Stuff that's been on my mind:

• The Swine Flu - Sometimes I wish I'd never read Stephen King's The Stand. Because I'm traveling this weekend, I am a little paranoid about catching it. A bunch of us are traveling to a conference in Denver, so our lab is considering giving us HEPA masks to wear on the plane. *sigh* I really hate wearing them! We have to wear them when we move large quantities of lead bricks as well, and they bug me, but I guess it's better than getting sick.


• Colorado! - Yay I'm going to Denver tomorrow! It's my first time in Colorado and I'm excited to see the mountains. I'm nervous about my results that I have to present on Saturday, but at least my talk is on the first day of the conference so I can enjoy the rest of it. Also, I think my advisor will actually be there for my talk, which is a first! I've given maybe 5 talks at conferences which he's attended, and I think that he's accidentally missed all of them for some reason or another.


• Connecticut - I was in CT last weekend to visit my brother, sister-in-law, and nephew. I had a great time! There are so many cute little towns up there, and being near the ocean was nice. My nephew is 2 and called me Didi the entire time I was there. No one told him to call me that, but it's the name of his imaginary friend. So maybe I was his imaginary friend all along? And now everyone can see me? Did I exist before that? ;-)


• New Laptop - The lab bought me a laptop! It's so shiny and pretty. I really like it even though I'm having a hard time quitting my last one. I am slowly transferring the files that I need over. I have to give it back when I leave anyway, so no need to get too attached. I'm so glad I got the XP downgrade though. I was playing around with Vista in CT and it was too annoying. A couple of things I miss in my old laptop are the home and end keys. I use them all the time! There is one on the new one, of course but you have to use the FCN button to access them, and I'm not used to that yet.


• Twilight - Ok, I broke down and listened to the Twilight audiobooks after about 5 trusted people told me they liked them. They were ok. I'm horrified to find that I do kinda like vampire stories now. (The Historian started that.) I will not be swayed on zombies though. Worst genre ever. So the writing in Twilight is just awful. Maybe if I had read it instead of listened it wouldn't have been so evident. She really overuses adverbs and there must be a million chuckles and glares in the entire series. Also, the obsessive relationship is a bit much. I thought the writing style got better as the books went on (keeping in mind this is a young adult genre) but it was still pretty bad. However, I was interested in the story and wanted to find out what happened. I don't know how to explain this. It was a good way to pass the traveling time though.

earlgreytea68

Your result for Howard Gardner's Eight Types of Intelligence Test...

Logical

41% Logical, 41% Spatial, 12% Linguistic, 10% Intrapersonal, 37% Interpersonal, 33% Musical, 24% Bodily-Kinesthetic and 29% Naturalistic!

Take Howard Gardner's Eight Types of Intelligence Test at HelloQuizzy

• Netflix! My friend referred me so I got a free month and she got a free rental. I started it last Saturday, and got my first movies on Tuesday (they were shipped Monday). Apparently there's a shipping site in Raleigh, so we get stuff really fast. I sent one movie back yesterday and they received it today and shipped out my next one, which will arrive tomorrow. Awesome. Not only that, but I really like the Watch Instantly feature. I've been watching Spooks (called MI-5 here in the US) which is a show about the British secret service. I'm used to watching stuff on my computer, so that doesn't bother me at all, and it's really good quality.


• The Fratellis - another result of my obsession with British things right now. I've been trying out lots of British music, and these guys are the right mix of rock and folk with good lyrics and fun songs.


• Season 5 of The Office. Last night's episode was so great, but the whole season has been awesome so far!


• The Beekeeper's Apprentice - a book I read last weekend. It's the first in a series about Mary Russell, a young girl who becomes an apprentice to Sherlock Holmes. I can't wait to get the next book.


• Amtrak prices and being in a place where I can take the train. Next weekend I am taking my first trip on the train. I am going to visit my sister in Fredricksburg. The roundtrip ticket was only $61 after my AAA discount, and is only about an hour longer than it would take me to drive. Considering the age of my car and how much gas would cost to drive there and back, I think it's a great deal! Plus I can just sit there and read or whatever the whole time.


• Planning my New Year's celebration with my friends. It has become somewhat of a tradition for my two best friends and me to get together over new years. This year, we are spending New Year's Eve and New Year's day in DC, and then we are going up to NYC for the following weekend. I can't wait! Recommendations of fun things to do in both cities are welcome. We are going to try to get tickets to a taping of Conan O'Brien, and tickets to a Broadway show...maybe Spamalot.