i have to think about china's military capabilities and i'm not much in the mood for that. although i got my military assessment of iran back and it was a sound, thorough intelligence analysis which felt good. i'm not worried about the china thing, just not in the mood.
and i've been sporadically in contact with jake again which is lovely. he's in brooklyn. i've proposed that if i'm in romania and he's in lisbon this summer (honestly i thought he would have aimed for buenos aires, but i won't argue) we should meet up somewhere between those 2 places... maybe vienna? cologne? geneva? galway?
[sigh] back to work....
china and jakeamasnake
the kind of skin you can see through...
i've busted out an old favorite lately... belly's star to which i've not listened in years. and i had forgotten just how much fun "slow dog" is and how much it can pick up my mood! so, i need to stand up and leave the library (heck, this chair in front of this computer in the library) for the first time in 3 hours and put away the powerpoint project i've been formatting for the weekend, and bust a little "slow dog" and go somewhere outdoors and enjoy the lovely sunshine!
and prom was actually wicked fun. way more fun than the ex-bf's jr. prom i went to 11 years ago. and i never went to mine. it was weird at first - all these people i see every day dressed up, taking passed hors d'oeuvres, classical music playing... then the dj started playing the cheesy music, the free wine started flowing, and it turned out to be way too much fun. maybe the free wine had more to do with it than anything... but dancing to "toxic" is always ridiculously fun.
prom night
it's tonight.
i'm recycling my cocktail dress from the work party.
but getting a new pedicure.
however i have a class to go to and a migraine to kill first.
so i'm a busy monkey.
potpourri
- while i like the concept behind "nameless jay" it reminds me a bit of jay and silent bob. rowan, while a nice name i shall shy away from until i find out if anyone is naming their kid rowan in the immediate future. but since we've ventured into yarn territory, i'll entertain the idea of naming my iPod tahki. or maybe not. still entertaining suggestions. although i like the idea of naming my iPod something like bucko in memory of the crab who never had a chance.
- nuts. the weekend migraine is back. if i still have it on saturday at noon, i'l ask for a ride to the hospital for the good stuff (i.e. schedule 2 or 3 narcotics). can't have the dilaudid get in the way of prom.
- i have a new favorite russian verb. it is fun to say, and it means "i rest" which is fun to do. Я отдыхю. Ты отдыхаешь. (infinitive: oтдыхать)
- Я елу университет сегодня.
- (last russian bullet) I heard it! I finally understand the difference between ш and щ! and learned the fun word for thank you: благодарю and farewell: прощайте!
- we basically have to redo our powerpoint on suicide bombing because the professor tore us a new one when we brought our tentative slideshow. WE FOLLOWED THE SYLLABUS TO THE LETTER.
- i typed that last bullet originally with the French keyboard and it looked like this:
"ze bqsicqlly hqve to redo our pozerpoint on suicide bo,bing becquse the professor tore us q nez one zhen ze brought our tentqtive slideshoz: ZE FOLLOZED THE SYLLQBUS TO THE LETTER: - i re-evaluated the situation and roses really DO smell like pooh, pooh, pooh.
- okay, one more russian thing. i really need to learn how to read and write in russian cursive. i remember how much of a pain that was when i was 4, and now i have to do it again almost a quarter century later.
- i love you oh, so well, like a kid loves candy and fresh snow.
- no wandering in the woods whilst 9 months pregnant.
iPod update part 2
so, having converted most of the AIFF files to mp3 files (128 kbps), a about 2/3 finished with the conversions, my 1500 songs have gone from 31gb to 16 gb. hopefully it will be around 10gb when i wake up in the morning, and i'll be ready to upload the rest of my cd collection! (so that i'm all set to go to the balkans, you see!)
so exciting!
i'm taking a class next quarter that will, among other things, teach me how to plan and execute relief operations, respond to disasters, give me field medical experience (so, yes, should james the chick and i be stuck in the woods in mid-june with no one near by, i will know how to deliver bob. we can figure out why we were so foolish later), i'll be national disaster response qualified by the red cross for 5 different types of disaster, and know how to respond in a hostage situation.
the average humanitarian aid worker in the fields of water purification and food provision is over four times more likely to die in the line of work than an NYPD police officer. including the statistics from the world trade center.
if i'm REALLY lucky i'll go to the balkans this summer and do a 3 week intensive simulation whereupon we are responding to disasters, making convoys, setting up refugee camps, simulate airdrops, set up air cargo in an airplane, jump out of helicopters, simulate disaster relief do medical triage, and yes, even be ambushed on the road at 3 am after getting no sleep for the previous 96 hours, taken hostage and interrogated. following that we'll do 2 weeks of humanitarian aid work (primarily in eastern european orphanages and pediatric hospices - SO up my alley) and then have a little time to travel.
the program is the only one of its kind in the world. USAID thinks that all of its volunteers should do that program before being deployed overseas. it's created between my school, the u.s. government, and the eastern european government that will host the summer session.
that being said, i hate being dirty, i hate not being able to take a shower, i hate sleeping on the ground, i hate camping in general. and i'll be living in a camp for 3 weeks with an intermittently working shower, compromised water supply, sleeping in the ground, having intermittent power sources.
the costs? 25% airfare. spending money. if i want to travel, those costs.
am i scared?
terrified.
do i want to do it?
are you nuts? of COURSE I WANT TO DO IT!
in an effort not to get dooced from grad school
i won't tell you WHICH professor a friend compared to a golden globe because of the sheer amount of bronzer which gets all over the papers said professor handles during the course of a day.
and i accidentally outed myself as a blogger in class last night. i pretended my blog would be hard to find, but really, it's a 2-step process. so if you're from that class, welcome!
and when asked what rss stood for, i swear, all i could think was "really spicy sauce."
iTunes question
okay, i have a question for all you savvier than i people out there.
i just came to the realization (yes, i'm slow) that i probably only have 1500 songs on my 40gb iPod and am up to 30gb because itunes has been defaulted to save my music files in AIFF format, and NOT in mp3 format. is there a way to convert all these AIFF files to mp3s without
a) erasing all of my formatting of the songs (i.e. volume adjustment)? i realize this is probably not going to happen, so i'm sort of resigned to it.
b) copying all 1500 songs and saving them 1 by 1 as mp3
c) do i really need a c) criterion? i just want to know if i can buy more room on the 'pod without it being a major thorn in my side.
help appreciated and accompanied by the joy that this brings.
(cherz rocks in the wacky seafood department. oddly, this came the morning after my own traumatic seafood night at red lobster with crazy mara and yaymee... i'm just glad it wasn't ME who got a faceful of lobster water)
update: thanks cherz for the input. it also turns out i'm oblivious to certain things, like when you right click on a song, one of the options is "convert to mp3" and i can do that and take up less room on the 'podster. doh! (i spent, seriously, an hour going through iTunes and iPod help menus and came up with nada. the answer was right in front of me the whole time.)
at least i have the end of quarter punchies to blame.
