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Day’s Verse:
God called the dry land earth, and the gathering of the waters he called sea.
Genesis 1:10
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The ECE department hired me for the Technical Writing job, which I will start at the beginning of B-Term. I will talk with ECE professors and students about interesting ECE developments and write 1/2 to 1 page long articles based on those interviews. The articles will appear on the ECE webpage some time in the future – I will link to them when they appear, never fear. This makes me feel very happy and successful, as it is my first real TC job not courtesy of my old high school. Also I will get good experience writing with a deadline – I must produce something every week – and also good practice speaking with technical people. I excitedly told a friend about it. Her response: “That sounds incredibly boring.” I never even imagined my new job would be boring.

Some other amazing things happened lately too. They are:

(1) I got an email from my Plant Diversity professor that she closed with, See you tomorrow for “sex in the pines”! 🙂 We did, in fact, talk about conifer reproduction, but I would honestly not like to think about it as sex in the pines.
(2) This same professor commented in class, “Everybody has a sweet tooth.” Then she paused, looked thoughtful, and added, “…Well maybe cats don’t. I read recently that they can’t taste sweet.”
(3) I learned that nettles sting because they have little silica needles called trichomes filled with formic acid protruding from their leaves. When you brush by, the needles break and inject you with the acid, which hurts.
(4) I have begun carrying two fountain pens and a pencil in a black fountain pen case, mainly because the lids of my pens keep popping off. Then ink leaks in my pocket, and that’s embarrassing. I figured, however, that I would lose the case some time. So I put my name and email on the bottom. Then today I left the case on a bench when I went off to talk to Prof. Looft about the ECE job. I stifled the panic that rushed through me upon discovering my loss, and carried on with the interview. After it concluded, I rushed back to the bench, but my pens were gone. Still, I didn’t give up hope: what kind of person would steal something so obviously valuable to me? The pens are old and not worth much, but they have high personal value. I checked with the Campus Center lost and found and lo and behold! Not only had somebody turned in my pens, but the girl at the Campus Center had even emailed me. This made me very happy.

So good things do happen to stressed out people.