Ready, Set, Apply!

I’ve officially started applying for jobs. Like real-life jobs. Like career-starter jobs. I’m not set to graduate until August, but I figured it would be smart to try to get out of the gate before everyone does. Of course, this is in the hopes that a place will be interested in a candidate that they have to wait for.  I have to admit–it’s a cool feeling, even with it being a little intimidating. But FINALLY after years of school, and wanting to move on to the next step–I’m SO close!!!

I have 7 applications out right this moment. I’d like to get 10 out to start with and then I’ll wait until I start hearing some things back. The majority are in FL, but are spread out. A couple are out-of-state. And one place has an opening in their FL office and Virginia office. There’s one job in particular (with good benefits) that I think I’m pretty qualified for, but I won’t say where or with who.

So what does that mean for Matt and I? We’re taking it one step at a time until I hear something. It’s a little sticky since his internship is likely going to make him an offer–but he’s also wanting to see where else he might find work so he’s not necessarily locked down and just takes the first thing he can. He also can’t really start applying until he’s done (December), whereas I don’t really have that restriction. So the plan is this: See what offers I can find. Whoever has the better offer from a job will determine where we live. If it’s me–then hopefully he can find engineering work where I will go. And if it’s him–then vice versa. We also have the goal of moving in together once we’re both done.

Exciting things are coming my way, I can feel it!

Students are sitting ducks.

So I’ve returned to FSU for an MS degree. I was also here as an undergrad. I noticed my Senior year here that violence around or on campus started to go up–pretty positively correlated with the downturn of the economy. I started my Master’s program this past August (2011). I’ve noticed that in the year that I was gone (doing Law school for a year), the trend has continued. It did not take long to get emails from alerts.fsu.edu about robberies, armed robberies, etc. on or around campus.

For example, in the last FIVE days there have been two armed robberies on campus committed against students. These actions seem to be around the time of 11pm-12am. The sad thing is that the students attacked outside of their dorms are just sitting ducks. All the criminals have to do is scope out the dorm exits and they’re almost guaranteed to find someone with the following items on them: iPod/mp3 player, tablet, laptop. You could say the students shouldn’t carry these things with them, however if an increasingly tech-world students take notes on computers and I would imagine take them to study with friends.

What I would love to see changed is the current inability of students to defend themselves. I understand there are risks with allowing students to have weapons in dorms–with the possibility and even likelihood of drinking.  However I haven’t heard of any strong statistics showing problems from apartment complexes where students were allowed defensive weapons where there is undoubtedly drinking on the weekends. So maybe FSU should reconsider its policy about what students can and cannot carry with them for defense. I’m not advocating an open gun policy. But perhaps the school should support–and even supply–the students with mace? Maybe take baby steps toward allowing students to carry tasers–if even only females at first since we are the easier target?

Updates! Flikr, Xmas, and RC, oh my!

Christmas was great! I was a pleasant surprise with gifts, since I know my parents are tight on cash. I have an iPod (with a new iPod from Matt) dock to get set up, as well as WiiFit and a Zumba game. Looking forward to doing some exercise now that I have more space than in a dorm! I also got some sweet decorations for the different holidays that are made my Clayworks (via Bluesky?) which are highly detailed and lovely. My mom got sort of into collecting some gingerbread ones for herself so that’s where the idea came from. I still haven’t even put away all of this, so my living room is a little overwhelming right now.

Went to Busch Gardens with Matt a couple of times before our passes expired. So that means my Flikr is updated!!!!! (See my info page for the link) I’ll post a couple of shots below as a teaser I was sad to see that many shots were blurred, but I also got some great ones. I knew I should have brought the tripod…but with so many people at the park it would have been a bit of a pain anyway.

New Year’s was pretty quiet, I was tired for whatever reason. So I was basically awake all day (bought myself an RC car, woo!) and then when it got closer to the NYC Ball Drop I napped until like 11:45, oops. That’s alright though, I’m not a huge partier for the occasion. Plus we (Matt, some friends and I) had celebrated Lauren Easler’s birthday the night before. It was a lot of fun, but evidently I acted a bit like an ass at times. Wasn’t intentional, as it shouldn’t be.

I hope everyone’s NY’s resolutions are off to a good start! Mine is to become a vegetarian (with the exception of fish/seafood) by the end of the year. I’m doing it in stages, as overnight would have been a shock to the system. I’m just too into animal rights to keep supporting the abuse that they go through to become dinner for us.

So much hate from a church? WTF?

Sermons, Parodies, Hymns And Other Audio From Westboro Baptist Church.  The link to the left will probably take you to main page of WBC. I didn’t know much about them until someone replied to a question I posted on SoulPancake referencing them–and then I looked the rest up myself. What I particularly wanted to draw attention to was the “Parodies” section. The word parodies draws to my mind the idea of comedy skits, like Saturday Night Live, or a remake of a music video that no one takes seriously.  However if you look at the list of songs they have there that this church has parodied–there are some popular songs there. A few from Elvis, the Beatles, and Bette Midler. There are also some ones to attract the younger crowd (I guess…) such as parodies of Katy Perry and Ke$ha.  However if you open up the provided PDF’s to follow along with the lyrics, they are QUITE hateful. Regardless of what your religious stance is…I think most could agree that the Christianity standpoint is generally to be a good person, God is the only one who can judge, treat others as you’d be treated, etc. right? These songs are spouting things about how God hates Jews (based off of Hey Jude), and that they are “Christ-killers”…another goes on (and on…and on) about how Elizabeth Taylor (based off of Ring of Fire) is burning and screaming in the flames of hell for adultery. They have a huge thing about re-marriage after divorce being adultery. I just can’t believe the HATEFUL, and ridiculous things this church is saying to all kinds of people. It’s things like this that give Christianity a bad reputation, so the rest of us just need to turn our ears off to these nuts. However, I do think it’s important to be aware of what’s out there–that’s why I’m sharing, in case anyone else was in the dark like me.

Finally, there is even this terrible “parody” of the Pledge of Allegiance….

You pledge allegiance to the fags

who run all of America

and to all the filth for which they stand

feces-eaters

under Satan

Disease spreaders

Hating liberty

Denying justice to all

You pledge allegiance to the flag

Knowing God hates America

And all the sin for which she stands

God-haters

Under Satan

United in evil

Hating liberty

Denying justice to all

We pledge allegiance only to God

And pray he destroys America

And all the people in the land

More dead soldiers

More lost limbs

Taking vengeance

On the disobedient

Bringing His justice to all

My photography journey has begun :)

So I’ve already gushed about my new camera that I’m in LOVE with–and I’ve finally taken it out for a spin as of this past Saturday! I mean I’d taken a couple of shots of my kitty in my apartment, but that’s a far cry from trying out different settings outside. Matt came up to visit me (since he wasn’t able to for my bday) and we made up a list of about 8-10 things to try to look for. He said it helps to have a purpose when you go out and shoot, particularly when you’re learning, so you don’t just walk around. Some of the things were: picture in a picture,  this is wet, something doesn’t belong, being square is cool, Mother nature, and some other cool stuff. When I saw him taking a picture of something neat then I’d copy and vice versa. And once I stopped being nervous to just take a damn picture, the day started rolling along nicely. I got some really nice shots I’d say, for my first time messing around with a DSLR. I notice now after looking at the night shots blown up that the ISO being so high made them a TOUCH grainy, so I’ve since set my camera at a max ISO of 1600. Also loving the tripod that Matt got me as a birthday present and brought up to me so I could use it!!! Overall quite the awesome day, and I’ll post a couple of my favorite shots below! For the complete album, I’m on Flikr: http://www.flickr.com/photos/the_lylipad/

 

About Us–Expedition Gaia

About Us.  The link to the left will take you to the page for the friend Will’s non-profit organization he is starting–Expedition Gaia. He has traveled to many places in the world, and has so many interesting stories to share. And his goal with this organization is to offer the same chance to others. I’m excited to see where he can go with this! Please check it out and see if it’s something you’d be interested in!! He’s still getting things set up, but I’m impressed with how his website looks so far, and he has started to build up a good team.

The danger of fanatics, and the sheep that follow.

From time to time on campus there are religious people preaching out to students walking by about how we’re going to hell and why. I’ve even personally been called a “hell-bound whore” by one of them on a day when I was wearing a jean skirt. I was offended, but also know better than to even try and have a rational argument with someone like that. I’ve also heard a man say that he didn’t feel “saved” until he was married–so why were all of us girls wasting our time at school?

But after today, I can’t keep my silence on this subject. Today the religious man in question (dressed up almost like it was Oktoberfest) said as I walked by to class: “It says in the Bible to love thy neighbor like you love yourself. And if you smoke, you’re not loving yourself or your neighbor so you’ll be going to hell!” The fact that his man was spouting off such things disturbs me. You can still smoke AND love yourself, and I’m pretty sure the Bible would agree with me that it’s not up to him about who would qualify for hell or not.

My title mentions the “sheep” who follow. People usually do have a sheep-like mentality, and whoever is in power or the strongest (or projects such) will be followed. Sometimes this leads to losing the ability to think for ourselves. I’ve started adapting to the “live and let live” approach to life instead of passing so much judgment and gossip around. So I cannot help being discouraged when about 50% of the crowds around these men on campus (I’ve never seen women doing it) go along with such subjective nonsense. I may not practice Christianity anymore but if I recall, it’s core values were to be a good person, it’s not our place to judge others, etc. But when fanatics like this start bending meanings as they please, and then use the Bible as their shield so others follow….that gets dangerous. Christianity has more than one bloody massacre on it’s hands thanks to fanatics.

Winter always treats me well :)

My T2i and Clip+

Thanksgiving was small–just me and my parents. BUT I got some amazing deals on some Christmas presents via Amazon.com’s “lightning deals” they were having for their Black Friday week!!! I even got some stuff that I’m not sure who to give to yet haha. Also scored some things for myself: earbuds, Clip+ for the gym, ANNNNNND Canon T2i SLR!!!!!! That was an early b-day present to myself. It came with an extra lens and was just too good of a deal to pass it up. I need to get some kind of ridiculous memory card now, and a bag, backup battery…but it’s a start. And I’ve been after one of these cameras for years. So for once (other than a few items), I have all my shopping done well in advance! Now I can just go to the mall and enjoy the deals just for kicks and not be in a rush.

I had my interview today for the FL Fish & Wildlife bear management internship! I think it went really well. I made them laugh a few times, wore a suit (I was more dressed up than the person going after me), and was honest about things like having to stop and see what I need to work on first, second, etc. Some of the questions were a little tricky like most interviews are. But hopefully I got it, I’d love to be able to put them down on my resume in the future for job searches. I’ll find out the week of Dec 12th (finals week oddly enough…)!

Had some weird dreams with grandpa in them lately. Like with one about Thanksgiving…he was allowed to come back and visit for just 24 hours with us. Which was great, but at the same time toward the end I couldn’t stop crying uncontrollably because he had to leave again. I really don’t think I’ve ever dealt with his death very well…and it shows. Maybe because it was unexpected? Because James was sure unexpected too…but I wasn’t very close with him. Things to ponder on for now.

Off to get my little Clip+ ready for the gym as lunch settles! Then playing with the Canon later!

Looking ahead to spring semester already!

So my classes are picked. Still have finals of this semester to get through. BUT…I volunteered to help my professor at this year’s SHRUG conference last week along with some other classmates because I thought it would be a good idea to get exposed to some people in the industry. And damn, I love when I’m right.

Firstly, an internship fell into the laps of me and the two girls I was working with for the first half of the day!!! It will be with the TLC-GIS (Tallahassee-Leon-County) working on water modeling in the area. Brittany Wood started already but it will be easier if I wait until January. There was another man who dropped his cards off to all of us and said to contact him if we were interested, but I haven’t heard anything yet.

I’ve also applied to two other internships with the FL Fish and Wildlife Conservation Commission–one dealing with bear management, and the other with gopher tortoises. I’ve already heard from the bear management staff, and they want to interview me on Dec. 2nd. I have not heard from the other.

Still, exciting things are happening!!!! Jason, at TLC-GIS isn’t going to require a lot of hrs/wk, so I should be able to do two internships…assuming that the bear people like me. I would really like to beef up my resume any way I can since this is only a 1 year degree.

With Thanksgiving right around the corner, it’s just a short hop to finals and then Christmas break—annnnnd my birthday in the middle  But I feel like I’ve finally gotten the ball rolling on something. It feels so great!

p.s.- CAN’T wait to see Matt this weekend too! Totally unrelated…don’t care.

Puppy= Negativity…since when?

Every time I stumble upon a great puppy/dog candidate for me to adopt there are 50 reasons thrown at me from my dad why it’s a terrible idea. Yes, I USED to have a bad schedule and wouldn’t be able to walk one on consistent hours–but that’s no longer an issue. And now the big problem is because I’d be “exposing myself so much more to danger” by having to walk it at night and early morning…so just wait til I graduate and live in a better city. I guess I can agree that this is a legitimate concern. And my boyfriend and I talked about picking one out together when we live together after we graduate. But an opportunity has presented itself: a secretary at school is giving away 8 puppies she has for free to good homes and they are young. Which means they would be raised with my kitty Harley and would get used to him (he’s already good buddies with our family dog so I’m not concern with that so much). I’ve at least emailed her about how many males she has and if they’d have shots done. Maybe I could do more convincing with more information. Because where would the worries end? After all, who knows where I MIGHT be living after this because of where I’ll be working?

Just tired of it being such a negative conversation every time. Especially when I was looking at adopting a dog before I got Harley first. Oy. Aren’t I adult enough yet? Can’t wait to be financially independent and I don’t need to call about everything.