Fishing is only manly if you're using a spear

Goals: Read, Pack lunch, climb. Hopefully all will happen tomorrow.

Hopefully tomorrow I will have internet and intranet access to my important files, and be able to get everything installed. Maybe I'll even get my ID. How cool would that be?

I really enjoy the ITS interns. I share an OFFICE (yes, it has a door) with an intern named Wang and my peer advisor sits right outside in his cubicle.

Pizza with the interns and intern coordinators was fun. We had the biggest pizza I've ever seen in my life - it fed 20 people well and then had tons of leftovers. I'm pretty sure I've proven myself to the other interns to be an idiot, and I don't fit it to the crowd that plays WOW (supposedly our intern coordinator is 30 ish and a level 60 priest?). But we might have a Firefly night, that'd be fun. I definitely need to get in the habit of doing SOMETHING after work and finding something to do on the weekends.

Personality Pig

My first day of work was today. And I've decided I have to work for a company that I approve of their business practices and such, which means I need to research business practices. In 2004 KC started providing coverage for domestic partners, both opposite sex and same sex. Diversity, woohoo! KC is BIG on safety for their employees too, which is awesome.

I've got basically four projects that I will be working on for this summer - one that should take 3 days, a short project, a long project, and a fourth to work on if I'm waiting on other people or get done with other stuff earlier. I'll be learning VB this summer, so that should be interesting, and I'll get to work on some web development/client involved stuff. Exciting.

There's rock climbing nearby, and people to go climbing with, I think. People seem willing to travel, and I've got a mini van. Go go getaway car. Supposedly there's some sort of festival every week or weekend, two farmers markets in the area, and white water rafting less than an hour away. Exciting!

Welcome to the world of ITS (Information Technology Services)... 20 interns, I'm one of two girls.

"It's cool, we've got full coverage"

So, Georgia. It was INCREDIBLE. First time summer trips were ever sent (limited edition ASB summer love shirts!), first time I'd been on an environmental trip. It was really rewarding, working like 6 hours a day outside.

Basically, we left at midnight on May 16 (Mon/Tues night) and drove 14 hours to Moody Forest, Georgia, near the town of Baxley and Santa Clause (I kid you not.) Middle of nowhere, no cell phone signal, etc.

The first two days of our work was clearing firebreaks, as we learned that many of the plants in the area were actually adapted to fire - some of the seeds can't grow unless they are on bare soil. Prepping fire breaks involves mowing, leaf blowing, and raking everything out of the way. We were working at an area called Broxton rocks, which apparently supports an ecological system that isn't really found anywhere else.

The rest of the days were mostly spent protecting endangered plants against invasive species of plants. (Long leaf pine good, oaks bad... pitcher plants good, everything else bad...). We killed a LOT of trees and plants, but the plants and animals (gopher tortoises) that we were protecting are more endangered than the rain forest (less than one tenth of one percent remain).

But best was the group time. We drove almost an hour everyday to get where we were going, cooked dinner every night, and had campfire fairly regularly. We went to Savannah, Jekyll Island, and Okeefenokee Swamp, each for a day. I went canoeing in a gator infested swamp, which was pretty intense. I can't believe so much of our group is taking off... of the ten of us, three are going back to Korea and one is going to New Zealand. We did all go out to Dorca's for Korean food, and Murphys when we got back in to town and then went to Bonnie Jeans for pizza - first group I've ever had where EVERYONE was present for almost the entire night, and no one really headed out early.

One of the best experiences? Dance party in the middle of a dirt road at 11:30 at night. Creepy experience? The dog running around with 911 painted on both sides of him. Funniest? There are too many to retell.

I just bonded with everyone so much. And drove a LOT. And then proceeded to drive to Wisconsin, so more country roads. So yeah, the internship starts tomorrow. Me in the real world. I'm sure there will be pictures later of my first day, me being professional and all. Or maybe not. I go from saving the forest to killing the forest and working for paper mills.

Dinosaurs!

Ok, so I'm exhausted, but I can't not update. I'll give a real update about Moody Forest, Georgia and what we did there, but know that it was awesome and I love everyone from my group. Pictures will follow.

Study up:
Pitcher Plants
Long leaf pines
Savannah, Georgia
Jekyll Island
Fire breaks
The nature conservancy.

I leave for three months tomorrow morning for Neenah, Wisconsin. Come visit!

Quotes

I'm free! No more school for 3 months. I'm off to Moody forest, Georgia to work in the forest for a week and a half! Yay!
Then I'm off to Neenah Wisconsin for the summer, everyone come vist.

So I love quotes. Bash.org is horribly geeky.
Inpassing doesnt update all that often, but is great.

This movie sounds really awesome, and its a good cause.

Truckin'

Random musing:
I think it would be GREAT to be a semi truck driver for a while, and take a tape recorder and just narrate a novel while driving a truck. I don't know what it would be about, but it would be awesome.

Oh goodness. This weekend made me feel old. I went to Jobeth (hooray local bookstores!) for lunch with my girls, and then went to the mall for free underwear, because Grace had a million coupons. We all have crazy internships this summer... I guess I can't expect anything else from "Academy" kids. Let me give you a few examples of just how Geeky we were in high school :

Holy Moley - Gigantic quilted mole, made for "mole day" that was stuffed with smaller moles - each of which represented a "family" of the periodic table of elements and was stuffed with 5 or so smaller moles. 4 of us worked on this project.

Life size stuffed Caesar dolls - some project or another we had to do, we acted a scene of Shakespear with gigantic stuff dolls, that to this day creep us out when we see them.

Stuffed DNA molecules - if we had a DNA costume "that'd be twisted".

Baking cakes and making integral costumes for the calculus teacher.

Remembering where everyone sat in Calc II and what they would do in class on a typical day... those are the things we talk about now.

My Old Kentucky Home

So. The Derby. That annual event where growing up we always had new Derby glasses every year to analyze over dinner. The last filly to win, the last Triple Crown winner (maybe it will be this year). People who aren't from Kentucky don't understand it. This year, I took a picnic to Keeneland with a few friends and bet a little bit of money, and just generally had a good time. I didn't go to Churchill Downs, infield for $40 and a Violent femmes concert, but eh. $9 for a mint Julep there, not that I had one at Keeneland either.

Its weird being back in Kentucky. The southerness, the running in to people I know... but its good to see old friends and to have that chance encounter with someone you haven't seen in ages. Or just to sit around Alixa's kitchen table till all hours of the night drinking tea. I got weirdly sentimental on the drive home this time, and stopped to go shopping.

Oh, I've missed Nick and Taylor... this dialogue, about a minute before the running of the Derby, about why I wasn't allowed to be at the Derby.
Where's your hat? Nick
Where's your sundress? And your high heels? Taylor
Where's your hat?! N
Where's your fake tan and your fake tits? T
And where's your hat! N
Where's your bad dye job and your vapid personality? T
And most importantly, where's your hat? N

This dialogue was later followed by someone tailing Nick really closely while he was driving, and Nick deciding to slow down, put his emergency lights on, and for Taylor to fake vomit out the window. Classy boys. I think they will be visiting me in Wisconsin this summer.


Oh, and Slither was amazing. I reccomend everyone go see it.

Someone want to determine my future plans for me? Grad School? Working? Being Abroad? Teach for America?

Wow

I can't believe this semester/year is almost over! That means people are graduating, and I'm really not sure how to deal with that. One final down, one more to go, and a group paper left to put together on our SWEET project. When/if it goes live I'll post it here.

I'll be home this weekend, so thats exciting. Yay!

Do a friend a favor...

Improv Everywhere

So things have been kind of crazy around here, what with the semester ending next Friday and finals starting this Friday. I'm still covered in balsa wood chips and wood glue from my GE 311 structure.

But here's some fun stuff to look at : Compliments of Phil. Improve everywhere does some pretty impressive stuff. Very PEC-esque.

Yeah, I dont really have anything of interest to say. The poster I designed went to CHI, so thats exciting. I'm trying to figure out if I have time next year to pick up another part time job to do some work in an HCI lab, cause that would be cool. We'll see, I guess.