The Life of a Grad Student...

It's 10:00 pm. On a Saturday. I've been at school for just over 8 hours now. I have almost nothing to show for it. I hate MatLab. Or at least, it hates me. I have three projects in three different classes that require MatLab, all due either Tuesday or Wednesday this week. One of them is almost all done, I just don't know if I need to convert the initial formula to state-space or if I'm supposed to be able to enter the differential equation along with its initial conditions directly into MatLab as is, with or without going through Simulink. Another one, for some reason, is printing out "ans = 9" in two very random places. Why is the answer nine? And why does MatLab feel the need to tell me that the answer is nine? I'd like to be able to print out the lovely output and code, but it tells me that the answer is nine in a place where I am not asking it for an answer, and so that project is not done. Also because I have to do a huge painful derivation showing why I can use a formula that I use for the MatLab portion of the homework. The third project just won't cooperate in any way, shape, or form yet. I have not yet gotten it to bend to my will. This is a problem.

Something that is not a problem is Thelonius. I love my sock. I wore it all last night when a bunch of us FIRST people got together to watch movies and help me use my stash of Jack Daniels. I finished it during the beginning of the movie. I was very happy. Snakes on a Plane is not a good movie, though not nearly as bad as I was expecting.

The best thing I've found about most of Cookie A.'s sock patterns is that you're so happy with the first sock that you just want to cast on for its mate right away and wear them forever. Her patterns are not generally tedious like some others that make you want to go do something else and leave the lone first sock to hang out in your UFO pile (with all those other first socks) for awhile. I didn't like B...B....what is that sock.... I don't remember. It got shrunk in the wash anyway, so it doesn't really matter. Oh yeah, Baudelaire! I loved Monkey (made 2 pairs for people!) and I thoroughly enjoyed Hedera, my first socks, and Thelonius is great too. I've already fished out some of my black yarn so I can make a work friendly version. I don't particularly like all of her patterns, but Stricken, Millicent, The Sock With No Name, and depending on my mood, Twisted Flower and Rhiannon are some that I will be buying the pattern for at some later date.

My goal when going to Rochester for the last six months of school was to use up as much of the yarn that I've brought as possible. I'm nearly even at this point, since I've made mostly laceweight and sock-type items, and I got that shipment for my mom's sweater and other yarn. But if I can just tear myself away from socks for a bit and finish a couple of the three sweaters I have started, I'll be well below what I brought with me. The goal is to get my mom's sweater done along with one or two of mine before I leave.

I'm frogging a sock that is currently one of my open projects. I never liked that one, which is why it's languished so long. That'll bring me down to 11 open projects with me. If I were to complete all of those (won't happen, too many large cross stitches) I'd be able to start six more. Were I able to complete all those, I'd be able to start three more, and then only one. I can only technically start ten more projects, if I stay on track. Only ten. This may seem like a lot, but it's really not. I have one Christmas present done so far, and that leaves at least eleven more to do. Yeah, eleven. At least! That's not even counting my mom's sweater, the grocery bags I still haven't gotten around to making, and the five-ish pairs of socks I'm thinking of making for myself. I also have the yarn for like ten stoles and other assorted small projects.

Luckily (or not as the case may be...) I will be reunited with all of my other languishing projects in a couple of months. Also, it's really more like wishful thinking that I'll even get to ten new projects in the two months I have left here. With the FE exam, trying to finish out my college career strong (I got a 4.0 last quarter, go me!!!) and finding a job, along with everything that will entail once one is found, I have more than enough on my plate.

Pictures of Rogue to come soon. Sorry for the rambling, but it's almost 10:30 at night on a Saturday and I'm still AT THE LABS ON CAMPUS DOING HOMEWORK!!!