Today at the Cloisters we started a new project. We’re going to make a web application to serve as our campus “ride board”. People will be able to log in and offer or request car trips. Eventually we hope to program cool features like driver ratings and event forums. We’re going to code it in the Python web framework Django, but we weren’t able to fully install it today because our database wasn’t set up right and the Debian servers were down. Instead we did a quick lesson on Python, modeled the components, and sketched out a few of the basic classes.

It was exciting to dive into this project so quickly, because the development atmosphere at the Cloisters has been leaning towards stagnant lately. We’ve made lots of progress on Plone, but now we’ve moved into the gruntwork stage of the Plone development and 10 hours a week (the max number of hours we are allowed to work) is not enough time to make inspiring progress. Hopefully the Python skills this new project generates will improve our Plone morale.

Whether you understood a word of that or not, suffice it to say that I enjoyed a productive and rewarding day

Max just called me to interview me about the Internet for a project he’s working on. I hope I was helpful at all, I always feel so awkward on the telephone. He didn’t sound entirely comfortable either, but I thought he was pretty gutsy to call and question a 21 year-old cousin on the other side of the country.

Another weekend down at less-than-ideal productivity levels — only one weekend to go before Spring Break. In those two weeks I have 1 programming assignment, 2 oral presentations, and 3 midterm papers due. It might not be the funnest two weeks of my life, but it’s totally doable and I have two weeks to relax and detox afterwards. Hopefully I can get some casual work done over the break and get a running start on the second half of the semester.

Back to the reading.

So this evening, while procrastinating writing two 1-page papers (a really lame thing to put off, right?) I applied for a few Google internships. I hadn’t realized the deadline was in only 4 days, so I feel like it was a reasonably pertinant task to accomplish. Check them out and guess which ones I applied for. I was pretty devastated that I don’t know how to speak Norwegian, because I thought I’d make an ideal “Nordic Operations Intern”. Sigh. Now that the link to this website is floating out there I should probably finish my redesign pronto! That blue-and-orange combo is starting to offend me. I’m considering scaling back to black and white. Any suggestions?

Now this design is far from perfect (I’m highly skeptical about that little heart in the corner, among other things), but it’s approaching Sunday afternoon which means I’m feeling the pressure of a week’s load of homework about to hit me head-on. I’m thinking maybe I’ll write my 3 papers, take a web design break, and then tackle the reading for my presentation on Friday (I’m thinking about putting together a movie so I want to give myself plenty of time).

But don’t worry, I’m having fun too! Last night was the Seven Deadly Sins party in Jewett dorm. Jewett has a giant tower so they made each floor a different sin. It’s always a kind of trashy party, but everybody goes so it’s a good place to run into people. I went with Alex and Erin and ended up hanging out with Austin and Court. I hadn’t really spent time with those guys since freshman year, so it was nice to catch up. We ended up driving to a diner and sitting around. It was a pretty strange evening, but it was fun to get out of the dorm and be social. Even though I didn’t get to bed until 3am I somehow woke up (as I always seem to) at 9.

Up until this week the weather has been positively balmy. I even went out in a skirt and flip flops. Unfortunately now it’s unbearably frigid. It hurts my face just to go outside. Plus it’s supposed to snow again. Oh well, spring break is in a couple weeks and I’ll be ready to appreciate the nice temperate Oregon rain. That is, if I am not panicking and running around in circles about summer job applications, which is beginning to worry me.

Things look a little funky at the moment, I know, but that’s because I’m trying to reconfigure my website into a nice portfolio and that involves a redesign. Thanks for bearing with me!

I’ve taken 11 classes in the media studies department at this point and I’m noticing some recurring themes. For one, media studies professors are both brilliant and slightly crazy. Another thing about media studies is the multidisciplinary aspect. Especially since the department is so new, kids in the classes come from everywhere. This semester’s media theory course is no exception.

Unlike my other courses, however, the different disciplines in media theory are becoming downright militant. The media studies, philosophy, and film students sit in different sections of the room, huddled in tight little clusters. Whenever one faction speaks at length the others will start to whisper and titter amongst themselves, criticizing their peers in that awkward volume somewhere between a private conversation and open revolt. A pretentious vocabulary competition has broken out, and the resulting discourse congeals a mess of different departmental languages. The other day one of the philosophy students actually prefaced their comment with, “I’m going to drop a term here, guys, are you prepared?” The class is horribly overenrolled so the inter-class chaos is heightened by tight quarters.

I sound like I’m complaining, but I really find it kind of amusing. The reading is acceptable and the professor is amusing. I love all my other classes. We have our first trip to New York City tomorrow for the urban studies class. I’m nervous/skeptical/excited. Need to remember to pack something for the train ride. It’s also my mom’s birthday tomorrow! Happy birthday Mom!

That’s about all I can think of to say. I’m cleaning my room now, the results of which should improve my quality of life substantially. I’m even going to do laundry!!!

Oh, speaking of laundry (I think my brain is not wired in a normal way, because the connections I make are bizarre), we’ve secured our plans for senior housing. Aaron was selected to be T/V/E Intern next year (he works with residential life to help transfer students adjust) so we get to select our house before everybody else! That’s really an exciting thing. The house we’re planning on is Aaron, Erin, Troy, Matt, and myself. You’ve probably never heard of Troy and Matt, but they’re friends of Aaron’s and are very nice people. Anybody who is coming for my graduation next year (!!!) will probably meet that whole crew.