Happy study I found interesting.

Grad School

So, I've decided if I'm a grad student, this semester is playing out ok. Except for classes, but it makes the rest of life make sense. Except that I'm not a grad student.
But, to prove my point, I relate to this:

Contact Lenses for Chickens!

No, for real, contact lenses for chickens.
I'll add in that I wasn't just randomly browsing the internet and came across that... it was mentioned in one of my classes. Shortly before we started talking about green pavement.

Things that make me happy:
1) My Green engineering class. And being around entrepreneurially minded people.
2) My law class - or more specifically, learning about new subjects I previously had no real exposure to and finding them intriguing. This class is fascinating (and Prof. Hollis could do stand up. She called one of the Senior execs from Tech Labs a sadist. I'm a big fan. So far none of the classes has seemed like it lasted 50 minutes, I don't mind going at all. Except that it's at the same time as Friday Forum, and that makes me a little sad).
3) My electric kettle. Same unconditional love as always.
4) The fact that there IS a heat vent in my room and it was just covered by carpet and that I won't have to use my space heater tonight. Hooray!
5) Reading for fun. I'm still trying to read as much as possible, and I'm getting there.
6) $2 Carmel Vanilla Lattes from Espresso Royale. Actually, local coffee shops in general. Boo starbucks.
7) My sister smiling with her teeth in photos.
8) Hearing talks from Tech Labs people. And being excited about my job for when I graduate. Having a job already is a mixed blessing. I don't have to worry about the job search (yay!) but it makes me rather anxious to get out of here.
9) The Juno soundtrack
10) How Steve Schenk and I continue to find the same things by completely different routes:



Things that I am frustrated with:
1) TAM, TAM Labs, and TAM Homework: Fluid dynamics. I don't fricking care. I have no interest in it, and there is nothing about intriguing. I'm frustrated with the fact that I can't force myself to do the homework or just to get it out of the way so I can do other more interesting things. Blurgh.

Dance your cares away....

Also, <3 Randall Munroe : http://blag.xkcd.com/2008/01/28/obama/
I think the future will be ok too.
Why is it all the cool lectures happen while I'm not on campus?

Google Reader

So, I just signed up for Google Reader. Because... well I was resisting doing the whole RSS feed thing. Because honestly, I -like- spending the time going to each site and checking to see if there's anything new. So far, I'm really enjoying Google Reader. Kind of nice not to go to each website. Its kind of like how a lot of grocery stores are now owning gas stations - cluster the things you do together and save on driving. Well, duh. They even have a cafe in Schnucks now - wild, right?
I still refuse to forward my UIUC email address to Gmail. Which irritates me that UIUC can't do some of the stuff gmail does, but I like the... well its not a physical separation, exactly, but I like that they are two different accounts for two purposes.

Jellyfish:

Technology and Society... So interesting.

Read danah boyd.

Language is also cool.

So.

Sorry I've been so silent lately. Hopefully I'll be able to pick back up soon. I have some things I want to get written, but we shall see.

Ideas

Things I need to brainstorm
- 15 ideas of a legal research paper, 10-12 pages single spaced. It can be about ANYTHING that is legal related. I'm thinking international development or healthcare or technology or something.
- a few ideas for a "green" startup company. It doesn't have to focus on being green, but in setting it up, it needs to be green.

Help?

N'awlins

So, New Orleans. It was good. Really good.

Drove to Urbana on Friday the 4th. Picked up the rental car (which, might I add, enterprise managed to get 10 vans out in about 20 minutes, it was SUPER impressive!). Sunday at 9am met up with the 4 boys that were piling in the car with me: Nik, Kevin, Luke, and Chi Sum. We ran about an hour of errands before finally hitting the road. The car ride was pretty uneventful (discussion inappropriate) other than getting stuck behind an accident for about an hour and a half. We arrived in Kenner, LA about 1:15am.

Sunday was spent touristing. We went down to the lower 9th ward and saw Brad Pitt's Make it Right project. Its a cool idea: if you're going to rebuild, do it sustainably. Some of the designs seem a bit out of control, but ultimately sustainable housing is cheaper for the inhabitants living there (in terms of utilities and maintenance, etc). I'll be interested to see what happens there. It's pretty haunting that after 2.5 years there are still steps that lead to nothing and lots that are completely run over. Apparently that concrete that is still there makes it really difficult to rebuild. After that we drove around a bit to Uptown and checked out some of the HUGE houses and a big park. Talked to some locals and heard their stories of when the hurricane hit.

Monday my group managed to get (really) lost and miss orientation. First house I worked on the owner gave us Beignets! Good start to a morning. The first day was a bit disheartening - the guy owns a duplex and it just seemed like he was probably going to sell it once it was finished - not really the same experience as working with someone who really can't get help otherwise. Then again, I don't really know his situation, but that was the impression that I got. It was interesting because the site was really disorganized - it was just us and the homeowner and no guidance from the site; luckily a few people had done drywall before. The group that was in before us REALLY botched the taping and mudding and left a lot to be sanded. That group had also put up regular dry wall in the bathroom, where moisture resistant drywall is needed. Its really a shame because a) its a waste of time b) a waste of materials. The price of drywall in NOLA is about 3x what it should be since there's such a high demand for it. Its that case where volunteers are clearly doing more harm than good that is super frustrating - good intentions that just fall short (in our case, lack of direction, if we messed up). Chili deliciousness for dinner by Kevin and Nik.

Tuesday was interesting. Had directions for a house that needed a bathroom drywalled - probably needed 3-5 people. Went back to the Station to recieve the case file for the house. Got the case file with keys and more info on what needed to be done, along with some tools. Two of the guys at the site were going to follow shortly with supplies - we show up at the house with about 11 people, because they think the whole house needs to be mudded/taped and painted. We show up, and there's a bathroom that needs to be painted but aside from that, the whole house is finished (and very crooked). Talk to the neighbors a bit, which was really interesting, and talked about the hike in rental rates since Katrina. We go back to the station and have lunch before we get directed to a new place. We go to a woman's house (packrat) and help her move some doors/wood out of the backyard and throw some stuff upstairs away, and removed a bunch of nails from the ceiling so that drywall can be put up. The homeowner was very interesting and has had a lot of unfortunate things happen to her since the hurricane - so many that it was really difficult to believe. Its definitely incredible that people have been living in FEMA trailers for the last 2 years - they're intended to be lived in for 6 months, and may contain formaldehyde, which poisons the residents. The plan was to meet our contact at a different site and help move some more stuff, but he never quite got there, so we drove around the city a bit and went back to the 9th ward. We got to see one of the Levee breach sites - my group was really patient with the whole "not having a lot of work to do" - we got to see a lot of the neighborhoods and compare and contrast, which was definitely good. There could have been a LOT more complaining.
Pasta for dinner, much deliciousness.

Wednesday we got a new address and show up at the house - and again, pretty much everything was finished. Walked around the neighborhood a bit (explored the school that was definitely not in use - seems like school was being held in trailers behind the school. Wednesday afternoon we finally got a site that was considered "ours" and we'd spend the rest of the week there. Wednesday we put insulation up in the ceiling of a small two bedroom house. Thursday and Friday were mostly spent dry walling the ceiling. My group had a lot of fun - we were one of the more diverse groups, in 11 people we had at least 2 people from every school on the trip. I really can't have imagined a better work group - we had a LOT of fun and did a really impressive job despite our newly acquired drywalling skills.

I want to be a big enough person not to feed talking negatively about other people, but I let my frustrations get the best of me.

I'm so grateful for the opportunity to go to NOLA. I got to meet about 40 new people from 3 different schools around the country. Did closeness questions with a group of about 10 people, which is always fun. Anonymous compliments by touches are amazing warm fuzzies. The whole trip was a nice escape from my own life. It's really crucial to get some people who can think logically down to New Orleans to organize the whole rebuilding effort. There are too many good intentions (and volunteers) that are wasting hours and resources because of a lack of direction or knowledge/skill. I'm kind of ashamed that I haven't been down to NOLA until now.

It's amazing what a difference the ability to afford Flood insurance makes (or the knowledge that flood insurance could be useful).

Obituaries don't do people justice

But as close as we can get.

*sigh*

This ASB Trip to New Orleans is dedicated to my uncle and his family. That's a really good picture of him.

Neil Gaiman says it better than I ever could...

Here...

"May your coming year be filled with magic and dreams and good madness. I hope you read some fine books and kiss someone who thinks you're wonderful, and don't forget to make some art -- write or draw or build or sing or live as only you can. And I hope, somewhere in the next year, you surprise yourself."

...

What a start to a New Year.

I'm alive, I'm healthy, and I have some of the best friends in the world. Not exactly the best start to a New Year - but if these things had to happen, I'm glad I was at home when they did.

Sorry for the lack of posting lately - things have been pretty hectic around here.

Happily ever after is overrated, it leaves no room for you to grow.
The last 48 hours feel like about a week...
I wouldn't trade my family or friends for the world.