Funny Saying of the Week

Last night I stayed up later than intended and I was very tired. I also needed to get up early (for me) in the morning.

When I came out to say good night to my mom, I said

"Well, I'll be one tired kiddo tomorrow, but I suppose that's better than being two tired kiddos."

Get some sleep. . .

Solved: Windows 8 DELL Inspiron 11 3000 series Screen Brightness Not Adjusting

Here is the process I followed when my screen brightness would not adjust in response to using the buttons on the keyboard, the slider in the settings side tab, or the slider in the power plan section:

Go to the Control Panel

Go to Hardware and Sound

Go to Device Manager under Devices and Printers

Go to Display Adapters
- Click on the item under that heading (In my case, the Intel(R) HD Graphics Family)

Go to the Driver tab in the little window that pops up

Click disable driver (the screen will flash)

Re-enable the same driver (the screen will flash again)

Restart the computer


Et voila! My screen brightness was adjustable for the first time in ages!

Frittata - Served With Lightning

In the midst of our post-Christmas discount candy overload, today I made myself a vegetable frittata for probably the first time. Previously I have made mashed up vegetable quesadillas. At this present time, I like this type of thing much better than plain eggs, plain quesadillas, or cheese omelettes, the latter of which I have never liked. It could have used some more lettuce.

Vegetable Frittata - 3 eggs, 1/4 orange bell pepper, shredded romaine lettuce,
some salt (even though I haven't been salting stuff)

It has been rainy all day and for the last half-hour or so we have had a thunder spell with lightning and huge rain drops, possibly with tiny hail. Our extremely sparse snowfall this winter is apparently an effect of the current El Niño phase.

Happy New Year!

Happy New Year, Everybody!

I wasn't think about New Year's much toward the end of 2015. Staying up after midnight is no longer novel experience for me and I actually began to think of going to bed early on New Year's Eve. Instead, we watched two movies, watched the ball drop on TV, lit our leftover Chanukah candles outside in the shape of "2016" and went to bed close to 1 a.m..

We have barely gotten any snow and the weather has just turned brisk.

Both of my hermit crabs are still alive, and so are the plants I didn't water all semester.

There is hope of getting my room more organized.

My job begins again tomorrow.

Two keys from my laptop are not currently connected to the keyboard of said laptop.

I am not doing any New Year's resolutions, but I am making some notes on things I've learned which would be good to keep in mind.

As of today I think I have submitted everything I need to for my application to Bard. I also got my final grades/crite sheets for CHEM 201 and JS 101, which were both good. Yay!

On with math, physics and English, et cetera!

Best,
Silvie

School's Out! - Kind Of

My semester officially ended yesterday at about 1:10 pm after finished my Organic 1 Final. On Wednesday I took my JS final.

Now we crack into the writing and other unfinished portions of my college application. . .

And I do massive amounts of home-school work over winter intersession. . .

And then work starts again in January. . .

And then the Spring Semester begins February with Organic 2 and Calculus 1!!!

The Haircut - Before and After - And During

On Wednesday I got my pony tail cut off to donate to Locks of Love at A Razor's Edge in Kingston. This may be the only time my hair grows/I let it grow long enough to do so. I ended up getting my first ever salon haircut (nothing fancy). I hadn't actually had my hair cut for at least a year and it had grown very quickly in the last few months. It seems that I can do relatively short hair when the front is left longer. Here are some picture (not the greatest, mind you) from before and after - and during.

Before - With a braid

Before - Just plain
(it's curly because of the braid)

Before - With a ponytail

Before - With a bun

And Here It Comes:

Ta-Da!

And Just After:

Maybe I'll add some pictures of what I can do with my short hair later. It feels pretty nice and I wonder if it will have an impact on headache frequency. No more getting my hair stuck in under my backpack straps and zipping it into coats! I might have to start saving up money for haircuts if I like it so much. Some day I need to figure out how to fix my posture, too. Up next, we'll see how people react to the new look - I didn't tell anyone other than my family.

- Silvie

What I Did Over Thanksgiving Break

Here are the main things I did over what I considered my main Thanksgiving break:

- Read a 2015 article in Nature about human utilization of honeybees as measured by the presence of A. mellifera wax detected by GCMS analysis of potsherds

- Took the Bard Math Placement Diagnostic

- Totally didn't touch any school work for two entire days

- Slept in and, somewhat sadly, stayed up late too

- Got my haircut

- Read a 2009 World Allergy Organization Journal article on the pathology of nonallergic rhinitis

- Looked up genealogical records for my family

- Kind of watched part of the Macy's parade on TV

- Ate Thanksgiving Dinner!

- Ate Thanksgiving Dessert!

- Watched Inside Out

Now I am getting on to preparing for my last three weeks of the semester. I have reading, a paper, and chemistry study to work on.

:  )

- Silvie

Счастливого Дня Благодарения!

Happy Thanksgiving!

We indeed have much to be grateful for.

4 weeks to go!

Incredibly, the semester already is drawing to a close - only four weeks remain, entailing some classes, two quizzes, a lab, a paper, a chemistry exam, a Jewish studies final exam, and several concerts. After that - college application material, home school, and lots of other stuff (I hope that will include getting extra sleep). Currently, we are in midst of the pre-Thanksgiving shuffle - we have a quiz and a lab report due before Turkey Break!

I'll try to at least make something for the Chanukah art show.

: )

- Silvie

The Weather

It has rained quite a bit this week. A few minutes ago some really huge raindrops were falling. A couple mornings I have walked out the door not realizing it was wet outside.