Wanna Practice World Flags?
This is super fun. I have a thing for flags, though, so maybe it’s just me.
Yay, a migraine!
So I was just in the process of typing up some nonsense blather for today’s blog post (because let’s face it, that’s most of what these posts are nowadays) when my vision started going. You know what that means…a migraine!
So I guess that’s what I’m goingt to blog about to day.
(I suspect I’m goingn to have to go back in here and correct a whole bunch of typiocs, considering I CAN’T SEE HALF THE DAMN SCREEN…or maybe I’ll leave ‘em in for that sweet, sweet authentic “blogging while having a migraine aura” experience.
Ya sure, let’s do that.)
These freaking auras are usually the worst part of my migraines, since there’s really nothing I can do about them but wait for them to pass, wich typically means sitting around with partial vision (someotmies no vision) for twenty to thirty minutes before it starts coming back.
But I guess I’m lucky, because a) the aura lets me know that the actual pain part of the migraine is coming, which allows me to take some Excedrin in time so that b), the actual pain part of the migraine isn’t too bad. I also never get light- or sound-sensitivity and only rarely get nausea, so as far as migraines go, mine aren’t too bad.
BUT HEY, I REALLY ENJOY BEING ABLE TO SEE.
A fun exercise: I just scrolled up a few pages to get a nice full page of text and took a screenshot, then put that screenshot into Paint and erased everything I couldn’t see when looking straight ahead at the page. Wanna see?
Supa fun! Right now I don’t have the dancing ring of color around the edge of that “no see” zone, but that always comes later.
(Edit: now I’ve got it! Right on schedule.)
So yhah. I’ve also got spagnetti going and who knows ifI’ll be able to competently drain it and put it on a plate rather than dump the whole thing on the ground. I certainly couldn’t see my Excedrin bottle eclear enough earlier to check if I needed to take one pill or two. I’m preety sure it’s two. I hope it is, ‘cause that’s what I took.
THE END!
Edit from a few days later: lol, typos. I’m leaving them in.
Book Review: Fahrenheit 451 (Bradbury)
Have I read this before: Yes, but it was a loooong time ago. I want to say this was one of the first several books I read on my list way back in 7th/8th grade, which means my memory of it is absolutely abysmal.
Review: Actually, now that I think about it, I had no memory of this book. I didn’t remember the main character or even the general plot, apart from the “books are being burned” thing. Apparently my retention levels for books when I was 13/14 was terrible.
ANYWAY. I enjoyed Bradbury’s writing style. Maybe it’s because I’d read Exodus before this, which was super heavy and also had a very blunt style to it, but Bradbury’s prose was a nice change from that (not that I didn’t enjoy Exodus, ‘cause I did).
Favorite part: This line really resonated with me:
With an effort, Montag reminded himself again that this was no fictional episode to be watched on his run to the river; it was in actuality his own chess game he was witnessing, move by move.
I think this stuck out to me so much because this is how I sometimes feel about all this pandemic nonsense. Sometimes it’s like I’m just watching a movie or reading a book in which this pandemic is taking place, and my mind just goes “haha, that sucks, glad that’s not really happening…oh” or “I’m glad I could just fast forward or flip to the end of the book to see what ends up happening…oh.” It’s a weird feeling. Is anyone else getting that feeling on occasion?
Rating: 7/10
GAS GAS GAS
So today was the warmest day in like a week and a half and I was SO SICK OF BEING INSIDE that I decided to try running in the snow.
By “snow” I mean the compact snow on the river trail. I’d walked on it yesterday once things warmed up a bit and I felt like it was something I could run on, so I got on my winter running clothes and went to try it out.
It sucked.
I have no idea how people can run on compact snow, because I certainly can’t. I don’t know if I push off harder with the balls of my feet than most people, but it was definitely very slippery and hard to get a good footing. So super frustrating.
Once I got to the first point in the trail where I could get back off (which was like 0.2 miles, haha), I crossed the street and went back to the other side of the road where there was just a sidewalk. This looked relatively clear, so rather than give up on running today entirely, I decided I’d go a few miles on the sidewalk to see if that was better.
And it was.
There were a few snowy/icy places where fartbags hadn’t shoveled, but it was much clearer than the path. So I ended up weaving up and down a bunch of the side roads and going back and forth on the main road until I got to my standard 14 miles. It wasn’t the most enjoyable of walks because of the ice/snow, but the temperature was actually a nice one for running and it definitely beat running on the treadmill.
Plus, it’s only supposed to get warmer this week, so hopefully the sidewalks (if not the trail) will be clearer by the time I run again on Thursday or Friday.
YAY!
Edit: I have about six blisters on my toes and my quads hurt like hell. I definitely have a different stride and toe grip on the snow/ice than on regular pavement. Which is to be expected, I guess, but still. Ouch.
Sweet dreams are made of…COVID?
So has anyone else’s dreams been reduced to COVID-related stuff only? ‘Cause mine sure has hell have (at least the ones I can remember, of course).
It’s like every night there’s some other depressing or horrifying dream about COVID. Mostly involving something happening to my mom.
I’m convinced my brain is trying out coping mechanisms in my sleep but keeps botching them and making things worse. It’s like that dream about the Beirut explosion. I think that was my brain trying to get me to forget about COVID momentarily but decided to END THE EARTH INSTEAD.
Super fun.
I hate it.
Book Review: Exodus (Uris)
Have I read this before: I…think so? Maybe? Perhaps this is a book that I started but didn’t get very far into, because I remember like the first twenty pages but nothing beyond that (and there’s a lot beyond that). So let’s say…no.
Review: Oof. This book. This is basically “let’s tell the long history of suffering of the Jewish people through a handful of characters.” It’s super heavy and very disturbing at parts. I think that it’s definitely something people should read, especially people who aren’t very familiar with all the stuff Jewish people have had to go through throughout history (not just right before/during/right after WWII). Apparently Leon Uris wrote this with the goal to tell the story of Israel, but a lot of praise for the book acknowledges it as propaganda for the existence of Israel as an independent state. And beyond that, I don’t even really know what I can say about this book. It’s long, it’s dense, it’s disturbing, and it will stick in your memory for a long time. Read it.
Favorite part: there’s basically zero humor in this book due to the subject manner, but I did like the bit of humor at the end when the Jews from Yemen were being brought to Israel via plane. They had never seen a plane before and there’s a few pages of lighthearted chaos describing how they are acting while on the plane (lighting fires to celebrate, opening windows, etc.). It’s a bit of levity that really feels earned once you get to that point in the book; it’s like finally there’s some end to some of the suffering.
There’s also this line: Anti-Semitism was synonymous with the history of man, Johann Clement reasoned. It was a part of living – almost a scientific truth. Only the degree and the content varied.
Rating: 7/10
OH GOD THE SPRING 2021 UI SCHEDULE IS UP – COMMENCE FAKE SCHEDULE BUILDING!!!!
(Sorry, I’m excited.)
M/W
ENGL 391: Intermediate Poetry Writing (3:30 PM – 4:45 PM)
M/W/F
MATH 504: Fourier Analysis (1:30 PM – 2:20 PM)
GEOL 435: Glaciology and the Dynamic Frozen Earth (2:30 PM – 3:20 PM)
T
GEOL 404: Geology of the Pacific NW (3:30 PM – 5:00 PM)
T/R
IFIT: Advanced Wall Climbing (9:30 AM – 10:20 AM)
FCS 275: Experimental Foods Lab (12:30 PM – 2:30 PM)
CS 453: Advanced Robotics I (5:00 PM – 6:15 PM)
SUPA FUN!
SLEEP IS FOR SQUARES; I HAVE ASCENDED
Let’s do a weird survey in honor of a weird year.
1. Can you cry under water?
If you’re sad enough you can.
2. What is the fattest thing you’ve ever done?
The…fattest thing? I used to eat entire packages of Chips Ahoy! cookies if that counts.
3. If you’re going to be arrested what do you want your crime to be?
Going off on someone not following COVID-prevention mandates. If I’m going to go down, I’m going to go down trying to prevent idiocy.
4. When they say dog food is “new and improved” who tastes it?
Me. ‘TIS MY SECRET JOB!!!1!
5. What’s the ugliest thing you’ve ever seen?
Myself.
6. Why doesn’t glue stick to its bottle?
Tacky while wet + wet in bottle = no stick!
7. What historical event do you wish you’d witnessed?
Anything with Leibniz. I would love to have just been able to sit in the room with him while he was working on his calculus or building his stepped reckoner. Like…how absolutely amazing would that be?
8. Who has had the best influence on your life?
My mom! She has always been a very kind, thoughtful, considerate person, and I hope some of that rubbed off on me as a kid.
9. Would you rather go into space or to Antarctica?
Antarctica. Definitely. Like, space is coolio, but y’all know I have a thing for Antarctica.
10. Would you rather sleep with no pillow or no blankets?
Well, I’m really good at sleeping ANYWHERE and ANY TIME, so I can do without both of these. But I’d pick no pillow I guess. I could always mush some of the blankets beneath my head to act as a pillow.
11. What’s your favorite rain memory?
Uh…I actually can’t think of any. The closest “favorite” I can come up with was that time when we spent the night in Ridenbaugh before going down to Boise with the marching band. There was some “partially naked running around in the rain” going on, if I recall correctly.
12. If you were elected president, what is the first thing you would do?
Probably freak out, haha. I would not want that responsibility. Also, my charisma = 0, so there’s no way I’d ever get elected.
13. If you had $3 to spend in the dollar store, what would you buy?
1) a bag of Bugles; 2) a candy; 3) those flexible glow stick things
(I’m having flashbacks to 2008/2009 when my roommates and I went to the Dollar Store every Friday and bought the most ridiculous and fun stuff. Good times.)
14. What’s the most annoying sound in the world?
Babies/kids crying. I cannot stand that sound. I know that sound is supposed to activate my “motherly” instincts but instead it activates my “how fast can I get away from this awful, awful noise?” instincts.
15. What natural disaster scares you the most?
Fire. There aren’t a lot of things that scare me, but fire is absolutely terrifying to me. Terrifying.
Woah, woah, woah, hold on…
Are you telling me that with all the absolute nonsense going on this year, the Doomsday Clock has only moved forward 20 seconds in 2020?
Like, I get that it’s based on nuclear threat more than anything else, but I would think that threat would, by default, increase with all this madness of COVID, Trump, the US election in general, climate change, etc. going on all at the same time this year.
Maybe it’ll change again after the election, who knows.
Ancestry
So remember a few weeks ago when I said that Nate and I finally completed and mailed our Ancestry.com thingies? Well, I got my results today!
Since I did the 23andMe version of this like eight years ago, I had a good idea what to expect with my results. However, Ancestry seems to have a bit more detail/specifics as far as some populations go (especially in Europe).
I know 23andMe didn’t specifically pick out the Welsh, Swedish, or Basque; I think they just got lumped in with larger regions. And I don’t think my regions in Africa were quite as specific.
(I should just check. Lemme check.)
OKAY NOPE I LIED, the African regions are split more precisely on 23andMe and the European regions are split more precisely on Ancestry.
Anyway, all of the non-European bits come from my dad’s side. My mom is 100% European.
Also, I’m currently reading Exodus and learning a lot about the Jewish people and Jewish history in general, so I’m super curious about that itty bitty little 2% European Jewish background and where that’s actually coming from.
Coolio!
Turn Down for BUTT
Here’s some nonsense internet/Twitter/Tumblr stuff because everything sucks and these things at least make you think about something other than the virus for a few seconds.
Enjoy.
This whole thing
OKAY BYE
Coating
So like every other article of clothing that I use for walking, my winter coat is really falling apart. It still does its job, but the pockets have big holes in them, the armpits have big holes in them, it’s scuffed up a bit in the back from when I got hit by that van earlier this year, and the coloring is all messed up from tons and tons of sun exposure (winters in Calgary are, typically, nice and sunny, which helps a little bit with how FREAKING COLD they get).
Thus, I spent a bit of time today looking up winter coats.
And they are EXPENSIVE.
At least the super-cold-rated ones are.
I probably shouldn’t be surprised at this, but 1) I never even had a good winter coat before getting the orange one I have now, and 2) I found that one at a Goodwill in Spokane for like $5, so I had no real reference point for prices.
I like the Canada Goose coats because they have an actual rating scale for cold appropriateness.
I could probably get away with a TEI3, but I’d prefer to get a TEI4 because when it’s that cold, a four-hour walk out in, say, -13, really tanks my body temp. A TEI5 would, of course, be great for when it’s SUPER SUPER cold, but there aren’t too many of those days (luckily) and I do have my treadmill that I can use on such days instead of going outside to die in the snow.
Also, a coat rated for below -22 would likely be way too hot in like 0 degree weather, and I’d like a coat that can handle a good range of temps.
Also also, it’s really my hands that get super cold on those really cold walks, so what I really need to do is find some nice warm gloves (or mittens, in case I want to throw hand warmers into them).
MITTEN ONLINE SHOPPING COMMENCE!!!
Wave goodbye to any sense of normality this year
So we are definitely in the “second wave” of COVID up here. It’s a bit scary because Canada was doing quite well as a country through July and August, but cases are spiking again nonetheless.
I guess the comforting thing (if you want to call it that) is that the second wave seems to be happening in almost every country that appeared to have the virus under control, so at least we’re not an outlier as far as that pattern goes. I mean, it could be worse, right?
(That, of course, is the US)
Canada did really well squelching the first wave. I hope people take this second wave just as seriously.
Edit: okay, just for funsies, Canada has had a total of about 197,000 cases and about 9,800 deaths. That’s about 0.52% and 0.026% of the Canadian population, respectively. The United States has had a total of about 8.1 million cases and about 219,000 deaths. That’s about 2.5% and of the population and 0.067% of the population, respectively. I’d say that’s a decent difference, especially in the percentage of cases.
It’s getting colder.
It’s inevitable.
Calgary winters are long, dark, and sometimes brutally cold. The only two things that make up for them are a) summer days that aren’t usually too hot and daylight that lasts from 5 AM to 11 PM, and b) the fact that Calgary is a very sunny city, meaning even on a lot of those butt-freezing cold days, the sun is out, which makes a big difference.
This winter is going to be especially hard because I usually make it through the winters at least in part by being able to look forward to going down to Moscow for a few weeks over Christmas break.
That’s obviously not happening this year.
And another challenge for this year (apart from, y’know, trying not to get COVID): I got super into running over the summer, as you all likely know if you’ve been reading my blogs. While I feel like I could get used to running in the cold, once there’s snow and ice on the ground, I’m not so sure. The last thing I want to do is bite it on a patch of ice and screw up my leg (or something else) and be out of commission for any period of time.
I mean, I’ve got my treadmill, of course, but I don’t think I could run 14 miles on a treadmill. It’s a slightly different set of muscles and the furthest I’ve ever gone without stopping is about 8 miles.
Plus, running outside is SO MUCH MORE FUN.
So that’s going to suck once winter really sets in and doesn’t leave until like the middle of May.
OhNoWriMo
So NaNoWriMo is in like t-minus way too freaking soon and I still have no idea what I want to write about.
Part of me wants to re-write that stupid “Ghost Town Realty” story again because I like the premise and can’t get the idea of the story out of my head. I originally started that for my 2016 NaNo, but convinced myself that it wasn’t cheating to try it again for my 2018 NaNo because I didn’t even complete 2016 (that year was madness). But I’m pretty sure trying it yet again for yet another NaNo would be Super Cheating™ and I don’t know how I feel about that.
I mean yeah, the idea of NaNo is just to write; no one really cares what you’re writing about or re-writing about as long as you’re getting 50,000 new words in. But I’d feel guilty using the same idea YET AGAIN.
I have a title of a story to go with, but I haven’t quite yet figured out what story should go with the title. To be fair, that’s happened in some previous NaNos where I had a title first and then used NaNo to really built up the actual story (“Arborhood” comes to mind), but I don’t know if I want to “waste” this year’s attempt on something that might be garbage.
Hell, “Ghost Town Realty” will probably be garbage no matter how many times I re-write the entire thing, so.
Yeah. Super fun!
Book Review: Deliverance (Dickey)
Have I read this before: Nope! I think this was a book that I always had trouble finding in hard copy form, but that’s no longer an issue. KINDLE, BABY!!!
Review: I had a vague idea of what this book was about based on references to it in other forms of media I’ve seen, but I didn’t really know exactly what it was about until I read it. It wasn’t quite what I was expecting, but it was definitely a creepy read. Not the creepiest thing I’ve read, but pretty creepy. The ending wasn’t what I was expecting, either. I don’t want to give too much away for anyone who hasn’t read it, but let me just say that my desire to go into the woods in the deep south has diminished (not like it was high in the first place).
Favorite part: I liked the tension built up around Ed’s climb up out of the gorge and his waiting at the top to do what he needs to do to get himself, Bobby, and Lewis out of the predicament they’re in. It’s a good build up in tension.
Rating: 6/10
Book Review: Cat’s Cradle (Vonnegut)
Have I read this before: Nope. I thought I had, since I remember reading Slaughterhouse Five when I was in junior high and figured I’d read the other Vonnegut novel on my list as well, but as I got into it, I’m pretty sure it was new to me. I’m sure I would have remembered this story.
Review: What a fantastically strange book. It was not at all what I was expecting, though I’m not sure what I was expecting. I love the level of detachment and nonchalant-ness everyone seems to have about everything, including the big thing with the ice-nine (won’t spoil it for anyone). It makes the whole book seem like it’s describing a dream in which the narrator (and everyone else) has no control over anything. If you like black humor and a heavy topic discussed very lightly and humorously, I think you’ll like this one.
Favorite part: the style of this book is very unique. That’s probably my favorite thing. But there are a few passages I liked as well.
This description of Mona is so quick and simple but does so much:
In The Books of Bokonon she is mentioned by name. One thing Bokonon says of her is this: ‘Mona has the simplicity of the all.’
Her dress was white and Greek.
She wore flat sandals on her small brown feet.
Her pale gold hair was lank and long.
Her hips were a lyre.
Oh God.
Peace and plenty forever.
And I liked this discussion of Frank Hoenikker after the narrator got a call from Frank Hoenikker and is discussing it with Castle.
“What was that all about?” asked Castle.
“I haven’t got the slightest idea. Frank Hoenikker wants to see me right away.”
“Take your time. Relax. He’s a moron.”
“He said it was important.”
“How does he know what’s important? I could carve a better man out of a banana.”
Rating: 6/10
USA! USA!
“How Many U.S. Cities Can You Name?” aka “Your Recall of the State Capitols is a Lot Worse Than You Thought.”
I can’t name a single damn city in West Virginia. What the hell is in West Virginia? I like to think my inability to recall a single location in West Virginia is because I’ve been traumatized by the shape of that freaking state and my brain is just trying to protect me.
“It’s okay,” my brain whispers as I cry in the corner. “West Virginia isn’t real. It can’t hurt you.”
Halp
Somebody needs to explain why this song is so painfully familiar to me.
Like…I’ve never played any of the Civ games, and the only other song I’m familiar with by this composer is his “Baba Yetu” for Civ IV, but that doesn’t sound anything like this.
It is seriously freaking me out. Why do I feel like I’ve heard this song many, many times before? I’m usually really good at remembering when I’ve heard a song, but I’m having hella troubles with this one.
There are aspects of it that are familiar to other pieces of music I know, yes. 1:54 to 1:56-ish sounds very much like part of “The Launch” from Apollo 13 (especially with the chimes). 2:13 to 2:16 is like part of that fanfare thing they play for the Olympics (edit: which is literally called “Olympic Fanfare,” sorry, John Williams).
AAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAA I DON’T KNOW.
It’s a fantastic song, though. Fantastic. I can’t get it out of my head.
Edit: apparently “Baba Yetu” was the first music made for a video game to win a Grammy. I think this song is way better, though.
Edit 2: Here’s a live version. Live versions are always better.
How fast can you throw Coldplay’s X&Y album?
(Because, you know, it’s an article about how fast sound can theoretically travel…and Coldplay has a song called “Speed of Sound”…and it’s on the X&Y album…I’ll stop now.)
ANYWAY.
So we all know about the speed of light, right? According to Einstein’s theory of special relativity, the fastest a wave can possibly travel is about 300,000 km/s: the speed of light. But what about sound? That is, is there an “upper limit” to the speed of a sound wave? Well, turns out there is.
In general, sound waves travel faster through solids faster than they do through gases or liquids. For example, sound travels through a diamond about 35 times faster than it does through air. That’s about as fast as sound can normally go. But how fast could it theoretically go?
Scientists at Queen Mary University and University of Cambridge theorized that the speed of sound should decrease with the mass of the atoms in a substance, meaning that sound should be fastest through solid hydrogen. They couldn’t actually physically test this, though, as hydrogen becomes a solid only under very, very high pressure (like +1 million atmospheres) that cannot be replicated on earth (yet). So they basically did a bunch of quantum mechanical calculations to see what the result should be and found that yes, the speed of sound in solid hydrogen is close to the theoretical limit of the speed of sound.
So that’s pretty cool!
AJR
So I am super into AJR as of…today. I spent the afternoon watching a bunch of their music videos and I love them now.
I posted this “Bummerland” video like a week or so ago, but here it is again ‘cause it’s glorious.
This was the first music video I saw from these guys (last year, I think?). I think Jack sounds a lot like the lead singer of Fun. in this one.
I like how this one feels like a bad dream.
They MASHED UP THEIR OWN SONGS I FREAKING LOVE IT
Carrot Power.
Yay!
Remember when life was fun?
HAHA PSYCH LIFE WAS NEVER FUN
Have some foods. (Note: some of these were added after this blog was written on the 7th)
One pot creamy mushroom tortellini
Cheesy everything seasoning crescent rolls
Super moist cornbread (have I mentioned enough times on here that I EFFING LOVE CORNBREAD?!?!?!?)
I can’t remember the last time I GAVE FEWER SHITS
Like everyone else, I’m not having a great time with life right now. Sorry for the terrible blogging.
(I mean, it’s not like I haven’t engaged in terrible blogging before, but now I have an excuse.)
Eigenblogger 