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February 15, 2005

A Triumph of Engineering

I finished my engineering homework in two hours tonight, which is the sort of stunning accomplishment I never hoped to be able to write about. Granted, it was a shorter-than-usual assignment, but usually I average 45 minutes a problem (because they are so detailed), and tonight I finished eight in two hours. Hey, wow, I must be getting this.

...

I've been trying to be more careful about getting enough sleep lately, because I find that it keeps me agile for my five-hour-long studios. Actually, getting enough sleep is not as hard as it might seem, because I really don't have much of a social life in SLO, and what the heck, might as well just do some homework then turn in. Today I even squeezed in a nap, which was actually the wrong thing to do because I felt muzzy-headed afterwards, plus it made me late for class.

I was having some trouble sleeping last week, so the doctor here prescribed a sleeping pill, to be taken for only 2-3 nights. Nice stuff. It knocked me right the heck out, I tell you. One night I took it, and half an hour later Noel called. I only know that because in the morning I woke up to a phone telling me so, and a somewhat-worried message. (I'd sent him e-mail telling him I was taking the thing and going to sleep, but he hadn't read it yet.) Now I'm sleeping on my own, getting tired right when I should. I wish the doctor I had back in 1998 when I was unable to sleep had not been so afraid of sleeping pills. I have some extras in case I get stuck again, but I'm not excited about the idea of being dependent on a chemical to perform basic life functions, so I doubt I'll be taking them unless it gets really bad again.

The chemical kick in the pants did help with the getting of enough sleep, though, and I'm starting to feel like I have at least half the use of my brain again. Nice thing, that.

We've been working on models in studio, but I don't have any photos to show you yet because I left them at school. Not camera photos, but I used a classmate's digital camera and stuck the photos on the school server, and then forgot to move them to home. I'm starting to think a second digital camera might be in our future, if the house renovations keep happening when I'm at school.

Speaking of house renovations, I was home last weekend and got to see the diggers come in and break up the back patio and dig a gigantic hole under the house. It ended up being a much larger hole than I would have expected to eventually end up as an 8' tall room. Also, it's full of water. Welcome to Lake Alameda. Noel has the photos, so you can harass him if you want to see the dramatic transformation from random crappy old Victorian to full-fledged construction zone with giant piles of concrete chunks and sand taking up most of the yard (Rosie is not happy about this). While the diggers were going, every neighbor on the block stopped by, and a few people drove up and stared. We're quite the tourist attraction these days. I'm excited to go back this weekend and see how the work has progressed.

And now, off to bed. We're designing a chicken tractor in studio tomorrow, so I must be fresh as a daisy.

Posted by ayse on 02/15/05 at 9:39 PM