Flu shots are BOGUS, I have the immune system of Zeus!
(A “Claudia is hyper” blog follows. You’ve been warned.)
Can you blister your eardrums with hot, hot tunes?
‘CAUSE I THINK I JUST DID!
(That chord at 2:32 makes me super happy. Also, we’re playing this in Concert Band)
I will not be able to hear by the time I’m 30.
[Insert me not giving a crap and cranking the volume higher]
Also, I got all my Amazon stuff at once.
GRE material, Leibniz-related shenanigans, and Metalocalypse.
Yup, sounds about right.
Edit: oh my god, these season 4 extras are great. “It’s a nice night for flying around in a cuuuuuube!”
Quine, NOOOOOOO!
So I linked to a super awesome discussion of Leibniz’ Monadology the other day, right?
Well, if you’ve listened to that (if you haven’t go do it now, fools!), I highly recommend The Partially Examined Life to get more amazing discussions of a wide variety of philosophical works by some of the major dudes in philosophy. Click on the “Podcasts” tab up at the top to see the whole list of discussions.
Seriously, these are awesome. Next up for me is HUUUUUUME! Freakin’ love Hume, man. That’s why I have this shirt.
Also, UI drama is happening because of my tuition waiver thingy. I had whole rant typed out but I deleted it because I’m trying to deal with frustration in a more constructive manner this year. That will probably end with me repressing everything because that’s just how I am, but what’re you going to do?
OH, and if any of you haven’t seen/heard this yet (or seen anything by DJ Earworm):
Yes, this post was heavy in the “stuff on the internet that’s not mine” material. I’m stressing about the upcoming semester, deal with it.
Frizz Daddy
For anyone curious as to how my hair looks when I blow-dry it:
When I try to comb it, it just frizzes back up like this.
Thus, I don’t blow-dry my hair.
Also, pardon the horrible lighting. My bathroom sucks.
Are you sick of all the calculus stuff yet?
Got my “Newton v. Leibniz” paper work-shopped today and my teacher said it sounded like something out of The New Yorker. So that was pretty cool.
I’ll post it here once I edit it a little more. There are still a few parts I’m not happy with.
ANYWAY.
If there’s anyone else out there who really digs the history of science/philosophy of science/science in general, they might want to check out the works of Carl Djerassi. Dr. Djerassi, an emeritus professor at Stanford, writes “science-in-fiction.” This, he says, is different than science fiction but also different than biography, as it illustrates scientific history via the human, personal sides of some of the most prominent scientists and scientific events that we’ve seen. In addition to fiction, he also writes poetry, memoir, and plays. I recommend “Calculus” because…well, obvious reasons.
Anyway, check out some of his work if this sounds interesting to you. I just spent like two hours reading his stuff and researching him. Very cool dude.
That’s all!
Stuff ‘n Noise, Noise n’ Stuff
Things.
1. This is the most horribly designed infographic ever.
2. This study is old news now I suppose, but I still find it disturbing. 53% of 16-30 year olds would give up their sense of smell for Facebook? What in the hell, people. I’d happily trade all social networking, perhaps even my blogging, for the ability to smell.
3. “Newton, Leibniz, and Pascal were all playing Hide-and-Seek, and it was Leibniz’s turn to count. Pascal immediately runs off and finds a great hiding spot, while Newton simply stands out in the open and draws a one-meter square on the ground around himself. Leibniz finishes counting, and when he looks up, he sees Newton. ‘Aha!’ he yells, ‘I found you!’ Newton responds, ‘No, you found one Newton per square meter- You found Pascal!’” (source)
DONE!
Again, sorry my blogs have been sucking always lately. Crazy semester is crazy.
Thanksgiving!
Happy Thanksgiving peoplez! My mom and I spent the morning driving all around, then I worked on Newton vs. Leibniz while helping her chef, then we had mashed potatoes and broccoli and it was awesome.
This year I am thankful for:
- My mom, of course. I’m really glad I got to spend a few days with her over break.
- The opportunity to further my education. I missed school SO. MUCH. Now that I’m back, I’m not sure if I’ll ever leave.
- My freaking awesome badass job. I love teaching statistics. It doesn’t feel like work AT ALL.
There are a lot of little things, too, but those are the main ones.
Enjoy today, y’all!
Claudia vs. Dramamine (spoiler: the Dramamine wins)
Claudia’s Top Ten Reasons Why She Shouldn’t Ever Take Dramamine:
- Dry-swallowing those starchy little pills sucks.
- The instant Placebo Effect from swallowing said starchy little pill is strong, but not strong enough to beat psycho turbulence caused by the Pacific Northwest’s mercurial climate.
- They make me loopy and then freaking KNOCK ME OUT.Seriously, I took one at like 2 PM yesterday and by the time it was 7 or so I was so freaking out of it that I couldskdfnantdf..
- [sleeps]
- [wakes up] Huh? What? Did I fall asleep? Sorry. I meant to say that Dramamine really jussdlat aldkfafsfao adgpjaeaf…[sleeps]
- [sleeps]
- [sleeps]
- [sleeps]
- [sleeps]
- [wakes up] Wait…what was I doing again?
In related news: I’m in Tucson!
Sweet Jesus, I’m hyper.
It’s 5 AM and I’ve been giggling like an idiot for like the past three hours FOR NO GOOD REASON. Once you pass a certain degree of sleep deprivation, everything on the internet is HILARIOUS.
Seriously. At 5 this morning, this is what had me on the floor laughing like a moron:
Yes, a comparison chart of temperature scales had me ROTFL. Don’t you judge me!
Other stupid observations made over the last three hours:
- This infomercial is comparing aging women to rotting melons. This is need-to-know info! How can I keep from turning into a dilapidated casaba?
- All my Facebook ads are for plastic surgery. That makes me…disturbed.
- Now I’ve got the TV on mute with the closed captions on. Paula Deen’s on some cooking show and every time I look up I see the word “butter” on the screen.
- Leibniz’ first calculating machine was called the “Step Reckoner.” If that’s not the best death metal band name ever, I don’t know what is.
- Oh my god, all the band members would have to wear massive wigs. I would go to one of their concerts in a nanosecond.
Okay. Now it’s time to pretend to pack for a few minutes while I listen to Dethklok and pretend they’re a bunch of 17th century big-wigged dudes screaming about death.
Claudia’s Stupid and Ridiculously Short Blog Post
If I ever write a book/paper/thesis/something on the philosophy of calculus, I’m going to title it “dx/dwhy.”
Sung to the intro of Bohemian Rhapsody:
Is this some free time
Or just a fantasy?
Caught in a down time
I shall escape from reality.
I’m gonna play Quake
Or maybe some Fallout 3…
First time I’ve had free time since the start of the semester. Time to fire up the Xbox!
Pardon me while I go throw up for a bit
Holy freaking crap, have any of you been in the bathrooms in the Mines building? I opened the door to the third floor women’s bathroom by the College of Science office and I almost had a seizure.
I felt like I was in one of those glass-floored checkered rooms that they put babies in to test and see if they’ve got depth perception yet.
I think I’m a witch, guys
Remember that whole creepy-beating-the-odds thing with the 13-digit number last week? Well today my TA returned a stack of homeworks to me so I brought them to my office and started in on alphabetizing them. This involved splitting the big pile into two smaller ones. So I attempt to do that, but it turns out that the unsorted pile was actually naturally divided into two sections: the first containing last names starting with A – L, the other containing last names starting with M – Z.
Which is creepy on its own.
So I go through the A – L pile and alphabetize, then I go on to the M – Z pile. Well, guess what?
IT WAS ALREADY ALPHABETIZED.
Please keep I mind that my TA does not attempt to alphabetize the homeworks as he grades and has told me that he usually grades them in the order they are in the original pile I hand him.
So yeah.
Creepy stuff, man.
What are the odds?
Holy freaking crap, you guys.
HOLY. FREAKING. CRAP.
I beat some incredibly ridiculous odds today.
I was in the library this afternoon writing my lecture. This week we’re talking about random variables, so I wanted to create an example of both a discrete random variable and a continuous random variable. I wanted to show that a continuous variable can take on ANY value in a given interval, so I decided to just mash the number pad on the keyboard to come up with a number with a bunch of decimals. So I mashed away and got this: 128.3671345993.
Satisfied with this as an example, I turned the page in our textbook to keep working. And what was the book’s example for a continuous variable? 128.3671345993.
WHAT.
What the hell are the odds of that? (0.0000000001:1 discounting the decimal point).
Ridiculous odds are ridiculous. I had a little heart attack in the library.
Man, look at the air quality today
I missed the “early” bus this morning and was going to walk to campus, but last time I walked in this much smoke my eyes hurt for like three days straight. Since I have to proctor my students taking their exam today, I decided I would kind of prefer to have my eyesight for the morning and just waited for the “late” bus.
But tomorrow is WALKING DAY! I love Fridays for that reason alone. I should go to the fair, too. Anyone want to go to the fair with me?
This is perhaps the most hilarious thing I’ve read in awhile
Oh man. This is fantastic.
“The Swedish Chef does not speak any known language, and the fact that his nonsense words are so widely interpreted as Swedish-sounding is bewildering and annoying to Swedes.”
“Riad, one of 18 members of the prestigious Swedish Academy, which determines who wins the Nobel Prize in literature, wrote an article in the Swedish language magazine Spraktidningen titled “Börk Börk Börk. Ehula Hule de Chokolad Muus.””
““There are three things that people talk to Swedes about pretty uniformly: the Swedish Chef, Abba, and Ikea.””
Hahahaha. Gotta love the Swedes.
Brain Spaz
GOD these last two weeks have been like one long nostalgia trip. My brain is very, very confused.
As a somewhat related component, this SMBC comic speaks to me in particular, ‘cause this is kind of how I see things. And it’s kind of what I’m doing with going back to school.
Another life.
Random stuff from 23andMe ’cause I’m bored.
I was messing around on 23andMe this afternoon. Here are two little graphics showing the distribution of hair color and eye color for the 23andMe community. The ones with the little green blat next to them were my choices.
My milkshake brought all the boys to the yard. Now what?
I have nothing interesting to blog about today (but what else is new)? Therefore, you get random Claudia thoughts.
- Where do paranoid people go to recover after a severe illness? Somehow a place called the “ICU” doesn’t seem appropriate…
- I had an almost irresistible urge to play with a Lite Brite this morning. Are those even sold anymore? Do the toy regulators think the little pegs are a too-risky choking hazard to even be on the market?
- Speaking of super risky toys, that reminds me of Creepy Crawlers! Back when my grandma and grandpa lived in St. Louis and my mom and I went to visit, we played with this so much. Basically, the toy consisted of a bunch of different metal molds of bugs, a hot-plate type thingy, tongs, and Plasti-Goop. You’d squeeze the different colors of Goop into the molds, put the molds on the hot plate (or in the hot plate oven…I actually can’t remember), wait for the Goop to form in the mold, then dunk the burning hot molds in water before pulling out your now perfectly formed plastic bugs out with the tongs. Between the red hot molds, the hot plate, the undoubtedly toxic Goop, and the fact that said Goop probably looked like appetizing little snacks to many children, this was like eighty safety hazards at once. But that’s what makes it awesome. Anyway.
- Where the hell has the first seven months of the year gone?
- We use “iff” for “if and only if,” right? Well, why don’t we carry that over for writing the inclusive versus exclusive “or”? Why not use “or” when stating that you can have either option or BOTH options (e.g., “I can listen to music or I can paint my room”—there is no indication that I can’t do both) and then use “orr” when referring to the exclusive or (e.g., “You can get the soup or salad at a restaurant”—usually, they won’t let you have both). It looks a lot better than XOR/EOR/EXOR, etc. Just a thought.
- Tumblr has taken over my soul.
- I’ve watched so much Rage Quit these past few days that like 60% of my inner dialogue is Michael comments.
- Speaking of Rage Quit, here’s another one for you all. Because 3:48 had me laughing like crazy. And because of the Fallout reference. As always, if excessive cursing offends you, don’t watch.
Edit: courtesy of letsplaygifs:
This post sucks
I forgot I had a camera, haha. Here’s a random pic dump. Because I want to and because this week’s been boring.
Only in Idaho are cows this close to mall parking lots…
A can of Red Bull defying gravity while balanced on my knee.
Flower after a mega storm.
Party time in Brink.
END!
*Someone’s* getting a raise…
So I just saw the laziest political slogan/catchphrase ever.
My mom and I were driving to go look at kitties this afternoon. One of the little political yard signs we passed was this:
“It’s time for a new sheriff.” Say it in your head just like that, not putting the natural emphasis on “new.”
My first reaction was, “well, yeah, technically. Since it’s election time and all…”
Then I laughed for about half an hour straight. It reminded me of that news story headline a couple years ago: “Plumbing Store’s Inventory Destroyed by Flooding.”
Life’s hilarious sometimes.
Today consisted of…
Looking at kitties at the Humane Society.
Cleaning.
Half Life.
Metalocalypse.
Very little else.
Good day.
Eigenblogger 