First Day Accomplished!
Sep. 3rd, 2014 09:07 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
stormdogSchool was smooth today. I biked there and back together with my brother T, which was a nice way to spend a little time together, even if it nearly doubled my commute time. We left early and had a nice ride.
The folks at the archives complimented me on the chocolate chip cookies I made as much as everyone else who's tried them has. Several people have told me they were better than cookies made by bakers with much more experience. Beginner's luck I suppose, but they seem to actually be really good!
My brother and I went to an opening reception for a display in the campus library about the Freedom Summer of 1964. I didn't realize it until we got settled in to watch the presenter (Dr. Schmitt, who I've had a few classes with) speak, but there was a large group of children from a nearby Montessori school who'd been driven in to attend. Dr. Schmitt changed his talk around a bit for them, but I enjoyed hearing it anyway. He and I talked a bit after the event; he asked me how the grad school search is coming and offered to write me recommendations, saying that the school that gets me will be lucky to have me. I was really honored! I'm also happy that I can expect to have letters from several different departments within the school; anthropology, history, and perhaps geography. I think that will make a difference for me.
So T and I, having already nibbled on cheese, crackers, and brownies at the reception, then went down to the student center for the first-day ice cream social. I made myself a sundae with plenty of chocolate topping, sprinkles, and M&Ms, then ended up chatting with a couple people I know from semesters past.
My first class was an hour and a half of lecture, and the rest of the time was spent doing an introductory GIS lab as a refresher. As it happened, it was a lab that I'd already found on the internet as a GIS tutorial when I was working on my map project last Spring, so it was pretty familiar! It doesn't hurt to do it again though; I do need a refresher. I also think I'm going to chat with the professor during his office hours and see if he thinks all the work I've done over the summer with Google Earthy overlays for Pike Creek could be part of my term project. I'm not sure though; he's concentrating on vector data this class, and almost all of my work is with raster images.
T and I got home around 6 o' clock. I scarfed some leftover pizza and drove out to get my advisor's dog, Bo. I picked him up and got him safely to his house. However, he's pretty scared of me. I wanted to let him run around in the back yard for a while, so I took his leash off of him. I spent a while tossing a squeaky toy from him and running back and forth with him, which he seemed to enjoy. When it was time to get him back on his leash to go inside though, I couldn't get close enough to him to put it on.
After spending some time unsuccessfully trying to cajole him over, I went in to get his food and some treats. He was interested, but still wouldn't come near enough. I even tried tossing a few of those little disc-shaped treats on the ground in front of me to lure him in. He'd get closer, but then back off as soon as I moved, tail tucked firmly between his legs.
Finally I had to kind of corner him against a fence. I proceeded very slowly and carefully from there since scared dogs are much more likely to be aggressive, especially with nowhere to go. But taking it slowly, I got him to be calm enough that he reached a paw up to touch my extended hand. I waited in that position for a while, then moved in and grabbed his collar. He was generally ok after that; a little resigned maybe.
He ate very little outside, and nothing inside, nor did he drink any water. He was quite happy to go into his crate though. I think next time I'll leave him on the leash! Hopefully he'll get used to me and calm down and be less afraid after a few times.
One of my two classes tomorrow is not happening due to illness, so I don't need to be at school until 9:30 and then I leave at 11 o' clock. I can live with that schedule! I'll probably stay a little bit later and finish up the lab I'm working on in ArcGIS. I'm also going to start looking into GRE prep and see about reserving a spot for a future test before they all fill up.
And this weekend, as well as a day of photography with![[livejournal.com profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/external/lj-userinfo.gif)
posicat and folks on Sunday, I'm also going to a recurring informal dinner meeting (a 'munch' to use the language of the community) in Racine for the first time with a local group of kinky folks. I've decided that I'd really like to get to know a more local community of geeky, kinky, interesting folks, as well as become more involved in the kink community in general, and that's my first step.
The folks at the archives complimented me on the chocolate chip cookies I made as much as everyone else who's tried them has. Several people have told me they were better than cookies made by bakers with much more experience. Beginner's luck I suppose, but they seem to actually be really good!
My brother and I went to an opening reception for a display in the campus library about the Freedom Summer of 1964. I didn't realize it until we got settled in to watch the presenter (Dr. Schmitt, who I've had a few classes with) speak, but there was a large group of children from a nearby Montessori school who'd been driven in to attend. Dr. Schmitt changed his talk around a bit for them, but I enjoyed hearing it anyway. He and I talked a bit after the event; he asked me how the grad school search is coming and offered to write me recommendations, saying that the school that gets me will be lucky to have me. I was really honored! I'm also happy that I can expect to have letters from several different departments within the school; anthropology, history, and perhaps geography. I think that will make a difference for me.
So T and I, having already nibbled on cheese, crackers, and brownies at the reception, then went down to the student center for the first-day ice cream social. I made myself a sundae with plenty of chocolate topping, sprinkles, and M&Ms, then ended up chatting with a couple people I know from semesters past.
My first class was an hour and a half of lecture, and the rest of the time was spent doing an introductory GIS lab as a refresher. As it happened, it was a lab that I'd already found on the internet as a GIS tutorial when I was working on my map project last Spring, so it was pretty familiar! It doesn't hurt to do it again though; I do need a refresher. I also think I'm going to chat with the professor during his office hours and see if he thinks all the work I've done over the summer with Google Earthy overlays for Pike Creek could be part of my term project. I'm not sure though; he's concentrating on vector data this class, and almost all of my work is with raster images.
T and I got home around 6 o' clock. I scarfed some leftover pizza and drove out to get my advisor's dog, Bo. I picked him up and got him safely to his house. However, he's pretty scared of me. I wanted to let him run around in the back yard for a while, so I took his leash off of him. I spent a while tossing a squeaky toy from him and running back and forth with him, which he seemed to enjoy. When it was time to get him back on his leash to go inside though, I couldn't get close enough to him to put it on.
After spending some time unsuccessfully trying to cajole him over, I went in to get his food and some treats. He was interested, but still wouldn't come near enough. I even tried tossing a few of those little disc-shaped treats on the ground in front of me to lure him in. He'd get closer, but then back off as soon as I moved, tail tucked firmly between his legs.
Finally I had to kind of corner him against a fence. I proceeded very slowly and carefully from there since scared dogs are much more likely to be aggressive, especially with nowhere to go. But taking it slowly, I got him to be calm enough that he reached a paw up to touch my extended hand. I waited in that position for a while, then moved in and grabbed his collar. He was generally ok after that; a little resigned maybe.
He ate very little outside, and nothing inside, nor did he drink any water. He was quite happy to go into his crate though. I think next time I'll leave him on the leash! Hopefully he'll get used to me and calm down and be less afraid after a few times.
One of my two classes tomorrow is not happening due to illness, so I don't need to be at school until 9:30 and then I leave at 11 o' clock. I can live with that schedule! I'll probably stay a little bit later and finish up the lab I'm working on in ArcGIS. I'm also going to start looking into GRE prep and see about reserving a spot for a future test before they all fill up.
And this weekend, as well as a day of photography with
posicat and folks on Sunday, I'm also going to a recurring informal dinner meeting (a 'munch' to use the language of the community) in Racine for the first time with a local group of kinky folks. I've decided that I'd really like to get to know a more local community of geeky, kinky, interesting folks, as well as become more involved in the kink community in general, and that's my first step.
