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Oct. 2nd, 2009 06:18 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
commotiocordisBut also, there is No Time in my life when I don’t have something I should be doing. Something scholastic, usually, as my MCAT scores sucked on this self-timed practice one I did, which scared me all to fuck because my MCAT scores were what I was counting on to get me into medical school since my GPA isn’t impressive and I’m at a podunk state school (also, why does Word want to capitalize “Podunk”?).
Time management is really biting me in the ass atm. Even just trying to conceptualize what I should be doing when (not helped by the fact that the email system we switched to at school that has all my Outlook calendars I made on the old system refuses to connect to the Outlook program on my computer and give me them back).
I need to be studying for the MCAT and the GRE (maybe. I’ve got no idea what’s on that one, so that’s what this Saturday’s taking it is for, to see if I need to put any effort in. It’s not like I’m trying to get accepted anywhere, as I’ll just be staying here, so I think it’s just a “make sure you get at least a passingish score” type of $150 worth of formality).
But I’ve got to get As in my regular classes too, so that’s got to come first. And is not. I'm putting shit off and not reviewing the organic, especially, like I should be before/after the classes, so I'm failing those in class open note quizzes, which I still don't understand how is fucking possible.
Going to the gym has been falling to the wayside, much to the detriment of my joints, weight, and mood. The strained groin muscles (grade 4 on both sides!) making it impossible for me to even walk nixed an entire week, and then I was sick, and then I was trying to get everything done so I could go home last weekend, and this week I've had labs due Monday, tests Tuesday and Wednesday, a poem due Thursday, and I finally went Thursday night again and my back was killing me (and had been the entire day) until the last 15 minutes or so, so I was wimping way out on the treadmill (both slower and less incline than usual for probably half the time in the middle until everything got unkinked). Huge guilt trip over the whole situation, because I'm not entitled to bitch about my weight how I keep gaining weight when I'm doing everything right when I haven't even been trying lately.
Also, I said I’d help out with the St. Louis Bishie Convention (Yaoi type stuff) because they advertised on a list I was on that they really needed people, and now I’m doing a panel for that too. (I’ve never even *seen* a panel at a convention, much less run one. Anybody know what I should be doing?).
And I’m working at the children’s science museum thing down here in 3 different ways, sort of—I wanted to combine these required hours for a service component for my organic chemistry course with doing my lab research there (because they’ve got a neat little glass-walled lab that people can come watch and learn what you’re doing), the latter being also combined into a major part of my biochem service project bit (the rest being devising/writing up the ways we used to convey the technical stuff to kids). Somehow, I've ended up helping set up/open/guide folks through the life sciences exhibits and interactive experiment bits at the time I set through biochem (8am-12 on Tuesdays) to definitely be there, attached on projects for the museum (designing and making signage for this DNA wall to explain bases and how it codes for insulin and such, and helping plan a kitchen chemistry day) to fill the hours for the organic chem requirement, and the lab time that will actually be my project for biochem is totally separate. The point of my not going someplace cooler for the organic component (basically, 40 hours of service -> an extra credit hour of chemistry, and as I was at 14 for this semester, it'll help me not have to take 9 million hours next semester) like THE EMERGENCY ROOM (!!one!1!!eleven!!) as was an option was because I could combine it all and just do 40 hours and get my organic and biochem done all by doing work in the lab with the 8-12 just being one of the definite times I'd be in there labbing. 40 hours is still a lot, though, so as long as I come out with an A, I don't care that much, because it really is a neat place to work; I just wish everything was working out like I'd planned.
Met with the chemistry coordinator for my orgo service thing finally today, though, which I'd been putting off finding the time to do to turn in these forms because they were already late and I'm a wuss. She was uber nice. She's pretty old (60 at least, though I'm not good at guessing anybody's age, especially older folks) and reminded me a lot of my two grandmothers combined--sort of looked like my maternal, but had a slight southern accent like my paternal. Glancing at her bulliton board, it looks like she teaches mostly chemistry for non chem majors, which could be fun. It'd be like teaching high school chemistry--you could do a lot of the fun stuff because it's not like these people are ever going to need to know how to identify 1-propyl 4-chloromethyl heptene on the spot. Not that anybody would ever need to (even if you were a chemist, I'm pretty sure you'd have a second to look it up), but still.
Kinda disappointed about the MCAT/GRE practice thing tomorrow—the gay/straight alliance at school’s having a barbeque that I wanted to go to in the afternoon. Considered just taking the MCAT and going to the barbeque, but no. Shall be responsible. Also wanted to take the LSAT again, but it's at the same time as the MCAT, which is too bad, because the MCAT is going to make me want to slit my wrists, but the LSAT and how I rock it is a decent ego boost. (Acronym translation just in case this is baffling: MCAT=medical college admissions test, the pretest for med school. LSAT=same thing but for law school. GRE=same thing but for generic graduate school; more like the undergrad college admissions tests that have english and math and writing and such.)
I'm in the library atm, plugged into the wired connection on the tablet because I haven't downloaded the wireless update since I wiped it a few days ago and reloaded XP Tablet on it instead of the XP professional I had before that wasn't giving me the tablet functionality regularly. When I tried to load XP Tablet on top of the XP-Pro, like you can do with most Windows OS, it stalled on the install, so I had to reinstall regular XP Professional which ended up with me having one XP-Pro install that worked and one that was stuck halfway through being written over by Tablet. It worked fine like that for a week or two, but eventually the whole mess of things got to where I had to boot into the second OS under safe mode to not bluescreen out and blech. It worked, but was annoying. Going to see if I can get the tech people here to decipher their own instructions for setting up the new university mail with Outlook, because they don't work. Frustrating as hell; I've tried it I don't know how many times on the tablet under various hard drives and OS installs. But because I don't have the wireless (tried to download the update, but the wire here is so freaking slow--we're talking sub-dial up speeds for some reason), I've got to get one of them to come over here, which means unplugging my computer and bringing it over to the desk or leaving it here and going to get one of them, and it's just been less work to stay here and keep typing.
Shall do now, though, as![[livejournal.com profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/external/lj-userinfo.gif)
bleakone's probably out of class in a few minutes and we'll be going home where hopefully, I can await the return of Tosh, the computer that was stolen by the fucktards at the Toshiba official repair depot for, from the day I sent it off to today, 36 days. And refused to do anything about it when I called and asked them what the fuck was up with them lying to me and saying 7-10 days. I get that it was on hold for parts for two weeks (sort of--shouldn't the official Toshiba place *have* all the Toshiba parts?) and that wasn't expected when they gave me the estimate, but 7-10 days after I sent it off they hadn't even put it on the repair desk, so that's bullshit.
ETA: Tosh is here! The screen works, the keyboard has been replaced, the fucktards wiped it like they said they wouldn't, but I backed stuff up so I'm not that pissed. What does piss me off is that they didn't replace the screen. In fact, they made the artifacting and little bruises and dead pixels worse. Idk what to do now. I think I'll call tomorrow or Monday or something and see what they say, because there's a whole circular bit in the middle of the screen where it looks like the pixels are half blue. (Most noticeable on a black screen, natch.) This was not there before. Displeased.
Time management is really biting me in the ass atm. Even just trying to conceptualize what I should be doing when (not helped by the fact that the email system we switched to at school that has all my Outlook calendars I made on the old system refuses to connect to the Outlook program on my computer and give me them back).
I need to be studying for the MCAT and the GRE (maybe. I’ve got no idea what’s on that one, so that’s what this Saturday’s taking it is for, to see if I need to put any effort in. It’s not like I’m trying to get accepted anywhere, as I’ll just be staying here, so I think it’s just a “make sure you get at least a passingish score” type of $150 worth of formality).
But I’ve got to get As in my regular classes too, so that’s got to come first. And is not. I'm putting shit off and not reviewing the organic, especially, like I should be before/after the classes, so I'm failing those in class open note quizzes, which I still don't understand how is fucking possible.
Going to the gym has been falling to the wayside, much to the detriment of my joints, weight, and mood. The strained groin muscles (grade 4 on both sides!) making it impossible for me to even walk nixed an entire week, and then I was sick, and then I was trying to get everything done so I could go home last weekend, and this week I've had labs due Monday, tests Tuesday and Wednesday, a poem due Thursday, and I finally went Thursday night again and my back was killing me (and had been the entire day) until the last 15 minutes or so, so I was wimping way out on the treadmill (both slower and less incline than usual for probably half the time in the middle until everything got unkinked). Huge guilt trip over the whole situation, because I'm not entitled to bitch about my weight how I keep gaining weight when I'm doing everything right when I haven't even been trying lately.
Also, I said I’d help out with the St. Louis Bishie Convention (Yaoi type stuff) because they advertised on a list I was on that they really needed people, and now I’m doing a panel for that too. (I’ve never even *seen* a panel at a convention, much less run one. Anybody know what I should be doing?).
And I’m working at the children’s science museum thing down here in 3 different ways, sort of—I wanted to combine these required hours for a service component for my organic chemistry course with doing my lab research there (because they’ve got a neat little glass-walled lab that people can come watch and learn what you’re doing), the latter being also combined into a major part of my biochem service project bit (the rest being devising/writing up the ways we used to convey the technical stuff to kids). Somehow, I've ended up helping set up/open/guide folks through the life sciences exhibits and interactive experiment bits at the time I set through biochem (8am-12 on Tuesdays) to definitely be there, attached on projects for the museum (designing and making signage for this DNA wall to explain bases and how it codes for insulin and such, and helping plan a kitchen chemistry day) to fill the hours for the organic chem requirement, and the lab time that will actually be my project for biochem is totally separate. The point of my not going someplace cooler for the organic component (basically, 40 hours of service -> an extra credit hour of chemistry, and as I was at 14 for this semester, it'll help me not have to take 9 million hours next semester) like THE EMERGENCY ROOM (!!one!1!!eleven!!) as was an option was because I could combine it all and just do 40 hours and get my organic and biochem done all by doing work in the lab with the 8-12 just being one of the definite times I'd be in there labbing. 40 hours is still a lot, though, so as long as I come out with an A, I don't care that much, because it really is a neat place to work; I just wish everything was working out like I'd planned.
Met with the chemistry coordinator for my orgo service thing finally today, though, which I'd been putting off finding the time to do to turn in these forms because they were already late and I'm a wuss. She was uber nice. She's pretty old (60 at least, though I'm not good at guessing anybody's age, especially older folks) and reminded me a lot of my two grandmothers combined--sort of looked like my maternal, but had a slight southern accent like my paternal. Glancing at her bulliton board, it looks like she teaches mostly chemistry for non chem majors, which could be fun. It'd be like teaching high school chemistry--you could do a lot of the fun stuff because it's not like these people are ever going to need to know how to identify 1-propyl 4-chloromethyl heptene on the spot. Not that anybody would ever need to (even if you were a chemist, I'm pretty sure you'd have a second to look it up), but still.
Kinda disappointed about the MCAT/GRE practice thing tomorrow—the gay/straight alliance at school’s having a barbeque that I wanted to go to in the afternoon. Considered just taking the MCAT and going to the barbeque, but no. Shall be responsible. Also wanted to take the LSAT again, but it's at the same time as the MCAT, which is too bad, because the MCAT is going to make me want to slit my wrists, but the LSAT and how I rock it is a decent ego boost. (Acronym translation just in case this is baffling: MCAT=medical college admissions test, the pretest for med school. LSAT=same thing but for law school. GRE=same thing but for generic graduate school; more like the undergrad college admissions tests that have english and math and writing and such.)
I'm in the library atm, plugged into the wired connection on the tablet because I haven't downloaded the wireless update since I wiped it a few days ago and reloaded XP Tablet on it instead of the XP professional I had before that wasn't giving me the tablet functionality regularly. When I tried to load XP Tablet on top of the XP-Pro, like you can do with most Windows OS, it stalled on the install, so I had to reinstall regular XP Professional which ended up with me having one XP-Pro install that worked and one that was stuck halfway through being written over by Tablet. It worked fine like that for a week or two, but eventually the whole mess of things got to where I had to boot into the second OS under safe mode to not bluescreen out and blech. It worked, but was annoying. Going to see if I can get the tech people here to decipher their own instructions for setting up the new university mail with Outlook, because they don't work. Frustrating as hell; I've tried it I don't know how many times on the tablet under various hard drives and OS installs. But because I don't have the wireless (tried to download the update, but the wire here is so freaking slow--we're talking sub-dial up speeds for some reason), I've got to get one of them to come over here, which means unplugging my computer and bringing it over to the desk or leaving it here and going to get one of them, and it's just been less work to stay here and keep typing.
Shall do now, though, as
bleakone's probably out of class in a few minutes and we'll be going home where hopefully, I can await the return of Tosh, the computer that was stolen by the fucktards at the Toshiba official repair depot for, from the day I sent it off to today, 36 days. And refused to do anything about it when I called and asked them what the fuck was up with them lying to me and saying 7-10 days. I get that it was on hold for parts for two weeks (sort of--shouldn't the official Toshiba place *have* all the Toshiba parts?) and that wasn't expected when they gave me the estimate, but 7-10 days after I sent it off they hadn't even put it on the repair desk, so that's bullshit.ETA: Tosh is here! The screen works, the keyboard has been replaced, the fucktards wiped it like they said they wouldn't, but I backed stuff up so I'm not that pissed. What does piss me off is that they didn't replace the screen. In fact, they made the artifacting and little bruises and dead pixels worse. Idk what to do now. I think I'll call tomorrow or Monday or something and see what they say, because there's a whole circular bit in the middle of the screen where it looks like the pixels are half blue. (Most noticeable on a black screen, natch.) This was not there before. Displeased.
