Douglas Adams famouly stated “I love deadlines: I love the whooshing sound they make as they go by.”

Today I can identify with that statement like never before. I didn’t get everything done, but I did get enough done. And now it feels like a weight has been lifted from my shoulders. From 35 credits to 20. This seems vaguely manageable now.

So, Sunday was … interesting. I spent most of the day in bed between trips to the restroom. I had the full suite of things that Pepto-Bismol relieves — and not an ounce of the blessed pink stuff on hand. Finally I felt better enough to drive down to the nearby Safeway for it, but I was still pretty queasy for most of Monday, and I didn’t get any work (homework OR yardwork) done on Sunday.

So I’m a day behind a pretty tight deadline on my homework, and slacking hard to catch up. Played DnD yesterday. My character was unconscious and bleeding at least three times during the night, and the DM almost got a TPK twice. Groovy. Great moments include when our Cloistered Cleric pulled her knife and killed a ninja and the fighter not-yet-multiclassed-to-sorceror commenting “So how do we get over the pit? I can’t cast ‘fly’ — I know, I’ve been trying all night.”

Got some good work done this morning, but much more to come for this evening. Wish me luck.

Got some homework done. Didn’t get WotW done. Again. Grr.

Still more homework to do, and I’m not sure WHAT to do with Alison again. I’m back at the place of almost being FRUSTRATED enough to check out — which isn’t better or worse than being DEPRESSED enough — but it /is/ different.

Some really critical elements of one’s psyche get formed in early childhood. For example, I learned in grade school that “cool” (or popular) and “smart” (or educated, competent, etc.) were opposites.

So I saw a gal today whose T-Shirt caught my eye. Not just because it was nearly skintight and bright yellow but because I habitually and unconsciously read things. It said “You would be cooler if you were me.”

My brain, of course, came back with “Probably. But you’d be smarter if you were me.” All of which got me thinking back on grade school. Hell, for all I know she’s actually smarter than me. Still, that’s certainly not the impression I got.

Which comes back to selling yourself. How you present yourself to the world is going to effect how other people see you. It’s also cultural. Glasses make you look smart. Blonde hair makes you look ditzy. Skintight clothing makes you look — well, there’s no polite way to say how skintight clothing makes you look, and it will vary from person to person based on body type anyway. As I said, though, it’s cultural. This is all in the context of my 80s-90s American upbringing. If I were from a radically different culture, glasses might be the signal of a prostitute, platinum-blonde hair might signal high intellectual refinement, and skintight clothes might scream “practical.”

Then again, maybe not.

So, apparently CBT is down for the next week or more. If you want to catch me, I’ll be hanging out with the cool CBT refugees over at www.Btechunits.com.

Hopefully I can manage to get a WotW done for this week. The forums being down really messed me up on that count…

*AND* with apparently no data loss. Yay Deathshadow!

Title says it all. The ClassicBattletech.com forums are down again. Some kind of database issue. Good luck to Deathshadow with fixing it.

In other news, I got my computer moved to a bigger desk upstairs, and I finally have a surface I can rest things on while I type. Productivity should improve immensely.

so I got an E-mail from my CS261 instructor telling me that I was behind in my assignments and to “try harder.” I would be offended, but I know she doesn’t mean it and that English isn’t her first language.

I’m trying as hard as I can. And doing pretty okay, considering.

…apparently don’t mix.

I don’t know how it is elsewhere, but in Washington State, traffic infractions are handled as civil (as opposed to criminal) matters, meaning that the bar for the prosecution is set much lower: Criminal matters must be proven beyond a shadow of a doubt, while in a civil case, the prosecutor only needs to provide a theory that seems slightly more credible than the citizen’s.

Now, I’m not a lawyer, and I don’t know a lawyer who will work for free who could actually handle my “driving without headlights” case from back in December. It’s a $101 ticket (which ain’t much) so I decided to go gain some valulable life experience (i.e. do something stupid.) I therefore contested the ticket and represented myself.

So here’s how the whole thing breaks down. I say I had my lights on. The other guy says I didn’t. The officer who filed the report says I didn’t (though he’s not in a position to know.) One independent witness says I didn’t.

Or does she? Actually, she never explicitly identified myself or my vehicle in her statement. I probably could have argued the point. I probably would have looked like an ass. This is why representing yourself is stupid.

Anyway, the witness can’t be produced or subpoenaed. Her statement wasn’t given under oath, and there’s no way to establish her credibility. Or for me to challenge it.

And she’s the only evidence the city has. The police statement is hearsay. My statement and the other driver’s statement are both biased. If this was a criminal case, it would be laughed out of court.

But it’s a civil case, so I pay the $101.

Which, really. The whole point of having constitutional protections for citizens is to protect them from the vast resources the state can level against them. Those protections are absent in the case of traffic infractions. It’s not /fair/. But that’s the way it is.

I’ve decided the only way to protect myself from this system will be to record video from my dashboard, which should give sufficient indication whether my headlights were on, whether that school zone sign I passed was activated, etc. etc. etc.

On a brighter note, I went in to follow up with the neurologist. She says I’m fine and to call if anything changes. She also says I have no reflexes.

Hm.

Apparently, anyway. Said Fairy Godmother dropped by yesterday and bought me a 1993 Suzuki Sidekick. So I have wheels. Yaay.