July 12, 2014

Thanks to being up until almost four o'clock in the morning I ended up sleeping until sometime. It was either ten or eleven o'clock. I can't remember but I woke up feeling like I had missed half the day. Not that I would have really done anything worthwhile with those few extra hours. Today wasn't really a waste though. Things were done.

After exercising (something I need to get back to doing on a more regular basis) I left the house. I went and got a Powerball ticket and then went across town to get more needles for cross stitching. I have several different sizes but only one of the size that I like. At one point I lost it so I couldn't cross stitch for a few days. So, I figured I would get some more before I lost the one I had for good. I found the right thickness but they only had longer ones that are more pointy. The one I use is short and slightly blunt so I don't have to worry about drawing blood when I poke myself. I ended up getting the longer ones for backup but I'll keep my eyes open for blunt ones. I also got a sketchpad because who knows, I might start drawing.

I also stopped by Staples because I wanted to get 0.3mm pencil lead and they didn't have it at Hobby Lobby. They also didn't have it at Staples but I got a couple 0.9mm pencils and a ruler. When I use a mechanical pencil I generally use 0.5mm because I write really small and lead that is any bigger makes my writing even harder to read. I got the 0.9mm pencils to draw with. I'm going to have to keep looking for the 0.3mm lead. I'm thinking maybe one of the university bookstores because I would think engineering students probably need small lead. Also, Staples has at some point in the recent past rearranged their store. Awhile ago they made the store smaller, which is something I think was being done at most Staples stores. I was never a big fan of the layout, before or after the downsize, but the new layout feels a lot better. It is hard to describe but I think it works a lot better.

I caught up on all of my YouTube videos today and that is pretty exciting because I've been battling my Watch Later list for awhile now. I can now take a break and watch something on Netflix or Hulu or Amazon or other things. Maybe even a kick it old school and go with a DVD. While I was watching all of those videos I made a few cross stitch patterns for different hearts. I didn't actually create the patterns, I found pictures online, and I made them into patterns that are easier to use than the pictures. I'm not sure when I'll get around to those but I think they'd be a lot of fun to actually stitch.

Today as the World Cup game between the Netherlands and Brazil to determine third place. It was a good game for the Netherlands but Brazil couldn't make anything happen. It didn't help that the referee kept making strange calls, even when they were in Brazil's favor. The Netherlands went up a goal in the first two minutes after one of the Brazil defenders (their team captain who missed the last match because he had accumulated two yellow cards in previous games) pulled Robben down right on the edge of the box. The defender more than likely prevented a goal scoring opportunity, which means he should have gotten a red card but instead he got a yellow card. Maybe the referee didn't want to make Brazil play the whole match with ten players. It also should have been a free kick on the edge of the box but it was pretty close so it ended up being a penalty kick, which went in the goal. Not too much later the Netherlands scored again. But not before Robben got a yellow card, maybe for diving, but for once he was actually fouled and shouldn't have gotten a yellow card. It seemed like the referee was maybe trying to prevent him from falling all over the place during the rest of the game. He still did but it has been worse. In the second half he did give a yellow card to a Brazilian player for diving but it was another suspect call. The Dutch defender stuck is leg out and the Brazilian player fell over his leg, maybe literally diving to try and avoid full impact with the leg, but contact was still made and the defender ended up having to leave the game with an injured leg. Diving is going down when you shouldn't. In this case, contact was obviously made so it obviously wasn't a dive. I can't imagine this game happened earlier in the World Cup that we would see this referee again. They shouldn't really make themselves a part of the game and this one definitely made his presence known. The Netherlands ended up scoring one more time near the end of the game, beating Brazil 3 to 0. Brazil completely imploded in their last two games. Kind of sad to watch. They shouldn't have made it as far as they did and that just made their complete unraveling that much harder to watch.

Lastly, I got a letter yesterday informing me that I had been selected for the new graduate student scholarship I applied for. The director told me she thought everyone who applied most likely got it as long as there was money left, so I don't think the bar was set too high, but I still got it. It is for $500 which isn't a whole lot of money when it comes to tuition but it is $500 more than I had to start with. I'm not complaining.