Tuesday, July 26, 2011

Friday, May 13, 2011

What the #@$%! is a Blue Book?

When I first got into college, there were some things I didn't understand.  One of the first things?  Blue Books.  Effing Blue Books.  So what are they?

That's a Blue Book

Blue Books are little, blue-cover booklets full of wide rule notebook paper in which you can write answers to essay questions on tests.  I don't know how much some schools use them, but we never used them in high school.  In college, I think I've only used them for two or three classes.  Teachers usually leave space for you to write, or do multiple choice.  Blue Books are an inexplicable necessity for some tests, though, so just to be prepared, keep a spare in your bag/notebook.

Sidenote: Green Books are exactly like Blue Books, except they're green and made of recycled paper.  If your teacher cares, they have issues.

Similarly, scantrons.  We used scantrons in high school, but there are many different types.  There are normal scantrons, and giant scantrons.  I've only ever used the normal size ones.


scantron, normal

Basically, you write your name on it, and fill in the information, then fill in the little bubbles with a #2 pencil or possibly a pen.  I've never been brave enough to risk trying a pen to see if it works, but I've heard tale that it does.  These are for multiple choice tests and are the number one choice of lazy guesswork.  I've had scantrons tests in my worst subjects, and I usually do pretty badly on them.  Point is, don't guess.  

Also, don't get freaked out about the order of the bubbles  you fill in.  It's probably fine to get 5 Ds in a row....right?  I mean....



Image sources:  http://1.bp.blogspot.com/_oIioyWl6NnQ/Rwo4uYvTQ2I/AAAAAAAAAH0/7KmFI4IHsP0/s320/blue+book.jpg

and 

http://www.math.tamu.edu/~shatalov/ScantronForm882ES.gif

Monday, May 9, 2011

Awesomeness Bleeds Out My Ears

Man, I am the best average student ever!  I procrastinate on everything; it's a huge problem.  Three papers due this week and what am I doing all day Sunday?  Reading manga, reading wikipedia, cleaning the cat box, planting my garden, reading about movies I'll never watch on IMBD, cooking dinner, taking out the trash, reading more manga, taking a shower.....and finally, begrudgingly, doing my paper.

the fruits of my roommate's procrastination -scones!


The other week, when I really should have been studying for my wetland ecology midterm, I was instead gardening (again), cleaning, and just generally dicking around.  It's a really bad habit, and for anyone who's not in the habit of procrastinating, I would advise you not to start.  Also, I hate you.  I would love to be someone who gets things done quickly and has free time afterwards.  I should be that person.

douche!  your hair is in my effin way!


But, no matter how much I tell myself that I need to get things done right away, I always wind up procrastinating until the last minute.  Usually, it only ends up in a slightly less than ideal paper (slightly incoherent by the end) and me missing out on sleep that night.  Which is crazy, because I love to sleep!  If I'd just get on it, I'd get it done and be amazingly less stressed out.

cats are the luckiest


I know all that.  I know a million reasons to not procrastinate, but no amount of logic can overcome my lazy and contrary nature.  Maybe if I start telling myself I'll do it at the last minute, I'll get it done early?  Who knows.  The point is, I'm a bad student in many respects.  I think I'm average in that everybody I know does it, but I don't think it's good.

my dog.  I'm not the one who did this to her.


On the other hand, if I had disastrous results from doing this, I'd probably stop.  I tell myself that I don't care what grade I get, so long as I pass.  It's true, in a way.  If I really gave a crap, I'd work harder on each paper, revise it, do it ahead of time, put forth real effort, etc.  So I must not really care, but when it comes down to it, I do care a little bit.

the paraphernalia makes it look like I was working, but you know i'm not because the cat is there 


Once I turn in a paper, I worry endlessly that I did something wrong -for example, in my last midterm paper, I didn't cite any readings.  At the time, I thought it was fine because I only alluded to the readings -the paper was about my opinion.  I liked the way it was written and the epiphany I had while writing it, but for the following week after I turned it in, I was slightly anxious/disappointed that I'd probably done it wrong and wasn't going to get a good grade.

"I am the starbucks lady.  kneel before me"

oh the things I do while bored in class


Similarly, for Wetland Ecology, I barely studied for the midterm.  Most of my studying took place the night before and the morning of, in the class before, and right before we had to put our materials away.  I looked at the test, pulled out my Green Book (recycled version of Blue Books), and began rambling away about gleyed soils and inundation and chemical reduction in the soils.  I got nervous because I was only marginally confident, and the teacher is scary and my advisor.  But, I did my average-est.

me and my little garden


So, you might be wondering how it all turned out.  Shall I tell you?  Yes, yes I shall.  On my Wetland Ecology midterm, I crossed my fingers, hoping against hope for a C.  When the teacher was passing the tests back, he gave me a funny look and handed me mine.  93%.  Heck yes!  'I must be a genius!' I thought.  I seriously considered jumping up on the table and dancing.
her new favorite thing is the filthy dishrag I threw on the floor


As for the other class's  midterm (Cultural/Political Ecology, btw), I worried helplessly that she would think I plagiarized or something and fail me or send me to the Dean to be punished or something.  Worry, worry, worry.  I get my paper back this morning, and it's a 96% with the comments, "Very good thinking.  May I have a copy for my notes?"

totally unrelated note.  and those are my  toes

And that's why I'm awesome!

also, you know you're jealous of my ability to hard-boil eggs perfectly

Tuesday, May 3, 2011

My Case for Vegetarianism.

When I say "vegetarian," what do you think of?  Hippies, probably.  Makes sense.  That's kind of what I think of when I hear "vegan."  It kind of isn't fair, although I suppose some might consider my reasons for being a vegetarian pretty earth-mother.  But, when I say I am "vegetarian," I mean that I won't eat seafood or meat, but I do eat eggs, milk, cheese, and gelatin.  Gelatin isn't really vegetarian, but it's in some junk foods I like.  So sue me.

I used to eat meat a lot.  I love meat!  Or at least, I loved chicken, beef, seafood, sushi, soup, and bacon.  I was never a fan of pork.  For me, there were few qualms about eating an animal.  Yes, their lives up until slaughter should be as pleasant as possibly, and I would've felt better about it if it were me raising and killing the animal, but it is human nature to eat meat.  We need protein, we're animals, it's what we do.  Some argue that we don't need to eat meat anymore, but I counter-argue that meat tastes good and it has cultural significance as well.

I stopped eating fish in about spring 2009, I believe.  After learning about how overharvested wild fish stocks are, the huge impact of by-catch, and problems generated by a lot of farmed fisheries, I made the decision to quit eating fish.  There are "best options" out there, but I'm poor and can't afford them in comparison with the less-than-ideal options.  I figured, in a capitalist society, you vote with your dollar, and I'll put my vote in my education.  So, I have not eaten fish in quite a while.

As for meat, the decision to stop eating it was made by my boyfriend.  He'd spent a morning when I was at work researching where our meat comes from.  He found out all about the horrible hormones, additives, antibiotics, feed, and cruel conditions in which we typically treat our livestock.  I agree that the conditions are deplorable.  Should cattle really be eating other cattle?  Absolutely not!  In addition to the meat industry's lack of transparency and reluctance/refusal to test for mad cow disease, outbreaks of e. coli, etc., the government supports (and is comprised of food-industry people) legislation that protects big business at the cost, potentially, of the people.  Food, Inc. etc.

That was in January 2010.  I'd already spent some time playing with the idea of being a vegetarian, but never had the motivation.  When my bf said he wasn't eating meat anymore, that was my kick start.  I had a vegetarian buddy to keep me on track!  That night, we went out to a steakhouse, and ate ribs and steak, and that was the last meat I ever ate.  It was delicious.

In the following weeks, I at first went through intense cravings for meat, especially fried chicken.  I can't count the number of dreams where I ate fried chicken.  I never even liked fried chicken very much!  I kept at it, and by the third month, I was dreaming about meat much more infrequently.  By six months, I missed meat a lot less, and by my birthday (October), I was fine without it.

However, at Thanksgiving, I had a lot of trouble keeping it up.  I went to my friend's family's Thanksgiving Dinner, and it was hard being the only vegetarian out of 20 people.  I was highly tempted to eat meat, but I ended up not.  The same trouble happened when I went home for Christmas and was severely tempted by all the delicious, amazing Mexican food.  Oh, man, I still miss menudo and posole, and and and I can't even think about it.

Still, now it's May, and I'm used to being a vegetarian.  There are lots of fruits and vegetables and grains that taste good, and are probably healthier for me.  I have been eating more sugar, which I try to cut back on but the week before my period starts (sorry), I turn into a beast and can easily eat 4x the amount of sugar recommended for one day.  I don't drink anything sweet, though, so that helps overall.

So what's my reason for becoming a vegetarian?  Well, you could say it's because of the way the meat is raised, and for seafood, harvested.  But that would be incomplete, and secondary.  The main reason I don't eat meat is because of the amount of energy it uses.  First, you have to raise the corn on which the animals are raised.  That in and of itself is fairly oil-intensive.  Then you transport the feed, and that produces carbon dioxide.

When  you get the stock in those CAFOs, they produce a lot of waste and pollution.  Cows produce methane, and no matter the species, you clear land to grow it.  A lot of waste is channeled into ponds.  It's disgusting.  Then the animals live horrible lives, and die.  We transport the meat (energy!), package it up in plastic, and buy it.  Many Americans don't eat most of the animal, so it either gets sold to more specific markets, goes into pet food, or is wasted.

Overall, meat production as it stands is largely a wasteful, dirty process.  As an environmentalist, and concerned human being/citizen of Earth, I can't condone it.  I always try to buy the most environmentally conscientious foods and products I can (on my severely limited budget).  I do not think that all people should give up all meat.  I think that everyone in America should severely cut back their meat consumption for multiple reasons.  Eating meat three times a week instead of ten would help, and even better if it's sustainable.

Saturday, April 16, 2011

A Little Bit

Sigh.  Being a senior in college sucks.  Since I hate school and just want to graduate already, I'm taking more than my usual course load -if I'm taking hard classes, I only like to take 3 a term.  However, I'm taking 4 hard/labor-intensive courses this term.  Plus, I'm working Mondays, Wednesdays, Fridays, and Saturdays, and going to the gym in between classes or class and work.  This means I don't have as much free time as I'd like.

So, not that anybody reads this anyway, but it all evens out to me being tired and stressed out and lazy.  Mostly lazy.  I have not been updating this blog as frequently as I'd like to, but, like I said, nobody really reads this in any case.  Ah hah.

But, for the record, this term so far is going decently.

I'm taking Cultural & Political Ecology, which is a geography course about...well, I'm not entirely sure what it's exactly about, but basically it's about how the ecology of a place can influence culture and politics.  It's interesting, to be sure, but I'm not a huge fan of the idea that the environment is the ONLY factor that makes a culture what it is -humans are so weird and diverse.  I think the environment plays a big part in forming cultures and lifestyles, but I dunno.  Plus, we're reading Guns, Germs, and Steel by Jared Diamond, and I'm not a huge fan of that blowhard.  My term paper for this class is going to be looking at the environmental justice movement as a response to environmental racism.  The teacher seems excited about it.

In my Wetland Ecology class, which I had to struggle to get into, I now struggle to stay awake.  I'm sorry.  The teacher is my advisor, and he's pretty nice, but....HOLY CRAP he just isn't a good lecturer.  Think, Ben Stein voice but older and with a stutter.  Still, I love wetlands and I love ecology, and I am learning classes.  For this term paper, I'm not sure what I want to research -it's a research proposal meant to fill in a gap in current research, and I don't even know where to begin =_= sigh.

My favorite class this term is probably my World Population and Food Supply class.  It's so interesting to learn about where how our populations are growing, where people are going, and how we're globally going to sustain ourselves.  I'm also super interested in food issues, think Michael Pollan, so this class is good.  The teacher is excellent, very nice and very interesting.  For my term paper in THIS class, I'm going to be researching the history of...chocolate! :D or cocoa.  Whatever.  I'm excited.

I'm also taking Environmental Management this term, which I like, partly because I generally get along with my fellow Environmental Science/Studies majors better than other people, partly because the teacher's so nice, and partly because I do like the subject.  I don't like allllllllll the reading I have to do for this class, but it's a part of life I guess.

The good thing about this term is that I won't have many/any finals to come for, or hardly any tests.  Yay!

Anyway, I'm tired, so I'm out

Wednesday, March 30, 2011

嬉しい! And First Week (Spring Term)

今日、日本のママからメールが来た! 最後のメールは、2008年だった!「ジュリーは元気ですか?日本のママですよ。地震があって大変で」は言いました。


I got an e-mail from my Japanese mama today!  I haven't talked to her in years!  I sent her an e-mail after the earthquake a few weeks ago, asking if she was OK.  She actually replied!  It wasn't a very wordy email, but hers never are, LOL.  She said, "Julie how are you?  It's your Japanese mama.  There was a terrible earthquake."

I'm really happy to hear from her, though.  I sent her a letter about a year ago, and never got a response, so I figured either it never got there or she was mad at me.  Come to think of it, she might be.  But, either way, she's OK enough to send me an email!



Makes me realize how far downhill my Japanese has gone.  I used to be really, really good at it.  Now, I almost never practice, and so I'm not great at it =_=

In other news, it's now Spring Term, halfway through the week.  I'll update about that later; I'm quite tired right now.

Sunday, March 27, 2011

Last Day of Spring Cleaning Break (clean house!!!)


Holy crap am I sore!  Spring break is already over :'( so sad!  I barely even got a break at all!!!  Ah, well, c'est la vie!

First, a quick rundown on my Weds., Thurs. and Fri.:

Wednesday was no big thing; I finished watching Spice and Wolf II, went to the bank, went to Village Inn (free pie day!), went to the post office, and showed up for work.  I haven't worked Wednesdays in a while, so it was weird -work was very busy, but the kids say some cute things <3  OH!  And I found out one of my classes was cancelled due to "low enrollment," which is bullshit because there were 19/20 grads and 8/20 undergrads -that is enough people, especially since I already paid for the damn class.  Sigh.
Boss sleeps on my laundry

Thursday, I went to meet my friend for boba tea...only to get there and realize the shop was closed until later! We wound up going to her relative's nearby restaurant, and it was awesome (so tasty!!!).  We went back to the shop and played some pool.  After that, I went downtown and got my flexpass, picked up a final, did meh on it, and met another friend.  We went to Powell's, and then to the waterfront, and then to Chipotle.  By that time, it was pouring, so we just went home.  I was going to clean after that, but I'm pretty sure I just lazed around.
Friday:  I started cleaning again after going to the store.  I got some tuperware tubs, notebooks, and a snickers.  It was a weird feeling, but I kept forgetting it was Friday.  Weird.  I also watched Walk the Line, 2012, and some nature program.  I was tired so I just ordered a pizza...Pretty sure the pizza man thought I was getting stoned due to the incense, candles, late night pizza, nature program, and talking to my cats deliriously.  Oh well, I tipped him.

Handsome boy!!!!
 As for Saturday, I spent the first few hours at work, as per every Saturday for the last 2 years (with the exception of about 6 saturdays a year).  It was fine; I snacked a lot.  We actually got out ON TIME since my boss was not there, haha.  Hey, at least I actually get paid when I work past closing now.  Also, funny side note, on my bus ride home, the bus driver waved at a lady and her kid.  I looked at her -AND SHE WAS MY PROFESSOR FROM A FEW YEARS AGO, PLUS HER SON!!!! (her son had a velociraptor mask; it was awesome).  I LOL'd.

Anywho, after that, I came home and vegged out for a little while before getting back to cleaning.  It was a nice, rainy/sunny/windy spring day, so I locked the cats in my bedroom, and opened all the windows to get some fresh air cross breezes going.  Then, because I thought my roommate was going to be home today, I bothered to get the rest of the dishes done and finish cleaning and whatnot.  Of course then she wasn't able to come back today, but I still worked my butt off finishing cleaning.  Things that hurt on me include: my feet, ankles, back, hips, and head :)

So now, the fruits of my labors:
Bedroom

My bedroom, facing my closet.  Those are my clean clothes, already put away :]

My bed, "made."  Ok, you got me.  I haven't actually washed my bedding yet, but I'll get to it.

The other side of my room.  I painted the girl and the leopard above the fan .  Those are my coats on the door.

 Laundry Room - Den
My clean laundry room!!!!  This is epic.  The bins are full of clothes, towels, and linens.

My desk, storage, and a bookshelf.  I got a little lazy here........LOL

Boss comes to check it out.  The floors are gross because they're concrete and because we raised 4 puppies in that room.
My shoes, hanging on the door.  haha.
Dining Nook

I didn't feel like cleaning the table properly

Daisy -she's feeling much better by the way

Kitchen
I use the speakers and my MP3 player to blast pop music as I do the dishes.  The play list is called "dishes."

My clean sink with NO DIRTY DISHES!!!  The jugs are emergency water.  I was rinsing the dust off.
Bathroom

Clean sink plus cat bowl

Boss on the toilet next to the clean, put away towels

Crybaby brat.
 More dining nook

Girl cat stares at something on the floor I mopped
 Living Room

I was watching the new FullMetal Alchemist as I vacuumed...lol

It looks livable now

But not quite out of a magazine.  I'm just not that stylish.
Other

Silly girl

a pile of my shopping bags, plus Anzu's butt

Now I'm tired and itchy and sore.  I need a shower