...y'all.

So I'm thinking that the daily updating has run its course. Not that I'm not thankful for new things every day, but often recently it's gotten to the end of the day and I realise that I don't have a photo and then I make something up/take a random photo and I don't think that's the point.
I'll still post here. Just not every day probably.
Today I'm thankful for my readers/commenters. That's you. It's nice to know that someone's seeing my photos and all of your comments have been wonderful and inspiring.
Have a great evening :)

...finishing my thesis!

I am SO thankful it's over. I was in such a hurry to hand it in that I even forgot to take a photo of the memorable event. Instead, please enjoy the view of some drafts, text books and other fun pieces of paper I've been carrying around in my honours folder for the last 8 months.

...engineering at utas.

There's a certain camaraderie that comes from studying in a smallish school of a smallish university. You've all had classes together, loved and loathed the same lecturers, failed the same tests. I'm going to miss it.

...a wake-up call.

I don't have a cool picture (ED. Yeah I do.) sorry. I guess that means I fail the whole picture a day thing. I have a story though...

We had presentations and demonstrations for honours today. Mine went pretty well, I think. There were 3 projects in my section, and it turns out there's a prize. It was pretty clear who was going to win, though we were all doing the classic Aussie talk-yourself-down thing. But, even though I spent the whole time saying 'nah, I'm not going to get the prize,' there was this part of me thinking, 'I've worked hard on this project. Maybe I will win. Maybe...'

I didn't win. The project that did was great (they all were really). And for a bit I was actually kinda upset. That's weird, I thought.
Then tonight our bible study discussion topic thing at youth group was addiction. We were talking about all the different things you can be addicted to and the reasons behind them. Someone brought up being addicted to the approval of others.
Bam.
It hit me.
As much as I say it, as much as I tell myself I don't really care what other people think of me... I'm still really addicted to approval. As much as I know in my head that God's is the only opinion that matters (and I know he loves me), I want people to acknowledge when I do good stuff. To like me. I want to be called out from the crowd, to get a silly certificate I'll never look at again. I am totally addicted to the feeling of the world calling me special.

So yeah. I guess that's something I really need to work on. Realising that I am special and that I don't need the world to tell me that. That my work doesn't need to be rewarded with accolades all the time. And I need Jesus to 'quench my thirst', to fulfil that desire in me, as cliche as that might sound, because he's the only one who can.
I don't know if I've explained this very well, but I'm thankful for the wake-up calls God sends me. I don't want to doze my way through life. Also sorry if this seems preach-y or anything. It's not. It's just how I feel.

...good friends.

I'm so thankful for my amazing friends and how amazing they've been during the final stressy thesis-ing. People have cheered me up/on, cooked me food, made my poster look pretty and even waded through 30 pages of engineering waffle to make it sound like real words. I wouldn't have a thesis without them!

...little things.

I walked out the front door instead of the back door today and noticed these pretty flowers. I got a straight run of green lights through the city with no silly cars making me slow down. I think it's the little things that make a day good.

...USB sticks.

So handy. I think my first one was 128Mb? Maybe. Or maybe 128Kb. Small anyway, compared to the 4Gb sticks I have now. And I thought it was so cool! But yeah. Very helpful. So thankful I don't have to try and split my thesis onto multiple floppy disks or anything.

Lol. Floppy disks.

...Scilab.

As much as I complain about it sometimes not working on my computer*, I am so thankful for scilab. My thesis graphs are starting to look good, and it's heaps easy to write new bits into the code when I need to. Open source = awesome.


*Which is probably mostly because of my computer, not scilab

...caramel apple cupcakes.

If you've started talking to yourself/your thesis, I thoroughly recommend a break to make cupcakes. These taste awesome. Best of all, when I went back to my thesis, the heading numbering magically decided to work properly.

...toasted sandwiches.

With cheese and bolognese, these are the yummiest, easiest lunch ever. Are they actually called jaffles? I get confused.

...twitterchat.

I know it's not really how you're meant to use Twitter or whatever, but it's kinda fun having 5 simultaneous conversations that random people interject in and that you can leave and come back to at any time.
On a slightly more serious note, I'm thankful that it's so easy to stay in touch with people. Letter writing has its charms, but there's no way I'd still be in contact with half of my friends in America if we relied on letters.

...White Box Noodles.

Quick, ridiculously close to my house and soooo good.

...variety.

There are so many possible routes to uni from my house. Sometimes I pretend I'm pacman and I have to collect all the dots during a week's worth of walkings. Haven't quite figured what the ghosty things would be.

Yes, I realise I am weird.

...being fearfully and wonderfully made.

Jess and I read Psalm 139 this afternoon. It's an incredible thought that I sort of skip over a lot of the time, when I'm feeling crappy about something or other. God, who made sunsets and rainbows and millions of different pretty flowers and chocolate and tea and so many other amazing things... also made me.

Seriously, what is there to feel crappy about?

PS. Those are some of the hairs on my head (we also read Luke 12:7), in case you were wondering why I spent 5 minutes trying to get an unblurry photo of the back of my noggin.

...driving with the windows down.

Will forever remind me of summer in Tennessee; four girls singing loudly to embarrassing songs on our way to fun adventures.

...scheduled time off.

An hour off to sit in the sun and read makes a whole day of study bearable. I'm thankful I can still do this without feeling mega-guilty.

...Spring.

And the reminder that not all Spring days are moody and/or windy. I'm thankful for such a beautiful day!

...ticking the boxes.

Had a big presentation this afternoon. I'm thankful it's over. One more task complete in the countdown to the end of semester!