Rivendell Ramblings

Daybook: February 16, 2012

viviellevirgule — Thu, 16 Feb 2012 15:59:04 +0000

Outside my window… It’s grey and supposed to rain. I’m on the 5th floor of the library at school and so have a lovely view.

I am thinking… about how to be better at my job. I feel like something of a failure at it today (essentially I TA for a class and help struggling students) after an incredibly frustrating session this morning.
I am thankful for… my darling family.

From the learning rooms… school is in its 4th week right now. I’ve had two tests so far and have a paper due tomorrow and some other things coming up.

From the kitchen… haven’t made a thing this week.

I am wearing… jeans, a blue long sleeved t-shirt, a pink sweater, and shoes. This was the same as last time I wrote a daybook, except that I was wearing slippers then, not shoes.

I am creating… a wonderful(haha) paper to turn in tomorrow. Actually, it’s not a great paper because we’re supposed to write a 500 word paper and there’s more than enough information for 1500 words…

I am going… to do phys homework, eat lunch, do research and eat dinner and finish aforementioned paper.

I am reading… school books. Nothing for fun at the moment, unfortunately.

I am hoping… for a good advising appointment this week. Also for something special at the end of the summer. Well, I’m praying for that one.

I am hearing… Simon and Garfunkel.

Around the house… house? What house? Oh, that place where I spend not as much time as I do at school? Well, there’s a mountain of clean laundry that needs attending to…

One of my favorite things… struggling with a problem and then working through to find the solution. It’s very satisfying.

A few plans for the rest of the week: School, homework, work, etc. An exciting life lead I, no?

Template from here.

If only more people realized this:

viviellevirgule — Thu, 16 Feb 2012 15:49:12 +0000

Learning is not attained by chance, it must be sought for with ardor and attended to with diligence.

Abigail Adams, 1780
wife of John Adams 1764 (1744 – 1818)

What would you do with two extra hours?

viviellevirgule — Tue, 14 Feb 2012 21:34:08 +0000

So, this morning I was feeling rather overwhelmed by how much stuff I had to do today and how little time I had to do it in. Mostly it was that I needed some bigger chunks of time to get stuff done and had only 1 hour or less blocks of “free”* time. Then one of my classes was canceled and viola! Two extra hours. I was quite excited because not only is that the class that I am not overly fond of, but I really, really, really needed those two spare hours today. So, what have I used those hours for? I’ve finished some homework that’s due tomorrow, finished a paper, also due tomorrow, read for a class, started working on the last homework problem for one class and realized that I have no clue what I’m doing for that problem, and written a blog post. So, that’s what I do with two extra hours on a Tuesday in the semester? What would normal** people do?

*This doesn’t mean free time as in “Yay, I can do whatever I want because I have nothing productive to do, so how about I _____________ (fill in the blank with something non-school related).” It means free time as in I’m not supposed to be a.) in class b.) doing research or c.) working or d.) in transit between two locations.

** You know, not a college student taking an overload (greater than 18) of credits.

A Few Miscellaneous Things

viviellevirgule — Sun, 12 Feb 2012 00:04:01 +0000

*Are the Hunger Games worth reading? I’ve heard a lot about them and want to know if they’re worth reading. Anyone have any thoughts?

*I’ve started to watch TV during the semester. Shocking, I know. More specifically I watch Monk. It’s a pretty awesome show and very funny. I highly recommend it to anyone who hasn’t seen it.

* Do professors plot with each other and purposely put all manner of tests, papers and projects all in the same week? It sure feels like they must at times.

* After virtually no winter, it’s snowed twice in the past 4 days. Wednesday we got about an inch, and we got an inch+ last night and it’s snowing again right now. Never fear, by Monday the high is 40 F.Cause, gosh, we wouldn’t want cold weather in Winter now would we? Especially not in a state that’s farther North and South and farther East than West.(Just checked accuweather the wind chill is 4 F. yikes! The wind is roaring at the moment.)

* Getting updates on life from a friend you haven’t heard from in a while is always nice, but sometimes it’s almost dizzying how much has changed with said friend in the past few months. Addition of a boyfriend, major changes in plans for life after college etc… It kind of makes me feel simultaneously very old and very immature that this friend now has a boyfriend. Odd combo I know and hard to explain why without going into personal details, but it’s the way I feel.

* I have a nasty headache at the moment. That would be the product of studying and researching a lot for a paper today. Is it a bad sign that I get headaches a lot during the semester and can almost directly correlate the frequency of said headaches and tired and sore eyes with the amount of reading/writing/researching I do? Realistically there’s nothing that can be done to make my eyes better/able to handle more use. My glasses are the correct strength, and there’s nothing that can be done for the other eye problem that I suspect lies at the heart of the eye strain and headaches.

*Lent starts two weeks from Monday? How on Earth has it come around to be time for Lent again?!?!?!?!?!??!?!?!?!? The first week of Triodion (i.e. this past week) is always nice. Packing lunches is much simpler, lol.

*I really think that Miriel should post more often. (Hint, hint…)

*Wikipedia is a great way to waste time. I started looking for some basic background info about something for a philosophy course because I needed some general info to help direct my real research (i.e. I don’t consider wikipedia to be a real source) and ended up finding my self reading about courtship, arranged marriages, and bride kidnapping before I realized it.

Dinner time, so that’s all for now! (And for anyone who cares to look at the time stamp, it’s not really 12 am on Sunday where I am. That would be more accurate for Miriel, although it’s still not quite right. If I were eating dinner that late I’d be a cranky Vivi!)

People Have a Small Vocabulary…

viviellevirgule — Thu, 02 Feb 2012 15:48:06 +0000

Since the semester has started again, I’ve been around a lot of college students. (Of course, being a college student I guess I’m technically always around at least college student.) This gives me many opportunities to people watch. It’s a sport, people.

Observation of the week: There are many people who do not know how to formulate a sentence that does not contain either the f-word, the s-word or both. The number of times people use those two words astounds me. I guess the biggest question is why on Earth do people use those words? Do they not realize how uneducated, crass, rude, and vulgar they sound when every third word is s*** or f***? Do they think that when they graduate from college and (hopefully) get a *real* job that they will be able to be taken seriously if they speak that way? Do they think that they sound cool or edgy when they speak like that? Does anyone who reads this blog have any idea about why people speak like that??????

Daybook: January 26, 2012

viviellevirgule — Fri, 27 Jan 2012 02:13:28 +0000

Outside my window… It’s raining.

I am thinking… about a lot of things. Far too many to list!
I am thankful for… going back to school. How very blessed I am to be able to go to college and study something that I love!

From the learning rooms… school is now in session. Lotsa homework to do!

From the kitchen… we had fish for dinner. Yum!

I am wearing… my pyjamas and slippers.

I am creating… a schedule for the semester( Errrr at least attempting to do this).

I am going… to finish this and go to bed.

I am reading… lots of very exciting and wonderful textbooks. NO, I am NOT being sarcastic!

I am hoping… for healing for the cousin mentioned in an earlier daybook. (I guess “praying’ is more much more accurate than “hoping” in this case. Also, I am hoping to write some posts and put them on auto publish before the semester starts. We’ll see if that happens!

I am hearing… Not much, actually.

Around the house… lots of organizing and clearing out of stuff.

One of my favorite things… Dear friends at school who get how much work being an upperclassman science major is. Friends who you can look in the eye and say “This is hard. Really hard.” and they know that a.) you’re telling the truth and b.) that you’re not complaining but stating a fact and c.) that you wouldn’t have it any other way because they’re in the exact same boat. (I’m leaving this up from last time.)

A few plans for the rest of the week: School and work tomorrow. A busy weekend of studying and some other things and Church.

Template from here.

Books Read 2011

viviellevirgule — Thu, 26 Jan 2012 06:47:25 +0000

As promised in the 2011 end of year post (or was it the 2012 resolutions?) here is the list of books I read in 2011. (And seriously, it’s really for me that this is getting posted, so don’t feel at all obligated to read the list. It’s mostly for my own records/memories.)All of these are books that I read for the first time in 2011, and the linked ones are reviewed on the blog.

Great Russian Short Stories

A Book of Hours

The Checklist Manifesto- Gawande

Deadly Choices- Offit

Passenger to Frankfurt- Christie

They Do It With Mirrors- Christie

A Room With a View- Forster

A Handful of Dust- Waugh

The latest #1 Ladies Detecive Agency book (can’t remember what it’s called)

Witness for the Prosecution and Other Stories- Christie

The Harlequin Tea Set- Christie

Partners in Crime- Christie

By the Pricking of My Thumbs- Christie

Halloween Party- Christie

The 13 Problems- Christie

N or M? – Christie

Reading Lolita in Tehran

The Inextinguishable Symphony – Goldsmith

The Raphael Affair

Enigma- Harris

Napoleon’s Buttons

The man at the corner

viviellevirgule — Thu, 19 Jan 2012 22:51:49 +0000

In the town where my college is, there are men who are in some sort of halfway house type program who stand on street corners selling the local newspaper. I don’t think they typically sell very many, but as mentioned, it’s some sort of recovery program. (As a sidenote, they might do a bit better if they didn’t sell the crummy really local newspaper, but sold the Big City newspaper instead.)

Anyway, most of the time these men just stand there and wait for drivers to stop and roll down there windows and buy a newspaper. But not this one man at one particular corner. He would always wave and smile at every single car that went through that intersection. He’d tip his hat too at every woman who drove through that intersection, including me on my way to work every morning. It made my day just a little bit brighter knowing that there’d be that friendly face at a certain intersection every morning.

Notice the past tense? For the past two weeks he hasn’t been there.I hope that he’s alright, and that maybe he’s moved on and that’s why he’s not there. Or maybe because it’s the middle of January (although it hasn’t been that cold and he was out there the morning it was 12 F) the men aren’t out selling papers? I don’t know why he’s not there any longer, but I do know that I miss the smiling newspaper gentleman at the corner and hope and pray that he’s alright.

Fleeting Moments

viviellevirgule — Fri, 13 Jan 2012 14:05:17 +0000

In my end of 2011 post, the last question was “Quote a song lyric that sums up your year.” My answer was “You‘re gonna miss this. You‘re gonna want this back. You’re gonna wish these days hadn’t gone by so fast.” As mentioned before, I don’t usually like country music, but I do like that song. Those words have stuck in my head since writing that post because of the impending changes that lie ahead.

Life right now seems full of precious, fleeting moments. I have 3 semesters left at my beloved school, and I know that they will fly by, and that when those semesters are over and I am Vivielle Virgule, B.S., I will miss that school immensely.Also, something sort of annoying about being a junior is that one has friends who are seniors who will be graduating in May. And so there are only 4.5 months left with two of my dearest friends at school being there.

Also, my days at home, in this house, are slipping by so quickly and the time here seems more and more precious as the days go by. Not only will I have graduated in 17 months and then move off to graduate school, but this house, this home, will not be here any longer to come back to.

Life as I have always known it is fast slipping away into new and uncharted territory, and it would be a lie to say that I am not unhappy about it and not scared, because I am very much feeling both of those emotions. I read a quote once that said something to the effect that the fact that time never stands still is both one of the greatest curses and one of the greatest blessings of all. Right now it feels decidedly like a curse rather than a blessing, yet I am trying to have faith that in a few years I will be able to look back at all of these impending changes and see God’s hand in it all so clearly. (As a sidenote, I feel incredibly guilty that I am not embracing all these changes with the attitude of “I am so excited to see where God is leading and to go on this adventure God is taking us on.” but rather with a somewhat whiny “But I was so happy and content with how things were God. Why did you have to disturb my equilibrium??????”)

Anyway, all that rambling to say that the lines “You‘re gonna miss this. You‘re gonna want this back. You’re gonna wish these days hadn’t gone by so fast.” seem to describe my life right now.

Daybook: January 13, 2012

viviellevirgule — Fri, 13 Jan 2012 13:50:38 +0000

Outside my window… It’s incredibly windy. The wind is literally roaring. It rained heavily yesterday and last night and was quite warm, so now a cold front is coming in with a lot of wind!

I am thinking… about a cousin of mine who is very sick. Also about what I need to get done in these last 10 days until the semester starts again.
I am thankful for… all the time I have gotten to spend with my cousins, aunt/uncles, and grandmother this break.

From the learning rooms… school is not in session, but I am doing a lot of reading on my own.

From the kitchen… made a tasty cake with Dreamgirl this past week. That was fun.

I am wearing… jeans, a blue long sleeved t-shirt, a pink sweater, and slippers. (Ever notice how many times those slippers come into this part of the daybook?)

I am creating… nothing at present. Why is this always the answer?

I am going… to do lots of errands today. It is my last week day before the semester starts when I will not be at work, and so there’s lots to get squeezed into today.

I am reading… North and South by E. Gaskell.

I am hoping… for healing for the aforementioned cousin. (I guess “praying’ is more much more accurate than “hoping” in this case. Also, I am hoping to write some posts and put them on auto publish before the semester starts. We’ll see if that happens!

I am hearing… some lovely violin piece. Don’t know the name of it, but it’s quite lovely.

Around the house… I need to organize some parts of my room, and clean out my school shelf and do 15,000 other such things before the 23rd. 15,000 is only a slight exageration.

A few plans for the rest of the week: It’s going to be a busy Friday and Saturday. Errands today and visiting with family tomorrow. Sunday should be a normal Sunday with Liturgy and then Miriel’s phone call in the afternoon. Next week I work at my job that I’ve had over break Monday through Thursday, and then I work at my on-campus job on Friday.

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