You gave me no warning of what was to be

[austin_dern]

The Service Centre finally got back to me with a projected date; as you might guess from the lyric, it's Monday. All I can say is, they better. They're getting dangerously close to my plane flight home for Christmas, and I am not going without a computer of my own to North America. They don't want me to go up there and be sarcastic.

Today I participated in a ridiculous little ritual the faculty calls grade moderation because just calling it scaling the grades would be too honest. In a bid to avoid grade inflation there are ``recommendations'' about not letting more than a certain percentage of the class get above a B+, or above a C+, or below a D. So we have to present to the rest of the department bar charts that we don't make showing we're close enough. Since we all know the moderated levels there's nothing which needs changing, but there's good gossip about upperclassmen and grad students to gather.

And finally arrived from my parents, the Mystery Science Theater 3000: The Essentials DVD (with Shorts Volume 3), packed with the game Space Colony, my old copy of the Franz Joseph Star Fleet Technical Manual, and two different Gemini model kits. Also bubble wrap. Plus I got invited to a potluck barbecue tomorrow. It's a good day.

Trivia: The Oxford English Dictionary first edition defined 13,478 main words which begin with the letter D. Source: The Meaning of Everything, Simon Winchester.

Currently Reading: The Punic Wars, Brian Caven.

Comments

[blither.livejournal.com]

What are you going to bring to the potluck? =)

[austin-dern.livejournal.com]

Haven't the faintest. Mind, I can't cook in my place, so I'm confined to either bringing ingredients or bringing prepackaged stuff. But in past potlucks everything I've brought has been ignored. I'm tempted to just give up, bring soda and butter cookies, and not worry about having anything to do besides talk.

[blither.livejournal.com]

Why can't you cook in your place? Is this something we've discussed before, it seems vaguely familiar. You don't even have a microwave?

Yes, drinks and something desserty sounds a very good idea, in this case. I hope you have fun!

[austin-dern.livejournal.com]

I never got a microwave oven, and they refused to turn on the stove or oven. So all I have is the little toaster oven, and while that's up to the challenge of heating Pop Tarts, it's challenged by tasks like a pizza-for-one.

That reminds me, I have to clean it sometime soon again.

[blither.livejournal.com]

They refused to turn on the oven? Heavens...I'm sure there is a story behind this.

[austin-dern.livejournal.com]

Oddly, there isn't. When I was getting my apartment set up, they just refused to turn gas on. Electric and water they said sure to; gas, no. I couldn't get it explained then, either.

[porsupah.livejournal.com]

they refused to turn on the stove or oven

*blink* *blink* Is there something you've not been telling us? Are you now compelled to use plastic scissors too? ^_^

[austin-dern.livejournal.com]

As near as I can figure, they don't bother running gas to my apartment building, apparently for there being too little demand for it to make maintaining the gas pipes worthwhile. Well, you've seen the city; everybody eats out a lot. Kitchens are almost afterthoughts as it is.

[xolo.livejournal.com]

Gemini models?

[austin-dern.livejournal.com]

Old ones, mind you -- the 1/24 Revell Gemini kit and the 1/48 Mercury-Gemini kit which were reissued a couple of years ago; they'd been sitting around in storage a long while. I mentioned to my parents the urge to build some kit, and asked them to just take anything out and send it to me, and that's what they picked.