Yet more of my infrequent and pedantic updates

I might take to bullet pointing my posts to describe the oh so precarious nature that is my life.

Let's see, where am I? Well, first off, I found out that I am not going to be working 16 hours a week but more like 32-40 from Wednesday-Sunday starting next Friday. They're starting off slow with me at the park, working only 4 hours shifts my first weekend. Then, come two weeks from yesterday, it's ramping up to full speed.

This causes me to change my night of volunteering at the hospital from Friday to Tuesday for at least the next five months or so.

I decided to take some classes in which I am interested. It looks like both German and Russian won't go through, so I'll be taking for my summer course load the following:

Definitely:
Engineering Thermodynamics
Medical Terminology
Astronomy

Probably:
Calculus III
Greek and Roman Art

I'm trying to take a few options that will open me to jobs. All of the medical sort of jobs require you to have med. term, so this course will fill that option. Astronomy has just always been an interest of mine. I figure since I'll be here another year, I may as well go back and add the Classics and Spanish minors to my resume. I only need 4 courses for the classics minor (Greek or Latin II, two art history courses, and a philosophy course), and I wanted to take Medieval and Renaissance Philosophy next semester. I only need 1 course for the Spanish minor, and I'll have a LOT of time to catch up on that. My grammar and vocab is a little hazy.

I got top philosophy student for 2008-2009, and top Natural Science student for the year also.

I have no personal life, so no point in discussion of that.

Otherwise, my days are filled with cross stitching, desperately trying to get these 4 pieces done in the next two weeks (FAT ASS CHANCE!). I also am planning on spreading my wings to punch needle projects. We'll see how that goes...

This weekend is the last one I'll be working in the lab. Happy feelings are beginning to ebb over me.

Maybe I can update with something substantial?

I hate decisions, espeically ones that have serious long-term repercussions on one's life.

I got into three graduate schools for master's programs, and got very little. From CU, I got nothing; from BC, same. I did get a half tuition scholarship to Catholic; however, that still leaves me 35K per year short, and I just cannot do that.

So graduate school looks out the window for another year.

Then what am I going to do? Well, I'm going to start more languages--definitely Arabic, and either Russian or Japanese. I'm going to work more in French, German, Greek, Gaelic, and Latin, and review Spanish, and I'm probably going to take a lot of engineering/math style courses. I dunno.

Of course, also involved will be a search for a job.

In the meantime, it's finishing a lot of cross stitching, and finally finishing all of my old science things at UCCS.

My life sucks

So, I got absolutely no money from graduate school. None. Not a fucking penny. So it looks like I'm going to be stuck in Colorado Springs for another year doing something new.

Right now, my current plan of plans is to concurrently do accounting and physics and Arabic and German and maybe Russian? Hard to say. I do know that I'll probably be taking Calculus III, Arabic I, and German II over the summer while I'm working at the state park.

I'm also trying to find jobs. Ugh.

I need to write more later, actually.

Maybe I should post something?

Well, first off, I'm going to post a survey because I really have not done one in about half a million years or so:

100 Truths

1. Last beverage→ Soy
2. Last phone call→ Mem. Hosp. Volunteer Office
3. Last text message→ Never use them
4. Last song you listened to→ The Tudors Theme Song+Pokarekare Ana

SIX HAVE YOU EVER:

1. Dated someone twice → Never even dated
2. Been cheated on? → Not possible.
3. Kissed someone & regretted it? → No.
4. Lost someone special?→ About...5 years now? More like 4 and 1/2
5. Been depressed?→ Yep.
6. Been drunk and threw up? → No...who would want to get so drunk that he throws up Guinness?

LIST FOUR FAVORITE COLORS:

1. Forest Green
2. Navy Blue
3. Black
4. Cerulean

HAVE YOU:
1. Made new friends → I've actually just about lost all of them
2. Fallen out of love → I guess? It's hard to say, the last time I had aa serious crush on anyone was about 7 or 8 years ago
3. Laughed until you cried → Yes! Bill Cosby made me do it!
4. Met someone who changed you → Not terribly profoundly--I've tended towards stability
5. Found out who your true friends were → There isn't anyone in whom I can place total faith, I had to learn that one the hard way..
6. Found out someone was talking about you → Yeah, apparently, I'm broody and grumpy.
7. Kissed anyone on your friend's list→ Hell no.
8. How many people on your friends list do you know in real life → I make it a point to know all 25 people on my facebook friends list
9. How many kids do you want to have→ ZERO
11. Do you want to change your name→ I dunno, I have considered hypenating it to include my biological grandfather's last name.
12. What did you do for your last birthday→ I went to work, got sick, went home, and slept.
13. What time did you wake up today → Around 6:30...
14. What were you doing at midnight last night → Desperately trying to sleep.
15. Name something you CANNOT wait for → People to stop using prepositions at the end of their sentences!!
16. Last time you saw your father → About two hours ago
17. What is one thing you wish you could change about your life → Living in the USA
18. What are you listening to right now → The Tudors Soundtrack
19. Have you ever talked to a person named Tom → Ugh, yes. My cell biology professor. See this: http://excelsioreverupward.blogspot.com/2007/05/oh-my-god-part-ii.html
23. What's getting on your nerves right now? → The fact that I got absolutely no financial aid. GAAH Bastards!
24. Most visited web pages → E mail, blogs, news

1. What's your name→ Raymond Lewis
2. Nicknames→ Ray
3. Relationship Status→ Single, as always
4. Zodiac sign → Virgo
5. Male or female → Male
6. Elementary→ St. Joseph's Elementary/Corpus Christi
7. Middle School→ Corpus
8. High school → William J Palmer High
9. Missing→ Guinness, Ireland, and truthfully, school
10. Hair color → Dirty dishwater
11. Long or short → Short
16. Height → 6'1 ish
17. Do you have a crush on someone? → Really, no.
18: What do you like about yourself? → My ability to be totally dedicated
19. Piercings → None
20. Tattoos → None.
21. Righty or lefty → Right.

FIRSTS :
22. First surgery → Circumcision--pretty much every guy's first surgery
23. First piercing → None yet!
24. First best friends : Katie Moder--still facebook friends with her
26. First sport you joined → Tried baseball and went into full scale rebellion
27. First pet →Bentley
28. First vacation → Uh, I can't remember that far back
29. First concert → Moody Blues, 1996
30. First crush → My sixth grade teacher. Pretty much every man has a crush on an older woman the first time around

RIGHT NOW:
49. Eating → Nothing, unfortuantely....really sort of lusting for some salmon
50. Drinking → Nothing. Really lusting for Guinness
52. I'm about to → Write something about my life that is totally useless
53. Listening to → Tudors Soundtrack
55. Waiting for → Life to throw me a bone?

YOUR FUTURE :

58. Want kids? → Nope
59. Want to get married? → Not at all
60. Careers in mind? → Fuck, I really don't know.

WHICH IS BETTER WITH THE OPPOSITE SEX? -
68. Lips or eyes → Eyes,
69. Hugs or kisses → Neither really, I hate touching
70. Shorter or taller → I don't care
71. Older or Younger → I don't care
72. Romantic or spontaneous → I'm not interested in either
73. Nice stomach or nice arms → I could care less, really.
74. Sensitive or loud → Sensitive--I ABHOR loudness
75. Hook-up or relationship → Friendship only
77. Trouble maker or hesitant → Don't care

HAVE YOU EVER :

78. Kissed a stranger → No.
79. Drank hard liquor → Yes--rum is fucking nasty, people
80. Lost glasses/contacts → No. I would die
81. Sex on first date → Never dated, so how do we get here?
82. Broken someone's heart → Probably
83. Had your own heart broken→ Sort of.?
85. Been arrested → No
86. Turned someone down → Absolutely--I'm not interested in dating any men, so they can stop hitting on me
87. Cried when someone died → Sort of?
88. Liked a friend that is a girl? → Huh?


DO YOU BELIEVE IN:
89. Yourself → Absolutely
90. Miracles → No, not really
91. Love at first sight → Maybe the internet
92. Heaven → I dunno...I doubt it significantly
93. Santa Claus → Not at all
95. Kiss on the first date? → No
96. Angels → Eh...not really

ANSWER TRUTHFULLY:
97. Is there one person you want to be with right now? → No
98. Had more than one boyfriend/girlfriend at one time? → No way
99. Eaten sushi? → No
100. Posting this as 100 Truths? → No.

Unsure of all things

So, my life has been slightly complicated. I went to DC, and sure, I saw all of the sights, the National Mall, etc. Unlike most people who were there, I tended to look on the buildings (especially the Capitol) with a lot of disdain. The cherry blossoms and the Jefferson Memorial were the only touristy sights that inspired much confidence.

I have gotten to knock Virginia, DC, and Maryland off of my list of places to go, leading me to 29 states, a sort of city-state, and then 5 out of around 194 countries.

The big problem is that it looks like I'm going to get no funding at any of the universities to which I applied. My odds of getting a one half scholarship for tuition to DC are about 40%. Basically, that would take about 7,500 off of around 33,000 I should bank per year. Now, I think 33 K is extremely excessive. Here's why: they assess a $1000 personal fee per semester, $2700 for food per semester (who eats $2500 worth of food in 20 weeks? All you need is cereal, ramen, and some apples). I think for a year's worth of food on a budget, you can spend like $2700. So, I can cut that 33 K down by around 4700, and assuming I get the scholarship, by about like 12 K. 21 thousand dollars a year is a LOT of money.

Colorado and Boston College look to offer me nothing.

So basically, I am going to have to sit on the shelf for a year, saving money, probably getting an MBA, and studying foreign languages. I hate having to do it, but fate looks to choke me.

So, I guess I should make a preliminary list of things to do for this year:

1. RETAKE GRE. I need to get my verbal score up about 100 points.
2. Take a couple of history courses from tenure track faculty.
3. Really get people who will give me fantastic recommendations.
4. Apply to higher universities (U-Chicago, Notre Dame, Vanderbilt (?), U-Michigan, etc.) in my fields of interest.

C'est la vie, je suppose.

More traveling I will go

Yep, I went impulsively and determined to go ahead and go out to Catholic University to determine if it is someplace I can imagine spending the next two years of my life. Washington D.C. isn't exactly the most inviting place in the world to live, and I can definitely say that never having been there.

Between Boston and Catholic, in addition to money, I definitely have to consider what the universities are offering. Catholic tends to do flat tuition costs whereas Boston does its work by credit hour. So at Catholic, I can go ahead and take like 12-15 graduate credit hours (about as insane as me taking 27 undergrad hours), get all of my courses out of the way in a year and write my thesis over summer and fall. Catholic also is offering more of the courses in which I am interested (Medieval Europe, Ireland, etc.).

Whatever.

Anyways, I decided before I leave for Washington that I'm really going to finish EVERYTHING in the bioenergetics lab. I have to write schpiels in my notebook over the data (19 sets) and also finish analyzing two sets of data. Then I'm done there scientifically. I'll ask if they want me to help them move, otherwise, I'm done.

As soon as I get back, I am going to finish catching up on my lab notebook in biochem.

Then, pretty much all of my ties to UCCS should be dissolved.

I got my Gadsden flag in the mail this week, so I am all set to go to the Tea Party on the 15th at Acacia. This is going to be my first public protest, so in many ways I'm quite excited.

I also got my Stevie Nicks CD and DVD, both of which I am enjoying thoroughly.

Other than that, my life i basically sewing.