Thanks for Asking...

Yeah, yeah.  I'll get back to my breakfast and homework in just a second.  But this just made me laugh, even though I know it was sent out in all seriousness and that a lot of guys would be interested.  (Please keep in mind that I am a woman.)

My email inbox, as of a minute ago:  "Would you like to become a part of [the] only all male engineering fraternity on the Virginia Tech campus?"


Um. 


No thanks.  


(Disclaimer:  There is a Greek women in engineering organization here.  But I have enough on my plate.)


EDIT:  I just got some emails mentioning said women's engineering sorority, just to be fair.  They too went to the entire listserv.  

...?

Ok, so those of you puzzling at my last three posts may wonder whether my blog got eaten by the dreaded Question Mark Monster or something.  Nope.  And as much as I would like to say a cute kitty decided to go to sleep on my keyboard, I don't have one.  The probable culprit:  I tried to blog from my phone earlier about the flurries and my flu shot.  (By the way:  We had a few flurries today, though not enough to actually show up on the ground.  And I got my flu shot.)  Why that posted three posts full of question marks and random letters, I don't know.  Though  I did get confirmation texts from Blogger on my phone saying that all three of my posts posted successfully...  Maybe instead of me getting the flu, my blog posts did?  

Anyway.  I can't decide whether I should delete them or leave them for the hilarity factor.  If you have an opinion one way or the other, please share.  In the meantime, I'm going to go hide from the dreaded Question Mark Monster.

Dorm Cookin', Part 2

Well, I tried to make the Macaroni and Cheese again, and with much more success.  First tip:  don't try to be fancy and melt little strings of mozzarella string cheese over this macaroni and cheese.  That probably accounted for a bit of the funny taste the first time around.  This time was much better.

And since my last foray into the dorm cooking world, I have acquired a glass bowl from a large superstore entity.  It cost less than four dollars, is pretty sturdy, and is just the right size.  The right size for the macaroni and cheese, you ask?  No, it is the right size so that when the water boils and the foam begins to rise ominously towards the top of the container, I can leave it for a few more seconds.  Last time, I made the macaroni in a one-cup measuring cup, and I'm sure my neighbors wanted to unplug the microwave after hearing "hrrrrrrmmmmm....." (that's the microwave) "Oh, drat!  Not again!"  (that's me) *shunk of opening the microwave door**stirring**shunk of closing the microwave door* *beep* (turning microwave back on) "hrrrrrrrmmmmmmm......" (microwave, again) "Oh, drat, not again!"... I'm sure you can see where this is going.  This time, all was well.  The only mistake was getting barmops at said large superstore entity instead of proper drying towels.  The barmops are good for leaving stuff out to dry on, but they do a halfhearted job of drying the dishes and leave little fuzzy bits behind.  Oh well; I'll know for later.

In other news, I just discovered that the forks I brought (donated by my awesome Mom) can be used on my tablet's trackpad instead of my finger.  (Don't worry; it was clean and the computer and fork are both just fine.)  Not that I'll make a regular practice of that, but it's good to know.  Just in case I have to... use a fork to move my computer's mouse.  How useful.  That should be the method of saving the world in a movie someday... it's pretty epic!

Well, I should get to that German homework I have to do.  I get to write a review of Goodbye, Lenin.

Chef Laura signing off!  Until next time!

Stammtisch macht Spaß!

Every Thursday evening, anyone who speaks German and feels like eating out or just sitting around and talking goes to Stammtisch, which means going to Gillie's (very good restaurant,  by the way, and cheap) and speaking German.  Always the big rectangular table on the left as you walk in, starting at 6PM and going until a bit after 7.  It's fun.

Yesterday, there was pretty much no one there.  My professor and one other person showed up, but we still had a great time talking.  I discovered that the other guy (M) is fairly involved in Intervarsity, so we told Dr. M (my professor) about IV and Campus Crusade for Christ, which was really cool.

And, as always happens when speaking a foreign language, hilarity ensues from trying to find the right word.

M the student mentioned a time in his German class that he didn't know the word for "deer" in German, so in a class discussion, he called in a Waldkuh (forest cow).  Makes sense, doesn't it?  The professor corrected him, but the entire rest of the class period, his classmates were using the word Waldkuh just for fun.   During Stammtisch, he and I noticed that the words we don't know in German always seem to translate directly from English with very little spelling or pronunciation difference.  "Deer" in German is actually "Reh," which makes sense if you think of the word "roe" for deer.

But etemology isn't as funny as what happened later.  I was trying to explain what I usually have for breakfast to Dr. M, as she has never really  tried the campus food (which, if you are looking into coming to Virginia Tech, is very good!).  I could explain that I got coffee from Deet's, but then I tried to think of the word for the food I usually eat.  The dictionary I had with me did not have the word, and I was at a loss and about to ask her for the word when I realized that Google Translator might have an answer, and I could text message Google SMS and access the translator.  (By the way, Mom and Dad, thank you for the unlimited texting!  I put it to good use, as you will see!)  So, a few seconds after my inquiry, my phone vibrates and I get the translation:

"muffin" in English is "muffin" in German.

Oh.

I read the text aloud, and we all burst out laughing.

Stammtisch is usually a lot of fun, and sometimes there are nearly a dozen people there, speaking German and hanging out.  But this time, I stayed longer than I usually did.  Somehow, I broke through my "I don't understand social dynamics or the art of conversation" problem and enjoyed myself.

Well, I actually have German class in 30 minutes.  And then, I get to go to the Health Center to verify that I don't have tuberculosis.  Oh joy!

Dorm Cookin'

So.  I bought some 75% organic Macaroni and Cheese (individual serving packets) on Thursday, and I finally decided to try one.  After buying a little tupperware-ish bowl from the general store, I set to making the pasta part of the M&C.  I used the measuring cup my mom so graciously lent me to take to college to make the pasta.

But, the microwave, so enthusiastic to actually help make a meal, was extra hot.  After about a minute, I had to stop the thing because the water nearly boiled over (glad I was watching it!)(And so, yes, watched water can boil.).  I took it out, stirred the al crunchy pasta, and put it back in to try again.  About ten seconds later I had to stop it, as it was boiling over again.  But the pasta wasn't done yet.

So, the next five minutes or so were spent stopping the microwave, stirring the pasta, and starting it again, stopping just before the white foam reached the top of the measuring cup.  I hope I didn't drive my neighbors nuts.  But eventually, the pasta was al dente the way it was supposed to be, and I could stop babysitting the microwave and actually add the cheese part of Mac&Cheese.

That is probably the brightest yellow cheese sauce I have ever seen.  It was pretty good taste-wise, but it looked almost radioactively yellow.  I suspect the dorm room lights; the cheese powder looked perfectly normal to me.  Or maybe they went a little food coloring-happy.  (Maybe that was the 25% non-organic part.)

But all in all, a successful food venture.  Except for the one poor noodle that landed on the floor and ended up in the trash.  Poor little guy.

So tune in next time on Dorm Cookin' for more adventures with Laura and her roommate's microwave.  Fun for the whole hall!

Fire Drill Count

#5  (View the time stamp, please.  I got a very pleasant wake-up call of BWAAAAAAAAAAAAAH after being asleep for a while.)

Though I'm sure it isn't on purpose that all our fire "drills" end up in the wee hours of the morning.  I think either some not-so-well-meaning prankster pulls the fire alarm, or someone decides he or she really really really  needs popcorn at 2:30 AM.  And burns it.  I really think the dorms don't bother to schedule fire drills; they just happen on their own.

Key Lock

Ok, so you know how phones that have buttons on the front have a key lock that keeps you from accidentally calling someone while the phone is in your pocket?  Apparently, something managed to thwart the key lock on my phone.  I just discovered that I sent this text message:

Dkjag.

to a 13-digit telephone number.  It was sent at 12:38 pm, around lunchtime for me.

Some things just can't be explained.  I would try to make witty commentary, but I think this one needs to stand alone.

Fire Drill Count

#4
Ugh.  Just got back in a few minutes ago.  Really, who needs burnt popcorn at 12:20 AM?

And poor R got caught in the shower... again.  And had to come out in her bath robe.  Hasn't happened to me yet, but who knows what the future will bring, right?  =)

Bis Donnerstag Abend!

Well, if you were a freshman Engineering student on the VT campus this week, you'd be a bit nervous.

The first big Engineering test is Thursday night.  So I'll be a bit sparse(r) until then.

So I leave you with some funny stuff I found yesterday and today: (Sorry the pictures are tiny.  If you click on them, they might open slightly larger.  Maybe Thursday after the test I'll be able to figure out how to make them readable... sorry!)

I find it funny that the only non-colloquial word that means “cheesy” has to specify that it actually means “like cheese.”  Which is a funny phrase anyway.  “How does it taste?” “Like cheese!”  Lol lol lol.  I kill me. (This is from my favorite German-English dictionary, by the way.  http://dict.leo.org )

Thank you for telling me you can’t get on the wireless, Windows.  I appreciate the notification.  But it isn’t necessary, since I turned the wireless switch OFF since my dorm room doesn’t get wireless.  No wonder!  =)

Okay, I'm done.  Off to do homework and go to SLEEP before I get sick or loopy.  Or both.  

Arr!

It be Talk like a Pirate Day, mateys!

Though I haven't really done much talking like a pirate today.  University Honors Course of Studies Planner meeting?  Not so great a place to show how piratey you are.  Newman Library, doing a German worksheet?  Also not the greatest place.

Maybe at Intervarsity tonight.  I dunno.  But for those of you who can get away with talking like pirates, go for it.

My First College Fire Drill

Happened at 12:04 AM.  As in, just now.

Thankfully, I was just reading Linear Algebra stuff on the computer.  One of my friends was taking a shower and had to come out in her bathrobe.

Apparently there was another fire drill a week or two ago, but it occurred around 7pm when I was out.  Midnight is a much more reasonable time, no?  More people to drive out of their rooms, more chaos, you know.  Fun times!

In other news, my halogen desk lamp has been deemed unsuitable for living on my desk, according to fire codes.  And since the inspectors apparently had no problem with the boxes I stuck behind our clothes drawers (which are under my roommate's lofted bed with about 2 1/2 feet between them and the wall, perfect for storage), I stuck the now-unmutual desk lamp in one of them.  So... now I need another source of desk light.  I think I'll be hitting Target this weekend.  (Doubly so, since my roommate wants a coffeemaker, and I am not terribly opposed to the idea...)

Anyway.  To the showers, especially since the odds have gone down that I will have to run out in my towel wrap due to a fire drill right in the middle.  *knock on wood*

Your Virginia Tech Information Source: Cars and AC!

Well, after a long hiatus, I checked my Google Analytics page again.  And the search results that get people here, other than the "diabetic waffles" one (lol) seem to be on the topics of whether freshmen at Virginia Tech can have cars and whether the dorms are air conditioned.

So, the answers:
Freshmen can have cars.  You have to get a parking permit, and you can only park in Lane Stadium or the Cage (Duck Pond Lot) if you live on campus, and if you park in Lane, you have to move for football games, but you may have a car.  It's pretty useful; even though the bus system here is pretty good, it's nice to not have to depend on it.  So you can spend as many hours in Wal-mart as you want.

Are the dorms air conditioned?  Only a couple, but unfortunately for freshmen they're pretty much upperclassmen dorms.  I think the RLC theme dorm is in one of them, though, and that's available to freshmen.  But for the most part, no.  But you know what?  It isn't a big deal.  There are lots of places to study and work that are air conditioned (including all dining halls, which rocks), and it really isn't that hot here.  It does get pretty warm some days, but right now, on my fourth week, I am perfectly comfortable in my dorm wearing a t-shirt and jeans.  Of course, it's nearly midnight, but even during the day, having a couple fans on makes it comfortable.

Also keep in mind that even an air-conditioned building will seem warm after you walk five minutes to get there and get all sweaty.  At least in this season.  But after a few minutes, you cool off and it's fine.

But to all people who may become freshmen at VT sometime soon:  bring fans.  That's what helps keep it cool, along with keeping the window open.  In some of the dorms, you can even keep the window open when it is raining without any problems; I live in Slusher Wing and have no problem.  If you put a fan in your window, the room stays cooler.

The question in a few weeks:  When do the radiators turn on, and how hot do the rooms get?

Can't help you there.  Yet.

Zes!

Oh zeah, finished the German. I probablz should take mz kezboard out of German lazout though, since the z and y are switched and the punctuation is funnz. For instance, if I have to tzpe something along the lines of "Iäm feeling hilarious todaz,", I have to remember where the actual apostrophe is. Since the apostrophe kez turns into the ä kez. And semicolons are shift-comma, and that hzphen there was actuallz on the ? kez, and that ? was shift-ß. Which is the American hzphen kez. Ack. Sorrz if this is a bit difficult to read. Bleh. Anzone want to trz pronouncing it?

*pushes shift-alt to get things NORMAL*

Though I do enjoy learning the keyboard, especially since otherwise, I would have to dig around in the Symbols pallete in MSWord to find umlauts and essets. Oh, I miss being able to use Macs for school assignments. All you have to do there is push option-u and whatever you want to have an umlaut, or for the essets, option-s. Easy. Silly Microsoft!

Anyway. I'ma go do more homework. Gobblerfest is tomorrow, and also probably a Walmart trip (before the roads get crazy for THE GAME ON SATURDAY that I have a ticket for! Oh man, if it were gonna be cold on Saturday afternoon, I would totally buy the maroon gloves with little maroon and orange pompoms on each finger. So very cute! But I'm a cheapskate. I'll at least wait until it's cold.

(joking. If I don't use my money sparingly, I will learn firsthand why the stereotype says college students beg their parents for money consistently.)

Week 1 = Over!

Hi!

I survived my first week of college! I did a bit of schedule shuffling this week, too, which was a bit confusing. I may have already mentioned that I used my AP Calculus credit to get out of Calc 1 and 2 and just do Linear Algebra and Vector Geometry at the same time. Neither are reported to be really hard, so I'm not worried. And since I was really bored in German 2105, I switched into German 3105, where they're analyzing films and stuff. I'm still a little nervous about it, since it's a class full of non-freshmen and you actually have to talk about stuff in German pretty much the entire time... even new words are usually defined in German, not English. But I'm excited; this looks like exactly what I needed. And the people in the class are genuinely interested in learning German. Which rocks. The only bad part: I had a week's worth of German 3105 work to make up (still not 100% done) since I missed the first two classes. Oh well.

Anyway, I have to admit I'm a bit freaked out about my meal plan. I have *finds receipt* exactly $390.69 with which to feed myself until December 18th. I guess it will help me not gain the Freshman 8 (The seniors in my church were told that "Freshman 15" is an exaggeration, and that usually freshmen gain only 8 pounds. But still.)(Man, I really should ban the parenthesis keys on my keyboard. I commentate parenthetically waaaay too much. Ending comment... now.) if I have to watch how much I'm eating, but still. I didn't realize how much food cost. And students even get half-price on nearly everything in the dining halls, unless the cashier forgets to press the "student with meal plan" button. Which has thankfully only happened to me once. Well, I guess I now know why college students can be won over by free food!

Ooh, I should mention my favorite food place. First of all, I like coffee and baked goods. It turns out that there is a coffee shop, similar to Starbucks (but it serves ice cream as well) that uses Dining Dollars. And the prices are *gasp* reasonable! It's also a great atmosphere; I did much of my Deutsch homework there this afternoon, and while I was there, there were people playing chess, having what looked like a first meeting for a small club that was just starting up, having coffee with a professor, and some people I'm pretty sure I saw at nlcf this morning discussing the Bible. It's great. <3

And I'm not just doing academics either. I'm already in InterVarsity and Cru small groups (I'll try both organizations this semester, and if I feel like God wants me to drop one, I will) that have their first meetings this week, and I can actually remember the names of the leaders! They have had a lot of mixers, and I've tried to go to pretty much everything. ("Tried" meaning that when I got lost going to the large IV group meeting on Friday because I accidentally ended up on the exact opposite side of campus, I actually tried to find the building for about an hour before giving up. And yes, it was an accident. I keep accidentally mixing up the academic and residential sides of campus on the map...) And I'm probably going to try to get involved in the Society of Women Engineers and maybe even the Society of Women in Computing. And hopefully a design team of some sort. Ooh, and there's a group that meets at a certain restaurant on Thursday nights and has dinner conversations in German. =) There's so much here.

Not everything is amazing, sadly. It doesn't look good for me getting private violin lessons right now, since people who are either music majors or in the symphony get top priority (and I am neither) and there are a lot of those people. But that's okay. I can always just work at my own pace. I still think the director was a bit miffed that I didn't bring my "good" instrument (I really don't think dorm rooms are secure enough to keep one's expensive instrument from being stolen. And bothering insurance companies isn't my idea of fun.) Oh well. Oh, and I heard that the internet security software everyone is supposed to install messes up the brand of computer I got, and mine has seemed a bit slower and more temperamental than it was before I installed the software. Maybe I'll take it to SWAT soon to see what suggestions they have. But it's usable. And it is pretty fun having a tablet. Even a Windows one. (Yeah, I still use my Powerbook for stuff too. Sometimes I'll have both computers up and running for some reason, and I think of this:



EDIT: Oops! At least on my monitor, the last panel is cut off. If you click the comic, you can see all of it on the Dilbert website.

EDIT: My spontaneous change of layout fixed the problem. w00t.)

=)

But I did get a ticket to the first home football game! I'm excited about that. The one we watched on TV yesterday (and by "we" I mean I watched it with Intervarsity) looked like a lot of fun, even though we (narrowly) lost.

Now, to finish the rest of the homework.

Mmm… Girl Scout Cookie.

Ahh, All-Abouts. Yum. I like shortbread, I like chocolate, and it's always fun to find out what Girl Scouts is All About.

This one's particularly funny. If the picture's a little hard to read, it says "Girl Scouting is All About…Girls." Man, I didn't see that one coming.

So, three words that describe this cookie: Duh, LOL, Yum.

Interesting…

The link on this post is related to the post content. In that I am stealing Glee's idea.

Her post.

Embroidered whale pants, huh?

This Google ad isn't bad either.



I have never heard of "Elephant Dung Paper." Is it really eco-friendly? I am part of the eco(system), and if it doesn't smell good I don't necessarily call it friendly.

Weird. And the name. Mr. Ellie Pooh? Wasn't he Winnie the Pooh's cousing or something? And I thought Ellie was a girl's name.

Interesting. I wish their business luck. Their ad is certainly attention-grabbing.

Now to ponder: what would one write on Elephant Dung Paper?

oh SNAP!

I noticed this at work and thought it was hilarious.



I'm trying to learn AutoCAD at my work (I am an assistant to an interior designer who runs her own business). So I was looking at the oh-so-helpful documentation to try to figure out how to draw straight horizontal or vertical lines. I discovered that that feature is a little button that says OSNAP and nearly burst out laughing.

If you do not understand, you probably aren't an American teenager. Don't feel bad. Just ask one for an explanation. Although I don't even really understand why people say "oh snap." I'll post a Wikipedia link.

Clicking here helps one understand the randomness factor I see in this phrase's use (or I just feel like posting a h*r link): http://www.homestarrunner.com/malloween.html

And the wiki link: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Oh_snap#.22Oh.2C_snap.21.22

Okay, so some rapper popularized it. And it is used as an expression of disbelief. At the moment, I'm in disbelief that AutoCAD would be this hip five years ago.

Wow. I didn't know this post would be so long. Oh well. Enjoy.

picture is from AutoCAD 2002, by the way

AP Exams Coming Up! What Fun!

I have two AP exams coming up. My AP US History exam is Friday morning, and my English Language and Composition exam is next Wednesday (the 11th and the 16th). I can't wait—to get them over with. These exams might get me college credit and get me out of freshman English and History. As I plan to major in Engineering, it would be great to get the humanities out of the way. Not that I dislike English or History—I would just rather focus on being a nerd/geek. Er—engineer. Whatever.

My English teacher decided to wish us all luck on the upcoming AP today. He often tries to make class interesting by showing us various things he has picked up over the years, such as a unique vase he picked up while he was a garbage collector in college, or old photos from when he was younger. Today, he pulled out a tin lunchbox with a picture of Wonder Woman on it and asked one of the boys in our class what she was wearing on her wrists. I don't know how exactly the boy knew that Wonder Woman wore deflector bracelets, but he answered the question correctly. Our teacher then proceeded to open the lunch box and show us that it contained a large quantity of green rubber band bracelets that had "webvan.com" printed on them in yellow. (This domain seems to be unregistered, by the way.) He explained that, in case we got distracted or started feeling hopeless and overly emotional during the test, we were to snap the bracelet on our wrist to snap us back into reality and deflect distraction. Corny, but cute. He also gave us each a little flat colored marble, like the kind one uses to play mancala. He said that they had been blessed by his wife (I'm sure he was joking on this one) and if we came upon a particularly tough question on the test, we should rub the stone to help us focus. Mind you, we were all laughing from the moment he started passing out deflector bracelets. All the rest of the day, I would see other people who were in his classes snapping their bracelets and accidentally knocking their mancala marbles off their desks. Maybe it was funnier when it was actually happening than it is on a computer screen, but I think it was hilarious.



Thanks for offering to link me, Kerri! I'd love it! And congrats on your blogiversary!

Chocolate is good…

Today at Wegmans I saw this:





Chocolate covered Cinnamon Altoids. Dark chocolate, even. It seemed like it might be a bit weird, but the combination of chocolate and cinnamon is surprisingly good. I've lost count of how many I've eaten today. Thankfully, the carbohydrate count is 1g apiece—nearly negligible. Sweet.

Literally.

In other news, I write on the back of my hand too much. By this point, I can tell you that, if your skin is not dry, a red Pilot V-Ball Grip pen's ink will stay reliably on your hand the longest. Surprisingly, a sharpie washes off quickly, although having adequately moisturized skin will keep any ink from washing off for at least a few hours. Of course, all inks are prone to rubbing off on one's face while one is sleeping, provided that one sleeps on one's hand. Several times during each school year, the following conversation takes place: "What's that on your face?" "There's something on my face?" "Yeah, right there." That is when, after a confirming trip to the bathroom mirror, I discover that I am wandering around with a reminder to not forget to bring my school violin home for a string change. Or some other reminder. One of my yearbook pictures even shows me with an ink mark on the side of my face, but thankfully, you would only notice it if I told you.

Oops. Don't look at last year's yearbook, please.

Travel Fun

I would have posted this last night, except it was nearly 2 AM. So here it is now.

I didn't blog for the past week (read: weeks) or so because (a) I was in Texas visiting my grandparents (for the past week), and (b) I'm sorta lazy. Hey, it's summer.

Anyway, we had a lot of fun doing things like computer troubleshooting and ordering cable internet (my grandparents have dialup at the moment) and cooking. And eating at nice restaurants, playing a domino game called Chickenfoot that no one really knew the rules to, and listening to them tell stories of what life was like way back when.

But the truly hilarious-ish thing happened on the way home.

A long time ago (past four/five years, anyway), my parents decided that three days of driving to get to Texas was a bit excessive and that a three hour flight is better. Fine with me.

So, on this trip, we left Virginia a day or two before this whole terrorist-with-liquid-and-wristwatch deal. Security was normal. When we left, it was still elevated from the craziness. And my dad decided to take most of his camera equipment as carry-on luggage.

So his camera bag is the lucky one to be tested for explosives. The lady, who knew very little about cameras, pulled out each lens, poked and prodded, and put it back. She was suspicious of my dad's camera because it has some kind of motorized attachment on the base that allows it to take pictures faster. That makes it heavy. Thankfully, she called over another security guy who happens to be a professional photographer, who explained the attachment to the lady (who was probably in training, now that I think about it). The guy and my dad talked a little about photography; has my dad ever been published? no? you should try it. it's fun, you can make some money, yadda yadda yadda. The security lady continues searching. What did she see next that was suspicious?

A nine-volt battery.

She asked my dad why he was carrying the battery. He told her he just needed somewhere to put it. She didn't like that. The way she acted made me wonder if anyone had been able to detonate anything serious with such a little battery. It probably couldn't do more than scorch the tray table, but she was insistent and talked with some security guards for a while.

Eventually, we got out of security with the nine volt battery intact. Thankfully, I didn't mention the four AA batteries in my iPod battery extender pack or the AAA in my insulin pump. Or any of my gadgets. Why a nine-volt battery? Why not our iPods?

All the way home (in the car, leaving the airport—we weren't going to say this on the plane!) we kidded my dad about being a nine-volt battery terrorist. I know that terrorism itself isn't funny, but imagining anyone trying to blow something up with a battery that small is. Ahh, good times.

And she didn't even take the nail clippers he had on him. (Really!)