Dilemma of the week

My current quandry involves whether or not I should participate in graduation activities this weekend. On the 'no' side: Well, I already have my diploma. It costs like $60 to rent the required cap & gown get-up. Umm, I pretty much hate every faculty & staff member at this school by now and have zero desire to hear any of them speak, let alone have one of them presumably butcher the pronunciation of my name. On the 'yes' side: I have some good friends here that I will never see together in one place ever again probably and this would be a last opportunity for good-byes and pictures and all that. And that's about it, I guess.

You know how graduation ceremonies go... family is there and you really don't have a whole lot of time to spend with friends. It could very well make me feel even lonelier when the crowds part and I'm left there alone. I guess I do wonder if I would regret not participating if I choose not to... There is an in-between option that involves attending the ceremony and seeing my friends but not actually participating.

Whatever I decide, I have to basically do so by tomorrow at 5pm, I think, which is when they stop passing out the caps & gowns.

My weekend

I have done absolutely nothing today except bake some cookies, sleep and watch a few Lost episodes. I'm way behind on that show and decided to start watching all the eps from this season a few days ago. Umm, that's kind of a big mistake considering I still have a huge assignment due and that show is mega addictive. Anyway, today I didn't feel that well and haven't entirely had a day off in weeks so I felt I was due. Plus, it's not really a total day off since I'm finishing up all the assignments for my one class. Each student had to post on the class (677) blog seven times during the semester, picking out and critiquing a digitization project each time. I had one left to go and had put it off, put it off, put it off. But I finally just did it. That blog is kind of interesting and a good time waster if you are interested at all in seeing digitized collections of things from all over the world, although I would say the majority of them are from museums and universities. My recommendation, also, is to just click on the links and not read all the garbage that my classmates write on the blog. As has happened with all my classes this semester, students seem to not know when to shut up. My other online class (631) has had nearly 2,500 posts on its bulletin board. That's a lot.

Now I have to post the bulletin board for the 677 class one final time and then all I will have left to do is this one final project. The presentation part of it is due tomorrow but I really want to get the presentation and the paper parts done by Monday so I can start focusing on other things (like graduation and moving!). I already got the grade for my third class (676), which wrapped up on Monday.

In other news, I now supposedly have that interview this coming Tuesday. We'll see if the phone call comes this time. Also, go Cavs!

But the phone didn't ring...

I got a call last week for a job interview (woo hoo!) at this grad school in the Washington, DC, area and was supposed to have a phone interview today at 2pm. Well, by 4:30pm when the phone still hadn't rung, I decided it definitely wasn't going to happen and hightailed it out of my apartment to try to salvage the day and get some work done on campus. As it turns out, the call didn't come until about 6pm. The woman apologized but basically admitted that she had forgotten about me in the midst of "emergencies." So she wants to reschedule. And I will. BUT, it makes me even less eager to consider this position... and believe me, I already was regrettting sending my resume.

See, some of my fellow students and I have been talking about the 'just send your resume out to anything' tack vs. the 'only send your resume to the jobs you really, really want' tack. Jobs in our field, particularly entry-level ones, are hard to come by so if we really want to get a job, we really can't afford to be too selective. On the other hand, who wants to apply for a job that really doesn't sound the least bit like anything you would want to do, right? Anyway, there's really no solution, but this job that I was supposed to have the interview for, it was borderline the former category.

Enough words for a small dictionary...

I have a whole slew of words to post from April's word-a-day emails... not that I have ever referred back to any of the other ones I've posted. But you never know, one day I might want to use one of them.

USUFRUCT
n. : 1. the legal right of using and enjoying the fruits or profits of something belonging to another; 2. the right to use or enjoy something

SACERDOTAL
adj. : of or relating to priests or a priesthood: priestly

DILUVIAL
adj. : of, relating to, or brought about by a flood

PAROXYSM
n. : 1. a fit, attack or sudden increase or recurrence of symptoms: convulsion; 2. a sudden violent emotion or action: outburst

MUFTI
n. : civilian clothes

IMPUISSANT
adj. : weak, powerless

CHOUSE
v. : to cheat, trick