Hmm…
So I really like Calgary.
I can’t compare it to Vancouver yet since I walked practically that whole city and have hardly walked like 2% of the city here.
But I really like Calgary. I can’t wait to explore more of it.
TWSB: Take Me Down Like I’m a Domino
More like TYSB (This Year’s Science Blog) since I haven’t posted one of these in forever.
Sorry. I’m a bad person.
Anyway, check out this vid:
In case you’re not the type to read the description below the video, a domino can knock over another domino that’s about 1.5 times the original domino’s size. The idea to try this came originally from scientist Lorne Whitehead in 1983.
In the video, they only use 13 dominoes. However, if they had kept making larger and larger ones, the 29th one in the tumble would have been about the size of the Empire State Building, the 62nd would be large enough to almost hit the moon (assuming, of course, that we could keep the earth’s gravity constant over all of these mega dominoes), and the 133rd would have the same length as the diameter of the Milky Way.
Reddit user Variance_on_Reddit (along with other nerdy Redditors) calculated that the time it would take these 133 dominoes to actually fall would be 11.67 quadrillion years due to friction (again, keeping “earth” conditions constant across all dominoes).
Pretty snazzy.
Reddit link (warning: Reddit)
Canadian Mall – Installment 15: Market Mall
It’s walkin’ time!
Today I went west—a little bit past campus—to Market Mall.
Mileage from home to mall (one way):
Pros:
- This mall is circular! It’s actually quite cool. It’s also got like 20 entrances.
- It’s also just one floor, so no getting lost on the upper levels.
- APPLE STORE!
- Huge H&M.
Cons:
- No drinking fountains. What the hell, where am I supposed to refill my water bottle for the walk back? I was going to just fill it from one of the the bathroom sinks, but they all jet out hot water automatically. BAH.
- APPLE STORE was super crowded due to the iPhone 6 release.
- It’s close to campus, so there were students everywhere and it was quite crowded.
So since this mall was not that far away, on my walk back I decided to go the long way up 14th street. Whoever* said Calgary was flat is a LIAR. That street is like a mile of steep hill. It wouldn’t have been so bad if I’d been on mile 2 of my walk, but I was on mile 12 so it wasn’t the most enjoyable little trek. Got a good pic of downtown though:
*Haha, it was me.
Lab Time
EEEEEEEEEEE TEACHING!
Well, sort of.
Today was the first day of labs, which for me meant running two hour-long labs for the intro stats class here. While today was basically teaching them how to open/use Minitab and how to access their online assignments, in future labs will involve going over concepts taught in class and/or helping them prepare for the midterms.
Not the same as teaching my own class, but it’ll do. Explaining stats is like my favorite thing to do anyway.
SORRY I’M SO BORING HAVE A PICTURE OF THE CALGARY TOWER INSTEAD:
You Too?
Why is everyone bitching about the free iTunes U2 album?
It’s FREE MUSIC, PEOPLE.
And if you don’t like it, it takes like 3 seconds to delete it.
Anyway.
I myself am not a huge U2 fan. I don’t dislike them, they just aren’t really my type of music. However, I really do like California (There Is No End to Love) from the free album. Can’t find it on YouTube so I can’t link it, but if you have iTunes and still have the album, check it out!
Holy crapioli, it’s a survey
A) What does the last text you sent say? And to whom?
“Okay.” It was to my mom.
B) What does the last text you received say? And from whom?
“I’ll be on in a few.” It was from my mom; she was talking about Skype.
C) What time do you wake up most mornings?
6:30 as of late. The buses are never on time here so I have to take the super early one to get to campus on time.
D) Are you afraid of walking alone at night?
I FEAR NOTHING.
E) What do you do to relax at the end of a stressful day?
Listen to music. Blog. Write crap. Internet.
F) Where did your last kiss take place and with whom?
I prefer not to think about things that will never happen again.
G) Do/did you get into trouble a lot at school?
Nope. I did several things I *should* have gotten trouble for (being a hooligan in the hallway during lunch), but I never did.
H) Do you enjoy your job? If unemployed, are you content being so?
I guess my job is to be a TA now. I miss my old lecturer job a LOT, but I get to teach labs now anyway, so I guess we’re still cool.
I) Do you often pick up on double entendres and innuendos?
Dude, I MAKE things into double entendres and innuendos, whether they were supposed to be or not.
J) Have you ever been offered drugs but declined?
I almost tried salvia, but I was about to get on a plane, so I figured the combo probably wouldn’t have been a good thing. Especially given my record with being over sensitive to about every substance on the planet.
K) Have you ever met someone who has completely altered your way of thinking?
Not completely, no.
L) Have you ever been offered drugs and accepted?
Nope.
M) Tell us something weird that turns you on.
Ha. We won’t go there tonight.
N) When did someone last admit romantic or sexual feelings for you? Was the feeling mutual?
Long, long ago in a galaxy far, far away (2009).
O) What is something you have given a lot of thought to lately?
My current place in life (as far as education goes…which is pretty much my whole life anyway). It’s certainly not where I thought I’d be at this point, but I’m not unhappy with it. I’m glad I’ve done what I’ve done.
P) When did you last swallow your beliefs to avoid an argument or confrontation?
I usually don’t voice my beliefs about the “bigger” things, mainly ‘cause I really don’t like arguments. I also like to hear what other people think without interjecting my own nonsense.
Q) Do you usually initiate hugs?
I feel awkward wanting to hug people, so I don’t unless they initiate it first.
R) Are you a very affectionate person?
Unless I’m with the right person, I’m about as affectionate as a rock.
S) Can you roll your own cigarettes?
I CAN ROLL MY OWN BUTT that doesn’t even make sense.
T) What are you looking forward to?
Apparently the new stats students at U of C take a road trip to Edmonton every other year to bother their stats department up there. A three-hour van ride with a bunch of stats dorks sounds entertaining.
U) Do you have any tattoos. Do you want any/more?
I’m still waiting to get my integral tattoo. IT SHALL HAPPEN SOON!
V) Are you mentally strong?
Ha. HA.
W) Are you physically strong?
I’m a lot stronger than I look.
X) Do you think you’re a good person?
I’m a toaster.
Y) Name one thing you wish you could change about your life right now.
I really wish I was more intelligent. That would make things a whole lot easier.
Z) What do you usually eat for breakfast?
Souls.
Book Review: Ethan Frome (Wharton)
It’s Ethan Frome time!
[There are spoilers ahead; avert thine eyes if you haven’t read this book yet and you don’t want me to ruin it for you]
Have I read this before: Indeed! I believe I read this in 10th grade advanced English class. We had an option of reading this or some other book that wasn’t on my list, so I chose this.
Review: This book is obscenely heartbreaking. It’s not heartbreaking in the same way that The Good Earth is or The Jungle is…that is, it’s not a “my farm/job/livelihood/luck failed me repeatedly and now my family is in dire straights and everyone is sick and everything is horrible and we’re all about to starve” type of heartbreaking. It’s more of the “I love someone but I’m stuck with this other person instead and there’s not a damn thing I can do about it even though I’m desperate to be with the one I love the only way out is death hey yeah death let’s take that route.” This story has really stuck with me ever since I first read it.
Favorite part: It’s hard to pick a favorite part because it’s such a short little story. I’d have to say either the way Wharton portrays the unspoken communication between Ethan and Mattie or the hints about the sledding “accident” scattered sparsely throughout. It’s mentioned just enough that you get a little suspicious, but it still hits you like a train at the end.
Or like a tree.
(God I’m a bad person.)
Rating: 8.5/10
Dinner and a Boobie
I got nothin’ so you get this.
Good day.
Canadian Mall – Installment 14: Southridge Mall
It’s the weekend, the weather’s good, and I’m in a big city that needs exploring.
YOU KNOW WHAT THIS MEANS?
It’s Canadian Mall time!
Because I’m me, I chose a mall that’s pretty far away as my first destination: Southridge Mall!
Mileage from home to mall (one way):
Pros:
- If you don’t feel like shopping at the mall itself, there are a lot of other big stores around, such as Walmart, Bulk Barn, Home Depot, and a giant Safeway.
- It’s not too big, so you won’t get lost in it.
- Want some high-end stuff? This is the mall for you!
- You can get to this mall using two buses from my house, which is pretty impressive given how far away it is.
Cons:
- Almost EVERYTHING is fairly high-end, so if you’re looking for cheap shopping, don’t go here.
- It’s only open until 5 on the weekends. WTF?
- Their online mall directory is terrible.
DONE! I’ve missed walking in a big city, yo.
Edit:
I got a massive sunburn in the shape of the Canadian Tire logo on my chest. I look like a retail superhero. Wear sunscreen, kids.
COLOR!
I was planning on doing my first “Canadian Mall” installment for Calgary today, but I had to wait around for my new fridge and didn’t have enough time to walk before any of the malls closed. So that’ll probably happen tomorrow.
BUT ANYWAY.
I know this blog probably won’t be posted until like November with my horrible uploading schedule, but I’m assuming that by the time you read this you will have noticed that there have been some design changes to my blog—specifically in the color and font departments.
That’s because I was talking to my mom tonight and debating whether to buy the custom colors/fonts option on WordPress ($30/month) and she ran and got her credit card and got it for me.
My mom is awesome. Now my blog can be even more eye-gougingly colorful!
Thanks, mom!
How many posts have I titled “Blah” now?
Ugh, today was a crap-mobile. And my fridge is broken and all my broccoli is half rotten and I am sad and cold and frustrated.
Book Review: The Age of Reason (Sartre)
IT’S SARTRE TIME!
(Sorry for the long break between books. I got busy packing/panicking/wishing for death over the summer, but now I’m back and now I have the giant U of Calgary library to quench my reading needs. At least until I forget to return the books I check out and I rack up a $200 fee for late books.)
(It’s happened before.)
ANYWAY.
Have I read this before: Yes. End of 2009 I think? Not so long ago compared to some of the books I’m re-reading.
Review: I really didn’t remember much of this book from my first read. I remembered the names Mathieu and Marcelle, but that was pretty much it. I’ve heard a lot of people say that they find Sartre a very dry writer (both with his fiction and his philosophy), but I enjoyed the writing. I liked how he jumped between Mathieu and Daniel as kind of the “main” narrators for different parts of the story. And, of course, the angst they all feel—at different levels, of course—regarding their notion(s) of freedom. Interesting stuff.
Favorite part: The razor scene with Daniel. I guess it’s not so much of a scene as a pondering. But it’s very poetically written.
Rating: 6/10
Is it December?
JUST A LITTLE BIT OF SNOW:
Holy hell, I stood out at that bus stop for an HOUR this morning. Why? Because right before my bus stop is the super busy intersection of 4th street and 16th avenue. The snow storm had knocked out the power to the lights and so it was being treated like a four-way stop.
During morning rush-hour.
It’s a damn good thing I like to get to campus early, ‘cause if I’d been waiting for the next #19 bus I wouldn’t have made it in time.
I would have just freaking walked to campus, but I don’t know how to walk there yet. It’s not a straight shot and you have to go some weird way to get there.
Edit:
Holy crap, so the snow has pretty much decimated all of Calgary’s trees, or their branches at the very least. There is debris EVERYWHERE. They’re saying it’ll take at least two weeks to clean everything up.
Chocklit
Hahaha, this is great. I’d actually never seen Forrest Gump until I was like 16. We were supposed to watch it in shop class in 7th grade (yes, I took shop class) on the day before Christmas break, but someone mentioned that there were bare boobies in it and our shop teacher flipped out, screamed at us to keep working on our projects instead, and stormed into his office.
I’d never seen such an adverse reaction to the mention of boobs.
Anyway.
The review is funny. A couple of the lines are just great:
“Forrest run-Forrest-runs right through a college football game and the football coaches are like, “Gwuuuuuhhhhhh!???!!?!?!” and they hire him to play football for their college even though he is clearly 45 years old.”
“That’s when Gump meets Bubba, who is secretly 100,000 live, writhing shrimp standing on each other’s shoulders wearing a human suit.”
“We’re back on the bus bench! Forrest is like, “Yep, I got this letter that I should come visit Jennay, so I’m on my way to her apartment,” and the people on the bench are like, “FUCKING FINALLY, MY FAMILY THINKS I’M DEAD,” and then some old lady gives him directions and it’s denouement o’clock.”
Haha, sorry, I got nothing else today.
But hey, it’s supposed to snow tomorrow!
Grad School: Round 2.5
SCHOOOOOOOOOOOOL!
I’m only taking two classes (plus the seminar course) this semester, but I’m also TA-ing two labs (which will start next week) and running two hours of the continuous stats tutorial (which is Canadian for “drop-in stats help” similar to the way we do it at UI).
I had Stat 701: Probability this morning. It’s taught by my supervisor, Dr. Chen, who seems super cool (even though I haven’t met him one-on-one yet).
I also don’t have access to my office yet ‘cause they lost the key (?!), but hopefully they’ll find it sometime this week. In the meantime, I’m hanging out in the giant Taylor Family Digital Library, which is huge and warm and library-ey.
YAY!
(These blogs will get more interesting soon, I promise. I’m still getting into the swing of things up here and so I don’t really have much to say.)
Looky
Hey fools, check out my new (basement) apartment:
‘Kay that’s all. Nervous about tomorrow.
I AM CAKE
I found this site that has t-shirts which feature mash-ups of band logos and scientists/philosophers/great thinkers.
Yeah, I want like twelve of these.
Here are my faves:
Only downside: no Leibniz.
Drama!
HOLY CRAP I forgot about Degrassi!
So back when I was in London (for like the three weeks I was there…) I had cable in my little dorm room. One night I happened to catch an episode of Degrassi and kind of fell in love with it. They had an episode or two on Nickelodeon every Sunday night or so back in the States, but it’s on EVERY NIGHT up here.
Degrassi is basically like Canadian high school soap opera, but it’s super addictive. Also, it’s weird to see Canadian currency in a show and hear them talk about road trips to Montreal or Saskatoon or other Canadian places.
Haha, sorry. School hasn’t started yet and I don’t have anything else to do.
I have no internet, and I must blog
UGH.
The only good thing that happened today was getting internet a few days early.
THE. ONLY. THING.
I have to go to the graduate orientation tomorrow (for all graduate students, not just the math/stat crowd), but for the rest of the day all I’m going to do is watch Achievement Hunter and scowl (though probably not at the same time, ‘cause the boys are hilarious).
ALSO, I want pasta, but the stove here is absolutely disgusting and I’m pretty sure it would erupt in flames if I turned on the burner.
Social Time
So today was “math/stats graduate student department orientation day” and what happens to me a half an hour before I’m ready to go to campus? A freaking migraine aura! So I stumbled around all my unpacked crap to find my Excedrin (luckily it was accessible), stumbled around trying to get dressed, then finally got to the math/stats building with help from my mom, ‘cause I couldn’t see a damn thing.
I also learned that while neither sound nor light bothers me when I’m having my aura (or the headache following it), riding in the car makes me want to puke up my soul.
Luckily, my vision started to return about an hour into orientation and I’d taken the Excedrin early enough so that I didn’t have a SUPER bad migraine, and by 11 or so I felt back to normal.
The universe is sure giving me a rough time about Grad School Part 2.5, lemme tell ya.
ALSdkjfalkfhkghalgkjfdj.f..d.lsajfadf*blah*
OH MY GOD why is everything still going wrong with this whole process related to grad school? I’d give you a detailed list, but I already did that a month or so ago and I’m too angry to do it again. Let’s just say I’m super frustrated right now.
AND I’ll be internet-less until at least Saturday. This wouldn’t be so bad except for the fact that I have to email a bunch of people regarding my finally being here (supervisor, etc.) and the only place I can get internet is campus.
I wonder if this is still the karmic backlash for that thing I did in 2009.
END!
(More of) Claudia’s Canadian Adventures…Continued!
YAY I’M HERE!
My “apartment” is a basement, but I guess that’s what I deserve. And at least it’s something. Once I get internet it (and all my crap put away) it should be tolerable. Hopefully.
Sorry, I kind of had a freak out this morning and don’t feel much like blogging.
Bye.
(More of) Claudia’s Canadian Adventures
IT’S CALGARY TIME!!
We left around noon today with the U-Haul. After getting through the border crossing in record time (there were NO other cars there and they didn’t even ask us to stop and come inside), we stopped in Cranbrook for the night. Hopefully we’ll get to Calgary around noon tomorrow.
EXCITED/SCARED/NERVOUS/FREAKING OUT/REALLY COLD IN THIS HOTEL.
Last day in Moscow!
Annnnnnnnnnd I’m leaving.
Again.
Hopefully it will be for longer this time, ‘cause I don’t want to screw this up like I screw up everything else in my life.
Everything is IN THE U-HAUL (including, for about 30 seconds, MewMew) and now I just have to finish cleaning the basement.
Annabelle is totally stressed out. She hates change as much as I do.
I’m totally stressed out, too.
SHORTBLOG!
Eigenblogger 
