I haven’t posted a photo of my cat since a couple Christmases ago. I think it’s safe to post another, without being annoying. But like the Christmas Tinsel photo, this one does an excellent job of hiding Penny’s weight problem, which she is in denial of. We are hoping the beautiful weather lately will prompt her to get outside more and exercise.

Anyway, I think this photo will go into the collection of photos that we will look back on in many years, and will help us remember Penny as a loving, sweet, cuddly cat that was a special part of our family. And forget that she is actually a manic, self-obsessed beast of an animal that strives to be the source of someone’s frustration at least once a day.

I’ve gotten a new camera, and am really looking forward to capturing more of my life in pictures. I’m learning a lot about my camera and photography; although probably not the “right way”, it’s still fun for me to learn. It seems like things are changing so quickly these days, and I don’t want to miss any of it.

In about three months, I will be a mother. It’s not nearly as hard to believe as it was just a few months ago, before BabyDean was kicking and squirming inside of me. Now it feels much more real, and exciting, and perfect. Still, I know my life with BabyDean will be entirely different from what I imagine it will be like, in both good and difficult ways, as things always are when I set expectations on them. That’s what makes life so much fun. :-)

Brian and I have decided on a most-likely name for BabyDean, but until he’s born we’re keeping it a secret. Just because the name might not suit him once he’s born. Just because we don’t really care for monogrammed things. Just because it’s kind of special to have a secret between us. Just because we can.

I started this project last year, when we found out we were expecting a baby. I figured I would be lucky to finish it before the baby arrived, because it had been almost a year since I’d really knit anything. I surprised myself and finished it earlier than I expected I would.

You can also see the beginnings of the nursery there. We’ve got a crib and changing table, and paint on the walls. And now a yellow blanket. What more could baby need?

Since I didn’t blog very much in 2009, I want to take this new year’s opportunity to review the highlights of the year.

• January: Marked the first semester in four and a half years that I did not participate in registering, attending, enjoying, or suffering through a single class at Lander University or PTC. I had finished that chapter of my life. Had sinus infection mid-month.
• February: Received new laptop at work, though I would continue to use the old broken laptop until November because I would procrastinate moving all my applications over. Girl Scout cookie season. Read “Crazy Love” by Francis Chan. Cell phone speaker broke; ordered awesome old-school candy bar Nokia on eBay.
• March: It snowed. I traveled to London and Galway, Ireland with my sister on a complete whim (realizing I would not have many more opportunities for spontaneity in my increasingly grown-up life). I fell in love with Ireland. Left awesome old-school candy bar Nokia on transatlantic flight. Had sinus infection mid-month.
• April: Started house-shopping, as we were ready to leave the apartment behind. Saw Wilco in Knoxville, TN with Brian and Amy. Put offer on two houses – the second of which would become ours. Ordered second awesome old-school candy bar Nokia from eBay. Had sinus and ear infection mid-month.
• May: Turned twenty-three. Packed all my possessions to move into new home. Closed on new house. Didn’t catch swine flu.
• June: Moved into new home. Finally have a “craft room.” Enjoyed relaxing beach vacation at Hilton Head with friends. Had first series of home disasters, including regurgitating bathroom plumbing. Dropped second awesome old-school candy bar Nokia into recently repaired toilet.
• July: Had our first act of vandalism as a homeowner when some kids launched a brick through the storm door at 4 AM. Celebrated second Wedding Anniversary with Brian. Saw Pete Yorn in Atlanta with Amy and Abby. Finally bought an iPhone. Had sinus infection mid-month.
• August: MIssed the joys of going to class for the first time. Briefly considered applying for graduate school, or possibly just pottery classes. Hosted an ice cream social, which was our first big event at the new house. Still didn’t catch swine flu.
• September: Finally have annual vacation with Brian. Went on Eastern Caribbean Cruise for 7 nights, living a life of complete relaxation and luxury. Really enjoyed a few Coco Locos. Discovered the presence of Baby Dean, now four weeks and the size of a poppy seed, due June 6th. Had sinus infection mid-month.
• October: Visited the Biltmore Estate in Asheville with family. Discovered morning sickness. Had lots of big projects going on and worked a lot of overtime. Didn’t get the swine flu shot, despite doctor’s insistence. Still didn’t catch swine flu.
• November: Attended a very refreshing and inspiring church Women’s Retreat in North Carolina. Finally got over morning sickness just in time to enjoy two Thanksgiving meals in one day. Got very sick after Thanksgiving – it’s still not swine flu! Just another sinus infection, which turned into bronchitis.
• December: Had a wonderfully enjoyable Christmas holiday, which included two weeks of plant shutdown and time off of work. I am really glad to say that it was probably the most relaxing, stress-free, and Christ-centered Christmas I’ve ever enjoyed. Travelled with Brian to Washington, D.C. for an educational vacation. Watched Tim Keeler get married on December 31st, minutes before we rang in the New Year.

It’s exciting to review how much has happened for us in just one year! God has truly blessed us beyond measure, and Brian and I are very excited about what 2010 holds for us and our growing family. Since we’ve been traveling (we’ve just returned from a quick trip to Charleston with my family, to start the year off right), I haven’t had an opportunity to really consider and make resolutions for the new year… I’ll be doing some of that over the coming days and will share them all here. I don’t know who all might still keep up with this, since I’ve only written a few posts in the last year. Still, I hope that all of you (whoever “you” are) have had a wonderful 2009, and are ready for God to use you for great things in 2010.

This concludes the short debriefing.

I’ve been struggling to get photos together from my trip, and for whatever reason, I’ve had the hardest time figuring out how to use iPhoto in conjunction with Photoshop to edit my pictures. Apparently, iPhoto has this cool but confusing feature where it will maintain the original version of your photo that you imported, and then every time you edit the photo, it will save the edits for you so that you can always “roll back” any changes that you regret. I don’t think this feature works well with Photoshop or other external editors though, and I know it doesn’t work well when I’m trying to upload my images to Flickr. I know those of you who have been Mac and iPhoto devotees for years are scoffing at me, and you should. This is probably something really easy to do, and I’m a little embarrassed to be such a Mac-noob. But I am asking you for help, internet.

Anyway, back to the trip I mentioned. Last month, on a complete and utter whim, I decided to meet Amy in London and then travel to Ireland. This was as shocking of a decision to me as it was to others, since I concieved and finalized the decision about five days before I left. This was my first time out of the country, and even though I only had a total of about 4 days overseas, it was a wonderful trip. Because of my iPhoto frustration, I didn’t get all the photos up on Flickr, but I hope to have them added as I figure things out. You can see the ones I’ve got so far right here.

We only got to spend one full day in London – not enough time to see everything, but I think I could have stayed a month and still not have seen everything. We hit the important places – the British Museum, Buckingham Palace, and walked along the Thames to see the Big Ben and some other historic places. The highlight of our trip was definitely Ireland. We went to Galway, which is a city on the West coast of Ireland (opposite Dublin). We got to see the countryside on our bus trip from Shannon airport, and it was stunning. The land was just as I had always imagined – incredibly green, and it really looked good enough to eat. I’m not kidding. I really considered it.

The city of Galway was great as well. We stayed right on Eyre Square, and were surrounded by lots of cute shops and pubs. Everyone in Galway is so friendly and laid back. We got to spend two nights and almost three days in Galway. We took one half-day trip to a town nearby called Athenry. It was really quaint and sweet – a real countryside town. The little town was built around an old castle and the remaining castle walls, and it was just really cool to see how people there lived among those kinds of relics without even thinking about it. Kids were cutting through the castle yard, hopping over medieval walls on their way home from school. We even heard people speaking in Gaelic, and I was truly caught off-guard when the bartender at the Arch Pub asked us if we were “Gemini”, meaning “twins”. I thought she was asking if we were German, and I was appalled when Amy kept agreeing with her. It took me a while to figure it out.

We also managed to catch an incredible movie the day we left Galway called “The Secret of Kells”. It had just been released, and was one of the most beautiful movies I had ever seen, from the story to the incredible artwork. I don’t know if it will ever be released here in any way, but it was definitely one of the best parts of the trip. If you ever get the chance, it’s worth going to fairly extreme lengths to catch this movie.

Well, that’s the recap. It’s been about a month since the trip, but I think I’ve remembered the key pieces, despite the delay. The title of this post is a translation from a song by Pizzicato Five called “The Apartment.” That’s really all there is to say about that.

Things I have been up to lately:

• Not going to school
• Eating a lot of girl scout cookies
• Moving my website to a new domain (did you notice?)
• Making lattes with my new espresso maker
• Traveling a bit for fun and work (Charleston, Asheville, Columbia)
• Trying to put my cat on a diet
• Biking around town (on sunny days)
• Planning a trip to Japan

Updating the site, slowly but surely. I switched to a new server (mine refused to upgrade from some decades-old version of Java) and swapped out domains, but both still get you here.

I am pleasantly surprised to find that the relief I feel from the culmination of my academic career, formalized by my graduation ceremony (diploma still pending), grows with every passing day, despite its initial lack of cathartic euphoria. I had expected that the moment I finished my final assignment, I would immediately feel the rising victory of one who had just crested Mt. Fuji, and found herself gazing upon the expansive and mysterious beauty that lies beyond. Instead, as I balanced my laptop in the driver’s seat of the car, completing the last few discussion postings on the various methods of hypothesis testing in the parking lot of the chiropractor’s office, I found my feelings of accomplishment far outweighed by the somewhat selfish wish that I were the one in the office reaping the rewards of spinal alignment, instead of patiently waiting on Brian while contorting my skeletal frame around the car so that I could type comfortably without setting off the horn. Oh, spine! How well you have served me. *

After the less-exciting-than-expected day of reckoning, the morning of graduation found me in a state of dread. Over the past few years, I’ve developed quite the “stage trick” of going unconscious at the worst times – most especially, moments of very important and very public celebration. There was my high school graduation, when I took a brief nap in the middle of my historian speech. Then there was the really fancy all-formal three-fork benefit dinner, when I fainted at the table, lost my appetizer all over the satin gown I had finished sewing just that morning, and had to be carried out the door by three tuxedoed men while still vomiting and unconscious in my chair. Then of course there was the wedding, after which a dear seven year old friend had to ask me why I decided to get married while lying on the floor of the church. I chalked it up to personal preference. “I wanted to get married while hanging upside down from the rafters, but since there were no rafters, I had to settle for the floor. When it’s your wedding, you can do whatever you want.”

The thing about having a temperamental blood pressure is that it is affected by things like fear and panic. And of course, the thought of fainting at my college graduation with several hundred onlookers and just as many cameras induces fear and panic – which lowers my blood pressure and induces involuntary loss of consciousness. Obviously the best solution to this stupid cycle is just not to think about fainting. Yeah, right. Like that works. I wish I could finish this paragraph with one of two endings to this story. The first: I learned to control the complex signals between my brain and my parasympathetic nerves (asympathetic, I would argue), achieving a graduation that was both rewarding and free of fear. The second: I collapsed in a heap on the stage of the Finis Horne Arena, prompting some bumbling and humorous response by Dr. Ball and the faculty on stage, which of course I do not remember, but has been retold to me in stories of increasing dramatization ever since.

The real story is much less exciting, but is satisfactory. I did go through many moments of near-unconsciousness while sitting in the tropical over-heated arena waiting to be ushered to the stage (would I be avoiding culpability if I blamed it on the aroma of my fellow graduate three seats down, who had been celebrating since six that morning with Bud Light and bean burritos? I mean come on, it’s not even noon). There were even moments that I found myself forming escape plans that included leaving my cap and gown under my chair, slithering across the floor to the stadium seats, and pretending I was a member of the family of the Honorary Doctoral candidate, who were seated in the front row. Despite my fear and the many close calls, when I actually stood up (which, for those with finicky BP, is usually a trigger for vasovagal fainting) and proceeded to the stage, received my fake diploma with placeholder letter and a handshake from the big man himself, I did not faint, and I did not wobble. I successfully descended the stairs and made it back to my chair to enjoy the rest of the ceremony and the tainted air of stale Taco Bell. I wish I had an explanation of my success that I could carry with me to every important and thus unconscious experience I shall have in the future. I have no such lesson, except maybe that it takes an immense amount of concentration to walk across a stage while trying not to laugh at Dr. Ball’s funny little hat, and while also trying not to trip over the silly polyester robe, and while also trying not to look like Mr. Bean Burrito, who must have made his parents proud as he staggered and swayed his way into the next stage of his life (and almost into the podium). No, I’m afraid that this was a lesson that I cannot apply to any other occasion, as I have no immediate intentions of ever going through such a graduation ceremony again.

So although my actual completion of studies and my graduation ceremony were not the life-changing hat-throwing moments they were built up to be, the days since have been increasingly glorious. Last night, after my laborious day eating Christmas cookies at the office**, I settled into the worn side of the couch (formerly known as the “homework corner”), opened my laptop, and entered into a rigorous session of MyFarming. This was followed by some hot chocolate, gift wrapping (my favorite chore), and a viewing of “Burn After Reading” (an unpredictable Coen Brothers success). Each day I am more grateful for the time I have to enjoy, especially right now at the holidays.

Excellent transition to the topic at hand: Christmas! Brian and I are blessed to have our immediate families here in town, which means we don’t have to brave the ridiculous winter weather to travel during holidays. We can stay cozy and warm at home, which is yet another thing I am thankful for. Despite the hecticness of November, I managed to get the vast majority of my shopping done by the first weekend in December, and didn’t set foot in a store to do it. I’m really proud of this, since it’s the first year I haven’t been stressing out on Christmas week to finish my shopping. Between cash-back and reward point groups, along with coupon resources and holiday specials, I managed to either get free shipping or discounts enough to negate the shipping on pretty much everything I bought. Many people hesitate to buy online – and I agree that it doesn’t quite have the same experience as physical shopping. I sorely missed the sweaty, angry, early-Saturday-morning trampling experience of the shopping mall this season. Other than that, I would call it a success, and hope I can continue this proactive and organized behavior, which is completely uncharacteristic of me, in the future. It’s left me a lot of time to enjoy the spirit of the holiday, which is often lost in the madness. It’s been peaceful and quiet, and I am really looking forward to the rest of this week.

Merry Christmas and Happy New Year to everyone! I am thankful for all of you, and hope you have a peaceful and meaningful season.

*In the unlikely case that anyone is concerned about my spine (and thanks, if you are), it is actually okay. I get adjustments as often as my wonderful chiropractic doctor recommends, which is often enough to keep me mostly pain free, but not often enough that I get tired of the incredible awesomeness of the muscle stim machine.

**I by no means intend to imply that my days at work are a piece of pie. I do mean to say that there is pie, at work, in the month of December. Pie and coffee. And cookies. Double Stuf Oreos, to be exact. YES.

Well, the holidays have officially arrived, being marked by the short Thanksgiving work-week. I know every year I say that they have sneaked up on me, but we all know this isn’t true. Holidays, as with any exciting milestone in life, hold such hopes and anticipation that when they finally arrive, we feel that there is no way we could have prepared for them. Am I hasty to speak in the collective “we”? Is this true for the rest of you?

For me, this holiday season will me marked with change – again. Of course, last year was Brian and my first Holiday season together (married), and so we got the exciting change of juggling multiple family traditions and gatherings. It was a great time of course (you can’t beat three Thanksgiving meals in one weekend), and we’ve looked forward to establishing our own “traditions” during our second holiday season together, since it really takes more than one Christmas to call something a “tradition”.

This year though will mark a change of a different sort for me, having lost both my grandparents on my mother’s side of the family (my only remaining grandparents). My grandfather passed away the second weekend of August after a very short diagnosis of cancer a month earlier. My grandmother passed away just last week after fighting cancer for many years. Of course, losing people who are close to you can make any season more difficult, but it’s especially hard when those people have been sort of the cornerstone for celebrations. We would always go to Nanny and Papa’s house for Thanksgiving dinner and Christmas Eve dinner (along with Easter dinner, rounding out our three annual family gatherings). All my aunts, uncles, cousins would be there, and though nobody lives too far away, these occasions really were the only times we would all be together.

I guess there’s bound to be a time when generations divide and begin celebrating with their own families, and since many of my cousins have and are starting new families, it was bound to happen sooner or later. Still, it feels odd that this year will be the first that we don’t gather together for Thanksgiving. In fact, I kind of wonder if I will even see certain members of my family on any regular basis anymore. Just writing that out, I feel a bit guilty – whose fault is it but mine if I don’t see my own family? But we all know these things happen, and whether it’s everyone’s fault or nobody’s fault doesn’t really matter – it’s tough being the person who makes sure everyone’s in the same place each holiday.

Thankfully, Thanksgiving is a time to be thankful (teehee), and I truly am this week. While it’s hard to believe both my grandparents are gone, I know that neither of them would have wanted to be alone for very long, and what a blessing that they are together again! I also have many other things to be thankful for, not the least of which is my upcoming graduation in December. What a burden will be lifted from me!

Each semester, about three weeks before the finish date, I go into “impending doom” mode. “Impending doom” mode has many symptoms, including irrational behavior, sleep deprivation, and lots of complaining (I’m trying to work on that last one!). For instance, last Fall semester I found myself creating thorough “escape plans”, including the highly-profitable gift-wrap business I could start in the case that finishing a degree was more than I could handle. The following semester found me inventing “fun” scenarios in which I would magically finish all my assignments (for the record, “Caffeinated Code Night” was slightly more successful than “Drunk Code Night”, though neither truly lived up to its title).

This year, I’m not sure what my plan of attack will be, although it’s beginning to look a lot less like an escape plan or a magic martini night, and a lot more like “senioritis”. The voice in my head tells me, “Can’t finish that Economics paper? Don’t. You can still pass the class. Barely, but that’s all you need.” Voices in my head, you say? I promise I’m not sleep deprived. It doesn’t help that Lander’s new schedule means that my grades won’t be cleared in time for graduation – so I can walk across the stage and get my diploma cover whether I pass my classes or not (diploma being mailed a couple weeks later). Add to this the fact that I just got a promising email offer for a cheap diploma (”Any degree field you want – No Examss/Books/Tests/Interview/Classes required”), and I’m getting less and less worried about my schoolwork by the day.

Of course I only jest. You all know that I couldn’t miss an assignment deadline if I tried. Regardless, I do think my anxiety is lessened by the comfort of knowing that I will be graduating in a mere 18 days. 18 days! My heart leaps at the thought.

To any who are reading this, thanks for continuing to follow my spotted presence here, or subscribing (question – are there any subscribers? I’d love to know if there are. There is an RSS feed here but it’s not advertised, though some browsers will pick it up).

I wanted to give a heads-up that the site will be undergoing some changes here in a few weeks/months, but I realize that my intention was slightly less for your benefit than for mine – I have hopes that by making promises to you that things will change, I will encourage myself to actually follow through with them. This is actually fallible logic, and is based on the idea that guilt will drive action. For people like myself, for whom procrastination is a problem, the opposite is actually true – guilt drives inaction, and further procrastination.

Fortunately for me, part of my class project for Art 308 in the fall will be to design a web presence and digital portfolio, and my hope is to combine it with this site. I have also a second inspiration – my new MacBook is on its way. I needed a laptop for school and home, as my personal use of my company laptop not only violated policy, but was slowing down my computer considerably. I took advantage of several offers Apple has for students right now, including a free-after-rebate iPod Touch and some extreme discounts on the Adobe Creative Suite software. I’ve now got Adobe Illustrator, Photoshop, Dreamweaver, Fireworks, Acrobat 9 Pro, and some other tools for web publishing. I’m excited, but somewhat nervous – I’ve learned a lot about Photoshop and Illustrator from my classes, but I’m still far from an expert on it. It also must be noted that I haven’t used Dreamweaver in six years, and I’m sure much has changed since then.

I expect to get some mixed opinions on my purchase of a Mac – and I did put consideration into buying a PC. In fact, had I not gotten such a good deal as a student, I may have made a different decision. I’m happy, though, with the choice I made. I feel like it will definitely help me back into the area of website design and development, which is something I accidentally abandoned a long time ago, even though it’s one of my favorite things to do. After I graduate, I expect to have some more time to put toward such endeavors, whether I make any money on it or not.

Anyway, one of the changes you may see in the very near future is a change in my web address. You will still be able to find me at amandy.net, but I will be forwarding this URL to my new web address, amandadean.net. This domain has been registered for quite some time, but I decided now to switch over. I have several reasons for this, ranging from the trivial (I am continually confused with the owner of “Amanady” products and the amandy.com domain, receiving many of his emails and wholesale offers) to the more serious (hoping to convey a more professional image through my website).

As promised, I have some photos from the Tom Waits show. He played in Atlanta at the Fox Theater, and this is the second time I’ve had the wonderful opportunity to see him live. As you can tell from the photos, I did not have quite the incredible seat that I had at the first show I saw, but I was definitely happy, considering how lucky I was to get tickets (again). Brian and I were on about the 20th row of the ground floor of the theater. I actually did not intend to take photos at this show as cameras were restricted, and I did not expect it would be easy to snap pictures. It just happens, though, that I forgot to take my camera out of my purse when we parked at the hotel, and nobody noticed it in the pocket at bag check, so it came in with me. By the next-to-last song in the encore, I was feeling gutsy and snapped three photos. Following are the two best, although they are still blurry, as is typical of no-flash concert shots. There are better shots of the same show on the Paste website here.

Of course, it goes without saying that the concert was amazing. It was more theatrical than the last, with Tom pulling some neat stage lighting and prop tricks (including wearing a magical mirrored “disco” hat and casting beams of light across his audience), and doing some neat variations on his standard songs. The band was great too, and he brought his youngest son out to play bongos on one song (his oldest, Casey, was his drummer, as on the previous tour). It was a much longer set as well, at 2 1/2 hours including the encore. If I remember correctly, the previous show was just longer than 1 1/2 hours. I don’t know if all his shows on this tour were long, or if we got a special treat because it was the last leg of the tour. He played a lot of my favorites, and a couple of songs I hadn’t heard before – with Tom’s vast library it’s not too difficult to miss a few.

On a side note, I’m looking to replace Flickr with a more robust internet photo sharing tool. I don’t like the limits on Flickr, or how cumbersome it is to organize them. I’m considering Picasa Web as well as some other options. If anyone has suggestions or advice, please let me know.

About every few months I get on an organization kick. It manifests itself in many ways, usually prompting me to invest in new organizational tools, folders and supplies to help me organize my time, space, or ideas. I have spent far too much time browsing through sites like Lifehacker and Franklin Covey, imagining how such tools and techniques could aid me in my quest to become ultimately organized and productive. In reality, I rarely actually buy the products I find, or even try the various ideas I come across (as I mentioned in a previous post, the ever-popular GTD philosophy had such an overwhelming web-fan-base that I tired of its cumbersome teachings before I even had a chance to try it). Usually when I do buy these products, they are used until the novelty wears off, and then they gather dust.

I find that I get a mental high from just thinking about being the uber-organized person that I definitely am not. When it comes to actually having the discipline to carry through on most of the plans I imagine for myself, I usually find that I just don’t have the time to invest in stringent orgnanization. Granted, I’ve come a long way, I think. Several years ago, I started keeping a paper-planner with a calendar and notebook and such inside. For a while, it too was merely a novelty, and something I liked to think that I could maintain. I rarely did, and would go through spurts where I would keep it diligently, and then it would taper off and there would be a couple of months when I didn’t even glance at it. Although it was useful for some things, I didn’t find it difficult to maintain things like school assignments and social obligations in my memory.

More recently though, I’ve found it to be a staple, and hardly a day has passed over the last year that I haven’t needed it for something (I believe it became necessity around the time of wedding/new job/senior project). Of course, by now the novelty of the planner has completely gone away, and it has dwindled to become a sheer utilitarian (very worn) leather book. I no longer take the time to write my appointments neatly in the pages, and business cards are shoved haphazardly into their pockets. It serves its purpose, but it certainly doesn’t give me that “pinnacle of efficiency and organization” that I like to imagine. Of course, if I bought one of these, I would be a better, more organized person. I mean, if I spend $400 on a planner, surely I’ll never procrastinate again! Of course, this is a lie, but unfortunately every few months, it is a lie that I am tempted to believe. Hopefully not enough to spend $400.00 on a planner that was likely the result of many very tortured (”farmed”?) lizards, but maybe enough to buy a designer ink pen or something.

Having had a four-day weekend, I spent Thursday and Friday doing something truly productive – a slightly delayed Spring Cleaning. I went through (almost) every closet and every room, gathering anything that I didn’t use, didn’t like, or didn’t even remember I had, and throwing it into the Salvation Army boxes and bags. It was an extremely refreshing thing to do, and also very humbling to realize how many posessions I own and take for granted. I pray that I will remember this next time I am tempted to “organize” my life by buying more things – I got a greater level of satisfaction this past weekend by getting rid of and giving away things rather than by adding to my collection.

Also, along with cleaning house this weekend we went to Atlanta to see Tom Waits perform. I will followup with the particulars of the show, but altogether it was a wonderful weekend.

I realized the other day that for the first time in a very long time, I am at a point in my life where things aren’t ridiculously crazy and hectic. I think this is a combination of the actual slowing-down of events in my life as well as my getting accustomed to the busy nature of things. I’m still very busy with work, school, church, home, and everyday things, But for the most part I’m very comfortable right now. Such a blessing!

I remember this time last year, and all the things I had going on at the time. I had just started a new job (my one-year Capsugel anniversary is sometime this week), was preparing to leave for Salkehatchie for a week, followed by a week in Atlanta for job training, followed by a week at my annual service group conference. Somewhere in there I was preparing for a wedding and honeymoon. Of course, with that would come moving into a new apartment, so I was living out of suitcases and boxes for the majority of June and July. Looking back, it’s amazing to me that I pulled all of those things off in one summer. I can’t imagine that I had a single weekend off.

In contrast, this last weekend was completely relaxed. So relaxed in fact, that I don’t really remember what all I did. I know I did some cleaning, some laundry, some grocery shopping. I spent some time with my family celebrating Corey’s graduation (Congrats to Corey!). I also remember a lot of sleeping late and watching television. There was even some homework involved. All in all it was something that has been alien to me for a long time – an average weekend*. Ahhh.

Now, however, it’s back to the work-week. It should be a good week – I have some urgent projects but none of them too difficult (so far). I’ve been enrolled in online classes at Tech for a week now, and they’ve been good, if not dull. Statistics and Sociology – so far Statistics has been a whole lot of busywork (counting numbers and building Excel charts), and Sociology has been a lot of reading. I’m not complaining – after all, it is summer.

* I do not mean this to downplay the significance of Corey’s graduation – not that we didn’t know it would happen. We are all extremely proud of our Valedictorian!

Japanese Siphon Bar in San Francisco per New York Times Online

An amazing feat for the coffee-drinking world, but I have a feeling I would prefer my Mr. Coffee.

I am rejoicing that classes are finished for the semester. I took a Commercial Art independent study course, an upper-level programming class titled “File Structures”, and my senior project class (CIS 499). All were quite excellent. Art was the most fun and relaxing of the bunch, probably because it gave me opportunity to exercise the right side of the brain (my favorite side), while the other two pretty much beat the left side into a pulp. However, all is well now, and despite the difficulties, I count every semester in my college history as time well-spent – an easy thing to do, once they’re finished.

Unlike my sister, Amy, I will not be graduating in a few days with the rest of my class. Because of the mental energy sucked up by my full-time job (also a left-brainer), I had to cut my scholarly endeavors back to part-time last Fall, taking three classes per semester instead of five. Although working and schooling has still been tough, it has worked out well for me, as I have been able to enjoy most of my job, and most of my classes, and haven’t yet had any nervous breakdowns (though CIS 499 brought me too close for comfort). I’m planning to complete the remainder of my classes over the summer and next fall, with expected graduation of December.

I think it would be fun now to give a brief list-style run-down of some note-worthy events of recent, to make up for my neglect:

1. Brian and I (and Amy) had our birthday a week ago – we had all just finished our classes, so a good time was had all around.
2. I have learned that golf, like every other sport I have attempted, is not for me.
3. Dyke Dean, my father-in-law, has begun working with me at Capsugel.
4. I have developed an application that will read, edit, and create PDF documents. OK – it’s buggy.
5. I designed a makeover for this site, but will not actually be developing it until my independent study course in the Fall.
6. Brian’s grandfather passed away mid-April; we travelled to Enterprise, Alabama for the funeral and I met some of his family that I had not met before.
7. Another weekend was spent celebrating and cheering Cyberstorm’s excellent robot at the international FIRST Robotics competition in Atlanta.
8. I will be traveling to Las Vegas next week for a Business Intelligence software conference (anyone know of any good craft stores in Vegas…?).
9. Penny (our crazy cat) was “fixed” in March, and it has proved to be so successful in calming her wild hair that we have scheduled the procedure to be done every few months. *

All that being said, I’m really enjoying the time that I have right now to blog and create art and travel – all those things I don’t have time for during the semester.

* Only joking – No animals were harmed during the making of this blog.

Did you know that Lander’s “Spring Break” was held the same week as the local hospitals “Mid-Winter Ball.”

Just a thought. It wasn’t Spring, but then again, it was a stretch to call it “Mid-winter.”

Spring will be here on Thursday. So happy-almost-Spring!

To celebrate: “Spring Fever.” A ridiculous MST3K short.

Penny in Tinsel

Originally uploaded by Miss Amandy

This week has already been an interesting one. With the onslaught of midterms and some hefty assignments at work, I thought I was doing pretty well just to be waking up on time in the mornings. I just never seem to get enough surprises to keep me on my toes.

My truck is currently sitting in the back of the Old Navy parking lot. Dave borrowed it to drive to Greenville on Sunday night, but the battery died halfway there. Brian changed the battery, and all was well and good until the truck died as I was on my way to Wal-Mart. I would take a gander and say that it is the alternator or something, but that’s Brian’s problem now. After all, it is technically his truck.

It caused some minor transportation problems today, though, as I had already made an appointment at the vet to get Penny fixed. Yes, my troublesome evil dear sweet kitty is having the surgery today. Saturday I bought her a kitty crate in Greenville. As she has never had one before (at least not as long as I’ve had her, since she was a palm-sized little kitten), she hadn’t yet built up the dread and fear most cats learn to associate with the carrier. She was quite comfortable in it, until it got to the car and we started it. Overall though, I’d say she traveled well. I thought she would lose it for sure when we were sitting in the waiting room and three large and loud dogs entered at once. She hissed a bit, but kept her cool. That comforts me; I hope she is that calm during the whole procedure. I get to pick her up right after work today, and take home some pain meds to keep her drugged for a while. Maybe a few weeks…

So that’s what happens when you only pay $30.00 a year for web hosting. You get hacked and lose files.

Anyway, all’s well that ends well. All the php files in my home directory were deleted, but fortunately for me, those were nothing other than Wordpress standard files. All my custom files reside in theme directories, which this hacker left untouched. A quick re-install (upgrade, in fact, although I don’t see any real new features) of Wordpress solved the problem.

I’ve been hosted by Haisoft for 3 or 4 years now, and this is the first time I’ve had any problems like this. I would say that overall I am quite happy with their service, and they have always been quick to respond to my problems (although via phone, their English is terrible). For the price, they’re unbeatable. I just have to remember to back my files up every now and then, just in case…

In other news, I’m keeping busy with writing programs at school, busy with managing projects at work, and busy with crafting and housework at home. Some days I feel like three different people, but hopefully it’s all to the end that someday soon I will feel like one well-rounded person.

Hey guys. This is a test.

My site has been hacked, but if you see this message, it means my recovery skills worked.

Happy kiss!

Originally uploaded by Miss Amandy

I finally uploaded a few of our wedding photos. Click through to see the rest. :) Hopefully I’ll be able to get some more uploaded, but for now these will have to do!

Like many other information-craving internet addicts, I always wind up buying into the internet / blogosphere trends that I promise myself I won’t buy into. I’m sure you know a few of them – the trends that aren’t really bad things, but they just happen so quickly and gain such a cult-like following that it almost makes you sick to imagine yourself as one of “those fanatics”.

One such trend is the “Getting Things Done” productivity / “life-hack” / way of life that has a super-devoted geek fan-base, due to its simplistic why-didn’t-I-think-of-that principles. I spent about an hour researching it one day last week, got excited reading all these success stories and looking at all the neat tools and gadgets that would support the method, and I bought into it. I’m a bit sad to say that I took to it about like any other trend that carries such high promises and expectations – it didn’t really last even a week. Not to say it’s a bad system, or to doubt all the hardcore believers out there, but it just didn’t work for me. I’m not going to post any links here – just Google “Getting Things Done” and you’ll find your fair share of material. Many other examples of trends I never wanted to be a part of can be summed up in one phrase: “Social Networks”. While I’ve never had enough time in the day to become anywhere near addicted to Myspace or Facebook, I have occasionally spent more time browsing around that I’d like to admit.

Anyway, my real reason for bringing this up was to talk about Web 2.0. While it didn’t happen overnight, it carries with it the same fanaticism and concurrent skepticism. I guess the funny thing about Web 2.0 is that most of the skepticism is not around the actual idea of Web 2.0, but typically more around the fact that there is a term for it. Well, I won’t argue about it. I have been on the skeptical end (”It’s just slick interfaces and tags. What gives it the right to claim a new version number?”), and somewhat recently have come to the conclusion that I actually like having a term to describe the newer trend in web development. After all, having a name for it sort of solidifies it and makes it describable. I like Paul Graham’s Article about Web 2.0, as it explained to me what I didn’t understand – why I really like all this Web 2.0 stuff. Some of you may find the article interesting. Others may not.

For those of you who are unfamiliar with the Web 2.0 term, and don’t want to read that long article about it, this site is a listing of hundreds of examples of it. I think you’ll catch on if you just click around. Smooth interfaces (Flash or AJAX), tagging and searching content, community-driven, no banner ads, pretty colors, etc. It’s all pretty cool in my book; definitely a trend I’ve bought into.

Speaking of Web 2.0 sites, there are 16,483 people ahead of me in the Ravelry invitation queue. I plan to spend the waiting period knitting and crocheting up a storm of cool products so that I’ll have something to show for myself.

I might as well go ahead and document the huge changes that have happened in my life, since my Final Exam blog in May:

1. - Finished final exams with style
2. - Saw Amy off to Mexico
3. - Received wonderful wedding gifts at three showers (still not finished with those thank-you notes…)
4. - Began a full-time position as Jr. Programmer/Analyst at Capsugel
5. - Spent a week at Salkehatchie roofing, flooring, painting, and reparing
6. - Spent a week in Atlanta for job training (yay ITIL…)
7. - Spent a week in Columbia for Grand Assembly
8. - Married the ever-charming and handsome Brian Dean
9. - Spent a week in Chicago on our honeymoon (as far away from sunburn as we could get)
10. - Moved into a cute new apartment with Brian and Penny, the adorable but devious kitten
11. - Began a new semester of classes, working around my 8-5 job as much as possible

So there they are, in all their brief and bulleted splendor, implying that they are far less significant than the previous blog which was expressed in full-paragraphs and rich description. Of course, these things aren’t any less significant; they’re just a bit outdated.