Below are the 20 most recent journal entries recorded in agd's LiveJournal:

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Tuesday, May 10th, 2005
8:40 am	Baa, baa THREE NAMES YOU GO BY: 1) George 2) Beth (legal name is Mary Elizabeth) 3) Naziha (stage name) THREE SCREEN NAMES YOU HAVE HAD: 1) marmell 2) MMarmell 3) gatorjorj THREE PHYSICAL THINGS YOU LIKE ABOUT YOURSELF: 1) My eyes 2) ankles 3) breasts (duh) THREE PHYSICAL THINGS YOU DON'T LIKE ABOUT YOURSELF: 1) My gut (or weight in general) 2) My hips 3) My thighs THREE PARTS OF YOUR HERITAGE: 1) Irish 2) Scottish 3) German THREE THINGS THAT SCARE YOU: 1) The current political climate 2) the prodigious amounts of debt I'm in 3) Not being able to find a job when I graduate THREE OF YOUR EVERYDAY ESSENTIALS: 1) Caffeine (coffee, tea, monster) 2) reading 3) silliness, preferably involving Ari THREE THINGS YOU ARE WEARING RIGHT NOW: 1) jeans 2) the necklace Ari bought me 3) my flamingo earring (always) THREE OF YOUR FAVORITE BANDS OR MUSICAL ARTISTS: 1) Led Zeppelin 2) Amr Diab 3) U2 THREE OF YOUR FAVORITE SONGS: 1) "Simarik," Tarkan 2) "Wish You Were Here," Pink Floyd 3) "Hawaii 5-0," The Ventures THREE THINGS YOU WANT IN A RELATIONSHIP: 1) Common interests. 2) Shared sense of humor. 3) Absolute, inviolable trust. TWO TRUTHS AND A LIE (in no particular order) 1) I used to want to be a potter 2) I was a catalog model as a kid. 3) I've had someone almost cause a wreck because he was looking at me. THREE THINGS ABOUT THE APPROPRIATE SEX THAT APPEAL TO YOU: 1) the ability and confidence to be silly 2) Intelligence. 3) eyes! THREE OF YOUR FAVORITE HOBBIES: 1) RPGs. The real kind, not the computer kind. ;-) 2) fiber-arts (sewing, knitting, crochet) 3) raks sharqui THREE THINGS YOU WANT TO DO REALLY BADLY RIGHT NOW: 1) Get a drink. 2) Graduate. 3) Sleep. THREE CAREERS YOU'RE CONSIDERING: 1) professor 2) professional development for a school system 3) developmental educator THREE PLACES YOU WANT TO GO ON VACATION: 1) Ireland 2) England 3) Germany THREE KID'S NAMES YOU LIKE: 1) Atlee (my grandmother) 2) Caleb 3) Merlin THREE THINGS YOU WANT TO DO BEFORE YOU DIE: 1) graduate 2) contribute to edpsych 3) dance professionally THREE WAYS THAT YOU ARE A STEREOTYPICAL GIRL: 1) I hate watching sports. 2) I love to dress up. 3) Personality is more important to me than appearance. THREE WAYS THAT YOU ARE A STEREOTYPICAL BOY: 1) I like action/sci-fi/fantasy pix. 2) I love having a kickbutt car! 3) I want comfortable clothes. THREE CELEB CRUSHES: 1) Oded Fehr 2) ? 3) ? THREE PEOPLE WHO HAVE TO TAKE THIS QUIZ NOW: 1) cargill 2) chunger 3) burgundy (6 Comments |Comment on this)
Thursday, April 21st, 2005
6:02 pm	on cats... I have a cat sitting on my wrists as I typppppe this. It's really bloody cute and really bloody inconvenient and he keeps giving me dirty looks as I move around to type. And of course I really have to go to the bathroom but I can't move because I have a cat on my wrists. (Comment on this)
Friday, April 1st, 2005
8:27 am	Troubling... I find this disturbing. Recently I decided to search LJ to see if there are other folks in my field. I searched for motivation thinking I might run into some other psych/edpsych folks interested in motivation theory. It was a sloppy search term, I know. And I don't know why I didn't just search for psychology or edpsych, but there it is. What I find disturbing is that when you search for motivation in interests, what you get is almost completely confined to pro-ana sites. (Comment on this)
Tuesday, March 1st, 2005
10:57 am	aarrggh! There seems to be a highly contagious and virulent case of dumb going around at school this semester. I realize I haven't posted in about 2 years and I don't usually have time to keep up with my journal, but today I needed someplace to complain about this without offending anyone. I usually have one special student each semester and I've identified my special student for this semester. However, I've never had so many special students! It's about a quarter of my class. I've never had a student actually fail my class before. And it's over ridiculous, stupid stuff like being absent. I mean it's only March 1st and 2 or 3 of my students have missed 7 classes. One of my other students mentioned that she saw people at the exam that she didn't recognize as members of the class. And another one... Holy cow! Every direction I give in class about how to do something for later she questions. I got an e-mail from her that basically boiled down to, "I know you said not to do X, but can I do X?" And that's just par for the course with her. Yesterday I made a reminder announcement about something I announced several times at the beginning of the semester and everyone in the class nodded and made a note. But she had no idea what I was talking about. This is blowing my mind!!! (5 Comments |Comment on this)
Monday, June 30th, 2003
1:21 pm	Random absurditiy for the day... Overheard in passing... A student walked into the office and asked if he could get a second copy of a form he needed because his mom threw it out when she cleaned his car! What the heck?!! You're a college student, why is your mom cleaning your car?!!! (3 Comments |Comment on this)
Wednesday, May 14th, 2003
11:58 am	Eureka! I found it! I found it! I found my shower curtain! I've been looking for this thing for about 2 years now. And I finally found a shower curtain with flamingos on it. The new one isn't as cool as the old one which had a kinda deco-y design of 3 foot tall flamingos between the palm trees. This one is intentionally kitschy with 6 inch lawn flamingos all over it. Mouse will not be as thrilled as I am about it but I think he'll agree that it's better than the day-glo jungle scene we have now. Current Mood: excited Current Music: I Am Sound Soundtrack (1 Comment |Comment on this)
Monday, April 28th, 2003
2:20 pm	I'm not sure how to feel about this... Austin is facing a mayoral campaign right now and one of the candidates owns and operates a chain of deli's here in town. I just received, courtesy of the university e-mail system, an e-mail from this candidate. In it he talks about how voter turn-out is very low in Austin, especially among young (college-aged) people. As an incentive to vote, this candidate is offering free food. That sounds kinda like a bribe, but it's not from his deli's. Basically he's made a deal with the owners of a string of egg-roll stands on campus. If you give them your "I Voted" sticker you get up to $2 in food from the egg-roll stands (that covers a fried rice and a soda.) That's not really enough to be overly influential as bribes go, and the candidate isn't making any money out of it, and there's no pressure to vote for him, so it shouldn't be immoral. It's just weird! Of course, on top of all that is the fact that the owners of the egg-roll stands had to shut down their carts last year because they were facing charges of racketeering to the tune of something like $60,0000. But that doesn't really play into the current issue. I'm sure the candidate chose them because they're here, they're popular, and they're cheap. All in all Austin is just weird. (1 Comment |Comment on this)
Tuesday, April 15th, 2003
1:31 pm	Wow... It's been a bloody long time since I've even touched this thing. I kinda don't know where to begin. I'm certainly not going to try for a week by week chronology. I also don't promise to be any more diligent about keeping this thing up to date than I have been. I can barely keep up with my paper journal. I'm certainly not going to lose any sleep over this one. So, what am I doing today? Trying to round up college students to go on a FREE trip to Houston. For Pete's sake, we're putting them up in a hotel, paying for most of their meals, transporting them both ways, and paying their way into the Houston International Festival. What's not to like? True, they'll have to miss one day of classes, but how many college students can't manage that? I don't think it's academic diligence that's keeping them from going. I found something really cool in Oakthorne's LJ. He had the link to Justin Achilles' internet radio station, Achilles Spins Gold. It's quite good and I was very excited to hear someone else playing Black Aria. I've been listening to Achilles Spins Gold for the past 2 or 3 days at work. Mouse still hasn't heard it because he's working with dial-up. Yet another reason I really wish we could afford DSL at home. I'm all excited because my dance troupe will be performing on Thursday. Tonight is the dress rehearsal. Yeah! I don't nearly enough opportunities to perform. Current Music: achilles spins gold - The radio station programmed by Vampir (Comment on this)
Wednesday, August 8th, 2001
10:16 am	And there was much rejoicing... Today is my last day at this job! Today is my last day. No more office drama. No more "Dr. Zhivago" soundtrack. No more little purple and green forms. No more, "Hey, can you send this package for me, I know it's 5:00 and you were about to leave but..." No more, "If X calls I'm not here but if Y calls..." No more, "You don't watch soaps with us, you must be anti-social." Tomorrow we pack. And pack. And pack. We have a lot of stuff and now I'm waiting to hear if U-Haul has any record of the reservation I made July 20th. The local office doesn't process reservations, call the reservation office. The reservation doesn't process reservations 'til the day before, they'll call you. Grrr! (Comment on this)
Wednesday, August 1st, 2001
5:05 pm	Noooooo! Someday, My Love! Too many '60's movie themes. Brain turning to mush! Current Music: Duh! (Comment on this)
10:08 am	This is funny... I'm sitting at my desk where I can overhear what's going on in the conference room. One of our clients is here and I'm overhearing him talking about how, "Once you set aside the numbers, don't confine yourself to profits and losses... You have to think about how comfortable am I with this situation? Will I be satisfied with this arrangement, meet your emotional needs..." The reason this is funny is that this is the CEO of a computer startup who doesn't have an office. A few months back they were subletting cubicles from our office and I've spent the last 3 or 4 months fielding irate phone calls for this guy from his investors who have yet to see any return on their investments. I guess he just decided he wasn't comfortable with paying them back. Of course I don't know the whole story, I haven't been present for all the meetings but at this point I wouldn't trust this guy as far as I could kick him. (1 Comment |Comment on this)
Tuesday, July 31st, 2001
9:30 am	Way Scary Dangerous Good News Oh boy, am I in trouble. I just found out from a friend that the same folks who did the soundtrack to Oh Brother, Where Art Thou have been on tour and have just released a new album! I want it but I really don't need to spend the money. But I'm sure it's a really good album. And they're releasing best-of collections of Muppet Show episodes on DVD. Very rarely am I glad we don't own a DVD player. I have almost every episode on video taped off of TV, but these are DVD quality, without commercials. Sigh. On a good note I did find somebody to make a copy of the Oh Brother, Where Art Thou soundtrack for me. This pleases me immensely. Now I just have to borrow it and get it to him before we both quit our jobs. We listened to the soundtrack yesterday and all evening I had Rock Candy Mountain running through my head. The environmental stereo system in the complex where I work is set with a truly eclectic mix. For a few months it was mostly '80's stuff, Stevie Nix and the occasional U2. Now it's mostly instrumental versions of '60's pop stuff, not rock but the kind of stuff that became movie themes. Yesterday it was Born Free and now it's Blue River, you know the kind of stuff you see advertised if you watch home shopping during the day or reruns of Murder She Wrote as collection CD's of timeless classics. Fortunately when I came in they were playing King of the Road and I've been able to use that to ward off the Blue River. To radically change the subject yet again, I saw the cutest dog this morning. When I came out of the house this morning one of the neighbors was walking his dog. It was a smallish white terrier type thing with brown spots. It was very excited and friendly without being hyperkinetic and spazzy and it didn't bark. "Hi, Hi, Hi, Who are you? Pet me! Pet me!" The owner called him away but he followed me to my truck and for a minute I was afraid I wouldn't be able to see him while I backed out. Then I felt a cold, wet, friendly nose on the back of my knees; he was in the truck with me, and then on my lap! The owner was very apologetic but that let me get a good grip on him. After a quick pet I handed him back to his owner, which was a good thing since it meant I wouldn't have to worry about backing into him. Not a terribly well trained dog but incredibly cute. Current Mood: cheerful Current Music: King of the Road (1 Comment |Comment on this)
Monday, July 30th, 2001
10:40 am	Cigarettes and whiskey and wild, wild women... Saw Oh Brother, Where Art Thou? yesterday. I think I must own a copy of this movie, definitely the soundtrack. I like the Coen brothers anyway and that was just bloody fun and the setting made it even better. Reminded me of listening to Lester Roloff broadcasts with my mom as a kid. Oh, man! Mouse wasn't interested so he didn't watch it with us but I think he'd enjoy it. Unfortunately he's going to be teasing me about my accent for the next few days. Apparently I'm the most suggestible person in the world. Sometimes just to be annoying he'll hum a few lines of a song to see what he can get stuck in my head. Twit. And anytime I hear anyone speaking with a pronounced Southern accent, like when my parents call, mine becomes more noticeable, which leads to teasing. It's not that I mind the teasing, none of my friends are particularly cruel about it. It's just that I wish it weren't a teasable offense. I mean what's objectionable about a recognizable accent? It's not as though I'd done anything truly disagreeable like profess a predilection for wrestling or talk-shows, or installed a fuzzy cover on the toilet seat. I know all the socio-linguistic factors involved in dialect and accent choice, I'm just aggravated and ranting. We're getting down to the wire now on the move. In a week and 2 days we will be officially moved to Austin. Geah! So much to do and none of it can be done now! Having Mouse and Burgundy see the place is definitely reassuring though I wish I could have seen it too. I think the next few weeks (months, years?) are going to be stressful, what with moving and starting school but I know we'll get through. I just thank the Lord Mouse will be there to back me up. I don't know where I'd be if he hadn't been there to keep me going in the past. I think I'd be a very different person today, and not a particularly healthy one. Which reminds me of something I snarfed out of the journal of the inimitable Sheeplass: I'm starting to wonder which thoughts are suitable for public viewing and which I should privatize, or mark friends-only with a very limited audience. I don't know. I don't want to hurt people's feelings, I don't want to step on toes, I don't want to say the wrong thing, but there are things I believe, and I need to write about them. I wonder, is this what my Xian friends think when they want to write something about how God has brightened their lives that day? "I'm not trying to convert anyone, I'm not saying my beliefs are better than yours, but dammit, I want to be able to talk about this." I hadn't put it into words but that is so appropriate. And it was really surprising to find it there in someone else's journal just waiting for me. I've been thinking about labels and generealizations a lot lately. I am not ashamed of my beliefs in any way. If I were ashamed of them I would make a decision to change to something of which I could be proud. At the same time there are a lot of folks out there who hold beliefs that are fairly radically different from mine but are lumped under the same label. These are folks with whom I don't want to be identified. And so occasionally I am reluctant to call attention to my faith because I don't want to be identified with all the truly unChristian things being done in Christ's name. Labels and generalizations are not inherently bad things. If you look at the most basic forms, language is just a series of labels applied to things and actions for the purpose of making generalization possible. Labels are tools for handling ideas. The problems start when people fail to realize that sometimes a label isn't the right tool for the job. Sometimes you have to acquire a new label to fit the situation like acquiring a new wrench when working with nuts and bolts of a different size. Sometimes we find that no particular label will fit, or more often that a whole set of labels will fit according to the situation. How often have I heard the phrase, "Those stupid fill-in-the-blanks, no offense intended." I'm coming to believe that if I find myself making a statement like that, maybe the label isn't one I need to use at all. Maybe it's too broad. It's a convenient label to use but if I don't intend to refer to all Liberals/Jehovah's Witnesses/vegetarians/whatever I don't need to use it. It can only lead to possible hurt feelings and sloppy thinking. This is something I'm gonna have to work on. Current Music: Cigarettes and whiskey and wild, wild, women... (2 Comments |Comment on this)
Friday, July 27th, 2001
9:14 am	Simple things... Mmmm... Maple vanilla tea, this is a miraculous new discovery. Today is a day for simple things and this is a good one. So is overcast weather. Current Mood: exhausted Current Music: From a Distance--dammit Jerel (2 Comments |Comment on this)
Wednesday, July 25th, 2001
3:17 pm	Hee hee hee Those of you who know me IRL are gonna tease me and those who don't will just think I'm weird. Hee Hee Hee Current Mood: bouncy Current Music: flamenco (1 Comment |Comment on this)
9:17 am	Today is gonna be a good day. The cicadas are buzzing (chirping, whirring?) the sun is out, I get my truck back today, I finished the piece of lace I was working on, and it doesn't hurt to close my eyes today! Yesterday I had the most horrendous headache, like nothing I've ever had before. A splitting pain localized in a line from my left eye to the back of my head. It was so bizarre and it was intense enough to take my breath away. After 3 ibuprofen and 3 Excedrin Migraine it had dulled to the point that it only hurt when I closed my eyes but the pain was still bad enough to make me gasp. You never realize how often you blink until something like that happens. It lasted all day, from about 9 am 'til about 1 am, what a day. But it was completely gone when I woke up today. Speaking of migraines... I have a serious peeve. Mouse gets migraines so we keep Excedrin Migraine around the house in addition to the normal acetaminophen and ibuprofen. That stuff's expensive so it's not the first thing we reach for and I always have an eye out for a good price. So of course when I saw boxes labeled Motrin Migraine on sale it caught my eye. I was in a hurry so I didn't check the label, big mistake. When I got home Mouse checked the label and compared it to the Excedrin. Then he compared it to regular Motrin, same stuff! Motrin Migraine is just ibuprofen, no other ingredients, and at the same strength as regular Motrin, 200 mg. The price I paid was good in comparison to Excedrin Migraine, but not for the generic ibuprofen I normally buy. This is a blatant marketing ploy, I am not pleased. I'm going to go pick up my truck on my lunch hour today. The oil leak is fixed and for less than I thought. The leak is fixed! (Happy joy chair dancing.) I love my truck. It's old and beat up and it's got just loads and loads of miles on it but it's a good, tough little truck and I love it and if it had AC I would be perfectly happy with it. And now I can teach Mouse to drive a stick so if we get that Cavalier he'll be able to drive it. Yay! Last night I actually measured the piece of lace I've been working on for over a month now and I discovered that it was about 6 inches longer than it needed to be. It's a make it as you go edging of fishnet and pineapples that I just love. I started it just to see what it would look like and if I could and kept working because I liked the way it looked. After about 3 feet I realized that I had a chunk big enough to actually do something with but I had no idea what. What do you do with 3 feet of ecru lace? I pondered as I crocheted and finally decided it would go on a pillowcase for my mom which is when I discovered that I had 6 inches too much. The only response was to unravel the extra 6 inches and end it off. So now all I have to do is buy a pillow case and attach it. Current Mood: energetic Current Music: The Bangles (2 Comments |Comment on this)
Monday, July 23rd, 2001
2:15 pm	??? So what's up with LJ today? Every time I hit the back button it logs me out. And I can't reach my friends page at all. Bloody annoying. I got my new phone on Saturday. New toys, oh boy. I feel quite sheepish for being excited about this but it's got all kinds of cool features. My old phone probably had some cool features too but I never learned to use them. I really didn't want a cell phone and was kinda embarrassed to use it in public because I really didn't think I needed one and I didn't want to look like I was suffering from gizmo-envy. Of course toward the end of the time I had it there was no risk there because it was such and antique analog brick. I think I can actually tell a difference in the weight of my purse. Now if I can just get rid of this hugemongous wallet. (Hint here folks; some things, like dayplanners and foundation garments and wallets, affect the way the owner uses them and as such are entirely too personal to be bought without the recipient's input.) The new phone weighs 6 ounces, which is not the lightest on the market but compared to the old one it's nothing. And I don't really have a choice about using the features on this one because the provider will send you voice mail whether or not you set up the box. I even splurged and downloaded a custom ring tone, the Star Wars Cantina theme. Too bad they didn't have the Muppets theme! Another new toy, we have been given, through a rather complicated, exasperating, and altogether unpleasant string of events that I an neither at liberty nor inclined to share, a television. This is a good thing. We already have a TV and it works but it's almost 10 years old and the remote doesn't work and it's tiny. The new one is of recent vintage, is quite a bit larger than the old, seems to work, and it's free. What could be bad? Current Mood: cheerful (Comment on this)
Wednesday, July 18th, 2001
11:35 am	The joys of automation So I sit down to pay our bills today and I come across our final phone bill. This is the phone bill one receives after canceling service, for twenty-one cents. There's no post mark so I don't know for sure but it probably cost more for the bloody postage than this bill is for. And all because it's automatically generated by a computer. Sheesh! In other news, Mouse received his copies of Gilded Cage, his first paid writing contract, today. I'm sure he'll post something about that in his journal if he can stop bouncing excitedly around the room long enough. It's been so long coming and he's worked so hard. I'm very proud of him. I don't think any of our parents will really read the book but they're all proud and happy, and that's what counts. And it's a nationally released book. Lots of people will read it and my husband wrote it! I'm not excited at all, nosiree, not me. But yesterday was a good day and today is dance class so today will be good too. Current Mood: bouncy (4 Comments |Comment on this)
Thursday, July 12th, 2001
9:31 am	Yay, new toys! I now have a cool new ergonomic keyboard! I don't have it hooked up because I don't have the computer set up but I have it. Or maybe I don't. We've decided that with me going to school and all we'll probably run into times when we both need computer access at the same time and since we have a perfectly acceptable computer sitting around not in use why not set it up for basic word processing function? We'll still only have internet access on one machine but we'll both be able to write at the same time. But if I'm to be writing much at all I'll need an ergonomic keyboard, so Mouse went and bought a second one. Once we get to Austin and start setting everything up he's going to try out the new one. Since he'll probably do more writing than I will he'll take whichever he likes better which is no problem by me as I like the old one just fine too. I also got a new CD. It's called Tarkan and I don't know if that's the title or the group. I guess I'll have to look that up. The music is Turkish pop and despite being kinda bubble gummy and silly it's really good. Only I don't have a CD player at work anymore so I can't listen to it. Feh! I also got a copy of the music for our new routine which is from the Alabina II album. It's the Arabic version of "Salma Ya Salama" which is another really catchy, silly tune that I think is going to be a lot of fun to perform. Current Mood: chipper (1 Comment |Comment on this)
Wednesday, July 11th, 2001
12:01 pm	Sunlight and other luxuries How I love this view! I think it's one of the very few things I'm going to miss about this job, I mean besides the steady income. This office space has a huge floor-to-ceiling window that stretches probably 50 feet along the front side of the office. Privacy becomes something of an issue but the whole office is flooded with glorious streams of sunlight. And the view out this huge window is down into a courtyard full of trees! Big green pines and oaks and liveoaks with actual animals in them. Birds and squirrels regularly pass this window. It's so peaceful and soothing. I guess I'm becoming more and more of a sun-worshipper. I don't want to go roast my skin and it's too beastly hot to spend much time outside but at least I can look. I hope that our new apartment has lots of light. Since I won't have an office or anything there I hope work space in our apartment is nice. It's really weird to be moving into the place sight unseen but the friend who looked the place over for us said it's nice and another friend who's moved to Austin since then is trying to get into the same complex. He said it's in the hills. That's something I'm looking forward to, real hills, that go up AND down. I'm so bloody tired of flat. It kinda worries me moving into a place that we haven't even seen in pictures, don't even have a sketch of the floorplan. All I know is that it's going to be tiny and it has all the features we really need. I've reached the point where I know we're moving forward with the move and everything and all that's left is the waiting. But sometimes I think the waiting's more stressful than actually doing. I just want to get it done. I think it's funny that we're about to move into a situation where we know that money's gonna be tight and Ari's looking for a car and my truck has an oil leak and all these things keep popping up to eat our money but I don't feel stressed or depressed about it. When I feel stressed about money I start to fantasize about suddenly becoming fabulously wealthy and what I'd do with the money. I dream up romance-novel-ridiculous strings of events that lead to instant wealth and how that would solve all my problems. But I haven't been doing that lately. I have peace about it. I decided when I started applying for school that I would let God handle the big picture and I'd just handle the details and wouldn't stress about it and it seems to be working. I know it sounds crazy but I don't even know which decisions I'll need to be making much less how to make them and I'm okay with that. Wow! On another note, I took the online screening scale for personality disorders. (I followed the link from Sheeplass's journal so I won't bother with a link except to link to the thoroughly cute world of the sheeply one, so there.) It told me that I had low correlations with everything except for a moderate correlation with Obsessive/Compulsive Personality Disorder. Now there's a complete lack of surprise. Here's the million dollar question, is low the mildest correlation the test has or am I just very vaguely screwed up in lots of ways? I know anyone who's seen my house-keeping is gonna say, "I don't see perfectionism here," but that just goes to show they don't know what a real perfectionist is. Well, so far my obsessive/compulsive traits haven't interfered more than mildly with my life so I guess they can stay. Current Mood: antsy (Comment on this)