Stuffage

(Cross-posted from my personal blog--so my apologies if there isn't adequate explanations.)

Yikes. I'm tired. Let's see... Some things from the last few days.

1) I wrote and turned in a paper that was due today last night. Not terribly pleased with it, but it's done.

2) Last night I met with the grad adviser (Dr. H.) and found out a few things:
-- I only have three courses I'm required to take before I can graduate: 1 500-level U.S. readings class, 1 600-level U.S. research class, and 1 600-level any-topic research class. Obviously, it would behoove me to use both 600-level classes to research something related to my thesis topic.
-- I don't think I'm going to take the Black Death class because it won't fulfill those requirements. But I haven't fully decided. Dr. O. gave me a permission number which is good for a couple months, so we'll see. The class sounds fascinating!
-- I may see if I can unofficially audit the History of Intelligence class if I'm going to be on campus anyway. That class, too, sounds terribly interesting!
-- I am going to be stopping by Dr. S's office on Tuesday to see if he'll tweak his 497 (undergraduate research class) for me. If so, the subject is on San Francisco.
-- Dr. H. suggested I choose one incident, building, or person having to do with historic preservation for my 600-level class and study that. That will help me to see which characters, events, time periods, etc., are most important so I can study those for the thesis. So now I'm thinking of some key preservation building/place in San Francisco I could do. I'm not sure if I'd want to lean toward historic houses (e.g. Victorian houses, Postcard row, etc.), historic areas (e.g. Haight-Ashbury or Chinatown), historic parks (e.g. Golden Gate Park or Angel Island)....so many decisions!
-- I need to take Marshall's archives comprehensive exam next semester.
-- So basically it boils down to this: It looks like next semester I'll take a 600-level research class (hopefully with Dr. Sides) and study for and take Marshall's comps.

3) Today, instead of going to school, I went out to the District office at Malibu Creek and attended a training for work on plants, fire hazards, etc. The training was excellent--definitely the best and most interesting one I've ever been to, and, from what I understand from others, the best one ever. I learned a ton (do you know the difference between decurrent and excurrent trees?). Who knows how much of it will "stick"--it wasn't exactly a class that was good for taking notes--but every time I go to one of these trainings, I get some tidbit of information stored in my ol' noggin. The topics today were the methods and reasoning behind the environmental scientist who has to inspect all the trees in public areas, clearing an area for fire (a huge problem with the Santa Ana winds), invasive plants (tons of thistles!), and how the Native Americans used plants. Oh yeah, and a little bit on historic landscaping. Interesting stuff!

4) After the training, there was a District-wide interp meeting (which 4 out of 7 interpreters attended) where we discussed all sorts of things and everyone got a new to-do list. ;-) I also found out that there's a week-long training being held at Malibu in March which I'm hoping to get permission to go to. The subject is interpretation skills for children (LOL meaning, how to interpret to children ;-)). I hope I get permission to go--I think it sounds like some skills and training I could really use.

5) Tonight, instead of going to Biblestudy, I went to a presentation on the Los Angeles Plaza (for extra credit). Though an interesting topic, the presentation was super boring. :-P

6) As mentioned earlier, I drove on the freeway for the first time (except for taking the driving test)! Eleven miles each way. Whoohoo! And we all survived. ;-) Granted, I took the slow lane, but hey, my confidence has been boosted. I can now at least feel pretty confident about driving out to the District office which is excellent.


Anyway, that's what's been up lately. Now I think I'm going to go to bed. Or at least head to bed with a book. I'm almost done with a biography of Bess W. Truman. Her daughter, Margaret, wrote it, so there are parts that are quite amusing because it's written from an "insider's perspective." :-)

'Night, all.