My boyfriend can totally beat up your boyfriend*

So, The Scotsman? Just got his third degree black belt. Bear with me a bit, because I'm going to brag.

It was kind of a big deal this test, because he'd been waiting to take it for close to 9 years. He should have actually taken it about 4 years ago but between his own students and Tae Kwon Do club, not to mention his full-time job and family responsibilities, it kept getting pushed back and pushed back. So the fact that he was finally able to take it was pretty damn special and I was honored that he asked me to come and take photos**.

The test took over 4 hours, which I sort of can't wrap my head around. Don't ask me how he made it through the ordeal, because I would have given up after the first couple of forms and sat myself down with some girl-scout cookies or something and just been satisfied with my two degrees. But he kept going and going and was generally awesome the entire time.

The final portion of the test was the breaking. The Scotsman was the last to go and he was the one breaking the most boards. Prior to The Scotsman's turn, the other students (who were mostly testing for their first degrees) kept not breaking. And they were only trying to break one board. As each of them hit difficulties and had to re-try over and over, I got more and more nervous. Because The Scotsman was breaking 4 boards with his elbow, immediately followed by 3 with a kick, followed by 2 with a different kick (technical term). Grand total of 9 boards for those of you not adding along.

By the time The Scotsman got up there to do his thing, I was pretty edgy. A hush fell over the entire room as he set up the boards, and I overheard a little girl say with awe, "Mom, you HAVE to get a picture of this. He's going to break 4 BOARDS!"

The Scotsman's mom was biting her nails at this point, and I was holding my breath.

But of course, I had nothing to be worried about:



If you look in the mirror, you can see that it takes the strength of 3 burly men to handle the impact. Those boards? Completely broken.

The two kicks went perfectly too:



And let me just tell you, the cheer that went up afterward? Epic. After my heart started beating again, I realized that I had been silly. The Scotsman has been known to break up to 6 boards with his elbow, so those 4? Were like butter.







I might be just a bit proud, you guys.

And then, the next day, The Scotsman cooked me breakfast:



Wearing the belt, obviously. Because you kind of have to.

<3

*He wouldn't, of course, because that goes against the tenants of Tae Kwon Do. But he could, is my point.

** I'm fairly disappointed with how the pictures came out, actually. Too bad his girlfriend is an amateur. Ugh.

Damn it feels good to be a Master

I sort of can't comprehend that I'm DONE with school, for good. Or at least for awhile, so I can pay down some of these damned loans I've accrued over the past 2.5 years.

Somewhere in my head, I keep forgetting that it's all over and that I don't have to register for classes or schedule my social life around school work. I forget that I won't be heading to Rosemont 2 or 3 nights a week and I can watch TV like a normal person.

Graduation was nice. Thankfully, the rain held off so my extended family could attend the ceremony. I hid cookies in my pointy sleeves and shared some Irish coffee with Shawn. Our speaker was good, or at least better than my undergraduate speaker, who sucked royally and told us we were all over-privileged snots.

So...now what do I do with myself? I'm not sure. The obvious thing is to move forward in my career somewhat. I saw the Doc, Dr. McCormick* and Dr. Frechie last night and one by one all of them asked, When are you getting your PhD?

Currently, I have no desire whatsoever to write a dissertation. Nor do I know what I would get my PhD in. So I think I'm done with higher education. But never say never. In 5 years I could get itchy britches and suddenly might find myself hankering for another degree. We'll see what happens.

The rest of my weekend was spent housing people at trivia, helping out the Doc, crashing dinner parties, and seeing Star Trek, which I loved.

This morning when I came into work, I found my cube decorated with balloons, Congratulations streamers chris-crossing my chair and a cake on my desk. In the Production room there was a large banner reading "Class of 2009, To the MASTER: Congratulations!"

I'll say it again: Damn, it feels good to be a Master.

One real photo in my cap and gown:



*Dr. McCormick is LEAVING Cabrini and headed back to Texas! I'm heartbroken!

Those Fightin' Phils!

PEOPLE. DID YOU SEE? THE PHILLIES TOTALLY JUST WON THE WORLD SERIES.

I'm not the world's biggest sports fan. Football, meh. Basketball, fffftt. Hockey, I like. Baseball is probably my favorite.

I was reared to be a Phillies fan. My earliest memories of my grandfather, and the image of him that comes to mind whenever I think of him, is him sitting in his chair with a beer, watching the Phillies. I used to climb up into his lap, steal sips of his beer and watch the games with him.

The fact that the Phillies won the world series is so awesome and incredible to me. The breaking of "The Curse,", the Phils winning the first world series of my lifetime, everything.

And I know, somewhere in the afterlife, my grandfather is THRILLED.

Champeeeens!

So this softball team I know? THEY TOTALLY JUST WON THE DIVISION PLAYOFFS.

I believe the words "Aww" and "Yeah" just made it into your vocabulary.

After the game tonight, we all gathered in the parking lot to slap each other on the back and drink beers together. There was good-natured ribbing and excited verbal replays of the game, little kids weaving in and out of our legs and all the Yuengling we could put down. As the sun was setting, Curt (the coach/manager/pitcher extraordinaire) turned to our CFO and gestured to all of us mingling and said, "That's your company right there."

I'm glad he said that, and I know exactly what he meant by it. So many other teams in our league hire "ringers" to play on their teams. Ours is one of the few teams made up almost entirely of employees. There's only one person on our team who isn't a current employee -- he's a former employee who's related to two current employees, though. So this win, in my mind represents a lot and it says so much about my coworkers.

As frustrated and as annoyed as I get sometimes, and a much as I know I am destined to move on, someday this will be something I will really miss. This camaraderie, this spirit.

Next up: The League Playoffs!

DIVISION CHAMPS!

PEOPLE. They are 13-1 going into the playoffs and hold the best record in the league! I'm so proud of them! Other photos from the final game of regular season (and subsequent bar visit following the game) are here.

I'm a Smartie McSmarterson Who's Smart!

Guess who got straight A's this semester?

A final of errors

So remember how in my last post I was all, "Wah wah wah, I suck, blah blah blah self-doubt cakes, at least I have until Wednesday to finish"? Yeah, that was a nice story. Then I woke up on Tuesday and realized that 19th was on Tuesday and not Wednesday like I had mistakenly thought.

And then I freaked the fuck out.

I was able to calm down relatively quickly, though, because after I posted Monday night I was able to pull myself together and get a lot done. I was still having problems with CSS and Java Script, but really those parts were just gravy. So Tuesday morning, I took quick stock: I had pretty much an entire website ready to go. I was only missing a links page (easy) and the gallery, which yeah, not happening as I still don't understand SQL stuff. The page wouldn't be as pretty as I pictured in my mind's eye, but it would be nicer than the current Inis Nua site and it would be a fully functioning website. All I had to do was export it and upload it.

Now, like I said, technically I didn't even have to make a full working website for my final. But this was a final I was looking forward to and I wanted to do really well on it...I had thought I would make this awesome site, impress my professor, get an A++ and then go on to academic power and glory, or whatever. But the fates were against me. Because this is how Tuesday went:

Shit. Today's the 19th. I'm fucked.

Oh God, how am I this dumb?

Ok, wait. It's not that bad. I can totally do this. Make links page, clear away useless script coding, upload, Miller Time. Sack up, ho, and get to work.

OK, links page made. Coding cleared. Let's export!

Let's upload!

Uhhh....hmm.

OK, that's never happened to me before.

Let's try again.

And again.

And one more time.

Shit. Ok, well, I have actual work to do at my job. I'll try again later.

OK, here we go...it will work this time.

Or not.

DAMMMIT, WORK.

I wonder if the IT guy here can help me?

Yeah, not so much help there, buddy. Thanks for nuttin.

Bite me, Fetch.

OK, this thing was supposed to be handed in, like an hour ago. I'm fucked.

OK, emailed professor. All cool. I will use built-in FTP client thingy in Adobe GoLive on laptop when I get home. That will work.

Wait, what happened to the buttons on my banner? Why are they suddenly not working?

Waaaaaittt, no no no no! Ah, shit.

OK, let's force quit that nonsense and try again.

Goddamnit, why aren't you recognizing the link slices?

Oh, that's why. I'm a tool. Never mind.

I hate you.

I hate you.

I hate me.

I love Kelly, though, how did she know I needed a glass of wine?

Chardonay!

All right, this is it. Everything good? All right. Site, prepare to be uploaded!

Ta-Da!

Wait, what? Why are you doing that?

Oh my GOD, that looks awful. Why is that happening?

Maybe it's the layers. I'll delete them.

Ok, maybe it's the cell padding on the tables.

OK, maybe it's...I don't know what the hell it is.

OK, let's look at the source code.

You tell me nothing, source code.

Oh God, what do I do now?

I wonder if I can get Kelly to get me a refill on that wine. Wait, no, FOCUS.

Maybe I just need to quit, open up again, re-export and upload.

WHY DO YOU HATE ME, INTERNET, WHEN I'VE SHOWN YOU NOTHING BUT LOVE?!?!

---

Around 10:30 I finally admitted defeat. I would not have a fully functioning website for my professor. Instead, I exported all the Adobe GoLive stuff into a PDF and reworked the entire final to be handed in that way. I took a break around midnight for some dinner and then finally completed everything around 1:30ish.

I sent it off. Hopefully, I won't have too many points docked for lateness since I emailed the professor to tell her it would be late. Better or worse though, it's done and out there. Now I need a web genius to help me fix and get up the actual site.

Semester is over, bitches. Let the revelry begin.