I'm just trying to embed a wave into this post...
aaand it doesn't look like it's working. If anyone wants a nomination and has a gmail email address, let me know. It won't get you an immediate invite, but it should bump you towards the front of the line for invites.
Totally forgot!
So life's been REALLY busy since last Friday. I talked to my professor about a fellowship application due this coming Friday and she said she thought I had enough time, so I've been working on it almost nonstop. I finally feel like I have a good grasp on things and I have a bit of down time today so I was looking for things on the internet and notice my blog bookmark. I have a couple of cool links I'll share:
First is a link to a picture. It's a big picture or I'd just embed it.
Here it is!
It looks like it's a page from a magazine or a book from few decades ago predicting what video games will look like today. It's pretty scary accurate, but also falls a little short in its "this is gonna be AWESOME" predictions, which is kind of funny.
Second is a link to Barnes and Noble's new e-book thing. It looks considerably better (and cheaper) than the Kindle, which is cool. Makes me glad I decided to wait on getting something like this.
Third is a link to a news article about an ion propulsion engine! Science fiction from Star Trek made reality, this thing makes trips to Mars take about 40 days instead of six months. Awesome.
First is a link to a picture. It's a big picture or I'd just embed it.
Here it is!
It looks like it's a page from a magazine or a book from few decades ago predicting what video games will look like today. It's pretty scary accurate, but also falls a little short in its "this is gonna be AWESOME" predictions, which is kind of funny.
Second is a link to Barnes and Noble's new e-book thing. It looks considerably better (and cheaper) than the Kindle, which is cool. Makes me glad I decided to wait on getting something like this.
Third is a link to a news article about an ion propulsion engine! Science fiction from Star Trek made reality, this thing makes trips to Mars take about 40 days instead of six months. Awesome.
And here we go again.
Whooooo...
I think I'm going to start posting again. I just got burned out on posting and eventually took a not-so-unexpected break. I don't really want to make a massive post right now, but I'll post some links from stuff I found over the past couple of days.
First: The Secret World I just got an email from Funcom about this game. It's a MMORPG (same genre as WoW) in development. It looks like players are members of one of three secret societies (Templars, Illuminati, or Dragon) fighting against demons in real-world environments. It could be really cool and if you're interested at all I'd say it's worth at least going to the website and taking the little "Initiation Quiz" to find out which society you match with and to get on the mailing list for future announcements.
Second: Google Wave explained in 2 minutes This is a neat short video explaining Google Wave in a much shorter period of time than the 1+ hour video on the Wave site. It's by a company (Epipheo Studios) that does other viral videos, but that's third stuff.
Third: Epipheo This is a big long list of "Epipheos." As they explain in their "what is an epipheo" video, an epipheo is basically a video that gives you an "ah hah" epiphany moment (hence the name). A couple that I particularly liked were the History of the Internet one and the How the Internet is Changing Advertising one. The advertising one is also the one they use to explain what an epipheo is and eventually it lead into me finding the fourth stuff.
Huh, apparently there's a site that compiles the top viral videos. That can be third-and-a-halfth stuff.
Fourth: The Fun Theory This is a really neat little article about VW's new advertising strategy. Apparently they're making a bunch of neat viral videos that people put all over the place and then just tag their logo on the end. It's not really an ad ABOUT VW stuff, but it gets their name out allll over the place. The video on that article about piano stairs is number one on the viral video ranking site (the third-and-a-halfth stuff) and I've found it from three other sources. I'd say that's a pretty good way of putting their name out there.
Fifth: Here's a recipe for spaghetti pie that I made last night. It was really good and it made enough for dinner last night and dinner tonight. I just looked at a bunch of recipes and mixed and matched and came up with this.
Spaghetti Pie
1/2 lb cooked spaghetti
2 eggs, beaten
1/2 c grated mozzerella cheese (plus more for on top)
1/2 c parmesan cheese (plus more for on top)
1/2 c spaghetti sauce (plus more for on top afterwards)
Preheat oven to 350 degF. Mix everything together (spaghetti, eggs, mozzerella, parmesan, sauce) and put it in a pan (a pie pan works). Top with more mozzerella/parmesan. Bake for 30 minutes or until hot and bubbly with melted cheese. If you want, serve with more sauce on top.
I'm sure you could change it up and leave the sauce out of the baked part and just put it on top or mix everything except the sauce in, put it in a pan, then pour sauce over top THEN bake. This is just the way I wanted to do it, so I did.
Well, that's that for now. I have a couple other things to write about, but I'll save them so I have stuff for the future!
I think I'm going to start posting again. I just got burned out on posting and eventually took a not-so-unexpected break. I don't really want to make a massive post right now, but I'll post some links from stuff I found over the past couple of days.
First: The Secret World I just got an email from Funcom about this game. It's a MMORPG (same genre as WoW) in development. It looks like players are members of one of three secret societies (Templars, Illuminati, or Dragon) fighting against demons in real-world environments. It could be really cool and if you're interested at all I'd say it's worth at least going to the website and taking the little "Initiation Quiz" to find out which society you match with and to get on the mailing list for future announcements.
Apparently, I'm a Dragon
Second: Google Wave explained in 2 minutes This is a neat short video explaining Google Wave in a much shorter period of time than the 1+ hour video on the Wave site. It's by a company (Epipheo Studios) that does other viral videos, but that's third stuff.
Third: Epipheo This is a big long list of "Epipheos." As they explain in their "what is an epipheo" video, an epipheo is basically a video that gives you an "ah hah" epiphany moment (hence the name). A couple that I particularly liked were the History of the Internet one and the How the Internet is Changing Advertising one. The advertising one is also the one they use to explain what an epipheo is and eventually it lead into me finding the fourth stuff.
Huh, apparently there's a site that compiles the top viral videos. That can be third-and-a-halfth stuff.
Fourth: The Fun Theory This is a really neat little article about VW's new advertising strategy. Apparently they're making a bunch of neat viral videos that people put all over the place and then just tag their logo on the end. It's not really an ad ABOUT VW stuff, but it gets their name out allll over the place. The video on that article about piano stairs is number one on the viral video ranking site (the third-and-a-halfth stuff) and I've found it from three other sources. I'd say that's a pretty good way of putting their name out there.
Fifth: Here's a recipe for spaghetti pie that I made last night. It was really good and it made enough for dinner last night and dinner tonight. I just looked at a bunch of recipes and mixed and matched and came up with this.
Spaghetti Pie
1/2 lb cooked spaghetti
2 eggs, beaten
1/2 c grated mozzerella cheese (plus more for on top)
1/2 c parmesan cheese (plus more for on top)
1/2 c spaghetti sauce (plus more for on top afterwards)
Preheat oven to 350 degF. Mix everything together (spaghetti, eggs, mozzerella, parmesan, sauce) and put it in a pan (a pie pan works). Top with more mozzerella/parmesan. Bake for 30 minutes or until hot and bubbly with melted cheese. If you want, serve with more sauce on top.
I'm sure you could change it up and leave the sauce out of the baked part and just put it on top or mix everything except the sauce in, put it in a pan, then pour sauce over top THEN bake. This is just the way I wanted to do it, so I did.
Well, that's that for now. I have a couple other things to write about, but I'll save them so I have stuff for the future!
Knock on wood
Yay for updating once a week. =/
So... let's see what's happened over the past week. Started with a genetics/cmb retreat on Monday, which was a lot more fun than last year. Apparently I AM getting more interested in science as I go, even though it kind of feels like it's going the other direction. That went from 9am to 8pm, so I basically did that and went to bed shortly afterwards.
Tuesday was lab work and hanging out with friends. I bought Champions Online and got a free month (pretty standard with MMOs) so I tried that out and it seems pretty fun. Very different from WoW in the mechanics sense, but I'm not sure it'll take over my MMO time. I've been playing Fiesta too, which is a free MMO that's good to play with other people since it doesn't involve paying for anything.
Yesterday was the first day of classes which meant lab work from 9-4ish except for about an hour and a half (two hour classes that both ended early) of classes during the day. Normally I'll have two hours of class Monday and two Wednesday, but it looks like there'll be a fair amount of out of class work, so we'll see how much time they actually take.
Today I've done some lab work and had lunch and looked at a fellowship application. The application kind of makes me want to run scared, but it's basically a grant application only a bit shorter, so I really should start doing them at some point. I just wish it didn't involve like 10 pages of writing. My lab work's actually WORKING though, which is always awesome. I just need to order some stuff to check that what I have is right and we can call it good and move on. This part of my side project has taken far too long already... I just hope I don't have to redo anything.
So... let's see what's happened over the past week. Started with a genetics/cmb retreat on Monday, which was a lot more fun than last year. Apparently I AM getting more interested in science as I go, even though it kind of feels like it's going the other direction. That went from 9am to 8pm, so I basically did that and went to bed shortly afterwards.
Tuesday was lab work and hanging out with friends. I bought Champions Online and got a free month (pretty standard with MMOs) so I tried that out and it seems pretty fun. Very different from WoW in the mechanics sense, but I'm not sure it'll take over my MMO time. I've been playing Fiesta too, which is a free MMO that's good to play with other people since it doesn't involve paying for anything.
Yesterday was the first day of classes which meant lab work from 9-4ish except for about an hour and a half (two hour classes that both ended early) of classes during the day. Normally I'll have two hours of class Monday and two Wednesday, but it looks like there'll be a fair amount of out of class work, so we'll see how much time they actually take.
Today I've done some lab work and had lunch and looked at a fellowship application. The application kind of makes me want to run scared, but it's basically a grant application only a bit shorter, so I really should start doing them at some point. I just wish it didn't involve like 10 pages of writing. My lab work's actually WORKING though, which is always awesome. I just need to order some stuff to check that what I have is right and we can call it good and move on. This part of my side project has taken far too long already... I just hope I don't have to redo anything.
Back again... maybe
Whew. I had TA training Monday, Tuesday, and Wednesday this week. It only went from about 8 to noon each day, but it was so full of stuff that by the time I was done all I felt like doing was going home. I managed to get some lab work done anyway and today I'm pretty busy, but it makes me feel more productive, which is always good. Also, I managed to be dumb and didn't get nearly enough sleep so I was ridiculously exhausted yesterday. I made up for some of it last night, though, so it's better today. Hopefully tonight I'll get to bed relatively early too so I can go into the weekend on a good foot.
From xkcd.com.
Also, last week was fairly busy and stressful because I had a 1 week class from 9-5 each day. Hopefully this week will be better and I'll actually update. The weekend was good, very not busy. I have TA training Monday through Wednesday of this week, but it only goes until about 1 or 2 each day so it shouldn't be bad. We'll see.
Turkeys!
So, I'm taking a week-long class before classes officially start as part of the quantitative biology program. Earlier today I was about ready to just give up and go home and not go back to this (freaking stupid, mumble mumble) class. I talked to my parents and felt better about life, but still kind of "eh, I could do without this class, really."
Then I saw fifteen wild turkeys, eleven of which crossed the street in front of me. If it had been deer or ducks or geese I might have just thought "oh neat, that's kind of cool to see wildlife." But here's the thing: I've heard people talk about seeing turkeys in their backyards or whatever like some people talk about deer (and how they're all over) but I've never actually SEEN one. They looked a lot like this in case you're like me:
Anyway, now I just really don't care about the class and it can go ahead sucking if it wants. I saw some turkeys.
Then I saw fifteen wild turkeys, eleven of which crossed the street in front of me. If it had been deer or ducks or geese I might have just thought "oh neat, that's kind of cool to see wildlife." But here's the thing: I've heard people talk about seeing turkeys in their backyards or whatever like some people talk about deer (and how they're all over) but I've never actually SEEN one. They looked a lot like this in case you're like me:
Anyway, now I just really don't care about the class and it can go ahead sucking if it wants. I saw some turkeys.
So...
I went out to dinner with my roommate and a friend of hers from high school and GEEZ was it awkward... I just wanted to get away the whole time. Except my roommate had the keys (to both her car, which we took to the restaurant and the apartment).
Just kidding. This was brought up at dinner though and something along the lines of "haha I bet Nik's going to blog about this later. If he's a blogger that is" was said. I thought it was funny and just in case either of them actually read this I figured it'd be worth a post. Dinner was actually quite good (Sansu always is though) and both my roommate and her friend are fun to hang out with, so that works.
Just kidding. This was brought up at dinner though and something along the lines of "haha I bet Nik's going to blog about this later. If he's a blogger that is" was said. I thought it was funny and just in case either of them actually read this I figured it'd be worth a post. Dinner was actually quite good (Sansu always is though) and both my roommate and her friend are fun to hang out with, so that works.
Layout time again
Hey look, a different layout again! The last one I had was made by non-blogger people and the code was confusing. I want to finally build a layout of my own and I have to start from understandable code to do that, so here we are. I actually kind of like this layout, so I guess it's a good placeholder for now.
Oh wait... that's not the CSS doing that.
While I'm posting I may as well talk about what's actually happening. First of all, nothing really spectacular. I've been reading CSS: The Missing Manual and it's helped a LOT. I highly recommend it if anyone wants to learn to build websites. I think I'm almost finished with it (about 350 pages in and it's around 450-500 with references and an index at the end) but it would be a great reference book. Maybe I'll see about buying it at some point after I return it to the library in... three weeks? Sounds about right.
I've been sort of busy in lab and things are kind of progressing. How's that for a non-committal sentence? About half of my lab (including the professor) is out of town for the week, so I don't really have anyone to ask questions to. This wouldn't be an issue except for the fact that things invariably go wrong every once in a while. Also, I work pretty closely with one of the guys who's out of town so if I want to restart anything I have to dig through his stuff and even the best organized people have so much stuff that it's a pain to go through. I FINALLY found something I was looking for this morning (after looking in different places all day yesterday) but that just means I'll have work to do over the weekend. Oh well, now I have a possibility of finishing this part of the project by Monday instead of mid next week. My main project's going well though, so that's good.
This week's been a little interesting on the games front though. I kind of realized that I won't always have my brother's PS3 so I've been playing stuff on it for most of the week. I downloaded Fat Princess on Monday and played that for a bit. It's pretty fun but I think it'd be great playing with people I know. Now I just need to find those people. I've also played some Eternal Sonata which I got for my birthday. At first it didn't really suck me in, but now that I've played it for a bit I want to keep going. I guess we'll see how far I get before my brother takes his system back. I should probably get a PS3 of my own at some point now that I have three games for it...
Apparently this layout comes with some neat CSS stuff built in...Huh... that's cool.
And another fun thing?
Oh it makes "code" into a fixed width font.
That's useful I guess.Oh wait... that's not the CSS doing that.
While I'm posting I may as well talk about what's actually happening. First of all, nothing really spectacular. I've been reading CSS: The Missing Manual and it's helped a LOT. I highly recommend it if anyone wants to learn to build websites. I think I'm almost finished with it (about 350 pages in and it's around 450-500 with references and an index at the end) but it would be a great reference book. Maybe I'll see about buying it at some point after I return it to the library in... three weeks? Sounds about right.
I've been sort of busy in lab and things are kind of progressing. How's that for a non-committal sentence? About half of my lab (including the professor) is out of town for the week, so I don't really have anyone to ask questions to. This wouldn't be an issue except for the fact that things invariably go wrong every once in a while. Also, I work pretty closely with one of the guys who's out of town so if I want to restart anything I have to dig through his stuff and even the best organized people have so much stuff that it's a pain to go through. I FINALLY found something I was looking for this morning (after looking in different places all day yesterday) but that just means I'll have work to do over the weekend. Oh well, now I have a possibility of finishing this part of the project by Monday instead of mid next week. My main project's going well though, so that's good.
This week's been a little interesting on the games front though. I kind of realized that I won't always have my brother's PS3 so I've been playing stuff on it for most of the week. I downloaded Fat Princess on Monday and played that for a bit. It's pretty fun but I think it'd be great playing with people I know. Now I just need to find those people. I've also played some Eternal Sonata which I got for my birthday. At first it didn't really suck me in, but now that I've played it for a bit I want to keep going. I guess we'll see how far I get before my brother takes his system back. I should probably get a PS3 of my own at some point now that I have three games for it...
Woooohoooo
I have a functional C drive now! For some stupid reason the company that built my new laptop installed the operation system on the C drive and put the rest of the storage into a D drive. Sounds good (they even labeled the C drive "OS Install" and the D drive "Data") except for the fact that basically everything defaults to installing to Program Files or the User directory... both in the C drive. Anyway I was getting REALLY fed up with that until Mike pointed out a program that can change partitions without clearing your hard drive. I ended up using this one and it worked pretty well, especially for a free program. I ended up with all of my storage in my C drive and completely eliminated the D drive. Whew, now time for sleep.
Hey look!
What IS this?
Anyway, I'm visiting home for the weekend so I'm finally getting to catch up with sleep and just hanging out. So far we've gone out for dinner and I slept for about 11 hours last night, then we went out for brunch/lunch and done some errands. Right now my brother's looking at backpacks for hiking/camping which he apparently got interested in while I wasn't looking. Looks like we're heading out though, so I'm gonna go play games or something probably.
Hey guess what?!
It's three days later and I'm STILL dead tired! Woohoo for going to bed late three days in a row (Dokapon Kingdom will be the death of me... that and growth curves that go until 11. Mainly the Dokapon though). I'm going home for the weekend, though, so hopefully I'll be able to finally get some sleep.
I got a hold of CSS - The Missing Manual and I've read the first three chapters so far. It's just starting to get into actual stuff I don't know, but by the end of the book I should actually know what I'm doing, which is always neat. Then I just have to figure out how Blogger layouts work, which shouldn't be too terrible since I've seen tutorials around for that. Oh and I need to come up with a design and the art for it too... great. I seem to have a problem that goes something like this: if I don't have the skills to do something I have all sorts of great ideas, but when I actually know enough to implement ideas they all go running. Maybe I can hunt some down before I finish the book though.
I got a hold of CSS - The Missing Manual and I've read the first three chapters so far. It's just starting to get into actual stuff I don't know, but by the end of the book I should actually know what I'm doing, which is always neat. Then I just have to figure out how Blogger layouts work, which shouldn't be too terrible since I've seen tutorials around for that. Oh and I need to come up with a design and the art for it too... great. I seem to have a problem that goes something like this: if I don't have the skills to do something I have all sorts of great ideas, but when I actually know enough to implement ideas they all go running. Maybe I can hunt some down before I finish the book though.
aaand he's back!
Sort of anyway. It's been a fairly uneventful week and a few days since I posted, so I guess that's that. I've been playing around with my new laptop (which is pretty much fantastic!) and I haven't even really turned on my desktop since I got it. If/when I play games where I want a bit more power my desktop's still definitely the right choice, but it could heat my apartment in the dead of winter so I like this laptop instead. PLUS it keeps itself cool basically without the fans, which is pretty amazing. My other one overheats just... sitting there. Anyway, it's permanently in the lab now, which is also nice. I've moved/uninstalled pretty much anything entertaining so I'm less distracted, but I've also had more work to do, which always helps.
So... I'm dead tired. Tomorrow I'll hopefully be able to get a library card. Turns out it's a problem when your driver's license doesn't explicitly say you live in the city you live in. Geez cmon people, I just want to read books for free, is that so hard? Sleep now.
So... I'm dead tired. Tomorrow I'll hopefully be able to get a library card. Turns out it's a problem when your driver's license doesn't explicitly say you live in the city you live in. Geez cmon people, I just want to read books for free, is that so hard? Sleep now.
Time for nerdiness!
First, today's Real Life Comic: CLICK HERE! It's pretty sweet (assuming you know at least the basic ideas of the Heisenberg Uncertainty Principle. Otherwise... I dunno.)
Second, here are my current laptop specs:
RAM: 2x1GB (2GB total) , 533mhz
CPU: T2250, 1.73, 2MB, dual core
DVDRW drive
Hard Drive: 120 GB
GPU: ATI mobility Radeon X1300, 128MB
15.4inch screen
Bluetooth
Wireless
And, here are the specs of the laptop that I ordered:
RAM: 2x2GB (4GB total), 667/800mhz
CPU: Intel® 45nm Penryn P8600, 2.4GHz, 3MB, dual core
"Super multi" drive (no idea what that means, but it's a heck of a name)
Hard Drive: 320GB
GPU: NVIDIA® GeForce9600M GT, 512MB
17inch screen
4 speakers and a subwoofer
Bluetooth
Wireless
2.0mp Webcam
a TURBO BUTTON
I ordered it two days ago and paid TWO DOLLARS for 3-7 day shipping. It's apparently out for delivery today. THAT is why I love Tigerdirect.
Second, here are my current laptop specs:
RAM: 2x1GB (2GB total) , 533mhz
CPU: T2250, 1.73, 2MB, dual core
DVDRW drive
Hard Drive: 120 GB
GPU: ATI mobility Radeon X1300, 128MB
15.4inch screen
Bluetooth
Wireless
And, here are the specs of the laptop that I ordered:
RAM: 2x2GB (4GB total), 667/800mhz
CPU: Intel® 45nm Penryn P8600, 2.4GHz, 3MB, dual core
"Super multi" drive (no idea what that means, but it's a heck of a name)
Hard Drive: 320GB
GPU: NVIDIA® GeForce9600M GT, 512MB
17inch screen
4 speakers and a subwoofer
Bluetooth
Wireless
2.0mp Webcam
a TURBO BUTTON
I ordered it two days ago and paid TWO DOLLARS for 3-7 day shipping. It's apparently out for delivery today. THAT is why I love Tigerdirect.
Pixel art
I've been seeing pixel art left and right recently so I figured I'd post one that's pretty cool. 
That's the finished product (it links to the page it's from if you click it) and here's a step by step version that's pretty cool if you like that kind of thing.
That's the finished product (it links to the page it's from if you click it) and here's a step by step version that's pretty cool if you like that kind of thing.
Yay for new stuff
So a little while ago I was talking about how I needed new headphones, a new laptop, and a new phone. For my birthday I got these:
Check off one thing on the list (and these headphones are AWESOME. My sanity is up 400-500% while working in the not-my-lab that is my office since I can't hear anything except what's coming through the headphones)
And now, check the second thing off the list:
The deal I got on this was pretty darn awesome for the amount of stuff it has. It should be GREAT and it should be in by the weekend! Wooooooo!
Check off one thing on the list (and these headphones are AWESOME. My sanity is up 400-500% while working in the not-my-lab that is my office since I can't hear anything except what's coming through the headphones)And now, check the second thing off the list:
The deal I got on this was pretty darn awesome for the amount of stuff it has. It should be GREAT and it should be in by the weekend! Wooooooo!
Hmm wow.
I realized it's been a looong time since I updated. That's mostly because I was out of town starting on Friday at my cousin's wedding. It was a lot of fun in Canada and I got to see aunts, uncles, cousins, and extended family of all sorts. I really wish I got to see these people more often, but the problem is that a lot of them are 13+ hours away. Apparently my brother's thinking of going up in August, so I might maybe possibly go with him... although I've already taken a lot of days off this summer, so we'll see.
I'm kind of thinking of switching to Wordpress instead of blogger, but that's way off in the future (hanging out with my ideas for blog designs/formats and the other stuff that I might also do). I'll let you know if that ever happens.
Alright, I want to try something just out of curiosity and it's WoW related, so I'm sticking it in a WoWbox!
Here are some neat pants: [Valorous Plagueheart Leggings]
Here's my robe that really needs an upgrade: [Black Duskweave Robe]
Here's a neat little gray item: [Shiny Dinglehopper]
Edit: Woohoo looks like it works! Hover over those links and you get to see the items!
Here are some neat pants: [Valorous Plagueheart Leggings]
Here's my robe that really needs an upgrade: [Black Duskweave Robe]
Here's a neat little gray item: [Shiny Dinglehopper]
Edit: Woohoo looks like it works! Hover over those links and you get to see the items!
I'm kind of thinking of switching to Wordpress instead of blogger, but that's way off in the future (hanging out with my ideas for blog designs/formats and the other stuff that I might also do). I'll let you know if that ever happens.
My gift to you...
... in the form of two punctuation-based blogs.
First: http://www.unnecessaryquotes.com/
Second: http://www.apostropheabuse.com/
Enjoy.
First: http://www.unnecessaryquotes.com/
Second: http://www.apostropheabuse.com/
Enjoy.
Fireworks videos... finally.
So I finally got around to uploading a couple of those videos to Youtube. Here they are:
At some random point in the middle
The end of the show
At some random point in the middle
The end of the show
I'm in line at the food court again, this time apparently with a bunch of kids from Holland. One of them's looking at the mediterranian place's menu and asks one of the others, "what are grape leaves?" I'm kind of tempted to say, "Uhh they're leaves from a grape vine..."
New layout
I'm sure you noticed the new layout. Unless you're... blind? Or maybe reading in an RSS reader? I got it from a free layout site, so there are little weird things that aren't quite right with it, but I generally like how it looks and I'm not going to tell you about the weird little thing in a futile attempt to keep you from noticing them. I still haven't put in the time to learn how to make my own and then actually make it, so this will have to do. Anyway, I should be reading, so I'm off to go do that.
I like my phone
So I think Blogger will probably let me post by now, but regardless I'm standing in line at Subway so I couldn't update normally even if I wanted to. This weekend was a lot of fun with a friend's birthday dinner and a movie (the Hangover) on Friday, barbeque, games, and fireworks on Saturday, and other friends on Sunday. All in all a fairly busy weekend and my laundry just barely got done. I have about 15 minutes of phone-video that I'll upload to youtube once I get home (Google owning one of everything is nice sometimes) and I'll link the best video or two here. Anyway I'm up soon in line, so I'll post again once I can get to my desktop.
Oh I DID manage to
Oh I DID manage to upload pictures if you want to see some pictures.
 |
| Fourth of July |
So... I want to make
So... I want to make a fourth of july weekend post, but both youtube and blogger are down. Enjoy this text-message-turned-post in the meantime.
Happy Canada Day!
Happy Canada Day everyone (and happy Wednesday of a probably short week for the Americans). HERE'S a Youtube video for you all, because I know you all just want to be Canadian.
Short post
Well here's a short update. First, a LINK. I feel like my mom might have threatened to sell/trade/give away my brother and I when we were younger and fighting. Maybe that would have come in handy!
Second, my disappointment for the day. I made some chicken soup with some stock that my parents brought when they visited over the weekend. It's pretty good and definitely good for more meals over the next couple of days. When I tried it after it was done, though, I realized something. I don't feel like soup today. I guess it's cereal for dinner, then!
Second, my disappointment for the day. I made some chicken soup with some stock that my parents brought when they visited over the weekend. It's pretty good and definitely good for more meals over the next couple of days. When I tried it after it was done, though, I realized something. I don't feel like soup today. I guess it's cereal for dinner, then!
Busy busy...
So... yeah. It's been a busy couple of days followed by a not-really-busy-at-all couple of days. Thursday and Friday were basically work from 8:30 or 9 to 5 with birthday stuff afterwards (happy birthday to me on the 26th... doesn't really feel different to be 23 instead of 22).
Thursday was dinner at Mongolian BBQ (woohoo for free dinner coupon, boo for not knowing it was unlimited until AFTERWARDS) and Transformers at the IMAX. That was very large and involved much headturning because of how fairly close to the screen we were. All in all, a very good afternoon/evening/night which went until about 1am.
Friday was Holland. Basically I got off work at 5 (about an hour after I wanted to) and drove to Holland (about an hour and a half), had dinner at CityVu, which is a pretty nice restaurant where we went for dinner LAST year as well, almost went to a musical, but didn't because of tickets (or rather, the lack thereof), saw awesome people at the theater before we left (if only for a few minutes), played Mario Kart Wii and a bit of Guitar Hero, had cake, played teledraw, and drove home. That was a very long sentence, but also a very good night (which ended at about 2am by the time I got home).
Yesterday was going out to lunch with my parents and showing them around campus (as my mom put it, "it's nice to see it at the beginning, rather than at the end," since I didn't show them around the Science building and the various labs I was in until graduation at Hope). Also a nice few hours (it's always good to see my parents), and they brought birthday presents!
The rest of yesterday and today have basically just been bouncing from game to game since I got new ones for my birthday. It makes it hard to focus on one because I want to play them ALL, all at the same time. Oh well, it'll settle down eventually. Now... maybe I should get some dinner.
Oh maybe I'll make THESE this week.
Thursday was dinner at Mongolian BBQ (woohoo for free dinner coupon, boo for not knowing it was unlimited until AFTERWARDS) and Transformers at the IMAX. That was very large and involved much headturning because of how fairly close to the screen we were. All in all, a very good afternoon/evening/night which went until about 1am.
Friday was Holland. Basically I got off work at 5 (about an hour after I wanted to) and drove to Holland (about an hour and a half), had dinner at CityVu, which is a pretty nice restaurant where we went for dinner LAST year as well, almost went to a musical, but didn't because of tickets (or rather, the lack thereof), saw awesome people at the theater before we left (if only for a few minutes), played Mario Kart Wii and a bit of Guitar Hero, had cake, played teledraw, and drove home. That was a very long sentence, but also a very good night (which ended at about 2am by the time I got home).
Yesterday was going out to lunch with my parents and showing them around campus (as my mom put it, "it's nice to see it at the beginning, rather than at the end," since I didn't show them around the Science building and the various labs I was in until graduation at Hope). Also a nice few hours (it's always good to see my parents), and they brought birthday presents!
The rest of yesterday and today have basically just been bouncing from game to game since I got new ones for my birthday. It makes it hard to focus on one because I want to play them ALL, all at the same time. Oh well, it'll settle down eventually. Now... maybe I should get some dinner.
Oh maybe I'll make THESE this week.
Would evolution run faster...
... if our planet was closer to the center of the galaxy?
(This post has a fair amount of stuff that probably isn't all that interesting if you don't have a bit of a science background)
That was a question posed on twitter last night that I missed until just now. I tweeted my responses, then looked into the responses that other people had sent. Mine were:
"... It's really hard to say. Depending on who you talk to, even the mutation rate/rate of error repair is tuned by evolution"
"so it's possible that even with more radiation the mutation rate would be the same or even lower."
"if life from Earth was moved closer to the center of the galaxy, then yes, probably faster evolution, but also a lot of death."
My responses assume that the cosmic radiation would actually be higher and that it's a significant enough amount to actually cause mutations. If not, the whole discussion's moot anyway. Some of the others were:
"Cosmic rays seldom reach the ground, which is where evolution usually occurs. I think fast food is a better accelerant."
"isn't that from starship troopers?" (I don't know... maybe it is? I need to see that movie)
"Perhaps, but not due to cosmic rays. It would be due to our player having played through the game three times already." (I kind of like the idea of us all being part of a big game for some reason... and that the player could be bored and boost mutation rate to just see what happens.)
and of course: "CROCODUCK!" (which... well... I have no idea what that's about, but just imagine a cross between a crocodile and a duck and it can be pretty funny).
Anyway, that's how twitter can be used, successfully or not, so start a discussion on something. There were a bunch of good responses from people who knew what they were talking about, but those tended to be multiple tweets long and... well... you can go do a twitter search for @dresdencodak if you want to read those. They're not really much fun unless you want to get a bit of a brain exercise. The general consensus is "no," in case you're wondering.
(This post has a fair amount of stuff that probably isn't all that interesting if you don't have a bit of a science background)
That was a question posed on twitter last night that I missed until just now. I tweeted my responses, then looked into the responses that other people had sent. Mine were:
"... It's really hard to say. Depending on who you talk to, even the mutation rate/rate of error repair is tuned by evolution"
"so it's possible that even with more radiation the mutation rate would be the same or even lower."
"if life from Earth was moved closer to the center of the galaxy, then yes, probably faster evolution, but also a lot of death."
My responses assume that the cosmic radiation would actually be higher and that it's a significant enough amount to actually cause mutations. If not, the whole discussion's moot anyway. Some of the others were:
"Cosmic rays seldom reach the ground, which is where evolution usually occurs. I think fast food is a better accelerant."
"isn't that from starship troopers?" (I don't know... maybe it is? I need to see that movie)
"Perhaps, but not due to cosmic rays. It would be due to our player having played through the game three times already." (I kind of like the idea of us all being part of a big game for some reason... and that the player could be bored and boost mutation rate to just see what happens.)
and of course: "CROCODUCK!" (which... well... I have no idea what that's about, but just imagine a cross between a crocodile and a duck and it can be pretty funny).
Anyway, that's how twitter can be used, successfully or not, so start a discussion on something. There were a bunch of good responses from people who knew what they were talking about, but those tended to be multiple tweets long and... well... you can go do a twitter search for @dresdencodak if you want to read those. They're not really much fun unless you want to get a bit of a brain exercise. The general consensus is "no," in case you're wondering.
I got an upgrade!
Apparently they're updating the Genetics website this week and I'm getting upgraded from rotation student to regular old "current student." This means I get put in a category (apparently the closest one is "Insect & Bacterial Model Systems" even though I'm very much NOT in a model system) and I get a Research Area under my name! ...that basically means I have to think of a way to sum up my thesis project (which still isn't well defined to ME) in 5 words or less. I picked "Directed Bacterial Evolution" but that's just so... vague. Oh well.
I have some pictures that I wanted to put on here at some point, but my desktop doesn't have a way to get them off of my phone and I'm going to bed half an hour ago so I don't really want to start up my laptop. I guess that's something for tomorrow! Hmm... maybe...
It's WoWshots time! Just a few quick ones. First is a friend looking awesome (in a way only elves really can) in his horribly mismatched gear and doing his Napoleon Dynamite dance (you'll just have to trust me on that since the screenshot doesn't really... move).
Second is my newest flying "mount," a Magnificent Flying Carpet. And, just so you can fully comprehend the awesomeness of it, here's the tooltip, complete with Aladdin reference!
I have some pictures that I wanted to put on here at some point, but my desktop doesn't have a way to get them off of my phone and I'm going to bed half an hour ago so I don't really want to start up my laptop. I guess that's something for tomorrow! Hmm... maybe...
It's WoWshots time! Just a few quick ones. First is a friend looking awesome (in a way only elves really can) in his horribly mismatched gear and doing his Napoleon Dynamite dance (you'll just have to trust me on that since the screenshot doesn't really... move).
Second is my newest flying "mount," a Magnificent Flying Carpet. And, just so you can fully comprehend the awesomeness of it, here's the tooltip, complete with Aladdin reference!
Huh
Looks like it's been over a week since any sort of update as to my actual life! Let's remedy that a bit. There honestly hasn't been a lot of new things happening. I think this is going to effectively be a bullet list of random stuff that comes to mind about what's been going on with me, so sorry for the lack of transitions between paragraphs =P.
Lab work's working pretty ok. I got my main project to proceed further, which is always nice. Things are growing on new sugars and they're starting to evolve how I want them to, so now it's just a matter of time. The only problem is that the side project I'm working on kind of stalled. I have a couple of other things to try before I'm really stuck, though, so I'm hoping one of them will work.
My roommate's cat's been a bit more annoying the past couple of days than she normally is. She has a tendency to decide she wants to get into my room at 4am and is fairly vocal about it. I don't know if she normally does this and I'm just waking up to it now or what the deal is, but oh well. Last night was better than the night before that so maybe I was just a lighter sleeper that night.
Apparently Jimmy Johns has $1 sandwiches for lunch today, so I think that's the plan. Geez... I just realized that there's an interesting trail to follow to find where I got that info though. I heard from a friend online last night who heard from her sister's husband on Facebook who heard about it on Jimmy John's Facebook page where they were telling people about the promotion (this was initially longer... but I found out it wasn't as convoluted as I thought). The internet can be a pretty neat thing. (which reminds me... on Twitter someone mentioned something about Web2.0 coming to a close and 3.0 being not far off. That article makes it sounds pretty cool, although howstuffworks.com is pretty cool overall.)
I guess our 1 year special deal period with comcast is up because our bill went up to a little over $100 for cable and internet this past month... I think my roommate said she was going to sort it out but I should probably see what the deal is with that and see if I can help, because that's waaay more than I want to pay.
Anyway, I think that's most of what's been going on with me. Also, I really thought the "Anonymous" comments were all from the same person, but not I'm not sure! It's kind of a puzzle and that's neat, but if you don't mind putting a name or some sort of identifier so I know who you are, that'd be awesome! I like knowing who's reading =).
Lab work's working pretty ok. I got my main project to proceed further, which is always nice. Things are growing on new sugars and they're starting to evolve how I want them to, so now it's just a matter of time. The only problem is that the side project I'm working on kind of stalled. I have a couple of other things to try before I'm really stuck, though, so I'm hoping one of them will work.
My roommate's cat's been a bit more annoying the past couple of days than she normally is. She has a tendency to decide she wants to get into my room at 4am and is fairly vocal about it. I don't know if she normally does this and I'm just waking up to it now or what the deal is, but oh well. Last night was better than the night before that so maybe I was just a lighter sleeper that night.
Apparently Jimmy Johns has $1 sandwiches for lunch today, so I think that's the plan. Geez... I just realized that there's an interesting trail to follow to find where I got that info though. I heard from a friend online last night who heard from her sister's husband on Facebook who heard about it on Jimmy John's Facebook page where they were telling people about the promotion (this was initially longer... but I found out it wasn't as convoluted as I thought). The internet can be a pretty neat thing. (which reminds me... on Twitter someone mentioned something about Web2.0 coming to a close and 3.0 being not far off. That article makes it sounds pretty cool, although howstuffworks.com is pretty cool overall.)
I guess our 1 year special deal period with comcast is up because our bill went up to a little over $100 for cable and internet this past month... I think my roommate said she was going to sort it out but I should probably see what the deal is with that and see if I can help, because that's waaay more than I want to pay.
I'm trying out a new set up to separate WoW stuff that's actually really easy now that I set it up. Hopefully it'll work and show you what to skip if you don't want to read about WoW!
I gave that Mtn Dew (anyone else think the name change is a little ridiculous?) game fuel WoW edition a try. I don't really know which flavor I like better, so I'm going to say Horde because the Horde's just better.
My newish paladin on WoW is... 65 I think now? Only 3 more levels before I can head to Northrend and do some of the new instances!
I gave that Mtn Dew (anyone else think the name change is a little ridiculous?) game fuel WoW edition a try. I don't really know which flavor I like better, so I'm going to say Horde because the Horde's just better.
My newish paladin on WoW is... 65 I think now? Only 3 more levels before I can head to Northrend and do some of the new instances!
Anyway, I think that's most of what's been going on with me. Also, I really thought the "Anonymous" comments were all from the same person, but not I'm not sure! It's kind of a puzzle and that's neat, but if you don't mind putting a name or some sort of identifier so I know who you are, that'd be awesome! I like knowing who's reading =).
Wow, poor guy
This is a fairly significant punctuation/teleprompter fail. At least it just looks like he kept going. I imagine if you were watching it live you'd think you had just misheard something.
Auto-tune the news
Twitter is pretty much awesome if only to help find things to post here! Today's link is to a relatively new thing popping up on Youtube: Auto-Tune the News. It's pretty awesome, minus the MSU bashing. There are four of them so far and I think the Katie Couric sections are probably my favorite, but the Hillary Clinton ones are pretty good too. I think their voices and speech patterns must just be phrased right and have a good pitch for editing. Or something.
Also, my lab stuff suddenly stopped working, but my professor said it was her fault, so I reordered some stuff and I'm going to try it again when that comes in.
Also, my lab stuff suddenly stopped working, but my professor said it was her fault, so I reordered some stuff and I'm going to try it again when that comes in.
On Owls and Porcupines
Apparently owls like getting their heads scratched as much as any other animal. Well, the ones that like getting their heads scratched anyway.
Also, baby porcupines appear to really like bananas. And they get hiccups sometimes too.
That website looks pretty awesome overall.
Also, baby porcupines appear to really like bananas. And they get hiccups sometimes too.
That website looks pretty awesome overall.
Bigger than Kologarn
I just found this awesome blog that, unfortunately, has very few posts. They're little short story things based on World of Warcraft, but this one's pretty funny regardless. It's about a quest you can do daily to raise your reputation with a group of walrus people (...and that sounds really ridiculous out of the context of WoW.)
Walrus: "Yeah. Don't worry. We're totally not going to eat the babies. But if you want to come back tomorrow and swipe us another sackful, that would be awesome."
Elder Walrus: "Hi. I'm a walrus. We're the good guys. I promise."
Player: "Okay."
Walrus: "There are some guys we don't like. Their village is up on that hill."
Player: "Okay."
Walrus: "So I've got this sack right here."
Player: "I see."
Walrus: "What you are going to do is take this sack over to their village and fill it with their babies. As many babies as you can steal, just go ahead and stuff them in this sack."
Player: "Uh, what?"
Walrus: "Sack full of babies. Bring me a sack full of babies. Like, a dozen."
Player: "Are you sure you don't want me to just bring back their poop?"
Walrus: "By the way, the guys we don't like are dog guys, so the babies you're stuffing in a sack are also puppies."
Player: "Seriously?"
Hammertime
Well, it's 5ish on Sunday already, somehow. Honestly I didn't do a heck of a lot this weekend. Yesterday there was a birthday party for a few of my friends that I went to for a few hours, which was a lot of fun. I got to see and kind of catch up with a bunch of people that I haven't really seen in a while, which is always good. Today I've mainly just been playing games and thinking about how I should do homework and now I'm starting the homework. There's a Genetics writing group for the first years that gets together now and then and we have little assignments to do before each one. This time we have to read an article and find a badly written paragraph. That's going to be kind of difficult.
And here's a link for today: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vfxCnZ4Dp3c
And here's a link for today: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vfxCnZ4Dp3c
Man decorates basement...
http://www.kentucky.com/147/story/532854.html
This story's kind of neat, but the pictures that go along with it are more impressive (to me anyway). Also, the link in the article to an artist's website has some kind of cool stuff if you want more Sharpie/paint pen pictures.
This story's kind of neat, but the pictures that go along with it are more impressive (to me anyway). Also, the link in the article to an artist's website has some kind of cool stuff if you want more Sharpie/paint pen pictures.
Tech breakdown
I've noticed my technology is beginning to break down... I think it might be getting to about the time where I should be replacing some of it. I just got a brand new desktop computer and that's running GREAT, but my laptop's having a couple of issues. It's getting slower, no matter how much I delete, scan, and defragment, and there's a line of dead pixels across the screen. Also, sometimes when I unplug it while it's on the screen goes black, even though the computer itself is still on. I thought that issue was fixed when I replaced the battery, but apparently not. My phone's also starting to get quirky. Overall it's actually holding up surprisingly well, considering the number of times I've dropped it or things like that, but every so often when it gets a bit of a shock (like being in a cargo pocket by my knee or something like that) the battery must get hit a little to hard and the phone shuts off. It doesn't happen often, since I tend to keep it fairly safe in a pocket, but every so often I go to use it and it's off with a mostly full battery. Eh, oh well. Oh, the last thing is my iPod headphones that are starting to get fairly typical wear and tear (the little rubber rings to keep them "comfortable" are wearing out and starting to fall off), but hopefully I'll have a replacement for them for my birthday!
Lab meeting time!
Lab meeting time!
Mini-rant
So I was writing a message to someone on Facebook to keep up to date and figured it'd make a pretty good post, so here's a chunk of that message! Enjoy some little revelations that I've had since I started grad school.
This is my first year at grad school and after (hopefully about) 4 more years I'll have a PhD. I realized after I started I probably should have join the MMG (Microbiology and Molecular Genetics) program, but I got into a lab that's doing something cool, so that's alright. I'm really into the genetic engineering side of things and I'd like to apply it for some sort of bio-based solution (like bio-ethanol or bio-remediation) but I feel like the efforts being made now are kind of... fumbling and awkward. Maybe it's because they're directed by the government and kind of out of date, or maybe we're just not to the point where an efficient, concerted effort can be made.Yeah... so, that's that and I kind of want to just skip the next few years and develop technology today with next decade's scientific results. If only it were that easy...
Eventually I'll probably get into teaching and having a lab at a college, but every so often I read the news and think, "Hmm I should engineer a bacteria to help fix that," so I guess we'll see where I really end up. I feel like things change so fast that what I'm learning now may be obsolete in 5 or 10 years and newer, better methods might be the thing to do. I guess we'll see when we get there.
The Sims 3... comes tomorrow.
So I really thought I posted something today, but apparently I didn't, so I'll plug a website/podcast instead.
Howstuffworks.com is pretty awesome. They do a pretty good job of giving an overview of most things that you could be wondering about, and they're always writing more articles. They have a bunch of podcasts and blogs linked from the main site, but the one I really want to mention is the Stuff You Should Know podcast. The hosts (speakers?) are really fun to listen to and the podcasts are always interesting.
Anyway, that's that, now it's time for bed.
Howstuffworks.com is pretty awesome. They do a pretty good job of giving an overview of most things that you could be wondering about, and they're always writing more articles. They have a bunch of podcasts and blogs linked from the main site, but the one I really want to mention is the Stuff You Should Know podcast. The hosts (speakers?) are really fun to listen to and the podcasts are always interesting.
Anyway, that's that, now it's time for bed.
Literal Total Eclipse of the Heart
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lj-x9ygQEGA
It's one of those music video remakes where they sing what's actually happening in the music video instead of the song's words. This one's pretty funny and the description on the side says there are 6 total (and I've only seen one of the others) so I've gotta track those down some time...
It's one of those music video remakes where they sing what's actually happening in the music video instead of the song's words. This one's pretty funny and the description on the side says there are 6 total (and I've only seen one of the others) so I've gotta track those down some time...
Hint: The Sims 3
Oooh guess what! Guess what! Guess what's coming out tomorrow!
And no, you don't get any more hints!
And no, you don't get any more hints!
It's like...
So it turns out that there are going to be more than one quote in this post!
"It’s like giving a man some explosives. No matter how restrained he normally is, he will find something to explode."
"It’s fun to wear a gamer shirt out in public and get knowing nods and smiles from the others that recognize what’s up. We’re a secret club. It just happens that our club is many millions strong."
"It’s like giving a man some explosives. No matter how restrained he normally is, he will find something to explode."
"It’s fun to wear a gamer shirt out in public and get knowing nods and smiles from the others that recognize what’s up. We’re a secret club. It just happens that our club is many millions strong."
*sigh*
There's an argument going on in the lab I'm in right now and one of the people just told the other one to go to Google and look it up. True, that's probably one of the fastest ways to find out who's right, but you'd think there'd be a more... scientific way to do it.
Either way, I'm glad there isn't this kind of tension in my lab.
Either way, I'm glad there isn't this kind of tension in my lab.
Google Wave
All right, so this is pretty much awesome: http://wave.google.com/
The preview is an hour and 20 minutes long, but I started watching it thinking "eh, I'll give it a chance and watch the first couple minutes" and then ended up sitting through it and still wanting more at the end. Basically it's Google's next best thing that has the potential to replace e-mail and instant messengers as well as work with blogs, twitter, social networking sites, and most of the rest of the internet. And they're writing it so that companies can pick it up and offer it as a service to people, like yahoo, hotmail and others offer e-mail now. I'm actually really hoping people pick it up, because I'd much rather use it than e-mail (although now that I think about it, I probably COULD use it instead of e-mail, and just use a robot like the ones they talk about it to translate between the two services...).
Go and watch the preview video.
(then go see Up, although even Up is slightly less awesome than Wave.)
EDIT: I realized that I talked about my brother's friend who's writing for a sports site, but I didn't actually include the link! Here it is: http://www.suite101.com/profile.cfm/jwaldmann
The preview is an hour and 20 minutes long, but I started watching it thinking "eh, I'll give it a chance and watch the first couple minutes" and then ended up sitting through it and still wanting more at the end. Basically it's Google's next best thing that has the potential to replace e-mail and instant messengers as well as work with blogs, twitter, social networking sites, and most of the rest of the internet. And they're writing it so that companies can pick it up and offer it as a service to people, like yahoo, hotmail and others offer e-mail now. I'm actually really hoping people pick it up, because I'd much rather use it than e-mail (although now that I think about it, I probably COULD use it instead of e-mail, and just use a robot like the ones they talk about it to translate between the two services...).
Go and watch the preview video.
(then go see Up, although even Up is slightly less awesome than Wave.)
EDIT: I realized that I talked about my brother's friend who's writing for a sports site, but I didn't actually include the link! Here it is: http://www.suite101.com/profile.cfm/jwaldmann
Weekend time (...almost)
So today was fairly useless work-wise, since (after a lab meeting this morning) I didn't have time or materials to do much. Instead I got to read news online.
First, apparently Wikipedia got annoyed with Scientologists.
http://www.theregister.co.uk/2009/05/29/wikipedia_bans_scientology/
It looks like there's a group of them that specifically changed Scientology related articles to push their views. As it says at the end of the article, this isn't the first time it's happened, but it's the first time something has officially been done about it, so it's kind of strange.
Second, I just feel bad for this guy. Apparently he's been taking a specific anti-cancer drug that eventually destroys your fingerprints and got held at the airport for 4 hours because of it.
http://www.reuters.com/article/oddlyEnoughNews/idUSTRE54Q42P20090527?feedType=RSS&feedName=oddlyEnoughNews&rpc=22&sp=true
Apparently the top layer of skin is the only one responsible for fingerprints so the fact that the drug can cause swelling, skin peeling, and blistering eventually leads to losing your fingerprints. I don't really know much about skin layers so I don't get what "first layer" means, because I (and other people I know) have burned off, or otherwise lost, a layer of fingerprint skin and they were still there. Maybe that's just different meanings of "first layer" coming into play. Either way, poor guy, no one wants to be held against their will anywhere for that long when it's not their fault. At least it looks like his cancer's gone.
Anyway, I think it's time to go home fairly soon, so I'll finish this up. The rest of Reuter's 'Oddly Enough' news is pretty cool too. They found a feral girl in Russia and Switzerland's bringing in tourists to certify them as mountain cleaners. Weird stuff, and it looks like the second one actually started as an April Fool's joke.
Have a good weekend!
(especially if I don't post =P)
First, apparently Wikipedia got annoyed with Scientologists.
http://www.theregister.co.uk/2009/05/29/wikipedia_bans_scientology/
It looks like there's a group of them that specifically changed Scientology related articles to push their views. As it says at the end of the article, this isn't the first time it's happened, but it's the first time something has officially been done about it, so it's kind of strange.
Second, I just feel bad for this guy. Apparently he's been taking a specific anti-cancer drug that eventually destroys your fingerprints and got held at the airport for 4 hours because of it.
http://www.reuters.com/article/oddlyEnoughNews/idUSTRE54Q42P20090527?feedType=RSS&feedName=oddlyEnoughNews&rpc=22&sp=true
Apparently the top layer of skin is the only one responsible for fingerprints so the fact that the drug can cause swelling, skin peeling, and blistering eventually leads to losing your fingerprints. I don't really know much about skin layers so I don't get what "first layer" means, because I (and other people I know) have burned off, or otherwise lost, a layer of fingerprint skin and they were still there. Maybe that's just different meanings of "first layer" coming into play. Either way, poor guy, no one wants to be held against their will anywhere for that long when it's not their fault. At least it looks like his cancer's gone.
Anyway, I think it's time to go home fairly soon, so I'll finish this up. The rest of Reuter's 'Oddly Enough' news is pretty cool too. They found a feral girl in Russia and Switzerland's bringing in tourists to certify them as mountain cleaners. Weird stuff, and it looks like the second one actually started as an April Fool's joke.
Have a good weekend!
(especially if I don't post =P)
Little baby green monkeys!
http://www.wired.com/wiredscience/2009/05/glowing-monkeys-make-more-glowing-monkeys-the-old-fashioned-way/
I didn't realize that they hadn't done this yet. If they hadn't, then it's a pretty big deal. I guess it is a lot harder to get changes passed on, especially in monkeys.
I didn't realize that they hadn't done this yet. If they hadn't, then it's a pretty big deal. I guess it is a lot harder to get changes passed on, especially in monkeys.
A little update
So, it's been a couple days, mainly because it's the same old same old with me. My Memorial Day consisted of basically just sitting around royally screwing up my sleep schedule. For some reason I woke up at 6am, even though I had gone to bed at about 12:30. Now, days after, I'm still on that messed up schedule. I guess this IS the schedule I actually wanted to be on, but I was thrust into it fairly forcefully (by... someone, I'm sure. My subconscious maybe?). For the past couple of days I've been going to bed at about 9:45 or 10 and waking up at 7:15, which means I'm getting a lot of sleep, but I'm still freaking tired. Hopefully it's just an issue of getting used to it, which means I should be good tonight. The goal is to go to bed between 9 and 9:30 and wake up between 5:30 and 6. That would give me about an hour of free time before I needed to be anywhere and I could probably get to work at 8, which would mean going home around 4 instead of 5, which would give me about the same amount of time after work as I have now.
Anyway, considering the fact that my sleep schedule is the biggest highlight of the past couple of days, it's not really that much of a surprise that there hasn't been much posting. I guess I could start doing webcomic focus posts, since I read a BUNCH of them. We'll start with....
Dominic Deegan, Oracle for Hire
This is probably my favorite (or at least in the top three) of the big long list that I read. It's a fantasy comic set in a world created by the author (the same guy writes and draws it) and it's really surprising how deep and creative it is. The comic is a story comic that focuses on Dominic Deegan (hopefully obvious) who's a seer that helps solve the world's probably with his friends and family, basically. I'm not really great at summing up things, but that's fairly accurate. There can be a fair amount of blood and gore at times, but it's usually only a strip or two before it moves on, so that's not the focus. It looks like he puts a lot of effort into it and the art has improved a lot over the course of the comic (this is the case for pretty much all of the comics I'll post) I just realized that it's hard to just pick up with the current story, so if you want to read it, you're probably better of starting from the beginning. That's really my recommendation for any of the comic's I'll post, since that way you get to see how characters change and how the art changes over the course of the comic, which is always nice. Plus you'll understand the references made to earlier plot point, which can help.
Well that's that, have a great day!
Anyway, considering the fact that my sleep schedule is the biggest highlight of the past couple of days, it's not really that much of a surprise that there hasn't been much posting. I guess I could start doing webcomic focus posts, since I read a BUNCH of them. We'll start with....
Dominic Deegan, Oracle for Hire
This is probably my favorite (or at least in the top three) of the big long list that I read. It's a fantasy comic set in a world created by the author (the same guy writes and draws it) and it's really surprising how deep and creative it is. The comic is a story comic that focuses on Dominic Deegan (hopefully obvious) who's a seer that helps solve the world's probably with his friends and family, basically. I'm not really great at summing up things, but that's fairly accurate. There can be a fair amount of blood and gore at times, but it's usually only a strip or two before it moves on, so that's not the focus. It looks like he puts a lot of effort into it and the art has improved a lot over the course of the comic (this is the case for pretty much all of the comics I'll post) I just realized that it's hard to just pick up with the current story, so if you want to read it, you're probably better of starting from the beginning. That's really my recommendation for any of the comic's I'll post, since that way you get to see how characters change and how the art changes over the course of the comic, which is always nice. Plus you'll understand the references made to earlier plot point, which can help.
Well that's that, have a great day!
And here's that other post
So yeah, basically I had stuff that I wanted to bring back to my apartment but I didn't feel like bringing them with me when I came back last weekend. I went home yesterday afternoon, got home around 6:30, did the hanging-out-at-home-with-parents thing until about 8 tonight, then drove back and brought my brother's PS3 and some new shirts and pants. Woohoo! And now, random pictures:
That's apparently a picture of a horse skeleton statue thing from the Meijer botanical gardens in Grand Rapids sent to me by a friend today. Considering I was in Holland for 4 years doing a biology degree it's a bit strange that I've never been, but yeah, I haven't. Apparently he and his family found Holland boring, but I'm not sure what they thought of the gardens.
And, in the spirit of emptying my phone of any and all relatively new pictures, here's a camera phone picture of a computer monitor showing a picture of daffodils.
I quite like the effect that the cursor has on the screen-refresh lines and the way they contrast the... yeah. This was basically just to send to someone so they'd know what daffodils are. Hope everyone's having a great Memorial Day weekend (or just normal weekend if there's no long weekend for you)!
That's apparently a picture of a horse skeleton statue thing from the Meijer botanical gardens in Grand Rapids sent to me by a friend today. Considering I was in Holland for 4 years doing a biology degree it's a bit strange that I've never been, but yeah, I haven't. Apparently he and his family found Holland boring, but I'm not sure what they thought of the gardens.And, in the spirit of emptying my phone of any and all relatively new pictures, here's a camera phone picture of a computer monitor showing a picture of daffodils.
I quite like the effect that the cursor has on the screen-refresh lines and the way they contrast the... yeah. This was basically just to send to someone so they'd know what daffodils are. Hope everyone's having a great Memorial Day weekend (or just normal weekend if there's no long weekend for you)!
Graduation and vacation
So it turns out I didn't actually have as much time as I thought I would today, but I DID have a bunch of good times with my parents, which was cool. I also cut a plant up into a bunch of pieces and (hopefully) made new plants out of it, so it'll be interesting to see if they grow. I really hope so because I didn't think to keep the original base plant, I just kind of uprooted it and ripped it to pieces. Oh well, this has worked before multiple times for this particular plant, so I'm not too worried (it's a coleus like the one in the picture below that I stole from the internet)
Anyway, on to the main topic of the (probably fairly lengthy) post. From the 8th to the 17th I was on my summer vacation. I'm really hoping this isn't the only vacation I get this summer because it was short and that'd be lame (I don wanna grow up! Waahhh!). The 8th was a Friday.
Friday:
I got up, got my crap together, and left about an hour after I'd planned to. I don't really remember specific timing, but I think I left either at 10 or 11 when I'd meant to leave at 9 or 10. I got home about 40 minutes after I'd planned to. Basically this means that I plan for about 1 1/2 hours to 1 hour and 40 minutes for the trip when it only takes about 1 hour and 20 minutes. Good deal. Podcasts and music were listened to.
I got home, had some lunch, and hung out with my mom/was a lazy bum around the house until my dad got home. I had sent my mom one of those edible arrangements for Mother's Day because with our initial plans we weren't going to be home on Mother's Day. Turns out plans were changed and we WERE home, but she got the arrangement on Wednesday before Mother's Day anyway. It apparently looked like this (you can always click on the pictures for bigger versions):
and it supposedly tasted quite good. It had pineapple, strawberries, apple, and grapes I think with some chocolate coated and others not. My parents had eaten it all by the time I got home (my dad took some in to work too... I guess even the small sizes are pretty substantial. Good to know). Once my dad was home, we drove to Albion. I think it took about an hour and 40 minutes (total travel time so far: 3 hours). We met my brother and his girlfriend at a Mexican restaurant for dinner (it was, and still is, my favorite restaurant in Albion. It's also the only restaurant I've eaten at in Albion). She's a lovely person and, while I had met her before, my parents had not. It was a good meal and a good way to start things off. From there we went back to my brother's apartment and then to the baccalaureate (hey I spelled that right on the first attempt!) service. I was fairly promptly astonished by the variety on the program.
Three different religions AND a non-religious speaker?! Heresy! At Hope we were lucky to get speakers who were only mildly fire-and-brimstone, but they get four separate viewpoints? Needless to say, his baccalaureate was a lot more fun and a lot more memorable than mine (and I think it might replace mine in stories I tell, if it ever comes up) and the speakers and music was all really good. I think after this we basically just went back to the hotel and slept until...
Saturday (I promise they won't all be this long):
This was the day of the actual graduation. The weather looked like it might hold and the announcement was made that the ceremony would be outdoors, so of course we brought umbrellas. We were told there would be breakfast on campus, so we skipped the continental breakfast at the hotel and headed over. We got to my brother's apartment and headed over to where breakfast was, only to see a really freaking long line. We ended up going back to his apartment and cobbling together breakfast from a frozen pizza and some eggs. It was pretty all right, considering the cobbled-togetherness of it. Also, the apartment was pretty much a mess, which was to be expected considering the number of guys living in it, but not considering the fact that they (supposedly) had to be out by 5 or 6pm. Then Kris (my brother) headed over to get set up for the ceremony and we (my parents, Kris's girlfriend Addy, and I) made our way across campus as well.
There was a fairly brief stop at the building where breakfast was and the lines were gone so we got some orange juice and coffee. I still think it was a good idea to eat at the apartment because it was basically donut holes and mini-muffins for breakfast, which would NOT have filled me up (I remember being strangely hungry considering how relatively early it was). Then we headed over to the ceremony. I think it started at 10:30 and the goal was to finish by 1 or 2ish. I don't really remember timing that well, but it's been a while, so... yeah. Anyway I think it was about this time that it started to rain. And get cold. And the wind picked up. Overall the ceremony was remarkably good, with two really good speakers, one a Holocaust survivor with a cool accent and a good message (and only slightly depressing) and one the CEO of Dominos pizza. All of the grads got a coupon for a free pizza meal.
Again, I feel like it was better than mine and we had great weather, maybe even a bit hot. Kris's was an adventure that chilled you to the bone if you weren't careful and had tales that took you through the murky parts of recent history and showed the triumph of human determination. All I really remember of mine is that it was hot, I somehow found my parents and brother in the bleachers in the stadium (during the ceremony), and we had water bottles under our seats instead of free pizza coupons. Oh and I apparently get more photogenic when I have to be in a hurry. Anyway, back to Kris. I didn't take any pictures with my phone so I don't have any to show, but he has a nice little album to remember the day. After the ceremony there was much jostling as we found Kris, then made our way to a meet and greet to meet his professors. They were pleasant people. We walked back to the apartment (by now it had pretty much stopped raining) and helped Kris pack up and clean up the rest of his stuff. He'd done a pretty good job with what he could before we got there so it went pretty smoothly. I'm really not sure how the rest of the guys got out of there at a decent hour, though. (Note from as I'm writing this: strawberries get REALLY good if you cut them up and sprinkle a bit of sugar on them then let them sit in the fridge for a few hours. They aren't a very good blogging snack, though, since they pretty much tie up your hands. In fact, I'm not sure there IS a good blogging snack.)
We left town and stopped at a really good sushi place on the way out. I'd say Sansu in East Lansing has it beat, but that may just be personal bias. After another hour and 45 minutes of driving we got home (total time: 4 hours 45 minutes) and just hung around for the evening.
Sunday:
I think Sunday was just hanging out around home and taking Addy to see the sights. Kris did most of the work there, I was basically just there when there was food. Apparently they went to places I've never been, though, so I should probably check those out at some point.
Monday through Wednesday:
We got all packed up and drove to Bay Harbor in the northern part of the lower peninsula. We dropped Addy off at her apartment on the way and ate lunch in the area at a sandwich shop with a heck of a variety (and good food). After a total of about 5 1/2 hours in the car (plus the break for lunch) we got to the resort/hotel/Inn at Bay Harbor (total travel time: 10 hours). I'm pretty sure it's a nice summer resort because it's right on the lake and there's a nice touristy downtown and a golf course, but we were there kind of on the off season and only for a few days, so for us it was basically just relax-time. We wandered around, had dinner, and got a feel for the place, then just put in time for the evening. The next day we had breakfast at the hotel then walked around town for a while (it's a nice place, good variety of shops) and walked out to the docks where people supposedly park their boats (yes I know that's not the right terminology, but it sounds like something my dad would say, so it's staying).
Again, nice place. I think I need to live in a place near water eventually. Part of the reason we picked this place is that we booked a room there for the time and then got the same amount of money back to spend on spa stuff. All four of us got massages and my mom got something else... a facial I think. Good deal. We had some local pizza for dinner (kind of a family tradition when we travel) which was really good and did some more relaxing before going to bed. Wednesday we had breakfast with Addy and her mom and step-dad at the hotel (she lives near there and drove up after we dropped her off) then headed home. Five hours later, we were home and, once again, just kind of hanging out (ttt: 15 hours).
Thursday and Friday:
were pretty uneventful, but that's how I like my vacation time, so that's good. We went out to eat a few times and did family stuff, basically.
Saturday and Sunday:
Saturday we headed up to Bracebridge, Ontario, Canada to visit family. Twelve freaking hours of driving for about 10 hours of extended-family-time. (ttt: 27 hours) It was definitely really good to see everyone that we saw, though, and we only rarely get to actually see them (MAYBE twice a year, on a very good year) so it was worth it. After we got home, I got unpacked then repacked and drove back to campus (1 hour 20 minutes more, final ttt: about 28 hours 20 minutes). I know I forgot stuff, but oh well, that's what I remember and I don't really want it to be longer anyway. Overall a very good week! So good, in fact, that I actually went back home this weekend =P. But that's a different post.
Anyway, on to the main topic of the (probably fairly lengthy) post. From the 8th to the 17th I was on my summer vacation. I'm really hoping this isn't the only vacation I get this summer because it was short and that'd be lame (I don wanna grow up! Waahhh!). The 8th was a Friday.
Friday:
I got up, got my crap together, and left about an hour after I'd planned to. I don't really remember specific timing, but I think I left either at 10 or 11 when I'd meant to leave at 9 or 10. I got home about 40 minutes after I'd planned to. Basically this means that I plan for about 1 1/2 hours to 1 hour and 40 minutes for the trip when it only takes about 1 hour and 20 minutes. Good deal. Podcasts and music were listened to.
I got home, had some lunch, and hung out with my mom/was a lazy bum around the house until my dad got home. I had sent my mom one of those edible arrangements for Mother's Day because with our initial plans we weren't going to be home on Mother's Day. Turns out plans were changed and we WERE home, but she got the arrangement on Wednesday before Mother's Day anyway. It apparently looked like this (you can always click on the pictures for bigger versions):
and it supposedly tasted quite good. It had pineapple, strawberries, apple, and grapes I think with some chocolate coated and others not. My parents had eaten it all by the time I got home (my dad took some in to work too... I guess even the small sizes are pretty substantial. Good to know). Once my dad was home, we drove to Albion. I think it took about an hour and 40 minutes (total travel time so far: 3 hours). We met my brother and his girlfriend at a Mexican restaurant for dinner (it was, and still is, my favorite restaurant in Albion. It's also the only restaurant I've eaten at in Albion). She's a lovely person and, while I had met her before, my parents had not. It was a good meal and a good way to start things off. From there we went back to my brother's apartment and then to the baccalaureate (hey I spelled that right on the first attempt!) service. I was fairly promptly astonished by the variety on the program.
Three different religions AND a non-religious speaker?! Heresy! At Hope we were lucky to get speakers who were only mildly fire-and-brimstone, but they get four separate viewpoints? Needless to say, his baccalaureate was a lot more fun and a lot more memorable than mine (and I think it might replace mine in stories I tell, if it ever comes up) and the speakers and music was all really good. I think after this we basically just went back to the hotel and slept until...Saturday (I promise they won't all be this long):
This was the day of the actual graduation. The weather looked like it might hold and the announcement was made that the ceremony would be outdoors, so of course we brought umbrellas. We were told there would be breakfast on campus, so we skipped the continental breakfast at the hotel and headed over. We got to my brother's apartment and headed over to where breakfast was, only to see a really freaking long line. We ended up going back to his apartment and cobbling together breakfast from a frozen pizza and some eggs. It was pretty all right, considering the cobbled-togetherness of it. Also, the apartment was pretty much a mess, which was to be expected considering the number of guys living in it, but not considering the fact that they (supposedly) had to be out by 5 or 6pm. Then Kris (my brother) headed over to get set up for the ceremony and we (my parents, Kris's girlfriend Addy, and I) made our way across campus as well.
There was a fairly brief stop at the building where breakfast was and the lines were gone so we got some orange juice and coffee. I still think it was a good idea to eat at the apartment because it was basically donut holes and mini-muffins for breakfast, which would NOT have filled me up (I remember being strangely hungry considering how relatively early it was). Then we headed over to the ceremony. I think it started at 10:30 and the goal was to finish by 1 or 2ish. I don't really remember timing that well, but it's been a while, so... yeah. Anyway I think it was about this time that it started to rain. And get cold. And the wind picked up. Overall the ceremony was remarkably good, with two really good speakers, one a Holocaust survivor with a cool accent and a good message (and only slightly depressing) and one the CEO of Dominos pizza. All of the grads got a coupon for a free pizza meal.
Again, I feel like it was better than mine and we had great weather, maybe even a bit hot. Kris's was an adventure that chilled you to the bone if you weren't careful and had tales that took you through the murky parts of recent history and showed the triumph of human determination. All I really remember of mine is that it was hot, I somehow found my parents and brother in the bleachers in the stadium (during the ceremony), and we had water bottles under our seats instead of free pizza coupons. Oh and I apparently get more photogenic when I have to be in a hurry. Anyway, back to Kris. I didn't take any pictures with my phone so I don't have any to show, but he has a nice little album to remember the day. After the ceremony there was much jostling as we found Kris, then made our way to a meet and greet to meet his professors. They were pleasant people. We walked back to the apartment (by now it had pretty much stopped raining) and helped Kris pack up and clean up the rest of his stuff. He'd done a pretty good job with what he could before we got there so it went pretty smoothly. I'm really not sure how the rest of the guys got out of there at a decent hour, though. (Note from as I'm writing this: strawberries get REALLY good if you cut them up and sprinkle a bit of sugar on them then let them sit in the fridge for a few hours. They aren't a very good blogging snack, though, since they pretty much tie up your hands. In fact, I'm not sure there IS a good blogging snack.)
We left town and stopped at a really good sushi place on the way out. I'd say Sansu in East Lansing has it beat, but that may just be personal bias. After another hour and 45 minutes of driving we got home (total time: 4 hours 45 minutes) and just hung around for the evening.
Sunday:
I think Sunday was just hanging out around home and taking Addy to see the sights. Kris did most of the work there, I was basically just there when there was food. Apparently they went to places I've never been, though, so I should probably check those out at some point.
Monday through Wednesday:
We got all packed up and drove to Bay Harbor in the northern part of the lower peninsula. We dropped Addy off at her apartment on the way and ate lunch in the area at a sandwich shop with a heck of a variety (and good food). After a total of about 5 1/2 hours in the car (plus the break for lunch) we got to the resort/hotel/Inn at Bay Harbor (total travel time: 10 hours). I'm pretty sure it's a nice summer resort because it's right on the lake and there's a nice touristy downtown and a golf course, but we were there kind of on the off season and only for a few days, so for us it was basically just relax-time. We wandered around, had dinner, and got a feel for the place, then just put in time for the evening. The next day we had breakfast at the hotel then walked around town for a while (it's a nice place, good variety of shops) and walked out to the docks where people supposedly park their boats (yes I know that's not the right terminology, but it sounds like something my dad would say, so it's staying).
Again, nice place. I think I need to live in a place near water eventually. Part of the reason we picked this place is that we booked a room there for the time and then got the same amount of money back to spend on spa stuff. All four of us got massages and my mom got something else... a facial I think. Good deal. We had some local pizza for dinner (kind of a family tradition when we travel) which was really good and did some more relaxing before going to bed. Wednesday we had breakfast with Addy and her mom and step-dad at the hotel (she lives near there and drove up after we dropped her off) then headed home. Five hours later, we were home and, once again, just kind of hanging out (ttt: 15 hours).
Thursday and Friday:
were pretty uneventful, but that's how I like my vacation time, so that's good. We went out to eat a few times and did family stuff, basically.
Saturday and Sunday:
Saturday we headed up to Bracebridge, Ontario, Canada to visit family. Twelve freaking hours of driving for about 10 hours of extended-family-time. (ttt: 27 hours) It was definitely really good to see everyone that we saw, though, and we only rarely get to actually see them (MAYBE twice a year, on a very good year) so it was worth it. After we got home, I got unpacked then repacked and drove back to campus (1 hour 20 minutes more, final ttt: about 28 hours 20 minutes). I know I forgot stuff, but oh well, that's what I remember and I don't really want it to be longer anyway. Overall a very good week! So good, in fact, that I actually went back home this weekend =P. But that's a different post.
Forgot, sort of
It's not so much that I forgot to write today as I forgot that I wouldn't really have time to. I'm home again for a day and a bit. I'll probably head back to my apartment tomorrow evening and have Sunday and Monday off there. It should be a pretty low key weekend. I'll be repotting/cutting plants to ribbons tomorrow so that I have some new plants for my apartment and hopefully the cat won't eat these ones. Tomorrow I should have more than enough time to do the full update. Today I bring you two sort-of-photos (pictures grabbed from the internet because I couldn't get real photos):
I saw that on the side of a bus in East Lansing. I thought it was pretty cool.
Well it's getting to be summer and the grounds crew on campus is planting the gardens around the plant biology buildings, which makes it really nice to walk around. The other day I saw three little red bird... not sure if they were cardinals because I don't remember seeing the crests, but my bird knowledge pretty much sucks. They looked like cardinals except for the crest, so I'm going to say they were. Anyway, it's nice to see all of the colors around the gardens and the fountains started up too, which was nice.
Time for bed!
I saw that on the side of a bus in East Lansing. I thought it was pretty cool.
Well it's getting to be summer and the grounds crew on campus is planting the gardens around the plant biology buildings, which makes it really nice to walk around. The other day I saw three little red bird... not sure if they were cardinals because I don't remember seeing the crests, but my bird knowledge pretty much sucks. They looked like cardinals except for the crest, so I'm going to say they were. Anyway, it's nice to see all of the colors around the gardens and the fountains started up too, which was nice.
Time for bed!
Augh, still falling behind
Well, here are a couple of links for you today!
First up: I first saw these referred to as the Devil's Cookies. Basically, they're bacon/chocolate-chip cookies. Since I don't really enjoy the taste of chocolate I won't be trying these out anytime soon, but I've only heard good things about them! Apparently err on the side of slightly too much salt and bacon if you decide to make these!
Second: my brother moved in to Notre Dame housing for the summer to start his Master's degree and apparently one of his apartment-mates is writing for a website. So far he's got a couple of hockey-focused articles and one baseball one. Considering I actually read the hockey ones and I'm not such a huge sports fan, I'd say it's a good place to go if you DO actually like reading about sports. Plus I guess he gets paid by the pageview, so it's helping him out too!
(EDIT: I forgot to actually LINK to it! http://www.suite101.com/profile.cfm/jwaldmann)
Tomorrow I WILL do a vacation/pictures post. Hopefully.
First up: I first saw these referred to as the Devil's Cookies. Basically, they're bacon/chocolate-chip cookies. Since I don't really enjoy the taste of chocolate I won't be trying these out anytime soon, but I've only heard good things about them! Apparently err on the side of slightly too much salt and bacon if you decide to make these!
Second: my brother moved in to Notre Dame housing for the summer to start his Master's degree and apparently one of his apartment-mates is writing for a website. So far he's got a couple of hockey-focused articles and one baseball one. Considering I actually read the hockey ones and I'm not such a huge sports fan, I'd say it's a good place to go if you DO actually like reading about sports. Plus I guess he gets paid by the pageview, so it's helping him out too!
(EDIT: I forgot to actually LINK to it! http://www.suite101.com/profile.cfm/jwaldmann)
Tomorrow I WILL do a vacation/pictures post. Hopefully.
Comic time!
And another link:
You'd think it's a huge exaggeration, but it's really not that far off the mark. It's kind of sad how often things make it to the public way before there's enough proof. Anyway, time for a bit more work then some lunch.
You'd think it's a huge exaggeration, but it's really not that far off the mark. It's kind of sad how often things make it to the public way before there's enough proof. Anyway, time for a bit more work then some lunch.
And... we're back.
So that was a week and a bit of vacation, plus one day back that I missed in updates. I pretty much knew it would happen, but I probably should have made a note of it before I went on vacation. Anyway, here's a link for today and later I'll put up a post about vacation with some pictures that I (hopefully still) have on my phone.
http://soytuaire.labuat.com/
It's a really neat flash site for a song. Just wait for it to load then move your mouse around as the song's playing. It's not English (I'm almost 100% sure it's Spanish, but I really have no idea what Portuguese sounds like, so I guess it could be Portuguese) but I like it regardless and the flash stuff to go along with it is really neat.
http://soytuaire.labuat.com/
It's a really neat flash site for a song. Just wait for it to load then move your mouse around as the song's playing. It's not English (I'm almost 100% sure it's Spanish, but I really have no idea what Portuguese sounds like, so I guess it could be Portuguese) but I like it regardless and the flash stuff to go along with it is really neat.
err
Studying is eating my time, (plus it makes me pretty uninteresting in general) so that's why posts are sparse currently.
I did find this, however, and for those who didn't see it the first time, it's pretty entertaining.
I did find this, however, and for those who didn't see it the first time, it's pretty entertaining.
Four days
Well that was a pretty fun but almost entirely unproductive weekend. I got some grocery shopping done and edited the final paper for my bioinformatics class, but that was all in the past two hours. Oh well, at least I did something other than games and TV. This week I have my second (and last) exam for my Eukaryotic Genetics class on Thursday and I have to review a different group's paper for Bioinformatics either tomorrow or Tuesday, but other than that it's just lab work and studying. I really need to get going on the studying so I'll probably be spending most of my non-lab time doing that. Friday I'm taking off to go to my brother's graduation (which is actually on Saturday, but travel and bits of the preliminary stuff is on Friday) and then all of the week after is family vacation time!
I didn't end up going to see Wolverine... the friends I was going to go see it with said they heard it sucked a lot. I think I'll go see it sometime anyway, although "sometime" is going to have to be in more than two weeks so we'll see I guess. I have a movie theater basically down the street that I haven't been to yet, so it could be fun just to go. The theater's in a mall that I actually haven't been to either... geez I really should leave my apartment now and then. I guess I do, just not without either friend hangout time or an errand, so basically I need to go have more fun outside of my apartment on my own. Right. I think I'll stick to games... or maybe I should actually finally pick up running now that it's reliably warm.
(Also, since I missed Saturday, here's a link to make up for it! For the Love of Cooking is a blog that I discovered, but I have no idea how. It's got a bunch of really good looking recipes and they're all from an actual person who has a blog which, for some reason, makes them more trustworthy (for me) than recipe stockpiling sites.)
I didn't end up going to see Wolverine... the friends I was going to go see it with said they heard it sucked a lot. I think I'll go see it sometime anyway, although "sometime" is going to have to be in more than two weeks so we'll see I guess. I have a movie theater basically down the street that I haven't been to yet, so it could be fun just to go. The theater's in a mall that I actually haven't been to either... geez I really should leave my apartment now and then. I guess I do, just not without either friend hangout time or an errand, so basically I need to go have more fun outside of my apartment on my own. Right. I think I'll stick to games... or maybe I should actually finally pick up running now that it's reliably warm.
(Also, since I missed Saturday, here's a link to make up for it! For the Love of Cooking is a blog that I discovered, but I have no idea how. It's got a bunch of really good looking recipes and they're all from an actual person who has a blog which, for some reason, makes them more trustworthy (for me) than recipe stockpiling sites.)
WEEKEND!
Woohoo weekend time! I figured out what's a good thing to post:
X-MEN ORIGINS: WOLVERINE HD
I'll probably be going to see that this weekend. Hope it's good!
X-MEN ORIGINS: WOLVERINE HD
I'll probably be going to see that this weekend. Hope it's good!
Thursday's links
I thought I had a bunch of neat links that I had just forgotten to put up yesterday... it turns out I have one pretty good one, one browser game, and one kind of neat one.
The pretty good one is notalwaysright.com. It's basically quotes of customers that were... less than right. It's quite funny overall.
The browser game is Crush the Castle. You get a trebuchet (which my computer doesn't recognize as a word...) and you have to knock down castles in each level. It's pretty good and it's been a while since "physics is fun" actually applied and was true (for me anyway). Maybe I just don't play enough browser games.
The kind of neat one is Google Chrome's Youtube page. They have a bunch of short videos up basically advertising Chrome (it's Google's internet browser in case you hadn't heard of it) but they're pretty good, especially if you've got nothing to do.
Anyway, that was supposed to be yesterday's post... now let's find something for today!
The pretty good one is notalwaysright.com. It's basically quotes of customers that were... less than right. It's quite funny overall.
The browser game is Crush the Castle. You get a trebuchet (which my computer doesn't recognize as a word...) and you have to knock down castles in each level. It's pretty good and it's been a while since "physics is fun" actually applied and was true (for me anyway). Maybe I just don't play enough browser games.
The kind of neat one is Google Chrome's Youtube page. They have a bunch of short videos up basically advertising Chrome (it's Google's internet browser in case you hadn't heard of it) but they're pretty good, especially if you've got nothing to do.
Anyway, that was supposed to be yesterday's post... now let's find something for today!
A little over a week...
I'm not really sure why I'm counting down until classes are over, but I am. Today was the last day of actual class and I have a final next week as well as a group project/paper thing. I started actually wrapping my head around the work I have to do in the lab as well and I feel like I'd rather take classes... Once I get started on it, hopefully it'll just turn into work instead of feeling like this big looming deadline. Oh well.
And now, the latest thing to grab my attention:
For those who like casual online games and a bit of distraction a few minutes a day: My Brute
It generates a fighter based on the name you give it and then you pit it against 3 opponents a day. As they fight they level up and gain new abilities and stuff, so it's pretty neat. The only thing is that they limit you to 3 fights a day (except for the first day... you get 6). I ended up making a bunch so I get 3 fights per fighter with 4 fighters. Also, you can make your fighters pupils of other fighters and the master gets benefits when the pupil levels up, so if you want to make yours my pupils, that'd be great =D. (If you want to, go here to make your brute instead of the link up above).
And now, the latest thing to grab my attention:
For those who like casual online games and a bit of distraction a few minutes a day: My Brute
It generates a fighter based on the name you give it and then you pit it against 3 opponents a day. As they fight they level up and gain new abilities and stuff, so it's pretty neat. The only thing is that they limit you to 3 fights a day (except for the first day... you get 6). I ended up making a bunch so I get 3 fights per fighter with 4 fighters. Also, you can make your fighters pupils of other fighters and the master gets benefits when the pupil levels up, so if you want to make yours my pupils, that'd be great =D. (If you want to, go here to make your brute instead of the link up above).
Monday! on... Tuesday
I started typing this up yesterday but then I forgot to actually post it.
I started in my lab on Monday, except I only ended up having about 1 and a half hours in the lab because of classes. Of those 1 and a half hours, most of it was just finding where I was going to be and getting set up a bit. I'm not actually in the main lab (there are 9 people in the lab now and that's way too many for everyone to have desk space in that lab) but I'm just down the hall in a lab that has some of our equipment in it. Should be good, especially once I get into the swing of things. Also, I realized earlier today that tomorrow is my last day of classes for the semester (!!!) which hadn't occurred to me because of finals next week. Also, the wall that I thought was a window with a shade (in my peripheral vision anyway) turn out to actually be a concrete block wall when I bothered to look at it. No wonder my brain was telling me it was dark/really cloudy outside. Although... it probably actually is cloudy and raining.
I started in my lab on Monday, except I only ended up having about 1 and a half hours in the lab because of classes. Of those 1 and a half hours, most of it was just finding where I was going to be and getting set up a bit. I'm not actually in the main lab (there are 9 people in the lab now and that's way too many for everyone to have desk space in that lab) but I'm just down the hall in a lab that has some of our equipment in it. Should be good, especially once I get into the swing of things. Also, I realized earlier today that tomorrow is my last day of classes for the semester (!!!) which hadn't occurred to me because of finals next week. Also, the wall that I thought was a window with a shade (in my peripheral vision anyway) turn out to actually be a concrete block wall when I bothered to look at it. No wonder my brain was telling me it was dark/really cloudy outside. Although... it probably actually is cloudy and raining.
The pancakes were so-so
They're kind of strange. The batter comes out of the can like whipped cream, but by the time the pancake's cooked, it's really thin. They're also pretty hard to flip because the batter was so full of air and they were strangely sweet. The combination of these makes me think they could work for dessert better than breakfast (kind of crepe-ish).
Slow cooker
I got a slow cooker a while ago from my parents and I just today opened it and tried it out. I ended up making a fairly good facsimile of Olive Garden's zuppa toscana on my first try, which was pretty neat. Basically I just used some bratwurst (cut into slices, like quarters), potatoes (cut in quarters lengthwise, then cut thin crosswise, so you end up with quarter-circle slices), thawed frozen spinach (I didn't realize until after it was made that they don't use spinach in their soup, but I don't know what they do use and the spinach was fairly close), some salt, a bunch of pepper, and a bunch of garlic. Then filled it up with water to cover them all and let it go on low for about 5 hours, added about a cup and a half of milk, and put it on high for 2 hours. I don't really have a good feel for how the slow cooker cooks yet, but one or two more attempts and I should get the hang of it. The soup's really good (it just leaked a bit as it was cooking because I put too much in...), so the first try was a success as far as first tries go.
Tomorrow I think I'll try my pancakes from an aerosol can for breakfast.
Tomorrow I think I'll try my pancakes from an aerosol can for breakfast.
It's finally actually Spring
In case you didn't notice, the weather's gotten really good recently and the leaves have started coming out! Also, it's my last day in my rotation tomorrow! Lots of change and none of it's really going to be motivating me tomorrow at work, but I have to finish up the last bit of my project and get all my crap cleaned up and documented so they can use it later if they need to. Shouldn't be too bad, it's just one day. Then I need to figure out some good ideas for meals over the weekend because I'm in the mood for some good food. I thought I had a slow cooker cook book but I can't find it for the life of me, so I might just look up some stuff online at some point. We'll see when I get time... maybe just tomorrow during lunch or after work.
Well...
I know which fridge I WON'T be storing my bombs in.
Also, the presentation went well. I managed to sound confident and competent and no one really asked questions. Whether that means that there weren't any to ask or that they were just taking pity on my I'm not sure, but either way I'm happy.
Last stressful day
Woohoo! This marks the (hopefully) last stressful night for me for about a week and a half. Tomorrow I'll make my presentation where I hopefully won't sound like a COMPLETE noob and then I think I'll go to lunch with my laptop and/or my iPod and just kind of sit there for a while before I go to class... or maybe I'll be mildly productive. I have to clean up my mess of files that I have spread over at least 3 different computers in that lab, so that'll probably take a good chunk of Thursday or Friday and it wouldn't hurt to start tomorrow. Plus I still have some actual work to wrap up, so I should probably do that too.
Tonight I've learned, once again, that making outlines helps me immensely when it comes to organizing myself and getting down all of what I need to put into the final product, but they give me an unfortunate sense of accomplishment which makes me procrastinate on the final product itself. Oh well, at least it's a well organized thrown together presentation! (I guess that means you can't tell it's thrown together, so that works...)
I need to persuade my brother to play World of Warcraft again... maybe paying to transfer his character to a different account so we could play together would help. Once he has time, of course. Now the question is, will he ever have free time again?
Tonight I've learned, once again, that making outlines helps me immensely when it comes to organizing myself and getting down all of what I need to put into the final product, but they give me an unfortunate sense of accomplishment which makes me procrastinate on the final product itself. Oh well, at least it's a well organized thrown together presentation! (I guess that means you can't tell it's thrown together, so that works...)
I need to persuade my brother to play World of Warcraft again... maybe paying to transfer his character to a different account so we could play together would help. Once he has time, of course. Now the question is, will he ever have free time again?
Late late late
Wooooo... so I suck at going to sleep on time AND updating on time! Basically today was a normal Monday: class, lunch, lab, class, seminar, and home. I probably won't have enough time to do everything I wanted to tomorrow in lab, but I'll be able to finish the presentation anyway, which is good enough.
And now, two World of Warcraft screenshots:
In this one I'm a frog.
And in this one, I'm a cat! I don't really remember what turned me into a cat, but I think the frog was a potion gone wrong. (EDIT: Oh I looked at the screenshots again and remembered they were trick-or-treat candies or something that transformed you into random things. These two were more trick than treat.) Anyway, have a good night if you're somehow reading this before Tuesday morning!
And now, two World of Warcraft screenshots:
In this one I'm a frog.And in this one, I'm a cat! I don't really remember what turned me into a cat, but I think the frog was a potion gone wrong. (EDIT: Oh I looked at the screenshots again and remembered they were trick-or-treat candies or something that transformed you into random things. These two were more trick than treat.) Anyway, have a good night if you're somehow reading this before Tuesday morning!