Going back to school might feel like the end of the world. As December 1999 approached, though, many people actually seemed to think the jig would soon be up, game over, for everybody. Undaunted as ever, Muse devoted its November/December 1999 issue to the End of the World — in fact, several versions of it. Equally undaunted, the world kept turning.
Ideas for future random threads are still welcome.
I don’t believe I recall that magazine. Perhaps it was before I started subscribing (speaking of, pretty sure my mom is unsubscriibng me, as it’s been at least 2 years since I’ve really read any of the magazines, because I never have time. But that’s okay.).
Also, in response to Dodecahedron on the last thread:
1. Yeah, I don’t know. But as long as the internet works, I just go with it. It’s “free” (aka being paid for somewhere in my rent, just not labelled as such and advertised as free) and it normally works, and as long as it’s working I don’t care what ridiculous nonsense they say about it.
2. I’m assuming they went around posting the notices on our apartment doors before the office closed yesterday evening. But I dunno. I was holed up studying, not checking the door for notices.
3. It’s a year lease. I’ve lived here for two years previously, ever since moving out of the dorms. I don’t figure it’s worth the hassle of moving (when this lease expires, I”ll only have 1 year left before I plan to get the heck out of this town for good), and I can usually deal with the stupidity of the management (although it does seem to be getting worse). And…last time I tried to talk to them, it didn’t really go down so well, so….yeah. I figure I”ll just mentally smash my head into a wall and remind myself I”m only living here 2 more years.
Hmm… I remember Odyssey’s millennium issue but not Muse’s.
OK, that’s a really odd coincidence. I was just chatting with a friend of mine about what kinds of apocalypses we would each survive and what kinds we wouldn’t. I’m waiting for her to tell me hers, so I came here. And saw this.
SFTDP– Jade, I think I found your doppelgänger today. This cute little South Asian girl, about eight years old, was at the New England Aquarium with her parents when I visited. They walked up to the cuttlefish tank and she pointed at one and delightedly shouted “SQUIDY!”
heheheeeee!! Well, the girl has good taste
On a related note, I squealed with with joy when I found a cuttlefish skeleton on a beach.
“As in all quests, science includes elements of challenge, adventure, and luck”
Textbooks…
Looking at science as a whole, that’s correct. One just isn’t likely to encounter adventure in the course of any given science class.
I didn’t mean to imply it was inaccurate. I merely meant it as a sort of “You would say that” aimed at textbooks.
Oh, okay. Now I understand.
Does anybody else remember the animated Godzilla series that (according to Wikipedia) aired from 1998-2000? I remember watching it as a kid and now I’m rewatching it online– it’s very good.
This is one of the older issues that I actually have because I ordered it as a back issue for some reason! I think it was on a whim wanting to read about silly end-of-the-world predictions.
So yeah the parents are in Scotland now which means I have the house to myself! And it’s very lonely. Only marginally better than having my parents here, since I can actually use the computer without being told to do something else. I’m not looking forward to living by myself, but that definitely won’t be for a while. I’ve gotta have more roommates first while I embark on the quest to become financially stable! ~yay~
So yeah nothing really happening right now. It’s the first time in probably since I was really small that I haven’t gone to the state fair. Weird feeling. The weather was not as hot as usual, though. And it was pouring rain a couple of days ago. I’m glad I didn’t apply to be a parking attendant again this year!
I guess that’s it. Signing off.
Every time I walk past one of those chemical shower things in a lab/etc (with those large triangle handles hanging at waist level from the ceiling), I have the nearly overwhelming urge to pull it. I really, really want to pull it.
This reminds me of a certain story from “Sideways Stories From Wayside School”…
Which one? I’ve read at least some of those.
The one with the boy who wants to pull the pigtails of the girl sitting in front of him.
I think I remember that one. I think.
I’m back at school and mostly unpacked. Strange to be starting my last year. Application stuff looming…I’ve been posting quite infrequently in recent months, I know – but no doubt I’ll visit more regularly soon once I’m busier and looking for ways to procrastinate! Hope everyone’s enjoying life.
Dentist today, just got back. Needed a cavity in one of my two front teeth filled.
It was actually kind of fun, the only bad part was the Novacane, but fortunately i got a really skilled dentist, so the shots didn’t hurt hardly at all. And it was entertaining too, because the doctor struck up a conversation with the nurse about random things, for some reason i like to listen to doctors talk to each other when they’re working on patients. I just like listening to people like that talk, it’s good to know that they have a private life too and they don’t spend their entire life being doctors.
Y’know, dentists always tell the patients to relax, but how can they relax when the doctors are sticking tools in your mouth?
I had a really, really awful day, but reading through the Survival Tips (Just in Case) feature made it infinitely better. I hadn’t read any Muse articles in far too long, haven given away most of my issues before I moved, and I’d forgotten how good the magazine is at crafting jokes that stay funny.
I’ve been reading all of your posts, if not replying! School has consumed, amoeba-like, all of the free time I thought I had, but this weekend I had a break in the form of my best friend, who came to visit. My family’s car got rather viciously rear-ended (and the driver at fault fled the scene, but thankfully, no one’s hurt), and I may have a flu again, but we went to the best theater performance I’ve ever seen! It was a production of The Complete Works of William Shakespeare (Abridged) in a clearing in the woods, and I can’t remember ever having laughed that much in one evening.
Lets lull are poor innocent vet school students into a false sense of security….nothing but multiple choice and fill in te blank exams for 20 months then BAM! Twenty one questions into what was a extremely easy exam (I mean, for example, which of the following does not cause colic in a male South American camelid. Well, lets see, one of the answers is uterine torsion. Male camelid. Uterus. Um, lets see, obviously that, cuz males don’t have a uterus), and BAM they throw a 10 point essay question contrasting production of low risk calves vs high risk calves in food prediction. I’m sorry, are you freakig serious!?
So yeah. I either sucked majorly on that exam, or just barely scraped by with an A. *headdesk* I hate my life somedays
I think my oceanography class this year is going to be awesome. The professor told me she’d never heard anyone list tube worms as the ocean animal they thought were the most interesting before.
Yes, Dr. SS was right, we need a thread for FanFictions.
How about the Writing thread?
Alright, will use that i guess.
I remember that issue! I’m /old/.
Phoo. I wrote part of it and don’t feel old at all.
In every other aspect of my life I’m the youngest. Museblog is an outlier.
If it makes you feel less old, you’re a month younger than me.
Oh, wow, on second thought….Let’s not think about the fact I’m 23. that still doesn’t feel possible. I’m just a kid, I’m not ready for all this real world stuff that’s looming so very close in my future.
I actually rather like being old here and don’t feel particularly old in my regular life.
Aw! She thinks she’s old.
*cackle*
Is this sentence grammatically correct?
“I was bored nearly to sleep; always staring out of the nearest window at the blue sky (or the grey sky, in fall) and the birds singing their hearts out in the trees, or drumming my fingers on the hard surface of the desk.”
Looks fine to me.
Thank you.
I think a semicolon is supposed to separate two independent clauses, in which case a comma would be more appropriate. I can’t come close to counting all the published works I’ve seen that use semicolons in other ways, though.
use a comma or a colon instead of a semicolon, since the second part isn’t a complete sentence.
(also I’d switch the order of the last two clauses since I lose track of the first part of the sentence by the time I’m done with the sky and the birds)
(my dad had surgery for intestinal inflammation and now he has a semicolon)
I ended up completely changing this sentence anyway, breaking it into two smaller ones.
Too bad! Long, leisurely sentences are a rare pleasure nowadays.
[insert recommendation for Proust here]
As a former Latin student, my initial instinct is to beg to differ. But then, I suppose as long as one is specific about how long a “leisurely” sentence is, that would be fine. Sentences that last a page or more are not typically included in that category anymore.
I saw Hostess Fruit Pies for sale today in the campus convenience store. Imagine how many supervillains I could defeat with them!
Today I got my September 2013 issue of Muse, my first in about 5 years. I really should have realized I could re subscribe myself sooner.
This thought popped into my head between sleep cycles last night, and I don’t know how much sense it makes in the light of day, so I thought I’d put it to you guys to evaluate:
When creating a fictional character inspired by someone else (either another fictional character or a tuckerization of a real person), in giving them a name, making their initials match their inspiration (eg, Tom Smith/Terry Sullivan), actually makes their similarity LESS conspicuous than choosing a surname from the same language that ends in the same syllable (eg, if the language was Italian, Mike Francisco/Bill Dominico.)
As I become more and more awake, this seems to be “dream logic” and kind of backwards, but us there anything to it? Having the same initials seems to be a more blatant actual visible similarity while just happening to have an Italian (or whatever) surname that sounds similar feels more like a real-world coincidence.
Woo, go LADEE! The Lunar Atmosphere and Dust Environment Explorer probe is on its way to the moon!
YAY!
Before I got up this morning, I visited my library’s site and, through their ebook program, checked out three books which I have every expectation of being excellent (Pratchett and Le Guin– Where can you go wrong?). I think I’ll go make some tea and maybe start a scarf and read and just enjoy the day.
(Maybe I’ll even manage to forget about the audition I botched and the results waiting for me tomorrow or the day after.)
Update: Audition results were posted early, and turned out remarkably well for me. Tea is delicious, and Pratchett is as excellent as foreseen. Also got to talk to a good friend for some hours, which was educational and fun.
This is a good day.
Congratulations!
So much for hard core studying this weekend. Set my alarm for 8am, got up about 9, started working about 9:30-9:45. Decided I’d take a 30 minute nap at 11am until 11:30 because I was tired.
Alarm went off at 11:30. and for the next 3 hours and 15 minutes I hit my snooze button every nine minutes (and fell soundly back asleep, each time).
Ugh. I think I’m addicted to sleep.
I mean, seriously, let’s get up for less than 2 hrs, and go back to sleep for 4? And how is it even possible to sleep for 3 hours hitting the snooze buttone very 9 minutes?
I don’t have time for this. I have so so so so much I need/needed to finish today, and now I dont’ have enough time left in the day to get throughe verything I needed.
*whimper* I really wish I was a horse right now, they only need 3-5 hours of sleep. Which means Tuesday and Wednesday night at 4 and 4 1/2 hours of sleep, I wouldn’t been great, and Thursday night at 2 hours of sleep, I’d only have been slightly on the short side.
So far behind, and two exams this week, and one of them is therio, and I”m terrified of it, with all the horror stories we’ve had from upperclassmen. One year 1/3 of the class failed it. I mean, they didn’t kcik out 1/3 of the class, they couldn’t, they’d lose accredidation, but they put a massive curve on it. And with as low as they’ve dropped the percents for letter grades this year, I find it hard to believe they’d curve it much, and I’m terrified I won’t get the 50% in the class I need to get a D, which is the lowest grade I can get in the class and stay in vet school. (D’s aren’t considered passing, but you are allowed a total of 9 credit hours of D’s throughout your vet school career. I’ve gotten 0 so far, and therio is far less than 9, but…yeah.)
It’s all the pregnancy hormone stuff that gets me. The stuff that we actually ahve to be able to undrstand backward and forward, I can do all the memorization of all diseases, etc of male or female reproductive systems, but I don’t know. I ahve a hard time with what hormones are active when and doing what during the estrous cycle. And then don’t even get me started on estrous synchronization in food animal, and what drugs to give when in what series, to get all the cows to come into heat at the same time so you can breed them at the same time, and ahve all your little calves at the same time, etc. It’s one of those things I just don’t *get*.
okay. work now. then breakfast/lunch/dinner after I finish a lecture (whatever meal you call it when it’s your firt meal of the day but happens closer to dinnertime then any other time of day). then work lots and lots more. *whimper*
I’m torn between wanting the next five weeks over so that we’re on clinics and I dont’ ahve to do this variety of studying anymore, and torn between not wanting the enxt five weeks over ever, because at least I know i can technically do this kind of studying, even if I freak out majorly about it sometimes.
Clinics terrify me. I don’t feel ready to be in charge of cases, and make decisions, and diagnose real animals.
Today was the student activities expo, and it was a great day for BU SEDS (Boston University Students for the Exploration and Development of Space)– so many people stopped to see visit our table (thanks in part to the books and DVDs I brought for decoration), and the posters I designed went like hotcakes– we printed 50 and had given them all away within half an hour! 96 people signed up for our mailing list on the spreadsheet and even more on the club website that we had working for a bit until my computer’s internet connection failed.
A good day.
47th anniversary of Star Trek.
Also, I apparently haven’t watched any Star Trek in 3 weeks, since school started (has school only been in session three weeks? has it already been in session 3 weeks? eep). If only that meant I was actually getting lots of work done…..Instead of like, oh, say, hitting my snooze button every 9 minutes for 5 freaking hours this morning. Yeah. great plan. Let’s not get up until 12:30 in the afternoon when you have so muchs tudying to do it’s not even physically possible or funny. yeah. that.
ugh.
Just had our first Caledonian Society practice, which is essentially Scottish country dancing. I’d never done anything like it before, and it was a good workout but lots of fun too! From next week we practise with Eton, and there’ll be a ball there in November (and January). If any of you ever have the chance to try Scottish country dancing, go for it – it’s more enjoyable than it might sound.
I have, and loved it! It’s great to be in a group of people who are really enjoying themselves, but still concentrating really hard on the task at hand (at least in this particular group, since we were all a bit confused and trying desperately not to step out of place).
Oh god, there’s only 23 questions on our therio exam. As if I’m not freaking terrified of it already. Historically speaking, I NEVER do well on exams with few questions, because I miss about the same number as I do on an exam with loads of questions. Not to mention, 23 questions in a coruse that I probably have almost a ream of paper in notes printed out for? I hate it when we have loads of material, and few questions, because you have no idea what to know for the exam, and even if you make the best attempt possible to learn *everything*, they always seem to manage to pick the questions from the areas you know least well, no matter how much you studied. *headdeskheaddeskheaddesk*
I”m having flashbacks to first year where I was panicked that I was going to fail out of vet school on our first anatomy exam. Now I”m panicking I”m going to fail out on therio, which in a way will be even more humiliating, to ahve made it this far, and ugh……i’m not even remotely studied enough for this, haven’t even started studying for my exam in a different course tomorrow, and so far behidn in everything else as well, and god this block is almost half over and just ugh.
*whimper*
*strength vibes*
Yesterday I went out with my friends on a smaller boat and went to look at whales off of Doheny. We saw at least three blue whales (multiple sightings of each) and two flukes! We also saw a sunfish, and it slapped water on us. Although some of us did get to pet it. What an odd-looking fish. Strangely adorable, though.
There was also a tallship festival going on, though we didn’t go to look. They fired off a cannon several times. THey had code flags as decorations, though it was mostly a random mix of letters and numbers and didn’t mean anything.
Also, I’ve learned morse code.
Sweet! I want to go on one of the New England Aquarium’s Whale Watch trips to Stellwagen Bank before I leave Boston. (It’s a commitment, though, because it’s four hours there and four hours back and I think you have to bring your own food.)
Cool! Seeing a blue whale is on my bucket list.
It’s always comforting when people are having mini little [female dog] fits about how unfair and stupid and blah blah blah a test was and cussing out the teachers, because they did poorly on an exam, when you started studying (at best) at 8pm last night (when you started the reading assignments) and didn’t even start on your flashcards until midnight and got an A on the exam. Mind you, I did stay up until 4am, and it was barely an A, but still.
It makes me feel slightly better about life at the moment. Would feel more better if my therio exam on Wednesday were over because oh god that is going to be one horribly evil exam. As in, hide in a corner and sob your heart out exam and maybe not remain in vet school exam….
Well, actually apparently it’s not an A, as I guess you need to have like a 93 for an A, but I still have a 91 and it may not be an A by his scale, but with the amount of studying I did, and an exam where there’s only 30 questions at five points apiece, and you can only miss 2 for an A at that point, and I missed 3? Yeah, still gonna decide to feel pretty good about that.
Fastest way to lose my respect and attention during a lecture? Have a “pop quiz” (not for points thank god) asking what color Edward Cullen’s eyes are (because it an ophthalmology lecture) and then have a slide with an entire paragraph on how the color depends on whether he’s fed recently etc etc
And then tell te boys how they should know who he is (implying its necessary to get/retain women). Uh, yeah. Guys do yourself a favor and do NOT know who he is. You are better for it
I mean seriously, twilight? Just ugh
History remark came back: my Russia paper went up by TWELVE marks, from a 68 to an 80 (which makes it an A). Staggering. I’m delighted though, of course. This gives me a 90% average in history, combined with the Britain paper.
Way to go! (Do people still say that?)
Yes, they do.
Congratulations, Selenium!
Thank you all!
That moment when you write a post for two RP characters, and it comes out something like this (in this order):
Character 2: -Some paragraph-long post emphasizing ens sensitivity and empathy for others as well as ens tormented resignation, while simultaneously making it subtly clear that ens sanity has been at least slightly affected by en being dead for a couple of centuries.-
Character 1: “[En] finally manages to stick [ens] head in the door.”
SFTDP. The latter sentence was meant literally. En pushed ens own head partway through a solid door.
SFTTP. I don’t know why that was squidded. Maybe someone thought it was painful and/or deadly? I can understand that, so to clarify, perhaps I should explain that the character in question was a ghost.
Oh, okay.
I expect nobody has ever written “Faceclaim: Steve Isakowitz” before.
So you know when you have a dog you train it to follow basic commands? Like come, stay, sit, down, etc? (Or you do if you’re not a 6 year old insisting you’re the one to train your dog, and well yeah let’s just say that didn’t end up working that great….I wasn’t a very patient or focused six year old, and she only seemed to obey commands mane less than half the time)
But anyway. I’ve decided that after I finish vet school and I get a dog (a black lab puppy named Luna….and hopefully a black cat named Spock at some point. But not if gandalf moves in with me after school, because he hates cats). Anyway. After I finish school and get a dog, I’m going to train her using commands in Vulcan instead if English and it will be epically awesome. Because then she won’t listen to anybody else, because they won’t know the right commands.
And I think I may have had to much caffeine, which is weird because I’m immune, but yeah. I feel awful hyper for having gotten 3 hours of sleep last night. On my way to bed now for just under 3 hours again tonight. If I can fall asleep. I feel wide awake.
Goal: learn one Vulcan word a day, and then when I actually have time actually learn some grammar and stuff to put words together into sentences. Because one word a day shouldn’t interfere with my vet school studies.
And my word if the day (well, okay, 2) ate ones I already know from TOS/fanfic. Kroykah (stop it/enough/cease that/whatever definition you want to use from t’pau using it in amok time). And kaiidth (what is, is).
Two of my classmates are discussing chess….I just keep having nice happy images of Spock and Kirk playing 3D chess popping on y mind and making me smile like a moron
Also sftdp, but I feel horrifyingly wide awake and chipper for only having for about 2 1/2 hours last night and 3 the night before
When I went to work today (first time since May), it was clear and hot, as it had been all day. When I got off work, it was pouring. Pouring. The first significant rain in at least a month, and it looked like it. And thanks to the badly-designed parking lot, there was a river of runoff more than ankle-deep in front of the store. Since I’m an employee, I also have to park on the far side of the lot. The rain jacket I got earlier this summer? Back at my dorm, of course.
So now I’m slowly drying off. It’s kind of incredible how heavy shoes can get when they’re filled with water.
Sorry. I’ve been there a few times… Not fun.
I ruined a nice pair of loafers once walking to work on a stormy day when the subway tunnels flooded. Now I always wear walking shoes to work.
I saw The Man For Aeiou’s post in the Recent Comments bar, and it reminded me that it’s been ages since I’ve posted about the Muserism Pantheon because he still has a nomination to consider.
So, to recap, each MBer can be a High Priest/ess/en (“Priesten” being gender-neutral) to only one figure on the pantheon, but a minor one to as many as they want. You can request a position as High Priest/ess/en, which will add you to the list of candidates for that position which everyone else can vote on. You can only vote for one person per High Priesthood! If you don’t get your first choice for High Priest/ess/en, you move down to your second choice, which is voted on again, and so on. You can also nominate people you think would be good for a certain position of High Priesthood, and if they accept the nomination, they become a candidate. I’m going to clear out the votes because I don’t remember who’s voted and who hasn’t, and I expect none of you do either. We might as well start the round over.
This is the Pantheon so far (“pending” means it’s open for voting, staking a claim, or nominations):
Claims:
1~
Kokopelli – High Priestess: Madame Q. vonStuffystein
…………….Priests/Priestesses/Priestens: Selenium
Aeiou – High Priest/Priestess/Priesten Pending: The Cello-Playing Mathematician
…………….Priests/Priestesses/Priestens: Selenium
Mimi – High Priest/Priestess/Priesten Pending:
…………….Priests/Priestesses/Priestens:
Pwt – High Priestess: Little Basement Kitten
…………….Priests/Priestesses/Priestens: Koppar
Crraw – High Priestess: bookgirl_me
…………….Priests/Priestesses/Priestens: Cskia
Chad – High Priest/Priestess/Priesten Pending: Choklit Orange
…………….Priests/Priestesses/Priestens:
Feather – High Priest/Priestess/Priesten Pending:
…………….Priests/Priestesses/Priestens:
Urania – High Priestess: KaiYves
…………….Priests/Priestesses/Priestens: Bibliophile, Selenium
Bo – High Priestess: Randomosity101
…………….Priests/Priestesses/Priestens: Bibliophile, Selenium
2~
Devil (Kokopelli’s dog) – High Priest/Priestess/Priesten Pending: Castle
…………….Priests/Priestesses/Priestens:
3~
Giant Space Squids – High Priestess: Jadestone
…………….Priests/Priestesses/Priestens:
Tardigrades – High Priestess: Bibliophile
…………….Priests/Priestesses/Priestens:
4~
Ordinary Space Cephalopods – High Priestess: Cskia
…………….Priests/Priestesses/Priestens:
5~
Mini Space Cephalopods – High Priest/Priestess/Priesten Pending: oxlin
…………….Priests/Priestesses/Priestens:
6
Aquatic Cephalopods – High Priesten: POSOC
…………….Priests/Priestesses/Priestens: Jadestone
Nominations:
The Man For Aeiou – Aeiou
SFTDP. The Man for Aeiou, if you see this, would you like to accept your nomination as a candidate for being the High Priest of Aeiou?
Sure.
Well, I actually (shockingly) survived. But I feel like I guessed on all of them, but I got 17/23 correct, which is a 73.9% B (yes, B) so I amazingly lived through it and haven’t failed (yet).
But wow. That exam was…wow. just so caking horribly caking evil.
Of course I’m totally braindead, went to bed at 5am last night (this morning). About 8 hours of sleep the last 3 nights combined, but I didn’t fail. so that’s a miracle in and of itself. just have to try and stay awake through classes. and then try to stay awake and study for other classes that i’m so far behind in….yeah.
My computer’s track pad isn’t what it used to be, and since I can internet on my phone now I’ve mostly been doing that…..also I’ve been crazy busy reading ALL THE THINGS. (Tl;dr: I’m behind on What’s happening here and I miss you.)
I got a new pet!
A little, black, fuzzy thing i named Kugei. I’m pretty sure i spelled it wrong, but Japanese words are so hard to pronounce in the American way.
He can eat out of a dish on his own, he can use his litterbox, he’s the cutest kitten on the fricki’n planet., and he loves me! X3.
There’s a sense of healing in how it’s become just another day for us.
Not for some of us, I’m afraid.
It’s really interesting how I didn’t realize that it was 9/11 until I went online and saw an article about it.
At the same time, of course, I would have forgotten my birthday if my parent didn’t remind me it was coming up.
My therio teacher got snippy at us this morning about how he should hope we all know what date today is (like how could any of you be so stupid at to not know). Oh, gee, let me see. Maybe the fact that half of us can barely remember what day of the week it is, much less the date of the year (no matter the historical significance)? I mean, it’s not like you gave us a killer test this morning (that I know many of my classmates actually failed), and that we stayed up studying all night for, in the case of many of us?
Yeah, gosh, I wonder why when you were presenting a case discussion on a cow that was bred 2 months ago, someone asked “and what day is today?” Although, in defense of my classmate, I’m not sure if he literally meant what day is today in the real world, or what day is “today” in terms of the case of this cow that was bred. Although apparently the cow that was bred was living in the real world, meaning that it was 64 days post breeding. But yeah, he got all snippy about how he told us that this cow presented to us yesterday, and implied we weren’t listening (um, hello, exam and no sleep? And you just got done reaming us out about how you don’t believe ing iving away grades and how we have to earn any grade we get in your course, with the implication that every other grade we’ve ever ogtten we had handed to us). Yeah. Wonder why we were a bit zoned out. But yeah, he got all snippy about how “Sept 8th would have been 2 months post breeding”, and how he would certainly hope that we all know what day today is (because if you don’t, then y’all aren’t fit to be crushed underneath my feet).
He was not endearing himself to the class, today, to understate the general feeling drastically.
The Prudential Center was lit up red, white, and blue. I saw it coming home from Astronomy Club and thought about what happened near the base of that building six months ago and what New York did in support of Boston then and how for all the trash talk over sports and cultural stuff, the people of my two cities really do care about each other.
I thought, “I hope it looks just like that on April 15… *does math* … 2026.”
Whoops, I DID think 2026 outside, but that’s wrong, it would be 2025.
Come to think of it, I think this is the first year campus didn’t send out an email saying they were going to ring the bells and have a moment of silence. Or else I missed the email in the dozens we get a day
Today I received a birthday package that consisted of vegan brownies, a scarf, and two zucchinis.
So apparently to get all the Star Trek Into Darkness bonus features on DVD or blu ray, you have to buy 3 different versions. Because Target has different extra features than Best Buy which has different extra features than iTunes.
What the bleeding cake were the people in charge smoking when they thought that was a good idea? I’m guessing fewer people are going to go “hey, let’s buy all three and spend that much more $$$$$” than are going to go “screw that, I’ll just stream it online when someone uploads it”.
Because seriously, the average person doesn’t ahve the money to spend on three different versions of the DVD/blu ray, just so they can have all the bonus features. I want the movie, I want the bonus features. But to have to buy it 3 times over (instead of once, at perhaps a slightly higher cost than whatever each individual one goes for)? Yeah. Not likely gonna happen.
Genius move, peeps.
Wait for a composite version?
That’s really odd. I really can’t understand their train of thought. Most people I know don’t even care enough to watch anything besides the movie anyways. There can’t be that sizable of a market for different bonus features.
Are they all on one disc, or is one disc the movie and the other the features? Because if so, you could get two friends who just want to movie to give you their target/best buy features DVD, and then buy the movie and the iTunes features from iTunes.
I think the extra features are on additional discs, but I’m honestly not positive.
And this is going to sound really sad and pathetic (although its really not), but I don’t really have any friends. Like, one friend? And she doesn’t buy DVDs and stuff. Like ever.
Although I could perhaps see if my brother in law is interested in purchasing a bluray/DVD/digital copy combo, which I *think* might give you two of the three sets of extra features. And then he could have the blu ray (he’s a bluray snob, won’t do DVDs, and I only have DVD capability) and I could share or whatever the extra features. But I dunno. I just think its a really poor decision from whomever makes those choices
Oh man, I’ve missed this site… so. Much. I should post here more often… it seems like ages since I’ve visited. How are you all? Maybe I’ll post more later, but my battery is fading fast. *hugd the entire Blog*
Tell me about your lives! How have things been lately?
You should post here more often! I, for one, miss you!
*returns hugs*
Madly busy with school and such. But otherwise well, minus the sleep deprivation.
Glad to see you again!
Hi!
It seems like whenever I come back, someone else comes back as well.
MBers tend to reappear during their birthday months, we’ve noticed.
I know I do….
*hugs back* I’ve missed you!
Aw, thanks, everyone! Glad to see you all here… the posts make me so happy. If you could see my face it is VERY EXCITED because there is lots of weather outside and also happy. Excuse me, I’m afraid I have to go dance in the rain for a while.
AL! *glomps and pies*
I’m back from interrail! It was awesome, full of random craziness and very muserly overall. That being said, I nearly forgot my towel on the way out the door- they’re really useful, take it from me.
JK Rowling is doing a Fantastic Beasts and Where to Find Them Fulm series about Newt Scamander. Set in the Potterverse, 70 years before Potter, but not technically a prequel/sequel
Dhdjdjhdjsjddhjsskdj. *excited squeeing*. Morning=made
This actually looks like it could be good. Finally, we might find out about the American wizarding community.
I’m so excited for this…
Voyager 1 has left the Solar System, apparently. Wow. It’s mind-boggling to think of something man-made getting so far away.
I KNOW, RIGHT?
The Voyager probes are what first blew my mind about space, we saw a movie in class about them and they played samples from the Golden Records and it was just so amazing to think that humans built these things and then sent them out to the stars, with the hands of those engineers being the last human hands ever expected to touch them.
Isn’t it? My magazine published the scientific paper about Voyager. I heard about it months ago but couldn’t say anything until now. It’s hard to keep secrets that exciting (though, of course, everybody knew Voyager would get there sooner or later).
Wow, what a day today is, Voyager 1, Jurassic Park IV/Jurassic World and now “Fantastic Beasts and How to Find Them”!
Also, we maybe cured AIDS.
Wait….There’s a Jurassic Park IV? *googles* Holy cake that’s awesome. Although I feel like I remember not being impressed by….the third movie I think? I’m not sure. I remember watching the second one, i believe it was, in theatres. With the RV that falls off a cliff?
But that’s totally cool, it’ll be like a slightly late graduation present, with the June 2015 release (I graduate it May of 2015, omg that’s terrifying…i’m not ready to be an adult).
I’m not ready to be an adult either. I’ve discovered it’s optional.
I think “adult” is one of those concepts that has been appropriated by the wrong parties.
Museblog! *shower of huggly confetti squids*
I hope everyone here has been well; tell me what’s new! I missed youuuuuu
I’m now a senior in high school, which I find quite bewildering. I still don’t know what I want to major in (something art-related, possibly?), nor do I have a list of schools I want to apply to (probably Yale, a couple UCs, and some liberal arts schools?), so I’m pretty lost… I’m sure it’ll work out in the end somehow, though, so it’s all good!
Course-wise my schedule is pretty lax this year: only three APs (English, Gov/Econ and Biology) plus 2-D Animation, Psychology and Creative Writing. I’m really loving Creative Writing; our teacher is quite awesome and writing every day helps keep me (in)sane. I’m not so fond of most of my other classes, though, and I find myself falling asleep in them unless I’m doodling… meh. I’m not such a good student…
One of my major priorities right now is the charity artbook I am trying to put together. I’ve been hosting a contest in which winners will have artwork published in the final artbook and receive a free copy of the artbook; so far only Swalot and I will be judging the entries, so I’m trying to find more people who are willing to give opinions. Might my beloved fellow Musebloggers be willing to help me somehow? (And if yes, how would I be able to show y’all the entries without infringing on the artists’ copyright? I mean, there is a website where all of them are posted, but in its entirety it’s not the most trustworthy website…)
Anyways, I’ll end my rambling now and insert the “Song of a Squid” I wrote for Creative Writing:
I am the Kraken of the night,
A giant space squid taking its flight
Through galaxies it never knew,
Searching for dreams that might come true,
Looking for minds and hearts that tell
Some stories, at least decently well;
Since even stardust is made of tales,
The giant space squid leaves silver trails
How mighty grand wandering must be
Through the embrace of a starry sea!
Drifting through worlds we’ve never known,
Living through legends of our own,
Retelling the births and deaths of suns,
Savouring the light of chosen ones,
Watching the great moons rise and fall,
Touching the dust which started all—
Because of this, I wish to fly
And pluck the planets from the sky;
To drink the light of the Milky Way
And hear the wisdom asteroids convey;
But though I cannot, I’ll travel far
Seeking magic, because there are
As many stories told on the Earth
As there are stars in the universe
Hello!
I MISSED YOU, CSKIA! HI!
I was the same during senior year, and now I’m loving my college. So don’t worry, it’ll work out!
The charity artbook sounds awesome too. I wish you the best of luck finding judges! (I’d offer to help, if that was possible over the internet, except that I’m not the best judge of art.)
Believe it or not, I’d actually been intending to write a random Warm Fuzzy for you that I never got around to. So yeah. You’re awesome.
Oh, and happy Friday the Thirteenth!
ffff I hit the pie and 1 second afterwards realized I should have squidded for squids
Cskia I missed you!! *glomps*
So….I can’t believe I only *just* found out the other day that Karl Urban who plays Bones in the Abrams Star Trek movies was in the Lord of the Rings movies as Eomer. Because my sis, mom, brother in law (and for two of the movies my dad) watched the LOTR extended additions this summer, because my brother in law had never seen the movies (or read the books, either…it’s kind of sad), and the rest of us hadn’t seen them since we watched them in theatres 10 years ago (god I feel old sometimes).
But anyway, when we watched the LOTR movies, I’d already seen Star Trek 2009 twice, and Into Darkness 4 times. So I’d seen essentially six movies in the last 1-2 months that Karl Urban was in, and I never realized that he was Eomer. Of course, I guess the fact that he’s got long blond hair in LOTR does rather drastically alter ones appearance, but still….And I also remember thinking when watching LOTR that Eomer was rather unattractive (like, appearance-wise), but Bones. Bones is…Well, if you’ve seen the two Abrams movies, you’ll know what I”m saying. When we were watching the 2009 movie (first time for my sis and mom), I was going on to mom about how Zach Quinto was hot, and she said something along the lines of liking Bones’ looks more.
But yeah. I had no idea watching LOTR.
Also, I totally love the fact that Karl Urban is a Trekkie. It always makes me happy when fanboys/fangirls of a show end up being in that show and stuff. It’s just so awesome. And apparently according to one intrview I read/watched a few months ago, he was carting around a toy Enterprise on one of their publicity tours that his son gave him (or that he stole from his son, I forget which). Apparently they’ve been watching Trek together (I guess he is training his kid to be a Trekkie).
Oh, also just popped over to his wikipedia page. Apparently he was on “Ghost Ship”, I remember watching that movie when I was a teenager, god I had nightmares for *days*, that scene near the beginning when that wire at the dance on the ship snaps and cuts right through the midsections of every single person except the little girl (because she’s too short) and *shudder*. Yeah. Me and horror movies. I was in college before I could watch a horror movie without getting nightmares for days (not sure what magically switched when I moved to college, but somethign seems to have). I actually wasn’t allowed to watch horror movies as a little kid, because when we were at the movie store renting a movie (yes, an actual place that rents movies….not the internet….i’m dating myself, lol. Especially since it was a *VHS* because DVDs didn’t exist. or at least weren’t commonplace), and they had Beetle Juice playing on a TV overhead, and I got nightmares. SO my parents forbid me from horror movies for *years*. So when they finally, finally let me watch a horror movie again (I was probably 10 or so when they did, I don’t remember, I know dad rented an R rated horror flick for Halloween when I was about 12 and mom was in the hospital after a surgery, “House on Haunted Hill”, I believe, with a hautned insane asylum and TONS of gore), and of course I got nightmares, but there was NO WAY I was going to let the parents know that, because then they’d reinstate the “no horror movies for Michelle” rule, and no way did I want that to ahppen, so for my entire preteen/teenage years, every single horror movie I ever saw, I got nightmares for about a week after. I was afraid of the drain in the shower/sink for days after watching IT, and I had nightamres about giant alligators for days after watching “Lake Placid”, and yeah…..
I only just recently (read: past year or so) confessed to my mom that for the last decade I’d get nightmares from every horror movie we ever watched, and she was all “why didn’t you say something?” And i was like, “are you serious?! You wouldn’t have let me watch them!”
Also, apparently there’s some new show on Fox I think it is that’s coming out in November, that’s got Karl Urban on it, so totally giving that a view, because, hello, HOT. (Yes I am totally completely horribly shallow. yes I am apparently very very very very hyper. Yes I really should be in bed because it’s 1 am and I ahve class at 8, but….I got 9 hours of sleep last night, which means I got THREE WHOLE NIGHTS of sleep, all in one night, so I’m really energized. because seriously, 9 hours last night, is mroet han I got the three nights prior combined. So yeah. it’s like sleep overload, don’t need sleep, don’t wanna sleep, and yeah i probably should have channeled that into being productive the last….8 hours, but…..yeah…..didnt’ really happen….oops….but hey. yeah. should probably try that whole sleep thing)
and yes i word vomit when i’m up late and hyper and don’t have anybody to word vomit to in person. ((Bet y’all are like, god, i wish she still had a boyfriend, b/c then she didn’t type random stream of thought eveyrthing she ever thought all daylong posts at us because she tortured him with that instead))
Okay. Going to attempt the sleep thing now…..
So…that’s weird. I knew it was Friday. I knew it was the thirteenth. I did not know it was Friday the 13th until one of my classmates said something about that……my connection making synapses are broken.
Brace yourself: we’ve got another one coming up in December.
It’s been a good day for me so far….I got 2 questions back on therio (6.96 points), bringing my exam grade up from a low B at 74ish percent to a low A at 82ish percent. So that’s a huge huge relief, because I didn’t think I was even going to manage to get the 50% passing grade in the class, based on my comfort with the material and historical data on class performance.
If only I didn’t have so much studying I was behind on in all my classes, it would be an absolutely brill day. But being behind kn school is par for te course, so doesn’t alter my mood too much
Half my sandwich fell on the floor, the lower half with the turkey and lettuce I wanted to eat. I hope that was my bad luck for the day.
And then later I almost crashed into a guy on a bike. But other than that, it was a very good day.
It’s friday the thirteenth and I had a black cat* cross the street in front of me!
(okay technically it was a tuxedo cat but I’m counting it as black)
This year we are meant to cook for ourselves, and I have to say, the idea is really growing on me. I knew only very basic things, but just now I successfully made risotto and wow, I did not know I could make anything so tasty.
Today is shaping up very well actually! I felt pretty sick yesterday, but decided to try to give jogging a go today anyway and it was actually quite nice. Well, I was in lousy shape and my friend was somewhat down, but I’m glad I got the exercise. Besides, my friend later messaged me to talk about the thing that was bothering him. It’s just that usually he’s a rather private person who just keeps everything inside, and none of us (his friends) really know how to help him when he’s hurting since we hardly ever know what’s wrong. I think he’s getting that he has friends who care about him and want to support him. Finally.
Then I did my bookkeeping for the interrail trip, cleaned my room, did the laundry and went to the library to study. I don’t have the stamina for marathon study-sessions yet, but I got a lot done in the two hours and it was pretty fun. Some study days suck, and some days remind me why I chose math- this leaned towards the latter, though the chapter was almost too easy to be considered an example of it.
And now I’ve made salmon for the first time! I’ve started my food-intolerance diet, and I’m trying to eat seafood- which I never really used to care for much- because it’s healthy and has got a lot of the vitamins and nutrients I’d be missing otherwise. Salmon is my gateway drug/fish for now, and I think I’ve managed to fry it well.
Okay fine, I was kidding about the last bit. Cooking with bookgirl is always an adventure- the first time I undercooked it a little, so I just ate the cooked bits off and threw it back in the pan. This time I overdid it a little, but it still tastes good. Unfortunately, my dad’s gf took the plates with her when she moved out, so I ate the fish off a platter, feeling a bit like Gollum. I won’t deny not confirming not singing his fish song first. And there was that bit when the oil started squirting and I threatened it with a spatula… Eh, it was fun.
Now I’m going to clean up the fish (I made too much, so I’ll be eating salmon sandwiches… for the next three years or so). And then I should read through my notes one more time, go back for the laundry and go to bed.
I know it all sounds a little dull, but I’m starting to take pleasure in just setting the little things in order. It’s like I’m learning to become an adult and take care of myself. I like feeling autonomous.
“The farmer had only to tickle the soil with a hoe, and it would laugh with a harvest” is an actual quote from my APUSH textbook.
Also: “Americans did not feel that they could offend their great and good friend, the tsar, by hurling his walrus-covered icebergs back into his face.â€
I love textbooks that snark like that.
Get “Linking to the Past: A Brief Introduction to Archaeology”.
I wish I had your textbooks. My computer science textbook, despite being only two or three years old, is horrible. It’s crazy how fast books on that subject become outdated. Its self-description in the first chapter as “a tour through the world of computing” didn’t exactly bolster my confidence either.
here are some of my opinions on computer science textbooks!
(don’t even pretend to be surprised that I have opinions on this)
Some of the good ones are great, and even manage to be timeless (see, for example, The Mythical Man-Month, or Kernighan and Ritchie’s book on the C programming language, or Knuth’s Art of Computer Programming).
But some are truly awful (I’m looking at you, data structures textbook I have, which managed to get wrong the example code it was using to demonstrate the critically important concept of big-O notation)
It seems your textbook falls in the latter category — my condolences.
Art of Computer Programming: The only Textbook that has Fermat’s Last Theorem as a exercise to the reader.
My biology lab manual’s “guide to computing” that was teaching us how to use Excel for data analysis still made reference to diskettes. The instructor *thought* they had removed all the mentions of punch cards.
I think I have the same textbook as you! At least, it has the walrus line. Is it The Brief American Pageant?
Yes! Oh, it is marvelous. I don’t like its glossy treatment of Native American history at all, but my teacher is great about teaching more about the bits that the textbook omits.
TMFA- It’s definitely snarky in some places, but in others, it’s just really flowery (is Thomas Bailey the Charles Dickens of textbook writers?). For example, its section on JFK, which is kind of hilariously reverent.
Lucky. My Human Geography textbook actually took a sentence to tell me that it takes time to do stuff. In fancy words. Without a trace of irony.
Anyone else find it weird, that my birthday is on Friday 13 this year, andi’m a black cat, and i’ve had nothing but good luck today?
Maybe it’s only bad luck for humans?
Or it’s good luck for black cats.
If we assume that luck is a conserved, then luck that leaves humans on Friday the 13th must go somewhere else. As black cats are known to already cause bad luck (or, as we might say now, attract “luck” away from humans), it is not that much of a stretch that the luck from Friday the 13th goes into black cats.
An excellent theory.
I’m a cat too
(at least my !!avatar is) and I was lucky yesterday as well
I have a real camera again for the first time in months!
That moment when you realize you have 4 windows and 74 tabs open in your browser….And that 71 of those tabs are in one window (because the other three windows only have one tab).
How many of them are TV Tropes?
None. I’ve actually never visited TV tropes, do to the fact that from what I’ve heard on here, it’s like a pit of quicksand hat sucks you in and doesn’t let you go because you keep clicking on and reading more and more articles and I’ve for enough distractions without knowingly entering that patch of quicksand…..
erm *due* to the fact. Not “do”.
And “got” not “for”. I don’t know why my ipod always changes “got” to “for”.
Good, continue to avoid it in the future, you have been told exactly right.
Now, though, I’m curious, what other websites are interesting enough to make you open 70 tabs?
I don’t even know. It’s probably at least a dozen different base websites. I’ve got my emails (yes, plural–school and personal), a couple of school pages, the list of Star Trek episodes on wikipedia (because I like to read the wikipedia entry after watching an episode….not that I’ve watched any episodes recently), a page listing all the episodes of all the star trek episodes in air date order (for when I get to TNG/DS9/etc that overlapped), a page with trasncripts of the Star Trek episodes for when I can’t figure out what somebody said, probably a dozen pages from the Vulcan Language Institute (just because).
I dunno. Just a hodgepodge of various things I’ve linked to. A few youtube vids in there as well. Mostly all Star Trek related.
That’s what happens when I go on Wikipedia (even more so that TVT).
Your comment momentary confuse me because TVT means something completely different to me. It’s the abbreviation for transmissible venereal tumor in dogs.
My parents just showed me the obligatory slideshow of their vacation in England/Scotland hiking Hadrian’s wall. Here’s what I thought most interesting:
1. Apparently the Romans carved a lot of penises into the stones of the wall as a symbol of strength. It looked like middle-school graffiti come to life.
2. My parents found a TARDIS sitting in a parking lot and apparently it was once used as an information booth at Stonehenge. They got audio tours when they visited Stonehenge and they said to “visit the information TARDIS” but there was a lot of construction/revamping of the tour guide for Stonehenge so the TARDIS wasn’t actually at Stonehenge anymore.
^^The audio tour then made my parents believe that TARDIS was an actual word before Doctor Who. Only an explanation of the acronym convinced my dad otherwise.
So it just randomly occurred to me. The anatomy locker rooms at school are like the dorms at hogwarts. The girls can get in either locker room, but the boys can’t access the girls locker room.
^^the women’s locker room is locked and requires you to swipe your ID (and only ID cards if female students/staff have access) whereas the men’s locker room doesn’t even have a swipe card access, it’s just perpetually unlocked and *anyone* can get in
I find the double standard amusing.
It’s past midnight and I am sitting on the floor watching How I Met Your Mother, eating popcorn, and poring over temporary tattoos. I sincerely hope that this is what responsible adulthood feels like.
I think responsible adults do that while lounging in bed / on a sofa, because their backs start to hurt if they sit on the floor too long.
Works for me.
Since TMFA accepted his nomination, I’m updating the pantheon. Let the voting commence! (Again.)
Claims:
1~
Kokopelli – High Priestess: Madame Q. vonStuffystein
…………….Priests/Priestesses/Priestens: Selenium
Aeiou – High Priest/Priestess/Priesten Pending: The Cello-Playing Mathematician, The Man for Aeiou
…………….Priests/Priestesses/Priestens: Selenium
Mimi – High Priest/Priestess/Priesten Pending:
…………….Priests/Priestesses/Priestens:
Pwt – High Priestess: Little Basement Kitten
…………….Priests/Priestesses/Priestens: Koppar
Crraw – High Priestess: bookgirl_me
…………….Priests/Priestesses/Priestens: Cskia
Chad – High Priest/Priestess/Priesten Pending: Choklit Orange
…………….Priests/Priestesses/Priestens:
Feather – High Priest/Priestess/Priesten Pending:
…………….Priests/Priestesses/Priestens:
Urania – High Priestess: KaiYves
…………….Priests/Priestesses/Priestens: Bibliophile, Selenium
Bo – High Priestess: Randomosity101
…………….Priests/Priestesses/Priestens: Bibliophile, Selenium
2~
Devil (Kokopelli’s dog) – High Priest/Priestess/Priesten Pending: Castle
…………….Priests/Priestesses/Priestens:
3~
Giant Space Squids – High Priestess: Jadestone
…………….Priests/Priestesses/Priestens:
Tardigrades – High Priestess: Bibliophile
…………….Priests/Priestesses/Priestens:
4~
Ordinary Space Cephalopods – High Priestess: Cskia
…………….Priests/Priestesses/Priestens:
5~
Mini Space Cephalopods – High Priest/Priestess/Priesten Pending: oxlin
…………….Priests/Priestesses/Priestens:
6
Aquatic Cephalopods – High Priesten: POSOC
…………….Priests/Priestesses/Priestens: Jadestone
Nominations:
None
Wow, I just had to open up Firefox for the first time in ages to see if a plugin would work (it didn’t, I hate you CDF Player) and the MB was still set as my home page! And you still have my birthday up in the dates bar :’)))) I feel honored and more than a little bit tearfully nostalgic. I can’t believe the same people are still posting and the same threads are still running, it’s like a time portal back to my middle-school years. I miss everybody, wow!!!!!
Welcome back, Kiki!
Hi Kiki!
Hey! We’ve missed you too!
*waves at all of you*
Hello, welcome back!
Wow, Kiki! It’s been ages since I’ve seen you here! Welcome back!
Hello! I’ve seen some of your old posts and also your YouTube videos. I feel starstruck; welcome back!
Salutations!
Reading about 15th century innovations in the Mass cycle while listening to Pulp. What is this I don’t even
Good day for photography, especially the clouds.
Barely four weeks into the year and I’ve already stayed up past midnight (in a building other than my dorm) finishing a project. This printmaking thing is a lot of work. It also turned a nice shirt into a grubby shirt (though it did have some help from my friends Negligence and Lack of Foresight). Once I finished the prints, I figured that, as long as I was already wide awake, I might as well drive to work to check my schedule.
Still not sleepy. I’m sure my botany exam tomorrow morning will be fine, though…I hope.
Good luck with your exam.
WOW SCHOOL SO BUSY ALL THE TIME
Went canoeing/camping friday/sat for plant ecology wooo. Hvae to pick a palnt species to do a semester-long paper/project on by friday though and I doooonnn’t have any ideas wherp.
saturday also got to help with the ice hockey exco the new people are so cute tryin to skate I love teaching new people
Photography is going well too, we’re doing our first project next week so I need to get out there and take some shoots whoops
cell and molec uhhhhhggggggg
paleobio: have to read some darwin and write an essay for wednesday I should really do that tonight
illuminated manuscripts: today we stared at picutres from insular manuscripts (the prettiest ones) and the Book of Kells (THE BEST ONE) and it was very pretty
and I love all my housemates!! we keep accidentally having like 3 hour long group conversations at night when I’m supposed to be doing work oops. And then I stay up forever finishing the work, as usual. Normal bedtime is about 3am. But when we were camping I went to bed at like ELEVEN THIRTY. Mostly because everyone else was sleeping and I couldn’t climb over them in tents, but. Still. Though I slept pretty badly so I don’t know if that even counts.
MANY SO MANY THINGS I HAVE DUE/TO DO THIS WEEK OKAY RIGHT
I was trying to figure out why I associate the name “Josh” with brown-haired men and then I remembered The West Wing.
You had my curiosity at ‘Josh’…now you have my full attention at ‘The West Wing’!
Last night, the girl who lives in the dorm room across the hall from me (I’ll call her Stream) invited me over to watch America’s Funniest Home Videos with her and her roommate (who I’ll call Blue). I only planned to stay until eleven. Then it turned into a midnight ice cream run. When we got back, I found out Stream had taken a dare to stay up until 2 a.m. but she didn’t think she could without something exciting to keep her awake. The solution? I introduced Stream and Blue both to Doctor Who. Which they liked. I ended up playing some of Voltaire’s music too, which they also liked.
…Why do I get the feeling that this is pretty much normal college behavior?
It’s nice to know that some things never change.
I saw this in the recent comments bar and thought it was a reply to Luna’s post. XD
SFTDP. Oops, I got my websites confused. That should be
THERE IS A CENTIPEDE IN MY APARTMENT. *whimper*
Last year it was a dead house centipede in my bathroom when I came back to start my second year. Now there is what is apparently a soil centipede (thanks, Jadestone!) in my living room. And when I tried to relocate it outside, it fell off the wall into the carpet and vanished. *whimper*
I hate creepy crawlie buggies.
What I learned today:
Those plastic slatted blind thingies for windows (the strips of plastic that have a stirng to pull them up and a rod thingy to block light/let it in….), when exposed for long durations to sunlight (so basically all of them then, yeah?) get oxidized, and the gritty silty oxidation product that accumulates on them contains lead, and is the number one source of lead toxicity in children today.
Or so we were told in food animal when discussing lead toxicity in cows.
So no licking the blinds, peeps.
But they’re so tastyyy…
Certain lead compounds were used as artificial sweeteners once.
CANCERRRRRRRRRRR
Junior year has been interesting so far, to say the least. I’m going on my first college tour tomorrow and it’s simply terrifying to realize that I’m already so close to being grown up that I have to think about college now. I’m turning seventeen in two months, and it still feels like just yesterday I was a tiny little ‘phyte breaking all the grammatical laws of the Blog (as laid down by Piggy) and prancing around saying “lol”, “totes”, “omg” and “like” unironically (*shiver*)! Which leads me to the realization that I’ve spent far too little time on the Blog, something that I dearly hope to rectify in the future. (I was almost starting to talk like–Koko forbid–a normal teenager! It was atrocious! Thankfully a few therapeutic sessions with my dictionary and style handbook restored me to my linguistic glory. :lol:)
All facetiousness aside, I truly have missed all of you wonderful Muserly personages during my extended periods of absence from the ‘Blog, and I would like to thank all of you for helping me to become the enlightened young Muser that I never would have been were it not for your patience, understanding, and guidance through the Terrible ‘Twixts of my preteen years.
**((I promise I did not eat a thesaurus.))**
My brother’s hamster escaped once and ate a corner off one of my thesauruses before we caught her, but it didn’t seem to make much difference to her style.
At least the hamster didn’t eat your homework.
The hamster didn’t, but our cat once ruined a big homework assignment by sneezing all over it. In eighth grade we had to design cities on big pieces of poster board. I stayed up late finishing mine and left it on a table, then came back on the morning to find it covered with cat mucus. I suppose I should have taken it to school anyway; the teacher thought I was trying a “dog ate my homework” excuse.
Funnily enough, one of the comp sci professor’s dogs ate my friend(her student)’s homework when she was grading class assignments. I think she just gave him an A and an apology (as well as a cute picture of the dog with the torn up paper).
I was thinking that hey, you should have just taken a picture of it to bring in, so she could see that you’d actually done the work, and you wouldn’t have had to bring in the mucus-y board.
Then I started to realize how modern this line of thought is. Funny how something can change so completely that we don’t even realize it’s a difference.
Well, we must remember that hamsters cannot speak in any form of language known to humans, so we really will never know if it made any difference to her style or not.
Arwen seemed like the same hamster she had always been, but you’re right: it would have been hard to tell.
Oh my god your brother’s hamster was named Arwen. That’s brilliant.
Reading that in the recent comments bar made me happy. Probably partly because my cat is named Gandalf.
Our cat (the one who sneezed) was Saruman the White.
*huggles* It’s okay; you just need to be careful with the roasting. Or season them with olive oil, feta cheese and- never mind. Welcome home, daughter dear! It’s always a joy to see you
Roasting? Well, to each their own, I suppose. I’ve always preferred mine marinated and then gently baked. It’s time consuming, but worth i- wait…
I saw your comment in the recent comments bar, and I thought it was in response to gradster’s comment about the human brains….
I find this terribly funny, so thanks for making my day!
Happy Talk Like a Pirate Day, me mateys!
MARINATE ALL THE BRAINS
Man, it’s been a while.
-A
Oh, also, I got my Star Trek curtain for my bedroom window in my apt that my mom made me in the mail today. along wit two matching pillowcases. It’s black fabric w/ a repeating pattern ofth e Enterprise and the words “STAR TREK” with hexagonal pattern on the black background behind the Enterprises and words.
It makes me happy
Fireh! Gradester! It’s wonderful to see you two around the ‘Blog again!
fireandhemlock – I’m very glad you have seen the grammatical light and come out of the dark ages of typical teenage linguistics.
I really hope you do stay around the ‘Blog more frequently! You’re such a flamablamablous person, so it’s not just you who benefits from your continued presence here!
Gradester – How have you been? Has life been as awesome as you deserve? (Probably not, because you deserve an extremely awesome life, but still.)
I must admit, ’twas your comments regarding my lack of intelligence in conversational skills that prompted this return. My thanks to you, O Random One.
I am very glad I could help, my friend.
The level of tired it takes to take a solid 45 minute nap at a desk in the library, where you are completely sound asleep? Yeah….just did that. Sound asleep. All nighter last night because I am oh so brilliant.
My sweatshirt sleeve is covered in drool now.
Time for 2 hours of lecture….
Are there any MBers currently in Germany or Austria? Because Voltaire is going to go on a European tour that will, for the first time, include those countries. He said if the tour is successful, he’ll do it again at some point. But if not, it will be the only tour he goes on that includes them.
Me! I don’t really know Voltaire but I’ll check it out.
Life’s been quite typically alright! Junior year is treating me well so far. Six classes (at eighteen credits), which is the absolute most you’re allowed to enroll for, so obviously things are going to be stressful later in the year, but the influx of novelty is very pleasant of yet.
Actually, y’all might be interested in what I’m taking:
Tuesday and Thursday are my busy days, so I’ll start with that- Introduction to Linguistics, which would seem fun but isn’t all that (considering I’m a linguistics major and I’ve already taken LING 178, so LING 080 is a bit of a step down).
Issues in Italian Culture, which is a lot of literature intake so far and not much output aside from in-class discussion.
Human Biology, which is [sadly] just a non-lab science requirement, but should be interesting anyway!
And, finally, Cognitive Neuroscience, which sounds intimidating, but it actually… well, it actually totally is. We get to toss around phrases like ‘pars orbitalis of the inferior frontal gyrus’ and ‘rostral portion of the corpus callosum’ in everyday conversation and everyone just seems to know what they’re talking about. But I’m taking copious, comprehensive notes (for the first time in my life, it should be said) and just barely keeping up. Today we have our first hands-on lab and I’m almost dead certain we’re going to see and possibly touch an actual human brain.*
Monday, Wednesday, and Friday are a little different- I finagled the scheduling a smidge, and voilà presto, no classes on Monday (the only two I would have are both hybrids, which means a portion is online, and I asked ever so nicely if I could do that part Monday for both). Did the math, and my weekends are three hours short of exactly half a week, not including some time for sleep the on Monday night. Soooooo I’m pretty pumped about that, if you can’t tell.
Anyway, Introduction to Syntax and Introduction to Phonetics MWF, which are both great because they make me feel like I’m really starting to delve into the meat of my major. (Interesting note: in Syntax, we’re literally recreating the English grammar system in a single model… from scratch. It’s annoying as all heck, if you didn’t already know that it would be.)
But yeah, class and all. That’s pretty much my life at the moment. Along with the fact that quidditch is starting back up and I’m a self-appointed officer this year
-A
*Update, as my lab partner tapped me on the shoulder while I was writing this: We do get to dissect it, but sadly, it’s only a sheep brain. BUT IT’S STILL A BRAIN SO JUST… OKAY? THANKS
I would have enjoyed our sheep brain a lot more if it hadn’t coincided with our dissection of our dog and cat heads….which seemed to have more structures to learn than the entire rest of the animal combined.
Also, I dont’ think I’ve ever mentioned, but I am madly jealous of your Quidditch playing and stuff. It’s always sounded super fun, but isn’t osmething I’ve ever ended doing for a variety of reasons, but I have been perpetually jealous and in awe of your Quidditch playing.
((I’m still not very coherent, my nap was rather too short))
Quidditch is rad! Y’all should try it if you ever get the chance! Or at least go to an official match; it’s almost just as fun to watch as it is to play.
-A
I think I’m going to a Quidditch practice tomorrow! I’ve also been going to women’s club rugby practices this week, so yay for sports not offered in high school!
/From the Earth to the Moon/
El-Baz: “Have you ever seen the inside of a human brain?”
(Beat)
El-Baz: “Come, I will show you mine.”
Scott: WeirdLilEgyptianGuySayWHAT?
/From the Earth to the Moon/
So I realized….If I’m going to watch “Almost Human” when it comes out because it’s got Karl Urban on it (can you say “yum”), that, well, maybe I should actually go see what it’s about….Because I realized, I hadn’t even seen a trailer/promo/anything for it, and literally all I knew was the name of the show, that Urban was on it, and that Abrams was doing it.
So yeah. Just watched a trailer. Looks like it could be pretty good (and not just because Karl Urban….although, y’know, that obviously doesn’t hurt). And really, i *swear*, I do choose to watch TV shows/movies for reasons other than that the have attractive men on them from other TV shows/movies I’m into. I just….can’t think of any right off, besides ones I started watching because my parents watched them.
And yes I do realize my two biggest TV show fandoms came about for the aforementioned reason of attractive actors….Colin Morgan on one episode of Doctor Who and Benedict Cumberbatch on Into Darkness. Of course, based on that, that method of choosing TV shows hasn’t led me wrong in recent history, lol.
I think i might be hyper. No real sleep to speak of last night, and at least a dozen chocolate covered coffee beans during lecture this morning (which, by the way, horrible aftertaste. Why do coffee products smell delicious but taste terrible?).
So yeah. Hyper. Feel free to ignore me.
Of course, I do have concerns about it being on Fox….I keep getting this feeling that it will go the way of Firefly and be killed a very sad, early death….Which is silly because a) it hasn’t even premiered yet and b) I didn’t watch Firefly on TV, so it’s not like I can have a justifiable deja vu premonition.
We’ll have it test the waters for COSMOS 2014, then?
So you don’t watch things because someone fangirls them and then stay for the hotness?
Or because you hear one episode made a reference to something you like, so you watch that episode and realize the show is very good and you want to see more ?
Maths and Kai: I do those too.
Have I told the story about my mom and Digging For The Truth here yet?
KaiYves:
I’m fairly sure you haven’t.
Okay, so one time when I was about 13 she was folding clothes or something in her room and I turned on the TV so we could watch, and Digging For The Truth (it’s an archaeology show that used to be on the History Channel, and while simplified and sensationalized, it was FATHOMS more educational than Ancient Aliens and its ilk) was on, so we watched it for a little and then I said “Yay, Digging for the Truth is great, I love learning about archaeology!”, and my mom said “Yes, and Josh Bernstein is such a good-looking archaeologist.”
Are there capital/lowercase letter distinction in alphabets that don’t use the same letters (mostly) as english? Like, I’m fairly certain there aren’t any in Chinese or old Norse, but what about modern Icelandic or Hebrew?
*Icelandic would because it’s Germanic and has many of the same letters as English, I got distracted but the other language I was thinking about/am unsure about capital letters is Russian.
Russian has both upper-case and lower-case letters. Arabic doesn’t make a distinction.
There are capital/lowercase letters in modern Hebrew, but not all letters have a capitalized form and I’m not entirely sure what the significance of capital letters is.
There aren’t capitalised letters of the kind you’d find in English; instead, certain letters take a different form when they’re at the end of a word. פ changes to ×£, for example. Maybe it’s because if you were writing in ancient Hebrew rather than modern, you’d have to add in vowel markings, and having a particular letter that indicates the end of a word makes it clear that there shouldn’t be any diacritics, so the word ends on that consonant.
Oh, so it’s at the end of any word? I thought it was only at the end of certain words. Or maybe we were just taught that way initially to make sure we knew how to form all the letters. I never actually completed Hebrew school.
S’okay, I didn’t either :D! Yes, it’s the end of any word, but only five letters have sofit (final) forms, so for the others, it’s proceed as normal. The sofit letters are easier to distinguish in cursive- maybe that’s why.
You’re right that there isn’t a distinction in Chinese, since it doesn’t really have an alphabet.
The Greek alphabet and its main derivatives–Latin script (Romance languages and many later derivations, from Swahili to Navajo to Vietnamese) and Cyrillic script (Slavic, Caucasian, Turkish, Iranian, Mongolian, Sino-Tibetan, etc.,)–have majuscule/uppercase and minuscule/lowercase letter forms. Armenian does as well, though its alphabet is pretty unique because it was invented by St. Mesrop Mashtots, a theologian, around the year 400. I’m not sure of his opinion on other potato-based snacks.
I just scrolled through this entire conversation trying to figure out what relevance potato-based snacks had.
Conclusion: I’m still extremely baffled.
I think it’s because his name was Mashtots.
Suddenly I am enlightened.
Me too….
Update number two: the brains were real human brains. I poked, held, and played with several actual human brains today. Also a spinal cord. Slightly scarred for life, but also slightly stoked for life.
-A
Hey, Ron Weasley turned out fine.
So….watching an episode of ER back from season 3, and Carter is trying to convince one of the surgeons to operate on one of his patients, and the surgeon doesn’t want to because he’s convinced thepatient will die in surgery, and comments “I’m a surgeon, not an executioner!”
I lol’d. Because just stick a “Dammit, man” before it, and it’s totally Bones. yes, I’m easily entertained.
That moment when you log onto a popular social media site and the first thing you see is a picture of one of your online friends (a friend of an MBer) with Zachary Quinto. My first thought was “I don’t remember liking a Zachary Quinto page….where did this–Oh my god somebody I “know” [in the loosest sense of the word] met Zachary Quinto oh my god that is so many kinds of so not fair oh my god he is hot. Spock. *whimper*”
So yeah.
In other news I bombed my therio quiz. I got 3 of 7 questions right. That was a blast. Gotta second my classmate who commented that he should bring a coin to the exam next week, b/c you can’t do much worse that way.
Ahoy! The great an’ glorious Talk Like A Pirate Day be here once more!
The blog looks suspiciously NON PIRATICAL TODAY…
NEVERMIND THE CACHE MUST HAVE BEEN CLEARED EVERYTHINGS BETTER NOW ARRRRRRR
So I was scrolling through a webpage that happened to have an image of a two faced cat that was recently all over the web a couple years ago.
I’m also listening to my Harry Potter soundtracks, and itunes keeps popping notifications in the upper right of my screen everytime it switches to a new track.
At the exact same moment I scrolled down to the picture of hte two faced cat, itunes notified me I was now listening to “The Face of Voldemort”.
I couldn’t have timed that more perfectly if I’d tried. o.0
Yay TLP day! *meanders off to read the Back to School thread*
Wait….so Talk Like a Pirate Day and Hermione Granger’s birthday are the same day. Because according to all the HP related deals I’ve been getting from sites and stuff…apparently it’s Hermione’s birthday. Which honestly I feel like I should know that without having to be informed, but…yeah.
But so yeah apparently those two days are the same. Interesting.
Be thar anythin’ funnier than readin’ normal con’ersations translated t’ Pirate?
No, there is not.
Th’ Song Lyrics thread be especially good!
Personally, I be fond o’ the Bunny Apocalypse thread.
Yes, there is: reading stories like Letters, England translated into pirate.
Oh, I loved that thread. I just went and reread it and remembered all the happy times. Ah, nostalgia.
Wish I could have seen it in pirate, that sounds absolutely hysterical.
There not be.
OH. MY. GOD.
So, I’ve watched “Empty Child”/”Doctor Dances” at least 3 times. Maybe even 4. and I realize that all 4 of those times were before I was into Star Trek. I realize that. But, what I don’t get, is how even with it having been before I got into Star Trek, that having seen those eps 3 or 4 times, I only just realized that Rose referred to the Doctor as Spock when wanting him to scan for alien tech and stuff and got Jack to call him that.
As in, I was sitting in the drive thorugh at McDonalds, and for something made me think of those episodes, and Rose’s annoyance with the Doctor for not scanning for alien tech, and her wanting him to be a little more Spock and introducing him to Jack as Spock. And then as soon as I thought of that, I was like…”Wait. No way. It wasn’t Spock, was it? I know it was a mainstream scifi reference, but it wasn’t Spock….was it? But…I think I remember an ear joke. Maybe it was Spock? But it couldn’t have been….Could it? But I’ve seen those episodes so many times….”
And so when I got back to school, I’d forgotten, and I just now remembered I was going to look it up, and oh my god it was. It was Spock. they referenced Spock 5 times in Empty Child and once in Doctor Dances (where Jack asks “Mr. Spock?”) and how did I only just realize this oh my god how. how.
And there was an ear joke. It just wasn’t in context of any Spock comments.
Oh my god. Now i have to try and find those scenes and watch them again because oh my god the epic awesomeness. Just oh my god.
Um, I appear to have neglected quite a few </i> in the above post.
First set of italics should only be “least”, and then the last italicized word of that bunch (“just”), should be italicized, but not the stuff between “least” and “just”
And I think the last bunch of italics was suppose to end after “it was spock”, but i dunno. There was suppose to be an end somewhere, though, lol.
So, I’m trying to teach myself linear algebra.
Why am I like this? I Don’t know.
MIT has great Open Courseware… Eh, good luck. Linear Algebra seemed boring to me at first but got progressively more interesting once we got past the basic basics.
Good luck, I respect people who work to educate themselves.
Be the Talk Like a Pirate plugin disconnected already?
I’ve made it aboard just as t’ ship be leavin’ shore. Ahoy! me fellow pirates.
We’ll extend the silliness overnight for you. After all, you can’t spell “Kokonspiracy” without, you know.
Thank you, Robert. Thoughtful as always. I’m looking forward to a night on deck with the Kokonspirators, singing at the top of our lungs into the briny sea breeze.
Yeah, three shots on my left arm, two on my right! FIVE SHOTS ALL TOGETHER!
meningitis, polio, whopping cough, chicken-pox, and another that I forget what it was.
I feel like a pincushion.
I’m popping in randomly and spoiling your days, aren’t I?
I totally know the feeling. I had to get 5 shots all at once the summer before starting college (and, like you, three in my left arm, two in my right). It’s not fun. Except for the bragging rights that you had 5 shots at once. There is that.
Mine were meningitis, chicken pox booster (when I first for the vaccine as a child soon after it came out they weren’t doing boosters, so I hadn’t known I needed one), hepatitis A, hepatitis B, and the one for cervical cancer.
I hope your arm(s) isn’t feeling too stiff and sore from any of te shots.
They are.
Laid down for a much needed nap at 4pm. Set my alarm for 6pm
Woke up to find my bedroom pitch black and it dark outside. Confused and disoriented, I looked at my clock. 7:52 pm
Apparently my alarm never went off/I turned it off/it somehow failed to wake me up and shut itself off, and I was so tired I fell asleep for a four hour nap and never once woke up during it. So much for all the homework I *really* needed to get done
I feel your pain so much… My mom forced her Bose on me because I kept sleeping through my apparently too-quiet alarm.
At least you didn’t accidentally set it for 6 AM.
Does anyone else like Moxy Früvous?
Aye
Oh, huh. Had no recollection of that conversation but I remember the Gozas. Wonder what they’re up to now.
Mm. My Dad has Bargainville but I recently discovered the rest of their discography. Bargainville was one of those CDs that was just around as I was growing up and it didn’t occur to me that a) I liked it a lot or b) there might be more where that came from. Then I discovered a friend of mine is a big fan (and even made it to a concert or two) and went seeking the rest of their albums.
Curious musers, I’d try Bargainville first, especially My Baby Loves A Bunch of Authors.
Absolutely! Big fan, right here.
-A
There are too many things I want to try my hand at/experiment with cooking and I can’t decide which ones to do first. I’m getting so into this! I had a fabulous dinner tonight. Perhaps there’s a domestic side to me after all.
I know I’m restless when I don’t even want to sit through episodes of Doctor Who I’ve already seen.
Yesterday, inspired by Biblio’s chance reference to Letters, England, I went scrolling through all our old roleplaying threads. It was quite a pleasant nostalgia trip.
I also was amused at the GAPA comments on the new threads. They kept making snarky comments about how we always seemed to want more RP threads, and I just pictured them having incredulous conversations: “They want another Bunny Apocalypse thread. It’s only been a month! And the worst part is that they’re right. They’re right, Kokopelli help us.”
In other news, today I canoed sixteen miles in four hours. I don’t know how easy that sounds. It isn’t.
(It was technically a race, and we came in last. We were glad to finish at all.)
Still, it must have been good exercise.
There is a picture on my Twitter feed (posted by Leonard Nimoy) of himself, Patrick Stewart, and Ian McKellen all three hanging out together. Too much awesome in one photo.
So have reached the conclusion that my penchant for watching shows because they have certain hot actors in them was come by naturally.
After my mom repeatedly enquiring if Captain Jack was going to be on anymore Doctor Who episodes, I introduced her to Torchwood over the summer. We watched 6 episodes before I left for school. She just texted me with an “important question”, wanting to know if Children of Earth was the next series.
She also wanted to know if I had watched Arrow, because she wanted to know if John Barrowman was “in enough episodes to bother” watching it.
I’ve created a monster! She also wanted to know if Gwen and Jack get together in Children of Earth, because, “you know how you don’t like girls hitting on the doctor? I don’t like the undertones of Jack and Gwen being hot for each other.”
^^^Now, while it’d be slightly more apt to use me not liking girls hitting on Spock…..the fact that mom hates the thought of a Jack/Gwen relationship cracks me up, because I feel exactly the same.
And oh god I am way too amused by the fact that I come by the watching-shows-for-hot-actors-thing naturally…….
I’m back! I will also try to start posting more regularly.
Fiddler, forgive me if this is a faux pas to ask serious nautical musicians, but have you ever played “Whale of a Tale”?
Review: Bombed a Cognitive Neuroscience exam [presumably], completed both a Syntax and a Phonetics lab in less than two hours, then on to a weekend visiting my better half! (R&R appears to be nonexistent now…?) Weekend was great et cetera, then back up by bus yesterday night to collapse… and then figure out I had phonology practice sets to complete by today at eight thirty.
Is there anything but being busy?
… Hang on, hold that thought; I need to go print out an assignment.
-A
I finally got The Hobbit for my birthday! Now I feel like I fit in with Museblog for the first time in months!
I haven’t actually read it yet, but I’m getting around to it.
You know, it really doesn’t make sense to say “Ooooh, that CARBON-dates it” as an insult to mean something is very narrowly dated to the era in which it was produced, as Carbon-14 really only gives you a range that can be decades or centuries long.
It’s like using “quantum leap” to mean a huge change when in fact it’s the smallest possible change.
I always think of “quantum leap” as referring to the (seemingly) instantaneous quality of a particular change, not its size, in which case the term does make sense. Maybe that’s not how others mean it, though.
Wooo, Soyuz launch, go Pulsar, go Pulsar! (That’s their capsule’s callsign.)
And they docked okay, too!
In record time!
Huzzah!
Huh. So things have slowed down a bunch, haven’t they? This sure is interesting.
-A
I survived the week of hell. Three exams, three quizzes. I haven’t spent time sleeping in my bed for more than 3 consecutive hours since…well, I’m not sure. Maybe Monday night? Sleep has been in nap form, 10 minutes here, 20 there, an hour or two there….
But I survived. And by some incredible miracle, I didn’t fail this mornings theriogenology exam (which truly is a miracle, given the volume of material–well over 100 pages of typed notes–and the fact I only started studying yesterday, because of the other exams we had this week). But i passed. I more than passed, I got an 80% A on the exam.
Next week is a light week, just two quizzes, although we have an exam this weekend (a closed book, take at your own convenience type exam…i dunno. it’s weird), and then finals week, and then….Well, then, 2 weeks from now, I start a new and very terrifying chapter of my life, because classroom book learning will be over, and I”ll be starting clinics. And….that’s terrifying. I mean, it’s what we’ve been working toward, and nobody outside of my classmates gets the terror (because they’re all “I thought that was what you were going to school for?” Well yeah, but the idea of actually making decisions and diagnosing patients, etc, well, it’s terrifying. I dont’ feel ready for that)
So yeah. Two more weeks in the classroom, and then clinics start. It’s a weird combination of not wanting the next two weeks to ever be over, and not being able to wish them over fast enough (because, hello, I just want therio done with and over, nevermind I have a clinical rotation of it in a year and a half, I’ll deal with that then, but god can therio not be over soon enough.)
Anyway. I survived. Sleep deprived, but alive.
Yeah. There’s a list of the MBers participating in NaNo from a few years back that’s considerably longer than the current list of MBers.
I like the slower atmosphere, I really do. At the same time, we’re getting no-one new. The current Neophyte thread is- What, six months old? During that time, we’ve attracted two neophytes. A few returning paleos, too, but I doubt it ends up balancing the people growing less active.
I don’t know. Perhaps we’ve found a happy equilibrium, a group of solid MuseBloggers who will stick around forever. I hope that’s the case. I fear that it isn’t. I’m horribly afraid that pleasantly slow will become glacial, and eventualy there’ll be nothing left but silence.
…It’s a depressing vew. Really hope it’s unjustified. Don’t quite see how it can be.
Sorry, you probably didn’t want all my pessimistic views unloaded on your post. You just gave me a really good launching board for a bunch of things I’ve been thinking about.
…That was supposed to be a reply to Gradster. Whoops.
I’m posting less right now because I’m sick and I should be studying- I don’t really have anything coherent and/or positive to say.
I didn’t mean to imply that this is happening now, specifically, or any time soon. It’s just an observation of a trend.
Nah dude…. Depressing it may be, but it seems far more likely than the optimistic outcome. Same thing happened to a writing site I used to frequent…
-A
MuseBlog shall not fade away! I do swear it!
*dramatic gesture with sword*
Far be it from us to argue with a woman wielding a sword.
It’s hard for me to tell, since I’m on here less often than I used to be. I feel like it’s slowed down some, but since my own life has gotten busier it’s still a good pace for me.
I also feel like I have less to say.
The RRRs (and to a lesser extent the RPGs) were my major areas of activity here, and these days I don’t like collaborating on creative work with anyone I don’t know well. (The Ensembles were a good idea, but I lost interest in the one I originally signed up for.)
The Writing and Books in Progress threads are much less active, too, and now that I’m seriously thinking about publishing I’m less inclined to post my work online (copyright issues).
I don’t like sharing too many particulars of my personal life on the Internet, even in a sheltered backwater like MB, so the R&R/R&P “support group” atmosphere isn’t something I’ve participated in much.
.
On the other less gloomy hand, though, I’ve been around for a while (not as long as the true Blog Elders, but more than a third of my life) and I’ve seen many, many people predict the downfall or decay of the Blog. It’s still here, plus two additional GAPAs. I think that’s cause for hope.
Well, hi. There goes half my data on “MBers that were previously extremely active and then left”. (I need a pithier name.)
(And, you know, I’ve been sort of wishing that there was a thread for talking about writing, rather than displaying our own. Or that the Writing thread could be repurposed. Anyone else with me?)
I’d be perfectly happy to discuss the technique and practice of writing there. Especially since I’ve been frustrated with it lately.
Out of curiosity, who’s the other extremely active MBer who left that you refer to?
I actually did a study of this for my math class last year. The sad truth is, I projected that Museblog is in a decline that will level out somewhere between three and eight active posters.
That’s interesting. I was just about to suggest that someone with time to spare should tally up the activity levels over time… Do you still have the data?
I do not still have the core data I used for that project, I’m afraid, as it was on a computer I no longer possess. However, I should have pointed out that my data was a bit skewed as I did not look at all active threads, and I did not look over a wide range of time due to constraints for turning my project in. If I were to do such a study again, I would certainly get a different result, as there has been a small influx of paleos since then. At the same time, the third most frequent poster at the time seems to have all but disappeared. I’m not sure how different the projected posting would be at this point.
Here are some statistics from our spam filter. “Ham” means legitimate comments (non-spam) — the amount of traffic on the blog.
Spam detected Ham detected Missed spam False positives
2013-09 25 566 0 1
2013-08 27 690 1 2
2013-07 909 784 0 2
2013-06 361 1,171 0 1
2013-05 136 765 1 4
2013-04 163 953 0 2
2013-03 70 1,008 0 2
2013-02 72 942 1 1
2013-01 42 970 0 1
2012-12 53 1,063 0 0
2012-11 69 1,357 0 2
2012-10 75 1,367 1 1
2012-09 171 1,455 0 4
2012-08 196 1,906 0 6
2012-07 110 2,200 2 10
2012-06 173 2,162 1 10
2012-05 74 2,769 2 12
2012-04 56 2,666 0 8
2012-03 118 2,712 2 14
2012-02 161 2,366 0 6
2012-01 44 2,405 1 7
2011-12 92 3,476 0 5
2011-11 147 3,175 0 23
2011-10 144 2,933 5 13
2011-09 131 2,145 10 12
2011-08 392 3,097 15 19
2011-07 442 3,690 21 25
2011-06 522 3,869 18 21
2011-05 431 4,306 20 35
2011-04 421 4,422 4 42
2011-03 364 5,720 12 140
2011-02 252 3,680 19 159
2011-01 172 3,844 14 29
2010-12 152 2,892 10 28
2010-11 148 2,504 0 12
2010-10 184 2,688 8 18
2010-09 96 3,176 7 20
2010-08 56 3,116 0 22
2010-07 88 3,904 4 33
2010-06 66 4,496 24 3
2010-05 117 5,149 10 3
2010-04 97 4,629 5 5
2010-03 325 5,367 14 3
2010-02 524 6,219 13 7
2010-01 468 6,808 6 10
2009-12 292 4,994 7 9
2009-11 308 4,738 2 7
2009-10 322 4,729 11 3
2009-09 528 5,854 14 8
2009-08 613 5,625 0 9
2009-07 808 5,687 9 24
2009-06 954 8,720 8 13
2009-05 1,155 7,132 9 18
Thanks, this is most helpful. I’m still going to go thread-hunting for some of my purposes, though. Should “Missed Spam” be deducted from the “Ham” number, and “False Positives” added?
I think “Ham detected” is the important number. Adding the “false positives” wouldn’t make much difference anyway.
Wow. So 5,854 legit posts in September of 2009, and this September at 566 presently, we’ll be lucky if we even break 600? Just one example, but dang. I knew it was extremely “slow” compared to a couple years back, the numbers just emphasize just how much the posting has dropped off thought.
I like it, though. I mean, I have nothing against new people, or current people posting a lot, but it’s a lot easier to keep up with things at this pace, you can actually go away for a week and not miss much, isntead of go away for 2 hours and miss a bunch–and I don’t have the kind of free time I use to, where reading every post posted, even at peak posting times was possible, lol.
what was up with July 2013???
You mean the spam? I’m not sure. Some bot found us.
Did the spam algorithm change Feb-March 2011?
Beats me.
So what caused the decline, and when did it start?
*cue dramatic search montage*
After a far less dramatic montage than I hoped for, somewhat obvious findings…
2006 was definitely the best year for Neophytes. Since then, there’s been a gradual dropping off, until 2010, when fell again dramatically.
Which means I’m a bit conflicted, because I’m pretty sure that’s owing to the Googlemasking, and I kind of want to mimic Kai’s pose and shout about taking that down, but on the other hand that would probably increase our GAPA’s workload, and I don’t really want to even suggest that. Besides, I’m almost certainly lacking in full information.
Wasn’t that the year with the contest in Muse Magazine? That brought in a lot of ‘phytes.
Yeah, I think that was the consensus in the comments.
So, time to decloak, you think?
It wouldn’t be that much more work for us. If anyone were to find us, you’d be the ones who would have orient them.
I personally would prefer it stayed googlecloaked, because I’m paranoid about people finding me on here.
Didn’t we originally go under to hide from spambots, rather than people? That would be the part generating work, wouldn’t it?
In any case, I don’t know the full story, and I certainly don’t speak for everyone else, but if you want my vote, I would unmask us.
I agree with Lizzie here, though my opinion might change if the core group we’ve got now dwindles further.
I agree with Lizzie both on staying cloaked and reasons for it….I’m all for being as hidden as possible. I’m not big on the possibility of somebody googling me and finding me here. The way it currently stands, they at least have to dig a little to hit on it, instead of potentially getting a direct link.
I dont’ know if it was before google cloaking, but i know my dad once stumbled on the ‘blog (I’m not entirely sure how, it must have been before cloaking), and that was a very uncomfortable experience, especially as he managed to find and read my first post ever.
And honestly, I was never entirely comfortable with the fact that my real name got posted on the ‘blog increasing the potential that without google cloaking somebody i know irl could find the place without even having to dig, but kaiidth. what is, is. ((Shut up. i’ve been wanting to work vulcan into conversation for ages, even if I did long since abandon any real thoughts of trying to actually learn any.))
i don’t know. i’m a very private, paranoid person (alhtough apparently not paranoid enough not to spill my guts to strangers on the internet)
I’d also like to stay cloaked for the same reason as Lizzie and Luna- obviously, there’s a lot here that I’d prefer not to be connected to me IRL.
Okay, I’m convinced: no decloaking.
Darn iPod. That was suppose to be a pie, not a squid
I kind of wish that we could be found on Google. The day I stumbled upon MuseBlog changed my life, and maybe somebody else would have serendipitously found us through Google and been blessed with the same. I hope Muse-type people the generation after us have somewhere safe and loving to congregate and be themselves.
Meow,
It’s always gratifying and amazing to read comments like yours. MuseBlog has affected people in ways that we couldn’t have imagined when we launched it slightly more than eight years ago. I’ve been thinking about ways we can continue to make the world a better place and will launch a new discussion thread on that topic within another day or two.
*cues drumroll*
I can barely begin to fathom how large an impact MuseBlog has had on my life. So much of who I am and what I do can be traced back to here, and I find it actually impossible to imagine who I’d be if I hadn’t found this place. I’ve said before–and I still think it’s true–that, after my parents and my faith, MuseBlog has shaped me more than anything else in the world. I will never be able to fully express my enormous gratitude for everyone I’ve talked with here over the past six or seven years.
SFTDP. POSOC’s question has inspired me to do a new study of activity on the Blog over time. It would be much more in-depth than the one I did for that math project, which means I would need to use data from as many relevant threads as possible. Do you all think I should only look at threads that have been on the Blog from the beginning, and whether you do or not, what threads would you suggest I look at? I’m going to be delving much further into the past this time as well.
I’m going to start with the Random, R&R, and Rants threads, and expand from there.
Are we becoming self-aware?
Another metric you might consider is number of names on the monthly birthday lists. As we tend to weed out those who have been inactive, they should give at least a rough indication of how our population has changed over time.
Choklit Orange – Better late than never.
Robert Coontz – That’s an excellent idea. Thank you.
Soooooooooo tired. As in, that point of sleep deprived exhaustion where your brain feels like it’s peeling away from the inside of your skull (which is actually a feeling I’ve become all too acquainted with).
But while I’ve got some of the errands done I needed to do (and picke dup my room slightly), I haven’t done any studying this afternoon, and if I’m to have a hopefully fairly unstressed finals week the week after next (which I really want it to be slightly unstressed), I need to get caught up this weekend, which means I need to get some studying done. Which means I can’t cave and do what I wanted to do 3 hours ago and just go to bed early. Very early, as the case would have been.
So gonna try and force myself to work now, get as much done as possible by midnight, and then enjoy a very much missed date with my bed that lasts for more than 3 consecutive hours, maximum. Because there is something wonderful about sleeping for more than short little naps here and there, never more than 3 hours at once, for several days. So I’m gonna not get up until noon tomorrow, and that’ll be 12 hours, which won’t be enough (and I know I could easily sleep more than that), but. god that will be so lovely.
So I guess i should gow ork now. Because the sooner I get some stuff done, the sooner I can go to bed….
Then again, i can barely keep my eyes open while writing flashcards….bed time now
Sleep well.
I did. 13 solid hours of sleep (except for waking up briefly needing to use the bathroom), until I woke up at 11:30, to a pouring rain storm, as at some point during my sleep I had removed my ear plugs
But my alarm was set to go off at noon, and I think the rain is actually a less jolting way to wake up….
Now off to look at that assignment/test thing we have to do this weekend…..
SFTDP. Apparently, today was an unofficial Take Your Child to College Day.
It was actually kind of nice seeing all the little kids.
I am sad.
Internet hugs if you want them.
*hugs hugs hugs hugs hugs*
I’m always around if you ever need to talk/vent. even if I’m not online at that moment. ♥
Hugs.
*hug* Sorry to hear that. Do you want to talk about it?
*hugs* We’re here for you as your friends, please know that.
I’m sorry for you *hugs*
In case your’e still sad,
*more hugs*
Many hugs.
*Hug* cheer up
You can always talk here if you want.
A really bad Thing happened at my school, and the way the outside media is handling it is pretty awful.
I’m writing the article about it for the school newspaper (due to my inability to say “no”), and yesterday I interviewed the principal, who is about seven feet tall and seemed to stare into my very soul for the entire conversation.
I also went down to the courthouse and requested, nay, demanded (but politely) some police records and yelled at a security guard who laughed at me and I feel generally both anxious and rather daring.
There’s a lot of dreadful stuff going on, but it’s also Homecoming, and we had a lovely parade and lost our football game by slightly fewer points than usual. Despite really liking my school, I never thought I’d have much school spirit, but watching my schoolmates deal with the situation, and participate even more than usual in Homecoming as though to prove that it hasn’t broken the school, has made me really proud.
(I think my earlier response was eaten? If not, delete this, GAPAs.)
I’m sorry bad things are happening, but I’m glad you had fun at Homecoming, and I hope the rest of the year goes well for you all.
I’m proud that you’re taking it so well! I’m sure things will get better once the media storm abates.
I’m sorry bad things are happening, but I’m glad your school is holding together and you seem to be taking it well.
So…..fashion question for those of you who know more about anything pertaining to clothes than I do. Which, would be all of you, considering my general approach to dressing myself in the mornings tends to be clean looking jeans and the first shirt i find on the floor that passes the smell test.
But anyway, I decided I wanted to wear a dress to white coat, which of course meant I had to go *buy* a dress, because the only dress I own at my apartment (and pretty much that I own at all) was the black dress I wore to my ex boyfriend’s dad’s funeral, which…..yeah. I doubt I’ll ever want to wear that dress to anything *besides* someones funeral, because I will always emotionally associate it with that.
So anyway, I went and bought a dress yesterday (OMG, clothes are *expensive*, it was $60 ON SALE), which is a very dark navy blue, goes down about to my knees (I was hoping for a more brighter blue, but….those had thsoe skirts that taper after your butt, and frankly it made my thighs look all gross and bulgy where it stretched over them, so I didn’t like those, lol).
so knee length navy blue dress: would the silver high heel strappy sandals I wore for my sister’s wedding go with it? (I’m ignorning the fact strappy sandals in October is probably not high on the list of fashion dos, I really just want to know if it matches….)
….thoughts?
Navy and silver is good. If you wanted something a bit more subdued you could also do navy and nude, or brown.
(also modcloth is really good for cheaper nice dresses and they’ve got a pretty good return policy. The only thing is that like everything comes from them wrinkled so you’d have to iron.)
*quiet moan of longing*
Oh my god, I can literally spend two hours just browsing through Modcloth, I would buy everything if only I had the money
thanks!
The problem with catching up on sleep by sleeping 13 hours until noon, is you’re just not in the mood to go to bed until well after midnight….which puts you right back on the self destructive sleep cycle of staying up until 2-4am, and then either sleeping in again sunday (and being up way too late sunday night and not getting enough sleep befor emonday classes) or forcing yourself to get up earlyish, and not getting enough sleep saturday night, and feeling the effects of *that* monday morning….
bleargh. whatever. it’s not like that’s a change from the normal, lol. i just usually skip the “catch up sleep” night.
Ugh, I know the feeling. Trying to avoid that this semester more than last.
My aunt and uncle (mum’s younger sister and her husband) are staying with us for the weekend. They’ve driven from interstate but will soon be moving back to New Zealand, sigh. I like having extended family around, not that I’d want them constantly on my nerves or fighting (well, they do, but I mostly only hear about it) or making us feel we need the house to be presentable. But it’s less lonely and it’s normal, so.
Since they have their car, when taking them around the city today I could drive supervised by my dad and they could follow, in the race to fulfill my P plate requirements by February.
I have the usual pile of assignments and stuff. I’ve done it before so it should be fine. Not fun, but I will defeat it.
I’ve done the basic uni applications and now need to apply for the other stuff. I don’t really want to reveal where I end up going, which is likely to be either my current 1st or 2nd preference (my preference, not an officially-stated one). That, and I’m still under 18 so it would probably break the MB rules. I’m not sure yet what I will most want to talk about and hence what information would narrow it down from there. …. Anyway, I have 1, maybe 2 places that I can see myself loving and feeling are good enough.
I’ve been doing some clothes shopping and am now the proud owner of two cute sundresses, a blouse I love, and some other things. Also I bought 3 scarves today- how would you decide between the midnight blue and light blue?
Re: scarves– I know I couldn’t.
Good luck with uni stuff! I know what it’s like… I submitted my music one yesterday (eeek) and my teacher references have already been posted from my school. The UCAS one for a History and Politics degree I’m hopefully sending off this week. Are your preferred places in Australia or abroad, if you don’t mind me asking?
Yesterday wasn’t the best, having to spend a beautiful day inside going readings only available online is never fun, but a spontaneous sing-along in the study room did improve things.
I feel your pain- I’ve been cooped up inside sick for the past week, trying to study in between and trying not to cry about missing my exams and wasting study time (this has kind of been the straw that broke the camel’s back- I’m graduating a semester late now).
Hugs for both of you! Hang in there.
Thanks! Good luck with your uni applications and all that final year stress.
I got to read outside a lot today, it was much better. Thank you anyway, though.
The most frustrating part of writing an article on all the newly hired professors is that it is next to impossible to get in contact with them because their emails aren’t necessarily listed yet and Admin is slow as molasses.
Still, at least some progress: 4 out of the minimum 5 responses received! And I’ve still got a week until the deadline.
I know that a while back, I posted saying I vaguely remembered a television show in which a group of people inside of a house or museum at night that had various environments inside of it, including a jungle and an arctic area, but I didn’t remember any details and was asking if anyone else had similar memories.
Now I’m pretty sure that my memory was of the Magic School Bus episode “In the Haunted House”, where the class ends up in a “Sound Museum” that does indeed feature rooms that simulate a jungle, a seashore, a city, and an alpine (not arctic) landscape. To get from the city to the alpine area, they climb up onto one of the slopes and are surrounded with snow, which fit with the mental image I had of people reaching the arctic landscape by climbing up from somewhere below.
Mystery solved!
A health question,
My eyeballs hurt whenever I look too far in any direction without turning my head. My dad says it might be sinus, and someone else says it might be an eye infection. I’m leaning on the fact that it’s the sudden change of weather, because around here we’ve been having a drought for a long time, and lately we got a lot of rain. I’m hoping that the sudden change of weather hurt my eyes, as opposed to an eye infection.
Speaking from personal experience, I doubt you have an eye infection, if it *only* hurts under certain conditions. When my eye was infected, it was pretty much always in pain–and the pain got increasingly worse in the week before I finally went to the doctor.
However, I would recommend going to see an ophthalmologist and getting a professional opinion, because while odds are it’s nothing that’s a big deal, it is your eyes we’re talking about.
I’ve had lingering discomfort in the eye that got infected for two years after the fact, as well as mildly decreased clarity (words are slightly fuzzy compared to the other eye), and while the two doctors I’ve gone to since tell me “oh, you just have dry eyes and have a pair of glasses” (according to the first) and there’s absolutely nothing wrong with it (according to the second), and the very slightly worse vision in it is not at all requiring of glasses.
And basically the point of that last paragraph, is I’ve kind of wondered if maybe had I gone to see the ophthalmologist sooner/had an ophthalmologist who was a bit more thorough the first time (all he did was stain my eye to check for corneal ulceration and then send me out the door with combo antibiotic and steroid drops, didn’t even do a full eye exam), whether I’d be having the lingering issues.
And I know me telling someone to go to the doctor is beyond hypocritical, but that’s really your best bet and you’ve got nothing to lose.
It could just be that the muscles are tired. That happens to me sometimes.
Possibly.
For those who have been to Universal Studios– Florida, California, or Japan– what is the Jurassic Park section like? Some of what I’ve seen says it’s cool and like really being at Jurassic Park, other people say it’s lame and neglected because the franchise has been dormant so long.
Universal studios Florida: it’s really just a ride, some jungle decor with Jurassic park theme music blaring, and a interactive kids museum/gift shop. I don’t know that it’s lame,but I also wouldn’t necessarily say its like really being at Jurassic park
Oh, cool! BEN has infected my desktop
What’s BEN?
I should really post all about my first month at college! In the meantime, though, one interesting thing that I’ve signed up for (besides women’s club rugby and absolute beginner piano lessons – college is awesome) is an online publication for science writing by students from my school. MuseBlog is honestly the inspiration for imagining that would be something I’d like. Robert, any suggestions for a fledgling science writer? Anybody else heard about cool science topics that would be fun to write about?
How about the LADEE probe and its mission to study the moon’s “atmosphere”?
A few quick tips:
1. Read our @Kokonspiracy Twitter feed. We rarely tweet, but we follow a lot of interesting people.
2. My magazine’s online news service (news .sciencemag .org/) is also worth checking regularly.
3. Ask your college’s news office what exciting research professors on campus are doing. They’ll be easy to interview.
Karl Urban and John Barrowman in a picture with each other. So much hotness in one picture should NOT be legal. I mean, just *guh*
((Neither should as much hotness as is in the reboot Star Trek movies, because there’s pretty much no one in those who isn’t incredibly good looking))