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So I’ve spent most of the day at "work" today.  (Somehow I just feel that it needs the quotes– until I’m getting paid, it feels more like a hobby.  Or something.)

I’ve been "calibrating" my work computer.  The display was doing some funky shit with the colors, and I think I’ve managed to get it mostly where I want it.  It’s still a bit yellow, but whatever.  Maybe I’ll fiddle with it later.  I’ve been downloading the programs that I need, as well as all of my preffered firefox add-ons.  And changing the background to something other than blue.  Finding Nemo, for instance!

Running computations is a bitch.  It takes forever.  Maybe my computer is just having bad luck today, but I’m trying to get an energy stabilization for SF4, and it’s been computing it for an hour…  Maybe it’s just the fact that my computer is old.  I’ll try and get Gaussian installed on my laptop.  Even running the program through a virtual machine seems to produce output faster than this old clonker.

Last night I called Bryan and asked if he wanted to come over and cuddle/hang out.  He said that he would be over in fifteen or twenty minutes.  I called him an hour later, and he said that he’d forgotten.  He felt really really bad, and he’s going to make up for it by taking me out to dinner this weekend.  I just felt a lot like shit when it happened (hence the blahness of yesterday) and was pouting around my room a lot.

Thursdays are fantastic for me.  I only have two classes, and they are very far apart.  This means that I’ll probably be doing most of my research work in the cubicle on Thursdays.  Most of my homework is due in mid- to early-week, also, so it just makes it a great time to get things done.  If they, you know, process at all.

I’m going over to my parents’ house tonight, so hopefully I can get some laundry done and torrent that CD that I’ve been meaning to illegally pirate.  I’m not actually looking forward to going over, though.  I wish my mom would stop assuming that I consider it to be "home".  1)  I don’t live there; I live in the dorms; I eat and sleep and shower in the dorms.  2)  I have never lived there; you guys moved AFTER I moved into the dorms.  I have spent about two weeks there, for winter break.  Yes, you may be adjusting to the fact that it’s home for you.  How do you expect me to do that when I’ve never lived there?

Gah, I sound really grumpy today.  I’m mostly just frustrated that the processing capacity of this computer is so bad, and that my calculations are taking forever and a day.  Accurate?  Yes.  Long?  Very.

Prof. Truong (my "boss") came into the cubicle earlier today, and asked me who had done my fingerpaintings that I’ve hung all around the walls.  ("Is it your kid?")  He seemed genuinely amused that I had done them.  We talked a bit about how scientists should really have some sort of creative outlet, and he kept chuckling at the fact that the fingerpaintings were my work.  ("It looks like something my son might’ve done.")

Nope, no kids for Addie.  Nope nope.

A bit later, Prof. Truong asked me to talk to this guy named Bryce for a bit.  Bryce is taking the PChem I class right now, and is interested in joining the team.  I showed him a bit about the software, and explained essentially what I do (write tutorials for his class until I get better at utilizing the software).  He was either overwhelmed or underwhelmed.  I think it’s odd that I couldn’t tell which.  Hm…

He also started flirting a bit when he first came into the cubicle, but then he spotted the very Addie-is-in-a-relationship-with-Bryan-and-hangs-couply-pictures-up-in-her-workspace nature of the cubicle and stopped immediately.  It made me giggle on the inside.  Teehee!

It’s almost five o’clock.  I have another hour to kill before my next class.  It’s amazing how boring things can be when I’m not in my own space.  I also am aching for a book to read.  It kind of sucks when my only source of amusement is a really slow, old computer.  I wonder what the other computational geeks (read: people on my team) do when they’re calculating data about their molecules.  Do theirs take this long, also?  Note: ask people this when I am less shy around them.

Oh yeah!  Wilbur is the guy in the cubicle across from me.  He’s from Columbia, and is shy about speaking English, but I can tell that he’s really nice and wants to be friends.  He dropped by a bit earlier and gave me some candy, also admitting that he’d forgotten my name.  (An aside:  I’m going to get a name plate for my cubicle soon; YAY!)

For Foundations, I’m supposed to try and prove the Extreme Value Theorem.  I’ve gotten a lot of it, but it keeps being pretty crappy as far as the end bit goes.  I’ve written up how to get the extreme point, now I just have to prove that it IS an extreme point.  I don’t understand what all of the actual math jargon is saying on the internet.  I wish there were a dumb-ass-math-student-who-is-just-learning translation.  That would be nice.

Oh!  Reetta wanted to hear about my dinner date with Bryan on Monday.  It was fantastic!  We got all fancied up, and took TRAX down to this neat little Italian place near the Salt Palace.  The food was WONDERFUL.  Like sex in a cream sauce.  We also got two desserts, Godiva chocolate cake and tiramisu, and ate them both.  Bryan’s mom, Maggie, also offered to pay for our dinner, so it was even free for us!  Huzzah!

Eating that much rich food did make me a bit ill, especially after only having dorms food for quite a while, but it was worth it.  Especially for the tiramisu.  That is perhaps one of the tastiest desserts that I have ever had.  It makes me salivate to just think about it.  I wish I had more.  It was SOO good.

I’ve survived my first PChem midterm, and I did alright.  I got an 86, and the class average was 79.  I would have like to get much better, but oh well, it was an easy test.  I only really lost points to dumb mistakes and a brain fart.  Hopefully I’ll be really prepared for the hard tests, and I’ll be getting scores much much higher than the average.  I really want an A in that class…  (Just like me to only really care about my grade in the absolute hardest class I have…  Is this a normal thing, or is it just a me thing?)

Shoes.

I sure do wish that this keyboard were better.  It’s really sticky, and it makes really clackity-clack noises when I type.  I hope it’s not too disturbing for the people around me…  I never really hear them type, so I’m either bugging the shit out of them, or there’s actually enough barrier to prevent too much typing noises get out.  Hopefully it’s the latter.

Partial Differential Equations is boring.  We’ve learned how to do Fourier expansions, and that’s all we’ve done.  "Take the Fourier expansion of this."  "Take the Fourier expansion of that.&

quot;  It’s just a lot of tedious integration, really.  Can we move on, please?  Everyone else in the class seems to think that it’s really hard.  Our class size has dropped down to about twenty (from forty or so on the first day).  At least the percentage of female students is going up as everyone drops the class.  It can’t really go down unless I drop it, and that would just be sad.

I’m still a bit miffed that I’m the only female in there.  The professor handed me my homework last time and said, "is this yours?"  I guess it’s nice that the professor can put my name with my face, but I also have the sneaky suspicion that he was tipped off by my girly handwriting.  I don’t know why I care so much.  Honestly, Addie.

I think I’m going to go try and research the Extreme Value Theorem a bit more (I didn’t even know what it was called when I started, so at least I’ve made some progress, right?).  Hopefully I’ll figure something out before it’s my job to present it to the class tomorrow.  >.<

Hope everyone’s having a fantastic day!
Tootles,
   ~Addie