The Banquet

The Banquet
Originally uploaded by jacqueline-w.

Finally went back and got a photo of that painting I liked so much last time by Rene Magritte.

Ok, yes, I know, I'm a worthless blogger. Well, can't say I'm suprised (whoa, channeling Eyore there...). But actually, it's a good thing that I haven't been being as good at updating. The thing is, I only really feel the need to write stuff down when I'm not happy - bored, lonely, upset, etc. When things are going well, I don't feel the need to put them down on paper (or computer as the case might be). So, basically, life is good - and I am really really busy with school stuff. I mean, I knew that taking 5 graduate classes would be a lot of work, but sheesh. Also, a lot of my internet time is being taken up with Flickr currently. I really like it, it's just way too much fun. Well, that's all for now, gotta dive back into IC design and Engineering Analysis!

194_9451.JPG
Originally uploaded by jacqueline-w.

Well, I wrote a nice long post on this weekend, but it got erased, so all I'm gonna say is it was great, and here's a little proof.

Today was a good day. Starting with the end, it's raining now, which smells nice and finally brings the room temperature down far enough that you can think hard without breaking into a sweat. I spent the latter part of my evening (~10-12) keeping Julia company at the coffee shop, drinking a large vanilla chai and getting going on my Active Filter Design homework. The problems are hard, but interesting, and when you've got them right, you know it - the good kind of homework. Early evening wasn't as satisfying, spent most of it trying to come up with an approximation for the number of modes in a given frequency range in a two-dimensional resonator (looks simple, but it isn't). Anyways, between work and two classes, there was plenty of mental stimulation, which makes me cheerful - especially when I get to stop :). So, there it is. Not terribly exciting, but good.

Ok, let's see... Sunday was more fun than the rest of the weekend. I went to church, and then after that they had a picnic :). So, I got to make some new friends AND have some good food. Also, I was sitting next to a cute baby, so basically, I had a good time. Monday was fairly busy, and I had to do a lot of brain work (esp. for tutoring), which puts me in a good mood - sounds a little strange, but I think it's pretty well accepted that humans need meaningful work to be happy. Monday did have it's downside though, I found out that Robbie won't be able to come visit me this weekend :(. Which means that, aside from a Delt party Friday night, I'm probably going to end up spending my birthday weekend alone, it seems like everyone has places to go this weekend :(. I'm thinking that I need to find some more friends, this lonely weekend stuff is no good. Unfortunately, I don't really know how to go about making that happen... How does one actually acquire friends? It's always sort of happened on accident for me before, I never set out to do it. Oh well, we'll see what happens. Oh yeah, and today is going fine too, already done with my one class, so I have the rest of the day to go to the art museum and try to get some homework done...

Big change today... did you notice? I decided to change the name of my blog, frankly, openly admitting to having a boring life was kind of getting me down! So, I opted for something much peppier, boy is it peppy :). Today has been a lonely day. Everyone seems to be gone. I did get some homework done, but didn't have much fun with it. Now that I'm a grad student, I get to admit that my homework is sometimes fun. This assignment (for Active Filter Design) didn't look like it would be too tough, but the problems got subtly icky in a hurry. Anyways, enough whining. Unless someone calls or stops by with something exciting tonight, I'm planning on buckling down and finally watching the lecture I skipped last Friday, which is a pathetic sounding thing to do on a Saturday night, but hey - it has to be done.

Remember

Tank Up

Tank Up
Originally uploaded by Bigdog.

Check out this,and the other cool pics my dad has uploaded on Flickr!
(Click on the picture, and then "Bigdog's photostream" to view the rest of the pictures)

Hey everybody, check out my new photo blog!! You can click here, or follow the link in the sidebar titled "Life Through My Eyes." Enjoy!

P.S. Should I leave the title as is, or change it to match the web address, what do YOU think?

Sunburst2

Originally uploaded by jacqueline-w.

Here's one of my fabulous conservatory flower photos, to see the rest of them, follow the My Photos link in the sidebar!

Now, onto today. Only interesting thing I did today was to go to the Art Institute. Tuesdays are free, and I very much enjoy art museums in small quantities, so I plan on going as many Tuesdays as I can manage. I found one new painter that I like, Rene Magritte, a surrealist. Here is a really bad copy of his painting that I saw today. It's called "The Banquet" and this is the only online copy of it I could find, but trust me, it's much cooler in person. Apparently it's not one of his more famous works (which you can see at art poster stores online, like Barewalls)

Ok, quick weekend overview:
Friday - Checked out used bookstores up around Belmont with Julia, ate at Clarks, skipped my class (don't worry, I'm going to watch the internet version). Later hung out with her while she worked at the coffee shop.

Saturday - Took the metra out to the suburbs to visit Robert, had a good time, got to meet his parents and Nick, you can check out his blog for all the details. Came home and went shopping at Whole Foods Market, cooked myself a late dinner (spring salad, steak, green beans, red wine - very yummy)

Sunday - Ordered my new computer! Went downtown to see it at the Apple store, but they're not getting them in for 2 - 3 weeks! Went and checked out the new Millenium Park and then ambled over to Grant park to check out the Jazz festival and visit Buckingham fountain. Also hung out at a little park next to the Art Museum and read Frankenstein.

Monday - Went to Garfield Park Conservatory after lunch, that was pretty cool, took some nice photos. Then I went to a gardening store on North Ave. and bought some seeds and potting soil for a container we have.

whew, there, i did it, the whole weekend (condensed version)

So far, a very nice day. I actually managed to make it to class on time this morning, which is always a plus ;). After lunch I went downtown to open a bank account with Harris Bank since they have an ATM in the MTCC. The building and lobby and everything were very posh, but the lady setting up my account was only running Windows 95, which promptly crashed on us as soon as she finished typing in all my information. After that I figured I might as well stroll across the street and close my Bank One account which I haven't used for three years since I'm too lazy to walk over to the HUB to get cash (that's really only half the reason, the other half was that it was a pain to transfer money into the account - which won't be a problem with Harris since I'm having my paycheck direct deposited). So finally the end of ridiculous ATM fees! Yea!! After that I walked over to The Body Shop and let myself be talked into spending the $23 I just withdrew from my Bank One account, I figured that since it had been sitting there for 3 years already, I could probably manage without it - plus they gave me a free gift :). After that I headed to one of the best places in the city - the Harold Washington Public Library. Such a lovely place, inside and out.

Two embarrassing things happened to me today, first, I managed to go to my 10am class at 9am. As you would expect, there was no one there. Eventally my class actually starts and then finishes and I go to lunch, where embarrassing thing number two occurs. I got a Caeser salad at the 'International Station' and then decided that a waffle sounded good. So I walked over to the waffle machines, set my tray down on the tray rack along the waffle table, and watched it slide right off and onto the floor scattering my salad and shattering the plate. Apparently the tray rack isn't quite parallel to the ground... It's the little touches like that display Sodexho's genius for making eating such a frustrating experience (right up there with mysteriously substituting blueberry bagels for hamburger buns at the grill without warning anyone). Anyways, life goes on, and the fresh waffle covered in strawberries and caramel sauce went a long ways towards making up for the plate incident. Then I went to work where I'm got paid to sit at a little table all by myself and read My Ántonia, which is quite a good book so far. The great thing about being a tutor is that I don't even have to pretend to be busy, if no one needs help I can do whatever I want, as long as I stay at my table or nearby (for example at the computer). I guess they might frown upon napping, but as long as I can just sit and read a good book, I'm quite content.


Life and love and why
Child, adult, then die
All of your hoping
And all of your searching
For what?
Ask me for what am I living
Or what gives me strength
That I'm willing to die for

Give me a reason
For life and for death
A reason for drowning
While I hold my breath
Something to laugh at
A reason to cry
With everyone hopeless
And hoping for something
To hope for
Yeah, with something to hope for

Life and Love and Why (listen to a sample)
Switchfoot