The Best (Red) Shoes Ever!
Posted by Rebecca Wed, 07 May 2008 13:02:00 GMT
As a Converse lover, I’m totally loving these.
10% of the purchase price goes to fight AIDS in Africa. Not bad.
Casa
Posted by Rebecca Fri, 02 May 2008 12:59:00 GMT
ABC Pest Control came out on Monday and treated our home for icky bugs.
We’ve seen a few this week but they’ve been slow and my brave roommate has managed to kill them all.
Last night we didn’t see any.
I could get used to that.
However, at 2:25 this morning my ceiling fan decided to make the most obnoxious and loud noise ever, waking me out of my happy slumber into not so happy wakefulness.
I turned the speed down. That didn’t work. I turned the fan off, let it stop rotating completely and then turned it back on. That still didn’t work. Finally, I left it off, hoping that I’d be able to sleep.
I sort of slept. I kept waking up, stifling in the humid warmth of the apartment, but was way too out of it to get up and turn the a/c cooler. When I finally woke up, it was like that shower I took before bed had never happened - the sheets were stuck to me and I could barely breathe the thick, hot air. I continued having difficulty breathing until I left the house and got into the fresh outdoors.
Oh, the quirks of the casa and how they affect your life! I’m really sleepy, but at least I only have to get through Friday.
Assumptions are bad but are easy to make
Posted by Rebecca Wed, 23 Apr 2008 20:30:00 GMT
I just met a man who is living here on a special visa that he obtained through a lottery. It is special because he is from Iran and American visas are very difficult for Iranians to get because our countries hate each other.
He is one of the nicest prospective students I’ve ever met and I was glad to be able to direct him to the professors who research in his area of interest. In fact, helping people out like that is probably my favorite part of this job.
Anyway, I wasn’t thinking when he came into my office and I stood up to show respect and greeted him with a smile and a handshake.
I then went through my schpiel about our program and introduced him to the graduate advisor so that he could learn about applying and what’s expected and what degree options we offer.
After he left a thought suddenly flew into my head that went something like this:
“Crap. I shook his hand. Crap.”
Underneath that verbal thought was a string of composite thoughts that if verbalized would read like this:
Oh my goodness he’s probably muslim and I’m not so he thinks I’m unclean because I’m a woman and my head is uncovered and my face is showing and oh my gosh so are my forearms and he touched me when he shook my hand probably to be polite and culturally sensitive because this is America and women have power and now he’s sinned and he’s not going to have a shot at 70 virgins and he gonna hate me for it forever.
Then a split second later I realized that all this was stupid.
I don’t know this man. Maybe he’s part of the 2% of the Iranian population that isn’t muslim or maybe he’s not an extremist and so he’s ok shaking my hand and I’m just being silly because Iran and America hate each other and Iran doesn’t like Israel either and so in theory I should hate all Iranians but I just can’t bring myself to do it because leaders don’t always reflect the beliefs of their countrymen and individuals should always have a chance to be just that - individuals.
After all, there’s bound to be intelligent people hanging out in Iran who are cringing at their government as much as people over here are. Not everyone assumes their leaders are inerrant.
School Plans
Posted by Rebecca Wed, 16 Apr 2008 15:20:00 GMT
I got into the classes I wanted!
Summer: 20th Century Short Story
Fall: Senior Seminar - Jane Austen
BOOYA!
Emergency Plans
Posted by Rebecca Wed, 16 Apr 2008 13:06:00 GMT
In light of recent petty thefts that have been rampant in my building, I asked our head of administration what kind of emergency plans we have in place.
Apparently there are none. Or if there are, none of them have been communicated to the staff.
I don’t know what to do if there is a fire. Run to the nearest stairwell? What if it is blocked? Go to the other one? If I don’t know what to do and I’m the staff person for my area, I can bet you no one else in my area knows what to do.
What if there is a tornado? It’s a rare occurrence in Austin, I know, but that doesn’t mean it can’t happen. I’m on the 8th floor. I doubt I can get to the basement in time to take cover. Does that mean I herd everyone into the interior of the building on my floor? You know, the room where all the labs with glassware and dangerous chemicals is located?
Somehow, I don’t think so.
What if there is a shooting? Will I even know if there is an attacker on another floor or my building? Will I just hear gunshots and not know where they are coming from? What am I supposed to do in that kind of situation?
As a result of me thinking that hey, any of these could happen and we’d be screwed, the head of administration appointed me to come up with the plans.
Gulp.
I plan to contact the UT fire chief and UTPD for advice. After a strategy has been developed for each of these situations, I will then “train” the rest of the staff on them, and those staff will then communicate these plans to the students and faculty whom they serve.
It’s funny, the timing of all this, because when I watched the news last night, this was the first story that aired.
Maybe this guy was up to no good, or maybe he’s just a stupid kid. Stupid kids are often found in abundance on university campuses.
However, the point is that it really could happen here, and we should be prepared.
I certainly plan to be.
Maybe, just maybe, it could be worse.
Posted by Rebecca Wed, 09 Apr 2008 19:27:00 GMT
At least we don’t have these. Not that we could, but still. At least we don’t have them.
Malty not Hoppy
Posted by Rebecca Tue, 08 Apr 2008 16:33:00 GMT
Yesterday Becky and I realized our pest problem was a little worse than we had initially thought.
As a result, my head spun around and I spit pea soup everywhere.
Once I had recovered, I decided the last thing I needed to do was sit around my house and constantly scan the shadows for bugs. So, I joined Dominic and the cows over at BB Rover’s for pepperoni pizza (the only pork I’ll eat) and beer.
One of the cows brews his own beer, and harbors a wealth of knowledge about the various types and intricate flavors of beer. I asked him to fix my beer problem, and he did.
My beer problem is that most of the beers I try taste like pine-sol. I can’t stand the flavor so I usually stick to whiskey, because the flavor of whiskey neat is infinitely superior to beer. Heh.
So the guy ordered me an independence bootlegger and I thought it was just about the best beer I had ever tasted. Beer can taste that good? Really? Yummy beer? Contradiction of terms, if you ask me.
I drank the entire pint with my pizza, happy that there was one beer in the US that I could tolerate (the German hefes are really good, especially if you’re in Germany when you drink one).
He passed a few other beers my way and I took sips, describing the flavors, rating my ability to tolerate the taste, etc.
The verdict? I don’t like hops. I like malt.
My plan for now is to slowly sample all of the malty beers at BB’s, work my way up to the balanced beers, and if I can make it through those, eventually I’ll try more of the hoppy beers.
By the way, if you like the flavor of coffee, you have to try the Independence Bootlegger (a local brew, destined to up your hip factor). It has a very subtle coffee under taste that I love (the website says chocolate but it tastes like coffee to me).
Progress
Posted by Rebecca Sat, 05 Apr 2008 22:51:00 GMT
Today I slept in and then met Caroline to go to Belle Saison and pick up my bridesmaid dress for her.
After that I was able to come home, assemble my bookshelf and empty about five boxes.
My stereo is now also set up and my tv is at least in the place where it will be permanently.
Now I only have about five million boxes left to unpack. I also have to clean my bathroom again, as soon as the landlord finishes caulking it. Hopefully by Monday night there will be no more roaches in there.
That my life today, nice and boring.
Have a great weekend!
Tornado Hits Near My Home
Posted by Rebecca Fri, 04 Apr 2008 19:54:00 GMT
Last night, a tornado touched down in parts of Little Rock before traveling up US 167 to my hometown and beyond.
Luckily none of my family members were injured and their respective home received no damage.
Here is a decent article relaying the damage, along with photos and videos. The footage is raw so you have to sit through some boring stuff. The power is also out so everything is really dark and it’s hard to see the damage in some of the videos.
Make sure you watch the first video listed. Notice the light pole in the middle of the parking lot…it’s there, then the tornado passes over it and 3 seconds later it’s gone. If you watch it enough times like I have, you can actually make out the light pole as it falls.
Crazy. I don’t miss tornadoes.
So far, only one person was killed as a result of this storm, and that was in an automobile accident. Still, a lot of people suffered damage, so pray for them.
A Single White Rose - A Single Human Soul
Posted by Rebecca Fri, 04 Apr 2008 16:26:00 GMT
Yesterday I was blessed to receive a single white rose from the White Rose Society.
The rose I received was one of ten thousand handed out at UT yesterday. It represents one of ten thousand people that would have been killed in the Auschwitz Concentration Camp in a single day.
The White Rose Society promotes the remembrance of holocaust victims and works to end genocide in the modern world. Check out their site for information on how they have worked to end the genocide in Darfur.
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