DOdodododo
Leibniz is love. Leibniz is life.
In completely unrelated news, I hate myself and want to jump into the ocean.
Sleepwriting?
Apparently, my body’s new way of coping with stress is to partially wake up in the middle of the night and write either really nonsensical poems or stupid little notes that are actually parts of my dreams.
Either that or I’m writing stuff during the day that I’m totally blocking out. But I’m pretty sure I’m doing it almost in a sleepwalking (sleepwriting?) fashion.
I think that’s how the motorboat boobs and this weird poem both originated.
Fake Schedules are Just as Fun
Hello friends!
To distract myself from the craptastic summer this is becoming, I made myself a “fake” schedule for next semester. This is what I’d be taking if I were to stay at UI in the fall:
MWF
HIST 404: History of Science – 9:30 – 10:20
MATH 315: Topics in Pure Mathematics – 10:30 – 11:20
PHYS 103: General Astronomy – 11:30 – 12:20
MATH 388: History of Mathematics – 1:30 – 2:20
STAT 565: Computer Intensive Statistics – 2:30 – 3:20
TR
MUSA 321: Concert Band – 4:30 – 5:20
T
PHYS 104: General Astronomy Lab – 5:30 – 7:20 (T)
Yes, I would choose History of Mathematics over Intro to Analysis I, which is required for the “general” math degree option but conflicts with History of Math. I WANT TO TAKE THAT CLASS SO FREAKING BADLY.
Also, I’d take Astronomy because I would like to take that class. It doesn’t do anything for any degrees I would (likely) be trying to pursue.
UGH
IhatemylifeIhatemylifeIhatemylifeIhatemylife the end.
Eggs
If you’ve never seen HowToBasic’s videos on YouTube, you’re missing out, bro.
This was the first video of his I saw:
Then this:
This one really got me laughing when he turned on the scale:
And of course, you need the elders’ reactions:
And if you’re wondering, apparently he did a podcast in which he stated that he works at a supermarket and all the food he uses is stuff that has expired and would have been thrown away anyway. Not sure if that’s actually true, but that’s the general consensus. I haven’t heard the podcast myself.
But anyway. YouTube: bringing us to the next level of…“art.”
Yay for Netflix letting me re-live my childhood
I used to watch The Prince of Egypt at my dad’s house when I was younger (it came out in 1998). This was always my favorite scene.
I’m not religious, but I did go to Catholic elementary school (as most of you have probably read on here). I always thought the story of Moses was one of the most interesting components of the Bible, especially the “parting the Red Sea” part.
And at the very least, I think we can all agree that the animation and music here is ridiculously amazing.
Happy birthday, USA!
This holiday is always interesting, especially with my group of friends on Facebook. A third are very much “ZOMG ‘MURICA!” and another third seem to be quite ashamed of this country (the last third are pretty quiet, haha).
Some people think the US is the greatest country in the world. Some people don’t. However, regardless of what you think of the current state of the States (ha), I think that this country has a fantastic and amazing history, both good and bad, and I believe that the history itself is worthy of acknowledging and celebrating. Sure, we haven’t done everything right (or even most things right, depending on who you ask), but if you think about all that has happened in the United States in the past several centuries, it’s pretty freaking fantastic.
So if you’re not into celebrating the US as it stands today, I would suggest at least giving a nod to the country’s history. It’s good, it’s bad, and it’s everything in between. And it’s ours.
And I think that’s important to acknowledge.
Now go blow some stuff up.
Land of the Extreme and Home of the “Get Out”
I usually listen to my iPod in the car, but whenever I’m going a short distance, I don’t bother plugging it and just listen to the radio instead. This morning I happened to catch about 15 minutes of The Savage Nation, a program hosted by Michael Savage. And honestly, I’ve never heard anything so toxic on the radio before.
I seriously thought it was a parody show for the first few minutes or so. Some guy called in and was talking about people displaying the Mexican flag in the United States. Savage immediately started ripping this guy as being “anti-American” because the guy was saying that it was okay to display the Mexican flag on US soil—which, according to Savage—is equivalent to “giving the country over to the illegals.”
‘Cause, you know, everyone who is Mexican in the United States is an illegal immigrant, I mean, duh.
He went on to rant about how “those illegals” are ruining the country and that anyone who is not 100% for deporting/arresting every single one of them is”not a true American” and “doesn’t have a country.” He called the caller a “man with no country” and basically cut him off there.
Now, I understand that people have differing views, especially on a lot of political things. I understand that there’s nothing wrong with expressing your views. But this guy is just so freaking extreme. It was just a really toxic conversation. There was not a positive or hate-free thing he said the whole 15 minutes I listened.
Just…ugh.
Now Showing:
I’m writing a musical. It’s called “Fuck You, U of I” and features such show-stopping hits as:
- “The ‘I’ Stands for ‘Incompetence’”
- “This Class is Required to Graduate but is Only Offered Once a Decade”
- “We Have No Money, so Let’s Renovate the Kibbie Dome!”
- “Oh, We Promised You a Job? Sorry, You Out of Luck, Bro!”
- “Fuck Bitches, Acquire Debt”
- “Oops, We Lost Your Tuition Check!”
- The Ballad of the Athletes on Academic Probation (Alternate Title: “Blame the Profs!”)
- “We Have No Money, so Let’s Renovate the Kibbie Dome!” (Redux)
Every damn year with this place, man. Every. Damn. Year.
Guess what day it is!!
Yaaaaaaaaay, best day of the year!
Today is Gottfried Leibniz’ 348th birthday, yo.
As I mentioned a week or so ago, I’m re-reading this fantastic bio of him ‘cause it’s important. I know I do this a lot, but let me reiterate just one huge reason why this man is so damn awesome, since it IS his birthday, after all:
Leibniz’ formal schooling was severely lacking any rigorous mathematical training. It focused mainly on Latin, theology, and philosophy. However, due to (among other things) having access to his father’s extensive library, Leibniz developed a curiosity toward mathematics and taught himself quite a bit. However, he was still lacking a lot of knowledge once he got out of school. Here’s an excerpt from the bio regarding his visit to Paris, which was practically the center of all things intellectual in the European continent at the time:
“[In Paris] Leibniz was made painfully aware of the limitations of his mathematical preparation and of his lack of up-to-date knowledge of work in the field; and this soon led to the further realization that, in order to carry his plans forward, he would first need to forge himself new tools. … Thankfully, Leibniz was nothing if not a quick learner: by the end of his Parisian sojourn, in fact, the self-confessed mathematical apprentice had invented the infinitesimal calculus.”
So it took him approximately TEN FREAKING YEARS to go from practically a math novice to inventor of calculus.
That’s so freaking ridiculous.
Happy birthday, Leibniz, you amazing dude. <3
Do geology majors with honors graduate magma cum laude?
Hahaha, this is great.
I AM SO FREAKING STRESSED SORRY
Heart of a Florist
Problem: I’m lonely and sad.
Solution: Watch Achievement Hunter vids and draw frou-frou crap.
Edit: here’s the frou-frou crap:
Turnip in Rut
There’s a new giant orange cat at the Humane Society! His name is Tiny and his info says he’s 22 pounds. Not as big as Jupiter, but he’s still pretty big. He’s a lover, so I bet he’ll be adopted soon.
Have a rainbow!
Sorry, not much going on today.
ChoopaChoopa
So I taught my last class at the U of I (for now). I’m super freaking sad about it, too. I’d definitely stick around, but:
a) the department can’t give me a permanent lecturing position at this time
b) I’ve decided that teaching stats is pretty much the most perfect job for me (apart from working at Leibniz’ archives). In order to get a real chance at a more permanent position, I need to get a PhD in stats.
Hence, Calgary. So hopefully I’ll be teaching again (relatively) soon.
But since I’ve started working here in 2012, I figured I’ve taught about 550 students. Hopefully at least a few of them have decided that stats aren’t too bad after all.
Still sad, though.
Book Review: The Jungle (Sinclair)
Have I read this before: Yup, up in Vancouver.
Review: Want to feel depressed, disgusted, discouraged, and disturbed? This is your book.
Seriously, this ranks up there as one of the most depressing books I’ve ever read. It follows Jurgis, a Yugoslavian immigrant, as he and his family try to “make it” in Chicago during the early 1900s. The book opens with Jurgis getting married to Ona, and that’s about where the happies stop.
Jurgis gets a job in the meat-packing industry and basically faces tragedy after tragedy after tragedy throughout the whole book. Not only do we get the horrible details of what the meat-packing industry was like for workers back then, but Sinclair also details how impossibly difficult it was for immigrant workers to even keep the most basic of jobs because of how unsafe the whole industry was. And many got screwed out of reasonable rent/housing because of greedy landlords and the language barrier.
This is a hard book to read, man. Not because of the way it’s written or anything like that—it’s just depressing as all hell. Which was one of Sinclair’s main points in writing it. He wanted to show how terrible it was for immigrant workers during that time.
So read it. But make sure you’ve got your Zoloft ready.
Favorite part: God, how can you have a favorite part of this book? I suppose the very detailed descriptions of the working conditions.
The hands of these men would be criss- crossed with cuts, until you could no longer pretend to count them or to trace them. They would have no nails, – they had worn them off pulling hides; their knuckles were swollen so that their fingers spread out like a fan…and as for the other men, who worked in tank rooms full of steam, and in some of which there were open vats near the level of the floor, their peculiar trouble was that they fell into the vats; and when they were fished out, there was never enough of them left to be worth exhibiting, – sometimes they would be overlooked for days, till all but the bones of them had gone out to the world as Durham’s Pure Leaf Lard!
Rating: 6/10 (just because it’s sooooo depressing)
FINALLY
I’ve decided. Have a look at where I’ll be living in a few months.
I’mma go throw up from anxiety now.
If you’re anxious and you know it, clap your hands (and then go cry in the bathroom for half an hour)
UH OH, it’s almost the first of July. Guess that means it’s time to read this again:
Maybe reading about the most awesome polymath that ever existed will keep the panic attacks away.
Unlikely, but we can always hope.
(Road) Trippin’
Family road trip to Lewiston! We stopped at that big craft barn (the one with the metal cow and all the wagon wheels) and took pictures/got funky stuff. Here’s a pretty field:
And here’s a picture of an awesome print my mom got me:
If you haven’t been to that barn, you need to go check it out. Super cool stuff in there.
How many blogs would this blogger blog if this blogger DIDN’T SUCK
Over my 26-ish years on this planet, I’ve come to notice that there are a few (insignificant) things that I do differently than the majority of people I’ve met/seen. Here are some that I can think of off the top of my head.
- If you’re counting off items/tasks/whatever using your fingers, do you start counting using your thumb or your index finger? I start with the index finger, while I’ve seen the vast majority of people start with the thumb.
- You’re in the bathroom washing your hands. Do you put soap on and then water, or do you do water-soap-water? I do water-soap-water, but every time I see someone else wash their hands, they just do soap-water.
- How do you pronounce the “e” sound in “egg”? Does it sound like the “a” in “made” or more like the “e” in “bed”? I remember Sean and Aaron always pronounced it like the “bed” sound, but I pronounce it like the “made” sound. I’ve noticed that most people (those I’ve met and those on TV and such) use the “bed” sound. Similar words with similar issue: leg, peg, Meg, Greg, etc.
- Similar with “catch.” When I say it, “catch” rhymes with “etch”, but when I’ve heard most other people say it, it rhymes more with “batch”.
There’s probably a much greater proportion of people who do these things the way I do them, but I certainly never see those people, haha.
The Hills are Alive with the Sound of Dial-Up
This is…creepy but beautiful.
But creepy.
My computer knowledge is about as close to zero as it can be without actually being zero, so I’m not going to even attempt an explanation of all these components, but if you’re interested in what’s what in the dial-up noise, check out this pic.
(And here’s a video showing what sounds correspond to what parts of said pic)
Sorry for the Crap Posts
Do-do-do-DOOOOOOOOOOOOO!
I can’t decide what to do about school!
So have a beautiful time lapse of a city I’ve already lived in, haha.
I like this better than the first one.
A Doctor a Day Keeps the Apple Away
I think the more stressed I am, the more apt I am to make really, really dumb jokes.
Example: I keep my iPod Touch next to my bed couch so I have something to write down any genius ideas I come up with during the night (yeah, right).
So as I was falling asleep last night, this is the joke I thought of:
What do you call a paper towel family that’s having a siesta? Napkins!
Just kill me now.
Ooooooooh I like this
I may or may not have watched this 15 times in a row.
That guy behind Ingrid’s right shoulder (and featured at 2:14)? Yikes. Hot.
Do you believe in signs?
My cousin Bobby’s in town checking out the University of Idaho, so he, my dad, and I, went to Mongolian BBQ for dinner tonight.
This was my fortune:
Technically, Ottawa is further south than Moscow…
Eigenblogger 
