Actually Overheard, To My Chagrin

A hallway inside CFU. Two girls and a boy are talking about how they're all failing a particular class. They are more valley-sounding than any valley girl I ever met. And I've met valley girls.

Girl 1: (to the boy) Wait, aren't you, like, from my career development class?
Boy: Huh huh huh. Yeah.
Girl 2: Like, Oh my God! I totally know where I recognize you from now. At first I was like... "No", but then I was like..."Yeah", then I was like..."No", but now I'm like "Yeah!"

I think I have an inkling why you're failing college, sweetie.

Math. Obviously.

So I'm a somewhat superstitious individual, which is why I didn't mention here that I had an interview on Friday. It's for a nice small little company that my professor works for. She recommended me for a nice little web development position, so I went in to meet the boss. The interview went really well, and they are 'cautiously optimistic'. Basically the deal is that, if I can write the three programs he gave me as homework, he'll hire me on an internship, so we can see how it works out, and then once I graduate, if it's all going well, we'll start doing the paperwork that will switch me from an F1 visa to an H-1B.

When I came home from the interview on Friday, I started freaking out, as I am wont to do. I lost all faith in myself that I could write the programs, and essentially built up a huge barrier for myself. My philosophy appeared to be:

I can't do it, so I'm going to give up.
I look better on paper than I really am in person.
I can't apply the knowledge I have to the real world.

Huge wall. So I ignored the programs all weekend, and yesterday, while Barbara was at work, I ran out of excuses and had to dedicate some time to it. I started on the first program, wrote up the basics in Java, and then got completely rear-ended by the math. I gave up. When Barbara got home, we chatted, ate dinner, and played some Castle Crashers. Finally, as we lay in bed about to go to sleep, I opened up to her and explained my fears. A couple of tears later, and I felt composed enough to actually describe the problem to her.

My sweetie is brilliant, but math is not her strong suit, as science is not mine. We have our fortes, and our areas in which we are lacking, and together we work well. Essentially what I was trying to explain to her was the equivalent of her trying to explain the EndoMuscle System to me, which for those of you just joining us is practically quantum physics. Anyway, as I'm oh-so-calmly explaining the problem, using my examples, Barbara pipes up:

"So for 4 weeks, and a goal of 16, that's 4 a week."

Nice, simple math, right? 4 x 4 = 16. Obviously. Yet, I'd been focusing on small, 0.something numbers so much that I'd fried my brain. This was exactly what I needed. The light in my brain switched on, and I ran to the computer. Huzzah!

So, the program is not complete, but it's a darn sight closer than it was this time yesterday, all because of my girl. So I wanted to say thanks to her, in a nice public forum, for calming me down, and helping me get to the bottom of E= MC².

Having the Most Amusing Friends

The below is an excerpt from my poetry course, a little something I wrote concerning Walt Whitman's "O Captain! My Captain!"

"You'll need to color me a little green, as far as American history goes, I'm afraid, but I wonder if there's any importance to the fact that Whitman wrote this just after Lincoln died. Is it possible he's using the ship as a metaphor for all the good that Lincoln managed to bring to the country (remember, please, I don't know what I'm talking about!), and commenting on Lincoln now not being here to enjoy it? Perhaps it was related to slavery?

Actually, I just looked up a basic Abraham Lincoln biography, and it seems his grandfather was a Captain in the revolutionary militia, and shared the same name. I would imagine that's just a coincidence, but it still struck me as interesting. Under that biography, however, I noticed that the Civil War ended just 6 days before Lincoln was shot, and that definitely seems like it could be the subject of O Captain! My Captain."

A few moments later, in a conversation with my buddy Kris, the following transpired:

Me: i'm totally about to cheat...and post one of my old poems to the main threaded discussion
Kris: lol nice
Me: :D Cheater cheater purple people eater
Kris: LMFAO wow Lisa... making reference to Abe Lincoln and learning the purple people eater song all in ONE day, you might as well be a fucking American citizen.
Me: Well done, hon, you just made the blog!

An Email From My Sister

My sister sent this to me, and I had to share, since I took a language in school that is actually useful in my own daily life/work. She chose differently. Yay for the sub-standard schooling of our youth.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Today I get an email from a former franchisee looking to open a new office, and I decide to jump on it.

GET THIS: He used to be in British Columbia (Canada); he moved to Les Houches (France) and asked me with his fancy French ways "would it be possible to start a franchise in the EU?"

So, I answer him back, "Absolument! Which states and counties are you interested in?"--because in my limited knowledge of French, EU stands for "Etas Unis" which is "United States" in English. So, I assume [erroneously] that he is moving back to the States and looking for opportunity HERE.

Anyway, the new sales manager politely informs me that EU actually stands for European Union, which after a little online research I found is made up of 27 countries which use the Euro as their currency: France, Ireland, Denmark, the UK, etc. are some of the bigger ones.

So, I have egg on my face.

THANK YOU VERY MUCH, MADEMOISELLE DUPUIS--I OBVIOUSLY HAVE NO USE FOR THE BEAUTIFUL BUT WORTHLESS FRENCH LANGUAGE APPLICATION IN REAL LIFE, WITH THE EXCEPTION OF BEING ABLE TO READ "LE PETIT PRINCE" IN FRENCH AND UNDERSTANDING THE STORY. OTHERWISE, IT IS ABSOLUTELY USELESS TO ME! MERDE!