Beyond the Pale

Spring Semester 2009 Final Grades

2009-05-26T23:53:06Z

Central Connecticut State University

Plant Physiology	A
Stellar Astronomy	A-
Topics in Biology: Conservation Biology	B+
Comparative Planetology	Holy crap I got a B!!

Freedom and blood

2009-03-26T19:57:26Z

Pre-calculus with Trigonometry (MATH 119)
MTWR 8 am - 10 am 26 May - 16 July CCSU

General Chemistry II Lecture (CHEM 163)
MTW 5 pm - 6:50 pm R 5 pm - 7:40 pm
General Chemistry II Lab (CHEM 164)
MTW 2 pm - 4:50 pm 29 June - 30 July CCSU

Goodbye, summer.

hurrysundown @ 2009-09-07T20:59:00

2009-03-10T01:23:50Z

Ovine - Sheep-like
Bovine - Cow-like
Porcine - Pig-like
Equine - Horse-like
Canine - Dog-like
Lupine - Wolf-like
Feline - Cat-like
Cervine - Deer-like
Corvine - Crow-like
Leporine - Rabbit-like
Murine - Mouse-like
Ursine - Bear-like
Serpentine - Snake-like
Piscine - Fish-like
Elephantine - Elephant-like
Leonine - Lion-like
Volucrine - Bird-like
Vulpine - Fox-like
Hircine - Goat-like
Vespine - Wasp-like
Musteline - Ferret (badger/skunk/weasel) -like
Formicine - Ant-like
Ranine - Frog-like
Macropodine - Kangaroo or Wallaby-like
Microtine - Vole or Lemming-like
Acarine - Mite-like
Anopheline - Mosquito (malaria) -like
Didelphine - Opposum-like
Hystricine - Porcupine-like
Crotaline/viperine - Viper-like
Sciurine - Squirrel-like
Acipenserine - Sturgeon-like
Testudine - Turtle/tortoise-like

Yey books!

2009-01-28T17:00:18Z

The Big Read thinks the average adult has only read six of the top 100 books they've printed below. (I suspect this list is geared towards US-based readers.)

1) Look at the list and bold those you have read.
2) Italicize those you intend to read.

1. Pride and Prejudice – Jane Austen
2. The Lord of the Rings – J.R.R. Tolkien
3. Jane Eyre – Charlotte Bronte
4. The Harry Potter series – JK Rowling
5. To Kill a Mockingbird – Harper Lee
6. The Bible
7. Wuthering Heights – Emily Bronte
8. Nineteen Eighty Four – George Orwell
9. His Dark Materials – Philip Pullman
10. Great Expectations – Charles Dickens
11. Little Women – Louisa M Alcott
12. Tess of the D'Urbervilles – Thomas Hardy
13. Catch 22 – Joseph Heller
14. The Complete Works of Shakespeare
16. The Hobbit – J.R.R. Tolkien
17. Birdsong – Sebastian Faulks
18. A Catcher in the Rye – JD Salinger
19. The Time Traveller's Wife – Audrey Niffenegger
20. Middlemarch – George Eliot
21. Gone With The Wind – Margaret Mitchell
22. The Great Gatsby – F Scott Fitzgerald
23. Bleak House – Charles Dickens
24. War and Peace – Leo Tolstoy
25. The Hitch Hiker's Guide to the Galaxy – Douglas Adams
26. Brideshead Revisited – Evelyn Waugh
27. Crime and Punishment – Fyodor Dostoyevsky
28. The Grapes of Wrath – John Steinbeck
29. Alice in Wonderland – Lewis Carroll
30. The Wind in the Willows – Kenneth Grahame
31. Anna Karenina – Leo Tolstoy
32. David Copperfield – Charles Dickens
33. The Chronicles of Narnia – CS Lewis
34. Emma – Jane Austen
35. Persuasion – Jane Austen
36. The Lion, The Witch and The Wardrobe – C.S. Lewis
37. The Kite Runner – Khaled Hosseini
38. Captain Corelli's Mandolin – Louis De Bernieres
39. Memoirs of a Geisha – Arthur Golden
40. Winnie the Pooh – A.A. Milne
41. Animal Farm – George Orwell
42. The Da Vinci Code – Dan Brown
43. One Hundred Years of Solitude – Gabriel Garcia Marquez
44. A Prayer for Owen Meaney – John Irving
45. The Woman in White – Wilkie Collins
46. Anne of Green Gables – LMMontgomery
47. Far From The Madding Crowd – Thomas Hardy
48. The Handmaid's Tale – Margaret Atwood
49. Lord of the Flies – William Golding
50. Atonement – Ian McEwan
51. Life of Pi – Yann Martel
52. Dune – Frank Herbert
53. Cold Comfort Farm – Stella Gibbons
54. Sense and Sensibility – Jane Austen
55. A Suitable Boy – Vikram Seth
56. The Shadow of the Wind – Carlos Ruiz Zafon
57. A Tale Of Two Cities – Charles Dickens
58. Brave New World – Aldous Huxley
59. The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night-time – Mark Haddon
60. Love In The Time Of Cholera – Gabriel Garcia Marquez
61. Of Mice and Men – John Steinbeck
62. Lolita – Vladimir Nabokov
63. The Secret History – Donna Tartt
64. The Lovely Bones – Alice Sebold
65. Count of Monte Cristo – Alexandre Dumas
66. On The Road – Jack Kerouac
67. Jude the Obscure – Thomas Hardy
68. Bridget Jones' Diary – Helen Fielding
69. Midnight's Children – Salman Rushdie
70. Moby Dick – Herman Melville
71. Oliver Twist – Charles Dickens
72. Dracula – Bram Stoker
73. The Secret Garden – Frances Hodgson Burnett
74. Notes From A Small Island – Bill Bryson
75. Ulysses – James Joyce
76. The Bell Jar – Sylvia Plath
77. Swallows and Amazons – Arthur Ransome
78. Germinal – Emile
79. Vanity Fair – William Makepeace Thackeray
80. Possession – A.S. Byatt
81. A Christmas Carol – Charles Dickens
82. Cloud Atlas – David Mitchell
83. The Color Purple – Alice Walker
84. The Remains of the Day – Kazuo Ishiguro
85. Madame Bovary – Gustave Flaubert
86. A Fine Balance – Rohinton Mistry
87. Charlotte's Web – E.B. White
88. The Five People You Meet In Heaven – Mitch Albom
89. Adventures of Sherlock Holmes – Sir Arthur Conan Doyle
90. The Faraway Tree Collection –Enid Blyton
91. Heart of Darkness – Joseph Conrad
92. The Little Prince (Le Petit Prince) – Antoine De Saint-Exupery
93. The Wasp Factory – Iain Banks
94. Watership Down – Richard Adams
95. A Confederacy of Dunces – John Kennedy Toole
96. A Town Like Alice – Nevil Shute
97. The Three Musketeers – Alexandre Dumas
98. Hamlet – William Shakespeare
99. Charlie and the Chocolate Factory – Roald Dahl
100. Les Miserables – Victor Hugo

Six, huh? Hurray for being a book worm! Though, there's no number 15, and most of these I read in high school or earlier and have only a vague recollection of what they're about, except for Dune, Memoirs of a Geisha, Harry Potter, Little Women, and His Dark Materials. There's also a few that I've read the script to plays (A Christmas Carol, for example) or only seen movie versions (Watership Down, Count of Monte Cristo). I was also surprised nothing by Ayn Rand or Ray Bradbury was on here.

The Books of 2009

2009-01-07T01:30:36Z

The Red Tent, Anita Diamant
Luck In The Shadows, Lynn Flewelling
Clan of the Cave Bear, Jean M Auel
Valley of Horses, Jean M Auel
Mammoth Hunters, Jean M Auel
Plains of Passage, Jean M Auel
Stalking Darkness, Lynn Flewelling
Traitor's Moon, Lynn Flewelling
Shadow Returns, Lynn Flewelling
The Harlequin, Laurell K. Hamilton
Blood Noir, Laurell K. Hamilton
Spirits in the Wires, Charles de Lint
The Shelters of Stone, Jean M Auel
The Bone Doll's Twin, Lynn Flewelling
Confessions of an Ugly Stepsister, Gregory Maguire

hurrysundown @ 2009-01-05T10:25:00

2009-01-05T15:28:10Z

WISH ME LUCK.

By the end of today, my graduate school applications to UConn's Ecology and Evolutionary Biology department and to UMass' Department of Natural Resources Conservation will both be done and submitted, and I'll know whether the Honda Civic in West Haven is in good shape and if I am going to buy it or not.

Ein Neues Jahr

2009-01-02T15:39:09Z

The New Year has started out both fantastically and well, not so great. On the fantastic side, I have gotten to see plenty of good people this week including family and friends from home that I see very rarely. Got to host for the first time on New Year's Eve (even though I napped through part of it), and to go to my grandparents' open house on the first for the first time in forever. And, my graduate school applications are 95% done. On the less fantastic side, I still don't have a new car and some school things still need to get ironed out. I found two nice looking, newish Hondas with low miles but haven't heard back from either of them. I'm hoping it's just the holidays interfering with business, but I'm getting a little frustrated.

I don't usually do New Year's Resolutions, because I've always thought they were kind of silly. I still think they're kind of silly but I can also see how saying out loud (or...where people can read it) what you plan on doing for the year can give you some incentive to do so (especially when one of those people is Mike Faulk). So here we go:

o I'm going to (try to) lighten up, and think a little more before I talk. Those may seem contradictory, but I assure you, they go hand in hand.

o I'm going to read those important books that are so interesting yet so hard to read. It's a different sort of skill than devouring novels, and it's high time I learned how. I have acquired Rachel Carson's Silent Spring, and Michael gave me an interesting book on new generation feminism (this being only the top of the list I plan to get through in 2009)

There's a few more floating around in my head like actually having an exercise routine, etc, etc, but those are pretty standard and not necessarily in the "Starting Over New" category.

To everyone I didn't see, I hope you guys got this year off to a great start and I hope I see you soon!

Revised, with fingers crossed

2008-12-22T18:51:05Z

Monday
Work 9 to 3
Topics in Biology: Conservation Biology 4 to 5:15

Tuesday
Plant Physiology 11 to 12:15
Glacial & Quaternary Geology 2 to 3:15
Stellar Astronomy 4 to 5:15
Comparative Planetology 5:30 to 6:45
Stellar Lab 7 to 8:50

Wednesday
Work 9 to 3
Topics in Biology: Conservation Biology 4 to 5:15

Thursday
Plant Physiology 11 to 12:15
Glacial & Quarternary Geology 2 to 3:15
Stellar Astronomy 4 to 5:15
Comparative Planetology 5:30 to 6:45

ESCI 179
ESCI 378
ESCI 490
BIO 449
BIO 490

hurrysundown @ 2008-12-21T19:50:00

2008-12-22T00:48:39Z

I think I fixed it. But if the earth science chair doesn't approve this class, I may have to hurt something.

hurrysundown @ 2008-12-18T17:58:00

2008-12-18T23:04:10Z

Reasons why college is obnoxious:
I have to take four earth science courses out of a list of approximately six choices in order to graduate. Since I'm not really an earth science kinda gal, I pretty much pushed these off until the end. This turned out to be a poor decision when, next semester, only one of the two I need to take is offered. Beyond that, most of the offered earth science classes offered have prerequisites that I don't have. After having to go see the chair of the earth science department I get overridden into Physical Oceanography - I don't have physics and am supposed to have it, and the teacher's a really nice guy, but a pretty bad teacher. After I sign up there comes a ray of light, my good friend Evan has dropped volcanology and has to take something else next semester and the earth science chair tells him the same thing: take Oceanography. So if I'm stuck at school until 9:30 at night every Wednesday at least I got a friend with me.

Then, today, I get an email from the registrar saying, oops, you're not registered full time next semester! You better fix that. I go, wait, what? I was registered for 14 credits. Two more than required. What happened? I fiddle around with the ever obnoxious school website for a minute and there it is: Oceanography has been cancelled.

What. the. fuck.

No notification prior to this that the class that my graduation is hinging on has been cancelled. Now I have to hunt down Mr Technologically Impaired Never Ever Answers An Email Ever of the Earth Science Dept. over break (which I hope to all that's holy he's there. Because if he's not...) and get him to ok a different class. Evan has to do likewise, otherwise we're both set back a semester at least, and more than likely a year. So I'm more than a little pissed about this, but I think it's mostly covering the panic.

Personal &%$#ing Statement

2008-12-17T14:41:41Z

Questions to ask yourself before you write:
What's special, unique, distinctive, and/or impressive about you or your life story?

What details of your life (personal or family problems, history, people or events that have shaped you or influenced your goals) might help the committee better understand you or help set you apart from other applicants?

When did you become interested in this field and what have you learned about it (and about yourself) that has further stimulated your interest and reinforced your conviction that you are well suited to this field? What insights have you gained?

How have you learned about this field—through classes, readings, seminars, work or other experiences, or conversations with people already in the field?

If you have worked a lot during your college years, what have you learned (leadership or managerial skills, for example), and how has that work contributed to your growth?

What are your career goals?

Are there any gaps or discrepancies in your academic record that you should explain (great grades but mediocre LSAT or GRE scores, for example, or a distinct upward pattern to your GPA if it was only average in the beginning)?

Have you had to overcome any unusual obstacles or hardships (for example, economic, familial, or physical) in your life?

What personal characteristics (for example. integrity. compassion. persistence) do you possess that would improve your prospects for success in the field or profession? Is there a way to demonstrate or document that you have these characteristics?

What skills (for example, leadership, communicative, analytical) do you possess?

Why might you be a stronger candidate for graduate school—and more successful and effective in the profession or field than other applicants?

What are the most compelling reasons you can give for the admissions committee to be interested in you?

Car Talk

2008-12-05T17:09:40Z

My car has been headed for the shop for a few weeks now with what was described to me as a "small exhaust leak and a major oil leak." I figured the repairs would be in the $500 to $1000 range and all would be well. Monday, I got a flat tire and Tuesday, the exhaust line came apart from the catalytic converter. Wednesday, it made it to the shop in roughly one piece. Thursday I got the call that it would cost more than the car is worth to fix all of the things the oil getting all over the engine has ruined, let alone the exhaust. So I had the shop stick a big ol' bandaid on the exhaust system and am driving poor Livia into the ground, until I can find another car. The post-graduate school plan to get a new car is postponed since hopefully whatever I buy now'll last beyond the possible two years of grad school. Looking at the Volkswagen for sale at the shop fell through when it came up exactly how much fixing a foreign car actually costs. So the plan is evolved to finding a nice sturdy used Honda Civic in the next week or two. Til then I'm pretty much a homebody.

::Quits Life::

2008-10-20T16:39:49Z

41833 ESCI 179 70 4 credits Stellar Astronomy TR 4:00 pm - 5:15 pm Lab T 7:00 pm - 8:50 pm
41829 ESCI 378 70 3.000 Comparative Planetology TR 5:30 pm - 6:45 pm
41837 ESCI 335 70 3 credits Physical Oceanography W 6:45 pm - 9:15 pm
42097 CHEM 163 02 3 credits General Chemistry II MW 2:00 pm - 3:15 pm
42105 CHEM 164 30 1 credit General Chemistry II Lab W 11:00 am - 1:50 pm

Monday
Work 9 to 1:30
Gen Chem II 2 to 3:15

Tuesday
Work 9 to 3:30
Stellar Astronomy 4 to 5:15
Comparative Planetology 5:30 to 6:45
Stellar Lab 7 to 8:50

Wednesday
Gen Chem II Lab 11 to 1:50
Gen Chem II 2 to 3:15
Oceanography 6:45 to 9:15

Thursday
Work 9 to 3:30
Stellar Astronomy 4 to 5:15
Comparative Planetology 5:30 to 6:45

It was supposed to be Things To Do Thursday, but...

2008-10-13T20:21:34Z

o Find NCCC Student Identification Information
o Request Transcripts from NCCC
o Register for GREs
o Study for GREs
o Write Personal Statement Essays
o Email Prospective Advisers - UConn (4)
o Email Prospective Advisers - UMass (6)
o Mail/Post UMass Recommendation Forms - Prof. Bryda, Prof. Spector
o Mail/Post UConn Letters of Recommendation - Prof. Bryda, Prof. Spector, Prof. Carter

Tell me how high

2008-09-12T16:27:32Z

Walking around campus with a mac makes me feel like I have, in fact, joined an elitist group of mac users. However, while Tapioca here can borrow signal from an unsecured source with ease from home, it has no end of troubles with campus' wireless internet. I have no idea why, but it gets more annoying daily. The other problem is how to fit a chem text book, lab manual, lab notebook, lab coat, safety goggles and class notebook into a laptop bag. Mondays might make me into a pack mule.

Magestry is in, in theory, 9.75 hours. I haven't packed. I haven't looked at my Brewer's Book to pick out something to make for the Brewer's Contest tomorrow. I really don't care that I haven't done all of these things. I could change into Tam's clothes the minute I get home and leave and be thrilled about it. Fuck having a sword, I'll borrow one from someone who's less in the mood to hit things than I am. It smells like autumn outside and the wind has that pretty feeling that tells you it's almost sweater time. This kind of weather makes me want to conquer the world, then curl up with a good book and some tea.

I'm back to checking Post Secret now that I have the internets again and while most of the time they're about love, sex, marriage, babies, etc... there was one that stood out as completely different from the others this time and I really wish it'd been posted about me:

Fuck yes I'm a cool kid

2008-09-02T21:37:13Z

In other words, buying a laptop was a seriously splendid idea.

When Jarad Became A Cowboy

2008-08-26T18:42:20Z

Per request, here are some pictures of the second time (ever, and in a week) I got one Mr Jarad Demick on the back of a horse:

These are the horses up where Clocky rides with her friend Sara, we went riding earlier in the week on my aunt's horse Brownie and my dad's horse Beau and I'm hoping that between Candace and Puzzle, and Dad and Brownie, I'll actually get to go horseback riding somewhat regularly this fall/winter.

More For Me

2008-08-02T03:54:51Z

Breaking Dawn, Stephenie Meyer - Caitlin'd better be done with it soon. Like. Tomorrow.

Twilight - First Movie
12 December
Midnight showing!

An (Actual!) Entry

2008-07-15T15:50:28Z

I think I just aced my math midterm. There were definitely questions I didn't know, but they were few and far between among questions that were pretty easy. I wonder if they were easy because this is a condensed summer class and therefore regulated to teaching the basics since there's a distinct lack of practice time available.

Yesterday was awesome. I got to hang out with my sister spending too much money and getting to be a big sister. Danielle and I don't talk much over the internets, so it was nice to get to spend a few hours with her in person. Usually she's in Providence and I'm in Hartford, or she's with Jimmy and I'm with Jarad. I bought her a really pretty dress that she looks super cute in, and got two new dresses for myself now that I've actually started wearing them. I also bought two very girly waterbottles. Next on the list of ridiculous spending: Mountain Bike.

In other news, for you artsy folk, or for those of you who just think she's cool beans for hitting her older sister in the face with a beer bottle, I'm doing a shameless little plug here for my other sister's art she's getting up the guts to sell. Nothing absolutely amazing up yet, but I think she's still pretty nervous about it. None the less, give it a look!: Emmy's Etsy Site

Mostly for my own Amusement

2008-06-29T21:57:25Z

Because work is awful boring and receipt tape was awful handy, and I hate the songs they play on the radio:

Jarad- Absolutely Cuckoo, The Magnetic Fields
Kate- Light My Fire, The Doors
John- Sweet Baby James, James Taylor
Belle- Santa Monica, Savage Garden
Lou- It's Tricky, Run DMC
MikeF- Come On, Tegan & Sara
MikeK- Yankee Bayonet, The Decemberists
Whitney- Black Velvet Band, The Jovial Crew
Graham- The Leaving of Liverpool, The Jovial Crew
Brooka- Dreams, Fleetwood Mac
Angela- The Two Trees, Loreena McKennitt
Paul- Acres Wild, Jethro Tull
Claire- This Time Around, Hanson
Scotch- Dragula, Rob Zombie
Mark- Through the Never, Metallica
Emily- The Devil's Dance Floor, Flogging Molly
Domenica- Sweet Emotion, Aerosmith
Stephanie- The Middle, Jimmy Eat World
Kim- Gypsy Rover, The Brobdingnagian Bards
Dave- The Rosabella, The Jovial Crew
Brian- The Death of Ferdinand de Saussure, The Magnetic Fields
Phil- Symphony in C, Cake

*To all of you who don't have songs, I apologize. Most of these are sentimental rather than anything about the song actually reminding me of attributes of the person and unfortunately my life doesn't have that complete of a soundtrack.

To Mike, and To Brooke

2008-06-06T05:21:52Z

I forgot how good creativity feels.

Communication is Architecture

2008-06-04T17:09:59Z

I've realised something about the houses that I love. There's a quality they have in common that goes beyond their rural setting to how they open up to it. There's a certain continuity when you come in the door that doesn't shut you away from the outside. You can see the trees through the windows in every room, smell the rain outside as it sweeps in on the wind. The apartment in Hartford lets the outside in, all right, but the outside might as well be inside anyway, the rain smells like garbage and asphalt and the sunlight is always a shadow of the closest apartment building. It's amazing how a few days - or a single morning - of sweet rain and growing green can restore one's balance.

Almost an ending

2008-05-29T04:16:15Z

Final Grades, Spring 2008-

Computing and Culture: C-
Elementary Algebra: B-
Human Geography: A-
Soils and Vegetation: A

What's my name again?

2008-05-15T14:39:49Z

Because I thought it was funny (particularly with the background that ended up in the picture), I'll tell you a little story - I left my coffee mug at Sternbergia Tuesday morning. It was returned to me Wednesday night, thus:

The twigs are, I am 99% sure, from a swamp oak.

And, because I enjoy cute things almost as much as the next person: a little while ago I got to babysit a kitten so that Samwise the Mad didn't eat him. His name at the time was Jack, although everyone in the house called him something different. I called him Pepperjack, and he is a damn cute kitten:

Home Sweet...Oh.

2008-05-05T16:34:21Z

It's crazy how much choice has an effect on the way that people feel and act. Even just the having of the choice. Even if you've already made it, the option to change it, the possibility for tradebacks, can make a huge difference.

So even though I never planned to go home, it makes a huge difference to know that I can't. It's hard to watch how hard it is for my mom to clean out everything, without a bit of my father's help, and how my sisters slowly pack up their rooms. They're both unhappy at college, and now they don't have those blissful weekends at home to look forward to because just walking in the door is a reminder of the years of memories they need to let go of. I've tried pretty hard to stay out of it, since I don't want to make things harder on my mom and I know that my sisters are a little resentful since I don't live there anymore - so why should I care? But I do. I'll miss my Tree, and I'll miss the swamp. The house will be on the market by the middle of May. I don't know how long it will take to sell, or how many times I have left to pull in that driveway. I'll miss having a place that I know I can just walk into when I need somewhere "else" to go. Although, thank all that is Holy, and Whitney and Graham, there is still Sternbergia.

Saturday afternoon I got called into the manager's office to be given the third degree about how I have to hand in schedules of all of my classes, with my name on them (which I had no idea how to get - signing into the school's website is the only way I even know how to get a schedule and since I have to sign in, there's no need for my name all over everything) and a note saying that the extra time I need off is for school. Good timing, Mr. Tollefson. I don't need a home, or a social life, or an education. That's cool.

Luckily the faculty of CCSU are somewhere on the level of amazing, and I have administrative printed schedules that say "RACHEL A. BREAKELL" at the top (thank all that's holy they don't say "Ann"...) and a note saying that I get every weekend I need at least until the end of the fall season off. Boyah.