Thursday, June 18, 2009
Tuesday, June 09, 2009
Oops, it's sorta been a while, huh? And Extended Rapid Transit Service in Boston!
Well, all I can say for myself is that I was thrilled not to be near a computer again for a while after my first semester ended. Seriously. That and the fact that I am basically a Facebook whore. I do all my updates there nowadays. There must be some way to link Facebook updates to blog updates. I'll have to look into that.
Also, I have REALLY been enjoying the weather. I love warm weather! Well, I've been enjoying the warm, sunny weather. I have not been enjoying the raininess, but that's OK. We need it. The spring took its sweet time, and it looks like the summer is, too. Dan and I haven't had to put the AC into the window yet, which is definitely a record for us. In the past, we almost always have it up in May. Now we're nearly halfway through June and haven't needed it yet. It's been quite mild.
Well, the update that I'm sure everyone knows but I haven't written about it here yet is that Dan and I are engaged :) That was a such a surprise. And I have a lovely ring! TOTALLY unexpected.
You may know that I have a penchant for reading about urban planning and redevelopment. The city of Boston has long been trying to connect the two branches of the Silver Line between New England Medical Center and South Station, and also expand it further south to serve a broader population and get into that vast zone between the Orange Line in Roxbury/JP and the Red Line in Dorchester. However, due to budgetary concerns, those plans had been put on hold. Excitingly, the State of Massachusetts was approved for a stimulus money to improve the public transit in this way. The idea is that we can't put in an underground line there, as many completely developed cities cannot. However, on Blue Hill Ave. we happen to be able to remove medians and expand the road to include a dedicated bus lane. In this way, the city of Boston as well as the US Government Executive Office of Transportation hopes that this project can serve as a model to other US cities for increasing the availability and reliability of public transportation. See the project plan here: http://www.eot.state.ma.us/downloads/direct_connect/BRT-Brochure.pdf
Well, all I can say for myself is that I was thrilled not to be near a computer again for a while after my first semester ended. Seriously. That and the fact that I am basically a Facebook whore. I do all my updates there nowadays. There must be some way to link Facebook updates to blog updates. I'll have to look into that.
Also, I have REALLY been enjoying the weather. I love warm weather! Well, I've been enjoying the warm, sunny weather. I have not been enjoying the raininess, but that's OK. We need it. The spring took its sweet time, and it looks like the summer is, too. Dan and I haven't had to put the AC into the window yet, which is definitely a record for us. In the past, we almost always have it up in May. Now we're nearly halfway through June and haven't needed it yet. It's been quite mild.
Well, the update that I'm sure everyone knows but I haven't written about it here yet is that Dan and I are engaged :) That was a such a surprise. And I have a lovely ring! TOTALLY unexpected.
You may know that I have a penchant for reading about urban planning and redevelopment. The city of Boston has long been trying to connect the two branches of the Silver Line between New England Medical Center and South Station, and also expand it further south to serve a broader population and get into that vast zone between the Orange Line in Roxbury/JP and the Red Line in Dorchester. However, due to budgetary concerns, those plans had been put on hold. Excitingly, the State of Massachusetts was approved for a stimulus money to improve the public transit in this way. The idea is that we can't put in an underground line there, as many completely developed cities cannot. However, on Blue Hill Ave. we happen to be able to remove medians and expand the road to include a dedicated bus lane. In this way, the city of Boston as well as the US Government Executive Office of Transportation hopes that this project can serve as a model to other US cities for increasing the availability and reliability of public transportation. See the project plan here: http://www.eot.state.ma.us/downloads/direct_connect/BRT-Brochure.pdf
Thursday, April 23, 2009
This music is like crack for my soul.
The music to Google's April Fool's joke this year is like crack for my soul. I love this music so much and I was sad when it was no longer available because google took the links down for it. Well, I found it through a German site on April fool's jokes. I have it bookmarked now, fuckers!
CADIE is an Artificial Intelligence portion of the imaginary Google offerings that will answer your emails for you and answer chats for you. It's even capable of chatting with other people's AI's. But it goes one step further. CADIE, in the April fools' joke, of course, becomes so intelligent so as to develop emotions and preferences and decides that s/he would like his/her online representation to be rainbows, pandas, and this music: The CADIE Music.
It's worth reading the page and following the links so you can see what the joke was all about.
The music to Google's April Fool's joke this year is like crack for my soul. I love this music so much and I was sad when it was no longer available because google took the links down for it. Well, I found it through a German site on April fool's jokes. I have it bookmarked now, fuckers!
CADIE is an Artificial Intelligence portion of the imaginary Google offerings that will answer your emails for you and answer chats for you. It's even capable of chatting with other people's AI's. But it goes one step further. CADIE, in the April fools' joke, of course, becomes so intelligent so as to develop emotions and preferences and decides that s/he would like his/her online representation to be rainbows, pandas, and this music: The CADIE Music.
It's worth reading the page and following the links so you can see what the joke was all about.
Saturday, April 04, 2009
Done with Winter Session 2009!
I emerge victorious from my first semester back in school. All in all, I am impressed with the program at Northeastern so far. The professors enforced academic rigor. It was a lot of work, and we were held to high standards, and I'm so glad about that. Here's the thing: it always bugs me when people complain about their grad classes being a lot of work. It's supposed to be! It's a master's degree! So yes, it was a lot of work, and I was mired in how much work it was and felt like I was pulling myself through it times. However, it is worth it.
One thing that has shown through like a ray of sunlight on a clowdy day (like the one we're having right now) is that I have made the right decision. Part of the program involves classroom observation, and I observed two 6th and 7th grade math classes for 20 hours as part of this course. Those kids were hillarious! And I got to see some excellent teaching as well as some excellent examples of how to making a loving school environment without a lot of money. The school at which I observed was in Roxbury Crossing, otherwise known as one of the poorer communities in the Boston area. It was an amazing experience. The kids responded well to me right away, which, as the teacher told me, doesn't happen that often. I've already been offered a placement for student teaching there whenever it comes around at the end of my courses (about two years from now).
Otherwise, I am REALLY looking forward to warmer weather and the sun coming out. I feel lucky to live a couple hours south of Union, Maine right now, where we are approximately three weeks ahead. We have daffodils. There is less of a chill in the air. Green grass is showing its head. Good for my soul.
All's well. I start class again this week, so one of these days I should pick up books for it and do some reading. In the meantime, I'm enjoying some good, old-fashioned lazing around.
Wednesday, February 18, 2009
Back From Costa Rica!
I did my best to incorporate the stories with photos, so here is the link: Lindsay's Costa Rica Trip
Friday, February 06, 2009
xkcd.com, Thank you.
Sunday, February 01, 2009
Happy February.
Can you fucking believe it's already February of 2009? I feel like the new year snuck up on me and is skating circles around me.
For updates about my mindset, see the "current obsessions" area that I just updated with a couple more goodies about myself.
I am in school now, and it's been a good experience, aside from the administrative bullshit (pardon my expression, but that's exactly what it is) regarding health insurance waivers that didn't go through. I am totally impressed with the calibur of the professors I have and the students in my class. Discussions are fruitful, and the readings are even really good. I'm enjoying myself, if really missing having time to myself, time to spend with my beloved Dan, and time to spend with my friends. March 27, my friends. March 27 is when this quarter will be over. After that, I'll be taking one class at a time. As I indicated in a post a long time ago, I like my job, and I'm not in a hurry to leave it. With those givens, I'm not in a hurry to complete this degree, and I don't want to kill myself over it.
I am officially tired of the cold. When I signed on for the trip to Costa Rica (ONE WEEK FROM TODAY!), I had no idea how sick of the 15 degree weather I would be by now. I couldn't have timed it better if I'd planned it myself (you may recall that I basically signed up for a group tour and paid the money -- no planning involved because I don't have time for it). Dealing with the cold was especially hard yesterday, when "they" promised me it would be somewhere around 40. Well, instead we had a high of 26 with 20 mph gusts, and I was not a happy camper. I really adopted the idea of 40. 40 degrees sounded nice. Additionally, due to an ice storm we had on top of a snow storm on Wednesday, every sidewalk is a frozen river of doom. I'm not proud to admit this, but I get panic attacks when I walk on the ice, so my commutes were harrowing. I'd get into work or home with my heart racing and short of breath. Not a good way to start or end the day. The long and short of it is this: Costa Rica is sounded pretty nice right about now.
That's all I have time for now. I have to get cracking on my homework. Due to aforementioned trip to Costa Rica and aforementioned classes, I have a lot to take care of before I can hop on a plane.
