Wide Rule

I have a very odd pattern of hobbies.

I suppose it's more correct to say that I have a pattern of small obsessions.

I will play a video game, world of warcraft being a good example, every night for two weeks. Then I will drop it without a thought and read a different book, in full, every night for a week. Then I'll pick up another video game or obsession for a while. I suppose putting myself 100% into things like this would be unhealthy if I didn't quickly shift to something else.

I've been on a book kick recently.



My parents and I split the price of a Kindle 2 for my birthday back in May - I'm pretty much in love with it. There are some issues and I am a slave to the battery life when I'm on a plane, but I do enjoy the simple freedom of being able to get almost any book I want in minutes.

Amazon does something I think is smart with marketing. They'll offer the first book of a series for free - Robin Hobb's Assassin's Aprentice was offered for free this summer. I then spent $6 for each of the 5 books remaining in the series (including the Tawny Man series). I believe I read all of these books in a two week time period.

Another series that I just finished was the Kingdoms of Thorn and Bone four book set by Greg Keyes - again, the first book was free.

The best part of this series was the characters - the Queen Mother, the Woodsman, the Reluctant Priest, and all the people around them. The relationships they develop and how their lives change as the world changes around them. I think the books ended the way they should have, but it doesn't make me happy.

The central, repeated theme in the book is that the 'greater good' and your loyalty is more important than your life and desire. It's not a stressed theme, more of background noise. Instead, the book concentrates on personal relationships, lives, jealousy and how the main characters grow as people.

At the end of the book, within a chapter, almost every single relationship destroyed for "the greater good."

I hate it when long series end - I want to know where my characters have gone, how their lives change, how the world changes. As much as I enjoy reading the book, I'm left missing details and plot lines.

I've been in a down mood since finishing the series - I'm sure I just need another obsession to pick up so that I get into another groove, but right now I just feel lonely.

It always amuses me that I'm more emotionally moved by books than I am by a lot of the things that happen in my own life.

/babbling

Here in east Tennessee the weather is resting at a comfortable 70 degrees, down from the 90+ temperatures in August, and like all falls in the Smokies, it's raining whenever there's a break in the day. It cycles so quickly from rain to sunshine that a new student at UT has to pack enough clothing for three different weather conditions to go to class.

This, of course, means it's football time in Tennessee.

College football started last night and I had the pleasure of watching what might have been one of the funniest/saddest games of football watching my NCSU Wolfpack play the Gamecocks. Tennessee plays this weekend against WKU and I'm convinced it's going to be a trainwreck one way or another. Either Kiffin will have his act together and steamroll WKU or it will be "a rebuilding year." I still feel like I should shield my eyes.

The other thing that starts is the NFL. In the great spirit of things, I arranged a small fantasy football league. Since only 5 of my friends showed up for it, we all have truly amazing pro-bowl teams. It's going to be a nasty battle the entire season to see who can get 300 points in one game.

One thing I've decided is that my method of picking players is probably flawed. I shouldn't pick a player because they amuse me or I like watching them. I'm talking to you, Ochocinco.

I love football season and I said it's Great. To Be. A Tennessee Vol.

B+ in Thermodynamics.

I *really* enjoyed it. So much so I might take a higher level thermodynamics course if I can fit it into my masters.

Next up: CE 574: Chemical Principles of Environmental Engineering

So, I had a thermodynamics final project due today. I really is just supposed to be you drawing out components on scratch paper and working through the calculations.

Well, I'm a bit more visual than that, so I drew out my entire final project, labeling all the states. (I'm assuming I won't get in trouble for posting this as my class should know how to draw these things and i'm not putting up answers).

Thus I present thermodynamics in PRETTY COLORS:




Red: Working Mass is Air
Blue: Working Mass is Water
Purple: Heat Exchange between Air and Water
Orange/Green/Black: Extra Credit portions of the Final.

I am CREATIVE and DORKY at the SAME TIME.

I've spent a lot of brain power today tracking down anomaly in stack flow data (thousands of air pushed through a smoke stack, measured in standard cubic feet per hour) and my brain is fried. So I'm going to talk about video games for a few minutes.

1. Fable 2: I think I was one of the few people who wasn't disappointed that Fable 1 wasn't "up to the hype" so to speak. I absolutely love the games where you have alignments and differing story lines based on them. Fable 2 was good because it did "open ended" very well - it wanted you to continue the story line, but there is enough of a "sandbox" feel that you can control the world around you. I've found that I have a habit of getting bored if a game allows me too much freedom (re: why I never finished Assassin's Creed). The only real complaint I have about Fable is that the game decided it no longer wanted to load a part of the town halfway through the story.

2. Mass Effect: Did I mention that I like the alignment/different storyline games? I've played through ME once, but I'm playing through it again because Mass Effect 2 allows you to continue with your character from ME1. You know what? I still hate the Mako.

3. Mirror's Edge: I'm playing through on easy and I kill Faith more than I thought I ever could. It's very very sad.

Again, I have gotten ahead of myself.

There was an exam this weekend in Thermodynamics. I think I did reasonably well, but who knows. I always am on the edge with testing - I know the concepts, but I'm never sure if I follow through with them. Since there was no exam and the website wasn't updated, I assumed there was no homework for this week.

Cue me not noticing that I was on the incorrect week on my schedule.

Thus I have homework due today and I've not even started it. Looks like I'm going to be doing Thermodynamics for lunch today. Yum.

In other news:
- Was able to talk to CW last night. He's riding train tracks around Montana for a week or so. I'm quite jealous.
- I joined GameFly, so I'm playing through a lot of games that I wouldn't have bought. I give myself a week with each and then send them back, figuring that I will play through as much as I want to with a week+weekend. I have Mirrors Edge right now.

E3 was this past week - for those who don't play games, I'll explain that E3 is the conference where most game studios and designers release news about upcoming video games, video game hardware, etc. (Well, most designers).

Here are a few thoughts that I had, in no order, about the conference this year:
1. I'll trust Peter Molyneux about as far as I can throw him.
2. Please get your Facebook out of my gaming console.
3. Natal seems neat, impossible, and not really useful in games.
4. Milo scares the crap out of me.
5. Ubisoft continues to anger me - please admit that Beyond Good and Evil 2 is in production and I will love you.
6. Left 4 Dead 2? Chainsaw? THIS YEAR? Yes.
7. The only reason I still own a Wii is because Nintendo keeps beating the dead stables of Metroid, Zelda and Mario.
8. I still have no reason to buy a PS3, even though I think their "wand" is a much better idea.
9. Mass Effect 2? Bioshock 2? Assasins Creed 2? The year of sequels begins!
10. What do you mean I should have been working this week?

I got around the sun again - now to work on lap 26. I had a discussion with CP about whether this was my 26th or 27th lap - it's the "do you start counting at one or zero" question. As something of a programmer, I will always start at 0. So, the first lap before I was 1 was my "initial lap" and then after my first birthday I was on my first lap. You can argue with me, but I will simply announce that I'm the one doing the laps here and you can count your laps around the sun anyway you want. :)

In other news, it's rained for three weeks straight in Knoxville. The only days it has been sunny was last Sunday morning (when I was working) and today (while I'm working). I am eternally grateful for the giant window in my office, but I would really like to use this bike I bought. I've been irrationally wondering if I am the reason that it has rained so much simply because I bought the new bike. The world revolves around me.

Classes for the spring are over, April ECMPS reporting is over and now I have a little bit of time to breath. Not much as I start Thermodynamics on the 18th, but at least a couple of weeks.

As always, my life is boring, but I think I'd rather it be that way. :)

I'm working at a decently sized coal plant in Becker, MN this week. The job isn't all that difficult - I'm pretty much replacing one set of analyzers with another. The fun part is that they're going to be running both sets of analyzers until the end of the quarter, making it more work on my end, but easier for them to report. It is actually a pretty smart way to work through it.

It's great weather up here and the little towns up and down County Road 10 are full of quirks and little local restaurants. I think that's my favorite part of travel, the random things that you see along the way.

I kept pace with a BNSF coal train on my way back to the hotel from dinner.

The hotel is an odd thing - they gave me a free upgrade to a room with a whirlpool tub.... in the middle of the room. I'm assuming that it's so I can lie in said tub and watch TV, but I find the whole thing to be somewhat strange. Oh, and the breakfast is mediocre. I don't expect much from a continental breakfast, but there was absolutely nothing that I found appetizing. The staff has been very nice.

All in all, I am hoping this is going to be an uneventful trip. After the 70 hour work week extravaganza (I didn't even work Friday), I need a calm, steady week.

I'll try to post pictures if I remember.

Final project Advances in Pollution Prevention (NCSU)

That is all.

I spent the day cleaning, organizing and generally preparing my things to be boxed up and moved. Most of this includes throwing things out that I shouldn't even have kept in the first place. My lease is up in June, and as most my friends know, I'm ready to get out of East Tennessee for a while. I was actually prepared to leave about a year ago, but I'm glad I stayed the extra year. It was a good growth year for me.

My life can easily be quartered into four things:
1. School - School is a great class called Advances in Pollution Prevention. I've been reading about coal gasification for a final project. I'm also working on taking Thermodynamics from another institution online this summer. Very exciting.
2. Work - Work is going to be quite busy for the next month. Most of this is due to the changes in how plants report quarterly. They've decreed that no one can take vacation for a while.
3. CW - All I have to say is that I am a happy girl and I have decimated his cell phone minutes.
4. Games/Videos - I finally broke down and signed up for Steam. I'm downloading Beyond Good and Evil as we speak (such a fun game). I have also been living on Hulu and Netflix. Dollhouse, Fringe, Eureka, and Across the Universe? Thank you, internet, for making me consider getting rid of cable TV.

That's really it. I've been entertaining myself by looking for apartments in random cities - it's always fun to think about new things and new places. We'll see what happens come June, yes?

Yesterday, at 2pm, my boss called me. He called because I had gone home from work sick. I was in bed.

"Mary, you're getting on a plane to Peoria at 5:30."

So, here I am, in Canton, IL.

I lead an interesting life.

(Little does my company know, I'm so taking off a Friday to go see my tour guide in Denver).

It's not all that often that I'm at a loss for words - I have a habit of saying exactly what I think, even if it is the most inappropriate thing. If I'm comfortable enough, it is almost always the most inappropriate thing and for some reason that makes everyone laugh. I believe my quote of the trip had to do with punching infants - I don't remember the exact wording, but everyone stopped for a moment to see if I had really said it, then laughed for a good five minutes.

That being said, my life has done something of a reversal in the past three weeks. The beginning of February I was spending most my time feeling bad for myself and doing as many activities as possible to keep busy. Then there was Kansas City, Charlotte and finally Denver.

Ahh, Denver. Denver is officially and without a doubt my favorite trip yet. I spent three days wandering around urban Colorado with a truly fantastic tour guide. Did I say fantastic? I meant fantastic with gorgeous eyes, a great smile and a brain full of completely random and wonderful history facts. Did I mention that Denver is my favorite trip? Can you guess why?

I can't discount the fact that I had the privilege of picking up many of my dearest friends from the Denver airport after the three rambling days. I've never been snowboarding outside of the eastern US and I must say, those fools out west have it so much better. There was one day that the wind was high and the snow was a little packed - I was thrilled because it wasn't ICE and there weren't SNOW MACHINES blowing in my face. The Colorado natives (including my tour guide) informed me that I was insane and the conditions were horrible. I suppose it's what you know.

So now I'm back in the office and I've spent more time daydreaming about Colorado nights than I have actually doing work. The fact I haven't been in the office for three weeks probably helps, but I wouldn't say that this is entirely caused by forgetting how to do office work.

There's nothing like that "being smitten" feeling. Nothing at all. And I am speechless.

And in that moment, I felt as I was on top of the world.

I've gotten amazingly lucky with work trips this year. First Kansas City, where I spent time with an old friend from college. Then Charlotte to hang out with my sister and brother-in-law. Now I'm staying in a hotel in the middle of downtown Denver, CO. It's a neat hotel called the Hotel Monaco. I am amused because they give me a bottle of wine a night and there is a goldfish in the room. I have named this fish Sparkles.



This is only partially a work trip. I'm doing a job for a local power company just minutes from downtown that actually generates more steam for heating the city than it generates power. Always interesting things to deal with. It's a pretty simple system, so I don't mind that it wasn't really my job in the first place.

Another reason I don't mind the job is that on Thursday I'm going to be joined by my compatriots from Austin, TX (and Cincinnati, and Knoxville, and Atlanta, and Huntsville) to go sliding down a mountain on plastic. That's right, for four days I'm going to be snowboarding on powder in Winterpark, CO. I'm very excited.

I must have looked silly wandering through the airport. I have my snowboarding bag, my work laptop bag, a bag of clothing and a bag full of electronics. Did you know that you have to take an Xbox 360 out of your bag to be scanned through security? Well, you do now. I must have looked like I was a walking party.

This being said, I am a walking party, folks.

I am sure there is a special place in hell for making fun of your sister when she is unable to drink since she's pregnant.

I've been having a reoccurring dream of where I want to live next.  It's small - much smaller than what I have now.  In fact, it is essentially one room.  There is of course a bathroom and some closets on one wall, but the rest is one simple room. 

High ceilings with exposed bars, brick walls, either wood or cement floors.  One corner is a small kitchen with a two-stool island for eating dinner.  Next to this is a good sized window with space for a desk where I can sit, work and watch whatever happens to be going on.  I'm not sure if I prefer the idea of people watching or having a small garden where I can put a butterfly bush for the cats.

Continuing around the room is a whole wall of cubbies and bookshelves, where I can put picture frames and knickknacks in a random array.  Finally there is a loft with just enough room for a bed, a small book case, a floor lamp, and some room to maneuver around.  Under the loft there is enough room for a small sitting area where I can put my telvision/couch/video games.  The whole thing will be very small, maybe 500 sqft.

I've seriously had fabulous dreams about living here.  I had what felt like an all-nighter of covering one of the poles holding the loft up in carpet.  Then I attached platforms so the cats could jump from place to place, stratching away in what I would only describe as "kitten joy."  I would probably you-tube it.  I've dreampt about curling up on my futon under the loft and reading, playing video games, writing, and dreaming.  I've DECORATED this place in my head.

I want to live here.  I want to find it.  I want my odd little home.  Who needs a relationship when you're dreaming about an apartment.