My mouth tastes like sour milk. This is because I had milk with dinner. It wasn't sour when I drank it, but after sitting in my mouth so long it has become sour.

Pop, pop, pop.

No, I don't really have much to say.

Last night I made some pasta salad for dinner. I love pasta salad. It combines so many foods I like: pasta, cheese, pepperoni, cucumbers and Italian dressing. Yum.

I also took Kathy, who wasn't feeling well, to the infirmary. It was very strange to be on the other side of that for once, being the person who just sits in the waiting room and picks up odd snatches of what the nurse says. I read a good deal of National Geographic, which this month featured the anniversary of the first successful attempt to reach the top of Mount Everest. I was surprised by how good the pictures were from 1953, and how little Edmund Hillary looked like he was living in the 50s. Anyway, the Searle people didn't really know what was wrong with Kathy (surprise, surprise), but she looks okay (aside from that fever).

Now today I should really read that book I have to write a report on.

Ahh ...

Quicken now works -- Google came to my rescue. Apparently all I had to do was delete the file it kept telling me it couldn't open.

I wish everything was that simple.

AHHHH!

I finally decided to get my finances in order again, after losing my original Quicken records when my system software got corrupted. I boot up Quicken, create a new data file and attempt to enter a new account -- then kaboom! The program crashes. I register and update, I search and troubleshoot, I scream and cry, I reinstall -- nothing helps. Curse you, Intuit!

Currently, Apple's Help program is crashing whenever I try to search the Quicken section. It's such a joy.

Britt: dammit, my computer is making loud crackling i-want-to-crash noises
Colleen: weird
Colleen: i've never heard a computer crackle
Britt: you should listen to mine sometime
Colleen: i don't think it's supposed to do that
Britt: yeah, it really doesn't sound all that healthy. but it's been doing it for months, and it's not dead yet...
Colleen: give it time
Britt: seriously

Mmm ... pepperoni pizza ... all crispy on top and soft in the middle ... yum ...

I am hungry! Someone please bring me food!

I found a picture that I plan to incorporate into my site's new design (whenever I get around to creating it). As I tried to fall asleep the other night, the idea for a design just came to me (a lovely blessing, as designing is hard work). I hope it works out as well in execution as in conception. Oftentimes what starts out great can fall victim to the limitations of HTML.

By the way, I'm hoping to find a book to get me caught up on the latest version of HTML (and perhaps one on style sheets). I know, I know -- Web stuff changes too fast to make books all that useful generally. But I find it easier to learn from books, and when I'm working I prefer having a book open next to me to constantly switching windows.

Also, I flow-charted a new version of RCB's site. Since I've always found it difficult to create an effective site navigational scheme, I decided to nose around Golive for helpful diagramming features. I think what I have planned now will be effective, though I'm still questioning whether I should bury committee pages under the Officers page or give Committees their own section.

I know, fascinating.

Help! I know I'm staying up too late, but I don't want to sleep!

I'm going to be terrifically tired tomorrow, but there's nothing I can do to stop that now, and thus it seems almost futile to go to bed. Yet I know I need to rest, as in my Islam class at 11 this morning I involuntarily nodded off countless times throughout the last hour. And tomorrow I have to be on the third floor of Deering Library by 10 a.m.

Speaking of that, I haven't done any work whatsoever for that class tonight. I spent hours folding laundry, messing around with RCB's site (Nancy Anderson did not want people to be able to read our minutes), and generally doing nothing of my schoolwork. Since I've read the first three novels we're covering before, I'm getting into a bad habit of slacking off on my reading. The prof keeps mentioning an upcoming midterm ... maybe I should be reading ...

If you talk to me tomorrow, remind me I need to go pick up the book I'm writing a report on from the library's circulation desk. I don't want them to send it back to Chicago before I read it.

I'm attempting to use a new program to update my diary right now. No, I haven't stopped using Blogger, but there are programs (Kung-Log for OS X, w.bloggar for Windows) that will allow you to update without having to actually use the stupid Blogger interface. Well, stupid mostly if you are wise and do not use Internet Explorer.

Instead of hectoring those who expressed any doubt about the difficulty of occupying Iraq, the conservatives should worry about their own self-parody: pandering to the base by blessing evangelical Christians who want to proselytize Muslims; protecting their interests by backing a shady expat puppet; pleasing their contributors by pre-emptively awarding rebuilding contracts to Halliburton and Bechtel; and swaggering like Goths as Iraq's cultural heritage goes up in flames.

Is there NO education in this country? Who gave control of this nation to people who avidly subscribe to the philosophy of "if you've seen one artifact of the birth of civilization, you've seen them all"? And where is freedom of religion -- more, respect for others' religions -- when evangelical Christians are given tacit approval to convert all those "heathen" Muslims? (The people who, by the way, would agree that there's "only one God and one faith" -- while still believing people of other organized religions to be "people of the book.")

Frustrating.

Maureen Dowd's column

So did you know!

Blogger has started making a new version of its site available to people setting up new blogs. This "New Blogger" (also known as Dano) actually works in all browsers. It doesn't work the same in all browsers -- if you're using something other than Internet Explorer or a Mozilla-based browser (that includes Netscape), it comes up with a "lo-fi" interface -- but it does actually work with no weird bugs. It's pretty nice. I actually don't think the more advanced interface has much advantage over the lo-fi, so I'll be happy once they start allowing people to migrate in a week or two and I can update this site in Safari nearly painlessly.

What else?

I updated my poli sci prof pages site with two new projects. The one for Karen Alter looks pretty much like Ian Hurd's but less complex. The one for Michael Loriaux is spiffy, though -- I got all experimental in my HTML and came up with something different with a minimum of frustration.

I currently have about an hour and a half in which to throw together a report on the role of Gypsies in gothic literature. I want a vacation.

Well, I have to express some reservations regarding my last entry. While Safari is a very nice browser, alas, it too has its faults. It has issues with rendering some pages (and with remembering my mom's magazine subscription). While it's nice to be able to visit the New York Times without crashing the browser and to be able to use JavaScript navigation menus, some of the new bugs are almost as irritating. Hopefully the people at Apple will figure this out soon.

My ears are aching from running errands in the cold. Though my financial aid forms are turned in and I have almost all of the stuff for my scholarship application ready to go, I don't know that it was at all worth this throbbing. Poor me.

Okay, time for me to set myself to designing Michael Loriaux's web site.

Yuck, I just sneezed all over my face.

Good news: Apple's Safari browser now supports tabs! No more crazy Camino crashes!

Bad news: Blogger still only works in Internet Explorer. Curses!

So if you shell out the fee for Blogger Pro, you can get access to a Mozilla-compatible site. It's not available to non-paying customers. That's just not fair.

I looked through my site files a bit today, realizing again what a task it will be to convert it all to Adobe-compatible templates. I'd like to do some redesign work on the site, considering that at this point it's been so long since I coded the original pages and style sheet that I haven't a clue how it all comes together anymore. I really wish I had the time to learn to create better graphics, but time is hard to come by.

As is sleep, not because I'm overworked necessarily but mostly because I'm too lazy to go to bed most nights. Yeah, I know that sounds weird, but once I'm settled in a nice, comfortable position, I'm loathe to get up and ready myself, but at the same time I can't sleep very well knowing I haven't brushed my teeth. Why can't resting count as sleeping?

Dooooo-da-doo-da-doo-da-doo-da-doo doo-doo-doo ...

It's swing time! Bah-bah! Slow-slow quick-quick! Tonight Scott and I learned the basic jitterbug step, along with a few turns. It's kind of weird having to follow instead of lead, and I'm still working on the being-graceful thing, but at least we didn't end up as a giant pretzel (that's apparently been saved for next week). I haven't been able to get the song out of my head since the lesson ended, and I feel the need to get up and start bouncing around on the balls of my feet. (I would do that except that my feet are a bit sore at the moment.) I enjoyed the lesson, even though for a great part of it I could only breathe through my mouth (NOT conducive to exercise). Near the end, the large thing blocking my air passage finally dislodged itself, leading to a mad dash to the ladies room. Yuck.

I found a new service that will host my site without ads for free (or $35 a year if I want more space) if I get my own domain name for $15. The caveat is that the index page must be updated regularly, so I'd have to rework the structure of this site a bit. If I get the time this weekend, I might give it a try. While the ads on this site never bother me since I have a pop-up blocker, I hear they can annoy you poor folks who haven't yet discovered the wonders of Mozilla.

Mr. Wolfowitz's theme at the Senate hearing, which could be rendered in short as "Iraq for the Iraqis," was not new. But the deputy secretary's comments were significant in view of the Bush administration's lingering dissatisfaction with the United Nations and its apparent failure, at least in President Bush's view, to rise much beyond the level of an international debating society.

Bush Administration Describes Secondary Role for U.N. in Iraq

Much as the thought frightens me, part of me agrees with President Bush. Not in the same sense, fortunately, but nonetheless, he has something of a point in thinking the United Nations didn't "rise much beyond the level of an international debating society" in this conflict. Eighty or ninety percent of the world opposed going to war with Iraq -- wasn't that enough of a mandate for the United Nations to step up and do something to stop the United States? Is there nothing that could have been done to stop this from happening? Why does the rest of the world seemingly have no power?

At any rate, what's done is done now. I just hope the United States will not try to impose an unwanted government on these people (again) and that the Iraqis will get a chance to benefit from what's happened.

I will take advantage of my prerogative as the proprietor of this diary to razzle-dazzle you with an entry about colors.

Colors, you say? Indeed, colors. For colors have so many meanings.

Yellow is bright and welcoming.
Orange is happy and vibrant.
Purple is beautiful.
Pink is soft and sweet.
Blue is serene and cool.
Red is passionate.

I hate green.

I'm still sick. My voice sounds husky. It's strange. The cold medicine only lasts for half of the time between recommended doses. Curse pseudoephedrine for raising one's heart rate or blood pressure or whatever it does.

I have a great desire not to use Blogger anymore. That's not to say I have any particular desire to go back to updating manually. However, since Blogger simply will not work normally in any browser other than Internet Explorer (which I abhor), it's still a pain to update my site. I want a program that is both convenient and works! Is that so hard?

In other news, PARConline died today. A new webmaster has been inaugurated, and with new webmasters come new web sites, no matter how good the previous one was, it seems. A few people have given me some last-rights sort of accolades for the site, but I'm afraid it just couldn't be saved. I feel sad because the design really can't be reused for another site, yet it can't continue on where it was. It feels like such a waste of my creative abilities in that way. Oh well. I took today's news as a prompting to get working on the Residential College Board site, my latest project. Currently the design is nothing special -- only something I copied from an Adobe template. However, it's at least better-looking and more functional than the previous site.

The retreat I went to with the rest of the RCB this past weekend was good and bad. Good, in that I got to know the nice group of people I'll be working with for the next year; bad, in that this required enduring frustrating "team-building" activities. While my fellow RCB officers are a friendly, community-oriented bunch, the people in charge of the leadership school must be demons from hell. Well, maybe not literally. However, activities that artificially force one to include almost everyone in their execution (such as moving a golf ball from one tube to another through the use of five-person and six-person string-and-ring things) when they could be done in seconds alone are antithesis to my efficient being. It leads me to the very inefficient practice of tearing my hair out.

About time this worked.

The weather today is wonderful!

I'm sorry for the recent paucity of updates. More will come soon, I promise.