I am very 20.

Not only was I twenty here yesterday, but I am twenty there today. There, as in, in "the States", as the rest of the world calls the U.S.. And quite honestly, that's awfully nice of them, since practically every country in the world has states. I've thought about this before, but it's a little weird to be the only country in the world without an actual name. Seeing as "America" refers to two entire continents, and "The United States of America" could just as well be Brazil, which is a country with united states, or Mexico, or Argentina. So, we are a country with no name, but instead of calling us "The Country with No Name", the world simply calls us "The States", which is of course a name we can lay even less claim to, because everyone (except Canada, which has "provinces"...whatever those are) has states.
Don't know what brought that up, really.
So, New Zealand is dandy. So was Australia, by the way. In fact, we haven't seen too much of New Zealand yet - for sure, it's a fair amount like the U.S., but it definitely feels different at the same time. Almost more like Brazil than like the U.S.. Although, when one is driving down the road, and one sees gigantic, snow-capped mountains to one's right, and rolling hills to one's left, and just over the hills, the Pacific ocean....then one feels that just maybe, one is in a place that's not quite like any other place on earth.
Well...I suppose I should sign off at this point - something about doing some laundry. Frankly, I really don't have anything that needs washing - I'm pretty good at keeping my clothes clean, thank you very much. I'm not sure what everyone else's problem is.
In any case, I hope that my reader(s?) are enjoying their break immensly, and that they didn't fall asleep while reading this exceptionally boring and pointless post - especially considering that I'm on the other side of the world in an exotic land, and one would expect that I could post something of at least slight interest. Sorry.

And they're off!!!

For the unobservant, I post this at 12:50ish in the morning, less than three hours before the Gaultney family caravan is to leave our beloved (and as yet, humble - though when we return it shall no longer be so) abode. I haven't exactly packed yet, but it's all lying there on the floor waiting to be placed in a suitcase. Quite honestly, I'm a little miffed - I thought it was going to be something of a challenge to squeeze this all into my suitcase, but as it is, I'm awfully certain that everything will be simply bouncing around in the vast empty spaces within my suitcase. A shame, really.
I hope to have email access while I'm gone, and if I do, I'll be happy to respond to emails, and I might even keep up a running account of our travels. Of course, if I have access to email, I'll also have access to this...thing, and I therefore will very probably write general "emails" here.
I had a lovely "last" day, what with the Lort visitation, and the hurrying fro and to with Lauren later in the evening. I should be handsomely outfitted for this trip at this point, with a quite wonderful digital camera that is dying to see some real action, an iPod which may or may not get much use other than on the plane ride, and brand spanking new shoes which will hopefully wear themselves in fairly quickly so that they don't give me lots of blisters. Yay.
Oh, I should mention that we'll be in San Fransisco for ~12 hours tomorrow (apparently, anyway), sooo....that should be interesting. If not incredibly boring.

Well, for those of you enjoying a more traditional holiday season: Merry Christmas, and a Happy New Year! I love you all....ok, most of you....and I hope you have a wonderful next three weeks or so. I'll certainly be looking forward to seeing you all when I get back.

Oh, and Lauren? I love you. Lots and lots and lots. I'm going to miss you dreadfully. XOXOXO

I'll see you all in three weeks.

Three down, one to go

Whew. Them donuts sure is tasty. I ain't neva tasted such tasty donuts!

On an unrelated note, I only have one exam left. I'm not really sure whether I care about it or not, since I don't like the class, and mostly hate the teacher. As in most-ly.

Oh, by the way, I have switched operating systems. As in, I don't use Microsoft Windows anymore. Yes, there is something besides Windows. It's called Ubuntu, and you can find it here. Switching OSes is not for the faint of heart, however, as it involves (at the very least) a lot of headaches in terms of finding replacements for all of the programs you're used to using, like iTunes, Microsoft Word, and Windows Media Player. Firefox, naturally, works just fine on Ubuntu, which is a really nice distribution (version...sorta) of a more general category of Linux-based operating systems.

Well, I guess I should study a little bit for this exam. Blah. I hate this stupid class. In a very, I should mention, Christian way.

=P

One down, three to go.

These donuts are really good, but I guess four of them is a little extreme.

In other news, I only have three exams left. My History exam went quite well, and my next exam is not until Friday evening at 6:00. That exam will be fairly tough, but it's not particularly worrisome, because from experience, it's hard to actually "prepare" for this professor's exams. No matter how much you study, you can't possibly know it all, and the questions tend to be tricky. So I'll basically read over the entire book, take notes on some particularly important sections, and not bother too much with extensive study; it would just be a waste of my time.

too much time

Gee whiz. Never thought I'd be saying that phrase. Thankfully, I haven't said it; mostly just thought it and typed it. But the fact remains that now that classes are officially, finally, and completely done for the semester, I have only to study for exams. And thanks to a schedule which is different than what I thought it would be, I have huge amounts of time to study for most of my exams. My schedule is as follows:

History exam at 8:00 AM Thursday.
Operating Systems exam at 6:00 PM Friday. (note the resulting "study time for this exam")
Statistics exam at 3:30 PM Monday.
Programming Languages exam at 3:30 PM Tuesday.

I really couldn't ask for an easier exam schedule. It's really a blessing. Hopefully it will translate to better grades, but I suspect that it will simply translate to getting burnt out more quickly while studying, and more procrastination. For instance, the procrastination I'm doing right now.

success!

The presentation went well. Praise God. There were a couple of times when something didn't work exactly as planned...................... but it was all ok in the end.

I have a mini-presentation to do tomorrow afternoon, after which I must begin studying profusely (that word doesn't quite work, but it gets the idea across) for my two exams on Thursday. Both of which should be very tough.

But this is the home stretch, and for that, I am thankful.

Presentation

My state of mind going into this all-important demo and delivery presentation?

Hungry.

And I'll maybe remember to mention how it went, in about two hours or so.

btw, my new camera is quite lovely.

Yup, still here.

I am still alive, contrary to the rumors that have been floating around (mostly, I think, occasioned by my constant moaning about how either (1), I am going to die, (2) I think I'm dying, or (3), I just want to die).
My current major school project is nearing* completion, and if I'm blessed, I'll actually get it finished tonight. We shall see.

In other news, I am getting a digital camera for Christmas. Don't ask how I know this. =P I'm pretty excited, 'cause this particular camera is nothing short of amazing. And just in time for the trip to New Zealand....

Well, I just thought I'd post so as not to disappoint my reader(s?).

Encouraging.

First off, I make no apologies for my extended hiatus. I was busy; first on vacation, then on schoolwork. I shall continue to be busy for the foreseeable future, as well.

I ran across this this evening: http://www.timesonline.co.uk/article/0,,13509-2482831,00.html.

Thanksgiving was lovely.

Oh, and one last thing. The word "bated" from the expression "waiting with bated breath" is properly spelled B A T E D, with no I. Suzanne brought this to my attention earlier today, and I thought I'd make a public service announcement. A website explaining this can be found here: http://www.worldwidewords.org/qa/qa-bai1.htm. Read it, you'll be glad you did.