• Make icebergs and see how they float.
  
• There’s a realtor up here named Ken Richter and his realty signs are the most fantastically nerdy things I’ve ever seen. He plays on the whole “Richter Scale” theme. I always want to take a picture of one but there’s always people around and I always feel weird about taking pictures of…well, anything in public.
  (Except other peoples’ cats.)
  
• Edit: I found the Remax website that talks about him and they have the little scale graphic he uses:

• Was anyone else absolutely terrified of Gossamer when they were a kid (and perhaps even now)? I think I’ve mentioned this before on here at some point, but I saw a .gif of him on Twitter and now I’m freaking traumatized.

I’ve had the opening song to “The Pajama Game” stuck in my head ALL FREAKING DAY, so here it is for you to get stuck in your head as well:

UGH I don’t have much to say today, sorry. Life is meaningless and the world is a constant disappointment.

• I’ll be eligible to apply for Canadian citizenship this year, but it sounds like there’s quite a backlog due to COVID. So who knows when it’s going to happen. I’m definitely going to apply for it, though.
  
• I think once everything gets back to normal and stabilizes (when will that happen? Who the hell knows), I’m going to try to get certified to do solo skydiving jumps. I really enjoyed tandem skydiving when I did it back in 2011 and I have enough money now to feel like I can safely drop some on this program. Like, how cool would that be?
  
• I’m still truckin’ away on Ghost Town Realty. Is it any good? Hell no. But it’s been a fun story to work on and the only story I’ve ever written that I feel like actually completing.
  
• I still have to get that bridge done in my mouth but I’m SUPER TERRIFIED of doing it. Not ‘cause of the possible pain (it can’t be worse than the “lol Novocain does nothing to me” tooth incident) but because there are so many more COVID cases in Alberta right now than there were when I got all that dental work done last summer. Plus all the variants.

UGH I DON’T KNOW I DON’T HAVE ANYTHING ELSE THAT’S INTERESTING BYE

• I’m 62.23 miles away from hitting the 5,000 mile mark for this year’s walking distance eeeeeeeeeeee!
  
• I can’t imagine being a healthcare worker during all of this, especially someone who’s considered “frontline.” Don’t they just want to punch everybody at this point?
  
• I hate winter. Hate, hate, hate it.
  
• Nate and I watched Deadpool 2 the other day and there was a reference to how Rob Liefeld cannot draw feet. That made me re-read this article, which is still one of the funniest things I’ve ever found on the Tubes. “His pants are so uncomfortably tight that his groin is puckering into some sort of overachieving asterisk” is a fantastic sentence.
  
• No, I will never stop referring to the internet as the Tubes. Fight me, Al Gore.
  
• The only thing bad about the above article is that it reminds me of grad school at UBC, ‘cause I stumbled across it one day while I was avoiding work on my thesis.
  
• GOD those two years were just terrible. I remember when they banished me to the Botany Annex building because they needed more room for the Personality students and figured “LOL the quant student is expendable, let’s throw her in a trash building with minimally-functioning heat and tiny windows, maybe she’ll just die in there.” It was always so cold and so dark and I spent most of my time pondering the consequences of just quitting the whole stupid program.
  
• UGH now I’m sad.

End of list.

• Unpopular opinion/preference: I prefer pants that do not have pockets. Pockets are bulky and they bunch up. Plus I never utilize them.
  
• Another unpopular opinion: I freaking love cardio. It seems like a lot of people really dislike it, but I’ve always enjoyed it and definitely prefer it to weight training.
  
• I got put on a (very subjective) “Best Professors at the University of Calgary” list.
  
• The snark in this is fantastic.
  
• This song (and its music video) is a mind trip.
  
• Did you guys have a lot of Klutz books when you were kids? I did. My mom always got me Klutz books for Christmas and the like. ANYWAY, this was one of my favorite ones. I’m almost tempted to get another copy and see how much of it is still accurate (it was written in 1994).
  
• This is the absolute cutest little thing ever.

BYE!

• This is stuck in my head now oh my god why
• Hahahaha, oh my god. The skull smashing into the boxes is a mood:

It's October so that means I get to post one of the best videos on the internet again.

🎥: @TomStheVoice

Originally tweeted by Steggy (Jeff Stegner) (@Steggy) on October 2, 2020.

• Want some mid-90s to early 2000s Geocities vibes? Me too!
• I’m sorry, but…is this Microsoft Word merch? Is that a Clippy sticker????? Oh my god, I remember Clippy. Why are these stickers so tempting?
• Practice cutting loaves of bread exactly in half. Because internet.
• I miss Market Mall so freaking much. I miss malls in general so freaking much.

Sorry for all the links, yo. Life is meaningless and so is this blog!

• Mongolian BBQ survived the (first round of) the pandemic. THANK THE GODS.
• Someone tell me why my fucking toenail is turning into a concrete brick. Here’s a picture. That fugly bit at the front? That’s not the top of my toenail. That’s the width of the thing. What in the ever-living ass goblins, guys. I can’t trim this toenail because it literally will not fit into any nail clipper. I’m going to have to get like dog nail clippers or something. (Yes, there are sock fuzzies all over my toes.)

• I’m sorry, but are we really assuming that people are staying completely inactive during these quarantines? Exercising without a gym is a thing. I get that not everybody has the ability to do that, but I think most people, at least in the US and Canada, live in a situation where they could go outside and just walk around on occasion. And if not, what about exercising in the house? 
• Did you know that there is a maximum number of videos that you can have in the “Watch Later” playlist on Youtube? Apparently there is, ‘cause I just hit it today.
• To add a little structure to my book list choices, I think I’m going to choose my next books “alphabetically” in the sense that I’ll have to pick a book from the books starting with each letter. For example, I just finished As I Lay Dying (my “A” choice) and am reading The Bonfire of the Vanities (my “B” choice), so the next book I’ll read will have to start with a “C.” Just to make things easier.
• Here’s another little tree picture I took on a walk. I did a bit of Photoshop to it to give it a little effect. Do you like it?

• Hahaha, sorry, what? I feel like there’s a story behind this very specific piece of advice.

• This is such a weird freaking baseball season. Watch the Mets not make the playoffs in a season where like 80% of teams are going to be in the playoffs.
• These are beautiful little objects.
• Need some ambient noise?
• Here’s a calculator to approximate your risk of getting COVID from certain activities.
• I love how all the nonsense in 2020 just hasn’t been quite enough for the US, so the universe was like “lol let’s add some raging forest fires in the west” just to make things more interesting. How much do you want to bet that Trump either a) completely ignores these fires or b) somehow blames them on the Democrats?
• Edit from September 12: so three states are ON FIRE and Trump has said nothing publicly. Called it.

• This is going to be a short list because this month has been boring as all hell.
• Look, see, I just put that above sentence as a bullet point to artificially increase the length of this list!
• That previous sentence, too! SOMEONE STOP ME
• I just logged onto Newgrounds for the first time in like three years and re-watched all the RAB videos. It’s good to know my sense of humor has not changed over the past 14-ish years.
• I need one. I am constantly cold in the winter even when we crank the thermostat.
• I love my Garmin and it does absolutely everything that is essential for me when I walk/run, but man, it’s so tempting to get one of the fancier models just to be fancier. Like this one. Or this one.
• Want exercises for certain muscles/muscle groups? Here’s a nice collection!

See? I told you it was short.

• I’m at the point with my team in Out of the Park that I’m good enough to be bumped into the perfect league but not good enough to stay in it for more than a season. So I keep bouncing back and forth between having a great season in the diamond league, getting bumped up and having a horrible season in the perfect league, and getting bumped back down to the diamond league. I have a feeling this will go on for a while.
• I have a feeling that there are going to be a LOT of dental visits this summer. Not looking forward to that.
• I have the urge to READ, which I haven’t had for a while. Probably because I haven’t read (fiction) in a while. Whenever I start up again, I remember how much I enjoy it.
• My urge to read will probably diminish once work starts up again, though, which is sad.
• OH SHIT I just realized that I’ve had On The Beach checked out for like half a year now from the U of C library. Maybe COVID will save me from library fines, since I don’t think the library is open at all right now (including the book drop-off thingy).
• I miss the U of I library, man. Compared to pretty much every other library I’ve seen (except for maybe UBC’s), they had a very wide selection of books. It was also a good place to camp at one of the computer stations and work or find a secluded little desk and practice calculus. I spent hours doing that when I came back for my math degree in 2012.
• I think I’ve mentioned this holographic nail polish on here before, but if not, BEHOLD!

The end?

• Want a good remix of Eiffel 65’s Blue? Here ya go! It should go without saying, but this sounds fantastic on the Sennheisers.
• My arm eruptions have calmed down as of late. My skin must have “hardened” against the UV light. If so, then it did so faster than it did last year. I remember still having problems in mid-June last year.
• Hahaha.

• Hahaha, oh my god:

(Not really.)
(Yes, I’m doing the April list on the 4th. Fight me.)

• Nate and I have been watching Ducktales via Disney+ (the new 2017 version, not the old one yet) and I’ve really been enjoying it. I never watched Ducktales when I was a kid for some reason (Talespin was my jam).
• I don’t know how my current pair of shoes is going to make it until the 15th. They’re already so very worn out.
• I wonder if my polymorphous light eruption will flare again this spring/summer or if that was just a one-time thing.
• I’m currently replaying Half Life because, you know, I haven’t played that enough times in my life. I always forget just how big that game is, especially given when it first came out.
• This is a beautifully-written opinion on the impact of COVID-19 on a family.
• Here is a bald eagle and its chick. Super cute! I like bald eagles. I hope I get to see my bald eagle buddy down by the river once the weather gets better. If it ever does.

• I love how my response to this pandemic has been BUY ALL THE THINGS. Is shopping my stress relief? Am I that kind of person?
• WHAT IS THIS AND WHY AREN’T OLYMPIC-LEVEL SKATES LIKE THIS

I think I’m done.

• I have the sudden urge to work on my 2009 NaNo (Prime). That story is a lost cause and incredibly dumb, but I want to work on it anyway.
• I also want to continue working on my 2019 NaNo (Adrift), but given the current circumstances…maybe not
• Freddie Freeman is great. He’s one of my favorites. It’s too bad there will probably be no baseball this year.

• Nate and I are currently re-watching the Mets’ 2019 season. Which is great, but I want REAL BASEBALL with REAL CONSEQUENCES
• This article did not age well.
• I need to trim my eyelashes. I forgot how unruly they get if I don’t keep them in check, and it’s been a while since I’ve had the time to give them a good trim. They seriously start to look like fake eyelashes, which would be great except that I wear glasses and they get long enough to brush against the lenses. I hate that feeling.
• Alberta’s killing it with the testing rate (“Alta” on the graph).

END!

• Y’know, for the fact that I found and acquired a new song every single day for a whole decade, ceasing this routine was surprisingly easy.
• I just learned about a band named Okilly Dokilly where all the band members dress up like Ned Flanders (mustaches and glasses and everything) and sing metal. It’s amazing. Example:

• Hahaha, now I’m reminded of the metal cover of the Trololo song. 1:52 is the best.

• Redditor Adolwyn posted a super cool cross stitch on the r/Calgary subreddit. It shows the daily high temperature for every day in both 2018 and 2019. Look at February 2019. Look at it. Those are the daily highs. What in the hell.
• Y’all, look at these ladies. Super talented.

BOOM!

• I’m digging having short hair again. It is so much easier to wash, style, and deal with. Also, when I brush it back a bit I get serious Claude vibes, which gives me the happies.
• Hahahahaha.
• Now this is the kind of Buzzfeed quiz I can get behind.

  
  Goddammit I’m stochastic calculus. That stochastic methods class I took my last semester at U of I was the hardest freaking class I’ve ever taken.

• I’m pretty sure I’ve mentioned this on my blog before, but for whatever reason it showed up in my “Recommended For You” list the other day and now I can’t get it out of my head.

“What the shit ass Christ were we even talking about?” is a great line.

• Oh my god this makeup is gorgeous.

THAT IS THE END

YOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO let’s list. I know I already did a December list but SCREW IT.

• If you’re interested at all in travel bloggers who focus more on the transportation rather than the destination (i.e., the airport/flight, terminal/bus, station/train, etc.), one good one I’ve recently found is Paul Lucas’ YouTube channel “Wingin’ It! Paul Lucas.” He’s very knowledgeable about airplane travel (train travel, too, but I’ve only seen his airplane-based reviews thus far) and has a nice chill voice. Check him out here.
• When I was in SeaTac on Christmas and doing one of three “run between two different gates because we don’t know where the plane will be LOL” exercises, I saw someone with a super colorful backpack. I didn’t want to be a creep and take a picture of them, so instead I was a creep and walked up kind of close behind them so I could see the brand of the backpack. The brand was “Cotopaxi,” so when I got to Moscow later that day, I looked it up. Cotopaxi is a company that makes backpacks, outerwear, and activewear with a focus on sustainability and recycled materials. They put 1% of their profits towards addressing poverty and community development. The reason the person’s Cotopaxi backpack was so colorful was because it was made from a mishmosh of leftover materials from other backpack constructions and the employee who makes the backpack gets to choose the pieces and colors. Check out those backpackshere!
• Hahaha. Fake, but pretty funny.
• I’m reading (fiction) for pleasure for the first time in like two years and it’s weird. It makes me want to write (or more specifically, work on my 2019 NaNo project some more).
• I hate myself.

Uhhhhhhhh I think that’s it for now.

Hi.

• It’s the Solstice today and HOLY HELL am I ready for the days to start getting longer. I’m basically solar powered, so I need those sweet, sweet, UV rays.
• Am I the only one for whom The Empire Strikes Back was their least favorite of the three original Star Wars movies?
• Hahahahaha:

• Nate and I now have Disney+. Commence Hardcore Nostalgia Tripping Sequence.
• Did…did the legal age to purchase tobacco in the US just get raised to 21? How did that happen so…quietly?
  Edit: oh, ‘cause it was part of the bill that also included our brand new fucking SPACE MILITARY. ‘Cause if the US is lacking in anything, it’s military presence.
• Seriously, what kind of dystopian nightmare are we playing with here?
• I know I post a song from this group like every 10 days or so, but they’re just phenomenal. If they ever come to western Canada on tour, I’m totally going to go see them in person.

• Y’all know I love mashups, right? Well, the more “unusual” or “like hell that’s going to sound good!” the songs sound, the better the mashup actually tends to be. Example:

• I can’t freaking wait to give you all my Decade of Music results. There are going to be so many lists and rankings and stats. SO. MANY.

K DONE BYE

Yo, nerd bombs. ‘Tis the time for a list!

• Nate is watching Breaking Bad with me, since I’ve still never seen it. It’s quite good and very engaging.
• This is a really well-done music video.

• Not sure if I’ve ever mentioned this game on here before, but if so, here it is again! Cursor10 is a game where you have 10 timed tries to get through to the end of the game. After the time runs out on a given trial, you start back at the beginning, but you’re able to see where your cursor was on the previous trial(s) and have to cooperate with your old cursors to get to the end. It’s pretty cool.
• I am definitely going to get my hair cut short. Can’t stand it anymore.
• I’m really into neon right now. Neon clothes, neon eyeshadow. I used to shun it because it never appealed to me, but suddenly it’s my jam.
• I might actually win NaNo this year, despite my terrible start. WOO!

Is that everything? That’s everything.

Hi. Let’s go.

• This is why I want to go to a Coldplay concert. I really hope they do at least one more tour and come somewhere vaguely close to Calgary (or, y’know, they come to Calgary).

• A hilarious watching/commentary of the Netflix movie “Tall Girl”

• The first minute or so of this is how I imagine the Calgary ScooterGangs roll.

• I have to invigilate a two-hour midterm tonight and then spend tomorrow morning grading it and I don’t want to do either of those things.
• Astros vs. Nationals in the World Series? I’ll take it. I’m cool with either of those teams winning.
• I love how I was like three days away from having my blog 100% up to date and then managed to screw it up. Classic Claudia.
• Check out this resting heart rate, yo.

• Cured egg yolks?! Holy crap, this looks so good.

I think that’s everything.

Yeah it is.

Let’s do it.

• Look at how FREAKING GOOD these eggs look. Nom.
• If you’re the type who likes highlighter, try out e.l.f.’s prismatic duos. They’re pretty subtle, but you can definitely see them!
• I keep forgetting to mention this even though it’s been like a month, but when I had my job interview for the instructor position, we all went to dinner at this place called NOtaBLE. The menu looked super fancy and I was worried I wouldn’t be able to find anything I liked, but I got the chicken confit ravioli and it was so freaking good. So if you’re ever in Calgary and want to go to a fancy place, I’d recommend it.
• I hate hate hate hate HATE hate HATE hate HATE the current trend of “let’s bring back old movies/TV shows/bands/toys/etc. ‘cause nostalgia sells!” I don’t think I can even accurately express my level of hate for this. The Brady Bunch (renovation show)? Seriously? Why is that even remotely necessary? And Scooby-freaking-Doo? W H Y. I actually don’t know what’s worse: companies who are willing to stoop to this level to make the $ or the fact that there are enough consumers who keep falling for this garbage to continue to make it profitable.
• I am mad now, haha.
• I love how my “liked Tweets” on Twitter are like 70% baseball-related, 20% stats- or math-related, and 10% Meme Central.
• Y’all are probably aware of my soft spot for “The Sound of Silence” covers, huh? Well, here’s another fantastic one. So beautiful. I freaking love cellos; that low note at 0:55 is nnnnnnnnnnnnf.

• I bought a few pairs of Kinvaras when I was in the States a few weeks ago, but now I’m feeling bad about not buying them at my regular Running Room (where all the employees know me). They probably think I’m dead, haha.

SCOOPITY-POOP, IT’S THE AUGUST LIST! Let’s go.

• This might apply to other departments as well, but I wonder if people in math departments especially are picky about their office numbers. Like, my current office number is 564, which is crappy ‘cause it doesn’t really have a nice meaning behind it. But I just found out that they’re going to move me to 360, which is an awesome office number because a) it’s divisible by 10 and that’s a thing I like, and b) it’s the number of degrees in a circle. Pretty cool. My mailbox number is 144, or the square of 12; I like that, too.
• I just realized that every time I come back to Moscow, I actually walk more of my miles in Washington than in Idaho.
• There are a few topics about which I have some very strong opinions, but I’m afraid to voice them because of what my friends (all two of them) might think. Does anyone else feel that way about certain opinions of theirs? Don’t worry, I’m not a closet racist or misogynist or Trump supporter or anything like that. I just have a few opinions on some relatively minor things that I don’t think my friends would agree with.
• This is the hardest time of the year for me because I get this overwhelming urge to go back to school (“school” meaning “undergrad”). Even though I’ve been teaching for several years now, that does not diminish the “LET’S GO BACK TO SCHOOL” drive. ‘Tis a problem.
• This music video is really well done. I didn’t think too much of it at first but now I really like it.

HEY NERDS, IT’S THE JULY LIST

• Those little Lime e-scooters have infiltrated Calgary and no ankles are safe anymore
• Apparently a bunch of dudes in Bowness have started a scooter gang and the title of the corresponding Reddit post was “ScooterGang, ScooterGang, ScooterGang.” I’m assuming this is said to the tune of Lil Pump’s Gucci Gang.
• You know that beautiful downtown library that Calgary has now? Yeah, here’s Edmonton’s. It looks like a tank and/or alien spaceship.
• Jeff McNeil is a freaking fantastic baseball player. He’s got so much energy and he’s so fun to watch. I also love how pumped up he was for Alonso’s Home Run Derby win.
• This is an interesting article. I’m definitely not advocating taking Ritalin if you’re not prescribed it, of course, but this is an interesting bit of information on how to take it correctly if you’re wanting to.
• This is the cutest little sun on this shirt. I bought it and love it. It’s so soft.
• This semester needs to eeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeend.

(It’s the May List)

• THE BLOGS ARE COMING, I PROMISE
• What in the name of the seven holy fucks is this music video?

• It’s my brain as of late:

• It’s been two days without a Mets game and I am in freaking withdrawal. 
• My skin looks really clear in this picture. It also looks like I’m completely out of fucks. I kinda like it (at least as much as I can “like” any picture of myself).

OKAY BYEEEEEE