laurenisms

I have just turned in my last paper of the summer — well, my last real paper — almost twenty minutes early! Woo!
I have also: been in Shelby’s wedding (cried); got in more arguments with my mother, who is not so good at rationality sometimes (did not cry); cried about a puppy I fell in love with online but who got adopted by someone else (cried); finally tried dirty martinis (rejoiced) and wondered why I have not been drinking them for years (regretted lost time); gotten fancy shiny new flipflops (rejoiced); had job interviews for two (!) different grown-up jobs (fretted, then was optimistic).

Upcoming: wait to hear about jobs; find another puppy; drink more dirty martinis.

(song: “Portland, Oregon,” Loretta Lynn & Jack White)

O, the writers’ block! truly it will be the death of me!

Yea verily!

There’s a paper due at midnight — well, at 11:59pm. I emailed the last one in at 11:54 and was proud of myself for being early. I don’t know if this one will make it by the witching hour, though. If I knew what I wanted to say, I would be fine; I type quickly enough to plow through more than this paper’s maximum 1000 words in the next six hours. But I’m not sure what it’s going to be about, so instead of writing I’m playing Tetris and downloading The Dark Tower series audio books. I get to start book 3 on the bus to work tomorrow morning!

The bus yesterday morning was quiet and empty. I was the third person on; usually there are at least fifteen by the time it gets to my stop. It confused me. I wondered if I had misread the clock and was an hour off, or if I had forgotten it was a holiday. It’s like being the first to finish a test, which I often was — that always makes me worry that I missed a page or misunderstood directions and answered one paragraph on the essay questions instead of five.
But then at the next stop, the same guy that always gets on was there. He looks friendly and is always reading an interesting book. I was happy to see him because it meant that if I was totally confused, at least one other person was confused with me.
Also I realized that if the bus was empty, I wouldn’t have to sit next to anyone, so I listened to my Frankenstein, or, the Modern Prometheus and was happy.

Anyway:
Of the different methods of evaluating indexing, which come closest to assessing the quality of indexing, and which best suggest how to improve indexing? Please email me if you know.

Edited to add:

• Fix the RSS feed

should have been on the to-do list. Thanks for pointing it out, Heath.

Edited again to add:
Also, thanks, all, for the kind words on the new site. I do want criticism as well (constructive only, please; I can produce plenty of destructive criticism all by myself), though, so don’t hesitate to email if there are things that you consider extremely unpleasant.
Tho’ I suppose I shouldn’t assume that there are more readers than the four who already emailed! (*waves* Hi friends!)

(song: “I’ll Be Around,” Bobby)

Oh, also:

• Figure out WTF is going on with comments (Priority!)
• Make archives work
• Make categories work (why don’t they display over there in the sidebar?)
• Write something on the about page!
• Import old Laurenisms & Knitblog entries
• Figure out how to import Kitchenisms

… etc.

Until I can get comments going, I’d appreciate emailed feedback about the new site, if you’ve got it — use my name @ my domain. I’ve gotten “IT’S SO DARK!” and also “It’s so cute!” so I’m not sure what the general feeling is …

(song: “Papa Was A Rodeo,” the Kelly Hogan version)

I don’t know why it always surprises me that I am most likely to run into folks I know when I’m at the library on campus …
I’ve been sad because of a lack of being on campus and randomly running into people — it’s weird that I got so used to being able to do that, when I couldn’t, here, for at least a year. But today I was in the library to pay my $19 fine (I am a bad person) when I encountered my two favorite Writing Center customers from last year, Adam and Reese. Reese had to run off but I was especially pleased to see Adam, because I learned that he is to be in my Class of Deathly Boredom, aka Management for Information Organizations. I like Adam so am glad we get a class together, but was extra special happy because that means he can take notes for me on the first day.
I have to miss the first day because I am too dumb to double-check my calendar and figure out when class starts before I buy non-refundable tickets to Madison. (Yay, a sixth state to check off! I am a wimpy US traveler.) The first half of the summer term, in which I had one class, ends this Wednesday, and for some reason I thought the second half, in which I have a different class, would start next Monday, but no, it starts on Thursday. And I am leaving for Wisconsin on Thursday afternoon. This is dumb. I am dumb.
But Adam will be there to take notes for me!

This weekend was surprisingly eventful!

Mom’s marriage:
L: “Do you two want to get married?” (It’s the only thing that Washington requires in the ceremony.)
Them: “Yep!”
L: “Yay! Then you’re married!”

Harry Potter:
Finished Saturday night. Interesting. Not sure what I think, actually.

Homemakerdom:
Pulled lots and lots of weeds; did the dishes and cleaned the counter in preparation for a mini party on Sunday night.

Mini party:
Gins&tonic, bourbon, Oban (grâce à Chelle, thanks!!!); delicious guacamole (made-up recipe to be posted on Kitchenisms when I get it transferred); Simpsons, Firefly. Chelle and Tom and John & Laura. Good group!

This week: write a paper; laundry; pack; cash checks; figure out how I can get out of going to the first day of class.

(song: “The New Face of Zero and One,” the New Pornographers. A trail of sisters through New York.)

FINISHED, half-assedly: XML and JavaScript.

FINISHED, about three-quarters-assedly: PHP and MySQL.

ATTENDED: Spring Fling, complete with hay bales, face painting, and bluegrass music. And beer, but not enough.

FINALLY DRAGGED SHAN TO: Christy McWilson show

TO DRESS FOR: Heath’s fancy party tonight, of which I can only stay for an hour.

TO START I mean FINISH because of course I’ve started it,
haha, yes, I have!!: 10-15 page paper about archival cataloging and classification!

TO PACK: Everything I own.

(song: “Valentine,” Old 97s. Murry should sing more.)

this spring break, i have learned that i am not good at being bored. waking up with nothing to accomplish in a day makes me cranky. i need a goal of some sort, either something that must be done by the end of the day or someplace to be at a certain time. finishing books apparently doesn’t count, which is unfortunate, as i’m within 60 pages of the end of at least two books. so now i’m trying to find goals for every day this week. some options:
go for a bike ride in the morning
go to the gym (x3)
finish one half of one curtain (x2)
beat the INCREDIBLY ANNOYING spot i’m at in prince of persia
fix the stupid css for the website
put my controlled vocabulary in a database, just to prove i can.
and maybe i’ll bake something. i’ve been thinking about making fifteen batches of muffins and then freezing them for breakfasts for the rest of eternity.

got home today from a brief and boring (and therefore cranky) trip to portland. since it was largely a business (catsitting for my mom) trip, i didn’t see anyone except katie on the way down. i did get to have a little picnic in clatskanie, which was very nice; it was strange to be so close to astoria. the other high point of the trip was the $5 crossword puzzle book at powell’s. it’s all sunday puzzles so i will be busy for a while.

addendum to the list of daily goals:
finish one crossword puzzle.

(song: “guess things happen that way,” johnny cash)