It's definitely christmastime

Every day feels more like Christmas. I don't know what I am doing differently this year, but it is the first time, since entering college, that I feel the Christmas anticipation and excitement this far in advance. The past three years, just from being busy with finals, and papers due, etc. and how little I got off campus it just never hit me. I did most of my shopping online and in one sitting and the rest when I finally made it home two days before Christmas eve.

I think it also has to do with some events going on. Living with the people I live with has definitely enhanced the Christmas spirit. In the past there was never any christmas decorating, and barely any Christmas music. This year, we are having a holiday christmas party/dinner. As such we have christmas lights lining the ceiling of our whole place (mostly) as well as a christmas tree, which is all decorated with lights and garland and ornaments which definitely hits you that first time you have it lit in a dim room.

As with the christmas music - aside from an assortment of different christmas releases both mixes (Now that's what I call christmas) and albums (Josh Groban, Bing Crosby) that have been playing in here, a friend of mine has been running an almost-daily posting of a christmas song to listen to on his blog, which has been great being reminded of some old favorites and hearing some I have never heard before. Today's post has to be my favorite yet. The song is an instrumental christmas-inspired soft track that, about midway through, incorporates some classic holiday movie lines (It's A Wonderful Life, A Christmas Story, The Grinch) into the track. The accompanying video is also and enjoyable extra piece to it. You can view it here.

Finally - a rendition of It's The Most Wonderful Time of the Year by Martina Sorbara is a great one to check out. I am including a link to the song on Yahoo but playing it is a bit more complicated. You have to look on the right side of the page where you will see "Top Tracks". The song is listed in there, where you can click the Play icon to hear the track. Hope that works.

I need to do something about this...

"This" being what time it is right now. If you didn't know - the clock on my blog is set to PST and I live in NY. I realized this a few months ago, but left it because I like my breadcrumb for the day to be posted under the day it was taken and not under the next day. Leaving the clock set to PST leaves me a cushion to post a picture from that day. This is especially helpful on nights where I have a lot of work to do or weekends when I am just not at my computer by midnight.

Recently, however, this 3 hour extension is not enough. The problem: not my time extension - it's my sleep habits. 4 am is not an okay time to be getting in bed on a Sunday night. Especially when I will be in class until 9 pm tomorrow night.

Sounds like New Years Resolution material to me.

Night all.

Snow in the city

Too tired for this.

How did it get to be so late?

I know I missed the deadline again. I am slipping - not losing interest - noted.
I just need a night of solid rest.

Highlights:
Work was awesome (what else is new)
Celebrated a birthday today (turning 4)
Ice cream birthday cake
Rockefeller Center/tree (not as cool in daylight)
MoMa - Tim Burton - NO PHOTOS!!!
Hippie girl with bad B.O.
Flame Diner
Bailing on warren/ram van with tom quinn
Friday night television (superior to the rest of the week)
Lorillard
MW2

A little less apprehension, a little more confidence

So yesterday I spent from about 1 pm to 5 am this morning working on my term paper for my capstone course/senior values course. This class is both the final Core Requirement for the school and the last tier in the Major Requirement. As such, the final paper was not going to be easy, and it was not. It was probably the most dense paper I have ever written and the longest (not including my chapter by chapter analysis for my lit class which was less a paper and more an extended list of descriptions) I have written. While the length was '10-15 about' my paper ended up, with title page and references - at 20.

As of 1 pm yesterday I had written only 2 of those pages. I am impressed with myself. At the same time, I did not do a very close proofread of it and it may be reflected in the final product exactly how last minute I did this paper. I essentially had finished the paper by about 2:30. From then until 530 I spent writing the references and placing the in-text citations for that paper and another paper also due today - a treatment study paper for my clinical psychology class. All together there were probably over 20 references and with 28 pages between the two papers - there were alot of in-text citations to be made.

Accomplishing such a task in the time I did so makes me feel a little less apprehensive about my one-day thesis paper i will write. If i am able to knock out the number of pages I did in the time I did, writing that many pages is definitely doable - not easy - just doable.

One paper left.

oh..and 4 finals - but I have time before them.

(todays picture is of a lamp outside of a building i passed walking to get a milkshake in the city. upon further inspection it was noted that this was no ordinary lamp as that is actually a flame. this area of the city was being lit by flame lamps - awesome)

the awesome power

of casino royale has caused me to be late tonight. i could blame it on the work. but for the last 15 minutes i was planning on posting and i started watching the final act of casino royale on USA. drat.

picture brought to you courtesy of 3dollarsubs

papers papers papers

pretty much what i looked at/what i saw all day today and will be looking at all day tomorrow.