Seven Years Ago Today

I think we can all remember exactly where we were and what we were doing when we heard. But all we can do now is pray for the families of the lost and be thankful for all we have.

God bless.

Laura = Backwards Compatible?

Well, I just got back from the Math Empo again. I have a proctored Linear Algebra test I have to take by Monday night, so I figured I would do it tomorrow in the six hours between my Engineering Exploration and my Chem class. So I went tonight to learn to use the only calculator program one can use on proctored Empo tests. It's a funny little program called SlideRule. It's one of those calculators where you can't put in a negative sign before a number--the number must be inputted first, then made negative. Same with square roots and other common functions: number first, then function. I'm so used to my TI-89 Titanium (Dad, you really should get one. They ROCK.) that does things the other way around that I decided to go re-learn how to use simpler technology.

Oh, and this one doesn't do fractions or exact answers; just decimals. *sad*

But on the plus side (no pun intended), the Math Empo is full of iMacs. Which is sweet. It almost makes it fun.

I'm sorry!

Man, I feel terrible. Last night, here in Blacksburg, we got some drizzles, probably from Hanna. But on Pig Song I have just learned that, in Herndon, there has been a lot of rain the past few hours, and my (home)(where my parents still live all year) basement flooded. And I was cheering my head off at a football game with wonderful weather, hoping my parents were watching as well. It didn't occur to me that they would be bailing out our basement. Again. I'm sorry! Please pray for them.

GO HOKIES!!!!!

The Hokies just won the VT vs. Furman game 24:7! WOOHOOOOO!

By the way, is it legal to post pictures of the game or of halftime, etc? Because if it is, I have lots of pictures. If not, someone tell me. I don't want to break any laws or anything.

Yay confusion!

I just went to Gobblerfest, and it was pretty intense. There were a gillion organizations, some student-led, some local, some bigger. There were two booths that interested me most, though.

The first one I ran into (not literally) was the Juvenile Diabetes Research Foundation booth. They were advertising the Roanoke Walk-A-Thon, so I got some information for that. And since for Hypatia we have to do six hours of community service, I might as well. Especially since I support the cause!

The next one I ran into was the Humane Society. I had heard in the Hypatia seminar that some Hypatians a year or two ago volunteered at the Humane Society or at something that was involved with it. I talked to the people in the booth about getting it started and got someone's email address to contact. Which I fully intend to do. I'm just confused about how to do all this. I hope I'm not stretching myself too thin, since I think I'm the only Hypatian who talked to them about it. There are other girls here who want to work with the HS, but I don't know 100% who they are. Please pray for me. I don't know if I'll end up leading this, or whether it will drop off into oblivion, or whether... I don't know. Ack. But I want to help out. I just hope I can make it more than just the thought that counts! I'm confused and admittedly not sure if I can not mess this up.

Oof.

Well, I just got back from my trip to Wally's world. It was good, I got the stuff I needed, and I even got some sugar-free Pop-ice for the freezer. And cheesesticks. And chocolate chips, since I just ran out of chocolate. And, of course, Diet Dr Pepper. (Without caffeine, of course.)

Then I had to get it back here. It was heavy, and I'm still a little unfamiliar with the route to the Cage from Walmart and from the Cage to Slusher Wing. But when I got there, someone held the door open for me. Awesome people.

Well, I'm gonna go check out Gobblerfest, the student organization fair. I'm hoping there's free food. And sorry for the rant, by the way.

Man, how do people get golf carts here? I see lots of people driving them around. I want one!

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.)

...?

Oh man, who kept telling me to do my homework on the ratings? Awww.

=)

Miscellaneous Ramblings of Someone who Needs Sleep (did I spell miscellaneous correctly?)

I didn't know I could write so much German. For AP essays, all we had to write was 150 words (there was no extra credit for going over) and edit. But for this assignment for class, I've already written 402 words. And I'm not quite done. It has to be a page long, typed, but thankfully the question(s) are pretty open ended. They're about music. Who can't talk about music forever? I'm guessing I've got maybe 80 words left, so that's a good thing.

Anyway, I have an 8am class tomorrow that goes to 9:30, and then I have six hours before Chemistry. Oh, and then an engineering seminar. The College of Engineering went to all the trouble to schedule "Free Time" for us Freshmen on Thursday nights. Not for us to relax, no. For them to have assemblies. There are so many people there, that they wouldn't notice if a person was missing. The way they find out you attended or not? They'll ask questions on the first Engineering Explorations test. Although the presentation last week was interesting. It was about patents and copyright infringement and stuff. And I took notes, thank goodness. Ooh, and did you know that, trade secrets, even though they aren't regulated like patents or trademarks, are still legally protected? I thought that just if the word got out about the super-special recipe of your great-great-great grandmother's donut icing got out, too bad for you. But no, there is legal protection. (Not that I was going to be giving any super-secret recipes away or anything. Though I should post my cheesecake recipe. When I get home. And have time to remember which of about a gillion I've tried that I like. One hint, though: for a cheesecake, make a shortbread crust. It tastes REALLY good, and it's different than people expect.)

Anyway, I should go to bed. Good night!

SWEeeeeee!

Yay! I just got back from my first Society of Women Engineers meeting. I tried to go to the American Society of Mechanical Engineers meeting, but it was too packed for the tiny classroom they had reserved, so probably one of the few other girls there and I decided to go to SWE. I'm glad I did. They had a lot of info about upcoming events, about Engineering Expo, and... it was just plain awesome. After standing around in a cloud of guys for the MechE meeting, it was refreshing to see so many girls. (There was one guy. Guys can join as well, but not many do.) And they had free pizza, so that was also great.

After the meeting, they had little stations you could go to to get questions answered about stuff. I asked some questions about Expo, and I'm glad I did. I found out what to wear (Business Casual or better, so I might wear a business suit... hmmm... thinking needed here), about the recruiters, how to keep in touch with recruiters (many are Hokie alum anyway and just keep coming back to recruit more Hokies), and other stuff.

Anyway, I'm going to go see if I can figure out how to get a national membership for SWE online. If you want to try the "Reactions" feature from Blogger in Draft, try it below. I think it's kinda cool, at least.

I survived!

And nothing exploded or anything! Sweet.

Chem Lab......

Well, I have my first Chem lab tomorrow at 8:00 AM. I can't say I'm 100% looking forward to it, since during the chem lab I did during the summer program I always seemed to be making mistakes due to being nervous about making mistakes by improperly documenting the boiling of water or something else that would seem entirely trivial were it not done in a laboratory setting. Or something like that. But I'm probably just overreacting. Although I will have to boil water tomorrow... =)

Speaking of which, since we will be using Bunsen burners for several labs, and since there are many, many students who must use Bunsen burners every semester, why does the university make students bring matches or lighters to class? Would it not make sense to invest in some strikers? It feels a bit sketchy (or as native Blacksburgians say, as far as I can tell, sketch) to be carrying a lighter around in my backpack. (FYI, I am very anti-smoking!) But I guess it's understandable; mine cost barely more than a dollar. Still, the semi-implied association makes me squeamish and unjustifiably embarrassed. Although I'm not a lab instructor. Maybe there are regulations or something. If I didn't have homework to do this semester, I might research the reasoning. =) I'm not trying to subvert authority or anything; just curious and a bit weirded out.

Anyway, I should get to bed so I can actually be awake for said Chem lab. Good night!

Okay, fine. I'll cave to pressure.

Okay, I changed the look again. Obviously, the header needs some work. Maybe I'll even try to get an actual picture of a waffle for it soon, custom taken in a dining hall by yours truly. Until then, enjoy the not-turning-on-lightsness of this layout. =)

YES!

Okay, so my German class (3105) had a confusing room situation. I thought the room had moved from an Engineering building to a Business building, but we were still in the Engineering building and I only got there just in time this morning. But it doesn't have a projector, and my German professor wants one. I would too, personally. I like technology. So I just saw in my email that... my German class has moved to the residential side of the Drillfield! The Drillfield has an academic side with a couple of dining options and a residential side (including my dorm) with way more dining halls. And now, we're over here, near where I live. And I will be able to get a good, non-pizza-or-pastry lunch in between Deutsch and whatever else I have after that. Which rocks. And apparently the room is pretty good.

Anyway, the design change may change. I'm not sure about this layout, but who knows.

I'm bored with my current template.

So I'm going to change it. I like this one; sophisticated, yet ironic, since I still write like a teenager. Lawl. =)

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.

There's just so much here!

I was just at a meeting for people who want to major or minor or double major in a foreign language. Or study abroad. I fall into two of those categories. Every time I go to one of these things I get really excited. I'm sitting in Burger King, probably looking like a weirdo because I keep checking my computer and typing and bouncing up and down in happiness (did you know it doesn't take many more credits for a German major than for a minor? It's a possibility... I'm considering it. Not definite yet, but now I can't wait for the University Honors meeting in which I will get my Course of Studies planner back (honors students use sticky notes to plan out their years at Tech with classes they plan to take, internship/co-op periods, study abroad, etc.) Anyway, I gotta go to an Engineering assembly soon, so I should go. Just was too excited not to say something.
-Lala

I've been gone a while, haven't I?

Hello, everyone! I have been gone forever, it seems. Since I last posted, I went to Prom, had AP exams, graduated, did a summer program at Virginia Tech, and became a Virginia Tech student. Today was my first day of classes.

I am living in a theme dorm called Hypatia, which is for first- and second-year engineering major women. A similar program, called Gallileo, is available for engineering men. Hypatia is a great group, and I'm really excited about it. One funny thing is that here at Virginia Tech, I have met more Lauras in the past few days than I have met in a LONG time. My roommate (this was not planned, by the way) is named Laura. Sometimes, people will walk into our room and say "Laura" just to watch us both turn around. And there is another Laura down the hall who likes to hang out in our room. Seriously; if you have ANY ideas for nicknames, they would be greatly appreciated.

My first day of classes has been great. I first figured out the situation with my math classes; since I can't take Multivariable Calculus until I take Linear Algebra and Vector Geometry, I will be taking both of those this semester. (I have had several people, including my awesome calculus teacher from last year, that with my AP score, I should just skip out of Calculus 1 and 2.) Then I had German, and though I was a little nervous (I was the only freshman), I enjoyed it, especially when a Mechanical Engineering professor taking the class (I didn't know they could do that, but that's actually really cool that he's taking classes. I probably would as well if I worked at a university.) asked to talk to all the engineering majors (all 3 of us) after class. He told us that there was a program starting that would allow Mechanical Engineers who were sophomores this year who got good grades in certain German classes spend the summer before their senior year in Stockholm, Sweeden and then spend their senior year at the Technische Universität Darmstadt. They would then receive Bachelors degrees in MechE from BOTH Virginia Tech and TU Darmstadt. I think this will be an ongoing program. And one in which I want to get involved. A lot. I have been trying to decide between Electrical Engineering and MechE, and since both could probably lead to the subject in which I am currently interested (designing and building robots), I think this might be worthwhile. And FUN. I have seriously been excited all day. My mood was only slightly dampened with an assignment from my next class, the Hypatia seminar (for first-year Hypatia residents). That assignment: join the newly-created Hypatia group on Facebook. I asked if I could not join facebook, but apparently I have to. I will do my best to not get distracted by it, which basically means that everything on my account will be private and I won't check it much. Is there a way to delete Facebook accounts, by the way? I don't want this sucking me in later on, especially in Junior and Senior years when I'll really need to focus. While the concept of Facebook is brilliant, I think it could be fatefully distracting at inopportune times (finals, projects, etc.) It was kind of weird, though. Once they found out, people who I had told I would never get Facebook unless I was forced came up to me and said "Laura, I'm so proud of you!" Ugh. I was forced; it's a graded assignment. Drop it, people! Anyway, the rest of Hypatia wasn't bad. It doesn't look like a hard class, but it looks like it will be useful at the same time. We already have another assignment to do a presentation about ourselves to get us used to public speaking. (By the way, does anyone know if the (really awesome-sounding) Dale Carnegie Public Speaking Courses can be taken by college students or by people not being forced to go through the course by their employers? I really want to take it. The instructors give only positive feedback to assignments, or so I have heard, so the students build confidence and learn to enjoy speaking in public. I would like that experience.)

And then I had my Vector Geometry class. It is an online class, but it has lectures and recitations (thank goodness!). The professor seems both nice and funny, so I'm looking forward to it. Althouth it took nearly all of the 15 minutes I had between Hypatia and VecGeom to get there, since it's a ways across campus. But it was fun.

Anyway, tomorrow I have my first Linear Algebra class (which is also online, but has no lecture or recitation; it's self taught. Fun, fun fun. Thank you, AP Physics B online for teaching me how to teach myself. But I've heard it isn't hard. But now I'm wondering why I keep making long parenthetical comments. I think I'll end this parenthetical comment now.), followed by Engineering Exploration (it would be followed by VecGeom recitation, but for our section, there's none the first week) and then Chemistry. And there are currently some random guys singing a capella music in the hallway. They actually sound pretty good.


Anyway, (I also start a lot of paragraphs with that word, don't I? Tsk, tsk.) I think I have a way to make myself post more often. I have bought two tiny portable garden gnomes, one of which I try to have in my purse at all times. I want to make a habit of taking pictures of it in random places and posting them. I already have some pictures, but I won't post them tonight. But soon. Hopefully.

I'm gonna get off now. My first class tomorrow is at 9 am. (Which means I should change the alarm clock, since I thought it started at 11... I'll figure this out. Hopefully soon. And someday, I won't feel compelled to write overly long parenthetical comments about everything. That's bad form, isn't it? Oops. It's fun, since I can make jokes about it. w00t.)

Wow!

Firstly, I would like to thank Kerri for linking me about Diabetes Awareness Day. I enjoyed raising my voice, even though it was only on a little personal blog with a boring gray background. (Believe me; I intend to fix that someday. Hmmm…) I don't know how much planning this holiday took, but I am all up for doing it next year as well, assuming I remember.

And thanks, Glee, for the hug. Hugs to you too, and to all diabetics out there. This is one of those times where I can probably accurately say that I know what you're going through. It ain't easy.


…I'm suddenly getting the urge to start working on a cooler blog background. I really have to push that one off until AP testing is over, as much as I would love to fire up Photoshop Elements right now and fix things up…

Type 1 Diabetes Awareness Day!

Well, today is the much-anticipated Type 1 Diabetes Awareness Day. I won't say much, but I will point you to Kerri's blog and say that I am very happy that she came up with this idea. Also, this flyer is a very good explanation of type 1. For anyone who wants more info, please check it out.

Well, I would type more, but I'm exhausted and have a Calculus test tomorrow. Oh joy. The cause of my exhaustion will have to be blogged about soon. = ) So I'll just say that, if you see a diabetic today, give them a hug. They deserve it; diabetes is unpredictable.  And most diabetics are more than willing to answer questions, so ask them!  (But I'll tell the world right now that no type 1 diabetic is at fault for his or her disease. It isn't caused by eating too much candy or being irresponsible; the immune system just gets a bit crazy and destroyes the beta cells inside the Islets of Langerhans (which are in the pancreas) so that the body can no longer produce insulin. Believe me; if I had control over my immune system, I would not tell it to do that! = ) )

Er…  Studying.  Right.  I think I'll log off now.