areolas: (keery)
had my class presentation last week & just got the grade back, 95! Some comments about how I talked fast (which i knew) but man whatever an A is an A I don't care.

So today was my second pressing concern, the gyno appt and my first pap test. I should have gone before now but I spent my 20s neglecting my health checkups lmao so I'm catching up in my 30s. Next stop dentist I guess.

It was... ok. Like it wasn't the worst experience of my life and my dr was nice. She at least listened and had concerns about my issues with bleeding outside of my period. We chatted about how if my results all come back normal we'll meet again and talk more about it and see what next steps are. Hopefully it's just all down to stress and hormones and maybe it'll be an easy fix. She didn't seem extremely concerned which is good, because non-hpv cervical cancer is an extremely small chance which I didn't know!

So, whatever. Ultimately I'm glad I sucked it up and went and am taking care of myself how I should be doing just to be on the safe side. What I'm extremely glad about is they no longer suggest getting the test yearly lol they suggest 3-5 years these days, whew!

Anyway bleeding again after the stupid scraping test which she warned me about but is annoying!!!!!

whatev whatev my project is due Tuesday so I have to work on that, I should see my results in the next couple days and know what I'm doing next soon. fingers crossed i am NOT dying after all
areolas: (rl penny)
Can't believe I haven't posted in so long, but at the same time I think it tracks. I've been busy in general and haven't had the mental energy to spare for journaling.

Next week i have my final project presentation for my class (a dnd linguistic analysis project) and then ~2 weeks after that is the final due date. Today I registered for my final class of grad school!!!!! Mostly I am just SO ready to be done even if I have 0 plans for after

Anyway the past few months I've been having weird pre-period spotting like consistently 10 days before my period and intermittently up to my period starting. It happened in like May and I saw my gp about it who said it happens and don't worry about it. But it happened again now in Feb and now in April like consistently and more bleeding and for way too long.

I made the appointment today to see a gyno for a smear and a checkup bc I've been very bad and actually have never gone before... ever. It's not wise but I have no concerning family history and I'm ace so it's not like I've been worried about a lot of the sexual concerns obv. But still I should have been going. I'm only finally taking medical responsibility for myself after neglecting to for....... my entire 20s.

Anyway I have to get it out because I have to be able to focus on other things until my appointment.

I did some googling (bad!) and I'm trying very hard to not spend the weeks leading up to my appointment convincing myself it's cervical cancer but I mean it's a very real possibility. I know it's much much much more likely just like, hormonal changes of hitting mid 30s, perimenopause?????, maybe polyps? endometriosis? stress even?

idk it's highly unlikely it's cervical cancer and I just have to keep reminding myself of that. Or if it is, hopefully it's early. hopefully they can just take out the whole ute and leave it at that, i aint using it. she's brought me nothing but unpleasantness anyway.

appointment on the 22nd, results hopefully soon after that. I'll drop by with how that all goes, I guess!

oh YEAH ALSO im pretty sure i can feel my mouth trying to produce another salivary gland stone which is painful and unfun and wack so im very much looking forward to that finally happening
areolas: (coop llama)
At the end of July we went to the Hozier concert in Pittsburgh and I kept being like "I need to write a post about that" and then.... not doing it. but then didn't want to write some other post before that one, and then I just fell into a hole of never posting anything at all.

Well I'm at work and I'm bored so what better time than now.

The Hozier concert was fun, there, that's that whole update. It was nice, we got to go for free and had decent seats. And then the two tallest women on Earth came and sat in front of us, but we could more or less see. It was nice and cute, he played more than one of my faves, and his opening act was really good!
Toward the end he gave a speech about the effectiveness of protesting and went on to talk about how Palestine should be free and that what's happening there is a genocide, and a couple people near us left!!! It's possible, I guess, that they left because it was toward the end and they wanted to beat leaving traffic (a good idea, it took us over an hour just to get out of the lot alone) or if they were offended by his message. It's insane to imagine the second option bc so many of his songs are so political and about like, the ravages of colonialism lol like ???? what did you expect him to say?

The concert was fun. I finished my summer class in August and managed to pull off an A even with my miserable midterm grade lol. Idk what else has happened since then which is why it's not smart to take 2 and a half months away from posting here. Started my fall semester, phonetics and computational linguistics & I'm really liking both! The semester is rocketing past, I already had a midterm last week. I did the math and I think I'm graduating in the spring!! THANK GOD.

Speaking of math though, I got an update on the public service loan forgiveness thing I applied for a while ago! I've made 89/120 qualifying payments & I'm set up to have like 30k of loans forgiven in 2027! I'll keep working at this freakin job until then, that's only 2 more years! I feel like I'd be an idiot not to.

We went to see Terrifier 3 at Row House this past weekend. It was good, gory and nasty of course but still good and entertaining. I liked 2 better, overall, but it was still a fun time.
Then last night we went to a bad movie bingo event at a social hall and bar & it was also good! Not the movie, of course, but it was a fun event too. I had a yummy apple cider mimosa that was delicious. About 20 minutes into the movie the guy dropped the laptop playing it and broke it lmao it was tragic. There was a long scramble of them trying to fix it & I felt so bad. I was like I just know in my heart this guy is the sweatiest he's ever been. We declared among us that we would give up and leave at 9:15 & wouldn't you know he got it up and running at exactly 9:15. We stayed and it was fun (I won a tshirt!) but we were all also a little like "yay......." when it got up and running lol. we all just like going and being at home ok.......
areolas: (pearl)
Today was my last class meeting!!!!! It was a surprise announcement, since we still are in session next week technically. But he's giving us Tuesday off to work on our last homework assignment and Thursday is our final exam (online, at home, open book). Tomorrow is my last lab and then I'm FREE! For three-ish weeks. My last assignment is very close to being done, there's one more element I can't quite get working. I'm hoping in lab tomorrow I can get help from my TA with it.
I'm irritated I filled out an OMET for my professor but not for my TA - his is a separate job and should also stand under review. I had a lot to say about how his teaching style could be worked on and improved. For one thing, read the assignments and understand them before the moment you are in front of us. He was constantly telling up wrong things and correcting us for things that were not part of the assignments as written. Second, telling students "oh this part is so easy" is not encouragement and especially not when we're struggling. Hearing where we're struggling and following it up with "this part is so easy" doesn't help, it just makes it sound like what we're struggling with is easy, and we're dumb to struggle with it.

Anyway though! Tonight I'm going to prep for dnd this Saturday (we're getting so close to done with Curse of Strahd, which makes the rewriting I was doing of the sessions on here even harder lol). I'm excited to finish but nervous. I need to make sure the final battle is worth all the build up. I'm still inexperienced in regards to that, and I just want everyone to feel satisfied in the end. They're going to the Amber Temple next which is also a ramp up in combat, so if I can make that compelling I'll feel good. I just think that like..... the book as written is often not very good, and so I'm doing the best I can with what I was given.
Ideally I get my homework finished entirely tonight so I don't have to get help from my TA, JUST have to run it by him and get final approval.

After that, Elden Ring. i finished Horizon Zero Dawn and described it as the world's okayest game. It was fine. It was fun to play. It was pretty. It didn't make me like.... feel much. It didn't inspire an emotion in me lmao. The big twists I saw coming miles ahead.... but it was ok.
Elden Ring is.... an obsession. Full blown. There's no part of me that ever expected I would like a game of this style. I basically always wrote them off bc it didn't even look fun and people who played them just liked to suffer. But it's SO good. It's so pretty, I can see the creators' visions of finding beauty in the grotesque. The fighting is challenging but it's not punishing. It's fun. Finally getting past a boss is so rewarding. Exploring is so fun. I love it. I can't get enough. My eyes open in the morning and I think about how i want to play Elden Ring.

Big week next week! Hozier concert monday night. I took off Tuesday to recover & took off Weds and Thurs as well for my exam.

oh I finally replaced my falling apart brown boots. the replacements are okay, but not nearly as cute. I'm upset.
areolas: (Default)
Sarah goes into work on campus once a week, usually on Wednesday. When it's not too hot we take that as a chance to talk home together at the end of the day. It's a good 2 mile hike that's decently flat or at a gentle downhill for a bulk of the way. Nicely shaded and through a street of shops we can stop by for a treat if we feel like it. Pittsburgh is nice about having plenty of trees around, most of the time. Not at my local bus stop but it is what it is I guess.

Anyway yesterday we left and it was sprinkling a little rain. I had an umbrella & she didn't so we were sharing. Within a few blocks it was downpouring, a few more after that there was thunder rolling through. It was already too late by then though, so we just finished our walk and got home soaked. My dress was soaked to my waist, my underwear were starting to soak, my shoes and socks never stood a chance. My back and backpack were soaked from the water rolling down the umbrella and onto my back.

Nothing was ruined though! A warm shower was really nice once we were home.

Today, then, in class my professor's laptop died and he asked to borrow from someone else. I sit up front so I let him borrow mine. I maximized the coding program on the screen so it covered everything else & was like whatever it's fine. We were working on a code to take an image saved into a file, do something to is, and then save a copy in the same file.

He changed tabs to show the two images side by side and my discord was in the background. You could see the discord is named Unnies, the subtitle is "legolas is a he/him lesbian" and that three of the usernames are hamburger helper, huge jacked man, and twoo thosand dollars and probably that another one is dark vader.
None of these are like, bad things, but they're all stuff we as friends find funny together & having them put on literal display!!! on a huge projector! lmao MAN!!!!!!

I should've thought to close discord before I handed it over but I did not do that. RIP. I sat there while it was on screen in complete agony
areolas: (gennaro)
Having some serious frustrations and it's putting me in a cranky, defeated sort of place. I don't even know WHY which I think only adds to the frustration making it worse.

I worked on my homework, python coding stuff making a program produce a word count using dictionaries, something I learned about the existence and basics of 12 hours ago total. I just feel like I can't do it on my own and if I can't do it on my own why am I bothering to study it? I found the answer I needed to work out what I need to do, doubted it, only half did it and it didn't work. I asked Tony for help & it was the right answer after all & I just didn't implement it correctly.
I know it's just... this is something I learned about the existence of THIS morning and of course I wouldn't understand the full capabilities and functions of it in order to do my homework tonight but I couldn't help like throw a fit about it. I just need to be kinder and gentler to myself and understand it's not easy. Hold myself to the standards I would hold someone else.

I'm frustrated about my midterm grade, work, the fact I'm getting this degree and I don't know what my job goals are once I'm done. I guess it's that same unmoored feeling you get when you're about to graduate high school and undergrad where you don't know what's next.

Anyway I fell in a big slump tonight and idk. I guess I'm kind of still there. Maybe after a good night's sleep it'll pass. I'll get up tomorrow and have a good breakfast. I don't want to go to my lab at all, my TA makes me insane, but whatever. I'll go. I think just having 0 break from school since last summer is really..... wearing me down a little.

Going home this weekend & also feeling mixed about it. Not that I don't want to, it's just a pain to pack the cat up and she hates being at the parents' house so bad. We're going up into the mountains though for a cookout, hang out by the water etc. I'll feel bad leaving the cat alone all day, but she'll survive. Sunday we'll be swimming & I think that'll be nice and refreshing. I hope!

Writing this helped clear my mind a little bit :) I'll be fine

well lmao

Jul. 11th, 2024 04:37 pm
areolas: (keery)
I did NOT do as good on my midterm as I thought I was going to have done. I got like a C+ which is among the lowest grades I've gotten in all my higher ed years. I'm not freaked out about it though, I'm doing well on my projects and I can make up for it that way, and hopefully with the final exam.
Thing is he told us the questions on the test came straight from the book which has questions at the end of every chapter. I reviewed those chapter questions & got all the answers, and when it came time to do the exam they were NOT the same questions. Some of them were similar, but overall they were wildly different entirely, so idk what I was supposed to study. Talked to the other grad student in the class who did about the same as me & said she didn't study at all. So IDK man idk.
Like whatever lol it's just frustrating that I thought I studied the right stuff and it didn't help at all.

Also I recently applied for Public Service Loan Forgiveness for my student loan forgiveness. I checked in on the application this week & it said I had "no loans eligible for PSLF" and that I have loan(s) in forbearance or deferment which............ I don't lol. So I have to call them and ask like, which loan is in deferment and also why and since when. I never requested it, the only pause I've had since before 2015 is the covid pause, nothing else. I don't want to call them I don't freakin want to talk about my account about my loans about my DEBT. I saww the notice & my most immediate thought was "great I'm gonna die with this debt then"

Yesterday I signed up for a payment plan for the fall semester and only house later realized I calculated the amount I'm going to owe wrong (they don't do the math for you, shout out to my stupid job and school) so I also have to call THEM and be like "I made a mistake, what do I do" which is probably just like, the payment plan will readjust once the tuition charge comes through and don't worry about it, but I still would like to know I guess. Gonna have to borrow from my parents again this fall, I think. Sucks.

Making good progress on the crochet skirt. Going to work on my homework a bit and the skirt at the same time. Will worry about money stuff only as much as and when I absolutely have to.
areolas: (Default)
I've had the "post an entry" page on dw for like, a month now. basically since the exact moment I finished writing about fan expo bc I wanted to write about other things going one.

I've just been SO BUSY it's hard to even take a moment to sit down and like, think my thoughts and then put them into words. Summer semester has been going well, though I'm broke as shit because of it. I'm gonna have to borrow money from my parents again for the fall semester, I'm sure of it :( No added debt to my already substantial debt is nice but.... man. rip to me standing a chance to save like, any money.
In a similar line of thought, though, I was able to apply for a public service loan forgiveness federal program bc of working at a publich university. 120 "qualifying payments" and then total forgiveness. I'm still in review... so I'm not sure what qualifying payments really count as. Does the repayment pause from covid not count? Idk... ideally it counts and then I'll be only 2 or 3 years away from that? Which means I'll have been working at Pitt for ten years???? Insane, I never would have imagined it.

Anyway I'm in an undergrad summer class, but luckily there's one other grad student in there, and she's from my program so we already had some familiarity. We've gotten closer in this class & have worked together here and there. We're learning Python & programming & man, it's a lot of information and a really fast pace. I'm doing okay though! Luckily Tony already knows Python pretty will and I've had him around holding my hand during my very tough homework assignments lmao.
My TA is NOT great, he is obviously good at Python but he is not a teacher type. Not encouraging, not very helpful, doesn't listen to questions when they're asked... idk he's frustrating. It's been a great motivator for getting my assignments up and working before lab hours on Friday. They're used for fine tuning weekly assignments, so if you have it up and running you just have to show him & you can leave.

Other than that it's been a usual summer. Too hot. I want to live in a house with air conditioning so badly lmao. I love this apartment. It's the nicest place I've lived on my own and that's why I put up with the rent raising yearly since 2018, but man. HOT.
Donovan is in town from Oklahoma, it's so crazy that I've hardly seen him in a whole year and he's a full 11 year old obnoxious pre-teen. I went home several weeks ago and omg, that's a whole other story. But anyway I went home then and prepped a dnd oneshot to play with him and my parents together & it was fun! He was invested, he did the work, he wasn't deep in the roleplay but he asked the NPCs questions and was invested in the plot and the puzzles. He was sooooo into the combat and doing cool attacks and stuff. He's already asking to do another one before he leaves.
Last weekend he stayed at the apartment with me Friday to Sunday & it was good! He's a little shithead but not like, an awful person. My dad has been so cranky about him being at their house all summer bc he's such an uptight weird freak. Swear he never used to be like that, but he's so..... god. If he's like this now I hate to think on how he'll be as a proper old man. Anyway like yes he's annoying lol he's 11, you just have to be like "anyway, enough of that" and he generally just moved on. Anyway we went shopping around Pittsburgh. He loooooved Kawaii Gifts & everything we found in there. We watched Kiki's Delivery service that night and he was so enchanted, it was so cute. When I told him it was 35 years old he was like WHAT!!!! BUT IT LOOKS SO GOOD STILL. I sent him a list of all the other ghibli movies to watch, so I hope he does.

Anyway. That weekend I went home for our dnd weekend I did a bad bad bad bad friend job. I forgot the date and missed my good friend Shannon's bachelorette party :( I felt so bad, like doodoo trash tier friend. I've been friends with her since starting college in 09 & we've never grown apart. & her fiance is great! I went to her pole dance class showcase the next week though & bought her drinks after to at least try to make up for it. She seemed fine anyway, I called her to apologize the day of & let her know my mistake.

We played strahd dnd this weekend for the first time in almost 3 months! 22 session so far, level 8, I think we'll get to maybe 30 sessions. They ran into some combat today & we stopped short since it'll be a high level, difficult fight, probably a bit long. Excited to get back to it!

WHEW, that's the major stuff. My midterm is this Tuesday but it's all multiple choice and T/F, no writing code. At home test, open book. Every question from the chapters in our book, so as long as I have all the answers to those, I'm golden. He warned us the program notes how often we change tabs but lol it won't know if I'm looking between my laptop and desktop. I took off work monday and tuesday to """"""study""""""" but I have all the answers noted down so I'm just gonna chill instead. I need the time off after the business of fiscal year end. and I can't stand those people lmao i need a break.
areolas: (Default)
god bless it's been a long long time since I've come here for a post. No good reason, either! The end of the semester was a little busy, but not so much that I couldn't pop in for a quick update. My head is finally clear enough now though to do it, so I won't dwell!

No final grade yet for my class, but I think I did pretty well overall! I feel good about the final project I turned in, and I think I did pretty good on my last exam too. We'll see! I get a two week break now and then I have to go right back to it for my summer undergrad class. Something computing for the humanities where I'll be studying Python which is valuable! Hopefully I'll click with it & I can take it with me to some future job.

Speaking of which, I found out my employer is eligible for the public service loan forgiveness program - ten years of eligible student loan repayments (which if you're on an income based program and you owe $0, paying $0 still counts as eligible). I signed up & have to wait for them to approve me and actually calculate how many eligible payments I've made so far. But! I've been at this job 7 years.... if all I have to do to be debt free is finish off 3 more? Hell yeah I'll do it! Hopefully they review my application soon enough.

We've made some good dnd progress. I think we're probably going to be finishing up this campaign in October maybe? If I've estimated correctly. Well, also depending on how often we can play. Two of us are moving states, this summer is busy with travel and I'm still going to be in classes and stuff. I'm guessing 8-10 more sessions, closer to 8 now I think.

This coming week is Fan Expo Philly! I did NOT finish my prey costume, but I'm going to work to finish it for next year instead. Instead we're doing scoops, twin peaks, and nerdy prudes must die. I don't think we'll be necessarily recognizable but that's alright! It'll still be really good. I'll try to remember to get pictures and share them when we get back. that's all for now!
areolas: (pearl)
It's steam's spring sale. I bought a couple of games & tried a demo of another, I haven't liked any of them & returned them all.
Pathologic is supposed to be a classic & I was getting the essence of something interesting, but the gameplay was unpleasant enough I couldn't get past it to keep going. Pathologic 2 is supposed to be less of a sequel and more of a reboot of the game, so maybe I'll try that instead, but not just now. I'm too sick of trying new games and not liking them to be bothered.
Also tried Fear & Hunger which I've heard is good but is one of those I'd need to read like a whole encyclopedia about while playing & idk, that's not something I feel like doing right now either. The environment was kind of interesting?

I got Card Shark, a game set in like 1500s France where you're going around cheating people out of money with various card cons lol. I got to play a card game against Voltaire & I do actually quite like that one!

Otherwise I'm having a good long weekend. Sewed more of my costume a bit & did some cleaning. I'm crocheting some bluebells cause I've finally started my gallery wall & I wanted a little vase thing with some little bluebells in there. I took some inspiration from some of the houses in dishonored 2 actually... some kinda creepy dark arts, framed butterflies (responsibly bought, I promise), these little bluebells, and a cross stitch I've been working on a while.

Anyway I'm gonna work a little bit on some classwork a bit I guess. I don't want to but I have an exam next week and I missed those classes so.... I gotta. I talked to a classmate of mine yesterday, we met for coffee to hang out & she had this same class as me & had similar thoughts to it as I do. It's not taught in a way that connects with me and the paper exams don't make any sense.... but! it is what it is and I have to work around it. Being cranky about it won't make it change.

Still haven't gotten any results toward registering for this summer class. This coming week is going to be me doing everything I can to get that sorted with my advisor and the department. It's also.... very irritating
areolas: (Default)
so.... long time no post huh. It's not even like I've been too busy. I feel like when I'm drowning in work and school it makes me more likely to come in and write a quick post because I'm desperate for the break. I've been less busy the past couple weeks & I've been really wrapped up into spending my spare time reading and working on dnd stuff. We're getting closer and closer to finishing up strahd! But some of the stuff I've been writing down I think is going to be longer than I was initially thinking.

dnd stuff )

Other updates....
The other morning I was woken up as usual by Fennec being an annoying little creep bc it's almost breakfast time. She often find like hair or dust on the ground to eat to be obnoxious or a couple of times has chewed on those little clear straps on dresses, all to try and get my out of bed to feed her. I always take what I can off of her but she rarely is actually eating anything. That morning though I saw something hanging out of her mouth so I jumped out of bed & of course she bolted. I had to chase her down, grab & drag her across the floor, & rip this thing out of her mouth. It was a thick ponytail holder!!! I have no idea where she found it even. I just tidied up the part of my room she was in & I didn't see if over there. Freaked me out so bad, I'm glad I caught her before she swallowed it. She's been fine since, her usual self.

Been working on my prey costume, my first real endeavor into sewing clothing panels even though I'm not working from scratch or anything. So far it's coming out ok! I just have to actually dedicate the time to it. May will be here before I know it.

We started watching twin peaks & we're completely obsessed with it. We devoured season 1 in like 4 days because we were just so absorbed in the story. We read that the second half of season 2 isn't very good there & we've just hit episode 12 or 13.... and man.... they were right. It's still not bad, it's just not very good either. Shout out to Bob Iger for that one.

Class is still...... eh for me. I have issue with some of the stuff she does. Like during class time we follow along with notes she makes & sprinkled within are little mini exercises we do. We're always behind schedule so she just says to do the mini exercise on our own time.... but then she never follows up with the answers to them. I don't know what's the point of doing them if we don't actually get told the answers??
I missed both classes last week which does suck. I skipped the one just because I wanted to take my freebie but then on Thursday i had cramps and was struck with a period poop right when it was time to leave. So I missed my freakin bus and the next bus didn't come and by the time the next one came I would've been 30+ mins late so I just went home. I feel bad missing even though I'm sure I didn't miss anything lol and even when I do go I just work on other stuff while I'm there.
I have to take a summer course this year as a prereq to finish the rest of my degree. The only thing is that the class I need is undergrad and is outside of my discipline so I need a permission number. However to request a permission number from the dept I need permission from the class instructor to take the class. I emailed him twice (the first time back on Feb 2) and gotten no response. so I emailed the dept head last week & haven't gotten a response. Wtf do I have to do to get permission to take this class I NEED to take??? WHY do I need permission anyway? God's sake it's a required class so I have to take it, end of? It has me so irritated.

That's it! That's basically everything that's been going on. Writing an update was the first thing on my list today, this time change has me on a big delay. I'm taking tomorrow off though so I'll have time then to do stuff too. Woo!
areolas: (pearl)
I had my first test in my class last Thursday & it was weird I guess. It was a test about writing code but it was an on paper test. I went into it irritated because it's like......... in real life if I'm writing code in my program where i write it and I forget a comma or a bracket or whatever, when I hit enter it won't run. I'll know I did something wrong. I can re-look it over and correct it lol so like...... why do I have to prove that I can write it out on paper.

Idk so I went into it with an attitude in general which is a problem with me and no one else but I'm fine with that. Anyway class was canceled yesterday bc my professor had a sore throat (which i love and respect, people who show up under the weather in this 2024 world are my enemy) but we got grades back & I got an 85. In line with the class average she reported but my first grad school B!!!!!!! It was bound to happen. A B is still good of course I'm not crying and throwing a fit but it's annoying to be given a test I think is stupid and then get a B on it.

Starting next week a new girl is starting in our department. There's a shortage of desks & I have the fewest days required in office so I'm desk sharing with her on our alternating days. All that means I had to really clean up my desk space bc I was really sloppy and willy nilly about leaving paper and whatever spread all over it. Nothing dirty or anything like that, just receipts and invoices and stuff I hadn't gotten to. I tidied all up and am getting more organized... in my physical space at least.

A while ago I bought this really nice art book someone put together on like nice sturdy watercolor paper with this beautiful pre-drawn line art on it that I haven't painted in even remotely bc it's too scary & the pressure is too high. I realized this week I can probably find some nice watercolor brushes on procreate, scan the pages, & paint them digitally to find what I like & then paint them irl with some pressure lifted. They scanned really well! I'm excited to give the digital painting a go.
areolas: (penny)
basically didn't get anything done yesterday i wanted to get done. I just about hit post and immediately after was hit with period and cramps. There went that day. I basically sat around feeling nauseous and bloated instead.

Here's some final images of the blanket: the border, which I love! And it being put to some good use.



So tonight I'm studying instead, since I skipped it last night. Didn't do any of the dnd prep I wanted to either.

I just had some decent GF pizza for dinner & I'm ready to start I GUESS.

The bank situation is basically wrapped up. Opened a new account and opened a savings account finally too. Now that I have that, I gotta put together an actual monthly budget plan - how much fun money I'm allowed to keep in checkings + bills estimate. I have also get used to seeing two (low) amounts rather than one (slightly less low) total and not panic that I'm broke lol. I'll be less broke soon, I had a CT scan and dr appts several months ago that cost me 700 got dang buckies that I have two payments on my plan left to go. I'll be blessedly free once those are done with.

I have a summer course I need to take at the undergrad level this summer, which at least that will only cost ~$100 bc we get a better deal per undergrad credit than we do for grad credits. Even with a significant discount grad school is expensive as hell god. it's what I want though.

I bought an over the door hanging shelf + rack so we have a place for bags bc rn they just sit on the floor or couch & I'm very sick of it. I'm gonna put that together THEN I'll study..... i prommy....
areolas: (keery)
after a quiet holiday & and insanely UNquiet return to work I think things are finally beginning to return to a kind of normal.... My inbox as of Thursday was pretty reasonable, and I only have a couple of things I had to leave neglected to work on others instead of an entire handful of things. We really only just today got the apartment back in order, all the christmas stuff put away and cleaned everything.

I took Friday off since my birthday is on a Wednesday next week & I didn't want to take off in the middle of the week. Monday's a holiday, so I just gave myself a nice long weekend and two 4 day weeks in a row instead, it's been SO nice.

33 next week! I feel no particular way about it, but it is weird. It's weird to get into ages I remember my parents being, and like ages where, when they were 33, I was a teenager. My older sister was practically done with high school! They were maniacs having kids as young as they did lmao.

School started back up. I only have on class this semester and I'm feeling mixed about it. I don't think it will be very hard, it's about 50/50 grad and undergrad classmates, and the syllabus looks more or less similar to the stuff I was doing last semester. On the other hand, the pace feels a bit slow and there's no homework and I know that if I allow myself to lull into any kind of boredom it's a very slippery slope. If it's too unchallenging I'll get so bored.

This week I finished the Summer 2022 quilt-along from that local(ish) quilt store lol. Well.... I lost the final page of instructions on putting it all together so I didn't do anything fancy and just sewed the squares as they were. It looks kinda wacky, color wise, and it's kind of small. I sandwiched it up and I'm gonna do the quilting and just leave it quite small. Maybe I'll leave it around for fennec to lay on.
areolas: (keery)
I like to have icons indicative of what my post is going to be about - i have the default for whatever, the dragon one for dnd talks, aleksis for video games etc. I don't really have one for creative things! I miss the communities and the icon posts from the LJ days... I know communities are a thing here still, but any I look up of my current interests all haven't posted for like 800 weeks. It's just me, google images, and the DW built in image cropper.

Friday my parents came in to visit. They wanted to go downtown with us to this little holiday market they put up every year stocked with overpriced junk & I was gonna go, but then I heard that just the night before multiple people were stabbed there so I kind of felt wary of going. I don't even like going downtown at the best of times. There was also an incident the same night a few blocks away of two people shooting at each other in a restaurant.

So we didn't go & instead they went on their own & came after for dinner. I walked with my dad to pick up our order bc it wasn't freezing cold & the place is ~15ish minutes away. It was a nice walk & chat! The place was busy but not jam packed, maybe they were overwhelmed with takeout orders like ours though, I don't know... But they gave us an order & it only had 2 meals in it... we were picking up for 4. they apologized & said our meal was just being packed up in the kitchen & came out & gave us a new bag after a wait that suggested it was not "just" being packed up...
We walked all the way home & were halfway to the 4th floor when they called him... They gave us the wrong order again & we had to walk all the way back AGAIN to pick up our order for the third time. I don't own and run a restaurant, but this seems kind of....excessively bad. My dad is such a crank these days that it really spoiled his mood while the rest of us just commented on how it was awful and moved on with our lives. I can have some spice to me, but I hope I don't turn into a big major crankpot in 30 years, it's unpleasant to be around.

Anyway, this weekend was the first one I've had to myself since October at least, no homework or anything. It was so bizarre. I was struggling to just do nothing a little bit & had to keep reminding myself I don't always have to be doing and making. There's no need to maximize my hobby productivity in my free time, they're hobbies! for fun!

I did bust out the sewing machine though for the first time since the semester started & put together a couple of squares from the quilt store's summer quilt-along from..... summer 2022. but hey, I'm still making something!

Neither of them are perfectly straight, but that's fine.... probably
OH YEAH and on the top one the instructions were written really unclearly but I was able to piece it together myself in the easiest/most even way which ~a year ago I never would've known how to do, so that's pretty cool!

Just got the first grade for my two finals papers back! 98%! hell yeah

Edit: I just got my second paper grade, 92%! And a 92.5% on my presentation
areolas: (Default)
Just finished up concluding my second paper of the two and with it being due tomorrow I'm gonna take the night & look at it tomorrow morning at work with some refreshed eyes before just turning it in. He's a very tough grader so idk what to expect, but if I get a B it is what it is. I specifically aimed to not care in grad school about grades as much as I did in undergrad, you still get the masters at the end either way! and I've never once had anyone ask or care about my undergrad GPA! I know it doesn't really make a difference.

BUT it also just turns out that so far I've gotten only As in my classes and it's really easy to get into a mindset of wanting to maintain that. I'm okay about reminding myself though I think. I'm doing this because I want to above all else, and because I really love linguistics.

i'm just glad to have another semester out of the way, I'm officially halfway done with my full program now!!

Anyway, I stressedly made this while I was writing this paper and I got it done so fast as a result.

It's a little plastic shopping bag holder/dispenser with a ponytail holder at the bottom. I think I'm gonna try some kind of granny square bag or sweater next. I want to keep making things but I don't need more things. There's always room for more sweaters though! Thing is I also don't tend to buy the expensive good yarn either... idk! I just wanna keep making. maybe now the semester is over I can get back into my quilt wips
areolas: (Default)
presentation went well again, no pressure was on so I'm all good with that. Hoping to wrap up my first paper tonight.

One class is done meeting, the other I still have to go in to watch other presentations which is going to test my faith so strongly.

I chatted with some classmates after we finished about what a tough grader the guy is & it's true he really is. We were theorizing that he's just one of those people who never gives out a full 100 bc we're getting 9.9 and 9.8 on participation grades being like, what could possibly have happened to lose 0.1 points on a participation grade.

Had this exchange too:
Classmate A: I spent the first three weeks of class having a crisis bc he's hot
Me: I can see what you mean
C. A: And then I went to his office hours & found out he's a swiftie-
Me: oh, brother
C. A: -and I just couldn't believe it
Me: Oh, you meant that as a positive
Classmates A & B: cracking up
Me: I interpreted that very differently
areolas: (keery)
Just stopping in bc it's been a minute... I've been chipping away at a second post from my dnd campaign retelling but it's been slow going since I'm also writing final papers for my classes. It's been fun though, looking back on games we played almost a year ago.

Classes are winding down, I've still had to go in twice a week but both classes are just on final presentations now so it's been a nice break to not have to read and prepare a bunch of stuff. I get to present today on the data research methods used in 3 language attitude studies carried out in hong kong. Super interesting stuff & it's fun bc one of the papers I picked I only belatedly realized has really bad data reporting so I get to go in and be like THIS IS BAD.

Then 2 of 4 deadlines are out of the way.

First paper is almost done, I'll wrap that up today for sure. Second paper is a mess...

It did make me think about going back to hong kong... I only ever went for about a week, I think I'd like to do something a little bit longer maybe. No structure really, just show up and explore around, take the ferry and stuff. If it's still like it was in 2015 I shouldn't need a visa, a US passport gets you entry for 3 months. Or it did back then. I'm thinking about doing it as a graduation trip. I was in the middle of some big plans to go to HK and China in 2020 and you can safely guess correctly that those plans didn't end up happening.

I want to freakin sew and I want to crochet. I want to paint. I want to play video games!!! and dnd!!!!!
Game awards are tonight & there's a rumor growing that there's gonna be a dishonored 3 announcement.

Gotta get a picture of my cat laying cutely under the christmas tree to share
areolas: (aleksis)
Did my presentation today in class on gender neutral language in french & I think it did go pretty well overall! my professor had very few notes and my classmates had some interested follow up questions but beyond all that it's DONE and out of the way and that's what I'm most excited about! 1 of 4 deadlines out of the way!

Tonight I'm going to change gears a bit to work on my other paper which is in a really pitiful form right now and prep a bit for that presentation which is much less pressured bc it's not part of my final grade. After dinner though I'm going to allow myself a little break to play some video games with the lads.

Tomorrow I have my work cut out for me in the office too, catching up on the stuff I let slip a bit for the sake of writing and getting together a presentation. It'll be quiet in the office though, so if I just buckle down a bit and get to it, I should be fine to get a bunch done.

Anyway, back into the trenches. PS I hate daylight savings time, 5:30pm and it's pitch black outside.

dreadlines

Nov. 29th, 2023 04:48 pm
areolas: (rl penny)
it's finals season again babey and I'm swimming in the depths of it so bad.

It's only 2 term papers and 2 presentations to go along with them, but when you write at the pace I do it's real agony. Thankfully the topics I'm working on are genuinely super interesting. I loved the reading & researching portion lol it's the digesting and writing about them comprehensively part I'm struggling with.

My first presentation is tomorrow, talking about nonbinary/gender neutral approach to language that has been developing in France. I just want to rush ahead to it now and get it out of the way. My second presentation (next week) isn't actually part of my grade, it's just a chance to discuss with my class what I've found in my research, so I'm way less concerned about it. After that it's just about writing and writing.

After Dec 12th I'm FREE. I can go back to playing video games & get to work on some bigger crafty projects I want to work on. I'm so excited to be done omg. I have written out some week by week writing goals so I can be sure I'm keeping up with everything. With some carefully planned breaks so I don't turn into the shining.

Thankfully my period seems to be arriving today and not tomorrow on presentation day. Here's hoping I won't spend my presentation hours agonizing.

Anyway here's an update of what my little christmas lights are looking like:

they are really laughably NOT remotely the same size as each other bc of different yarns but that's alright

Profile

areolas: (Default)
areolas

April 2025

S M T W T F S
  12345
6 789101112
13141516171819
2021 2223242526
27282930   

Syndicate

RSS Atom

Most Popular Tags

Style Credit

Expand Cut Tags

No cut tags
Page generated Jun. 12th, 2025 11:00 pm
Powered by Dreamwidth Studios