Internet=Life

     I finally got internet again.  The modem was delivered not two hours ago.  As used to no internet as I was I did miss it.  I missed being able to look anything up at anytime.  I also missed silly videos.  Silly kitten videos as well.  They deserve their own category.  Hah, pun.  I'm just writing a bit today but I will update soon.  Also, a picture.

Tad Graduated

     I'll come right out and say it. BAM! Tad has his M.S. in non-profit management.  We spent all weekend going to graduations and a few parties with more to come this week.  Here he is in his regalia.

  Great job Tad!  The hood is 'gold-yellow' according to the official descriptor and is four feet long.  The ceremony for once did not in fact run over, it was only an hour and forty-five minutes for a graduating class of over 1,000 students (I gave up counting after six hundred).  We went out to a locovore restaurant (as encouraged by the student speaker Chandler Griffith) Angelica's Kitchen over on the east side.  The restaurant was great with tons of interesting vegetarian choices.  Very eco and social justice friendly.  No coffee though they have an equivalent made of chicory, barley and other roasted grains.  Pricey but that's what you get for eating locavore.  Wait, what's locavore?  It's eating local food and buying from the local economy.  They get a lot of their stuff at the Union Square Farmer's Market which is a few streets up. I have been adding books under my belt here and there but I'm cutting this short (how sad) because my internet is horrible right now and I'm almost out of battery from emailing people Tad's graduation photos.   Hmmm...

     I would like to thank and congratulate everyone out there this month who have/will be soon graduated and hope all their annoying ceremony speeches were worth it.  After years of Sisyphean effort to finish papers, read publications and who knows what else there will soon be a piece of paper mailed to your house and maybe even put in a plaque.  Great job getting a piece of paper.  You deserve a rest.  You know, for like a week.
((I'll fix formatting tomorrow to match the others))
Angelica's Kitchen
300 East 12th Street (between 2nd Ave and 1st Ave)
Manhattan, NY 10003
(212) 228-2909

Result: Great but not everyday meals.  A bit pricey. (Eatable and justicy)

Syllogism is a word

     I have done something besides work and read in the last week.  I volunteered in a garden with Target.  We only worked for about an hour, weeding and watering, but it was more than I had done in a long time.  It felt refreshing and I was able to ask some of the other volunteers what organizations were in the area.  New York Cares is one mentioned for its ease of access and range of opportunities.  This summer I plan on joining the group hopefully with Tad.  In fact, BAM, while writing this blog I already signed up for it.  Much easier than working with the Food Bank.

     Tad and I haven't been able to go on walks very often.  Why?  He is work work working his way through his PDQ which as far as I am concerned is his master's thesis.  I'm trying not to frustrate him much but I do feel a bit lonely.  It'd due tonight I think or tomorrow at class so he is right now working on the homestretch.  I will make this a quick blog because I have only promised myself an hour on the internet.  I wondered and worried a few years ago if I was addicted to the sweet glory that is immediate access to anything and everything but I since I am on maybe three times a week for a few hours at a time I know that any addiction I had is long gone.  I need to give a gift to a few of Tad's friends for graduation but I don't want to spend a lot.  I'm thinking books (do my preferences show?) and I have an idea for one of the two friends but not the other. 

     I claimed I would have pictures of family get togethers but I never took any myself.  Tad's graduation is this month, though, and my in-laws are coming up to see it.  I'm so proud of Tad and both Bryan and Diego, the friends previously mentioned.  They are all finishing their Masters in different but still equally hard areas.  Bryan is a non-profit like Tad and is part of Toastmasters, which is how I met him.  I feel so bad.  My good friend Melissa graduated just this past weekend I did not even notice!  Oh, woe to those who do not do well for their friends!  Now I have to remember to send her a card (and find a gift for her).  Which I want to!  Melissa, what should I give you!  Congrats on your diploma and hard work!!! Arrgg!

     So, what has taken up the majority of my day?  My book reading of course.  I need more books soon because I only have six left and I can finish most of them in a single day.  What should I get?  I think I might start on the mysteries.  No, maybe modern novels, I have to read quite a few of them.  I also have started a side list of other books to look into for when, you know, I have downtime and all.  ::sigh::  Books books books.  What have I read?  The Ornament of the World which is about Islamic and post-Islamic Spain.   I read The Wind in the Willows which I am fairly sure I watched cartoons about as a child.  I also finished Shikasta which is a great sci-fi book.  I'll talk about it later because for now I have to head home.  Must get some food in this ravenous belly of mine.  I'll be back on tomorrow.

     For those who are interested syllogism is deductive reasoning, versus inductive reasoning.  You know, like logic.

     501 books count: 71

Spring weather sprung itself finally

     I had a wonderful weekend without work.  I visited the family and got to see Anna's campus up in Vermont.  Train rides are so much less hassle than airplanes.  Just get there on time and have a ticket.  We had plenty of space to store our luggage (the infamous Mickey Mouse bag), time for me to read and take a nap on Tad and no security to go through.  Security is so stupid at airports anyways, since if they are determined enough I'm sure they will get through.  We drove through the mountains to get up to Bennington and it increased my desire to go hiking this summer.  I've actually started to dig up information now so I know what I'm looking into.

     I picked up a book that I recognized from when I was looking up information about through-hiking the Appalachian Trail (no I don't think Tad or I will ever do this) called A Walk in the Woods.  While it had some interesting stuff it wasn't that great and I finished up in about three hours.  Very quick. 

     Spring has finally hit us.  I can wear a short sleeved shirt without shivering and the trees have burst delightfully into bloom!  Tad and I are planning to go to a hanami festival this weekend and I want to take pictures there.  I'll take some, I swear.  Really.

     Humm, what else has happened?  OH!  I did in fact finish Walden but I didn't bring it on the train up to Albany.  While that was probably a better environment for the novel I only had twenty-something pages left to read.  I have less that 200 pages remaining between two other books.  I will have gotten through my longest book (597 pages) to date by tomorrow I believe.  What should I say about Walden?  I can see many of Thoreau's points and agree sometimes with his disgust with society.  The many problems he saw then have only gotten worse and more convoluted since.  I also find a resounding appeal to his absolute love of nature.  He really comes through as very superior and arrogant though especially when touting his peculiarities.  Ever listen to some artist or musician who is 'avant garde'?  They become so into their own ways since they can't reconcile themselves with society at large that they actually begin to demean the very audience they are trying to garner.  I'm sure everyone had that friend who was so sure of themselves that, well, everyone is obviously wrong.  Such a childish viewpoint.  The love for his land was admirable if not a bit silly.  It was moving and I think a base to encourage outdoor exploring that should be nature to everyone in this country.

     Supposedly we are getting the internet in the apartment tomorrow.  Good, I don't mind having all this time to read and relax but there are times when I want to listen to something or check a fact or just check my emails.  Annoying. 

     Ah, one last thing.  A new vocab word: tocsin- a warning bell or alarm.

Happy Spring Religious Week Everyone

     This weekend Tad and I head to Albany to visit extended in-laws.  I'm impatient for the break because I will be working eight-hour days all week before this.  I get off next Monday though and I believe I close Tuesday.  I've been reading more and more this past week finishing another two books (ok just children books but still) and have made significant progress through one of the densest books I've started so far.  A Distant Mirror: The Calamitous Fourteenth Century is just under 600 pages long and filled with tiny print and details galore.  I have finally, after about a month and a half of on-and-off reading have reached the halfway point.  Usually a thicker book like this makes me give up but I am bearing through it gamely.  I've gotten through the three hundred pages of background story to the actual main area, the life of Enguerrard IV de Coucy.  I can't guarantee I spelled his name correctly since I don't have the book in front of me.  It's a good read filled with lots of significant details of the life and events of the 1300s.  It has been fun to read even if at times, to double check what I'm reading I only get through fifteen pages in an hour.

     I am sad that all my books end.  As silly as it sounds I really enjoy being led through the author's eyes and following their stories.  I also get distracted by a new story far, far too easily.  I'm mostly through Thoreau's Walden but it has a time and a place to be read.  How incongruous to read about forsaking culture and embracing nature on a bus in NYC! 

     This post is really very helter-skelter.  I miss studying mathematics.  I want a book on group theory (sorry Britt, I do want to learn it) and a text on either partial-differentials past what I learned in class or a good book on vector groups and tensors.  I feel limited by my surroundings and my lack of academic connections.  When Tad graduates this semester I will look into going back even just for night courses to finish up and all.  I miss stretching my mind.  I want to join in on volunteering activities and work with people on new and more expanding ground than I have now.  I feel my lack of movement forward.  I am under a blanket and cannot get out quite yet.  I also want a pet, a little kitty meowing and needing my attention.  Ahh, to know my limits and break them, that is what I want to start looking into now.  It may be the wrong holiday to start focusing on resolutions but I am anyways. 

     My next post will be a bit more organized and hopefully full of fun photos of the family together and hanging out.  Maybe I'll have finished Walden by then as well.  We'll see.