“The world rides through space on the back of a turtle. This is one of the great ancient world myths, found wherever men and turtles were gathered together; the four elephants were an Indo-European sophistication. The idea has been lying in the lumber rooms of legend for centuries. All I had to do was grab it and run away before the alarms went off.
There are no maps. You can’t map a sense of humour. Anyway, what is a fantasy map but a space beyond which There Be Dragons? On the Discworld we know There Be Dragons Everywhere. They might not all have scales and forked tongues, but they Be Here all right, grinning and jostling and trying to sell you souvenirs.”
Users’ Manual: Obey The Rules. Consult The Guide. Have fun!
My best friend introduced me to Discworld when I was in college, when I had pretty much given up on finding new fiction to read–most of what people around me were reading seemed to be soap operas in book form.  She lent me Going Postal, and from that point on, I was hooked.
I’m not going to try do describe the whole series here, since that would take way too long and I wouldn’t do it justice anyway.  What I will say is that these books have made me, and who knows how many others, laugh, cry, and think.  If you haven’t read them, I highly recommend that you do.  I’ve heard that Guards! Guards! is a good one to start with, but IMO, you can start anywhere, the chart below notwithstanding. (Click to enlarge)
–Groundhog
Lovely picture, Groundhog! Seems kind of hard on the elephants though.
Hmmm, a giant turtle flying through space. Reminds me of something…
not flying through space, it’s turtles all the way down
Oooooohhhhhhh. You know, now the idea of Discworld makes a lot more sense. It’s all based off of the whole ‘turtles all the way down’ thing?
(Also, now I understand xkcd 1416 way better…)
*ALERT: COMPLAINT AND PROBABLY BAD PUNCTUATION*
i`m tired and dehydrated and it`s 4:30 am and I can`t sleep and if I got some water I`d be able to fall asleep but I`m scared to go all the way downstairs in the dark to get water from the kitchen faucet because what could be lurking in the shadows. I would get water from the bathroom faucet but that would just make me thirstier ; for some reason (cuz it`s filtered?) the water from the kitchen sink is way better.
I feel the same. I never go down stairs past 10:30 PM. The sink water at my house is full of rust and sulphur so I don’t dare drink it. (Though I do drink shower water.) However, I don’t like water at all unless it has Kool-Aid in it so my parents let me drink lots of Kool-aid. XD I am terrified of going down stairs when it is dark!
Soft water is treated with salt, which could be why faucet water makes you thirstier. I like having a water bottle within reach so I can get a drink without disturbing the shadow-monsters.
i accidentally pied my own post
i did it! i got the water! now im going to bed.
Excellent picture and quotes, Groundhog!
SAT scores came in yesterday.
2320.
So I guess I did pretty well.
Yay!
Congrats, that’s fantastic!
I couldn’t figure out why I was redirected to Squidblog yesterday…
Because it was April Fools day
Just celebrating the first of the month with some fun activities.
XD It kept crashing my iPod whenever I looked at it.
Well, of course it did. You were trying to load an entire universe into it.
By the way, if anyone ever feels like being a squid again, SquidBlog is always open (www.squidblog.org). Moderation might take a while, but space squids are enormously patient.
Reminds me of Ents.
April Fools festivities.
Okay, so, after having wonderfully fantastic dreams after actually being brave enough to check out certain celebrity social media pages, I’ve decided to post about it on Museblog.
I’m sure that many of you have said this about celebrity crushes before, but this one gives this phrase whole new meaning of truthfulness; He’s older than my dad! how does he look so good?!!
No! My frog ate one of her boyfriends! And it was the albino one just like her too! DX Why?! Why has she done this?!
I thought you liked that stuff?
Not when it happens to my pets…
What if there was an alternate world whose news of the day for April 1st really was the fake news reports published on April Fools Day in our world? (I know most joke articles don’t really have continuity between years and even two joke articles published on the same day by different sources may be contradictory– i.e. One says President Obama is retiring to become a professional wrestler, another says he has been kidnapped by aliens, etc.)
It would be funny to see what the other 364 days are like there– people using all of the joke products, they have spaghetti trees in their yards, the zoo has hotheaded naked ice borers and other joke species, perpetual motion machines have changed the face of industry, Earth is regularly in contact with various alien species. And Dr. Lirpa Sloof is honored as the world’s greatest scientist for en’s many incredible discoveries in many diverse fields.
And Star Trek was bought my Disney.
And Taco Bell bought the Liberty Bell, Google colonized Mars and the Moon, and Virgin lets you book trips to the center of the Earth.
And we’re all squids.
I think the one exception would have to be the BBC’s 2012 joke article “The Earth has exploded, killing everyone”, because that would make most articles from the years after impossible.
(Which actually wasn’t written by the BBC, just a photoshop made by someone else.)
That wasn’t real?
I only heard about it at some point after 2012 but it never crossed my mind that it had been photoshopped.
It was a photomanipulation created by a [External Blue Bird Microblogging Site] user, not a real joke article that the BBC posted. So it was a fake fake, not a real fake.
today’s challenge: trying to get kimchi out of the bottom of the jar when it’s hidden in a sea of juice, without getting said juice all over the kitchen
Good luck. Let us know if you were successful.
I think there is still some left. Not sure. We will find out shortly.
My friend that I still have a crush on even though she keeps saying no is currently very depressed about her body shape. I learned that she used to cut before she met me… Well, I think she’s fine. I told her that some people are naturally round and others are naturally skinny(and some like me are just bones.) *Sighs* I’m using a lot of the new knowledge I got from Highschool health to help her out. Though, I’m not sure how well I am doing. I just keep reminding her that she is beautiful and very important to me.
“Keeps saying no” leaped out at me. It’s good that you’re supporting her emotionally, but maybe stop asking her out? If she changes her mind, she’ll probably tell you. Putting pressure on her to date you is not going to help her with her depression.
I know it feels terrible to have a hopeless unrequited crush on a friend. I’ve been there. I don’t think you’re a bad person here. Just… keep reminding her that she’s important to you, but don’t make her feel like that importance is conditional on your attraction to her.
Oh… Okay…
Finally warm enough to jog outside again without layers on for the first time since fall, so naturally half the city was doing so on the Esplanade– running really does mean a lot to this city.
I know I went to the second bridge on the Storrow Lagoon and back and then west past the BU Bridge until about as far down Comm Ave as West Campus is, but I don’t know how far it was in total because apparently the app I have only records when there’s Wi-Fi and there wasn’t any on the eastern leg of that trip.
Hey everyone! Lunar eclipse tonight just FYI!
This link is I think for PST but should be visible at least partially in most of the western/midwest US, and a bit in the east too.
http :// www . timeanddate . com/eclipse/lunar/2015-april-4
Theoretically, the entire eclipse was visible from Australia’s eastern seaboard. But we had cloud cover thick enough you couldn’t even tell where the moon was. *sigh*
Here in California, I saw it about half-eclipsed, but by the time it went full Blood Moon it was below the treeline.
Knox College is amazing and I’m going there. I’ll probably babble on about the rest of my visit when I have more time, but now I have to eat breakfast and catch a plane.
(That was the first time I’ve said it and it feels so liberating. I’ve been ‘not wanting to make the decision so soon’ but really, I kinda made it a long time ago. It won’t be official for another couple days, though.)
YAY! I’m glad you feel so good about Knox! I’m looking forward to your “babbling” about your visit.
The friend I mentioned in my previous post went to jail just now. She didn’t have time to tell me what happened, she just said, “I’m going to jail.” And disappeared. SHE PROMISED NEVER TO LEAVE ME! DX WHY?! I’M REALLY SCARED AND DEPRESSED NOW!
I overly reacted… She’s not actually in jail… She was playing Monopoly…
I’m sorry… I seriously thought she had gone to real jail… I mean, it’s not even April Fools day!
a good mental trick to get in the habit of:
when something happens that seems outrageous, ask yourself
1. how likely is it that my interpretation is correct?
2. is there a simpler / more common explanation that makes more sense?
3. am I subconsciously (or consciously) seeking out the most dramatic explanation for entertainment?
(if 3, then make an effort to stop doing that because it gets tiring to other people)
SAMPLE:
-haven’t heard from a friend for a few hours/days/whatever
-initial reaction: “OMG they’re dead”
-1. How likely is it they are dead? Probably not that likely
2. Can I think of simpler explanations? Yes: -their device died and they lost their charger, again. -they are busy and haven’t had time. -they are traveling for something and haven’t had time. -for people of a certain age, they got grounded. -many other possible circumstances -in circumstances where it was something they said, they were being dramatic / cryptic on purpose
3. am I being unnecessarily dramatic? No, because I decided there was a non-death-related explanation that was more likely.
It will save you much unnecessary angst. You can then spend that angst when it seems necessary.
I’m not doing anything on purpose… It’s just I have so much anxiety and I’m always super afraid of loosing people… It’s because of my past that I act this way…
right, but there are steps you can take to lessen your anxiety. You don’t have to let it or your past, whatever that is, control you.
What did you mean by “she promised to never leave me?” I’m glad the whole misunderstanding is cleared up, but does she really have any control of whether or not she’s taken to jail?
By not doing illegal things, yeah.
I keep accidentally replying to the wrong posts. I appologize to everyone. Umm… I’m super embarrassed so I’m just going to disappear for awhile… I’m pretty sure this message won’t post any way. I’ll miss you all…
Hey GCA-Ds, whenever you read this.
Maybe you feel like your posts are all being met with rebuttal. I know this feeling. I just wanted to let you know that all the advice we give you is from our own experience.
You’re a lot younger than most of us (I’m guessing?) and we’ve been through a lot of stuff, and we’ve been in some of the same situations you’ve been in. I’ve felt the feelings you’re feeling, but we’re older now. We’re not trying to make you feel bad, I promise! We’re just seeing our past selves in you and want to help you.
Museblog has helped a lot of us grow and mature into the young adults we are today… if we seem harsh or like we don’t understand, we really do understand.
Best of luck!
Thank you… (I COULDN’T STAY AWAY! I COULDN’T HELP HANGING AROUND WHEN I SAID ID LEAVE! XD)
Well then, welcome back! You’re in good hands.
I hate writing papers. Not because I’m bad at it necessarily, I just don’t enjoy it. When I haven’t been taking care of patients today, I’ve been working on my paper. Most of the day. Even though there’s no reason it should take me more than a few hours to compile, and yet I’m still working at it. The whole having to put in-text citations after each sentence isn’t helping, since I can’t just type type type, and then make a reference list. I have to type, determine the article I just referenced, stick a superscripted number in, and then proceed. It messes with my flow.
And I’ve reached the conclusion that the only thing more frustrating than writing a long research paper? Is writing a paper that is limited to 2 spaces double spaced–or, essentially, one page. Because the scope of the theriogenology-related topic that I chose, while not by any means a super broad topic (pyometra in the [word for female dog i can’t say on here]), is too broad for 2 double spaced pages. Because I’ve typed up maybe 1/4 of what I want to write? And I’m already at 1/2 the sapce available. Which means I’m going to have way too much.
And this means I haven’t done any studying today for my upcoming test from hell that I have on Friday, that I’m pretty much doomed to fail, because ugh therio ugh this is a not a subject that comes easily to me. Especially the hormonal stuff, and all the large animal stuff, and the combination of the two (like estrus synchronization in cattle, and I realize many of you are like I have no idea what she’s talking about and that’s okay). And I think I’d rather retake my national board exam, and that was a 6+ hour exam from hell than this exam. So yeah. I just want to pass this rotation. That’s all. Is that too much to ask.
[theriogenology=the study of animal reproduction, and everything related to that
pyometra=pus filled uterus which equals BAD
estrus synch=giving cows certain hormones at certain times, to ensure that they all are in heat at the same time, so that they all give birth to calves at approximately the same time, and essentially this is done to maximize economic benefits and stuff, but this is outside the scope of this comment so yeah]
But as my roommate pointed out after marvelling at how I’m a far better student than she ever has been (because I’ve been trying to study for this class pretty hard, and she I don’t think has studied at all since starting college and is happy with her 2 point something engineering GPA, b/c she’s got a 60K a year job lined up and doesn’t have to think again), it’s the last exam of my entire college career, because while I have another 2 week rotation after that, it doesn’t have an exam, because it’s an elective.
So yeah. Just 3 weeks and I’m. done. with. school. forever. i can do this.
Yesterday while walking across campus I came across some people who were knapping flint and obsidian axe heads for an anthropology study. I talked to them for a bit. Apparently it’s more difficult than it sounds and our caveman ancestors had mad skills to pull it off.
Learning to make flint/obsidian tools is now a new life goal. If I ever get transported to the Paleolithic, I’d be able to survive. Unfortunately since I am graduating I will not be able to take place in next year’s study.
I hope I’ll run into interesting things like flintknappers wherever I end after college.
Experimental archaeology, yay! Flintknapping is really fun! I’ve done a bit of it, made a few points but nothing too impressive. I hope they were working over a tarp though, because leaving flakes and debitage from flintknapping creates a false archaeological record. I mean, it’s not entirely false, because a person was flintknapping and left flakes there, but since lithic debitage is a signpost to archaeologists that says “NATIVE AMERICAN SITE!” it can really mess up the interpretation. So flintknap over a tarp and throw the flakes away in the trash to preserve the archaeological record. Bonus points if you wrap it up like broken glass, because flakes can be as sharp as razor blades.
(This has been a public service announcement from one of your resident archaeologists.)
I’ll keep that in mind if I ever end up doing it in the wild, so to speak.
The flintknapping I saw was mostly over a tarp but not entirely. Because there was a huge pile of rocks right outside the lab that was just lying there. I was wearing sandals and walking very carefully around that bit. But those were some fairly large rocks/rock pile–the source pile for the flint. But it was right next to the Anthropology building. I suppose we’ll just have to hope that future archeologists will be able to tell that there was an experimental archaeological lab there. Also it’s English flint, apparently, and they might be able to tell that from experimental analysis. And it was in this little stormwater drainage forest, where no one really walks. I hadn’t even realized there was access from the building before that day.
And also they were filming it for the research (investigating the links between human tool use and language).
You run into flintknappers on campus. I run into people playing golf with tennis balls in the middle of the campus’s central plaza (near the bookstore, student union, post office, etc.).
My family has these friends who are anthropologists at various New York / MA universities and one of them teaches courses on making ancient tools. It’s very interesting.
I talked with someone about an apartment today, and tomorrow I’m talking with someone else, and I’ve sent a few more messages too. Apartment-hunting is no fun, you guys. I also am not making it any easier on myself with the whole “moving to NYC three days after I graduate” thing, I guess. Oops. I figure anything after this in regards to housing should be a piece of cake.
Happy Passover! I had an awesome Seder at my friend’s apartment. When we were kids, her family would always host a huge Seder which my family, along with lots of other people, would attend. Now we’re carrying on the tradition.
I’m sure you all know the feeling of trying to put off reading fan fiction for the sake of homework.
But it’s my OTP!Happy Easter! My friend and I went to the annual Holi celebration on the Stanford campus and it was tons of fun to just run around and throw colors at people. I had forgotten how enjoyable it was to play tag.
KaiYves has just reminded me of one of MuseBlog’s finest moments.
This was sooooooo much fun! I actually re-read it recently.
Good times.
AW MAN. I love that one to bits. Sometimes I just have to whisper “But I know its my density” to myself. Really helps resolve internal conflicts.
DER IMPERTNOT.
I only steeled myself to read more than a chapter of My Immortal a couple of months ago. And now this… (I only vaguely remember the story being started.)
Just don’t attempt the drinking game if That Site That Sucks Up Free Time Like A Black Hole is to be believed– eve people who tried it with *water* have gotten sick.
I read the opening chapters aloud to my friends a few months ago, and it was hilarious. Every once in a while, My Immortal is just thoroughly worth reading.
My friends and I read it aloud over skype call one time. Except it was actually a minecraft Skype call and a few people were still playing minecraft, and them later we realized they’d been in the call for the whole thing.
CAKE I CAN’T BELIEVE I FORGOT THIS HAPPENED
I’M SO HAPPY
THANK YOU, MUSEBLOG
So glad I was on MuseBlog for that. We really need to do more collaborative writing threads.
post-easter post
Why is the Easter choklit so sugary? it`s so much more sugary than normal choklit! I almost hate it enough to not eat it…. (but it is sugar you see, hehe)
I`m going to be eating it for a long long time… i have three bunnies
ULTIMATE QUESTION: Which is creepier: the easter bunny, or the easter bell? i think the bunny
…what is the easter bell?
it flies through france doing the same thing as the easter bunny does, i think. i don`t know much about it. i bet robert koontz does though!
It’s not just one bell (or didn’t use to be): All the church bells are silenced before Easter. The story is that they’ve gone to Rome to visit the Pope. They return bearing gifts. Where did you find out about that, Eggy Rice?
Reading David Sedaris stories when I was 12. It was in the book Me Talk Pretty One Day. I`m not good at summarizing but basically it`s a French class and they`re explaining the different versions of Easter in bad French.
I didn’t know that!
i mean coontz
I don`t think my last comment got through… just saying that the Easter bunny choklit is Way Too Sugary. and also which is creepier the easter bunny or the easter bell.
Random updates on my life:
-Took the SAT for the second time, got 2090 (perfect 800 on reading, woo!)
-I’m turning 18 this month, what?!?!
-Um some stuff hasn’t been going so well in terms of my mental health
-Generally coming to terms with the fact that a lot of stuff is gong to be changing after spring term ends
Yay, congrats on getting the Stupid Annoying Test behind you!
My ballet teacher is so annoying! She always has me and my B(est)B(allet)F(riend) do pointe class at the barre (we are like the worst in class thoUgh… BUT STILL!).
so do i still have to ask the GAPAs to make a thread? because if so, can you make a rants&complaints thread, so that my negativity does not crowd this lovely thread?
haha as if its crowding it ive posted like only 3 complaints….
You weren’t here for the redesign, right? We made R&P and R&R threads private, so you’ll need to be logged in to find it.
Speaking of which, I totally forgot which old email I used to sign up for this, as well as my password, so now I have my username reserved but I have no idea how to get in. O GAPAs, can one of you delete my username from the database or change its corresponding email to the one I’m currently using in the “email” box here? Danke schön!
New email, check. And for the moment, I’ve made that your password, too. You’ll want to pick a new one, of course, once you’re logged in.
Thanks Robert!
Kokonilly, that`s really interesting about introversion/extroversion. I`ve never really thought about it that way, I just thought it was sort of generally whether you enjoy being with people, but what you said makes a lot of sense based on my (meager) experience with social interactions.
What is a Meyers Brigg type?
Went to bed naseous and woke up naseous. Anxiety is a real [word I’m not allowed to say here]. Least I was able to eat something this morning so I’m not weak and dizzy. Also, yesterday was an in service at my school, so it’s only a four-day week.
Most majestic mini golf shot of my life:
I hit the ball slightly harder than usual.
It proceeded to ricochet off the boundary of that particular hole, fly over the fence of the mini golf place, bounce from the sidewalk, onto a car’s windshield, and into the car’s open sunroof. Go me.
I’m going to camp today and will be gone until the afternoon of the next… A lot of my friends are upset and I really hate leaving them like this… What if they need me while I’m gone? (Actually, they always need me, 24/7, so this is very bad….)
You’re going to be gone for one day. How can your friends possibly need you 24/7? You’ll have a phone on you with texting, right?
It was a day and a half. And nah, I don’t have a phone, just an iPod. They need me all the time because I’m one of their only friends and they get lonely and sad easily.
have fun at camp!
My friend had a Disney-themed birthday party (her 19th). Costume parties are awesome, but I spent about a week deciding what to wear. I don’t own anything princely, dressing as Rapunzel would be weird because The Girl I Liked In Year 12 a) looked like the character and dressed up as her at least twice b) is friends with my friend, and I don’t want to bring that up again (well, I kind of did when an Ed Sheeran song came one and two people who are exes, one of whom brought her new boyfriend, commented that it applied, but anyway). I have a costume that would work with Mother Gothel, but that would be really creepy. And my other friend claimed Belle.
So I ended up picking Jasmine, and wearing a crop top. In front of people. For the first time ever. While completely sober, because I drove there. I actually had to wear my non-matching coat for half of it because we were outdoors and it was freezing, but it still counts.
It was fun! I found some weirdly specific common ground with my acquaintance’s new boyfriend. He basically radiates cool (Biceps. Does parkour. Two or three years older than most of us. Conventionally attractive and attractive to me in particular.), but he also belonged to a homeschooling group in [small town] at the same time I was a solitary homeschooled kid there. What.
I’m more extroverted than I thought I was. Perhaps I actually AM more extroverted than I was. This completely messes up my Myers-Brigg type!
Then midterms arrived. Differential equations was easy once I caught up on three weeks of (terribly delivered) lectures. Analysis was more like I’m used to. On the same day, someone from Oxford was giving a talk on effective charity. Lecture: 4.00-5.30. Exam: 6.20. Locations: opposite ends of campus.
I helped convince one of my friends to come along. The three usual militant-vegan rationalist computer geek suspects I hang out with (It makes slightly more sense in context. And they have my permission to talk incessantly about that stuff in most contexts because those kinds of discussions work with our common interests.) were there. Also my physics lecturer. There were only about 40 people and I knew way too many, is what I’m saying. Then I steeled myself to actually talk to Oxford Guy afterwards, and had a productive interaction!
Eventually my friend and I started walking towards my exam room / her bus stop, while I ate the sushi I had stashed in my back with a cold pack. I turned up about 10 minutes into writing time, for a 2-hour exam, and didn’t finish, but 90% of that was because of the paper being diabolical. My first-year pure math courses were like that, so I wasn’t surprised, but meh.
My physics lab report was due on Easter Friday, and it took longer than anticipated and I procrastinated, so I handed it in a day late. *sigh* Mathematica is ruining our lives.
Also, this was on the photoelectric effect. The original experiments were done in the 20’s. How did people statistically analyse data before computers? Laboriously do all the calculations used now by hand, or use some shortcut?
Aaaaand my sleep schedule is completely messed up and for the last week I’d had terrible motivation.
A busy day! What is effective charity?
> I’m more extroverted than I thought I was. Perhaps I actually AM more extroverted than I was. This completely messes up my Myers-Brigg type!
You can be sociable and introverted at the same time! I know it sounds weird, but hear me out.
Introverted vs. extroverted only means whether you derive or expend energy from social interactions. I can be perfectly friendly at parties, and even downright talkative, but as soon as I leave the party (or maybe even before) I’m totally drained and need to recharge alone (or with a close friend or two who is also introverted), no matter how much I like the people there or how much I’m enjoying the conversations. Extroverted people thrive on parties. Being with people gives them energy. I don’t know what this feels like.
TL;DR: introvert = tired after socializing. extrovert = derives energy from social interactions. Also, I hope you know this already, but Myers-Brigg type should not be an integral part of your identity because it’s all kind of flimflam anyway.
It is useful for creating fictional characters sometimes, though.
Oh, I was being sarcastic.
I’m uncertain under that, accurate, definition too, not that I’m particularly worried.
Kokonilly: I shared a house with a few militant-vegan rationalist computer geeks last year. (Probably going to again next year, depending how many have moved out.) No matter what you think of them, they’re always interesting to talk to.
Robert Coontz: Effective charity, as I understand it, is a movement dedicated to figuring out which charitable causes do the most good with the least money, and then donating to those “optimal” charities. It’s also called effective altruism, and it’s very popular with militant-vegan rationalist computer geeks.
*slight rephrasing: I think “the most good with a given amount of money” is more accurate, as these people are definitely not stingy.
Also: not Kokonilly, Maths Lover. I HAVE NOT BEEN SLEEPING WELL
Oh, that makes sense! I saw your post a while ago and was confused as to how that was relevant. I would suggest taking a nap
Yes, good explanation!
… You live in the Bay Area, right? Do you happen to know an Australian guy with blue hair?
Yes, but no. Most of the people with occasionally blue hair I know are women, and I know no blue-haired Australians of any gender.
Is obsessing over someone who is 40 years older than you are considered normal anymore, or is that still weird?
What’s your definition of “obsessing?” “Huge fan of their work” is pretty normal around here, though if you’re losing sleep and fresh air people might start looking at you sideways. “Hiding in their shrubbery to snap illicit photos,” on the other hand, is weird and creepy regardless of relative age.
How about “Huge fan of their work and daydreaming about hiding in their shrubbery to snap illicit photos”?
Well, if they’re dead it’s usually acceptable unless they’re in history for being a murderer or evil dictator/conqueror.
To go with the My Immortal tangent above, I have always suspected that the following Wikipedia help desk entry (archived on their Bad Jokes and Other Deleted Nonsense page) was written by the same person who wrote that infamous fanfic. Because, well, look at it…
“HELP!
al0 ppl! i ave a gh0st in me h0use i saw it in ma bathr00m! i saw it, it w0z a little girl nd she luked cute… except she woz DEAD!!! i had just got out da bath so we had condensation on da tiles nd she rote HELP ME! nd i screamed nd ran nd slammed the door shut but she just went thru the wall followin me!!! shes behind me now! SHE SES HELP ME!! oh no help me ahhhhh…”
Please tell me someone else has heard of the loneliest whale in the world. I’m doing an anthology in my English class on whale communication, and my opening article is on the 52 Hz whale and I’ve made myself sad.
Oh yes, my father listened (he likes listening to the audio versions of things as he reads them) to a very detailed feature article about it over the summer. If they’re the last of their kind, it’s heartbreaking, if they’re just deaf or speech-impaired, it’s still saddening. But it does make you wish the poor thing could hear a call back someday.
I don’t know how I am supposed to study for this transcendentalism test when there is a giant wonderful thunderstorm going on outside and I am too busy watching it to possibly interest myself in reading.
Ah well, the transcendentalists would probably agree with me. Maybe I’ll just draw a picture of a forest on my test instead of taking it. That shows that I grasped all the concepts, right?
On one level I know that T-V distinctions are terrible and reinforce class distinctions and so on, and if I were a real radical I would tutoie everyone and call them citoyen(ne), but on another level T-V distinctions are fascinating and I spend an awful lot of time wishing English hadn’t jettisoned ours.
So, today’s protip! An awful lot of Shakespeare gets even more fun if you pay attention to the use of second-person pronouns, especially when they change. It’s usually not a huge deal, and it doesn’t change what the dialogue means, but it’s a super cool way of tracking what the characters are thinking. (In Macbeth 4.3, for example, there’s a long sequence when Macduff is trying to figure out whether Malcolm would make a good king — the pronouns Macduff uses switch rapidly as his attitudes shift, and the pronouns Malcolm uses change too. Also in certain parts of Much Ado, there’s the way Benedick uses thou much more readily than Beatrice does. You can encode so much! and it’s awesome. Language is great.)
I saw someone point out recently that some forms of informal written English are sort of starting to regain the T-V distinction through the difference between “you” and “u”, which is at least food for thought.
That’s true, and I’m excited about it! The only problem is that, barring some pretty drastic pronunciation changes, they’re indistinguishable in spoken English. Taking the long view I’m not sure I’d be surprised if the pronunciations did eventually change enough that the distinction transfers into speech — but it’ll be a good while yet until that happens.
While I’m asking the English language for things, I’d also like dual pronouns back, plus we-inclusive and we-exclusive. (Which I don’t think we ever had, but they’re swell and I want them.)
Something like “we-all” versus “we-uns”? That would be fun.
Something like that, yeah! Pronouns get more fun the more specific they get, in my experience.
‘Cause they found us and we found them and now they’re ours!
And we’re so happy!
Thank you pronouns!
A pronoun was made to take the place of a noun
Because saying all those nouns over and over
Can really wear you down!
Took my last examination of my entire college career today. (Which caking sucked big time, as it covered all 8 weeks of material that we were presented 18 months ago, and despite managing to somehow read all but 2 lectures during the last 2 weeks I just spent on the clinical rotation, I still don’t think I did very well at all on it).
Just 2 more weeks of clinics, and I’m done. April 28th is the official last day, but I end on emergency/critical care, and the 27th and the 28th are my days off, so I end the 26th. And it’s my elective so no exam.
I can’t believe I”m almost done; I just hope I actually passed this rotation I just finished, which to be quite honest I really don’t know. On the plus side, having finished therio (animal reproduction) I never ever ever have to touch another bovid again, aside from delicious beef on my dinner plate. Cattle are scary.
I’m going to go work on catching up on the last two weeks of my life now (read: paying the bill
sI’ve been postponing for a week and a half, writing thank you notes from my birthday 2 weeks ago, sending off more grad announcements, procuring soon to be late birthday cards for my grandpa (whose birthday is today) and my mom who has one coming up far too soon for the card to arrive on time even if i mailed it right now, and renewing my license plate tags….). I’ve been putting all my responsibilites on hold the last 2 weeks in order to desperately try to cram as much knowledge of therio into my head as possible, although it was kind of a failing attempt.ugh. anyway.
I can’t figure out why my ear is hurting so badly… It hurts even more when I touch it.
Could it be your wisdom teeth growing in? Or have you already had those removed? (If you had them removed relatively recently, you could also be feeling pressure changes in the spaces where they used to be.)
I don’t know.
Well, do you know if you’ve gotten them out yet?
Nah, I don’t remember, but my mom just looked into my ear and told me that there is a large blister inside if it.
1. Having gotten my wisdom teeth out, I’m 99.999999% sure you would remember if you got your wisdom teeth out, so that’s probably a no. I don’t remember how old you are, but they come in when you’re about 17 or 18.
2. If it’s small enough to fit inside your ear, it’ll probably heal on its own. Maybe take some ibuprofen in the meantime?
It’s a sign of the coming apocalypse. Don’t worry, your reaction is perfectly normal and should vanish in the coming days with the arrival of the four horsemen. If it persists after this fact, see a doctor.
Well, if en is a dijin, the failure to have en’s wisdom teeth properly removed could indeed have dire consequences, but I doubt anywhere as severe as that…
(Children of the Lamp reference.)
Rosebud and Jadestone: I’m back in Chicago!
ahhhh unfortunately I have now left
I got a job and it was like “CAN YOU BE HERE IN TWO WEEKS THE PLANTS STARTED GROWING EARLY THIS YEAR PLS HELP ASAP” and so now I am living in Nevada until mid-august. Ahg. I will probably be back to chicago for at least a little while after that though! but, summer, so idk who will be around 
Aw man that stinks.
Plants are inconvenient and inconsiderate. But it’s always good to know that an employer needs you.
Uh, I live in Michigan…
Oh, shoot, it was RoseQuartz, sorry about that. Seems I have a bad time with names even online…
I am SUPER INCREDIBLY BUSY because intro film production class is taking up literally all of my time but maaaaybeeee I can find some time somewhere in all this mess? Maybe? I can’t promise anything.
I’ll be here until mid-June, then I’ll be thrust into the wide world of I have no idea and no job.
In other words, adventure!
My school has a 3D printer.
I may be looking into printing an Enterprise among other things….
Would anyone be interested in making a new NationStates region? I just made a new country (couldn’t retrieve my old password) and the region where everyone used to be seems to be dead.
Oh man, I remember this! I think my nation was a completely totalitarian regime. Good times. I now get out all of my NationStates urges by playing Civilization V and declaring war on everyone.
I should never be trusted with power.
YES
I have recently started keeping a sort of journal, as an exercise to keep myself writing. So much of my writing is motivated by the hope of a positive audience response that it feels strange to write something when the only audience is me.
It’s weird writing something so personal you know you can never show it to anyone. Or if not never, at least not until your life has changed so much that the relevant secrets no longer need be secret.
Happy Yuri’s Night!
I went to MIT’s party last night and had a blast, they had a talk by a neuroscientist about how our brains perceive the space around us and how being in microgravity makes 3-D thinking easier. It really isn’t a topic there’s been a lot of research on, and it was fascinating. I really want to know if dolphin brains automatically percieve space in 3-D like humans can learn to. He was also a DJ who played some cool music over space newsreel footage from the 60s. Now that’s multitalented!
The party was hosted by MIT’s school of science journalism and the staff were all so interesting to talk to. There was a trivia contest and I ended up on a team with a guy whose book I’d read (“The Science of Monsters”), but I didn’t realize that until after I’d patted him on the back and high-gives him several times in celebration, so that was strange. Our team came in second, but because the team who came in first had a guy who literally wrote a space encyclopedia, they decided to give us half of their prize money.
I don’t know what to do… It’s getting out of hand. I think she likes me, but then again, she could be just likining me as a really super close friend… You see, last night she was saying how much she wishes she could just cuddle me and go to sleep. Also, when I fell asleep last night, two hours later she got lonely and cut her legs… I don’t know… I can’t leave her alone for too long… I really like spending time with her and she’s a fun person to talk to… Some how I gotta find a way to get her to stop cutting. (She sent me pictures of it.) *sighs* I’m not good with words nor descriptions, I appologize if this is too jumbled or too much like previous posts. I just have no idea what to do. This seems to be one of the only places I can say what is on my mind… *has been trying very hard not to post too often but with this post has failed.* Please forgive me.
that sounds pretty emotionally manipulative, honestly…
I tried pleading with her to stop cutting. She says no matter how hard she tries to stop, she can’t… DX
You cannot fix this. Tell a trusted adult about this: school counselor, your parents, her parents, a teacher you share… any adult you trust with this knowledge. It is not your job to be her therapist, and when it gets this serious she should not expect you to play that role.
Lizzie: I’m glad you said it. When GCA-DS mentioned their friend sending the pictures, alarms started going off in my head. Same thing with not letting them sleep.
The thing is, something like this can be both an unjustifiable manipulation and a genuine call for help. Kokonilly is right. GCA-DS, your best option is to tell an adult you trust and then step the hell back. I know you care for your friend, but please ask yourself: does your friend offer you the same kind of unconditional, on-demand emotional support that she expects from you?
There isn’t anything my parents can do. She lives all the way across the country. And my parents would just be mad at me and tell me to stop being her friend. I don’t want to give her up, she’s very important to me.
Could it be possible to inform some sort of self-harm hotline/organization? Or even just tell her to go get help from one of them (if you haven’t already)? If she really is trying to stop, maybe she could call in herself? I don’t really know much about these things, but she might be able to get some help if she’s willing… (I’ve heard that 1-800-DON’T CUT is a hotline for self harm just like the suicide/depression one is)
I second Noah’s idea. Look, just be really careful, alright? Think about how her family would react. If it would be bad, maybe getting help on her own through a hotline is the better option.
Today is the first day of my last rotation of veterinary school! Only 14 days left.
(Side note: why does going to bed at 4am and waking up of my own accord 6 hours later leave me wide awake and refreshed, but going to bed on a school night between midnight to 2 where I have to set an alarm for 6 hours later, leaves me super tired? Also I just had the most bizarre sense of déjà vu typing that last sentence)
You have written a fair amount about your alarm clock, over the years.
Nobody else in my French class has heard of Jacques Cousteau.
Say… is that where you get the ‘Yves’ in your username?
Yup, I came up with my username in 8th grade when we had to pick usernames for an online project, and two of the historical figures I had been reading about recently were Kaiulani, a 19th century princess of Hawaii, and Jacques-Yves Cousteau. That’s why I’ve sometimes said that “Kaiulani Yves-Cousteau” is my full online name (and yes, the hyphen is in the wrong place, but in 8th grade I didn’t realize that and now I like it too much to change. Also, it means that my RP characters who have that name technically have a different surname and as such are not claiming to be related to Captain Cousteau. Because that would be presumptuous and Sue-ish.)
47: Who`s he?
(Oh man, this would be a great topic for “History According to Kai” if I can ever get that project off the ground…)
Jacques-Yves Cousteau was a famous explorer, environmentalist, and documentary filmmaker. During World War II, he and his friend Emile Gagnan invented the Aqualung, the predecessor to modern scuba gear, and after the war, their group of diving friends continued to develop the technology and use it for underwater exploration and filmmaking.
For basically the next thirty years they went off having awesome adventures all around the world and making films and books about how beautiful and amazing the underwater world is and why we should protect it. And they had these cool ships with labs and mini subs and helicopters and all of this tech stuff that was crazy advanced for the time and if you’re imagining some kind of awesome Saturday morning TV adventure show, it was basically just like that except real and not a cartoon. (Actually they did make an animated show about Cousteau, but I don’t think it ever aired in the U.S. and it’s only online in French.)
(I got about two hours of sleep last night and I think it shows.)
Entirely off-topic:
My Pomona alert bells go off whenever I see 47. It’s our special number! I see it everywhere now!
So I first interpreted your post as asking who 47 is.
Why is it your special number?
Origins are obscure. My understanding is that there was a student project in the 60s that purported to show that 47 appeared more commonly in nature than any other number, and that a few years later, a professor “proved” for his class that every number equaled 47. Now it’s just everywhere.
Examples:
-The college is located at Exit 47 of the San Bernardino Freeway.
-The Bible credits Jesus with 47 miracles.
The Declaration of Independence has 47 sentences.
-There are 47 strings on a concert harp.
-The tropics of Cancer and Capricorn are located 47 degrees apart.
-47 people survive the plane crash on Lost.
-The Scare Factory in Monsters, Inc. has a “Accident Free for 47 Days†sign.
There was even a alum who wrote for Star Trek TNG and slipped a lot of 47s into the shows, so maybe Luna can come up with more.
Also, we do silly things like have our clock tower ring on the 47th minute of the hour instead of on the hour itself. It’s a fun psychological trick that once you’ve convinced your mind it’s an important number, you really do start seeing it everywhere.
(BTW, SFTDP)
47: Is he one a them frogs?
No, he was the guy in the Pink Panther.
(Kidding. He’s a marine biologist/inventor of the Aqua-Lung/conservationist/etc.)
New favorite essay: Ursula LeGuin, Introducing Myself.
The weather here is gorgeous.
My cat is sick and it’s all my fault… I cannot sleep knowing this and without having him laying at the back of my bed… You see, my mattress once got a whole in it and a cat got into it. At one point, we needed to put that cat outside and she hid in there so we ended up cutting the hole bigger. I used to eat the stuff inside the mattress because I was young and didn’t know better…. Unfortunetly, my cat had been watching. Now, he is almost 7 years old and still eats my mattress. It is my fault he got sick because 1. I shouldn’t have set a bad example and 2. I should’ve got a brand new mattress as soon as I found out that was a problem. I’ve been refusing to get a new mattress even though mine has the whole bottom ripped open, a spring sticking out of the side of the top mattress and overall just isn’t comfy anymore. I really love my cat… I don’t want him to die so young… I feel very super bad about it… I can’t sleep….,……..
I am sorry that your cat is sick, but believe me, the cat did not get the idea of eating mattress stuffing from you. I have owned both cats and dogs in my time, and they will develop questionable eating habits on their own. Believe it or not, cats really don’t give a damn for what you’re doing 90% of the time.
Also, setting all of this about eating habits aside, are you sure that the cause of your cat’s sickness is from eating mattress stuffing? Maybe it’s just one of those normal cat illnesses that come from something totally different? Or, it’s highly possible that your cat might have worms or some other parasite. If this is the case, then visit your veterinarian immediately to receive proper medication for the cat.
My cat is different than most other cats, he even learned how to knock on doors by watching me do it.
Just hope he doesn’t figure out doorknobs.
“Raptors can open doors, but are slowed by them. Using the floor plan on the next page, plot a route through the building, assuming raptors take 5 minutes to open the first door and and halve the time for each subsequent door. Remember, raptors run at 10 m/s and so not know fear.”
“Door makes noise when I hit it –> loud noise causes humans to open door” is not difficult to figure out through experiment, even for a cat-size brain.
Exactly. Knocking on a door has an inherent reward; namely, that if one does it, the door becomes opened. Eating mattress stuffing is probably just something weird cats do, like not knowing whether they want to be inside or outside
, giving me hives,or pushing things off of tables*.* DISCLAIMER: Everything I know about cats I learned from the internet.
O HTML Gnome, hear my prayer and please add a >.
GCA-DS:
Firstly, I’m sorry your cat is sick; that’s an awful feeling.
However, I guarantee that he doesn’t eat the insides of your mattress due to observing you doing that when you were younger. So while that was a questionable decision for your health, your dietary indiscretions as a child did not influence your cat’s decision to eat the mattress stuffing. Animals eat a large variety of weird things, often for completely unfathomable reasons, although frequently it’s because the item in question has an appealing smell/taste to the; although “appealing” is obviously in the eye of the beholder, as I certainly wouldn’t find poop, rocks, sticks, underwear, socks, or any number of other items commonly eaten by pets to be appealing in smell or taste.
Is it possible you could have prevented it by getting a new mattress? Sure. Anything’s possible, and everything always looks glaringly obvious in hindsight. But you cannot say for certain that your cat wouldn’t have ripped a hole in your new mattress, and ate that stuffing, or that he wouldn’t have eaten a piece of string, or feathers, or any number of cat toys you might own.
But regardless, you can’t blame yourself for the situation. I know how easy that is to do when your beloved pet is ill, or worse. I’ve been there; I did that when my dog died when I was 15. But it doesn’t help you or your kitty.
From your post, it sounds like your kitty, while very ill, is still alive; if you haven’t already done so (which I realize you likely have), you should get your parents to take him to see a veterinarian, so that they can do everything possible to help him.
I hope everything turns out okay with him.
Whoops, I didn’t mean to squid that.
Land of the Muse region is open on NationStates! Password is the pie-throwing trickster Muse, lowercase, no spaces.
– 2 problem sets and an essay due this week (due Wednesday-Thursday-Friday)
– Got a cold that has not only a) combined with allergies, made me sniff so much that it now hurts to breathe through my nose and I think I exposed a nerve or something and b) made me abruptly feel like throwing up last night*.
* – Granted, this “night” was 3 AM as I was working on my pset, and I almost immediately went straight to bed, but it sucked. Have you ever tried brushing your teeth when you feel like throwing up? It makes it so much worse. I haven’t vomited since I was 11 and have no intention of breaking my streak.
On the up side, I’m going to see Hairspray on Friday and it’s supposed to be super good! Also, the editor-in-chief of The Onion is coming to campus tonight so I’m going to blow off working on my last pset due Friday at midnight to go to that. Also, BADBADNOTGOOD is coming to campus on Saturday and my friend and I are going because he’s a fan (I know nothing about them but hey, why not).
This was originally in R&P, but it seems that I am bad at complaining.
BADBADNOTGOOD? They’re coming to a festival that my youth jazz band is playing at. Snarky Puppy is going to be there, too!
Cool, do you have any recommendations for songs of theirs I can listen to to “study”?
I actually hadn’t started listening to them yet, just recognized the name from the setlist.
As soon as I find my earbuds I’ll tell you what I think!
Update: it’s currently 4:21 AM and I’m awake finishing this pset. I’m… a little more than halfway done? And it’s due at noon. Why do people make things due at noon? Why don’t I seem to ever need coffee? These questions — and more! — will likely never be answered adequately, much like most of the ones on this pset.
Update 2: Did I say this pset was due Friday midnight? I wish.
I’m super excited for tomorrow because my friend has been away with his family overseas for over two weeks now, and he is due back either tomorrow or the next day!
Update: Friend is back, and I’m very happy.
so many adulting things I gotta do and I don’t want to do any of them… (gotta make a haircut appointment, gotta make a doctor’s appointment, gotta contact moving companies and make appointments to get estimates)
Adulting is HARD. I could never get the hang of it.
I’m playing a show with my band tonight that’ll be livestreamed, if any of you are interested in watching between 6:30-8:30 blogtime (7:30-9:30 Eastern) the (unlinkified) link is here: http:// livestream. com/ feedandseedlive
My band is playing second.
They’re playing right now, with our own Midnight Fiddler singing the lead on this song.
Fun! “Nail That Catfish to a Tree” — I’d like to know where the name of that tune came from.
I’ve heard it’s a technique for holding the fish still for skinning. My friends who play a somewhat more celtic-y style always joke that you can tell an old-time session when the tune is played for about 15 minutes solid until everyone is in a trance-like zen state, or when someone hollers out “nail that catfish to a tree!” and they play that tune. Another fun one is called shove that pig’s foot a little closer to the fire. Now that I have a pig tattooed on one of my feet, I hope someday I can make a pun about it near a campfire.
A tune that I don’t play, but I want to learn just because of the name, is “Who [pooped] in grandpa’s hat?” I feel like there must be a story there.
For anyone who missed it live, it’s now archived at the same web address.
Happy birthday, bookgirl_me!
Happy Birthday, Bookgirl!
A question for Piggy: Is your screen name a Lord of the Flies reference? (The Trekkie was curious.)
I’m really happy, because I got to make an animation for someone’s Bat Mitzvah, and I got paid for it! Hopefully this is one step closer to getting a full-time animation job.
It’s actually not. The origins of my name are shrouded in mystery and legend, but it was chosen before I had ever read LOTF.
Get that $$$$$$ get that experience get that career.
I’m doing an animation workshop in class tomorrow and I’m really excited to try it.
Groundhog – You’d like to be an animator? Awesome! =)
Any chance we can see examples of your work?
I have suddenly become addicted to everything having to do with AmazingPhil, danisnotonfire, and Phan.
Whyyyyyyyyyyyy
I am wasting my life by staying up until 2am watching youtube videos. Probably ruining my eyes even further as well.
*puts hand on your shoulder*
You’ll most likely keep going downhill from here. BUT IT ONLY GETS BETTER.
Girbeagly and SVGJason has the same effect on me.
Nostalgia Critic and JonTron for me.
I like to watch Luchajin’s LP of Ocarina of Time over and over again! XD I stay up all night watching it.
Happy 9th blogiversary to me! Thank you all for being a part of my life.
Happy 9th blogiversary to thee, Cat’s Meow! Thank you for being a part of ours.
Happy blogiversary!
9 years, that is truly wild. Congratulations!!
Thanks for the birthday wishes! MuseBlog has been a part of my life for close to seven years now, and I’m so glad that all of you are (still) here
I woke up at 6:30 today and decided I was too nervous to get back to sleep.
Today I have a semiannual performance review at work (twice yearly, setting goals for the next two quarters, reflecting on the past three months I’ve been here). Then, after lunch, I’m going to look at an apartment in Brooklyn (assuming it’s still available, I’m waiting to hear about that this morning), then back to work for another couple hours.
basically, lots of sources of stress in my life, i’m about ready to scream for like five minutes straight and then immediately fall asleep.
Good luck, Dodecahedron! Tell us how everything goes.
Good luck, Dodec!
You can do it! Best of luck.
thanks all!
review went ok – all the negative comments were re: my tone, and I think that it’ll be way easier for me to be mindful of that when I am not so depressed all the time…. not that I really see an end in sight, but at least I see why it’s happening. (“doesn’t take constructive criticism well, takes things personally” – well yeah, since work is the only thing I have time or energy for right now, i’m taking it kind of personally when it’s found lacking… “ends statements with a question when they are not questions” – i actually do think my opinion is worth less, though…… “can be suspicious of others’ ideas” – because i’m trying to think it through and convince myself it’s something I can do)
i was concerned that getting tone feedback can be kind of gendered, but I think that they’d expect the same of anyone here regardless of gender… i hope.
anyway overall they seem to like me, so i’m ok.
the apartment viewing was canceled last minute, when i texted to confirm two hours before leaving and received a reply that it wasn’t available. I’m frustrated and disappointed. I don’t know how much longer it’s feasible for me to both live here and maintain my mental health. Arguably that point has already passed.
here’s hoping today’s better, though my unwillingness to get out of bed and go to work isn’t a super great sign.
oh, and bonus garbage things that happened yesterday:
-landlord of old apartment emailed to inform that we’re expected to pay an extra $15 in may because he hired someone on our behalf to salt the driveway in january and didn’t tell us until now
-therapist insisted that i take a taxi home after appointment, which ran late. this cut my travel time home from about an hour to 30-40 minutes, but cost $50 (usually it’s $40 or so. not sure the taxi driver knew where he was going. the fact that he asked me to type the address I was going to into his phone at the beginning of the ride supports this.) i can afford that every once in a while, i guess, but it’s not even that more convenient….
you know the saying that’s like “before you decide you’re depressed, first make sure you’re not surrounded by [jerks]”? something like that might be reasonable to apply now.
You told me something similar last year. Occasionally, the answer turns out to be “both are true.”
Re-reading “Galactic Encounters” (Which I probably should write more of eventually), it occurs to me that there are a lot of things in Star Wars that don’t seem strange when seen in a story set in the self-contained Galaxy but come across as really weird when taken at face value in a crossover that involves Earth.
That there are humans in the Galaxy can be explained with the popular fan theory that at some (or several) unknown point(s) in prehistory, unknown aliens transplanted early humans to the Star Wars Galaxy for unknown reasons.
That humans who have then had no knowledge of Earth for hundreds of thousands of years at the least (we know Coruscant was populated 200,000 years before A New Hope) would independently develop the English language (albeit written with a different alphabet) and the metric system, however, just seems like a remarkable coincidence.
Of course, in stories set in the Galaxy, we can interpret both of these as being only translations of exotic languages and measurement systems that would be unfamiliar to us Earthlings, in the same way that we understand that although we hear everyone speak English in “Gladiator”, we know that as Ancient Romans, they would really be speaking Latin. But when you have Star Wars humans interacting with Earth humans who really do speak English and use the metric system, you either have to present the Galactic language and measurement as actually alien, or deal with that weirdness.
Who knew that paper cutting your eye was a bad idea?
Oh. Wait.
[Ow, how is this my life, ow, all I did was go to rounds on my day off, how does that deserve cosmic karma blowing a stupid post card i was carrying into my eye?]
I went to a dinner with two alumni (a married couple) and ~7 other students today, but all of the other students were premed (and I’m not) so they all spent the entire time talking about med school and the MCAT. I ended up gravitating toward their children, ages 3 and 5, and had a delightful time playing with them. At the end of the dinner, I offered to babysit them occasionally during the summer and emailed them again after I got back AND they responded saying that I “obviously have a way with kids” and that one of the little girls was “talking about wanting to take [me] to the park sometime after [we] left”.
eeeeEEEEE playing with two girls ages 3 and 5 over the summer sounds AMAZING
Have you seen the Earth Day Google doodle? You can take a quiz to see what animal you are. I got woolly mammoth at first, took it again, and got giant squid!
I didn’t spot the quiz. Curses! Now Google UK is all Saint Georgish.
I’m a pangolin. I think this is accurate.
I am also a pangolin!
we can curl up in spiky balls together!
I got a giant squid right away; bf got a woolly mammoth. Bullseye in both cases. We also both picked “bright colors” as most important trait in a potential mate. I’m not really sure what that says about the relationship
I also got a giant squid!
I got coral, oddly enough…
Apparently I’m a honey badger.
A woolly mammoth?! Well, all right.
Giant squid here. I was hoping for pika.
I got giant squid!
It’s that day again, when English people celebrate the life of a Syrian Greek who joined the Roman army and was tortured to death because he was a proponent of the wrong religion. And he killed a dragon. Or maybe a crocodile. Or somebody did. Although he might have been George of Cappadocia, in whch case he was Turkish, and a very unpopular Bishop of Alexandria. Or he might have been someone else entirely, but he was definitely called George. Anyway, he’s the Patron Saint of England, a country with which he is entirely unconnected. Don’t you love legends?
Apparently I’ve made it around the sun enough times that I am now considered an adult. Cool.
Happy Birthday, Ros!
Happy birthday!
Today I realized that you can accuse someone or something of being false by saying “Fluorine Aluminum Selenium” because the chemical abbreviations spell out “F-Al-Se”.
Ugh… The ants are back… Time for another season of me getting red bumps and constantly feeling itchy.
Aside from that, I’d say I had a really productive week. I got all my school work done quicker than usual. ^^ finishing at 2:30-3:00 instead of 3:30-4:00.
The marching band banquet was last night,,.. I’m going to miss all the seniors.
Our senior gifts presentation was the best yet, I think. We got both the seniors jellybeans and custom t-shirts, and we bought my friend Bren a tree and the other senior a custom videogame controller.
And Bren got me a Corn Prices shirt, which made me REALLY HAPPY, and everyone got flowers. I’m going to miss my section.
When did PBS go from “let’s give each NOVA program a mini-site with interviews with experts and articles you can read and flash games and production diaries!” to “we put the whole program up online to watch for free, what else could anybody possibly want?”
For my birthday this week I was given:
-Some really good cupcakes and macarons by my priests/bosses
-A really good tres leches cake by my family
-A bottle of St. Bernardus Abt 12 by my mom
-A bottle of Delirium Tremens by my mom
-A four-pack of La Fin du Monde by my mom
-Some beer glasses by myself
-A promise to take me to the best beer store around here by my sister
-The standard offer of a birthday dinner at any restaurant by my family
-A Ruger 10/22 Takedown (a small rifle) by my tax return
-Some .22lr ammo by sheer good luck and myself
I am a happy pig. The Delirium and Fin du Monde I’ve not tried before, but I’m drinking a bottle of the latter right now and very much enjoying it. I don’t think it’s dethroned the Bernardus 12 as my #1 favorite beer, but it’s up there. The 10/22 is really awesome as well. The ammo I just ordered today (there’s a shortage on .22lr ammo at the moment, so I was thrilled to find some), so it’ll be a week or two before I actually get to shoot the gun, but I love it already. I think my dad’s pretty excited to try it as well.
Happy belated birthday Piggy!
I’m sure the wungs whipped up a surprise for you as well at the H&H
Happy belated birthday, Piggy!
Happy Belated Birthday!
My stories seem to be getting darker and darker lately. My latest one is about a man who accidentally summons a demon that makes him a slave, forcing him to make blood sacrifices at a certain time each month, otherwise he’ll be taken over. If you actually read it, you’ll find that it is a bit less innocent than this description tells.
As my creative writing coach from camp once said to us, “There’s this thing about you lot that I’ve noticed – though we can think up all sorts of things, you all seem to be a tendency toward the dark and disturbing.” The context of this was to write a story in 100 words or less. Most involved some sort of bloodshed, or ended very badly for the protagonist.
I’m not sure a predilection for darkness is all that significant. Darkness is just easier to write, isn’t it? Ending a story with an epiphany, psychological development, or a commentary on the human condition takes more effort and/or a deeper understanding of the world, however acquired, than ending it with death, mutilation, or engulfment by ultimate evil. It’s similar to the reasons fantasy is easier to write than historical fiction.
(*thinks:* That should stir things up a bit.)
Not sure I agree completely. Darkness may be easier to write in general but it’s harder to write convincingly. Endless angst and/or violence with poor pacing and characterization just becomes sensationalism with no emotional impact. (Although I suppose you could say the same for an unearned happy ending…)
Anything is hard to do well, of course.
Yes. On reflection, I don’t think we actually disagree. I’m just articulating a nuance.
Now if only more comics writers could realize that…
My app is finally in the testing phase! I feel so accomplished.
I had my friend over at my house today… But I didn’t get her any lunch or anything to drink… I feel as though I’m a very bad friend…
Not offering them anything to eat or drink does not make you a bad friend. Most likely if they wanted something, they would have asked.
She had mentioned that she was hungry.
If you still feel bad, you can shoot her a message: “Hey, I feel bad for not offering you something to eat or drink the other day, even though you mentioned you were hungry. I’m really sorry about that! I’ll make sure there’s food the next time you come over.” If you have trouble remembering things like that in social situations, maybe explain to her that you get flustered or nervous. She’ll probably understand. No need to be super hard on yourself!
It’s really easy to get caught up in worrying about what you should’ve said or done and how horrible what you actually said or did was. Being able to say “whoops, I didn’t handle that as well as I should’ve and I should do better next time” and then move on is an important life skill that I totally haven’t developed.
Also: There are probably some individual actions which would instantly mark you as a very bad friend. I am 100% certain that forgetting to offer refreshments is not on that list.
Senior Project Due in 48 hours.
Still need to finish the 40+ pages worth of story that I’m handing in
And I need to tidy up the 5 page introduction that is to accompany it.
I can do this!
You can do it!
I went to an automotive/airplane/motocross show all day today. It was pretty cool!
However…
sunburn
my face
why
(thank you, aloe vera)
I know I’ve already posted recently…but this is important… Recently I started having bad nightmares and it’s having a bad effect on how well I do my school. I failed a bunch of reading tests which totally collapsed all my hopes of ever becoming an author.
The nightmares don’t sound good, but I can assure you that there is no test that qualifies you to become an author. Nor can failing any test disqualify you from becoming one. Successful writers have failed every test you can think of, and many that you’ve never heard of.
I know I’m an example.
Is there anyone you can talk to about the nightmares? Your parents or a counselor might be able to assist you in finding help.
And as for crushing your hopes of becoming an author, don’t worry! Your abilities in this case obviously far outrank how you performed on the tests. And the test scores in the long run won’t affect your writing career nearly as much as the actual writing itself.
I couldn’t spell worth beans in Elementary School and now I’m a published journalist. All you need to be a writer is the will, the opportunity, the time, and the effort.
Does anyone have any advice for taking the SAT? Particularly to do with mental stamina? And how to recover quickly afterwards?
Have you taken practice tests and learned strategies? (I known I had a Princeton Review book that really helped prepare me and their GRE prep material really saved my bacon this past fall, too. End plug.)
If you have, then stay calm, review the strategies, and:
– Make sure you’re well-rested, fed and hydrated the day of the test.
– Be aware of what the testing center rules are and what you will be expected to do.
– If you want to bring snacks to eat during the breaks, pick out something you like, but not something with too much sugar because you don’t want to crash in the middle of the test.
– Do something fun the evening after the test or the next day as a reward. After I took the GRE, I stopped at the Goodwill near the testing center and bought myself a book.
I do have the Princeton review book! But it’s enormous, and I’ve only gone through a fraction of it.
As for the evening of the test, that’s actually prom for me, so I’m hoping to clear my schedule and take a long nap between the two.
Thanks for the advice, everyone!!
I just fell asleep afterwards… do you have somewhere to be after the SAT? If so, I’d take a nap, have a snack, watch some TV (or anything else that doesn’t make you think too hard).
During: breathe deep+drink water and write a REALLY long essay. Length is one of the only things that matters. Also, if you need to back yourself up, you can literally make up scientific facts and cite studies, phenomena, and works of art that do not exist, because accuracy is not part of your score! (This is not a joke. I did it and so should you)
After: Find friends who are also taking it and go get coffee! That way you can all complain about the test and panic about the future together. Alternatively, I went and sat in the Rosecrutian Museum garden, drinking a latte and staring at fake ancient Egyptian statues, which helped a lot.
The SAT isn’t as hard as people make it out to be, and it isn’t a measure of your intelligence (which is evidenced by the fact that, like, it is possible to study and change your score on the test. There’s an entire industry dedicated to that). If you do badly on one or two or three sections, you can take it again; a lot of colleges superscore, so they’ll look mostly at your highest score in each category, across all test dates.
Wait it is all based on length? !!! Thank you for the explanation of why I’ve always done terribly on the SAT/GRE writing sections! I got 7/12 on the SAT one and 3.5/7 on the GRE. I know I can write, so those scores have always confused me.
I’m convinced it’s all length. My friends and I sat down and discussed how long our essays were — mine was 1.5/2 pages long and I got a 9/12. Someone filled up all the paper and got 12/12. Someone else wrote half and got 6/12. I just… don’t understand it. What’s the point?
That being said, I did a lot better on the ACT than the SAT, so if you’re really worried, AL, you can just take both. I think colleges simply consider the best scores of all the tests you took.
I’ve already taken the ACT- our school has all the juniors take it, mandatorily, for free. I wasn’t super-happy with my scores, though… I’m hoping I’ll do better on the SAT since I’ve reviewed some strategies.
This was 8(? 9?) years ago so I don’t really remember, but I got a full score on the writing section and I was generally fairly prolific for timed writings. Also, back up every statement you make.
I think the most important thing throughout the test for me was to remember to keep moving. If you come to a question you don’t know how to do immediately, skip it. Come back later. Get as many guaranteed points as you can and then work on the ones you aren’t sure about.
I HAVE COMPLETED AND SUBMITTED MY SENIOR EXIT PROJECT
Project minimum: 40 pages, double spaced
My total: 62 pages of fantasy fiction, plus 7 pages of introductory essay.
It was submitted to my project adviser via email on Monday, April 27th at 11:52 pm EST (about twenty minutes ago)
In the past 48 hours, I have had about 14 hours of sleep. Out of the four classes I had today, I only went to one. My back, shoulders, and right index finger are stiff and sore from sitting and typing on a laptop for extended periods of time.
BUT I’M DONE AND I’M SO HAPPY WITH THE RESULTS
Which means that now it’s time to submit it to a publisher, right?
Sone man got cooked in a pressure cooker with a lot of tuna. I don’t know him, but it still makes me cry because it’s such a horrible way to die… I’m really upset… How come I cry about the death of one random person in this world who has nothing to do with me?!
Empathy is a good thing, don’t think that there’s something wrong with you because you feel bad about a death. And yes, I heard about that. What a horrible way to go.
Did he taste good?
They didn’t eat the body. That would be nasty. They threw out all the tuna because it was contaminated.
I giggled. We’re bad people.
The Trekkie’s immediate reaction was “so he slept with the fishies?”
Because that is a freaking nasty way to die.
Sometimes I worry that XKCD What If question about the worst thing that can happen in a pressure cooker had never been asked, it keeps getting topped in horrible ways.
(Also, I had not heard of the story before so I now have “man cooked to death” in my search history. If I’m on a watchlist now I blame you.)
*Sometimes I WISH…
That’s an absolutely awful way to die, and it absolutely makes sense that you’re troubled by it. [squids]
I just had a nightmare about it… Ugh! It’s even worse when my mind puts images to what I heard! DX
My last final is a week from today, and then I’m going home.
So that’s my first year of college over with I guess?
*congratulatory pies*
Another update on my life:
-I’m an adult now? Woah. So I guess that means I can tell y’all that my real name is Cara Campbell, I go to Eastern Oregon University, and I hate my last name.
-I’m getting my GED soon?
-I’m getting a job soon? (the job being taking disabled young adults to do activities of various sorts. It pays pretty well and I think I’ll enjoy it a lot!)
-I’ve gained a fair amount of confidence lately?
So. My last real day on clinics was Sunday, although I spent much of the day today at school, as one of my rotation mates and I were elective students, and were putting the finishing touches on our project for the rotation.
But. We finished that. And while I may have to go help care for patients in the morning, if they intake emergencies tonight, I AM TOTALLY DONE WITH SCHOOL FOREVER AND EVER AND I’M DONE WITH VET SCHOOL.
And we got little name tags from the state vet med association, so I have this sweet little name tag that reads Dr. [real name].
It still doesn’t feel real that I’m here, at this stage, that after 7 years of college, the only thing left between me and those 3 little letters after my name, is just receiving some grades, getting transcripts to the state board office, but all the real work is done.
I am almost officially Luna the Lovely, DVM.
I picked up my graduation gown yesterday, I graduate in just over 2 weeks (I think I’ll cry. I’ve never graduated from anything before. Except preschool. I think I had a preschool graduation), and so much to clean and pack and then I’m moving home and just OMG wow I don’t know whether to be excited, terrified, or a cross between. I usually just compartmentalize and pretend life is totally normal, and then when I think about real life, I get a mini panic attack and want to curl up in a ball and cry because I am so terrified about life after vet school.
But OMG wow I can’t believe I’m finally here.
Final exam Friday. Final exam and paper Monday. Final project Tuesday.
This is the home stretch, people. Commencement is right around the corner. Once I’m done with this stuff I will be done with college.
…I still don’t know what I’m doing afterwards.
Having adventures. Isn’t that almost the definition of not knowing what’s going to happen next?
So I hopefully have a plan for what to do this summer that will please my father even if nothing else goes through.
What is it? And what are the plans you’re hoping will go through?
I’m applying to be a Space Camp councilor, but if I’m not accepted, or even if I am, I can write an abstract for a presentation and submit it by August to hopefully present at the Archaeological Institute of America meeting in January.
Congratulations to everyone graduating soon!!!
Happy incredibly-high-numbered birthday, Oxlin! You’re almost as old as the Hubble Space Telescope.
So I am! Thanks, Robert!