<2355>

Oh good lord. Vacation really is over.

I started class today. I'm probably not going to take the Epi of HIV for credit of any kind... too much work! But the Network Analysis class seemed good. I have a meeting with my advisor tomorrow.

More drive-byage... this time someone is trying to use some kind of anonimizer that doesn't seem to work that well. Hey new reader, that isn't working that well!

I was thinking of starting a blogspot blog, just to get a fresh start on something. But I think I decided if I do it will be for something else, like health or something. My known readership is so small right now I almost feel compelled to just send a newsletter every week with the really juicy details. That would be more interesting than my blog has ever been.

<1148>

I haven't felt like writing much lately... for one thing, too many drive-by readers on the page finding me through Pro's page. Plus then that reminds me that I only know who half my regular readers are anyway, which is weird.

At any rate, I've been pretty busy, making August very social. School starts next week, though, and I need to get crackin on my dissertation proposal, so I might have to get some focus.

<2339>

Today I was reading in the NYT that Yao Ming is speaking out against shark fin soup. I was surprised to learn that shark fin actually doesn't taste like anything, it's just this rubbery blob in the soup. WTF? Stop cutting off tasteless parts of shark, Chinese peeps! But the real surprising part of the article to me was that his girlfriend is 6'2" and he's 7'6"... can you imagine being a woman that tall and still being that much shorter than your boyfriend?! Freaky!

In other news, my advisor wants me to apply for this Sept 1 grant, and I came to the conclusion today that this is either going to really suck, or I'm just not going to be able to do it. I'm not motivated, since he got me what I consider to be enough money for next year. I really would reather spend time reading the awesome media effects book he suggested, because it's giving me all sorts of ideas I need to work through.

<0928>

Well, I've officially broken up with Salon. I figured I can read what want by clicking throught an ad once a day. Maybe it will get better again as the elections roll around, but it's kind of been a pile of crap lately, and the addition of reader letters has meant the addition of a heap of assholesque vitriol. Although it seems to not be making me read an ad today... maybe because I haven't restarted my browser.

<2357>

Last night I dreamed of the boy with bad timing, and his timing was fine in the dream, and that was great. But in real life timing and geography always seem to get me.

And West Wing. That shit gets me too, damn show.

<2106>

I haven't updated in a while, mostly because when I haven't been busy, I've been very lazy. My mom came to visit. I picked her up from the airport, gave her the tour of my house, and we had dinner at Paper Moon. She liked the chocolate truffle cake. Wednesday we wandered around Fells Pt in the heat and humidity, stopping in places like antique stores to cool off. We then hit Target to buy a new air mattress, since mine seemed to have a slow leak and new ones are cheap. Then we hit up this place in Lutherville for crabs, because she had to have crabs while we were here. We smashed and hammered, and I gashed open my thumb, which was appetizing. Thursday we went to Annapolis, where it seemed even hotter than Baltimore, to my disbelief. It had been so pleasant the prior Sunday when we went for the play. It was, like, so hot. We went to the State house, random stores, and all the major Naval Academy sights. Then we came home and made green chile chicken enchiladas, since Justin B. had brought me cans of Hatch when he'd been in Austin the weekend before.

Friday we were tired after 2 days of walking, so we mostly vegged. We did go to the SPCA to look at cute doggies, and to Wine Source to buy mudslide mix, having consumed the margaritas we'd bought. We also went to school, which wasn't very exciting. Saturday we went to DC, hit the International Spy Museum, which was rad except for the million kiddies there. We wandered by the White House and went to the visitor's center, walked through a sculpture garden and stuck our feet in a fountain along with many other folks, and then checked out a modern art museum until it closed. Sunday we also mostly vegged, going to Tamber's for early dinner and then shopping in Towson at the mall for skirts, because I needed some.

She left Monday afternoon, and shortly after I got the call to help Ami move into her apartment, once she made it to town from Boston. It was good she got there Monday because the rest of the week the temps were 100 with heat indices around 110. EW. It was insanely gross and I mostly sat in front of the AC all week. Then yesterday I helped Danielle move out of her old apartment, and today I helped her unload the truck up the street. Bill, our landlord, in his typical fashion, doesn't have the apartment nearly ready for habitation, and so we piled everything into the front room. It's going to be a totally rad place when it's done, though. It's huge and open and the perfect party place, and I'm sending out invitations now it's that great. But I gotta tell you, yesterday there were three of us besides Danielle and her mom, which worked out pretty well, but today it was only me and them, and that kinda sucked. It's much easier to unload with tons of people to just keep taking stuff off the truck. So, my arms and legs are pretty beat up, and I think I'm going to be on a diet of ibuprofen for a couple of days.

In the midst of all that, while my mom and I were in Annapolis, actually, my advisor called me to tell me that this little grant he'd applied for that started off my plans to go to Malawi got funded! So that pays me half time for 6 months, full for 3 months, and pays for airfare, ground transport, room and board for my Malawi trip! This takes the pressure off funding sources massively, but he still wants me to submit a NRSA on September 1. Which means I really need to get my ass in gear. He also set an October 1 proposal target date, which should be feasible if I get this NRSA written, but it seems damn soon. I kinda had the opportunity and now the funding fall into my lap, but now I gotta do work to make it happen.

Let's see, what else. My cohort had dinner on Thursday, and everyone was super excited about all my Malawi stuff. People are making their own cool plans. Overall, it was a nice bondy kind of dinner, esp since we hadn't all seen each other in a while. Mike is going out of town, so I think the rest of the TV Night crew will go to karaoke at Frasier's on Tuesday. He didn't agree to give us his keys so we could go to his house and have TV Night without him. Other than that, I've been watching a lot of West Wing on DVD.