One of my coworkers and I have been discussing buying hardhats back since sea trials last summer. It was mentioned again last week at happy hour and she took the initiative to put the order in. The hats arrived today and now I’m ready for any shipyard related trips to which I might need to attend. *giggles*

I think this is going to be a perfect opportunity to use my gmail unicorn sticker. And I need to go find some of those Hello Kitty stickers I’ve been joking about for the past few years.

Oh. My.

I’m going to end on this because I have nothing more to add. I went looking for Hello Kitty stickers… and started clicking around amazon and found this:

I went down to Blacksburg on Thursday for my design presentation, which went fairly well. Met my design team for the first time after working with them for close to a year. We presented on Friday, had lunch with the advisory committee, and came home.

I’d spent the better part of the past week working on our presentation and finalizing assignments that needed to go into the presentation. We’re working on the report now and have that due in a little over a week.

Still to come, a presentation and report for my other class and a kickoff meeting for a study at work that I’m leading.

On the work front, I’ve been getting more interesting work to do and starting to serve as a task lead. Mostly because I almost quit a few weeks ago… which was part of the reason I stopped blogging. Something something unprofessional, etc. Things are better now and a few new people have been hired/started who are closer to the standard that I would expect my company to employ.

I’ve been having all sorts of fun with my professional society’s new website… And by that, I mean “fun.” They have discovered Web 2.0. I have attended one training session and been invited to attend dozens of others. I find their hour-long tutorial on how to upload a single document to be a waste of time. But maybe that’s just me.

In exciting news, I went to see the DC Rollergirls a few weeks ago. And it was a life-changing experience. I had been considering joining since I found out DC was starting a league a few years ago. But then I started grad school instead. And, for some reason, thought I wouldn’t have enough time for both. So… I have put that off until I finish. But I’m almost certainly decided on joining. Or at least trying out. I’m hoping my years of ice skating will translate well to roller skating.

Oh, and batting a thousand… wore my Quark Quark shirt to the roller derby and had someone stop me to ask where I got my shirt from. Happens every time.

On the grad school front, I think I might finish before 2012! I am sold on the idea of doing a thesis. I was hesitant mostly because I didn’t want to defend, but I find my public speaking skills almost completely dependent on my confidence in my work. And if I’ll have worked on something for over a year, I’m going to think I know my stuff. During my group’s design presentation, I found that I was able to answer questions for other people in my group when they were trying to dodge answering, not because I knew more than them, but because I was familiar with what the people on the committee (all people working in industry) were looking for.

In any case, with the thesis option, I’ll be able to continue my studies during semesters when I don’t have other course options. Plus, I came up with a thesis topic last week! And I mentioned it to one of my profs when I was in Blacksburg and she said that was an interesting idea that we could definitely work with. I could still make use of our design project (which was the original idea when I signed up for this course), but is much more interesting to me than studying aluminum.

Other stuff I’ve been up to…
- Volunteered for SeaPerch
- Went to Dahlgren for a couple meetings only to find out one of my friends knocked up his wife
- Also during the trips to Dahlgren, went with TLD to buy a new car
- Hosted a brownbag session at work, “Introduction to MathCAD,” which was received with a surprising amount of enthusiasm
- Later met with some MathCAD employees who were interested in the brownbag session and want to come in to do a follow-up
- Set date and found location for wedding (unfortunately, no moonbounce)

Today is National Depression Screening Day. So if you’ve been thinking about getting screened or know someone who should, consider doing it today.

I know most (all?) of you are registered already. But I wouldn’t be doing my bloggy duties if I didn’t make sure. So, if you haven’t already, do it. Do it now. We’ll wait…

Even in the summer, I get very cold at night, so I have to have some kind of insulation in order to regulate my body temperature.

I was told that this isn’t normal. So, I decided to do some research to see if I had some kind of disorder… (Can you tell I have been procrastinating recently?)

As it turns out, I’m narcoleptic. Yeah, no kidding, right? We already knew that.

But this is a relatively recent finding that demonstrates a relationship between skin temperature and sleepiness: Altered skin-temperature regulation in narcolepsy relates to sleep propensity.

There is an inverse relationship with core body temperature and the temperature of extremities. When your core temperature drops, the heat is dispersed through your skin, causing your extremities to get warmer. Narcoleptics have more extreme variations and slower changes in temperature, which is why I get so cold (core temperature) while radiating so much heat (distal temp) when I sleep and have so much trouble waking up.

… narcoleptics were reported to show an attenuated circadian amplitude and slower morning rise of the core body temperature, as well as an earlier temperature minimum, which both fit the present finding of a continuation into sleep of the increased distal skin blood flow and consequently heat loss.

As a follow-up to this study, there have been experiments with thermosuits and hot/cold foods and drinks to see the effect on excessive daytime sleepiness. Clearly, the solution is here: Electric Coat.

Which, of course, reminds me of Squidgey’s recommendation to me a few years back: The No-Contact Jacket.

I think I’ve seen references to this in passing before, but I decided to look it up today and read the actual paper. It was marginally reassuring to me that the concluding remarks in their paper expressed similar apprehensions as I experienced when reading their results:

In sum, we present this article as an exploration into why people tend to hold overly optimistic and miscalibrated views about themselves. We propose that those with limited knowledge in a domain suffer a dual burden: Not only do they reach mistaken conclusions and make regrettable errors, but their incompetence robs them of the ability to realize it. Although we feel we have done a competent job in making a strong case for this analysis, studying it empirically, and drawing out relevant implications, our thesis leaves us with one haunting worry that we cannot vanquish. That worry is that this article may contain faulty logic, methodological errors, or poor communication. Let us assure our readers that to the extent this article is imperfect, it is not a sin we have committed knowingly.

This also brings to mind the confidence that many people have in job hiring processes and their personal judgment when it comes to interviews. I have witnessed the failures in this process enough times to recognize that I certainly don’t trust my own judgment, much less that of others. While I recognize that it is a necessary part of the process to meet and interact with a potential hire in order to finalize the decision, I find it rare that interviewers put in the effort to learn anything new about a candidate aside from what they might have learned from a sheet of paper or a brief phone or email interview. And yet, most interviewers believe that they are a good judge of character and that meeting this person will make all the difference.

Right.

Try telling them otherwise.

But really… After an interview, ask yourself:
- What have you learned about this person that you didn’t already know before?
- How does this person stand out from the average population?
- Do you ask standard questions when you interview? What information are you gaining by asking these aside from what the person explicitly wants you to believe?
- Do you have a better idea of how this person thinks, works, etc?
- How does this person’s opinion of him/herself compare to their actual abilities?
- Do you ask for references? Do you contact those references?

I was discussing in passing with Ian the other day how people should have references from ex-bf/gfs when starting new relationships. But isn’t it the responsibility of the person doing the hiring to ask for those references? So, if you’re dating someone and don’t know their friends, history, etc. it’s your responsibility to do your research. In many cases, it’s not in a person’s interest to offer that information up front. So why wouldn’t you ask?

Chok-Dee movie download

Bloody Sunday hd

Things We Lost in the Fire psp

• The Proposition download 007 Live and Let Die full movie

G-Force buy Hotel for Dogs ipod The New Centurions movie download

:

PEOPLE who send excessive texts and emails may have a mental illness, according to an article in a leading psychiatric journal.

2 more weeks and I’ll be back to blogging. I have such a backlog that I’m not even angry about all the rants I had prepared. Sigh…

So the latest thing is this gcal to outlook synching program that google just came out with. Except that I don’t have outlook on Dellilah, which is what I sync with. But I do have it installed on my old computer, which is sitting right next to me when I have Dellilah on my desk to sync. That seemed like a reasonable solution. Except that the program doesn’t work with Windows 2000. Then I thought maybe I could copy the files over from my old computer and not have to find my install CD from when I installed it… 4 (?) years ago. No dice. Then I tried running it on Dellilah by sharing over the network. No luck there either.

Now my options are to install outlook on Dellilah for realz or sync with my computer at work. Not sure I want to fill my work calendar at work with all my personal appointments. I’ll try to think up a better solution.

Sigh.

Panic Room hd The Amityville Horror ipod

Rest Stop: Dont Look Back

Drumline full movie

buy Buchanan Rides Alone Pandora and the Flying Dutchman dvd A Touch of Class dvdrip Bug video

:

The problem is not just the things we do not know (consider the one in five American adults who, according to the National Science Foundation, thinks the sun revolves around the Earth); it’s the alarming number of Americans who have smugly concluded that they do not need to know such things in the first place. Call this anti-rationalism — a syndrome that is particularly dangerous to our public institutions and discourse. Not knowing a foreign language or the location of an important country is a manifestation of ignorance; denying that such knowledge matters is pure anti-rationalism.

Is it bad that the fact that they’re talking only about Americans here gives me hope for the rest of the human race? Or is it just because Americans are so narcissistic that they only want to hear about themselves (bad or good), even if it applies to everyone else too? In any case, most of the people who read this blog are Americans, so this message is to you: don’t be dumb. kthxbye!

Grease movie

Shrek the Third movie Sometimes They Come Back video

• The Caretaker movie download

Google.

Official Gmail Blog: Gmail + chat + AIM = crazy delicious

• Joshua movie download

Scoop ipod

By rights, Ombeni should be nearing the end of her university life, perhaps fending off marriage requests or applying for teaching posts in the city. But her schooling, and her life’s journey, were brutally interrupted almost five years earlier.

Back then she was a typical 15-year-old with dreams of university and a better life. Her home was a village in the countryside, where, when she wasn’t studying, she helped in the fields. It was while out working one evening that rebel forces captured her carefree innocence. For months she became their slave, both sexual and physical, as they lived in various wooded compounds along the Rwandan border. Heavily pregnant, and near death from lack of food, the rebels returned her to her village so her parents could watch her die.

download Coyote Ugly The Cook move

• Life Stinks ipod
  Winnie the Pooh Un-Valentines Day movie download

Carry on Camping trailer

• Joshua divx

Apt Pupil psp

Jurassic Park III buy

download Alien Agent movie

:

Spending just 10 minutes talking to another person can help improve your memory and your performance on tests, according to a University of Michigan study to be published in the February 2008 issue of the Personality and Social Psychology Bulletin.

• Norbit full movie

The Adventures of Buckaroo Banzai Across the 8th Dimension movie download

Futurama: Benders Game movie

“The flowers cost $27,435.14.”

That’s more than my entire college education. Four and a half years of knowledge spent on 6 hours of flowers. What is wrong with people??

What?? And Stephen Colbert is running for President

? I need to catch up on my TV.Secret Passage trailer

Kingdom of Heaven video Deterrence trailer

Goodbye Solo

happy for Al Gore!!

Gore, U.N. Body Win Nobel Peace Prize:

The Norwegian Nobel Committee characterized Gore as “the single individual who has done most” to convince world governments and leaders that climate change is real, is caused by human activity and poses a grave threat. Gore has focused on the issue through books, promotional events and his Academy Award-winning documentary “An Inconvenient Truth.”

• Parked movie

Blades of Glory movie download

Frontline: Dreams of Obama divx

The Wild Thornberrys Movie full movie Curse of the Golden Flower trailer A Bugs Life The Ladykillers movie download Clockwise divx The Texas Chainsaw Massacre !

Insel acknowledged that it may be a while before physicians have tests that can reliably predict which patients are likely to become suicidal as a result of the drugs. In the interim, he said, “if I had a child with depression, I would go after the best treatment but also provide the closest monitoring.”

Sigh… Seriously? You need extensive studies and doctors to tell you to keep a close watch on your kids when they start taking anti-depressant medication? It’s sad that this happens and people commit suicide. But really. Use some common sense.

• Hes on My Mind psp Google Me movie download

Private Parts

download The Last of the Mohicans movie download Brewsters Millions movie

Also, Red Sox – Orioles. The newbie pitched a no hitter. Wow!Raiders of the Lost Ark buy

The Slumber Party Massacre full movie The Beguiled trailer

Elektra dvd

Google has its own 411 that they launched a few months ago. I came across it yesterday and I’m so impressed: Google 411

Decoys full movie

(1-800-GOOG-411).

1) It’s free.
2) They’ll automatically connect you.
3) Or text you with the number if you want.

And if it doesn’t understand you and you can’t get the results that you want, you can always text them

Meet the Robinsons hd (Google) and they’ll text the answer back to you.

I <3 Google.

• download Barbie in the 12 Dancing Princesses dvd

Do you listen to music online? Services like Pandora, Last.fm, and the thousands of online streams, whether they correspond to terrestrial radio or not, have helped to revitalize the music scene, and provide exposure to countless new artists, while providing an easy way for consumers to explore and broaden their knowledge and tastes.

This past March, the Copyright Royalty Board dramatically increased the royalties owed by internet radio stations. In many cases, the new royalty structure will cause obligations that far exceed total revenue. Before this increase, internet radio rates were already double those paid by satellite radio providers, and vastly exceeded terrestrial radio rates; now the situation is much, much worse.

If you’re a fan of internet radio, or would just like to support it, please visit http://www.savenetradio.org/

• The Good Shepherd buy

The Manchurian Candidate video

The Thin Red Line dvd

Pacific Heights movie

True Romance film

Domino video

The Departed movie

to learn more about the issue, and how you can take action. Call your US Senators and Representative and urge them to support, co-sponsor and bring to a vote the Internet Radio Equality Act. Yesterday a US Appeals Court denied an emergency stay, and these new rates are scheduled to go into effect on July 15 (this Sunday!).

Thanks,
Ian