Shouldn't you have said what you meant.

I need to start journaling again. some of it will be on paper for me, and some will be on here. my head just keeps feeling like it's going to blow up these days.

lots of stuff going on. not all of it is stuff I feel like talking about on here. I'm still around though. since I have no super sharey info, I thought I'd share the new imogen heap album. I like her.




canvas, 2-1, and half life are my faves. just thought I'd share.

all in a night's work. the stitching is kinda sloppy, but you know what. I still really like it!

I passed my french exams! yeah! so you'll recall that I had two exams while I was in london. as I wasn't sure what level to test for I took the two tests that seemed like I would be one or the other. there are six total levels, and I passed levels four and five. now, if I feel like it I can try for the highest proficiency level.

doesn't really matter about the easier one since the harder exam trumps it in terms of credentials. so let's talk about the harder one! I now have my DALF C1 certification which means I:

"Can understand a wide range of demanding, longer texts, and recognise implicit meaning. Can express him/herself fluently and spontaneously without much obvious searching for expressions. Can use language flexibly and effectively for social, academic and professional purposes. Can produce clear, well-structured, detailed text on complex subjects, showing controlled use of organisational patterns, connectors and cohesive devices."


The standards are set by the Common European Framework of References for Languages which basically means that it's the EU standard for evaluating my proficiency. It also means that if I ever wanted to do an advanced degree in France, I could be admitted without any further test of my language skills. I mostly just wanted it for professional credibility. so now I have it. I'm thinking of studying some more and trying for the highest level in a year. in the mean time, I'm just happy to have these two under my belt! yay!

Happy Birthday  sassykittyboo!!!
Hope that you had a good birthday cousin whitney! :)

1 - Go to Wikipedia. Hit “random”.
or click en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Special:Random
The first random Wikipedia article you get is the name of your band.

2 - Go to Quotations Page and select "random quotations"
or click www.quotationspage.com/random.php3
The last four or five words of the very last quote on the page is the title of your first album.

3 - Go to Flickr and click on “explore the last seven days”
or click www.flickr.com/explore/interesting/7days
Third picture, no matter what it is, will be your album cover.

4 - Use Photoshop or similar to put it all together.

london (and paris) in march! tickets bought!

I think I would like to learn how to play the piano. I already read music...  why not?

I like how my life crises are punctuated with the acquisition of new hobbies and large amounts of vodka.

Remember when I made a list last year of things to do this year? I figure I should let you know how that all worked out.

01. Write an academic paper outside of my work responsibilities that can be presented at a conference in my field.
02. Submit at least one paper to a conference.
03. Get at least one paper accepted for presentation at a conference.
04. Start brushing up on all my languages.
05. Play my flute in a concert setting again.
06. Go to at least two new places a month in Nashville.
07. Get a job offer that is more closely related to where I want to be in five years -- Working on this one
08. Work out at least five times a week. I did this some weeks
09. Lose the weight I wanna lose and maintain/gain lean muscle. Ugh. No.
10. Limit my drinking to once or twice a week again.
11. Drop a pant size-- AT LEAST.
12. Be able to do at least 15 military style pushups.
13. Be able to do at least 1 one-armed pushups.
14. Grow my hair out long. Working on it....
15. Travel out of the country. Doing it this march. I was traveling too many other places last year.
16. Learn what I expect of people. I'm trying...
17. Demand what I expect of people without compromising myself.
18. Read at least a book a month for leisure.
19. Remember at least one thing a day that I am thankful for.
20. Go camping.
21. Take at least three road trips for the hell of it.
22. Paint a new painting.
23. Figure out some of the baggage that I've been carrying around in my head and lose it. I figured out some... still working on it.
24. Figure out what the hell I really look like because I have no idea.
25. Start taking better care of myself.
26. Stop looking frumpy unless I'm sick.
27. Start dressing like a grown up for work.
28. Actively seek out new friends
29. Remove negative acquaintances from my life.
30. Keep better track of my finances.
31. Pay off as much debt (school debts or otherwise) as I can.
32. Actively seek out happiness
33. Learn to be my own best advocate
34. Stop letting other people dictate how I feel about myself.
35. Visit as many out of state friends as I can afford to
36. Travel to a state that I've never been to.
37. Take more steps to make my home feel like a Home.
38. Meditate more.
39. Pamper myself at least once a month, and take at least one guilt-free nap per week.
40. Entertain more in my home.
41. Have brunch with friends more.
42. Do kind things for people that they don't expect.
43. Create at least a two year plan for my career advancement
44. Stand up for myself more.
45. Stop allowing bullshit behavior from people I know to upset me.
46. Start saving enough money that I can pay back money that I've borrowed from my parents in the past few years (this doesn't count as debt cause they told me I didn't HAVE to pay it back. I want to though.)
47. Plant a vegetable garden.
48. Try one new wine per month.
49. Volunteer at at least one HIV/AIDS event in Nashville.
50. Learn to be gracious and accept the help of others when I need it and sometimes even when I don't.

So fitness and self-esteem and reading more is something that I really need to do. I'm really kinda sad that I didn't get further on those goals. In fact I kinda feel like I let myself down but some of that stuff is so ingrained in my brain that it's going to take a lot of work to get it right. With the things that I didn't accomplish, I know that I'm TRYING. I'm glad I'm trying to be better to myself and for myself. I haven't come up with a big list for this year. I guess what I didn't do last year carries over... I have some big goals right now that are more sizeable than they are numerous. so that's how it ended up. we'll see...

- pick your birth month (see the list at the end of post).
- strike out anything that doesn't apply to you.
- bold (or italicize) the five-ten that best apply to you. (i'm bolding everything that best applies things that are true enough are left and things that are either not true or that I don't think I've mastered are stricken)
- copy to your own journal, with all twelve months under a lj-cut.

( I'm August, what are you? )

The Life Experience Test

Overall, you have partaken in 97 out of 169 possible life experiences. Your average life experience score is therefore 57%. The average score is 51%, making your experiences more than 66% of the people who have taken this test. The average for your age group (26-35) is 53%. Broken down by category: Art: 9/17 (53%) Career & Work: 6/13 (46%) Civics & Technology: 5/7 (71%) Crime & Disarray: 5/11 (45%) Education: 16/18 (89%) Fashion: 6/10 (60%) Fitness, Health and Sports: 4/7 (57%) Life in General: 6/14 (43%) Relationships: 7/14 (50%) Religion & Politics: 2/4 (50%) Social: 18/22 (82%) Travel: 9/20 (45%) Vices: 4/12 (33%)

Take the test and see how YOU compare

Your result for What Your Taste in Art Says About You Test...

Simple, Progressive, and Sensual

6 Ukiyo-e, 4 Islamic, -16 Impressionist, -3 Cubist, 3 Abstract and -6 Renaissance!

Take What Your Taste in Art Says About You Test at HelloQuizzy

as per usual, the time off for a holiday resulted in my catching a bad head cold. I feel much better today than yesterday, so hopefully tomorrow I will feel like I can breathe out of my nose. I just took a bunch of nyquil and can feel the effects already.

as for thanksgiving:
I am thankful for my friends
I am thankful for good conversation
I am thankful for the people who I miss the most
I am thankful for my family
I am thankful that I still somehow believe that life works itself out

so I decided a while back that I want to go to London in the spring. Then, once I saw what the exchange rate is doing, I mostly decided that I NEED to go. So yes. london in march. another thing that makes this pretty much the best idea ever is the fact that I am finally going to sit for either the DELF or DALF (kinda like the TOEFL for english language, but for french). There aren't many places in the US to do this exam, but I can do it in london, and it's the same week I planned to be there, so one of the days I'm there I will be doing a 5 hour comprehensive test so that I can finally have a standardized ranking for my french proficiency. two birds, one stone!  the daunting part of it is that it's not one test that every one takes and places somewhere on the spectrum. you have to pick what level test you want to take. if it's too easy for you then, yeah you passed, but you'll end up taking another test to get the next rank. if you fail, then you've got no official credential. right now I'm trying to decide between two levels. The higher of the two levels says you should have had about 1000 hours of instruction in french. I had more than that many by the end of high school. THEN add on my major and the whole living in france bit and I should not be questioning this, but I just don't want to fail since I'm going all the way to london to do this.

you francophones, do any of you have any good podcasts that you listen to in french or other language resources that you'd recommend so that I can start retraining my ear? I really should have done this when I lived in france, but I didn't. better late than never!

A is Age: 27
B is Blue Moon, and it's summer ale friend Honey Moon
C is career: Education policy researcher
D is dog's name: bandit
E is essential item you use every day: deodorant
F is favorite tv show: gossip girl!
G is favorite game: Cranium
H is hometown: Oak Ridge
I is instrument you play: Flute
J is for favorite juice: Grape
K is for whose butt you'd like to kick: quite a few people at the mo
L is last place you ate at: sofa
M is for marriage: I better!
N is for middle name: Jane
O is for overnight hospital stay: Never
P is people I was with today: sister, work people, people at whole foods
Q is quote: I dont just have quotes in my brain
R is biggest regret: not standing up for myself more
S is sex: female
T is for time woke up today: 6:55
U is underwear you have on right now: black like always
V is for vegetable you like: spinach.
W is for worst habit: alcohol... but it's also a fun one!
X is x-rays: lungs when I went to france, teeth when I go to the dentist
Y is something yummy you ate today: sauteed greens
Z is zodiac sign: virgo!

I tend to be fairly well-versed in the art of entertaining myself with eccentric stuff that makes absolutely no damn sense at all. when the boredom reaches a certain point, I dive face first into full blown eccentricity. so last year, Dell unexpectedly gave me an mp3 player for free. It's nice for the long walks that I take back and forth across campus and environs, but I usually also use that walking time to wonder about stuff that's going on in my life. so I made up a game. my game is basically I ask my mp3 player a question shuffle the songs and see what song comes up as the answer. usually a song will have a meaning to me or the title can be made to make sense as an answer. it's more interesting than a magic 8 ball and much less conspicuous. the last thing I need is to be the weird girl wandering around with a magic 8 ball. now I know that this whole concept is nuts, but that's kinda the part of it that makes me love me! anyway, back to the story. so yesterday I was thinking about how like... seriously everyone I know is in a majorly funky mood, and how it's been impossible to pull any of my friends out of their houses ever since it got cold and miserable. so I asked my mp3 player, "hey. what's up with all my friends being holed up in their houses and not wanting to hang out with me and basically incommunicado. why isn't anyone talkin' to me!?"

answer: nina simone - the thrill is gone

WTF! cold-ass answer from an electronic device. to top it off, that song has NO lyrics so it's kinda just a blunt answer. then I asked it if this thrill being gone is a permanent state of affairs. answer: the roots- break you off! much better answer mp3 player! much better! you'd be surprised how addicting this game gets, and I bet that next time a lot of you are wandering around with your ipods or whatever, you'll be tempted just to ask and see.


completely aside from this, I got an email out of the blue the other day that's put some options on the table that I think may force me to consider how much I like to gamble with what I want for my future. it's always strange when you're thinking about someone and then *poof* they reappear with something to say. this is reaaaaaaaally vague because I don't want to get into it (especially in an open entry) before I do some real thinking. maybe I'll ask my mp3 player...


Edited to Add: ok so obviously I immediately asked my most pressing question, and that machine's answer was H. by tool.... that tricky little devil. but I suppose that in a sense it really does answer some of the questions that were stuffed into my question like part of a turducken. I'm tellin' y'all. it's way less crazy seeming when it gives you legit answers to consider-- or I really just need to get out more.

If you saw ME in a police car, what would you think I got arrested for? Answer me, then post to your own journal and see how many crimes you get accused of.

Your result for Howard Gardner's Eight Types of Intelligence Test...

Naturalistic

41% Logical, 37% Spatial, 25% Linguistic, 41% Intrapersonal, 6% Interpersonal, 37% Musical, 4% Bodily-Kinesthetic and 51% Naturalistic!

Take Howard Gardner's Eight Types of Intelligence Test at HelloQuizzy

I love my parents.

I could explain, but I think that's all I have to say.

+ got my new dance costume. it's gorgeous, and I'll probably post pictures tomorrow if I decide not to be lazy and can take pictures of it that look nice.

+ got a pair of uggs, and I don't give a damn what anyone thinks of them because they're warm and I'm not even trying to be stylish. I'm trying to have warm feet!

+ went out to dinner and drinks! new people. nice time.

+ felt pretty good about me in general which is a trend I like and intend to propagate.