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[Dec. 26th, 2009|01:32 pm] |
... wow, the last two weeks have been solid blogging. o_o;; XD (Looking at my calendar-thingy and the first two weeks were all patchy-like and the past two weeks were all links... hehe.)
Funny to call it "blogging", really. I think of blogs as things where people have something interesting and informative to say (like political/science/etc. blogging) or BNF-type people who are inherently entertaining. Me? I just blab all the trivia in my life and figure if people don't want to read it, they won't. E-mail, phone calls, that sort of one-on-one "you are obligated to reply to me" type communication is more stressful, I guess, rather than this sort of talking-to-thin-air respond-if-you-feel-like-it kinda thing.
Speaking of blogging, Not Quite Rocket Science (possibly my favorite Scienceblog) did this article about unconscious/free will... patterns of activity in certain parts of our brain can predict the outcome of a decision seconds before we're even aware that we're making one.
It seems natural to think that we carry out actions after consciously deciding to do so. I decide to start typing and as a result, my hands move around a keyboard. But according to modern neuroscience, that feeling of free will may be an illusion. For over twenty years, experiments have suggested that, unbeknownst to us, a large amount of mental processing goes on in unconsciously before we become aware that we intend to act.
I dunno... thinking of the brain as a whole, not as dualistic "mind" and "matter", it's still you making the choice. You, the collection of experiences and genes/epigenetics and a whole lump of brain, of which your "consciousness" is only a minor portion of a greater... I don't want to say clockwork or machine, but that sort of thing, y'know? Why must consciousness be at the top? Free will could just start a bit before you think, in the shiftings and innumerable synapsing of the brain as a whole, or at least as a majority of its parts, in the "unconscious mental processing".
Mrr, but then you get into the ooooold debate of "well what is free will" and then we never get anywhere.
Edit:
Albert might be the one who opens the jars in this house, but I'm the one he calls into the bathroom to kill the cockroaches. >:D
Edit-edit:
What can you see
On the horizon
Why do the white gulls call?
Across the sea
A pale moon rises
The ships have come to carry you home...
Dammit, the Grey Havens still make me choke up every time... T_T |
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| (no subject) |
[Dec. 25th, 2009|02:00 am] |
Just finished watching FotR. God, I've missed it... I managed to refrain from reciting any lines except for Nuclear Galadriel (couldn't help it) and wow, I've forgotten so much crap (I was going Narya... Nenya... Nnnnnnnnnnnnno it's Vilya! Aha!) but I still kept up a running stream of trivia (Watcher in the Water being filmed in a flooded parking lot, Sean Bean's helicopter-phobia, etc.) which freaked Albert out no end... and... just... geez. "Back then". *sigh* I think my 感動 about this film is about 90% nostalgia.
I wonder how many of the poems I can still recite? And man, I've forgotten so much Elvish. Elbereth, to be a pure obsessed fangirl again... (I mean, it's probably not really all that good a thing to be, objectively, but subjectively it feels so damn good)
GONDOR HAS NO PANTS. GONDOR NEEDS NO PANTS.
(EEEEEEEEEEEE IT'S BOROMIR! HI BOROMIR!!!)
Tomorrow, TTT. :D
Edit:
Ohhhh god it's almost 3 and I should go to sleep instead of watching LotR bloopers and cast reels and it's so much weirder having Albert next to me rather than being alone curled up in the big leather rolly chair in the darkness of the computer room with the monitor's glow and Council of Elrond in one window and Youtube in another and Kyhm's and Neopets and oh holy crap |
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| We will settle this WITH SCIENCE |
[Dec. 24th, 2009|11:31 am] |
Poll #1503081 Rice with tomato sauce
Open to: All, detailed results viewable to: All, participants: 18What do people think about eating white rice with pasta sauce on it?
(Feel free to elaborate in the comments) |
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| (no subject) |
[Dec. 24th, 2009|01:46 am] |
So, saw Avatar. Yeah, basically it was Peter Jackson directs: Weyland-Yutani vs. Aborigine Aliens
It's Peter Jackson with a big budget, which means
- epic feel same as Lord of the Rings (well, a bit less)
- Not really original plot with a few cool inventions (the biological Waldo was neat but ultimately unnecessary for the plot).
- lots of special effects, many interesting and unique despite their giant budget
I like how they made many things not perfect or awkward, had the metal-future setting so close to Aliens that I wondered for a second if Weaver was playing Ripley again (tangent: viewscreens in 3d were a pretty cool addition), and how they potrayed Mr. Paraplegic's legs as sticks.
So, basically it's a special effects movie. Not one with a bad plot, or bad characters (okay, the primary antagonist was boring as hell, and a number were mediocre, but many just suffered from sacrificing personal explanation for the epic feel). Just a not particularly original plot, and didn't even try to surprise viewers. |
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| (no subject) |
[Dec. 23rd, 2009|06:45 pm] |
Albert's looking at little plushie keychains to hang off his cellphone if/when he buys this headphone adapter thing - the idea being he'll cut a hole in the plushie, put the adapter in it, and then the fiddly metal clicky bits will be protected. And he finds a lot of Domo-kuns, and other stuff, and then a makkurokurosuke, to which he comments, "I dunno, I'd feel kinda bad slicing it open... I know, I'll give it to you!" Me: "what with my experience with surgery and all-" "Yeah, with your experience in eviscerating small animals!"
( Chrona got me thinking again )
Edit:
I jokingly suggest Albert download "Waterworld", and he finds the Most Complete Version Which Was Only Shown On TV And Never Released which is 171 minutes long.
Him: "Well, you asked for 'Waterworld'!"
Me: "And I will receive it... in abundance?!?! >_< " |
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| (no subject) |
[Dec. 22nd, 2009|02:00 pm] |
oh jeebus fucking Chrona and Soul Eater chapter 19 and most anything to do with Chrona especially that sort of loose wiggly curvy way of motion for some reason but ASDFASDFASDFASDF this whole damn thing why do I read random weird manga anyway
Anyway. Things to do, people to see, Mark to get off the lease... if I leave in the fall I'mma need someone take over the lease, we missed the deadline to make it monthly o_o;; Um. Or we could break it, I dunno. Thinking about moving is kind of amusing in the daydream-sort-of-way and kind of... oh god we have SO MUCH CRAP o_o;; And neither of us have drivers' licenses... @_@
Edit:
Lol, Dr. Huang's out till next week. Whooooooooooo.
Randomly got linked to someone dancing-in-the-hallway-of-a-con video. It really hit home to me - the symptoms of attending Hopkins is pretty much the symptoms of major depression, right? like seriously now. Especially, in this context, "loss of interest in things that used to interest you"... when's the last time I attended a con? Dammit. MUST GO CONNING, FUCK SCHOOL.
Also, aaaawwwwwwwww :D
Edit:
been going down this list all day
Just watched the Saiyuki vid, and come to think of it... I don't know if my mental groupings fit anymore. As in, Sanzo = Shiehan, Goku = Christine, Gojyo = me, Hakkai = Catherine. Been a while. *sigh*
But that's the great thing about Saiyuki, is that you have 4 people who have strong but complex personalities and strong bonds to each other in different ways and can be permuted any which way (which Minekura does in her storylines, and I did once in a drabble sequence, and it's amazing) and... like, with FMA or Getbackers, you get the two main characters and then a bunch of "other characters" of varying main-ness/importance. So it's a different feeling.
And oh man my train of thought was derailed by the Saiyuki Gaiden Caramelldansen and omg dragony dude dancing is so cute and Konzen being cheery-kawaii is CREEPY.
(Trying to explain why I'm so freaked out by the happy blond girly-looking one to Albert was... interesting.) |
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| (no subject) |
[Dec. 21st, 2009|08:59 pm] |
Free internet in the airports thanks to Google. Plane got delayed an hour. BOSTON IS FULL OF FLUFFY SNOOOOOW OMG SO FLUFFY
This metaquotes reminds me of that fangirl freshie in the ACM these days (loud, heedless Daddy's girl and a fangirl of the FF.net variety) - HopSFA was doing the Purity Test a couple months ago and she kept asking if it counted if she fantasized/wrote/masturbated(?) about (whatever question). o_o;;;
Oh yeah, today's the solstice. Happy solstice, people :D
From today's Exceptindreams:
And so the Shortest Day came and the year died
And everywhere down the centuries of the snow-white world
Came people singing, dancing,
To drive the dark away. |
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| (no subject) |
[Dec. 20th, 2009|05:25 pm] |
Hee, I'm in Harvard! XD
Supershuttle got stuck in the snow picking up a guy from the apartment next to ours o_o;; spun our wheels a lot and finally managed to iiiinch along out onto North Charles. Met up with Shiehan at BWI like 15 minutes before she boarded XD and then our plane took foreeeeever to defrost (guy in a cherrypicker cabin spraying the plane down with this pink stuff that looked like barf running down the passenger windows) and finally we got to Boston! And it was cold! And I couldn't remember how I got to the ticket-selling booth thing or the Silver Line last time, so we wandered around quite a bit before hitting an information desk... made our way to Harvard (debating whether to stop at Chinatown to eat, but it was cooooold and snowy and we didn't want to pay the extra $2 apiece to get back into South Station) so we ate at this falafel place and I was like, this all looks familiar, shouldn't there be an IHOP somewhere?? and then when I call Erica and describe my surroundings to her she's like, ok, go around the curve towards the IHOP. And I'm like, "the" IHOP? that we went to after Fourth of July? And she's like yes that one and we manage to meet up (after I overshoot, and poor Albert's carrying around the teeny suitcase with my textbook and our clothes in it) and now I'm in Erica's suite's common room on Albert's laptop (she was logging us into the guest wireless and asked "so what do you use on this computer... Windows? Mac?" and Albert looks at the list and is like, "um, just pretend I'm using Windows." And I'm like, lol, yeah, Opensolaris is almost certainly not on the list...)
Aaaaaaanyway now I have to figure out how I'm getting places tomorrow yey.
And stuff.
Edit:
HOSHIT grades. :D I did better in Grad Sems than I feared! Yay for low standards, or something?
(Seriously, I totally screwed up my presentation and didn't answer the questions on the forum that I was supposed to for, like, ever.)
yaaaaaaaay.
Edit-edit:
Baltimore Node mailing list silliness:
Title: "I have a lot of snow that I would like to donate to the Node."
Body: "Can someone with a large vehicle drop by my house to pick it up?"
XDDDDDDDDDDDDD |
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| (no subject) |
[Dec. 19th, 2009|07:04 pm] |
Nodiatis silliness: "I have one 39 leg and one 48 leg. I have to fix this because it's making me walk in circles."
(I PM him to express my amusement at his statement, and he responds that I really need to look at him, what town am I in? We both end up in T2, and lo and behold, he's apparently transitioning from level 39 epic armor to level 48 epic armor, and the level 39 leg IS shorter than the 48 one. HILARITY. *L-on-head loser*)
Also, snoooooooooooooooooow also staying at home sort of half-cleaning (halfway through cleaning = looks just as messy as before, if not more so, except now the messiness has intention.) also maybe Microbio exam on Tuesday? WHO KNOWS. Gonna study some anyway, print out stuff to bring (also my little baby printer is dead T_T can't eat the paper anymore, sad.)
Also, last night after watching Red Cliff we also watched Where The Wild Things Are, and Albert kept asking how this is possibly a kids' movie, what would actual kids think when watching it? I dunno.
Also, this poem and this poem I like a lot, and can't say why.
OH YEAH I was going to show Albert "The Naming of Parts". >:D *zoom!* |
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| (no subject) |
[Dec. 18th, 2009|11:34 am] |
ASDFASDFASDFASDF
Loyola is declaring snow day on Saturday, and rescheduling the exams to Jan 16.
It's like the world is conspiring against me going to the Hunt.
asdfadsfasdfadsfasdfsd 他媽的
Fucking
I was in the middle of a good studying groove too
asdf
asdf
ok lets see what I can negotiate with the professors...
Edit: Right, it's a 3-day weekend. And they don't want the exam then any more than I do. XD;; Success?
asdf my plaaaaaaaaaaans oh well.
Edit:
Today officially sucks and is full of squish. (我臉皮變的很薄, 有意見嗎??)
( apartment rent massive confusion )
I'M SO CONFUUUUUUUUUUUUUSED
Do I just pay first and ask questions later, or will that hurt me in the future??
I guess since they just sent the letter yesterday, they're not expecting quite so quick turnaround... guess I can have Albert call them on Monday while I'm interviewing, and see what we need to do Tuesday.
Edit:
And yeeeeeeeeeah, Mom's still obsessed with rankings. "Congrats on Massey! What's its rank? How good is this school? Is it rigorous enough???" (Yes, because a single number will tell you how rigorous the school is.) |
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| (no subject) |
[Dec. 17th, 2009|02:16 pm] |
Context: Albert is trying to fix a bug in his e-mail client. I am hungry.
Albert: *bitches about PHP*
Me: "PHP... 好吃嗎?" ("is it good to eat?")
Albert: "No. It is made of poop."
Me: "Delicious, delicious poop?"
Albert: "No. Nasty, nasty poop."
Me: :(
( I would rather make lists than study )
Edit:
ASDAHJALKDSJF;AGJAJDSFLKJDS;LAGHSF OMG OMG OMG OMG OMG
( acceptance to Massey!!!!!!! )
OH GOD NOW WHAT
DO I ENROLL NOW
WHAT DO I DO
HOLY SHIT
Ok... ok... Tufts first. I will interview at Tufts first, and then think about looking at all these forms and crap, and not before
HOLY SHIT HOLY SHIT YESSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSS
omg maybe I should enroll now and think about it later WHAT IF THEY RUN OUT OF SPACES
omgwtf *SPAZZES OUT*
KIWIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIS
Ohh jeebus the nonrefundable deposit is $5000 NZ dollars, which Google tells me is $3548.5 US. Um. Yeah, I'll wait and see how Tufts goes. o_o;;
Edit:
Just finished watching 9. Very pretty, whole thing seemed a bit rushed and railroaded but I didn't feel like there was this clear demarcation of "suck" as one review led me to believe... except the ending was sort of... ( I don't think this is a spoiler? ) But very pretty, and eeee Elijah Wood. XD;; |
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| Random things |
[Dec. 16th, 2009|11:20 pm] |
The fact that I have nails now is starting to become incredibly distracting. Holy crap. The tips of my fingers feel really, really weird.
Also, I have forgotten how to cut my fingernails with a nail clipper, 'cause I've been doing only my toes for all this time. I'm so confused.
Also, why is it that after I finished doing stuff in the lab that I start getting all nervous and "oh god do not want" again? Maybe it's just that the thing was simple and something I could just spend an hour on each day and feel productive and not have to worry about crap... ughuu. And now I'm going to be expected to go in and look all professional-like, and figure out stuff to do and stay busy and get results and oh god do not want.
I'm thinking about only going in half-days. Do I want mornings or afternoons? (Mornings... I don't think I can get Albert to go to sleep early, which is a shitty excuse for waking up late I mean take responsibility for yourself etc but arglblargl) I mean, I'm probably going to end up having to work in the afternoons just because people love taking up the mornings (effing Jong-no) but... aaaaaarglblargl the point of having my PI gone was that I wouldn't have to think about this fuck.
Just one more semester. I can sit in a lab for a semester. And then I'm fucking out of here goddamn.
Also, I'm trying to schedule everything around the Mystery Hunt, and I don't know if it's gonna work. fuck.
god I need to study
and stop whinging about lab
fuck
Edit:
Today's XKCD pretty much sums up anytime Albert (or most ACMers) try to do anything technology-related IRL (i.e. not for an assignment, just, like, setting up a movie to watch on TV... connected to a PS2 (whose power supply was fixed with foam tape) wirelessing through some bootleg code on a USB drive permanently attached to it onto the server that's actually *holding* the movies. Or like Venk splicing together some ridiculous wires thing by hand to play DDR or something.) XD;;;
Also, Intel's "cannonbells" is hilarious.
Kinda wanna go back to living in the ACM. Keeps me sane. Or at least comfortable. |
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| Writer's Block: Password protected |
[Dec. 15th, 2009|12:59 pm] |
This one's actually kind of intriguing.
Best friend: Not very at all, I think. My e-mail is pretty functional; all the interesting stuff is from/on LJ (comments notification), which, well, duh. XD
Albert, though. He doesn't read my LJ and isn't interested in LJ at all ("livegerbils") and he's one person I'm explicitly *not* writing for, in my concept of my audience. A bit like this is a safe space from him... well, that sounds kind of bad. Like, this is an outgrowth of my mind that he doesn't enter into unless I let/make him. And I kinda like that.
Also, I haven't been telling him details about the whole James Choi thing for a while now because it gets him even more irritated towards James than he already tends to be... so I guess if he read James's e-mails/my replies/the LJ entries that'd be something? I dunno.
Edit: (apropos of nothing here)
Imaginary Fb status: "is learning to say 'no'." XD;;; |
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| (no subject) |
[Dec. 14th, 2009|12:36 pm] |
Mistakes were made.
(Firstly, I decided I should get a head start on my research and started a cell culture, except I screwed up, but also it's just overall fail because today the "omgnotquitepanic" kicked in again and so... well, just thinking about research is like a jolt of caffeine, makes me completely awake and unable to lie back and go back to sleep and at least I'm not waking up scared but I *would* like to not keep waking up at all...
Secondly, UPenn rejected me. Gooooood morning.
Now to draft the obligatory "how can I improve" e-mail...
I mean, rejection stings, of course, but it would've mostly been a safety net anyway... now I just *really* must not screw up with Tufts.)
Grappling with the idea that hey, maybe I really won't have anywhere to go next year.
Well, I know I'm going to gtfo of Hopkins. And in a way, it's a relief - a softening of the brick wall. Masters deadline is still there, but at least I can see a little ways beyond it instead of the year suddenly ENDING *KERTHUD* like a ton of bricks.
Could stay in Baltimore. Might move and shoot for in-state residency at... probably Tufts, really, unless I wanted to go to New Zealand XD
Also, thank Elbereth for Dr. Torres. :3 |
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