My Work on the Internet .. :o)

I used to save links of websites that my work was posted on, but I've stopped doing that. Well, I'm going to start doing that again, because just now I actually needed something that I've worked on and I knew exactly where it was.

I'll update this as I run across them.

Work for MSD's CSO Long Term Control Plan (which is about 40 hours of my work week, if not more):

1. Power Point Presentation from one of the Stakeholder's meetings. Granted it's not as pretty in it's PDFed form, but I primarily worked on most of the graphics for this one. It's a big file though.
2. Here's another Power Point, although they aren't as nice when PDF'ed out.

Finicky Internet and Needing a Sugar Fix

Apparently my nighttime surfing choices are limited, and it's driving me crazy. You know the person who clicks 'refresh' over and over and over again, like someone with some sort of obsessive compulsive disorder? Well I was turning into that person there for a minute. Like watching paint dry, I was waiting for my internet to just start magically working ..

Just my week...

So, I had my last test in my Surface Water Quality Modeling class today. Painful but over with. Now I have a term project remaining, with it's data neatly stored online, as I was assuming that Bellsouth was going to cooperate tonight.

In addition, I have a second term project for my Transportation Modeling class due in 3 days, whose data is also sitting neatly on said internet. Grrrr ... and I am actually trying for once to do the right thing!!


My web surfing choices are apparently the following:

• Flickr - loads amazing fast (is it a Yahoo conspiracy??)
• Blogger - hence why I'm writing
• Geocaching - just a snippet here and snippet there .. not enough to find anything interesting and just enough to tick me off
• Google every once in a while (Google haters ... must be stopped!!!)
  
• .....

... that's it .. grrrrr. If they're going to kill my internet, at least give me something to shop online at or something... I'm on another gadget kick, oh geez, and so I'm currently resisting two things although that does not stop me from window shopping and dreaming.

It's been, oh, two and a half hours now with no feed .. a feed that I need for these stupid classes (ok .. teachers, not that you'll ever read this, but the eclasses aren't stupid at all, they're wonderfully engaging and have great practical applications .. LMAO .. ok over the top but I actually like the classes, minding the extensive virtual sucking up). I actually took a 30 minute eye closing break in hopes that my computer would feel sympathy for me, but apparently not.

It's 9:30 ish and I guess I officially give up.


All the while Starbucks, and something sweet, are calling my name.

• I need to lay off the Starbucks, I'm dreaming of it now, or at least I may as well... I would sleep like a baby, assuming I was only dreaming and not still containing it in my system.
  
• I had ONE, count 'em, ONE mint at work today, and it was the first one in probably a month or two. That ONE little 'harmless' mint was evil, setting off my annoying sweet tooth. OMG .. I'm just dying here. I could slap my father and on up the line for doing this to me.... Besides, don't ask me why Starbucks doesn't qualify as feeding the sweet tooth .. I don't get it myself, but I don't complain when it doesn't set it in motion like it is now ..

So, here I am... I'm sitting here OCD'ing over the internet, thinking of Starbucks, and looking for anything sweet in my house.

Knowing that I inherit a long and deep sweet tooth there is literally nothing sweet in my house besides the necessities. Nothing. It's been like that for about 6 years because I'd just eat it all and make the sweet tooth even worse. So, I'm mentally fighting myself to try and not go to Starbucks and at the same time not go do something just stupid like eat a bowl full of sugar.

Ha ha ha .. that would be pretty pathetic, eh?!

Luckily there is one thing that trumps my sweet tooth ... my laziness. So, no going to Starbucks as it means I'd have to get up, put some pants on, put my few things out of reach from the dogs (give them 2 minutes alone in the house and you can't imagine what they won't chew up on me .. ), walk across to the back of the house, into my car in the dang cold, and down that whole 1/2 mile to the local coffee fix. Then I have to drive all the way back (because it's just so far ..), come back in, let the dogs out (I'm not allowed in if they can't go out), not get comfortable until I let them back in, then go through the whole process of getting back into my jammies and thawing myself back out.

That's just too much work!

Plus, I'm recalling how I actually did that last night, with the intent of pulling a late night study session, .. which turned into me getting a Venti at 8:45PM and being up all dang night long because of it. Just madness.



Well, seeing as I almost caved and went to Starbucks .. I'll just have to continue with the goal of making this my longest blog yet, or something along those lines.

OMG you say? But Christina your blogs are horribly long and painfully rambling .. how can they possibly get any longer?

So the funniest thing is this .. except for me rambling in this blog, I am actually making an attempt to do what I like to call .. shut the F up .. ha ha. Yea, and don't substitute in the bad word because I say it in the 'better rated' version that you are reading here. When I'm talking and writing to people, I'm putting my foot down to myself, and telling myself to not tell everyone and every detail, whether in person or in email. So for the people who think that I don't tell them enough .. well I'm going to start telling you less. I just have a tendency, on occasion, to talk too much, and I consistently talk too darn much in emails and well ... it needs to stop!!



Ok .. now I'm bored... I rarely watch TV now, outside of a few shows, so I guess it's a good excuse to work on homework .. dangit. Either way I'm thinking of just going to bed so I don't have to sit here all miserable.


Oh wait .. one more note. So I was contacted again by Publishers International today. They are using one of my photos in the book seen below (click on the photo to direct you to my flickr page and ultimately the photo in use)...





Now they've sent the paperwork, which I've already returned, asking to use the photo again in another book, something like Amazing Places in North America (probably a similar book, but more adult oriented activities I'm guessing). I'll get paid for the usage again and will also get a copy of the new book as well .. :o)

I think this will be the 4th or 5th book that I'll have photos in, but at least 4 (I have to pull my list to find out .. which also needs a stable internet connection!!). Those books, a handful of websites, a couple of calendars, a future annual report publication, and a few other random details.

Pretty interesting and I honestly love seeing photos that I've taken being put to use other than on my website, but I just wish I had more time to do something more with it. However, I'm hoping to go through the thousands of photos rotting on my hard drive between semesters and also try and do something more than I'm doing now.

Hello ..

I've meant to re-surface sooner, but it's been hectic. So, just to jot some notes down...

(1) They finally found out a major part of what's going on with me, health-wise. It doesn't explain everything, but it's something. It's not something that's going to go away though, so I'm kinda ticked about that.

(2) My foster, Trixie, had surgery 2 weeks ago. She had a mass on her chest and so they removed that and two of her breasts as well. They sent the mass off to test for cancer. I take her in to remove the stitches and drainage tube tomorrow, so I should hopefully find out then.

(3) I FINALLY got my second monitor at work. Unfortunately my computer's card only supported one monitor because if not I would have bought it myself and expensed it out. When it came in, I swear it felt like it was my birthday or something, I was probably entirely too happy to see it.

(4) Over Thanksgiving weekend, Lacy, my former foster, stayed with me. From Wednesday - Sunday I had 5 dogs in here, which could be tolerable except that my Archie and Nina, combined with Lacy meant for a psychotic extravaganza of overly-energetic dogs. Oh well, I still liked having her here, but my current foster, Trixie, hated it!

(5) Friday night my sister had another seizure while we were at my Mom's house. Granted I've experienced canine seizures, but this was such a terrifying experience. The EMS came and we ended up at the hospital until after 11 that night. She goes to the doctor tomorrow and they're going to do an EEG to see if they can find some answers as to what's going on. Until then, and even after that, we're all discussing anything and everything that we can do to both help her and also a plan in case it happens again.

(6) I was very good, or mostly good, over the weekend with all the sales going on. I did buy myself a GPS unit because I've been wanting one. I started out wanting just a basic one, nothing fancy, then I realized for only XX more it could speak street names. Then, a guy at Best Buy sold me on the next model up, as I can actually make and receive calls on the GPS unit (either from a listing in it or from my cell phone's phone book), and it came with the traffic receiver in case I wanted to get that one day. Finally, I found the same model on the internet, except it came with a different traffic service and instead of a 3 month trial, I get one year for it. .. Sucker .. yea I know. But ... I was good, because at that point I was thinking about spending another $150 on a different model that was basically the same thing, but different looking. I resisted, and trust me it was really hard to stand up to myself! Anyway, the unit came in and I've played with it, but I won't be able to do much until the weekend. I did however, give myself a purple car .. :o)

(7) Sometime in the past month or so I managed to find the time to wipe out both of my computers that I actively use and give them a fresh start. Now they run so much better .. it's crazy! At the same time, I FINALLY bought much needed memory for my laptop and am intending on installing that this weekend. I just pulled the directions and I knew that it would require me to take off the keyboard, so needless to say I'm not excited about getting into all of that ...

Ok .. I think my time has expired .. I have homework to get back to and the download just finished.

Why I am still single...

Ok ... I am going to take advantage of the opportunity to opening vent about a few things...

There are people who think that being single is a bad thing, because I guess it goes against what society expects of us all. Well .. I tell myself all the time that no wonder I'm still single. I refuse to compromise my personal happiness for a sub-par life.

So .. first of all, straight men are completely clueless when it comes to dealing with females. You'd think they would have learned by now, but no they have not a clue. If gay men would start liking women again, well I would have been married years ago. But, instead I have to deal with what I deal with all the time.

Here's the deal ... all females like male attention, in general. However, while we like the attention, if you let us know wrong, .. well you've just ruined it altogether. 9 times out of 10 when I get hit on it comes across so completely wrong that it just annoys the crap out of me. I'll give examples.

Did I write about the guy who asked me if I wanted to get dirty with him? I think so .. well that is example number 1. Example number 2 would be the guys in the elevator the other day. At first they're nice and we're talking as we're waiting for the elevator. Then the great conversation turns pig-headed when they ask me to marry them because I'm hot ... wow .. they're IQ just hit the floor in about 1.5 seconds. WTF?! Today was a guy who was hitting on me and using the analogy of me and a piece of candy .. OMG did that just come out of a grown man's mouth???

No point in mentioning more, but trust me I have more stories as of late than anything .. I think the lonely horny men have come out of hibernation now because I have been wearing oversized sweatshirts, hats, and baggy pants in a failed attempt to get the pervs to leave me alone. I thought it was bad when I was younger but I honestly think it happens more now than before .. is someone trying to torture me?!



So .. what's wrong with hitting on females? Well nothing if it's done right. In my case, while I like to be looked at, I HATE it when that's the only thing people notice about me, because I know there's more to me than that. Granted you can't find that out unless you talk to someone but these guys kill it before it even gets to that point. But it's insulting to me because I have worked so hard to be where I'm at, yet I still get looked at for face value.

Here's a good example. There's a guy who works at Starbucks that I always see. The first time I met him, when I pulled up to the window he was asking about my day, if anything fun was happening, etc. We then get into school, and sports, and so on from there. A 3 minute conversation, but at the end of it I felt great because this guy was actually interested, cared, and we actually had a conversation, which almost never happens.

Maybe that's the problem .. most people don't care to dig deeper, unless they have instant validation that it's worth it. It's always small talk, from the start and for an indefinite amount of time.

Why is it that we meet people and we either want all or nothing with them? Why don't we meet people and talk to them hoping for friendship at the least? What's wrong with getting personal?




Along the same lines, maybe that's my problem .. I want to see the 'more' and when I can tell it's not right there from the start, I immediately kill any chances of it going anywhere. Which may be on target sometimes, but maybe every once in a while a good guy comes along and they behave that way not because of who they are, but because we tend to follow suit with the stereotypes. So maybe I'll attempt to be more open, trying to give people more of the benefit of the doubt.







On a different topic, I am getting completely annoyed with myself. Like above, I tend to "think" too much. Not just about that, but about everything. I think so much that I have to wear myself out at night so I can go to bed. That, on top of that fact that I've been (and still am) sick, it's wearing me out.

I had a 20 minute conversation the other day about something I've been thinking of. Granted I think it's a pretty interesting perspective / topic and I think the person agreed. However afterwards I stopped and thought to myself .. I cannot believe that I've put so much thought and effort into something so minute and taken for granted. I must be mad!!

So .. I have no idea how to stop thinking so much, but I'd love to figure out a way to do so. I don't take sleeping pills because I personally think they are unsafe, however that would probably help me at night... although again they're not an option for me.

Anyway I don't know what I'm going to do, but I think or hope that calming myself down, as far as thinking, may help me get better from whatever the heck is wrong with me. Maybe not, but I figure it's worth a try ...

Ok .. it may seem as if I'm completely breaking this blog off mid-conversation, and that's because I am .. I gotta go!

Been a Min...

So .. I've been having dizziness for months and months (and months) now. I have always assumed that it was just another 'side effect' from that damn wreck I was in. So, I go to the chiro a bit more often and just deal with the remaining aches and this dizziness.

Anyway, after almost passing out last week, it 'woke me up' to the fact that something is wrong, and I'm now trying to figure it out. So I went to my doctor last week and the other day I had an appointment with the cardiologist. My primary doctor ran a test on me that came out abnormal and so I'm going to the cardiologist first to make sure I'm ok in that department, and hopefully to rule that out as a possible cause.

Anyway, I guess I must have triggered a chain reaction with me, because ever since that day I have felt broken. My head is constantly hurting, I'm losing feeling in one arm or another leg. I feel all these problems now that were there before, but were something I could ignore. But .. I'm planning on staying on top of this until I finally find out what's wrong with me. In the meanwhile I feel like I've been sick for weeks and I'm still in that achy recovery stage .. it's really starting to take a toll on me... I can't fix my hair because my head is sore to the touch and it feels all achy and swollen (I use the crap excuse that my brain is outgrowing my head .. ha ha ha!). Again .. it's wearing me out ..

Enough of that ...

It is October 18th .. and I swear I need to turn my air back on. We had maybe a couple of cool days and now it's back to warm again .. it is soooooo old at this point. However, we have finally gotten more than a freak random rain. Well, ok so only 2 whopping days now of rain, but it may actually rain tomorrow too, but I'll admit that I am terrible at keeping up with the weather...

Here's something that i found in regards to the current drought in the local area:

http://www.crh.noaa.gov/jkl/?n=drought_briefing

DROUGHT STATEMENT - - - NATIONAL WEATHER SERVICE LOUISVILLE KY
1218 AM EDT FRI OCT 12 2007

...EXTREME DROUGHT CONTINUES IN CENTRAL KENTUCKY...
...SEVERE DROUGHT CONTINUES IN SOUTHERN INDIANA...

FOR THIS CALENDAR YEAR MUCH OF CENTRAL KENTUCKY IS RUNNING AT LEAST A FOOT BEHIND NORMAL FOR RAINFALL.

IN THE OCTOBER 9 ISSUANCE OF THE UNITED STATES DROUGHT MONITOR...EXTREME DROUGHT CONDITIONS WERE FOUND ALONG AND SOUTH OF THE OHIO RIVER. SEVERE DROUGHT WAS PREVALENT ACROSS SOUTHERN INDIANA.

AN OPEN BURN BAN IS IN EFFECT THROUGHOUT THE HOOSIER NATIONAL FOREST. GOVERNOR FLETCHER HAS BANNED ALL OUTDOOR BURNING ACROSS THE ENTIRE STATE OF KENTUCKY.

LOW WATER LEVELS HAVE LED TO INCREASED ALGAE BLOOMS...ESPECIALLY IN THE KENTUCKY RIVER.
KENTUCKY RECEIVED A FEDERAL DISASTER DECLARATION FROM THE USDA...ALLOWING STRUGGLING FARMERS TO SEEK EMERGENCY LOANS.(WAVE TV)

LOUISVILLE REPORTED THE HOTTEST TEMPERATURE EVER RECORDED IN OCTOBER IN THE CITY: 93 DEGREES.

AGRICULTURAL IMPACTS... AS OF OCTOBER 9...
82 PERCENT OF PASTURELAND IN KENTUCKY WAS POOR OR VERY POOR. 13 PERCENT OF THE TOBACCO CROP WAS RATED AS POOR OR VERY POOR AND WAS DRYING TOO FAST LOSING COLOR. ABOUT 90 PERCENT OF THE CORN HAD BEEN HARVESTED...COMPARED TO A NORMAL OF 73 PERCENT AT THIS TIME OF YEAR. 47 PERCENT OF THE SOYBEAN CROP WAS POOR OR VERY POOR...AND 34 PERCENT HAD BEEN HARVESTED. NORMAL IS 22 PERCENT. 95 PERCENT OF THE TOPSOIL MOISTURE WAS SHORT OR VERY SHORT...AND 94 PERCENT OF THE SUBSOIL MOISTURE WAS SHORT OR VERY SHORT ACROSS KENTUCKY.IN INDIANA 73 PERCENT OF THE TOPSOIL WAS SHORT OR VERY SHORT...AND 73 PERCENT OF THE SUBSOIL WAS SHORT OR VERY SHORT. THE DRIEST SOILS WERE CONFINED TO THE SOUTHERN SECTIONS OF THE STATE.

Grrr ... second storm is about to come through .. needless to say I won't be able to watch Grey's until 1AM .. and my DSL is about to go out ...

.. to be continued ..

Lessons Learned

Ok .. so lately I've learned a few lessons. Nothing major, but I'll name and describe a few...

1.) If I get out of bed early Saturday and Sunday morning the weekend feels amazingly long. Wow .. I had no idea, but not that I just 'willingly' get up, so that is now becoming the time that I'm visiting the gym over the weekend. Downfall .. the long days tend to get me bored halfway through it, and I've been going to the stores buying trivial stuff out of boredom .. BAD!!

2.) You know that I'm working too long because on the day that I actually leave before 6, I look at the clock thinking it's 9pm or so and it's only 7pm .. I need to stop working so much.

3.) Just because it's not raining doesn't mean it's an excuse to slack off on chores. I have been HORRIBLE about not doing anything outside, because it hasn't been an absolute necessity .. my yard .. sucks right about now and now I'm too lazy to mess with it, but I'm going to follow #1 and try and get up early this weekend and be done with it. Plus, downfall, I have a drain in the back yard that I keep free of debris. With the lack of rain this summer / fall I've not worried about it so much. Well it rained last week and the ground is so dry that it become nothing but runoff .. the runoff traveled to the clogged drain, and into my basement .. yep .. lesson learned.

3.) I apparently ALWAYS compliment people too soon. So, when my sister is doing a good job, I like to tell her, because she typically gets nothing but criticism from the rest of the family. So, I tell her this weekend. Then the next day she does something that, once again, makes me regret complimenting her, because that one single action did more damage than the milestones she's made over the past couple of years. So .. I try to be nice and apparently I need to not do that again...

4.)Listen to something funny at work .. all of a sudden work is not so bad. It's been stressful at work lately, well over the past month or two. Anyway, thank you Dane Cook for making it more tolerable during those icky moments. I have been cracking up sitting at my desk constantly listening to him. Sadly though, I work in Cube World and I have a big mouth, so as much as I try not to laugh very loud, sometimes it happens .. but I think they're immune to it by now..

5.) Never assume that you've 'heard it all,' because you haven't. So I'm driving down the road the other day and another 'smooth' guy hits on me. First of all, how annoying. Second of all he is driving an old, over-sized pick-up covered in mud. Thirdly, he looks at me and asks 'Do you wanna go get dirty?" .. WTF?!?! Yes, I was on Dixie Highway, which is one place I NEVER go to .. so I should know better .. but come the F on .. idiot? So, I give him the standard polite brush off and then guess what he says ... "yea you don't look like the type that gets your hands dirty anyway." ... OMG ... now I was MAD MAD MAD about that! Obviously this guy did not know a thing about me, because of all the things people have said to me, I've never been placed in that girly or whatever category that he just tossed me in. My baby sister, yea she's a bit of a priss and a bit high maintenance as far as clothes, getting ready and all of that. The middle one is like me, we're your normal every day chics, but I'm personally more of a t-shirt and jeans person who takes like 10 minutes to get ready, and she doesn't wear t-shirts that often and it takes her a bit longer because she gets ready, where I just go. Ok .. anyway, at that point I decided that I needed to figure out how to politely ignore this guy, because I, of course, wanted to bite his head off. I was completely insulted. So low and behold, don't think that you have heard it all .. because you haven't.

Ok .. that's enough for now .. :o)

The War is Over!!!

Finally .. I can rest in peace!!

So .. I'm on the phone today, making plans, as I'm walking through the house to let the dogs in. As a habitual habit, I look towards the kitchen because of my previous battle, looking to see if the fleeing opponent has ever returned.

I let out that Holy Sh1t .. and of course he's back.

Here's the sad thing .. the second I said it, I hear the question.. what it is? Then when I say 'oh sh1t he's back' ... it's sad that I get the response something like .. oh that spider? ... Yea .. I apparently whined about that to everyone .. but dang I can't help it .. it's been a plague and obsession for me.

So .. Mr. Hidden who's been non-existent for a while now, apparently made himself a nice little hammock overnight and was taking a nap under the morning sun...

Being the paranoid psychotic and bug phobic person that I am .. I had left the bug spray out assuming that the rematch would eventually happen.

I grab the spray, sat the phone down, and let loose ... this time there was no half @ss spray or jumping girliness .. this guy was NOT getting away.

So .. he was on the left side of the window .. opposite of the time before. Being that the stove was too far, he immediately ran behind the blinds. Crap .. I can't keep doing this!! So .. I stare and can barely make out his shadow through the blinds ... So .. I slowly twist the blinds open .. then when I get it to where he's visible I give it one good twist and spray ..

and spray .. and spray .. and pick the phone back up .. and spray .. and spray .. OMG I think I let at least half of the can go on this guy .. he was completely white and Raid was DRIPPING off of him.

So while I'm reminded that he's not going to 'just drop dead on me,' I did not care .. I kept going on him ... I hosed down the blinds, the shelf under the blinds, and everything around it. Lucky though I'm an idiot and that damn window is STILL open .. so in this case it worked out good because that half can worth of fumes went out the window in the process.

Finally he slowed down, clung onto a blind and you could tell he was ending his road. So .. I watched a few minutes to make sure it was over before I left the house. Shouldn't I just put a cup over him just in case? .. heck no .. that would mean getting close to him and there's NO WAY I'm doing that any time soon!!

Now it's hours later ... hours later .. and he's dead body lies in my window still. While I've cleaned some of the damage from my obsessive hosing, I've yet to even get close to him .. because my chicken butt will let him sit there for a day or two in case he resurrects or something impossible like that ... or I may call in a favor to remove his vicious remains.

So .. the battle is over with .. FINALLY .. and while there's clean up to do and there was a horrid couple of embarrassing scenes, I can rest easy that he's now dead and .. no one else personally witnessed the rest of the story .. :o)

The thing that may keep my up now is the fact that Mr. Psycho lived in my house for a month or so, I'm guessing behind my stove .. so now I guess I'm going to going through my kitchen and house with a fine tooth comb in hopes that he did not leave children to carry on the war in his absence ... but I will admit .. I was entirely too chicken to seek him out and I am entirely too proud to call in for some help .. stubborn!!