes!

I returned all my borrowed study books to my boss. I am going to tidy the library room so all my books and papers are neatly hidden away on their appropriate shelves. Then I'm going to fold up the table and not study ever again! Or at least not until July/August, when I want to take my LEED AP exam...

Cross your fingers for the results!

Never bank with CitiBank!

Next to Wells Fargo, I'd say Citi is the WORST banking service I've tried. They're simply out to make a buck using predatory lending practices, a variety of tricks to charge fees, and random services being added to my account, which they then charge for. I charged most of my college costs to my credit card, then (being a college student) defaulted one to many times. What with my 32% interest, I was actually (almost) relieved to find out they cancelled my account when some jerk executive lost his laptop.

Since my account has been closed, I do not have access to Citi's online computer banking, which is the only free way to make a payment to them. Not that the online banking wasn't without drawbacks, but it was better than pay-by-phone or mail. Over the phone they charge $14.95, and by mail they *always* claim the payment was late and charge a late fee, no matter what day I mailed it. Actual customer service rep, 2 years ago: "No, we don't count the date stamp. It doesn't matter when your payment is received in our office, it's when we process it. As a way to avoide the fees, we suggest mailing it on the 10th of each month. Yes, we know you don't get the bill until the 20th, yes, we know it isn't due until the 30th. Send us the check anyway."

So I'm limited to the phone service, which costs $15 each time to pay my bill (still cheaper than a $30 late payment fee). Normally this is a painful process. I call in, type in a random number 3 times because they won't even direct the call you give your 16 digit account number, which I don't have since I cut my card up. I could wait for the bill, but I probably wouldn't get it in time to make the payment. Invariably, after typing some random numbers in, I get a message saying to wait for a rep, and then there is a technical malfunction which usually results in me getting hung up on. Then I get to repeat the process! When I finally get the stupid automated phone service to connect me to customer service, the people at the other end are normally polite and friendly, even though they have to charge me $15 and can't make it possible to pay online.

Today, though, TODAY took the cake. Not only did I have the normal problems with the phone system, but, well, here's the conversation I had with the rep:

Rep: Can you tell me your account number?
me: no, I can't, I don't have the bill with me (since it comes next week), and I don't have the card anymore
Rep: can you tell me just the last 4 digits?
me: um... no.
Rep: What is your ssn?
me: ***-**-****
Rep: ok, can you tell me the password?
me: *****
Rep: Your hint is "What is blahblahblah?"
me: still *****...
Rep: ok, what would you like to do today?
me: make a $250 payment
Rep: your balance is blahblahblah
me: ok, I'd like to make a payment of $250
Reo: would you like to make a payment today?

me: OMFG! ARE YOU EVEN LISTENING TO ME?!

Ok, ok, I didn't REALLY say that last line. I just thought it.

anyway:
me: um... yes
Rep: how much would you like to pay?
me: $250
Rep: I see you made a payment on March 4 for $200
me: *silence* (thinking: uh... thanks for telling me?)
Rep: so how much would you like to pay today?
me: $250
Rep: I see you've made previous payments by phone.
me: yes. I'm now making another, for $250
Rep: there's a $15 charge
me: yeah, I know
Rep: do you still want to make a payment over the phone?
me: yes. for $250 (hadn't I said it enough yet?)
Rep: ok, do you want me to include the $15 payment?
me: yes, but I'd like it on my card, please
Rep: ok, your charge will be for $265
me: no, I want to make a payment for $250
Rep: there is a $15 pay-by-phone fee
me: you can put that on the credit card (usually they ask me how I want to pay the fee)
Rep: ok, $250 is your new charge. Will there be anything else today?
me: (wtf new charge?) Can I have my confirmation number?
**click**
me: /sigh

... They've hit a new low, folks! Now I have to call back and make sure my payment went through for the right month. Take my advice and NEVER, EVER, BANK WITH CITIBANK!!!!

So you know I'm still alive...

I am writing here what I memorized last night.

The purpose of the California Historic Building Code is to provide for the preservation, restoration, relocation, rehabilitation or continued use of a qualified historic building through the use of flexible code provisions to preserve architectural elements or features, encourage energy efficiency, provide disabled access, allow for cost efficient projects, and provide for the health and safety of building occupants. These flexible code provisions fall into 7 categories, each of which uses the flexible provisions differently. They are: Occupancy/Use, Fire Protection, Egress, Accessibility, Structure, Archaic Materials and Methods, and Mechanical, Electrical and Plumbing Systems.

Seriously, I memorized that.

Don't expect anything worthwhile from me this week, the test is in only 7 days.

The Good News and the Bad News... and the REALLY Good News

I opened the drier this morning, intending to check the clothing inside for dampness, and spotted my ATM card sticking up from the top of the lint vent. This happens to me a lot. Since my purse strap broke, I've gotten into the habit of putting my cards in my back pockets, which is all well and good until I forget they are in there and wash my pants. The signature on the back of my ATM card has been washed off now. So I reached into the opening and pulled on my ATM card, which came out pretty easily. Then there was a slithery sound and a faint clunk, and I hastened to pull the lint screen out.

The good news is that I found my BART card. It had $9.50 on it, so I was pretty upset about losing it. Just a dollar more and I can go round trip to SF. I'm glad I found it! But it was INSIDE the vent line, through the tiny little slot in which the vent screen fits. I tried everything to get it out. My hand does not fit in there! I tried a pair of pliers (too short) a pair of vice grips (still too short) and a long handled spatula (long enough, but no gripping power). I looked at the way the front of the drier fit on, realized I was running out of time, and decided not to attempt taking it apart. At that point, I got frustrated, and almost walked away, since it was only $10. I didn't need it right then. And then I saw the bad news.

The bad news is that I also found my driver's license, about 6" deeper inside the drier. Now, I know my hand didn't fit, but my first inclination (a stupid one) was to try to jamb my hand in there anyway. Then I tried the spatula again, and succeeded in driving my license deeper inside. Grr! Finally I got smart and looked at things logically. Since the front of the drier couldn't easily be removed, I examined the vent screen slot, made up of plastic parts. Those were only held on by 4 screws, and (in my search for the vice-grips) I had already located a screwdriver! Miracle of miracles, it was even a phillips head!

The really good news is 2 skinned knuckles and a bumped head later, my driver's license is now safely(?) in my back pocket with my ATM card, and I didn't even break the drier!

In other news, sorry I haven't written in so long (all of my loyal 2 lurkers). I've been spending every spare moment studying for my exam. 11 days to go. Hold your thumbs, cross your fingers, hang up a horseshoe, find a four leaf clover, carry a rabbits foot and wear green for me on March 18.

Lousy Night, Beautiful Morning

Last night was lousy. We did 2 more assault after getting one person in the static CS rank. With just 4 of us left, we did Apkallu Breeding, then Stop the Bloodshed from S rank. The first one went well, but the second one sucked.

We lost, and the blame really should have been spread all around; the new guy in our assault didn't really know what to do, one person had bad lag and kept getting lethal aggro, one managed to track aggro into a safe area and get the last 2 living people killed, and then I didn't raise the second rdm because I thought we had cleared, so I was just running for the end. Then I died... reraised at a bad moment, and we lost. Unfortunately, the blame, which really should have spread around evenly landed squarely on me. This caused shouting and fighting and going to bed angry.

Going to bed angry is always a bad idea - I can't sleep well, I wake up STILL angry, and on top of being angry I'm grouchy from lack of sleep! So this morning I woke in an evil mood. Then came the walk to work, in the sunrise. I was so wrapped up in being miserable and angry and grouchy and annoyed that a stupid video game caused fighting that I didn't even notice what a beautiful day it was until I had already walked 4 miles. Then I got grouchy even more because I had missed the sunrise for being too grouchy. Sunrise, to me, is the best part of the day, and today's sunrise must have been nice, because it's a clear, beautiful day out there.

So far walking to change my mood is not producing the overall effect I had hoped for. On the other hand, with the moleskin I bought yesterday, my feet don't hurt nearly as bad as they did on Friday!

Moisture and Temperature

So I walked to work again for the first time since we moved in September. It took longer than I expected because I missed estimating the mileage. I thought it was about 3 miles, but it turned out to be 4.5. Oddly enough, it only took me 15 minutes longer to walk than I expected. I had given myself 1.25 hours, and it took me 1.5. I plan to keep walking on Mondays, Tuesdays and Fridays. I've also invited a couple people from work to join me, if they'd like to park their cars at my house and walk in with me.

Today, when I left the house, the sun wasn't up, and it was terribly foggy. I had to take my glasses off. It was cold enough that my breath steamed them up every time I breathed out. As the sun came up, it melted the fog away. It's a beautiful day out there!

I started out wearing a sweatshirt because of the fog and the cold, but by the time I was halfway up the hill, I had to take it off. So I hiked the rest of the way up the hill with bare arms. What I found interesting about this was the way my skin felt to the touch. I expected that the outside of my arms would get cold and clammy. My hair already was wet on top, just from the fog, so the outside of my arms getting cold and wet made sense. What actually happened was that my arms stayed warm on the outside, but got cold on the underside, where they were close to the rest of my body. I have no idea what caused that!

Over the hill there is a big fountain with an ashlar step waterfall and a wood bridge over the pond. I figured there would be spray from the fountain, but I couldn't get that much more wet than the fog had already made me. However, I didn't feel like I got sprayed by the fountain because as I walked across that bridge, I noticed an extreme change in temperature. All of a sudden, I was warm. It must have been at least 60F on the bridge! I know it's supposed to be more temparate near bodies of water, but I am pretty sure that doesn't create a 15 degree differential at a little tiny pond, less than 2 feet deep! I think what caused the difference was that fountains here use recycled water, so it was warm because people were up and taking showers and the water stayed warm clear to the fountain. At least, that was the only reasonable explanation.

I'm doing my part to save the environment (and my wallet, and my body) by walking to work 3 days a week. I also drive a hybrid, when I do drive. Some people drive ethanol powered vehicles, but according to these reports, they aren't actually helping the environment any! What are YOU doing?

Busy like a little bee...

I've been busy studying for a while now. Every night except Wednesday was the plan. But it's been such an awful week that I do believe I will give myself the evening off.

Improv is going wonderfully. I got asked to be in the improv troupe, which isn't as big a deal as I make it out to be; everyone who managed to continue their membership from March or earlier last year was asked to be in the troupe. We're working on characterization. I'm still spotty - some nights I am all over the funny, and some nights I am... well, not. Ask anyone who was in our first week's class about the "F*** Cake." Just don't ask them about me trying to act nervous.

With the Girl Scouts, I'm both pleased and upset over some things that are happening. We had a "Party Meeting" last week, which my coleader didn't quite get - she kept trying to take over. I was late and it rained HARD on the day we were supposed to go for a walk on the trail. I have parents non participado (yeah, I'll substitute spanish for latin any day) who think that I'm going to just magically make the program appear without their help. And I had a parent who just up and left 4 girls unattended on campus...

On the good side, tomorrow is Discoveree, which I am quite looking forward to. I've signed up for some games classes, a singing class, an outdoor class, and a troop activity class. I'm carpooling with the troop's camping dad. I was going to eat lunch with my coleader, because I hate eating alone, but my coleader bailed. Hopefully I can find a friendly face to hang out with for lunch. Otherwise I'm going to lurk around the camp training field and try to pretend I was in the class the whole time so I can eat lunch with the camping dad. http://www.girlscoutsbayarea.org/pages/for_volunteers/training/discoveree.html
I'm excited!

Gotta run, they are breaking ground on the Fire Station Project I spent 4 months of my life on. I'm excited about this, too!

Getting my Hopes Up

As you all know, my current supervisor... hmm... nicely put, he's senile. (Yes, that is nicely put. I could say a lot worse!) His job is "Studio Manager," which means he is in charge of running the schedule, making sure the work goes to the right people, and checking our work before it goes to the department head. He fails at all three. Instead, typically, he tries to do my job, either leaving me nothing to do or assigning me work I would have assigned to someone less expensive. I feel I could do his job better than he does it, and I'm an Aspie! (We're not too good at the inter-relations part of management.) This is the same guy who kept threatening me with taking away a promotion to my current job.

I know it's hard for firms to hire experienced architects these days. The recession in the early 90's followed by the silicon boom means there are precious few architects in their 40s at the moment. As entry level architects, many lost their jobs in the recession and then went into a different line of work, leaving those of us carrying on in the third millenium with few architects who have 15-20 years of experience. We are importing many from other states, but California's licensing process is both a deterrent and a roadblock. Intellectually, I know these things. My emotions, however, are simply annoyed that my company could manage to hire such an incapable bufoon.

The lack of mid-level architects is a large part of the reason there are so few female architects I can model myself after. Although schools of architecture have been graduating roughly equal numbers of male and female architecture students for around 20 years, very few stayed in the discipline. Because architects, once licensed, may remain licensed until they are dead, it leaves us looking at the older generation for the m/f architect statistics, which makes things decidedly uneven.

Fortunately, my department finally hired a new project architect, who starts next Monday. Project Architect is the title of the position between the Studio Manager and me. Now, I'm a couple months away from getting my license, so eventually she and I will be on the same level, but for now, she will be a buffer between my current supervisor and me. (Please? I'm begging here!) Yes, that's right, I said SHE. This will be my first female boss in the architecture profession! I've met a few female architects before. There were 2 at my last company, fighting against that firm's glass ceiling. There was one that I met through the girl scouts while in high school. I'm so pleased to finally have a role model. She even has 2 small children! I can model how she balances work and family life!

I hope I am not getting my expectations up too high. I want so much from this woman: a decent technical architect, a personable manager, a buffer to take the crap from mister senile, a role model for an architecture mother, and a mentor. That would be a hard enough combination to live up to, without also having to report to a senile studio manager!

Shrugsville

Because it takes a village to raise a city.

New Year's Resolutions

Yeah, it's the 10th already. So what?

Here are my resolutions:

1. I will discuss with my doctor my potential Aspergers Syndrome and visit see a specialist.

Your Aspie score: 140 of 200
Your neurotypical (non-autistic) score: 55 of 200
You are very likely an Aspie


2. I will get my architect's license by passing the board exam on the first try. (please?)

3. I will study for my oral board exam at least 4 nights and one day per week.

4. I will get an 10% or greater raise. Check.

5. I will become pregnant.

6. I will see a specialist about my knee.

7. I will have the brake pads repaired on my car before I ruin the rotors. (I really hope it isn't too late)

8. I will go camping at least twice this year, and at least one of those times will include Justin.

9. I will do the dishes more than once a week.

10. I will buy shoes that do not leak.

11. I will build a mini city. Please visit me!

What I can Be

I'm pleased with the news from New Hampshire. So pleased, in fact, that I can't help but break into song:

Hey hey bo diddly bop
I wish I was back on the block
With my guitar in my hand
I would be a rockin’ woman

A rockin' woman

Hey hey bo diddly bop
I wish I was back on the block
With my surfboard in my hand
I would be a surfer chick

A surfer chick,
A rockin' woman

Hey hey bo diddly bop
I wish I was back on the block
With my pitchfork in my hand
I would be a farmin’ woman

A farmin' woman,
A surfer chick,
A rockin' woman

Hey hey bo diddly bop
I wish I was back on the block
With my basketball in my hand
I would be a basketball star

A basketball star,
A farmin' woman,
A surfer chick,
A rockin' woman

Hey hey bo diddly bop
I wish I was back on the block
With my test tubes in my hand
I could be a scientist

A scientist,
A basketball star,
A farmin' woman,
A surfer chick,
A rockin' woman

Hey hey bo diddly bop
I wish I was back on the block
With my clipboard in my hand
I would be the president

The president,
A scientist
A basketball star,
A farmin' woman,
A surfer chick,
An alien,
A rockin' woman

Hey hey bo diddly bop
I’m glad I’m not back on the block
Girl Scouts is the place for me.
It's where I learn what I can be.

What I can be:
The president,
A scientist
A basketball star,
A farmin' woman,
A surfer chick,
A rockin' woman

We're rooting for you, Hillary!

Growing up at last

For many years as a older child, I refused to go read in the "Young Adult" section in the library. I preferred, even at 14, to read books in the children's area. It's not that I had poor reading skills. It's just that the themes in the Young Adult books didn't appeal to me. They seemed to be all about either girls who were so vacuous that they could have been black holes, or about teens making out. Neither type of book interested me. By the time I was 18, though, not only was I feeling uncomfortable in the children's section (you get a lot of weird looks from the librarians) but I was finding that the books were far to short. I'd just start to get interested, and the story would end!

As a college student, I continued to visit the children's section of my campus library. For one thing, the campus library used the library of congress model instead of dewey decimal. All the adult fiction was mixed straight in with the non-fiction. That's hardly a good way to find a good read! For another, the children's books were all older. The library had a very tiny budget for their children's section, so all the books tended to be from the 50s to the late 70s. They were books I had never read before, since my public library expunged their older books. I loved exploring there, especially the smell of the old books!

Harry Potter changed all that. My mother lent me a copy of the first book, which I read in one afternoon on the concrete stoop in the daycare playroom. It was hardly a comfortable place to read, but I was too enthralled with the book to get up and move to the couch 4 feet away. I knew the next 2 books were already out, so when I got back to the university, I went to the library to find them. Now, I mentioned that my university hadn't had any money for books since the 1970s. They only got 6 new children's books a year! Harry Potter was not something they carried. A trip to the bookstore with my first paycheck of the year was clearly in order!

At SLO's B&N, I could not find the first 3 HP books. I searched all through the kids section and couldn't find them! Finally I asked... turns out HP were "young adult" books. What, me? Reading a teen book? Couldn't be. I read kids books! But then I realized something. B&N carried all kinds of Young Adult books. They even had a couple shelves labeled "Fantasy" books in the YA section! Finally, I could read the same themes I read as a kid in the children's section, but longer! Over time, I discovered some of my favorite authors in the teen section: Tamora Pierce, Diana Wynne Jones, Diane Duane, Charles DeLint, Dia Calhoun and Pamela Dean.

Justin also introduced me to Douglas Adams, Terry Pratchett and Robert Asprin, from the adult book fantasy section, but I found nothing else in that section enjoyable. Over 75% of the books in that section had covers with women in skimpy clothing holding swords. Before you say "Don't judge a book by the cover!" think about it. These books are about a male main characater who has a female partner that he rescues... constantly. I HATE these kind of books. They are the teenage boys' version of the vacuous girl books! Even when the woman is the main character, most of the time, she ends up falling into a man's arms and ignoring her quest! Once again, the themes just didn't appeal to me. Aside from Terry Pratchett and Robert Asprin, I stuck to the YA section.

After I graduated college, I found that I began to get looks from the bookstore employees and teenage girls when I went in the YA section. They were the same looks that I used to get from the childrens' librarians. Guys! Don't worry! I'm just reading!! I promise, I won't hurt anything! Mind you, I give the same look to old men who are in the YA section. But they aren't there for the books, right? So for a few years now, I've felt slightly uncomfortable in the YA section. It doesn't help that half the people I know make rude remarks when I say I like to read those books (you know who you are!). I'm not self confident enough to not worry about the remarks and the looks. I am confident enough to keep doing what I want despite these negative ninnies.

I truly see no problem with reading kids' books until age 18, anyway. Isn't that what Young Adult means? a YOUNG ADULT! How is 15 or 16 a young adult?! I realize that there needs to be a place for teens in the library/bookstore. Someone has to read all those Babysitter club books, after all! But I see no problem with skipping that section altogether. Not everyone wants to read about how the popular girl made fun of the outcast and kissed the jocks. I also see no problem with a 25 year old in the YA section. That's still a YOUNG ADULT!

Having said that, I realized a few months back that I am starting to tire of the YA section. I'm once again finding that I've read (and own) almost all the books that catch my interest in that section. Also, they're starting to be too short again. I've spent slightly more time in the Adult Science fiction/fantasy section lately, but I'm still running into the same problems. Can't anyone write a good feminist themed book, without talking animals and a love story (see Daughter of the Empire)? Hmm... I wonder what would happen if the talking animals fell in love with the vacuous teen girl!

So imagine my surprise last Saturday when I happened upon Charles DeLint's books while wandering through the adult fantasy section! Apparently, all those books I listed on my Amazon wish list and couldn't find in the bookstore? They have been there the whole time! I was just looking in the wrong place!! I'm pleased to actually find something worth reading in that section. Maybe this is the start of a whole new era!