« January 2005 | Main | March 2005 »
February 28, 2005
Doing things
This weekend was actually a nice social weekend. On Friday Brian and some lab mates and I went to see the Drama Tech spring musical, "Into the Woods" which was hillarious. If you have not heard of this play before I highly recommend it. All I have to say is that there was a cow in the play...
On Saturday I did various chores and work before heading over to one of my temporary lab mate's apartment. (She's visiting from Delft University for a semester) She is sharing a one bedroom apartment in a renovated building just north of the GT barnes and noble. Needless to say the place is tiny, and way too small for 4 people. But we had a good time and watched a chick flick, wich we both enjoyed (as we were in the rare absence of men).
Today I've got homework to do.
Posted by kfeigh at 09:01 AM | Comments (0)
February 24, 2005
Hmm
So, how do you tell your boss that he's dropping the ball? Chances are that he already knows it, yet all actions seem to indicate that he doesn't, or if he does he is unwilling to change his behavior? I find myself in this situtation.
I feel like some sort of jealous older sibling. My boss does not have much time for any of his employees any more and this is causing a lot of frustration. Part of the problem I feel is that we have some very needy employees. Some are justifiably needy -- those seeking iminent promotion. Some are just needy because of who they are and their limited capabilities. Allow me to rant on the stupidity of hiring anyone who cannot speak english (or whatever the working language of your office is). I'm not against people who need to improve their english, but if I must struggle to carry on a non-technical conversation with them they have no place being hired. Period. End of sentence. They take up too much of my bosses time and are consequently handed off to the rest of the employees to pick up the slack. It isn't really that they are not working hard, but that they are not capapble of working hard enough to keep up. Secondly they bring the who office dynamic down. Because now we all have to work with someone who does not respond. Sigh.
As you can tell I'm rather frustrated and my only outlet is to vent it here.
Posted by kfeigh at 10:07 AM | Comments (2)
February 23, 2005
Homework
I've got lots to do today, so nothing interesting to report...
Posted by kfeigh at 09:25 AM | Comments (0)
February 22, 2005
Car Alarms
I generally wonder if car alarms do any good. Do they actually prevent thefts in cars? And if they do prevent thefts are they really useful enough to put up with all of the false-alarms that they put off? As I was trying to sleep through 10 solid minutes of honking car alarm last night at 4:38am I came to the conclusion that the societal good of car alarms was vastly outweight the amount of productivity lost due to drowsy people whom they had woken up.
In other news it is a beautiful day here. It is almost enough to make me forget that I have 5 hours of class looming ahead of me... And to add to my self-pity party is the fact that our move is now finalized. We will be squeezed into a sardine can of an office next Wednesday unless something happens to prevent it. I'm personally hoping for a plague of locusts.
Posted by kfeigh at 09:45 AM | Comments (3)
February 21, 2005
How Hard Can It Be?
Another monday/Federal holiday and I sit here at my desk. Ah, the academic calendar has its high points and its low points. Brian made some sort of breakthrough this weekend and is much happier than I've seen him in a while. Yeah!! Things are looking up for graduation sometime this year!!!
In other news I saw a news program this weekend where they did a piece on a guy named Kinky Friedman who is running for Governor of Texas. He had some great quotes. Mine favorite was "We are 1st in executions and 49th in education. We are behind Mississippi. You know something ain't right when you are behind Mississsippi." My other favorite thing about his man was his campaign poster/slogan which read: "Kinky for Governor, how hard can it be?" You have to love Texas.
Posted by kfeigh at 08:50 AM | Comments (2)
February 17, 2005
Sore
This semester I have decided to take a 'aerobics' class in the evenings twice a week. It isn't really an aerobics class, but more of a calisthenics and toning class. We use dumbbells and stability balls. As a result I've found myself sore in the most unusual places. One week it was my neck, another week my back, today it is my stomach right below my ribcage. I feel as if I've been coughing violently for a very long time. I hope all of this soreness is a good thing, but right now it hurts to laugh...
Oh and the daffodils are beginning to bloom. Every year they do this, bloom way too early in the season and spend most of their time drooping less than an inch or so from the ground looking very pathetic.
Posted by kfeigh at 09:55 AM | Comments (0)
February 15, 2005
Last paper finally in
Yes, that's right I turned in my 3rd and final paper of this conference season today!!! Yeah. One journal paper and two conference papers, not bad for a year's work. If I can do half as well next year I will be in good shape.
Not much going on here other than that.
Posted by kfeigh at 09:07 PM | Comments (0)
February 10, 2005
Stuff to do
The thing about stuff to do is that it eventually passes. Not that there isn't still a lot to do, but for some reason when certain things pass that I have been stressing over I feel greatly relieved. This inspite of a looming amount of additional work to do with other things. This afternoon is one of those times. Haveing passed a first draft of my paper off, and having completed a test. I'm just kind of lazing about. Well not realy, you see my afternoon class was cancelled giving me adequate time to come re-set up my computer. (It just got a new mother board and was converted to Windows XP) It seems that our IT department got tired of waiting for the next version of windows to come out and they have finally succumbed to XP.
Posted by kfeigh at 05:39 PM | Comments (1)
February 08, 2005
Tax Forms?
This is a question put to my general readership. Does anyone know/remember what kind of tax form they got to document the NSF graduate research fellowship? Or am I not going to get anything at all?
Other than tax questions circling around my brain, not much is going on here. Brian and I went to a play at the Ferst Theater on Saturday. Oh, it was horrible. If there had been an intermission we would not have come back. I believe that out of the 1:26 of running time all of the dialogue could have been uttered in just under 20 minutes. Horrible, horrible. This week I'm trying to get out my last paper of this conference season, and keeping up with classes.
Posted by kfeigh at 08:14 AM | Comments (3)
February 03, 2005
Light at the end of the tunnel?
God, I hate homework. Normally I would console myself that I won't have homework much longer, but the more I think about how arbitrary and isolated from the real world homework is, the more I come to the conclusion that actually it isn't. I'm sure that sometime long after I'm finished with clases I will still have arbitrary deadlines to meet, where the 'boss' comes in halfway or 2/3 of the way through the time allotted for such work only to change the parameters of the problem to such an extent that all work done previously is now worthless. Yes, Ig uess I'd just prefer not to think about it.
Posted by kfeigh at 08:16 AM | Comments (2)
February 02, 2005
Finances
I too have opened a Roth account this year. I'm rather excited because for the first time in 2 years I actually earn enough money to be able to contribute to it fully :) Unfortunately this means that I will need to actually pay taxes this year :( I'm eagerly awaiting all of my w- forms to see if my estimates of tax match up what I will really have to pay. I started doing my taxes online, but have been told that because I refuse to give up my VA citizenship that I cannot use the web-based Turbotax because it was not designed for it. One more item to add to ye-ole wal-mart list.
So anyway I'm really intrigued about what kind of form I'm going to get for my NSF stipend...I think it will be a 1099-MISC, but I'm not sure. Should come soon though.
Posted by kfeigh at 09:12 AM | Comments (2)