April 05, 2006
Chicken Little Syndrome
This morning it was snowing. And then it stopped. And then it rained. And then it was sunny. And then it snowed again, for about 2 minutes. And now it's sunny again.
*squints*
I don't trust it.
March 30, 2006
Studentus Procrastinus
Instead of doing homework today, I went out and took more flower photos. Because really, flowers are much less demanding than political science textbooks.
Continue reading "Studentus Procrastinus"March 28, 2006
Get With It
So I'm installing my Kaplan LSAT prep software, and it asks me, for the purposes of web support, which browser I use: Internet Explorer or Netscape Navigator.
*sigh*
What is this, 1997?
March 20, 2006
Spamalot
Dear Spammers-
When your comments say, "Sorry I missed the party", it's pretty damn obvious you're not anyone I know.
Bloody idiots. May your neighbors play the In My Life sample CD at maximum volume all day.
March 15, 2006
Eye Candy
I took 10 minutes today to venture 10 feet outside my dorm and take some photos of the springtime blossoms. If work lets up just a little bit before everything just turns green, I'll be sure to go around campus and snap more. But don't hold your breath.
January 23, 2006
Wimp
There was a mouse on my desk. I screamed, figuratively speaking, like a girl. The fact that I am a girl didn't make this any less embarassing.
The mouse, in terror, fled beneath my radiator, where there's probably a hole it uses to get in and out. I don't really want to look under there right now.
January 20, 2006
Wish I Was There
There's a whale in the Thames.
No, seriously. It probably hung around the mouth of the river for a while, then was spotted by a train rider by Waterloo Bridge. It went past the London Eye and Parliament, and beached in the Chelsea before being helped back into the water again. It's being encouraged to turn around and swim back into deeper waters, but- well, being a whale, it'll pretty much do whatever it wants to do. Hopefully it'll live through the experience. Meanwhile, I'm wishing I was in London again, just for a day. I even know the right Tube lines to take.
January 18, 2006
November 28, 2005
Learn It Again
For everyone who's ever taken a CPR course, the guidelines have changed. You're now supposed to perform 30 chest compressions in between sets of 2 breaths, instead of only 15 compressions. It raises the blood circulation. So learn it again, kiddies. :)
November 25, 2005
November 02, 2005
Bang! Crash! The Lightning Flashed!
I think my neighbors forgot that Guy Fawkes day is on the 5th. *cringes at fireworks*
Aaaah! Aaaah!
I walked on this bridge! I walked on it right after being freaked out by St. Pauls, as a matter of fact, so my memories of it aren't all that sweet. And now they're saying it was collective synchonization, not structural problems, that caused that nasty swaying when it was built back in 2000. Oh, god. That's so reassuring. *cries*
October 28, 2005
History in Dialogue
The Pinstriped Bible's Steve Goldman on ignoring evidence:
"Not to trivialize a tragic moment in American history, but this reminds me of the way Douglas MacArthur botched the Korean War. MacArthur has chased the North Koreans back into their own territory, and he's heading up towards the border with China. As he gets closer, his subordinates keep running in with messages like:
COLONEL: General, we've captured some more Chinese. It's the fifth group today.
MACARTHUR: Yes, I know. Intelligence tells me that they're tourists.
COLONEL Tourists?
MACARTHUR: Indeed. Ma and Pa Peking, taking the kiddies out for a mountain hike.
COLONEL: Sir, these "tourists" have Russian-made machine guns strapped to their chests.
MACARTHUR: Yes, they function in much the same way as our Kodak Brownie cameras! Charming, isn't it?
COLONEL: We think they're organizing a major insurgency.
MACARTHUR: Yes, Schmidlap! An insurgency … of tourists!
COLONEL: My god, you've gone stark raving mad.
MACARTHUR: Charming, isn't it? Bdeep! Bdeep! Bdeep!
… And we ended up getting kicked all the way back down the Korean peninsula, at the cost of many American lives."
***
Goldman is the best Yankees columnist around, bar none. With his honesty, style, and erudition, it's hard to believe he works for the YES Network, but there it is. If you want a guy who can reference Homer, Voltaire, and Benjamin Franklin in the space of one blog entry while performing effective baseball analysis, using statistics, and snarking at his reader mail, Goldman's your guy.
August 11, 2005
Download Wars
I went to the mall to get clothes and came out with 12 free music downloads. Sony and iTunes have extended their pissing contest to Aeropostale and the Gap, and it's all to my benefit. *evil cackle*
Oh, and I got some pants. Oh, Gap jeans. Your denim is so soft and expensive and pretty and clearly made for people 3 inches taller than me. Thank goodness for the occassional sale. And cuffs.
August 05, 2005
Impressive Stuff
Someone please explain to me how penis enlargement and online poker ads manage to spam blog entries I haven't even published yet. Come on, people! At least leave my drafts alone!
***
Anyway, I think I did something quite stupid today. I've been reading whatever small spoilers I can find about The Fountain, but the movie was still, thanks to the measures taken by Warner Brothers, shrouded in secrecy. Today, though, I think I found a big spoiler on IMDB, and if it's true I really wish I could forget it so I'd be surprised by the twist. Ah, well. There's no one to blame but myself.
***
In other news, everyone and their mother needs to read Bill Willingham's Fables right now. Collected so far into five trade paperbacks, it follows the stories of various fairy tale characters expelled from their magical worlds into New York. Willingham takes a lot more cues from the brothers Grimm than from Disney, and his ways of combining and explaining the various stories are deviously clever.
In the exiled Fable community, Prince Charming is a cad who falls for princess after princess but isn't very good at the "happily ever after," his ex-wife Snow White is the hard-nosed Deputy Mayor, and the Big Bad Wolf has reformed enough to become head of security. If that isn't enough, I guarantee that you'll never think of Goldilocks and the three bears the same way again after reading Animal Farm. The dialogue and characterizations are sharp, and Willingham has a great sense of pace, revealing and hiding just enough to keep the reader wanting more. Which is, of course, how you get me, waiting pathetically for the next collection to be released some time in the winter. *whimper*
August 03, 2005
Stinky Rodent
After years of driving yours truly up the wall with the sheer idiocy of its hardware design, Apple has finally come out with the multi-button Mighty Mouse. In addition to supporting PC-esque notions of the right-click, it has a small scroll button, another function that has been conspicuously missing from its previous mice.
Is this enough to make up for the carpal tunnel-causing travesty that was the hockey puck mouse? My right wrist says no. But I will be a considerably happier customer if the Macs I'm forced to use in the future are Mighty Mouse-equipped. And if Apple would get over its obsession with prettiness and remember that peripherals have non-aesthetic functions, too.
July 27, 2005
Ode of a Geek
Oh, Quick Mask tool. How I love thee. You make feathered selections so very easy.
After time spent flirting with Elements, I'm back in full Photoshop mode. That means lots of shiny channels and paths and other advanced tools I'm only half-familiar with. Custom brushes! Vector masks! Anchor points! Joy!
July 14, 2005
Mooglies
I love you, Jon Stewart, complete ignorance of Harry Potter and all.
Oh, and your set is still ugly.
Love,
Me
ETA- Despite their best efforts to the contrary, the Yankees managed to beat the Red Sox today, thanks to a blown save by Curt "bloody sock" Schilling. Oh, how sweet it would be if the most self-aggrandizing member of that endlessly self-aggrandizing team never quite recovered.
June 30, 2005
Shiny New Things
Just downloading a trial of Fireworks makes me want to create all kinds of web pages just so I can put shiny interactive graphics in them. Why should I let a complete ignorance of the workings of Javascript stop me? Man, I'm pathetic.
Anyway, when I'm not making lovely image maps with rollovers at work, I've been doing my usual summer vacation thing- read, exercise, sleep, and on occassion, watch a rerun of Veronica Mars. There's a good chance I'll be seeing As You Like It at Shakespeare in the Park, and I'm already planning my list of shows to see at this year's Fringe Festival.
The Yankees still suck, and will continue to suck. Barring some kind of mind-blowing trade that'll get them a real center fielder and pitching that doesn't stink, that is. Really, it says something when my highest hope is that they'll stop playing Tony "Worst Hitter in the League" Womack, doesn't it?
May 06, 2005
They Fight Crime!
I have a bookmark folder called "Amusements." It has about 50 links in it. One nice thing about the Internet is that if you know where to look, you'll never be bored. So in honor of the kind folks who spend their time making these things, here's a couple of sites that will give you maximum amusement for minimum effort- all you need to do is press "Refresh."
They Fight Crime!
Every click generates a new crime-fighting duo!
Random Vin Diesel Fact
Each click will give you a new factoid on everybody's favorite bald Ah-nuld wannabe.
By the way, I've just cursed you to waste at least 45 minutes dementedly pressing the "Refresh" button and giggling like a fiend. You can thank me later.
March 22, 2005
Ruining My Judaism
Hamentaschen- the first erotic pastry?
Discuss. And weep, as I have. Thanks a lot, school of mine. Purim will never be the same...
February 25, 2005
February 16, 2005
Starry Night
The sky is unbelievably clear tonight. I could see dozens of stars, even through the haze of street lights and moonlight and the fog of my own breath. I'm hoping that despite the fact that the groundhog saw his shadow, this good weather lasts until it's officially spring. I'm really not in the mood to freeze anymore.
February 13, 2005
Deprivation
Ack! Internet...not...functioning. Xanga is up, but LiveJournal is down. MSN and Slate are goners, but hey, at least this blog works.
Okay, I'm going to eat before I throw a toddler-style temper tantrum over not being able to read my Friends List.
Edit: Wah! I want my Lexis!
February 05, 2005
This and That
Queen Mary College in London has so many cool theater classes I'm making little squeaking noises as I read the course catalog.
No, that wasn't a joke. Yes, I'm a dork. As if that's news to anyone.
Of course, I really don't know how many of those theater classes would count towards my *cough* English Literature major, but hey...a girl can always dream. And not for the first time, I'm wondering what it would be like going to an artsier college. There's art here- it's just not a big presence. Kind of like sports. Or anything that isn't academics, really.
Like I said before, I'm a dork. So excuse me while I gawk over the fact that Queen Mary has six classes on Shakespeare. Holy crap.
I was actually also gawking over the fact that it was nearly 1 am on a Saturday and my hall was silent. Silly me. That lasted about 5 minutes- the drinking oafs have evidently come back from whatever place they were chugging from a keg to take up residence here and have extremely loud conversations about how "ish so toterly...cool."
Excuse me while I take knitting needles to my eardrums. Or maybe I should just go on that stabbing rampage I've been longing to have since September. Hmm. Decisions, decisions.
November 29, 2004
I Love Llamas
Don't you love llamas?
What I'm reading today: Love and Friendship in Plato and Aristotle, by A.W. Price
September 11, 2004
June 15, 2004
Correction
From MSNBC:
Correction: An earlier version of this story contained inaccurate statistics, indicating a majority of pornography spam inspected last month by Clearswift Limited used high gasoline prices to lure consumers. Clearswift's initial analysis was incorrect because the firm's full-text search for the work "gas" also picked up instances of the word orgasm. Actual use of the gas price tactic in porn spam was minor, the firm now says. MSNBC.com regrets the error.
***
BWAHAHAHA! *ahem* Sorry.
May 21, 2004
I'm Amused
Dude, I didn't know that Lindsey Lohan and Hillary Duff were feuding. And over Aaron Carter, of all things. That's hysterical.
*imagines Lohan and Duff catfighting*
*giggles*
What I'm listening to today: A Little Night Music, by Stephen Sondheim
April 30, 2004
April 18, 2004
Feeling Clever
Thanks to the wonders of Google's cache function, I found one of my lost blog entries. You can see it below; it's eloquently titled 'AAAH!'. Anyway, I just remembered that Google crawls are slow; they take a little while to catch up to the current state of web sites. So I searched, I found, and voila. :)
Now if only I had minimal computer science competence...
April 16, 2004
Technical Difficulties
Yes, there are entries missing. The server lost them. No, I didn't back them up. Yes, I'm pretty pissed right now.
In other fun computer news, I discovered that my machine had a few pieces of spyware installed on it without my knowledge. At least one of those, Viewpoint Media Player, came from an AOL Instant Messenger update. So if you use AIM, use the Control Panel to check your Add/Remove Programs list and get rid of Viewpoint.
Of course, not all pieces of spyware are that simple to remove- some, like Ezula, leave self-installing programs deep in your computer so they always seem to pop back up again. And once I started deleting the spyware, it started taking vengeance on me by redirecting me to certain web pages I didn't ask to go to and freezing my computer. So I ended up using freeware like Spybot Search & Destroy and Ad-Aware to clean everything up. I won't even go into everything I want to do to the losers who write these programs, but let's just say that I was cursing like a drunken sailor last night.
What the hell justifies these things? I ask to install one program and I get a few more without knowing it? I want to go to one web page and get directed to another? I want to change my computer's settings and I get told that I don't have the administrative privileges? WTF?!
Okay, I'm calm now. Lesson of the day: Never trust technology. I should have backed up my blog entries, but I didn't. I should have started investigating as soon as I noticed my computer was slowing down, but I didn't. I paid the price in time, stress, and just plain fear that my data was being stolen or my activities monitored. Go me.
By the way, if anyone has a cached version of my last few blog entries in their computer, I would be extremely grateful if you could get it for me. Thanks.
February 03, 2004
Pulchritudinous
Pulchritudinous: (adj.) Characterized by or having great physical beauty and appeal.
Isn't that a great word? Pulchritudinous. Obscure and bizarre and hard to pronounce, and in the end all it means is beautiful. I love arcane words like that; to me, they make the English language beautiful. (Though not in the pulchritudinous sense.)
Ambergris: A waxy grayish substance formed in the intestines of sperm whales and found floating at sea or washed ashore. It is added to perfumes to slow the rate of evaporation.
Ephebe: A youth between 18 and 20 years of age in ancient Greece.
Do we need these words, strictly speaking? Probably not. But I love knowing that there's a word for almost anything- even whale excretions. The strange little corners of language are the most fun. :)
Definitions courtesy of Dictionary.com
January 31, 2004
Super Sunday
The Super Bowl is here at last! Yay! The fact that I don't give a crap about football doesn't stop Super Bowl Sunday from being one of my favorite days of the year. You see, the Super Bowl isn't just the biggest day of the football season- it's also the last day of the football season. And that's worth looking forward to.
Bring on Spring Training!
What I'm reading today: Rainbow Six, by Tom Clancy
January 17, 2004
Oh, the Strangeness
Okay, this ranks high on even my Weird-O-Meter.
Ooooh, shinyyyy....
What I'm reading today: Take Me Out, by Richard Greenberg
September 16, 2003
A Blog About Nothing
Well, okay, it isn't exactly about nothing, but this blog isn't about something yet, either. So until I figure out what I'm going to write, the title stays.
Welcome to my blog. I'm an 18-year-old college freshman in Pennsylvania, a Beatlephile and a Yankees fan.
Today I went to class (surprise!) and actually decided to start my paper for Political Science. And it isn't even due tomorrow! I'm getting good at this 'not procrastinating' thing. Maybe someday I'll clean enough to be able to see the floor of my room.
Then again, maybe not.
Hmm...I'm not really sure where to go from here. So since I really don't have the hang of this blogging thing yet, here's a few people who do:
Baseball Primer's Clutch Hits
For great baseball talk, look no further than this site. Clutch Hits works in discussion format- the moderators put up links to baseball articles, and the Primates are then free to comment on them. The other forums include the Transaction Oracle and Sox Therapy, for all those Boston fans who so desperately need it. :) Another fun place is the Game Chatter, where you can discuss each day's game with fellow Primates as it happens.
Replacement Level Yankees Weblog
This is Larry Mankhen's funny, insightful Yankees blog, which pulls off the rare feat of being both sabermetrically oriented and well-written. It's my first stop after every Yankees game. The August 16th entry is simply hilarious- check it out.
Futility Infielder
The first baseball blog I started reading, and still one of the best around, this is the work of Yankees fan Jay Jaffe, who celebrates the work of no-hit glove men everywhere. Check out the Wall of Fame and Stadium Sojourns as well; it's all worth reading.
Bronx Banter
Finally, last but not least, this is Alex Belth's Yankees blog. In addition to the usual game commentary, there are some great interviews of writers such as Jane Leavy (Koufax), Michael Lewis (Moneyball), and Jim Bouton (Ball Four, Foul Ball) and others.
And if you don't at least know who Jim Bouton is, hang your head in shame, then go read Ball Four. It's a classic.
As for the theme of these blogs- well, I warned you I'm a Yankees fan. Another warning- there will be much messing with fonts, colors, and formatting until I figure out the look I like. I hope it doesn't make things too confusing. Feel free to comment- criticize my choice of teams, tell me what to write about, anything at all. And thus ends my first entry.
