Death in UNO Dorms

At about 9:00 p.m. last night, "someone" found a man dead in his dorm room -- authorities led there because of a "terrible smell." Rumor mill says authorities hypothesize he'd been there since about Saturday, but it is certain he'd not died just last night. My pal Rachel, who lives in the dorm, commented to me last night around 5:30 that she'd been illegally burning incense for a couple of days because "it literally smells like shit in the dorm." My informant tells me they haven't concluded whether it was murder or suicide. I repressed the automatic "duh, they just found him" and gave her a discourse on police procedure.

I'll keep you updated.


*Edit*

This from a local TV station website. Pretty much what I already knew.

Book Signing

Today was a blast for nerdy me as I got to meet one of my favorite authors, Laurell K. Hamilton. She was so personable and friendly and easy to talk to. She, her husband, and I spent a minute or two admiring each other's jewelry -- he was wearing amber, she was wearing tourmilated quartz, and I was wearing amber and moonstone. She also happily accomodated me by signing three books, all of them personalized to different people. I think she would have done it even if I hadn't told her why I wanted three different personalizations -- my aunt, my friend Naomi, and I all discovered her at the same time and spent months swapping books and hypothesizing and ruminating and fussing about this character and adoring that character. She personalized Chrys's and Nay's with "Merry Christmas" since they will be gifts, then she personalized mine with "Good luck with the wildlife, conservation is our only hope" after we talked biology for a bit (she wanted to be a wildlife biologist before making her first sell as a writer).

What a great afternoon!

Disability Blog Carnival

I can't even begin to think about reading The Gimp Parade's Disability Blog Carnival in its entirety for probably about six weeks still, but I will attempt to read it bit by bit when I can amidst preparing a lab presentation and doing stats homework and a second stats project and taking stats exams and attending seminars and Halloween parties and book signings and going to RenFaires and Lafayette for Thanksgiving. Oh, yeah -- and trying to start my own gimp revolution at UNO.

Speaking of stats -- I got a 99/100 on the first project. ::happy gimp dance::

Swiped from E's blog

HowManyOfMe.com

There are: 0 people with my name in the U.S.A. How many have your name?

There are 302,968 other people in the US with my first name. Statistically (you know how I LOVE stats) it's the 206th most common first name. More than 99.9% of people with my first name are female. Why didn't they just say 100%??

There are 480 people in the US with my last name -- and I'm probably related to all of them in one way or another. I can name fifteen living ones right off the top of my head (that's 3.125%). Hehe. Statistically it's the 53,211th most popular last name, tied with 5,658 other last names. Five thousand six hundred fifty-eight surnames TIED for 53,211th place. I wonder what some of those other names could be?

Stolen Breath

Sarah and I are beginning our plans to attend the Louisiana Renaissance Festival, and I was browsing the websites of a few of the vendors to get an idea of what to expect. I will find the maker of this beauty, and I will cry in front of her if I cannot afford it. I really will. I'm not proud.

The next week

Wednesday: Finish stats homework. Start thinking about lab presentation I have to do next Friday. Watch "Jericho" and "CSI:NY."

Thursday: Turn in stats homework. Get back stats midterm project. Not watch "CSI" because it's not on.

Friday: Lab meeting. Departmental seminar. Pumpkin carving and caramel apple making at Kim's house. Party at Rachel's house. Tape "Doctor Who" and "Numb3rs" for later viewing.

Saturday: Laurell K. Hamilton book signing.

Sunday or Monday: Watch "Doctor Who" and "Numb3rs."

Tuesday: Stats class. SCB bake sale. Try to spend some time alone remembering and honoring those who have gone before. Reflect on things I want to accomplish in the next year.

Thursday: Stats class. Probably receive second, grad student stats project.

Friday: Lab meeting presentation. Departmental seminar.

Things I must do on no particular day: Find new attendant or rearrange present ones to fill gaps to be vacated. Attend another Halloween party with Erika (sometime between Thursday and Tuesday). Recopy stats notes. Work on lab presentation, and in so doing start the editing of the review. "Finalize" a list of stressors and their concentrations for the diss project. Get Gambusia rearing protocols either on my own, through my masters advisor, and/or through a former UNO prof. Buy ticket home for Christmas. Pay attendants and bills at the first of the month. Try to throw off my funk. Get some sleep.

You know -- your typical graduate student week.

Good Sunday

1) Went to lunch at Applebee's with Erika. Had the new, Tyler Florence created bruschetta burger -- pesto, bruschetta mix, and mozarella on an Angus sirloin served on focaccia bread. ::eyes roll back in head:: Oh, man. As they say here in Nawlins, it'll make you wanna slap yo mama.

2) After Applebee's, went to B&N to get the newest Laurell K. Hamilton, Strange Candy. Had to get it PDQ because her book signing is Saturday. That's right -- the Goddess LKH will be in NOLA Friday night at the Lestat Ball (which I will NOT, despite all my efforts, be attending) and Saturday at an SC signing. I'm planning to get pictures, if I can. I also got the second books each of Kathy Reichs's Temperance Brennan series and Janet Evanovich's Stephanie Plum series.

3) Online fortune cookie a la Jennifer. Mine read: "If you wish it enough, it will happen."

::happy dance::

Season two of "Numb3rs" is out on DVD! D now knows on what she's spending part of her $50 Amazon gift certificate -- a very generous birthday gift from her brother.

"Iris" -- Goo Goo Dolls

And I don't want the world to see me
Cause I don't think that they'd understand
When everything's made to be broken
I just want you to know who I am

My newest crush

Carmine Giovinazzo of "CSI:NY." I'm sorely behind in this series, but with this guy and Gary Sinise to watch, I don't mind occasionally being a little lost.

Note to Self:

Listening to Lonestar sing "Amazed" when you are on your period is a very bad idea.

ALSO:

Listening to anyone sing any sappy love song when you are on your period is a very bad idea.

At least for this month.

Please alter your WinAmp playlist immediately. Jim Byrnes is not ideal (and "That River" or "I Got It Bad" are completely unacceptable) but will suffice as long as you just listen to the amazing guitar playing and not the lyrics.

Thank you -- Your Mental Well-being

*laughs maniacally*

Found this at the Gimp Parade. If this movie comes to the US, I am SO going to see it!

Today's suckage

1. Second night of not sleeping well. Night before last I had multiple dreams of dismembered bodies, then last night was a dream that a friend had died. There were lots of other dreams that I don't remember, but it's not really that important. I woke at 7:20 feeling completely worn out.

2. An 87 on the stats exam. If I'd lost a bunch of points on one problem that I didn't know, I think I might feel better. But I lost a couple points here and another couple there and a few more there on STUPID STUFF -- forgot to write something in, read the problem incorrectly and thus performed the wrong test, somehow read the wrong t-value. Ridiculous, moronic, dumb-assed mistakes.

3. Felt crampy all day with the impending menstrual cycle.

4. A friend's horrible sad news that caused me to burst into tears in the office.

5. So how do I top it all off? I watched Greg Sanders get the snot beat out of him on "CSI." More tears.

I don't have a clue about how to make myself feel better. I want to be home in Kansas with my friend, holding her. Instead, I will try to sleep tonight and go in tomorrow to work on my stats midterm project, attend our weekly lab meeting, and read more Gambusia papers.

Three cheers for compartmentalization.





Edit: P may have to go on a ventilator at night because his blood oxygen level drops to 83%.

You know, everything went to shit the LAST time I moved down here, too. Dammit!!!

Today

Things that made me happy today:
-- Getting through the statistics exam. I don't know how I did, but it's over and that's good.
-- Seeing Chad after a year. He kissed me hello and goodbye, and it's good to have another friend who greets me with something physical after not seeing each other for such a long time (the others being Sarah and Erika). After being home around my friends who hug and kiss me all the time, I sometimes get kind of sad that I don't have many friends like that here.
-- Getting some of my pre-hurricane stuff back. More than I thought. Some I had written off as gone and had replaced. Now if I can just figure out where to put it.
-- Getting a big bunch of broccoli at the expensive grocery store up the street for only 99 cents.
-- Getting organic macaroni and cheese at the expensive grocery store up the street for only $1 a box.
-- Seeing that a hand-drawn rhino Zabrina drew for me when we were doing our masters survived the hurricane and has found its way back to me.
-- Seeing that the suitcases my friend Alysha painted for me survived the hurricane and have found their way back to me.
-- Seeing that my favorite headband and my ancient POW/MIA bracelet (that is so faded you can barely read it) and a multistone necklace and an amethyst bracelet my sister gave me all survived the hurricane and have found their way back to me.

Things that made me sad today:
-- Hearing that Chad's grandmother died in April.
-- Paying $7.99 for 24 bottles of Ozarka water at the expensive grocery store up the street because there wasn't any at Walmart on Sunday when Erika and I stopped in there for supper makings.
-- Making the decision (again) to give up some homemade pieces with sentimental value because of the risk of mold. Now I get to grieve all over again because I thought they were gone, then I saw them again, then I had to send them away.
-- Finding old pictures of my cats Ite and Janey and Nay's first service dog DJ.
-- Finding old pictures of my sister, my brother, and my friend Kim.

Things that made me giggle today:
-- Chad saying that after packing up a bunch of my candles and incense and aromatherapy oils, he's starting to think I'm a witch.
-- Buying a bottle of Arbor Mist sangria zinfandel and a container of trail mix and a container of cashew cinnaraisin granola as a congratulations to myself for getting through the statistics exam.
-- Finding an old Halloween picture from when I lived in the dorm, and Nay, Suzanne, my sister, and I dressed up as the Addams Family. My sister looked eerily like Gomez. And I didn't make a bad Grandmama. ::grin:: Hey, that picture of me in that costume got me two marriage proposals at camp a year or so later.

Stats, stats, and more stats

In the computer lab. Got here at noon. Not leaving until 4:30.

We have a stats exam on Tuesday, and my officemate Kim and I are camped out in the computer lab, working on practice problems using the SAS program.

::sigh:: Any positive thoughts you can send for us to ace this exam would be greatly appreciated. We both really need A's in this class since this is a skill we'll use for the rest of our careers.

Back to the practice problems.

Stolen from E's blog

Now they have gone and gotten totally full of themselves -- to actually say that the killing of young girls is retribution for someone speaking against them.

Dawn's note to Westboro: You are not that important. Believe me. You are more a mange on our societal backside than the voice of the Higher.


Topeka church drops plans to picket Amish funerals
Associated Press

HARRISBURG, Pa.-- A Kansas church group that routinely pickets military funerals has dropped plans to demonstrate at funerals of five Amish girls fatally shot in an attack on their one-room schoolhouse.

Instead, members of the Westboro Baptist Church issued a statement today saying a representative will appear on a nationally syndicated radio talk show.

The Web site of show host Mike Gallagher indicated the group was offered an hour of airtime on Thursday morning in exchange for dropping the planned demonstration.

In preparation for the demonstration, Gov. Ed Rendell said earlier today that he would ask Amish elders if they want state police protection and appealed to the Topeka, Kan.-based group to allow the Amish to conduct their funerals in privacy.

Members of the Westboro Baptist Church routinely picket military funerals, saying that American servicemen and women are dying overseas because God is displeased that the United States tolerates homosexuals.

In a statement on its Web site, the church blamed Rendell for the deaths of the Amish children because of comments he made about the Westboro group on national television several months ago.
"They're insane," Rendell responded when asked about the group's statement.

In June, Rendell signed legislation into Pennsylvania law designed to restrict Westboro Baptist Church's picketing by making it a crime to demonstrate within 500 feet of a funeral or memorial service in Pennsylvania.

On Monday morning, Charles Carl Roberts IV entered the West Nickel Mines Amish School in Lancaster County and shot 10 girls, killing five. Roberts killed himself as police stormed the building.

Uh oh

My throat feels like it's trying to get sore.

Obviously, I didn't start the echinacea soon enough.

Science Education

Seeing this article about people's science ignorance makes me want to reach out even more to students K-12. Pre-hurricane, our local chapter of the Society for Conservation Biology had some education programs going where some of us went to local high schools and talked about how great science is. We were in the process of selecting which schools we would visit and which members would visit them. There was discussion about how many members wanted to avoid schools in the "rough" neighborhoods. At our next meeting, I was going to plea the case that maybe it was the kids in the "rough" neighborhoods who needed us the most -- but then the hurricane happened, and I didn't get to say it.

We have an SCB meeting on the 9th. I'm going to broach the issue this time.