I'm frustrated. That's the end of my thought for tonight. I'm just plain frustrated. Many things have gone into this frustration that I would rather not expound upon here. Blargh....

If this is the season of peace and love and celebrating the birth of our Savior, why can't we get over ourselves and ourselves and the bickering with each other and spend the holiday as a family? So much for spending time as a family, bringing sibs together and all that jazz. So much for peace. All I have to say is "Bah humbug!"

Hmm.. I'm still not sure what this point system thing on here is. Oh well. I'm heading out tomorrow morning. I have to trek my bike all the way across campus to put it in storage since my RD wasn't nice enough to allow it to stay somewhere in this building, since the building doesn't have anything that is designated as "student storage". Sorry, but I think that is just bs. Sometimes I just get the feeling she doesn't like me in the least. And I'm not sure why.

Anyway... I'm going to bed now. I've packed up some stuff to add to the already large load in my car (just a warning Mom & Dad!) but some of this stuff is actually coming back with me. I just want to bring it for the sake of having fun. I just am praying that the highways are in better shape than this campus! The place was an ice rink all day... a slushy one, but still decently slick. I think if it's going to be plowed they could at least plow it properly... all the way down to something that can give you a bit of friction... but no... instead we get an inch of the icy pellet slush left on the sidewalks only to freeze in the evening and make coming back to my dorm an adventure in itself. So.... yeah... I have the Nintendo, the Zappers, and the Power Glove with me to take home for break... along with a few other geeky items... I'm finding myself becoming more and more geeky lately... or maybe just expressing it more... I don't know...

Alright, I'm finally going to bed! This is the second night in a row that I haven't felt so awesome when it's gotten to evening... tonight I've felt kind of dizzy... I don't think the lack of nutrition in todays food helped... End of the semester Sodexho is just plain weird... OK... off to sleep and charge my phone...

Working on my paper that is due today. I also have a final in Disciple Making Structures this afternoon, and a group presentation in OT Book. Lovely. At least all I have to do for the presentation is make my Power Point actually start immediately after I hit play on the music that is to go along with it. I blame it on the .wav file extension.

For now, I'm going to work for an hour, and then working on my paper for an hour before class, going to class to listen to the presentations there, then lunch, then working on my paper for another hour-ish, and then going to class to take the final, and then the other class for the presentation.

And tonight, I start my term paper.

Oh procrastination, how I hate you....

Merry Christmas Domo

Merry Christmas
Originally uploaded by Dustin Diaz

Awesome pic of Domo in a Christmas outfit... Yes, I think I like this little guy way too much, but he's just so cute! Maybe you don't see it. He's the awkwardly cute Japanese television mascot.

I am very frustrated right now. Mostly with myself and my lack of ability to focus on getting this very long paper written. I don't know what I'm doing, or in what order I'm doing it. I'm supposed to have a Lit. Review. Do I know what that is? Sort of, but not really. I'm probably making this whole process a lot harder than it has to be. This is the last week. This is all the chance I've got to get this thing out and put down on paper and get it done. For everything from this semester. Every project that I have to get done. That and I have another project I should have done tomorrow, but don't have done yet, coz I've been focusing on this paper that I haven't really focused on as much as I should have this semester. And I'm still having trouble focusing on it.

Where do I go in a paper on the effects of social networking on teenagers and their relationships in their offline life?

Way too much caffeine consumed this evening... yes, evening. Not a good idea. Thus it is almost 1am and I have to get up at 7:30am and I am still awake. Why???? I don't think sometimes...

On the note of not thinking, my roommate came to me this evening, after having dropped her cell phone in the tub, to see if I could get the back off her phone, coz it would not come off now, and every other time it would come off immediately upon landing. Well, I tried opening it with a screwdriver but that wouldn't fit. So I tried the knife on my utility tool. Well, it popped the back off the cell phone, and also ran across my thumb by my nail. Enough to draw a bit of blood, but that doesn't take much to make me light headed. It really wasn't any worse than what Missy (one of our cats at home) can do to me when I catch her at a really bad time and she claws me. But it was enough to make me wrap my thumb in toilet paper and lay down in bed with my feet up on the slats at the end of the bed and my hand up in the air for a few minutes.

Anyway... I have yet to make it through a decent portion of my term paper, and it's driving me nuts. But I feel like I have writer's block, which is not a good thing when it comes to something this large with such an impending deadline.

I think I updated on the housing news already.... right?

I don't have much else to say right now. I think the caffeine is finally starting to wear off some, so I'm going to go to bed here soon. I just can't believe that there's only two more weeks before going home for Christmas break! I am excited, but also nervous about all my final projects, since I have more of those than finnals...

Random Dell Laptop dreaming...

This is me being a geek, and looking on Dell's site at the specs of the computers and going through and seeing how I would build a computer. Since I don't have anything else to post on right now, I'm posting the specs of this "dream build", since I can't afford a new laptop until I get out of college and get a real job. Who knows when that will be. So, yeah.... here are the specs just for kicks. For some reason the price range on this one turned out a lot higher than it has when I have gone through the build process before, but the fact that Dell can't keep prices the same from week to week and always are adding new stuff, and in fact just added a lot of stuff to the process, it somehow turned out higher. That's even more than I would probably be willing to pay, even if I had the money for it. But for now, it's just a "dream build" and some thing I want in a computer once I can afford one.

Congratulations! Your system is ready to be built.

We have some recommendations for you highlighted in green below.

My Components
SYSTEM COLOR	Tuxedo Black	edit
PROCESSOR	Intel® Core™ 2 Duo Processor T8100 (2.1GHz/800Mhz FSB, 3MB Cache)	edit
OPERATING SYSTEM	Genuine Windows Vista® Home Premium Edition SP1, 64-bit	edit
LCD AND CAMERA	High Resolution, glossy widescreen 15.4 inch LCD(1440x900) & 2MP Camera	edit
MEMORY	4GB Shared Dual Channel DDR2 SDRAM at 667MHz (2 Dimms)	edit
HARD DRIVE	Size: 320GB 5400rpm SATA Hard Drive	edit
INTERNAL OPTICAL DRIVE	Slot Load DVD+/-RW (DVD/CD read/write)	edit
VIDEO CARD	128MB NVIDIA® GeForce® 8400M GS	edit
WIRELESS CARDS	Dell Wireless 1395 802.11g Mini Card	edit
BATTERY OPTIONS	56 WHr 6-cell Lithium Ion Primary Battery	edit
SOUND OPTIONS	High Definition Audio 2.0	edit
FINGERPRINT SCANNER	Finger Print Reader XPS M1530	edit
My Software & Accessories
INSPIRON MINI 9	Inspiron Mini 9	edit
INTEGRATED WEBCAM	No Camera Option	edit
DATASAFE ONLINE BACKUP	Receive an E-mail for your Dell Remote Access	edit
OPERATING SYSTEM	Ubuntu Linux version 8.04.1	edit
HARD DRIVE	32GB Solid State Drive	edit
BLUETOOTH OPTIONS	Built-in Bluetooth 2.1 capability	edit
WARRANTY AND SERVICE	1Yr Ltd Warranty and Mail-In Service	edit
MEMORY	1GB DDR2 at 533MHz	edit
SYSTEM COLOR	Obsidian Black	edit
ANTIVIRUS SOFTWARE	McAfee SecurityCenter with anti-virus, anti-spyware, firewall, 24-months	edit
PRODUCTIVITY SOFTWARE	No Microsoft Office	edit
DESIGNED FOR DELL BAGS	Swissgear Austin 15.4" Backpack Tangarine Orange	edit
DESIGNED FOR DELL MICE	Logitech V450 Nano Laser Cordless Mouse - Spring Green	edit
DESIGNED FOR DELL STORAGE	Plum Purple 250GB eGo II USB 2.0 Portable Hard Drive	edit
POWER & DOCKING	4-Port Hi-Speed USB 2.0 Pocket Hub & Travel Surge Protector Bundle	edit
My Service
WARRANTY AND SERVICE	2Yr Ltd Hardware Warranty, InHome Service after Remote Diagnosis	edit
DATASAFE ONLINE BACKUP	Dell Online Backup 2GB for 1 year	edit
ENVIRONMENTAL OPTIONS	Free Recycling Kit	edit
REMOTE ACCESS	Receive an E-mail for your Dell Remote Access	edit
ALSO INCLUDED WITH YOUR SYSTEM
BLUETOOTH AND WIRELESS USB	Dell Wireless 355 Bluetooth Internal (2.0+Enhanced Data Rate)
Dell Printer Driver	Windows Vista™ Premium
Software - Adobe	Adobe® Acrobat® Reader 9.0
Processor Branding	Intel Core 2 Duo Processor
Doms Camera and Color	High Resolution,Black glossy widescreen 15.4 inch LCD(1440x900)&2MP Cam
Miscellaneous	Thank you Your Member Discount has been applied
DIAL-UP INTERNET ACCESS	No ISP requested

I'm giving up for today and staying in my room. Falling on the ice on the sidewalk in front of the house was not too encouraging today. My roomie from last year, Lydia, was quite encouraging to me today. I will be rooming with our other roommate from last year, Lyndee, in the new dorm. My RD thinks I am a complete and utter slob... or at least that's the impression I get from her. That or a liar. I keep assuring her that I will take things home over Christmas break. She couldn't believe that I had only been home twice this semester. I thought she knew where I live and how long it takes to get there... I guess not. I don't know. I feel like everything is going badly right now... like anything I do gets so messed up. I just hope that I can make it out of this semester academically still alive.