AJ

I'm so excited! A.J. is going to be a computer science major! We'll have adjacent cubicles!!

Rib day

Bob got trout for Peter and I because we don't eat pork for our lab dinner. :)
It was really nice

Daisy

I really want a nice little farm where I could live off of the land. Except it wouldn't be too far from a city/civilization. I'd have a little chicken hutch and peach trees. A massive garden full of cucumbers and potatoes. And a cow. Just one though, and I wouldn't eat her. Her name would be daisy. She would be a dairy cow. I'd make the best butter in the world. Peach butter, mint butter, cranberry walnut butter, cinnamon almond butter, rosemary garlic butter...

Happy List

I made a happy list a while ago, and pulled it up to remind myself of all of the things that make me happy.

1. warm showers and bubble baths
2. perfect weather
3. when nothing hurts
4. when technology works and batteries are charged
5. good music
6. good memories
7. friends, fireworks, 31 cent ice cream day at baskin robbins, free taco day, free slurpie day at 7/11, free samples
8. when stuff is on sale
9. feeling pretty
10. when I understand something hard (physics, calc)
11. lamb cooked georgian style and home cooked meals
12. russian food
13. israel
14. horseback riding
15. new shoes and shopping
16. girls with high heels and short skirts that are really really hot
17. desserts and exotic juices, bubble tea, thai iced tea
18. vacations
19. nice jewelry
20. good conversations about the few good books i have read
21. the feeling you get when you help someone
22. dropping pennies in the fundraiser box at wendys
23. passion and hugs
24. painting and playing bass
25. sleeping and dreaming good dreams
26. philosophizing, planning and organizing
27. when my room is clean
28. not being alone, being alone
29. concerts, museums, day trips, beach and nyc
30. farms, fresh fruit, goats and farm animals
31. when i can see straight through my glasses and they're not blurry/smudged
32. good hair days
33. when i dont bite my nails for a long time
34. when there is nothing making me feel stressed out
35. when bad things happen for bad people
36. when endings are realistic in movies and not always happy/pleasant
37. when there is silence when I want it to be quiet. so often we take silence for granted
38. when silverware is clean
39. when the wind isnt blowing my hair into food or my chapstick
40. when I get a good grade
41. when I had this conversation with mike that I put on my happy list
42. seeing noah
43. super adventure club and all of our previous adventures, i.e. fruit picking, farms, goats, beach, safari, teavana to name a few

black and white

I tend to be very black and white, extremist.
I either love it or hate it, I either agree or disagree. I often go from one extreme to the other. When people all feel one way towards something, I tend to want to go the extreme opposite.

Pandora

AJ took this picture. I really like it.

Late

Its late at night and I have 1 discrete math proof problem left. Oh boy do I hate discrete math.

Don't even get me started on the hundreds of pages I have to read for Mexican class every week, which is all boring by the way.

Blogs are so fascinating. I love seeing how other people live. Their recipes. Their gardens.

http://farmersdaughterct.wordpress.com/

IBM says I should reapply next year

Dear Bella,

Thank you for your email below. How soon would you need to hear from us regarding a decision? If we may ask, in what area is the REU which you have been offered? Does it have anything to do with UI or HCI? The reason we ask is because in your essay you say that although you have been doing research in quandles and finite algebras (and in fact are slated to continue to this research this spring), your actual interest is not in this area, but in UI and HCI. However, you do not have much background in this area, and your application would be much stronger with some further research experience or classes in this area. If the REU which you have been offered would give you some of this experience, then we would strongly encourage you to accept the REU offer, and come back to us next year, when you would have a much better chance of working in a HCI group here at IBM Almaden. The 10 weeks of the summer are a very short amount of time to learn a topic from scratch, and normally we place students in areas in which they already have coursework or research experience.

Regards,

Dr. Barbara A. Jones

Weekend

Hallelujah is what I say every weekend at 4:20pm when I get out of class. I love going away to Albany because
1) I get to see Noah
2) I get to eat good food
3) I get away from Bard
Ahhh weekends, so lovely and full of work. I get to catch up on all of the tv shows I miss during the week, and of course, take a snorkleberry bubble bath, and do my homework. I cooked bison burgers and pasta with chicken sausage and bolognese sauce this weekend. A mighty success.

It's Sunday night and I'm back in my dorm room. I have to read more of Man's Fate for class tomorrow (about Communism, Chiang Kai-shek, and China) and study for my test tomorrow in Theory of Computation. Speaking of which, Noam Chomsky, an oober famous dude known for linguistics, crazy political views and computer science contributions, is coming to visit Bard. That's pretty exciting news.

Country Rose Soap

I had a headache today, I took a shower, and it was still there. So I took a three hour nap, and when I woke up, my head still hurt. So I took 2 excedrin. Now it feels better.

I used Firebug today to inspect this country soap website, because I liked how it was made. It seemed like a ton of work went into just structuring the columns and widths of the pages. Lovely photos of the soapmaking process.

http://www.countryrosesoap.com/handmade.htm

Horsies

Ah, horses. Such beautiful creatures. This summer i'd like to say, "Screw this bullshit I hate so much, I'm not spending a minute on the computer, I am riding horses all summer."

Helping people

So this woman from Croatia, Zdenka, cleans our dorm. She is very friendly and talkative, and we got to talking about her daughter. Her daughter is blind, and a CS major. She was wondering what was available for summer jobs for a blind student in CS. I told her I would talk to my teachers and ask around, and the same day I sent an e-mail to Bob, and Bob said he'd be happy to talk to Zdenka about it. The next day I gave her his response e-mail and contact information, and she looked for him. In any case, she is a very nice woman and I hope her daughter finds something to do over the summer.

Valentines Day

This valentines day Noah and I went to a fantastic little french restaurant called the Epicurean, and it was delicious.

The weekend was really nice but I have a lot of catch-up reading to do for two classes. I'm going to get off the computer and do that now.

Also, Noah is thinking about going to the C.I.A. (culinary institute of America) and I'm ultra excited. I'm not going to get my hopes up or anything just in case he decides its not his thing, but it'd be really great if he liked it. And even more exciting for me, because I love food. Quickest way to my heart is through my tummy.

I just ate some yogurt covered pretzels. Mmmmm

Dear Horse Farm

There is one horse farm on 9G that never has horses out.
To them I say:
Dear Horse Farm,
How dare you hide your horses from the public. You selfish assholes. People want to see your horses, after all you have the fence and barn right off of the side of the road. But no, you hide them from the public, hogging them like the self centered bastards you are. Have a terrible christmas, and an awful new year.

Computer Lab

This is me, at the computer lab. A place symbolic of extreme stress. I only look content there because I wasn't doing homework at that moment. I was just printing an essay for another class.

Mothers

Mothers perhaps have the most difficult jobs of all these days. My mom, she was and is a career woman. In order to give me the opportunity to live in a nice neighborhood, attend a good school and get into a great college, she worked constantly. When I was little, I would only see her early in the morning because by the time she got home from work, I would be sleeping. I understand why she did what she did, after all she was looking out for my best interest. Then again, I think I really missed out by not having her around. She tells me it will be easier for me because I grew up in America and she came here with a small child and virtually no English skills. Still, I feel like a big part of my childhood was missing because my mom wasn't around when I wanted to talk to her. I even remember telling my grandma that I favored my dad because we did things together, and mom wasn't around. I would eagerly wait by the window for my dad's car to roll into the parking lot. Kids don't understand sacrifice. They understand love through hugs and bed time stories, they don't understand "jobs" and "bills". It's quite sad if you ask me. So parents, remember to hug your children every day and tell them that you love them. For all of you adults that don't want to show emotion, realize how important it is to spend time with your kids.

I never learned to ride a bike.

Crime and Punishment

Its 9:39AM right now. Wednesday. I have class at 10:30, but I have to print out my essay on Crime and Punishment, and go to breakfast. Contrary to what most people have told me about it, it's an excellent book. I really enjoyed it. Of course, finding out Dostoevsky himself was an anti-Semite is troubling and disturbing, but nevertheless his artistry is wonderful.

What a bastard though. How do you separate yourself from good art and mortifying creator?

I like my class on Mexican History. I also like Discrete Math, logic is pretty neat.

Vibrraphonissimo

Listen to Vibrraphonissimo by Astor Piazzolla & Gary Burton. It is a fantastic collision of sounds.

Of Montreal lyrics

Of Montreal - Gronlandic Edit lyrics

(The surrealists were just) nihilists with good imaginations

I am satisfied hiding in our friend's apartment
Only leaving once a day to buy some  groceries
Daylight I'm so absent minded nighttime meeting new anxieties
So am I erasing myself? Hope I'm not erasing myself

I guess it would be nice to give my heart to a god
But which one which one do I choose?
Oh the church is filled with losers, psycho or confused
I just want to hold the divine in mine and forget all of the beauty's wasted

Let's fall back to earth and do something pleasant
We fell back to earth like gravity's bitches
Physics makes us all its bitches

I guess it would be nice to help in your escape
From patterns your parents designed
All the party people dancing for the indie star
But he's the worst faker by far
In the set I forget all of the beauty's wasted

Guess it could be nice show me that things can be nice
You've got my back in the city you've got my back
'Cause I don't want to panic 

lyrics from http://artists.letssingit.com/of-montreal-lyrics-gronlandic-edit-6drlnlw

Introduction

So this is the introduction to my blog. It's name "Spinning Plates" comes from a radiohead song. Nellaboah is a fictitious Island, which is to me, the greatest place on earth.