Woo! Last post before my Lenten hiatus.

My 8:00 Algorithms class was eased somewhat today, as my professor brought us all jelly doughnuts. She grew up in a Polish neighborhood where they celebrated Paczki day the day before Ash Wednesday, which is somewhat of the “poor man’s Mardi Gras.” Having no paczki available, Americanized jelly doughnuts had to do, and we had a mini Paczki Day celebration before class started.

A note about auctions: Even though I don’t do the “Sundays doesn’t count” thing, I’ll be posting auctions and links to them on Sundays, so I’ll feel somewhat less intrusive onto my hiatus. Keep your eyes peeled, I need money for that glass color x_x.

Expect these and other updates when I return at Easter:
-SETC
-Spring Break
-Survival of March Crunch

Extraneous Internet Hiatus begins at midnight tonight, so I’ll still be around if you need to reach me up until then.

Now I’m off to fatten myself up. If I’m celebrating Lent this year I may as well be fair and celebrate Mardi Gras as well. Hope the spring starts out wonderfully for everyone, I’ll see you guys at Easter!

I always forget about Lent since I’ve been in college. It was easy to remember going to a Catholic gradeschool and highschool, because you’d be like “oh, it’s Lent!” But not having reminders in college I’d go through half of March thinking “Why are they always serving fish on Fridays? That’s unusu……ohhhhhh.”

Anyway, entirely regardless of religion, I think any period of making a material sacrifice can be an enriching experience if you have the right mindset.

So this year for Lent (since I remembered it), I’m going to give up extraneous internet, which will be a huge challenge, but I think I can pull it off. The terms defining “extraneous” are as follows.

1. I’ll still use it for research, because I can’t get around that, but no leisurely browsings of forums, art sites, chats, Homestarrunner, etc. I’ll probably accomplish this by doing most of my internet research in labs, which provides an environment in which I feel like I have to be doing real work.

2. I’ll keep instant messenger open to people at school and family who may need to contact me for school or family-related business, but otherwise no IM

3. No LJ, neither friends list readings nor updates. The exception is I’ll probably be auctioning off glass to get money to pay for that color, so I’ll likely post a link to the auction as an update.

I think that mostly covers things. This process will have an additional benefit, in that hopefully it will force me to focus more on school and post-graduation planning, which is always very heavy in March. So, if anyone has a drastically important need to contact me, do it by Mardi Gras (that’s Tuesday). I’ll probably do an update Tuesday night.