So, without further ado please change your links to: http://g0ldeninthesky.blogspot.com.

It’s been fun wordpress!

(P.S. Within the month this blog will be shut down permanently.)

I mean seriously, I was a nerd. Do you remember TechTV? No, you probably wouldn’t. But it is the birthplace of that other cable channel G4 that you also haven’t heard of (actually it’s a long history of the evolution of TechTV but for the sake of simplicity and time we’ll just jump to G4 its current incarnation). The birthplace of internet stars like Kevin Rose or Sarah Lane who I used to worship at the altar of before all their shows got cancelled and they were banished to the internet to find fame and fortune.

But, what this is all getting at is that because I love technology and web design in particular seriously any campaign that utilizes the internet to its full ability really gets me going. I mean I can seriously appreciate people who understand that a sound web presence will get you anywhere now that a majority of the time people are looking at their computers (and I’m no longer the weird kid who’d rather be online than at school).

Anyway, I’m randomly internet surfing (I don’t know even know if that is still a term) when I stumble across this movie review site that I’m pretty fond of. I get kind of lost in their film reviews for a couple of hour before I stumble upon Catfish, which is a film I saw earlier this year that is a documentary based on this totally weird experience that this New York City photographer Nev Schulman has with this family who lives in some small town in Michigan. I can’t really say much else about the movie without completely ruining it, but it’s enough to say that you should definitely go see it, but keep an open mind and don’t be surprised if you’re completely freaked out by what you see.

But this isn’t a movie review. To continue the story, I go on the Catfish website (www.iamrogue.com/catfish) and if you’ve seen the movie or even the previews you kind of understand how important and central Nev’s computer is to the progression of events in the movie so it makes complete sense that the UI (that geek shorthand for user interface) of the website would  be his desktop computer. So you arrive at the website, you skip (or watch) the obligatory trailer then you click on “Enter Nev’s World.” Instantly your computer is transformed into a macintosh desktop that is fully interactive. I mean click on email buttons, IM windows, emails and attachments, even the dock magnifies like it would on a real Apple computer. And since I’m using a Mac myself I was wholly impressed with how much detail they put into this website!

What you first see once you click "Enter Nev's World"

Nev's Desktop

Like I said, call me a nerd. I’ll whole heartedly take the name and wear it proudly. But, man I can appreciate a good viral campaign, a well designed website, or even a pretty good youtube commercial. It’s the little things that make me really love a movie even more, the things they didn’t have to do but they did nonetheless. It makes me that much more excited to have seen the movie because now I understand.

Anyway, go see the website (www.iamrogue.com/catfish) even if you don’t check out the film!

The Mysterious Benedict Society by Trenton Lee Stewart

My rating: 4 of 5 stars

I thought it was a really great book. I originally even thought of reading it because one review I came across said that this might have been the next A Series of Unfortunate Events and I thoroughly enjoyed that series. I’m a fan of authors who take kids seriously than their elders usually do. I was one of those children who knew more than they should and read more than they ought to. It was the reason why I read Stephen King and VC Andrews in grade school, because the children’s book authors didn’t take kids seriously.

Here I am, years later, reading children’s books that finally realize that kids are smarter than we think. The Mysterious Benedict Society is a smart book that is clever enough to keep you entertained but simple enough as to not scare off the reader. I think it gets this balance better than Lemony Snicket (or Daniel Handler) did, because sometimes during the Baudelaire twin’s books I wanted to put it down because the formula was getting to be a bit much.

But yes, there are elements there that are very much the same. Genius children orphaned away and then called in to save the day. But, instead of Stewart dragging it out like Snicket did we instead see a book that could very well be a standalone. I’m satisfied with this book even though I know there are 2 more in the series (and indeed, I did buy all three books). It was a really fun, enjoyable read that I find if it’s interesting enough to keep my attention it will definitely keep the attention of many children. Good job Stewart, I’m sure Snicket (Handler) would be proud to have his book compared to yours.

View all my reviews

So, its December! Happy Holidays! December is actually my favorite month. Not only because I was born (which is an awesome event in itself) but there’s christmas and family and all around good cheer. This is my first christmas where I will actually see snow, but it is also the first christmas where I won’t be with my family. It’s the toss up of that big city dream, sometimes I don’t have enough money to get down to see the people that matter.

Way too much snow in Chicago!

But there are bright spots! One of my best friends came to visit me towards the beginning of the break, she had to leave early to do sickness (Chicago + Floridians = a bad combination apparently =/) but while she was here I had a lot of fun. I’ve also visited a ton of museums here and done some other touristy things. Seeing my first snow fall was fantastic. I ran out like a little kid and played with the snow and took many pictures.

So, what will I be doing this break? Reading (Currently: The Girl Who Played With Fire), playing The Sims, walking around Chicago like a tourist, and partying hard. I think I deserve it, I  got all A’s this semester !

But I digress.

What I do, which I just noticed I haven’t really explained yet, is I start to find things to distract myself. Two essays and a presentation to do that week? No worries, I’ll just go and download the latest computer game craze and work on that all week instead. An advisor appointment and class registration around the corner? Well, there’s that new movie out that sounds absolutely fantastic, that new movie star is in it you know! It’s subconscious procrastination.

I have this belief that people who procrastinate know that they work better in that setting. If procrastinating didn’t somehow create positive results there is no reason that any successful person would keep on using that method of approaching assignments or the like. The looming deadline gives them a purpose in life. It drives them to complete their goals. I, on the other hand, do not start playing games with the intent to procrastinate. It’s like I get this assignment and my mind puts a block on it in order to keep me content and happy in my little computer generated world. I don’t even realize I have an assignment until my phone goes off (luckily I have enough foresight to put reminders on my phone of all my assignments) and reminds me that I have an assignment due within in the next couple of days.

I really don’t even know what I was trying to say in this post. In all honesty, it was probably another attempt at pushing off the work I have due this Wednesday & Thursday.

Huzzah! Happy November!

NaNoWriMo Word Count — 10, 981 (and boy does it need to be higher =/)

Related Articles

• The Two Types of Procrastination (thesimpledollar.com)

For those of you not well versed in the competition, NaNoWriMo short for National Novel Writing Month is 30 day competition set in the month of November where writing enthusiasts try to complete a 50,000 word novel. Now, I’m not a newbie to the NaNoWriMo scene. I completed it back in high school in ’05 and again in ’06. The first year it was a psychological thriller and the next year it was a coming of age novel.

The difference now, obviously, is that graduate school takes up a lot of your time. And when I’m not reading, or writing an essay, or working on a presentation, or driving to Wilmette to look at temples (long story, trust me) I am sleeping. Sleep is a beautiful thing these days, I don’t think I get enough of it to tell you the truth. But, I love to write and the three-year sabbatical (there was a failed attempt in ’07) from regular writing has had me feeling a little creatively stunted.

So, I’m hoping that for the next month I’ll reignite that passion for putting words to paper (more like computer screen) and it won’t drive me crazier than I already am.

I think I can do it

Everyone’s dreaded word in the world of academia. That, and maybe dissertation. Since I’m a new graduate student and dissertation is in the distant future (ahem, not so much it’s coming like Summer) I’m going to focus on the crappy time of my life that is midterms. When all of a sudden for a person who is pretty laid back and not stressed out I suddenly start snapping at my friends, eating like I’ve never heard of nutrition, and sleep becomes a distant thing of the future.

Take today for example. I am a huge multi-tasker. I think it’s a testament to my generation that if we didn’t know how to juggle all of the roles in our life that we would all just fall dead. I mean think about how much information we’re perceiving on a daily basis. We have to be damn good at juggling getting school information, work information, news, and blocking out that annoying stuff (like the guy on the CTA who refuses to stop talking to you, for instance). So, I’m just going to go ahead and say that usually I’m pretty good at handling the tasks I take on.

Not so much this week. I started my new job. I’m a health fair representative at ComPsych Corporation. I go around to Health Fairs and I talk with the employees about their mental health benefits. Sound simple enough? It is. Trust me. It’s easy to talk about a company that is actually doing good for their clients. So, the content of the work isn’t the problem. I can blab about ComPsych all day. No, the problem is that my first day happened to fall on a day when I have classes so my day consisted of: waking up at 6 am, picking up the zipcar at 7, working until 11, dropping off the zip car at 11:30 running to get to the bus on time at 12:05, transferring to the red line, transferring to the brown line, arriving at school, staying in class from 1 to 5 pm, taking the train back home, picking up ANOTHER zip car at 6, going to pick up a classmate, and then performing IQ tests until about 9 pm.

Yeah, does that sound fun to you? I mean, look how many commas it took to finish that statement!

Needless to say I’m going to be doing variations of that song and dance for the rest of the week mixed in with the take home midterms from hell, the in class midterm that looks deceptively easy, and assignments strewn about just for good flavor.

Hey grad school, how ya doing?

But, like the title says it’s officially been about a month that I’ve been here and school started last week so it’s been a little bit hectic trying to wind down from all the visits from my family in August to the school work and daily grind that graduate school brings.

First off, for someone who doesn’t know (who doesn’t know by now?) I’m attending The Chicago School of Professional Psychology for my Clinical Forensic Psych Doctorate. Yeah, I know it doesn’t sound like a real degree but trust me, it is. I have all the work to prove it. My school is one of those private, mainly applied schools. They  don’t really like to talk about research and things that you know, won’t be useful in actual practice. That is one of the main reasons why I chose this school versus another and a Psy. D program versus a heavily research based Ph. D program. It’s just the method of teaching but the end result is the same — I’m going to be a doctor.

Books of Doom.

1. There is still a stack of oversized books that you must buy and that you more than likely do not want to read (though I will admit upon seeing the DSM-IV on my list of books to get I was unbearable excited by the entire thing–now that I got my reading list for it, not so much).
2. The professors are all still just talking at you pretending they are saying something important. Now I’ll qualify this with the statement that they usually ARE saying something important. The problem is, either the class is placed at a time where you’re thinking more with your stomach than your head, the professor is naturally just not a great professor (and that’s okay, not everyone is meant to teach! why don’t people understand that?!), or the subject really is just that dry & boring.
3. The administration does not get any better. They still make mistakes, and those mistakes will frustrate you until you are ready to bash them over the head. Also known as my financial aid issue which still has not been resolved.

I probably have a longer list than that but those are the pertinent points that really got to me. In all, for at least this semester I can say that I am enjoying the fact that I’m finally at a place that I’m learning the things I want to learn. That’s probably already understood given the fact that I’m paying almost $50,000 a year to attend this school. My classmates are all pretty great so far. I know that’s a product of a bunch of new people trying to be on their best behavior in order to gain friends fairly quickly, but really, I’m enjoying the interesting set of people who are like me, in that they love forensic psychology, but can all bring something new to the table with their individual sets of strengths & weaknesses.

That sounds real deep doesn’t it?

That’s all I have for you guys, maybe another post before September is out? I’ll strive for it.

Related Articles

• An Open Letter to New Graduate Students – ProfHacker – The Chronicle of Higher Education (chronicle.com)
• What new graduate students need to know (mvngu.wordpress.com)

Then, come to find out after all is said & done and we spend 4 hours doing the job we paid the movers almost $1000 to complete in the first place that they lost my chinese screen room divider, my posters, and my ironing board. Okay, I can cut my losses on the posters and maybe even the ironing board. But the four panel room divider that cost my mom a whole heap of money & has been in the family since I was like, 12? No sir, we need that back. So, now I’m trying to figure out where they put my room divider. I love my life, I can’t catch a break it seems. Besides all the nonsense with the moving I managed to put together the futon and entertainment center. I’m ordering a chest of drawers from ikea and I’ve been having a grand old time here with my mother. She’s awesome and has been amazingly helpful with getting me settled.

One thing that we did yesterday was the Gold Coast Art Fair which was a free event in Grant Park that started the 20th and is going on through Sunday. I love that there is always something to do in the city. And, I for one, love fairs, festivals, and free events (who doesn’t?). The festival featured original art including jewelry and clothing from local and non local artists. I think the person who traveled the farthest was from Gainesville, FL. Of course I made friends with my fellow Floridian . My mom bought some glass jewelry from two different vendors that were unique in their own right. They also had some cover band playing requests down at the pavilion and some impressive festival eats. It was a good work out making the loop around Grant Park (it’s a pretty big place).

Today will be another adventure including my first excursion in a zip car (hehe, I’m a zipster!), but more on that in a later post?

I’m an avid fan of movies and pop culture so in transitioning this blog from my ramblings about moving (which, boy do I have a story to tell you) to ramblings about my every day life here is a trailer for a movie I’m actually looking forward to.

Caution, it’s a red band trailer and the movie is Rated R meaning this is NSFW (not safe for work).