stress and kickers

coming back to school has made me stressed. i had a dream last night about being rushed to finish my project that's due next monday. le sigh. i think that i need to just get my user study for my thesis done instead of just stalling and trying to get it perfect. (an example of where i was being a wuss).

on a different note, what's happened to the kickers in football (both college and NFL). i watched the NY Giants kicker miss 3 field goals that could have won the game. poor kicker. i've also seen kickers (more in college) miss extra points! on the one hand, it's not always completely the kicker's fault for losing, but rather poor play by a team, but on the other hand, missing extra points to me is silly. just my thoughts though. i guess in general i feel sorry for kickers (like the NY Giants one) that will probably get an earful b/c they're more in the spotlight, rather than looking at what could have been done by the team.

post thanksgiving

inspired to post by my friend tony (well actually he told me to post more), i'll give an update about thanksgiving.

my thanksgiving was pretty good. i didn't miss my family as much as i thought that i might, though i did think of my brother when i was skiing and how much fun it would have been if he was there. but basically this is what a typical day looked like during the week of thanksgiving (and yes, UIUC does give students a week off for thanksgiving):

1) wake up
2) wrestle with nat/play tickle games
3) eat breakfast
4) get ready for skiing
5) ski (@ breckenridge)
6) come home and eat
7) watch sports (mostly football)
8) hang out/work/play games
9) dinner
10) play games/watch movie

so that kept me busy. it wasn't until i called my parents on thanksgiving that i missed them, and after coming back that i missed them too.

it was nice to hang out with my new family. i'm still learning the ropes of hanging out with them. :) you know, what's expected, how much should i help, what comments are appropriate, the tone of the conversation, etc. i guess it's just normal, since i didn't grow up with them. but this is good, it helps me to think more about nat when he's at home with my family, and how i may be able to help him feel more comfortable at home with me. :)

anyways, skiing was great. i noticed that i'm a real scaredy cat. last time i went, i fell on this harder green, so i wanted to tackle it again. unfortunately, that part of copper was closed. so off to breck we went, and i tried to ski a harder green there. man, when i was on the lift to the new area, i got scared, and then when i got on the hill, i lost all confidence. i felt like i didn't know how to ski or turn or control myself, though i had been doing it the last day. so i just ended up side stepping down the hill, and feeling like a wuss for not going down (and getting some flashbacks of last year). so i'm not sure if it's the unfamiliar territory, fear of falling and contorting my body, fear of falling and running into things, or what, but i think that makes it harder for me to actually push myself. i think it says something about me in regards to life, not just skiing. i prefer comfort and safety, so i opt for that then adventure or something where i can get hurt or fail at. interesting. i shall ponder about that more.

alas, 2 weeks more of school left. and the freaking out has begun. my thesis research is not very exciting for me (since it's not exactly what i wanted to do, but hey, i'm getting paid to do it anyway, and sometimes you gotta do things you don't like). the more i do it, the more i think "hey, i don't understand what network security guys do, and my experiment is going to have no validity because it's not real". i'm finding (from about a week ago), that i have a really specific look at what network security engineers do, and that it might not be general (in fact, i'm pretty sure) to what they do. this is the real reason that i'm kinda scared, b/c i've got a very narrow population that i have access to, and they do things differently. sigh. i need to discuss this with my boss.

alrighty, it's getting close to bedtime. i hope that this suffices for you (tony) for now.

music in my head: David Crowder Band, No One Like You (real player snippet | windows media snippet)

splitting the holidays

well, as the holidays draw nearer, i realize that this will be the first time that i haven't spent thanksgiving at home. it really hit, when i realized that i'd be flying to colorado next saturday (UIUC gives a week off for thanksgiving) to spend time with nat's parents.

i think it'll be a definite challenge. already, i'm wondering what kinds of food my mom and aunt will be cooking, and who's going to be there. and i'm a little bit sad that i won't be able to see my brother too.

alas, it's all apart of being hitched. :P i'm still very grateful and thankful that each of our families are really close. :) and i'm excited to go skiing and having an American thanksgiving dinner. :)

where to eat in champaign-urbana?

i was looking for a number/website for Ko-fusion, and i found this post on a message board of where to eat in champaign-urbana. i hadn't heard of some the restaurants, so i think it's a good resource (it has addresses, numbers, and websites) for those of us who are just tired of eating at the same places here in champaign-urbana. :)

halloween and barcelona

we didn't get my trick-o-treaters this halloween, mostly due to the fact that it was raining outside. i felt kinda bad that most kids weren't able to come out. we managed to get rid most of our twix though. :)

on a different note, nat got his paper into infocom 2006, which is in barcelona (in april next year)! congrats on your first publication. it's not too shabby of one!