Babble.

Well. So there is about a month left in the semester, and if this past week or so is any indication, all of that time will be spent in a frenzied state of OMG PANIC!!!, so that should be lovely and easy on the nerves! Sigh.

On the plus side - I've booked a massage for tomorrow! Hurrah! SO excited about that. Also, the gym thing is working out quite well, although Jelena is obviously fitter and more focussed than me! (Not that it's hard, mind you.) Megan may be joining us starting tomorrow as well, and she'll no doubt be even fitter. I shall have to try harder to keep up.

So, just like home we have a regular department seminar thing on fridays, except here they're called "colloquia" because obviously if it's latiny-looking that's much more academic and virtuous. Anyway, it was a really interesting one last week, a group presentation by a bunch of people working on building database for the Mohave and Chemehuevi Talking Dictionaries project. Mohave and Chemehuevi are two highly endangered languages from the western arizona kinda area - Mohave has about 30 speakers left, Chemehuevi has 3. They're in the last of their three funded years on the project, but it sounds very impressive, so I really hope they can find a new source of funds, especially for the Chemehuevi (which is made more difficult because of the 3 speakers, only 1 is willing to work with the project to any serious degree - and they don't even speak to each other! So sad...).

It was a pretty impressive presentation, largely composed of undergraduate students who were working on the project either as research assistants paid out of the grand, or to get Independant Study credit, and for a bunch of "little muffins" as Mike puts it, who pretty much had to learn on the job, they were really great. A lot of concern about making sure their work was consistent across users, and easily interpretable for others who might come along later too, which was really nice to see. The big group effort seemed great. Phil Cash Cash was there and said that, as a "one-man-show", he was impressed by - and envious of - the ways they've managed to work together.

I'd really like to get a chance to work on a similar documentation project at some point while I'm here. I'd kill for an RA-ship to come up, but even if it doesn't, if projects like this one manage to survive, I might hopefully be able to take the Independent Study route, so long as I can make it fit my program.

So, onto the random babbling portion of the post... getting on much better with the flatmates, to the point that I've spent hours sitting and chatting with Amy when one or both of us should've been working... Tsk!

It's been suggested that I should get a humidifier, and that might help with my persistent headaches and sinus issues. Anyone care to comment knowledgeably about that prospect? (There are cute penguin-shaped ones for $30! Although sadly, the even cuter elephants have sold out...)

I can't find my sunglasses. PANIC STATIONS! Ok, if they've been dropped in one of my classrooms, I might be alright... if they've been stolen, I'm screwed! (WHY did I not put a note in the case pointing out that they're prescription and therefore of no use to anybody but me?) Wish me luck finding them! Seriously, I cannot live without them here! (Not to mention how much they cost!)

I ordered groceries online!! I saved three hours (roughly) in shopping time, and travel costs because I got free delivery because it's my first order. And I spent less anyway cuz I could keep track of how much stuff cost, and not be tempted by impulse buys. They should be delivered this afternoon - I'm totally excited!

UPDATE: Online grocery shopping is quite possible the best thing EVAH! Except I really need to get to grips with the backwards bloody Americans' use of imperial measurements cuz I apparently ordered quite a bit more flour and sugar than I really meant to...

Scrabulous is the best time-waster ever, except that I have like 6 games going and I'm still forever waiting for someone to make a move!

Group work sucks more and more as the semester progresses. Blargh.

There is a party at Adam Ussishkin and Andy Wedel's house this saturday. First ever proper department party? I'm intrigued... Andy promised to make a dance-mix CD!

I got invited to an Orphan's Thanksgiving for Linguists. Aw! I am, of course, making pumpkin pie again.

Going to Paris next summer may be prohibitively expensive. Which is irritating, because actually, Boston-Paris return is quite cheap! It's getting to Boston and back that's the issue... So that sucks. I mean, I could stay here and do intensive french in summer school, but it's hardly going to be as effective, is it? And also - NO-ONE really wants to spend the entire summer in Tucson! Cuz... ugh!

I really hope my postal voting forms arrive soon! Really, really a lot.

Ok, I promise that one day soon I will have a post with pictures again! Of my flat, or of nerdy American linguists, or something... ooh, maybe some non-cactii plant-life? That would be novel! Right now, I have to to go write syntax assignments. I'm doing my final paper on non-configurationality, mainly in the context of aust. languages of course! Of course, I have no real idea of what exactly I plan to say about it, so today's assignment (which is a topic statement for the final paper) may be a teensy bit challenging.

I hope you're all missing me exactly as much as I miss you!