Sunday, 12 May 2024
Life, the universe, pies, hot-pink bunnies, world domination, and everything
Starting as it does in a flurry of knavery and misdirection, April is bound to be the favorite month of the Muse of Tunes and Tricks.
Continued from Part One.
Date: April 16, 2012
Categories: At the Top of the Blog, Random craziness
FIRST POST ON NEW THREAD
Only one more day left before I leave for a statewide choral festival?
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Hum. I haven’t had a shot at a first post in a while. What can I say that will not be completely pointless?
My school’s prom is this weekend, but my best friend and I can’t go because of soccer games, and my other friends are going with a group they don’t really like, so we’re going to organize our own prom some other time. We’ll get dressed up, go out to dinner (either somewhere nice or Wendy’s – ongoing joke), skip the dance part or maybe teach ourselves some real dances, and then have a fun “after party”.
Much Ado is going well, except some of us are panicking because Don Pedro doesn’t even know her lines for Act 2, and those were due a month ago.
I’m also in a drama class, and for our mini-unit on musical theater, my Verges from Much Ado and I are making a presentation about AVPM and then performing “Different As Can Be”. At least, that’s the plan.
To continue with the drama theme: My school has a further show a little while after the spring production at which awards like “Best Actor”, “Best Newcomer”, and “Best Show” are given out. We also perform a lot of original and adapted works. One of my friends has adapted the prologue from “Into the Woods” to be about five of us thinking about our dream careers, wondering what our futures will be liking, and wishing what we imagine will come true. Our characters are mostly based on ourselves, so mine wants to be a linguist and speaks in Spanish until we come to the chorus.
I have continued researching colleges and I think I will visit the Claremont Colleges sometime soon to see what options I have to stay on the West Coast. I love the idea of going East, but I also love the idea of staying relatively near my family and friends even when I’m in a new environment.
My knowledge bowl team is supposed to celebrate the end of our season on Wednesday by playing laser tag. It was supposed to be last Wednesday, but nobody planned anything during spring break. Unfortunately, I have a soccer game Wednesday evening (against the team that used to be our sister team, that I used to play for, that became our rival team around the time I switched, on which my best friend plays) so I don’t know if I can go. I really hope I can. I miss my knowledge bowl buddies, I never get to hang out with them anymore, and they’re almost all seniors.
That has got to be enough to justify a post. (Although I already see that I’ve been beaten to the first one.)
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You should visit Seattle U!
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Well, it’s convenient timing for you to suggest that, since I’m going to the west side this weekend and probably several times this summer. I may visit if I’m in the area – or maybe I’ll save that visit for when you’re there to show me around!
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Wait until I’m there, and I’ll give you a tour. 
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Ellen Datlow (an editor) posted the latest long list of honorable mentions for her annual Year’s Best Horror anthology and one of my poems made it on the list! Yay!
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That’s amazing! Good job.
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Congratulations! That’s awesome.
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Just to let the GAPAs know, there’s a typo in the link to part 1.
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That’s almost a law of nature. I’ve fixed it (I think).
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SFTMC.
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I saw the space shuttle Discovery on its way to its museum here in Washington. It was 18 minutes ago (10:10) our time, over the Potomac River heading south. They’ve been giving Washingtonians a good look.
(Hm… I notice that I’ve never adjusted the blog for the latest transition to Daylight Saving Time. I’ll do that now.)
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Lucky! I wish I was in DC or back in NYC this week to watch the ferry flights, but instead I’m stuck up in Boston.
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One of my co-workers took this picture:
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Fab!
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Would you be so kind as to put the full-sized image on imgur or flickr or what have you? I sense wallpaper material in this photo.
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Fantastic! That’s a great photo.
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Just sitting in my room when I hsould be looking up classes for next fall but instead I just keep thinking about space and how it is almost certain I will never be able to go there 
maybe it’s time to reread Animorphs
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Now don’t say that! SpaceX will do their demonstration test later this month or next month, and Virgin Galactic will start their tourist flights next year. Space tourism is well within your grasp!
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Yeah all my hopes rest on commerical space flight since I can’t qualify for official programs (my eyesight is pretty terrible–probably wouldn’t be fixed lastingly by surgery, plus other stuff). But I’m just so worried that it won’t happen soon enough or when it does I’ll be well into a job field that is not known for being high-paying, and I don’t doubt prices will be sky high at first.
I just want to go so bad D:
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Hie thee to the H&H, please, where POSOC’s conversation about space could use your enthusiastic contributions.
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Well, as Samuel Johnson once said, few things are impossible to diligence and skill.
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So, assuming you’re convinced you’ll never go into space, where should you go?
My answer: Antarctica. Why? For one thing, because you really can go there. They need smart, energetic, hard-working people, and someone who fits that description will very likely find a niche. Once there, you’ll be surrounded by other smart, energetic, hard-working, and unusual people from all over the world. And for those who fancy living in a small bubble of life surrounded by an unrelentingly bleak and hostile environment, an Antarctic base is the next best thing to a domed colony on Mars.
Any other ideas?
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Ahhh Antarctica would be so cool. I definitely want to go there someday. There’s some interesting stuff happening with the seeds people keep tracking into antarctica (they took some visitor’s clothes and bags and found an average of either 30 or 80 (can’t recall which) different seeds on them. So there’s all these things getting there, and most won’t make it but there’s portions that are more tourist-heavy that now have things growing there that would never get there otherwise, which is cool to think about.
Also up on that list is deep sea floor/trenches. I really considered going into marine biology for it except everywhere is super competitive in it : / Still not ruling it out but it’s super hard to get work in that field. But there are just SO MANY THINGS DOWN THERE.
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The world is just awesome.
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I’m serious. There are jobs down there, and ways to get them.
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If only I weren’t so lazy! -dreamy sigh-
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Phoo. Life is too short not to go where interesting things are happening. Just ask Purple Panda.
People talk themselves out of a lot of things because they assume they’re harder than they actually are.
</gapa_sermon>
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this is good advice, this is a good reminder. i need more gapa sermons in my life.
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Encourage us at your peril.
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*encourages*
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It’s funny, as I was logging on here just now, I was just thinking about how I should actually consider this… I’m not a very motivated person, but maybe that can work to my advantage. If I’m not trying to pursue some goal, I can go where the wind takes me (or where… the internet reccomends, anyway) and I’m happy to do almost all kinds of work (unless it involves food… I have issues with food.)
I always imagine working must be harder than being in school, but then I really compare my previous jobs and my education and I’m so, so wrong.
I’m not planning on going to college, and I recieve a ridiculous amount of backlash about it (though this may have something to do with going to an upper-middle-class white college-prep school…) but really I’m not interested in making lots of money or anything like that… I really want to have experiences more than anything, and if someone would hire me, even just to clean toilets, if I could be around something wonderful, well, I honestly can’t imagine anything better.
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Did I mention I’m from Minnesota? I’m from Minnesota. I know how to bundle! (Though I’m sure if I ever do go, I’ll probably get knocked off my feet with the real difference. Hmmm…)
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Jadestone, Kai, there’s an interesting discussion of human space travel at the Hare & Hedgepig, if you’d like to add your voices.
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In other good news: My best friend since fifth grade decided to come to my college after she graduates this June. I am excited to be able to see her more and I hope she loves it here as much as I do.
also, still so happy about Google asdlkhdsaflkasfdlksafd
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So yesterday, I watched the Boston Marathon runners from my dorm window with binoculars, and then up close at Kenmore Square, and from the top of the Photonics Building with binoculars again.
I know this sounds crazy, but I’d like to run for the Museum of Science’s charity team at some point in the future.
I know that I’ve never run further than 5K, and the marathon is 8 times that and a little more, but I’m going to be living in Boston for at least three more years (depending on if I stay for grad school) and our Fitness and Recreation Center offers a class in Marathon Training.
It’s definitely crazy to say that I could run 26 miles now, especially in heat like yesterday’s, but could I become capable of it with three years of preparation? I don’t know.
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A friend’s 27-year-old daughter ran the Boston yesterday in slightly over 4.5 hours–time that included stopping to help a heart-attack victim and pausing to check on those who dropped out to make sure they were okay. My friend said, “This, apparently, is what happens when nurses run marathons.” I’d say that’s a race well run, no matter what the clock says.
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It’s lucky she was there– The Globe said that 2,000 runners needed medical attention at some point in the race.
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Existence and everything it entails is just so interesting.
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I’ve spent all day on Pottermore. No, really, all day.
My wand is 11 1/2 inches, dogwood with dragon core, solid. And I’m a Gryffindor. [Snip! TMI. –Admin.] I always had a feeling I belonged there.
I feel like watching the movies and reading the books again now.
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Since everyone seems to be talking about Pottermore, I suppose I may as well jump in.
Should I join Pottermore? I’m not the most hardcore fan but I do enjoy the books.
Argh, so much indescision I can’t stand it.
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Why not? It isn’t a commitment; if you don’t like it, you never have to return, and the site won’t send you emails or anything.
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It really isn’t that spectacular. A bit of a letdown really. As a hardcore fanatic, I must say I really wasn’t that impressed. I was a beta user, so I’ve had an account since August, and I pretty much never go on.
It’s not at all what it was hyped up to be, and except for the very few tidbits of info, it really kinda sucks.
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But there’s sounds now! Sounds!
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I’ll have to check that out. That’s new since I was last on
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Zounds! there are sounds!
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The extra information that you get about characters and the world, even from just the first book, is worth an account.
Speaking of which, have you all heard that the “Harry Potter Encyclopedia” is finally going to happen!? 
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Okay, I joined. Yay!
My wand is 11 1/4 inches long, ash with dragon core, hard, and my pet is a screech owl. I haven’t been sorted yet but I have a feeling I’ll either be in Ravenclaw or Hufflepuff.
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i don’t really like harry potter (religion forbids) but i would like to join just because i want to meet you guys! but i don’t know what your usernames are so i don’t think it would even be worth it.
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You can’t meet someone via Pottermore. It doesn’t have a private messaging feature. Even if you knew our usernames, you couldn’t use them to meet us.
You don’t have to, though. There is a way to arrange a meeting safely on MuseBlog. If you are in the vicinity of another MuseBlogger, you can ask your guardian to send the GAPAs an email saying that you are in a certain area and are interested in meeting other MuseBloggers. You can post this, too, but you can’t be too specific about location. If someone else is interested in meeting you, they can have their guardians send the GAPAs emails saying so. The GAPAs will then send their emails to your guardian, and the guardians can plan together via email.
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Also, SFTDP but I forgot to ask: Have you read Harry Potter? I’m just wondering, because I’ve noticed that many of the people who oppose it for religious reasons haven’t, and of course in those cases, they aren’t really qualified to make judgments about it, but I was just curious.
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well my cousin has and my friend has seen the movie but i like, see commercials and advertising for stuff like that. an i have seen part of the movie. but otherwise. i know NOTHING about HP.
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Apocolyptour, anyone?
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Getting tickets now!!
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I got Golden Idol tix for myself and the boyfriend. I’d been going for the Crystal skull, but no such luck. But hey, it’s still gonna be totally awesome!
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I just got home from Rhode Island, where I was visiting my grandmother. My mom and I walked around Providence–I hope that’s not too much information, GAPAs; we drove for a while to get to Providence, if that helps–and it was awesome. Brown University has a really nice campus; it’s beautiful. There were bookstores full of books! So many books!
While we were in a bookstore, I got mistaken for a college student. Which is weird. I…don’t look college age. It was amusing.
I tried bubble tea, too; it was surprisingly good. Excellent, in fact, if incredibly bizarre. Hmm.
Has anybody on here been to Providence? It was smaller and steeper than I had been expecting. Or, at least, certain parts of it were.
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HEY MIKAZUKI YOU SHOULD VISIT BROWN AGAIN THE NEXT TIME YOU VISIT YOUR GRANDMOTHER STARTING IN SEPTEMBER
YEAHHHH
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I take it you go there, then?
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I will next year!
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Cool!
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YOU WERE IN PROVIDENCE AND I DIDN’T KNOW? :U
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Aww, you are just having bad Kokon luck.
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D: We should have had a Kokon!
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HOLY CRAP I CAN SEE MY FLOOR AGAIN
This hasn’t happened in a veeery long time.
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HOLY SPACE MONKEYS, YOU CAN?
I’m very impressed.
But the real question is: can you see your bed? (Not that it’s all that different from your floor.)
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holy holyness batman!
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Holy space floor wizard monkies, Catwoman!
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HOLY MUSICAL BATMAAAAN
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uh… you mean on a game or… what?
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I think she cleaned her room.
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I got a new Pottermore account just to see how my wand and House would differ from the original. It was pretty interesting. Instead of a Slytherin, I got Gryffindor, and instead of a 10.75 inch ebony wand, I got a 12 inch rowan wand. Ebony is apparently the sign of a nonconformist who would probably be in either the Order of the Phoenix or the Death Eaters, whereas rowan is apparently a powerful wand for defensive magic, and prefers to pick the pure of heart. I got unicorn tail each time, which is apparently not flashy or powerful but the sign of a good person.
Made me feel all warm and fuzzy. I think I’ll make an account one more time just for comparison.
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I remember being on this website at some point a while back (It wasn’t Pottermore, I don’t have an account there, but it was a similar concept) and it told me my wand was ebony, 10.75 inches, phoenix feather core, and that I was in Gryffindor. I had a pet cat of some variety. Pretty spot-on, I think.
Pointing it out for the weird similarities, and because I thought the meaning of the ebony thing was interesting.
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holy batman! my cousin’s name is Rowin!
does that have some magical coincidece?
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One more flight for Discovery, then … 
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She retires to be admired by the world and inspire future generations. Two of her sisters were far less lucky.
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I think it would be fun to do a webcomic about the history of NASA, with all the shuttles, probes, capsules, etc. personified as humans. The problem is, a lot of them look the same …
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Base their character designs off of their “personalities” and what happened to them?
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You could make Challenger the wise old one that the other shuttles seek advice from by visiting her gravestone.
“My child…change your o-ring…”
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Did you see the personified space stations I posted a while back? I wanted to do the same thing with shuttles and Mars rovers, but college keeps me busy.
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Gah, I really wanted to have the five shuttles as an inseparable Five-Man-Band Nakama, but Endeavour wasn’t made until after the Challenger accident. Also, it would be hard to have Challenger and Columbia as characters without severe Mood Whiplash.
I drew the Voyager twins. They both have messy white hair, a satellite dish hat-thing, yellow turtleneck, white shorts, and Golden Record necklace. Voyager 1 is a hyperactive Genki Girl obsessed with finding aliens, while Voyager 2 is quiet and serious.
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In my view of things:
Columbia was the oldest sister and born leader, very serious but occasionally too strict, the one all of her younger siblings looked up to. A bit of a control freak, especially after Challenger died. Likes the color red.
Challenger was… well, it’s hard to say, because we got to see so little of him. A very quiet and philosophical boy, often lost in thought. Columbia was very protective of him as her younger brother, especially during the time before there were any others. Likes light blue.
Discovery never wanted to be the leader, and for the longest time, she never had to be– that was Columbia’s job. A very smart girl, but somewhat shy, she reluctantly stepped into the big sister role after Columbia’s death and eventually got used to it. Likes medium (cobalt) blue.
Atlantis is the jokester, the funny one who has lots of energy. I waver on whether to personify Atlantis as a boy or girl. Either way, the little kid until Endeavour came along, with the expected chipper personality. Doesn’t understand why the others are so angsty. Likes yellow.
Endeavour knows he’s the youngest, and he knows he’s living in Challenger’s shadow, but he’s not the type to let that or anything else get in the way of doing his job. Brave, optimistic, and friendly, especially to spacecraft from other countries. (He was born in ’92 and doesn’t get this ‘Cold War’ business the others always go on about.) Likes green.
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Oh, and Enterprise and Pathfinder are their cool retired uncle and aunt, respectively.
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I really really like these character ideas, and the idea of them being siblings. Can I use them?
To avoid being too depressing/offensive, I might have Discovery, Atlantis, and Endeavour as the main three in modern day, with occasional flashbacks about the other two. Endeavour could have pet tardigrades, because of TARDIS (Tardigrades In Space). Where did you get the colors? Are they from the mission patches, or something on the actual shuttles, or …?
If anyone else wants to do it, could we maybe do this “Personified Spacecraft” comic as a blogthing? Different people could submit comics, pictures, stories, character designs, etc.
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That’s a good idea, as I think Discovery and Endeavour have the most interesting story arcs. The colors are just my association of colors with personalitites.
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So should the characters be more human-looking, or look more like the actual spacecraft with robot limbs, accessories, oddly colored hair and eyes, etc?
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I envision them as looking more human-like, (but not fully human, just human-like androids) but with design elements tying them to the shuttles.
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I would totally participate!
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NASATALIA
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Space will be one with Russia, da?
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Oh! Also, does anyone know of any particularly interesting recent (within the last year) Paleoanthropological finds? I’m looking them up for homework, but wanted to see if anyone had any particularly interesting suggestions.
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Jadestone: How about
– Australopithecus sediba: four partial skeletons from South Africa, possible human ancestor;
– South African “Little Foot” skeleton excavated after 15 years of work, dated at 2.2-3.3 million years;
– Stone tools at Byzovaya site in Russia, possible evidence of Neandertals in the far north;
– Eight unusual foot bones found at Burtele, in the central Afar region of Ethiopia — possibly from a late-surviving Ardipithecus.
There have also been several important studies of earlier finds, but you asked about new finds.
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I was going to suggest sebida.
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Cool! The one I did for this week ended up being about how they determined the diets of premodern humans to early homo using microstriations on their teeth. I’ll keep these subjects in mind for the next one! A couple people in class talked about sediba, but that 15-year endeavor for the “Little Foot” skeleton sounds intriguing.
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Oh, right. Pottermore. I was let in early, but then I never really did anything with it. So this evening instead of doing homework I’m remedying that.
Slytherin (surprising, I would have thought Ravenclaw or Hufflepuff for me), maple/unicorn/10″/unyeilding, and I have a toad for a pet.
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Last exam and presentation oveeeeer! 
So, high school is semi-officially vorbei. I just have to by physically present until Tuesday and write one last essay and then I’ve technically completed senior year. Of course, there’s still the Matura after that, but yay! And I practically only have five subjects now O.O
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Congratulations, bookgirl!
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I don’t think a smartphone should take longer to tell you the temperature than a mercury thermometer would.
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Looks like the smartphone wasn’t so smart.
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Really? You’re using a device that’s sending electrons around to turn millions of tiny switches on and off, which it uses to interpret data streamed thousands of miles using invisible radiation from a data center connected to billions of other devices, a data center which in turn is fed data from several other relays which you can eventually trace back to a single expensive and highly protected instrument which measures the temperature of the air in a location that could be miles and miles away from you, and this all happens after you brush your finger across an immobile electronic display that senses minuscule changes in electric charges from your skin and responds by parsing and running programs with thousands and thousands of lines of code which hundreds of programmers spent years crafting to work in the exact and precise way that you intended. And you think a bit of mercury in a glass tube should take longer than that?
I still get freaked out by the future. The fact that it’s often easier and faster for me to go through this enormous process to learn what the weather is instead of just stepping outside and looking around is absolutely bizarre.
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I meant that my smartphone was working very slowly yesterday, so slowly that a mercury thermometer actually would have been quicker. It was just meant to be a cute little “high-tech is buggy sometimes” observation.
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I just have to say that after reading Grant’s and bookgirl_me’s birthday announcement post, I think I need to write a book called Where to Go and What to Do There.
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Ooh, maybe that’ll be the title of my first poetry collection, if I ever feel like putting together a poetry collection.
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It’s a nice title.
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I like it — it nicely recalls things like There and Back Again.
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I thought so too. It also seems somehow Milne-esque, or maybe reminiscent of Silverstein.
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It’s also almost in iambic octameter. It would be if there was an unstressed syllable before “Where.”
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In fact, it’s trochaic tetrameter. (The prefix to “-meter” describes the number of “feet,” not the number of syllables.)
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Not quite pure trochaic tetrameter, is it? Doesn’t the last foot sound more like a spondee to you? Maybe I’m imagining it.
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It’s sort of in between to my ear. Not quite strong enough stress for a spondee yet it breaks rank with the other trochees.
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Close enough.
Where to go, and what to do there?
Hard to know when one is new there.
I think most taxonomists would call that trochaic tetrameter.
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If you change “there” to “here,” that would make an excellent anthem for the Welcome, Neophytes thread.
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Actually, now the endings sound even more spondaic. Though, yes, the verse as a whole would be appropriately described as trochaic tetrameter as that’s the prevailing pattern.
But confusion is bound to arise in a system that was transplanted into a language it wasn’t made for.
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What are feet?
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A foot is the basic pattern that defines the type of meter. For iambic meter, the foot is an iamb: two syllables, unstressed then stressed. So iambic pentameter has five iambs, for a total of ten syllables per line (with occasional fudging allowed).
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Out of context, that post looks rather odd.
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they are the things at the bottom of your legs
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I made miniature strawberry pies.
(Yes, this is what a procrastinating second-semester senior does instead of her homework.)
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That sounds like a very worthwhile endeavor. Did you throw any?
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Sadly, they were too small to splatter and too delicious not to eat. I took them to school and let other people eat them.
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huh! right now as i read your post i am eating a piece of apple pie!
WITH MY HANDS!
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or paws or whatever
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This blue-eyed cat is amusing me.
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That sounds quite nice as well… Miniature pies sound like they would be very satisfying to eat, like eating the last piece of the pie, but it’s the whole pie.
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Sounds delicious.
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Another internship rejection letter
They were nice in it though.
Applying to two more tomorrow… one just around my house that’s an actual possibility for doing, and another that would be an absolutely wonderful experience and is in Yosemite and is camping and hiking for months but I almost certainly won’t get it. Still going to apply, but alas.
As much as a I love bio it’s super hard to get into things without previous experience, which you can’t get without getting into things… >.< I wish I had time for research with a professor or something, but I’m already facing too many scheduling nightmares.
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I’m sorry to hear that. That whole previous-experience catch-22 is pretty terrible.
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That’s too bad. Good luck!
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Are you looking mostly for things close to home? I spent a lot of time researching Environmental-related internships around D.C. because I wanted to live with my aunt and uncle there; if you have anywhere to stay in that area, I can definitely let you know about some things I found (there was a particularly cool one at the U.S. National Arboretum that I really liked).
But YOSEMITE that would be so cool.
Are you interested in trailbuilding/conservation/anything like that? I have a friend doing the Vermont Youth Conservation Corps this summer; there might be things like that to do, too.
And one more idea: is there some sort of Oberlin Alumni Network of some sort? Something that really helped me when looking for internships this year was to find Earlham grads in fields I was interested in and just ask them if I could work with them. A lot of publicized internships are really hard to get, but you can still have great experiences working with people who will value you and give you interesting and meaningful things to do (and would be more inclined to allow you to work with them because you go to their old college). For me, finding interships for the summer was hard because since I’m leading a backpacking trip at the end of the summer, I’ll only be able to work for 9 weeks or so, which makes me a less competitive applicant and even ineligible for a lot of posted internships that I was interested in. So I spent a lot of time tracking down and calling Earlham alums and asking if I could shadow them/work in their office this summer — which is how I scored the EPA internship. Might be something to look into!
Good luck!
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I’m mostly looking for stuff within driving distance from my house or that provides lodging. I don’t really family in the US anywhere other than central IL, at least that I know well enough to stay with x_x
And yeah, I’m mostly looking to gain fieldwork experience over the summer. It’s one of the major deficiencies in my applications… which unfortunately makes the positions harder to get.
I applied to the Yosemite thing and with Citizens for Conservation near my house. The CfC one is a lot more likely, but looks like it would also be fun. It’s less research-y than the other, but also probably a lot less competitive, at least I hope so.
I hadn’t considered looking into the alumni network, actually. Thanks for the suggestion! And that backpacking trip sounds like it’d be a lot of fun! Where will you be hiking?
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Mm, yeah, the whole transportation-and-housing thing is annoying.
I’ll be leading a group of incoming freshmen in Utah! So so so excited.
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Day of Silence indecisiveness… I’m on school break at the moment, and the only people I’m probably going to see are my parents. It would be a bit pointless not to speak, because my parents are already aware of the point I would be trying to make. I dunno, I feel like I should do something, though. Sigh.
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You can post an explanation of the day on sites you visit, as well as advice for ways in which other people who are in school at the moment can participate.
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That’s a really good idea. I probably should have thought of that myself, but thank you. It’s a neat solution.
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It’s what I do for space holidays, so it comes naturally to me.
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Attention, MBers! We have a bewildered newcomer careening around the blog.
Would one or some of you please escort Catwoman to the “Welcome, Neophytes!” thread and help her get oriented? (This place can be pretty overwhelming, you know.)
Thank you,
The Management
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Does anyone know the show The Last Five Years?
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The power went out last night at the dance, so the last contra and a waltz were done in the dark with no amplification, and it was AWESOME.
alsoiwasdancingwithacuteboyandhekissedmewhileweweredancingandthatmademehappy.
A tree had fallen on the powerline, so the entire campus was without electricity for a few hours. It being my school, everyone converged and played music (old-time and bluegrass and some celtic) and danced and it was just SO GOOD. I played some tunes with them and everyone was so into it and the energy of the group was SO GOOD and it was SO FUN. Then my hallmates and I all had a slumber party in the common room.
So of course I got barely any sleep (after getting about 2 or 3 hours last night) and today I look like I have two black eyes because I’ve had so little sleep lately, but I don’t even care because all of yesterday and Wednesday night were so good. And I just remembered that I’m on the list to play music at the arts festival today.
So I need to get my reading (40 pages ugh ugh ugh) done before class at 2:30 and if we’re playing at one that means I have 20 minutes and I hate my life but WHATEVER.
Maybe I should skip class. It’s traditions of work and music…and I’d be playing music if I skipped….for kind-of work……….so……………hmm.
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SFTMPC…
It is a congratulatory squid, I suppose? It sounds like a great time!
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Sounds amazingly fun. I’ve been meaning to mention this to you, but a girl I know is going to your college next year. I have a feeling she’s going to fit in.
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Awesome! I’m now SUPER CURIOUS as to who it is, but that’s okay. I’ll just carry a Muse magazine around the entire first week and give significant looks to all the freshmen/new faces and see if any of them respond.
Just kidding, I won’t. Probably.
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You should do that.
I d’aww’d. (Is that the proper…?) I d’awww’d so very hard.
D’AWWWWWW
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Saw Leon Redbone live last night at the Cedar! What a cool guy.
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So I was playing Minecraft on my friend’s server, and there was a glitch in the world, so while I was travelling the ocean, I happened to look up, and there were squids flying in the sky.
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I really should get working on that MuseBlog Minecraft texture pack…
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I imagine the creepers would be hot pink and have two long ears.
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AWSOME!!!! I LOVE MINECRAFT!!!!! if you can invent another enemy. let be a Kokopelli and it throws pie-blocks at you!
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I’m a fan.
Does Castle know that you’re working on that? He does a lot of Minecraft texture pack stuff, which I’m sure you know.
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I don’t know if I ever mentioned the texture packs. I still need to make that thrice-damned cobblestone look realistic. I’m going to go update the pack right now, because I’ve got 2000 people that have viewed the pack and haven’t updated it in a week.
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Now you understand how I feel about Robot Emotion…
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YOU JUST SAID THE D-WORD!!!! didn’t you?
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Scandalous, really. I think I have something to say to that, Castle:
FALCON PUUUUUUUUUUUUUNCH
(Not actually. I appreciated your usage of “thrice-damned”.)
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*receives Falcon Punch with grace, dignity, three broken ribs and several ruptured internal organs*
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The Kokonspiracy advances…
Actually, I was wasting time on this website and I saw a bunch of strange pictures. They were of squids. Levitating above the clouds.
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Sounds like how you can make whales swimming on land in Age of Mythology.
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Had a half-hour-long, extremely hyper discussion with Camilla and Electros today about the interrelation of logic, shoes, unicorns, virginity, and temporal physics. I won’t post a lot of the conclusions we came to (unless the GAPAs say I can) because they’re more PG-13 than G-rated, but… I don’t think I’ve laughed so hard in quite a long time.
…I don’t have an awful lot of friends off the internet. The ones I do have are so worth it.
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Zack’s continuing adventures in slightly wonky Middletown:
So I don’t live there (it’s a little bit of a drive), but I’m usually there once a week or so. Interesting things happened this time. I was adventuring with my friend D, as I often do, and our friend…Plush. Going to call her Plush, because Stone Temple Pilots.
Plush goes to school. D and I don’t. It’s vacation week, so we were just hanging out in Middletown with a group of other friends. We were sort of scattered around the town in little groups, so Plush, D and I met up with another small group in a little alley. It was a nice alley. Had office buildings, was like a little park. It was nice, and there were people sitting around. We walk into the alley and this group (being THAT group of people) were sitting on the ground smoking. I was sort of fascinated by the beautiful smoke, so D, Plush and I stuck around a while.
Then some guy on a bench to our left goes “Why do kids like to sit on the ground so much?”. You’d think he’d ask about the three girls that all look under 18 smoking, but no. Just why we were on the ground. We talked to him for a little while and left to go buy candy, which we did. We were joking around about how people find spiders in candy, and that was when one of my friends DID find a spider in her candy. We ended up sitting down in a picnic area, where a man walked by and asked me for a dollar, which I gave him, despite it being my last dollar. I go “Man, how much do you guys want to bet I just bought that I guy cigarettes?”. So naturally he walked back through the picnic area 10 minutes later with a pack of cigarettes in his hand.
We had a fun day, but when I got back home Plush and I started talking through social media and phones and stuff. She ended up telling me a lot of stuff about herself, and we sort of bonded. Through our conversations I learned that she was suicidal, which scared me a little. I really like her, but she won’t take the hint and still thinks she’s ugly and worthless, which is sad because she’s truly neither of those things. I did a little bit of heart-pouring last night at about 4 in the morning, but she hasn’t responded yet I’m still sort of worried about her in general. I’m mostly concerned that I can’t be there all the time, because it’s sort of hard to kill yourself when your friend is hugging you like a maniac. She’s also got issues with her boyfriend, and it’s contributing to her depression. Bluuuuuh.
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Sounds like a [cake] boyfriend.
I already told you, but *ALL THE HUGGLES FOR PLUSH*
Also, *huggles* for you since you’re worried.
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Going to refer to Boyfriend as Francisco, because I always liked that song about wearing flowers in your hair and he has a name that reminds me of San Francisco.
Anyway, she’s head-over-heels and convinced it’ll last forever, and I’m like “…nuh-uh. Not if it keeps going like this.” He’s…not head-over-heels and she worries about it. He also has a tendency to hurt her feelings without realizing it, and she’s afraid to talk to him about it because he gets all defensive and weird.
I sort of want to say “TAKE THE HINT” but I don’t think that’d go over too well.
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Eh, I think you should just tell him what he’s doing to her. If he’s that attached to the relationship, he might appreciate it.
(Sorry about the cursing, GAPAs. I struggle with that.)
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Guys guys guys
I am going to a mathematics festival at Stanford sometime in May
featuring an interactive math session
run by ViHart.
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KIDNAP ME
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YOU COULD COME TOO
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WHY ARE WE YELLING
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THAT’S WHAT I WANNA KNOW!
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Oh my gods that is so awesome! Have fun!
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Lucky you! Have a great time, and tell us all about it!
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So, my grades have been slipping, I just had a talk with my parents, and I might be getting therapy. I expressed some self-worth issues, which I haven’t talked about with them since 7th grade, and I replied to their question that I was open to psychiatric help.
Sorry I haven’t been here in a while! I’ll try to attend the Ball.
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*hugs*
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I’m glad you talked to them, Zinc. *huggles in non-creepy way* It’s nice to see you.
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When are huggles creepy here?
I protest to any huggles being creepy.
I huggle everyone.
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*optimism hugs*
I was just wondering where you’d gone. Every time I see zinc on the periodic table on the wall downstairs I think about you. Similarly, my friend was making a pig farm in Minecraft and I thought about Piggy.
I have a slightly more powerful reaction to squids.
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I JUST GOT BACK FROM A JAZZ FESTIVAL WITH MY CHOIR AND WE SANG AND THE JUDGE SAID I WAS THE ENVY OF ALL BASSES AND WE WENT TO SEE THE REAL GROUP AND THEY WERE VERY VERY GOOD AND I HUNG OUT WITH GREAT PEOPLE AND AAAAAAAAAAHHH
…oh yeah, and I bought a Kingdom Hearts t-shirt while I was there.
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AWESOME!
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i don’t know how but i laughed at your post 
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wow! that picture of the flashy Kokopellis hurts my eyes!
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it is midnight right… NOW!
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ok i am testing to see if i can post a picture (if i dont succeed tell me how pleeease!
DARN! i can’t do it!
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I’m afraid you can’t post a picture here. If you have one you want us to see, though, you can send it to thegapas@musefanpage dot com, and the GAPAs can post it, saying that it’s from you.
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SFTQP (sorry for the quadruple post)
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We’re moving flat today. The current own we owned, but my parents sold it (for whatever reason) and now we’re renting one which is a bit further away and a lot smaller. The facilities of the new place are nice, though (clubhouse, swimming pools etc.)
The movers have nearly taken all the boxes out. The flat feels very empty. I’m sitting in the car waiting until we drive over to the new place.
I’m going to miss my room – my new one must be about a third of the size of the current one. There’s nothing quite like lying on a cool windowsill, wide enough and more than long enough to sleep on (yes, I’ve done it) with the warm sun on you and a breeze streaming through the open window. I’m really going to miss that.
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LIterally half the (already limited) floor space in my neutrino-sized room is taken up by cupboards. (Ah, the joys of living in a densely populated city…) We used to have a spare room, but those bookshelfs are now in my room. I am actually really enjoying being surrounded by books. I unpacked most of my books and clothes , all I’ve got left is junk that I refuse to get rid of (to my credit, I’ve already got rid of most of what I used to have!)
As well, because there is no space, a bed wouldn’t fit so I’m sleeping on my mattress, on the floor. I don’t mind it; it’s quite cosy in a way (though I did like my old, big room, which had room for a bed, large desk, cupboards, and still had lots of space left over.)
And! I found my 1/4 size violin that I didn’t even remember I still had. It’s all out of tune and dusty and so, so tiny! It’s hard to believe I was ever that small.
Just in case anyone was interested.
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I hope you’re settling in okay – it’s a pity that your room is so small. The transition to a new place is hard enough without having to give up the space. Good luck.
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I hope you settle in fine. Your old windowsill sounds so cool.
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Thank you, Adeliae and Maths Lover! It is coming along well so far, though obviously still lots and lots of cardboard boxes everywhere, but my room is looking quite fine. Like I said, the small size makes it cosy, so it’s nice in a different way!
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So my mom is in town, she’s staying at the same hotel where Comic Con is, and this week is the Cambridge Science Festival. If I’m not on this weekend, you’ll all know why.
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Got up early this morning, picked up a couple of doughnuts and then some coffee (in my wonderful Muse Academy travel mug, available from Musery Loves Company), and then drove to my usual hiking spot. I ate my breakfast at a picnic table underneath a big oak tree and then went for a morning hike. A bit muddy in spots, and the creek was higher than usual, but I managed to stay relatively dry. I saw a couple of turkey vultures, which I don’t think I’ve seen there before. I also found a red bandana lying on the ground. It looked like it had been there a while, and I didn’t think its owner would find it again, so I took it with me. When I got back to my car I still had plenty of time to kill (my roommate’s still asleep, and I didn’t want to bother him too much), so I decided to drive around for a while. I do that every once in a while–just drive around randomly and try to get lost, and then see if I can find my way back. I drove through a couple of little towns, one or two hundred people each, that I haven’t been through before. I also drove by a place called Emo Flooring. I guess it’s frustrated that its parents just don’t understand it or something. Anyway, I found my way back without having to use a map or the GPS, which means I’m still undefeated. Now I’m sitting in the stacks getting ready to write some poetry in Latin for an astronomy project. I’m going to try and get into one of the organ practice rooms today as well–my audition is tentatively scheduled for Thursday, the third of May, and I really need to prepare.
All right, that’s enough distraction. To work I go!
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Best of luck with your organ audition!
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That sounds like a wonderful morning!
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Holy Musical B@man… Any comments?
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comment
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Catwoman,
Welcome to the blog! We do generally try to refrain from pointless posts (PPs) here, although we all make them occasionally. Capitalization, punctuation, and grammar are also appreciated. *Pies*
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You remind me of Felix Unger from the show “The Odd Couple” (if you havn’t seen it look it up on youtube) very neat and tidy!
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Haven’t watched it yet, due to lack of time, but I rather imagine it’s flamablamablous.
I do have VIP tickets to their Apocalyptour, though, which should be a good time.
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Envy.
I did catch a glimpse of them at their autographing table at C2E2 while I was rushing back to the Metra, so I guess that’s close enough.
Okay, that’s not close at all.
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O.O
I will steal your tickets.
Seriously though, I hope you have a great time!
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You know you’re addicted to MuseBlog if, while attending the 24-hour grand opening of North Carolina’s new Nature Research Center, the following occur:
> when you hear that one of the opening speakers works for NASA and flew on the shuttle five times, you wonder if he’s ever been hugged by KaiYves;
> you take a photo of a poster about tardigrades to remind yourself to tell Bibliophile;
> staying awake for 30+ hours feels like payback for lecturing Jadestone about sleep;
> you give up and face the fact that just about everything at the event reminds you of MuseBlog and MuseBloggers;
> you keep wishing Muse had a booth at the event;
> you think: great place for a kokon!
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Ohmygosh YES. I have been wanting to go to that but so busy. It sounds so awesome and the newspaper ran a feature on it and I reay want to visit. Sounds awesome! A Kokon must happen!
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IF YOU FOLLOWED MY WAYS YOU MIGHT BE MORE PRACTICED IN THIS!
But that sounds like it was a lot of fun! Woo!
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I’ve never heard of that, not living in North Carolina, but it sounds awesome! I’m sure I’d love it; I’ll have to visit if I ever come to North Carolina.
Could I see the photo of the poster, please?
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My dad is going to take us as soon as the place settles down a bit.
I CAN’T WAIT!
I am in full support of the kokon.
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John Grunsfeld? Oh yes, I met (and hugged) him at the Zero Robotics Championship at MIT back in January!
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AHHHHH MLP ROYAL WEDDING AHHHHHH
SO MUCH AMAZING
BRAIN EXPLOSION IMMINENT
AHHHH
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And Castle is attending the Catalpa music festival. Black Keys, Snoop Dogg, more artists I’ve never heard of and 15 filled-but-not-yet-announced slots.
AWWWWW YEEEAAAAAH
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You figured out moneys? Yay!
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GAPAs, I presume that, though I have now reached the age of trenchcoatedness, I’ll be allowed to keep posting as Piggy? I believe you have my name already.
Blaugh, so much work to do today. And tomorrow I’m going to have to see if I can find a ride to the DMV so I can renew my driver’s license and register to vote. And somehow I have to register for the draft as well, but I have no idea how to do that.
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Yes, we have a “grandfather clause” for long-time MBers.
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NO, PIGGY. YOU MUST SURRENDER YOUR NAME OR YOU WILL BE EXTEEEEERMINATED.
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You can register for the draft online. Google “selective service application.” It shouldn’t take long, as long as you have your Social Security Number on hand or memorized.
(This assumes that you live in the United States, of course. I don’t know the protocols for other nations.)
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Or you could be a conscientious objector and not let the government have the say in whether or not you join the military.
An easy way is to get some Quakers to say that you are one of us.
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uh some of the posts here are pink! what’s with that
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If a post gets “pied” ten times, it’s automatically highlighted in pink. However, unless Robert fixes it again, squids sort of steal pies away–for example, if a post has 10 pies and 1 squid, it won’t get pinked. If that post gets one more pie, though (11 pies, 1 squid), then it will get pinked.
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You may have noticed the pie and squid buttons at the bottom of every comment. These serve the function that like buttons do on other websites, except a little different. It’s complicated and hard to explain, but you’ll catch on eventually. Anyway, a post turns pink in recognition of the fact that it has recieved ten or more pies.
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Pink posts are ones that have received at least 10 more pies than squids. 10 pies means 10 people liking the post. Squids do not mean dislikes, but the software thinks they do, so it subtracts the number of squids from the number of pies in deciding which posts get pinked. The GAPAs would change this if they could, of course.
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When a post gets ten pies, which are the equivalent of likes, it turns pink.
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That means that people like them!
The two little icons at the bottom of each post (the flying pie and the miniature squid) are clickable. Pies are similar to the “like” button: squids are used to express sympathy or congratulation. As a general rule, a pie means “I like the content of this post;” a squid means “I like the person who posted this.” If a post accrues 10 or more pies, it becomes pink to demonstrate its superiority. The same does not apply for squids, since they are often used to express sympathy or condolences, and a post about a relative’s death would not be appropriate to a bright pink background.
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I hadn’t realised that a squid means ‘I like the person wh posted this.’ I thought it was just an expression of sympathy. Pies are like the ‘like’ button, and can also be used to express agreement, but they are also congratulatory, no?
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You see the two little symbols at the bottom of my post? You can click them! They are a pie and a squid. In general clicking the pie on someone’s post is like saying “This is cool!” or “good job!” or something. The squid is for saying things like “oh man I’m sorry for you” or “you have my sympathies” or sometimes just when a post mentions squids.
You can’t click them on your own posts, however.
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I CAN (click my own post pies and squids) but i won’t do it anymore because that’s cheating!
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Can you? On the same computer you use to write said comments? That’s unusual. Everyone can click them on posts they’re writing and pressed preview on, but that doesn’t work; it’s a “fatal HTML error.”
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It has more to do with IP address than the device used, I believe. For instance, if I write a post from my bedroom in my apartment, on my laptop, I can’t pie or squid it while in my room. If I take my computer out to my living room (whose wifi is received from a different wireless router) or into campus, if I were to refresh the page I can now pie/squid even though I’m still on the same computer.
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That’s pretty much all most basic websites are capable of – tracking individual IPs and sometimes being able to map their location.
On a more personal level, though. If there was a hacker or just someone with a little bit of knowledge, they can track your computer across multiple networks by using your MAC address. This could be applied to a website, too. For example, an advanced IP tracking tool that tracks IPs that connect to the website, pings them and uses a certain command to access that computer’s ARP cache, they can find the MAC address.
MAC addresses are static across networks, as they are assigned to the computer by that computer’s network adapter instead of by the network itself.
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Of course, there’s always MAC address spoofing, which is really hard to do something about if you’re, say, a sysadmin who wants to track people torrenting. My solution to this is to say “if they’re smart enough to MAC address spoof, they’re smart enough to not get caught torrenting anyway.”
Also, the talk about IP addresses is interesting. I always assumed the pie/squid tracking was based on cookies, but this explains why I could, if I so chose, double pie from the library if my first pie was in my dorm room.
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Getting caught torrenting is dependent on several things:
If you’re torrenting illegal/copyrighted materials without permission
If the torrent is being monitored
If your ISP cares
If you’re using a proxy or a VPN
Those issues addressed in order:
Torrents are useful for legitimate endeavors – I once torrented 30gb of wallpapers, all with their original watermarks. But illegal is illegal, and torrenting copyrighted materials is always a risk.
If the torrent is being monitored, well…you’re either going to get notified by the RIAA, the MPAA, Comcast, or you’re going to get sued by all three.
Your ISP doesn’t care that you’re downloading copyrighted stuff. They care about getting sued for letting you do it, though, so if the torrent you downloaded is being tracked, they’ll let you off with a warning. The first time.
Proxies aren’t all that safe for torrenting. VPNs are, but they cost money.
MAC spoofing is pretty easy. See: SMAC MAC address changer. Push one button and poof.
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I’m sorry for being indistinct about the differences between pirated and torrented materials — of course there are legitimate uses for torrents.
Our ISP is the university indirectly, and our floor’s services (i.e. me as the technology director) more directly. The executive board of the computer interest floor (the floor on which I live, the executive board of which I am a member) has decided that when the university forwards us notices of piracy, we will ban the person who did it from the internet for three days for the first offense, and the rest of the year for the second offense (the second offense is the same as university policy, the first offense is a little more strict though).
I personally find it insulting that, after I’ve told floor members multiple times that if they get caught we all get in trouble, they still pirate things without taking precautions against getting caught. So yes, the ISP does care.
Also, MAC addresses are associated with ports in our system log, so if you’re spoofing your MAC address from your room, I can still figure out whose room it was, albeit with much more difficulty as we don’t have a list of ports/rooms, the university does.
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Ohai did I tell you guys- I’m the new Opinion editor for my school’s newspaper! Huzzah!
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If they need opinions, I’d say they’ve hired the right person.
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Thank you! I think.
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You think?
Anyways, I’m a little late but: congratulations!
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I agree! And congratulations!
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I saw Les Miserables!
IT WAS SO SO SO AMAZINGLY AWESOME.
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I think I’ve listened to One Day More more in the past two months than possibly any other song in my life.
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Yesss!
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WHAT IS THIS MADNESS?!
2 DAYS AGO IT WAS 70 DEGREES OUT!
NOW IT IS SNOWING, AND WE HAVE A TWO HOUR DELAY!
MADNESS I TELL YOU! tybsstbroi;7bopo
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MADNESS???
THIS… IS… !!!!!
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haha oh shoot html dangit.
MADNESS????
THIS… IS… (insert hometown here)!!!
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Umwelt, my friend.
Speaking of which, did anyone else see that comic? One of the most intriguing xkcds in a long, long time.
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Definitely! There were so many different possibilities!
I got the Abraham Lincoln one, although I also got the Facebook one at one point. Someone tried to link to it without knowing what it really was.
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I thought my weather was freaky.
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Hi Climate Change. How are you today? Cold. Huh. Okay then. I hope you get that sorted out soon.
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Let me just tell you, acrylic nails are the most annoying thing I’ve ever experienced.
This weekend I was babysitting, and while I was using a peeler to get the skin off of a kiwi for the kids to have with dinner, I accidentally sliced off the top of my pointer finger nail. It wasn’t too awfully bloody, but I was forced to cut all of my nails down to nubs a week before prom. So I went and got myself some false nails.
I can’t text, I can’t put my hair in a ponytail, typing sounds so obnoxious…I just plain don’t like them. After Friday these babies are coming off right away.
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My mother used to wear those. I was so convinced that they were real.
She could do anything in them, though. One of those magic woman things, I guess.
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That time when instead of studying I wrote a song about a webcomic until 2am
But managed to get to bed and to sleep maybe around 3 or 3:30, so that’s like 6 hours of sleep so I’m still good.
Just have a quiz tomorrow a test wednesday and another test to take sometime after that x_x
ALSO WHY IS IT SO COLD OBLIGATORY CAPSLOCK
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Sleep? who needs sleep?
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Anyone who asks that question.
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Some of you may know that I got excited because I was accepted to an early college high school. Just now, I discovered this other one for juniors and seniors. It’s way too expensive for me right now, but the website says that the current fee is not normal and will go down as soon as possible. I’m not exactly sure what the normal fee is, if there is one–Wikipedia said something suggesting that maybe it was usually free, although it wasn’t clear–but I’m only in 8th grade, so it’s possible that it might be affordable again by the time I’m old enough to attend.
It is… awesome. The early college high school I will definitely attend for the first 2 years and probably the last 2 is great–the classes are more advanced than normal from the beginning, and it’s small, and the classes are small, and you get to spend Fridays volunteering. It has its limits, though. For one thing, the college classes are at a community college (or at the school, during the first 2 years), and it doesn’t let you take Physics because the version at the community college has calculus as a prerequisite, and you can’t take that until senior year. It also lacks many typical bio classes, including ones that prospective majors (like me) are often expected to take during the first 2 years of college, so if I even get to go straight to junior year of college like most graduates of that high school do, I’ll be behind.
This school requires college-level physics. You can also take up to 2 electives, depending on your grades, although I think, since I won’t have taken PreCalc by then, that’ll count, so it’ll be up to one depending on my grades. And it’s at a real university with fully trained professors–one that I’d actually seriously consider attending if I was thinking about that yet. You can even do research with real scientists! A few really lucky people even get to publish their results in scientific journals; of course they always go on to win all sorts of awards and scholarships because who does that in high school.
Even if it’s affordable by the time I’m old enough for it, though, I may not get in. There are 2 factors. One is the SAT; I expect I’ll do really well on that because I generally do on tests, and I already passed the English PSAT in 7th grade despite only having written half an essay (I fixed the problems I had that stopped me from finishing, so that won’t be an issue when it matters), and I almost passed the math despite not having taken Algebra 1, and on a sort of Pre-PSAT 8th graders take nowadays, my scores were in the top 1% and reading and writing and the top 11% in math. The other factor, though, is report cards from grades 7-10. The thing is… I didn’t know middle school grades would count for anything, really, and I have some organizational issues, so although I always know the material and get A’s on tests without studying, I often don’t turn assignments in on time, and sometimes not at all, and my grades this year… have not been spectacular. I’ve gotten a couple of C’s–mostly in electives, I think, but one or two in core classes… I’m really hoping they care more about SAT scores, and of course I’ll do the best to improve my grades from now on. But… I think I’d really hate to not be accepted because of them.
There’s also a problem: It’s residential. I do not think I will be ready to leave home and go to a residential school in 2 years. 4, maybe, but I’m behind the rest of my age group, and to do this, I’ll have to be 2 years ahead. Probably I won’t get to do it, even if I do succeed, but I just know it would feel bad to not get to take such an amazing opportunity because I’m not independent enough because it wouldn’t be the first time. Granted, I was 2 the first time, but it really frustrates me… So I’m going to see if I’m independent enough for college in 2 years instead of 4. Oops, that was long.
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That sounds awesome, especially the part about actually getting to do research with actual results. I sort of know how you feel about independence though…
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My (Insert name of my real-actual-not-even-kidding-I-promise-you Wizarding school here since I think it’s against the rules to post) House Head told me the best stuff recently.
At the latest administration meeting they said that I’m the rising star of the school. Out of 1000 students!
I’m getting offered the position of Captain of the Youths!
I’m probably going to win Student of the Year 2012!
I’m an inspiration to the curriculum!
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It’s. So. Hot. *Dies*.
It’s April, and it’s 85! That might be normal for some parts of the country, but not here. It’s irritating me.
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I think the weather is just screwed up in all parts of the country. Where I live, it was 40 degrees yesterday, while last week the high was in the 80’s.
The weather can be so weird sometimes.
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Personally, I love it! It feels so nice to wear shorts, eat lunch outside in my school’s courtyard, and later take a pleasant walk up to the soccer field (and not be pelted with rain like I was just a month ago). Everything seems to be radiating warmth and happiness. More than anything, I’ve missed the sun. True, any temperatures approaching 90 are starting to get too warm, and I would feel less kindly towards the weather if I were playing soccer in it this week, but for the moment, I enjoy it.
(It is a happy thought that we have the same weather!)
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That awkward moment when you’re filling out an old worksheet on declensions in German and even though you’re a native speaker, you can only remember the equivalent Latin form *facepalm*
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Well. It wasn’t easy, but I survived going to a science fair with a poster board full of Latin poetry. The evaluators seemed confused but impressed, so hopefully I did okay. We had to assemble our boards on site, so mine looked awful, but I think I did fairly well explaining it to people and answering questions. My professor said I was one of the few people that actually did their project using their major, so that’s a good thing. The cake was pretty good too.
Anyway. Blah. It’s done. Now all I have to worry about are a couple of exams, going to the DMV, and the organ audition. And moving out, I guess, which is a complicated process.
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That sounds interesting. What was your project about?
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Basically, I took three important events from Roman history (the battle of Alesia, the battle of Cannae, and the naming of Octavius as Augustus), and then I looked at what the night sky was doing on those dates at those locations. Then I took what was in the sky (constellations, planets, what was rising and setting and at the zenith, etc.) and I combined it with history and mythology to write a poem in Latin for each event (eight lines each, dactylic hexameter). Obviously I provided English translations as well. It was definitely the least science-y project there, although it wasn’t exactly a science fair. A few people made board games, someone wrote bedtime stories and made Flash animations to go with them, someone wrote a rap song and shot a music video for it, the guy next to me made a presentation drawing parallels between astronomy and economics–a decently wide variety of things. I think mine was probably the most “out there”, if you’ll excuse the horrendous unintentional pun. The project was one of the requirements for taking this astronomy course as honors.
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Have I ever told you how awesome I think you are?
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GUYS
GUYS
STOPITSGINGERTIME WAS KIKI THE GREAT
OH MY GOSH
OH
MY
GOSH
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Sorry about thattttt
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haha oh wow you didn’t know that? Yeah she stopped by recently but doesn’t really come around all that much.
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yup.
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Emma Watson is on campus what?
No one’s really sure why she’s here, rumor is she’s friends with someone playing at the ‘Sco (dance place) tonight.
She is probably getting stalked/searched for pretty hard x_x
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uhg there a rumors that she’s on the floor of my dorm but I am trying really hard NOT TO BE THAT PERSON
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I would totally and unrepentantly be that person.
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REALLY
SRSLY
Lucky. Go meet her!
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GUYS.
I just thought of something.
=O should be the squid emoticon.
For all of your Muserly chatting purposes.
=O =O =O
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<=o≈~~
is my favorite, but does require more work
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This one is great.
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* <=o≈~~ * * * is a space squid. Note the stars.
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Aha! Of course. How could I forget!
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that looks like the little pie emoticon
note the similarities:
=O =O
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Can someone tell me why some people like cutting themselves purposely? I wasnt want no graphic descriptions. Just reasons.
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Possible trigger-warning for this post
There are other threads that you can ask on for more in-depth conversations and reasonings, but from friends I have heard things ranging from that they hurt so much on the inside they felt better turning it into physical rather than emotional pain, to things where they didn’t know how to deal with their problems and the physical pain made them feel like it was something they could control.
In no case should it be regarded as a good or safe coping mechanism, and all of the people I know did eventually seek help and recognize this.
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Possible trigger warning.
I think that everyone has their own mixture of reasons, but I’m just going to talk from my own personal experience…
Part of it is for something concrete. There’s this world of emotions raging on inside and outside of me, and I need something that I can control, that I can see, that won’t change due to the judgment of other people.
And part of it is to prove something. I am strong enough, determined enough; I am suffering enough. This is real.
And there’s also a sense of detachment… This moment when I can just marvel at this one specific thing, without having to be caught up in whatever else is happening.
I could go on for a while, so this is kind of just a few quick reasons. And I would like to repeat – though it serves a purpose, it’s not safe, and in the long run isn’t the most productive thing you can do; it can make things worse.
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And (s)he can see no reason
‘Cause there are no reasons
What reason do you need to be shown?
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HEY NOW
HEY NOW
THIS IS WHAT DREEEEEEEEEEAMS ARE MADE OF
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As much as oldbies try to discourage newcomers from making Pointless Posts, they sure seem to be pretty lax about the rule themselves.
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Hilary Duff is pointless?! NOOOOOOOOOOO-T.
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It’s Hilary Duff? Even worse.
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Who are you to determine what is pointless? Or, for that matter, who is any of us?
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Well, although I didn’t consider that post pointless, I think that some may qualify. Won’t give any examples, in case anyone gets offended.
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This is the random thread, after all. For that matter, to any people who ever watched Disney Channel, this could be considered a nostalgia post.
Is it really that big of a deal?
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Calm down, calm down. I wasn’t being so serious–just poking a bit of fun, that’s all. In reality, it was much more an encouragement of people to think about how they want to guide newcomers than how they want to post. To me it seems like we’re a lot stricter with new people than we our with ourselves, and that doesn’t seem entirely fair. Wherever the expectations are set (and in truth it’s been a while since I’ve had any strong opinions on that), I think they should be set the same for everyone.
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I agree with both of you. De-escalate, everyone! Calm down! Cool the jets!
WE WILL ALL LIVE THROUGH THIS SOMEHOW
Piggy is right – we should set a good example for newcomers if we’re going to call them out for things. Follow our own rules, you know? It’s okay to have some fun, but don’t be hypocritical (I am NOT accusing anyone – I’m pointing out that this is something we should be aware of).
I agree with the others too. This IS the random thread, and things can be a little relaxed here! It was a fairly pointless post, but it made people giggle (or something) and therefore has a point – inciting some sort of emotion in people.
So people. Stop taking Piggy so seriously. Piggy, I’m sure you know, but fun-poking, among other things, (like sarcasm) can be very hard to pick up on when you’re reading it off a screen unless you’re being blatantly obvious about it. Some people are better at picking up on the “mood” of a comment via text, but it can be hard. Everyone cut everyone else a little slack. That said,
OH GOD, WHAT COULD IT BE? WE’RE ALL DOOMED? WHO’S FLYING THIS THING? Oh, right. That would be me.
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My sarcasm is hard to pick up in real life too. It’s a shame, really–my voice seems to be somewhat nasally and monotone to other people and on recordings, but in my head it’s actually quite dynamic, almost melodic, and, if I may say so, pleasant to listen to. Sort of like an antique desk or a quilt on a cold winter night.
How’s Zoe?
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Somewhat less attractive now that she’s all corpsified and gross.
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And we shall call it “This Land”
I think we should call it “Your Grave”
Curse your sudden but inevitable betrayal!
Mine is an evil laugh now die!
But really. I don’t know why people keep commenting on other people’s choices of comments. I think it is equally pointless to post just to point out that a post is pointless which is why I only added this aside after being Wash for a bit. Which was fun, funny, and is a totally worthwhile stand alone post.
As one of the two people who first brought up pointless posts way back in ’06, I have to say, what was annoying me then isn’t really present now. A pointless point is one that doesn’t have a point for the audience. Posts here lately tend to amuse, to educate, to comfort, to enlighten. Then there were posts that didn’t have any particular point but they’ve died off, replaced by posts that purport to point out other pointless ones.
But anyways. The main intended point of this post of mine was to be Wash. Yay Wash. Also Zoe because she’s [flammy].
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I love that you actually set up a Wash gravatar.
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That wasn’t me.
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I agree. Sorry to snap, I was already in a bad mood. You make a good point.
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Oh, feel free to snap at me whenever you want, good mood or bad. I’m plenty used to it.
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Pssh, snapping isn’t my usual thing to do. I prefer more positive exclamations.
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I really should post something, but I’ve been so busy this week. I’m just stopping in to let you know that I’m fine and the Cambridge Science Festival is a blast.
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Glad to hear it!
By the way, we’re having a National Science and Engineering Festival here in Washington, D.C., this weekend. My 10-year-old nephew is looking forward to meeting the Mythbusters.
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Your nephew is very lucky!
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Yesterday I was so out of it that I accidentally referred to the Great Depression as the “Great Derp” eight times in an essay.
I think that should be its new name.
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Thank you–that made me laugh through my tears, and I don’t even know what a derp is.
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I am honored! Please accept my virtual hug, O wife/fiancee.
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then you just called it “the great idiot” (that is what derpy means)
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Not necessarily. I like to think of “derp” and “derpy” as meaning sort of adorably klutzy or silly or just a little bit awkward.
What IS the most widely accepted definition?
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I think “derp” can mean any number of things; to me it usually signifies an awkward or embarrassing moment, or a mistake, or a picture taken where I look like I’m about to sneeze- that sort of thing.
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I usually say it when I’ve made a mistake or screwed something up.
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well i thought i made it up! wow! but me and everyone i know (that has heard the word) thinks it means “idiot” sometimes i say “idiot” as “idot” (EYE-dOt) to mean the obvious! so i call it “IDOT” and you see that….. etc etc…
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I think it’s a fairly common expression among Internet users, I’ve definitely seen it around a lot. And I agree with Choklit Orange in that I think it has a range of meanings.
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I think of it used as a male name in rage comics. When I saw it used as an adjective I thought of something more like your definition.
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That.
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Case in point: Derpy Hooves! Silly klutzy little mailmare that everyone loves to pieces.
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*spinny eyes go here*
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At first, I thought that said “spiny eyes.”
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yes me too! ha ha you need something that don’t sound JUST LIKE a weird word!
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I had a friend who wrote haploid and diploid as “herpaloid” and “derpaloid” on a test… and got full credit.
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Stuff happens. And I’ve been so busy theses past few weeks with finals coming up and everything. And there are things I wanted to tell everyone but I haven’t gone on lately and then I forgot.
The screenplay of Perceval goes on. I don’t think I will be able to write every scene, so I’m going to concentrate on the main ones, or the ones where I’ve made the most changes.
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In the spirit of the month, Catwoman sent us this picture that she found online. Does anybody know where we could actually see this thing?
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According to a google image search, Camp Verde, Arizona.
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Camp Verde, Arizona. It claims to be the “world’s largest Kokpelli”, though it probably has the “world’s best burger” as well.
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As is apparently tradition, today my Latin professor invited all his students in the two courses he’s teaching this semester to a local pizza place for an end-of-the-semester get-together. Obviously, no one in their right mind would turn down free pizza (though we bought our own drinks, alcoholic or otherwise). It was a lot of fun–especially in the higher level classes, you’re with the same group of people every semester, but you don’t get a lot of chances to just talk with them, so it was nice to get to know them a little better. One of the guys that’s been in the same class as me this semester and last semester, whom I’ve always classified as the slacker, possible stoner type (and that’s not a bad thing at all; he’s a cool dude with a good sense of humor that enjoys Latin), apparently considered going into the seminary instead of college, and though he didn’t do that, he might go to grad school for some sort of religious studies after he graduates from here in a week or two. He said he’ll be staying around here next fall, though, and so I’ll have another semester of Latin with him. I got to know the other people as well. One of them, who apparently did a music minor in something or other, was able to give me a bit of advice about which choir to join, since I’ll have to do that in the fall. I chatted with some people from the lower class too. This is disorganized and pointless, but I don’t often do social things like this, so it was sort of an event for me. And hey, I got some helpful information out of it too (about classes, professors, movies to watch, and how ridiculously hipster that pizza place gets after 10:00 or so).
And the end is in sight. Four exams and an audition and then I’m outta here. I think I’ll miss this place–it’s really nice being able to walk pretty much everywhere you need to go. The breakfast buffets are nice too.
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I love getting to know people better. People always act slightly differently outside of school, and I usually like them better. When you get a chance to really interact with people, it’s sort of a way to glean information about them you wouldn’t get to know otherwise.
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Talk about herbs all lab –> ORDER PIZZA, HAVE DELIVERED TO CLASSROOM
I love my plants class.
That was on tuesday. Today we went out to the field and tramped around looking at plants. WOOOO
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earlier today i saw a bunch of caterpillars! and when i say “bunch” i mean BUNCH! they were all huddled together in thier nest! like a ball of caterpillars!
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Ah! I love caterpillars. We got a bunch on a tree at home once. We put them in a tub and fed them branches/leaves, and then let them go at the playground near my school. They climbed into the trees and a few weeks later there were a ton of butterflies.
Do you know what kind of caterpillar they are?
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yes that variety has 3 names: tent caterpillars, army worms, and army ants (i have no idea why they call them ants) you know those nests that look like someone stuck a bunch of spiderwebs in a ball on the tree? that is thier nest (they looked so funny in that big clump but it was windy and cold) maybe they did it as an act to stay warm? IDK
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At 17 years old, I just took my first cruise as a licensed driver.
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I’ve been 17 for almost two months. I got my license just after Christmas. I have yet to take my maiden solo drive. Ah well, I suppose there’s no rush. Congratulations to you!
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I’m 19, and I don’t have my license yet. (When you live in a city, it’s not that important.)
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I got to geek out with a girl from Harvard who interned at the Kennedy Space Center last summer over frozen yogurt on Newbury Street!
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Berryline?
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Pinkberry.
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I was at a Pinkberry an hour ago! Ohhhh, caramel frozen yogurt. Although I remain loyal to Yogurtland, which is the best ever.
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I had the mango. Quite good. Frozen yogurt seems to be bigger in Massachusetts than back home.
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I had my first track meet today! It was quite fun, though I didn’t qualify in anything. I was only 1.31 seconds over qualifying for the 100, though (My time was 16.81 and the qualifying for girls was 15.5) so I’m not terribly upset. Since it was our first meet, though, there were a lot of schools, and we didn’t get home until 8:30. I’m fairly exhausted, but I’m glad I joined track.
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Congrats!
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I just finished watching Dear Zachary.
I believe that the last half hour has held more tears than I’ve had in a very, very long time.
I…I need to go lie down now.
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Man, the cover for this thread looks like straight-up disco fever!! O.o
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Also, I have a request that, on the “Who’s Here” page, my two alternate names (*blue.flame* and Child of the Moon, both of which I used for one or two posts each as a method of going incognito) be stated parenthetically as aliases.
Shadowkat is my true name, and I would like everyone to know that. =]
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I’m learning flute now! And Agent Hippie (who’s teaching me) lent me her old student model to practice. I think I’m getting the hang of this thing– I read down a bit of a cello suite I was playing on sax and we played. ‘Twas fun.
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Yesterday Martin Chalfie, who helped discover and develop Green Fluorescent Protein and got the Nobel prize in chemistry for doing so, talked at my college’s Undergraduate Research Symposium. He was walking around, and I chanced upon him.
So this is how I talk to Nobel laureates:
Me: Oh, hey, you’re that guy who’s giving the talk.
Chalfie: Heh, yes, I am that guy.
Me: Oh, that’s cool. Nice to meet you.
I then turn away to do my own thing.
Wasted opportunities in life whyyy….I mean, I didn’t really have anything to say to him at first anyhow, since I knew barely anything about the subject. But still. During the presentation i was all like, “Science is glowyyy…@_@”, and afterwards I suppose I came up with a few questions, mostly relating to the heritability of GFP and whether or not a GFP/WT cross would inherit the GFP. I mean, would it be dominant. And then I started thinking about calico cats where some of the patches glowed in the dark, and fluorescent humans, and then the possibility of adding the protein to cotton or something and making naturally fluorescent clothing. But I came up with all that afterwards
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Glowing clothes would be super cool.
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They would!
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We’re two nights into the run for Hairspray (I’m in the pit), tomorrow is SciOly states, and my physics teacher has decided to give us nine outlines plus thirty-six free response questions per week as AP review!
SLEEP WHAT IS SLEEP
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‘Tis for the weak.
But sounds exhausting. D:
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Saw Judah Friedlander last night! He’s a comedian, and plays Frank on 30 Rock. I liked his show, some of the humor wasn’t quite my type but overall it was pretty funny. I appreciated that he didn’t just come in with a list of jokes, he just kept interacting with the audience and answering/asking questions in amusing ways.
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Oh my gosh so many things in my life aaaaaaaaaaaa.
Well. I do have some questions for everyone. I’m going to try to explain this crisis I’ve been having; hopefully it makes sense. So. I’m currently an Environmental Studies major, and I only need to take three more classes to complete the requirements for the major, plus my senior project/thesis/etc. So I have four more semesters (one of which will be spent abroad in New Zealand) to finish up those requirements, which gives me a lot of room to take other classes (basically anything I want, classes in other departments to add to my liberal arts education). For my past four semesters, I’ve taken a lot of Environmental Studies classes, a couple of biology classes, ceramics, some politics/international relations, Spanish, music, psychology, outdoor education, etc.etc.
For next semester, I’m signed up to take a history of education course, animal behavior (bio), a climate/energy policy class, an independent research project with the director of the environmental studies program to develop the college’s climate action sustainability plan, and an environmental colloquium about colonialism in India. But currently, I’m in ornithology, and I love it, so I’ve been thinking more seriously about doing more science. Originally, I was thinking I would continue to major in Environmental Studies and just take a lot of extra science courses. But I’m also wondering about what sorts of classes I need to take to prepare me for a future job/career/experience/whatever I want to do with my life after college, and I don’t know what that is. I asked my ornithology professor if she thought that my school would offer an Environmental Science minor (because I don’t think I have enough time for a Bio minor, but maybe ENSC), and she said probably not, but that they have an Environmental Science major! I knew about the major, but I never dreamed that it might be possible because I only have 3 more semesters on campus, and it’s one of the biggest majors in terms of requirements and difficulty.
I met with her yesterday about it, and we created a 4-year plan for an Env. Science major, and it is actually possible, mostly because I am so ahead in the Environmental Studies major and have completed all but one of my general education requirements. I see a couple of problems with it logistically and realistically — that is, it would require me to basically take only Env. Science classes from here on out (a bit of chem, geo, and a focus in biology). Also, two of the introductory biology classes that are prerequisites for all of the upper-level bio classes (biodiversity and cells, genes, and inheritance) are only offered during the spring semester, and because I’m going abroad next spring, I’ll only be able to take them during my last semester at college (senior spring) and thus not be able to use that knowledge for my other classes. I got special permission from the faculty/professors to take all of the upper-level bio classes that I need to take without the prerequisites, but I’m worried that I’ll just be really behind, which will be really overwhelming, especially if I’m taking semesters with 3-4 labs/week on material for which I’m missing the basics.
I guess I don’t really know what I’m asking. But some questions I keep returning to are [1] what types of careers are there in the natural sciences (environmental science in particular/macrobiology) that I might be interested in? I’ve just never even considered doing anything in the sciences, so I don’t even know what’s out there. And would it be possible to do those jobs without the intense science background from an ENSC major (that is, would I be okay continuing with an Environmental Studies major and not switching over completely to a science major?). [2] is it worth it to do this if I’ll be having really crazy hard, overwhelming semesters taking only science classes, without having classes in other disciplines to balance it out? I majored in creative writing in high school, and switching majors would not allow me to take many more classes in the social sciences/humanities that I definitely enjoy.
Wow, I have so many more things to say on this topic, but I’ll just start with this. Basically, I don’t know what I want to do with my life, and I don’t know how to figure it out. So any suggestions/encouragements/life help would be awesome!
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I think that you are awesome and you can do whatever you set your mind to — including a double major. I also think you should do whatever makes you happiest, even if that’s not a double major.
Best of luck! ♥
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Wow, I didn’t even think about doing a double major. Wow, that would be truly epic. Thanks for the encouragement!
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I don’t really have an answer for you but this is something that I recently went through myself in a way. I came in as a bio major but the bio department where, while very good, is very frustrating, especially for people who want to do macrobiology (basically it assumes everyone is premed and offers a lot more micro and tried to offer macro classes ALL AT THE SAME TIME).
So I ended up in a lot of geo classes and hey! They were super nice to me and it was fun and I ended up being way farther into that major before I even realized it.
Basically my choice ended up being to do the overload-myself-with science thing. I haven’t really started that yet so I don’t know how it’s going to go for me, but I’m also doing a spring semester abroad, so am packing everything in.
Macrobio jobs… a lot are hard to come by. Pretty much everything with wildlife science is very competitive. I don’t know what exactly you have in mind though. More research-based? Or something else? Do you want to go to grad school?
Anyway I don’t exactly have answers but if anyone else does I am also very interested in them!!
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Hmm, that’s a great thing to think about. Just taking the classes I most want to take each semester and see which major comes out of it. Let me know how the overload-yourself-with-science thing goes! If I go ahead with ENSC, I’ll be looking at a lot of that.
Yeah, mostly I just have no idea what I want to do, so I’m hoping that eventually I’ll land somewhere I’m happy and it’ll be great!
re: grad school – I have absolutely no idea. I guess I’ll probably end up going, but I don’t know what I would go for, so it’s hard to really think about it. Do you/what sort of stuff are you looking at?
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Well I keep hearing that if you REALLY want to work and advance in the hard sciences, grad school is pretty necessary nowadays. Bachelor’s can get you some positions, but since it’s so competitive grad school is kind of what lets you work your way up in the field is what I’m hearing a lot. It’s also expensive though so I don’t know what I’m going to end up doing yet :/ double majoring also means I don’t have time to take a lot of classes that grad schools want that aren’t required for my majors, like physics and calc. I’ll probably apply for grad schools at the end of senior year, and if I don’t get in try for an internship summer and do online classes in subjects I might be lacking, then try again.
But yeah this is just what I have heard… GAPA(s) have anything to add to this?
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Since my throat is still recovering, I don’t know if I really want to wake up early for the conference on space business at Harvard. Especially because I have to dress up…
All of my friends from SEDS will be there… 7 AM on a Sunday… Mike Griffin and Steve Isakowitz… UGH! I can’t decide!
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If I were you, I would go…It seems like a stellar opportunity. But it also depends on how poorly you’re feeling. I hope you feel better soon, though!
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Was anyone else aware that David Tennant played Charles Darwin in Pirates: Band of Misfits? Because I certainly wasn’t.
Just thought I’d bring this small nugget of information to the table.
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Yes – that’s why I have been counting down to its release.
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Hi! I’m at Shadow’s house and she let me use her tablet and really, at this rate I’m not going to be home pretty much at all this weekend, which is nice.
Clare and I realized that we’re in the same part of town on Saturdays, which basically gives me an excuse to steal her. I like having excuses to steal people.
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Less than a week before I move back home, I discover the greatest coffee shop I’ve ever experienced. Life, she is cruel. Though maybe it’s for the best–I can easily tell that spending too much time in there would turn me irreversibly into a complete hipster. Although if that would mean I could consume more of those ambrosial drinks, that may be a small price to pay.
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I went back again today after Mass. Yesterday I had an Irish mocha, and today I went for a Mexican mocha and a sour cream coffee cake muffin. I brought along one of the books I bought a couple weeks ago (In Praise of Slowness) and just relaxed for a while. It seems like most people nowadays would grab a coffee and a pastry from Starbucks and wolf it all down in ten minutes so they could have more time to be busy and stressed. I’ve decided to reject that philosophy, and so I spent over two hours there, savoring the mocha and the muffin, thoughtfully reading, doing a bit of people-watching, and just enjoying life. I’m planning to go to a lot of farmers’ markets this summer as well and spend a good amount of time cooking. I’ll definitely do quite a bit of hiking as well. I like being slow. It feels so much more natural than the alternative.
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This GAPA agrees and approves.
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Mm. Mexican Mocha! A local coffee shop serves those.
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It was quite good. I think I may have preferred it to be a bit spicier, but nevertheless it’s something I would order again.
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mean to do work -> MAGIC PRERELEASE??? -> play all day -> get back home at midnight
I HAVE SO MUCH WORK HOW DID THIS HAPPEN
(-> forget to post this update for an hour)
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RIGHT
The Avacyn prerelease is today, isn’t it?
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Yep! Got a Tibalt and a Cavern of Souls, each worth about $25 right now (though those will both drop a bunch, so probably gonna sell/trade them now). And a bunch of other stuff of course. Only 2 angels, the least exciting ones : / But oh well.
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Life is soooo good right now.
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Hey GAPAs, my birthday on May 4 isn’t on the calendar. Is there a reason, or is it just missing?
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It was on our master calendar, but a default-setting mishap had made it invisible. It should be showing up soon.
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Ooh, an invisible birthday. I presume birthdays can have other superpowers as well. I think mine can probably shape-shift.
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Mine has night vision!
Comes in handy for Halloween.
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It seems to me that night vision would only be of use to your birthday if it exists on Halloween. Is your birthday on Halloween?
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Ah, no. But maybe it lasts that long…?
I’m really tired. My brain is just mush right now, hahaha…
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The birthday itself has that power, or you have that power on your birthday but on no other day of the year?
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My birthday can duplicate itself. Does it every year.
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So I went to the conference, and it was fun. Not as much fun as some other space events I’ve been to because it was designed for business majors, but I’m still glad I went.
I wasn’t sure what I would do or say if I got the chance to talk to Mike Griffin, since I really respect the good things he did as NASA Administrator, but some of the bad things he did caused me serious emotional pain.
Eventually, I did the positive thing and went up to him, thanked him for what he did to save the Hubble Telescope, and walked away.
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Whoops, pressed “Submit” too soon…
I met Karin Nilsdotter from Spaceport Sweden, and she was so nice! She talked all about how they’re converting an airport in Swedish Lapland, north of the Arctic Circle, to support suborbital flights through the Northern Lights. They have a special physics High School attached to the spaceport where the students get to design experiments that fly on sounding rockets, and they found a spacesickness treatment that was actually tested on a shuttle flight!
The really great thing is that she emphasized that Spaceport Sweden isn’t just for businesspeople or engineers– they have a whole “Creative Space” section encouraging artists to get involved, and they had a chef present a meal inspired by the Northern Lights at one of their events. “This is what I think the aurora tastes like.” He said.
Oooh, and Stuart Witt from Mojave Air and Space Port was really great, too– he’s a total “Wild West” cowboy type who used to be a fighter pilot and now runs the airfield out in the California desert where SpaceShipOne launched from when they were the first commercial company to put people in space. I asked him what the most memorable moment of working at the spaceport and and he told us this story about this time the police were chasing a thief through the airport and they were shooting at each other amidst the hangers…
(But his proudest moment was seeing the SpaceShipOne test pilots return after setting their record, and them climbing out of the rocket and everybody cheering for them. He said he gets teary-eyed every time he thinks about it.)
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That is so cool about Spaceport Sweden! I’d love to visit it and write poems there!
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Same! And I’m sure Ms. Nilsdotter would be glad to have us!
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Have I ever told you how lucky you are? I think I have. This sounds like a great event and I’m glad you decided to go!
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The link to the April birthday thread on my birthday post seems to be broken.
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Oxlin: I’m not sure what was wrong with it, but I seem to have fixed it. Happy birthday!
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BE ABLE TO GIVE THE SCIENTIFIC NAME OF ~50 SPECIES OF PLANT BY SIGHT GO
We have a field test tomorrow and I am so unprepared oops
Drawing out all the plants (will watercolor them later) tot ry to remember the naaames x_x
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GOOD LUCK!
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Good luck! Break a seedpod!
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JADE ME TOOOOO!!!!!
Except with birds. And by sight, sound, flight pattern, etc.etc. plus family & genus & species. 6:30am-noon, oh yeah.
BUT IT’S GOING TO BE GREAT WE ARE GOING TO ROCK OUR RESPECTIVE FIELD TESTS LOOK AT US BEING AWESOME.
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It’s weird, though not totally unexpected, but my stuff is randomly breaking down at the end of the school year. The strap to my watch fell apart. The strap to one of my sandals broke while I was walking to class. I don’t mind, exactly, because these items have done me good service for the past couple of years, and it’s about time I get new things. I just find it slightly amusing. This summer I’m going to have to go on a huge shopping trip to replace all the random stuff that wore out.
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I realized today that I can’t remember the last time I got eight hours of sleep in one go.
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Today’s my happy happy blogiversary!
Thank you all for a wonderful four years!
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