July11-17. Mangos, school, .. that's about it.

Not a very interesting week; hubby's playing Army so I feel like a single mom. Needy pets, 40hr job, two summer classes, AAAAHHH!

Mangogeddon continued and after freezing a bunch of tupperware full of mango I realized I was out of tupperware! I relocated the tupperware bricks into baggies and pulped what I had. I repeated the process later in the week with what had riped, and there are now 2-2cup bricks, 1-4cup brick, 4-1 mango baggies, 3-2 mango baggies, and 2-1 mango loaves of bread in the freezer. Three unripe mangos in the fridge, one in the fruit bowl. I'v thrown away a ridiculous amount of fruit in the last couple weeks, mainly because we have no way to harvest besides waiting for them to fall. I know some of our landlord's workers can climb up the tree or onto the roof, but I'm not risking broken bones for more of what I have a surplus of.

Took my first Bio Principles exam on Monday, got a 92%. Really happy about that. Offset it Friday (in my mind) by forgetting my iClicker for the first time in two years and, according to Murphy's law, our second 8 point quiz was given. This quiz is 20% of my quiz grade and I spent 30 minutes of class trying to hide that I was crying, and the rest of the two hours trying not to start up again. I'd had four hours of sleep and was hungry so I was not coping well. After class I tossed the gradescale and my grades into Excel and showed myself that the quiz meant so little in the grand scheme, that I still had a 96% and if I repeated my original Exam/Quiz grades the rest of the semester (92 and 75 respectively) I would still get a 90% in the class. I want an A, and I like the material, so I'm trying to dig in. Second exam Wednesday; such a short semester means quarter exams every 7-10 days.

I wish I'd understood about this summer A-B-C thing, because Prof wasn't kidding when he said we shouldn't be taking more than BioPrinciples at one time. I thought I was going to nail my Calc quiz but only got a 70%. Doesn't hurt my grade, due to drop tests, but gave an alarming view of where I really am. Exam Friday.

Trying to repump my motivation to run and work out. Been allowing myself to 'relax' in the middle of this courseload and I realized yesterday that I haven't really run since before we moved. I'm scared to run outside, alone, you see. It took me six months to work up the courage to run 0.5miles from our last house, and I think I only did it 'cause I was mad. However, I don't want to spend money on a gym membership again; I do not get my money's worth out of my here-and-there habits. I've paid an activity fee with the University allowing me to use their gym but it's like dodging poo... I commute, so my bag is kinda bulky. If I take gear for the gym I need the bigger, bulkier, bag and it doesn't fit in the locker. Did I mention they tried to kick me out of the gym for bringing my backpack onto the floor? The locks sold at the grocery store were BOGO free, so I did. If I have to split my crap into two lockers in order to run on the treadmill I've already paid rent for, so be it. I hope to maybe find/use the track once I get some distance back. I've resolidified my Short Term Goal of a 5k in the end of August or beginning of September, and am recommitting myself to the Disney Princess Marathon in February ... of say 2013. When I planned on the one only one year out, I got discouraged as it got closer and I wasn't making progress. So, plan FAR out, as a reward for finishing mini-goals and training.

There are many excuses, but I'm tired of looking at running as just 'one more thing I don't have time/energy/strength/ for. I can, and I'm gonna, gosh darn it!

Guess I had more to talk about than I thought!

04July-10July. Mango bread; Plantlife; and Circumcision.

This week didn't have a lot too it, except that I've been really busy the whole time. I spent most of Independence Day catching up on housework and homework while Hubby pulled a double-time shift. I had a beer with lunch (Sam Adams East-West Kolsch) and had enough time (read: got bored enough) to finally sit down with Photoshop and recreate my highschool diploma. My mom 'filed' mine when I left everything I owned with her as I marched off to Bootcamp and that was the last anyone ever saw of it. I love her, but I unfortunately get my organizational skills from her! I think it turned out rather well, especially since it's just for my wall anyway.
It took longer than I thought it would. Looked up diplomas to get the wording right, then had to dig around for signatures that could be used. Took me a silly amount of time to find a signature for someone with the name Anderson, large enough to manipulate. The others, shrug, no one remembers those people, but the principal's name? Wanted that right.
Tuesday I spent four hours down with a caffeine headache. I've been slamming coffee this summer and then had none on my blessed day off. 200mg caffeine, 1000mg acetaminophen, and sipping a cup of coffee, it still took four hours for it to ebb and disappear. Afterwards I tried to run a bunch of errands and baked up a loaf of eggless mango quickbread. Eggless, because I had none, mango, because we have too much. I pulped and froze six ripe-to-overripe mangoes that had been collected since the rains earlier in the week created mango-geddon. There are more mangoes than that, twice that, in the trash because they were either infested, or unripe and split, or too ripe and split. Unbelievable yield this mango tree produces! I found a recipe online and editted it a little. I ended up making two more loaves for the freezer on Friday. I may end up making more!
The cactus behind the house bloomed, and it's lovely. The blooms are huge! Bees are having a fantastic time. My photos aren't focused (I may have to trade in this expensive phone for another, excepting that all the Droid2s seem to have this problem...) BUT, they do show how awesome this plant it. I like having a cactus near the house, reminds me of Arizona!
I'll have to add photos later, since this phone is also unable to rotate photos so they aren't sideways....
A brief note: got 100% on my last Calc quiz, and scored some extra credit on my Bio quiz (from 76% to 86%) which I needed. I dislike short quizzes because if you miss one you might as well miss half. First bio exam on Monday, so spending this weekend reviewing, cramming, etc.

Paliphrasia/Palilalia

I always wondered if there was a name for it. I was sure there was, humans name everything. When I was young I would mouth or whisper the last sentence I said. I started trying to stop when people started pointing it out, though I still did it in my head. It happened more obviously when I spoke spontaneously (any normal conversation not rehearsed) so I thought it may be mind-to-mouth in reverse, as if people think-then-speak but because I spoke first my brain would rewind and then think.

I still sometimes do it, but when I'm alone I do it outloud, sometimes complete with smiling and hand gestures. Sometimes I review whole short conversations (just my side). I've been doing it a lot lately (or maybe it seems like a lot lately since I noticed I still do it). Today I finally looked it up.

Most of the people who say they did it say they had normal to advanced language development. This is different from what Einstein had; he developed language slow and repeated sentences to himself Before speaking (according to one poster). It can be packaged with autism, OCD, and some other things. There's another version, echolalia, where the person not only repeats themselves but other people's speech.

Wiki calls it palilalia. "...The repetition or echoing of one's own spoken words." They draw their source from a text on Tourette's syndrom.
http://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Palilalia

American Heritage Medical Dictionary 2007 determines palilalia to be the repeating of words at the end of a sentence with increasing rapidity.
-http://medical-dictionary.thefreedictionary.com/_/dict.aspx?word=palilalia
They call paliphrasia the "involuntary repetition of words or sentences in talking." Although it doesn't mention rapidity, it does offer palilalia as a synonym.
-http://medical-dictionary.thefreedictionary.com/_/dict.aspx?word=paliphrasia

Weekly WeyrCat 27June-03July

School:

I started Biological Principals this Monday. The professor is a marine biologist who's been at FAU for 25 years. He's also hilarious, no-nonsense, and replies "no" when asked if he was in the military. He's specific about what he demands of a student: No tech in class, excluding dedicated audio recorders (which he recommends for those who feel the need to write everything down). He started the day off by calling security on a girl who refused to move closer to the podium (no sitting in the back five rows) because she wanted to be able to charge her laptop (not allowed in class anyway). He actually laughed at her. He asked nicely, then instructed her, then informed her he was calling security. He did. They came and escorted her out while she flipped him off and yelled "F* YOU!" Wow... just... wow. Pride man... Pride and entitlement. The body of the class seems like a bunch of material I've already learned, so as long as I stay on top of it I believe I will get a good grade.

The lab is going to be very fast paced: We did three labs the first day. Easy into labs, but the third required us to test a hypothesis and write a mock scientific article on it. I thought it was kind of neat, but I did my work alone (choosing an experiment I could do alone) so I could gauge which students were not worth grouping with. I despise students who just copy other students, and they tend to make themselves obvious. Noted one the second day; she asked about the mock article and said "But it's a group project, right?" People don't ask that unless they think they can get away with just putting their name on someone else's work. Fact.

Friday June 24, I was late to my calculus exam. I took the same train I always take, but instead of taking 30 minutes to get to the college train station (4 stops) it took 30 minutes to get to the first stop. I emailed the professor in route, but it didn't get me any extra time on the exam. We ade it to the train station, then I had to wait 20 minutes for the bus to arrive. I usually get to class 30 minutes early, I arrived 30 minutes late. I ran out of time and ended up just filling in a few bubbles at the end. Someone had made the professor angry the day before too, and I base this on an email he sent us the night before. For the first exam we were allowed to be a sheet with notes on it, this was forbidden us this time. This could just be him working us into thinking for ourselves, except there was also no curve this time. So, from note paper and generous curve to NO note paper and no curve... All in all I ended up with a 65%. Devastated. I took a quiz this last friday and got a 90%. I may have lost my shot at an A, but I can still get a respectable B. I'm going to still try for an A, who knows!

PT:

Been, not lazy, but busy and tired. Adjusting to a new schedule, and a stressful weekend (coworked showed up 40 minutes late without calling anyone *ME* to tell them he would be), so I don't think I've really done anything. I did some gatehouse PT at work last Sat, just squats and lunges.
On Friday I went to use the school fitness center, to run on the treadmill. I changed, found my bag wouldn't fit in the locker, and tried to bring it with me onto the floor. I found a treadmill up against the wall out of any flow of traffic and set my bag next to it. Some meathead bouncer actually tried to oust me from the gym! "I can't let you have that here." I tried to explain: First time trying to use the gym, I take the train and don't have anywhere to store it, it won't fit in a locker... No dice. I wen to the front desk with my plight and the little girl there was all "It won't fit in the day locker?" Note, the day lockers are the ONLY lockers in the lockerroom for students to use. She went to get the manager, who asked me how long I was planning to work out. At this point I was already really frustrated and said "One mile, twelve minutes, that's it!" He put my bag in the back office, and I went for a fast, angry, run. I retrieved my bag, changed, and wish I had tried to run longer. I was still mad. I thought about trying to get my activity fee back, seeing as how if I don't get really creative I won't get to use the gym! Since Shane got kicked out the day before for trying to lift while wearing jeans, we comiserated, angrily. So ridiculous.

1. Run, treadmill. 1.0 mi. 0:11:51 0.5inc. EndHr140.

Lie-barry:
(I despise when people call it that, same as "You're a good draw-er"... anyway...
1. Finished reading _Unlimited_ by Jillian Anderson.
(Official Review I posted on Goodreads.com) I really did love this book. I plan to buy a copy for myself! I took notes, wrote quotes, and the whole while really felt like I was building something. Cheesey, I know, but whatever uplifts you, right?

Highly recommend it, she talks like a real person through the whole thing.

2. Finished listening to _The God Delusion_ by Richard Dawkins.
I finished God Delusion today, and I almost started the book over just to read it again. There's only been one other book I enjoyed so much as to be tempted to do so, and it was a whole series, Dark Tower by Stephen King. I borrowed this audiobook from the library and will be purchasing a hardcopy of my own. I loved that the book was read by the author (Richard Dawkins) and his wife; while listening to audiobooks I sometimes wonder if the orator is doing justice to the book, emphasizing the right parts, etc. It made me smile to know that i this book the emphasis would be in, and on, the right ideas.

In short: I absolutely loved it. I wish everyone would read it. Evolutionists, Creationists, Athiests, Diests, Christians (and related faiths), Panthiests (and those of you who don't know yoh are Panthiests yet). If you are a fence-sitter you will no longer be. If you are a Christian (or other Theist) you should read this book, not to be pursueded NOT to be a Theist, but to see the other side, or if nothing else, to know thine enemy.

I can't, shouldn't say anything more. But read it.

3. Starting _God is Not Great and Religion Poisons Everything_ by Christopher Hitchens.

Other shtuff:

This one's only this long cause I'm trying out this new weekly format thing. :P

It's been raining like mad all week, good (since we're on water restrictions) and bad (because it can make commuting on foot and public trans kind of icky). It has caused a storm of mangos in the backyard. Some smash open when they fall and get pounced by bugs before they can be saved, but we've rescued some "splitters" which work well in my morning shake and his oatmeal. Some unripe ones have fallen, can't keep those splitters but the ones that don't split are hanging out in my fruit bowl. We're going to stop buying bananas for a week or two while we eat up this yummy harvest. Thinking of adapting my banana bread recipe to make mango bread this week! I'll have to hurry since he runs off to do his two weeks for Uncle Sam next Friday.

The rain has also been good for mushrooms around campus. I got some great photos of some dinner-plate sized ones, once my Android's camera stopped acting up. I'm close to fed up and thinking about taking it to the Verizon and having them swap it. What good is a 5mp camera that doesn't focus. I've looked it up and it seems to be a common problem with the Droid2. Grrrr. So, not as many cool photos as I would hope.

There have been a lot of really good science articles this week (what I read instead of the newspaper, along with blogs like "Oh She Glows" and a few more). I won't subject you to them in this week's entry since it's already SOOO LONG! By the way, that morning shake I'm having? I hijacked the idea from the Green Monster shake on "Oh She Glows".