Classes!
Heeeey, so my second year (fourth year technically, but who’s counting?) of grad school started today! I was all excited to give you a review of my classes like I always do when a new semester starts, but then I remembered I only have two classes total—one that starts today and one that starts tomorrow.
BUT I WON’T LET THAT STOP ME!
Today was Theory of Estimation, taught by Dr. Chen. It sounds like it’s going to be an interesting class…not sure if it’s going to be as hard as the class he taught last fall. We shall see.
I also had my first TA assignment today, but my schedule’s still being thrown around, so who knows if I’ll have to do the same thing next week.
Short blog is short!
Numbers multiplied by two don’t get mad…they get even.
So school starts up again tomorrow. And I’m super nervous about it.
Well, okay, I’m always super nervous about school. I’ve basically been in high anxiety mode since 2006. You might wonder what the hell I’m so nervous about. I’ve had almost a decade of college now (DEAR GOD, THAT’S DEPRESSING) and I’ve already gone through a master’s program. What’s the big deal?
The big deal is the following: that first master’s program? That was the worst two goddamn years of my life. Every day was miserable and the thought of going to campus made me physically ill on several occasions. I hated meeting with my supervisor because I knew I would get berated to some degree no matter what we were talking about.
I was so nervous and stressed out that most of the second year is gone from my memory. Seriously. I don’t remember much school-wise beyond just being miserable and wanting to quit. I wanted to quit so badly. I honestly have no idea how I finished that thesis and successfully defended it. My fear and anxiety made me procrastinate and I really didn’t get started on things until March (I had to defend in June). Really, I was just not in a good mental place that entire year.
And while I know this time is almost completely different in every aspect, I still have that fear and anxiety about the process. And I still get nauseous whenever I have to meet with Dr. Chen just because of how bad things were between my supervisor and me before. I know Dr. Chen’s not like that at all, but there’s still that fear.
There’s still the fear about everything regarding this whole thing.
And that’s why I’m super nervous.
Yeah, why not
Favourite childhood book?
A Fly Went By by Dr. Seuss. Best Seuss book ever.
What are you reading right now?|
I started reading Exodus by Leon Uris, but it’s due back on the 15th and there’s no way I can finish it by then, especially since school is starting. I might get back into that Newton bio instead.
What books do you have on request at the library?
None.
Bad book habit?
Checking books out of the library and then returning them 10,000 years later. Libraries hate me.
What do you currently have checked out at the library?
Exodus, Their Eyes Were Watching God, The Ox-Bow Incident, and One Flew Over the Cuckoo’s Nest. None of them are overdue, though, so be proud of me!
Do you have an e-reader?
Nope. I’m not against them or anything (and I don’t really understand why people think they don’t “count” as books), but I don’t know if I could read on one. I like holding a physical books.
Do you prefer to read one book at a time, or several at once?
One at a time.
Have your reading habits changed since starting a blog?
Nope. At least, I don’t think so. I might read less than I used to, but that’s because of school.
Least favourite book you’ve read this year (so far)?
Probably The Stranger by Camus. It’s not bad, it just was my least favorite book I’ve read this year.
Favourite book you’ve read this year?
The Caine Mutiny. Always The Caine Mutiny.
How often do you read out of your comfort zone?
Rarely. I’ll only read fantasy/sci-fi if it’s on my book list. Luckily, there aren’t many books from those genres on the list, so I’m safe.
What is your reading comfort zone?
Pretty much anything but fantasy. Not too much of a mystery fan, either.
Can you read on the bus?
Indeed! I used to get sick, but I trained myself to be able to read on the bus in Vancouver since my bus ride to school was like an hour long.
Favourite place to read?
On the recumbent bike. Two things at once!
Do you ever dog-ear books?
My own, yes.
Do you ever write in the margins of your books?
Just in textbooks. And in my Leibniz bio, in which there are notes on pretty much every page.
What is your favourite language to read in?
Hahaha, the only language I can read: English.
What makes you love a book?
I’m a sucker for a really, really good ending. A book can be mediocre up until the last page or so, but if the ending strikes me as awesome, I’ll end up liking the book overall. I’m also swayed by characterization more than pretty much anything else.
Favourite genre?
Does “classics” count?
Genre you rarely read (but wish you did)?
Bah.
Favourite biography?
ARE YOU KIDDING IT’S ANTOGNAZZA’S LEIBNIZ BIO GO READ IT YOU PLEBS
Have you ever read a self-help book?
Yes, technically, but it was for a psych class.
Favourite cookbook?
The internet!
Favourite reading snack?
Nothing!
Name a case in which hype ruined your reading experience.
“To Kill a Mockingbird is great!” No. Go die in a fire.
If you could read in a foreign language, which language would you choose?
Latin. Then I could read ORIGINAL LEIBNIZ.
Most intimidating book you’ve ever read?
The Crying of Lot 49. Just because I still have no idea what it was about even after reading it.
Favourite poet?
Kilmer? I dunno.
How many books do you usually have checked out of the library at any given time?
2 or 3.
How often have you returned books to the library unread?
Frequently, unfortunately. I think I have more time to read than I actually do.
Favourite fictional character?
Jay Gatsby. Phileas Fogg is up there, too.
Favourite fictional villain?
Does Queeg count? He’s not really a villain, but he’s treated as one.
Books you’re most likely to bring on holiday?
Whatever I’ve checked out at the library.
Name a book that you could/would not finish.
The Grapes of Wrath by Steinbeck. I just can’t handle Steinbeck.
What distracts you easily when you’re reading?
A lot. I’m distractable.
How often do you skim a book before reading it?
I’ll read the first page to see if I’ll like the style and what not.
What would cause you to stop reading a book halfway through?
I realize I’m reading To Kill a Mockingbird AGAIN.
Do you like to keep your books organized?
Yes. But I organize them by height, not by author or title or any sensible arrangement.
Do you prefer to keep books or give them away once you’ve read them?
I very rarely buy books (fiction, at least). I have to really like a book to actually BUY it.
Are there any books you’ve been avoiding?
Steinbeck.
Name a book that made you angry.
TO KILL A MOCKINGBIRD. I REALLY DO NOT LIKE THAT BOOK.
A book you didn’t expect to like but did?
The Ox-Bow Incident, when I first read it. I got through the first page and was like, “oh great, a western. Wonderful.” But it turned out to be a really interesting story.
A book that you expected to like but didn’t?
I thought I would really like Journey to the Center of the Earth, since I’d liked the other Verne books I’d read, but it was my least favorite of his.
Duck Army
(note: all YouTube versions because they’re easier to embed)
Alright, so here’s another example of why I love the internet. Some guy uploads this Vine, right?
(Actually I think it was uploaded somewhere else first, but the Vine is what made it popular.)
You can always trust the internet to take things to the next step.
That last one is the best.
Headphonin’
OOH, I forgot to mention that my mom and I walked to Market Mall a few days ago (was that Wednesday? Tuesday?) and went to the Apple store there ‘cause we’re attracted by the shiny technology. I wanted to look at the new iPods, even though I have absolutely no reason to get one until my old one dies (which I hope doesn’t happen; I like my old one!).
Anyway, they had a few of them on display with headphones plugged in, both so that you could see how the iPods worked and to test out the headphones they had for sale at the store. One set was particularly cool-looking and good-sounding:
(Picture from here)
These are the MH40 headphones from Master & Dynamic. They were really comfortable (they fit over my industrial piercing quite well) and had a good sound. I was tempted to get a pair, but they’re like $400 (even on Amazon), so that’s not going to happen any time soon.
But they look cool!
(Note to mom and Nate: you are not allowed to buy me these. I forbid it.)
NEWS!
We got a kitty!
This actually happened yesterday, but I needed to rant about Google yesterday and Jasmine (our new kitty) is super, super shy anyway and we haven’t interacted with her much. But she’s the quietest, smallest, sweetest little thing ever! Nate and I were discussing getting a cat after Christmas sometime, but when we saw Jasmine, it was basically instant love.
We got her at a pet store, but the pet store sells rescue animals from the Animal Rescue Foundation of Alberta. Jasmine was rescued from a hoarder home that had a total of 40 cats in it. She’s missing a whole bunch of teeth, but is super sweet and chill. She’s really scared right now, but we expected that, especially since she had to get a few teeth pulled before we could take her home and her mouth is probably very sore. I’ll update y’all with pictures once she gets more comfortable around us and a camera doesn’t scare her.
Edit: holy freaking crap, she’s the loudest purring cat EVER. It’s wonderful.
Edit 2: she loves it when Nate and I sit on the couch together. She jumps up next to him and rolls around while we love her.
Edit 3: these are the best pictures I can take of her right now. She’s not like Annabelle, who would pose for the camera when she saw it.
Warning: excessive cursing ahead (blame Google)
What the fuck is this
What in the fuck is this
WHAT IN THE ACTUAL FUCK IS THIS
Google, you inconsistent pile of nonsense, what was wrong with your previous logo?
Hell, what was wrong with your previous font? Anybody who knows me knows how much I hate sans serif fonts.
(For anybody that doesn’t know me: it’s a lot.)
I don’t like that using a sans-serif is becoming the equivalent of being “modern.” It’s not being modern. It’s being shit. I think there’s a correlation between how long a site’s been using a sans-serif font as their logo (or as part of their logo) and how much that site sucks.
Let me give you some examples:
Twitter has always had a sans serif font, and Twitter has always sucked. And what’s with the “t” in this font? It looks like a little airplane seat.
An airplane seat for losers.
Facebook has always had a sans serif font, too. Coincidentally, Facebook has pretty much always sucked as well.
Now let’s look at some websites that don’t suck. Notice that they all use serif fonts.
HOLY SHIT IT’S A CONSPIRACY.
Nnnngh the sans serif nonsense is such an annoying fad. Like, I know Google has changed its logo in the past, but this is too dramatic, I think. Seriously, Google, you were doing fine with variations of this…
(source)
It’s a good font. A good font. But then you somehow find the font equivalent of diarrhea residue and MAKE IT YOUR NEW LOGO’S TYPEFACE?
I am so irrationally aaaaaaaaaaaaaaaangry because of this.
At least they’re still capitalizing their name.
So help me god, if they stop capitalizing their name…
Edit: if you search “Google logo” you get this field of insanity. I don’t know about you, but this looks terrifying.
A Year in Calgary: Walking Edition
A year ago today, I moved to Calgary. So what better way to celebrate than to give you all my walking stats for the past year?
Total mileage: 2,162.6 (that’s approximately equal to the distance from Seattle to Atlanta)
Average miles per day: 7.33
Total steps: 4,548,608
Average steps per day: 15,419.01
Average speed: 3.83 MPH
Here’s a graph of my mileage per month.
December, January, and February are low because of CANADIAN WINTER (which actually wasn’t too bad, but still); May and June were low because of our road trip and moving to the condo. April is highest because I was switching to my new shoes on May 1st and I was trying to pack as many miles onto the old shoes as I could.
Here’s a graph of my mileage per week day over the course of the year.
I was surprised Monday was highest; I would have guessed Thursday or Saturday. Though I guess my weekly walking pattern changed once I met Nate. It’ll be interesting to see what next year’s graphs look like! Hopefully I can beat the 2,162.6 miles.
Book Review: The Ox-Bow Incident (Clark)
WELL TODAY SUCKED.
But let’s not talk about that. Let’s do a book review instead.
Let’s review The Ox-Bow Incident by Walter Clark! Spoilers as usual.
Have I read this before: Yes! Summer of 2007.
Review: I like this book, man. It’s technically a western, which is about on par with fantasy in terms of being a genre that I’m not particularly fond of, but it’s a good book. It’s a story about a mob that goes out searching for a group of supposed cattle rustlers and murderers. There is a wide variety of opinions within the mob regarding the legality and moral implications of their plans (lynching the suspected rustlers/murderers once they’re found). Even though the book is written from the perspective of one of the drifters who kind of gets drawn into the mob, you really get a good sense of these different perspectives, especially the perspective of Davies, the man who is most strongly opposed to the lynchings. Despite a decent amount of opposition once they find the three rustling/murdering suspects, the mob ends up lynching them. Once they return to town, they find out that the suspects were telling the truth—they neither rustled any cattle nor murdered anyone.
Favorite part: It’s pretty bad to say this is my favorite part, but I really enjoyed the struggle of Davies as he discusses his guilt with Art (one of the drifters) after they return to town from the lynching.
“There wasn’t proof,” I [Art] said angrily. “You don’t get all set for a hanging and stop for some little feeling you have.”
“You might,” he [Davies] said, “when you’re hanging on a feeling too.”
Rating: 6.5/10
THE AUGUST LIST
- I’ve never understood why ordering a well-done steak is apparently the dining equivalent of book burning. I’ve had steak like once in my life, but I’d rather eat a charred piece of dry meat than something that’s actively bleeding. Why is that so wrong?
- Here’s another awesome song from Nate.
- Watch Community. It’s hilarious.
- Is it sad that my little jaunt back to Moscow made me really homesick for it? I mean, I love Calgary and everything I’ve got going on up here, but for some reason I’m really missing Moscow now. And I still miss Vancouver a hell of a lot sometimes, too, despite how miserable I was over there. Bah.
- Crap, I have to write a master’s thesis again. Don’t wanna.
- So when I was writing last Wednesday’s blog, this happened:
Word 2013 knows who SpongeBob is. The older versions didn’t.
- My walking clothes are obscenely sun-faded. I’ll post pics whenever I remember to post pics.
- Here’s a video of trees looking all wobbly through a rainy window pane back during the last storm here:
The August list is OVER!
[ignore me]
A poem by Claudia:
I am worthless.
I am worthless.
I am worthless?
I am worthless.
I AM WORTHLESS
I
AM
WORTHLESS
I am
W
O
R
T
H
L
E
S
S
.
Worthelssworthlessworthlessworthless.
Worth
Less.
The end.
Back to Calgary
My mom and I drove back to Calgary today. She’s going to spend about a week up here hanging out with us before driving back to Moscow. Which is good, ‘cause I really miss her.
And the border crossing was super easy!
Now have some .gifs, ‘cause I don’t have anything else to blog about.
Moscow Dust (Warning: Gross Feet)
I wear little ankle-high socks when I walk. That’s the only time I don’t mind short socks.
Anyway, I walked about 8 miles today and I had these nice little dust leggings by the time I got back home. I would have had to walk more than 20 miles to get the same dust build-up in Calgary.
Must be the dryness.
(Apologies for my gross legs; I didn’t have anything else to blog about today.)
(Also, I have the cankles of a god.)
A SURVEY FOR THE AGES! (not really.)
Top 3 ice cream flavors.
Oreo, mint chocolate chip, cookie dough.
Top 3 Disney Movies.
Toy Story, The Great Mouse Detective, Muppet Treasure Island. (I’m using a very broad definition of what counts as a Disney movie. Fight me.)
Top 3 vacation destinations.
Antarctica, Hanover, Stockholm.
Top 3 places to shop.
Like…stores? Goodwill, Superstore, Walmart. (Aren’t I classy?)
Top 3 subjects of study/classes to take.
Statistics, art, music.
Top 3 make up products.
Uh…whatever the hell foundation I use, whatever the hell eyeshadow I use, and Maybelline mascara. That’s pretty much all I ever use anyway.
Top 3 music artists.
Coldplay, WALK THE MOON, Barenaked Ladies. (At least right now.)
Top 3 spices/herbs.
Pepper. That’s it. I can’t taste herbs, so I don’t use them, and I don’t like spice.
Top 3 drinks.
Water, milk, RED BULL.
Top 3 apps to use.
iTreadmill, my little Yahtzee! app, and my Measures app.
Top 3 months of the year.
February, July, December.
Top 3 clothing items.
My baggy green pants, my Black Mesa shirt, and my psychedelic dog dress thing.
Top 3 binge perfect tv shows.
Metalocalypse, Chicago Hope, Community.
Top 3 romantic dates.
Anyplace can be romantic if you’re with the right person.
Top 3 kinds of flower.
Sunflower, poppy, and those ones that look like colored puff balls. Zinnias?
Top 3 Christmas movies.
Home Alone, The Santa Clause, A Christmas Story.
Top 3 kinds of candy.
Peanut M&Ms, Reese’s, gummi worms.
Top 3 ways to exercise/ be active.
Walking, using the stationary recumbent bike (so I can read), and running (though I haven’t run in awhile).
Top 3 most used websites.
Google, WordPress, Tumblr.
Top 3 people you last texted.
My mom, Nate, and Charles. (Though my text to Charles was from May or something.)
Top 3 hashtags you use.
NO.
Top 3 Instagram accounts you follow.
I don’t follow any Instagram accounts.
Top 3 things you’d buy if you gained three million dollars.
Give money to family/friends, buy tickets to Hanover, more school.
Top 3 scents.
No.
Top 3 fruits.
Apple, banana, watermelon.
Top 3 crayola colors.
Cerulean, orange, yellow.
Top 3 things you hope to accomplish in college.
To finish.
Top 3 people you miss right now.
My mom, Sean, Megan.
Top 3 pet peeves.
People who don’t understand walking etiquette, people who understand walking etiquette but choose not to use it, people who don’t understand how the crosswalk buttons work. THEY FREAKING SAY WHICH STREETS THEY’RE FOR, DAMMIT, HOW HARD IS IT? YOU CAN PUNCH THE BUTTON THROUGH THE POST AND IT STILL WON’T LET YOU CROSS 29TH STREET BECAUSE IT’S NOT FOR CROSSING 29TH STREET.
Top 3 physical things you find attractive.
Stomach, eyes, smile.
Top 3 bad habits.
M&Ms, not sleeping, being me.
Top 3 languages you wish to speak.
German, French, Latin (it counts, dammit).
Top 3 pizza toppings.
Cheese, olives, mushrooms.
Top 3 YouTubers you’re subscribed to.
RoosterTeeth, HowToBasic, 5secondfilms.
Top 3 authors.
Fitzgerald, Verne, Nabokov.
Top 3 historical figures.
Leibniz, Leibniz, Leibniz.
Top 3 dream jobs.
Statistician, psychometrician, Leibniz expert.
Top 3 spongebob episodes.
Band Geeks, Jellyfish Jam, Rock Bottom.
Top 3 things to do in the rain.
Stay inside, feel depressed, miss Vancouver.
Top 3 things to do in the snow.
Refuse to wear a jacket, complain about being cold, frolic.
Top 3 art mediums.
Colored pencil, regular pencil, clay.
Top 3 sports to watch.
Baseball, Olympics (totally counts), figure skating.
Top 3 Taylor Swift songs.
Shake It Off, Blank Space, Style.
War of the Words: Nate and Claudia Play Scrabble
Hello, people! So I did all of this stuff over the weekend/in the airport, but because of craziness with the flight and everything yesterday, I’m just posting it now.
Okay? Okay.
Nate and I have been playing Scrabble approximately once a week since the beginning of the year.* We have been recording our scores since we first started playing (for a total of 26 games), and I have been taking pictures of our completed Scrabble boards for the past 17 games.
NOW IT IS TIME FOR OUR SCRABBLE GAME-RELATED STATS.
Before we look at our performances, I want to preface this by saying that Nate has the incredible talent of pulling all the vowels all the time, which is the only reason his average is lower than mine. I’m sure if he didn’t have the Scrabble Curse of Vowels and was able to pull the Q, J, and X as often as I do, our scores would be much more equal.
Just sayin’.
Here are our point stats.
Holy crap, my standard deviation is huge. Nate’s super consistent; I’m all over the place.
Here are box plots!
I should do a test of equal means (paired t-test) and a test of equal variance, but I’m pretty sure they’d both come up as significantly different.**
Here are our score trends across the 26 games.
I also made a heat map of the Scrabble board! Here is a heat map of our most frequently used tile spaces based on the 17 pictures of our completed boards. Yellower squares indicate more frequent use; bluer squares indicate less frequent use. Obviously the center square is the yellowest because the first word in every game has to touch it. This center square had the maximum number of uses (17), but all tile spaces were used at least once.
There was another heat map I made which highlighted which squares had the highest number of points placed on them across the 17 games (calculated by just summing the point totals of all the tiles placed on each given square over all the games), but that wasn’t as interesting.
Now we have SUPER SCRABBLE, so that’s going to start happening soon. New data!
*Not every week, though, and we played a few games in 2014, but that’s all irrelevant anyway.
**They did.
Sleep App-nea
Nate found this app called Sleep Cycle, which tracks the quality/rhythm of your sleep based on how much you move at night. I wanted to try it, so I found a version for my iPad (my iPod’s software is too out of date to run it) and gave it a try.
It hates me.
I haven’t gotten a single “sleep quality” rating over 50%, but I’m guessing that’s because I often sleep less than 5 (sometimes 4) hours a night. Also, some of the movements it picks up are probably from Nate’s side of the bed instead of mine.
But I already seem to have a pretty consistent sleep pattern as far as my movement goes.
I also don’t sleep much at all, but I already knew that.
Cool!
HOT FLATTERY
I really like my clothes.
Is that like the most incredibly materialistic thing to say?
But seriously. I really like my clothes. I’ve spent a lot of years amassing clothes that are colorful and unique, and I’m very proud of my little collection.
I know that sounds super weird, but I am. I’ve got some pretty funky clothes, yo. Some of them I’ve had since high school.
Sorry, I was just looking at my closet this morning and the rainbow made me happy.
So this is awesome
Dudes. This is so cool.
From what I’ve read about it, all the player has to do is press “forward” and the track does the rest with the power of PHYSICS.
Also, that music rocks. It’s The Pink Fields by Doxx & Feint, just fyi.
Trebekker
Have you ever wondered if the Jeopardy! games were recorded somewhere? And if so, where?
Well, they ARE recorded, and it’s on the internet!
(Of course.)
The website is called J! Archive and it contains (almost) every Jeopardy! game played since Alex Trebek started hosting way back in 1984. Since we can’t get Jeopardy! up here in Canada unless we watch it on the Spokane channel (which we can’t, ‘cause we don’t have cable), Nate and I are just going through the episodes, starting way back at season 1, and playing though the questions. It’s pretty fun (despite the fact that 1984 Jeopardy! is not nearly the well-oiled game show machine it is today).
The website also has a search function, just in case you want to see if a particular word or phrase shows up in any questions or answers.
YAY!
I went for a walk today. It was weird.
Reasons why it was weird:
- There was a guy dragging a big screen TV by a rope as he walked down the sidewalk. It was a big TV—like a 62” one or something—and it was like he was out taking it for a walk. I asked him if he needed help, thinking he was dragging it to the curb to throw it away or something, but he was like, “nope, I’m good!” and kept walking it.
- I saw four—yes, four—different couples walking around where the woman was holding a bag of groceries and the man was holding a watermelon. This wouldn’t have been as weird if the four sightings had been in a relatively concentrated area, but they were all over the place.
- This kid (he was like 12 or something? I have no idea) rode his bike up to me while I was going up 14th street and started talking about the Illuminati.
Strange walk. Strange walk.
Book Review: Their Eyes Were Watching God (Hurston)
It’s another book review! Let’s look at Their Eyes Were Watching God by Zora Neale Hurston.
Have I read this before: Yes, but I can’t remember when. Which means it was a long time ago.
Review: The further I read into this, the more I remembered it from the first time I read it. I always like the idea of a book in the form of one of the characters just sitting down and relating the entire story; I think you get really immersed in their point of view and how they think. That works really well in this book. Janie sits down with a neighbor and basically relays the rest of the book as a story from her perspective, from her childhood all the way up to what led her to sitting with her neighbor. Since you get everything in her voice (literally), you can really see how she reacts in each relationship she discusses and how she matures through each one.
Favorite part: I like the tone of this book overall, but the small little part that really stuck out to me was the beautiful metaphor Janie describes near the beginning of the book. As a teen, she sees a bee gathering pollen from a cherry blossom, which becomes to her a representation of an ideal relationship. She sees it as a flawless, effortless coming together of two individuals rather than something that requires a lot of work. I just like how this metaphor stuck with her and kept coming up throughout the rest of the book.
Rating: 5.5/10
Sharing is Caring
IT’S 4 IN THE MORNING AND I’M SO FREAKING HYPER RIGHT NOW.
Holy gods, I miss teaching.
I’m going to bring this back because it’s fantastic.
This too.
2012, anyone?
The end.
(Sorry, I really don’t have anything good to blog about tonight.)
Eigenblogger 