Once again, long time no update. My excuse is that I lost my fantastic Hikaru no Go mood theme, which really lowered my motivation for posting. But now I have a Kateikyo Hitman Reborn mood theme, and it's awesome. What's especially cool is that every single mood has a different pic. Check it out!

So, getting on to my various news.

1. In one class for this past spring semester, I failed 23 out of 25 students. That is definitely some kind of record. I'm kinda proud. Of course, only 10 students even bothered to show up for the final, but still.

2. I've been teaching a summer class, with one week left to go, and I actually have GOOD students! They do homework! They ask questions! Some of them even study for tests! It's like a dream come true. I may not want to go back for the fall.

3. I'm moving!! (Yeah, I leave the big news as #3. Like you didn't know that I'm weird.) Currently, I live about 30 minutes south of where I work, Vincennes Indiana, in Princeton Indiana. But I am now renting a duplex in Vincennes about a mile and a half from school. I haven't lived that close to work in... well... never! It's great.

I'll be doing the actual moving in around July 20th or so, but it's still exciting. Also: I won't be living in central time but working in eastern time. Everything will just be eastern time. No longer will I have to constantly add or subtract an hour from the clocks, depending on where I am!

4. Writing. I suck massively, and I've barely done any lately. But other than the move, I have nothing planned from July 4 to August 16. So I plan to write a lot, starting with those damn fic requests I took a year ago. Oops!

Also on that topic, my website is now gone. My stupid providers deleted everything before I could renew the domain. I will probably be posting everything to my fic journal in the upcoming weeks.

I am clarifying for anyone who sees the massive bruise on the side of my face. I was not hit or thrown around or anything like that. I managed to whack my head against the wall. Yes, I am that talented. Thank you.

Also: I'm taking bets for how many of my students are going to fail in three weeks.

Poll #1384577 How Many of Qaddafi's Students are Going to Fail?
Open to: All, detailed results viewable to: All

How many of Qaddafi's students are going to fail this semester?

I read this article, but, more importantly, I was stupid enough to read the comments. Thus I have made a decision:

I disagree with both sides on the homosexual debate.

They are both clearly retarded:
Posted By: rancher @ 03/27/2009 3:33:32 PM

Gays, queers, fags, rump rangers. They all refer to the same disgusting lot of sub humans that were roasted by God years ago. They say that I am homo-phobic, I am not. That is a term that refers to fear. I grew up on and still work a Ranch. I have leared not to step in cow s**t as it smells and is full of nasty bacteria, but I am not afraid of it. At least it is natural filth and not an abonimation.


OOooohh... There was a Bible verse where God specifically toasted homosexuals? Dude, you totally need to give me the reference because I missed that story in Sunday school!

Posted By: jmg4477 @ 03/27/2009 1:01:47 PM

To the so called "christians": science vs. religion...hmmm science seems to be winning the duel. So all you have left is abortion and homosexuality to attack. Poor christians.....afraid of the "homosexual agenda" . No doubt organized religion has done great things for the world (sarcasm) including but not limited to genocide.


I totally agree. Religion has done fantastic things for the world, like the crusades and the Holocaust. Whew, it's a damn good thing that only religious people do shit like that!

Yeah. Both sides are incapable of logic.

Therefore, as of today, I intend to become the leading voice in a lifestyle that is holier than BOTH heterosexuality AND homosexuality. It's called asexuality.

Asexuals are incapable of getting STDs (assuming there aren't any infected needles or anything). Asexuals are supported by the Bible; just look at Jesus, Paul, and many others who didn't sleep with men or women. There is no need to bring up religion when discussing asexuality because science and mother nature are both in favor of asexuality, and it'll sure solve that pesky over-population problem real quick.

So come, join the asexuals. We're nice people. And if you get drunk around us, you won't have to worry about us taking advantage! And we never cause debates like the one in the linked story, because no one even knows we exist.

Also: we have cookies. Given that we don't care about sex, it leaves us lots of time for baking.

So become an asexual and rise above the illogical masses.

You know you wanna.

One of my New Year's resolutions is to update this thing more. So here's a meme I got from spacetart

MAH ICONS.

default	oldest	newest
saddest	happiest	angriest
cutest	sexiest	funniest
fave ship	fave fandom	fave animated
best quote	best textless	best stolen idea
use the most	favorite

HOW MANY ICONS DO YOU HAVE: 32
OUT OF HOW MANY AVAILABLE ICONS SPACES: 47
IF YOU COULD BUY SPACE FOR MORE, WOULD YOU: No, not really.
DO YOUR ICONS MAKE A STATEMENT: All icons ought to be funny.
WHAT FANDOM DO YOU HAVE THE MOST ICONS OF: Tie between Naruto and Bleach (both of which I no longer give a shit about)
AND THE SECOND MOST: Tie between Alexander the Great and Math, my two true loves.
WHAT SHIP DO YOU HAVE THE MOST ICONS OF: Only have one ship icon (Black Cat, Train / Creed, aka hero / villain)
ARE YOUR ICONS MADE MOSTLY BY OTHER PEOPLE: 11
DO YOU MAKE ICONS: Suck at animated icons. The still ones are mostly mine.
ARE THEY ANY GOOD: Yes, very funny.
ANIMATED ICONS ARE: awesome.

DO THE MEME.
Coding can be found here

So I ended up in the ER yesterday, making it the worst first day of the new semester ever. Here’s how it went.
I’m during my last class of the day, Intermediate Algebra, and I suddenly start getting chest pains. Now, I’ve had these before, I have a swallowing disorder. (Basically, food gets lodged part way down, clogging stuff up and generally being quite painful.) A few years ago during summer, I had the chest pains all the time. Since then, I’ve had them 2 to 3 times a year.
At any rate, the standard chest pains are annoying and painful, but I’ve had them enough that they’re not that big of a deal. I get through the rest of my class and head back to my office. Literally, the moment I get back to my office, my chest pains suddenly get a lot worse, to the point where I couldn’t stand up straight and I starting having problems breathing.
I go to the Math Lab (it’s right next to my office and I figure, if I’m going to collapse, better do it where other people can see, just in case). Turns out to be a good thing. My breathing gets worse as the pain increases, and one of the Math Lab guys calls 911. The fire department show up with an ambulance, I get put on oxygen and they put me on a stretcher. I’m barely coherent, just enough to tell them to grab my wallet, where my insurance card is. (Yes, even in the throes of extreme pain, I’m worrying about how much it’s gonna cost.)
I get my first ambulance trip (although, since I took my glasses off, I couldn’t see much). I get put on an IV, get weird, metal things strapped to my chest, and we get to the hospital. At this point, my chest pains have decreased a bit, from a 10 on the pain scale down to an 8. There’s at least 4 nurses or doctors checking things and putting more things on me (more weird metal things, a blood pressure sleeve, some wires whose purpose I still can’t guess, etc) when I get to the ER room.
I’m there for about two and a half hours total. I get asked at least four times if I’m a student, to which I correct them (and as soon as I say I’m a math professor, they all tell me how bad they were at math; but that always happens). I’m told that my division head followed me to the hospital (she saw me as I was being wheeled out of the building), and she offers to go back to school and grab my cell phone, coat, and car. Which is way nice of her, and if anyone has a good of what I should get her as a thank you present, I’m open to suggestions. And, once I have my cell phone, I call my parents and assure them I’m not dead.
So, now that it’s all over, I’m been diagnosed my an inflammation of my esophagus (I’ll look up the name when I get home; I’m back at school right now), been given some huge pills, and been told not to do anything remotely strenuous. So, I guess that means no doing cartwheels to try and get my students to wake up :)
And that’s pretty much the end of it, except I have a doctor’s appointment this afternoon, so I’ll see if I learn anything new. And, on the up side, I have a great excuse to not exercise.

Obama! Obama! Obama!
Check out the landslide victory:
http://maps.google.com/help/maps/elections/index.html#2008_election

Obama! Obama! Obama!

And now that that distraction is over, I get back to writing NaNo

Well, after 3 weeks in my new home (aka, the middle of nowhere, Indiana), I finally have an internet connection again! Thus, my life is now good.

I am taking fic requests again. For details, go to http://community.livejournal.com/qaddafics/9667.html

Newsweek, if I have ever said anything bad about you, I am now taking it all back. Thank you for writing the article Does Having Children Make You Happy? Finally, I have something to show people when they think I'm crazy for saying that I hate (and I do mean HATE) children. Children are NOT the be-all and end-all of happiness; they're barfing, pooping machines that keep you up at night.

First, on the new job front, went house hunting and discovered at least two... interesting places. One had a basement that could star in a horror movie -- I was more surprised that there weren't skeletons down there. The other house's last occupants were making meth in the basement, which is now closed off with a huge bit of plywood nailed down over it.

So I got an apartment in the neighboring town of Princeton, IN (about 30 miles away, not a bad commute.)

In funny news, I've been slowly breaking in my new shoes, and figured they were good to go for the whole day yesterday. Shows what I know. By noon, I had a massive blister on my left foot and, just in time for my evening class, it breaks and starts bleeding, although not much. Not wanting to make things worse, I proceeded to lecture barefoot. Go me!

After 2 plus years of interviews, somebody finally made me a job offer! It's Vincennes University, in a dinky little Indiana town about an hour north of Evansville, right on the Illinois border - about a 5 hour drive from where I live right now. I am so incredibly happy! Those Hoosiers rock!

So it looks like I'll be moving to Indiana in August! OMG so excited!! I'm so happy I'm abusing the exclamation mark!!!

First, because I haven't updated in forever, my word count:

53,700 / 75,000 (71.6%)

That's right about where I should be, so yay. Now that I have time, life is good.

Of course, it's harder to find time when I have a new obsession: Kateikyo Hitman Reborn! (English title: Reborn!). Mainly, there's this one character I'm totally in love with. I made a new layout for the journal with him on it. And I also present:

( Ten Reasons to Love Hibari Kyouya )

My Reborn! obsession is almost complete. Now I just need a good icon and to write fic...

Since Nano is never enough for me, I've decided to do more insane writing over the months of March and April. (I'd have done just March, but I have seven classes and zero free time.) So, over the 2 months, my goal is to write 75,000 words. You are my witnesses, and I need you to promise to mock me if I don't make it. Because that will motivate me to work.

Today at my alma matter, Northern Illinois University, a gunman opened fire and killed five people, plus himself, according to various reports. He did it in Cole Hall -- I TA'd there just 3 years ago. Everyone I know who's still there is fine though, including two2blue.

Didn't have time to update here with final word count before going to bed. So, here it is:

109,353 / 100,000 (109.4%)

The site hasn't updated regional wins, but DeKalb had a word war with Perth, Australia, and totally kicked butt. Once the updates come in, we should be around 25th place for the whole world, beating out entire European countries (namely, thanks to me, France). Go, us! If it doesn't snow too much today, we're having the TGIO (Thank God It's Over) party.

In other good news, I have a major interview coming up in Vermont. Never been there, but it's supposed to be a nice state; much friendlier than Chicago. I'm candidate number 4 of 4, added at the last minute, which makes me think I might have pretty good odds. Hey, at least I get an expenses reimbursed trip to Vermont. w00t.

Request to all my RL friends who have a sense of fashion: please come help me find in closet or buy 3 outfits appropriate to an interview. You KNOW I have no clue.

50,145 / 100,000 (50.1%)

So, I reached the NaNo goal, and half of my personal goal. w00t. In other, totally unrelated news, I hate my story.

So, today starts NaNoWriMo. Since I'm carzy, I'm going to try to get 100,000 words instead of just 50,000. Yeah, we'll see how that goes. Current count:

3,750 / 100,000 (3.8%)

In other news, I managed to get 2 flat tires today coming home from work. A screw or something got stuck in the front tire and, when the tire blew out, the screw flew backwards, scrapping into the back tire and cutting it. Joy. I have such luck with flat tires /sarcasm

Yesterday afternoon, Robert Jordan, author of the Wheel of Time sequence, passed away. He was working on the 12th and final volume of the series when he died. My sympathies go out to his family, but I can't help but be selfish. WoT was the first series I really got into, way back in 1994 when I was in 7th grade (and, yes, I've just dated myself). I feel like I've been following the series for over half my life, and now it won't be ended. Yes, some of the later books weren't nearly as good, but I loved them anyway. Now I'll never know what happens to Tam or Masema or who Demandred is. (I have a thing for minor characters.) Oh, and whether Rand 1) survives, 2) dies and stays dead, or 3) dies and comes back to life. My money has been on 3 since book 6.

So I sent off one of my short stories to a magazine about 2 weeks ago. Yesterday I got the rejection letter. I had no idea a person could get rejected that quickly; usually it takes at least a month, or longer, considering the US postal service, if nothing else.

Oh well. Now I can send the thing to another magazine. Anyone know any good Fantasy/Science Fiction magazines that publish short stories? Other than "Fantasy & Science Fiction"?

I had a phone interview yesterday for a job in optimization. Thought it went pretty well; I've got my fingers crossed. I want a full-time job, dammit!

In other news, finals are tomorrow, so we get to see how many people fail. Looks like 3 at most.

I'm about 2 chapters away from the end of my JulNoWriMo story, after which it needs one round (at least) of major revisions. I'm so happy with it right now!