wanted: creative title makers

i'm currently trying to make my 2nd thesis title ("usability of textual and visual tools for computer network security engineers") into a compelling and witty title for my conference paper. any suggestions?

thesis, following the guidelines

let's see how well i've followed mr. cham's guideline's for the thesis title for my theses.

first up: feng shui of large displays : towards guidelines for positioning large displays in interactive workspaces

1) witty catch-phrase? check.
2) colon: check.
3) length-enhanced superlative verbiage with prolixity: no.
4) of/for/and: check.
5) obscure topic few people care about. check. (it's more b/c people can't afford multiple large displays more than anything)

4/5. that's not bad. :)

second up: usability of textual and visual tools for computer network security engineers

1) witty catch-phrase? no.
2) colon: no.
3) length-enhanced superlative verbiage with prolixity: no.
4) of/for/and: check.
5) obscure topic few people care about. check.

2/5. ow. not quite as successful with that second title. :P

while i'm on this grad school post. here are some guidelines for reviewing conference papers and addressing reviewers comments according to mr. cham as well. :) i added this b/c i'm trying to finish up a conference paper right now. :)

laughter is the best medicine

reflections about laughter:

last night, i got a call from one of my best friends. i could tell by her voice that she felt pretty down. after an hour of talking, she felt better, and she said it was nice to laugh together.

last month, when my friend who was facing depression visited, i was anxious of what we were going to do and how i should interact with her. when we actually hung out, we just laughed a lot and reminisced about old times. it was a really sweet time for both her and me. i miss hearing her laugh, and she said that she missed laughing so much. it didn't cure her depression, but it did help her relax a little bit and feel like her old self.

laughing with nat is one of the things that i actually love about our relationships. we use laughter as our barometer in our marriage. we know know when things aren't quite going right in our marriage by how much we've laughed recently.

i think it's such a blessing that God has blessed us with laughter. seeing Jesus laugh and smile in the "gospel of john" movie really changed and softened my view of God. it made me think how how our smiles and laughter might be one way we are created in His image! it's wonderful to think of God and Jesus smiling in heaven.

life as a housewife....

well, i'm about to embark on a new stage of my life. :) i just finished my thesis last week, and after this week (i'm trying to publish my thesis work in a conference paper), i'll be free from school! :) the only thing i'll have left is to teach, but i really love teaching and it's only 10 hours of week.

what will i do with the rest of my time? be a housewife. :) i have all these wonderful plans of cleaning, organizing, and decorating our house. cleaning and decorating isn't my forte, but hopefully i can do a semi-decent job. :) some of my other plans are going to be spent socializing. socializing more than i currently do? yup, that's right! crazy, i know. :) some of my current social plans are to invite someone over after church for lunch, have a young couples night at our house from our church, and continuing the open house tradition that we had last semester. whew. sounds like a lot. we'll see how many of these plans i actually implement! (ask me in a month!)

singing is not our gift. :)

nat and i had a wonderful time at our small group this past saturday. we just had one minor glitch. when preparing for small group, we had planned to use the songs that we had sung in church last week. i guess nat had assumed that i knew the tunes to a handful of the songs, and i had assumed that he knew the tunes to the songs (for some reason, we didn't read each other's minds! :P). well, when we got to the worship portion of small group, we found out that not only were we not that familiar with any of the songs, but our group wasn't either. we tried singing the first song, and most of us knew the tune to the song except for the chorus. so, we struggled through it, and we managed to finish the song, only with the help of some long pauses and laughter by everyone. :) then, one of our members asked "why didn't we pick songs that we knew how to sing?" good suggestion and duly noted! nat and i learned our lesson! :) hopefully we'll be more prepared for singing worship next week. :)

i'm a espn...

thanks to fruittart, i was finally able to take a meyer's briggs test online (see her post if you want to take it!).

actually, i'm not an espn, i'm an esfj according to the meyer briggs: extroverted, sensing, feeling, judging. believe it or not, my "strength" in preference is only 67% extroverted! :) but i'm 100% sensing. here are some links to my personality according to keirsey and butt.

i'm really only putting this up so that i remember what personality type i am. :) i always get confused with which letters i am, except for the 'e'. ;)

blanket battles begin!

ramona: 1 (see playful even in my sleep from yesterday) 2 (i won last night, 9/20)

nat 1: (he stole the covers last night, 9/19).

and so the war for the blankets begins continues!

english is not my first language

i am currently torturing my husband. i'm making him proofread my thesis before i meet with my academic advisor and advisor tomorrow. of the 77 pages of my thesis, nat has gone through 13 in the past hour. with all the mouse clicks and typing, i think i have a grammar mistake in almost every sentence. my poor husband. :P this is where i like to use the excuse that "english is not my first language", but it isn't even a good excuse since i was born and raised in the US.

it's a little disheartening to know that at the age of 27 that your writing skills stink and that you're making the same error over and over again. it's like i'm an old dog that can't learn new tricks (or in my case, proper grammar). i bet this post even has some grammar mistakes. :P
hehehe. please feel free to correct them. in fact, i leave it as an exercise to you, the reader.

playful, even in my sleep

nat informed me this morning that i stole the sheets in the middle of the night. apparently, i had managed to throw off the covers and then proceed to lay on all of them during the time nat had gotten up to go to the bathroom. :D he had a hard time prying the sheets away, but somehow he managed (which was good b/c it was a chilly night last night).

on another note, today is the first chilly day that we've had here. cool fall days always brings back memories of the falls in my elementary school days. i think that having an elementary school right across the street helps remind me of those "good ol' days".

personalizing my faith through personalizing my sin

in my mind, i knew that we couldn't just attribute our sin just to adam and eve sinning in the garden, as if it was soley their fault. as i read scripture today, i found affirmation in what i knew, and much more eloquently put: "adam's sin brought death, so death spread to everyone, for everyone sinned. yes, people sinned even before the law was given [by moses]. and though there was no law to break, since it had not yet been given, they all died anyway--even though they did not disobey an explicit commandment of God, as adam did" (romans 5:13-14a). so to summarize, using a paraphrase of what my pastor said sunday, even if we had found a way to cover adam's sin that he has passed down from generation to generation (which we haven't), we would have to find a way to cover our own sin (which we can't).

from this verse, i was able to personalize my own sin. it wasn't just that adam brought death, but it is also because i sinned, sin, and will continue to sin which brings about my own death. as i have personalized my own sin and recognize how much i've played a role in my own death, it helps me really appreciate the gift of life that Christ has extended to me, as an individual. "but because one other person [Jesus Christ] obeyed God, many people will be made right in God's sight...giving us right standing with God and resulting in eternal life through Jesus Christ our Lord" (romans 5:19b, 21b). hallejuah and amen to that! :)

fall is coming

this morning, i found myself as close to the middle of the bed as i could be, snuggled up next to nat. i'd like to say that we were being all romantic, but in reality i was cold. :)

we left the window open last night, and the night air was much colder than i expected. as we put on another blanket on our bed this morning, i realize that fall is coming to the midwest. cool weather, leaves changing, leaf raking, grass dying, jarlings closing. such a mix of emotions. :)

9/11

as we were driving home yesterday from working out, nat asked me if 9/11 had changed my life. it did, but not in the way that it affected most people. it was around that time God started changing my heart and opening my eyes to Him, even though i wasn't a Christian at the time. when 9/11 occurred, somehow i knew that God was in control and He was someone i could trust, even amidst this horrible tragedy. i was surprised that i felt that way because just a few months ago, i was the person asking "how could a good, loving God send someone to hell?" so for me, i think if 9/11 as a milestone i my spiritual walk--the start of my true belief and trust in God.

"it's coming today!"

if you've ever met me and nat, you know that i'm the most childish one, hands down, no contest. it's not that he's not playful, i think it's just that he's a bit more "mature" than i am. well, today, and this past week, nat wins the childishness award. :)

he ordered his new macbook about two weeks ago, and he's been tracking the shipping of the it more than i probably check my RSS feeds (and that's saying a lot!). yesterday he told me, "it shipped from china today!", and this morning i woke up to a kiss and a big grin, "it's in urbana already! i'll probably get it today!". as he left, he said, "watch out for a package from fedex! i'll probably come home early today to get it!" i know that he can barely contain his excitement. :) now i must say, seeing him so excited is very endearing. :) i hope that he's as excited about other things (like kids) as he is about his beloved macbook. :)

settlers of catan

my brother's friend was poking fun at us last time i saw him for liking settlers of catan. he said it was geeky hearing bits of pieces of the game--"i'll trade you X for a Y", "i have longest road", "i'll build a city".... i guess if you hear that and watch how intently people play the game it is kinda nerdy. the basic idea is that you have your own little settlements and you're trying to build as much stuff as you can by getting some resources. it's interesting to see how people get very serious when the game is played. i digress.

so back to my brother's friend. this past weekend, we introduced him and his girlfriend to the game. they loved it and took every opportunity for us to play it. they were even up one night from 1:30-7:30AM playing the game. i asked him if he still thought it was nerdy. "it's nerdy, but it's a fun game."

this morning, i found out nat's accountability group plays settlers, and they are trying to organize a game night with all the husbands and wives. :)

running in school mode

the past two weeks have been a blur. being a ta, trying to finish up my thesis, visiting my parents, preparing for small group, and planning to have people are just some of the things that have occupied our time. of course, there is still the normal things of cooking, cleaning (which nat does a great job at!), and other household chores. i think we're walking dangerously close to the line of overcommittment.

despite all the craziness, nat and i were able to take out some time yesterday to fast and pray about leading our small group (and for nat, preparing for a family as well). this is the first time we fasted together. in the morning, we went on a prayer walk and prayed for our old small group members and our new small group members. during lunch, i was really tempted to give up, but we sat down and prayed together. it's amazing how praying strengthens you, despite your hunger. i prayed much longer than i thought i could. for dinner, we read the Bible and prayed separately, but then spent some time talking about what we read and prayed for. then we closed in prayer, and i gave into my hunger and had a snack. ;P overall, it was a great time together with God and with each other. it's amazing how praying together makes you more intimate and close!

congratulations!

just wanted to say congratulations to george and lory for getting engaged this weekend! :) you're both one step closer to joining the "married club".