Here is where I write stuff

SO.

I downloaded the Wolfram Alpha iPhone app onto my iPod Touch, because they dropped the price from $50 to $2, and hooray portable nerdery! And I was playing with it, as you do, and typed in "next solar eclipse" as it suggested. Well, there's one this summer, on July 11, visible to the Southern Atlantic ocean. Then I typed in "Next solar eclipse after July 12".

Oh hey! May 20, 2012! That's 5 days after my birthday!

Oh heeeyyy! It's visible from the Western United States!

Oh hheeeeeyyyyyyy! The path travels over northern California, actually!

What I'm saying here is that May of 2012 will feature me traveling to northern California, visiting a town called Eureka, and then viewing an Annular Solar Eclipse with my very own (properly filtered) eyes.

There's lots of pretty National Forests around there, so I hope to also pay them some visits. I love forests. Whatever my final plan ends up being, it will include forest time, somewhere.

So yeah. I'm going to add this to one of the blank spots on my Mission 101 list.

So I realized the other day that my 1001 days for doing 101 things was up sometime in February. I looked, and yup, my list expired on February 20. Oops. I did finish 32 of the things on the list, and several more were in progress, so yay for getting about 1/3 of it done. I could have done worse.

Anyways, I've decided to do it again, because why not? Having a To-Do list is motivating. Some of the 32 things I got done probably wouldn't have been done if they hadn't been on my list.

I'm setting my start date as March 26, 2010. Yes, this is three days ago, but it means that my finish date is December 21, 2012, aka THE DAY THE WORLD ENDS. This way, I'm more motivated to finish everything, because whatever isn't finished will never be done because THE WORLD WILL END*.

So, in that spirit, here is my list: ( The list OF DOOOOOOOOOOM )

*Yes, I know the world will not actually end on that day. Hush. It's funny.

Ahoy! I'm doing an Official Update on my mission101 list. The full list is here, but I'm going to make two lists in this entry: a list of things DONE, and a list of things with DEADLINES. I work better with a deadline, you see.

( DONE )

Fourteen items! That's 13.86% of my list, done!

( And now, the deadlines )

As for resolutions... ( The Year of Doing Big, Fun, Scary Things Together )

So basically, Hooray for doing things!

So remember back in October when I made a list of 13 items to get done before the end of the year?

I have had to make two modifications to this list: first, I am not going to finish my gloves, because I just don't have the time this time of year, and secondly I am not going to put up my old calendar pages, because I'm moving in January and that would be silly.

So! My short list as it stands now:

( snip )

Look at all those <s> tags! Oh, yay!

This mini-deadline thing has REALLY worked for me. I've been thinking about it, and I think I need to do more of this. I think I'll pick another dozen or so to do in the first few months of 2008.

Also! I am going to accomplish Item #1 in 2008. I am giving myself a deadline. I really think it's doable, if I buckle down and do it. And goodness knows I need to.

So! There you have it. I have publicly stated my intents. No backing out now!

NaNoWriMo is pretty much all I'll be posting about this month. Feel free to filter me out.

Penelope is cool. Her cat's name is Kitty Face, and her car's name is Car Face. She works for the #1 Genetics research lab in the country, and she has no idea what she is working on. She just goes in and does all the busywork no one else wants to do, in the hopes that someday they will let her use her big fancy degree. She has never met her boss in the three years she's worked there. She is currently sitting in Queightiey's restaurant, which makes me happy because I missed Queightiey so much.

I wrote more last night and ended up with 2130 words. Sweet!

Tomorrow at work, Penelope is going to fall asleep or something, and accidentally stay past 5pm five o'clock in the evening and finally meet her mysterious scientists.

Oooooooh it is FRIDAY. I am sleeping in SO HARD tomorrow. I think if Tesla wakes me up, she might just get locked in the bathroom.

Also, typing without looking is hard. Not really because my fingers can't do it, but because looking is SUCH a habit. I'm typing okay, actually, it's just hard to train myself not to look. I don't know why, because I don't actually need to look at the keys anymore, I'm really just sort of staring at the air around my keyboard. Stupid habits.

( Moar pix plz )

Also, I went to the NaNoWriMo Kickoff party today, and it was fun. Lots of neat people, we all laughed a lot. Nano people are cool.

Also also, I went on a hayride thing last night at this park in south Arlington. A lady from work invited me to go with her and her daughter. It was cold, but fun. It ended up being a big group of four-year-olds and parents, and the hayride was through this big huge park on a lake, and each campsite was set up to be Halloween-ish. As we went by, the people at each campsite would come out and be "scary" or silly at us, and then throw candy at us. I sat by some of the extra grown-ups at the back, and we had a bag of candy to throw back at the campers, and that was fun. Some of them had really elaborate setups! The best was the train. As you approached, they had a "RR XING" sign that started flashing, and as you passed it, they had a "train" coming at you. The light suddenly turned on and the horn blared and if you didn't know it was coming it would have been really scary. Someone warned us, though, since we had a trailer-load of small children. All the moms did the whole "oh wow! That was scary! That was fun!" thing to make sure the kids didn't freak out. It was neat.

Mmm. It's getting cold in my apartment. My favorite part of winter is when my electric bill goes down. I haaaaaaate the heater, you see. Hate it. I don't like having hot, dry air blown at me, it feels stuffy and desert-like, and it is hot dry conditions that make me more prone to nosebleeds, so I just don't like it. Even in my car, I'll set the defroster to blast until my windshield is see-through, and then I turn it to blow at my feet, at a low setting. I hate hate hate heaters. So in the winter, my electric bill is approximately $3. Okay, maybe that's an exaggeration, but still. It's low.

I'm going to go clean my kitchen and then play Super Paper Mario. Yes, that is my plan.

It is SO lovely to see the name syntheticjesso on Livejournal again :D :D :D

I needs a jumpstart. My 101 in 1001 is kind of dragging. I'm not really working on anything right now. So, I am going to steal an idea from someone on the mission101 comm and pick a couple to have done by the end of the year.

I have 28 months and 2 days left. I have 96 items left undone. 96 items / 28 months = 3.4 items/month. 3.4 items/month for about 3 months = 10.2.

However, 10 seems kinda lame, so I'm rounding up to 13. Because it's a lucky number.

( Which 13 items will I do? Does anyone even give a rat's patootie? CLICK TO FIND OUT! )

So, As part of my 101 Things in 1001 Days, I am going to write about 100 Things that make me Jesso.

( This is the list. I hope it grows. )

So, since Geek Fu action Grip is no more (*sadness*), I can't write anything to submit. That was an item on my 101 List, so now I have to come up with something to replace that.

Fortunately, notlikeyourmom recently started doing a writing project called "100 Things". You pick 100 things that make you You, and then write an entry about each thing. I've decided that this will replace a Geek Fu essay nicely, so now I'm working on my list of 100 things that make me Jessica. The list consists of things in my life that either have contributed to who I am now, like past relationships and school experiences, or things that I love that have become part of me, like my knitting or my cat.

I'm taking ideas. What do you guys think of when you think of me? I've already got 50-something things, but I'd like to see what y'all think.

PS: New icon!