grad school fail #105

one of the trainers at the gym asked to see my new iphone. he started speaking to siri and asked her to play a song. apparently siri plays the songs in order on my itunes.

he started listening and then was confused. the first "songs" on my itunes were from the Woodcock-Johnson assessment testing cd - story recall.

examples from these "songs" include: "Julie likes to catch butterflies. Then she lets them go"

i tried to explain that i had music, and those are for testing children with potential learning disabilities. the more i tried to explain, the more confused he looked, and i just probably should've given up even trying to explain that i'm a normal person that has music on my iphone...

reminds me of undergrad...

unlike this fool, i think i drew the same thing for my biology 100 lab class, except i put "JUST KIDDING" and still received credit.
oh memories...

thanksgiving break projects

baby z is so pretty in her new dress!

support from RAs

Due to my unfortunate mugging, I emailed asking one of the RAs for the code to get into the lab because I no longer have my key.
My loyal RA of 2.5 years immediately wrote me back Saturday night at 12:44am:
"I'm so sorry. Ima f*** the guy up. Wow I'm so angry and pissed"

I'm really grateful for my friends (and RAs) support these past few days!! It really means a lot!

the big d

poor dallas:
"Big D is a big dud according to AFC voters, who find the city and its locals anything but fun-loving: its cocktail hour ranks No. 29 and the live music is next to last (No. 34). And not only are the residents deemed not-so-smart (No. 28), they’re not even worth looking at, AFC readers said: the city ranks last for people-watching."
i'm not doing anything to help by working all of the time. it should be my civic duty to improve cocktail hour. new years resolution?

the french and eating

This reminded me of why I love living in France:Americans need to stop multitasking while eating alone, argues French sociologist Claude Fischler

It almost reminded me of how last night my dad and I made a run for Taco Bell at 11pm... almost.

"Food portions are significantly bigger in the U.S. than in France. Yet North Americans spend less than an hour each day eating what's on their hefty plates, while the French spend more than two hours each day enjoying "food experiences." France's obesity rate weighs in much lower than America's and even other European nations'. American women spend more time multi-tasking while eating and are less likely to remember everything (or time) they ate than do French women. ("If you're eating constantly, it's difficult to remember," Fischler cracked.)

Does this all add up to the mysterious "French Paradox"? Fischler doesn't think it's much of a mystery."

I don't think it's much of mystery either. My theory is that the wine magically removes calories - at least that's what I told myself everyday when I bought my 2.50euro cote du rhone at monoprix. Maybe I should suggest this theory to my advisor and be my own participant, for healthy living purposes of course.

vive la france!

favorite patient quote

after 2 hours of neuropsych testing with my patient: "now you're going to tell you lover tonight when you're done what a dumb broad you saw"

two points: 1. patient definitely too hard on self, and 2. she incorrectly assumed that grad students actually have normal people lives. after i told my supervisor though her quote, she responded, "doesn't she know that grad students don't have lives?" (i hope the observation was more about grad students than me in particular...) little did my patient know is that i'm going to be with my parents tonight celebrating my dad's birthday with a bunch of other filapinos at pappadeux's. however, i'm going to take her statement optimistically, which means that i give off the impression that i could be gossiping with a lover tonight. holllaaa!

hoarding/au revoir...a jamais?!

"valerie look at all the goodies we got from the travel convention we performed at! which of these do you want?"



the answer was none. it was like i was speaking a foreign language that i didn't accept cheap things i would never use. how many cardboard fans and plastic beads do you need when you're not mardi gras? 0
in 5 years, you'll see my parents house on hoarders

along with that note, i gave my parents a near 60 day notice that i'm moving out and into pam's apartment in january. they tried to convince me out of it- i'm sure because they love my wit and joy i bring to the house. mostly though, it's probably because they're afraid i'll take baby z away from them. charlie bought a fur blanket to put over her while she sleeps because it's getting cold. pretttyyyy adorable:::::



je rigole, it's not au revoir a jamais - the lease is up end of july, and pammy's leaving the furniture there, so i'll have the chance to move back to laundry and cooked oatmeal in a few months if i'm too lazy to warm up the instant oatmeal in the microwave. also my bed/furniture will stay here, so i could come back and relive my current life. come visit in january!!!

meeting that i missed on campus

my first thought was because i didn't want to work at macdonald's....

sunday conversations

(dad singing bieber songs to himself)
me (to dad): are you bored? like in life?
dad: what do you mean? (pause) well i'm gassy...

gossip news in the house

number of times that dad has mentioned bieber and his potential baby momma in the past 24 hours = 5
i was away for 12 of those hours. someone has a mancrush.

presents

My dad saw fake tattoo sleeves and he thought that I would like it. The presents from dad this year include a stun gun, brass knuckles, and now fake tattoo sleeves:



I think that he wants me to back back to my past like ice cube. holllaaaa