Monday, December 19, 2005
Friday, December 16, 2005
Adventures in photography
Who knew computer geeks could be so artistic? Amy and Rohit have posted some of their lovely creations online, I've linked to them in the side panel. Check 'em out!
Freedom! Horrible, horrible freedom!
I have an announcement: I am FINISHED with the first term!! :D
(Confetti and fanfare! A tiny crack appears in the Seattle cloud cover, and a glimmering ray of sunlight darts through, briefly illuminating the house on NE 18th ave)
HuzZAH and HOOray. Just turned in my last project, and am officially free until January. One quarter down, three more to go! :)
I have to say, this has been very fast. I suppose I knew the quarter-system would feel faster than semesters, but it's strange when it actually happens. I think I was just starting to settle into the rhythm of my classes before the end was suddenly upon us. In a way, it's almost too short, as there's not as much time as in semester classes to start and finish term projects. But on the plus side, I do like to keep things mixed up a bit, and it's nice to have the schedule change before one starts to get at all bored with it. Ahhhh!
Am off to Tucson tomorrow, so must pack and clean (have milk in the fridge that will probably be cheese by the time I return). Toodle-oo for now!
(Confetti and fanfare! A tiny crack appears in the Seattle cloud cover, and a glimmering ray of sunlight darts through, briefly illuminating the house on NE 18th ave)
HuzZAH and HOOray. Just turned in my last project, and am officially free until January. One quarter down, three more to go! :)
I have to say, this has been very fast. I suppose I knew the quarter-system would feel faster than semesters, but it's strange when it actually happens. I think I was just starting to settle into the rhythm of my classes before the end was suddenly upon us. In a way, it's almost too short, as there's not as much time as in semester classes to start and finish term projects. But on the plus side, I do like to keep things mixed up a bit, and it's nice to have the schedule change before one starts to get at all bored with it. Ahhhh!
Am off to Tucson tomorrow, so must pack and clean (have milk in the fridge that will probably be cheese by the time I return). Toodle-oo for now!
A Word A Day
Be on the qui vive! The word-of-the-day, she is added to le blog!
If gentle readers will look to the panel on their right, they'll see a shiny new live feed, direct from Wordsmith. Updates every midnight, for your lexical enjoyment!
This week's theme appears to be French. Ma foi! I am inspired to whip up some fries and toast.
If gentle readers will look to the panel on their right, they'll see a shiny new live feed, direct from Wordsmith. Updates every midnight, for your lexical enjoyment!
This week's theme appears to be French. Ma foi! I am inspired to whip up some fries and toast.
Friday, December 02, 2005
Oh, the Nerdanity!
Ah, alas! Snow gone, rain back. As Robert Frost says, nothing white and fluffy can stay (or was that "green"... hm)
In other news, it has decided -- the mob has spoken, and the indispensibles of geek literature have been crowned:
Top 20 Geek Books
I've read over half of these, too... and it's true that Neal Stephenson should have been higher on the list. If anyone is looking for some new material of late, I would recommend him! His essay, In the beginning... was the command line, is available several places online, and presents a nice, engaging intro to his writing style, even if the content is a little dated (1999).
You know, I used to find it odd, those moments when I would look down and realize my inner geek was showing. But to tell the truth, it's been a number of years since I've stopped trying to hide the geekness under my jacket, and started wearing it proudly on the outside. BEHOLD, O WORLD! Shauna hereby declares her geekness with pride!
I suppose being in school for so long helps, too... :D
Speaking of Geek Pride, my friend Lu had this on his blog (quite) a while ago, and it was so cute I thought I'd share. Anyone think they can beat my score? ;)
In other news, it has decided -- the mob has spoken, and the indispensibles of geek literature have been crowned:
Top 20 Geek Books
I've read over half of these, too... and it's true that Neal Stephenson should have been higher on the list. If anyone is looking for some new material of late, I would recommend him! His essay, In the beginning... was the command line, is available several places online, and presents a nice, engaging intro to his writing style, even if the content is a little dated (1999).
You know, I used to find it odd, those moments when I would look down and realize my inner geek was showing. But to tell the truth, it's been a number of years since I've stopped trying to hide the geekness under my jacket, and started wearing it proudly on the outside. BEHOLD, O WORLD! Shauna hereby declares her geekness with pride!
I suppose being in school for so long helps, too... :D
Speaking of Geek Pride, my friend Lu had this on his blog (quite) a while ago, and it was so cute I thought I'd share. Anyone think they can beat my score? ;)
Thursday, December 01, 2005
SNOW!
It's... it's actually... SNOWING outside!!
Did you know we get SNOW in Seattle? And everyone just talks about rain!
To be fair, I suppose this is a rather rare occurrence -- the fluffy flakes have caused some concern among administrators at the UW Bothell location, and they've cancelled classes until all two inches of the white menace dissolve. I imagine their researchers are on the case now, collecting samples and analyzing the extent of the weathery threat.
In the meantime, I'm just enjoying the serene scenery, as the the thick flakes dance their way to ground and dampen the ambient sound. That, and the sight of native Seattlites carrying umbrellas (so they DO own them!!).
If this keeps up, maybe UW Seattle will cancel its classes tomorrow, too :)
Did you know we get SNOW in Seattle? And everyone just talks about rain!
To be fair, I suppose this is a rather rare occurrence -- the fluffy flakes have caused some concern among administrators at the UW Bothell location, and they've cancelled classes until all two inches of the white menace dissolve. I imagine their researchers are on the case now, collecting samples and analyzing the extent of the weathery threat.
In the meantime, I'm just enjoying the serene scenery, as the the thick flakes dance their way to ground and dampen the ambient sound. That, and the sight of native Seattlites carrying umbrellas (so they DO own them!!).
If this keeps up, maybe UW Seattle will cancel its classes tomorrow, too :)
Wednesday, November 23, 2005
Happy Birthday Amy!
Happy bday to the Amy!! :)
In honor of her 25 years, for today's comic strip I offer up a cartoon cake:
In honor of her 25 years, for today's comic strip I offer up a cartoon cake:
Saturday, November 05, 2005
All Hallow's Craziness
I never did post about Halloween! Manu and Nikki outdid themselves with a smashing party, replete with live band (Manu's friend Aaron's band, the local Muddy Bug), and prize for best costume. The highlight of the night, though, was a surprise cameo from two folks we least expected... ;) I don't think I can describe it quite as well as Nik, in her email where she distributed pictures:
Last night was insane! Insane, I tell you! It was apparently quite religiously-themed: Shauna dressed up as a devil, I was an angel, Michael was a monk, and our friend Nigel was a priest. Manu was (ha ha! I love this) a Frenchman. Kristina was a pirate, and Amy was a cute little fairy... and see those two gruesome pirate characters she's with? Those were...
MOM AND KIM! They crashed the party -- and how! No one had *any* clue who they were, but they were a sensation. They sort of appeared out of nowhere at around 11 pm, and didn't say anything, just sort of growled and slunk around, all hunched over and creepy, and everyone kept asking everyone else who these two were. They surrounded people and growled at them; lurked around the beer; molested Kristina -- she had no idea how to react! I even took their picture without any idea who was really under the masks! And then, at midnight, they whipped the masks off. Manu was so bowled over it actually took him a minute to recognize who he was seeing. It was an absolute riot, and the highlight of the whole party! (for the group of us, of course -- though when I told people that the creepy pirates were really my mom and aunt, they didn't believe me!!)
All in all, it was a great time. :)
nik
Last night was insane! Insane, I tell you! It was apparently quite religiously-themed: Shauna dressed up as a devil, I was an angel, Michael was a monk, and our friend Nigel was a priest. Manu was (ha ha! I love this) a Frenchman. Kristina was a pirate, and Amy was a cute little fairy... and see those two gruesome pirate characters she's with? Those were...
MOM AND KIM! They crashed the party -- and how! No one had *any* clue who they were, but they were a sensation. They sort of appeared out of nowhere at around 11 pm, and didn't say anything, just sort of growled and slunk around, all hunched over and creepy, and everyone kept asking everyone else who these two were. They surrounded people and growled at them; lurked around the beer; molested Kristina -- she had no idea how to react! I even took their picture without any idea who was really under the masks! And then, at midnight, they whipped the masks off. Manu was so bowled over it actually took him a minute to recognize who he was seeing. It was an absolute riot, and the highlight of the whole party! (for the group of us, of course -- though when I told people that the creepy pirates were really my mom and aunt, they didn't believe me!!)
All in all, it was a great time. :)
nik
Friday, October 21, 2005
Legend of Zelda
We have a Nintendo in the livingroom! Squeee! One of my housemates still has his original system from the 1980s, fully intact and functional. Among his old games is the Legend of Zelda, which (in my not-so-humble opinion) is the Best Videogame Ever Made. After seeing it in his collection and recovering my composure (climbing back into the chair and picking pieces of carpet out of my hair), we popped it in and tested our old finger-thumb reflexes. Just like old times! Not that we should really be studying or anything...
It's funny to feel that old controller in your hands and be 11 years old again. Even funnier to hear grown adults, in all seriousness, yelling things at the tv like, "Go visit the Ghost Guy to get the Magic Sword!" and "Maybe that octopus will give you some money." How I love it. :P
Tuesday, October 11, 2005
Moroccan Food
Mmmm, lentil soup and lamb with eggplant! Alissa and Alan had seen an ad for this place (Mamounia Restaurant and Lounge) a few weeks ago, and made a mental note to check it out sometime. Nik's visit turned out to be the perfect excuse to go, so we went Sunday night (Oct 9). Nice place! True to the name, it was indeed very lounge-y, with low, cushion-surrounded tables, tapestry-covered walls, and little Aladdin-style lamps throwing a dim, golden light over all.
My friend Steve says that one third of the world eats with forks, spoons, and knives, one third with chopsticks, and one third with their hands. This turned out to be of the latter sort, and I can say, it takes some getting used to! The soup isn't so bad when they bring it out in bowls you can drink directly from, but I've never seen a salad look so daunting before. It becomes a bit of a puzzle when you find yourself trying to decide which pieces of lettuce look the most scoopable, and which goat cheese clumps would fit on them. To facilitate the process, before the food came out, the server brought over a small basin and some towels. We held our hands over the basin while she poured warm water over them from another Aladdin-lamp-looking flask to wash them.
As the main meals came out, so did another little piece of atmosphere -- belly dancing! We had barely started to plan our bare-finger attacks on the various lumps of sauce-covered meat, when the background music flared up and a dancer appeared in the clearing between the tables. She started with some kind of loud, tinkling hand bells and then moved onto a sort of silky scarf thing. I tried to get a better pic than this one, but felt a bit foolish snapping pics in the middle of dinner, so stole this one and then guiltily stuffed the camera back into my purse. You can kind of see the scarf-thingy though.
One last thing, on the way out of the restaurant and back to the car, we encountered this sign. I'd say the city of Seattle is getting a bit punchy. :D
My friend Steve says that one third of the world eats with forks, spoons, and knives, one third with chopsticks, and one third with their hands. This turned out to be of the latter sort, and I can say, it takes some getting used to! The soup isn't so bad when they bring it out in bowls you can drink directly from, but I've never seen a salad look so daunting before. It becomes a bit of a puzzle when you find yourself trying to decide which pieces of lettuce look the most scoopable, and which goat cheese clumps would fit on them. To facilitate the process, before the food came out, the server brought over a small basin and some towels. We held our hands over the basin while she poured warm water over them from another Aladdin-lamp-looking flask to wash them.
As the main meals came out, so did another little piece of atmosphere -- belly dancing! We had barely started to plan our bare-finger attacks on the various lumps of sauce-covered meat, when the background music flared up and a dancer appeared in the clearing between the tables. She started with some kind of loud, tinkling hand bells and then moved onto a sort of silky scarf thing. I tried to get a better pic than this one, but felt a bit foolish snapping pics in the middle of dinner, so stole this one and then guiltily stuffed the camera back into my purse. You can kind of see the scarf-thingy though.
One last thing, on the way out of the restaurant and back to the car, we encountered this sign. I'd say the city of Seattle is getting a bit punchy. :D
Nik visit!
(Pink Floyd music playing:) "Hello... (hello)... is there anybody out there...? Just nod if you're still reading... Is there any new post...?"
("There is no ping, you are receeeeeiving...")
So! Helloooo, Mr. Internet! Sorry I've been so neglectful of you these days, things have started to pick up in this here grad school. I was starting to wonder when the work was going to come rolling in, and lo! There it is. I'm also starting to discover that blog work is a little bursty; I'll go through brief phases where I want to post half a dozen new missives at once, then suddenly hit dry spells of 2 weeks, where basically all that's going through my mental observation centers is the sound of wind on the prairie. Not very interesting reading, I can tell you (believe me, I've been reading it!).
In not-so-recent news, Nik was up here two weekends ago, Saturday Oct 8 through Monday Oct 10. And she brought beautiful weather with her! She got here Friday evening, just in time for Alissa and Alan to come get me, and then swing by the airport to get her, and then take the four of us out for dinner and drinks. We went to Bahama Breeze, an island-themed place with live Ukelele music, where Alissa worked when she was saving up for school. Mmmm, fruity mixed drinks... :) Poor Nik had just finished a long and sleep-deprived week, however, so a nice long flight and a couple of alcoholic beverages were enough to put her out for the evening, and we went to bed relatively early.
The next day we got up early enough to walk down through the sunshine, crisp air, and gold-and-red, leafy streets to a farmers market just a few blocks from my house. We only bought a couple bottles of cider, and mostly just wandered around smelling the fresh flowers and sampling the jams. I did pick up a jar of some unusual lavendar-scented jelly for Amy, though, our resident lavendar lover.
After the market, we spent the rest of a liesurely day window shopping and touring the UW campus. I think that since Seattle is a bit more coniferous than, say, the Midwest, for example, you don't get quite the dramatic autums here than you would there. But I really like the mixture of elegant, pointy pines with fat, fluffy deciduouses. The pic here is 18th ave where I live, along my walk to school in the mornings.
That evening, we met up with Marty Stepp, who got his MS in CS from the UA, and is now teaching intro CS classes at the UW location in Tacoma. He's Mike Stepp's older brother, for those who know Mike. :) Nik, me, Marty and his friend Amanda (also from the UA, now working up here at Google) spent the next couple of hours wandering around the various stores on capitol hill, stopping once for sushi, and later for coffee. Capitol hill is sort of the resident "colorful" spot in Seattle, where you'll find a lot of rather unusual stores and even more unusual people wandering around. Of the shops we walked by, there were a *surprising* number of halloween-themed ones! I started to remark on this when Marty informed me that, no, not all of these have anything to do whatsoever with halloween -- they're just located on capitol hill, which means what we were seeing we would pretty much see year-round. Wierd. We stopped off in one of the larger halloween-y stores, and I think I found a nice getup for an evening out sometime... that's me in the yellow feathers there, I think I'll save it for a special occasion -- the opera, or something.
Sunday Nik and I again took it easy, wandering around the neighborhood, and this time buying some cold-weather shoes to trade in our perpetual flipflops for. I actually have boots now! It's been a while since I couldn't look down and see the color of my toenail polish, but maybe it's better that I can now walk through puddles in comfort, instead of having pink toes. That evening we met Alissa and Alan for dinner again, and went to a local Moroccan restaurant, where we got some lovely food. I have some pics that I'll put in a separate post, to keep things broken up a bit.
The weekend had really gone swimmingly and Nik got to relax a bit, until Monday morning when the trip ended up a little bit longer than she had planned. I saw her off to the airport early that morning, but then got a message a couple hours later that her layover in Denver had been delayed because of snow. And delayed... and delayed... and delayed! Finally, all flights out of Denver were cancelled. She ended up having to spend a snowy night in a local hotel (missing all of Monday's class), to arrive back in Phoenix early Tues morning. In the end, all turned out well, but it's one of those things you wish you could know about ahead of time, so I could have just kept her here for that day. But c'est la vie!
("There is no ping, you are receeeeeiving...")
So! Helloooo, Mr. Internet! Sorry I've been so neglectful of you these days, things have started to pick up in this here grad school. I was starting to wonder when the work was going to come rolling in, and lo! There it is. I'm also starting to discover that blog work is a little bursty; I'll go through brief phases where I want to post half a dozen new missives at once, then suddenly hit dry spells of 2 weeks, where basically all that's going through my mental observation centers is the sound of wind on the prairie. Not very interesting reading, I can tell you (believe me, I've been reading it!).
In not-so-recent news, Nik was up here two weekends ago, Saturday Oct 8 through Monday Oct 10. And she brought beautiful weather with her! She got here Friday evening, just in time for Alissa and Alan to come get me, and then swing by the airport to get her, and then take the four of us out for dinner and drinks. We went to Bahama Breeze, an island-themed place with live Ukelele music, where Alissa worked when she was saving up for school. Mmmm, fruity mixed drinks... :) Poor Nik had just finished a long and sleep-deprived week, however, so a nice long flight and a couple of alcoholic beverages were enough to put her out for the evening, and we went to bed relatively early.
The next day we got up early enough to walk down through the sunshine, crisp air, and gold-and-red, leafy streets to a farmers market just a few blocks from my house. We only bought a couple bottles of cider, and mostly just wandered around smelling the fresh flowers and sampling the jams. I did pick up a jar of some unusual lavendar-scented jelly for Amy, though, our resident lavendar lover.After the market, we spent the rest of a liesurely day window shopping and touring the UW campus. I think that since Seattle is a bit more coniferous than, say, the Midwest, for example, you don't get quite the dramatic autums here than you would there. But I really like the mixture of elegant, pointy pines with fat, fluffy deciduouses. The pic here is 18th ave where I live, along my walk to school in the mornings.
That evening, we met up with Marty Stepp, who got his MS in CS from the UA, and is now teaching intro CS classes at the UW location in Tacoma. He's Mike Stepp's older brother, for those who know Mike. :) Nik, me, Marty and his friend Amanda (also from the UA, now working up here at Google) spent the next couple of hours wandering around the various stores on capitol hill, stopping once for sushi, and later for coffee. Capitol hill is sort of the resident "colorful" spot in Seattle, where you'll find a lot of rather unusual stores and even more unusual people wandering around. Of the shops we walked by, there were a *surprising* number of halloween-themed ones! I started to remark on this when Marty informed me that, no, not all of these have anything to do whatsoever with halloween -- they're just located on capitol hill, which means what we were seeing we would pretty much see year-round. Wierd. We stopped off in one of the larger halloween-y stores, and I think I found a nice getup for an evening out sometime... that's me in the yellow feathers there, I think I'll save it for a special occasion -- the opera, or something.
Sunday Nik and I again took it easy, wandering around the neighborhood, and this time buying some cold-weather shoes to trade in our perpetual flipflops for. I actually have boots now! It's been a while since I couldn't look down and see the color of my toenail polish, but maybe it's better that I can now walk through puddles in comfort, instead of having pink toes. That evening we met Alissa and Alan for dinner again, and went to a local Moroccan restaurant, where we got some lovely food. I have some pics that I'll put in a separate post, to keep things broken up a bit.
The weekend had really gone swimmingly and Nik got to relax a bit, until Monday morning when the trip ended up a little bit longer than she had planned. I saw her off to the airport early that morning, but then got a message a couple hours later that her layover in Denver had been delayed because of snow. And delayed... and delayed... and delayed! Finally, all flights out of Denver were cancelled. She ended up having to spend a snowy night in a local hotel (missing all of Monday's class), to arrive back in Phoenix early Tues morning. In the end, all turned out well, but it's one of those things you wish you could know about ahead of time, so I could have just kept her here for that day. But c'est la vie!
Monday, October 10, 2005
Marty's famous!
Cool -- I don't know how long the link will work, but my friend Marty has a blurb in the SeattleTimes. I guess computer geeks venturing out into the sunlight is newsworthy! :) (even if they did spell his lastname wrong)
Tuesday, October 04, 2005
Project life cycle
Speaking of funny stuff... Gallucci just sent me this, an illustration of the "Calvin-Benson" cycle. Ha!
Who is this bear?
A little stuffed bear has been following Mom around these days. Fortunately she's been tracking his adventures with her phone's camera, and forwarding them to me so we can keep track of his whereabouts. He has his own blog now, which I've linked to in my side panel.
Rohit's pics
Rohit sent a new pic of his from our UW foray. The man really is an excellent amateur photographer -- I'll try to convince him to put the rest of his UW pics on his homepage, but in the meanwhile, you can see some nice ones of AZ under his homepage "photos" link.
Monday, October 03, 2005
Russell Peters
So last Saturday night, Rohit, me, Sharath, and one of S's friends went to a comedy show at the Moore theater downtown. The guy's name is Russell Peters, he's an Indian-Canadian, and he's FREAKIN HILARIOUS!! We were practically crying and falling out of our chairs. If you can, see if you can get some of his clips online.
Life at the Yoo Dub
Last Saturday was beautifully bright and sunshiney, so Rohit and I grabbed our Dork caps and ran around the UW campus taking pictures of all the prettiness. That's the "yoo dub" campus, by the way, for any who are interested in sounding, you know, all local and stuff. To be honest, it will take me a while to say "yoo dub" and "the ave" (University avenue) myself without putting mental quotes around them (I've only just gotten over putting finger quotes around them...). But give me time, give me time..!
The campus is GOOOOORRRRRrrrrgeous! Most of the architechture is in sort of this neo, gothic-revival style. In the sunlight, it looks very elegant. In the rain, it looks kind of like the setting of a Meatloaf video. But I love it either way. I did have a moment, however, when I was walking home around dusk, and the crows started cawing and the mist started misting, and I felt a little like I'd wandered into a Charlotte Bronte or Edgar Allen Poe piece.
UW campus: "caw, caw! ...mist, mist... caw!"
Me: "Ooh, how atmospheri--"
UW: "CAW!"
Me: (start running)
But yes, other than the rare moment of spookiness, I'm mostly in awe of how I ended up at such a beautiful place. I really can't believe I get to be here, hanging out, and my only responsibility is to meet people and take awesome classes! My classes feel like... well, like I've been eating hearty, square meals all my life, and suddenly I get to eat entire meals of just the chocolate cake (ah, food -- the perfect analogy for any and everything).
I should mention: the indoor shot here is from one of the libraries, which -- no kidding -- looks like a cathedral. It is in fact called the "Cathedral of Learning", and boy howdy does it look like it. To be honest I always feel a little like an imposter going inside, like nothing I'm doing there could possibly be important enough to be enshrined in a Cathedral of Learning. But it's quite cool, the ground floor could be a crypt (marble floors, stairs, and arches), and the upper stories contain some kind of nave-like arrangement. The pic here is the side of one of the staircase leading from crypt floor to nave floor.
Sunday, October 02, 2005
Seattling into a new home
Well, the Ling shindig was enjoyable -- all 45mins of it! :D I caught a ride with Steve, one of the ling phd students, and we got a bit lost, but we did get nice tour of downtown as we drove and drove in search of partying linguists. Eventually we followed the sound of people practicing pronouncing an umlaut "a" on a beer bottle, and hey presto! There was the clan. Unfortunately the party was mostly over by the time we found it, but it was actually no biggie, as it gave me an excuse to get home and do some last minute homework. Plus I got to meet a couple of the other ling grads, and all was well.
So! I should start where I left off earlier. Or more to the point, where we left off last Tuesday! After a marathon last few days in Tucson, saying good bye to friends and places, and packing my worldly possessions in a few suitcases, Mom, Nikki, and I headed off to the airport, bound for the great northwest. Manu, Jared, Michael, and Amy joined in the farewell party, as well as a random airport stranger who snapped our pic. :) The flight up was rather uneventful, but I always forget how much fun Nik and Mom are to travel with. Sample dialog:
Shauna: "This doesn't look like the runway anymore... are we taxiing into the desert??"
Mom: "Maybe we're driving to Seattle!"
Nik (in smooth 'pilot' voice): "If the passengers will look to their right... they can tell me if I'm clear to get over."
One highlight of the flight was an unbelievably breathtaking fly-by of Mount Rainier at sunset. Nik attempted to get a pic through the plane window. The grandness of it isn't quite caputered here, but you can kind of get the gist of it.
I believe I'll make the rest of this brief so I can move to more recent developments, but Alissa picked us up from the aeropuerto that night, and we had a lovely evening of wine, meats, cheeses, and girl talk. The very next day was to be the beginning of a potentially long quest to find housing near campus, but it was before noon when we were walking down 18th ave and spotted a "rooms for rent" sign on a large, beautiful house about 2-1/2 blocks to the north of the campus. As we approached, who should be arriving from the other side but the property manager herself! I think some things are meant to be. :) The house has hardwood floors in the community rooms, new tile in the kitchen and bathrooms, and carpet in most of the bedrooms. Heavy, old-style molding surrounds the large, charmingly old-school windows, and new appliances have been installed throughout. With the addition of Alissa and Alan's old furniture (thaaaaank you, guys!!), I have an extremely comfy room on the second floor, not even a 10 minute walk through a lovely, tree-filled neighborhood to the main campus. Serendipity in action. :) On nice days (which have been quite frequent, btw), I can step out one of my windows onto the roof above the front porch, and sit and watch the neighborhood go by.
(Photo: Mom snaps a pic helplessly from the backseat, while Nik and I tear around in Alissa's car)
We spent the following couple of days with Mom and Nik helping settle me into the room -- runs to Target, Walgreens, and Trader Joe's -- while I took the occasional hiatus to go to the Compling orientation on Mon and Tues. There were 17 other grads at the orientation when I arrived. I actually didn't get the chance to really meet many of them, as we didn't get to interact much, but I was looking forward to getting to know them better later in the quarter. The faculty, however, were instantly likeable. Very smart, very articulate, and very approachable. I think I'll like the place :)
It was, not surprisingly, hard to see Mom and Nik leave on Saturday. I'd been kind of dreading that moment since arriving, and it was tough, but fortunately short lived; almost immediately after they left, I ran into one of the other new compling students on campus, and was forced to be distracted from my own Pity Party for a little while. Turns out, it was the aforementioned Steve, who I'd actually met at the EMELD conference in Detroit last year, July 04. We both remembered eachother from that conferece and hit it off a bit, so we spent the rest of the afternoon finding books, visiting the registration office, and basically taking care of administrivia. One of the advantages of having other out-of-town students is that they're not so dug into their lives yet that they don't have time to run around campus with you. :)
Since then, I've been settling into classes, and getting to know the campus, housemates, and surrounding areas. Things have been much busier than expected, thank goodness! I'd like to tell y'all a little more detail about classes and campus so far, but this particular entry is already entirely too long, so I'll start a separate one for UW pics.
So! I should start where I left off earlier. Or more to the point, where we left off last Tuesday! After a marathon last few days in Tucson, saying good bye to friends and places, and packing my worldly possessions in a few suitcases, Mom, Nikki, and I headed off to the airport, bound for the great northwest. Manu, Jared, Michael, and Amy joined in the farewell party, as well as a random airport stranger who snapped our pic. :) The flight up was rather uneventful, but I always forget how much fun Nik and Mom are to travel with. Sample dialog:Shauna: "This doesn't look like the runway anymore... are we taxiing into the desert??"
Mom: "Maybe we're driving to Seattle!"
Nik (in smooth 'pilot' voice): "If the passengers will look to their right... they can tell me if I'm clear to get over."
One highlight of the flight was an unbelievably breathtaking fly-by of Mount Rainier at sunset. Nik attempted to get a pic through the plane window. The grandness of it isn't quite caputered here, but you can kind of get the gist of it.
I believe I'll make the rest of this brief so I can move to more recent developments, but Alissa picked us up from the aeropuerto that night, and we had a lovely evening of wine, meats, cheeses, and girl talk. The very next day was to be the beginning of a potentially long quest to find housing near campus, but it was before noon when we were walking down 18th ave and spotted a "rooms for rent" sign on a large, beautiful house about 2-1/2 blocks to the north of the campus. As we approached, who should be arriving from the other side but the property manager herself! I think some things are meant to be. :) The house has hardwood floors in the community rooms, new tile in the kitchen and bathrooms, and carpet in most of the bedrooms. Heavy, old-style molding surrounds the large, charmingly old-school windows, and new appliances have been installed throughout. With the addition of Alissa and Alan's old furniture (thaaaaank you, guys!!), I have an extremely comfy room on the second floor, not even a 10 minute walk through a lovely, tree-filled neighborhood to the main campus. Serendipity in action. :) On nice days (which have been quite frequent, btw), I can step out one of my windows onto the roof above the front porch, and sit and watch the neighborhood go by.
(Photo: Mom snaps a pic helplessly from the backseat, while Nik and I tear around in Alissa's car)We spent the following couple of days with Mom and Nik helping settle me into the room -- runs to Target, Walgreens, and Trader Joe's -- while I took the occasional hiatus to go to the Compling orientation on Mon and Tues. There were 17 other grads at the orientation when I arrived. I actually didn't get the chance to really meet many of them, as we didn't get to interact much, but I was looking forward to getting to know them better later in the quarter. The faculty, however, were instantly likeable. Very smart, very articulate, and very approachable. I think I'll like the place :)
It was, not surprisingly, hard to see Mom and Nik leave on Saturday. I'd been kind of dreading that moment since arriving, and it was tough, but fortunately short lived; almost immediately after they left, I ran into one of the other new compling students on campus, and was forced to be distracted from my own Pity Party for a little while. Turns out, it was the aforementioned Steve, who I'd actually met at the EMELD conference in Detroit last year, July 04. We both remembered eachother from that conferece and hit it off a bit, so we spent the rest of the afternoon finding books, visiting the registration office, and basically taking care of administrivia. One of the advantages of having other out-of-town students is that they're not so dug into their lives yet that they don't have time to run around campus with you. :)
Since then, I've been settling into classes, and getting to know the campus, housemates, and surrounding areas. Things have been much busier than expected, thank goodness! I'd like to tell y'all a little more detail about classes and campus so far, but this particular entry is already entirely too long, so I'll start a separate one for UW pics.
Connection at last!
Packets, packets! My precioussssss...
Boy do I have a lot to update! We -- Nik, mom, and I -- arrived safe and sound in Seattle last Saturday the 24th, and since then internet access has been so sketchy that I've been highly neglectful of my blogful duties. After much questing, however, we got a router for my house, I found the wireless hotspots on campus, and I've discovered this place called the "Library" (must be a UW thing) where I can connect for free, so it's high time I settled in for some updates. :) Lots of pics, too!
...oh... well crap. Interrupting this news bulletin to realize that I'm supposed to be going to a Linguistics Dept party about, oh, 10 minutes ago! So I better beat feet again, but I'll be back this evening for some real updates. I promise! You gotta believe me, Mr. Internet!
Later gaters-- hugs to everyone :)
Boy do I have a lot to update! We -- Nik, mom, and I -- arrived safe and sound in Seattle last Saturday the 24th, and since then internet access has been so sketchy that I've been highly neglectful of my blogful duties. After much questing, however, we got a router for my house, I found the wireless hotspots on campus, and I've discovered this place called the "Library" (must be a UW thing) where I can connect for free, so it's high time I settled in for some updates. :) Lots of pics, too!
...oh... well crap. Interrupting this news bulletin to realize that I'm supposed to be going to a Linguistics Dept party about, oh, 10 minutes ago! So I better beat feet again, but I'll be back this evening for some real updates. I promise! You gotta believe me, Mr. Internet!
Later gaters-- hugs to everyone :)
Thursday, September 22, 2005
More Seattle pics
Some more pics from Rohit from our Seattle visit. Isn't the man a good photographer?? Also, you can see here photographic evidence that it isn't *always* raining in Seattle... (sometimes it's just getting ready to... ;)
Tuesday, September 06, 2005
First Seattle visit!
So Nik and I followed in the steps of the great Lewis and Clark this weekend, and ventured to the Pacific Northwest to survey the land and locals. Also ostensibly to find me a place to stay, but our success in that quarter was a little iffy. Details on that in a minute, but first: what a cool city! This first pic is the skyline, as seen from Elliot Bay; the second, a frightening Viking encounter. Rare evidence of the Norsemen's spread into the Pacific, and predilection for coffee and garage bands.
Alissa met us at the airport, and played gracious hostess for the weekend. In her care, we got to tour the city and the UW campus, and learn a little about the people: "very hippy-dippy and trail mix." Just my kinda folk! :) We met Rohit at Pike's Place Market, took in some fish and coffee, and went on a harbor tour for an overview of the city history. Apparently the founders of the city dreamed of making it the New York of the west coast -- there's even a mini statue of liberty on one of the peninsulas.
The city itself is surprisingly clean and walkable, relatively speaking. The downtown is very much alive with sights, sounds, and people; not a donut-city, as many seem to become when their downtowns go to pot. There also seems to be a lot going on at any given moment. The music festival Bumbershoot was on this weekend, but we managed to avoid the crowds and traffic.
In the end we didn't end up securing me a place to stay, but I'm glad to have been able to see what I was getting into before school started. So far, so good! :)
Friday, September 02, 2005
Bloggity blog blog, jiggety jog
Hello, friends, family, and random internet voyeurs! Since I'm such a rotten correspondent (as everyone can probably attest), I thought I'd try to post my new-home goings-on in one place, and maybe it would make it easier to send pics and updates. :) A sort of one-stop Shauna shop.
A little intro to this blog: I'll be moving soon from my beloved Arizona desert wasteland to the great rainy north of Seattle to start a master's program in Computational Linguistics at the University of Washington. Since this promises to be a great adventure (excitement! thrills! lonely evenings of cheetos and finite state automata!) I'll try to take lots of pictures and keep updates here. You can watch my transformation into beret-wearing, coffee-drinking, haiku-composing urbanite ("So very much rain. A cheeto calls in the night. Puffy or crunchy?")
Seriously though, the city looks to be most cool, and the school is beautiful, and the program very exciting. Everything would be perfect, really, if I didn't have to leave the people behind, but, as Billy Joel says, "so it goooooooes, and so it goooooooes.... If anyone wants to take a Seattle vacation in the next 12 months, you know where to staayyyyyy..."
Hugs to all!
A little intro to this blog: I'll be moving soon from my beloved Arizona desert wasteland to the great rainy north of Seattle to start a master's program in Computational Linguistics at the University of Washington. Since this promises to be a great adventure (excitement! thrills! lonely evenings of cheetos and finite state automata!) I'll try to take lots of pictures and keep updates here. You can watch my transformation into beret-wearing, coffee-drinking, haiku-composing urbanite ("So very much rain. A cheeto calls in the night. Puffy or crunchy?")
Seriously though, the city looks to be most cool, and the school is beautiful, and the program very exciting. Everything would be perfect, really, if I didn't have to leave the people behind, but, as Billy Joel says, "so it goooooooes, and so it goooooooes.... If anyone wants to take a Seattle vacation in the next 12 months, you know where to staayyyyyy..."
Hugs to all!
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)