July 4, 2015

 This morning I somehow managed to wake up early enough to run on the elliptical and take a shower before my group meeting. I had to take a nap after the meeting but I woke up early, so there.

The meeting went well. It was kind of weird at the beginning just because I've never done anything like it. I've spectated webinars and web conferences before but I've never actually participated, not in chat or with a webcam. But it wasn't that bad. And it was a lot better than trying to communicate with people through emails. We talked about things and got things rolling and we plan on meeting again next weekend. By then we should have the website divided up so sometime this week I can maybe make a decent start on whatever pages I end up with. The real work will be in coming up with the design in CSS.

The meeting ended suddenly because there is a 45-minute limit on free web meetings. And by suddenly, I mean someone was in the middle of talking. Awkward. Immediately after that there were a few emails sent to get everyone different Google Docs so we were all on the same page. I participated in that by figuring out how we could could edit our HTML pages online. I originally sent everyone the pages through a Dropbox link but that isn't really an online option because they would have to download everything to their computer, make their changes, and re-upload them. And it turns out you can't edit HTML documents directly in Google Docs. You have to use a third-party app. I re-uploaded the pages to my Google Drive, figured out how to do all the HTML editing stuff, shared the files with my group, and explained how they could actually edit them. It took me awhile to get it all sorted but I did and I'm kind of surprised that it didn't take me longer. In the end, though, I will probably do most of my editing with the Brackets editor that I currently use and then copy and paste that code into the Google Docs files, rather than using the online editor. It is cool but I like Brackets better.

In other school news, this afternoon I read a couple articles. But that's about it. I've still got a lot of reading to do this week. Which means I have a lot of reading to do tomorrow. Along with submitting my grant proposal update. And maybe writing my reflective journal entries from the past two weeks (but probably not). And also the discussion post that is due by Monday. My time management still has some kinks.

Tonight I went out on the back deck with my mom again to watch fireworks. Who needs to spend lots of money on fireworks when your neighbors do that for you. I took a few pictures but then I had to put my phone away and go to constantly moving my hands around because they were getting eaten alive by mosquitoes while I tried to hold my phone still. I ended up getting bitten five or six times on my hands and two or three times on my head and face. Lots of fun. But the fireworks were cool.

I watched two movies today. I started with If I Stay because I want to read the book and I wanted to see the movie. I haven't read the book yet but I watched the movie anyway. It was good but very sad, which is what I expected. Not really a fan that it kind of ended abruptly but I know there is a second book, so they probably are setting it up for another movie.

I also watched The Spectacular Now. Another good but sad movie with a somewhat unresolved ending. Not sure how I managed two of those in a row. I liked the humor of the movie, all due thanks to the lead actor, Miles Teller, who is really funny. His quick delivery reminds me a lot of Vince Vaughn. At some point I also want to read the book that the movie is based on. There were a couple things that I felt were kind of dealt with quickly that I am hoping are more developed in the book. I probably won't get around to it for another year, when I am finally done with school, but it's on my list.