Excitements of my day:

• Beginning to learn the modulus operator (we made a little alert that was pretty exciting, actually ;))
• Realizing that my time calculations were off and that I actually had an extra hour this morning in which to practice piano.
• Accompanying half the choir for our sectional (I completely messed up the page turn multiple times, but life goes on, the girls were forgiving, and I got it eventually). :)
• Mass at Sitzman Hall; the Chapel there is small and beautiful, and it was such a peaceful way to end the afternoon.
• Sisterhood dinner, where we ate delicious rice and beans, Michaela-style (so rice, beans, corn, tomatoes, other spices...)
• Panel on "Healthy Marriages in the Jewish and Catholic Traditions"; interesting to hear the Priest and Rabbi's thoughts on this.  (This Jewish/Catholic event organized not by my housemate, but her brother. :))

Tired...

Halfway through a crazily busy week!  I feel like it's been a while since I last posted, but there isn't much to report; I keep chugging away, making music and doing as much homework as I have time for.  This afternoon, we had our first Music History listening quiz of the semester (and then started listening to lieder! So much fun!).  I also made mac and cheese, which turned out better than my usual attempts at it. :)

(Clarification: this isn't the box mac and cheese -- all of my attempts at that have been overwhelmingly successful. ;))

Since I don't have a picture, here are some screenshots of my "8 Random Boxes" program, which displays 8 boxes of random colors -- I refreshed it a couple of times and picked these as the best color groups:

 (This one with the browser tabs showing to prove that I made it work in the browser. :))

(And the last one to show how hard it is to get a good group of colors when you're grabbing them completely at random.)

Goodnight!

Discernment of Spirits Retreat, Day 2

Another inspiring day of talks and prayer; if Fr. Gallagher's books are anything like his retreats (and I would imagine that they are), I highly recommend them.

I also went to the AARC ("Anderson Athletic and Recreation Complex" -- basically, the gym) for the first time all year, so I'm pretty proud of myself. :)

And if that wasn't enough, I also wrote some HTML and Javascript that brings up two little boxes that change colors when one clicks on them!  I'll see if I can get them up here for you all to click at some point.

Tonight's picture is a visual representation of how, by dedicating and "chaining" oneself to Mary and her Son, one also chains oneself to one's duties as a student (sometimes without intending to do so):

In other words, today I got stuck to my notebook (kind of a strange picture; sorry about that).

Discernment of Spirits Retreat, Day 1

First day of the Discernment of Spirits Retreat with Fr. Gallagher, and so far it's been wonderful!  Amazingly insightful talks on Ignatian spirituality, delicious food, adoration; I'm excited to continue it tomorrow. :)

One more thing:  tonight we had a brand new cantor for Mass, singing at the 5:30 in order to have his first Mass cantoring with a smaller crowd.  Well, unbeknownst to the cantor scheduler (me), the Archdiocesan marriage prep sessions are held at St. Thomas, so every so often, all of the couples preparing for marriage in the Archdiocese will show up at our 5:30 Mass.  (Can you see where this is going?)  Yes, tonight was that night!  (The couples all show up an hour early for Confession, too, so by the time the cantor got there, the chapel was already full....)  Will did great, though -- certainly wins the "Accommodating Cantor" award for tonight; it was actually pretty funny. :)

First Friday after Ash Wednesday

Despite the foreboding title, this day was surprisingly bright.  Adoration started yesterday, and I had my first weekly hour today (I jumped on the sign-up sheet right away and got Fridays at 3).  And this evening, Dr. Boyle hosted another "Evening of Conversation"; it was so good to see him and some of my paired course classmates again. :)

But I didn't think to take a picture at any one of those highlights, so instead, here is a pictorial admonition to be careful what kind of things you put in the dishwasher:

(Remember all that food from yesterday?  It has been moved to Tupperware, and I don't think we'll be using the bowls it came in anymore.)

And of course, always studying, so I'll bid you all farewell and do some Latin review.  (To the budding Latin scholars: memorize the genders of your 3rd declension vocabula; it will serve you well!)

Jewish-Catholic Movie Night

I did lots of studying, practicing, and even some socializing today, and finished it off with a "Jewish-Catholic Movie Night", hosted by a variety of clubs and led by my lovely Jewish prefect, Hannah. :)  Tonight's film was Fill the Void, an intriguing movie about an arranged marriage in a Hasidic community, which is the first (full-length) movie directed by a Hasidic Jewish woman.  Afterwards, we had lots of good discussion, with many questions for (and good answers from) the Rabbi who attended.  And then, being girls, when we got back to the house, we discussed his answers and analysed the movie some more. :)

Oh, there was also delicious food at this event, and we brought home the leftovers:

(We're splitting them between two houses -- "sharing with Duncan." ;))

Exciting moment of the night: returning the movie to the library while carrying a bowl of pita bread covered by a plate of half-and-half cups, and another little bowl of butter pats.  Yay, cheap college students!

Ash Wednesday

I admit that I just read "Make penances" in my planner (we have a Penance Bowl, which we will fill with penances and pick one to do each day) and thought it said "Make pancakes," and got so excited for a moment!  But actually I just had pizza for my full meal, so I really can't complain too much. :)

I don't post many selfies, but I also don't go around with ashes on my head very often, so here's me:

And here's an action shot of the breviary switch:

Not a great photo, I'll admit, but I liked the contrast of the red. :)

And another plug for FPB -- here's Dr. Cornett's poster:

I also attended the first Philosophy Club meeting of the semester, which was quite fun.  The topic this semester is Art and Aesthetics, and I'm so excited to discuss it with people, hashing out ideas about objective beauty - does it exist? - and the purpose of art - and how do you define art, anyway?  Lots to think about.

Another Monday

While today was a good start to the week, it was also rather long; however, to counteract that, I discovered lattes!  So that helped move things along. :)  However, I fear that it is just one more step on the road to coffee...

I also had the Circle tonight, at Dr. Klein's.  (She is a numerary with Opus Dei; the Circles are meetings where she reads the Gospel, gives a little talk, and we generally enjoy each other's company :)).  Here's today's crowd (lots of Sisterhood girls tonight!):

And I'll admit it: when we came home, Whitney had made cupcakes, and I ate the leftover frosting -- first on apples, then just straight from the can. :P  I wish I was the kind of person who finds that disgusting... but I really don't; it was just amazing!  (I think I'm reacting to the fact that Lent starts soon with my own unintentional Mardi Gras.)

So now I'll go exercise. ;)  And fold my clothes, and do a little Calc...

Breakfast/500 Weekend

This was quite an enjoyable weekend, book-ended on one side by the Women's House Breakfast (well-attended and delicious!), and on the other by a fun game of 500 (see great first trick of one hand below).  In between those, I got to have cupcakes with Amanda and Morgan, sang with Lit Choir (first time of the semester), had a good talk with my family, a Schoenstatt meeting, and even got some homework done.  All in all, a fun, full weekend.  Now it's off to bed, to get ready to start another week!

Baking Friday

This has been one crazy week for me, and I didn't realize how drained I was until I came back to the house this afternoon and suddenly crashed.  So I spent an unproductive afternoon napping, recovering, grocery shopping, and baking; while one part of me is slightly panicked about the amount of work that I didn't get done, another part sees that that is exactly the break that I needed.  The Sisterhood is hosting our monthly Women's Breakfast tomorrow, and I got to help Lisa and Michaela make cupcakes (for breakfast!); tonight's have a strawberry filling with chocolate ganache frosting (basically wacky cake frosting), and tomorrow morning I'm going to fill the rest with the ganache and top them with peanut butter frosting.  I'm pretty excited about that; look for pictures tomorrow.  (I just can't get over the fact that we're going to have them for breakfast!)

Also, you may notice the nifty new page I created to display my new HTML skills -- check out the Valentine's-themed project of the latest class period, but remember that low expectations are the key to happiness! ;)  I'll try not to overload you with colored boxes, but, since that's pretty much all I can make at this point, I make no promises.

Head-Cook Night

So I guess there are a couple of ways in which that title could be taken; what I intended it to mean is that tonight I was the head cook for Sisterhood dinner.  Stephanie (my helper from the other house) and I made the pork/sweet potato/apple thing (pronounced delicious and dubbed "Pork Bake" by the sisterhood), along with a salad, bread, and cookies!  Okay, so we bought (i.e., Mama bought :) Thank you, Mama!) bread from the store - but overall I'm very proud of it all.

Here is what remains:

(But with Lent on the way, I don't think they will last very long...)

I also spent convo hour in studio class, making posters for our "Freak Piano Blowout", a "celebration of contemporary music for solo piano" -- i.e., a recital of our modern pieces.  Dr. Cornett pulled out her colorful paper, stickers, and markers, and let us have at it; the resulting posters are quite exciting!  Pics to come, as they are hung around campus.  (All are welcome to come -- Fri., Feb. 27, 7:00pm -- but be prepared for some, well, truth be told, strange new music...)

Feed My Starving Children

Most of my day consisted of classes and studying (finally doing enough Calc homework; playing Mozart sonatas as duets in Music History), and finished with a trip to FMSC with a small delegation from Lit Choir.  This was quite fun -- lots of elephant jokes, and many meals packed.  Then more Calc, and now time to sleep!

(11:13pm - better, Nathan? Not too early this time? ;))

Musical Tuesday

• First piano lesson of the semester
• ...and more music: an afternoon of Lit choir/piano practice
• Did I mention that I accompanied the girls in sectionals on Thurs?  Aaron was out of town, so Michaela - my neighbor - ran rehearsal (and did a great job). :)
• Lots of HTML colors -- while it's safest to pick one that you know is a good color, there's something exciting about typing in random numbers in hopes that the color will be amazing.
• Late-night Calc -- it's hard to fit it in earlier. :P

Just realized that there was no Latin or Music History on that list -- I'll see if I can read through the chapter once more tomorrow morning and do some more listening before the afternoon...

In other words, school is in full swing!

Hope Springs Eternal

Greetings, everyone!  I'm sorry that it's been a few days since I've last written; this semester is going to be busy and it's been a shock to my system.

That, and I'm trying to get Mathematica to run on my computer (different system ;)).  Without success overall, though I did have a great break-through just now, when I put my flash drive on Hannah's computer and got this wonderful message:

When I move it to my computer, of course, it doesn't run, though I went through a few of the files and changed the path to match my machine rather than hers...

Basically, I have this incredible hope when it comes to computers; if someone tells me that something can't be done, I won't really give up the idea until I've tried it for myself.  At least I've got tenacity and optimism in me somewhere!

I may have actually hit the end of this one, though, especially since I can actually run Mathematica in the cloud.  I'll put it aside for now, if not forever, and focus on the graded things in my life (okay, and the html that we started playing with in Comp Sci today - after all my command-line work, manipulating colorful output is so exciting! Davey and Nathan, I should send you some).

Here's a picture from my late-night Calc session last night -- not very artistic, but it's a good illustration of my typical setup (and even more so, since I was on the bed and needed extra books for balance).  Think it's time for me to get a charger that stays in on its own?

One last thing: I got an e-mail today saying that I have to declare my major by the end of the month...!  Part of me says to wait until the last moment so that I can have as much Comp Sci experience as possible and be totally sure.  And while I probably will do that, another part of my looks at this post, at this weekend*, and suspects that working with computers may be the right thing for me. ;)

*Disclaimer: I didn't just sit at my computer all weekend; I did homework and even had a Sisterhood retreat on Saturday afternoon!  A refreshing time to hang out with the other girls. :)  I also cantored for the new Saturday evening Mass (a harrowing experience -- you have no idea how much easier it is to sing from behind a piano).  So, while I was, in the back of my mind, always brewing some potential way to get Mathematica to work, it wasn't my focus continually. :)

Goodnight!

Programming Night

There were other things in this day, I think, but once I really got into trying to install Mathematica, the computing kind of took over...  I was able to do some math homework while waiting for the install, though, so that was good. :)  But I started talking to the computer (more than usual), so I think it's time for bed.  Goodnight!

Lest my life appear overly glamorous:

Here is what has to be one of the best page turns of all time:

(For those who are wondering, it's from the Alfred edition of Haydn's Sonata in B Minor, Hob. XVI/32, Mvt. III - Presto. :))

Hope you all have a good night!

First Days of Spring (Semester)

...and I'm back!  Classes started up again yesterday, and so far, it looks like they will be great, if a lot of work.

It's nice just to be walking around campus again.  I saw this winter flower today and had to take a picture:

How they are growing in this weather, I can't explain.

That was this morning, when we could pretend that it was almost spring, but by this afternoon, the snow had come in earnest.  It was so beautiful; I stopped and just listened and realized that I could hear the snow falling.

(And then I realized that I was standing outside in the cold, listening to snow, so I started walking again and resolved to give John Cage a little more slack. ;))

This picture does the scene no justice, but the contrast of Cretin's red brick against the snow was, oh! So pretty!

Now, time to decide whether to sleep or do homework...