Thursday, November 20, 2003
little green turtles
it's thursday. hmmm, we had a couple of lectures this morning that were, ummmm, almost riveting. actually the lecture on the legal aspects of the international space station was pretty interesting but super in-depth so i felt like i mostly had no idea what he was talking about.... and before that we had a lecture on project management i believe. the most amusing aspect of it was watching everyone fall asleep while a) appearing to still be awake to the lecturer in the front of the room and b) appearing to be paying attention to any faculty popping into the back of the room. hehe! at least it kept ME awake...
i was attempting to be productive during lunch but have stopped trying now since a) the printer is not working (as usual) b) i had to spend 15 minutes looking for a computer that would log-in properly c) the library is not open (really, why should it be open when we are not in class?) and d) lunch is over in 14 minutes and i really can't start anything functional in that amount of time. so, here i am giving you an ultra-boring update.
we have another workshop this afternoon on space habitat design. i have no idea what we will be asked to do nor how we are going to do it but hopefully it shall prove to be interesting... optimistically speaking.
tonight i have massive amounts of work to do but i think that i will hang out with jess and will instead-excellent decision! i hung out with them last night as well which was fun cause i don't think i've seen jess in over a week and they have 2 really cute ferrets! yay-i love animals! and i had the chance to see an american magazine-the first in 3 months. of course, i remember why i never buy them in the states but it was still kinda neat. we popped over to the irish pub later to celebrate the outcome of the norway-spain football (soccer) match which spain dominated for the second time this week! i believe the score was something awful, like 5-1, and left our norwegian delegation mightily disheartened! too bad-we had fun winning (?) the bar quizzes and i believe that we were able to get a good start on organizing "tp3" to counter whatever mess we are now calling tp1 :) ah, good times.
other than that, nothing new or exciting and i am even less than excited about being here for another couple of hours.... c'est la vie i guess. i hope everyone is having fun!
love.m
i was attempting to be productive during lunch but have stopped trying now since a) the printer is not working (as usual) b) i had to spend 15 minutes looking for a computer that would log-in properly c) the library is not open (really, why should it be open when we are not in class?) and d) lunch is over in 14 minutes and i really can't start anything functional in that amount of time. so, here i am giving you an ultra-boring update.
we have another workshop this afternoon on space habitat design. i have no idea what we will be asked to do nor how we are going to do it but hopefully it shall prove to be interesting... optimistically speaking.
tonight i have massive amounts of work to do but i think that i will hang out with jess and will instead-excellent decision! i hung out with them last night as well which was fun cause i don't think i've seen jess in over a week and they have 2 really cute ferrets! yay-i love animals! and i had the chance to see an american magazine-the first in 3 months. of course, i remember why i never buy them in the states but it was still kinda neat. we popped over to the irish pub later to celebrate the outcome of the norway-spain football (soccer) match which spain dominated for the second time this week! i believe the score was something awful, like 5-1, and left our norwegian delegation mightily disheartened! too bad-we had fun winning (?) the bar quizzes and i believe that we were able to get a good start on organizing "tp3" to counter whatever mess we are now calling tp1 :) ah, good times.
other than that, nothing new or exciting and i am even less than excited about being here for another couple of hours.... c'est la vie i guess. i hope everyone is having fun!
love.m
Wednesday, November 19, 2003
oh boy... is it still wednesday?
shoot! i meant to write a bit last night but, once again, time escaped me. so, there's loads to talk about today! first off, yesterday's workshop on future studies turned out to be rather fun and entertaining-not usual for workshops taking place after lunch. we were assigned the task of creating an entirely new governance system in the year 2050 in which an isu base was supporting 50,000 people. we had funbeing silly and taking it to the extreme in which we proposed to be controlled by implanted computer chips which were controlled by machines. the basis of our existence on mars was the use of technology and environment to develop as a society and to explore/overcome racism in all its forms (human vs human, human vs machine, machine vs machine, gender in both settings, intellectual vs emotional vs physical prowress). anyway, i found the exercise to be extremely stimulating and really the first creative problem solving that i have done here at isu. i know it sounds totally fruity, but all the aspects that must be considered in this type of assignment totally translate into current applications and discussions on race and development.
moving along, we had a tp meeting in which, ahem, we discussed our status review presentation set for wednesday afternoon. all i will say is that it only ran 1/2 hour over the allotted time frame which therefore leads me to declare it a success!
in the mean time, i have been trying to figure out what exactly i am going to do with myself in the near future, in the next couple years, and, ultimately, as a profession/career that will be driven by my interests and life-long learning objectives. and altough i am in a "master's" program, since it is a bit different in nature from traditional grad programs, i feel like there are some activities that i am going to need to tackle on my own. i have decided that i need to have a research paper published in some referreed journal and my timeline for this is 1 year. i figure that my internship/individual report will serve as the basis for this paper so at least i have a mode and means of research. however, i know that i need to do a considerable amount of reading/research in order to flesh out a literature review prior to this internship but i don't know where to start since i haven't been contacted yet by the guys from stennis... fyi-nasa's stennis space center in mississippi is (most likely) where i'll be serving my internship from april-july 2004. they do tons of earth sensing/processing there and i am super excited! but, i need to hear from them so that i know what project i'll be on hence my area of reading. anyway, just a thought.... and i intend to talk to dr. nyerges (univ of wa) and dr. beyers (univ of wa) about current 'hot' topics in gis and geography and i'll be talking with dr. farrow (isu) as well since he is my current advisor here and should have some good insight as well.
moving along-i am reading this super excellent book called "asking for the earth" which i checked out from the isu library (OMG-it was actually open!) and it is written by a canadian diplomat who has traveled throughtout the world and has some interesting points. in fact, the book is fabulous in looking at the origination and interest in the environmental movement. he approaches this task from the external versus the internal perspectives that each individual is subject to and must deal with in order for the environment to be a key player on the national and international stages. fascinating.
so, now it is wednesday and another day is almost over and i have too much stuff to do (mostly left over from yesterday...)! we had two interesting lectures on market research which i found to be a) interesting and b) completely applicable to my current position in tp research. it justified and gave me a vision as to where/how the social impacts should be figured into the project. these qualitative measurements, in fact, will drive the quantitative measurements and will define the issues that need to considered and factored into the project. yay! i will be doing something useful....
and another lovely tp meeting leaves me feeling, once again, that i am definitely NOT a team player and it leaves no question in my mind why i have always excelled at individual sports.... all of my team members are brilliant (well.... we all have our moments, right?) but it seems like the process should be much more streamlined and positive than it is. and, perhaps i will never understand this, why do you raise your hand to say 'i agree with so-and-so' and then reiterate what was just said for 10 more minutes? i understand that some people really love the sound of their voice but... perhaps it would be more helpful if we could all self-edit and consider what the net contribution will be of our (insightful?) comment. just a thought. no pressure.
sheesh! so, now we are about ready to present our status reports to the faculty and we'll see what everyone has to say... will be (almost!) interesting i'm sure :)
i talked to my mom and she mentioned that she ran into my old swimming coach and that he has 3 boys! i am definitely going to go see them the next time i am in seattle. i can't imagine paul with 3 boys-his poor wife!
and, just as a side note, i have given up on impressions here at school and y'all will be happy to know that the old margot is back, in style! i found this lovely fleece blanket (very pink, lots of cute flowers, very barbie) at the auchon (horrid, ridiculous store that i will discuss later) for 6 euros. if any of you remember me from work, i fashion it as i used to fashion that lovely red blanket-wrapped about myself like some sort of dress. it turns out that not many people here are familiar with my 'style' and think it a bit odd... turns out that i don't care so much because it keeps me warm and when i am warm, i am happy :) in fact, it is NOT my fault that isu keeps the air conditioning on all year! i will just battle them with pink!!!!
by the way, i definitely think that our garbage men are on strike because the trash is definitely still on the sidewalk... i had hope for yesterday but now i believe that it shall never be collected at all!
i hope that this wednesday is seeing everyone doing well!
lots-of-love.m
moving along, we had a tp meeting in which, ahem, we discussed our status review presentation set for wednesday afternoon. all i will say is that it only ran 1/2 hour over the allotted time frame which therefore leads me to declare it a success!
in the mean time, i have been trying to figure out what exactly i am going to do with myself in the near future, in the next couple years, and, ultimately, as a profession/career that will be driven by my interests and life-long learning objectives. and altough i am in a "master's" program, since it is a bit different in nature from traditional grad programs, i feel like there are some activities that i am going to need to tackle on my own. i have decided that i need to have a research paper published in some referreed journal and my timeline for this is 1 year. i figure that my internship/individual report will serve as the basis for this paper so at least i have a mode and means of research. however, i know that i need to do a considerable amount of reading/research in order to flesh out a literature review prior to this internship but i don't know where to start since i haven't been contacted yet by the guys from stennis... fyi-nasa's stennis space center in mississippi is (most likely) where i'll be serving my internship from april-july 2004. they do tons of earth sensing/processing there and i am super excited! but, i need to hear from them so that i know what project i'll be on hence my area of reading. anyway, just a thought.... and i intend to talk to dr. nyerges (univ of wa) and dr. beyers (univ of wa) about current 'hot' topics in gis and geography and i'll be talking with dr. farrow (isu) as well since he is my current advisor here and should have some good insight as well.
moving along-i am reading this super excellent book called "asking for the earth" which i checked out from the isu library (OMG-it was actually open!) and it is written by a canadian diplomat who has traveled throughtout the world and has some interesting points. in fact, the book is fabulous in looking at the origination and interest in the environmental movement. he approaches this task from the external versus the internal perspectives that each individual is subject to and must deal with in order for the environment to be a key player on the national and international stages. fascinating.
so, now it is wednesday and another day is almost over and i have too much stuff to do (mostly left over from yesterday...)! we had two interesting lectures on market research which i found to be a) interesting and b) completely applicable to my current position in tp research. it justified and gave me a vision as to where/how the social impacts should be figured into the project. these qualitative measurements, in fact, will drive the quantitative measurements and will define the issues that need to considered and factored into the project. yay! i will be doing something useful....
and another lovely tp meeting leaves me feeling, once again, that i am definitely NOT a team player and it leaves no question in my mind why i have always excelled at individual sports.... all of my team members are brilliant (well.... we all have our moments, right?) but it seems like the process should be much more streamlined and positive than it is. and, perhaps i will never understand this, why do you raise your hand to say 'i agree with so-and-so' and then reiterate what was just said for 10 more minutes? i understand that some people really love the sound of their voice but... perhaps it would be more helpful if we could all self-edit and consider what the net contribution will be of our (insightful?) comment. just a thought. no pressure.
sheesh! so, now we are about ready to present our status reports to the faculty and we'll see what everyone has to say... will be (almost!) interesting i'm sure :)
i talked to my mom and she mentioned that she ran into my old swimming coach and that he has 3 boys! i am definitely going to go see them the next time i am in seattle. i can't imagine paul with 3 boys-his poor wife!
and, just as a side note, i have given up on impressions here at school and y'all will be happy to know that the old margot is back, in style! i found this lovely fleece blanket (very pink, lots of cute flowers, very barbie) at the auchon (horrid, ridiculous store that i will discuss later) for 6 euros. if any of you remember me from work, i fashion it as i used to fashion that lovely red blanket-wrapped about myself like some sort of dress. it turns out that not many people here are familiar with my 'style' and think it a bit odd... turns out that i don't care so much because it keeps me warm and when i am warm, i am happy :) in fact, it is NOT my fault that isu keeps the air conditioning on all year! i will just battle them with pink!!!!
by the way, i definitely think that our garbage men are on strike because the trash is definitely still on the sidewalk... i had hope for yesterday but now i believe that it shall never be collected at all!
i hope that this wednesday is seeing everyone doing well!
lots-of-love.m
Tuesday, November 18, 2003
a lovely tuesday
yep, i just took 10 minutes to figure out how to sign in but i did it! we just had a couple cool lectures on future studies from prof dator from univ of hawaii. finally, some social relevancy to all this space stuff! and some lectures on astrobiology.... uh, it was pretty neat but i slept through most of it.... oops. we have a workshop this afternoon on... ?... and then a tp meeting.... hmmm. i think i will not comment on that yet! so i'm on the tp (team project) that is working on providing internet capabilities globally. my part is to research the social impacts that this will have. i am trying to look at individual, community/tribal, regional and international impacts that access to information will have. i could expound on this at length but i won't... i went running this morning and it was lovely. i was power walking but suddenly i have been bitten by the running bug and the highlight of my days are running along the canal-it makes me smile just to think about it. we were going to go to the ballet tomorrow (swan lake!) but they laughed us out of the ticket office cuz apparently swan lake is very important and they have been sold out for 15 months. oh well. we might go visit the EU parliment or something instead i guess. i have tons of work to do for my contract assignment, not to mention doing research for tp, but hopefully i will be productive tonight and get some stuff done! i cleaned my room last night and managed to do some laundry as well-daily homemaking activities are not my forte. unless it involves making cookies... but cleaning up is another matter entirely! oh yeah, check out our school website at http://mss.isunet.edu/ it is being edited by one of my classmates and it's pretty neat. you can also see all my classmates (as well as a laughable pic of myself)-it's great. so much has gone on prior to me signing up for this so i will catch everyone up the next time i can sit down and type. it will be a bit of current events plus some historical content as well. and, although belated, happy birthday to kristi! and a big congrats to her and stephanie as well! much love and luck to you guys...
with that, i will sign off-gotta find a sorry imitation of coke light before afternoon lectures... looks like we are going to be here for awhile.... oh funny bit-i brought a hard-boiled egg for lunch but turns out it wasn't so hard-boiled... hehe!
love.m
with that, i will sign off-gotta find a sorry imitation of coke light before afternoon lectures... looks like we are going to be here for awhile.... oh funny bit-i brought a hard-boiled egg for lunch but turns out it wasn't so hard-boiled... hehe!
love.m
Saturday, November 01, 2003
still figuring out....
so, i never claimed to be smart and you can see why! i signed up for this because i am horrid at keeping in touch via email with everyone so it's better if i can write it once for the enjoyment of all and then i can chat with you guys individually about other stuff (and non-web-appropriate thins!) and not boring daily events! k, so i am going to try to get up to speed on this....
huh? how does this thing work?
viva la france!
uhhhhh... a little confused here...
uhhhhh... a little confused here...
