TWSB: Water, Water (Used) Everywhere
We all know the whole “carbon footprint” thing, right? The amount of greenhouse gas emissions caused by an individual via things like transport, food production, fuel, housing, etc.? Yeah, that.
Well today I stumbled upon a website that allows you to calculate your water footprint. Again this is exactly as it sounds and, in my opinion, is even scarier in terms of the freakish amount a single human requires.
Here is the calculator I used, and here are my results:
According to Wikipedia, the global average footprint is 1,240 cubic meters of water per person per year. That’s 1,240 metric tons, or 2,733,704 pounds of water.
That is ridiculous.
The United States, of course has the largest average water footprint in the world (2480 cubic meters), while China has the smallest at 700 cubic meters.
What’s your water footprint, ladies and gents?
Woah
DUDES, WHAT?
Somebody must have found my blog and stumbled through it using the “random post” button, ‘cause I got a total of 127 views today.
That’s insane.
Haha, sorry, not much else has been going on. I’ve been working for like 14 hours straight every day on this stupid thesis and I’m to the point of sleep deprivation that the walls have become sentient and enjoy gyrating in space.
Blaaaaaaaaaaaaah.
In the market for new headphones
YO, ladies and gents!
Because I’ve been downloading so much music, I feel I am justified in purchasing some form of high-end, amazing-sounding headphones. While I truly do love my $4.99 Koss headphones from Walmart (I’m serious, they’re durable and sound pretty fantastic for costing less than a gallon of milk in Canada), I would really derive pleasure from a good over-ear symphony blaster.
Yesterday my mom and I went to the Apple store in the Oakridge Centre and, in between fondling iPads and convincing my mom to buy a Nano (mission accomplished! She loves it), I happened to try on a pair of Beats by Dr. Dre.
First impressions: comfortable, amazing bass, noise-cancelling.
Second impression (upon seeing the price): oh shit, these are expensive.
As enamored with Beats as I was, I wanted to see some reviews on them, so I checked them out on Amazon to see what people had to say. During this process I happened to stumble upon these, which are on sale (regular price = $330!) and appear to be either just as good or better (more balance with respect to bass/treble) than the Beats.
The only problem is the fact that I’m super picky about headphone comfort. I love Sony, for example, but they’re headphones feel horrible to me, so I don’t buy them. I actually got to try on the Beats and loved the way they felt, and unless I can find a pair of Sennheisers at a Best Buy or something around here, I won’t be able to do the same thing with them.
Any of you guys know of any super good headphones?
EDIT: So I went to a Best Buy on Saturday to see if they had Sennheisers there. They had one model (it wasn’t the model I was looking for), but it was substantially less comfortable than the Beats. I could judge this more objectively, too, because there was a test pair of Beats sitting next to the Sennheisers and the Beats definitely feel better on my head. So now it’s back to Amazon to see if I can get the Beats for a cheaper price, even if it means cheating the system a bit and using the US store.
EDIT #2: ordered Beats from Amazon. Anticipating their arrival in a few weeks.
I should be dead
Blood pressure: 99/68
Heart rate: 49 BPM
Body temperature: 94.5 F
Can this seriously be normal? I think my body is in “screw life, I’m going to maintain minimum function” mode. Looks like it’s mimicking my attitude.
Something else
Yaaaaay, my mom is here! Actually, she got here yesterday but it was late and she was tired but I had a minor mental breakdown and we ended up going to Denny’s at 11 PM and then drove around Stanley Park for another hour before we went home and crashed after M&Ms.
(Run on sentences make me look cool, yo.)
Today I unfortunately have a lot of school-related crap work to do today, but tomorrow we’re both taking the day off and screwing around. I’m taking her to Metropolis, a mall that could swallow about 30 Palouse Malls (not kidding) so we can take our minds off of our current situations, both of which suck.
I freaking love my mom, this is going to be awesome.
In this blog: Claudia runs
This morning I woke up obscenely early in order to get downtown by 8 to engage in the Vancouver Sun Run, the largest 10K in the world (according to Wiki, at least).
There were also troops of dudes dressed as bananas. Free trade bananas. Welcome to the west coast.
Over 50,000 people ran, and luckily (amazingly?) it didn’t rain and was actually sunny.
I finished in 1 hour and 32 seconds, which is pretty good considering I had to utilize the Porta Potties within the first 30 seconds of the race, ‘cause our wave didn’t get started until 45 minutes after the actual start time and I had to pee once we actually got running. Haha.
Anyway. I finished 589th out of 2,325 for my gender and age group (19 – 24), which isn’t too horrible, considering I’m totally not a runner.
I looked up the stats and found out that four people over the age of 95 ran as well. That’s pretty freaking awesome.
Canadian Mall – Installment 12: Granville Island
I had to go downtown today to get my Sun Run number/shirt, so before that I decided to remedy my “I suck at life and can’t find how to get on Granville Island” failure of a walk last weekend by actually looking up appropriate directions to the island.
I know, I know, Granville Island isn’t a mall. But with the big open market insanity and the building with the bundle of stores in it, I decided to count it anyway.
So HA.
Pros:
– THE coolest glasses frames shop on the planet. It’s also called Eyeland, which is freaking hilarious and awesome. Check this noise: http://www.granville-eyeland.com/home
– It’s like a farmer’s market on crack once the weather gets better.
– There’s a bead store. I don’t do bead work at all, but the colors make me smile.
Cons:
– One of those “how in the hell do you get there?” areas of Vancouver. You know, the ones you can see but can’t fathom how anyone’s supposed to get there. There are a surprising number of those up here.
– Cars should not be allowed on the island.
– People are generally stupid and don’t know how to handle ogling exotic fruit and forward motion at the same time. Get out of the walking traffic first, fondle dragon fruit later.
I am also obscenely stressed out (as I have been for the past three weeks now), so don’t trust my judgment.
T-minus 15 days
DUDES, I will have been blogging for five years come May 1st. I’m not quite sure what magical stats I’ll have in store for you (assuming, you know, I’m still sane and/or alive in a half a month), but it will be snazzy regardless.
OH, and I’ve also printed the majority of the archives, so I’ll take pictures of the massive binder for all to enjoy.
Working on a redux of this blog’s feel as well. All will be revealed…soon.
Haha, celebrating 5 years of not having a life.
I’m awesome.
And yes, I AM ignoring my present situation to preserve my mental “stability.” Sometimes you have to do just that.
ASLDfjalaoiaegfa v
I don’t even care anymore.
TWSB: “Space Debris”
Today NASA is celebrating 30th anniversary of the first space shuttle launch. How? By announcing the final resting places of four retired spacecrafts: Enterprise, Discovery, Endeavor, and Atlantis.
Apparently there’s been quite a lot of vying over who gets the retired shuttles—21 official proposals were submitted to NASA, some with petitions 150,000 signatures strong behind them, others with plans to construct dedicated buildings to house the shuttles.
In the end, though, NASA administrator Charles Bolden announced that the Intrepid Sea, Air, and Space Museum, a wing of the Smithsonian’s National Air and Space Museum, the California Science Center, and the Kennedy Space Center won out for the Enterprise, Discovery, Endeavor, and Atlantis, respectively.
Smaller shuttle artifacts, like fuselage trainers and commander seats, are being offered to various other museums, according to NASA. And those museums may be better off financially when it all comes down to it—the four winning spaces will have to find room and money to house these 170,000 pound, 122 feet long giants.
Totally worth it though, right? I’d definitely hang with a shuttle if I got the chance.
Boring blog
I hate those days where everything’s going great, and then all of a sudden you get this extreme onset of anxiety regarding the rest of your life. Like, to the point where you don’t see the point of going forward because every possible direction you can think of for yourself seems like such an effort that there hardly seems to be a point to it all.
Whyyyyyyyyy does this happen daily all of a sudden?
Blah.
I AM THE PHEROMONE LADY
Hmm.
So as I was trucking my way down to Granville Island this afternoon (it was going to be my Canadian Mall installment today, but that didn’t happen for several reasons, one of which being the water ferries suck), this guy comes running up behind me, stops me, and basically says that he saw me by the Cambie bridge and “thought I looked fascinating.” Then he gave me his number.
Cool, right? Yeah, except there was no way he was younger than 50.
Nothing wrong with older guys, of course. It’s just that I know from my, um…experience, I tend to attract the creepy older guys.
Stalker Dave.
Creepy Andy.
That weird married guy that decided to follow me everywhere for a bit.
The half blind guy who…yeah, he’s, um…yeah.
Interesting times. Should I give him a call?
OH, and so after missing all three buses required to get home (and having to subsequently wait 30 minutes for each of the next buses), I finally got on the 41 and spent the whole ride home with a guy’s crotch in my face. Quite literally. I had a seat but the bus was super crowded and the guy who was standing in the aisle next to me just happened to be the perfect height for crotch-to-face action.
He was kinda pudgy, though, so I didn’t mind too much.
And the fact that I just rationalized the crotch-attack of a perfect stranger as something I “didn’t mind too much” is proof of how ridiculously lonely I am up here.
I haven’t had physical contact since December, and even that was very brief.
FFFFFFFFFFFFFFF I need love.
Data, data everywhere and not a model to fit
Things a normal person does to relax:
– sleeps
– hangs out with friends
– copious amounts of alcohol
– screws around
Things Claudia does to relax:
– ignores sleep
– locks herself in her apartment
– copious amounts of Red Bull
– fits a structural equation model to her music data
Yeah.
I’ve spent a cumulative 60+ hours solely on my thesis writing this week, and considering all the other crap I had to finish, what with the semester ending and all, that’s a pretty large amount of time.
Despite that, it’s pretty sad that I spent my first few hours of free time this week fitting an SEM to my music.
BUT IT HAPPENED, so here it is.
With “number of stars” the variable I was most interested in, I wanted to fit what I considered to be a reasonable model that showed the relationships between the number of stars a song eventually received from me (I rarely if ever change the number after I’ve assigned the stars) and other variables, such as play count and date acquired. Note: structural equation modeling is like doing a bunch of regressions at once, allowing you to fit more complicated models and to see where misfit most likely occurs.
Cool? Cool.
Onward.
This is the initial model I proposed. The one-way arrows indicate causal relationships (e.g., there is a causal relationship in my proposed model between the genre of a song and the number of stars it has), the double-headed arrow indicates a general correlation without direction. Oh, and “genre” was coded with numbers 1 through 11, with lower numbers indicating my least favorite genres and higher numbers indicating my favorite genres. Important for later.
Using robust maximum likelihood estimation (because of severe nonnormality), I tested this model in terms of its ability to describe the covariance structure evident in the sample (which, in this case, is the 365 songs I downloaded last year).
So here’s what we got!
Satorra-Bentler scaled χ2(7) = 9.68, p = 0.207
Robust CFI: .992
Robust RMSEA: .032
Average absolute standardized residual: 0.0190
All these stats indicate a pretty awesome fit of the model to the data. This is shocking, considering ridiculous non-normality in the data itself and the fact that this is the first model I tried.
Here are the standardized pathway values (analogous to regression coefficients, so if you know what those mean, you can interpret these), with the significant values marked with asterisks:
So what’s this all mean? Well, in general, the relationships I’ve suggested with this model are, according to the stats, a good representation of the actual relationships existing among the variables in real life. Specifically:
– There is a significant positive relationship between genre and play count, which makes sense. Songs from my more preferred genres are played more often.
– There is a strong positive relationship between play count and stars, which also obviously makes a lot of sense.
– The significant negative relationship between date added and play count makes sense as well; the more recently downloaded songs (those with high “date added” numbers) have been played less frequently than older songs.
– There is no significant correlation between genre and song length, which surprises me.
– Genre, length, and play count all have significant, direct effects on how many stars I give a song.
– Another interesting finding is the positive relationship between stars and skips, which suggests that the higher number of stars a song has, the more often it is skipped. Perhaps this is just due to the sheer number of times I play the higher-starred songs. Who knows?
Yay! Fun times indeed.
Academic year= DONE
YAY, classes are done for the semester. Once this thesis insanity is over, I’m freeee! Which may be another few months, unfortunately.
But whatever.
Sorry for the short blog. Long day. April’s always the least exciting time of the year for me.
Streeeeeeeeeeeeeeess
12 hours straight of thesis insanity on top of a very stressful appointment this morning. Claudia needs a survey before she passes out for an hour or so before going to campus. Again.
1. what isn’t not not not isn’t is not isn’t not your name?
I’m Steve. And that’s a whole lotta nots.
2. how many years have you been alive. or hours or seconds or feet?
Years: approximately 23.
Hours: 203182.
Feet: Six and a half.
3. if you were born as and then raised as a slave hundreds of years ago and forced to lick people’s feet but then it turned out that that wasn’t you, that was your uncle, what is your gender?
Hahaha. I’m a lady.
4. what is your body mass index?
Uhhh…17-something, I think.
5. what species are you? this is the boring phrased question:
MANLY! Manly is a species, right?
6. if one day you opened your door to find a dog on the doorstep wearing 2 different pairs of sneakers, what would you do?
If the sneakers were cool, I would ask the dog where he or she got them. After all, a dog sophisticated enough to adorn itself in multiple forms of sneaker certainly should be able to talk. I mean, it’s just logic.
7. how high is your sperm count?
Hopefully very, very, very low.
8. when did you last cut your hair/shave?
I cut my bangs yesterday, actually.
9. could you make a teepee out of the raw materials you find in the woods if you had to?
Damn straight. I’ve done it before.
10. if you’re a guy, would you wear a hot pink dress for at least 10 hours for 100 bucks? if you’re a girl, would you ride a horse around town while naked?
Horses are frightening and I don’t know how I’d feel about letting one between my legs while I was naked.
11. what is your favorite book?
The Caine Mutiny! It’s amaaaazing.
12. if you were locked in a room for 27 hours with only a bag of Cheetos, a turtle, a Britney Spears CD and a walkie talkie, what would you do?
Check out the Walkie Talkie to see if there was anyone interesting out there. If not, I’d monge the Cheetos while balancing the CD on my head to entertain the turtle.
13. hello!!
YO, survey maker!
14. did you ever have a really ugly pair of shoes but you didn’t realize it so you wore them anyway and everyone was like wow thats an ugly pair of shoes but no one told you until your mom finally broke it to you gently?
Nope. But I remember a bunch of 9th graders ganging up on me in the parking lot when I was a 7th grader to tell me how ugly I dressed. Fun times indeed.
15. do you like rap?
Blah. Not my cup of tea.
Eminem’s hilarious, though.
16. what food/object/person makes you want to throw up and then die in your throw up and lay there all dead forever?
Wow, that’s a lot of throw up/death. Can red-orange count for this? That color makes me nauseous.
17. who is your bitch?
R.
18. how are your tapdancing skills?
Never honed them.
19. what would be your email if your sister made it for you? if you dont have a sister then go kill yourself:
UH OH TIME TO DIE!
20. how do you smell right now?
Phenomenal question. Unfortunately, I cannot physically give you an answer.
21. have you ever licked your own foot?
Hahaha, I used to suck on my toes at sleepovers to entertain people.
But I also used to get naked in my sleeping bag and pretend I was “bathing.”
Perchance this was why I had no friends in elementary school?
22. have you ever licked anyone else’s foot?
Um…I don’t think so…
23. have you ever licked the president’s foot?
That. Would. Be. AWESOME.
24. fill in the blanks: my ________ brings all of the ________ to the ________
Blogs, weirdness, and internet.
25. what’s your favorite flavor of condom?
I’ve never tried a flavored condom, actually.
26. do you give good massages?
So I’ve been told.
27. bless you:
Thank you, Jesus!
28. what do you like to do when you’re home alone and no one’s watching you do anything so you can do whatever you want because you’re not being watched because you’re alone?
Get naked. Dance like crazy in front of the mirrors. Make puns.
Oh wait, I do that anyway.
29. are you hot like a toaster?
No, but if you get into the tub with me I’ll electrocute you.
30. what is your job and what is it like working there?
I’m a grad student. It blows and makes me want to kill myself.
31. do you like little kids?
NO.
32. do you like old people who probably smell?
I wouldn’t care about the smell. And all old people, apart from my devil grandma, seem pretty amazing.
33. do you love cats?
Sure.
34. how much do you love them?
Quite a bit.
35. are you innocent?
Pfft.
36. if you had an evil laugh what would it be like?
Awesome.
37. do you sometimes wonder what it would be like to be the opposite gender?
Quite a bit more than anyone would think.
38. do you still play with barbies? no matter what you say im still going to assume you do:
I have no Barbies. DO NOT ASSUME!
39. what are your fetishes?
Fat. Nice, soft, fat chunky dudes. Hell yeah.
40. when was your last period?
That…that’s a good question.
At least I’m happy in my dreams (sometimes)
So probably the least experience emotion in my dreams is that of amusement. But last night my brain decided to find the humor in its deep subconscious folds and release it in a very weird dream.
So in this dream there was myself, my cat Annabelle, and this other woman who was like half my mom and half someone else. We’re sitting around in my living room chatting and all of a sudden Annabelle joins into the conversation.
I say “WOOAAHHH, DUDES, how is that cat TALKING?!” like I’m high. Annabelle finds this incredibly hilarious and starts talking and laughing. This makes me laugh, so I start rolling around the floor in a fit of hysterical laughter. My mom/other person hybrid starts laughing too and then says something INCREDIBLY funny (unfortunately I don’t remember what she said now that I’m awake) and the rest of the dream is all of us just laughing like crazy.
I woke up at 4:30 on the floor of my living room crying ‘cause I was laughing so hard.
Awesome.
TWSB: Arch Rival
For whatever reason, today from the deep recesses of my mind I recalled my last (only?) visit to the Gateway Arch in St. Louis. Back in the days before life was complicated and strange, my grandparents lived down in Missouri and my mom and I would occasionally jet down there to visit. Mostly because of Cracker Barrel, my grandpa’s set of Tinker Toys, and the Magic House, I found St. Louis to be a pretty sweet place.
But let’s get to the science. The Gateway Arch was completed in October 1965 and opened to the public in June the following year. It’s the tallest manmade monument in the States, required more stainless steel than any other project in history, and (though it doesn’t look like it) is as tall as it is wide.
According to Wikipedia, its shape is that of a catenary, not a strict parabola. A catenary is the shape that a hanging chain or cable assumes when it is supported at its ends and is acted on only by its own weight (Wiki gives the examples of a loose single-chain fence or the strands of a spider’s web).
Actually, the arch is (very similar to) an inverted catenary, as it is heavier on its ends. Architect Eero Saarinen claims the inverted was chosen over a regular catenary for aesthetic purposes—an ordinary catenary would “look too pointed.”
I actually remember watching a really fascinating building on the construction of the arch, particularly its topping out, but I can’t find the vid on YouTube or elsewhere right now. I’ll post it if I ever do find it.
More fun facts:
– In 1970, the whole arch shrunk three full inches due to cold weather.
– It is able to sway up to nine inches in one direction during high winds.
– It can withstand an earthquake. Unless the earthquake caused it to sway more than nine inches in one direction, I’m assuming.
– The windows up at the top are so small because larger windows would not be able to withstand the pressure (500+ tons) used to separate the legs of the arch in order to insert the final piece.
Cool, huh? If you’re ever in the St. Louis area, go and check it out. I was like five when I went up there and I still remember it.
BOOMSMA!
Gettin’ through the first 1,000! Hahaha, are you guys sick of this, yet?
901. Would you rather have a candle scented like blueberries and crème or butterscotch pie?
I will STAB you.
902. Which ones are fruits and which are vegetables:
Banana – fruit
Cucumber – vegetable
Tomato – technically a fruit, but culinarily (TOTALLY A WORD) a veg.
Apple – veggie
Carrot – AWESOME veggie
Eggplant – veggie
Cherry – nasty
Pumpkin – fruit
903. Does it annoy you when people talk loudly on their cell phones in public?
You have no idea. Not everyone on the bus needs to know your dinner plans, you obnoxious fart faces.
904. Is love a commitment to one person, or can you love more than one person at the same time?
I honestly believe you can love more than one person at a time.
905. Cover or original:
Smooth Criminal; is it better by Michael Jackson or Alien Ant Farm?
AAF, definitely.
Blue Monday better by Orgy or New Order?
Never heard it.
I Want Candy; Is it better by Aaron Carter or Bow Wow Wow?
Bow Wow Wow!
Love Song; Is it better by 311 or The Cure?
Another one I’ve never heard.
It’s My Life; Is it better by No Doubt or The Talking Heads?
No Doubt.
906. What is the most uncomfortable feeling?
Dread. Not having a plan. Both combined.
907. Do you like Maroon 5?
I think all their songs sound the same, but it’s a decent sound, so I don’t mind too much.
908. Would you ever go on a blind date TV show?
That would probably be the only way I’d get a date seeing as how things tend to go with me.
909. How much of your wardrobe is dry clean only?
Two things, a jacket and pants, but I never dry clean those pants. Into the washer they go!
910. Who’s arms would you like to crawl into?
Leibniz’.
911. What the hell is your problem?
Hahahaha, I could write you a book, man.
912. Look around you. What is the most beautiful thing you can see?
My books. I love them.
913. What is the most beautiful thing you can’t see?
Tachyons! Speedy little buggers.
914. Take a deep breath. Yawn deeply. Do you appreciate the things most people take for granted, like breathing?
I think I appreciate tastes more than the average person, seeing as how I can’t smell and all. The things I can taste I taste very strongly and I really try to eat things that have good, strong flavors. Apart from broccoli and cauliflower. Those taste like nothing but have awesome textures.
915. Do you appreciate breathing more when you have a cold and you’re all congested and can’t breathe right?
I don’t get colds, I stole God’s immune system.
916. Is congestion a positive thing because it helps you to appreciate breathing?
I appreciate breathing more after I choke on something. Congestion just pisses me off.
917. How is your life like a work of art?
It’s unfinished and probably will always be that way. Lots of artists never really “finish” their works, right?
918. Do you feel that your life influences and is influenced by many other lives?
Of course. No man is an island. Some are peninsulas, but none are islands.
919. Has a smile ever made all the difference in the world to you?
Meh. If I’m having a bad day, I’m having a BAD day. Smiles don’t do much for me if I feel up to kicking a baby through an electric fan.
920. Have you ever looked at a tree and considered how the roots could be miles long, trailing and entwining with other roots underground, all of them holding the soil together?
Indeed.
921. Do you notice the little things in life?
Sometimes. When I’m really freaking depressed I do.
922. Do you feel, as Jung did, that deep down, underneath our individual personalities we are all the same?
The collective unconscious thing? Eh. I suppose in a sense that’s what’s going on, but I’m not a strong believer in it.
923. Do you feel a great oneness with the universe?
Sometimes. Sometimes I feel very, very, very alone.
924. When was the last time you decided to really enjoy yourself?
Haha, it’s been awhile. Grad school has destroyed my soul.
925. When was the last time you set yourself free and acted without caring at all what someone else thought?
Pfft.
926. Have you ever held someone and appreciated how delicate and fragile all life is and felt that they were even more precious and beautiful because one day they would die…and so will you?
Those are some of the best moments in life, in my opinion.
927. In ten years someone else might own your house and the room you are sitting in now. Someone else might be standing right next to where you are sitting now. So that means you could be standing right next to someone but you can’t see him or her because they are ten years away.
Ever look at life like that?
I do indeed. This section of the survey includes a lot of stuff I tend to think about a lot.
928. When was the last time you:
Soaked in a bubble bath: long, long, long ago.
Read a good book outside: It’s too cold/rainy to read outside up here.
Held someone’s hand: Not since last summer.
Felt truly joyful: Not since before grad school. Sad, eh?
929. What do you bring to this world that no one else can?
A fantastic degree of “insignificant human pretending to be important.” Also a lot of blogs.
930. Do you feel that you are part of every living thing in this world and that all those things are part of you?
I’m a hylozoist, so yes. We are all of the same matter, we all become one another at some point.
931. Are you more afraid of death or not completely living?
I FEAR NOTHING
932. What was the last thing you wanted to do but didn’t or couldn’t do?
Quit.
933. Why don’t you try and do that thing now?
Because I’m a coward.
934. What is the most wonderful thing happening right now in the world?
People are trying to be nice to each other. Obviously this isn’t a universal thing, but odds are, somewhere out there someone is making a conscious effort to be nice to a fellow human being.
935. Name 7 things going on around you that you normally wouldn’t notice:
1. The fridge is running.
2. The light on my router is blinking.
3. My chilled water is slowly warming to room temperature.
4. The apple I took out of the fridge is also warming to room temperature.
5. The three clocks on the walls are ticking.
6. My Christmas lights are still chilling on the ceiling.
7. The light on my TV is on, indicating that it is plugged in.
936. Name three things you hate
1. Failure
2. Judgmental attitudes
3. Group work
937. Name one GOOD thing about each of those 3 things you hate.
1. You supposedly learn from it
2. I guess they can help protect you in situations in which the judgments actually are accurate.
3. Sometimes you get a group that lets you do all the work yourself.
938. What do you tend to see in black and white, rather than in shades of gray?
Pretty much everything. Except grays. HA joke.
939. Admit three things you do that you are ashamed of but shouldn’t be.
1. I waste time.
2. I double check ridiculously simple calculations with a calculator, even though I know the correct answers (example: if I have to add 36 + 2, I know the answer is 38, but I punch 36 + 2 into a calculator to check anyway).
3. I don’t do any school work on Saturdays.
940. What qualities make a person “good” in your eyes?
They’re kind to others, they don’t judge others, they try to maintain harmony in their surroundings.
941. Do you have any of these qualities?
I certainly try.
942. Are you willing to do what it takes to achieve what you want to?
Fuck yes.
943. Name one bad quality about someone you love.
She allows a certain asshole to control her life to a certain extent.
944. Name one good quality about someone you hate.
I don’t hate anyone.
945. Are you pro life or pro choice and why?
Pro choice; I think that women should be allowed the freedom of making a (legal) choice if they’re ever in the situation where they think bringing yet another life into this world is not the best thing for them to do.
946. If you are pro life write a reason someone might be pro choice. If you are pro choice write a reason someone might be pro life.
I’ve read/heard the descriptions of abortion, and they make it sound pretty horrible for the baby. I can see how some people could oppose such operations.
947. Can you see the beauty in?
A bumble bee: They’re cute.
A man skating: Johnny Weir is HOT.
A woman combing her hair: Women are beautiful.
A box of tissues: Such things are useful to me.
Yourself naked: BAH I’m ugly as hell.
Light: Light is fanfreakingtastic.
948. What are you most afraid of?
Failure. And Google. But mostly failure.
949. Whose life would you REALLY NOT want to ever have?
Hmm…I’m not sure. I think I would be horrible in any situation where I’d have to interact with a lot of people and make a lot of major decisions. So I guess I wouldn’t want to be President Obama then, haha.
Why?
Press conferences, cabinet meetings, and budget balancing, oh my!
950. Can you come up with a reason why you might want their life?
I’d like to think I would do something worthwhile if I were ever president.
951. Name one thing that is beautiful about your body
I’m stronger than I look. By quite a bit.
952. Name one thing that is ugly about your body
I don’t know if I can narrow it down. Um…my legs are horribly ugly. Cannot wear shorts.
953. Name one thing that is beautiful about your mind
I’m very good at making connections across subjects/fields/ideas.
954. Name one thing that is ugly about your mind
I have a horrible temper.
955. Who was the last person you were rude to?
Possibly someone on the bus? I’m not sure. It was a pretty bad day.
956.Are your elbows soft?
Yup.
957. Are you ticklish?
Unfortunately.
958. Are you awkward or graceful?
Pfft, I trip over electrons.
959. Do you wear glasses/contacts?
I love my glasses.
960. If you wear contacts what’s the longest you have ever left them in your eyes?
No contacts for me!
961. What’s going on where you are right now?
Not too much. Just chilling in my apartment.
962. What is your favorite thing to touch?
I like smooth metallic things.
963. What is your favorite kind of incense?
This is not applicable to Claudia!
964. What relaxes you?
Sleepyhead.
965. How much time have you wasted?
God, SO much.
966. How do you afford your rock and roll lifestyle?
Oh, you know, dealing crack, prostitution, all that good stuff.
And a graduate scholarship.
(mostly that last one)
967. What does teen spirit smell like?
Nirvana, perhaps?
Or crack.
968. Do you mostly listen or hear?
Depends on who’s talking.
969. Look or see?
See.
970. Do you comprehend all the things you read?
I try.
But then again, I’ve also read Quine, so no.
971. Is it necessary to be repetitive in order to be creative?
It depends on the person. Some peoples’ creativity is fed by routine activity, some peoples’ creativity is crushed by it.
972. Do you control your attitude or does it control you?
I try to control it, but sometimes it goes insane.
973. Are your relationships mostly passion or conversation?
First conversation, then passion, than conversation, than a healthy mixture of both.
974. Do you do what needs to be done regardless of the consequences?
I am the most stubbornly persistent person I know.
975. Is money how you keep score?
Hell no.
976. Who can you do everything or nothing with and still have the best time?
My old roomies. My band geek buds. My mother.
977. Just because you’re angry does that give you the right to be cruel?
Absolutely not.
978. What is maturity and where does it come from?
Maturity is overrated. We all need to be a little more childish if we want to be sane. Unfortunately, I think we’re all in too much of a rush to become mature.
979. Who is the maturest person you know?
Haha, is “maturest” a word? I always thought Sean was a surprisingly mature human being.
980. Who is the most immature person you know?
Probably myself.
981. If there was a fire and you could only rescue one thing from your room (all people and pets have escaped on their own, even goldfish) what would it be?
Compy. I freaking love my compy.
982. If you could, what 3 albums would you force everyone to remove from his or her CD collections?
1. I don’t judge people by their music.
2. That’s just dumb.
3. Our aural preferences are subjective.
983. Does Marilyn Manson scare you or bore you?
Neither, really.
984. What do you think of the Insane Clown Posse?
Fuckin’ posses, how do they work?
985. What’s the best movie about high school?
No idea. American Pie, perhaps? Just because it’s fantastic.
986. Do you like Michael Jackson better in the 80’s 90’s or today?
Well, today he’s dead…I’ve never really paid much attention to him, actually.
987. Is choosing a different store to shop in from most people really making a statement?
Meh. It depends on what your intentions are. I don’t tend to shop at the same clothing stores as others, but I don’t do it to “stand out” or resist conformity. Some people do, though, so eh.
988. What’s the riskiest thing you’ve ever done?
Grad school. Totally not worth it, by the way.
989. Have you ever ridden in a car while the driver had been drinking?
Not to my knowledge, but possibly.
990. Who needs to get a life?
Hahaha, me. Have you read my blogs?
991. Do write on yourself with milky pens?
Hahaha, nope. Just ballpoints.
992. What should be different about high school curriculum?
It should be more rigorous in general. Students should have more opportunities to advance if they’re ready.
993. Right now are you exactly the way you want to be?
ABSOLUTELY NOT.
994. Who can save you from yourself?
Just myself.
995. Are you a responsible person?
I like to think so, yes.
996. “It is absurd to divide people into good and bad. People are either charming or tedious.”— Oscar Wilde. Do you agree?
Nope. How is tedious not charming? I think tediousness is fantastically charming sometimes.
997. How many greatest hits albums do you own?
I own a fair number of songs from greatest hits albums, but I don’t own any full albums.
998. Are you at risk for a.i.d.s.?
Haha, I seriously doubt it. I gotta start washing those used needles, though.
999. Do you want to have it all?
All of what?
1000. Do you collect green pictures of dead presidents?
No. I collect multicolored pictures of queens and prime ministers.
Canadian Mall – Installment 11: Lynn Valley Centre
North Vancouver’s weird.
Just sayin’.
It’s also a lot freaking colder than Vancouver itself. And has this obscenely steep road:
It’s a lot steeper than it looks in this pic.
ANYWAY, Lynn Valley Centre.
Pros:
– Uh…
– It looks nice?
– Really, not much to say.
Cons:
– The bus I had to take up here came every 45 minutes. Guess who’s phenomenal at just missing the bus?
– No cool stores here. There’s a Save On, but they’re everywhere in main Vancouver.
– COOOOOLD.
This one wasn’t worth the trip, in my opinion. I got to see a bit more of North Van, but it’s got a freaky vibe to it of which I’m not a fan.
Now for some Fallout 3.
BEWARE THE IDES OF MA—oh it’s April.
What in the hell happened to March? Last year it dragged on for about the length of the Jurassic period.
Anyway, here’s a bit of awesome for you: Census Bureau blog. Perhaps the best site on the whole intarwebs. I’m sorry I’m such a stats geek, I know no one else cares, but it’s my blog and MY BLOG LIKES STATS.
Speaking of my blog, my 5 year anniversary is coming up in exactly a month. Expect—guess what?—stats.
Yayzorz.
What was I going to say today?
Oh yeah. This is pretty great:
March-endizing
It’s graph time! I know nobody gives a crap, but it’s fun.
Genres graph:
Mean song length: 3:51
The Five Star
Baby I’m Yours (feat. Irfane) by Breakbot
Also this because it’s fantastic:
And this because I TOTALLY CALLED IT in my NaNo last year.
What I wrote:
“Twenty years ago Google Face was practically brand new, just coming out of beta and gaining users at an incredibly fast speed. I guess that’s what happens when you practically release a Google Maps version for people […] Google Face not only tracks faces but also attaches to them an individual’s personal information, such as their date of birth, their parents’ names, their social security number, things like that.”
What the article says:
“Google is working on a mobile application that would allow users to snap pictures of people’s faces in order to access their personal information […] Google’s Profiles product includes a user’s name, phone number and e-mail address. Google has not said what personal data might be displayed once a person is identified by its facial-recognition system.”
The future is terrifying. This is exactly why I’m afraid of Google.
You’re the Na to my Cl
Almost a fifth of the way there!
801. How often do you change your mood in a day?
Hahahaha, you’re funny. GET OFF MY CASE! Please don’t hate me. Let’s party!
802. When you ask people how they are doing you actually care about their answer or is it just polite?
Depends on the person. Besides, I think we’re all pretty conditioned to answer “okay” or “good” regardless of how we’re feeling, so not much can really be construed from peoples’ answers.
803. Would you consider yourself to be very polite?
I try to be conscientious around others to make sure I don’t inconvenience them.
804. Do you like movies and books that involve nuclear holocaust?
This is a very strange question…
But yes, they’re quite interesting.
805. Have you ever had a lucid dream (a dream in which you knew you were dreaming and had complete control over what happened in the dream)?
No, surprisingly. My unconscious takes full control when I’ve got my REM on.
806. Have you ever had a flying dream?
Indeed.
807. Have you ever had a lucid flying dream?
Nope.
808. What’s the oddest law you ever heard of?
Though it’s a theorem, I always found the law of large numbers to be really freaky for whatever reason.
809. What is the ultimate way to connect with another person?
Playing “this or that?” Just go back and forth giving each other two options and seeing what option the other prefers. Days can be spent on this, it’s grand.
810. Can you be intimate with someone without touching him or her?
Indeed.
811. Can men and women ever really be ‘just friends’ with no interest in anything more?
Yup.
813. Are you addicted to this survey like drugs?
Dudes, you have no idea.
814. If your significant other wanted to wait for marriage could you hold out or would you leave them (or would you cheat)?
Wait for marriage for what? Sex? Hahaha, I could wait for decades.
815. What’s the longest sentence you can make using only words that start with the same letter as your first name?
Can Claudia compose capricious couplets, creating crappy conjunctions continuously, confounding credulous carpetbaggers?
816. If you had a theme song what would it be?
If I said Sleepyhead, would that make me too predictable?
817. Are you cranky?
Not at the moment.
818. Which group generally annoys you more, people older than you, or people younger than you?
Younger. Mostly because that group includes little kids.
819. Do you refer to older people as old farts?
Hahaha, I used to.
820. Do you refer to younger people as the kids?
Nope. They’re just “younger people.”
821. Which is better: Poems that everyone can relate to or poems that are intensely personal to the author?
Blah, I don’t like poetry. Sorry.
822. Is it worse to be too hot or too cold?
Too hot.
823. Are you so flexible that you can put your feet behind your head?
I can’t even touch my toes.
824. Would you enjoy reading fairy tales written about robots?
Um…sure…
825. Is smoking a turn on or gross?
Pretty nasty.
826. What is the one way you wouldn’t want to die?
Getting eaten alive would be absolutely terrifying.
827. Which would look sillier on you: A cowboy hat or a Rasta hat?
Probably a cowboy hat. Wranglin’.
828. Would you rather have a job doing something indoors or outdoors?
Indoors.
829. Would you rather learn more about human nutrition or meteorology?
Meteorology.
830. Have you ever taken honors courses?
Honors can suck it. But if AP courses count for this, then yes.
831. What do you think of crop circles?
They’re pretty fantastic.
832. Where do they come from?
Who knows? The world is a mysterious place.
833. When was the last time you screwed up big time?
HA. Hahahaha. No. We’re not going there.
834. You have a choice. What do you eat: a veggie burger, a turkey dog, a cheese sandwich
Cheese sandwich!
835. Do you get a lot of random instant messages?
Nope.
836. Do you have a paper journal also?
Nope.
837. VHS or DVD?
DVD, just because I excel at breaking VHS tapes.
838. Vinyl, cassette tape, or CD?
I have a soft spot for cassettes. I wanted to be on the radio when I was a kid and had like five tapes of me doing a fake radio station.
839. Have you ever seen the video/heard the song Days Go By, performed by Dirty Vegas?
Yup, I have it.
840. MTV: should it play more videos or more shows?
Man, I haven’t watched MTV in FOREVER. Do they even show any music videos anymore?
841. Name a band:
Deep Forest. They rule!
Do fans of that band tend to share any characteristics with each other?
Probably. Lots of the “hippie-esque” crowd.
842. What does the expression ‘touch and go’ mean?
PRECARIOUS STATE OF AFFAIRS OMGWTFBBQ
843. Caffeine or alcohol?
Caffeine.
844. Betty or Veronica?
Veronica.
Archie or Reggie or Jughead?
Reggie.
845. What book are you reading right now?
House of Mirth by Edith Wharton.
846. Is the news too depressing?
Meh. Such is life.
847. Would you rather have a stuffed lion, elephant, pig or duck?
Elephants are BAMFs.
848. Are you late for a very important date?
No time to say goodbye, HELLO! I’m late, I’m late, I’m late!
849. Ever use star 69?
Haha, I did when my cell phone screen exploded and I couldn’t see who had called me.
850. Is everyone as smart as you?
I’m pretty much the stupidest person on the planet, so…
851. Have you ever seen the musical Annie?
Not the musical, no.
852. Sheets: silk or satin?
Silk.
853. Bath: soap or bubbles?
Bubbles!
854. Your best color: blue or red?
Red.
855. What’s your favorite candy?
M&Ms, ladies and gents. M&Ms.
856. Can you sing?
No, but that doesn’t stop me.
857. It’s the end of the world, as we know it. How do you feel?
Pretty good. Time to go back to Moscow and make out with people.
858. You take your little sister (she’s 12) shopping for school clothes. Mom gave you the money to hold. She picks out a skimpy top emblazoned “Hottie” and hip-hugging pants that leave at least two inches of skin north and south of her navel exposed to the wind. She insists: If she doesn’t have these clothes, she’ll look awful, the other kids will tease her, and she’ll feel like a nerd.
Do you think she should or should not wear these clothes?
I think it’s up to her, but still, ew.
Do you buy them for her?
It’s not my money, it’s my mom’s, and if I know of no prior restrictions on what my sister can wear, sure.
859. What do you think is the most annoying cliché?
Haha, most of them.
860. What band is underground right now but will one day get really popular?
Whose to say? I don’t know if any of the bands I know of are still considered “underground.”
861. Of the following which word best describes you: versatile (flexible), wonderful, x-tra special, your own best friend, zany.
Zany! WOO!
862. What does BYOB stand for?
Bring your own butt.
863. Who is sexiest: Marilyn Monroe, James Dean, Elvis, Jim Morrison, Madonna, Cyndi Lauper.
Elvis was pretty sexy.
864. Do you always do what’s expected of you?
I try.
865. Do you believe everything you hear on the news?
Not usually.
866. Would you prefer a $100.00 gift certificate to Hot Topic or Abercrombie & Fitch (assuming neither store gives change, so you’ll have to spend the whole thing)?
Hot Topic. They’ve got corsets.
867. Have you ever won a competition?
Yup. A few writing competitions and probably a few other things that I just can’t remember now.
868. Who looks sloppier when they are overweight, guys or girls?
I’m the wrong person to ask this question. I think ladies and dudes look better when they’re heavier.
869. At what age do you become all grown up?
When you stop taking your pants off after 9.
870. Have you ever written graffiti on anything?
Once, in a church. Haha.
871. Can you remember what you wrote?
I drew a tree. Does that even count?
872. Are you a force of nature?
I’m a geyser.
873. What do you think of blue eye shadow?
I don’t look very good with it, but I like it.
How about gold eye shadow?
It’s awesome!
874. Would you ever wear any of the following Halloween costumes:
Flapper?
Hell yes.
Hippie?
Been there, done that.
Disco dancer?
Platform shoes rule.
875. Should birth control be taught in high school?
You mean the USE of birth control? Sure, why not?
How about in jr. high or elementary school?
Why not?
876. Would you consider yourself a genius?
Pfft.
877. What did you think of the movie Solaris?
Never saw it.
878. Which are usually better: movies or books?
Books, yo.
879. Do you think The Hobbit will be made into a movie?
God, that’s all we need, more LotR stuff.
880. Do you research which brands use sweatshops to make their clothing before you shop?
I buy all my crap second hand and usually don’t even notice the brand.
881. What gives you a magical feeling?
A good beat.
882. Have you ever pulled apart a Christmas cracker?
That sounds ridiculously dirty for some reason, hahaha.
But yes.
883. Would you rather watch basketball or play basketball?
Play.
884. Do you think that everyone makes his or her own problems?
We’re all partially responsible for our lives sucking, but I don’t think any one individual is 100% responsible for every single problem in their life.
885. Do you often consider how your actions will affect other people?
Yup.
886. Are J-Lo and Ben Afleck interesting to you at all?
Not really.
887. Do you use bad grammar or hate bad grammar?
It’s pretty obnoxious, but not as obnoxious as the people whose sole goal is pointing out every mistake.
889. Do you like to learn new things?
YES! ‘Tis why I’m in school, after all.
890. What’s more important, fame or personal accomplishment?
Fame, but only if it’s someone’s personal accomplishment!
891. Sweet dreams are made of this….
What are they made of?
Leibniz. WHO ARE YOU TO DISAGREE?!
892. Two trailer park girls go round the outside…round the outside of what?
What?
893. Are you wearing a piece of jewelry that means a lot to you right now?
Yup, the chain Aaron gave me. It’s broken about three separate times now, but I’ll keep wearing it as long as I can keep fixing it.
894. If someone was going to inscribe a message on a ring and give it to you what would you want it to say?
I would ask them to do something else instead; I don’t wear rings.
895. Guys who are losing their hair:
Should they shave their heads?
If they want to.
Get implants?
That’d be kinda creepy.
Or let it go?
If they’re comfortable with that.
896. Do rock stars work hard or lead the easy life?
Probably a bit of both.
897. How much water do you drink every day?
About a liter.
898. Are you driven or kinda apathetic?
Depends on what we’re talking about. But usually I’m pretty damn driven.
899. Who do you turn to when you are down?
My mom. Or nobody. Depending on if I’m sad or pissed.
900. Would you ever wear seran-wrap?
I have.
Is a theorem about pickles called a dill lemma?
Tell me, CNN, what about this story makes it business-related news (at least the booze one was semi-business-relevant)? Are circus careers making a comeback? Should we invest in human cannons? Is Apple releasing the iCannon this summer? TELL US WHY THIS IS CATEGORIZED THERE FFFFFFFFFFFFFF
Can you tell I’m feeling better? I guess I don’t get physically sick, I just mentally screw myself over every few days.
ANYWAY ONTO BUSINESS.
I’m slowly revamping my whole blog design, seeing as how my 5 year anniversary is coming up in a little over a month. My additional pages (those ones up in the tabs there) could use a bit of work, my layout might need a work-over, and I’m not sure if I like my header again, haha.
Also, once I run out of malls, this west- to-east walking tour of Vancouver (and Burnaby and Coquitlam) is happening. 40 kilometers, baby!
Eigenblogger 