Bits n’ Bobs
I’m hyper tonight.
- Two phrases I cannot stand: baby daddy and adorbs. Seriously, people?
- The first three or four times I heard Nicki Minaj’s “Starship” I could have sworn instead of “and if you a G, you a G-G-G” she was saying “and if you a tree, you a tree tree tree.” Go listen to that part. Tell me that’s not what it sounds like.
I need to get off the internet.
- Speaking of the internet: I predict that it won’t be long now until there’s some sort of college major relating directly to the internet. Like Web Studies or something. I can’t remember if I’ve ever said that here or not, but I’m saying it now anyway.
- I like Adele, but Rumour Has It drives me insane. Probably ‘cause I’ve only ever really heard it in the office and since the radio is like halfway down the hall, all I hear is this weird half-melody that’s got a really annoying repetitive nature to it.
- So I think I’m going to have to break down and buy the book form of The Brave Little Toaster because…well, because. Dude, I mean…it’s the brave little toaster.
- I’d forgotten what a downer Prime was. Especially toward the end. It was supposed to be this light-hearted little story about talking numbers. It got dark as hell kind of on its own. It’s also kind of boring in parts. Gotta fix that. Might keep the darkness, though, ‘cause it works.
- The chorus of David Guetta’s Without You really gets me going. This little animated lyrics video adds to that.
- I really miss Rob tonight. What’s up with that?
- I want this.
- I’m in a major drawing mood. I might do something involving the zodiac signs because a) that’d be badass, b) I don’t care if it’s pseudoscience, the zodiac is fun, and c) I want to.
- Dudes, Dethklok’s touring later this year and is coming to Phoenix. Tickets might have to happen.
END!
Parking Lot Adventures: Nature Edition!
I got owned by a dust devil this afternoon.
I left work around 1 PM today. Since it’s summer session at PCC and no one ever comes in on Friday anyway, I was lucky enough to park not only in the main lot but also in a nice shady spot under a tree.
So I’m walking across the parking lot and everything’s fine…it’s not windy at all (surprisingly) and even though it’s like 105 degrees, it felt good after sitting under a blasting air conditioner all morning.
I unlock the car and open up the back driver’s side door so I can throw my backpack back there. I’ve got the upper half of my body in the car (I was trying to bury my backpack under a bunch of stuff so my USBs/iPod/phone/etc. weren’t in the direct sun on the drive home) and my butt sticking out of the door.
As I’m screwing around back there I feel this fairly strong gust of wind hit my back. I didn’t want to stand up and mess up my hair in the wind (I’m vain like that), so I just kind of hung out in the back of the car for a second, bent over with my butt still sticking out.
Then this HUGE gust of wind just slams me in the back, KNOCKING ME INTO THE CAR along with a small forest’s equivalent of tree particulate, dust, and sand. The door slams behind me and I look up just in time to see the tail end of a dust devil go spinning wildly past the car. And all is calm once more.
So now the entire back seat of the car, the front passenger seat, the floor in the back, and all the stuff we had on the back seat (cloth grocery bags, my coat, miscellaneous journals and boxes and whatnot) are covered with tree debris. I got a good shot of it down the back of my shirt, too.
Haha, sorry if this blog seems obvious to you (“dust devils involve wind? DO TELL”) but that was my first up-close-and-personal experience with one. I think they look deceptively weak.
Mother nature: 1
Claudia: 0
Don’t like product placement? Try an ice-cold Coca-Cola instead!
In my 100 Things list, I mention my constant singing of the Frosted Flakes “Hey Tony!” song when I was younger. Here is one such instance.
How these theatrics didn’t get me a paid endorsement job with Kellogg’s is beyond me. There’s a whole 60-minute tape of me doing crap like this.
Also, I still have that shirt. It was the “uniform” I got in T-ball when I played it in first grade.
I Caught a Touch of the Random
One of these months, soon
I’ll post a blog in haiku.
How cool would that be?
In other news, I am really, really digging this song:
It’s got this amazing (sometimes not-so) subtle impending sense of apocalypse to it, just in terms of the music, not even the lyrics. Love it.
And on a completely unrelated note, I’m posting this here because I had a freaking dream about Rebeca and I laughing over it (we never watched it together, but she’s the one who linked to it like three years ago on Facebook):
This was the funniest thing I’d ever seen back when I watched it during an extremely sleep-deprived grad school week.
CANADIAN TAXES TIME!
I am once again in shock regarding how difficult seemingly small/simple things can be when handling things across the US/Canadian border.
I’ve posted this video before, but I’m posting it again to support my point (and because it’s pretty cool):
We’re practically conjoined twins. As such, some of the things one might think as difficult to accomplish on an “international” level (like, I don’t know, moving all your possessions + animals across the border in an unmarked white van with suspicious tinted windows*) are surprisingly easy and hassle-free.
Simpler things, like terminating a Canadian cell phone contract (even after waiting until the contract is up), take OMGWTFBBQ-levels of work.
Taxes? They’re kind of in-between. There’s really no way to explain that yes, I lived in Canada last year, but I lived in two different provinces AND I didn’t actually live there on December 31st because I had to go back to the States in October. So I just wrote a nice little note and stuck it in with my return. Hopefully they’ll get the info they need and not send Dudley Do-Right down to Arizona to get me.
…Though that WOULD be entertaining.
Also: “Dr. Binmidnildedindindin.” God I’m glad Metalocalypse is back.
*Yes, this is how I moved all my stuff up for grad school. Big white just-the-right-size-for-bags-of-illegal-substances van, half-drugged cat on a towel, nervous pair of Idahoans in the front seats. Went inside, showed them my passport and study permit, and we were on our way to Vancouver. Same thing happened going to Ontario.
In This Blog: I finally take some pictures off my camera
A picture from high up on Mount Lemmon.
The car accident damage and our beautiful duct tape job.
A picture from inside the Ag Sci building at UI.
A beautiful cat at a cat show in London.
DEATH STARE!
Yay!
10 Favorite Fonts
Just as the title says! 10th favorite to favorite favorite.
10. Arial Rounded MT Bold
Surprisingly, I’m starting this list off with a sans serif font (the horror!). I’ve always liked Arial Rounded the best out of the 15 or so Arial variants. If Arial Rounded was human, I think it’d be a sexy curvy lady for some reason.
9. Kozuka Gothic Pro B
This is like the simplest font ever. No serifs, no freaky f’s or y’s or g’s, no strange flourishes on any lower- or upper-case letters. And that’s why I like it.
8. Poor Richard
This font makes me want to write. It also reminds me of Ben Franklin, because Poor Richard = Poor Richard’s Almanac automatically in my mind. And we all know Franklin was awesome (and a pimp).
7. Cooper Black
I like Cooper Black because of how bold and heavy it is. I used to use it all the time as my MSN Messenger font…back when I actually conversed with people on a semi-regular basis. It’s also just a good “HEY LOOK AT ME I’M TEXT!” font.
6. Courier New
Courier New used to bother me because it had such “wide” lettering (aka a monospaced font), but now it reminds me of R. Since I’m so into stats and data nowadays, I really like how useful monospaced fonts are when it comes to creating datasheets and keeping things straight.
5. CitonLightDB
This is like a skinny Eurostile font. It’s better for when you want that snazzy Eurostile look but need thinner letters. It’s very “blocky” when you look at a paragraph of text, which I really like the look of.
4. Eurostile
The highest-ranking sans serif, Eurostile appeals to me because it’s got a kind of modern look without being unreadable. I like how “big” the letters seem, even at a small point.
3. Modern No. 20
I like this font because (at least compared to the rest of the fonts on this list) it’s fancy, but not too fancy that it’s difficult to read. I like simple, readable fonts over calligraphy/handwritten style fonts any day, so I like that this font is readable and simple but adds something a little extra. Plus, I really like the way numbers look in this font.
2. Georgia
Georgia has nice round, fat, readable letters. It’s like Times New Roman took a weightlifting class. I used this a lot for my MSN Messenger font, too.
1. Times New Roman
I’m a purist. I love Times New Roman. I think this is the cleanest, crispest, most readable font that has practical use. And SERIFS! Serifs rule. TNR is also a very “traditional” font due to its prominent placement in Word (at least until that obnoxious rebel force Calibri decided to grab the spotlight), and I tend to cling to the familiar.
I’m a TACO SHIP!
Three things in decreasing order of importance:
1.
2. I’m a tactile person. Whenever I go shopping (for clothes, food, miscellaneous fun stuff) I’m always feeling stuff. Like walking through the racks of clothes in Walmart, for example…I have to feel every article of clothing (gotta grope ‘em all!). I’ve actually just recently become aware of this compulsion.
3. I don’t know what to do this fall. In reality, I have no major commitments. My job is technically a temp job, even though I’m working fulltime and am basically a “regular” employee. I reapplied to the U of I so that I could have some form of school to fall back on, ‘cause it’s me and I can’t get enough book learnin’. At the same time, though, I have no obligations to go back. Hell, I could stay down here and take every class offered by Pima Community college; it’s like 80% cheaper than UI, they’ve got good math and writing/fiction classes and what appears to be a pretty comprehensive music program for a community college, and I already work there so I could just go from class-work-class-work-class-home-dinking time everyday and not worry about that. I just want to accrue knowledge!
END! Pointless blog.
Flume
Sucky, sucky, sucky day. Do not wish to speak of it.
So in other news, has anybody ever noticed how average Idaho is at pretty much everything (but potatoes and lentils)? Aside from being one of the most right-wing-insane states, in almost every other way in which states are ranked/measured, Idaho almost always lands very close to the middle. Obviously there are exceptions, though. Did you know that Idaho has the third highest percentage of resident population under the age of 18? And that the state is 5th in geothermal power generation?
And for something totally unrelated: I forgot how badass the soundtrack to Princess Mononoke was.
Last night I dreamt I was a hippo.
It was FANTASTIC.
Random shenanigans, musings, and blah-blah:
- Once I finish my book list, I’ll go back through and read them all again, this time with the goal of reviewing them here.
- I think I’ll make March the month of responding to writing prompts. My creativity is finally starting to heal after the thesis-pounding.
- No, really. I’m not exaggerating. Grad school really was that bad for me.
- My eyes hurt.
- I think I’m having some sort of reaction to the water down here.
- We duct-taped our bumper back together today. It’s pretty awesome-looking. I should take pictures.
- I hate how people completely underestimate my physical strength just because I’m a) female, and b) shorter than hell. I’m stronger than a lot of big dudes I know. Do you know how many times I’ve moved my crap from house to house? I have mega-strength, yo. CLAUDIA SMASH!
- I had approximately nine Tamagotchi eggs when they were so popular way back when. I think I lost them on the plane coming back from my grandma’s in California. I miss them every once and awhile.
People Suck (Part II)
So we got rear-ended this evening by some jackass who decided to flee the scene before we were even able to look up and see the car that did it.
The guy hit us on my side, shattering the back light and bending the right-side frame of the car so that both the trunk and back door no longer open. We think he was trying to change lanes ‘cause he didn’t want to stop in line and nailed us as he peeled out from behind us.
So now we think the car will be totaled, so who knows what’ll happen after that. The worst part is that my mom and I were planning on driving about 30 minutes outside of Tucson tomorrow for a 5k charity race. Obviously that’s not going to happen, which freaking sucks.
Karmic backlash for something, probably. At least neither of us got hurt.
Blah, blah, blah, Valentine’s Day, blah, blah blah.
Valentine’s Day is such a polarizing holiday. You’ve got people saying “OMG I LUVS IT” and others saying “KILL IT WITH FIRE.” What about not giving it a second thought?
So I’ll leave you with this (even though it’s old). Particularly for you, Matt, ‘cause of your bio background. :)
Pasta Junkie
Do you guys wonder if the course of one’s life kind of follows the same pattern as the course of human history? Like, do we each of us have our own Dark Ages? Our own Age of Enlightenment? A Post-Modern era? If so, do we pass through these stages in generally the same order that humanity did? My own life has some strong parallels in terms of “periods” and general sequence, but that just might be me and my overanalyzing.
Anyway.
OH, and here’s something to brighten your day:
This is DJ Earworm’s mashup of the top 25 Billboard hits of 2011 (I was going to post this at the beginning of the year, but nooooo). He’s been doing these since 2007, so if this kind of stuff appeals to you, check out the rest of his YouTube channel. He’s fantastic.
END!
Weekends suck
I had a really super craptastic day today. So all you get is this:
From OKCupid: “Personality traits are based on answers to Match Questions as compared to the OkCupid population. The length of a bar represents how strong that trait is [compared to the average scores for your age] and how confident Staff Robot is in the analysis.”
In other news, I have to redo my “About” page. I’ll do it later when I don’t feel like jumping off a bridge.
Points! Pointspointspointspointspoints
- Big important blog coming up. Been trying to craft it in my head so that it’s as clear as possible.
- I don’t say this enough (or, like ever): thank you to my readers/commenters, both those frequent and those just passing through. I know I’m a sporadic poster and there’s been very few decent-quality blogs as of late, but I very much appreciate your eyes skimming the drivel that pours out of my brain (or lack thereof).
- Fun times in Quiz Land! My main two types:
That is all.
Party all the time! It’s a blog.
Items x 3
Item the First: Goals
Percent of 2012 that is already over: 4.09% (15/366 days)
Percent of my 2,500 mile goal completed: 5.7% (142.62/2,500 miles)
Not too bad. Going to be more difficult once I start work (and school at some point), though.
Item the Second: Frivolity
This is something I surprisingly haven’t come across before today. “Each of the 53 cards represents a day in the year; therefore for every birthday there is a card that holds a profile for you. This is called a Birth Card, and the profile of this card represents your personality and characteristics.”
So in the spirit of “Claudia’s blog loves to explore frivolity on the internet,” here is my card reading + extra info!
I am a Ten of Spades.
The Workaholic Card. Ten of Spades people can be very materialistic and workaholic types and when they are, their home life always suffers, and they suffer with it…There are many spiritual influences present in their life path that can make these people the masters of their destiny and lead them to great heights in helping others. However, there is also the pull towards material accomplishment that can blind them to their possibilities and limit their growth potential. As Spades they have the opportunity to transcend the material through spiritual awareness…these people are capable of great, unattached spiritual love and can have everything they want if they look to their higher sides for direction and guidance. Having both Karma Cards that reside in the Neptune line of the Life Spread can create a tendency towards addictive behavior. Combine that with their drive and the tendency to do everything ‘all the way’ and you find a personality that often goes to extremes, in both good things and bad. They learn through experience and experience life in its fullest. The ups and downs can be dramatic in some cases. The Ten of Spades will meet with endings in this life designed to teach them the value of letting go of personal attachments to ideas and lifestyles. Meeting this challenge, they can live to experience the heights of spiritual awareness and understanding which is a part of their destiny.
Some of the Ten of Spades Issues Concerning Relationships
Highly ambitious and creative, they can become indecisive in the love arena which can lead to problems. They are often unsure of what they truly want in love matters, or they continually attract romantic partners that cannot make the commitment. In either case the outcome is the same – changes and fluctuations in the romantic life…they are very giving and loving and only need to find a way to balance out their desire for a family life with their naturally intense, ambitious nature.
Info about the Spades suit: Spades are the suit of wisdom and wisdom can only be obtained through experience. Though a Clubs may have wealth of knowledge, their knowledge is, by definition, inferior to wisdom. And all Spades people know this. These are the workers of the deck. All the workaholic cards are Spades and any Spades person can be accused of it at one time or the other…Spades are more interested in doing their jobs well than talking about them or becoming too emotionally involved with others. Spades can be stubborn and don’t like it when others try to control them.
Info about Tens: You are a person of personal accomplishment and like to be applauded by many for your work. You tend to overdo things. You are ambitious and can be very successful.
Item the Third: Humor
“Extendended” indeed.
Three Points of Fantastic Insignificance and One Point of Moderate Meh
FANTASTIC INSIGNIFICANCE:
1. I really like the word “toast.” I also really like toasters. Especially brave ones.
2. Yay, I can still run 10k in under an hour, even after not running since August!
3. I found the perfect job for me. Unfortunately, it’s at Twitter and I don’t know if I could go on living with myself if I worked for Twitter. Google, maybe (ASSIMILATION). Twitter? No.
MODERATE MEH:
Another goal I want to add to my New Year’s Resolution list is this: I want to try and make some progress on a new SEM fit index, one that works better overall than the current popular ones. While I don’t think we’ll ever arrive at an index that is as error free as we’re hoping to find, I think there is currently still a lot of room for improvement.
For example, the CFI works very well for detecting discrepancies between the model and the actual data when the discrepancies are at the latent level (e.g., the researcher’s model proposes two latent variables but the model underlying the actual data in reality has three) but does horribly at properly reflecting the degree of misspecification when there are error covariances omitted from a model (CFI shows excellent fit when the omitted error covariance is low or very high; it shows terrible fit when the omission is moderate in size).
I thought I had this super awesome idea the other day to apply a sort of bootstrapping mechanism to act as a fit index, but that’s already been thought up and either a) doesn’t work very well or b) is very hard to implement, as there are several papers on a bootstrap-like fit index but little documentation of the use of it (I didn’t come across it at all during my lit reviews). So maybe I’ll do some more research into that…perhaps my idea of how bootstrapping should be implemented in assessing fit is different (and probably way more incorrect…but whatever).
There are also transformations to look at, too, which would require examining how the minimum fit function changes as the size of the misspecification (as well as the TYPE of misspecification) changes.
You know what all this means? PARTY TIME WITH R!
I might as well be dating it, it’s not like I’ll ever have a boyfriend again.
But that’s okay. R!
OH CRAP it’s another blog
Two joyous items:
1. Hulu now has ALL SIX SEASONS of Chicago Hope. Must acquire money to get Hulu Plus. It’s a total ripoff in general, but it’s worth it to see the rest of the CH seasons.
2. The Piano Guys (two of the best musicians on YouTube) + Coldplay’s Paradise (one of the best songs ever) = this fantasticness:
Also, I forgot how much I love running.
Too Cool for No School
I want school. I is good at book learnin’.
Anyway.
This is my closet.
The left 1/3rd is pants/skirts/dresses. The right 2/3rds is shirts of various sleevage. I own one black shirt. It’s got Hume on it.
I don’t really understand why more adults don’t wear color. I mean seriously, what’s wrong with a little bright clothing to cheer up others? Back at the U of I I recall at least seven distinct times when I was told by someone that their seeing me on campus all decked out in the rainbow made their day significantly nicer.
So why don’t more adults wear bright clothing? Possible reasons:
1. It’s freaking hard to find any. The only reason I have so much bright clothing is because I’ve been stockpiling it up since junior high. There’s a red pair of pants in there I’ve had since seventh grade. I’m probably irrationally attached to my clothes collection simply because it’s taken me so long to acquire it. ‘Cause hey, they don’t make shirts like this just anywhere:
2. Bright clothing is associated with children/childhood, and is thus not “appropriate” attire for adults. Similarly, bright clothing is associated with “oddness” (maybe because careers for which adults don colors are traditionally weird and/or are occupied by strange people—you know, clowns and audacious performers and such) and thus is stigmatizing to wear.
I know it’s how we as humans judge things—first impressions and all that happy jazz—but it still bothers me when people form first impressions of others based on clothing. As long as I don’t have >40% of my boobage hanging out or let people walking behind me see my butt crack, what’s wrong with a rainbow shirt and bright lime green pants?
Clothing is definitely a form of expression, yeah, but maybe it can be viewed as an outlet of creative expression in a world where, for most people, creative expression is otherwise oppressed. If a person is supposed to be reserved and focused on a diligent schedule at their work, for example, perhaps it would be beneficial for them to express their creative side via their clothing? Crappy example, I know, but you get what I’m saying, right?
Blah. I don’t know. I’m just tired of getting evil stares just because I’m not wearing jeans and a dull shirt.
Give me my lime green and orange. I’ll be happy.
Sometimes I like to pretend I matter
Have I mentioned I’m sick of moving?
I’m sick of moving.
This marks the FIFTH TIME THIS YEAR I’ve packed up my stuff and hauled it to some other place in North America.
Random side note:
If Soylent Green is people, why is it green? I wasn’t aware that people are projected to develop chlorophyll by 2022 (no, I haven’t seen the movie, I’ve just read a few brief summaries).
I guess “Soylent Fleshtone” was too on point. And disgusting-sounding.
Random side note version 2:
GOD I LOVE R. If I could write a program for it to make me have its babies, I would.
If I could write a program for it to make me have Leibniz’ babies, I would.
I can’t remember what else I was going to say today.
All Quiet on the Western Font
Sigh.
You know what’s a big deal to me? Fonts.
Has anyone reading this ever seen the old Disney Silly Symphony cartoon called Music Land?
If you don’t have 9 minutes to watch: the story’s about two warring lands in the world of music: the Isle of Jazz, populated by anthropomorphic jazz instruments such as saxophones, trumpets, and guitars, and the Land of Symphony, populated by anthropomorphic—you guessed it—symphonic instruments such as violins, violas, cellos, etc. The princess of Symphony, a young violin, falls in love with the prince of Jazz, a little saxophone. They’re caught canoodling in Symphony, the prince is thrown into jail, and the two lands go to war over the whole thing. The prince escapes and the two lovers row out into the Sea of Discord (haha) separating the two lands and almost drown, causing the parents (Queen of Symphony and King of Jazz) to row out to rescue them. In the end, the queen and king fall in love and the two lands reconcile, creating a Bridge of Harmony across the Sea of Discord (d’awwwww). Seriously, watch the cartoon if you’ve got time, it’s pretty awesome.
Wow, tangent.
Anyway, to bring that back around, that’s kind of the relationship I see when I think of fonts. There’s like a Serif Land and a Sans Serif Land, with Times New Roman and Arial the two respective leaders. They absolutely hate each other and the serif fonts stay well out of the way of the sans serifs. And there’s like this half-breed group of wild semi-serifs that roam outside the boundaries of either land and eat the fonts that stray out of the protection of their respective areas.*
I’ll say it again: fonts are a big deal to me.
Anyway. The main reason I keep redoing my heading for this blog is because I have yet to identify a font as my particular signature font. Times New Roman is certainly my favorite font (serifs > sans serifs, I don’t care what anyone else says), but it’s not MY font. At least not for this blog. I keep jumping around with a few fonts (right now I’m using Metro, which is pretty great but isn’t just right), but every time I check for more to download I either download like 90 different ones and thus consequently have to delete yet another program from Vaio (hard drive = 99.9% full or something like that) while still not getting the right font or I get distracted reading about typography on Wiki.
So yeah, I know it doesn’t matter to anyone else and it’s probably just more annoying than anything else, but just to explain why that little header above keeps changing like every month/week/hour: I am searching for the right font. I know someday it will come.
The end.
Oh, also this, which I’ve posted before but am posting again because it’s hilarious and relevant.
*Do you see what goes on in my head? DO YOU? This is why I can’t take myself seriously.
A Random $1,900 Appears!
As I said on Facebook, random large sums of money appearing in one’s checking account are awesome, except when one does not know the origin of said random large sums.
Yeah, I decided to randomly check my RBC account up in Canada (I’d left exactly $2.90 in there just to keep the account open until tax time) and discovered that that amount had been supplemented an additional $1,900 or so. The record says the money came from UWO, but that’s all the more info I can get.
It was deposited at the end of November; I think I’ll wait until the first of the year to see if another deposit is made at the end of this month and if so, I guess I’ll email somebody there and ask what’s going on. It might all be an error, who knows.
But that would be pretty freaking sweet if it weren’t.
There are some good paying jobs down here that I qualify for, but until I’m hired somewhere, money = nonexistent.
And I want that DNA test thingy; it was supposed to be my present to myself for finishing my Master’s but I never ordered it ‘cause shipping to Canada was like $50 extra.
So we’ll see!
This just in:
I am beyond dumb.
Also, I changed my header to something different than one of the four options in my poll, partially because the two top options are tied and partially because I’m weird.
AND DUMB.
Eigenblogger 