Well, I can't believe it, but I have a teeny bit of a break tonight. I've gone in early every day this month except this past Wednesday (had to take my car to Allstate) and this past Friday (had to wait for my bed to be delivered), and stayed late literally every day. Gone in every Saturday this semester except one, and I went in this Sunday too.
Last night I stayed up til 2 am to get my presentation and worksheet done, and went in to campus before 10 am. Skived off work (will do that on Saturday...sigh) and got all my drafting done around 6 pm. Came home, my pirate costume was here and it's SO SHORT...going to have to buy stockings to wear under it. Suffice it to say, if I turned around too fast in that thing, everyone would see my "booty"!!
Also, my ride to the party fell through. So either someone rescues me, or I'm sitting at home Friday night :( I hate not having my car!!! In good news though, Allstate is fixing it (it's fixable!!) and I should get it back the end of next week. I really, really want to go to this party, dammit.
Tomorrow is my long day, and once it's over I'm going to the library to do some reading on the VOC for my term projects. Then I'll come home and do more reading.
I'm going to do some reading in a bit, but right now I'm luxuriating in the fact my work is FINISHED. Need to double-check my presentation too.
I need to call home. It's too late now, but soon. Hoping I can take a chunk of this Sunday off so I can sleep in and laze around a little.
Tuesday, October 22, 2013
Monday, October 14, 2013
Car Flooded
So I wake up Sunday morning, go out to my car to check something, and it's FLOODED.
I don't know if you can see it here, but there's a line of trash on each side showing the water line was above the tires.
You can see how much water was in my trunk. Thank GOODNESS this part has plugs and was relatively easy to drain!
The water didn't get the seats exactly, but there was so much underneath them (I don't know if you can see the 2 inches of water in the bottom there) that it wicked upwards and they're all damp.
I managed to get to SCUBA and get certified (thank goodness that's done!), get home, and the guy who drove me helped me siphon the water out. Science never ceases to amaze me. Put a tube in the cab of the car, and put the other end lower and all the water neatly suctions itself out!! We also used the jack and jacked the car up on each side to help drain the water out.
We got most of the water out, but then it filled up about half an inch again and we realized the padding beneath the fabric is full of water.
I called the insurance company and they had to make it a party line and add Dad in before they'd file a claim. I need to sell a book or win the lotto and buy the car in my own name and buy my own damn insurance. This is SUCH a pain. (Not that I am in any way shape or form upset that Dad is helping me out. Without insurance I'd be up a creek alright!)
About to go down and check the padding. Wondering if there's anything I can coat my car in to inhibit the growth of algae and mold. Salt? Would that damage the fabric?
What kills me is that I (and my cars) have been through hurricanes, earthquakes, heavy winds, mountain passes and goodness knows what else and came through unscathed...and ONE thunderstorm in Texas did this.
Seriously, I'm starting to think I'll look out the window and see Sharknado coming. It's just that ridiculous.
Update: Went and checked on my car. More pics:
There was dirt in the cupholders so the water got at least high enough to spill over into it. I put some soap on the wettest parts in the faint hope it might inhibit some growth. Trying to find enough paper to soak up the leftover water as my ride took his tubing back with him. I might have to sacrifice my Victoria's Secret catalogues.
Still, I'm trying to not bitch too much. Turns out the downstairs apartments got flooded and today there's an army of people ripping out their carpets and trying to repair the flood damage. I sleep on the floor...can you imagine what I'd be dealing with if I lived on the ground floor?
Small mercies...
I managed to get to SCUBA and get certified (thank goodness that's done!), get home, and the guy who drove me helped me siphon the water out. Science never ceases to amaze me. Put a tube in the cab of the car, and put the other end lower and all the water neatly suctions itself out!! We also used the jack and jacked the car up on each side to help drain the water out.
We got most of the water out, but then it filled up about half an inch again and we realized the padding beneath the fabric is full of water.
I called the insurance company and they had to make it a party line and add Dad in before they'd file a claim. I need to sell a book or win the lotto and buy the car in my own name and buy my own damn insurance. This is SUCH a pain. (Not that I am in any way shape or form upset that Dad is helping me out. Without insurance I'd be up a creek alright!)
About to go down and check the padding. Wondering if there's anything I can coat my car in to inhibit the growth of algae and mold. Salt? Would that damage the fabric?
What kills me is that I (and my cars) have been through hurricanes, earthquakes, heavy winds, mountain passes and goodness knows what else and came through unscathed...and ONE thunderstorm in Texas did this.
Seriously, I'm starting to think I'll look out the window and see Sharknado coming. It's just that ridiculous.
Update: Went and checked on my car. More pics:
Still, I'm trying to not bitch too much. Turns out the downstairs apartments got flooded and today there's an army of people ripping out their carpets and trying to repair the flood damage. I sleep on the floor...can you imagine what I'd be dealing with if I lived on the ground floor?
Small mercies...
Wednesday, October 9, 2013
Thursday, October 3, 2013
SCUBA thoughts
Well, I've done three "dives" now and it is getting slightly easier (only slightly) and I'm still worried about being able to excavate in that condition. I think having properly fitting gear will mitigate my worst problems - today I had to wear a size large vest because there were no medium ones left and I had the worst time trying to get buoyant - it kept pushing me forward and down and I struggled constantly, worse than I did a couple days ago when I accidentally put on an extra-large and nearly drowned because I was going ballistic all over that pool because my tank kept going every which way and I can't propel myself well with my fins yet.
And I weighted myself incorrectly yesterday but didn't find out because I only used up 600 psi of air, so today I couldn't sink for the second half until one of the TAs came up and gave me extra weight and told me to add 3 pounds next dive. My weight belt was 10 lbs today, so I'll make it 13 pounds next time and pray it works.
Not being able to sink was SO FRUSTRATING I nearly cried. It didn't help that my first mask snapped when I put it on, and putting masks on BLOWS anyway because they get stuck and tangled in my hair and it hurts and is the world's biggest pain in the ass. I'm seriously considering buying a wet suit hood first thing of all so I can put them on, and then my mask will fit nicely and not get tangled. Of course, I can't REALLY do that because hoods make you overheat in temperate water, but it's nice to pretend. I asked the girl TAs and they suggested I braid my hair. So, that's going to take some practice since my hair is much shorter now and I was never good at braiding my own hair even when it was down to my butt.
Speaking of my butt, it's still pretty mad at me about all this biking. I'm equally mad at it for not getting used to this already. Nothing like settling on your bike after 13 hours on campus and wincing because your tailbones are bruised.
Speaking of 13 hour days, I'm SICK of them. I have to pull two nine-hour days tomorrow and Saturday to make up all the hours I didn't spend at my job this week due to SCUBA, the midterm, and a presentation. Oh, and the mapping project we're working on. I'm so tired. Sunday is going to be my only day of rest for two weeks straight (next weekend is a two-day dive for our final certification), and I'm going to have to do my accounts so I know how much money I have to spend on all the things I want/need - pots, pans, curtains, drawers, etc - and I hate doing my accounts. But I have to. This growing up thing is damn frustrating.
SCUBA diving is even harder than I thought it would be. Your sight is so limited, and changes constantly when you turn your head. Remembering to breathe - and through my mouth instead of my nose - is tough, and breathing even hurts my chest sometimes. But you absolutely CAN'T hold your breath underwater ever or you risk lung overexpansion, which is asking for a seriously bad injury...or death.
Today, in the deep pool, I tried to swim back and forth in a straight line at different levels (because you need to practice being buoyant) and I did an okay job - partially because there are straight lines tiled at the bottom of the pool and I could at least keep straight. I also tried to practice streamlining myself and to use my fins slowly and the way the instructors were instead of "bicycling" which they say newbies do a lot.
We have a lot of things to practice underwater - partially flooding our mask and clearing it out, fully flooding our mask and clearing it out, taking our mask off entirely, putting it on and clearing it out; taking out our regulators and exhaling constantly until we put it back in, "losing" our regulator, finding it (exhaling continuously to avoid lung damage), and getting it back, "losing" our regulator and going for our backup regulator, then locating our regulator, switching them back, and reattaching our backup to our BCD. Oh, and we have to stay with our dive buddy, check their air gauge regularly (as often as we check our own, because we need to surface while we still have 500 psi in our tanks, because a) you never want to fully exhaust your tank and b) you want extra air in case your partner's tank fails and you need time/air to reach the surface) and communicate with all these signals that I'm having a little trouble remembering. Although the "I'm ok" sign is easy, and I've started giggling because whenever the INA people pass each other in the halls and you say, "What's up" or "How are you", all the experienced divers will say, "I'm okay" and give the diving "okay" signal at the same time. Talk about a community within a community!
Diving is damned expensive though. I've been asking around and people spend between $1,000 and $3,500 on their kits. I'm going to have to sell several stories to get a kit! Fortunately on a lot of "digs" gear is provided so I should be able to go slowly and purchase good pieces that will last. Also, I don't think I'll bother with a tank. They require so much upkeep, more than regulators even. And they're much more dangerous to have around a house. I was going to ask my parents for a dive watch for my birthday (ghastly expensive) but I was informed all round it would be better to save up and buy a dive computer instead.
It feels so weird, being so deep, with all that water around you, especially when you can't judge distance at all well, and breathing into a regulator (although I'm beginning to get the hang of it) and feeling a gigantic tank on your back and just feeling huge and clumsy and slow. I wonder if whales feel that way?
I feel bad - I haven't talked to my parents in days, or anyone that I'm not in class with. I'm exhausted, sore all over, I feel congested from all this diving, headachey, and I'm only hungry when it's really inconvenient. I have been trying to eat healthier and several small meals a day. My cousin Jade just got a puppy and took two days off work to make sure he settles in with her. How I would LOVE to have a cat here! But I can't afford one, and I travel and work too much to have one.
I'm going to lie here and watch Law and Order until I'm calm enough to sleep.
And I weighted myself incorrectly yesterday but didn't find out because I only used up 600 psi of air, so today I couldn't sink for the second half until one of the TAs came up and gave me extra weight and told me to add 3 pounds next dive. My weight belt was 10 lbs today, so I'll make it 13 pounds next time and pray it works.
Not being able to sink was SO FRUSTRATING I nearly cried. It didn't help that my first mask snapped when I put it on, and putting masks on BLOWS anyway because they get stuck and tangled in my hair and it hurts and is the world's biggest pain in the ass. I'm seriously considering buying a wet suit hood first thing of all so I can put them on, and then my mask will fit nicely and not get tangled. Of course, I can't REALLY do that because hoods make you overheat in temperate water, but it's nice to pretend. I asked the girl TAs and they suggested I braid my hair. So, that's going to take some practice since my hair is much shorter now and I was never good at braiding my own hair even when it was down to my butt.
Speaking of my butt, it's still pretty mad at me about all this biking. I'm equally mad at it for not getting used to this already. Nothing like settling on your bike after 13 hours on campus and wincing because your tailbones are bruised.
Speaking of 13 hour days, I'm SICK of them. I have to pull two nine-hour days tomorrow and Saturday to make up all the hours I didn't spend at my job this week due to SCUBA, the midterm, and a presentation. Oh, and the mapping project we're working on. I'm so tired. Sunday is going to be my only day of rest for two weeks straight (next weekend is a two-day dive for our final certification), and I'm going to have to do my accounts so I know how much money I have to spend on all the things I want/need - pots, pans, curtains, drawers, etc - and I hate doing my accounts. But I have to. This growing up thing is damn frustrating.
SCUBA diving is even harder than I thought it would be. Your sight is so limited, and changes constantly when you turn your head. Remembering to breathe - and through my mouth instead of my nose - is tough, and breathing even hurts my chest sometimes. But you absolutely CAN'T hold your breath underwater ever or you risk lung overexpansion, which is asking for a seriously bad injury...or death.
Today, in the deep pool, I tried to swim back and forth in a straight line at different levels (because you need to practice being buoyant) and I did an okay job - partially because there are straight lines tiled at the bottom of the pool and I could at least keep straight. I also tried to practice streamlining myself and to use my fins slowly and the way the instructors were instead of "bicycling" which they say newbies do a lot.
We have a lot of things to practice underwater - partially flooding our mask and clearing it out, fully flooding our mask and clearing it out, taking our mask off entirely, putting it on and clearing it out; taking out our regulators and exhaling constantly until we put it back in, "losing" our regulator, finding it (exhaling continuously to avoid lung damage), and getting it back, "losing" our regulator and going for our backup regulator, then locating our regulator, switching them back, and reattaching our backup to our BCD. Oh, and we have to stay with our dive buddy, check their air gauge regularly (as often as we check our own, because we need to surface while we still have 500 psi in our tanks, because a) you never want to fully exhaust your tank and b) you want extra air in case your partner's tank fails and you need time/air to reach the surface) and communicate with all these signals that I'm having a little trouble remembering. Although the "I'm ok" sign is easy, and I've started giggling because whenever the INA people pass each other in the halls and you say, "What's up" or "How are you", all the experienced divers will say, "I'm okay" and give the diving "okay" signal at the same time. Talk about a community within a community!
Diving is damned expensive though. I've been asking around and people spend between $1,000 and $3,500 on their kits. I'm going to have to sell several stories to get a kit! Fortunately on a lot of "digs" gear is provided so I should be able to go slowly and purchase good pieces that will last. Also, I don't think I'll bother with a tank. They require so much upkeep, more than regulators even. And they're much more dangerous to have around a house. I was going to ask my parents for a dive watch for my birthday (ghastly expensive) but I was informed all round it would be better to save up and buy a dive computer instead.
It feels so weird, being so deep, with all that water around you, especially when you can't judge distance at all well, and breathing into a regulator (although I'm beginning to get the hang of it) and feeling a gigantic tank on your back and just feeling huge and clumsy and slow. I wonder if whales feel that way?
I feel bad - I haven't talked to my parents in days, or anyone that I'm not in class with. I'm exhausted, sore all over, I feel congested from all this diving, headachey, and I'm only hungry when it's really inconvenient. I have been trying to eat healthier and several small meals a day. My cousin Jade just got a puppy and took two days off work to make sure he settles in with her. How I would LOVE to have a cat here! But I can't afford one, and I travel and work too much to have one.
I'm going to lie here and watch Law and Order until I'm calm enough to sleep.
Sunday, September 29, 2013
Sunday again
Woah...it's Sunday already??? Where do these days come from??
This past week was rough, but the next two weeks are going to be WAY rougher. I have 9 hours of class, I usually spend 15-20 hours on homework/studying, 20 hours on my job, and Monday-Thursday next week and the week after I'm going to have scuba class 4 hours day as well. And on Tuesday I have a midterm and Wednesday a half-hour presentation...oy.
I spent Friday in a whirlwind - went to campus early, scanned for six hours, went to the Society for Underwater Technology's inaugural meeting of the semester, then went home, changed, and went on a date. Got home, crawled into bed and stayed there til noon the next day.
Went to campus around 2:30, stayed for several hours working on my presentation, and then since it was raining and lightening badly John gave me (and my bike) a ride home, and I spent the rest of the night watching football and writing fiction.
Today I was good and got up at 9:30, went grocery shopping, came home and roasted a chicken (it was on sale for 77 cents a pound so the whole chicken was $3.50) which will form a large portion of my meals for this upcoming week. Realized I needed foil and batteries so I rushed out to Wal Mart and got them as well as a pack of 100 disposable forks, which should keep me going for 3 months at least. I must remember to put the batteries in my bike lights (they've been turning off after about 60 seconds and Rachel recommended I try new batteries, and it was the only thing I could think of too) so I can bike home at 10:30 tomorrow night without getting killed or ticketed.
I'm baking bread right now. I think beefaroni and canned peaches for lunch, yogurt and fruit packs for snack, and cheese sandwiches for "dinner" will keep me alive at school, and I have all that nice cold chicken for dinner when I get home late at night. The bread smells incredible and I will have to exercise considerable restraint to not eat both loaves at once.
I was going to go to campus today to work on my presentation more, but the sky was so threatening and I felt so coughy I didn't, and of course it didn't rain, and I'm just praying it doesn't rain tomorrow morning when I go in early to work on my presentation or tomorrow evening when I'm biking home. Been trying to cram facts from 611 in my brain for my Tuesday midterm. I have all the lectures recorded on my phone and I'm going to try and put them on my MP3 player and listen to them while I'm scanning tomorrow.
Okay time to get back to work. Man, I can't wait for Friday after next!!!
This past week was rough, but the next two weeks are going to be WAY rougher. I have 9 hours of class, I usually spend 15-20 hours on homework/studying, 20 hours on my job, and Monday-Thursday next week and the week after I'm going to have scuba class 4 hours day as well. And on Tuesday I have a midterm and Wednesday a half-hour presentation...oy.
I spent Friday in a whirlwind - went to campus early, scanned for six hours, went to the Society for Underwater Technology's inaugural meeting of the semester, then went home, changed, and went on a date. Got home, crawled into bed and stayed there til noon the next day.
Went to campus around 2:30, stayed for several hours working on my presentation, and then since it was raining and lightening badly John gave me (and my bike) a ride home, and I spent the rest of the night watching football and writing fiction.
Today I was good and got up at 9:30, went grocery shopping, came home and roasted a chicken (it was on sale for 77 cents a pound so the whole chicken was $3.50) which will form a large portion of my meals for this upcoming week. Realized I needed foil and batteries so I rushed out to Wal Mart and got them as well as a pack of 100 disposable forks, which should keep me going for 3 months at least. I must remember to put the batteries in my bike lights (they've been turning off after about 60 seconds and Rachel recommended I try new batteries, and it was the only thing I could think of too) so I can bike home at 10:30 tomorrow night without getting killed or ticketed.
I'm baking bread right now. I think beefaroni and canned peaches for lunch, yogurt and fruit packs for snack, and cheese sandwiches for "dinner" will keep me alive at school, and I have all that nice cold chicken for dinner when I get home late at night. The bread smells incredible and I will have to exercise considerable restraint to not eat both loaves at once.
I was going to go to campus today to work on my presentation more, but the sky was so threatening and I felt so coughy I didn't, and of course it didn't rain, and I'm just praying it doesn't rain tomorrow morning when I go in early to work on my presentation or tomorrow evening when I'm biking home. Been trying to cram facts from 611 in my brain for my Tuesday midterm. I have all the lectures recorded on my phone and I'm going to try and put them on my MP3 player and listen to them while I'm scanning tomorrow.
Okay time to get back to work. Man, I can't wait for Friday after next!!!
Thursday, September 26, 2013
Ugh
Today has been a pain in the ass. Literally even - my tailbones are NOT yet used to biking 3.2 miles a day and settling on my bike morning and afternoon is not quite comfortable.
Overslept this morning, got everything wrong trying to get ready, got to campus well over an hour after I intended to get there, barely got any studying done before eating and having class. Class was fun at least, and then things took a turn for the worse again when I went to the library and first the microfilm scanners were so slow they pretty much didn't work. I timed by my phone, it literally refused to refresh and show the film for over ten minutes. So I switched to the only other working scanner computer, and that one was, if possible, even worse. I turned it off, turned it on, and then it wouldn't even let me log in. I went downstairs and asked for help from the library help desk, and the guy was nice, but ultimately not super helpful. I called the computing help desk and they asked me to try a few things and said it was definitely the computer, and they'd put in a work order. I went back to Dr. Hamilton's lab and he said to just keep on them and hope the scanners get fixed soon, and since there was nothing else to do, I went home.
I have a midterm on Tuesday (GAH) and a big presentation on Wednesday (double GAH) and I'm starting SCUBA lessons on Monday which are 4 hours a day on top of everything else (TRIPLE GAH), so this weekend is going to be a pain and cramjammed with work.
And I have these online training things to do, which I should do tonight, since I'm sure I won't have time later. I just had a cucumber salad and my parsley is soaking for chickpea salad so I should rinse, pick and chop it so I can eat it.
Overslept this morning, got everything wrong trying to get ready, got to campus well over an hour after I intended to get there, barely got any studying done before eating and having class. Class was fun at least, and then things took a turn for the worse again when I went to the library and first the microfilm scanners were so slow they pretty much didn't work. I timed by my phone, it literally refused to refresh and show the film for over ten minutes. So I switched to the only other working scanner computer, and that one was, if possible, even worse. I turned it off, turned it on, and then it wouldn't even let me log in. I went downstairs and asked for help from the library help desk, and the guy was nice, but ultimately not super helpful. I called the computing help desk and they asked me to try a few things and said it was definitely the computer, and they'd put in a work order. I went back to Dr. Hamilton's lab and he said to just keep on them and hope the scanners get fixed soon, and since there was nothing else to do, I went home.
I have a midterm on Tuesday (GAH) and a big presentation on Wednesday (double GAH) and I'm starting SCUBA lessons on Monday which are 4 hours a day on top of everything else (TRIPLE GAH), so this weekend is going to be a pain and cramjammed with work.
And I have these online training things to do, which I should do tonight, since I'm sure I won't have time later. I just had a cucumber salad and my parsley is soaking for chickpea salad so I should rinse, pick and chop it so I can eat it.
Wednesday, September 25, 2013
Sneeze, sniffle, cough
I'm definitely getting sick. Earache, headache, sweating and freezing alternately, mucous and coughing. I picked a relatively good time to get sick (assuming it's a 3 day cold) since I turned in my first projects and the next one isn't due for a few weeks, and I only have class tomorrow and work tomorrow and Friday. Of course I have a lot of research to do for my presentation next Wednesday but that's relatively easy on a sick person, as it involves lots of sitting still.
I'm exhausted. Haven't been sleeping well (finding it hard to sleep at night and sooo tempting to stay asleep in the morning) and I was damned lucky today because my alarms didn't go off and I woke up anyway, even if it was later than I was intended.
Class was tough today, and my presentation was ok, although it was embarrassing how much trouble I had with the French translations, when Mara didn't seem to have nearly as much of a problem. For instance there was one word that would ONLY translate as root, no matter which of the sentences I typed in, no matter what I clicked on trying to find options...so I was saying this, but that it clearly supported the mast, and Dr Pulak said, "oh yes, that's the mast step" so that was highly embarrassing. Also, as I was walking up to the front he said this was one of his favorite shipwrecks and I involuntarily said, "Oh God" (I hope he didn't hear me) because my first presentation wasn't great because I tried SO hard to make it different from his hourlong lecture on the same ships so I wouldn't bore the pants off him and everyone else, and then this one I retranslated the articles like three times and still couldn't figure parts out, so I was afraid of letting him down again. But he seemed to like it, and nodded and was quite pleased with the extra research I put into the rigging (that research was a blessing because it was in English!! I see now what a trial it is to be unilingual in this profession, and need to improve my German, reconstitute my Portuguese and see if I can acquire competence in any others in all that free time I have) so I'm hoping that will weigh in my favor.
At least there are now a couple of French words I don't think I could forget if I tried - carene (there's an accent on the first e) which means hull, coque which means hull (I tried to see if there was a difference between the two but couldn't find anything), virure which means strake, and barrot, which means beam. I also had one hell of a time trying to translate surbarrot, so I did sur by itself and got a list of twelve words, so when I talked about them in my presentation saying it could mean "above" "across" "over" or other things so it was some kind of beam or framing anyway, and Dr Pulak kindly explained that here it meant overbeam and they were used to keep the ship's integrity since there was a huge hatch in which to place storage and the lack of beams there would weaken the ship too much for oceanic crossings. (I swear that was not in the article, or if it was, Google Translate and I need to have a little talk.)
You can see why it's imperative for me to learn (re-learn...) other languages.
As further evidence that I am 100% insane and should probably be locked up, I decided to do my 616 final project (basically extensive line drawings and drafts of ships of our choice) on the VOC (Dutch East India Company) ships, and my 615 final paper on the reasons for the decline for the VOC in the late 18th century. Of course, in one way it's very sensible to research both projects on "the same" subject, but I did just suffer through a project in French and now I'm doing a gigantic project in which some of my resources will quite likely be Dutch and just as difficult to translate.
I got home and had the last of my bread and bacon and onion spread for dinner, had a lovely nap, and then finished Sense and Sensibility (I have made a resolution to only read stuff I haven't read before during the week to help improve myself), which made me feel marginally better about my "love life" (or lack thereof). Pride and Prejudice is next - it's a collection of Jane Austen's most popular works - so I think I'll switch to Frankenstein next because I don't know if I can stand another 6 hours reading of misunderstood intentions and thwarted love right away.
Still not tired, even though I had a cup of noodles to soothe my throat and chest, so I might just snuggle up and watch models get slaughtered on Law and Order SVU instead of going to bed right away. I have decided to be utterly delinquent and EAT LUNCH AT HOME before going to campus for class and work instead of going in early to research. The warning signs my body is giving me are just too much for me to overlook (I remember getting bronchitis 3 times in 2 1/2 years in California for ignoring my symptoms) and I'm going to try and lie still a little more, even if I do have to read while doing it.
I'm exhausted. Haven't been sleeping well (finding it hard to sleep at night and sooo tempting to stay asleep in the morning) and I was damned lucky today because my alarms didn't go off and I woke up anyway, even if it was later than I was intended.
Class was tough today, and my presentation was ok, although it was embarrassing how much trouble I had with the French translations, when Mara didn't seem to have nearly as much of a problem. For instance there was one word that would ONLY translate as root, no matter which of the sentences I typed in, no matter what I clicked on trying to find options...so I was saying this, but that it clearly supported the mast, and Dr Pulak said, "oh yes, that's the mast step" so that was highly embarrassing. Also, as I was walking up to the front he said this was one of his favorite shipwrecks and I involuntarily said, "Oh God" (I hope he didn't hear me) because my first presentation wasn't great because I tried SO hard to make it different from his hourlong lecture on the same ships so I wouldn't bore the pants off him and everyone else, and then this one I retranslated the articles like three times and still couldn't figure parts out, so I was afraid of letting him down again. But he seemed to like it, and nodded and was quite pleased with the extra research I put into the rigging (that research was a blessing because it was in English!! I see now what a trial it is to be unilingual in this profession, and need to improve my German, reconstitute my Portuguese and see if I can acquire competence in any others in all that free time I have) so I'm hoping that will weigh in my favor.
At least there are now a couple of French words I don't think I could forget if I tried - carene (there's an accent on the first e) which means hull, coque which means hull (I tried to see if there was a difference between the two but couldn't find anything), virure which means strake, and barrot, which means beam. I also had one hell of a time trying to translate surbarrot, so I did sur by itself and got a list of twelve words, so when I talked about them in my presentation saying it could mean "above" "across" "over" or other things so it was some kind of beam or framing anyway, and Dr Pulak kindly explained that here it meant overbeam and they were used to keep the ship's integrity since there was a huge hatch in which to place storage and the lack of beams there would weaken the ship too much for oceanic crossings. (I swear that was not in the article, or if it was, Google Translate and I need to have a little talk.)
You can see why it's imperative for me to learn (re-learn...) other languages.
As further evidence that I am 100% insane and should probably be locked up, I decided to do my 616 final project (basically extensive line drawings and drafts of ships of our choice) on the VOC (Dutch East India Company) ships, and my 615 final paper on the reasons for the decline for the VOC in the late 18th century. Of course, in one way it's very sensible to research both projects on "the same" subject, but I did just suffer through a project in French and now I'm doing a gigantic project in which some of my resources will quite likely be Dutch and just as difficult to translate.
I got home and had the last of my bread and bacon and onion spread for dinner, had a lovely nap, and then finished Sense and Sensibility (I have made a resolution to only read stuff I haven't read before during the week to help improve myself), which made me feel marginally better about my "love life" (or lack thereof). Pride and Prejudice is next - it's a collection of Jane Austen's most popular works - so I think I'll switch to Frankenstein next because I don't know if I can stand another 6 hours reading of misunderstood intentions and thwarted love right away.
Still not tired, even though I had a cup of noodles to soothe my throat and chest, so I might just snuggle up and watch models get slaughtered on Law and Order SVU instead of going to bed right away. I have decided to be utterly delinquent and EAT LUNCH AT HOME before going to campus for class and work instead of going in early to research. The warning signs my body is giving me are just too much for me to overlook (I remember getting bronchitis 3 times in 2 1/2 years in California for ignoring my symptoms) and I'm going to try and lie still a little more, even if I do have to read while doing it.
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