Friday, December 21, 2007
Wowie!
In any case, I'm well prepared for my test tomorrow as long as I can stay awake and focused for the thing. Luckily, I only need a 80 percent or so to get a good grade.
Thursday, December 20, 2007
On your mark, Get set. . .
So today is the day of the library marathon. I arrived here at 7:00 this morning as they opened and I plan to stay all day till they close at 2am tonight. (Tomorrow morning?) I'm not sure what I will be doing all day yet, but I have a few ideas.
My first is to find some corner somewhere and sleep a little.
Monday, December 17, 2007
Poorly prepared
I also did laundry this morning.
And I have chocolate milk.
This hasn't been such a bad morning after all.
Friday, December 14, 2007
Readability
I was thinking it was because he uses bigger words, but I just checked the readability of Annie's blog:
I don't understand why it makes hers more difficult. Hmm.
Tuesday, December 11, 2007
Many ideas
I really should work on this whole pleasant thoughts thing.
Friday, December 7, 2007
Things I just never quite got down in my youth
Cardinal directions
Telling time on a clock with hands
Alfredo vs. Marinara sauce
Writing with down- and not up-strokes
Multiplying by 7
Saturday, December 1, 2007
Violence and me
It doesn't necessarily have to be me doing the mean things in my imagination though. Every Tuesday, a few friends and I do our econ homework on the balcony of the Terrace in the Wilk, and every week, they announce the Terrace is closing that everyone needs to leave. Without fail, there are always several people who have to be told several times and that they need to leave. Last Tuesday, I thought it would be a much more effecting technique to hire a squad of BB-gun snipers to encourage sluggish deserters to gather up their things a little quicker.
I don't think that I'm a very violent person. The only time I can remember losing control and hitting someone was once when I hit my younger brother after he dropped a really big book on my bare foot. (Sorry about that.) I don't even like violent movies (unless it's artistic choreographed violence, like West Side Story). The most violent game I played growing up was WarCraft, which really isn't that bad I think.
I used to think that it was normal; you know, one of the manly urges when you just gotta kill something, (fix things, cook outdoors, . . .) but after talking to my roommates, I'm beginning to think otherwise. They seem to have imaginations about what they would do if someone broke into the house or jumped them spontaneously (which is good that they exists when there are people like me who just might).
In any case, it turns out that I'm an awful person. Oh, well. As long as I don't actually do any of those things, I don't think anyone is allowed to throw me in jail.
Sunday, November 25, 2007
"The goose is getting fat."
I should've seen it coming though. We started Christmas music in my choir about two weeks ago.
So I've decided that I'm going to stick a little wishlist on the side of my blog here. Then anyone who wants to access it can and I can edit it whenever and where ever I want. Genius!
Saturday, November 24, 2007
A retort
Pros:
Jamba Juice: Although I didn't make it up to campus today to buy a Jamba Juice, I'm certain that I would've loved it. Instead I've been slurping up cup-fulls of 7-up. It actually works wonders for an upset stomach as it turns out. I threw up 3 times this morning between the hours of 4 and 7, but then I got some 7-up and I'm feeling much better. When my stomach starts to churn, I start sipping a very small cup-full and by the time I'm done with the cup, my stomach feels better. I'd highly recommend it. (Word of warning: I can imagine that drinking too much to quick though might actually make things worse. I claim no responsibility for a person who tries out this method and has rotten things happen to them.)
Naps: Again, I would've loved to take a nap, but I'm aching all over and have been unable to fall asleep. Oh well. I guess that the option was there.
People take care of you: I've had lots of people do lots of nice things for me, or at least offer to. I thought that it was really great of people to take care of me even if I might be really crabby.
Cons:
It's unpleasant: Here, here.
Throwing up: I'd have to say that this is where I disagree most with Branmuff. As much as I'd like to maintain my girlish figure, vomiting is painful. I think that it's the worse when there is nothing in your stomach and you vomit anyways. If I hadn't thought that it would be really messy and incredibly unsanitary, I probably would've just given up on the toilet and laid out flat on the bathroom floor. I was exhausted and sweaty and smelly and unhappy.
I'm happy to report though that I'm feeling a lot better now than I was this morning thanks to my loving family and a bottle of 7-up. I'm hoping to be on my feet again tomorrow.
Friday, November 23, 2007
"Are you serious?"
Crolace: I am the queen of multiple choice.
me: I do really poorly on multiple choice
I much prefer short answer
Crolace: Unfortunately, it's not a useful skill once you leave school.
me: Unless you are on "The Price is Right"
Crolace: Or Who Wants to Be a Millionaire?
me: Yep
Maybe you should do that
I'm more of a Jeopardy sort of guy
Except that I'm no good at that either
Crolace: Jeopardy is short answer.
Short Question.
me: Short hard question
Crolace: Have you ever noticed that the questions never REALLY go with the answers?
me: I think they do a little bit
Crolace: Like, if I said to you, "Who is George Washington?"
Would you say, "This 18th century military leader had wooden teeth."?
I don't think you would.
me: If I didn't know anything else about him I might
Crolace: Would you say it in that way though?
me: Not so much
Crolace: They should phrase the clues more like, "He was the guy with the wooden teeth."
me: But then it could be Pinocchio
Crolace: Yeah, then they could accept either answer.
me: It would become a little more like family feud
except for no family
Crolace: Actually, if I asked someone, "Who is George Washington?"
They'd probably say, "Are you serious?"
They should have a jeopardy clue that just says, "Are you serious?"
me: Then it could still be Pinocchio
Crolace: And the person who says the most ridiculous question wins.
It would be for that round where everyone writes their answer on that blue thing.
me: I think it's a good idea
Children's rights
An exerpt from a chat with Crolace:
Crolace: I think he just needs to think about what he wants to do.
It might almost be a good thing for him to go on academic probation.
Maybe he could join the circus.
me: He is very small.
Crolace: Ask him if he wants to be a lion tamer.
me: He could probably hide in a bottle
or a carpet.
Crolace: Tell him if he doesn't start going to class, you'll wrap him in a carpet, stuff him in a bottle, and feed him to the lions.
That'll light a fire under him.
Not literally.
me: I think that that is the best plan yet
Perhaps the fire would be a good idea too though.
Crolace: Whatever it takes.
me: Children don't have the same rights as normal people do
I think that I could get away with it
Crolace: I think the laws are such that you can get away with less stuff with children than with adults.
Ask Portia, she the criminal defense lawyer.
me: Good idea
Crolace: Say, "Is it illegal to feed someone to a lion, even if they're just a minor?"
"What if you wrap them in a carpet first?"
me: I wonder if she ever came across any cases of Peer Mentors putting children into rugs and then bottles then feeding them to a lion and then lighting the lion on fire.
Do you think you'd get in more trouble for feeding the kid to a lion...
or lighting a lion on fire?
Crolace: If there isn't any precedent, then I think anything goes.
I think you get in the most trouble for doing stuff to kids.
Animals come next,
then regular people,
then criminals.
me: Even if it helps the lion?
Crolace: Doesn't matter if it helps the lion,
Kids are at the top of the totem pole.
Again, not literally.
me: If they were, probably someone would get it trouble
Crolace: So true.
me: but not as much trouble if they had put a lion on the totem pole
Crolace: No, more trouble with the kid.
That's what I'm saying.
me: I should've written "as if"
the other way sounds like it's OK to put the kid up there if there is a lion there too
Crolace: Nothing could be further from the truth.
It's bad to put a kid up there,
but it's worse if you leave him up there with a lion.
If you're going to put someone on the top of a literal totem pole, it should be a criminal, because they are at the bottom of the figurative totem pole.
Wednesday, October 31, 2007
Registration
If only I felt like I could survive those Mondays.
Sunday, October 21, 2007
The meaning
the means of finding the mean of meanness.
I thought it was just great.
Monday, October 15, 2007
Scadalous Comments
Unfortunately, by filter blocked your comments. As it turns out, one of you used the words "free" and "sex" in the same paragraph. I managed to eventually bypass the filter and add my blog to the list of exceptions. It turns out that the perpetrator was mlh who said:
Not that this has anything to do with impressing members of the opposite sex, but do you want to come be in the test audience for DC? It's free and on Wednesday.
Scandalous! It's a good thing my filter protects me from such risqué comments.
Wednesday, October 10, 2007
Look, a poll
Much data
"Are you doing your hair differently?"
"You look really good today."
And the best one, referring to my new do, "It looks really hot."
To another girl, I was explaining my current experiment and mentioned that eventually no girl will be able to keep her hands off of me, and she said "I'm already struggling," and then she stroked my shoulder. (I think though that this data point might be a bit biased since I brought it up myself, so I can't include it with the other 3.)
This has been going so well that I've decided to start working out too and I'll see how that goes for me. I went jogging on Tuesday and played racquetball today. Oh, the things we do to secure a woman.
More info coming later. . .
Friday, October 5, 2007
Our irrational fears
It doesn't help that I have in intense fear of alarms and the things that set them off. This especially applies to those detector things that you walk through. Every time I enter the library, I pretty much have to close my eyes and run through the sensors if I intend to get past the security guards. It's worse when I know I'm carrying around a pocket knife or something (I know they are not metal detectors, but just the same. . .) If I'm leaving a building and one of the doors has written on it that after hours, an alarm will sound, I'll use the other door. Even in the middle of day. Even if I saw someone walk out the door a second before. I think that I would probably never fly if I thought there was a reasonable alternative.
I think that this stems from an early childhood experience at the library where I unknowingly passed through one of these sensors into an area that seemingly had no exit. The alarm screamed for a few seconds and then stopped, and then I found myself stuck with my contraband library book in an abandoned hallway. I didn't know what to do. If I walked through the passage, the alarm would sound again, but there was no way out. Eventually, a kind librarian showed up and rescued me, and now I find myself terrified of setting off alarms at every moment.
I guess it may seem irrational, but someday when I walk our of some grocery store with a forgotten pack of gum in the bottom of my cart, and as the alarm is set off, I get tackled and dragged off to prison, they perhaps you will understand. Meanwhile, I'll keep running through the entrance of the library.
Enlightening quote
Aristotle
The Nicomachean Ethics
Monday, October 1, 2007
Look, I read too
Perhaps I should put some more things on my list. If I read the first page of several lengthy Russian novels, that might add to my growing reputation.
Sunday, September 30, 2007
ORCA ideas
What sorts of applesauces mold the fastest?
Why don't people eat lungs?
Women over 60 on the crusades.
Frequency and causes of in/near-bed fatalities.
The effect of hair gel on social life.
Tuesday, September 25, 2007
Bran Muffin Goodness
Thank you and good night.
Wednesday, September 19, 2007
Sing, sing, sing
Saturday, September 15, 2007
Dancing and destruction
In any case, I was perhaps a little too aggressive last night. I managed to shatter the face of my watch and slice my arm open. Oddly enough, I don't know how I did either of them or if they are related. I was just standing there and felt that there was a crack on the front of my watch, and all of a sudden the whole face crumbled into my fingers.
I didn't even notice that I was injured until I got home and saw blood trickling down my arm. I guess that makes it sound more violent than it in fact was; there was only a little bit, but I like that fact that I have battle wounds from the dance floor.
Perhaps I should be more careful.
Sunday, September 9, 2007
Here it comes
I guess the good thing about all of this is that I have no expectations. I'll be happy with pretty much anything.
Saturday, August 25, 2007
Oh, the bitter irony
I had been considering calling things off for a while before it actually happened. I was enjoying myself, but I was also realizing that it wasn't really going anywhere. In the long-term, it just wouldn't have worked out.
In any case, last Sunday my roommate came home thoroughly depressed. He had been dating a certain girl for a while who he was relatively sure he wanted to marry, and she had broken up with him. I felt bad for the chap and offered to take him out to dinner that week. It actually turned out to be Tuesday's lunch, and as he thanked me for buying his food, I said mostly in jest, "Don't worry. My girlfriend will probably break up with me tonight and you can buy me lunch sometime."
A few hours later, I was walking home with her, and she turned to me and said "There's something that I need to talk to you about." Really not that surprised, I responded "I know." More surprised than me I suppose, she said "You do?" And a few minutes later, we were no more.
At the time, it didn't really have an effect on me. It's only be recently that I've been looking back and noticing how attached I was even though I didn't really realize it. The biggest sign of any sort of abnormality is that I've been doing more things on whims and especially buying things. I've had some lonely times, but I sure that I'll be relieved and back to normal pretty quick.
Meanwhile, I'm sitting here alone on a quiet Saturday night.
Thursday, July 19, 2007
Oh where, oh where has my sister's bike gone...
Yesterday was one of those busy days where you wake up and don't stop running until you go to bed at 12:30 or thereabouts. In the midst of this whirlwind, I had a voice lesson. It's a good 20 minutes away on foot, so I planned on biking there which is about 5 to 10 minutes away. Unfortunately, when I arrived at the bike rack where I park my bike, I could not find it. To make matters worse, it is not actually my bike but the bike of my sister that I am borrow for the summer while she is away.
I looked around for the remains of the lock that perhaps had been cut through and abandonned. It would've taken some heafty clippers because I had locked it up with a heafty U-lock. Finding no trace, I started racing to my voice teacher's home and called my dad to see if he had a car on campus that I could borrow. He didn't, but he had his bike and kindly let me borrow it. I sped to my lesson arriving only 5 minutes late.
Afterwards, I had my dance class and so rather than return the bike right away, I took to my class and locked it up in the racks there. As I gathered my stuff together after locking the bike up again, I noticed something not so far away: I saw my sister's bike locked up and forgotten from last week when I road my bike to my lesson and dance class, and then didn't think about it again till yesterday.
Sunday, July 15, 2007
right vs. wrong vs. ...
What prompted this question was a conversation with a friend about whether it's appropriate to teach kids physics that we know is false even if it relatively accurately describes how things are. She is convinced that it should be laid out as it is from the start, but I'm not so sure. I don't think that young kids can really grasp the idea of several rights or answers that are close enough to the truth that they are useful.
The fact is that there are very few absolute truths in the world, but children don't yet have the tools or experience to really grasp that. Neither do many adults though. Hmm.
Sunday, July 1, 2007
Food glorious food
My classes start early in the morning, so to avoid waking up earlier than necessary, I eat just a little really quickly. I was unkind to myself this term, and I usually am in classes or meetings straight until 3 or 4 in the afternoon. If I remember, I bring a nectarine with me and eat it between classes, but in the end, it happens about 50% of the time. Last semester I was alright though because I was part of a dinner group. I could at least be sure of getting one good meal a day. Last week due to finals week, all dinner groups were canceled. Because many people moved out of the complex, they haven't started back up yet. I try to eat something in the evening, but proabably three quarters of the time that I make anything at all, I just make chips and cheese.
I do drink lots of chocolate milk though.
Saturday, June 30, 2007
"It fits!" "It fits?"
I started this quest at DI trying to find something cheap but made for dancing. As one might expect, there wasn't anything particullarly helpful there. I decided that rather than spend a bunch of money on dance shoes that I might never use again, I'd spend lots of money of dress shoes that I could use for my class and then for special occasions after that.
Something I've learned: shoes are pricey! Especially dress shoes with leather soles. I wandered around a few department and shoe stores not really finding anything, but then I saw Mr Mac and decided to try it out. The Shoe Man was busy helping some prospective missionary so I mosied a bit looking at what they had. There were a few that looked nice, but at similar prices to what I had seen before. After a few minutes, I noticed a clearance table and wondered if there was anything interesting.
Kinda tucked into the middle of everything there, I saw a pair that was my size and that looked nice. I tried them on and they even fit well. (This is particularly amazing, because very few shoes actually fit comfortably.) I decided to discretely practice some of the Fox Trot moves that I had learned and at one point as I brought my feet together, there was a sharp clack. I can click my heels with these new shoes! And it's not just a wimpy click; it's a hearty, bright click. I was immediately sold and now they are sitting here in front of me at home. It was a pretty exciting moment.
I odd thing that I'm realizing now though is that I have more pairs of shoes that I have pairs of pants. I don't think that I have an excess of shoes because they are all for very practical purposes, but maybe I have too few pairs of pants. Or perhaps I've never really considered the pants/shoes ratio and in fact it about right. Hmm.