i was going to wait and just post this on flickr, but i can't. tell me what you think of my new found tricks. (look for some more on flickr):

yay football.

i don't mind living among all the redsox fans. i'm beginning to like it myself (i don't ever know when the games are though, but i have a hat!). but there is NOTHING as great a football. the NFL draft was yesterday. woo-hoo! the eagles scooped up some good guys (i can't wait to go home to hear my dad's analysis of the draft...). i personally think they need to some magic to get a new QB soon. i like mcnabb and i think he's great, but we need to start training a new guy and the past backups have been...um, sub-par (i mean, detmer did okay, but now not so much). anyway, if we can avoid injuries and egotistical f-heads this coming season, we'll be good! i'm excited for what the new season will bring. C'MON PRE-SEASON!!!!!!

today is working working working. i'm kicking myself out of the apt for a while so i can actually get stuff done. yesterday, i was doing well and then had this epiphany that my apartment should be REALLY cleaned (including dusting...which i hate to do). so instead of reading on the feminist critque of world system theory i did that. and then i worked on stats with my friends (which is hopefully done after that ninth time i printed it). and then i attempted to work at 7-8p but nothing happened. so i need to get stuff done.

okay, i'm out!

leftovers...

i ran across this map of nyc homicides as i was waking up and trying to mentally prepare myself to read feminist critiques of world-system theory (here's the article that goes with it). it's really cool. they tell you the murderer and victim's sex, race, and age, the "motive" and how it happened. of course, being a sociologist, i wanted to also see area average SES, population density, and perhaps the average crime rate per bourough (since i don't know NYC well enough). but it's really cool if you get a chance to glance it over.

and, thankfully, the train wreck continues...

not that i like the talkshow the view AT ALL, but how the hell can you replace meredith vieira with rosie o'donnell? who becomes the smart one? it can't be any of them. barbara walters will have to make more appearances, otherwise rosie will revert to koosh-ball slinging. they didn't plan that one out so well.

please make it end...

i'm so tired. i feel like when i'm running and i can see my finish point, but not close enough to it. :-(

okay, i'll try to refrain from the "feel sorry for carla" posts, but i'm totally feeling overwhelmed, so no promises.

ha! improve community for 200+ hrs when i could serve 5 days in jail? obviously. (actually the whole damn site is good if you like useless celebrity gossip, which i do...)

i totally want to do this, only in coffeeshops in noho. cuz, seriously...it's awesome.

procrastin-X

thanks to bruce:

Do you suffer?
And then I found out about Procrastin-X
Symptoms may include...

[frown]

1) i hate grad school
2) i hate not knowing what is going to happen this summer (and the future generally)
3) i feel like a moron
4) my allergies are making breathing difficult. unforunately.
5) i need a hug.

3 more weeks.

it's hard to believe it, but the semester is in the home stretch. three more weeks, 70+ papers to grade, 225 finals to grade, one paper to write, one preliminary paper, and two more stats homeworks and i will have become a 2nd year grad student. yay me. needless to say, it's been extremely crazy busy the last few days and everyone is stressed out and cranky. this might only get worse. academics are a moody group. seriously. beware. i might have rants and bitch-fests for the next few weeks.

my mom came up last weekend. it was absolutely wonderful :-). zoe laid off the "nip" for the weekend and behaved herself until she warmed up to my mom and then she became a terrorist. my mom and i crammed in the MA experience: boston, hiking, Easter dinner with the neighbor, and yankee candle (90K square feet of scented wax and home decoration stuff). we didn't actually do the noho thing, but that means we'll do it when she (hopefully) comes up this summer. the only thing missing from the visit was my dad, but it was still a lot of fun.

i get to go home in a few weeks. this could potentially screw me over, but it'll be good because i want to see my family so badly. plus, i'm speaking at my alma mater :-D.

okay, back to reading on world-system theory. sigh.

goodbye freedom of the press...

with the current administration, i'm sure we all know how this will go.

goodbye checks on the government. you were a good idea, but not to the people in power.

i want a vw too

i'm seriously addicted to the VW commercials. is there a rehab for that?

singing in the rain

it's definitely sucking.

what time is it?

we're going to unpimp your ride

thank goodness i play on my snes

this takes real life video games to a whole new level.

a window in the mac world?!

tainted love.

the best thing i've heard all day...

"Sometimes these restrictions are quite restrictive"

ah, if only i can sound so eloquent when i get my ph.d.

*ahem*

okay, i'd like to address the common thought that social science is not really a "science." i know people who consider themselves to be "real scientists," doing work in labs and whatnot chuckle to themselves when sociologist call themselves social "scientists," but let's consider: what is science? a systematic study of phenomena? believe me, my stats and methods class assure you that i'm studying social phenomena systematically. what we study is applied to policy (often not frequently enough) and influences how we shape our social worlds. why do biological, chemical, engineering, and other natural "scientists" think themselves as the only "scientists" around? i, personally, would think that with heads that big, it would be painful to also have them in their asses, but that's just me. i'm a social scientist and we wouldn't understand the physiological effects of heads in anal cavaties...we like to be able to see when we're studying.

of course, social science isn't "precise" like "natural sciences." we can't calculate the necessary individuals with particular characteristics that will cause a social reaction like chemists for chemical reactions nor will we ever come up with a theory of social evolution like biologists have for biology. social life is much more complex that silly little atoms or a linear theory of existence. i'd like to see a "natural scientist" tell me how workplace discrimination works. i'd like them to explain to me how disasters are a "purely natural event" if they occur in the middle of the ocean without so much as a peep. i'd like them to explain to me why civic participation has decreased in the last 100 years. i'd like them to tell me how it is that despite being one of the wealthiest countries in the world, there are still starving people in the U.S. (and to not use the word lazy...).

why can't you explain this? because you're in a lab study one small aspect of the natural world. what you do is important. i know this. without computer engineers, i would not have my lovely mac to enjoy. however, "natural scientists" if you got out of your little worlds, your laboratories, you might see that, hey, we can't explain the whole world with our science. perhaps without those crazy social science kids, we might still be living in the plessy era.

thank you.

not quotable? you must be kidding.

so, for anyone concerned about the oil spill from my car, it's all good. the boys at honda fixed 'er up good...and then told me about the other two issues with my car. SOOOO i need to start looking for a new car. good times. but the oil isn't leaking. and there's no burning smell. yay me.

yum.

my new favorite food is vanilla yogurt with pieces of nutrigrain bar (or the stop and shop derivative) mixed in. i know some people just gagged, and i apologize, but i think it's super good. mj asked where i got the idea to mix the two together and i honestly don't know how i thought of this yummy mixture. it's good though. seriously.

"Does Barry Manilow know that you raid his wardrobe?"

Given the "high" quality of education in the state of Delaware, thank God i was homeschooled.

i saw the breakfast club on the big screen last night in amherst. it was awesome, of course. only two people decided to wear 80s garb and they looked like they weren't even around when the movie came out. irene (from switzerland) enjoyed the film but was completely baffled by the idea high school stereotypes. given my American background, i'm familiar with the stereotypes, but i didn't actually attend highschool (see above) so i think i'm exempt. unfortunately, if i had attended highschool, i would have been a "brian" (obviously, a female version), but the social science version, because i got an A in physics, but i'm not sure how. oh, and congrats again to kathryn for her one and "one and only statistical chance at winning something." sorry that you can't ever win the lottery now. a free dvd is cooler anyway.

for my friends who think i'm always defending my home state, here's about the best description i've ever read:
"Wilmington, Del. is an interesting place to live. Not only is it the chemical and banking capital of the world, but our stretch of I-95 allows for some of the most vibrant drug trafficking on the East Coast. It’s safe to assume that a large portion of our solid economy is dependent upon the crackheads and potheads who patronize Denny’s at 2 in the morning for a late-night snack. That’s just further proof that junkies are a necessity in our free-market economy." (DE kid's blog thing)

this, mind you, isn't permission to talk smack on DE. only delawareans can do that. seriously, it's in our constitution (Jefferson told the writers it would be a good idea to add it to article 13, section 9 as a "in case the state begins to suck botton and people from other states begin to point and talk smack" safety net). so there.

okay, so i just read a thesis on connect four. (and when i say "read" i really mean skimmed because it's based on mathematics and i'm not so good after a certain point). fabulous! i wish i could write a thesis on the sims or super mario bros 3 because that would kick ass. of course, this is unrealistic and i'll probably do something on work. yay me.

in other news...wait, there isn't any other news. i had sushi last night with kathryn, irene and laura. it was good. i tried spider roll. it might be another thing that i have to try three times to like. today will be a fun-filled day of reading and/or writing. i need to set up my paper on self-reported warning behavior so when i actually get around to doing analysis on some data, i can just pop it in there. i think i'm going to use exploratory factor analysis for this data because, honestly, i'm lost as to what else to do with it. haha. we'll see if anything actually comes out of it.

okay, that's all. there's work to do and a cat whose furry butt is making me insane.

oh, those crazy DRCers

my friends are so much cooler than your friends.

way to go kiddos.

oh, and PS

in an unusually cruel move, mother nature decided she would wait four days to unleash her april fool's day joke. from 73 and flip-flops last friday to snow and mittens today.

good one momma N - you got us!

soc kids love us some webjunk!

on days when grad school might possible suck ass, we send each other videos. yay webjunk. keep cranking it out kiddos!

cuz i want it that way

numa

manamana

german coast guard to the rescue!

the importance of being bilingual. (this one's actually from my grandma)

love it

a comment from a student's reaction paper:

"I sorta find disturbing that police get free liquor. Didn't they collect enough of my own liquor during freshman year?"

songs and feet

okay, first off, "Lord I Lift Your Name on High" should be retired. like, should never ever be sung again. ever. ever, ever. secondly, if you do decide to break the newly founded rule (see above), you shouldn't do it at a tempo of "let's fall asleep." especially on "spring ahead" weekend. people are sleepy and might revolt in church. and sleepy church people revolting is not pretty...or, so i've been told.

just had to get that out of my system.

spring is here, my friends! the undergrads just started showing blindingly pale legs (the reason i don't wear shorts...most people didn't believe me last summer when i said i was tan) and the flip flops have emerged! yay flip-flips! i do have a pet peeve about flip-flops and toes: ladies, paint your toe nails. feet are ugly and if it were socially appropriate, i would say guys should also do something like painting their toe nails to make their feet more attractive. and painted toenails have little to do with the repressive beauty-oriented society. it just makes your feet a little easier to look at. there are many ugly feet that should be permanently socked. do your part and create a better world.

thank you.

love me some apples.

hells yeah. (I've been meaning to post this for a while and just never remembered.