Screen cap from WebZeroes

Yesterday, I defended my master’s. And yes, I passed.

Taking the weekend off and celebrating the end of the semester/my successful defense at Sake (酒 or さけ) Café tonight. Hooray for sushi!

Last Friday was my birthday and it was a pleasant one, so I thought since I haven’t posted in a while, this was a good enough topic. (Plus, this is my blog and I can post about wtf I want.)

There was a bit of a fiasco in the days leading up to my birthday, but luckily everything turned out okay in the end. I couldn’t decide if I wanted a birthday dinner with my fellow grad students or where I wanted it, so I dilly-dallied around and still had not made any plans. But then, the weekend before my birthday, one of the grad students made plans to host a special event and invited a bunch of people to it. And of course, the day he was hosting this event was none other than my own birthday. Not feeling it would be right to invite those same guests to celebrate my birthday on the same night, I felt as though the decision of whether or not to have a dinner or celebration was taken out of my hands — and naturally, as soon as I felt I no longer had that option, I wanted it. Of course, there were several people who had planned on celebrating my birthday with me that night even before the other grad student made plans, as well as people who the other grad student didn’t know (so obviously didn’t invite), and these people were able to make it to my birthday dinner.

I stayed up until midnight the night before my birthday, as usual, because I like to be awake to enjoy the first few minutes of my birthday. Plus I very much enjoy the competition between friends, cousins, and siblings to see who can say happy birthday to me first. Eventually I went to bed and got a few hours of sleep before heading to brown bag. It was a good talk. Laura made cupcakes for everyone and put sprinkles on mine, and it was very tasty. I also devoted several hours to my favorite game, Kingdom Hearts II. I was in the middle of a battle and couldn’t get to a save point when it was almost time for us to leave for dinner, so I almost declared that dinner would just have to wait. Fortunately, I kicked those Nobodies’ and Heartless’s little butts and made it to a save point so I could safely put away my game.

John and I met up with everyone at Momoyaki for dinner at 7:00. Delicious Japanese-Korean fusion and entertaining conversation ensued. This was followed by Cold Stone, where a single bite of my friend’s ice cream was rich enough to give me a tummy ache. Yet despite the tummy ache, I took a second bite. But it was worth it; it was really good coffee ice cream…

After arriving home I got to open my presents, which were awesome. I had asked John for The Nightmare Before Christmas DVD, but in addition to that, he also got me The Corpse Bride, Coraline, and Charlie and the Chocolate Factory. John’s mom also took me shopping for a birthday gift on Sunday. I must admit, the shopping itself kinda drained the life out of me, but I ended up getting a nice corduroy jacket and a really awesome pleather jacket which makes me look like a bamf (bad-ass mother… well, you can figure out the rest). I also got a nice corduroy jacket.

So, all in all it was a pleasant weekend. I played some much needed KHII, got to have dinner with my friends, spent a little time with the in-laws, got some really cool gifts, and just had a good time. Oh, and did I mention how cool the jacket was?

Happy Birthday to me!

image taken from flickr: http://www.flickr.com/photos/97968921@N00/672049353/

So this weekend was the SPSP conference. I actually enjoyed it quite a bit. I went to some good talks, looked at some posters, met some cool people. I wanted to have met more grad students, but all in all I think the conference went well. It’s hard to pick a favorite talk, but definitely near the top of the list was one on the behavioral immune system and what actions people take to avoid health threats, which of course went into cues of health threats, and so forth. Another talk that was really great was one on how we shouldn’t just look at positive versus negative affect, and how we should recognize the qualitative differences between emotions. Further, these discrete emotions should also have certain predictable affects on our mental processing.

I also went to a huge party afterwards for all the attendees of the conference. It was surprisingly fun. We didn’t arrive until nearly midnight, I think, because it took us so long to get dinner and change. But we stayed for a while and shockingly, I actually danced. And though I definitely didn’t dance well, there were times when I really got into it and just didn’t worry about what the people around me were thinking — they probably didn’t notice me anyway. And I do have to admit, my advisor tore up the dance floor. I figured he would get into it, I just didn’t expect to be so, well, impressed.

But I don’t have much time to write, as I have a test to study for and statistical analyses to run. Wish me luck (I’m going to need it).

Merry Christmas!

Happy Thanksgiving!

This year, I’m thankful for a lot of things like always. But there are some for which I am particularly thankful.

1. John.
2. My family.
3. That after 5 months of applications, John finally has a job.
4. Even though I miss home, I’m thankful to be here. This time a year ago, I wasn’t sure I’d make it into grad school, and I’m so glad to that I got into one of my top choices. And so glad that one day, I’ll be able to have a job that I love.
5. My new friends here.

Like last year, John and I didn’t have a traditional Thanksgiving dinner (though I think last year, if I remember correctly, I did visit a few houses who did). I love traditional Thanksgiving foods such as mashed potatoes, stuffing, and rolls, and I also love deli turkey and ground turkey. But I’m not a big fan of the traditional Thanksgiving turkey for some reason, unless it’s covered in gravy to an extraordinarly unhealthy extent.

Last year John and I made turkey burgers, zucchini fries, and pumpkin pie cheesecake. This year, we made turkey tacos with beans and steamed vegetables as side dishes. For dessert we got a cappuccino cheesecake from Publix. (Yes, I realize cheesecake is pretty bad for you too, but that one I don’t feel guilty enough about to avoid eating; I just have to work out more.) It all ended up better than I expected actually. So I’m thankful for that too.

Anyhow, I should get going now. Tomorrow morning I plan on making some more tamales (got to do something with that extra masa and beef), doing a load or so of laundry, finishing stats homework, go for a jog, and hopefully do some reading for one of my finals.