Wiped out

Today I taught my first Meteo 3 lab of the semester. It went pretty well, even though the students were a bit quieter than I expected them to be. Luckily, everyone had enough time to finish the lab before they left. Well, all those that remembered to bring their books with them. I don't know why some people thought they wouldn't have to have their texts, considering it contains the lab component as well. Anyway, the kids were relatively smart. Many had trouble with isoplething, but I've heard that before, so it wasn't a huge shock to me. I'm still working on the best way to explain it so that people will get it. I haven't quite come up with it yet. However, by the end of class, those students that actually asked about isoplething seemed to be getting the hang of it.

Earlier today I had a slight panic attack. I was looking at info for a fellowship Ray wants me to apply for, and realized that I had two weeks until the deadline to get it to them, and I have so much crap that I need to take care of for that. I need official transcripts from both Carroll and Penn State, an original signed letter of recommendation from Ray, a five-page proposal, and some other junk too. Much of this I'm pretty sure I can get done relatively quickly. However, the one thing that may not work out is the original signed letter from Ray, since he's in Antarctica at the moment. I can't quite figure out how that's going to work. Anyway, after looking at all that I need to do, I started to panic just a little bit, because I have to teach and grade and get research done and not go completely insane. Basically I was on the verge of a major panic attack just because there's more on my plate than I'd like there to be at this point. However, there's not a whole lot I can do. All I can do is try to get everything done on time and see what happens.

The only reason Ray wants me to try for this fellowship is so that I have funding. Granted, that's important and all, but I haven't had much luck in the past with getting fellowships or awards or the like. We'll see, though. I should give it a shot because I'd probably get more from the fellowship than I do getting funded through grants the way it is. The fellowship is worth up to $24,000 per year, so I guess it would be worth my while. However, if I start to feel like my grip on reality is slipping, I may just give up.

Another thing on my mind about applying for this fellowship is that I'm still not quite certain of my future at Penn State. If I didn't pass the candidacy exam, I'm done. So, if I apply for the fellowship and get it, but didn't pass the candidacy exam, I wouldn't know what to do about that. I guess NASA could just take it back and award it to someone else. But I'm not really sure how that would work.

Speaking of the candidacy exam, it really sucks that I have to wait so long for the results. Not only because of the fellowship thing, but also because I need to know if I should renew my lease or not. I suppose I should talk to the rental office to see what they say. All I know is that after 180 days, they automatically renew the lease, and that's coming up pretty quickly. And since I don't know how well I did, I'm not entirely certain I'll need to renew the lease. And if I do renew and then don't pass, then I'll have to go through the trouble of subletting, which will just be an extra pain that I really don't need.

Of course, only time will tell about that.

Anyway, on to some randomness....

The first random thought I have stems from my last entry. I wrote about the stupid signs that are all over PA. I also have to comment on the drivers in this state. I realize that when I'm driving Rt. 119 or Rt. 22, or any of the other non-interstates that you need to take to get just about anywhere from State College, at night, my brights will be needed to see anything that may jump out at me. Most of these routes are pretty much through wilderness with the occasional town scattered throughout. I don't have a problem using my brights, and I'm even kind enough to go back down to regular headlights when I notice cars approaching from the other direction, especially on a two lane road. However, I am incredibly sick of the people who don't realize they're being rude by leaving their brights on, even when people are driving in the opposite lane. I got so pissed off by it on Saturday night, that at one point, I turned my brights back on just to see how they liked it. It took them about two minutes to get the point, but at least they did. I swear, whatever happened to common courtesy??

My second random thought deals with the Oprah book club incident. First of all, I had lost a little respect for her when I went into a Borders before Christmas with Ingrid in Greensburg for our annual Christmas gift exchange. We were walking around just looking at books (trust me, I could spend hours in a bookstore). In the classics section, we saw a three-pack of books by Faulkner that bore Oprah's seal of approval. I know this is just my and her opinion, but I can't understand how Faulkner is considered a good writer. I've only read half of one of his books, and that was The Sound and the Fury, and I hated it. And Oprah's seal of approval covered that book. Seriously, I'm shocked. Of course, it's only my opinion, but I lost just a teeny bit of respect for her. And now with the "embellishment" of a memoir by this James Frey, I'm thinking her book club seal of approval isn't quite cutting it. I'm just a little ticked that a book was sold as non-fiction when parts of it weren't, in fact, true. Non-fiction, to me, means that all the facts presented in the book are real and accurate. Otherwise it's just a story.

My third random thought has to do with the Golden Globes last night. Some of the winners were predictable, like Reese Witherspoon and Joaquin Phoenix winning for Walk the Line. However, I'm glad that Brokeback Mountain won best drama and best director. I'm also glad that Felicity Huffman won for her role in Transamerica. It's about time that people start recognizing "non-traditional" people, shall we say. I'm not quite sure how to phrase that better, besides saying gays and transsexuals. Anyway, I'm proud of the voters for recognizing films that deal with sensitive issues, considering the America we're living in currently.

I was also quite excited by Sandra Oh's win for Grey's Anatomy. Her acceptance speech was so cute, and she's just a fabulous actress. She makes acting look so easy, and I'm glad other people realized that.

My last random thought, I think, is about something I saw on CNN.com today. There was an article about Hillary Clinton making comments on how the Bush administration is one of the worst, if not the worst administration in American history. All I can say to that is, preach on, Hillary!

With that, I'm off to have some dinner and rest to regain some energy that was used up during teaching today.