We've wined, we've waited, now it's time to celebrate 2016

[hippyscientist]

1 hour ago, Pink Fuzzy Bunny said:

Oh man I'm so glad I'm not the only one who did that. I had a good laugh

This makes me feel better haha. 

Coffee, I love it! Keeps making me laugh

[Pink Fuzzy Bunny]

One day I will do home improvement not because I broke something, but because I want to actually improve my home. I put a box of textbooks on a closet shelf because I'm an idiot, and the whole thing collapsed and put some pretty epic holes in the wall. It also supported the closet rod that held all of my clothes. *swears furiously*

[Need Coffee in an IV]

@hippyscientist well I'm glad to brighten 2016 by a little! I finally read Breakfast at Tiffanys and I wasn't impressed at all. I didn't connect with the story or the characters. I honestly don't get the appeal. Its similar to Gone With The Wind. I loved the book, it had a great plot. But I'll never understand why anyone would want to be Scarlett, yes she's complex but not exactly someone I want to model after.

[hippyscientist]

@Need Coffee in an IV thank you! I've been tryiing to verbalise this to people for ages, literary "classics" often don't do it for me as I can't connect with the characters (there are a few exceptions). I love Gone with the Wind but, like you, Scarlett is a nightmare! Actually I'm not sure I like any of the characters!! 

One of my Christmas presents arrived yesterday - an authorized history of MI5. Can't wait to get stuck into it but I'm enjoying what I'm currently reading. ALways the issue - too many fun books to read, not enough time.

[Neist]

The only classics works I like tend to be science fiction. The rest is very meh. Ever try to get through Moby Dick? Oh my, that's a tough one... 

[hippyscientist]

2 hours ago, Neist said:

The only classics works I like tend to be science fiction. The rest is very meh. Ever try to get through Moby Dick? Oh my, that's a tough one... 

Now I like Moby Dick! It reads well in my head. Once you get past the first 20 pages or so, I settled in to how Melville writes. But can totally see how it's a struggle. 

I am addicted to fantasy at the minute. It seems the more stressful life and academia is and how much it forces me to use my brain, the more I want to escape into a totally different world with magic and assassins and battle chiefs and giants and all that.

[Pink Fuzzy Bunny]

1 hour ago, hippyscientist said:

Now I like Moby Dick! It reads well in my head. Once you get past the first 20 pages or so, I settled in to how Melville writes. But can totally see how it's a struggle. 

I am addicted to fantasy at the minute. It seems the more stressful life and academia is and how much it forces me to use my brain, the more I want to escape into a totally different world with magic and assassins and battle chiefs and giants and all that.

What fantasy series/books do you prefer?

[MarineBluePsy]

The obsession some people have with the classics makes me laugh.  Romeo and Juliet is one I greatly despise.  A love story?  Oh please.  They were two horny teenagers that got pissed their parents wouldn't give them permission to screw and ended up dying in a foolish attempt to teach them a lesson.

[Pink Fuzzy Bunny]

@MarineBluePsy You should write the "Sparknotes to the Sparknotes".

[MarineBluePsy]

[Need Coffee in an IV]

If anyone is interested Bad Feminist: Essays by Roxane Gay hasn't been a disappointment! I like her style and I find her observations interesting. Also since we are all in grad school Dear Committee Members by Julie Schumacher is a wonderful read and worth the time.

 

[hippyscientist]

On 12/30/2016 at 1:07 PM, Pink Fuzzy Bunny said:

What fantasy series/books do you prefer?

Mainly epic fantasy, or fantasy from different perspectives. I've been reading the Lies of Locke Lamora series and have loved it. Before that, I was working my way through some of the well-known ones that I felt I'd missed out on because I wasn't able to read them when I was younger. Things like magicians, robin hobb's farseer world, Brent Weeks' books etc. I really enjoy adventure fantasy too, so I have some of those lined up to read. My goodreads account is depressing because of the number of amazing books I will try to get around to but inevitably end up not reading!

@Need Coffee in an IV thanks for the suggestions! Looks super interesting!

Edited December 31, 2016 by hippyscientist

[Need Coffee in an IV]

@hippyscientist No problem! I can't really offer suggestions in fantasy, mine have been strictly Harry Potter, Lord of the Rings, and the Hobbit. Its like saying Dragon Ball Z is your favorite anime. Technically its anime but all the hardcore fans look at you silly 

[Pink Fuzzy Bunny]

This is such a small/unimportant thing but has lifted a huge burden off me. Cable (read: Internet) company has been double charging me for the past 8 months. I call the company every month, and the bank every month to debate fraudulent charges, but this time I FINALLY got ahold of someone helpful. Now I'm waiting for my $500 refund. I'm so happy, and my stress level has decreased significantly.

 

Happy new year, everyone

[Need Coffee in an IV]

6 minutes ago, Pink Fuzzy Bunny said:

This is such a small/unimportant thing but has lifted a huge burden off me. Cable (read: Internet) company has been double charging me for the past 8 months. I call the company every month, and the bank every month to debate fraudulent charges, but this time I FINALLY got ahold of someone helpful. Now I'm waiting for my $500 refund. I'm so happy, and my stress level has decreased significantly.

 

Happy new year, everyone

Happy new year to you too! I am now watching my data because I accidentally used up a lot of it watching HGTV, whoops! It starts over on the 4th, damn you HD videos

[Pink Fuzzy Bunny]

20 minutes ago, Need Coffee in an IV said:

Happy new year to you too! I am now watching my data because I accidentally used up a lot of it watching HGTV, whoops! It starts over on the 4th, damn you HD videos

Oh your phone/tablet? Or do you have "pay by the GB" Internet or something?

[Need Coffee in an IV]

14 minutes ago, Pink Fuzzy Bunny said:

Oh your phone/tablet? Or do you have "pay by the GB" Internet or something?

My internet ha. I pay $50 a month for 250 GB. Its a bit annoying that the warning comes when I used up about 80%. I guess this is my lesson for moderation

[Pink Fuzzy Bunny]

47 minutes ago, Need Coffee in an IV said:

My internet ha. I pay $50 a month for 250 GB. Its a bit annoying that the warning comes when I used up about 80%. I guess this is my lesson for moderation

Oh man, that's painful! I had that in undergrad - I'd take my computer (laptop) to school, download movies/shows, then take them back home and watch them.

[Need Coffee in an IV]

23 minutes ago, Pink Fuzzy Bunny said:

Oh man, that's painful! I had that in undergrad - I'd take my computer (laptop) to school, download movies/shows, then take them back home and watch them.

See my data plan is usually fine but now that I'm on break I literally have nothing to do. Except wait. Booo.

[avflinsch]

On 12/29/2016 at 1:26 AM, Pink Fuzzy Bunny said:

Can't get the Christmas tree apart, so I guess it's going to be an all-holiday tree

We solved that problem many years ago. It is a little 3 foot tree and it just stays up all year round.

 

[Neist]

So, I think I'm going to go vegetarian/vegan. It's not an ethical issue to me as much as an economic one. Meat is expensive, and I've just gotten over a throat illness that I'm pretty sure was caused by my insistence to keep eating milk products despite them severely inflaming my throat. 

I hope everyone's new year is going well! I had a black truffle, filet mignon, and fig pizza on New Year's Eve. It was the yum, and the most expensive pizza ever.

[Need Coffee in an IV]

4 hours ago, avflinsch said:

We solved that problem many years ago. It is a little 3 foot tree and it just stays up all year round.

 

I'm assuming this is also going to be the case for us, its a small artificial tree. I'm expecting the only time we will move it is when we move

@Neist Good luck! Meat is expensive so I usually wait for it to go on sale and then buy it in bulk/freeze it. I'm trying to think of what vegans actually eat. I mean I know pasta is one biggie but then you are very limited in stock/sauce because almost everything has some form of animal by product to enhance it

[hippyscientist]

28 minutes ago, Neist said:

So, I think I'm going to go vegetarian/vegan. It's not an ethical issue to me as much as an economic one. Meat is expensive, and I've just gotten over a throat illness that I'm pretty sure was caused by my insistence to keep eating milk products despite them severely inflaming my throat. 

I hope everyone's new year is going well! I had a black truffle, filet mignon, and fig pizza on New Year's Eve. It was the yum, and the most expensive pizza ever.

That pizza sounds incredible! And good luck with the vegan/veggie thing. I have a lot of respect for people who can do it but I find my body needs meat. I feel so much healthier when I eat it. But I found out doing my elimination diet that by cutting out all the processed crap, my weekly shopping costs went down by almost half. I was spending $80-100 a week on food, now its closer to $40/50. So meat and veggies is cheaper for me than meat and veggies and crap! SOrry don't really know why I went on a side-track like that. Good luck!
 

Alright, so over the break, I started a grad school website. I'm writing content now so when it goes live I'll have some stuff up there. I'm really excited by it actually, it's less of a blog about me and more of a blog about the field. Hoping it works and is a good way to get my name out there.

In other news, my fitbit arrived! It's currently charging but I really really really want to play with it now! And one of my best friends gets back into town this afternoon so we can watch the rose bowl together. Can't wait to see him! Hope this week is a good one for you all

[Pink Fuzzy Bunny]

@hippyscientist If you want to be Fitbit buddies, let me know! I got one for Christmas last year and it really helped keep me on track by challenging other people in number of steps walked.

[Need Coffee in an IV]

I feel like a Fitbit would be wasted on me, I always lose some cord to charge these things or the thing itself. Like my parents got me this very useful portable charger, its awesome. But yet I can't find the cord so I can't use it blahhhh.