| Beta contact info |
[Nov. 27th, 2005|04:34 pm] |
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For those who wish to contact me for betaing outside of the naruto_betas community. Please leave a message, and I will get back to you on how we'll proceed. This is just a privacy thing to avoid having my e-mail and such spread across the universe. Thanks. |
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| (no subject) |
[Apr. 15th, 2005|07:02 pm] |
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Crap, if I didn't know better, I'd say that a sugar-crazed five-year-old with no sense of modesty had moved in for the last two posts. Or, at least, briefly taken over during bouts of utter lassitude, turpitude and other such laziness. I did, however, in the intervening times learned a new word, schadenfreude: enjoyment obtained in the troubles of others. German origin, I believe.
Once again, this is an "I'm not dead yet!" post. Though I may be so soon, or at least brain-dead. The dreaded final exams start Monday.
Unfortunatly, I suspect the liberal application of specific organic solvents (ethanol) immediately before the exam will not help pass my organic chemistry final, even if it is the easiest practical application of the course. Though now that I think on it, there was one guy who tried to boost his midterm grade by slamming a Kokanee ("to help take the edge off") about three minutes before the prof walked into the room several weeks ago. I don't know if it helped. Ah, Chuck. Brilliant, but possibly the sense of a gnat. |
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| Squee! |
[Mar. 22nd, 2005|10:39 pm] |
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Wow. Have been bouncing off the walls, so excited I could scream, rapturously, excruciatingly happy all afternoon and evening. Why? I was just offered a massively fantastic summer job working at the big industrial plant here in my city. We're talking serious bucks here, which makes me thrilled because with my school's impending change from university college to full university, fees are guaranteed to shoot up from last year's increase of roughly $1000 (nearly died when I saw that little "gift" from the school).
So, had to get that out. Yay! |
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| (no subject) |
[Feb. 7th, 2005|12:51 pm] |
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So, I'm just so tickled that I have to boast: not only did I do reasonably well on the take home organic test that I got back today, I also got back the genetics midterm I wrote on Friday. I got 93% on that test! That's a freaking A+ here! I've never gotten an A+ on any university test that wasn't an English test! Yay! I even got an "Excellent!" on one of the questions, one that, over the weekend, I thought I had screwed up. Huzzah!
Sorry. Was just so excited, and I had to tell someone, and this was really the first available outlet, without boasting to people who I know didn't do as well as I did.
And has anyone noticed that LJ apparently doesn't like word contractions? |
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| (no subject) |
[Feb. 2nd, 2005|07:40 pm] |
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| |  accomplished | ] |
See the camel. Love the camel. Be the camel's shadow.
All hail National Geographic. |
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| (no subject) |
[Feb. 1st, 2005|04:18 pm] |
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So, being the editorial geek that I am, indeed the great and glorified copy editor at my university's newspaper (read glorified, yet curiously underpowered proofreader), I thought it was important to note that yesterday was the feast day of St John Bosco, patron saint of editors. He published a history of Great Britain in 1769 and left large tracts of white space on the pages to allow the reader ample notation room (grangerisation , by the way, is the addition of whatever to a book that is connected, directly or not. It may be notes, caricatures, letters... it's a process of personalizing a book if you get right down to it.)
Not that I'm catholic at all, I just love that there are patron saints of some pretty strange stuff. Take, for example, St Guiginole, patron saint of sick poultry. Martyr of some sort (aren't they all?). I didn't think chickens really believe in god the way that we do, let alone pick out a person to pray to (you'd think they'd choose one of their own, though I suppose chickens don't get canonized all that often, unless of the rubber variety... fans of the Royal Canadian Air Farce will know what I'm talking about). I suppose if they did, it would be like a fish believing in water. I suspect that only humans have come up with the difficulties of religion and differing moralities, though really we should still have the same ones: avoid killing, be kind, be accepting of each other's faults. Of course, that may only be my own dogmatic learnings surfacing.
Do other religions teach non-acceptance, or that just to kill is acceptable, or to be cruel or to be uncharitable to those less fortunate? I don't mean extremists like Ji-had (spelling?) supporters, or the severe cults wherein only those chosen by the great Grand Poo-Ba may become truly blessed by the holy horns of the High Ox sort of deal, but at the heart of religion, isn't it all about how one should live? Shouldn't religion, which claims to give us the correct way to live, have a commonality of morality? Is a religion a "true" religion if it directs its followers down an immoral path? One which allows subjugation, domination or exploitation? Come to think of it, is there actually an ideal religion out there that meets all of those qualities, matters of belief aside? I really don't know, because if a religion can be twisted to adopt one of those decidedly bad traits, can the root religion be that good, since it can be twisted?
On a side note, this is starting to sound a whole heck of a lot like the way one of my columnists writes: bring up something relatively innocuous and obscure, and then turn it into some far-reaching question about the state of humanity. There's never an answer to the question, by the way; Dale's smart enough to know that he doesn't know, cannot answer it for you, and that nobody will ever really know. The question can only be posed, and it should spark a couple of thoughts within the reader's head.
The little "sore" star, by the way, is because I seem to have developed an earache. Just in case anyone out there feels the need to sympathize.
So, that was my little brain drain of the month. Cheers. |
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| (no subject) |
[Jan. 3rd, 2005|10:47 am] |
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Just finished an interesting questionairre that a buddy of mine, the_figments had posted. To see my answers (severely shortened; curse you, 4300 word limit!!), see here: http://www.livejournal.com/users/thefigments/17402.html?view=113914#t113914 and scroll down to my post... fourth or fifth I think. Too lazy to post everything for the moment (may come back and do it, but not now). Yes, in fact, I'm well aware that I sound pretentious and a little smug, and frankly, I don't care. I'm proud of what I am, and what my country is; my country's attitudes have in turn shaped me and my beliefs. I suspect I've mentioned this before...
So, I guess a Season's Greetings is in order, seeing as how I haven't done that yet. So, Happy/Prosperous/Joyous Holiday/Season/Religious Day. It's a mix-and-match greeting!
School starts next week. Semi-excited, despite the fact that my schedule is really bad some days. Couldn't be helped however; stupid single arts class that I had to take screwed my lovely semester right up. Oh well.
I don't think I've talked about a film I've recently seen, Hero. Import from China, it was byt eh same guy who did Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon, as well as the up-coming Hous of 1000 Daggers. It was a very pretty film. Nifty Hong Kong-style martial arts, beautiful cinematograpy, and glorious costumes. Go see it. *Nods* I won't say what goes on, but I will say it carries a strong, and while not exactly hidden thouhg not smack you upside the head obvious, which I like, message about why people give up their lives for dreams and principles. Good film.
And that's about the extent of my ramblings at this point. Maybe later I'll find something else meaningful to talk about. |
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| (no subject) |
[Dec. 21st, 2004|08:39 am] |
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| | contemplative | ] |
Well, here I am, back from the great, sucking time vortex known as school, with that special extra black hole of time called exams. In other words, to misquote Alice Cooper, School's out for winter! School's out till January! Yay! Huzzah!
Right now, I'm mostly just loafing around, catching up on all the important stuff, like sleep and bad daytime television. Also catching up on some reading. It's strange to think of just how little non-textbook, non-technical reading I've done this past semester. Ususally my nose is, when not in a textbook, in some form of fiction, because I'm a bibliophile. Not so much this time around, so I have a couple of books that have been languishing in my inattention, and are in dire need of some tenderhearted reading. The big one is the third Bas-Lag book by China Meiville, Iron Council. The first and second are Perdido Street Station and The Scar(my favourite of the three), although I know he has a couple of other works not related.Anyone actually reading this will know that I have a love of mildly obscure authors. Meiville wrties steampunk, and while that's not normally a genre I dabble in, he has this incredible ability to describe both exterior and interior states. The first book was set in a city full of grime, filth and corruption, and after reading a few pages, one just feels filthy too. I swear I had this uncontrollable uge to take a shower with a big bar of soap after reading bits of that one.
Meiville also has this knack of making the characters just as small as they really are, in the grand scheme of things. Reading a book about the futility of something, for example, often the book is incredibly character-centric. Meiville, while circling his lead characters, still makes them seem like ants on some giant, inevitable battle. I've read reviews which criticize Meiville because his scope of work means the characters get lost in the thing, but I feel that is a good thing. All of his work makes the reader feel... insignificant is possibly the best word. Not "I'm better than you are" insignificant, but "the world and nature is so big and I only now realize just how small I am in comparison" insignificant. It's a bit of an awe-inspiring feeling to have in this shrinking world of ours.
Well, enough China-love for now, I suppose. This was supposed to be a "what I've been up to" post (not a whole heck of a lot, truth be told), but where it ended up is fine by me. So, cheers, and have a joyful holiday (for those who celebrate), or just a joyful life in general (for those who don't). |
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| (no subject) |
[Nov. 9th, 2004|08:21 am] |
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Ghaaah! I've fallen into that horrific "I'm too busy to post" trap. It's the truth, and I hate it when others do it...but alas, when an excuse is so readily available, it's human nature (or, possibly, just my nature) to use it for my own devices.
So, the story so far: just finished one round of midterms, and have the next round starting this week. Fantastic. Fortunately, they're all sort of nicely spaced out.
Also know when my exams are... and I have to write on a Saturday. Again. It's not that I mind the writing, so much as it screws with the sanctity of The Day Off. I haven't yet decided whether it is worse to have to write in the morning or the afternoon. See, if it's in the morning, you have to get up, but then the afternoon is free to either bugger off or go study some more (after a protracted mental break). But if it's in the afternoon, then your whole day is resigned to thinking about that subject. Your morning is spent worrying/ last ditch studying, and your afternoon is shot, since you're STILL writing the damned thing.
Possibly, if going by the beneficence way of philosophy (was Millar the guy? can't remember my philosophy class at the moment), wherein there's the whole happiness/unhappiness ratio, you'd have to go with the morning test...
Sorry. I know, I'm venting. Another of the pitfalls of journals. One assumes that, just because one writes it, everyone else must care what one thinks... Reminds me of another thing I read by Crane... something to the effect of a guy yelling "Here I am!" and the universe replying, "So what? I don't have any responsibility to care." Incredibly humbling, no?
And, despite that small insight, I'm going to continue the tired student update. I think it's just getting to that time, you know? Every student out there knows what I'm talking about. It's that time of the year when the novelty of your classes has worn off, or those little quirks of your profs are getting to be just a little too much, and all you want to do is get the rest of the semester over with, and you realize that there's still like a month left of classes, and yet exams seems so close at the same time. Plus, it's November. The days are getting so short here, and it's gloomy. You know the feeling. It's not burnout, so much as it is...perhaps and ennui with the daily grind of class, lab, write reports, squeeze in any extra time for that big paper coming due, and nothing is exciting anymore. Or, at least in my case, what I'm learning isn't exciting any more, and so I just go to class wishing I was somewhere else... and this from the girl who would, if she won the lottery, become a professional student in a heartbeat. |
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| (no subject) |
[Oct. 30th, 2004|11:30 pm] |
Just checking something here...
glanceinward |
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| Random Poetry Time! |
[Oct. 13th, 2004|09:10 pm] |
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| | busy | ] |
Well, if I can't manage to come up with some new inspiring thoughts about humanity, at least I can give you all some lesser known old ones. One of my favourite poets to talk about is Stephen Crane, best known for his novel The Red Badge of Courage. I never read the novel, though it is on that "I swear I really will get to it someday" list. You know the one; it's the one with War and Peace and A Brief History of Time. Anyway, Crane was never really known for his poetry, although it is hauntingly stark and one can see his struggles with his self and his faith as one progresses though his work. At times the poetry is incredibly visceral. But what I like most is that Crane didn't limit himself to one topic of focus; instead, he wrote about whatever he thought of, from love to despair, true faith in God and cynical questioning of that faith. This is a man who truely lets us live his life through his work, in terms that everyone can understand, instead of the incredibly obscure things we see today. I love it.
So, this is perhaps my favourite one:
Should the wide world roll away,
Leaving black terror,
Limitless night,
Nor God, nor man nor place to stand,
Would to me be essential,
If thou and thy white arms were there,
And the fall to doom a long way.
Actually, this one is something of an anomaly. Usually we see more philosophical, questioning or anti war sentimented poems. But alas, I'm a romantic at heart, and if ever a man uttered these words to me, I'd surely melt into a big puddle at his feet. It's not practical, but it is beautiful.
Another one I love it this:
"Tell brave deeds of war"
Then they recounted tales:
There were stern stands
and bitter runs for glory."
Ah, I think there were braver deeds.
(I have to admit that a bonus of Crane's work is that it's quite short, like little almost haikus, so they're easy to share with you all! I think it's important, because Crane's poetry is not easily found, I've discovered, not like Tennyson, another favourite, who enjoys constant printings.)
I love these two poems, possibly becase they resonate so strongly with my thoughts of life. I respect a person who is so willing to speak out, and to share his or her writing in the face of a society which frowns upon voicing the unpopular but true facts and ideas. |
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| (no subject) |
[Oct. 11th, 2004|09:26 pm] |
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| |  apathetic | ] |
So, the sibling has gone back to her university in a different city, and she's taken with her her entilre stash of anime. The thing is, first she got me hooked on it, and now it's gone... You all though that pot was the gateway drug... silly people. It's Neruto.
Since we're on the topic of pop culture, I suppose I could also discuss the film I went to see this weekend, Shaun of the Dead. But Shaun isn't really what I want to mock. It was pretty good. No, what I want to laugh at is the impending film Alexander. You know, the one with Colin Ferrel as Alexander the Great. With a bad blond mullet wig, black eyebrows and an accent which in the space of the movie trailer bounces around form slightly Irish to Hollywood-ized New York Bronx to what I suppose is an Irish guy trying to do a cross between British and Greek. All I can say about it is that it looks like Troy 2: Quasi-to-fully respectable actors in what looks like simple eye candy.
Of course, we'll have to see, but I have my doubts.
I've decided that there's not enough time in the day. Also, I've decided that profs are purely evil to students because they want retribution for the crap they had to put up with as undergrads and graduate students. Just in case every other university student out there hasn't also come to this realization. And now you know why those profs all assign midterms at the same time they know the labs are assigning ridiculously large reports.
Sorry. Had to get this off my chest. Oh, and I've also decided that every post (read: just the first one) must have have good, academic, thought porvoking content. |
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| My micro project |
[Oct. 7th, 2004|10:44 pm] |
| [ | Current Mood |
| |  geeky | ] |
So, imagine my surprise when I discovered the other day that ulcers aren't really caused by stress, or by an inherent ability to super-produce stomach acid, like most people thing. It's caused by a microbe.
Yes, that's right folks, even in the highly acidic recesses of your stomach (incidentally, that's a pH of 3 in your stomach; the rest of you is about 7.4, or just on the basic side of neutral) little tiny bugs can survive and thrive long enough to be of incredible irritation to you, up to and including being linked with pyloric and duodenal tumors. But it's mostly ulcers.
This fascinating little guy is Helicobacter pylori. It's a bent ro shaped organism (all the better for drilling into your stomach lining to casue havoc) with a bunch or flagella, or bacterial tails attached to one end in a tuft. If it wasn't for the whole cancer/ulcer thing, many would probably find it cute even. Was discovered by a pair of Aurstrailan physicians in the 1980s, H. pylori was considered a joke for years until it was put on a slide.
Yes, I did in fact write about microbe. And yes, I am in fact that geeky. Geeky things are my bliss (just ahead of writing rather leftist English papers).
Exeunt. |
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| Superficiality and Me |
[Oct. 6th, 2004|11:28 pm] |
| [ | Current Mood |
| |  devious | ] |
Ok, well, now that we've got the highbrow post out of the way, I need to rant deviously.
As a student, putting up with bad profs is a necessary evil. But I really hate being a new lecturer's guiney pig. I hate being that first class which the prof tests his or her teaching style and methods on. It's even worse when that prof is as incredibly scattered, and it's such an important and difficult course as second year organic chem (in Canada, this is THE weeder course...turns chemistry majors into biologists, and biologists into psych majors, it's that bad).
So, I have been contemplating my very own Lutheran Reform-style protest: compile a list of complaits with this prof's teaching flaws, and nail the thing to her door, Martin Luther style. They won't be theses, and there probably won't be 93, but you get the idea. If only she had activated the anonymous feedback option on her website... |
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| (no subject) |
[Oct. 5th, 2004|07:57 pm] |
Well, welcome one and all to my inaugural LJ post.
So, what inspiring and appropriatly hopeful thing should I discuss for this auspicious occasion? Well, I suppose it would be this: I challenge you to truly think about why. Why you say or do something that previous to now what "what you just always did," or what someone has told you. Is it true? Does it matter if it isn't? This isn't about right or wrong, it isn't meant to be. It's about digging that little bit deeper. This is, parenthetically, soundling like my first year (freshman, for you non-Canadians) English paper on doublespeak. ("Blare the trumpets of truth and let loose the hounds of accountability. Go out into the world and quesiton everything that you are told, or you see. And, as the Barenaked Ladies sang, 'gotta kick at the darkness till it bleeds daylight.'")
In that light, I suppose it wold be appropriate to talk about something that I've recently thought about. This would be about a book I'm in the process of reading, The Years of Rice and Salt by Kim Stanly Robinson. It offers a different insight into the Islamic and Buddhist worlds than what I as a moderately Protestant Westerner am normally exposed to (ie the American media). I thought about just how misrepresented that the majority of the people are. All we ever hear about is the suicide bombs, or how Bush is doing a fablous job of ensuring his version of peace and prosperity is continued. Certainly there are extremeists, but there are also just regualr Joes (or Josephines) like the rest of us, just getting a rap. But I suppose that it's like that for anyone. Makes me wonder what other cultures say about us.
Tsk. Those Canadians, next thing you know their gays with equal status will be overrunning their government, and then they'll send out suicide decorators to make a statement over here. Or maybe there will be adverisments, like "by drinking some Canadian alcohol, you're really saying it's okay to have religeon further sticken from our lives so that descisions aren't based so much on religeous outcry. Or you're saying that it's okay to overrun the country with antiwar sentiments. Next thing, those Canadians will be asking us to remove the death sentence."
Ok, perhaps a bit cynical, but it's part of the package. No, it's not as pretty as everything should be, and it's not all that altruistic. And I accept that. But I accept that you're allowed to say what you want too. And that's the crux of it really. It's about acceptance. Regardless, if it's not hurting you, and it something that's not really your business, let it go. I think that if more people adopted this sentiment, a lot less strife would be in this world. Yes, this is idealistic, but it's the way my society is working on thinking. We're not there yet, and I doubt we will ever be, but the fact is that I am proud to belong to a society which doesn't scandalize that which isn't anybody's business.
And that is my (longer than anticipated) inrospection of the day. Yes, the focus shifted from question everything to leave those who aren't hurting you alone, but I'd like both of those points to be the take-home message of the day. So, cheers. Good luck, and take care until I have something else to say. |
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