My life in 10 minute blurbs.

Today I'm working on completing an annotated bibliography for my counseling class. For those of you don't know what that means - have no fear. I just recently learned and will 'splain.

An Annotated Bib (as we've come to call it) is a document that has a reference for an article and then a brief summary of the article's contents (between 100 words and a page-ish - no longer than a page). The purpose is for research, as an individual is doing research on a topic and reading articles, they put the reference and summary down so that they can easily find articles they are looking for later when writing a dissertation, literature review, article, etc.

Mine is on depression and I've found some really interesting articles about counseling and psychotherapy and depression! Nerdy, but true.

So all that to say that we have to have 10 articles annotated and turned in by class tonight. And also the reading reflection questions (due at noon). My reading reflection is done, I just need to look it over one more time and make sure its coherent (no guarantee!). But I am still four articles away from being done with the Bib. I have to read them and then write the summary.

After I read and summarize one article, then I get to have a 10 minute break (woo hoo!), during which I will update this blog, and when that's done, read through my questions.

I'm going to change color every time I have had to go away and come back!

What is up with me, you ask?

1) School is crazy right now. I'm liking my classes, but there is just a lot of work for them. A lot. I'm surviving barely, but Sarah and I are doing homework seemingly non-stop (with a couple breaks I will share about here).

2) Last week, in a huge bad-decision moment, I decided to put Windows Vista on my computer. My computer is 4 years old, and not really Vista compatible it turns out. I thought I was putting on Vista "home basic" - but turns out I was putting on "ultimate" - yeah, really not capable of running that kind of technology. Its still working, but a little slower than normal. However, some of the stuff I normally use was not working and then it shut down my computer, and I ended up having to take it into the shop at school. They told me they would try to fix it and it would cost $43.
I didn't have a computer for the entire weekend - the one week when I had three different written projects due. nice.
Thankfully, Sarah had a work laptop I was able to use and the library checks out laptops for four hours, too. We were at the library for a long time. I lost track of time and turned my computer in 13 minutes late. $10 fee. suck!
The shop called on Monday saying my computer's recovery partition (we were just going to run that and reload Windows XP) was corrupt and I could call HP and get recovery disks for $20-30. (you can imagine my glee, since at this point I was ringing up appx $100 in stuff to fix this mistake!)
I asked if instead I could just buy XP at the bookstore and reinstall it. He said yes, and I called the bookstore. I was able to get a copy of XP for $5 (saving $25 vs. the other HP plan) and when I picked up my computer... they hadn't charged me, because they couldn't do anything! woohoo!
* Price tag back down to $15 (plus emotional grief...)
So I hooked up my computer when I should have been doing homework, and tried to load XP. But the bookstore sold me XP professional, which is a 64-bit software and my computer is an x86 (which is somehow different, I don't really get it but I get it enough to understand it won't work).
So sad news... I had to go to the HP website and order the recovery disks.
* Price tag at $45.
Meanwhile, when I installed Vista it made me uninstall my antivirus software... and so then I had to re-order antivirus software.
* Price tag at $70 (total).
And now, I have the recovery disks, but I'm forcing myself to wait until tomorrow night (friday night?...nerdy!) or sometime this weekend to put the disks through and reformat my computer. The downside? I may have to wipe my entire computer clean in the process... it looks like there is a way to load it with out doing that, but I'm not feeling super positive at this point. Thankfully, before I put on Vista I bought an external hard drive and backed up my entire computer, so if I do have to wipe it, I think I have all my files....
* Price tag $170.
That doesn't even include the actual COST of Vista. Price tag $185. What was I thinking!?

But really, I needed the backup drive anyway, my computer is getting old and its for the best that I have a backup, so lets just call it $85 and be done with it. Unless I can't get it to work and have to take it back to the shop. But for now, I'll be positive and say, "I'm sure it will all be OK."

On the bright side, my car insurance went down $10 a month, so I have an extra $120 this year, which just about covers my computer mania.

3) I am going to be speaking at our next Student Life staff development lunch. Two of my fellow students and I are going to speak about putting theory that we are learning in our program into practice. We have about 10 minutes each. I'm excited, but nervous. I also wonder how I can make this a good practice experience for my PhD interviews. I think I have a lot of ways that my theory has informed what I do for my work at Baylor (and in the future) but we'll see how it goes! Its a great honor, though, and I'm really blessed to have been asked!

4) I just spent part of my 10 minute break surfing facebook. I'm sorry. I'll be right back. :)

I am only one article away from being able to take shower. amazing.
OK, life update continued!

5) I think I mentioned that I am in a debate with myself right now about my future. Am I going to work full-time after graduation? Am I going to start a PhD program full-time? yikes. I have to make these decisions relatively soon, because the PhD deadlines are in early december and I have some work to do to get ready (re-proofing papers, etc). I really like the idea of going straight into school again, just to get it done. I like the idea of working toward a doctorate - its kind of crazy, but I feel like there are a lot of areas in which I could do research and be really excited about it. But there is some debate amongst the people I've spoken to about how my experience will help me get a job. Some say I have enough experience and get the degree. Others say that perhaps I should work FT for a year and then start PhD work part-time, so that I can bulk up my resume.

In the meantime, I just don't know. I'm praying, and seeking wisdom from God, and also from man. My last meeting with Baylor people about this is on Friday, after that, I'm going to have to really seek to hear God speak and direct me in a path!

I'm not done updating, probably, but this is long and so I'll say Goodbye for now. And next week I'll have more updating. :)

Blessings on you!!!