Starting Anew

Here we are again. I will blog tonight. I should be reading, but instead..this.

A new class starts today and I hedged on starting, debated about taking a break and waiting until after the Hawaii trip. I think it's going to work out OK, I'm betting I'll get my big paper done the week before I go to Hawaii. But now that I've made a decision, I'm having doubts. This is a philosophy class and I know VERY LITTLE about philosophy. In fact, I just forced myself to read 18 pages (chapter 1) of the first of 8 books (8 BOOKS???) This stuff is UGH! Dreadful! I'm highlighting text as I read and then jotting notes on words (and phrases) I have to look up because if the author uses them once, I'm going to see it again. The words I looked up today are:

epistemology
Cartesian
veritistic epistemology
social vertitistic epistemology
invidious
purveyor
putative
ontological

So that's 8 things I'm trying to learn tonight. The reading tonight really didn't mean much to me. It was about...what....what is truth? Is truth something more than what we believe to be true? Just because everyone believes something is true this does not make it true. I think that was the gist of what I read...but I'm really not sure what I read. Studying philosphy is sort of mind-bending. With computers, things are zero and one, black and white. The beauty of a system like that is that when you arrange the zeros and ones in the right "patterns" (I'm using that term loosely), things work miraculously well (or not..in some sad cases). Philosophy is like disassembling all the structure of what you think. Or, maybe not disassembling, but looking at each step of a process. I should be good at this. So why is it so hard for me???

Rainbows

I made some time to blog tonight. It has been a few hectic weeks lately. I am dead dog tired but taking some "ME" time tonight. We had some weird weather last week - 70 degrees in February and thunderstorms... check out the rainbow!

Here's a photo of Erin and Emily and Brittany - they were soaking wet. They had been playing in the rain. I'm happy they still like to play in the rain!

I am happy tonight. I have a ton of work to do but I am taking a break from it, and going to bed soon. I turned my BIG paper in tonight. I have another to work on, and time to start next week's work. Last week of class, and then a week or more off. I will have to decide whether to wait until after the Hawaii trip to start back. I hope it works out that I don't have to take a break.

Sarah has recorded new music. I am looking forward to a finished product (what we in IT-world call a deliverable). Gimmee.

Ice Trees

I wanted to share photos of our trees. The sun came out and they were magnificient. The ice melted off our trees today, and now it's what I call nasty winter days. The dirty snow is piled up and dirty ice is everywhere. The snow is mostly gone but muddy puddles are everywhere. I AM READY FOR SPRING!!!

They might just be shiney branches to you, but really, they were spectacular!

Emily had a bit of a sledding accident this weekend. I took a picture of her poor face, but you should have seen her the first few days after it happened! Her eye was swollen shut and she did look somewhat like she'd been mauled by something.

I had a monster weekend. I worked on a paper ALL weekend. I was pretty happy with it when I submitted it this evening but I have NO IDEA if it's even remotely close to what the prof is looking for. I hope it is. I'd accept 90% but if I get less than that...HMp. I read the instructions and set forth...but it seems like the instructions change everytime I read them. I must reinterpret the instructions every time I read them.

Erin wants to see Sweeny Todd and it's running at the Keith Albee next week. The last two times I saw shows there I was very disatisfied with the sound quality. If I'm paying $68 I want to hear the dialog! Emily said she doesn't want to see it and I am rather indifferent, other than the expense. I just recently borrowed some $$$$ to catch up on tuition payments.

Well.....I'm off again. I have one more post due before tomorrow night is over. Then Week 6 starts. No extra papers due Week 6 but I need to start working ahead on the Week 7 paper. Also I need to start checking the Week 8 paper virtual business. I'm liking this class but I just don't like all this security stuff. Ethics is interesting. I'm interesting in "knowledge-sharing" too. I didn't really think much about the difference between knowledge and information until this week.

Been around....

I'm taking time to post here tonight. I should be working, but I went outside a bit to enjoy the frosty cold night. The trees are encased in ice and they sparkle in the lights of the town's darkness. My twin apple trees are especially frilly, but seeing that show reminded me that I need to prune them back next month. I need to go out there tomorrow and see if the ice damaged them or the cherry trees. I wonder if the sweet cherry will survive this ice...it's never been a healthy tree.

My class is coming along. I'm finding some interesting things to read about. I need to write another paper, bigger than the last one, 350 words bigger. Ok, that's about two good paragraphs. Somehow it just seems much bigger. It is going to be difficult though...I have to find conflicting sources. And how about that! If I have to present multiple opinions, it's going to take more words.

I am now a blue belt in karate, and so is Jerry. Erin is our revered 2nd degree UFAF black belt, and I think she has a studio black belt too. As for me, black is WAY in the future. I thought I was now working toward advanced blue, but Jerry insists we jump right to green. Cool. Green is my favorite color (sometimes).

I am "on holiday" tomorrow (which is why I'm up so late like an idiot.) Floating Holiday. Oh my, I just realized it IS my floating holiday! Anyway, I am going to bed now and get up in the early morning and work on my paper. I have MUCH reading to do tomorrow. I need to do some construction work :-)

Almost New Year

Well, I keep forgetting that tomorrow is the last day of the year. Time for some New Year's resolutions. I always keep these private but LET IT BE KNOWN...they are made. Tomorrow I will remember to take my new calendar to work with me. I already have numerous things to mark on it. The spring months are filling up FAST.

If my sweet Sarah is reading this blog, please go check out Emily's blog - she has a really cute post about YOU.

I have to start doing some HARD-CORE reading tomorrow night. Do or die. It's time to kick into speed reading gear because the current speed isn't going to get me there in time.

26 Candles

Happy birthday to my babies - they were 13 years old yesterday. We had a little birthday celebration. I let them select cell phones and ordered online. They should have their phones tomorrow, I think. We will give Erin's old phone to Jerry since he has the crappiest phone in the house. After the switching is done, I will be the proud owner of the crappiest phone in the house. Not fair, but I will get a new one in June...maybe.

I've got photos of Erin and Emily doing birthday rites. They had identical cakes. Dave gave me a hard time...I always buy birthday cakes from him. I walked into his shop 15 minutes before closing and told him I needed two birthday cakes. He smiled big and asked "When?" I told him, "I need them now." His smile quickly changed to frown and he said, "Mom, you didn't wait until their birthday to remember the cake, did you?" I gave a sheepish "yes" and he commanded the situation. He took a quick inventory of the showcase and produced 2 Santa Clause cakes. I said "Perfect!" and he grabbed the icing pen and wrote the girls' names on their cakes. Dave is the best. I bought 3.5 dozen cookies too to take to Molly's party and as I was walking out the door, he came carrying two packs of candles and just tossed them on top of the boxes (free of charge). He said, I bet you forgot the candles too. I smiled and thanked him. Forget the candles? You know that's the thing I've liked most about birthdays my whole life - the candles. I use to steal the birthday cake candles out of the garbage can. Let no candle go unburned!!

You might have noticed the Gingerbread house in Erin's pictures. That is Emily's creation. She loves to make gingerbread houses. Someday I will make a gingerbread house....yes, that will be a good aspiration. I want mine to have spree and smarties...and crushed peppermint on the roof.

Well, tonight I played the role of suck up. My prof is encouraging participation during "reading weeks". So far, I haven't been getting into the reading aspect of "reading week". But with the challenge posted, I made an effort. Many of the required articles I've surveyed thus far are L-O-N-G and dreary. I found the two shortest articles assigned for the first 4 weeks and picked the two shortest. I read them and wrote summaries and critiques, and submitted. I got in there first, which means I'll be ridiculed because I probably only gave him 60% of what he was looking for....still, I pioneered! I took the risk and by doing so, I did the least amount of work. Excellence through laziness! Thanks be to God.

Back from Atlanta...and other news

I attended year 1 residency and boy was that some kind of trip! I worked like a dog, not sleeping more than 2 to 3 hours a night for 5 nights. I was tired but I learned a LOT!!! I met some amazing people; people who have done remarkable things and plan to do remarkable things. I found the demographics of the class to be interesting. I think it was about 2/3 black people, and almost all women. The professor was an exceptional man. He has 2 doctorates and is finishing work on his 8th master degree. He has been accepted to start work on another degree at Cambridge. I must brag a bit. I got an 'A' in the class...it was a tough piece of work getting an 'A' in there too. Our team project blew. We wrote a good piece of work but our presentation sucked. I certainly assisted the suck part of the presentation. I hate presentations of any kind.

So now, I get until next Monday night off if I wish and then I start on another 8 week class. I have completed 7 credit hours so far. I have an 'A' average, 2 A's and an A-. My next class up is like an overview of technology, I think. Sort of like a survey of all sorts of things related to computers, networks, and electronic devices. It should be.....dreary probably. Technology is fun to play with but I hate reading about it.

Emily got braces on her teeth.

She did pretty well with them at first. I kept her doped up on Motrin for the first few days, even woke her up in the night to give her Motrin. I learned from Sarah's experience. Sarah was fine the first day and then woke up the first morning after in agony when the Motrin had worn off. The dentist thinks she will have these more than 2 years...there's work to be done.

It's Christmas almost and I haven't started shopping yet. The girls want new cell phones for their birthday so that I can do without much trouble. Emily helped me put up the tree tonight and we have lights on it. Tomorrow, we'll add garland, and wait until Erin gets home tomorrow night and let them both have at decorating the thing. It's nice to have somebody else do this chore. I like Christmas but it's a lot of work. Sarah said she might come home tomorrow. I am looking forward to seeing her. She doesn't come home much...she's a busy girl.