Procrastinating by Learning to Speak French

Cet automne, je serai un étudiant diplômé. Je recherche géobiologie, mais, dans la première année, je vais devoir prendre des cours en sciences de l'environnement et l'ingénierie.

Switching Focus?

Ugh, Politics is so stressful. I can't bring myself to post on the political goings on much anymore. Most stressful development recently: The supreme court's decision to overturn campaign finance regulations.

On another note, I have been applying to graduate schools and was admitted to CalTech yesterday. Now the question is, can I live in Pasadena/LA for 5 years at a school with a serious diversity problem? Despite CalTech's reputation, its ranking as one of the best schools in my field, I think I'm going to the University of Oregon (assuming I get in).

UOregon

Pros:
Supportive Faculty
2-3 Faculty who I want to work with
It's in Oregon
Faculty collaboration
Affordable Housing
Research I am already familiar with

Cons:
Lack of Diversity

CalTech

Pros:
Top Ranking/Reputation

Cons:
Lack of Diversity
Lack of affordable housing?
Research that I am far less familiar with (steep learning curve)

I'm also waiting to hear from UC San Diego and UC Irvine.

Massachusetts Resident? Get out and Vote for Martha on Tuesday!

I am returning to my blog today to ask all MA residents to please vote for Martha Coakley on Tuesday... Let us not allow Scott Brown destroy all the work that Ted Kennedy accomplished towards finally passing health care reform. Teddy wanted to make sure the children of this country have healthcare and accomplishing this was both his dying wish and just the right thing to do...And most of us don't need anyone to tell us that children deserve to be protected, that they deserve to have healthcare. But Scott Brown says on his website, "...I am opposed to the health care legislation that is under consideration in Congress and will vote against it. It will raise taxes, increase government spending and lower the quality of care, especially for elders on Medicare." What he doesn't say is that Medicare passed in 1965 despite staunch Republican opposition to that program too. That it is Republicans who dramatically increased government spending for most of the past decade. That you cannot lower the quality of care for the 86.7 million people who have no healthcare. To allow this senate seat to go to a person who is not willing to make healthcare reform a priority in the US today would be wrong...for all of us. Please make phone calls, vote on Tuesday, and remind others to do the same.

Yep, he's a Dick.

CPR training online

If, like me, you could use a refresher on how to perform CPR on adults, children, and infants, check out this website from the University of Washington. They have video demonstrations of how to perform CPR on each.

Need a Movie for Thanksgiving?

Hulu is showing a winner tonight, Penny Marshall's A League of Their Own. I think maybe I heard that the national Japanese team recently picked a girl to play pro baseball.

Have you Filled Out Your Obama Campaign Supporter Survey Yet?

"Someone's" Obama Campaign Supporter Survey:

OPTIONAL: How would you like to see this organization move forward in the months and years ahead? And how would you like to be engaged as a volunteer and organizer?:

I want to see and be a part of grassroots efforts to reform our education system, eliminate poverty in the United States, and provide national healthcare.

OPTIONAL: What first inspired you to join this campaign?:

Well, we needed to get rid of the Bush administration and all it stood for. Also, all of the momentum that the Obama campaign was generating through the participation of other young people like myself. And I had some students who were extremely enthusiastic about the campaign and made me realize that he might have a chance since young people were actually engaged and might get out and vote in battleground states like Ohio and Florid, I wanted to be sure that he didn't lose because people like myself didn't put all our effort into helping...so I did everything I could do while still working full-time, including blogging the truth and making phone calls.

OPTIONAL: What was the best part of your volunteer experience?:

When I started making phone calls, relatives joined in. It was good to know that my actions had a real effect on other people. I could especially see that I was having a real effect when I called one women in New Mexico to tell her where her polling place was and discovered that this was information that she really needed and also wanted. She was clearly enthusiastic about getting out and voting (for Obama) but didn't know where her polling place was and said she would have gone to the wrong location if I had not called. So, I'm certain I got at least two more people vote that day (her and her equally enthusiastic husband).

OPTIONAL: What could have been improved about your volunteer experience?:

The online tally of how many phonecalls you made was always wrong for me and inspired some bad feelings on my part. Everytime I logged in, and no matter how much calling data I inputted, it said that I had made just one call (or maybe 4 at one point) and I had made tens of phone calls each time. The online site for entering data also blocks you from editing the data you entered for each voter, it locks you out after you submit the information. This is frustrating if you realize that you haven't entered all the information you had or that you made an error entering the information. This happened the first time I made a phone call for the campaign.

OPTIONAL: What was your greatest achievement as a volunteer? What was your greatest challenge?:

I hate making phone calls but I called over 80 people...maybe a hundred (I don't remember). As mentioned to a previous question, I know for certain that I helped get out the vote in at least one state. I also got my sister involved. So making phone calls and having some really good conversations with voters was my greatest achievement and also a challenge. Maybe using the website was the greatest challenge though because of the incorrect data, the not allowing me to edit data I had submitted, and because it automatically generates a call list but then doesn't allow you to send these back if you know will be too busy to make calls.


OPTIONAL: Did you meet a fellow volunteer or field organizer who inspired you? How did they inspire you?:

No. Seeing all the people at the DNC convention and the very cool idea of texting to the campaign (I did this) and seeing Obama accept the nomination as the democratic presidential candidate...that was inspiring.