Dear NPR

Dear NPR,
I thought you were the love of my life (no offense to everyone who thinks they may be the love of my life). I thought that I was cool. I thought you were cool. Like the good white chick that I am, I have a radio crush on someone named Ira (Flatow, not Glass) who works for NPR. I listen to Morning Edition or All Things considered during my commute. I know the local station schedule all too well.
But today, NPR, you failed me. These years that I have relied on you for sweet concert streams and quality music reviews, and now THIS!?
Really?
I just wasted 3 minutes of my life listening to the sound of a radiator slowed down. All because I trusted you to provide me with the right combination of quality and obscurity to find the perfect music.
This, though, is just trash. Hipster trash. I like my irony as much as the next person. But I prefer it without the suck.
Let's try harder next time. And don't let the intern do a 45-minute segment.


Sorry to publicly humiliate you like this,

Katie

thoughts, random

It is really terrifying going to the grocery store on super bowl Sunday. Especially when you realize, only once you get in the store, that it's super bowl Sunday. Even though you were going to get food for a super bowl party. 25 minutes in line, mostly because people do not understand that self-checkout is only a good idea if you have (a) few items and (b) the ability to use the kiosk. You should file this away.

I have been given a task. It is to find the most ridiculous Obama paraphernalia in the District and photograph it. So here is the long-awaited ITEM 1:

Yeah. Awesome. I came so close to buying them, but they did not look very tasty. Actually, they looked rather gross.

1st week of class was good. Due to snow/ice, I missed my Tuesday afternoon class and the Wednesday meeting of my MW class. Class updated coming after they have all been attended.

Also, it is really irritating that I can't see more than my homepage on the facebook. How will I know anything about my friends' lives now?

Peace.

Tomorrow

Classes start tomorrow. Thank goodness. I'm getting a bit bored. Research will commence soon enough but things need to be ordered. 

In case you're curious, I'm taking cognitive neuroscience, research ethics, and cellular mechanisms of cortical plasticity. 

Peace.

What I did today

For those of you who care: I changed the battery in my car. 

Why you should be impressed: Car was parallel parked along my DC street. 

ooo. . . 1st 2009 post

Hey! New year! Neat! Too bad I'm possibly the most not-fun-on-New-Year's-Eve-person ever. Not that it bothers me.
I really should blog more.
I'm in OK until the 22nd. (hint) Glad too be here. It's pleasant. I'll be glad to get back to lab and work and class, though. Until then, I'm pretty content to read and knit and talk to the dog and ride the horse and see the people that I've missed so much.
I've been thinking about this:

(Awesomeness courtesy of Indexed)

Also: TEXAS SUCKS!

Peace.

Katie

Semester 1 (out of 10+) done

Hooray! 

And I even got a B in the my intro class. You know, the one that I had to take the mid-term right after I got HIT BY A CAR. I never thought I would be this excited about a B. And I'm OK with this.

Most of the last week was spent grading/lab-ing/knitting/Christmas shopping/slacking. Yesterday, I spent 4+ hours grading the lecture final. Yes, it took 4+ hours with 8 people working on it. But there was free food. 

Flight to OK leaves in about 2.5 hours. So if you're there when I'm there, we should hang out. 

Peace.

post-election commentary and some other stuff

How 'bout that election?! I can't say that I'm surprised. My reaction is not what I expected. I'm cautiously optimistic. That said, I'm really annoyed with people on both sides who are reacting so strongly to the results. The universe will not come to an end. Neither will the universe suddenly be full of fields of daisies and puppy dogs. I do worry that all the people who are so excited will end up disappointed and then be forever disillusioned and cynical, dropping out of the political process forever. It's been said that slavery is this country's original sin (OK, it was on a TV show, but I think it rings true. High-five for naming the show). I hope that in some small way we as a people are beginning to atone for centuries of oppression, racism, hatred, violence. 

Other exciting news, apparently our pipes are leaking such that the water is coming out of our downstairs neighbor's vent. Rock. It should be getting fixed today. 

I started physical therapy for my leg last week. I had no idea that PT could hurt this much. What a terrible idea. Yeah, I know, it has to hurt for it to heal. And I don't care. I would like magical instant pain-free-ness. The appointments are at 6:30am, so it forces me to get up earlier than usual. And I enjoy that. I wish I had enough discipline to do this all the time.

Lab stuff is going nicely. I'm still waiting for IACUC approval. *sigh* So I've been working on some smaller projects, mostly anatomy. Not terribly exciting but very necessary. The tissue processing technique that I'm using is from the late 1800s. Adventures in Victorian Biology--that's my new memoir title. And I'm going back to doing that now since my timer is about to go off.

Peace.

weekend update

The time is coming for me to turn off my mail client and stop replying to student's emails. 14 today. Sheesh. Their 1st formal lab report for this class is due Tuesday. Of course the true panic will be setting in tomorrow evening.
Let's see . . . what else did I do? I did some maintenance on the house plants. Been doing some knitting: coffee cup sweaters, hats, and coasters with the leftover yarn. There's been some Office-watching too.
Emily called today to tell me that Neighbor Guy had a visitor today. There is no reason that I should have been as excited/intrigued as I was. Neighbor Guy never had a visitor (other than food delivery) in the year that I lived across the street from him. And now I'm a few thousand miles away and missed this momentous occasion. 

And I found an Apple gift card in my wallet yesterday. So, with my university discount and the gift card, I bought SPORE! It makes me a bit sad that I'm this excited about a computer game. But it's supposed to be awesome. The last computer game I bought was one of the sequels to Myst. And that's been awhile. I probably don't have time to start playing a game. But I really don't care. 

It's after 10pm, so I don't answer any more student emails until 8am. Best policy I ever instituted. But it's in stiff competition with the no questions about an assignment the day it's due policy. 

Peace.

Fake Presidents