Is it still September?

I keep thinking it's October. I don't know what's wrong with me.

1. Nine Days

We, on CAB, finally decided to vote once and for all whether or not to sign Nine Days (This is a story of a girl...) for our fall concert. And we voted yes. So there you have it. I'm very pleased with this outcome, but I've decided not to get my hopes up in case someone throws a wrech into the gears.

2. Sleep Paralysis

Fascinating thing, really, this SP. I've gotten it quite a lot and it manages to freak me out every single time. I've just realized that it's linked with the fear of not hearing the alarm clock. Every time I get it, I feel I really need to look at the clock, but as it is called "paralysis," I can't. I did remember for the first time while this occured that you can use this ISP for lucid dreaming, but of course, as soon as I remembered this, my alarm clock did go off, jerking my body awake. I didn't have the "night mare" effect this time--that's only happened once.

If you have no idea what I'm talking about, check this out. It's pretty crazy.

3. Events

So enough about that nonsense. Here are some pictures of events from this month.

Ari Herstand
Byron Hurt
Sheng Wang

My first event, Sones de Mexico, is coming up a week from Friday, so that's exciting. I just hope I haven't over looked anything.

English Club also has some stuff coming up, including the social on October 17th and Speak! on October 8th. As I am also in charge of Speak!, I've been doing a bit of work on that this week. I also made the English Club brochure.

I'm taking the GRE for sure in November.

The Kooks concert is coming up in a couple weeks too.

I've turned in my grant proposal and have recieved some very good constructive feedback from a couple of my reviewers.

Flypaper

Only the synopsis button is hyperlinked. This is a demo, only.



Flypaper, Stories That Stick. Get it here Free!

New Toy

1. Flypaper

I've been wanting to learn flash for a while, but in the class I took six years ago, by the end of the course, all I could manage was making cirlces and squares move around the page. BUT! I stumbled upon this tool this week. It's free to download on flypaper.net. I toyed with it for a while and discovered that it's very user friendly. I didn't have to watch a tutorial or read a manual. I just slapped this together in a couple hours:

http://community.flypaper.net/s/JLeigh/Stories/riff_front/item_preview_page.aspx?id=3797

Now, if I were to make a Riff page, and maybe at some point I would, it wouldn't look like this. It's a little busy and not terribly pleasing to the eye, but this was more of a test to see if I can actually do it. I hope the link works. I know there's a way to post it on the blog, so maybe I'll try that next.

Problems with the software? Yes, there are some. One is that if you have Vista, you have to run as administrator, which is a pain in the butt. Also, it did crash on me once, but it hasn't lately. And finally, I had a terrible time trying to upload and had to email them because it kept freezing on me. I still don't know what's wrong. Their reasons were things like "maybe you're on a proxy server" "maybe your Windows isn't updated" "maybe your firewall is blocking it" "maybe your computer clock is off by more than five minutes." I kid you not. The clock?!


2. Events

Lots of things happening here on campus.

-Sones de Mexico is an ensemble that I am heading up for CAB. They're a Mexican folk group.
-English Club professors vs. students volleyball potluck readings and such
-Byron Hurt lecture. Just saw his documentary today. I was really good. I'm excited for the lecture.
-Speak! I'm taking over Eng Club's open mic night this year.
-Undergraduate Research Convention. Considering submitting to this because it's in LaX, but it depends on if I get my grant. This isn't until April though.


3. Work. Ehck.

-homework -- well, that's normal
-studying for GREs. I just got my practice test CD today. Yippee. Was that supposed to sound excited?
-more grant stuff -- need to refine the abstract and make lots and lots of copies
-CAB stuff -- again, need to make copies of things, make phone call, make program
-Eng Club stuff -- making the club brochure, scheduling cellar for Speak!
-Eng website -- contacting new staff members to get bios and pics

September Updates

1. Writing

I've been doing a number of things with writing (and reading) including writing my grant proposal, getting 25 Riff readers, and experimenting with words. Check out the latest updates at: http://j-leigh-nelson.livejournal.com/


2. I had a dream

that it was December 12, 2012 (for those of you who don't know, that's where the Mayan calendars stop, so some ppl think it's the end of the world, for instance by a polar shift). And in the dream, I was really scared that the world really would end. In reality, I'm not too worried about that exact date, just as Y2K never bothered me. But then I had a dream right after that where two of my friends were getting married out in the woods and a volcano went off, so we had to run back to the cars. I did a little research this morning and learned that some people think that Mars had a polar shift because of a really heavy volcano. Could that be what destroyed a Martian civilization? I don't know. Are these two dreams a coinicidence? Probably. But I have been known to have premonition dreams before.


3. New School Year

Check out my new place:
http://www.new.facebook.com/album.php?aid=2120282&l=653b0&id=73405296
(more pictures to come on that very soon)

And also, I've already done enough CAB stuff for the whole year and I've only had one day of classes! But I'm excited about our upcoming shoes. This link will be continuously updated with CAB pictures:
http://www.new.facebook.com/album.php?aid=2121312&l=61d7f&id=73405296

All for now.