Memory, memory, anybody got a memory

Memory game! This is a fun one so participate or I'll poke you in the eye. (These are the words of my friend who convinced me to put this on my blog. What can I say, I value my eyesight!)

1. As a comment on this post, leave a memory that you and I (or Rachelle) had together. It doesn't matter if you know me a little or a lot, anything you remember!

2. Next, re-post these instructions on your blog and see how many people leave a memory about you. It's actually pretty funny to see the responses. If you leave a memory about me, I'll assume you're playing the game and I'll come to your blog and leave one about you.

It's about Freakin' time!!!!!! (a life update)

So, I am alive. Not by much, but I am alive. So here is the scoop. I have a very different perspective on my time here in texas, and here is why, Everything has changed. I have changed my degree to a Masters in Chemical Education. So yeah, pretty different than a Ph.D in Chemistry, but it is a much better option. So here is the when, the why, and the what the heck.

Well, I switched to Masters about 2 months ago, and have just been really busy and I am just now getting around to telling everyone. It took a good couple of months to switch, and a trip to the temple to make sure I wasn't making a bad choice, but it is now done, and I am in the thick of my new degree.

Why, because I recently admitted to myself that I hate research. Don't get me wrong, I dig playin' around in the lab, but research is just to much for me. It can get really, really discouraging. Needless to say, a 10 percent success rate on reactions is pretty good in chemistry, and I was not diggin' that. Well, I have always wanted to teach, and I came here to get a degree so that I could do just that. So, switching to chem ed means that I will still be able to do that, I will not have to kill myself doing something that I hate for the next 3 or so years.

So what does it all mean. Well, it means just this:
I will be done in one year
The research I do will be an educational project, and will be done in the fall/spring this year
I will be taking classes again, and I am now
I will no longer be stuck in a lab all day
I can tutor more, which means a little more money
I will still be teaching labs each semesters
I will teach in High School or community college instead of a university
I will now retain more of my life because I will no longer inhale braincell killing chemicals all day
Overall, I am HAPPY.

I have been a bit less happy than I used to be due to hating research, and once I admitted that to myself, I have new life. Man, I actually like waking up and going to school in the morning. Well, ok, so I still don't like waking up, but I like going to school.

Well, I have been taking a class this summer, an educational technology class, online. I hate online classes. I have never really liked the idea of an online class, but now I know from experience that I am not a fan, and it is even worse because it is summer. I have had to learn more about excel, I learned filemaker pro (a database program) inspiration (a content mapping software), and I am now learning dreamweaver, (a webediting program). And all this in just 4 weeks. It has really kicked my butt. I have also had to teach lab twice a week, and do the labs as well, so I have been quite busy. Rachelle has been alot happier due to the fact that I am no longer miserable.

So, all in all, we are really busy, but happy. It is a good life, supposing I survive this class.

NOOO! Not summer, anything but Summer!!

For the past month, the weather here has been awesome. I love the whole 70-80 degree thing, and the nights are pretty cool, mostly around 60. It has been really quite nice. Relaxing in the awesome hammock is the coolest, and working in the yard is not torture. Oh the great spring weather in Texas.

But, this morning I woke up to something quite disturbing. It was warmer outside than it was inside at 8 in the morning, which can mean only one thing. Summer. (if you listen carefully enough, you can hear a piece of me dying) I hate Texas summers. They are hot, they are humid, I am sticky, and there is no relief unless you have air conditioning. The shade is the same temperature as in the sun. It is just wrong. (more dying)


I have only one hope, fall. It is now only a short 7 or so months away. I now begin the long trek through summer, and hope that dehydration does not take me before I get to fall. It very well may, and I may welcome it, it depends on how hot it gets this year. I pray for rain. Please, if you call yourself friend, pray with me.

The epic battle continues

I have finally gotten around to putting music on my blog. Do I dig, it? Well, it doesn't really matter, because I do not have speakers on my computer at work were I normally check blogs, so it does nothing in respect to my own listening experience. Not to mention I am usually listening to my sansa when I am at work any way. So, I really did it for you, my dedicated readers (all three of you), so I hope you like it. I am more than willing to change the playlist to suit your own fancy, so go ahead and fill me in on the changes you want.

There is one part about the music that does bother me, granted, it has nothing to do with the music itself. I use Mozilla Firefox for all my web browsing needs. I am well aware of the fact that most use Internet explorer, and I used to be one of them. I have been converted by firefox. It is awesome, and I love all the features it has, not to mention it is way more user friendly than explorer. So, I use it almost exclusively. There are two things that firefox does not due the way I like it. First, the music on blogs overlaps onto the posts, which makes it really hard to read at times. The second is launchcast radio. It is only compatable with explorer. I hate both, so the battle continues, will I use firefox because it rocks, or will I use explorer because everyone else does. Well, most of you are very aware of the fact that I do not always do what everyone else does, so I will stick with firefox, unless I am using launchcast, which is pretty seldom anyhow.

I would also at this time like to encourage all of you to go ahead and try firefox. It is awesome. Plus if you like to listen to music while you are online, you can also put on foxytune which allows you to change your music (track, pause, volume, etc.) right from the bottom corner of you browser. Man I dig computers!!

A Bet Gone Really Wrong.

Many, if not all of you are aware of my peanut allergy. Many of you are also aware of my aversion to peanuts and any peanut containing concoction. Well, I have recently learned the history of how peanuts have come to be a food item. It began long ago as a bet. Centuries ago, there was a tribe of people that lived in a region where peanuts would grow wild. One day, one of the children of this tribe bet another child that he would not eat a peanut. You see, long before this, the peanut was periodically eaten when there was nothing else to eat, but when a chieftain ate one and died, they were seen as the devil's food. (they are grown beneath the ground anyways) So, a bet to eat a peanut was quite the bet. Well, this child decided to take his friend up on the bet, ate one, and did not die. So, this practice of eating peanuts became a show of strength and the lack of fear. Those with a peanut allergy would die, those without it would survive. From that point it became more and more extravagant, having to grind up the peanut and eat the paste, or mixing it with other equally deadly foods. Later when explorers saw this, they tasted the peanuts, and peanut butter, and due to the fact that they were delirious from their adventures so far, they recognized it for the protein it contained and convince themselves that it actually tasted good, and from there it was all history. So the next time you sit down to eat anything containing peanuts, remember that you are eating the devils food that is only food because of a bet gone wrong!

One more barrier passed!!

So, I recently found out that I passed my fifth cumulative exam. As a graduate student in chemistry at Texas A&M, you are required to pass 5 cumulative exams. These exams are given the second saturday of each month, and there are test from each division of chemistry. (organic, inorganic, analytical, physical, biological, and sometimes nuclear) You have your choice of which to take, and so you can look them over, and take one of them. Granted, once you are there looking at the tests, you have to take one. Generally, people will take the one from the division that they are in, but it is not required by any means.

Well, the professors write them, and hence have to grade them, so it tends to take a long time to get results back from a cume, but just the other week, I found out that I have passed my fifth. You are allowed to take 15, and you have to finish by the time you have been able to take 20. Yeah, kinda strange, but that is how it works. Well, due to the fact that I was gone one semester, I had until February to pass five. I passed my fourth in september, but the cumes from Oct. and Nov. where just not my cup of tea, or perhaps they were cups of tea, and I just prefer hot chocolate, I am not quite sure. But alas, the cume from December was a good one, and perfectly suited for someone from my research group. Needless to say, I Aced it like a mad fiend! It was a good feeling to not only be done, but to finish it out with a good solid A.

Since we got back from our christmas vacation though, it seems as if we haven't stopped. The few nights we don't have anything going on already, we plan nights with friends. While in the end this means that we don't really have any free nights these days, we are sure having alot of fun. In fact, the other day, the Moores came over and we had a rematch game of squabble seen it. It is one of the many versions of the poplular game Seen It. Yeah, the movie game. This one is basically guys vs. girls, or as the box states, Chick Flicks vs. Guy Picks. The first time we played it was a couple of weeks ago, and the guys won. And in the rematch, we won yet again. Plus to top it all off, we won by shouting out The Princess Bride before the girls could get it. (nice work Paul) Needless to say, we have been having a blast.

I have also started a new D&D gaming session with a few people I know from school. In fact, there are two guys that I know from chemistry, and then their significant others. Sadly one lives in San Antonio, so she can not often come to play, but the rest of us have alot of fun. I hope it continues to be as fun as it is now. We stopped playing for some time because it was no longer fun, but hey, people change, and your life changes. It can't be helped, and even if it could be helped, I am not sure I would want it to.

Rachelle has also picked up quite the project. You see, there are quite a number of dancing groups here on campus, and so they decided to get together, and do their own little 'So You Think You Can Dance' competition. Granted it is just each group showing off their own style, and then doing one of the other styles also. Well, Jackie, one of the older students in our lab is in a group that does traditional mexican dances. They happened to draw ballroom out of the hat, so Jackie asked Rachelle is she would choreograph a number for them, so she is. She worked with them on Sunday and will work with them more tonight and thursday night, and then the competition is on Friday. She has had alot of fun putting the number together, and I had some fun with this fun little program called audacity. It is a freeware music editing program that I found, ans so far I really like it. I took the song that Rachelle is using (Short Skirt, Long Jacket by Cake) and cut it down to about 2 minutes, and slowed it down by about 10% or so. It was alot of fun doing it, and plus it is now perfect for the number. I hope the routine works out like Rachelle wants it to.

Well, there is much more I could talk about, but I am out of time, so until I post again, I hope you all have a freakin awesome January (and February as will if it comes to that)

You Say Slacking, I say effectivly doing other things!

ok, so perhaps I have slacked a little. My posting has gone from ever other month, to every third. Will it improve? you ask, perhaps it will now that we actually have internet at home now. Oh, how I really love having the internet at home, and oh how I have missed the glory of the great information age. Granted I have had internet at school, but how much do you think I do at school, that isn't school? I would answer that question, but that would give far to much away, and allow the mocking to begin.

So, what have I been doing you ask? Well, school really. My life is research. I could talk for quite some time about the success and failure of my reactions and the direction of my projects, but I see little point in doing so. That is the monotony of life, and I revel in the excitement of life, which exists on a number of different levels. The highest level is home. I love being home with Rachelle. We talk, watch TV, work of projects, and clean. No matter what, the house never actually seems like it stays clean for more than a day or two. Rachelle really has been pushing for us to keep it cleaner, but what can I say, we both hate cleaning. The great thing is that I love to have people over to visit, so that forces us to clean before they get there. Oh well, clean or not, I love our house.

We also have alot of projects that we do, particularly me. I love projects. One of the more recent ones would be the stump. What is the stump you ask, well, it is just that, a stump. It was cut about to the level of the ground, but not quite. So, when Rachelle was being so kind as to mow the lawn when I had to come to work on saturday, she ran over the stump, and it fought back. Sadly the lawnmower was the one that lost. A bent crank, and a new engine later (again, thanks Paul for hauling my lawnmower to and from the repair shop) and I decided I needed to dig out the stump. When I say dig out, I mean with a shovel, an axe and way to much sweat. It is now sitting in a hole with a mote around it due to the rain we have gotten, and I can't manage to get out there to finish digging it out. I think next time I will wait for the fourth of July and just use a few M80's on the thing.

I have to also say, that Rachelle does the most amazing job of making our house look festive. She really like decorating for pretty much every holiday, and I love it. We don't have much in the way of Thanksgiving stuff, but she is working on it. But, now that it is the Christmas season, the house is just full of christmas stuff, and I love it. On my next post, which may be later tonight, I will put up pics of the cool christmas tree and what not. Life rocks, and so I hope you all dig it as much as I do.